This book's objectivity is suspect due to the fact that it was published by the conservative Heritage Foundation; however, Joseph Shattan does a good job in making his case for these six men who did so much to alter the course of late 20th century history. It is remarkable that his list includes two American presidents (one Democrat, one Republican), a German chancellor, England's greatest prime minister, a pope, and a Russian writer. Such a disparate group makes this more than an essay on politics, it is a rich analysis of fifty years of world history. You can disagree with Shattan (as other reviewers have done), but you cannot deny that he has offered good reasoning for his heroic choices. It is enlightening to read about the contributions of Solzhenitsyn, Adenaur, and John Paul II, which are not well known. It is extremely satisfying to read a concise analysis of what Truman, Churchill, and Reagan brought to the mix. I believe that conservatives give Reagan too much credit for "winning" the Cold War, however I also believe that history will bear them out to a very large degree. Churchill is a giant, truly the Man of the Century (despite what TIME magazine thinks), and get his credit here. Truman obviously had a strong grasp on "the big picture" even as he grew into his role. It is interesting to apply what Shattan teaches us to the study of governments, economies, and social progress in this same time period. Joseph Shattan has done us all a favor by publishing this book; maybe efforts like this will finally begin to reduce the luster from Mikhail Gorbachev. Buy this book and read it. Then donate it to your kids' school library.

This is an excellent book, especially for anyone who wants to get a quick understanding of the greatest conflict of the century from a single book, in an easily accessible and compelling format. I was amazed at how much I did not know about all of the characters involved, especially Churchill, Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, and Reagan. The only part of the book that did not flow quickly was that on Truman. I think the authors really struggled with writing a biography of him that lived up to the title of the book. I can understand why they wanted to include him, but he doesn't really fit the mold of "hero" as all of the others do. Still, compared with FDR and Eisenhower, he comes pretty close!

This book is a very impressive piece of work. Shattan is very fair when he writes about each and every person, no matter what their political stripe. From Churchill's prescient knowledge of what must be done to Truman's acknowledgement of the danger that Communism posed to Adenauer's firm and unwavering alignment with the West to Solzihentisyn(sp?) showing how the Cold War was really a moral struggle to Pope John Paul II's unwavering determination to free Poland to Ronald Reagan who ultimately caused the end of the Cold War; even though it came under Bush's administration; Shattan demonstrates a keen eye for details and an excellent sense of analysis. This is well worth reading for anyone interested in the Cold War.

I had difficulties solving chemistry problems I also bought many books but when I found this one in My local library I was extremely happy with the simplicity of the text problem examples
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK FOR CHEMISTRY CLASS EVER ....I HAD A D IN MY FIRST CHEMISTRY CLASS NOW I AM GETTING As AND Bs Every household should have one .... The best book by far

This book is very well written, with helpful diagrams and detailed examples. It is easy to understand and text and with this book it is truly not hard to understand chemistry and do well. I easily got an A in Chemistry I and I believe that everyone who failed the class simply didn't look over the book or their notes after class. It certainly wasn't the fault of the professor or the text- both explained chemistry very well.

THE BOOK IS EXCELLENT. I USED THIS BOOK FOR MY CHEMISTRY COURSE AND I FEEL THE AUTHORS DID A FINE JOB WRITING THIS BOOK. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ALL OF YOU COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO ARE MAJORING IN CHEMISTRY OR THE ALLIED HEALTH FIELD. THIS IS FOR THE REVIEWERS WHO GAVE THE BOOK ONE STAR. HOW CAN YOU GIVE THE BOOK 1 STAR WITHOUT EVER READING THE BOOK.

As a junior windows 2000 network administrator when I first purchased this book I needed a reference with easy to understand information but technical enough to help me with my everyday task. After reading this book I went from barely knowing how TCP/IP worked in a Windows 2000 environment to knowing how each type of ethernet frame was made thanks to the extremely well explained (and detailed) schemas. The IP routing chapter is also very well written and explained. The book also comes with a CD which contains all the network monitor traces for the examples in this volume. I personally can't wait for the .net version of this book comming later this year...Congradulations on a well written book to Thomas Lee and Joe Davies!

I've been using TCP/IP for longer than I care to remember. Over the years, I've seen two kinds of TCP/IP books - pure technical detail, and administrative trivia (more dialog box shots than actual text)

This book is exactally what it says it it is: a great technical reference. The book works through the layers in the TCP/IP stack in a ethodical and logical way. Each layer in the TCP/IP model is cleanly and clearly described and well illustrated by network traces (which are all included to be on the CD).

So far, I've not found ANY mistakes (unlike some other 1st editions of TCP/IP books). I only wish the author had been able to do more (eg RADIUS, QOS0. Naybe the author can write a volume 2. And if he does - I'd buy it!

I bought this book based on the reviews here, and I sure got my money's worth. Who knows, maybe I'll meet the author one day.

Ken

Why read RFC's, white papers, and boring technical papers? Because until this book that was the only way to disseminate excellent information on a very important subject. TCP/IP is the protocol suite, and Thomas Lee makes it all make sense.

The input of the other authors Laura Robinson and Joe Davies make this complete volume worth twice the price.

This book will go proudly between Comer and Albitz & Liu on my bookshelf. Those are some pretty big pages to fill, but this book delivers.

It's all about quality.

After reading just a few pages I flew with my book over 1000 miles to have Thomas Lee sign my it at a Microsoft Professional Trainer Conference. He was very nice about signing it and signed others who purchased it at the conference as well. In fact, they sold out in the first couple of days of the conference. No wonder after you pick it up to look at it, you just can't put it down. I just wish I could of had Laura sign it too.

A very interesting look at the way a profiler creates his profiles of murderers and other criminals (most of whom seem to be mentally-ill). There are a number of spelling, grammatical, and other editing errors that sometimes make it confusing or hard-to-read. In a book produced by a publisher known for its scientific titles, I expected more care.

While reading this book I had mixed emotions,(kinda like watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your new Mercedes). To begin with, I loved certain aspects of this book. On the other hand, the editing was horrid! This book leaves no doubt about the expertise of Mr. Vorpagel's knowledge and ability as a criminal profiler and it is written in a unique format. It is presented as if Mr. Vorpagel is teaching a "light" course on criminal profiling to a class of 28 students, however, he only designates 4 class members as actual participants that he communicates with in a question and answer forum that encompasses a two-week long course. He picks two women and two men. The first woman is Asian, a public defender from Fresno; the second, a Latino,
works with the California Dept. of Corrections. The first man, described as pale-faced, is with the Sacramento District Attorney's Office; and finally, a young African-American patrolman from San Francisco. I assume he presents it in this manner to keep the confusion to a minimum. For the most part, it works, but I would still get confused from time to time, as to who was doing the talking. I attribute this to poor writing. Another plus in dealing with a small group of people is that you get to know the varied personalities and you feel like you are part of the class.

Another thing I liked about the presentation was that Mr. Vorpagel teaches by example. I found this to be a very precise way to make his points and he took them case-by-case, one at a time. In this way, I felt that I came away from each example with the maximum amount of knowledge, understanding and retention. It also made the reading much more exciting and the book much harder to put down.

As I mentioned, there are some flaws in this book, and a few are glaring, but in the overall picture, the "good" outweighs the "bad" and I would still highly recommend it. I know that I learned a great deal from reading it.

In this engrossing book Russell Vorpagel instructs a class in death investigation. He uses some known (and some no-so-known) cases to teach his class (and the reader) about some of the intricacies of death investigation, which include critical thinking in solving cases in profiling. One of the major strengths of this book is Vorpagel's use of a myriad of cases to demonstrate his points. His instruction to his class followed by a case study demonstrates his points in full detail. This book is "must read" for anyone interested in death investigation and profiling.

This is a terrible book. It is the best terrible book I have ever read.

The writing--ugh! The man has no sense of how to connect his various narratives together, how to build a sense of continuity, how to make us feel like we are really inside the events he is describing. He leaps back and forth in time at will, without bothering to explain why. He spends paragraphs or pages on picayune details, then leaps over giant topics with barely a word. And his politics--the man was an unrepentant Leninist! Time and again, he makes it clear that, if only the saintly Lenin had lived, all would have been wonderful in the worker's paradise. Only Stalin was a bloodthirsty monster--everyone else was a glorious revolutionary.

But I certainly enjoyed reading the book. The man knew a lot of the people who worked with Stalin. He saw how the Stalinist system worked from the inside. He has a lot of interesting things to say.

That makes up for the glaring flaws in this book. I just can't help but wonder what kind of book this could have been if Volkogonov had been a real writer, and if he had employed a real editor. And if, perhaps, his fog of naivety had been lifted and he could have dispelled the myth from his mind that the USSR was a good thing turned bad by a single man.

In short, don't expect a history or a biography. Expect a long, rambling monologue from a befuddled old man, who tends to confuse his stories, repeat himself, get lost in his train of thought...and occasionally drop out some bombshell anecdotes that make it all worthwhile.

There have been a number of biographies written in the west about Stalin the Soviet dictator. This is the first Russian book that is not simply a piece of hackwork. The writer has had full access to all Soviet archives. These archives had been kept from all other writers.

The writer was a red army general and the general expectations from the west were that his work would be of poor quality. This book was written with the approval of the Soviet General Staff before the complete collapse of communism. Volkogonov had been a prolific author but his previous works to use the words of the New York Review of Books "none of his previous works had hinted at independence, rigor or critical thought."

It was thus a surprise to find that the book departed form the party line and showed independence from the ideas of the old Soviet State. During the writing of the book the author examined thousands of files in which Stalin either ordered the murder of Soviet citizens or agreed to them. The writer's father was in fact one of Stalin's victims and he found out the details of what had happened during his research. After finishing the book he joined Yelstin's government as indicative of his break with the past.

Stalin was for his early life a fringe figure of the Bolshevik movement. He rose to prominence as he organized a large number of armed robberies that proved important to the parties' finances. Around the time of the revolution he became a trusted associate of Lenin. After Lenin's death Stalin entrenched himself in the rather unglamorous job of running the bureaucratic apparatus of the Communist Party. The other contenders for leadership took more glamorous positions. Stalin basically was able to stack the organs of power with his men and he seized power murdering his other rivals.

Initially Stalin was seen as an economic moderate. He had supported the continuation of a private agricultural sector. By the late twenties and early thirties he decided on a policy of force industrialization. To pay for the imports that were necessary he had to export huge amounts of agricultural products. To do this he introduced collectivization of the farming sector. This was bitterly resented by farmers especially in the Ukraine and Stalin murdered around 3 million farmers by starving them to death.

The forced industrialization of Russia proceeded at a breakneck pace with growth rates of around 5% a year. All of the growth however was going back into expansion of secondary industry. This meant that his regime was unpopular and only kept in power because of its security apparatus. In 1934 Stalin's likely successor Kirov was murdered. This set of a number of purges or the random killing of communist party officials. It would seem that the reason for this was to forestall opposition in a desperately unpopular regime. Just before he war some 40,000 army officers were liquidated in further purges. Again these were clearly aimed at keeping the army from opposing the regime.

In 1941 Russia was invaded and the first few months were a disaster with some 3 million Soviet troops being captured and the loss of about half of European Russia. Despite this colossal reversal Russia was able to recover and defeat Germany and to the enslave Eastern Europe for forty years.

Russians in considering their history prior to Volkogonov have accepted Stalin's crimes. They have however suggested that he has an important place in history as the industrialization in the thirties turned Russia from the weak power which had succumbed to Germany in the first world war to the superpower which went on to dominate the world for forty years. Secondly Stalin's apologists have suggested that his rock solid tyranny was able to keep together Russia in a time of crisis and in the end not only saved itself but to destroy a tyranny far worse.

Volkogonov in fact attacks this myth and suggests that the purges and Stalin's actions in 1941 lay at the heart of the military defeat.

The book contains no new surprises such as revealing if it was Stalin who killed Kirov. It also does not allow us to quantify Stalin's crimes in any more detail. It is however a readable biography of one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. The tragedy of the last century is of course that its three most significant figures have been criminals.

This is the best biography of Stalin there is, in my opinion. Volkogonov simply had the access to the kind of materials no one else had. This book takes full advantage of them. It correctly depicts Stalin as a great actor who sold his image to the masses, the image of benevolent and infallible ruler. In contrast to his fascist counterparts, Hitler and Mussolini, Stalin did not have a good speaking ability, and often read his boring speeches monotonously. But his self-assured and reassuring monotony came to have a hypnotic effect. His smile and almost goofy mustache and eyebrows covered the soul of a despot.

Stalin was a single-minded individual: for him, power came before everything else. A Georgian nationalist who called himself Koba in his youth and resented Russian rule over his people, he rose to become Stalin (man of steel) who ruled over the new Russian Empire called the Soviet Union. Volkogonov gives us the most factual biography yet of the man who slaughtered millions in the name of the workers' paradise and future generations; the man who feared and obsessed over Adolph Hitler and who ultimately defeated him; the man whose cruelty and destruction are a warning to all future generations not to lend a sympathetic ear to promises of future earthly utopias in exchange for absolute power and elimination of civil rights.

Books such as this one really help provide an in depth understanding of how the New Testament and the subsequent beliefs and traditions (though these are not necessarily independent) as we have them were hammered out. This book provides a necessary corrective to the oftentime overblown 'traditional' accounts. As such, authors like Wheless have done much leg work that the average individual would not be able to do. As it has been said we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.

I do recommend reading this one. However, while I found much of it enlightening, the tone of the author is rather disheartening. He casts his judgment at will (as, I suppose, I lawyer does) and his vitriol toward the entire religion is not masked. There are also elements that lead me to believe he is anti-religious all the way around, attacking not only paganism and Christianity but Judaism and even Islam as well.

This being said, he has done an amazing job on bringing forth quotes and revealing a very human side of the founders of the Christian faith. Yes Christianity has its flaws, as does any institution, and men have capitalized upon the power inherent in a religion such as Christianity to the abuse of its loyal followers, but he goes just a little too far and his claims are a little too grandiose about the impact his book here will have.

But I do recommend it. This is information (much like the Jesus Mysteries and other books like it) that everyone, including believers, should know.

This remains one of my favorite books of all time. The author was a judge and he dissects the Bible, the history and the claims of Christianity with a sharp legal mind and an infectious sense of humour.

He deals with pagan frauds and Christian precedents, Hebrew forgeries, scripture forgeries, the Church Fathers, the Gospel forgeries, the church forgery mill and ends with the chapter: The 'Triumph' of Christianity in which he takes stock of the disastrous influence of the faith on Western culture and the sad fruits of Christianity, concluding with an appeal to reason.

This is a brilliant antidote to superstition and religious brainwashing, and a wonderful confirmation of the liberating light of reason. I love Wheless' clear and amusing style; the chapter on the early Church Fathers is especially funny, as he demolishes their fatuous fable-mongering and exposes them for the simple-minded clowns they were. Not even Saint Augustine escapes his probing wit, as he mercilessly exposes the "great doctor's" foolishness.

It's rare that such important food for thought is offered in such an engaging style. There's a guaranteed laugh on almost every page. I highly recommend this book for reading pleasure and as an invaluable reference work.

This book is the sequel to Joseph Wheless' work entitled, Is It God's Word? - An Exposition of the Fables of Mythology of the Bible and the Fallacies of Mythology. It is the perfect companion to that previous volume. In Forgery in Christianity he describes what he calls the 'Christian forgery mill'. That mill produced dozens of gospels, apocalypses, epistles, and various other writings falsely attributed to disciples of Jesus and others among his contemporaries. There was even a forged document attributed to Pilate in which he confesses before Tiberius that Jesus was Lord and saviour. He sets this forgery mill into its historical context as being an extension of the Jewish apocalyptic literature tradition. He strengthens his argument by utilizing the commentaries of various orthodox sources and does so with great skill, showing that the force of biblical criticism leaves the rational critic with little option but to regard the New Testament (gospels and epistles) as a mass of forgery. Of particular interest to many will be his analysis of certain gospel passages which have had a tremendous political impact on western civilization, such as the keys of the kingdom passage found in 'Matthew'.

----Highly recommended.

I read this while pregnant, and what a wonderful book of insights and wisdom and compassion. Here it is, if you're looking for a caring philosophy to raise your child to be human in an often less than human world. Initially I was critical of some of his claims and theories, but his arguments and evidence rang true. Couple this book with a good Waldorf education, and who knows, we might make it yet!

A very important book, especially for those with children or expecting them. In a very reasoned manner reflecting a great deal of knowledge and research, Pearce discusses the phases every child goes through as it matures. He describes it as a succession of matrices, beginning with the womb-matrix, then the mother-matrix, the earth-matrix and so on. What it boils down to is the there is a time for everything, and we need to support the child's natural unfolding as much as we can. This means not 'abandoning' the infant in the crib, not pushing the pre-schooler too learn to read (ultimately a harmful thing), limiting television viewing and encouraging fantasy and play.

There seems to be so much misunderstanding and ignorance with regard to children these days, from tv overload to little league pressure to accelerated academic preparation--all harmful activities because they block a child's healthy development. Wake up everybody!

In the final chapters, Pearce goes beyond childhood to explore the possibilities of the human mind per se and give us a glimpse of what lies beyond the self-imposed limits of our reality. A deeply significant work. I also recommend Betty Staley's Between Form and Freedom for a look at what awaits in the adolescent years.

A very important book, especially for those with children or expecting them. In a very reasoned manner reflecting a great deal of knowledge and research, Pearce discusses the phases every child goes through as it matures. He describes it as a succession of matrices, beginning with the womb-matrix, then the mother-matrix, the earth-matrix and so on. What it boils down to is the there is a time for everything, and we need to support the child's natural unfolding as much as we can. This means not 'abandoning' the infant in the crib, not pushing the pre-schooler too learn to read (ultimately a harmful thing), limiting television viewing and encouraging fantasy and play.

There seems to be so much misunderstanding and ignorance with regard to children these days, from tv overload to little league pressure to accelerated academic preparation--all harmful activities because they block a child's healthy development. Wake up everybody!

In the final chapters, Pearce goes beyond childhood to explore the possibilities of the human mind per se and give us a glimpse of what lies beyond the self-imposed limits of our reality. A deeply significant work. I also recommend Betty Staley's Between Form and Freedom for a look at what awaits in the adolescent years.

In no particular order, some thoughts on "Christian Prayer". Essentially this is an abridged translation of the original Latin "Liturgy of the Hours" (4 vols.) First, the translation, abridged of not, has two major flaws. It is based on the original 1971 Latin and NOT the newest 1985 version (it is a scandal that for some fifteen years now this has not been remedied). Second, in the area of the (beautiful) hymns of the original, rather than doing the honest thing and translating the original hymns into verses of common metre, the decision was made to substitute what were considered "appropriate" hymns for Catholics c. 1975 when this first appeared. Many/most are dated, tired, banal compositions. Further, The Office of Readings, definitely the richest part of the new breviary, has been thoroughly cut down to the bare bones. One final note re: a previous review. I can't see how it could take two hours to set the ribbons for this book. Feast days/antiphons are a part of daily Catholic life and have been for centuries. Deal.

This is a beautiful little book! (2,000 pages worth!) It's perfect for those who want just one volume, not the entire set, and is a fine tool for prayer. I especially like the idea of adding my voice to the Church's own prayer, which is of course what the Liturgy of the Hours is all about.

That being said, it did seem a little hard to use, although not exceedingly so. You may need a little help from your local Priest to use it properly. My Priest has been most helpful, and has cleared up those areas that I was confused about. It was well worth the effort to learn. ...

This is of course the condensed version, so naturally it does lack the richness of the full volumes, which I have had a chance to look through. So this single volume may seem a little pricy when compared with the full set. For about double the price of this one book, you can get all four. However, being condensed, it is a specialty type book, and I think that is probably why it is priced as it is. I consider it well worth the price--even though I was slightly disappointed with the cover, which I believed was to be of a fine leather. It might in fact be leather, but it feels more like a vinyl to me.

To summarize, if you want a compact book of good quality for prayer, this little book fits the bill beautifully!

Christian Prayer might be considered the short version of the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours. The 4-volume set has readings for each day as well as prayers and repeats antiphons so that you don't need to flip back and forth through the book as much as in Christian Prayer. (For either book, though, get the St. Joseph Guide for the Liturgy of the Hours or the St. Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer-- each a thickish pamphlet that I consider my cheat sheets to help me not get lost on which readings apply to which day-- and I've been praying the hours for 10 years!)

Christian Prayer does have one thing the 4-volume set does not, however: music for the daily hymns. I don't know all of the hymns and can follow along with the music to sound out how it must go. Occasionally, I've visited at another parish and heard for the "first" time a hymn that I've sort of hummed through on my own with Christian Prayer!

There are shorter morning and evening prayers in Christian Prayer than in the 4-volume set. It can take less time to get through. And I have taken it on a trip when the period of the trip will take me between two volumes of the Liturgy of the Word.

In size, Christian Prayer is about as big as a Bible. (Liturgy of the Hours takes up 4 Bible-sized volumes). It took about three years before I grew so fond of and dependent upon the prayers that I cannot start my day without them. At first, I struggled thinking I surely did not have time for 15 min. to a half hour of prayer in the morning. Now I would sooner go out without my makeup and hair styled than without my armor on. Christian Prayer and/or The Liturgy of the Hours can grow on you in a healing way.

Romeo and Juliet is a great book. It's an interesting book to read. It is about tragic love during Shakespeare's time. Their love was impossible because their families, Montagues and Capulets, hated each other. The book shows how a couple fights against everything for their love. It has a tragic end in which both, Romeo and Juliet die, because nobody accepted their love.
You must have a very good English, to understand it. Because it is written in old English, what, in some parts may confuse the reader.
Though for some moments it may be boring, because it gives too many details, we enjoyed the story, and we recommend it.
It's definitely one of the best books written by Shakespeare.

I think that this is a great book because it tells you how much two people can really love each other and they gave up their lifes for their love.
I have seen the movie version about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and still love the book every time I revisit the story. Every word fascinates the reader into truly feeling the passion and tragedy of these two lovers. Even a character such as Tybalt Capulet won me over as far as description goes. Shakespearean writing is very much complex and confusing but it has a touch romance and anger which adds to the emotion of the story.
Is an excellent story for teenagers, read this classic book of love, hate and tragedy!

Romeo and Juliet is an amazing book, about two starcross lovers have never read a book like this one. What attracted me about the story was that they both killed themselves because of the strong love they had.
Kids from the age of 10 to 13 will understand it without any difficulty. The adult's will like this book but not as kids will do. This book has a lot of emotions from the beginning to the end. I think that Shakespeare was inspired when he wrote this book. He would have been inspired with one of his loves or in England's daily life. I think he is the most important English author of time.
I think it's a great book and I recommend it to anyone that likes tragedy books and like's Shakespeare books.

In "Supertrains", Joseph Vranisch introduced the reader to the vital link in mass transportation taking shape in all corners of the world: high speed rail. In "Derailed", the author critically examines Amtrak, meticulously explaining how America's publicly financed passenger rail program has been an abject failure in carving out an important niche in the transportation arena as well as directly and indirectly sabotaging high speed rail programs along the way. Drawing on numerous statistics, Vranich illustrates how, with the exception of the Northeast corridor, Amtrak has done little more than provide Americans with a passenger rail service on a level only encountered in several developing nations. An early chapter also makes note that most of Amtrak's trains currently have longer schedules and endure more mechanical problems than the trains of the 1940's and 50's.

Later chapters of the book outline the success enjoyed by other rail systems that are either a private enterprise or formed by public-private partnerships: commuter rail systems such as those in Chicago and New York, the freight companies such as Burlington Northern and Conrail and the tourist trains such as the Alaska Railroad, which, since its privatization has enjoyed its greatest financial success.

The final chapters center on Vranich's arguments for the dissolution of Amtrak, a 10 step phase-out plan and his proposal for public-private partnerships in future passenger rail service as witnessed by the successful TGV in France. His convictions in this area are both passionate and highly cogent. One can only hope that the leaders of our nation will read this book and use it as a blueprint for reshaping America's transportation infrastructure.

Joseph Vranich offers more than a chronology of poor Amtrak service -- he provides convincing arguments that "We need passenger trains, but we don't need Amtrak." That viewpoint has validity as Amtrak's market share declines to its lowest level in history. In fact, more people fly on domestic airlines in two days that ride Amtrak all year.

Although "Derailed" relies a bit too much on statistics, its facts and figures justify "new thinking" about Amtrak's system, which is a throwback to the pre-jetliner, pre-Interstate highway era of the 1950s. Rigidly sticking with the past is costly as Amtrak requires higher per-passenger subsidies than do airlines and highways, suffers financial losses in the billions, and flirted with bankruptcy just last year.

The book fills an enormous void in nonfiction by outlining how nations as diverse as Argentina, Great Britain and Japan are revolutionizing railroads through privatization, devolvement to sta! te governments and liquidation. Americans assume "privatization" is code for "no subsidies," but overseas it means better trains and lower subsidies through competitive bidding for franchises. Vranich argues for a cautious Amtrak phase-out so that needed trains will remain to serve legitimate travel needs, and he would cheer if Richard Branson's Virgin Rail would take over Amtrak's Boston-Washington line.

Today's headlines reflect Vranich's themes. A new report by the U.S. General Accounting Office warns that Amtrak's financial condition remains "precarious" despite traffic increases and Washington's recent multi-billion-dollar bailout of Amtrak. We cannot ignore the advice in "Derailed," which makes sense as Amtrak continues to falter in many parts of the nation.

What strikes me about "Derailed" is that the author admits he's been wrong in the past. How often do we hear such candor from well-known experts? Joseph Vranich, who lobbied on Capital Hill to create Amtrak, now regrets his work. He admits that Amtrak is incapable of running fast trains that are convenient to American travelers. By the time I finished with the book, I agreed with him.

Amtrak imperils its own future. The author explains that Amtrak for the most part ignores market clues about changing travel needs. Instead, Amtrak works to please members of Congress by running trains on an old-fashioned network. Amtrak's political maneuvering means the railroad is headed for higher financial losses and needs more pork-barrel money for questionable projects. Billions more in government subsidies are sure to follow the billions already spent.

But there is much here that's positive about passenger trains in the United States and around the world. Also, "Derailed" offers an imaginative ten-point plan to replace Amtrak with innovative organizations. I've never read anything quite like it. The plan also is a courageous stance for an admitted train-lover like Vranich to take.