This is a great book for architects, historians, historic preservationists, St. Louisans and anyone who loves history and buildings. The book is loaded with historic photos--several per page--and interesting tidbits about the buildings and the history of St. Louis. I owned the first edition, but this one is about twice the size, has been redesigned with easily four times as many photos and more in-depth information about the city and the buildings.

I was given this book by a friend and was surprised at the well-balanced combination of story, locale and apt descriptions of riding events.

Buck Jones: a rodeo cowboy who becomes seriously ill and must get rid of his beloved horse. I liked Buck a lot, and so did his friends in the story. He raised Old Black from a colt and only became a rodeo star after Old Black came on the scene as his roping horse. The day he got rid of his beloved pal was a heart-rending scene.

Small things impressed me. The arrival at the Bradley's farm with Jim's new horse -- he so wanted to show him off to the old black couple down the lane, but he had to wait. Things to do on the farm. Getting on the horse took some imagination for 10-year-old Jim Bradley, but he solved THAT! Then got an extension for his stirrup. Small things, but so important to the story.

Jim's first real horse show was an adventure for me. The hospitality suite he and his mother came upon, and got acquainted with the Robertsons and their daughters. Jim's performance in that western riding class was beautiful, as written.

I adored little Alexandra Meridith, her father. Her grandparents, Oscar and Ruby, were fine old people, and dearly loved by that little boy.

The series of chapters dealing with the rescue of the sheriff out in the woods was as stirring and exciting as could be. And it reeked of realism. That long episode was brought to a perfect conclusion, even if some concerns still were left dangling. But they were wrapped up later.

The funeral of a black lady was a fine piece of descriptive writing, touching.

The ending of the story was purely satisfying. The indignant lady in the stands was a good, good touch. How she finally came around to applaud Old Black after accusing him of hurting her daughters chances in the class. The unlikely but understandable award to Old Black. Then, something I can't tell because it would ruin the ending for readers, but it was just exactly what should have happened. Even if it caught be completely by surprise.

A great story.

I'm a horsewoman, but I don't often find a good story with a horse as a main character. The authors don't often get their facts straight. This one did. Every detail that was explained was correct down to the smallest little thing.

Old Black, the book, was a bigger book than it seemed. I counted about 35 characters counting Sam the Rodesian ridgeback dog, and, of course, Old Black himself. Not one character escapes my mind's eye. I knew them every one. Even the reporter, Paul Hardesty, was memorable, and had only a cameo (but important) appearance. Oscar and Ruby, I fell for them hard. Salt of the earth. And how I cried when ... but read it yourself. I could see why the author took that route, it was a big step up the ladder to adulthood for Jim. It took me a long time to read the whole scene because I had a hard time seeing anything.

The author truly introduced every character. And that isn't so often the case.

There was some extravagant adventure in this story, but I never once had to suspend disbelief. Old Black the horse was not overplayed into a super horse, either. Nor was that wonderful little boy Jim. And wasn't Alexandra something? Uncle Harry was right, she's a little princess. And speaking of Uncle Harry and Aunt Hazel, everybody who knows someone who has a loved one with Alzheimer's should get a copy of this book. I know in my heart that Jim's therapy would be beneficial.

There are some real heartbreaking scenes and events in this book. And some funny ones too. I thought I'd die laughing over Mr. Mehlman's "theoretical last days." And the incident involving the snake in the bathroom. My husband came in to see what I was laughing about. I told him I had been bitten by the fabled laughing snake. (Of course, he didn't get it until HE read the book.)Wasn't Harry's reaction something a man with a good sense of humor would come out with? And I can understand Matt and Jim laughing themselves sick.

I finished Old Black, lay back on the pillow and relished it a while, then started right back on page 1.

Old Black is a great book and a great story. I bought the book first and foremost because it was a horse book but then I was caught by the book itself. It has excellent drawings and artwork on the book jacket, the inside cover pages, at the beginning of the chapters and within the book. Even the paper it is printed on is unusual, a very high quality paper. When I read the story I could not put it down. The story is well written with a good range of issues from bigotry to Altzheimers. It is a good read not only for adults but younger readers too. I have talked so much about this book, that now my husband and some friends are going to read it. Most of them are not into horses and certainly are not into reading about them. It doesn't matter though you don't have to be into horses to enjoy this book. Young people and families face these same situations today. Since I purchased the book, I have kept it out on an end table so if I have any spare moments I can pick it up and read it. Anywhere the book falls open to is a fine place to start reading but I do have some favorite sections. I like the episode about the standoff with Jim, Old Black, and Sheriff Martinez against the drug dealers at Klanke's Mill. I also liked the part when Old Black receives a much deserved award, and the gentle way Jim deals with his Aunt Hazel, who has Altzheimers and there are many more.

Read and enjoy.

Louis XIV engaged in nearly constant warfare from 1664 to 1714. His wars covered the face of Europe from Ireland to Italy. The great commanders of the Age, Marlborough, Vauban, Turenne, Conde, Luxembourg and Eugene all crossed the stage of Louis' many wars. This is a lot of history to compress into one volume.

John Lynn does an admirable job of surveying the different wars and keeping track of all the campaigns that shaped these wars. He writes clearly and economically. One finishes the book having a better understanding of Louis' grand strategic vision.
This is not a book for someone wanting to learn more about the great commanders of the Age or the details of specific campaigns or battles. This is a book about war, writ large.

In my opinion, the value of this book for the general reading public of military history is that it places the accomplishments of Frederick the Great and later Napoleon into a better context. To understand why they were such revolutionaries, it is important to place them in contrast to an era where war was seen as process and the decisive moment did not exist.

Since the wars of Louis XIV have not been covered comprehensively in English, this volume by a renowned historian is particularly welcome. In this work, John Lynn combines a succinct, but thorough blow-by-blow narrative account of the wars fought by Louis XIV with a cogent historical analysis that places these conflicts in their proper perspective. Lynn's main hypothesis differs from some other historians who view Louis XIV as a would-be European conqueror intent on endless wars of conquest. Rather, Lynn regards Louis' wars as essentially defensive after achieving limited territorial gains in Holland after 1675. Lynn explains these conflicts as wars-as-process that rather than seeking to annihilate enemy armies or achieve decisive victories, sought lesser objectives like extorting taxes from occupied lands, deciding dynastic issues or achieving defensible borders for France. Inevitably Louis XIV sought short wars against isolated opponents, but the indecisive nature of 18th Century conflict led to protracted, attritional struggles against coalitions.

The Wars of Louis XIV consists of eight chapters, beginning with a background chapter on European conflict in 1495-1661. Two other excellent opening chapters cover French strategic concepts in this period as well as the strength and methods of the French army and navy. The next two chapters cover the relatively painless War of Devolution and the Dutch War, which were fought to achieve martial Gloire for Louis after he came to the throne. At relatively low cost, Louis added to his territory and seemed to confirm the use of violence as a useful tool of statecraft. The fifth chapter covers violence and state policy, specifically the so-called "reunions" which were coercive annexations of adjacent territory similar to Hitler's "Anschluss" with Austria, and violent suppression of the Protestant minority in France. The sixth and seventh chapters - which comprise nearly half the book - cover the fateful Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession. Although France did well militarily in the first conflict, it was financially exhausting to fight protracted attritional struggles against coalitions. In the last war, fought for dynastic reasons, the French did fairly well until Marlborough showed up in 1704. Marlborough changed the slow operational tempo - typically one big siege attempted per season - and sought to fight big battles. He smashed the French at Blenheim and Ramillies, and succeeded in rolling back most of Louis' gains over the past 20 years. Nevertheless, Louis outlasted his enemies and eventually managed to achieve a favorable peace. The final chapter consists of an analysis of all of Louis' wars and attempts to place them in proper historical perspective.

Overall, this work is excellent - it is well-written, well-researched and provides fresh insight into a long-neglected subject. Students of Napoleonic warfare would be well-advised to read this book as background on the development of French doctrine (particularly a preference for fortifications) and strategy in pre-Revolutionary France. The chapters that cover the wars are sub-divided into sections on each year, which are cover the different fronts sequentially. The only flaw is this volume is the lack of decent maps; many important towns mentioned in the text are not depicted in the simple sketch maps nor are the movement of armies depicted. Nor is there a map of the Spanish theater of war, which was particularly important in the last two wars. It is particularly difficult to follow gains and losses of towns in the main battle front of Flanders, and the author should have provided at least a summary map to depict major territorial changes in each war. Readers should keep a good atlas handy in order to follow the campaigns.

Although France was able to achieve some strategic gains in these wars of Louis XIV, the main military legacy of the Sun King was near financial bankruptcy. John Lynn concludes, "for fifty years, French armies had been strong enough to stand against coalitions of all the other great powers. But the treaties of Utrecht, Rastatt, and Baden marked a watershed in international relations. No longer could France maintain its former dominance. This reality reflected not only the relative decline of France, but the increased power of other European states."

Measured simply by the length of the conflicts, Louis XIV was the most war-like French leader of all time, easily eclipsing Napoleon. He was also more successful, if you go by the "Frederick of Prussia" test - compare the map of his country before he came to power with the map after he left, and you will see lasting expansion and consolidation. The world of Louis takes us to the crises of the Fronde, the Wars of Devolution, the Nine Years War, and the War of Spanish Succession, and treats us to the genius of Turenne and Conde. It's now fashionable to write off the pre-Napoleonic period of military history, based as it was on "positional warfare" and long sieges, but Lynn is good enough to buck the trend - and thankfully so, for modern readers would never have come across the genius of Vauban, Louis's veteran engineer and probably the greatest general of the era. This would have received five stars, but loses one for prose style. But - on the plus side - the history is impeccable, the coverage is thorough and the maps are superb.

This story introduces the concept of new siblings and family structure to small children using their favorite characters-Dinosaurs! As the smallest stegosaurus discovers that he is no longer "smallest" he discovers all the things he can show his baby sister about his world.

I think Gates meant well by producing this piece,but his mind is no different from Eurocentrics who constantly degrade Africa and it's culture. I Have been on a crusade to justify Africa's existence in the broad history of the world. Gates Fails to do even this. I am a white person by the way. I recommend Gates instead of trying to displace Egypt from Africa you should look for connections. The connections between Egyptain relgion and African traditions is in there and worth a look. Dubois had said in his books constantly about the african features of ancient egypt. I heard Gates is making a documentary of Egypt,and I wonder if it will be insulting like this book and video set. Can scholars trust Gates not to be a biased eurocentric,nor a manaiac Afrocentric. I enjoyed parts of Africana,but found this book was offesive to African people and their culture. If you want to learn more about pre colonial West Africa check out Basil Davidson,a white historian of Africa,but a whole lot better choice on African history. Gates has no knowleadge of Africa either and it not an expert. He is just a pseudo anthropologist/african historian/book critic. TOny Brown also exposed his envolvment of the jewish coverup of the trans Atlantic slave trade. I shall discuss that on another post

Gates has made a good start here. Some things are exposed, like Swahili's role as an Arab pidgeon language (sometimes called "lingua franca" of the Arab slave trade), and at least the African origins of Egypt are mentioned. But African reviewers have given this book a universal drubbing, rightly so, because of its poor treatment of slavery and its role in ripping apart civilizations in Africa.

Gates' treatment of Egypt is also grossly inadequate. Black Africa's role in Ancient Egypt was assumed in the 1800's. Many great historians like Budge placed Ancient Egyptian alongside other "Negro" languages and the relationships are both startling and clear to the language enthusiast, whereas the relationships to Semitic are strained and minor at best. This is but one of many discussion points that Gates misses entirely ... points that I believe would be of deep fascination to any African-American, but also to Europeans like myself who always find history full of strange unknowns that seem to disappear when racism is caste aside. Gates barely mentions "controversy" when he should be saying "travesty".

I believe one of the biggest crimes being committed today by our history departments is the repeated, and gross misrepresentation of ancient Egyptian art, culture and society to make it seem more European. Nevertheless, the book makes a great start. If only major publishers could be convinced to get someone more knowledgeable about Africa and its history to try and redo the concept. Personally, I'm still waiting for a quality coffee table book, full of pictures, that properly relates Ancient Egypt to Africa in general.

"Wonders of the African World" by Henry Louis Gates is an interesting illustrated introduction to Africa, or more precisely, to ancient Nubia and modern Sudan; Ethiopia; Mali and Timbuktu; the Swahili East Coast; the historic Slave Coast and Gold Coast and modern Benin and Ghana; and South Africa and Zimbabwe. The book is a combination of personal essay, travelogue, and history. Much of the criticism of the "Wonders of the African World" TV/book production focused on Gates' sometimes goofy (to the point of insulting, think some) behavior vis-a-vis Africans; in print, Gates is more in his element and the book reads well.

This is no comprehensive history of Africa; rather, Gates explores something of interest in each of the countries he visits (the relations between ancient Nubia and Egypt, Christianity in Ethiopia; the ancient library at Timbuktu; the Eastern slave trade and African/Arab lineage of the Swahili; the Western slave trade and the Asante Kingdom; and megalithic ruins in Southern Africa). Gates writes a middle course between two opposing camps: the outmoded "Africa has no history" and the extreme "All civilization originated in Africa". Gates is no scholar of the history of Africa (and he makes this clear in the opening of the book). Readers who know little about Africa will certainly find much of interest here and will enjoy learning about Africa along with Gates. Students of African history might wonder what all the fuss is about. Everyone will admire the beautiful sepia-toned photographs by Lynn Davis. The book is filled out with well-chosen quotations from a variety of historic writers as well as vintage illustrations. Notes on sources are provided.

It is a pity that Gates did not travel in central Africa, along the Congo River. That's the part of Sub-Saharan Africa with no ancient books (like Timbuktu), no lost cities of stone (like Southern Africa and Sudan), no ancient priesthood or empire (like Ethiopia). It would heve been very interesting to see what Gates would have made of it.

A full-fledged and highly recommended history of Africa is "Africa: A Biography of the Continent" by John Reader. Also see Basil Davidson's "The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State", "Modern Africa: A Social and Political History", and "Africa in History: Themes and Outlines".

WARNING: If you are studying the French Revolution check to see if this is a text. If it is, drop the course. The language is overly formal; the documents boring and only partially relevant; and the book layout confusing and annoying. And for the price tag? Very expensive for a sleeping pill.

Lynn Hunt is one of the most recognized authorities on this era, she was president of the American Historical Association and she writes pretty well also. So I agree with the other reviewer and have used this book for classes and have not hesitated to adopt it. A community college student majoring in psychology found it very informative, and in that setting as well as at a four-year university I have found the book is highly useful as a course text. The illustrations (woodcut porn, really) provide an instant lesson: the king can and was degraded as a political figure via sexual imagery. In other words, pornography can be political (Larry Flynt isn't a trailblazer, after all). This book will not help someone looking to understand the basics of what happened between 1789-94 but if you have a grasp of that and want to understand more about creating a nation of men as "equals" or "brothers" (no women need apply), then read this book. You might find yourself thinking about it long after reading it (which is when you might really find yourself appreciating it).

Please disregard the negative review. Hunt's text is fairly accessible. She describes how the great republican and liberal revolutionaries depoliticized women by emphasizing domesticity. Simply: women could not have political rights or privileges because their biology and psychology directed them toward the home and childrearing. Hunt argues from cultural products: plays, festival, and symbols that the revolutionaries invented to legitimize their ideas (lots of quaint images of home life.) She fails at many points to explain the impact of these images and how widely people could have been affected by them. Many of these products will be unfamiliar to many readers, especially those without knowledge of the literature of the period. Furthermore, I would not recommend the books as a general history of the French Revolution. Even Hunt assumes that you know about the "great story." It is a much better book after you have read several political and at least a few social histories of the revolution. Thereafter, Hunt's books is an excellent counterpoint to the notion that the revolution was liberating--it wasn't!