History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Has history been tampered with?.......2007-10-23

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!

The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.

Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but

there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.

Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.

You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!

The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!

New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.

The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.

The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.

Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.

We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.

Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.

The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.

When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.

There are no answers to simple questions:

When were these primary sources written?

Where and by whom were these sources found?

It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.

As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,

innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.

The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.

Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.

This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.

Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.

`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as

there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.

Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.

They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.

All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:

Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!

The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!

The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.

All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.

Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.

Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!

This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets

Average customer rating:

Excellent Explanation of Market Impefections and How to Resolve Them
well argued and well documented critique of "free market" religion
Democracy not for Sale: a Fair and Balanced View of Markets
An excellent refutation of classical liberal misunderstandings
The grail of a perfect market is a dangerous fantasy

Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets
Robert Kuttner
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394583922
Release Date: 1997-01-14

Amazon.com

Everything For Sale is an erudite reprieve from the deluge of books written in praise of free markets. Robert Kuttner fires back with a book that documents relevant, real-world examples of market failure and makes the case for intelligent intervention to attain more desirable outcomes. His exhaustive litany of successful (some, even cherished) government interventions in the market--from National Public Radio to the Internet--creates a persuasive case for a mixed program of political and market-based approaches in the shaping of public policy. When Kuttner pushes his argument for a culture with less commercial emphasis, his preferences exhibit an anti-market bias. But overall, his argument is clear and compelling, exposing blind adherence to market outcomes as largely arbitrary, ideological, and often, an affront to democracy. Academic economists who ignore the political desires of the people in order to protect the purity of their mathematical models draw Kuttner's fire in particular. He writes about ideas and economic details with great verve and ability. Kuttner's book is certain to be a touchstone of debate, if not reform, among public policy makers.

Book Description

Zeroing in on such realms as health care and the workplace, the commercialization of sports and the arts, the chaotic deregulation of airlines, S&Ls, and telecommunications, and the buying and selling of public offices, Kuttner shows how markets can fail precisely those whom they are supposed to serve. Asking the crucial question, "What should not be for sale?", Kuttner shows why a society conceived as a grand auction block would not be a democracy worth having. 416 pp. Author tour. 25,000 print.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Explanation of Market Impefections and How to Resolve Them.......2007-07-28

The marketplace has it advantages, yet it is unable to be perfect. It is foolhardy to believe that all economic solutions will eventually emerge from the marketplace and with just market corrections. Robert Kuttner explains where market imperfections exist and how to correct them.

Unions are presented as a positive economic force, as the organization of employees and prevention of employer abuses is shown to raise productivity. Often these productivity increases surpass their bargained wage increases. Employers resist unions, even with they are advantageous to them, because they don't wish to share concede managerial powers. Plus, increased wages are sometimes paid by with reduced profits. Yetl, the overall effect of unionization has created a better wage distribution that helps the overall economy.

The growing service economy is less unionized. In part, this is the fault of unions who expelled their more radical members, who were in fact their best organizers. The resulting lower wages of service employment in general is contributing to an increase in national wage disparity that is creating economic imperfections.

Robert Kuttner calls for greater civil vitality and government actions designed to work as allies with the market in strengthening the economy. Failing to do so, we will continue to experience such market imperfections as in wage and wealth disparities and a poor allocation of health care services. The health care system lacks free market competition, fails to provide perfect information to consumer, and consumers have little mobility to choose their health care providers even if they had better information.

The economy is one where people do not always act rationally or with stable economic optimization strategies, as a free market requires. There are forces in financial markets and businesses that often seek to take unfair advantage of market systems, which further diminishes the ability of the market to operate efficiently. There is a need for government regulation of the market, unions, fair trade with common international standards, and policies such as strong education systems and social support systems to keep the economic system operating as well as it can. The book is an excellent explanation of the true workings of our economic system.

well argued and well documented critique of "free market" religion.......2007-07-21

Kuttner is not a "leftist", he's pro-capitalist. But he is aware of the destructive consequences of laissez faire policy.

The virtue of this book is that it discusses clearly in detail a wide variety of areas where market failures are rife. He shows how laissez faire market governance doesn't work for health care, or electric power, how it leads to greater oppression and inequality for workers. He gives many concrete examples from the real world that falsify the theoretical assumptions of "neo-classical" (laissez faire) economic theory. He shows how the assumptions laissez faire makes about people -- "we're all self-centered maximizers of our own self-regarding wants" -- are wrong, how humans are more complex in their actual motivations.

When a theory -- neo-classical economics in this case -- is held to despite its being falsified by reality over and over, it begins to take on the character of a religion. Since the explanation for its hold can't be its scientific credence -- in fact it's a pseudo-science -- we need some other explanation for its hold. The fact that it is an ideology that has been extremely beneficial to the rich and powerful seems the best explanation.

Kuttner is an old-fashioned liberal and a particularly intelligent one. His book is thus in part a defense of the liberal approach that wants to use state regulation of the economy and he provides various arguments to show how efficiency and other human benefits can be secured through government action.

Since capitalism has always depended on the state to support it, I don't think this is a different economy from capitalism, whereas Kuttner calls his proposal a "mixed economy". Kuttner thus doesn't consider any alternatives that would go beyond the hierarchies of the state and corporations or go beyond a society based on private appropriation of profit. However, Kuttner's evidence of endemic market failures can provide good ammo for those who have a more anti-capitalist viewpoint.

Democracy not for Sale: a Fair and Balanced View of Markets.......2006-11-06

Everything For Sale is a powerful response to the wave of ideologically motivated free market boosterism that passes itself off as works of sophisticated scholarship. Notice the subtitle: The Virtues and Limits of Markets. Kuttner does, in fact, praise markets for their strengths. He has little patience, however, for the abstract ideal of a pure market, which is as illusory as Kant's thing-in-itself. He asks that discussions of markets and regulations bearing upon markets account for the way things really work, with conclusions supported by actual case studies.

Instead what Kuttner finds is the scholarship of those questing for the grail of a pure market relies primarily on deductive reasoning, tautologies, abstract models and unlikely presuppositions (the rational maximizer, for example), rather than sound historical analysis. Of course, it is easy to cherry pick regulatory failures, but ideologues that ignore or misrepresent counter examples of regulatory necessity and success disserve the cause of democracy -- they see only the virtues, not the limits of markets.

Kuttner effectively argues for a nuanced view of markets and regulation in his discussion of health care and money markets, in his discussion of democratic, human and environmental values, none of which can be reduced to market values, but all of which appropriately rely on markets to varying degrees to achieve communal and individual good. Kuttner does not argue that regulation is always the solution for market limits and failures, but he decisively rejects that dogma that no matter how bad things are, government involvement will always only make it worse. He rejects the market vs. regulation dualism, and the cynicism that says market values are all that matter.

Everything For Sale presents a well reasoned and well written case for reevaluating the public institutions upon which our democracy (and markets) depends. If anything, it is a more important book today than it was when written in 1996.

An excellent refutation of classical liberal misunderstandings.......2006-08-09

Free market zealots will find this book impossible to understand, because the author has a sophisticated ontological understanding of the human being that they can never have. Kuttner, like Freud, Veblen, Polanyi, Galbraith, Packard and many others before him, understands that the human is a vulnerable, emotional being driven by anxiety and susceptible to manipulation by a business class whose ruthlessness has never been in question. This contrasts starkly with the simple-minded utilitarian view of the individual as a free-willed rational calculator programmed to maximise his or her economic interests in a market system that circulates information purely and transparently. This view of the human being as an autonomous hedonist-rationalist has become a self-fulfilling prophecy amongst those who subscibe to it, and they have become in their everyday lives the narrow, simple, unethical and anomic creatures that the belief constructs. Tediously and predictably, all critiques of work such as Kuttner's are grounded in this one-dimensional depiction of the human being. Consequently, all the apparently sophisticated mathematical models constructed by the pseudo-scientists who call themselves 'free-market economists' - even though their internal logics seems to make sense to the simpletons who construct and apply them - are thus spectacular examples of mumbo-jumbo based on a single and catastrophically false ontological assumption. To me, books such as Kuttner's make a strong case for temporarily disbanding economics and reformulating its fundamental metaphysical assumptions under the guidance of more sophisticated social scientific and philosophical disciplines. Well done indeed, Mr. Kuttner, and someone now needs to take up the baton and write a comprehensible book that instructs these Hayekian-utilitarian simpletons about the psychological vulnerability of the emotional human being and the moral complexity of human intersubjectivity in its economic, political, social and ecological contexts.

The grail of a perfect market is a dangerous fantasy.......2005-07-13

In this mightily important book Robert Kuttner attacks frontally and defeats by KO the utopian view of 'laissez faire' of the Chicagoans, who hold that regulation is never warranted because all private choices are free of coercion.
He adopts the Schumpeterian view that the real economy rather than aggregating to a single optimal 'general equilibrium' is constantly in disequilibrium. 'Perfect competition is not only impossible, but inferior.'
He turns the 'Revealed Preference' (markets serve free choices and aggregate welfare) into Bertrand de Jouvenel's 'Revealed Ignorance'. Corporations have the power to set prices, not to take them passively.
What we need is a mixed economy: a balance between market, state and civil society. In fact, the US has a long history of governmental interventionism.

The author illustrates his credo forcefully by examining a whole range of all important industries and markets.
Free markets and/or deregulation are not a solution for
- the health care sector (the most efficient way to make a profit is to avoid sick people and to limit care)
- the money market (the S & L disaster)
- the labor market (is a reflexion of the relative power between the capital owner and the salary worker. After loosing his job, the latter is three months away from destitution)
- the airline industry (deregulation has degraded service in multiple ways)
- the environment (global warming, acid rain and deforestation cannot be solved by market forces)
- telecommunications (major sectors are natural monopolies)
- electricity (the final sale remains a true natural monopoly)
- education (a paramount source of long-term economic growth)
- safe and health in the workplace (that's why Congress wrote OSHA).

He cleverly explains the motives behind 'laissez faire' policies. As Robert Heilbroner said 'Ideology is part of economics'.
'Wealth buys among other things power and power resists income distribution.'
The champions of false evangelism are for the author the Public Choice cynics. He unmask them as fundamental anti-democrats, because they believe that 'politics is hopelessly self-defeating'.
However, he notes that its representatives are very congenial to the most powerful and poses the rhetoric question: Who looses when society pursues political mobilization of propertyless voters, a broad welfare state, substantial economic regulation and redistributive taxation?'
On the contrary, we need a reinforced democracy as a bulwark against tyranny, for the expression of selfhood, for the cultivation of civic skills and norms and to keep markets in place and to limit their sometimes destructive mechanism.

This is a very important political book written by a superb free and unbiased free mind.

Nevertheless, the political pendulum is actually close to the far right: after giving mighty tax breaks for the wealthy, the actual US government declares that pensions and medical aid have to be cut for budget reasons!

I also recommend Peter Temin's work 'Did monetary forces cause the Great Depression?' where he destroys Friedman's explanation of the most important economic disaster in the US history.

Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job

Average customer rating:

Don't waste your time
Ever heard of the Internet?
Only downside: some material is dated
Very dated material - but some still useful
Excellent resource

Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job
Mary F. Cook
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471120294

Amazon.com

This book is for the professional who longs for independence but can't simply walk away from a regular paycheck and health benefits. Successful consultant Mary F. Cook describes how to build a thriving consulting practice gradually, without leaving your 9-5 job. You'll find out how to:

Build a healthy client base while working a regular job
Market your services effectively without spending a fortune
Set fees and negotiate contracts
Handle non-compete agreements and conflict-of-interest issues
Set up and run a home office
Know when the time is right to quit your job and become a full-time consultant.

The sound, practical advice you need on everything from logistics to ethics is right here.

Book Description

Build a thriving business while holding down a full-time job.

Do you yearn to strike out on your own, take charge of your destiny, and create a better, more independent lifestyle for yourself? Read this book and learn how to start your consulting business while you still have the security of a regular job.

Consulting on the Side is for the professional who longs for independence but can't simply walk away from a steady paycheck and company health benefits. Successful consultant and business author Mary F. Cook shows you how to build a thriving consulting practice gradually, without leaving your full-time job. Drawing upon her own experiences and those of others who established successful consulting practices on the side, she covers all the bases and offers sound, practical advice on everything from logistics to finances, ethics to personal issues. You'll learn how to:

Build a healthy client base while working a 9-to-5 job
Market your services effectively without spending a fortune
Respond to outside clients while staying productive at your current job
Set fees and negotiate contracts
Handle non-compete agreements and conflict-of-interest issues
Develop an accounting/financial system that keeps your personal and business finances separate
Set up and run a home office
Learn to handle the stress of working two jobs
Know when the time is right to quit your job and become a full-time consultant

Consulting on the Side helps you realize your dreams of financial independence without gambling with the job security you've worked so hard for.

Customer Reviews:

Don't waste your time.......2007-05-07

Despite some of the negative reviews, I figured that the price was low enough that surely there was something to be gained from the book, even if it was terribly dated. The problem with this book is that in the author's own words, she really never had to deal with this issue. In the first chapter she talks about how she planned to work and consult at the same time, but that she was laid-off right at the moment she was ready to start her consulting practice....uh OK, so the rest of the advice seems very suspect from Chapter 1.

And the rest of that "advice"? Let me sum it up - be careful about legal and ethical conflicts with your current employer and make sure you've got a plan for dealing with working two jobs. That's about it (well, duh!!).

Waste of my time.

Ever heard of the Internet?.......2005-08-22

Although it covers general principles, the book is too dated to be at all useful in a practical sense. I am sorry I bought it. There are no URLs only phone numbers and addresses. The closest this comes to the modern age is a recommendation to get a modem on your computer.

Only downside: some material is dated.......2004-02-18

Considering this book was published in 1996, back when the Web was barely a buzzword, it could be worse, but the reality is that this book's most important flaw has to do with its sheer age. Due to that, it misses on some very useful pieces of information and resources the writer could have offered, if a more recent edition were available.

Now that I wrote about the negative (I normally don't do things in this order, but it just came to me), on to the good things:
-The book addresses to a sufficient extent many of the issues (time and stress-wise, in terms of ethical conflicts, etc.) that stem out of starting a consulting practice beside your full-time job. This is where the CORE STRENGTH of the book lies. I've not been able to find any other titles that go into this topic so effectively... in fact, I've not found any other books on the topic at all. Most of the other consulting books I've checked out simply deal with consulting, considering it full-time dedication deal.
-The author -the President of her own HR Consultancy- also volunteers some good (though far from unique or comprehensive) advice on putting together a pricing scheme for your services, finding sources of financing for your outlet, starting your office at home, marketing your services, and even heads up into critical tax/legal considerations to take into account.

Other than the outdated material in a few parts where references are cited, and the lack of online information to support the book, I liked her book. All in all, it is not a recipe book, but a reference and a rather good one, most specifically useful to those in the process of considering a consulting business on the side, and even for those who are already doing it, in order to assist with setting things up that you might not have thought of up to this point.

Note: unless she went out of business or did a poor job at marketing her services online, it's impossible to find any other reference to her in Google besides this book, whatever that implies... :\

Very dated material - but some still useful.......2001-01-22

This book was probably cutting edge when writing began in the early to mid 1990's. But now, the book is seriously out of date. For example, there is no mention of using the Internet to market your consulting business. However, the author does explain how to do some basic business research online. This is before the days of web browsers. Therefore, the author explains how to set your modem for 2400 and 9600 bps connections. Additionnaly she gives resources for firms that provide products or services to small businesses, however, many of these resources are now out of business.

An additional example of dated material would be the information she writes about the Small Business Administration. At the time the book was written, the data was very useful. Recent changes to SBA programs render the author's information historical, rather than helpful.

Basic small business concepts, such as time management and business plan development are still relevant.

Overall, the book needs a revised edition, or it should not be sold by Amazon.

Excellent resource.......1999-03-04

This book is a great resource. She covers everyhing from small details such as arranging your home office to larger issues such as ethical questions about consulting in the same area as your employer and practical questions such as how to register your business name and inexpensive ideas for marketing. This book is also a good resource for people wanting to start ANY home-based consulting business, not just a part-time one. Since the book was published in 1996, there are not as many references to the web as their might be if it were published today, but the author was obviously in-tuned to various technicological benefits that existed in 1996, and she still gives solid advice that is still valid today (the Internet doesn't solve everything and changes all the time anyway!).

How to Find a Job After 50: From Part-Time to Full-Time, from Career Moves to New Careers

Average customer rating:

Nothing new in this book

How to Find a Job After 50: From Part-Time to Full-Time, from Career Moves to New Careers
Betsy Cummings
Manufacturer: Business Plus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0446695394

Book Description

As a person gets older, the ability to find meaningful employment decreases. In this hands-on career tutorial, business journalist Betsy Cummings details how to look for a new job, and gives specific tips on gaining the experience and skills necessary to transition back to the workplace after a long absence. Her advice includes ways to rewrite a resum for todays job market, how to prepare for a job interview (especially if the interviewer is much younger than the applicant!), which companies are looking to hire workers who are over 50, and the various networking and Internet strategies older workers can use to improve their employment opportunities.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing new in this book.......2005-12-03

There is nothing really new in this book. The advice and tips in it are the same old stuff that you have already seen a hundred times. Don't burn bridges; network; keep your chin up; be prepared for rejection. A lot of it is psychobabble handholding about soul searching and knowing what you really want to do etc. etc. I suppose if you have not yet seen this stuff in Dear Abbey it may be useful to you.

Some of the advice seems to be cut right out of a recruiter's handbook, and is actually bad advice. Here is an example from the book. The author is talking about how to update your resume to enhance your chances of landing an interview. The book advises to keep it recent, "limit your list of work experience to the last fifteen years" to avoid appearing old, I guess. And yet a main thread in the book points out that your long experience is a selling point. If you fracture your resume, you will end up having to explain the holes in it anyway. I would have advised to include the entire history, but keep the older information very brief.

Here is a particularly disturbing comment. "Skip listing the bachelor's degree you got in 1950 (or if you do mention it, leave off the year you graduated)". So what do you do if the job you are applying for requires that degree?

I just served on a search committee to find a director for our local library, and we reviewed dozens of resumes. In every case where the candidate left off the degree dates it aroused suspicion about what that candidtate was trying to hide, like maybe the fact that they are over 50 years old. The age was not an issue with us, but the trickery was. Don't do this. It is a red flag. And even if you do get an interview based on such a dishonest resume, you had better dye your hair and go for the extreme makeover as well so that they will not notice that you are old when you show up for the interview. And when they realize that you have tricked them into interviewing you, the trick may backfire. This is just bad advice.

I was hoping to find a lot more real-world, practical information in the book and was disappointed.

Understanding Modern Money: The Key to Full Employment And Price Stability

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The best introduction to Money

Understanding Modern Money: The Key to Full Employment And Price Stability
L. Randall Wray
Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Little Book That Beats the Market

ASIN: 1845429419

Book Description

In this innovative and very practical book, Randall Wray argues that full employment and price stability are not the incompatible goals that current economic theory and policy assume. Indeed, he advances a policy that would generate true, full employment while simultaneously ensuring an even greater degree of price stability than has been achieved in the 1990s.

Customer Reviews:

The best introduction to Money .......2005-10-18

Wray makes the the concepts of the chartalist theory of money, functional finance, and employer of last resort understandable and interesting to even someone with no prior knowledge of the issues.

The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People

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Remains as insightful and well-reasoned today as it was four years ago.

The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People
Jared Bernstein , and Dean Baker
Manufacturer: Economic Policy Inst
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1932066047

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Remains as insightful and well-reasoned today as it was four years ago........2007-08-05

Expert economists Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker present The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People, a thoughtful look at the prosperity that came with the 1990s employment boom. That era revealed that full employment and stable prices could successfully coexist; incomes rose while poverty, welfare rolls, and crime rates fell. Though the full employment of the 1990s ended when the business cycle subsided, The Benefits of Full Employment persuasively argues that the advantages of full employment make it a condition worth striving to attain permanently through national policy. First published in 2003, The Benefits of Full Employment remains as insightful and well-reasoned today as it was four years ago.

Put to Work: Relief Programs in the Great Depression (Cornerstone Books)

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Put to Work: Relief Programs in the Great Depression (Cornerstone Books)
Nancy E. Rose
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Where's the Verve?
Public Sector
Original, thought-provoking and worryingly realistic
The most boring book I've ever read
The Scheme For Full Employment

The Scheme for Full Employment: A Novel
Magnus Mills
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312310293

Amazon.com

A self-perpetuating means of creating employment provides an allegory for welfare programs and a light meditation on the working class in Magnus Mills's novel The Scheme for Full Employment. Making appointed rounds in UniVans to pick up boxes (containing, what else, UniVan parts), our unnamed protagonist stays the course (mostly, except when he couriers a birthday cake and charts unknown--and unauthorized--territory) while labor unrest stirs between those who champion the eight-hour day and those who want to cut corners and slip out of work early. It is refreshing to see a plot-driven novel come along that is devoid of self-absorbed narration, but the book bounces along on one note; it lacks the depth necessary to be a truly evocative commentary.

Mills's prose is sufficient and the story is well paced. As for the glory of "The Scheme," Mills tells us, "What could be nicer than an excursion in a UniVan on a bright spring morning?... Every so often, when I caught sight of my vehicle reflected in some huge glass-fronted office building, it seemed there could be no better way to earn a living." For a light-hearted, amusing read, The Scheme for Full Employment is worth a quick spin. --Michael Ferch

Book Description

From Magnus Mills, the acknowledged master of the working-class dystopic parable--a genre he practically invented--a new work of comic geniusThe whole idea is simple yet so perfect: men drive to and from strategically placed warehouses in Univans--identical and serviceable vehicles--transporting replacement parts for. . .Univans. Gloriously self-perpetuating, the Scheme was designed to give an honest day's wage for an honest day's labor. That it produces nothing does not obtain. Our hero in Magnus Mills' mesmerizing new work is a five-year veteran of the Scheme: he knows the best routes, the easiest managers, the quickest ways in and out. Inevitably, trouble begins to brew. A woman arrives on the scene. Some workers develop delivery sidelines. And most disturbing of all, not all participants are in agreement. There are "Flat-Dayers," who believe the Scheme's eight-hour day is sacrosanct and inviolable, and there are "Swervers," who fancy being let off a little early now and again. Disagreement turns to argument, argument to debate, debate to outright schism. Soon the Flat-Dayers and Swervers have pushed the Scheme to the very brink of disaster. . .and readers to the edge of their chairs in delight.

Customer Reviews:

Where's the Verve?.......2006-06-24

Once more, Magnus Mills demonstrates his insight into the psyche of the ordinary working man.

The novel takes social engineering to an ultimate level of success in providing full employment, routine and boring though it may be. Men are employed to drive univans from warehouse to warehouse, transporting replacement parts for--univans. At the warehouses, others are employed in loading and unloading the vans, maintaining them as well as in supervising the lot of workers.

The novel is narrated by an unnamed driver who suffers occasional frustration with a partner who disrupts schedules to deliver cakes for extra income. Along the way, the whole scheme begins to unravel as some workers (known as early-swervers) seek to work less than a full day and come into conflict with those designated flat-dayers. The sudden appearance of a woman supervisor appears to be another wrench in the system, but her presence is never fully developed.

Trouble escalates as a strike brings everything to a shuddering halt and a rumor circulates that a group of "enthusiasts" have approached management and offered to drive the vans on an unpaid, voluntary basis.

Unfortunately, this book lacks the verve of "The Restraint of Beasts" and--despite its short length--I had to force myself to finish it. The black humor which made "The Restraint of Beasts" a joy to read is lacking in this novel. And, rather than coming to a conclusion, it just fizzles out.

Public Sector.......2005-08-13

I just love Magnus Mills. I read his first (and best) book The Restraint of Beasts a few weeks ago and have hungrilly read the others since. This one The Scheme.. is a clever mickey-take on our public sectors (civil service and councils) which of course are paid for by taxes from the productive private sector. Politicians in our real world are always trying to cut back/down-size the public sector as many facets of it are just money pits. I work in the private sector and for a while our attitudes mirrored those in The Scheme and we nearly went under. We changed, lost people, became efficient and survived and competed in the private market. What Mills shows us here is how, with the lack of private competition, these people just can't change. They'll strike if the beurocrats downsize, strike if they're asked to work a full day etc. This is why Thatcher in the eighties was privatizing left, right and centre-work and produce or go under. Give us value for money for our taxes. Oh yes, the politicians know about the attitudes behind The Scheme. This is a very clever book. My only gripe was it just wasn't as entertaining as his first two books. It's all very well being clever but I really would like more fun, hence just the three stars this time. I didn't like the comment by the narrator about the two different sides- The Full- Dayers (those that want to work a full day) and The Early Swervers (those that want to slope off early) saying they were bickering and hence blaming both of them instead of just The Early Swervers- It's a bit like blaming two boys for fighting when one had been picking on the other. But I did like how after the strike, certain people obviously realised The Scheme wasn't needed. I know we've had redundancies at my work when certain people have been off sick a long time and have not been missed at all, you just think 'what are they for? Why do we need them? Yes, a very clever book but light on the entertainment side.

Original, thought-provoking and worryingly realistic.......2004-08-25

Mills has created a masterpiece in The Scheme For Full Employment. 'The Scheme' unfolds quickly in this short story and an amusing twist lies beneath the day to day drudgery of the characters' work. When you start to find out more you find yourself wondering how many similar 'Schemes' might exist in our society today...

I read it in an afternoon and became totally engrossed from the first page on. The author's attention to detail is fantastic although find yourself reaching the end and realizing that you know more or less nothing about the characters other than their names and their role in The Scheme... all part of the genius

This is a fantastic, bite-size read and the sort of book that you can pluck out and talk to people about to guarantee a laugh. It even looks good on the shelf!

Well worth buying along with anything else by Mills

The most boring book I've ever read.......2004-07-10

Man, was this pointless. There's hardly any story to it. The government tries this scheme where they pay people to waste time and get in the rest of society's way, some people want to slack off, other people don't, and they argue about it. That's it. All that happens is that they fight about it. The book's description makes it sound like all these strange, intriguing things start happening, but it doesn't. One of the guys in the book has a side business. He has it at the very beginning of the book, and he has it for the rest of the book. A woman supervisor appears. Yes. She appears. She doesn't do anything, she doesn't make a big difference. This is the kind of book where at the end of each chapter, it's written kind of like something ominous or suspenseful just happened, but you can't really tell if anything's supposed to be significant about it, but you think it might be just because the author seems to think it is, but then you keep reading and it turns out it wasn't. The author makes some points about motivation and socialism and people's attitudes towards work, but he could have just as easily done it as a short story, and it probably would have been a lot better. As it was, I spent over 200 pages desperately waiting for something engaging.

The Scheme For Full Employment.......2004-04-27

In the Scheme For Full Employment, Mills has taken an exaggerated satirical look at providing work for the unemployed in what is an extremely British novel that unfortunately fails to make much of a point, neither lauding the advantages of such a scheme or pointing out the obvious flaws.

The novel begins with a short page or two monologue on how the Scheme failed - serving at once to make us curious as to what the Scheme is, but also destroying any sense of wonder at the ending of the story. From there, we are slowly introduced to the workings of the Scheme through the eyes of the nameless narrator; little snippets of information divulged between lengthy detours involving cakes and new recruits and a whole lot of tea.

Univans are the name of the game, the drivers drive them, the engineers fix them, the managers oversee them, and they are used to transport parts for...more univans. Completely self-contained, we are told that the public honours and values these Univan drivers, though we are never told why. Surely the public would understand that the Univans do not actually produce a single thing, and thus are a greater strain on the economy than simply paying the workers an equivalent amount of money? Roads, Univans, uniforms, food, equipment, buildings - these all have to be paid for, and are a huge expense when you consider the alternative of simply paying the unemployed to sit at home.

Unfortunately, the social angle of the Scheme is never explored. Rather, we are soon involved in a debate between the 'flat-dayers', men who wish to work the full eight hours, and the 'early swervers', those who think it is alright to have an early exit when the situation calls for it. Considering that these men have an extremely leisurely job - and we are told many times that the afternoons consist of reading newspapers and sleeping, in short, wasting time - the early swerver's position is never really understandable. Nor are matters helped by the narrator remaining factionless throughout the novel - by having no strong opinion either way, the narration suffers from a lack of urgency.

The book ends as it must - with the Scheme collapsing. The reason for it being disbanded is ridiculous to the extreme and completely, absolutely unbelievable. We are, however, given hints that the Government was waiting for an excuse to shut the project down, and the ending does give it that excuse, but as the novel seemed so against social commentary or the ramifications of the Scheme earlier, this ending seems tacked on and is a let down.

Book Description

Why have both Great Britain and the United States been unable to create effective training and work programs for the unemployed? Desmond King contends that the answer lies in the liberal political origins of these programs. Integrating extensive, previously untapped archival and documentary materials with an analysis of the sources of political support for work-welfare programs, King shows that policymakers in both Great Britain and the United States have tried to achieve conflicting goals through these programs.

The goal of work-welfare policy in both countries has been to provide financial aid, training, and placement services for the unemployed. In order to muster support for these programs, however, work-welfare programs had to incorporate liberal requirements that they not interfere with private market forces, and that they prevent the "undeserving" from obtaining benefits. For King, the attempt to integrate these incompatible functions is the defining feature of British and American policies as well as the cause of their failure.

Congress Makes a Law: The Story behind the Employment Act of 1946

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Congress Makes a Law: The Story behind the Employment Act of 1946
Stephen Kemp Bailey
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press Reprint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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