Stonewall Jackson's successful career can, in part, be directly attributed to his gifted topographer, Jedediah Hotchkiss; a man with a gifted eye for terrain. Whether as mapmaker, pathfinder, courier or staff officer, Hotchkiss continuously complimented his talented commander. To understand Jackson, one should know Hotchkiss; Miller's volume, particularly when taken in conjunction with Hotchkiss' own MAKE ME A MAP OF THE VALLEY, certainly facilitates understanding of Jackson's campaigns. Miller clearly delineates Hotchkiss' many skills in an easily read text supported by beautiful full-color renditions of some of Jed's maps, meanwhile teaching the reader a great deal about military topography, map-making and the Civil War in the East. Any student of Jackson, the Valley Campaign, or Civil War staff operations should have this book. A well-done, lovely book about one of the war's most interesting characters.

This book is overpriced and of poor quality. The paper and printing are well below current standards even though it was published in 2000. I really wasted my money on this. I did find his ranting about society in general somewhat interesting. Seems people complained about the same things in 1934 that they do now: Society is in a mess and the media is mainly at fault for this. What is the cure for all these ills? The Pilates Method.

If you are looking to get started with Pilates excercises don't buy this book. You can buy two or three of the others for the same price.

I am a Pilates instructor so I found the book immensely helpful in understanding the origins of the Method. I would, however, only recommend this book for an instructor or a serious student of Pilates as it is not an easy read. If someone is looking for a glossy, modern guide to Pilates, this is not the book. It amazed me that so many of the techniques he advocated so many years ago are so effective today. Both the vintage pictures and the text fascinated me! Again, this is an excellent book for people who really want to know and understand pure, unadultered Pilates.

I find this book very informative, not only historically but medically. As a nurse it's interesting to see what techniques are applicable to today and which we now know may not be safe. It's also interesting to see how Joe's original descriptions of his exercises have changed over the years, according to who is doing the teaching. I feel it was really overpriced for it's size, but for me worth it.

This textbook is a mess! Certain sections such as those that deal with classical transmission genetics are reasonably good. On the other hand, those sections that deal with recombinant DNA/genomic technology and the molecular basis of cancer are very weak. The writing in these sections is convoluted, and the level of coverage fluctuates wildly between oversimplification and mind-numbing detail. The book does not seem to have a clear target audience in mind, and the authors appear to have not spoken with each other during the writing. Considering the relative strengths of their earlier text, "Introduction to Genetic Analysis," this new effort is all the more disappointing.

Genetics has traditionally been taught with the topics in historical order, starting with Mendel and only later reaching molecular genetics. However, it is much more logical to explain Mendelian genetics in the context of molecular genetics. (No other science abandons a logical building-up of concepts in return for historical chronology!) Griffiths and colleagues are the first to write a text with this preferable and long-overdue approach. Their overall organization is the best that I've seen. While many of the chapters are very well written, there are some parts of the book that are substandard and hopelessly jumbled, such as the chapter on mutational mechanisms and DNA repair. As this is a first edition, I am optimistic that these problems will be ironed out in the second edition. Another criticism is that the figures are adequate but not outstanding; the artists should take lessons from their colleagues who worked on Genetics: From Genes to Genomes by Hartwell and colleagues. Despite its drawbacks, I prefer this text to others that are available.

I'm very impressed with the excercises in the end of every chapter. The excercises are fun and not too difficult.
The material is very well illustrated. Again, good work .