I found this work fantastically helpful in locating and reading the gist of all the important cases that the Supreme Court has decided. Just a little complaint, however: the index of cases, said to be complete, is not. Loewe v. Lawlor, described on p. 163, for instance, is not listed in the index of cases. Unfortunately, I also found a few other cases which, though treated in the book, are inexplicably missing from this index.

if you want more from your computer communications than justdialing your IP this is the book and software for you. long but detailed...

Good resource for general Supreme Court information and pre-1992 key cases. However, as those who follow the Supreme Court know, much has happened in the intervening 9 years since the book was published. We currently have a very conservative, yet very active Supreme Court. New judicial trends are emerging in the areas of federalism and congressional commerce powers that are suddenly vastly different from what they had been from the New Deal up until 1995. A glance at recent cases such as The City of Boerne v. Flores and the mind-boggling Bush v. Gore show the Supreme Court's reinterpretation of the reach and power of the 14th Amendment. In short, many of the precedents outlined in this book are no longer valid.

For a more current, and cheaper, book that covers much of the same ground, check out The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions, released in 1999. It only covers the cases, unlike "The Companion;" but that's kinda' the point isn't it?

The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court is a solid compilation of people, ideas, issues, and desicions involving the U.S. Supreme Court. It is getting a bit dated, but it still has many, many entires that will help anyone better understand the court's history.

Like other Oxford companions, this one was compiled by experts in the field and has much to offer. Likewise it has the annoying nuances of the other volumes (such as using symbols to indicate cross referenced items rather than boldface or italics) but these do not detract from the book's value.

Historians, lawyers, consititution adherents, and many others will find this an invaluable resource worth purchasing,...

The _Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States_ is a reference book. The topics are arranged alphabetically, like entries in an encyclopedia. They include biographies of all justices to sit in the Supreme Court up to Clarence Thomas' confirmation, and other nominees or people associated to the Court, important decisions (with dates argued, dates decided, what the vote was, who wrote the opinions, etc), basic terms associated with the Court (such as 'writ of certiorari'), constitutional doctrines (such as 'substantive due process') and other topics, such as a very complete History of the Court. The appendices include the U.S. Constitution, two lists of Justices, one simply arranged chronologically, and one more graphical noting who the President who nominated each justice was, who the Chief Justice was, etc. There is also a short appendix with a number of firsts, trivia, and traditions associated to the Court.

I should say that I am not a lawyer and not a Law Student. I am an interested lay observer only. Yet the book is written at a level which is accessible (even if you sometimes have to go check the cross-references), and very, very informative. Just reading a couple of entries a day will greatly enhance your understanding of the Supreme Court and its role, or how the Justices work.

As a reference, I doubt it has a match. The justices' biogrphies are very interesting, including major decisions or philosophical contributions. The summaries of cases include not only information on the case and the decision, but also any lasting constitutional effects, and whether or not they were later overturned (whether by other decisions, or by constitutional amendments). The historical essays alone would be worth the price of admission, as would the thorough coverage of Constitutional Schools (constructivism, First Amendment absolutism, etc), or important precedents and tests. Just what is the "clear and present danger" test, where did it originate, and how has it been modified since then? Turn to 'clear and present danger' and read the entry. You'll learn all that and more.

I've read the book cover to cover, and emerged with a much greater, clearer understanding of the Supreme Court and the Constitution than I could have obtained from reading any other single book. It is not easy reading (imagine trying to read your way through an encyclopedia...) but even if you pick and choose the entries you read, you'll come out wiser than you came in.

I recommend the book heartily to those interested in the Supreme Court, whether professionally or not. It is well worth the price.

This book offers a comprehensive picture of all of the major wine-growing regions in France including broad notes on differences in the wines and the winemaking methods. In each region, it includes interesting anecdotes on Lynch's own adventures in finding unique wines and the winemakers he comes in contact with. Lynch is most passionate about the wines of Burgundy -- and least interested in Bordeaux -- as much because of his enjoyment of the wines themselves as to the different natures of the wine trade in those regions.

Some of the other reviews note a "pedantic and sanctimonious" manner from Lynch's writing. There is something to this perception as Lynch does have a tendency to hammer his points home again and again. Nonetheless, Lynch is so passionate about what he likes and the characteristics of winemakers that he likes to work with, that you can almost overcome it. (Nonetheless, this is why I dropped one * from my rating.)

For what it is worth, I read this book about the same time as I read Patrick Mathews book on natural winemaking. Interestingly, they form a matched pair as both books share a passion for wines made, as much as possible, through traditional methods without extra intervention.

I picked up Adventures on the Wine Route from my book shelf again tonight after about a year. You know, it's not one of my favorite wine books. It's one of my favorite books. He has a very simple but effective formula of a strong engaging, passionate voice, he's a consummate storyteller, and you know what? He can write.
That's what it comes down to. Can you tell a story? Can you write dialogue so the tempo and phrasing are true to life, as well as the words. Can you describe a man, a scene, a frustration? Can you make your reader feel it? Just in setting down a simple anecdote, Lynch has an elegantly subtle touch, no less than some of the wines he praises.

This book shone a dazzling light on the world of wine for me almost nine years ago and is far and away the best wine book ever. (...) Remember that the book was written before "natural winemaking" was in vogue and what appears as sanctimony now was a heartfelt plea back in the day.

This book, written by a Swedish professor at Goteborg University, is a comprehensive study of the mass emigration of Swedes to the United States. It looks at who emigrated, their reasons for emigrating, their experiences both en route and in the United States, where they settled, and their effect on the United States and Sweden (both by leaving and, in some cases, returning). Along the way, the author uses many words from the emigrants themselves, drawn from letters and diaries, allowing them to speak to us themselves.

I can't say enough about this book. I enjoyed the book immensely, feeling as though it answered all of my questions. So, if you are interested in the Swedish immigrants to the United States, then you must read this book.

"Swedish Exodus" is an indespensible reference for Swedish researchers. In these pages one can find out why so many Swedes decided to come to America, how they mananged it, where they emigrated to in America, how many came during each year of the mass migration, how many remigrated each year, how many came from each major Swedish district, and how they did in America. It even outlines the consequences of the emigration on Sweden. It is nicely indexed, contains a useful bibliography, and is illustrated with photos and drawings.

Being of Swedish descent I always wondered why my forebears came here. Now I know. Concise. Not wordy. Good for someone that wants a good simple explanation of the Swedish Exodus.

On the one hand, this book is a very enjoyable introduction to the subject of naval disasters. The text is very readable, the authors do a good job of walking the reader through the basics of the ship's history and the particular disaster history, and the book is well illustrated.

On the other hand, there are some painfully obvious mistakes that led me to question the accuracy of other information in the book. When describing the history of the U.S.S. Missouri, the authors state that, in early 1945, the Missouri was in a task force that included the Lexington, CV-2. Of course, most students of naval history know that this Lexington sank in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, so it would have been quite challenging for it to have been a member of a task force in 1945. The authors undoubtedly were thinking of the later, Essex-class Lexington, but this simple mistake is a bit unnerving. Similarly, in the space of a few paragraphs descibing the World-War-II-era turret explosion on the U.S.S. Mississippi, the authors switch repeatedly from 1943 to 1944 as the year in which this incident took place. Again, its a simple mistake that makes the reader question how well the authors did their homework.

I was also disappointed by some gaps in the book's coverage. When describing the fire onboard the carrier Constellation, the authors briefly note a similar dockside fire onboard the liner Normandie. However, at the time the Normandie burned, I believe she had already been taken over by the U.S. government for use as a troop transport and re-named the U.S.S. Lafayette. Why wasn't this famous naval disaster discussed in detail?

Finally, I found the book's organization somewhat confusing. Incidents are grouped by type of disaster (i.e., grounding, explosion, fire, etc.), but within those groupings there is no apparent order to the sub-chapters, either chronological or otherwise. So, the reader finds himself/herself jumping from the grounding of the Missouri in the 50s, then back in time to the grounding of a destroyer squadron in the 20s, and then back again to more modern times.

These concerns aside, I enjoyed this book on a somewhat obscure, but very interesting, subject.

From the grounding of the Missouri in Chesapeake Bay to the disapearance of the Cyclops to the sinkings of Thresher and Scorpion, Great Naval Disasters covers in detail, both written and illustrated, the great disaters the navy has suffered in the 20th century. Among them include Destroyer Squadron Eleven, The loss and rescue of the Squalus and the mysterious explosions onboard the Iowa and the Mississippi. They should revise this so they can include the Greenville collision in it.

This is a quick reference book (VERY small and thin)for matlab commands. Has come in handy in getting a quick fix to some problems/equations. BUT you have to know what you are looking for already.

Excellent text. Contains nice, brief summaries of matlab functionality, with references on where to go to get more verbose explanations. This book is about the size of a postcard. When I need to locate or discover a new function that I'm sure matlab has somewhere, this Primer is usually more effective than the matlab on-line help. Also good for an overview of functionality, an area where Matlab's on-line help is particularly weak. Assumes no knowledge of matlab.

In MATLAB, really the only thing you need is a list of commands, then you can type 'help command' and be done. Sigmon's book is just this. Good enough to carry me through undergrad to first year grad school. Next year I'll need a reference specializing in the controls toolkit, but this Primer will still be glued to my hand whenever I start Matlab. I'm buying one for each of my students.

As the star of his own life and F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, Anthony Patch is what the protagonist of Fitzgerald's debut "This Side of Paradise" would have become had he been allowed to grow up without the wizening experiences Amory Blaine suffers. But, though older and richer than Amory, Anthony truly suffers more; in fact, following his alcoholic downward spiral creates a great deal of suffering in the reader, even as the prose is lovely and the characterizations full. At least Anthony (and the reader) has the stunning Gloria Gilbert to accompany him on that cirrhotic journey.

Anthony and Gloria would have fit right in among the Bright Young Things of Fitzgerald's English contemporary Evelyn Waugh's more satirical, far less meaty novels of callous behavior and insincere rich people. Fitzgerald's characters are sincere, however--sincere about expecting that the world should fall at their feet forever, and that earning their way by honest toil isn't the way to go about it. This book is a tale of a destructive marriage in which neither party is more at fault than the other, and in which the greatest sin of both is narcissism (though despair is often not far off as the story moves along).

You've got to hand it to Gloria, though: feminists and individualists of all stripes and sexes will appreciate her paean to self-actualization:

"What grubworms women are to crawl on their bellies through colorless marriages! Marriage was created not to be a background but to need one. Mine is going to be outstanding. It can't, shan't be the setting--it's going to be the performance, the live, lovely glamorous performance, and the world shall be the scenery. I refuse to dedicate my life to posterity."

Wouldn't it be fun to listen to this woman tell stories if she lived to be 80?

For all its beauty, "The Beautiful and Damned" can wear the reader down. It's too long, for one thing, and Anthony and Gloria keep repeating the same mistakes long after Fitzgerald has established that they are the kind of people who don't learn from their mistakes. Fitzgerald fans should definitely give it a try, and if it wears on you by the middle of the book then you should feel no guilt about letting it sit for a while. I should also add that the first seven pages are as enticing an opening as any I've read in an American novel. Every era needs its portraits in fiction, and the 1920s belong to Fitzgerald.

The genius of F.Scott Fitzgerald shines brilliantly in this vastly underappreciated classic novel of moral depravity. The pervasive themes of Fitzgerald include moral corruption, profligate behavior, agnosticism, selfishness, narcissism, egocentrism, and of course, a sick obsession with money and alcohol. These themes permeate all too well throughout the beautifully written The Beautiful and Damned(pardon the pun).

Released in 1922, 2 years subsequent to the seminal This Side of Paradise and 3 years prior to the magnum opus The Great Gatsby, incomprehensibly, The Beautiful and Damned was not well received critically nor financially. As a result, history has erroneously filed it under the dubious sophomore jinx category. Strange it may seem, I vehemently disagree. As you read this book, you witness first-hand the maturation of an amazing writer. No American writer of the 20th Century can compare to the profound power and unwavering genius that is F.Scott Fitzgerald. If you enjoyed The Great Gatsby, you will no doubt enjoy this work - an equally beautifully writen and tragic tale of aspiring morally depraved young Americans in pursuit of The American Dream.

"Remarkable that a person can comprehend so little and yet live in such a complex civilization."

Fittingly, this was the last of Fitzgerald's novels that I read. And I apparently saved the best for last. In this enrapturing portrayl of young lovers who are attracted by their differences in the beggining yet destroyed by their similarities in the end (the need of wealth). I find this perhaps one of Fitzgerald's finest literary achievements. He has it all working for him in this novel, his character development is excellent, I feel as though I could recognize Anthony or Gloria on the street if they were to saunter my way. Fitzgerald truly breaks his own mold on this terrific literary achievement. He not only tells a wonderful story of two young lovers but he also parallels it with a very strong supporting cast of characters to Anthony and Gloria. Much can be understood of the lead characters by reading into the supporting characters, focus on Anthhony's grandfather for example. The rosy picture which is so commonly printed by the media of the rich has never been so wonderfully redone with vibrant color as Fitzgerald waves his "paint brush" through all the old misconceptions of the rich and into something truly brilliant: Real life. Fitzgerald was indeed touched with brilliance, and never has it ever been more evident than in his wonderful novel :The Beautiful and Damned." An absolute must read.

Many people reading this book will be law students, but even for those who aren't, Kermit Hall's collection is a terrific resource for readers of history and politics. In a real sense, if you're looking for a "road map" to see how America got to where it is, the "legal" history in many respects trumps military, political and economic histories. Here you'll find ll the usual suspects - Magna Charta, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Colonial Charters, the American Revolution, Dred Scott, Griswald, Miranda, Roe v. Wade. Expect the next edition to carry Bush v. Gore.

This is a terrific book. I use it for teaching Law & Public Policy to political science masters students. The authors have done a great job winnowing the dusty tomes of legal history to the essential nuggets. In addition to the classics, they've selected some hilarious "voice of the people" sources one might never come across in standard legal history texts. I really enjoy this book!

The bio had alot of "facts" but it did not show us how she really felt. There is a snobbish tone to the life story of Mrs. Teddy. I don't think she was in fact that snobbish.

I read this biography as a companion to "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex" -- partly because I wanted a different perspective, and partly because I wanted to know what happened to Theodore after 1908 and volume III of his biography isn't likely to be out in the near future. In the end I am glad I read the book, and I learned a great deal more about President Roosevelt and his family -- but I think for the serious or dedicated history buff you must also read the aforementioned books to get a more detailed, nuanced view of the Roosevelts' life and the times in which they lived.

Morris's writing varies markedly from section to section, perhaps due to inconsistent editing rather than her own writing.

Her lifelong romance with Theodore Roosevelt is certainly the stuff that films (or at the very least, TV movies) are made of. She never stopped loving the brilliant, bellicose, captivating, exasperating "boy" she had fallen in love with at a very young age. She helped mold him into a man. How two strong-willed persons of such opposing personalities thrived in such a successful marriage is even more reason why their story in film would be interesting. If Edith, certainly one of the most private historical figures in our country's history, had not the burned thousands of letters from her "Teedie"/Theodore (wishing to keep their lifetime of thoughts and passions to themselves), their romance might be up there with John and Abigail. TR also destroyed most of the letters from "Edie"/Edith because of Edith's constant pleading to him to do so.

What has survived through thousands of letters that friends and relatives did not destory and through Edith's 40+ years of private diaries (left to her daughter Ethel) is a portrait of a iron-willed, intelligent, passionate lady who survived many family crises and lived through enough U.S. political history for a couple of high school textbooks.

She was often the mother AND the father of her large household of children and pets as TR would often leave to go on hunting trips, safaris, and political campaigns. She ran the household in every area mostly because she had to get control of the family finances. (TR almost had to sell Sagamore Hill before he married Edith because he had lost so much of his inheritance in the Badlands. His older sister helped him get through some lean financial years.)

But, she knew that he would always return to her bed and to no one else's. She often looked down at her sisters-in-law, nieces, and female friends who had married "safely" and did not have a passionate, romantic partnership such as the one she shared with TR. In many ways she was as contradictory in her beliefs as her husband. She was certainly Victorian in her moral strictures, yet one of her closest confidants and friends in the later White House years was the not-so-in-the-closet homosexual chief military aide to her husband (and this gentleman, Archibald Butt, would later help many of the Titanic's passengers to safety before he perished).

One of the most poignant chapters in the book deals with the sons getting ready to go off to fight in the Great War. Quentin, her baby, is eighteen and falling in love with the daughter of one of the anti-Roosevelts, the Whitneys. Edith and TR are concerned with their son falling in love with one of the "plutocrat" Whitneys. However, once they meet Flora they fall in love with her and take her into their family as one of their own. Quentin has to leave the safe environs of Sagamore Hill and the Long Island air training centre and be shipped off to Europe. The elder Roosevelts try to get passports for themselves to travel with Flora so that Flora can marry Quentin in Europe. They can't get passports to travel overseas during the war. Quentin is shot down over France, and TR & Edith have to break the news to her at Sagamore Hill. Flora would remain close to some of the family members until she died many years later.

In short, this is a detailed biography of a great lady, First Lady, wife, world traveler, mother, and grandmother. The vivid detail of the White House during TR's electric eight years at the head of the country is worth the price and time alone. The Kennedys and Camelot had nothing on the intellectual and artisic salon that the Roosevelts inspired and supported during their many years in Washington.