My dad was a Studebaker dealer and I grew up reading everything I could about the company. Following them through the early to mid fifties was agony. This is a very detailed description of their rise, near demise, and eventual failure. Excellent history and nostalgia. Actually a bit sad but I could not put it down.

Explores the nature of the company rather than just the products. The insights are revealing and the style is engaging. The lessons from this study can be applied to the success and failures of the other American automotive manufacturers. It is valuable for both the automotive enthusiast as well as the student of management and business.

"Enemies of the State" provides a riveting look into the slave-labor prisons of the Communist world during several decades of the 20th century. It brings history alive to a whole new generation of Americans who may be only vaguely aware of the oppression, torture and viciousness imposed on their countrymen by totalitarian leaders like Stalin, Mao, and Castro. The book contains 10 first-person accounts by people who spent years wrongfully imprisoned in slave-labor camps. Very much like the first-person accounts of Jews held in German concentration camps during the Holocaust, "Enemies of the State" also includes historical background and explanations of the political themes of the times. The book is factual and compelling for anyone over the age of 12. It is a great resource for high school or college students, and teachers and college professors. The general public will also find this book to be fascinating reading, although it is not for anyone with a weak stomach. The tortures and degradations described in the book are beyond imagination, but they are real and are presented in painful and vivid detail. Anyone with a love of history, however, will find this book to be an important addition to their library. I highly recommend it for youths and adults, and I especially encourage home schoolers to consider including this book in their studies.

University Profs take note: Although I had to read this book because I was in the author's class at Baylor, it really is a good introductory book. Dr. Mungello is one of the world's top Sinologists and did his graduate work at the U. of California at Berkeley and I am privelaged to be one of his students.

Half of the book is focused at the West meeting China, and the other half is China meeting the West. It answers the questions: What did the West reject and accept from China? What did China accept and reject from the West?

Dr. Mungello has done a great job in presenting how the (Far) West met with Chinese culture over the period of 1500-1800. This book was written in easy and non-technical language. As a Chinese that has learnt Chinese history all through my school years, I am intrigued to read simialar materials presented from a Western perspective in simple English.

Dr. Mungello noted that the Chinese in Song Dynasty mistook the picture of Virgin Mary as Guanyin (Chinese Goddess of the sea). A three-story high statue given by Portuguese to Macau, China shortly before 1999 was meant to be Guanyin but it certainly looks like Virgin Mary. What went around has come around:) Thanks for writing such a good book and I enjoyed it very much.

I think Mungello has done a wonderful job in reconstructing the meeting between China and the Western world.

If you are the serious reader, historian or educator looking for the political context of WWI, then grab this book. You will read about the Wilsonian politics of non intervention and his arrogant moral & ethical justification of our participation with an ultimate goal of a new world order.

There is lengthy discussion of labor strife, discrimination of minorities and propaganda at home. The economics of war in a changing world according to Keynes is also given some attention. Unschooled readers will be interested in reading about the Alien & Sedition Act, and how the U.S. government responded through law enforcement. Here, J. Edgar Hoover is introduced as the director of the precursor of the FBI.

The last chapter contains an excellent list of political questions to be answered by historians like who is to blame for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles

When one wants a history of how the modern world is shaped, too often it is found in boring academic books or in lurid conspiracy theory language.
This book gives a thoughtful discussion of the whos, whys, and hows of the social policies that aided the idea of population control, with its intended consequences of increasing wealth and security, and its unintended consequences of undermining family life.
For information, I rate it a five. It is a clear and well written discussion of this often controversial topic. Unlike the more politicized books of this nature, it is not an exciting read. However it is clearly written so the average reader would find it helpful.