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A Must Read
If you believe, as I do, that the war against Iraq is one of the most important issues facing people in the US and world-wide, then you must read this book.

Independent journalist Barbara Nimri Aziz traveled throughout Iraq, beginning in 1989 in the days after the end of the Iran/Iraq war and up until the most recent disastrous invasion and brutal occupation. Her quest as an anthropologist was to document Iraqi society. She became a reluctant war correspondent.

This book documents the terrible years of grinding deprivation that was Iraq under the deadly US/UN sanctions. Why look at that period? Because everything that is happening today is rooted in the merciless sanctions period where more than 1.5 million people perished unnecessarily.

Every family in Iraq was touched. Everybody there would never be the same. Aziz writes brilliantly and compassionately about the people of Iraq, the ones we never hear from. The ones whose destiny is tied up with ours so completely.

-- ... Read more

Book Description
In Liquid Assets journalist Janet Smith, author of a history of Tooting Bec Lido and herself a keen swimmer, traces the development of Britain's surprisingly rich stock of lidos, starting with their muddy beginnings in London's parks, through their fashionable heyday in the 1930s, to their battle for survival today. Lavishly illustrated with both archive and contemporary photographs, Liquid Assets highlights some of the nation's outstanding architectural examples. But if lidos were once to be found in virtually every town and city, since 1945 many have been closed, often despite the efforts of thousands of vociferous campaigners. Liquid Assets charts the best of these lost lidos, including one in Purley where the towering concrete and steel diving board now form the curious centrepiece of a garden centre. The book also provides a unique listing of all lidos still open in Britain, with detailed case studies of the most impressive. ... Read more

Book Description
An essay about a twentieth century Central European Jew who challenged prevailing anti-Semitic stereotypes and, in the years just after the First World War, became a competitive rower and swimmer in what was then Czechoslovakia. In addition to profiling water polo player Kurt Epstein from his childhood to his decision to participate in the 1936 Berlin Nazi Olympics, the author addresses the problematic subject of Jews in sports. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Determination To Fight Prejudicial Views on the Jewish Athletes
Helen Epstein's work has always been a favorite of mine: informed, well written and in a style that teaches as she tells her personal stories.

Her father's story occurs at a time in Germany where there was an increased threat to Jews. It was a time when caricatures of Jewish merchants, store owners and athletes were used to build the foundation of making Jews as "different from us" and "less than us." It was this step that began to mark Jews as "non-people"and "not one of us," the German population. In so doing, when the Final Solution became evident, Germans no longer viewed Jews as regular people with whom to identify and care about and defend. Epstein's father's efforts attempted to counter such stereotypes and false separation amongst human beings. By using his athletic prowess he attempted to portray Jews as people like you, the everyday German person, persons who could become athletes, good athletes, very good athletes and so good that they could even make the Olympic team. This was meant to communicate that Jews could be people just like the people of other groups, including Germans, people whose plight one could empathize with. Kurt Epstein's efforts, among other things, worked to break down the separation of "you" and "me."
Helen Epstein's loving portrayal shows how an individual can make a difference. Her father was a HERO in that he made an unpopular decision for a worthy cause that many did not understand at the time.

fascinating reading on an under-explored topic
How many books have you read about Jewish athletes?Probably none.That is why this piece by Helen Epstein comes as such a welcome addition to a scarcely existent literature. Epstein focuses on Jewish athletes in Central Europe during the first half of the 20th century, using her own father as the centerpiece.Many readers are already familiar with Kurt Epstein from having read Helen Epstein's groundbreaking work "Children of the Holocaust."In it she reports on her father's dedication to swimming and water polo that led him to compete in the infamous Berlin Olympics of 1936.

In this essay she delves more deeply into her father's athletic proclivities, using his story to frame an essay that gives the reader a quick education about Jewish athleticism in Europe at that time, including an exploration of the social context within which it developed and was expressed.She seamlessly integrates her father's personal story with the larger social, political, and philosophical issues surrounding Jewish athleticism, most prominently the firmly entrenched view that Jews are people of the book, not the pool.

Yet some Jews did not turn out as expected, and those like Kurt Epstein who went "swimming against stereotype" should, at the very least, make the rest of us stop and think.Helen Epstein gives special attention to her father's ideals of sportsmanship, which seemed to be closer to his heart than anything he learned in Hebrew school.

Both personal and scholarly, this is a fine piece for anyone interested in the phenomenon of Jewish athletes and the implications of their achievements to their fellow Jews and to the larger world.With its clear understated prose that never fails to include the apposite fact and revealing detail, it also serves as a literary monument to the indomitable spirit of Kurt Epstein.

Strong of body, strong of mind...
Kurt Epstein, the author's late and former Czechoslovak father, embodied the bold new spirit of mid-20th century Judaism. Its aim? To debunk that age-old saw against the myth of the feeble "Jewish body," weak of physical stature but strong of mind. Jews were always deemed of being unfit for sport, "designed for the coffeehouse" and "for business"...whatever that meant at the time.

Kurt Epstein was a former member of the Czechoslovak Olympic swimming team during what's known in these parts as the halcyon days of the "First Republic" period, lasting from 1918-1938. Epstein, the father, attended Berlin's 1936 "Nazi" Olympics under controversial circumstances, and upon his return was susequently caught up in the maelstrom of hatred that consumed this part of the continent during WWII.

As one of his former nation's most successful competitive athletes, it boggles the mind how a man -- as Helen Epstein describes him -- "so staunch a citizen, so secure in his Czechdom," could have been carted off by his insensitive co-citizens after having proven himself so mightily in the pool.

Epstein hints at that roiling undercurrent of anti-Semitism which hides under a thin veneer of seeming Czech apathy in this part of the world. She tells us, and we know from personal experience, how it's always ready to pounce out at the slightest of provocations, usually at the instigation of an outside and malfeasant source.

For these reasons and hundreds more, the so-called "Czech Republic" has never been able to rise above its dim-witted destiny, and probably might never will.

I suppose that's fine, because the permanently-miserable citizens of this rainy landlocked statelet -- Middle Europe's on-again off-again garbage dump -- aren't interested in success nor in achieving anything of worth.

Goals? Legacy? Forget it about!

It's beer (160 litres/annum per capita), creamy goulash, and a penchant for constantly complaining about the corrupt state of their bloated and former Communist elected leadership -- now perched atop the nation's capital in Prague's Castle --- are what these shower-hating Bohemians do best.

Don't believe me? Come on over and sample them for yourself.

But I *do* go on, don't I?

Kurt Epstein was a man of sharp principles. He believed that if Czechs would all band together, much as they had under the clarion call for unity when Tomas G. Masaryk entered the city in 1918 (the national hymn should be "where have our leaders gone?" not "where is my home?"), that they could overcome their petty regional differences and learn to aspire for something greater than their claustrophobic little apartments and their blessed pints of "pivko."

Until his dying day, Kurt Epstein was a man working stridently for Czech causes in America, dispatching money and food aid and engaging in other supportive anti-totalitarian gestures from his home in the United States. Until the very end, he was Czech through and through -- which trumps anything these heirs to his erstwhile nation's legacy can boast about. That's the truth, folks.

Besides, what's a real Czech today anyways? There's no longer any such thing! These gimpy overweight and cigarette-loving (charred?) souls are a cobbled-together collective of a hodge-podge of varying ethnicities. The "geschmack" -- or flavour as they say in Yiddish -- is no longer present in these dour Bohemians. People like Kurt Epstein -- people who added an essential spark to the former Czechoslovakia's society -- are no longer with us, muscled out by collaborationist opportunist goons who have nothing to show for their consistent shows of perfidy other than cheekfuls of rear-sores from being booted so incessantly from behind! That'll serve you for your betrayal! When will you learn, oh dense and passive-aggressive Central Europeans? When will you learn?

Bohemia -- the largest of the three provinces in today's so-falsely-named-it-hurts "Czech Republic" -- seems to dominate the political and cultural affairs of this green bantustan. As such, efforts to rekindle the memory of the mighty swimmer, Kurt Epstein, and his sporting colleagues have come to naught.

Swimming in a vat of beer and pork stew, the Czechs can't hear what's going on "out there."

As they eventually surface for air -- they are people, too, 'natch -- the faint whisper of the paragons of their state's former incarnation -- men like Ms. Epstein's dad and the venerable "TGM" -- cannot possibly be heard over the cacophonous din of Ramstein German industrial metal music, their sickly and cloying sympathy for the world's so-called downtrodden (woe to the woebegone Czech), their meagre salaries, their "irony," and and their modern-day habit of forging a new "Czech future."

They want a history divorced from its collaborationist past, severed off from their dislike of the foreigners in their midst, but we're here to remind them that much went on here before you settled into that bar stool, Honza, and never left it. Soon we'll have to surgically remove you from it if you don't get up and stretch those deep-veined thrombosis legs of yours.

Kurt Epstein allows us to remember a time which will no longer be.

Besides HG, where have all the good Czechs gone?

-- ADM in Prague, the, er..."Czech Republic" ... Read more

Book Description
This softcover, 152 page book examines a single painting that is now widely regarded as an American masterpiece: Swimming, completed in 1885 by the Philadelphia artist, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916).END ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Endangered Species Bulletin, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2007. The length of the article is 858 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: Apache trout: swimming towards recovery.
Author: Craig Springer
Publication: Endangered Species Bulletin (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 32Issue: 1Page: 14(2)

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True stories of a "No-No Boy"
Hiroshi Kashiwagi was a "No-No Boy," one of those rare young Japanese American men during World War II that resisted the draft and taking an oath of loyalty to the US because of the injustice of being locked up in internment camps with his family during World War II.In a series of short stories, poetry, and a play he recounts his experiences growing up in California's Central Valley of the 1930s, the shock and confusion of evacuation and internment, the agonizing and lonely decision to resist the US Government and community and family pressure, life at Tule Lake internment camp specially set aside for resisters and other "incorrigibles", and the aftermath of the war as a playwright, stage and screen actor, librarian, father, and husband.Among the most tear-jerking stories in the book is one about an honest used car salesman who is among the few to treat the internees decently and the sudden childhood discovery of racism against Japanese Americans experienced when a man tries to kill his father, an innocent shopkeeper, in front of him. ... Read more

Book Description
"I entered a solitary, reflective phase and resolved to write about nature, survival, regeneration, giving back, and love; about what I gleaned from being silent, listening, touching, seeing, and absorbing; and about discovering the magnificent diversity revealed when Brown County's multicolored panoply of leaves is peeled back. How could I have known in 1990, when my husband and I purchased a simple little cabin with a few acres of land, how much this bit of earth and its accoutrements would penetrate my soul, and how it would clarify what I care about and stand for?" —from the Prologue

For Ruth Ann Ingraham, spending part of her time in a cabin in the woods in southern Indiana becomes a journey of discovery—of herself and her place in the natural world. Suddenly freed from the urban daily grind, she is able to focus more intently on her surroundings. And she can look more deeply into herself and examine her beliefs.

As they settle into the place, the passing of each day offers up simple truths as Ruth Ann and her husband repair the cabin, learn the contour and texture of the land, and become ever more mindful of the animals and plants that share their living space. As the couple learn to walk in step with nature, they discover a depth and richness to life that has previously evaded them. In the hills of Brown County, Indiana, the author finds a fullness of life that survives even loss.

In addition to a text that is full of close observations of nature as well as thoughtful musings about life, Swimming with Frogs is beautifully illustrated with color photos and black and white drawings. It will appeal to naturalists of all stripes, fans of contemplative writing, and Brown County residents and visitors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Writing for your life
Rebeccasreads highly recommends SWIMMING WITH FROGS as an elegant, articulate & charmingly illustrated journal & text book about going rural, about living an examined life, & healing the wounds by returning to the Earth.

Brown County, Indiana is known for its breathtaking vistas of rolling hills, charming hollows & dense woods which remain home to abundant wild life -- deer, waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, et al, & ever since it was settled two centuries ago it has been a magnet for tourists, hunters & major American artists.

& in SWIMMING WITH FROGS, Ruth Ann Ingraham invites you there, writing the best read of this kind of personal journey from city to country, from heartache & loss to contentment & purpose.

Outstanding!

*Looking to the Hills to sweep away Melancholy . . . *
Ruth Ann Ingraham has given us a book of 'musings' and meanderings from her part-time home in Brown County INDIANA. Past mid-life the author discovered a new love, Joe Ingraham; with him she shared an exciting retirement that answered their curiosity and common interests of nature, photography, and philosophy.

The rugged cabin which became 'home' in southern Indiana has a lovely view of clouds and the Lilly Woods, and is situated in what the author describes as "an inviting wildness." The really wild part is the steep grade of the road from Wallow Hollow, a special challenge in icy weather for year 'round residents. An appropriate quotation from Mary Oliver is included: "Look, I want to love this world as though it's the last chance I'm ever going to get to be alive AND KNOW IT."

She shares John McPhee's advice for a beginning writer, and also that ofAnne Lamott.From over 300 entries in her Journal (begun in 1990) Ingraham chose topics, and then her plan of attack. Not everyone can claim the distinction of being part of an international organization that trains "citizen frog monitors" of which she is one. While her campaign to rid the county (nation?) of non-native plants may seem to some as undemocratic, she is generous in her view that eventually more folks will become enlightened and work to make the hills of Brown County more pure.

Joe Ingraham died in 1997, and with her studies of frogs & other amphibious creatures, and her work as co-founder of the Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society, Mrs. Ingraham seems tobe facing the future "swimmingly."

The book is a treat to 'dip' into for enjoyment of the outstanding photographs and enlightenment about chiggers & all the other creatures with whom we share these beautiful hills. Reviewer mcHAIKU urges you to keep a copy handy so your brain is not allowed to become atrophied.

Accurate Hoosier Portrait
Ruth Ann Ingraham's book gives an accurate portrayal of the diverse ecosystems in Indiana.Her writing style is scientifically accurate but also quite approachable to people that are decidely not scientific!Indiana's changing weather is explored at length and her stories relate precisely what it's like to experience a Hoosier winter where it will 10 below one day and 55 degrees the next.For anyone interested in weather, geography, biology, ornithology, mycology or just looking for a good read, this book is for you! ... Read more

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Out of date but good discussion of theory
I'm a Divemaster who has had this book since it came out in the early '90s.It covers the evolution of dive computers up through when the book was released. There is detailed comparative information on each of the dominant dive computers of the day and of the algorithms favored then by the different manufacturers. It was an excellent book in its day and would have rated a 5 out of 5 when it first came out.

Some of those same physical nitrogen absorption algorithms are still in use in today's dive computers.Others of the covered algorithms have evolved since the book's release but are still easier to understand given the book's background information.

Most specific current dive computers are not, of course, covered in a book copyrighted in 1991.(For example, the newest Suunto computer covered in the book is their Solution series).

Much of the information is still relevant though, in terms of understanding the roots and limitations of the different theoretical models of nitrogen behavior in the body. I still loan this book out fairly frequently to let new or non-technically-oriented divers get an understanding for how dive computers and their theoretical models work and for what they should look for in a dive computer.

It is particularly useful with the more hard-headed divers who pick computers solely based on how much time it will allow them at depth.(I guess they feel they somehow can't get bent if a more-liberal dive computer says they're OK).

I recommend this book solely for its background information with the reservation that neither current dive computers nor the most current nitrogen / bubble models will be covered. Once you've read this, you can research the current algorithm used by a prospective dive computer purchase and have a much better chance of actually understanding it.

... Read more

Book Description
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Pressare republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

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Swimming Shermans ... Read more

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Excellent coverage of an intriguing tank
The amphibious DD tanks was one of the more interesting weapons to be used in World War II. Tanks are interently heavy and dense objects, so making one float is clearly a major engineering project. The British response to the need for floating tanks to support amphibious invasions was an interesting if clumsy technological solution.

This book is a standard Osprey New Vanguard treatment of the subject: background, technical description and operational overview, with excellent color plates. After reading the book, I had a good understanding of how the DD tanks worked, how it was used in combat, and what were its limitations.

mildly disappointing
WW2 marked the first use of tanks being used to support a force attacking from the sea.The Allies had to develop ways to get tanks ashore to support their troops, especially in Europe where the threat of a counter a attack by German tanks was always present. This book is not one of my favorite of the Osprey Vanguard series.This book is flawed by too narrow a focus and too much extraneous material. The proper title should have been "British Swimming Shermans in Europe".All the material is about the British attempt to develop and use the Duplex Drive version of the "Sherman" tank.This book goes into detail about the process of developing and training British tank crews on the DD tanks - starting with the developments based on a British "Valentine" tank.Later there are accounts of several British units use of the DD "Sherman", but very little on the US Army's use of the same equipment, and no mention of the fact that the US built 350 DD tanks using plans provided by the British.There is NO mention of the US use of DD tanks in Southern France or the Rhine crossing.There is also not even passing mention of the US developments in floating tanks ashore.There is a lot more to the DD story, from both nations, that was omitted.This book does provide information on the original engineering of the project, but little else in the way of new material. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Quick Frozen Foods International, published by E.W. Williams Publications, Inc. on January 1, 1993. The length of the article is 445 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: Norway is swimming in cod heaven, with quotas going up to the maximum.
Publication: Quick Frozen Foods International (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1993
Publisher: E.W. Williams Publications, Inc.
Volume: v34Issue: n3Page: p64(1)

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An eclectic, thought-provoking collection
Editor Angela Kennedy notes in the beginning of this book that many pro-life feminists have either by stifled by the mainstream feminists, or have fallen away from the feminist movement altogether as a result of their disenchantment. As someone who thinks women should have equal treatment as a matter of course, but has been alienated by the tone of mainstream American feminism, I certainly saw where she was coming from. This book seeks to bring some of those marginalized voices out into the open.

This is an eclectic collection of nine essays on abortion and feminism along with an introduction and an afterword by Angela Kennedy. The writers hail from Ireland, Britan and the USA, and share their reflections on abortion that are often more of a first-person, narrative style than in the form of persuasive arguments.

The topics vary widely, from Mary Krane Derr's historical essay on feminism's pro-life roots, "A Lost Source of Strength and Power", to Ann Farmer and Ali Browning's respective essays on how socialism and vegetarianism relate to abortion. These latter two are particularly interesting, as Farmer's essay discusses how abortion rights have stifled other attempts to help women. While Farmer writes specifically on the abortion issue as it has come about in Britain, it isn't hard to see parallels with the abortion issue in other countries. Browning's essay was refreshing in that I know or know of a fair number of pro-choice vegetarians (a frightening, but strangely humorous contradiction), and she does a good job of calling vegetarians to reassess their opinions. My main gripe is that while Browning specifically reject's Peter Singer's extremely pro-abortion, pro-animal stance, her own stance is rather similar, in that it eliminates the distinction between people and animals on the grounds that we can both feel pain. I'm glad she opposes Singer, but I think has granted him too many of his own utilitarian points.

The final essay is Catherine Spencer's "Obstinate Questionings", on her own experience with abortion, whose reflections will haunt you for some time after reading it. Combined with Rachel Mac Nair's "Is Abortion Good for Women?", earlier in the book, the reader is given a good introduction to Post Abortion Syndrome's effect on women who abortion (and even how abortion psychologically damages abortion practioners). This is a vitally important subject since even many pro-lifers assume that while abortion is fatal to the unborn child, it is a neutral, or even beneficial procedure for the expectant mother. This is a disastrous assumption which must be challenged, which Mac Nair and Spencer ably execute.

Aside from these highlights, other writers discuss the abortion issue's relationship to how the disabled are perceived (written by a wife of a man with spina bifida and hydrocephalus), and more general analyses of how abortion has affected the feminist movement.

For those who are estranged from feminism because of bioethical issues, or are trying to develop a more complete picture of Western feminism, or are having a hard time fitting in with the pro-life movement, this is a great book to have. ... Read more