I don't pretend to be an architect, and so don't offer up a review of this book from a professional standpoint. As a fan of great architecture, though, this book serves as a very useful guide.

It offers an introduction to architecture, explaining the term and comparing it to mere 'construction'. It continues with a few dozen full color plates, exemplifying basic architectural terms such as "Elements", "Enclosures", "Ornament" and the like. Then it proceeds to take us, region-by-region, throughout Europe and North America, showing examples of the finest architecture in each area, and defining each region in terms of its influences.

This is the most interesting part of the book for me, and it has helped immensely to solidify my understanding of what I've seen first hand. As elswehere in the volume, the text here is clear and interesting. It's also richly illustrated with literally hundreds of line drawings. Often, these line drawings clearly demonstrate what the text is attempting to clarify, but occasionally the text would've been better served by an actual photograph. One can't help but think that if this book were reprinted today, photos would be easier and cheaper to integrate with the text.

Still, the advantage of a dearth of photographs is size. Unlike many 'arthouse' architecture books, this standard-sized book is easily portable. In my experience, architecture books seem to be unweildy coffee-table affairs that can't be enjoyed anywhere but at home. By contrast, you can take this book anywhere, and are therefore more likely to actually read it.

(Re)evaluating Nature especially in the new millenium is a new trend in thinking about the landscape. Misrach initiates this conversation with this early book about the changing face of the American West that has been transformed into a bombed-out wasteland. Somewhat beautiful? Yes, I thin kso. He approaches the subject sarcastically serious with a proposal to turn this highly violent landscape into America's newest national park, one which I would be the first visitor. His photographs instigate new questions in landscape photography and the new definition of "beauty" in all visual studies. A must for any artist/architect/planner. There is a new landscape. Misrach has found it.

Intriguing tale of travelers on the Bozeman trail in 1869 who are thrown by their own needs to reach white settlements. Hannah headed back East to spend the gentile life her wit has made in real estate in Virginia City, Mt, Linc, 12-yr old whose parents were killed by the Souix, ane Wiley Smart, a "used horse" salesman, are taken under the wing of the less-than-friendly Absarkees. The gradual transformation of Linc and Hannah under the protection of the Indians and the blaggardy of Wiley make for an exciting and informative tale.

Gold Mining in North Carolina? The very thought of this pales by comparison to the gold rushes seen in California in the 19th century, but there was indeed gold found in North Carolina as well.

The authors have done a nice job of introducing the reader to the history of gold mining in the state of North Carolina. The book provides the reader with a quality study of the personas and events that triggered the gold rush in the south, as well as the struggles faced in trying to recover gold in this region.

The book starts with a rather dry chapter on the geologic activity in the region, including where the gold was found. From there, however, the book picks up pace nicely and becomes a great narrative story of mining and recovery of gold nuggets and flakes in this American state.

In my opinion, the strongest features of the book are the introductions to the characters (quite literally, some of these folks were indeed characters) that were involved in the mining experiences in North Carolina starting as early as 1799. The authors have also done a splendid job in describing the meteoric rise and similarly rapid fall of the mines themselves, including the many times that mining properties were sold at auction or purchased by new gold-hungry entrepeneurs.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an introduction to gold mining in North Carolina, but be warned that the first chapter can be tough sledding. I can only hope that there are further books written by this team detailing out the lives of the people that made these events so interesting.

This book is a wonderfully rich source of information on the developement of quite a few turbine engines. The information is well researched and concise, given in a format that is broken down by the manufacturer. There is alot of information on some small turbine engines developed for cruise missle applications that I have not seen elsewhere. There are a decent amount of photos that give a good sense of most of the engines. I wonder though with all the research that was done for this book if many more interresting photos were left out?
The introduction is good and the information they present with the problems involved in design and production of small scale turbine engines is very interresting.
All in all this is money well spent for anyone who enjoys the history of gas turbine engines.

Wilk develops an excellent model for talking about social organization. Based around an ethnography of the Kekchi Maya, household ecology presents a model that allows the anthropologist to deal with such issues as history, gender relations, markets, subsistence and political organization (and that is easily transferred to different settings for comparative work). This is a book for readers interested in understanding how households function as social institutions, it is replete with information and useful data. Not for a beginner, but for the student of anthropology and ecology, this is an important text.

This is a solid work, with a lot of supporting material. Makes both Native Americans and Puritan settlers come alive as real people, yet with a balanced, non-sensationalized view. Can be a little slow in some spots, but overall a good read for those with an interest in the topic (i.e. Native Americans and early settlers, Massachusetts, or local history to Natick, et al).

There are times when working closely together in one crisis arena builds bonds that provide an essential glue for sticking closely together in another. In this case, the crisis is the growing gap in revolutionary military capabilities between the United States and its NATO allies as described in 1999 by David Gompert, Richard Kugler and Martin Libicki. And, I argue, had the prescriptions for addressing this challenge been followed at the time, there would have been less political separation between the U.S. and its allies in the UN Security Council in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The authors write with the authority of top-level national security leaders and analysts. At the time, Gompert was a VP at the distinguished RAND Corporation, and Libicki worked there as a senior policy analyst after a previous posting at National Defense University. Kugler is a research professor with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at NDU.

"Mind the Gap" argues that the "United States is moving not only at a different velocity but also in a different direction, with different priorities, based on a different philosophy than its allies in modernizing its forces to exploit new technology." The authors assess this situation (Chapter 1), and put forth a "four-tier" solution to the problem (Chapters 2-5). Chapter 6 concludes with prescriptions for the roles of national governments, military services, NATO, principles of collaboration and establishing practical ways to do this.

The "first tier" gives a broad view of international security interests to which the United States and most European countries ought to be able to subscribe. The "second tier" expresses how the NATO allies should work toward an agreed view of the most critical operational military challenges and requirements. To the extent that political authorities can forge a shared strategic outlook, the "ability of militaries to play their role will be enhanced."

The "third tier" gets into detail that explains how effective coalition building can be facilitated by development of a combined military technological infrastructure -- one based on C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The "fourth tier" discussion centers on how to accomplish the practical matter of pursuing a common goal in revolution in military affairs capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic. This, the authors argue can be facilitated by open market competition in information technology.

Despite the successes of U.S.-led coalitions and alliances in wars since "Mind the Gap" was written (Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq), the problem described between its pages persists. Now, with the U.S. Defense Department embarked on a major effort to further transform capabilities, the gap will continue to widen.

In the short term, this may not impose very severe penalties, at least as far as battlefield successes are concerned. But we have already seen a widening of the political gap between some NATO allies and the United States. Should both gaps be allowed to continue to expand, we are left with the possibility of considering the U.S. role as not only the world's chief of police, but as the world's policeman as well.

Coalitions are a critical element to military successes, and an equally critical dimension of political achievement. This book shows one way to address the former challenge, and by extension, helps to show a way shore up the latter.