Tom Streissguth's Roaring Twenties ... provides eyewitness accounts of life in the 20s, using diary entries, letters, speeches and newspaper accounts to illustrate historical events. Both common people and famous personalities reveal their personal experiences and insights. A highly recommended, basic pick for high school libraries and public libraries alike

My son was fascinated with the story he read about Robert Goddard in school. He was twelve at the time. I wanted to see how this book portrayed Robert Goddard. I found that Mr. Goddard had the true spirit of adventure with no age limitations. Now I know why Roger felt that this was a hero and that dreams can become a reality.

Tom Streissguth's book gives a brief biography of Jesse Owens from his childhood days in Alabama in the early 1900s to the 1984 Olympic ceremonies memorial service honoring him. Owens attended Ohio State University where he excelled at track. After university he qualified for the 1936 Summer Olympic in Berlin, Germany. In Germany Owens was subjected to the racist ideals of Adolf Hitler. Hitler dramatically undermined the four gold medals Owen won solely because Owen was an African-American. But when Owens returned home to the United States he continued to be discriminated against purely because of his skin color.

Jesse Owens set the world record for the long jump and won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He truly is an American hero. Yet, he also conquered many other battles regarding racism and discrimination. Tom Streissguth's book is a multicultural book because it exemplifies an African-American man and the hardships he had to overcome to succeed in a society that judged him by his race. The photos illustrate Owens accomplishments. The book is free of negative stereotypes and describes the importance of accepting all people regardless of any difference they may have.

Three subjects are analyzed in this book: early accounts of the disaster including the Inquiries, the issue of the Californian, and some modern perspectives on the sinking. Each chapter includes a brief overview by the editor, setting the scene, as it were, for the article that follows.

Part one, early accounts and the inquiries, includes six chapters. To start, there is a sketchy account of the disaster as reported in Southampton by the local paper, The Hampshire Chronicle with the headline "Wreck of the Titanic, Appalling Loss of Lives; Women and Children Saved". It covers the anguish and uncertainty of the city's residents as so many of Titanic's crew lived in Southampton. Oddly, the editor states this account was printed on April 20th, but the information in the article suggests to me it was written sometime around the 16th or 17th. The article states that the Carpathia will dock in New York on Thursday evening or Friday morning, for example, which would have been the 18th or 19th.

Next there is a brief segment from the New York Sun "A Tragedy Caused by Misplaced Confidence". This piece attempts to exonerate Captain Smith of fault, blaming the disaster on "ignorance and misplaced confidence". This article was later reprinted in Marshall Everett's book on the disaster, Wreck and Sinking of the Titanic, the Ocean's Greatest Disaster.

The next piece is also excerpted from Everett's book, "The Titanic's Crew Ineptly Handled the Ship's Lifeboats". It briefly describes how the crew were unfamiliar with each other, which hampered the evacuation, and that no lifeboat drill was ever made. The article goes on to discuss the coal fire in bunker #6.

Following is an excerpt from Senator William Alden Smith's speech in the U.S. Senate, "Captain Smith's Indifference to Danger Contributed to the Tragedy". As many readers will know, Senator Smith was in charge of the American investigation into the disaster. In this portion of the speech he highlights the many warnings that Titanic received of the large ice field ahead, then goes on to clarify what regulations should be changed, and laments the decline of the American Merchant Marine.

Next is an excerpt from Geoffrey Marcus' excellent book The Maiden Voyage, "The Titanic's Navigators are Found Negligent". This article highlights the often overlooked civil trial that took place after the official inquiries were over. It was the first time White Star was judged financially responsible. This case started the ball rolling for many more suits by survivors and relatives of those lost.

Wrapping up this first section is "New Instructions for White Star Line Captains" reprinted from "Regulations Given to White Star Captains" by the White Star Line. Herein the company makes it plain that captains must completely, totally, absolutely, positively and unconditionally put safety above speed at all times.

Part two of the book covers the contentious subject of the Californian, the ship which may or may not have been close enough to Titanic's position to save all those on board.

The first piece is by former Californian officer Charles Groves, excerpted from an article he wrote in 1957 called The Middle Watch. It is entitled "The Failures of the Californian's Captain and Crew". Groves was the Californian's third officer. He damns the ship's captain and second officer for not taking action.

Following is "The Captain of the Californian Defends Himself", a piece by the ship's captain, Stanley Lord, excerpted from Peter Padfield's book on the subject, The Titanic and the Californian. In this piece, Captain Lord tells his version of the story, and explains why his ship could not have been the one seen from Titanic.

Lastly in this section is an excerpt by Stephen Cox from his unorthodox book The Titanic: Hard Choices, Dangerous Decisions called "The Captain of the Californian May Have Acted Reasonably". In the convoluted style typical of this book, Cox implies that Captain Rostron of the rescue ship Carpathia was irresponsible for steaming to Titanic's aid, and that Lord was the one with sound judgment by not making the attempt.

Part three covers modern analysis of the disaster. It begins with an excerpt from Michael Davie's book Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend (alternately titled The Titanic: The Full Story of a Tragedy in the British market) called "The Titanic's Reckless Captain". Although Davie's book is excellent in most respects, this excerpt is not one of his strongest chapters. It meanders all over the story, trying to explain why Captain Smith did what he did.

Following is a most unusual, yet interesting piece excerpted from an on-line article by Roy Brander called "The Titanic Disaster: An Enduring Example of Money Management vs. Risk Management". This piece is called "The Titanic and Its Times: When Accountants Ruled the Waves". Essentially, this is a piece about the cost effectiveness of risk taking by large corporations, both then and now.

The next piece is excerpted from a Popular Science magazine article called "What Really Sank the Titanic", by Robert Gannon. The excerpt is called "Brittle Steel May Have Contributed to the Titanic's Sinking". In it the author describes the testing of a piece of the ship's hull salvaged from the wreck site, which was found to be unusually brittle, even by 1912 standards. It also includes a forensic examination of how the ship sank, broke apart, and impacted on the ocean floor.

Wrapping up this final section is an excerpt from David Brown's excellent book, The Last Log of the Titanic. The excerpt is called "Captain Smith Inadvertently Sank the Titanic". In this piece, the author offers up his evidence that steaming the ship forward for a brief time after the collision with the iceberg caused a weakened bulkhead to collapse with the result that the ship's pumps could no longer keep up with the flooding.

As a whole, this book is an eclectic mix of articles, some of them from excellent sources, others of more dubious quality. Still, the final effect is to introduce a wide variety of subjects and opinions, which makes for interesting reading. One warning though, at roughly 120 pages of text, this book is awfully expensive.

A high level overview suited to individuals who want to remain impartial. The result is that complex issues are over-simplified, misleading the reader. This stance is atypical of the international view on Cyprus: too risky and controversial to be clear about the future.

I recently visited Cyprus on an agricultural tour and was very thankful that I picked this book to read as one of my background resource materials. The book was very successful at putting very complex issues into understandable and historical context. I found the book very easy to follow and use. Small and very compact I chose to take the book with me in order to review the names, places and dates which were significant to the conflict between TRNC and Greek Cyprus.

Cyprus:Divided Island provided a very even-handed, unbiased history of this troubled island. It describes the atrocities perpetrated by as well as suffered by all sides in this conflict. I've read three or four books on this topic, and this has been the most comprehensive and informative.

Cyprus: Divided Island seems to have been written for an adolescent audience: it has lots of color pictures, pages listing the "major players" in the conflict, even a glossary of big words like "coup d'etat" and "paramilitary." This does not mean however that adult readers will feel like the book is overly simplistic. In fact, I found the clear, straight-forward writing style a refreshing change from other books that assume the reader has a degree in international relations.

I can definately recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about this topic.

Though not a serious work for a Historian or a person needing great detail, Jeeps is a great book for children. 48 Pages of general Jeep history and different models (up to 1995). Some beautiful pictures and a fun read for children (and the children inside us all).

This book is not for people who are seriously trying to gather information in this field. Although, if you are just wanting to touch the surface and not really learn much on the psycholgy of famous terrorists leaders than this book would fit well into your libary. This book gives a very light bioagraphy on some of the most famous terrorists leaders and the organztion they fight for. The book is written for what seems to be for people in adeolescence's, althoug beware that this book does contain some violent, gory pictures. All in all this book would be an average addtion to ones libary.