Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of Curtis Turner

Book Description

Curtis Turner's life embodied everything that makes NASCAR the biggest spectator sport in American history. In gripping prose, and with full access to the files of Turner's widow, biographer Robert Edelstein thrillingly recreates the life of this American legend. Full Throttle is the first-ever full-scale chronicle of Turner's legendary life, from his days as a teenage moonshine runner, through his incredible comeback after four years of being banned from the NASCAR circuit. Motor racing and mayhem, the non-stop pursuit of outrageous dreams, high-speed thrills, and a really good time...these are the raw materials of Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of Curtis Turner. This one's on the fast track.

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read!.......2006-08-18

Even though I am a NASCAR fan, I would recommend this book to anyone, a racing fan or not. The life of Curtis Turner was full of ups and downs, whether in his racing career or personal life. All of this is chronicled in the book, which focuses on the very beginning of Turner's life running moonshine to the end of his (short) life. The man was always up for adventure, whether wrecking rental cars, intimidating competitors on the track, or trying to land a plane around a residential area. Full of details and reflections by NASCAR greats of an earlier era, this book never fails to keep a reader's attention. I must admit, I had never heard of Curtis Turner before reading this biography, but I wasn't able to put it down once I started reading it, and neither will you!

Incredibly entertaining bio.......2005-11-18

Let me preface this review by stating that I don't consider myself a fan of NASCAR or car racing in general. So when a friend suggested I read "Full Throttle" I was reluctant. My reading preference is usually fictional narrative with occasional reference books. My friend insisted that I would enjoy the read though, and since I trust him I took the plunge. And I am so glad I did.

From the opening scene it's clear that the author not only knows his subject but is a superb storyteller. Until reading this book I frankly had no idea of the existence of Curtis Turner but I feel now that I have intimate knowledge of this interesting figure. His life was full of passion and adventure and Edelstein does a masterful job of giving us a firsthand view of the man, from the perspective of family and friends as well as sitting in the passenger seat through several thrilling races and crazy side trips. From his early days behind the wheel of bootlegging vehicles to the creation of NASCAR and beyond this is a great read and it's obvious that it was exhaustively researched.

Whether you have a love of the subject matter or simply enjoy a great read, "Full Throttle" is well worth your time and money. One of my favorite books of the year...

Curtis Turner, hero or ruffian?.......2005-09-30

While Turner's name is revered in the USA, it's a non-entity elsewhere, so it's easier for me to be objective. For an avid motor-racing fan it lacks insight and depth on the racing side, but there's a lot of research into the man. I can imagine he'd rub me up the wrong way as an overconfident careless larrikin, but get my admiration for his obvious courage and skill. The author lacks the story-telling knack that should enthrall and entertain, and believe me, Turner had a life full of retellable tales. Wish someone more entertaining wrote it. Dismissing the first ever "car-in-swimming-pool" feat in a few lines is a sin! These yarns could be spun out for hours!

Curtis Turner.......2005-08-03

An excellent book if you are interested in the history of NASCAR. Curtis Turner was one of the great drivers of the 50s, and played an important role in the growth of NASCAR. He lived life hard.

A survey of Turner's legendary life and many achievements.......2005-06-06

Fans of car racing in general and NASCAR in particular won't want to miss Robert Edelstein's biography of driver Curtis Turner in Full Throttle: The Life And Fast Times Of Nascar Legend Curtis Turner. Racing fans receive a fast page-turner about one of the most dynamic stock car racers in history. Access to the files of Turner's widow supplement motorsports writer Robert Edelstein's fascinating coverage, adding depth to his survey of Turner's legendary life and many achievements.

Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of Nascar Legend Curtis Turner

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Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of Nascar Legend Curtis Turner
Robert Edelstein
Manufacturer: Overlook TP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1585677515

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Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of NASCAR Legend Curtis Turner
Robert Edelstein
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audio Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0786158948
Release Date: 2007-04-01

Product Description

Curtis Turner, the first NASCAR celebrity, wrote the book on living fast and dying young. Charismatic and fearless, he created drama at the racetrack and in his personal life, living the American Dream several times over before he died a violent and mysterious death at the young age of forty-six.

Full Throttle: The Life and the Fast Times of Nascar Legend Curtis Turner (Kurt Wallander Mystery)

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Full Throttle: The Life and the Fast Times of Nascar Legend Curtis Turner (Kurt Wallander Mystery)
Robert Edelstein
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0786148918

Book Description

Covers the use of various trucks and cars during WWII by Germany., b/w photographs, line drawings, 11" x 8 1/4"

Customer Reviews:

I own it I love it........2006-12-26

It was most of all lots of photos, and I love photos of vws.

Amazon.com

More than 20 years after the Watergate scandal that brought down his presidency, the character of Richard M. Nixon continues to fascinate us. Many books have been written about Nixon, and about Watergate, but perhaps none sheds so revealing a light on the late president as Stanley I. Kutler's Abuse of Power. In the years following Watergate, as Nixon fought to rebuild his reputation from the ruins of his shattered presidency, he fought fiercely to suppress publication of most of the secret tapes that led to his downfall. During his lifetime, only about 60 hours of the almost 4,000 that exist were ever made public, and even after his death his estate continued to obstruct further releases. Then, in 1996, Kutler, along with the advocacy group Public Citizen, won a landmark decision to release the tapes.

Among other things, Abuse of Power definitively answers the question of whether Nixon was directly involved in raising hush money (he was) and suggests a reason for the burglary attempt at the Watergate Hotel (financial documents that might have linked the Democratic Party chairman to Howard Hughes). The tapes also reveal the vindictive and bigoted side to Nixon's personality, particularly as he discusses "killing" the Washington Post, and blames rich Jews for Billy Graham's tax problems. Abuse of Power only covers an additional 201 hours of tape of the near 4,000 that remain unreleased. It seems that the final chapter on Watergate has yet to be written.

Book Description

PRESIDENT NIXON: Here we go. What in the name of God are we doing on this one? What are we doing about the financial contributors? Now, those lists there, are we looking over McGovern's financial contributors? Are we looking over the financial contributors to the Democratic National Committee? Are we running their income tax returns? Is the Justice Department checking to see whether or not there is any antitrust suits? Do we have anything going on any of these things? HALDEMAN: Not as far as I know. PRESIDENT NIXON: We better forget the Goddamn campaign right this minute, not tomorrow, no. That's what concerns me. We have all this power and we aren't using it.

Download Description

The release of over 200 hours of secret Nixon tapes to the public last year captured media attention across the country. Here are the Oval Office conversations that exposed Nixon's abuses of power--masterfully edited by the man who helped bring them to light.

Customer Reviews:

Read about what Haldeman knew about and told Nixon about Mark Felt on pp 170 & 171.......2006-03-05

This is pretty interesting material for Watergate buffs. When Watergate broke the idea that a President cursed and had a private persona shocked the American people. That disappointment is part of what led to Nixon's downfall, regardless of what the Nixon haters want to keep preaching about Nixon's criminality. It has also come to light since those years that, as Nixon Claimed, Presidents before him used their power, the FBI, the IRS, and other agencies to look into and intimidate their opponents. Yes, Johnson and Kennedy did what Nixon did. They just didn't get all of it on tape. Nor did they have the press wanting the get even for Alger Hiss (who really was a Communist agent - see Venona).

For me the most fascinating part of the tapes included in this book is to go in the index and read the segments about Mark Felt, who we now know was Deep Throat for Bob Woodward. It is clear from these transcripts that Nixon and his staff knew that Felt wanted to top job at the FBI, that they didn't trust him, that they knew he leaked to the NY Times and, most amazingly, to the Washington Post. Haldeman makes it explicitly clear on 170 & 171 that he knew from inside the Washington Post that it was Felt leaking to the Post reporters. Facsinating.

Just remember, if you were taped in your private moments, you wouldn't look to the world as you do now. You might not be as dark as Nixon comes across, but then you aren't trying to wield power on a world stage either. I am not a Nixon apologist. Rather, I am taking a broader view of what we have learned since 1975 about our Presidents, the Presidency, and how they used their power while in office. The saying is true about politics and sausage making.

Interesting.......2005-05-12

I listened to the cassette tape version of this book, which is a reenactment of the tapes by professional actors. I was kind of hoping to listen to the actual tapes, but this approach turned out to be better than expected.

One thing that kind of bugged me was the continual mispronunciation of Gordon Strachan's name (pronounced "strawn" not "stra-chen"). That kind of boo boo only reminded me that these were actors and not the real people.

Listen to Abuse of Power, edited by Kutler, as Book on Tape.......2004-12-31

If you grew up during the Vietnam era (or not), and cut your teeth on Watergate and the resignation of a president, listen to Abuse of Power as a book on tape. Hear the participants speak for themselves in the privacy of their offices. Kutler's Abuse of Power is based on tapes hitherto suppressed as Nixon, in his lifetime, vigorously sought to repaint his image.

Also recommended to read alongside the tapes: Secrets, A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, and the Haldeman Diaries. Although flawed by grammatical and spelling errors, the Breaking of a President 1974, compiled by Marvin Miller, is also worth reading because it contains thumbnail personal histories of each of the players in the above volumes, and day-by-day breaking news of that era, with lots of pictures.

A book with an agenda.......2004-04-29

This book is put together by an author with credibility. However, he picked and chose excerpts of certain tapes to suit his purpose. I do believe, however, these tapes actually debunk many of the myths put forward by Nixon-haters.

The Nixon Legacy........2003-09-25

There is only one word to describe many of these conversations....chilling. Nixon's arrogance and ruthlessness were astounding! What a terrible shock it must have been for men like Haige and Kissinger to learn this was all on tape.

That anyone could listen to these tapes and proclaim that Nixon was a good president is unbelievable! Clinton lied about his sex life. That was embarrassing, I agree. Nixon, however, lied about his plans for Vietnam, his tax returns, and that fifth-rate burglary known as Watergate, in other words, a felony! As for those of you complaining that these tapes don't contain a "smoking gun." He destroyed two of the tapes he made after he was ordered by the authorities to turn them over. We'll never know what those tapes contained.

He did all this and Ronald Reagan made him a goodwill ambassador to China! It's terrifying.

This book is a must for any student of American History or the Cold War.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Center for the Study of the Presidency on September 1, 1999. The length of the article is 2397 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Donald L. Robinson
Publication: Presidential Studies Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1999
Publisher: Center for the Study of the Presidency
Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Page: 713

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Abuse of Power : The New Nixon Tapes
Stanley I. Kutler
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NSXMYA

Book Description

"In this book, I relate the pleasures, as well as the virtues and difficulties of a perhaps simpler than average North American life." So begins ecological thinker and writer Stephanie Mills's Epicurean Simplicity, a thoughtful paean to living, like Thoreau, a deliberate life.

Mills's account of the simple life reaches deep into classical sources of pleasure -- good food, good health, good friends, and particularly the endless delights of the natural world. Her musings about the life she desires -- and the life she has created -- ultimately led her to the third century Greek philosopher Epicurus, whose philosophy was premised on the trustworthiness of the senses, a philosophy that Mills wholeheartedly embraces. While later centuries have come to associate Epicurus's name with hedonism, Mills discovered that he extolled simplicity and prudence as the surest means to pleasure, and his thinking offers an important philosophical touchstone for the book.

As the author explains, one of the primary motivations for her pursuit of simplicity is her concern about the impacts of a consumerist lifestyle on the natural world. Mills touches on broad range of topics relating to that issue -- social justice, biological extinctions, the global economy, and also more personal aspects such as friendship, the process of country living, the joys of physical exertion, the challenges of a writer's life, and the natural history and seasonal delights of a life lived close to nature. An overarching theme is the destructiveness of consumerism, and how even a simple life affects a wide range of organisms and adds strain to the earth's systems. The author uses her own experience as an entry point to the discussion with a self-effacing humor and lyrical prose that bring big topics to a personal level.

Epicurean Simplicity is beautifully crafted, fluid, inspiring, and enlightening, examining topics of critical importance that affect us all. It celebrates the pleasures, beauty, and fulfillment of a simple life, a goal being sought by Americans from all walks of life, from harried single parents to corporate CEOs. For fans of natural history or personal narrative, for those concerned about social justice and the environment, and for those who have come to know and love Stephanie Mills through her speaking and writing, Epicurean Simplicity is a rare treasure.

Customer Reviews:

Deftly examines the classic sources of enduring joy.......2003-07-19

Epicurean Simplicity by ecologist and writer Stephanie Mills offers thoughtful and thought-provoking insights into the frantically driven, technology-immersed, increasingly complicated society of our "modern age". Stephanie Mills' suggests that the antidote to these contemporary urban pressures is to simply slow down, use less, and live modestly. Epicurean Simplicity deftly examines the classic sources of enduring joy, such as good food, good friends, and the wonders of nature. Epicurean Simplicity is a deftly written, reader inspiring, and personally uplifting testimony of how to live well in today's fast-paced world.

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Epicurean Simplicity
Stephanie Mills
Manufacturer: Island Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JK37Z6

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