Robert Taylor: The Man With the Perfect Face is a book that tells of Taylor's life, and it does a decent job. It published just four years after his death in 1969, and the author, Ms. Wayne, was able to meet him, so that lends credibility to her biography of this Hollywood heartthrob.

But the book doesn't go deep enough. It reads like a compilation of data, with little life added in. It paints Robert Taylor as almost a "goody two shoes."

Yet there was more to him, & I for one hope to read a book that uncovers and tells the truth about many other factions of his life. He WAS a good, solid family man. He had no shocking secrets. Yet he DID harbor demons, and this is the story Ms. Wayne should've told.

THE MAN WITH THE PERFECT FACE is the third release of the biography that Jane Ellen Wayne first released in 1973. The introduction is different and some of the pictures are different but it is the same book. Ms. Wayne showed a lot of respect and admiration for Mr. Taylor. Her book is very funny and at times very poignant. She quotes Mr. Taylor so often that at times it seems more like an autobiography. The book is never trashy or sleazy like some biographies. She doesn't waste time on rumor or heresay but only presents documented facts. She answers most of the questions that people have had about Mr. Taylor through the years and makes a point of showing his flaws and weaknesses as well as ALL of his well known assets. After reading the book one thinks of Mr. Taylor like a family member instead of a matinee idol. One gets a real insight into old Hollywood. I do not agree with Ms. Wayne's opinions of some of his films but other than that I applaud her for a job well done. The book is written with class and style.

For anyone who has worked - on an assembly line, as a bureaucrat-in-a-box - the greatest workplace nemesis is a nonexistent ideal: the theoretical person against whom your "efficiency" is measured. Often, not even a boss or office rival is as irritating as this cold standard, the product of stopwatch-wielding efficiency experts and industrial psychologists who claim to have a scientific measure of "average output." In The One Best Way, science writer Robert Kanigel examines the first so-called efficiency expert of them all: Frederick Taylor, the turn-of-the-century engineer and pioneering management consultant.

Taylor's idea was simple: break down all jobs into their smallest component tasks, experiment to determine the best way to accomplish them and how fast they can be performed, and then find the right workers to do them. It was called scientific management, or "Taylorism" -- a formula to maximize the productivity of industrial workers. "The coming of Taylorism," Kanigel writes, took "currents of thought drifting through his own time -- standards, order, production, regularity, efficiency -- and codif[ied] them into a system that defines our age."

Though he had an enormous impact on our everyday lives, today Taylor is little known outside management circles. This is curious: in his own time, Taylor was a world-class celebrity, advocating an organizational revolution that would link harder work to higher wages -- as well as instituting shorter working hours and regular "cigarette breaks." His books and articles were translated into all the major languages and passionately studied, even in the Soviet Union, as guides to a future industrial utopia; he was, in many ways, Stalin's prophet. Yet Taylor was also reviled as a slave driver who devalued skilled labor and despised the common worker, and he was ridiculed as a failure in many of his business undertakings.

Much of Kanigel's book is devoted to descriptions of the shops that Taylor worked in: a ball-bearing factory, a paper mill, and machine-tool plants, to name a few. It's dramatic how different the world he describes is from the work environment of today. Here were no highly educated managers attempting to exercise minute control over relatively unskilled employees. Instead, craftsmen dominated these oily pits -- spinning steel-cutting lathes, constructing elaborate sand molds for machine tools, and maintaining the gigantic leather belts that harnessed the energy of central steam engines. THis was in many ways the most fascinating part of the book for me: I learned what people did in the decaying mills that surrounded my New England home.

To all but the most practiced eye, such a workplace was a chaotic scene. What the craftsmen did -- and what they were capable of -- was largely a mystery to management, which deprived the managers of control and power, leading to a number of stunningly counterproductive practices. If tool and die makers produced jigs beyond a certain threshold, for example, 19th-century foremen would dock (!) their pay per item -- an obvious incentive for them to slow down. And because ball-bearing inspectors in a Fitchburg mill worked slowly and talked too much, they were forced to put in 101/2 -hour days, without breaks.

Taylor witnessed such practices and decided to change them. In one of his most famous experiments, on "Schmidt", he got a common laborer to double the number of bars of pig iron he transported down a plank each day. All he did was pay the man more, linking higher output directly to higher wages -- hardly a revolutionary thought today. His solution for the gossipy ball-bearing inspectors was to separate them, shorten their working hours, increase their pay, and allow them to relax occasionally; in return, they were expected to work harder, and they did.

Once Kanigel establishes that Taylor's method worked well (to a certain extent), the book becomes tough going. Despite his elegant prose, Kanigel's exhaustive treatment of his subject's life and experiments strained my interest. Do we really need to know, for example, that Taylor once spent months alternating the size of coal shovels in the name of furnace-stoking efficiency? Or the entire list of his vacation companions for one summer? Such biographical detail can add spice to a compelling narrative, but to include them only as an exercise in thoroughness, as Kanigel does, is simply tiring. Taylor simply is not interesting as a personality.

Kanigel also glosses over many important issues. Taylorism really did devalue certian kind sof skilled labor, and the costs have been high. The "Taylorized" doctors of the HMO era, for example, must work with administrators peeking over their shoulders, dispensing pills at the expense of empathy and other unmeasurable healing skills. And once factory workers lost their control and even their comprehension of manufacturing processes, many ceased to take pride in their work and stopped making suggestions for improvement. This may be one reason why Japanese and European design is often superior to American. Taylorism also spawned the rise of management consulting, with its sham exercises and goals -- often a huge diversion of managerial talent in the name of efficiency. Kanigel, however, largely ignores this darker side of Taylorism; the true impact of his legacy gets lost in the details. The result is a 600-page profile of a narrow and compulsive man with a single, if influential, idea.

Recommended, but only for scholars and specialists.

Kanigel illuminates the life and times of both Fred Taylor and the revolution his ideas spawned. Without explicitly understanding how Taylor's ideas have shaped our lives we cannot understand the profound impact this 19th Centruy man continues having on our day-to-day lives. With the often misplaced notion of efficiency so deeply ingrained in the very fabric of our lives, we often ignore the profound impacts of blind quests for efficiency.

Who do you know who can reliably recognize the tipping point where efficiency destroys effectiveness (and with it competitiveness)? Who do you know who would challenge changes in the name of efficiency because the changes would impair quality, effectiveness, morale, or labor relations? Without understanding Fred Taylor and efficiency, how can you avoid mistaken applications of the notion? What will keep a 19th Century man from being the most influential man of both the 20th Century and the 21st Century?

This is a wonderful book. You shouldn't reject this book based upon your opinion of its subject. The books is written very well and evokes enough of the times in which Taylor lived to give us a more nuanced portrait of the man within the context of his world.

Nowadays, F.W. Taylor is often portrayed as either a villain who has all but enslaved us or he is defended as not really meaning what he said. Instead, this book shows us Taylor's nineteenth century upper middle-class background and spends a good amount of time on character development and work habits.

Once all this is understood, Taylor's seemingly obsessive goals become more understandable. He did have many important insights in making work efficient. When he began manufacturing was done in thousands of very small shops. It was horribly inefficient. His work did help our economy and helped the average worker become more productive. However, I still can't understand how someone could think having a human body physically haul 47 tons of pig iron per day is a good thing. There is a definite quality of life aspect that still wasn't grasped by these early efficiency experts.

Another extremely valuable topic the author clarifies is that Henry Ford's assembly line had more to do with meatpacking than Taylor's Scientific Management. Taylor's critics have unjustly used Henry Ford's manufacturing techniques as evidence against Taylor's methods when Ford himself made statements denying Taylor's influence. Also, like many original thinkers, Taylor was ill served by many who came after him and used his name but not his methods. This is all clearly laid out in this valuable book.

This isn't a whitewash or a book of simple praise. It paints a complex portrait of Taylor, but gives us enough context to understand him within his time. We get to know something of his character and that helps a great deal. It is a big book but reads short and is surprisingly engaging for a book on manufacturing. This book gave me insights into the early twentieth century that I needed to make certain pieces fall into place. It has a prominent place in my library and I hope a lot of people read it.

Someone once told me Star Trek on television is "fact," the novels are "fiction," and the fanfic is "fantasy." That's worked for me - up until Jeri Taylor's novels. Being a former executive producer of the show, I was under the impression that Jeri's novels became "fact," and "Mosaic" did. This one canNOT.

The set-up, while perfect for storytelling, is woefully unlike anything Janeway would do. That is, she leaves her ENTIRE senior staff on a planet and takes Voyager to negotiations with an alien race. Of course, the crew is promptly gassed to unconsciousness and carted off to a squalid, outdoor prison full of thousands of other poor schmucks. It is there, in between their making plans to escape, that they tell each other their histories. The ending is typically Trek - too much, too fast.

Don't get me wrong, it's a *great* read. You just can't consider much of it canon. Jeri does not seem to take into consideration many details we already know to be true. I would think, if you're gonna write about a Trek character's history, you would be sure to include canon. But no. Inconsistencies abound. This is fiction. Fiction, fiction, fiction.

I guess the only reason I can think of for why she strayed so far from canon was because she included healthy, well-adjusted homosexuals in her story - and everyone knows there are none like that in Starfleet...

This is one of those books I enjoyed, but still found serious fault with at the same time. The point of the story is to tell the backgrounds of some of the main charachters of voyager. In that, it does quite well. I found the stories of each of the charachters to be well writen and invigorating.

However, the way it was presented.....the crew captured and held in a prison camp, and to pass the time they tell the stories of thier life which led to becoming part of the Voyager crew. It just doesn't seem right. Some technical problems as well, I seriously doubt the method used to escape would have been possible in those conditions.

Secondly, it was a bit on the sappy side in the transitions between stories. I was almost expecting a big group hug in parts. Thirdly, some of the stories don't match up with the series.....perhaps the book was written before those episodes were made? Dispite these problems, it was an enjoyable read which gives insight into the crew of the Voyager.

What a good book; I could not put it down. Ms. Taylor has woven a tale out of many tales, tying the life stories of Voyager's crew (sans her captain) into a much larger story of their imprisonment in an alien concentration camp. As their situation worsens, they try to keep up each others spirits by telling a tale of their lives before they were were brought together as a crew with their abduction from the Alpha Quadrant into the virtually unknown, and light years distant, Delta Quadrant. Each individual's story is rich with emotion, even the normally stoic Vulcan, and filled with insight into their personas and the motivations for the choices they have made in life.

Jeri has obviously put her own touch in writing this novel, as she delves deeply into characters she has championed throughout the history of the Star Trek series. Lt. Tom Paris, the sandy haired pilot tells the real story behind his fall from grace in Starfleet (this may clash with what we've known before, I'm not certain as to why Ms. Taylor has deviated from what has been explained in previous storylines, like the absence of Caldik Prime), and the pain that runs deep as a result.

All of the main characters (except Janeway, who is not in the camp with them) get a chance to tell of their past lives, including a surprise in the form of Kes, the Ocampan woman who transformed into a being of higher consciousness early in the 4th season.

All in all, this is a very enjoyable read. You will laugh, you will cry, you will want to read it all over again.

As did Gilbert Moxley Sorrel (Longstreet), staff officer Walter Taylor offers his insights of the War of Southern Independence. Indeed, Taylor has rightful claim to his judgements, as his acquaitance with Lee offered him first-hand knowledge of events. However, I caution future readers that this is NOT a memoir or diary per se - Taylor rarely gives any unique slants to anything, and more often than not, seems occupied with setting the "numbers straight" - many, many, many tables and charts are provided giving the numbers available for this battle and that battle, etc...I suggest this book only for serious students of the war - and more particularly, those wanting "first-hand" data on "numbers." Of final interest, though, is Taylor's disdain for Hiram U. Grant (accurately recognizing Grant as a true butcher - merely throwing big numbers at an under-manned, under-supllied army) and the insertion of a speech given upon the anniversary of Genl Lee's birthday (albeit NOT written, or presented by Taylor himself)

Taylor's approach to covering the history of the Confederate struggle is encouraging to read. Though the title of this book tends to be a bit misleading. It should be called Four years of Confederate history. Taylor tends to describe battle movements and give calculations as to the manpower of divisions, brigades and regiments to a dragging sense. This books I recommend highly for those trying to get an accurate count of soldiers available for each battle, how many were casualties, after battle net amounts,etc.. Rarely are daily affairs of Lee covered. When I read this book I was disappointed to find out that it wasn't a book about General Lee and his daily livelyhood as I wanted to read about. Since Taylor was Lee's secretary I thought who better than to describe Lee's motives, attitudes, triumphs and defeats? Very rarely did Taylor ever mention Lee in this manner. Not enough to capture the man and tell his story. This book is a quick refresh of battles and movements throughout the war of the Army of Northern Virginia which hardly fits being called Four Years With General Lee. Credit is due to Taylor's ability to calculate total manpower and army positions throughout the four years though falls way short in covering Lee.

Wonderful book describing the massive work and devotion to duty that General Lee adhered to. Written by his A.A.G. A must read for southern patriots.

A better editor perhaps would have helped streamline this extremely extensive biography of Caballe's carreer. It is a chronicle of almost every appearance she ever made, though there is little analytical detail of even her most legendary and important performances. The word that comes to mind is "homogenized" - all the stories and information just seem to run together year after year. More anecdotes, deeper analysis of performances, and cutting of much extraneous text would have made this a better read. There are still some interesting stories, though I did have the feeling throughout that the authors didn't want to include any negative remarks regarding collegues, impressarios, or opera companies unless it was absolutely neccessary. That might be a fair and safe way to write, but it is not very interesting in a carrer retrospective like this. However, better that we have at least this less than perfect document (which, incidentally, has been totally approved and authorized by Caballe herself)than to have nothing at all, since this is really the only biography available about her entire carreer.

The authors of this book are worshipful, but that's about all. What a disappointment, especially as it's the only extant full-length biography of one of the colossal singers of the twentieth century. The first third of the book concerns itself with Caballe's beginnings, and for the most part is interesting enough, at least to the hopelessly seduced fan, but it soon becomes a week by week itinerary diary of the most mundane kind. Madame sang such and such at this place, caught a plane to such and where, sang this and that at such and such opera house....on and on. Only occasionally is there even an apparent flash of genuine interest on the part of the authors. A writer of conscience could certainly create a worthy biography of Montserrat Caballe, after all, her body of work is the stuff of legends, but this half-cooked effort really demeans the biographer's art. The elements of abiding interest surrounding Caballe, the voice itself, her miraculously docile character, among a number of other standout elements are treated shabbily in this book. A useful complete discography is appended at the end.

Maria Callas is quoted in this book as advising Caballe that "When you stop arousing controversy, Montserrat, go home. Until then, let the cat fight the dogs". Probably the Spanish soprano didn't need Callas' advice in this regard, but in any event, like all great artists, she has aroused great passion and divided opinion. Few, however, who know anything about the art of great singing, would deny her place as one of the greats of the 20th Century. My admiration for her is based, first and foremost, on the artistry: her's was one of the most beautiful voices, but rarely did she just rely on this fact. Rather, she would time and again find the very centre of a character through imaginative phrasing and peerless use of colour and shading. Vocal acuity was also a notable feature of her art - one that critics more and more are recognising when they return to her recordings and find within them levels of artistry that they took somewhat for granted in the past.

For such an important singer, we have waited a long time for a biography. It might have been expected that she, like most singers, would have received a 'pop' version of a book, one that skated over the surface and which, once read,would be left to languish on the shelf pining for a more detailed and serious treatment to come along by someone with an historical perspective in which to place the artist's contribution to the great lyric tradition. What is impressive, however, is that the Spanish soprano has been fortunate to receive a worthy treatment in this, the very first major book about her.

In my opinion (and in the views of the several friends I have leant it to), Pullen and Taylor's biography manages to be both entertaining and packed with important detail. From all this emerges an engaging portait of Caballe both as as an artist and as a private woman. This achievement should not be under-estimated given the problems of dealing with a living person and one who, in common with all major artists, undoubtedly has a vulnerable ego to protect. I have superficially enjoyed many of the portraits about other living singers - Tebaldi, Domingo, Bartoli, Te Kanawa, to name but a few - but this book serves as an historical document: it provides the detail that is necessary for the book to become a work of reference, and it is also written in a lively and knowledgeable style, so that it can be enjoyed in its own right as an highly entertaining read. Because of the density of detail, it's possible to take the book down from the shelves and dip into it to discover facts and anecdotes that have been forgotten since the last read. And the authors' observations in the extensive critical discography that concludes the book reveal them to be perceptive connoisseurs of the lyric art of singing. They assess Caballe's greatness without blindly singing her praises for everything she does.

I would unhesitatatingly recommend this book, which I have read in the German and English editions.

After seeing the Disney movie, I wanted to read the book.

The book was better than the well-scrubbed Diseny version, be warned, though, that it doesn't pull its punches as far as Klan violence is concerned.

I, too, greatly enjoyed "Journey to Matecumbe" but don't rate it the equal of (let alone better than) "Travels of Jamie McPheeters," one of my all-time favorites. Matecumbe was made into a movie, called "Treasure of Matecumbe" (by Disney, I think). It featured the wonderful Joan Hackett, Peter Ustinoff, and (as I recall) Robert Foxworth.

I'd seen the movie before I read "Travels." After reading "Travels" I was looking for more R.L. Taylor books and found "Matecumbe" and realized it was the one made into the fun movie. I'd love to see "Travels" made into a movie!

For those who loved "Travels," I also recommend the Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Greg Matthews.

Probably the best "fun" adventure story I have ever read. Just when you think the story is coming to a conclusion on an issue, it reopens. All along the well thought up characters keep you laughing and amused at what happens next. This book is written along the lines of a Tom Sawyer or Huckelberry Finn, but takes the adventure and fun to the next level. I would recommend it to anyone who loves to read and has the time because you won't want to put it down.

Be sure you understand all the elementary calculus principles backwards and forwards, all the properities of logs and natural logarithms, all the trigometric identies and properties, differential equations, and have a strong math background. This book lacks explaination. It statements are very broad and followed by very few select examples that are partially worked out. Be sure to understand the vocabulary of mathmatics. I found the concepts of advanced calculus rather easy but the way the books expresses the material makes the course first appear impossible. Each problem should take no longer than 10 minutes tops. Some students in the class spent hours for several nights in a row working 1 or 2 problems. This is a waste of time.

I am no expert in the area of Mathematical Analysis, but I am an avid reader of any book that pertains the subject. I found this book in my schools mathematics lounge and could not resist reading it from cover to cover. This book is of the quality of such authors as Courant, Apostol, Rudin and Royden. As another reviewer has noted, this book is definitely worth every penny. It is not dry or to pedantic as some of the other afore mentioned authors yet it is not simple and lacking in content. Of course like any quality Advanced Calculus book it requires the reader to have mathematical maturity. If one cannot follow simple examples and from those examples formulate their own, they may want to review the very basics of mathematics or consider a different major. I would highly recommend this book to advanced undergraduates or beginning gradutes students as a reference book or for self study.

This is the advanced calculus text I used at University of Washington while getting my BS in mathematics. I loved it then, and I've just purchased another copy to use for review. It's extremely well written. If you're looking for a good second year calculus text, this one's it.

Robert Taylor's first novel, The Innocent, based on his 1967 experiences with the US Army in Vietnam is a clear if rather late explanation of "Why the US lost in Vietnam." The racial sexual politics are unsettlingly stereotypical.
Perhaps there were intelligence officers sent out and who delivered the messages inconceivable and therefore rejected to the behind-the-lines brass. It seems all too neat and didactic, especially the lecture from Nanh's mother on the history of the Vietnamese outwaiting conquerors, and the steadily unfolding insight into the narrator's Texas background, official intransigence, and Vietnamese dignity. Those who think a less-leashed military would have won will use the homosexuality to dismiss the argument, and most of those sympathetic to interracial homosexual relationships probably already know why the ARVN lost despite massive US military backup.

Interesting the variability of the preceding reviews.

Personally, I like this first novel very much, could connect with the narrator easily, could empathize with his situation, and, to my surprise, found his broken-english narrative for Nanh, the Vietnamese lover, to be natural and non-condescending. I have few qualifications for rating this book on the basis of verisimilitude other than that my own partner is Vietnamese/Chinese. I found Nanh's mother's views on Vietnamese history far from didactic (although being so would not be a sin) and fascinating. It has made me want to look into it further. (Wish I could connect with my "mother-in-law" so intimately.) And the conclusion was gritty, somewhat unsatisfying (as it must have been for the protagonist), and thoroughly believable.

I read it, by the way, in a single sitting: couldn't put it down. I will read it again.

Robert Taylor's The Innocent is truly a stunning novel. That it is his first published novel makes his achievement all the more significant. Although the story is told in the first person by an intelligence officer stationed in Vietman during the darkest days of that conflct, and although his story is also about his love for a beautiful young Vietnamese man, the novel is more than a book about being gay in the Army or about the Vietnam war. Because Robert Taylor writes from the soul, and because he draws on the wellsprings of the deepest human sensitivities, the novel draws the reader into self-examination of what it means to be human in an inhumane world and what love means when the value of human life and deep personal relationships are turned upside down by rigid stereotypes and human cruelty. This is not escapist pap. Be prepared to have to think, to feel deeply, perhaps to be challenged in some of your most private and intimate assumptions about your own life and values.

I've used Lonely Planet before, always loved them, but this guidebook was a real pain: Half the directions were innaccurate. Sometimes the directions were so vague (and then, upon finding the ryokan or hostel, found to be patently incorrect), that I suspected the authors were writing about it several weeks after the fact. Similarly, the locations found on city maps were occasionaly obvious guesswork. Area maps didn't include kanji names or train-transfer cities, making them nearly useless. City maps were cursory, and I always got a real city map first thing I could, from the tourist board.

As always with the LP, its popularity is so widespread that its advice must be viewed with suspicion. For instance, it strongly recommended a noodle shop in Nikko. Upon going to the place (against my better judgement!) I found the LP review hanging in the window, the restaurant full of other gaijin, and unnappealing food obviously aimed at satisfying those who find Japanese cuisine weird.

It's probably still worth having the book, just because it's so comprehensive...it's bound to have a place to stay if you pull into a city at 10pm. However, for those touring Japan in detail, not just Tokyo and Kyoto, I would recommend a combination of Will Ferguson's _The Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan_ (even if not hitchhiking, he describes interesting travel routes that can be branched out of), an atlas of Japan (I used the Kodansha english/Japanese atlas, but anything with kanji place names and road&train routes is good), and JNTO pamphlets (easy to pick up) listing all hostels and various ryokans. Japan is a safe, easy, and consistently interesting country to get around in. A comprehensive book (especially one laced with inaccuracies and an obvious bent towards the cities) isn't as useful as it would be elsewhere.

This Lonely Planet book is a big help when travelling in Japan. The book provides a lot of useful information (such as bus/hotel/tourist center info and general history of each tourist attraction). The best of all is that the authors put Japanese characters next to all the locations. Many Japanese tourist spots do not have names spelt in English. Therefore, the reference in Japanese characters that the authors put out is a huge plus. Also, the book is extremely helpful for people who plan to backpack and stay in the Youth Hostels in Japan. Before leaving for Japan, I read though many tourist books and found this one the best among all. The book is a bit weak in providing detailed maps but this can be overcome by visiting the tourist centers (usually next to the train stations).

I've been using travel books on Japan for 23 years, attempting to discover new & interesting places. None has completely fulfilled this quest. However, the LP book has set the standard for the others: It covers more places, has more maps, and has more information than any other. "Rough Guide" comes in second in this regard, and I find very few places in RG that aren't covered in LP. It's like the RG author's traveled around using the LP. The omissions are the same on top of that. A few examples: neither covers Fukushima, or Koriyama, both major cities that you may end up in traveling northward, and in the same area, both overlook nice areas such as Miharu town (3 Spring Town, so named for its 3 flowering trees in the spring) and Soma City (famous pottery and samurai horsemen festivals), and neither checks out Rikuchu Kaigan National Park along the Pacific Coast in Iwate. On the other hand, both LP and RG cover the small town of Tono, both not reaching the park. They both also cover the Iya Valley in central Shikoku while overlooking the most isolated Heike refuge in central Kyushu, Gokanosho. There are too many parallels between the two.

I agree there is not a consistent style throughout LP. It was written by 4 authors whose work was based on original work by Ian McQueen who burned out after 3 editions, so there is much original style mixed in with subsequent updates by the various authors through the next 4 editions. This does make some areas better than others, though, especially when it comes to locations of bus stops and "getting there" sections.

But overall, I don't see much problem with some sections having transportation and other sections not as no matter what book you get, you need to get JNTOs Railway Timetable or updated ferry or bus schedules because the train-bus-ferry schedules change from year to year, making everything obsolete quickly.

This book is also aimed at those who are traveling around using the main train routes, who want to see the big sights and maybe a few of the smaller ones. If you have a car or motorcycle, you're going to end up in places that aren't covered in any book almost every night. A smattering of Japanese is the only thing that will help this kind of traveler. It also only contains brief history and background on some areas. At times it seems to assume that you have a separate book for this information. If you want a history book, get a history book. This is a practical guide for travelers to get you to a place and into some lodging. At that it excels.

I do get annoyed with the phone number area codes only being given at the beginning of a section. With a large section, it make take a while searching for the correct page with the area code so you can dial a number. This always seems to happen in an unlit phone booth on a rainy night.

Lastly, this 7th edition is now old. I read as part of an article in the NY Times that said that Japan was getting ready to promote domestic tourism to help its economy, that someone was back in Japan trying for an update . This would help immensely as LP quotes exact prices on hotels and admissions. Anyone who has used this book recently knows that prices have gone up on most things, and down in a couple of other cases. I like the exact quote on hotel prices better than RG's range quotes, as I can get a better idea when planning a budget than just a Y5000 to Y10,000 range.

When the next edition comes out, I'll be first in line to get it, again looking for anything I've missed (and I know there's a lot as I discover every year). If you're looking for a tool to help you travel through and around a very interesting country on your own, this book is for you. If your hotels and transportation are already covered in your tour, a Frommer's guide with photos and history would work better for you.

Kentou!

The deluded misconceptions of the African race are exemplified in this book. Oh, sure the Africans created EVERYTHING: all of the major religions, all of the gods are black africans, mathematics, the alphabet, philosophy, etc. The Egyptians were originally black. The Greeks stole EVERYTHING from the black Africans. How very sad indeed.

Then we have to hear that not only were all the great philosophers black, but the gay community has put in their claim as well; all of these philosophers were homosexuals! But wait, to be precise, all of the great philosophers were gay black men.

EVERY race has contributed to civilization and our society as we know it. Nobody knows definitively if any of these people mentioned were actually black Africans, but it seems that racial/sexual/gender groups are always trying to glom on to some sense of misguided, egomaniacal insolence.

Be proud of your race, whatever it may be. But please don't try to browbeat everyone into believing some unsubstantiated drivel.

Prior to the European Slave Trade racism did not exist, Africans were highly regarded ,respected and revered; however, during the European Slave Trade (15-19th centuries), Africans were belittled, scorned, disgraced, and lied about concerning their legacy they gave to the world, in order to justify enslaving them: especially denied, was their creation of philosophy, science, mathematics, astronomy, architecture, writing, medicine, humanity, civilization, Chirstianity, Judaism, and Islam (Adam, Eve, Jesus, Mary, Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad were black). In fact, according to the author, Indus Khamit-Kush, there are no albino Gods - all the Gods (Hercules, Apollo, Athene, Venus, Zeus, Buddha, etc.) are black!- and he backs it up with documentation from both albinic and melanic historians. He proves that Athens, Greece was founded and colonized by an African King named Kecrops. He also proves that the Greeks are the greatest plagiarizers in the history of mankind. Virtually, everything they claim they invented, they stole from Kemites (whom they call "Egyptians," both terms mean "black people"). Every nationality needs to read this book, it will change the major misconceptions and the abysmal miseducation we have about ourselves!

This book contains little known facts that are not taught in most history classes. They are verified with references, names and quotations from reknown scholars and historians, some of whom are not African American. This is a great source to me as a newswriter. There parts on lineage, references to the ancient worlds and modern historical events. If you are interested in bringing your references up to date, this is the book to buy.