Sherman's March to the Sea is well-known, however his subsequent campaign up through the Carolinas is not. Sherman is widely considered to be the inventor of manuever warfare, and as such this is required reading. It is little known that this campaign continued for 9 days after Appomattox!

READ THIS BOOK YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

As a teacher and sports fan, I found myself unable to put this book down. The book recounts the life of John Baker, an elementary teacher and track star, who was stricken with cancer at a young age. His stuggle to deal with the disease and continue his career, is an inspiration. In addition, you get to know his family and friends and how he helps them accept his disease. Reading this book will inspire you to not take what you have for granted and live for the moment!

Shylock is a name that conjures up many images , most of them unfavorable. He is perhaps Shakespeare's most controversial character and has presented a challenge to both audiences and performers over the centuries. John Gross has produced a very well written and thought provoking study of Shylock. Of value is the detailing of the changing view of him over the years which has gone from comic to evil to sympathetic. How various actors have presented him is also discussed. In the end a book with an appeal both historical and literary.

I first read the "Silver Kings: The Lives and Times of MacKay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, Lords of the Nevada Comstock Lode", because there was a family story that James G. Fair might be a lost relative. If he is it's quite distant, but the book was so interesting that I've since read everything I could get my hands on about the Comstock Lode and it's characters. Virginia City really did more as the birth place of the myths and truths of the Old West than did Tombstone or Dodge City. I am also an "Earp" buff and have read much available on the "Gun Fight" related characters. Even Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, was a reporter for the Virginia City newspaper during his early days. The book was fantastic. I'm glad to see it in reprint as I will give it as gifts to some of my friends. I had hunted long and hard for my old copy. If you like stories of the Old West you will enjoy this one. And the stories are true.
Senator Mike Fair
Oklahoma State Senator

This is a wonderful collection of poetry readings by some of the best actors in the world. If you allow yourself only one tape of poetry, I would recommend this one. The rendition of Lawrence's "The Snake" is spellbining, and the reading of Macneil's "A Death in the Family" is quietlly gut-wrenching. And you will be surprised how well Bill Shatner recites about whales. Buy this tape, and you will listen to it again and again.

Collections of letters reach a special audience. Such collections may occasionally feel tedious, but they open a window onto the personality and the ordinary details of everyday life, often of exceptional people. This book appeals to another subset of readers - those with a passion for understanding the American Civil War.

John Oeffinger has given us a wonderful introduction to a military leader whose name most Americans have never heard. Lafayette McLaws' pensmanship is the primary reason these letters have taken so long to make their way into print. Examples of his writing atest to Oeffinger's task in bringing the letters to readers, at long last.

McLaws was a military man on the losing side of a war fought over slavery, but we see here an individual who lived by a sense of duty and citizenship, who openly expressed his love and concern for family and the education of his children. There are many touching thoughts written into words and expressed by a man often absent from family life by the call of his profession.

If this book had been written by a military leader of our own time, it would be a best seller.

SPADA is a journal that contains some of most current ideas on historical swordsmanship by a number of the field's leading researchers. As a student of historical swordsmanship myself, I think it is an excellent step in the right direction for the progression of this school of study.

As far as the contents of the book are concerned, my hat goes off to the editor, Stephen Hand, for distilling such a diverse, and yet interesting range of papers from the vast array of excellent treatises available.

The book also features some interesting reports on some of the most recent activities undertaken in the WMA community. This provides the reader with a very good 'big picture' perspective into what advances are being made in what fields, and an appreciation for the vast range of people who are now interested in historical swordsmanship.

With regards to it's practicality, the book caters for many different tastes - whether you are interested in the finesse of renaissance fencing, or simply a medieval re-enactor using the trusty 'sword and shield' method. SPADA provides useful insights and a greater understanding of historical methods of fighting.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining a greater appreciation of historical swordsmanship, and anyone who is curious to know what the swordmanship community out there is doing. I rate it as a 'must have' item, and I look forward to more SPADA releases in the future.

cheers

Matt Partridge
Secretary
Order of the White Stag

William Wolf's book explores the diversity of theological development in the Anglican Communion by bringing together descriptions and analyses of three major Anglican thinkers'Hooker, Maurice, and Temple'to illustrate both historical development and breadth of range of what can be classified as 'Anglican' theology. Wolf concedes that there are many other theologians who might have been included; the Anglican Communion doesn't have a definitive person (apart from Jesus Christ)''the Anglican Communion sets aside no special authoritative place for a great reforming figure such as Luther or Calvin'' (p. 137) Wolf also states that 'the Communion has unfortunately produced no systematic theologians of the first rank.' (p. 137). That being said, the theological thoughts and development presented for Hooker, Maurice, and Temple illustrate the branching streams that feed Anglicanism today, a stream that continues to branch forward.

Richard Hooker
Hooker was alive and active as a theologian during a tumultuous period in the development of the Church of England as a distinct body. Politics entered into church affairs on a grand scale; the idea that church and state issues were one in the same was as strong in England in the sixteenth century as it ever was in any continental kingdom or empire. Religious tolerance was a new concept, imperfectly conceived; the idea that each kingdom must be united in religious practice was strong. Hooker was an active apologist for the Church of England, his main opponent being the Puritan factions. 'Hooker's magnum opus was addressed to Puritans who attacked the church of England in the name of a purer, more scriptural ecclesiastical settlement.' (p. 9)

F.D. Maurice
Maurice would agree with Hooker that prayer is social action. Working in the nineteenth century, Maurice was exposed to the social ills that befell England as an imperial power in simultaneous growth and decay. The situation in society was deteriorating. 'Maurice saw that this social breakdown was rooted in a theological breakdown.' (p. 50) Maurice was unique in that he lived a prophetic life (and, like many prophetic persons, was often disliked for his prophecy). He made 'Christology the starting point of all Christian theology and ethics' and made Christ the central focus of all he said and did. (p. 49) Maurice made the Gospel the centrepoint of his educational philosophy, as well as the call not for revolution, but for regeneration of English society upon a truly Christian foundation. (pp. 64-67)

Maurice's view of theology is, like Hooker and Temple, rooted firmly in the communal action of the Book of Common Prayer. 'The Prayer Book becomes the key for understanding the views of the Church of England on the six signs of the Catholic Church,' these six signs being baptism, creeds, forms of worship, eucharist, ordained ministry, and the Bible. (p. 61) This practical and tradition approach was in keeping with the general spirit of the English society. 'Maurice expressed both English empiricism against the conceptualism of continental thinkers and the Anglican's respect for historical institutions as points of departure for theological analysis.' (p. 72)

William Temple
Temple was, in the words of G.B. Shaw, 'a realised impossibility.' A man born and raised in the church, he rose to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury and made the broad church appeal for Anglicanism that renewed its spirit for the mid-twentieth century. 'The general tendency of his faith and theology was toward a more catholic or orthodox position. But this was always balanced by his concern for freedom in doctrine and by his generally liberal attitude of mind.' (p. 104) Temple saw an intimate connection with God through Jesus Christ, perhaps thinking in proto-process theological terms by believing that 'because of Jesus' perfect union and communion with God, it can be asserted that in him God has a real experience of human life, suffering and death.' (p. 112) For Temple, this communion and experience is worked out both individually and communally''the inner unity of complete personality and the outer unity of a perfected fellowship as wide as humanity.' (p. 117)

Temple felt it important to be open to new ideas and developments modernity (perhaps a reaction to having been raised in an era with the expectation of long-term stability and subsequently living in a world turned upside-down by warfare and other social change). Temple felt that freedom of churches and freedom of individuals for inquiry and development, with the guidance of the Spirit, was more important than a rigid adherence to tradition. 'Temple was quite open to the new truth and insights of the modern world and to the critical and constructive use of reason in Christian faith and life. this can be seen clearly in his commitment to philosophic truth.' (p. 133) This, coupled with his call to social action by the church and the working out of Christian faith in everyday life and action, made Temple a major ecumenical figure.

The Current Spirit of Anglicanism
A key word for the current spirit of Anglicanism is comprehensiveness. Anglicanism incorporates catholics and protestants, literalists and agnostics, high church, low church, broad church, in all ways these terms can be defined. 'The Anglican synthesis is the affirmation of a paradoxical unity, a prophetic intuition that Catholicism and Protestantism'are not ultimately irreconcilable.' (p. 143)

The current spirit of Anglicanism is largely based upon Scripture, tradition and reason, with definitions of these three varying a great deal. The authority of Scripture is important, but this does not mean a literalist view. The authority of tradition, best summed up by adherence to the Book of Common Prayer's liturgical forms, is locally adaptable. Reason is used to interpret both the authority of Scripture and of tradition, but must be held in restraint by these as well. 'The spirit of Anglicanism ought in its rich resources to find the wisdom to retain its identity and yet to develop through constructive change to meet the demands of the fast-approaching world of the twenty-first century.' (p. 187)

For either performing or just playing for fun, this book is great for small groups and really manages to capture the powwer of the origional score. I loved it.

This is a reprint of Peter John classic book on experimental designs originally published by MacMillan but now reprinted by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in their Classics in Applied Mathematics series. The book was written in 1971 and there have been many changes in philosophy for experimental designs since then. Also the revolution in computing has had an influence. In his "Preface to the Classics Edition" John reflects on the state of computing in 1966 when he first contracted to write the book and 1998 when the book was reprinted. He also describes the history of experimental design and extends it to the advances of Taguchi. It was industrial applications that attracted John to do research in experimental designs and he see industry as a rich source for design problems. The text covers all the classical design work with examples from agriculture and industry. It has heavy coverage of incomplete block designs and in Chapter 13 he demonstrates how to construct the various balanced incomplete block designs. There is a lot of theory. Although the title says design and analysis it is primarily a book on designs. Response surface methods and the evolutionary operation approach are also covered....