Prussia gained ascendancy over Austria and thus dominion of Germany through the art of war by one of its ablest commanders, Moltke the Elder. With Austria defeated at the decisive battle of Koniggratz (1866), Prussia stood alone for the coveted leadership of Germany; therefore, when France declared war on Prussia (1870) to prevent German unification, ironically this afforded Prussia the opportunity to fulfill its destiny. Napoleon III intended to cut Prussia off from the southern German republics; however, Prussia called the other German republics to arms, not for defense, but for a joint attack against the French vanguard, in French territory. The French seriously underestimated Prussia's capacity to rapidly deploy its seemingly disparate forces into one cohesive whole. How did Prussia accomplish this epic task? At the strategic level Prussia was able to marshal all of its forces under one central command, but at the tactical level the subordinate commanders were permitted the greatest independence possible to take the initiative (Selbstatigkeit).

Moltke states that if one makes a mistake during the initial deployment, one cannot compensate for it later. As the forces evolve, the error propagates concentrically outward like a chain reaction, jeopardizing the outcome of the entire campaign. The French deployment during the Franco-Prussian war suffered from such deficiencies.

According to Moltke, during the decision phase the commander must champion only one perspective to the green table. Once he has arrived at a decision, although it may not be the best, his subordinates should execute it resolutely. The consistent execution of even a mediocre plan will more often lead to victory (in the long-run) than an inconsistent execution of a great plan; hence, Molke's maxim that 'strategy grows silent in the face of the need for a tactical victory'. Moltke states that only a layman believes that it is possible to foresee and predict causal events deterministically in war.

Moltke counsels commanders with one force just how vulnerable they are to envelopment when they maneuver their force between two opposing formations with 'interior lines' and 'central position'. This appears to be a trivial statement; however, one must realize that 'interior lines' was Napoleon's favorite attack maneuver, which he implemented so successfully against numerically superior but divided forces (See The Campaigns of Napoleon by David G. Chandler). Napoleon I succeeded because he adroitly maneuvered his one force directly, halfway between the two opposing forces, which effectively neutralized his opponents from acting in concert and from supporting one another. Then he would march to attack one of the two, but the other opponent had to march twice as far (to support), hence, Napoleon I could concentrate on defeating the first opponent and then countermarch to defeat the second opponent that arrived too late, thus, his single force fought as well as two. During the Franco-Prussian war, Napoleon III intended to implement a similar maneuver to cut Prussia off from south Germany. First, he hoped to defeat Prussia, alone, which would entice Austria and Italy into forming a triumvirate with him. Then he hoped the triumvirate would attack the south German Confederation.

During the Franco-Prussian war, Prussia was victorious in battle, but as Moltke says, 'at what a cost'. It seems to me that Prussia's losses were rather high, primarily because of their reluctance to change plans and to break off any engagement once it began. Then the 'peoples army' arose like a phoenix in the midst of the vanquished French field armies, which made the consummation of Moltke's final victory elusive. He could not pursue all the remaining military targets; therefore, he just focused on one-Paris. He surrounded the French capital with the preponderance of his remaining forces (150,000) because it was the only strategic option left open to him.

The commander should position himself with his uncommitted reserves to ensure that they are committed where and when they may be of greatest service; he should not be at the front with units already committed. He should send reserves to those areas where the forward units are already nearly winning, thereby, overcoming these areas of resistance faster, with fewer losses by their timely intervention. Secondly, he should endeavor to bolster tenuous positions or those that are in danger of being lost.

The attack has the advantage of dictating the course of events to the defender who must conform to them. The advantages are greater morale and confidence gained through the knowledge of the time and place of the attack. The best method of attack is to envelope the opponent with two forces. First, one must attack the opponent frontally with one force to pin down as much of their main force as possible. Then the second force must attack the opponent's flank. Moltke believed that both the frontal and flank attacks should be performed simultaneously, however, if I were attacking the flank, I would wait until it has been sufficiently denuded, since the opponent will be drawing forces from it to counter the frontal attack (i.e., feint). The flank attack is usually the center of gravity (Schwerpunkt), but the frontal attack may be the center of gravity as well. There should be a reserve element to cover the force attacking the opponent's flank. An example of precisely this method took place during the battle of Koniginhof (Austria, 1866).

This book is a compendium of essays written by v. Moltke that covers many practical aspects of the art of war with historical examples. Many of these methods are just as valid today as they were in 1860. Moltke writes very lucidly with great candor, which is precisely what one would expect of a Prussian Officer.

Count Helmut von Moltke was perhaps the greatest military leader during the period between Napoleon and the First World War. Moltke shaped the way that the German Army looked at war up until 1945. What was important to Moltke was not a set of rules or principles, but rather a way of thinking. Initiative and control were stressed, "when in doubt advance toward the sound of the guns". . . While he had great respect for the Prussian philosopher of war, Carl von Clausewitz, whom he had limited contact with as a young staff officer, Moltke rejected several of Clausewitz's most important concepts, perhaps the most eventful being the place of the military in strategic decisions made during time of war. For Moltke the military should simply be allowed to fight the war to the finish at which time the political leadership would be allowed to negotiate the peace. Clausewitz saw war as the continuation of politics by other means, meaning that political decisions did not end with the commencement of hostilities but continued. The editor of this book mentions several similarities including one that upon closer study is in reality another break between the two outlooks. Referring to Book 6, Chapter 8 of On War, he mentions that Clausewitz wrote, "that all strategic planning rested on tactical success alone, because only tactical successes could produce a favorable outcome." Moltke obviously agreed since he thought, "strategy grows silent in the face of the need for a tactical victory." However if one actually reads that chapter in On War one comes away with a different impression since Clausewitz's view is far more nuanced than that of Moltke. Clausewitz had experienced terrible defeat and great hardship during the struggle against Napoleon, having served with the Russians during the fateful campaign of 1812. It was the experience of that campaign which showed Clausewitz the importance of a Fabian strategy (denying battle, allowing an enemy to exhaust himself through exertion). Thus Clausewitz writes, "One may admit that even where the decision has been bloodless, it was determined in the last analysis by engagements that did not take place, but had merely been offered. In that case, it will be argued, the strategic planning of these engagements, rather that the tactical decision should be considered the operative principle. . . That is why we think it is useful to emphasize that all strategic planning rests on tactical success alone, and that -whether the solution is arrived at in battle or not - this is in all cases the fundamental basis for the decision."

Moltke, during his most successful period, could only see the winning of offensive battles as assuring strategic success. For this reason he developed his strategic sequence which combined mobilization, transportation, deployment, movement and combat into one continuous chain of events. Widely deployed forces would converge at the proper moment and destroy the enemy in a complete or partial envelopment. This worked well in 1866 against the Austrians and in 1870 against the French. His system seemed to promise victory in any war. He had taken the gift of fire from Prometheus and changed its very nature, or so his followers thought. Moltke himself grew more cautious in his later years, suggesting that only a partial success could be achieved in a war against both France and Russia, a political solution would have to be found for the strategic dilemma instead. During the period up to and following the First World War, most German military thinkers followed Moltke's earlier views while giving lip service to Clausewitz. Moltke was the more modern man, the technician of war for the machine age, while Clausewitz was a philosopher, belonging to another time and mode of thinking, or so it seemed.

Professor Hughes' book provides translations of various examples of Moltke's writings. I found Moltke's views on the training and duties of General Staff officers particularly interesting. The editor includes excellent commentary on various German military terms and the ways that they have been translated into English in the past, some rather confusing.

In all I find this book well worth the money and would recommend it to those interested in German military history, 19th Century military history, and military strategy and tactics in general, particularly the evolution of military thought. What seems to be missing is an edition of the works of Sigismund von Schlichting, who as Hughes points out provides the key link between Moltke's theories and modern theory.

The book shows von Moltke to be a prophetic genius. One wonders whether the German generals who joined the French and British in ordering lemminglike frontal assualts during the First World War read his works... he predicted the effectiveness of modern firearms during the 1870s. He also projected the ineffectiveness (or worse) of the United Nations and League of Nations (see page 25). Principles of management include acceptance of responsibility by a single person (p. 26) and delegation to the frontline manager (p. 77). Moltke's advocacy of delegation belies the stereotype of the Prussian Army as mechanistic and rigid. The book contains some echoes of von Clausewitz' "On War," which von Moltke undoubtedly read. Page 22 gives the FULL context of Moltke's infamous statement, "Eternal peace is a dream, and not even a pleasant one." (He continues, "... who can deny that every war, even a victorious one, inflicts grevious wounds on all involved?") -William A. Levinson http://www.pic.net/~wlevinso "The Crisis Manager"

In the immortal words of Darth Vader..."Impressive. Most impressive." I found this book to be not only an excellent resource but also a great read. It touches on every major detail of the droids that it mentions...which is quite a bit. You can read about anything from C-3P0's internal computer to the technical details of the medical droid. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to scratch the surface of Star Wars and dig a little deeper.

This book is a must-have for any Star Wars fan, and explains 100 of the coolest droids. One bad part is, it has no terminology section, like the Weapons and Tech Guide had, for those people who dont know what a Photoreceptor, Vocabulator, or Servomotor is.

This was a great book. I was amazed at all the droids throughout the Star Wars universe. The book was nicley illustrated had great schematics and the text was very discriptive. It also gave a discription of different manufacturers of the droids. However this book was not as good as the planets and moons or guide to characters it still gets a 5 in my book. The droids book completes my set in this collection. I would like to say thanx to Daniel Wallace, Bill Hughes, and Troy Vigil, I hope you will continue to create other Star Wars books in the near future.

Although I was immensely moved by this book, and found the ideas presented thoughtful and compelling, there is a bit of Cinderella-esque fantasy involved. Most certainly Dr. Hughes illustrates the picture and the drama of the unattached child in a clear and concise manner, I would caution parents and would be parents, however, that within the confines of the foster care system, these therapeutic families and incredibly skilled therapists are not usually the norm.It would be my hope that one day every child be afforded the resources available to the fictional Katie Harrison. In the meantime, it does give foster and adoptive parents a roadmap to follow. And although there are cautionary statements throughout the book to indicate that these methods are not always successful, the hope is something to celebrate.Lastly, I hope people recognize that this child is not quite seven when she reaches her therapeutic foster placement and that with each passing year, the task in teaching children how to attach becomes greater. I highly recommend this book as a supplement to a more extensive library on attachment issues.

We are foster/adopt parents and this book was really helpful. It was the first book I read in our venture to foster troubled children. I have in fact read this book twice. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels they need guidance with severely troubled children and their lack of attachment.

Wow! A GREAT book that is an easy, engaging read yet is informative and realistic about how totally messed up kids can be when they get into the foster care system. I know several Katies and, believe me, there is no exaggeration in the behaviors Hughes describes. I've recommended Building the Bonds of Attachment to many people around my office and have handed it to foster parents when i talk to them about working with some of our attachment disordered kiddos. It has opened many eyes to what these kids go through and why they act in the bizarre ways they sometimes do. The skills of the foster parents and therapist described here are unfortunately not the norm--but there are lots of us out here who are learning all that we can and doing all that we can to provide appropriate treatment to these tortured souls. This book was educational, an encouragement, and a source of inspiration to me.

This is a great Star Wars book, but after waiting several years for it, my expectations of it grew huge, hence the 4-star rating.

This book is being released now pretty much to bring all the new Star Wars readers who are starting with the New Jedi Order series up to speed on all the Bantam books and comics, and it does a very good job. Although it does focus just a little too heavily on the movies, that's come to be expected.

But where this book really comes in handy to Star Wars fanatics like me is the little between-the-scenes stuff, filling in details about what was happening politically and in the big picture between the books.

This book is also filled with a bunch of incredible (and a few not-so-incredible) illustrations by Bill Hughes. These illustrate key scenes and characters which we haven't seen before. What this book does not try to do is fill in what was happening day by day like so many online timelines, rather it sticks to a history-textbook like feel so that we get the "whole picture" instead of a bunch of little unrelated incidents.

Also, this is good because Kevin Anderson's writing style and Wallace's previous writing experience are more suited to this. While Anderson's SW novels seemed condescending at times because he made everything too obvious, here that's the point.

I definitely recommend this book to any star wars fan, new or old.

I was really anticipating the release of the Essential Chronology, as I was looking forward to an official effort to define the flow of the often cumbersome Star Wars Universe. I was not disapointed. This book fits all the puzzle pieces together, from KJA's Sith comic books to Episode 1 to Shadows of the Empire and beyond. One of the really helpful aspects to me, is it 'finishes' a lot of stories. The authors were allowed to fill in the gaps, and so we now know what happend AFTER The Truce at Bakura, and just where those awful young adult novels involving Tricolus fit in. As other people have mentioned, the book is very brief in its descriptions, and really leaves out a lot of detail that would be nice to have. This is not to say that the authors skipped massive parts of the expanded universe, just that there are small bits missing. As one reviewer noted, little to nothing of the Rogue Squadron comics were included, while Kevin J Andersons own Tales of the Jedi have entire chapters devoted to them. More than making up for these gripes is the effort put into getting as much major information in as possible. For example, readers of the now defunct Star Wars Adventure Journal may remember the Pentastar Alignment, but how did it form, and what happend to it? Now we have the answers. Also corrected are the discrepencies between the Sith as presented in the Tales of the Jedi, and in Episode 1, and the explination is very interesting, as it also ties in elements from the game Dark Forces II Jedi Knight.While the text can get a bit oppresive if you try to read it through, it works great as a refrence, just look up the period you want to know more about. All in all, I have to say this is a great book, all that is keeping it from the full four stars is the lack of details in some parts, and the attempt to include the young adult books at all, they should have been dropped along with the Ewok movies. Other than that, I would reccomend the purchase of the book, it is quite worth. 4/5.

This is a good book that ties in all the star wars novels and comics. One fault I found with is are minor , but do subtract from the quality of this book. First , lack of illustrations , I would've liked the book to have more , maybe colored illustraions , but defeinatly more. Also , It never really goes into intricate details. It might sumarize a novel for you , but it leaves out some characters and events. And that's what the purpose of this book is: to referesh your memories on all the minor details in the dozens of star wars litereature you read. This should not supplament those books and comics however. I wish the book was longer , with more details. also , most of the X-wing comics are not included , which make me wonder why. I does tie up alot of loose ends though , like the story with Trioculus in it , and who exactly were the other Grand Admirals and what happened to them. But where exactly did the authors get that information. I ve read all the litereature and stories and found nothing on Grand Admiral Syn , or Batch , or Grant. I would like to read it myself. Despite these gripes , this is an excellent book , and I recommend it to any serious star wars fan out there. Great read.

This book advocates the use of coercive restraint AS therapy, among other very questionable practices. "Holding Therapy" is totally unethical. It actaully fits the definition of "torture" in the United Nations Treaty on Torture. It's unbelievable that people would recommend this book.

This book is based on the author's own rendition of science. He cleverly integrates theory and research from several arenas to develop his own, untested, unfounded model of relationships. This is a classic example of pseudoscience and the reader needs to beware. His claims and application of ideas are totally unfounded. How can a desperate parent know the difference between science and pseudoscience? The parent cannot. In essence, books like this just play on the emotions of unsuspecting and needy families.

I have 3 adopted children with attachment problems. I've read many, many books on this subject. Hughes' book, though written primarily for therapists, has been the most helpful to me as a parent. Hughes does a great job of describing unattached children and the treatment therapists and parents need to provide to help children bond. Parents considering adopting older children need to read this book. I wish I'd had this book 10 years ago. The mistakes we could have avoided might have given our children a much better chance at a normal life. I also wish Hughes would include information about strategies for dealing with unattached young children who have become unattached teens.

... The layout of the book was confusing and so where theexamples and explanations. If it where not for a great math teacher Iwould have been lost in the class if I was just left to the book alone. I would recommend students and teachers (if your considering this book for your class) to stay away from it... END

Excellent seller. It arrived much faster than I expected.
Thanks a lot

This book is addressed for understanding of the Calculus and not for the traditional teaching that sins for the excess of formalism. It is an excellent book for who wants to understand and to learn Calculus through the application of problems of the Real World. The book also motivates the use of graphic calculators to have a better vision of the problem.

I have read VBScript Programmer's Reference. I would to congratulate the team who put this book together. Its so well written I was programming within the day. Not just a "Hello World" program but a program of substance that opened files, validated them, wrote events in the event log etc.
The book is easy to follow and the short introduction to programming most useful for non-programmers like me and my team.
Unfortunately, for me, the book will lead to more work for me and my team of technical mainframe support staff converting mainframe legacy JCL to VBScript. I will be ordering two more copies of the book for my team and I am sure that they will gain much from it.
Even after a few days, members of staff from programming teams keep borrowing the book I am now forced to lie about its location (under my desk).
If I had a criticism I would say that Cscript should be covered in a little more detail, but its only minor point and I found the information I was looking for on the Web.

I bought 3 books on VBScript, the others are not bad books but they are written with a rocket scientist in mind and assume that the reader is competent in programming and modern scripting techniques. Thankfully your book saved the day and I actually enjoyed reading it. I get the impression that the team that put it together also enjoyed that task, it seems to come across in the text anyways.

Its a great book.

Although there are many books on scripting, there are only a handful of books about VBScript. Of those that do focus on VBScript, many pages are devoted to server-side web scripting with active server pages, which is amply covered by the many titles on ASP. This book by contrast is current, complete, and packed with chapters about all the cool things you can do with VBScript, including COM objects and how to write your own, regular expressions, HTML applications (*very* cool), ADO, how to build the Script Control into your applications, and yes, ASP. That's the first 500 pages. The remaining 280+ pages are references and appendices that add depth. I have seen no other reference in print or online from Microsoft that goes to these lengths to elucidate what can be done with VBScript.
The writing style is very approachable, and the Wrox Press model of a team of qualified people tackling different topics works very well (11 authors and 7 technical reviewers). These people really know the topics, and the book is well edited. An excellent value.

Subs,procedures, and functions all covered in the book in Chapter 3.

"A reader" doesn't read much! I think Wrox and 1000's of other people who buy may noticed if Subs and Functions missing!

One of best books I buy. But I would like Appendix A (BEST VBScript reference ever!) to be alphabetical - easier to look up, but I love book anyway. I recommend to everyone.

The first half of this text seems be be a bit simple. Many of the problems are confusing at best. The authors are not very clear on what they want. Many students in my class were frustrated by this time and time again. Still other times the questions were way to easy and never really chalanged the students. Basicly the first half does not provied a good solid base for Calculus. The second half is just flat out poorly written. It leaves the students constently scraching their heads wondering what the authors want. Questions are asked in such a way as to not make sence or not to follow the chapters very well. Chapt 7 is very much like this. Bad. The faculty agrees by having to put out an additional book of their own to help provide a better understanding of Trig.
Over all this book needs to be re-thought out. A poor choise for instructors wanting their students to get a solid base so as to takle more advaced math classes.

I like pictures of people on bikes. It makes me feel better because riding mountain bikes is fun. So when I work on functions, I feel happier.

Great book! It is especially good for understanding what different functions do, and how. This is very important for understanding calculus. Great examples, always linking functions with things in real life.

...P>I don't have a Ph.D. from Harvard either, but I should be getting one next year.

I have had to teach an introductory calculus course at Harvard that follows the "Harvard Calculus" treatment that originated with this book (though the course did not use this book). It was awful. It is no easier to teach this course than it is to learn from it. Students need to learn calculus first *before* applying it to the various fields they will study.

In my experience with this text, students either love it or hate it. They hate it because it does not offer a brief overview of the topics, like many more popular calculus text books. Instead "Calculus: Single Variable" requires that a student throughly read many examples as it explains rules and laws along the way. Those who love the text do so because the examples offer a firmer understanding of the concepts at hand, instead of just covering enough material to answer the questions at the end of each section. Although this is a very good text book, it definitely requires patience on behalf of the reader, and may not be the book for students who just want to slide by.

This book was used for my Fall 2002 Calculus III (multivariable) class. We used the last section of the book, chapters 12-19. I was able to review old concepts when needed from the earlier chapters, which were presented nicely.

I have noticed that a lot of other reviewers here have mixed feelings about this text. It would help if they stated their background which should be taken into account. I am a junior computer science/mathematics double major who does well in both subjects and is not afraid of reading through a long proof or spending time on advanced problems. Thus, my perspective is that of an advanced student. I noticed that the other students in my class were not all mathematics majors and there were a lot of physics/chemistry majors in the group. These people are probably learning from a pragmatic perspective and could probably care less about proofs, so as long as they pass they are happy.

The chapters from the book that I read in detail (12-19) I found to be full of great illustrations and examples and were presented in a clear logical manner without superfluous material/examples. Starting with the basic tools needed for multivariable calculus (multivariable functions, vector algebra), I found myself grasping topics and ideas very quickly (I aced the course). The exercises were not too difficult and could be solved in a few minutes using the information from the section. The problems require more time and sometimes ideas from other sections/subjects, but none are too difficult. Mostly every topic was given a algebraic and geometric explaination. The book provides a great introduction for beginners while the scope of topics covered appeals to advanced students as well.

In comparison to my old calculus text (Stewart) I found this book to have a lot more material in general that wasn't in Stewart, such as trig sub and fourier series. There is also a chapter on differential equations, which I should probably read before my class starts next semester ;D .

In summary, this review is from the perspective of a young mathematician, and I felt that it was perfect for me to learn from. I liked it enough to keep it. If you are in the same category you will find this to be a wonderful text. It is hard to say whether or not it should be recommended for beginners/non-math students, since I am not one, but from the other reviews on here it seems like some people have had trouble. If that's the case you might want to find a supplement (Standard Deviant's or Cliff's Notes). Learning calculus for the non-math student is not easy, so the best way is to just work harder.