I have nothing but praise for Phaidon's publications. Each of their artist's books contain great documentations of the artwork, plus detailed writings by the artist and critics. If you are going to read a description of an artist's work, who better to explain it to you than the artist. This is especially true with Mike Kelley. He is well known for the writings he does for each of his works and he pulls no punches in his delivery.

Mike Kelley's excellent catalog from Phaidon may be the most definitive work to date concerning the merging of Elite and Popular culture. Kelley's use of his own astute observations about the world in which we live to "debunk belief systems" and deflate popular pretentions is nothing short of revelatory. His pathetic stance in sculpture, drawing, performance, sound, and banner-making constitute total war on austerity. All modes of his work are well-documented here with color photography of installations and descriptions and criticism by some of the best in their fields.

This is the most complete and accurate book to entail the essence of what Joe Pilates wanted to accomplish with his brand of movememnt and exercise. In addition, I was able to find more of his exercises not utilized by my teachers or training as a pilates instructor. I believe that this will be a welcome addition to any library.

In his book From Coronado To Escalante:The Explorers of The Spanish Southwest Dr. J.M. Morris told the story about Don Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's journey of 1540 to the present-day Southwest, and skillfully depicted the origins of this expedition. He used the accounts of the previous Spanish conquistadores like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro who before Coronado organized their "entradas" and subjugated the mighty Aztec and Inca empires. The author has also drawn the images of the people who participated in these adventures by portraying their ethnic and social status, and what motivated them to endure hardships such as fatigue, thirst, cold, and heat in the terras incognitas. As Dr. Morris followed every footstep of the Coronado conquistadores across the vast territories of Northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas, he educated the reader about the types of landscape they encountered. The author not only pointed out the geographical terms of the landscape such as the Continental Divide, the Great Canyon or the rivers of Sonora, Pecos and Rio Grande, but he also linguistically enhanced the characteristics of that environment by providing the terms used by the Spanish explorers themselves like despoblados,"desolate, cactus-strewn wastelands", and the Llano Estacado, "Staked Plains",a part of the plateau streching across Northern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle, to name just a few. The author introduced the reader to a variety of Indian cultures that the Coronado expedition encountered in its way. "The Zunis, the Opatas, the Hopis, the dwellers of the pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley, the Querechos of the buffalo plains, the Teyas of the barrancas and the Wichitas of Kansas" provide evidence of a diverse world of the America's indigenous population. Besides this ethnic diversity, Dr.Morris exhibited various attitudes of how Europeans were perceived by the Indians. The title From Coronado To Escalante is a timeline during which the power of the Spanish conquistadores declined (since gold was not found to be abundant) and the ascent of the Catholic Church missionaries began. Where the magic and attraction of the riches were gone, the abundance of the Indian pagan souls prevailed. Friar Silvestre Velez de Escalante and his small group in 1776 opened a new era in mapping the landscape of the Southwest that resulted in creation of more missions in that area, the monuments to the legacy of the Catholic Church of Spain. Dr. J. M. Morris book provides a focused, comprehensive narrative that makes the reader open the map of Mexico and the present-day Southwest in order to plot Coronado's trail as he or she reads about the Spanish explorers' adventures in search of gold, glory, and fame.

This book was a text book for me as I wandered, wonderingly, into the world of freshman college English Lit. in 1960. It has made th cut on all of the 27 "moves to new digs" that I have made since then. It is now like an old friend--treasured, respected, loved. I am sorry it is out of print because my copy is held together with tape and cannot last too much longer. It is written with such an obvious love for the subject matter (the poem) that one is caught up in that love and swept along with it. Yet, the writing is simple, clear, and constructive. It is an introduction to poetry for an adult of any age. For me, it was, and is--priceless.

Miller presents a detailed history of a remarkable period in U.S. Congressional history leading up to the Civil War. Miller describes the battle waged in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by John Quincy Adams, to preserve the right of citizens to petition their government, and his efforts to keep the issue of slavery before the House. I finally saw one of the important effects of the infamous 3/5's rule, which was to create a power imbalance in Congress in which slave holding states dominated the House due to the additional Congressional Reps. they gained by virtue of their large slave populations. It was this imbalance that hindered Congress from a full debate regarding the abolition of slavery. Extremely informative, very well researched and documented, and Miller weaves a witty commentary throughout that is most enjoyable. This is a book that should be read in every high school American History class. It is at times dry (big surprise as Miller details Congressional proceedings) but nonetheless fascinating. I have a new appreciation of the contribution of Adams to the battle against slavery.

This book deals with events from 1835 to 1845 and is principally concerned with John Quincy Adams' fight over the House rule which forbad the reception of petitions about slavery. This may seem like a narrow issue to be the subject of a 556 page book, but this book is flawlessly written, and has great humor--exposing the idiocy of the slavery upholders--and at times brought tears to my eyes. A dropback to the stirring events of 1775 and 1776, found on pages 155 to 157, is as good a writing as I have ever seen evoking the sheer drama of those days. This is a nigh flawless book for one as interested as I am in congressional history and the years before the Civil War.

Try discussing the relative role of slavery in the American Civil War, and the discussion will likely turn on its ear quickly, with little generated other than heated words. So often, it seems, we cannot discuss this subject except with anesthetic prose, or highly spirited points of view. Not so with William Lee Miller's Arguing About Slavery. The author, Thomas C. Sorensen Professor Political and Social Thought at the University of Virginia, has crafted a wonderfully expressed story of the battle over slavery in the 1830s and 1840s on the floor of Congress.

To those of us in the late twentieth century, the idea of petitioning to consider a prayer for action, the Constitutional sanctity of the act, and the relative abuse of the privilege by Congressmen both North and South seems the actions of an almost foreign government. The nearly maniacal desire of Congress to avoid any discussion of slavery in toto also seems incredible in light of government today. Using Congressional records to retell the story in the words of the participants, Miller weaves a fascinating tale as forces in the North try to ensure the rights of their petitioners, as well as deal with continued efforts to stop them dead in their tracks.

There are three major areas to the book: the opening of the slavery issues in Congress, with the presentation and fights by Southern radicals to keep any admittance of them from even appearing in Congress, the development and passage of the "gag rule," in which any attempt to place a petition in front of Congress regarding slavery was "gagged," and finally, the story of former President John Quincy Adams in these fights, and his efforts to support the rights of American constituents in these battles.

The story of Adams is the centerpiece of the book. In laying out the man who would not back down to both Southern and Northern Democratic interests, Miller brings back to life an American figure who is likely lost to many of our generation. Adams, already in his sixties as the slavery battles began, was an unlikely hero. Having served in nearly every capacity he could prior to agreeing to run for Congress after his presidential term, he brought a dogged determination to duty that is hardly recognizable in today's terms. Adams was not an abolitionist, but he was determined that the voices of his constituents, should they be of an abolition ideal, should be heard in the halls of Congress. To that end, he battled for a decade to make those voices heard.

Making use of Adams's massive personal diary, historical context, as well as the Congressional Globe coverage of the proceedings of Congress, Miller delivers the story of these battles in the words of those who were there. Thus, we can see the fanatical words of South Carolinian planter James Henry Hammond: "And I warn the abolitionists, ignorant, infatuated, barbarians that they are, that if chance shall throw any of them into our hands he may expect a felon's death," and Waddy Thompson, Jr.: "In my opinion nothing will satisfy the excited, the almost frenzied South, but an indignant rejection of these petitions [calling for the end of slavery in the District of Columbia]; such a rejection as will at the same time that it respects the right of petitioning, express the predetermination, the foregone conclusion of the House on the subject -- a rejection, sir, that will satisfy the South, and serve as an indignant rebuke to the fanatics of the North." And finally, we see and hear in our minds eye the torture of Adams as he struggles to balance his personal devotion to his country (he was a strong Unionist) with his obligations and duties to his office. Looking at war as a possibility between the two sides of the Union, he concludes in his diary: "It seems to me that its result [that of war] might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent; and, calamitous and desolating as this course of events in its progress must be, so glorious would be its final issue, that, as God shall judge me, I dare not say that it is not to be desired."

Much more than just a chronological narration of events, Miller weaves in background of the events and personalities in order to make his subject come alive. Arguing About Slavery is a book outside the mainstream of standard Civil War book fare, but a must if you have any desire to understand the people, events, and stories that led to the great conflict beginning in 1861.

I am not a Linguist, but this book helped me to appreciate all of the differing theories and various fields within what is known as linguistics. If you are seeking a book that is simple to read, yet very comprehensive, I recommend this volume. If you enjoy languages, speech development, regional dialects, language acquisition, theory of language, language trends, and more - this book is for you.

Major disciplines coverd include: phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also included in this new addition are new chapters on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

One of the best features of this text is how well it is laid out. It is a pleasure to peruse and even study because of it's logical and user friendly format.

If you love anything about language- whether knowing it's origins, or what part of the mouth is used to create certain sounds, or how language changes over time and for what reasons, or a host of other curiosities, you will certainly enjoy the wealth of information within Contemporary Linguistics!

"Contemporary Linguistics" (CL) is a wonderfully clear and accessible introduction to the field of linguistics. The authors begin by introducing the methodological assumptions that underlie present day Chomskyan linguistics and then reserve a chapter each for almost all major research directions within linguistics.

One thing in particular that I liked about the format of CL was the treatment of more advanced material (marked "Advanced") in each chapter. The "Advanced" sections augment the material in the rest of the chapter and are placed in logical sequence with the rest of the material instead of appearing in an appendix at the end of the chapter. For example, a section marked "advanced" on X' (read X-bar) Theory appears fairly early in the syntax chapter. Having some knowledge of X' Theory allows the reader to proceed to examine the rest of the material with the knowledge that there exists an intermediate level of structure between lexical categories (N, V, ...) and phrasal categories (NP, VP, ...).

Most chapters in CL are pretty well written and technical tools to treat linguistic phenomena are almost always introduced at the correct juncture. However, CL does not treat Innateness properly (why Innateness and arguments for and against Innateness), and has a weak chapter on semantics. The reader would do well to augment the material in CL by reading Pinker's "The Language Instinct" or Jackendoff's "Patterns in the Mind" for a non-technical introduction to some ideas in linguistics, as well as sections of De Swart's "Intro to Natural Language Semantics" to get an idea of how semantics is done. If the reader is interested in looking at language from a cognitive science perspective, she would also do well to read most of Gleitman et al's "An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Language".

All in all, CL provides a relatively painless initiation into linguistics and I highly recommend it.

Speaking as a newcomer to the subject, I found this book to be an excellent intro. Very useful.

This is the Revised Brief Thirteenth edition, not the full edition. The paperback version comes with a plastic ring binder that is not suitable for heavy use. In short, this is not the version that a professional editor would want, although it might be fine for students.

I found this book to be a wonderful reference when writing anything from a short paper to a forty page research paper. Neither would have been possible without this text. A great buy!

The only reference you will need for everyday professional and proper usage of the English language. Very well organized and extremely easy to use. I highly recommend this book.

I was expecting more of a how-to book when I bought this but was not at all disappointed. This funny and inspiring book gave some insight into the life, work and thoughts of one of our time's greatest actors. This is an good book for both fans of Shakespeare and of biographies.

I wouldn't recommend this book to the beginning student of textual criticism, but it is a very well done work. Burgon died in the late 1800's, when people in general could read beyond a 5th-grade level, so the language and sentence structure used within do not yield an easy-to-read book for the modern reader. Not that that is a detriment, of course, but many readers might find reading it too much work. While not necessary, an ability to read Greek and even Latin would be helpful in getting maximimum benefit from this book.

That said, this work does an excellent job of discrediting the "revised text" that has in many circles replaced the Traditional Text of the New Testament (from whence came the King James Version of the Scriptures). The reader will also get a lesson in some of the methods scholars (and quasi-scholars) use to determine which of two variant readings is the one that the Holy Spirit insprired.

I read with interest the reader reviews on this book before I purchased it and saw mixed opinions and many comments, but the one that stood out the most was something to the effect of "this book might be too much for the casual Laura fan, but great for those who want to dig a little deeper." I heartily agree with that and think that needs to be stressed. If you've only ever read the "Little House" books, perhaps you should start with some of the lighter books and biographies about her. If you are like me, however, and can't get enough information about the true life of Laura, this book is fantastic. Its focus is a bit shaky at first, as it breezes through the first 20 or so years of her life in first third of the book. At that point it changes focus so much that it is almost like two books in one. Here is where we meet Laura the writer and witness her long path from town columnist to published national author. Throughout this section of the book her daughter, Rose, plays a pivotal part and has her own biography of sorts within these pages. While at first I was reluctant to read about the controversy over how much Rose actually helped her mother write the books, once I got into it I was fascinated and hooked. This book is a biography, a history book, the story of a young pioneer, and a look into a complex and conflicting mother/daughter relationship. And for those out there who simply can't get enough of Laura, curl up and dive in.

One other note: I learned a lot of new information about facts that were left out of the Little House books or changed to make the story flow better for children. John Miller even goes so far as to call her Little House books fiction. I don't completely agree with him on that point, but I did learn a lot and wanted to know more about the actual accurate early life of Laura. Miller makes reference in this book to Laura's first attempt at novel writing; an unpublished manuscript called "Pioneer Girl." I did a little research and found that copies are available from the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa. It is costly, but worth it for the biggest fan. It is definetly an adult read, though, don't plan on reading this to your children as a bedtime story.

Hope this review was helpful - enjoy!

Miller pretty well refutes the contention that Rose Wilder Lane ghostwrote the "Little House" books. There is no question that she edited her mother's manuscripts, and without her connections in the publishing industry there is a good chance the books might not have been published at all. However, the books were and are Laura's.

It's also important to remember that the "Little House" books only cover Laura's life up to her marriage, and that she in fact lived less than 15 years in DeSmet. She spent the remaining 63 years of her life in Missouri. I always thought that Missouri was an odd choice of destinations, but there in fact were compelling reasons, and Miller does explain them.

Some have criticized this book because they feel that it almost becomes a biography of Rose Wilder Lane about halfway through. A more careful reading gives an explanation for why this seems to be the case; Rose left massive amounts of personal archives, letters, and other documents when she died. On the other hand, Laura ("Mama Bess")left very little of this kind of information behind, and were it not for Rose's archives there would be even bigger gaps in the narrative. Miller does mention that a roomfull of possessions left behind in Laura's parents' home in DeSmet was discarded by the new owners of the house, and it's just possible that some of her letters were lost there.

If some people wish the book provided more in-depth detail about Laura's life in Missouri, then they should also wish for even more information about Almanzo. At the end of this book we know only a little more about him than we did at the end of "The First Four Years." He was apparently a man of few words, either spoken or written, so he largely remains an enigma. What little we do know about him comes from either Laura or Roses's writings.

One thing we do learn is that Laura never lost her pioneering spirit. In 1925 she, Rose, and a good friend of Rose's drove all the way to the West Coast from Missouri. A transcontinental auto trip in 1925 was sitll a major adventure, and even more remarkable when undertaken by three women. An account of this adventure surely would have made for good reading, but apparently neither Laura nor Rose thought of it.

This has been something of a rambling review, so I will conclude that Miller did very good work, and that any true fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder or her daughter would do well to read it.

This book gives a much more balanced account of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life than other recent biographies. John E. Miller creates a richly detailed portrait of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, one that is well supported by his documentation. The relationship between LIW and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, is examined in great detail. Miller's assertions about the relationship between mother and daughter ring true. His statements are clearly supported by his research. He does not attempt to negate Rose Wilder Lane's contribution to the Little House Series. This book gives a good picture of the complexities of the mother/daughter literary collaboration. One comes away with a better understanding of and an appreciation for both women. "Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder" is an interesting, well written, and highly readable biography. A most welcome addition to the shelf of any admirer of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books!