If you're an NBA fan, I guarantee you'll enjoy this book - especially if you're familiar with late 70s teams and players. I think even non-fans might find the business angle and personal stories interesting. The other great thing about it is the quote at the beginning -- about how money, fame, etc are fleeting and "the only thing that endures is character" -- by O.J. Simpson! I wonder how Halberstam feels about including that quote now...

David Halberstam takes us here in to the life of a sports franchise, the lives of it's players and of the environment surrounding them in the late seventies world of sport, following the merger of the two basketball league. The exposion of television coverage and of a team in the aftermath of a championship.

Halberstam is more than fair in his depiction of all the personalities involved with and on the periphery of the team. His exhaustive research is in evidence. The players are not shown to be charming charismatic larger than life heroes but human beings with stories of their own, interesting ones at that. Mr. Halberstam successfully conveys how the personalities all combined to make up this team.

The thing about this book is that Mr. Halberstam always presents a new take even on well covered topics. He makes you consider what you may not have considered otherwise.

Interestingly this book covers the team in something of a decline not the championship year. That in itself gives a unique view at the end of this book you have an idea of not only why they won but of the difficulty of repeating as champions, of the tenuous relationships formed between players, the slights, the friendships, the business of sports and those behind.

Vivid and rich with color and power. This book doesn't disappoint. Everyone from the rather unique owner to the 12th man. From preseason to playoff. An excellent read.

This book delves into the personal lives of the NBA players (at least the NBA players in 1978). Halberstam expresses a great ability to decipher and put on paper the racial tension and often awkward interaction between white and black athletes of that day. He also holds an uncanny ability of clearly stating the emotions and interests of all the players on that Portland Trailblazers team.

I think this new edition of Bill Owens wonderful book is slightly better than the original. Having both editions I find that although the halftone screen is less than the original (first edition was over 200, this edition is 170) the printing quality and paper are better, giving the photos more depth. After all these years the images still look fresh and fascinating and the amount of detail the photos contain is amazing. As far as I am aware no other book comes close in capturing the feel of the American suburb of thirty odd years ago.

The book is always favourably mentioned in photo history books as an example of the 'new topography' with photographers like Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams and Stephen Shore and the critics suggest that the citizens of this suburbia lead superficial lives because they live there. But they can't get round the fact these folk, living in Livermore Amador Valley, California, or perhaps three thousand miles away in Levittown, Long Island enjoy the life-style of suburban living and Owens photos capture this feeling so well.

On the visual strength of 'Suburbia' I bought another book of Bill Owens photos, 'Working: I do it for the money', published in 1977, a super collection of photos showing Americans at work and Like 'Suburbia' it includes many observations from those in the photos. Well worth searching out for.

The 1973 original edition, which contained only black-and-white photos, may not have been to everyone's taste. I went to the library and compared the "NEW & IMPROVED" (as the red 8-pointed star on the cover proclaims) 1999 edition with the old. The new edition is a lot better. First, some photos that did not have much impact for me (e.g., a shot of adults kissing on Halloween) have been deleted. Second, 18 pages of color photos (some of which have the gaudy color combinations typical of the 1970s) and a number of B&W photos were added. Third, the order of photos is more meaningful; for example, "I believe in women's liberation" was the second photo in the old edition but is on page 21 in the new edition (opposite a depiction of two chairs and a TV). Fourth, Owen's editor Shimshak has added captions for photos that previously had none (e.g., on pages 16-17). Finally, there is a new introduction by journalist David Halberstam.

I'm delighted to see this book available again. Last year I spent $100 for a copy (well worth it!) because it was out of print. I plan to buy the new version for the additional pictures promised. I've been fascinated with this book since I was a kid (and his other out-of-print books). I have too much to say about Bill Owens' work...and not nearly enough room! I love "Suburbia" and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to study people just "doing their thing".

Cary captures parts of the island that you'll never see if you only _visit_ Nantucket. Having spent the first 18 years of my life on Nantucket (NHS '94) I can truly identify with her photos. Her photos of little known corners and landscapes bring me back to the island.

Cary Hazelgrove is the only photographer on island who has a sense of the real island! She doesn't just take "pretty" pictures like any other photo book of the Island. I can feel these images!....I hope she continues with her excellent work.

If you love Nantucket, you've got to have this book. Cary, in my opinion, is the best photographer on the island. Her photos are so beautiful that I'm transported back to Nantucket as I look through the pages of this book. Somehow she captures the full feeling of being on Nantucket and for that I'm grateful. It's a magical place and Cary's photos bring back wonderful memories every time I look at them.

Any real fan of the NBA and its history should own this book. Wonderful pictures on each page with interesting quotes and stories throughout. Does a good job of showing the evolution of the league. The forward by Halberstam gives a unique and thought provoking view of basketball and its impact on our world.

This book celebrates a league where greed now dominates, but where players once played for the fun of it. This book gives a nice summary of each of the NBA's fifty greatest players, and vividly describes the league throughout its first fifty years of exsistance.

This is most possibly the greatest collection of writing ever. Bill Heinz is a pioneer who started the era of New Journalism (away with all the touchy-touchy writing). As a large fan of Hemingway, I must say that Bill Heinz puts Hemingway on the bottom of my bookshelf. His first novel, The Professional, is a masterpiece of sports fiction and was highly acclaimed by Mr. Hemingway himself. Even though Heinz never received the acclaim of Red Smith or Grantland Rice, Heinz deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest journalist's alive, if not ever. The collections of stories in this book, especially that of Pete Reiser, a Brooklyn baseball player that was robbed of a hall of fame career in center field because of injuries (and the outfield wall), are some of the most magnificent writing you will see in your lifetime. Containing the same prose style that Hemingway was made famous for, Heinz was praised by some of the greatest writers in his business. This book includes excerpts from his book MASH, as well as other fiction stories. Maybe it's the fiction style he brings to non-fiction writing, but whatever it is that makes Bill Heinze so great, I wish I could write like he does. Just like the people he covers, Heinz posses' a talent spectators could only dream for.

Also recommended: The Profesional; MASH

Okay, I'll be the first one to review this book: I'm surprised someone hasn't beat me to it. Here is where you can find one of the beginnings of the New Journalism, which flowered in the 1960s in the capable hands of Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Hunter Thompson, and so forth. In his magazine pieces and newspaper columns, Heinz inspired a later generation of writers with what is possible when you apply the literary conventions of fiction to reportage. As a prose stylist, no one is better. You can savor virtually ever sentence collected here. The book also paints a vivid portrait of an Old America, a different time in sports and culture, the America of my parents and grandparents. This is a nice volume to keep on the end table next to the couch to dip into whenever you're in the mood: the same is true of the newly reissued BOOK OF BOXING, an anthology that Heinz edited.

This is the only Robinson biography I've read that tells me about the ballplayer and athlete - the others either try to turn him into a saint or a political figure. This book, while not ignoring his role or his image, places that in perspective and sticks with the story of what he actually did, rather than indulging in hagiography. And the revelations about what he actually did are startling.

This book is an awesome collection of great photos. Larry Burrows did a fabulous job at capturing real life experiences in Vietnam. I commend him and David Halberstam for their professionalism and commitment to those soldiers who fought and died for our country. I only wish the descriptive captions were listed near the large photos in the book, not the back of the book. I'm sure the author had a reason for this. I strongly recommend this book.

The Vietnam war was defined as the first total media war, television was in the ascendancy but it was through newspapers and magazines that most people got there view of the suffering. The three greatest war photographers of all time (Robert Capa is the forth) brought the war to the breakfast tables of the world, Phillip Jones Griffiths, Donald McCullin and Larry Burrows produced pictures which showed the true horror and futility of the Vietnam conflict. McCullin through the pages of the Sunday Times Magazine, Jones Griffiths with his book "Vietnam Inc" and Burrows in the pages of "Life" magazine. Larry Burrows was given the massive task of showing the war in colour. Colour was regarded as being too pretty for the hard hitting task of showing war, also the actual technical limitations of the colour film of the time made Burrows task even more difficult. The sensitivity was very slow and getting the exposure absolutely spot on was imperitive. The steadyness and consideration needed to get the pictures are not condusive to the nerves in the midst of combat but Burrows had the metal to get the job done. This book brings together his work from 1963 till his death in 1971 in a way that shows not only his skill as a photographer but also as a journalist who could visualise the images and create the difinitive "picture story" The reproduction and layout are excellent and to see the images virtually as they would have appeared in Life are a credit to Larry's son Russell. This is a must for anyone interested in photography and photojournalism.

I couldn't pass this book up. As this country prepares for the next war we should be mindful of the lessons of the one we lost. Larry Burrows appears to have gone everywhere in Vietnam carrying his Leicas and Nikons. His images are gritty, sad, shocking, poignant, and, yes beautiful. He is at his best when he captures the mind bending reactions in the faces of the men who fought the enemy and fought to stay alive. I don't think color has ever been used so well in combat photos. An artist and historian with a camera. This book is the legacy of a man whose compassion brought him too close to his subject. He died in a helicopter crash in an incursion into Laos in 1971. His images show his feeling for nuance, composition, storytelling and empathy. Only David Duncan's photographs of the Marines retreat in Korea compare with Burrows' combat sequences. And David Duncan was with his unit for a few days. Larry Burrows spend nine years, off and on, covering the Vietnam debacle and its impact on soldiers, civilians and country.

David Halberstam, as always, tells the whole story of events in history of which too little is known. He brilliantly details the lives and experiences of the front-line soldiers in the civil rights movement--the men and women (actually boys and girls...hence the name of the book) who had the courage to risk their lives to attain well-deserved and historically denied rights. Prior to this work, historians focused on King and his associates. I prefer the perspective and approach of Halberstam.

The reader becomes engrossed in the lives of the people. Halberstam lets us in on their organization, their disagreements, affairs, loves, families, fears, hopes, failures and successes. Most amazingly, he contrasts the children's reaction to racism with that of their parents. The younger generation's frontal assault on the segregationist strongholds is truly amazing. The stories of the freedom riders is engrossing.

Not Halberstam's best book (that would be the Fifties) but pretty darn close.

I am not an American, and I often find that I come short when discussing history with my American friends. Therefore, I am always looking for books that can fill gaps in my knowledge. "The Children" is such a book.

This is one of the best books you can find covering the Civil Right Movement. With a journalists precision Halberstam narrates the extraordinary story of the rise of the Civil Rights movement, which in the end broke the back of the Deep South segregation. "The Children" covers the fight for racial equality, including student protests, the story of lunch-counter sit-ins, to the freedom marches. We meet Sheriff Bull Connor, Jim Crow on the one side of the fight, and the young students James Lawson, Rodney Powell, and Diana Nash amongst others on the other side.

Halberstam does an excellent job showing us what the Civil Right movement was all about, and what its supporters had to endure to end the segregation in the South. His first-hand familiarity with the conflict is evident throughout the whole book. (What most people don't think of is that, the covering the Civil Right movement was David Halberstam first "serious" story as a journalist for the Tennessean in Nashville. He was fresh out of colleague and a complete "nobody" in the world of journalism!)

"The Children" was my first reading on the Civil Right movement and it was a true eye-opener for me. I learned so much from this book. With 800 pages "The Children" is not a quick read, but I never felt that too much was included. Now, 2 years later I still refer to this book when discussing the topic.

This is one of the best books that I have ever read. "The Children" should be required reading for everyone. I couldn't recommend it higher!

It is impossible to say anything about David Halberstam's books without first saying how influential his journalism has been to an entire generation of journalists in the United States and overseas. When I was a young news clerk at The New York Times a long time ago, I read Halberstam's masterly "The Best and The Brightest," and I wrote him a note applauding his detailed research, the flow of his narrative, and the sheer sweep of his story. To my surprise, he responded promptly; it is a note that I still treasure -- just as I treasure every book he has written since. "The Children" shows Halberstam at the peak of his writing ability. He recreates the human environment of the frenetic years of the civil rights struggles, telling the extraordinary stories of some of heralded and unheralded players in a manner that is both gripping and provocative. The reader shouldn't be daunted by the length of this book (800 pages) because there isn't a single section that flags. "The Children" is certain to become a landmark book. It deepens our understanding of a traumatic period in American history, and illustrates vividly that ultimately all social forces and causes are shaped by individual men and women -- in this case people who battled racism and the ever-present antagonism of foes determined not to yield ground. "The Children" dramatizes the triumph of goodness; it is definitely a triumph of a genre that might be called histojournalism. It is a superb book by a towering writer of great sensitivity and skill.

It is incredible that David Halberstam, a non-rower and outsider to the cliquish or solitary types found in boathouses, was able to write such a penetrating and accurate picture of the amateurs in this book.

His descriptions of the feeling of rowing, of ``swing,'' and of the bizarre politics of single sculling are right on the money. They are recognizable to long-time rowers and comprehensible to those who have never rowed before. His character depictions are at times almost frighteningly dead-on.

To put it succinctly, Halberstam gets everything right in this book. If you are a rower or any other sort of athlete, or if you want to read a masterfully told story of competition, read this book.

Reading this book gives one a complete idea on what it is like row and how it can take over one's life. It shows what dedication a rower has to this sport. This book also shows the disappointment and pain that is experienced during the course of one's rowing career.

This is easily the best "sports" book I have ever read. On the recommendation of a close friend and former Harvard rower, I dove into this book thinking only that I would know a few stories about a sport burried in the agate type of a few sports pages. I was wrong. As a competitive marathon runner, I related to everyone in this book. I know what Tiff Wood goes through every morning with his training. I understand why he does what he does to the dismay of family, friends, and teachers. Why would someone with an Ivy League education waste all that to row in relative obscurity? Why place money, family, and the other trappings of "normal" American life on hold? Because. Because some people aspire to things a little more than measly paper. Because some want to accomplish things. Because some haven't given up on dreams.

Halberstam's work is a classic, outlining the dilemma that Vietnam posed to American policymakers in the early 1960s, and written in lucid, newspaper-reporting style. The author's perceptiveness is particularly striking when one considers that he wasn't even 30 years old when he covered Vietnam.

Unfortunately, this McGraw-Hill edition abridges Halberstam's masterpiece. Most of the essential pieces of the story remain, but much of the rich, colorful narrative, which makes this such a fascinating book, is lost. Hopefully, a complete version will return to print soon.

Before reading this book, my knowledge of the Vietnam war was limited to the movies I had seen on the subject, until recently when a friend recommended this book to me after a brief discussion of the war, its political agenda and its intrigue. Making of a quagmire is an extensive and thourough account of the events in 1961 and 1962 that lead to the eventual full american involvemnt in Vietnam. Halberstam provides an unbeleivable and at times jaw-dropping first hand account of the political and military events of the period, and translates with remarkable skill the frustration of the vicious circle that was the american policy in Vietnam. A must read for any one with even a slight interest in the subject

If one wants to understand the debacle or "quagmire" know as the Vietnam War, look no further than this riveting account! In "The Making of a Quagmire," David Halberstam pin points all of the failures of the system years before the first official U.S. troops splash ashore at Danang, Vietnam. His account, a collection of observations about Vietnam under the Diem presidency, is refreshing while at the same time shocking in its findings. While many observers insisted that efforts in Vietnam were progressing so well from 1961-63, Halberstam sees the light. His expose of all the failings of the system includes candid words about the inept south Vietnamese leadership and the American advisors who grow increasingly frustrated with their mission. Most importantly though, Halberstam offers a glimpse into the life of a journalist caught in his own war of censorship.