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 Hills of Tuscany: A New Life in an Old Land

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Experiencing Tuscany
Tuscany at its best
Thoughts from Judith Petres Balogh
A TUSCANY BOTH SERENE AND SEDUCTIVE
best of the best

The Hills of Tuscany: A New Life in an Old Land
Ferenc Mate
Manufacturer: Albatross Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Travel | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Ectaco EI200D English/Italian Electronic Dictionary

ASIN: 0920256384

Amazon.com

A sensuous valentine to author Ferenc Máté's adopted homeland, The Hills of Tuscany brims with lush descriptions of golden dales, scrumptious meals, rich wines, and friendly natives. After years of nomadic roaming from Central America to Canada, Máté (a writer) and his wife, Candace (a painter), visit Tuscany and impulsively decide that this is where they will settle down. A year later they return and begin the hunt for their dream house. As the likeable Mátés (they're funny and suitably grateful for the chance to live in one of the world's garden spots) troll the countryside with a series of colorful Tuscan middlemen, it's impossible not to become emotionally involved in their quest. And when they finally discover the perfect abode--La Marinaia, a tastefully renovated stone farmhouse set amid scenery that Ferenc describes as "like being in the middle of a painting"--you're thrilled right along with them. Subsequent chapters follow the Mátés' growing friendship with their neighbors, who not only help rototill the garden but also reveal where to find porcini mushrooms and truffles in the nearby woods. All in all, reading The Hills of Tuscany is the next best thing to quitting your job, climbing on a plane, and finding your own Tuscan dream house. --Rebecca Gleason

Book Description

As seductive as A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, but with the wit and charm of a 1930s romantic comedy, the true-life adventure of a couple who chucked New York for a new life in Tuscany. The Mates arrived in Tuscany in the late 1980s knowing no Italian and with only four weeks to search for the country house of their dreams. On their last night there, after having been chased by wild boars and befriended by a country realtor who also sells pigs and coffins, they finally concluded the deal on the hood of a rusting tractor with the lawyer speaking Italian and them responding in French, English, and Hungarian, in a Tower of Babel version of "Who's on First?" So begins Ferenc Mat's endearing, in-love-with-life memoir of their first five years in Tuscany, by turns buoyant, reflective, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. His engaging, often poetic prose describes the way of life they were looking for and found-where neighbors, community, home, and, most of all, children, form the focal point of daily life. They live in a small thirteenth-century monastery, surrounded by their vineyards and olive groves, in the spectacular hills near Siena, a few miles from where The English Patient was filmed. The Hills of Tuscany-steeped in mesmerizing scenery and wonderful medieval towns, full of unforgettably delightful characters and spectacular food and wine-nourishes body, mind, and soul. If you're not passionately in love with life at the moment, you'll be hopelessly so by the time you turn the last page.

Customer Reviews:

Experiencing Tuscany.......2007-01-05

I thought this book was an easy read and pleasant. It was just kind of a diary of the day to day life the author experienced when he bought a home in Tuscany. It was not an in depth study of life as a foreigner in a foreign country but then again I don't think that was his purpose in writing it.

Tuscany at its best.......2007-01-03

Very enjoyable reading, especially if you have vacationed in this area. I could picture the coutry side and the town of Montepluciana that he wrote about. I loved the area and loved Ferenc Mate's book, "The Hills of Tuscany". Some of us wishes that we could trade places with him, living there sounds devine.

Thoughts from Judith Petres Balogh.......2006-09-20

What a delightful arm-chair journey The Hills of Tuscany is! Máté's descriptions involve all senses and beyond that they make the reader yearn for something simple, ancient and cozy, -- to be close to earth and to our fellowmen, and to rediscover the joy of unpretentious things. His enjoyment of life is so obvious that his book would be a pleasure regardless where he settled, be it the Arctic Circle or the rainforest of Costa Rica.

A TUSCANY BOTH SERENE AND SEDUCTIVE.......2006-01-23

Reading "The Hills of Tuscany", Ferenc Mate's exuberant, joyful ode to his adopted country, makes one eager to join that expatriate band. After occupying a series of dwellings a "houseboat, sailboat, mountain cabin, that garage in Laguna Beach, the attic in Paris, the cubbyhole in New York, and a whatsit in the Bahamas," the Hungarian-born Mate and his artist wife, Candace, deemed it time for a permanent home.

Central Italy's countryside, where "Everything was small to the measure of man," beguiled them; there "reigned the gentle Tuscan light, and silence, and a calm." They became contentedly sated by "pranzo," the four-course daily meal that resembles in quantity "our average Thanksgiving dinner," and decided to buy a farmhouse, to put down roots in the idyllic Tuscan hills.

Their enchanting dream was a challenging task. Mate spoke no Italian and was woefully ignorant of the vagaries of an agrarian existence. Nonetheless, he set about his search for their perfect home with a Quixote-like zeal, undaunted by a real estate agent cum undertaker who stored his listings with names of the recently departed in a shoe box. A parade of touted homesteads in abject disrepair didn't discourage him. Collapsed fireplaces and gaping roof holes were the norm. Mate zigzagged his way across unfamiliar terrain, following unmapped rutted paths, bouncing over rocky roads until he found his utopia, "a structure with perfect rhythm." La Marinaia The Sailor's Wife. Once that purchase was accomplished, attempts to have utilities turned on introduced him to an implacable, inscrutable Italian bureaucracy. It was explained that there are an almost infinite number of regulations in Italy, " . . . many dating from Roman times, some contradictory, some incomprehensible."

Settling in also meant becoming a part of the nearest town, Montepulciano, "built for humans not for cars, so the main street was just wide enough for conducting daily affairs, evening promenades, and small festive processions." The couple delighted in exploring closet-size shops run by often absent, usually amiable owners. Their nearest neighbor welcomed them with fresh goat cheese covered by a large fig leaf, and they attempted to improve their Italian by watching Telegiornale, the local televised news an "Italian version of reality, a flexible amalgam of fresh headlines, old footage, and clips from Steve McQueen movies."

More than an enthusiastic tribute to the ever astounding beauties of the Italian countryside, "The Hills Of Tuscany" is a paean to the pleasures of the palate as Mate describes in rapturous detail ravioli stuffed with ricotta and wild mushrooms, crostini spread with tuna and capers, rabbit ragu "spicy with tomatoes" plus a legion of dishes bathed, basted, stir-fried, swathed in or caressed by olive oil. He is also unreservedly passionate about the local wine, "wine as robust as the clay," "wine with a deep complexity that tingled all the taste buds."

Today, Mate lives with his wife and young son at La Marinaia, tending his olives and vineyard. It is there, he writes, that "we learned to live and enjoy life as the Tuscans do piano, piano, con calma." Slowly, slowly, with calm. The author's enthusiastic prose is infectious. His word pictures are captivating, as he unveils a Tuscany that is both serene and seductive. "The Hills Of Tuscany" is an invitation to follow your dream . . . especially if it leads to Italy.

- Gail Cooke

best of the best.......2005-11-29

I've read many many new and old books about Tuscany and other parts of Italy and this is my very favorite. A sweet romance is told along with giving the reader a somewhat secretive map of the region. If you take the time to figure out the north south east and west directions imbedded in the story, you may be able to find several little known and delightful places in and around Montepulciano and even all the way over to the Tuscan coast. I liked this SO much more than Under the Tuscan Sun and in person, I liked Montepulciano so much more than Cortona too!

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Comments from New York Review of Books

Old New Land
Theodor Herzl
Manufacturer: M. Wiener Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

German | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1558761608

Book Description

Old New Land forever altered the face of the Middle East. The book was a nineteenth-century utopian blueprint for a modern state of Israel. There were Jewish settlers in Palestine, and Zionist ideas had existed in Eastern Europe before Herzl, but Herzl made Zionism into a cultural and political movement acceptable to Western governments and intellectuals. His prophecy at the end of this book became reality: "If you will it, it is not a fable." The author, founder of the Zionist movement, considered this utopian story his best literary work: an expression of his art, with a political message.

His biographer, Amos Elon, placed Old New Land "in the mainstream of fin-de-siecle art. Its pursuit of arcadian bliss within a mystic community and its haunted preoccupation with dreams recall Gustav Mahler's music."

Customer Reviews:

Comments from New York Review of Books.......2006-06-16

"Altneuland (Old New Land) is one of the most remarkable books
of the twentieth century. . . . Altneuland is a blueprint of the perfect
Jewish state, a technocratic utopia, a socialist dream with all the
advantages of capitalism, an idealistic colonial enterprise, a model
of pure reason, a `light unto the nations.' It also helps to explain
the extremism of some of those who rebel against the dominance
of what is widely regarded as the arrogant West.
"By the 1920s, in Herzl's tale, Jerusalem would be transformed
into a thoroughly modern metropolis. . . . Arab and Jew would live
happily together in the New Society, working in vast `co-operative
syndicates.'. . . Herzl could not possibly have foreseen [the
tensions to come], and yet the seeds of tragedy are already buried
in this text, which was well meant, deeply idealistic, and in many
ways typical of everything that people who feel so victimized by
the West that they wish for its destruction fi nd most hateful."
--The New York Review of Books

Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land

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Fantastic Journeys Through the Old Testament
Mining Torah's Riches
If you think "Torah doesn't relate to me or contemporary life", read this book!
How the Torah text reflects the text of our own lives

Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land
Rabbi Shefa Gold
Manufacturer: Ben Yehuda Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0976986264

Book Description

Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land promises to turn the year-long cycle of Torah reading into a journey of personal spiritual growth.

The first book by Rabbi Shefa Gold, the popular teacher of chant and meditation, Torah Journeys is designed to be meaningful for those at any spiritual level.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic Journeys Through the Old Testament.......2007-04-10

Anyone who has ever wanted to read the Old Testament but found it too difficult to understand or to apply to will discover Rabbi Shefa Gold's new book, Torah Journeys, the perfect tool for comprehending and using the messages hidden there. Her book provides a portal from a surface reading into the deeper significance of the stories and their relevance to our lives today.

The Old Testament, also called the Five Books of Moses, the Bible or the Torah, is read by many religions. Although written from a Jewish perspective and set up to be used as a guide to the weekly Torah portions traditionally read by Jews, Torah Journeys easily can be used by Jew and non-Jew alike to make their reading of this holy text a fulfilling experience. Rabbi Gold has a unique ability to get to the core of a portion and to make it applicable to our lives here and now. Beginning readers of the Torah often complain that the stories within its pages seem removed from modern life. They tend to ask, "What does this have to do with me, now?" Rabbi Gold points them towards the answer to this question with insightful interpretations and useful suggestions on how to use the text in a personal context. For each parsha (portion), Rabbi Gold offers readers the chance to glean both the blessing and the challenge of the text as well as a practice to apply the lesson in a concrete manner. The practices range from meditations to visualizations to chants, all of which are meant to foster spiritual and transformative experiences.

I often have perused Rabbi Gold's website to glean insight into Torah portions. Now, I use her book, a more detailed version of her website information, as a handy guide. I also have had the pleasure and honor of knowing Rabbi Gold, an approachable and inspirational teacher and leader, for several years. She has helped me create Shabbat services based on her lovely chants, offered me insights into subjects I am researching and taught me about chant and meditation. Thus, I can personally recommend her work. So, if you want to bring the Old Testament to life in your own life, read Torah Journeys. In its pages Rabbi Gold shares her wide range of knowledge of Judaism, Torah and other religious and spiritual traditions as well as her insightful and practical approach to Bible study.

Mining Torah's Riches.......2006-12-26

Torah Journeys represents Rabbi Shefa Gold's life work--not only the specific work of her own life, but also her template for a life of spiritual work based in the quintessential Jewish text, the Five Books of Moses, Chumash, or Torah, as it is variously known. As a student and teacher of Torah myself, I have long relied upon Rabbi Gold's fresh, embodied visions and powerful chants to take me deeper into Torah text, and then to turn me outward, back into my own life, with expanded awareness and with new spiritual tools.

Now she has gathered her years of teaching into a beautifully conceived and lovingly executed volume. Her writing is carefully crafted, poetic and evocative, bringing alive the spiritual qualities embedded in the Biblical text in a way that is both accessible and deep. Moving us through the year-long cycle of Torah readings, Reb Shefa reveals how, each week, we might wrest blessing, accept challenge, and receive guidance from words of sacred scripture that often seem, to our modern sensibility, opaque or even repulsive. There is great hope and great joy in this work, for it is predicated on the assumption that we human beings can grow, can expand our awareness, and move through difficult and painful patterns by mining layers of resonance already held in suspension within our own, time-honored traditions.

In fact, these pages dance alive the true meaning of the word "tradition"--from the Latin tradere, to "carry forward" or to "carry across." Indeed, Torah Journeys does carry us, again and again, into sparkling lands of clarity and grace, vast mind-spaces in which students and spiritual practitioners, Jew and non-Jew alike, can come to appreciate anew the riches of an ancient text through a lens that seeks always to transform challenge into blessing and questing into practice. This book can become a life companion, to be read and cherished year after year.

If you think "Torah doesn't relate to me or contemporary life", read this book!.......2006-11-10

I am amazed at how perceptive,thought provoking and user friendly this book is. If you or someone you know thinks Judaism and Torah are outdated & don't relate to contemporary life, then this book is just what you (or they) need to read. It makes the Torah accessable, understandable and relevant. Finally, it also connects to spiritual aspects of Judaism and shows how all these things can come together in today's world and life.

How the Torah text reflects the text of our own lives.......2006-10-10

For about two decades, Rabbi Gold has been gifting the world with memorable sacred songs and chants. This is her first book, and it's been worth waiting for. In it, she relates to Torah with the same artistic sensibilities that have infused her music. She has a gift for articulating inner conversations, giving voice to the Work of being true to one's highest self. Perhaps this is why the prose is relatively vivid for a book dealing with Torah, and why it excels in its genre.

This book looks unblinkingly at Torah through the eyes of an earnest and experienced traveler on spiritual paths. She does not set herself up as a guru telling us what to think; rather, she models for us a process of textual encounter and introspection that we can make our own. With the highest respect for Torah and with a straightforward style that is never preachy, she shows us how to employ the biblical text as a mirror that we can turn on our inner selves, to help us see more clearly what we sometimes hide from our own view.

Many urbane, contemporary Jews find certain parts of the Torah boring, unredeemably sexist, or otherwise primitive; it is most instructive to see what Rabbi Gold makes of those aspects: she challenges herself to embrace all of Torah, to read it in such a way that makes the text sacred to her. One anecdote that she relates (p. 18) sums up well the noble goal of this book. One afternoon, she was describing to a friend what the ongoing discipline of writing this book was like: "You can't sit back and criticize . . . what you don't like in the Torah. Instead, you must search for those same difficulties in yourself and then engage in a process of healing and purification. Instead of blaming, you have to take responsibility." And as she was expounding thus, she heard "a voice speaking every so gently yet firmly" in her ear: "And you could live your whole life that way."

The book is at the same time a highly personal interpretation of Torah and a spiritual manual. It contains one chapter for each of the fifty-four "parashot" (the Hebrew term for the traditional segments of the Torah nominally studied and read by Jews according to an annual cycle). Each chapter distills from that biblical passage both a blessing and a spiritual challenge for one's life; it also offers concrete guidance for spiritual practice(s) that promise to help us appreciate the former while facing the latter. A multi-layered introduction and several practically oriented appendices round out the book.

Although the author often draws upon concepts from other faith traditions, and although she has academic training in Bible, this book's enterprise is thoroughly Jewish and religious in both language and scope. For example, it engages "the Torah" rather than "the Pentateuch." And it pays no regard to questions of the historical origin or development of the biblical text, which it takes as a given.

The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and the Battle for Napa Valley

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Refreshing and to the point
Well written???
How can he type with a massive chip on his shoulder?
Sometimes the Truth Hurts
Some interesting points, but heavily biased

The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and the Battle for Napa Valley
James Conaway
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0618067396

Book Description

James Conaway picks up the story begun a decade ago in his earlier book about Napa Valley, the premier American wine country and a place synonymous with the good life. By now the struggle over the valley's future has grown sharper and its success more glaring. Awash in dollars generated by the boom economy of the 1990s and the social ambitions it inspired, Napa is beset by too much of a good thing: new arrivals determined to have a vineyard of their own despite the fact that available land is running out, cult-wine producers in thrall to fabulously expensive "rocket juice" (cabernet sauvignon) that few locals can afford, established families wishing to hold on to the old ways, and camp followers caught up in the glamour of it all.
What has transformed a natural and agricultural beauty spot into a coveted global destination has left inevitable scars, and a small, impassioned band of environmentalists determine to resist further change. Alarmed by the wholesale felling of trees to make way for vines, the diminishment of the Napa River, and the decline in the health of the watershed, they strike back in a way rivets the valley and strongly divides the valley between those in favor of unbridled economic development and those insisting on limits.
Written by the author the New York Times credits with "a Saroyan-like sense of humor and and Balzac-like eye for detail," The Far Side of Eden takes us to the frontlines of America's ongoing conflicts about money, land, and power to tell a tale that has ramifications for us all.

Customer Reviews:

Refreshing and to the point.......2007-03-27

James Conway cuts to the chase in new money vs established money in a battle for land in Napa Valley. Detailed stories of conflicts between new money mentality of expand at any cost and old money in keeping things in check.

Good story lines. I hope James returns with an updated book as this was written in 2002 and much has changed since.

Well written???.......2003-10-14

Reading the other reviews, I cannot help but shake my head in astonishment...."Well Written"??? Ideas move in and out of paragraphs with no real logical flow of ideas. Few dates are presented to help the reader follow the timetable (which is likely because the scenes are re-sequenced for dramatic effect). I am an avid reader of literature, but found myself constantly rereading passages to try and decipher the idea being presented or the scene being described. I finally decided that the editor either gave up or never tried. Much of the book reads more like a stream of consciousness than a documentation of events witnessed by the author.

Furthermore, this book is an amalgam of ad hominem attacks on everyone who dares to make money in the wine industry. Those with family money are dismissed as "lucky spermers" unless like, Peter Mennen, they use their money to stop big business. Mennen is portrayed as the noble hero but seems to be more a naive idealist. Certainly, there are forces of good and bad in any capitalist industry, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Ending vineyard development would lead to one of two things - more houses in place of vineyards or higher and higher prices for vintners as the scarcity increased their profits. Certainly, there is a middle ground yet Conaway, by following the bull-headed extremists, would have us believe that there can be no compromise.

Check this book out from the library if you must read it, but support more even-handed works with your dollars.

How can he type with a massive chip on his shoulder?.......2003-10-03

This is a book for people who hate Starbucks and complain incessantly about gentrification (while drinking expensive boutique coffee and loving the appreciation in their real estate). After reading half of it I got tired of the constant pot-shots and nasty, one-sided characterizations and had to put it down.

I'm not clear on who the author approves of, but he's clearly against anyone who lives, builds, or conducts business in Napa Valley -- plus anyone crass enough to actually visit for a weekend and enjoy the place.

If you are a part of the Napa community then you might enjoy the gossipy anecdotes in this book. If you are a hard-core, disgruntled environmentalist then you might find validation for your views. But if you are just interested in the region and land issues in general then you'll find a pissy, overblown screed that irritates more than it informs.

Sometimes the Truth Hurts.......2003-08-11

As a Napa resident and former winemaker, I can say that this book truly pulls back the curtains to expose the overinflated egos that are rapidly transforming our valley into just another trendy, overpriced tourist trap.

It is a much more entertaining and accurate read than Kolpan's Sense of Place which basically parrots Coppola's publicity agent's "approved" history. This is a must have book for anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes in the Napa Valley.

Some interesting points, but heavily biased.......2003-01-11

As a former Napa vinter, I eagerly looked forward to reading Conway's excursion into my home county. While there are interesting ideas in the book, they lurk beneath the soil like potatoes, never springing forth to see the light of day. Many of my neighbors (and, I should add, close friends) are presented in this book as gross parodies; this, I suppose, might be expected from an outsider to the region, but I had a difficult time getting past these rough characterizations.

Colonial Presbyterianism: Old Faith in a New Land (Princeton Theological Monograph)

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Colonial Presbyterianism: Old Faith in a New Land (Princeton Theological Monograph)

Manufacturer: Pickwick Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

New Abingdon Map Israel's Settlement in Canaan (Abingdon Bible Land Maps)

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New Abingdon Map Israel's Settlement in Canaan (Abingdon Bible Land Maps)
Leslie Dixon Weatherhead
Manufacturer: Abingdon Press
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Binding: Map

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German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways (Missouri Heritage Readers Series)

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A good beginning, but leaves you hungering for more detail

German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways (Missouri Heritage Readers Series)
Robyn Burnett , and Ken Luebbering
Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826210945

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A good beginning, but leaves you hungering for more detail.......2006-08-09

"German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways," by Robyn Burnett and Ken Luebbering, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1996. This 116 p paperback is part of the Missouri Heritage Reader series, intended for new adult readers, presumably for English as a second language training. As such, German Settlement provides 27 articles, most four to six pages in length, which survey the subject quite well. Most articles are illustrated with black and white photographs from archive collections. The book is indexed, and contains a three page annotated list for additional reading, but no references.

The first chapter introduces the subject providing a map of Missouri showing German settlements. Some are spread throughout the state but most are concentrated along the Missouri River from St. Louis about 200 miles westward or on a 100-mile stretch of the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. A map of Prussia follows summarizing where the German immigrants came from, but the reasons given, "economic hardship and political turmoil . . . attracted by stories of cheap land, available jobs, low taxes, and political freedom" seem a bit thin. Rigid inheritance laws (the laws of primogenitor-giving all property to the oldest son) and compulsory military service, the reasons most often cited, are not even mentioned.

German immigrants to Missouri are often called "followers of Duden." Godfried Duden was a Prussian lawyer who settled in rural Warren Co., MO, 50 miles west of St. Louis, in 1824. He was able to hire others to farm his land while he spent most of his time traveling and writing. He returned to Germany in 1827, and published a report singing the virtues of settling in Missouri in 1829. Apparently numerous similar reports were also being published, but Duden's was especially well known. The result was a flood of German immigrants beginning in the 1830s.

Chapters describe the difficulty of the Atlantic voyage and then the long trip across the US to Missouri. Transportation from eastern seaports to Missouri did not become easy until the arrival of railroads in about 1850. The Erie Canal (1823) and steamboats on the Ohio-Mississippi Rivers (1817) helped, but the trip remained difficult for years. By the 1840s, New Orleans was the preferred entry port for transit to Missouri.

The impact on St. Louis was dramatic. Before 1820, there were few Germans in St. Louis. In 1834, one writer reported 18 German families and a few unmarried Germans among its 7000 residents. In 1835, "every steamboat that arrives at our wharves is crowded with passengers." In the 1840s, "Germans . . . own one third of St. Louis."

German communities were formed in many varieties. There were various farm communities, some like Hermann sponsored by German groups in the East (The German Settlement Society of Philadelphia). Some were formed as idealistic communes by professional men with little farming experience. In the book, they are termed "Latin Farmers." Dutzow in Warren Co., was one that failed. Some were formed as religious communities. Most were either Catholic or protestant. The German Catholics were somewhat unique in that the Catholic Church was already well established in Missouri by the French. One chapter describes the German Catholics of Osage County. In 1838, the bishop in St. Louis assigned them a Belgian missionary as priest. After a dispute with one Dr. Bernhard Bruns resulted in a court suit, the priest left. German Baptist (dunkard) communities included Rockingham in Ray Co., Lowry City in St. Clair Co., Freistatt in Lawrence Co., White Church in Howell Co., and Martinsburg in Montgomery Co. A chapter describes formation of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod in three pages plus pictures but in meager detail compared to what is published.

The Know Nothings caused the Germans some difficulty. They were one of the first anti-immigrant groups. They favored native born Americans and rejected all poor and Catholics. In 1836, a mob threatened a German language newspaper. In 1852 riots broke out in St. Louis between the Know Nothings and German-Americans over a mayoral election. One person was killed and a German tavern was burned. Germans who arrived after the 1848 revolution in Germany were known as Forty Eighters. Carl Schurz, one of their leaders, was a St. Louis journalist. He led hundreds of thousands of Germans across the US to vote Republican in 1860, opposing slavery, and thereby electing Abraham Lincoln. Later he was elected Senator from Missouri.

The story continues with a summary of German efforts for both sides in the Civil War. Germans were key supporters of the Union who helped keep Missouri in the Union. It was the German Home Guard that marched on Camp Jackson in St. Louis and prevented the capture of the US Arsenal in St. Louis by Southern sympathizers as the Missouri State Guard.

The German community in St. Louis grew large. In 1905, a ten-day festival included a parade of eight thousand marching through streets decorated with German and American flags. A crowd of thirty thousand gathered at a park to listen to music, singing, poems, and speeches in German and English. At the turn of the century, "many people saw St. Louis as a kind of German city in the middle of America."

"German Lutherans were hit especially hard by the hostility of [World War I]. German language services were disrupted and pastors were threatened. This happened throughout the Midwest partly because of the very vocal support of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church for the German cause before the US entered the war." Sauerkraut was renamed Liberty Cabbage and frankfurters became hot dogs. German remained the official language of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod until 1927.

Chapters also describe the role of Germans in wine making in Missouri and in brewing beer. The story continues until the end of Prohibition, during the Depression when laws were changed to limit immigration.

This is a nicely done survey of Germans in Missouri. In some respects much detail was omitted. A book of about twice this length would be needed to adequately cover the subject. This one is only a beginning. The reading list adds some sources for follow up, but even that is not complete. For details of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod one should add, Frederick C. Luebke, "Germans in the New World: Essays in the History of Immigration," University of Illinois Press, 1990, p. 1.

My Life in the Old Army: The Reminiscences of Abner Doubleday from the Collections of the New-York Historical Society

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My Life in the Old Army: The Reminiscences of Abner Doubleday from the Collections of the New-York Historical Society
Abner Doubleday , and Joseph E. Chance
Manufacturer: Texas Christian University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South (New Narratives in American History) (New Narratives in American History)

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So much in so little
An Excellent History of an Antebellum Slave Family

In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South (New Narratives in American History) (New Narratives in American History)
John Hope Franklin , and Loren Schweninger
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0195160886

Book Description

The matriarch of a remarkable African American family, Sally Thomas went from being a slave on a tobacco plantation to a "virtually free" slave who ran her own business and purchased one of her sons out of bondage. In Search of the Promised Land offers a vivid portrait of the extended Thomas-Rapier family and of slave life before the Civil War. Based on personal letters and an autobiography by one of Thomas' sons, this remarkable piece of detective work follows the family as they walk the boundary between slave and free, traveling across the country in search of a "promised land" where African Americans would be treated with respect. Their record of these journeys provides a vibrant picture of antebellum America, ranging from New Orleans to St. Louis to the Overland Trail. The authors weave a compelling narrative that illuminates the larger themes of slavery and freedom while examining the family's experiences with the California Gold Rush, Civil War battles, and steamboat adventures. The documents show how the Thomas-Rapier kin bore witness to the full gamut of slavery--from brutal punishment, runaways, and the breakup of slave families to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. The book also exposes the hidden lives of "virtually free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy.

Customer Reviews:

So much in so little.......2006-02-02

I was taken back by the small size of this book and then taken back again by how much history it contains. Not the stuff of dry history textbooks, this book illuminates this era with detail you won't find elsewhere and engages the reader with its intensely personal story.

An Excellent History of an Antebellum Slave Family.......2005-11-25

Drs. Schweninger and Franklin have written an excellent history of the remarkable slave woman Sally Thomas and her three sons, James and Henry Thomas and John H. Rapier, Sr.

The book chronicles the fortunes of a "quasi-free" slave woman and her efforts to secure freedom and financial security for her three mulatto sons in Nashville, Tennessee. The authors deftly describe the often contradictory attitudes of while Nahvillians to African-Americans, both slaves and free people of color. For example, though techincally still a slave, Sally Thomas nevertheless, as a "quasi-free" slave was able to buy property, own her own home, and become a successful and respected businesswoman (opening her own laundry on Deadrick Street), as did her sons James, Henry and John (who were all three successful barbers). The authors describe a further contradiction in white attitudes to Antebellum blacks as, after much hard work and thriftiness Sally saved up enough money to buy her son James' freedom. After being granted their freedom free blacks were required by Tennessee law to leave the state, However James (and several other free persons of color), based upon exemplary moral character, successfully petitioned the court to be allowed to remain in Nashville.

The book also chronicles the lives and adventures of Sally's three sons, James and Henry Thomas and John H. Rapier, Sr.. One of Rapier's sons, James Thomas, was elected to the US Congress from Alabama in 1873.

The book does a great job of putting the Thomas-Rapier family into the context of the times in which they lived, vividly describing the social, political and religious life of Nashvile residents, both white and black, slave and free in the 1820s, 30s, 40s and 50s. As stated above, the book also demonstrates the often contradictory views of African-Americans taken by whites and portrays the ways in which slaves like Sally Thomas enjoyed relationships with whites, artfully maneuvered within the system of slavery to gain a large measure of autonomy, and were in the end respected by whites. This book may serve to overturn some long-held assumptions regarding Antebellum slavery. The authors do a masterful job of describing just how "peculiar" the institution of slavery was in actual fact.

As a resident of the Rapiers' home town of Florence, Alabama, as well as a genealogist and historian at out public library, "In Search of the Promised Land," along with Schweninger's earlier "James T. Rapier and Reconstruction," and his publication of the autobiography of James P. Thomas, "From Tennessee Slave to St. Louis Entrepeneur," is a valubale addition to our Rapier family record collection. The authors are to be commended on their impeccable research and scholarship, while at the same time, weaving this scholarship into a genuinely readable and enjoyable narrative. I highly recommend this book. My only criticism would be the hardback's small size. Still, at 280 pages, a great book!

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