This informative and well-written book is only as good as the philosophical vision which informs and supports it, which in this case is the philosophy of libertarianism. However, libertarianism extols the virtues of the free market to such an extent that it seems toothless as a basis for business ethics. In my opinion, A Primer on Business Ethics could be retitled as A Primer on Business Apologetics on account to its excessive tolerance towards business practices (including kickbacks and bribery) which most people rightly find ethically dubious. What are we to make of a business ethics book written in 2002, which makes no mention of Worldcom, Enron or ImClone in its text or index? If ripping off stockholders is compatible with a libertarian conception of business ethics, then so much the worse for that conception. If it is not compatible with that conception, the authors should have mentioned it. The silence is deafening.

I would also like to add that the dedication of the book to the victims of 9-11 'because they were members of the business community' is in poor taste, because many of the victims were not business persons, and because the authors (absurdly) make the victims sound like martyrs for capitalism. It sounds like an opportunistic attempt to recruit the dead for the libertarian world-view. Perhaps the dedication is good for the business of selling the book, but that only shows that what is good for business is not necessarily good, period.

This is a clearly written, lucid and interesting business ethics primer that will be useful for anyone interested in business ethics. The main shortcoming of the book in my opinion is the general perspective of libertarianism from which it is written. While it is true that the book does not indulge in 'business ethics', it veers towards the other extreme of business apologetics at many stages. What are we to think of a business ethics primer, with a chapter on insider trading, which makes no mention of Enron or ImClone?

After reading one review of this book I wanted to see for myself and lo and behalf found that there is a discussion of Enron in the Epilog. (The reviewer spoke out without reading the book, which is dirty pool.) In any case, while the authors are indeed champions of the free market, this doesn't by any means tell the whole story. They also defend a virtue ethics in terms of which various professions are held to their (explicit or implicit) oath. People in business, in particular, are committed to make their enterprise prosper and if they engage, for example, in racial, sexual or other kinds of irrelevant discrimination, they are guilty of violating the ethics of their profession and may also be guilty of injustice in general. This book, thus, is full of precise enough guideliness for how to conduct oneself in business, what would make one an unethical advertiser, manager, personnel director, and corporate executive. The authors' view of advertising as an means of promotion rather than information dissemination is especially useful, as is their discussion of employment ethics. All in all a good text that is by no means easy on business, even if not a business basher as most such texts manage to be.

I couldn't believe the first story in the book. The writing was awful and the commentary extremely negative and selfish. As an aspiring midwife, I searched between the lines for the inspiration I was looking for. While some of the stories were touching...many were negative and disorganized. I enjoyed Diary of a Midwife a lot more.

I was astounded at the diversity within the midwife community. As someone who has had one doctor-assisted hospital childbirth experience (and not a pleasant one at that) I came to this book knowing little of midwives, their craft or their history. This book included stories from midwives in many arenas - home births, hospital births, lay midwives, nurse-midwives, those practicing legally and illegally. While it touched lightly on the politics of midwifery in America and the rivalry between its factions, this book's most telling feature is its focus on the women who choose this field. Chester truly lets them speak their hearts. In all cases their love for bringing life into the world is evident despite their sometimes forthright, pesimistic or negative statements. Each story is accompanied by a beautiful photographic portrait - done by Chester's sister- which displays the subject in her own element and gives visual insight into her personality and situation.

As a woman who knew almost nothing about the practice of midwifery, I found this a very interesting and quick read. Short chapters devoted to one midwife describe why they wanted to become a midwife, what type of midwife they are, their views and sometimes about the politics or legal issues of midwifery. Despite having read magazine articles on midwifery, I learned things from this book that I've not seen elsewhere. It is also full of affirmations that birth is normal and that women's bodies are designed for a drug free birth--something not seen written about too often. I have one child who was born in a hospital and had a heavy medical intervention birth which was not the outcome that I had hoped for. I thought I had planned well to avoid medical interventions. The knowledge I gained from this book prompted me to seek midwifery care for my current pregnancy. I wanted to learn more about midwifery in general and this was a fun and sometimes disturbing read. It helped me form some of my own opinions and reaffirmed that my decision to receive different care for my second pregnancy. For me it was a jumping off point to then go read other books which delve more in-depth into the topic of receiving midwifery for prenatal care and birth. I recommend this to anyone who doesn't know much about midwifery and likes to read stories of peoples lives. I especially liked the appendix where a full explanation of the differences between accredition were explained and the mission statements of the midwifery organizations were stated. The short chapters are also easily read in bits and pieces which is necessary when one has a toddler running about. I can't speak as to how experienced midwives or those that already know a lot about the subject would like the book.

Ages 4-8 yrs. Sort of a long story about some house pets--Harold the dog, Chester the cat, Howie the small dog, and Bunnicula the rabbit--who are worried that someone is trying to break into their humans' house. They talk to each other in the story as they set up guard duty, and then try and solve the mystery of the missing fudge.

The story can be a little long for young ones, and there are multiple characters talking on various pages. This can be confusing to children listners if the reader parent/teacher doesn't seperate, or change the characters' voices--there are humans who also have dialoge--so children can easily identify who is talking. But, it's a fun story that ends happily, and if that's not enough, there is a recipe in the back of the book for Mr. Monroe's Famous Fudge!

I like Hot Fudge because it has alot of chocolate in it. The two dogs and the cat thought some one had stolen the hot fudge. If you want to hear more about Hot Fudge read the book and you will love it.

Driskill pays tribute to E.B. Potter's official biography of Admiral Nimitz in the credits section of his book. Unfortunately his shorter biography adds little of substance to Potter's. Potter shows his admiration for Nimitz by showing many small incidents of the man's humanity, tactical intelligence, and quiet perseverance that let the reader conclude on his own that Nimitz was a great man. Driskill tries to achieve the same goal in less space by glossing over details and just _telling_ readers that Nimitz was a great man. At several points he resorts to one of my pet peeves, narrative sentences ending in exclamation points. That is! Such a lame way! Of trying to make a story more dramatic! The best parts of Driskill's book are the passages where he talks about Nimitz's Texas boyhood and later visits to the state. There, he brings up vivid local detail that invokes the real Fredricksburg and surrounding Texas hill country. (The Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg, built in the old Nimitz family hotel, is well worth a visit.) Driskill clearly had the best of intentions in writing this shorter account, but I'm afraid a reader would be better served by biting the bullet and launching into Potter's longer biography.

Chester Nimitz, remembered most for his victories at Midway and the Central Pacific, is portrayed in a commendable fashion in this well-written and well-researched book. Beginning from his birth, the book discusses the development of the Admiral and the formation of his ideologies and ideals as he rose through the ranks to the top of the naval hierarchy, all of which is indispensable for the student who truly wishes to understand the command of the United States in the WWII Pacific Theatre. The portrayal of the admiral in both a personal and professional military light is superb, and one cannot help but be captivated by the truths presented in this book about the commander who has long been overshadowed by MacArthur despite the fact that Nimitz himself may deserve more credit for the American victory than his flambuoyant counterpart in the army. The relationship described in the book between these two is especially admirable, and Driskill does quite a job demonstrating how the Pacific Campaign was actually commanded.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in WWII reading or modern naval history as this book doesn't present Nimitz as a ficticious hero of the seas like Nelson or Jones, but rather as a modern hero in the modernizing navy who held in his disciplined character the key to allied victory in the Pacific.

Much more on the history of the company than the C&F "stlye". Short on professional color photographs in my opinion.

This is by far the best book ever published on the classic English town and country style. The photos are remarkable, the style is amazing, the history and practical advice so valuable. I wish Colefax & Fowler would publish another

William Chester Jordan is one of America's most prominent medieval historians. He heads the program in Medieval Studies at Princeton. His previous book, THE GREAT FAMINE, won the Haskins Medal in 2000. He has edited a multi-volume medieval history, written a medieval history for young people, as well as influential articles about France's expulsion of the Jews and about credit and women in medieval society. Jordan is a frequent speaker at symposia and conferences both in the United States and Europe. Small wonder that David Cannadine tapped him to contribute a book to Penguin's History of Europe series. Given his credentials, EUROPE IN THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES ought to be better than it is.

The organization and writing is workmanlike. Jordan's schema divides the period first by century and then by region. This inevitably leads to repetition when the same event impacts dfferent regions and when Jordan backtracks or foreshadows events from other centuries in order to establish context. It is impossible to create a smooth narrative in such a rigid framework. The organization lends itself to spot referencing rather than reading cover to cover. Jordan may not be a prose stylist, but his writing is clear and concise.

There are no footnotes nor endnotes. The "References" section is a scant four pages long and is made up mostly of secondary sources. Jordan makes an occasional historiological feint, but without any real substance. One is left feeling the book is neither fish (a serious academic history) nor fowl (a popular history for the general public).

The most glaring defect in the book, for this reader, is its treatment, or rather non-treatment, of Muslim rule in Iberia and Sicily. Jordan finds time to tell us the sad story of Isaac, a Christian hermit, who persisted in reviling Muhammad in the streets of Cordoba in 852 and was executed after being warned to desist. Yet there is no mention of the Ummayad dynasty that had unified the Iberian peninsula into the Caliphate of Al Anadluz, whose officials put Isaac to death! At the beginning of the 11th Century Al Andaluz may have been the richest, was probably the most tolerant, and was certainly the most cultured region of Europe. Jordan devotes far more space to the "Reconquest" than he does to the Arabic culture and language that dominated the peninsula throughout the period covered in his book. The library at Cordoba contained 400,000 books and manuscripts at a time when the largest libary in Europe north of the Pyrenees had less than 500. Jordan begins his chapter, "The World of Learning" by connecting the start of "...a long period of renewal and creativity in Europe" to the First Crusade. In fact, the translations of classic Greek works of philosphy and science he says fueled the development of the schools of Paris and other universities came from Arabic texts translated by Muslims and Jews in Toledo at the behest of Abbot Hugh of Cluny. More than a page in the chapter on vernacular literature is devoted to the Song of Roland without noting that the chanson commemorates the retreat of Charlemagne before the armies of the first Ummayad Caliph Abd al Rahman. Jordan writes of the freebooter El Cid and "...his struggles with the Muslims", failing to mention that El Cid fought for Muslim rulers as well against them. In the extensive genealogical tables at the end of the book one finds lists of every Christian dynasty from Byzantium to Norway, but no mention of any Muslim dynasty. The first "King" of Portugal listed is Afonso I who ruled midway through the period with which the book is concerned. No earlier Muslim ruler is listed. The same thing is true of the rulers of Spain, Sicily, Tripoli, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Christian rulers of the period are listed, but nary a Muslim monarch. Jordan seems to have gone out of his way to render Muslim participation in and contribution to Europe's high middle ages invisible.

Europe's High Middle Ages period spanned the Crusades and the events of Dante's classic writings and Thomas Aquinas: this paints a vivid picture of this lost age, surveying the great popes who revived the power of the church, the thinkers who ruled their times, and the social and religious philosophy of the era. In-depth and complex, yet with a most readable tone, this is a recommended pick.

He is certainly one of the most obscure Presidents in American history. I enjoy reading about people who achieve high office, fame or fortune, probably because I want to find a link among them that predated their successes. In reading this excellent and very balanced biography, I came away with at least 3 lessons: 1) That blind luck can be the key ingredient in a man's success, for the early life and times of Chester Arthur no more predicted greatness than did those of Harry Truman (Truman, at least, was essentially honorable), 2) that is indeed possible for the Office to make the man, for once he became President, Arthur overcame many of his moral inadequacies, and 3) that for all we complain about American politics today, the state of the State in the late 19th century was more corrupt than most 21st century Americans would ever imagine possible. For these three lessons alone, the book is certainly a worthwhile read.

High school history books tell you Chester "Chet" Arthur was a "dandy," a machine politician and an accidental president, but little more. This highly readable, very informative and interesting biography adds much historical flesh to the bare-bones treatment Arthur gets in text books. A man who is all but a caricature to generations of students is made fully human, with all the positives and negatives that entails. And while chronicling the president's life the author also chronicles a fascinating era in American political history, the day when the party bosses ruled and presidential candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms and not in state primaries; primaries may be more democratic, but they sure are a lot less interesting to read about. If you enjoy presidential history, add this book to your library.

In the Reagan years there were only two things about South Africa that radicals, liberals and conservatives would all agree upon without immediately hurling insults and solid objects at each other. First - Apartheid is a disgusting ideology, second - Undersecretary of state for Africa, Chester Crocker, is doing the wrong thing. The remarkable fact remains that this man stayed in office for eight years, he was with Reagan from start to finish. What exactly did he do to enrage the american public from left to right and get away with it for eight years? How come Reagan didn't part with him though Crocker was far from a die-hard Reaganaut? Part of the answer is to be found in this book. As undersecretary of state for Africa Chester Arthur Crocker was Reagans man in Africa from 1981-1989. Focusing on his late succes in negotiating a peace settlement in Namibia Dr. Crocker stubbornly refuses to reflect upon the failure of his brainchild, the concept of Constructive Engagement - a complex programme for US actions towards the Southern African region as a whole, aimed at speeding up the process of abolishing apartheid in South Africa. This makes the book most interesting for the things not included, that again means that you have to have an idea about what Crocker has excluded before the book becomes interesting, and this little chain of deductions leads us forward to the conclusion: This book is a must and not at all dull reading for students of US-African relations in the 80's. For everyone else it'll be a complete waste of time and money.

Dr. Crocker's lucid account of his eight-plus years as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs offers valuable insight into the complex world of foreign policymaking and diplomacy. His central achievement--and the focus of this book--is the Namibia-Angola peace process, an arduous series of events involving pariah states (Cuba and apartheid-era South Africa), guerrilla movements, ideologues and political opportunism. Crocker swam among these sharks for nearly a decade in order to produce the December 1988 agreements signed by Angola, Cuba and South Africa that resulted in the creation of an independent Namibia and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Namibia and Angola.

Crocker's memoir is a rich history of a transformative era in southern Africa, but it also contains two valuable lessons for today's policymakers. First, a well-designed long-run strategy can work if pursued consistently and vigorously. Crocker outlined the bargain behind the 1988 agreements as early as 1981: Cuban troops exit Angola, South Africans end support for Angolan rebels, independent Namibia created. Although this strategy took nearly a decade to come to fruition, its logic and the diplomacy behind it never wavered. With today's policymakers treating six months as long-term, this persistence was amazing. The second lesson that Crocker brings out is the particular importance of regional dynamics in Africa. Perhaps more than any area outside of the Balkans, African conflicts readily spill over borders and inflame neighboring countries. One need look no further than today's Congo to see that this is still the case. Crocker demonstrated that it is possible to get all the relevant players involved without losing control of the process, if the strategy is sound and well-implemented. This regional dynamic can also work in a positive direction, as the increased stability in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique provided South Africa with a less-threatening external environment in which to dismantle apartheid.

Crocker makes all of these points in his compelling and readable book. Highly recommended.

An excellent book that exposes the truth about learning instutions that advertise themselves those who "put the highest priority on teaching". Honored But Invisible shows how Community Colleges really place little regard in the quality of instruction and instead, place the greatest emphasis on increasing enrollment. The lowering of standards in order to achieve this goal is not a concern. Affirmative action also is given too much priority in the hiring processes. The sad thing is, that once these instructors are hired, it takes only 4 years to receive tenure, (unlike a 4-year university where it takes 7 years)and then it is almost impossible to get rid of them.

I teach client-server computing, Visual Basic and logic and critical thinking at DeVry part-time. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is an excellent book on teaching in schools who proclaim themselves as "teaching institutions" but which in actuality deliver a range of teaching quality, from very good to almost unspeakably bad.

Many teachers at community colleges, rightfully concerned about their students' employment prospects, confuse understanding with support of a hegemonic ideological program. That is: in computer training at the community college level, it is a "bad" student who questions the use of all computation to make a profit (rather than, say, conform to health and safety laws.) Grubb and Ellis recognize that understanding is critical understanding and they raise questions, for example about uncritical support of the Internet, that need to be raised at community colleges.

Because of this, some readers may decide that Grubb et al. are "left wing" with an "ideological program." Well, perhaps they are. Many community colleges overemphasize the ideological program of business and produce people who lack needed technical training, but compensate for this by an uncritical support for the corporation.

This may be, in turn, healthy for people who are entering community college so alienated from business that they can't get to work on time or dress appropriately. Their anger at real injuries done to them may have produced their dysfunctional behavior, and if it takes reading USA Today to correct this, fine. But at this point the quality of technical and general education suffers because of overemphasis on "employability", and when students are presented with ideas for their own sake, they tune out, saying "this will not help me get a job."

Grubb and Ellis seem not to see the anti-intellectualism that is rampant at community colleges. You cannot ask a former welfare Mom, working three jobs, to read a book for its own sake (but you can point out that reading is a way to spend time on public transit.) But too many instructors (who themselves have low self-esteem because they wind up at two year institutions) give up at this point and try, with limited success, to ally themselves with the students. Computer instructors, for example, refer to areas of computer science of which they are not informed as "not important" in cases where they do not know whether the area is important.

It is better, and Grubb and Ellis recommend doing this, to willingly adopt the role of "professor." Students don't want an ally they want a mentor, and students at "good" schools have this. The risk is that the instructor who "adopts a pose" of respect for intellect will be isolated, not so much by students, but by fellow instructors who have given up on their students.

Grubb and Ellis recommend collective solutions to this problem and alliance building. This reduces the isolation of the teacher who finds herself teaching (to use one example) remedial reading in a computer class.

I recommend this book to any teacher at a community or career-oriented school as a way of bettering his or her teaching style.

Actually I've just seen the 97 edition & usu buy these every few years or so. Well, if you are interested in World Coins then buy a Krause WC book. They do it differently every couple of years. For example my 1985 ed. comes boxed in 2 volumes vol1=A-F, vol2 =G-Z, from about 1800 to present in ea volume. Before then they used to have one massive volume covering from about 1760 to present. Please realize you'll have to buy both the 1801-1900 and then the 1900 to present volumes and it's a real pain to start following a listing in a country & then have to dig out the other volume when you pass 1899. Also you'll probably need the 1701-1800 and the 1600-1700. There's a really nasty tendency for Krause to only show part of the back of a coin design. However the book has good points: e.g. nothing else lists all world coins by date & grade & mm & you can see what's been made & what you want. Also prices usually don't change rapidly, even for rarer 1800's crowns in mint state so you can get away with an older (& MUCH cheaper) volume.

Granted, with today's technology, the Krause catalog could have better images for many coins. It could also have at least five basic gradings and prices for each coin instead of three or four. But all in all, it is still the best and the most complete catalog in the market. It is the reference of choice for every numismatic afficionado and every profesional. I even did see it used by European dealers who were not fluent in English. I am just an amateur, and I cannot do without it.