An excellent treatise on the demise of privately owned transit companies is The Motorization of American Cities by David St. Clair, a professor of economics. Mr. St. Clair details how government was largely responsible for the streetcars demise: large taxes (percent of revenue and others); requirements for street paving (6% of revenue in LA) that only benefited the competition; snow removal from street (where applicable); hostility of public staff to private companies; regulation that required uniform fares (could not lower it for heavily used lines), often forced streetcars to subsidize buses, proscribed routes and service, and sometimes even specified inefficient 2-man operation (one man to collect tickets) for streetcars (but not for buses); government subsidized freeways that severed many streetcar lines without compensation for rerouting; the pro-automobile bias of government in street usage (e.g., one-way streets that discourage bicycle and transit usage, including buses); the terms of a renewed franchise (many expired in 1930s) often specified cancellation by government on short (sometimes 90 day) notice (and made risky further investment in streetcar tracks); the Public Holding Company Act (became effective in 1938) forced the sale of many transit companies (for example, the Sacramento transit company which was then bought by Pacific City Lines, a GM "front", in 1938); and finally, the franchise itself prevented another transit company from competing and enabled National City Lines and other GM "front" companies to liquidate streetcar technology (by substituting inferior buses) and prevented competition by much more efficient electric technology that then (after the takeovers) was not allowed to compete. The highest price offered for this legal right to exclusively provide transit (the franchise) was by the one that would profit the most: GM.

The author also details and documents how the interstate highway system (that has primarily an urban purpose in terms of usage), and laws involving government with the highway business, were primarily planned by and lobbied for by the automobile manufacturers, who faced a saturating car market (most car sales were replacements in the 1930s), and wanted to expand into the urban market (where most families did not own cars). The author laments the amount of leverage that business groups can exert on government.

The book is extensively documented by footnotes.

I read this in junior high school by recommendation of my mother. After reading this book, I never had the desire to do drugs or to become involved in the wrong element. I highly recommend this book to all parents as a way to understand youth today.

I have read it 5 or 6 times and every time I read it, I find something new that I have missed. I cry everytime I read it. It is very sad, and because of hearing what happened to Ricky and Jimmy, I will never use drugs. You can learn alot from this book. The title needs to be changed however, because it luirs people away from reading it.

I first read this book in 1990 and i could'nt put it down. I read the book non stop. It was one of the most amazing true stories i have ever read. It is a book with a decieving title , but a real eye opener. It is a book everyone should read and could learn from. Young and Old. It is a shame so many young adults have to suffer and through away there lives for others to bennifit from it. This is a book well written and i enjoy reading it everytime i get a chance. Please take the time to read a copy of this book and pass it on, You wont be disappionted. Thank You.

This book will help you in many ways. It focuses on clear cut things you can do to help yourself be more aware of your surroundings and your mind's own capabilities. As the author states: you don't have to stare at your bellybutton for 6 days to see results or eat only brown rice! Funny light approach easy read....

I saw this book in a bookstore in Atlanta, Ga over 17 years ago in it's first edition. While I had not been impressed with other "How to 'do' psychic stuff" books, and was also under considerable parental pressure not to acquire more (being a young and "impressionable" teen at the time), a cursory read of the text showed what appeared to be quite simple instructions and a fascinating breadth of supposed psychic abilities covered. So, impressed, I snuck up to the counter when my Mom wasnt looking and bought it.

As other reviewers have noted, the most amazing fact about this book is that you start seeing results from the moment you put its techniques into practice. You will have some degree of success with everything mentioned in the book, from seeing auras to table tipping. There will be points during practice of the excercises when you make a breakthrough, and your hair will literally stand on end.

As one of the most easily accessible texts on psychic abilities I have ever encountered, it is indeed a shame that this text has gone out of print. Having said this, a more widespread reading of the text and practice of the excercises would no doubt make many of the "extraordinary" abilities listed in the book become downright commonplace. The author, and the book, are really that good!

I have always suspected a tad of psychic ability in my bloodlines. After reading this book i can attest to the fact that WE ALL DO! It is a known fact that we use only 10% OF OUR BRAIN! This book gives much insight on how we can use the other 90% to benefit our physical lives as well as our spiritual lives. It is not magic and it is not spells. It is nature! EVERYONE HAS THE POWER and this book shows you step by step, precisely how to use it. This is the first piece of literature i have bothered to read on the subject and after getting "hooked" i can find no other which can compare to the genuis of Mr. St. Clair. For the Doubting Thomases of psychic phenomena, this book is a MUST!

I live about six miles from Independence Indiana, where the story begins. My wife (departed) grew up in a town just south of Watseka and was very familiar with the story of Mary Roff. She gave me the book in 1982. I believe the story to be true.

I grew up in Watseka. Only 3 blocks from the Roth House. My house was putt on the site of the Durst House and Mrs. Durst Haunted the land and my home. I have heard stories about this book and finally got it yesterday. I read it form cover to cover in one day and learned alot. I enjoyed the book. It was great. I learned that Mary and Rancy were torcharded soles and very misunderstood. I will keep this book and would recomend it anyone. It was a well written interesting part of our history. It might even change the way you look at Death.

I lived in watseka for many years.The houses in the book are haunted by the people in the book.I know first hand about the hauntings. The house that I lived in was build on the foundation of the house that was burned in the book. I also knew the people who lived in the other two houses and been in the other two houses in the book. All the houses are still haunted to this day. The house I lived in you could hear glass braking. Door knobs would move and nobody was there. People going up and down the stairs. Many,many other things. In one of the other houses doors open and close. Everyone could be out back and you could come to the front door and knock and someone would tell you to come in. But no one would be in the house. So when you read this book remeber it is true. I lived in that town and my family and I know first hand how true this book is..

I saw this book in a bookstore in Atlanta, Ga over 17 years ago in it's first edition. While I had not been impressed with other "How to 'do' psychic stuff" books, and was also under considerable parental pressure not to acquire more (being a young and "impressionable" teen at the time), a cursory read of the text showed what appeared to be quite simple instructions and a fascinating breadth of supposed psychic abilities covered. So, impressed, I snuck up to the counter when my Mom wasnt looking and bought it.

As other reviewers have noted, the most amazing fact about this book is that you start seeing results from the moment you put its techniques into practice. You will have some degree of success with everything mentioned in the book, from seeing auras to table tipping. There will be points during practice of the excercises when you make a breakthrough, and your hair will literally stand on end.

As one of the most easily accessible texts on psychic abilities I have ever encountered, it is indeed a shame that this text has gone out of print. Having said this, a more widespread reading of the text and practice of the excercises would no doubt make many of the "extraordinary" abilities listed in the book become downright commonplace. The author, and the book, are really that good!

I got this book years ago and lost it. I was lucky enough to find it at a local library book sale. I am a Traditional Reiki master and a member of the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC) I can tell you that the secrets in this book are real. They do work. They have changed my life. ALL of them are provable experiments that work in amazing ways. All of the other things I have learned in the "secret organizations" verify and back up his writings. I would just like to know what Mr St. Clair is doing in this day and age.

I purchased a paperback copy of this book in 1990, and I have owned it & Loaned it, ever-since. I just wrote a review for a Sylvia Browne book, mentioning how Valuable David St. Clair's book truly is ! However....now, I see it is "out of print." How very Sad.

I learned to Astral Travel, by reading this book, before joining an organization with very expensive books and tests and fancy certificates..... The only thing about the teachings of the org. that was more explanatory of "Astral Travel," was the fact that it alos taught the Mechanics of it all (Physics). However, you can get that information, easily, from Deepak Chopra's "Journey to The Boundless" and his other works. So, SAVE Yourself some Money and buy David St. Clair's Lessons in Easy ESP and some of Deepak's Tape-sets.

You will save Tons of money and have Wonderful Results. Organizations will try to inform you that you must do all this in a very complicated manner, with a lot of superfluous rigamarole....but, let's face Reality : You do this, Every Night, when you go to sleep! & Org.s want your hard-earned Cash.

If you own this book, you will value it, treasure it & loan it to all your friends in the field of interest. In fact, my copy is on-loan, right now!

I just cannot comprehend WHY this book is "out of print!!!" As many others have said, THIS book WORKS !

I read this book a few years ago and all I can say is that I never put it down till I had finished it. It really spooked me. If you are into horror books and love reading about demon posession, then this book is perfect. It is about this girl called Mary who is posessed by this demon and this priest who is the exorsist. Many things in the book are sure too keep you up awake at night pondering. If you liked the movie the exorsist, then you have to read this book. I have read bloodline by the same author which is also very good.

I read this book a couple months ago and it still haunts me. Although parts of this book may have been sensationalized for readability, for the most part I believe it is factual. My grandfather lived in Earling at the time of this exorcism and as a child, I remember him talking about the terrible stench and language that filtered out of the convent that the townspeople could smell and hear. You can't read this book without being deeply impacted by it's message.

This book is not well-written, is not carefully researched, and yet I give it five stars because of the subject which it discusses. The exorcism which occurred at Earling, Iowa, has been a subject of interest to me all my life. This book expands on the pamphlet Begone Satan, which was first published about 1936 and attracted extreme interest. Time had a full page article about the pamphlet. The pamphlet itself is not carefully written, and so this book, which sensationalizes what is found in Begone Satan and supplies all the X-rated language which Begone Satan omitted, is not to be relied on as being totally factual. A small example of the looseness with research in this book is that it states Sept. 20, 1928, when the first series of exorcisms came to an end, was a Friday. I at once knew this was wrong, since I was baptized by Father Steiger on Sept 20, 1928 (I was two days old) and I knew--and any perpetual calendar will quickly tell--that Sept. 20, 1928, was a Thursday. There are other inaccuracies, and much of the early part of the book is as the author imagined the events probably happened. But the fact is that a series of exorcisms were carried out at Earling in 1928, and the devil manifested himself there in ways that seem fantastic but that are not explainable unless he exists. This may not be a very fashionable view, but of course the devil's greatest wish is that people believe he not exist. The book is an easy read, and introduces one to a fascinating event. The sad part is that there is no really scholarly study of the case available to the public.

The dairy of Carolina Maria de Jesus described the daily routine life in a favela- a human garbage dump, house of the poor, the hungry, the desperate. The author illustrated the way daily life threatened these poor favelados.The hunger that invaded every shack, particularly hers, drove her to hunt for paper and metal in order to acquire just enough money to keep her and her children alive. The black population in Brazil was treated as none human beings. They were descriminated against by most of the white majority population. It clearly reflects the title of the book " Child of the dark."

This book is both an uplifting and depressing work. For anyone who has ever visited the third world, and especially for those that never have; this book is a must read. It is uplifting and inspiring in showing the heroine's sheer strength of character that gets her through a life that would most certainly kill most of us. Written without pretense, it is a brutal indictment of the negative forces that constantly try the human spirtit. Here the enemy is not one person, or an army or even the poverty that wreaks havoc on the lives of these people, but rather the world's tolerance and acceptance of the pain, hunger suffering and injustices that are created by a world where the the rich can justify their greed by demoninzing their own creation: the conditons that make people live in utter desperation. Poverty and ignorance are not romantized here but instead like in Buñuel's film Los Olvidados, Child of the Dark shows us that hunger and loss of dignity brings out the worst in people. It is depressing because we all know that places like this exist not only in Brazil, but in almost all countries on earth, and that we all share in the guilt of allowing such horror to exist.

the daily diary of the Carolina De Jesus describes a daily hard life of a woman, who picked up paper and metal everyday just to get enough money to feed her children. Also, in her diary she describes the horrible realatioship of the government to the people of the lower class.. The hunger and poorness of these people clearly illustrates in this book. The contest of these book clearly reflevt it's title, "Child of The Dark."

A very interesting book that details many aspects of voodoo rituals in Brazil. The author lived in Brazil and this is written from his perspective while discovering the various practices. Because the book was written some time ago, there is a hint of prejudice in his writing style, but it is easily overlooked if one considers the attitudes of the time. A nice book for researchers or collectors.

This book provides a solid background on Voodoo practices in Brazil. Some darker rituals are detailed with appropriate cautions. Use this book with extreme caution because you may invoke things you cannot control. Excellent book for anyone interested in the Occult.

I feel this particular book enlightens your mind and lets you in on the unusual. This book also gives off somewhat of a tingling sensation in some areas of reading due to the way this author lets you in on the knowledge he has captured. I felt it was GREAT reading material. I would strongly recommend this book! The Author is a great man and has written many great books.

While I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE David St. Clair's books, I was dissapointed by this book. I was expecting more of a how-to book (like his book INSTANT ESP), but this reads like a guide book to various phychic healers, and is a recounting of David St.Clair's interviews with them. More like a series of short biographies. That and the fact that the book is almost 30 years old, almost all of the psychic healers mentioned are dead, so unless you are a St.Clair collector, this book will have little value.

** I would really give this book 3 stars, but since his other books are so enjoyable - I can't force myself to do it.