All HRD professionals should have this book (in two vols) in their personal library. As a practicing HRD professional, I often turn to this work as the 'first' place to look for information. In addition, to containing a wealth of information--this work also directs you to additional resources on your topic. This is an excellent source for HRD professionals and students of HRD.

One of the undisputed classic reference works for the old-time radio enthusiast, first published during the original wave of nostalgia over 25 years ago, "The Big Broadcast" lists many network and syndicated radio shows that ran in the timeframe of the 1920's-50s, more commonly referred to as "the golden age of radio". A great source for cast lists (if you can't put a name to a voice) with informative articles on genres and more technical matters (sound effects, "independent" networks, etc.). This type of thorough reference work is usually frustratingly hard to find for the old-time radio. This book has been out of print for years, and when you found a copy of the first edition, you could expect to pay premium prices, especially if the seller knew what he had. The introduction, by radio comedian Henry Morgan (not to be confused with the guy who played Colonel Potter on "MASH"), is a beauty.

I am glad O Henry escaped from his Texas prison, because his period of exile in Honduras provided him with beautiful fodder for this book. Actually, it is a series of linking vignettes about a mythical town (Coralio) in the mythical Central American "Banana Republic" of Anchuria. The protagonists are American and other foreign misfits who have formed a colony along the disease ridden coast of Anchuria. Achingly funny stories populate Cabbages and Kings, especially the one about an Irish Soldier of Fortune who gets swindled by a Guatemalan general and seeks revenge. Although extremely humourous, Cabbages and Kings is historically valuable as well. It provides an accurate representation of turn-of-the-century life in Caribbean Honduras.

As an amateur historian, I found this book a carefully considered and refreshingly factual historical evaluation of an important topic in early American History. The author, a sophisticated prose stylist, writes in a muscular style that carries the reader with ease through the narrative. His wry turn of phrase belies his deep understanding of the complexities of this time period. I heartily recommend this book.

This book was a very pleasant surprise. It's an ably written, and brief account of the two intertwined lives of the men who served Henry VIII prior to and during the Henrician Reformation. Williams argues that Thomas Cromwell was just as much Henry's "prime minister" as Cardinal Wolsey. The author seems to be more of an admirer of Cromwell than Wolsey, but he doesn't shut his eyes to either man's faults. Of especial interest to me, were Cromwell's correspondence with Wolsey, his loyalty after Wolsey's fall, and his stated wish that Luther had never been.

Loaded with details, "Con-glom-er-ate" is a must read for not only lovers of the Illinois Central Railroad, but for those individuals who want to know what it was like when conglomerates reigned supreme in the business world. This book covers the 21 year term of William B. Johnson as Chairman and Chief Executive, first of the ICRR, then of IC Industries.

We learn of Mr. Johnson's roots as a lawyer, then of his days at the Railway Express Agency (REA), then culminating in his call to run the Illinois Central Railroad. From his early days at the IC, Johnson had a vision for the first land grant railroad (1851) in the country. Knowing the tide was shifting away from railroads as a profit center, Johnson takes a newly formed company called Illinois Central Industries, to places only he imagined. Making acquisitions and divestments, Johnson creates a $5 billion dollar company from what was a modest $300 million railroad. By the time Johnson retires, IC Industries is a complex company consisting of food and consumer products (Pet Foods, Pepsi Cola Bottling), automobile services (Midas), real estate (Illinois Center), manufacturing (Abex) and transportation (ICRR).

We are offered behind the scenes insight into negotiations, planning, Presidential meetings, and much more. No stone has been left unturned in this in depth primer of the modern conglomerate. The reader is carefully guided along from year to year, just as Johnson carefully guided IC Industries through the years.

Loaded with facts and contributions from many of Johnson's faithful Executive's, this book is a must read. I'm proud to say my father worked side by side with Mr. Johnson the entire 21 years, and then finally retired after 40 years of service with the ICRR and IC Industries. Even so, my knowledge of IC Industries increased as I read this book. The following year, in 1987, Mr. Johnson suffered a stroke and retired from the job he loved so much. However, as we learn in "Con-glom-er-ate", this is by no means the end for Mr. Johnson.

Wonderully written by Frank J. Allston, this book will amaze you with the knowlege, skill and daring of a man called William B. Johnson.

Although this is the fourth volume of the new edition of WJ's correspondence, in a way it is really the first, and would be a good place for a reader desiring a more intimate acquaintance with William James and his world to start. Volumes 1-3 were devoted to the letters to and from his equally famous novelist brother -- an appealing idea and one probably calculated to increase interest and sales, but perhaps questionable on more fundamental grounds. Be that as it may, as a reading experience Volume 4 can scarcely be recommended too highly. William James is probably one of the most lovable letter writers ever to set pen to paper. In these letters every sentence comes alive and breathes.

James possessed to a high degree qualities of attention, powers of observation, and an adorable desire to render experience vividly. It is a cliche to say that "a world comes alive" in pages like these, but that is the feeling I have when, for example, I read a letter written from Dresden to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on May 15, 1868: "Wendell of my entrails! At the momentous point where the last sheet ends I was interrupted by the buxom maid calling me to tea and through various causes have not got back till now. As I sit by the open window waiting for my bkfst. and look out on the line of Droschkies drawn up on the side of the dohna Platz, and see the coachmen, red faced, red collared, & blue coated with varnished hats, sitting in a variety of indolent attitudes upon their boxes, one of them looking in upon me and probably wondering what the devil I am, When I see the big sky with a monstrous white cloud battening and bulging up from behind the houses into the blue, with a uniform coppery film drawn over cloud & blue which makes one anticipate a soaking day, when I see the houses opposite with their balconies & windows filled with flowers & greenery -- ha! on the topmost balcony of one stands a maiden, black jaketted, red petticoated, fair and slim under the striped awning leaning her elbow on the rail and her peach like chin upon her rosy finger tips -- Of whom thinkest thou, maiden, up there aloft? here, *here!* beats that human heart for wh. in the drunkenness of the morning hour thy being vaguely longs, & tremulously, but recklessly and wickedly posits elsewhere, over those distant housetops which thou regardest..."

This jocular yet earnest mood is perhaps the most pervasive one in these letters. Yet we also get glimpses into the deep and suicidal depressions he fought during his early years. Several of the letters in this volume blossom into fascinating six- or seven-page ruminations on some of the deepest questions of philosophy and religion, for these are the years in which James, "swamped in an empirical philosophy," won through to a view of the world that found room for consciousness, will, and spirit. It is in his letters to (and from) Holmes, the physician Henry Bowditch, and his bosom friend Tom Ward that we feel most intensely James's mind and heart grappling with the ideas he cares most deeply about.

But James is not always mulling over deep principles. At eighteen years of age he briefly considered becoming a painter, and began studies to that end, so it is in his character to be fully alive to surface details of the scene about him. A commentary on cultural and political matters full of interesting judgments runs though these letters. Readers will also come to feel they know well every member of the James family. WJ's letters to his sister Alice are especially remarkable.

Though my initial reaction to the policy of extremely restrained annotation practiced by the editorial team was one of frustration, in the end I came to appreciate the free hand it gives us to reread letters more carefully and to feel ourselves into the wonderful and mysterious crannies of the inner life of a great human being. To this end, I recommend deferring the introduction by Giles Gunn until after they have concluded the letters. Professor Gunn (of UC Santa Barbara) has interesting and pertinent things to say -- especially about James's relation to his father, the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James, Sr., on whose work Gunn has written -- but there is nothing there that cannot wait until readers have first immersed themselves in the primary texts.

The volumes of this series are beautiful in their craftsmanship, and it is an aesthetic as well as intellectual delight to manipulate and peruse them. This volume would make an excellent gift for a bright high school senior or college freshman, since the problems of youth and of finding a vocation hold a special place here -- for anyone struggling with a chronic or debilitating illness (James is plagued with back and eye problems through most of these years) -- or indeed, for anyone who reads!

As a student of Shakespeare I bought this book to help me understand the connection between Oldcastle and Falstaff. Rittenhouse quotes Holinshed's CHRONICLES and Foxe's ACTS AND MONUMENTS for the historical Lollard who died a martyr's death under Henry V. He gives us the entire play (1 SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE)written in 1599 by four authors who borrowed heavily from Shakespeare. 2 SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, wherein the bishops insist on his death, was suppressed as too hot a topic in the aftermath of the execution of Essex.

Oldcastle in the play is shown as loyal to Henry V and esteemed by many people of both high and low degree. A follower of Wycliff, he stood for removing the abuses of the Church. Those who benefited from the abuses, the bishops, wanted Henry V to see Oldcastle as disloyal to the crown.

For my purposes in comparing Oldcastle to Falstaff, the book was useful but I need to read about Wycliff and John Florio to complete the picture.

It was originally a doctoral dissertation.

JB Priestly wrote a book about time ('Man and Time') and in it he referred to a WH Hudson novel called 'A Crystal Age'. His couple of paragraphs about 'A Crystal Age' stimulated my interest but nowhere could I find the novel he referred to. However, I did find 'Green Mansions' and I have read it several times. It is a beautiful novel with an undertone of darkness (is death the darkness that we all live with during the beauty of life?). Perhaps 'Green Mansions' disappointed me a little after triggering my romantic nerve. I did, however, keep exploring the writings of WH Hudson - 'Long Ago and Far Away', 'The Purple Land', 'Idle Days in Patagonia' and the wonderful 'A Shepherd's Life'.

I have just finished reading 'A Crystal Age' at last. I concur with JB Priestley's assessment. 'A Crystal Age' is worth the effort of pursuing - it is a surprising first-person utopian novel in which Hudson's love of nature does not render him oblivious to the fact that there are downsides in all worlds - all imaginable worlds. Just like the dark shadows in 'Green Mansions'. The end of 'A Crystal Age' is so surprising - I believe very few readers would see what is coming - I certainly didn't as I rushed on towards it. There is a certain illogic to the ending, but there is also something that haunts me continuously.

'A Crystal Age' is a stronger less romantic novel than 'Green Mansions', but it is also exceptional for many reasons. I don't hesitate in recommending 'Green Mansions' but I also urge readers to pursue 'A Crystal Age'.

Hamilton was one of the small ranchers who traveled to Dakota after the Civil War to find his fortune. Written years after the events described, the clarity with which he recalls the events and the details of daily life are amazing. The good-humored style and the simple stories have the power to make you wish you could have gone along with those hardy pioneers.