It has become increasingly evident that the social science fields need to evaluate theories and their underlying constructs empirically. If you are similar to myself as a graduate student, you needed to overcome your fears of using factor analysis in your research. This text is excellent for clarifying issues glossed-over in your basic statistics courses, without being too "techie" in its approach. This is a great startup book on factor analysis for fledgling researchers.

A very good book, I now actually understand the subject! It even goes on to explain about LISRELL

Steel melds his knowledge of history and science in a highly readable book. To propel his discussion of celestial bodies, he uses the fuel of such stores as:

* Einstein's theory of relativity as vindicated by an Eclipse
* Alexander's defeat of Darius the day after an eclipse in 331 BC.
* The bible's use of moon language, speaking of days where the moon will be darkened (lunar eclipse?)

With facts like this, Steel keeps us following a provocative discussion of the moon and its cycles. The history lessons are interspersed with scientific facts so that after a while one doesn't know if he is reading a history book or a science novel.

As the author points out, the Eclipse as a phenomena in the sky held special cultic meaning for the Ancient Near Eastern religions (esp. the Egyptians). But one is left wondering if Steel is accurate at all points of history. For example, when arguing from the Bible about supposed eclipse accounts therein, he sees the story Abraham as alluding to one, "And when the sun was going down...great darkness fell upon him." Because he sees this text as an eclipse, he dates the time of Abraham to 9 May 1533 BC 6:30pm. What is interesting in this is that there is an actual internet database maintained by NASA that allows the author (and us!) to track all eclipses for all time. Indeed, there was an eclipse visible in Jerusalem in 1533, but does that mean that the text in question is talking about an eclipse? Steel is probably misreading the bible, but it is only a small distraction from his great book.

Other questionable uses of the Bible exist in this otherwise excellent book about how the Eclipse changed the course of history. His science is wonderful, his reading of eclipses into the Bible is questionable. He uses his knowledge of Lunar Eclipses to date the death of Jesus to 3 April AD 33. This may be accurate, but some camps of Christianity will take issue with his use of the texts he alludes to in order to support this date.

It should be noted, Steel's book is not only about the moon, but about all of the celestial bodies and man's reaction to their appearances (Mars, comments, famous meteor storms, etc.).

This book is a good introduction for the novice about such things as "blue moons", "the diamond ring" affect, eclipses in general, the calendar and the moon, and other such relevant topics.

Eclipses have long been perceived as portentous events and have affected world cultural development, from the onset or cessation of battles to dates of historic decisions. This blends science with history as astronomer Steel explains how eclipses occur, their history, and their influence on human lives. Black and white illustrations throughout capture eclipse history and drama.

This book is probably the first textbook on economics of organization. Since published in 1992, it has been widely used in classes. The main framework of the book lies in the conception of the firm as a system of incentive/coordination to allocate efficiently resources. So this book is an extension of neoclassical approach to the area of organization, though such concepts like bounded rationality and transaction cost are incorporated deeply into the architecture of the book. Unlike usual textbooks, this book has the overarching coherence with theoretical depth over various subjects like centralized/decentralized organization, moral hazard, rent, ownership, human resource management, investment, corporate governance. Such consistency is possible for its theoretical position: neoclassical approach. In that stance, the actor is motivated in its rational calculation, in other word incentive, although it¡¯s bounded in terms of information. How to organize such actor into an organization is the problem of coordination in the theory of the firm. Such an approach was widely adopted in the 1980s. But these days, resources/capabilities approach and evolutionary economics dominate the discourse on the firm. Capabilities, resources, dynamic capabilities, organizational learning, routine, tacit knowledge, knowledge creation, those are buzzwords to date. If you are to be specialized in the theory of the firm, this book should be read. But if not, I recommend Besanko, Dranove, and Shanley¡¯s ¡®Economics of Strategy¡¯. It takes trendy approach and that, it explains each subject with live examples from business world.

Bluntly, this is the best university text in economics written in the 1990s. This may also be the best university text in useful economics ever written. You will learn a great deal about getting incentives right, about corporate governance, and about the labor market for managers. Its only flaw is that it overlooks the fact that the tools it teaches, and the arguments it lays out, can be used to formulate a powerful critique of government as well as of the modern corporation.

Vladimir Rojansky's Electromagnetic Fields and Waves is midway in difficulty between a first year physics text and more advanced texts like Lorrain and Carson's Electromagnetic Fields and Waves (another text with the same title).

The original Prentice Hall edition is increasingly difficult to locate. A Dover edition (1979 or 1980) is available under ISBN 0-486-63834-0. The Dover edition currently has two high reader reviews. I found the text quite useful for review purposes.

This book is intended primarily for students of Physics or Electrical Engineering at the junior or senior levels, although some schools will prefer to use it with first-year
graduate students. The book should also be useful for scientists and engineers who wish to review the subject.

The aim of this book is to give the reader a working knowledge of the basic concepts of electromagnetism. Indeed, as Alfred North Whitehead stated, half a century
ago, "Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilization of knowledge." This explains the relatively large number of examples and problems. It also explains why
we have covered fewer subjects more thoroughly. For instance, Laplace's equation is solved in rectangular and in spherical coordinates, but not in cylindrical
coordinates.

CONTENTS
A chapter on vectors (Chapter 1), a discussion of Legendre's differential equation (Section 4.5), an appendix on the technique that involves replacing cos wt by exp jwt,
and an appendix on wave propagation.

After the introductory chapter on vectors, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 describe electrostatic fields, both in a vacuum and in dielectrics. All of Chapter 4 is devoted to the
solution of Laplace's and of Poisson's equations.

Chapter 5 is a short exposition of the basic concepts of special relativity, with little reference to electric charges. It requires nothing more, in the way of mathematics,
than elementary differential calculus and the vector analysis of Chapter 1. Chapter 6 contains a demonstration of Maxwell's equations that is based on Coulomb's law
and on the Lorentz transformation and which is valid only for the case where the charges move at constant velocities.

Chapters 7 and 8 deal with the conventional approach to the magnetic fields associated with constant and with variable currents. Here, as elsewhere, references to
Chapter 6 may be disregarded.

Chapter 9 contains a discussion of magnetic materials that parallels, to a certain extent, that of Chapter 3 on dielectrics.

In Chapter 10, the Maxwell equation for the curl of B is rediscovered, without using relativity. This is followed by a discussion of the four Maxwell equations, as well
as of some of their more general implications. The point of view is different from that of Chapter 6, and there is essentially no repetition.

The last four chapters, 11 to 14, concern various applications of Maxwell's equations: plane waves in infinite media in Chapter 11, reflection and refraction in Chapter
12, guided waves in Chapter 13, and radiation in Chapter 14. The only three media considered in Chapters 11 and 12 are perfect dielectrics, good conductors, and
low-pressure ionized gases. Similarly, Chapter 13 is limited to the two simplest types of guided wave, namely the TEM mode in coaxial lines and the TE1,0 mode in
rectangular guides. Chapter 14 discusses electric and magnetic dipoles and quadrupoles, as well as the essential ideas concerning the half-wave antenna, antenna arrays,
and the reciprocity theorem.
For a basic and relatively simple course on electromagnetism, one could study only Chapters 2, 3 (less Sections 3.3, 3.4, 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10), 4 (less Sections 4.4 and
4.5), 7, 8, 9 (less Section 9.3 but conserving the equation v - B = 0), and 10. For a rather advanced course, on the other hand, Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 could be
reviewed briefly using the summaries at the end of each chapter. One would then start with Chapter 6, and then go on to Chapter 10 and the following chapters. There
are, of course, many other possibilities.

In Chapter 12, Sections 12.3 and 12.7 could be dispensed with. They involve the application of Fresnel's equations to particular cases and are not essential for the
remaining chapters. Chapter 13 is instructive, both because of the insight it provides into the propagation of electromagnetic waves and because of its engineering
applications, but it is not required for understanding Chapter 14. Finally, Chapter 14 is based on Chapter 10 and on the first two sections of Chapter 11.

The Encyclopedia of Unbelief is a great book for atheist and religious people. It is loaded with huge amounts of interesting text and is very easy to read. Great Christmas gift for any teenager.

Stein is the editor of numerous anthologies and encyclopedias of skeptical nature, but this is by far his best. There are so many topics available to the reader, making for a smorgasbord of Atheist material. The book includes sections on Atheism in the history of many of the world's great nations, such as Russia, China, India, et cetera. There is copious amounts of information on those who chose to utter blasphemy against the faith they were raised in (such as apostates from Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, et cetera).

The contributing authors include some big names, such as George A Wells on the topic of Jesus historicity, James Randi on the topic of hoaxes and frauds, and numerous other highly regarded experts in their respective fields. All in all, this is an impressive compilation of essays by the finest skeptics in the world today.

Kelly has produced a most comprehensive account of 1980s Australia, but more than that, he has also dealt with the vital question of leadership in an accurate manner. His analysis of the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Peacock rivalries is the strength of this very worthwhile publication. Anyone who wants to understand the politics, parties and personalities of the '80s should read this book.

In the late 1940's and 1950's both sides of Australian politics had agreed over the fundamentals of economic policy. That is that both were committed to Keynseian economic theories combined with a high level of taffifs to maintain a manufacturing sector.

During the post war period the most succesful force had been the conservatives known in Australia as the liberals.

In 1982 the Australian left wing party the Labour Party won office. To everyone's surprise it rejected the conventional economic wisdom and started to dismantle protectoin, it allowed a floating exchange rate and indirectly started to kill the trade union movement by providing a series of non income benifiets to union members instead of wage rises. Thus the books title, these types of reforms would normally have been carried out by the conservative side of politics rather than by the left.

During the 80's a large amount of Australia's secondary industry collapsed but it was replaced by a growth in the servic sector especially tourism. As the decade ground on the country had high levels of economic growth and inflation fell to low levels.

The ruling Labour party was able to stay in power until 1993. The book provides a history of the time with more of a focus on the political ins and outs of the time. The writer is a prominent political journalist and lots of the book is actually quite funny.

It is currently the best history of that period of Australia. Worth a read if you are keen on Australia or the period in question.

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In the 19th century, there were no english phrase books for the Portuguese market, and the authors sought to fill that gap with this book, now reprinted in full. Ah, what a futile, heartfelt exercise this book turned out to be, for they had no English-Portuguese/Portuguese-English dictionaries to work with, only English-French and French-Portuguese as a substitute, and knew no English themselves and had no English speaking editors. The required gyrations led to hilarious results.

Page after page of mangled sentences and hilarious absurdities follow the original Portuguese:

"Where correspond the bells?"
"She have always anything which is it bad."
"These are the dishes whose you must be and to abstain."

The authors also provided us with vocabulary for common terms (examples in the bed room are "the bed battom" and "the feet's bed") as well as typical dialogs you might have (for instance, when buying furniture, "Pardon me, it comes workman's hands.")

A little of this goes a long way, though; it's not for extended reading, but it's quite suitable for abbreviated sessions (and is better than Dave Barry for the bathroom because it's shorter and continuity doesn't matter a whit) or passing around at a party.

But it's a wonderful monument to misguided effort, and we enjoy it a lot. I've never seen anyone look at it without laughing.

My nephew (who as a hobby learned Esperanto) once pieces read of this book to our family. It was hilarious, and as you might have noticed, as the style my write of to be changed goodly.

In other words, from then on, we have delighted in making terrible nonexistent translations of nonsense for each other, and this book and its influence has made our lives that much more fun. When I heard it was once again available, I felt I had to let people know how enjoyable it is.

If the you to tootle melodious for is, then must needs of this book an buy! :-)

It talks about many different jobs. For each job, the book includes a definition, working condition information, earnings, and more. This book is very informative. I suggest you to buy it if you are looking for a job.

In the Enhanced Occupational Outlook Handbook the author adds vital information to the Department or Labor's version of the book. It provides exhaustive, accurate, up-to-date information on all major jobs and occupations in the United States. This easy to use, authoritative, and definitive reference offers the most useful database of information on jobs and salaries available today. All jobs are arranged into logical clusters, making it simple to find a given occupation. The descriptions are clearly written and replete with pertinent and useful information on skills, pay, working conditions, training, educational prerequisites and more. It is an essential, core reference title for school and community job center counseling, and ideal for personal job and career research.

This is a tremendous contribution to the NIGTC series. Ellingworth has a wide knowledge of the Greek and he often provides rich insights from extra-biblical sources. The informed layperson can benefit from this work with the use of an interlinear and some knowledge of Biblical Greek (at least a working knowledge of the Greek alphabet). I recommend Mounce's NIV English-Greek NT (a reverse interlinear), if you do not know Greek very well. For those with a working knowledge of Biblical Greek, this volume will be of great help.

However, the heavy emphasis on word studies in this volume makes it a little more difficult to follow and I am not sure that it does not interfere with the flow of the context. This is why I find William Lane's work (Word Biblical Commentary) to be much more helpful.

Nevertheless, Paul Ellingworth has done a tremendous job in providing us with a thorough treatment of Hebrews that is extremely helpful in sermon/lesson prep.

This superb volume on the Epistle to the Hebrews provides the most detailed commentary on the book. Ellingworth does a brilliant job in his exegesis and gives the reader a better understanding of the book. He gives us not only a study of the Greek text; but also a wider context with relation to other early Christian writings. One can rank it alongside the other great commentaries on Hebrews. If one had to purchase only one commentary on the epistle to the Hebrews, this should be it. Like all the other volumes in the series, it is a must. I very strongly recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about the New Testament.

I'm not sure if the person below read the book. Equiano was 11 when he was enslaved.

An amazing story of an amazing man. Olaudah Equiano tells the story of his life with such clarity and recollection it is hard to put this book down. A slave, who at the age of 7, was kidnapped from his village in Africa and subsequently enslaved for 11 years until which time he could buy his freedom. His life was filled with both horror and wonder. He witnessed great events and horrific injustices. He tells these tales with clarity and an unusual objectiveness. A boy, who at age 7, did not read or write or even know of the white man. Olaudah grew to learn and have great command of the language in which he would retell his tales. This is not only an impressive work, it is more so coming from a former slave. It is a must read for everyone interested in the struggle for life that these people endured for over two centuries.