I'm compiling an oral history of hip hop and this book wasn't really useful in helping me anticipate and solve problems I'm likely to come across in my project.

The author is a folklorist/archivist who specializes in New England folklore and crafts. His suggestions are geared toward people who will be interviewing "the common man" and older people, so suggestions like "put an ad in the local paper asking for interviewees" and "your subject may be hesitant to talk and/or think his experience doesn't have value" are totally not helpful in regard to my project.

Also, the guide is really geared towards archivists who will naturally consider their cassettes of interviews the most important source as opposed to the transcript, so little attention is given to the concerns of those editing oral history book projects. Little info is given regarding editing interviews down, narrative structure, how lengthy quotes should be and other concerns the first-time editor will undoubtedly have.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good book. It is well-written, the illustrating examples are interesting and the appendix containing release forms is very helpful. It's just better for field researchers than project editors.

This book is a very good instruction manual on the tape recorded interview. He talks about both the technical and nontechnical aspects of the interview. It is an excellent primer for the starting interviewer. I recommend it highly.

Totally disappointed. there is not a single illustration.

Having lived a great part of my life in South Central Texas, I was very happy to stumble upon Birds & Other Wildlife of South Central Texas by Edward A Kutac.
Kutac used extensive research and has drawn from many sources.
Although it might not be everyone's idea of excitement, it is inclusive and goes the extra mile.

I enjoyed this book, but must admit it comes behind Archer Jones, Bruce Catton, Peter Cozzens, Paddy Griffith and the other great historians who have tackled military aspects of the Civil War. It is rather dry, but one can see how the US army became one of the best equipped armies in history with an enormous logistical 'tail' compared to (say) the Russian, Chinese or British armies. What Hagerman showed for me the falsity of the claim that the Civil War was the first 'modern' war - e.g. while railways were important, away from the railhead, the armies depended on horses and oxen, much as Napoleon did. McClellan does emerge as somewhat of an innovator in his proposal for 'flying columns' living off light rations. Oddly enough, Grant put this experiment to an end when he became commanding General - perhaps he felt that with such hard fighting ahead, it might be unwise to cut the amount and variety of rations. Similarly, while there were innovations in staff organisations (Jackson, for example, make very effective use of his staff), there was no revolution such as was then taking place in the Prussian army. I suppose the Civil War was on the 'cusp' of a military revolution - neither exactly the last of the old wars, not the first of the new. An engaging book, but one for the specialist, I'm afraid.

Great for nature educators in California. Short, consise and nice graphics.

Beginners would probably find this book frustrating, as it has no pictures and relies on familiarity with botanical terms. However, If you are willing to learn the terms and parts of plant anatomy, this guide is fairly easy to use, particularly for genus level identification. The one frustrating part of this book is that the index only refers to scientific names. So going back and forth between scientific and common can be a bit of a hassle.

While an excellent source of Photo's of Vietnam era NVA and VC militaria, I personally found this book to be very lacking in details. Especially on weapons used by these forces. I also think that the price guide was a mistake and should not have been included in this book.This should have been done in a more detailed follow up volume. Along with Darrel Lulling, Mr Emering is most definitley a pioneer in the subject of NVA and VC militaria and should be given an "A+" for his efforts. The book is worth the money, just for the pictures that it provide's.

I love Peterson's Guides, but the birds of Mexico is severely lacking. The art certainly holds up to the standard set by the guides to North America, but unfortunately, it can only be considered complete if you tag along two other Peterson Guides. Perhaps a good addition if you wish to complete your collection of Peterson Guides, but otherwise, buy Howell's or Edward's Guides, both of which far outshine this guide when considered alone. Howell's is certainly the most complete, but Edward's guide is a bit handier in the field.

I ordered this book, used, even though there was an unfavorable review. I have a number of Peterson books and like them all. The Mexican book is the exception. The one I received was from a very old edition, had incomplete illustrations of many birds, making identification difficult to impossible, and did not picture many birds found in other Peterson guide books. It is the worst. The reseller did ship the book promptly but I did not pay attention to the edition date and was unaware that there was a later edition of the book.

Other reviewers have already indicated the limitations of this book: pictures of many species and Spanish names are missing. I would add that the bibliography is lacking up-to-date references to the most usefull other guides about Mexican birds:

- A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, by Steve N.G. Howell and Sophie Webb;

- A field guide to the birds of Mexico and Adjacent Areas, by Ernest Preston Edwards. (revised edition, 1998)

Both these books also have their limitations but they are essential complements to Peterson's guide and Howell and Webb's guide is much more comprehensive.

For Spanish-speaking people I would strongly recommend to buy the Spanish version of Peterson's guide:

- Aves de Mexico. Guía de Campo. (Editorial Diana, Mexico).

This Spanish version includes explanations and pictures of all Mexican birds and it even has the English names (no index of English names, however). Amazon is not stocking this title but perhaps they will, if you insist.

i'll get that d*** ghost!!!!!!ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

this was stupid . a ghost kicks clinto

"Poor Edward Field." Well, at least to hear HIM tell it. "I'm gay, a Jew, and a lefty...I feel oppressed on several counts." Plus he's depressed--been so, clinically, lifelong except for a short sunny interlude years ago. And now, he's older, too.

And all this shows in his work, his poems? But short of spoiling them? The book offers 40 poems. Subjects include father, politics, Paris, movies, the male member and its long-standing friends, and etc. Their tone often seems only half-affirmative, often more-than-half-resigned. (But he is direct and honest, even if dogged and dour!) And their language seems (to me) non-poetic, flat, prosy--as if prose paragraphs were chopped up to emjamb into poetry-stanzas, and the images de-tuned too. (But they do sing his own voice!)

So maybe one reader will feel that "Edward feels overmuch sorry for himself and it all," while another may feel that Field explores his semi-sorry situation thoughtfully, candidly, complexly, wherever it leads.

Then the last 147 of the book's 228 pages are "The Poetry File," prose-diary jottings. A secondary thread herein is gay-artist gossip entitled "Tales of the Closet." This serves up the dish on such as Ashberry, Auden, R. Brooke, P. Goodman, Isherwood, Kallman, Merrill, Norse, Frank O'Hara, S.Spender, M. Swenson....But the primary thread is poetry itself. Field quarrels confusingly with the Poetry Establishment which he seems simultaneously to reject and envy equally. About his own work, he's laconically-downbeat. "The curse of poetry is that it must be poetry. When I give a poetry reading, I hope they don't notice it's poetry....I have to say again that my poems often embarrass me...." The E-z Cynic and Points-Scoring Critic can easily retort to this: That's because your stuff is indeed scarcely poetic!" But others might say: well, the minor-key tone of his own voice does emerge.

I myself describe "poetry" as "triple intensity." More feeling than usual, first in the poet, then into the language, then in the reader at last. On this score, Field does make it to poetry--just, and modestly.

(Still, don't overlook his feats "Nancy" and "The Moving Man." Although neither is in this volume, both are deliciously transgressive romps. And remember that Field capably edited the overlooked 1975 classic anthology, A Geography Of Poets. Therein he included plain-talky diction...racy pop images...and curlique imagery also. All poetically intense.)

I thought this book was overpriced. I did not learn anything new. The book seems to be best suited for someone entering academia in the hard sciences, who has not attended conferences or participated in academia at all in the past.