When the "founding fathers" wrote the constitution, it brought about great change. Today great change is needed...so what else ought we do but change the constitution? Jackson makes that notion convincingly clear. As i read this book, I kept thinking "I wish I had this book in college." In college, the dynamics of social and political thought were always about programs and policies....it was the bandaid solution. This book lays out the treatment and, most importantly, the diagnosis! Where have we been as a nation? The answer to that question is the real diagnosis....it is the diagnosis no one wants to hear, that Jackson has exposed. But we must acknowledge the diagnosis so we can identify the proper treatment and know how to apply it. How do we heal? The answer to that question is the treatment -- changing the constitution is so fundamental that it is largely ignored by politicos and scholars. Perhaps it is ignored because the constitution has been held as an immovable object. But, as Jackson explains, the constitution can be changed, and any changes (or amendments) become as rock solid as the constitution itself. Jackson has laid out a strategy that has rarely (in part and never in toto) been suggested for our nation -- a new idea -- that fact alone makes this book a MUST HAVE. Jackson has also laid out a strategy that will yield a prognosis for the nation that is desireable to all -- that fact makes this book a MUST DO!

This book is must reading for anyone who desires to understand how politicial idealogy has developed in the US. Additionally, the book offers a clear agenda for moving the United States towards a more perfect union. I predict that we will see the issues raised in this book edvident in the next presidential election.

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.in his newest book " A More Perfect Union" has proven that he is so much more than the beneficiary of great civil, social, political and theolological pedigree. In this his, chef doeuvre, along with contributor Frank Watkins, he provides the reader with a sweeping commentary of not merely race but racism in all of its legislative origin.

Imagine not stumbling upon the word racism until 1936 and finding no rise of the African American experience. Preposterous. Is it not? But truth. Congressman Jackson not only reveals why we must be outraged, not in the riotous form, but further demonstrates, in this important piece how we must engage our outrage by "economic reform."

Reader do not be discouraged by the book's smallprint or numerous pages. This plethora of information only lends itself to the extensive research and detail the author and his contributor insisted upon. Welcome these pages as they are wealthy. FINALLY there exists an "inclusive textbook" which it resembles and rally for it soon to be.

The reader will delight in a discovery of previously undocumented
yet factual pieces of African-American history "as American as apple pie." Congressman Jackson Jackson exhibits how African-Americans significantly shaped America and its politics. Furthermore, he examines how each American President, past and present viewed(s)and dealt(s) with the race problem and provides the reader with deriviations of words such as Jim Crow, locates and defines for his reader new political buzz words and delves into how "A More Perfect Union" can be achieved through Equal Opportunity, Human Rights,Full Employment, Universal and Comprehensive Health Care, Affordable Housing, Quality Public Education, Fair Taxes, Foreign Policy, Politics, and Moral Responsibility. Congressman Jackson actually dissects each of the above-mentioned and provides VIABLE solutions to their achievement.

Congressman Jackson and his contributor Frank Watkins must be applauded for preaching more than just "high sounding benevolent social rhetoric" as some of his counterparts. A section of the book is semi-autobiograhical and gives the reader perspective into his personal experiences and his subsequent growth. In it he reveals his humanity and there is substantial evidence that he has not taken his political responsibility lightly.

Readers add this book to your shelf only after reading and re-reading. It must "court" your dictionary and your other reference material. This book will invite you to consult it time and time again. It is indeed reference-WORTHY. Although it is a lofty, thought-provoking, brave and maybe even an unpopular undertaking, it is brillantly and perfectly executed. As Lincoln stated "the hen is the wisest of all animal creation because she never cacles until the egg is laid". Congressman Jackson is no hen but an egg he has laid-and "A More Perfect Union" is clearly Faberge'. We recognize if we never did before, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. as one of our most heady, intellectual statesmen of the 21st century. A must Read!!! BRAVO!!!!

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After all that has been written about Jackson, Vandiver's treatment is still the best. Highly recommended.

This is an essential book for anyone's personal library. Smart, concise, well-illustrated, and comprehensive it tells the story of one of early America's greatest field commanders. Never engaging the question of North versus South and the issues that sculpted the Civil War, Vandiver focuses on the man, his legend, and the simple values he built his life around.

A very informative book. Jacks are the best!

Details the origin and purpose of the breed, differentiating them from the Fox Terrier and the numerous white terriers called Jack Russell Terriers. Also covers history, UK and US standard, caring for the new puppy, breeding, showing, judging and working the terrier, and health care and the law. 281 pp. / photos / UK

I enjoy reading history books. This has to be one of my all time favorite history books. The fact that many years after its publication, it is still in print speaks to its continuing popularity.

If you are interested in presidential history, this is the book for you. Dr. Williams has done a lot of intense research about the U.S. presidents who hail from Tennessee.

This is a must have book for all history lovers. Dr. Williams does a great job of bringing the Tennessee presidents to life. I learned so much I did not know about the presidents and their lives.

Frank O'Reilly's insightful, twenty-one page introduction to Augustus C. Hamlin's rare 1896 work, originally entitled The Battle of Chancellorsvile: The Attack of Stonewall Jackson..., gives it the status of a classic. The following two paragraphs are taken directly from O'Reilly's opening introduction: In the early morning of May 2, 1863, a small cavalcade of Federal horsemen galloped out the Orange Plank Road. At the head of the group, "...with the air of a king, very red in the face, but holding his big fat body very erect," rode the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General Joseph Hooker. Close behind him cantered the one-arm nascent leader of the Union Eleventh Corps, Major General Oliver Otis Howard. Merry staff officers bantered and teased while the generals glanced over their defenses. After a short look, Hooker voiced his satisfaction with the Eleventh Corps position and returned to Chancellorsville to consummate his mysterious plans for victory over Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Nine hours later, the soldiers of the Eleventh Corps sat stoically manning their trenches or cooking dinner and listening to the sweet refrains of musicians in the distance. They also heard rumors that the Confederates had abandoned the battlefield and now hurried to escape the Federals' clutches. "Unharness those horses, boys, give them a good feed of oats," laughed General O.O. Howard. "We will be off for Richmond at daylight." Suddenly, a startled deer bolted from the forest, barreling through the astonished soldiers. Other deer darted from the woods, pursued by rabbits, foxes and birds scurrying in every direction. All nature had gone awry. Driving the wildlife before them came the cadenced ranks of Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Confederates. The gray-clad Southerners plowed into the Union defenses "...like a crash of thunder from the clear sky." Introduction by Frank O'Reilly is a graduate of, and guest lecturer at, Washington & Lee University. He has written widely on the war along the Rappahannock, and is the author of introductions to new editions of Phil Sheridan's memoirs and the history of the First Massachusetts Cavalry. An authority on Stonewall Jackson, O'Reilly is the author of Stonewall Jackson at Fredericksburg, co-author of the Atlas of the Civil War and is researching a book on the Chancellorsville Campaign. Edited by Pia Seija Seagrave is a poet, musician, and teacher of English for twenty years. She is now Associate Professor of English at Gallaudet University

My great friend Frank Palmer died on June 1st 2000. I had known him for fifteen years and helped him with the photographs for all but one of his books. In that period I never met anyone who had a bad word for him. He was a true character from the old fleet street. He treated me like his son and I miss him like my father...... He was a great journalist & author - please read his books and enjoy the life we both experienced....

This great book is a mix of humor and knowledge presented in an articulate and fun manner. I give it two thumbs up!

With this work, Frank Jackson has provided us with a much needed explicitation of the assumptions underlying most forms of philosophical analysis. Indeed, Jackson argues forcefully that conceptual analysis is much more prevalent in philosophical works than is admitted by many of Jacksons colleages. One of the most important insights offered in this work is the idea that metaphysics, if done seriously, must depend strongly on folk intuitions. The intuitions about when 'the folk' would plausibly apply a certain concept reveils the 'folk theory'. The metaphysician's job is then to locate these intuitions in a coherent account of 'what there is' in the traditional sense. Consequently, Jackson offers two examples of such analysis, namely colours and ethics. Both are located in the natural world: colours as the surface properties which cause our colour experiences and ethical properties as concealed descriptive properties. Whether you agree with these conclusions or not, the line of thought is both clear and sharp. Throughout, Jackson remains true to his general points, which are that metaphysics has to do with analysis of folk concepts as much as empirical discovery. This inevitably leads to considerations on Kripke and Putnam and the nature of so-called 'a posteriori necessities'. Jackson argues that the fallacious intuition that such exist stems from the fact that a single sentence may express different propositions, depending on its intension. Thus 'water is H2O' may express the necessary (and a priori) truth that 'what is actually water is H20' or it may express the contingent (and a posteriori) proposition that 'the watery stuff of our acquaintance is H20'. This is a profound insight, which solves many sceptical worries instigated by the Quinean movement. The distinctions a priori/a posteriori and contingent/necessary may now be employed with a clear conscience; something which has been difficult ever since Quine's Two Dogmas first appeared half a century ago. Not all will agree with Jackson's line of argument but the clarity of his claims and significance of their implications make this book a great asset for anyone interested in metaphysics and the philosophy of language.

This is your ultimate guide to understanding the twisted vocabulary of your native New Yorker. If you are a New Yorker it will make you proud. It is an essential guide for New Yorkers to understand themselves and a necessary survival guide for tourists. It is important to understand that when a New Yorker says, "Good mawnin'. Howawya?", he is being friendly. You'll also find lotsa Catlicks in St. Patricks Cathedral. The illustrations by Frank Marciuliano are hysterical. In fact, they are essential in understanding some of the words. A must have! 'How to Speak New Yorkese' will show you that 'the only way ta make it through a day in New Yawk is with a sensa yuma'.

What a wonderful book! In addition to being a terrifically exciting story, Jackson, the author, vividly creates a sense of time and place. One is transported to America at the turn of the century - a period of transition and change in which Frank Grigware, the protagonist, is innocently and irreparably caught. This book succeeds on every level. Outstanding!

I picked this book up on a whim and once started I couldn't put it down. It is a great true story of the real old west. Young men seeking adventure, train robbers, unjust imprisonmemnt, daring escapes and more. You should really give this one a try!

In 1906, the twenty year old Frank Grigware announced to his family that he was going to see the world. They had been living in eastern Washington for years, and he wanted to see more of the West than Spokane. His mother understood completely; it is not an uncommon occurrence for a young man to want to roam before settling down to respectable ways. He hooked up with his best friend Frank Golden, and they figured they would do some prospecting in northern Idaho. A tough life loomed, but Grigware had no idea that he would as a result be accused and convicted of a crime he did not commit, incarcerated in the toughest prison in existence, escape from the prison, and remain on the lam from his country for the rest of his life. The astonishing story of Grigware's life is told in _Leavenworth Train: A Fugitive's Search for Justice in the Vanishing West_ (Carroll & Graf) by Joe Jackson, who shows that Grigware was guilty of nothing but naïveté when he associated with train robbers. He was, however, found as guilty as the rest of them, and a quick decision gave all the defendants life imprisonment, at Leavenworth, the first US federal penitentiary.

It was only six months into his sentence that Grigware, who the prisoners could tell was not really one of them, was let in on an escape by four other prisoners. Using the classic ploy of threatening with guns skillfully crafted of wood from one of the shops and blackened with shoe polish, they hijacked a train that regularly supplied the prison. Grigware was the only one not captured quickly, and for the next 24 years was one of America's most wanted men. The trail was long cold, even after President Woodrow Wilson commuted the sentence of the other robbers because the evidence in the case was so lacking. The FBI refused to back down, and it spied on members of Grigware's family, which was sadly fractured by his escape. Grigware in sorrow knew he could communicate with none of them, but set up a respectable life in Canada, becoming a Canadian citizen and a well-liked member of the community of Jasper, Alberta. He was not found until 1934, and what happened afterwards is of great charm. There was a groundswell of Canadian public opinion against any sort of extradition; even the game warden circulated a petition. The mild Grigware had made many friends, and he was the sort of reliable citizen Canadians wanted. Grigware's wife (who had not known of his past), when the press reported her simple statement, "Nothing will ever break up our home," made up the minds of any Canadians that had doubts on the issue. It became an international incident, and a clash of redemptive versus retributive justice.

Grigware was reunited with his family, which had long thought him dead; the meeting with his aging mother could not have been sweeter. But he could not return with her to the US, nor return for her funeral. President Roosevelt waived extradition, but no pardon was ever issued, so if he ever came back to the US, he could land right in Leavenworth again. That result would seem preposterous as the decades went by, but in 1957, J. Edgar Hoover was still sending out directives that insisted that agents monitor Grigware's relatives in case he were to show up. Every FBI memo issued about him screamed that HE WOULD KILL OR BE KILLED RATHER THAN BE RECAPTURED, a rumor that had arisen in 1911 and which still headlined Hoover's directives about Grigware, who was then seventy-one years old. This exciting and frustrating story, crammed with period detail, reminds us that courts are not always right and that as much justice as was available in this case came from the hearts of ordinary women and men.