Book Description
This book tackles the messy details, reclaims disregarded heroes, and sets the record straight. It also explains why July 4th isn't really Independence Day.
Customer Reviews:
Setting the Historical Record Straight!.......2007-02-22
History buffs and anyone curious to know "what really happened way back when" will enjoy this probing look at American history. The goal of the author is to put the human element back into the study of history, which too often is reduced to dry names, dates and places in textbooks. Ayres succeeds admirably, uncovering new facts, shining a light on forgotten movers and shakers and giving some belated credit where it is due.
Ayres' book is divided into five sections. 'Stories lost between the pages' covers the people who flew before the Wright Brothers, the origin of 'Taps' and America's shortest war. 'America's forgotten heroes' touches upon trailblazer James Beckwourth, Bet Freeman and Jonas Salk. 'The Underside of history' looks at military sex scandals, America's most infamous officer, Mary Todd Lincoln, etc. 'Little known facts about famous people' supplies tidbits on the likes of Bendict Arnold, Andrew Jackson and FDR. 'Myths that became history' uncovers what really happened at the Boston Tea Party and debunks figures like Betsy Ross and Belle Starr.
Ayers' book is a pleasant read, filled with revelations and interesting twists on American history and personalities.
Interesting.......2006-07-21
I "read" this book as a book on tape. I liked the book so much I ordered a hard copy. I read some of the "carping" reviews below. Maybe the reviews make some valid points but the over-all book is so interesting that the little quibbles are just that...."little quibbles" in my opinion. I recommend this book. You'll learn alot from it! :o) Email:boland7214@aol.
That SHOULD be in every American History Book!!.......2006-06-29
A lot of good information and little-known facts here. A little bit dry, but well-documented. I use this book in my history classes now (I'm a teacher) to supplement the text. Worth a read for any history buff or student who wants to know the stories behind the stories. For example, who flew the first ariplane? It certainly wasn't the Wright Brothers; they only had the best publicist!!
If you are going to write a book, check your facts.......2006-05-14
I just purchased this book less than an hour ago, but I'm already annoyed. If you are going to write a book about little known events and heroes, it would be helpful to, at the very minimum, correctly name the subjects of your book.
There is an entire section devoted to the State of Franklin, and it's founder, John Sevier, who (we are told in this book) was nicknamed "Nolichunky Jack." Uh, no. He was known as NoliCHUCKY Jack, after the NoliCHUCKY River. I mean, come on. Nolichunky?
I'm not even that interested in reading the rest of the book if an error that screamingly glaring is not caught by the author or publisher. It's like writing a book about Richard Nixon and calling him "Tricky Rick" throughout. Or calling Lighthorse Harry Lee, "Lighthouse Harry Lee".
Argh!
History like it should be taught.......2006-01-02
Prior to reading this book, I had already known some of these things (e.g., Israel Bissel finished Paul Revere's ride after Revere was captured early on, Betsy Ross had nothing to do with the creation of the American flag), but a lot of these stories and facts I had never even heard about. Some of them will appeal to certain people more than others (for example, someone who's not interested in sports might not be that captivated by the story of Louis "Sock" Sockalexis, the original Cleveland Brave), but overall these are very interesting historical tidbits from a wide variety of subjects and eras. As someone devoted to historical truth and memory, it really makes me angry that so many unsuspecting schoolchildren are still being taught that urban legends and outright lies are undisputed historical facts. Knowing the truth behind these stories doesn't have to change the basic message; for example, just because Nathan Hale's alleged last words "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" were really penned after he'd been dead for five months doesn't change the fact that he was still a very brave young man who did give his life for his country. Knowing that the Wright Brothers were by no means the first people to invent and fly an aeroplane doesn't change the fact that they were still pioneering aviators and inventors. More history books should be written like this, witty and engaging, unafraid to knock down sacred cows that have been standing for a long time. I also enjoyed the foreword, "A Note About 'Politically Correct' History." Mr. Ayres points out the difference between multi-cultural all-inclusive accurate history and what has been termed "politically correct" history, wherein people go to extremes in the pursuit of righting age-old wrongs and leaving out historical contributions made by people in the majority. It would be just as wrong to leave out great contributions made by the ruling classes, the same way it was wrong to just overlook or only pay tokenistic lip service to the wonderful contributions made to history by women, African-Americans, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, non-Protestants, and other groups which historically haven't been given much of a voice in America.
Book Description
Mrs. Yonkers, the computer teacher, is the nerdiest teacher in the history of the world. She can type with her feet! She buys foam cheeseheads off eBay! She even puts a Webcam on a turtle! Is she trying to take over the world?
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Eat My Dust! Henry Ford's First Race (Step into Reading)
Monica Kulling
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
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George Washington and the General's Dog (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)
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ASIN: 0375815104
Release Date: 2004-03-23 |
Book Description
It’s 1901 and Henry Ford wants to build a car that everyone can own. But first he needs the money to produce it. How will he get it? He enters a car race, of course! Readers will love this fast-paced, fact-based story!
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My Book of Inventions (Jimmy Neutron)
Lara Bergen
Manufacturer: Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon
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The Spy Who Was Me (The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius)
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Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius (Jimmy Neutron)
ASIN: 0689845405 |
Book Description
• Sneak a peek at Jimmy Neutron's secret drawings
• Get a close-up look at never-before-seen photos
• Check out the blueprints for his most famous inventions
From Jimmy's incredible shrinking machine to his transforming robotic dog, get a behind-the scenes look at the life of a boy genius.
Customer Reviews:
reccommended age.......2002-12-18
Great book for a 4 year old to maybe a 7 year old. Very simplistic kids picture book, but boring for any kids that are older than 7. Just does not have the detail of the movie. But it is reccommended for the younger kids who want more Jimmy Neutron.
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Alexander Graham Bell (On My Own Biography)
Victoria Sherrow
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ASIN: 1575055333 |
Book Description
At last, Wally can have the superpowers he has always dreamed of and written about! Thanks to the newest invention of Junior Whiz Kid, Wally now has . .
- Laser-Blaster Eye Beams-handy for catching those bad guys . . . and reheating your hot chocolate.
- Inviso Shield-a flip of the switch and your invisible . . . except for you're underwear.
- Extendo Arms-great for back scratching those hard to reach spots . . . particularly if they're a thousand miles away.
These and a dozen other superpowers allow him to try to make the world a better place . . . until he realizes that the biggest differences are not made by flashy superheroes, but by everyday people doing everyday acts of kindness.
Join our boy blunder as he learns the true meaning of helping and caring for others.
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The Flyer Flew!: The Invention Of The Airplane (On My Own Science)
Lee Sullivan Hill
Manufacturer: First Avenue Editions
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ASIN: 1575058553 |
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Eat My Dust!: Henry Ford's First Race (Step Into Reading: A Step 3 Book (Paperback))
Monica Kulling
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
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ASIN: 0606313974 |
Amazon.com
Cleansing the Doors of Perception is a fresh consideration of the age-old relationship between certain psychoactive plants and chemicals and mystical experience by one of the most trustworthy religious writers of our time. Author Huston Smith (most famous for his classic The World's Religions) is the Walter Cronkite of religion scholars. He has long believed that "drugs appear to be able to induce religious experiences" and that "it is less evident that they can produce religious lives." At the same time, he posits that "if ... religion cannot be equated with religious experiences, neither can it long survive their absence." Therefore, Smith's basic question about entheogens (a word he defines as "nonaddictive mind-altering substances that are approached seriously and reverently") is "whether chemical substances can be helpful adjuncts to faith." Cleansing the Doors does not offer one sustained argument in response to that question. Instead, the book collects Smith's many articles about this subject, and connects them with brief introductory essays. The writings gathered here range from personal testimony about Smith's own experience with entheogens to ethnographic work on the use of entheogens in India. Throughout, Smith's style conveys the wisdom and wonder that has guided his explorations of this strange, fascinating aspect of religious experience. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
This book takes a serious look at the use of psychedelic drugs as a means to achieve mystical union with the divine.
Customer Reviews:
Valuable scholarship for a number of reasons.......2006-12-02
This book collects essays from nearly 40 years of Smith's research into psychedelics. It addresses a number of issues:
o The experiential dimension of the drugs
o The relationship of the drugs to religion
o The history of psychedelics in the United States
The historical dimension is fascinating for children of the baby boomers, who are too young to have experienced the 1960s. He discusses the experiements conducted at various institutions in the 1960s. He talks about Aldous Huxley, Albert Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.
Leary gets special attention in the essay on the viability of the drug culture as a new religious movement.
I recommend reading this book after having read the classic The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley. This volume gives a much more mature perspective, since it is a retrospective decades after the fact.
I highly recommend this book to several audiences. The first obvious audience is the would-be psychonaut. The book recounts the authors experiences with psychedelics. (The author prefers the term entheogens.) Students of religion would also benefit from this book. The author is a professor of religious studies, and several of the essays collected in this volume deal directly with the mystical experience brought on by the drugs.
Fascinating, informative and valuable........2006-04-02
Somehow, over the past 40 years of so, certain drugs have gotten a very bad reputation. Drugs, that is, that do not have official approval. Alcohol, prescription opiates, anti-depressants, caffeine, and nicotine (perhaps the most addictive substance on the planet) are fine, and are even sanctioned and promoted by the power grid that calls the shots. Entheogenic substances (formerly known as hallucinogens) however, after experiencing their apogee during the long lost, much lamented sixties, have been consigned to the same prison cell as heavy duty opiates, destructive stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamines, and other negative drugs like GHB, Rohypnal and Ketamine. This book does an excellent, scholarly job of explaining and illustrating why this is a very bad thing. Entheogens have been with us for a long, long time, and may have been the catalyst for the formation of many of our major religions. Psilocybin, mescaline (peyote), and Soma (perhaps Amanita Muscaria) have been responsible for stimulating some of the most profound insights and experiences ever recorded. LSD, a modern entrant to the entheogen club, appears to be just as effective. There is a test in the book -try to distinguish between a genuine religious mystical experience and an entheogenic mystical experience. I failed the test.
Smith is no spaced out weekend tripper. He effectively documents the modern age of the entheogens by describing the mid-century efforts of Aldous Huxley (The Doors of Perception), Albert Hofmann (the inventor of LSD), and tune-in, turn-on, drop-out Timothy Leary. You can see how things went wrong in the latter sixties, especially after LSD and other zeitgeist challenging drugs were criminalized. Not that Smith advocates downing these substances like candy. Far from it. These drugs deserve respect, and they had respect in the societies that used them many years ago. The hard reality is that these drugs are political. Look around you. It's not a happy place we live in right now, in spite of what your net income may have been last year. The planet is heating up, with drastic consequences soon to be evident. There is an asymptotic concentration of power in the hands of a very few. The most powerful nation on earth (indeed in history) is becoming increasingly erratic and warlike, and teeters on the edge of a catastrophic economic collapse. The sick world economic arrangement encourages huge population centres like India and China to ape the behaviour of the United States. The media that might help people to figure things out have been bought and co-opted by the powers that wish the status quo to continue. If you have any gnostic leanings at all, it's hard not to believe that the Archons are firmly in power. These drugs, the entheogens, allow you to cut through the smoke, the propaganda, the confusion, the maya, to let you see what really is. They offer hope that you are part of a mysterious, fundamentally wonderful and positive universe and that things will be alright. So, to the powers that be, they are dangerous, and thus illegal. Just read some of the testimonials and the experiences in this book. They have the ring of truth to them. Not that Smith is advocating entheogens as a quick escalator to the divine. No, he makes it clear that, although certain drugs can shake up your world view and make you question where your life is going, and make you aware of another, better plane of existence, it's how you live the rest of your life that matters. A drug may point out your destination on the map, but you still have to work to get there.
The case of Soma, an early pillar of the Hindu religion, is interesting. Smith speculates that the secret of Soma may have been intentionally 'lost' by Hindu religious leaders about 3000 years ago because use of Soma had gotten out of control (much as hallucinogen use did in the 1960s). A more likely scenario, in my view, is that Soma was suppressed by a religious elite because it represented a threat to their power. With increasing institutionalization comes increasing repression, because powerful people then have a lot to lose. If you ingest an entheogen, you see your own version of reality, unreality, or whatever. You don't have to take what your priest says or what you read in a sanctioned text to be the final word. The power structure thus loses the ability to define reality.
Some quibbles. The title (Cleansing the Doors of Perception) implies (at least to me) that a seeker will find ways or even methods within to raise their consciousness or make progress towards enlightenment, but this book is more of a starting point in that regard, not a primer. It might be better titled Concerning the Doors of Perception. Also, I found Smith at times to be gratingly deistic. I react to the over-use of the term 'God'. That word is too restricting and has too much negative baggage to be useful in such a discussion. Smith also at times comes across as somewhat credulous. Anecdotes are not necessarily persuasive evidence of paranormal phenomena such as telepathy or precognition. If these phenomena are real and many people have the capacity to demonstrate them, let them be tested scientifically like any other legitimate phenomena. Of course, when they are tested the results do not materialize. (Their supporters call this the 'shyness' effect.) But the above are only minor annoyances and do not take away from the value of this wonderful book.
Read "The Doors of Perception" instead........2004-07-25
The greatest contributions in this book were just the native americans talking about what peyote meant to them, and why it should be legalized. The author, although more than qualified to write on the subject, has no passion or fire behind his writings and the essays seems to be written in a manner which Mr. Smith's extensive vocabulary is showcased over the much more exciting power of the entheogens. If you haven't read Aldous Huxley's masterpieces "The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven & Hell" read them instead. If you have read those already, you will not learn anything new here.
Mind meeting.......2004-01-18
a highly informed and elegant look inside the world of our minds. This is a work that adds to the classics on the subject and offers a slightly more sophisticated perspective than one would expect.
Very interesting stuff.
A provocative yet insightful and non-judgmental survey.......2003-11-14
A Highly recommended addition to Metaphysical Religious Studies, Cleansing The Doors Of Perception: The Religious Significance Of Entheogenic Plants And Chemicals is the work of philosopher and religion scholar Huston Smith and presents an informative survey and analysis of psychedelic and entheogenic drugs, including their usage to connect human beings with the divine. History, theology, philosophy, psychology, and personal experience fill the pages of this provocative yet insightful and non-judgmental survey of man's use of chemicals in a dedicated quest to expand both mind and spirit.
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