Reviews (1)

This book brings life to historic homes
At Home gives detailed descriptions of the daily routine "behind the scenes" for families and houses from 1750-1870. This book provides valuable background for understanding the lives of people who inhabited the historic homes that I take my interior design students to visit. We can appreciate the objects, furniture, and furnishings much more when we realize how they were used and how much work it took to maintain them! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 18th century    2. 19th century    3. Customs & Traditions    4. Dwellings    5. Family & Relationships    6. Family Relationships    7. Family/Marriage    8. History    9. History - General History    10. Home Economics (General)    11. Home economics    12. United States    13. United States - General    14. United States History (Specific Aspects)    15. American history: c 1800 to c 1900    16. Architecture / Domestic    17. Social history    18. USA    19. c 1700 to c 1800    20. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (10)

An amazing memoir
I can count on one hand the number of books that have truly and wholly transported me to another time and place. The Last Gentleman Adventurer easily joins the work of Jack London and Herman Melville in this regard, with the happy and astonishing distinction of being a true account rather than fiction. The author, Edward Maurice writes with a rare kind of insight, humane and honest. His adventures are at once breathtaking and sobering. My only regret is that this was his only book.

The Dawn of His Life but the Twilight of an Era
Edward Beauclerk Maurice, in his waning years, looked back on his first job, a job so distant in time and space that it might as well have been hundreds of years ago:In the 1930s, Maurice was recruited as a teenager to run one of the last fur-trading outposts in Arctic Canada operated by the Hudson Bay Company.Dropped off in a tiny Inuit village with a year's worth of trading supplies, he is meant by the Company to be both purveyor and parent to the local people.Of course, as an unexperienced teenager he had no skills for either role, and it is only through the benevolence of the villagers that he is able to cope.
Coming of Age in the Arctic
"The Last Gentleman Adventurer" is a delightful, even beautiful account by Edward Maurice of his time as a young clerk for the Hudson's Bay Company in the Canadian Arctic of the 1930's.Maurice was working literally at the intersection of the Inuit and European worlds.We are most fortunate as readers that the author was unjaded, exceptionally observant, and open to the possibilities of life in that time and place.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Adventurers & Explorers    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography And Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Canada    9. Canada, Northern    10. Customs & Traditions    11. Description and travel    12. Discovery And Exploration (General)    13. Explorers    14. Frontier and pioneer life    15. Inuit    16. Maurice, Edward Beauclerk    17. Personal Memoirs    18. Polar Regions    19. Social life and customs    20. Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers   

Reviews (16)

Guide to occupying forces
While I lived four years in Japan, I read many cultural books.Most authors referenced the work done by Ruth Benedict.It's my understanding that the military needed her ideas about the enemy to help win the war, and to effectively occupy Japan following WWII.
Explains the riddle of Japan
This classic of anthropology commissioned as a study by US military during WWII and completed after the war was over, is a remarkable study of Japanese ethos. Benedict had no direct access to the culture of Japan because of the war situation, so she uses historical, literary, anecdotal data to construct the ethos of Japan and explain why Japanese fight so hard and surrender without hatred, why they dislike anyone showing them a favour, and why they went to war till the emperor chose peace.
Over-Idealized, spawning what later became myths
While this book covers many aspects of Japanese culture and behavior, making some of the seminal distinctions (e.g. shame v. guilt culture), it also adds up to a misleading picture in my opinion.Beautifully written, Benedict throws around abstractions and generalizations that I found added up to mythmaking, and ultimately popularised misleading notions about the honor, dignity, etc.
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Subjects:  1. Anthropology - General    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Asia - Japan    4. Civilization    5. Cultural And Social Anthropology    6. Customs & Traditions    7. History    8. History: World    9. Japan    10. National characteristics, Japa    11. National characteristics, Japanese    12. Sociology    13. Anthropology    14. Cultural studies    15. History / Japan   

Reviews (8)

An excellent book
Clark Heinrich's book is excellent.Clark provides practical information on the Amanita muscaria mushroom, its natural history and practical uses as a psychoactive, and he provides a "speculative history" of the role of the mushroom in human history through analysis of works of art and literary narratives. Amanitas everywhere.
The author has been accused of seeing amanitas everywhere and since reading this short and enjoyable book ... so do I.The author admits that some of his links are a bit of a stretch and I would agree with this assertion.Overall the research is scholarly, well done, and a pleasure to read even if you don't agree with the theories.For the most part the theories make logical sense and could explain many events in the past.The book also backs up claims made by andria puharich in "The sacred mushroom key to the door of eternity" ( <---must read), Terence Mckenna's "Food of the gods" and John marco allegro's "The sacred mushroom and the cross".IMO A lot of the events are better explained by reading zecharia sitchin's earth chronicles (10 books on old sumerian texts) but heinrich's theories fill in the gaps.Where the book really shines is in exploring thealchemical, new testament and vedic references.Also check out the erowid website for supplemental information.

Sex, drugs, and Godhead!
Clark Heinrich is an exceedingly clever, authoritative writer, who keeps readers in thrall with his subject by colorful propositions and turns of phrase that tease and engage the intellect. In this speculative history, he demonstrates an astonishing erudition for religion, myth, art, and the cultural history and botanical details of the Amanita muscaria mushroom. In making his case, speculative as it is, he provides innumerable references to genitalia, sex acts, and various bodily processes and their by-products, which has a way of anchoring his often far-fetched-seeming ideas in the corporeal realm. He also piques interest when his tone turns irreverent, specifically in his treatment of the Judeo-Christian belief system he was born into, where he rightfully, if self-consciously blasphemously, points out that there is little if any reason for sentient beings to believe that the so-called miracles cited in the Bible were the work of supernatural forces. He offers a more concrete and perhaps more likely explanation for seminal religious phenomena: the ingestion of Amanita muscaria and the subsequent encryption of its inspirations in the literature, rituals, and symbols of religion and alchemy. I was blown away by the amount of thoughtful research that went into this insightful and entertaining work. To arrive at his conclusionns, controversial and speculative as they are, he would have had to spend many hours poring over and interpreting esoteric texts in varying translation, and then on the trial and error of attempting to fit the Amanita key to unlock their mysteries. While I came away fairly convinced that the Amanita mushroom likely played a role in the development of at least some religious creeds, I found some of the author's "proof" to be of the "you had to be there to really appreciate it" sort. The "evidence" is sometimes so visual or semantic and so multilayered, that it dosen't hit home withimeediacy. Several questions emerge. Does the Amanita have any role in the Islamic faith (a almost entirely overlooked in this volume)? If so, why wasn't it documented? If not, how and why would it have eluded the third of the three Abrahamic creeds? Why is it that in all the instances of Amanita cult around the world, the identification of the mushroom in question is disguised and not outrightly revealed? Why if even mainstream religions are allegedly built on visionary experiences prompted by the "plants of the Gods" is the identity of these plants not more plainly revealed, at least from some likely sources or at certain logical historical junctures? It's hard for me to believe entheogenically derived inspiration would be so rigorously relegated and obscured as "forbidden knowledge" over the milennia. The ambiguity of encryption leads to speculation that is bound to turn nutty and implausible even in the most capable hands. Still, by incisive analysis as well as persuasive insinuation, Heinrich's highly readable and scholarly work makes a strong case for the entheogenic underpinnings of religion. The narrative of his own personal experience with Amanita ingestion is hilarious, compelling, and numinously stirring -- so much so that I included an excerpt of it in my own book Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures published in the interim between the release of the original, British edition of Heinrich's book, Strange Fruit, and the expanded, American, edition, the one I'm reviewing here. This is a fun and brilliantly illustrated book. Enjoy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternate Spirituality    2. Amanita muscaria    3. Body, Mind & Spirit    4. Christianity and other religio    5. Christianity and other religions    6. Comparative Religion    7. Customs & Traditions    8. History    9. New Age    10. Popular Culture - General    11. Religions    12. Religious aspects    13. Spirituality - Shamanism    14. Body, Mind & Spirit / Spirituality / Shamanism    15. Drug addiction & substance abuse    16. History of religion    17. Mind, body, spirit: disciplines & techniques    18. Myths & mythology   

Reviews (1)

The definitive modern work on the Japanese Tea Tradition
This scholarly work first examines the discovery & establishment oftea & tea culture in China, in particular the profound influence of LuYu in developing a Chinese tea tradition.The remainder of the book isdevoted to explaining the development of the peculiarly Japanese teaculture which grew from Chinese beginnings following tea's introduction toJapan from China during the Tang Dynasty.The book is well illustratedwith some superb full colour plates, and a number of black & whitephotographs.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Asia - Japan    3. Beverages - Coffee & Tea    4. Customs & Traditions    5. History    6. History - General History    7. Japan    8. Japanese tea ceremony    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. Tea    12. Asian / Middle Eastern history    13. China    14. Cultural studies    15. Customs    16. Social history   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Asia - China    4. Asia - General    5. China    6. Customs & Traditions    7. Ethnic relations    8. Ethnicity    9. History    10. History - General History    11. History: World    12. History / General   

Reviews (1)

Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood
I bought this book as a gift for my new daughter-in-law so I didn't read the whole book before sending if off for Christmas. But, I did look through it and thought it was beautifully arranged and very thoughtfully conceived. It certainly reflected the many ways women are connected throughout this world. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cross-cultural studies    2. Customs & Traditions    3. History: American    4. Manners And Customs    5. Pictorial works    6. Social Science    7. Social life and customs    8. Sociology    9. Sociology Of Women    10. Women    11. Women's Studies - General    12. History / United States / General    13. Social Science / Women's Studies    14. Women's studies   

Reviews (39)

Looking in the Mirror
I loved this book!Criticized for being entertaining...as if this were a bad thing and mutually exclusive with being informative...I enjoyed chuckling along with Epstein, who openly shares his snobbery,while also deepening my understanding of snobbery in my life and in America.
Simply annoying.
To mimic a sentence structure that Mr. Epstein employs ad nauseum throughout his book, a perfect storm of smug vapidness, this.The author seems to think that he can innoculate himself against the charge of being a snob himself, by admitting to it once in a while.Fair enough.But it doesn't keep him from coming off as mean (as in his treatment of the author Phyllis Rose--how ironic that he would talk about her coming across as a snob in her wonderful memoir!) and judgemental (as in his treatment of vegetarians whom, and he annoyingly waffles on this one, he seems to conclude are a self-righteous lot who has made throwing dinner parties a nuisance).
An enjoyable way to spend an afternoon
This is a delightful, refreshing, and strangely insightful book.What it lacks in scope and grandeur it makes up for in readability.I'd recommend it to anyone who has been on either end of the snobbery spectrum...or perhaps to anyone who has ever spent the odd moment pondering this odd, yet irrepressible, part of human nature. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Customs & Traditions    2. Essays    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Snobs and snobbishness    5. Social Science    6. Social Stratification    7. Social classes    8. Social status    9. Sociology    10. Sociology - General    11. United States    12. Literary Collections / Essays   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business Etiquette    3. Business Life - General    4. Business/Economics    5. Corporate Culture    6. Customs & Traditions    7. Europe - General    8. General    9. International Business    10. Reference - General    11. Travel - Foreign    12. Travel / Europe / General   

Reviews (5)

The First Book to Tell the Real Story About Maya Shamanism
As a person who has traveled in places where the modern Maya live--Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico--and who has taken the trouble to get to know what the history and culture of these admirable people is reallylike, I have always been appalled at the number of books that claim to beabout "Maya shamanism," but are really just New Age claptrap. While it is true that MAYA COSMOS does not read like a mass-marketpaperback, it is one of the most heartfelt, well-researched, and stunningbooks on the Maya that I have ever read.If you want the REAL story on whothe Maya are and how their spiritual and cultural beliefs have evolved overthe last 5,000 years, this is the book for you. Yes, there is somescientific data and research here, but I would rather a thousand times readthat than the silly cultural misinformation written by dozens of New Ageauthors who project their own interpretations onto the art and the citieswithout even being able to read the very texts they are claiming tounderstand. The late Linda Schele was one of the five major figures who wasresponsible for cracking the code of the Maya language.As an arthistorian, she was well versed in the complex and fascinating symbolism ofMaya culture. David Freidel has been a brilliant Maya archaeologist forover 25 years, and first became involved with the culture because of hisinterest in shamanism. Joy Parker, who, by the way, was the ghost-co-authorof A FOREST OF KINGS (check out the Acknowledgements and the Forward whereher work is credited) has spent over a dozen years working with the modernMaya (most recently, as an editor of Maya shaman Martin Prechtel's SECRETSOF THE TALKING JAGUAR and LONG LIFE, HONEY IN THE HEART) and with otherindigenous cultures such as the North Native Americans (check out her bookWOMAN WHO GLOWS IN THE DARK) and African cultures, so she brings a specialpersonal interest and flair to this project.The first-person stories toldin this book are priceless. I spent as many pleasurable hours reading it asI did the authors' first effort A FOREST OF KINGS. If you truly want tolearn about the history of the Maya, the tragedy of the Spanish conquest,and how the modern Maya find the strength to endure, this is the book foryou.

Not for the Beginner
I have to admit I didn't get more than halfway through this one - no way is this written for inquiring minds who aren't already versed in Mayan lore. Archeoastronomy of the Maya
The authors present Mayan archeoastronomy in a very readable and absorbable form.Compare the astronomy/astrology/ myths and stories of the Maya to other cultures of which you are aware, and you will see that thisbook presents a valuable contribution to world archeoastonomy. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Customs & Traditions    4. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies - Tribes    5. History: American    6. Astrology    7. Social Science / Customs & Traditions    8. USA   

Reviews (3)

An essential title
Ehwa's book, The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, is, in my opinion, a book that every pipe smoker should own.
Very Nice Survey of Pipes & Tobaccos
Very cool little book which covers the history of smoking from pre-Columbian times to the modern era.Interesting coverage of how tobacco is grown, sold and harvested.Also includes a good section on how to get started with pipe-smoking, going over everything from pipe type and shape to tobaccos which the beginner or expert might appreciate.
a classic
The young lady who eventually became my wife gave this book to me a few months after we met thirty years ago. I not only still possess and occasionally read passages from it but I recently purchased a copy for a friend.The author is a no mere professional writer but a knowledgeable industry insider.The book is an intermediate level overview with a moderately heavy dose of history, artwork and photographs.Ehwa gave balanced treatments to briars, meerschaums and tobacco.Based on my 35 years of smoking a pipe, if you get only one pipe book, let it be this one. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

healing wisdom of africa
Very enlightening. Reminds me of our connection with God, Creation and our ancestors in the spirit.Point of view is very beneficial to our existence.I highly recommend this reading.

The Real Deal
I read this book because I'd just read his autobiographical story in "Of Water and the Spirit."I knew his outer life, now I wanted to know more of his inner life.How could I know that "The Healing Wisdom of Africa" would teach me more about MY inner life!
The Healing Wisdom of Africa
I preferred Malidoma's first book, "Of Water and the Spirit", which told his story with all its magical, mystical and historical elements."The Healing Wisdom of Africa" revisits much of the same information and rehashes a lot of the same stories. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Medicine    2. Anthropology - Cultural    3. Customs & Traditions    4. Dagaaba (African people)    5. Ethnic & Tribal    6. Health/Fitness    7. Medical    8. Religion - World Religions    9. Rites and ceremonies    10. Spiritual healing    11. Medical / Alternative Medicine   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - General    2. California    3. Commerce    4. Customs & Traditions    5. First contact with Europeans    6. History    7. History - U.S.    8. Indians of North America    9. Missions    10. Native American    11. Social Science    12. Sociology    13. United States - State & Local - West    14. World - Colonial Studies    15. American history    16. Social & cultural anthropology    17. Social Science / Anthropology / General   

Reviews (3)

Comfort and Context from Gilbert's Clarity and Compassion
"Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve" is a splendid achievement and a fine companion for the "Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies." I believe the elegies collection gave birth to "Death's Door."
A survey of social and cultural history documents different processes of death and grief in society
Surveys of death and grieving often embrace the psychology so much that there isn't much room for other approaches, so it's surprising to find a treatment which blends a poet and critic's vision and experiences with a focus on the psychology of pain and recovery. Such a survey is DEATH'S DOOR: MODERN DYING AND THE WAYS WE GRIEVE. A survey of social and cultural history documents different processes of death and grief in society, while the author struggles with her own reactions to deaths of loved ones. Her different viewpoints help DEATH'S DOOR stand apart from the myriad of titles on the topic.
Her own experiences and a survey of the literature
We humans are the only animals that know we are going to die. The only real questions are how and when. For Ms. Gilbert's husband, he went in for a relativly minor operation and never recovered.
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Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Customs & Traditions    4. Death    5. Death & Dying    6. General    7. Grief    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Mourning customs    10. Social Science    11. Social aspects    12. Sociology    13. Customs & folklore    14. Social Science / General   

Subjects:  1. Antiques/Collectibles    2. Christmas    3. Christmas decorations    4. Collectibles    5. Collectors and collecting    6. Holidays - Christmas    7. Religion - Christian Living    8. Antiques & Collectables   

Reviews (7)

Dijon du Jour
With her usual wit and style, MFK Fisher brings the food and atmosphere of Dijon alive.It is a fun book, perfect as an introduction to a way of life that is both foreign and dated.The delights of the table set by an eccentric landlady and shared with a variety of characters from the building, are extravegant.Fisher also draws a picture of the town's restaurants, markets, and life.
Enjoyable, tantalizing
This is an enjoyable, tantalizing book, with some dull spots in the earlier chapters.It is an account of Fisher's 3 years in Dijon, where she movedin 1929 so that her new husband could pursue a doctorate.She was 20 years old, bright, pretty, charming, in love,and most of all, enthusiastic.The reader gets caught up in all this, so as to overlook the book's serious drawback.Fisher can write very nicely, but you learn much more about her landladies than her husband.Fisher says of her sister Norah, "she TOO speaks always with reserve" (caps mine).The book is written as if you are already acquainted with Fisher, as no doubt many readers are, but for the rest I would recommend, before starting the book, that they look up M.F.K. Fisher in Google and thereby get to the site about Fisher sponsored by Les Dames d'Escoffier International.

Excellent Memoir and Writing, but not her best
`Long Ago in France' by premier American food writer M.F.K. Fisher was one of her last autobiographical memoirs of life in France. She may not have invented the `American in Europe' memoir exemplified by Peter Mayle's `My Year in Provence' and Frances Mayes `Under the Tuscan Sun', but she certainly helped define the genre with this work as well as `Map of Another Town', `A Considerable Town', and parts of many of her other autobiographical works such as `The Gastronomical Me'.
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Subjects:  1. (Mary Frances Kennedy),    2. 1908-    3. 1908-1992    4. Biography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Customs & Traditions    7. Dijon (France)    8. Fisher, M. F. K    9. Fisher, M. F. K.    10. Food writers    11. Literary    12. Social Science    13. Social life and customs    14. Sociology    15. Travelers    16. United States    17. Women    18. Gardening / Japanese Gardens    19. Modern fiction   

Reviews (54)

often funny, but a bit narrow-minded
As a Dutchman who has seen lots of different cultures (America, Australia, several European countries), it's amusing to see how others see us.
Entertaining but with a Nasty edge to it
I borrowed this book from a collegue about 3 months after moving from the UK to live and work in Amsterdam. I found it amusing and at times quite accurate, but I was too often turned off the book by it's rather unpleasant tone. Of course, it's meant to be tongue in cheek alot of the time, and alot of the time it succeeds, but too often I felt the joke to be in rather the wrong spirit, and the tone rather sneering. Although I don't know, I would guess the authors are American(there is no offence intended here - just that I find alot of American-media humour rather jarring in the same way - the people themselves on the otherhand are often as not delightful)- or else they are Continental Europeans who have watched too much US television.
Just enjoy the humour!
After looking at the reviews of this book, I've noticed an interesting trend: Primarily, the positive reviews of the Undutchables were written by Dutch or people close to Dutch culture, while negative reviews were often written by those who are not close to Dutch culture and Americans who are worried about being PC.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Customs & Traditions    3. Guidebooks    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Modern - General    8. Netherlands    9. Social life and customs    10. Western Europe - Benelux   

Editorial Review

This scholarly analysis of our modern celebration of Christmas pulls together a thoroughly convincing case for the widely accepted notion that it is a 19th-century creation, indeed a deliberate reformation and taming of a holiday with wilder pagan origins. Christmas was set at December 25 in the fourth century, not for any biblical link with Christ's birth, but because the church hoped to annex and Christianize the existing midwinter pagan feast. This latter was based on the seasonal agricultural plenty, with the year's food supply newly in store, and nothing to do in the fields. It was a time of drinking and debauchery from the Roman Saturnalia to the English Mummers. The Victorians hijacked the holiday, and Victorian writers helped turn it into a feast of safe domesticity and a cacophonous chime of retail cash registers. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

An Old Fashioned Christmas
Today the topic of Christmas comes charged with so much emotion. The importance our retail culture places on the holiday and the mythology it's collected through years of story-telling and movie-making almost guarantee that anyone living in American culture will have some definite and personal feelings about it. Nissenbaum's wonderful social history of the holiday describes how Christmas has carried a significant political and emotional charge for a good long time.
The Amazing History of Christmas Revealed
People often say that it is sad that Christmas is more about Santa Claus than Christianity. This book, however, shows that Christmas as we know it has always been about Santa and that before Santa Christmas was so horrible that Christians preferred not to celebrate it at all. Amazingly our Christmas tradition is based on the "Night Before Christmas" poem first published in a New York newspaper in 1823 and this tradition had taken its current form with all of its commercialism by 1830. Nissenbaum is to be commended for digging out this history and showing what the problems with Christmas were over a number of centuries and especially in the colonia American period and how the author of the poem altered and shaped other sources, particularly contributions by Washinton Irving, to alter social behavior around this holiday. The book also discusses the coming of the Christmas tree, the place of Dickens in our Christmas myths, and the role of the Christmas tradition in Black history. The book may need to be revised, however, since there seems to be some controversy about who the author of "The Night Before Christmas" really was. Other more recent books now seem to be available on this piece of history, but this book is the original research on the subject.

The best history of Christmas available
Readable, researched, and endlessly interesting, The Battle For Christmas is the best history of our modern holiday available.Nissenbaum writes with a clear voice, and presents a mountain of research flitered through a keen eye for culture.He debunks many of the myths surrounding the holiday, and shows where our modern traditions truly came from (mostly Victorian invention, not medieval tradition or Christian dogma).It's an interesting mix of invention, suppression, and substitution that really aimed to create a holiday for everyone (not just Christians) ... and has, as the years have passed, actually begun to fulfil that promise.
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Subjects:  1. Christmas    2. Customs & Traditions    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: American    6. Holidays - Christmas    7. Religion    8. United States    9. United States - General    10. History / General