I gave this book 4 stars because it is the only one on its subject anywhere. Smith gives a good general history of the Patrol, and fire salvage in general, but many photos are of poor quality, and there are no shots of the Patrol's more recently-purchased trucks.

Smith also writes in an interesting manner.

Every sentence is its own paragraph.

As you can see, this can be a bit annoying.

Despite its shortcomings, the book makes an important contribution to local history, and to the story of firefighting.

I would like to explain an eyewitness account concerning the "farmer ghost" on ridge road in Upper Mt. Bethel. It was late one night, about a month ago, and three of my friends and i were bringing a friend home. We were driving along back roads and we turned down ridge road. as our headlights reflected off of a metal wire fence, a glimpse of an old man caught our eye. We all asked eachother what it was, but no one seemed to have an answer. My friend turned his car around about 10-15 ft. down the road and we came back to the fence...and he was gone. So, then, we decided to go back the way we were going and we passed it again, and there he was- smiling and waving as we drove by. By this time, my friends and i had been convinced that we had all seen a ghost! And of course, being the courageous and curious teenagers that we are, we went back again! This time, he wasn't there, but the last time we turned around, not only was he there, but this time he was bent over the fence with his face pointed toward the ground. i was the only one out of my friends who saw him in this position. Now, this is how i learned about the story in this book- I came home, and my mom started telling me about this ghost story in your book. she asked me where i had seen the ghost, and i replied, "Ridge Road." She then proceeded to explain the legend of the ghost, that's when i knew it was the same ghost i had seen.

This book did disappoint me. It covered a wide range of the Lehigh Valley from the Slate Belt to Alburtis. However, the book relied heavily on folklore and second-hand stories rather then eyewitness accounts. On the other hand, the authors did povide pictures and competent discriptions of the sites and the locations.

I am a paranormal researcher from the Lehigh Valley. I recommend this book to anyone who has the urge to explore the unknown. I was delighted to see photos of actual occurances and descriptions of locations near my home. Although there are not a lot of eye-witness accounts included in the book, having lived here most of my life, I know how closed-mouthed the locals here are. However, I have personally researched several of the locations found in this book and have seen some interesting things myself.

Akers is limited by the series he is writing for so very little can be blamed on him, in fact he does a good job with what little he is allotted but his use of her first name throughout is not only taboo for historians but could also be considered sexist -- would you call Thomas Jefferson, "Tom" in a biography? Also, major figures in Adams' life have merely the depth of cardboard cutouts. Possibly suitable for the high school freshmen, probably not undergraduate and certainly not for the graduate level.

Akers does a great job of placing the information from Abigail's letters into a story, without directly quoting the letters line by line. A story is presented to the reader through the eyes of the First Lady. It was a required text for an American History class, though I did enjoy reading it. The story itself; however, can be deeply depressing while still communicating the accounts of the famous political family. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about the other side of politics.

HI H

Charles Green is a well respected financial figure, but his methods of explanation and writting needs a much needed revision.

This book contains a lot of information that is presented in typical "banker talk". If you are not all that financially savvy then you may have to re-read certain sentences and passages to understand what the author is talking about. He fails to give adequate examples and case studies to help readers envision real-life circumstances that other people have gone through. Examples are probably unnecessary but I've always thrived on examples and case studies.

What is comes down to is this:
1.) This book contains a lot of useful information that is not written for the benefit of the reader. It is written much in the same way as college texts - professors writing to impress other professors, bankers writing to impress other bankers. This book could have been written with more clearly for the everyday man and woman. At least that is what I come away feeling. I've read better and more concisely written books that are more easily understood.
2.) Only barely touches up on obtaining money for start-ups. Start-ups are about only 5-10% of the book at most. There are better books out there for this. The SBA Loan Book is one.

Read this book if you already have the basics and terminology down. This book does have a lot of information and advise. My only beef with it is the long-winded and inconcisely writing style of the author.

2 stars for writing style and useful information (though the same information can be found in other better written books)

This book was very useful in helping me understand what my bank wanted to learn about my enterprise before agreeing to finance us. I have struggled to keep growth capital coming my way for the past few years. The days of "no money down" and just "taking your banker to lunch" are over.

Mr. Green's straight talk and financial insight enabled me to understand what my bank wanted to see and why. His methodical approach to determining why, how much, and from where to get financing lowered my borrowing requirements and helped save me money. The alternatives to bank financing suggested in the book continues to generate new ideas that I can use to leverage my capital.

In the end, I realized that all of the information and structure required by the bank ultimately will make my business stronger. Anyone needing to borrow more than $100,000 for their business would benefit from reading this book.

A book to steer clear of: a programming book without a single figure or drawing, with the poorest pagination I've ever seen. Impossible to find the options for open for instance. Worthless.

After looking through most of the available texts, we chose this this book to teach a course on Fortran-90 to scientists and engineers at NASA. It is especially helpful to programmers with a good understanding of Fortran-77 who want to make the transition to this powerful revision of the language. The book covers the most useful new features (array processing, allocateable memory, derived types, encapsulation) very thoroughly. The writing is generally clear, cogent, and understandable. The only thing lacking is a complete treatment of language intrinsic functions, for which you need the large (and expensive) language handbook.

I use this book over the Compaq fortran 90 language manual sometimes. Examples are easy to follow and the writing is very clear. Many examples. There is a nice section at the back on obsolete fortran 77 conventions, and their replacements. It's a nice compact book too - you don't realize how much information it contains because it's not enormous and heavy. I recommend it to anybody

When I picked this book up at the local interests section ...on Manhattan's East Side, I thought the idea of a book covering several reported haunted sites in New York City was a great idea. Although the idea is great, "New York City Ghost Stories" fails to capture the reader's attention due to a poorly designed book and uninspiring photographs and illustrations.

The book, which covers hauntings in some of the city's boroughs, is not a large book to start with. Somewhat compact in size, the book briefly discusses hauntings such as the ghosts that roam the Old Merchant's House in SoHo, Washington Square Park, and the Customs House in lower Manhattan. The book's main weaknesses is that it appears that the author compiled all his findings together in a small notebook, and typed some words, pasted a few photographs and illustrations, and slapped an ISBN number on it. The publisher, located in Pennsylvania, apparently is not a powerhouse publishing house like those found in New York.

The book will make a good read for those living in the city or the surrounding area who like to read tidbits of trivial information, like myself. Overall, a rate this book a three because I haven't seen any other book of similar material on the market yet. Good attempt, but the book's author should seriously consider releasing an updated edition that has more of an eye-catching design.

I have lived in New York City for 16 years and have learned quite a bit about the city's supernatural side. I have also taken the so called "haunted walking tours" in the village. I received this book as a gift. I have to admit that I was already aware of most of the stories. I feel that they were not complete somehow. As if the researcher did not find all the information that he/she possibly could have. When I read a story I like to know all the facts. I also like to know the date of the last occurance/sighting. I believe more could have gone into this book. I think the author gets the points across but doesn't tell the full stories.

I was disappointed to see such a negative review of what is such a quality book. This is not meant to be a ritzy book from a big publisher, but rather a more down-to-earth look at true ghost stories in New York City. While spelling/grammar mistakes surely can diminish the quality of a book, I don't trust that someone who cannot even spell correctly in his review can accurately judge.

Griswold has succeeded in writing a perfectly unreadable book. Let
us begin with the title, which is meaningless. The book is neither
about virtue nor the Enlightenment, except in the trivial sense
that Smith was an Enlightenment writer. Anyone picking up this book
to learn about the Enlightenment as a movement will be disappointed.
So Griswold appends a useless chapter on the Enlightenment to the
beginning of the book that promises a wide-ranging treatment of
the Enlightenment that rest of the book cannot deliver. (Perhaps
his editor, fearing that a book on Adam Smith's moral theory would
not reach a large audience, encouraged Griswold to broaden the appeal.
Too bad it didn't work). Griswold's book is, more accurately, a
treatment of Smith's neglected treatise A Theory of Moral Sentiments.
As such it is not a careful commentary on the content and structure
of the book, but instead a meandering tourist guide to the major
landmarks accompanied by a dull paraphrase of Smith's argument. Too make things worse, Griswold updates Smith's arguments
in the language of contemporary philosophy so that he can seem relevant
and prescient. This is strange coming from a quasi-Straussian, but
there you go. If that weren't bad enough, Griswold has a fussy,
collegial, and unhurried style, like a voluble visitor standing
in the doorway. As for the thrust or drift of Griswold's argument,
unfortunately I couldn't detect it. There are chapters on Smith
on love, skepticism, stoicism, religion, justice, passiona, etc.,
but the accumulation of detail doesn't add up to anything. The book
is also advertised as the first full-length treatment of Smith's
political and moral thought. That is wrong, but Griswold seems to
mistake that for an invitation to touch on every facet of Smith's
thought without regard for relevance. Griswold would have been better
served if he had been guided by the structure of Smith's own book
than by his own wandering attention. For Griswold, the 400-so
me pages of his book are one long opportunity to clear his throat. Get to the point!

Put on your scuba gear - we're diving down deep. Even though Charles L. Griswold, Jr. writes in a dense, academic style, it is worth swimming through his prose to learn about the remarkable work of 18th-century Enlightenment philosopher Adam Smith. Regarded as one of the fathers of modern economic thought, Smith has been misunderstood for the last century because his ethical philosophy has been overlooked. Instead, economists have drawn attention only to his thumbs-up for free enterprise and free trade. Smith believed neither was worthwhile without ethics, a point some modern economists might profitably revisit. We [...] highly recommend this richly detailed, insightful book to anyone interested in economic, political, or social philosophy.

Griswold's book is pitched squarely between the academic of, and the interested newcomer to, the Enlightenment. It gives a refreshingly new outlook over enlightenment ideas as a whole, to illustrate the back drop to Adam Smith's moral notions. In examining the key themes in 'The Theory Of Moral Sentiments' with reference to Smith's whole body of work, Griswold is rare in attributing, to the work, the importance and weight it deserves. Books that focus on Adam Smith's moral philosphy are rare and this book is by no means a weak example of them. If you are at all interested in Adam Smith, and particularly those interested in 'The Wealth of Nations' you need to look at his moral roots, and Griswold's book is an excellent secondary text to look at.

I was very disappointed with this book after hearing positive reveiws from many others. It is hard to take a book seriously that makes controversial historical claims, and then fails to footnote the sources. I found the writing to be dull and many historical facts to be in error. If you are looking for a good book on the history of taxation, do not look here.

This book lay on my shelf some time before I finally got to it. Probably the word "taxes" sounds of bordom and generally negative overtones, but as I finish this book tonight I have found that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it to the history buff and tax-hater in all of us, excepting democrats [socialist], of course. The chapters dealing with the War for Southern Independence are especially interesting: Lincoln and the so-called moral North get a good ol woodshed whooping. One they deserve--for we all know that money and not morals has always been their priority. A great great book.

I read the Philadelphia Ghost Stories first and thought it was pretty interesting, being a Philly resident. So I went and bought Montgomery County also. Well, I wasn't that impressed with the book. I didn't find myself hurrying to turn the page. In fact, I know of a lot more stories that just weren't published in this book. It had a lot of holes. As an alumus of one of the colleges featured, I know of hauntings that just weren't mentioned at all.

This book is just a pure hoax, using people's stupidity to make them believe in anything! None of those stories are true (I personally visited and investigated 90% of those places and I haven't noticed the slightest "paranormal" thing). If you want to waste your money then buy this book.

These could be interesting stories if they were more fleshed out. Most of the stories are only 2-4 pages and simply contain a paranormal story told by one person with no supporting facts, evidence, back-up accounts, etc. Each story reads like a paper done for a high school assignment where the task was to interview a person you know about a paranormal experience and write a short paper.

Ghosts are usually tied in with history,and this book should have been no exception.It mentions nothing however about the haunted battlefields from the French & Indian War that were here before the City of Pittsburgh was built.I'm referring to Braddock's Defeat(right across the Monogahela River from Kennywood Park)and Grant's Defeat(one of Major Grant's Highlanders haunts the 10th floor of Kaufman's Dept.Store where the hill once stood)and Smokey Island(now the North Shore)where the indians once tortured their British prisoners to death by burning them to death at the stake).Most battlefields are haunted(just look at Gettysburg,Pa.).I have no idea why the authors missed out on this.