This book is excellent. Both in its analysis of U.S. history and in its use of hard to find documents--such as controversial Supreme Court decisions (Amistad, Dred Scott, etc.) and international agreements--the book paints a picture not often available in mainstream texts. I highly recommend it for both personal use as well as use in high school and college classrooms.

Once again the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, should be congratulated by its initiative to reprint three major articles from its long-out of print Journal, by the hand of the eminent H.G. Fischer. This title follows the former re-edition of vols. 1-11 (1968-1978). TopTen.

A wonderful sampling of writings by 19th-century economist and social philosopher, Henry George.

The table of contents are as follows:

Chapter 1: An Introductory Essay on George's Philosophy

Chapter 2: Exhortative Works

Chapter 3: A Clarification of the Single Tax and Property

Chapter 4: On Government, Politics, and the World

Chapter 5: Georgism versus Socialism

Chapter 6: On Sundry Important Matters

Chapter 7: Views on Religion and Personal Correspondence

Some of my favorite quotes:

"We start out with these two principles, which I think are clear and self-evident: that which a man makes belongs to him, and can by him be given or sold to anyone that he pleases. But that which existed before man came upon the earth, that which was not produced by man, but which was created by God -- that belongs equally to all men" (p. 61).

"Do we not all want more wealth? Why, then, should we tax and fine the production of wealth?" (p. 54).

"Land is not wealth or capital, but is, on the contrary, that original factor of production from which labor produces wealth and capital" (p. 147).

'Consider the difference between the value of a building and the value of land. The value of a building, like the value of goods, or of anything properly styled wealth, is produced by individual exertion, and therefore properly belongs to the individual; but the value of land only arises with the growth and improvement of the community, and therefore properly belongs to the community. It is not because of what its owners have done, but because of the presence of the whole great population, that land in New York is worth millions an acre. This value therefore is the proper fund for defraying the common expenses of the whole population; and it must be taken for public use, under penalty of generating land speculation and monopoly which will bring about artificial scarcity where the Creator has provided in abundance for all whom His providence has called into existence. It is thus a violation of justice to tax labor, or the things produced by labor, and it is also a violation of justice not to tax land values" (p. 68).

"There is one tax by means of which all the revenues needed for our federal, state, county, and municipal governments could be raised without any of these disadvantages -- a tax that instead of repressing industry and promoting inequality in the distribution of wealth, would foster industry and promote natural equality -- a tax that is only a tax in form, and that in essence is not a tax, but a taking by the community of values arising not from individual effort, but from social growth, and therefore belonging to the whole community. That is a tax on land values. A tax not on land, be it remembered, but a tax upon land values, irrespective of improvements. That is the tax in favor of which we single tax men would abolish all other taxes" (pp. 123-4).

"The sure foundation of the right of ownership is in the right of each individual to himself, the right to use his own powers and to enjoy what he can obtain fairly by them" (p. 51).

"The proper business of banking is the receiving, the keeping and the loaning out of money, and the facilitation of exchanges by the extension, interchange, and cancellation of private credits. With the issuance of money the paper business of banking has nothing whatever to do. It is one of the proper functions of the general government to issue money. But with the proper business of banking the government has rightly nothing whatever to do" (p. 208).

"Marx's economics, as stated by Hyndman and all his other supporters I have read will not stand any critical examination" (p. 177).

"As for Karl Marx, he is the prince of muddleheads" (p. 78).

"What we want today to bring us all together is, not union under one government that shall assume to govern, but that absolute freedom of intercourse that shall entwine all interests, that absolute freedom of intercourse that shall establish a daily ferry from this side of Atlantic to the other side of the Atlantic, that shall make everyone belonging to any of these nations, wherever he may be on the territory of another, feel as though he were at home. That is what we strive for -- for the freedom of all, for self-government to all -- and for as little government as possible. We don't believe that tyranny is a thing alone of kings and monarchs; we know well that majorities can be as tyrannous as aristocracies; we know that mobs can persecute as well as crowned heads. What we ask for is freedom -- that in each locality, large or small, the people of that locality shall be free to manage the affairs that pertain only to that locality; that each individual shall be free to manage the affairs that relate to him; that governments shall not presume to say of whom he shall buy or to whom he shall sell, shall not attempt to dictate to him in any way, but shall confine itself to its proper function of preserving the public peace, of preventing the strong from oppressing the weak, of utilizing the public good all the revenues that belong of right to the public, and of managing those affairs that are best managed by the whole. Our doctrine is the doctrine of freedom, our gospel is the gospel of liberty..." (p. 41).

Realistically, this book thoroughly delves into the "deeper things" concerning scripture. Let he who "has an ear to hear" understand, and the less intellectual stand aside.

Desperation can be the source of wisdom. I've known for a year that this fall I'll be teaching restoration and 18th century drama. Worse, I volunteered to do so. Worse yet, as of yesterday I had only 7 weeks left in which to pick a text of plays. And absolutely worst of all, while trying to look up restoration and 18th century texts on the Web, I found my own course staring me in the face: "English 232, Smith College, Gillian Kendall". Yikes! It was definitely time to find a text.

Nettleton saved me. I had been about to order a completely new edition of the plays (sample copy graciously sent to me by the publisher), albeit the edition was in many ways, well, let's say "not quite right for the course". Then I went to the library. Despite the recommendation of a friend -- a renowned 18th century expert -- I had been suspicious of Nettleton. The copyright on the edition I looked at was 17 years before I was born (sorry about the ageism, Mr. Nettleton). But the volume has everything. Lovely grandiose heroic drama (but not too much of it); Dryden's adaptation of Shakespeare's *Antony and Cleopatra*; five classic comedies of manners (the backbone of restoration drama), and a pleasant smorgasbord of the best of the 18th century.

I have a text. My students have a text. Life is good.

Henry Augustus Rowland (1848-1901) was one of the seminal figures in the founding of modern physics in the United States. A principal founder and first president of the American Physical Society, Rowland is best known for his invention of the concave spectral grating for which he won a gold medal and grand prize at the 1890 Paris Exposition. Rowland was also a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University and an influential mentor for a generation of professional American physicists. Drawing upon Rowland's personal papers, as well as those of his colleagues and students, George Sweetnam has written the first scholarly exposition of Rowland's life and work. The Command Of Light: Rowland's School Of Physics And The Spectrum is an impressive, seminal, and invaluable contribution to the history of modern physics.

This wonderful book contains alphabetical and bibliographical entries for topics associated with Victorian England. WHile it truly does cover the broadest of ranges for various topics like Charles Dickens, Disraeli,and Peterloo, it omits various "secondary" figures like Forster and other less literary but nonetheless notable characters of the time. Over all, it is a great browsing book full of interesting data for the general reader. If it does not cover all it could have done then it does at least offer a wide number of bibliographical entries for additional reading.

The number of influential astronomers whose last names begin with "h" is truly amazing. Hipparchus, Halley, Herschel (the elder and junior), Humason, and Hubble. Not as well known, though no less important in his many contributions to the science, is the subject of Helen Wright's admirable biography, George Ellery Hale.

Hale is perhaps justifiably he is remembered as the builder of giant telescopes. He built three of the greatest of all time, and spearheaded a fourth - the Palomar 200 inch - though he did not live to see it completed and named in his honor. However, Hale's considerable life's work goes much further. He was a groundbreaking solar astronomer, inventing new instruments and methods of studying the sun's activity. His invention of the spectroheliograph and subsequent discovery of the magnetic field lines of sunspots nearly earned him a Nobel prize (Hale was nominated for the Nobel prize in physics by many other recipients of that award - including Millikan. Wright repeats the story that Alfred Nobel did not like astronomers and wanted no astronomer to win that award, a bias which was not overcome until the 1970's). The Nobel Prize was the only major scientific honor that eluded Hale. He won the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, the Janssen Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences (twice), the Rumford Medal, the Gold Medal of the RAS, the Draper Medal of the NAS, the Bruce Medal, the list goes on.

Wright's work is organized by project rather than strictly chronologically. She details the founding of the Astrophysical Journal; his central role in the formation of the International Astronomical Union and the American Astronomical Society. Another chapter is devoted to his vision for the transformation of the Throop Institute of Pasadena into the venerable California Institute of Technology and attracting top-notch talent to its teaching and research staff. She spends considerable time detailing his network of friends and colleagues around the formation of the the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council. One comes away with the distinct impression that Hale was a central and essential figure in burgeoning scientific establishment of the first half of the century.

The degree to which he was esteemed by his colleagues is clear from the fact that he was offered the presidency of MIT and the position of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He turned down both. He also eventually resigned as director of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, both for health reasons and to allow him time to return to his own solar observatory.

Though her work is perhaps slanted toward Hale's organizational and building activities, she also makes it clear throughout that his true love always remained that of plumbing the depths of stellar evolution, and he was always anxious to return to his own solar research.

Though Wright does not explicitly point it out, it is implicit that Hale's greatest achievement was bridging the gap between the observational astronomy of the 19th century (and before) to the 20th century study of physics and physical phenomenon. More than any other individual, Hale recognized that astronomy and physics made the perfect marriage, and he pioneered methods to bring the physical laboratory and the astronomer's telescope together.

As good as it is, and Wright's is one of the best scientific biographies available, she does stand guilty of starting a terrible misconception about Hale's mental state. It is generally well known that Hale suffered from nervous breakdowns that were at times completely incapacitating. Wright gets the credit for starting the story about Hale's supposed little "elf" that visited and talked to him, and who has come to represent his illness. Historians William Sheehan and Donald Osterbrock trace it to a misunderstanding of one of Hale's letters to a friend and note that the "'demon' (the word he actually used) was a metaphor, referring either to his conscience or to his depressed mood (like Winston Churchill's 'black dog'), and certainly not an apparition." ...This book easily earns its five-star rating. It is simply one of the best scientific biographies available.

These essays give some indication of why Henry Regnery, from his outpost in Chicago, published the books he did. He shared the purposes of Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, Max Picard, Albert Jay Nock, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Wyndham Lewis, all of whom one meets in these pages. Like them he thought some things were too good to be lost. All were reasonable men with a few reasonable words to pass along.

That Regnery befriended such a diverse group says much of his generosity of spirit. The value of these essays is that they describe how Regnery came to know them, not merely their work. He credits Picard with inspiring him to become a publisher. Eliot, Lewis, and Pound he portrays as one of history's great creative friendships, with Pound - editor, poet, and promoter - the centrifugal force pulling them together. Appreciations of Weaver and Nock show that there was at least one publisher in the world who looked past their gloomy claim to being on the losing side of history.

Even though he did not always agree with them, these were writers Regnery believed in. Without pandering to public taste, he vowed to publish serious books wherever he found them. In taking the road less commercially traveled, he did not make the profit he would have liked, a regret he often repeated. In the essay about Russell Kirk, a friend jubilantly comforts Regnery: "Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More on the cover of Time, all because you went into publishing." Regnery conceded that it was satisfying to have Whittaker Chambers, while an editor at Time, devote the entire book section to Kirk's "The Conservative Mind," a book often credited with launching a movement. Kirk and Regnery made a fortunate match: both were Midwestern conservatives who placed principle above profit. The history of publishing this seminal book should not be missed by anyone who has benefitted from Kirk's work.

The long midsection of "A Few Reasonable Words" examines historical "revisionism." This is a misleading term because those who had it thrust upon were trying not to revise history but to provide an accurate understanding of it, particularly of America's intervention in World War II and of the dubious policies of FDR. Like much else in the book, this section argues for a saner view of life. It bothers Regnery little that here, as elsewhere, he is going against the grain. So much the better for us.

The story here isn't of one voice crying in the wilderness but of how an independent publisher in Chicago was able to pool the efforts of a diverse group of reasonable men.