The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry, altho two decades old, stands out as fresh and relevant as it has always been for people -- policy makers, involved citizens, as well as researchers, who want to do, make, or understand cross-national comparisons. Although Note: their approach is by no means limited to the comparison of different countries. Comparisons across the 50 U.S. states also benefit from much of what the authors present (not so much about linguistic/foreign language equivalence, which is a different issue with which they deal).

The easiest way to describe the value of Przeworski and Teune's insights is to see how cross-national country studies can be used to emulate the experimenter's scientific approach to finding pattterns. The experimenter can "hold other variables constant" through statistical means or the selection of people or cases to study. When looking at countries (or U.S. states) a selection of "cases" can be fashioned that emulates in different kinds of experimental controls. In particular the authors describe a pair of strategies: The Most Different Nation and the Most Similar Nation strategies.

In the Most Different model the analyst selects cases (countries) which are known to be very different from one another: e.g., Korea, Australia, Germany, Ecuador, South Africa.... This model is best for the generation of hypotheses because one assumes that the variable of interest will vary widely across the different countries. On the other hand the Most Similar model is best for hypothesis testing, and it is here that the "hold constant" idea is seen: Sweden, Norway, Denmark are similar enough on many key variables, so that those variables are in a sense "held constant". Or Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK -- for linguistic purposes. etc.

These models become even more valuable with the 50 U.S. states because there are many more opportunities to use demographic, economic, and historical variables in the selection of Most Different or Most Similar cases.

The book is well worth the investment of money and time for any who want to use the Nations of the world of the States of U.S. to explore or test questions and hypotheses about processes and linkages that are directly amenable to usual scientific analysis.

This is what you need to read if you want to do quality social research. The authors provide a systemic overview of the possible levels of analysis. To be sure, of all my M.A. Program in Political Science, there is only one book that I marked up, this is it. It is worth the effort.

This book is about my cousins, and is a true story that shattered our family. The spritual journey that my Aunt and Uncle went through as a result of this tragedy, has changed my life, and I'm sure will change the lives of all who read it.
God can bring good out of all things, even something as horrible as this. I Highly recommend that you read this book.

I loved this book and was surprised to see that it is out of print. I wanted to order it to send to a friend. I remember that I have an extra copy and will send it to her for Christmas. She loves murder mysteries just as I do, so I am certain she will find it as interesting and entertaining as I did.

Mark Spencer is one of the best literary writers alive! Why don't we see more of him? His writing is a thousand percent better than most of the works being published today. Take a hint, publishers!!! LOVE AND RERUNS IN ADAMS COUNTRY is an excellent book - so well written. The story and the characters remain with you forever.

Booklist does an excellent review of this work by Mr. Spencer, so that there is little I can add other than to simply say-- TRACK THIS BOOK DOWN AND *READ IT*!!

But, don't be surprised it it stays with you, if the characters haunt you after you close it up and shelve it away; they may all be sad, dysfunctional, maudlin hayseeds, but there's a bit of Bobby, Pamela, Lon and Becky Anne in each of us... It's the humanity of the characters-- as unexamined lives as they may be leading-- that is most appealing about this book. Whatever else they are or are are not, whatever else they may or may have not done with their lives, they're REAL and they're ALIVE. *That's* what makes this book worth finding and reading!!

Superman and Batman appear on the cover of "Mad About Super Heroes," along with Alfred E. Newman, because most of the parodies found within have to do with those two comic book icons. For the Man of Steel the fun goes all the way back to Harvey Kurtzman's classic "Superduperman!" from "Mad" #4 (back when it was still a comic book) to "Smellville" from Mad #415. However, "Superduperman!", the parody of the comic book, is not to be confused with "Superduperman" the take off on the first movie, which were followed by "Spuerduperman II" and "Stuporman ZZZ," which is not to be confused with the television series "Lotus & Cluck: The New Misadventures of Stuporman." One of the things I found interesting reading through these stories was how hard it must be after several decades to come up with a new name for Superman's secret identity, from Clark Bent to Cluck Camp.

The Caped Crusader receives similar treatment, from the classic Wally Wood drawn "Bat Boy and Rubin!" to "Bats-Man" the television show to the blockbuster "Battyman" movie and its "Buttman Returns" and "Buttman and Rubbin'" sequels. This collection comes courtesy of "the usual gang of super-idiots," and includes classic artwork by Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragones, Al Jafee, Angelo Torres, and Don Martin (these guys must have worked for nothing because this book is, by its own admission, priced "Cheap!). There are two sections in the volume that offer up the stories in full-color, but, of course, these are restricted to offerings from the comic book days of "Mad" (e.g., "Plastic Sam" and "Woman Wonder") and back covers (e.g, "Famous Artists' Paintings of Comic Book Characters").

There are other full-length movie parodies as well of the "X-Men" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies, although I liked the "Upcoming Movies Based on Comic Books," which simply offered up quickies on "Human Torch Song Triology," "Hulk Fiction" and "JLA Confidential." Another favorite is the "Real-Life Superhoeres at Comic Book Conventions," which uses the names of familiar heroes from "The Amazing Spider-Man" to "Wonder Woman" to describe the fans who read such literature. So there is a nice mix of formats to these comic looks at the comic books as the world's greatest super heroes are "mercilessly mocked and ridiculed by the world's dumbest artists and writers." Of course, if you did not read the original comics or see these movies, then you will never ever get all of the jokes. But then that is the whole point of satire, right?

This was a great book to just laugh at.

The real estate and financial speculation (i.e. high tech/dot com bubble) that has taken place under a corrupt mayor (a development attorney for Catellus, the successor to the railways) here in San Francisco might be a future chapter in this book. This is a fascinating read. I've even taken an SF history class with an Alioto (family of a former mayor, Joseph A.), and I still learned a lot. Hilarious, informative, reads like fiction, based on fact. Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Newsom, Brown, Burton, Warren Hinckle, Ted Fang... These are their predecessors. The newspaper publishers, reporters, prostitutes and corrupt politicians. Read about all of them. You won't be able to put it down!

Old San Francisco at its best. Interesting stories about fascinating people. And best of all, because it contains twenty separate stories, you can pick it up any time and read for twenty minutes or so without losing the context.

We had expirence adam bengamin's dance workshops for disable and non-disable dancers, and found a new world. We dicided to continue practicing in this field and read and reread this beautiful book, worked with the exercises and the idea they present, and passed them to other dancers which found this new world too, found a place in themself that let them do and feel things they didn't believe.
This book is a must for anybody who wants to go to these places.

Our company have taken part to CONTACT-ART EUROPEAN PROJECT, with artistic-disabled and no persons.
I feel a very very excating-human experience.
This book "tell" about these experience.

When you receive an inheritance, despite how it sounds, free money isn't free. With it comes sorrow within your family. Family fights can crop up, too. In addition, one has the personal struggle of figuring out how to cope with grief on the one hand and new money on the other. This book helped me see that I wasn't as rich as I thought I was and that I had better guard my inheritance for my retirement.

I went to a bookstore to ask them to look for it in the computer- the first book they came up with was Managing your parents. People on line laughed. My reply "I don't need to know how to manage my parents - they're dead. I now need the inheritance guide." Well they didn't have it- so I read my sister's copy. Great and informative on what to do with it-no matter how small the inheritance is and believe me I am a poor heir but I will definitely use the information to make it grow- No immediate facelifts for me yet. I want a copy to refer to for my financial goals

This is a wonderful book. It brings delightful regional recipes to the reader. I already have dozens of these recipes on my list to try. Ms. Adams gives us information to pique our interest in the recipe without boring us.

Wonderfully put together and easy to use, this book should be on everyone's shelves who are intrested in cooking and keeping our heritage alive.

Anna Adams has crafted a masterful story about human emotions in THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT.

Nick Dylan weds Clair Atherton in a marriage of convenience--he fulfills a stipulation in his father's will, and Clair gets her beloved Federal era house back. All they have to do is look convincingly married for one year. Trouble is, Nick's father was the one who who repossessed Clair's parents' home.

Nick is not like his father, but can he make prickly Clair understand? And can he make his vengeful mother love him as a son?

Strong emotions and strong reasons for those emotions are at the heart of this complex story about two needy people. Well-drawn characters and a great page-turning plot make this a book not to be missed.

When Senator Jeff Dylan passes away, Nick finds himself mourning not the memory of his father, but the knowledge of his father's lifelong disappointment in him, as well as the relationship they never had. Although he'd never been the son his mother wanted either, Nick still finds himself drawn to her side when he hears reports of brandy and sleeping pills. He moves back into his father's house to care for his mother, who had never gotten the fact that she was Jeff's housemaid until he got her pregnant. Then Nick learns that Jeff's will demands that his son marry for love within a year and live in the family home for the first year of the marriage.

The sight of the Atherton house at foot of his family's estate always produces pangs of helpless guilt in Nick. Derelict and forgotten, the Federation era house once known as The Oaks slowly decays. Jeff only bought the mortgage and closed on it to wound the Arthertons. It was Jeff's way to take vengeance on the man who'd married Sylvia Atherton, the only woman he had ever loved. Nick sees Sylvia's daughter at the way to right the past. In return for marriage, he'll give The Oaks back to Clair.

Their family history seems an insurmountable barrier between them. His father the Senator defines Nick's identity to their small town, and no one seems to understand that his name has nothing to do with who he really is. They can't talk about the things that really matter without inflicting pain. Coming from a loving family, Clair Atherton can't possibly understand how his existence embarrassed his mother Leota and father Jeff. Yet their shared pain in the past seems to connect Nick and Clair in the most unlikely way.

Leota and Clair are both strong, but neither seems to be able to use it to benefit others without Nick's delicate influence. His delicate determination to love them offers a bright future if only both women will accept themselves and the love he offers. Instead, it seems Leota is determined to get lost in her jealousy of the younger woman, to destroy rather than to build a future. She becomes a mother on a mission, determined to free her son from the Atherton woman. Nothing would hurt her more than to let Sylvia Artherton's daughter win.

Anna Adams skillfully writes in a distinctly crisp, sharp tone that uniquely reflects the tension between her characters, at times relaxing into a softer prose that reflects the emotions beneath the tension. The brittle tension periodically allows the glow of passion and love to shine through like sunlight on a cloudy day, lending Adams' prose a polish and sophistication quite rare in genre romance. Very highly recommended.