This is a rewarding book. The author has researched his subject thoroughly, and he brings some interesting analysis to it. There are, however, a few problems.
First, the author argues that Campbell was a Southern "moderate." Judged by the likes of his fellow-Alabamian, the "fire-eating" William Lowndes Yancey, he was. He believed that slavery was a flawed institution, but he vehemently defended both its constitutionality and its morality. (He was after all a member of the Supreme Court majority that decided the infamously pro-slavery Dred Scott case in 1857). He told his fellow-Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis that he freed all of his slaves "some years" before the beginning of the Civil War, but, as the author points out, the assertion was false--whether intentionally or inadvertently it is unclear. Campbell expressed rather tepid opposition to secession in 1861, arguing that Lincoln's election, in itself, was insufficient cause for the separation. But he stoutly defended the constitutional right of the South to go its own way. And when, in the spring of 1861, he attempted to find an alternative to secession, he argued that the Constitution should be amended to protect slavery in perpetuity, and that this amendment itself should be made unamendable. Was this moderation?
The author speaks often and admiringly of Campbell's great intelligence, but facts dropped here and there raise questions. Attending Lincoln's first inauguration, Campbell proclaimed the President "a conceited man" and condemned his address as "a stump speech" totally wanting in "dignity and decorum." And in a letter to Jefferson Davis he expressed the opinion that Lincoln was "light, inconstant, variable." Was Campbell intelligent? Certainly. But did he have good judgment?
It would have been interesting if the author had compared Campbell's decision to resign from the Supreme Court in 1861 to the decisions of John Catron and James Wayne to stay on the Court. All three were pro-slavery justices from states that seceded (Catron from Tennessee and Wayne from Georgia). But Campbell's loyalty was to Alabama, Catron's and Wayne's to the United States. The author ignores the decisions of Catron and Wayne, which would have added an interesting contrast to Campbell's.
The author's writing is uneven. In places, it is engaging and persuasive. In others, it is murky. In yet others it betrays a pro-Campbell bias that tends to undermine the principal arguments of the book. And, since so much of the book concerns legal issues, the author's misunderstanding of some basic legal procedures is unfortunate (a trial court decision is not reviewed by "filing suit" in the Supreme Court but by "appealing" from the judgment in the original suit.) Finally, someone (the author himself or a copy editor) should have checked the text more carefully. It is marred by more than an acceptable number of errors, some typographical, others more substantial.
Notwithstanding this criticism, I found this a useful book. It taught me a lot about Campbell, who was an important historical figure. Anyone who is interested in learning more about the tragic sequence of events that led up to the beginning of the Civil War can read it with profit.

John Archibald Campbell's life and political philosophy illustrate the difficulties that Southern moderates faced in developing and implementing a solution to the problems of slavery and secession. Campbell opposed both slavery and secession. Campbell's legal gifts eventually led him to practice before the United States Supreme Court and subsequently to an appointment to the Supreme Court itself. During his service on the Supreme Court Campbell opposed the Filibusterers in the New Orleans region, wrote a concurring opinion in the Dred Scot case, and rejected nullification by the courts of Wisconsin. As a moderate Campbell was vilified by both Southern fire-eaters and Abolitionist radicals. Campbell served eight years (1853-1861) on the Supreme Court before resigning to become an assistant secretary in the Confederate War Department. After the war he practiced law in New Orleans where he eventually became the lead attorney in the Slaughterhouse Case. His views in this case prepared the way for the broad interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Twentieth Century. This book gives a very solid story of the life and labors of an important lawyer of the 19th Century. This political biography is the first full life of John Archibald Campbell. It will be of great use to students of the Supreme Court, American history, and legal scholars as well as those who enjoy good biography. It belongs in most libraries.

Had Phillip Marlowe been working his L.A. beat in the 1980s, he might have been a bit like Robert Cambell's Private Investigator Whistler. Whistler works the underbelly of the city in much the same way Marlowe did. But L.A. has become even more corrupt and morally bankrupt than in Marlowe's day. The sort of human predators that Whistler runs up against are a product of our modern media age. "Alice in La-La Land" is a solid entry in the Whistler series and a good read for anyone who likes detective fiction.

This book is essential for anyone who is interested in having an extensive collection of Sun Ra's music. For those of you who do not know, this is a discography that details approximately 800 records and concerts by Mr. Ra. This massive tome helps me to understand his recording legacy every time I have a question about his obscure recordings, concert set lists, or Arkestra personnel. It is the "road map" to understanding his career (or at least a start).

However, if you are not obsessed with Mr. Ra's music, there is no need to purchase this book. There is little biographical information (and that has already been covered thoroughly by John Szwed), so the book is really only directed to the collectors of his music.

The only reason I have given the book 4 stars instead of 5 is due to the poor quality of the book itself. Cadence Jazz Books (the publisher) should be ashamed. For a book of this price, there should have been a much better binding. The book is a paperback! Clocking in at over 800 pages, if you actually plan to use this book frequently as a resource, it will be only a matter of days before the spine cracks and pages start falling out. And, no, this book is not available in either a hardback or library bound format. The poor quality of the book will unfortunately lead some individuals who are moderate fans of Sun Ra to view its cost as potentially excessive.

This is very interesting book or rather a research report. More than 300 appointments are analysed scientifically for success. Such factors as, internal versus external appointments, the use of a committee to make the selection versus a single person , the selection steps, what candidate qualities are most important for success, and much more have been examined using statistical methods. The book is not an easy read but fortunately it is short, 77 pages. Even when it may in some cases hard to understand, the findings are thought provoking, and the list of questions asked is excellent.

The focus of this excellent wildflower guide to flowers found in the Smokies is to tell WHERE and WHEN to find them in bloom. The book relies upon color plates for ID and is limited enough (only 144 pages) to allow a quick scan of all the photos when searching to ID that elusive flower. Although not nearly so complete as THE AUDUBON GUIDE TO EASTERN WILDFLOWERS (my overall favorite), this book has become my LOCAL favorite for use during outings in the Smokies.

Wildflower enthusiasts of all types should have this book in their pocket when hiking in the Smokies. It will save you time because it focuses only on about 225 flowers found in the Smokies. If you've located in the book one or two types of flowers in bloom in the area where you are hiking then you'll be within 5 or 6 pages of the correct location for all the other flowers in bloom at that particular time!

Other nice features of the book include the ring binding which allows it to open easily, the manner in which all color plates are on the right side so as to allow thumbing thru in search of the correct plate and the excellent close-up color photos of the flowers.

My primary complaint is that the book doesn't offer photos of MORE species of flowers--hey there are over 1,500 species in the Smokies--but this book is rarely a disppointment for me, an avid wildflower enthusiast who spends at least one or two days/week hiking in the Smokies during warm weather months.

Robert Campbell's Whistler series is a sort of combination of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy--PI tales that are darker than noir.

When a bodiless head is found in New Orleans and a headless body turns up in LA, Whistler gets drawn into a case involving kiddie porn, snuff films and the seamy underbelly of both LA and the Big Easy. Campbell, like Elmore Leonard, is especially strong on dialogue and he introduces many memorable characters. A very good entry in the Post-Modern private eye genre.

GRADE: B

N.B.--These books are not recommended for the squeamish.

I have been a fan of Mr Howard for nearly 12 years now, which in my opinion, makes me a bit of a connoisseur, and frankly this book was a bit of a disappointment. Undoubtedly the contributing writers are well-respected and immensely able but their writing lacked the Howardian flavour I have come to love. Ghor's sudden personality shifts are hard to follow and the various ideas in the story lack sufficient depth. This book is not the way Mr Howard would have written it. Nevertheless, this should be read because the original idea belonged to the great REH.

Ghor is a nice blend of Conan and the Cthulhu Mythos together. Abandoned as a child because of a deformity, Ghor is adopted by a pack of wolves. Raised by them, he adopts the ways of the wolf, yet when he meets up with humanity joins them. Constantly struggling with his wolf upbringing and his human surroundings, Ghor becomes a mighty war hero wherever he goes.

This is an excellent adventure book that takes a Conan like hero and plots him against all sorts of evil (and good), including some Cthulhu creations as well.

Originally Ghor was an unfinished story by Conan creator Robert Howard. Upon finding this unfinished story, a magazine decided to finish it. What they did was have a different chapter every month written by a different top fantasy writer. It made the reading interesting.

While most of the chapters were great. Some were excellent. Unfortunately there were a couple chapters that I just wanted to get through to reach the next writers' chapter. Overall a really good read.

I WAS VERY SUPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL THIS STORY CAME OFF. THE VARIUOS WRITERS DID AN EXCELLENT JOB IN WRITING AN EXCITING BOOK THAT FLOWED SMOOTHLY. IT DID NOT COME OFF AS A SERIES OF SHORT STORIES. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ROBERT E. HOWARD FANS, AND FANS OF FANTASY IN GENERAL.

Unfortunately, being published in 1983, "Boston, Then and Now" should be titled "Boston, Then and THEN". It has been almost 20 years since the "now" photos were taken and Boston has changed greatly in that period. I would love to see a reissue of this book with updated photos. Right now, it makes little sense to purchase a book so out of date.

I'm not so certain that a book like this should be judged solely on its age. If anything, it now serves the same purpose as the original round of pictures did when it was first published.

This is a very different Boston from the modern one, you see -- Boston of 1980-82 was a crime-ridden, economically crunched failure of a city that had suffered the indignity of its historical places being ripped out for poorly-thought-out highway projects. A chronically depressed waterfront had been converted first to parking lots, then to high-rise apartment and office space; an architecturally conservative but rich city had disappeared under haphazardly built skyscrapers and prematurely decaying public works. And yet it still provides a view of places that in some ways haven't changed at all over the years, like Park Street, or places like Boylston St. near the Common that have changed profoundly yet are still very recognizable.

It's not as good a book as its successor, Cityscapes of Boston, as it has a tendency to avoid some things that were too weird (the Borders bookstore on School and Washington where I used to work -- used to be the Five Cent Savings Bank) or too blighted, and shots of some notorious Boston events like the Great Molasses Flood are missing, but it's still a very interesting book. I do hope Vanderwarker and Campbell have a third book in the works to cover Boston during and after the Big Dig, but get this one and Cityscapes together anyway before your next walk around Boston.

We thought we had ordered the textbook, Microeconomics: Principles, Problems, and Policies by McConnell and Brue. This book however is Selected Material from Microeconomics. The Table of Contents is the same as the textbook, so this is really confusing. Be sure you get what you want.

Microeconomics by McConnell and Brue is a great text book. The explanation is very clear. I especially like the way they explain the graphs and concepts. It's very easy to understand. They give very good examples in each chapter. I use it for my class and I found the reading is very enjoyable. This textbook is definitely good for people who want to do self-study of microeconomics.

A real strength of this book is its broad scope; both in range of species, and in wide range geographically. Within a few pages there will pictures of the vulturine guinea fowl, the white-breasted nuthatch, and a red-throated diver (loon). The pictures are spectacular, whether it is wandering albatross courtship, an upside-down emperor bird-of-paradise, or a common bee-eater offering his mate a dragonfly. A minor annoyance is that the location of the species pictured is not usually listed. The text covers a wide range of species, and focuses on describing the behavior, but not allot of deeper evolutionary discussion. Some researcher names are mentioned, but there are no citations or sources for further reading. I think the book might be considered an informative, coffee-table book.