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Overall, this book is essential reading for the military leader and a must add to his professional library. Although this is a great military book, the geographic community and public in general would most certainly enjoy looking at classic military operations through a geographic lens. Additionally, all will benefit from the information presented as the traditional lines between peace and war continue to blur.

If we would understand the inner meaning of anything, we will start with the view of it by Military Geography -- and this book challenges us to achieve accurate, active understanding.
I think that students, no later than their twelfth year, should be offered this book for their basic development. For professionals in all fields it is an essential tool. The authors are top professionals, professors at our United States Military Academy, the world's premier institution for leader development.

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The scope of this book ranges from the year 1500- 1865. This study begins with Florida when it was still a territory of Spain. It is here that the author tries to piece together the African presents in Florida before the institution of slavery is established. The author uses a wide range of sources to his point. He utilizes a lot of researched that focuses on Africans who were free when they first set foot in Florida. He uses sources from historians who have done extensive research in Florida such as Jane L. Landers of Vanderbilt University and Canter Brown of Florida A&M University. This to me adds validity to this book and this study.
The rest of the chapters of this book provide a lot of information that is not nessccary new information in terms of slavery. There have been many studies conducted on slave resistance, on slave condition, slave families, etc. However, there has never been such a study done in regards to Florida and slavery. I am a Floridian by birth and a historian by profession and the way that this booked flowed had me on the edge of my seat at all times. I knew about slavery and about slave conditions, but to read about slavery and slave condition in an area that I am familiar with was very riveting. The information provided about Gadsden and Jackson counties were very valuable to me because I grew-up in those counties. I am sure anyone that has looked at this research and has family ties to Florida would feel the same way.
The sources that he uses throughout this book I think are very appropriate. Each one is used to magnify his point. I really love the slave narratives because they reflect a truth that is not tainted by modern society need to be politically correct. The author uses several quotes from a former Jackson County bondswoman by the name of Margrett Nickerson. Her quotes to me are beautiful because they reflect her grammar of speech and you can almost feel her tone of voice as she reflects about her experiences as a bondservant. Since the author uses so many different sources, it is hard to say if he neglected any appropriate sources. I would think that he used so many different sources because he did not want to be accused of not using enough sources.
Overall, I think that this is an excellent book. As a Floridian, I really appreciate this book because it helps me to better understand the environment that I grew up.

Rivers presents his work in a scholarly, readable, and evenhanded manner. The author named names; he treated enslaved blacks as human beings. The voices and humanity of enslaved blacks come through loud and clear in this study. The reviewer can see why "Slavery In Florida" is the fourth most purchased book in Tallahassee, Florida through AMAZON.COM. and why it has already won a national book award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association in the notification category. "Slavery In Florida" is a highly original and stimulating interpretation of the contact between Native Americans (Seminoles), enslaved blacks, and Anglo Americans during the period from 1821 to 1865. Read this gracefully written book and judge for yourself.

Readers will find the voices of slave men, women, and children throughout this study. Rivers used the Federal Writers Project WPA interviews of former slaves as well as other newspaper interviews with former bond servants to described "what slavery was like" in Florida from the viewpoint of the enslaved black. From the extensive endnotes, the author apparently used hundreds if not thousands of probate records, appraisals, and inventories to describe the slave family. Given the cruelty of slavery, Rivers argues that enslaved blacks were still able to carve out some semblance of family, connected with generations of kinfolk. Rivers presents convincing evidence that bond servants were far from being passive victims. They were sometimes successful in getting concessions from masters concerning family matters, work routines, and religious worship.
Some readers might find insightful Rivers' suggestion that the largest slave rebellion in the antebellum South was not the Nat Turner insurrection, but the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), where the majority of the warriors consisted of runaway slaves from Florida and state to the north. Apparently this is what General Thomas Jesup thought when he declared this battle to be "a negro and not an Indian War" (p. 204).
In describing enslaved blacks and whites, Rivers further gives a balanced assessment of the human frailties as well as strenghts of both groups. I found this refreshing since most studies paint all whites as the bad guys and all blacks without a blemish.
Anyone knowledgeable of the historiography of the antebellum South will quickly notice that Rivers includes the latest scholarship on slavery. As an avid reader of books on slavery, this is, in fact, one of the best books I have read on the topic in years. It should serve as a model for other state studies. I hope someone will read Rivers' book and use it as a guide to do a study of antebellum slavery in my state of Delaware (which has yet to be done). Slavery In Florida is a gripping read, and I give it five stars.

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The other reviewer has pretty much said it, but I got more from my time spent reading this book than talking with any shop personnel (no question) or almost any bike owners. Considering the cost of investing in a bicycle, and the cost of this book, there's no excuse for any bicycle owner to not own this book.

If you only buy two books on cycling, make this one your first.

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Peterson writes: 'This gathering of articles and essays, poems and conversations, is a kind of kitchen midden of my noticings of the obvious in the course of living out the Christian life in the vocational context of pastor, writer, and professor. The randomness and repetitions and false starts are rough edges that I am leaving as is in the interests of honesty. Spirituality is not, by and large, smooth.'
We have a particular meaning attached to the word subversive, which is generally a sociological and political one. While this is certain akin to the meaning utilised here, it has a different slant and context. All spirituality, in a sense, is subversive, in the sense that it seeks not that which the material world (and usually that means the political world) holds to be important, but seeks a transformation. Most major religious figures have been subversive -- they have tried to change in small and major ways the prevailing framework of life. Religion is sometimes described as the institutionalisation of a revolution; when the institution overpowers the revolution, what is needed to get back on track is a subversion.
Peterson divides the book into five broad sections: Spirituality, Biblical Studies, Poetry, Pastoral Readings, and Conversations. In discussing scripture, seminary experiences, pastoral encounters and relationships, innovative ideas and creative imaginings, Peterson presents, as it were, the raw, unrefined nuggets of spiritual expression he has encountered, in his own life and in the experiences of those close by him, as well as those lessons he has gleaned from the studies of others.
'Spirituality is always in danger of self-absorption, of becoming so intrigued with matters of soul that God is treated as a mere accessory to my experience. This requires much vigilance. Spiritual theology is, among other things, the exercise of this vigilance.'
Spirituality is a subversive practise, when done properly. As Peterson states in one of his conversations, Christians in the West believe they are living in a culture which is Christian, and are often truly amazed to discover that they have more in common with the idol worshippers warned against in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures than with anything Jesus would have really wanted.
As one currently in seminary, I found his discussion of spiritual formation in context of the seminary to be intriguing and enlightening.
'They commonly enter seminary motivated by a commitment to God and a desire to serve their Lord in some form of ministry, and find that they are being either distracted or deflected from that intention at every turn. They find themselves immersed in Chalcedonian controversies, they find themselves staying up late at night memorising Greek paradigms, they wake in the morning, rubbing their eyes, puzzled over hairsplitting distinctions between homoousios and homoiousios. This is not what they had bargained on.... Seminaries were regarded as the graveyard of spirituality. Seminaries were where men and women lost their faith.'
I am fortunate that my seminary experience has, thus far, maintained a balance of spiritual encouragement as well as academic enlightenment.
This is a first class book, borne of a lifetime of searching, reflecting, and acting, and can give much food for thought. Regardless of the denomination of the reader, there is material here for the deepening of one's own spirituality, and for putting into life's practise a greater amount of living in accord with the spirit.

My advice is not to merely read, but experience what you read, and by all means - share with your family and friends - invite them to the banquet.
Max Rondoni
Menlo Park, California


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