Amazon.com
Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to.
What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn't forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.) Friedman tells his eye-opening story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns will know well, and also with a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you're going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. His book is an excellent place to begin. --Tom Nissley
Where Were You When the World Went Flat?
Thomas L. Friedman's reporter's curiosity and his ability to recognize the patterns behind the most complex global developments have made him one of the most entertaining and authoritative sources for information about the wider world we live in, both as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and as the author of landmark books like From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. They also make him an endlessly fascinating conversation partner, and we'd happily have peppered him with questions about The World Is Flat for hours. Read our interview to learn why there's almost no one from Washington, D.C., listed in the index of a book about the global economy, and what his one-plank platform for president would be. (Hint: his bumper stickers would say, "Can You Hear Me Now?")
The Essential Tom Friedman
From Beirut to Jerusalem |
The Lexus and the Olive Tree |
Longitudes and Attitudes |
More on Globalization and Development
China, Inc. by Ted Fishman |
Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz |
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs |
Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz |
The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli |
The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto |
Book Description
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004," what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?
In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
Download Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist gives a bold, timely, and surprising picture of the state of globalization in the twenty-first century
Customer Reviews:
...and so is this book.......2007-10-10
Though it has become an immensely popular book, Friedman's work is fairly shallow and simplistic. It is important to remember that this is a world analysis written by a journalist, not by a political economist or any type of economist or political scientist. His views are oversimplified and his support relies heavily on anecdote, making his 600-pager about 400 pages too long. We read it for a poli sci class and proceeded to tear it apart intellectually.
Ranks up there with Common Sense, Uncle Toms Cabin, The Femine Mystique.......2007-10-10
One of the greatest books ever written. Everyone in America should read this book. Every teacher in America should read and teach Frieman's lessons. Every parent should read and help prepare their children for the world that is coming. Every student should read and begin to prepare for the world they are going to face. This is the most important book of our times, bar none.
Embracing Business Globalization's Irreversibility.......2007-10-10
This is easily the most relevant book written on the new realities of business globalization, its irreversibility, and the practical consequences to our future. Friedman does an excellent job describing the numerous factors that led up to our current global economy including the ongoing fall of communism, the advent of the personal computer, and the ubiquity of the Internet. His historical review and assessment is fascinating and it sets up the reader to understand the context for his theories and practical applications. Friedman delves into numerous industries, businesses, personalities, case studies, technologies, psychological factors, and sociological factors. Although he covers numerous business, technological, and economic concepts, his writing style is very engaging and entertaining, using many personal examples and narratives, thereby holding the reader's interest. Rather than bemoaning some of the common perceived negative consequences of a global economy (such as US auto workers losing jobs to overseas cheaper labor) Friedman helps the reader to understand business globalization's irreversibility. In so doing, he describes many personal, practical, and business strategies for thriving in this new environment. Friedman is realistic and compassionate concerning the changes and the challenges. He states, "the great challenge for our time will be to absorb these changes in ways that do not overwhelm people but also do not leave them behind. None of this will be easy. But this is our task. It is inevitable and unavoidable" (pp. 46-47). As Friedman unfolds his strategies, he gives the reader a broader, global perspective that is filled with hope and excitement. Whether as a CEO, a business student, or a brand new professional embarking upon a career, this book is insightful, practical, and essential reading.
What a good boy am I.......2007-10-06
Reading this book is like watching someone else's kids open their Christmas presents from relatives they don't really know. I'm not sure how the author can possibly be so fascinated by technology and yet know absolutely nothing about it at the same time, but his endless diatribes about the miracles of PayPal and Microsoft Word are beyond laughable, and I was pretty much in shock when he started citing howstuffworks-dot-com as a technical reference on fiber optics and SOAP. What editor told him that this was OK?
So enamored with his own cleverness is he that Mr. Friedman dedicates several pages to explaining the book's title, even though a single sentence would have sufficed. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop after the first chapter; rather than make a point and move on, he has to point out the fact that he just made a point and tell you what a wonderful point it was just in case you missed the point. It's like hanging out with that one friend who sits around smiling and pointing to his hindquarters after he rips one off at the dinner table.
If you want to learn about globalization and are not old enough to remember the first light bulb, go read "No Logo" instead. This is horrible, irrelevant geriatric babbling.
My opinion is flat.......2007-10-03
When a book has had over a thousand reviews, what can I possibly say that hasn't already been said? So I will keep it short and not so sweet.
No one will read this book, or any of the updates, for "fun." Do you NEED to read it? Yes, it contains some important economic concepts and realities, but it's a bit overlong. I'd say it could be cut in half, so skim through some of the numerous "interviews," repetition of central points, and endless advice and encouragement. The global pie is getting bigger and better, but the competition for piecies of that pie is heating up. Smart, ambitious, creative people will thrive; slow, lazy, dull people will languish, and everything inbetween. For too long many Americans have been sitting on their laurels and the day of reckoning is near. Heed this warning: Put down your TV remotes, game controllers, and iPods, and start working like your life (or lifestyle) depended on it. Get your rear into some serious gear, and don't balk at the notion that you should be an "expert" in at least three different, unrelated fields. Does this scare or excite you?
In so many interviews with foreign entrepreneurs, we are told (or reassured) that no matter how much of the "mundane" work is performed by countries other than the U.S., America's creative and innovative spark is still unsurpassed: All the world looks to America to lead the way into the future. I'm not sure. A lot of that "mundane" work was high level and highly paid, and why should we expect that America will continue to dominate in creativity and innovation? The truth is, we're in for a flattening of living standards, and from the perspective of the relatively high American standard of living, it will seem like a drop in standards until we reach another equilibrium (who knows how long that will take?). In any case, the reassurances about the talents and abilities of Americans seem at odds with other parts of the book, such as Bill Gates feeling "terrified at the American work force of tomorrow."
If you're already working hard at becoming an expert in three fields, then you probably don't need to read this book. Indeed, you probably don't have time to read it, or to read and write Amazon reviews, for that matter.
Book Description
Now with a free SINGWIN CD-ROM, Evaluating Practice, Fourth Edition is even easier for readers to understand and apply data analysis.
Unsurpassed among human service evaluation books, Evaluating Practice, Fourth Edition, includes the innovative SINGWIN program, created by Charles Auerbach, David Schnall, and Heidi Heft Laporte of Yeshiva University. Evaluating Practice instructs readers on managing cases and charting and filling out scales. Although the authors are best known within the social work discipline, this book can also be used in other professional programs such as nursing, counseling, psychology, and psychiatry. The free supplement with practice test questions provides a number of helpful exercises.
For anyone interested in social work at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Also for those interested in psychology, counseling, psychiatry, or psychiatric nursing.
Customer Reviews:
A great text book..........2007-01-02
I ordered this textbook for an MSW course, and it's wonderful. I love all the examples and the software that comes with it.
Another Edition to a fantastic text.......2005-08-10
This new edition of the text once again proves that these authors are the masters of single subject research. I have used this text for five years in my graduate methods course and am completely satisfied with their coverage of the material of single subject research design. Just when a researcher thought it could not get any better, this new edition comes along with updates to the software.
Get this book.
enough is enough.......2005-03-22
I was pleased to hear that this text had been assigned in a graduate research course at my graduate school of social work. I'm seriously disappointed. I would not recommend this text's continued use. It is excessively repetitive, constantly restating previous material (commonly referred to as 'rehashing'), and, as a sidebar, i can't help but mention an irritating habit of unnecessary references to material yet to come ('we'll talk about that more in chapter 14.'). The writing style is terribly wordy, and in a weighted, clunky pseudo-conversational style that rarely is effective in a textbook. The actual technical information is obscured in a constant river of verbiage, usually in page after page of solid block text, the least helpful format when learning technical information (or when subsequently searching for specific information or techniques). The result? It serves as a strong sedative. Finally, the authors repeatedly express apologies, in what eventually (by page 350) feels like an obsequious and cloying manner, for putting forward an empirical and accountable approach to clinical practice. The worst, though, is the repetition of material, as if the reader were an idiot. The sheer relentlessness of it is what is so galling, and at $100 bucks, neither affordable nor worth the investment. There are other texts out there with clearer, cleaner, more articulate prose, that are more respectful of the reader, and at half the price, such as the classic and affordable: Single-Case Research Designs: Methods for Clinical and Applied Settings by Alan E. Kazdin. Ignore the pollyanna reviews above and below, and avoid this text, or if on the syllabus, protest and suggest an alternative.
A Classic in Practice Evaluation.......2003-11-13
Bloom, Fischer and Orme continue to make an unique contribution to improving practice in the human services by providing a road map by which practitioners can evaluate their effectiveness. I've been using their text book for over 15 years in teaching practice evaluation and in has been an invaluable help. The new edition has a CD Rom with SingWin, CAAP,and CAAS which I was able to install in Windows XP Home edition. You must install CAAS before CAAP for it to work. The sofware computerizes record keeping, score computation, and graph construction. I strongly reccommend this textbook for human services faculty.
Book Description
The fourth edition of STATISTICS FOR SOCIAL DATA ANALYSIS continues to show students how to apply statistical methods to answer research questions in various fields. Throughout the text, the authors underscore the importance of formulating substantive hypotheses before attempting to analyze quantitative data. An important aspect of this text is its realistic, hands-on approach. Actual datasets are used in most examples, helping students understand and appreciate what goes into the research process. The book focuses on the continuous-discrete distinction in considering the level at which a variable is measured. Rather than dwelling on the four conventional levels-of-measurement distinctions, the authors discuss statistics for analyzing continuous and discrete variables separately and in combination.
Customer Reviews:
Statistics for indoctrination, philosophy for real dummies.......2005-05-20
For academic philosophers of science sociology is not a paradigm of successful science. Earlier Bohrnstedt had enforced his ersatz philosophy of social science as editor of the journal Sociological Methods and Research. Now in this book, Statistics for Social Data Analysis, Bohrnstedt, Knoke and Mee attempt to indoctrinate students in this same ersatz philosophy of science.
The authors advocate their version of Haavelmo's "structural-equation" agenda, allege a distinction between unobserved conceptual variables and observable "indicators", and pontificate criteria for identifying causality prior to statistical modeling and empirical testing.
Contrast their views with some basics of contemporary pragmatism, which prevails in professional academic philosophy taught in universities today:
1. Pragmatist definition of "theory": A theory is any universally quantified statement proposed for testing. It is never defined in terms of any particular ontology - such as subjective motivations. Thus there is no philosophical problem of relating sociological theory to empirical model, because the theory is the model and the model is the theory.
2. Pragmatist criterion for criticism: Only empirical criteria may operate in the criticism of theories. Ontological ideas including preconceived claims about causality are never valid criteria. Thus theories/models may not be rejected merely because their equation specifications do not describe motivations, i.e. do not have a mentalistic ontology.
3. Pragmatist thesis of ontological relativity: The empirically tested and currently nonfalsified theory decides ontology including any claims about causality. Thus one does not firstly know causes and then make theories, but rather the empirically tested and nonfalsified theories/models describe the ontologies of their domains including causality.
4. Pragmatist thesis of pluralism: There may be and often are multiple empirically acceptable - i.e. tested and currently nonfalsified - theories/models. Thus they all make acceptably competing or complementary causal claims, so long as they are found to be empirically acceptable - i.e. not falsified.
In her book, History of Econometric Ideas, Mary S. Morgan writes that there are two ways in which econometrics has been used: (1) discovery or theory development and (2) empirical testing. The contemporary pragmatist philosophy of science assigns statistical analysis a fundamental role in theory development as well as in theory testing. Pragmatism thus invites use of data mining and artificial-intelligence computer systems, which can create and test literally billions of hypotheses.
I believe that this book, Statistics for Social Data Analysis, leaves the reader/student ignorant of the true capability of new technologies such as mechanized statistical analysis of social data for discovery, and that its provincial philosophy of science invites a Luddite attitude toward twenty-first century social science research.
Sociologists who are unaware of contemporary academic philosophy of science will likely not find this review helpful. More importantly such sociologists will also therefore be unable to exploit to their - or their students' - advantage the enabling freedom and contributing opportunities offered by the pragmatist philosophy.
For more: Google my book, History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science at my web site philsci for free downloads, and to view my other book reviews at this Amazon site.
Thomas J. Hickey, Econometrician
For students of social sciences.......2003-03-31
This book is a statistics textbook for students of social sciences, not high-end users. I read earlier edition of this book in undergraduate statistics course. In that course, only basics of statistics were instructed. In social sciences, they don't need to know A to Z of statistics for all they have to know is what the function of SPSS or SAS means and what kind of data is needed and how the data would be analyzed in the statistics packages. There is no need to derive the functions in the textbook mathematically as they do in the courses of statistics department. We should understand what the function means, not how it is derived. This book is written in this regard. Unlike orthodox statistics textbook, this book tackles only the meaning of the statistical methods. In doing so, this book illustrates the methods with various field works and SPSS exercises. This is the stance most textbook written for social scientists takes. It seems that this book succeed in achieving the goal. Explanations are succinct and examples are apposite.
But this book is not that useful when you should do real research. Most social sciences articles use more advanced methods than what this book introduces. This book is good enough to beginners, but not so to who would be real researcher. At that point, you should have read more advanced ones already. If not, you couldn't read a piece of article in the common journals.
Amazon.com
One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree.
Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.
Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.
No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
From one of our most perceptive commentators and winner of the National Book Award, a comprehensive look at the new world of globalization, the international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today.
As the Foreign Affairs columnist for
The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has traveled the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemporary life: Brazilian peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and the financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.
Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original look at globalization. Globalization, he argues, is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system; the new, well-greased, interconnected system: Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degreee, a global village. Simply put, one can't possibly understand the morning news or one's own investments without some grasp of the system. Just one example: During the Cold War, we reached for the hot line between the White House and the Kremlin--a symbol that we were all divided but at least the two superpowers were in charge. In the era of globalization, we reach for the Internet--a symbol that we are all connected but nobody is totally in charge.
With vivid stories and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman offers readers remarkable access to his unique understanding of this new world order, and shows us how to see this new system. He dramatizes the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree"--the tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all need to do to keep the system in balance. Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of he globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book--essential reading for all who care about how the world really works.
Customer Reviews:
Tons of theories, and examples, good read for learning about Globalization.......2007-10-16
Mr. Friedman is very effective in defending the globalization. It did not paint the picture all peachy and cream about globalization. I remember hearing a term, "those who suffered from globalization always know who they are, those who benefited from Globalization does not always know who they are." A lot of the example in the books are quite relevant. The title of the book is a bit off I think, it is a bit puzzling to me. Globalization is inevitable according to Mr. Friedman, I think it is very hard to resist also. Especially when all the information is flowing freely on the net, it is going to get harder for any countries trying to hold on to the old non-competitive way of living.
What is globalization?.......2007-09-16
Just about everyone has a definition of globalization and a view as to whether it is 'good' or 'bad'. For most of us, relative 'goodness' or 'badness' will depend on how we perceive globalization to impact on us individually or on our local communities.
The case for globalization is not made in this book. The relative measurement of global benefits and disadvantages is not something readily accessible to most of us: what benefits me is likely to disadvantage you.
What makes this book worth reading, in my view, is that by using concrete examples (ownership of the olive tree, or desire for the Lexus)readers may come to see debates about globalization as not just being the realm of economists and governments. Whether we like it or not, globalization is part of the current world landscape. We need to consider what this means at an individual level.
This book does not provide answers. What it does provide is a starting point for identifying and thinking about some of the issues.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
utterly vacuous...the case for globalization is made far better elsewhere.......2007-08-21
I read this book years ago. While I realized then that the book was poor, only now after reading several other books on the same topic do I realize just how much. Friedman's only discernible talent seems to be filling pages with fact-like tripe and passing it off as, well, something worthy of attention. In the process of course he's swindling people who are actually interested enough in globalization to buy a book. Thomas Friedman isn't an economist, from what I can tell he's not an expert on much of anything, and his long-sustained role as some sort of eminently knowledgeable commentator on these topics bothers me to no end. People like this slow down the progress of all human kind.
Since I'm what you could characterize for lack of a better term as "pro-globalization", this book makes me doubly angry, as it manages to damage the cause it purportedly supports. He can't even preach to the choir properly, since the choir thinks he's an idiot.
Critics of globalization are laughed off in 20 pages, and even if he spent more time he doesnt have the expertise to make a remotely convincing case. This is done far better elsewhere, I'd recommend Martin Wolf's 'Why Globalization Works.' Its a much tougher read for an intro to globalization, but thats because, uh, Wolf actually knows what he's talking about. So if you're "anti-globalization" and want a book to challenge your perceptions, or are just someone generally interested in the topic, read that. But if you feel like having a laugh at a self-absorbed, self-appointed 'expert' and cheerleader for processes he cant possibly understand, then by all means read Friedman.
And just to reiterate for everyone who's read this already, if you think you learned something from this book about globalization, either for or against, you probably didn't.
Excellent Globalization Primer.......2007-07-25
Even though this book is seven years old, I still found it to be a highly adept examination of globalization and a good primer for anyone who, like myself, has not read every tome on the growing global economy. Friedman is obviously an accomplished journalist and author, and brings these talents to bear on much of the book. I found myself pausing quite often to reflect on some of the theories he presented, like Golden Straightjacket, DOScapital, or - my favorite - the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention.
This last concept serves as a perfect example for the intellectual tone of the book, and some of the debatable concepts. While he was on one of his many globetrotting expeditions, Friedman formed this theory from the observation that no country capable of a sustaining a McDonald's franchise had ever gone to war with another of similar standing. The theory is that by the time the middle class of a country is large enough to support a McDonald's franchise, there is too much for it to loose in terms of global trade capital, to risk a protracted war with another McDeveloped state. Of course, this theory has its adversaries, who often point to the US intervention into Panama or NATO's bombing of Serbia, but that healthy intellectual debate is exactly what makes reading this book so fun and thought provoking.
I only failed to give Mr. Friedman's book 5 stars, because in the end, I thought he could have made his point more succinctly. For, if we truly live in a global world, where we compete against everyone else on the planet, who has time to read a book of over 500 pages?
Mixed reviews.......2007-07-23
I initially found this book pretty interesting. I watched Thomas Friedman's interview on Charlie Rose and found him to be an interesting speaker on timely issues related to globalization.
When I got the book and started reading it, I got pretty tired of reading the made-up terms he used, eg. electronic herd etc..
I found the book to be biased towards the benefits of globalization and dismissing the disadvantages.
What I did like about the book was some of the personal anecdotes he relates to the readers, ultimately giving you the feel that you're hearing the story from the man on the ground.
I found doomsdayer520's review of this book to be particularly helpful.
Book Description
Marking a major development in Foucault's thinking, this book derives from the lecture course which he gave at the Collège de France between January and April, 1978. Taking as his starting point the notion of "bio-power," introduced in his 1976 course Society Must be Defended, Foucault sets out to study the foundations of this new technology of power over population. Distinct from punitive, disciplinary systems, the mechanisms of power are here finely entwined with the technologies of security, and it is to 18th century developments of these technologies with which the first chapters of the book are concerned. By the fourth lecture however Foucault's attention turns, focusing on a history of "governmentality" from the first centuries of the Christian era to the emergence of the modern nation state. As Michel Sennelart explains in his afterword, the effect of this change of direction is to "shift the center of gravity of the lectures from the question of biopower to that of government, to such an extent that the former almost entirely eclipses the former ..." Consequently, in light of Foucault's later work, it is tempting to see these lectures as the moment of a radical turning point at which the transition to the problematic of the "government of self and others" would begin.
Customer Reviews:
Biopower and Governmentality.......2007-06-08
A must for understanding the notions of biopower, biopolitics, and governmentality in Foucault's corpus.
Book Description
The threat of continued warfare to the future of humanity has become dire. "The Great Turning explores that threat in detail and provides an equally detailed plan for meeting -- and overcoming -- it. Written in the author's trademark clear, compelling style, this timely book uncovers the roots of Empire in ancient Athens and charts the long transition from the institutions of monarchy to those of the global economy as the favored instruments of imperialism. Korten then discusses the promise of early America as a democracy dedicated to spreading liberty and freedom -- and the failure of the "American experiment" through the contemporary takeover of the U.S. government by corporate plutocrats, religious theocrats, and neoconservative militarists in pursuit of naked imperial ambition. Korten draws on sources as varied as evolution, developmental psychology, and the wisdom of religious mystics to make the case for "Earth Community" -- a people-centered, community-based future that is both possible and necessary.
Customer Reviews:
Hope Restored.......2007-08-07
David Korten has restored my hope that humanity can and will survive the upcoming collision with our own short sighted Hubris. Some, perhaps many of us will make it through and will have restored to us in the process a great deal more of our own compassionate humanity. Well researched, well written. A seminal work! Thank you David!
The Great Turning.......2007-06-12
This book should be read by anyone thinking about how to move toward a fair, just society. Korten talks about levels of maturity leading to understanding that enough people and groups have reached a level where a society based on the principle of community rather than that of domination is within reach. It undercuts struggling with all the forms injustice takes in our present society and considers joining with like-minded groups all over the world to form a bottom-up society concerned with the good of all rather than just looking out for what's good for the most powerful among us.
The Ideal of the Bodhisattva.......2007-05-13
The Great Turning masterfully traces the concept of Empire from pre-history to the present and states that the current world situtation has been shaped by the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few. The motivating actions of governments are to preserve their control over the forces of money and power. The democracies of the Western world are not true democracies as they maintain their control over the many by giving prevledge to the few. Korten goes on to relate various pardighms that our culture buys into and which perpetuate the rule of Empire. one of these views is related in the "Imperial Secular Meaning Story."
"Matter is the only reality. the whole of the cosmos is a product of the orderly playing out of physical forces amenable to description and prediction by mathematical equations. Life is the accidental outcome of material complexity. Consciousness and free will are illusions, nothing more. Because life has no intrinsic meaning, the only rational couse of the intelligent individual is to seek material gratification through the accumulation of wealth and power.
The evolution of the living species occurs through a competitive struggle in which the fittest survive and the less fit perish. Mammalian species, naturally organize themselves into heirarchies of dominance for mutual protection and breeding success.
Human progress likewise depends on competitive struggle in which the most fit triumph and those of second rank serve the most fit. the winners prove their superior worth and therby their contribution to the betterment of the whole by virute of their victory. They have a natural right to the rewards of their victory as their just due. Their is no reason for guilt or for concern for those whom the struggle destroys or leaves behind, as their loss is itself proof that they are the less fit. For the betterment of the whole, we must all accept that this their proper fate."
What makes the Great Turning a landmark book is that it exposes these myths for what they are-propaganda for maintaining control with power and wealth. The actions of governments rather than being for the well being of the people are for the maintaining of the myths which concentrate power and wealth in the hands of the few. Korten goes on to forge the strategy for removal of these myths and replacing them with the reality of a sustainable Earth Community.
The human and Divine potential of the sage, writer, artist, scientist cannot be fully realized without the move away from empire to Earth Community. The Bodhisattva's vow while at the threshold of enlightenment takes on the meaning for all of us to work out our daily lives in harmony with the forces that are attempting to bring about an Earth Community.
A "Must Read" for Every Lover of Democracy.......2007-03-08
This is the most important book I have read in years! There is hope. The people can take back America and truly make it a land of freedom, liberty and justice for all.
A MUST-READ.......2007-02-20
This book has changed the way I think about the world and the challenge we face in avoiding "the great unraveling." After reading it, I want to stand up and start making a difference.
Book Description
This extensively indexed book succinctly summarizes the findings of a dozen or so of the most important works of the 20th century - from both sides of the conflict - which expose how and why a cabal of international plutocrats is planning to destroy America and any other country preventing the ultimate hegemony of their New World Order.
Customer Reviews:
I should have read the chapter titled "Let's Fix America" first.......2007-07-17
Most of us know there's something wrong with the way the "world" works. And we figure that folks with money and power will use their positions to do whatever it takes to accumulate more money and power at the expense of anyone or anything that get's in their way. Unfortunately, this book doesn't help clarify or give us tools to win the class war. If you're looking for clarity, start with Noam Chomsky's 2 CD audio "Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind." Chomsky offers a much more insightful and easier to grasp view of how the world really works.
For someone who hasn't cracked open this book yet, I would suggest that you read Chapter 12 first--"Let's Fix America". Jones has a few good ideas there, but for the most part his "tough love" ideology meshes perfectly with that of the "elites" he supposedly opposes. So it's difficult for me to assess if his work is designed to assist the working class, confuse it, or destroy it. Because destroying it is exactly what his taxation and social program ideas would do. If you examine these notions closely you can't help but notice that they sound like ideas that would be sponsored by far right-wing Think Tanks--typically funded by corporations and elite old-money families.
There is certainly a lot of info in the book. And some of it is likely correct--(Professor McCoy "Politics of Heroin" is considered a first class researcher)--with this kind of shotgun approach, it couldn't help but hit something. Unfortunately for Jones, "Report from Iron Mountain" was outed by the author, Leonard Lewin, as fictional satire--dead on satire, but fiction none the less. This leaves me with questions about the author's ability or desire to separate fact from fiction.
HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS.......2007-05-10
This book is a must read for those who operate "in the spirit of trust." Before reading this book, I wrote a book published in late 2001 called "Blacks In The Spider's Web" which substantially views the world as the subject book, but from a black American perspective. Although I have not read all of the books reviewed in "How The World Really Works" (I'm sure most are out of print now), my analysis of the world situation corresponds materially with Alan B. Jones' book. Much of what we see of the world is a false facade that must be pierced in order to come to the reality of the truth. "How The World Really Works" helps to pierce the veil of secrecy covering the "military industrial complex," the "Kennedy assassinations" and the "dumbing down of America," among other "unsolved mysteries."
Fixing America Means Understanding the Problems.......2007-03-18
My own review would closely mirror Robert D Steele's excellent and comprehensive analysis below. I also agree with the excellence of the additional works he recommends. I've read them all and have nothing but praise.
I might add to Robert's list a couple more titles:
1. "When Corporations Rule the World" by David C Korten ... also visit his website (Google it).
2. "The Road to Serfdom" by FA Hayak.
3. "The Money Masters" website, book and DVD... (Google it).
There are no more important subjects on earth than these. Nearly all wars, poverty, media manipulations, societal and educational problems such as drug dealing, smuggling, flesh peddling, high taxation, and... well, you name it... are rooted in the problems revealed in these works.
I strongly disagree with those who think such works are either fear-based or impractical. Nothing can be more practical than the knowledge of the secret and occult powers that are now the motivating forces shaping our modern world.
We can only remain asleep (in denial) at our grave peril, and more importantly, the peril of our children and grandchildren.
No problem can be fixed without a thorough understanding of it's root causes. Sooner or later these international money and banking problems must be fixed, and to do it properly we must fix... or rebuild... these institutions in the right ways.
The issuance of money must be taken out of the hands of private bankers and returned to the government's of "We the People" where it belongs. Only then can we stop paying exorbitant interest rates on the money that is put into circulation. Only then can we begin to use our taxes for purposes other than paying needless interest to private bankers.
Unchecked, unbalanced and unlimited power always leads to tyranny and despotism, some form of totalitarianism. Today that power is quickly becoming the materialistic "Golden Rule" - "He who has the gold, rules."
Will we let it happen here? Is it already too late to stop it?
Gaps, A Little Loose, but First-Rate Never-the-Less.......2007-01-30
I am going to put my reputation on the line, and the 850+ non-fiction books I have read that make me the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction (and to my great surprise, today #49 over all fiction, movies, music, and software as well as non-fiction) for the simple reason that too many people discuss books such as this by labeling it "conspiracy theory."
It's not a conspiracy theory if it is true. I will try to be brief as well as illuminative.
First off, the author has culled a handful of books that support his case against a global financial elite, and these tend, with the exception of the Quigley book, to be left of left of center. I am however happy to add a number of books that support his essential theses that a handful of banking families control the central banks which are NOT government banks, and through loans, control governments, impoverish the middle class, and harvest profit without conscience from the "working poor."
Try these on for size:
1) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. 85% rock solid, 15% flakey, but in my view, a perfectly reasonable slam on the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund as instruments for impoverishing lesser developed countries, not empowering them.
2) The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, another slam on the WTO/IMF, which he relegates to third rate out-dated economist ranks, not at all focused or able to achieve what he calls "developmental economics."
3) The Global Class War by Jeff Faux, a fine discussion of how our elites bribe the elites in other countries, and the both screw the public by looting the commonwealths of gold, oil, etcetera, without returns to the people whose families have lived on top of these resources for centuries.
4) Running on Empty, by Paul Peterson of the Council of Foreign Relations (which the author hates, in my view it has two types of members--one manipulative like Henry Kissinger, another honest, like Paul Peterson), in which both the Republican and the Democratic parties are lambasted for being the ignorant slaves of the ultra-rich elites, and hopeless out of touch with reality and unable to represent We the People.
5) War is a Racket by General Smedley Butler, the highest decorated Marine of his time, who complained about being an enforcer for banks and businesses that lent money to the Third World then sent the Marines to get it back for them.
There are many other books that support this author's book reviews in great detail and from many varied perspectives. I refer you to my various lists, including the list on "Screwing the 90% that do the work."
The author has some pretensions and some slop, his arguments are not always consistent, but then neither are mine. On balance I regard this book as a first rate personal effort that should be read by every middle class person wondering, as Lou Dobbs on CNN has wondered, why we are exporting middle class jobs and importing poverty in the form of illegal aliens.
The author wraps up his varied reviews with a focus on the relationship between organized crime and the super-elite as well as their political elite (e.g. the Bush family, the best of the servant class), and on the relationship between drugs, covert operations, and Wall Street. Here again the author draws on a very tiny sub-set of books while not listing many others that support his thesis so I will mention a few here.
Having been through both Viet-Nam as a youth and the Central American Wars as an adult, I am quite certain that there are at least four different slices of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where I served for ten years as a clandestine case officer:
A small slice does what the White House wants, including black bag jobs.
A small but more important slice does what Wall Street wants, and helps Wall Street with access to financially relevant information that the public which pays for the CIA does not get. Buzzy Krongard, until recently Executive Director of the CIA, comes to mind as the most recent leader of this section.
A larger slice, that does covert action off the books with funding from Saudi Arabia and others, sometimes called the Safari Club, sometimes having off-shoots like Ted Shackley's Southern Air Transport, and so on. This slice can provide the intersection between criminal activities, white collar crime profits, illegal White House activities, and plain profiteering.
Finally, 90% of the CIA, folks like me that did not realize they were simply going through the motions and giving the local counterintelligence service a full-time rabbit to follow while the commercial clandestine boys and girls looted the bank in bright daylight.
I have two intelligence lists that can be helpful here, but I have not focused on creating crime lists. I'll just say that between the books on the "working poor" and on being "nickeled and dimed" and books on immoral predatory capitalism and unilateral militarism of the Dick Cheney variety (I have compiled a list of 25 specific impeachable actions by Dick Cheney based on three books: One Percent Doctrine, VICE, and Crossing the Rubicon). There is a very clear-cut and direct relationship between dictators, transnational organized crime and terrorism, and Wall Street as well as the Republican and Democratic National Committees.
That reminds me: there is an entire literature on petroleum, peak oil, petrodollars, and so on. Americans have been betrayed by their government since at least 1975, and more likely, back to the 1950's when naiveté about international affairs was replaced by active complicity.
Good news. 1) Internet leveled playing field. 2) Not enough guns to kill us all. 3) A few of the really rich have realized they need to help us create infinite wealth for ourselves, or lose all they have to locusts. Read, be vocal, be active, we're going to get a grip on our commonwealth soon.
Tip of the Hat to Jere for the following added links:
When Corporations Rule the World
The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. a. Hayek)
Money Masters of Our Time
See also my longer reviews of:
Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Cliff Notes for the NWO.......2006-11-18
A must read for everyone who wants to cut the strings of the puppet meisters. Stands on its own, and is a valuable reference. This book is a great launching pad for anyone becoming interested in why things are the way they are right now.
Book Description
Celebrated urban theorist lifts the lid on the effects of a global explosion of disenfranchised slum-dwellers.
According to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the South. In this brilliant and ambitious book, Mike Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world.
From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, even economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly original development unforeseen by either classical Marxism or neoliberal theory.
Are the great slums, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined, volcanoes waiting to erupt? Davis provides the first global overview of the diverse religious, ethnic, and political movements competing for the souls of the new urban poor. He surveys Hindu fundamentalism in Bombay, the Islamist resistance in Casablanca and Cairo, street gangs in Cape Town and San Salvador, Pentecostalism in Kinshasa and Rio de Janeiro, and revolutionary populism in Caracas and La Paz.Planet of Slums ends with a provocative meditation on the "war on terrorism" as an incipient world war between the American empire and the slum poor.
Customer Reviews:
Depressing but true.......2007-06-26
If one just looked at the figures over the last twenty or so years there has been a lot of economic growth in Asia and Latin America. Africa is still troubled with a lot of the sub Sahara countries having negative growth. On balance though one would expect the lot of people in poor countries to be improving. Not so according to this book. What has been happening is incredible increases in urbanisation. However this urbanisation is in the form of slums.
Slums in poorer countries are portrayed as hell holes. People live in grossly overcrowded housing with no access to fresh water. In the slum cities of the third world there is no provision for removal of sewerage so that it runs into the fresh water supply (Sao Paulo) or simply is deposited on the ground. The failure to treat sewerage results in large numbers of deaths mainly to children through dysentery and cholera.
The vast majority of those who live in the slums have the most marginal of jobs. Sitting beside a road selling a few vegetables, cleaning shoes a few times a day. Driving taxis for a few dollars a day. (Apparently one in 7 cars in Lima is a taxi.) One of the tragedies of the slums is that the desperation of families leads to children below 14 being the bread winners of families. Working in Indian textile or carpet factories for minuscule wages for 12 hours a day, losing their childhood and any access to education.
The book is a sustained attack on the Peruvian economist De Soto who posited a theory that the way to overcome the problem of slums is to give title to the slum dwellers of the land they squat on and to make available small loans for "business enterprises". What the book suggests is that in the last twenty or so years since the development of free market ideologies have led to the enforced retreat of the state in poorer countries from economic life there has only been disaster. Potentially the state could do something about water provision, housing or sewerage removal but the poorer countries are at the mercy of international institutions which prevent such anti market activity by tying conditions to loans. The life of slum dwellers is so marginalised that title to slum land will achieve nothing.
The book rather resembles Engels' book on the condition of the English working class in 1844. It is full of rather depressing facts and figures with anecdotes to bring home the nature of the misery and the total degradation of life that exists in the slums. Not a pleasant read but something which is a sober reminder that growth rates alone do not translate automatically into the reduction of poverty or human misery.
A Devastating Deconstruction of Neo-Liberal Economics.......2007-05-29
Mike Davis' main contribution to the scholarship of urban poverty in the Third World is his point-by-point deconstruction of the failure of neo-liberal economic policies, and that when mixed with corruption, racism, and incompetence, make these massive slums the serious and festering sores that they are.
Planet of Slums is a scholarly work replete with charts, tables and footnotes, but is nevertheless very easy to read. Which probably accounts for Davis' popularity as an author. It does not have the boring ponderous qualities found in most academic writing.
I recommend it.
A Wake Up Call that will be Ignored.......2007-05-28
Davis has put together a thorough and damning indictment of the indifference of the human race to the plight of those who are victims of its very mixed economic success. By using mostly official and well credentialed sources, he builds up a picture of the third of humanity that must eke out its existence under conditions that those who are reading this review are unlikely to be able to even imagine. This situation, though Davis does not point the finger that sharply, is the result of both the success of modern medicine in reducing mortality (and hence increasing successful fertility) and an economic system that favors those who have already succeeded - those with education and contacts, however limited, against those without, many of whom have been kept there by the very governments purporting to be in the business of helping them. It is a terrible and tragic story, one likely to have consequences far more difficult to manage than even the daily miseries of the new urban migrants to the great slums of the third world cities. I can only hope that the world will wake up and begin to do something serious about the abuse of people that goes on daily in our midst, but after a lifetime of close personal contact with the situation in India, I am afraid that the very human tendency to look away will prevail, to our ultimate cost.
A warning about the world's future.......2007-04-23
I guess most people never were able to read the 2004 report of the UN's Commission on Human Settlements. Slums around the world are growing ... not declining. Davis's book builds on research showing what a global horror story the current world order is creating. The book suffers from rather dull prose and could have been better organized. However, there's a chance this book might wake people up about what's really happening in the world.
The crisis of global capitalism.......2007-03-28
Mike Davis is always someone to seize an opportunity to decry the horrible situation somewhere, but in this case, it is an exposé that cannot be made often enough. "Planet of Slums" is a catalogue of the institutional failures, the despicable destruction, the filth and pollution, the poverty, misery and want, the disease and cynicism, in short the Verelendung of the worldwide poor that is the inevitable and eternal result of the capitalist mode of production. Within three decades, a stunning two billion people will live in the slums of megacities in the Third World, where all public services are absent, there are no toilets or drinking water, and where even the poor exploit the poor.
Mike Davis, as usual, pulls no punches and takes no prisoners in his description of the effects of the Washington Consensus on these undeveloped nations. Refuting the ideological mythologies of self-help such as De Sotoism and microlending, he demonstrates that the situation in the Third World is bleak and will get bleaker still. The longer the current order of neoliberalism and Structural Adjustment Programmes, led by such philanthropical heros as World Bank director Paul Wolfowitz, goes on, the more the absolute poverty, immiseration and loss of dignity of the world's poor will continue, and the greater inequality will become. Already one-third of the world's workforce is unemployed or underemployed, and worldwide average income has decreased the past decades. The megacities of the global south will become centers of hyper-alienation, and the inevitable result can only be the destruction of the current order, or the destruction of the world. The world's five billion poor are at our door - hear them knock!
Book Description
This popular research methods text gives readers a clear, concise introduction to the basic tools of political science. In this new edition, numerous new examples and case studies as well as a new annotated research papers highlight important aspects of the research process and illustrate how scholars in various subfields have employed research methods in their study of politics. Also provided is expanded information on how to do research on the Internet.
Customer Reviews:
Good information buried in fluff.......2006-02-02
This author needs to take two classes at whichever university she teaches: (1) instructional design and (2) writing concisely. This book has quite a lot of good information, but it is all buried within convoluted fluff.
There are many other books on research methodology that (a) do a better job of explaining, (b) include more comprehensive rules for research, and (c) don't take up so much of your valuable time with fluff. I recommend you look at those other books -- especially if you are a professor who is choosing a book for your students.
Amazon.com
When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book The Prince is. Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli's assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. "It must be understood," Machiavelli avers, "that a prince ... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state." With just a little imagination, readers can discern parallels between a 16th-century principality and a 20th-century presidency. --Tim Hogan
Book Description
Rufus Goodwin has made a new translation into modern English of Machiavelli's masterpiece, The Prince. Machiavelli, father of Social Sciences, continues to have relevance in our modern world, and his observations on the nature of human being and the political systems are as new today as they were during the Renaissance. In the Introduction, the adjective "Machiavellian" is analyzed.
Download Description
Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince... a king... a president.
When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. In The Prince he envisioned what would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion. Today, this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics.
Customer Reviews:
How one can rule them all with power........2007-10-14
Published in 1532, dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, The Prince by Machiavelli is an advanced political science treatise in defence of civilization against barbarianism by way of a single specially disciplined sovereign ruler, a prince.
The Prince by Machiavelli is a brief but complex political management system designed to be run by a prince administered using a series of protocols for any given situation based on Machiavelli's interpretation of the history of the rise and fall of world governments with an emphasis on the Roman Empire and current trends in 16th century monarchy rule.
Machiavelli's analysis of the historical record paved the way for princes to develop awareness of the problem of emergent barbarianism both internal and external. Machiavelli highlighted the need for a prince to always remain liked but indicated that being wanted did not necessarily mean being kind and showed how a cruel prince could also be beneficial to the state which would function, sometimes better, under ruthlessness depending on certain conditions.
Machiavelli was able to successfully understand the different types of principalities and how princes come to power and how they could retain that power tactically. He often cited historical sources to prove his points. The Prince teaches how to acquire cities and how they should be ruled especially after being annexed. In this respect it is also a war treatise although it deals with gain by means other than war. However this is not unusual for a warfare discourse. There are methods of determining strength and calculating a response and so The Prince is a strategic book that has its bases in game theory. The different types of soldiers and how they behave is given a considerable amount of coverage and how a prince should treat them.
The character of a prince becomes a central theme especially concerning how a prince is to be perceived by others. Religion is dealt with and for its time The Prince surprisingly declared Popes potential enemies that could, and would, undermine a monarchy if it was to their advantage. Machiavelli was able to show how a fortress is important for defence but that attack can, and does, come from within. He also had a system to increase a prince's popularity and noted areas in which a prince could socially falter. The book rounds up with a directive to implement these ideas when fortune should arise and to be always on guard against barbarianism which can come from within.
The Prince remains a classic essential in the development of game theory. There are many parallels between this work and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. In fact Machiavelli wrote another book using that very same title. Machiavelli sees power brought into the grasp of one hand by adapting military tactics internally within government operations as opposed to outwardly using them to defeat the enemy. This work is all about controlling what has been gained.
The Prince and its author Machiavelli are often condemned for not only tolerating mistreating people but for advising it in a lot of circumstances especially to prove authority and to take any possible threatening might away from the people. Proponents argue that without a rule of law with stiff penalties people would become barbaric and the system would deteriorate into even more unbearable situations. It is completely open about dealing out harsh measures to guarantee the survival of the state by any means necessary. However The Prince does contain methodologies that incorporate and use control based on kindness but these methods are few and far between.
Overall this book's influence on politics and business cannot be underestimated. Ultimately it is a must read being a very powerful book about being very powerful.
Good information.......2007-10-10
Many of Macchavelli's principal relate to both the Political world and the business world. It should be in every library.
This could be quite hard for those who lack the concentration, it can a valuable book for those who want to obtain a leadership position.
Accomadation.......2007-10-02
The first item was lost in the mail. I contacted Amazon and they sent me another one right away.
A Truely Overrated Book.......2007-09-19
"The Prince" is essentially a "how-to" guide for royalty durring the 1400's in Italy. I'm not going to make this review very long... a short review for a short book. It gets one star. Why? It's a very out dated classic. The advice and philosophical ramblings handed out in this book is quite specific to its time and place, and unlike, say The Communist Manefesto, for example, are no long relevant to us. In fact, it would probably be downright criminal today to run your country in the way Machiavelli suggests you do. This book would be a good read if you are interested in the history of Italian principalities durring this time period. Other than that, there is really no reason to read it. The morality of the book is actually very objectionable, and on top of that... its REALLLLLY borring.
It's probably considered to be a classic work of literature because it is just old. That's all. If I wrote some crap right now about the mythical underpants gnomes, and it survived for 600 years, people in 2600 BC would probably be saying "FIVE STARS for the Underpants Gnome Chronicals. This a great relic from the year 2007! Such insight into their ideology and beliefs...."
Awesome book.......2007-09-06
This book is for serious philosophical readers.
Machiavelli broke down a raw and ruthless political idea. I read the Art of War before this book, and they are similar. However, Machiavelli is much more aggressive. If you're reading this book for entertainment, it can be dry at times. Nonetheless, the information in this book is timeless, and should be an enjoyment for interested readers only.
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- Voices from the Heart: In Celebration of America's Volunteers
- Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
- We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, Sixth Shorter Edition
- What's Going on Down There?: Answers to Questions Boys Find Hard to Ask
- Wisdom of the Elders: Sacred Native Stories of Nature
- Without Smoking Gun: Was the Death of Lt. Cmdr. William Pitzer Part of the JFK Assassination Cover-up Conspiracy?
- YOU: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger
Books Index
Books Home
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