Book Description
A coin flip likely saved the life of Kenneth C. Ruiz. It was August 1942 and he was fresh out of the U.S. Naval Academy. He and a classmate flipped a coin to see who would stand watch on the bridge of their heavy cruiser, the Vincennes, off Savo Island as the Marines were landing on Guadalcanal. Ruiz was on the bridge when the ship took a direct hit and sank. He ended up in the pacific without a life jacket, but his classmate and the entire radio room crew perished in the attack.
Customer Reviews:
An Old Sailor Speaks.......2007-07-27
Luck of the Draw by Capt. Kenneth Ruiz
An Old Sailor Speaks
I am a retired naval officer who served in destroyers and carriers throughout my career, during which I was under direct fire in three wars. My ship was shot up by the Japanese, my plane shot down by the Chinese and my flagship shot at by the North Vietnamese. I have a lot of vivid memories from those days of waiting and warring. I also like good war stories and I have read a lot of them. I have enjoyed only a limited few because most are usually pretty unrealistic. Those readers who have under fire in combat can usually tell whether an author has ever been in a firefight. Ken Ruiz has not only been under fire, he has generally been where the action is.
Ensign Ken Ruiz had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in June 1942. After two weeks of leave, he reported to his first duty station, the USS Vincennes. This was a modern, well maintained, 8 inch gunned heavy cruiser with an experienced crew. In the summer of 1942 the Americans and their allies were losing the war everywhere. In the opening pages of Luck of the Draw, Ruiz describes the battle of Savo Island and the shocking defeat of the U.S. Navy's cruiser and destroyer task force protecting the amphibious landings on Guadalcanal. In this night action, a Japanese force of cruisers and destroyers sank four of our cruisers without a loss of any of their own. Ruiz recounts in the most graphic detail the total destruction of the Vincennes. His account is the best of the many I have read of that battle. The description of the methodical and agonizing dismembering of the Vincennes' at the hands of the Japanese, is a classic.
Rescued from the treacherous waters of "Iron Bottom Bay" after his ship went down, Ruiz was sent immediately to augment the crew of a diesel submarine without the normal procedure of survivor's leave and the prescribed six months of training in the Submarine School in New London, Connecticut. He had volunteered to go directly to a deploying fleet submarine in response to an emotional personal appeal by Admiral Nimitz: "We need officers like you in our submarine fleet and we need them now. Our submarines are desperately short handed". Ruiz stayed in subs for the rest of the war, and The Luck of the Draw tells his story.
Ruiz has the ability to write in a way that makes you feel that you are there. I have never served in submarines in combat but I have many contemporaries who did, and several of my friends have written books about their wartime submarine experience. They cannot match Ruiz in the reality of the accounts of his submarine war patrols in Luck of the Draw. He makes them come alive. I could swear I smelled the diesel oil and felt the damp heat of the engine room. There are no cardboard heroes such as we encounter in so many war stories. Ruiz' people are normal and alive, just as prone to error as they are capable of a satisfactory job. They are like the people you and I know.
From Ruiz we learn a lot about submarines - including their vulnerability to age, wear and the shock of battle. He shows us the same effects on his shipmates, reacting under the unrelenting tension of the silent service. This is a wonderful book. I read it through the first time without stopping. Now I keep a copy on my bedside table to pick up and read a chapter at random whenever I need that boost to my morale and the vicarious satisfaction that comes with refreshing my admiration of the courage and sacrifice of those otherwise average guys in dirty dungarees and un-pressed khakis mottled with the dark stains of their sweat, who fight this country's wars at sea.
XXX
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Very good Sub book.......2007-06-18
Pretty much every book written autobiographically by an ex-silent servicer has been excellent, and this book is no exception. The only nit-pick I have, and it's pretty darn small, is the last couple of patrols seem like an afterthought, taking up only a few pages. Admittedly, there wasn't much going on by this point of the war by this particular type of sub, but still, I wanted to know about even the boring parts of life on board. Other than that little nit, great book.
If you are looking for something to tell you the first-hand experience of a WWII submariner, this is one of those you should read.
To the veterans of that era from a veteran of a more recent era, Thank You for your service.
Extremely well written, a superb account of sub warfare.......2006-12-06
As a fresh graduate of the US Naval Academy, Ruiz was assigned to the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes as it was entering the Savo Sound off of Guadalcanal. He and an Academy classmate draw cards to see who would get the plumb assignment to the bridge, where they could observe the captain fight the ship, and who would end up on the signal bridge. Ruiz winds the card draw, and takes the bridge assignment. Two days later, the flag bridge is destroyed and all are killed during the attack. The Vincennes is attacked during the battle and sunk in Ironbottom Sound by torpedoes from a destroyer. After a harrowing time in the water with other survivors, Ruiz is rescued. The survivors eventually meet with Admiral Nimitz, who specifically requests volunteers for the submarine service. Ruiz volunteers, and is assigned to USS Pollack, one of the P class of submarines, and one of the last submarines built with rivets rather than a welded hull. Pollack has balky diesel engines, noisy bilge and trim pumps, and a hull that has a test depth of 250 feet, much less than the new fleet submarines. He joins the crew during an overhaul, when among other features Pollack is equipped with the new SJ surface search radar (with the old "A" scope display). During his first cruise on the boat at the end of 1942, Ruiz sees first hand how difficult it is to fight with this submarine, as time and again, equipment and systems fail. Even when the submarine does manage to work in for an attack, the torpedoes let the crew down with their poor performance, and Pollack must dodge depth charges. Time and again, as Ruiz describes it, Pollack takes the crew to the brink of disaster, only to snatch them from the jaws of defeat. One serious flooding incident that occurred during a depth charging turns out to be due not to the depth charges, but to a bolt jammed into the conning tower hatch to the bridge, blocking the hatch gasket from sealing.
We follow Ruiz on eight war patrols on the Pollack. Many of these are frustrating and frightening in the close calls the sub survives. Along the way, the colorful George Grider (from Morton's Wahoo, and later to captain the highly successful Flasher) joins the crew as the XO. Grider's leadership style and abilities have a positive influence on all the officers. As Ruiz puts it, "Before long, I realized that Grider had become the ship's heart and soul". Ruiz also moves up the officer chain and we follow him, in the process learning about the functions of the submarine. With a change of command to Cdr. Bafford Lewellen, the luck of Pollack begins to change. They carry out a successful attacks on the Bangkok Maru , which is carrying Japanese troops to Tarawa. Ruiz' sixth patrol on Pollack is the most successful, with over 21,000 tons of shipping sunk. In between the two attacks, Pollack has more misadventures, including an uncontrolled excursion to 500 feet, more than twice the test depth.
This book is another outstanding look at the experience of serving in the submarine force during WWII. In this case, it is not aboard a modern fleet boat, but in an older, worn, and balky submarine that was almost as dangerous to the crew as the enemy. The resourcefulness and resilience of men not far out of their teenage years is the true story of Pollack. The writing is superb; one passage stuck with me after I had finished the book: "My fondest memories of submarine duty are those tropic nights on the bridge, reveling in the warm salt air, and a slow easy swell under the Southern Cross. The sky seemed much closer here than on shore, and the Southern Cross has always been my favorite constellation. It was a lonely but powerful feeling being out there hunting thousands of miles from the nearest friendly base".
Almost a five star story of a WWII boat........2006-09-10
Kenneth Ruiz told an excellent story . . . and I connected with most of his experiences . . . even being a pilot after serving in the "Silent Service". His boat was two generations older than ours, so I couldn't picture everything that he related, but most was an excellent and easy read . . . recommended as one of the best of submarine records. The "Pollack" had four tubes forward, and two aft . . . rather than six forward and four aft. Their test depth was 250 feet, as against over 400 feet for the later boats. This makes their excellent record all the more remarkable. My complaints are that maybe in the decades since he (Ruiz) served, he may have forgotten that "Dive, Dive" is given only twice (not three times), and the publisher failed to catch the annoying failures of "periods", and double words . . . simple mistakes. But, barring those, the book is worth owning and recommended to all of us who have served aboard a diesel boat, even down to the "Fairbanks-Morse" rock-crushers that brought us home.
I knew him when.......2006-01-21
I bought this book simply because I had served with Capt. Ruiz later in his career (Fighter Squadron 102).As a lowly Petty Office r 3rd. class I had little ontact with him, a Lt.Cmdr., and the "Navy's caste system" prevented me from getting to know him. However I remember him as an unassuming, no nonsense, by-the-book officer and Pilot who commanded our respect.
AS an old "Airdale" with only "movie" knowledge of subs, I was pleasently surprised to find this a "can't put down" tale of a true American Hero. Buying and reading this book was my LUCK of the DRAW.
Book Description
Chronicles the untold story of the Big Red One, the legendary 1st Infantry Division, in its assault on Nazi forces at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion.
The Fighting First tells the untold story of the 1st Infantry Division's part in the D-Day invasion of France at Normandy. Using a variety of primary sources, official records, interviews, and unpublished memoirs by the veterans themselves, author Flint Whitlock has crafted a riveting, gut-wrenching, personal story of courage under fire. Operation Overlord - the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944--was arguably the most important battle of World War II, and Omaha Beach was the hottest spot in the entire operation. Leading the amphibious assault on the "Easy Red" and"Fox Green" sectors of Omaha Beach was the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division--"The Big Red One"--a tough, swaggering outfit with a fine battle record. The saga of the Big Red One, however, did not end with the storming of the beachhead. The author concludes with an account of the 1st in their fight across France, Belgium, and into Germany itself, playing pivotal roles in the bloody battles for Aachen, the Huertgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. The Fighting First is an inspiring, graphic, and often heartbreaking story of young American soldiers performing their D-Day missions with spirit, humor, and determination.
Customer Reviews:
D-Day the First Division.......2007-05-19
My Dad, Donald Gurdison, a 5th Engineering Special Brigade soldier, landed with the 1st Divison on D-Day in the 5th wave. There are special monmuments for these two units on Omaha Beach just outside the side gate of the American Cemetery fence. This book filled in the gaps of the story after my visit. And I recognized many of the names from the exhibits. If you're heading to Normandie and you can, read this first. It's a wonderful account of some very brave people who saw the atrocities of war and served our country proudly
Good solid book, but not excellent.......2007-02-17
In the past, the 1st Division's role on D-Day has not been written about in as much detail as their fellow D-Day Omaha Beach invasion comrades the 29th. This book is therefore long overdue, however as another reviewer said the title of the book is misleading, D-Day is indeed the central basis of the book, but it also covers North Africa, Sicily and the campaign after D-Day in NW Europe. For me this book certainly explains the battles of the Big Red One in decent detail, but it lacks the "little bit extra" that some other D-Day books have. Indeed Balkoski's classic Beyond the Beachhead about the 29th is an absolute classic. Of course Flint Whitlock's book was written nearly 15 years later, a period of time that has taken a huge toll on the members of the Greatest Generation - there simply are not that many veterans left to interview!!
So I think Mr Whitlock has done a good job with the material available, sure it falls short of being a major classic, but I've spoken to a number of Big Red One veterans and they like the book - so if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
D-Day and The Fighting First.......2006-03-21
Wow! This is a fantastic story about one of the most important days in the history of the world. The amphibious assult on the beaches of Normandy, truly inspriational and abolutely worth reading. If you see a WWII Vet, shake their hand and thank them!
Still Untold.......2006-01-16
The author says THE FIGHTING FIRST is supposed to be the untold story of THe Big Red One on D-Day. That would have been very interesting; too bad that's not the book the author wrote.
Instead, THE FIGHTING FIRST is a very rough history of the 1st Infantry Division during World War II, emphasizing June 6th, 1944. We have to go through North Africa and Sicily first, and the first soldier doesn't even hit Omaha Beach until page 144. Less than a hundred pages later, D-Day is over, and we go on until the end of the war.
Furthermore, much of the time the focus isn't even on The Big Red One -- we get higher level planning, the enemy point of view, British civilians. There are long, long quotes from very familiar secondary sources -- Ryan, Ike, Bradley, Pyle, Butcher -- that only tangentially relate to the 1st ID.
The research was limited. The author did 18 interviews, and looked at monographs on file at the Center for Military History. Then the aforementioned secondary sources. The index, even on a very quick check (TR, Jr., for examples), contains errors.
Then there's the writing. Yes, the fighting on D-Day was confusing, and we tend to become emotional when we consider the sacrifices the young men hitting the beaches that day made. But that doesn't mean you have to write about it in a confusing, overwrought manner. Whitlock does not produce a coherent narrative; for all his verbage, many other authors have written much better about what the Big Red One Did on D-Day.
And after that, it just gets worse. The final third of the book, from June 7th to V-E Day, is little more than a collection of personal remenisces and Medal of Honor citations, with little sense about what the division was actually doing. The "Where Are They Now" Epilogue is very poorly written -- the interviewees deserved better.
Here's the problem when you run across poor writing and limited research -- they raise questions. In one spot, Whitlock gives us the story of a 1st Division soldier who was at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941. It has his telling about shooting a cal. .50 at Japanese planes, and watching the battleships at Pearl Harbor get hit. But you can't see Pearl from Schofield! So we have three options: (1) Whitlock doesn't know enough geography and history to know this isn't right, or (2)Whitlock let inaccuracy stand because it made for a good story, or (3)Whitlock is a poor writer who mixes up the soldier's narrative. All three are unaccpetable, and with a book like THE FIGHTING FIRST, it is impossible to tell which (or maybe all) is the case.
Good D-Day story; better WWII story.......2005-02-23
"The Fighting First: The Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day" is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in World War II. It is a well-written and readable tribute to the sacrifices made by the Big Red One on that fateful day in June 1944.
This book, however, will not offer any additional insights into D-Day. In the spirit of Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day" and Stephen Ambrose's "D-Day: June 6, 1944," this work is based primarily on firsthand accounts of the battle. "The Fighting First" is much more narrowly focused than either of the other two books, telling only the D-Day story of the assault on Omaha Beach. It does not have the breadth of research and interviews that Ryan's or Ambrose's works have, and, although this is certainly a product of the slow dying out of the Greatest Generation, the story seems to revolve around only a handful of soldiers. Anyone who has read "The Longest Day" or "D-Day: June 6, 1944" will not find any new insights or experiences in the pages of this book.
There were a few omissions that would have strengthened this book. The author tells the personal story of the initial assault onto Omaha Beach well, but he fails to give a good operational overview of the attacking companies and battalions. This is one detail that most D-Day books lack, even Adrian Lewis' excellent "Omaha Beach: A Flawed Victory." The author never gives an overall accounting of the total number of casualties suffered on D-Day or during the Normandy campaign, a basic fact that is needed to tell the story. The book also has a few factual inaccuracies and questionable assertions. (For example, he says that the tide was rising one foot every 8 minutes, when the tidal range on Omaha on D-Day was 18 feet. There is also an unexamined claim by a veteran that the Germans were using wooden bullets.) These should have been corrected or explained better by the author.
Additionally, although the book is billed as the "Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day," only about 100 pages of the book's 350 pages tell the story of D-Day. Another 80 or so pages describe the Big Red One's training for and SHAEF's planning for Operation Overlord. The rest of the book tells of the Big Red One's fighting in North Africa, its post-D-Day pursuit across France, the terrible fighting around Aachen and in the Hürtgen Forest, the fighting at the northern shoulder of the Bulge, and the finals days of the war in the spring of 1945. It is this short history of the Big Red One, more than the telling of the D-Day story, that sets this book apart: the story of the Big Red One in World War Two, which fought in North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, Germany, and even Czechoslovakia, is hard to find. Fortunately, it can be found in this book.
The bottom line, though, is that the book is well written and tells its story very well. It includes plenty of maps (no military history book can have too many maps, although unfortunately most have too few) and photographs of many of the soldiers, including photographs and descriptions of every Medal of Honor winner. I would recommend it to any World War II buff.
Product Description
The oldest continuously serving division in the U.S. Army, the 1st Infantry Division, called the "Big Red One" because of the red numeral "1" on the uniform shoulder patch, was the first regular army division organized in June 1917 to fight in France with the Allied armies. More than 28,000 men-including soldiers with very familiar names like George C. Marshall, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Lesley J. McNair-served with the division in World War I. The Big Red One was redesignated on 15 May 1942 as an infantry division of nearly 15,000 men. It was selected for participation in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, landing in Algeria on 8 November 1942. It then fought through Sicily, leaving the theatre to train for the invasion. It was part of the forces that landed on D-Day and then fought with distinction through Europe. 1st Infantry Division's battle honors are Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, the Bulge, Germany. Postwar, the division served in Europe, Vietnam, Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Bosnia. It's currently based in Germany.
Book Description
The oldest continuously serving division in the U.S. Army, the 1st Infantry Division, called the "Big Red One" because of the red numeral "1" on the uniform shoulder patch, was the first regular army division organized in June 1917 to fight in France with the Allied armies. More than 28,000 men-including soldiers with very familiar names, like George C. Marshall, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Lesley J. McNair-served with the division in World War I.
The Big Red One was redesignated on 15 May 1942 as an infantry division of nearly 15,000 men. It was selected for participation in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, landing in Algeria on 8 November 1942. It then fought through Sicily, leaving the theatre to train for the invasion. It was part of the forces that landed on D-Day and then fought with distinction through Europe. 1st Infantry Division's battle honors are Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, the Bulge, Germany. Postwar, the division served in Europe, Vietnam, Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Bosnia. It's currently based in Germany.
Customer Reviews:
Mostly ignores First Division's history prior to WWII.......2004-08-24
My great-grandfather was a combat veteran with the "Big Red One" in World War I. I bought this book, and several others, because I wanted to learn more about what he experienced as a solider in the "Great War". This book is devoted almost exclusively to the First Division's history from World War II onward. Even the "clothing and equipment" sections are of WWII vintage. There are only a few pages devoted to the First Division's formulation in 1917 and their major campaigns of WWI. What content does appear for WWI is a high-level summation of events. I hope that the other books that I purchased about the "Big Red One" provide a more complete history "from day one". My rating of this book is lower than usual due to to absence of detailed information about the First Division prior to WWII.
Good precis.......2004-07-25
A good overall look at the "Big Red One". Much better than the now dated Osprey Vanguard title on the 1st Infantry Division; some good photos and brief historical section, plus some nice surprises. The price is right as well. The Spearhead series is doing some good work, hope to see many more titles in future!
Book Description
Describing Sam Fuller as a cult legend and a celluloid genius would be like describing Muhammad Ali as a boxer or Jimi Hendrix as a guitar player. He was a singular American visionary, a giant of independent filmmaking, and a king of bruised-knuckle cinematic poetry.
The Big Red One is his masterpiece. Twenty years in the making, both the novel and the film are based on Fuller’s own experiences with the Army’s First Infantry Division ("the Big Red One") in World War II. The story centers on the friendship of five soldiers and follows them from the arid landscapes of Vichy French Africa to Europe to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and onward into Germany. Excruciating scenes of suffering and brutality are juxtaposed against heartbreaking scenes of compassion and selflessness. In Fuller’s vision the lines between heroism and villainy are blurred—"the only glory in war is surviving"—but The Big Red One also provides an epic adventure steeped in the true history of World War II.
Customer Reviews:
A Must For Understanding the Master.......2005-09-23
You've probably heard the name Sam Fuller mentioned by the likes of Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, and Quentin Tarantino. His name comes up whenever you want to talk about war movies, or truth in cinema. He manages, in all his films, to get at the core truth about violence: that it is always terrible and sometimes unavoidable. In "The Big Red One" he manages to make that most curious thing: a film about the horrors of war in general that convinces you of the necessity of one war in particular, WWII, the war to end all wars. This film is the pinnacle of Sam Fuller's career, the purest expression of what he clearly felt to be a an urgent message, and the novel is an even more intense and complete exposition of the themes of the film.
All his potent visual sense comes across in the rough-hewn language and tight, electric imagery. Soldiers are "dogfaces" and nobody has time for any nonsense. Nearly every line is quotably tough and full of clearly authentic details.
The novel, as Schickel's informative introduction tells you, was not in fact based on the film, and thus suffers from none of the novelized-movie corniness of most books of that genre. It does, however, share the movie's vividness -- you can almost smell the smoke and the sweat, and the point that WWII was a just war, one that truly should have ended all wars, is driven home again and again. This is not a postmodern fable in which nothing means what it seems to -- this is pure, clear realism.
A GREAT READ!.......2005-09-13
Sam Fuller, the seminal film director and writer, directed the movie of the same title, THE BIG RED ONE. Though the book and the movie differ, both share haunting images of both horror and beauty, sin and redemption. Sam Fuller ought to know as he fought in many of the major battles of WWII that most of us (younguns) just read about. I am so glad the book was reissued, now let's hope the movie gets released again in theaters--or maybe a remake will happen?
Grit and greatness.......2005-08-25
It's wonderful having a new edition of this book because, other than Norman Mailer's The Naked and The Dead, it may be the best and truest novel of combat in World War II. Like Mailer, Fuller made use of his experience with the subject to create a work that's gritty, provocative and rewarding. This covers the length and breadth of the war against Germany, but its focus on a small group of soldiers makes it hit home. Highly recommended.
Book Description
"No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great--Duty First!" For almost a century, from the Western Front of World War I to the deserts of Iraq, this motto has spurred the soldiers who wear the shoulder patch bearing the Big Red One. In this first comprehensive history of America's 1st Infantry Division, James Scott Wheeler chronicles its major combat engagements and peacetime duties during its legendary service to the nation.
The oldest continuously serving division in the U.S. Army, the "Fighting First" has consistently played a crucial role in America's foreign wars. It was the first American division to see combat and achieve victory in World War I and set the standard for discipline, training, endurance, and tactical innovation. One of the few intact divisions between the wars, it was the first army unit to train for amphibious warfare. During World War II, the First Division spearheaded the invasions of North Africa and Sicily before leading the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach and fighting on through the Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, the Ruhr Pocket, and deep into Germany. By war's end, it had developed successful combined-arms, regimental combat teams and made advances in night operations.
Wheeler describes the First Division's critical role in postwar Germany and as the only combat division in Europe during the early Cold War. After returning to the United States at Fort Riley, Kansas, the division fought valiantly in Vietnam for five trying years, successfully protecting Saigon from major infiltration along Highway 13 while pioneering "air-mobile" operations. It led the liberation of Kuwait in Desert Storm and kept an uneasy peace in Bosnia and Kosovo. Along the way, Wheeler illuminates the division's organizational evolution, its consistently remarkable commanders and leaders, and its equally remarkable soldiers.
Meticulously detailed and engagingly written, The Big Red One reflects the larger chronicle of America's military experience over the past century.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
Book Description
The Reasoning Voter is an insider's look at campaigns, candidates, media, and voters that convincingly argues that voters make informed logical choices. Samuel L. Popkin analyzes three primary campaigns—Carter in 1976; Bush and Reagan in 1980; and Hart, Mondale, and Jackson in 1984—to arrive at a new model of the way voters sort through commercials and sound bites to choose a candidate. Drawing on insights from economics and cognitive psychology, he convincingly demonstrates that, as trivial as campaigns often appear, they provide voters with a surprising amount of information on a candidate's views and skills. For all their shortcomings, campaigns do matter.
"If you're preparing to run a presidential campaign, and only have time to read one book, make sure to read Sam Popkin's The Reasoning Voter. If you have time to read two books, read The Reasoning Voter twice."—James Carville, Senior Stategist, Clinton/Gore '92
"A fresh and subtle analysis of voter behavior."—Thomas Byrne Edsall, New York Review of Books
"Professor Popkin has brought V.O. Key's contention that voters are rational into the media age. This book is a useful rebuttal to the cynical view that politics is a wholly contrived business, in which unscrupulous operatives manipulate the emotions of distrustful but gullible citizens. The reality, he shows, is both more complex and more hopeful than that."—David S. Broder, The Washington Post
Customer Reviews:
Overrated.......2007-09-20
Largely overrated work of political science. Noble effort at bridging diverse strands of research into a single theory, but evidentiary support for argument simply insufficient. Chapters on primaries remain interesting, yet irrelevant at best...harmful to author's theoretical framework at worst.
Part Brilliant.... Part Horrible............2007-07-20
This book describes in great detail everything that you could possibly want to know about presidential primaries and the general elections. Popkin does a wonderful job in breaking down the politics behind presidential campaigns. The only problem with it is that it is horribly written, which seriously detracts from the overall message. It is way too dense to be considered as the masterpiece which the other amazon reviewers claim it to be.
I am a true believer that for ANY book to be a five star book, the reader should not have to suffer through its prose. I suffered through this book, despite the fact that the content was terribly interesting. Maybe next time he writes a book, he can work together with one of his contemporaries who can actually write.
I have read thousands of books and this was one of the ones that I found to be the most troubling... Part brilliant, part horrible.... that just does not happen every day.
read it again.......2001-09-09
A friend of mine told me: "If you are a candidate and you only have time to read one book during your campaign, you must read it. If you have time to read two books, you must read it twice." This book is simply excellent.
I learned so much.......2001-01-05
nuff said. Hands down best in subject matter.
A misguided, poorly written, painfully arrogant analysis.......1999-11-06
"The Reasoning Voter" has all of the marks of an academic wannabe who suggests the American people really aren't so stupid. Pity the students who buy this book--they're the only one who do, to be sure.
Book Description
Originally published in the June 11, 1984, New Yorker, this lengthy essay is a sharp-edged inquiry into the generational institutions of our national life. With the same iconoclastic spirit and multilayered prose that he interwove in his classic Within the Context of No Context, George Trow tells the story of upstate New York's Black Rock Forest—a thirty-eight-hundred-acre site overlooking the Hudson River—through the lives of the men who were connected to it and through the larger histories of Harvard University, U.S. conservation policies, and physics and biology.
The men: banker James Stillman; his son, Ernest Stillman, a medical doctor who inherited the land that would become the Black Rock Forest in 1928 and who wanted to make it healthy and useful; the legendary Gifford Pinchot, appointed chief forester of the U.S. in 1898; and Richard Thornton Fisher, for many years the head of the Harvard Forest and the man who suggested to Ernest Stillman that he turn his inherited land into another demonstration forest. Harvard University: a more financially focused, less collegial environment than the one that had accepted the gift of the forest in 1949, now looking to shed responsibility for the forest without shedding the money its sale would bring. The challenge: how to manage, how to value, a wilderness area of great biological diversity.
In his brilliantly elastic fashion, Trow maneuvers images, symbols, ambiguities, ethics, journalistic wordplay, advertising tricks, and corporate doublespeak to create an intensely perceptive analysis of the cultural, political, and scientific communities. His richly developed story of the Harvard Black Rock Forest is ultimately a symbolic tale that bears upon some of the most significant institutions, professions, and legacies in contemporary American life.
A publisher's note reveals the fate of the forest.
Books:
- The Magic of Provence: Pleasures of Southern France
- The Magnificent Mountain Women (Second Edition): Adventures in the Colorado Rockies
- The Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories
- The Shell Game: Reflections on Rowing and the Pursuit of Excellence
- Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot (Reprint ed.)
- Thy Neighbor's Wife
- Tim Richmond: The Fast Life and Remarkable Times of NASCAR's Top Gun
- Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph
- Wagner Without Fear: Learning to Love--and Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius
- Wendy's Got the Heat
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- Sauron Defeated: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Four
- Pretty Little Dirty
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- Matisse: From Color to Architecture
- National Electrical Code 2005 Handbook
- The Federalist Era 1789-1801
- Beijing 798: Reflections On Art, Architecture And Society In China
- Nomads of the Wind: A Natural History of Polynesia
- WESTERN FOREST TREES A GUIDE TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF TREES AND WOODS FOR STUDENTS,TEACHERS, FARMERS
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
In the Course of Duty: The Heroic Mission of the USS Batfish
Find 'Em, Chase 'Em, Sink 'Em: The Mysterious Loss of the WWII Submarine USS Gudgeon
Nothing Friendly In The Vicinity: My Patrols On The Submarine USS Guardfish During WWII (Bluejacket Books)
Death at a Distance: The Loss of the Legendary USS Harder
Red Scorpion: The War Patrols of the USS Rasher
