Ron Chernow has performed a public service -- bringing to light the role played by Alexander Hamilton in forming and keeping the American government.

While George Washington is rightly called the "Indispensable Man" Chernow shows why Hamilton ought to be called the "Indispensable Man of American Government." For without his efforts, it is quite easy to see the Washington Administration handing off not a successful structure of self government, but a weak government neither able to fund itself, borrow or achieve much of anything at all.

This wonderfully written book is two stories. One is the incredible rise from ignominy of Hamilton, a bastard born overseas (this was considered worse than poverty among his class conscious contemporaries), through incredible discipline, innate intelligence and a fierce will to succeed.

The other is the story of a patriot who Zelig-like was everywhere of importance during the winning of our independence and founding of our government. Hamilton not only became in effect Washington's Chief of Staff during the Revolution and a combat hero at Yorktown, but was also the driving force behind ratification of the Constitution and the architect of the American system of government and economics.

My hope is that Hamilton, certainly the most underappreciated of the founders and arguably the most significant after Washington, finally gets his due as a keystone in making American self government a success. As Chernow illustrates so very well, Hamilton's defense of and advocacy for the Constitution through the Federalist papers (written with Madison and Jay, but largely Hamilton's work), was what probably saved our beloved document from non-ratification in New York and other states. As our first Treasury Secretary, his establishment of public credit, war debt assumption, a revenue collection system and other necessary features of government -- over the stern objections of Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans -- gave stability and permanence to our governing sytems.

Hamilton was not only exhaustive in his machinations and plans, he was also brilliant in his vision and crafty in bringing those visions to reality.

This book is not a hagiography. Hamilton was brilliant and indispensable, but as Chernow portrays he did have faults that caused him trouble and would have made him in all probability not a good candidate for president. He worked best when under the license of the great Washington. Hamilton's brilliance and incredible foresight were fostered and used by Washington - a leader who also had the supreme wisdom to temper the excesses of his unbelievably talented subordinate. Out from under Washington's guidance, Hamilton's genius produced excesses of thought if not always deed. Character flaws also got him into trouble as Chernow illustrates in the Reynolds Affair and the duel with Burr. However, his contributions are shown by the author to be indispensable and critical to the keeping of our democratic government more than two centuries hence.

This is a wonderfully written book that is thoroughly researched. It is comprehensive -- the author does an excellent job of weaving the personal Hamilton portrait with the public doings of the statesman. The times and political milieu are also expertly drawn and brought to life. In reading of the founders it always astounds me how hard fought -- and in most respects more vicious -- politics was among the founding generation compared to these last decades. A warning for Jefferson fans, the author of the Declaration does not come off favorably, nor does Madison nor Monroe (this is after the start of the Washington Administration, not before) in this book. However, given the documented evidence, their actions and deeds are credibly drawn by Chernow. While this might ruffle some feathers of those who delve lightly into the period, Chernow's documentation certainly provides a more fully drawn portrait of those who first designed themselves as Republicans (as opposed to Hamilton's Federalists) and who played politics as deviously, roughly and ruthlessly as Lyndon Johnson would in his day.

This is a great work of history and one I highly recommend. The book is long, but Chernow's tight writing style makes it easy to read.

Carol Hoffecker has written a diamond of a book with "Democracy in Delaware, the Story of the First State's General Assembly."

While this will admittedly have a specific audience, the book should be of interest to those who want to discover how legislative government has developed from colonial times to the present. Hoffecker's diligent research and clear writing give a good account of how those elected bodies called legislatures (if one can assume Delaware's is somewhat of a proxy for the bunch) articulate -- or sometimes fail to -- the will of citizens as they self-govern.

Delaware was unique among the 13 original colonies in that it was not wholly a separate polity. The year 1704 is when the state marks its debut as a political entity -- the year in which the Penn family granted what had been the three lower counties its own General Assembly separate from that of Pennsylvania's. The separation was not complete, however, as both colonies (technically proprietorships) continued to share a common governor or proprietor. It was not until 1776 that Delaware received a chief executive to call its own along with a legislature.

Even today a small body representing small districts (41 members of the House, 21 Senate, average House district less than 20,000 people), Delaware's General Assembly has been uncommonly close to those they represent. This has not always produced better government; in fact Hoffecker documents the times at which the General Assembly was unable to effectively resolve burning issues or even function well. However, it has become an institution that the author describes as at the height of its ability in fulfilling the ideals of representative democracy. Filled with wonderful anecdotes, well illustrated and successful in its job of describing the growth of the institution.

In the early 1980's Dayton Duncan hitched up his nerve to an old VW camper he named the "Discovery" (after Lewis & Clark's "Corps of Discovery") and followed the modern route west along the trail Lewis and Clark had blazed almost two centuries before.

Duncan crosses the Missouri, winters (for a weekend) at the site of the Mandan Village where the Corps spent their first winter, crosses the plains of Montana, squeezes his way through the Bitteroot Mountains and courses parallel to the Columbia River waterway in his retracing. Along the way, he encounters modern westerners and provides a taste of small-town America in what is today one of the least settled and developed parts of the North America (save for the numerous hydro-electric dams which have turned much of Lewis & Clarks river pathways to lakes).

Each chapter features a snippet of what the explorers were enduring during their journey and then cuts to Duncan's experiences with the jaunts, journeys and people who in habit the trail area today.

This is not a bad book, and is entertaining at times. It is uneven. When Duncan meets an interesting modern westerner (Indian or White), the recounts are interesting. The author lacks, however the ability to enliven the dull who make up most of us the way Bill Bryson seems to be able to do or the editorial judgement to leave mundane stories on the cutting room floor. The historic parts and place descriptions are rather good and the casual history fan will come away with a better understanding of the great American journey known eponymously as Lewis and Clark.

Alan Taylor has written a very thorough history of the peopling of the American continent that clearly takes its inspiration from Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel."

The human and demographic needs which controlled the pace and flow of early migration to North America as well as preordained the outcome of the clash between European and Indian cultures is the backbone of this impressive book. Although political decisions and the ambitions of kings as well as intrepid adventurers started the age of exploration, it was clearly economics which governed the establishment and success of colonies and determined whether or not landings and forts could attract sufficient settlers to become colonies as opposed to remaining lonely outposts garrisoned by impressed soldiers and agents of mercantilists. (This is not to belittle the role of imperial competition and advantage in colonial expansion, but those goals were either in pursuit of wealth or in response to the Spanish, who got started first and reaped an empire-enhancing wealth transfer early on -- one of such dimensions that the competitors had to respond).

Different policies played a role in the success or failure of colonial adventures. The Spanish combined Catholic mission with regard to conversion of Indians with sheer terror to support their efforts. The French, possessed of cold lands productive in animal furs but not in the kind of agriculture that could support large numbers of French transplants, had to rely on alliance and diplomacy with local natives to maintain their presence. Both of these kingdoms governed their colonies directly from the crown, which allowed for uniformity of control as well as mistakes. The English approached colonization in a piecework model which led to differing methods of implantation and maintenance of their settlements. Productive early colonies like the Leeward Islands were given over to large land barons (after the local populations were wiped out by European germs), slavery and brutal control to keep imported Africans in check processing sugar cane). The New England colonies -- given over to Puritans as a convenient way to exile them from England proper, were religious refuges which at times had a somewhat more tolerant view of life with the native population than the Spanish but much less than the French (although they succeeded in clearing the area of Indians through disease and war just the same). The Southern colonies featured crown dominions (in the case of Virginia) that relied on control and force to keep slave labor and Indians at bay. The pressure for more land to plant profitable tobacco led to a brutalization of Indians who stood in the way of plantation formation. Pennsylvania, in the middle colonial region, was for a time a unique experiment of the private citizen William Penn that took perhaps the most enlightened (this is relative to the time of course) view of life with a native population. Never much under crown auspices for most of its history, the Penn experiment became a beacon for the outcasts (political, religious, economic) of the Old World who could gumption up enough nerve to transplant across the Atlantic. Nowhere in the English system did the local Indian population enjoy a better coexistence than in Pennsylvania (though that too, proved illusory in the long run as population pressures and disease led to the same land grabbing mentality as in other colonies).

What Taylor does extremely well is focus on the forces that controlled political decisions regarding colonization and development in North America. Germs played an incredible role, killing off 90% of Native Americans before large-scale contact with Europeans in most places. Technology and organization next doomed those few Indians left in this war for the continent. They could simply not compete with guns, horses and allegiance to crown or colony when they themselves were usually tiny members of small bands numbering in the hundreds or low thousands (with the exceptions of the Inca and Aztecs) who often warred with the next band as much as the local colonists.

It is interesting that Taylor, while very sympathetic and true to what is basically a story of annihilation of native cultures (for the vast part by disease, the great unplanned and unimagined ally of the Europeans), does not paint the Indians as a harmonious peaceful people inhabiting an Eden like continent prior to its despoiling by Europeans. While Indians lived fairly harmoniously with their surroundings (though not with each other as Taylor points out often, slavery, warfare, kidnapping and competition being normal aspects of inter-Indian affairs), they nonetheless shaped the local environment and remade the land to suit their needs. In agricultural areas, burning was practiced and evidence shows plant species were extinguished and changed to make way for or as a result of Indian farming. Rather than living as one with nature, the Indians shaped nature for their purposes, although their lack of technology and political organization made their imprint upon the land much less severe than that of the men of Europe.

Taylor focuses much of the book on the Spanish, English and French experiences - proper since they were the major players. This book is comprehensive though, and tells the story of Dutch, Sweedish and Russian contact with North America. Taylor also describes the Native peopling of North America, spending time describing their interaction with each other, their management of life on the continent prior to European discovery as well as attempts to survive with the new realities wrought by Europe.

This is a very comprehensive and thorough book that takes a look at the peopling of the North American continent through the broad lens of history. This appropriate approach spends a lot of time on the geographic, demographic, economic and biological factors that informed, shaped and in many cases pre-ordained the outcomes when native cultures clashed with European and as European countries jockeyed for position in the New World. This is a very worthwhile reading and would serve as an excellent jumping off point for those whose interest would lead them to more conventional political histories of the colonial period.

A good travel and exploration book, if not a great one.

Hugh Thomson regales readers with two periods of exploration he took into the deep Andes to rediscover and discover Inca ruins. First as a twentysomething "it beats working" trek with like-minded buddies, then later as a more mature filmmaker who returned after a few decades to visit areas he missed the first go around.

This book has the same theme as some of Bill Bryson's or David Horwitz's travelogues. The history is interspersed with tales of the journey, giving background and understanding as to why certain places are worth visiting. Thomson does not have the wit or humor of either, nor does he try to force it. Some humorous events are recounted because they happened and happened to be humorous, but this author does not ply the wry observation or witty discourse.

The result is a solid travel book, if at times less than entertaining. The reader is treated to a good geographic illustration of the high Andes as well as snapshots of life in and around those mountains today. The history of the Inca people after contact with the conquistadors is interspersed with tales of Thomson's journeys in a way that I suspect will give almost every reader a much better understanding of what happened during the clash of these two empires. Flashbacks are also provided of the famous explorers who led the way toward western appreciation of Inca roads and cities and whose material allowed Thomson to discover some sites only hinted at in the 1800's by his predecessors.

The author does delve into what apparently is an age-old enmity between archaeologists and explorers. In Thomson's telling, archaeologists are a bit miffed that explorers go careening around and get credit for discovering sites when archaeologists are the ones who must spend the hard, laborious years understanding them. Explorers see archaeologists as a bit blinded to the forest by the trees -- you could spend a lifetime uncovering Machu Picchu with a toothbrush and miss the lost cities waiting under jungle cover just a ridge or two away. Although Thomson gets along well enough with the archaeologists he bunks with early on, the explorers of the past who uncovered the lost Inca cities and whose treks serve as both the guidon and inspiration for Thomson's own, were anathema to contemporary archaeologists and remain so.

This is a long book that does drag in parts. Sometimes, when the action the author is describing isn't very interesting, the reader is treated to its unfolding anyway. Editing could have helped weed out some parts that didn't seem to enlighten the story. However, overall this book does what it sets out to do. It tells the story of an intrepid explorer and the finds he makes, describes current life in the high Andes, and tells the story of the demise of the Incas.

This is exactly the kind of book that can introduce history and government to young readers.

Ann Bausum, for the National Geographic Society, has put together a first-rate book on our country's presidents through George W. Bush.

Each president has at least a page dedicated to their life and presidency as well as a portrait and illustrations of events current to their times. Presidents such as Lincoln and FDR and those who have served in the modern era have four to six page spreads describing their elections, the issues, their lives and the challenges they faced as president.

The write-ups are excellent summaries aimed at explaining the highlights to youth. The photos, paintings and other illustrations make this a very inviting book that some children will browse while others delve into the writing. Either way, older elementary school children have a very inviting and informative introduction into our presidents and history that should capture young imaginations.

This is a very accessible book from professional skeptic - journalist John Stossel. In "Give Me a Break..," the author confronts many conventional wisdoms of the media and elite opinion.

Stossel is a free-market Libertarian. In this book, he describes his journey from a "go-along-with-the-pack-all-businesses-are-evil-and-all-regulations-good" journalist to a skeptic who has been persuaded by data and anecdote that government not only doesn't get it right in many cases, but that their cures are frequently more harmful than the problems they attempt to solve.

This book is short-chaptered and anecdote driven, buttressed by some statistics and expert opinion. Among the examples of government policy gone awry: federal regulations that so tightly control clearing of forests in the name of protecting woodlands that the resulting growth of forest fire incidence cost the lives of 23 fire-fighters in a recent year; the Bureau of Indian Affairs that tightly controls living on Indian reservations has produced the greatest threatened demographic group in America - Indians; federal flood insurance that costs tax-payers huge amounts of money to entice wealthy people to keep rebuilding beach homes on hurricane prone beaches (including the author for a time, he fesses); FDA regulations and procedures that keep promising drugs off the market for five to ten years for testing while people who may be helped die.

He also turns his sights on "do-gooder" groups like the folks who killed apple sales for a while when their faulty analysis supposed that the pesticide Alar was a threat to health; trial lawyers who add tremendous costs to society in pursuit of what are frequently lawyer driven payouts; how Erin Brokovitch didn't prove her case and that data around the plant in question revealed no increase in the cancers and sicknesses she and her allies claimed, etc., etc.

Stossel also presents a good defense of capitalism and the enlightened self-interest of our society that has produced technological and medical wonders, as well as the wealth which fuels mightily the envy that motivates many of its detractors. His take on capitalism is a good one and a good antidote for the ramblings of many who condemn our system out of ignorance or while following the herd.

His book is convincing and importantly, accessible to the average reader. He was preaching to the choir with me on many of his points, and I have read about many of the examples Stossel explores. The great benefit of this book is that readers who are uninitiated should get a healthy dose of skepticism about what they read or hear on the news and question the agenda and efficacy of those promoting points of view or condemning activities and products.

Stossel's main points are two: first, Americans need to look at the data before believing what they are told. Second, our society's notion of risk is out of whack with what really are risky behaviors -- to boot, his network was fawning over stories that a certain brand of lighters were exploding and killing people. The network wanted to treat it as a product design failure. Actual deaths attributable to this cause: 1.

Stossel is not in the tank for corporate America and critical of everything government does. He accepts the need for some government control over things like the environment and pollution and condemns corporations who do behave badly. But Stossel also rejects the easy view of many in his industry that if it is business it is bad, and if the government or Ralph Nader says something needs to be changed it is good.

This is a refreshing and thought provoking book and should be read by any concerned with the issues Stossel presents.

Dan Brown, author of the humongously successful "Da Vinci Code," scores well with this story written before his international best seller

Incredibly, the entire 500+ pages of action occurs over a six-hour period. As in "Da Vinci," the action takes place in and around the Catholic Church -- literally. The bulk of the book involves Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and his attractive Italian co-sleuth Vittoria Vetra racing between the Pope's office, the Vatican's secret archives, hidden Middle Age passageways, the crypt holding St. Peter's remains and various churches in Rome in an attempt beat a midnight calamity that threatens to destroy the Catholic Church at its very foundations.

The nutshell: CERN, the world's most formidable collection of physicists, has produced and contained anti-matter, that theoretical substance present at the Big Bang. Despite elaborate security, a vial of the anti-matter has been stolen by a resurgent Illuminati -- that cryptic group dating from the Middle Ages that purported to represent and defend scientific inquiry against the forces of a Church desperate to stamp out anything even remotely calling into question Rome's vision of the earth, man and their divine creation.

After waiting four centuries, the Illuminati have a chance to extract their revenge upon the Catholic Church. The vial of anti-matter will escape containment when a battery mechanism allowing its suspension turns off at midnight on the day bereaved cardinals are gathered to select a new pope. Anti-matter, when coming into contact with any matter (even air, or the sides of a container) produces an explosion so great that a pea-sized drop of the stuff could wipe out a mile square area. And, the vial has been hidden someplace in the recesses of Vatican City.

Langdon appears because his specialty -- symbology -- makes him the foremost expert in possible clues to the Illuminati plot and the hiding place of the vial. The beautiful Vetra appears because she was teamed with her father in the production of anti-matter at CERN -- her father being a catholic priest/physicist who was attempting to prove the existence of Genesis with his work (he adopted her when she was an orphan).

Breathless describes this novel. The entire story, except for Langdon's educational lectures on the Illuminati, various aspects of Vatican lore, and Middle Age Italian artists and architecture, takes place between the time most allow for dinner to follow lunch. The action never stops -- it is ceaseless.

It is also very entertaining. Anyone attracted to history, secret societies, church politics past and present and a whiff of physics as backdrop to a ripping good yarn will appreciate this book.

Paranoia is my first Finder book, and by the likes of it I'll be searching out his other titles.

The story focuses on a clever but bored junior corporate type, Adam Cassidy. Like many, he's got a ho-hum job and is motivated to do just the minimum to skate by. His latent talent is utilized only to pull a minor scam on his high-tech employer (Wyatt) whereby he jiggers corporate budget accounts to buy a Malcolm Forbes style retirement party for one of his loading dock buds.

Cute stunt, but a felony nonetheless. Knowing they could throw his twenty-something carcass in jail for a long time, his employers make him an offer he can't refuse. No prosecution if he agrees to become a corporate mole. He'll fulfill his end of the bargain by becoming employed by Wyatt's rival Trion Systems, the wonderkund company of the high tech world.

Given a fake background attractive enough to entice any headhunter as well as a bag of high tech spy gizmos, Adam is soon snatched up by Trion.

His espionage gets off to a good start, and he is able feed critical information to his handlers at Wyatt. Through a lucky break, he catches the eye of Trion's legendary founder Jock Goddard and gains access to the brain trust of his quarry.

Here the moral dilemma develops (if a book about deceit and lying can have a moral dilemma!). Jock turns out to be the father Adam always wanted and the man he must betray to keep Wyatt from throwing him in jail. What's a scheming junior yuppie to do?

This is an exciting book that is fast paced and very tightly written. Finder is very good at developing characters and at keeping the twists and turns coming and believable.

There are surprises aplenty in this book as the reader is constantly challenged to wonder what in Adam's world is true and what is a careful deception.

This corporate thriller reminded me somewhat of Michael Crichton's book "Disclosure" - intelligent suspense story focused in the high-tech corporate world. Finder is a good and engaging writer who knows how to keep a story moving along.

Jimmy Boyd was a real person. Like many of his age, he was swept up in the early romanticism of the Civil War and would do anything to join the Union Army -- including lie about his age and run away from home (not an uncommon way to volunteer).

He joined the 10th New Jersey Volunteers and was off to "see the elephant" (as big adventures were idiomized at the time). Boyd drilled, trained, learned army life and saw battle in 1864 and 1865.

Like some on both sides, Boyd deserted after the horror of a wounding and the death around him became too much. He hid in a Pennsylvania outhouse, was befriended by a local girl (who he later returned to marry), caught, returned to his unit and saw the end of the war with Sheridan in the Valley and through Appomattox.

This short book is written for children of about 5th grade or so. It gives a good account of life in the Union army, the frightening reality of war and a good depiction of how a young person deals with their own failings and restoration. In addition, the years before Jimmy enlists are covered, giving the reader a window on small farm life at that time.

The book does have a glossary, which is helpful. I think it would have been a little more accessible for young readers had the terms been parenthetically described in the text, but that is a minor quibble. All in all a good book that may fuel the young person's interest in the Civil War.