Nancy B.'s touching story of the needle and the damage done is heartbreakingly tragic and an incredibly brilliant work in its imagery. As we watch three young sisters, much like the Bronte girls, or in modern times the stunning Olsen twins of the sublimely intense Full House, we come to realize that not only are the simultaneous temptations of love and heroin the downfall of a post-Victorian generation women, alienated from the cruel patriachy, but the insanity of the Gowk is contagious...cuckoo-cuckoo... With the brilliant symoblism of storm (danger) and sun (happy picnic) we get a step in modern literature that is still today leaps beyond anything else in the cannon, other than possibly Victoria Beckham's new autobiography (a must read for any fan!). If you like action, if you like love, if you like miniature donkeys, if you like drugs (or at least reading about them because as an escapist you are too afraid to try them yourself), then I HIGHly recommend the Gowk Storm. Honestly. Nancy B. peace out.

This book is an informative and interesting account of the spread of religious enthusiasm in eighteenth-century New England. The work is a good overview of the Great Awakening in that region. It is a particularly good, though concise introduction to the period.

For another detailed consideratin of the Great Awakening, including an interesting discussion of major personalities involved, see Richard Hofstadter, America at 1750: A Social Portrait, which also discusses other events and themes in colonial American history.

Dawes work is the most successful and interesting meld of history of stage magic and history of science, medicine and technology I have yet found. This book is packed with leads to interesting research projects focusing on the relationship between entertainment and science. Highlights include: Ch 5, Dawes examples demonstrate that the relationship between quackery, entertainment and "legitimate" medicine is not the straightforward set of compartmentalized disciplines that both historians of the sciences and historians of popular culture and entertainment have presumed; Ch 6, Dawes research clearly shows how not only was magic influenced by Science, Technology and Medicine (STM), but STM was influenced by magic performance, as exemplified in the case of the adoption of inhalation anesthetic; Ch 7 Dawes here focuses on the relationships between technology, optics and entertainment that contributed to motion picture development. There is also mention of magicians and science education which provides and interesting connection between the traditionally disparate areas of science and entertainment.

This book ranks in my top 10 all time favorites.

This is a classic, still in print, thanks to Dover. It is one of the clearest introductions to philosophy in English.

The Gulf War still draws our attention seven years after the American-led coalition achieved an apparently decisive victory over the Iraqi armed forces. This publicly announced triumph signified both a quick restabilization of Middle Eastern power politics as well as a revitalization of the United States' world mission after the end of the Cold War. Here was a victory that rapidly accomplished something. Today, this positive assessment demands reconsideration. We are presented almost on a daily basis with evidence of the continued solidity of Saddam Hussein's reign as Iraqi dictator, the renewed floundering of U.S. foreign policy in the Balkans and elsewhere, and the tragic implications of the so-called "mystery illnesses" experienced by Gulf War veterans. Perhaps the obvious question of what the Gulf War accomplished really leads to a deeper question: what was the conflict all about in the first place? A new coalition of scholarly essays edited by Paul Leslie probes the deeper meanings of the Gulf War in ways which neither the media nor our political leaders have apparently ever contemplated. The Gulf War as Popular Entertainment bursts forth in its very title as a book with a mission or as some might see it, a definite ax to grind. Leslie himself makes this clear in the book's preface, when he states that these writings "transcend sacred political lines of demarcation and offer unapologetic dessenting views"(vii). In short, not only do Leslie and his fellow authors offer scholarly interpretations of the Gulf War's societal dimensions, but they also court controversy in the name of public awareness. As one of the contributors, J. Timmons Roberts put it: "The exclusion of these issues from the realm of mainstream debate underlines the importance of sociology's role as society's watchdog"(53). One may not agree with the grandiose nature of this particular assertion, but it does indicate the boldness, indeed passion with which these scholars contend that the supposedly sacred cause of the Gulf War was actually a gigantic exercise in public manipulation. The first essay, written by Ali Kamali, looks at the truism that the Gulf War was not fought over hallowed principles, or even desert land, but instead the oil beneath the Kuwaiti sands. Kamali utilizes an impressive battery of statistics to demonstrate teh incredible stake the United States - and perhaps even more so its European allies - had in restoring not just the political but also the economic status quo in the Persian Gulf region. Kamali distills the essence of his argument into the culminating statement that the Allied coalition, carrying the banner of the New World Order "served as an instrument of the world's industrial powers"(11). Julia Burkart turns to the role of the media in mobilizing public support for the war as well as obscuring the real issues at work in the conflict, portraying military and political leaders as the real actors in this drama. She rather interestingly describes the press as essentially "a reactive institution, taking its cues from political authority"(20). Without questioning the recurrent chauvanistic impulses of the American people, Burkart continues her essentially "top-down" analysis by concluding that "the public was coached and misled by incomplete and slanted press coverage"(20). But if the American people receive partial victim status in this scenario, the real victims are, of course, the Iraqi people whom Allied weapons slaughtered, while American television audiences were lulled into a high-tech stupor. Burkart contends that in the representation of war as a video game "the serious business of war was trivialized into a game...carnage...had been deleted from this clean and righteous war"(28). Leslie's own article, co-written with Victor Archibong, deals with the oft-criticized military-industrial complex, and by going back to the Sixties has a deep historical resonance. Ex-president Dwight D. Eisenhower foretold in 1961 that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex" warning of a "disastrous rise of misplaced power"(33-34). "Ike's caveat," far from being the outburst of some anti-establishment leftist, was the sober reflection of a statesman and war hero, and a Republican to boot. Refuting the idea that defense industries foster economic presperity, Leslie and Archibong have determined that such a system of perpetual arms spending diverts public money and governmental energies away from problems of societal misery and hopelessness. And war itself appears as a useful siphoning off of social tensions, by giving jobs (as cannon fodder) to the under privileged. The authors are unsparing in their conclusion that "the conditions produced by the military-industrial complex foster a tacit conspiracy which leads us to armed conflict and maintains the system itself"(39). This idea of a "conspiracy" is more or less implicit in the other essays as well, but in most cases these social scientists tend to identify not active, conscious conspiracies of the Oliver Stone variety, but the more or less self-protective reflexes of entrenched systems and institutions. Finally, the earlier mentioned essay by Roberts more or less ties the first three essays together, offering a commentary mainly geared to those witin the sociological profession. Even the casual reader will find this last piece useful in that it tests and qualifies some of the assumptions raised by the earlier authors. And this critical stock taking also gives a sense of the animated discussion these papers no doubt generated when originally presented at a scholarly conference. Anyone who reads The Gulf War as Popular Entertainment will find it at turns engaging, enlightening, and perhaps infuriating. These pages contain no references to high-level Pentagon meetings, no dramatic images of F-16s taking off from carrier decks at dawn, and no glimpses at Scuds being intercepted just in the nick of time. We have already been treated to all that and more on CNN. What this book does offer is the controversial assertion that war itself is becoming part of a pseudo-participatory media spectacle substituting for the informed debate vital to any democracy's survival. Accordingly, this book merits attention.

Living in the state of Georgia and not knowing to much about the government entities (ancencies or institutions for that matter), I thought it would be prudent on my behalf (and wise one could possible say to) to find out more about the Georgia State agncies by examining and reading this book in question, i.e., Handbook of Georgia State Agencies by Edwin L. Jackson. What this tool (reference work) does is describe the history and reason d'aitre for many of the agencies and does write in clear and precise terms. The font is ok and could have been a bit better. However, it can be said to be adequate which is much better then other titles. Recommended.

Hannah Arendt On The Holocaust: A Study Of The Suppression Of Truth by Jules Steinberg (Professor of Political Science, Denison University) is a scholarly, critical, seminal assessment of the writings of Hannah Arendt. Meticulously deconstructing the internal contradictions of Arendt's scholarship, the aspects of Arendt's work that encourage murderous totalitarian regimes, and Arendt's failure to understand or admit the true horrific nature of the Holocaust, Hannah Arendt On The Holocaust is a powerful, exhaustively researched rebuttal to Hannah Arendt's writings and a welcome addition to the growing library of Holocaust studies and a highly recommended addition to academic reference collections.

Ed Bearss is both one of the most knowledgeable Civil War historians of the present day AND one of the men who found the gunboat Cairo. "Hardluck Ironclad" is both Civil War history and modern archaeology... it details the history of the first warship in the world to be sunk by a mine and the story of the people who worked to raise her and display her at Vicksburg. Outstanding.

This book gives a wonderful look at what life is like and used to be on Harker's Island, a fishing community that is now being populated by weekend tourists and the well off retired. Before life became so hectic and full of modern conveniences, the people of the island were fishermen and boat builders, working very hard by the sweat of their brows just to make enough money to feed their families. Through hard work and endurance, they did just that. This book not only tells a little about yesterday but it tells of the few remaining fishermen and boat builders on Harkers Island. Fascinating is the life of Eddie Willis and his family. Edwin Martin's wonderful photographs capture the way of life of these people like no one else could. Mr. Prioli does an excellent job telling the stories of these hard working people. I strongly recommend this book not only because of the fishing community, but it will give the reader a greater appreciation for what he has.

Originally published in 1938, Hopi Kachinas is a classic reference illustrated in full color by Edwin Earle and written by Dr. Edward Kennard. Dr. Kennard lived on the Hopi Mesas for a full year a witnessed the cycle of their kachina dances and selected the carefully painted, superbly presented illustrations of the Native American ceremonies. Dr. Kennard's informative text explains the role of kachinas in Hopi life, the nature of the dance, and more. A superb look into a unique portion of Native American culture and one that has rightfully survived the test of time, Hopi Kachinas is a core addition to Native American Studies reference collections.