In my opinion this book is a model of its kind and easily the most important book in child welfare in the last ten years. These scholars, advocates, and practitioners set out a systematic framework within which to understand, develop, and implement systems and programs that will effectively engage the issues that prevent family wellness and contribute to child maltreatment. We have known for years that current reactive programming can do little to help families and children after major damage has been done, that this programming is escalating costs exponentially, and that existing fragmented systems and programs are unable to cope with the increasing complexity of problems. To actually resolve the problems of child maltreatment, the bulk of services have to be reorganized around the prevention end of the spectrum. We also know that the problems manifested in child welfare cannot be addressed solely through a focus on the family and that an ecological approach to thinking and action is essential. This book describes what it would take to actually make the transition to a prevention-focused and ecologically based system of services for families and children. It is a thorough compilation of policy-relevant knowledge on the determinants of family wellness and child maltreatment.

Policy experts within and outside government share total dependence on those who wield power, specifically politicians and ultimately citizens. In an age in which political leaders strive for ideological purity over pragmatism, it may seem that any policy advice from policy experts is entirely pointless. These authors, however, offer a practical, value and evidence-based foundation for a policy agenda within which to begin a substantive dialogue among major participants - families, politicians, professionals and government policy analysts - to address the preventable tragedy of child maltreatment. In short, the book was written for those people who are seriously searching for a means to promote family wellness and prevent child maltreatment.

This is the final volume of Isaac Deutscher's famous three-volume biography of Leon Trotsky, the great Russian revolutionary. Deutscher's biography is the standard biography of Trotsky by which all other biographies of Trosky are measured.

Picking up the life of Trotsky from the time of his first exile from the Soviet Union in 1929, this book carries the story of the later portion of Trotsky's life all the way to his murder in Mexico in 1940.

Deutscher's writing is enticing and holds the interest of the reader. The book is also wonderfully indexed and serves as a guide to the voluminous writing of Leon Trosky during the last phase of his life.

Isaac Watts wrote Hymns with the assumption that theology was necessary to worship. These are not tha pat simplistic platitudes that pass for worship songs now. These hymns teach as well as entertain. The psalter alone is worth the price. All psalms written in poetical form. The Gospel of Christ was written back into the Psalms on the reasoning that they were about Christ in the first place and that to sing them as Christians we must see Christ in them.

Asimov as usual turns the complex into the easy. This book starts with the first thoughts of math and how it logically evovled. A must for anyone who lacks number sense. Invaluable for the elementary school teacher.

Most Grandparents memory books do not address the view of life through the eyes of Judaism. Through the presentation of this unique book it give the grandparent an opportunity to transmit his/her family history, culture, traditions, values, feelings and aspirations to their grandchild. It helps to show the grandchild what it was like growing up in a beautiful Jewish environment. The statements in this book provide a framework for the grandparent to recall and share their Jewish memories with their grandchildren. It a sense, this book helps to root the grandchild in the family's heritage and offers the chance to look back and forward, to bridge the past with the future generations.

This book is one of the best books I have read on the ideology of the revolutionary and constitutional periods in American history. It deserves to be read alongside the works of Gordon Woods, J.G.A. Pocock, Joyce Appleby, Bernard Bailyn and all the others who have done so much to reveal to us the full complexity of that marvelous period of time.
This period of our history has undergone an extended period of bitter contestation in the last few decades. At one point, the predominant interpretation of this period was that it was one of Lockean liberalism. The theory was argued by historians as different as Leo Strauss, C.B. Macpherson and Louis Hartz. Then came the extraordinary work of Woods, Bailyn and Pocock as well as Carolyn Robbins, Douglass Adair and others. This work suggested that the American Revolution was perhaps best seen as the last act of a renaissance political philosophy- the republican politics of civic humanism.
Whitehead once suggested that the history of philosophy could be seen as a series of footnotes to Plato and Aristotle. Perhaps the historiography of the American Revolutionary and Federalist Periods for the last thirty or so years could best be seen as a series of footnotes to Hartz and Pocock.
Kramnick seems to me to suggest the best answer to this debate: everybody's right. The founding fathers and mothers were extraordinary people and we do them a disservice if we see them as single minded ideologues. We want to use them as trump cards in current political and ideological debates but they are more, much more than that.
Yes, many of them were Whigs who saw the politics of their times in terms of the corruption of political or civic virtue. But many of these same were Protestants and budding capitalists who were starting to define virtue in terms of the industriousness, the abiltiy and talent of the individual. Kramnick is an excellent guide to the interplay of these diverse ideologies. He wants to reassert the importance of Locke. I think he is right to do so. It is hard to read the writings of those times and not hear the echos of Locke. One can hear it in the writings of Jefferson, of Madison, of Paine, of Hamilton, of James Burgh.
This book is a sure and fair minded guide both to the historigraphical debate and to the period in question. Kramnick is to be congradulated on his modesty. Unlike many intellectuals, he seems to know that his ideas have limits and that others may be as good or better guides to some of the issues he discusses.
It is a shame that this book is out of print and only available as a used book. If you love this period of our history, if you are fascinated by the intersection of political philosophy, practical theory of governance, assertion of the primacy of individual liberty (usually by slave owners), the protection of class and property interests, by all the wild contradictions that this period offers, this book is for you. Read it alongside Woods, Adair, Pocock, Powers and all the others who are trying to lay out for us that wonderful and strange brew that is the history of those times.
p.s. I thought it might be useful to give y'all a Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Liberalism, the Middle Class and Republican Revisionism

Part One
Bourgeoise Radicalism and English Dissent
2. Religion and Radicalism: The Political Theory of Dissent
3. Joseph Priestley's Scientific Liberalism
4. Children's Literature and Bourgeoise Ideology
5. Tom Paine: Radical Liberal

Part Two
Republican Revisionism and Anglo-American Ideology
6. Republican Revisionism Revisited
7. James Burgh and "Opposition" Ideology in England and American
8. "The Great National Discussion": The Discourse of Politics in 1787.
9. "Then All the World Would Be Upside Down"

Index

The companion volume to the seminal "I, Robot". This is a further collection of short stories, much in the same style. Vintage Asimov, not the latter day diluted stuff!

Very funny history from the Science Fiction Master. If you reading the others Asimov's Fundation Book, you need read this.

Edwin Newman produces some of the finest edutainment audio series. Bought initially as a bedtime story for my 16 month old son, I looked forward to sharing my passion of physics, math and sciences with him. The more I listened the more I learned myself. I really look forward to more audio edutainment series from Edwin and look forward to learning about new discoveries in physics, math and science and the current day scientists. I hope more scientists will take Edwins lead and share the passion of their work in an audio format. In the future I would love to see audio versions of HyperSpace, Beyond Einstein and Visions by Michio Kaku.

In Separate And Peculiar: Old Order Mennonite Life In Ontario, author Isaac Horst, an Old Order Mennonite, thoroughly explains the customs, beliefs, and culture of his people in Ontario - both in English and in Pennsylvanian German. This bilingual presentation shows the Mennonite community through the eyes and story of a typical boy, Menno Martin, who matures over time at home, on the farm, in school, and at church. Eventually he marries Grace and becomes a preacher. Vivid language and eyewitness detail bring to life what it is like to live in an Old Order Mennonite community, from barn raising, quilting, and butchering day to youth singings and being baptized as a member of the church. With black-and-white illustrations, a glossary of typical Mennonite terms, and a captivating point of view, Separate And Peculiar is strongly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in the Old Order Mennonite community.