His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad

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John Parker was born a slave in Virginia but managed to buy his freedom. He hated the injustice of slavery, and so for about 20 years before the Civil War devoted his life to the dangerous work of helping other blacks escape to freedom. This is one of only a few accounts of a black American's fight against slavery in his own words. Unpublished for nearly a century, it brings to life the American frontier of the mid-18th century in as thrilling a fashion as any John Ford film or historical novel.

Book Description

John P. Parker is one of the few African Americans whose battle against slavery we can now turn to in his own words. He recounts dramatically how he helped fugitive slaves to cross the Ohio River from Kentucky and go north to freedom. He risked his life--hiding in coffins, diving off a steamboat with bounty hunters on his trail--and his freedom to fight for the freedom of his people.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for Children .......2007-09-18

My daughter needed this book for research of slavery. It was great for her and she learned alot!

An Outstanding Book.......2005-01-20

I ordered this book after seeing an interesting reference to it in an article in Smithsonian Magazine. I am so very glad I did.It is an amazing book, a very rare combination of thought provoking historical narrative, and Indiana Jones-ish excitement. I only wish it had been ten times as long-I would have devoured it. If I hadn't read the preface, which gives the background, I would have thought it was fiction, and pretty darn nail biting fiction at that.
I have given quite a bit of thought to this book, wondering what I would have done, given the same situation, and concluded that you can only hope you would be strong enough to rise to the circumstances, but fear is a powerful deterrent.I am giving my copy to the history department chair at my daughters' high school, and will ask them to consider making it a part of the curriculum.

WOW!!!.......2002-09-10

I brought this book some time ago and just got around to reading it. Well, let me tell you that I can kick myself for not reading it sooner. You will get through this book so fast your head would spin because it is so interesting you will not want to put it down. John P. Parker, my hero.

Engrossing account of the Underground Railroad.......1998-06-17

John Parker's autobiography is an engrossing and often surprising account of the activities of the Underground Railroad. Parker was born and lived as a slave until buying his freedom and moving to Ripley, Ohio. There he joined forces with Rev. John Rankin in helping slaves cross the Ohio River and escape to Canada. His account is lucid, swift-moving, rambunctious, and highly literate. He describes the Ohio River Valley as "the Borderland," comparing it to the lawless, violent Scots/English border. The border, constantly raided by Abolitionists helping steal men, women, and children out of slavery and patrolled by slave-owning vigilantes intent on catching them, simmers in as treacherous a state of unrest and violence as any "Wild West" town at its worst. Parker never walks the streets of Ripley without a pistol, knife, and black jack in his belt. He never admits to working for the Underground Railroad, especially after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, but pretty much everyone in the region knows that he does, putting his life in constant danger.

Parker's account abounds in hair-breadth escapes, heart-rending failures, and startling heroics. He also reveals aspects of the Underground Railroad that one never suspects but which seem inevitable after he describes them, such as the competition that developed between John Rankin's Ripley, Ohio branch of the Railroad and Levi Coffin's Cincinnati group. Parker insists that Coffin was merely the better publicist, not the better rescuer of the two. It's also clear that for Parker rescuing slaves was not merely a fierce moral imperative but also an activity touched with excitement, zest--even, strange as this sounds, fun. There is an element of sport to his activities, despite their grim, life and death seriousness. Parker is obviously bold, intelligent, crafty--good at what he does--and he relishes the hard-won triumphs of courage and guile that allow him to free his fellow slaves.

It's hard to say what place &qu! ot;His Promised Land" will take in American literature. It will not, I don't think, replace Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of an American Slave" as the country's premier account of the experience of slavery. It's not as powerful, relentless, or literarily self-conscious an account as Douglass's great work. But it may prove to be, for the Underground Railroad, what Sam Watkins's "Co. Aytch" is for the Civil War: perhaps the most engaging, colorful, and moving account by an 'ordinary extraordinary' man in one of this country's most agonizing and dramatic conflicts.

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HIS PROMISED LAND: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN P. PARKER, FORMER SLAVE AND CONDUCTOR ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. Edited by Stuart Seely Sprague
John P. Parker
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Co.,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N7K2LM

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Simply great.

The end and an era.

Excellent analysis

A must for those who enjoy reading modern history

Economic History of European Imperialism

Age of Empire: 1875-1914
Eric Hobsbawm
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679721754
Release Date: 1989-04-23

Book Description

Discusses the evolution of European economics, politics, arts, sciences, and cultural life from the height of the industrial revolution to the First World War.

Customer Reviews:

Simply great........2005-07-08

I just finished reading this book. Knowing little more than what the average person knows about the nineteenth century, I closed the book feeling enlightened and intrigued. Hobsbawm writes well, and he manages to bring together very complex concepts and mechanisms into simple sentences. It is a daunting experience trying to compress forty years of world history into four hundred pages, but Hobsbawm manages to pull it off in most places.

There is enough primer material in this book for a lifetime of further study. Hobsbawm instills a sense of curiosity in the reader, and I spent much time oodling over reference books and online sources trying to patch together the facts and events referred to in "Age of Empire: 1875-1914".

What can I say? I wanted to know more about colonialism, industrialisation and economic progress in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and "Age of Empire: 1875-1914" fit the bill very well indeed.

The end and an era........2004-12-04

Eric Hobsbawm concludes his series on the nineteenth century with The Age of Empire. This sequel to The Age of Capital and The Age of Revolution covers the period from the mid 1870s until the outbreak of the First World War.

This series is not a general survey of the period or a textbook. Instead, it is intended by the author to be "an argument" for his basic premise. This thesis is the unifying theme of the trilogy and, as stated in the book, it is: "The triumph of and transformation of capitalism in the historically specific forms of bourgeoisie society in its liberal version." In this final volume the theme is the contradiction and instability of the bourgeois class when they were at their most successful.

The paradoxes and conflicts were increasingly evident in the economy, society, natural sciences, politics and international relations. Eventually they would crack the fabric of the comfortable bourgeois world with the start of the First World War. This conflict was the end of "the age of empire," and the upheavals caused by the war (and subsequent peace settlement) shaped the world of the twentieth century.

The very title of the work, "The Age of Empire," shows that internationalism and colonialism are a central theme of the period. The elite nations of the world were able, it seemed at first glance, to spread their flags and their trade across the globe with impunity. In a short span of time the Great Powers were able to conquer much of the less developed world. To many, this seemed to prove the inherent justice of the imperialist cause. The confidence of the major powers increased with each new colony and triumph.

Problematically, imperial powers found it easier to get an empire than to get a profit from it. Even more unsettling was the fact that not all nations would be willing to give up their sovereignty. The defeat of Italy by the Ethiopians, of Russia by Japan, and the long drawn-out Boer War all challenged the status quo. The late nineteenth century was a time of mass politics. Most of the industrialized nations of Europe had granted the franchise to a large portion of the male population. This necessitated a change in tactics for governments even as their strategic goals remained much the same.

A central paradox here was the use of mass politics to protect the rights and privileges of the elite few. Marxist theorists had expected that wider participation in the election processes would prove to energize the masses and serve as a precursor to the eventual revolution of the proletariat. In this hope, the social revolutionaries would be disappointed. Enlargement of the electorate proved to be a way to control the outbursts of the working classes that had previously lead to revolution or riots. On the whole, the electorate proved to be more conservative and interested in slow, steady enhancement of rights and benefits than desirous of revolutionary change.

In addition to economic and political change during the period, there were many social changes as well. Women entered the workforce in large numbers in the newly developed jobs of office workers and nurses. For the first time, primary education was available to almost all of a nation's citizens. Education was not only a means to increase the productivity of the future workforce, it also was able to inculcate a sense of nationalism and national pride in the population.

Hobsbawm ends the main body of the work with a review of the causes behind the First World War. He quickly dismisses the notion of war guilt or concerns over the immediate causes of the conflict. Instead, the author looks at the whole of the period and the pressures which led to the outbreak of war when it did as opposed to any of the other numerous crises which had occurred in the preceding years. The author places much blame for those pressures on the capitalist system which had powered most of the nineteenth century: "The development of capitalism inevitably pushed the world in the direction of state rivalry."

Hobsbawm is not able to be optimistic in his conclusions, but he does at least manage to be sanguine. The plan so clearly and precisely mapped by Marx and his theories has not occurred according to schedule. The author seems now unwilling to predict when or if it will. As Hobsbawm himself writes, "The only certain thing about the future is that it will surprise even those who have seen furthest into it."

Hobsbawm's work is never without its supporters and detractors. Reviewers of The Age of Empire reflect this pattern: in general, reviewers of the book were impressed with the scholarship and breadth of this ambitious book. Some reviewers were less concerned with the political beliefs of the author while others found them to be central to the work.

The Age of Empire has many strong parts. Hobsbawm is able to draw together events from around the world and relate them to his core thesis. The argument that Hobsbawm tries to make is less enjoyable than the delightful breadth of the work. One can sense the disappointment that the author has time and time again when the classes fail to revolt (as they should) or when capitalists fail to place profit above all else (as they must). The failure of history to proceed according to the wishes of the author is too intrusive to the reader and seriously detracts from the work.

The Age of Empire is best enjoyed by a niche readership rather than a general one. A reader with a strong interest in the social history of the nineteenth century will find this book an invaluable look into the period. Others readers who simply hope to find out who shot whom in June 1914 are apt to be very disappointed.

Excellent analysis.......2003-01-27

This is an excellent multifaceted analysis of the long 19th century that is so significant not only to European but to world history. Flowing freely between critical political, economic, and cultural analysis, Hobsbawm clearly connects the complex developments of the period and enlightens the reader on their significance. A must read for anyone studying European and world history.

A must for those who enjoy reading modern history.......2000-12-11

This book, along with the two previous in the trilogy (Age of Revolution, Age of Capital) ranks as probably the best history books (among many) I have read. Hobsbawm assumes a basic knowledge of what happened during the period in question, so avoid this book if you are looking for a simple narrative. The prospective reader should also know that Hobsbawm is a Marxist and will analyze and argue as one. Having said that, I find the emphasis on the economic aspects of history to be very enlightening. If you have some idea of what happened in the 19th century and would like some serious and astute analysis of why, this book fits the bill admirably.

Economic History of European Imperialism.......2000-12-06

This is the third book in Hobsbawm's economic history of the "long" 19th Century (1789-1914). The other two books are "The Age of Revolution" and "The Age of Capitalism."

Like the other two books, this is an economic history, so it presumes the reader already has some knowledge of the major historical events of the period. For a more conventional European history, I'd refer the reader to "Europe: 1815-1914" by Gordon Craig.

One hears so much about "Imperialism" -- always in a negative sense -- that's it's interesting to read about a period in which Europeans were unabashedly imperialistic. I had read elsewhere that the main reason imperialism failed was that it was uneconomical, but this is the only serious treatment of it I've read.

One big surprise for me was that the European Imperial period was so short. The Imperial posessions were relatively few and unimportant before this period, and were essentially snuffed out by World War I (taking until World War II to entirely disappear).

Although I have enjoyed Hobsbawm's books, there are two warnings for the would-be reader. First, Hobsbawm is an unapologetic Marxist, so his economics all come from a Marxist angle. That's actually not as much of a problem as it might seem, and it helps shed a lot of light on what the earlier followers of communism were thinking. Second, this is not an easy read. The material is difficult to begin with, and Hobsbawm's writing style makes it more so.

Book Description

Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person's true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes' Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world's leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.

Customer Reviews:

Too much speculation.......2007-03-23

If you want to read about scientific facts this is not the book for you. The scientific underpinnings of this speculative book are briefly mentioned and not elaborated upon in much detail. It's better to just read his paper on the somatic marker hypothesis (which is disputed by the way). Without a background in neuroscience it is difficult to evaluate his ideas in a serious way, and anyway he asks for introspection (a la William James) from the reader more than anything else.

Tom Cruise for President........2007-02-24

If Dr. Damasio is so smart then why doesn't he admit that his thesis implies phrenology? A: because he knows that it is a pseudoscience.

Thoughtful analysis of how the mind works........2006-10-30

The French philosopher René Descartes could not have been more wrong, according to Antonio Damasio, a neurologist at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. Descartes thought the mind was completely separate from the body - an immaterial "thinking thing," the essence of which was cool conscious reasoning untainted by base physical influence. Through his research on patients with prefrontal cortex damage, Damasio discovered that reason, like almost all mental processes, is "embodied," that is, based in the human being's physical self. Emotions and other states that are rooted in physicality profoundly influence not only what people reason about, but how they reason. Without them, people either can't make decisions or they make self-defeating ones. This book tells how Damasio created, developed and tested his theory of embodied cognition, which is now widely influential in psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics. We recommend this refreshingly nuanced, conversationally told (though sometimes desultory) narrative of scientific invention and discovery to readers who want to learn about this profound, influential set of ideas from the source. You will never think about your mind the same way again.

Damasio concludes: "I am, Therefore I think.".......2006-09-09

"Descartes' Error" begins with the classic head-injury tale of Phinaes Gage - a man who lost a large section of his brain, and lived. "Gage was no longer Gage" his friends said after the accident. Gage's soul, his identity drastically changed. This, Damasio argues, proves materialism. There is no mind/body duality; the mind and the body are one.

The best parts of the book are the stories told of various brain injury cases which Damasio investigated. One patient had a brain tumor removed - and all of his emotions were removed with it. Intellectually, the patient was fine. But he was incapable of caring about anything. As a result, he had a terrible time making future plans.

The trouble with "Descartes' Error" is Damasio's tendecy to go on academic rants, spinning theories on how emotions create character traits in our brains by using feedback loops... (add technical words here, followed by medical terms) etc. I skimmed the chapters on emotion. These theories about how emotions are the seat of the soul - are rife with rambling, dry, academic speculations.

Too bad only half the book is devoted to neurological oddities - such as, a patient whose entire left side of his body is paralyzed, but incapable of realizing that anything is wrong. This stuff I find endlessly fascinating.

If you wish to read a book about weird neurological happenings, check out "A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers" by V. S. Ramachandran. If you want brain philosophy, read Daniel Dennett.

A Biological Basis for Emotion and Logic.......2006-08-16

Damasio attempts nothing less than the quantification of the soul by identifying the likely structures of the brain -- the prefrontal lobes among others -- responsible for logic, reason, emotion and personality. He recounts several stories of patients with prefrontal damage and the peculiar symptoms they display -- then tests his theories with a number of clever experiments carried out in his lab at the University of Iowa. His conclusions are persuasive and well-thought out, and will cause you to re-evaluate much of what you THINK you know about the role of emotion in logical reasoning.

However, the book is flawed in a couple of different directions.

1. The text alternates between well-written, smooth-flowing, extremely readable sections and dense, highly-technical, grammatically-gnarled sentences such as, "In terms of the prefrontal cortices, I am suggesting that somatic markers, which operate on the bioregulatory and social domain aligned with the ventromedial sector, influence the operation of attention and working memory within the dorsolateral sector, the sector on which operations on other domains of knowledge depend [page 198]." Too many sentences of this opacity slowed reading speed to a crawl, and made me wonder about his intended audience.

2. Numerous and frequent references are given to other researchers in the field, but he very rarely elaborates on the directions or results of their research. As a non-academic I am not going to dig out the original articles for myself, and would have preferred Damasio himself provide the summaries.

3. One researcher frequently cited is named "Hanna Damasio" (who coincidentally is also the illustrator of the book) but no mention is made of her relationship to the author. A courtesy explanation would have been in order.

4. The author expresses the usual scientific caution about over-generalizing or drawing broader implications from his work. However, it seems to me the most exciting possibility deriving from his research is exactly that, a biological basis for emotion. I think he would have been forgiven for throwing caution to the winds in the last chapter or two and speculating wildly about the connections between emotional exuberance and brain structure abnormalities, or oppositely emotional monotony and the biologic cause. As it is, his work is solid but measured, which downplays the truly groundbreaking nature of it.

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. (book reviews): An article from: ETC.: A Review of General Semantics

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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. (book reviews): An article from: ETC.: A Review of General Semantics
Maxine S. Theodoulou
Manufacturer: International Society for General Semantics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, published by International Society for General Semantics on September 22, 1995. The length of the article is 600 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: Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. (book reviews)
Author: Maxine S. Theodoulou
Publication: ETC.: A Review of General Semantics (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1995
Publisher: International Society for General Semantics
Volume: v52 Issue: n3 Page: p350(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.: An article from: American Scientist

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Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.: An article from: American Scientist
Paul Tibbetts
Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Descartes Error Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

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Descartes Error Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
Damasio Antonio R
Manufacturer: G P Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LCPGPQ

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Descartes' Error - Emotion, Reason, And The Human Brain
Antonio R. Damasio
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K1KUT0

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The seventh biennial issue of the most authoritative survey of the global environment brings together in a highly readable format the latest ideas on a broad spectrum of urban environmental issues and suggests strategies for addressing them. The authors pool the vast resources of the World Resources Institute, the United Nations Development and Environment Programmes, and the World Bank to analyze the impact of urban development on human health and welfare, on the environment, and on economic performance.

The report looks at the sprawling cities of the developing world such as Manila, where 76% of the population inhabits unauthorized housing; at the disintegrating metropolitan landscape in the northeastern U.S., spotlighting Philadelphia, where over 20% of the population subsists below the poverty level; and at the rapidly industrializing cities in Eastern Europe such as Katowice in Poland, where child mortality is 1.5 times the national average. In addition, the 1996-97 edition presents the most recent data and compares conditions and trends in developed (Northern) and developing (Southern) cities, exploring similarities and differences in the nature of environmental problems and their possible solutions.

True to its reputation as the definitive reference on the world environment, the new Report includes up-to-date tables and analysis on numerous topics, including basic economic indicators, forests and rangelands, atmosphere and climate, biodiversity, and water resources. Key data on more than 150 countries are included. This indispensible resource arms decision-makers with valuable information for the development of policies that effectively manage the global environment and natural resources.

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World Resources 1996-97 Database
World Resources Inst Staff
Manufacturer: World Resources Inst
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9998084946

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Minerals handbook 1996-97: Statistics and analyses of the world's minerals industry
P. C. F Crowson
Manufacturer: Stockton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Mining | Civil | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B0006QL6JC

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World Resources 1996-97 (World Bank Publications)
World Resources Institute Staff; United Nations Environment Programme Staff; United Nations Development Programme Staff; World Bank Staff
Manufacturer: A World Bank Publication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKWH34

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World Resources 1996-97 Database Diskette: User's Guide
World Resources Institute
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Pr (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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