History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Average customer rating:

A Classic
The single best description of the workings of the urban form ever written.
A milestone for city thinkers
Should be Required Reading for Every Graduate of Urban Planning!
All you need to know about what makes a viable, renewable neighborhood and city

The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Urban & Land Use Planning | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 067974195X
Release Date: 1992-12-01

Book Description

A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs's monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.

Customer Reviews:

A Classic.......2007-09-22

This is a classic book for any Planning student. Jane Jacobs has a different and valuable point of view of how cities work. In my opinion this is kind of a slow read but it's not technical. She provides many examples of her own experiences with city life in New York. The book gets you thinking about how your own city works. It's not a knock on Planners, but it comes pretty close. You have to read it with an open mind. It's also a good book for people who know nothing about Planning, she doesn't assume that everyone knows what she's talking about.

The single best description of the workings of the urban form ever written........2007-07-05

In one work Jane Jacobs has succeeded in creating one of the most influential urban planning tomes to date. Nearly every word of this 40+ year old book rings as true today as it did in its first publication.

Every aspiring urban planner, architect, or politician for a major urban center should be tied down and forced to read this book cover to cover.

A milestone for city thinkers.......2007-05-14

This books presents some clear ideas of how to make a city livable and safety. With some concrete examples of bad and good urban policies in North American cities it shows the importance of diversed land-use neighborhoods for the 'life' of urban areas.

Should be Required Reading for Every Graduate of Urban Planning!.......2007-03-07

We all know what a difference lies between the ethereal and ideal world of EDUCATION and the hot asphalt of THE CITY STREETS right? Well, Ms. Jacobs really amplifies that ground zero viewpoint with wit, sardonic humor and daring insightfulness....As an Associate Planner for a city in Los Angeles County, I thought I saw and heard just about everything, including the moralists, hyper-semaritans, the beastly authoritarians and mind-numbing bureaucratic processes that alienate and disconnect home owners from that hopeful, comfortable sensation of "I own it" contentment. Jacobs makes an impressive argument regarding the seemingly impossible planning that is so badly needed but nearly non-existent in today's city management and community developmental thinking. If I had to sum up my impression of Jacob's book- it's loaded with lampooning, lambasting and bullyragging, and after the smoke clears, I'd simply describe the read as....damn "it's a cruel cruel world."

All you need to know about what makes a viable, renewable neighborhood and city.......2006-11-02

Jane Jacobs writes well and the book is full of a-ha! moments. Chapter 2 is brilliant. If your city or neighborhood is threatened by developers who don't share your values, or you want to plan a development that will remind people of San Francisco or Paris, then this book is for you.

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts (Perennial Classics)

Average customer rating:

The Face Of Eternity and The Mind Of God
Our Town, a short yet entertaining read that captures the several stages of life.
Our Town utilizes simplicity to its max
Small Town America
much more than nothing

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts (Perennial Classics)
Thornton Wilder
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0060512636
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Book Description

A handsome Perennial Classics edition of America's favourite play, Our Town, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

First produced and published in 1938, this Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of life in the small village of Grover's Corners has become an American classic and is Thornton Wider's most renowned and most frequently performed play.

This Perennial Classics edition includes a foreword by Donald Margulies and contains an afterword with documentary material edited by Tappan Wilder.

Customer Reviews:

The Face Of Eternity and The Mind Of God.......2007-10-04

By most accounts Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) considered himself a teacher rather than a writer--a curious situation given than he won numerous literary awards, including three Pulitzers. Among these prize-winners was OUR TOWN, first staged in 1938. It is generally considered to be the single most famous play written by an American author, and Samuel French Inc., which holds the amateur performance rights, states that it is performed at least once a day somewhere in the world, as popular abroad as at home.

The play is perhaps most widely known for the way in which it is staged. The stage is bare. A few chairs, stools, tables, and ladders are used to indicate a kitchen, a bed room window, a soda fountain, a cemetery and other locations; the actors mime use of imaginary glasses, plates, bowls, satchels, and boxes.

The story is equally simple. The first act introduces us to the town, Grover's Corners in New Hampshire, seen in the early years of the 20th Century--and most particularly to the Gibbs and Webb families, who live next door to each other. The second act finds boy-next-door George and girl-next-door Emily marrying, and a flash-black shows the audience how their romance began. It is a simple tale, full of details of small town life, church choir on Wednesday night, milk delivered fresh each morning, breakfast to be made, chickens to be fed--and slowly, as the action moves forward, we are drawn into this simple way of life and its seemingly endless and trivial repetitions.

Wilder swirls a number of themes throughout the work, themes that are simple yet profound, details of the particular and the universal--and these gather suddenly, unexpectedly in the third and final act, which comes as a shock after the charming ease of the play. Emily has died in childbirth and she takes her place in the cemetery among the dead, all of whom patiently wait and watch for something which is not yet clear, the minutes passing one by one into eternity, their memories of life fading into nothingness, a portrait of darkness that is yet somehow still seeded with light. It is here that Wilder makes his ultimate statement: who are you when you have been shorn of all earthly details and devices? Where do you exist within the mind of God?

Many non-theatre people find playscripts difficult to read, and in truth playscripts are a blueprint for directors and actors and not intended as reading material for the general public. This is preface to the very basic statement that some plays "read" well and some do not--and that this is not necessarily an indication of how the play actually performs. On the page, OUR TOWN reads a bit flat; it seems a shade obvious, a shade ordinary. On the stage, however, it easily one of the most delicately beautiful constructs imaginable, a play which demonstrates the beauty and value of each life--no matter how ordinary it may be. Remarkable stuff and strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Our Town, a short yet entertaining read that captures the several stages of life........2007-06-12

Thorton Wilder's short play, "Our Town," follows the lives of two close knit families, experiencing the different stages of life: birth, childhood, adulthood and death. I recommend anyone to read this play just so they can have the opportunity to read about the phases that others go through. For example, the story mentions the common worries, concerns and yearnings of parent Mrs.Gibbs, who wishes to take a break from the stressful life of being a mother yet she is held back by the contrasting wishes and aspirations of her husband. "Our Town" is filled with amusing yet relatable events of being disciplined by your parents, which remind us of our childhood, such as when George is admonished by his father. Another interesting tale unfolds as we witness a young relationship between George and Emily flourish into a marriage. Their entertaining anxieties while dating, and even getting married, are humorous and thought provoking for young readers. Unexpected turns of events and sudden losses conclude the story, leaving an important message for the reader which is, care and treasure your loved ones while you still can.

Our Town utilizes simplicity to its max.......2007-06-12

One significant feature of this play is its simplicity in both plot and props. While it carries great meaning throughout, the story does not feature any extreme, earth-shattering events. Instead, it presents the plain, daily occurrences in a normal small town, allowing the reader to follow the story in a simple context. In addition, although the reader undergoes a different experience than the play-goer, it is evident to all that the conspicuous lack of props is a prominent element that further emphasizes the simplicity of the story.

In three acts, Our Town presents a complete view of three different stages of life: daily life, love and marriage, and death. The play focuses on two families, the Gibbs and Webb families, yet it gives a panoramic view of many townspeople's lives in Grover's Corners. More specifically, the play follows the relationship between Emily Webb and George Gibbs. We first witness them in their youth, as they realize their passion for each other. The story then skips forward to their marriage and finally to Emily's death, as she is finally able to witness her life without actually worrying about daily demands. When she is finally allowed to witness life in her town pass by as a spectator, Emily falls into a heavy regret at her wasted life, as she realizes that nobody takes the time to truly look at each other.

Stressing the importance of the simple, daily wonders of the world, Thornton Wilder underscores the appreciation of life due to both its brevity and its inherent beauty. The third act is truly epochal, as it presents the general purpose of the play through the death of Emily; as she relives her 12th birthday, she realizes that no one cares to really appreciate each other or their own lives. Emily, as with every other citizen in town, is too concerned with her own life that she is unable to see the beauty of it, and she ends up missing the most seemingly trivial of things afterwards, such as sleeping and taking baths. Wilder, by contrasting Emily's life with her death, demonstrates the consequences of falling into a state of content and complacency with one's life; instead of blindly following a routinely schedule everyday, Wilder teaches the audience that they must be grateful for the daily wonders of life, as they may be gone the next day.

This is not a good book for those seeking entertaining and action-packed plots. Truthfully, I did not enjoy reading this book until I understood the meaning in the final act. At first glance, the play seems to drag on, depicting the mundane lives of ordinary people. Yet when I got to the third act, I realized that this is exactly how Wilder wanted us to feel: bored in the first two acts at the seemingly simple things in life, yet remorseful in the last act due to the intrinsic ungratefulness of our lives. Anyone looking for play with a relevant, significant message to everyone's lives should pick up this book immediately.

Small Town America.......2007-06-12

Wilder's Our Town was by far one of the strangest books I have ever read. It was a pretty good book. Set in typical Small Town, USA, Wilder explores how humans understand and under-appreciate the notion of time. The first act is typical, the second act is special, and the third act is monumental. Wilder's style is slightly odd, because when I first read the play, I couldn't completely understand his purpose. It was when I read it the second time I understood that he was criticizing how we as people never understand how to love the lives that we have. It's the lesson we are taught all the time, yet we never seem to take to heart. I know that all plays were meant to be seen rather than read, but this is the only play I've read where I feel that the only way to grasp the author emotion is to actually see the play instead of reading the book. Still, it was worth the read.

much more than nothing.......2007-06-12

When first reading this play, it may appear to be about nothing more than the every day life in an ordinary town. However, it is much more than that. This town is representative of any little town in all of America and its actions as something that could have been done anywhere. These simple facts expand the scopes of this play to new heights. It is not just a play about the little events that occur in a small time but is rather representative of life as a whole. Each act represents a stage in life: "Daily Life," "Marriage" and "Death." These words take on new meaning though as the daily life seems so dull that no one would ever want to live there, yet hardly anyone leaves; the marriage is somewhat pushed on George and Emily; and finally, Emily dies along with many other characters who are seen as being more "alive" than any of the living characters in this play. It takes on many unique points of view and teaches many lessons, making it necessary to take it apart completely. The most incredible part is that all of this is contained in a book about "nothing."

One major thing that is pointed out in this play is that people walk through life without ever really seeing anything, and this is shown on many an occasion, not really being noticed until it is too late to do anything about. People that are alive do not have the worries that life will be short because they are still living it. They do not worry about spending each second like it was their last because it is not. They live life on a day to day basis, not worrying about whether or not they live it to its fullest because there will always be more time. The worst part is that life could end at any minute. And when that person has not lived a full enough life, they will have no one to blame but themselves for not appreciating it when they had it. It is often said that people do not miss things until they are gone, and this is one more example. If only people could miss it when they still had it, then losing it would not be such a tragedy because they would have been happy either way.

Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City

Average customer rating:

book- never received
Clearer Perspective on a True Life Experience
Clarity at a Cost
Inside View
Quality journalistic effort

Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City
Jed Horne
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Disaster Relief | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1400065526
Release Date: 2006-07-11

Book Description

Hurricane Katrina shredded one of the great cities of the South, and as levees failed and the federal relief effort proved lethally incompetent, a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe. As an editor of New Orleans’ daily newspaper, the Pulitzer Prize—winning Times-Picayune, Jed Horne has had a front-row seat to the unfolding drama of the city’s collapse into chaos and its continuing struggle to survive.

As the Big One bore down, New Orleanians rich and poor, black and white, lurched from giddy revelry to mandatory evacuation. The thousands who couldn’t or wouldn’t leave initially congratulated themselves on once again riding out the storm. But then the unimaginable happened: Within a day 80 percent of the city was under water. The rising tides chased horrified men and women into snake-filled attics and onto the roofs of their houses. Heroes in swamp boats and helicopters braved wind and storm surge to bring survivors to dry ground. Mansions and shacks alike were swept away, and then a tidal wave of lawlessness inundated the Big Easy. Screams and gunshots echoed through the blacked-out Superdome. Police threw away their badges and joined in the looting. Corpses drifted in the streets for days, and buildings marinated for weeks in a witches’ brew of toxic chemicals that, when the floodwaters finally were pumped out, had turned vast reaches of the city into a ghost town.

Horne takes readers into the private worlds and inner thoughts of storm victims from all walks of life to weave a tapestry as intricate and vivid as the city itself. Politicians, thieves, nurses, urban visionaries, grieving mothers, entrepreneurs with an eye for quick profit at public expense–all of these lives collide in a chronicle that is harrowing, angry, and often slyly ironic.

Even before stranded survivors had been plucked from their roofs, government officials embarked on a vicious blame game that further snarled the relief operation and bedeviled scientists striving to understand the massive levee failures and build New Orleans a foolproof flood defense. As Horne makes clear, this shameless politicization set the tone for the ongoing reconstruction effort, which has been haunted by racial and class tensions from the start.
Katrina was a catastrophe deeply rooted in the politics and culture of the city that care forgot and of a nation that forgot to care. In Breach of Faith, Jed Horne has created a spellbinding epic of one of the worst disasters of our time.

Customer Reviews:

book- never received.......2007-10-01

I have still yet to receive the book I ordered. The shipper e-mailed me he had the wrong address??? How is that possible? Now he has correct address and claims he shipped it. I still do not have it. I will not be purchasing from Amazon again.

Clearer Perspective on a True Life Experience.......2007-09-24

This is an excellent account of the author's take on this nation's worst catastrophe which my state continues to try and rebuild from to date. Thank you for writing such a wonderful book...your perspective is right on the mark and the lives you detail are remarkable to say the least.

As someone who lost their home during Katrina here in Baton Rouge, but not her two children, two dogs, mother, or her own life, we give thanks daily to God first, and then our many family members, friends, and the generosity of complete strangers for their love, assistance, and kindness in our time of greatest sorrow. We have garnered the strength to go forward even stronger and more blessed than before, and we pray for all the thousands still struggling to rebuild their lives.

Thank you for insight that will bring so much to others when they read your book.

Clarity at a Cost.......2007-09-12

As a displaced resident of lower Plaquemines Parish and a guardsman mobilized for aid, I have seen and heard a lot about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. This book was great to finally put to rest so many rumors (some of which I believed two years later) and bring light to facts that were buried under sensationalism. The only problem I had with this book is that it jumps around too much. However, with the wealth of information and the thousands of people involved the author did an outstanding job tying as much as he could together, but there were just some frayed ends.

Inside View.......2007-08-12

I can't add much to the editorial review that appears on the product page, except to say that in many ways I'm glad that Horne used the balance of head and gut that he did in recounting the damage and aftermath of Katrina. The stories of the survivors are so gripping--sewage, snakes, stinging mosquitos, searing heat while waiting to be rescued followed by squalid conditions at the various collection sites--the Superdome, the Convention Center and a variety of road overpasses--then the gruesome cleanup stories (the exploding hamburger story is guaranteed to make anyone's stomach flip). Had the accounts been any more personal, I couldn't have finished the book. But this is coming from someone who experienced the storm just 75 miles up the road in Baton Rouge, where the story was already personal enough. Our suffering was very limited--some hours without electricity; days without cable TV; working around and with the thousands of evacuees, but we know how profoundly the storm and flood have affected Louisiana in general and the New Orleans metro area in particular.

I salute the doughty Picayune for publishing throughout and Horne for publishing such a thorough account just a year after the disaster. I also thank Horne for presenting a more comprehensive picture of Louisiana Governor Blanco's actions during and after the storm. The reputation of this dedicated and experienced public servant took a heavy hit from the storm, enough so to discourage her from running for a second term. Horne reveals that in the context of the event and the politics surrounding Washington's response, Blanco probably did about as well as anyone could, and better than many other political figures managing the response to the storm.

Horne also adds some structure to the story of the chaotic "planning process" (or lack thereof) that's taken place in New Orleans since the storm. This process goes on to this day as people and businesses make decisions about whether or not to return.

As fellow Louisianans, we do our best to support the recovery of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina and the resultant flooding. Horne has helped us in that effort with his thorough and thoughtful account of the tragic events.

Quality journalistic effort.......2007-06-17

This book is a very good read. It tells the story of Katrina from many different perspectives and the author seems to present each view fairly. I live in Baton Rouge, and I have friends who lived in New Orleans and have left the city since. I feel the book is an accurate portryal of Katrina and how it affected the great city of New Orleans.

Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago

Average customer rating:

great book
Our America
This book is so sad.
South Side Chicago- Pocket Books-1997
AMAZING

Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago
Lealan Jones
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Photojournalism | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0671004646

Amazon.com

This heartbreaking and inspiring book goes a long way toward fulfilling the wish one of its authors, LeAlan Jones, makes in his epigraph: "You must learn our America as we must learn your America, so that, maybe, someday, we can become one." Based on hours and hours of taped interviews that Jones and Lloyd Newman, two high school students, conducted for two National Public Radio documentaries they prepared in 1993 and 1995, Our America is a no-holds-barred look at the devastatingly poor Chicago neighborhood in which they live. It's a world where elementary school students learn about sex and drugs before they learn how to read, and where many boys do not expect to live to be 20. You finish the book marveling not that so many of those who people it are trapped, but wondering that anyone survives at all.

Book Description

Through two award-winning National Public Radio documentaries, and now this powerful book, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman have made it their mission to be loud voices from one of this country's darkest places, Chicago's Ida B. Wells housing project. Set against the stunning photographs of a talented young photographer from the projects, Our America evokes the unforgiving world of these two amazing young men, and their struggle to survive unrelenting tragedy. With a gift for clear-eyed journalism, they tell their own stories and others, including that of the death of Eric Morse, a five-year-old who was dropped to his death from the fourteenth floor of an Ida B. Wells apartment building by two other little boys.

Sometimes funny, often painful, but always charged with their dream of Our America, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman reach out to grab your attention and break your heart.

Customer Reviews:

great book.......2007-05-20

...for use in the classroom on diversity, cultural difference, and endurance over challenges in a person's environment.

Our America.......2006-02-15

Our America, a book by two young boys from a housing project on the South Side of Chicago, is raw and beautiful all at once. It tells the story of the authors, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, as they make their way in the Ida B. Well's housing project and tell the story of a five year-old's death from one of the buildings. The book, which was written by the boys in collaboration with author David Isay, is part journalism, part activism and part reflection. It takes a very factual look at the events of the child's death, there are transcriptions from interviews, and there are their own ramblings and editorializing about what's going on in their part of the country.

The boys become involved simply by bringing their notebooks, pens, tape recorders, cameras (and their instincts) to their own neighborhood. Interview subjects include teachers, young children, cousins, neighbors, the chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, police officers and lawyers. Their approach is direct and simple - they ask the tough questions of the people in charge. For example, Lloyd asks the CHA chairman, "Would you want your kids growing up in these public houses?" With the help of David Isay, LeAlan and Lloyd become the chroniclers of their particular time and place.

The book's readability level is low - at maximum, it's on a fifth grade level in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure. However, the themes and issues developed in the book are far more advanced. Students of any age level in high school should be able to grasp the content and then think critically about the issues it presents around racism, poverty, gang violence, family structure and public housing. It is a book aimed not only at young people but also the adults in power, the people who make the decisions that affect the poor.

Our America is not something to pick up for light Saturday afternoon reading, or to help you forget about the troubles of the world. Instead it's a book to crack open the minds of two young boys living an all-too-common reality, and face both the issues and the joys that they see every day. Its literary value is lesser than its cultural significance, one of the few books written by young African Americans and one of the few resources for genuine information about what their lives are like.

Our America is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, 1997.

This book is so sad........2006-02-04

We read this book in school and I felt really bad for the kids. I don't know what I would have done if something like that happened to someone I know.

I related to this book because I live close to this neighborhood, but I feel lucky that my life is so much better.

South Side Chicago- Pocket Books-1997.......2006-01-29

This telling account of life on the south side of Chicago is worth reading to catch a glimpse of the struggles and hardships that marginalize this south side community. The narrative and accounts of life in Chicago's public housing complexes unveil the social conflict that is tucked away from viewing and ignored by outsiders.

To shed light on the situation, two teenagers, assigned by the National Public Radio, conduct interviews with family members, neighbors, and friends throughout the text. During the process of their interviews, they describe the everyday life and hopes of escaping the self destruction of those who must live in the projects especially Ida B. Wells public housing.

The book is a short read of two hundred pages with a reading level of sixth grade. Despite the simplicity of the layout of the accounts, the descriptions of urban city life and death are profound. Since the teenagers' interviews, some of the public housing complexes have been brought down. The south side of Chicago is beginning to prosper as new schools and businesses bring opportunity and hope to a community that seemed abandoned.

Whether you are a student, parent, or professional, reading this book will make you want to take action to rebuild our community.

AMAZING.......2005-03-24

This book is amazing and heartbreaking. Very raw and honest, and eye-opening to the inequalites apparent in the United States today. The poor African-American people who live in the Ida B. Welles housing projects live a life that is like growing up in open warfare with very little hope for the future and enjoyment of the past.

The narrators, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, are very bright and perceptive young men who prove that a child born in the ghetto can still make something out of his life. The revelation I came away with after reading this is that the children in this world are smart; they just don't have the resources and support that are needed for a child to be fulfilled and happy. Although the principal we meet in the book is doing her best to provide these children with the education they deserve.

These children grow up too fast. They see things at a young age that no one should see, ever. Drug deals, shootings, prostitution. It is so sad. Conducted in interviews, many memorable characters are come across in this unfortunate housing project.

Slavery may be over. The Civil Rights movement may have happened. But, really, what is happening here is a form of racism. Poor black people are stacked in unfordable housing and basically forgotten about by the white establishment of America. This book is important for drawing attention to these inequalities and the shameful reality of urban American living.

Particularly heart-breaking is the story of little Eric Morse, a five year old, who was dropped from a four story window by two eleven year olds. Heartbreaking.

What is truly inspiring is the words of wisdom and hope by narrators LeAlan and Lloyd.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

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Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Bodies From the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 (Awards))

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Pompeii and circumstance

Bodies From the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 (Awards))
James M. Deem
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618473084

Book Description

In ancient times, Pompeii was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. Its 20,000 inhabitants lived in the shadow of Vesuvius, which they believed was nothing more than a mountain. But Vesuvius was a volcano. And on the morning of August 24, A.D. 79, Vesuvius began to erupt. Within twenty-four hours, the entire city of Pompeii and many of its citizenshad been utterly annihilated. It was not until hundreds of years later that Pompeii saw daylight again, as archaeological excavations began to unearth what had been buried under layers of volcanic rubble. Digging crews expected to find buildings and jewelry and other treasures, but they found something unexpected, too: the imprints of lost Pompeiians, their deaths captured as if by photographic images in volcanic ash.

Customer Reviews:

Pompeii and circumstance.......2006-03-08

Having only just begun his examination of the ancient dead with, "Bodies From the Bog" (a title that bears more than a passing resemblance to a kitchy 1950s horror flick), Mr. James M. Deem returns to look at the ancient dead of an entirely new region. As a child I was fascinated by mummies and the bodies of human beings from so very long ago. History was never my favorite subject and often I found that unless I could see a person in the flesh (rotting, decomposing, flaking flesh though it might be) I was unable to understand how similar to us the people of the past were. Pompeii, naturally, is a fascinating subject in and of itself. How could it not be? You've three-dimensional images of people in the last throes of death. I challenge anyone to come up with anything half as gripping (i.e. feeding on our more macabre instincts) when talking about any other ancient civilization. With plenty of amazing photographs, clear concise writing, and a plot that will keep many a kid spellbound, this is probably one of the finest non-fiction titles to grace library bookshelves in years.

"On August 24, the last Tuesday that they would live in their town, the people of ancient Pompeii awoke to a typical hot summer's morning". And we're off! No long drawn out Preface on why Deem wrote this book or dull page long sermon on the history of archeology itself. Nope. Instead we are treated to a highly accurate encapsulation of the events that lead up to Mount Vesuvius erupting and the good people of Pompeii perishing. With some reliance on the accounts of Pliny Jr., Deem tells us what happened on August 24 and 25, A.D. 79. There's even a timetable of events marking the different stages in the eruption. With everyone dead and buried beneath different amounts of ash, Deem then looks at the consequential rediscovery of this once bustling town. We learn how in 1709 a group of diggers found the nearby town of Herculaneum and plundered it of its riches. Pompeii wasn't found until 1748 when discovering the city was something akin to a treasure hunt. For the tourists, skeletons found were set up in dramatic tableaux. Then, around 1860, our hero Guiseppe Fiorelli had the previously inconceivable notion that maybe someone should try preserving Pompeii and its bodies. When people came across hollow areas in the ash, it was Fiorelli who had the brilliant idea to pour plaster into the holes and create life sized statues of what the people in their last moments looked like. The rest of the book discusses the fate of the plaster casts, what we've learned about the residents of Pompeii, and the interesting stories found in the nearby town of Herculaneum. The book ends with the sorry state of current Pompeii excavation and a call for people to make note of the swift decomposition of what we've already found.

Knowing perfectly well that Pompeii alone does not a children's non-fiction text make, Deem's decision to talk about Herculaneum as well was an intelligent choice. Admittedly the book isn't subtitled, "Life and Death Around Mt. Vesuvius", but who cares? Herculaneum offers just as much useful information and rather exciting drama (provided, of course, by the skeletons) as the titular city itself. Most impressive though is Deem's writing. He never talks down to his audience, but at the same time he has an acute ear for timing. Some non-fiction books for kids are great but just go on and on and on. I loved "The Tarantula Scientist" by Sy Montgomery but it definitely could've stood "Body From the Ash"'s editor. No chapter in this book seems out of place or awry. It's a well-honed little series of images and words that will grip many an unsuspecting reader.

It seems to me that Deem must have carefully weighed just how grisly to get. For example, at one point we see a cast of a teenage girl taken from Oplontis, an area outside of Pompeii. The girl was made by pouring wax rather than plaster into the cavity. From that they made a mold and a final plaster casting. On the plus side, the technique is the most lifelike view of a victim of Vesuvius yet. On the down side, it's incredibly disturbing. According the photo credits hidden on the publication page, Deem took this picture himself as authorized by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Environment. He must have taken very great care to give viewers a clear enough look of the body to let them know how gruesome and realistic it was. At the same time, he's far enough away and at an awkward enough an angle that child readers, for all they want to be, won't be too grossed out. By and large, the book is all about dying people, so there's not a whole heckuva lot you can do about that. Fortunately, each shot is tastefully presented while remaining exploitative enough for youthful palates.

And talk about stunning images. Some non-fiction texts skimp on the images. Deem went so far as to personally visit Pompeii himself and get permission to photograph buildings closed to the general public. He even got his hands on the Pompeii photography archive, thereby getting some pretty keen shots of early archaeological excavations and artifacts. Some are in color (as with the incredibly impressive image of the Herculaneum Ring Lady) and some in black and white but every single one is gripping. If you didn't want to go to Pompeii before reading this book, you may now simply from looking at the images.

But don't ask me. Hand this book to a kid assigned a non-fiction book for a school book report. Slyly slip it to the child looking for mummy books and who hasn't had their fill. Pompeii has many charms, but its greatest may be how kid friendly it is. Some parents may shy away from having their children deal with a subject so gruesome, but for all those budding forensic scientists out there, few books will satiate them quite as well as "Bodies From the Ash". Lively lovely work.

The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities

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Climate Change is Real
A Great, must-read book
Not the Best Book on the Subject
Hard to Believe
Alarming Yet Hopeful

The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities
Mike Tidwell
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 074329470X

Book Description

If, like many Americans, you believe the ongoing tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, you need to read this book. In the coming years and decades, the safety of your region, your town, your home may depend on the warnings you'll encounter on these pages. That's because the exact same conditions that created the Katrina catastrophe and destroyed New Orleans are being replicated right now along virtually every inch of U.S. coastline.

In The Ravaging Tide, Mike Tidwell, a renowned advocate for the environment and an award-winning journalist, issues a call to arms and confronts us with some unsettling facts. Consider:

In the next seventy-five years, much of the Florida peninsula could lie under ocean water.

So could much of Lower Manhattan, including all of the hallowed ground zero area.

Major hurricanes like Katrina, scientists say, are becoming much more frequent and more powerful.

Glacier National Park in Montana will have to change its name, as it is rapidly losing all of its thirty-five remaining glaciers.

The snows atop Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, so memorably evoked in the Hemingway story, have already disappeared.

The fault, Tidwell argues, lies mostly with the U.S. government and the energy choices it has encouraged Americans to make over the decades. Those policies are now actively bringing rising seas and gigantic hurricanes -- the lethal forces that killed the Big Easy -- crashing into every coastal city in the country and indeed the world. The Bush administration's own reports and studies (some of which it has tried to suppress) explicitly predict more intense storms and up to three feet of sea-level rise by 2100 due to planetary warming. The danger is clear: Whether the land sinks three feet per century (as in New Orleans over the past 100 years) or sea levels rise three feet per century (as in the rest of the world over the next 100 years), the resulting calamity is the same.

Although Mike Tidwell sounds the clarion in The Ravaging Tide, this is ultimately an optimistic book, one that offers a clear path to a healthier and safer world for us and our descendants. He writes of trend-setting U.S. states like New York and California that are actively cutting greenhouse gases. And he heeds his own words: In one delightful personal chapter, he takes us on a tour of his suburban Washington, D.C., home and demonstrates how he and many of his neighbors have weaned themselves from the fossil-fuel lifestyle. Even when the government is slow to change, there are steps we as families can take to, yes, change the world.

Customer Reviews:

Climate Change is Real .......2007-02-21

The flooding of New Orleans resulted from a combination of effects: subsiding land, sea level increase, destruction of protecting wetlands, and of course a violent storm. Tidwell's thesis is that sea level will continue to rise and tropical storms and hurricanes will increase in intensity, all as a result of climate change. The entire East Coast of the United States will be as vulnerable as was New Orleans. Most of Miami and the rest of Florida average just a few feet above sea level. While New York City is mostly on higher ground, the author observes that the infrastructure, the subways system for example, is well below ground.

As world temperatures rise, melting or collapsing glaciers will add water to the ocean. Higher world temperatures will also mean that the water already in the ocean will expand and cause an additional rise in the sea level. Thus, land that is today at or slightly above sea level will become land that is below sea level. Certainly, whether or not storms grow more intense (this is still being debated in the scientific community), global warming will increase the level of the ocean. All of our coastal cities may go the way of New Orleans.

Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in which it stated that the Earth is warming and that most of the warming is a result of human activity. This is also the overwhelming view of the scientific community. My first encounter with the effects of global warming was a hike in the 1980s to the foot of the Paradise Glacier on Mt. Ranier to visit the ice caves. I was disappointed to find that the famous caves were mostly gone. The caves had disappeared because the glacier itself was retreating. We now know that glaciers all over the world are melting. A recent headline caught my eye; "Iceberg off New Zealand becomes tourist mecca," AP, November 21, 2006. The residents of New Zealand could look out their windows to see pieces of Antarctica floating by.

It is not clear what it will take to get our US government to take steps to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. We have already lost one major city. Will we have to see a few more go before we take action? Tidwell does a good job of presenting the need for individual and governmental action.

I also recommend "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce. a book about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming.

A Great, must-read book.......2006-12-30

I loved this book so much that I've read the first chapter aloud to three appreciative people on the phone, and I'm also planning to buy a copy for every Maryland state legislator. (Let me know if you do the same in your state.)

Mike Tidwell writes beautifully. Even though I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and heard Bill McKibbon speak, I learned plenty from The Ravaging Tide that I hadn't already heard before. Tidwell shares history, science, policy, despair (when we don't act on clean energy policy), and promise (when we do).

Yes, it may be odd, but I was walking (not driving!) down sidewalks while reading this book. I couldn't put it down, until the very last page.

Mike Tidwell is a former journalist and travel writer for the Washington Post and the National Geographic Traveler.

Not the Best Book on the Subject.......2006-12-09

When I ordered this book, I had great hopes for its contents. I was looking for a good "summer project" book that dealt with global warming and alternative energy. It was to be used by a high school environmental class.

What I wound up with was a book that dealt with both subjects, as well as with the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but it was so poorly written and biased that I would not be able to use it in a classroom setting. The writing in the book was extremely redundant; repeating the same information over and over again. I think the book could have been written without the redundancy in about half the number of pages. And, that change would have made the book much more readable and enjoyable.

In addition, the author clearly has an agenda and, while he may think he is presenting his case objectively, he falls far short. It is easy to agree, for the most part, with much of the science presented. It is his premise that falls short. I am a dedicated environmentalist, and found many of his solutions to be totally unworkable.

He describes his work with his own home to reduce his carbon footprint. One method he used was to heat his home with a corn burning stove. It sounds good, but how many Americans, who drive three blocks to a store, will put up with hauling 5 gallon buckets of corn to their stoves on a regular basis. Not many I would propose, unless they have a lot of free time. Some of his other suggestions, as well, are equally unworkable on a large scale.

Finally, I have a problem with his bashing Bush constantly. I am no fan of Bush, but he is not the sole reason that the US has done little to nothing about its carbon footprint and global warming. Bush is a part of the problem, but lets put the blame where it needs to go. Clinton did little during his term and the same can be said for the elder Bush. Also, the Congress has been woefully inept at dealing with the issue.

There are a number of books about this subject that are well written and objective. This is neither. I would suggest you save your money and buy one of the more comprehensive books available.

Hard to Believe.......2006-11-27

Sorry ... this book is neither a parable nor a polemic - it's just another eco-manipulator at work. Tidwell says that Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Of course it did not. It was the levee failures, not the surge tide, that doomed the city. This point is apparently far too subtle for Tidwell to understand, and yet it is crucial. Perhaps we need to change the world to prevent future surge tides, but we definitely need to improve the levees - and the disasterously corrupt local political atmosphere that allowed the city to drown - if we want to save New Orleans.

And of course, this is one of the many examples of Tidwell's raging hypocracy. He never asks the basic question, why save New Orleans at all? If Tidwell is right, it makes no sense to repopulate it. If the city has subsided to the point where it basically replaces the marshes it once drained in a move that accelerated the Katrina disaster, why not simply let nature take its course and allow the flooded land to become the new buffer? We are not lessening any human tragedy by helping people move right back onto the "landing strip" (Tidwell, demonstrating his utter lack of imagination, uses this metaphor a dozen times in the book) for the next Katrina.

And by the way, where was the 2006 Katrina? Tidwell virtually guarantees a cycle of doom, with each year bringing more and more devastation caused by global warming. And yet, why wasn't New Orleans swamped in 2006? Why weren't Miami and Savanah and New York destroyed too? What's that? You can't use climate changes to predict the weather? But that's virtually the entire basis for Tidwell's book.

That and, as noted above, his shameless hypocracy. Another small example (there are too many to count) - throughout the book, he cites reports by insurance companies that say the cost and impact of bad weather are increasing because of global warming. But then, when he wants to have a corn granery built in his town to make his life easier, he discovers that insurance companies won't cover the risk without a huge premium. This decision - shared, Tidwell tells us, by every company he contacted - threatens his green goodness.

What would a hypocrite do? Of course - when the insurance companies agrees with Tidwell's premise, they are right - in fact, they are unimpeachable proof of his agrument. But when they don't do what he wants, the very same paragons of truth suddenly become idiots.

If you want to know how Tidwell ultimately prevailed (by having his fellow-citizens assume the cost of the risk that he, in his eco-purity, could not possibly be expected to pay), you will have to slog through the book on your own.

Good luck. But that's not all you will live through, in all liklihood.

In just the last 30 years, we have survived so much that the eco-manipulators have claimed would kill us - global cooling, nuclear power, nuclear winter, nuclear war, nuclear waste, the loss of the ozone layer, DDT, swine flu, avian flu, the Ebola virus, "hot spot" viruses, "Frankenstein" foods, and mercury in tuna, in tooth fillings and in vaccines, to name just a few - that either global warming will be the BIG ONE, as we were assured very positively that all the others were as well, or we'll use our inventiveness and imagination to find a solution that doesn't kill us ... as Tidwell and his kind move onto the next disaster waiting to be uncovered and sold to a gullible public.

Alarming Yet Hopeful.......2006-09-20

This is a highly emotional work. Mike Tidwell predicted the disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita several years before they happened, and he is justifiably angry that his warnings were not heeded. In The Ravaging Tide Tidwell expands on his earlier work to explain why human activities such as building levees actually increased the destruction at New Orleans, and to warn that other coastal areas now face the same sort of threat.

At times Tidwell waxes somewhat repetitive, making the same point over and over again, but this stems from the overwhelming frustration he feels over public and government inaction. He also relies heavily on secondary sources such as Jared Diamond's Collapse (to which he refers repeatedly) so that those of us who have read that work feel Tidwell's own work is little more than a condensed version of other books.

Tidwell is strongest when he concentrates on explaining how so much of what we face from climate change can be alleviated or even avoided through common sense measures, such as using more energy efficient appliances or requiring energy using companies to upgrade to already existing and far more environment friendly technology. He is also at his most eloquent when condemning the fecklessness of the Bush Administration on energy policy and climate change.

Tidwell's work, like those of Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery, Eugene Linden, and Elizabeth Kolbert, should be read by everyone concerned for the future of our world.

Death and Disease in the Ancient City (Routledge Classical Monographs)

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Death and Disease in the Ancient City (Routledge Classical Monographs)
Valerie Hope
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0415214270

Book Description

This innovative volume draws on recent research in archaeology, ancient history and the history of medicine to discuss how people in the ancient world understood and dealt with illness and death in the urban environment.

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truely great american literature
Great storytelling.
Wonderful writing, so-so plot
WAS THERE REALLY NOTHING ELSE TO GIVE THE EDGAR TO?
Unknown Treasure

Briarpatch
Ross Thomas
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback