That's Denzel Washington (not Eric Clapton) teaming his prodigious talents with those of blues legend B.B. King in this powerful retelling of the classic American legend. This is another treasure from Rabbit Ear productions: a beautifully illustrated book that can be read on its own, or with the included cassette. Go for the cassette first: You'll be treated to Denzel Washington's warm, rich, folksy, awe-struck, conversational narration.

"So y'all listen up, 'cause I'm gonna tell you the guaranteed, gold plated, ninety-nine-point-nice percent truth about John Henry."

Then, enjoy the inimitable riffs of B.B. King, as he and his guitar (presumably "Lucille") sing out with the pure, clear, authenticity of the blues: "My name is John Henry. I'm a born natural man. I was born one morning with a hammer in my hand . . . " This is collector material.

John Henry's triumph defends the dignity and perseverance of human labor against the encroaching machine. In its own small way, with a low-tech assist from the aural majesty of Washington and King, this volume preserves and extends the pleasures of the written page.

John Henry is one of the best Rabbit Ears titles - which is saying a lot. BB King is wonderful; Denzel Washington is wonderful. I'm not writing this for me - but if my 8 year old goes to sleep to it every (I mean, make sure you rewind that tape) night, then it is a wonderful book

OFFSPRING OF EMPIRE: THE KOCH"ANG KIMS AND THE COLONIAL ORIGINS OF KOREAN CAPITALISM 1876-1945 is a detailed economic, historical, and biographical polemic about the origins of capitalism in Korea. The author argues, that Japanese "(c)olonialism...for better or worse...was the catalyst and cradle of industrial development in Korea...". Using the example of two brothers, Kim Songsu and Kim Yonsu, Eckart reveals a rough portrait of middle-class life in pre-and-Occupation-era Korea. Wading through economic statistics, newspaper clippings, boardroom minutes, and interviews, the author also contends against nationalistic, whether South Korean ("sprouts theory") or North Korean, theories of Korean development. What remains is the disturbing thought, that the glue holding nationalism together on the Korean peninsula, is morally bankrupt.

Although this book was published originally in 1991 (reprinted in 1997), the full effect of the events it describes are still unfolding. Relations between the two Koreas, and both Koreas' relations with foreign nations, particularly Japan, China, Russia, and the United States, are complicated by questions from just this period of history. Where is Korea? Who are the Koreans? Both these basic questions continue to unnerve Koreans as they try to locate themselves in the larger world outside Asia. Eckart's argument undermines the Korean argument, that Koreans were developing into a modern nation just like any western nation. He also undermines the role of Koreans in the capitalist development of their own country. He even, by questioning the origins of Park Chung Hee's inspiration for developing South Korea after the Occupation, undermines all of Korea's development efforts. One is left with the disturbing thought, that Korea, as the average Korean loves to say, is the land of one racial group, a theory fraught with serious moral implications.

Eckart's argument also frustrates the search for an alternative to authoritarian development by a strong government, whether colonialist or Park-esque. Its as if the Americans had crowned Washington after all, instead of devising an original alternative to the despotism the revolutionaries had just defeated. As Korea stumbles through reform with a president highly unpopular and limited by constitutional restrictions, these thoughts,this book raises,take on more urgency.

OFFSPRING OF EMPIRE is, in one aspect, history of a powerful landlord family, Kochang Kims, their interactions with Japanese colonial authorities and the active role they played in the growth of textile and other industries throughout 20th century Korea. More broadly and importantly, it is a rigorous and insightful analysis of the emergence of industrial capitalism in Korea. When it was initially published, the book received criticism from Korean scholars for challenging the then-dominant model of the nationalist scholarship; "sprout theory," or the notion that indigenous sprouts of industrial capitalism were nipped by the colonial exploitation by the Japanese. Recently, however, nationalist scholarship has come under attack by a new generation of Korean historians. Much of the nationalist criticism -- including the claim that the book "rationalizes" Japanese colonial rule -- were operating under the (unstated) assumption that economic development was an unquestioned good, and since the Japanese colonial rule was evil, it could not possibly have helped Korean economic development. Some young Korean historians are now seriously questioning this assumption. Economic development , in either colonial or postcolonial Korea, no longer appears to be an unquestioned good, given its gross human rights violations, environmental destruction and other negative legacies. (North Korea in its way had to deal with the legacy of colonialism -- it can be seen as a nation where nationalism, emerged as an oppositional ideology to the Japanese colonial rule, has been elevated to the level of religious credo. The result of this, as we all can plainly see, has been disastrous to the basic human dignity of North Koreans) The evidence for continuties between colonial and postcolonial regimes is too numerous and obvious to be brushed aside. The fact that there was economic development under the colonial rule by no means justifies or excuses the Japanese domination, an act of profound disregard and contempt for the people of Korea. Acknowledging this fact simply opens the way for raising more questions and topics to be investigated about the nature of Japanese colonialism. The critical attitude of many young Korean historians indicates, indeed, that one of the most important negative legacies of Japanese colonialism, i.e. absolutist, unyielding allegiance to nationalism, (which so often breaks down into the "blood is thicker than water" variety of ethnic chauvinism) is becoming the thing of the past. Read OFFSPRING if you are interested in modern Korean history, modern Japanese history and East Asian economic development, and make up your own mind.

Today we know them as Old Hickory and the Great Compromiser. However, they called each other King Andrew the first and the Corrupt Bargainer. Jackson and Clay were the opposite poles of the axis of Antebellum politics. Each man carried an ideological dislike and often personal hatred of the other man. However, each shaped the political landscape in the US perhaps more than any men after 1800. The 1820-30s were the utmost of critical in the development of the US- the crossroads where the US could prove a failed democratic experiment or emerging industrial country. In these crucial times nothing happened in Washington, DC without either Clay's or Jackson's approval. Their personal feud infulenced everything from construction of national highways, and the national banking system to slavery and tarriffs.

Watson keeps an even hand in explaining the complex relationship of these two important men. His writing is percise and insightful. The first part is Watson's explantion and analysis. Part 2 consist of over 100 pages of historical letters and writings. This allows the reader to understand Jackson and Clay thru their own words. The 200+ pages read very fast and contain all the information your likely to ever need to know about the connection between Clay and Jackson. The book was designed "to be a reasonable one-week assignment for a college course." It proves very reasonable indeed.

Before I make any comments about the book, I must first declare that my review is highly biased towards Dr. Palais and his work--I had studied under his guidance for several years at the Henry M. Jackson School, University of Washington. The score for the book, which I had rated "5," is based totally on the academic value, i.e. the excellence of scholarship in one of the more obscure, yet, important fields of Korean studies.

Put simply, the book explores the state of 16th century Chosun Dynasty through the eyes of a Neo-Confucian scholar, Yu Hyongwon. The traditional and prevalent views of Yu have been that Yu was the forerunner of Sirhak or "practical learning" school of Korean Neo-Confucianism. However, Palais disputes this long-standing notion of Yu and, rather, asserts that Yu's ideas about statescraft was rather limited in ambition--Yu was searching for ways to revitalize the Choson Dynasty well within the traditions of Confucianism. This key thesis is and will be, for sometime to come, remain a contested issue among students of Korean history.

I believe the contribution of Palais' work lie in his pain-stakingly thorough exploration into Neo-Confucian traditions extant in the 17th century Korea. Fujiya Kawashima of Bowling Green State University notes "the book will remain for decades to come a cornerstone of KOrean Studies and required reading for specialists and students alike who are intersted in Confucian statecraft and institutions in East Asia" in his review of the Palais' work in the Journal of Asian Studies. I could not agree more.

I do have a couple of reservations, however. This book is not a light reading. The sheer length of the book is enormous--totallying 1019 pages. Substance-wise, readers should have a fairly good handle on the history of Chosun Dynasty, (Neo) Confucian traditions, and the debate over Sirhak to fully appreciate Palais' work. It is a truly daulting task to actually read this book from cover to cover, but the reader will be rewarded handsomely for his effort.

A great outlook of the life in the American West!

Magnificent prints directly from the old glass plates - the originals. These are kept by the Western History Section of the Denver Public Library. I have had the folio since about 1975 and continually find nuances in these pictures that I had previously missed. I also wonder what a copy brings at present. Not that I would part with mine!

A truly incredible diary kept by William Henry Jackson's good friend, Elwood Bonney during the last ten years of Jackson's ninety nine year life. The editor is astutely sensitive and the footnotes provide a great deal of information. One will learn more about Jackson through this book than any other. It would be fair to say that Jackson would agree with the latter statement as his opinions are expressed so well by Bonney. The friendship between the two will be coveted by the reader.

I spotted this book at the library near the check-out desk and grabbed it-the subtitle, The Frontier photography of William Henry Jackson, sounded like something I could pick up and browse in between tasks (this was between Thanksgiving and Christmas). I have a grown son in California and a grown daughter who is a photographer and who travels the world pursuing new vistas for her camera. I am buying her this book as it resonates with the kind of tale she has told me of her adventures. It is described as juvenile literature, which is all well and true because the language is accessible to junior-high-aged children, but nevertheless regrettable because perhaps most adults will therefore never consider reading it. Yet the writing, the concepts, and above all the photography are so full of the beauty, the optimism, the struggles and challenges of our nation in the nineteenth century as we grew from a rural thinly populated mainly eastern seaboard land to a multiethnic, continental, industrial society that I found it entirely engrossing. All these social and cultural threads weave through the narrative painlessly, and the glory of the photos of life and nature and the real people I have always heard (only as names in history books) at the time of the conquering of the west are reason you keep turning those pages.

Current US international policy shows just how brilliant and enduring Frederick Turner's Frontier Thesis really is.

The basic idea is that after the initial explorations by Spain, England, etc., the real colonisation of America was a flight from conditions in Europe (including Ireland and Britain) which led to a European-style culture and settlement of the East Coast.

This led to a second flight from European-like influences into the interior - which simply pulled European-style culture further west. And so it continued until Europe finally reached the West Coast.

There are numerous ramifications of the thesis, including the "force majeur" (might=right) attitude of the settlers towards the Native Americans - with its ominous overtones on the eve of war in the Middle-East.

As far as I understand it, for all the "warts", Turner was looking to UNDERSTAND the American mentality/culture, as shaped by by historical experience, and the Frontier Thesis is a critique, NOT a criticism.

Read this book and gain a whole new, or at least greatly expanded, view of what it means to be an "American".

Current US international policy shows just how brilliant and enduring Frederick Turner's Frontier Thesis really is.

The basic idea is that after the initial explorations by Spain, England, etc., the real colonisation of America was a flight from conditions in Europe (including Ireland and Britain) which led to a European-style culture and settlement of the East Coast.

This led to a second flight from European-like influences into the interior - which simply pulled European-style culture further west. And so it continued until Europe finally reached the West Coast.

There are numerous ramifications of the thesis, including the "force majeur" (might=right) attitude of the settlers towards the Native Americans - with its ominous overtones on the eve of war in the Middle-East.

As far as I understand it, for all the "warts", Turner was looking to UNDERSTAND the American mentality/culture, as shaped by by historical experience, and the Frontier Thesis is a critique, NOT a criticism.

Read this book and gain a whole new, or at least greatly expanded, view of what it means to be an "American".

Mr. Turner ingeniously express's who we are and the reasons why. This work produced last century harbors a number of ideas on what made this country the greatest nation in the world. Mr. Turner correctly weaves his thesis on the frontier in a very short span.

By reading this work you will realize what separates the United States from every other land. All other works on the history of this special place we call home are details and footnotes on the events that have taken place over our brief span of time.

A fourth generation Coloradoan, I can appreciate the time and patience it must have taken for John Fielder to assemble this photo archive. Who knows if Jackson left exact notes as to where he was standing when he composed his shots? It looks as if Fielder had taken great pains to get the shot from the same or similar vantage point as Jackson. It was great to see that some aspects remained the same, and the changes were interesting too. My sister had her name on a waiting list for three months before she was able to purchase this book for me, and I'm very glad she did. If the publisher ever gets more, the next one is for my sis. It's a great book for our public libraries, too. What's with the shortage?

This book is one of the most spectacular that I have seen. John Fielder has catpured Colorado's true beauty in his photos. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially people who have never been to Colorado. I'm from colorado myself, and I never knew that Colorado had such beauty tucked away. The difference in the age span of the pictures truely amazing. Some places have changed so much, but some are left untouched...still pure.

This is a spectacular book! Being a Colorado native I was facinated with the concept of "then and now" photos, looking closely for all changes in natural and man made landscape. I had hoped for a little more front range material, but totally enjoyed the wonderful photo art work Fielder is known for in our beautiful state. My entire family has spent hours viewing the pages. I own several other similar books on Colorado. This is most definitely a star addition to the collection.