Often scholarly volumes have excellent content but are poorly produced and edited while musem volumes are often well produced and edited but lack serious and contemporary scholarly material--they become catalogues of artifacts without real contextualizing material.

Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People manages to overcome both of these problems. As a scholarly volume it has excellent content (much of which has not been previously available to non-Japanese speakers) and is well-produced and beautifully laid out.

Aside from some small quibbles I have with some other articles seeming truncated for space concerns and others for not presenting enough information (notably the articles dealing with Ainu language/linguistics), I find little to find fault with. Even my concerns about some aspects of the volume are only a request for more, not a complaint with what is in the volume.

Overall this volume does a wonderful job of making contemporary Ainu research accessible to the lay reader while also presenting enough scholarly material to make it worth-while reading for those with a deeper interest in the Ainu. Even though the volume does not deal directly with the area of my research, the amount of knowledge it conveys has foced me to rethink aspects of my own work.

Despite the fact that I have lived in Japan for more than fifteen years, my visit to the Smithsonian's fabulous "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People" exhibit last year provided my first meaningful look at this long overlooked or misunderstood part of East Asian cultural heritage. I ordered a softcover copy of the (at the time yet to be released) book right away and have since poured through it time and again. Written largely by anthropologists, as a layman I feared that it might well be too scientific to appreciate; happily such is not the case. The book is beautifully written, edited, and illustrated. Anyone with an interest in Japan's northern culture and/or the animist nature of the nation as a whole will find this book profoundly enlightening. I regret that a hardcover edition was not available sooner.

This is another rare catalog which captures the best artifacts from the museum exhibit. Lots of excellent photographs of the appliqued and embroidered fish skin coats of the Sibero-Alaskan peoples, fishing gear, shaman tools and every day household items. Chapters are arranged by tribe, and give excellent insight into both their physical and spiritual practices. Great maps showing the migratory routes of the various tribes. An invaluable resource for the study of these cultures.

This book contains the report written by John Murdoch on the ethnological studies of a US Army Signal Corps expedition to Point Barrow (actually about 7 or 8 miles south of the point itself) undertaken as part of the US effort in the International Polar Year. Although the primary thrust of the IPY was geophysical, the Point Barrow expedition collected a good amount of ethnological data, and large amounts of carefully documented material culture. Murdoch produced a very thorough well-illustrated report after returning from the field. Even skimming it should bring tremendous respect for the complex and ingeneous, yet sustainable, technology which enabled the Inupiat to not only survive, but thrive, in what is generally considered one of the harshest environments on Earth.

This volume contains that report along with a number of other documents produced by various members of the expedition, which prove to be very interesting supplements to Murdoch's report. The reproduction is excellent. Although it is in slighly smaller format than the original, the drawings and illustrations are still clear.

The primary audience will probably be those who are interested in pre- and post-contact Inupiat material culture, especially that of North Alaska, but others will find things of interest in it as well. Certainly, for anyone who needs to identify artifacts, whether archaeological or ethnographic, from this general region, this is the best resource there is besides an Elder. In fact, Murdoch has illustrations of things that some Elders of today have never seen in use.

This book is a true classic. The Smithsonian should be thanked for reissuing it, as the original was hard to find, expensive, and a bit heavy and delicate for field or lab use. This paperback version is both inexpensive enough and portable enough for such use. I actually have two copies (lab & office) so that the original can stay unmolested on the shelf.

This is an excellent biography, carefully researched and documented, of a man of great character. This interesting book thoroughly explores the life of the favorite son of the South's most famous general, admired by all-- both North and South. Must reading by those interested in Southern History and American Cavalry.

This is an excellent book for descendants of William Fitzhugh (1651-1701) who was the first of the family to come to America in about 1671. The editor, Richard Beale Davis, includes early Fitzhugh genealogy in the forward. The letters to and from William Fitzhugh give an excellent picture of life in Colonial Virginia.

This series of essays by Norse scholars is better than any novel I've read in years. So many mysteries, beautifully articulated! Why did a Bishop drop his gold ring in the choir loft? Why did witnesses come forward twenty years later to swear a wedding took place in Greenland just before its population completely disappeared? Why did the Vikings skedaddle out of Vinland? Why did they disappear with their furniture from Greenland but leave their livestock behind? Why did the majority of women die young and the majority of men live into their fifties?

Don't start reading this wonderful book if you're supposed to be doing something else; you won't be able to put this down.

What I like best of all, even better than the outstanding illustrations, is the tone of the writing. You are drawn into another historical era and invited to live there.--Linda Donelson, author of "Out of Isak Dinesen: Karen Blixen's untold story"

If you know only a little about Vikings, and want to know a lot more, this is the book to get. Lavishly illustrated, although, as another reader pointed out, a little big for bedtime reading or the train. I really liked the way the book recalls the entire Norse history -- from the 700s right up to the Minnesota Vikings. By the way, I got to sail for a couple days on the very ship depicted on the cover.

"Viking: The North America Saga" brings a breath of fresh information to lovers of Norse history, and is presented in a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated format which earn Fitzhugh and Ward praise in the literary community. The saga begins at the beginning, embracing the intimate originality of the Viking myth from its origins in the Scandinavian countries to the wonderfully adventurous, yet poignant infiltration into the New World. As the 1,000th celebration of Leif Ericson spreads throughout the globe, this book is a must have for anyone with an interest in truth about Norse groups who went "a-viking," touched today's and tomorrow's beliefs with their culture, and in fact, first met with the American Natives. It is clear, as found in the pages of this meticulously researched and documented book, that recent archeological finds support a few ancient theories but dispel others. The book is enhanced with colorful maps, numerous photos of artifacts and narrates the generational tale of the family who, even in their struggles, introduced the globe and the ages to a new continent. Delightful accounts of Norse mythology, day-to-day living, and culture help bring the heralders many of the world's ethnic groups across the ages to the here and now, a literary gem which applauds the anniversary of their amazing accomplishments.