Professor Gary Gerstle's book doesn't remotely resemble the pop history books that sell so well today. The happy history that provides all that one needs to know about the great events of American history is missing here. In place of the pap, the professor has substituted facts, data, and the truth.

In Working-Class Americanism, we find the Great depresion, at least at the micro level, as well as its antecedents and aftermath, to be quite different than we were quite sure we knew. Dr. Gerstle fights through the popular notions of how the times impacted working men and women to determine how the great events of the first half of the last century really touched ethnic workers in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Those of us who know Woonsocket - at least a little - wonder why students of American history don't know a great deal more about the place that is still the most French City in the United States. Here resides a large population of the descendants of an important yet largely overlooked ethnic minority that contributed greatly to the advancement of the industrial revolution in America. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Franco-Americans spread over the northern regions of the U.S. and especially to New England and to nowhere more than Woonsocket. These hard working and modest people wanted nothing more than a place to preserve their cultural identity and to find work to support themselves, their offspring and their institutions, especially the Church.

The horrendous difficulties these French Canadians faced as they moved from being an admired but suspect seperatist oriented minority to become part of the American labor movement that reached beyond the safety and security of their in group has been tackled in a very straight forward manner by Dr. Gerstle. He has stripped away the myths of the monolithic impact of the powerful economic forces of the first half of the twentieth century and demonstrates clearly that we cannot rely on the widely perpetuauted myths of the economic history of the times.

That the impacts of the Great Depression varied significantly by industry, even within a single city should open the eyes of readers. That even in related industries such as the woolen and cotton textiles the impact on labor was widely different in places like Woonsocket. That the times and the overpowering nature of American culture threatened the insularity of even the most committed ethnic groups is laid out in stark detail. That the French Canadians looked outside their society to seek common cause with workers from other backgrounds - even some, such as the Irish, that had worked to keep them in check - is a wonderful tale that Dr. Gerstle has treated beautifully and with great sensitivity.

The book is an academic treatise that has the clear writing style of a work of popular fiction. To gain an appreciation of the complexity of the times and an original view of the American labor movement, buy this book. You'll be enriched and you'll enjoy the read.

This book, Mr. Tucket, is written by my favorite author, Gary Paulsen. Gary Paulsen is a distinguished author of manybooks for young people. These include : The Winter Room, Hatchet, Dogsong, and many more which I have read most of them. This book, I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed many of Gary Paulsen's books. Also this book, Mr. Tucket, is a historical Fiction book and so many people and Indians introduced really existed ruing the 1800's.

It was around 1847. Many people from different places were heading for West, to Oregon. People traveled in groups in wagons because of Indians, and Francis Alphones Tucket is one of the many people moving to Oregon. It was his 14th birthday and he had received his first rifle. He was so happy, he wanted to practice shooting with it. But soon he was captured by Pawnees Indians. His rifle was taken by the Pawnees and he was used almost as a slave. During the stay at Pawnees village, little kids jumped on him and wrestled him. Francis found it really irritating and wanted to leave. Then he saw a white mountain man trading some stuff with the Pawnees. He only had one arm and looked very strong. Later at night, the white man came to release Francis and let Francis run on a black mare by himself. The next day, after Francis was running hard, he saw the white man and introduced himself. Mountain man, known as Mr. Grimes didn't like Francis nor the Alphones, so he called Francins Mr. Tucket.

That's how Mr. Grimes and Mr. Tucket finally met. Mr. Grimes helped Mr. Tucket to shoot and practice with the rifles. He taught Mr. Tucket to find meals by shooting rabbits, antelopes, and dears. Mr. Grimes showed Mr. Tucket the Sioux Indians. Mr. Grimes and the Standing Bear, the chief of the Sioux Village decided to have a competition of wrestling with Mr. Tucket and a one of Sioux Indian. Mr. Tucket was sure he was going to lose, but he didn't, and instead he won. He was rewarded a new black mare and was given buckskins. Then Mr. Grimes took Mr. Tucket to Spot Johnnie's house, Mr. Grimes' friend. After meeting Spot Johnnie, Mr. Grimes took Mr. Tucket to pond of beavers. It was located in Crows Indians' territory, so Mr. Grimes tried to be very careful. After few days after building a cabin near the pond of beavers, another mountain man, Mr. Grimes' friend, Jim Bridger came to the cabin and had a talk with Mr. Tucket. After killing 200 beavers, Mr. Tucket and Mr. Grimes skinned and stretched out the beavers.

When Mr. Tucket thought it was really bored, he rode his mare around the pond where he could see his own cabin. But saw 5 Crows Indians. He almost died, when Mr. Grimes shot 2 of the Indians and saved Mr. Tucket. They hurried and left the place and went to Spot Johnnie's house. Then suddenly, Mr. Grimes said in a very concerned voice that there was a bit too much smoke at the house and ran hard to the village. The buildings all burned down and many dead bodies were around. Mr. Grimes searched for a second and finally said that it was Pawnees Indians. They wanted powders from Spot Johnnie's, but they didn't have any, so the Pawnees just killed them. Mr. Grimes hurried and found some people riding wagon on road to Oregon. He told them to take care of Mr. Tucket and left for another fight with Braid, a war chief of Pawnees Indians.

Gary Paulsen's MR TUCKET is a wonderful adventure. It is very action packed with realistic events like the Indian raids. The main character make you believe that it really happened. Gary Paulsen's best yet.
The story begins on a wagon train in the year 1847. A fourteen year old boy is walking with his family. When they stop his father gives him a .22 caliber rifle for his birthday. Francis Tucket is his name but he doesn't like to be called Francis. His father tells him that he can stay behind and practice shooting for a while. Thats when the problem starts!! Find out what happens read this amazing book.
Francis enjoys his life but doesn't like his name. He is strong and a positive thinker. He gets kind of nervous and jumpy when he's under pressure but he pulls through. His family is on their way to Oregon. He has a very short attention span, typical for any fourteen year old boy.
ENJOY THE BOOK!!!

by ~*$Sean$*~

This book tells a tale about a boy who leaves his wagon train to try out his new rifle when he is suddenly captured by a group of Pawnee Indians and is taken back to their camp. He is rescued by a gritty mountain man known as Mr. Grimes. Francis Tucket along with his name, changes his life. This book gives you a clear view of how there are many stops and starts on the journey to manhood.

I wanted a brief introduction to Christian Reconstruction _by_ Christian Reconstructionists. This is exactly what I got. North and DeMar make a strong case for the position and, as a person who reads my Bible "cover to cover" every year, I'm convinced they're correct. I foresee Biblical Theonomy and Post-millennial eschatology spreading rapidly as Christians return to being "whole bible" Christians.

Get this book. It is a very good introduction to a big topic "Christian Reconstruction" or you might have heard the term "Theonomy". If you have ever wondered what the Bible has to say to you today in the 21st centuty, even the Old Testament, then get this book. It will put the word of God in a light that you have probably not seen before. It is great. Really, get anything by Gary DeMar, he is OUTSTANDING, and North is = if not more outstanding.

Lives up to the name of its title very well. Is easy to read, informative, and (thanks to the confrontational style of Gary North) at times entertaining.

This is probably the author's best--certainly his most original--work. His thesis is that God's common grace to the wicked increases over time, though this in no way implies His favor to them. Rather, it assures an increasingly godly society as the wicked are forced to obey God's law if they are to succeed in their earthly lives.

The great value of this book is that it is the first to suggest a theoretical mechanism for postmillennialism.

The wheat of special grace and the tares of special wrath are on opposite courses through history. Both are maturing in their respective conditions. The great irony is that the tares can only survive and flourish when they try to look like wheat and feed on the spill-over of God's common grace rain and fertilizer.

This is North's best work. He must think so too given all of the places it has shown up: several appendicies, this book, taped lectures, and essays.

One word of warning, don't buy into the grief North gives Cornelius Van Til. CVT is well worth reading - even if he is difficult.

I agree with Andrew Sandlin: the great value of this book is that it is the first to suggest a theoretical mechanism for postmillennialism. Without this sort of understanding of common grace, it is difficult to see how the Christianization of the world could progress in the way postmils believe, and North alone has produced it. Kudos to him!

...in Australia it is published under the name of The Garden. ...the book is such a magical journey into the heart of a child. I feel emotional reading these books, the images are so real I want to reach out and touch them and the words transport you to an early America that is full of magic and that takes a child on a journey of growth as she gives back what she found to the rightful owners. I thank the author and illustrator for their marvelous books and for the magic I share with my son when we read them. I only rated this book 4 stars because the whale song is my favourite but on it's own it really does deserve 5 stars.

We found this story of discovery a beautiful and intelligent way to begin to introduce our child to the history of Native Americans and the world as it was. The illustrations are absolutely breathtaking and our son is taken with the descriptive yet understandable language used by the author. What a magnificent book!

Under the Moon is one of the most beautifully illustrated children's books I have seen, and I worked in a children's bookstore for two years! The illustrations, actually oil paintings, do an excellent job supporting a beautiful story. A young girl finds an arrowhead and asks her mother if she can spend the night under the stars and the moon. The illustrations show her day-dreams that may or may not cross into reality. She envisions the buffalo and deer that roamed the land so long ago at her house as well as the Indian who dropped the arrowhead. Pay attention to the details in the clouds. Wonderful book; but not preachy or boring. Makes a great present for a 5-8 year old girl. If you like Rafe Martin I recommend this highly.

"Ship of Gold" is a wonderful read. What I most appreciated was its approach to adventure and science on the same intense level. This is a book that will inspire you- not to go searching for sunken treasure, but to set your mind on a goal and do whatever it takes to reach it. Tommy Thompson had to ask himself a huge question. How can a 150 year old ship of gold be found in 8,000 feet of water, and how can its treasure possibly be salvaged safely and effectivly from that depth? The answer lies in robotics and engineering. Thompson, a trained engineer, had to pull together a team of dedicated workers and invent the technology no one had sucsessfully been able to make before. Throw in a rival treasure hunting team following them at sea looking for the same wreck, and you have a story of unparalelled adventure and wonder, every bit as exciting and page-turning as it is informative and facsinating. On top of that, Kinder has a written a fantastic account of the ships final days and moments, which he splits up and weaves in between chapters on Thompson and his growing ideas for finding the wreck. The paralel stories grow together as the book progresses, placing us inside Thompsons head to understand his desire and iron will for finding the Ship of Gold. This is a book that should not be missed- please do yourself a favor and read it.

Ship of Gold may be the ultimate Horatio Alger story. Kinder's account of the bizarre Tommy Thompson's quest to locate a 19th Century shipwreck is a delightful rags to riches story. Kinder weaves historical and contemporary events together seamlessly. He takes us back and forth in time, showing how a clear modern knowledge of each stage of the shipwreck led to the S.S. Central America's location at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Kinder is adept at the difficult task of maintaining two story lines in one book. The loss of the Central America is clearly a fascinating story in its own right. Its cargo, millions of dollars worth of gold bullion would have had significant impact on the nascent American economy. Kinder has performed a major feat in tracking the course of the journey and presenting the passenger accounts of the storm and sinking. He shows us the terror, the struggles to preserve the ship and the attempts by other vessels to rescue the survivors. His descriptive powers are excellent - the reader is kept enthralled as the tragedy unfolds.

Thompson's career is just as finely detailed as the historical account. Kinder shows us the workings of a firmly focussed mind. Thompson has the capacity to irritate and captivate those he deals with, whether on technical or economic levels. Clearly, he is infectious when presenting ideas or encouraging his followers. The results were almost foreordained that he would succeed in locating the wreck.

The finding, however, was anything but inevitable. Finding any sunken vessel at such depths, let alone the correct one, Kinder shows is a nearly insurmountable problem. Yet, in his account, success is achieved. It took ingenuity, persistence and insight, with some help from technology. Deep sea exploration devices, while not exactly in their infancy at this time, had serious limitations. Kinder recounts many of the issues Thompson and his team faced, but is reticent about their solutions. He presumably laboured under some form of non-disclosure agreement with Thompson. Even without explicit details, Thompson's ingenuity and persistence is clearly manifest. Kinder portrays him in the clearest possible light just as he illuminates the history of the Central America. The combination is an action-packed epic, in both historical and modern perspectives.

Undersea adventure, good old American 'know how' and undaunted spirit are three things that come to mind when trying to explain what this book is about. I have read quite a few books on undersea treasure hunting and often found the stories to be filled with excentric swashbuckling modern day pirates in search of gold based upon shear luck and happenstance. Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, much to it's credit is a well constructed re-telling of the 1857 tragic sinking of a passenger sidewheeler and the modern day efforts of a dedicated team of scientists, engineers and researchers to categorically succeed in deep water exploration and retrieval on a wreck 8000 feet below sea level. The author is to be especially commended for his solid and compassionate portrayal of the entire cast of characters from the original captain, crew and passengers through the modern day entrepreneurs who worked through numerous adversities to achieve success where few if any experts thought such efforts could succeed. Not only does the exploration succeed handsomely but so too does this book in bringing the reader into a suspensefully well told tale. I recommend this book to readers who enjoyed The Perfect Storm. We need to see a lot more of Gary Kinder's work if this is what he's capable of doing.

Highland Hopes, the first book of the Blue Ridge Legacy series, reads more like Catherine Marshall's classic, "Christy".

The prologue's modern setting makes it clear that you are about to hear the story of a life. That life begins as a mother's ends in childbirth. Parker's pages turn quickly from the deathbed to full-blooded life. There's fast-paced action as mountain moonshiners face off with government revenuers, gambling exacts a heavy toll on an already impoverished family, and World War II patriotism pulls young men from the Carolina hills to the blood soaked battlefields of Europe. The romantic soul will wrench as hearts are broken and lifelong unions are made. The author relates the story in the third person, but often changes the character through whose eye's he views the events occurring. Parker proves equally adept at voicing the innermost thoughts of both his male and female characters.

Highland Hopes takes you through Abigail Porter's childhood years, years that she learns to love her Blue Springs Mountain home, and years that she learns to love her father, even though she feels distinctly unrequited in her affection. She dreams of learning to read, that she might know all about the big wide world of Asheville and beyond. Her young desires grow into a yearning to leave the mountain and better herself, but there is always a tangible pull toward the hills of her birth. The first twenty-nine years of Abby's life take the reader quickly and poignantly from the new dawn of the 20th century in the ageless Blue Ridge Mountains to a definable turning point at the age of twenty-nine, when she finally feels her father's love.

The pages of this copy of Highland Hopes are indelibly marked with coffee and tear stains -- a sure reminder of long late night reads and the powerful emotions that this tale evoked. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the second book in the Blue Ridge Legacy, where Granny Abby will unfold more of her beautiful Blue Ridge memories.

--- reviewed by Lori for Christian Bookshelf

Great book! Highland Hopes will draw you in to each character and will make you feel as though you are there with them. I am looking forward to reading the sequel to this book.

I have enjoyed every novel I've read that Gary Parker has written. This was no exception. Great story line. Each character truly had his/her own personality and it was easy to feel like you were inside Abby's head sometimes. I highly recommend it.

This book has some wonderful narratives from the very people who were caught up in the middle of the uprising in Minnesota in 1862. The author does a good job of explaining how the book is laid out. You definitely need to read the intro to understand this. While I was reading the book, I felt as though I was there in the middle of it with all those involved. I don't excuse what was done, but I have a better understanding of what horrors the indians went through that drove them to this place. I would definitely recommend this book.

Historians discovered many years ago that oral history is a vibrant cornucopia of information. Even better, integrating oral history into traditional modes of inquiry opened up more chances for earning a Ph.D., or getting that career making book contract. In the case of "Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862," oral history is the only game in town. Every selection in the book is an oral story from Indians or mixed-blood Indians about the disastrous uprising that killed hundreds of soldiers, settlers, and Indians. One of the editors of "Through Dakota Eyes" is none other than Gary Clayton Anderson, the premier scholar on Dakota history. As usual, Anderson goes above and beyond the call of duty in researching the narratives, providing background color on the people involved (and also providing information about what happened to these people after the uprising, something I greatly appreciated).

For nearly a century after the uprising, articles and books concerning the 1862 war only used white narratives as sources of information. There is definitely nothing wrong with relying on these narratives; they are invaluable sources of information on the uprising. The white narratives also reveal the tragic dimensions of the conflict, showing how innocent men, women, and children died (or persevered) in especially brutal ways. With the addition of these Indian narratives, however, historians can now go inside the camps and meeting places of the Dakotas intimately involved in the conflict.

The narratives are lumped into distinct categories dealing with different stages of the uprising. Each category then provides a succinct description of that particular phase of the war. With each narrative, the editors provide a small capsule of information on the person telling the story, allowing the reader to understand that person's place in the overall scheme of things. It is recommended to read the endnotes for each narrative, as they provide excellent information on each narrative. Excellent maps and pictures of many of the people involved also help the reader to understand the accounts.

Some of the narratives are more helpful than others. A few are difficult to understand due to poor grammar or contradictory information. Several of the narratives appeared in newspaper articles or as testimony in a case against the government in 1901, and there is a possibility that someone altered or changed them as they saw fit. That does not mean there are not any "WOW!" moments found here. In Cecelia Campbell Stay's account of the attack on the Redwood Agency (also known as the Lower Agency, where the killing began in earnest on August 18th), Cecelia describes seeing the sunlight flashing on the bayonets of Captain Marsh's patrol as they headed to their doom at the ferry crossing. Another narrative, now widely used in accounts of the uprising, comes from Wowinape, the son of Little Crow (the leader of the warring Dakota). Battle narratives allow the reader to feel as though they are at Fort Ridgely, New Ulm, or Birch Coulee as the cannons roar and the bullets fly.

As the editors point out, many of the mixed-blood Indian narratives identify a central tension of the conflict, namely the division between Indians who adopted white modes of civilization (the farmer Indians) and those who stayed true to traditional Indian values (the blanket Indians). Many of the mixed-blood Indians worked closely with whites; they feared the war parties of the traditionals just as much as whites did. As the war began to wind down, it was the mixed-bloods along with some full-blooded Indians who confronted the warring Indians, forcing these hostile forces to turn over their white captives in an effort to make peace with the military forces sweeping into the area.

This is an absolutely essential book for anyone interested in the Minnesota 1862 uprising. Actually, anyone writing a paper on this conflict without using this book as a source could find themselves in hot water. Since the editors graciously organized the narratives in chronological order, there is no reason someone unfamiliar with the conflict and its principal figures would have any difficulty understanding the book. Gary Anderson and Alan Woolworth have made an important contribution to Indian scholarship with this impressive tome.

This book is essential for the library of every scholar of American constitutionalism. For those who have studied the subject, the superb selection of essays on different aspects of American political thought is enlightening. Those who are simply interested in America's founding may however be at a loss and overwhelmed by the wide range of arguments put forward in the different essays even if Gary L.Gregg did an excellent job in the introduction giving an overview to the reader of what he should expect in each essay. Thus, since all and even the American constituiton and its origins is a matter of perspective, this book can only be enjoyed after a thorough study of American political thought. For constitution freaks however it is not only useful to have, it is a real joy to browse through the essays.

There is a palpable fear that America has lost its way, and perhaps even been untrue to itself. Examples of this loss abound, from school violence to a youth culture nihilism. "Vital Remnants," a collection of essays by some of America's top scholars in history, philosophy, political science, and law, shows, with remarkable clarity, the ways in which contemporary American society has radically altered the course upon which it was originally set. To be sure, our century looks at America with a different set of assumptions than that of our ancestors. "Vital Remnants" gives us clues by which we might stay the course for the benefit of generations to come.

I discovered Gary Gentile's books by accident during a stay on the Outer Banks. Reading about what happened in years gone by (in some cases only yards away) has really heightened my enjoyment of the area and deepened my appreciation of the people who live and work there.

While the highly personal opinions expressed and the occasional editing lapses take some getting used to, it is a small price to pay for the compelling tales, passionately expressed. This (as with his other books) is a refreshing change from the pastuerized prose you usually get from the big publishers, who seem to weed out every trace of an author's personality if they can.

The sea has always been a home to the individualist. That tradition continues through Gentile's Dive Guide Series.

Fascinating reading. A useful book when you plan on diving there. But Gary Gentile should hold back somewhat with his at times negative opinions. Maybe he has not learned yet there is now a 50 year+ friendship and peaceful relationship between Germany and the US ? It is so easy to reinforce the image of those supposedly "vicious" German submarine folks. Walk into the Olympus dive shop in Morehead City and look at the shots of the 50 year reunion of the U352 crew. Nice people actually. And they don't look like beasts.

Even if you are not a diver, this book and others in the series are interesting reading and open up the doors to our past. Did you know that German U boats (subs) sank our ships right off our coast? I asked all my friends this question and none of them were ever taught that in school in the 60s or 70s. Well it's all right here for you to explore and much more. The illustrations are great too.