John Dyer has written the fundamental biography of Joseph Wheeler. The work is a colorful, enjoyable read, which should be enjoyed by most -- it is most definitely NOT a dry, cardboard biography. All readers would enjoy the style in which Dyer writes.

Joseph Wheeler was a great American, perhaps overlooked somewhat in modern times due to his rather modest approach to life and duty. This approach seems to basically have been, 'put your head down, drive on, and perform one's Duty to the best of one's abilities, regardless of obstacles or consequences.' Wheeler upheld these principles throughout his life, having served in an astonishing number of military and political positions. He served as a Confederate Major General of Cavalry for much of the Civil War in the West. He became a planter, lawyer, and Congressman from North Alabama for much of the remainder of the 19th Century. Furthermore, he sought and gained a commission in the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. Indeed, he would command the 5th Corps, 1st Cavalry Division during combat operations in Cuba. Famous figures that served under his command there included, Colonel Leonard Wood, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt of Rough Rider fame, as well as the 9th and 10th US Regular Cavalry Regiments (The Buffalo Soldiers), also including Jack Pershing, later to command the AEF during WWI. After his death, Wheeler was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and was one of only two former Confederate generals to have been granted that honor.

This book is highly recommended. Read it, and learn some more about a person that was truly representative of the great American Spirit, and whose life reflected an admirable and staunch observance of (and devotion to) Duty, Honor, and Country.

Dyer's book is one of the best I've seen regarding Joseph Wheeler.

Born in GA, raised in CT, obtaining his West Point commission from a NY senator, Wheeler was a product of both North and South. Robert E. Lee proclaimed that Wheeler was one of the two best cavalry commanders in the War Between the States (the other was J.E.B. Stuart) -- he was also one of the youngest, reaching the rank of Maj. Gen. at 26 years of age. While many of the old confederate commanders wasted away following the war, Wheeler became a prominent Congressman from Alabama, espousing reconciliation and industrialization within his section of North Alabama, this in order to overcome the ravages wrought by the war.

Wheeler had the distinction of being one of only two former Confederate general officers that LATER served at that rank for the US Army, this time during the Spanish-American War [Fitzhugh Lee (Robert E. Lee's nephew) was the other, although the war ended before Lee's troops could see action]. During the Cuban campaign, Wheeler had under his command such officers and men as Leonard Wood, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (and the Rough Riders), "Black Jack" Pershing, and others that would gain prominence in later years.

Wheeler is one of the few (if not the only) high ranking former Confederate officers to have been granted the honor of being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

His story deserves a unique place in the history of this nation.

This book is details the life of one extra ordinary man, General "Fightin" Joe Wheeler.It details his life as few bigraphies do. It details the the trumiphs and the failures. But in all of this you will see the chracter of the man ride high.He had the distinction of being both a Confederate General and also leading the US Voulunteers in Cuba and the Philippines. I would STRONGLY suggest buying this book for any history buff. He may not be as well known as Grant, Sherman, Lee or Longstreet, But his contribution to the History United States deserves to be known!

After picking this book up at a Sam's club out of curiosity I found that I couldn't put it down and ended up putting it in the cart. My companion is a begining Astronomy buff and he couldn't get enough eighther. We were reading it to each other and trying to read it at the same time. We have learned alot from this book and have put it to good use with his new telescope. I highly remommed this book to the person who has always wanted to get started in astronomy!

This beautifully produced book is a superb addition to the library of any backyard astronomer or anyone from eight to eighty. It's a best buy for several reasons.
The first is its outstanding quality. The second is the BEWARE!.
This book is actually a softcover, otherwise identical reprint of "Advanced Skywatching", ISBN: 0783549415, published in 1997, also by Time-Life.
Perhaps Time-Life used this subterfuge to catch unwary on-line shoppers that already own "Advanced Skywatching" (as I do), since you can't view the contents on-line to discover you already own the same book under a different name.

The complaint on the star charts about this book (or its twin) not covering the entire sky is not critical.
There isn't room on anyone's bookshelf for all the possible fun sky-hops, of which this book and its twin present abundant excellent examples. There are more and different, also challenging and instructive ones in another fine volume, "Turn Left at Orion", and many others.

Not to worry if you get sucked in. This one makes a fine gift for your favorite grandchild as mine will.
Add this to your "must have" list if you don't already own its twin. If you do, buy it anyhow and give it to someone special.
The price is astonishingly low for the fine content.

David Dodd has assembled a wide variety of stories to inspire and encourage addicted people to get clean. I was impressed that Twelve Step groups were NOT the focus of every tale, and that the one constant was that each individual made a PERSONAL CHOICE to forego their addiction and live sober. For all the help some people get from 12-Step groups, there are many who don't "relate" to the religiousity. But this book shows that recovery is still possible and worthwhile. The fact that most of these tales are told by celebrities and artists we KNOW only increases their value. Plus, it's nice to know that my gut feeling about Steven Tyler is "on the money" - he truly IS a mensch!!

I was attracted to the many well-known names listed on the cover, but once I began reading the book, I was overwhelmed with its passion and solutions. David Dodd has done a remarkable job which is reflected in this collection of interviews. My favorite part, however, is the introduction to the book, where the author tells his personal story on how he became sober with the help of Steven Tyler. His vivid description of the events were astonishing to me, they were absolutely incredible. This is a wonderful book!

Since the early 1950's, John Berger has authored an almost dizzying number of works on art history, art criticism, fiction and politics, as well as a large body of writing that seems to defy categorization altogether. And that is why one can't help but feel a kind of admiration for Geoff Dyer's courage to take on, for his first full-length book, a difficult critical subject and author in Ways of Telling: The Work of John Berger.

Although Dyer clearly sees Berger and his work as massively influential yet nearly always overlooked by his peers and contemporaries, it is obvious that Ways of Telling is a great deal more than a mere reaffirmation of, or a critical love letter to, an illustrious writer and his sometimes ground-breaking work. In Ways of Telling, Dyer looks carefully at the broad spectrum of Berger's career, from articles on politics and aesthetics during the early 1950's published in Socialist newspapers and magazines, to novels written in the mid-1980's. Perhaps because Dyer intended (one could plausibly surmise) Ways of Telling to be not only an academic critique but a work written for a slightly wider readership, we are invited to take a closer look at several of Berger's more universally known works. These include G, an historical novel influenced by Socialist Realism and according to Dyer, possibly inspired by the Cubist movement as well. We look at A Painter of Our Time, Berger's breakthrough novel about the struggle between the moral imperative of being true to one's creative gifts versus fidelity to one's political beliefs. Scrutiny is also given to the near-canonical Ways of Seeing, both the BBC television series and the widely-read 1972 book of the same name. Dyer is quick to acknowledge that although the polemical, class-based attack on consumer-driven capitalism and "the authority of property" by way of a beautifully written critique of Western Art is often crudely drawn in Ways of Seeing. One might miss the point entirely if one chooses to ignore the manner in which Berger's sharp sense of aesthetics and his critical eye opened the floodgates to what is now the standard method for looking at art for an ever-widening audience.

No doubt it is a tall order for any reader, or writer to separate John Berger's Democratic-Socialist and Humanist value systems from much of his work, Dyer reminds the reader that any attempt to do so is pointless and probably an unnecessary exercise. To quote Dyer " He is a great writer, but the quality of his work is important, finally, not for what it reveals of him but for what it enables us to glimpse of ourselves, of what we might become-and of the culture that might afford him the recognition that it is due."

I found Dyer's book on Hood to be very slanted and also boring. Dyer paints a rosy picture of Hood and pretty much states throughout the book that Hood did nothing wrong as a general. Another annoying thing about the book is that often times Dyer gets off Hood and begins to write about Lee, Longstreet, or someone else Hood served under. When writing about battles, Dyer often writes of the battle as a whole rather than what Hood's brigade or division was doing during the battle. This makes the book feel less of a bio of Hood and more of a book about battles that Hood was at. All in all, Dyer doesn't focus on Hood, the text is usually pretty boring, and he looks as if he set out to make Hood look like a genius. If you are interested in Hood I would recommend you skip this book and look into Richard McMurry's John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence.