As with all Chic Simple books, this little book is filled with good advice, beautiful pictures, interesting quotes and a nice attitude. It addresses questions such as what should I bring, how much should I bring and why should I bring anything at all? It also discusses different kinds of bags, and when they are appropriate. Not only is this book about packing for travels - it is about how to pack to commute to work or going to the gym as well.

Details about how to pack clothes and how to build a travel wardrobe are also included, plus some very good lists to use as starting points, as well as a packing chart to personalize.

This little book is packed with useful information.It contains tips a traveller can really use- from selecting the right bag,to avoiding wrinkles. The photos selected are a visual treat, and the book is beautifully designed.

this book was assigned to me as a summer reading book for my advanced placement american history course... after reading the first chapter, i was automatically interested. i wouldn't exactly say i couldn't put the book down, but having to read it was more like an interesting leisure activity instead of a boring read. johnson's use of citing people who reappear throughout the book was very useful because it was more obvious that the horrors of the slave market were true statements from real slaves instead of a general statement without a citation. i strongly recommend this book to people of all ages!!!

In a book that argues that the slave trade itself fundamentally defines American slavery as a whole, a focus on the brutality and inhumanity of slavery would be expected. The tragedy of individuals torn from their families, kept in inhumane conditions in the slave markets, and sold to strangers who likely would physically abuse them is certainly one focus of Soul By Soul. However, Walter Johnson has gone much further than that in defining the slave markets as central to our understanding of slavery. Through creative interpretation of numerous personal and business documents drawn from slave dealers and owners, the court transcripts produced when their bargains went awry, and the haunting memoirs of slaves who either came through the markets themselves or had relatives who did, Johnson shows that the act of buying a human being was profoundly important to the Southern mind in ways that transcend economics or dynamics of power. It is thus not possible to dismiss Johnson's interpretation with the argument that the majority of slaves never passed through the traders' hands, so their experience with the market was negligible and therefore of less importance than Johnson would suggest. This is a book less about the experience of black slaves in the market than about the effect those markets had on the white psyche.

Johnson sees southern whites as consumers, ready to be marketed to in the modern sense. Traders knew this and were prepared to advertise their wares in ways that would allow those consumerist impulses to be satisfied. The purchase of a first slave for a man just starting to build his fortune was an act of hope; the buyer's dreams of prosperity rested upon the slave whom he had chosen, in a sense transferring dependence from the slave to the paternalist himself. Wealthier buyers could impose their own fantasies upon their purchases; domestic slaves could bring respectability to a household by relieving the master's wife from physical labor. Slaves could also establish a master's reputation among his peers by being 'stubborn' or 'unruly' slaves whom the master could break, establishing his power. They could also embody sexual fantasies, allow a white man to create a role for himself as a paternalist, or simply reflect well on their owner by being 'good purchases.' Much as a man may express his desired appearance to others by purchasing a certain model of car, and judges others buy what they drive, so did slaveholders define and judge themselves according to the quality of slaves they owned.

Similarly, just as slaveowners defined themselves according to their actions in the market, they also defined slaves' humanity according to their market value, using racial and physical markers to determine the abilities of their purchases. However, the human nature of their property inevitably led to slave owners being dissatisfied with their purchases; slaves seldom fulfilled the materialist fantasies of their buyers. Violence was the surest response, as slave owners expressed their disappointment with 'faulty products.' Slaves could be returned for failing to perform as the traders had promised, but more often they were simply whipped. Presumably, slaves' common experiences drew them closer to one another, as Johnson argues. However, his sources show that slaves frequently judged each other in ways reminiscent of the slaveholders' own criteria, that is upon skin color, intelligence, attitude, etc. Arguing that they automatically united against whites is perhaps sensible, but not supported by Johnson's sources. This however, is one of the few flaws in Johnson's otherwise insightful analysis.

In his review of Soul By Soul, tabsaw compares Johnson's book about the slave market unfavorably with the WPA interviews taken with former slaves themselves, and claims that Johnson, a skilled and careful historian, presents no documentation for his claims. In fact, a quick examination of a few of the many hundreds of footnotes in Soul By Soul illustrates that Johnson's work is well-grounded in the documentary evidence--much of it from court records and newspapers in which the slaveholders themselves described their world. For example, advertisements for runaway slaves routinely describe the markings on their bodies--ears cut off, whip scars, and the like.
The WPA slave narratives are good, but they need to be read (like all historical sources) carefully. For example, the interviewers are all middle class and white, the interviewees are all black and aged, and the interviews take place in the 1930s Jim Crow South, where several African Americans were burned alive, lynched, or tortured to death in public every single week, year in and year out. The interviews take place in a situation where whites own almost all the property and make all the laws and where any white man can kill any black person without fear of prosecution. Does this sound like an environment likely to produce candid information about race relations? I don't mean to say we disregard the slave narratives, but obviously they cannot simply be taken at face value. Walter Johnson is a real historian, while tabsaw is just a neo-Confederate propagandist, searching for something to defend his fantasy of the Old South. As a Southerner myself, I don't find that either shocking or admirable, but Soul by Soul is a great book, and cannot fairly be faulted for such a misuse of evidence.

W.P. Webb's history of the Texas Rangers is an excellent example of the 1935 society in which it was written. It is not a "complete" history of the Rangers (through '35), but the facts that he includes are mostly sound. The format is a bit encyclopedic, but Mr. Webb's narration is always beautiful.

The interesting aspect of the book is the facts that Mr. Webb leaves out. While the racist aspects of the Rangers' exploits, expecially during the Mexican War, were well known to contemporary historians, Mr. Webb does not include this part of Ranger history in his volume. Even so, the book is an enlightening read to anyone who can keep in mind that it is not the whole truth.

Written in 1935, this book takes a look at the first 100 years of the Texas Rangers. Not an easy read it is very detailed . This book should be used in Texas History Classes where that course is taught. It offers a realistic look at the brutality of life in frontier Texas. Although slow going at times this book has fascinated me for the twenty odd years I have owned it. I use the index as a source of reference when I want to look back into my native Texas' history. I enjoyed this book and readily recommend it for those interested in the early history of Texas.

This book explains day-to-day problems and how to aproach themusing Bible readings to help explain them. END

I'm a college student. I am studying auditing to take an AICPA exam. well, auditing is hard for me to study. I think, in order to understand a structure of auditing, reading a book is important. 'Modern Auditing' is helpful to me. A consistent arrangement of context, detailed indexes, lots of figures.... I'd like to recommend 'Modern Auditing'.

Mr. Kavanaugh does a fantastic job in memorializing the Big Train. While many biographies will tend to go into the intricacies of a man's private life, Jack Kavanaugh seems to only look into these areas when it would explain the on field actions of Johnson. "A Life" reads like a beautifully written column in the sportspage - the cold hard facts of the game with the eventful games highlighted. Futhermore, "A Life" does something else - it reminds that not all ballplayers were or are spoiled children with no sense of values or morals. I reccommend to all who hold a dear love of baseball and pitching.

Over all I thought the book was well written. Gives advice using the bible as reference. Covers topics that a graduate will have to face in their journey forward.

Luke Johnson in The Real Jesus does something that all whom he criticizes does not: he emphatically states the limitations of his own field. He attacks the hubris with which scholars (or, those who refer to themselves as such) wield the mighty tool of the historical method of determining what is real, not just about the man, Jesus, but the foundations of the Christian faith. For faith it is: a belief based on a religious language and hermeneutic, in the same vain as the Gospel narratives. The title of the book is apt, not only because it reflects a similar sensationalism that those of the Jesus Seminar use with their literature. It is clearly tongue-in-cheek, for he is emphatic that there is a distinction between the sum of probabilities of historical events and "knowing" what is "real" about Jesus. In the end, he does not write about how the historical records or the events portrayed in these records tell us about the "real" Jesus, but how they in fact cannot one way or another. Jesus is a Jesus of faith, directed by the records, but having been brought alive through the presence of the "real" Jesus who works through Christianity today.

What so few people understand (including JS scholars, if I may use that term) is that the biblical text is ONLY text and not the Bible unless read within a community of faith. This is basic theology. Without faith, you can tear apart the text and force out parts of it you don't want.

Johnson sets the record straight on the use of scholarship, obliquely (or, perhaps overtly) scoffing at the attempt of the Jesus Seminar to assume that what is scholarly is what is true and, moreover, far-reaching enough to make statements on the validity of religious claims. There is no doubt that as a believer in the traditional Jesus as espoused by the creeds, Johnson is biased. His genius is in showing that this also can be most emphatically said about the interests of the participants of the Jesus Seminar.

Luke Timothy Johnson is a heavyweight in Christian scholarship and in this clear and concise book, he exposes the "misguided quest" of the Jesus Seminar. This book strengths lie in that Johnson, a first rate scholar, explains why the quest for a historical Jesus often fails.

The book introduces the Jesus Seminar and some of their most popular teachers and scholars. One reviewer clamims that Johnson is Polemic, but I am curious what he considers polemic. Johnson is not polemic, but honest in his assesments of this group. He informs the reader which Seminar folk are actual scholars and which ones are not.

Johnson then reminds the reader the "limitations of history" in trying to develop a historical Jesus. This area examines the limtations of this social science. He then develops what is "historical about Jesus" and the "Real Jesus." This book is an easy read, yet has enough depth that it adequately deals with such an important topic. While I cannot completely agree with Johnson on every detail, he has produced a great work which is neeeded as a counter-balance to the media circus that surrounds the Jesus Seminar and the often lack of serious scholastic response by "litarlist Bible Christians."

Luke Timothy Johnson is no fundamentalist. Johnson works in the milieu of critical scholarship while still maintaining a vibrant faith, much like the late Raymond Brown. Therefore, his observations in this book should not be dismissed as the rantings of rabid anti-scholar. There is much more to this book than criticism of the Jesus Seminar. The issues involved in contemporary biblical scholarship in general are articulated well. The main point of the book is that there are such severe limitations in historical research that any historical reconstruction of Jesus, i.e. "the historical Jesus" cannot be "the real Jesus" that is worshipped and followed by the church. The real Jesus is the one presented by the Gospels, and indeed by other sections of the New Testament (the letters of Paul, James, I Peter, etc.) Although the Jesus Seminar takes the brunt of the criticism here, Johnson also points out some of the methodological missteps of less radical scholars such as John P. Meier. This book makes some valid points and is essential reading to get another view in the lively area of contemporary Jesus scholarship.

As a Christian teacher who has utilized this book in a high school Bible class, I would emphasize the book's own category of reader: young adult. Someone in an earlier review suggested giving this to a high school or college student. My suggestion is, maybe not. It is more suited to a junior high audience. Out of perhaps 150 of my junior and senior high school students who read this book as a requirment for an apologetics Bible class (semester long), I would say about half would have given it 4 or 5 stars. A number of the students were honestly insulted by the way the authors tried to be "hip" in their use of slang. Unfortunately, the teens just don't talk like this anymore. (Maybe, like, 10 years ago the language was "cool.") Based on this, I changed my policy and no longer have it as required reading, but I still offer it as a choice, and some actually gravitate to an apologetics book that is such easy reading.

So, while this book may not be for everyone, I still give it four stars (even though I haven't read it cover to cover myself) because the information is very pertinent to those who are just now exploring their faith. As I tell my students, there is coming a time when it will no longer be OK to borrow their parents' faith. In fact, it is time to own their own faith. A book like this introduces some different philosophies that they will be inundated with in the not-so-distant future. Mature junior highers should be given this book before they attempt to share their faith with the cultist at the door.

I am a high school student. I have been reading many books on cults in the past years of my life to learn, who, what, and where they are. This book is very accurate on what it says. I enjoy reading it andit speaks the truth. Some of the passages can be taken out of context and changed in this book to sound as if it is bad, but you must read all of it to understand. This book is taken out of context just like the Bible is by cults. Anybody, child, teen, adult, who is interested in learning about different cults should know this is a good place to start. It explains cults in good terms. I would also suggest reading, "So What's the Difference?" It is a book that talks about all religions and which ones are cults. This book is good. It has some very good references to Bible passages.

I have read this book and studied a lot of Mormonism. I can't tell you about the rest of the cults they talked about in this book, but I can tell you that the information given about the Mormons is extremely accurate. The explanation of a cult is very good and the way they talk about cults is so true. You know that if you've ever talked to a door-to-door missionary that this book is very accurate and they have done a wonderful job at explaining who and what the cults are and believe.

Catch the Wave wasn't as helpful to me, as I had hoped and expected. It was almost like reading a textbook. Two things that I did like were the stories and examples it gave, and the missions oppertunities in the back of the book. It's good to read in a group, instead of by yourself. One tip: Don't be fooled by the fact that it's in the children's section. It's more focused for students in late highscool and college.