Having been an instructor at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School and searching for information on artillery tactics and the origin of current doctrine, this book was enlightening and contains information that is very relevant to today's combat arms officer. I highly recommend the book as professional reading material. The book contains many lessons learned that will no doubt have to be relearned once again in time of war. Lt Col Zabecki has done the combat arms officer a favor by taking the time to compile the information for this book then to lay it all out in a comprehensible and enjoyable format. If you are interested in warfighting, you will enjoy this book. All my lieutenants will read this book, answer questions formatted by me, and write a review. Btry R, 5th Bn, 10th Marines.

This book discusses Colonel Bruchmuller of the Imperial German Army and his role in developing modern artillery practices and tactics. By the time you finish this book you'll see how artillery went from guesswork to a deadly science. Highly recommended, whether you are a military buff or a professional soldier.

The author of this excellent work is the former commander of the 2-123 FA. In this book he covers the birth of modern field artillery and its father -- COL Georg Bruchmuller. The author covers not only the history of the evolution of artillery from a direct fire weapon through the universal adoption of MET+VE; but also, the fire support tactics and techniques for employing the weapon. COL Bruchmuller started out the war as a medically retired LTC. He ended up as the de-facto FSCOORD for the German Army. Under his direction the German artillery developed MET+VE, the FDC, and the short, violent, multi-phased preparation. Bruchmuller orchestrated four to six hour preps that accomplished what one and two week preps by the allies couldn't -- breakthroughs. Bruchmuller's tactics and techniques are still in use by most of the world's armies today. The Russian fire support doctrine reads very closely to Bruchmuller's. This book is a quick read and is a must read for all artillerymen

This book, based on a series of talks given at the New York Library, biographers Robert Caro, David McCullough, Paul C. Nagel, Richard B. Sewall, Ronald Steel and Jean Strouse explain how and why they went about writing biographies in the way that they did.

Each biographer explains well how the life of the biographer becomes intertwined with that of the person they are researching. In each case, they stress that biography writing is both intense and time-consuming.

Lyndon B. Johnson biographer, Robert Caro, recommends Francis Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe" for two reasons. One, to show that the job of the historian is to try to write at the same level as the greatest novelists. Second, that the duty of the historian is to go to the locales of the events that will be described, and not to leave, no matter how long it takes...until the writer has done his or her best to understand the locales and their cultures and their people.

In the end, it means that the biographer must not only understand the person, but also needs to intimately know the area where the person grew up and lived.

This book gives its readers new insights into the lives of some of this nation's most prominent figures, through the eyes of six well-known biographers. In "The Unexpected Harry Truman," David McCullough shows the life of Truman through new eyes. McCullough stresses that a biographer must genuinely care about his [or her] subject because you are living with that person every single day. The process is like that of choosing a spouse or roommate, therefore, the subjects that he chooses must have a degree of animal, human vitality. In Truman, he said, as with Theodore Roosevelt, he found no shortage of vitality.

McCullough created a detailed chronology, almost a diary of what Truman was doing from year to year, even day to day if the events were important enough. He also used primary sources, such as personal diaries, letters and documents from the time period. Truman poured himself out on paper and provided a large, wonderfully written base of writing for McCullough to sort through and "find" the man.

McCullough says that the magic of writing comes from not knowing where you are headed, what you are going to wind up feeling and what you are going to decide.

Richard Sewell's "In Search of Emily Dickinson," research process took twenty years and he says, "In the beginning I didn't go searching for her, she went searching for me." The process took him two sabbaticals, years of correspondence and meetings with Mabel Loomis Todd's daughter Millicent Todd Bingham to uncover the whole truth.

Paul Nagel's "The Adams Women," gives readers a sense of how important the women in the Adam's family were. Nagel said that contemplating the development of ideology is good training for a biographer. After all, he said, the intellectual historian takes an idea and brings it to life. For Nagel, working with ideas establishes a bridge into the mind and life of the people who had the ideas he studies.

Nagel said that he likes and admires women and this is why, after writing about the Adams' men, he wrote about the Adams' women. Nagel also said that he has learned and taught his students that our grasp of history must always remain incomplete.

Ronald Steel said, that the hardest job a biographer has is not to judge his or her subject, however, most fail to keep their judgements out of the biography.

In Jean Strouse's, "The Real Reasons," she explains that the modern biography examines how character affects and is affected by social circumstance. Biography also tells the reader a great deal about history and gives them a wonderful story.

In writing about Alice James, Strouse found that there was not an interesting plot line to her life other than that her brothers were writers Henry and William James.

Strouse, when asked by another writer about the descendents of the three James' children, she said that William's great-grandson in Massachusetts, tired of being asked whether he was related to Henry or William, moved to Colorado where he was asked whether he was related to Jesse or Frank. Strouse reported that he stayed in Colorado.

Strouse realized that in order to tell the story of the James' family, she was going to have to use her own voice to give life to the family, especially Alice. This is not recommended for all biographies, but in a case such as hers, it needs that biographer's voice to connect all the information for the reader.

In Robert Caro's, "Lyndon Johnson and the Roots of Power," he talked to the people who knew Johnson to get a sense of the former President from Texas and what made him worthy of a new biography. He wrote the biography to illuminate readers to the time period and what shaped the time, especially politically.

This book will help writers understand the steps he or she will need to take to write a biography. It shows the difficult research processes and makes the reader want to either write a biography about an interesting person or never want to write again. Either way, this book provides new insights that one may have never thought about before. I recommend this book to both beginning and seasoned writers

Yes the computers have taken over. But it's not like the Terminator movies. They focus on one or two (in the 2nd) robots. In Reign of Steel there are two robots like the terminator. But at least a dozen that are not even remotely humonoid, but no less deadly. In T1 and T2 it is referenced that a single computer 'got smart'. We (humans) discoverd this and tried to turn it off. It nuked the world to survive. In ROS a single computer evolved first, then quietly made others in its image. Together they spread disease to 'manage our destruction', and gain the control they needed to survive. Some twenty odd years later is when the players get dropped in.

There are very few RPG settings as bleak as this; Twilight:2000 is the first one to leap to mind. But bleak doesn't mean uninteresting. Reign of Steel is, although derived from the Terminator films, one of the most distinctive game seetings I've ever seen. Humanity fights a last desperate battle against flat-out extermination. The all-powerful computers have divided up the world, and see humanity as little more than a nuisance, at best. This is a great setting for just about any type of game system, particularly as a side trip for dimension-hopping adventurers. The highlights are too numerous to list, but for me, the most intriguing things are: the one "Good Guy" computer on Earth rolling through the western U.S. in a semi-trailer, the "Good Guy" computer on the Moon that has to bide its time, and the horrific computer in Mexico that has scoured the entire region of life, down to microbial level. And, not to mention the standard sterilization of humans by the machines! BRRRRR!! Don't look for hope in this one, kids, just hours and hours of post-apocalyptic fun!

This is the standard by which I judge all military fiction. I have never found another that was it's equal. Even when the same authors got together again for books 6 and 7 (which I have reviewed separately) they couldn't recreate the magic of this series.

THE GENERAL series is about a fallen interstellar society which has climbed it's way back up to the technological level of the American Civil War. The hero, Raj Whitehall, has to reunite the planet in order to reach the stars again some day. This involves a lot of fighting and empire building. What gives Raj his edge is the pre-fall computer he has linked with that can see through his eyes.

This series has outstanding character development, a solid and well thought out overall plot line, and good story resolution in each book. The two things that really make the series the top of its genre are the interaction between the computer and the hero, and the realism of the situation. The interaction is a delicate balance that the authors perform magically. If the computer (Center) contributes too much, then the hero has too much of an edge, he doesn't have to try, and the story becomes boring. Without the computer, the hero is just this god like superhuman character that can do no wrong. The computer assistance makes Raj identifiable to the reader, even after he overcomes overwhelming odds to defeat the enemy. The realism comes from the fact that Raj is based on the life of a real person. The whole story is very similar to the story of Byzantine General Belisarius who conquered most of the Mediterranean world for his Emperor after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. That makes it very believable. The characters are very real. Their actions really happened a millenium and a half ago.

This is a must read for any fan of military fiction or empire building.

This book move quickly to pull you in to a world of fantasy battles. With the unique mix of old and new technology the story quickly becomes very interesting. Also the use of giant war dogs is just the right twist to really take you off guard. This book and the other is in this series is a must read for a good time.

This book has excellent examples of lessons learned. Even if you do not know a lot about the operations in the Mekong Delta or the military in general, it really takes you there. It paints an excellent picture of Vietnam and a leader's life on how he changed a unit from wusses to warriors.

Col. Hackworth is abrasive, arrogant, opinionated and most likely absolutely right in his views on how we should have fought the Vietnam War. His memoir is a riveting account of how he changed a unit from disorganized rabble to a razor-sharp instrument that struck fear in the hearts of its opponents. I'd read Hack's autobiography, "About Face," so I had a sense of what this book would be, but this is better than I expected. He did his homework, bringing in accounts from scores of his soldiers to add extra dimension to the engagements he details. You most likely will share his anger and outrage at the way the war was mismanaged and micro-managed by stupid and overly ambitious senior officers who were only there to get their combat tickets punched and who cared little or nothing for the grunts who did the bleeding and dying. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what we might have accomplished in 'Nam.

Once again, Steve Farrar has written a fantastic book. His frank, no holds barred style is refreshing in an era where people tiptoe around subjects. When you're hurting and going through trials, you don't need someone to tiptoe around the problem, you need practical advice and encouragement.

This book is extremely encouraging. He talks specifically about life's "pop quizzes" -- those trials we don't expect -- and how God uses these trials to shape our character and strengthen us. The problem is they're unexpected by nature, and we often can't really tell the positive effect until they're over with. Understanding that there is a purpose and reason behind such quizzes makes them more bearable.

Lots of examples from his own life, his friends, and the Bible make his points come alive and hit home in the best way possible. I liked it so much, I'm sending copies to a few friends that need to read it.

While this book is an outstanding book for Christian men, it can easily be applicable to both men and women. Steve does an outstanding job of showing what we are to do when the trap doors of life send us into pits of despair. If you have ever been to the point where you needed to here from God and God is silent, this book shows we aren't the first. Men of the Bible like David, and Asaph had times when they were in the pits of despair, and they left trail markers to help guide us. Steve does a excellent job pointing these markers out that were left for us in the Psalms and explaining them. A book every Christian man should read so that when the trials and persecutions come, they will be able to navigate through them with the help of the Shephard. .

While humming "The Wabash Cannonball," which remains a popular tune even today, have you ever wondered about the phrase "She's the wondrous combination called the Wabash Cannonball"? What in the world does "combination" mean? Apparently, it means nothing more than that someone (who may have been more familiar with songs than with railroads) misunderstood the meaning of the original words and wrote down the wrong word! Does it help to know that a very early version of the song went "She's the bo's [hobos'] accommodation called the Wabash Cannonball"? The train "accommodated" hobos by providing free, albeit unauthorized, transportation and at least temporary shelter from the elements. The song also derives from an even earlier one called "The Great Rock Island Route," has a number of mythical elements in the style of the Paul Bunyan legends, and speaks of "Daddy Claxton," who has yet to be identified with any historical character and who appears in other versions as Boston Blackey and even Long Slim Perkins!

The evolution of folksongs and their many variants is a fascinating study. Add to this the lure of the railroad, put it all together in a study of dozens of such songs, mix in a healthy dose of scholarly research, and we have Cohen's book. It is not a casual read, but it is invaluable for research into practically every American folksong involving railroads.

For everyone interested in the human aspects of railroad history, in railroad folklore, or in the evolution of the American folksong, this book is well worth the purchase price. That it is back in print and again readily available is a godsend to folklorists, musicologists, and railfans. If you missed the first printing, don't miss this one! Also, while you're browsing here, check out Katie Letcher Lyle's "Scalded to Death by the Steam," a highly readable examination of Appalachian songs inspired by disasters on the railroad.

Yes, this book is a bit expensive, but worth every penny! It is an excellent written and photographc history of one of the greatest corportaions in US history. As a steel industry historian and collector my standards are very high and this book is better than my expectations. Lavishly illustrated and documented, this book belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the steel industry. Unfortunately, the story of J&L has a sad ending, but this wonderful book will keep the steel fires burning for generations.