Book Description
"The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality." --Bono
This small book, based upon the speech given by Bono at the 2006 NPB, delivers an inspiring and powerful message. Here, in Bono's own words, is a reflection on his own faith and a challenge to people of all faiths to reach across boundaries and come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call "the least of these."
Customer Reviews:
A Beautiful Book, but a Shallow Gospel.......2007-09-30
The content of this short book is actually a speech Bono gave at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. in 2006. Bono makes his case for justice for Africa, outlining his own personal story, the religious motivation for giving, and what he ultimately desires out of the politicians he is addressing - a commitment to devote 1% of the fiscal budget to Africa.
The pictures in this book are beautifully provocative and captivating. The words can be so, too. But don't be too quick to embrace Bono's point of view. This is social gospel to the core. Bono combines tidbits from Islam, Judaism, Christianity... whatever fits the bill, really... to advocate for the poorest of the poor. And while so much of his message about poverty is true (e.g. "There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response") the basis and the context are all wrong.
I'm still figuring out what it means to live as a privileged young American in a world that is full of suffering and poverty and need. And I can only admire Bono for his Africa advocacy. I am so thankful that light is being shed on those who need our help. And I am confident that God can and does work through all of this. I don't even have a problem with Christians aligning themselves with the ONE campaign, because it stands for what we should be standing for - justice and generosity and love.
But that ends with doctrine and theology. I think Bono is preaching a shallow gospel, a cheap gospel, based on the pluralistic gods of this age. He is not preaching Christ crucified. He is preaching God in the slums. And while that is a valuable message, it doesn't compare to the most explosive message of all - Christ Jesus came to this earth to save sinners, of whom I am the very worst.
Moving and Inspiring.......2007-09-28
Bono is not only one of the biggest names in Rock and Roll history, but one of the world's best known philanthropists. His work in Africa is truly inspiring. This beautifully designed book incorporates the provocative speech he made at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington with some of the powerful and moving pictures that Bono himself took on one of his many trips to Africa. This is a great speech with a great message, and presented as it is in this way, makes it a great book and excellent conversation starter.
Rock Superstar Bono Emerges As Major Theological Force.......2007-09-08
This book documents the emergence of Rock superstar Bono as a major theological force in the interest of ending extreme poverty in Africa, where six thousand die of AIDS each day. He is becoming the Martin Luther King of Africa aid relief.
"There is a continent--Africa--being consumed by flames. I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did--or did not do--to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do." This quote is accompanied by the words FREEDOM and EQUALITY repeated numerous times in the form of a map of Africa.
Bono updates Isaiah 58:9-11 to report on the presence of God in today's world. "God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both of their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."
Bono founded the advocacy group DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) in 2002. It is a member of ONE, the Camapaign to Make Poverty History. In 2006 he launched Product (RED) to engage businesses in the fight against AIDS. He lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife and four children.
Bono wants the United States to give an additional one percent of its federal budget annually to end world poverty. Beside a picture of a barely clothed African child, Bono says "Where you live should no longer determine whether you live." He adds, "We hear that call in the One Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans left and right together, united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live."
Bono eloquently summarizes more of his agenda, "Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market--that's a justice issue. Holding children ransom for the debts of their grandparents--that's a justice issue. Withholding the life-saving medicines out of defeerence to the Office of Patents--that's a justice issue. And while the law is what wwe say it is, God is not silent on the subject."
Bono is of both Protestant and Catholic ancestry in a land deeply divided by literal warfare over the differences between these religions. "Religion often gets in the way of God, " Bono says. "I was cynical. Not about God, but about God's politics."
Bono was called to action by concept of the millennial year of 2000 being a Jubilee year, "an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They (the advocates of a Jubilee year) had the audacity to renew the Lord's call--and they were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty."
This is a book to stir people to action by man who, the publisher notes, "has brought about tremendous change--billions of dollars in debt relief have been forgiven and thousands of lives have been saved. But more than that, he has opened our eyes to the dignity, beauty, and strength of this continent. His eloquence when speaking about Africa at the National Prayer Breakfast inspired this book. My hope is that it will inspire you as well."
This is a book that does stir people to action, that ought to be read by people who want ideas on how to use their time and money to solve major problems facing the world. Bill Clinton, active in raising money and public consciousness for African relief in the years since he left the White House, describes this book as "Inspirational words from a man of faith and action. Bono's message is one of unparalled hope and challenge. He goes where others don't and makes us want to follow."
A rock star as an international moral leader? It is an unusual concept to be sure. But Bono says, "When churches started deomonstrating on debt, governments listened--and acted. When churches started organizing, petitioning, and even that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying on AIDS and global health, governments listened and acted.
"I'm here (at the National Prayer breakfast) today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.
"Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who God is or if God exists--most will agree that if there is a God, God has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives."
Bono notes the intense interest in poverty in the scriptures. "It's not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. That's a lot of airtime, 2,100 mentions." He praises our country for doubling aid to Africa, tripling funding for global health, putting 900,000 people onto life-saving anti-viral drugs and providing 11,000,000 bed nets to protect children from malaria.
"Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud. But here's the bad news. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the respons. And finally, it's not a questions about charity after all, is it? It's about justice."
Bono works to incite his audience to action. "But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties; it doubts our concern; it questions our commitment."
This is book that is moving, provocative, and insightful. The greater its audience, the greater will be the world's response to one of the great international challenges of our time.
A sense of longing.......2007-08-28
I saw this book this spring and knew I had to buy it. One, because Bono is someone I admire greatly. Of course I am bummed that the speech in this book was delivered at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, and seeing as how I have strong connections with the organizers I'm sad I didn't actually get to be there. Two, because I had saved this speech on my computer but never took the time to read the whole thing. And three because while I read it I had an immediate longing to go to Africa. To go there and knowingly have my heart broken, but knowing God's heart is breaking when a baby is born into poverty. To experience the pain and heartache, but also the joy that is thriving in these people.
Inspiring........2007-07-16
I found this book to be interesting, inspiring, heartbreaking and wonderful. As usual Bono is well spoken, deliberate, engaging and to the point.
Average customer rating:
- Good read, unique perspective
- a little honesty
- Serious Eye Opener
- IN REALITY, AN OLD PROBLEM IN A NEW FORM
- Bawer's Jeremiad against Europe
|
While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within
Bruce Bawer
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Social Policy
| Government
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Relations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
International Security
| Freedom & Security
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Emigration & Immigration
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Islamic Government
| Systems Of Government
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Islam
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Church & State
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Islamic
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
-
Londonistan
-
The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
-
Infidel
-
The Force of Reason
ASIN: 0385514727
Release Date: 2006-02-21 |
Book Description
The struggle for the soul of Europe today is every bit as dire and consequential as it was in the 1930s. Then, in Weimar, Germany, the center did not hold, and the light of civilization nearly went out. Today, the continent has entered yet another “Weimar moment.” Will Europeans rise to the challenge posed by radical Islam, or will they cave in once again to the extremists?
As an American living in Europe since 1998, Bruce Bawer has seen this problem up close. Across the continent—in Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Stockholm—he encountered large, rapidly expanding Muslim enclaves in which women were oppressed and abused, homosexuals persecuted and killed, “infidels” threatened and vilified, Jews demonized and attacked, barbaric traditions (such as honor killing and forced marriage) widely practiced, and freedom of speech and religion firmly repudiated.
The European political and media establishment turned a blind eye to all this, selling out women, Jews, gays, and democratic principles generally—even criminalizing free speech—in order to pacify the radical Islamists and preserve the illusion of multicultural harmony. The few heroic figures who dared to criticize Muslim extremists and speak up for true liberal values were systematically slandered as fascist bigots. Witnessing the disgraceful reaction of Europe’s elites to 9/11, to the terrorist attacks on Madrid, Beslan, and London, and to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bawer concluded that Europe was heading inexorably down a path to cultural suicide.
Europe's Muslim communities are powder kegs, brimming with an alienation born of the immigrants’ deep antagonism toward an infidel society that rejects them and compounded by misguided immigration policies that enforce their segregation and empower the extremists in their midst. The mounting crisis produced by these deeply perverse and irresponsible policies finally burst onto our television screens in October 2005, as Paris and other European cities erupted in flames.
WHILE EUROPE SLEPT is the story of one American’s experience in Europe before and after 9/11, and of his many arguments with Europeans about the dangers of militant Islam and America’s role in combating it. This brave and invaluable book—with its riveting combination of eye-opening reportage and blunt, incisive analysis—is essential reading for anyone concerned about the fate of Europe and what it portends for the United States.
Customer Reviews:
Good read, unique perspective.......2007-10-10
Excellent book written from the point of view of a man who really stands to lose a lot as islam strangles out Europe's sense of personal freedoms. Demonstrating his frustrations over how liberals can't see how their own soft racism against muslims is turning the disenfranchised muslim populations against the mainstream and will eventually lead to the loss of all the things liberals hold most dearly.
a little honesty.......2007-10-08
Given that Zionism has hijecked US policy, how ironic, but expected, it is that a book on 'Islam' would come out to suggest that it is Islam that is destroying the West from within? Rather, Zionism is a theory that would steal land from a group of people on a moribund 2000 year old claim and say that group's rights don't matter - Please explain why should the Palestinians be Zionists?
Serious Eye Opener.......2007-09-26
Having read a number of books about Islam and its role in the world, I didn't expect to find much I didn't know in this book. I was astonished at how much I learned!
The author takes a variety of social aspects - education, immigration, media, legislation and law enforcement to name a few - and pulls them all together to give a clear picture of what life on the streets of Europe is like for the burgeoning Muslim population and the rest of us.
Although I wasn't expecting or appreciative of the author's homosexual-rights bias, there was no denying the truth of his words or the accuracy of his information.
Every American should have to read this book, and our legislators need to take it's warnings to heart if we want to avoid the disaster that Europe now faces.
IN REALITY, AN OLD PROBLEM IN A NEW FORM.......2007-09-21
I'll break my review into several parts:
1). In the Fall of 1989, I served as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at the Vrije Unviersity of AMsterdam. Everything Bawer describes about European values, attitudes,society, their elites, etc., is absolutely correct. I saw it first hand. Because of the demise of patriotism and a value system, Dutch (and much of European) society has become one where social standards have evaporated. Thus, lacking a moral and ethical compass, an understanding of what is right and wrong, and a devotion to a coddling welfare state, they have created a vacuum that the Jihadists are only too willing and eager to fill. They created their own mess.
However, what he describes is ingrained in the Euroopean system throughout their history. I know. I immigrated from there as a child. Just the players have changed.
2). What Bawer did not disclose. WHile In the Netherlands, I discovered that Dutch corporations preferentially recruit workers from the military to staff the assembly line to the Board room. Many of these former military types "yearn to be of public service" and run for their parliament. Close to 55% of elected Dutch officials have a military background.
In 1989, I asked someone in the US Embassy what would happen if an economic turn down occurred. Would these ex-miltiary elected officials say "Ya, right, let's take over and run ze country like za military to fix ze problems" and would this lead to the re-emergence of militaristic fascism? I was made to understand this was a major concern. Bawer is correct in raising the issue of re-emerging fascism in response to the rising tide of Islamistc fascism in Europe, but he understated it. Likely, that will be the outcome to counter the Jihadists when crunch-time comes.
As my father once told me "beware of the man on a white horse." European hsitory is a continuiong saga of leaders on white horses, and becsue history repeats, it is likely to happen again.
Bawer also did not mention the following. European countries with former empires have only themselves to blame. When they gave up their empire, they still considered former residents (including native/ethnic people) of their "colonies" to be be citizens of the "Empire" and gave them British and French and Dtuch passports for openers. Many used these passports to immigrate to the UK, the Netherlands, and France. In 1960 when visiting London, I was astounded at the number of Pakistanis working as bus ticket collectors, street sweepers, and garbage men because British workers didn't want to do those job and instead collect welfare. Those Pakistanis saved their money, opened businesses, imported their wives and proceeded to multiply at a high rate, while establishing mosques and then importing immans.
3). What are the solutions?: Bawer really didn't have many. So here are some. First, if it is true that immigrants are tearing up their ID's and flushing them down the toilet on airplanes on the way to Europe and then claiming asylum, European governments COULD require that all ID's be turned over at check in, taken on board in a sealed container, and returned to the incoming passengers on landing at the immigration counter in the presence of a European immigration officer. That might slow things down with regard to fake asylum.
Second, European government should start shipping out ALL radical Muslim immans and radical Islmaic sympathizers (including those born in Europe) back to the country of their heritage.
Third, European governments should require that all children born in their country of foreign parents must attend school in Europe, and not be shipped at age 3 back to the Islamic world for an education, only to reappear later as adults. All subsidies for such children should be stopped if they leave the country. The only exception would be if the parents leave the country permanently too.
Fourth, Eruopean governments MUST stop subsidizing all religious schools, denominations, and institutions if they truly want to separate Church and State. Clearly, the failure to do so has been misunderstood, abused and corrupted.
Fifth, require all incoming "fetch brides" to be screened by embassies around the world before giving them visas. Use a system like the US uses in such circumstances.
Sixth, place a limit on the number of children the government will subsidize to three children. If a family has more than three children, no subsidies for the new ones. (Works in China to a point?)
If Bawer has sized up European attitudes correctly, and I believe he has, don't expect this to happen. But these proposals would help contain the problem in part.
Last, I have a question for Bawer? Why does he still chose to live in Europe? When I left the Netherlands in 1989 after living there six months, I vowed never to return and I haven't. It was bad then, and has become worse now.
RECOMMENDATION: Buy this book. It could happen in the USA and there are signs that in some parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states some of this is developing.
Bawer's Jeremiad against Europe.......2007-09-15
I saw Bruce Bawer on Bill Moyers and thought the idea of his book was fascinating. I had been watching news stories about the Muslim underclass in Europe and figured that there was a powder keg in the making, and I thought this book would enlighten me. In the first part of this book he states his central thesis, which is that the liberalism of European states will be the very thing that does them in, vis-a-vis their Muslim populations. He makes good points about Europeans not really understanding the meaning of true integration, about their romantic notions of other "exotic" cultures, and political correctness continuing to allow - if not condone - the worst practices of Muslim religious fanaticism.
Up until the middle of the book I was with him. Then, with the second part of the three-part book, he lets loose about every niggling little thing that any random European might have done or said to him that got under his skin. He clearly has lived in Europe too long. He proceeds to whine about how anti-American all Europeans are, how wonderful American-style capitalism is and just about deifies Ronald Reagan, who, he implies, singlehandedly brought down the Berlin Wall. He accuses liberals such as Michael Moore of lying about how bad the health system is in the US, questions how really "poor" Hurricane Katrina victims were and spends an inordinate amount of time dissecting the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Huh? This is NOT why I bought the book.
I realized that this book was less about how European nations were dealing with their immigration problems and more about how homesick he was for the US - and, how Europe's social economy was just way, way too "liberal" for him.
He's a facile writer, and when he wasn't blowing his stack about Europe and praising the US I rather enjoyed the read. But I just felt that the book used the European immigration situation as a thin ruse for the real topic of the book...bashing Europe. Had I known that, I wouldn't have bought it.
Book Description
Much of our business thinking is shaped by delusions -- errors of logic and flawed judgments that distort our understanding of the real reasons for a company's performance. In a brilliant and unconventional book, Phil Rosenzweig unmasks the delusions that are commonly found in the corporate world. These delusions affect the business press and academic research, as well as many bestselling books that promise to reveal the secrets of success or the path to greatness. Such books claim to be based on rigorous thinking, but operate mainly at the level of storytelling. They provide comfort and inspiration, but deceive managers about the true nature of business success.
The most pervasive delusion is the Halo Effect. When a company's sales and profits are up, people often conclude that it has a brilliant strategy, a visionary leader, capable employees, and a superb corporate culture. When performance falters, they conclude that the strategy was wrong, the leader became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture was stagnant. In fact, little may have changed -- company performance creates a Halo that shapes the way we perceive strategy, leadership, people, culture, and more.
Drawing on examples from leading companies including Cisco Systems, IBM, Nokia, and ABB, Rosenzweig shows how the Halo Effect is widespread, undermining the usefulness of business bestsellers from In Search of Excellence to Built to Last and Good to Great.
Rosenzweig identifies nine popular business delusions. Among them:
-
The Delusion of Absolute Performance: Company performance is relative to competition, not absolute, which is why following a formula can never guarantee results. Success comes from doing things better than rivals, which means that managers have to take risks.
-
The Delusion of Rigorous Research: Many bestselling authors praise themselves for the vast amount of data they have gathered, but forget that if the data aren't valid, it doesn't matter how much was gathered or how sophisticated the research methods appear to be. They trick the reader by substituting sizzle for substance.
-
The Delusion of Single Explanations: Many studies show that a particular factor, such as corporate culture or social responsibility or customer focus, leads to improved performance. But since many of these factors are highly correlated, the effect of each one is usually less than suggested.
In what promises to be a landmark book, The Halo Effect replaces mistaken thinking with a sharper understanding of what drives business success and failure. The Halo Effect is a guide for the thinking manager, a way to detect errors in business research and to reach a clearer understanding of what drives business success and failure.
Skeptical, brilliant, iconoclastic, and mercifully free of business jargon, Rosenzweig's book is nevertheless dead serious, making his arguments about important issues in an unsparing and direct way that will appeal to a broad business audience. For managers who want to separate fact from fiction in the world of business, The Halo Effect is essential reading -- witty, often funny, and sharply argued, it's an antidote to so much of the conventional thinking that clutters business bookshelves.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent reminder.......2007-09-25
This book was an excellent reminder to me of why the business guru type books have never set well with me. Practicle advice and how to think for yourself and take what you read with a grain of salt.
Remarkable.......2007-09-21
Achieves the remarkable feat of commenting in a deep way on business research methodology while avoiding equations and graphs, and while being compellingly readable. In addition to the many interesting methodological critiques in the book, the author points out the (non-obvious) fact there is no formula for business success, because business is competitive. Of course we know that business is competitive, but business authors (and authors of the "you too can be successful" genre generally) intentionally forget that not everyone can be successful because of the competitive nature of economic life. The book is so readable that I was sorry when it was over--an emotion I have in the past experienced only with good novels and histories. Congratulations to the author for a fine, stimulating work.
No Easy Answers Here.......2007-09-06
If you want guided solutions to performance excellence, or are looking for the keys to business success, do not "Search Inside" - or, for that matter, look in any other popular business book or management works, according to Dr. Rosenzweig! In this well argued challenge to popular business press answers on performance excellence, the author promises to help managers think for themselves, rather than accept the numerous and often conflicting claims made by both academics and management gurus alike. Following the theme of the book's title, Professor Rosenzweig argues that the halo effect and/or eight other fatal flaws that find their way into the research reduce most business books to `stories books' that provide coherent explanations of complex events and appeal to our need for fairytale like outcomes.
Interestingly, the author is not necessarily arguing that the offerings are wrong; in fact he believes many of them are good basic principles. Rather, he argues they often are not substantiated by sound research, and when offered as the solution, they lead not to useful insights, but they divert our attention, cause us to lose focus on the details of running our businesses better than the competition, or they let us confuse actions and outcomes. In short, if they do not help us think, they are dangerous. There are no five (or eight or whatever number) keys to sustaining excellent performance. Even the two critical success factors offered by the author - strategic choice, and execution - are fraught with risk and uncertainty. To quote from the book, "The answer to the question, What really work? is simple: Nothing really works, at least not all the time." This book is highly recommended for managers in all business or social sectors. Dennis DeWilde, author of The Performance Connection
Long overdue - and well worth the wait!.......2007-08-27
Do not worry about what the Nine Delusions are that the author uses to develop his thesis - they largely overlap and interlock and as you read the book will be seen as a powerful continuum. Why you should read this book is because bottom dollar like me you will have read one of the prior highly successful tomes that is one of the key targets for his thesis.
Whether it is "In search of excellence", "Built to Last" or "Good to great", by the end of this book you will I reckon have a more questioning attitude to such works (if not 100% cycnical) because this book challenges many preconceptions and makes you think and look afresh at how one will ever achieve success in business management.
The theme is not just "cutting tall poppies" down to size, but more basically that nothing is as simple or easy as many have claimed in writing such books. His chapter on why "strategy" and "execution" are actually so hard to do well, is alone worth the price of the book for me.
The core argument of the "delusions" being based on too much retropsective story telling is bought full circle by the three examples at the end of companies and business leaders who have in the authors opinion sought to face reality and do not underestimate the uncertainty that faces everyone.
A highly recommended book since it makes its points thoroughly and cogently and as such comes over as thoughtful and provoking of fresh views - as such it is a welcome change from too many of the best selling tirade type books that have come to represent both business but also political and history bestsellers recently. Definitely a book that is long overdue and one hopes will be successful plus lead to more realism in such future writing.
What REALLY Works..umm..well, sort of..! .......2007-08-25
Is there a secret sauce for corporate success?
The Halo Effect is a cognitive bias whereby the perception of a particular trait (for example, of an individual) is influenced by a general impression (of that individual). This effect was first postulated by Edward L. Thorndike, an American psychologist who conducted research into how World War I soldiers were appraised by their superiors. He found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits - in plainspeak, that means that soldiers who were found to be good on one or two traits were rated as good on all other traits as well, while those who were seen to be bad on one or two traits were rated poorly on all other traits as well.
Lest we think that this is an affliction confined to senior World War I army officers, it isn't. Pretty much all human beings suffer from this bias - apparently it is a mechanism used by the human brain to manage the complexity of the world. This, for example, is why celebrity endorsement of products works, even when it is fairly apparent that the celebrity has no credentials - or credibility - to endorse those products.
Most of us also seem to intuitively realize the existence of this effect - for example, this is why people go to extraordinary lengths to put on their best behavior in the presence of somebody in authority.
Now, a book called The Halo Effect ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers, published in February 2007 by Free Press, sets out show how this effect may color our perceptions of company performance. At first glance, this is the book the business world was waiting for, and didn't know it. It's a good, down-to-earth look at the various studies, scholarly and otherwise, that have claimed over the years to uncover the secret sauce that drives great companies. This is a book full of solid horse sense - the most refreshing book in years in a genre notorious for pompous claims and buzzphrases.
It dedicates itself to debunking simplistic "theories" that purport to answer the core question of what really determines corporate performance. The core argument of the Halo Effect is that when a company performs well, we shower high ratings on every one of it's management traits such as leadership, culture, strategy, execution, et al. When the company performs poorly, we promptly buckle over to the other extreme, demonizing the very same leadership, culture, etc.*!
Along the way, it unveils eight other "delusions" that frequently afflict attempts to answer this question. In buttressing its arguments, the book quotes from authorities as varied as George Bernard Shaw and the legendary Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. Personally, perhaps the best takeaway from this book was the exhortation that one should not select a sample for study based on the dependent variable - for example, if you want to study if a new technque for teaching mathematics to children works, you should study how kids who were taught using that technique fared, but you should also look at children who weren't taught that technique! **
The book comes with cast-iron credentials - the author is Prof. Phil Rozenzweig, who is a PhD from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and has taught at Harvard Business School and IMD, Switzerland. His candor is incredibly refreshing, and the fact that most of the "authorities" on this subject that he takes on are people of his own - business school professors - shows admirable boldness.
One criticism that may be leveled at the book is that is sometimes too quick to assume that the data used by various studies were "contaminated" by halos; it seems to me that this is too facile, and perhaps unfair, a conclusion. We should probably credit the authors of those studies, the references they consulted, and the subjects they interviewed with a greater degree of discretion and diligence than that. Another thing I found myself wishing the author would refrain from is the extent to which he bases evidence for the delusions on news reports in the business press, such as BusinessWeek, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. These are written by reporters under stifling deadlines, often under pressure to sensationalize the mundane - a fact that does not escape most discerning readers. There can be a smattering of these, but the author would probably have done better to focus his considerable energies on well-funded studies done over a long period of time, with purport of scholarly rigor, and papers and books*** based on such studies. The readers of such reports, papers and books are typically asked to suspend common sense and prior experience, and submit to scholarly authority derived from apparent academic rigor, and it is these for which the greatest disapprobation should be reserved.
So, what does work, according to the author? Well, he concludes, somewhat disappointingly, that it's the right strategic choice, and good execution!
But this is not to take away from the otherwise excellent content of the book. It's job is not to give us formulas. It's purport is to caution us that business performance is far more complex, and far less amenable to simplistic analysis than we tend to think, and it achieves that goal with admirable panache!
________________________________________________________________
* I have referred to this "binary" thinking as the Extreme Tendency elsewhere, albeit in a somewhat different context - that of foreseeing the prospects of emerging technologies!
** Later in the book Rozenzweig shows that even observing this precept doesn't help much in uncovering what drives corporate success, but it's a very important principle to keep in mind nonetheless.
*** That, without openly claiming anything of the kind, actually intend to expand the fame of their authors as management Gurus, not to say anything of their pockets!
Book Description
The noted critic and a Palestinian now teaching at Columbia University,examines the way in which the West observes the Arabs.
Customer Reviews:
Orientalism by Edward Said.......2007-10-17
Orientalism is an easy to understand book by Edward Said, a must read for anyone interested in the current conflicts between East and West. How the creation of the "Orient" is a necessity to justify the West's aggression since the Middle Age's. His analysis is of the Near East, but is applicable to all non Western cultures.
The Old Stone Thrower Is At It Again.......2007-09-20
The old stone thrower is at it again, expounding his one-sided, biased view of history. Said made a career of being a highly-visible defender of the Palestinians; was even a member of the PLO executive council. Too bad he was silent about Yasir Arafat's theft of hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for the Palestinians. He would rather blame the Jews for the Palestinians misfortunes, which they were the SOLE author of. What hypocrisy!
Philology to Think Tanks - Then and Now.......2007-07-17
Orientalism simplistically might be classified as the application of specialized knowledge developed by Occidentals then used by Occidentals to the long term detriment or destruction of Oriental values and states. Said carries the reader from century old philological works to area studies conducted by think tank specialists in Washington. It is the story of East vs. West raging since the 7th century and may rage for centuries to come
It is not an easy journey to follow Said's details, but he offers insights to ponder regarding East-West relationships in these dangerous times. As an engineer trained in science and mathematics, I found Said's discussion of the schematic authority of written materials fascinating. It is easier to become lost in worlds founded mainly on opinions and prestige than on rigorous applications of first principles of science.
I would have preferred additional materials from the post WW11 era and less on the writers of the 19th century, but he is writing for an audience that will be hostile and he goes to pains to identify his sources and his reasoning over many pages. Very worthwhile read.
Serious reading for a serious time.......2007-03-27
I could not stop reading this book. It is difficult at times given that it's serious criticism and I thought I had given up criticism when I left academia behind, but for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of why the US is in Iraq, why there are so many autocratic regimes in the Middle East, why the West cannot find real solutions for the plague that is terrorism, and why there is terrorism in the first place...this books is a good place to start. Said lays the ground work of colonialism and its repercussions.
Wish it were on sparknotes.......2007-02-19
but it's not, and sometimes one has to grow up and read challenging but important criticism. A seminal book for all readers.
Book Description
This book helps North Americans better understand the French by taking an in-depth look at French culture, and using history and cultural anthropology to illuminate the present. It offers an interpretation of some historical roots of French attitudes and institutions, as well as the changes in French society over the past three decades, to suggest and predict patterns of behavior. Offering a comparative outlook, this book provides a framework—for those with an advanced command of the French language—to describe France and the French in relation to others and to themselves. Chapter topics explore French points of view, family structures, the structure of society, religion, and more. For individuals with a good understanding of the French language—looking for a better understanding of everything else French.
Customer Reviews:
for the serious intermediate student.......2007-09-10
Les Francais by Laurence Wylie is worth its textbook price for the serious intermediate student of French. Meticulously edited so that its material is coherant, demanding and ultimately accessible, it offers intelligent and objective commentary on the history and current trends of contemporary French culture. As an adult student of French language (and hence to some degree an autodidact) I hesitated before buying the book, partly due to its price and partly due to my concern that a textbook might not be useful outside a classroom environment. Yet among all the useful books on French language and culture I've bought, it's probably the best value and the best use of my time I've encountered.
Excellent insight!.......2001-01-20
This book gives excellent insight into the differences between the French and the American. The authors do an excellent job of describing and explaining the influences on French children and young adults that form their societal views on the world. Each section gives excellent description of essential differences and similarities between the two on the various aspects of life, including body language, history, weather, etc. It also helps if you read French fluently.
Amazon.com
We live in an era where image is nearly everything, where the proliferation of brand-name culture has created, to take one hyperbolic example from Naomi Klein's No Logo, "walking, talking, life-sized Tommy [Hilfiger] dolls, mummified in fully branded Tommy worlds." Brand identities are even flourishing online, she notes--and for some retailers, perhaps best of all online: "Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations."
In No Logo, Klein patiently demonstrates, step by step, how brands have become ubiquitous, not just in media and on the street but increasingly in the schools as well. (The controversy over advertiser-sponsored Channel One may be old hat, but many readers will be surprised to learn about ads in school lavatories and exclusive concessions in school cafeterias.) The global companies claim to support diversity, but their version of "corporate multiculturalism" is merely intended to create more buying options for consumers. When Klein talks about how easy it is for retailers like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster to "censor" the contents of videotapes and albums, she also considers the role corporate conglomeration plays in the process. How much would one expect Paramount Pictures, for example, to protest against Blockbuster's policies, given that they're both divisions of Viacom?
Klein also looks at the workers who keep these companies running, most of whom never share in any of the great rewards. The president of Borders, when asked whether the bookstore chain could pay its clerks a "living wage," wrote that "while the concept is romantically appealing, it ignores the practicalities and realities of our business environment." Those clerks should probably just be grateful they're not stuck in an Asian sweatshop, making pennies an hour to produce Nike sneakers or other must-have fashion items. Klein also discusses at some length the tactic of hiring "permatemps" who can do most of the work and receive few, if any, benefits like health care, paid vacations, or stock options. While many workers are glad to be part of the "Free Agent Nation," observers note that, particularly in the high-tech industry, such policies make it increasingly difficult to organize workers and advocate for change.
But resistance is growing, and the backlash against the brands has set in. Street-level education programs have taught kids in the inner cities, for example, not only about Nike's abusive labor practices but about the astronomical markup in their prices. Boycotts have commenced: as one urban teen put it, "Nike, we made you. We can break you." But there's more to the revolution, as Klein optimistically recounts: "Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street reclaimers, McUnion organizers, human-rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centered alternative to the international rule of the brands ... as global, and as capable of coordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert." No Logo is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. --Ron Hogan
Book Description
With a new Afterword to the 2002 edition. No Logo employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing—and the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that will surely alter the course of the 21st century. First published before the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, this is an infuriating, inspiring, and altogether pioneering work of cultural criticism that investigates money, marketing, and the anti-corporate movement.
As global corporations compete for the hearts and wallets of consumers who not only buy their products but willingly advertise them from head to toe—witness today’s schoolbooks, superstores, sporting arenas, and brand-name synergy—a new generation has begun to battle consumerism with its own best weapons. In this provocative, well-written study, a front-line report on that battle, we learn how the Nike swoosh has changed from an athletic status-symbol to a metaphor for sweatshop labor, how teenaged McDonald’s workers are risking their jobs to join the Teamsters, and how “culture jammers” utilize spray paint, computer-hacking acumen, and anti-propagandist wordplay to undercut the slogans and meanings of billboard ads (as in “Joe Chemo” for “Joe Camel”).
No Logo will challenge and enlighten students of sociology, economics, popular culture, international affairs, and marketing.
“This book is not another account of the power of the select group of corporate Goliaths that have gathered to form our de facto global government. Rather, it is an attempt to analyze and document the forces opposing corporate rule, and to lay out the particular set of cultural and economic conditions that made the emergence of that opposition inevitable.”—Naomi Klein, from her Introduction
Download Description
Once a poster boy for the new economy, Bill Gates has become a global whipping boy. The Nike swoosh is quickly losing its cachet, equated now with sweatshop labor. Teenage McDonald's workers are joining the Teamsters. What's going on? NO LOGO explains why some of the most revered brands in the world are finding themselves on the wrong end of a spray-can, a computer hack, or an international anti-corporate campaign. NO LOGO uncovers a betrayal of the central promises of the information age: choice, interactivity, and increased freedom. Instead, job security and consumer choice have been swallowed whole by companies who enlist us as their human billboards and spokesmen. Equal parts cultural analysis, political manifesto, mall-rat memoir, and journalistic expose, NO LOGO is the first book that both uncovers the sins of corporations run amok and explores and explains the new resistance that will change consumer culture in the 21st century.
Customer Reviews:
Informatively frustrating.......2007-08-17
It was well written exploring many aspects of branding, culture jamming, and production.
This book will leave you with frustration and questioning how you change change something, and what CAN you buy that isn't made from Export Processing Zones.
It does give great information but yet leaves you frustrated and feeling helpless that you can't change the current conditions or avoid buying products made in places like china, el salvador, indonesia where they treat their workers worse than dirt.
Insight into an Ad-driven culture.......2007-07-14
This book offers a deep insight on how advertising are creeping into our lives, even conveyed to us in a subliminal way. If left unchecked, the corporations would be the authors our culture. It also showcases the exploits of major corporations in employment.
However, one must be critical when reading the book, as some of the things Naomi bashes on, such as the Starbucks expansion strategy, are genuine business strategies. In some cases, we have to be realistic and not blindly adopt and anti-corporation stance.
The first 3 chapters, No Space, No Choice, and No Jobs are exceptionally informative, but the last chapter, No Logo, falls short and descends into a boring rant on countermeasures that in my opinion, are far from effective and often, impractical.
Buy the book, read the first 2, skip the last.
Anti-Corporate Handbook.......2007-05-20
What are the effects of multinational corporations in the Branding Age? Naomi Klein tackles that in this seminal work on the subject. While somewhat dated (published in 2000), it gives the most comprehensive picture of the transition corporations have undergone from providing competent products and services to providing ubiquitous branding and advertising to produce loyalty and sell peripherals. This book gives the total picture of the devastation left in the wake of total corporate dominance in the U.S., Canada, and worldwide.
As she details, what has emerged in the last half of the 20th century is a new kind of totality - an economic imperialism spearheaded by Nike, The Gap, McDonalds, Shell, and Microsoft and their lawyers, contractors, and advertising agencies. As they break open markets, crush competition, and lower wages across the globe they've gotten so powerful as to dictate to scores of countries what their trade and economic policies are going to be. These policies are always anti-Union and terrible for workers, leaving nations worse off than before they were Industrialized and Advertised - creating massive wealth gaps and uneven distributions across the board.
The four major sections of the book: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, and No Logo, each show in example after example, case study upon study that advertising is the product now and the more money spent in that avenue, the more profitable the corporation can be while taking every opportunity away from the poor and disenfranchised, forcing horrible conditions and worse jobs on them, and decreasing their access to health care and nutrition. This is not an accident. This is a concerted policy foisted upon the world through the corporate enforcement arm of the WTO, World Bank, and U.S. Military.
Is it hopeless? Well, civil disobedience is one way to combat the trends and takeover and Klein offers many suggestions and examples in this book. However even she admits that the situation is bleak.
Good luck . . . and good read.
- CV Rick
NO LOGO will fundementally alter the way you think about the world........2006-11-04
Naomi Klien's treatise on the anti-corporate movement of the last decade provides tremendous insight into the philosophies behind today's anti-corporate culture, and more importantly, the "branded" society that has spawned it. Well written and intelligent on every level, NO LOGO carefully tracks such disturbing phenomenons as the disappearance of public space, the rise of corporate censorship, and the transformation of living wage jobs for Americans into sweatshop labor in the third world. If you are completely unfamiliar with today's cultural rebellion against corporate control, NO LOGO serves as an excellent introduction, clearly outlining the dubious marketing trend of promoting "brands not products" such that you will never be able to watch commercials the same way again. If you are a seasoned WTO protester or billboard adbuster, NO LOGO will provide you with all the philosophical and factual ammo necessary to start converting your friends away from their unthinking materialistic lifestyle. This book is a must read for anyone who considers themselves and independently thinking consumer, as well as anyone who is interested in the latest cultural rebellion taking place among today's young and disenfranchised.
The Third World has always existed for the comfort of the First.......2006-11-03
Naomi Klein sketches perfectly the major shift in corporate strategy today: transnational companies are not interested in production anymore, only in branding: products are made in factories, brands in the mind. Branding creates big margins, production in home countries meager earnings.
This strategy causes monstrous layoffs in the First World and creates EPZ (Export Processing Zones) in the Third World.
In the First world, corporations transformed themselves in `engines of wealth growth' for their shareholders, instead of `engines of job growth'. `CEO's of the 30 companies with the largest announced layoffs saw their total compensation increase by 67%.'
The jobs they need are predominantly outsourced, or are McJobs (no `adult wages') and temporary stop-jobs.
The First World stirs fierce competition between Third World countries in order to get rock-bottom prices for their `branded' products, creating colossal margins in the home countries.
Wages in EPZs are so low that most of the money is spent on shared dorm rooms and basic food. Workers cannot afford the consumer goods they produce.
Another aspect of our branded world is the sheer size of the (trans)national corporations created by relentless mergers and acquisitions. Their size permits them to decide what items (also magazines, DVDs) should be stocked in a store, in other words, they create a new kind of censorship.
Big mergers in the media landscape allow conglomerates to produce their own news and in this sense jeopardize basic civil liberties.
While Naomi Klein's analysis of our consumer planet is very revealing, the remedies she proposes are rather innocent, epidermic, symptom healing or too general: ad and brand busting, radical ecology (Reclaim the Streets), anti-globalization and anti-corporate mass protests, boycott, building greater critical social consciousness. Individual actions like attacking in court (Shell in Nigeria), revealing Nike's sweatshops or denouncing McDonald's food are ultimately not more than temporary needle pricks in elephant skins.
What the world needs is a global vision, which we can find in the works of Joseph Stiglitz or (for a view from the South) Walden Bello.
Highly recommended.
Book Description
Since it was first published more than twenty-five years ago, Asking Questions has become a classic guide for designing questionnaires?the most widely used method for collecting information about peoples attitudes and behavior. An essential tool for market researchers advertisers, pollsters, and social scientists, this thoroughly updated and definitive work combines time-proven techniques with the most current research, findings, and methods. The book presents a cognitive approach to questionnaire design and includes timely information on the Internet and electronic resources. Comprehensive and concise, Asking Questions can be used to design questionnaires for any subject area, whether administered by telephone, online, mail, in groups, or face-to-face. The book describes the design process from start to finish and is filled with illustrative examples from actual surveys.
Customer Reviews:
Great perspective on questionnaire fundamentals.......2006-11-15
This edition offers insight about the building blocks of questionnaire development, and more importantly, getting to the right answers. A good focus on the fundamentals and a valuable resource.
The definitive questionnaire design book.......2006-08-16
This book is a tremendous resource for any social science research methodology course. It should be used as a stand-alone text for a questionnaire design course or as core reading material for a general research methodology class (undergraduate or graduate). As a social scientist, I have used it to successfully create web-based questionnaires that have received great response rates, which I believe are a direct result of the depth and breadth of the knowledge conveyed in the book. In addition, the text itself is easy to understand, interesting, and intellectually stimulating (qualities that are lacking in many other questionnaire design books).
Dry and Outdated.......2006-03-02
I found this book to be a bit dry and behind the times, especially in terms of using the Web for surveys. There's also not much about polling. Unfortunately, that was my main reason for buying it. It is one of the few books out there about surveys and polls and there is some helpful information, but I will have to look elsewhere for my needs.
Book Description
Have you ever walked into a half-empty Parisian restaurant, only to be told that it’s “complet”? Attempted to say “merci beaucoup” and accidentally complimented someone’s physique? Been overlooked at the boulangerie due to your adherence to the bizarre foreign custom of waiting in line? Well, you’re not alone. The internationally bestselling author of A Year in the Merde and In the Merde for Love has been there too, and he is here to help. In Talk to the Snail, Stephen Clarke distills the fruits of years spent in the French trenches into a truly handy (and hilarious) book of advice. Read this book, and find out how to get good service from the grumpiest waiter; be exquisitely polite and brutally rude at the same time; and employ the language of l’amour and le sexe. Everything you need is here in this funny, informative, and seriously useful guide to getting what you really want from the French.
Customer Reviews:
Funny, Witty, Informative.......2007-09-27
Stephen Clarke has such an incredible sense of humor! After devouring A Year in the Merde and Merde Actually, I could not resist reading Talk to the Snail. This book is by far the weakest one but once again, it made me laugh and taught me a few interesting and useful things about the French.
Apparently, even some French find Clarke's novels amusing. I asked my French tutor whether she has heard about this trilogy. To my surprise, she immediately smiled and said that A Year in the Merde is hilarious.
Good but nor Deep.......2007-09-22
It's the fourth or fifth book I read about France viewed from the eyes of an Anglo-Saxon (American, British, Canadian, Australian).
Up to this point, it has been the most disappointing one. The beginnign looked good but I quickly realized that all described was, while true, very superficial. The biggest point being that this books describes pretty well Parisians but definitely not the rest of the population. To sum it up, even if the author claims having lived 12 years in France, he definitely has missed to get into the skin of the "locals". It's too bad because his style is pretty good.
Compared to superb books like "Almost French" or "60 Millions French can't be wrong", this one doesn't fare very well. I still have to read "A Year in the Merde" and want to go through it.
Paul
Talk to the Snail: Ten Commandments for Understanding the French .......2007-09-16
The book is a great fun for me because I know the habits of the French people. Great work of Stephen Clarke!!
Hysterical and true (not).......2007-09-08
This funny book gets you in the mood to be in the company of the French
Spot on.......2007-07-08
I have loved Stephen Clarke's novels but this humorous take on the French, all things French, and especially all things NOT British is a classic.
I spend a lot of time in Paris, and his observations are absolutely spot on. While he primarily writes about how the French see English speakers (i.e. the British, not necessarily Americans) his observations apply to both.
If you have never visited France, some of what he writes might seem rude. It is about as accurate in observation as I have read anywhere, however. Hurrah to Stephen Clarke! More! More!
Book Description
Anthropology has a long history of the "other," yet we can look right here at home for the strangeness we seek. We often neglect to ask the questions that reveal our own culture's underlying value and beliefs. In this volume, we bring the American culture into focus. For readers to understand the full impact of ethnography, to experience cultural relativity and to gain a foundation to build informed comparisons, readers need a firm grasp of their own culture--and need to use this volume. The Third Edition consists of 19 essays written by anthropologists and other scholars using an ethnographic perspective. The essays enable readers to understand themselves better by focusing on their own culture and seeing it from a new perspective. This collection gives anthropology a comparative perspective that provides a reflective lens, a mirror, for understanding ourselves and the world in which we live.
Customer Reviews:
Great condition, prompt delivery.......2005-09-23
Book was in great condition and the service was very promt in delivery.
Book Description
Slicing through the emotional--but factually wrong--arguments of gun control advocates this book busts a number of myths, demonstrating with hard statistical data and riveting anecdotes.
Customer Reviews:
Very dry reading.......2007-09-01
If you can get past the numbers research then you'll benefit from this book. And, you'll never understand the evidence behind the truth about the benefits of gun possession versus the costs until you read it. The Bias Against Guns easily discredits those opposed to gun possession. Anti-gun folks don't tell the truth about the benefits of owning guns - John Lott does and proves it with advanced statistical analysis and research.
The proof that proves the benefits of gun possession is in this book.
Note the publisher of this book.......2007-08-26
Right wing, non-scholarly press. Then look at where Lott's critics publish--in scholarly journals and with academic presses.
Enough said.
Who should read this..........2007-04-01
Most of the news we see every day is favored toward showing the use of guns as bad. Whether this is because of a media plot to condition the public against guns, or because, in general, the people who work for the mainstream media are horrified by guns is not the point. What this book does is give us the other side of the debate, a side that needs to be heard.
Anyone who is caught by the day to day onslaught of the media bias against guns, but has an open mind and thinks they should have both sides of the story, should read this book. Anyone who instinctively knows that guns are the basis of all the freedoms we enjoy as Americans and would like a better understanding of that, should read this book.
Anyone else, it will be a waste of your money.
The Stephen Glass of econometricsisisis?.......2006-12-30
Fans of this 'scholarly work' (if computerized number crunching and anecdotal evidence can be called scholarly) by a 'much-published academician' (if that is meaningful to you) would no doubt be disappointed to learn Lott has based crucial evidence upon a survey he conducted himself and then 'unfortunately lost all trace of' the data; that he & his family have taken it upon themselves in the past to write stellar reviews for his books on Amazon.com; that Lott has found it necessary to defend his work by using pseudonyms and fake personas ('Mary Rosh')--but why, when the numbers speak for themselves??
Certainly not in order to profit from the audacious frenzy a claim like 'unregistered assault weapons reduce crime' would inevitably create...
Please, read 'How to Lie With Statistics' instead. Heck, read Wikipedia's article on John Lott, which cites the New England Journal of Medicine's statement:
[Lott] finds, for example, that both increasing the rate of unemployment and reducing income reduces the rate of violent crimes and that reducing the number of black women 40 years old or older (who are rarely either perpetrators or victims of murder) substantially reduces murder rates. Indeed, according to Lott's results, getting rid of older black women will lead to a more dramatic reduction in homicide rates than increasing arrest rates or enacting shall-issue laws.'
Controversy is indeed delicious, and who can fault some guy for trying to drum up a little press--but clouding such a serious issue in which lives are at stake with fuzzy math is undoubtedly reprehensible.
You can either be persuaded about this author's ethos by a few dazzling blurbs by 'Nobel Prize winners of Economics' (a solid science to be sure), or by his own behavior in response to scepticism. As Jon Weiner's Op-Ed in the LA Times states concerning the Lott v. Levitt lawsuit:
Lott is not suing those who have said some of his pro-gun research was "invented," "faked" or "cooked." The lawsuit turns on the definition of "replicate," from the "Freakonomics" sentence about how other scholars have tried and failed to "replicate his results." Lott maintains "replicate" means "analyze the identical data in the way Lott did." Because nobody tried to do that, he argues, "Freakonomics" is wrong. Most people, however, understand "replicate" to mean something like "confirm." Lott's reputation has indeed been "seriously damaged" by critics, but only because they have described many apparent holes in his dubious research and misleading citations. Blocking the sale of a book based on a literal interpretation of a single word [is] outrageous.'
Eye-opening from the first page.......2006-11-04
John R. Lott is a modern-day genius. His writing should earn him both the Nobel Prize for Peace AND the one for literature.
It's about time someone gave us the real story on gun crimes instead of the liberal slant we get from all the liberal news outlets. Obviously the previous reviewer who was in the military and speaks in favor of background checks has been misguided his own experience and these liberal media outlets.
Waiting periods make no sense at all, and I don't know who this Ronald Reagan guy is, but he sounds like a garden-variety lilly-livered liberal to me. Think about it. If you try to buy a handgun and you are forced to wait a week, there could be, by Mr. Lott's statistics, hundreds of crimes that you could have stopped by brandishing your piece. But those crimes happen, because you're stuck waiting because some liberal panzy named Reagan needed a background check law.
It's obvious, even to the most gun-scared leftist out there, everyone, even those who have not developed their full motor skills, should own a gun. Otherwise, how can you protect yourself!? It's NUMBERS people. If everyone has a gun, no one will get shot. Since gun owners are all expert marksmen, none of them would ever try to shoot a criminal and miss, thereby shooting an innocent bystander. After all, it's really easy to hit a moving target with a handgun. Heck, even you're a bad shot and you run out of bullets, you can easily peg your assailant on the head with the butt of your Magnum. If an innocent person gets shot, the statistics pale in comparison to how many would get shot it all of them didn't have guns.
Books:
- Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground And the Politics of Solidarity
- Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
- Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries
- Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)
- Plan of Attack
- Programming C#: Building .NET Applications with C#
- Red Dragon Rising: Communist China's Military Threat to America
- Rules for Radicals
- Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower
- Second Treatise of Government
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Bipolar Workbook: Tools for Controlling Your Mood Swings
- Nature Designs Stained Glass Pattern Book
- Environmental Issues and Waste Management Technologies XI
- Good Morning, Midnight
- In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine
- La Profecia Celestina: Una Aventura
- Max Contraction Training : The Scientifically Proven Program for Building Muscle Mass in Minimum Tim
- Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition
- Computer Accounting with QuickBooks 2006
- Duties of Junior & Senior Accountants: Supplement of the CPA Handbook
Window in the Skies, Pt. 2
U2 - PopMart Live from Mexico City (Limited Edition)
One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God
Window in the Skies, Pt. 1
Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
