This book is great. My kids really loved it and it gets the message across. Hannah (6yrs.) says, "It's fabulous!" We have another in the same series and it's great too.

This is an anthology of some of Holbrook's mid-1900's articles about the development of the NW around the turn of the last century. Holbrook's prose is easy-reading but carries well-researched along with humor and style. Each chapter is a treat!

If you haven't read Holbrook before, who should I compare him to?..... Well, if Ken Burns was primarily a writer, I think that he might produce similar stuff.

There is a bonus in the introduction. The editor's lengthy piece fills us in on who Stewart H Holbrook was and is fascinating reading in itself.

This writer's work deserves further resurrection.

The horrors of September 11th 2001 have resulted in terrorism and political violence as an area of study becoming increasingly topical. In terms of publishing output this has been a mixed blessing. The area has become "fashionable" but quantity has not always been matched by quality. The past year has, quite frankly, seen a lot of rubbish published - from both ends of the political spectrum.

This book goes some way towards redressing the balance. It is essentially a series of essays by various academics on various aspects of the "War on Terrorism". There is something for everyone here. You will almost certainly find something you agree with, but equally you will doubtless find something that will infuriate you! The book purposely draws on academics with unashamedly differing world views (many of whom are EXTREMELY distinguished - a real A list bunch). A chapter by the Marxists' favourite Noam Chomsky shares space with a chapter by the British uber-realist Colin Gray and another by that master of fair and balanced analysis, Lawrence Freedman (why has John Keegan got a knighthood when Freedman hasn't?). Kenneth Waltz and Robert O'Keohane both feature, as do half the International Politics department of Aberystwith University. You really would be hard pressed to find work by so many quality people in one place elsewhere.

There's somebody for everybody here - corny but true. These are the people who have been setting the standards for the debate - not the left wing editorials of the European press and the right wing columnists in the American print media that both sides seem to get so worked up about these days.

If you're interested in the debate on the "War on Terror" post September 11th, this book deserves to be on your shelves.

FAQ stands for "Frequently Asked Questions". In Writer's Handbook Of FAQs: 2001-2002, Doris Booth (founder and Editor-in-Chief of Authorlink.com, an outstanding online resource for editors, agents, writers, and readers) draws upon her considerable expertise and professional experience to answer the most frequently asked questions about every aspect of publishing. From preparing and submitting a manuscript, to points of industry etiquette, to marketing and profitability, every aspect of publishing is defined and explained. Writer's Handbook Of FAQs is invaluable, highly recommended reading for any aspiring author seeking publication of their work -- and would aptly serve as a curriculum supplement text for writing and publishing classes and workshops.

This is a terrific book--fascinating, charming, insightful--about a chapter in American history most people know little about. We're wasting time and money on bad Pearl Harbor movies, but this is a story that begs to be filmed. It has everything.

There are a lot of zine books out there that focus on words, but Zines is a bona fide "art" book -- courtesy of images from all kinds of zines. Really lovely and thought provoking.

Anyone wishing to trace the history of Latin American commercial aviation may soon find out that a name crops up every now and then, certainly more often than Pan Am founder Juan Trippe's. The name has had to do with the establishment, rise (and sometimes fall) of many a big name in the airline trade. Robert C. Booth's career in this business spans five decades. He has now found it fit to put a great part of that legacy in print. In a fresh style that makes it difficult to put the book down, Booth recalls the landmarks and details of his passionate life (with "Pasionado" in fact being his own concoction of "Passion" and "Aficionado") from childhood in the River Plate and jobs dotting the Andes all the way through to his present job as head of Latin America's most renowned airline consultancy firm, also his own making. Yet "Airline Pasionado" is not a recipe book, it is rather a most entertaining way to learn about and understand the history and reality of a fast-evolving industry from the viewpoint of one of its hottest livers. Booth has spent a great deal of time at drafting Airline Pasionado "to paint the picture as it happened and while I may have expressed strongly-held opinions, I have tried to support these with the facts". Whenever possible, the facts were verified and events confirmed with published reports and with the people involved themselves. The book has collected excellent reviews from key personalities in the airline trade, from company presidents to aviation authorities and aviation writers in the US and Latinamerica. It sure will win yours too. Javier A. Lifa

Bobby Booth's wonderful story about his experiences in the airline industry in Latin America is a fascinating account of the colorful history of air travel in that region. Written as an account of his personal adventures as a Braniff staffer and executive, the book follows Mr. Booth's career through high and low points, always portraying him as an Everyman who made his best efforts and rolled with the (many) punches.

The story begins with a brief description of his early years as somewhat of an adventurer in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, and then describes through his eyes the development of Braniff Airlines and its business in Latin America. Far from focusing on Braniff alone, the story tells about travel and tourism ventures in South America that Mr. Booth became involved in, competition and dealings with other airlines, from Pan Am to AeroPeru and many, many more. It is really fascinating to relive the history of commercial aviation in South America through Mr. Booth's eyes.

This is a very entertaining book. While the facts about airlines and people are presented in (presumably!) accurate fashion, the story is very personal, and the reader really comes to sympathize with the failures and successes of Mr. Booth in his experiences at Braniff, AeroPeru, Air Florida, Challenge Airlines, and elsewhere. His insights about the need for Latin American airlines to team up to compete with the US majors (especially American Airlines) are highly relevant today, and his ideas about managing the airline business will strike a responsive chord in any manager.

Most of all Bobby Booth comes across as a real people person, and one with whom we all can sympathize. I have not read a more lively account of a business history, in any industry, than this one.

This is a very interesting autobiography by a figure deeply immersed in the development of Latin American aviation, and in the early stages of US deregulation. It captures events "raw" as the author experienced them, which is good history and results also in a highly entertaining narrative format. I found the book to be stimulating for a reason only indirectly related to the airline industry: it is about and exemplifies the cross-blending of experiences from different cultures. The author was born in Uruguay of English parents, spent much of his career in Latin America and then moved to the US. Tri-cultural author and book. Latin American aviation has historically been fairly accessible to non-national entrepreneurs. This book is about a Uruguayan Brit employed by an American company, Braniff, given free reign to his considerable innovative talents specifically in the area of airline marketing. The "struggle for market share" was clearly a feature of Latin American aviation in the 1960s, and Booth was on the leading edge. The sections of the book on Booth's US experience make the point [often forgotten] how important pioneer was Air Florida in the early phases of deregulation, and that this company could have prospered had it not been for a series of unrelated adverse events. Booth tells the story with considerable gusto and humour. It is a "good read".

This thoughtful and loving tribute to the human spirit begins with the lines: "It is the industry of the soul, to love and to hate; to seek after the beautiful and to recognise the ugly; to honour friends and wreak vengeance upon enemies..." Here and elsewhere throughout the book, Booth uses Biblical parallels to advance his message about the human condition: "[There is] a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace [Ecclesiastes]..." In quiet, thoughtful tones, the main character, 80-year-old Alexander Bayliss, called Shurik, reflects on his life, a life which we would consider intolerable but in which he has found satisfaction and, remarkably, much joy. At eighty, he is a man completely at peace with his world, celebrating the love, endurance, and forgiveness which have made his life not only bearable, but ultimately, happy.

Shurik was a 40-year-old Englishman doing business in the Soviet Union when he was summarily arrested for espionage and sentenced to hard labor in the gulag, spending the next twenty years in a coal mine. In the hellish darkness and depths of the mine, however, Shurik finds enlightenment. One of seven men in his labor group, he and his companions become a family, fiercely loyal to each other, accepting life moment by moment, with no thoughts wasted on a future they cannot afford to contemplate. Eventually released, Shurik lives a quiet life in a small Russian village, where he becomes much beloved. When Communism fails and the Soviet Union dissolves, Bayliss, at eighty, finds himself faced with his most difficult decision.

This ambitious novel entertains at the same time that it conveys a strong message about man's enduring spirit and the need to forgive. The symbolism is clear and easily understood--the miners digging up a completely preserved wooly mammoth, then roasting and eating part of it, Shurik acting as teacher to the children of the village and sometimes speaking in aphorisms or proverbs, the story of the fox in the cage, the making of bread in the village, Shurik arguing for the historic preservation of the local church, etc. The language is simple, the images are unforgettable, the prose style is both musical and urgent, and the characters are admirable and sympathetic. A memorable and thoughtfully constructed novel, every detail of which advances Bayliss's message.

Many written works, like their video or film counterparts, demand to be consumed voraciously by those eager to learn outcome(s). This powerful book, desires to be read reflectively and savored, one page at a time.

The life of the main character, Shurik, unfolds slowly and wonderfully, like the metamorphosis of an unusual butterfly. Originally from England,he will soon celebrate his eightieth birthday, after spending most of his life in the gulags of the former Soviet Union. His family has found he is still alive and wish to visit him. How will Shurik deal with this? Does he wish to go home or stay in Russia? Why would he go or stay?

The author, Martin Booth, uses the birthday concept to "anchor" his plot. The birthday is but a metaphoric excuse to study a lifetime interwoven with inexorable pain and unexpected beauty.

We are the recipients of these unique gifts as we begin to understand the life of one, very special, man. Highly recommended.

Alexander Bayliss, Englishman, is arrested by the KGB and sent to the Gulag for 25 years. These he spends in a coal mine near the arctic circle. After his release, he spends the next twenty years in the small village of Myshkino on the Volga, where everybody calls him Shurik.

The book opens on the 80th birthday of Shurik. A good time to reflect on the past and to think, perhaps of the future. Shurik tells us about his years in the coal mine and his work mates, who become inseparable friends. In the worst of adversity, they are there for each other, united especially in their disdain for the communist regime. At times, the story sounds like Solzhenitsyn's "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". Survival becomes a matter of attitude, and the author describes it well. It is not so much the brutality of the camp as the spiritual emptiness of thousands of days with only the same manual labor.

In the village of Myshkino, Shurik teaches English at the local school. He opens the children's eyes to the world beyond and teaches them how to think on their own. Shurik is much beloved by everybody and, on this birthday, he is content. It is a truism that, as life goes on, one tends to repress the bad things but to revive the good ones.

Mr. Booth has written a beautiful book, full of charm and loving detail. The language is superb, and the flow of the story riveting. Maybe he gets a bit too sugary at times, but that can be overlooked.

This book is the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Not the assassination that they teach in the history books but a much more in depth view of the conspirators that were involved. Most people don't know that the Federal Government actually arrested ten people for the conspiracy and assassination and hung four along with killing John Wilkes Booth during the man hunt. The conspirators were tried by a military tribunal and not in civilian courts.

This book goes very in depth at the contacts and relationships that these conspirators had. The countryside is discussed as well as events leading up to and after the shooting. It talks of previous plots of the Confederacy to kidnap Lincoln and of the Federals to kidnap Jefferson Davis. The book did, at times, read a little like a history book. So much detail that it seemed to drag in spots but only for short periods before it revived itself.

This is a very good book that students of history will love. That Civil War buffs will enjoy also. It is more of a book for high schoolers and up as at times it is tedious because it has so much information to process. Overall, I enjoyed it greatly. But then again, I love history. Check it out, see what you think.

Much like the Kennedy assassination, the Lincoln assassination has been the subject of more than its share of conspiracy theories. Mr. Steers does an excellent job of debunking most all of these theories by meticulously sifting through the evidence and proving, point by point, that these theories do not hold water. He is able to use the same method to prove most of his own hypothesis concerning Booth and his conspirators. As is mentioned in earlier reviews, Steers does seem to take particular delight in proving the guilt of Mary Surratt and Dr. Mudd. Mudd takes the brunt of Steers' assault, possibly because this is the area of Mr. Steers' greatest knowledge. It is also possible however that the vigor of the author's attacks can be traced to the fact that the Mudd family has done an excellent job convincing most Americans that the good doctor was as much of a victim as was Lincoln. Steers proves that Mudd was indeed involved, and then drives the point home. Make no mistake, he proves it, just as he proves most of his points by doing his research and doing it well.

Please don't be afraid of this book. The writing is clear and easy to follow. Most importantly, it's interesting. There are indeed a lot of names to keep up with but most of those names are going to be pretty familiar to anyone with any knowledge of the period. To make things even easier, Steers gives the reader a good concise history of the conspirators. As a bonus, there is also a chapter devoted to following Lincoln's body on its trip back to Illinois. It's a very interesting chapter at that.

I do have one serious problem with this book. To Steers' credit he does point out that if Jefferson Davis was in on the plot, he had good reason to be. It was the Federals that first broke the rule of not trying to knock off a head of state. The Confederate President had indeed been targeted for death by a group of Union raiders attempting to enter Richmond, and the southerners had the captured orders to prove it. Steers however makes no attempt to link Lincoln with this incident and in fact Lincoln may not have known anything about it. The problem is that Steers uses such flimsy evidence to connect Davis with Booth, that the same line of thought would have to connect Lincoln to the earlier plot. Over and over Steers makes statements such as, "Davis must have known," or, "Davis would have had to know." No evidence is presented to support these statements except that a plot to kidnap the President of the United States could not have been undertaken by the Confederate Secret Service without the approval of the President. If that were the case how could the U.S. Army undertake a plot to assassinate the Confederate President without Lincoln's knowledge. The answer is, it would appear to be very possible that Lincoln did not know what his army was up to just as it would be very possible that Davis had no idea what his spies were up to.

Despite this flaw, this is a fine book. New light is shed on an old subject and maybe a few old myths have been put out of their misery. I may just have to read Mr. Steers book on Dr. Mudd. If this book is any indication, it will be well worth the effort.

This meticulously researched and reasoned book by Edward Steers both tells the story of Lincoln's Assassination and builds the case against those involved.

Much of the book reads like a detective story. Since Lincoln's death, various publicity seekers, conspiracy buffs and doubters have disputed various aspects of the story. The issues Steers deals with -- and convincingly -- are ones that have plagued the assassination story for a long time. By assembling documentary evidence from a vast array of sources, Steers builds strong cases that: Dr. Mudd was a part of the conspiracy to capture Lincoln and was a confederate of Booth -- and was expecting to help Booth escape from Washington; Mary Surratt was also a part of the conspiracy and thus justly convicted; the harebrained conspiracy theories involving Vice President Johnson or Sec. of War Stanton in the assassination are just that; The Confederate Secret service was active in supporting a kidnapping of Lincoln, knew Booth and provided him with resources; the top levels of the Confederate government (including Jefferson Davis) were aware of kidnap schemes (though no claim is made that Davis or others in the Confederate high command knew of or supported the assassination plot).

The book deftly does several things. While telling the story of the assassination plot and Confederate secret service activities, it builds the case implicating individuals found guilty by the government but whose involvement has been questioned over the years. Steers also tells of and demolishes notions that Booth really escaped and that an imposter was buried in his tomb -- notions that had some currency in the early Twentieth Century. Steers provides a thorough examination of the case of Dr. Mudd -- proving his complicity in the Lincoln conspiracy and rebuking those family members who to this day try to exonerate Mudd as an innocent doctor who executed his Hippocratic Oath for the lame Booth when he came calling to his home after the murder. (Steers has also written a book solely on this topic "His Name Is Still Mudd")

This is an impressive work. Steers deftly melds both the story of Lincoln's assignation plot with the detective work proving the case against those who claim mistake or cover-up. It is well written and makes good use of primary sources. Although I have read and enjoyed "The Day Lincoln Was Shot," I'd have to rate this as the Lincoln assassination book to read.

I hate to admit it, but if this novel had not been included in the Modern Library's Top 100, I probably would have never picked it up. I have never been a fan of socially conscious literature, and I anticipated a novel in the style of William Dean Howells - full of cardboard characters, most of whom would be down trodden and hopeless, or rich and ruthless, and enough moral pronouncements to make me feel guilty for at least a day or two. Thankfully, I let the Modern Library editors convince me that the book was worth reading.

The novel is set during the dawning of the twentieth century and concerns itself with the impact of mechanical innovation on the bucolic life styles of a midwestern town. As the novel opens, the gulf between prominent families and their aristocratic lives are contrasted with those in society whose main purpose it is to support this luxurious and frivolous existence. The aristocracy is personified by the Amberson family, wealthy and prominent, and particularly by George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled grandson of the family's founder. He is unable to understand that a great revolution is taking place around him, that the lifestyle he has always known is soon to become anachronistic as those people with talent, luck and a little capital will soon surpass him in wealth and prestige. Although he has the talent to join this new mechanical age, he prefers to be and to remain a gentleman and to believe that "being things" is far superior to "doing things."

As the midwestern town grows and expands and becomes more and more industrial, and even as the Amberson family compound becomes surrounded by apartment buildings and factories, George is unable to accept the fact that he and his family are becoming irrelevant. As the town quickly turns into a dirty and depressing city and the Amberson fortune begins to crumble, he still dresses for dinner, still drives a horse and cart, and still holds to his standards "as a gentleman." Tarkington weaves in subplots involving the love story of George's widowed mother and the Henry Ford-like Eugene Morgan as well as George's own romantic involvement with Morgan's daughter. These stories add a subtle ironic twist to the narrative as well as allowing the author to delve deeper into the consciouness of his spoiled (but sympathetic) antagonist.

Although there is some of Howells influence in this book, Tarkington does not succumb to the artistic sterility of his mentor. This author is able to tell an interesting story and to develop characters that are not only realistic, but invoke an emotional response from the reader. And although the ending seems to me a little contrived and more in keeping with some of the "realist" writers of the early twentieth century, Tarkington's novel is, in the end, successful and offers an enjoyable reading experience.

This epic story is about the ducal Ambersons -- a rich family in the midwest ( probably Indiana ). George, the grandson of the rich and famous Major Amberson and his mother are the primary characters.

George's mother worships him. There is not a thing she will not do for him. Her love for George, ultimately spells her own disaster. George, on the other hand, is very spoiled, superior, snobbish and self-centered.

As the story unfolds, the reader watches the Amberson estate slowly fall. The unsuspecting Ambersons, do not realize this until it is too late. George, who has refused to learn a trade ( that is for common folks ) must learn to survive through his own earnings near the end of the tale. However he has been ruined through his own actions and winds up nearly friendless.

A good book describing the rise and fall of families -- who are the center of attention one day and then forgotten in the next generation. The message of the book is that life is like sand hand in one's hands. For a while you have it but it slowly slips through one's fingers.

"Magnificent" is the word to describe this book. Epic in scope, it follows the rise and fall of the Ambersons as the spoiled and arrogant George Minafer grows up. I enjoyed the somewhat melodramatic story and found many parallels between these times and the world of today. The plot is emotional and powerful, and it is easy to see why Orson Welles would have wanted so much to make it a film.

What makes the book especially interesting, however, is Booth Tarkington's ability to understand and describe the changes going through America at the time. The setting is more than just a "character;" it dictates the circumstances of its inhabitants. It provides the foundation for the way of life they must live. This is not only a tale of George and his family falling from great heights, but also a record of how a small town grew into a city, how automobiles changed the landscape in which we live, how people were forced to adapt to this unsympathetic setting between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He writes mainly from George's point of view, so there is a romantic, nostalgic vision of how things once were, but Tarkington is not fooled into believing that technological and social change has not made some things better, just as he isn't fooled into thinking they haven't made some things worse. What the Ambersons saw as tragedy and loss, others saw as opportunity. I percieved no moral lesson or message; this book is about the tragedy and loss of a proud clan unable to comprehend that in an industrial age, life was no longer static.

(There is also a good lesson in here on the risks of not diversifying your investments!)