A wonderful compililation of letters from an infantryman in an Iowa regiment. Sgt Clayton was involved in actions in Missouri, Louisiana, and Alabama, including a stint as a confederate prisoner. Narrative anb pictures by Dr. Elder really rounded this book out. Clayton was an excellent writer and gives incredible insight into army life and the fighting of the civil war. Best of all you get a flavor for the general perceptions of the common soldier, the ones charged with the dirty work.

I thoroughly enjoyed this highly readable book, in fact resented any interruptions while trying to read it. Thank you, Dr. Elder!!

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).

For those who want to understand the difference between global warming (which many believe is human induced) and climate change (which is natural and always occurring), Geological Perspectives is a MUST READ. While many would state the book is anti-green biased because it is produced by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, it references literally 1000's of refereed scientific journal published papers that begin to reveal that this subject is a lot more uncertain than the IPCC claims.

While written for the general public, some sections require a background in the physical sciences to fully appreciate the book's content.

Yes, it is hard to believe that for the past 6000 years, the earth has actually been cooling (near it's coldest during geological time). However, humans have benefitted recently when temperatures have been on average warmer than colder. Don't under estimates the earth's ability to adjust to climate change!

A marvellous novel about the brilliant explorer and writer Richard Burton and his young protege John Hanning Speke and there ill-fated attempt to locate the source of the White Nile in the east African highlands. In the process we see the difficulties faced by Victorian explorers and you can only marvel at the bravery of the men to undertake such journeys.

We see the recriminations that erupt in London when Speke claims (rightly but without real proof) that Victoria is the source and how Burton is sidelined and eventually is lucky to find positions in the worst jobs in the foreign service. A sad end for one of the worlds greatest explorers. I can feel no sympathy for the end that Speke met with, but read it for yourself. Now a movie, but the film cannot capture a fraction of the book.

I usually start reading these volumes in the "Our Presidents" series thinking I pretty much know all the important things about the particular president in question. William Henry Harrison: son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, made his reputation as a general at the battle of Tippecanoe, the first Whig elected President, died a month into his term from pneumonia contracted on a rainy inauguration day, and his grandson Benjamin Harrison was also elected President. So basically I thought of William Henry Harrison as one of those generals who kept getting elected President in the 19th century with decidedly mixed results. Of course, Ann Graham Gaines quickly proves me wrong in this informative juvenile biography.

The minor point would be that Harrison was not made a general until sometime after the battle of Tippecanoe that gave him his famous nickname and one of the great political slogans in American History. However, the major point would be Harrison had what is arguably the most impressive political resume of anyone ever to win the White House (previously I would have said that honor went to George Herbert Walker Bush). Harrison started out as a soldier but resigned from the army to become secretary of the Northwest Territory before going on to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, appointed governor of the Indiana Territory by John Adams, reelected to the U.S. House, then elected to the Ohio State Senate and then the U.S. Senate from Ohio, and appointed minister to Columbia by John Quincy Adams. His political career apparently ended by Andrew Jackson's election, Harrison actively campaigns for the presidency as early as 1835 before joining the Whig Party and being elected in 1840. In the middle of this political career he had time to be a general during the War of 1812, so while he was a soldier, he was also a formidable politicians.

Ironically, William Henry Harrison served the shortest term of any President. Gaines can only sketch out what Harrison might have done while in office, but such speculation surely pales in comparison to his overall political career. It is interesting that the Harrison family is not mentioned in the same breath with other American political families of note, to wit, the Adams, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Bush families. The book is illustrated with historic paintings, prints, and such from this time period, although I was disappointed that the daguerreotype of Harrison, the first taken of a sitting President (we have one of John Quincy Adams as well), was not included. The margins of the volume are filled with Interesting Facts, such as Harrison being the last President born before the American Revolution as well as being the oldest President ever to be inaugurated up to that time at 68 years of age. Detailed sidebars provide more information about Tecumseh, Presidential Campaigns, and Death in the Highest Office.

There has been some mention of Benjamin Harrison in the press, since he was the last President to lose the popular vote but win in the Electoral College, so it is rather ironic that there are such strong parallels between the other Harrison and the other Bush. Still, the greater irony is that one of the most forgotten Presidents did so much that has been forgotten. William Henry Harrison might be a historical footnote, but his political and military resume makes it a rather lengthy footnote.

I picked up Blood Latitudes to look for some ideas for my own novella of exotic places & enjoyed it immensely.

Harrison seems to've taken a cue from Conrad & Bowles: white folks stuck in foreign cultures are an endangered species, especially when folks in foreign cultures have learned just enough stray facts from the white folks to be dangerous. Here, pop goes in search of son who's disappeared on assignment. Will Hobbs knows what to expect: the detritus of colonization.

Everything Will sees is a burlesque of Western intent: weird combinations of Marxism & voodoo, teenage armies, perverse respect for philosophy, & utter disregard for human life. The intensity increases with eage turn of the page.

Harrison is best know by his terseness of phrasing & his surprise, occasionally ironic, twists in short stories. That he can sustained his Spartan use of language & our attention for a novel is a credit to his talent.

William Harrison deserves high praise for this gem. I am still stunned and haunted by its vivid images. Harrison has drawn complex and unpredictable characters that will remain with you long after you finish reading this book. One character in particular, Papa Ngiza, presses under your skin with his twisted philosophies about life and religion. No matter how hard I resisted, I had to admit that his philosophies are somehow horribly true. The harsh and strangely beautiful world of Africa lives within these pages.

By the time his son, Buck, arrives in London, Will Hobbs has settled into the quiet and solitary routines of retirement with the grace and self-sufficiency William Harrison's The Blood Latitudes he carried through his years as a reporter in Africa. Buck brings along his beautiful wife Key, and the news that he's now covering Will's old territory -- the incendiary part of Africa that once was the core of his father's life. Then Buck disappears on assignment and Will sets out to find him in an Africa that is swept up and over with violence, fear, passion, and indomitable hopes. William Harrison is a writer of great and imaginative accomplishment who, as showcased by The Blood Latitudes, is clearly a master of the complex, intense, unexpected, and thoroughly literate novel. Also highly recommended are Harrison's early novels: Three Hunters; Burton And Speke; Savannah Blue; Africana; Lessons In Paradise; Into A Wild Sanctuary; and The Theologian.

This was my grandfather's favorite poem--he used to recite it from memory. I can still hear his hushed, suspenseful tone as he told the tale of the strange miner, the dangerous gun fighter, and "the lady that was known as Lou." When I found this illustrated copy, I was floored--Ted Harrison perfectly captured this eerie story. I had to buy a second copy for my mom!!

With Ted Harrison's illustrations, this classic poem comes alive. Whether its read as a children's introduction to poetry or just for fun, this is a book to own. "Were you ever out in the Great Alone?" Probably not -but this book can get you close.

The poem is great to begin with, but coupled with the pictures, "formidable!" Each page could be clipped out and framed on its own merits.

I love this book. We see a snake in the woods, and take note of as many characteristics as we can, then look it up later to learn more about it. Same with frogs, toads, lizards, skinks! The actual information provided for each reptile is slim but very interesting. This is a great book to have if you spend any time in the wild in Virginia.

I've had and used this book since it came out in 1980. I always recommend it to all of the classes and seminars I give on reptiles and amphibians and to all of the people who ask for a good field guide because, for the size and cost, there are none better for this part of the country. Well worth the money if a handy, accurate, well-done field guide with great photos and range maps is what you want.

"Titus Andronicus" is the most notorious and least performed play of Shakespeare's. T.S. Eliot once called it the worst play written in the English language and not even the loyalist Shakespeare scholars have stood by it. Not until the movie "Titus" came out, have I heard anyone mention it. All I knew before I finally saw it was that it was extremely over the top violent. In fact, when the rare times it had been performed to modern audiences, many audience members started laughing at how absurd and over the top violent it was. I am a very serious moody theater person but even I couldn't help laugh at some of these scenes. However, I am very curious to suspect, as Harold Bloom did, that Shakespeare might've wrote "Titus Andronicus" as a spoof on his contemporaries. The play's content, plot, and characters are exactly equal to Seneca's plays. Seneca's plays however were never performed and we have no evidence that Shakespeare read Seneca's plays. So perhaps it was a jab at Kyd or Marlowe. The movie "Titus" seemed to use a lot of parody at many times. When I saw it the audience was laughing. I think it is safe to say that that theory may be correct. Although even if it was a parody, the play is still flat and doesn't do much for the audience. There are moments though where we can see Shakespeare developing as a dramatist. I couldn't help but think of "Macbeth" and "King Lear" during parts of Titus' monologues. Actually "Titus Andronicus" at best is a great study on the audience. 'Titus' was well received and performed in Shakespeare's day. Shakespeare was delivering to the audience, giving them a bloody Revenge tragedy that was popular in Elizabethan times. I am very surprise in an age when we make films that can depict a man cutting his face off and feeding it to his dogs("Hannibal"), that 'Titus' wouldn't be more popular. I imagine that Shakespeare was trying to shift from comedian to tragedian and wrote a little experiment called "Titus Andronicus." 'Titus' is worth reading for those who want to read all of Shakespeare but to the average reader, I would say pass and read "KIng Lear" or "Macbeth." To give this play more than three stars would be an insult to Shakespeare's masterpieces.

On a superficial first reading, 'Titus Andronicus' is lesser Shakespeare - the language is generally simple and direct, with few convoluted similes and a lot of cliches. The plot, as with many contemporary plays, is so gruesome and bloody as to be comic - the hero, a Roman general, before the play has started has lost a wife and 21 sons; he kills another at their funeral, having dismembered and burnt the heroine's son as a 'sacrifice'; after her husband is murdered, his daughter is doubly raped and has her tongue and hands lopped off; Titus sacrifices his own hand to bail out two wrongfully accused sons - it is returned along with their heads. Et cetera. The play concludes with a grisly finale Peter Greenaway might have been proud of. The plot is basically a rehash of Kyd, Marlowe, Seneca and Ovid, although there are some striking stage effects.

Jonathan Bate in his exhaustive introduction almost convinces you of the play's greatness, as he discusses it theoretically, its sexual metaphors, obsessive misogyny, analysis of signs and reading etc. His introduction is exemplary and systematic - interpretation of content and staging; history of performance; origin and soures; textual history. Sometimes, as is often the case with Arden, the annotation is frustratingly pedantic, as you get caught in a web of previous editors' fetishistic analysing of punctuation and grammar. Mostly, though, it facilitates a smooth, enjoyable read.

Now that the film "Titus" is about to open, I thought I had best hear a recorded version of the complete play to keep my mind clear during what is bound to be a perversion. Of course, many consider "Titus Andronicus" a perversion anyway; and to tell the truth, I do get a little queasy during the various mutilations that make the deaths at the end a relief rather than a shock. But accepting the play on its own terms, you will find the reissue on tape of the 1966 Caedmon recording of (CF 277) possibly the best directed of the entire classic series. Howard Sackler has a bunch of professionals on hand and he lets them (with one exception) tear up the scenery. Poor Judy Dench, who has so little to say as Lavinia before the plot makes her say no more, can only make pathetic noises for most of the play until her final death cry. The evil brothers, played here by John Dane and Christopher Guinee, are not only evil but sarcastically so--and this works on a recording as it might not on the stage. Perhaps Maxine Audley's Tamora is a bit too Wicked Witch of the West now and then; but her co-partner in evil, Aron the Moor, is brought to life by Anthony Quayle in a role he made famous on stage, going even further in the outright enjoyment of his ill-doing. Yes, this play can easily raise laughs and takes an Olivier to keep the audience in the tragic mood. (Reports are that he did it so well that some audience members became ill and had to leave.)

Which brings us to Michael Hordern's Titus. Hodern is a fine actor but not a great one. He suffers well but not grandly. I am surprised that his Big Moment--"I am the sea"--is lost among all the other images in that speech. But anyone can direct someone else's play. This recording, soon to be rivaled by one in the Arkangel series, is definitely worth having for Quayle's performance alone.

THIS BOOK IS TYPICAL OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PRESS PRESIDENTIAL SERIES. GREAT INSITE OF THE GROWING UNITED STATES DURING OUR POLITCAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE UGLY SIDE OF PERSONAL POLITICS. INTRIGUE REACHED A FEVERED PITCH WITH LESSOR KNOWN INDIVIDUALS ELECTED AS PRESIDENT WHILE THE ICONS, CLAY, BENTON, WEBSTER AND CALHOUN HELD OUR COUNTRY IN THE SENATE.

This book reads more like a novel than the Polk book in this series (which I found to be very informative). This book is well documented. There is a sense that the author is generally sympathetic to and sometimes apologetic for Tyler and Webster - However I am not informed enough to know if this is a bias or a valid conclusion on the part of the author. With Tyler becoming the first VP to 'inherit' the presidency after the death of Harrison, our country was still navigating in the dark waters of our constitution and a world of threats (Mexico and England). Major players such as Clay, Webster, and Calhoon dominate the scene. Tyler's presidency would make a fine fiction drama. Misplaced trust, overwhelming ambition, and the drumbeat of sectionalism. I very much enjoyed this book.

This book fairly and vividly relates the "accidential" presidency of John Tyler. The author conveys the unique difficulties faced by Tyler as he assumes the presidency from W. H. Harrison. In fact, Tyler was most courageous in standing firm against Henry Clay and his Whig cohorts, who tried extremely hard to bully Tyler into submission. Norma Peterson, the author, provides credit where it is due, be it with Tyler or his equally courageous Secretary of State, Daniel Webster. The story in total flows extremely well, and maintains the interest of the reader throughout. The author's stance overall is pro-Tyler, and she bases this on clear reasoning and factual analysis. In total I agree with her position, that Tyler has received far less credit for his accomplishments and strength of presidential character than most historians have given him.