In response to Hank Adams review on Esther Ross, Stillaguamish Champion. Regarding the weakness ascribed to the book by Hank when Ruby is delving into comments made by Mad Bear about Dick Gregory. In footnote 6 of Chapter 7, a reference is made to the citation for Ruby's claim of Mad Bear's judgement of Gregory. The source cited is Arlington Times December 15, 1966: "Of the Nisquallies, the Tuscarora remarked that they had made a bad mistake by importing Dick Gregory, Negro comedian, to draw attention to their cause. (Gregory was arrested and brought to trial last month on a charge of illegal fishing.) The Indian and Negro problems are not the same. There is no parallel, Indians owned and occupied the land, while the Negro people were brought in as slaves of the white man. Therefore, he said, the Medicine Creek Treaty was not allowed at Gregory's trial." The authors properly cited their source of information before making the statement.

Esther Ross, Stillaguamish Champion, reads like a novel. It is the thirteenth book by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, co-authors of several popular Pacific Northwest Indian ethnohistories. American Indian activist LaDonna Harris describes it as "A story about an American Indian woman who takes incredible risks." Esther's daring schemes for tribal identification were played out over fifty years (1926-1976).
Legislators who met up with Ross still mention the fiery-eyed Indian woman chief obsessed with the goal of federal recognition of the Stillaguamish people. The tribe was a signatory of the 1855 Point Elliott Treaty, yet without federal recognition the Stillaguamish could not carry into effect the treaty promises-rights to certain lands, use of certain waterways. Eventually the policy makers with whom Esther kept company by way of her frequent trips to the Capitol declared her a nuisance. Her long-winded speeches, highly repetitive, and her disregard for protocol irritated the officials; she would talk far beyond her allotted time, and she wouldn't go home.
Ruby and Brown invested almost a decade piecing together Esther's story after her son Frank offered them the five footlockers of primary documents and secondary source materials which Esther had kept. While the materials provided a close look at twentieth-century Indian politics and federal policy, the compelling subject was Esther Ross, a woman ordinary and extraordinary, complex and creative, tricky and tenacious as a bulldog.
Ruby points out that Ross "was a double minority, one-fourth Indian and a feminist before that word was coined." Hard to believe that this same Esther never knew she was Indian until near the end of her high school years. Her father was Norwegian, and Esther lived her girlhood in white Northern California society. Her mother, not noticeably Indian, did not enlighten her daughter regarding Stillaguamish blood quantum. Esther's father died when she was ten. When Esther was twenty-two, in response to a call from Indian relatives in distress, Esther and her mother moved to Washington State where Esther, ignorant of tribal history, decided to "uncover her identity."
To strengthen her quest Esther searched the vicinity of the Stillaguamish River for a legitimate source of land to qualify as a land base for her people. She sought ancestral burial grounds from the whites who owned and plowed them. Instead she was offered some bones from an exposed site. Applying her flair for the dramatic, Esther would spill these human bone fragments across the desk of governor Dan Evans in Olympia and later, display them in the national Capitol.
In pre-war days Esther's foot-going treks to visit Stillaguamish families increased the tribal membership to more than sixty, but post-war visits revealed a group more interested in award moneys than in Esther's larger goals.
During 1964 Esther's path crossed that of Herbert Holdridge, a retired brigadier general who advocated buying up Nevada desert land and turning it into a sovereign nation for American Indians. However, she had far greater interest in fishing rights for the Stillaguamish, a matter of sustenance and revenue. Joining the Poor People's Campaign (1968), Esther and her son Frank were bused to DC where Esther made her presence felt.
The Boldt Case would make the difference. The federal government was contesting the state of Washington's control of Indian fishing rights. The government attorney advised that Indians were entitled to fifty percent of the fish harvest; the state had ruled five percent. Judge George Boldt would try the case in Tacoma's U.S. District Court. And Esther Ross would have her "fifteen minutes." Fortunately for Esther-and the courtroom-David Getches represented Esther as special counsel. When she took the stand, he guided her through a review of Stillaguamish River history. Judge Boldt's ruling favored the tribes. The grumbling of non-Indian commercial fishers was heard for years, but the Stillaguamish had won the right to fish.
It would be difficult to add up the thousands and thousands of miles Esther Ross traveled during her fifty-year crusade for Stillaguamish recognition by the federal government. Or to say how many state capitols she visited, how many elected officials heard her speak-badgering, cajoling, but never threatening-on behalf of all unrecognized tribes who 120 years ago had chosen to stay on their homelands rather than accept the reserves chosen by white men. Their great-grandfathers had signed a treaty that would preserve fishing rights, but those rights had been denied the landless Indians. Esther became, eventually, champion for the whole, her mission self-sustained despite her meager income. Esther's complete and absolute dedication was not doubted. Perhaps this accounted for her supporters even among those persons who deplored her outrageous schemes.
Among such schemes was one that would temporarily disrupt the national Bicentennial pageant. The escapade began June, 1975 in Blaine, Washington, near the Canadian border, where three horse-drawn wagons and Western-clad riders headed for the 200th National Birthday Celebration, a 3000-mile trek to Valley Forge. It was son Frank's idea to set up an attack, to waylay the wagon train until the Secretary of the Interior unconditionally recognized the Stillaguamish tribe. Frank called television and radio stations, and Paul Harvey on his daily national newscast announced the impending attack. Indian activism of the 1970s was recalled-siege at Wounded Knee, takeover at Alcatraz, trouble at Fort Lawton. The "attack" might prove to be more than symbolic.
At Stillaguamish headquarters (Island Crossing), Frank stopped the wagons. And Esther, age 71, a wrinkled little woman wearing Indian clothing, stood in the middle of the road and read her speech. An assistant to the interior secretary assured Esther that the document granting tribal recognition would be ready in thirty days. Eight months then passed without word from the government, and a new secretary of the interior, Thomas Kleppe, was appointed.
Two years after the Boldt decision Esther "recruited" a steelhead trout from the Stillaguamish river to play a part in a scheme that stunk to high heaven. Needing to familiarize Kleppe with her drive for tribal recognition, she air-freighted him a frozen 18-pound trout labeled "Washington Salmon." The flying fish had begun to age en route; on arrival, dockers, holding their noses, wanted someone from Interior to take it off their hands immediately. Kleppe's response to Esther was to thank her and mention his preference for beef, saying he had given the beautiful fish to his neighbors.
Esther had problems within her tribe. They referred to her style of leadership as nepotism and resented her hiring whites as assistants. They challenged her right to increase, then decrease, the blood quantum for tribal enrollment to suit her personal intent. They openly wondered how much of tribal funds she was spending on herself. The Stillaguamish wanted Esther stripped of privileges and functions. It was more than two years since the promise made at the wagon train; push needed to become shove. Esther Ross sued the Department of Interior. Judge June L. Green heard the case. On October 27, 1976 Esther Ross' goal was achieved: the Stillaguamish had a recognized place in time.
During January, 1988 Esther began to sicken. Ever-protective son Frank cared for his mother until her death August 1, 1988, a month short of her 84th birthday.

My name is Sandra M. Allen, Chief Esther R. Ross Was my Mom and grandmother.

My brother David has received a history book for his birthday about yrs after grandma passed away in 1990 and we had noticed that the full information wasn't in it about Stillaguamish and this is when we decided to have Esther's(grandmas)story written.

I spent from birth till I was 16years old on the road with grandma and I had an education that I thought should be shared and here it is. To me Grandma was a role model and someone I wanted to live my life by and follow. In the book tells everything both good and bad in some eyes, but everyone has a opion. When my dad (Frank)and myself talked about it too me I wanted a book out because I wanted to have people read and see what she did and was able to do. To me she did more then she was ever given credit for. David and myself gave our education while growing up but in this book everyone can see why we are proud to have had the experience. I have finished high school and college this year will be going on to law school to finish grandmas work... I will be going for Land and Water rights and am very proud to have had her as a Mom and as a role model. My Father Chief Frank Allen passed away one week before seeing the cover of the book on May 14.2001 it was given to us at the gave site, this is to us a wonderful book and has everything in it that we wanted and to my brother David and myself we hope schools will use it and hope that it encourages people to not give up and that one person can make a difference. This women you all are reading about was a legend, role modle,history maker,mother,and friend. She had people who couldn't stand to be around her and she had people who couldn't wait to see her she was a honor to be around and I am proud to say this book is a 5 star. This wasn't to be about facts or to please everyone this book is from us to you the readers its not just one more book Ruby and Brown have written, this is a part of our lives and a way to keep it all together for our children and grandchildren and so on this is opening up our lives to you to share with you what kind of women she was, she was a loving, caring and I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for her and my dad Frank Allen, I would have been like my other siblings out drinking and no education or just given up but my goal in life is to be like her and do as she would have me do. So please take the time and read about my mother/grandmother, and see why we wanted to share her life with you and I hope she can be a role model for you also or your children. I was with Esther till she was taken from us and went on to school and when I graduated I dedicated my diploma to my grandma and dad cause without them I wouldn't have had the wisdom or strength to try and be the most I could be....

So please share this with others and I hope the memories of our life with our mom/grandmother and father will live on. Dad and Grandma always were together and now they are together in peace.
I miss dad and grandma so Dearly but with this it makes it as they are here with us still and I can still her my grandmas voice when I read the book so many memories. Some people have a scrap book we have a history richer to us then gold that is what dad and grandma left me the richest person on earth a life time of fighting and tears and sweat to give me and my children and theirs an IDENTITY and its one we hold close to our hearts.

As I said before, this book is very misunderstood. People likes to use it to support their own ideas about "brainwashing" and "mind control", and sometimes they forget and old-age word that describes well the same thing without any "mind control theory": fanaticism. But there is no fanaticism without fanatics who want to believe, just believe and nothing more. People who need a simplistic vision of the world, some attention and love and will do anything for that. They just want to be guided, no matter whether by Hitler or Jesus.

There are people who join the cults and leave spontaneously a few years later. It's a fact. It's just a step in their spiritual journey. But there are also some of them who prefer to say that the years spent in the cult were the result of very effective "brainwashing"/"mind control" techniques, which turned them into some kind of religious zombie. They say they were not responsible for what they did, for what they believed, and that all the guilt should go to the cult leader. But, if this were true, how could all the others leave the cult without deep traumas, deprogramming etc.? If the author, Robert Jay Lifton himself, did recognize that physical coercion was a key-point to his totalist model and that no one of his samples did not really adhere to the Communists ideas (i.e., the Chinese program was a failure), what else is to be said? And even if Lifton had discovered that brainwashing exists (and he did not), why 99% of the other scientists who investigated the issue have not detected it in the cult dynamics? What "mind control science" is this that is essentially based on just one book with an inconclusive research and some few late sensationalists "researchers" (e.g. Singer, Hassan) whose methods and theories are not recognized by the scientific community? Is this science or a modern myth with a pseudo-scientific support?

If you like Psychology and is interested in the cult issue, read this book. It's an important work. But read it entirely, whithout pre-judgements, and compare with other scientific works about "mind control". It is worth the effort.

Lifton provides content and commentary regarding attempts by the People's Republic of China to 're-educate' Westerners and citizens according to Communist ideology. Actual contents of his one-on-one interviews are particularly useful, as are Lifton's evaluations of the effects and causes of 're-education'.

Lifton's principal shortcoming is the overarching psychotherapeutic interpretations, which sometimes stretch the imagination.

Lifton's book is often misunderstood and misrepresented as a polemic against 'brainwashing' and religious 'cultism'. 'Brainwashing' usually means the hypnotic manipulation of one's thoughts forcing someone to change their beliefs counter to their awareness or conscious will; Lifton denies emphatically that this happened in China or that it can happen. It appears that many who cite his work (and some of the reviewers here) have never read the book, other than through excerpts and summaries.

Lifton himself admits that 'brainwashing' is a misnomer; he denies that 're-education' was effective or that it converted people against their will. Furthermore, he argues that the principal difference between Chinese methods of thought-reform and normal, usual persuasion is the Chinese use of physical violence and imprisonment.

Lifton never intended for his book to be used by the anti-cult industry to attack religious non-orthodoxy and constitutionally guaranteed religious expression.

This book has created a lot of controversies envolving new religious movements. Although it describes a research made with POWs e somes Chinese intellectuals, it has been frequently used attacks against some new religious movements.

The concept "brainwashing" first came into public use during the Korean War in the 1950s as an explanation for why a few American GIs defected to the Communists. The two most authoritative studies of the Korean War defections (and this book was one of them) concluded that "brainwashing" was an inappropriate concept to account for this renunciation of U.S. citizenship. When several new religious came into high profile during the youth counter-culture of the 1960s and 70s the concept "brainwashing" was again employed as a culturally acceptable explanation to account for the fact that some idealistic "flower children" came under the influence of "cult" leaders. A quarter-of-a-century of scholarly research on why people join new religions has come to essentially the same conclusion as the Korean War studies -- "brainwashing" is not a viable concept to describe the dynamics of affiliation with new religions. Defenders of "brainwashing" have used other concepts like "mind control" and "thought reform," but they have failed to produce a scholarly literature to support their claims. Thus, whatever euphemisms may be employed, the basic conclusion against the brainwashing thesis is not altered. Still, the mass media continues to report claims of "brainwashing" as if the alleged phenomenon were real. And, as a result, the concept "brainwashing" sustains considerable currency in popular culture. It is, to be sure, a powerful metaphor. "Brainwashing" communicates disapproval of influence by persons, or groups, the user of the term considers to be illegitimate. If you want to understand the origins of the concept, read Lifton's work. Just take care to not get caught by the "cult mind control" rhetoric.

I bought this book because I am a forensic pathologist and wished to learn what another professional chose to write and how he wrote it. I could not have been more disappointed! While an average reader such as the one who wrote the review I read might not notice the inconsistencies, they ruined the book for me. I would have been quite willing to accept one or two, but when the number became much, much higher, I found myself wishing that Dr. Dix had chosen not to write a book at all. I have no knowledge of him, even though we are a relatively small group, perhaps 4-500, and over time we do get to know one another. He may be one of the best forensic pathologists in the country, but that did not come across in the book, in my opinion. I have chosen to use the word "inconsistencies" as it is kinder than "mistakes" but, actually, and sadly, both are present. I would never recommend this book to anyone who wanted to learn details of our profession.

This book is such a neat, fast read! I picked it up and didn't let go until the last page. The investigations are really interesting and it's a truly unique book. I love crime solving stories, especially when they're true, so if you're like me you'll LOVE it!

This book is incredible. Very explicit and clear descriptions, full of details about the crimes. Well written too.

I believe the sub-title for this book is quite fitting. R.M. Hazen and M. Singer aptly describe the major questions facing the physical sciences. This is not, however, a book for initiates of academia. It is written in a very simplistic manner, with a touch of humor intersperced within. I would describe it as a light read on a manner of subjects.

If any of the articles arose your curiosity, ample suggestions for further reading are included in the back of the book. All-in-all, it was an enjoyable book suitable for a sunny afternoon read.

This is a wonderful book to read for anyone who enjoys science but doesn't have a science degree. This book explains questions many have pondered and it does it's best to give scientific explinations without making the reader feel as if he/she is inferrior to knowledge because they don't have a degree attached to their name. This book explains it in ways for everyone to understand, that I appreaciate.

Some have suggested that we will see the end of science when physicists eventually develop a grand unified theory. Robert M. Hazen and Maxine Singer disagree, and show that science is likely to be an ever-expanding sphere of inquiry and study far into the future. The book is clear, concise, and easy to read, with a thought-provoking introduction by Stephen Jay Gould. This is a great little book for airline flights, evenings before bedtime, or a sunny afternoon on the back deck.

The book is non-technical, without a single equation (though some of us may find this a disadvantage). Subjects include cosmology, dark matter, the fate of the universe, energy, chemistry, symmetry, geology, biology, the origin of life, aging, evolution, genetics, human development, and the search for extraterrestrials. Each section in the book provides a summary discussion of the current state of knowledge. However, it frequently only hints at the big questions in science (though most ca! ! reful readers will be able to surmise them). In this, the book's content is somewhat different from the description given on the cover. Interestingly, the book never discusses why black holes are not black.

Generally I found the book technically correct, though often abbreviated (something that would be hard to avoid, given the book's broad scope). Sometimes the abbreviated style leads to explanations that are potentially misleading. For example, the discussion of the second law of thermodynamics (see page 95) is only four paragraphs. In this short space the authors give several examples of the second law at work, concluding with the statement:

"The second law defines the direction of events in time. Water flows downhill. Rooms get dusty. Supplies of fossil fuels diminish. We grow older."

Given a correct understanding of other circumstances, the first two examples describe the second law. However, in each case we can find counter examples if we ignore the unmen! ! tioned conditions under which the second law applies. Wate! r will run uphill if pushed with an electric pump. Rooms can get less dusty if we clean them. Supplies of fossil fuels may renew over millions of years (and lots of energy from the sun). The problem with the presentation of these examples is that the book does not adequately describe the significance of spontaneous processes and the requirement for closed systems for which the second law applies. The second law of thermodynamics does not preclude open systems becoming more ordered, only that the overall disorder of any closed system must increase with time.

The example of growing older is particularly susceptible to misleading conclusions. Aging is a poorly understood process that probably has a significant genetic component. At any rate, our bodies are not closed systems. We continually assimilate energy to drive our metabolic processes in order to stay alive. Consequently, using the aging process as an example of the second law of thermodynamics is especially inappr! ! opriate in such a condensed discussion. In a later chapter, the authors actually go into great detail describing the genetic component of aging, describing the cause(s) for aging as one of the big questions in science (see pages 230 -- 235).

Except for a few similar examples, however, the book does a good job of explaining the essential aspects of scientific principles and problems at a level with which most educated Americans will feel at ease.

In addition to having no equations, the book also has no figures. A few strategically placed figures would do wonders for this book, especially in the sections describing aspects of human anatomy (the brain in particular). Even a few line drawings would help polish off the descriptions that (in the absence of drawings) are sometimes hard to follow. Also, the book does not have an index (a big disappointment to me) so when you read it, use plenty of page markers and a bright yellow pen. That's the only way you will be able to! ! go back later and look up any interesting material for fut! ure reference.

Overall, however, this was a great book and well worth the reasonable price. I am glad I bought it and took the time to read it.

Duwayne Anderson

"Almanac of World Crime" chronicles the exploits of the underworld: murder, robbery, arson, torture, rape, kidnapping, extortion, and blackmail, to name just a few. It takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the world of crime.

Plenty of photographs and illustrations are used to bring this book to life, with each chapter dealing with a particular type of crime (ie murder, robbery, arson, etc). The author has collected cases from all time periods and countries, so this truely is an almanac in every sense of the word.

Ok this peach isn't as good as Terrorism in the twentieth century because it's a little more scatered.

But then again so is it's subject. Overall a very good book that seams compiled from years of side notes on the topic

This book follows various major news stories from a presidential summit in Malta to the San Francisco earthquake and how the different networks; ABC, CBS, and NBC reported them. It also spends a day with Rather, Jennings, and Brokaw as they gather the news. It provides detailed biographies and looks back at the personalities. There are several pages of photos, including the anchors in their youth. A 5-star review would have been earned had this been more recent. The news stories and techniques seem to be a little behind to our standards. Other wise, a great and informative book.

This was the most introspective book I have read. If you think that you know alot about scandals you do not. This is one big conspiracy theory supported by compelling evidence. You ask yourself is this story true. Hoover was one of the most corrupt figures in American history. The deeds that transpired in his years of running the FBI are incomprehensible. It needs to be information to the general public. A must read.

This book is a must read for family therapists. Most therapists marginalize the experience of homosexuals in their practice. This book gives them the opportunity to learn how to treat these clients equitably

This book is an excellent reference source for all practitioners of obstetrics and a must-have for those with an interest in high-risk pregnancies. Comprehensive and well-written.