Learning Disabilities and Life Stories

Book Description

This anthology is comprised of two major components: thirteen full-length, autobiographical essays written by persons with learning disabilities and five analytical chapters written by education and psychology scholars. Speaking in terms alternately intimate and analytical, the autobiographical essays each tell of a sustained personal encounter with the challenges and mysteries of living with a learning disability. But these autobiographies are not merely personal, concerned solely with their writers' private lives. Rather, they are also in various ways consciously analytical, offering astute critical readings of culture and society. The scholarly essays are written by such noted educators and psychologists as Lisa Delpit, Robert Kegan, and Janet Lerner. For any educator or parent of students with learning disabilities.

Customer Reviews:

Touching!.......2007-10-05

This book was recommended by an instructor for a class this semester. What a book! The editors present a series of essays from individuals who have various learning disabilities and how they have approached a hostile world, and how they have handled their journey. If you want to know how a child feels this is the book to read. You will walk away with a different viewpoint of people who are differently abled.

Good experience.......2006-11-10

This seller delivered exactly what they promised: a great quality book that arrived quickly.

A Landmark Work.......2006-01-12

Learning Disabilities and Life Stories is a landmark work. It is one of the few books that provides the 'insider's' perspective on the complex, controversial problem of learning disabilities. Thirteen college students vividly recount how LD affected their academic, social and emotional lives, and how they overcame these problems. Some of the students also suffered from ADHD, emotional problems (i.e. anxiety), and social problems (i.e. stigma). Although these students are probably not representative of the entire population of LD students, their stories make a wonderful contribution to the understanding of LD.

This is a must-read book for educators, parents, and LD students. It is especially helpful for LD students. They will likely find a particular author that they relate to. The 13 authors have a variety of life experiences, learning problems (i.e. dyslexia, auditory processing difficulties, etc.), and perspectives on LD. Each story is inspirational in its own way. As each author attended college, the book is especially suited to inspired other LD students to consider pursuing higher education.

Also read: The Pretenders by Barbara Guyer. She is a teacher who vividly describes the lives of adults with LD.

New Ways of Looking at Learning Disabilities is an excellent book for educators.

Slow Delivery.......2005-07-07

I didn't even need it by the time I received it. It took that long...

Stories From the Heart.......2002-08-21

From someone working in the school system for the past 15 years, this book, Learning Disibilities and Life Stories, touched me more than any other book on the subject. Reading the personal accounts of former students with LD, they pointed out many shortcomings of our school systems throughout the country. In reading the book, one can hope that we as educators, counselors, psychologists, and parents, will help educate all who are involved in the lives of children, especially those who are crying out for our help in the classroom. Hopefully we are changing the way we look at disabilities of any kind. This book is a constant reminder that if we do not work to help children with these disabilities, we will be losing a generation of potentially contributing adults to society. What a great tribute to these children, who are now educating us on the plight of being lost in our classrooms. I plan to share this book with fellow educators, and parents.

Challenging Prejudice Through Education: The Story of a Mental Handicap Awareness Curriculum Project (Disability, Handicap and Life Chances Series)

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Challenging Prejudice Through Education: The Story of a Mental Handicap Awareness Curriculum Project (Disability, Handicap and Life Chances Series)
John Quicke , Karen Beasley , and Caroline Morrison
Manufacturer: Falmer Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

From Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones: Help and Hope for Special Needs Kids (Focus on the Family Books)

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From Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones-Shari R.Furhnstal
True life changing story!

From Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones: Help and Hope for Special Needs Kids (Focus on the Family Books)
Shari Rusch Furnstahl
Manufacturer: Tyndale House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Special Needs | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

Disabilities | Special Needs | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Finding Home: An Imperfect Path to Faith and Family
Life of Pi

ASIN: 1589974352

Book Description

Shari Rusch was a learning-disabled child afflicted with brain damage at birth. Legally blind in one eye and challenged by motor coordination problems, health issues, a speech impediment, ADHD, dyslexia, and family issues, all the tests foretold a mediocre future at best. With the help of educators and a willingness to try, Shari succeeded beyond all expectations, becoming an honor student, a teacher, and a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of at-risk youth and special education students.

Customer Reviews:

From Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones-Shari R.Furhnstal.......2007-10-09

FROM STUMBLING BLOCKS TO STEPPING STONES by Shari Rusch Furnstahl was an
excellent well written book to give hope to young people and their parents who might be suffering from dyslexia, etc....and know that
you do not need to be discouraged...With determination you can succeed
and do well in life....This is a true story (and I personally know the
author)...

True life changing story! .......2007-08-13

This author is authentic and the REAL DEAL, I was there. But what she did not know was that I was also ,and still am a medically 'special needs' individual whose life was made more brave by being a part of hers. This is a MUST READ handbook for any family with a child with 'less visible' or learning disabilities.

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The Wrong Side of the Pattern
Kristin Embry Litchman
Manufacturer: Royal Fireworks Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Mysteries | Teens | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0880923814

Book Description

Fifteen-year-old Dorrit feels that she has somehow gotten on the wrong side of the universe. The school has diagnosed her as dyslexic, but her mother and teachers and principal have labeled her as mentally slow, although she is not.

Frustrated by her mother's and school's lack of understanding, Dorrit decides to take the direction of her education into her own hands, and is aided by her brothers. With them, she defines her own skills, talents and goals. She manages to secretly change her slate of assigned special classes to a regular high school schedule with subjects that she feels will challenge and educate her. She believes that her mother will not notice the change until it is too late, and that the school is too mired in paper work to pick it up.

Since the death of her baby sister, from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Dorrit's mother has withdrawn from family life and has busied herself with committee meetings and action groups and pushing her oldest son to become the doctor who will solve the riddle of SIDS. She is operating in her own skewed version of reality and on the periphery of a mother's role. As Dorrit and her brothers confide in one another and build a closeness, Dorrit's lonely secret is revealed...she was the one who found their little sister dead in her crib and has lived with this memory since, all bottled up within her, in deference to her mother's grief.

Dorrit exhibits a natural knowledge/sense of the working of all mechanical things and she has a wonderful helping of common sense. She excels in music, and is tops in chorus. Algebra is done in her head, and the computer turns impossible cursive writing into a workable printout for her.

Both of Dorrit's brothers understand the problems of dyslexia and appreciate her breadth of abilities. They plan and work with her to overcome the problems by using her strengths. As Dorrit achieves success in school and continues to build a relationship with her brothers and their friends, she finds herself central to restoring her family's old pattern of love and support. She is key to her parents accepting her brother's decision to recast the direction of his life in his own terms, not his mothers'.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Intervention in School & Clinic, published by Pro-Ed on March 1, 2001. The length of the article is 372 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: Learning Disabilities and Life Stories.(Review) (book review)
Author: Jennifer B. Ganz
Publication: Intervention in School & Clinic (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2001
Publisher: Pro-Ed
Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Page: 245

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Dyslexia, by life: One man's story of his life with a learning disability : an autobiography

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Dyslexia, by life: One man's story of his life with a learning disability : an autobiography
Girard J Sagmiller
Manufacturer: [s.n.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Learning Disabilities and Life Stories
Pano, Garrod, Andrew, Boscardin, Mary Lynn Rodis
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP5VHI

Customer Reviews:

General Edward Braddock.......2006-01-19

Published in 1958, McCardell's biography of General Edward Braddock is an excellent account of his life and ultimate disaster in the forests of western Pennsylvania in 1755 near the outset of the French and Indian War. Braddock was born in Scotland in 1695 and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1710. Moving up through the ranks of the Guards, he served in Holland, Flanders, and Gibraltar before being appointed major general in 1754. In February of that year he came to America to lead the British forces against the French.

The greatest interest in Braddock's life occurs from this point on for most readers. Although there were many administrative problems to be ironed out, eventually matters were set right enough for an expedition against Ft. Duquesne (Pittsburgh), a French stronghold, to proceed. Leaving what is today Cumberland, MD, on the Potomac River, Braddock's forces cut a road over the Allegheny Mountains to the Monongahela River; after crossing the river they advanced to within eight miles or so of Ft. Duquesne before being ambushed by about 250 French and 600 Indians. It was a total rout, and the British retreated; Braddock himself, after having four horses shot from under him, was wounded and died a few days later at the Great Meadows (where Washington had engaged the French the year before, raising the curtain on the French and Indian War), where he was buried. The defeat was a disaster for the British, and 1755-56 witnessed tremendous bloodshed for the settlers in the central and western parts of PA.

Braddock was characterized by Benjamin Franklin as being "a brave man, ... but he had too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians." The British army received an important lesson from Braddock's defeat, though the attitudes and prejudices (if Franklin's opinion is correct) of officers like Braddock carried over into the Revolutionary War, to similar results.

McCardell writes exceedingly well and is scholarly in his approach (there are hundreds of footnotes). His story about Braddock, especially after he arrives in America, is swift and compelling. Highly recommended.

Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards

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Ill-Starred General: Braddock of the Coldstream Guards

Manufacturer: Univ of Pittsburgh Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I9FHRY

Book Description

A thrilling, page-turning account, drawing on new never-before-reported information, of one of the most dramatic and important episodes in recent history: the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis. On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and took hostage some five dozen Americans. Those Americans would remain hostage for over one year. This is the story of how, in a heretofore unimaginable sequence of events, a seemingly ragtag mob of students inspired by a barely known Muslim cleric named Khomeini eventually undid an American president. It is a story that spans a century, full of famous characters--like Carter, Khomeini, and the Shah--and those who worked in the shadows. Cross-cutting between Washington, Tehran, Paris, and training centers for the doomed Desert One rescue mission, THE CRISIS is a work of history that reads like a thriller. Full of never-before-reported details, and drawing for the first time on comprehensive interviews with the Iranians involved, as well as fresh discussions with the central American players, this book is David Harriss masterpiece--what hes been building up to for decades.

Customer Reviews:

Misleading title and it suffers from serious problems.......2005-08-13

There is a natural fascination with what may be happening behind the scenes, and that certainly extends to what secret diplomacy may have been underway to resolve such an urgent crisis as that of the 1979 seizure of the hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Harris, formerly a contributing editor at the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone, provides much interesting material about the various diplomatic initiatives. He is strongest in writing about the middle of the crisis, rather than the early days or the final resolution, which have been the subject of several detailed (and more authoritative) accounts[4] as well as much conspiratorial nonsense. Harris gives particularly interesting accounts of the role of Iranian foreign minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, who wrongly thought he knew what would persuade Iran's revolutionary leaders to let the hostages go; he ended up under arrest and was executed for his role in a plot to overthrow the government. Harris also highlights the role of private citizen Henry Kissinger as an intermediary with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

But The Crisis suffers from some serious problems. Harris provides no indication of his sources for particular statements. And in his afterward about his sources, he acknowledges that some quotes come "from multiple sources, which I have bound together inside a single set of quotation marks." He lists an impressive set of interviews, including many in Iran, as well as extensive use of primary source materials. But he also acknowledges "a special debt to the work of Gary Sick, William Shawcross, Pierre Salinger, and Amir Taheri"-three of whom have written books full of unsubstantiated innuendo that rely heavily on fabricated sources.

Furthermore, Harris's title misleads. He barely discusses the origins of militant Islam as a political movement. His account is not so much about the three main actors cited in the title-President Jimmy Carter, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the shah-as about the maneuverings of their top aides. The failure to deliver what the title implies is particularly important when one reflects upon how little result there was from the secret diplomacy on which Harris concentrates. In fact, the hostages were taken so that Iran's revolutionaries could isolate their erstwhile allies in the Westernized wing of the anti-shah movement and consolidate Iran's anti-American orientation; once that purpose had been accomplished, the hostages were released. The diplomatic maneuverings did more to prolong the crisis, by suggesting that the United States was too timid to react strongly, than to end it.

Excellent work that has implications for today's world.......2005-04-14

Though I was only seven at the time of the Iran Hostage Crisis, I can vividly remember how the Crisis touched everyone in America as I observed in my household. I remember the nightly new and papers menioning the three players highlighted in this work. With the exception of Carter, I knew very little about these three before picking up this book.

Harris provides the reader with a detailed account of each leaders rise to and/or fall from power. In a coup of thorough research, Harris attempts to lay out every twist and turn in the international negotiations to release the hostages. Though the subtitle mentions only Carter, the Shah, and Khomeni, Harris details the actions of numerous other players who interact with the three leaders and influence the course of events in Tehran.

The pace of the narrative is like that of an excellent thriller. Harris cuts back and forth between Washington, Paris, Tehran, and the carious locations of the Shah. He does an excellent job in capturing the emotions of the folks involved. The description of the disastrous rescue attempt is fantastic and exemplifies how small things can derail military operations. Harris also concentrates on how a world leader--be it the shah, president, or the Secretary General of the UN--has to be extremely careful in how he or she speaks.

One thing I really liked about this work is the final chapter in which Harris details what has happened to each person we met along the way. In so many works of non-fiction and history, we are introduced to folks who are dropped from the focus of the author.

Ultimately, this is an important work because it looks at the birth of the hatred of the United States espoused by militant Islams. It is fascinating and disturbing to think that this incident that brought down the presidency of Carter was initially to be a three day "statement" by a group of students in Tehran.

Good Recounting of History.......2005-04-11

If you enjoy historical writing that tells a story instead of hitting you over the head with numerous footnotes and citations, this is the book for you. Long before Al-Queda the US was forced to deal with Islamic Terrorism in the late-70's, and this book does a great job in explaning how it all happened.

The writer, David Harris does a great job in extrapolating information from existing sources and a number of interviews with people who were involved in the crisis both in and out of the Carter Administration. The strength of this book is his retelling of the human toll of the crisis and how a number of strong personalities were forced to work with one another.

For those of us who remember this time in history, it appeared as if the Carter Administration seemingly bumbled every possible opportunity in addressing the crisis. The book explains how it happened by examining what took place and who was involved both in Iran and the United States. Thanks to his work, we get a better idea of what many hitorical figures such as Jimmy Carter, Khomeni, Zbignew Breziniski and Cyrus Vance were like.

As a result, I came away from this book leaning something and enjoying the reading while I gained the information. Solid book that's worth your time.

Why We Are Where We Are.......2005-04-04

This is an excellent book because it puts a pivotal period into sharp focus. Consider that, in the 70's, Nixon had been removed. The Republican ascendancy had hit a major speed bump. Carter edged out Morris Udall for the Democratic nomination, but Carter was a man with no experience whatsover in Washington politics. As Carter stumbled through his single term, the Iranian hostage crisis emerged to, ultimately, finish him off.

Of course, Iran and the Middle East are still a major problem for the US. This book goes a long way toward explaining why. It does not get very deeply into why we were tied to the Shah, but it's clear the Shah was not a gifted leader. His troubles were quite complex. Carter wanted a 'moral' foreign policy that respected human rights. He hoped he could work with the Shah to get gradual change in Iran, but he was also pathologically naive about how his support of the Shah might work out. The Iranians were not impressed. With the Shah, Carter and the Dems lost their share of the 'beacon of democracy' vision, and now Bush seems to own it.

There are two major threads in this book, aside from the gripping historical narrative. First off, there is a sense of tragic farce that can almost be seen as whimsical in hindsight. How could everything go wrong. And I mean everything. From the inability of the UN Secretary General to follow a plan, to the failed surgery by a brilliant heart surgeon, to the sequence of failure in the desert rescue mission. Then there was the emissary going back to Tehren, to finalize the release, on the day Iraq invaded, thus delaying flights for 2 weeks. It just goes on and on and on. In the epilogue, someone is quoted as saying Carter was a man who used up all his luck becoming president. This is a book about a talented man who, indeed, had no real luck. His final bargaining chip was being able to tell the Iranians "Well, in 10 weeks you can negotiate with Reagan." That seemed to be enough, although Iran badly needed war materiel, as well. One can (should) ask if Nixon and Kissinger were setting Carter up, in various ways. They insisted the Shah come here. That precipitated the crisis. But why did Carter have Vance and Brzrzinski, perhaps a more bipolar pair than Rumsfeld and Powell. The extremes did not create any kind of viable policy. The weakness was shown when Russia went into Afghanistan. With Reagan, we got the hard right.

The other fascinating thread is the whole 'democratic' and revolutionary process in Iran. Revolutions have a nasty way of getting, well, nasty. This one got fractured and violent. It had spurts of energy and then things would dissipate. The people with power behaved like politicians, but they felt a need to succeed beyond this giant media event. The clerics were difficult to work with, especially Khomeini, and as the situation unraveled, the fundamentalist religious factions filled the political vaccuum. The people involved were not demons, entirely. They did hate the US, in many ways, which was somewhat understandable. They could not create a viable government or maintain the economy. Unfortunately, the process of weighing secularism, Islam, law, and so on, was not very successful, and we still see the effects. There's something to learn about bringing democracy to the rest of the world. It just ain't that easy. The events in this book are still with us. In the Fall of 1980, as Reagan and Carter were campaigning, Iraq invaded Iran. Partly this was due to the inability of Iran to form a strong government. Partly THIS was due to the hostages and the emotionalism wrapped up in the Shah who had, actually, just died. The Iranians needed to focus on something other than the Great Satan. We, of course, ended up giving some support to Iraq and propping up Saddam. (How did that work out?)

Now we would like to see democracy in Iraq, but the same kinds of political and religious winds blow across Iraq, and democracy is only a process, not a solution.

One can isolate out the period of American foreign policy where we protected our economic interests, and the interests of the Cold War paradigm. Carter certainly championed a different focus, but without defining a process to get there. In Iran, a country where our 'legacy policy' had to be unwound, everything just imploded. We were on the wrong side of the thing, and couldn't get right with it. One can also look at the various issues that must be resolved to have a pluralistic and enlightened form of democracy in the Sunni-Shia, Kurdish, and Islamist, etc, Middle East. Because ultimately the Hostage Sideshow deflected the Iranians from the task of making their country work, and the revolutionary ideology continues to corrode real advance.

Memories of American Ignominy.......2005-03-13

This well written book brought back unpleasant memories of America's first ignominious encounter with radical Islam. I was just out of high school, and can vividly recall the national despair and exasperation over the hostage crisis. In many ways, 1979-80 was the nadir of our post-Vietnam national funk.

Harris' book provides an excellent window on the hostage crisis, and the machinations in Washington and Tehran to resolve it. Harris portrays most Carterites in sympathetic terms (perhaps no surprise considering the author's leftist politics), especially Ham Jordan, whose secret, trans-continental diplomatic efforts had him functioning as a de facto Secretary of State. Brzezinski is cast in a much less flattering light, and is derided for his hawkish posture. It's interesting that Harris chose not to (or was unable to) interview Carter's National Security Advisor. The diplomacy advocates Vance and Christopher come across as naive in their aversion to military force or coercion of any kind.

On the Iranian side, Bani Sadr (president) and Ghotbzadeh (foreign minister) are gullible in the extreme. From their days together in exile in Paris, it is clear that Khomeini was using these moderates to mask his extremism and advance his legitimacy internationally. The Shah ("His Imperial Majesty," "Light of the Aryans," etc) is venal and weak, although when the moment of truth arrived, he blanched at unleashing the Iron Fist to quell the rebellion.

UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim is untrustworthy and through arrogance, incompetence or both, did more than anyone to undermine the secret Jordan-Ghotbzadeh agreement to spring the hostages.

The book is a surprisingly brisk read, given the weightiness of the subject matter. The author's decision to focus primarily on a small number of key players certainly helped speed the narrative pace. But I was a little put off this technique. For example, the State Department official who participated in Jordan's diplomatic gambit is referred to repeatedly as "the Assistant Secretary of State" - no name, ever, is associated with him. I kept wondering who this mystery diplomat was. Other characters are referred to generically as "the NSC official" or "State's Iran specialist."

The author also errs in the epilogue when he asserts that Warren Christopher served as President Clinton's Secretary of State for eight years -- what about Madeleine Albright? These mild criticisms aside, "The Crisis" is an excellent read and highly informative.

The Hostage Crisis was one of the more dismal episodes in recent American history. It helped to fell a sitting president, underscored the perception of American impotence and served as a capstone to the nation's decade-long diminishment on the world stage.

Book Description

Ruin and Recovery tells the story of Michigan's cycles of resource exploitation and conservation from the early days of statehood in 1837 to the present day. Drawing from a large number of resources, including archival records and reminiscences, official documents and individual interviews, Ruin and Recovery charts the development of a conservation ethic in Michigan and chronicles the major battles for environmental protection since the late 1800s.

Michigan has faced two turning points in its conservation history. One came at the end of the nineteenth century when its logging era ended, only to be followed by raging forest fires that left millions of acres of land denuded. Ruin and Recovery's discussion of this first turning point is from historical records and the later recollections of survivors of the ruinous 1908 Metz forest fire in northeastern Lower Michigan. The second turning point came in the late 1960s, when water and air pollution prompted public outrage. This controversy is brought to life through interviews with local residents, scientists, and agency officials who observed the Kalamazoo River to be the most polluted in Michigan. Both turning points set the stage for the historic eras of rebuilding that followed.

Dave Dempsey is Policy Director of the Michigan Environmental Council, a statewide environmental coalition.

Customer Reviews:

A glimpse of the past shows possibilities for the future.......2002-02-18

This book is many things: a history on the conservation movement in Michigan, a glimpse into the politics of the environment, and more. But as a whole one is most astounded by the sheer number of people throughout Michigan's history who have made a difference for their state's natural resources. It's easy to let the environmental movement be seen these days as the sole domain of liberal soccer moms. Far from true, it has been both Democrats and Republicans, animal lovers and hunters, farmers and urbanites, and men and women who have all made a collective big difference. The movement belongs to no one alone.

The book's rich history and insight serve as a subtle reminder that the environment really can be a nonpartisan issue after all, and after finishing the book you're definitely left with the sense that it will be again. An excellent and informative read.

A Political Science Assessment.......2001-08-01

Dempsey is an activist affiliated with MUCC, Michigan United Conservation Clubs. He assigned himself the task of writing a comprehensive history of conservation and environmental politics in the Wolverine State. His title is apt: the overall trend is indeed ruin and then recovery. Ruin began with over-trapping for pelts, for fish, for copper, for iron, and for timber. The recovery was painful and required a different attitude toward resources and the vulnerability of nature. Only one governor gets his nod as a champion of the environment, viz. William G. Milliken, and no others. We are presently is a third wave of reexploitation under John Engler. We are slipping back into bad habits of allowing pollution-by-dilution. Then why did he did he use the subtitle of "Michigan's Rise as a Conservation Leader"? Because of advocacy by interest groups and individuals ranging from Thomas Anderson to Mark Wycoff and from Audubon to EMEAC and WMEAC. Some corporations come in for positive evaluation. Such as Herman Miller Company of Zeeland. The overall story is not presented in black and white, but is subtle and recognizes the role of current culture. The vignettes of conservation-leaders including Thomas L. Washington, of his own group, are balanced. The documentation is superb and is informed by -Aldo Leopold, Dunbar, Catton and especially Sam Hayes. Criticisms include no maps, a Lower Peninsula bias and listing only one web site. Topics not covered include the Rouge River cleanup, NAFTA and incoming garbage, deep-well injection, nuclear energy mishaps, acid rain, slant drilling, and mine-exit strategy and the Seney National WLP. The book covers new ground, is competently researched, interesting and relevant, a model for other state case studies. The hard-back copy belongs in every public library as a compliment to Dunbar's state history and Lawrence Sommer's State of Michigan geography.

Real Problems, Real Solutions, Real People.......2001-07-23

Dempsey's highly readable history of Michigan's environmental ups and downs is an excellent motivator. He shows us vivid examples of how the short term economics of business will harvest a resource until it is gone; cut down every tree and catch every whitefish. His reporting shows how industrial companies will dump their waste on anyone who is unaware or unconcerned (remember PBBs, PCBs, mercury and Dioxin?). He also shows us how concerned, active people have successfully fought and won battle after battle with political machines, unconcerned companies and unaware publics. Without these peoples' efforts we would have dirtier air, fouler water and an alphabet soup of contamination. Dempsey also gives us a good outline of the currently critical environmental issues of ecosystem preservation and land use planning. If you want to be motivated and and to feel that you can be part of a solution, this book is for you.

Also, if you want to know what to look for in your cantidates for political office Dempsey's information about Milliken, Blanchard and Engler is, alone, worth the price of the book.

How can so much information be so entertaining?.......2001-07-11

This book is a must read for anyone the slightest bit interested in the Great Lakes, Michigan or the environment in general. Each page is choked with facts and history but is presented in a readable format that could almost be described as a "page turner." Dempsey's interest in the subject matter is contagious and obvious. He takes you into each era and you can see for yourself the evolution of what we now call the "environmental movement." More importantly perhaps, he makes you see that we still have a long way to go but that our concern and involvement is is necessary.

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