This book serves not only as an informative social history of early 20th century Swedish immigration to the U.S., it is simply a delightful story as well. As we are a country of immigrants, almost anyone could look at an obscure man like A.V. Swanson and remember his or her own father, grandfather or great-grandfather. The immigrant's story can be told many times but as the author points out, "(But) each one has been different as a person, and unique in ways of becoming an American." The author is a marvelous and witty story teller. She unfolds the story of her father's life as it began in Sweden in the 1890's, the son of a coal miner, the oldest of ten children, and the hardships he and his family endured. Young Axel Victor Svensson was sent off as a farmhand at age 9 in order to supplement his family's poverty-level income. That experience set the tone for his determination not only to work hard but to work smarter. As a teenager, he caught "America fever" and set his sites on becoming not only an American but a successful one. As Axel Svensson became A.V. Swanson in Chicago, he became the most American of Americans. He chose his opportunities well, applied his work ethic, married and raised a family, established himself as a businessman and community servant in Ames, Iowa and then retired to farm life in his later but still active years. As life gradually slowed down for him, A.V. began his "life review", recounting his adventures that spanned two very different countries. These chapters, along with the author's fine research and a daughter's love and admiration mesh into a fascinating biography. I recommend this book to anyone whose interests lie in history of U.S. immigration, Swedish settlement in the Midwest during the early 20th century and to those who believe that "the stories of all of us need to be told."

This is overall, a very interesting book, but the page that took my breath away is a full page color picture of the New York Trade Towers under construction. This photo is located on the page opposite the title page. I feel this makes this book a true collectors item and would recommend if you are a collector to get yours before they are no longer available.

An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto by Alex Callinicos (Professor of Politics, University of York, England) is an informed and informative study of contemporary anti-globalization movements. Examining the crucial questions of whether protests against globalization are truly against the capitalist system itself, An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto also dissects the resistance to neo-liberal economic policies embraced by the seven leading industrial countries; makes a persuasive argument that protests worldwide are particularly anti-capitalism; and marks the possibility of synthesizing elements of Marxist tradition into a new world market system that offers more balance, stability, and well-being for all. An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto is a welcome and recommended addition to International Studies, Economic Studies, and Political Science reference collections and supplementary reading lists.

I am not a black memorabilia collector but I enjoyed this book for its array of historical facts concerning the history of African Americans. Larry Buster wonderfully illustrates this book with over 200 photos. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Black history and collectibles.

Wow! One of the first books that I've found that doesn't talk about Black Memorabilia as commodity but rather as a history. There are no prices guides attached to the pictures. The book is a time line of black history. It's not incredibly detailed but still nonetheless very powerful. The items in this book are photographed beautifully. Lester V. Buster shows wide range of images: slave shackles, dolls (from Mammy to Mr. T), images of blacks in advertising (from derogatory and dehumanizing to that of Black American heroes). This is a very powerful and informative book for anyone, especially historians and collectors.

Finally, a book I have been looking for; a readable reference with solid examples. Does a great job on the namespaces it covers. Looking forward to similiar books to cover additional namespaces. This is not a tutorial. Gets straight to the point and provides you with the information you need to use a class and its associated methods and properties. Provides just enough background to provide context for the namespaces referenced. If you are interested in a reference that show you what namespace to use for a particular purpose and concisely shows you how to use the namespace, then this book is for you.

The Bee Gees best friend David English has a talent for writing children-style books (i.e. The Bunburys). This novella was his start and it's a true, humorous tale of the Bee Gees from thier start to around 1984. It's more an adult book than a child's and is tons of fun. Illustrator Alex Brychta does a fantastic job of humorously portraying all the characters in the Bee Gees life. This makes a great gift for a true Bee Gees fan.

I have looked at many Access tutorials, yet this book is truly exemplary. What makes this book unique is that not only is everything explained step by step, yet every step has an actual screen photo of the step. You never are lost in any of the proceedures because you can always look at the picture. In some books it was hard to find where the silly buttons where, but with this book there is always a picture of it. On an advanced level, they even go through how to set up an entire database system, also in a step by step and pictorial proceedure. I was so impressed with this book that I have gone as far as to purchase four other books from the Wrox publishing group. All of there books follow the same format and are outstanding as well. With computer books you can waste a lot of time by "getting stuck". But this book gets you past all of that. This is the finest Access tutorial on the market today.

Best Practices in School Psychology offers a comprehensive and eclectic framework for assisting practitioners and students in the assessment process. Current research and perspectives are detailed in a helpful manner, as well as professional and ethical expectations. The array of contributers to the book seems helpful in covering the broad number of aspects in the field, making this book a helpful resource and reference.

The life of Robert Capa is fascinating. Born in Budapest in 1913, he was to die forty years later in Vietnam after establishing himself as one of the great photojournalists of the 20th Century. He captured on film some of the most memorable pictures in the Spanish Civil War, including the iconic "The Falling Soldier." A shameless propagandist for the Republican cause, he thought nothing of having combatants "pose" for some of his most dramatic pictures - including, many think, "The Falling Soldier." Did the republican soldier fall because he was shot or because he tripped? Was it posed? The jury is still out on that one. A Jew at a time when anti-Semitism was rife in Europe, he became a committed anti-fascist and socialist. He established the photographers' co-operative, Magnum, in order that photographers had control over their own photographs and earnings. This was not so different to the kibbutzim established in Israel by highly idealistic settlers whom he so admired. Needless to say, Capa was there to record the birth of the fledgling state of Israel in 1948 and caught on film that nation's birth pains as it battled with its Arab neighbours. War was his medium, even though he hated it. He went over in a landing craft to photograph the D-Day landings and produced some of the most memorable pictures of battle ever taken. This was despite that most of the pictures were ruined during the rushed processing in London and some of those that survived are out of focus.

Capa was talented, generous, humorous, and charismatic. An inveterate gambler, he played poker with the likes of John Huston and Ernest Hemmingway, and inevitably lost. Like most people who don't care about money, money problems plagued him. Highly sexed, he counted some of the most beautiful women of the age amongst his lovers, including Ingrid Bergman. When lovers were not immediately available, he contended himself with prostitutes. Loving and loved in return, he was too much of a bohemian to commit himself to a permanent relationship. He could have been rich, but he never was. He could have happily married, but he never did.

Capa's luck ran out when he went to Vietnam in 1953 to cover the war between the French and the Vietnamese and trod on a landmine.

Alex Kershaw deserves credit for writing such a meticulously researched and readable biography.

...It's December, a traditional time of celebration for many people around the world -- a time when people seem kinder, more considerate of others. I'd like to offer a book that speaks to those better elements in our humanity while also celebrating freedom ... but if such a book was published recently, I've not seen it.

Instead, my mind has been filled with the ugly imagery of Hitler's rise to dominate Germany and World War II, and the unwavering courage of those who dared to resist him at the center of his powerlust -- the resistance group known as the White Rose. Alex Gabbard has combined meticulous research with a fictional story to create an historical novel that is powerfully, movingly wrought.

Blood of the Roses will most likely not offer any revelations for individuals who are familiar with the story of the White Rose, and its principals, Hans and Sophie Scholl, who were caught along with Cristoph Probst, tried in a German kangaroo court, and executed. I've read accounts of their resistance, and honestly did not expect to be taken by an "historical novel." Gabbard weaves a slow, inexorable magic in creating a fictional companion to the Scholls, who recounts his youth, maturation in the Hitler Youth, and finally service in the war in flashback form.

The power of Blood of the Roses isn't in its historical accuracy. It lies in what Gabbard doesn't tell, doesn't show, or leaves in shadow for the reader to grasp by way of contrast or implication. The narrative shifts from the characters' happy childhoods in the small town of Forchtenberg to the narrator's increasingly narrow, suspicious views, brought about by his never-quite-complete indoctrination into Nazism. Much of the story focuses on his life and choices, particularly after the Scholl family moves away from Forchtenberg. Their reappearance in his life is as shafts of beaming sunlight through stormcloud, and it highlights Gabbard's skill, that he can portray "foredoomed" characters so convincingly in such a manner. The fictional friend, working so hard to be transparent to the Nazis he comes to loathe, becomes almost cypherlike in his own story, so caught up is he in the machinery of war and its horrors.

Toward the close of the book, the friend begins to muse more explicitly about what's happened to freedom, and the wonderful Germany he and the Scholls so loved as children. During the Scholls' and Probst's trial he comes to an unsettling realization:

"I was struck with the question, 'How could so many be so blind?' I then came to the unsettling realization that the people in whose company I stood chose to be blind. They were not interested in truth, nor were they guided by truth. My Germans; what have you become?" (p.228)
And later in the same scene:
"I recognized that the entire Reich was so fearful of the power inherent in individual freedom that it had to squelch the merest suggestion of freedom as sedition and to do so at the earliest opportunity. In spite of outward power and solidarity, Nazism existed on so tenuous and fragile a government that mere words against its precepts were regarded with utmost alarm." (p. 230)
The parallels to American society today are chilling. Blood of the Roses deserves to be widely read solely on the basis of its wonderful presentation of an inspiring story of freedom. For those who care to see the truth, it also serves as a cautionary tale of homeland security...