I enjoyed the content of this book greatly. The term "assessement center" often has an enigmatic aura and is intimidating to the inexperienced. This book breaks down the components of an assesment center, defines what personal qualities are evaluated, gives the reasons for such evaluations, and offers suggestions as to how one can develop the evaluated qualities and skills. If you're looking for a way to "beat" the assessment center, look elsewhere - here you will find honest counsil on how to improve your leadership abilities.

One complaint, however, is that there are grammatical and typographical errors to the level of distraction. There were so many, in fact, that the book's credibility came into question for me.

I can't believe that no one has spoken about this book yet. If you wanting to know about assessment centers, than this one is for you. I have purchased several books in this field and this one is the best. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another addition.

This is a good supplement to "AI - A Modern Approach by Russell and Norvig". The students and myself found the examples and illustration to be of great value in the understanding of the concepts. Would be great if authors could links references on the web for more information. Good book for the delivery of AI at foundation level.

Suppose you are, like me, a software engineer who never actually studied CS beyond junior level undergraduate 'data structures'... and now you have to work on something involving complicated pattern matching... this is how to do it: buy this book and Sipser's on the Theory of Computation. After digesting them (which is easy if you're as good with logical mathematics as the typical software engineer), you should be able to read current literature in either field, and will have a deep, fundamental understanding of how to best solve whatever problem you're working on. That's what worked for me, anyway. An excellent book, as is Sipser's.

Having purchased this book as a supplement to Winston's course at MIT, I can very highly recommend it as a very comprehensive, up-to-date, well written text summarizing the field. The book covers essentially all of the topics pertenant in modern AI with enough detail for a complete implementation without being overly technical. I strongly recommend it to anybody looking to build intelligent systems or to anybody simply perusing the field for abstract ideas.

Obviously the authors know a lot about Hawaii, but very little about other places.

First of all, the capture of Hawaii would significantly alter US strategy beyond imagination. The war in Europe would be shut down to life support level. In other words, just enough effort to save face, not a nationwide effort.

That would prolong the war in Europe, to say the least. Germany may even end up as the ultimate winner in this scenario.

Second, Americans will not wait until 1945 to recapture the island. They will arrive, as fast as possible. Recapturing Hawaii would be the first priority.

Third, the ending is too unreal to comment. The Hawaiian collaborator "King" would be sent to the mainland, given a mock trial, and imprisoned for life just like Noriega.

Obviously the authors have seen very little world outside Hawaii.

This fictional history was written by two college history teachers who sat down one afternoon and asked each other the question, "what would have happened had Admiral Nagumo NOT turned his fleet around on December 7, 1941?"

Ziegler and Patterson (myself) have used historical precedent, and plausible alternative scenarios to extend the war in the Pacific for 3 years, and give it a very different final outcome that will surprise even the most jaded reader.

The book is a look at the history of the Second World War from an alternative perspective. It assumes that small changes in major events can alter the course of history. The basis of this assumption is, of course, the historian's axiom: there is no inevitability. The authors begin the book with the sinking of USS Enterprise in the channel to Pearl Harbor, and the destruction of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's oil reserves, thus leaving Hawaii and the Pacific essentially undefendable. Recognizing this (as he did, in reality, 6 months after the attack on Pearl) Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku orders the invasion of the Hawiian Islands - and the Imperial Japanese Army is successful. The key point: how would that have changed the war.

To answer this question, the authors spend time on personal, operational, and theater-wide issues and actions. The politics of the Great Pacific War, the passions of the people involved, and the difficulties of soldiers on both sides of the lines, are explored, always with an eye to history. Everything in this book is based on events that did happen - usually elsewhere in the Pacific - and not on far-fetched scenarios. There is no time travel here, no death rays. Just good old fashioned history applied to a what-if scenario.

It is a great read, and has done well in Hawaii among veterans of WWII, contemporary service-people, and locals of all walks of life. It is a book which will make you think twice about the War in the Pacific, and the roles of the two major players, Japan and the United States.

This book is fascinating, and a definite keeper, on many levels. First off, the book gives you a very accurate look into the history of the Hawaiian islands from the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by greedy American businessmen (a little known fact that is very much overlooked in the annals of history), to the rise of the sugar plantations which led to the import of thousands of indentured immigrant (Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, etc) workers during the 1800s and 1900s to, of course, the fateful bombing of December 7, 1941.

The most fascinating part about this book is the "alternative" history it presents. The primary question posed by this book is "What if Japan had conquered Hawaii following Pearl Harbor?" The fictional events presented in this book are shockingly real possibilities once you examine the evidence (which the book does).

The story unfolds creatively through three dynamic viewpoints: Vignettes, Views and Vistas. Vignettes are events that are told in third person which give an immediate telling of events. Views are events told from first hand viewpoint through the eyes of four fictional members of an American-Japanese family over the course of three generations. Finally, Vistas are the broad historical view of events as presented by a fictional modern day history professor as he presents a lecture series. Collectively, these unique views give a very powerful presentation of the real events that led up Pearl Harbor and the fictional events that very well could have took place in the alternate history.

Overall, the story covers a span of over 100 years from the 1860s when the first immigrant workers arrived in Hawaii till the 1960s. You'll be amazed by the stories that Ziegler and Patterson portray. Plus, you'll learn a good deal of Hawaiian history. The images that they paint are often times horrifying and disturbing and very graphic.

As the book cover says, imagine the following:

1.Diamond Head Crater as a POW camp?

2.Comfort women in Waikiki for Japanese soldiers?

3.Popular beaches teaming with landmines?

4.The restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom?

Overall, the book is a fascinating read. The political games played by the Japanese to manipulate and control the population are a fascinating read. The military events (campaigns, guerrilla warfare, atrocities committed against POWs) are both griping and horrifying. You'll be glued to the book.

However, be forewarned, you may find some portions of this book to be very controversial (politically speaking). Also, some of the graphic descriptions of war and its horrors are not for the faint of heart. If you can get past these though, I guarantee you'll be entertained (and educated) by this book.

Highest Recommendation.

If this tour de force were a short story, part of a collection, I'd have liked it better. It's too light-weight to take seriously as a separate publication. Jonathan Noel, the main character, is a timid and tidy man who has lived in the same 11 x 7 room for thirty years. One morning he opens the door to his room and finds a pigeon sitting there. This leads to total disruption in his predictable life, his personal unraveling, and his decision to live elsewhere for a few days. If you can identify with this, you are a better person than I!

Located in contemporary Paris, "The Pigeon" is the story of an incident. A dull Frenchman discovers one day the unexpected presence of a pigeon in front of the small roomm he inhabits. This minuscule and seemingly irrelevant event adopts terrifying proportions in the mind of the man, becoming a grotesque nightmare.

As a master of allusion and obsession, Suskind reveals once more, in this parable of everyday life, his gift for building a metaphor of the existential background of humans. It shows that our life usually holds to rutines so fragile, that a simple disturbance may force us to rethink everything from the start. It is a short book, but an intriguing and absurd tale. The absurd, seems to say Suskind, is present in the most simple things that happen every day.

Patrick Suskind's The Pigeon is a melancholy tale of one man's struggle to cope with a small change in his beloved daily routine - the appearance of a pigeon (and its accompanying foulness) in the hallway of his apartment building. The pigeon's appearance begins a chain of misfortunes throughout the day, as the man (a bank security guard) attempts to calm himself.

Less then half of the book is about the life or philosophy of this great thinker. More then half the book is leftist propaganda disguised as objective reasoning obviously intended to indoctrinate the novice - its intended audience. One example should suffice. Margaret Thatcher is made to say: "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." Machiavelli then responds: "Nothing I ever wrote was worse - this is a republican nightmare and a sure recipe for social and political disaster!" If you do not recoil from this exchange then you have already been indoctrinated. Quickly pick up John Locke or the Federalist Papers to recover. Then help the young readers of this book recover.

I picked this up from a sorting shelf this afternoon, and I am very very glad I did so. This book introduces you to Machiavelli's life and ideas, and then deftly compares his writings to contemporary and recent history. The "running commentary" by Machiavell is fascinating. It's opened my eyes to just how switched-on Machiavelli was, and how earnest and well-intentioned. I'm definitely going to be reading more about Machiavelli - indeed, this book was so good I'm considered changing out of science and into arts to pursue the topic more closely!

I knew very little about Machiavelli before reading this amusing illustrated book. I had heard many 'negative' remarks about him, but just like Nietzsche, Machiavelli is not at all that simple. A fascinating character with much to say that is still quite relevant to our world today. I will definitely go on to read Machiavelli's books. The cartoon sequence featuring Mussolini and Gramsci in a dialog moderated by old Nick was great. Go out and get this book!

I found this hard going at first - probably because I skipped numbers 4 and 5 and ended up feeling a little bit behind. Still, it was concise and helpful.

This is an excellent book which provides an extensive insight into British politics in the run-up to next general elections.It is a continuation of 'Developments in British Politics' series and it is particularly helpful if the previous series are read as well.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

I bought this book to do some studying on my own. I bought this book because it said it was a workbook and figured I could spend a night or two and get up to speed, but there are no answers in the back, so I am rather disapointed. The text portion is good. It is a lot nicer reading than the official ANSI 14.5 book! I recommend the text portion, but the workbook portion is about useless without the answers. I see in the preface that there is a separately available teachers guide with the answers, so buy that one instead if you aren't in a classroom environment.

This book is a great introduction for anybody who is interested in the historical development of the rosary. The author does a good job of simply laying out the historical facts of the rosary's development, and does not allow his Catholic beliefs to influence his interpretation of those facts too heavily. Each chapter has a concise summary that provides the audience with a good review of the most important points of that particular section of the book.

The first three chapters are perhaps the most important sections of the book as the author does a great job of dispelling Catholic myth about the origins of the rosary. Here, we learn of the gradual development of the rosary from the counting beads of the early Christian monks, to the evolution of the Paternoster "cord" of the Middle Ages, and the gradual replacement of the "Our Father" prayer with the "Hail Mary" prayer in the 13th to 15th centuries. The third chapter in particular is a fantastic overview of how, during the 16th century, many different forms of the rosary were unified into one universal form, popularized, officially recognized by the Catholic Church, and solidified into the rosary that modern Catholics would recognize today.

Given the scholastic achievement of the first three chapters, the readers of this book will probably not be too impressed with the rest of the book. In the later parts of this work, Gribble describes how later Popes, priests, and events helped to increase popular devotion to the rosary. He also outlines the evolution of the rosary in European art, and the use of prayer beads in other world religions. Though these later chapters are interesting, they are nowhere near as important and informative as the first three for the person who is trying to learn more about the rosary. The first three chapters alone make this book a great purchase and addition to your library.

McCormick does more than present a history of U.S. Presidential elections; rather, he analyzes the varying "rules" which defined what he terms the "Presidential Game" over the first century. He argues that the development of political parties, though not specified in the Consitution, became a necessary result of the "game" which developed. An interesting, although sometimes repetitive, text.