Book Description
One of the most influential political science works written in the post World War II era, the original edition of Essence of Decision is a unique and fascinating examination of the pivotal event of the Cold War. Not simply revised, but completely re-written, the Second Edition of this classic text is a fresh reinterpretation of the theories and events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis, incorporating all new information from the Kennedy tapes and recently de-classified Soviet files. The Second Edition refines the arguments presented in the original book in light of Graham Allison's experience as the Assistant Secretary of Defense and the founding Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Second Edition also features a new co-author, Philip Zelikow, author of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed The Kennedy Tapes, which was published by Harvard University Press in 1997. Essence of Decision, Second Edition, is a vivid look at decision-making under pressure and is the only single volume work that attempts to answer the enduring question: how should citizens understand the actions of their government?
Customer Reviews:
Very Pleased.......2005-07-12
Delivered early. Great condition. Good delivery info provided. I'll do it again.
Taking drama and mangling it with (useful) academic vocab.......2004-10-07
This is a political-sciency version of the closest we came to a nuclear war, in effect using the crisis to introduce the reader to a methodology on how people make decisions. The authors see three ways that things get decided, and when observers confuse them, dire consequences may follow. First, there is the rational-actor who does things for explicit reasons, as if there were one decisionmaker who controls everything from conception to implementation. Second, there is the political decision, often made for purposes of manipulation rather than for stated goals and hance are harder to read. Third, there is bureaucratic decison-making, according to which actors on the ground carry out orders in the way that they are trained (i.e. by standard operating procedures, or SOPs).
Basically, in my reading, they argue that these modes were mixed in the Cuban Missile Crisis - the US thinking that there was a (rational actor) policy to militarise Cuba with nuclear weapons when in fact much of the provocatively appearing construction was due to SOPs of the military who installed the missiles. Thus, the US had less to fear, but its political reality made an over-reaction inevitable.
Now, these are very useful distinctions and the analysis is interesting. However, they do not make for very interesting reading or very good history. That makes this book a slog, which limits its appeal to academics rather than the general reader. I read this for a class - otherwise, I would never have gotten through it.
Recommended on balance, but go elsewhere if you are looking for a good story rather than a rather staid acadeimic analysis.
The Great Non-Event.......2004-02-09
Reading "Essence of Decision" resonates with Kurosawa, or maybe Stoppard. We have a central story - one of the great non-events in human history, the moment when the Soviet Union and the United States "came eyeball to eyeball" (as Dean Rusk is said to have said) before someone blinked. We hear it three times: one, from the standpoint of the "rational actor;" second from the internal logic of organizations; and third, from the perspective of politics where people more or less rub along together.
It's an event that bears retelling and, with qualification, the device works. The upshot is that we get some insight into the missile crisis. But not at all incidentally, we get some insight into the academic study of politics (I resist calling it "political science"), and a whiff of what it might have to offer for our better understanding of the world.
Aside from the Kurusowa effect, there is another structural innovation. We have, in a sense, two books interleaved, like Faulkner's "Wild Palms." The even-numbered chapters tell (and retell) the basic story. The odd-numbered chapters offer a framework of "theory."
I suppose you might read just the even-numbered chapters - indeed the authors themselves suggest as much, though rather half-heartedly. And indeed, the odd-numbered chapters can be heavy going. One cannot help recalling the old canard about the sociologist as a person who gets a government research grant to find the bordello next door. You are tempted to say that their theory is what sophisticated people know anyway, and the clueless will probably never figure out.
But there is an answer to this dismissal. That is: most (or at least) a lot of history gets told from the standpoint of the "rational actor." A survey of the competing approaches makes it clear just what this approach leaves out. And if the polyphonic approach is so obviously superior to the single narrative line, then why have historians from Thucydides to Henry Kissinger been willing to do without it? One answer might be: for all their talents, they simply haven't learned the way to tell a story in any other way.
So on the whole, retelling works. But not, perhaps, as well as it might. Another reviewer has said that this isn't really a case to illustrate "organization" theory here because this is not a case that highlights organizations - rather, at least for the United States, the response to the Cuban missile crisis was the work of a small group of men, working together in close cooperation. There is some merit to this view: concededly, you do not get the clash of bull elephants that you might have got at another time when Defense makes war on State, and both work together to fend of Intelligence. But you get a taste of it: we find that the Joint Chiefs were most hospitable to an invasion; that State thought that maybe we could talk it through; and that John McCone from the CIA was the one person who most clearly anticipated the threat. Moreover, you see the "organization" problem in a somewhat different light, when you see how the President's orders were massaged or modified by the military (sometimes, even, within the military).
But perhaps in any event, I need not get too distracted by the framework. Along the way, there are any number of nuggets that stand pretty well on their own. I liked in particular, for instance, the discussion of the role of committee work. We tend to stick up our nose at any project done by committee. But, argue our authors, in World War II it was Churchill, high-handed as he was, who worked through committee-and virtually always followed the committee's advice. The "strong leader" who kept things close to his vest, was Hitler.
But more generally - I was already an adult at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, and I remember it well. Specifically, I remember how frightened were so many people in my surroundings. I wasn't that frightened; I figured that one way or another, we would rub along. In the end, of course, I was right - we did rub along. But I think in retrospect, it was I who was kidding myself and the Nervous Nellies who had the right attitude. We did rub along, but as Wellington said about the Battle of Waterloo, it was a near thing. I particularly like Robert Kennedy:
"The fourteen people [in the American inner circle] were very significant-bright, able, dedicated people, all of whom had the greatest affection for the U.S. ... If six of them had been President of the U.S., I think that the world might have been blown up."
[Final technical note: one or more of the other reviews appear to be discussing the first edition of this book. The (current) seocnd edition is not a mere cosmetic update, but substantially a new book].
Excellent research book.......2003-11-24
I'm currently doing a History course for the IB. A reasonable percentage of final grade orignates from my internal Assessment.
For this i need two realiable sources. This source proved itself to be very helpful and explanatory for it is written in a manner that the reader wants to always know more. The book explains why the Soviet put Nuclear Missiles in Cuba how the Jupiter Missiles influenced this and at the end, it shows how the Americans were able to make the Soviets withdraw their missiles form Cuba.
An execellent book. I recommend!
Impressive Scholarship.......2002-05-12
A great number of books and articles has been published attempting to explore and explain the Cuban missile crisis that had brought the world to the brink of a thermonuclear world war. Allison and Zelikow, in Essence of Decision, explain the Cuban missile crisis through three different lenses, that is, The Rational Actor Paradigm, Organizational Behavior Paradigm and Governmental Politics Paradigm, each of which is based on a different set of assumptions, each of which has a distinct bundle of organizing concepts and, each of which brings different general/specific propositions for the issue under question. Allison and Zelikow investigate the Cuban missile crisis through the lenses of three models in turn by asking three simple questions:
1. Why did the Soviet Union decide to place offensive missiles in Cuba?
2. Why did the United States respond to the missile deployment with a blockade?
3. Why did the Soviet Union withdraw the missiles?
The analyst looking to Cuban missile crisis through the lens of "rational actor model" conceives of governmental action as a "choice" made by a unitary and rational nation or national government. In this model, national government is treated as if it is an "individual" identifying problem, producing solution alternatives and picking one of those alternatives up whose result would satisfy the expected utility function of the nation best based on the "purpose" of the nation. The rational actor model analyst generates hypotheses, for example, about why the Soviet Union decided to send nuclear missiles to Cuba: to defend Cuba, rectify the nuclear strategic balance, or provide an advantage in the confrontation over Berlin? The virtue of the model comes from its power of explanation especially in case it is able to expose the "purpose" of the nation/state. So all the puzzling pieces of the relevant issue under question are to be tied into a coherent and satisfactory story.
The rational actor model falls short of fully understanding of the issue under question in that it does not take account of other equally important considerations. Admittedly, the rational actor model neglects the organizational processes and capabilities that structure the issue or problem under question, and, limit or extend the policy alternatives available to "rational" policy actors. In final instant, it is manifest that policy executives have to decide policy alternative from the "menu" that current organizational technologies and capabilities write. In organizational behavior model, the analyst investigates, for example, the standard operating procedures (SOP) of government organizations in order to understand which policy alternatives are available to political actors and which one is chosen and why. So, the organizational behavior paradigm closes the gaps of the rational actor paradigm.
Finally, the governmental politics model conceives of governmental policy under question not as a rational actor choice or organizational output but as a "resultant" of bargaining along regular circuits among players positioned hierarchically within the government. In this model, the political actors and their intentions, positions and interests, their relative power, the action channels through which the political actors input and exert their influence, decision rules and similar matters stand to the fore in analysis.
The three models, according to Allison and Zelikow, are complementary to each other. "Model I fixes the broader context, the larger national patterns, and the shared images. Within this context, Model II illuminates the organizational routines that produce the information, options, and action. Model III focuses in greater detail on the individuals who constitute a government and the politics and procedures by which their competing perceptions and preferences are combined" (p. 392). Rather than giving different answers to the same question, each of the three models illuminates one corner of the issue and contributes to our understanding. By integrating the factors identified under each lens, the authors argue, explanations can be significantly strengthened.
The final chapter of the book in which the authors hypothetically demonstrate how the interaction of the factors identified under each lens can lead to a nuclear war should be perused by those who firmly believe that after the collapse of the Soviet Union there no longer exists the precipice of a nuclear slaughter.
Though I believe this book is a must-read for everybody (not necessary to mention all the fields), I recommend this masterpiece especially to students of strategic management who have read Strategy Safari by Mintzberg et al. (1998) for which I believe Essence of Decision will be an excellent field book and to students who have read Case Study Research by Robert Yin for which I think Essence of Decision will be a perfect workbook.
Overall, this book is a living example of a dedicated and illuminating scholarship. Highly recommended.
Book Description
A journalist reveals the disturbing realities of life in the Saudi kingdom. S audi Arabia: Land of oil, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, and a crucial American ally. As the only Western journalist to have extensively worked in the Saudi Kingdom, John R. Bradleyis uniquely able to expose the turmoil that is shaking the House of Saud to its foundations. From the heart of the secretive Islamic kingdom's urban centers to its most remote mountainous terrain, from the homes of royalty to the slums of its poorest inhabitants, he provides intimate details and reveals underlying regional, religious, and tribal rivalries. Bradley highlights tensions generated by social change, focuses on the educational system, the increasing restlessness of Saudi youth faced with limited opportunities for cultural and political expression, and the predicament of Saudi women seeking opportunities but facing constraints. What are the implications for the Sauds and the West? This book offers a startling look at the present predicament and a troubling view of the future.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful Portrayal Of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.......2007-06-05
Bradley is a journalist who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than 2 years. This book describes what he observed, obviously from a Western perspective, while living there. Some of what he discusses has been covered in other books. For example, the strict segregation of men and women, the brutal public executions and the extreme corruption and hypocrisy of the Saudi royal family. He also mentions the poor education and professional training received by most Saudi citizens which requires the country to be dependent on foreign workers. Many of these workers are people from poor countries such as India, Pakistan and the Philippines who do the "dirty jobs" that, supposedly, Saudis don't want to do themselves. But I find this questionable since Bradley also describes the high rate of unemployment among Saudi citizens and the fact that many of them live in poverty while the Saudi royals bask in the enormous wealth generated by the oil business.
Bradley also talks about the good qualities of the typical Saudi person, such as kindness, hospitality and generosity. There are certain Western right-wingers and Christian zealots who have an anti-Muslim agenda and are clearly biased in their writings. But Bradley doesn't strike me as that sort of person. I think he is simply trying to explain his experiences in Saudi Arabia with as much honesty and truth as possible. Of course, he is seeing the country from the point of view of a non-Muslim Westerner. But that doesn't mean he is necessarily wrong in what he is saying.
However, what really takes this book to the "5 stars" level for me is that he elaborates on the regionally based political and cultural differences in the kingdom. He talks about the Hijaz area, including Jeddah, as having a long history as an international center of trade which makes it somewhat more liberal and sophisticated than the rest of the country. The southern region is called Asir and includes people who, in many ways, have more in common with the neighboring country of Yemen than with their fellow Saudis. Finally, there is the Eastern province which is largely made up of Shiite Muslims who, like the people from Hijaz and Asir, often finds themselves at odds with the Wahhabi dominated central region which includes the royal family and the Wahhabi religious establishment that controls the country politically. In other words, Saudi Arabia is a complex and diverse society with people from a variety of religious and cultural perspectives who are seeking to challenge the hold on power by the Wahhabis and the royal family. This is not the picture provided to the broader American public, who tend to recognize that the royals are corrupt but still see them as the lesser of two evils when compared to the Osama allied extremists. Obviously, the situation there is more complicated than most people think.
I actually came away feeling at least a little more optimistic about the future, or at least the potential, of the country. But, of course, Saudi Arabia still faces a tremendous amount of problems and what happens there will continue to be of vital importance to the rest of us, especially considering that the Saudis have 1/4 of the world's known supply of petroleum.
A little bias detected.......2007-06-03
This was the fourth book that I read about Saudi Arabia and although I thought the descriptives were very good in that Bradley goes into some depth that other authors may consider too trivial (i.e. Najran and Flower Men), the author clearly takes hold of the arab militancy with a one track mind. This was the first post-911 book I read about the Kingdom and I was curious to find out what has changed, and all I found was a loud-echo of anti-Wahhabism and the outcry of abused Asian workers. I understand very well that K.S.A. has many issues in that area, but I also know many families who treat their workers well. I'm always leary of books that incite anger in me as I read, and this certainly made me angry and defensive toward the Kingdom when I have already met so many wonderful Saudis who give me an entirely different perspective. A fuel on the American bias fire, but worth reading if but for the descriptives of Shiite history in the Kingdom.
Try Again.......2007-05-23
really needs to try again here I was in the kingdom the same time as this man and have read his account, but cannot agree, one thing to put straight here is that the mention of a Keith Birmingham as an engineer is incorrect he was a welder for Saudi Arabian Airlines at the engine overhaul centre in Jeddah. Perhaps had John really spent time out and about in the rest of Saudi and met the those who you can say are not the city folk could probably had a very good book but this account is far from complete
Tipical Orientalist.......2007-05-17
I GREW UP IN A MIDDLE CLASS SAUDI FAMILY AND READ THE WHOLE BOOK.
John R. Bradley goes to Saudi Arabia for 2 ½ years, befriends upper class kids and some liberal journalists then thinks he figured out the whole country. These are some things you should know before you read the book:
-When a teenage boy has a satellite in his room he is rich even in Saudi Arabia. Same thing goes for students who hire a Briton to teach them English and for kids with fluent English.
-Average Saudis will not talk to foreigners especially not westerners.
-The book was written in June 2005 and Saudi Arabia is rapidly changing (for better or worse)
-This was before the new king came to power.
-The people he speaks of are not representative sample of the Saudi society(mostly pro-American liberal)
-Any other orientalist could not have done a better job of an inside view of Saudi Arabia through a westerner's eyes.
Insightful look at an understudied country.......2007-04-05
This is an informative book for those wishing to gain a better understanding of the political and social situation in contemporary Saudi Arabia. The author was apparently one of the few Western journalists in the country in the early 2000s and he was able to obtain a visa that allowed him to travel around the country and speak with people without facing many of the restrictions that apply to most Westerners in the country. The author discusses a number of subjects. I thought that the two most interesting chapters were the ones dealing with Saudi youth and gender relations, respectively. He also writes about the rise of crime, attacks against Western expatriates, and, of course, the royal family, among other subjects. The author traveled outside of Riyadh, the capital, to many different regions. One of the main themes of the book is that the tensions between various regions within the country, many of which are inhabited by distinct tribal and ethnic groups, pose perhaps the greatest threat to the country's unity. Perhaps the one thing that I found frustrating was that, at times, it seemed like the text was devoid of Saudi voices. While the author obviously made a great many friends and professional contacts in the country, I kind of wish that he would have presented more of their viewpoints. He often seems too eager to convey his own impressions and opinions of Saudi Arabia rather than let the country's citizens speak for themselves. Luckily, this isn't as problematic as it could have been, because his opinions are generally very insightful and well-argued. Overall, as someone with very little knowledge of Saudi Arabia (and the Middle East in general), I found this book to be a highly informative analysis of some of the major tensions and problems facing this country that has been so often discussed and misunderstood in the Western media.
Book Description
Known for clarity, accessibility, and practicality, this widely-used book thoroughly examines substance abuse in the population, addressing both ways to measure the problem and how to treat individuals and families who seek assistance. It educates prospective clinicians and counselors by guiding them, step-by-step, through the process of working with substance-abuse clients. Chapter content builds in sequence; however, each chapter can be taken as a stand-alone source of valuable information. Individual chapters on special populations add substantial depth to the text's treatment of its subject.
Customer Reviews:
a pretty good substance abuse textbook.......2007-08-03
I just finished a graduate level course on substance abuse counseling, and this was my text. It's a pretty good textbook, with a lot of good information. Most of it is pretty dry reading though. Like a lot of graduate level textbooks, it's written in a dry yet information-dense style, which makes information retention challenging.
The best chapters by far are 1 - histories of various drugs of abuse, and 2 - their effects on the body.
I wasn't very fond of the sample cases they had in the text. I would have preferred a lot of "real life" case studies, with the interventions that were attempted, alternative interventions suggested by other experts, and outcomes.
Excellent resource!.......2007-05-29
This book provides a wealth of information on substance and alcohol abuse. It is an interesting and informative book. It gives an overview of common substances and their affects on the body. Case studies provide practical application for concepts presented in the book. Must have for those working in the substance abuse field or those who just want to learn more.
Substance abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice.......2006-03-21
The book is well written. It provides the reader with an easy reading experience while still providing the necessary information about substance abuse. I definately recommend it for anyone who is looking to learn more about substance abuse.
Book Description
Described both as "the Hobbes of our age" and as "the philosophical godfather of Nazism," Carl Schmitt was a brilliant and controversial political theorist whose doctrine of political leadership and critique of liberal democratic ideals distinguish him as one of the most original contributors to modern political theory.
The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy offers a powerful criticism of the inconsistencies of representative democracy. First published in 1923, it has often been viewed as an attempt to destroy parliamentarism; in fact, it was Schmitt's attempt to defend the Weimar constitution. The introduction to this new translation places the book in proper historical context and provides a useful guide to several aspects of Weimar political culture.
The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.
Customer Reviews:
Liberalism vs. Democracy.......2003-03-12
This book is a must-read for those who are interested in fostering Western democratic-liberal ideals in currently authoritarian regimes. Schmitt challenges the seamless grouping of liberal ideals and democratic ideals, and argues that the principles of liberalism and democracy actually stand in direct contradiction. Schmitt bases this claim on the exclusionary nature--the identification of the "other"--in historical democracies. That is, for instance, the Athenian political body understood itself as specifically non-Spartan, as well as non-female and non-slave. Similarly, South African democracy during apartheid, Israeli democracy today, and US democracy in previous centuries were similarly formed and fostered by the exclusion of the "other". The principles of liberalism on the other hand respect all persons simply as persons, and do not differentiate in law between individuals. Thus liberalism speaks of human rights, rule of law, etc. These important insights are useful as a kind of cautionary tale as the West seeks to promote democracy around the globe. The book provides the conceptual framework for us to understand how democracies such as those in the Balkans in the 90's (or Schmitt's own Weimar Republic) could have produced such strikingly illiberal results.
Average customer rating:
- Rescue us from fundamentalism
- CARTER: SUPER HUMANITARIAN/HUMAN BEING!
- Wonderful!
- Wonderful
- A moral challenge to Americans
|
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
Jimmy Carter
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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ASIN: 0743284577
Release Date: 2005-11-01 |
Amazon.com
Even at his most irate, Jimmy Carter projects cool, communicating with a poise that commands attention while gently signaling to opponents that they better do their homework before mounting any sort of debate. Perhaps that's why the former president, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and bestselling author ranks as one of the planet's most respected voices in the areas of human rights, diplomacy, and good government. And when a clearly agitated Carter suggests America is on a slippery slope, globally speaking, as he does throughout Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, it's wise to pay heed even if the book's overriding Christian perspective may trip cautionary bells in secular readers.
More a set of loosely connected essays than a single, precise argument, Our Endangered Values outlines Carter's worldview while pondering what he posits are key problems looming in the 21st century. Thematic touchstones such as the war, environmental negligence, civil liberties, the rich-poor divide, and the separation of church and state form the book's backbone, with Carter filtering each through the prism of his own vast experience. He doesn't much like what he sees. Though much of the data Carter presents to support his arguments is familiar, it's worth repeating that "the rate of firearm homicides in the United States is nineteen times higher than that of 35 other high-income countries combined." That "In addition to imprisonment, the United States of America stands almost alone in the world in our fascination with the death penalty, and our few remaining companions are regimes with a lack of respect for basic human rights." That when it comes to sharing the wealth with poor nations "Americans are the stingiest of all industrialized nations. We allow about one-thirtieth as much as is commonly believed [or] sixteen cents out of each $100 of the gross national income." America: land of the free, home of the brave? Try global bully with a bad attitude and reckless sense of entitlement.
Carter spends significant time contextualizing his own spirituality, as if to underscore the urgency of his message that fundamentalism in any form is bad, especially when it encroaches on government. Indeed, Carter persuasively links fundamentalism to harmful policy, the subjugation of women, general xenophobia, and a host of other ills occurring all around him. And while George W. Bush in particular and the current administration in general take fewer clips on the chin than might be expected, Carter's arguments for common-sense change are deeply resonant nonetheless. --Kim Hughes
Book Description
In Our Endangered Values, Jimmy Carter describes quite personally his own involvement and reactions to some disturbing societal trends that have taken place during the past few years. These changes involve both the religious and the political worlds as they have increasingly become intertwined, and include some of the most crucial and controversial issues of the day - frequently encapsulated under 'moral values'.
Many of these matters are under fierce debate, and include pre-emptive war, women's rights, terrorism, civil liberties, homosexuality, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, America's global image, fundamentalism, and the welding of religion and politics. Carter, sustained by his own lifelong faith, assesses these issues in a forceful and unequivocal, but balanced and courageous way. Our Endangered Values is a book that his millions of readers have eagerly awaited.
Download Description
"President Carter has written importantly about his spiritual life and faith. In Living Faith, a huge bestseller, he recounted the values and experiences that shaped his personal and political life. In his companion book Sources of Strength, also a bestseller, he meditated on fifty-two of the favorite Bible lessons he has taught. In Our Endangered Values, Carter offers a personal consideration of ""moral values"" as they relate to the important issues of the day. He puts forward a passionate defense of separation of church and state, and a strong warning of where the country is heading as the lines between politics and rigid religious fundamentalism are blurred. Now, he describes his own involvement and reactions to some disturbing societal trends that have taken place during the last few years. These changes involve both the religious and the political worlds as they have increasingly become intertwined, and include some of the most crucial and controversial issues of the day -- frequently encapsulated under ""moral values."" Many of these matters are under fierce debate. They include preemptive war, women's rights, terrorism, civil liberties, homosexuality, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, America's global image, fundamentalism, and the melding of religion and politics. Sustained by his lifelong faith, Jimmy Carter assesses these issues in a forceful and unequivocal but balanced and courageous way. Our Endangered Values is a book that his millions of readers have eagerly awaited. "
Customer Reviews:
Rescue us from fundamentalism.......2007-09-13
This book is warning against fundamentalism and the in-human lack of compassion that seems so deeply rooted in the American sub-culture that holds sway over Bush's White House. Are you a Christian who is concerned about poverty? The USA's policy of pre-emptive war? Gleeful disregard for nuclear proliferation? Torture? The environment? Carter lays out a passionate case that those concerns are in line with Christian values. Carter does not cede the definition of `Christian' to the pro war, pro death penalty, pro torture, anti ecumenical crowd who insist that they alone can articulate what it means to be a Christian. This is a courageous book by a very thoughtful man
CARTER: SUPER HUMANITARIAN/HUMAN BEING!.......2007-08-03
Another refreshing and great book by former President Carter. Carter gives one a true feeling of hope, especially now, in this strange time in our country. It's as though President Carter is looking out for us. God bless you Mr. Carter, and please, keep on writing, writing and writing!!!
We truly need more Jimmy Carters in this world.
Wonderful!.......2007-07-04
Great book. It is terribly refreshing to read a book that treats logic and common sense as important values in our personal, public, and political lives. Shows very clearly that religious views and opinions can be separated from the political arena simply by deciding to do so. The parts dealing with the politics of dealing with the rest of the world are especially good. The world would be a far better place if we could just follow the live and let live philosophy.
Wonderful.......2007-07-03
I'm an absolute fan of President Carter on a multitude of levels - and this book further supports my endearment of him. He accurate and thoughtfully discusses the crises occuring in the U.S. - particularly because of the current administration and educationally analyzes how to solve/correct these problems. He is my hero...
(P.S. for anyone with any doubts as to Carter's greatness, they need to read some history and see his Presidential Library to gain some insight as to what he actually did and accomplished while President for both the U.S. and the world as a whole.)
A moral challenge to Americans.......2007-06-27
In this book, Nobelist and former President Jimmy Carter asserts that Christian fundamentalists have taken control of the American government. Although he is a devout Christian himself, he outlines charges against fundamentalists and neoconservatives that reiterate many oft-aired criticisms of the current administration. He also decries fundamentalist control of the Southern Baptist denomination, which may be of less interest to business readers. However, one need not agree with Carter to be drawn by his political philosophy and sincerity, nor disagree to be bruised by his self-righteous tone. This is more sermon than essay, for it has a pronounced religious focus, but we find that it provides a heartfelt portrait of the value judgments of a historic figure who never hesitated to provoke debate. Readers seeking a liberal focus on issues about which conservatives and liberals disagree will find this to be a passionate touchstone, as will those alarmed by what they perceive as manifestations of fundamentalism in U.S. public policy.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Reference
- Excellent overview of one of the newest fields in nursing.
- Excellent book on telephone triage. Highly recommended.
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Telephone Triage: Theory, Practice, and Protocol Development
Sheila Q. Wheeler
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Similar Items:
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Telephone Triage Protocols for Nurses
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Quick Reference to Triage
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Tele-Nurse: Telephone Triage Protocols
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Telephone Health Assessment: Guidelines for Practice W/Telephone Consultation Tablet
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Emergency Nursing: 5-Tier Triage Protocols
ASIN: 0827349912 |
Book Description
The first and only combined text/workbook training program to provide comprehensive telephone triage as well as protocol development. Written in direct, "how-to" style, it sets forth guidelines for interview and documentation skills, as well as medico-legal aspects. All of the essentail guidlines and instructions are here for telephone triage that is confident, refined, and precise. ALSO AVAILABLE - INSTRUCTOR SUPPLEMENTS CALL CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO ORDER Audiotape ISBN: 0-8273-5636-6
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Reference.......2001-02-07
I really took to this book when I was assigned to read it for my new job in pediatric clinic. It has many tools you can use to create your own triage guidelines. The tools apply to a nurse serving any population, from pediatrics to adults, occupational health to obstetrics. I found the writing to be concise and to the point. Nurse managers and educators, you should definitely consider this book for your telephone triage orientation program. I work for a military installation and I have to tell you as an insider that a practically congressional committee considered all the triage theory books there were, and chose this ONE. I can see why.
Excellent overview of one of the newest fields in nursing........1998-08-06
As an educator, it is important to provide historical information on a new subject, along with clear scenarios and critiques. This book allows a nurse, new to the field of telephone triage to understand the relationship of the nurse to patient, elicit the most informative information, and how to categorize information appropriately. The book provides the basis for telephone triage, no matter what the local requirements or conditions. I have used this boook for over 2 years in education of nurses to telphone triage and recommend that it belong as a resource in every call-center!
Excellent book on telephone triage. Highly recommended........1995-10-16
This textbook has become a standard reference at triage
call centers across the U.S. A *must* read for either
the new triage nurse or an experienced one.
Book Description
Efraim Halevy joined Israels secret police in 1961 and eventually became its director. For the first time, Halevy writes about the turbulent Middle East from his powerful vantage point at the top of the Mossad. Having served as the secret envoy to Prime Ministers Rabin, Shamir, Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon, Halevy was privy to the regions most sensitive information. Informed by his extraordinary access, he writes candidly about the workings of the Mossad, the Prime Ministers he served under and the other major players around the world: Yasir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Hafez Assad, Muamar Qadaffi, Presidents Clinton and Bush, and former CIA directors Jim Angleton and George Tenet. Looking forward, he writes frankly about how the world might achieve peace. Much of what he has to say will surprise and shock even those readers well-versed in the complexities of the region. Sure to be one of the years most talked-about books, this fierce account of the Middle East will be a must-read for those seeking a functional and intelligent roadmap to peace in the Middle East and the world. For the first time, Halevy will open his private dossier on: What the Mossad did and did not tell the CIA before the attacks of 9/11 Giving George Tenet the information about weapons of mass destruction and his feelings about Tenets dismissal A candid discussion of his misgivings about the report of the 9/11 commission, the new structure of intelligence services in the United States, and his feeling that we have not seen the worst of what the radical Islamic terrorists are capable of The assassination attempt by the Mossad on the life of Khaled Mashal, now the leader of Hamas The Israeli-Jordan Peace Accord His criticisms of the road map that is currently being followed by the U.S. and Israel for peace in the region The negotiation that brought the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel.
Customer Reviews:
A disappointment.......2007-09-16
I bought (or got) this book 'cause I've always liked spy stories (I'm a John LeCarre man myself)and I had some expectations of a "show and tell" book by a former head of the Mossad. I also had some respect, as a citizen consumer of the news, of this official who had,somehow, something more European and dignified than the "average" Israeli macho security hero. Halevy was also Israel's ambassador to Jordan and very instrumental in brokering the peace agreement with Jordan.
I found the book rather tiresome with a great deal of muted self-glorification and almost no revelations or juicy bits. Halevy comes across as a very loyal and careful technocrat with clear views (which I don't subscribe to) about the "War on Terror" being the central stuggle of our times.
An interesting book.......2006-08-05
This book consists of some interesting recollections from Efraim Halevy, who served as the director of Israel's Mossad.
We readers see how the First Gulf War, in 1991, Israel fared poorly. Yes, the United States helped defend Israel from Iraqi missile attacks. However, Halevy makes the point that most knowledgeable Israelis "did not believe that the United States was doing its best to apprehend the missile launchers" and for that reason, many Israelis are very suspicious of how much help the United States will ever give Israel should its survival be at stake.
Israel did indeed agree not to join in the attack on Iraq, which may have saved the coalition against Iraq but the author shows that this did Israel very little good. While Iraq, a serious enemy of Israel, was indeed weakened, Israel quickly came under severe pressure from its friends to appease its remaining enemies.
Israel has always needed peace, and this has made it susceptible to bogus offers of peace. Halevy explains how this affected negotiations that involved covert channels. As he says, rather than being a way to discuss issues regarding Israel's future, keeping Israel's interests in mind, the covert talks "evolved into a strategy designed to enable the devoted negotiators to engage in dreams of peace rather than to confront the true facts of life and to grapple with them."
There is a long and interesting section on how Israel and Jordan managed to sign a peace treaty. And we also see what Halevy thinks of several famous people of the region. One is the notorious Yassir Arafat, who Halevy mentions was a "compulsive liar" who "would never honor a commitment and rarely would have anything but contempt for his peers." I remember being flabbergasted by the fact that rather than arresting, trying, and executing this thug, leaders of Western nations often showed esteem for him. But Halevy says that Arafat did pay a political price in 2000 and 2001 for refusing to make a deal at Camp David and then for lying about the Karin A arms smuggling to the president of the United States. Once again, I'm shocked that it took all this to discredit such a horrible person.
We also see Halevy's puzzlement at Israel's acceptance, even under pressure, of the infamous "road map" proposed by the quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. This document "was deemed a nonstarter and a real danger to Israel's interests for a variety of reasons." And these reasons included allowing the quartet to determine if the Arabs had fulfilled their obligations on issues such as ending terror. That would pretty much let the Arabs do what they pleased.
In this book Halevy often makes the point that one ought to honor one's word and build up one's credibility. I agree. And I think that means needing to resist pressure to make agreements that one can not or will not fulfill.
I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it.
"My War Against Shimon Peres".......2006-07-08
Efraim Halevy could as well had added the following subtitle to his book: "My War Against Shimon Peres". The leitmotif of the first part of the book is the constant popping up of Shimon Peres's name in every possible circumstance where Shimon obstructs, deceives and schemes against literally everybody to assuage his thirst for glory. There is little doubt that Shimon richly deserved the overt animosity coming from Efraim Halevy. One can only sympathize and empathize with Halevy since the object of his dislike continues to scheme to this day.
It is by no means easy to write a book on intelligence, especially so soon after leaving office. Everything you write may be used against your country. Therefore Halevy writes about people who are out of office or dead (the exception being Peres) , his contribution to the Israeli - Jordanian Peace Treaty and about general principles that are applicable at any time and therefore do not divulge anything of immediate value. His portraits of Israeli prime ministers are interesting in that he rehabilitates Shamir, is complimentary of Netanyahu, Rabin and Sharon, much less so of Barak and the premiership of his nemesis Peres does not even register. The ultimate snub.
Halevy's observations about the work in intelligence are logical : "On issues of life and death the intelligence officer must always err on the side of the threat and not on the side of the optimist".
To me the most significant part of the book are the last two chapters in which Halevy talks of WWIII, i.e. the war against Islamic terror. This is the part in which his weight as the ex head of the Mossad may have some impact on the `powers that be' of today. He correctly defines it as Islamic terror and not `war on terror' and warns that the West does not cooperate enough to confront the common threat. He is fully aware of the dangers of Al Qaeda and the way things may eventually turn: " Government and their senior executive officials will take action, the like of which has rarely ever been dreamed in the past." Halevy should be given credit for being one of the rare ex government officials who does not obfuscate in naming the enemy.
But two aspects of his recommendations are questionable. The first is to squeeze in anti- terror legislation as soon as possible while the country is recovering from a major terror attack. Would it not be more reasonable to be entirely frank with the population, stop avoiding the truth and minimizing the threat, and educate the population so that it can support anti- terror measures in full clarity of what is being done?
The second is his differentiation between Al Qaeda on the one hand and Hamas and Hezbolah on other. Hamas is, according to Halevy, different because "Hamas is not solely a terrorist group. It has political and social interest" "`In their own way, they aspire to be part of the system and not as Al Qaeda aspires, to destroy it ".
Yes, but part of what system does Hamas want to be a part of? Exactly the same one Al Qaeda is fighting for! Allegiance to Islam tops any local self interest. Efraim Halevy and the intelligence community in Israel should be well advised to read up on Islam in the works of Ibn Warraq, Bat Ye'or, Serge Trifkovic , Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes.
a bloody history in abloody regeion.......2006-06-25
i love this kind of books .as a person who is living in the middle east which lived a lot of wars and conflicts between the arabs and the israeles i alaways search on the books talk about such a topic . this man mr halevy because his possision as a post leader of mossad explains and clears every thing about the middle east crisis. in a good degree of objectivety in a way that gives the reader who does not no any thing about the middle east a good background he is simple , clear , no complcations as he is chating with you or as when our moms told us stories before sleeping when we were young . it is a book you can read in the week end , in the holiday , in the tunel before going to the work >
Excellent read.......2006-06-04
It is true that this book is not riddled with "cloak and dagger fireworks" but, it is not at al true that it is nothign more than a self-glorifying account of a man's own actions, as one reviewer has said.
Halevy describes how events over the last 10-20 years have unfolded in the middle east, and in the process relates how the individual characteristics of the various leaders invovled helped to shape them. His accounts of the larger than life life people he describes are plain, to the point, and overall extremely insightful. He recounts, with much insight, the victories and successes of the last 2 decades. He furthermore, does not shy from describing, in detail, both his own failures and those of others.
This book is an excellent read for those truly interested in the actuall manner and circumstance of the unfolding of history.
Book Description
The life of the brilliant composer and conductor Gustav Mahler was punctuated by crisis. His parents both died in 1889, leaving him the reluctant head of a household of siblings. He himself endured a nearly fatal medical ordeal in 1901. A beloved daughter died in 1907 and that same year, under pressure, Mahler resigned from the directorship of the Vienna Opera. In each case Mahler more than mastered the trauma; he triumphed in the creation of new major musical works.
The final crisis of Mahler’s career occurred in 1910, when he learned that his wife, Alma, was having an affair with the architect Walter Gropius. The revelation precipitated a breakdown while Mahler was working on his Tenth Symphony. The anguished, suicidal notes Mahler scrawled across the manuscript of the unfinished symphony revealed his troubled state. A four-hour consultation with Sigmund Freud in Leiden, Holland, restored the composer’s equilibrium. Although Mahler left little record of what transpired in Leiden, Stuart Feder has reconstructed the encounter on the basis of surviving evidence. The cumulative stresses of the crises in Mahler’s life, in particular Alma’s betrayal, left him physically and emotionally vulnerable. He became ill and died soon after in 1911.
At once a sophisticated consideration of Mahler’s work and a psychologically acute portrait of the life events that shaped it, this book extends our thinking about one of the great masters of modern music.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful, fascinating read ..........2006-11-20
This was a fascinating read from start to finish. Feder's psychoanalsis and assumptions aside, Mahler's life was already interesting and filled with excess drama. His relationship with his wife (another fascinating character) and all the name droppings around their small circle of friends/lovers/associates, etc., made this account one any Mahler fan will read cover to cover in a day or two. Just great stuff.
Book Description
Dr. Denton's book sets out to explain the gathering scientific evidence against evolution in its traditional form. It is a clear account of a growing crisis in biology and enables us to understand why an increasing number of research scientists are questioning strict Darwinism.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant and True.......2007-09-25
I did a comparative study on this and the Species of Origin. I have to say, I was once an evolutionist, but I now I realize how much blind faith I held in it.
A Religion in Crisis.......2007-09-05
Michael Denton's book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, is yet another work that fits into the Intelligent Design category of thought. It is a very profitable read to the extent that it gives the reader the opportunity to consider the theory of evolution without the dogma of a Richard Dawkins who pontificates:
"Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun..." Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, p. 1.
What is lacking within the scientific community today is any willingness to debate and contest even the most primitive assumptions of Darwinism. The prevailing expectation among far too many today is that one must never question the majority view, or else they will be punished with childish ridicule, and thus suffer condemnation from those who pride themselves to be "scientists." This point is easily verified by just reading the critiques and comments that are often found lurking around much of the Creationist and ID literature. But works like Denton's should be read, understanding that he lies somewhere between the views of naturalistic evolution and Creationism. It is apparent in his book that he too is frustrated by the dogmatism of men like Dawkins who would cease all discussions about evolution - simply because Mr. Dawkins said so - and those who disobey will be subject to an inquisition by the new majority:
"The lack of any scientifically acceptable competitor leaves evolutionary biology in a state of crisis analogous to the crisis in medieval astronomy when, although the Ptolemaic system was admitted to be a monstrosity, the lack of any conceivable alternative imprisoned the science for centuries within the same circle of belief (p. 357)...that [Darwinian theory] is neither fully plausible, nor comprehensive, is deeply troubling. One might have expected that a theory of such cardinal importance, a theory that literally changed the world, would have been something more than metaphysics, something more than a myth." p. 358.
In saying this, Denton does not deny evolution in all its facets. In fact it is important to note here that most (if not all) advocates of ID, as well as Creationists, accept the concept of the special theory of evolution (microevolution). The real problem lies within the realm of the general theory:
"For Darwin, all evolution was merely an extension of microevolutionary processes. Yet, despite the success of his special theory, despite the reality of microevolution, not all biologists have shared Darwin's confidence and accepted that the major divisions in nature could have been crossed by the same simple sorts of processes." p. 86.
What Denton is clearly denying is the notion that Darwinism necessarily suffices for all of the facets of the general theory (macroevolution). Denton advances several arguments in order to expose Darwin's general theory as mere metaphysics. As evidence of the many problems which plague Darwinism, he discusses the typology of nature (see page 117), incongruities in the fossil record (see chapter 8), complexities relating to the soft anatomy of supposed transitional forms (see p. 177), flight as the product of macroevolution (see chapter 9), the enigma which molecular biology presents to Darwinism (see chapter 11) and in the last few chapters, Denton reveals the fantastic notion of the spontaneous generation of life from an abiotic environment:
"...the possibility of life arising suddenly on earth by chance - is infinitely small. To get a cell by chance would require at least one hundred functional proteins to appear simultaneously in one place. That is one hundred simultaneous events each of an independent probability which could hardly be more than 10(-20), giving a maximum combined probability of 10(-2000). Recently, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe in Evolution in Space provided a similar estimate of...'10(40,000) an outrageously small probability...'" pp. 323-24.
In view of such odds, Denton then says:
"The Darwinian claim that all the adaptive design of nature has resulted from a random search, a mechanism unable to find the best solution in a game of checkers, is one of the the most daring claims in the history of science. But it is also one of the least substantiated. No evolutionary biologist has ever produced any quantitive proof that the designs of nature are in fact within the reach of chance. There is not the slightest justification for claiming, as did Richard Dawkins recently: '...Charles Darwin showed how it is possible for blind physical forces to mimic the effects of conscious design, and, by operating as a cumulative filter for chance variations, to lead eventually to organized and adaptive complexity, to mosquitoes and mammoths, to humans and therefore, indirectly, to books and computers.'"p. 324.
Denton's work is quite excellent, and I commend it to you for careful study and consideration. If you are a dyed in the wool general theory Darwinist - then read this book in order to broaden the spectrum of your analysis of the subject. As a former atheist and evolutionist, I can assure you that you won't be exposed to any of Denton's important questions within the spectrum of the standard texts on evolution today. If you are a Christian, I would encourage you to read this work too, but do remember that ID books are not a defense of biblical creationism - they are secular critiques of Darwinism. But the critique is quite clear - Darwinism is more than a scientific hypothesis as it was in Darwin's day. Now it has become an organized and mostly unchallenged religion.
An important book.......2007-09-03
After 8 years of scientific higher education culminating in a veterinary medical degree, I feel cheated for not having been exposed to Denton's ideas. Prideful scientists will not like Denton's challenge to the predominant paradigm, but his case is compelling and needs to be heard. His eye-opening critique needs to be widely read if science is to live up to its charge in the scientific method. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Denton's Objective view on Evolution.......2007-05-12
After 20 years, and inspite of all of the attempts to debuk Denton's authority, approach and science, this book still holds a must-read before any Evolutionist, Creationist, Intelligent Design proponents attempt to dialog, initiate legal action in the courts regarding Textbook inclusions and balance, or contribute publications in scientific journals or general literature.
Denton provides a balanced and sober historical and scientific perspective on the issues without falling into the ideological trap. He logically establishes the setting upon which theories have been developing over the past 150 years. Denton doesn't pre-judge or intends to suggest any deficiencies in any individual promoting any of the scientific views, but presents documented and historically supportable evidence that all parties must account for as they develop or criticize each other's ideas and methods.
All of this evidence obviously places the general theory of evolution at a disadvantage (see the Title of the book), since much of evolution theories, 'evidence', drawings (e.g., living-tree), have been colored by a truncated scientific method, materialist reductionism, lack of objective evidence for natural mechanisms that must be accounted for or at least 'revese-engineered' from existing bio-systems, environment; and "nano-technology"(micro-robotics and information systems at the chromosome level).
Denton's work is still a must read, and no dialog between evolution-creation-intelligent design can continue without first reading Denton
Exceptional book, painful to read.......2007-04-24
For those of us who grew up loving evolution, believing it had the corner on science, this is a painful read, because Denton amasses evidence--most convincing to this reader was the mathematical difficulty of evolution--that makes it clear evolution was no more likely to have occured than a tornado going through a junkyard could have left a 747 in its wake.
The implications of this book took me a year to absorb. So I can understand why die-hard evolutionists don't like it. It says the emperor isn't wearing any clothes, and it doesn't offer any other replacement clothes--not so much as a fig leaf! In the end, the book leaves you naked, without the comfortable blanket of evolution to wrap yourself in. But, if that is what the science shows, shouldn't we hunker down and accept the reality, painful though it is? Or, are we doomed to what the larger history of human scientific advancement has mostly been about--those in power defending their beliefs while calling the nonbelievers apostates?
Book Description
This book explains why African countries have remained mired in a disastrous economic crisis since the late 1970s. It shows that dynamics internal to African state structures largely explain this failure to overcome economic difficulties rather than external pressures on these same structures as is often argued. Far from being prevented from undertaking reforms by societal interest and pressure groups, clientelism within the state elite, ideological factors and low state capacity have resulted in some limited reform, but much prevarication and manipulation of the reform process, by governments that do not really believe that reform will be effective.
Customer Reviews:
Best Book on African Development for Many Years.......2004-06-29
The Politics of Permanent Crisis is simply one of the best books on contemporary Africa to come out for ages. The author, who has been writing sensibly on Africa, political reform, and foreign aid issues for many years, takes on a whole range of often contradictory academic work to help explain why Africa has been unable to grow faster despite increasingly levels of external financial assistance. Van de Walle argues coherently that local politics within many African countries have combined with donor practices to militate against the fundamental changes required for African economies to take-off. Seen in this light, the lack of reforms and disappointing outcomes from foreign aid in Africa are not mysteries, but rather the logical outcomes of the incentives under which the various players operate. This is a seminal contribution to our understanding of Africa's economic and political dilemmas -- and an excellent complement to Bill Easterly's "The Elusive Quest for Growth". If there is any shortcoming in the book, it is a minor quibble that van de Walle seems too dismissive of the role of individual leaders in sparking recovery (e.g., surely, Jerry Rawlings and Yoweri Museveni deserve some personal credit for turning Ghana and Uganda around). This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Africa's development challenges and the role of the international community.
The Puzzle of African Exceptionalism.......2004-05-13
Nicolas van de Walle's prize-winning book explains the puzzle of African exceptionalism with an intelligent and nuanced framework. Focusing on the politics behind the seemingly permanent crisis, van de Walle explains the pervasive rise of neopatrimonial rule on the continent -- a political system that depends on patronage and clientelism, and which is a feature of many low-income, largely subsistence-based polities around the world. Van de Walle's dual training in economics and political science, and his extensive experience living and working in many of the countries of the sub-continent, make this book deep, broad, and credible. I've recommended it to many who want to understand what is behind their t.v. screens: why has poverty grown in Africa? Why is this the region most troubled by small-scale political wars? Its scholarly but accessible style, complimented by extensive footnotes and references, also make this an excellent book for students.
A Plagiarized Monograph: How the Academy Fails Africa .......2003-12-19
This book represents Nicolas van de Walle's attempts to characterise Africa's political economy in the era of 'partial reform' in comparative perspective. Unfortunately, this book which could have fulfilled an important lacunae in the field is largely a poorly thought out academic hustle. The analysis is full of mutually contradictory statements, and given the author's evident lack of familiarity with the cases he is comparing with S.S.A. his comparative analysis lacks any bite or merit. Nowhere is this more clear than in his comparisons between Africa and Latin America. For example, according to van de Walle Argentina is a considered 'especially' a case of committed and extensive reform.
Throughout the author cites and misrepresents work with which he is clearly unfamiliar and large sections are plagiarised from uncited sources. In particular, much of the book is plagiarized from my own work which van de Walle reviewed for Comparative Studiesd in Society and History. According to that review -which van de Walle claims was done after the submission of his monograph, but which he had received well before submission, - Africa is unque in the extent to which rent seeking by those close to the regimes characterizes reforms. It is, however, a central pillar of his monograph that this is a universal characteristic of reform.
The author also demonstrates a lack of familiarity with rudimentary social science concepts and cannot even distinguish for example between an African regime and an African State. These failings are glaring, and the book's neoliberal-ideological attempts to correct theoretical misunderstandings about the autonomy of the African state are thus rendered irrelevant. It is clear that van de Walle has never read Weber and does not even comprehend the monograph's key concept neo-patriminonialism.
The author, furthermore does not even have an awareness of the literature on interest groups and reforms, rendering his critique of this literature meaningless and ineffective if not downright dishonest. Any one with rudimentary familiarity of basic work such as Joan Nelson's, Przeworski's, Rodriks etc.. would be forced to conclude that this book is profoundly intellectually dihonest in the conclusions it draws.
Throughout the book, the author's personal value judgements are not accompanied by empirical support particularly where the author engages in the critique of other significant monographs in the discipline. For these reasons, despite sweeping pretense and fanfare the monograph fails to make a significant theoretical or empiraical contribution to the disciplines of comparative and African political economy.
Presently, the matter of this monograph is before the legal department of Cambridge University Press. Litigation is now immanent. I have been represented in this matter by Fraser Milner Casgrain and have now retained a litigator. If you purchase this book you are supporting wholesale [...] and moreover any royalties will eventually come to me along with damages. At any rate there are a range of other books which would serve you far better if you are trying to understand the political economy of Africa.
Books:
- Faith in Conservation: New Approaches to Religions and the Environment (World Bank Directions in Development)
- Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure (Clarendon Lectures in Economics)
- Foreign Currency Trading: From the Fundamentals to the Fine Points
- Global Sustainability: Bending the Curve (Routledge/Sei Global Environment and Developmentseries, 3)
- Global Sustainability: Bending the Curve (Routledge/Sei Global Environment and Developmentseries, 3)
- Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
- Handbook on Urban Sustainability
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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