Book Description
Human survival depends on a continuing energy supply, but the need for ever-increasing amounts of energy poses a dilemma: How can we provide the benefits of energy to the population of the globe without damaging the environment, negatively affecting social stability, or threatening the well-being of future generations? The solution will lie in finding sustainable energy sources and more efficient means of converting and utilizing energy. This textbook is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as others who have an interest in exploring energy resource options and technologies with a view toward achieving sustainability. It clearly presents the trade-offs and uncertainties inherent in evaluating and choosing different energy options and provides a framework for assessing policy solutions.
Sustainable Energy includes illustrative examples, problems, references for further reading, and links to relevant Web sites. Outside the classroom, the book is a resource for government, industry, and nonprofit organizations. The first six chapters provide the tools for making informed energy choices. They examine the broader aspects of energy use, including resource estimation, environmental effects, and economic evaluations. Chapters 7-15 review the main energy sources of today and tomorrow, including fossil fuels, nuclear power, biomass, geothermal energy, hydropower, wind energy, and solar energy, examining their technologies, environmental impacts, and economics. The remaining chapters treat energy storage, transmission, and distribution; the electric power sector; transportation; industrial energy usage; commercial and residential buildings; and synergistic complex systems. Sustainable Energy addresses the challenges of integrating diverse factors and the importance for future generations of the energy choices we make today.
Customer Reviews:
Useful.......2006-03-21
Useful book to collect all in one the main subjects about the topic. Useful handbook to have at hand a rigorous point to start to study the subject without loosing between information.
Book Description
Dr. Bill Bass, one of the world's leading forensic anthropologists, gained international attention when he built a forensic lab like no other: The Body Farm. Now, this master scientist unlocks the gates of his lab to reveal his most intriguing cases-and to revisit the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, fifty years after the fact.
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In this memoir, Bass, a premier forensic anthropologist, recounts how a life spent studying dead bodies led to the creation of "The Anthropolgy Research Facility" (aka the Body Farm), a plot of land near the University of Tennessee Medical Center where Bass and his colleagues monitor the decomposition of human corpses in various environments. The book is structured around the 1981 creation of the Body Farm, and the early chapters focus on some of Bass's trickier cases to demonstrate his need for more information about the science of forensics. The later chapters take a closer look at how the scientific analysis of Body Farm corpses has helped Bass and other anthropologists solve some of the toughest and most bizarre cases of their distinguished careers. Though professional and conscientious when describing the medical facts of each case, Bass, writing with journalist Jefferson, proves to be a witty storyteller with a welcome sense of humor. He also does a nice job balancing accounts of death and decomposition with decidedly not-so-morbid tidbits from his personal life. Furthermore, the poignancy of how he reacts to the deaths of his first two wives reflects the compassion he feels for the dead and their surviving family members he encounters in his working life. Bass may deal with the dead, but he has a lust for life that comes across in his writing. While the grisly details may not make this a must-read for everyone, those who do pick it up might just be pleasantly surprised by how Bass brings death to life. Foreword by Patricia Cornwell
Customer Reviews:
Death's Acre : Inside The Body Farm.......2007-10-11
If you are interested in forensics, this is the book for you! It tells how the study of forensics developed and how Dr. Bill Bass was involved in devoloping and establishing it as an instrument to solve crimes and identify bodies. It is very readable and easy to understand without a medical or legal background. The book however is not for the squemish or faint of heart. It gives extremely detailed descriptions of bodily decay and crimes in the recent past. I found the book to be very interesting and informative. Well worth my time and money!
Great read - couldn't put it down.......2007-09-09
For all you csi fans, this is a great book. Wonderful history of how it all began along with chapters of stories about real dead people. Congratulations to Dr. Bass and all his staff who have made inroads into helping the police and other entities solve crimes.
Watch out where you step.......2007-08-24
Another great Kay Scarpetta book. Not as good as some, but better than others. Cornwell's earlier writings are her best, her later books seem to lack heart, and detail. This one is in the middle. It is a good read, but not her best one. I wish she would take writing seriously again, and find the "eye of the tiger", or whatever she needs to get herself back on track. Maybe someone is giving her bad advise, or something has distracted her. She needs to return to whatever she was doing, when she first started writing. I miss her good books, and hope she can snap out of it soon. I should have given this one a 3, but I respect her so much, I gave it a 4. This is really her last good book she has written.
Gotta brag.......2007-07-13
I got to attend a personal tour of the Body Farm with Dr. Bass. It was an experience of a lifetime (is than an oxymoron?). Dr. Bass is the real deal. He knows his stuff and has a no-nonsense approach to his profession. It would be hard to estimate how many criminals have been removed as threats to society based on the work of Dr. Bass and his associates. He's a true pioneer.
A Must Read For Everyone!.......2007-06-08
Though some readers might be apprehensive due to the subject matter that the title insinuates, Death's Acre tells the story of the unsung heroes and an autiobiography as well. This is truely insightful to every person as Dr. Bill Bass shares stories that educate us on the people who help the deceased tell their story. The story of the author himself narrorates with humor and makes for a facinating read. It doesn't take a science buff to read this or be touched by it.
Book Description
Today, some 80 nations can be described as fully democratic. Yet in numerous countries around the world, democracy has failed or is tottering, and in the United States its principles are increasingly under siege from corporate and other forces.
In What Would Jefferson Do? Thom Hartmann shows why democracy is not an aberration in human history but the oldest, most resilient, and most universal form of government, with roots in nature itself. He traces the history of democracy in the United States, identifies the most prevalent myths about it, and offers an inspiring yet realistic plan for transforming the political landscape and reviving Jefferson’s dream before it is too late.
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THOM HARTMANN is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, and the award-winning
author of fourteen books. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont, and can be found on the Internet at www.thomhartmann.com.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A Clear point of View.......2007-09-25
It is not often that someone presents what appears to be a contrasting point of view (to what is common today) and then ACTUALLY HONESTLY, LOGICALLY, AND HISTORICALLY suports that position. This book does, it is a quick easy read and very informative. When finished, one would say, the author makes sense, and more should listen. After checking, Hartmann's data is factual and a realitively correct interpretation rather than snipits carefully chosen and not represenative of what Jefferson really intended. All citizens who are concerned with the politics of the day should read the book to get a different perspective, and understanding of what the founding fathers really said and wanted.
revere rides again.......2007-06-13
I'm a democratically elected union steward who maintains worker rights for no pay...I battle the "east india company" on a daily basis...books like yours give me hope that common sense is not dead. the tyrannical bottom line will not take our humanity nor our rights! I ask only that we forget not to be humane! The signatories of the declaration of independence were compelled by what was right and moral...and so we must be no matter how insignificant we deem ! I thank all the readers who care enough to increase their capacity to understand our founding principles! Bravo Thom !
Required Reading for New Citizens.......2007-04-07
Although I remember learning about the ideals of American's founders when I was in elementary school, it seems that children are no longer learning what Thom Hartmann so perfectly conveys in his book. This book should be required reading for every new citizen and for every new voter (as well as for a few million voters who seem to have forgotten what they learned in school).
interesting but not what i expected.......2007-01-10
expected more on jefferson but was mostly on his relationship with current mystics. still a good read.
Great easy reading lesson in democracy.......2006-11-04
We all should renew our history and realize not to take our democracy for granted. This is the book to get started!
Book Description
Jana Hensel was thirteen on November 9, 1989, the night the Berlin Wall fell. The moment it happened, everyone proclaimed it a Great Historical Event. The Cold War was over! Freedom was at hand! But in all the heady celebration, no one stopped to think what it would mean for Jana and her generation of East Germans. These were the kids of the seventies, who had grown up in the shadow of Communism with all its hokey comforts: the Young Pioneer youth groups, the cheerful Communist propaganda, and the comforting knowledge that they lived in a Germany unblemished by an ugly Nazi past and a greedy Capitalist future. This had been her life.
Suddenly it was gone. East Germany disappeared, swallowed up by the West. And everything that Jana knew, loved, and respected disappeared with it. Her country, its politics, history, and culture were wiped clean from the slate. In its place was the West with its big cars and fancy clothes, its endless TV channels, and its supermarkets overflowing with exotic fruits and vegetables she had never dreamed of. Here was everything her generation had coveted for so long-Coca Cola and pop CDs, Hollywood movies and magazines. In their desperation to get with it, Jana and her friends acquired every possible Western product and mannerism. They changed the way they talked, the way they walked, what they read, where they went. They moved to Berlin. They cut off from their parents. They wore Levi's jeans, took English lessons, and opened bank accounts.
They spent a decade trying to assimilate. Now they looked right, talked right, and walked right, but who were they? They were always fighting to catch up. But where were they going? InAfter the Wall, Jana Hensel tells the story of her generation, a lost generation of East German kids forced to abandon their past and feel their way through a foreign landscape to an uncertain future. It is a bittersweet story of loss and discovery, of growing up fast in a strange world that your childhood had never imagined.
Customer Reviews:
After The Wall.......2007-10-11
The book is written as an extended essay. There is very little observation of actual events. The author's account of life in the GDR lacks realism and is really quite shallow.
Recent return from the former GDR.......2007-08-15
I recently spent 2 1/2 months in the former GDR working at a university. My trip was a great experience and I was really struck by the historical remnants and stories of those that had grown up and moved into the former GDR after the fall of the wall. When the wall fell I was only 9 years old and many of my friends there were in my age range and we had few memories of this time. Jana Hensel's book provided me with an in-depth understanding of what life was like for my friends and their siblings during the reunification. It was interesting to hear stories of her childhood that were similar to my friend's stories.
"After the Wall" was fabulous and a must-read for those interested in the real-life of former East Germans.
A nice read about life in East Germany........2006-08-09
Whereas one of the previous reviewers may not have "gotten" this book, I did. I visited East Germany right after the fall of the wall, and then five years later. What a change there was. Not only could you tell the difference on the outside, but the people changed too. Hensel writes about these changes and how it affected her. Then she relates how it affected the older generations. Hensel is a little flip, but maybe she has a right to be. There were big changes, and the young adapt to change. Older people do not. This is a story about one young lady changing to the new landscape. East Germany no longer exists physically, but does emotionally in millions of Germans.
This is a nice read for those interested in Germany. I found myself laughing at some of Hensel comments. I can relate how she experienced life.
A point of view ..........2005-09-15
When I was born in 1945, my mother, a German armed forces helper on the way from Prague (deep South) up to an isle named "Ruegen" (in the very North), in the middle of her long journey through a breaking down Germany: she came down with me and, after one day in hospital, she stuffed me away into a children's home (in a town called "Wuppertal", West-Germany) - and left me to my fate. So she robbed me (among others) the experience of a childhood in the GDR, German Democratic Republic, "Wuppertal" should be "West-Germany" (American sector), the isle of Ruegen became Russian sector, behind the "Iron Curtain". So I did not learn anything about "Young Pioneer meetings", socialism, communism, STASI (the secret police) or summer camps of young "Pioneers". In the Western hemisphere I grew up, drinking Pepsi Coke, receiving American Care packages, later on: listened to the Beatles, noticed the students movement in 1968, had no Ulbrich or Honecker, but chancellor Willy Brandt and Helmut Kohl. But I tried to find out the place, where the woman could live, who had born me in that dark year 1945. After 40 years of persistent search, 1985, before the Berlin Wall fell (1989), I found out: She was living behind the "Iron Curtain" on the isle of Ruegen. And I started to look at this lost childhood, which I did not enjoy: She showed me her photo album: summer beach near "Kap Arkona" at the north-point of the isle, snowy winters on Hiddensee, flight ducks, cranes - but on the other hand coal heaps on washed-out sidewalks. Color films (Orwo), books, Trabi substitute parts: only hard to get. Nevertheless, I wanted to make up for my life in the GDR - in 1990 when the Berlin Wall was fallen: A schools inspector on the island pointed into a corridor, filled with former Stasi employees (security police) and informed me in this manner in an almost dumb "cadre conversation", he unfortunately (thanks to the "reunification" of East and West-Germany) would have to hide many people in the teaching profession now (in hastiest kind). I should return please to West-Germany, where I just had come from. The direction of my journey seemed to be absolutely atypically, out of character, and not recommendable. No "Ossi" (vs. "Wessi") - no job. As a result my mother, noticing, that all her dreams collapsed, joined an acute epidemic disease at that time: She committed a so-called balance sheets suicide. I was deprived of the chance to become a "zone child" a second time. Did I miss really much? Because the book of Jana Hensel has stimulated me to these thoughts - maybe her sometimes nostalgic "Ossi" writings (of course very different to my "Wessi"-point of view) are not as superficial, simple, banal, as I thought in the first moment? Compare her point of view ...
Irritating little book.......2005-03-18
This book sold well in its German original, but I'm not sure why. It meanders and never gets to the point. Perhaps the writer meant to be impressionistic, but doesn't have the skill to really pull that off. Perhaps it was too literally translated, but I don't think that was the real problem. The translator seems to do well enough with the material he was presented with, even providing some explanatory footnotes for historical terms and aspects of life in the former GDR. And his translator's essay at the end of the book is superior to Hensel's jottings. I doubt Hensel is the right person to provide an interesting reminiscense of growing up in East Germany, or life since then. My suspicion is that this is a book by the kind of individual who gets by regardless of the kind of country they find themselves living in. For a far more sympathetic and sensitive look at the same theme, try the film "Goodbye, Lenin". This book already has a huge number of used copies available, and there's a reason for that.
Book Description
Ferociously intelligent one moment, willfully smart-ass the next, ego trip's Big Book of Racism is a glorious, hilarious conflation of the racial undercurrents that affect contemporary culture at every turn. This one-of-a-kind encounter with the absurdities, complexities, and nuances of race relations is brought to you by five writers of color whose groundbreaking independent magazine, ego trip, has been called "the world's rawest, stinkiest, funniest magazine" by Spin.
Filled with enough testifying and truth to satisfy even the good Reverend Sharpton, ego trip's Big Book of Racism is a riotous and revolutionary look at race and popular culture that's sure to spark controversy and ignite debate.
Customer Reviews:
Sometimes you just gotta laugh about it!.......2007-10-16
The Big Book of Racism waxes philosophical on--you guessed it--RACISM. It analyzes and pokes fun at all the things that people think about other races, but would never say out loud. The book equal opportunity, with every race, including mixed-race people(In a section called Da High Yella Pages)being a topic of discussion.
The authors of the book are of varying racial make-ups, so it's not like one racial/ethnic group making fun of all other groups. I'm a Black woman and this book had me laughing my @ss off!! Throw all PC notions out the window and just enjoy the book!
Only for those that dont take themselves too seriously!.......2006-11-10
I originally saw this book advertised on a VH1 television program and was curious. I love it! My boyfried and I can flip it open anytime and get at very least a smile. Each page or two is something new, so you can open it up anywhere, or skip around if you want. Which makes it great for people who dont have alot of time to read, and can laugh at themselves.
Buy this book........2005-12-23
Everyone who is remotely into music or film should own this. Gives a critical overview and insights into race and its place in popular American culture in the last twenty five years, especially in the Hip Hop culture. Very good book.
OK.......2005-11-02
I decided to read this book; seaching for something different then my usual type of books. It was okay. At times, I was not sure when the authors were serious or joking. Had I been able to read the comment that one of the endorsers said about people reading the book, I would not have brought the book though. The book was all right for me.
NEANDERTHALS UNITE!!.......2005-05-27
So interesting to see that our country is still the country full of racists morons too insecure to really contribute an intelligent thought let alone an educational one. It's a Bon Appetite for both the idiot savant open and closeted racists. So nice to know where to find them.
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Thomas Jefferson's Travels in Europe, 1784-1789
George Green Shackleford
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The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
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Jefferson Abroad (Modern Library)
ASIN: 0801859506 |
Book Description
"Shackelford captures Jefferson's intellectual vitality, his cultured interests, and the esteem in which he was held by so many who came into contact with him... [His] splendid account of Jefferson abroad captures what he was truly about." -- Times Literary Supplement
"An intimate and richly detailed description of Jefferson's encounters with European culture... Shackelford's contribution to the study of Jefferson's intellect is as attractive as it is substantive in contributing to our understanding of Jefferson's intellect and the forces that shaped it." -- Georgia Historical Quarterly
"This is a beautiful book: graceful in prose and rich in illustrations." -- Journal of American History
During his time as minister to the court of Louis XVI, from 1784 to 1789, Thomas Jefferson became not only a friend of France but also the champion of European culture in the United States. Because the man who was to become America's third president learned so much from his five years abroad -- about the fine arts of architecture and painting and about the practical arts of agriculture, bureaucracy, and commerce -- his stay in Europe remains one of the most important of any American before or since. Illustrated with more than sixty images of the actual places the future president visited and described -- including both contemporary works and new photographs -- Jefferson's Travels in Europe is the first book to describe and explore the significance of Jefferson's European journey, detailing the sights he visited, the people he met, and the events he attended. Based on extensive research into Jefferson's account books and correspondence, as well as the experiences of other travelers of the day, George Green Shackelford connects Jefferson's journeys in France, England, Italy, the Netherlands, and the German Rhineland to his intellectual and aesthetic development.
"Immaculately researched, thoughtful, and persuasive... A valuable, handsomely produced book." -- Journal of the Early Republic
"An engaging account of important cultural landmarks in late eighteenth-century Europe and... a useful contribution to the literature on Thomas Jefferson, providing an insight into the private man and his wide circle of friends in Europe. It reminds us again of the vitality and comprehensiveness of Jefferson's interests." -- Journal of Southern History
"A meticulously researched and presented work that increases our knowledge of this period of Jefferson's life." -- William and Mary Quarterly
[original long copy]"While Americans generally still consider Thomas Jefferson to be a veritable Apostle of Americanism, it was his foreign residence and travels that made him America's most sophisticated national leader. To understand how Thomas Jefferson completed his metamorphosis from a talented provincial, it is necessary to reconstitute what he saw on his European journeys, to describe where he lived in Europe, and to speak of how his European friends influenced him."--George Green Shackelford, in Thomas Jefferson's Travels in Europe.
During his time as minister to the court of Louis XVI, from 1784 to 1789, Thomas Jefferson became not only a friend of France but also the champion of European culture in the United States. Because the man who was to become America's third president learned so much from his five years abroad--about the fine arts of architecture and painting and about the practical arts of agriculture, bureaucracy, and commerce--his stay in Europe remains one of the most important of any American before or since. In the first book to describe and explore the significance of Jefferson's European journey, George Green Shackelford offers the reader an intimate and richly detailed account of what Jefferson saw and how he saw it. In the process, he assesses the influence on Jefferson of such figures as the architect Charles Louis Clérisseau and the artist Maria Cosway.
Illustrated with more than sixty images of the actual places Jefferson visited and described--including both contemporary works and new photographs-- Jefferson's Travels in Europe shows how Jefferson's journeys in France, England, Italy, the Netherlands, and the German Rhineland shaped his intellectual and aesthetic development. Coaxing meaning out of Jefferson's account books and correspondence, and the parallel experiences of other travelers of the day, Shackelford has created a unique document, one that bears "a general resemblance to the book that Thomas Jefferson never wrote, his Notes on Europe."
Book Description
In this provocative reinterpretation of one of the best-known events in American history, Woody Holton shows that when Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other elite Virginians joined their peers from other colonies in declaring independence from Britain, they acted partly in response to grassroots rebellions against their own rule.
The Virginia gentry's efforts to shape London's imperial policy were thwarted by British merchants and by a coalition of Indian nations. In 1774, elite Virginians suspended trade with Britain in order to pressure Parliament and, at the same time, to save restive Virginia debtors from a terrible recession. The boycott and the growing imperial conflict led to rebellions by enslaved Virginians, Indians, and tobacco farmers. By the spring of 1776 the gentry believed the only way to regain control of the common people was to take Virginia out of the British Empire.
Forced Founders uses the new social history to shed light on a classic political question: why did the owners of vast plantations, viewed by many of their contemporaries as aristocrats, start a revolution? As Holton's fast-paced narrative unfolds, the old story of patriot versus loyalist becomes decidedly more complex.
Customer Reviews:
Forced Founders review.......2007-07-06
Woody Holton, in his book Forced Founders Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia argues that Americans weaned on the stories of the Virginia elite, who for ideological purposes decided a revolution was needed, are misinformed. Desperation was the true reason that Virginia, and the likes of Jefferson and Washington and the other privileged gentry, moved towards declaring independence from British rule. Their desperation was in response to growing pressures placed on the gentry class by other segments of society. Forced Founders is divided into four parts covering three time periods. The first two parts cover the time period that is essentially the decade after the Great War for Empire, from 1763-1774. The third part covers the years 1774-1775. The fourth and final part covers the year of 1776. In all four parts Holton looks at the Virginia elite and their relations to various parties during that time period. The two parts Holton breaks the first time period down into are the problems that the gentry faced, and the solutions they came up with for those problems.
In Holton's thesis, he states "that the Independence movement was powerfully influenced by British merchants and three groups...Indians, farmers and slaves." (206) Holton uses letters and papers from contemporaries of the time. He also uses secondary sources to fill in the gaps. These sources he uses to good effect. Unfortunately, he only scratches the surface of the pressure these groups placed on the gentry class. One weakness of his research is that he has not found new sources,
but uses existing sources of the gentry class, to explain their relation to the other classes. Even though Holton acknowledges the bias of the elite, he says he was able to get the other groups' perspective. (xxi) While Holton's goal is to show that the revolution was not just a tax revolt, but also a class conflict (206), the book focuses mainly on the economic reasons that these groups were able to affect Virginia's elite society. This focus changes the typical perception that most Americans have of the founding fathers; it makes them seem less principled and god like. They are more identifiably human, as they are shown to be looking out for themselves. The examples that Holton uses are supportive of his thesis, but due to the breadth of the issues associated with these groups, his examples only scratch the surface of the importance these groups played. A second problem is that the Virginia gentry are still the primary focus of the book. Those groups that exert pressure on the founding fathers continue to be relegated to the second tier in importance. A better title might have been Virginia's Founding Fathers: The Economic Pressures That Drove Them to Revolution since most parts of the book deal with the economic effects each of the groups had on the Virginia founding fathers. Besides economic concerns, Holton alludes that another reason for the drive to independence was the founding fathers fear of losing their preferred position in society.
I felt that Forced Founders was a good read though it suffered from its brevity. A more in depth look at other pressures besides economic ones placed by these groups on the gentry would have strengthened his thesis. In addition, despite offering a slightly different perspective on the social elite of Virginia, Forced Founders still has them as the primary focus, continuing to foster the second-class status of other groups, thus perpetuating historians' tendency to consign them to its back page.
FORCED ARGUMENTS.......2006-05-02
While the book is a "good read" and "thought provoking," I have serious contentions with Holton's interpretation and analysis on many levels, not the least of which center on his lack of understanding and/or misinterpretation of the military and Indian issues which he attempts to cite as supporting his thesis, and which in turn causes me to question his other conclusions in "Forced Founders."
First, he apparently does not know the difference between the provincial militia of the royal colony, the independent militia formed at the resolution of the First Virginia Convention (and Continental Association after the First Continental Congress), or the Virginia militia as constituted by Virginia's revolutionary government, the Virginia Minutemen (as different from common militia) formed by the state in response to a resolution by the Second Continental Congress, the formation of Virginia State Troops or the establishment of the Virginia Continentals. To him, all those organizational concepts seem to be interchangeable.
Second, it is true that Virginia's last royal governor, John Murray, the Fourth Earl of Dunmore, formed his "Ethiopian Regiment" by offering freedom to the military age male slaves of rebel masters (not all slaves), but Holton's explanation leads the reader to believe that the project was an overwhelming success. The primary source documents show that it was never accepted into Provincial service, and with less than 100 "effective" men present for duty, and about 60 sick on board hospital ships in May 1776, the regiment was disbanded. Furthermore, they were not Dunmore's only available troops. So how their presence forced slaveholders to support the revolution is questionable.
Holton also neglects to mention Dunmore's raising of the Queen's Own Loyal Regiment of Virginia, which was composed of white Loyalists. It too, like the Ethiopian Regiment, never amounted to much and was disbanded in 1776. But Holton doesn't mention them at all!
Third he mentions the battle of Kemp's Landing (a skirmish, actually) in November 1775, in which Dunmore's "army" (not just the black troops) drove Virginia militia from the field. He says nothing about the December 1775 battle (actually a larger skirmish) of Great Bridge that was a decisive American victory and forced the British to evacuate Norfolk (and Virginia until 1780).
Furthermore, Dunmore's army was about 600 strong, including the white Loyalist regiment, all the Loyalist militia he could muster, plus British sailors and marines, as well as the Ethiopian Regiment. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Ethiopian Regiment ever neared full "establishment" strength of 800 men, so I believe Holton overstates their influence. Also, the American force included Continentals, State troops, minutemen from Fauquier, Augusta and Culpepper Counties (from the western part of the Colony), as well as volunteers from Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties, including one company of "gentleman volunteers," and 250 North Carolina men.
Nor does Holton say much about those slaves who chose to stay with their masters, and how their action influenced decisions to support independence.
As for the founder's being forced by fear of the Indians, his argument on that score is also weak.
First, does he consider the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which Dunmore negotiated with the Shawnee, Mingo and western Delaware nations in October 1774, when they conceded defeat in "Dunmore's War"? After his flight from Williamsburg in June 1775, the terms of that treaty were finalized between Continental and (Revolutionary) Virginia Indian Commissioners and the same Indian nations in the Treaty of Fort Pitt in October 1775. The two treaties essentially kept the peace on Virginia's frontier (including in Kentucky) from 1774 until 1777 (after independence was declared!). So, Holton's claim that fear of the Indians forced the founders into supporting independence seems to be a weak one to me.
Second, Dunmore did plot to solicit the Ohio Indian nations to attack settlements on the Virginia frontier, unless its inhabitants affirmed their loyalty. However, the party of three Provincial officers he dispatched to put the plan into action (led by John Connolly), were captured by Maryland minutemen in the town of Hagers Town (Hagerstown) in November 1775, and Connolly was subsequently imprisoned in Philadelphia. The abortive plot was discovered when incriminating papers were found in Connolly's baggage, which was the source of Jefferson's indictment in the Declaration of Independence that king was "inciting the savages."
Third, Holton apparently also does not understand the operation of the Indian polities. He fails to mention that the Six Nations of Iroquois, who considered the nations in the Ohio country their "dependents" by right of conquest and "spoke for" them, were trying to maintain their neutrality early in the war. After being convinced by the officers of the British Indian Department (operating from Fort Niagara and Fort Detroit, not Virginia) that it was in their best interest to support the king against "the Bostonians," most of the Six Nations (the Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk and Seneca) and their "dependents," (Wyandot, western Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo and others) did finally come into the war in early 1777, when they struck backcountry settlements, according to British Indian Department officers, "from Fort Stanwix (at the head of the Mohawk Valley in New York) to the Ohio" and that the American backcountry "From the Susquehanna to the Kiskismenitas Creek upon the Ohio, and from thence down to the Kankawa [Kanawha] River is now nothing but an heap of ashes."
Finally, I don't believe Holton ever makes a convincing argument that tenants exerted influence to force their aristocratic landlords into supporting independence, and his argument about debtors falls short of being conclusive.
Who Were America's First Freedom Fighters?.......2005-05-21
In Forced Founders, Woody Holton writes about five non-elite groups in pre-Revolutionary America who struggled for relief from a long list of economic and political imperial burdens. Small landholders, merchants, debtors and even Native Americans and slaves in Virginia were affected by a global depression in which the price of tobacco had fallen close to its lowest historical levels, prices of other commodities had plummeted and the credit market had collapsed. Elite, wealthy Virginia gentlemen farmers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry felt the squeeze but for Virginia's non-elites, the confluence of adverse economic factors became an overwhelming millstone. Everyone in Virginia suffered the effects of the Navigation Acts that restricted colonial trade only to Britain. Everyone was forced to adjust to the boycott of Britain passed by the Continental Congress. Virginia's economy staggered when small businesses and landowners defaulted on their debt, faced foreclosure of their assets and sunk into economic ruin. Holton's thesis is that well-to-do colonial Virginia leaders were pushed to choose rebellion against Britain by these non-elite groups whose meager resources made them defenseless against this toxic brew of imperial oppression and negative global economic conditions.
Perhaps the most powerful force behind the fight for independence was the paralyzing debt incurred by Virginia's growers. It was held primarily by their British merchant counterparts who bought their tobacco, sold them supplies and lent them money. The Virginians' debt was even more overwhelming because it landed on their balance sheets during one of the worst recessions of the colonial era. Virginian Arthur Lee wrote in 1764 that American colonists owed British merchants ₤6 million and British mercantilist policies drained an additional ₤500,000 a year from the tobacco colonies. Virginia's small landholders and business people - and no doubt, their counterparts in other colonies - realized British commercial, monetary and immigration policies favored the mercantilist-creditors back in London. Thus it was that debtors in Virginia became unrelenting critics of British policy, making them a persistent political force in favor of independence.
Virginia land speculators thwarted by British governance were another perpetual burr under the saddles of the colony's leadership, not least because of the unrest and threat of attack they created among Native Americans. Although the Indians ultimately lost the commercial, legal and military battles they fought in defense of their land, their efforts through tribal coalitions to enlist British support were irritatingly effective. One of the unintentional results of the Indians' occasional success against the white land speculators was pressure from them on Virginia's leadership. Independence from Britain would permit Virginia land speculators to move against the Indians, unimpeded by imperial interference.
Like all whites in pre-Emancipation America, colonial Virginians considered black Africans a serious threat to their security. Their fear boiled over when Virginia slaves began to negotiate in 1775 for their freedom with British Governor Dunmore in exchange for military assistance to help control civil unrest. White Virginians who'd been independence-neutral or British loyalists became overnight patriots. For them, the only way to restore order, preserve ownership and protect property was to escape British governance and begin a new governmental regime. It was ironic the slaves' ploy for personal freedom frightened Virginia's elites to support the fight for American independence.
Holton guides readers of Forced Founders through an intriguing but occasionally awkward review of the influence of non-elite groups on Virginia's road to Revolution. Its virtue is its point-of-view; its burden is its less-than-focused scope. In the end, it appears he does too little with too much.
However Holton is to be commended for thinking outside the box. He uses primary sources from the gentry to study Virginia's economically and politically important "non-gentlemen" because, says Holton, their records reveal the gentlemen as powerfully influenced by the actions of smallholders, slaves and Native Americans. Working top down and one class removed, he shows the American Revolution was not just a rich man's war. Historians are well-advised to incorporate such 360-degree-point-of-view thinking in all their examination of primary sources. As they pursue this method, however, they must focus their theses and remain alert to the dangers of scope creep.
A must read for anyone even attempting to study the era........2003-08-30
One of the most common misconceptions of Americans today centers around the revolutionary war, specifically the fact that this war was caused by colonist unrest due to excessive taxation, chiefly in Massachusetts. Fortunately, Holton is able to modify this fallacy, as he presents towards massive strife in the Virginia colony that can be linked as a direct cause of the revolutionary war.
By presenting tension between everyone from debtors and creditors to oppressed minorities (slaves and Native Americans) and the Anglo Saxon majority, Holton is able to paint a much more realistic picture of the times. Readers will be shocked by evidence presented; especially notable is the substantiation of rich landowners actually wanting to exterminate the slave trade prior to the war, almost akin to a sumptuary law, to preserve social boundaries. Also notable is the documentation of how close battle came to breaking out in Virginia as a result of Dunmore's actions, far prior to any serious action in Lexington, Concord, or even Boston.
Although this book makes an interesting read in correcting some of the misunderstandings more than two centuries of time have created, it also works well in conjunction with a study of the rest of the war. When Dunmore's actions are viewed as a precursor to those of Cornwallis, Tarleton, and Clinton, an even more worthwhile and in depth study of the era can be begun.
Thus, whether the reader is just has an interest in the time period or is a scholar striving to make connections, Holton's work is an excellent read. One can only hope that Holton or others can help paint a more realistic picture for the other twelve colonies.
great read.......2001-09-01
Ours is an age when we worry about consumer debt (and consumer confidence), terrorists, and an energy crisis. In other words, when we feel our society a little wobbly it is great to read Woody Holton's book and find similar concerns in pre-revolutionary Virginia. Virginians were caught up in a "web" that included a debt crisis, fear of indian raids, slave uprisings, and class struggle. "Although no one can deny their importance [great leaders], the thesis of this book has been that the Independence movement was also powerfully influenced by British merchants and by three groups that today would be called grassroots: Indians, farmers, and slaves." (p. 206)How we relate to Holton's thesis probably depends on how we feel present day worries influence voting (thinking) patterns.
While the specific subject of this book is pressures that resulted in revolution, the facts presented here could be used to make a wider case about the "web" that every generation finds itself in. What will our consumer crisis, energy shortage, fear of terrorists lead to?
Holton writes well and is to be commended for his presentation.
Average customer rating:
- An Enticing and Appetizing Read
- Eli Sands and his friends are trapped in 19th century America after an accident with their time-travel vessel
- science fiction and history in one place
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Trail of Bones: Danger Boy Episode 3 (Danger Boy)
Mark London Williams
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ASIN: 0763621544
Release Date: 2005-04-12 |
Book Description
Danger Boy and his time-traveling companions are in for some shocking surprises when they meet up with an earlier expedition — the historical journey of Lewis and Clark.
Fresh from a dangerous time-traveling mission, Eli Sands and his friends Clyne, the evolved dinosaur, and Thea, the scholar from Alexandria, are thrown into nineteenth-century America after an accident with their time-travel vessel. Unfortunately, Clyne is stranded alone in potentially hostile territory, while Thea and Eli pop up at the beginning of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition. After Thea is mistaken for an escaped slave and taken into custody, Eli joins Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery in hopes of finding Clyne, a means to rescue Thea, and transportation home. While trying to escape and regroup, Eli and his friends make important discoveries about their "accidental" stumble into 1804. It looks like they were lured by a Prime Nexus, which they may have caused, and which will surely change all of history to come.
Customer Reviews:
An Enticing and Appetizing Read.......2007-01-08
Recently coming from a dangerous time-traveling mission, Eli Sands and intergalactic friend Clyne the evolved dinosaur and an Alexandrian scholar Thea, are thrown into late nineteenth-century America after an "minor" mishap with their plasmachanichal time-travel vessel. Unfortunately, Clyne is separated from his friends in potentially hostile and unknown territory. While Thea and Eli on the other hand, pop up at the beginning of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition (pre-Sacagawea). After Thea is taken from Eli as she is mistook for an escaped slave and taken into the custody of president Jefferson (though he prefers to be called Tom). Eli then joins up with Captans Meriwether Lewis and Clark's "Corps of Discovery" whit the hope of finding his pal Clyne, that in turn will be a means to rescue Thea, and safe transportation home. However, while trying to escape the clutches of slave drivers and glory-hungry native warriors with hopes to regroup, the trio make an important discovery about their "unforeseen" stumble into 1804. It looks like they were attracted by a so called Prime Nexus, which they may have produced, which will surely change all of history to come.
-Jackson Courey
Eli Sands and his friends are trapped in 19th century America after an accident with their time-travel vessel.......2005-07-06
Eli Sands and his friends are trapped in 19th century America after an accident with their time-travel vessel, stranded in different times. Separated, the group must not only make contact with each other again; they must assure their accident doesn't change history itself.
science fiction and history in one place.......2005-05-10
This is the first book I have read in this series, but it is still enjoyable on its own. It is well written, flows well, and kids will learn a lot of history without it being overdone. It has enough gross factor to appeal to boys, but not so much to turn off parents or a female reader (one of the secondary characters, who tells part of the story, is a girl). It will encourage kids to pick up the next book in the series...
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