Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England Review

Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England
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Edmund Morgan's "The Puritan Family" explored the structures of the Puritan social and political elites. John Demos's "A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in the Plymouth Colony" dug deeper to uncover information about the lower social classes in the early American settlements. Ann Marie Plane's "Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England" expands upon the two previous works by exploring the social, political, legal, and economic interactions between the European settlers and the indigenous population. The author's sources encompass a broad spectrum of available materials: court records, travel narratives, religious sermons, essays, and census information all contribute greatly to her probing analysis of native family life. All three books taken together provide a multifaceted view of the earliest English settlements in North America. The only element missing from these three works is an environmental history of the early English colonies, and for all I know someone has already written one.
"Colonial Intimacies" claims the English efforts to help the natives adapt to European lifestyles "often strengthened, rather than loosened, the boundaries between people." To understand how good intentions created divisions, the study seeks to answer several questions about the effects of colonialism on not only the indigenous peoples but the English as well. The author wishes to discover how the arrival of the Puritans changed the Indian culture, and how the Indians reacted to this intrusion. Too, Plane examines whether or not the settlers were successful in imposing their belief systems, principally the English institution of marriage, on the native population. She concludes that the Europeans, despite strenuous efforts in the years immediately following their arrival, failed to completely convert the various tribes to their style of living. What emerged instead after roughly 150 years of colonialism was a weird hybrid of English common law marriage-called spousals-and pre-colonial Indian relationship forms.
According to Plane's research, traditional Indian marriage and family structure differed significantly from the European structure. The most important aspect of native relationships "were those of clan affiliation and kinship, not conjugal unions." Moreover, polygyny, or the taking of more than one wife, was a part of indigenous marriage for certain elite tribal members. Wives held more power in Indian relationships, in terms of providing food and tending the land, than they did in the European household. The divorce process was less important for natives than it was for the English. With the arrival of the Puritans, missionaries went to work at once to fundamentally change the concept of Indian marriage and family. Polygyny, the central role of wives, and kinship relationships became sins that only a shift to the nuclear, patriarchal household of English tradition could expunge.
King Philip's War of 1675-76 led to a tectonic shift in how the Europeans interacted with the locals. The emphasis on creating thousands of native "little commonwealth" families gave way to an almost disinterested concern about what the Indians did with their lives. Some missionaries still toured the praying towns to preach and convert, still instructed the locals on how to pray and worship, but the increasing presence of African American slaves and the rise of a mulatto class saw the English changing their goals. They now turned from seeking religious conversion toward developing a racial caste system replete with all of the inequalities attendant to that type of social organization. Plane argues quite convincingly that the Indians overtly and covertly fought to retain their social status by having their marriage and family customs legally codified in English courts.
The court case resulting in the emergence of Indian marriage customs as an accepted legal tenet spotlights one of the book's greatest strengths, namely native agency in the development of seventeenth and eighteenth century New England. Although the author does not explicitly refer to the concept of agency until the last two or three pages of the book, there is little doubt that the indigenous people still created a viable history under the veneer of colonial occupation. Moreover, native agency influenced the colonists. For instance, the first missionary efforts converted many tribal members to Christianity, but these Puritan teachers were forced to examine their own views when converts asked probing questions about this new religion, or when they pointed out that European families often failed to practice the very things the missionaries preached. The interaction between the two peoples forced Puritans to look deeper into their theology than ever before.
One common result of the wars against the native peoples, since documented by dozens of American historians, was the despotic policies the federal government and settlers imposed upon the vanquished Indians. The government viciously suppressed the Dakota Uprising of 1862, ultimately carrying out the largest mass execution in United States history as well as further solidifying the reservation system after this conflict drew to a close. The later wars on the plains also resulted in the internment of the Lakotas on reservations, a process resulting in a fundamental, damaging transformation from a hunter based society to an agricultural lifestyle that eventually paved the way to policies seeking cultural assimilation. Plane's book is a revelation because she concludes that the Puritans essentially left the natives to their own devices, in terms of family and marriage, after King Philip's War. An increase in debt peonage and forced labor counts as one measure of repression, as does selling off Indian children into servitude, both of which the Puritans did after the war. But nowhere do the English march the Indians off to reservations, nor do the settlers attempt a systematic cultural assimilation as seen in later eras of American history. The author might have arrived at a deeper understanding of her topic had she examined this unique phenomenon further.

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In 1668 Sarah Ahhaton, a married Native American woman of the Massachusetts Bay town of Punkapoag, confessed in an English court to having committed adultery. For this crime she was tried, found guilty, and publicly whipped and shamed; she contritely promised that if her life were spared, she would return to her husband and "continue faithfull to him during her life yea although hee should beat her againe. . . ."These events, recorded in the court documents of colonial Massachusetts, may appear unexceptional; in fact, they reflect a rapidly changing world. Native American marital relations and domestic lives were anathema to English Christians: elite men frequently took more than one wife, while ordinary people could dissolve their marriages and take new partners with relative ease. Native marriage did not necessarily involve cohabitation, the formation of a new household, or mutual dependence for subsistence. Couples who wished to separate did so without social opprobrium, and when adultery occurred, the blame centered not on the "fallen" woman but on the interloping man. Over time, such practices changed, but the emergence of new types of "Indian marriage" enabled the legal, social, and cultural survival of New England's native peoples.The complex interplay between colonial power and native practice is treated with subtlety and wisdom in Colonial Intimacies. Ann Marie Plane uses travel narratives, missionary tracts, and legal records to reconstruct a previously neglected history. Plane's careful reading of fragmentary sources yields both conclusive and fittingly speculative findings, and her interpretations form an intimate picture, moving and often tragic, of the familial bonds of Native Americans in the first century and a half of European contact.

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The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results That Shaped America Review

The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results That Shaped America
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This book is badly written and poorly organized. It contains large sections that have been paraphrased or copied from other works (e.g John Smith papers) and often confuses the names of companies, officers, and locations. The author's negative treatment of the Powhatan is one sided and no balance is found. It really looks like a series of term papers pasted together and is of little use as a reference document. I was very disappointed.

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The American dream was built along the banks of the James River in Virginia.

The settlers who established America's first permanent English colony at Jamestown were not seeking religious or personal freedom. They were comprised of gentlemen adventurers and common tradesmen who risked their lives and fortunes on the venture and stood to reap the rewards-the rewards of personal profit and the glory of mother England. If they could live long enough to see their dream come to life.

The Jamestown Experiment is the dramatic, engaging, and tumultuous story of one of the most audacious business efforts in Western history. It is the story of well-known figures like John Smith setting out to create a source of wealth not bestowed by heritage. As they struggled to make this dream come true, they would face relentless calamities, including mutinies, shipwrecks, native attacks, and even cannibalism. And at every step of the way, the decisions they made to keep this business alive would not only affect their effort, but would shape the future of the land on which they had settled in ways they never could have expected.

The Jamestown Experiment is the untold story of the unlikely and dramatic events that defined the "self-made man" and gave birth to the American dream.

Tony Williams taught history and literature for ten years, and has a master's in American history from Ohio State University. He wrote Hurricane of Independence and The Pox and the Covenant, and is currently a full-time author who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife and children.
(20110307)

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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime History) Review

Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime History)
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If you have ever dreamed of sailing the high seas, or wondered what it must have been like to be a real pirate, then you must read this book. For instance, do you know how pirates washed their clothes while they were away from port all those months, or where the term buccaneer came from? This book tells you. Do you know the difference between a schooner, sloop, and brig? A few sentences from the author sets you straight.
You will learn that the law of the era actually encouraged the killing of innocent victims; hence, the title of this marvelous book, Dead Men Tell No Tales. Pirates were not very nice guys.
Dr. Gibbs has done a masterful work of uncovering the truth behind the legend of the pirate, Charles Gibbs,whose real name was James Jeffers. As you read through this book, you will be amazed at the countless hours of research that have gone into this work. This true story was researched across many continents and countless sources of information, including questionable newspaper accounts of the day.
What emerges is a fascinating account of how the pirate Charles Gibbs (Jeffers) came to be hanged for his misdeeds. How they hanged him is quite interesting (and scary) as you will note. Dr. Gibbs traces and outlines Gibbs' fascinating career and guides us through the information that must be totally eliminated or at least taken with a high dose of skepticism.
If you are interested in pirates, then you must read this book to get the real story. If you aren't interested in pirates, then you should still read this book to get a glimpse of a unique and fascinating period of American history.

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Pacific Beat Review

Pacific Beat
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Having read many of Parker's more recent books, I decided to read Pacific Beat, which was his third book written in 1991. This book clearly demonstrates that even early-on in his career Parker had a strong talent for creating intricate plots, rich characters, lots of atmosphere and believable, tough prose. Pacific Beat is a story of murder and corruption in Newport Beach, CA, and, in typical Parker fashion, has some interesting plot twists and a surprising ending. Two factors, however, kept me from giving this book a 5-star rating (and almost caused me to lower my rating to 3 1/2 stars). One, and the bigger of the two factors, is that it is a little too long and tended to drag at times. For me, this problem would have been overcome, if it was about 50 pages or so shorter. The second factor is that a few of the surprises seemed a bit too contrived. While not Parker's best book (which to me is Where Serpents Lie), Pacific Beat is worth reading.

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Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan Review

Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan
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Forever Young is a collection of pictures of Dylan taken by Douglas Gilbert in the summer of 1964. These were to have been published in a Look magazine feature article which was killed when the editors determined that the appearance of Dylan was "too scruffy for a family magazine". Released forty one years later, the images provide an intimate portrait of the artist as a young man.
Dylan is seen pecking away at a portable typewriter, hanging out with Allen Ginsburg and John Sebastian, and riding around Woodstock on his Triumph motorcycle. There's a great shot of him sitting in a driveway with a little kid in a Davey Crockett jacket, and another in which he tilts back in a rocking chair, watching Dean Martin on a TV incongruously placed in a window. In another one he peers interestedly over a cup of coffee at his future wife Sara Lowdnes, who is working on a needlepoint at the Café Espresso.
Unfortunately, the accompanying text by Dave Marsh is rambling, pretentious, and often irrelevant. Here is an example:
"The idea that art deserves respect only if it reaches the most sublime status results mainly in hype, as we try to explain why we love things that aren't quite that fine".
There's no need to explain why we don't love this kind of writing which mars the natural and easygoing flow of what is otherwise an enjoyable book.


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The Golden Orange Review

The Golden Orange
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Sometimes a book takes a sudden twist that knocks you for a loop. Other times, you find yourself reading a book where you have a pretty good idea what the twist is going to be, only you keep reading because you care so much about the central character you hope you're wrong. The second kind is more impressive to me, and "The Golden Orange" is a perfect example of it.
Joseph Wambaugh's 1990 novel focuses on a boozy ex-cop's love affair with a beautiful society girl on the coast of Newport Beach in Orange County, California. Maybe that's why people are down on it; it's more Raymond Chandler than Ed McBain. Yet I can't help loving "The Golden Orange," one of the most humorous and emotionally compelling novels I have ever read.
There isn't anything here to surprise film noir enthusiasts, though this is much different in tone and story. With his masterly sense of characterization, Wambaugh starts off putting the reader in the shoes of Winnie Farlowe, a hard-drinking 40-year-old forced off the local police because of injury. Adrift, wishing he could return to a job where he mattered, he wastes his small pension drowning his sorrows in one of the few cheap dives in Orange County, occasionally getting a peek at the well-heeled around him.
Winnie's a hard guy not to like, with his sardonic yet humble manner. Told he is ingenuous, Winnie asks: "Is that like ingenious? I used to be ingenious sometimes. Working on homicide gave me ingenious moments." He's so straight up he pays child support for his ex-wife's kids because he adopted them during the marriage. The only thing he's not straight up about is his drinking: "I'm not an alcoholic. I jist shouldn't drink rum!"
After a mad drunken boat ride lands Winnie in the papers for a couple of days, into his bar walks an unexpected grace note. Tess Binder, a 43-year-old thrice-divorced "Hot Momma," saw his picture in the paper and felt something, it's hard to explain what exactly, that made her want to reach out to Winnie.
In no time they're in bed, she's asking him to stay the week, calling him "old son," seeking his help in figuring out what happened to her father's lost fortune and why someone might be trying to kill her. Protective Winnie is convinced his life just passed perfect and is somewhere north of sensational. Except when he dreams.
Wambaugh finds a cagey balance between amusement and gravity with the alcoholic Winnie. When we first meet him is having one of his three-in-the-morning wake-up calls with his version of pink elephants, two buzzards he visualizes pecking at his stomach. He's so used to them he's given them names.
There's also a nice portrait of Newport Beach, Wambaugh's home turf when he wrote "The Golden Orange." After a small temblor gets his customer praying, a bartender wisecracks: "A day to go down in Newport Beach history...Fifteen square miles a greed and white-collar crime. And people finally pray because of a little four-point-sixer." Among the funny asides is a dissertation on the different kinds of rich, and how the Hot Mommas work their tans and plastic surgeons in a never-ending quest to marry up.
The one downside of the book is a tinness of dialogue: The bar Winnie frequents is full of drunks who seem to one-up each other with wisecracks straight from Neil Simon. But this wouldn't be as much of a flaw in a lesser book. There are moments, mostly between Winnie and Tess, where the conversations ache with real emotion, and you can almost hear the lilt of laughter in Tess's voice.
Other people express their frustration with Wambaugh after his 70s/80s commercial peak, but "The Golden Orange" makes me want to read more. I love his humor here, but I treasure his sensitivity and his compassion for the unlucky and dumped-upon even more. It's a keeper.

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Jacqueline Bouvier: An Intimate Memoir Review

Jacqueline Bouvier: An Intimate Memoir
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This was one of the first books I read about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and though I've read many since, I still consider this one of the best. It is filled with reminisces of events experienced by the author, a cousin of Jackie's who kept in touch with her throughout her life. The author has done extensive research into both the Bouviers and the Kennedys in his other writings - this book is an interesting and informative combination of that research and his personal memories of Jackie as a child and young woman. Highly recommended to all who wish to learn more about the less documented part of Jackie's life.

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A View from the Deckplates: Two Decades Aboard Destroyers during the Cold War (1950-1970) Review

A View from the Deckplates: Two Decades Aboard Destroyers during the Cold War (1950-1970)
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This book is an outstanding story of a mans 20 years association with Destroyers in the US Navy from 1950-70, researched from Ships Logs in the National Archives and is also a valuable historical document! At times it is humorous, and will bring tears to old Destroyermen and non-sailors alike!

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This is the story of the author'sU.S. Navy career from 1950 to 1970. In these two decades, U.S. Navy sailorsdefended the United Statesduring the conflicts in Korea,Cuba, Viet Nam, as well as many others. In his careerthe author served aboard five destroyer-type ships including USS SOUTHERLAND,USS WILLIAM T. POWELL, USS CHAMBERS, USS HARRY E. YARNELL, USS FOX, and onedestroyer tender, USS CASCADE. The book is autobiographical in nature, howeverthe events and incidents could have occurred aboard other ships or involvedother destroyermen.Spouses, children or parents ofthose who served in the Navy during the middle years of the Cold War will enjoyreading this book as naval jargon and technical terms are kept to a minimumand, where included, are explained in layman's terms. Those who served indestroyers will also recall with nostalgia their time aboard these "Greyhoundsof the Sea."Included is a brief history ofdestroyers from their inception at the end of the 19th Century tothe present, including a complete listing of destroyer classes and their keycharacteristics. Selective milestones in history are included to keep theaccount in the context of world events.

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Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and its Symbols, 1650-1815 Review

Graven Images: New England Stonecarving and its Symbols, 1650-1815
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Particularly striking are the many plates which provide a rare insight into the artistic notions of a culture that generally frowned on decoration. As a document on early American notions of form, the books holds its own with the best studies of architecture, pottery and antiques that I have seen.

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Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years Review

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years
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R. Serge Denisoff, editor of Popular Music and Society, called this oral history seriously flawed, noting that the persons quoted are not always properly identified, and their statements (at least one of them wrong) are occasionally presented unquoted, as fact. My own gripe, which applies to so many miserable books on popular music, is: Here's a wonderful, rich account, chock-full of hundreds of names, and no index to let ya locate 'em again. Nevertheless, for any folkie, it's an absolute must-have, which defrosts the legendary goings-on behind the Cambridge, MA folk scene of the '50s and '60s, written by one of the hoariest veterans of the era. The jam-packed, previously unpublished photos are alone worth the price, and their captions are creative ditties. And, if that wispy, natural, 1960's brand of beauty -- facial, bodily, and musical -- affect you viscerally, get ready to be re-affected.

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Long out of print, Baby, Let Me Follow You Down is a classic in the history of American popular culture. The book tells the story of the folk music community in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from its beginnings in living rooms and Harvard Square coffeehouses in the late 1950s to the heyday of the folk music revival in the early 1960s. Hundreds of historical photographs, rescreened for this edition, and dozens of interviews combine to re-create the years when Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and a lively band of Cambridge folksingers led a generation in the rediscovery of American folk music. Compiled by two musicians who were active participants in the Cambridge folk scene, the volume documents a special time in United States culture when the honesty and vitality of traditional folk music were combined with the raw power of urban blues and the high energy of electric rock and roll to create a new American popular music.

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Moon Chesapeake Bay (Moon Handbooks) Review

Moon Chesapeake Bay (Moon Handbooks)
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Chesapeake Bay includes information about Virginia and Maryland locations both big and small. It even mentions areas in Baltimore and Harford counties in Maryland. Because its subject matter is so inclusive, information about some of the major sites is of necessity abbreviated. I'd like to see a bit more information about St. Michael's, for example. Several major hotels on Kent Island are not even mentioned.
If the reader finds a location of interest in this book, he or she can follow up by getting more information online.
I like that the book includes plenty of helpful maps.
Since the book is a few year's old now, some information such as room or meal prices can be a little dated, but surprisingly is still pretty close to current rates.
Chesapeake Bay also offers plenty of background and historical information and facts about the economy and governments of the area. It can be a useful book for the tourist or someone thinking about relocating to the area.

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Seasoned travel writer Joanne Miller provides expert advice on exploring the Chesapeake Bay, from re-visiting the past at Colonial Williamsburg to soaking up the sun at Virginia Beach. Joanne includes unique trip ideas for a wide range of travelers, such as History on the Bay and Exploring the Eastern Shore. Packed with information on dining, transportation, and accommodations, Moon Chesapeake Bay has lots of options for a range of travel budgets. Every Moon guidebook includes recommendations for must-see sights and many regional, area, and city-centered maps. Offering endless options, from a day of family fun at Busch Gardens Williamsburg to a boat trip through the waterways of the upper Necks, Moon Chesapeake Bay gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience. With expert writers, first-rate strategic advice, and an essential dose of humor, Moon Handbooks are the cure for the common trip.

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Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics & Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England Review

Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics and Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England
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Through a series of well-researched arguments, Susan Juster, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, seeks to show in this monograph that the participation of evangelical churches in the revolutionary cause during the late 18th century had a profound impact upon the place that women were offered within those churches.
During the pre-revolutionary era, Baptist and other evangelical churches became increasingly prominent parts of the New England religious landscape. The relative parity that women enjoyed with men in these congregations was a function of the liminality inherent in the intense religious experience that members of such congregations shared. The American revolution, along with a desire for increased respectability among Baptists, soon moved Baptist churches towards the mainstream of New England religious life.
Juster argues that the rhetoric of the American revolution, with its identification of submission to authority as female, caused evangelical churches to reconsider sin as a gendered concept. Effects of this reconsideration can be found, for instance, in evangelical conversion narratives, which for the first time after the revolution can be identified with the gender of the writer through the language used for deity and sin, indicating that men and women after the revolution had begun to think of their relationship to God and themselves in very different ways.
Juster comes to her conclusions through the application of feminist theories borrowed from other scholars to the material that she has gathered on the revolutionary-era evangelical churches of New England. Her conclusions about the shifting use of gender language and the sinking status of women within these churches during and after the revolution are convincing, although her use of theory is occasionally somewhat essentialistic. Juster sometimes lifts theoretical concepts from studies of other historical situations and places them over her own subject without offering an explanation as to how the given theory or idea remains applicable. At no point, however, does Juster's use of theory squeeze her subjects into a mold so tight that her conclusions are entirely the results of her method and not the content of her sources.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Juster's work is the breadth of her research. To gather enough discipline records and conversion narratives to come to a representative conclusion, the author canvassed denominational historical societies, government archives and university library special collections. As a result, Juster's work is unlikely to be criticized for drawing a conclusion which does not reflect the scope of research claimed in title of her text.
This work serves two purposes: It paints an excellent portrait of colonial evangelicalism in New England, and then shows with a good deal of persuasiveness how these churches were eventually altered by the revolutionary climate and the churches' subsequent need for respectability. Any reader with an interest in early American history, women's history, or the history of evangelicalism can read this book with profit.

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"Juster examines the changing role of Baptist women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England. At first essentially equal to men in church governance and in the right to speak in church, women were gradually excluded from power in Baptist churches after the Revolution. As the Baptist church adopted a more patriarchal model of church organization, women were not only marginalized and silenced but associated because of gender with several serious sins, including sexual misconduct, lying, and slander."--Library Journal

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Pocahontas: Young Peacemaker (Childhood of Famous Americans) Review

Pocahontas: Young Peacemaker (Childhood of Famous Americans)
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In my class we have to do a book report every month. The month of December we did biographies. So, I picked this book, Pocahontas. There are 176 pages of interesting events that happened in Pocahontas's life. Although some of them are sad, they are written in a great way. At the beginning of the book, the book tells you on what pages you can see nicely done illustrations by Meryl Henderson, too. This is a great book and I think you should read it. I enjoyed reading Pocahontas and so will you so go to the nearest bookstore and buy this book!

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Examines the life of the Indian princess Pocahontas and her contact with English settlers, especially John Smith.

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The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour and Tragedy Review

The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour and Tragedy
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This is a must read for anyone interested in the Gilded Age. The Vanderbilts were a huge part of it, and the women of the family are as dynamic as the men, in spite of the Commodore's opinion of them. Included in the book are little known figures, such as the Commodore's much put-upon wife and daughters. I found this book hard to put down and highly recommend it, especially in the newly available paperback form.

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Lucius Beebe said that "The nearest thing to a royal family that has ever appeared on the American scene was the Vanderbilts ... their vendettas, their armies of servitors, partisans and sycophants, their love affairs, scandals, and shortcomings, all were the stuff of an imperial routine."
Stasz reveals new facts and insights into the fascinating lives of three generations of Vanderbilt women who dominated New York society from the middle of the eighteenth century through the twentieth. Of special interest are the discovery of unpublished letters and a pseudonymous lesbian novel that shed light on the complex character of the most currently famous Vanderbilt woman, Gloria Vanderbilt.

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Cycling Orange County: 58 Rides With Detailed Maps & Elevation Contours Review

Cycling Orange County: 58 Rides With Detailed Maps and Elevation Contours
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this book sucks!!! most of the rides are really short and the direction for the trips are bad

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Cycling Orange County takes you from the boardwalks and streets of the coastal areas, to the winding highways and country roads of Orange County's inland sections, with plenty of parks, canyons, mountains, rivers and lakes along the way. Don and Sharron Brundige have been writing bicycling guides for 20 years, and their guide to biking Orange County is now available in a handy-to-carry 6 x 9 inch format. This popular guide has on-road descriptions to 58 rides, from short family trips on separated bike paths to a few "gut-buster" tours for the most physically fit bikers. Also included are the Orange County "Grandaddy" and a county century ride. Detailed maps make it easy to find every route, and tour listings shows the distance and elevation, level of difficulty, road and traffic conditions, and estimated time to complete each ride. Plenty of photos make the book fun and easy-to-use and the authors note the location of water sources, landmarks, sightseeing attractions and campsites among other points of interest.

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I Should Be Dead By Now Review

I Should Be Dead By Now
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This is not a book that will fill you with great amounts of unknown knowledge, nor will it require heavy thinking on your part to understand. What you will get out of it is a great deal of amusement. Here are dozens of short, kind of random thoughts, little stories and anecdotes by Dennis Rodman.In summary it is kind of a way to look at his philosophy of life.
It's a life that a lot of us would like to live in a vicarious way, I say vicarious because it appears to be a life that I don't think I could handle. In between the stories of what happened, there's a bit of insight into the way the man thinks. He's lived the life that he says he wanted, yet the desparate urge to get back to the NBA comes through. Born in May of 1961, he's now approaching 45 years old. He has to know that there aren't many players in the NBA that are that old. It will be interested to see what he does in future years.
I found the book a mix of sad, funny, and poignant. All you can say is 'good luck.'

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Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation Review

Outsourcing for Radical Change: A Bold Approach to Enterprise Transformation
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When I first saw this book I wondered two things. First, how is the author's notion of "transformational outsourcing" any different than the time-tested, well-understood practice of handing over back-office or "non-core" business functions to a company that can perform them more cheaply. Second, why should a business leader should care?
I was surprised to learn from the author - a former Harvard Business School Prof and now a strategy research lead at Accenture - that most executives have fuzzy ideas about just what outsourcing means. Perhaps that's because there has not been a definitive outsourcing text or guru. Core Competency had Hamel and his groundbreaking Harvard Business Review article on the subject. Competitive Strategy had Porter and his opus on the topic. Disruptive Technology had Christensen and his best-selling, "Innovator's Dilemma." Dare I say that outsourcing, one of today's most popular and controversial management tools, finally has its own definitive book and guru.
Provocative, entertaining, and well-researched, Dr. Linder's brand of outsourcing has done for many firms what Bill Parcells' brand coaching has done for football teams: It creates big change fast. Parcells has taken three different NFL teams from sustained losses to playoff slots within two years of taking over as coach. Using detailed case studies of leading companies (Thomas Cook, National Savings & Investments, to name a few), Linder describes the Parcells-like influence a well-crafted transformation program can have on your organization.
But the devil is in the details, like how to execute a transformational outsourcing strategy...Linder's attention to execution and detail is precisely why executives should pay attention to the book. In my experience and research, CEOs have focused on outsourcing only insofar as it calls upon them to make four high-level calculations: determine whether the activity to outsource is core to the business; evaluate the financial impact of outsourcing; assess the non-financial costs and advantages of outsourcing; choose an outsourcing partner. But transformational outsourcing can't be done with a CEO at 30,000 feet.
Leaders need to get down into the trenches, and not leave all the dirty details of execution to middle management. Linder describes ten practical imperatives for CEOs to follow when implementing a transformational outsourcing initiative:
-Make the hard call
-Design a good business model, not a good deal
-Own the negotiation
-Allocate two full days a week of your won time for the foreseeable future
-Orchestrate a dynamic transition
-Create momentum
-Manage the relationship as if it were Chinese handcuffs
-Engineer a commitment to performance
-Face forward
-Recognize that you will underestimate the task, and plan accordingly
As these steps suggest, the book offers new wrinkles to the classic work of John Kotter (author of "Leading Change"), while also laying the theoretical and practical groundwork for a novel approach to improving business results. I recommend the book to practitioners, academics, anyone interested in the current outsourcing debate...and especially senior executives.

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For years companies have outsourced service functions like IT and facilities management with an eye toward streamlining overall corporate efficiency But a new model - transformational outsourcing - can make big changes happen quickly throughout the organization by outsourcing not just support areas but core business functions. "Outsourcing for Radical Change", based on a major study by Accenture, reveals how this revolutionary operational model can transform an entire enterprise. With refreshing candor, the book presents startling successes (and a few notable failures) from major organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

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