Customer Reviews:
Strange but (Possibly) True Tales of Pioneer-Wannabes.......2003-02-12
In Cheating Death, Larry Kaniut offers a series of short, unconnected tales of potentially deadly accidents whose victims walk away, if not unscathed, at least alive to tempt death again some day. Most of the accidents deal with the "normal" string of minor disasters that those who have lived in Alaska are pretty used to: small airplane crashes, small boat sinkings, small raft flippings, and encounters with not-so-small blizzards and bears. Most of these situations sound like the inventions of uninspired adventure writers except to those who have indeed lived for a time in the state that calls itself The Last Frontier, for we know that such adventures are indeed real life.
Kaniut's book is an eclectic collection of such adventures as might appear in glossy magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Shooter, and other such publications whose stories usually involve a vicarious injection of testosterone into the reader. In fact, it's usually an overload of testosterone that gets the victims into their scrapes to begin with: "Gee, there's a wide, fast-flowing, silt-filled river full of boulders. Let's see if I can conquer it in my noisy, polluting, totally unnecessary jet boat!" "Oh, look! There's a huge, ancient, majestic grizzly boar. Let's see if I can kill it with my very expensive sport rifle." The one thing that ties almost all of Kaniut's victims together is their chest-pounding bravado and their insistence on being where they shouldn't when they shouldn't-but that, too, tends to be real life in Alaska, as does the religious fanaticism that a few of the victims display ad nauseam.
Don't approach this little anthology looking for universal themes, character development, artfully interwoven plots and subplots, inspiring figures of speech (except maybe hyperbole) or anything at all of a memorable nature. However, if one is in need of some great outhouse reading material or wants to kill a few hours on the airliner between Anchorage and Seattle, Kaniut's collection of survival tales is the ticket! Knowing Alaska and its denizens, I have to admit that most of these wild tales may even have happened very much as they are told-with the exception of the giant octopus. That one I'm not buying (even if it does make a great read).
18 True Survival Stories.......2001-06-17
This book is full of excellent stories of survival in the vast and varied wilderness of Alaska. What I enjoyed most about these stories was the sense of ordinary people up against the extraordinary forces of nature and circumstance. There's a personal flavor to some of the chapters. Almost as if you're hearing your neighbor telling a story about his cousin up in Petersburg. Is this the best written book in the world? No, but the true stories are pretty good.
It's an OK read, but not spectacular.......2000-02-22
This isn't a bad book, but there are better ones of this genre. Some of the stories are quite interesting; others, less so. Some could use more detail, more background research. According to the book, the author has taken up writing full time. You could have fooled me. This book appears to be written as a hobby, by someone who has occupational interests other than writing. But, some of the book is well documented, and overall the book is OK.
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The Duchess of Beaufort's flowers
Gloria Cottesloe
Manufacturer: Webb & Bower
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 090667171X |
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Fountains Of Philadelphia: A Guide
Jim McClelland
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 081173191X |
Book Description
Philadelphia has been called the City of Fountains. Here for the first time is a guidebook devoted exclusively to the city's diverse array of these stylish and elegant works of art. This guide to more than 50 of Philadelphia's historic and artistic fountains ncludes background information on each fountain's history and design and is accompanied by lovely, full-color photographs.
Book Description
The passage of the Reform Bill of 1867 is one of the major problems in nineteenth-century British history. Mr Cowling provides a full-scale explanation, based on a wide range of archive material, including four major manuscript collections not previously used. Mr Cowling pays equal attention to the view taken by Parliament of the class structure and to the ambitions and strategies of politicians in Parliament and outside. He sets this detailed historical narrative in an analytical framework, the assumptions of which he discusses at length.
Book Description
A brilliant account of the dramatic confrontation between the two “mighty opposites” of the Victorian age.
It was the most important duel in Victorian politics. From the mid-19th Century, parliamentary and political life in Britain would be dominated by their head-to-head confrontation. Each would seize the initiative at different times; blows would be traded and points scored. One would seemingly have an unassailable advantage only to see it retrieved by his foe. Even death failed to end the struggle; Disraeli’s political ghost continued to torment Gladstone, not least during the shocking Home Rule debates of 1886.
The Lion and the Unicorn is the story of this great rivalry; the challenge is how to tell it in a compelling way for a 21st Century audience. Part of the problem is that while one man appears to be the epitome of his times, the other is apparently the quintessence of ours. William Gladstone is often used to exemplify every undesirable feature of the Victorian age, most notably hypocrisy, self-righteousness and cant.
In a great feud that electrified the Victorian age, Gladstone and Disraeli set out their political and moral stalls in vivid opposition to each other, where, in addition, their abiding personal loathing personalized their disputes. The conflict between these two political giants would help to establish the modern parliamentary system.
Customer Reviews:
Ben and Bill.......2007-10-15
Professor Aldous concentrates here on the unrelenting political gamesmanship between Disraeli and Gladstone as they jousted for power in the House of Commons. To a modern reader (maybe especially an American one) the causes of some of these disputes will be obscure. I think the story could have been recounted by the able professor with some additional background to help readers of the present day better understand the intense emotions on certain key issues (Ireland, franchise reform, etc.) between the two men and their shifting political coalitions.
On a personal note, it would have been interesting to me to have been told the positions of the two great English leaders on the American Civil War, which raged during their careers and had direct ties to England's statecraft. (How did they each handle the tension between the much desired trade in Southern cotton and the more noble anti-slavery impulses of the English public?)
All in all, a nicely done look back at the dawn of modern party politics, the height of the Victorian Age, and the long public careers of two very different public and private personalities. (In terms of the latter, Mr. Gladstone might be the patron saint of some pompous modern day television evangelicals who have strayed from the righteous path.)
"The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown.......2007-10-04
The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town.
Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown:
Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town."
The original illustrations of the Lion and the Unicorn in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, created by noted illustrator Sir John Tenniel, bear a startling resemblance to Tenniel's illustrations of Benjamin Disraeli (the Unicorn) and William Gladstone (the Lion) published in Punch. The resemblance is no coincidence according to historian Richard Aldous and the image of the Lion and Unicorn fighting all around the town provides Aldous with a perfect title for his biography of the decades-long political rivalry between two giants of 19th-century British politics. "The Lion and the Unicorn" is an entertaining and very informative look at a political rivalry that changed the face of British politics and presaged the type of personalized electioneering that is found in both the United States and Britain today.
Aldous doesn't set out to give a straight-line biography of both Gladstone and Disraeli. He notes that there is plenty of material on their individual lives and that, rather, he has set out to take a comprehensive look at their bitter relationship, a relationship that produced titanic clashes for over 40 years. The result is an almost breathless recitation of a roller coast ride in which a political rivalry turned decidedly personal is played out in Parliament and across Britain. Gladstone, who first entered Parliament in 1832, and Disraeli (arriving in 1837) were both Tories at the start of their career and (ostensibly) political allies. However, Gladstone soon left for the Liberals while Disraeli remained with the Tories. In the process Disraeli remade the Tories into the modern Conservative Party while Gladstone took a loose coalition of diverse groups including Whigs and free-trade Conservatives (Peelites) and turned it into something approaching a modern Liberal Party. Each chapter provides a snapshot on their 44-year rivalry over a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues. High points of the book include the general election of 1868, won by Gladstone, Disraeli's subsequent rout of Gladstone in the 1874 elections, and Gladstone's "Midlothian Campaign in 1880 which marked the rivals' last battle before Disraeli's death in 1881. Aldous correctly describes the 1874 campaign as perhaps the first one waged solely as a public battle between two rivals rather than one on specific issues. As such, when one looks at political campaigns today that seem based on popularity contests one can see where this sort of process had its birth.
Aldous does a great job comparing the very different personalities of the two rivals. For example, Disraeli, despite being thought of as a fop and dandy had, once he got married, a loving and very loving relationship with his wife Mary Anne, an older woman to whom he was singularly devoted. Gladstone on the other hand, and despite his deep Anglican church beliefs had what can only be described as an addiction to `women of the night', a practice that was known but rarely discussed at the time. Aldous paints a remarkably full, even-handed portrait of the public and private lives of both men.
One caveat: Aldous does not flesh out many of the national issues of the day around which this great rivalry played itself out. Rather, the reader is presumed to know or have a general knowledge of those issues; the great debates on the repeal of the Corn Laws, free-trade, "the Irish question", and the great reform battles of the 19th-century that eventually extended the right of suffrage from a few landowners to almost the entire adult (male) population of the United Kingdom. This is far from a fatal flaw, and I'm not even sure it should be considered a flaw since Aldous' focus is primarily on the ups and downs of their battles rather than an examination of the intricacies of the political issues of the day. In fact, sidebars into these issues probably would have bogged down the story Aldous set out to tell. However, the reader probably should know in advance that there may be times where he/she may feel an urge to look elsewhere for background information on some of these issues. I did that more than once even though it really isn't necessary in order to gain a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in enjoying Aldous' account of the rivalry of these two men.
Highly recommended. L. Fleisig
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Amicable Agreement Versus Majority Rule
Jurg Steiner
Manufacturer: University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0807812145 |
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Angels & ministers;: Four plays of Victorian shade & character,
Laurence Housman
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B00085P6Y2 |
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British Naval Policy in the Gladstone-Disraeli Era, 1866-1880
John Beeler
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0804729816 |
Book Description
This book examines British naval policy during the mid-Victorian period, with an emphasis on the political, economic, and foreign relations contexts within which naval policy was formulated. This period has sometimes been characterized as the “dark age” of modern British naval history, reflecting not only the comparative lack of research on the period, but also the marginal role played by the Royal Navy during a time of peace. The author takes a fresh look at the navy’s role, which traditionally has been viewed negatively in the wake of the reconceptualization of naval strategy brought about by Mahan and the changed global circumstances of the 1890’s.
Against a background of rapid industrialization and economic transformation, the author describes the structure of British naval administration in the Gladstone-Disraeli era, assesses the important reforms of that structure by the Liberal politician Hugh Childers, and examines the strategic and operational contexts of the navy itself. The comfortable foundations upon which were erected the world views and assumptions of mid-Victorian politicians and naval administrators were swept away with disconcerting swiftness by the mechanization of naval warfare. The author shows how this transformation went far beyond the realm of technology, profoundly influencing naval tactics and strategy, government finance, political discourse, and public opinion. This book is therefore as much a case study in human responses to the process of modernization as it is an investigation of mid-Victorian British naval policy.
Customer Reviews:
Nicely surprised........1999-03-04
I am not well-versed in the history of the Royal Navy but found this book to be quite interesting. The author's willingness to take an unsparing look at the professional and personal motivations behind naval policy-making during this time is refreshing. Would recommend it to colleagues and naval buffs, definitely.
Book Description
This comprehensive book provides a thorough scientific foundation on the growth and care of plants common to all horticultural commodities. Continuing in the tradition of the first edition, it incorporates the principles behind the techniques described in other ''how-to'' horticulture texts. By providing readers with a thorough grounding in the science of horticulture, it successfully prepares them for more specialized studies in nursery management, floriculture, landscaping, vegetable and fruit science.
Customer Reviews:
Most referenced textbook.......2004-08-04
I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Preece as an instructor for the General Horticulture class when I started college. Little did I know that I would be referring to this book when I was preparing for qualification exams for PhD in Botany. This textbook is an invaluable tool for students who want to further their education
Titles are decieving..........2003-08-24
This book is by no means basic as the subtitle "an introductory textbook" states. In fact, this is one of the most detailed, and comprehensive books available on the subject. Covering everything from total plant anatomy all the way to pathology, nutrition, propagation, and beyond, it is an invaluable resource for any hort or botany student. Hobbyists will also find this book invaluably enlightening, as it can help them answer common questions such as why leaves on tomato plants are turning yellow.
Great book invaluable to horticultural students.......2000-11-15
I have recently completed a BSc (HONS) in horticulture and found this book very useful. I used many text during my degree, however this was the one I refered to most. I think that students particularily in the initial stages of a degree or diploma course would find the book most valuable. Many areas of interest are covered e.g. biological control of plant pathogens, irrigation and many other areas that may not be apparent from the books title. There are many good pictures and diagrams and each chapter has useful references. This book will also be of interest to horticultural professionals.
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Designing Bioactive Molecules: Three-Dimensional Techniques and Applications (Computer Applications in Chemistry Collection)
Manufacturer: An American Chemical Society Publication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0841234906 |
Book Description
Three-dimensional structural information often provides the key to discovering or designing bioactive molecules and compounds. This volume covers the principal computational techniques for processing three-dimensional structures of small molecules and compounds. It describes database construction and searching, analysis of structure-activity relationships by pharmacophore mapping and QSAR, prediction of biological potency of small molecules and compounds by QSAR and by docking to macromolecular targets. The book also includes a chapter on de novo design of ligands to fit a macromolecular target.
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Aie, Business Math Using Calculators
Burton , and
Nelda Shelton
Manufacturer: Thomson South-Western
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 053871350X |
Book Description
With this text and a calculator your students can develop math skills theyUll need on the job and in their daily lives.
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The Best Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky: Including "Notes from the Underground" (Modern Library Classics)
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Manufacturer: Modern Library
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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