Once again, Professor Cottrell has proven that he is one of our best biographers of radical left intellectuals. As with Cottrell's earlier biographies of I.F. Stone and Nicholas Comfort, this latest biography fills a woeful gap and does so with expertise. Cottrell leads us through the inception and growth of the ACLU, as we follow Baldwin's travels from the east coast to the midwest. This book is exquisitely researched, beautifully written, and passionately conveyed, as Cottrell shares with us the fascinating story of both Baldwin and the ACLU, surely one of America's greatest contributions to personal rights. Cottrell's biography is a MUST for historians, those interested in left-leaning intellectuals, and anyone who is moved by bravery, ideals, and the depiction of fascinating life and times.

This book is necessary for anyone who studies terrorism and political extremism. It documents the activities of everyone from the anarchists of the early 20th century, to the KKK, to the left-wing groups in Europe, to radical Islam, to Oklahoma City. It has over 100 pictures and the tales of modern terrorism are exciting to read. Plus, there are also about 100 pages of every single terrorist attack committed in the 20th century from 1900 to 1998. It also has a list of every single terrorist group that has operated during the 20th century and what the motives of those groups are. To sum up this review, this is a great book!

Anyone who loves biographies will enjoy this book. There are many fascinating biographies of famous and not so famous eccentrics.

Just as its title says, this helpful little book provides a wonderful guide to selecting an appropriate Bible translation and format for readers of all faiths. Including a brief history and explanation of Bible translation, this booklet has something for everyone. Those searching for a more detailed and historical treatment of Bible translation (including examples of comparative texts and discussions of ancient manuscripts) should consult Philip Comfort's "Essential Guide to Bible Versions" (Tyndale, 2000).

This book is very helpful for someone who wants to know about the Bible. It offers honest, readable answers to all of your questions about the making, translating, and formatting of the Bible. It also offers sound advice on choosing and using specific translations. This book certainly deserves a place in your library.

With more than 1,000 entries and 400 pictures it would be hard to complain about what is left out of this encyclopedia. That's why I couldn't pass it up when I saw it in a bookstore. Also it has an extensive bibliography I have found very useful. Those are the strong points. As I read through the entries, though, I began finding things that didn't jibe with other books I've read. For example, Nash has Belle Starr living with Cole Younger and later robbing a California prospector while Glenn Shirley's book, Belle Starr and Her Times, shows there is no evidence she did either. Nash has Jesse James riding with William Clarke Quantrill when they sacked Lawrence, Kansas while others, such as Edward Leslie in The Devil Knows How to Ride, shows that Jesse wasn't part of that raid. These are only a couple of examples but I've run across a number of others. It has forced me to use this book with historical reservations. That's why I would only recommend this encyclopedia after making the reader aware of its shortcomings.

This book has so many stories about outlaws and lawmen I have and haven't heard of before. It's presented so fantastic. Each individual is a story in their own right. I couldn't put down this mammoth book and you would be crazy not to order this! The portraits are nice, too.

When I first received this book I thought it would be another book briefly talking famous "bad guys" and those who brought them to justice, I was wrong, very wrong. Jay Robert Nash is one of, if not the best, at bringing to life the Old West and those who made it come alive.

With over a 1000 entries and well over 300 photos, this book goes beyond Jesse and Frank James, The Cole-Younger gang, Billy the Kidd, Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson and The Earps. You'll read about judges, Sheriffs, outlaws and so much more.

I spent over four hours reading this book form cover to cover and every page has something new and fascinating. Facts and myths, legends and tales, it's all here and waiting for you to explore. You'll ride along with the Texas Rangers and help out the Pinkertons, and never have get dirty.

I have seen books on lawmen of the old west, and also books on outlaws of the west, for the first time you have a reference book that gives you both and at a price that makes it a great gift for anyone.

Who cares if the book is histrionic and innacurate? It has excellent pictures and juciy crime tidbits like the depraved housewife who branded "I AM A PROSTITUE AND PROUD" with a hot needle on the belly of the young girl left in her charge (while the girl's parents travelled with the circus, no less). You also get stagecoach robbers, confidence men, joy killers and petty thieves all descibed in a feverish, tabloid tone. Gotta love it!

The book definitely influenced my tender, young sensibilities and helped develop my life-long fascination with crime and the American prison industrial complex. This should be in every American pre-teen's bookshelf!

This book is so big and fantastic I have read it twice. Each criminal and gangster is a story in their own right, and most are dispicable as one can come. The only problem is I wish Nash would put recent killers in his book, ala O.J. Simpson. (or the one armed man who framed him).

I originally purchased this book some years back and refer to it frequently. It includes all the notable criminals, Jesse James, John Dillinger, more recent serial killers, etc. It is well-researched and Nash has the ability to make even the most mundane facts interesting.

Isaac Monroe Cline, writing of a storm he weathered off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico, made the prescient comment that "This was my first experience in a tropical cyclone, but it was not to be my last." Prescient, that is, for native Galvestonians who have listened to stories of the fateful, terrible Great Storm of 1900 from their forebears. I myself am a descendant of a survivor of an event that binds people together like Pearl Harbor survivors. Every B.O.I. (Born On the Island), it seems, had someone in the family or knew someone who made it through the night on September 8 one century ago.

Storms, Floods and Sunshine is one book that will be indispensable to storm descendants and Texas history aficionados. It is the autobiography of Isaac Cline, the weatherman who followed the storm as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico after its birth under the sweltering West African sun, traveling thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, cutting a swath of destruction across Cuba before turning its fury directly on the industrious city of Galveston, the Wall Street west of the Mississippi and number one cotton port in the nation.

The chapters are short and the sentences are spare of the sentimental, flowery rhetoric one might expect of a Victorian-age Southerner born at the cusp of the Civil War in 1861. His life was one of Masonic diligence, Franklin-like in his pursuit of science and the betterment of mankind, shunning distractions like strong drink, gambling, even the company of women, until he could convince himself that perhaps the soft touch of a woman's hand could help him in social advancement.

Predictably, the longest chapters concern the development of weather technology, from its infancy under the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army., the political undercurrents, the infighting, and the agricultural aggrandizement. There are some snippets of humor, such as one forecaster who typed up the forecast for the week, submitted it to the newspaper, and took off fishing.

"History does not record a greater disaster in the United States, than that which occurred at Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900."

The one chapter that stands out, of course, is the one which changed the lives of thousands of residents and the course of a city. It materially changed Cline's life as well--he lost his wife in the disaster. Curiously, he is very silent about her other than a short description of how they met. Perhaps the memory of her death was too painful to relate in the wake of a hurricane that took at least 6,000 lives.

Some of the asides and anecdotes may strike the modern reader as a little bizarre. To put it in perspective, the writer is, after all, a devout Methodist who put aside a promising career as a preacher to study medicine and the weather. For example, a whole chapter is devoted to the novel idea that the ark was actually built in America--near the swamps of Florida and North Carolina, to be exact. Yet even here he marshals evidence he considers scientific, such as wood type and ocean currents. Plausible, maybe. Unusual, certainly.

It is a firsthand account of someone who helped a neglected branch of science become an essential part of our understanding of the natural world today. As Cline writes, "The slow progress made in the study of weather is surprising. The barometer was not invented until 1643, and the special study of weather and its changes did not receive much attention until two hundred years later."

In a field of science where writing can be used more as a weapon than as a tool for understanding, Isaac Cline still shines as a meteorologist who knew how to write in a way most anyone can understand, without "dumbing up" the prose. The only thing missing are pictures, charts, and diagrams, if for no other reason than as a necessary break from all the text. His short chapters work to the book's advantage.

Even after 49 years, the spirit of the author comes alive in his writings. He was in a unique situation - witnessing the birth of the National Weather Service, and leading to its eventual acceptance from a public unable to believe anyone could make a one hour forecast, let alone one for two days!

He expanded the role of the NWS in his 55-year career, and now has an award named after him, long after his demise. He lived to a ripe old age, doing what he loved most. His personality is in full effect - he comes across arrogant at times, and uses shameless self-promotion in order to get everyone to know all the contributions he has made to meteorology and Early American Art. It was, and still is, well deserved, however.

He goes over his role in the Galveston Hurricane, the 1915 New Orleans Hurricane, and numerous Mississippi River Floods, including the great crevasse of 1927. He put most of the pieces of the hurricane puzzle together, and advanced the science significantly. He raised a family, and still found time to restore old paintings and make great contributions to his community in Galveston and New Orleans throughout his life.

The lessons he learned in life were hard, but it helped make him the man he was. His story is still fresh, even after all these years. This book is well worth owning, and is valuable in its historical information. Meteorologists and local historians could do worse than do read/own this work.

"Almanac of World Crime" chronicles the exploits of the underworld: murder, robbery, arson, torture, rape, kidnapping, extortion, and blackmail, to name just a few. It takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the world of crime.

Plenty of photographs and illustrations are used to bring this book to life, with each chapter dealing with a particular type of crime (ie murder, robbery, arson, etc). The author has collected cases from all time periods and countries, so this truely is an almanac in every sense of the word.

Ok this peach isn't as good as Terrorism in the twentieth century because it's a little more scatered.

But then again so is it's subject. Overall a very good book that seams compiled from years of side notes on the topic

This was the most introspective book I have read. If you think that you know alot about scandals you do not. This is one big conspiracy theory supported by compelling evidence. You ask yourself is this story true. Hoover was one of the most corrupt figures in American history. The deeds that transpired in his years of running the FBI are incomprehensible. It needs to be information to the general public. A must read.