Although this book is presented and distributed as a "True" account, It is a classic example of an Author not letting the truth getting in the way of a good story. I was very close to ALL of the people profiled in this book during the period covered by it. Not only did many of the events described herein NOT happen, But, the descriptions of "True" events that did take place are incorrectly described. I agree with the other reviewer who stated: "Appears to be a self published Vanity book"

I read this book and found it to be hard to follow and understand. The writing style varies from page to page as if more than one Author worked on it. In my opinion... Not exactly anything someone would want to use as a guide for starting a new business.

This book combines the true story of a start-up robotics company with concise rules for recognizing and dealing with risk in a start-up business. This book will save an individual planning on starting a business hours and hours of "learning" time and well as much money. Very few books talk about a business that ultimately failed while incorporating all the lessons the author learned along the way.

This was a real disappointment. The book is almost unreadable. Terms are defined and then not used properly or are jumbled together--you never can tell what she's talking about. Too many vague generalities. Sentences often make no sense. This book desperately needs an editor. I don't think the author has anything interesting to say about "virtual money," but it's hard to tell. A confusing jumble of babble. Click on to the next book.

This book had a lot of promise.. I was very interested in learning more about the world of Electronic Commerce and how local and global economies are being impacted. This book made a few interesting points, but for the most part was tedious to read, and never got into enough detail on any one subject to be interesting.

I'm still looking for another e-commerce roadmap...

Speaking as a layman who had practically no knowledge of e-commerce I found the book to be a good introduction to the world of electronic money and of what the future of money will probably be (Personally, I don't like what I see). Along with the history of money, and the development of the Internet, the book contains a lot of detail on the nuts and bolts of the whole complex network; and I don't know how interesting that is to the average person. I read this book not for pleasure, but as research for a paper I am now composing on a related issue. Regarding the topic of virtual money, the author seems to discuss the problems and risks surrounding it rather than give concrete solutions. But neither the publisher nor the author described the work as an "answer book". From what I can see, the write up on the book's dust jacket is an accurate summary of what the book contains.

I was pleased to see someone had published a 2001 directory for the leasing industry given all the change that has occured since the last published directory. Indeed, it is even dated given the continued gobbling up of the industry by GE and other like minded behemoths. However, the information is too generalized and unverified. If one wants phone numbers, it is great; however, don't rely on it for accuracy or specifics. Most of the submissions are from companies that will do anything and check any box just to get their phones to ring. The asset classes are extensive though meaningless in reality. Brokers are constantly claiming they are funders and direct lenders and without a verification process, this becomes a sham. Further, the abbreviations section could be more detailed in defining significant terms and distinguishing the definitions thereof, such as independent, broker, syndicator, funder, etc. Though I have been in the business for 10 years and understand what these terms mean, they become foggy when different companies have their own idea what they are or worse yet, when companies lie about their true identities and capabilities.
Phillip Nichols
Managing Director
Zions Corporate Advisory
801-583-0347
801-583-0348 FAX

Sande Cohen has always been an eloquent spokesperson for the "narcisistic" mode of scholarship, which he defines as a method of self-referentially and self-destructively performing the role of "Intellectual." In this dated-but-fiesty text, Dr. Cohen continues his argument over the course of several dense chapters, centered on the cry that academia must kill itself to save itself. Few of his fans (me included!) will fail to join him in his nostalgic cry for death, or at the very least dismemberment of the entire academic system.

As usual, Dr. Cohen uses the most fashonable theorists of the 70's and 80's to justify an implosive mode of Postmodern scholarship by which he hopes this suicide will come to pass. This slavery to fashon is no crime; in the 90's, plenty of other instructors at design colleges fell into the same bog of French theory that Dr. Cohen has, and he can at least take credit for jumping in the pond when it's popularity was on the rise. The real tragedy is that however elloquent he is when praising the wholesale destruction of contemporary academic systems, Dr. Cohen tends to meander sadly when confronted with the challenge of constructing anything in the aftermath. His own role in the pogrom he calls for is also a problem -- does he imagine he'll be keeping his own academic job in the aftermath of his proposed French (Theory) Revolution? Surely his role model could not be an Academic Terror with him sitting in judgement, but we are left to wonder....

Fortunately Dr. Cohen's blizzard of rhetoric tips us off that he's not serious at all, and this has always been his true genius. But unfortunately he also seemed to be trying to climb the academic rungs in this early work, and the need to "pay the bills" overshadowed his inner poet.

Perhaps in those days Dr. Cohen feared a loss of the legitimacy he had so ernestly striven for in his weighty ouvre; when reading "The Luster of Capital," the reader can't help but wish he had stuck to what seems dearest to his heart -- namely blood. If only he had followed his heart as much in this early book as he has in later works, we could have gotten that much farther along in his epic poem of destruction. But letting fall his pretentions of seriousness has also spared his readers the fog of his rambling ennui.

In his later work, Dr. Cohen has acknowledged to himself and his readers that his true strength is as a poet, not as a theoretician. He is at his best when singing the glories of continually staged conflicts and random beaurocratic violence. In this work, we see him struggling, conflicted with himself, trying to find his voice as a Nietzichian nay-sayer, a Baudrillardian bard. To give away the ending of his career, he eventually succeds and his more overtly poetic works are recommended. But for the die-hard fan of Dr. Cohen, this segment from arc of his early emotional development lays a solid foundation.

The book contains much interesting, moving and no doubt correct information about its subject. That is valuable in itself.

Corns and Hughes-Wilson don't just offer information. They also argue for a certain thesis: 'Spilled water cannot be replaced in a smashed jug' (Arab proverb), and so any idea of retrospective pardons should be strongly opposed.

The book's presentation of its thesis is so slovenly, that it would be a fine text for use for practice on a course in critical thinking. Suppose you want to form your own opinion on this controversy. Here are a few examples of the kind of obstacles Corns and Hughes-Wilson put in your way:

1There are gratuitous sneers here and there about their opponents who advocate pardons. The reader has to be alert to separate sneer from substance.

2In presenting one of the main pillars of their argument they rely mainly on Arab proverbs and poetic aphorisms such as 'The past is another country'. The thoughtful reader will hope to find a clearly reasoned statement of the authors' position on the tricky question of moral judgements about other times and places. But once you cut away the book's vague rhetoric on this point there is nothing left.

3There are some whopping contradictions to be found if you keep your eyes open. For example.
The authors seem to be saying, albeit rather impressionistically, that the executions were basically OK by the standards of the time. However, the jacket of the book states that the executions were 'Controversial even at the time'.
On the issue whether executions were necessary because they discouraged mass desertion that might otherwise have occurred, sometimes the authors seem to be suggesting that this was indeed so, and in other places the opposite.

4There is also scope for spotting important inferences from the facts which the authors unaccountably fail to draw. They state (p. 103) that 'the death penalty was used only in a minute percentage of cases', and they back this up with ample evidence. Do they conclude that those few who were executed were therefore treated unfairly - perhaps even so unfairly that they deserve a pardon? No, Corns and Hughes-Wilson don't seem to notice that this possible line of debate even exists. As a reader, you will have to spot it for yourself.

On a frivolous note, I can't resist recording that the acknowledgement at the beginning to 'our eagle-eyed copy-editor' contains both a spelling mistake and a punctuation mistake in the same sentence.

In short, recommended to two classes of reader: those who want a library of all the main works on this subject; and those who want something for a good workout of the critical thinking faculties.
Definitely not for someone who wants just one thoroughly reliable work on the subject.

This is, to paraphrase Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins (authors of Capital Punishment and the American Agenda), "yet another book on capital punishment." From the glowing reviews on the back cover, written by such luminaries as Elie Wiesel and George Will, one would think this volume would be comprehensive and indispensable. The reality is different. In a field of Alis and Sugar Rays, this contender is a flyweight. The book is a mere 122 pages including a brief epilogue, and its brevity is an index of its diminutiveness. Compare the 1995 Punishment and the Death Penalty: The Current Debate (Baird and Rosenbaum, eds.) at 258 pages, and Capital Punishment: A Reader (Stassen, ed., 1998) at 384, to name just two recent examples. Chapters tackling important issues such as the history of the death penalty and racial discrimination in its administration are dispatched in as few as 8 pages. As a result, the book has a superficial quality. Its analysis, particularly, suffers; all too often, its illustrations and evidence take the form of the authors' personal anecdotes. Here is one example of the analysis employed. The argument in Chapter 8, "Retributive Justice," runs something like this: 1) The death penalty is based largely on the psychology of retribution (assertion #1). 2) Retribution is based on anger (assertion #2). 3) Anger is bad, dangerous, as well as condemned by Scripture. 4) Implication: Retribution and, hence, the death penalty are bad. The book never really rises above this sort of reasoning, which clearly doesn't do much work for us. To compound the problem, the book was compiled in 1989, when George Bush Sr. was still present, making it less timely than other surveys. The best that can be said about the book is that it provides a very broad overview of the major issues in the debate over the death penalty. As a whole, it appears appropriate for a high school reading and interest level. Recommended for younger readers and students only.

The first half of this book consists of a multitude of "human interest" stories regarding condemned Texans walking the "last mile."

The second half of the book, though, is a soapbox for overbearing anti-death penalty rhetoric.

If you think you can tolerate the second half of the book, the first half of the book is worth it.

The book discusses the pros and cons of the most common CBA and IA techniques at length and makes some good points. However, it becomes unclear when it discusses the CAPM and one of its extensions failing to provide both literature references and realistic examples of how this technique can be applied in the real world. In summary it provides a good review of the advantages and disatvantages of CBA and IA techniques in terms of risk and TVM evaluation but little else.

1. Betts, Caroline. and Michael B. Devereux, "The international effects of monetary and fiscal policy in a two-country model."

2. Bordo, Michael D. and Barry Eichengreen, "The rise and fall of a Barbarous Relic: The role of gold in the international monetary system."

3. Chang, Roberto and Andres Velasco, "Fostering financial stability: A new case for flexible exchange rates."

4. Dornbusch, Rudi and Holger Wolf, "Curing a monetary overhang: Historical lessons."

5. Eichengreen, B. and A. K. Rose, "Staying afloat when the wind shifts: External factors and emerging-market banking crises."

6. Flood, Robert P. and Nancy P. Marion, "Perspectives on the recent currency crisis literature."

7. Giavazzi, Francesco and Alberto Giovannini, "Progress in the theory of economic policy."

8. Goldberg, Linda S. and Michael W. Klein, "International trade and factor mobility: An empirical investigation."

9. Jones, Matthew T. and Maurice Obstfeld, "Saving, investment, and gold: A reassessment of historical current account data."

10. Jones, Ronald W. and Henryk Kierzkowski, "Globalization and the consequences of international fragmentation."

11. Lane, Philip R., "Money shocks and the current account."

12. McKinnon, Ronald I., "Euroland and East Asia in a dollar-based international monetary system: Mundell revisited."

13. Mendoza, Enrique G. and Martin Uribe, "The business cycles of balance-of-payments crises: A revision of a Mundellian framework."

14. Shi, Shouyong, "Tariffs, unemployment, and the current account: An intertemporal equilibrium model."

15. Taylor, John B., "The policy rule mix: A macroeconomic policy evaluation."

I was tricked into buying this book. It is being marketed as a general history of Paris for the traveler or Francophile. Unfortunately, it reads much more like someone's masters thesis. As such, it brings with it all the usual problems of academic writing. Here is a sample sentence:

"In perfect anthithesis to this, phantasmagoria was an ideological mechanism of exclusion."

Sadly, there's lots more where that came from. This book was not written to entertain, inspire, or inform the reader; it was written to promote the author's erudition.

If you're looking for a general history of Paris, I'm sure there are many other options that are more readable.