As stated in the preface of War and Society in the Roman World, "'There is and has been a powerful reluctance among historians to discuss ancient warfare and its consequences with a steady eye'" (ix). What this book hopes to examine is the relationship between war and society. The focus is on how this relationship changes from the Roman conquest of Italy through the Republic, and consequently the Principate and the late Roman Empire. John Rich offers a brief historiography in his preface regarding discussions, lectures and literature on war and society in the ancient world. This book is very useful to the student of Roman studies for it examines different facets of Roman history from its earliest settlement times to the end of its Empire. While it is not a complete chronological history of the relationship between war and society in the Roman world, it is a well organized and well written collection of essays from very knowledgeable writers. In addition, there is extensive bibliographic information at the end of each essay which always helps aspiring Classics students better prepare their own scholarly studies.

This unauthorized biography has quotes and comments from a lot of people that Bill did not like or respect. It is somewhat one-sided in that respect. People either loved or hated him, but a remarkable number of people respected him and appreciated what he did. Having worked with him for 12 years, I am one who respected him greatly. This is just one of the two bios on him and I suggest readers look for the authorized one by Robert Greenfield called BILL GRAHAM PRESENTS.

John Glatt's story of Bill Graham's journey from a humble immigrant into a legendary promoter reads like a fiction novel. A well documented and enjoyable read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of rock.

Excellent book on the history of concert promotion and exquisitively researched .... John Glatt has a rare gift as a biographer

Despite the closely guarded nature of the MMPI's questions, they're all here--yes, all of them--in an appendix. What were they thinking? Anyway, this is the main reason to buy the book. Crazy, eh? The test is misused quite often anyway.

In a critical area of MMPI-2 interpretation which is often overlooked Butcher, Graham, Williams & Ben-Porath have covered a topical area which serves not only as an adjunct to traditional clinical interpretation, but offers the serious MMPI and MMPI-2 scholar the tools to demonstrate competency in clinical interpretation of the MMPI-2 Personality inventory.

Although I found philosophical challenges, (an astute attorney will point out the technical differences between a "test" and an "inventory" -- a "test" has right and wrong answers, an inventory does not), I found the work to be of a generally scholarly nature and a most welcome addition to my bookshelf. The authors did their research, but then what else would be expected from the primary author, Butcher, who has previously spent time in remote rural areas giving MMPI's to members of serpent-handling religious cults?

I was impressed with the thoroughness of the volume. Four stars in lieu of five, only because of some terms which were used are not consistent with appropriate terminology for traditional psychometrics, and an error found in a technical aspect of the work (information available on request.)

This volume should be required reading for psychologists who desire to demonstrate competence in use of the MMPI-2. However, the MMPI remains, in my opinion, the instrument of choice and one or more of the authors have certainly contributed to that assessment instument as well.

It should be pointed out that throughout the development/revision of the MMPI into the current MMPI-2 it was reported the changes were made, in part, because of antiquated wording. However, the authors reveal the MMPI-2 revision retained the original wording for item 369. Go figure. Worse yet, that item seems to also inappropriately substitute the word "feeling" for what is actually, fairly clearly, a "belief". The revision was developed by a team of psychologists, whom the authors could have pointed out should have "known better."

Overall however, an excellent reference for the competent psychological clinican. The quality and research behind this publication is apparant.

JD #30

This book has excellent ideas to get you to think long term about marketing and position. There are specific suggestions for attracting and retaining customers. HOWEVER, if you own the original Magnet Marketing, don't be fooled into thinking the New Magnet Marketing has new concepts. In fact, it is the EXACT SAME book with a few words changed to update it. ALL the chapters, concepts, etc... are virtually word for word the original Magnet Marketing. If you never read the original, you can use this. If you have the original, don't bother.

Graham's "fast-track strategy" may not "put your company on top" but it CAN help you and your associates to answer key questions such as these:

1. What are the major differences between sales and marketing? Why are these differences so important to understand?

2. Why are most traditional selling strategies and skills no longer effective?

3. How can we identify the largest market of prime prospects to buy what we sell?

4. What are the most effective strategies for press relations? (That is, what are the best ways to maximize publicity for our company?)

5. How can newsletters, brochures, and direct mail be used to maximum advantage?

6. Exactly what is segmented database marketing? What its unique functions, features, and benefits?

7. For those with limited resources, what are the most effective Internet strategies to consider?

8. What are the major obstacles to "creative thinking"? How can they be overcome?

9. What are Graham's 17 "Laws"?

10. What are his "Ten Commandments for Losing Customers"?

Graham offers sensible answers to all of these questions. What I find remarkable is the fact that, after accumulating more than 30 years of real-world experience in both sales and marketing, Graham seems to have concluded that most of the "lessons" (ie "Commandments") he learned are either wrong or inadequate. (See Chapter 2, "Challenging the Traditional Wisdom.") He has assembled a "How to Do It" manual in which he examines the wide range of subjects indicated by the 10 questions previously listed. Graham's use of the magnet metaphor is apt because it correctly suggests the importance of both attracting customers and keeping them. In this book, he explains HOW.

Safe Return Doubtful is a very interesting and well-written book, but suffers from the common disease of polar writing: glorification of suffering. The British being the true pioneers in the field of needless suffering, the book naturally emphasizes the British view of the polar expeditions. As a consequence, Amundsen is villified and Scott glorified, for example. Strangely, the book doesn't discuss the greatest, most heroic, polar expedition-Shackleton's attempt to cross Antarctica.

All in all, this is a worthwhile read if you are a polar exploration buff.

To write a book which covers the expansive history of polar exploration is a large undertaking. This book does this that. With a sometimes dim view of successes, the author methodically covers the major polar explorations of both the North and the South Poles. Although Graham can sometimes miss the glory of what some people did, Shackelton's Endurance expedition and Amundsen's Northwest Passage voyage, he does give a great overview of some of the lesser known facts of Polar exploration. If you are looking for a good place to start in learning about Polar explorers this is a good place to start

I'm a senior in college, and I have read many textbooks by many authors. Through all that studying, only a handful of books have ever stood out in my mind as "exceptionally good" or "exceptionally bad" for whatever reason.

Well, I am sorry to say that this book more than any other has stood out as "exceptionally bad" because of 1) its horrendous, awkward phraseology, and 2) its unnecessarily lengthy explanations of most concepts. Because of these shortcomings, it routinely took me much too long to read even a few pages, and when I was finally finished, I disappointedly discovered that I hadn't even learned that much about international marketing. It's like reading an essay from a student who is just trying to fill up space or impress his professor with length, while compounding his error with poor style.

On the other hand, there is a lot of good information in the text, for which it received a star. There are several charts, black and white pictures, and some supplementary material as well.

I used his book as an MBA student 15 or so years ago. Now as an adjunct professor, I am using this newest edition in my undergraduate classes. Although my observation may be biased, the book is a bit too encyclopedic, a bit superficial in coverage, and fails to excite the students. I wish it were more up-to-date.

I am a Professor of International Marketing and have used this book and the previous editions for 10 semesters. Compared to the competition, this book is definitely the best in the field. It is well written and researched and gives the reader a solid foundation in the major topics of IM. The instructor support materials are excellent and I highly recommend them, particularly the video series. If you are a new professor teaching IM for the first time, the instructor's manual, powerpoint slides, test bank, and videos are a godsend! The Country Notebook described in the book is a great semester-long team project and really reinforces the content of each chapter. I will continue to use this book for a long time!

DC has reissued Batman: Contagion in the wake of it's mega-successful No Man's Land collections, and it serves as a good reminder of just WHY the Batman books needed to be shaken up so drastically in the first place...

Contagion revolves around an outbreak of "The Clench", a fictional Ebola offshoot, in Gotham City. Batman and company attempt to contain the spread of the Disease, while trying to track down a trio of survivors of a previous Clench outbreak, with the hope of synthesizing a cure/vaccine from their blood.

The book is very choppy, especially the first chapter, which appears to be heavily trimmed from it's original presentation in Batman: Shadow of the Bat. DC hasn't taken any steps to make their collections new-reader friendly, either, which could be a very big mistake. Longtime readers will know Oracle, Azrael, Nightwing, The Huntress, etc.; A new reader browsing this in a store would no doubt put the book right back on the shelf. The story has a few compelling moments, but for the most part it seems unnecessarily padded. Did we really need the Native American tracker? What did Biis contribute to the story? The writing is average at best; Most of the stories in Contagion were written by people who had long since overstayed their welcome on the Bat-books, such as Doug Moench & Alan Grant; The art ranges from okay to sub-par; Kelley Jones' chapter seems especially ugly thanks to poor color reproduction which mars his intricate pencils. The ultimate revelation of who is behind the spread of The Clench is sure to be a head-scratcher to new readers, since no background at all is offered to explain who these people are and what their motives are. DC really needs to get on the ball with their trade-paperback program; Preaching to the Choir is nice, but they need to try for new converts. Junk like Contagion is NOT the way to expand their readership......

In this history you can see a different Batman, one that found something he cant't fight. There was a virus and he can not trap it or take it to the justice. You can see a different Batman, not necesesary a dark one but a human,a man. I enjoyed it a lot!

I cannot believe why some people do not like "Contagion". Like Knightfall, Knightquest, KnightsEnd, Prodigal, and Cataclysm & No Man's Land, "Contagion" is an awesome book. It has Poison Ivy (drool), Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Huntress, Azrael, Catwoman, Oracle, Commissioner Gordon, the Penguin, and many other supporting characters like Alfred and Ariana.

This book is written for a three year old. It is overpopulated with very distracting symbols and not a heck of a lot of useful information.

Congratulations, John R. Graham! While other writers concentrate on technics about persuasion, closing sales, presentation skills, motivating yourself, etc. you reminded me that the natural way to get clients and orders is by first having the prospects recognize that you are the most competent person to meet their ACTUAL problems.

Whenever you study the normal quick ways that companys try to "produce" clients, your advices are the best that could really help them. It certainly helped me. May be this is so because I allready tended to see it your way. But not as sharp and convincing as you showed me.

Maybe other readers - or you, the author - would like to share their experiences with the "203 ways" with me: Ulrich M. Tietz, Augsburg, Germany: umtietz@vossnet.de

This is one of the worst technical books I have ever had the misfortune to purchase. The book contains typos in command line examples, very poor use of font and face changes, really cheesy ASCII art "illustrations", some of which are actually broken over two pages. The information presented does not really leave the reader enlightened although one could perhaps suggest this is a problem with the reader....

Overall, the book has it all - poor content and exceedingly poor presentation.

Specific examples of errors:

* Fig 8.1 broken over two pages

* Paragraph 8.3 contains the phrase "to the printer scribe." with no indication that "scribe" is a proper name as opposed to some imagined printer part.

* page 125 includes an example of a command wherein the option "-P" should be "-p"

The book is riddled with these kinds of problems.

Yes, this is 2.0 history, but I liked this book & still use it.
It was one of the few books I kept on my "active" shelf.
The author also writes (wrote?) lots of great Unix magazine articles. "RIP". my old friend book.