(...) There was a cast of ten which made up the Colorado River Exploring Expedition . Led by John Wesley Powell. None of them had ‘white water' experience. Many were barely 20 and 7 were Union Army veterans. There was no record of persons having gone down the thousand miles of this journey so they were floating blind. It lasted 111 days.

They were to use wooden boats made in Chicago Illinois. They would put in at Green River Station, Wyoming at the point where the recently completed transcontinental railroad had been celebrated. It was chosen because the [4] boats could easily be delivered by rail freight to Green River Station from Chicago. (...) This is a history and Edward Dolnick has done his best to use the notes and writings of Powell, Summer, Bradley and other of the expedition. Powell's book was written some years later but the crew wrote more personal and soon after the trip. They reveal some pain and misery that Powell in his enthusiasm for the mission - geology exploration of the earth including flora and fawna - avoids.

Dolnick has also told the tales of others who ventured on the Colorado River and who were reported in the press of that day. But, none had done what this mission did; namely go the distance without any real briefing and not any knowledge of these tales. On the river they were out of touch with all - alone. A person of ill repute reported after the first month that the party had been destroyed by the river and only he had survived. He was widely published in the press including his tale of how he got on the expedition. But, like story tellers he had dates wrong and Emma Powell, John Wesley's young wife read the stuff and informed the press that he couldn't be believed. They did more research and began retracting the articles. The good effect of this was that the Expedition got more press than they had had before they left. Of course the voyagers did not learn of this until many months later.

Dolnick has a couple of chapters about Powell's military service as an artillery officer in the Grants army at Shiloh. Here Powell lost an arm which comes in for some interesting comments during the voyage down the rivers. Emma is a heroic and fascinating wife of great personal support to Powell. One of the boats is named after her; Emma Dean.

Dolnick seeks to tell it as it went along, not to sum things in advance. So there is an air of adventure - what will happen next?
Sumner was of great value to Powell and all the men seem to have followed the decisions - there Army training is reference as an aid in this respect. But, some of the trappers didn't cotton to the order giving; still they did their part.

There is detail about the boats and equipment - built in Chicago - the best for the lakes - but not properly designed for the river. But sturdy. Still they lose one to the rapid while still in the three hundred mile stretch of the Green River. And, 1/3rd of the food and other supplies went down with that crash.

Powell is the focal person. He had the crazy idea and he had the energy to make it happen with little money and little backing and many persons of repute advising against the venture. It is a crazy thing to do given the level of experience and knowledge that was the foundation of this expedition effort.
BUT - the beauty and grandeur does grab your imagination and it did theirs too.
They often stopped to look, if they could stop, or linger if camped at a place of special interest to Powell. They took side walking trips. And the number of times they climbed to get a better view of the prospects of the river ahead were legion. YOU are presented with their wonderment and deep appreciation for the trip - that seems to have been its saving grace. For they were called upon to live with privation and the rain. I couldn't believe the number of times they had severe rain storms especially in Arizona. (...)

The author has placed a little map of the segment of the river they were about to enter at the beginning of each chapter. It helps keep you oriented. There is also a photo section which provides enrichment of the principals and some locations.

Now, the story itself builds to a natural climax that will begin to grab you midway through the venture. You will sense the feeling of eternal repetition of the river and its mad behavior. It becomes a kind of tormenter. When will they be through with the trip? The men become restive and short tempered. They do not all like each other all the time by any means. And, although Dolnick doesn't stress this he has to report what they write in their notes. And, there reflections of the trip. They are caught up in the reality that they volunteered and they are responsible for their own fate; yet they are in a very intimate situation which requires them to note the flaws of others - especially the leader. It is hard work and Powell expect them to do their job. Because he has only one arm there are many tasks he cannot perform, this becomes an aggravation too, but they all knew this in the beginning. Yet there is, as Dolnick tells the story, a need to be loyal to the mission and the needs of others; and so they have their experiences where great joy and satisfaction is express by the group after some tough experience. (...)

Because it is a history, not a novel, the author tells of the future lives of the men. He tells what he can based on

If you enjoy adventure and American history you are in for a treat. My knowledge of John Wesley Powell and his cohorts 1869 trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon was nonexistent so anything I read was new to me. In addition to literally riding the rapids with Powell's group through their three months trip we are also given a history lesson on Powell and the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War in which a number of interesting facts are given to illustrate the horror of the Civil War. Powell was extremely interested in geology and he was thrilled with what he was experiencing on the trip through the Grand Canyon and oblivious to the fact that his mates were experiencing frustration at his leisure pace while starvation loomed due to inadequate provisions. One individual of the ten men crew left the group after the first narrow escape and three others left only one day before exiting the canyon and were eventually murdered under mysterious circumstances. Powell made a second trip a few years later but aborted the trip when halfway through the canyon. What became of the remaining six members of the ten man group who made the 1869 trip is also provided in addition to interesting facts about the Grand Canyon that will most likely be new to you. You shouldn't hesitate to give this book a try. I'm sure you will not be disappointed.

I have never been down the Green River, the Colorado River or even to the Grand Canyon. Having read Dolnick's book about John Wesley Powell's first expedition, I definitely want to go there and read more about this. Dolnick's writing is so vivid, and clear that you almost feel like you are on the expedition too. It would be hard to write a fictional account of an adventure that would be more exciting than Powell's expedition. Every day there was some thing more awful or wonderful than the day before. Real unexplored territory! Looking at the bibliography and chapter notes, it is obvious that Dolnick did a great deal of research before he wrote this book. The use of the primary sources, especially diaries of men on the expedition, add a great deal to the delight of reading this book. You get to know some of the "characters" quite well. A highly recommended read.

Tea That Burns was an unexpected pleasure to read. Not only is the writing fresh and engrossing, but the overall account of his family history back several generations is fascinating and rings of authencity. I have read numerous interesting Chinese-American memoirs, and what makes this one especially unique, is the ability of the author to connect the events occurring in U. S. History with concurrent events in China's history. This interweaving informs the reader in ways that are absent when the China context is not provided.
As a second generation Chinese whose father was a paper son, and whose parents had an arranged marriage, I already knew many of the factual aspects of the book. However, I never could entirely understand the 'process' underlying the facts until I read Tea That Burns. The author filled in many of these gaps with his eye for detail. The documentation at the back of the book reveals that the author knows his Chinese immigration history thoroughly, but fortunately he does not bog the reader down by inserting an abundance of citations within the body of the text.
I felt invigorated and refreshed after reading this excellent book.

Yes, it is a great book! I finish in one afternoon. I couldn't down the book once I started reading.... Mr. Hall provides a very rich history of the Chinatown in New York City during the mid-1800s period. He is succeeded to "enable the reader to smell history." In the book, Mr. Hall describes his father "denied" his identity of Chinese which shows the typical dilemma of the new generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, I was "confused" by the subtitle, "a family memoir of chinatwon". I expect that the book mainly describes the author's family history, rather than concerns on the hisotry of Chinatown history.

My mother grew up in the mining camps at the turn of the century, (1900) - it would be wonderful if more of the Chinese descendents would write their stories - it was surely a life of great hardship, and a history that needs to be shared. This is a wonderful story of family and life, societal views, prejudice and pain. Many expressions I heard throughout my childhood referred to the Chinese..."...didn't have a Chinaman's chance."..."...the rule was that the sun was not to set on any Chinese in town..." - what torment these people had to endure - yet we have very little literature on this subject. Mr. Hall has provided us with a wonderful, informative read and some true-life views that U.S.History certainly needs.

The Schlegel sisters are interested in the arts and in the more idealistic liberal social movements of their early 20th century world. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic. There seems to be little in common between the two families, but not even a highly embarrassing early amorous encounter can keep them apart. Poor Leonard Bast is as idealistic as the Schlegels, but encumbered by an unloved wife with a shady past, he has not their financial means to avoid dealing with the practicalities of life. Caught between the two factions, he eventually is crushed. Only Margaret Schlegel is finally strong enough to bridge the gap between the practical and the ideal by exerting her benevolent humanity, her passionate and yet controlled determination that people must "connect."HOWARDS END is a minor masterpiece, capturing perfectly the conflict between rigid Victorian values and the more free and open changes in the turbulent years before World War I. Forster handles his characters with great sensitivity and sympathy, yet with a subtle and skillful irony. The novel is not intended for rapid reading, but there is a felicity of expression that is an ample reward for careful perusal. Less fastidious than Henry James, not quite the equal of Trollope in characterization, a more subtle stylist than William Dean Howells, Forster combines some of the best elements of all three of these social chroniclers in an important work that is both highly personal and universal in scope.

On reading the book reviews already on-line, I just had to reply. I have recently read Howard's End for the second time and I have watched the film numerously. It is absolutely fabulous! I have read other novels by E.M. Forster but for me Howard's End is simply the best. Forster's characterization is second to none, describing the Schlegels, Wilcoxes and the Basts with such heart-breaking realism and affinity with human nature. The British countryside is described lovingly yet realistically by highlighting the creeping industrialization. I do not think it is 'dull and cold' or that the characters are 'unlikeable and irritating.'In my opinion they are realistic and likeable if you accept them to be human beings, having both their good and bad points, but I would hope that the good points shine through. Yes, Charles Wilcox is incredibly arrogant and irritating, but these characters all combine to make an excellent plot and a heart -renchingly sad but not a 'happy' ending. Ofcourse we all have our favourites and Margaret Schlegel is mine. Rather predictibly so, but I admire her strength, ability to compromise, tenderness, spiritual connectedness, clear sightedness and individuality. Over-all I think Howard's End is a wonderful read every time!

I have read Howard's End two or three times and listened to it once on tape and it remains one of my favorite novels. Many people were introduced to it by the film, which, good though it was, does not begin to capture the subtle wisdom Forster put into this book. Howard's End can be seen as a quaint period piece about British culture in the early Twentieth Century. On another level, however, it's a brilliant exploration of the human soul. In the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, Forster has created the perfect embodiment of the eternal conflict between reason and passion. These two families, destined to be united by the marriage of Margaret Schlegel to Henry Wilcox, represent two seemingly irreconcilable aspects of humanity. The Schlegels are artistic, intellectual and impractical; the Wilcoxes materialistic and unapologetically bourgeois. Margaret and Henry have their differences, but it is their relatives who display the more extreme family traits. Margaret's sister Helen is a classic bohemian; Henry's son Charles is a humorless and intolerant banker. As the novel unfolds, the two families are forced to confront each other and decide whether to ultimately part company or compromise. What is most impressive to me about the novel is the naturalness and grace with which the story unfolds. When an author uses characters to embody universal qualities, it is quite a challenge to make the people and story real and not merely symbols. Howard's End succeeds brilliantly as both a thoroughly engaging novel and a rather profound metaphysical inquiry.

If you only read one Edward Hall book, I think that "Beyond Culture" is a better read, and more lucid. Although the two texts overlap somewhat, there are many concepts in this book that do not appear in the other (the idea of "High Context" vs "Low Context" cultures is only hinted at in this text).

The basic concept of "Silent Language" is that much of our communication is non-verbal, but that it consistently follows cultural and linguistic patterns, just as spoken and written communication does. The major difference in non-verbal communication is that it is mostly subconscious.

The book revolves around the idea that all cultural conventions can be classified as either formal, informal, or technical. Although he spends an entire chapter introducing this concept, I personally found the distinctions a bit confusing, although I do believe that the author has an important insight.

One of my favorite concepts was the idea of 'spacial accent,' which describes the size of and culturally-specific behaviors associated with that invisible zone we all carry around with us. This concept helps explain why Europeans (outside of the British) generally don't queue, and why this so aggravates Americans (and presumably Brits). The concept of 'order' also helps explain different behaviors in forming lines (American belief in 'first come, first serve, is culturally relative). Besides speaking about space, he also discusses the cultural aspects of time, which he also describes in terms of an 'accent'. (He deals with both space and time more fully in two of his other books.)

Hall makes quite a number of connections between cultural behavior, these three types of cultural convention, and specific forms of expression. Examples include: --Why scientists are terrible writers (one of several digressions away from non-verbal communications) --A very believable explanation of why art is art --Why long-range planning is rare in America

--A concept of sacred place that anticipates the recent idea that men retreat to personal 'caves'

All in all, I found this an enjoyable and enlightening book. I wish that it could have been more clear in spots, and I think it is fair to say that some of his ideas are more fully worked out in some of his other books. My only real complaint is about the quality of Anchor's reproduction, which uses a cheap paper that cannot withstand normal highlighters at all (try the wax Textliners from Faber-Castell).

The Silent Language was indeed an excellent book on the cultural influences on communication. Its definition of culture in the contexts of time and space were insightful. The most interesting thing was the breakdown of culture as communication into three categories. This is truly a breakthrough in defining theory for anthropology and related social sciences.

However, the book was limited in its focus, given that this phenomenon does not apply to North Americans only, but to anyone wishing to travel to a foreign country, whether on business, or recreation. One could say that in order to understand it, we may substitute our own experiences into those given by the author.

But culture can only be understood in social, economical, historical and political contexts. It is these contexts that shape or influence our perception, and the way we relate to others. Therefore, if Hall seeks to appeal to the intelligent , culturally diverse, non-technical audience, he should make the book more culturally relevant. In doing so, however, he must avoid generalisations that may make the text too simplistic and lose its focus.

An overall interesting book.

In 1962 this book was provided to all Peace Corps Volunteers as part of their preparation for working abroad in non-U.S. cultures. Hall describes categories of communication which can be used to compare any two cultures. He discusses not only conversation but a number of non-verbal communication areas, with good illustrative scenarios, for the variety of attitudes toward personal space, use of time, interaction with authorities and the law, etc. His ideas seem congruent with Marshall McLuhan's famous concept of "the medium as the message." For me, --as a very verbal person, an artist, and a world traveler-- this book provided new and useful insights about inter- and intracultural communication. It is clearly organized, well written, fascinating, and as relevant to today's global communication as when it was written.

Anybody dealing with any of those three cultures in business should read this book. It is simple, handy and quite accurate. I am myself French and have been living and working in Germany for ten years now in an international environment. I also spent three years of my life in the US. The book - already ten years old - does need some up-dating as far as the political and economic situations in each of these three countries are concerned and I found a few inaccuracies in the French part (probably due to the fact that the French culture is more difficult to grasp for an American than the German one), but all in all it is a highly recommendable book. The key notions of "monochronic" and "polychronic", of "high context" and "low context" cultures are extremely useful. This is not only a book for Americans doing business with Europeans : as far as I am concerned it helped me understanding and being more patient with my American colleagues.

The book provides excellent guidelines for Americans to compare German cultural values and behaviors against ours, but I am not sure about the French (lack of personal experience). It is quite general but you can learn a lot if you have the will to understand German corporate cultural rules and to gain the edge in your interactions with your German counterparts. My personal observations/experience during a recent business stay in Germany seemed to have mostly agreed with the authors' points of view.

I wish it had more real-life examples and illustrations for higher practical values.

I loved reading it through and would recommend it highly.

If you have little time to read about Doing business in Europe then this book is ideal choice. Well analysed and Excellent Presentation. Worth for my money sure your's too.

I thought the book was humorous and silly. I enjoyed the creativity. Thanks Gavin Edwards for your sense of humor.

Gavin Edward... who authored two books of misheard lyrics before, penned the funniest Christmas carol book ever!

True Line: Noel, Noel, born is the king of Israel. Misheard Line: Noel, Noel, Barney's the king of Israel.

True Line: Children, go where I send thee. Misheard Line: Children, go warm and sandy.

You get the picture. The book is filled with hilariously misheard lyrics, that weird line in "Silent Night" that never sounded quite right, but you never questioned. Hilarious!

As a military diver I could easily identify with the techniques and characters in the book. While the techniques have been updated, the people haven't really changed. This book shows what life was/is like for a diver. Divers often work in extremely nasty environments with little to no visibility. Add to this the psychological effects of being among different things that you must identify by feel and you get a small glimpse of what it is like.

This type of diving is completely different from civilian SCUBA and this illustrates the type of mentality required.

This book will show you what it is like to really be a working diver.

All present and former divers owe a tremendous debt to gentlemen like Mr Raymer. They were truly pioneers whose accomplishments often went unreported and unrecognized.

A surprising good read. This is a book of memories and should not be looked upon as a source of technical information. The description of the diving efforts from the enlisted diver's view point is first rate. The antics on libery provide a balance against the horrors experienced in salvage actions in the sunken battleships.

I have limited knowledge about the attack on Pearl Harbor from history books and documentaries, and wanted a new point of view to read to prepare myself for the epic movie "Pearl Harbor" coming out Memorial Day 2001. Needless to say, I could not put the book down. The book was written so easily for a layperson unfamiliar with ship repair, salvage efforts and the work the men on the back line, so to speak, to understand the techniques and personal fear and strength that these divers endured. Shocking visuals, heart break of death, pride in work, commitment to the job, danger and opportunity for technique advancement all are described so well by the author.

Hall seldom bothers to document, presents his musings as given, has constructed a system and world view which bears little relationship to accepted qualitatitive research in the social sciences. . . so why read this book? Because every chapter has an idea with unusual parallels either to developments in cognitive research, to human-computer interaction, or to linguistics, all of which came about post-publication! Astounding intuitions, oftentimes annoyingly documented.

This book blew my mind back when it was first released, and on third or fourth read, there is still so much information to be gleaned from it.
Issues discussed:
Appointments by time vs. being late because a friend in need is more important.
Queueing for the bus vs. pushing and shoving to the front of the line.
Needing closure vs. pigeon-holing a half-completed but unimportant task, often for months or even years.
But most importantly, the book goes in great detail into how these cultural differences in the perception of time and sequence affect interactions between the races and between nations. I highly recommend Dance of Life not only for international travellers but also for anyone who has to deal with other cultures.

I am a scientist. how these reviewers in "prestige" journals bother normal researchers with their remarks like "seldom bothers to document" or "has constructed a system and world view which bears little relationship to accepted" and their "qualitatitive musings" of the humanitarian social sciences. Or natural sciences. Then they,perhaps, submit THEIR grants with YOUR ideas however...

It is greed, greed of greed and only greed and nothing else as greed. They want more grants, they want more senksual pleasures and excitement. And, more important, THEY DO NOT WANT TO THINK. Only for Money. Like storm-troopers of the Evil Empire. Me do thinks this is a good review of the book. Yours sincerely, Dr Vader.

David Wise writes the story of a spy thriller. Nerve Agents are actually only a side-line story. Much of the focus is on the FBI, HUMINT, and counter intel.

For those familiar with CBW, the story about dangling a deception such as Nerve Agent GJ, is intreging. GJ is not chemically identified, but presented as a protential Nerve Agent that would have required considerable efforts in binary weapons technology to ever be of any use. The author contends that this deception might have inadvertently lead the Soviets to create their Novichok class of agents. The discussion of GJ leads one to suspect it was a relative of the GV-series, such as Nerve Agent GP (GP11, or GV).

In the context of GJ, the author reveals that there were actually many more agents than just the familiar GA, GB, GD, GE, and GF. There G-series actually went all the way down to GH (isopentyl sarin). The treatment of Nerve Agents is conversational, and suits the purpose of his book.

David Wise made many interviews and performed as an investigative journalist to deliver a story that up to now has not been told. It does reveal the cultures of the people of the time, and is suggestive of many areas of future historic investigation.

Smoothly written and absorbing. Not my usual kind of book, but well worth picking up. In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, the FBI decided to dangle a prospect in front of a Soviet embassy employee named Polikarpov. Policarpov, a GRU officer, took the bait and enlisted Sergeant Joseph Cassidy as a for-cash agent. The relationship continued for twenty-three years, during which Cassidy solicited information that netted ten other Soviet spies and funneled an enormous mass of true, false, misleading, and trivial intelligence eastward. Much of the intelligence concerned the nerve gas research and production facility at Edgewood Arsenal, and may have led the Soviets into expensive and dangerous blind alleys. Details of the operation, especially the capture and release of two Mexican nationals who were confessed spies, make an interesting account of a US intelligence success not previously publicized.

This is an amazing story from the very real (and too soon slipping from memory) Cold War. It is principally the story of Joe Cassidy, a rather normal sergeant in the US Army, who was recruited to become a dangle for a Soviet Agent. The ploy worked and Cassidy became a double agent for more than twenty years. Of course, these kinds of stories rather quickly become rather entangled with lots of personalities and different threads of action. The author, David Wise, does an especially fine job in telling this tale and helping us keep straight who is doing what when and to whom.

The details of surveillance and spycraft are fascinating because they are so mundane but in their context seem so strange. This story demonstrates so many of the critical factors in running a counter intelligence operation: the importance of selecting the right agent (in this case Joe Cassidy), the necessity of patience and letting some things slip away in order to keep after the big thing, the chess like thinking of move and countermove in planning operations, the never-quite-sure aspects of whom to trust and what is real or what is a plant, and the role of just plain dumb luck. It isn't like Hollywood, but in many ways is more strange than a movie. If you tried to put some of this stuff in a movie people would complain that it was too far fetched. Yet this is all real.

The book also has some rather chilling information on Nerve Agents, which was the whole point of this many year effort by the FBI and other government agencies. It also has a lot of fascinating information on the devices of spy tradecraft including hollow rocks, rollover cameras, dead drops, micro dots, secret writing, and more.

Because the book is so well written it is a rather easy read. This is a real achievement because of the complexity of the story, but David Wise has long experience as a skilled reporter and writer about intelligence work and knows how to tell these tales. I recommend this book to everyone because it is just plain interesting, because I believe we should keep the reality and sacrifices of the Cold War in our collective memory, and because real people paid with their lives for our security.

'Slaves In The Family' is amazing. The research Edward Ball was able to do for this book was tantemount to a sisyphean feat. By tracing the heritage of several slave decendants back to the mid 1600s, he fullfilled something so profound for those families, almost no words can describe it. Most African Americans in this country are resigned to the fact that we'll never know who our great, great, grandparents were, where in Africa our ancestors once lived, or who we are beyond stolen people. To be able to say 'I've traced my heritage as far back to a relative named Binah, which is a common name in Sierra Leone, so my people are probably from there' is one of the most spiritual, life-altering pieces of information an African American (who is searching) can be given. In my personal experience, there has always been lack of understanding of myself. I can read and study and dance and commune, and on one level that is all of the knowing I need. But is that because that satisfies my soul, or because that's all the knowing I'm likely to get in this lifetime? Whatever the case, all my life there's been this yearning to know who my people are, and it's a yearning I've heard echoed in my sisters and brothers all over the country. Edward Ball is also a brilliant story teller. There are times when I'm reading, that I have to remind myself that it's non-fiction. Not only because it's so well written, but because I'm so far removed from the brutal, chattle existence my acestors survived, it is often times impossible to reconcile on the D train to Brooklyn that this country (and on a larger scale - the world) has a continually unpleasant history of treating fellow human beings deplorably, and in some instances, ungodly. Ball's able to relay American history, not black history (because there is no such thing in this country - we're all intertwined), in such an unbiased, sometimes humorous, sometimes somber way, that you really can't believe he's a descendant of one of the largest, earliest, and longest held plantation owners in South Carolina. The book dedicates equal time to his European relatives, and is unique in that no one is demonized, nor depicted as saintly. It is what it is.

I highly recommend it. Just came out in paperback. And there are glossy pictures.

Although it took me a while to read Slaves in the Family because I had to work at keeping details straight, I found it wonderfully enlightening. I hated history in school because, as it was taught, it seemed irrlevant to the present. As I've grown older, I've seen how integral an understanding of the past is to understanding the present. Mr. Ball gives us this perspective in an honest and uncompromising fashion. This is not a book written to make Souterners feel bad--the English and the Africans share in the shame--but it does help us to understand what this legacy has done to all our lives today. Interviews and reviews that I had heard highlighted the possible intermingling of the white Balls and the black slaves, but that is not what this book is about. Rather than an expose of intermingling, it is a family history of people who often have no history. When he offers families a lineage all the way back to Africa, including the country of origin, I am awed. What a gift of personal history!

This book is a moving and emotionallly powerful exploration and confrontation by one South Carolina-born writer with the moral consequences of the actions of his slave-owning and -selling ancestors. "Slaves in the Family" recounts Edward Ball's painstaking research into the history of his family, the first of whom settled near Charlestion at the end of the 17th century. He learns that his ancestors not only owned slaves,but that 2 family branches were large-scale slave traders, importing human beings directly from West Africa, He searches out descendants of slaves who lived on Ball family plantations, preparing careful geneologies and scrupulously identifying and acknowledging black families as descended from his own white ancestors as well as slave women on the plantations. This is the source of the title; he and these black people are members of the same family.

Ball goes further than any other work I have seen in following the historic trail all the way to Sierra Leone, searching not only for descendants of some freed Ball family slaves who settled there, but for African families whose ancestors were sellers of other Africans. Ball's reports of his meetings with these African families are some of the most moving passages in the book. He is not the only person who must struggle to acknowledge evil done by family members in the past. I highly recommend reading this book,especiallly for white folks,as a major contribution to the attempt to reconcile and heal the scars of Americans' shared racial tragedy.

Cheryl B