Customer Reviews:
The Great Betrayal.......2006-07-05
This was by far the finest book I have read. My heart goes out to the people of Rhodesia, black and white. A great country that was the bread basket of southern Africa was taken by a combination of treason and politics by England and the United States. As an American you must be ashamed of Jimmy Carter for turning his back on Rhodesia. After all that happened in the rest of Africa when Independence was given, Congo, Nigeria, Kenya and so on, Ian Douglas Smith was promoting a gradual turnover. But the rest of the world stood by and watched Marxism take over and the country is now destroyed. All his critics should take note. Ian Douglas Smith was right. God bless!
Tedious and disappointing.......2006-05-03
I bought this book in the spirit of open-mindedness and was fully prepared to stomach a good dose of bigotry and racism in an attempt to hear both sides of the story. `Never in a thousand years will a black man rule this country' was one of Ian Smiths more notorious quotes, and I fully expected him to defend or even attempt to justify his beliefs, I wanted to get inside his mind. Instead he chose to paint Rhodesia as a Utopia for both blacks and whites and to gloss over his oppressive and racist reign placing all blame on interference by the rest of the world. Why then did in hundreds of thousands of young men and women flee the comfort of their homes to fight to the death for the liberation of their country? He did not even seem to acknowledge that there was a war going on, preferring to think of it as a few terrorists attacking a couple of farms. Most of the book is dedicated to pointing fingers at the British and South African governments as the root of all evil- I guess the title should have given it away. His detailed accounts of meeting after meeting combined with his failure to address the real issues that resulted in majority rule made it a terribly tedious and disappointing book to read.
Long Live a Free Rhodesia!.......2004-12-29
Ian Smith is one of the great patriots and statesmen of the 20th century, thus his memoirs should be read by all. To make apologies for those of his views, which may in today's Politically Correct environment be regarded as "racist," is most cowardly and disgusting. The deranged, tyrannical, murderous and yes, RACIST regime of his successor, the despicable Robert Mugabe, is answer enough for the leftist and egalitarian critics of the great Ian Smith. In a just and sane world, instead of invading Iraq, we'd be sending the Marines to restore Mr. Smith to his rightful place in the Presidential Palace at Salisbury. Would that we had more men like him.
WHAT IAN SMITH DOESN'T TELL YOU.......2004-12-16
This is a fascinating memoir, as much for what Smith leaves out, as what he writes. His recollections are highly coloured and one-sided -- he ignores much of which "white" Rhodesia under his leadership had cause to be ashamed. When his party, the Rhodesian Front, came to power, the self-governing colony boasted the continent's highest per capita expenditure on education, good and improving health and welfare services, relatively minor discriminatory legislation and sound economic growth. Under Smith things went into reverse and a largely quiescent black population became increasingly frustrated and militant, resulting in an insurrection that eventually brought Mugabe to power. The blame for the fact that Zimbabwe is today a brutal, fascist dictatorship and economic basket case, where starvation and the trampling of human rights have resulted in massive emigration and a steep decline in life expectancy may fairly be laid at the door of Comrade "Mad Bob" Mugabe. But it was the racist selfishness and political dishonesty of Smith and his cohorts that opened that door. -- Matthew C White, former political correspondent of the Sunday Mail (Salisbury/Harare) and author of "Smith of Rhodesia" published Nelson, Cape Town, 1978.
A Monumental assesment on Africa.......2004-03-09
Ian Douglas Smith led Rhodesia to declare independence from England because England was tying his countries hands to fight terrorism by Communist forces. Unfortunately the war Smith embarked on, one to save Zimbabwe and its people, proved a public relations disaster and the world condemned the treatment of Rhodesia's majority population. Smith's book argues clearly that although his was a government of the minority it was a benevolent government, and one which when history judges, was better then what has been today in Zimbabwe. This book tells this epic tale from a hands on point of view.
History has proven this book to be accurate and its assessments to be wholehearted. Mugabe, who was supposed to represent `majority rule' has proven to be a thuggish dictator, he has driven his nations economy into the ground so that whereas under Smith the country exported grain, it now relies solely on foreign aid. Mugabe has jailed the journalists and outlawed political dissent. And to boot Mugabe has thrown all the minorities off their land. This wonderful book proves that Rhodesia was far better off under Smith then it has been subsequently.
Seth J. Frantzman
Book Description
Socially responsible investments have grown exceptionally in the same year that "moral values" determined a presidential election. So why has business been so slow to catch on? In a new book, The Company We Keep, small business owner and entrepreneur John Abrams makes a case for a return to workplace values, and shows how we can ultimately profit by them.
The Company we Keep is more than the success story of a revolutionary company. It sets down a framework for a model of employee ownership and community involvement that has piqued the interest of entrepreneurs around the country. In the words of Abrams, "This is a book about a different way of doing business in today's world-a way based on workplace democracy, shared ownership, staying small, building community, commitment to a place, and long term thinking."
John Abrams founded the South Mountain Company, a design and building firm, on Martha's Vineyard more than thirty years ago. Through a commitment to place and community entrepreneurship, he has seen the company grow and prosper, while at the same time experimenting with a revolutionary employee ownership model that has challenged the traditional business rhetoric of unchecked growth.
There is a revolution going on in corporate America, and social entrepreneurship is leading the way. Rejecting the myth that short-term profits are the only indicator of business health and wealth, John Abrams shows how building a company to serve the needs of people (employees and owners), community, and the environment can be a successful business plan as well. Part entrepreneurial business plan, part guide to democratizing the workplace, and part prescription for strong local economies, The Company We Keep marks the debut of an important new voice in the literature of American business.
Customer Reviews:
Moving Forward.......2007-01-20
A document of great vision and execution in a positive direction. A fine example of collaborative and cooperative thinking thich enhances the resulting effort. Everyone wants to work in a nurturing environment.
Totally engrossing and not just for business-types.......2006-08-24
In an era in which corporations are measured on quarterly, single bottom-line returns, John Abrams presents a compelling case that a multiple bottom-line, values oriented, long term focus can be a successful business strategy in The Company We Keep.
In this well-written and compelling book, Abrams artfully examines the long-accepted American business concept of growth;and determines that growth for growth's sake is a short-term strategy leading to failure. He weaves over twenty years of experience in construction, design and sustainable building practices into a philosophical look at the meaning of work and success; the result provides the reader with fabric from which to examine his/her own company, work life, natural environment and style of doing business. Perhaps most importantly, the book is written in a warm, reflective style which makes it hard to put down and leaves the reader yearning for more insights and information from this writer, who provides substantial research and details to support his work and ideas. Just as a good movie creates long-lasting recollections of scenes, The Company We Keep brings daily reminders of wonderful stories and the confidence that strong personal and company values can indeed be the means to a successful and growing business.
A Must-Read for every MBA program and anyone interested in succeeding in business with integrity!.......2006-07-20
Can a company built and grown on Abrams's hippie values of kindness, love, respect, honesty, and freedom of the individual actually be successful in this era rife with competition?
A friend recommended this book, as am a business owner, MBA, Gen X/ Y, who embraces these values to the extent that I'll never compromise, and have built a small, successful business with similar emphasis on treating people involved extraordinarily well. Profit, like in Abrams's story, was simply a bi-product. And the joy of knowing I'm doing good for so many interested parties is priceless.
So many lessons to be learned in this wonderful book! I couldn't put it down once I started reading. Abrams's completely open, honest approach is heart-warming and inspiring.
One can hold true to one's values, and still build a fabulously successful company, one in which the coworkers are also owners with a vested interest. And customers, too, are treated like partners. Emphasis on quality of work, versus growth simply for the sake of growth, is often illustrated.
This is one of those rare books one remembers long after reading. Each day since reading the book, I hear ordinary words like 'cooperation', which bring me back to the wonderful stories in this book and to the many studies well-noted in the book suggesting further evidence of people's natural urge to cooperate (and success in doing so).
A beautiful story and a must-read for anyone in business who wants to keep his/ her soul! Thank you for sharing your heartfelt, model example of developing a very successful business with values, Mr. Abrams!! The book is a classic. Will revisit it often, and already sent several copies to friends.
Blueprint for REAL Success.......2006-04-19
This is an excellent business book!
I recommend it to any CEO wondering how to maintain a profitable and healthy organization beyond next quarter's bonus.
John Abrams shows us how real business success can be achieved for the corporation and the community in this documentary of South Mountain Company. It is well written and packed with the tested principals and concepts that have built this successful, community centered business on Martha's Vineyard.
Imagine that true workplace democracy combined with commitments to ethical business dealings and social responsibility can lead to a high quality, sustainable, and profitable business! Corporate America should sit up and take notice!
I vote that we make this book required reading as part of the rehabilitation process of all incarcerated former corporate executives.
Best business book I've ever read.......2006-04-17
In an age of every type of self-help tale imaginable, this is the best business book I have read period; it makes perfect sense. The Openness the author is willing to share and the research behind it is tremendously thought provoking. I have purchased numerous copies to share with my friends.
Like any avid reader I picked this book in the summer and put it in the pile of about 200 "to read immediately." To be candid, I very likely would not have picked it up as soon as I did, but with my business in transition I felt I would give it a try.
The substantive issues summarized on p. 238 really cause the book to stand out; the author takes the building of South Mountain and allow its principles to transcend the story itself. At my bedside I keep a copy of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's "The Gift from the Sea" and often read passages. In it she writes: "Island living has been a lens through which to examine my own life in the North. I must keep my lens when I go back. Little by little one's holiday vision tends to fade. I must remember to see with island eyes. The shells will remind me; they must be my island eyes."
Later she queries, "Can one solve world problems when one is unable to solve one's own? Where have we arrived in this process? Have we been successful, working at the periphery of the circle and not at the center?" Her question is similar to a familiar passage of Tolstoy's a deceased client of mine, a hero himself, often quoted: "Everybody wants to change the world, but they don't want to change themselves."
The leap of faith John Abrams took in changing the culture of South Mountain is a great example of starting from the center. He has worked hard and with creative aforethought in solving one's own corporate problems with a view to the outside world. This is not an idyllic story of a community business developed on the the Island of Martha's Vineyard. It is a practical guide, but how fortunate the author has been that view is with "island eyes."
Back to p. 238, you wonder: "I don't know yet, nor do I know whether I will ever know, to what degree we can build on the foundations we have created and to what degree we can improve our skills. Neither do I know to what extent our experience can help others go down the path toward economic democracy and community entrepreneurship. I don't know whether, in time, many more people will share ownership and control of the companies they work in."
I think John Abrams has the model right here to make great changes in our corporate world. One can only imagine if many small and large businesses utilized this modus operandi. One only needs to pick up the business page of any major newspaper to think the world(`s problems) would be better off.
I have been a part of the company for 21 years and took sole ownership a little over 4 years ago. Similarly to South Mountain, we are an established enterprise which, for a variety of reasons, are at crossroads in our growth and development. I would like to consider tailoring the South Mountain model to my company and go down the same path. Nonetheless, this read is for any business manager/owner with a company big or small as its applications ring true.
Average customer rating:
- Informative and entertaining read.......
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The Companies We Keep
Manufacturer: Small Business Hawaii
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0972450408 |
Product Description
Amazing stories about 450 of Hawaii's best known companies
Customer Reviews:
Informative and entertaining read..............2007-04-05
I found The Companies We Keep written by Professor Bob Sigall and his students to be a highly entertaining and informative book that deals with the tidbits history of many of the businesses that were started in Hawaii. Within these pages lies many information about many of the Hawaiian based businesses that will definitely surprised any natives of that state. In some cases, origins and meanings of some of the more recongizable logos were clearly explained like the bunny waving his paw drawn in the rear of all Roberts Tour buses. According to the book, this bunny was waving good-bye to the Greyhound Bus Company who abandoned Hawaii to the Roberts back in the 1970s. I have talked with people who used to work for Roberts and none of them knew this information.
One man who definitely end up looking good in this book is Lex Brodie, a well known local business man.
If there was a weakness in this book, it may be that many of the real home grown Hawaiian businesses did not get mention or were just a mere footnote compared to some mainland companies who got a bigger spread. I mean I can understand Sears since it anchored Ala Moana Shopping Center for decades but Starbucks??
Still, Professor Sigall definitely got something going here. If he could come up with Volume Two of this book with more details on local businesses like Kaimuki Camera or Island Triathon or his local bookstore, Bookends in Kailua, I am almost sure that it should sell pretty well with the locals as well as with interested readers like myself.
Overall, a great book that in reality, tells the history of Hawaii through the growth and lives of local business, I can cheerfully recommended this book to anyone who have any interest in Hawaii.
Book Description
In The Company We Keep, Wayne C. Booth argues for the relocation of ethics to the center of our engagement with literature.
But the questions he asks are not confined to morality. Returning ethics to its root sense, Booth proposes that the ethical critic will be interested in any effect on the ethos, the total character or quality of tellers and listeners. Ethical criticism will risk talking about the quality of this particular encounter with this particular work. Yet it will give up the old hope for definitive judgments of "good" work and "bad." Rather it will be a conversation about many kinds of personal and social goods that fictions can serve or destroy. While not ignoring the consequences for conduct of engaging with powerful stories, it will attend to that more immediate topic, What happens to us as we read? Who am I, during the hours of reading or listening? What is the quality of the life I lead in the company of these would-be friends?
Through a wide variety of periods and genres and scores of particular works, Booth pursues various metaphors for such engagements: "friendship with books," "the exchange of gifts," "the colonizing of worlds," "the constitution of commonwealths." He concludes with extended explorations of the ethical powers and potential dangers of works by Rabelais, D. H. Lawrence, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain.
Customer Reviews:
required reading for anyone who cares about literature.......2004-12-25
In his usual thorough, encyclopedic way, Booth discusses many of the issues concerning the effects of fiction in the real world on real people. And as usual, he bends over backward to be fair to everybody. He gives patient, exhaustive treatments of all arguments and claims, even the most idiotic, showing their inadequacies. But people who put forth idiotic arguments do not do so because they are stupid but because they are committed, and committed people do not respond to reason, however patient and thorough. Still, there is much thought-provoking material here, and the book should be read by all readers interested in the personal and social effects of literature. Booth is weakest when dealing with philosophical issues (because he is not a philosopher). His confusions about subjectivism and relativism are cases in point. For a competent discussion of these and the other ethical (i.e. value-theoretic) issues, readers would be better advised to get A Book Worth Reading. But as a compendium of arguments "clearing away the dead wood" and for his many thought-provoking discussions, Booth is impossible to beat.
Matchless.......2004-08-15
Muddled in endless cultural anxieties, or battling feverishly in various intellectualized ghettos of fashionable cultural politics and so many psychoanalyticalisms or poststructuralisms, most contemporary literary critics and historians fail to provide us with truly original substantive insights based on a union of thorough close reading, historical contexting and ethical speculation.
Instead critics today impose a theoretical template upon works as if they are writing only for their present-day colleaques and the hidden forces of tenure and promotion. Nor do these critics seem to have an unparalleled mastery of many, many, many books--wide, volumnious reading that used to be called "generalism"--and those books' inner workings.
Yes, all critics write from their own cultural bias and historical location. Yes, all texts hew from particular milieus.
Yet, Professor Booth demonstrates that there is such a thing as original thinking about literature and literary technique that *does not* make the mistake of imposing a speculative template at the expense of unexpected analytical power and unique theses.
Professor Booth has a lifelong project that bears up to present day and future inquiry. He writes for the ages. Literally, he has read most major and minor British, American, and major European fiction from the Renaissance forward and the major theories that arise around them, including the "classical" Greco-Roman theories that undergird so much of current critical thinking in Western European and American academies.
This undergirding "classical" thought is largely unknown, yes, to many junior scholars raised on the isms and jargons of today. These junior scholars simply could not tell you in a clearly worded summary free of jargon what Aristotle or Plato said about narrative, rhetoric, dramatic presentation, or lyric sensibility; nor could they give you a picture of critical investigations of point of view from Henry James forward. But they know their queer theory and postcolonialism. And as well they should. Yet, oh for the day when junior scholars were encouraged to know more than their own small camp of influence.
When Professor Booth makes general claims about technical trends in the writing of novels and short fiction he makes these based on wide and deep critical reading. He has an uncommon and penetrating mind that thankfully has little to prove in terms of the current obsession with cultural identity and social politics. Yet, he has much to *convey* in terms of what might be called the "cultural politics of technique."
Thus, his writings from *Rhetoric of Fiction* on are hardly apolitical or ahistorical. What he has is a knack for coming up with original theses--unique arguments borne of close reading and cultural-historical contexting that defy easy theoretical cheapening.
Today, we read critics and immediately place them into some theoretical school or camp... and there are so many speculative ghettos.
Professor Booth's originality of thought will not suffer from such ghettoization.
Sadly, and without exaggeration, there are no literary critics or historians that possess his elegant authority today. And few *write* with both clarity and depth--*explaining* terms while never sacrificing analytical power.
Professor Booth wrote through the time when French structuralisms, poststructuralisms, deconstructionisms, feminisms, race-theorisms, queer-theorisms and psychoanalyticisms, postcolonialisms and a host of other isms defined literary criticism and began, as it were, to eclispe unexpected de-provincialized readings of fiction. The "theory" became more important than the criticism.
Some critics beholden to these camps rise out of them to forge truly intellectual thought.
*How* the works may do what they do is as important as what they can be said to convey politically and socially. In this book, Professor Booth's picture of characters as ethical engines, as social actors fraught with obligations, responsibilities, human effects, and errors is matchless.
Average customer rating:
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Law and the Company We Keep
Aviam Soifer
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0674512987 |
Book Description
Whether we are black, gay, Republican, women, or deaf, our associations--whether voluntary or assigned--constitute crucial and inescapable elements of our identities. Both voluntary and involuntary groups have been important in American history--more important than is generally recognized. But these groups have never been adequately addressed by law, which has as its primary focus the relationship between the individual and the state. The company we keep, says the constitutional law scholar Aviam Soifer, is presumed to be each person's own business, and generally beyond notice of the law. But as America becomes a more varied country and issues arising out of multiculturalism threaten to divide us, it becomes essential, Soifer argues, to recognize rights under the First Amendment that will protect the crucial roles of groups and communities within the larger national community.
Legal doctrine and the outcomes reached in judicial proceedings will be more coherent if we acknowledge that groups qua groups have significant legal impact. The building blocks of any quest for justice must include the groups--social, political, professional, civil, interpretive, religious--from which we derive and apply ethical standards in search of a better life. The ability to step outside traditional doctrinal boxes that concentrate on relationships between individuals and government will help not only legal thinkers but every person to reason toward justice.
Using history and literature to explore the complex issues of individual and group rights, Law and the Company We Keep is the first sustained account of the presence and importance of groups in our legal culture. It confronts central questions about the multiple roles of culture and symbol in defining our groups, and through them, our lives.
Book Description
OUR ENDANGERED SPECIES
Three decades ago, America's first comprehensive endangered species legislation was passed by a nation alarmed by the imminent extinction of such creatures as its proud symbol, the bald eagle. As the years passed, the list grew to include a diverse collection of mammals, plants, butterflies, fish, and more, until today more than 950 American species are protected. This spectacular book celebrates them all as it traces the course of our wildlife conservation efforts, explores our increasingly fragile ecosystems, and examines the ever fiercer debate about how to balance the environmental needs of our wildlife and the economic demands of modern America. Packed with magnificent full-color photographs, maps, and special features, it is a glorious tribute to nature's diversity -- and an impassioned call for the preservation of America's imperiled natural heritage.
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The Companies We Keep: Corporate Governance for a Democratic Society
Allan C. Hutchinson
Manufacturer: Irwin Law
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1552211169 |
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The company we keep
Wayne Eagling
Manufacturer: Angus & Robertson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0207959501 |
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The Company We Keep
John Roueche
Manufacturer: Community College Pr/Amer Assoc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 9997379225 |
Books:
- The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Movie Business: The Definitive Guide to the Legal and Financial Secrets of Getting Your Movie Made
- The New American Story
- The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
- The Origin of the Second Amendment: A Documentary History of the Bill of Rights in Commentaries on Liberty, Free Government & an Armed Populace 1787-1792
- The Places In Between
- The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Theory and History of Literature, Volume 10)
- The Rwanda Crisis
- The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert
Books Index
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