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When John Muir made his "Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf" the U.S. was not as heavily populated as it is today, although much had changed from the time when European settlers first moved through the area he explored -- a path that stretched from Indianapolis Indiana to the Gulf just north of what is Tampa Florida today.
Muir moved South in the aftermath of the Civil War, so he encountered much unrest, unhappiness, and destruction along the way. He describes not only the flora and fauna he found but the condition of humans as they struggled to rebuild their lives.
He says, "My plan was to simply to push on in a general southward direction by the wildest leafiest, and least trodden way I could find, promising the greatest extent of virgin forest." To a great extent, he was able to do that, however, he could not escape some of the realities of the world around him. For example, in Georgia, he encountered the graves of the dead, whom he says lay under a "common single roof, supported on four posts as the cover of a well, as if rain and sunshine were not regarded as blessings." A bit further he says, "I wandered wearily from dune to dune sinking ankle deep in the sand, searching for a place to sleep beneath the tall flowers, free from the insects and snakes, and above all my fellow man."
Muir wonders at the teachings of those who call themselves God's emissaries, who fail to ask about God's intentions for nature. He says, "It never seems to occur to these far-seeing teachers that Natures's object in making animals and plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them, not the creation of all for the happiness of one. Why should man value himself as more that a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of the unit--the cosmos?"
Partly as a result of his writing, and the writing of other Naturalists, the National Park System came into being, and today, more trees grow on the East coast than grew in the late 1700s (American Revolution). The fight is not over, however, it has only begun. Many of those trees are "harvested" every year. Sometimes, even within National Forests they are all felled at the same time through a process called clear cutting. The lovely large oaks that Muir beheld are mostly long gone and have been replaced by Pine.
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Alan Taylor's WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN: POWER AND PERSUASION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC is an outstanding biography of an archetypical American character, an extraordinary social history of life and politics on the late eighteenth-century frontier and a brilliant exercise in literary analysis.
This is a wonderful read. Taylor's lively prose, compelling narrative and original, fresh story sustained my interest from cover to cover. I never would have imagined such a dull title could cover such a marvelous book. WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN certainly deserves the Pulitzer Prize it was awarded.
Taylor not only describes William Cooper's rise from rags to riches and even more meteoric fall but analyzes Cooper's political odyssey in America's frontier democratic workshop.
"As an ambitious man of great wealth but flawed gentility, Cooper became caught up in the great contest of postrevolutionary politics: whether power should belong to traditional gentlemen who styled themselves 'Fathers of the People' or to cruder democrats who acted out the new role of 'Friends of the People.'"
Taylor argues "Cooper faced a fundamental decision as he ventured into New York's contentious politics. Would he affiliate with the governor and the revolutionary politics of democratic assertion? Or would he endorse the traditional elitism championed by...Hamilton." "Brawny, ill educated, blunt spoken, and newly enriched," writes Taylor, "Cooper had more in common with George Clinton than with his aristocratic rivals." "For a rough-hewn, new man like Cooper, the democratic politics practiced by Clinton certainly offered an easier path to power. Yet, like Hamilton, Cooper wanted to escape his origins by winning acceptance into the genteel social circles where Clinton was anathema." Taylor concludes "Cooper's origins pulled him in one political direction, his longing in another."
James Fenimore Cooper's third novel, THE PIONEERS, is an ambivalent, fictionalized examination of his father's failure to measure up to the genteel stardards William Cooper set for himself and that his son James internalized. The father's longing became the son's demand.
Taylor analyzes the father-son relationship, strained by Williams decline before ever fully measuring up to the stardards he had set, and the son's fictionalized account of this relationship.
James Fenimore Cooper spent most of his adult life seeking the "natural aristocrat" his father wanted to be and compensating for his father's shortcomings. It is ironic that the person James Fenimore Cooper found to be the embodiment of the "natural aristocrat" his father had longed to be and that he had created in THE CRATER and his most famous character, Natty Bumppo, was the quintessential "Friend of the People"--Andrew Jackson.
I enjoyed this book immensely and give it my strongest recommendation!
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In Dead Man's Ransom, Brother Cadfael is called upon to solve the murder of the Sheriff of Shropshire, Gilbert Prescote. Suspicion falls on a Welsh captive and on others who have a grudge against the stern sheriff. Cadfael's investigation is hampered by Welsh raids along the border and by continued strife within England.
Set in the year 1141, civil war runs amok in Britain between King Stephen and the Empress Maud, and it appears that the end of the twelve year old struggle is in sight. The war has taken its toll in many areas, as civil wars do, and the people are quite weary of it all. Maud's forces, however, now have captured the king himself. The sheriff of Shropshire, too, has been taken captive. This means, in those days, that in all likelihood an exchange of prisoners will take place.
Alas, one of the captives is now dead and it is our Brother Cadfael who senses that, indeed, it is murder, and, just as naturally as Peters would have it, it is he who is given the responsibility to solve the case and to try to bring about the release of the king.
Brother Cadfael is the former crusader now a Benedictine monk, who specializes in herbal medicines, solving murders, and compassion. Peters (Edith Pargeter) has developed her Cadfael through this series of medieval whodunits into a man of the cloth easily admired and respected. He is a man of firm, and devout, principles; a man who seems to carry the weight of the shire on his own Welch-born shoulders!
Peters has made grand the area of Shropshire, and especially the town of Shrewsbury there on the Welch borders. She has also created an exciting family of literary characters to complement Cadfael: Hugh Beringar (deputy sheriff of the shire and Cadfael's closest friend) and his wife Aline, Abbot Radulfus (the venerable patriarch of the abbey, and other members of the abbey. It is not essential that this series be read from the start (with "A Morbid Taste for Bones"), as this book could easily be read first and it would still hold up as a book on its own; however, readers generally will want to read them in order, as the presentation of character, of historical events, of character-interaction does show development in the series' genealogy. Peters died a few years ago and apparently there are no more Cadfael episodes aside from the twenty or so published, but each of the books extant bring the reader a treasure of reading adventures.
Billyjhobbs@tyler.net
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The author takes us on a spirited, insightful sojourn through the backalleys of America's true icons and offers up zillions of interesting sidetracks along the way.
He doesn't mince too many words when disclosing the nitty gritty opinions that each of the protagonists has of one another - this makes for a more interesting read than many works which simply glorify all their subjects.
Additionally, somehow the author has an uncanny finger on the pulse of what we really want to hear about on the way, such as the piece on James Dean - his significance and his death. The section on Hunter S. Thompson is a riot!!!
This is a nice addition to your psychedelic editions.
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Finally, this book is divided into 9 parts, one for each author, each one got his own way of coding and that is funny to see how they solve different problems, they got their touch !!
So, designers, coders get this book !!!!!!!
Particularly, I found the chapters on video and 3D, runtime 3D, "bezier creatures", and the set interval enticing. You should see the chapter on runtime 3D! A _full_ library of 3d code that is extremely easy to use (including incredibly insightful comments in the code). You do not need to know much math to make some crazy effects. Also the chapter on video and Flash enlightened me as I did not know of flash's capabilities in this field.
So, in the end, get this book! It is awe inspiring.
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A while back I found myself browsing "General Chemistry", a widely used text authored by P. W. Atkins and J. A. Beran. Surprisingly, I transitioned from a cursory review mode to a dedicated reading of the entire text. I emerged six months later with an excitment for chemistry that I had never developed while attending university.
Like most first year college science textbooks, the latest edition of Atkins' text is thick (about 1,000 glossy pages), heavy, and incredibly expensive. I used an older second edition (1990) that is available for a substantially reduced price on Amazon.
I suspect that Atkins' text is more detailed than many first year chemistry books. I found the section on Redox Equations and Half Reactions to be troublesome. I had difficulty with chapters 14 and 15 on Acids and Bases (pgs. 531-620) and even set the book aside for several weeks. I am unsure whether the problem was with the text or with me, probably a little of both. The last 300 pages seemed easier going. The organic chemistry sections were well written.
I appreciated the way that the authors clearly explained the solution strategy for ALL example problems before detailing the solution itself. The problem is defined, a strategy for solving the problem is discussed, and the solution is clearly shown. This feature makes Atkins' textbook particularly sutiable for self-study and review.
I especially enjoyed the discussions on special topics like Processing Ores, Scanning Tunneling Microscope, Redox Reactions in Photography, Photoelectrochemistry, Swimming Pool Chemistry, Stalactite Growth, and Smog Formation.
I am puzzled why reader reviews for Atkins' various textbooks seem so inconsistent. Some readers rave about his textbooks; others hate them. I have read this book from cover to cover and I join those readers that recommend Atkins' textbooks.
Recently I came across a more current edition of Atkins' General Chemistry (now co-authoed with Loretta Jones) that has been substantially restructured. The new 3D drawings of molecules were especially impressive. If you can afford it, buy a newer edition, but avoid the high cost of the latest edition unless it is a class requirement.
When enrolling in college we began learning chemistry at a higher level, and I immidiately felt captivated. I bought this book and suddenly it was all much clearer, no it's not a commercial, it's solid fact, that this book changed my view of the world. I read in it on a daily basis and find it exhubering to read the two authors' descriptions of the wonders of molecyles, atoms, pH, ions and physical chemistry, it has opened a doorway to a whole new world. I really owe my recently acquired interest in chemistry to books like this one.
Buy it!
Obviously it is not really comprehensive, due to the small dimension and the question-response format; but it is sufficient also to study on it for examinations. It requires at least a basic understandig of medicine and it is not interesting for a lay person in many chapters.