One of the more controversial events of the 1930's took place near Paint Rock, Alabama when nine Negro youths were arrested for the rape of two white women on a freight train. The nine were quickly tried and found guilty. Before the death penalty could be administered, appeals were filed with the aid of the US Communist Party. Thence ensued a lengthy series of trials and appeals that lasted from 1931 until well into the forties. It was a legal battle between White and Black as well as North and South with the battlefield always under the control of the White Southerners. Today it is an incident lergely forgotten by succeeding generations. Yet it is an excellent example of the the state of race relations in the South (not that there are too many surprises there), the role of moderate judges in reconciling racial injustice, the influence of the Communist/Socialist Parties in the 1930's as well as a number of other splinter stories. Therein lies the excellence of this book.

The author attempts to relate the story of the "Scottsboro Boys" through various perspectives without really indicating a particular bias. As the story goes on these perspectives seem to roll into one but even that one perspective takes a middle road approach to the story. For example, we are told of all the difficulties that the main characters suffer while imprisoned. Simultaneously we are made to understand that these same characters have serious flaws of their own.

The book follows the story of all the principals from their entry into the story until their death. There were few successes to come out of this event and the author lets us see the failures of the "Scottsboro Boys" as they each eventually realized their freedom.

This is an extremely readable work of non-fiction. It may seem occasionally that the story is stuck at one particular point but it generally moves along, giving the reader a rare insight into a very American event in history.

I started reading this book with very little knowledge about the Scottsboro incident. This book does an amazing job of portraying the different sides to this tragic story. The chapters are short enough for those of us with short attention spans. However, each chapter grips you with why those particular people feel and think the way they do.
A must read if you want to know what really happened, and more importantly why it happened.

I had to read this for a school assignment and wasn't particularly looking forward to it, but I am so glad I did. This book is amazing. It chronicles the famous Scottsboro trial, from the initial incident all the way through to many years after the trial. The book is written very convincingly in that it tries to present the different perspectives of relevant parties/persons. This made me feel like Goodman wasn't trying to push his own agenda but was instead simply presenting as best he could an accurate historical account of the facts surrounding Scottsboro. The book itself is written like a story, but you can tell from its presentation that the "story" was very historically driven and all facts mentioned were well-documented. A fascinating account of Scottsboro. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about it. I'm not sure a better resource exists on this topic.

Having spent some time recently in Cambodia exploring the Angkor ruins, I looked forward to purchasing this new picture book by celebrated photographer Jon Ortner. I was not disappointed. The photographs literally come alive. The quality of the paper is extremely good; the colour reproduction and sharpness of the pictures are superb.

The author chose a broad selection of the ruins to be included in his coffee table size text. All the famous sites are included, as well as a number of the lesser known monuments. The essays written by experts in the field also added a lot of useful and interesting background information. Several maps also aid the reader in locating the ruins.

For those who have seen Angkor, this book is almost a must. I am certain the owner will refer to these awesome photographs time and time again to remind himself of the experience of viewing some of the most incredible architecture and art in the history of mankind.

Top quality photographs of one of the true wonders of the world in one of the few remaining truly exotic countries. The craftsmanship and presentation are top notch, but nothing short of making the trip in person is really satisfactory. Fortunately, the trip is relatively safe in these days when even domestic travel has its risks.

I've used this book for several years to teach an undergrad course introducing CS majors to assembly language and computer representation of data.

The authors have chosen an interesting way to ease the transition from high-level language to assembly: they use several successively more realistic versions of the same (ultimately MIPS) assembly language, all of which run on a simulator provided with the book. The first models a memory-to-memory machine, with typed variables and no registers, allowing students to learn about the minimal arithmetic and control operations (including a limited form of procedure calling) of assembly language without worrying about other concerns. In this context they spend two chapters on integer, floating-point, and character representation. In Chap. 7 they introduce memory addresses, using an array-like syntax familiar to high-level-language programmers, and show how to implement simple data structures. In Chap. 8 they introduce registers and type-specific operations thereon, pointing out that in a load/store architecture like MIPS, all arithmetic actually works on registers. Chap. 9 treats procedures more fully. This constitutes a minimal course; the remaining five chapters can be used as time allows. Chap. 10 discusses assemblers, machine code format, and the "true" MIPS assembly language; chap. 11 discusses I/O, chap. 12 interrupts and exceptions; chap. 13 performance; and chap. 14 other approaches to computer architecture.

I switched to this book when I found Hennessy & Patterson too advanced for my students, and it has served me well. Students are sometimes a little confused about which version of the assembly language we're using at the moment, and I wish the author of the simulator had put in a three-way choice rather than accepting all three languages at once, but I still think the approach works better than throwing the kids in the deep end.

What makes this book interesting is that it was written between the murders and the trial. Huie knew who the murderers were, how they did it, and never expected a guilty verdict.

The book introduces you in detail to Michael (Mickey) Schwerener and all the details leading up to his murder. This detail will help you understand exactly why and how these murders took place.

This latest edition includes updates by the author to compare his early speculation against the results of the trial.

I'm the author of the book, not sure where to advise you of the following blurbs, which appear on the book's jacket:

"Goodman is a very acute and sensitive reader of both James and Wittgenstein, and his book will be of great help to students of both philosophers." Richard Rorty

"It is an absolutely fascinating piece of philosophy, intellectual history, and detective work that establishes categorically the influence of William James on Wittgenstein's work. Goodman's prose is lucid and the overall thrust of the argument is entirely plausible. What is perhaps most powerful is that Goodman puts the two protagonists' stories in a sort of conversation which seems perfectly self evident...but is nonetheless quite original."
Simon Critchley, University of Essex

I found this book kind of informative. It has very little descriptions about each art. Definitly, it would be usefull for anyone who doesn't know which martial art to choose. Neverthelless, this book has nothing "Ultimate".

A very nice looking book with some great pictures and layout. Could definately be useful to the beginning martial artist looking to choose a style. At an affordable price too. I was, however, somewhat vexed not to see my styles (hapkido and kuk sool won) even mentioned in the book. Japanese and Chinese arts are given the most attention here. So I would not call it "ultimate", but still worth your while.

It's great if you want to practice a martial art, but don't know which one. I am a 1st Dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and I found this book very informative, althought the section on TKD wasn't as accurate as it could've been. I also considered taking another martial art, so I wanted this book. It's a must read if you're looking to take a martial art but don't know which one.

JFK, a magical name in history. This book provides a way to investigate this man's life from other people's letters. You may want to read it.

This is a compilation that in and of itself is quite mundane. The letters are not the most eloquent nor powerful prose that you are likely to have read. However, this is the correspondence of two of the biggest figures of their age.

The letters regarding the Vietnam war are the most interesting and provide some recognition of the clarity & forsight of Galbraith's mind.

Buy this book if you are interested in these men and the age of Camelot.

The Rusty Charm is still alive in South Carolina. The trials, successes and failures of our early settlers are brought to life by James Goodman. What stands out in his book is the fortitude of the Dicks & O'Neale families and the ruthlessness of the British sympathizers. I have just read two of his books and hope his other works continue the adventures of the Silver Bluff settlers.

Collier's book on Goodman is okay, but it could have been better. He has a bad habit of rarely if ever seeking primary sources. Instead he relies on past published materials, acting as an assimilator rather than a biographer. This leads to the needless perpetration of myths and errors rather than (as a biography should) the clarification and correction of facts. He also tends to psychoanalyze too much, sometimes making some huge leaps, while to the best of my knowledge he has no degree in psychology. A far better book on BG is Ross Firestone's "Swing Swing Swing," which breaks new ground and sheds some real light on Goodman and what drove him and what made him behave as erratically as he did, particularly in his later years.

This book addresses the vital issue of what to do about Ireland. Unfortunately, it muddles matters rather than clarifying them. The key points, surely, are that 12,000 British soldiers are still over there, in what almost all British people consider to be a foreign country, and that these soldiers should not be there.

Liberation from the occupier has to be the main aim of a country still partly occupied by the forces of a foreign power. However, the book's editors, Anderson and Goodman, explicitly reject this, writing, "national sovereignty is the problem not the solution." In effect, they back successive British Governments' claim that Ireland's difficulties are peculiar to Ireland, rather than the result of the British state's continued interference in Ireland.

The book's contributors generally advocate cultural not political change, avoiding the necessary, difficult, political work of moving the peace process forward. They seem to see nationalism in general as the enemy. One contributor wrongly asserts that "British nationalism has state-sponsored, imperialist and sectarian origins." This implies that the British people's feelings of patriotism and national identity are not really our own, and that we are just stupid dupes, to be filled with whatever ideas our rulers pour into us.

We should support the Good Friday Agreement as a step towards peace and towards the withdrawal of the troops. The IRA cease-fire is, thankfully, still in effect, as are the other ceasefires. No longer are terrorist groups murdering innocent civilians in Ireland and Britain.

But we have to do more than just support the Good Friday Agreement, because it is not the end result of the peace process. We have to make the Government set a date for complete British withdrawal from the whole island of Ireland. When it finally pulls out the 12,000 British soldiers, all those who live and work in Ireland, free at last from the foreign occupier, will be able to build their future in peace.