I loved this book!! To me, someone not raised in the Episcopal church, this book told me so much not only about the twentieth-century history of this important mainline denomination but also about its ethos -- its distinctive approach to spirituality, which combines the mind and the conscience, not just the feelings. Episcopalianism focuses not simply on an emotional conversion experience but, as we see in Powell's life, a rhythm of prayer and praise, repentance and amendment of life, through the liturgical year and the sacraments. This biography is informative on such matters, and yet, what made it a delight to read was feeling the personality of Noble Powell as a constant, comforting presence on every page. The story is beautifully written and told by David Hein, and his choice of material for this book reflects an exquisite sensitivity to the important dimensions of a life lived "in Christ." I felt such admiration when I considered the extraordinary research effort that went into understanding Powell's life and the result produced in this wonderful biography. I hope the author will write more on the history of the Episcopal church.

This seemingly unassuming book is full of treasures to be discovered. David Hein's biography of Noble Cilley Powell, Episcopal Bishop of the diocese of Maryland from 1943 to 1963, presents so much more than an exact account of the life and works of a well-known and beloved Episcopal bishop. Hein's insightful and clear writing style is very effective at depicting the circumstances of the times in which Bishop Powell lived and how these shaped his character and his actions. The author also has been able to illustrate, through the testimonies of those who knew Bishop Powell at different stages of his life, how his noble and nurturing character influenced others inside and outside the church. But, for me the highest value of this biography is how Hein masterfully brought forth the connecting thread of Bishop Powell's life: a life signaled by love and friendship through Christ's love, or what Powell referred to as "love in action".

This is an absolutely top-notch biography of an important (if heretofore little known) American Protestant leader. As Hein convincingly argues, Noble Powell was a representative figure who embodied the essential values of the religious "establishment" in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. I strongly recommend this book both to scholars and to ordinary readers interested in the evolving relationship between mainline Protestantism and American culture from 1920 to 1960.

This is a great book for both beginners and advanced players alike! With sections on strategy and layouts of the troops themselves, it's a must-have for anyone who plays Dragon Dice!

David Hein, a Professor of Religion at Hood College in Maryland, has found gold in the mine of his state's Civil War archives, in this collection of letters written by members of a prominent Maryland family on the eve of and during the war. Hein's book immerses us in civilian life as civil war approached, fiercely as a wind-driven wildfire, personified by the Montgomery County family of Allen Bowie Davis, a prosperous gentleman farmer/legislator from Rockville, then a village north of Washington.

Davis and his wife, Hester, in time became unionists who feared the consequences of a Maryland secession for their state and family. "We may not like the present administration, nor endorse its acts-but-'we had better bear the ills we have than to fly to others that we know not of,'" wrote Hester to her daughter, Rebecca, late in May of 1861. "Let Maryland remain neutral and she may ride out safely this awful storm...I fear this secession element. It would be certain ruin to all our hopes as a family, in this world."

Their son, William Wilkins Davis, was a student at St. James College, a prestigious Episcopal boy's school near Hagerstown, in western Maryland. St. James had the misfortune to lie between opposing armies that tramped incessantly through the region and staged America's bloodiest day on a battlefield a mere seven miles distant, along Antietam Creek. The boys of St. James spent Sunday afternoons in the spring of 1861 not in the library but visiting nearby union and confederate camps. Fearful parents began withdrawing their sons as tensions grew. In the spring of 1861, with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and Baltimoreans clashing with northern troops marching through their city, young Wilkins became an impassioned sympathizer for the southern cause. Letters heretofore about food, studies and illness became angry diatribes against Lincoln, Maryland Governor Thomas Hicks, and others perceived to have a foot on the jugular of southern state's rights. "I hereby announce myself, henceforth, a straight out 'Southern Rights' man, and want nothing to do with Lincoln, his party or anything connected with him, or it, unless it is to help thrash him," he wrote to sister Rebecca on May 21, 1861. "I can no longer support a man whose avowed intention is to subjugate the South...and our contemptible, cowardly, lying governor winks at every thing [he] does without the lest compunction." Such words remind us that 19th century political discourse could also be ugly and coarse.

Both young Wilkins and St. James fared poorly in the cauldron of conflict. The boy took ill early in the war and, despite periods of good health, he died in 1866. The college closed its doors in 1864, an educational casualty of war.

Hein's book captures the complexity of the Civil War in a state of abolitionists, pro-slavery unionists, anti-slavery southern sympathizers and non-slaveholding secessionists. We see a pivotal Maryland through the eyes of adults and children, and the consequences of war for familial relationships, religious values and educational institutions. Hein's crisp editorial commentary knits these letters chronologically, supplying time and place for the Davis family to tell of life in the tumultuous middle of the nineteenth century. We are in the debt of this slender volume, for reminding us that a history replete with leaders and battles is incomplete absent the insights of sons and daughters, and mothers and fathers.

Lots of technical detail, but with very little explanation of what it means, so much of this book is incomprehensible. Detailed charts are inserted with no discussion of what they represent or how to interpret them.

The portions which explain networking theory and concepts (such as structured cabling and Manchester coding) are valuable, however, but it is so difficult to get through the rest that many readers might never get there.

After reading the summary of this book, I believe it is one that I would want in my arsenal of Computer books while working on the Job. Every student of Computers, and Networking should have a book that will explain the interworkings of Frame Relay and Lans.

This was the book our professor recommended for my first course in assembly language programming for the Motorola 68000 microprocessor. I don't think this book is very suitable for an introduction. I found it heavy going, at first. If I had more experience think I think it may have been OK.

Instead I found myself referring to the books on the 68000 by Alan Clements and the other book by James Antonakas. I found these texts very clear and worthwhile; written in a style better tailored for beginners.

This is the first time I submit a comment. That is how bad the book is (and I only got to chapter 3). I expected to see information beyond what's in the RTCs such as examples and explanation.

There are many instances where the authors list a number of items giving the impression that the following sections will explain each item in detail, and they only have one section explaining the first item and skip the rest.

Diagrams also seem to be thrown in randomly as there is no associated text explaining what's being presented.

Overall, a bad book due to any combination of these:

(1) lack of understanding of the material and/or (2) lack in the capability to convey the knowledge

The text has too much of description in ASN. The book is not very clear about what it covers. I think the authors should make it clear, whether they are talking about OSI-SNMP or TCP/IP-SNMP.

Not enough explanation to be a good tutorial, and not well organized as a reference.