Ever wonder who was the chair of the "establishment" for a good part of the 20th Century. It was clearly John McCloy. Here's a short bio: grew up poor; graduated from Harvard Law School; became a partner at Cravath; was Under-Secretary of Defense (under Stimson) for FDR -- basically the number two guy (and the go-to-guy) in the War Department in WWII; was behind many good and bad decisions like internment of the Japanese (supported) and dropping of the atom bomb (opposed); became the allied ruler of Germany after the war (and was responsible for the democratization of the country); Chairman of the World Bank; Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations; Chairman and CEO of Chase; Chair of President's Disarmament Committee; helped negotiate the Cuban Missile Crisis; served on the Warren Commission; knew every President personally from FDR to Bush. He is a complicated person who made many good and bad decisions -- Read this book.

As a lawyer, it's gratifying to see that a fellow lawyer, John McCloy, had such a key role in putting together post-WW II Europe, and it challenges my anti-FDR leanings to read this book, since McCloy was mainly a tool of FDR. Even though he was a Republican. Mr. Bird chronicles McCloy's life starting from humble New York beginnings, and establishes that you must understand the New York investment houses, the law firms they fed and controlled, and the European investments of those New Yorkers, to understand Mc Cloy. By the end of the book, we do.

Bird has the gift of not saying too much, but telling you a lot. McCloy's dad dies, then his mom (hairdresser to the rich) keeps him in contact with Rockefellers and the like, and thru lots of hard work and sacrifice, she sees that John makes it into the exclusive schools with the same upper-crust people. He then becomes a lawyer, and does the dirty work for the unscrupulous bond salesmen who use the public's unsecured money to pay back the priority lenders to doomed projects, mainly railroads, before those same creditors send in the lawyers to repo the assets, and sell them to contolled companies which sell them again. This is all pre-New Deal, pre-SEC. Mc Cloy gets good at it and his skill at tennis leads him to play hard-ball on the tennis courts, as well as in the law courts, with big money NY types, which makes McCloy attractive to the law firms feeding off of the investment houses. At this point, a useful companion book to read would be Robert Sobel's history of the Dillon, Read investment house, which goes into more detail.

McCloy ends up being detailed to the federal gov't during WW I and becomes an intelligence expert, and then has a key part in forming what becomes the CIA. He stays connected with the CIA for the rest of his life, while pinging and ponging out of the gov't, mainly on "commissions" and "panels" and he also gets tied up with the Council on Foreign Relations, which Bird convincingly describes as very powerful in its day.

McCloy's career peaks when FDR appoints him to be high commissioner for post-WW II Germany, with plenary, Caesar-like powers, which McCloy exercises tactfully and with restraint. While also playing lots of tennis. This section of the book is very gripping, as Bird unwinds the CIA's role in funding anti-Soviet left-wing intellectuals to counter Soviet propaganda, and to make sure Germany does not intrepidly rush to unify too soon--before the die-hard old Nazi's of Germany's industrial establishment are neutralized by the passage of a generation.

The European Community is also convincingly penetrated, below the acronyms and meetings which symbolize it for most contemporary students. Bird details how McCloy dealt with the treaties forming the EC, and how insuring Germany's non-reunification fit with putting other countries intot he coal and steel industries which Germany would need to becomea credible threat again.

In this reading, the awfulness of Germany, and the threat of revanchement, is what drove the cold war, not just anti-Soviet inexorabilities of history. In leading the effort at such a key time, McCloy's sportsmanship, learning, connections, and toughness were all needed. Bird suggests where and how McCloy developed each of these qualities, and how the old "Establishment" in America operated through these high quality servants of the amassed wealth of the Eastern types who then utilized WW II to launch America as the ruler of the economic world for the next 50 years. Quite an achievement, considering they could have just sat around Bar Harbor instead, wasting the talents of the acolyte class of McCloys on sailboat lessons and hair-do's for their wives and children.

Leaving us with the issue of what type of Americans will be called on to get us through whatever convulsions are left, now that George H.W. Bush and James Baker III steered us through the definitive collapse of Russian Communism. In this light, should we be glad or sad that the Arkansas contingent looks like they will miss the coming convulsion of Chinese communism?

This is a great book on marriage and the family. Taking it from a Biblical perspective, Jay Adams does a great job of going through the husband's role, the wife's role and how they interrelate. If you want to find the Biblical formula for a successful marriage, get this book. If you think that the world has a better way and that true, Biblical roles are "archaic", don't buy this book, get a psychology book and get ready for divorce. I use this book for pre-marriage counselling. It works very well by going over one chapter each session.

Adams's Christian Living in the Home is still the best book on its subject after all these years. I first read it before I got married, and my wife (who is from here in Taiwan) refers to its Chinese edition--the best book on its subject in her language--often. We both notice that we feel like the other spouse is more loving right after that spouse has reread this book recently. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED especially for its teaching about marriage, it is also very practical for dealing with children (we have three sons now). This book is my favorite extra thing to give as a wedding present at every wedding to which I'm invited.

It,s true that our mode of behaving in the organization depends greatly on our values we have in our life. Also how we think affect our attitude toward our personal role in the organizing process. it,s not easy to become selfless and humble to fit better in the teams set up in the organization. We need some guide to reprogram ourselves in order to smooth our role we play in the organizing process. The book "Classics of organizational behavior" could be a base to clarify those items mentioned above and many other still to be known. Anyone working in an organization should have such great book in his/her collections. Very Truly Yours, Rodulfo Geerman

If you want to know where 95% of today's hot "new management ideas" come from, this is the reader! If you know this stuff you will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff in today's over-crowed management book market.

The selected readings provide a useful reference to classic public administration literature. The writings are presented in a general chronological order covering topics important to the various time periods. The book could be improved with an updated edition of current literature (stops around the Carter presidency.) An index would be helpful. Overall, a worthwhile addition to one's political science library. I refer to it often.

FULL MARKS GOES TO SHAFRITZ AND HYDE FOR THIS EXCLUSIVE WORK WHILE EVEN FINDING A LITERATURE ABOUT PUBLIC ADMN. IS GETTING DIFFICULT. THANKS TO BOTH!

What do you expect from a cognitive science book, which neatly separates all the major fields (Cognitive Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Language Acquisition, Semantics, Natural Language Processing, Vision), into chapters? First of all, it is not a mile-wide inch-deep book. Quite the contrary, it has remarkable detail, and it's definitely not an easy book for the beginner. However the fragments are not well-connected to each other, and there are no threads of thought one can follow through the text. Probably the most important problem of cognitive science is the gap between the disciplines, and the lack of a common terminology. The authors have adopted an information-processing view, and overstepped this problem rather than solving it. The result is a biased book, which is really nice if you like the information theoretic approach (like I do), but as a course-book, I suggest it as the supplementary reading.

Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition is a fascinating undergraduate text that accurately shows all of the subsets of the cognitive sciences. Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition introduces the advanced undergraduate student to cognitive science subsets such as cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology, cognitive computational intelligence, cognitive linguistics, cognitive nurro-science, and the philosophy of the cognitive sciences. The diagrams in Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition are very vivid to demonstrate exactly what a philosophers/scientists sees in the subject matter of the cognitive sciences. The undergraduate text provides a very a empirical perspective of the cognitive sciences that differs directly from the classical transcendental perspective of cognition that the philosopher Immanuel Cant demonstrated in the Critique Of Pure Reason. The cognitive sciences can be very difficult to understand, but Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition is one of the best resources to explore the new empirical study of the science of the process of thought.

Please feel free to send questions or comments to mmount@essex1.com

Retired Navy aviator Jack Gallagher learns that his father Nick drowned when his ship the Sea Devil topsided. Jack has ambivalent feelings because twenty years ago Nick deserted his family to search for sea treasure off the Florida Keys. Though he originally planned on attending the funeral and immediately returning to Chicago, Jack thinks the recently changed will that provides him with ten percent of Doubloon, Inc. is a cryptic message from his dad. Jack decides to stay for now.

Key West Tribune reporter Josie Hernandez writes stories that imply that someone murdered Nick. At the same time that the Florida Office of Antiquities investigates Doubloon for tax evasion through the illegal sales of antiquities, the company's salvage license may be revoked by the state. As Josie and Jack make strange bedfellows, danger mounts as the duo is assaulted. Not long after, they close in on a special treasure with thugs wanting them eliminated, a step family that seems untrustworthy, a hurricane ready to destroy the duo, and dubious bureaucrats ready to dry-dock the pair.

DOUBLOON would be another run of the mill treasure seeker thriller except Jay Amberg has had a great time providing insight into various seafaring processes that his enthusiasm becomes contagious. Fans receive a taut albeit standardized thriller but it also provides insight into treasure diving and the state of artifacts in salt water (think of some of monuments like the Statue of liberty or Washington Monument needing a cleaning), etc. This is cleverly intertwined into the plot, but also done with such elation that many readers will consider a vacation off the Florida coast.

Harriet Klausner

Doubloon is an exciting thriller from beginning to end - whether you are into sunken treasure or not! Jay Amberg is an expert storyteller who opens up to his readers the world of treasure hunting in the deep blue sea. There's passion and greed, danger and deception, and a treasure to be discovered that is beyond anyone's imaginings. But is it all worth the price that is paid?
I'll let you decide. But definitely decide to read this book. You will discover that Jay Amberg is the real hidden treasure...

Danger: This encyclopedia is habit-forming. I try to stop at just one entry, but each one is so very interesting that it leads me to more cross-referenced entries and then still more. All in all it seems very even-handed in its tone and treatment of the various contentious theories and theorists. It is indispensable for anyone working with evolution, no matter how versant in evolutionary history, and eminently readable for nonspecialists. The only negative criticism I have of the book is that it lacks an index in the back so that one could track a thread. The cross-references at the end of each article are not as exhaustive as I'd like, so a word index to find every mention of a concept should definitely be considered for subsequent editions.

If you're interested in biological evolution, this is a book you've got to have. A huge collection of articles, arranged alphabetically, but each one interesting in itself. And many are fascinating. It's written for common folks, like me, but few compromises are made with scientific precision. Of special interest to many will be the biographical sketches (of "losers" like Lysenko as well as "winners" up to an including both Charles and Erasmus Darwin). Also covers a lot of frauds and hoaxes (e.g., Piltdown Man). You'll have fun. And even professional evolutionary biologists can expect to learn a lot.

Jay Wood has done us a great service: he's written a book to help us think, and feel, more clearly. His book is a fine introduction to a complex field of philosophy. His clear writing, abundant use of illustrations from daily life and the great works of fiction, make the book more accessible than any other book on epistomology I've read (but make no mistake, no book on the topic is going to be a breeze). I was most enthusiastic about his (successful) attempt to help me understand the crucial role of emotions in how I come to know whether something is true or not.

For those seeking to integrate Christian moral virtues with intellectual virtues this is a must read. Wood argues that the virtuous life leads to our ability to lead excellent lives. This is acomplished in us by persuing intellectual virtue and its habits (intellectual honesty, love for truth, etc) along side the quest for moral virtues at the same time. Wood argues that "According to the Christian tradition, to forge virtuous habits of moral and intellectual character is part of what is required for us to grow to teh full stature of all that God intends for humans to be." (p. 19)

I had RA for 20 years before finding a book about it I could connect with. Through Nies personal experiences, beautifully rendered, I started to analyze my own struggles and think about life style choices I have made and others that I need to question again. Her book compels me to question western medecine and realize that by listening to my body more closely, I can take care of my arthritis and my soul in a more fruitful way. A must read for any woman with RA at any age.

When a friend gave me this book I put it on the coffee table to read when I "had some time". Well, I finally had some time and wished I had picked this up the night it was given to me. This is not just another recovery book. Filled with light and insight, the words tumble over each other in a rush to be read. Barbara pulled me into her world and it was so much more than a book about living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is a book about life. I haven't been this absorbed and delighted, so caught up in a book since I read Barbara Kingsolver's "High Tide in Tucson". "Finding Ways" was a joy to read and Barbara is a talented and gifted writer. I can't wait for her next work and this one will be finding its way onto all my friends bookshelves this year. What a beautiful little jewel of a book.

I liked this little book, and thought it would be very helpful to the woman to whom it seems to be addressed: a single woman who wants to travel but is afraid to go it alone. My only criticism is that some of the author's travel choices may be a bit too gritty for many of her readers. For example, I've traveled a lot, but I wouldn't consider staying in a bunk room in a youth hostel -- something highly recommended here. The author's premise is valid: go for it! And the early portion of the book aimed at getting women to overcome their fears is probably helpful. I just think few of the older women to whom this book is addressed are likely to sleep in their cars for weeks, or to take up some of the other unusual suggestions made by the author. Nevertheless, for women who want to travel alone and haven't done so yet, I strongly recommend this book.

Gigi -- a 55-year-old travler

with everything you need to know about traveling solo, packing light, preplanning for smooth traveling, dressing, budgeting, and security. And, the best news: you don't have to be traveling alone to reap the benefits. This little gem is for all travelers, on your own or otherwise. And, since it is compact and fits easily into a day pack, our copy usually travels with us for that occasional refresher on the travel tips. A favorite that proves that size is not a factor in the quality of information contained in a book! We've had much larger travel guides that didn't have one half as much to share as A Foxy Old Woman's Guide to Traveling Alone. Happy reading.