This book is a fascinating look at the life and times of one Edward Doheny the onetime founder of Mexican Oil Company prior to the nationalization of reserves by the revolutionary PRI party in the early days of their power. The narrative follows the career of Mr. Doheny from his modest prospector days in the Wild West to the heights of his infamy during the Teapot Dome scandal.

This is perhaps a timely book as well given the questions being raised at the time of this writing about corporate malfeasance and corruption in the U.S. (Enron). Teapot Dome was one of the biggest political scandals in the first half of the 20th century and involved the leasing of government/public lands in preserve areas for energy development. More than one person went to prison and wrongdoing was proven against multiple individuals in the matter.

The book makes the case that Doheny was more or less guilty of poor judgment and being in the wrong place at the wrong time more or less. It is true of course that Doheny was found innocent on the charges and it is also true that despite this Teapot Dome is the matter for which he is best known (despite for instance being a contemporary and rival of John D. Rockefeller in the oil business). If in fact he was innocent of the charges then he paid a heavy price in terms of his health and the somewhat mysterious death of his son, which was either suicide or murder depending on who you ask and how you look at it.

For those with an interest in the biographies of the early titans of U.S. industry this is a worthy read in that it does detail Mr. Doheny's rise to power as well as his fall from grace. He came from a modest background and did not make his fortune until after the age of 40 in a time before life expectations averaged 70+. He suffered through personal loses and setbacks and managed at the time of his death, despite the misfortunes, to bequeath a sizeable fortune to his heirs. This book may also be of particular interest in the study of Los Angelos in particular and California in general in that the Doheny's were prominent citizens who built some noteworthy structures in the city including religious and educational facilities.

The author acknowledges that she had the cooperation and blessings of the descendants of Mr. Doheny and that a good body of original documentation was available for review and research. This provides an intimate look at the lives of the people in question but it also may cause the thesis to lean towards their views. The book does tend to exonerate Doheny in Teapot Dome and it does make a good argument that his involvement was not profitable and that the Navy Dept in fact sought him out because of rising fears of the Japanese Navy in the years leading up to WWII. It was a condition of Mr. Doheny's development of the area under lease to him that he build an extensive oil storage and supply facility for the Navy in the Hawaiian Isles out of his own pocket. This he did and subsequently was not reimbursed when the lease was negated despite having spent many millions in pre-WWII monies. It is also I believe true to state that it was Henry Sinclair who was the actual lease holder on the Teapot Dome acreage and that Doheny was leased an entirely separate parcel of public land. Sinclair along with Interior Secretary Albert Fall went to prison in the affair but Doheny was also tarred and feathered by the affair.
Whether the delivery of $100,000 in cash by Doheny's son to Sec. Fall was in fact a personal loan much as one might expect between old prospecting buddies (which they were) is really a matter of conjecture. At any rate there was clearly the appearance of impropriety in the matter and both Doheny's son and the man accompanying him that night were involved in a murder/suicide after indictment but before trial. With the principle witness gone and little other corobative evidence Mr. Doheny's celebrity legal representation did get him acquitted although he was convicted in the court of public opinion.

Personally I am inclined to believe a man of his stature might loan a friend the sum in question but I also would not be surprised if a quid pro quo were expected in return. You see there was any number of companies competing in secret for the government contracts and it is interesting that both men who won had either the appearance of impropriety or were outright convicted of bribery. Part of the reason Doheny was spared prison was in fact due to the death of his son and his earnest and teary eyed appearance on the witness stand where he looked the part of a grieving grandfatherly figure who had lost something money could not replace.
It is an intriguing story and well written book, not terribly long or archaic for the casual reader. While it is a history book it is in fact also the story of an interesting chapter in American business and personality history.

Margaret Leslie Davis has done it again with another fine biography. Ms. Davis shows us the inner man of Edward L. Doheny, one of the richest and greatest Californians in history, virtually the John D. Rockefeller, Sr. of the West. Doheny was flat broke at the ripe age of 40 and yet within a few years he became one of the richest men in the country through his wild-cat oil discoveries in Los Angeles and Mexico. The break-up of Rockefeller's Standard Oil by the U.S. Supreme Court left Doheny an opening which he exploited adroitly. Most impressive is Ms. Davis's keen legal understanding and her scrupulous attention to noting her sources. In fact, the "notes" at the end of the book are arranged so that the top of the page refers the reader to the page number of the text thereby making it very easy to flip back and check the source. A small detail, perhaps, but much appreciated. Ms. Davis is a true scholar; her legal training shows itself especially when discussing the Tea Pot Dome scandal that ultimately tarnished Doheny's reputation. In short, Ms. Davis is becoming our finest historian on the West and particularly California.

Very few biographers could have sifted through the complex and oftentimes mysterious paper trails of Edward Doheny's life to compile such a mesmerizing tale of ambition, scandal, heartbreak, and murder. Margaret Leslie Davis, (winner of the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Best Nonfiction Book) exceeds her previous biographical effort to regale readers with a shadowy epic tracing the rise, fall, and tragic legacy of an American Icarus who flew too close to the sun.

Buy this book. You'll not be disappointed.

I've owned a copy of this book for over 25 years, purchasing it in the early 1970's. As an owner of a Model A Ford, I wanted more information about the car and its history. This book has an amazing amount of information about the Model A and its birth, changes over the 4 year production run, and great original factory photographs and charts.

The thing that amazes me most about this book is that, even today after almost 30 years after its original publication, the accuracy of what the authors wrote when the book was first published is outstanding! These 3 fellows REALLY did their homework.

If you only own 1 book on the Model A Ford, I recommend this one.

Best Model A book around. Lots of photos and information not found anywhere else. Got a copy on loan from the library, and would buy a new copy to keep if it was still in print.

I need informatio

This book is one of the best of its type that I have seen. A very handy reference for anyone doing documentation.

It has been the best company as I have been writing my Master's thesis in the computer science field. Whenever I vacillate about how to write or present something in the proper way, I consult with this amazing manual. The ideal answer is "always" there. It is still expensive, but surely I invested my money in the correct place. Thanks for all who participated to introduce such a marvellous product.

I would not like it if a comet crashed into the Pacific Ocean or anywhere else, I would be freaked out. This is probably the only book I've read that has this kind of danger. I would like to fire a missle to change it's course.

This second edition of Shortliffe's textbook is an excellent overview of the field. Although I used it as a course text, it is extremely readable. The chapters are not overly technical, as befits an introductory text, but by no means is this a "Dummmies" book either.

There are now a variety of introductory/overview books on medical informatics. However, of the ones I've read (including van Bemmel's Handbook of Medical Informatics and Coiera's Guide to Medical Informatics), this book is by far the best.

Some of my fondest memories are of reading this book to my daughter, Madeline, when she was four and five. The verses can be purchases in many different editions, but the illustrations are equally marvellous. It is a great loss that they are not currently available.

I have used an earlier edition of this book to get some background for academic work. Very thorough and very clear.

One may wonder why a book like this should have to be written. Clearly Lord is guilty as sin! On that cold April night he just didn't want to be bothered with a strange ship firing rockets in the distance. It was easier to do nothing, hoping everything would go away. But it wasn't so easy or comforting to deal with the blame that fell on him. How dare we blame such a responsible captain? But the facts are there. Reade goes through them step by step like a first class lawyer. This must be done because many still feel that Lord did nothing wrong. Like OJ Simpson's defenders, they believe what they want to believe. My only fault with this book was that it was not the thriller other Titanic books have been. It tended to bog down in jargon and nautical language.

No matter what your view is on this particular aspect of the Titanic tragedy, you cannot help but be impressed by this book. This is, without question, one of the best-researched Titanic books ever written. If you happen to come across this rare gem don't hesitate to pick it up, because it's likely that you won't see it anywhere else!

Reade's book certainly puts quite a bit of blame for the tremendous loss of life on the Titanic on Captain Lord. But it must be kept in mind that even if he had fired up his boilers and navigated safely through the ice to the area where the Titanic went down, he still may not have been able to save many lives. The loss of the Titanic and the 1500 people must be blamed on Captain Edward J. Smith. Why didn't the passengers on the Titanic take the mattresses off the bunks and use them as rafts? Maybe they would not have had enough bouancy to hold someone.

William Clarke Quantrill, Confederate raider, self-proclaimed officer in the CSA, and many other things, good and ill, depending on who is speaking. Edward E. Leslie presents a well-researched biography of the guerilla who roamed the trans-Mississippi theater of the War Between the States, harrassing Union troops and worrying Confederate generals. There was a certain genius in the man followed by the James boys and Bloody Bill Anderson, and who led the infamous raid on Lawrence, Kansas. However, this is not only a story of the life of one man. Leslie also gives a good account of the cruel conditions present in that part of the country before and during the war. He relates more hatred and cruelty than in nearly all the rest of the country combined. It is even said in some quarters that the war began on the border between Kansas and Missouri.

The story did not end with Quantrill's death, either. The fight over the man's bones up to today is both interesting and bizarre. At the end of the book, his bones still had not all been buried in one place. In some ways, this is the most interesting part of all.

Although the organization of the book often leads to a bit of confusion, anyone interested in the border wars will enjoy it, as will many Civil War buffs. They might also enjoy the movie, "Ride with the Devil," which tells the story of young men who rode with Quantrill.

This book is a must-have for all civil war enthusiasts, as well as should be mandatory reading for history classes on our local history. As a native of the town that Quantrill formed his raiders and a civil war enthusiast, I can confirm that Edward Leslie went to great lengths in researching the towns and the terrain that the Quantrill band frequently covered. Unlike previously released books on this subject, Leslie takes an unbiased approach at describing attrocities committed by both sides of the Missouri-Kansas border. As many people cling to the idea that men such as William Quantrill, Bill Anderson and George Todd were simply murderers quenching their own thirst for blood, even General Sterling Price himself viewed the efforts of the Missouri Conferderate Guerrillas to be a necessity for the Conferderate Cause. I commend the author for conveying the facts from both sides of the border and describing this truly dark period of Missouri history

Leslie's grass roots research into the shadowy life of Civil War guerrilla chieftain William Quantrill has produced a vivid picture of the realities of life on the Missouri-Kansas frontier from the late 1850's until Quantrill's death in Kentucky in 1865 and has resulted in a book which will become the resource work in the field. Leslie spent years as a professional researcher doing background work for other authors writing on various topics, both fiction and non-fiction. Some of his research can be found in the works of James A. Michner, and others. Leslie knows how to dig out the facts of a story. On occasion, I accompanied him as he visited sites in both Missouri and Kansas where Quantrill stamped his name on the history of the War. I witnessed firsthand Leslie's feel for the subject material and his expertise and passion for fact-finding. "The Devil Knows How to Ride" tells Quantrill's story from his Ohio childhood, thru his arrival on the Kansas frontier, to his development as the leader of a band of Missouri men and boys who became the guerrillas who sacked Lawrence, Kansas and caused the Union to divert troops and resources from war operations in the East. While the story of Quantrill and his band has been told and retold, Leslie's research covered many years and addresses questions not heretofore answered: * Was Quantrill a recognized Confederate officer, or did he operate outside the rules and customs of "civilized" warfare"? * How did he achieve leadership, and then lose that leadership role of the men and boys who had at first flocked to him? * Why did he meet his death in Kentucky, and not on the Missouri-Kansas ground which he had terrorized? * What brought his followers to the band, who were they, and what became of them afterwards? * Did Quantrill teach Jesse and Frank James the lessons which led to their infamy? * What effect did his activities in Missouri have on the Civil War? * Was the man inherently evil, or was he a product of his times - fighting for what he took to be a just cause? These questions and more have been previously discussed by other authors who have not returned to the primary source material which is essential to the accurate telling of a biography that has not been addressed for many years. "The Devil Knows How to Ride" has an extensive bibliography, along with photos of documents and personalities not previously published. The depth and breath of the story, which is told in a readable and entertaining style, sets forth previously untold facts which are essential to an understanding of the tragic guerrilla warfare which rocked and shocked Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War. The book is a monumental achievement and a good read! -James P. O'Connor Nov. '96

With the bestseller lists populated by the likes of such adventure stories as Into Thin Air and other contrived adventures of the bored rich, it is refreshing to read about adventure stories that hark back to a time when man was less concerned with adventure and more concerned with science, discovery, or just making a living. Adventure was just something you accidentally stumbled into. The author recounts many lesser known survival stories, and attempts to reconstruct a mental and psychological profile of the victims as well. In an age where we look at adventure and heroism as more important than the preparation and foresight that would make such adventure unnecessary, it is refreshing to read about survival stories where those suffering the hardships simply want to get it over with. The book hums along nicely for about 2/3 of the 500+ pages, but the author seems to run out of steam and stories, and seems to want to read more i nto the adventure experience than is actually there. Many of the survivors seem less than willing to elaborate upon their experiences, or semed less than heroic in their hardships, but this only adds weight to the contrast between explorer/discoverer and the modern adventurer. But those of you with a taste for the bizarre will love this book, it contains enough morbidity,death, cannibalism and suffering to satisfy the most harcore adventure enthusiast. THe chapters on the rampant cannibalism i n the history of the British Navy and in other adventure scenarios are especially gruesome. Bon Appetit! All in all a worthwhile if a bit long of a read.

I wondered if people were ever REALLY trapped on desert islands for years (a la Gilligan and "Cast Away"), and if so, what would it do to them psychologically? This is the perfect book to answer that. Some folks have spiritual revelations, some give up the idea of god altogether, some go crazy. And who survives, and who dies of panic or bad planning? All incredibly interesting. Stories range from pirate mutinies to a woman trapped under her car on a snowy road... oh, and those Japanese soldiers in WWII who didn't know the war ended! What a lot of good stories.

After reading this, I had this strange period of looking at the world from the point of view of a castaway... "what is useful to me in this situation? What can be salvaged here?", which was interesting, to say the least. Any book that gives you a new way to think deserves 5 stars!

This was a fascinating book. It contains many true stories of survival. If you liked the books Alive or The Perfect Storm, you will love this.