Hiking Washington's Geology is a well-written, informative book that describes the geologic evolution of a wide and varied landscape. I especially appreciate the detailed directions on how to get to the trailheads and equally detailed descriptions of things to look for while hiking. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in the geologic natural history of Washington....

This is an excellent read! The book highlighted some outstanding hikes and I learned lots about the interesting geology of the PNW. This book is a must for any hiker in Washington!!

This is a great book outlining interesting geology in Washington State, and offers suggestions of which hikes should be done.

What makes "The Gathering Storm 1787-1829" so compelling is that it is about the period in American history where slavery was not in the forefront of American politics. I was thinking about what I thought I knew about this period, and it was basically that after the Federal Constitution institutionalized slavery several generations went by before the Missouri Compromise and the Nat Turner rebellion made slavery the national issue. Of course, this was a naive reduction of American history on my part, which is corrected by Mary Sisson's informative fifth volume in the Milestones in Black American History series. "The Gathering Storm" covers the period from the framing of the Constitution in 1787 to David Walker's "Appeal" of 1829, which urged slaves to revolt and kill their masters. This division allows the next volume in the series to cover the period from the Nat Turner revolt to the Fugitive Slave Law.

"The Gathering Storm" provides unforgettable details about what slavery was like during these four decades when the number of slaves in the United States tripled. Sisson fills this volume with fascinating details about this period: in 1790 New Jersey and Pennsylvania each had more slaves than Tennessee, while in 1829 Cincinnati, Ohio began enforcing an 1804 statue requiring free blacks to post a $500 bond before settling in the city. There are other examples of laws clearly intended to preserve the institution of slavery, such as those forbidding Quakers from buying slaves that they obviously intended to free. But Sisson is also able to put these facts into context by focusing on two significant developments that had immense ramifications. First, the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney spurred the growth of slave-worked plantations that expanded slavery further west in the South. Second, the successful slave result that resulted in the formation of the independent nation of Haiti. Because of the fear of a slave uprising in the United States, abolitionists were able to get a federal ban on the importation of slaves, which had huge consequences for how slaves were treated and valued in the South.

Sisson also presents a series of compelling historical figures, such as Richard Allen, founder of the Free African Society and of the first independent black church in America; merchant-seaman Paul Cuffe and editor John Russwurm, two of the chief proponents of the colonization movement which sought to resettle free American blacks in West Africa; mathematician Benjamin Banneker who surveyed the land for the District of Columbia and produced a series of almanacs; Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey, who planned slave uprisings that unsettled the South; Vincent Oge and Francois-Dominique Toussaint-Louverture, leaders of the slave revolt that created Haiti; and David Walker, the firebrand who advocated violent revolt or predicated the nation would face a bloody civil war. When the volume ends with the Missouri Compromise and Walker's inflammatory "Appeal," it is clear the Civil War is inevitable.

Young students will have an excellent understanding of both the practice and politics of slavery after reading "The Gathering Storm, 1787-1829." I have not been working through the 16 volumes of the Milestones in Black American History series in order, but this is one of the best volumes in this excellent series, which covers the black experience from Ancient Egypt to the present. Although slavery would continue in the United States until the end of the Civil War, it underwent some significant changes through this period. Sisson does a superb job of organizing this material and making this case.

The book was recommended to me by a neighbor whose husband liked golf while she liked crosswords. I not being either of the two, was skeptical but just tried it out to see how much i might by chance know, having grown up with golf lovers. Well i turned out loving it. I enjoy doing little puzzles and enjoyed spending time working in the book. The format was great, with lots of extra quotes for me to send to my golf-loving friends. I am also especially interested in the spanish crossword coming out soon. Bottom line- a great gift, and i recommend it.

This book is an invaluable guide for anyone who owns a home, or is planning to buy or renovate one. The different systems of the house are explored, from the heating system to the roof, with clear descriptions of the typical problems which occur in each of these areas and what to look for.

The pictures, which come from the "Illustrated Home" series of books are clear and certainly worth a thousand words each.

In addition to the technical explanations of the various systems of the house, there is a section devoted to the renovation process, dealing with architects, and information on contracts and budgeting.

I used many of Dr. Carson's books in college, and found them to be great for getting a good understanding of the issues. He usually had an overview the issues and both sides of the argument explained. I threw out alot of my college textbooks but kept all of his books. Only issue is the argments in the book may become dated so try to get the latest editions.

It have everything you need to learn about contingent valuation, an sophisticated and controversial method to value public goods.

These cards are very beautiful and can tell you the story of the card just by looking at them. ... The book is not a guide or learning tool for tarot. It only gives you a brief history of tarot and gives you and describtion and explanation of the cards which comes with the cards in a little book. If you buy the cards it comes with a little book that tells you everything the big book tells you. If you want to learn how to read tarot cards, don't buy this book, but if you want beautiful and easy to remeber cards, this is the way to go!

This set of cards and the accompanying book makes dealing with the tarot easy. The cards are beautiful with plenty of detail to catch the viewers eyes. The book does not talk over your head or under your head. It is especially useful for a new tarot user. Before describing the the divinatory meaning it gives detailed descriptions of the cards. The book also gives a basic outline of the Major Arcena for quick reference. The set also includes a Celtic Cross layout spread sheet for card readings which I found useful in the beginning. This is definately my favorite deck and the brightness of it calls to me.

I have had my Hanson-Roberts deck for at least 12 years now, and I still use it quite frequently. When I bought it, I knew little or nothing about the Tarot, and chose it simply because I liked the illustrations; they have a 'Renaissance' feel to them, and the clear, harmonious colors are lovely. Unless they've changed, the cards are also on the small side, making them easy to shuffle and handle for those of us with smallish or clumsy (or both!) hands. The imagery is strongly based on the Rider-Waite deck, but the illustrations have a charm all their own. A very pretty, appealing deck overall; I would definitely recommend this one for beginners as well as old-timers.

This is a great book if you have the right teacher. The book is very informative yet if you have no back ground in abnormal psych you might want to make sure the teacher for your course is capable of explaining it to you. I also recomend that you make sure your copy has a CD rom. The study guide and website are great tools too. They help a lot.

I am taking abnormal psychology course at the University of Brithsh Columbia, Canada. I really enjoyed reading this book because it is very informative and thought provoking and really made me abnormalities of the human being. I really liked the case examples. It takes a bit of time to read chapters but it worth the time.

Encyclopedic in content and artistic in presentation, Abnormal Psychology in Modern Life provides a superlative introduction to theory and empirical research in the field of Abnormal Psychology. The structure of the text follows a well-planned and coherent organization of the major classifications of mental disorders. Specifically, the case studies presented provide the reader with a clear understanding of the symptomatology as contained in the DSM-IV.

You're a Home Inspector or simply in search of picture after picture with little other detail other than technical information. If you are looking for advice on how to repair or fix items, DO NOT BUY this or other Carson Dunlop books in this series, or the $$$ - The Illustrated Home. Carson Dunlop is a firm out of Canada that does produce good materials for Home Inspectors, but these are not "how to" manuals, nor are these books good for the average home owner. The reviewer g_clarke is, in my view, clearly associated with Carson Dunlop and his or her review should be ignored - check out his/her other reviews, they are worded exactly the same for each book in this series. Kind of sad when people write misleading reviews to simply increase sales. On the positive - DO BUY this book if you are simply looking for very detailed technical information.

With almost 500 illustrations, "Electrical, Plumbing, Insulation and the Interior" shows you exactly what the finished job should look like.

Alan Carson and Robert Dunlop prove in this easy-to-use book that pictures really are worth a thousand words. Through clearly detailed illustrations Carson and Dunlop walk you through your home, showing you just what your repairs and renovations should look like, inside and out. This book is an excellent tool for the new home owner or home inspector, showing you which pitfalls to avoid and what to look for when searching for potential problems in the electrical work, plmbing and insulation in your or your client's home.

You know, it used to be that historians would content themselves with wandering into the university or national library to idly pore over musty and ancient tomes and monographs, and that this would constitute the bulk of their research. These days, though, historians are a hardier breed, and they like to race excitedly across the countryside, getting a firsthand glimpse at historical sites and badgering old codgers for oral accounts.

David Roberts is of this latter breed, and it shows in his work. Evidently, he is a mountaineer of some accomplishment: he co-wrote one book with Conrad Anker, who was on the expedition that found Mallory's body on Everest, and yet another with Jon Krakauer of "Into Thin Air" fame. So he was not one to merely read about the exploits of Fremont and Carson; he decided to personally travel in their footsteps, across plain and desert and mountain. Consequently, his book is informed by his own knowledge of travel conditions in the West and his assessment of the various camp sites and surrounding terrain. He has visited most of the key locations and knowledgeably discusses their current conditions.

As for archival material and existing biographies of the duo, Roberts is not at all shy about repeatedly proclaiming his opinions of their merits. Many previous works on Fremont and Carson are dismissed as being factually flawed, overly Freudian, or hopelessly biased. Unlike some previous authors in this field, Roberts was able to draw upon the long-lost secret diaries of Charles Preuss, who accompanied Fremont on his first, second, and fourth expeditions. The Preuss material is an invaluable corrective to the self-serving official histories penned jointly by Fremont and his wife Jessie, and the documents cast Fremont in a far worse light.

Roberts is also sensitive to the Native American side of the story, and goes to considerable lengths to discuss the involvement of Fremont and particularly of Carson in Indian affairs. This might not sit well with readers who uncritically buy into the "Manifest Destiny" school of thought.

On the whole, Carson comes off rather well in this account, as Roberts strives to shift popular opinion away from the revisionist view of the scout as a savage and barbaric Indian killer. Fremont, however, gets relentlessly mauled, and based on the surviving independent accounts of his fourth expedition, rightfully so. His historical accomplishments may have been significant (not so much for original discoveries as for the popularization of westward expansion), but he seems to have been very much lacking as a man.

This is a boldly written and robust survey of the accomplishments of Carson and Fremont, and it definitely has a lot to recommend it. Readers of exploration literature or of the American West will want to pick it up.

I'm beginning to think that one of Dave Roberts' favorite pastimes is debunking, or at the very least shedding new light on, old myths. He did a bang up job in "Great Exploration Hoaxes," and continues here with his examination of John Charles Fremont and Kit Carson.

Fremont, (in case you were like me and had no idea who he was), was a surveyor and leader of 5 expeditions into the west. His fame was due mostly to the fact that he was in the right place at the right time. He also had an industrious, wordsmith for a wife who turned his reports into interesting accounts of his journeys. These, when published, were instantly popular with a public that was just beginning to catch the Wild West Fever.

Nicknamed "The Pathfinder," Fremont actually did very little original exploring. Instead he followed the trails pioneered by the early mountain men who had crisscrossed the western frontier in search of beaver. Fremont's guide on these expeditions was Kit Carson.

Frankly, Kit Carson is by far the more interesting of the two men, and Roberts does a good job of reconstructing a personality which was by nature very private. His job was complicated by the fact that Carson was illiterate and disliked being in the limelight. Nevertheless his actions, which were recorded by many (including Fremont) speak eloquently about the man. This is a fascinating read for anyone who enjoys redisovering history through the eyes of a talented writer.

Somewhere in the American psyche there must be a special place for mildering heroes-those who have't quite turned to dust from complete neglect, kept alive by the constant refocusing of the distorting lens of time and history. John C. Fremont and Kit Carson are prominant among the inhabitants of that place. David Roberts has written a remarkable book that examines these two flawed men who were great American heroes at one time. This is good because both men are too fascinating to be left behind.Kit Carson is examined as the Indian Killer (a perfectly acceptable occupation in 1870) turned advocate(a perfectly acceptable occupation in 2000). Fremont, "The Pathfinder"'s is examined for its brillance-he more than anyone else made manifest destiny possible with the mapping of trails west but popular through his avidly read (but probably written by his wife, Jessie)accounts of his expeditions. Fremont and Kit Carson had a symbiotic relationship on their way to fame. The one time Fremont tried to mount an expedition without Kit Carson as his guide makes for one of the most graphic chapters in this book. Stuck in the mountains in the snow several men die, some resort to cannibalism. This contains well researched information,because Fremont himself convieniently decided not to write a book about that crossing. It might have made the 1856 presidential campaign more raucus than it was(The Pathfinder as the Cannibal Candidate?) A fascinating look at these men, this book was read in a day, and now goes into my reference library. I know I will go back to it often.