In "Ancient Encounters", author James Chatters narrates a tale of a fossilized skeleton accidentally discovered by two young boys playing by a riverbed in Kennewick, Washington. The early chapters of the book describe the discovery of the fossilized skeleton, named Kennewick man, and the dating of the remains to almost 9,500 years ago. The author has custody of the remains for study but local Native Americans and seemingly corrupt workers of the Army Corps of Engineers act quickly to attempt to get the remains for "repatriation" according to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), an act that seemingly ignores the possibility that a fossil so old may not even have been ancestral to Native Americans. The author scrambles to preserve the fossils for scientific study and enlists the assistance of numerous political and scientific contacts. The Smithsonian Institution eventually asserts domain over the fossils and agrees to arrange for the author to bring the fossils to Washington, DC. The author feels that the timing of the Smithsonian's arrangements is going to jeopardize his custody of the fossils, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. At this point the reader feels like shaking the author and telling him to put the darn fossils in his trunk and drive to Washington, DC. Alas, the fossils are lost to the legal system, where it seems it will take another 9,500 years to resolve the issue.
In the latter chapters of the book the author describes various other fossil finds and theories about the identity of the Paleo-Americans, and theories about how they arrived on this continent. It is this latter section of the book that is at times disjointed and poorly written. It is difficult to discern fact from postulate. A condensed tighter version would have been less painful to read. The subject of Paleo-Americans is interesting and the book does offer some insights into current theories and scientific methods. However, I personally find it a bit curious that brilliant scientists waste so much time and energy attempting to unearth peoples of the past, then leave it to the politicians to figure out how to feed their overpopulated descendants.

I read Dr. Chatters' book in one sitting, and highly recommend it to ALL readers interested in the earliest peoples of the Americas. As the first scientist (& one of the few) to observe the Kennewick skeleton, and having been directly involved in the controversy which has swirled around the remains, this is clearly a very personal account for Chatters. It really comes across that he'd probably NOT have chosen to be embroiled in this sort of issue; but he is uncompromising in his conclusion: the bones are NOT those of an individual we call "American Indian".
The history of the find and ensuing battles between scientists, native groups, and the government is riveting (and unpromising to the future of archaeology in this country). Chatters also goes the extra mile and compares his find to all the other known ancient American skeletal remains, which gives this book a general picture of the state of "early Americans" studies which ensures that I will use this book as a text for my upcoming course on the subject.
A couple of minor things keeps this book from being "perfect", in my opinion. First, since he trusts us to follow the "Caucasoid-but-not-Caucasian" osteological discussion, it could have been enhanced by some simple diagram of the 3 major modern skull "ethnic" groups, showing major points where early Americans do and DO NOT resemble these types. Second, although there were ample references in the endnotes, a few assertions were tossed off and never referenced (The one that bothered me most: mention of a biface-and-blade stone tool technology in Japan that is a putative ancestor to Clovis technology in the Americas. As a stone tool specialist, I know of no such technology which is acclaimed as similar to Clovis, and an extensive search-in lieu of any original reference Chatters might have supplied-turned up nothing new.)
However, general readers will not be bothered by these tiny esoteric omissions. It is the definitive account of Kennewick Man, and was told in an exciting fashion that puts most fictional mysteries to shame. Bravo, Dr. Chatters.

Where did I come from? Scientists like Dr. Chatters try and peel the layers of a complicated onion in order to answer the 'larger picture'. Having lived in Washington and Oregon among the Yakama and Umatilla people I know that my first reaction to the Kennewick controversy was 'leave the Ancient One alone'! My Native friends insist that their claim to being the original peoples of this continent are being repudiated by the work of Chatters, Owsley and others. After researching for myself I have come to the conclusion that any work on this very sensitive topic is of value. There are no definitive answers now, and perhaps not in our lifetime. Look at the controversy over 'Lucy' in Africa? Science evolves just as people have. Dr. Chatters book is an excellent window on just how complicated 'our' origins are. For my own part, I am of the belief that there is not just ONE ancestor, nor can there be just ONE theory on how the contemporary people of this continent evolved. I don't find Dr. Chatters writings confusing in the least. I only wish I'd had the opportunity to meet him when I lived in Portland and went to several lectures on 'the Ancient One'. I think if I could choose who I would like to sit down with and pick his brain and learn, it would have to be Dr. Chatters. His credentials are above reproach despite the twists media have made concerning his use of a common morphological term 'caucasoid'. I would encourage him to keep digging, keep writing because many of us appreciate the intellectual stimulation our otherwise boring lives deprive us of. Excellent book!

This is one of those histories that reminds you how wonderful it is to be safely out of school.

Guess who Professor Foner has decided to blame for the "failure" of Reconstruction? The former slaveholders of the South whose descendants still argue that the "Civil War was not about slavery"? The 1840s immigrants from Europe whose racism was so deep and bitter that it led to the worst riot in American history (the New York City draft riots of 1864)?

Of course not. It was the Republican party - those awful people who brought us the 14th and 15th Amendments.

The unpolitically correct fact Professor Foner avoids is that the Union Army was the only effective force in favor of black equality after the Civil War. State and local governments - both North and South - were indifferent or hostile to the exercise of liberty by blacks and native Americans. The Freedman's Bureau was only able to do its job because those terrible people in the U.S. Army enforced what we now call civil rights.

Foner is so eager to avoid giving the Army its due that he fails to mention that its leader - Ulysses Grant - was the only President before Eisenhower to believe in black equality as Constitutional right. Without Grant there would have been no Reconstruction. When he left office (out of deference to the tradition that no President should serve more terms than the 1st one), Reconstruction was finished.

It is a measure of Grant's personal popularity that Americans respected his "naive" belief in fundamental equality of all Americans even if a majority of the electorate - North and South - did not share it. It is a measure of the unpopularity of civil rights among white Americans that it has taken more than a century for Grant's reputation to begin to recover from the presumption that only a drunk could think black people were equal.

Black people "failed" to gain political equality after the Civil War because the white Americans who had immigrated to the U.S. since 1840 and those who came after the Civil War joined with defeated Southerners to form a political alliance - the "modern" Democratic party - that overwhelmed the Republicans who had passed the 14th and 15th Amendments.

To accept the arguments of Foner and his admiring reviewers is to perpetuate the comfortable "radical" fantasy that but for those awful capitalists peace and harmony would be just around the corner.

Readers who are interested in the actual, tragic history of Reconstruction would be well-advised to read Stetson Kennedy's After Appomatox:How the South Won the Civil War and Brooks Simpson's Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction 1861-1868.

Based on 98 sets of private papers and more than fifty contemporary periodicals and newspapers, Eric Foner's Reconstruction is a superbly researched work of history. But this book is more than simply a synthesis that refutes the racist Dunning school interpretations. It is an invaluable and innovative work of history in its own right. First, Foner emphasizes the self-activity of the African-American community in its own right, as ex-slaves struggle to form their own churches, educate their children, revive their family life and mobilize themselves for political action. Second, Foner notes that racism cannot be seen as a diabolos de machina, dooming Reconstruction policies on the shoals of immutable prejudice, but as a complex phenomenon that, though very powerful, was also effected by other forces. Third, and perhaps most important, Foner explains the Reconstruction period as part of a transition towards capitalism. He is excellent on the implications and limitations of the Republican free labor policy, and on how African-Americans and white yeomanry tried to maintain their independence from the market and were ultimately sabatoged in this goal by the malevolence of the reconfigured and reconstitued Southern elite. For these passages alone, Foner has made an invaluable contribution to a Marxist interpretation of American history.

One should not forget Foner's considerable skills of summarization and detail. One remembers such details as the fact that Andrew Johnson was so cheap and penny-pinching that he opposed aid to assist the victims of the Irish potato famine. One is struck repeatedly by the use of violence to defeat Reconstruction (300 African-Americans alone were murdered by vigilantes in the summer of 1874 in Mississippi). One is also struck by Foner's insight on many issues. When I first read this book thirteen years I was amazed to realize that white opposition to the Confederacy was not simply confined to West Virginia and border states like Tennessee, but also to the interior regions of Alabama and North Carolina. There is also Foner's portrait of Lincoln who, if less than heroic in this account, is redemmed by an open-mindedness and willingness to consider alternatives. Foner also refutes the vulgar Beardian view that the Republican Radicals were nothing more than an advance army for Northern Industrialists, though at the same time pointing out the limitations of their laissez faire ideology. As the best volume in the Harper and Row New American Nation series one should point out that Foner also goes into detail about the transformation of the North, the rise of industrial capitalism, of labor protest, of the fate of the women's suffrage movement, and the brutal conquest of the West. Foner is also acute on the difficulties between the black-white alliance in much of the South, which was not merely the result of white racism, but also the undermining of yeomary independence and the contradictions of Southern Republican policy. (It needed to raise taxes to insure vital public services like education, but it also tried to encourage market production at a time when massive debt and low commodity prices insured the weakening of small landholders.)

But what makes Foner's account so superb is that it is a moving and haunting narrative of a great injustice and a great tragedy. Foner discusses the ungeneous attitude of the post Civil war Southern elite as they sought to reintroduce as much of slavery as they could, and as they vitiated education and the judiciary and other protections for freed people. To everyone's surprise the Radical Republicans are able to arouse enough popular opposition to overcome this. But they are limited by a tragic flaw: their free labour ideology cannot recognize the reality of class struggle. Their laissez-faire ideology limits their options. Foner is excellent on the fate of the land question, and he points out that land itself would not have ensured Africa-American prosperity. But every little bit helps and every little bit hurts. As one reads the results of "Redemption," and the rise of violence, disfranchisement, the sacking of black education, the adulteration of the judicial and creditor system to benefits whites against blacks and planters against everyone else, one learns a vital truth. The Reconstruction era was arguably the Republican party's finest hour, as it willingly went to the defense of a despised and powerless minority. By contrast, with its psychotic racism and fatuous laissez-faire cant, this was one of the worst hours of any American conservatism. In his History of the American People, Woodrow Wilson once condescendingly referred to the ex-slaves as "a host of dusky children untimely let out of school." Of course, slavery was a school whose pupils were forbidden to read and never allowed to graduate from. In reading this book, one can feel only rage at those intellectuals who euphemize violence and condescend to its victims.

A major undertaking. Eric Foner and Leon Litwack (Been in the Storm so Long) have rescued Reconstruction from the dustbin of history. Each has offered a timely re-exploration into one of the most pivotal periods in American History. For Foner, Reconstruction represents the often forgotten conclusion to the Civil War, an attempt to address the social injustices that resulted from over two centuries of slavery. What is even more compelling about Foner's account is that he absorbs the early women's suffrage movement into this early battle for Civil Rights.

This remarkably well-researched book gives probably the most thorough examination of Reconstruction to date. Foner begins in 1863 with the emancipation proclamation, and carries the era through to 1877, when a fateful compromise was reached by Republicans and Democrats which led to the notorious period of Redemption, in which most of the gains during this period of time were nullified.

Foner covers a tremendous amount of ground. He has uncovered old court records and other valuable information, which demonstrate just how active a role Blacks had in Reconstruction. He notes the seminal work of W.E.B. DuBois (Black Reconstruction in America), which went largely ignored by the "Dunning School," which interpreted Reconstruction as an unmitigated failure in social improvement. Foner, like DuBois, notes how many beneficial social changes came as a result of Reconstruction such as public health, education and welfare. But the Redeemers could hardly stand to see Blacks in power, and fought tooth and nail to re-establish the old social order in the South, finally winning over the Grant administration, which pardoned the Southern states, and allowed them to regain the political ascendency, much to the chagrin of the Radical Republicans, who had been instrumental in shaping the Civil Rights legislation of this time.

This book presents so many revealing portraits. It is as much a social as it is a political history of Reconstruction. Of the many compelling stories was the attempt by Blacks to make a thriving concern of the former Jefferson Davis plantation. Despite the fact that Jefferson Davis' brother had ceded the plantation to the former slaves, the Mississippi courts eventually gave title to Davis' heirs. During this brief halcyon period, the freedmen had made a success of the plantation, never realized under the Davis administration. Foner offers this case, as well as many others, to demonstrate that the former slaves were fully committed to Reconstruction, and so this as the opportunity to gain the social and political ascendency they had long been denied.

One is left to wonder what it might have been like had callous Republicans like Rutherford B. Hayes not sold out Reconstruction, and allowed the process to continue through the late 19th century. Instead, the Redeemers nullified much of what had been gained, leading to the notorious era of Jim Crow.

The basics of the Vietnam disaster are familiar to all of us. There is much new information to learn, however, about the political aspects of the conflict. All this and more is covered in great detail in this enormous volume by Robert Mann. Besides the familiar details exposed by David Halberstam some thirty years ago in "The Best and the Brightest", Mann documents in enormous detail the political events related to Vietnam each and every year beginning with the French defeat and running right through the fall of Saigon in 1975. This was far and away America's longest war and there is much to tell. While Mann blames Eisenhower and Kennedy, he reserves the bulk of blame for Lyndon Johnson who knew the struggle was hopeless yet refused to be "the first president to lose a war." Johnson also misled COngress and the country at large as to the costs of the war because he was afraid it would jeopardize his domestic programs. This book is most useful, however, in showing the evolution of later war opponents like Mike Mansfield William Fulbright and George McGovern. All supported the war in its early stages. Much has been written about this war and much still needs to be written. While all concede the war was a disaster opinions still vary on why. Could the war have been won? Was it worth fighting at all? Why did these political figures who later opposed the war support it at the beginning? These are questions Mann attempts to answer. The book is not easy or light reading but is a necessary antidote to a generation of books and films which portray the horror of the war but not the why's of it. It's a good read and I recommend it.

Let me start by saying that this is a long book, a very long book. As it should be. Starting with the "roots" of the war, specifically the fallout over Truman's so-called "loss" of China, Mann takes us through every twist and turn of political thought and action behind the war, covering the period from the late 1940s to April 29, 1975. The great value of the book and its length is that Mann frequently makes wonderful connections between events of different times. This is the best pure political history of the war, and as such should be a must-read for anyone wishing to understand why it unfolded as it did.

Sure the book is lengthy, but so was American involvement in Vietnam...The book's value is as a single volume history that focuses laser-like on the backdoor political story of Vietnam, an aspect usually getting much less attention than headline-grabbing military or protest developments All in all, the book sheds much needed light on 30 years of deceitful shenanigans in Washington that left 3,000,000 Vietnamese dead, 50,000 Americans dead, and generations of wounds, emotional and physical, that will probably never heal. As the book shows, Americans are correct in not trusting their government, especially as it behaves abroad.

Mann walks us through a revealing series of presidential administrations and policies, starting with Truman's, and ending with Ford's. Each has a role in gearing up the meat grinder, some more honorably than others, but none comes off looking good as the country spirals ever downward toward disillusion and defeat. Ditto for the senators who opposed the war (Fulbright, Mc Govern, Mansfield, et. al.), lawmakers who, despite hours of pious rhetoric, could never get their legislative act together. Scarce mention is made of military or protest developments except when either influences major political decisions. As a much needed political chronicle of that 30 year span, the book succeeds admirably.

Mann's perspective is primarily a liberal one (which probably explains one particularly misleading review), but favors no individuals, liberal, conservative, or radical. He emphasizes the extent to which official hands were tied by red-baiting rhetoric of the cold war, in which every communist, nationalist or internationalist, was seen as taking his marching orders from Moscow. Such cramped thinking refuses to distinguish a national liberation movement from an international communist conspiracy, thereby setting policy on a one way track that no one could get off of. Here Mann is on solid ground. But on the allied topic of the domino theory, there is more truth to that theory than liberals such as Mann like to admit. The problem for defenders of the theory is that southeast Asia is not where the dominoes fell. Rather they fell in Central Africa (Angola, Mozambique, the collapse of the Portuguese empire) and Central America (Nicaragua, El Salvador, to a degree Guatemala). As more recent documentation has shown, rebel movements in each of these contested venues were boosted considerably by US defeat, demoralization, and subsequent lessening of a will to intervene. So in the rather ironical sense of being right for the wrong reasons, conservatives understood better than liberals the global stakes of intervention in southeast Asia. Be that as it may, Mann has written a very readable and revealing account of how Washington got us into that bloody mess in the first place.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Reding earlier this year, and as I chatted with him over some drinks, I was really struck hy the though, "This guy has led a really amazing life!" As a result, I went out and grabbed this book and as I read it, I became even more amazed.

Nick tells the story of his experiences in the Chilean Patagonia in a way that draw you in to every moment. The vividness of his writing and the beauty of some of his comparisons made this quite an enjoyable read. His attention to detail leaves the reader with a feeling that they are right there staring over Nick's shoulder as he goes about life in a very different part of the world.

Nick has that knack that some of the best writers have of being able to see the common thread that exists between very different experiences and places. This book is also extremely well researched with a lot of attention to historical detail, but this detail is not integrated in a dry textbook like manner. Instead when Nick feels it is neccessary to illuminate the reader about a particular piece of history to provide context for an event, he explains that history without distracting from the main storyline.

Overall, this is an excellent piece of writing and I look forward to future books by Nick (he assures me at least one more is on the way).

Nick Reding's book is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It gives the reader a well researched perspective on the power of modernization upon the isolated world of the gauchos in Chilean Patagonia. But it is more than a sociological study. It is also a very human story of a family that embodies the dissolution of a culture. This family brings both comedy and tragedy to the unraveling of this piece of history. I found myself so invested in these people by the end of the book that I didn't want it to end.

This is simply the best book I've read all year. It's the story of a guy who goes to Chile to work as a fishing guide and stumbles on an entire culture of people that history has overlooked--the Chilean gauchos. Most people would have thought, "Wow, that's pretty cool" and left it at that. It's a good thing for us that Nick Reding is a writer with an incredibly sharp and curious mind.

Reding returns to live among the gauchos (a cattle-herding people) in remote Chile, where he is exposed to their unique language, culture, and way of life. He stays with a family of five who come to represent many of the different stresses that the modern world places on a poor, rural people--depression, alcoholism, loneliness, desire for material comfort, etc. But Reding gets underneath a lot of this stuff to reveal the spirit of these people who have lived solitary lives in harmony with the stunning landscape for hundreds of years.

But don't think for a second that this is some dry sociological account. Reding is first and foremost a writer, and he focuses on the characters he meets and the many tiny plots that connect people and make up the narrative of a whole culture. He does an amazing job of drawing you in, making you care about the people in the book. He goes on harrowing cattle drives, travels to the mountain hideaways of a known criminal, and documents the way that the modern world is changing the gauchos' way of life.

In 1985 Joe Kane, a writer from San Franciso, along with about ten other individuals from several other countries set out to travel the entire length of the world's longest river. They started at the trickling headwaters of the Amazon in the Peruvian Andes. Nearly seven months and 4,200 miles later, as the river flows into the Atlantic, the group was down to four. Along the way, the group encountered killer rapids, narcotics smugglers, Shining Path geurillas, raging floods and more. This is a readable, exciting book about an epic adventure not likely to be repeated soon. Unfortunately, Kane's account gives short shrift to the latter part of the journey. Roughly two thirds of the narrative describes the first third of the adventure. What is there, however, takes the reader right there, as though along for the journey--from the raging rapids waiting to drown the inexperienced, timorous river runner, to the steaming jungle, to the bugs and snakes, to the almost monotonous routine day after day after day, to the meager existence of those who live along the river. This book is also an interesting case study in leadership and teamwork (or lack thereof) in an epic adventure.

Joe Kane travels the way most of us dream about it. We all want to travel the entire length of the Amazon in a kayak. If we are lucky we will be able to afford a 4 to 5 day trip on a big passanger boat. He perfectly captures the balance of fun and fear that makes some extreme trips so memorable and reminds us why we are attracted to extreme travel in the first place.

My only gripe about the book is the speed of the narrative. As Kane's trip carried on, he became more hurried to get to his final destination and less interested in pausing to enjoy the environment around him. And as a writer, one senses that he set out to recount everything, but grew impatient and eventually became interested only in getting to the end of his tale. As a result, the early chapters on Peru are detailed and meandering. We don't even get into Brazil until about two thirds of the way through the book. And the final third of the book, from the Peru-Brazil-Colombia border to the Atlantic, whizzes by without a pause, as if the growing speed of the Amazon's current were forcing Kane's narrative forward at an ever faster pace until he finally reaches Belem. There were logistical reasons why Kane was in a hurry, but I was left wishing he had taken the time to pause and meander a little bit more in the lower Amazon.

This is a story about 10 people who set out to run the Amazon River from the headwaters to the Atlantic Ocean (only 4 of them complete the entire trip). The author does a good job at describing the environment, interactions with the local people, and the adventures they encountered on the trip.

The first 177 pages describe the initial 700 miles of the journey; the other 100 pages describe the remaining 3500 miles of the expedition. When I was about 2/3 of the way through the book and learned that they had 3500 miles left to go, I wondered how the author could do justice to this large segment of travel in only 100 pages. I felt shortchanged. I'm not saying that the book had to be 1000 pages long, but I think that more should have been said about the 3500 miles.

The most exciting part was the whitewater rafting/kayaking through the Acobamba Abyss. Having rafted and kayaked before, I could really identify with their struggles. The author wrote in such a way that I could easily picture what was happening (there were some very intense moments). Being that a number of the team members had very little or no whitewater experience, I'm surprised that they survived this trip.

The author did a good job at describing the interaction among the expedition team members (this really added to the story). However, he was too lenient toward Francois Odendaal. Odendaal did not belong on the river at all and made for a very poor expedition leader.

I'm glad I bought the book. In my opinion, the writing style is good but not great. I did learn a lot about the countries and the people that border the river.

Before reading this book, I knew nothing about the Amazon and wasn't that interested. Now, even though it's been half a year since I finished the book, I find myself thinking about Moi, Enquiri, Judith, and the rest. Joe Kane also did a good job explaining the very complicated situation with the oil companies. I was inspired to hit the library for more books on the Amazon and the people there. It's also inspired me to check in with Rainforest Action Network and write a few letters. One of my favorite books ever.

I first read this book about two years ago and have since given copies as gifts to friends and have passed my own copy about to many colleagues. I work in the oil industry and I believe that this book is a MUST READ for all foreign workers in the Amazon region. My field of work involves protecting the interests of the local people and the health of the environment and I can assure the previous reviewer that while the oil companies have much to answer for historically that there is a small army of us working on the inside and who have found Savages to be one of the best books around. Joe Kane writes in journalistic style presenting events as they unfolded and he sheds light on several issues relating to foreign activity in developing countries that are seldom thought about by those who participate in the "invasion". Mr Kane's writing had me in fits of laughter at times and at other times I was in tears. By the end of the book I felt that I almost knew the people whose lives were discussed and I certainly closed the cover with a new understanding and questions that I had not asked myself before. Anyone contemplating a trip to the jungle of Ecuador, or other Amazonian nation, should make a point of reading this book. It is factual, interesting and tells a real life drama that describes the beginning of what will probably be the final days of the isolated people of the Amazon. It will be up to you as the reader to form an opinion on the situation as Kane doesn't do it for you. He does however raise the interesting question that may not be answered easily - what rights do isolated people have to remain isolated and completely unaffected by the development of the world? Read Savages for yourself and see if you can answer that question.

In Savages, Kane conveys the dire importance of understanding and respecting the traditional practices of the Huaorani Indians of Ecuador. Kane examines through personal experience their struggle to maintain identity, land, and dignity in the face of oil companies, missionaries, and economic progress. The author demonstrates journalistic reporting at its very best and assures the reader a sincere and responsible account of the matters at hand. This book should be read by anyone interested in the future of humankind

A book review

It is safe to say that although there are many travel opportunities available today, the majority of people on this planet will seldom stray far from their home roots. Some may take a trip here or there but in the main, few casual travelers (of the several billion earth occupants) will go very far away.

All of this is to say that though we may not go ourselves, we can travel to far away places by motion pictures, video and, of course by reading books by those who have gone to the places that, for many people, will never be on their travel agenda.

Karin Muller does this as she traveled "Along The Inca Road," which is the name of her book, published in 2000 by the National Geographic Society of Washington, D.C. It is her journal of traveling this historic road of some 3,100 miles which runs along the coast line and nearby mountains of western South America.

There were adventures at nearly every juncture as Muller encountered people and cultures reflecting the days of the Inca. Though those days are long gone, the Inca live on through many of the customs and lives of those peoples who today inhabit the villages and cities along this road. In a vivid way the book is a mix of the past & the present. That is, in order to understand the lives of today's people along this road, it became necessary to appreciate their roots. How did it happen that they exist as they do? What are the many tales they repeat and repeat, as parts of their cultures?

The nearly 300 pages of Muller's work is a word by word trip, to say the least. It brings into closer focus lands, people and history that most of us have long ago forgotten, having met the facts in elementary school, if at all.

It is an easy and pleasant read.

Dan Schobert

Muller is a wonderful travel writer with the ability to make even the mundane come alive. Her way with words ("The main square was full of Saturday-night drunks all walking like wobbly bowling pins") keeps you reading on to find out where she will land next, and among whom. From helicopter crashes to street festivals, Karin Muller follows this ancient road, and allows serendipity to play its hand. She encounters not only the absurd and strange (having your head beaten with a guinea pig to find out your disease or ailment), but the beautiful and sublime ("people who reached out to help a stranger through a day of violence and despair").

Her travels follow the famed Inca Road. This ancient highway reached from Equador down to Chile, and played a critical role in homogenizing the Inca Civilization. I have been to South America over a dozen times in the past six years and her highly entertaining stories ring true.

There is a significant weakness to this book - the lack of maps. I find it a bit baffling, that National Geographic, curator of some of the world best maps, failed to include any quality maps of a journey that snakes down and around South America. Rather, National Geographic gives you one decrepit and confusing black and white map of South America. BUT! They do include 26 excellent color photographs. Go figure.

In 'Along the Inca Road', Karin Muller gives you more than just a great read, she furnishes you with provocative and informative insights into both the history of the Inca and their culture. This is a wonderful book and will be enjoyed by all who appreciate the Inca culture, South America and great travel writing. You should read this book. 4 1/2 Stars Recommended

Compelling, entertaining, historical... this book is a real page-turner.

Muller's keenly-observed journey skillfully interweaves past and present, giving the reader a glimpse of what life must have been like in the golden heyday of the Inca empire as she walks along stones and walkways trodden by warriors and peasants for hundreds of years. She writes with compassion and genuine understanding of those she meets along the way - peopling her book with characters who come to life and leap off the page. Along the Inca Road transports the reader into a world most of us will never see - probably for the best, since the road is long and arduous. I'm glad I didn't have to do it - but I'm even more glad that she did!

This book brings to light a historical phenomenon hidden beneath the spotlight of cold war headlines of the early 1960s. Nearly forty years later, the exodus of 14,000 Cuban children whose lives were devastated by those headlines would still be hidden, if not for the diligent work of Yvonne Conde. Through painstaking research and sensitive, insightful writing, Conde has laid out in meticulous detail a more complete story of the effects of Castro's revolution on the lives of the Cuban people than I have read before.

As a middle-class American who was fourteen in 1961, I was shocked to read of this all-but-lost piece of history-14,000 Cuban children sent alone from their homes, many of whom were my age at the time.

Impressive in her ability to combine a clean, journalistic style with empathy and deep insight, Conde has written a beautiful and important book that lays out a timeline of political events even as it captures the personal pain, loneliness and fear of innocent children. The author tells each story in a way that compels the reader to imagine being a child again, suddenly sent away from parents and home to adjust, at best, to a foreign language, strange food and customs and harsh climates and, at worst, to endure the nightmare of physical, emotional or sexual abuse at the hands of strangers. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to know the whole story.

I just finished reading Operation Pedro Pan and I found it engrossing! I couldn't put it down. Although I am Cuban and a Pedro Pan child myself, I believe I am objective when I say that, yes, the book has a couple of typos, but nothing that detracts from the overall quality of this important historical work. As for it not being "organized"according to the Booklists review, Ms. Conde has presented a wonderful chronological sequence of events, starting with a thorough explanation of the political events in Cuba 1959-62 that made our parents take the drastic action of sending us away. It is followed with information on how the program started, how the visas were distributed clandestinely in Cuba, the temporary shelters in Miami where we were placed, letters from the children back then, and chapters on orphanages, living with foster families, abuse, forgetting our Spanish, the reunions with our parents, what happened to some of us in the 60's and 70's and comments from the children today on how this experience affected us. It finishes with the very valuable results of her questionnaire to 442 of the children, the only research of its type to date, as far as I know. Not well organized? C'mon! As for "not particularly well written"(Booklist again) people either like or dislike different authors and their styles, I found hers to be journalistic and easy to read. Who are these critics and what are their hidden agendas?

To Yvonne M. Conde I want to say, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for writing this book. This true story is very close to my heart, for I am also, a Pedro Pan child. Reading this book was painful at times but at the same time it validated my part in it. As time goes by sometimes you wonder, did all that really happened or is my memory playing tricks on me? For me it has been almost 38 years. The book is very easy to read and the research that was involved comes through. I am buying two more copies to give my american born daughters. They have heard some of the stories from me, but again this is validation. I can identify with many of the feelings expressed by the other stories and I could not have said it as eloquent. This book will be with me forever.

I am currently using this book in my AP history class and would not recommend it for any high school student. The text is wordy and confusing and often misleads the reader. Another problem is the fact that there is no glossary of terms, self-test questions, or chapter summaries. It is very hard to slog through and even harder to study from. Unfortunately, the Board of Education in my town has made this the required textbook of AP History students. I would not recommend it to anyone attempting to have a clear understanding of US history.

This book was very detailed and comprehensive. I used it along with two other books in my AP US History class. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because it jumped around too much perhaps it could have talked about the 1930s in Chapter 24 then back to the 1920s in 25.

I have read reviews from different students in regard to this book. It was really never designed for a high school text and yes it is difficult reading, but it contains more facts and information than any college level or high school level history text. I was so impressed that I ordered the cd-rom edition to use for my student teaching experience. I have found this book even difficult can be of great importance to the student and yes in College and as in high school if the instructor uses the book improperly it can be hell. It is best used by the chunking method a little bit at a time. I wish I could find a replacement cd-rom for the cd-rom version of this book it was most helpfull in teaching history with videos, pictures, and speeches. I kind of wish the book was not out of print though.

Hello.

I am sorry but I just couldn't help myself reviewing this book after I have used it as a reference guide when traveling to Brazil for the first time. WHAT A WASTE OF PAPER!

One word of advice: DON'T BUY IT, DON'T LISTEN TO IT!

The book is filled with interesting facts about the history but if you were to listen to author's tips and advice on "what to do" you will never enjoy your trip to this beautiful country as much as you should.

As a matter of fact, I borrowed (luckily I didn't buy this book) from friends who used this book as a guide on their trip to Rio. Needles to say they didn't enjoy their stay to the fullest. On the other hand, I had a blast.

It seems that the author tries too hard to make the readers aware that traveling comes with a certain degree of danger. She does it too well. Descriptions of neighborhoods are really inaccurate. Even some of the phrases are not correctly translated! Go figure!

Do yourself a favor. Talk to people who traveled to Brazil first (if you can) before trusting the author (nothing personal, really).

And if you can, please visit Brazil and see how truly amazing and charming the coutry is. See for yourself how friendly and nice people really are! If there is one thing in life you should do if you plan on living it to the fullest. I know I did!

PEOPLE! BRAZIL IS BEAUTIFUL AND NOT AS REPELLING AS PICTURED IN THIS BOOK!

pf

P.S. By the way, I wonder if anyone from Brazilan's Department of Travel has ever heard of this book?

I had to write a review about Brazil Up CLose because the one below is ridiculous. This was a terrific read and helped me enormously throughout my trip. In fact I switched my plans at the last minute and went to Brazil on a whim because of this book and was glad I did. It's a great country and no one writes in a more inspiring way than Pamela Bloom. I would highly recommend it.

I am a connoisseur of guidebooks and this is about the best I have ever read. It's got everything you would want to know about how to travel, where to go and what to do to have a great time once you're there. Brazil is a huge country but the author has visited over 6o different cities, places, etc., and includes extensive information, tips and personal commentary. It's her writing style that makes the book so enjoyable, however. You can tell she truly loves Brazil and Brazilians but also gives a true account of safety precautions you need to take if you go there.(And I wish I had fully listened to her--I did get my watch stolen (fortunately a cheap one) while I was walking on the beach in Copacabana at dawn--something the author warned against!). I traveled through Brazil on business and pleasure last year and it truly is a beautiful, exotic, if sometimes exasperating country. The author's chapter on how to get along with Brazilians really helped me through some business (and personal! ) matters. I was also inspired to get ahold of her other book called Amazon Up Close which has fascinating articles by scientists who work with tribes in the rainforest. I didn't get to the Amazon on my last trip but her book has inspired me to plan a jungle adventure for next year. My young son Gerald (age 11) even used Amazon Up Close in a show-and-tell at school and the book proved invaluable for a number of assignments he wrote up on the rainforest, global pollution and international politics.Looks like I will have to take him with me when I go next year. I strongly recommend both of these books, Brazil Up Close and Amazon Up Close, by Pamela Bloom.