If you are really interested in what happened between Turks and Armenians in 1915,i can suggest you to read Heath Lowry's The Story Behind Ambassador Morgenthau's Story.Professor Heath Lowry is a well-known historian in Princeton University and in his book,he proves Ambassador Morgenthau's Story wrong scientifically,shows how the book is based on rumors.A must to read for those who are interested in this matter...

The book is advisable only when one reads it with Heath W. Lowry' s "The Story Behind Ambassador Morgenthau' s Story", published by ISIS Press, Istanbul in 1990. As Dr. Lowry describes:

"The answer is simple and relates to the fact that Morgenthau was writing a piece of wartime propaganda with the expressly stated purpose of mobilising support for President Wilson's war effort. He consciously down played the close relationships he enjoyed with the Young Turk leadership throughout his sojourn in Constantinople and sacrificed truth for the greater good of helping to generate anti-Turkish sentiment which would transform itself into pro-war sentiment."

Unfortunately the American public opinion during that time was based on such sources as the services of Dragaman (translators) between the officials of the Ottoman Empire and the American Ambassador. And these dragaman were not Ottoman Turks but Ottoman Armenians and Ottoman Greeks both were in conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Ambassador Morgenthau used two of them, two Armenians, namely Hagop S. Andonian (personal secretary) and Arshag K. Schmavonian (legal assistant). The printed copy however went through severe war time propaganda editing by the US Secretary of State, Robert Lensing and Pulitzer award winning author, Burton J. Hendrick.

One of the most dramatic incidents and the diversion of the facts were about the life insurance benefits of the deceased Armenian insurers of an American Insurance company. The book claims that Talaat, the Ottoman Interior Minister, made a request to him that the Ambassador should help to facilitate payment the insurance benefits to the Ottoman Treasury, as there were no heirs to the insurers! However, Dr. Lowry proved that after reading the actual dated letters, the request of the Ottoman Minister was to stop the American Insurance Company from transferring their capital funds from Ottoman Empire to France, and thereby preserving sufficient capitalization for any benefits claims. Such diversion of the facts is extremely dangerous.

It is therefore an important document about the wartime journalism and subsequent unfortunate diversions of the facts to base Armenian claims of 1915. We could only be grateful to Dr. Lowry that he shed light into the story with his review of the original letters stored in FDR Library and in the National Achieves.

Ambassador Morgenthau has always been one of the most reliable sources on the Armenian Genocide. No surprise that so many attempts have been made to tarnish his image, or to question his testimonies on the terrible crime committed by the Ottoman Empire against its Christian Armenian subjects. Yet, the Morgenthau version of the 1915 events is abslutely irrefutable, and I strongly recommend this book to those interested in finding out what has really happened during the agony of the "ill man of Europe".

I have studied the wreck of the Titanic for over 15 years and I've found this book to be lacking some of the basic details. For example, the book stated that all the women and children from First and Second class survived. This is not true. The book also mentioned the Navratil boys (the Orphans of the Deep) who were misnamed Lolo and Momon in the book. The boys' real names were Edmond (2 years old) and Michel (4 years old). Aside from the trivial facts, I feel that the book makes light of this horrendous disaster with the cartoon characters. The book was confusing because it didn't follow any chronological order before or after the accident. This might be difficult to someone who doesn't know much about what happened on 14-15 April, 1912. The book mentions a color photo spread in the middle of the book, but these photos can be seen anywhere and add little, if any, historical significance. {For example: There are a few pictures of the mostly intact bow, but none of the severely damaged stern. The picture spread consists mostly of still frames from several movies that have been done about the Titanic). This book might be entertaining to those who want to be somewhat enlightened about the disaster; however, those who have studied the Titanic in detail should probably pass this one up. Those who might read it for fun should be aware of the many inaccuracies contained in this book.

For those who do not need love stories or socialogical studies, this is a terrific reference book. It is touted as trivia, but it is much more than that. It is also very accurate except for the final analysis of iceberg vs. rivets. For years I never believed that the iceberg ripped a gash in the ship like a knife. That could not happen simply because ice is much, much softer and much, much more brittle than one-inch thick steel plates. But the iceberg is massive, several times heavier than the ship. So it was just a matter of weight that pushed the shell plating in and ripping open rivet seams like zippers. This book addresses some of those findings and misses the final analysis by only a split hair when it mentions the possibility of inferior iron in the rivets. In fact, William Garzke of Gibbs and Cox (see his and Dunlin's books on Battleships) analyzed the few rivets that were recovered from Titanic and found them to be highly contaminated with carbon inclusions. It is apparent then that rather than being forged from high quality steel bar stock (as the High Tensile Steel rivets were for American warships) the rivets were quickly cast in multiple molds for fast production. The reheating and driving of the rivets did not restructure the grains of the alloy to give the shank maximum resistance against shear as a forged rivet would. Hopefully the next printing of the book will include this finding.

This book has the basic facts about Titanic, but it also has some really cool facts about the ship and the people on it. It's a great reference book if you need to look up a fact, instead of trying to read every single detail about the ship in a big book. (I've tried it) But if you do want a more detailed book look some where else. My favorite things about this book are- The appendixes, the good layout, and all the weird facts (I like the chapter Deep Prophicies)

I picked this title up in a bookstore at Heathrow early this summer with great expectations. Peter Jay is, after all, a man of great distinction. Unfortunately he has written a wholly inadequate book. Perhaps the kindest thing to say is, well, what ought one to expect of a book issued together with a television series? Jay has written a complete history of the world according to money, but I will be generous and divide the book into two parts: the part of history about which Jay knows a great deal and the part about which he knows nothing. Before sixteenth century Europe is reached, Jay knows nothing and has made no effort to learn. To mention only some of the more glaring omissions, he is completely unaware of the entire body of work on economic involution in east and south Asia, and utterly unconversant with the vast body of literature describing the by now well-studied consequences that environmental depredations have had on economic systems. To be sure, these fields of research did not exist when Mr. Jay read for his A-levels. Some of us, however, have kept up with the leading thought in our chosen fields over the last four decades or so. Most of us who presume to write books have certainly attempted to do so. Perhaps it is best to skip the first half altogether and get to the material dear to Jay's heart: modernity and the superiority of open political systems in the matter of producing prosperity. True. Hardly original, but true. Albeit it has all been said better elsewhere and often. What Jay touts as his great original contribution, a proposed economic waltz step in which there is 1) an economic advance 2)the prosperity generated by this advance attracts predators in the form of outside raiders or internal moochers whereupon 3) the economic advance must be bprotcted by policing and defense. Does anybody find this useful? I did not. Yet it is the only original thought offered in this 383 page tome. Oh, yes, did I mention that the book reads as though it was written by speaking into a dictaphone?

Could the reviewer who panned this book kindly expand on his comment that the material has been covered better elsewhere? I'm looking for a good source on this topic, and if Jay's not the best, I'd like to know who is....

Jay traces key episodes in homo sapiens sapiens creation of wealth, from hunter and gatherer to present times. He sees mankind as basically curious, ingenious and competitive, although political constraints on these characteristics had been frequent. Given half a chance, humans are basically disposed to better their situation if they can. Intriguing is his "waltz motif," that is, a one, two, three sequence has been frequent throughout. When wealth is increased by knowledge or technique improvement so more can be fed or living standards can rise, then, step two, predators immediately gather externally or free riders look for a free lunch internally, leading to step three, a social-political solution that saves the wealth or the new wealth collapses.

So government is needed; no rules or safety; no lasting wealth. However, for an economy to survive, you need the four "i's": information, innovation, investment and incentives. If the government prevents free flow of information about preferences and true costs, or stifles innovation, or ties up investment, or throttles incentives, its economic boom will go bust. So government can create a climate supporting the four i's, but needs to do so without imposing on itself insupportable burdens on its fallible shoulders. Jay points out the global economy has not buoyed all ships, and even in developed countries that are thriving, the poor in these countries are doing worse as they are forced to compete in a worldwide labor market.

Is there reason for optimism that the world can continue its economic growth? Jay has a chilling comment. For the rich, (us?), to go on their merry way, the rich (we?) will have to provide "...effective political machinery for obtaining the assent and compliance of billions of people to the rules of the game under which they are expected to play and that, however successful, will leave many of them poor and some of them destitute" (P. 310). Otherwise the waltz, 1,2,3, could lead to 3 of a colossal, global failure.

The book courageously sloshes through immense economic content, and it is well worth the effort. If you want a better idea of how wealth is created and what supports its continuance, this is a book for you.

This book has one over-riding theme repeated constantly: The White Man is always wrong and the Indian is and has always been an innocent victem. I won't list details, but the lack of objectivity and obvious implications to the promote the theme are insulting. Although the book may contain some valuable and useful facts about Native Americans and their lifestyles, it is impossible to determine how authentic any of them are due to the overt propaganda that is being constantly asserted.

A beautiful book that pleases the mind and eyes. Very authoritative and full of historical and anecdotal information relating to the Native Americans. Begins with pre-Columbus and continues through the ages to the 90's. A must read for anyone interested in Native american culture and history. The photographs and illustrations are priceless and well worth the price of the book. Add this to your history collection, younsters enjoy browsing at the wonderful prints of paintings and illustrations. An easy read whose pictures entertain and captivate the imagination.

i'd like to review some aspects of business ethics written by theese 2 writers. It's so important to understand the area of ethical issues in my class.