History is usually written by the victor, or at least from the victor's perspective. To some extent this is unfortunate, since historical "truth" requires a balanced perspective. If one is truly interested in understanding the American Revolutionary War, then one must actively seek out the perspective of the losing side. That is why books like, Piers Mackesy's The War For America, 1775-1783, David Syrett's The Royal Navy in American Waters, 1775-1783 & Edward Cashin's The King's Ranger are so important. The first two put our revolution in overall geopolitical perspective from the British point of view. The latter focuses exclusively on the often neglected "southern campaign". With the excitement generated by the 1999 movie, "The Patriot", this book is re-released at an opportune moment. While the beginning and ending portions focusing on Thomas Brown's pre- and post-american life, respectively, are somewhat dry and could stand more judicious editing, the central meat of the book is an excellent and scholarly contribution to the study of the American Revolutionary period. In this book we gain insight into the significant role of tories in America as well as the american indian contribution to the campaign in the south. We learn what happened to most tories after their cause was lost and come to realize just how close we came to being on the losing side. This is a scholarly work of history, portions require concerted effort and concentration to wade through. However, the "pearls" contained within, particularly in the central portion, are well worth the effort.

This is the first collection of Sowell's newspaper columns, with selected pieces spanning from 1977 to 1981. Sowell covers the gamut of subjects from race, politics, law, foreign policy and the social scene. As Sowell says in the introduction, the goal of these short essays was to "hit the nail on the head, not overwhelm scholarly critics with tables, graphs, and equations." And hit the "nail on the head" is exactly what he does, in column after column, bringing his insight as an economist to a whole range of topics.

The book is a fascinating read, much like opening a time capsule, as Sowell comments on then-current events like the resignation of UN Ambassador Andrew Young, the Bakke decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty, the gasoline shortage, and the near-ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. On the other hand, it's frustrating to read an old essay on rent control, knowing that over twenty years later, almost no political progress has been made on an issue that has been settled for decades before the first time Sowell writes about it.

It's hard to pick out a favorite among all the gems in this collection. The best ones are incisive and educational. For example, the title essay, "Pink and Brown People", refers to the lack of accuracy in discussions about race and goes on to make excellent, fact-rich comparisons between present day ghettos and those of the nineteenth century. One can also clearly see the beginnings of Sowell's "Visions" concept, which was later fully developed in "A Conflict of Visions" as well as two later books.

Unfortunately, this book is out of print as I write this. If you are a fan of Sowell's, keep an eye out for a used copy. It's worthy addition to one's libraray.

An illuminating miniature on a legendary house that was almost destroyed by the New England hurricane of 1938 and succumbed to fire in 1973. It was NeutraÕs grandestÑand most unlikelyÑcommission: a summer house for a famous Rhode Island family on Fishers Island. John Nicholas Brown picked Neutra after seeing the MoMA exhibition on modern architecture that included the Lovell Health House. Neumann, a professor of architecture at Brown University, recently curated an exhibition on the house that may eventually be shown in LA. Meanwhile we can enjoy his entertaining account of how the patrician client and progressive architect corresponded and faced off, and the camel that resulted from the collaboration of this odd couple. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

I have to agree with previous reviewers, this book DOES cover quite a bit. From DHTML to IIS Applications, but it has to be considered a beginner to intermediate book on Web programming in VB6. Even though the long-term viability of Web Classes is under question, the utter lack of any quality material on the ONE thing Microsoft touts as "Web" enabled in VB6 is extremely disappointing for a book so expensive. You can debug problems with your objects in VB6 with WebClasses that you can't perform with an ASP page and a compiled dll. Do they even mention this? No.

For the interested, you can find most of the material discussed in this book by simply looking on MSDN or other web sites for articles on the subjects you're interested in. With multiple authors, that's all you will get out of this book, anyway.

I rated this 5 stars because it has the most useful writeup on writing Server Components in VB for use with ASP - chapters 9-11. I wanted to do this and had trouble getting working samples and explanations. I feel that industrial strength ASP is very ugly and unweildy if you don't encapsulate the code into components. MSDN has lots of reference material about this but little, if any, useful "how to" stuff that i could find.

This book showed me how to do exactly what i wanted to do.

Other than that, it is a good introduction into a good number of web concepts, old and new. The first 3 chapters were a good overview of Microsoft web concepts and techniques. The writeup on web classes, if you like them, is good. I really liked the CGI case study including how to implement standard input/output via the win32 API.

The relatively free use of various win32 API functions in VB help overcome a general fear of mixing VB and CC++ functionality.

The book was a bit large but was well organized. In general it gave me a much higher opinion of Wrox books.

Having purchased many other WROX books, I was eagerly awaiting this one for a current project. When it arrived I read through it like a mad man. Soaking up everything I possibly could. The examples are very clear and there are plenty of them! It covers everything from IIS, ASP and ADO to RDS, SQL, DHTML, MTS and WebClasses. All in one book! Plenty of examples with detailed descriptions and tables explaining the various methods for each function. I definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about using VB6 for web development.

I was thrilled when I first came across this book, someone finally did a price guide for the kind of LP's I was collecting. Unfortunately the book didn't turn out to be all I was hoping for when I bought it. It is useful as a discography for the artists listed and seems very complete in that respect but I wish it contained more and better examples of classic LP cover art and more biographical information on the artists. I suppose this may be asking too much from a price guide type book. But even as a price guide this book seems a bit off. Although there are exceptions, almost all of the records are listed as being worth $3-5 or $7-10. Now as a collector I think it would be great if record dealers would adopt this as their official pricing guideline, but if you are buying these type albums anywhere besides your local thrift shops you are probably forced to pay more than that for these records, sometimes a LOT more ( at least that has been my experience). In fairness, I guess it wasn't too long ago that you could pick most of these records up for under a buck almost anywhere, but original LP's of lounge and space age bachelor pad music seem to be going for premium dollars these days and a recent price guide should more accurately reflect that. BOTTOM LINE on this book...Should you buy a copy if you are into this type of music? Yes! by all means. While this book does miss the mark a bit (in my opinion) there is precious little information published about this type of music and this book is one of very few available on the subject. While I was initially somewhat dissappointed when I first read the book I have gone back to it on numerous occasions to look something up and I am glad to have it on my shelf. The discography type information alone is worth the price of the book and there is a bunch of other pertinent information included which is also useful (websites, etc.).Most of the book is taken up by the price listings but I did enjoy reading the text that is there and found it informative as well. Now if I could just convince my local record dealers to sell me those Esquivel and Three Suns albums at this book's prices.

Anticipating a great catalogue and price guide for lounge music, I was somewhat disappointed in this publication. Too much page space is given to the discography and price listing and too little to a beautiful presentation of the covers which are so essential to this style of music. All the good stuff(photos and text) inhabits verticle strips on the edge of the pages. The covers are poorly printed with a dull look. The pricing seems pedestrian and not detailed enough. Too bad because the list of artists is large and largely accurate. Sort of a 70% effort.

This volume is cleverly as composed as the best of lounge entertainment

I can't believe the number of reviews on this site that compared the book to Design Patterns from GOF. If you bought it expecting the same, write yourself the one-star review. This book does have some problems, but it really does a whole lot of things very well.

- It's easy, and fun, to read. The authors expertly inject humor and life into a dead topic. A dull book with good ideas will rot on the shelf.

- It provides a fresh, new angle that has value. We programmers do not learn enough from war stories told around the water cooler.

- It provides the other side of the design pattern. You really do need both, and this industry needed someone to take a stab at creating a template for antipatterns. Consider health care. You need diagnostics and preventative care. Ditto for auto maintenance. Operations research has been built around building models that work while trouble shooting the kinks in a system. The authors did a noble job of seeing the vacuum and stepping up to fill it.

I find it incredible that this book has been slammed for something that it does not pretend to be. If you wrote a one star review because this book was not the second coming of the Design Patterns book, then shame on you. What you will get is a humerous look at some very real problems around software development. The bias is clearly toward project management, and that is a appropriate for a first book on antipatterns. That much was clear to me from browsing the book for a minute or two. Great job, team.

If I had a criticism, it would be that the contributions from the four authors were not better coordinated. After writing two books with two additional co-authors each, I can testify that it is a difficult problem to solve. Still, better coordination could have helped. Five stars for the writing style and the concept. That's why this book is a smashing success.

Perhaps the title of this book is unfortunate, given the fact that those who have posted bad reviews here seem to have expected it to be an extension of the GoF Design Patterns book. (In which case they would have been better off with the GoV A System of Patterns book.) All such expectations aside, however, this book is an enjoyable guide to project management that is well worth reading. As for the criticism that it is nothing more than common sense packaged as wisdom, I would argue that common sense is nothing more than applied wisdom, and the common sense this book aims to teach is sadly lacking in too many companies today (hence the existence and popularity of Dilbert).

BTW, the reviewer who attributed the quote, "there is nothing new under the sun" to Shakespeare might be amused, given the nature of the quote itself, to find that it was originally written by Solomon (in Ecclesiastes 1:9), quite some time prior to Shakespeare! There is nothing new, indeed.

AntiPatterns: Worth it just for the shear fun of it.

I have never enjoyed reading about the foibles of software development and software project management than reading the AntiPatterns book.

Not only does this book tell you about a number of AntiPatterns, but you also get Patterns or refactored solutions to deal with the AntiPatterns.

I just skimmed the introductory chapters, so I could get to the meat of the book: the AntiPatterns. As you read through them, you will be nodding your head. Quite a number of them are just plain common sense. However, if you have not "Been there, done that", you will truly appreciate them.

I also like the fact they have AntiPatterns at all levels of Software Development. From the Blob: a CLASS that does it ALL, to the CORNCOB: the individual who says: "We must use CORBA". This book will be useful for all participants from the developer to the Project Manager.

I congratulate the authors on an informativ! e and entertaining book!

Folks use your common sence and save the 12 bucks on this one. This book would be good for any one under 16, but for even the
most sheltered adult this book will be a waste of your time. Good Luck

A general summary of how to start and run a store, almost common sense. Not very use full in terms of marketing and customer service. Based on an 'American' way of running a large size store instead of a boutique store.

This book provided a good overview for some one looking to get started in the retail business. I would caution readers that much of the information is directed more towards a retail business that will be located in a mall setting, not necessarily a stand-alone or downtown located specialty or boutique shop. With that in mind, it certainly provided good personal advice and insight.

An easy skim which serves as a decent reminder of the importance of SCM. It highlights some areas for attention, and provides some tips. Most of the scenarios should be familiar. Its usefulness is that it may reach a broader audience than a textbook, so you can pass it around for discussion.

Sometimes a book only confirms the things you already knew, either consciencly or subconsciencly. This is not necessarely bad. I you run into a customer that violates every good practice that you're aware of, you can use the book to convince your customer that he's wrong and you're right. After all, all good ideas look a lot more impresive when they are printed.

Apart from that, it's fun reading.

Sequels are tough. The original AntiPattern book was light, funny, and right on the mark. It was a tough act to follow. This offering, that shares a couple of the same authors as the original AntiPattern books, falls short.

There is a hint from the authors themselves that this isn't a seminal work. The preface tells readers they can hunt for their particular antiPattern but "We suggest that it is better for you to read through the entire book now (it's not that thick)". Indeed it is not. At just over 300 pages, it is formatted such that about 1/3 of that space is either blank or large cartoons and pictures. So, while it might appear to have the same "heft" as the original, looks are deceiving.

The book suffers from two major problems: a lack of depth and poor editing. The original antiPatterns book is cited no less than 18 times in this work. Borrowing from past efforts and quoting yourself isn't necessarily bad--but it isn't a substitute for new material. Curiously, Steve McConnell (Code Complete, Rapid Development, etc.) is quoted almost as many times--far more often it seems than any other reference. There is an entire industry to draw from. Why such emphasis on just two sources?

Finally, the editing is dreadful. Terms and acronyms are introduced without definition and the general flow of the text is awkward much of the time. This book needed an editor!

Because there is so little written on CM from a management perspective I'm inclined to give the work 3 stars instead of my usual 2 stars for a flawed work. While there certainly are problems with this book, they fall mostly into the category of "missed opportunity" instead of erroneous information.

The pace is suspenseful and Brown's prose is as smooth, competent, and professional as could be. But ultimately the book is a huge disappointment. Only the daughter, Judith, comes alive for the reader as an individual. The father, Ben, and mother, Carolyn, never rise above type: she's a cool, rational professional; he's a hotheaded, arrogant artist. But they have little texture or personality beyond that. There is little indication what they ever saw in each other and no sense of their relationship outside of/before the central conflict of the book.

And the son, Jacob, is a cypher. I realize that one of the points of the book may be that we can never know how or why a kid goes bad/goes wrong, but shouldn't the novelist attempt to at least explore some possibilities? But in order to do this, we'd have to know more about this kid than his crime, and we are told very little. Other reviewers have fixated on the animal abuse and "molestation" of his sister (it's not clear he was even old enough at the time to qualify as a molester, but leave that aside for now) but even these are so sketchy as to not be particularly enlightening.

And the parents themselves--despite the pages and pages of introspection--seem unbelievably shallow and lacking in the most basic of questions. Consumed as they are with what they should do next, they never once ask themselves "how did this happen?" "is this my fault?" or even such niggling little questions as "why didn't I know my son had a girlfriend?" I find this hard to believe. . .

Finally, the book does not deliver the emotional goods. As a parent, the idea of having to face this kind of tragedy/dilemma should have had me quaking and crying, but instead I just felt annoyed at the characters and irritated at the author. One never really *feels* the love and guilt that are supposedly driving these characters, making feeling any empathy for them very difficult.

I am halfway through reading this book and am stunned at the similarities between it and Judith Kelman's "After the Fall". In Kelman's book, a New England couple are stunned when their teenage son is accused of attacking a neighborhood girl. The mother is a doctor; the father is more of a house husband, and they have a preadolescent daughter, too....the same cast of characters as in "Before and After"! The simliarities don't end there....as the couple struggle to cope with the accusations, they are faced with neighborhood gossip, harassing phone calls and a lot of unanswered questions from their uncooperative son. I feel as though I am reading the same exact book for the second time!

Brown says, "I take very seriously the idea that novelists raise questions and don't necessarily answer them," and that "Novels are where we learn what it feels like to be someone else, where we learn to be patient with ways of looking at things that are not our own." (These quotes are from an interesting overview of the writer at ..., which is a great source for all sorts of literary stuff.) I think that some of the readers on this page need to keep this approach in mind before dismissing the book because they don't like the characters. I think Brown would say they're missing the point.

What was most notable about this book to me was that the situation is so ghastly, you can't imagine how you'd deal with it. I liked the way the main characters reacted so differently, and that the father did something that seems as terrible as the son, and yet, while you want to slap him and tell him to snap the hell out of it, you have to recognize the emotional truth of his reaction. Some readers seem to want a clear-cut resolution, but to do so would immeasurably flatten the book and diminish the power of the story. For instance, in writing off the son as an irredeemable creep while lauding the daughter's characterization, readers are ignoring her loyalty to her brother, which clearly doesn't spring out of a vacuum.

The characters are extremely flawed and complex, and they get into your brain. You may want to hug them or shake them or yell at them, but whatever your reaction, they seem incredibly alive. Brown's a poet, and some of her descriptions are beautiful if a fair amount of the dialogue, particularly early on, isn't esp. natural; small price to pay for some of the lines, which are beautiful, simple, and true. Good book, and a fast read as it's extremely compelling.

I studied out of 7 different preparation books, and this one, by far is the worst one! The questions in this book are really difficult, tricky and unlike the CLEP exam! The questions in the actual CLEP exam arent tricky like the SAT or GRE, they are straightforward. For some reason, Peterson's has decided to put in SAT-like questions on their practice exam. This book should be thrown out of the market because its NOTHING like the real exams! I would recommend Princeton Review's Cracking the CLEP, and Review for Clep Examination by Comex Systems. The REA also writes really accurate practice exams. If you are taking English, I also recommend you purchase "The Writer's Reference" by Diana Hacker. That was probably the most helpful book in brushing up on your English.

I found the practice exercises in this book to be very helpful, and I did really well when I took the CLEP afterwards.

Looking to maximize my ability on the CLEP tests to avoid taking numerous classes that I have no interest in. If you'd like to get practice on these tests, than this book may help.