Book Description
Conspiracy theories about Sept. 11, 2001 continue to spread. Now, in a meticulous, scientific and groundbreaking new book, Popular Mechanics puts these rumors to rest. The magazine’s editors analyze the 20 most persistent claims underlying 9/11 conspiracy theories—and conclusively disprove each one. The result is a triumph of hard fact over conspiratorial fantasy.
Customer Reviews:
The truth shines through........2007-10-17
This book wades through all the crazy ideas out there and puts the nuts to shame. If you want to know the facts and not crazy ideas this is the book for you.
hey.......2007-09-20
so i haven't read the book, i will tell you that, but i think it's funny how John McCain helped write it. That guy needs to be off the balot and in jail for sure. Not all CT's are crazy either. They are family memebers who didn't get a proper investigation from the gov't. The Gov't doesn't care about them or the investigation and they call it a horrible attack on America. Bin Laden isn't even wanted for it. He i wanted for bombing in 198 or something on an american embassy killing maybe 200.
Anyway, read "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" wesome "truther" book
Propaganda and a waste of money. .......2007-09-20
Buy a copy of Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin before buying this pack of lies. You can save your time and money and learn what Popular Mechanics says and OMITS in building their case against the truth. Hearst Publishing is still in the business of propaganda. Wake Up.
Reads like propaganda.......2007-09-14
I wish just once somebody would publish an objective book or collection of writings about this topic. The afterward is particularly insulting to the millions of concerned citizens with legitimate questions. Anyone can see that this book was written with an agenda. If this book doesn't give you ammo for you hate-spewing debunking arsenal, it might actually convince you that there are suspicious circumstances to consider.
Junk Science.......2007-08-29
This analysis doesn't even rise to the level of being wrong. You don't have to be a structural engineer to know that a steel-framed building cannot "pancake" at free-fall speed. You don't have to be a metallurgist to know that jet fuel won't leave pools of molten metal weeks after the fire is out. If you cherry-pick your "facts" you can make Stalin look like a boy scout or Mother Theresa look like the devil. This book starts with the conclusion and then tries to prove it. If you want an analysis that starts with the facts and works towards a logical conclusion, try any (or all) of David Ray Griffin's books.
Book Description
Complex, challenging, and stimulating, this book addresses information system analysis and design;; it is full of information that shows the organizational process that a team of business and systems professionals use to develop and maintain computer-based information systems. It stresses the importance of responding to and anticipating problems through innovative uses of information technology.
The book provides an excellent foundation for systems development, then goes on to making the business case, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance.
For future systems analysts, or for those information technology that need a great resource for implementing new ideas and strategies for success.
Customer Reviews:
"Just the facts ma'am".......2007-09-12
This book is a difficult read. Most writers infuse something of a personality into their writing, even a textbook. I read a lot of books, mostly non-fiction (programming books, networking books) with some fiction thrown in here and there. The authors may know about the subject and clearly they do, but I found myself reading the text in a monitone voice and my eyes glazing over every couple of sentences. Thats because each sentence is just another fact, freeze dried and stuck next to another fact and eventually you get a very wordy paragraph. Add them all together and you get pages and pages of facts.
I felt like someone took a vacuum and sucked out all of the life out of the text. Seriously, I was tempted to look at the preface to see if the authors added the instructions to "just add water before reading". It really is that dry.
If that is your reading style, then this book is for you. I couldn't read more than a couple of pages before having to take a break.
Expect a textbook, not a real "how to" lesson.......2007-01-26
I used this book for an online course and I really felt like I was slogging through it. Obviously it's a textbook, but there are probably books out there that get to the point in fewer words. Most chapters are 30-50 pages long, and though some of the examples are helpful, overall the impact of the material is lost in paragraphs that never end. I would say if you aren't in a course that is using this text as a supplement, buy something else. The examples aren't good enough to give you a sense of database structure or systems diagrams without some real world comparison.
It's OK.......2006-03-03
The data itself is fine. It does explain the information in an understandable way.
Unfortunately, the font is tiny to make up for the large parts of information in the margins. Also, there is a slight shine to the paper itself which gives a glare when reading the text.
Extremely thorough treatment of Systems Analysis..........2005-07-13
This summer, I took a class in which we read this entire book. Yes, all 600+ pages of text (thankfully we weren't tested on the index). This HUGE book presents a very thorough treament of the Systems Development Life Cycle and the profession of Systems Analysis. From Project Planning to System Maintenance, hardly a detail gets shunned.
The book overall emphasizes the traditional SDLC, but weaves in some discussion of newer methodologies such as: Extreme Programming, Object Oriented design, CASE tools, and other agile methodologies. And if anyone wants to know what a Systems Analyst does day to day on the job, Appendix 1 spells it out pretty thoroughly. Anyone thinking of becoming a Systems Analyst should at least read this appendix, if not the entire book.
The book doesn't emphasize customer service to a great degree. As a working Systems Analyst, I find that customer service skills come in handy every single day. Appendix 1 does mention this skill, but not in an overly detailed manner. Information Systems in general deemphasizes the customer side of things ("User error!!!" still gets mockingly shouted across many help desks and support centers), which accounts for some of the problems that the industry as a whole faces (sometimes we're a little too easy to outsource). So a little more on the importance of customer service might have improved the book.
In the end, this book is a textbook. The going gets rough in many places as details pile upon details. But to understand some of the complexities of system development, a detailed approach probably represents the best way to go. So if you're looking for pleasure reading, look elsewhere. But if you want a detailed, granular, sometimes heady, complex treatment of the analysis side of Systems Development, this book offers more than you'll need for the traditional approach to the SDLC. Those looking for details on XP or OOP should look elsewhere.
Good S.A.D Book.......2005-05-13
I used this book to learn system analysis and design while taking graduate course. The book is well-written and the layout is pretty good. The authors broke down the information in such way you can understand easily. The book also has some exercises that help you practice what you learn. I kept the book and plan to use it a reference. I will recommend it if you are serious about learning System Analysis and Design.
Amazon.com
Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there,
The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War.
Book Description
Pulitzer Prize Winner -- and Now an Epic PBS Series
The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.
The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.
Customer Reviews:
First to cover the topic, but still a facile book.......2007-09-17
Yergen gets kudos for being the first to cover this topic, but his account (perhaps because it's now outdated) is facile and pro-oil company. Every time the oil companies are thwarted he seems to blame straw men for it: tree huggers, the people that hounded poor misunderstood Tricky Dick Nixon, the Saudi sheiks (best friends of Bush, Cheney, et al). He never turns his gaze on the corruption of the oil companies themselves. We hit peak oil in the U.S. in the 1960s. The oil companies suppressed any attempts since then to find alternative fuels. Now we are up the creek, so to speak, with the Oil Men running the Show. Some "Prize". I'd say it's the booby prize. The best overview of our current fix is Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower.
The Age of Oil.......2007-07-04
We are living in the Age of oil.
World and human civilization have experienced different "ages" such as the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Gilded Age, and so on. The 20th and 21st Centuries are indeed, the "Oil Age." We are living in it. This book is one of the most informative and relevant books published in recent years, In my opinion. This work by Daniel Yergin was and still is prescient today, in 2007. "The Prize" tells the story of where we are today, and how we got here. It also latently foresees where we're going in the future. The book doesn't tell us - we just know. We're human. This book is so comprehensive and has so much information only a small portion of it can be noted. Below relates to WWII, and former Iranian leader Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh.
"The Prize" proceeds chronologically. And within the chapters there are numerous mini-subtitles for sub-chapters that connect the big picture. The bibliography and index are excellent and can be used to tie in different figures and historical occurrences. The 'history of oil' is actually the history of the world: humankind, business, innovations, globalization, war, and geo-political power-plays. The very survival of a nation-state is based upon oil.
"The Prize" begins with tiny puddles of black, sticky, goo, in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s. Locals collected this goo and realized its many uses. In 1859 oil was struck. Almost immediately, the wealth and power amassed from possession and control of oil was realized. The initial trust acts in the U.S. are related to the oil industry, in which Barons quickly gained gargantuan amounts of wealth and political power.
Enter WWII:
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because of oil. Japanese conquests throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific were motivated not only by the quest for dominance but for securing oil and keeping their oil (fuel) supply lines open. Without supply lines of oil, the war machine would completely break down, as it later did (Chapter 8).
The Americans sacrificed a lot, but Japan in large part lost WWII because of its lack of fuel for planes, ships, and ground forces. Domestically, the Japanese economy collapsed because of its inability to import oil. The Kamikazes were brought into existence after the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines, in 1944. Lack of oil meant lack of fighter plane fuel. Fuel supplies became so low they actually stopped training Japanese pilots at all. Pilots were ordered to "follow the leader" to the attack site because they didn't even have navigation training.
There was even an "Oil Czar" In the U.S. during World War II in PAW, the Petroleum Administration for War. The Oil Czar was Harold Ickes.
In the European Theater's Eastern Front Germany invaded Russia with Operation Barbarossa mostly to get the oil in the Caucuses (In addition to "lebensraum" and "untermensch" beliefs). In addition, a needed land-route to Iron Ore in Scandinavia via the Baltic SSR Republics was a factor. Hitler also began making synthetic oil because without enough of it Germany's war machine, domestic economy, and arms production were doomed. These synthetic oil factories were top targets in Allied bombing missions.
Oil and the Cold War World:
The Soviets dominated Eastern Europe and exerted its influence after WWII for 45 years because the Allies ran out of gasoline. When the British 3rd Army and U.S. 1st Army were advancing eastward toward Berlin chasing demoralized, retreating, and broken German troops in disarray. But because of the lack of gasoline for the Allied Armies, a million people ended up losing their lives and war was prolonged because the Germans were able to retreat and re-organize (page 388).
If someone says "it's not about the oil" today in 2007, tell them to read this book. Oil encompasses almost all things in our daily lives, whether we are are conscious of it, or not.
Oil, Military, and Economic Interests:
Democratically elected governments are overthrown by foreign governments because of oil. In 1953 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was democratically elected in Iran. He was an anti-communist. He didn't like the 93% to 7% profit sharing split with a British Oil company operating inside Iran. He changed it to 50-50. The CIA sponsored a coup to overthrow him. Americans were repeatedly told by the U.S. media that Mossadegh was a communist and communist sympathizer, although factually untrue. The American public believed this propaganda, according to poll results. Gullible? Mossadegh was ousted and the Shah was placed in power. Democracy has never been supported in the Middle East and it isn't now by the U.S. government. Also see the Carter Doctrine of 1980.
Most of us as individual consumers literally need oil to function. Dependence upon oil is for the continuation of the nation-state, its military machines, and domestic economy. More critical today, is that nation-states need a *sufficient* supply of it.
This is a positive book. It's a history book.
We're in the heart of the "Oil Age."
Amaze.......2007-06-19
This book is the better form to say what means the oil in the world. The history is well clear end real. There are many important information and who is curious or needs to know the subject this is a perfect one.
It's interesting to know the past to forecast the future..........2007-06-14
I really appreciated Daniel YERGIN's book.
The history of oil is crucial to try to solve the huge demand for future oil. History tells us that oil is limitless in virgin deserts...
The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.......2007-06-12
Excellent, well chronicled book showing the inside of the oil world history. Amazon shipment was a slick execution which makes the book more valuable..This book is a must-have for oil and gas pros.
Book Description
At the height of his fame Thomas Alva Edison was hailed as “the Napoleon of invention” and blazed in the public imagination as a virtual demigod. Newspapers proclaimed his genius in glowing personal profiles and quipped that “the doctor has been called” because the great man “has not invented anything since breakfast.” Starting with the first public demonstrations of the phonograph in 1878 and extending through the development of incandescent light, a power generation and distribution system to sustain it, and the first motion picture cameras—all achievements more astonishing in their time than we can easily grasp today—Edison’s name became emblematic of all the wonder and promise of the emerging age of technological marvels.
But as Randall Stross makes clear in this critical biography of the man who is arguably the most globally famous of all Americans, Thomas Edison’s greatest invention may have been his own celebrity. Edison was certainly a technical genius, but Stross excavates the man from layers of myth-making and separates his true achievements from his almost equally colossal failures. How much credit should Edison receive for the various inventions that have popularly been attributed to him—and how many of them resulted from both the inspiration and the perspiration of his rivals and even his own assistants? How much of Edison’s technical skill helped him overcome a lack of business acumen and feel for consumers’ wants and needs?
This bold reassessment of Edison’s life and career answers these and many other important questions while telling the story of how he came upon his most famous inventions as a young man and spent the remainder of his long life trying to conjure similar success. We also meet his partners and competitors, presidents and entertainers, his close friend Henry Ford, the wives who competed with his work for his attention, and the children who tried to thrive in his shadow—all providing a fuller view of Edison’s life and times than has ever been offered before. The Wizard of Menlo Park reveals not only how Edison worked, but how he managed his own fame, becoming the first great celebrity of the modern age.
Customer Reviews:
The Man Behind the Myth.......2007-07-01
Thomas Alva Edison was probably the greatest inventor of all time. However, he was also one of the worst businessman to ever run a business. Yes, he invented the phonograph, but then was beaten in the market by the Victor company because he micromanaged the decisions for the selection of the artists to record. In fact, initially, he wanted to use his invention as a dictation device. Many consider him to be the inventor of electricity and the light bulb, and yet, many inventors were working on this at the same time. And, ultimately, Westinghouse beat his company in the market because he pursued the more costly direct current while they pursued the more cost efficient alternating current. Alternating current is what is used today. His life was that of a creative genius who pursued what he was interested in and not what was important to the market, thereby missing many opportunities. However, pursuing what he was interested in resulted in great advances in many fields that were important in the development of the modern world. I think the most important statement of his importance to our world was provided when the US government requested that all people turn off their lights at the time of his funeral in 1931. He was very important to the modern world, but the myths that arose since his death, that resulted in him being close to a deity, were not correct. This book provides the man behind the myth, doing in a very credible and readable fashion. Consequently, I highly recommend this book.
Excellent Re-Look at An American Icon.......2007-04-19
The Wizard of Menlo Park is an reexamination of the life and career of one of the most famous American inventors, Thomas Alva Edison.
It is a myth that Thomas Edison is the sole inventor of the lightbulb. In any event, it was not even his most famous invention. That honor goes to the phonograph that singlehandedly set the stage for the development of the modern music insustry.
Thomas Edison lacked the kind of business acumen that was needed for him to capitalize on his being the pioneer of sound recording. Edison failed to capitalize on his fame. He allowed himself to be distracted from his work to the point that he allowed his lab to become a popular tourist destination.
Although Edison was a remarkable man who was rightfully credited with many useful inventions, the hype surrounding him has actually obscured his real creativity.
This is an excellent book.
The Wizard Invents Himself.......2007-04-17
The greatest American inventor, most would agree, was Thomas Alva Edison, but it may be that his greatest invention was himself, as image in the newspapers and as "Thomas A. Edison", a phrase that was an important addition to any marketable gadget. In _The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Edison Invented the Modern World_ (Crown), Randall Stross has looked at the mechanical and electric inventions, few of which Edison single-handedly originated or developed, but has concentrated mostly on his fame. "Once brought into being," Stross writes, "Edison's image inhabited its own life and acted autonomously in ways that its namesake could not control." Stross, a historian who is a professor of business, makes the case that Edison discovered the importance of the application of celebrity to business. We had celebrities before, of course, presidents and generals, and contemporary with Edison were famous figures like Mark Twain and P. T. Barnum. Edison's celebrity exceeded them all, and oddly, he was famous because he was an inventor. When celebrity came to him, he was not an inventor who had made a practical gadget like a cotton gin, a telegraph, or an elevator; he had invented (and had come far short of perfecting) the phonograph. It was the celebrity from this particular machine that carried him through many ups and downs in his long life.
This is not a complete biography, but a welcome look at particular qualities of Edison's celebrity and its effects on his life and business practices. Edison jumped from the most modern technology of the time, telegraphy, and was working on improved telephones, not on voice recording in 1877. The world was dazzled by the prospect of a machine that could talk, but the phonograph sat in its unperfected form for another ten years as he went about other projects, and this was despite a clamor for the machine and an elevation of Edison in the public mind to "mythic inventor hero". Edison was happiest when he was tinkering wherever his whimsy carried him; he was good at coming up with new ideas, bad at working on perfecting them, and terrible at making them pay. He understood the importance of his fame, and used it, although he could not control all the ways others put it to use or all the ways that it took time out of his other activities. He made himself available to the press, and reporters loved interviewing the plain-talking inventor who would chew tobacco throughout such visits. He loved the role of wise advisor, and the press liked him to pontificate on all sorts of matters that had nothing to do with his areas of expertise, like diet.
Edison was no charlatan. Even though he took credit when it actually belonged to those who worked for him, and even though the public insisted on crediting him for inventions others had perfected, he did have a real role in innovating gadgets. As time went on (he lived until 1931) and his public persona as a wizard continued, people tended to forget his many failures; all of his most famous inventions were early in his career, and all amounted to little while he was the one in control of their manufacture and marketing. It would be unfair to judge him just on his earnings, but one of his sons was probably right when he bitterly complained, "You should have been... a millionaire 10 times over if you knew how to handle your own achievements." Such a skill was not within his wizardry, however. Stross shows that Edison could not focus on a new project and bring it to commercial fruition without getting distracted by other endeavors, and that often the distracting endeavor was that of making himself a celebrity. He was wildly successful in this, but it proved to be a strain that he could not enjoy or control. Stross sums up: "Edison failed to invent a way to free himself from unrealistic expectations produced by his own past."
Thomas Edison is human........2007-04-04
The author brings Thomas Edison to life in these pages exposing all of his brilliance, ineptness, and stubborness. No one can doubt the genius that is Edison, while at the same time appreciating all of the business opportunities lost due to his quirks of personality and failure to recognize them when they are right before his eyes.
It is a fascinating look at someone who I have admired for years from reading about his accomplishments, but now I feel I know him as a person. I had a hard time putting the book down. A must read for anyone and especially people who are innovative and entrepreneurial.
Genius is what genius does.......2007-03-20
Having met a genius in gambling - the Captain - I have become fascinated in what makes certain men or women reach such high levels of achievement. This is a stunningly excellent book that will rivet you to its pages.
Frank Scoblete: author of Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution! and Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution!
Book Description
The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister is a sweeping, dramatic account of how three great figures changed the course of history, as told by John O'Sullivan, former editor of National Review and the Times of London, who knew all three and has conducted exclusive interviews that shed extraordinary new light on these giants of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
The President The Pope and The Prime Minister.......2007-10-11
3 people who advanced democracy around the world. Principals over politics. Today we only have wimps instead of statesmen like these three
And they all lived happily ever after..........2007-07-19
I try. I really try to get through this sort of stuff. But I'm familiar with a tourist's view of Washington, DC and realize that most people want the "founding fathers," for example, to be Disney characters.
O'Sullivan knows that his audience wants that too.
Does anyone remember the "social contract?" You know, when a few people felt we have responsibilities to each other? Reagan was, in real life, the lieutenant of a few ideologues who wanted to get us away from that infectious attitude.
As to Maggie Thatcher, excuse me, LADY Thatcher, she was ultimately responsible for "The Full Monty." You know, let's break up the unions and put well-paid working people out of work. Then there's J2P2. Actually, the pope said some worthwhile things, challenging what we're doing to Iraq, for example. But I think it was Penny Lernoux who suggested before she died that he was more appropriate to a Soviet satellite state than he was in a Church in which adults make up their own minds.
In short, this really is a kid's book. And if you have a mind capable of recognizing that the world is more complex than the Bros. Grimm, don't waste your money on it.
Two Great Men, One Great Woman.......2007-07-15
There is a theory in history called the Great Man Theory, which seeks to explain the events of history principally by looking at the impact of pivotal men and women who played a role in world events. On it's most simplistic level, the theory does make some sense. It's hard to imagine the American Revolution happening the way it did without the role played by men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or even King George III. It's equally hard to imagine World War II and all that has happened since without taking into account the individual decisions and personalities of Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin.
The academic left, though, has generally rejected the Great Man Theory and looks to economic, technological, and other factors to explain history. To them, the role of the individual in history is insignificant compared to the role that these "forces" play. What they forget, of course, is that economics, technology, and culture are all created by individuals. So arguing that "forces" rule history and that individual's are irrelevant is inherently irrational.
In reading The President, The Pope, And The Prime Minister, it's easy to see where John O'Sullivan comes down in this debate. He clearly believes that individuals play a vital role in history, and considering the three individuals he profiles -- Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Margaret Thatcher -- it's hard to argue with him.
The hyopthesis of O'Sullivan's book is fairly straightforward. Three individuals who, in the years just before they came to power, were believed to be outside of the mainstream of 1970s era thinking worked together, sometimes at cross purposes and often not consciously, to change the world by putting in place forces that led to the downfall of the Soviet Empire and the remaking of the world.
As O'Sullivan makes clear, the spark was lit in October 1978 when the Catholic Church did the unthinkable by electing a non-Italian Pope for the first time in over 450 years. And not only a non-Italian, put a man who came from behind the Iron Curtain and who had spent much of his career as a priest and bishop resisting tyranny, first from the Nazis and then from the Communists. His election set off a firestorm in Poland that led directly to the formation of Solidarity and its preservation through nearly a decade of martial law.
O'Sullivan also pays considerable attention to former President Reagan, his dealings with the Soviet Union, and, most interestingly, his view of the role of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. Though it was not generally known at the time, and goes against what was being said about Reagan by his critics and even some of his supporters, it has become fairly clear in the years since he left office from the release of private writings that Reagan despised nuclear weapons and pursued a policy that had as its conscious goal their eventual elimination. While some might consider this attitude naive (after all, you can't put the nuclear genie back in the bottle), it sheds a new light on his approach to negotiations with the Soviets and the SDI program. Reagan knew that the Soviets could not compete with America technologically, and that they would never give up their nuclear arsenal willingly. So, he essentially played a waiting game until the "correlation of forces", to borrow a Marxist phrase, were such that that Soviets had no choice but to make a deal in a last ditch effort to save first their empire, and then their very existence.
Reagan told John Paul about his views on nuclear weapons, the Soviets, and the future of Europe early on. And the Holy Father clearly supported these views, as evidenced by the fact that while Catholic Bishops in the United States often spoke out against U.S. foreign policy in the 1980s (sometimes to the consternation of the Vatican), the Holy See rarely did.
O'Sullivan's perspective on Thatcher, and her relationships with Reagan, the Pope, and the Soviets are interesting especially given his connections to the British Conservative Party. What is clear, though, is that even Thatcher herself, clearly one of Reagan's closest friends in world politics, had no idea just how idealistic he was.
This book isn't ground breaking academic research, but it offers an interesting perspective on the life, times, and historical impact on three people who clearly changed the world for the better.
Ron, Maggie and the Pope.......2007-06-03
I read one review that said that they weren't on the same planet as these three leaders were doing their work. I was also on a different planet. I got so disilusioned with the Carter years that I completely turned politics off, and only took care of me and my family. As the years accumilated and GHW Bush became president, I had to return to reality. I have learned a lot about Reagan and JPII over the last few years especially after Mr. Reagan's death. Maggie is still an enigma to me. I want to really like her, but I understand that she was a real bugger to work for while Reagan was wonderful and of course JPII was a saint. Not to be outdone, Mikail was a horrible leader and was the primary reason, along with the decline of the Russian economy, crop disasters and an inempt military, Russia would have self destructed, I think, without much trouble. But the pressure that these THREE placed on the communist system from within is what crumpled the horrible experiment.
Along with Peggy Noonan's two books, one on Reagan and the other on John Paul II, this one is one of the best of the events of Reagans presidency and John Paul's term.
I recommend this book for anyone who want's to get to know how the wall fell and how God can help.
History as it should be written: fact-filled, detached and light on the bias.......2007-05-29
Very readable, smooth flowing inter-weaving of the stories of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II and how, working together, they changed the world. This is history as it should be written. Fact-filled. Detached. Light on the bias. Fascinating. The book is quick to read and hard to put down.
This is the story of three disparate personalities and their unlikely (and synchronous) rises to power. The elderly B-movie actor. The school-marmish scold. The non-Italian Catholic living under the thumb of officially atheistic communism. Together, they defeat the scourge of communism while simultaneously rescuing their respective polities from the slow death spiral of the 60s and 70s, whether than be Reagan resurrecting American swagger and putting the U.S. economy on sound footing, or Thatcher curing Britain of Euro-sclerosis, or the Holy Father rescuing the Catholic church for the suffocating forces of modernism and "reform."
This is an essential history of late 20th Century America and Great Britain. It is an essential history of the recent Catholic church. It is also very much a history of Poland, for it is that land that it is at the center of this narrative. Ronald Reagan always believed that the key to ending the Cold War lay with Poland. And it is events in Poland, from the papal visits, to the strike at the Gdansk shipyard, from the martial law of Jaruszelski, to the rise of Lech Walesa and Solidarity, that shape this story. Reagan's insight into the centrality of Poland proved astonishingly right.
This book is not just for us Republicans. For example, one Carter Era figure prominently and positively figures in events here: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security advisor. Brzezinski has not gotten enough credit for seizing control of events in Poland from the late Carter administration through the Reagan administration. This book gives him delayed credit.
Two (minor) criticisms of this book. First, the Holy Father drops out of the narrative, for the most part, in the last third of the book. More Pope, please! Second, the equation of the bombing of Mrs. Thatcher's hotel in 1984, does not really parallel the 1981 assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II. It's a reach that doesn't work. But these are very minor blemishes on a masterful book.
Customer Reviews:
Makers of Modern Strategy .......2005-09-22
"Makers of Modern Strategy" is a scholarly collection of high quality papers on strategy since Machiavelli to the present nuclear age. The beauty of the book is that one can focus on the era that one is interested in. There is no need to read the book cover to cover as the various essays are stand alone although they are presented sequentially and related papers are adjacent to each other. I have read and re-read some of the papers. The book is about strategy and the realities of war. The essays are clearly balanced and not biased. The phenomenon of war was clearly explained from the studies of past wars. It is clear that war has been a fundamental reality of social and political existence from an early stage of political organisation to the present times. The tragic aspects of war and the intellectual and emotional disturbances it creates could be discerned from the essays.
The book is divided into the following five parts:
Part One: The Origins of Modern War.
Part Two: The Expansion of war
Part Three: From the Industrial Revolution to the First World War.
Part Four: From the First to the Second World War.
Part Five: Since 1945.
The eminent contributors include Peter Paret, Felix Gilbert, John Shy, Gordon A. Craig, Maurice Matloff, Condoleezza Rice, Lawrence Freadman, Michael Carver and D. Clayton James. Their essays showed the role of force in the relations between states. It is now very clear to me that war has always been a compound of many elements ranging from politics to technology, to human emotions under extreme stress. Strategy is one of the critical elements of war.
The various essays trace the ideas and actions of past generations, as they used war to achieve their national goals, an analysis of military thought and policy in the recent past and present
My favourite part is Part Two. Here three great historical figures are highlighted namely Napoleon, Jomini and Clausewitz. I can now see the genius of Napoleon as one of the greatest soldiers in history in its proper strategic context. I think history need to rescue Jomini from the obscurity he is now relegated since it is largely him who has clearly related the greatness of Napoleon and the attempt to reduce war to some sort of science.
Makers of Modern Strategy add immense value to any study of warfare and strategy. I recommend it to Army Staff Colleges and those studying military history at postgraduate level.
Mandatory Reading for Army Staff Majors.......2002-03-13
As the title indicates, the Army's Command & General Staff College requires students to read Makers of Modern Strategy in the core history class. Professors can make best use of this book as a supplement. As other reviewers have noted, the chapters are disjointed with each other. Taken separately, however, many of the chapters help the history student or enthusiast to develop a depth of understanding on a particular subject. Authors such as John Shy, Douglas Porch, Michael Howard, and Condoleeza Rice, just to name a few, explore many of the strategic issues involved with the evolution of military thought.
From Machiavelli and Clausewitz to strategies of world wars and colonial wars, Makers of Modern Strategy adds value to any serious study of warfare. The high quality academic research and thought that underlies many of the articles is worth the price of the book. Highly recommended.
Good general military history overview........2001-03-05
One of the essentials, a good starting point for the study of military history and strategy.
Still, this is a good book............2000-08-12
Although I agree with the reviewer preceeding me that this might not be as strong of a book as was the masterpiece which preceeded it (by Earle), it is still a strong book and does (generally) what it sets out to do: to provide an accounting of major developments in military thought (i.e. western military thought) from the Renassance to the modern age.
As a text or as a reference, this is still a powerful and useful book. Each of the chapters discusses a major figure's thought in a fashion that can be dealt with easily in a sitting: for those people who don't want to sit and sort through Jomini (though everyone reading this should sit down with Clausewitz! ) or Douhet, to see their rights and wrongs....
I like this book. I bought my copy for $8.00 in NYC and have had it with me through a number of moves since....
Newer is Not Necessarily Better.......2000-07-18
This second version of the book is disappointing. I would have thought that it being edited by an historian as good as Peter Paret would have improved on the original, which was edited by Robert Earle. However, it is weaker both in scholarship and accuracy, especially John Shy's essay on Jomini. Old myths are resurrected about the Swiss renegade whose own works are generally historically inaccurate.
Many of the older, more professional, historians, who are unfortunately no longer with us were much more careful in their research and writing, hunting down sources that newer historians either refuse to look for or refuse to use. they also were more blunt, calling a spade a spade, and weren't worried about offending people or in 'revisionist' (read inaccurate) history. Political correctness was unknown to these stalwarts.
Books of this type are highly useful. If you are looking for this particular volume, get the first version edited by Earle, even if you have to go looking in second hand book stores or on the internet in used book services. I did, and it is well worth the effort.
Book Description
This study of major military innovations in the 1920s and 1930s explores differences in innovating exploitation by the seven major military powers. This volume of comparative essays investigates how and why innovation occurred or did not occur, and explains much of the strategic and operative performance of the Axis and Allies in World War II.
Customer Reviews:
Some good information, but lacking in many areas.......2006-08-14
The book does provide detailed footnotes as it is a series of essays where the writer of each "chapter" presents their viewpoint and analysis. However, this book provides no tables or charts to support any of the analysis or discussions presented. It would have been very helpful if there were a table or chart comparing each nation's "innovation" in each category described in this book, examples: armored warfare, strategic bombing, carrier development, etc.
What is most lacking in this book it that it focuses primarily on the US, Britain, and Germany, limited on Japan (amphibious assault and aircraft carrier development but nothing on their armor and combined arms tactics) and nothing significant on France, Italy, and Russia, who are mentioned merely in passing. This is the most glaring weakness of this book. Russia developed the T-34 tank, had a sizeable navy, large industrial base, naval infantry, paratroopers, cavalry, and actually trained with the Germans in the 1930's. The Italians were on the winning side of World War One, developed a large navy, their own tanks, and an ambitious goal to dominate the Mediterranean Sea, but they too are not mentioned.
It is important to learn how each of these major combatant nations developed as each had their own policies that led to successes and failures. An example is in amphibious landings, where the writer presents a view that the US was the most developed in the world during the interwar period. If that is the case, then why didn't the US attempt an amphibious assault prior to 1943 and why were the casualties so high in the first assault experienced at Tarawa? If the US was amphibious warfare strategy and doctrine was the most developed, then why did the British conduct the disastrous raid on Dieppe in 1943 as a rehearsal, wouldn't the US have enough experience in northern Africa, Sicily, and Anzio in 1943? The writer's claim is not supported through citing successful battles or numbers of equipment produced.
Another question is why weren't the British, Germans, Italians, and Russians mentioned or compared to in amphibious warfare? If Italy wanted to control the Med, wouldn't they have developed some type of doctrine or equipment? The Germans thought about invading England, what kind of equipment did they have and how would they have executed the invasion? The Russian Naval Infantry, what was their doctrine? The Japanese amphibious landing is well researched and presented, but again, no tables or charts are presented to summarize the writer's viewpoint.
Russia's development during the interwar period is very critical as the equipment developed during the period was superior or at least equal to the German equipment. The T-34 tank's only weakness in 1941 was the lack of radio equipment along with the doctrine of dispersing the tanks instead of massing them into large formations. If one reads other WW2 history books, one learns that the Germans were only able to defeat the T-34 tank in 1941 with better unit maneuver and with greater numbers. German anti-tank weapons had no effect with the German tanks undergunned and under ranged. The largest caliber on a German tank in 1941 being the short barreled 75mm mounted on the Panzer MK IV and the StugIII (which was an assault gun found in anti-tank battalions).
Another glaring omission in this book is there are no discussions on anti-weapons or counter munitions designed to defeat the innovations being developed in the interwar period, the lone exception being the torpedo and US artillery proximity fuses. There are no discussions on the bazooka, anti-tank rifles, anti-tank guns, shaped charges, depth charges, or anti-aircraft guns. Obviously the Germans had planned for anti-aircraft defense, otherwise they would not have developed the 88mm gun nor would have the deployed it so close to the front line troops. Rommel was able to repulse the British armor counterattacks at Arras, France in 1940 only with the 88mm anti-aircraft gun. This experience influenced him to utilize this weapon in a dual purpose anti-tank role in the desert. The British had attacked him in Arras with heavily armored Matilda tanks, armed with a 2-pound anti-tank gun, but no high explosive rounds against infantry. These cases are extremely relevant and important discussions into the interwar period.
Why did the British choose not to equip their tanks with HE rounds? Why didn't the Germans equip their Panzer MKIV and StugIII tanks with long barrel 75mm guns from the start? Why didn't the Russians equip their early T-34 tanks without universal radios (only the platoon leader had a radio)?
How was the Sherman tank developed and doctrinally planned to be utilized, a vehicle with an underpowered 75mm gun, prone to catching on fire, and a narrow track base not suited for cross country mobility (as described in the book Death Traps, Belton Cooper)? At the end of WW2, the US might have gotten directly into war against the Russians? How would the Sherman tank fared in the vast Russian muddy steppes and marshes and no highways? The Germans learned the hard way fighting against the T-34 an incorporated many of the features (wide track base and sloped armor) into the Tiger and Panther tanks. Was the Sherman tank designed to be an infantry support vehicle with anti-tank battalions designed to defeat enemy armor? What calibers of weapons were they equipped with and how were they to be employed? None of these questions are answered in this book.
Overall the book does provide some information that is interesting, such as the German night bombing tactics, use of the Stuka dive bomber to provide precision bombing, and the lack of reliable and powerful aircraft engines that prevented German strategic bomber development. However, the lack of direct comparisons (such as comparing the T-34 vs the Panzer Mark IV vs the Sherman Tank in armor thickness and armament range, penetrating power), lack of tables (such as showing the range and capacity of the Japanese aircraft carrier vs the US and British), charts (comparing the number of tanks and tank regiments fielded by Russia, Germany, England, France, Italy, US, and Japan in 1939), and complete omissions of the Italians and Russians is glaring and detracts to what could have been a well rounded and educational book.
Given the Editors' strong professional and education backgrounds, expected a lot more information from this book. Recommend borrowing this book from the library rather than purchasing it.
Military Innovation in the Interwar Period.......2005-08-26
This book is a necessary for those who want to understand the relationship between development of technology and military innovation. It is not an easy book to read, but contains tremendous amount of information along with accurate historical records. Must for military tacticians and historians alike.
Essential Addition to the Study of the Inter-war Period.......2005-01-15
The acclaimed scholarly team of Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett have edited an anthology of essays encompassing the technological innovations in weaponry during the 1920's and 1930's. These innovations span the research and developments of all the major belligerents that play a major role in the coming global conflict. Each scholar was instructed to compare and contrast his or her topic country with two other countries making this work not only a significant contribution in and of itself, but also a vital comparative study as well. In addition, the researchers were asked to structure their essays around three concepts: the strategic framework of the period, the organizational factors of the institutions under study, and the doctrinal framework of the services. Many of the contributing factors to victory and defeat in World War II are covered within the pages of this important work. Williamson Murray takes a look at "Armored Warfare: The British, French and German Experiences," and "Strategic Bombing: The British, American and German Experiences." Richard R. Muller examines "Close Air Support: The German British and American Experiences, 1918-1941." Geoffrey Till discusses "Adopting the Aircraft Carrier: The British, American, and Japanese Case Studies." But perhaps the most important chapter is Allan R. Millett's "Assault From the Sea: The Development of Amphibious Warfare Between the Wars-the American, British, and Japanese Experiences." Millett compared the development of amphibious doctrine in Japan, Britain, and the United States. The author concludes the U. S. led the way in amphibious warfare doctrine, initiating combined arms operations between air, sea and land that would prove to be a critical advantage in the pacific campaign. According to Millett, Japan started out impressively as was evident by its ever-expanding Pacific empire in the 1930's. Since every landing force became an isolated island garrison, however, Japan's whole amphibious program literally faded away. Great Britain, on the other hand, never had the economic resources necessary to implement a successful amphibious program. Millett concludes that factors such as budget and innovative foresight are vital contributing factors in technological innovation. The author is also quick to point out that in many cases, new weapons become obsolete as soon as hostilities begin. Generally, books of essays are usually disjointed and inconsistent. The guidelines and structure the editors have chosen have tied all the chapters in this book together nicely. This is arguably the best work on the inter-war period to emerge in years. Highly recommended.
Great historic analysis on military innovations.......2001-09-18
It is a very good review on how things developed between world wars. It provides a good insight of the thinking of the different countries and how they coped with their doctrines and how much they took an advantage of the WWI experiences.
I am rating 4 stars because actually I would like much more information rather than 30 pages on each subject.
Readable and Good.......2001-07-15
This is an anthology of various articles. Generally anthologies are the pits as they tend to lack a central them and the quality will vary. These articles are generally by the authors and as such they are of an even standard.
There are a number of chapters that discuss a range of issues from the use of Tanks to the development of the Aircraft Carrier.
The book is interesting although the area covered is naturally enormous and the amount of space that can be devoted to complex subjects is naturally limited. Despite this most of the essays are interesting and not only for what they say. In the first essay about the development of armored warfare by way of an aside the writer attacks Gueridian as a sycophant and also as a person whose reputation was largely the result of self publicity. Later the English theorists Fuller and Liddell Hart are critiqued as presenting overly schematic histories of the First World War which warped the truth to fit in with their own theories. Interestingly the essay then goes on to suggest that the first world war infantry battles were so complex that even now we struggle to understand them and for that reason it was no surprise that Douglas Haig had the problems that he did.
All in all an interesting book although again very much a starting point for the issue it covers.
Amazon.com
The thesis of this provocative and potentially important book is the increasing threat of violence arising from renewed conflicts between countries and cultures that base their traditions on religious faith and dogma. This argument moves past the notion of ethnicity to examine the growing influence of a handful of major cultures--Western, Eastern Orthodox, Latin American, Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, Hindu, and African--in current struggles across the globe. Samuel P. Huntington, a political scientist at Harvard University and foreign policy aide to President Clinton, argues that policymakers should be mindful of this development when they interfere in other nations' affairs.
Book Description
Based on the author's seminal article in Foreign Affairs, Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is a provocative and prescient analysis of the state of world politics after the fall of communism. In this incisive work, the renowned political scientist explains how "civilizations" have replaced nations and ideologies as the driving force in global politics today and offers a brilliant analysis of the current climate and future possibilities of our world's volatile political culture.
Customer Reviews:
Pure hate... Author wants to blame everything to muslims.......2007-07-11
It scares me to find out that educated (so called intellectuals) are writing this type of hate infested books that are aimed at nothing but inflaming more hate and voilence in the world. Author has a stubborn belief that all muslim cultures have speriority complex and they are there to destroy the western influence. He needs to wake up and understand that every culture even western or african or latin is sustaining because there are good things there to fullfill the needs of the people along with bad things that represent historical events/influence, economic or social problems etc. Author completely ignores the fact that one (Malaysia) out of all muslim countries are run by our appointed dictators with the exception of Iran and Syria who are kept in isolation so they have no reason to praise us have any dialog going. I would suggest that the author should cosider psychotherepy and need to start reading outside of his shell.
A Classic?.......2007-05-18
As a retired agronomist with a strong science background I tend to check out references that are commonly used. This book is very often quoted, not always favorably. If you have recently, like I, become interested in world politics and especially Islam this is definitely one of the texts you should read. From my weak politics and history background I found Dr. Huntington making a lot of interesting observations. I found the book very intriguing and educational. I really enjoyed his take on the Bosnian War.
Helps you to understand current global affairs.......2007-05-16
This book helps you to understand current global affairs. Although one might not agree with some of the author's theories.
Although this book is from the Western perspective, the author does not glorify the western civilization and has shown respect for other civilizations.
Clash of Cultures and Politico-Religious Hegemony.......2007-05-11
Huntington provoked worldwide outrage by this book, both from conservative westerners who thought he was too "nice" about Muslim extremists, and from non-conservatives who believed him to be arrogant and ethnocentric. My opinion is that both are correct: there is a clash between those using religious identities to promote political agendas, and those attempting to keep religion at the personal level and politics at the macro level of society. This book infuriated many non-readers because of its apparent linking of Islam with political terrorism. Careful readers understood that this was merely reporting of what "experts" said, and not a personal attack by Huntington on faithful adherents to Islam. Below are a few of my favorite quotes:
--"This awakening is comprehensive--it is not just about individual piety; it is not just intellectual or cultural, nor is it just political. It is all of these, a comprehensive reconstruction of society from top to bottom."
--One study of militant leaders of Egyptian Islamist groups found they had five major characteristics, which appear to be typical of Islamists in other countries. They were young, overwhelmingly in their twenties and thirties. Eighty percent were university students or university graduates. Over half came from elite colleges or from the intellectually most demanding fields of technical specialization such as medicine or engineering. Over 70 percent were from lower middle-class, "modest, but not poor backgrounds," and were the first generation in their family to get higher education. They spent their childhoods in small towns or rural areas but had become residents of large cities. While students and intellectuals formed the militant cadres and shock troops of Islamist movements, urban middle-class people made up the bulk of the active membership. In some degree these came from what are often termed "traditional" middle class groups: merchants, traders, small business proprietors, bazaaris.
--Islamist activists "probably include a disproportionately large number of the best-educated and most intelligent young people in their respective populations," including doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, teachers, civil servants.
There is a clash today, and Huntington calls it rightly. There is violent conflict between those seeking political power through the power base of religious identities are opposed by those unwilling to give up values and ideals in their secular political system.
Already happening?.......2007-05-06
What exactly makes a 'civilization'? Why do tribal conflicts in Africa not spread too far outward? Why did the conflict in Yugoslavia prompt Orthodox Russia to support the Serbs, and Muslim Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Islamic states to support the Bosnians? Why couldn't the civil war in Lebanon be solved by dialogue? Why are Islam's borders so bloody? Even though Saddam Hussein was a vicious tyrant and killed many of his own fellow Muslims, why did so many in the Islamic world proclaim him a hero when the United States invaded Iraq? Will demographic decline in the West change the balance of economic and military power in the world? Is the West in severe decline and can it turn itself around?
If there is any book that can fit into the context of today's global political sphere and shed light on the questions above, it is this book. The book defines what a civilization consists of, and why some are incompatible with each other. World demographics are depicted and used to make predictions about the future balance of world powers. The buildup of non-Western armed forces is highlighted and used to show how the West could lose its military dominance, and what will the future hold with such a change in power. Will it be multiculturalism and tolerance, or will it end up being a giant Lebanon or Yugoslavia, and how could we prevent such a disaster if it were to occur?
Regardless of your political position on the book, I must say it is by far the most comprehensive one I have come across on this subject. Accurately and extensively researched and documented, this outstanding book may be the most important one explaining the conflicts of the 21st century.
Amazon.com
Updated Edition: Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim in The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to.
What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution that have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn't forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.)
Friedman has embraced this flat world in his own work, continuing to report on his story after his book's release and releasing an unprecedented hardcover update of the book a year later with 100 pages of revised and expanded material. What's changed in a year? Some of the sections that opened eyes in the first edition--on China and India, for example, and the global supply chain--are largely unaltered. Instead, Friedman has more to say about what he now calls "uploading," the direct-from-the-bottom creation of culture, knowledge, and innovation through blogging, podcasts, and open-source software. And in response to the pleas of many of his readers about how to survive the new flat world, he makes specific recommendations about the technical and creative training he thinks will be required to compete in the "New Middle" class. As before, Friedman tells his story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns know well, and he holds to a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you're going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. A year later, one can sense his rising impatience that our popular culture, and our political leaders, are not helping us keep pace. --Tom Nissley
Where Were You When the World Went Flat?
Thomas L. Friedman's reporter's curiosity and his ability to recognize the patterns behind the most complex global developments have made him one of the most entertaining and authoritative sources for information about the wider world we live in, both as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and as the author of landmark books like From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. They also make him an endlessly fascinating conversation partner, and we've now had the chance to talk to him about The World Is Flat twice. Read our original interview with him following the publication of the first edition of The World Is Flat to learn why there's almost no one from Washington, D.C., listed in the index of a book about the global economy, and what his one-plank platform for president would be. (Hint: his bumper stickers would say, "Can You Hear Me Now?")
And now you can listen to our second interview, in which he talks about the updates he's made in "The World Is Flat 2.0," including his response to parents who said to him, "Great, Mr. Friedman, I'm glad you told us the world is flat. Now what do I tell my kids?"
The Essential Tom Friedman
From Beirut to Jerusalem |
The Lexus and the Olive Tree |
Longitudes and Attitudes |
More on Globalization and Development
China, Inc. by Ted Fishman |
Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz |
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs |
Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz |
The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli |
The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto |
Book Description
One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times, reviewing THE WORLD IS FLAT in 2005. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for listeners, making sense of the advances in technology and communications that challenge us to run even faster just to stay in place. For these updated and expanded editions, Friedman has added more hours of commentary, fresh stories and insights. New material includes: The reasons the flattening of the world "will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like the invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution" A mapping of the New Middle-the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found-and portraits of the character types who will find success as New Middlers An account of the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world An account of the "globalization of the local": how the flattening of the world is actually strengthening local and regional identities rather than homogenizing the worldMore than ever, THE WORLD IS FLAT is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
Download Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist gives a bold, timely, and surprising picture of the state of globalization in the twenty-first century
Customer Reviews:
...and so is this book.......2007-10-10
Though it has become an immensely popular book, Friedman's work is fairly shallow and simplistic. It is important to remember that this is a world analysis written by a journalist, not by a political economist or any type of economist or political scientist. His views are oversimplified and his support relies heavily on anecdote, making his 600-pager about 400 pages too long. We read it for a poli sci class and proceeded to tear it apart intellectually.
Ranks up there with Common Sense, Uncle Toms Cabin, The Femine Mystique.......2007-10-10
One of the greatest books ever written. Everyone in America should read this book. Every teacher in America should read and teach Frieman's lessons. Every parent should read and help prepare their children for the world that is coming. Every student should read and begin to prepare for the world they are going to face. This is the most important book of our times, bar none.
Embracing Business Globalization's Irreversibility.......2007-10-10
This is easily the most relevant book written on the new realities of business globalization, its irreversibility, and the practical consequences to our future. Friedman does an excellent job describing the numerous factors that led up to our current global economy including the ongoing fall of communism, the advent of the personal computer, and the ubiquity of the Internet. His historical review and assessment is fascinating and it sets up the reader to understand the context for his theories and practical applications. Friedman delves into numerous industries, businesses, personalities, case studies, technologies, psychological factors, and sociological factors. Although he covers numerous business, technological, and economic concepts, his writing style is very engaging and entertaining, using many personal examples and narratives, thereby holding the reader's interest. Rather than bemoaning some of the common perceived negative consequences of a global economy (such as US auto workers losing jobs to overseas cheaper labor) Friedman helps the reader to understand business globalization's irreversibility. In so doing, he describes many personal, practical, and business strategies for thriving in this new environment. Friedman is realistic and compassionate concerning the changes and the challenges. He states, "the great challenge for our time will be to absorb these changes in ways that do not overwhelm people but also do not leave them behind. None of this will be easy. But this is our task. It is inevitable and unavoidable" (pp. 46-47). As Friedman unfolds his strategies, he gives the reader a broader, global perspective that is filled with hope and excitement. Whether as a CEO, a business student, or a brand new professional embarking upon a career, this book is insightful, practical, and essential reading.
What a good boy am I.......2007-10-06
Reading this book is like watching someone else's kids open their Christmas presents from relatives they don't really know. I'm not sure how the author can possibly be so fascinated by technology and yet know absolutely nothing about it at the same time, but his endless diatribes about the miracles of PayPal and Microsoft Word are beyond laughable, and I was pretty much in shock when he started citing howstuffworks-dot-com as a technical reference on fiber optics and SOAP. What editor told him that this was OK?
So enamored with his own cleverness is he that Mr. Friedman dedicates several pages to explaining the book's title, even though a single sentence would have sufficed. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop after the first chapter; rather than make a point and move on, he has to point out the fact that he just made a point and tell you what a wonderful point it was just in case you missed the point. It's like hanging out with that one friend who sits around smiling and pointing to his hindquarters after he rips one off at the dinner table.
If you want to learn about globalization and are not old enough to remember the first light bulb, go read "No Logo" instead. This is horrible, irrelevant geriatric babbling.
My opinion is flat.......2007-10-03
When a book has had over a thousand reviews, what can I possibly say that hasn't already been said? So I will keep it short and not so sweet.
No one will read this book, or any of the updates, for "fun." Do you NEED to read it? Yes, it contains some important economic concepts and realities, but it's a bit overlong. I'd say it could be cut in half, so skim through some of the numerous "interviews," repetition of central points, and endless advice and encouragement. The global pie is getting bigger and better, but the competition for piecies of that pie is heating up. Smart, ambitious, creative people will thrive; slow, lazy, dull people will languish, and everything inbetween. For too long many Americans have been sitting on their laurels and the day of reckoning is near. Heed this warning: Put down your TV remotes, game controllers, and iPods, and start working like your life (or lifestyle) depended on it. Get your rear into some serious gear, and don't balk at the notion that you should be an "expert" in at least three different, unrelated fields. Does this scare or excite you?
In so many interviews with foreign entrepreneurs, we are told (or reassured) that no matter how much of the "mundane" work is performed by countries other than the U.S., America's creative and innovative spark is still unsurpassed: All the world looks to America to lead the way into the future. I'm not sure. A lot of that "mundane" work was high level and highly paid, and why should we expect that America will continue to dominate in creativity and innovation? The truth is, we're in for a flattening of living standards, and from the perspective of the relatively high American standard of living, it will seem like a drop in standards until we reach another equilibrium (who knows how long that will take?). In any case, the reassurances about the talents and abilities of Americans seem at odds with other parts of the book, such as Bill Gates feeling "terrified at the American work force of tomorrow."
If you're already working hard at becoming an expert in three fields, then you probably don't need to read this book. Indeed, you probably don't have time to read it, or to read and write Amazon reviews, for that matter.
Book Description
“War no longer exists,” writes General Sir Rupert Smith, powerfully reminding us that the clash of mass national armies—the system of war since Napoleon—will never occur again. Instead, he argues in this timely book, we must be prepared to adapt tactics to each conflict, or lose the ability to protect ourselves and our way of life.
General Smith draws on his vast experience as a commander in the 1991 Gulf War, in Bosnia, Kosovo and Northern Ireland, to give us a probing analysis of modern war and to call for radically new military thinking. Why, he asks, do we use armed force to solve our political problems? And how is it that our armies can win battles but fail to solve the problems?
From Iraq to the Balkans, and from Afghanistan to Chechnya, Smith charts a stream of armed interventions that have failed to deliver on promises of resolution. He demonstrates why today’s conflicts must be understood as intertwined political and military events. He makes clear why the current one-size-fits-all model of total war, fought out on battlefields, that politicians still cling to must be abandoned in favor of new strategies that take into account the fact that wars are now fought among civilian populations. And he offers a compelling new model for how to fight these battles—and secure our world.
Clear, incisive and provocative, The Utility of Force will fundamentally change the way we understand war.
Customer Reviews:
An essential perspective on the use of force around the world.......2007-10-08
General Rupert Smith has written an essential introduction here to the problems and paradoxes of modern warfare. I recommend it very highly. I especially liked Smith's analysis that in today's wars information is much more important than firepower.
The book does have a few omissions. Most important, I felt it had too little to say on the role of natural resources, overpopulation, and environmental degradation in causing war and civil unrest around the world. There is a substantial argument to be made that the U.S. military has become little more than a global oil-protection service. Changing the American lifestyle from fossil-fuel to renewable energy sources could make a substantial contriubution to the peace and security of the world. Such a transition might well reduce U.S. economic growth; however, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Economic growth sounds great--a rising tide lifts all boats--but it is necessary to keep in mind how it is calculated. Economic growth is generally measured by GDP, which as a measure of well-being is so inaccurate as to be almost laughable. GDP is measured by counting up what is spent on various items. This works more or less OK if you're counting food bought by hungry people, but very poorly indeed if you're counting money spent on bombs or automatic rifles, or on parking garages for rich people's cars. GDP is not corrected for increasing population, pollution, exhaustion of natural resources, or declining quality of life. More accurate measures of economic growth, such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare or Genuine Progress Indicator, tend to show that there has been little or no genuine economic growth in the U.S. since the 1970s. For more on this, see McKibben's book "Deep Economy," Daly's "Beyond Growth," Brian Czech's "Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train," or Jared Diamond's "Collapse."
In Agreement with the Five Star Reviewers.......2007-10-05
And not much to add to some excellent reviews that are already posted.
This guy knows his stuff and has done some excellent analysis providing us a chronological exposition of "industrial war" from its Naploeanic birth in mass and operational mobility. Sidelighting the defeat at Jena which gave birth to Clausewitz as French POW and his thinking on war along with the development of the Prussian General Staff that developed into the best modern field army of World War Two. I agree some editing would help the book, but it stands on its own without need of apology. Another title to add to the new military academy curriculum and foreign policy wonks reading list. Bravo.
A "Next Generation War" Concept That Makes Sense.......2007-07-20
Rupert Smith reviews the last 200 years of military history and clearly defines the nature of interstate, industrial war. He correctly identifies the end of the utility of such war as August 5th, 1945 - the day before the Enola Gay dropped her atomic bomb - and goes on to describe the dissonance between defense planning and actual conflicts in the ensuing 60-odd years. He uses the concept of War Among the People as an umbrella concept to describe the actions of guerrillas, revolutionaries, terrorists and other non-state actors; and identifies the people as the key objective in post-industrial war.
He believes that failure to understand the change in the nature and purpose of conflict - on the part of both policy makers and the military - has been at the root of the failure of nations, alliances and coalitions to effectively employ force over the past half-century.
Smith goes on to identify a model for political/military interaction in fighting War Among the People. The model itself is revolutionary, in that it departs from the concept of handing diplomatically insoluble problems over to the military and calls for the employment of diplomacy, force, aid and assistance as an integrated effort. In effect, he calls for 'force structuring' which would include elements of several cabinet departments - not just the military services - under a single theater commander (who probably would not be an officer of any service).
Smith's work is a useful antidote to some of the less disciplined and more technologically oriented discussions of "Fourth Generation Warfare" and "Transformation" that have appeared over the past few years. It is an important work - one that should be required reading for all of the 2008 Presidential candidates.
The book is, as others have noted, not an 'easy' read. It certainly could have been improved by better/more editing; but the content is more than worth the 'slog'.
To Be Fair I Only Made It Through 50 Pages.......2007-07-11
I heard about this book when Jon Stewart did an interview with Rupert Smith, who is a former high-ranking general in the British army and NATO Commander. I was intrigued by what the general had to say about the future of warfare. Namely peace being ushered in through policy and diplomatic relationships. And how those two factored into "force". Essentially, how and when to apply "force" in a situation. I also decided that if I'm going to explore pacifism in any detail, I should probably be well-rounded in my reading and research. Which is why I decided to pick this book up (as well as Generation Kill and Empire's Workshop). Anyway . . . all of that to say . . . that I got about 50 pages into the book before I had to put it down. The overall writing style was way to heavy on details instead of big picture philosophy of war. I also think it may have had something to do with it being written by an intelligent English man. I don't mean that in a disparaging way. He was certainly a warm and engaging person in his interview. I just think that when you intelligent people write books . . . there is a strong tendency for it to feel cold, boring, and detached. That's what I got in the first 50 pages which is why I put it down.
Coming from a seasoned general.......2007-05-08
"War no longer exists" states author/general Rupert Smith, who spent some forty years in the British Army and retired in 2002. Indeed, confrontations between mass national armies are unlikely to occur, replaced by diplomatic efforts that hold more promise than military force. Modern examples from armed interventions that have failed to deliver resolution show why modern conflicts need a different kind of analytical focus -one that blends political and military events - rather than a traditional model of warfare fought on battlefields. Coming from a seasoned general, THE UTILITY OF FORCE: THE ART OF WAR IN THE MODERN WORLD holds much hope for the modern world and is a pick not just for military libraries but for general-interest lending collections and college-level holdings strong in social issues, as well.
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