American Civil War
Like Jacqueline Dana's Irish History pages (see separate listing), George H. Hoemann and Mary E. Meyers' Civil War pages are basically just a collection of well-organized links. Unlike the Irish page, however, these links go mostly to outside servers, meaning that the material is less cohesive, and you'll occasionally not be able to get at the information you want. When you can get it, though, most of these links are well-researched: Civil War buffs are notoriously fetishistic. And Hoemann and Meyers are qualified guides to this world of six score and 16 years ago.-TG

B-

American Studies Web
Every Web page has it: the obligatory list of links to other (questionably) relevant sites. The American Studies Web, however, is *all* links, to sites on matters as diverse as the U.S. Constitution, the San Francisco Diggers, and the great Irish famine of the mid-19th century. It's a huge list, but rather disheveled: neither alphabetization nor subject organization seem to have sullied its pure anarchistic gestalt. Use the "Find" command on your browser if you're looking for specific information, and be sure to go up one level (to http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~davidp/amstud.html) for the whole experience.-TG

C

Bertrand Russell
Mathematician, philosopher, agnostic, libertarian socialist - Bertrand Russell was a larger than life character. Created by Russell admirer Bruce McLeod, the page contains the text of a number of Russell's speeches and essays. You have to dig through some links to find a bio of this controversial and considerable intellectual, but it's worth it if you don't know him. Russell, who was British, was actively prohibited from lecturing on US college campuses, vilified by the Catholic Church, and generally viewed as trouble by the establishment. You'll find several of his best-known pieces here, including "Why I Am Not a Christian," and "What Is the Soul?"-KW

B+

Conceptual Metaphors
Although designed for cognitive scientists, the Conceptual Metaphor site should be of interest to writers and anyone who enjoys language. The metaphor system being used isn't explained, but it isn't too hard to figure out from the content. There's the "source," the thing being defined, and the "target," the thing the "source" is being compared to. The site indexes metaphors by name, source, and target. It's an ugly, raw site, and the link to references listed the titles of three books without any more information. -WKC

B

Duke Papyrus Archive
We're used to classical names for archival Web pages. But while Project Gutenberg isn't centered around that German bookmaker, Duke's Papyrus Archive is all about drum roll, please Egyptian papyrus! More than 1,300 papyri (yes, that's the plural) are cataloged here, with descriptions, translations, and images of the documents in two resolutions. These pictures were the most exciting part of the site for me: seeing the actual scraps of linen from which scholars have reconstructed an entire world. Fully searchable, although there's not as much cross-linking as there could be.-TG

B

Electronic Journal of Sociology
Scholarly journals usually need to be spiced up, and the Web is a perfect way to do it. So why is the Web-only Electronic Journal of Sociology as dull as a two-pound brick of paper? It has all that you'd expect to find in a paper journal: abstracts (in tiny, unreadable type), articles, and references. But no pictures, no search engines, no indices. Well, there are some smart messaging features, which allow visitors to make comments, but at the moment, there's not much traffic there. The articles are good, but the presentation needs work.-TG

C-

Greek & Roman Cities of Western Turkey
Michael Greenhalgh, a Professor of Art History at the Australian National University, is one academic who has embraced the Web and its possibilities by choosing to publish his book on ancient cities in Turkey, electronically, before the print version came out. It's a fascinating and well-researched topic, but it really lacks in that none of the archived pictures are linked to their references in the text. Also, it's a perfect test of the viability of publishing lengthy texts on the Web and having people read them online.-WKC

C+

Irish History
Sometimes you come across a Web site that impresses with the depth of one person's passion and dedication. Such is the case for the Irish History on the Web site, managed by Jacqueline Dana. At first blush, it seems like the usual collection of links: but what makes this site unusual is that (a) the links are well-organized and relevant, and (b) a lot of the linked material is by Ms. Dana herself. There's an unquestionable bias toward Irish nationalism, but whether you're for or a'gin' it, the history alone makes this site worth a visit.-TG

B+

Media History Project
Marshall McLuhan alerted Americans to the intricacies of the media, and watching the watchmen has since become a popular sport. The Media History Project is a great place to learn the basic histories of the telephone, TV, music, comics, and other methods humans have developed to get the word out. Colorful icons and sharp writing egg you on to further discovery, but some links are sadly broken, and the multicolored text is hard to read on some monitors. Teachers will wet themselves over the included syllabi, anal retentives will dig the site's organization, and all will be edified.-TG

B+

Mind and Body
Mind and Body is the catalog from a 1992 exhibit of the same name at the National Library of Medicine on Rene Descartes, the origins of mind/body dualism, and the development of the field of psychology in America. In a very scholarly style, the largely-text site describes how Descartes came upon his findings and how the scholarship of philosophy then changed. If you know nothing about the subject, you might want to do some basic reading in philosophy first. If the subject interests you, you'll probably find some new info within the site, which includes illustrations and portraits from the exhibit. Not for the non-reader.-KW

C

Origin of Knowledge
Onar Am, the author of this densely-written page, is a composer, mathematician, philosopher and systems theorist. If that weren't enough, he has put down his ideas about all of these things into a series of articles available at his site. I'm impressed by Onar's depth and range, but not his writing style. (OK, he's Norwegian, but his English is suspiciously academic. The problem isn't his unfamiliarity with English as much as the stilted formality he uses - there's a lot of the royal "we," for example. But if titles like Stabilizers in Dynamical Systems and Perspectivism Applied turn you on, Onar may be your man. -KW

C-

Pattern of Knowledge
Art Bardige of Cambridge, MA offers up an elaborate and thoughtful theory about the history of human invention. It's a noble attempt. Enter into Bardige's construction. The meta-chart is too tidy and clipped for me, but the text is interesting, if biased (remember, you've been warned). He feels that the years 1859-1865 "were the most extraordinary in all human knowledge,"based on this output: Darwin's Origin of the Species and Marx's Das Kapital, among others. If you like this kind of thinking, come in for a read far removed from the daily grind.-KW

C+

Rhiz-o-Mat
The core of this site, the actual Rhiz-o-Mat, is nothing more than a Web quote generator, drawing from the book, *A Thousand Plateaus*, by Deleuze and Guattari, two modern social critics. It 's a particularly annoying generator because the pages are set to auto-reload with a new quote at too rapid a speed to let you read the entire quote. The rest of the site is not technically part of the Rhiz-o-Mat, but it's incredibly strange and funny, and any trip to the Rhiz-o-Mat will likely propel the viewer into other areas of this unique space.-WKC

A

Skeptics Society
"I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them." The Skeptics Society has adopted these words of the Dutch philosopher Spinoza as their motto. The Society publishes a magazine and holds regular conferences to investigate cultural and scientific ideas on religion, conspiracy theories, life after death, urban myths, and paranormal events. Their page includes selected articles from the magazine, papers, interviews, and an excellent reference page of other skeptical sites. A thoughtful and low-key presentation is what you'll find here, as befits intelligent skeptics, which these folks seem to be.-KW

B

Soviet Archives Exhibit
This archive of Soviet documents is arranged around a museum analogy: Go directly to either of the two "floors" or follow the golden footsteps for a guided tour of Soviet history over the last 80 years. Unlike a museum, however, there aren't many pictures to look at, although the knowledgeable guide's talk is full of imagery. Be warned: It's a lot of reading. Missing are the songs, photos, and personal reminiscences that would humanize such a tour; also, the text is so biased toward cold war ideas as to threaten its credibility as a history text.-TG

C-

SPEED
SPEED is an online zine which, in its own words, "provides a forum for the critical investigation of technology, media, and society."That's a tall order, but SPEED seems to be up to it. The young publication combines the critical writing of an academic journal with the hit-and-run graphic style of Wired, giving both immediate appeal to the eye and delayed gratification for the brain. As of February, only two issues were up, so stay tuned. But how long can they keep this up? Better visit now before everyone there gets burned out.-TG

B

Spoon Collective
The University of Virginia, sponsor of the electronic version of the excellent Journal of Postmodern Culture, runs a number of mailing lists under the name Spoon Collective. The lists cover the latest topics and authors of cutting-edge cultural criticism and philosophy, such as Baudrillard, Bakhtin, and Film Theory. The postings to the lists are archived along with general info and longer papers, and, for some topics, a Web page has been built. Follow the instructions to join a list, or just satiate your intellect with the archives.-WKC

B+

The New STOA
"When Computer Scientists Discover Philosophy:" on the next Geraldo. The proposition of this site, a modern version of Stoic philosophy, is pretty intriguing. The site's author claims Aristotle and Plato forced a division between philosophy and science, while his revived Stoicism brings them back together. The pages make it seem like an actual movement, but a look at the "Core Papers" section shows only one author, who also happens to run the site. -WKC

B

Viking Navy
It's a pity when passion gets subverted by incompetence. That's the situation with the Viking Navy Web page, a sorry advertising vehicle for a fascinating project. In brief, Californian Peter Sjolander is engaged in building Viking-style boats to "perform as well today as they did 1,000 years ago."The site includes some photos, drawings, and descriptions of his experiments, but his appalling writing and HTML coding make the juicy fruit of his experiences inaccessible. Serious nautical history buffs and scholars may find this site interesting, but the casual Web browser would do best to skip it.-TG

D

Wittgenstein and His Children
A photo as you enter this site encapsulates its tenor well: It's an image of 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein with an angel's halo above his head. Deification of the individual aside, this site offers very little in the way of hard information: mostly, it's a space for people to discuss The Man And His Works using the NetForum messaging system. In that regard, the site is moderately successful, although there's not much chat going on (c'mon, folks! it's a sexy topic!) and some of the links are broken.-TG

D+