This book is written in an accessible and practical format. It assumes nothing but at the same time treats the reader as an intelligent participant on the journey to understanding evidence based practice.

It is up to date and I was especially impressed with the web address it gives to ensure the reader is kept abreast of any changes since publication.

It systematically explains the need and use of 'evidence', how to find it (the search advice is comprehensive and includes details such as search terms and the best search engines aswell as web addresses) how to evaluate it and also how to act on it.

All in all this book was great, and I would reccomend it to anyone involved in evidence based healthcare practice as it will guide you through the thorniest problems.

Jack Anderson, the author, has been writing different sorts of books for over forty years now. His primary collection of books are in the category of biography. He enjoys writing about prominent and eminent individuals that have somehow impacted society in one way or another. He was born in the United States and is now a retired author.

Norman Schwarzkopf was born into a strict conservative family. His father, a war hero in WWII, was set to have Norman follow in his footsteps. How right was he. Norman ended up graduating at the top of his class in high school as well as in college at West Point. He excelled at the sophisticated military schol which led him into politics and also a family. He met his future wife at a bar during college and ended up marrying after graduating. Through politics, Norman was the main commander in Vietnam as well as the Gulf War. He was awarded two Purple Hearts for his courage and dignity. This earned him his promulgation and fame in the area of war. After fighting in the east, the book went on to explain his personal life. Fishing, reading, family, and football were all personal likings of Norman. As he had children, he can only hope to pass on his family tradition, as his dad sure did.

The title of this book is an oxymoron.

Randle proves nothing here. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

Another thing, Randle's writing is too repetitive. Thin on facts, long on conjecture.

This book does nothing to settle any question about UFO's. It does make a good case for a government and Air Force, cover up of information about UFO investigations. It doesn't prove what the reason for a cover up is. It states opinions about these things but is inconclusive.

The author is a dedicated UFO investigator. As such, he is involved in the controversy among "Members of the UFO Community" or "Ufologists". That controversy is the main thing that keeps the UFO thesis in the public eye. Oddly, the Ufologists all agree on a final theme: "UFO's are extraterrestrial space ships and the government doesn't want us to know that". The arguments are about which method should be used to reach that conclusion. There is another side to the argument too. There are UFO "Debunkers" who say that all UFO's are the figments of feeble minds. So, there are debates among Ufologists and debates between Ufologists and Debunkers. The flap goes on and on, with no end in sight and no end possible unless these people should quit their bickering and try to be objective about their subject. I think that if the UFO question could be settled conclusively, all these people would be greatly disappointed that their turmoil could no longer be carried on.

This book mostly states a case for the government cover up as its title claims. It is true to that theme. It does jump right into both the above arguments, albeit obliquely. It does nothing to really settle any question. It's mostly just more grist for the mill. The author has made a good job of covering the idea that the Air Force has been underhanded about information concerning this subject. He does state his cases more than once though. He will make points that he has already thoroughly covered a few or many pages earlier. The book is more repetitive than most I have read. Overall the book is pretty readable. In my opinion, it has the best coverage of the Roswell incident of any treatise I've seen. For people who like to keep up with the UFO controversy, this is probably a must.

Any work by Kevin Randle is an important and worthwhile read. I like and respect him highly because his main focus is the truth about the UFO phenomenon, and he is not afraid to make unpopular stands or go against the views of his fellow researchers. With a background in two branches of the armed services, including intelligence work, Randle is uniquely qualified to study the government's involvement in UFO activity. He is a meticulous researcher, always determined to get answers from others in a manner which cannot be questioned by critics. Conspiracy of Silence does not include any newly discovered bombshells, but it does give an excellent overview of the government's supposed role in UFO research and offers reasonable speculation as to the motives of our defense forces and intelligence communities in covering up the truth about extraterrestrials. He does discuss new information about the Roswell incident, showing himself more than willing to entertain any new facts and to amend his own theories in light of new, credible information. He always tries to provide the highly important provenance for information he has learned or received--he wants others to be able to do the research themselves and make their own judgments on that basis. He does not expect his readers to take everything he says as the truth.

The most compelling part of the book deals with the internal squabblings among researchers in the UFO community, arguing that such internal discord only serves to cripple or restrain our professed goal of learning the truth. When researchers are castigating each other as liars and cheats, the result is the discredit of Ufology among the masses; thus, Ufologists are debunking themselves. Part of this message is obviously inspired by the attacks heaped upon Randle himself in recent years. To a degree, he ends up criticizing his critics in the UFO community, the very thing he warns against doing, but I feel his words are valid and effective because he is merely answering those critics and goes to great pains to back up and verify everything he is saying in his responses. Differences of opinion must be espoused and debated objectively in order for us to penetrate the conspiracy of silence Randle describes in this book. He is doing that, and in so doing making the field stronger and more credible.

I have two criticisms of the work. For one, I feel as if Randle relies too heavily on Edward J. Ruppelt as a source for his early post-war discussion of the government's involvement in UFOs. Secondly, Randle's style of writing can be somewhat annoying in that he continually seems to repeat himself. He can say something clearly in two pages and then spend ten pages saying the same thing again and again. I also felt his footnotes were a hindrance. Although he does provide a large, helpful bibliography of sources, his footnotes are rather sparse and often do not refer to a source at all. On a couple of occasions, he would employ a footnote to make a small point, and then the next sentence in the text would say the very same thing the footnote did. All in all, though, Randle is the type of investigator the UFO community needs. He continues to provide valuable information to us, and he presents that information in such a way as to keep the pressure on the government to come clean eventually.

I appreciate Anderson's interest in SF and his desire to make it real by placing this novel in the hear and now. But like so many SF novels, this one simply ends. You read, you get excited, you hope for a miracle, you get a flat ending. All the promise developed in the characters, including the Alien, simply fades away. Actually, I forgot this book the day after I read it.

I thought that this book was great. At first I thought that the intoduction of so many carracters was a bit much but it all tied together rather nice. I had trouble putting it down and that says a lot because i am not a big reader.

Jack Andersons Millenium was many things. A deep, hard to put down, thriller but, at the same time a very frustrating novel to read. All in all you really get sucked in to this book an u feel the problems of the characters as if you were really there. Jack does a wonderful job of creating a fantasy world of magnificent proportions that tells the story of the way life could be.

What can one say about a book riddled with inaccuracies? Has Anderson even checked the judicial record? What about the ideas held by our founding fathers? After all, they wrote the Constitution. Since all this misinformation must be deliberate, as Anderson is obviously a man with powers of reason, I'd have to characterize his "facts" as lies.

I admit, after about halfway through, I couldn't finish the book. There was nothing of any real value to what I read. NO organization the size of the NRA (over 3 million members) is without its share of controversy or disagreement among its members, but this book doesn't even try to capture an objective picture of this aspect of the NRA. Instead, it's like reading low grade political material slamming the competition, as though the author was being paid to make the NRA look as bad as possible, as apparently, he was. I pity anyone who reads this book expecting to learn anything about the NRA. I recommend books by Gary Kleck and John Lott for those wishing factual, objective information about gun control and, peripherally, the NRA.

I believe in 95% of the information and numerous sources that Mr. Anderson uses to make his case, which is this - the NRA is consolidating and perhaps increasing its political power in Washington D.C., but it is RAPIDLY losing the confidence of the general public.

Mr. Anderson has an objective view toward sensible gun legislation. He does not advocate registration, or confiscation, or any other ultra-radical anti-gun stance. However, he does expose the NRA for what they appear to be - ultra-conservative, ultra-right radicals, who are unwilling to compromise on, or even suggest sensible gun legislation and/or safety measures that would benefit the average citizen, without comprimising their rights, constitutional or otherwise.

BTW, I am a former member of the NRA and consider myself a conservative.

Anyone thinking about this ongoing gun debate will benefit from this book.

My review is from the audio version of this book.

Extremely poor text. The example problems use formulas that come "from out of the blue" with no explanation of how to apply them to the situation. The explanations of how to solve the problems are totally inadequate. To a student, this text would be absolutely useless, and may cause many potential structural engineers to pursue other avenues of study. Absolutely should not be used by any professor for teaching structural engineering to students!!

Very poor text. Illustrations are very plain. Many of the example problems simply contain formulas with no real explanation of how and where they are used. Much of the "in between" steps that are essential for a student to learn the material are left out! The book is also short on verbal explainations. Chapter 5 on shear and moment diagrams is awful. I had to refer back to a strength of materials book for shear and moment diagrams. Come on guys, put a little more effort into the small details next time. Many more STEP BY STEP examples are needed in this text.

I have zero patience for books that are this cheesy. He should have used more of his hard-hitting journalism in writing this book; maybe it would have been more of a page-turner. Overall, this was a dull book with a plot that does not excite. I gave it 150 pages and then had to drop it.