Book Description
Americans have traditionally placed great value on self-reliance and fortitude. In recent decades, however, we have seen the rise of a therapeutic ethic that views Americans as emotionally underdeveloped, psychically frail, and requiring the ministrations of mental health professionals to cope with life's vicissitudes. Being "in touch with one's feelings" and freely expressing them have become paramount personal virtues. Today-with a book for every ailment, a counselor for every crisis, a lawsuit for every grievance, and a TV show for every conceivable problem-we are at risk of degrading our native ability to cope with life's challenges.Drawing on established science and common sense, Christina Hoff Sommers and Dr. Sally Satel reveal how "therapism" and the burgeoning trauma industry have come to pervade our lives. Help is offered everywhere under the presumption that we need it: in children's classrooms, the workplace, churches, courtrooms, the media, the military. But with all the "help" comes a host of troubling consequences, including:* The myth of stressed-out, homework-burdened, hypercompetitive, and depressed or suicidal schoolchildren in need of therapy and medication* The loss of moral bearings in our approach to lying, crime, addiction, and other foibles and vices* The unasked-for "grief counselors" who descend on bereaved families, schools, and communities following a tragedy, offering dubious advice while billing plenty of money* The expansion of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from an affliction of war veterans to nearly everyone who has experienced a setback Intelligent, provocative, and wryly amusing, One Nation Under Therapy demonstrates that "talking about" problems is no substitute for confronting them.
Customer Reviews:
Critical thinking thrives on controversy.......2006-08-31
I had the pleasure of reviewing this book earlier this year,along with an edited work of a similar theme by Cummings and Wright, for Cognitive & Behavioral Practice (13,98-101). While noting therein that "there is much with which to agree and more than a bit to dispute," I went on to argue that a principles read of both these texts can only improve our hope for a more reasoned and evidence based approach to assistance.
The success of any provocateur may best be assessed through the polarization of responses to his or her points. Given that metric, Sommers and Satel have certainly succeeded in sampling of reviews placed here. Those sympathetic to their arguments rave while those opposed rant. This is fine, but let not the heat prevent force us back too far to benefit from the light.
The real issue here is more about what psychology has become and will become in the future. Once a fledgling science of behavior crafted by august and critical thinkers, its scientific base has been diluted to homepathic proportions by ever increasing legions of well meaning but often undereducated quasi-professional providers for whom the notion of "intervention" is increasingly untethered to either specified mechanism or empirical outcome. This represents more than medocrity of application--it risks becoming a pernicious threat to our own understanding of ourselves and our essential human nature. That is the essential thesis Sommers and Satel ask us to consider carefully--no matter what one's personal disposition may be, it is a worthy and important matter to consider.
Know when to keep it in balance.......2006-08-29
A healer is a clear guide when you are on the journey to fulfilling your soul's destiny but the road is hard to see sometimes because of fog and other natural happenings. They give you the directions since they are removed and objective from a higher place of seeing ... to support you with the needed data to stay on course during these moments of cloudy vision. YOU (soul) are ultimately still driving the car (your life in action)... you have to choose what to do with the directions given, and still alter the route if an unexpected rainstorm happens.
... The problem with too much therapy ... is that the people forget they are still responsible for their life... and in a money-making mode.... many life coaches and healers are too happy to take money and run, leaving you broke and possibly still hurting...
Right Wing Political Entertainment.......2006-08-01
Confuses Calvinistic moral posturing with honesty. Extremely poorly researched or evidence that didn't match cherished beliefs of the target market was omitted in order to increase sales to that niche.
Maslow and Rogers, RIP.......2006-07-26
I took my degree in psychology in the heyday of Maslow and Rogers, and found the overemphasis on "finding yourself" narcissistic and off point. This book is worth it alone for the chapter on Esteem Thyself which traces how this crept into the field of psychology and opened the door to one nation under therapy.
The positive potential of the self-esteem and self-actualization movement got spun into the overwrought "therapism" that has come to pervade our lives and assume every situation has something that needs "help." This point is even demonstrated (unintentionally it appears) by another reviewer who presumes that people who like the book are just another group who needs help because they are looking for something to blame for their frustrations with modern life. That's just plain silly. Most don't need help and aren't necessarily frustrated with modern life (I am not). What's worse, it demeans the difficulties of those who truly do need help.
Well worth reading with much more, including the mythology of the fragile child as yet another object to be saved by the misguided helping culture.
Critique of Nation Addicted to Therapy Transcends Politics.......2006-07-01
Sommers and Satel's thesis, which I find indisputable no matter what your politics, is that the therapy industry, driven by the human potential movement and making big bucks, has contributed largely to our nation's weakening psyche: We have become a bunch of over-sensitive cry-babies full of entitlement, divorced from common sense and self-reliance. What's really frightening is the manner in which the authors have put our therapy-numbed brains in the context of a post 9/11 world, a time in which we need to be tougher and more street-smart than ever. Woefully though, too many of us are still seduced by the fraud of the "fragile inner child," the cult of self-esteem, the obsession with removing morality and character in the name of "syndromes."
The most salient point is the hiring of grief counselors to help people cope with the aftermath of 9/11. The rest of the world must be laughing at us for seeing the war against us as a matter of grief counseling. How dangerously weak we've become. One Nation Under Therapy is a bracing wake-up call.
Average customer rating:
- More common sense from a rare woman
- Documenting Abuses and Disabusing Through Documentation!
- Valuable book, but doesn't go far enough
- One Nation Is One Sided
- It depends on the KIND of therapy, not therapy itself.
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One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-reliance, Library Edition
Sommers Satel
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
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Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 1433207427 |
Customer Reviews:
More common sense from a rare woman.......2007-08-27
Thank you Christina for revealing just how the removal of all obstacles before some in our society does not strengthen them but weakens them, and in the long run is detrimental for them. This goes for everything from the over-use of neverending therapy in western society, to overgenerous state welfare and benefits, to the application of affirmative action and political correctness (as opposed to moral or ethical correctness, the universal standard of justice). But this merely confirms Darwin's theory of evolution, whereby obstacles are vitally necessary for those who hope to evolve and develop, be it physically, emotionally, or mentally. Make it too easy and organisms don't evolve, they stay at their present level or even devolve, losing acquired skills or traits. That is why as unfair as affirmative action is, for example, all it is ultimately guaranteeing is an extremely high standard of male excellence, as the competition is so much greater, as opposed to lower levels of excellence being attained by those unfairly favoured by such discriminatory, two-wrongs-make-a-right, policies, and that indeed is what becomes evident when we take a closer look at such issues. There is a short-term advantage for these people. But smoothing their paths so much is like helping free butterflies from their cocoons - they may never learn to fly.
Documenting Abuses and Disabusing Through Documentation!.......2007-07-16
Some weeks ago, I read an article detailing a recent study showing the current generation of teens and twenty-remarkably narcissistic and self-absorbed. Being a high-school teacher, I was neither suprised at what I read or left in doubt about why our kids are so sellf-absorbed. Unfortunately, there was only one sentence in the two page article that even suggested that there MIGHT BE a correlatlion between the psychologized self-esteem movement and narcissism.
This, in fact, is one of the first things Hoff Summers and Satel tackle in this very informative and well-argued book, in a chapter called, "The Myth of the Fragile Child." The overarching theme of this book, of course, is that while psychology and the helping professions have much to offer, they may have reached a point of diminishing returns. Self-help gurus (still) abound, therapists and grief counselors exhibit the same kind of "ambulance chasing" as lawyers, and we are often told that the only way to be psychologically normal is to talk about and address our feelings about even the most minor things.
One of the first - and best - chapters after "Myth of the Fragile Child" is one exploring the ideological origins of the "overhelping" movement that the authors name "therapism." Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers were leading proponents of the "human potential" movement in psychology, which sees emotional repression as a key obstacle to our ability to realize our potential. Psychological trouble, they say, is generally caused by repression of emotions and, by extension, the only way to be psychologically healthy is to hold nothing back.
While the authors don't or could not say sometimes, this is true, they do suggest that it often false. Several chapaters - on everything from the grieving process to 9/11's "mental health catastrophe that wasn't" - Summers and Satel show that, contra the current psychology, humans exhibit marked resiliency in dealing with most of life's setbacks, and that while some people certainly do benefit from counseling, others do not.
Yet, so many psychologists, counselors, theorists, and...college professors (!) paint a picture of human psychology as a delicate and fragile thing in need of constant monitoring. Again, this book does not dispute that psychology can be a great thing or that "grin and bear it" is the only possible psychological truth. (Far from it.) Rather, the authors' achievement is to document psychology's abuses while disabusing us of the notion that psychological fragility is the norm and that we should be a nation of constant introspectors.
In truth, I wish I could dismiss - as others do - this book as exaggeratory. I can't. Why? Becasue I am a special educator in a public school. I see the 'myth of the fragile child" all over the place. My graduate courses in special ed teach me that the best way to nurture a child's self-esteem is to ensure that their feelings are never hurt and that they are reminded every day how great they are (rather than the more common sense approach of helping them to achieve good things.) I am taught lengthy doses of Abraham Maslow's emotion-centered theories of psychology, whcih, as the authors very rightly point out, have been long ago dismissed in the much more rigorous field of clinical psychology. When a child fails, my teachers say, it is not their fault so much as the fault of their environment (and it could be irreprebly damaging to their self-esteem). Lastly, the authors briefly touch on what psychologists call "overhelping" - the idea that too much help becomes no help at all, but a self-reliance-stifling inteference. Is there any other profession exhibiting more of this tendency today than my own?!
Enough of that. The only thing that the authors did not get into which I wish they would have is a very plausible motivation of psychologists to tell the world that they should all see psychologists and therapists - to make themselves appear very necessary and important. No doubt, if this is a motive, it is probably a very unconscious one. But it would make sense that psychologists and counselors - like people in any helping profession - may see their jobs as ones with a special importance, and to, in turn, urge others to recognize how important it is. And there are probably a few - a very small segment - who, like the small segment of "ambulance chasing" lawyers - are simply good at sniffing out opportunity. Convince everyone that they need therapy and that the biggest sign of needing therapy is thinking that you don't need therapy (that's just the repression talking!).
Anyhow, I urge those thinking about going into the helping professions - as well as those already in them - to read this book and at least consider its arguments. The authors really do go a long way in documenting the abuses and shattering the myths of the helping professions.
Valuable book, but doesn't go far enough.......2007-05-03
In this excellent book, Mmes. Sommers and Patel take on the tyrannical pseudoscience of "therapism', a faux religion which encompasses a wide array of values, theories and dogmas, but whose main doctrines can be summed up with 3 main points: 1. Individual happiness should be our supreme goal. 2.Happiness is difficult to achieve because the vast majority of us are psychologically/emotionally disordered, and all our problems stem from psychological/emotional causes. 3. The only way for people to learn to think correctly (and thus be happy) is through the guidance of mental health "experts", whether credentialed or self-annointed. The value system this high priesthood of psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and counselors impose on their acolytes puts a high premium on openness, emotional self-absorption, vulnerability and the sharing of feelings. The authors claim that therapism is unscientific, unnecessary and harmful, and is weakening the American character. Because therapism has become the unofficial state religion of government, academia and much of institutional America, its tentacles affect us all.
Therapism's fatuity and insidiousness could be illustrated with thousands of examples, but the authors focus on a few main areas. Without giving a book report here, those areas deal with the therapeutic indoctrination of children in the classroom, the self esteem movement, the repudiation of personal responsibility, the imposition of therapeutic beliefs when dealing with crisis, and the hoax of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with a special chapter devoted to the therapeutic response to 9/11. What the authors demonstrate, by citing clinical studies and well-reasoned argument, is that therapism is not based in science and is not helping us. In fact, it is harming us individually and socially by convincing us of our inherent weakness and encouraging enervating psychological patterns, by making our emotional life- rather than our actions- the focus of our existence and the ultimate arbiter of our morality and self-worth, and by making us not only dependent on, but oppressed by a ruling class of ignorant psychological tyrants. The authors demonstrate that suppressing one's emotions is actually a healthier psychological mechanism than constantly expressing them and validating them, as so-called "repressors" are happier, more emotionally balanced and more successful socially and academically. Such emotional reserve has also been shown to be healthier and more efficacious than morbid rumination when coping with crisis and death. They argue that the vast majority of human beings can deal with life, from its everyday vicissitudes to its extraordinary disasters, without the intervention of psychological "experts". We always have and we always will. It's unfortunate that this book even had to be written. Human beings have managed without therapists for our entire existence. The burden of proof should be on these psycho-quacks to show why we should repudiate the values that have sustained us for thousands of years.
One criticism is that I think the authors should have devoted more space to the subject of how mankind dealt with its emotional life before the advent of therapism in the 20th century. At one point they do answer the question briefly, on the subject of grief, by saying that before the rise of secularism, we were inclined to ascribe a religious cause to catastrophe and to accept what we could not change. They also give an excellent example of how John Stuart Mill snapped out of a deep depression by focusing on something outside of himself. However, those two examples don't deal with the broad range of situations and emotions for which therapism claims to be our only guide. Using examples from history, literature and even anecdotal evidence (after all, many of us now living have parents and grandparents who weren't tainted by therapism's influence) I would have liked to have read about how mankind dealt not only with death and catastrophe, but emotional expression, child rearing, transgression and life's prosaic trials before the rise of the therapy cult.
In addition, I have a few unanswered questions. I would like to know how co-author Sally Satel, who is a practising psychiatrist, reconciles this book with her profession. Does she only deal with clinical mental illnesses (such as the VA Tech shooter obviously had) or does she see some slight validity in therapism's tenets? If so, in what situations would people actually benefit from therapy? Is the benefit that many people claim to receive from therapy something that they could just as easily have gotten from a friend or sympathetic bartender, rather than from an "expert"? Despite these minor quibbles, I would recommend this book to anyone beginning to question the almost monolithic domination of therapism in our national life.
One Nation Is One Sided.......2007-04-01
One Nation Under Therapy attacks what the call "Therapism." The authors are responding to legit issues. The crisis of the public schools is one that does need attention. Empty self-esteem does create narcissism and educators who protect student from ANY stress at all are doing more harm than good. The schools have lost their focus on academics and that does need changed.
However, I disagree with most everything else that they say! Sommors and Satel believe that repression, not expression, is important. They cite studies showing that dwelling on your past and your feelings can lead to actually feeling worse. While excessive focus on feeling can swing toward depression and even schizophrenia, that doesn't mean one should sacrifice their inner truth either. Repression isn't the right word for what is needed. It is the wrong approach. Repression implies that the inner world is less important. It implies that one can control their feelings or forget them when convenient. This sort of psychic death is what Arno Grun warns against in his book "The Insanity of Normality" which I recommend over "One Nation" any day!
One should try to refrain from obsessing too much. Getting involved in various extra curricular activities or community activities is important for a healthy balance. Emotions do have their time and place though. Rather than repress them, one needs only to find a proper outlet for them. Reading and writing can help someone work through some genuine issues. However, self-pity and focusing on counterfactuals (the what if's) do serve only to perpetuate the negative feelings. Therapy or therapeutic activities can help heal in right time and place--which is probably not during school hours. Sommors and Satel seem to believe that medicine is perhaps a better tool than talk-therapy, but even medicine is met with some skepticism. Although not explicitly stated, they basically believe that philosophy, sociology and religion have a better chance of improving our lives. Christian morals and ethics, or even some sort of secular set of morals and ethics, are better suited for our children than psychotherapy.
They also believe that criminals need to take responsibility for their actions. Understanding the reasons behind their actions is a pointless endeavor in Sommors and Satel's view. Lock the criminals away and forget about them! Punishment seems to be favored over any sort of rehabilitation.
Overall, they have a rather bleak view of society that feels jaded and frustrated at best. I didn't get a good feel for what they viewed as a solution. The book felt like a backlash for the baby-boomer rebellion. It is an extreme reaction without balance in my opinion. I really hope that society doesn't swing to another extreme. We do need a balance, which is what Arno Grun works towards in his excellent book "The Insanity of Normality."
It depends on the KIND of therapy, not therapy itself........2007-03-03
Ms. Sommers lists the following five items as to what she doesn't like about psychotherapy:
(1) children are psychologically fragile and mustn't be stressed
(2) self-esteem is the sine qua non of psychological health
(3) what moralists call sins are expressions of mental illness
(4) the emotional effects of trauma must be acted out
(5) all war and disaster witnesses suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Well, it is possible to argue against these to a great extent. I view with great displeasure anything that would discourage self discipline and taking responsibility for one's choices and educating ourselves on how to make better ones. And I, too, concur that a lot of what we call "mental illness" could be classified as plain out SIN. I also agree that emotional effects of trauma do NOT have to be acted out.
But emotional and mental illness can be as real as physical illness. The brain is an organ of the body and can short circuit just as a kidney or gallbladder can. And while I know that there is no excuse to continue with bad behavior, at times the most responsible thing we can do is to get some psychological help.
And not all psychotherapists believe the five assumptions that Ms. Sommers has mentioned. To paraphrase the late Ann Landers, psychotherapists are not lima beans. They're not all identical. Try reading William Glasser's REALITY THERAPY. It's as tough as nails, and he's a psychologist. Try reading Manuel Smith's WHEN I SAY NO I FEEL GUILTY and his other books on assertion training, based on the behavioral model. And he's a psychologist.
A lot of the personal responsibility people need to cope with life can be learned from -- gasp!--psychiatrists and psycologists. Let's not trash emotional and mental therapy because some people practice it wrongly.
When I broke my arm I was taken to a competent orthopedic surgeon and guess what -- my arm is better! I had to spend some time convalescing, but I got well. The same thing can happen in psychological and mental therapy, too.
And as for judging whether or not someone should not have post traumatic stress disorder after losing a family member in death, especially from war or the 9-11 attack -- well, I don't feel I'm in a position to judge how much someone should hurt from that. And to be honest, I don't think either of these authors are, either.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on June 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1334 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Bad counsel.(One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance)(Book Review)
Author: Theodore Dalrymple
Publication:
New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2005
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 23
Issue: 10
Page: 85(2)
Article Type: Book Review
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Skeptical Inquirer, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1955 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The ill effects of the self-help movement.(SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless)(One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance)(Book review)
Author: Terence Hines
Publication:
Skeptical Inquirer (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 30
Issue: 3
Page: 58(3)
Article Type: Book review
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The mental health crisis that wasn't: how the trauma industry exploited 9/11.(One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance)(Reprint) : An article from: Reason
Sally Satel , and
Christina Hoff Sommers
Manufacturer: Reason Foundation
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ASIN: B000E8TX8S
Release Date: 2006-01-25 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Reason, published by Reason Foundation on August 1, 2005. The length of the article is 4526 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The mental health crisis that wasn't: how the trauma industry exploited 9/11.(One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance)(Reprint)
Author: Sally Satel
Publication:
Reason (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Reason Foundation
Volume: 37
Issue: 4
Page: 48(8)
Article Type: Reprint
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Therapeutic states.(One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance)(Book review): An article from: National Review
Daniel N. Robinson
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ASIN: B000UDZVWO
Release Date: 2007-07-27 |
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Citation Details
Title: Therapeutic states.(One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance)(Book review)
Author: Daniel N. Robinson
Publication:
National Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 25, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 57
Issue: 7
Page: 52(2)
Article Type: Book review
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- A Well-done book on the Topic
- Do you want to brew great ales???
- A must have for technical minded brewer's
- good for history, short on brewing information
- Very well done
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Pale Ale, Revised: History, Brewing, Techniques, Recipes (Classic Beer Style Series, 1)
Terry Foster
Manufacturer: Brewers Publications
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Binding: Paperback
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Brown Ale: History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes (Classic Beer Style Series, 14)
ASIN: 0937381691 |
Book Description
Never before has the evolution of pale ale been so thoroughly explored. Terry Foster pays proper homage to this distinctive ale, and the substyles it has spawned.
Customer Reviews:
A Well-done book on the Topic.......2007-02-06
Terry Foster's "Pale Ale" is to be commended for it's excellent treatment of this historical style of beer, and it can be recommended both to the style's homebrewers and enthusiasts.
Foster writes about the history of pale ale with verve. This section shines among all the others. I know of no source that is more informative nor more engrossing on the subject of the history of this beer, or even english beer in general (though I have not read any other books in this series.) Foster not only explains the evolution of pale ale in isolation, but also its relationship with other beers that have been its commercial rivals through out history.
Foster is a clear advocate of the British Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and shows his CAMRA biases. But this bias never taints a candid discussion of Pale Ale as discovered both in England and the U.S. Indeed, as an American with no experience with Real Ale, I quite enjoyed his discussion of Real Ale: while reading, I more than once considered how to brew and (especially) to serve a bitter in the "real" way--a subject which he discusses in some detail. In addition, Foster is an open advocate of innovation--never does he scold the brewer who wants to innovate on this classic style, though he does warn against calling serious deviations "Pale Ales", something he considers both harmful and misleading.
Homebrewers with a great deal of experience with pale ales will not find themselves learning a great deal that's new about pale ale brewing. The book is not intended for those with no experience brewing: if you are trying to learn to brew for the first time, get Charlie Papzian's "Complete Joy of Homebrewing" or John J. Palmer's "How to Brew". In general, I found the chapter on Brewing Pale Ales to be pretty standard. This book won't tell you anything about making a pale ale if you've already absorbed Ray Daniel's "Designing Great Beer." On the other hand, those with a few but not many homebrews to their credit and with a zeal for developing their own recipes will likely find themselves inspired with new ideas after reading this book. (However, I would really recommend Designing Great Beer first.)
The book contains recipes, one for each sub-style in the pale ale family, but the book emphasizes recipe creation over delivering recipes. None of the recipes are purported "clones." All the recipes have both extract and all-grain versions. I haven't tried the recipes but all look as though they will produce good pale ales. However, the recipes section of the book is short, a fact for which this reviewer was grateful, but those seeking a tomb of recipes should look elsewhere.
This is a very well done book on beer. Regarding the history of pale ale and it's serving, it surpasses all other works I know. On the other topics it covers, it rivals the competition as far as pale ale is concerned. Why not five stars? Well, I feel that the section on brewing pale ale could have been considerably more probing. That chapter didn't go beyond Daniel's Designing Great Beers and I felt as though that should have been a possibility, indeed a reality, in a book dedicated to Pale Ale.
Do you want to brew great ales???.......2006-09-01
IF the answer is yes, you have to buy this book. There is a wealth of information of grains, hops, and their flavor contributions to your beer. Not just to pale ales but to how different grains will affect different styles of beer. Their is a reason why this book is the first in the series. Buy it first and the rest will fall into place. Great book to own whether you are a homebrewer, like me, or a professional brewer.
A must have for technical minded brewer's.......2004-04-06
You will be getting good information on Hops, both varieties and flavor characteristics, and malts, their flavor and color contributions. Terry Foster does an excellent job of explaining the science behind ale brewing which is applicable to most styles of brewing.
good for history, short on brewing information.......2001-04-06
I liked the historical information, the main reason for my rating, but was disappointed in the lack of brewing information. Maybe it will tell you enoough to get an idea of whether or not you actually want to brew Pale Ale but you won't learn the how part.
Very well done.......2000-08-31
Any homebrewer that enjoys making and drinking pale ales needs this book. As an avid reader of the Classic Beer Styles Series, I feel that the author has taken some of the best aspects of the previous 15 books and combined it all into one, making this one of the most useful in the series. The second edition of the book is a tremendous improvement over the first.
The book is longer than most of the others in the series, but only because the author broke the pale ale category into many subcategories. He does not discriminate - he explains all pretty much equally. The recipes are different and thoroughly presented; the method of dispensing each is even specified. All in all, a very useful reference for the homebrewer.
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