I can't imagine a more beautifully presented or informative book for anyone interested in horses. This large (10" X 12", 400 page) volume, is replete with full color illustrations tracing the evolution of the horse from Eohippus and Mesohippus to the present, and every major breed of horse and pony to date, as well as their vital contributions to human society down through the centuries.

More than 150 breeds of horses are pictured in full-color photographs or illustrations, depicting their characteristics, myriad uses, origins and facts and anecdotes about them.

The Encyclopedia of the Horse has chapters on their history, early domestication, classical riding, the great stud farms, international sporting events and breeding trends, and how horses changed the course of history throughout the world.

This truly beautiful book is one for your coffee table; guaranteed to impress visitors and stimulate conversation. It is one of the most exquisite volumes in my library.

Joseph H Pierre

Ted doesn't manage to prove his major thesis, that an Afghan war was being planned prior to 9/11. The evidence he presents is intriguing, but circumstantial. However, he clearly documents the preeminence of the oil pipeline in our management (or mismanagement) of that country following the invasion.

This book really seems to upset people. Perhaps that's because the motivations Ted ascribes to our leaders really do seem more congruent with the end results of their actions than do their stated intentions.

One part indicates the breed does not breed consistant from generation to generation. We have registered 6 continuous current generations and can document each is as true as any offspring can be ... certainly as clearer as the large breeds of today.

"Race for the World," another in the series of books by McKinsey & Co. consultants on how to operate in the global economy, straddles the great grey area in between these two poles. The book starts off with a strong analysis of the "transition" economy, in which geographic barriers are rapidly falling before the globalist wave: world's financial markets converging and digital technologies are lowering communication costs; national governments are "under market pressure" to remove the old legal and regulatory barriers to global competition; consumers are gaining unprecedented power, both to find the best prices through some convenient dot.com company and to vote via their investment dollars. This ongoing race (or "midgame") will determine which corporations can position themselves to become the "shapers" of the next century.

The midgame, the authors assert, offers extraordinary, though rapidly vanishing, opportunities around which to build new corporate strategies. With their new-found access to foreign markets, corporations can create "virtuous cycles of geographic expansion," simultaneously increasing their scale of operation, lowering their costs, and using new incoming profits to continue to invest elsewhere. Finally, by setting up their own networks of information, corporations can take advantage of cross-arbitrage opportunities, that is, buy goods and services from whatever country offers them cheapest.

So far so good. While none of this is particularly new or original, it is in the formulation of strategies that the book will stand or fall. According to the authors, global firms must invest in a variety of intangible capital, including intellectual property, talented managers, networks of able partners, and brand image. If a corporation can integrate these intangible assets into a system that operates as of a piece, the authors maintain, then it will have established "a compelling global value proposition": while single elements in the system may be replicable, imitating it as a whole is far more difficult for competitors. Furthermore, the authors argue, global firms should "control, [though] not own" the value chain, which represents a reversal from the practices once praised in large, vertically integrated firms. Sensible advice.

Unfortunately, at this point the authors cross the line that separates lack of originality from banality. Firms must, the authors solemnly inform us, approach potential deals with the appropriate risk assessment techniques, many of which were developed for investment bankers. These techniques include: 1) "disaggregating" the many risks involved in large business decisions, that is, breaking them down to examine who bears what risks and for what, etc.; 2) focusing on those risks for which the firm enjoys "familiarity advantages"; 3) portfolio theory, i.e. diversification spreads risks; 4) options theory, or the ability to acquire a firm at a specified date in the future for a known price. These techniques, the authors conclude, will allow firms to "overcom[e] confusion (lack of necessary knowledge), complexity (unknown interdependencies), and uncertainty (unknowable future events)." While top executives are perhaps too busy to reflect on these strategies systematically, it is difficult to imagine that they haven't thought about these things already.

However, there are deeper flaws at the core of the book. For starters, the seductive rhetoric of globalism is accepted as a given and fails to realistically anticipate any other contingencies, which is a disservice to business readers. The authors' insistence on proper risk analysis techniques cannot capture these complexities. Instead, the authors treat us to a simple extrapolation of current economic conditions. It remains unclear whether the current boom represents a structural trend (a "new economy") or another speculative financial bubble. Confusing the two can lead to terrible mistakes. Unfortunately, though its purpose is to devise better strategies for managers overwhelmed by global change, "Race for the Future" offers no useful guidance in this regard.

Even worse, evidence that contradicts their vision is ignored. The authors naively assume that globalisation is an unalloyed good, that consumers will prefer cheaper, more uniform goods to traditional indigenous varieties.

Many of these shortcomings can be explained by the poorly hidden agenda of the book. How, one wonders, could four intelligent co-authors ever agree on a detailed analytic framework? The answer is simple: the book is part of the McKinsey & Co. publicity machine. It promotes a company methodology, the conclusions of which come straight from McKinsey "research," a kind of parallel universe of jargon, anecdotes, and fierce internal competition for attention between young "associates" fresh out of university. I suspect that, under the steady hand of good ghost writers, "Race for the World" was cobbled together from disparate articles from the McKinsey Quarterly with over-confidence and little critical regard. As a result, the book's "authors," imbued with the company's mystique, fail to recognise the mediocrity of their ideas and advice.

Nonetheless, "Race for the World" is no no-read. As long as the reader is aware of its limitations, it offers a solid introduction to gung-ho globalism. While the book contains more than could be written on a book flap, its ideas could have been resumed in, say, one article in the McKinsey Quarterly.

My overall impression is that this is another example of a very good extended article that has been expanded into a 300 page book. It also suffers from a lack of summarisation of the main points. The overall impression is of a sharp but rather narrow focus on a few key elements in a successful global strategy, representing itself as the whole.

Good points:
It's written in a more personal, easy approach.
Each chapter covers a different subject, things that I've never found in one book all at once. Things like Masonry and such, I had not gotten to yet, their inclusion is definitely interesting.
Theories are presented as such, and our authors leave it up to the reader to decide what they agree with.
I have several books on Celtic studies, and this one still managed to throw in a few things I hadnt read of yet.
I particularly was impressed with the chapter on Saints.

Bad and not too bad points:

I found much extremely redundant. I got the feeling more than once this was to fill the book, make it longer. Which somewhat baffles me as each chapter's subject could and does have numerous books written on each alone.
Personal peeve was the superflous use of certain phrases, which become again, redundant. Used throughout the entire book, sometimes more than once in each paragraph. When you read it, you'll see what I mean. Minor thing, perhaps, but when it becomes annoying it does make it difficult at times to keep reading.
Certain subjects deserve a much deeper treatment, as such some chapters seem a bit shallow. However, it DOES introduce you just enough to peak your interest, and you may research further. I just felt here and there that perhaps this was too ambitious an undertaking for one volume.

To be fair, I believe this was the idea, however. To introduce the reader to all these things and leave it to us to further study. They arent claiming at all to have included all there is to say on these subjects!
Some I wish would have been longer chapters, others shorter. That all depends on which parts interest you the most.

In summation, it's not a bad, nice enough intro to certain things, some chapters I like more than others.
It might be I had expected too much from it..
Just dont buy this expecting in depth studies of each subject. There's what, about 8 being covered here, that again, can each be written extensively on separately.

[Please forgive us for the apparent '5-star' review of our own book. The online review form will not accept any information without a rating!]