I bought this book for my AP US history summer assignment, and although i've only read the first 10 chapters of this book i think it is very comprehensive and has many quality features. This is definitely a good book for history teachers and students.

American history can best be understood if the fundamental conditions that control both the social lives of ordinary people and the practice of politics are investigated through the decades. This means moving beyond conventional ways of organizaing a book around political events that historians like to think of as "turning points". Social change has a pace and rhythm of its own, and understaning its flow enables us to see poliitical changes in a new light.

The authors have divided American history into three unique periods: Preindustrial America, from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the 1820s; Industrializing America, from the 1820s to the 1920s; and State and Society, from the 1920s to the present. Each of these periods has its own logic and contains special kinds of human relationships that prodice a distinct history of the United States.

I grew up reading political and military history; that's what I was taught in high school and college, for the most part. When I took over my school's Advanced Placement program in US History, I decided that while I could teach the traditional forms of history, such as politics and the wars, I simply didn't know enough social history. Given the fact that social history is the dominant form of history today (and realizing that there simply wasn't that much new to say about politics or wars), I turned to this masterful textbook. My students love this book: it's readable, entertaining, and thorough. I add in the political and military stuff, when it's needed. About the only major hole in the text is some short-changing of the Monroe Doctrine, which is the biggest error that I could see. Teachers have to choose textbooks that address their shortcomings; if you don't know your political or military history, choose another textbook. But if you have the same background I do (and most people over thirty do), then choose this one. It's been very successful in my classroom.

The Amomonies (small, furry, otter-like beings) love to fish. They happily pull fish, octopi, and so forth out of the ocean from their little boats. Then, one day, they find a whale moves to prevent their fishing. Thinking that the others are lying, Mom Amomony sets out to discover the truth. The whale confronts Mom Amomony, and shows her that her children are over-fishing, and depleting the ocean. The whale then teaches the Amomonies how to live in harmony with the ocean.

To me, where the rubber hits the road is what does my seven-year-old think of the book, and he hated it. This book is too heavy handed in the lesson, and doesn't do enough for the reader. The text was about right for his reading level, but a younger reader could probably read it as well.

My son gives this book one star; I give it an extra one for the lesson. Overall, I recommend you pass this one by.

Beautifully illustrated and full of wisdom, the book, Maui-Maui, was one of the major influences which caused me to become an environmentalist.
I remember when I read it, it wasn't a totally comfortable experience (but then neither was Orwell's brilliant political allegory "Animal Farm"); the "anenomies", who over-fish the ocean in the story, can be seen as a metaphor for humans, and it was an uncomfortable experience for me to identify with these creatures in the story, when I realised that they were causing such destruction. But who ever said learning and developing wisdom were painless?
Then again, I also have fond memories of the book - which is why I wrote this review. It's a great book! So if you want to foster an environmental consciousness in a child, I say give them this book! I know I will :)

This book teaches you not to over do it. In this book the Amomonies fish more then they should. Then the whale Maui-Maui comes and takes the Queen for a dive and shows her that there no fish left. So to find out if this book teaches them a lesson feed it.

A good book to have on the shelf- will stimulate the thinking of intermediate level Access developers onto greater things.

Nice chapters dedicated to using Access 2002 as a front end to SQL Server and Oracle. If you are planning to do that, by all means this book is a great guide. Also, the first couple of chapters about application development are great for those developers who must spend as much time in the corporate board room pitching their ideas to computer illiterate bosses as they do with actual programming.

BUT: In several places in the book, the authors make reference to the 'CD included with the book.' Well guess what? There is none, but if you want to learn about and use Active X controls through the use of working examples, you will have to look elsewhere.

Most painful is that the authors tantalize you with nice definitions and screenshots of ActiveX controls, and then tell the readers that they should "See this chapter's application on the book's CD-ROM for code examples." ARG! No examples makes learning this stuff really tough!

If you don't care about Active X, or already know your stuff, then you won't be missing anything. Presumably though, you are purchasing this book precisly BECAUSE you want to learn this stuff. The lack of CD hurts especially when the authors omitted printed details from the book, fully expecting those details to appear in CD form.

I don't fault the authors. I fault Sams Publishing. On the bright side, the lack of Active X examples is the only major sore part in this otherwise useful intermediate guide.

The first 100 pages where realy great for all kind of developers.
It's not just for Access people.
Missing the CD and there are some copying from the 2000 version.
Still an importent book

Marcus Hearn's exhaustive research in the early 1990's provides the basis of most of the information in this comprehensive guide to the formative years of Doctor Who, yet nowhere in the book does he recieve even pssing credit. Rather than being presented as a dry 'info-dump',the book's accessibility could have been vastly improved by more user-friendly approach to conveying its wealth of material, some of which is interesting, some mindlessly dull. Unforgiveable, too, is the insulting 'What others said about William Hartnell' section, which is not used in any other handbook in the series, woefully implying some kind of inadequacy, or unreliabilty in Hartnell's own words. Equally annoying are the reviews offered by David Howe for each individual story, which are vapid and predictable in the extreme. He awards 'Marco Polo' and 'The Crusade' 10/10, despite both being broadcast some 35 years ago, claiming 'he really can't find anything wrong' with either story. Is this really the point of being a Dr. Who fan, as Howe claims to be? Strangely enough, the stories that remain intact in the archives (and thus accessible for review) such as 'An Unearthly Child', the classic first ever story, favour less well, suggesting, as John Nathan-Turner once infamously stated, 'The memory cheats'. Although, as usual, it's sheer wealth of information is indispensible, this is by far one of the weaker handbooks in the series.

This book is a must for any Doctor Who fan. From the inception of the show in April 1962 to the end of October 1966, this book looks at the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who. These handbooks are really good. I've only seen these stories recently, but the book brings back the memories of them. It even thoroughly helps out on the missing episodes that can't be seen, by summarising these stories. So you get a sense of how it might've been like to have seen them. The attention to production details is excellent. You learn about interesting facts about the episodes: budgets, originally intended actors, location and studio recordings, original titles, original direction of some stories, etc. The book is divided into 8 chapters: William Hartnell stuff, the Doctor, the stories, establishing the myth, production diary, a focus on the making of the classic story "The Ark", and selling the doctor. The First Doctor Handbook is a great reference source of information on Doctor Who's early years. These handbooks are all great (there are 7 volumes in the Doctor Who handbook series), but the fact is that the first doctor handbook was actually the third one made in the series, published in 1994.

The co-authors trio of David J. Howe, Mark Stammers, and Stephen James Walker have proven themselves to be the definitive historians on the Doctor Who TV series. Besides the handbooks, they have also written three volumes focusing on the three decades of Doctor Who's television run: The Sixties, The Seventies, and The Eighties. I highly recommend all of these books to any fan of the world's longest running science fiction TV series!

Much like Gardner's other books, I read Commitment Hour very quickly. This time, though, not because I wanted to, but because I was ill. Like many other books, Commitment Hour poses an interesting question, "what if you could choose to be male, female, or both?" Unfortunately, weak characters and a dull story really do little to turn that question into a decent novel.

Male, female, or both, our hero(ine) Fullin is remarkably uninteresting. He/she is whiny, prissy, naive, and a total clod and his girl/boyfriend Cappie is little better. The "Spark Lord" Rashid is a cartoonish charicature, and none of the other characters are interesting enough to make the reader cheer for anyone.

The entire story is spent taking the reader through the tangled web of nature spirits and the tyrannical "Patriarch" that make up the very small world of Tobler Cove. Eventually we find out that Tobler Cove is really just a high-tech sociology experiment to bridge the gender gap.

Unlike Gardner's other books, Commitment Hour is a dull read, and unless you're virtually bed-ridden like myself, it won't keep you hooked. Commitment Hour has an interesting premise but a weak story. Read Gardner's other books, but skip this one.

This is my 2nd book by this author. The first one was "Expendable", and was an excellent read.

This one, like the first one, is also a very easy read, a book that I gulped down in almost a single setting. Like the first one, this book has the humor and wit that I suspect are the author's characteristic. It also is set around a very interesting idea: What if mankind had a free choice of sexes - if every person could decide what sex they wanted to be. However, "The Commitment Hour" lacks the depth of characters that "Expendable" had, thus making it a little boring.

If you haven't read any of his books, do not start with this one. But if you have read another book by the author, then you will, most probably, enjoy this one too.

I really enjoyed this book. It sucked me in and kept me guessing up until the end. I found the idea of gender-switching humans to be quite original, at least from my own reading history. :-) The concept of gender, and the ideas we traditionally associate with it, has always fascinated me. One thing I like about this book is that it doesn't shy away from the fact that we DO tend to categorize and compartmentalize people according to sex.

It was nice to see that even in their male personas, the people of Tober Cove were very caring and loving toward their children, effectively dispelling the myth that only women can be nurturing.

The book also touches on belief systems and how strongly people will hold onto their ideas even when faced with contradictory evidence, but the main character also seems to realize that faith really has a life of its own, a purpose, independent of "proof" either for or against.

I use it in my own introductory college course on mythology for two reasons. First the amount of primary materials covered allows one to forgo lots of other books being ordered, a consideration for academia at this point in time. Second, the controversal interpretations of ancient society and the meaning of the myths can be balanced by either the teacher of Powell's "Classical Myth" book. I think that for the college level, this exposure to different views is valuable because it challenges students to think. Not useful beyond the introductory level though.

Harris and Platzner's Classical Mythology is thorough and eloquently written. I particularly like the use of original sources (Hesiod, Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Virgil and Ovid)along with indepth analyses of the works themselves. Sometimes I think the authors' interpretations are a bit of a stretch, but nonetheless they are thoughtful and beautifully written.
However, I've decided NOT to use this as a textbbook for my introductory college level course, for a couple of reasons:

1) The organization: not infrequently myths are mentioned briefly in relation to something else before they are fully covered in their own right--a problem, I would think, for beginners. The book is arranged thematically--gods, male and female heroes, the view of after life, world in decline--rather than in a more straightforward myth-telling scheme (as in Barry Powell's book). All of this is quite interesting to someone who has a mid-level understanding of mythology, but I think it makes it a little harder for initiates to grasp the basic myths and their variants.

2) Practical usage: in some senses maddening. For example, simple chapter numerals at the top of each page would be incredibly helpful so that when the text refers to another chapter (which it does continually--because of the way the material is organized) you could find that particular chapter instead of having to rifle through the pages. Then there is the seemingly arbitrary way in which some names and terms are included in the glossary and some are not. Why? Even more arbitrary--and irritating!--is the decision to give helpful pronunciation guides to some terms but not others. Why Minos, for instance, but not moirae; or Aurora (really) but not Anaxagoras (where does the accent go?). Also, a more useful map would help.

But ultimtely, this book is beautiful and richly written--I enjoyed it immensely; furthermore, it offers solid insights into the ways myths might have developed (though Ken Dowden's book is more convincing) and the ways we interpret them today. The authors make quite clear the existence of variants for many if not most myths--which reflects the true complexity of classical mythology. And finally, the visuals are gorgeous, both the 4-color plates and the black & white photos.

I am disappointed that some reviewer brought down the rating of this magnificent book with a review that is unbelievably off-target. As a mythology insructor and writer of books utilizing myth, and a psychotherapist who relates myth to the process of human transformation, I find this the most in-depth and meaningful guide to Greek mythology available - out of over 100 I have read. The questions and commentaries are particularly in-depth but above the level of junior high school and high school students. For those who wish to understand not only mythology but also its deeper implications and relevance.

Mr. Shore's book couldn't possibly be more pretensious, or more out of touch with the fundamental changes that are taking place in the world of photography. His writing is wordy, his perspective self-promotional, and his ideas are trapped in the critical perspective of a mid 1970's college professor. If you're interested in a book that explores photography in the pre-digital era, you'd be better off spending your money on John Berger's "Ways of Seeing", or Sontag's "On Photography".

I stumbled on this wonderful book whilst browsing for other photography books. This book while not breaking any new ground in Photography theory gives permission for the reader to reclaim and rexamine what a traditonal analog photograph can be. Admittedly it does not cover contemporary digital issues, it makes no claims to be this anyway, being more democratic in it's intention.

This book has allowed me to clarify in a succinct and simple manner a variety of issues that I have known intuitively since becoming serious about my imnage making, and now feel better equipped to share with my students.

This kind of writing is refreshing and uplifiting, something I feel is desirable in this hectic post modern world.

This book helped me understand photographs in a way I never did before. The writing is deceptively condensed. It is really full of ideas and meaning. Being aware of these ideas has hepled my own photography.

(FYI, I'm new to html, and have only about 1 year's experience with computers.)

Instead of just listing tags and showing what they do, "HTML 4 For Dummies" goes into long-winded discussions on how things work -- discussions that amount to nothing more than filler, which the reader must sort through in order to find the information he needs.

Let's say you have a problem with a link in your website. (Like I did.) You look in the table of contents in your copy of "HTML 4 For Dummies" and surprise, surprise, there's nothing on links.

Instead, you have to look in the idex, where you'll find the word "link" referenced several times -- all the way from page 10 to page 337. Which page to look at?

I don't know.

It looks to me that the only way to use this book is to read it cover-to-cover, before trying to use any of the information inside. Of course, that'll take you a couple of weeks, and by the time you've completed it, you'll have forgotten much of what you've read.

(Not to mention the fact that most of what you've read is irrelevant to you.)

Me, I've given up, after making it only to Chapter 4. While people with more experience might find the book easy to get through, I did not. The book goes from overly easy to tremendously difficult in just a few pages.

It comes with a disc. I don't understand how to use it, or what it's supposed to show me other than the Lanwright website.

I found (and continue to find) the book to be a waste of $25.

There's stuff on the internet on how to build websites that I found much more useful. Since that stuff is free, and this book is not, I suggest staying away from it.

As the title says, this book is for people with very little knowledge of HTML - but knowledge of how to use a computer at an intermediate level. It covers most basic HTML tags, up to and including tables and a limited amount of framesets, as well as providing a large reference section aimed at the beginning HTML coder, becoming a decent reference manual even after the Tutorial section is finished.

It's not the be-all and end-all of coding references, but it's perfect for someone that is comfortable with a computer, and wants to being creating simple web pages. This can take an individual with little knowledge and give them enough information to where they can understand the more complex online references and puzzle out the rest, or to a level where they can successfully invest their time in learning more about CSS, JavaScript, and DHTML to move to more complex sites.

I hate to say that this whole leave-a-review thing on Amazon[.com] is a total waste of time, but I have a high suspicion that many of the people leaving "wisdom" have ulterior motives. I.e., the competition tries to make the product look bad, and, by the same token, the book's publisher submits a fantastic review.

I can't understand how people have given this book a bad rating. I'm a smart guy, went to Princeton, honors math and physics there, but haven't done computers in 15 years. Acutally started with Dreamseaver for Dummies then realized I needed to learn HTML. Unlike other books, I was able to read through the entire book, chapter by chapter. The rambling non-code-related text was very helpful in understanding the background for much of the text...something one would get in one-on-one lessions. The background info also broke up the technical secitons to make them bareable The book was a breeze to go through. I know HTML now, at least the basics, and using Dreamweaver to do sites makes a whole lot more sense now, too.

As an aside, I had tried several other books on Dreamweaver and was totally unable to get started...until I got Dreamweaver for Dummies. The other books are perhaps a little better as references, but Dummies is by far the best at teaching the basics.

In this book, a cat (very cute cat)is teased and insulted by the other animals who ostracize her for her differences. The book furthers that this is HER fault--after all, she chose to be obese and all she has to do is stop pigging out and excercise and everyone will like her....

of healthy living through food and exercise. This book teaches children that food should not be an escape from reality, it should be a fuel for our bodies and minds. I read this book as a child and I received a copy as a gift the other day. I don't think that the writer of this book meant for people to take his story as saying that fat people and animals aren't accepted, like so many of you have written. I think he wants us to all learn the importance of healthy living. Catundra is my favorite book in the world.

Stephanie

It is always difficult to look and see the differences. It can also be painful to point them out to persons. I love these books that encourage us to be compasionate and understanding of others situations. If you've never had a weight problem it is difficult to understand, as with other disabilities. Thank you Steven Cosgrove for stepping across the line to teach in a fair and kind way. Lessons can be painful but they put us on the path of knowledge which leads to understanding and acceptance and yet so vital for children to learn.

Be forthwarned.... I ordered the 3rd ed. of this book and received the 2nd ed. instead. The seller was misleading under the comments section of the book he sold me..... a new listing shows that he's selling the 2nd ed. and not the 3rd ed. He changed this comment once he received an email from me stating otherwise. He wouldn't offer me a refund for the book and now I'm stuck with this one for a class which begins in a week.

There seem to have been a mistake in the shipping of the product I ordered.

I was under the impression that I was ordering Management Information Systems for the Information Age by Stephen Haag, et al 2nd Edition (2000).

However, I recieved the book today (3/11/02) and it is the 1st Edition (1998), and I need the book for class which begins on Thursday, 03/14/02.

I have used (and continue to use) this text for a college class on MIS. It's among the best textbooks I've ever come across. The book is filled with real world stories of real companies and how they have improved their competitive positions using IT. It also contains numerous 15-25 minute group activities and "On Your Own" assignments. Each chapter ends with a list of Key Terms, as well as several short answer and discussion questions.

Finally, and what I like most about the text, is a section on "Real HOT Group Projects." Many of these require creation of database reports or spread sheet pivot tables. So, you may find yourself diverting some time to teaching spreadsheet and database skills. But how can you teach the application of technology to managing and creating information, without actually using technology to do just that?