This book is an out standing book showing all the basics needed to be a stage manager. The author does a good job explaining

Planning, shop management, tools, set pieces, painting, strike--they're all here. Welker set out to write not an encyclopedia of stagecraft but a guidebook of best techniques. He succeeded admirably. Useful for high school, college, and community theatres

As a non-expert on Civil War history, I found this book to be very informative as well as very readable. I thoroughly enjoyed the biographical sketches of Generals Kearny and Stevens. The author raises thought provoking questions at the end.

It is obvious that the author considered this book a labor of love so to speak, which has clearly resulted in a top notch account of a little known battle. Like the author, I wandered upon the small park in Centreville marking the site of the Battle of Ox Hill while walking to the movie theater in a nearby mall. From that point on, my curiosity about Ox Hill has not been satisfied until I read Welker's book. His use of lucid prose and superb analysis is immediately evident by the fact that Welker's description of the Second Bull Run, which set the stage for Ox Hill, brings to light facts that have been obscured in books entirely devoted to that battle. For the first time, I had an understanding of events that drove both armies to a fateful battle in the rain at Ox Hill. He also brings flamboyant Union General Phil Kearny to life in a way that other authors have been unable to replicate. Civil war buffs will want to add this to their collection. Novices will also undoubtedly enjoy the story of a heretofore overlooked battle on the outskirts of Washington DC itself.