The author states, in the book's preface, that it is a travesty that Alexander McGillivray has received so little attention and renown as a major figure in our Nation's early history. This book is meant to fill the void.

Unfortunately, the writer has provided fiction in the guise of fact. This book codifies some family legends about Alexander and creates many new myths.

This book may be entertaining literature for children but it must not be considered as historical nonfiction.

This book is of terrible quality with a number of spelling and grammatical errors. The book subject is incoherent and does not have any fluidity. It is a waste of money.

Thank goodness this book is out of print. It is at best a biographical novel and at worst a children's book. Hopefully it will remain out of print for many many years. Anyone want to buy my copy?

Preparing for the written exam, I purchased four test-prep books. This was the only dissappointment. It is riddled with grammatical mistakes, type-o's, and just plain wrong answers to the questions (I'm not here referring just to places where I disagree with the author, but to such things that are positively mistakes--like mistakes in math which can be checked with a calculator). What makes this particularly problematic is that there are no explanations for any of the answers; so when your answer doesn't match that in the answer key, you may be left wondering whether it is you or the answer key which is mistaken. Also, this book contains no memory/observation questions and no directional orientation questions (these are component of many firefighter written exams). On the positive side, it does contain some question-types which are not commonly found in other test-prep books, such as cube-counting, number and letter progressions (i.e., "what's the next ! number in the series?"), and analogies. I have been led by other sources to expect at least one of these--cube counting-- on the Honolulu County exam which I will be taking. All things considered, however, this book needs a major overhaul if it is to be worth anything near its price.

I haven't even finished it yet- but it has been a struggle to get as far as I have. Unless you like keeping track of hundreds of contradictory, speculative and unexciting details, avoid this book.

While traveling through Europe, my husband and I decided to visit Barcelona. Since it was the only country we had not researched before we left, we decided we better pick up Frommer's guide. To our dismay, most of the information in it was inaccurate or misinforming. For example, the street the laundry was listed on was misspelled. When we finally found it (in the pouring rain) it was a laundry service, not self-serve. So there was 2 hours of "dead time" not to mention paying 3 times as much money for getting our clothes cleaned.

The silver lining I guess was that the laundry lady was one of the 3 nice Spanish people we met during our 6 day visit. I wish that Frommer's would have given us some forewarning on Spanish culture and rudeness. Even the service people in our 4 star hotel were grumpy. Everyone seems to need either a fiesta or a siesta.

On our final night in Barcelona, we counted our change and had just enough money to catch the metro and attend a Spanish dance. Upon our arrival (late because the directions were fuzzy) we found that both the time and the amount listed were incorrect. We then found out that the metro closes down earlier than the book states, so we got to spend our last pasettas on a cab ride back to our hotel. When I got back I was so aggravated that I could have started a bonfire with it.

There were several other ommissions and inaccuracies that we ran across but all in all my final straw was when I contacted Frommers online for a refund and read that they do not offer refunds--I needed to contact the point of purchase. No wonder it was the only English guide book left in Germany-nobody wanted it!

I learned a lot of things from our European excursion. One of the best I can tell you is use Lonely Planet guides! And visit the information station at the airport-they may not be friendly but at least their brochures are helpful!

This is a pretty worthless collection of common knowledge. The time spent reading this book could just as easily be spent surfing the web. The latter method would not only save you the cash, but likely yield better results.

There isn't a lot to this booklet. It appears to be self-published, and it is replete with grammatical and spelling errors.

I have two other problems with this book. One, it doesn't give us anything new. Media reports from the late 80's provided far more detail. Two, the author's writing style is a little mean-spirited. Mr. Ide doesn't even feign objectivity. It makes no difference to me what he thinks of Rev. Swaggart or conservative ministers. The author injects his own viewpoints in a catty way that bugged me. This almost puts him in the same class as the preachers he criticizes for being too judgmental.

Pass on this one, and spend a little more money for Hunter Lundy's fine book, "Let Us Prey," (also available from Amazon) which deals with the Gorman v. Swaggart case.

Norma Jean Lutz's The History of Third Parties is more apt to confuse than inform the young adult reader. This six chapter, 60-page title is not only unfocused, but critical information about United States government and history is absent.

Lutz neglects to explain the structures and laws under which political parties and elections operate. While the book uses "third-party" to describe minor parties, it fails to enumerate the two major parties and to indicate when they are in power. The greatest confusion comes in the section that describes members of the free-soil movement joining the new Republican Party in 1854. What were the major two parties before the mid-nineteenth century? Lutz doesn't tell the reader.

Lutz enumerates the "Third-Party Hurdles" which have limited the success of minor parties in the U.S. In this section, there is no description of the Electoral College. There is no explanation of "winner take all" elections. An understanding of the system's basic structure is fundamental to comprehending the challenges faced by minor parties. This material is not too advanced for the young adult reader, and the absence of such information promotes confusion rather than clarity.

Another shortcoming is the intermixing of terms. Descriptions of political parties, independent candidates, political factions, and social movements are treated synonymously. The book opens with a chapter dedicated to Ross Perot's 1992 presidential bid and Jesse Ventura's gubernatorial victory. Descriptions of Perot's personally funded candidacy and the Reform Party are commingled; no clarifications are made between individual candidates and the institutions of a political parties. Later in the book, abolitionists are described as a political party rather than a movement. While having many political implications, the abolitionist movement crossed many party and social lines.

Throughout the book, historical descriptions of political unfoldings are weak. Rather than presenting past actions or statements, Lutz attributes emotions and attitudes to significant political actors. In discussing conflicts between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, Lutz writes that President Washington "was greatly distressed over the conflict". There is no further mention of anything the president said or did in response. Rather the description continues that Jefferson "felt" and "believed" in the rights of men and that the ordinary people "hated" the Federalists (pp. 18-19). No writings, letters, or journals are cited to support these assertions. While these may be an accurate descriptions of their sentiments, it is not a sufficient substitute for describing their actions and public statements.

Imprecise language and inadequately defined terms leave readers guessing meanings throughout the book. A glossary provides definitions to only 12 terms. In one paragraph, readers are referred to the glossary for the term "political convention" but not referred anywhere to find out what or who "the Barnburners" and "Hunkers" might be. Phrases that might be unknown or unclear to young people are often used. To describe Roosevelt's entry in to the presidential race, Lutz only writes he "threw his hat in the ring" (p. 44). Unquantified descriptions such as "paupers' wages" and "unimaginable wealth" are meaningless to many as well (p. 33).

The most egregious issues of language are those that reflect racial and ethnic bias. The opening sentence of a section on the American party reads, "Yet another problem that arose during the 1840s and 1850s was that of record numbers of immigrants coming to this county." (p. 30) This anti-immigrant tone is further reflected in a discussion of the temperance movement, "More powerful were the large groups of immigrant drinkers. Theirs was the voice that moved the major parties." (p. 39) Certainly Irish and German immigrants were neither the central political force nor the only anti-temperance voice in the later half of the 19th century. Other potentially insensitive word usage includes "tramps" and "hoboes" instead of " the unemployed" and "homeless" (p. 34).

The History of Third Parties leaves more questions than answers for readers. The book meanders through U.S. political history uninformed and without focus. Look elsewhere for a history of minor parties and political movements in the U.S.

The topic explored by the author is the practice of forgery in late Antiquity to substantiate a religious cult's legitimacy. As a revised version of the author's doctoral thesis and his first book, it has page after page of unnecessary excerpts whose sole purpose seems to be to let the reader know that the author really has passed his language proficiency exams. These are then followed an apology trying to explain why they really were worth quoting. It is a very boring read. Besides these stylistic annoyances, the entire structure of the book takes the form of a survey of various instances of pseudepigrapha... which are then dutifully stretched back to the initial lackluster thesis. There are no fantastic insights in this book. Unless you are doing a specialization in this field, I would not recommend buying this book. There are many better books in the study of religion to be savored. If you must have it for a specialization, I would recommend finding it at a university library... though it may have a limited availability since it is only a revamped standard doctoral thesis that is not widely applicable in many areas of study.