This is a big book, almost coffee-table sized, and it takes full advantage with hundreds of amazing photos. But it's also got some great essays and lots of little fact boxes and other doodads to catch your eye. Everybody's here, of course, from Charlie Patton to Muddy, Buddy, B.B., Albert (Collins and King), Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the rest. Even R&B artists such as Fats Domino get top billing. A section on Milestone Recordings is a nice addition, as is a list of the major blues festivals, blues magazines, and other related books.

There are cheaper guides to the blues and cheaper ways to get some of this information, but this is a fun book to page through. The photos here make it worth the price of admission. Joe Bob sez check it out. ;-)

Getting straight to the point, I really enjoy the way this book is laid out.

The book opens with an essay you might call the state of the blues today, written by the author in 1997.
After that comes a rudimentary blues time line covering some of the more important blues events and recordings.

Next comes a series of essays covering different eras in the evolution of the blues. The titles include, 'Birth of the Blues', 'The Early Twenties', 'The Late Twenties', 'The Thirties', 'Post War Chicago', 'West and South', 'The Sixties', 'The Seventies and Eighties', and finally 'The Blues Today'.

The meat and potatoes of the book comes next. The index of blues musicians. The first section covers some of the more Legendary figures in the blues, like Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy. The musicians covered in this section are given longer bios which are accompanied by several pictures.
After the legends section comes the A-Z Blues Artists section. This is basically a list of blues musicians in alphabetical order with a short bio and picture when available.
Two more sections follow covering milestone blues recordings and blues festivals around the world.

My one gripe with this volume, as you probably figured, is that some artists are not included. For what reason I'm not sure. But it is extremely difficult to be all-inclusive with this type of work. If you are trying to find a specific artist, it is best to check the index in the back as if the artist is featured in the legends section, then there will not be a duplicate entry in the A-Z section. If you are looking for a comprehensive history of the blues you would be better of looking elsewhere. This book is more of a who's who of the blues, offering insights on many blues artists from legendary to relatively unknown.

It's arranged to be like a reference guide, but readers would have no problem reading it from cover to cover. It's big, has lots of pictures and looks great on the coffee table.
Great gift for your favorite blues fan, or for a music connoisseur looking to learn more about blues musicians.

This one is done right. The book is logically organized. Section include a well-written introduction essay, a blues timeline to ground us in the history, decade-by-decade highlights, great coverage of "blues legends" and an A to Z section covering everyone who's important in blues. Great photographs and insightful captions throughout enhance the text.

At first, I found myself looking up my favorites - Albert King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, James Cotton but very quickly I was soaked in the stories of artists I knew much less about. A good read that captures the blues atmosphere in all its forms.

I enjoyed Robert A. Johnsons book on the subject of psychological femininity. I believe he makes a good point in the beginning that this does not apply to females only. I am inclinded, somewhat to believe that it implies more to males than females. Using archetypal myths of Oedipus and the Hindu story of Damayanti, exploring both their contexts and how it relates to the psyche, feminine. Not overly stimulating, however makes adequate use of psychology and mythology 'ala Campbell and Jung.

The book challenges many male conceptions. I love his quote of Creon, "Go then, and share your love among the dead, We'll have no woman's law here, while I live." This in response to Antigon's, "My way is to share my love, not share my hate."

The book is helpful in understanding the male/female situation (in as much as it can possibly be understood!).

There are so many great quotes in the book, here is one of many, "Be it a domestic quarrel or an international incident, the subject is often that of price. It is a flaw in a man--fatal unless he wakens to it--that he carefully arranges life so that the feminine will pay the price for his masculine creation." (p 44).

Very much worth reading if you feel that maybe there has been/is an imbalance of justice regarding men and women.

In a straightforward and anecdotal way, the authors address how to find meaning and happiness in life in the face of--and often, because of -- adversity. Using myths, archetypes, fables, and many personal experiences, they show how we can learn to focus on the real and substantive matters behind the superficial things that usually distract us. Drawing heavily upon eastern philosophies, they illustrate that "Everything you need is within you" (a Christian concept, too: "The kingdom of heaven is within.").

But how do we get there? In chapters like "The Process is the Product," Confusing the Experience with Its Object: Distinguishing the Inner and Outer Worlds," "The World is a Tar Baby," and "The People Inside: Meeting Our Inner Selves," Kraus and Borja tell how living with HIV has led them to a greater appreciation for life and how to live it more joyfully. The book is highly personal, instructive but not didactic, warm, compassionate, and wise. If your life has you seeking answers, you'll find good ones here.

I chose this book at the library when I saw the author's name, because about 30 years ago he taught at the college where I work and I remember him well. His book really spoke to me because it deals with maintaining a sense of what's important and what really matters while life keeps swirling around you. I spend some of my time working with people who are quite seriously ill, and I find that work makes me pretty impatient with those who "haven't figured it out yet." The lessons in this book are powerful and can help guide others into a better understanding of the importance of living life each day.

Although marketed for those living with AIDS or other potentially terminal illnesses, this book is much more than a survival guide or a gay positive self help tract. It's an inspirational look at how we can change our lives by looking inward to our hearts, minds, and souls to create a heightened awareness of ourselves and our place in the world. Sometimes the language seems simplistic, but this actually helps convey the messages the authors want to tell us. That when we're angry or upset, there are underlying reasons and causes that often have nothing to do with the incidents that caused the emotions. With a mix of humor and universal spirituality, Kraus and Borja have given us a book for transforming our lives from the inside out. There's also a marvelous analysis of the death of Diana, the former Princess of Wales, in terms of modern mythology, and in terms of why this affected the entire world, while the death of Mother Teresa had less impact. Give your soul a treat!

Aaron Kipnis offers a comprehensive view of all aspects of the men's movement in this 302-page volume. Inspired by issues raised by members of an addiction/recovery men's group headed by the author, the book looks at various male images. Kipnis critically examines the old masculine values of the "heroic" male as well as those of the newer, sensitive man (what Kipnis calls the "feminized" man), and addresses at length the emerging "authentic, integrated" masculinity inspired by Robert Bly and friends. Intertwined with these accounts are stories and vignettes from men in the group, new knights of the round table on a quest for a new masculine paradigm.

Although the metaphor of the knights seems to get a little corny at times, the book has much to recommend it. This is the first, if not the only, book that globally looks at all facets of the men's movement. Everything from circumsicion, to myth, ritual and initiation, to the politics of male-bashing, is covered. There is an excellent table comparing the masculine images of the heroic, feminized, and integrated man and looking at how these differ along physical, mental, and emotional lines. There is a section on men's resources, with names and addresses of organizations and suggestions on how to get involved. Also, unlike most books on men's issues, this one actually has an index--a refreshing feature indeed!

I understood after reading the book in swedish way I lost contact with my now 14 years old doughter Emelie Finette, living in Westheim/Marsberg. I have seen her for only 6 hours totaly.

I also understood that we parents who wants to have equal rights for the children will have a long way to go yet.

Thanks Aaron for a wounderfull book.

Tommy Jonsson

Aaron Kipnis has put into words what I have felt for many years. He says that the "value placed on men's lives, as compared to women's, is greatly depreciated in our culture." It starts with how male infants are treated by their mothers right up to how devalued were the lives of so many men who fought in Vietnam. Had it been women who were dying senseless deaths over there, Kipnis points out, the war would not have lasted near as long.

He tell us in a way that resonates with me that, "Men frequently feel disconnected from an authentic source of aliveness within us." Maybe it is because so many of us have constructed an "heroic personality that is hard, inflexible and, like the armor of old, heavy to drag around."

This book was given to me by a friend who, with me, is a member of The Mankind Project, New Warrior Community, a group that Kipnis talks about in his book. The book has helped me to really understand the obsessive overachieving and workaholism of so many men and how they have numbed their lives and avoided real intimacy with both men and women in their lives, especially their significant others. (In reality, not very significant!)

Kipnis says, "This numbness includes loss of emotional and even physical sensitivity." Men come home and escape into a few beers and the tube or even worse. The price we pay, he says, is pain: isolation, alienation, stressed-induced illnesses, sex and love addictions, codependence (taking care of our women before even thinking of ourselves and being dependent on them for approval), fear and anxiety and God knows how much more.

This is a powerful book and an easy read. It is mesmerizing because it is so damn true and accurate. Kipnis does not stop at describing this devastating phenomenon. He offers up many ways for us to seek healing. He tells women readers that they would do well to listen carefully to what they can do to help the men in their lives starting with their male infants and sons. He encourages us to join men's groups and seek therapy from psychologists who understand the acute losses to the masculine soul and may be wounded healers themselves. He shows us that the spiritual dimension of life is critical for our emotional and mental health and that sharing openly with other men the pain and fear we're experiencing is the beginning of healing.

Kipnis speaks of the "uninitiated male". We in the New Warriors understand him when he says that the uninitiated male has many problems. He quotes another author who says about Shakespeare's Hamlet: He has "no roots in the instinctive world--and he makes only division and tragedy of [the divine and sacred] in us, not paradox and synthesis." Kipnis says, "The narcissistic male, unable to wield the power of the father, cannot generate and protect life or transform the world, only devalue it.---Hamlet retreats into immobility as a defense against the conflicting emotions he feels."

I like the way Kipnis tells the real stories of pain, healing and joy that he and his men's group colleagues experienced. That gives life to the book and helps men and women understand that we can rediscover ways of male initiation and heal the wounds between fathers and sons and between we men and those whom we claim to love but find so it so difficult to do. This book is a must read for every man and still, I realize that only a small fraction of men and their women will read the book and benefit from the wisdom and practical ways of healing found within the book. I am very thankful that The New Warriors have entered my life and made possible a path, a life-long path, of loving myself and following the ways of healing of which Kipnis speaks so eloquently. He makes the masculine soul real.

I have discovered my masculine soul and I am in the process of empowering myself to be vulnerable and open with my brothers so the strange paradoxes of life can be understood and realized, especially, the paradox that the more open and vulnerable I am, the more powerful I am as a man, a spouse, and as a leader. As a personal life coach and leadership consultant, I am grateful that Aaron Kipnis has written this and other books which I can strongly recommend to clients and friends.

Thumbelina is not normal girl she is about the size of your thumb, but don't let her height mistake you she can do alot of things other people can't do. Like she can fit into small spaces that you can't. So if you like books that are about people doing extremely different things that you don't think that can do then this is the book right for you to read. This book will amaze your eyes with the colorful pictures inside, and with the amazing things Thumbelina can do.

Hans Christian Andersen's story of Thumbeline is so endearing that it's no wonder that so many authors have written their own versions of it and so many illustrators have had a go at making tiny Thumbeline come to life. This version, translated by Anthea Bell and illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger is brimming with charm, rustic folk sensibilities, kindness and compassion spiked with just the right amount of perilous adventure to make it interesting, and a lovely magical feel. The story is well told in satisfyingly descriptive language. The illustrations are superb! Zwerger does a wonderful job with all of the animal characters that Thumbeline encounters and manages to infuse them with emotion and intelligence as well as country charm. Little red-haired Thumbeline is delicate and sweet in several lovely costumes with a peasant feel to them. You know the tale...a woman tells a witch that she wants a "tiny child" and the magic gives her exactly what she wishes for, a tiny child no bigger than her thumb. Thumbeline is born from the heart of a tulip. She's so beautiful and sweet that every small suitor in the neighborhood wants her hand in marriage, including a toad, a mole and a June beetle. They are not interested in the fact that she does not want to marry them! She gets help from other wee folk in the woodland community and makes a good friend when she saves the life of a swallow. The story ends happily for Thumbeline. It may be desirable to point out to your young ones that not every unattached female needs to find a husband, especially very young ones like Thumbeline, and that kidnapping and force are not true ways to get a girl to marry you! Children are smart enough to know that but it's still a good idea to talk over the odd concepts that a child may be thinking about after you read this story. I love this old-fashioned story and this re-telling adds beautifully to its charm and therefore justifies its conception.

The familiar Hans Christian Andersen story of Thumbelina has received the royal treatment from Susan Jeffers. Her large, lovely pictures make this seem like you are stepping into the story for the first time. Thumbelina is so dainty and sweet that it's no wonder the toad wishes to marry her but poor Thumbelina has a harrowing time escaping from her warty suitor. Share a trumpet vine blossom with Thumbelina, a pair of hummingbirds and a fat bumble bee or take a ride with her on the back of a gallant swallow. This whole story is enchanting from start to finish and the pictures are a delight!

This was one of the few books by blackmen that had good storys that reflect on black culture and done from a spiritual tone. It also reflected the ability of American Baptist to step out and pull something like this together. This is the kind of work that should be done on a yearly bases.

Relevent stories for African-American men. Definitely not fiction.

A relatively lifeless rendering of an exciting and little known part of American history, this tale recounts the activities of one William Johnson, of Irish stock, who made his way to the English colonies in North America and settled in New York during the 18th century. There he became a friend and confidante of the Mohawk Iroquois, among the most fearsome native American tribes, noted for the bloody tortures they administered to their captives (and their more humane policy of adopting some captives into their ranks), as well as their cannibalistic tendencies. By the time this tale occurs, these Indians are clearly on the defensive. Though remaining a fierce presence in the woodlands of upper New York, their numbers are shrinking (due to "white" diseases like smallpox and the creeping impact of European settlement). While Johnson establishes himself as a "friend" of this tribe and other Indians, he never seems to rise above dancing and shmoozing with them while getting their braves good and drunk. At the same time he proves himself an utter cad in the cold and high-handed way he treats the escaped indentured servant who early on seems to have been the love of his life but is ultimately reduced to little more than housekeeper and mother of his acknowledged children. As a counterpoint to all this, we follow the tale of a Mohawk shaman woman and her offspring as they commune with their sisters, guide the tribe through the travails of dealing with the whites, and have various outer body experiences which never quite mesh with the larger tale of colonial intrigue (which seems quite pale itself) during the French and Indian wars. Overall, Johnson is a relatively unlikable character and what he does, besides the epic womanizing and hondling with the Indians, seems decidedly unimpressive: a single stand with superior forces in the wilderness against a more professional but over-extended French force which results in the "surprising" defeat of the French and the turning of the tide of the colonial war. Not much action here, little characterization, lots of speculation about the dream reality of the native Americans -- and little else. They bill this as Volume I. As far as I'm concerned, we'd all be better off if Mr. Moss called it a book here, and went on to something else. -- Stuart W. Mirsky

A wonderful book by a singularly marvellous author! The best two books (along with FIRE ALONG THE SKY) I've read in years. As rich as any historical novel ever written. Travel to a vanished world in upstate New York for a few hours. And discover that Colonial America was a vibrant and violent time. America's first frontier--Too bad it's overshadowed by our preoccupation with the 19th-century Western mythology. The 18th century was far more fascinating!

In the dry, often dull, pages of thousands of eighteenth century documents, the researcher and student of history meets--in his or her studies of upstate New York--the names of characters who shaped the cultural and geographic boundaries of the lands bordering and expanding beyond the Mohawk River into the thick forests of the eighteenth century western frontier. Principal among those names is that of Sir William Johnson and his intricately woven web of clients, agents, military personnel, merchants, commissaries, politicians, tenants, and tradesmen, all backdropped against the powerful confederacy of the Six Nations. In THE FIREKEEPER, Robert Moss plunges beneath the carefully penned words of conferences, negotiations, land deals, and the giving and receiving of thousands of belts and strings of wampum and chests of gifts to find the phrase, the inuendo, the pause, the missing sentence that allows one to grasp the beauty and power of the raw courage, stamina, and charisma of the men and women who were the real heroes of the New York frontier. William Johnson held the legal responsibility for the negotiation of Indian affairs for the Six Nations and proved the extraordinary confidence and credit in which he was held by the Six Nations in his care and use of the magnificent symbols of Indian power and authority--the belts, the sacred calumets, and the dreams. In the dreaming culture of the Six Nations, William Johnson was caught up in a delicate balance between the magical world of spirit and soul in which he donned the antlers of the forest stag and the competitive white world where wills and cultures clashed in battle and on paper.

Woven in and among the threads of the fascinating story of THE FIREKEEPER is the even more powerful story of the women in William Johnson's world--the young Palatine girl who pursued her dreams across the sea from bondage to the purchased freedom of a frontier pulsing with the clash of desire and spirit, of the fusing of the sacred and profane in a forest peopled with refugees from her own country and with the magical dreaming women of power of the Six Nations, of the Mohawks, women with names like Island Woman and Sparrow, all of whom would share in the romance and spirit of William Johnson's world, molded from the dreams of many cultures, a magical journey of spirit and soul brought to life by Robert Moss through the pages of THE FIREKEEPER.

I used this book as my primary study guide along with the Passport book. Easy to read and also covers subjects not on the exam that are very useful in real live situations. This is not an exam cram type of book and should not be used as the only study guide for the inexperienced. The 2 hour DVD is poor in quality and low in content but then again for the price what can you expect. Overall, I give the book a four star rating because it was well written and kept me interested.

Like other vendor neutral exams, the Security+ test does not have a lot about installing or configuring specific hardware and software from different manufacturers. Rather, it tests whether you understand how all of these different things work and work together to protect your sytstmes using any vendors products. The test is, however, specific about the diffeent types of attacks and viruses that are out there. The authors of this book do a very good jot of explaining all the differnt aspects, fundamentals, and theory network security as well as the actual threats that do exist out there. This is not an easy thing to do, becasue the exam covers so many differnt things. It doesn't get really deep on any one thing but it does test a little bit of EVERYTHING. I have almost three years of experience in IT and almost a year working more with security. With that exepreice and reading this book, I felt very prepared for the test, and I did pass.

I am writing this to inform the 'negative posters' here of comments that your posts here relate to the fact that you think this book is not good advanced security topics like for the CISSP - well I have news for you... this book was made for the SECURITY+ exam, not the CISSP exam - surprise! The Security+ exam is an entry-level cert for security beginners looking to advance to the CISSP, etc next, not the other way around. If you think that this book is lame because you're studying for your CISSP, then your actually just facing reality that the CISSP exam is like 10x harder than this one, and you SHOULD know all this stuff already, so why did you read it anyway, and why would you make ridiculous comments against a book that was written to help you pass an entry level exam? If you are actually using this 'certification study guide' to pass the 'certification exam' then that's why the book is repeats things... to reinforce difficult concepts for newbie's... repetition will also build the concepts up in your head so you can remember them come test time. Also if you follow the actual CompTIA exam objectives online at CompTIA.org, you will see that the actual objectives are repetitive. If you work through this book completely, your guaranteed to pass. For those of you looking for a quick pass and don't want to read a book like this, I suggest not bother taking the exam, and stop slamming the book because you failed. You're only embarrassing yourselves. For those of you serious about taking the exam, then this is what you need to read... from start to finish, and you'll pass - for sure. For the posters who are just 'upset' because they failed... its not the books fault, its yours.

Shelly's Frankenstein is pretty well understood to be a flawed work, an amazing first attempt by a young author while also being a classic of literature. It is hard to say how I avoided reading it for so long but was surprised to find my friends negative attitudes on this book. Classics though must be read, so I devoured this over the course of a weekend and found the book quite enjoyable, however, at times I found some of its problems nearly overwhelming.

The first problem Frankenstein has is that it is (as far as content goes) really a short story. I can't imagine it needing more than 60-100 pages, but Shelly inflates it to over 200, and for no discernable reason. The expanded length leads only to additional passages where Frankenstein himself is lying unconscious for months, or needless travelogue scenes which only serve to detract from the story. It might also be said that after 100 pages of melancholic whimperings from Frankenstein the reader has probably lost all sympathy toward the character. There are also certain plot elements that seem to repeat themselves a bit too often, but I the appeal of these elements will be based upon the reader.

Ultimately, Frankenstien seems a great story that you occasionally feel compelled to skim through. There is a certain sloppiness (I am still not clear what happened to Edward--the only surviving Frankenstein, but I do know something about some of the townspeople mentioned in a letter which have NOTHING to do with the story), but when you put all that aside, the very heart of Frankenstein is an enjoyable read. The monster is a sympathetic one and I found myself glued to the pages as he first illustrated how he came to understand the world around him.

Unlike Moby Dick which should never be abridged since so much of its irrelevance seems the primary point of the story (I often consider Ahab and the whale merely a sub-plot in Ishmael's life), Frankenstein could do with some good editing. Despite Frankenstein being a relatively short book to begin with, even 200+ pages feels a bit trying when all you are reading about is landscape and Frankenstein fainting.

Frankenstein is part of our literary heritage. Halloween would not be complete without images of a large green monster wearing bolts in his neck. However, the origins of this monster conceal a horror far greater than the character popular culture has embraced.

For me, it is not the actions of the monstrous laboratory experiment that frighten me, but the act of the monster's creation itself. Mary Shelley created a novel that places the act of creation into the hands of one man, an idea which eliminates the necessity of the female sex. Technology has usurped the need for male-female partnership. What a horrific idea!

Dr. Victor Frankenstein was terrified of female power. His feelings of torment concerning his fiancee, including a particularly unsettling dream passage concerning her, led him to strip the female sex of child-bearing responsibility. If a single man can create another man then natural laws no longer apply, the male and female of a species no longer live in symbiosis.

This is the fantastic premise behind this classic horror novel. Some of the writing is crude; one instance in particular is when the monster teaches himself to read after conveniently finding a satchel of books by the side of the road. This is an example of the inexperience Shelley had as a writer; however such breaks in the story are minimal and should not overly detract from the reader's enjoyment. This is a wonderful book.

Mary Shelley's classic book has often been regarded as the first science fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has referred to it as the first novel of the Scientific Revolution. It should be required reading of any college or college-bound student. The version I read was the original 1818 edition. In 1831, Mary Shelley made a number of changes (but, nothing of great import; for example, in the 1831 version Elizabeth is no longer Victor's cousin). I did read the author's new introduction to the 1831 edition however. This introduction is well done. In this novel, written in the epistolary form, a young (age 21) student at the University of Ingolstadt, Victor Frankenstein, discovers the method of imparting life to inanimate tissue. He uses his skills to construct a creature and to give it life. The creature's and Victor's lives are intertwined and the reader can detect much of Mary Shelley's early life as well. Her mother (i.e., her creator) died a few days after her birth. The female act of creation and its results is an aspect of this novel. Others have pointed out that this is a true female novel. Although, the monster "inspires loathing" in all who see him, I came to the conclusion that the real villian in this story was Victor Frankenstein. He allows his own creation to control him.

H.R. McMasters' book, Dereliction of Duty is a critical look at the decision-makers during the war in Vietnam. His central thesis is that Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all worked to keep the truth of Americas' ever-deepening commitment in Vietnam from reaching the American people in order to protect Johnson's "Great Society" program. Using previously classified materials, he compares what was said in public with what was said behind closed doors, effectively condemning all concerned. The research here is excellent; however, after careful reading, several questions remain:

Had LBJ done away with the "Great Society" altogether, and fully committed American forces to Vietnam, would we have won?

Was Robert McNamara a criminal for implementing the President's wishes?

Were the Joint Chiefs derelict in their duties for not going public with their criticisms of the war effort when they saw clearly we were headed for disaster?

Dereliction of Duty provides insight into the behind-the-scenes deliberations during Vietnam. It should be purchased and read for that reason. However, McMaster ignores the fact America had a commitment to a free, independent South Vietnam dating back to the Truman Administration. To ignore that commitment, it was believed, would encourage Communist inspired, "wars of national liberation," worldwide. Failure to meet this threat could start the dominos falling, ending who knows where? There assumptions were construed as facts in every element of American society. All decisions were made with that in mind. Vietnam was no exception.

McMaster has done a good job of showing that what the men in the arena did was wrong. He has made no attempt to show what should have been done differently that would have enabled America to extricate herself from Vietnam with her credibility as an ally intact. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon all waited for that answer as well. We are all still waiting! Radio commentator Paul Harvey ends his program with his trademark comment, "And now you know the rest of the story." Only when that question is answered conclusively will we be able to say we truly know, "the rest of the story."ÿ

H.R. McMaster's Dereliction of Duty is one of the most thought provoking - and somewhat frightening - pieces of literature to be published in America in some time. Although this book is about the issues involved with how the United States entered the Vietnam war, on a larger level it gives a sobering view into how the trust and confidence of the American people was shamelessly destroyed by elements of two US Administrations. Some of the policies begun by JFK were seamlessly continued in the LBJ presidency. The book shows how personal self-interest at multiple levels of government resulted in out right, well thought out deciet. McMaster gives the reader a rare opportunity to actually "be there" in the most secret of corridors where decisions were made that ultimately cost thousands of Americans their lives, and on a broader level, caused millions of Americans to lose faith in not only the military, but also in the US Government

Author H.R. McMaster masterfully examines historic events that led to the disastrous Vietnam war within the context of two gigantic egos. Early on President Lyndon Johnson is shown to have a long political career of stretching the truth...starting with his alleged heroic air combat role in World War II. Robert McNamara is a towering intellectual who is not afraid to manipulate statistics to support his Cold War position or that of the president. The pattern is contagious as the Joint Chiefs of Staff also maintain upbeat reports that do not properly reflect the reality in Vietnam.

"Dereliction of Duty," is an eye-opening book that documents how powerful leaders in Washington D.C. who were bestowed with an enormous trust by the American people betrayed the young men and women who answered the nation's call in Vietnam. McMaster impressively reviews a painful period in American history and clearly shows how American foreign policy in Vietnam was manipulated for political and egotistical reasons. This book is clearly written and well researched. The conclusions are stunning...Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff [mislead] the American people. One of the few heroes in this book is Marine Corps Commandant David Shoup, who received a Medal of Honor for heroism on the Pacific island of Tarawa and who in November of 1963 strongly advised, "not, under any circumstances, should we get involved in land warfare in Southeast Asia."

Bert Ruiz