Volume Two of The Americans trilogy covers the period between the Revolution and the Civil War when America was shaping a national identity with boundless faith in the future. Like the young Mark Twain in Roughing It, many Americans felt that westward movement alone would give them purpose and that the future would somehow take care of itself.

History books which have bored me have relied excessively on the indiscriminate accumulation of detail. While this obsessive desire to be thorough might be necessary for the education of students, quantity of detail alone fails to give the complete, balanced view of reality that I look for in all kinds of reading. One reason I like Boorstin is that he writes narrative history, favoring theme over chronology, thus allowing the continuities and significance of history to emerge. His American story comprises many smaller stories. What I thought were signs of the times often turned out to be peculiarly American characteristics.

Boorstin writes, for example, that government paid for railroads and colleges in order to serve the growing community. Spencer's dichotomy of "The Man Versus the State" in 19th century Europe was meaningless in 19th Century America because distinctions such as public and private were often blurred. It is fitting that Boorstin divided his book into "Community" and "Nationality" because community preceded government. Contrary to the myth of the rugged individual explorer, Americans traveled in groups. Settlers who headed west, regardless of motive, wrote their own Mayflower Compact before loading the wagons. Venturing into lawless areas, they formed laws for their protection. Even vigilantism was a way of maintaining order rather than flaunting it.

The second half of the book examines vagueness as a source of strength. The country grew and prospered before its geographical boundaries had been explored. Here are also passages on American ways of talking, the creation of myths and legends, the establishment of the national holiday, and the importance of political parties.

Nearly every page of Boorstin's history contains some nugget of Americana which in isolation appears to be trivial but in historical context emerges to reveal something profound about American life.

Both this book and its counterpart, The Democratic Experience, offer an anecdotal and entertaining approach to American history. In The National Experience, Boorstin focuses on the development of a national character and national customs. Rather than trying to force history to fit into a deterministic and logical mold, Boorstin shows just how the disconnectedness of American history has contributed to American development.

I find Boorstin's works very readable, and the style enjoyable. My only concern is that sometimes it seems that some complexities are ignored in favor of developing an overall theme. However, this remains one of very few histories I pick up for fun to read a few chapters.

This really is a great book. From the American Industrial revolution to the western expansion, this book opened my eyes to many factors in the building of our nation. In lectures, I often quote Boorstin and his observations.

I also found it amusing when he exploded some common myths concerning our history. You really should read this book.

This book really helped me understand the aging process, hold onto my empathy and compassion, balance my life better (I was starting to lose myself), and gave me a sense of calm because I have the knowledge of how to manage it all so much better. You'll gain so much insight from this book. My entire family noticed the difference in my attitude after I read it, calmed me down so much and gave me specifics of how to cope. "Elder Rage" is the other book I recommend for coping with aging parents, particularly if you have one who is real difficult to manage.

Book is aimed at creating an understanding of the psychological impact to aging parent and family unit. Provides insight into how the family must act together and what pitfalls to avoid. Works on preserving the dignity of the parent, and finding ways to help the parent and still allow family members to maintain lives of their own.

This book should be read by every adult child with a healthy parent over seventy. How do you know when a parent needs help? When it's time for a nursing home, how do you find a quality facility? Joseph Ilardo provides all of the guidance needed to help parents through the stages of needing assistance at home, moving into an institution , and preparing for the end of life. Beyond the specific practical advice, the book explains the psychological processes involved for the aging parent and for the adult child. I have just assisted my parents with moving my ailing father to a nursing home. As a result of my using this book, my father made the transition to a quality facility with good will, and the entire family was involved in a positive, supportive fashion.

A very good introduction to a beautiful sounding language. It helps if you speak and understand Italian as the basics of the grammar are similar. Another advantage being that a lot of Sicilian utilises Italian with a different inflection. I recommend this book to anyone who loves Sicilly and its culture.

Beginnger's Sicilian is indeed a great tool for learning the Sicilian language. There are a great number of exercises and real dialogues listed. Once you finish doing all the exercises, you will be able to speak and understand basic sicilian. However, it seems that the grammar itself isn't complete, especially the part of verb conjugation. I recommed this book to people who would like to chista bedda lingua

This excellent book by the author "Basic Sicilian: A Brief Reference Grammar" provides for some of the exceptions noted by "A reader" (from Idaho Falls ID). There are exercises in learning basic phrasing to deal with specific needs (e.g., accommodations, transportation, restaurant service, asf). The brief grammatical entries are presented in parts of speech order (articles, adjectives [several], aumentatives and diminutives, numerals, pronouns [several], cojunctios and prepositions, adverbs, and finally verbs (no specific section seemed needed on nouns which are dealt with in context. Vocabulary is introduced with each lesson. The book doesn't pretend to do more than introduce, but it does that well.

No doubt, a very useful guide to methods of financing a college education. Also check out "WEST POINT", by Norman Thomas Remick, which clues you in about West Point, the college at which everyone is there on full scholarship paid by the government.

This book unlocks the secrets of saving for college like the 401k plan did for saving for retirement. A real must for all families to understand. Makes a great present.

This book should be read by anyone planning to send a child to college.After reading this book, I started college savings accounts for my daughterin New York and New Hampshire. This is definitely the "sleeper" tax break which everyone should know about. Forget the pitiful Education IRA. The 529 plans are where it's at!!

This book is great for reading to Toddlers, and self reading elementary school students up to at least 9 years old. Longer than you think it would be, it gives you an example of the daily routine of a fireman. Lots of fun and educational too. The fireman is full of personality due to great writing and wonderful detailed illustrations!

I agree with the other reviews. My 2 year old will be getting many years enjoyment out of this book. I especially like it because it keeps his rapt interest for much longer than most 'pre-school' aged books, but is simple enough for a toddler. But my absolute favorite part, is the fact that Our Hero, Fireman Frank, has lunch and a nap as part of the book. With an active toddler, you need all the reinforcement you can get for those sticky areas!! :-) Great role model!

I am an art teacher and the father of a four year old little boy who has fallen in love with this book. Not just because it is about big fire trucks, but because it is a wonderfully illustrated synopsis of an admirable man doing his job well along with a team of firefighters that represent other cultures and genders without making it seem forced (unlike public education). This is one of the finest children's books we have purchased and it is because of the wonderful detail of the illustrations and how they compliment the writing. This book could stand on it's own without the writing (Good Dog Carl) just because of the illustrations, but it is wonderful to see art and text compliment each other so well n children's books. Buy this book now if your boy (or girl) loves trucks, pictures, and a story that weaves the two together in a magical way. You'll see!

As a student, I think authors did a good job on explaining the subject. It doesn't go too details about every topics it covers but it seems that authors give more emphasis on some topics(should say more interesting ones). Every chapter opens up with a discussion or phenomenon that is addressed in the chapter or at the end of chapter. My university uses this book as a text for NON-MAJOR biology class. I read every single line(no joke) in the book and find the chapters to be stimulating, interesting and cover what students ought to know. The book comes with a CD that helped me out in the learning process (things like simulation of an event, figures, tips and techniques) . Very satisfied with this book.

I don't have any at this moment. I will get back at you soon.

This book is great for the classroom and also for pleasure reading. It explains many topics in great detail and leaves the reader with a great understanding and enthusiasm for the topic. Even if you're not a student taking a class, this book is a great buy! The CD-ROM is useful, but not necessary. The content of the book is more than worth the cost! I HIGHLY recomend buying a used copy of this book and reading it!

During the 1930's it was fashionable to include small photographs of Hitler attached to cigarette packages. You would then paste the photos sequentially into an album that included glowing textual references to Hitler and the Third Reich. I own the original version of this 1936 book and this new offering is considerably less powerful than the German version. Still, this is an effective way for people of our era to understand and grasp the enormous importance of propaganda in the Third Reich.

Goebbels and Hitler were masterminds of this art and the book personifies their mastery of mass persuasion. In the photographs, Hitler is presented as a "normal guy" in civilian clothes, surrounded by adoring children at his retreat on the Obersalzberg. He is also presented as the omniscienet Fuehrer, presiding over mass rallies in Nuremberg, mesmerizing the audience. The photographs, all by Hitler's official photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, are excellent representations of a nation gone collectively mad, seduced by Hitler's paralyzing charisma.

One cautionary note: this book is not written by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The text is incidental and was certainly not penned by Goebbels, who scarcely appears in this book. Despite the misleading title, this is an essential book for anyone with an interest in how Hitler effectively and brutally utilized propaganda in the 30's.

I've had this same book for many years only it was simply entitled "Adolf Hitler." I thought it was no longer in print until I finally found it here on Amazon. This is one of the most fascinating books I've read. It is a reproduction of the 1936 cigarette album many Germans had on their coffee tables during Hitler's years of victory. I have one of the original cigarette cards pictured in this book, and it is an excellent reproduction in detail and size. The book contains tons of photos (some in color) celebrating Hitler and the advancement of the German nation after he came to power. He is shown with children, giving speeches, relaxing (one photo has him peeling an apple), visiting wounded soldiers, at rallies, inspecting a Mercedes Benz racing car, visiting a factory, etc. Chapters celebrating different aspects of Hitler's successes and interests are provided by such important party members as Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels (he penned the preface and four of the 13 chapters, which may be the reason he is listed as the author), Architect Albert Speer (who, of course, would become disillusioned with Hitler during the war), Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach, Four-Year Plan head Fritz Todt, etc. There is no historical commentary, no afterward added from our benefit of hindsight, and no qualifications expect for the line "Lies told to the people" on the back. There is only the raw propaganda Germans were subjected to when the Nazis controlled the press and most of their thoughts and lives. One eerie piece is a memorial written by Rudolf Hess for SS Brigadefurhrer Julius Schreck who died in 1936. Schreck looks like a bloated Hitler with the characteristic mustache (decoy?). Of course, the whole book is eerie knowing where the happy people in these photos were headed. I am glad this book was preserved, translated into English, and put back into print so future generations can learn what powerful and all-encompassing propaganda can do to a nation.

I just got this book yesterday,and stayed up til midnight scan- ning it. The subject matter is repellent, the packaging and mar- keting of Adolf Hitler, for the German nation, but at the same time, it is fascinating to read. Dr. Goebbels utilized some very "modern" ideas to market Hitler, such as using paste-in stickers for booklets, showing Hitler using the then revolutionary concept of flying all over Germany to get to multiple sites for speeches. Giving the impression he was omnipresent, and concerned about all economic and age groups-where ever he popped up.

It is both horrifying to read, because you know what happens even tually, but strangely fascinating, watching how the devil's mar- keter packaged him, complete with glowing testimonies from people coming from all walks of life. In all the photo ops, der fuehrer is shown smiling benevolently, as ecstatic crowds greet him. Yes there are the requisite baby-kissing, attentively listening to children, etc.

So, if you wish to study the black side of marketing and packag- ing a political figure-read this book. And remember it's lessons well when you are asked to vote for someone that is packaged a little too smartly.....there lurks no friend, but a savage mask- ing behind a sheep's clothes.

Well worth the price for it's historical value, as well as the wrenching reality that one has seen such slick packing of polit- ical figures before-remember The Selling of the President?

Make no mistake: "Agape Agape" is not the mammoth achievement of prior Gaddis novels. However, it still is a worthwhile read brimming with ideas on every page.

A man is dying and from his bed he struggles to put his papers in order, to try to give shape to his last book. His mind races with all manner of thought mainly about society: the mechanization of the arts, society's dumbing down, player pianos, the Pulitzer Prize, school violence. All these thought threads come together in one overarching theme, and Gaddis's genius is not only in the ideas put forth but in his prose style: a style of fits and starts, sentences that run on incessantly, others that end abruptly to go on to the next thought. It is the perfect representation on paper of the thought processes of a dying intellectual man.

Admirers of both Gaddis's work as well as the work of Thomas Bernhard will gain much from this slim volume. Joseph Tabbi's afterword at the end puts this novella in context when viewed against Gaddis's entire ouevre.

Readers new to Gaddis might start with this one or "A Frolic of His Own."

Either way, treat yourself to this little book, one that deserves to be read more than once, one that deserves to be admired, one written by a largely overlooked American giant.

I have seldom if ever revised my opinion of an author based on a posthumous work-until now. I confess to having found the late William Gaddis' other (and in some circles, classic) novels (J.R., Frolic of His Own, The Recognitions, and Carpenter's Gothic) theoretically interesting and probably brilliant, but always far too long, very self-indulgent, difficult for its own sake and almost unreadable-in other words, they bored me, what I could get through of them.
This prejudice of mine is coupled with a general dislike for posthumous works in general-the kind where a Major Author left a work unfinished at death, and which is years after released and edited with an introduction or forward by some noted Scholar: ("This really IS a great book, all of Fitzgerald's/Hemingway's/Duras'/McGowin's major Themes are here," etc., etc.). Well, they very seldom are great works, and just as the act of Revision seems contrived to some (your Kerouac wannabes, perhaps), I, conversely, find the act of posthumous publication to itself be contrived-again, in general. Glenn Gould, the great pianist, once expressed his intense dislike of "live" recordings being released on record labels with the surrounding hoopla, and said he planned to do a "fake" live album, recorded in the studio, complete with mistakes and overdubbed with audience coughing, etc. Sony of course wouldn't go for it, but I've often wanted to write a "fake" posthumous novel, the Final (unfinished) Work of a Great American Novelist-I'll make it about 100 de-contextualized pages, with 200 pages of forwards, introductions, afterwards, and footnotes. Now that Dave Eggars is a Publisher, he should get in touch.
But in the case of Agape Agape, the Afterward is totally superfluous. The book was finished when Gaddis died, and I don't need to have that explained to me, nor do I care what Joseph Tabbi et. al. Think of it in the overall context of Gaddis' other novels or what it started out as or what Gaddis wanted it to achieve. It's 125 pages, and all of a piece, without section or chapter breaks, the perfect length for what is the most cohesive and affecting book the man ever wrote-the free-associations of a dying narrator who's afraid his lifelong goal to write the definitive history of the player piano will never come to fruition. Into this frenetic and breathless narrative, then, is woven...everything. What begins with the narrator's opinions concerning several aspects of the History and Future of Technology becomes a fictional autobiography the likes of which has rarely been achieved, cemented by the character's grasp of mortality and humanity, and by Gaddis' seamless and masterful narrative drive. He is ON.
This is a one or two-sitting book, and the reader will come away from it reeling. It's too brief for me to go into specifics, for the specifics are the book, the book is the plot-but if you've never read Gaddis, START HERE. And if you need to picture a Literary Precedent, think of Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground, perhaps, or of the best shorter work by Camus or John Hawkes-but only think. Because this book suceeds where Gaddis' other novels drag in that it also makes you feel.

William Gaddis' Agape Agape is a brilliant, philisophical rumination on the nature of contemporary society and its relationship to art and the artist. It's not really a novel, but rather a 100 page diatribe of a dying man trying to get his affairs in order before the end. He is in a bed somewhere, spilling water, bleeding slightly on his notes, his books. He talks to us about everything from the mundane (the blood) to the deeply philisophical (Plato and many, many others). I read this one one sitting in about an hour because it's that compelling and enjoyable. The conversation seamlessly moves from real estate matters to artistic matters. His commentary will make you chuckle, will make you shake your head in agreement. This is an interesting work and if you are looking from a step up from your average novel. Enjoy.

Joseph Gonsalves makes a distinct contribution to a Korean War genre that has multiplied during the conflict's 50th anniversary years (1950-53). This isn't a personal reminiscence or an exploration of personalities and strategies. Rather, Gonsalves uses his old outfit--Easy Company, 17th Regiment, 7th Division--to illustrate how it was to fight and survive, and sometimes die, in a backwater country that, while geographically significant, no one cared much about, save the North and South Koreans, the Chinese, and the United Nations forces sent there to oppose the Reds...
Gonsalves offers enough geopolitical background to put the conflict in context, but concentrates on telling of a rifle company's experiences during the last year of the stalemated fighting. It's a GIs' world of war, where the action in 1952-53 was a dug-in, frustrating, freezing, sweaty, muddy, bloody exchange of propaganda and lethal ordnance, with counterpoints of crushing boredom and mindless terror. For the American soldiers--18- to 21-year-olds made up the bulk of Easy's ranks--"the experience became a time that lived with them forever," writes Gonsalves.
Ex-GIs, whether or not they served in Korea, will find the book engrossing. It will serve others equally well: those who had sons, brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins in Korea. With textbook thoroughness, Gonsalves presents the makeup of a rifle company, its armament, combat assignments, and life on the line. Through the voices and letters of enlisted men and officers, the book reflects what they were thinking, how they were reacting, and echoes the ebb and flow of human spirit as peace talks droned on at Panmunjom only a few miles away from Easy's sandbagged bunkers...
This book is more about dogfaces than heroes ("grunts" is a Vietnam-era term). There were heroes, to be sure, and citations of their exploits are interspersed in the text. But the GIs of Easy were Everyman, and could be found in any regiment...
The back pages offer a chronology of the peace talks with concurrent front-line action and Easy's involvement. In July 1953, for instance, Easy was committed in a major battle over Pork Chop Hill, a month after the Communists had accepted a U.N. peace proposal! It's picky to say more maps would have helped; that's true of most books. But if you know of Pork Chop Hill, have read the book or seen the movie, there's a photo of it--a rare good one--on page 158...
In straightforward but gripping fashion, Gonsalves and the boys of Easy Company offer a book-full of reasons to remember a war we forget at our peril.

I have read a lot of books about the Korean War. This is one of the best. I read it from cover to cover in one day. It's an extraordinary account of the experiences of an infantry company in Korea during the last year of the War. The book is exceptionally well written by a veteran of Easy Company, 17th US Infantry Regiment, one of the most colorful and significant units that fought in Korea.

I was an infantry officer in H Company of the 2nd Battalion when most of the actions reflected by this book took place. I not only learned some things from the book I didn't already know about the actions there, but anxieties and feelings of forebodings encompassed me as nothing has since I left Korea some 49 years ago. If anyone wants to find out what was going on in the mid-section of Korea in the fall and spring of 1952-53, he should read this book. I think that most will agree that this was something more than a "police action".

Overall, this book provides lots of great exercises and a lot of information about the Esperanto movement itself. My only criticisms are: (1) The format of the book is a little difficult to read (the publishers use almost no white space to separate one exercise from another, so everything just runs together. This gives it the appearance of not being well organized and certainly not easy on the eyes), and (2) The English translations of the Esperanto texts are word-for-word. This was probably done intentionally, to give the student a literal translation of Esperanto's word-building rules, but it can also make the translations seem stilted and unnatural. However, if you can overlook the less than ideal textual formatting of the book (the publisher's fault, not the author's!) and don't mind literal, word-for-word translations, then you'll certainly benefit from the lessons, readings and detailed information (including addresses) of various organizations in the Esperanto movement.

This book was effectively used in an Esperanto Workshop (credit available)at University of Hartford,CT, a very few years ago. The author was obviously a talented teacher, and his experience at teaching shows in the book. It may not be ideal for the absolute beginner self teaching, but it is not easy to fault. The references and examples interspersed add greatly to understanding the language, its purpose,and its functions. As a college professor emeritus (University Of Connecticut) I have read this book and seen it "in action" although I have not directly used it in my limited teaching of Esperanto. I truly like Conroy's book. (I've been familiar with the language for many years, and have used it a few times outide the United States. )

Studying Esperanto is most enjoyable and a relatively easy language to learn. However, gathering information relating to this international culture was a daunting task until I discovered Beginner's ESPERANTO by J.F. Conroy. It was like finding 'gold'! Not only is it a comprehensive text book, but also an inspirational reference guide into the world of Esperanto. My only criticism is that, while each of the lessons has its own helpful word list, a dictionary at the end of the book would have been extremely useful.