Book Description
Antibiotics are not the panacea we once believed -- our immune systems become lazy if we take too many -- but how can we stay well without them? This book shows how antibiotics work, and why it is essential to your health to avoid them.
Book Description
It's a real-life spy story, straight from the heart of the Second World War. This triumph of espionage by the Soviet Military Intelligence took the Nazis over two years to crack. Made up of a diverse mixture of Russians, Jews, Poles, and other Europeans (including some Germans), the Red Orchestra played a vital role in the destruction of Nazism--despite the constant fear of discovery. Many were tortured. But, by the time the Germans finished their investigation, the Eastern front was already lost.
Customer Reviews:
A must read for anyone interested in Soviet espionage.......2007-08-23
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in WWII or Soviet espionage. Historian V.E. Tarrant tells the story of maybe the most important spy ring in the history of espionage. It is a compact 199 pages and reads like a thriller in which the heroes and heroine's come to life in well written anecdotes. The Red Orchestra was responsible for helping the Soviets win WWII several years earlier than it ordinarily would have and thereby helped save millions of lives. The book is also something of a primer for those not already aficianados of the espionage trade. The author familiarizes the reader with much of the terms and nomenclature of that industry. Overall a great read.
truthfull telling of spy ring.......2002-06-17
a breath of fresh air amongst all the garbage that is out there. this is one of the few books that simply and excitingly tells the truth of the greatest spy network in history. is there any wonder that the russians were so far ahead of us during the cold war considering the lead they had built up? this book reads like a novel with exciting caracters only the caracters are real. it takes less than 200 pages for v.e. tarrant to do what most authors of dubious reputation like louis kilzer only try to do. tell an incredibly fascinating and true story that is historically accurate. 5 big stars
The Book to Have on the Soviet Spy Ring.......2000-06-28
This book details the devastating (to the Germans) effect of the 'European' spy ring known as 'The Red Orchestra', whose many sources included a direct pipeline to OKW. It tells the story of the beginnings, people, and fates of those involved. It tells of the info. so massive in size that was given to the 'Director' in Moscow, that the 'Ultra' intercepts the west was receiving was miniscule in comparison. For the first time in available info. to the west some of the exact transmissions from the ring that the Soviet military were able utilize most effectively.
It clarifies in an easy and readable manner the significance of codes the ring used, (Werther was not a person, but a 'cover code' signifying the text info. was army related. 'Cover code' Olga was info. about the Luftwaffe). It also shows the breadth and depth of the 'underground' of people involved in destroying the Nazi regime, Communist and non-Communist. (Rossler was a right-wing conservative).
Drawn from sources recently made available from the ex-Soviet state, interviews with survivors, and established known data from the War, it puts to 'lie' the historically flawed book "Hitler's Traitor" by Kilzer and shows him to be a 'sensationalist' whose book should be in the 'fiction' classification.
Gripping,top-notch book. .......2000-06-21
Reads like a fast-paced thriller .
The book tells the story of the biggest intelligence -gathering operation in the history of espionage .
On June 22 ,1941, Hitler launched the invasion of Soviet Union .The attack code- named "Barbarossa " led to the biggest land campaign in the history of war .Eastern campaign was four days old ,panzers smashing their way through forward Soviet defences ,when German long -range radio monitoring stations at Kranz on the Baltic coast of East Prussia intercepted cryptic messages beamed by clandestine radio transmitters.
Signal intelligence squads of Funkabwehr immediately swung into action. Using director- finder sets took cross bearings of these transmissions ,established that directional lines traversed Brussels ,Paris ,Lucerne and even Berlin itself .From the nature of these transmissions German intelligence admitted that this was the work of Soviet spyring in Reich and occupied territories ,recipient of enciphered messages was housed in Moscow.
Welcome to Red Orchestra .Though created by the GRU( Soviet Military Intelligence ) it included in its ranks people of several nationalities ,coming from different walks of life ,having diverse political persuasions ,but all united in their hatred for Nazi regime. Red Orchestra network of spies ,agents ,informers frustrated Hitler's
bid to conquer Russia.
Soviet spy apparat (network) in Berlin while transmitting information used call signs "Choro " , "Wolf " .After much dedicated and laborious detective work the cryptoanalysts of "Funkabwehr " uncovered their identies ."Choro "was Lieutenant Harro Schulze -Boysen, a Luftwaffe desk officer in the Reich Ministry of Aviation .This allowed him to access highly sensitive information ."Wolf "turned out to be Dr . Arvid Harnack ,a senior Civil servant in the Reich Ministry of Economics .Being members of Berlin high society they brushed shoulders with highest ranking officers of German High Command and Nazi party.
Another important cog of GRU spy network was Grand Chef's circuit,which operated from Belgium ,Holland ,France .But who was Grand Chef ? He was Leopold Trepper alias Adam Mikler ,Jean Gilbert , a Polish Jew.Recruited into the GRU,he went to Belgium .There he opened a commercial enterprise as a cover for his clandestine activities .His firms Simex ,Simexco -after the German Occupation of western Europe -did lucrative business with Todt organisation which supervised works of construction and fortification for "Wehrmacht" .Money generated from the business was used by Grand Chef to further expand activities of the network .As the author aptly puts it " Third Reich was subsidising the Red Orchestra just as a living organism will nourish the cancer that is eroding it "
It was during the course of such interactions Trepper's agents heard Hitler's preparations to invade Russia.However the most important source of intelligence for GRU proved to be "LUCY".LUCY worked for Soviet
Soviet intelligence which operated from neutral country Switzerland .The network dubbed "DIE ROTE DREI"(The Red Three) was erected by GRU agent ,a Hungarian map maker Sandor Rado ,whose call name was DORA.
LUCY was Rudolf Rossler, a German refugee publisher living in Lucerne,Harsh treatment meted out by Alfred Rosenberg who seized his profitable theatre company made him a rabid anti-nazi.Rossler alias LUCY ,whose identity was to remain secret long after the war had ended ,received information from sources in German High Command (OKW).The post war CIA study had partially unmasked their identities .The most important among them were Lt.Gen Fritz Thiele,second -in-command of OKW's communications branch and Baron Rudolf Von Gersdorff chief of intelligence on the staff of Army Group Centre on theEastern Front.
Thus through LUCY the GRU penetrated German General Staff .Scarcely ten hours passed between taking of a decision by OKW and its receipt in Moscow which means the decision was known to STAVKA(Soviet High Command)even before it came to the notice of German field commanders.
This was intelligence windfall of the first order which had no parallels anytime in history.
The operation of Soviet spy networks helped Red Army to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat .War began disastrously for the Russians .If only Stalin had heeded to the warnings of Red Orchestra of about impending German attack ,Wehrmacht could have been stopped on its tracks.
The book contains some startling revelations .This pertains to Operation Case Blue launched on June 28,1942 by Wehrmacht .Mr .Tarrant has debunked the claim of leading historians of the war on Eastern Front who said Stalin again ignored intelligence warnings and was responsible for the destruction of South -Western front with the enemy reaching the banks of Volga at Stalingrad.
Author has shown that Stavka was aware of German intentions thanks to Red Orchestra .Entire ten pages of Hitler"s Directive No:41 setting out the strategic intentions of summer offensive was transmitted to Moscow thanks to Lucy.This enabled Stalin and his generals to devise a strategy where by Germans were lured deep into the Soviet territory .In military parlance this is know as elastic or mobile defence.Red Army retreated,shirked contact with the enemy,surrendering vast swathes of land in the process.Author says Germans where drawn into the jaws of enormous steel trap which snapped shut in Stalngrad.
Knowledge bestows power and intelligence represents highest form of knowledge .Soviet foreknowledge again of German intentions helped Red Army to parry enemy blows .This was precisely what happened during Operation Citadel .Thanks again to LUCY, Red Army was able to blunt the German drive to pinch out the Kursk Bulge .
Some what strange it looks,Soviet histriography of war has virtually ignored the contribution of Red Orchestra in that country's victory over Nazi Germany .On the contrary author under the chapter ,"Ultra Myth " has reproached attempts made by some historians in the West to belittle its role.
By the end of 1943, Red Orchestra networks were all dead ,snuffed out in a massive counter -intelligence operation launched by Abwehr and Gestapo.LUCY's sources too perished due to purge unleashed by Nazi regime against senior Commanders of German Officer Corps for their attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944.However by this time the tide of war on theSoviet front had changed ,Red Army began its inexorable advance towards Berlin .
Based on solid ,painstaking research ,this book I rate the book best read in recent times Author has shed new light on the war in the Eastern Front ignored by historians in the West for which he needs to be felicitated .Now it appears the history of Soviet-German war needs revision ,reinterpretation.
Thrilling,Stunning and gripping book.......1999-06-27
The book tells the story of the biggest intelligence gathering operation in the history of espionage. I n fact "RED ORCHESTRA" was a loose collection of Soviet spy apparats ,networks which operated in Nazi Germany ,Nazi -occupied France,Belgium ,Holland and in Neutral Switzerland.Erected by the GRU, (Soviet Military Intelligence)its purpose was to spy on Nazi Germany .It included in its ranks people from different walks of life .Some of its members were strategically -placed German officers ,who fed the Soviet Agents operational decisions ,details regarding German conduct of war in the eastern front.
The organisation ,played a key role in thwarting Hitler's designs to conquer Soviet Russia..The Nazis Came to know about Red Orchestra after Germany had launched its invasion of Russia.The founder of Soviet spy network in western Europe was a Polish Jew ,LEOPOL D TREPPER. However ,the most important among all the espionage network was the Lucy Ring ,which operated from Switzerland.Lucy warned Russians about Hitler's plan to invade Soviet Union, even went to the extent of giving the precise Time and date ,when invasion will commence.Strangely Stalin chose to ignore those warnings.As a result Soviet Union ,came to the brink of military disaster.
As the war progressed , Lucy started passing on top- grade intelligence to Russians .Top secret plans of the German High command ,were known to Soviet front -line generals ,even before they were known to German Field Commanders .Lucy's sources of imformataion were two senior officers who served in communications Branch;Col.Rudolf Von.Gersdorff, Chief of Intelligence in the staff of Army group centre.(Eastern Front)The information Relayed seriously compromised the German Military operations in Russia..During the latter half of the 1942,contrary to what I had known ,the WEHRMACHT was drawn into the jaws of an enormous steel trap Which eventually led to Stalingrad.Subsequently, on July 1943,again thanks to the intelligence provided by Lucy, the Red army was able to stop the German drive to pinch out the KURSK salient .
By this time ,Soviet spy networks were all rolled up by a massive counter-intelligence operation launched by the ABWEHR and the GESTAPO.Swiss network also stopped functioning.Lucy sources dried up due to ruthless purge unleashed by the Nazi regime against senior commanders of German officer corps for their alleged complicity to assassinate Hitler on July20,1944.But success came too late for Germans.Strategic initiative had already been wrested by the Red army as it began relentless drive towards Berlin.
Gripping ,thrilling absolutely marvellous book,the best that I have read in recent times.Based on solid painstaking research ,Mr Tarrant has shed some new light on Russo-German War for which he needs to be felicitated. This book is bound to alter how the posterity may look at this event.-Reviewed by K.Mukherji (mukherjik@hotmail.com
Average customer rating:
- In over her head
- More than just Resistance
- Much More Than Wartime Resistance
- Unveiling the family legend
- superior biography
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Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra
Shareen Blair Brysac
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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The Red Orchestra
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The Great Game: Memoirs of the Spy Hitler Couldn't Silence
ASIN: 0195152409 |
Book Description
This gripping and heartbreaking narrative is the first full account of an American woman who gave her life in the struggle against the Nazi regime. As members of a key resistance group, Mildred Harnack and her husband, Arvid, assisted in the escape of German Jews and political dissidents, and for years provided vital economic and military intelligence to both Washington and Moscow. But in 1942, following a Soviet blunder, the Gestapo arrested, tortured, and tried some four score members of the Harnacks' group, which the Nazis dubbed the Red Orchestra. Mildred Fish-Harnack was guillotined in Berlin on February 16, 1943, on the personal instruction of Adolf Hitler--she was the only American woman to be executed as an underground conspirator during World War II. Yet as the war ended and the Cold War began, her courage, idealism, and self-sacrifice went largely unacknowledged in America and the democratic West, and were distorted and sanitized in the Communist East. Only now, with the opening of long-sealed archives from Germany, the KGB, the CIA, and the FBI, can the full story be told. In this superbly told life of an unjustly forgotten woman, Shareen Blair Brysac depicts the human side of a controversial resistance group that for too long has been portrayed as merely a Soviet espionage network.
Customer Reviews:
In over her head.......2006-05-29
I wanted to read this book because I am interested in WWII espionage, but only the last third of the book really deals with this, and the actual espionage is sketchy at best. The first third recounts Mildred's early years in Wisconsin (and her life just isn't that interesting) up to her marriage to Arvid Harnack. She has a hard life with him after they move back to his native Germany. They never have any money and for fun read Goethe to each other and their friends. The author tends to glorify Mildred, but she is made human, perhaps unwittingly, in recollections by her friends during a visit to her homeland after Hitler is in power. She reveals herself to be full of insecurties by making references to her own beauty and by looking down her nose at the hicks she grew up with. Much is made of Mildred's beauty throughout the book, but it must not be the kind that reveals itself in pictures, since she looks rather plain. Arvid comes across as unlikeable, humorless, controlling and provincial in his own way, while Mildred is a gentle soul who really should have been a literature professor at an American university instead of getting tangled up in her husband's underground activities for the Red Orchestra. But she is loyal and her love for him leaves her no other choice. The book comes alive in the section about Martha Dodd and the Schulze-Boysens, who all did their share of clumsy, though well-meaning espionage for the Russians. Both Arvid and Mildred are highly intelligent and cultured, but neither of them seem to have a lick of common sense, which leads to their eventual arrest by the Gestapo. The author has done a remarkable, exhaustive amount of research and the book is well-written. A problem, though, is the amount of names thrown at you, and frequently someone is referred to and you have no idea who he is until you look in the index and see he was mentioned 200 pages earlier. All in all, this is a portrayal of a woman who really didn't have that much to do with espionage but was punished because she was Arvid Harnack's wife. But somehow I don't think she would have had it any other way.
More than just Resistance.......2003-07-06
A first class research by Brysac finally puts to rest the conflicting histories of the Red Orchestra (Rotte Kapella): the white-washing done by the FDR (former Federal Republic of Germany) vs. the pro-communist embellishments of the DDR (former East Germany).
The author's exhaustive research (de-classified Stasi and KGB archives, interviews with survivors, US Army documents) finally does justice to the only American in the German Resistance who was executed (Mildred Fish-Harnack) and also allows the readers to reach a balanced view about who the Red Orchestra was.
The reader will also become acquainted with how life was in Germany (particularly Berlin) during the 30's and early 40's through the lives of Mildred Fish-Harnack and her husband Arvid Harnack. Since the Harnacks were highly educated, came from esteemed families, and had influential friends in elitist Berlin society the reader also gets a glimpse of how divergent the views of various Germans and Americans were towards the Berlin regime.
In conclusion, it is sad to see how a heroic German-American (Mildred Fish-Harnack) and an independent thinking German intellectual (Arvid Harnack) who spoke-out against, resisted, and even sabotaged the evil regime of Hitler met such a drastic end due to the follies and reckless acts of Stalin's regime.
I wish there were more history books like this one written out there:
* impeccable research
* excellent prose (and thus easy to read)
* semi-autogiographical
* great lessons to draw about WWII, society, economy, and contemporary events.
Much More Than Wartime Resistance.......2001-03-18
This book contains much more than a description of one woman's efforts at wartime resistance. It is a remarkable depiction of the intellectual and social life of the liberal and sometimes left-leaning intelligentsia in Madison, Wisconsin, and as well as of the liberal upper class in Germany in the period from the turn of the 20th century to 1945. The material ranges from vivid social commentary,historical narrative, and thriller, to final tragedy and its aftermath. The writing style is lucid and the footnotes copious. This book conbines the virtues of being a good read and a highly informative social history. I recommend it strongly.
Unveiling the family legend.......2001-03-16
Resisting Hitler, by Shareen Brysac
When criminals gain control of governments, average citizens mostly pretend not to notice. Each thinks to himself something like, "How could I possibly pass judgment on our august leaders?" In a state ruled by force there are no competing politicians left to whom they can shift their allegiance. By default, then, they allow themselves to be used by the regime to prove that it has popular acceptance.
Not so my great-aunt Mildred Fish Harnack, whose resistance against the Third Reich has been a vivid legend in our extended family for half a century. Her story gradually became known to a widening circle of interested people, including Shareen Brysac, who finally taking the initiative, researched the case exhaustively with its myriad details, and assembled from them a powerful, vivid mosaic.
Like the Diary of Anne Frank, it is a tragic story imbued with the sense of inevitability that comes from everyone knowing the ending -- and yet it is joyous, because through Brysac, we cannot help being deeply inspired by the example of Mildred and the scores of her fellow resisters in the Red Orchestra, including her husband Arvid Harnack. They all knew they were taking a mortal risk, but as serious intellectuals who cared deeply about -- and even helped to create -- the best in German culture, they knew the truth of Socrates' dictum that "the unexamined life is not worth living." And so they lived their lives to the hilt.
By telling Mildred's story, which is by extension and implication the story of every person willing to put their life on the line to resist tyranny, Brysac has enriched my life, and all our lives. I have been inspired by Mildred for 50 years. Now let the rest of the world be inspired too.
superior biography.......2000-10-27
Initially,Shareen Brysac's Resisting Hitler attracted me because of my long-term fascination with German history, Holocaust Studies in particular.This book opened a whole new world to me! Brysac's sensitive portrayal of Mildred Harnack's tragic and extremely heroic story literally brought tears to my eyes.I'd never heard of her, nor of the "Red Orchestra"--a Nazi Resistance group little known in the U.S.Brysac's gripping tale is supported by copious research in archives, including those only recently opened to the scrutiny of scholars.I strongly suggest this biography to those interested in having a fresh look at a much written about period in German history, and to anyone who appreciates a well written book--both informative and exciting.
Book Description
John Corigliano's The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra draws upon music he composed for the film of the same name, which won an Academy Award for best film score. The story spans three centuries in the life of a magnificent but haunted violin in its travels through space and time. Corigliano composed this 17-minute concert work for violin and full orchestra as he scored the film.
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The Red Orchestra
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ATFQL4 |
Product Description
On a June night in 1941 a German monitoring station at Kranz in East Prussia picked up the first strains of the tune. It was played by a lone 'pianist' on a clandestine radio set. But as the months passed, the soloist was joined by others from cities all across Nazi-occupied Europe, and even from Berlin itself, until the night air was filled with the sounds of the Red Orchestra. This astonishing Russian espionage apparatus was directed by a no-less astonishing Polish Jew named Leopold Trepper. The story of their complex operations reads like the deadliest, most fascinating kind of spy novel.
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- The work of a true historian
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Codeword: Direktor;: The story of the Red Orchestra
Heinz HoĢhne
Manufacturer: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0006VUD9G |
Customer Reviews:
The work of a true historian.......2003-02-26
During the second world war, the communists did set a very large spy ring operating against the Nazis which the head of the Gestapo Heydrich gave the name of Red Orchestra.
The French group of Trepper got liquidated between the autumn 1941 and August 1942, the Belgium group of Victor "Kent" Sukulov in December 1941 and the "Bordo" group in July/August 1942. The "Hilda" Dutch ring fell in August 1942, and the German ring of Harro Schulze-Boysen 'Choro" was exterminated at about the same period and just before the "Arwid" group of Arvid Harnak. The Swiss Dora group of Sandor Rado, ALexander Foote, and Rudof Roessler was stopped for some time as from 1943 by Masson the head of Swiss Intelligencce Service.
Nowadays the incredible history of the Red Orchestra, which surpasses fiction, is twisted by politics (communists, ex-nazis, democrats...), by nationalistic aspects (Russians, French, Swiss, Belgians, Germans) and by the Allied victors. There are accounts by surviving actors (Trepper, Rado, Roeder, Foote, Puenter, Sudoplatov...) There are however, to this day, only three serious purely historical relations: the CIA report, V. E. Tarrant's book and Heinz Hoehne's account. The German historian has supplied the most accurate and exhaustive account on this incredible spy ring.
Pierre Accoce and Pierre Quet's book made romantic assumptions which were demonstrated ot be false and the author had to admit their fabrications. K. Bienal and L. Krausher focused on the German branch of the spy ring. Louis Kilzer's work is fascinating but it makes an assumption it doesn't succeed sustaining. Gilles Perrault is too focused on the Franco-Belgium part of the Orchestra. Anthony Read and David Fisher are trying to recuperate the Red Orchestra for Ultra which for some British writers was the second world war "deus ex machina". Some other interesting books are written in German or in French and are not translated.
Heinz HOEHNE'S book is the most accurate of the books on the Red Orchestra. Read it first, and then read some books by the actors: first Leopold Treper, then Sandor Rado, then Alexander Foote and then Otto Puenter.
After that, if you still have question, you can go for details in the CIA and Tarrant books. We are taught that this the network illustrates a great victory for the allies, but reading through these books tend to show that it was a drama for us and a great victory for Walter Schellenberg's Nazi counter-espionage, and Heinrich Mueller's Gestapo boutchers.
With Kilzer and Perrault's books, this is the most pleasant book to read on the subject. Don't miss it.
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CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA (""THE RED VIOLIN""): FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO REDUCTION
Manufacturer: GS EDITION 5
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0634086197 |
Book Description
John Corigliano's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra ("The Red Violin") draws upon music he composed for the film of the same name, which won an Academy Award for best film score. The story spans three centuries in the life of a magnificent but haunted violin in its travels through space and time. Corigliano composed this 36-minute concerto in memory of his father, the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
Product Description
496 pp. HARDCOVER Subject: History
Giles Perrault's tense and dramatic documentary history depicts the rise and fall of the notorious Soviet spy ring the Germans called the Red Orchestra, which operated within the highest circles of the German General Staff from 1941 to 1944.
Book Description
From America's preeminent authorities on birds and nature, whose popular Stokes guides have sold nearly 4.5 million copies, comes the easiest-to-use, most comprehensive, most informative guide to North American warblers available. Warblers are among the most colorful and popular of bird species. As they leave the south each spring to breed in the north, their migration inspires warbler festivals, warbler watching and counting clubs, and warbler courses and workshops. For the millions of American birders who seek out these marvelous songbirds, the STOKES FIELD GUIDE TO WARBLERS imparts a wealth of identification and behavior information, presenting each of the 57 warbler species with detailed migration maps and multiple images showing seasonal plumage.
Customer Reviews:
Best Warbler book I've found.......2007-05-14
This book is very valuable. Able to see everything I want to know when I am in the field or just reviewing.
A very good reference.......2006-10-16
This book is well organized and easy to use to identify warblers. Sorted by dominant color, it quickly narrows down those options, if one color dominates. The photos are beautiful. The accompanying descriptions include clues to look for in each case, often giving the final detail that separates one species from another.
The book's best feature is the maps. These include datelines to show where the birds are likely to be during migration, one for spring and one for the fall. So I know that Yellow-rumped Warblers going through my backyard are a little behind schedule, probably due the warm fall of 2006. In southwestern lower Michigan, I'm just a little north of the identified winter range anyway, so it's not really a great surprise that they are still moving through.
I have two comments that reduce this from a five star to a four star book. Both are a matter of personal choice, so others might use these same reasons to push from 4 to 5.
First, photos show me the appearance of the bird in the picture, not the possibilities for the species. The Yellow-Rumped Warblers I have seen over the last three days do not look exactly like those in the photos. The drawings in my Peterson guide were at least as helpful in my identification.
Second, this is more critical to me. The book does not in my pocket or my fanny pack with my more comprehensive field guide.
In any case, this is a very useful reference for identifying warblers.
Brilliant! You NEED this guide!.......2004-02-16
Bird enthusiasts take notice: the Stokeses have done it again! With this newest guide in their excellent series of books dedicated to individual bird families, they have, as the saying goes, 'raised the bar' for field guides. There are three key features (in no particular order, as each is important) that make the Stokes Field Guide to Warblers a must-have for casual and fanatical birders alike.
1. YOU'LL LEARN THE BIRDS. The unique, tried-and-true, and extremely effective Stokes organization/teaching method will help birders sort the sometimes-confusing warblers into logical groups (by color). This is accomplished (as with all Stokes field guides) with the aid of color tabs; the color of each tab is the birds' dominant color(s). From there, key characteristics are utilized to help narrow a bird down to species. Especially useful are the opening section on learning the Yellow-rumped Warblers and the section dealing with dull-plumaged (i.e. fall) warblers. I also think the inset showing the undertail pattern of each warbler is an excellent feature, as warblers are frequently seen from beneath. In short, this is THE guide for learning the warblers--period.
2. PHOTOGRAPHY. Readers of the "Stokes Beginner's Guide" series will have become accustomed to the unparalleled beauty of the photography; the photos in this book are certainly up to that standard and beyond. Frankly, this is the most stunning photography I have ever seen in any bird book! When you first have this guide in your hands, prepare to have your jaw drop, and prepare to have warbler mania take hold of you.
3. INFORMATIVE CONTENT. A critical aspect of knowing what bird you're seeing is knowing which birds you are likely to see. In a series of boxes in the book's opening sections, the warblers are grouped in a variety of ways (e.g. migration timing, habitat, etc.) so that you can narrow down the list of possibilities BEFORE you even begin warbler-watching! With each species account there is also a pair of migration maps, one for spring and one for fall (with bars showing arrival dates), so that you can see when and where a given warbler is likely to appear. Life history information is also included--again, as with all Stokes field guides.
But enough from me; you must see this book for yourself. You will absolutely love it! Get your hands on a copy so that you'll be ready for spring . . .
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