It is possible to create a trust (living or otherwise) that does not do what you expect it to do. If you want to direct how the trustees handle the trust's assets after you are gone, and how much income specific beneficiaries will obtain from the trust, or create a complex trust, this may be the book you want.

If all you want is a living trust that will allow your assets to escape probate, and maximize the estate tax deductions, then forget this book. Read "the Living Trust" by Abts instead

There is some useful information in this book, but the main purpose of the work appears to be an attempt to justify all the sins of omission and commission perpetrated by lawyers in the area of family trusts. The most popular and useful of the trusts is the revocable living trust, to which Croke devotes 5 pages out of 300. Lots of "see your lawyer on this" though. Better to read the book by the Schumachers.

Review by reader from Tucson,Arizona is an attempt in reviews of this book to steer readers by inaccurate statements to another book. I have heard a talk by Mr. Croke in St.Petersburg,Florida and have read his book.All of the key omissions in estate planning documents he writes about apply to revocable living trusts as well as testamentary trusts and many other types of trusts dependent upon the grantor's needs and funds available. Croke's book is the best book available. None of the others clearly state the options you can include in your revocable living trust to provide for and protect your family.If your organization wants a great speaker on estate planning who also answers your questions,contact Mr.Croke

Debs played a role in American history, however, the study of his ideas is primarily of antiquarian interest. The editors might note that socialism has failed everywhere on the planet.

No it has not. It remakes itself a great deal, though. This is a good book.

P.S.
Are you paranoid? Are you an insecure plutocrat? I'm not gonna waste my time debating with you, so here's a reading list if you still believe socialism is dead:

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich
by Kevin Phillips

The Politics of Social Solidarity : Class Bases of the European Welfare State, 1875-1975 by Peter Baldwin,

Welfare States in Transition : National Adaptations in Global Economies by Gosta Esping-Andersen,

Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) by Peter J. Katzenstein,

The Global Third Way Debate by Anthony Giddens,

Subversive Institutions: The Design and the Destruction of Socialism and the State (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) by Valerie Bunce.

Creating Social Democracy: A Century of the Social Democratic Labor Party in Sweden
by Klaus Misgeld (Editor), et al

The Editors don't need your commentary, (cowards tend to identify themselves as "reader").

This is a well thought-out, modern compilation of the writings of Eugene Debs, the militant unionist and Socialist Party founder. Thanks to Prof. Pelz and Howard Zinn, the words of Debs ring out true even today.

Here we have an interesting pair. First, we have, on the right, multi-millionare(if not billionare)Steve Forbes, who favors a flat tax of 17%(in which a poor person will pay at the same tax rate or lower as this rich guy does!). On the far-right, we have the infamous Armstrong Williams, who served so nobly as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is just about the only "contribution" which the Republican party has done for African Americans(I use the word "contribution" liberally - very liberally). I come from New York, New York. For the past 25 years, I have served at a local Baptist church as both a decaon and an Associate Pastor. I am proud to say that our place of worship, which continues to grow, is racially and economically mixed. I am a happily married man(for 30 years married!)and have 5 great kids - including a grandchild on the way. I was also a proud labor union member(as was my father and his grandfather) and an active member of the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League and the Democratic party of New York. Thus, I know something about the 'private compassion' which these two ideologues want. Yet, I also know about the public good which is necessary. I know this from my fellow Christians and New Yorkers and Americans. I know this from common sense and past experience, including my 5 years in the U.S. Army.

What do these two right wingers do when they combine to speak to our nation's hurting ghettos? Well, they speak to hurting souls not from their well-off souls, but from their ideologies - far right wing ideologies, which state that government has no business to regulate its economy in favor of the masses, and that government has no right to aid the destitute and poor. They claim religious values of God and church, family values and patriotism, all while they aim to repeal the safety net for widows and the poor, cut tax rates for the wealthy(in the vain hope that these funds will "trickle down" upon the ghettos), hurt the poor through deep cuts in social programs and hurt families in the process.

Yes, Forbes and Williams do have some decent suggestions which, by themselves, need help anyway. Their call for individuals(regardless of their race)to embrace religious and family values is a great one. Yet, why can't government help, if what government does is so right? Why is "welfare" so great for Steve Forbes' rich friends and yet it is destructive(in any form to these Republican ideologues)to the poor? Why can not a poor black family in the ghetto expect from their government a Minimum Wage, good health care, a guaranteed job opportunity through a public works program and public education? Why not incorporate the greatness of Forbes' and Williams' cherrished Bible into our welfare state? That is, why not continue to embrace compassion in the welfare state while reforming it and not trashing it as these two right wingers do?

These two push the theory that government can do nothing right. Yeah right! What about Soical Security, Medicare and Medicaid? What about Head Start, Student Loans, scholarships, civil rights guaratnees, environmental and consumer protection and Legal Services? What about public broadcasting? What would we do without labor protections like the Minimum Wage, the right to form a union and the 40 Hour Work Week? How about child labor? How about housing? How about defense and the GI Bill? How about Affirmative Action(sorry Justice Thomas!)? What about aid to the poor in general? Yet, forget this compassion and progress, these two Republicans state in this book, what the ghetto needs is more "personal resonsibility." Yet, what about the "personal responsibility" of the corporations which these two want to shield from law suits from decent consumers? What about the "personal responsibility" of the rich which will be gone under Forbes' flat tax?

Forbes and Williams had better wake up - the problems of the ghetto are, yes, moral in nature, as are the problems with our government. Yes, the ghetto does need more injections of private charity and faith. That means "yes" to churches, Metropolitan Ministries and charity. Yet, we must have a "yes" open to the public good when it is done well, as it should be.

After reading this book, I suspect that this is nothing more than an excuse for selfishness on the part of rich man Forbes and more knee jerk conservatism on the part of Williams, who seems to disaprove of everything which black American approves of, including a positive influence of religion and its compassionate vlaues on the public good.

Mr Armstrong has written a very good book about the average so-called "ghetto" African-American young man. The subject of his book is a 29 year old black man named Brad. After introducing you to Brad and the circumstances in his life, Mr Armstrong, thinks about his encounter with Brad and then writes a series of letters addressing Brad and his condition. That condition and the many problems in Brad's life are what makes this book so interesting.

This leeter format, where we encounter one topic at a time, in a personal letter, opens up the issues on a down to earth style. Not everyone will agree with Armstrong's insight and perespectives as to Brad's diagnosis of the "black-man's" condition in urban America, but the insightfullness is bound to stir dialogue. Most liberals will outright dismiss this short work with straw men attacks and Ad Hominums. Don not be fooled by such silly and distorted speak. Instead, read this book for yourself and wrestle with these issue.

It is time the African-American community as a whole see a different view about the dangers hurting their own people.

This book is well written, easy to read, and interesting. Please disregard Ad Hominem reviews that slander the auther without seriously engaging his message. The book is not a detialed analysis of social problems and it isn't intended to be. It is addressing that African-American urban culture has relied extensively on the idea of victimization.

Most of this book is done with each chapter being opened in a letter format as he writes to us by writing to a young black man who considers himself to be a victim of, well - just about everything. The young man doesn't see how he is responsible for many of his criminal and immoral behavior. This letter format is effective and if people can, for a moment put aside their biases, maybe they willlearn something or at least, understand a different perspective on the issue.

One does not have to agree with all of Mr. Armstrong's points to fully grasp that he is addressing a very real problem amoung young black men. This book accomplishes exactly what it is suppoosed to do - engage us as if we are involved in the discussion.

The book describes a few things about PFC. Interestingly half the time, to know about any detailed services of a particular type it says "More information about 'xyz' can be found in Powerbuilder Online Books and PFC online help."

Then why do you need to buy this book ?????

To all PowerBuilder PFC Techies... This book is a "MUST HAVE"! Boris Gasin is a well-known and highly respected PFC helper. He has helped more PowerBuilder programmers in their endeavors to build robust applications than imaginable. Having mastered the PFC in an extraordinary way, Boris eagerly and accurately leads the way for others. Our thanks to Boris for all of his efforts. Sincerely, Sharon Buntz

Experienced PFC developers may still learn something new from this book. It is well written, well presented, and has good script examples. I recommend this book to anyone using, or about to use, the PFC on a PowerBuilder project.

Beware, this book is written in stilted and somewhat disontinuous prose and is not too easy to read.

It is very desciptive particularly of the environment and the blood and gore of war in this period. It does not portray this period of American history and the destruction of the ethnic indians as in any way glamorous,unlike most American westerns.

The descriptions of war and human injuries are far closer to reality than potrayed in western movies. The weapons and bullets used in that period caused significant injury which the author is not afraid to detail. To remove or tone down the blood and gore would detract from the objectives of the work in my opinion.

The author is able to give life to the charaters such that you can imagine them as having lived in that period.

I did not find the book easy to read because of the prose style: some sections required reading twice to fully understand the authors intent.

This is a specialist piece of work and I believe would only really be enjoyed by some one who has an interest in this period.

What a chore to read this first novel by Huebner! War at its worst is sometimes difficult to read about and trying to imagine the horrific details if you have never been exposed to blood and death is sometimes impossible. Knowing that our younger generations have had to fight in a war sometime, some place since 1776 doesn't make us non-veterans any more undrstanding. The author tries tomake you live the fighters' emotions by shocking you with more gory detail than you can assimilate thru his style of writing. If you have read the book once, you have read it twice because you have to keep reading the page over once or twice to see who "he" is and whether it happened to Huebner(Gus), Bradley(James) or Gentle (William). These men are real people set in the novel about the slaughter of the Native American tribes ordered by our government to clear the land of these "savages" so the white people could settle down in peace on the grounds soaked with the blood of both races. Mr. Huebner writes in an unusual way; with no quotation marks and a minimum of other punctuations, you become confused as to who said or did what. I forced my way thru to the final chapters where the author spent more time "bringing you down" from an emotional high by describing the beauty of the countryside. In this country's most costly mistake, the leaders refused to believe that "red" and white could co-exist. Beautiful cultures were destroyed by men with a vengence, especially after Custer's stupidity at the LittleBighorn. If any one peoples should be finacially awarded for their mistreatment, it should be the American Tribes whose land we sit on today. When you read this novel you will wonder "why didn't the soldier just give up and go home"instead of "just following orders." This book will make you rethink our American rights. Too much gore and the writing style dropped my rating from 5 to 4 stars. There was a place called "Pennsyl-tucky" when West Virginia was part of Pennsylvania!

American by Blood is a novel based on mass murder. Told with naturalistic detail and through rough-hewn soldier dialogue, Andrew Huebner's horrific portrait of the final episodes of our nation's genocidal actions against its indigenous peoples will repel many readers searching for something redemptive about this calculated slaughter. The novel's three protagonists, one of whom, incidentally, is the author's great-great grandfather, follow similar moral paths. Their early naivete stripped by observation and repulsive participation in the butchering of defenseless Indians, the three undergo a metamorphosis of sorts, ultimately resulting in conscience/empathy which alterately manifests as compassion, identification, and/or madness.

Blood courses in this angry and reproachful book. Unlike the cleansing effect abolitionist John Brown predicted and Abraham Lincoln verified as national pennance for the sin of slavery, the blood shed by Indians has no spiritual value; this racist murder is moraly indefensible and outrageous. United States soldiers summarily execute defenseless women and children, and attribute (with remarkable psychological projection) savagery to the very victims of our own cruelty and amorality. Co-existence simply is not an option. Removal -- extermination -- is the process by which a white culture validates its own manifest destiny.

To read this novel and to absorb its overwhelming condemnation of our past will require resolve. But, make no mistake, Huebner's novel reminds us that real people, not some faceless policy-makers, did the killing. Our land, soaked with shame, is truly American by Blood.

Basicly, this book is an account by Marion Mainwaring about the research she did to write it. She goes to the south of France, she reads some old letters, she talks to some people who knew Morton Fullerton late in life. Etc. etc. Along the way she gives a somewhat confused account of the slanging match she got into with Wharton's official biographer (about how she did all the research for his book but got no credit, blah blah blah). All of it's pretty tiring and you get the feeling that Mainwaring is desperately trying to pad out an already thin book.
Having said that, Fullerton led a fascinating life, something straight out of a Henry James novel. To anyone interested in Edith Wharton or even about expatriate life in early 20th century Europe, this book is a must read.

This is both the story of Elizabeth Wharton's cad of a lover, and the earnest researcher exploited and spurned by the Scholar in the Field, who she won't even deign to name! Hot stuff, to those who care about such things.

The scholar-cad dismissed her earlier cries de coeur as attempts to elicit publicity for this work, but you have to have read the LRB review to know this.

Literary hearts are broken all around. If you understand this for what it is, it's one of the best books ever, but a bit of an objet trouvee, if you know what I mean.

I greatly enjoyed this book after I realized it was not a quick read of connecting the dots/facts and racing to a conclusion. The joy of this book is that it offers the reader the chance to join Mainwaring as she roams through Paris seeking out the truths of rogue M. Fullerton's life. I loved the descriptions of Paris, the street scenes and the old buildings with their old bureacrats serving as gatekeepers to the dusty stacks of information in the registries of births, deaths and marriages. In her quest for the facts she encounters characters ranging from counts to charwomen and her style, humor and voice make me feel there with her, mulling the facts and planning the next step in the detective work.If you need a vacation from your life, read this book. I now open it to any page and just dive in and quickly become captivated again. Mainwaring is an artist in her impeccable choice of words. Enjoy the process of her quest, indulge yourself and you will find that you will forget about the mundane matters of your life. An instant vacation, what a relief!

You feel in reading George Duby's book that a corner is lifted on the real world of life under Henry 11 and his sons.It is a long way from the romanticised version we are fed as children but no less fascinating.The story of the last days of William Marshall must be one of the most moving descriptions ever written of a powerful man preparing to take his leave of this life. Spellbinding. The description of a tournament must be the most comprehensive ever written I was brought up on Ivanhoe and all that! The most devastating discovery is the very minor role played by most women in the lives of the Plantagenets - it will horrify the modern woman.This book evokes all the drama we have seen in classic films like "The Lion in Winter" and puts it in perspective. Not for everyone but for those interested in the twelfth century a real spellbinder. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of William Marshall's biography in English?

Knights. The word brings powerful images to mind, images of brave and noble men. Men of unyielding courage who fight in great battles, defend their kings, and rescue princesseses. William Marshal does all of this, and more, in this true story of the greatest knight who ever lived

This book is great for those beginning the study of medieval life and warfare of the middle ages.William Marshal is the greatest knight that England has ever produced, and a reader will become captive in the story as William becomes one of the nations greatest and respected nobles.

This book is a collection of SOME of the works of William Howard Taft but the title is quite misleading, as it does NOT include State of the Union Addresses. Also the author has not taken the time or effort to provide the reader / researcher with an INDEX, which, of course, means that one has to read the entire collection to find references to a particular subject matter. In short, this book is merely a reprinting of some of Taft's speeches and addresses and nothing more!

This collection of Taft's public papers is the first such endeavor, and a praiseworthy one. Readers looking for analysis won't find it here any more than any other "letters of" or "papers of" any other historical figure.

What they will find is William Howard Taft in his own words. The Taft papers at the Library of Congress number into the tens of thousands, and as such are useful only to serious researchers. The student or casual reader of the Taft era will benefit enormously from David Burton's collection of Taft's public papers.

Taft was a proficient and thorough speech writer, and one can follow his era precisely according to this collection. History shall benefit tremendously from these volumes.

A future edition will make available State addresses and, one hopes, a full and final index.

This book is a collection of eight essays. The first seven are each written on the subject of one of the "deadly" sins of sloth, anger, lust, gluttony, pride, avarice and envy. The eight is on despair. Each of the famous authors ruminates on the sin, looking at it from his or her unique perspective.

Overall I found the essays well written, and the book to be easy to read. This book makes for some lightweight reading, short and simple, but without much substance. Overall, I don't recommend it.

Eight essays on Sloth, Anger, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Avarice, Envy, and Despair (yes that's 8 sins). To be honest I bought it because of Pynchon, (whose essay -if you are even a slight fan- makes the buy worth it) but read on to the back cover. I quickly discovered that these authors compiled around the topic of sins is a great way to see inside these writers styles and appraoch to a similar idea. Some I'd read before, and others introduced themselves in this novel. All were unique and interesting in their own right, especially for someone -me- who isn't terribly interested in sins. Highly reccomended!

After reading "Devil Take the Hindmost," which deals very intelligently and thoroughly with investment bubbles of all kinds going back to the South Sea Bubble, I was very much looking forward to reading this book, particularly as it has been written by a very successful stock market investor. I was, however, sadly disappointed.

The author expends virtually all of his efforts discussing mob behavior, but rarely in the context of investments and market madness, i.e., most of the examples he uses relate to Ku Klux Klan activities, the French citizens' attack on the Bastille, the Watts riots and other such emotional mob activities. While these are often interesting and sometimes horrifying, they have only tangential bearing on market manias and investment fads. Furthermore, most of the text has been copied and pasted from reports on these activities that were written by others.

As an investment professional (and having invested in the market myself for over 35 years), I have long believed that, at least in the short term, market prices are dictated as much by psychology as by fundamentals such as profit growth, investment return expectations, balance sheets, business strategies, profit margins, competiting products and services, interest rates and such. And I thought the book would provide at least a few insights into investor psychology and how it moves markets; certainly a thorough discussion of the Dotcom and tech manias of recent years would have been a very apt topic for discussion.

Alas! There was no discussion at all about these issues of investment psychology; rather, the author was content to provide example after example of how, many times in the past, mobs are capable of taking on a life of their own and engaging in group-think, abandoning analysis and rational decision-making. Well, I guess we already know that. We are left on our own to try to figure out how "collective mob behavior" infects investors' psyches and affects the movement of stock prices.

Readers who would like a lot more insight into that process should buy "Devil Take the Hindmost," and not waste their time or money on this book.

Ralph

This is compilation of stories about crowd behavior, amusing at times, but with little or no insight, except that you should not panic. Everybody already knows that and besides it is not always true. In a stock market crash it is better to panic sooner rather than later. Also, I recall that a number of people in the WTC horror died because they decided to stay put in their offices rather than to rush down. But what I really don't like at all about this book is that it is marketed as a book for investors. This is nonsense. It is a book of stories about crowd behavior with no analysis except, as noted, the completely one-sided recommendation that you should not go along with the crowd.

Amazon offered Menschel's book at a combination price with Taleb's Fooled by Randomness. Mistakenly, I expected both to provide stock market guidance. Taleb's book had little and Menschel's has less.