This book takes me back to my own childhood visits to my grandparent's 100 year-old tin-roofed farmhouse along a train route in rural Pennsylvania. Now my 4 year-old son enjoys real-life "Hiawatha Passing" everytime we go to visit his great-grandparents and he gets to sleep in the upstairs bedroom facing the tracks. My son has memorized every word of this book including the postscript. The book is and will always be a family favorite. The story is captivatingly told and the illustrations are beautiful.

The author mentions that even though this book is recommended for ages 4 to 8, he's had a good response from all ages. For good reason. For adults, the beauty of this charming little book is that it evokes the wonder of that age, both of the little boy, but also the Great Depression when those Hiawatha trains began running. The railroad itself was in bankruptcy, as so many were, but through management and mechanical innovation, these powerful steam streamliners blasted their way into America's consciousness. To little boys, they were that magical machine to everywhere. To adults, they were a powerful symbol of optimism in despairing times. The Milwaukee Road's famous train was the fastest steam powered train service in history. Smaller engines of the same design had been static tested at 169 miles an hour. To children and adults, there was somethng mythological about these great machines; for the kids, it was travel and adventure, and there was nothing more exciting than these trains blasting past at 110 mph. For the adults, it was hope for better times, the thundering message of these amazing Milwaukee Road Hiawathas ... at every Hiawatha Passing.

Such a wonderful story. It really pulls you into it. I had the honour of meeting the authour; he is one of my 6 year old son's teachers. The paintings are perfect for the story. So well written, you are there with the boy watching the train zoom by the house. We read it again and again!!!!!

This work is an important 20th century contribution. An outstanding two-volume series!

Of all the histories of Christianity, this one is very clear and engaging to read. I love his writing style. It is really, really worth every penny!

Latourette does a masterful job of presenting a comprehensive history of the Christian religion in a readable form. This is an overview of the subject from the time of Christ to just before the Reformation (Vol. 2 picks up after 1500). Latourette doesn't just focus on the Western world or on institutional religion, but on Christianity in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, some of the personalities behind the history, and on popular movements within Christianity (some of which - such as monasticism - became institutions in their own right). This is an excellent scholarly overview on an enormous topic that makes it interesting for the average reader.

This work is generally known as a modern classic of Church History. If you are looking for a basic, comprehensive survey of Christian Church history, this is it. If you want something easier and faster than LaTourette, I would recommend Bruce Shelley's "Church History in Plain Language". However, LaTourette is superior. If you want something more comprehensive than LaTourette, I would recommend the 5 volume set by Jarslov Pelikan.

Holy Ground, Too is one of the best if not the best books on this subject. I found that it was informative and well searched. This book deserves a review on any television show. We can not forget the very important work done by the denominations in the past. Good books like this need to be noticed more. A tool for any pastor or church. To God be the glory.

Holy Ground, Too is one of the best if not the best books on this subject. I found that it was informative and well searched. This book deserves a review on any television show. We can not forget the very important work done by the denominations in the past. Good books like this need to be noticed more. A tool for any pastor or church. To God be the glory.

I found this book to be imformative and exact on the findings of Holiness Camp sites throughout America and foreign countries. This is the best tool in reasearch for any Camp Meetings that have history in them and most do. From the Brush Arbor camps to the modern air-conditioned bulidings nothing is lost in translation and history.

This little booklet is the easiest overview of simple parliamentary procedure I have found. I use it in my public speaking class for the students to have a handbook and reference guide for class meetings and discussions. Recently, our administrator put this to use for teaching all student body officers to use in their class and organizational meetings. It is so easy to use--you just can't lose.

This book has been used in American schools since 1953. It explains HOW to conduct meetings and answers questions usually asked about proper procedure. It is just as popular today as it was when first written in 1953 for high school clubs. Revised 2000

THIS BOOK IS NOT OUT OF PRINT. IT IS AVAILABLE FROM INTERSTATE PRINTERS IN DANVILLE, ILLINOIS PEASE CORRECT YOUR RECORDS.

I AM THE AUTHOR KENNETH L RUSSELL

Learn about desert life in a child like way. The illustrations are great. This book teaches about the value in us all.

I read this book by chance at a book store once, and immediately fell in love with it. In fact, I now send this this book to all my friends with newborns, and it has always been warmly received and appreciated. If you live in the Southwest (like I do), or just love the desert, you'll be drawn in by the desert setting and characters in the book. I really appreciate the non-denominational "Great Spirit" usage. The story is simple without being too cutesy, the artwork is incredible, and the ending moral tells little ones to listen more to others (something all of us could stand to do more of). All in all, a children's book that adults will enjoy reading. I highly recommend this book for any day-care/pre-school/home schooling setting: the morals are easily and enjoyably picked up by little ones.

This book was great for children and adults. The illustrations were great, and the story held wisdom for all ages. I bought it with intentions to give it as a gift and now I can't bear to part with it. This one is destined to be another childrens classic!

Peter Maas is a good, solid writer. This is the book that was the basis of the TV movie starring Valerie Bertinelli. However, there is much more detail in the book. For example, there is more of the background of the victim and the dentist/murderer. It also seems that the victim did use cocaine, although Maas does strees that it was only "recreational." (???--what is recreational?) Also, he admits that he beat her up in Mexico. It's a page burner.

I saw the 1991 miniseries of "In A Child's Name" before I had ever read the book, and I must say that, in both cases, I was saddened and angered at the murder of a beautiful, innocent mother and also by the manipulation of an innocent child, who was ultimately the real victim, along with his mother. Ultimately, however, I was moved by the family's coming together to raise the baby boy left by his loving mother and cold-hearted father. The book does go deeper into the horror of what happened after the young mother's murder than the miniseries. However, both tell the tragic but ultimately uplifting story about abuse, murder, cold-hearted manipulation, and ultimate strength and love.

Entralling from the first page to the last. If you've seen the movie, DEFINATELY read the book. Michael Ontkean's portrayal of Ken Taylor is terrific. Being from Indina, I was especially interested due to the custody battle that came as a result of Taylor bludgeoning his wife to death. The fact that this story is true is what makes it so horrible. My heart ached, not only for the child, but for Teresa's family members who were put through not only having to deal with her murder, but the idea of her child being in the custody of Ken Taylor's parents. Louise Fletcher, who plays Ken Taylor's mother gives a chilling reference to a mother turning a ridiculously blind eye to the fact that her son was a manipulative cold blooded murderer with very strange sexual appetites (records indicated that calls were made from the scene of the murder to 900-sex lines while Teresa lay dead on the floor). A chilling account.

Search engines aren't enough. Ken Hartman did an awful lot of work that will save teachers and students an awful lot of time if they choose to utilize the Internet in the college admissions process. This book should be placed next to every computer in every high school in the United States.

I loved Web worksheet and tips on finding faculy evaluations, student newspapers and alumni e-mail addresses

I found over $7500 in private scholarship dollars. Great links Great insiders advise

I liked this book. The material was fairly well-organized, and very clearly presented. Many topics were covered including Quantum Mechanics, Nuclear Astrophysics, Nuclear Medicine, and more. Anyone who has had an introduction to modern physics can handle this book. It is very readable and presents much of the history as it covers the theoretical ideas. Also I thought it had a very good looking cover, and the apendices are very useful for reference.

I used this book for my Int. to Nuc. Phys. course in my undergraduate studies. I had a bad professor, you couldn't understand anything from him, and then I found this book.
This book is an EXCELLENT introduction to nuclear physics. It covers all major topics, and the explenations are clear and readable, and INTERESTING to read. You should have a grasp of undergraduate Quantum Mechanics for this book, however.
The book starts with a quick overview of all relevant QM results so you can consult the first few chapters if you forgot something.
A great book.
BTW there is a little typo in the shell model scheme of energy levels, but I don't remember exactly as it was over a year ago. However, be advised that one of the levels is wrong. But you can easily find it out - I did.

I graduated from Hacettepe University, Nuclear Engineering Department in Turkiye. In the 2nd class, we studied Nuclear Physics and read Krane's text book. However, though it was a text book, i used it as a referance guide many times and have still been using. Want to thank for presenting such a worthy book into the life of education.

I hope a lot of people in Minneapolis - and the rest of the country and world - read this book. Not only is it the fascinating story about a leading honest citizen of my fair city, it offers all of us an example of a man who maintained his Victorian morals and sense of honor despite the many hurdles he had to jump to make IDS the company it became. From the U.S. Post Office to charlatans to a personal and professional betrayal, John Tappan gave his life-blood to his company in the hopes that its services would relieve the debt of his clients and help them save for their futures.

He was also a strong environmentalist, clearly never forgetting that his youth spent in the wilderness of frontier America shaped him morally and spiritually, and that even though the concept of "survival of the fittest" applies to all of us one must never forget perserverance, courage and loyalty to family, friends, and business clients if one is to succeed and maintain one's moral compass.

He also was able to forgive his clients' weaknesses and helped them improve their lives. If only that happened today!

Any business public relations firm should read this book and read what customer service and loyalty should be all about - and anyone interested in a unique American Renaissance man should order this book for themselves, family members and friends. They won't be disappointed.

Excellent book. I really enjoyed it. It gave me a new understanding of the history of American Financial industry. I encourage other people who have dealing with the financial markets to read this book.

It is a compelling history of Investors Syndicate, covering the formative years of 1894 - 1925. Equally fascinating is the biographical material on and quotes from the correspondence of John Elliott Tappan, the company's founder. I highly recommend it.
Glenn - CFO World Class Flowers

I've spent the last 30 years practicing and teaching psychotherapy. In that time I've read everyone from Jay Haley and Steve de Shazer to Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut and lots of people in between in search of helpful ideas. I came across Kenneth Gergen's writings several years ago and now I can't stop reading the guy. This book is the best introduction to social constructionism and Gergen himself I have read to date. I only wish it had been his first so I could have had this clear, broad ranging work as a starting point for reading his earlier, somewhat more challenging writings. Careful though, one book and you can get addicted.

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Kenneth Gergen's new book, An Invitation to Social Construction (Sage 1999), may be the best introduction to the scholarship on social constructionism available today -- but, that's not all it is. It is also an inspiring and optimistic vision of what we can do to create better lives for ourselves.

To present this vision, Gergen performs the service of a personable tourguide, cutting a path through the jungle of philosophy while making suggestions for action along the way. For example, instead of merely presenting George Lakoff's theory of everyday metaphor, he points to the way Lakoff has shown us that discussions are modeled on war (p.65). Why not, Gergen suggests, find "alternative metaphors"? Why conduct conversation as war? And Gergen does not just present Derrida's deconstructionism. Instead, he says, "Let us put this argument into action" (p.27). Deconstructionism, he explains shows that any direct statement of truth disguises a mountain of ambiguity and uncertainty. So, rather than fear that uncertainty, he tells us, why not embrace it as part of our lives? It need not cripple us, because, as Wittgenstein says, we do not need metaphysical clarity to go on together. Even with our uncertainty we can cut bold and exciting paths to better lives. It is just that our new paths need to be provisional. We will need to be ready to revise them in collaboration with others -- but that is the pleasure.

I would summarize Gergen's general philosophy like this: Beware of authors who would sell you a model of any truth. Any model that presents itself as the simple truth will be deconstructed early tomorrow. However, don't let that discourage you from bold and audacious theorizing. It is the theorizing itself, the excitement, the adventure, the inspiration, the dialogue that will bond us together and create our good future, not the specific content of any particular theory.

Then, in the spirit of his own suggestions, Gergen constructs just such an audacious theory, a theory full of specific yet provisional answers.

First, he suggests, we need to quiet the battles in our personal warzones. To do that we must deconstruct our ideology of individualism. This classical American ideology has us thinking that each person is an island to herself deserving individual credit and individual blame. Individualism undercuts the impulse for dialogue. It shortcircuits the conversational melding and shifting of our individual minds. Individualism makes us forget, against all odds, that every human action is also re-action, and that every reaction is also action. Individualism confines us forever in the tragic culture of mutual blame. Let us replace it then, he advises, with a fresh vision of a collaborative world.

Next, he suggests we stop staring out the back window of our culture with our eyes on the past. I am convinced by Gergen's argument that Foucault was such an author. He was trapped by his eternal resistance to past traditions (p.40), left without sufficient vision to nourish ideas for how to go on. We cannot wipe out these traditons. Our vision for the future must be pieced from the cloth of the past.

In practical terms, as Gergen puts it, this means we should learn to replace individual monologs with transformative dialogues. These are conversations that help us locate "ourselves within each other" (p.160), help us grow comfortable with a continuous revision of our evolving positions (p.162). We should turn to transformative dialogues because it is here that we will find ways to promote the flowering of the not yet said.

I am simply enchanted by all of this, by the dream of a collaborative creation of dialogic culture, a culture in which the unsaid finds ways to be spoken, a culture in which new answers emerge in generative and audacious theorizing showing us paths we have not yet seen and inspiring us with the spirit of doing what has not been done. This is what Gergen's book does for me.

And if these ideas inspire you as well, then Gergen's new book is a key book for you to read.

Everytime I read another one of Ken Gergen's books, I'm more and more impressed. An Invitation to Social Construction is a wonderfully written following of the the development of the social constructionist movement. While the book is highly academic, Gergen synthesizes quotes, anecdotes and dialogues to keep the readers interest.