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Book reviews for "Beausang,_Michael_Francis,_Jr." sorted by average review score:

The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War After the Conquest of Canada: To the Massacre at Michillimackinac
Published in Paperback by Univ of Nebraska Pr (September, 1994)
Authors: Francis Parkman and Michael N. McConnell
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Detailed 19th Century Account of Pontiac's Rebellion
This is Vol. 1 of Francis Parkman's excellent account of the major uprising of the Great Lakes tribes in 1763-1764 whose orchestration is generally attributed to the Ottawa chief Pontiac.

Pontiac's Rebellion, as it is often called, is generally seen as a epilogue to the French and Indian War. At the end of this conflict, France was forced to concede defeat, and to hand over control of all their former forts and settlements to the British. The complex relationship between the Britsh, French, and Indian tribes in the Trans-Alleghany region was in a delicate situation after the fall of New France. The great lakes tribes, allies of the French and tradionally tied to them trough trade and inter-marriage, were fearful and suspicious of the British conquerors. The British were generally eager to establish trade with these new tribes, which had up until now been exclusively partnered with the French. But the view held by some in the upper British echelon, particularly General Jeffery Amherst, the commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America, was extremely biased against the Indians, whom they viewed as dangerous savages.

When the British took control of the Forts in the Great Lakes region, Amherst immediately instituted a harsh trade policy which essentially punished the Indians, preventing them from obtaining gunpowder and ammunition for their muskets needed for hunting. Amherst and his cronies, warm and safe in their lush surroundings in New York, failed to grasp the unique relationship that had evolved between the Indian and the white traders since the early days of European settlement. The Indians could no longer support themselves without the trade goods from the whites, particularly guns and ammo. Amherst also eliminated the traditional giving of "presents" as a diplomatic offering to the Indians, which was seen by them as a major breach of trust and friendship. This proved a recipe for disaster which was forseen by many in-the-know on the Frontier, particularly men like George Croghan and Sir William Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs and a well-respected figure among the New York Iroqouis. But all their warnings to Amherst and the high command were ignored. The result was one of the largest Indian uprisings in American history.

Parkman's account is an extremely detailed retelling of the uprising from it's beginings at Fort Detroit to it ultimate defeat by British troops at the Battle of Bushy Run and Colonel Henry Bouquet's march into the Ohio Country. Some people may find Parkman difficult to read and his language can be dry at times. Some modern readers will find his 19th century view on the Indians, whom he often refers to as savages, as offensive. However, Parkman was a 19th century American writing at a time when the war to conquer the American continent was still being waged and white animosity and racism toward the Indians had not been tempered. Even so, Parkman does seem to give them more credit than many of his contemporaries.

The war's outcome did not bode well for the Indians and Pontiac's tragic fate seem to foreshadow dark times to come for the native tribes. Even the tribes close with and allied to the English began to realize that their days were numbered and that the attitude toward them was changing for the worse. Soon, the British, who had once been heavily dependant on trade and military alliances with the tribes would no longer need them now that the French had been vanquished. The fears of the Indians, that the whites would soon come to drive them out and take their land, were beginning to be fulfilled. The fallout from this tragic conflict, a despreate attemtpt to cling to the traditional relationship that had existed between the whites and the Indians, would echo down the long years of history. In later years, great Indian leaders like Joseph Brant, Blue Jacket, Little Turtle, and Tecumseh would try to recreate what Pontiac attempted in 1763: To preserve their homes and way of life, a struggle that would ultiamtely prove a failure.

Conspiracy of Pontiac...
I have a love for history as it happened, and this book was as good as it gets with regard to "telling it like it is" and the explanation about the environment and the character of the people involved. I understand more about the Indian people and the French and the British (at that period of time) than I knew before reading the book. As to the book it shows how the French lost most of America and Canada, when they were better positioned (they had made friends with the Indians) to take over than the British. The author of the book lived in a period where he could visit and speak to persons who were affected by the French and Indian wars (which period is almost forgotten). It also explained who was "Pontiac", an Indian chief of amazing leadership(& who is not a car). I had heard his of his name in a movie and I was curious to what he represented. I had read the "Lewis and Clark expedition" book before this one and both books complemented each other very much. A movie, regarding the Indian assault on a desperate Fort Denver should be made (I believe there is one with Gary Cooper and a young Lloyd Bridges, but it is not completely - historically speaking - reliable).


Moose: Behavior, Ecology, Conservation
Published in Hardcover by Voyageur Press (January, 2002)
Authors: Valerius Geist and Michael H. Francis
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Fascinating look at a fascinating creature
Since a child, moose have always amazed me. Turning to popular wildlife texts, however, I found that very few such books ever mentioned these magnificent deer. Finally a book has come along to fill this void.

Dr. Geist is a renown expert in cervid biology and conservation. His expertise regarding moose ecology in North America and Eurasia shines through every page of this book. He has the rare ability to combine personal experiences with potentially dry biology information to produce very readable prose. I truly enjoyed this text! The accompanying photos were also spectacular. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the moose.

A scientific journey of discovery
Val Geist is world renown as the dean of behavioral ecologists (ethologists) of the hooved mammals (ungulates) of the northern hemisphere. Fritz Walther, an extraordinary ungulate ethologist in his own right, once described Geist as having a mind that combines the vastness of the Russian Steppe (Geist's natal homeland), with the meticulousness of Germany (where he spent his youth) and the audacity of North America (where he has spent his adulthood). Bull's eye.

I know of no wildlife biologist with greater depth of knowledge and creative insight, or greater courage and dedication in applying his knowledge to the challenge of real world conservation.

Coming full circle, Geist has finally writen an entire book devoted to the moose, an animal whose behavior he (like I) studied extensively during his youth.

We who have had the pleasure of reading his numerous other books and scientific papers know that each leads the reader on a rare and delightful intellectual journey of discovery. His insights are always fresh and vibrant, built on an extraordinarily wide knowledge of the literature combined with in depth firsthand knowledge. This book is no exception.

To any reader seriously interested in moose or just wildlife in general, this work is an extraordinary find.


Track of the Coyote
Published in Paperback by NorthWord Press (September, 1995)
Authors: Todd Wilkinson and Michael H. Francis
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Great for research!
I recently did a research paper on coyotes, interested in why they are increasing in the area. I had 18 sources and this book provided the most informative and comprehensive material available; it is also the most current group study available. It provides wonderful insight into the world of the coyote, such as habitat, social hierarchy, breeding, territorial patterns, general behaviors, etc. I fell in love with the coyote after reading it, and was disappointed to hear about the re-introduction of the wolf (predator to coyote) to Yellowstone National Park. The book also contains the most beautiful photographs of coyotes available. Highly recommended!

An outstanding book and very readable
A friend recommended this book to me after I asked him why coyotes are turning up everywhere in the US. Wilkinson gets at the heart of why persecuting coyotes is a bad idea. If you love coyotes, you won't be disappointed.


An Annotated Bibliography of Timothy Leary
Published in Hardcover by Archon (June, 1988)
Authors: Michael Horowitz, Karen Walls, and Billy Smith
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Superb Annotated Bibliography
If you are a highly committed fan of Timothy Leary (like me), or if you are a researcher following his every literary footstep, or if you are a librarian considering adding a reference work on this important figure of the 1960s counterculture, you definitely will want this wonderful volume. However, if you're just a casual reader, I'm afraid this book will be much too heavy on bibliographic detail for your purposes and tastes. An interesting aside is that the volume is edited by the parents of the well-known actor Winona Ryder (whose given name is Horowitz).


Atlas of Spine Surgery
Published in Hardcover by W B Saunders (15 January, 1995)
Authors: Robert B., M.D. Winter, John W., M.D. Lonstein, Francis Denis, and Michael Smith
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It is an atlas.
Yes, this book is an atlas, like an atlas must be: with many, many pictures, big pictures (the majority use all size of the page) and a easily text to read. I really recomend. I am sorry by the language, please, corretc before, OK. PS: I don't know if pictures are the correct word, the atlas has colored designs, ok


Beyond Formal Operations: Late Adolescent and Adult Cognitive Development
Published in Hardcover by Greenwood Publishing Group (15 February, 1984)
Authors: Michael L. Commons, Francis A. Richards, and Cheryl Armon
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An important contribution to the Aging literature
This book is for scholarly individuals who wish to gain a deeper understanding of human development beyond adolescence and into old age. Aging is not oly about growing old, losing abilities, and dying. Aging is a developmental process throughout which we grow and change. Commons, Richards, and Armon do a fabulous job editing the chapters analyzing the changes that accompany age. Their basic stance is that Piaget's developmental theory does not allow for continuation of the developmental process to a logical conclusion. The contributors to this book are among the most important figures in adult development (Sternberg, Vidal, Gruber, Richards & Commons, Labouvie-Vief, Kohlberg, etc.), making this a must-have reference for the academician or practitioner. Very well written, this book is approachable by anyone with a college education. Highly recommended.


The Black Seraphim
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (January, 1984)
Author: Michael Francis Gilbert
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Murder in the cathedral
"The Black Seraphim" is set in a Church of England cathedral-close milieu. A clergyman involved in the controversy over the possible sale of cathedral land to developers is murdered. Exceptionally well written, and in the literate British cozy tradition, this book is filled with interesting and eccentric characters, both clerical and lay, and is lightened with humor. I think readers who enjoy Michael Innes and Edmund Crispin will like this one. I wish I'd discovered Mr. Gilbert's novels when they were available new. Now I'm going to have to search used-book stores for the rest of them. Let's hope the publisher reissues them.


Christian Morality and You
Published in Paperback by Ave Maria Press (February, 1991)
Authors: James Finley and Michael Francis Pennock
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Great book for the Morality concept
To teach the justice in morality it would be wrong if you don't get this book. This book brings up all the ordeals someone would need to know. And how to act with a moral decision process, This book is gret for people that care. Personally I would recommend it for teenagers and up


The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War After the Conquest of Canada: From the Spring of 1763 to the Death of Pontiac
Published in Paperback by Univ of Nebraska Pr (September, 1994)
Authors: Francis Parkman and Michael N. McConnell
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Gripping history from a most illustrative pen
This book and its follow-on volume 2 of 2 provide us with rare detail of a mostly forgotten chapter of American history. While Francis Parkman is best known for his 7-volume masterpiece "France and England in North America, as well as numerous accounts of Westward expansion, this more focused 2-volume work, in my opinion, brings forward his most impressive writing skills. Parkman literally paints with words, including the most descriptive interpretations I have ever read of the early American frontier and the fascinating range of peoples vying for control or mere survival.

These two volumes are a true pleasure to read and a treasure for those who enjoy the history of North America and its peoples, as well as those who appreciate the power and beauty of the written word.


Death Has Deep Roots (Black Dagger Crime Series)
Published in Hardcover by Prescott Pr (May, 1987)
Author: Michael Francis Gilbert
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Review
Death Has Deep Roots (1951) is a classic of the courtroom drama-a tense and gripping thriller with excellent characterisation and an ingenious plot.

Victoria Lamartine is on trial for the murder of her supposed lover, Major Eric Thoseby, whom she is accused of having stabbed one night in March. It seems to the police and the prosecution a 'sealed box' mystery, for there are only five suspects: three hotel staff-members, and two guests, so that one of them must have done it-and Mlle. Lamartine the likeliest suspect. However, as Macrea, counsel for the defence, proves, "the whole thing [is] like a jigsaw puzzle which has been half done by an inexpert child. Any bit that seems to fit has been left in. Any bit that doesn't fit has been disregarded." All of the suspects have connections to either the French Underworld or Underground, so that, although this is a murder committed in England, it is in fact "the murder of a man who had done most of his war service in France, by a French girl, whom he was alleged to have met in France, in a hotel kept by a Frenchman with an Italian waiter who had spent all of his war service in France."

It is in France that the deep roots lie-the deep roots which must be uncovered to expose the dirty truth. It is amongst "the hate and the fear, the hysterics and the exaggeration and the heroism" of occupied France-"an unknown and rather frightening landscape ... where it might be necessary-where it might be most necessary and desirable-to be able to kill yourself quickly" that the pasts of Major Thoseby, of Victoria Lamartine, and of M. Sainte the hotel manager lie. It is in France that "forces [are] at work, forces which ... had already reached out and touched [Nap] at the extremities of their huge, opposed organisations"-gold smugglers and the Sûreté. And it is in post-war France-a country which "is not a very happy one at this moment", as Gilbert vividly depicts-that Nap Rumbold, the lawyer for the defence who appeared in other Gilbert novels, "fight[ing] a long, dirty, blackguarding campaign in which we shall use every subterfuge that the Law allows, and perhaps even a few that it doesn't", searches for the truth, his efforts alternating with scenes of the courtroom drama. These thriller elements are well used, and do not stick out like a chewed-off ear. Although Nap complains that "[American magazines] have one habit that I find irritating. They start a story, get you really interested in it, and then-what happens? You turn the page and find you are in the middle of quite a different one... That's exactly what's happening here, don't you see? I started out reading a murder mystery. It seems to have turned into a gold smuggling melodrama. What's the connection between the death of Major Thoseby last March in the Family Hotel and a large-scale gold smuggling racket?", it soon becomes clear that all the elements tie neatly together, forming a cohesive and extremely satisfactory whole, in this, one of the classic post-war detective stories.


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