As other reviewers have said, Taylor and Wheeler accomplish something marvelous (and by conventional wisdom impossible), making a non-trivial portion of general relativity accessible to physics undergraduates. But be warned that "accessible" does not mean easy! A good background in special relativity is essential, for example from the authors' earlier book Spacetime Physics. Beyond that, readers must be prepared for convoluted reasoning and heavy duty algebra in some parts of the book, covering the more esoteric optical effects of black holes and the effects of rotation. It was an effort for me to get through this book - but well worth it.

This book is different from every other introduction to general relativity I know. And better. The eminent authors connect geometry directly to physics, bypassing tensors. Curvature in space is detected by very simple length measurements; curvature in time, by the lengthening of periods of oscillations. There are nuggets in almost every page. I loved the demonstration that you don't really need coordinates to describe geometry: the shape of a boat is reconstructed entirely in terms of distances. Their dynamical principle is the maximum proper time principle. The way they derive energy and momentum from this principle is sterling physics. You'll learn a lot of general relativity in this book. Not all of it. But, learning to love it, you'll learn the advanced topics that cannot be treated this way by yourself, in other books. Perhaps in the huge Misner, Thorne, Wheeler.

I have not yet finished reading this book but my excitement over its brilliance forces me to comment. This book is shear magic in its ability to explain very difficult and strange phenomena in an intuitive and simple way. I have read the authors' book SpaceTime Physics as well as GR by Schutz and can do the tensors and all that; yet I am in awe of the ability these authors have of succeding at the near impossible. Using the study of black holes as the motivation for GR study is perfect. I love the choice of the variational principle to cut to the heart of the math. I recommend this book to anyone for self-study who has a smattering of calculus (not much is really needed). I am looking forward to studying Kip Thorne's membrane paradign book next. Gentlemen, kudos in the highest!

Truly spellbinding, nicely paced, and perfect length. After you read this book you will be amazed at what is left out of the history classroom. Don't miss a chance to read it.

Gene Smith is a well-known historian who sticks to the facts. Yet his writing keeps his readers intrigued every step of the way. Of course, he is working with a family of thespians and a thick plot to begin with, which always helps. But Smith refuses to include any heresay or rumor - his writing is respectable AND creative. Smith remains unbiased, which is unusual with such a heated set of events. I have read dozens of books on the Booth family, and this is by far the best!

All I'd ever heard about was Booth the assassin of Lincoln. I had no idea he came from such a fascinating and talented family! So many details are given of his life and the lives of those surrounding this one event in history and yet his life is generally summarized in a few sentences. This book (and audio tape which I highly recommend) should be filmed and shown in schools, it's that interesting. Hearing it read brings up images as from the days of radio programs, only more rich in color and depth. I like this book so much I'm trying to find a copy. It must be better the second time around.

"Compelled To Appear In Print, The Vicksburg Manuscript of General John C. Pemberton" was a work-in-progress for the past 137 years. David M. Smith brings it to the light of day with the justice it deserves. His views and those of Edwin C. Bearss, Historian Emeritus, National Park Service will secure this work among the finest written on the Confederacy for years to come. Let's hear more from him!

This book is built on a newly-discovered, never published manuscript by Confederate General John Pemberton, commander at Vicksburg when it surrendered to Grant. The manuscript itself is substantial...85 pages in this book's format. To position the manuscript, Dave Smith has written an excellent summary of the Vicksburg Campaign. Further, he adds a chapter on the conflicts and issues in the relationships among Pemberton, General Joseph Johnston (Pemberton's superior), and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After the manuscript, he adds a chapter on his conclusions from his study of the Pemberton manuscript.

Pemberton wrote the document in the late 1870's before his death in 1881, to respond to Johnston's autobiographical NARRATIVE OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. Even after 120 years, the anger and hurt comes through. Johnston had essentially placed the blame for the loss of Vicksburg on Pemberton, citing his incompetence and disobedience of orders. Pemberton takes each of Johnston's eight charges, and argues his side of the case. Smith has made this more understandable for the reader by inserting (in easily distinguishable font and italics) the specific exerpts from the Johnston book to which Pemberton was referring; many of Pemberton's points would have been lost to me without those insertions.

Another specific contribution which Smith made to the manuscript itself was his description of a visit by Davis and Johnston to Pemberton and Vicksburg in December, 1862 (before the Vicksburg Campaign would escalate in the spring and culminate on July 4th). Given the fact that Davis, Johnston, and Pemberton seemed only a few weeks later to have no agreement or common thinking on their strategy, one wonders what they talked about during their several days together. Certainly, they MUST have talked about whether Vicksburg must be held at all costs....but in the spring, Johnston seemed to think not while Davis and Pemberton certainly thought it must. Perhaps they never considered what to do in a siege....but, if not, what were they really expecting Grant to do? He certainly had given no indication of giving up easily! This lost opportunity for strategic alignment echoes through the Pemberton manuscript, as I read it.

For me, Pemberton presents his case in a compelling, convincing, and interesting manner. To my (amateur) reading, he does not often imply that he knew in 1863 everything that he would know when writing in the late 1870's. However, on one occasion, he did allow himself to refer to Johnston as "the great master of retreat", taking advantage of the reputation Johnston would get during his portion of the Atlanta Campaign in 1864.

Johnston does not come out of this book in very good shape. In fact, the picture of Johnston is very reminiscent of that in Jeffrey Lash's DESTROYER OF THE IRON HORSE. In fact, one of Lash's primary examples of Johnston's misuse of the railroads occurred during the Vicksburg Campaign, when he lost of large quantity of Confederate rolling stock and engines by waiting too long to order their movement to safer locations. Smith summarizes Johnston's failure to take any action to relieve Pemberton in Vicksburg by saying that he "either had no intention of acting or was incapable of mustering the courage and energy to face the situation". Personally, it seems to me to have been the latter. The puzzling, frustrating impact of Johnston's inertia comes through clearly in the Pemberton manuscript.

This is an excellent book, very readable and quite interesting. Smith's background chapter will assist the reader who is not familiar with the Vicksburg Campaign to understand it well enough to follow Pemberton's discussion. That understanding is aided by several simple, clear, excellent maps. One does not need to be a military history scholar to appreciate this book. However, as Ed Bearss' introduction makes clear, even the elite class of military history scholars will likely also find this book worth their while.

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One of the problems of so many texts aimed at E.S.L. students is that they use only material from the country of publication. This book draws on so many diverse sources for its passages, including some from the countries of origin of many of those students. What could be better? Although many of the passages are just parts of the overall work (e.g., not all of a Shakespearean play), they are wonderful selections showing a great diversity of literature. Bravo to McRae and Vethamani for coming up with such a brilliant idea (in the British sense of brilliant) and producing this most interesting book.

A must read for students of ELT. Provides great hints and techniques for teaching of literature. A major difference from other books and definately a plus point is the extensive use of Asian literature in the book.

For anyone who wants to understand Destroyer sailors and their lives,this is the book to read. For those who have served in the Tin Can Navy, this is the book to read. It will bring back a flood of memories of their own duties in Destroyers. During the Korean War I was CO USS Walke DD723 and we were often in company with the Bole. She was a fine ship, and these are fine sea stories.

I wish to thank the author twice for publishing the personal accounts of former USS John A. Bole crew members. First - Thanks, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading his selection of crew experiences. Secondly - Thanks, because for years I have been wanting to compile and publish anecdotes of USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD729) crew members' accounts of their shipboard life .... now Mr. Alexander has, essentially, done that for us. Except for a difference of names (and lacking a DD729 first-hand Inchon "Sitting Ducks" account), I felt I was reading the exploits of my own ship. It brings back memories of many similar experiences during my years aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer. I recommend the book to all current and former U.S. Navy men, their wives, and sweethearts, and especially all "Tin Can Sailors". I look forward to Mr. Alexander's next book.

Dinosaur Lives introduces the lay reader (that would be you and me) to a number of exciting ideas. The book provides us with an update to Horner's field work since he wrote "Digging Dinosaurs," but it also delves deeper into some of the bigger ideas concerning dinosaurs. A large portion of the book is devoted to speculation about the behavior of dinosaurs, especially the raising of young and herd/pack associations. What interested me most, however, is Horner's deconstruction of Linnean taxonomy, and the description of cladistics as a more powerful tool to look at relationships between living and extinct creatures. For those of us raised on the idea of speciation, this is powerful stuff. You may find, as I did, that light bulbs start popping in your head as you realize that the very way you think about a subject can severely limit your ability to perceive new ideas.

If all this sounds a bit airy-fairy, Horner does a much better job than I can here explaining some pretty complex stuff in a very simple way. My only complaints about the book are that Horner sometimes can be a bit wordy while telling us what he is about to tell us. I could have used a bit more technical detail in some of his descriptions, and certainly the illustrations should have been more complete. These are minor complaints, however. This is a fascinating book for anyone who likes thinking about dinosaurs, and the endless cycles of life. You don't need to have any prior knowledge to thoroughly enjoy this book.

Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga written by John R. Horner is a well-written account of paleontological fieldwork told in an engaging style. This book is the continuation of the book Digging Dinosaurs one of the author's previous books.

Horner is a thinker as has helped out on numerous motion pictures to make the dinosaurs seem real and alive. In this book we get to read (speculation) about dinosaur eggs, their young and their nests as found from the fossil record.

Horner has an infectous style when he write and you can't help but getting into lock-step with him as he writes a telling-tale, making the read feel as if you are there right along side. Our understanding of how dinosaurs grew up, raised their young, and socialized with other dinosaurs are brought out in this book.

There is still a lot of information yet to be discovered, but Horner has been making long strides in elucidating information and answering some of the nagging questions involving dinosaurs. Some of the new evidence and arguments regarding the major dinosaur controversies of the day, being that of warm-blooded verses cold-blooded are tackled in this book.

This book is a quick read and should be on your bookshelf as the author's discoveries regarding the dinosaur are ground-breaking and unparalleled. Paleontologist Robert Bakker is another forward thinker when it comes to dinosaurs.

This book gives some credence to Bakker's theory about the inland sea retreats and the dinosaurs from the eastern part of the North American continent mixed with those of the West, exchanging bacteria and other pathogens for which the recieving group had no inherent resistance. This could be a slow death or a prolonged one depending upon the pathogen involved. Also, climate was changing substantially at that time as well, becoming cooler, and more arid, this could slowly add to the demise of the dinosaurs.

This book was an enjoyable, engaging read.

Mr. Horner has made an extraordinary accomplishment with 'Diggin Dinosaurs,' as it is able to present relative information regarding the topic at hand in a manner to be easily read by the masses and hold the reader's attention. His ability to stimulate the imagination with his illustrative speach and diction is quite amazing, as is his ability to distill the necessary information from the vast amounts of data that is available for analysis. An amazing breakthrough to be certain.

Kimberly Blaker and her co-authors have presented a well-researched, informative, and eye-opening account of the not-so-obvious ways Christian fundamentalists are seeking to overhaul our society, its government, and the educational system. The authors address the serious impact that these radicals have on children's welfare, women's rights, and separation of church and state issues. Anyone interested in preserving our constitutional and religious freedoms, from athiests to conservative believers, will benefit from understanding the epidemic of extreme beliefs in our country. This book has made me realize that it is not safe to sit by passively. The fundamentalists count on that. Instead, we must pay closer attention to the Christian fundamentalist movement and use our voting rights, at local, state, and federal levels, to take action against this very active minority emerging in the United States.

Kimberley Blaker's collection of contributions is as disturbing as it is eye opening. In this single book you are walked through a virtual maze of the many facets of religious fundamentalism and how it is seeping in to every pore of our society unnoticed ... almost.

The book is not an attack on Fundamentalists as one might fear, but is a very thought provoking examination of the threat fundamentalism, as a practice, poses to the future of our democracy. As the line of separation between Church and State becomes even more muddied, it is imperative that we each look around us and identify the factors which are contributing so heavily to this attempted erosion of our freedom. As Blaker, et al, point out so clearly - one of these factors is fundamentalism.

A book you can't put down. Very timely in this day and age of religious fundamentalism growing world wide...People think it can't happen here?? Think again.

Like so many people who have read this book, I too have read it many times. It is that type of book. I read it the first time as a young boy, and over the years (when I can find a copy)I read it again. It captured my imagination from the beginning and has not let go in over 40 years. I believe this book, with its vivid scenes of catastrophe, and its portrayal of the triumph of human ingenuity, affected me deeply for the rest of my life. This book illuminates ones imagination, sense of wonder and longing for adventure. I heartily recommend it for readers of all ages, and sincerely wish that this book will be published again for a new generation. I am sure that this book, and its exciting sequel (After Worlds Collide), which is full of mystery and intrigue, will capture the imaginations of yet another generation. Just imagine what Hollywood could do with a remake of this novel as a movie!

I first read this book more than thirty years ago. I have read it many times since and it will always remain on my list of all-time favorites. This is a book in the tradition of Verne and Wells in that it brings many basic scientific principles to life and makes them understandable to the reader.

Against the backdrop of universal disaster, Wylie and Balmer manage to tell a story that has real human dimensions. Love, hate, ingenuity, and compassion all play out here in characters that will truly engage the reader. Furthermore, the scope of adventure the book gives will compel the reader to keep turning the pages, eager to see what happens next. In this way the book is a true success. However, for the discerning reader, the story also raises some perplexing and even disturbing questions, giving it a depth that mere adventure can't.

My career as a geographer and mathematician can trace its genesis to one book, and that book is WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE. So I personally owe its authors a great deal, and so does all science-fiction because this book epitomizes the genre's greatest strengths.

Though this book was written back in the thirties and has a very strong political bias, it's got an ingenious idea and an exciting and realistic plot. The existence of the human civilization is threatened by an asteroid which is about to collide with Earth. Frantic preparations begin to save the mankind from disaster. Read and see what happens.

This novel has a follow-up: "After Worlds Collide"...