Book Description
Most books on terminal illness focus on death and dying. This book is about neither. It doesn't deal with statistics or the medical aspects of a crippling disease, and it isn't written by a celebrity about their amazing recovery. This book is about a real person and a true hero. Bob Horn, an authority on the Soviet Union and foreign policy in the Third World, a successful author and teacher, an involved husband and father of three in his mid-forties, awoke one day to find his entire world upside down. Diagnosed in 1988 with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), better known as Lou Gerhig's disease, Bob had to deal with the reality that his situation was terminal. How Bob and his family coped and continue to cope or "battle" as Bob prefers to call it with disability and terminal illness is an amazing story that you will find inspiring, heartwarming, humorous, upsetting, and a celebration of the triumph of life. Having already beaten the odds that say he should have died years ago, Bob accomplished the most unbelievable feat he wrote this book. It was discovered that Bob had a pulse in his right foot that could be felt and manipulated. By hooking his foot up to a computer, Bob found he could maneuver the cursor and produce documents. He has written articles for the Los Angeles Times, sermons for his church, correspondence, and most impressive of all this book. Not bad for a man who is completely paralyzed and hasn't moved in six years!
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read!.......2006-01-12
This is an excelent book! Very inspiring and humbling. I was first introduced to this book while teaching in Japan. The author's daughter was a previous teacher at my school, so the book found it's way to me. Once I began reading it, I was hooked! Another father of a good friend of mine also has the same condition, so it really gave me a greater understanding. It is seriously one of my favorite books!
Life Changing.......1998-09-16
This book is life changing. I first met Bob through his son, my schoolmate Chris, in Malaysia, and thought he was Just another friend's dad(don't take it personally Bob, you were all like that:). After more than ten years, I arranged to visit Bob, his wife Judy, and my old school mate Chris. I was advised by Chris to read the book as a precursor to meeting Bob, so as not to "shock" me when I met him again. HOW WRONG COULD CHRIS BE!!! Bob's vitality, energy, and will to live life to it's fullest, regardless of the obstacles, should be a lesson to all so called able-bodied-people. I used to think that being put in a wheelchair would destroy my life. I now know I was wrong. Bob, you are a hero to me.
An inspirational, heartwarming book for everyone........1997-08-08
This book was impossible to put down. Mr. Horn's determination, will to live, outlook on life, and his achievements are something we all could take a lesson from. He seems so happy and vibrant you almost forget that he typed the whole book with his foot! His descriptions of his family and friends support is enough to make the happiest person in the world jealous. This book is a tribute to the human spirit and to Mr. Horn and his family
Superb book detailing what it's like to have ALS.......1997-07-25
As a person with the same disease, I found myself saying "ME too!" to all of the stories and feelings.
This book is uplifting and presents ALS as a condition that happens to our bodies but never to our minds and souls.
Final piece of advice:
Ignore the title. It's the worst part of the book.
A must read for all whose lives are touched by disability.......1997-07-21
A funny, touching and inspirational story about living one's life with a severe physical disability.Anyone whose life has been touched by either their own disability or that of a loved one will find solace and inspiration in Bob Horn's story.A mentor and friend to many, Bob Horn inspires us to push forward against the odds by his example
Book Description
The 1968 Tet Offensive was the decisive battle for Vietnam. Masterminded by the brilliant North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, it was intended to trigger a general uprising in South Vietnam. However, the bloody fighting for Saigon, Hue and other cities actually resulted in a catastrophic defeat for the North. In this excellent assessment of the key battle of the Vietnam conflict, James Arnold details the plans and forces involved and explains how, despite the outcome of the battle, the American people and their leaders came to perceive the war for Vietnam as lost.
Customer Reviews:
History is messy and controversial!.......2006-02-08
Veitnam hasn't quite receeded into the mists of time--not when every media talking head compares the current Iraqi and Afghani situation to South Vietnam in 1968! James Arnold's "Tet Offensive 1968" is an excellent summary of one decisive battle.
Remember--in war it is never whether you win or lose the battle. If everybody claims that you've lost, you have. The news media thrives on neagtive news--bad news sells. Since at least the American Civil War (when most of the northern newspapers strongly sympathized with the slave-owning and Democratic south) the news media has had a vested interest in painting the American military as inept, corrupt, and just plain rotten. The US Army blames the news media for "losing the war" in Vietnam. The news media of the period counters that "the establishment" (JFK and especially LBJ) lied to them and to the American people. There's some truth to these charges. Arnold manages to clarify the murky details without too much finger-pointing. Fact: LBJ committed ground troops in 1965 because the old foreign policy failed in Vietnam. By 1967, the Johnson Administration considered Vietnam a lost cause, but couldn't see a way to get out of it. The first chapter in "Tet Offensive 1968" explains this quite well, and the last chapter details the immediate aftermath.
Arnold spares neither the media nor the government--or the military. The media reporting was incompetent. There was a flawed foreign policy. As for military action, nearly every principle of warfare was violated. I salute the guys on the round in Vietnam for achieving anything positive with all of these factors against them.
The nuts and bolts part of Osprey books are usually quite good--excellent values for the money. Us amateurs have limited time and money, so the 96 information and image-packed pages give excellent returns for spent resources. I pay close attention to the index and to "recomended reading," as well as publication date. This book was published over 15 years ago, and more information has come out, but for the casual historian, this is enough. After all, "Tet Offensive 1968" is about a single battle lasting a few weeks. The Vietnam tragedy lasted from the 1920's and still clouds America's judgement.
We still have a flawed foreign policy. Our news media still has trouble getting the story right.
I liked the full-color illustrations of the Tunnels of Cu Chi, the assault on the American Embassy in Saigon, and the battle for streetfighting in Hue City. I did question some equipment details--the cartridges for the Soviet-made RPD and the US M60 machine guns are different and do not interchange. The NATO cartridge fires its heavier bullet faster than the Warsaw Pact cartridge, producing 50% more projectile energy at the same range. Or, how about the 82mm vs 81mm mortar thing on page 33: the information I have is that the British WW2 three inch Stokes, the German WW2 8cm, the Warsaw Pact 82mm and the NATO 81mm mortars can all use each other's shells because they are the same shells. There are some adjustments required to the firing tables due to different trajectories and some of the modern shells produce peak chamber pressures too high for older mortars, but the shells will work. Mortars are simple. I stress this because one of the Vietnam myths is that the AK-47 will fire both 7.62 and 5.56 NATO rounds. I disproved this while attending the First Infantry Division's Unit Armorer Course during August 1984, but I still occassionally run into this. Today's veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan know better, having hands-on experience with the real thing. The caption on Page 30 in "Tet Offensive 1968" says that the RPD (which is chambered for the Soviet M43 7.62x39mm round fired in the AK-47) fired the same ammunition as the US M60 (which uses the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge). The M43 casing is 39mm long and the NATO case is 51mm long and fatter--no way you can cram the bigger cartridge into the RPD! The RPD was a light-weight belt-fed automatic weapon and the AK series uses a detachable magazine--they are effective and reliable, but cannot use ammunition other than what they were designed to fire! I should take points off for this, but as I've said, this myth is common among Vietnam vets.
Even with some technical errors, this is a worthwhile addition to my library. I like it.
One of the first Osprey's is one of the best.......2005-03-23
The 'Campaigns' of Osprey have gone through numerous changes over the years, with the first looking very, very different from the newer ones. Yet even though the new generation of Osprey Campaigns look far better and is far more organized, the core of all books remains its content, and Tet Offensive 1968 is very strong in that category.
Arnold gives a good overview of the events leading up to campaign, including what the effects of President Johnson's continual belief in sucsess would bring to the US public when Tet finally erupted. The opposing armies section in this volume is especially well done, including US and ARVN tactics and roles in the war and the NVA tactics, all of which played a major part in Tet. He does not seem biased in any way, giving a fair and insighted look into each side's forces, though he has a nagging case of calling the North Vietnamese the 'Communists" (they are, but I didn't see him calling the Americans the 'Capitalists'!).
All of these are backed up by very good photographs and a few good illustrations, such as the US GI, the Vietcong guerilla, ARVN militia, weaponry, and whatnot. One minor omission is the lack of a good picture of Vo Ngyuen Giap (the NVA Supreme Commander), but then again there are far more places to get this.
The actual campaign itself is covered very well, with the author's clear and flowing writing style adding greatly to the content. As can be expected with early Osprey Campaigns, the 2D maps are not very good compared to the newer ones (South Vietnam Military Regions - Page 18, The Assault on Saigon - Page 42, The Bien Hoa - Long Binh Area - Page 51, Targets of the Tet Offensive - Page 63, and Hue - Page 71). The only one that actually looked good, and was useful enough for me to use often was the Targets of the Tet Offensive map, which showed all military and non military targets hit, and on what day. Every other map, though nice to have, is not really used when reading Tet Offensive 1968.
The content of the campaign (if it can be called that) section is NOT general synopsis of the fighting in the two major regions of the Tet Offensive: Saigon and Hue. It IS, to my pleasant surprise, mostly a series of synopsis' of 'sub-actions' in the overall battle, such as the NVA attack on the US embassy, the NVA attack on the Saigon radio station, and of squadrons and platoons running to the rescue at Bien Hoa. It shows how the battle was really fought instead of saying 'This battalion moved here, defended this from this, and this battalion was ambushed by that battalion as it came to relieve...', you understand. It gave me a real insight to how Tet was fought, and was very enjoyable to read. A particularily intresting story is that of general Westmoreland standing in the rubble of the US embassy saying that everything was OK to beleagured and confused journalists - portraying how misled the world believed the Vietnam War to be going. Hue is similarily covered.
When it shifts focus from Sagion and Hue to the country in general, Arnold makes it clear that in almost every action the NVA and Vietcong suffered a defeat, so much that the Vietcong would never be half the threat as it once was due to the slaugter faced by assaulting the US and ARVN positions. He gives short one-paragraph synopsis' of battles in certain towns countrywide, never forgetting to remind us the manner of which Tet was fought (such as needing "to destroy the town to save it", in the words of an American major). It is all very insightful indeed.
Photographs in all sections are well chosen and fairly large (so we can actually see whats going on). All photographs are black and white in typical Opsrey format, and several notable ones include Westmoreland trying to assauge the press (Page 56), an arieal view of the Citadel of Hue (Page 69), a large picture of a 'Mini Tet' (page 86-7), and pictures of the battle in Saigon (Pages 48-9).
Finally to Osprey's prestigious 3D maps, a factor that makes this series so popular. In this case, there are no 'traditional' 3D Maps (to my initial dissapointment), just 3D pictures of the Cu Chi caves (pg 10-1), the attack on the Saigon Embassy (pg 46-7), and Street fighting in Hue (78-9). Each picture (each meticulously detailed and colourful) has a very long caption describing the event/structure, and the Embassy attack is covered in minute detail (and is, among Arnold's selected stories, very informative and interesting). But upon thinking, it is preferable to have 3D images of the general fighting instead of a painful 3D painted rendition of Saigon or Hue (as Osprey didn't have computer terrain graphics yet, first debuted in Marengo 1800). Regardless 3D MAP lovers, don't weep over this loss.
All in all, this is a very solid Osprey packing all you need to know about Tet (I am satiated with my knowledge of it personally). Any fan of Ospreys MUST include this on the bookshelf, as well as any layman historian interested in this important event. It is a buy you will not regret.
High level view of Tet.......2004-02-14
The book is a high level view of the Tet offensive. There are lots of pictures and maps. The battles of Hue and Saigon are documented well. The Khe Sanh fight and other battles are not as well documented.
Peter Arnett's classic line, that he invented, and no military man ever said, "We had to destroy the village to save it." is included.
We won the battle, but lost the propaganda war, and thereby the whole war.
It is a good book for someone who wants to start learning about the Tet offensive.
Worthwhile Read.......2003-12-26
The Tet Offensive, 1968, by James Arnold is a short, concise, but interesting history of the critical offensive that led to the American withdrawal from Vietnam. While set in the traditional Osprey style, the book deviates from the ususal Ospery book in its focus on the political implications of the offensive.
Arnold points out that if one judges the battle from the perspective of the original aims by the North Vietnamese that the offensive was an unambiguous failure. However, what the North Vietnamese, nor for that matter the Americans, did not anticipate were the political implications of the offensive. Juxtaposed against General Westmoreland's statements that the United States was winning the war, the growing mistrust of the military and the mistaken reporting of the taking of the American Embassy, the offensive led to a loss of political will to continue the war.
Arnold does a fine job discussing all of the above as well as the essential military details. For a history of the Tet Offensive, the book is a worthwhile read.
Defeat into Victory.......2001-10-23
If ever there was a significant military action, it was the Tet Offensive. Its impact on the American psyche was immense as it played a major role in the American pullout from Vietnam. Though the US forces were able in the end to crush the Viet Cong/ North Vietnamese Army offensive in 1968, the scale of the attack unerved the US political and military authorities as they were unable to convince the US public that they had won the battle. It was possibly the first battle to be decided by television coverage and the precursor to the present-day situation. The book on the whole is well presented with many photos of the battles. There a re diagrams and maps, which are useful and its in my view one of the best Osprey titles in the "Trade Edition" series that I have bought.
Book Description
Finalist for the 1971 National Book Award
In early 1968, Communist forces in Vietnam launched a surprise offensive that targeted nearly every city, town, and major military base throughout South Vietnam. For several hours, the U.S. embassy in Saigon itself came under siege by Viet Cong soldiers. Militarily, the offensive was a failure, as the North Vietnamese Army and its guerrilla allies in the south suffered devastating losses. Politically, however, it proved to be a crucial turning point in America's involvement in Southeast Asia and public opinion of the war. In this classic work of military history and war reportage -- long considered the definitive history of Tet and its aftermath -- Don Oberdorfer moves back and forth between the war and the home front to document the lasting importance of this military action. Based on his own observations as a correspondent for the Washington Post and interviews with hundreds of people who were caught up in the struggle, Tet! remains an essential contribution to our understanding of the Vietnam War.
Customer Reviews:
the political story of the tet offensive.......2004-03-16
this is not a war story. it is an insightful book that focuses on the political causes and repercussions of the tet offensive in early 1968. it starts with the attempted takeover of the u.s. embassy in saigon and ends with the decision of president johnson not to run for reelection. if you are looking at the military aspects of this offensive, this is not the book for you.
by jumping back and forth from washington to south vietnam to north vietnam, the author clearly explains how such a military failure on the part of north vietnam could result in such a huge victory that ultimately wins the war. it is very enlightening regarding what happens in the united states. it is much less so regarding south vietnam. from the north's perspective it gives a good understanding of why they did it, but is surprisingly lacking as to their reaction to the clear defeat.
one interesting aspect is that the book is written before the war ends. this gives the reader more knowledge than the author, but also shows how perceptive the author is in understanding the long term impact even to today.
of particular interest is how the individual bits of the story, whose impact cannot be understood at the time they occur, match up to change the climate in the united states and bring about the end of the johnson presidency and ultimately the vietnam war.
Great story on the hows and whys of Tet.......2004-02-07
Don Oberdorfer does a great job in describing the key battle in the Vietnam war. The political decisions made by both sides about the battle are included. The background and key players on our side and their thoughts are described.
The battle of Hue is gone into in some detail, including the killing of thousands of civilians, and some other foreign nationals by the North Vietnamese.
For anyone wondering why we got out of Vietnam, this is a must read. The shift in attitude from the pro war stance of Johnson's "wise men" is gone into in some detail as they move from pro war in Nov '67 to we must negotiate in early '68.
The chronology of events at the end of the book is a great help.
The "We had to destroy the village to save it" comment, by Peter Arnett is told too. Peter Arnett was an anti war reporter from the beginning. In 1965 he wrote a bogus report about our Marines using toxic gas on the VC. It was just tear and pepper gas, and was widely used in Vietnam to clear bunkers and tunnels. It was thought more humane than blowing up the people in the tunnels or bunkers. Arnett reported it as poison gas and made world wide headlines. This is discussed in Utters Battalion, another book.
In this book, he invents a quote "We had to destroy the village to save it" and again it makes world wide headlines.
During the Tet offensive at the battle of Ben Tre, Arnett says an Army Major made the comment. Neither the Major, or any other living person heard the comment.
The story of how Westmoreland came to generate the request of 206,00 more troops is told too.
Great explanation of a military victory/politcal defeat.......2003-01-09
Contrary to the previous reviewer, I think Oberdorfer tackled the Tet subject comprehensively and covered all bases in explaining the turning point of the Vietnam conflict.
Oberdorfer begins the book by fully explaining what really happened at the American Embassy that fateful January night in 1968. Although most Americans today believe the Embassy was 'overrun,' Oberdorfer explains the true story of a platoon of Viet Cong blasting a hole in the wall to enter the compound but never being able to enter the Chancery building. I believe the reason Oberdorfer starts his book off with the subject is to dispel the 'overrun' myth of VC running through the building capturing documents and, even though it was a minor military skirmish compared to the street-by-street fighting in Hue and siege at Khe Sanh, the American Embassy attack was the paramount event which woke America up to what was happening in SE Asia.
Also, the previous reviewer complains the book focuses too much on the politics and media coverage of Tet, not realizing Oberdorfer's main point of the book is that Tet might have been won on the battlefield, but it was an epic defeat on American televisions and in world newspapers. The Tet offensive's primary aim was to cause political upheaval in America to give the Communists a victory exactly like what defeated the French a decade earlier. In a 1947 tract by Hanoi called "The Resistance Will Win", it states "...as a result of the long war the enemy troops become weary and discouraged, and are tormented by home-sickness. The French economy and finances are exhausted; supplying the army is difficult, the French people do not want the war to go on any longer. The movement against the diehards in France goes stronger and more fierce. World opinion severely condemns France...world movement for peace and democracy scores great successes, etc. ...
Subtract France from the quote and insert the US and there is the political reasoning for starting the General Offensive. Also, Tet not only caused US and ARVN troop casualties, but it ended a presidential administration and forever changed how the news is presented to the American public by the media. A study of Tet not involving the White House, LBJ, McNamara, Clifford, or for that matter Cronkite, the Wall Street Journal and Time, would be like reading about the light bulb and failing to mention Edison.
Oberdorfer's does a great job balancing his information by devoting whole chapters to subjects like the history of Vietnam, pre-Tet America, the shockwave that hit the US after the attack, the 'shot seen around the world' of the Saigon police chief shooting a VC prisoner on the street, the military disaster of Tet to the Viet Cong ranks, the battle of Hue and a section on one of the most decisive months in US history - March 1968.
My only gripe is that the book was first written in 1971, which interestingly gives the reader an unusual perspective as the war was still going on, but is begging for a complete Afterword section to fill in the gaps as more information on the North is now available. BTW, there is a great Chronology at the end of the book which makes it easy to follow the play-by-play and would be a student's dream in helping research information.
Great explanation of a military victory/politcal defeat.......2003-01-09
Contrary to the previous reviewer, I think Oberdorfer tackled the Tet subject comprehensively and covered all bases in explaining the turning point of the Vietnam conflict.
Oberdorfer begins the book by fully explaining what really happened at the American Embassy that fateful January night in 1968. Although most Americans today believe the Embassy was 'overrun,' Oberdorfer explains the true story of a platoon of Viet Cong blasting a hole in the wall to enter the compound but never being able to enter the Chancery building. I believe the reason Oberdorfer starts his book off with the subject is to dispel the 'overrun' myth of VC running through the building capturing documents and, even though it was a minor military skirmish compared to the street-by-street fighting in Hue and siege at Khe Sanh, the American Embassy attack was the paramount event which woke America up to what was happening in SE Asia.
Also, the previous reviewer complains the book focuses too much on the politics and media coverage of Tet, not realizing Oberdorfer's main point of the book is that Tet might have been won on the battlefield, but it was an epic defeat on American televisions and in world newspapers. The Tet offensive's primary aim was to cause political upheaval in America to give the Communists a victory exactly like what defeated the French a decade earlier. In a 1947 tract by Hanoi called "The Resistance Will Win", it states "...as a result of the long war the enemy troops become weary and discouraged, and are tormented by home-sickness. The French economy and finances are exhausted; supplying the army is difficult, the French people do not want the war to go on any longer. The movement against the diehards in France goes stronger and more fierce. World opinion severely condemns France...world movement for peace and democracy scores great successes, etc. ...
Subtract France from the quote and insert the US and there is the political reasoning for starting the General Offensive. Also, Tet not only caused US and ARVN troop casualties, but it ended a presidential administration and forever changed how the news is presented to the American public by the media. A study of Tet not involving the White House, LBJ, McNamara, Clifford, or for that matter Cronkite, the Wall Street Journal and Time, would be like reading about the light bulb and failing to mention Edison.
Oberdorfer's does a great job balancing his information by devoting whole chapters to subjects like the history of Vietnam, pre-Tet America, the shockwave that hit the US after the attack, the 'shot seen around the world' of the Saigon police chief shooting a VC prisoner on the street, the military disaster of Tet to the Viet Cong ranks, the battle of Hue and a section on one of the most decisive months in US history - March 1968.
My only gripe is that the book was first written in 1971, which interestingly gives the reader an unusual perspective as the war was still going on, but is begging for a complete Afterword section to fill in the gaps as more information on the North is now available. BTW, there is a great Chronology at the end of the book which makes it easy to follow the play-by-play and would be a student's dream in helping research information.
Bogged down in detail.......2002-08-31
This book is waaaay to detailed. If you want to know all kinds of facts that really have nothing to do with the battle, like what every politician was thinking, what every correspondent was reporting and all kinds of other side facts, this book is for you. It begins with no real history or set up and concentrates on the embassy in Ho Chi Mihn City like that's the center of it. No way. I enjoy history, but why does almost every historical book I read have to be an epic bogged down by minutia. Give me a really strong overview with only the essential facts, and if I want to know every detail I will pursue further books. I have so many books like this I can't finish, and I'm a patient reader. That's it!
Average customer rating:
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The Tet Offensive: Turning Point of the Vietnam War (Snapshots in History)
Dale Anderson
Manufacturer: Compass Point Books
ProductGroup: Book
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Book Description
Traditional historiography describes the repartimiento de mercancías as a forced system of production and consumption in which officials of the Spanish crown compelled Mexican Indians to produce goods marketable in the Spanish economy and to purchase expensive and undesired Spanish products. The author challenges this conventional portrayal of Indian-Spanish economic relations by arguing that Indian market behavior was economically rational and voluntary. He further argues that the repartimiento was an institution designed to overcome market imperfections inherent in Mexico’s colonial economy and to facilitate the extension of credit in a cross-cultural environment.
Examining repartimiento production of cochineal, a dyestuff produced exclusively by Oaxacan Indians and representing Mexico’s most valued export after silver, this study shows that Indians produced cochineal for the market voluntarily because it provided them with needed income. The primary role of the repartimiento was to provide Mexico’s indigenous peasantry with credit, without which they could not have participated in the market as extensively as they did. Owing to the difficulty of collecting debts, credit provision was monopolized by agents of the Crown, the alcaldes mayores, who alone possessed the legal leverage needed to enforce the payment of debts. Though Spanish officials profited from the repartimiento, their economic gains were not so great as traditionally believed.
Overall, the book demonstrates that Mexican Indians were much more actively engaged in the market than customarily imagined, and were adept at promoting their interests despite the discriminating policies of colonialism. The book rounds out its account of the repartimiento by examining the transatlantic trade in cochineal, especially in its late colonial decline.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by University of Saskatchewan on August 1, 2002. The length of the article is 849 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Indians, Merchants, and Markets: a Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and Spanish-Indian Economic Relations in Colonial Oaxaca 1750-1821.(Book Review)
Author: Nora Jaffary
Publication:
Canadian Journal of History (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2002
Publisher: University of Saskatchewan
Volume: 37
Issue: 2
Page: 396(3)
Article Type: Book Review
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- an academic yet practical book
- A must-have for any serious computational researcher
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Interdisciplinary Computing in Java Programming Language (KLUWER INTERNATIONAL SERIES IN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE)
Sun-Chong Wang
Manufacturer: Kluwer Academic Publishers
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ASIN: 1402075138 |
Book Description
Books on computation in the marketplace tend to discuss the topics within specific fields. Many computational algorithms, however, share common roots. Great advantages emerge if numerical methodologies break the boundaries and find their uses across disciplines.
Interdisciplinary Computing In Java Programming Language introduces readers of different backgrounds to the beauty of the selected algorithms. Serious quantitative researchers, writing customized codes for computation, enjoy cracking source codes as opposed to the black-box approach. Most C and Fortran programs, despite being slightly faster in program execution, lack built-in support for plotting and graphical user interface. This book selects Java as the platform where source codes are developed and applications are run, helping readers/users best appreciate the fun of computation.
Interdisciplinary Computing In Java Programming Language is designed to meet the needs of a professional audience composed of practitioners and researchers in science and technology. This book is also suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate-level students in computer science, as a secondary text.
Customer Reviews:
an academic yet practical book.......2004-02-05
It collects state-of-the-art computational algorithms that are amenable to multidisciplinary applications.
A website containing its chapter examples in Java applet can be found at,
http://socioecono.phys.sinica.edu.tw/icomputing/
Look at the lively demonstrations there to convince yourself.
A must-have for any serious computational researcher.......2003-11-19
The book covers a great number of algorithms some of which, such as the Metropolis algorithm, are embedded within a chapter. Applicability of the algorithms are amazingly broad as evidenced from the topics of the written examples in each chapter. Encyclopedic, this book is a must-have for any serious computational researcher.
The first 3 chapters of the book introduce Java language. Topics include Java basics, graphics, threads and distributed computing via RMI. The level is intermediate to advanced. Each chapter contains a working example: chapter 1 lists a matrix class; chapter 2 a Java GUI; and chapter 3 an RMI implementation.
The 2nd part of the book is focused on various computational algorithms. Chapter 4 is on Simulated Annealing which is powerful for optimization. The example application is minimizing the free energy of a 3-dimensional Ising lattice.
Chapter 5 is on artificial neural network which is useful for classification. The text includes some tips on stock index prediction using neural network. The example application of this chapter is a Kohonen self-organizing feature map for clustering.
Chapter 6 is on Genetic Algorithm that is inspired from Darwinian evolution. The example application is the canonical "Traveling Salesman problem" in optimization.
Chapter 7 is the cellular automata that have been used to simulate natural as well as social phenomena. The example application of this chapter is a 2-dimensional fluid flow through obstructions.
Chapter 8 is Monte Carlo method that is used in all kinds of simulations The example application is modeling the drift-diffusion behavior of a stock price.
Chapter 9 is Molecular Dynamics which is widely used in chemistry and molecular biology for simulations such as protein folding. The example code of this chapter is evaporation of a 3-dimensional gas.
Chapter 10 is Feynman's path integral. This chapter is a bit technical, requiring background in quantum mechanics. The example application is the pricing of financial options.
Chapter 11 is chi-square fits which is a chore in any data-analysis. The author rewrites a legacy Fortran chi-square fitting routine into a Java class.
Chapter 12 is Bayesian analysis which has recently gained popularity because of advances in computing power. The application code of this chapter is Pixon algorithm in imagine restoration.
Chapter 13 is about Graph which is related to Bayesian method. The example class of this chapter is Kalman algorithm that has been used in real-time projectile (such as missile) tracking.
Appendix is about web-computing, achieved by converting standalone applications in previous chapters into Java applets.
Book Description
KEY MESSAGE: By emphasizing the application of computer programming not only in success stories in the software industry but also in familiar scenarios in physical and biological science, engineering, and applied mathematics,
Introduction to Programming in Java takes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching programming with the Java
™ programming language.
Elements of Programming: Your First Program; Built-in Types of Data; Conditionals and Loops; Arrays; Input and Output.
Functions and Modules: Static Methods; Libraries and Clients; Recursion.
Object-Oriented Programming: Data Types; Creating Data Types; Designing Data Types.
Algorithms and Data Structures: Performance; Sorting and Searching; Stacks and Queues; Symbol Tables.
For all readers interested in introductory programming courses using the Java programming language.
Customer Reviews:
a wonderful book!.......2007-09-25
This is the only textbook that really helped me understand programming in Java - I was so glad to find it!
awesome.......2007-08-14
Undoubtedly the finest computer science book published to date. This will be the standard for years to come.
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