This is not the Captain Bligh of the Nordhoff and Hall novels. Nor does it tell of the Captain Bligh of Charles Laughton's characterization in film. This is a look at the real Captain Bligh of history and Gavin Kennedy gives us a man who was significantly flawed but fundamentally a decent, even caring, commander who lost his ship to the villainous madness of Fletcher Christian. This may be one of the better "pro-Bligh" histories and definitely worth the read. Its style is not dense and its breadth is considerable.

William Bligh, most readers know, suffered a mutiny aboard H.M.S. Bounty in the late 1780s while returning from a botanical expedition to Tahiti. Until the 1984 Hollywood version, which Kennedy broadly endorses, the popular imagination had a very one-sided idea of Bligh and his career. Only now do we know that the mutiny was as much due to Fletcher Christian's on-board nervous breakdown as to Bligh's admittedly hot temper. And as Kennedy shows, the tales of harsh discipline are pure fiction: Bligh gave many more tongue lashings than the real thing. Upon his return to England and his acquittal, he had a brilliant career, successfully re-navigating the breadfruit expedition to Tahiti, then fighting alongside Nelson in the Napoleonic wars. His career ended on a sad note in New South Wales, Australia where as Governor he stood up to corrupt black marketeers and again suffered mutiny. Yet he is a nautical hero through and through, his open-boat journey ranks with Shackleton's as an all time great feat of navigation, and he stands as the direct link between the genius of his mentor, James Cook and that of Bligh's protege, Matthew Flinders. Any dispassionate and thorough biography, such as this, will leave you with respect for this great man.

it's easy read, for people to refresh what to do while negotiating, best for people in a hurry.

Kennedy's book is a great place to sart for anyone who is just starting to learn the mathematical techniques used in contemporary economics. If you are an undergraduate, this book will teach you most of what you need to know. If you are a graduate student, it will only get you started. It explains calculus in a way that is easy to understand. When I say that it explains calculus, I mean that it explains calculus so that you understand what it means, not just how to do it. The only shortcommings of this book are that it spends too much time doing Keynesian algebra and it ignores linear algebra comletely.

"The new negotiating egdge", a title that was for me a promise for new ideas, new concept, new material and... just a rehash of what's has been said already (with other words). Disappointing !