If this book of short stories does not make a former Tar Heel homesick, then I have not a clue as to what would... it made me want to go home immediately. The stories are funny, sad, and range in levels from wonderful to great. A librarian friend gave me this book and it is one of the best gifts I have ever received. I plan to purchase several to give as gifts. My home is now in California, but my heart will always be down home in North Carolina.

I'm ordering what must be my fourth or fifth copy of this terrific little book. It's a comforting, warm, fuzzy, and sometimes funny set of recollections sure to regenerate the reader's own rememberances of home. I try to keep a copy beside the bed in my guest room, but alas, my guests are always so taken with what they've read before turning out the light that I always have to say "Just take my copy along with you. I'll get another." I've also given it to friends in the process of fighting terrible illnesses. They find peace in the authors' accounts, conjuring up their own memories of home.

In the late 19th century, economist and social philosopher Henry George achieved international fame by calling for the abolition of all taxation save that upon land values -- a tax reform that would reconcile the conflict between economic liberty and social justice. So persuasive were George's arguments that landed elites, desperate to protect their vested interests in unearned wealth, set out to undermine George's immense popularity.

In "The Corruption of Economics," the precise manner in which Henry George was neutralized is uncovered by professor Mason Gaffney. That manner -- which later became known as neo-classical economics -- was to corrupt economic science. How? By blurring the traditional distinction between capital and land (and hence between earned and unearned income), by glossing this blurred distinction with jargon and abstract models, and by recasting economics generally to make free-riding by landowners seem just and moral.

Unable or unwilling to address Gaffney's arguments head-on, some economists are fond of dismissing this book out of hand as nothing more than a "conspiracy theory." In reality, it's a scholarly analysis of the anti-Georgist origins of the neo-classical school of economics, and how this school made an artform out of justifying landed privilege. Every single one of its claims in that regard are supported by credible references.

"The Corruption of Economics" is a must-read for anyone who suspects there is something inherently flawed with "mainstream" economic theory -- particularly when it comes to reconciling the seeming conflict between economic liberty and social justice -- but is unsure as to what that flaw is.

Anyone who has ever spent a half a day in a university getting lectured on economics should read this book. To academics it is a must. To ordinary folks it reads like a crimi. Best insight book on the market as why economics is such a muddled science and why lawyers, historians, politicians and journalists have no clue about todays whereabouts. Or did you ever wonder why you work like a slave and get stripped down to nearly nothing by the state and its "social" agencies. Ever wondered why we face so much sprawl, poverty, blight? This book explains neatly what happened to the once grand sience of political economy and the real effects on todays world.

Perhaps the finest political satire written in the past twenty-five years. Ambassador Eckert demonstrates an uncanny understanding of the political process and the american electorate.

Ambassador Fred J. Eckert has written a gem of a political novel, with the unthinkable becoming laughingly plausible as the book progresses.

Imagine a TV game show's results helping to determine the next leader of the free world!

I heartily recommend this book.

This is a well-researched work that's easy to recommend. Doyle is an excellent historian who is well-versed in Faulkner.
The combination makes this fine book both an interesting history of Faulkner's native "postage stamp of soil" and an excellent introduction to Faulkner's world. It also provides a wonderful example of what a historian actually does (although not without some cautions along the way).

In "The Losses of Nations," the authors provide a convincing case that only a land-based tax system will generate the level of general prosperity that will virtually eliminate poverty and unemployment -- a land-based tax system being one that falls solely on the rental value of land and natural resources ("rent" for short).

Under the current system, public revenue is derived primarily from taxes on labor and capital. This, they argue, imposes tremendous deadweight loss on the U.S. economy (i.e., a net loss in which the income lost to taxes far outweighs the benefits received from tax-funded services). Some argue that this can be remedied merely by reducing the level of taxation. That, the authors hold, is a false solution, because the problem is "not with the tax rates, but the character of the tax system itself" (p. xvii). The character of the current system is that it imposes unjust hardships on millions of working men and women. How? Two ways.

First, by falling primarily on houses, wages, sales and capital goods, it penalizes people the more they put land to productive use, resulting in less jobs and lower wages.

The second way is less obvious, because it involves artificially extending what some economists call the "margin of production." The margin of production simply refers to the least productive land currently in use. (Lower quality land beyond the margin is thus "submarginal.") By taxing land rent very little, the current system encourages land speculation, a process whereby speculators hold well-situated land out of use in hopes of exacting a ransom price from future developers. The resultant scarcity of land drives up land prices to the point of forcing developers to "leap-frog" into the urban fringes where land is still affordable -- hence the runaway sprawl that plagues heavily populated areas. In that way, land speculation forces the margin of production to inferior land, thus lowering it to an artificially low level. Since the amount of wages received at the margin of production tends to determine the amount of wages received everywhere else, the more this margin is prematurely extended to submarginal land, the more wages are driven down.

With all that in mind, the authors conclude that this trend can be reversed simply by shifting the tax burden off labor and capital and onto land values. How much would such a shift boost the economy? On page 147, economist Nicolaus Tideman estimates that:

"...a shift to public collection of rent as the principal source of public revenue in the U.S. in 1993 would have increased the output of the U.S. economy by $1,602 billion above its actual level for 1993, implying that the U.S. economy is producing only 77 percent of what it could produce with a better tax policy."

In other words, virtually all the unemployment in the U.S. economy is utterly unnecessary, and could be wiped out by implementing a land-based tax system.

To this some often object that the revenue capacity of land is insufficient. In chapter 2 Fred Harrison reveals that this objection is based on the myth that land rent makes up only 2% of the national income. According to a ground-breaking study by Wall Street economist Michael Hudson, Harrison explains, the revenue capacity of land is actually about 14% of the national income, or what in 2002 would amount to over $1.1 trillion in annual revenue.

What's more, economists throughout history have observed that, when taxes on labor and capital are lowered, land values tend to rise proportionately. Why? For the simple and obvious reason that, the more people can afford to pay for access to a fixed quantity of land, the more titleholders tend to charge higher rents. If, for instance, the payroll tax were abolished, most of the resultant increase in take home pay would be absorbed by higher rents. It therefore follows that the more the tax burden on labor and capital is reduced, the more the revenue capacity of land is raised by a comparable amount. Thus, once this tax shift was implemented, the revenue capacity of land would likely double to well over $2 trillion - hardly an "insufficient" amount. Economist Mason Gaffney explains this more thoroughly in chapter 7.

"The Losses of Nations" is one of the most important books on tax reform ever written, and should be required reading by every member of Congress.

Doyle traces the transition years between Old South and New South in Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston and Mobile between 1860 and 1910. Wonderful compilation of both quantitative and qualitative sources; the sources from newspapers during the time act like time capsules into the period. The newspaper sources combined with some photographs and maps make Doyle's book a well-researched place for students of Southern history and culture to enjoy an insightful glimpse into particular loci in the south. Chapters include:
Preface
Acknowledgments
Urbanization of Dixie
The New Order of Things
Ebb Tide
Patrician and Parvenu
The Atlanta Spirit
The Charleston Style
New Class
Gentility and Mirth
The New Paternalism
Paternalism and Pessimism
Epilogue
Notes
Index

Students interested in the too-often forgetten urban south should get this book

Kathryn Harrison's The Seal Wife is quite an intense read. It is the story of Bigelow Greene, a young man who moves to Alaska in 1915 to establish a weather station. He becomes obsessed with a silent Aleut woman he becomes sexually involved with and when she mysteriously disappears, his world, and perhaps his sanity begin to crumble. He becomes involved with another silent woman and his simple life grows more and more complex. The brutal Alaskan landscape serves as an excellent backdrop for this novel and its language. The Seal Wife is certainly not for the faint of heart--Bigelow is obsessed with sex and Harrison is not afraid to delve deeply into that obsession. If you can take that, try this intense read. It's hard to put down.

Kathryn Harrison, author of "The Kiss" and "The Binding Chair," underscores her reputation as a writer of compelling fiction with this tale of passion and obsession on the desolate Alaskan frontier. Fred Stella provides a superior reading.

It is 1915 when Bigelow, a young scientist, is dispatched to build a weather observatory in Anchorage. He is optimistic and enthusiastic, little realizing what life will be like in an arctic railroad town peopled by men and precious few women. The nights are endless and lonely.

Before long he is held sway by a seemingly unknowable woman, Aleut. She is not his only obsession - he designs a kite intended to fly higher than any kite has ever flown.

Harrison's recreation of an icy landscape in all its beauty and danger is spectacular. Stella's reading illuminates that world and her words.

- Gail Cooke

Kathryn Harrison's THE SEAL WIFE is far and away her finest work, and one of the finest works of fiction published this year. Written in a very spare style, Harrison doesn't waste a word, a paragraph or a chapter in telling this story of a US government scientist sent to the wilds of Alaska in 1915. Bigelow's assignment is to map the weather patterns of the area, where railroads and infrastructure are to be built, extracting the riches of gold, furs and other precious commodities. Bigelow embarks upon an ambitious quest to construct the biggest kite known, which will aid him in understanding the changeable nature of the region's weather. The kite itself becomes a metaphor for a man's quest for unattainable love, his desire to conquer nature, and the consequences of reaching too far outside one's known experiences in life.

Bigelow has three relationships through the course of the story: one with the kite, which consumes not only his intellect and emotions, but great periods of his time every day; a physical and strangely emotionally distant relationship with an Aleut woman whose name and background he never knows fully. Thirdly, he has another physical and highly emotional liaison with a young woman who communicates only through song.

Harrison's descriptions of the Alaskan frontier with all its vastness, great white blankets of snow and ice, and the long stretches of light and darkness bring the reader into Bigelow's setting like no other novel I can remember.

THE SEAL WIFE is the finest example of the novelist's craft! I would really, really like to see her write into a screenplay. This is a story of great drama veiled by the whiteness of Alaska, and the loneliness of a man's soul. Beautifully done, Kathryn Harrison!!

This book is an excellent introduction to environmental issues from the standpoint of population and its impact on the environment.

It has interesting case studies from around the globe and engaging illustrations that really convey an understanding of the state of the world. However, I would have liked to see a more prescriptive section with recommendations for action as well.

I recommend checking out the table of contents on the "Look inside" link, because the TOC is very representative in this book's case. I also recommend checking out World Resources 2000-2001, the companion book to Bill Moyers' series "Earth on Edge." It's perhaps a bit more engaging although not as focused on population.