This book is a great read for all! The stories are inspiring and heartwarming. This book will make you want to dig into your old geneaology files and get working!

What a fun book!

So many times we associate genealogy with just names and dates. This book reminds us that there so much more to genealogy... the stories of our search, what motivates us, and the reminder that we all have a fabulous tale to tell. Read and be truly inspired!

I bought this book to read one article, but I got hooked. As I read article after article, I found that I couldn't put the book down. The book shares unique stories about everyday people who found information about their own past in surprising and wonderful ways. Now, I find myself telling friends about the fascinating articles that were in this book.

No, this is not a quickie paperback rushed into print after September 11.
The Frommers' book, subtitled An Oral History of Life in the City During the Mid-Twentieth Century, is a loving look at a Manhattan that now seems impossibly distant, a Manhattan whose citizens worried about open admissions at City College and how they felt about the Beatles and whether they could afford to live on the East Side'but never about terrorist bombers. It is a Manhattan now lost to us forever, a Manhattan to be recollected in tranquility and cherished as never before.
The Frommers' mid-twentienth century ranges from the early post-World War II years to the mid-1970s, when the city nearly went bust. Like their earlier books (It Happened in the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, It Happened on Broadway), this one is an oral history, an irresistible collection of interviews with Manhattanites rich and poor, talented and ordinary, famous and unknown, clearly united in their unanimous conviction that Manhattan was, is, and always will be the most exciting place on earth.
Here is a New York in which the Third Avenue el still existed and traffic on Fifth Avenue ran both ways, in which eleven daily newspapers covered the city beat and Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan covered café society; in which proper young working girls still wore hats and white gloves and businesswomen couldn't get bank loans; in which Lincoln Center was going up and Penn Station was coming down and SoHo was still a dream in a gallery owner's eye.
Here are Jewish kids growing up on the Lower East Side, black kids growing up in Harlem, Italian kids growing up in the Bronx with Manhattan only a fifteen-cent train ride away. Here are politicians and performers, priests and rabbis, press agents and jazz musicians, restaurateurs and fashion designers and Tin Pan Alley songwriters, all talking in that excited New Yorker way about what a great time they had in their great city. You can almost see the hands waving.
Not many of these voices will be known to those unlucky enough never to have lived in Manhattan. Jimmy Breslin and Pauline Trigère and Robert Merrill and Jane Jacobs, most likely, but not that many others. Who but a Manhattanite will know Elaine Kaufman as the owner of a restaurant called Elaine's? Who outside of the advertising business will recognize Jerry Della Femina? Who but a New Yorker will remember the political ins and outs that brought us Robert Moses and Robert Wagner, Abe Beame and John Lindsay?
It really doesn't matter. with their tales of chocolate egg creams and 15-cent subway rides and standing room only at the old Met, are as stirring as those of the famous. The content . . . all of it is so fascinating.
As for that other thing that happened in Manhattan on September 11, there is one tiny reference to the World Trade Center toward the end of the book by Daily News sports cartoonist Bill Gallo: 'I always thought of buildings like heavyweight champions. The Empire State Building was the champion. Then the Twin Towers came up, and you felt sorry for the Empire State Building. That was still your champion.'
And is once again.

Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer look back to an earlier period of New York's history in 'It Happened in Manhattan.' Subtitled 'an oral history of life in the city during the mid-twentieth century,' the book covers a period from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s. Ordinary people and New York celebrities reminisce about the architectural and culinary glories of Manhattan and about the personalities and institutions that dominated business and the arts in those decades. Exclusively black-and-white photographs illustrate this backward glance at New York in the innocent '50s and the adventurous '60s and '70s.

Contrary to the popular notion, nostalgia is pretty much what it's always been, judging by the latest offering from the Frommers ('It Happened on Broadway' 1998, etc.). The professors Frommer (Liberal Arts/Dartmouth) have gathered interviews with iconoclastic New Yorkers Jerry Della Femina, Robert Merrill, Jimmy Breslin, Monte Irvin, Elaine Kaufman, Saul Zabar, and 57 others. They recall life in Manhattan from the end of World War II to the mid seventies. The New York of wonder is evoked once more with as in Proust, the reference to indigenous food (e.g., entrees at Le Pavilion or classic egg creams). And from Harlem to Wall Street, Washington Heights to Greenwich Village, there are old churches and delis gone by, the surviving Guggenheim and the lost Automats, Lincoln Center newly built and Lewisohn Stadium since gone. There are shopkeepers with pencil stubs behind their ears and practitioners of the rag trades, artists, sportswriters, and gossip columnists. The memorists speak with the distinct flavor of Yiddish or of Italian. And there's a Hispanic rhythm and that of Lenox Avenue too. Study the ladies in gloves, the gents in fedoras, the haberdashers' billboards, the movie marquees, the street furniture. Self-congratulatory oral history, garrulous nostalgia, and great fun for those who recall the days of Tin Pan Alley and three baseball teams in one small, favored place

This is an excellent book. It is hard to imagine the hardship these men had to endure on their trip across the nation, but by reading this book you get some kind of idea. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is even slightly intrested in the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This book tells it exactly how it happened, from the men who were there. I strongly believe that books like these should be required reading in schools....who knows what this country would be like today had it not been for those brave men.

Fascinating personal day-by-day account of the journey of Lewis and Clark through the Louisiana Territory. As you read, you feel yourself slowly seeing the American west as it was seen by those who first wrote of its magnificence, the customs of the natives, the wildlife, and climate. You see it for what it was, and for its possibilities. This edition has been edited from the individual journals of both Lewis and Clark and some of the others. It has been made more compact by putting in only passages that tell the story, but with no sentence restructuring or spelling corrections. Sometimes this requires you to figure the meaning out, but is never a big problem. The chapter length was perfect for reading a chapter a day which means 33 days. The only bad chapter was 31, which was a summary of one leg lifted from DeVoto's The Course of Empire, which I felt was harder to understand than the journals. The appendix includes Jefferson's Instructions, list of personnel, and specimens returned.

There is not much new that I can add which has not already been said of the Journals. Simply put, fantastic! I have read some excellent books regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but reading the actual journals themselves makes one feel as though they are right there alongside them. Names such as John Colter, the Fields brothers, George Drouillard, Peter Cruzatte, Touissant Charbonneau and his wife Sacajawea, John Ordway, George Shannon, and many of the others in the journal become so familiar, it's as if the reader is a "fly on the saddle" (so to speak) during the entire expedition. Every chapter, every leg of the journey, has something relating to the hardships, sacrifices, conjectures, speculations, survival strategies, Indian confrontations and appropriate manners of behavior, along with wonderful descriptions of landforms, Indian culture, animals, plants, climate, etc. A truly gripping, meaningful look at early western U.S. exploration. DeVoto's introduction and editing is extremely well done.

"Left for Dead" is one of the most compelling books I've read to date. It's hard-hitting but thoughtful and honest at the same time; Sause has a way of weaving poignant anecdotes into points he makes that make what he's saying so very clear to the reader. His observations are often from a pop culture point of view, giving them a certain "street cred" that many authors - particularly academics - tend to lack. The notion of the Information Age leaving the Left devastated in its wake is not one that has been fully or even well-explored until now; Sause delivers a powerful case for why this will come to pass in time. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in politics and the Information Age.

Brilliant, whether Sause discusses the past, the present or the future. Most of the political books that I've read recently simply tell me what I already know and believe. This book is an eye opener and the opinions and facts explode off the page. I can't say enough about this book. Twenty years from now, this book will be remembered for it's prescience.
Refreshing, that the author speaks from a hip, yet intelligent and honest point of view. I am very lucky for finding this book. It has made me a better person. Hard to believe and maybe corny, but it's the truth. And no, I've never met Roger Sause.

Why is it that men like Roger sause can see unvarnished reality for what it is while others, perhaps more credentialed from an academic point of view, engage in a continued adherence to a belief system that ignores critical analysis? Is this a genetic trait that resides in a particular lobe of the brain? The one where the ability to formulate proportionate judgements resides? With any luck the genetic decoding currently underway in the biogenetic community will shed light on this anomaly, but at the moment we are just left to wonder.

Roger sause has written the most interesting book I've read since Balint Vazsonyi's "America's 30-Year War: Who's Winning". Whereas Vazsonyi comes to his criticisms of the Marxist ideology that permeates so many American institutions today, from the perspective of an immigrant who lived under its Totalitarian boot heel, Sause comes at it with the viewpoint of an Eric Hoffer'ish, street-wise Los Angeles musician. His language and prose are diametrically opposed to that of the poseur academic and many times more communicative. He has done his homework and his take on the big picture is "on the money". In unalloyed terminology he assails the fog of the socialistic ideology that has been foisted on this country's social policy by "progressive charlatan's". Rarely will you read such detailed historical reference written with such an enlightened information age perspicacity. This guy is exceptional as in "really good."

Sause recounts how a high school teacher, an advocate of Marx with an anti-American slant, inculcated his political theories into Sause's personal worldview. This political and social policy assumption model was further reinforced thru Sause's living environment in the Los Angeles arts community, a hot bed of far Left radical thinking. Hollywood is a place where conservative views translate into "no work" so almost everyone in the arts is a reflexive, knee-jerk Leftist. For further confirmation of this read anything written by David Horowitz, a neo-conservative who lives and publishes there.

Sause involves the reader in his personal odyssey as he relates how the street riots in south central L.A., the ostensible result of the Rodney King verdict, caused him to re-examine his pop-Marxist political views of society. To say that only emotional trauma changes behavior would be too trite in his case. The surge of his intellectual curiosity, brought on by the above crisis is Da Vinci-like with a nod too the considerable differences between soft science intellectuals and intellectuals adept at symbolic logic. Needless to say, I found Sause's insights and his ability to tie-in historical reference astounding.

The culmination of this book resides in Sause's negatively critical view of our government's inadequacy as a provider of free education and health care. He profiles its sorry record of outcomes while linking its out of control costs. He predicts that the 3rd wave information revolution will bury the anachronistic 2nd wave industrial model from which America's Marxist inspired social policy is derived. His insights are profound, easily understood and convincing.

This book should be a primer for any course on American history. An academic could quibble with some of the material, but Sause gets it remarkably right. He covers all the Left-leaning shibboleths and all the flawed premise's on which they are based. He brings to light the truth about the religious-Left's influence on the media, race dialogue, health care, education, the environment, feminism, the family, private property, the military, welfare policy and foreign policy. He overlays this in concordance with his views of Alvin Toffler's prognostications as elucidated in his book "The Third Wave". This is all the more remarkable when you consider that Sause is a community college dropout. But, let me tell you, Sause is one very bright guy (remember that Bill gates dropped out of college too!). His credentials are that he is a professional musician who lists a four-year stint as a keyboardist for Kenny G amongst his other considerable credits. It makes one wonder about the value of credentials? Again I ask the question, why is he able to see the world so clearly while so many esteemed academicians cannot?

Buy this book, send copies to your friends, give it to your neighbors; the backlash against socialist totalitarian tyranny is nigh, and Sause is in the forefront. Quite obviously they really ticked him off.

Generally, I'm don't get scared by things I read or see on television. This book, however, was quite frightening. I definitely did its job. Many of the stories in this book occurred near where I live, and I never would have imagined these stories had even existed previously. I always knew that New England had a rather strange past, what with all the Salem Witch trials and all, but these stories actually dug deeper than all of that. For instance, could you imagine strange monsters inhabiting Bridgewater, or a strange spirit force on top of Mount Washington? Naturally, these stories are merely legends, but they really make you stop and think. The documentation for this book is also quite good, as first hand accounts are recorded. When people in the law enforcement agency see things, as in this book, you know that there's probably something going on. This book only took me two nights to read. That should give you some indication as to how addictive and gripping it is.

The book is well written, organized, and indexed, with plenty of interesting stories of today and years gone by, and I highly recommend the book. The only negative thing I can say about the book is that very little skeptical research is indicated. However, the author does provide a list of his sources, so that any skeptically-minded readers may check things out for themselves.

Having been a native Vermonter and New Englander, I had not realized the ghostlore involved with this section of the country. Many of the stories occur within minutes of my own location. This book points out the origins and as much fact as can be researched. The end result is left with the reader as to which can be explained and that that which can not. Read this book alone at night and you will hear sounds that you used to take for granted, or did you?......

I got this book for my 13-year old son, but we both enjoyed reading it. The prose is wooden and we learn little about Aaron's personal life. But as a depiction of what he went through as part of the "second generation" of black baseball players, this is great stuff.

Aaron was one of the last great players to start in the Negro Leagues. He was also one of the players who helped break the color barrier in the minor leagues in the south. We learn the many hardships and dangers he faced long before his historical chase of Babe Ruth's record.

Aaron also "tells it like it is" about the great and not-so-great men with whom he played. If you admire men like Stan Musial, you won't be disappointed.

Aaron also tells a compelling story of how the white media consistently misportrayed him.

Finally, this book has a lot to offer about baseball. You'll read impressive testimony from men like Eddie Matthews why Aaron, and not Willie Mays, was the greatest player of his generation.

This is a terrific autobiography that transcends the classification of sports writing. It is written in a style and format that that is compelling and informative. The typical sports biographies tell a series of funny and dramatic inside stories around memorable moments in sports history that the subject participated in. When well done, the reader gets what he or she is looking for and then some. When poorly done we get some stale jokes, old stories and an inept attempt at describing the true meaning of courage. In "I Had a Hammer" Henry Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler have given us a glimpse at a young black man growing up in the Deep South to become the greatest home run hitter of all time. In the odyssey we see the elements of society alternately denigrate and celebrate this gifted athlete. We are given these insights through the co-writer's preambe to each chapter and the personal recollections of key players in the life and career of Hank Aaron. This array of perspectives is excellently done and gives the book a good flow. What gives it the greatest impact is the candid personal recollections of Mr. Aaron. He is outspoken in his contempt for the elements of racism that followed (or is it lead) him every step of the way to the top. Yet he is forgiving of many who may have slurred his race in the past and then later learned to overcome their biased opinions. Much of that transition came through their experiences with him and other early black major league ball players. This is a book about our nation's racial attitudes as seen through the experiences of the author.

Don't be mistaken, this is still an excellent book for the sports fan. The casual fan will come away with a greater sense of sports history. The Braves fan will really enjoy some of the historic events recreated in the middle chapters. The Milwaukee fan need only read the last paragraph of chapter 7 and a tear or two will likely fall. The Atlanta fan will come away with a challenge to accept the validity of Aaron's view of his experiences in that city. Some will and some won't. However, all sports fans will come away with an excellent education on race relations in America from the 1930' to very recent years. They will gain this insight not through a lecture by the authors but by the very human expressions of a man telling his own compelling story.

The book is a must read. It shows Aaron fight against prejustice to evenutually break a record that he would be scorned and have his life threatend before he could break it. Also his triumph of breaking Babe Ruth's all time career home run record also winning in a white man's world.

Louis Armstrong, An Extravant Life is superb because it recreates the man and his times--and how the man changed his time. Laurence Bergreen details the poverty of Storyville, New Orleans: its honky tonks and violence, and the surprising sustenance a resilent child found there. We see how Louis Armstrong found his family among the white, Jewish Karnovskys, and in the stern Waif's Home where he became a musician.

Bergreen shows us the shameful racism of the South (and North), and how Louis' exuberant personality and music helped transcend it. The Armstrong we come to know is humble, humorous, brimming with the energy of jazz itself. We learn how Armstrong invented solos and scat singing, and how his jazz went beyond even music. That is, he mesmerized America with a personality that brought rich and poor, black and white, hip and square together.

Armstrong's blowing and singing, his restless amiable spirit, is a bracing ode to being alive. Bergreen's meticulous empathy lets us share the extravagance.

An Extravagant Life is much more than a biography of Louis Armstrong. Having been born at the turn of the century, in New Orleans, this book is a travelogue of that city from a unique perspective (the underside), a history of jazz, a snapshot of race relations and segregation in America for this entire century, AND a rich tapestry of the life of a man who started out with no advantages except his musical gift and a positive attitude. Armstrong was a man of very strong tolerances: alcohol, marijuana, food, women, gansters, laxatives, and music, to name just a few. The essence of Louis is captured in Bergreen's book: We like him, we care for him, we pity him, and we almost understand him. We are definitely fascinated by him.

This was one of the best biographies I have ever read. By far the best one of the life of Louis Armstrong. It took me only 2 days to read this book, I could hardly put it down. Not being much of a fan of Dixieland, New Orleans Jazz, etc...after reading this book I was hooked. I wanted to listen to every Louis recording available. Bergreen paints Armstrong as such an amazing character which he completely was. Even if you aren't a jazz fan this is just a great book about a great man.

I was doing research for a NASCAR Web site that I was creatingwhen I came across this title. Talk about a wealth of information!Ever wonder who won the first NASCAR-sanctioned race, or what makes astock car different from a regular passenger car? Mark has the answer! From track layouts to famous families, sponsorship to qualifying, Mark covers NASCAR with a thoroughness and humor that is a rarity, and much appreciated. I recommend that everyone, from new fans to old buffs, buy and read this book. I guarantee you that you won't be disappointed!

NASCAR for Dummies is definitely a "must read" for any NASCAR fan. It is the perfect book for those who are new to NASCAR... and is packed with information which even a veteran fan will appreciate.

You'll find in-depth information about a variety of topics, from car tech to how qualifying works... from how points are awarded to what some of the rules and regulations are. You'll find information about all of the different NASCAR Series, how sponsorship works, how to contact your favorite driver - or even get an autograph. There's even advice and tips for attending races in person.

The book is also loaded with NASCAR stats on different drivers, tracks and some of the sports history.

The best part about this book is that it is not written by a bystander, rather, it is written by one of the top drivers in the sport. Mark Martin is able to provide you with a view of NASCAR which I have not seen in any other book thus far.

Finally a book that explains questions that I have always had about why things are done that way in Nascar. I have subsriptions to several Nascar magazines, but this is the first source to explain such concepts as the bizarre series qualifying practices to set the running order in the Daytona 500 (as well as the point system for the Winston Cup Championship) in a meaningful way that the averager person has a chance to understand. Those new to Nascar will appreciate the in-depth detail and entertaining stories linking to concepts in book as explained by veteran Nascar driver Mark Martin. Even die-hard fans who already know much about Nascar will find this an enjoyable read.

NYPD Battles Crime is a scholarly review of a process that not only affected New York City but is being adopted by many other police departments. Prof. Silverman has "insider" access, and gives the reader a detailed view of the politics behind the procedures. This book is also a fascinating look at the way change is implimented in a large organization. I have put NYPD Battles Crime on the reading list for my classes--it is a "must-read" for anyone who is interested in current trends in the criminal justice profession.

I envy the students of Law, Criminal Justice etc. who will be using Dr. Silverman's book as a text book. It is a very well written, exciting account of how the largest police departement in the world used enlightened management techiques and a sophisticated computer system to drastically reduce crime in New York City. Business students and corporate managers can benefit from reading the book as well.The Deming-like management techniques used by the NYPD would benefit any organization.This book is for anyone who wants to be well informed.

As a member of the NYPD, I found this book extremely informative and insightful. Eli Silverman was able to get an "insiders" look at the NYPD and describe accurately the organizational changes that brought about sweeping reductions in crime in New York City. It is a must read for any person in the criminal justice system.

A journey into a world with some real "originals." Well written, great characters, a real love of the game. I don't finish many books any more, but I read this one right through

Tony Annigoni - house pro and part owner of the Q-Club in San Francisco. David McCumber - pool devotee and writer with some money to spare. These two go on the road across North America hustling games and looking for action. Annigoni plays and generally wins. McCumber bankrolls his bets and sweats on the sidelines taking the notes that turned into this book. McCumber's writing is strong, sometimes a bit too Hunter Thompsonish, but he loves the game and has a visceral sense of humor about the odyssey that could cost him a bundle. Annigoni is a great player, but the opponents are world class and life on the road in cheap hotels, late trains, and all night pool halls is a tiring exercise. This is a good book. Those who play a little pool will enjoy the tense action and will be able to follow the games closely. Those who just enjoy a book about a little-known facet of America's underbelly will be swept along. Those who liked "The Color of Money" will appreciate the reality check.

I just read it again--for the third time and I still found myself laughing out loud at McCumbers dead on the money descriptions of high level pool hustling. The players he describes are authentic, anyone who has met Keith McCready or Bucktooth can vouch for that, and that is what makes this book so entertaining, that it is an authentic glimpse of big time pool gambling. If you would like to see this in real life, just go to Louisville Kentucky during the first few weeks of January every year and check out the Derby City Classic tournament.