Mr Davies has taken a trip into the heart of America. His journey was sometimes thrilling, and other times melancholy. If you like hearing about local folklore, families dealing with tradgedy, severe weather, the American Spirit, then this book is for you. The way he describes his journey is as if you were reading his diary, very matter-of-factly, and his Brittish witt and lively descriptions really make you feel like you were sitting next to him in that old truck. Although he really didn't see alot of the midwest, he really did see alot in the short time he undertook this journey. As a midwesterner myself, I take pride that a man took such interest in the so-called "Boring Midwest." There really is much more going on than what meets the eye. Check out this book!

The book told about the people and the country side.He told of the history of the area he covered and about the people that he spoke and came in contact with.

Dear Reader, Your a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman is a very hilarious can't put down book. You should really read it. Julius has to take French lessons and he can't even say his own name in French. Julius's mom signed him up for a summer job as a babysitter. Julius's first day of French class and babysitting was horrible. During his job he learns a lot aboat responsibility. Near the end he has to potty-train Edison Blue and he learns a lot of French. To find out more about the book you'll have to read it.

Your Brave Man, Julis Zimmerman is a funny book. I coudn't put the book down four nothing at all. My favorite part was when he had to potty-traind Edison. I thought that was so funny.I was about to fall out of my chair. Another funny part was when he put Edison in time out that must of hurt his hand. I'll give it five stars.

You're a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman is one of the most funniest books I have ever read. It was so funny I could not put it down! It's about a boy named Julius Zimmerman who thought he was going to have a good time this summer,Wrong! He had to baby-sit and take French lessons not what he expected. He had to baby-sit a boy named Edison Blue a three year old who is not even potty-trained! He also had to take French lessons which he knew nothing about he didn't even know his own name in French. You have to read this book!

When I first saw this book I thought I wouldn't read it; the last British General Election (the subject of this book) seems like a long time ago now, and most "popular politics" books I've read in the past have been disappointing. But I'm so glad I changed my mind! Davies is no tyro - he'd written five books before, two of them novels, and he brings all of that experience to bear on this story of ten months in the life of one English parliamentary constituency, Calder Valley in Yorkshire.

Several things go into making this such a good read: 1. Davies obviously planned the book very carefully, something which immediately gains the reader's respect. The choice of Calder Valley (out of 650 possible places) in particular was spot-on. 2. Davies doesn't hide the fact that he's a socialist and therefore not an impartial observer. This is good because it gives an emotional energy to the text and an edge to the reporting. 3. Although this is a subjective account Davies's approach is human and sympathetic: he responds to the people rather than to their politics. Although he finds one or two of the characters exasperating he rarely resorts to sarcasm. 4. The novelistic style Davies adopts means that full attention is given to character and plot development, and to description of the area, and the book appeals because it is so clearly about people first and about politics second. 5. Davies used a dictaphone to record his characters' outpourings and his transcriptions of these are not only believable but give an insight into the way Yorkshire people think and speak. 6. Davies is a thoughtful, intelligent, and good writer. There is never a dull moment.

I would hold this book up as a model for anyone putting their mind to writing a work of popular non-fiction. And with an American election just gone and a British one looming, the political and social aspects are still relevant. And finally, Christine McCafferty ("a well-built woman of fifty with straight, short blonde hair, an attentive, piercing blue gaze and an unashamedly loud laugh; a talkative, friendly, basically ordinary person who wanted this England to change") is as good a hero as you'll find anywhere.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is about 5 to 10% of it is outdated. The rest is smart, funny, passionate and insightful, a joy for beginning and serious soccer fans alike. I read it in 3 days and now my girlfriend, a soccer novice, is consuming it with equal speed. I highly recommend it in full measure. (By the way: you can find out about Wrexham by going to espn.com/soccer, then going to "Soccernet/UK" and searching for club standings. They're still in the 2nd division, though close to relegation! )

Speaking as a person who was born only a dozen or so miles from the small town of Wrexham in north-east Wales, I think that this book accurately captures the pleasure and the pain of being a grass-roots fan of a small, only mildly successful, football club, struggling in the nether regions of the English league system.

If one short, sweet, book can not only explain the rules of football, but also its history, and what it's like to be an ordinary fan - then this is the book for you.

Everything you need to understand football is in this book.

I picked up this book a couple of years back when a local San Francisco sports columnist described it as 'the best book on soccer ever written.' After reading 'Twenty-Two Foreigners,' I'll second that opinion.

This book successfully weaves a general description of the game, a review of all Word Cups prior to US 94, and the author's own passion for his local team - Wrexham, a Third Division Welsh club struggling to gain promotion to the Second Division in 1993. Pete Davies mixes these themes together masterfully. Despite these three unique threads, the book never seems jumbled or hodge-podge.

Through Davies' sections on the history and nuances of the game, you'll develop a keen appreciation for why certain teams/countries deploy different playing styles and alignments without feeling overwhelmed by jargon and technical detail. In the overview of the World Cups, you'll understand how world dominance has inexorably tilted from its initial power base in the UK to the far reaches of Europe and - especially - South America. And in detailing his long-time affair with Wrexham, you'll begin to comprehend the deep-seated passion for the simplest of games which, unfortunately, has still not quite resonated here in the States.

Despite the fact that the material is now seven years old (Mr. Davies - an updated version in preparation for WC 2002 would be fantastic!), I wholeheartedly endorse this book as a comprehensive and engaging introduction to 'The Beautiful Game.'

"Inside the Hurricane" is far more interesting than several other recent weather books (the horrid "Tying down the Wind" and the ho-hum "Eye of the Storm"). Author Pete Davies provides an exccelent account of Hurricanes Mitch and Floyd and the horrendous damage they wrought. He also sounds a dire warning about the near certainty that the Gulf or East Coasts of the U.S. will someday experience a catastrophe of epic proportions. Imagine, writes the author, if Mitch had followed the same storm track as Hurricane Irene, a Catagory 1 storm that deluged Miami not long after Floyd made headlines.

A lion's share of author Pete Davies's narrative involves the stories of the forecasters and storm chasers who track these meteorlogical beasts. And while their stories are somtimes interesting, they don't have the same power as the descriptions of the hurricaines themselves. Overall however, "Inside the Hurricane" is a decent book for weather-philes.

Pete Davies spent the 1999 hurricane season with the scientists of the National Hurricane Center in Miami as they studied a series of fascinating and intense hurricanes and struggled with budget limitations that are, in these times of surplus, increasingly inane and unforgivable. Davies' writing is vivid and gripping; his descriptions of the devastation of Hurricane Mitch and the experience of people in the midst of the storm are absolutely unforgettable. Davies also flew missions with the NOAA's P-3 hurricane hunter aircraft and gives a good feel for the combination of raw excitement, pure terror, and occasional boredom of these epic flights. One thing missing from the book were any charts, maps, or diagrams; an appendix containing the Saffir-Simpson scale would have been nice. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in hurricanes, which should be anyone who lives in the United States. Even if your state is out of the reach of hurricane damage (and few actually are), the devastation caused by these vast and increasingly dangerous storms can cause economic disaster and human suffering on a scale not exceeded by any other natural disaster. And after reading, contact your congressional representatives and express to them your dismay that funding for important research remains at pittance levels. Too often Americans brainlessly run around chanting "We're Number One!" when what is really needed is a good long look at how money is spent in this country and who truly benefits from government funding.

"Inside the Hurricane: Face to Face With Nature's Deadliest Storms", is worthwhile for anyone interested in learning more about hurricanes. This book concentrates on following the 1999 hurricane season, with an examination of the horror inflicted by 1998's Category 5 Hurricane Mitch, which killed at least 9,000 people in Central America. The author gives a riveting account of the power of Mitch, telling of its absolute devastion to the nation of Honduras.

The author concentrates on the Hurricane Research Division (HRD), the scientists who try to learn more on these powerful storms, and who fly into them for first-hand scientific observation,and the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the people responsible for making the forecasts as to where these dangerous storms will go. This is interesting stuff, especially when the scientists fly into the storms.

Unfortunately, it seems that that the author simply took info off his tape recorder and stuck it into the book, beacause a lot of the heavy science conversations which are included in this book do not have enough explanation or context.

This book is also hindered by certain editorial decisions. This book suffers from the lack of maps showing the tracks of the hurricanes the author discusses, especially because the author spends a great deal of time discussing the meandering nature of the hurricanes.

The book also contains some minor errors, some of which can be chalked up to the author not being a native American (e.g., describing as one of the highest points in Florida as "Disney's Magic Mountain", when everyone knows that he meant Disney's Space Mountain.) While these minor errors do not really detract from this book, and the above-average number of typos is not much of a problem, the real problem comes from the feel that there are times when this author does not go into needed detail. For example, the author talks about the rapid intensification of Hurricanes Opal and Camille, but while the author examined the rapid intensification of Opal, he made no such prior mention of Camille.

The author fails to provide detail in other areas. While expalantions are provided for some criticism of the media, we really don't know why the huuricane jocks at HRD are so critical of the Weather Channel's staff, especially weatherman Jim Cantori. This book has a slap-dash feel.

However, the descriptions of the hurricanes themselves surpass the author's limitations in other areas of writing. As a native of New Orleans, I've seen my share of hurricanes. One of my earliest memories is of Hurricane Betsy. I lost family in Hurricane Camille. I was one of the tens of thousands of people who evacuted, with my family, from 1998's Hurricane Georges, which was a near miss. I've done research on hurricanes for school, so I have a bit more scientific and personal knowledge than the general public. There are flaws in this book, but the postives far out weigh the negatives.

The author has not written the perfect book on hurricanes, but he is to be commended for spelling out the dangers these massive storms pose, for pointing out the lack of funding which goes into hurricane research, and for his skill in relating the tragedy which is inflicted on hurricane victims, especially the devastation of Hounduras.

"The American Road" is a fascinating historical work that chronicles an event that was of monumental importance that has been most forgotten in the public consciousness. In the summer of 1919, a U.S. Army convoy left Washington, D.C., bound for San Francisco. Two months later it arrived at its destination having fought incredible obstacles and hardships along the way. In doing so, the convoy dramatically pointed out to a nation just emrging from the first World War and entering the automobile age the need for good roads.

Author Pete Davies does a decent job of resurrecting the memory of The First Transcontinental Motor Train. He describes the trip in detail and recounts the contribution of its most colorful participants, including a young lieutenant colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower. The event was a spectacle all along the route, and even generated controversy between communities either included or left off the right of way. For most of the journey, the convoy followed the "Lincoln Highway," a privately funded project that was the first bicoastal road, but in 1919 in many places was actually little more than a line on the map.

As a work of history, "American Road" completes its mission well enough. Author Davies is a decent storyteller and he does a good job of setting the historical context and showing how the event was crucial to the development of America's national road system. The book's main drawback is that Davies chose to focus much of his attention on the relatively unintersting local political controversies along the route and not enough on the stories of individual soldiers in the convoy. Even the colorful "Ike" gets only a scant few pages of coverage in total. Also underutilized is the author's accounts of what the route looks like today, which are sprinkled in here and there without much rhyme or reason. On the plus side, the book contains a generous helping of photographs and a helpful route map on the inside covers.

Overall, a decent historical work that serves to rekindle the memory of the dawn of the American motor age.

Pete Davies has provided us with an interesting view on American history with his book American Road. I found the book interesting and engrossing, though Davies had a tendancy at times to divert off to a tangent that does not seem to be related to the topic at hand. Most of the topics he includes in the book give the reader a better understanding of how critical this transcontinental journey really was in forming modern America.

Davies' research is top-notch; he relies on primary sources including journals and newspaper accounts written at the time of the events.

The book is a great chronicle of early 20th Century Americana from a social perspective, including the trials and tribulations faced by the individuals during the cross-country journey.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the formation of modern America's motor age, but if you're only interested in understanding the Army's piece in this, you should consider skipping this book, because it doesn't do much with the military piece, despite the fact that the U.S. Army was responsible for the motorcade.

Pete Davies has done a spectacular job of capturing the enormity of this history-making undertaking. When you consider that less than 100 years ago there were less than 10 miles of paved road in the whole country and contrast that with today, it's mind-boggling what has been accomplished in such a short time.

And it's all because the automobile came along and people needed passable roads on which to drive them. The Trans-Continental Convoy held up an unavoidable magnifying glass for the citizens (and politicians) of the US so they would not need to ask, "What's wrong with our roads?" It became crystal clear. If you wanted your town and state to develop, you'd better get on the Good Roads bandwagon.

This book was particularly interesting to me because my father drove these trucks during World War One from the automotive centers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to Baltimore, using the Lincoln Highway. From Baltimore they were shipped overseas. In one of his letters, he remarked that it had been raining for three days straight, but they got by fairly well because most roads were gravel.

Although I'm sure the eastern most portions of the Lincoln Highway were probably in better repair than the western parts, The American Road gave me a good picture of what my father was up against.

The next time you drive down the Interstate, you can thank the foresight of some people in Detroit, the keen observation of a young Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower, and the sheer grit of the Convoy drivers, for showing the nation what had to be done.

Davies presents an entertaining (and sometimes chilling) summary of facts about the 1918 epidemic. More useful and interesting, however, are his summaries of more recent, even less well-known, events such as the 1997 Hong Kong outbreak and the 1976 swine flu debacle.

It is interesting to note that his depiction of the men investigating the 1918 virus is universally glowing and complimentary, while his depiction of the women involved is either flat or entirely vilifying. His depiction of Kirsty Duncan seems particularly vitriolic, and one has to wonder if he was taking some cold shoulder just a touch too personally.

All in all an interesting read, however there is little in the way of actual history and anecdotes about this 'forgotten epidemic' - The book focuses far more on the modern day hunt for the virus than any sort of historical examination of what happened during the epidemic. An interesting read, however, people interested solely a historical examination of the virus should probably look elsewhere.

Davies is a wonderful writer. The story's fascinating--and more than a bit scary.

Really a huge mistake by buying this book... Just a miscellaneous of several authors, and some of them, she just really doesn't know at all... really desappointed... mutiples attacks but no arguments.

The question that remains:
What is the matter with Cultural Studies?

I frankly nothing learned from this feminist postmodernist approach of displacements and travels. If you want my opinion as a social anthropologist all this postmodern buhaha combining feminist studies, postcolonialism and post structuralism ( baptised as cultural studies) mark the decline or the impossibility of our western culture to approach the Otherness or the Difference. Culturalists such as Carmen Kaplan who seldom move from their safe arm-chair are harming ethnological studies much more than Frazer did a century ago from his Victorian arm-chair in Oxford. If Frazer had as an excuse his classisist background I should like to ask Ms Kaplan what her background could be. Something of all and nothing at all. I bet that she does not even conceive the etymology of her name. Academia and the layman are not greatly beneficiated by this sort of pseudo social science books. I admit loosing four hours of my life trying to collect a valuable information from this book but I did not succeed. In conclusion : PURE TRUSH. Why on earth uneducated western people who never dared to visit remoted populations practicing original popular culture, write this sort of books addressed to a western public if they cannot communicate even for un hour with original patterns of culture. The symptom of this alienation is not hazardous : The most one is baptised in our western culture the less one can see "beyond the lines" of the different cultures. Tomorrow I will burn this trash in my fireplace !

Following the path set by James Clifford, who long ago proposed a much-needed bridge between anthropological, literary and historical approaches to the topic of travel culture, Kaplan analyzes the various metaphoric uses of travel in feminist and poststructuralist criticisms. Displacement, diaspora, borders, exile, migration, nomadism, homelessness, tourism and so on: Kaplan aims to investigate the role played by these symbols and metaphors in contemporary literary and cultural theory in Europe and the United States, linking them to the history of production of colonial discourses. Her main argument is that these metaphors of travel contribute to the blurring of fundamental differences and disputes between national identities, classes, races and genders. In each chapter, a particular binary formation (e.g., exile/tourism) or charged metaphor (e.g., nomad) is examined in order to highlight the possibilities and limitations of these terms as they appear in Euro-American theory. "Without rejecting or dismissing the powerful testimony of personal and individual experiences of displacement", she asks, "how is it possible to avoid ahistorical universalization and the mystification of social relations that Euro-American discourses of displacements often deploy?" (p. 2-3). In other words, it is necessary to investigate which material forces allow a social and collective phenomenon such as the modern experience of mass-movement, voluntary or forced, to be so often represented as an individualized experience. But Kaplan, as she herself acknowledges, is more concerned with the movement of ideas and practices rather than with movements of bodies through specific places. The lack of empirical references, I suspect, many times leads her to be imprisoned by the same rhetorical conventions she proposes to criticize.