The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself

Book Description

Widely admired for its vivid accounts of the slave trade, Olaudah Equiano's autobiography -- the first slave narrative to attract a significant readership -- reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. The second edition reproduces the original London printing, supervised by Equiano in 1789. Robert J. Allison's introduction, which places Equiano's narrative in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, has been revised and updated to reflect the heated controversy surrounding Equiano's birthplace, as well as the latest scholarship on Atlantic history and the history of slavery. Improved pedagogical features include contemporary illustrations with expanded captions and a map showing Equiano's travels in greater detail. Helpful footnotes provide guidance throughout the eighteenth-century text, and a chronology and an up-to-date bibliography aid students in their study of this thought-provoking narrative.

Customer Reviews:

Olaudah, an African Heart........2005-11-10

Olaudah Equiano's narrative is his experience away from his dear home. The slave trade from the very beginning was one of the worst components of European history. This narrative is a moving but important historical document that recounts the hardship the slaves had to endure and survive in their nightmare to the New World.

"In this way I grew up till I had turned the age of eleven, when an end was put to my happiness..."(p.47). This way began the Olaudah's odyssey after been kidnapped and taken through many African countries reaching finally the African west coast and the slave ship that brought him/them to the West Indies and North America.

Africa, as the land of Equiano, was divided among different tribes with different organizations and related customs, in some cases speaking similar languages, in other cases as we see in the towns close to the coast, almost strangers. These tribes used to have their own defense system against the hunt and persecution of slave traffickers, which during the XVIII century it was a dark business, a daily affair, and a way of revenue.

That was the circumstance of this little boy and many others like him experiencing 'fatigue and grief'(p.47), 'violence and despair' (p.49), and wishing for death rather than anything else'(p.59). After they reached the slave ship waiting for its human cargo a chained multitude of black people of every description expressing dejection and sorrow (p.54) awaited to board in an overpopulated deck filled with horrors of every kind.

Many, as Equiano, were young and ignorant of what was happening, where they were going, and the reason for such adventure. They were told by other prisoners confessing to be 'carried to white people's country to work for them'(p.55), but of course the pain and suffering yet to come was a disguised mystery and heart destructive lifelong encounter. The living conditions of the journey were brutal and cruel: the smell, the vomiting, the cries, the anguish, and the suffocation under decks overcrowded where many of them were unable to reach the other side of the Atlantic, dying under those inhuman conditions. Sometimes some of them, embracing hopelessness, ran toward the open board and preferring death to such a life of misery, jumped into the sea (p.57), to die in the deep waters of the dark blue sea.
The Mediterranean labor shortage after the 8th century primarily brought about the African external slave trade. But the West Indies European demand for slaves changed all the institution of slavery transforming it in a deadly and huge intensive labor business. Two-thirds of all these immigrant slaves went directly to the Caribbean (Caribbean-West Indies-Brazil), and fewer than 1/20 went to Colonial North America which started 100 years later; and in 1671 we had already in Barbados (where Equiano first experienced the new world)30,000 slaves and 3,000 in Virginia.

A great deal of trembling and bitter cries from these terrified Africans of all languages did not stop whites from transporting them, as in Equiano's case, first to the island of Barbados unloading them at Bridgetown. They were transported to the merchant's yard, like sheep in a fold (p.58) without regard to sex or age. On a sign given to the buyers they run at once toward them and 'picked up' what parcel they like best. Many of them, family and friends, from that very moment were separated forever. Never to see each other again.
From the merchant's yard they were shipped to different North American Colonies as was needed and pleased the slave traders; one after another chapter of disgrace would be recounted over the 'white' shoulders for generations to come. Some slaves, as this poor boy, were taken as servants to England.
The conditions they confronted later on in sugar or rice plantations by their brutal slave codes and violent methods of control were deadly; much of the cases included diseases and no possibility to become free one day. They were treated as cheap merchandise, deprived of any human right given by our Creator.
The story of Olaudah Equiano over moistens my eyes. His narrative and lack of vengeance or hate; his imploration to the heart and the reason of supposed Christians made me feel the need to meet him and embrace him, and tell him: "Hope is not gone at all my friend.
Olaudah young boy, you were right when you cited those true gospel words:
"O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you--Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?"

Alejandro Roque.

Response to Robert Allison.......2000-07-13

The 1772 publication date of Gronniosaw's _Narrative_ seems to have been recently established by Vincent Carretta in _Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the 18th Century_ (Kentucky, 1996), with the evidence offered on pp. 53-54. The post-1791 editions in which Equiano understandably deletes the wording "My hand is ever free--if any female Debonair wishes to obtain it" after his April 7, 1792 marriage to Susanna Cullen are the 5th (Edinburgh, 1792), the 6th & 7th (both London, 1793), the 8th (Norwich, 1794), and the 9th and last (London, 1794). My source for this information is Vincent Carretta's authoritative Penguin edition of Equiano's _Interesting Narrative_ (1995), pp. 297-297, note 633. A reader from Virginia

Response to Robert Allison.......2000-07-13

caveat emptor.......1999-03-13

Prospective buyers of Mr. Allison's edition of Equiano's autobiography should be advised that although Mr. Allison says that his "edition follows the first American printing . . . (New York, 1791)" and that "the only significant changes . . . are the insertion of paragraph breaks and notes to the text," Mr. Allison does not warn the reader that he's silently combined parts of various editions of the autobiography to form a book Equiano himself never published. For example, if you compare the next-to-the-last paragraph (p. 195), in which Equiano mentions his marriage, to the passage on page 187, where he says his hand is free, you might get the impression that he's saying he's available for adultery or bigamy. But the fault lies not in Equiano, who changed the earlier passage after he added the paragraph about his marriage in 1792. What Mr. Allison gives us is his text, not Equiano's. And he might have mentioned that the New York edition was published without Equiano's knowledge or permission. Readers should also not assume that all "facts" given are true. For example, on page 21, Gronniosaw's book was published in 1772 (not 1770), Marrant's in 1785 (not 1790), and Equiano died on 31 March 1797 (not in April).

The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written By Himself

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The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written By Himself
Olaudah Equiano
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1419167499

Book Description

In May 1769, soon after our return from Turkey, our ship made a delightful voyage to Oporto in Portugal, where we arrived at the time of the carnival. On our arrival, there were sent on board to us thirty-six articles to observe, with very heavy penalties if we should break any of them; and none of us even dared to go on board any other vessel or on shore till the Inquisition had sent on board and searched for every thing illegal, especially bibles. Such as were produced, and certain other things, were sent on shore till the ships were going away; and any person in whose custody a bible was found concealed was to be imprisoned and flogged.

THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself

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THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself
Olaudah Equiano (ed. By Joanna Brooks)
Manufacturer: R. R. Donnelley & Sons (Lakeside Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Written by Himself

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Written by Himself

Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I0YI00

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, Volume I

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, Volume I
Olaudah (Gustavus Vassa) Equiano
Manufacturer: Mnemosyne Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PFNDFE

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History of the others
Well written with attention toward the truth, not opinion.
A must read for anyone interested in the horror of slavery

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African: Written by Himself

Manufacturer: Mnemosyne Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0685575470

Book Description

Olaudah EquianoÂ's capture by slave-traders at the age of ten took him from life in what is now Eastern Nigeria and thrust him on a fateful journey that would submerge him in an incomprehensible world. He emerged a gifted writer and has provided insights into centuries of slave trading and why the relationship between black and white seems always in favor of white. First published in 1789, EquianoÂ's engaging narrative, written in English, describes his life before and after his captureÂ—looking forward to recognition as a descendant of a chief; working on slave ships; traveling to the southern states of America, the West Indies, Europe, and the Arctic; and fighting a war. He eventually grew to be an extremely confident man who, even in the worst slavery imaginable, never lost his sense of purpose or his humanity. After buying his freedom, he was an ardent supporter of abolishing slavery. Written with a sense of literary history, EquianoÂ's account corrects wrong impressions about Africa and explores what it is like for an African to find himself suddenly alien in a world that considers Africans as not quite human.

Customer Reviews:

History of the others.......2005-12-29

The African slave trade is one of the great stains of human history. Much has been written about it by European - white authors, though unfortunately, there are very few recollections of the slave trade by actual slaves. This book is one of those works. The author, Olaudah Equiano, was born in Nigeria and captured as a child and sold of to slavery in the New World. He eventually accummulated enough money to free and educate himself, and make his way thru the world as a free man. This book is his story, told by himself. He retells his kidnapping, his trip from Africa to N. America, his service to different masters, how he bought his own freedom, and then his life as a free man. He retells both the punishments he endured, the work he had to do, and the opportunities denied to him while he was a slave. Overall, a good book to read about the life of a slave.

Well written with attention toward the truth, not opinion........2001-03-06

I'm not sure if the person below read the book. Equiano was 11 when he was enslaved.

A must read for anyone interested in the horror of slavery.......1997-12-06

An amazing story of an amazing man. Olaudah Equiano tells the story of his life with such clarity and recollection it is hard to put this book down. A slave, who at the age of 7, was kidnapped from his village in Africa and subsequently enslaved for 11 years until which time he could buy his freedom. His life was filled with both horror and wonder. He witnessed great events and horrific injustices. He tells these tales with clarity and an unusual objectiveness. A boy, who at age 7, did not read or write or even know of the white man. Olaudah grew to learn and have great command of the language in which he would retell his tales. This is not only an impressive work, it is more so coming from a former slave. It is a must read for everyone interested in the struggle for life that these people endured for over two centuries.

THE LIFE OF ALAUDAH EQUIANO THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUINO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

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THE LIFE OF ALAUDAH EQUIANO THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUINO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF
Joanna, Ed. Brooks
Manufacturer: Lakeside Press, R. R. Donnelley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PJL956

Book Description

Twenty-three years in the making, Rising Up and Rising Down (the original, published by McSweeney's in October 2003, spans seven volumes) is a rich amalgam of historical analysis, contemporary case studies, anecdotes, essays, theory, charts, graphs, photographs and drawings. Convinced that there is "a finite number of excuses" for violence and that some excuses "are more valid than others," Vollmann spent two decades consulting hundreds of sources, scrutinizing the thinking of philosophers, theologians, tyrants, warlords, military strategists, activists and pacifists. He also visited more than a dozen countries and war zones to witness violence firsthand -- sometimes barely escaping with his life.

Vollmann makes deft use of these tools and experiences to create his Moral Calculus, a structured decision-making system designed to help the reader decide when violence is justifiable and when it is not.

Customer Reviews:

Certainly Posessed of Genius.......2007-07-04

I have the revised edition (which is availble remaindered at the Barnes and Nobles in my areas for ten bucks), and I can see from the progress I have made in it that it is an extremely important work and might unlock some of Vollman's other work. However, I have some reservations; the abridgement does not seem like it was what Vollman wanted, and some of the cuts leave a disjointed feeling. I have found that I can skip around in the book without losing the meaning, and the arguments do not seem to develop from the first page to the last, but gradually throughout the book. I am reluctant to invest in the seven volume set, but I would like to see an abridgement that is more considered and smooth. Vollman states that he abridged "for money"...when he does it for love of or respect for his readers I think this will be his masterpiece. As is, it is very very good but somehow lack cohesion.

The 7 Volume Set.......2007-04-10

Vollmann's work is expensive, sprawling, beautiful, and sterilizingly heavy. It's historical analysis, personal anecdote, philosophical inquiry, ethical manifesto, war journalism (his), photography and drawings (mostly his), and thumbnail illustrations. And it's worth the price to get one of the few remaining sets. You'll become intimately acquainted with Trotsky, Cortes, Lincoln, Plato, John Brown, Stalin, Leonidas, Gandhi, the Unabomber, de Sade, Hitler, Montezuma, the Ik, Napoleon, and Mikhail Bakunin, among others. Will you run across an occasional typo or forced metaphor? Sure. But considering the product, who cares? It's brilliant and very, very readable. Two things particularly please me about this work. First, Vollmann never pretends to objectivity. RURD is an "essay" in the original sense of the word, and provokes plenty of discussion. Second, McSweeney's typography and binding are breathtaking, so that each volume is a pleasure to see and hold, much less read. If you enjoy the abridgment, the set is worth all 50,000+ pennies, or whatever the last sets are going for.

His Life's work, abridged, a worthwhile pursuit for him.......2006-10-26

Vollmann has called this his life's work, and it shows, the book distills his original heart and soul, tearing through readable passages of objective reasoning, making circuitous and interesting routes towards his moral abstract for violence. The reading is passionate and well-reasoned, even if flawed at times. For me, it has exposed me to more historical figures and recent phiolospophical thinking that has escaped modern culture (or at least my Western one). I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes to observe history (like fans of Robert Conquest) through the lens of modern philospy.

The abyss gazeth also into thee..........2006-10-01

The philosophy of war has always been unsatisfying. Abstract "moral calculus" -the term deployed by Vollman to refer to the ethical analysis of violence - is clearly necessary, but the biological realities of violence always seem to render the sterile rationality of philosophers irrelevant. Determining when violence is and is not morally justified is such a difficult task that it is tempting to just dispose of the question, taking refuge in absolutist positions like pacifism or Kissingerian realism. As a result, worthwhile contributions to the practical ethics of war are few and far between.

This is the best attempt to reason through the moral problems of violence since Michael Walzer's "Just and Unjust Wars" and it improves on that flawed work in every way. Vollman's analysis is not limited to nation-states, he distinguishes between just and unjust regimes, he does not assume that there must be a binary moral value to every act of violence, and he knows when to conclude that a moral problem is insoluable.

Vollman passes judgment confidently when it is called for, but he has a healthy respect the lesser of two evils, the exigencies of war, and the pressures of decisionmaking in violent situations. He makes objective moral judgments, but they are clearly informed by his own subjective encounters with violence and death.

That said, this book has a lot of problems. First off, Vollman is clearly a thrill-seeker. When he talks about packing a handgun in Golden Gate Park or smoking crack cocaine, he reveals a very unusual attitude toward death. We should be suspicious of the moral handwringing of anyone who has deliberately seeks out violence. When he recounts the deaths of his colleagues while he was a reporter in the Balkans, I find myself wondering if this was not another "limit experience" that he actively chased. The experience of an aspiring novelist-DETERMINED to find abysses to gaze into-is just not comparable to that of the Somali and Sarajevan civilians who had no choice but to passively endure extreme violence.

The other big problem with this book is the lack of structure and logical rigor. If you have read any of his fiction, you know that this is just how Vollman's (brilliant) mind works, but this book suffers for it. It's a sustained meditation on violence, not a work to which the reader can refer for moral guidance in a specific situation. But it's still the best contemporary work in an otherwise empty field and very much worth reading.

Vanquishing Personal Demons.......2005-10-03

In writing Rising Up and Rising Down, William T. Vollmann has forgotten that the primary purpose of writing a book is communication. To this end, one would expect the author to use a consistent style to aid the reader's progress, rather than arguing:

Should I have standardized these inconsistencies? I recall Lawrence of Arabia's comments to the proofreader who warned him that he had spelled the name of this favorite camel every which way in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Lawrence replied simply, "She was a splendid beast." (p. 534.)

One would also expect the writer to express his ideas, not only completely, but also concisely. Even in the abridged version, arguments are stated one on top of the other, separated from the information that supports them. As the book progresses, earlier arguments are often referred to by number, forcing the reader to flip through the pages to recall the passages cited.
Near the beginning of the book, Vollmann writes:

I had a gun . . . and right then I did not feel comforted . . . The books that I read and the things that I saw while writing this book affected me more than I wanted them to . . . Near the end of the twenty years that I spent writing this book, I began to suffer from frequent nightmares of violence . . . They were not normal sights that I'd seen-or were they all too normal?-and these were not normal thoughts, and I knew this and sought to dampen the vibrations of my paranoia . . . (pp. 78-79)

I submit that Mr. Vollmann wrote this book, not to inform his readers, but to vanquish his own demons. In reading Rising Up and Rising Down, I was sometimes informed, sometimes confused and often numbed. Further revision and editing might make this book into a useful study in violence, or, perhaps it was never more than the author's self-therapy.

Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means

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Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means
William T. Vollmann
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF1XJI

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Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means
William T Vollmann
Manufacturer: Ecco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF2VLW

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
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Inspiring reading for technical leaders of all kinds

a fist hand report of the early NASA years

The best way to learn about spaceflight is through this book

Failure Is Not An Option...

Not a bad book - not a great one either.

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
Gene Kranz
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743200799

Amazon.com

In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik and the ensuing space race. Three years later, Gene Kranz left his aircraft testing job to join NASA and champion the American cause. What he found was an embryonic department run by whiz kids (such as himself), sharp engineers and technicians who had to create the Mercury mission rules and procedure from the ground up. As he says, "Since there were no books written on the actual methodology of space flight, we had to write them as we went along."

Kranz was part of the mission control team that, in January 1961, launched a chimpanzee into space and successfully retrieved him, and made Alan Shepard the first American in space in May 1961. Just two months later they launched Gus Grissom for a space orbit, John Glenn orbited Earth three times in February 1962, and in May of 1963 Gordon Cooper completed the final Project Mercury launch with 22 Earth orbits. And through them all, and the many Apollo missions that followed, Gene Kranz was one of the integral inside men--one of those who bore the responsibility for the Apollo 1 tragedy, and the leader of the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts.

Moviegoers know Gene Kranz through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal of him in Apollo 13, but Kranz provides a more detailed insider's perspective in his book Failure Is Not an Option. You see NASA through his eyes, from its primitive days when he first joined up, through the 1993 shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, his last mission control project. His memoir, however, is not high literature. Kranz has many accomplishments and honors to his credit, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but this is his first book, and he's not a polished author. There are, perhaps, more behind-the-scenes details and more paragraphs devoted to what Cape Canaveral looked like than the general public demands. If, however, you have a long-standing fascination with aeronautics, if you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more, Failure Is Not an Option will fill the bill. --Stephanie Gold

Book Description

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.

Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. (In the film Apollo 13, Kranz was played by the actor Ed Harris, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.)

In Failure Is Not an Option, Gene Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers' only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. Kranz takes us inside Mission Control and introduces us to some of the whiz kids -- still in their twenties, only a few years out of college -- who had to figure it all out as they went along, creating a great and daring enterprise. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success.

Finally, Kranz reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.

This is a fascinating firsthand account written by a veteran mission controller of one of America's greatest achievements.

Download Description

Perhaps best known through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal in the film Apollo 13, Gene Kranz was a NASA flight controller throughout the entire manned space program. Kranz witnessed everything from Alan Shepard's and John Glenn's early flights in the Mercury program through the triumph of Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind in Apollo 11 and the near-disaster of Apollo 13. Kranz headed the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts, and he provides new details about the urgent and successful improvising that brought the crew safely back to Earth.

Failure Is Not an Option is a thrilling insider's account of Mission Control from the early years of trying to catch the Russians to the end of the manned space program. It is filled with behind-the-scenes stories, including the painful self-examination that took place following the Apollo 1 disaster and the daring decision to schedule an Apollo flight to the moon before NASA had ever launched a manned rocket beyond earth orbit. Kranz's stories about the dedication and resourcefulness of the astronaut corps and Mission Control teams show how an organization dominated by young people only in their twenties could succeed in one of the boldest missions in human history, placing a man on the moon in less than a decade.

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring reading for technical leaders of all kinds.......2007-08-15

While I confess to being a lifelong space buff, this book is the first of many memoirs I have had the pleasure of reading from the actual men and women who participated in one of the greatest adventures in human history. I read it nonstop from the moment I brought it home, and have reread many sections of it numerous times. I believe it is a useful historical record of the golden era of the space program, but also holds many lessons for those who find themselves in formal or de facto positions of technical leadership in all types of organizations - churches, consulting firms, technical contractors, manufacturers, and probably many others with which I am not personally familiar. Thank you Mr. Kranz for all you have shared!

a fist hand report of the early NASA years.......2007-06-30

I highly recommend this book to all the poor men who already believe today that APOLLO is a whole fake
KRANZ tell the truth it is obvious when you read him

The best way to learn about spaceflight is through this book.......2007-05-17

Failure is not an Option

The first time I heard this sentence is when I saw the movie Apollo 13 (Tom Hanks), when I was only 7 years old. I then read the book only when I was 11 years old. Gene Kranz is a great writer as well as a great Flight Director.

The book explains about everything from Mercury, through Gemini, to Apollo in great detail. The book taught me a lot of stuff that I did not know such as that Gemini 7 was before Gemini 6A. The book explains why did it happen and how. It will also explains what they were going to do about it.

The book has 21 pictures and 397 pages of knowledge. I recommend it for everybody

Failure Is Not An Option..........2007-03-15

The book arrived within the scheduled delivery time in excellent condition.

Thank you,

Mark & Francine Keehnel

Not a bad book - not a great one either........2007-01-16

"Failure is Not An Option" is not a bad book, but it is not a great one either. Kranz provides certain insight into the role of NASA Flight Directors and the book is interesting to the extent it serves that function. However, Kranz occasionally gives major events fairly short shrift, while writing at length on an array of banal topics which are of limited interest. The reader is often left wanting greater details about events that shaped the space program and less information on subjects such as Kranz's management style or his trademark vests.

Moreover, Kranz's writing style is a little too compact and terse to make this book a consistently engaging read. Kranz uses the word "crisp" in seemingly every other paragraph. His writing style might be described in the same way. Unfortunately, it can make sections of "Failure Is Not An Option" a bit tedious at times.

Lastly, although a small point, Kranz makes no attempt to hide his political bent. The book is replete with praise for Kennedy and obvious (though unarticulated) disdain for Nixon. Kranz speaks with almost boy-like ardor of Kennedy's far-sightedness and vision for the space program despite the fact that many regard Kennedy's interest in space to have arisen solely out of a political desire to beat the Soviets - not for scientific or human advancement as Kranz would have the reader believe. At times, the political commentary proves irritating and distracting and Kranz's idolatry of Kennedy excessive and simplistic.

That said, this book is worth the read for the information it does impart and to supplement other texts on the space program, but it is not as gripping or engaging as "Lost Moon" or a host of others.

Van Gujjar: the persistent forest Pastoralists.: An article from: Nomadic Peoples
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Van Gujjar: the persistent forest Pastoralists.: An article from: Nomadic Peoples
Pernille Gooch
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000DN5SR4
Release Date: 2005-12-15

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