Book Description
A three-time World Series winner and an early inductee into the Hall of Fame, lauded by Babe Ruth as the finest defensive outfielder he ever saw and described as "perfection on the field" by the great Grantland Rice, Tris Speaker enjoys the peculiar distinction of being one of the least-known legends of baseball history. Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend is the first book to tell the full story of Speaker’s turbulent life and to document in sharp detail the grit and glory of his pivotal role in baseball’s dead-ball era.
Playing for the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians in the early part of the twentieth century, Tris “Spoke” Speaker put up numbers that amaze us even today: his record for career doubles—792—may never be approached, let alone broken. Tris Speaker explores the colorful life behind the statistics, introducing readers to a complex and contradictory Texan whose cowboy mentality never left him as he brawled his way through two decades in the big leagues.
Speaker’s career put him in the company of Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Honus Wagner, and in describing it Timothy M. Gay gives a rousing account of some of the best baseball ever played—and some of the darkest moments that ever tainted a game and hastened the end of a career. His four years of research on Speaker unearthed a document that suggests that cheating induced by gambling was far more widespread in early baseball than officials have acknowledged. Gay’s book captures the bygone spirit of the big leagues’ rough-and-tumble early years and restores one of baseball’s true greats—and a truly larger-than-life personality—to his rightful place in the American sports pantheon.
Customer Reviews:
Best bio I've read yet.......2007-08-13
This is probably the best baseball bio I've read yet. Unlike many other bios of renowned players of the past that delve into the playing statistics of the subject, this one does it's share of that but also touches on the life of his subject outside of the game, the attitudes of the nation, city, and people of the time, and the evolvement of those attitudes during and after the course of the subject's career.
I recommend this book to anyone who may be interested in Speaker, the deadball era, or just baseball in general. Thumbs up from me.
Tris Speaker?.......2006-10-15
There is a lot of information here, about one of baseball's greatest
ballplayers, but far too much of it is slanted toward the negative.
Reminiscent of modern attacks on Ty Cobb and others of baseball's halcyon days, this is one of those politically correct, revisionist treatments that juxtaposes modern mores on another time and another place. A good treatment of Tris Speaker would add to an appreciation of the national pastime. This book is not that treatment.
50 Doubles and 50 Steals.......2006-06-20
In the 20th century, only 2 players achieved the feat of hitting 50 doubles and stealing 50 bases in the same season.
What's really remarkable is that if you hit 50 doubles it is really statistically much more difficult to steal 3rd base.
A fantastic job by this author. This is a ballplayer who has really been ignored with the passage of time.
Trivia fans may also notice another seldom hyped baseball player is the only man in the last century to hit 50 doubles and steal 50 bases.
Craig Biggio.
Recognition justly deserved.......2006-05-31
This is a fine biography about great ballplayer unjustly neglected in baseball memory. Speaker was a contradictory figure, a son of the South, an unrecontructed reb in early 20th century Boston, who grew with the years. He was a KKK member, yet he eventually taught Negro League second baseman and pioneer American League African-American ballplayer Larry Doby the finer points of playing center field. His undoubted prejudices against Irish-Catholic teammates and Bostonians seemed to have been belied by his lifelong friendship with a Jewish merchant from his hometown of Hubbard, Texas, and his relationships with Catholic women. Speaker is not idealized in this study- he was on the fringes, and sometimes the center, of baseball scandals as troubling as the Black Sox episode. Yet he was a great ballplayer, and his name deserves mention in the same sentence with Cobb, Hornsby, Lajoie, and other stars of the ers.
My one complaint with the book is the paucity of photos. Numerous times the author gives a detailed description, sometimes it seems to the proverbial 1000 words, of a photo, but the reader attempting to find it in the photo section of the book will be disappointed. No doubt, as this is how these things work, the publisher cut these photos to save money. 'Tis a pity.
Life and Times in early 20th Century Baseball.......2006-05-12
I started to follow baseball in 1959 at the age of eight and almost immediately became familiar with the greats in the Hall of Fame. Tris Speaker at that time was included in the pantheon of the greatest, a small notch below Cobb, Ruth, and Dimaggio as an outfielder and hitter. Since then Speaker has become largely forgotten as players such as Williams, Musial, Mays (my childhood idol), Aaron, Mantle, Clemente, Bonds, Griffey, and others have joined this rarified atmosphere. As time moves on, it is only natural that most oldtimers drift out of modern consciousness for most fans except baseball history buffs such as me. Fifty years from now, many of the latter group, and perhaps even some in the former, will have joined Speaker in the mist.
"In Tris Speaker; The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend," the author, Timothy Gay, tells the story of this largely-forgotten superstar. Starting with his major league career in 1907, Tris Speaker was one of the dominant players of the deadball era, played into the late 1920's, and among the original Baseball Hall of Fame inductees. Considered one the best, if not the greatest, defensive Center Fielder in history, Speaker also was an elite hitter and extremely tough competitor, but was overshadowed during his career by Ty Cobb. Speaker starred for both the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, and played on three world champions. Of one of these teams, the 1920 Indians, Speaker was a player manager and he was considered very innovative in his use of platooning. A Texas native with Confederate ancestors, he was a man of his times and was flawed by both racial and anti-Catholic bigotry. He does seem to have mellowed and become more open-minded as he grew older, had a kind side too (especially with kids), and appears to have dealt fine with people on a one on one level for the most part. There are few specific details and examples of his faults. One glaring example is that early in his career he was proud of being a member of the Ku KLux Klan, however it may have been mainly social (sounds like an oxymoron) and there is no record of him actively taking part in its horrendous activities. In the late 1940's Speaker tutored Negro Leaguer Larry Doby in the art playing Center Field for the Cleveland Indians and the book contains a photo of him with Willie Mays during the 1954 World Series. On the Red Sox, there does seem to have been animosity between the Catholic and Protestant players of which Speaker played a part. However considering the fact that the Red Sox won four World Series between 1912 and 1918; it was not a fatal problem. In fact Speaker, a Protestant, was part of what was known as the "Golden Outfield" with Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis, both Catholics. Many consider this to be the greatest defensive outfield in baseball history. As successful teams do today, the players put their differences aside once on the field.
Strictly as a biography of Speaker, the book is adequate, but does not really give the reader insights to understand what made Speaker tick. I learned a lot about Speaker's life, but do not really feel as if I know him as a person as was the case of biographies such as Creamer's of Babe Ruth and Montville's Ted Williams book. Where the book excels is as a portrait of Speaker's times. [...] includes many interesting profiles of such characters as Joe Wood, Harry Hooper, Duffy Lewis, Ty Cobb, Bill Carrigan, Babe Ruth, Ban Johnson, Roy Chapman, Carl Mays, and many others too numerous to mention. The account of the Roy Chapman beaning and subsequent death is moving and heartbreaking to read. These written portraits and also descriptions of the life of a professional baseball player, the cities, and the fans make this era, in which the only media was newspapers and magazines, come alive. A particularly interesting part of the book is the section about the world tour that followed the 1913 World Series. Another interesting event briefly mentioned is a 1909 post season series called the League Series between the Red Sox and Giants that was played at the same time as the World Series. Perhaps this shows that the World Series did not have the sense of finality and importance is has today. [...] also portrays the gambling and crooked games that may have been relatively common during this era and making one suspect the 1919 Black Sox were not an aberration. In fact, [...]puts forth a logical, but not strong argument, that some games of the 1912 World Series were thrown. Even Babe Ruth is not immune from Gay's speculations. Speaker along with Ty Cobb came under accusations in 1926 of an allegedly thrown game back in 1917. Nothing came of the charges, but there was strong evidence, and both Speaker and Cobb left their teams (both were player/managers), and were never employed as Managers again. Although damaged, both had long post-career lives in baseball and the general public was mostly unaware of what happened. [...] covers this episode extensively and although, again there was not solid proof, he leans toward their guilt. However, at the same time the incident must be looked at in the context of the era in which many more players could have been blemished by such accusations.
I congratulate Timothy [...] for his efforts in bringing Speaker and his contemporaries to life. For the baseball history buff, this book is a must read. Others will enjoy it for the descriptions of early 20th century life. While not a home run, "Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend," is a stand up triple.
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Breaking the Panzers
Kevin Baverstock
Manufacturer: Sutton Publishing
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ASIN: 0750928956 |
Book Description
This work describes the vital defensive fighting on 1 July 1944 at Rauray in Normandy. Although the 1st Tyneside Scottish battalion gained a battle honour for their victory against the might of two of Germany's elite SS Panzer Divisions, the engagement and its significance for the Normandy campaign as a whole have been largely forgotten. The enemy's last throw came on 1 July, a fierce attempt to penetrate the Allied line and force the British back to the coast. After more than 14 hours of fighting and resolute defence by British anti-tank guns and artillery, the 2nd and 9th Panzer Divisions were halted in their tracks. Here is a reconstruction of one day's battle in World War II, the background and build-up behind it and the men and battalion involved. The entire action of the bloody fighting is told through eyewitness accounts, full signal reports, and photographs to give a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the battle.
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- New ideas about feminism and gay rights
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Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet: Lesbian and Gay Displacement
Cheshire Calhoun
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0199257663 |
Book Description
Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet is about placing sexual orientation politics within feminist theorizing. It is also about defining the central political issues confronting lesbians and gay men. The book brings the study of lesbians from the margins of feminist theory to the center by critiquing the analytic frameworks employed within feminist theory that renders invisible lesbians' difference from heterosexual women. This book also outlines the basic features of lesbian and gay subordination by exploring the differences between heterosexual dominance and gender and race relations. Throughout, Calhoun aims to re-center lesbian and gay politics away from concerns with sexual regulations and toward concern with the displacement of gays and lesbians from the public sphere of visible citizenship and from the private sphere of romance, marriage, and family.
Customer Reviews:
New ideas about feminism and gay rights.......2001-12-20
As a women studies librarian, I do a fair bit of reading on both feminism and glbt rights. If you're like me, it's been a while since you've read something truly "new" in this area -- ideas that take you by surprise and that you keep turning it over and over again in your mind for the sheer pleasure of thinking new things.
This book, broadly defined, examines the relationship between feminism and lesbianism. Although some have argued that the feminist movement and the movement for glbt rights are synonymous or at least closely aligned, Calhoun reveals places where they are brought into contradiction or tension. One of Calhoun's major arguments revolves around the family -- a place that heterosexual women have traditionally needed freedom FROM but that lesbians are still fighting for freedom TO. She also argues convincingly that fitness for family life is linked to fitness for civic life, and that it is precisely our "unfitness" for family, rather than our sexuality per se, that renders gay and lesbian people second-class citizens today. As someone who has always resisted the idea that marriage and family should be queer movement priorities, I was not an easy sell on this last point, but I found her arguments clearly articulated and ultimately convincing.
The book is academic, but accessible to those with some background in feminist thought. Calhoun is a philosopher, and the style of logical argument she employs may take some getting used to for those outside the discipline. As someone who generally reads social science, I found her style a joy at the beginning (how often are we treated to a feminist writer who clearly explains her assumptions in the first chapter?) and a burden by the end (now I will review where we are in my argument so far, and make my next point). Even so, this slim volume makes a major intellectual contribution to queer theory and it deserves far more attention than it has received thus far. Calhoun gives me hope that academic feminism is still alive and kicking and producing new ideas worth thinking about.
Customer Reviews:
An important book whose author was denied tenure by Harvard.......1997-09-16
As the 1997-8 academic year starts, Bonnie Honig is no longer at Harvard. She is now a tenured professor of political theory at Northwestern University. This is the sad end of a story that made national headlines in the spring of 1997: Despite being recommended by both her department and an external review board, Harvard's President, Neil Rudenstine, decided not to extend Assosicate Profeesor Bonnie Honig a tenure offer. The reasons are still unclear and will probably remain so. The case is perplexing because of the quality and quantity of Honig's work, and because it is not clear why would President Rudenstine, who is known to be nice, and liberal, overturn the tenure commitees. Honig told the press that she guessed they thought of her as a "girl". Indeed, fifteen Harvard women profeesors, including Honig's colleague Seyla Benhabib, wrote Prof. Rudenstine and brought up the gender issue. It is probably not the case the Honig was denied tenure because she is (biologicaly) a woman. But how about the fact that she is considered a feminist? That her work is considered non-traditional. That according to some of Harvard's old guard, women cannot produce good political philosophy? (Believe me, I've heard it from some of them when I was there, in open classroom). Well, Honig is of to Northwestern, and Harvard students will have from now on to settle on reading her work.
"Political Theory and the Displacments of Politics" is indeed where they, and others interested in her work, should start. When I read this book, in a rather late stage of working on my dissertation at Harvard, I was totally overwhelmed. So much of political theory recently was about critiquing Rawlsian liberalism. But so much of it was, in my opinion, leading into a cul-de-sac, esp. liberalism's big contender in the 1980's: communitarian political theory. But here was, finally, the best critique of Rawls I have ever read. Why, I wondered, is everyone discussing Sandel's communitarian critique, when Honig's work is so much more interesting. Moreover, Honig also offers an excellent critique of Sandel himself, and shows that liberalism and communitarian theory actually have much in common.
In a nutshell, Honig's argument is against the versions of political theory which try to displace conflicts. She contrasts them to theories that see politics as a disruptive practice that resists the consolidations and closure of juridical setllement for the sake of the perpetuity of political contest. She advocates bringing back "politics" into political theory. Politics, she says, consists of settlement *and* unsettlement, of disruption *and* administration. "To accept and embrace the perpetuity of contests", she says, "is to reject the dream of displacement, the fantasy that the right laws or constitution might some day free us from the responsiblity for (and, indeed, the burden of ) politics".
Although Honig's work is not yet as canonized as that of some other contemporary political theory, I think that any student or scholar of this area will be missing out a lot if s/he didn't read Honig's book. As for Harvard's decision: if I can pull my act together maybe I'll write an alumni letter of protest to the President. But I think that at this stage I can do Honig a more important service by encouraging you to read this important and even fascinating book.
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States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft (Borderlines)
Nevzat Soguk
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
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Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism
ASIN: 0816631670 |
Book Description
The crisis of internally displaced persons (IDPs) was first confronted in the 1980s, and the problems of those suffering from this type of forced migration has grown continually since then. This volume traces the normative, legal, institutional, and political responses to the challenges of assisting and protecting IDPs. Drawing on official and confidential documents as well as interviews with leading personalities, Internal Displacement provides an unparalleled analysis of this important issue and includes: An exploration of the phenomenon of internal displacement and of policy research about it A review of efforts to increase awareness about the plight of IDPs and the development of a legal framework to protect them A 'behind-the-scenes' look at the creation and evolution of the mandate of the Representative of the Secretary-General on IDPs A variety of case studies illustrating the difficulties in overcoming the operational shortcomings within the UN system A foreword by former UN high commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata. Internal Displacement is written by two outstanding scholars and will appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners with interests in war and peace, forced migration, human rights and global governance.
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War, Hunger, and Displacement: The Origins of Humanitarian Emergencies Volume 1: Analysis (Wider Studies in Development Economics)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0198297394 |
Book Description
Civil wars in developing countries are amongst the most significant sources of human suffering in the world today. Although there are many political analyses of these emergencies, this two-volume work is the first comprehensive study of the economic, social, and political roots of humanitarian emergencies, identifying early measures to prevent such disasters. Nafziger, Stewart, and Vayrynen draw on a wide range of specialists on the political economy of war and on major conflicts to show the causes of conflict. The first volume provides a general overview of the nature and causes of the emergencies, including economic, political, and environmental factors. The second volume provides detailed case studies of thirteen conflicts (including Rwanda, Burundi, the Congo, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus) that originated in the weakness of the state or where economic factors predominate. The volumes emphasize the significance of protracted economic stagnation and decline, government exclusion of distinct social groups, state failure, predatory rule, and high and increasing inequality, especially horizontal inequalities, or inequality among groups in access to political, economic, and social resources. They criticize beliefs recurrent in the literature that emergencies are the result of deteriorating environmental conditions or structural adjustment, or arise from ethnic animosities alone. Violent conflicts and state violence arise from the interaction of cultural, economic, and political factors. Following this analysis of the causes of war and genocide, the work points to policies that would help to prevent humanitarian emergencies in developing countries, which would be much less costly than the present strategy of the world community of spending millions of dollars annually to provide mediation, relief, and rehabilitation after the conflict occurs.
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Displacement of Politics (Sophi, 37)
Manufacturer: Sophi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 9513904318 |
Book Description
This book examines the setting of sustainability as a goal for environmental management. The author explores ways to break down the disciplinary barriers to communication and deliberation about environment policy, and to integrate science and evaluations into a more comprehensive environmental policy. The book appeals to students and professionals in the fields of environmental policy and ethics, conservation biology and philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
A must have collection of environmental philosophy writings........2003-09-02
Bryan Norton is a well known academic and writer of environmental philosophy. This collection brings together the development of his thoughts on sustainability creating a bridge from pragamatism, and the thought of Aldo Leopold forward to modern environmental and public policy issues. It is a must for anyone interested in environmental management or philosophy.
Books:
- Twice-Upon-A-Time: Born and Adopted
- Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race
- Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero (Eminent Lives)
- What Can I Bring?: Sharing Good Tastes and Times in Northern Virginia
- When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences
- Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
- Wild Steps of Heaven
- Wisconsin Death Trip (Wisconsin)
- Witness: For the Prosecution of Scott Peterson
- A Lifetime in Every Moment
Books Index
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- Wild Orchids of the Canadian Maritimes And Northern Great Lakes Region
Red Legs and Black Sox: Edd Roush and the Untold Story of the 1919 World Series
Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
Ol' Pete: The Grover Cleveland Alexander Story
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