This is a stunning book, The photographs and details of these amazing pieces By Big Bill Morris and his incredibly talented team are breathtaking. As a glassblower myself, I can only imagine the degree of skill to fashion these pieces, let alone the colours that the team is able to achieve. (they're good!)
I found myself unable to put this book down, I have been looking at it every day now for the last two weeks.
It is a MUST have for anyone interested in Glass or fine Contemporary Art/Sculpture.

I understand that Morris is onto an entirely new series of work, I can hardly wait to see it.

Order this book Now!

This is a POWERFUL book. A good, quick read from some of our premier modern-day American historians. This collection of essays gives us an inside look at most of the presidencies of the second half of the 20th century. A must read for any history buff.

• Edmund Morris - Last fall, Morris published the controversial biography Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. His book The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

• Ben Bradlee - Author of That Special Grace, a tribute to John F. Kennedy, Bradlee is a vice president at the Washington Post. He previously was the executive editor at the Post who oversaw reporting of the Watergate scandal.

• David Maraniss - A reporter at the Washington Post since 1977, Maraniss earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. He subsequently wrote the Clinton biography, First in his Class. His latest book is When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.

The "Power and the Presidency" series was created on behalf of the Montgomery Endowment by alumnus Robert A. Wilson of Dallas, a communications consultant who put together a similar series, "Character Above All" (dealing with the impact of character on presidential leadership) in 1994 at the University of Texas at Austin.

These well written essays provide vivid glimpses of varying Presidential personalities, with thoughtful discussion of individual strengths and weaknesses. To me, especially in an election year where character is a major issue, it was an enthralling read, with highlights of qualities such as "Reagan's voice, which was a large part of Reagan's power..." or the speaking style of TR, with plosive P sounds, which "would pop with Gatling-gun force. The effect of his oratory was to bury every word in the psyche of his listeners." or the political genius exhibited by FDR who talked "at a level at which very few people could follow him and understand what he was really saying" that FDR also recognized in a young congressmen, LBJ, as "he saw Johnson understood _everything_ he was talking about." I enjoyed reading these examples of behavior and the illuminating contrasts such as: "It is hard to imagine two more different men than Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy..." or "despite the major differences in their temperaments--indeed, I would argue, because of these differences--Eleanor and Franklin forged their historic partnership..." I would recommend to readers the book "Presidential Temperament" by Choiniere and Keirsey, another well researched volume which gives an explanation of "how each President's temperament inevitably expressed itself in his behavior, both in office and in his personal life."

Morris' writing is clear, interesting, and for the most part convincing. It's a good introduction covering the problems with fossil fuels, an introduction to nuclear energy, waste disposal issues, air pollution, comparitive environmental effects of nuclear versus fossil fuels, the risks of our current situation, the risks of nuclear power, and otehr alternatives. That is, a broad introduction covering a number of angles (medical, political, scientific, etc). There are two non-trivial problems with the book, however.

First, Morris' logic in certain places is so apparently flawed that it seems to discredit him. On page 89, he states about potential meltdown or explosion in a nuclear facility, "The risk of either one of the ... accidents must be very low, because neither one has occurred to date." Now, I'm all for past behavior being a predictor of future behavior, but aging nuclear facilities and changing geopolitical climates make his statements unclear at best and possibly even misleading!

His leaps of logic and inclusion of only certain information (for example a very positive take on the Three Mile Island incident and a sort of conspiratorial explanation of why the media cares about nuclear waste) lead to a second problem: he comes off like a very biased author.

It's worth reading, but I'd include a second volume by another author in there somewhere if you're serious about the topic.

If your interested in reading only one book which refutes many of the fallacies made by the anti-nuclear movement then this book is for you. It's particularly good for the layperson as it doesn't require a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the reader.

This book is a very convincing case for the use of Nuclear Power. One major point of the book is that nuclear power is extremely safe and clean compared to its fossil fuel based alternatives. It also debunks the many falsehoods and myths the anti-nuclear power movement have succeded to spread. The book is fact filled, detailed, honest, and the author is careful to provide references to all his sources.

The book convincingly paints a very frightening future in the event we don't start using Nuclear Power to a greater extent soon. Thus it introduces a rational fear while dispelling irrational fears of Nuclear Power. The author does not say nice things about anti-nuclear activists. However, I was a teenager in Sweden 1980 when Sweden held its national referendum on Nuclear Power, and I participated in and listened to the debates. The way anti-nuclear activists were misinforming, lying, spreading rumors, scaring people, and even persecuting and defaming those who dared to disagree with them convinced me for all time that we should fear anti-nuclear activists, not nuclear power. This book scientifically demonstrated what I long have felt and suspected since that tragic year of 1980.