In the many arguments I've had over the merits of collective action, I have found few arguments as useful as Michels' "iron Law of Oligarchy", stating that even the most egalitarian orginizations wind up having their decisions made by a select few at the top. Morever, institutional reforms will not help, since this tendency is inherent to complex orginization. Surveying the intensification of power across a host of socialist parties and publications, Michels provides much empirical evidence. Too much, at times, as after about 200 pages of stories about leadership groups developing in socialist orginizations, the book starts to drag a little bit. It is all worth it, however, as the "iron law of oligarchy" is one of the most fascinating arguments you'll ever find in a book about politics. Seymour Martin Lipset's introductory comments provide interesting background info.

Michels was a member of a socialist movement who wondered if one could ever have what today is called participatory democracy. The result is this wonderful book, in which Michels discovers the "Iron Law of Oligarchy", that even in the most egalatarian movements, elites will call most of the shots. Michels goes further than many elite theorists who simply claim that this has always been so: he claims that elite management is inherent to complex organizations. Whether you agree or disagree, you must read this man and debate his ideas!

or, possibly more correctly, the adolescent who sometimes never grows up. We all want Heaven on Earth, don't we? Too bad it's not possible. Unfortunately, the attempt to create Heaven on Earth only creates a Hell. In this important but not terribly well-known known book, Paul Hollander traces the journeys of Western leftist intellectuals as they, blinded by self-deception, journey to the hellholes of the Soviet Union, China and China, and pronounce them wonderful societies. The obvious question: why? Estranged from their own societies, they seek meaning and community elsewhere. We all need it, and we all want it, to the point where some of us imagine it when it's not there. For the leftist, their gods have evaporated, leaving them in a vacuum. They seek religious certainty, meaning and comfort in trying to create a heaven right here. But the gods of leftism have turned out to be demons. Instead of trying to change the world, they should tend to their own gardens first.

Paul Hollander is one of our best critics of the kind of foolishness that motivates intellectuals today and has done so for centuries. This book is well worth reading. It demonstrates most amply Hollander's contention that intellectuals are not characterized solely by their critical abilities and habits. Rather, as Hollander points out time and again, they are also characterized by their opportunistic use of these abilities, and by their incredible credulity. Sartre is only one case in point: his fabulous skepticism is employed to prevent himself from coming face to face with the fact that Stalin was a monster and that Marxism could neither save a nation nor prevent mass murder. Our hyper-politicized faculty on Kampus today employ the same kinds of denial and opportunistic critique to save thier silly beliefs in the beneficence of multiculturalism, in the existence of patriarchy and in the explanatory power of cultural critique. Hollander's book is a must read for anyone who needs distance from the nonsense of our postmodernists, deconstructionists and other allegedly radical dogmas of the aging flower children. All of them practice selective attention to their critical principles, scepticism for their enemies, and utter credultiy for their pals.

I love this book and so does my pony Acorn.Mimi Kline loves ponies.So her parents buy her one!He is a sweet little shetland called Tongo!The Klines ask Anna and her Pony Pals to teach her some care and riding skills.Acorn helps.But they soon realize that she is stubborn.And after she goes of on the trail alone her parents give Tongo back to his dealer.Mimi is upset.The Pony Pals must help her.They helped Anna get Acorn back and thy must help Mimi and Tongo.Can they convince Mimis parents to let her keep Tongo?Find out!

This book was a very good book. It is half mystery and half regular book. I would recommend this book for ages 6-11.

This is about how American lives could, and ought, to be better than they are - how we can more wisely use our affluence to be happier and at the same time cut back on materialism. Also discusses the decline of sense of community and our tendency as a culture to try and fill that need for connection with material items, to our spiritual and environmental loss. A fascinating book with some good theories about why we are where we are, and what we can do to fix it.

All in all, Wachtel's work remains an excellent profile of middle-class psychology in America, its habits, expectations and frustrations. The book was quite popular when first published, and though many changes have since occurred, the central theme remains as relevant now as then. Much of the book's inspiration comes from counter-cultural themes of the sixties, and thus represents not only a critique of corporate America but of the materialist ethic as well. One key theme predominates: bigger isn't necessarily better. On the contrary, our national obsession with growth has, despite the sloganeering, produced a deeply unhappy society of atomized individuals. Most of the points here are fairly familiar ones concentrating on the spiritual limitations of material accumulation made more severe by the use of competition as the driving force behind obsessive growth and accumulation. The author, a psychologist, has experienced a number of dysfunctional patients whose difficulties, as he shows, are traceable to these societal phenomena.

In the context of professional psychology, Wachtel presents a number of critical assessments of other schools of psychology, including a number of insights into modern social behavior. A significant element of his own orientation lies in connecting the psychological with the social, and the health of the individual with that of the group, a move which rejects a key assumption of the modern age, viz. methodological individualism. Accordingly, an important part of the book lies in a citique of individualism in its many guises and philosophical forms. Behind this critique appears to lie a deep regard for the humanistic impulse which he views as inherently social in nature. To the detriment of that impulse, however, a society of unhappy, alienated people is being produced by a national ethos of mindless self-absorbtion, obsessive growth, and an ethic of competition. Hence remedies for personal ills must tackle the societal thereby taking on a scope far exceeding that of the single individual. Accordingly, Wachtel mounts a non-technical critique of capitalism as an ordering process and its need to reproduce these alienating forms of social behavior. In the process, he seeks to shatter myths surrounding the marketplace as producing the best of all possible worlds. What he appears to be plumping for--implicitly at least--is a genuinely socialist society without the explicit use of that vexed term.

He writes fair-mindedly and effectively in assessing soviet socialism, democratic socialism, and capitalism, while his chief economic inspiration appears to derive from liberals like J. K. Galbreath and Lester Thurow. Though the book is currently out of print, I think it remains a classic statement of what American consumerism has actually wrought.

This book is obviously well researched and includes great insights on the press's manipulations of facts to achieve its objective. The multiple examples quoted by the author lend credence to what many of us have always thought.

The Power Press powerfully explains the role that the press plays in our society and goes one step further by giving consumers practical steps to critically evaluate the media. In an age which we constantly thirst for information, The Power Press gives an unbiased view about message distortion and the rise of advocacy reporting. A must read for all consumers of information and especially communication/journalism scholars.

This book is very good book and must have it...... It is old but no comparable books can beat... This book provide a lot for all power engineers in the world .. many thanks to the team.

This is the only good source where you can find a decent exposure to the dynamical modelling of the power systems, the details given in the book were very helpful to conduct my research. There are other books around but they are either incomplete or too detailed or a major pain.

Practical Intranet Security is a clear and concise book that covers the range of today's authentication and authorization technologies. I was particularly impressed with the discussions on SESAME - this was the first book that makes the goals and design of SESAME clear. It also provides good introductory material on network security and cryptography. As an experienced professional, I have found the book useful to see how others have addressed problems in the development of security protocols.

I found the book to offer a great mix of practice "how to" type of advice for application level security integration. It is also to be commended on also explaining the concepts of what is to be achieved first.

Excellent resource that I use daily in the wards. Everything I need in a handy format. Anybody whose starting out as a first year resident in primary care, this book is invaluable.

This text book is easy to use and is extremely useful. It outlines practice parameters which are evidence-based. It is a must have for any family physician or internist who practices using the latest clinical practice guidelines and recommendations.

Excellent collection of pieces from obscure writers and celebrated Czech authors. The book is divided into sections for each part of the city (Old Town, Mala Strana, etc.). I've lived in Prague before and it was so much fun following each author around the city again. I recommend this book for anyone enchanted by the idea of Prague or for those who miss it and want to spend some time there with a bunch of amazing tour guides.

As we prepared for our trip to Prague, I ordered this book from Amazon.com but didn't get a chance to read until we actually got there. What a treasure! Each piece made some landmark or moment of history come more vividly alive than any of the standard guidebooks could possibly provide. The division of the book into corresponding areas of the city was a great idea.I always look to literature to gain insight into travel destinations. No single book has ever done a better job than this one.

"Paul Ivey's thorough, readable, and well-illustrated book explains why so many [monumental, classical-style, Christian Science churches] exist and what they meant in their original contexts. . .Ivey's book will be interesting and useful for a broad audience. It demonstrates how a study of religious architecture can illuminate not just architectural history, but social and cultural history, the material culture of gender, and group identity." --as reviewed in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

The monumental 'bank-style' churches we normally associate with Christian Science in urban areas are the subject of Paul Ivey's excellent study, a first-ever history of any sort of the Christian Science 'field'.

Although Ivey's book is the first extensive, stand-alone study to examine this period in the sociology of Christian Science, it is for the most part an architectural study. We see how original intent (religious teachings) makes its way into the public world of urban architecture, construction contracts, and finish materials. Solon Beman is the key figure here, a fine Chicago architect who is largely responsible for the 'Extension' of the Mother Church in Boston.

Beman is the taproot of the style of architecture that became known for bright, modernized, comfortable, yet neo-classical monuments that sprang up in downtowns from coast to coast during this remarkable Christian Science building boom.

We often look skeptically on these edifices, which a century later appear so pompous in their now hollowed-out urban areas, and whose futures are in serious doubt. However Ivey brings back life to these churches and shows us why they were not only suitable for their times, but socially progressive.

In confining his focus just to this monumental, urban, pre-Depression segment of the Christian Science movement, he almost unnoticeably confines his historical examination to a certain type of Christian Scientist, to a type that is not altogether flattering. In fact, he seems to be saying that while the thrust of this church building movement shared certain undercurrents with the spirit of Mary Baker Eddy's teachings, there was an unmistakable self-consciousness about this vision of church, an overbearing push to be perceived publicly as prominent, legitimate, successful, and literally profitable to the worshiper. All this makes the religious aims of Christian Scientists appear rather superficial, even if Ivey's treatment of Eddy and Christian Science teachings is more balanced.

If this characterization of the builders of these buildings may not be flattering, it may not be unreasonable. As Ivey himself makes clear, Eddy encouraged churches to bring historical Christian imagery up-to-date. For those not familiar with her teachings, she claimed, partly through spiritual healing, to "reinstate" primitive Christianity. The churches that Dr. Ivey examines largely ignore any such sentiment. Instead, they take as their prototype a more secular model of monument that was considered highly progressive in its day and place. The Christian Science movement based its entire urban church building movement upon this model.

Having said that, Ivey does invoke a sympathetic view of what these builders accomplished.

All in all, Ivey's is the first step in looking at the architecture of this religious movement. With work like this, we can assess how these individuals, apart from their own publicity, actually viewed the role of their church and its place in the world. In this study Ivey took the most prominent public image of this religious movement and tells us the story behind it with care and scholarly diligence that is truly impressive. [Reading his sources you almost begin to feel exhausted yourself.] As a good storyteller however, Ivey brings light and life to his subject - a subject that today seems to keep its secrets locked tight behind three story columns and soaring white domes.