This book is a magnificent testimony to the valor of the unsung U.S. Army infantrymen who fought in the Pacific during WWII. The author writes about his experiences as a 60mm Mortar gunner in "Love Company". His story brings the U.S. 96th Infantry Division "Deadeyes" to life during the grueling struggle for Leyte in the Philippines and the desperate close combat battles for Tombstone, Dick, and Flattop Hills on Okinawa. "Love Company" is a wonderful book that ranks with the best of the literature to emerge from the Pacific War.

A comprehensive review of political managerial and economic issues of canal irrigation including; impact, managing proffessionals, operational management of schemes. An excellent text, should be read by any proffessionals related to irrigation, however neglects to cover comprehensively life cycle costing, agronomic or drainage management. Although the analysis is in Asia, the text and ideas are transferable globally. Well written, clear text from this excellent author.

The story of the privatzation of Manila Water and Sewage System doesn't look like an exiting subject, more the kind of book you read when you are in the water business, because it will be full of data, and you "have to". The entire contrary, the book is read as a novel, with dramas, questions and uncertainties up to the end of the process. That would make every book interesting, but there is much more: by clearly explaining how the Philippine Government has step by step overcome the problems encountered during the privatization process, this book is, for any administration willing to privatize water services, a catalogue of what to do (or not). Eventually, the book is also very useful for managers of private companies involved in the business of water privatization, as it gives an unique insight of the thoughts of the Civil Servants who had driven the privatization of MWSS.

This book provides an excellent (if not definitive) look at Maoist Insurgency since Vietnam, including the insurgencies in Peru (Shining Path), Sri Lanka (LTTE), and others. It is likely of the most value to scholars and academics, however any serious student of insurgency and guerrilla warfare would benefit from it.

This book transformed my opinion of Mark Twain -- from the classic, if somewhat shopworn, American humorist we're all forced to read in junior high, into a passionate defender of American ideals. Today, as words like 'war,' 'treason,' and 'patriotism' are once again in the headlines, flags are flying, and nationalist feeling runs high, these essays by Twain, and commentary by Jim Zwick, are as important and timely as they were nearly a hundred years ago.

Back then, at the birth of the American Empire, Samuel Clemens ('Mark Twain') risked his reputation, his career, and his fortune taking an uncompromising public stand against the war in the Philippines. No pacifist, Twain nevertheless refused to allow jingoists, imperialists, and flag-wavers to define America's proper role in the world. 'I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land,' he wrote.

Twain's anti-war essays had never been collected in one place before this book, and many of the writings here were never published at all. Twain takes the reader's breath away with his bold and uncompromising resistance to empire. 'The War Prayer' (1905) should be required reading in Congress and on talk radio, while 'Roosevelt, the American Gentleman' (1906) should be engraved on TR's tombstone.

And then there's 'patriotism.' In 'Monarchical and Republican Patriotism' (1908), Twain defines the former as the government telling the people what is and is not 'respectable' patriotism. 'In the other, neither the government nor the entire nation is privileged to dictate to any individual what the form of his patriotism shall be.'

He continues: 'We have adopted [monarchical patriotism] with all its servility, with an unimportant change in wording: "Our country, right or wrong!" We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had: the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he (just *he*, by himself) believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.'

Powerful, bracing stuff -- especially today. Very highly recommended.

I enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to learn folk stories. These were stories that my own parents had forgotten about from their childhood. It was nice to share this book with my parents as well as my younger family members. In the future, I would like to teach my own children not only Mother Goose nursery rhymes but also stories from their family's homeland. And the illustrations were wonderfully detailed and enjoyable to look at while reading the story in English or Tagalog.

Mr Roth has done a marvelous job of detailing the nearly forgotten American conquest of the Philippines. His angle of story is about the American soldiers (many who had fought Indians, in Cuba against the Spanish, Boxers in China and then against Filipinos and Moro tribesmen)and their incredible conflict. While doing research on the Philippine Constabulary, I found and read this terrific book, packed with dozens of combat actions, forced marches across jungled peaks, close range engagements with bolo-slashing Moro pirates and so called insurrectionists. The pages are alive with some truely heroic Americans, Funston, Lawton, MacArthur, Pershing, John White and one Leonard Furlong of the Constabulary to name but a few. Fighting in strange surroundings and with limited knowledge of the Filipino people and not understanding their desire for freedom, the American army began a brutal and seemingly endless series of campaigns to pacify entire tribes, cities, provinces and islands. The true tales of blood maddened "juramentados" swinging a razor-sharp barong and absorbing a dozen rifle bullets at close range are chilling to say the least. Each chapter captures the various campaigns and tactics that the Americans used, along with their hard earned Indian fighting skills to suppress the insurrectionists. A classic account of the entire conflict seen from the eyes of men who were in the tall reeds and palm grass.

This unique book deals primarily with the histories of the sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao (present-day Southern Philippines) from their beginnings until the end of Spanish period. In their 400 years of existence, they expanded to control a portion of Borneo, and fought the Spaniards fiercely, never actually being colonized with their northern brothers. The author also includes a chapter on how the sultanate functioned- describing the system of government that was more centralized than any other part of the Philippines, and thus the only one that could muster effective resistance against the Spaniards. The role of Islam is highlighted as the very basis of the Moros' determination to resist European colonization. A section of excellent pictures is provided, including portraits of sultans in their royal spendor and a collection of Moro weapons.
Although the book sometimes quite dry - being primarily a political history, describing the reigns of kings and battles and treaties, the information itself is extremely fascinating. There are interesting stories, such as Sultan Azim-ud-Din, prisoner in Manila for 20 years and his spiritual experimenting, and of Sultan Qudarat, unifier of Maguindanao, leader of a 50 year jihad, whom a Spaniard compared to Gustavus Adolphus.
This history, though objective, is clearly sympathetic to the Moros. Yet this is actually quite refreshing, as the Moros have generally been treated poorly by historians. While more colorful histories describe them as vicious slave-raiders and pirates, Cesar argues that this was not the case- rather it was the Spaniards who were inexorably trying to conquer the minds and bodies of the Moros, and thus the latter retaliated with raids, on both them and on the natives the Spaniards used as mercenaries.
Finally, being a Muslim, Cesar can intepret certain events far more objectively and accurately than have most other historians of the Moros. For example, the author examines the motivation and nature of Moro famous "jurmentados," in light of sayings of the Prophet. In his conclusion, the author expresses a hope that in the future an enlarged history of the Filipino people will embrace both the conquered- and the unconquered peoples of the archipelago. Indeed it is difficult to leave this book without some admiration for the bold and unconquerable Muslims of the Philippines.

This book is the first and only one that focuses on the environmental aspects of the Philippines in a convincing and brilliant way. I hope to meet Mr. Nigel Hicks one day in person.
Martin Stummer, 113 Seminario street, Jaro Iloilo (Nagarao Island,Philippines)

Reine Melvin's stories are quiet studies into lives and relations of subtle irony. But there is always a seething undercurrent in all that gentle introspection, until very carefully, the curtains - cerebral and emotional - are drawn up to reveal a valuable epiphany. Comment by Alfred A. Yuson