My Bondage and My Freedom, one of Douglass' several autobiographies, a very important book that should be read by anyone interested in United States history generally, or the crucial and often tragic role race has played in that history. Douglass, a former slave, was one of the few African-Americans who achieved prominence in the largely white, new england abolition movement. Douglass was an eloquent writer and (by historical accounts) speaker. His recounting of his experience as a slave, and his reflections on his role as a black former slave in America, are powerful.

I really enjoyed reading this book, especially because there are so many quotations included which I had not encountered previously. Smith and Dalzell identify "enduring lessons from Rockefeller, Morgan, and [others among] the first industrialists." The term "Robber Barons" suggests criminal monarchs. No doubt it has some direct relevance to those discussed, at least at some point in their respective business careers. The material is organized as follows: an excellent Introduction ("Why Robber Barons Matter") followed by four chapters (Venturing, Competing, Managing, and Leading). Then there is a handy section called "Chronology: Business and World Events, 1870-1929,'" followed by recommendations for "Further Reading."

Why do the Robber Barons matter? "During the golden age of industry, running from the midnineteenth century through 1930 or so, the Robber Barons commercialized risky high technologies and figured out how to build radically new organizations from the bottom up. They identified the great entrepreneurial and management issues of the world's first big corporations, and they devised surprisingly durable solutions to the basic business problems of modern civilization." Here are a few of the quotations which caught my eye:

"There could be no progress until enough people could be made dissatisfied -- and this could be done only when they were brought to think beyond the limits to which they were accustomed." (Thomas Edison)

"If you have an idea, that is good. If you also have ideas as to how to work it out, that is better." (Henry Ford)

"Every executive has to recognize sooner or later that he himself cannot do everything that needs to be done. Until he recognizes this, he is only an individual, with an individual's power, but after he recognizes it, he becomes, for the first time, an executive, with control of multiple powers." (Alfred Sloan)

The authors have done an excellent job of selecting and distributing quotations such as these throughout the text. They include their own insightful comments, correlating them with key points previously introduced in their Introduction. Is there a great deal that is "new" in this slender volume? No. Is there much of value to be learned or have reaffirmed? You bet.

This is a well-organized, clear, short reference work. Well done

Here is the little red bok.
If the big one is too expensive for you, you can always buy this. You'll find inside all the important protocols and data for molecular biology.It's up to date, and clearly presented.
Try it, and then buy the big one!

This book is an essential tool for people in the scientific field such as Molecular Biology (obviously), Biochemistry, and Neuroscience. It is comprehensive and up-to-date as far as the techniques are concerned. It is good value in a sense that you don't have to buy the whole "Current Protocols Series" which costs an arm and a leg if you do. Although nowadays, a lot of "kits" are commercially available, the techniques found in this book explain principles and provide different alternatives suited for your needs. Molecular Cloning by Maniatis et al., although needs updating, is still a helpful reference in my opinion and it complements this book.

Let's face it, most people won't be buying this volume by choice--they'll buy it for a class. Still, it's good to know what you're getting into. This is a pretty good anthology of American literature, starting all the way back with Native American myths and Columbus's journals and continuing through Puritan, Enlightenment, Transcendentalist, Romantic, and modern periods of literature in America.

The introductions to the pieces are good--as good or better than Norton's--and the selections themselves are generally good. Still, though, there are a few notable things missing, but that is to be expected in any compendium, I suppose.

One of the highlights of this volume is the full reprints of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. If you have to buy this book, it should be useful and may even be worth keeping around after the class is over. I know I'm going to keep mine.

Few literary textbooks equal "An Anthology of American Literature" in length and dryness. While the book is a collection of mediocre stories who are now only seeing the light of day due to the baneful effects of political correctness, the editor of this work delves deeper to not include a single illustration that may have shed some light of this terrible experience of reading this collection of pointless stories,

I, on the other hand, think its a great collection of American literature, but maybe just a bit too pricey for what it offers. I would suggest it more as something to use as a reference than as something that should be read cover to cover, I mean, geeze, its 2060 pages long.

This huge textbook is a steal: hundreds of major works from the last century and a half, printed on quality paper, bound with a strong but flexible gum binding. If this were a hardcover, you'd pay twice the price for what it includes. It's thorough and scholarly, a tome that defines the Big League of anthologies. It's not for the shallow reader, though, who's accustomed to the sensuous audio-visuals of TV and the Internet. This is TEXT. Time to resuscitate the thinking mind, the patient intellect, the autonomous imagination.

The footnotes are numbered strangely and they don't elaborate on the footnoted item very well.

This was the textbook used in my American Literature I class last semester. Volume Two is being used in the second half that I am taking this semester. The book offers a good collection of American Literature from the earliest European Explorers to the late 1800's. The additional information offered in the introductions to each author and literary time period adds to the student's understanding of the works.