Those of us who live outside of North America may well be surprised to read of the momentous class battles which saw hundreds of thousands of working people give their support to Socialist ideas

Eugene V. Debs was one of the very best products of American Labor movement. He was one of the millions of workers engaged in mass struggles for the most basic of rights waged during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Two decades as a union fighter led Debs to adopt revolutionary socialist conclusions. He did so while in Chicago's Woodstock Jail, a few months before his 40th birthday.

For the remaining thirty years of his life Debs devoted himself to convincing working people in the US that the road to their emancipation was through the overthrow of American capitalism.

Through the selection of Debs speeches and writings put together in Eugene V. Debs Speaks you see where the class battles are at their hottest, there is Debs; writing, speaking and even using his election campaigns to aid the workers involved in struggle.

Debs delivers the cold hard truth about American capitalism and it's institutions. Much in the same way as another working class leader who made his mark some 40 years later - Malcolm X.

Eugene Victor Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison for the anti-imperialist speech he gave in Canton, Ohio in 1918. It is a fire-breathing speech full of love for the oppressed and hatred of the imperialist oppressor. After you buy this book, read this speech first. It tells you about the U.S. rulers today-and their wars. The speeches in this well-rounded book (with a superb introduction by James P. Cannon), provide socialist answers to the big questions workers face today, as well as yesterday. His writings on the capitalist prison system are especially relevant. Debs, who spent four years behind bars himself, salutes the humanity of his fellow prisoners and points to the real criminal-"Capitalism is inherently a criminal system for it is based upon the robbery of the working class and cornerstoned in its slavery." Not much question about what he would think about U.S. wars and the anti-working class measures involved in Homeland Security. Like Malcolm X, Debs shows that the U.S. working class can indeed produce great leaders.

A refreshing collection of Debs' speeches and writings. Debs was a railroad worker and union official, imprisoned for his role in the 1894 Pullman strike. He became a socialist in prison, was several times the Socialist Party's candidate for president, and became the a symbol of labor and Marxism for a generation.

"What's the matter with Chicago?' is a lively examination of the how capitalism affects human life. Other items discuss the labor movement of his time, the early American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World. His 1918 Canton Ohio speech, recorded by a police spy stenographer, blasted the First World War as imperialist, hailed the Russian revolution, and landed Debs a ten-year sentence in federal prison.

An excellent reference for the serious Southern Gardener.

This is absolutely the best reference book for Southern gardeners. If "it" is not mentioned here, "it" is not meant to be planted in the South. Information is easy to understand for beginning gardeners. I am on my second edition.

Gardening is a lifestyle that sings to my soul. This is THE hymnal. Pick up a copy and sing with me.

James Utterback has achieved the difficult goal of taking careful scholarship, drawing useful conclusions and presenting the whole package in a highly enjoyable book. He makes a major contribution by distinguishing between product innovation and process innovation and shows how and why the former is likely to come from outside the established industry players, while the latter is more likely to come from inside.

In the process he reaches back into history and covers industries ranging from pond ice to memory chips. Combining his explanation with concepts with Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" provides a powerful means of understanding where innovation comes from and what the barriers are to its success. Utterback's book goes beyond that. It also calls into serious question the idea (posited by Moore and others) that today's "high tech" cycle of innovation is fundamentally different from earlier innovative cycles in other industries. All in all, Utterback uses industrial history in a low-key, fact-based book that shines a clear, bright light on what drove yesterday's technology developments -- and today's.

This book is written in a concise manner that is straightforward and easy to understand. Utterback explains how innovation has evolved over the years, using great examples from a variety of assembled and non-assembled industries. One side note, I found that this book was worth the cover price for the history of industries he mentions alone. Some of the products and industries mentioned in this book include: Incandescent light bulbs, Typewriters, Glass, photography, and Ice. This book is loaded with invaluable nuggets of insight, it is impossible to due it justice in a book review. I highly recommend reading it.

Prof. Utterback spent over twenty years studying 20+ industries as they experienced dramatical technological change, trying to understand who were the market leaders before the change, who were the market leaders afterwards, and why?

He studies markets as varied as cooling (the harvested ice industry in the late 1800s), lighting (gas lighting giving way to incandescent lighting giving way to flourescent lighting), typewriters (manual typewrites giving way to electrics giving way to dedicated word processors giving way to PCs), and plate glass.

He observes that the market leaders prior to a technology change rarely are market leaders after the change, primarily because the entrepenuers and innovators are squeezed out of older companies by "incrementalists". This gave me a lot of encouragement and insight into pushing hard on Internet Explorer back in 1994..1996 at Microsoft, and also I think explains why Microsoft is struggling now.

I have ordereded this book when I was experiencing problems with calculus. Now, whenever I have any complications with the subject, I turn to "The Calculus Problem Solver" to quickly find solutions to difficult problems. The book's step-by-step explanations act as tremendous help and inspiration to students struggling with the challenging subject. I think that this book should be made a required reading for anyone taking courses in advanced mathematics.

I've been out of college for over two years, and I'm studying for the math subject GRE for grad school. I still have all my old textbooks, but even when they have the answers in the back they don't show the steps to get the solution. The few problems my textbooks do solve step-by-step are simpler problems, meant to show the concept.

Now that I have the Problem Solver's book I can "check" any problems that didn't have an answer and get through any tough spots. Even though the Problem Solver will probably not have my EXACT question, it will have the same type of question with different constants. I have yet to find a problem they didn't have a model for.

I wish I had had this book in college. It's durable and surprisingly lightweight for its size. The last three chapters are specifically physics-oriented applications of calculus: energy, electricity, and fluids.

As a physics and astronomy major in college, I wanted to say how much this book helped me in the years past. This book is undoubtedly the BEST textbook "supplement" that a student in AP Calculus (AB or BC) or beginning college calculus can have! This Problem Solver is exactly what it says it is - a book full of physics problems worked out in detailed solutions. All too often I hear people complain that these books are not very helpful because they're not organized better, etc. But that's nonsense! If you're in one of the above-mentioned courses and it's late one night and you're stuck on a homework problem...there's a VERY GOOD chance that there's a problem in this book that you can use to work through the solution. This book should not be used as a study guide, but as a reference source for anywhere from beginning to more advanced problems. The wide range of difficulty level is the best reason to have this book because rarely do textbooks have examples that are difficult. Textbooks like to show "easy" examples in then the student gets stuck on the more challenging homework assignments and exams. This book is well worth the money!

This gentle, faithful little book is full of wonders to be read, and re-read -- personal insights, quick asides, random thoughts, elegant sermonettes on life and living. James Stephen Behrens doesn't waste words; these quick essays are like Cistercian chapels, with no unnecessary adornment, nothing to distract the mind from the matter at hand. This makes you savor each word, contemplate each story. Sometimes, in this book, the simplest notions are the most moving -- why he thinks, for example, that the most eloquent prayer is one word, "Stay." When I started leafing through this book, I folded over the corners of pages I liked. Bad idea. Now, nearly all the pages are dog-eared. But the best news is that discovering this book has simplified my Christmas shopping. Now I know what to get people who seem to have everything: this little package of wisdom, a book that looks at commonplace things with uncommon grace.

This book is full of "story sparks" that only take seconds to read but open the doors to considerable wisdom and hope - with humor as a bonus. The deft way that each is connected to a few lines of well-chosen scriptures breaks open that medium as well, connecting it unforgettably to lived experience.

Beginning each day with Fr. Behrens' meditations lifts my spirits and helps me find the humor, joy and love of God in seemingly ordinary things. His personal experiences and thoughts shine a fresh light on each day's Scripture passage. I also find that his vignettes of the daily lives of the monks demystify holiness and help me pursue it in my daily life.

These are great tales of friendship--even for beginners, like my 4 yr old preschool class. They love all the little stories. A few go over their heads, but they get the concept of the humor and companionship represented by these sweet, lovable, sometimes mischevious and selfish hippos. I've tried reading them the other George and Martha books, but this is their favorite. Gosh, thank God for James Marshall and his inventions!
(We have an old copy---the kids love the "pink cookies" Martha offers George instead of pea soup!)
Sampling:
George doesnt want to eat Marthas pea soup, so he pours it in his shoes
George knocks out his favorite tooth. Which is your favorite tooth?
George gets tired of Martha looking at herself in the mirror all the time; she even wakes up in the middle of the nite to do it. So he pastes a silly picture of her on her mirror....
There are George and Martha stuffed animals out there, too.
Any relation to George and Martha Washington?

This is a terrific book for anybody, even though its marketed as a young children's book. I love this book, (and I'm 12) and my parents and older sister, (who pretends not to) do too. This book chronicles the stories of two best friends, who just so happen to be hippos. They relate moral messages, but in a far from preachy way. The illustrations are colorful and the two hippos are shown as cute and cuddly. (awwww.... they sell these really cute George and Martha dolls somewhere) In short this is a great book for anybody. So read it!

This is just one in a fabulous series of books featuring George and Martha, the hippo equivalent of Nick and Nora Charles. Their light banter and misunderstandings set the stage for imaginative, humorous resolutions. The hippos' warmth and obviously mutual friendship is evident throughout. There are five stories in its 47 pages, with big simple pictures adorning every other page. A great book for early and late toddlers up to around age five or so.

Have you ever noticed those documentary style shows on The History Channel or watched an NBC special on the supernatural or something of the sort and noticed the lack of any objective or sceptical voice when it comes to the supposed prophecies of Nostradamus?Of course any sceptical or reasonable voice would expose the patent nonsense for what it is and that would not make good television,now would it?This state of things has gone on far too long and it is about time someone peeled back the layers of nonsense that has enveloped Nostradamus over the centuries.It is fairly obvious from the get go when you read Nostradamus that the man was as all the other jokesters,hucksters and frauds before him,but since his death he has been credited for predicting every major happening of the last 400 years.Randi makes it very apparent that every generation takes old prophecy and applies it to contemporary events without the least bit of intellectual honesty.Ultimately though I don't think this book or a 100 others like it will make the least bit of difference.People want to believe that they are living at a turning point in history, and whatever prophecy they have to wildly and laughably misinterpret in order to convince themselves of it cannot and will not be swayed by any rational arguments.I'm afraid the irrational is something we just have to accept as an unvanquishable part of the human psyche.

As the reviewers below note, anyone who has ever read a magazine article or watched a TV documentary about "the uncanny predictions of Nostradamus" should be handed a copy of this book. What's more, any library that stocks Nostradamus' quatrains or literature that credulously promotes him as a magical seer has a positive duty to set this book alongside them as a rational antidote. The evidence Randi sets forth devastates sixth centuries of myth, hype and propaganda surrounding Nostradamus' supposed prognosticatory gifts, and convincingly delineates him as the canny con artist he was.

Think you know Nostradamus? Think again. A great deal of research went into writing this book, and it shows. Randi provides an exhaustive history of Nostradamus (and his time) as both a healer and a prophet. Randi informs readers how astrology and magic influenced royalty and peasants alike during Nostradamus' time. Randi provides his own interpretations of the 10 most famous quatrains, and see how other "expert" interpreters wildly alter the meaning to fit major events. Don't buy any other Nostradamus book until you've read this one. It's a real eye opener.

Frequently organizations face the challange of what not to do. They tend to believe in the person presenting the idea, rather then creating a rigorous process for evaluating the options before them. Companies adopting best practices in managing their investment options realize substantial gains in their long term bottem line. This book quantifies this performance difference, and what the best practices are across a range of industries.

Why aren't organizations more rigorous in selecting projects? The book outlines several barriers which are extremely relevent:

· It will make a popular champion look bad,

· Organizational resistance to change, or cannibalization of an existing business for a new opportunity,

· We confuse the urgent with the important,

· Its hard to agree on measures and success criteria

· People are afraid of making the wrong prediction, so they don't make any,

· Its hard to normalize results from different contributors,

· Business plans are not integrated with new project activity,

· Power and politics, a methodical evaluation leaves no room for interpretation and "behind the scenes" trade offs between groups and individuals,

· Lack of strategy.

The best practices outlined in this book are backed by substantial research. I would have like to have seen a few additional chapters on application of best practices in real companies ... a case study of a turn around.

Thank you very much for sending me a copy of The Smart Organization. I have completed only two chapters, but find the book to be thoroughly engaging. Especially, the six dimensions of decision quality.

My current job is proving to be a daily "case study." The ideas contained in the book have come to life, helping me to better understand my environment at work and make better decisions along the journey.

Focusing on large R&D intensive organizations, this book explores nine key principles that make these enterprises effective, such as: open information flow, systems thinking, and continual learning. The author's emphasize the decision making process as a means of changing and improving overall organizational performance. If you are seeking new insights into how strategy is developed, excellence can be achieved in decision making, and organization renewal can be realized, you will find this book enlightening and fascinating reading. The insights offered here are by no means limited to high-technology firms; they apply to any organization seeking to be successful in today's fast-paced markets. This work includes an organizational IQ test (a diagnostic tool) for identifying root causes of the barriers to improving decision processes. There is an impressive amount of knowledge about organization to be gleaned in The Smart Company. Whether you are a technology -based bus! iness or not, you will find many nuggets in this work. We highly recommend it.

Weve been used to finding grace defined in religios tomes by very learned and well known authors. In GRACE IS EVERYWHERE we are taught by example that it is found in the everyday life of people we meet once or many times. The many examples given makes you pay attention more to the people you meet and you think about how these encounters can affect your life. Past encounters that bring happy and sad memories, current encounters with people you work with or just happen to meet can all show you that GRACE IS EVERYWHERE. The short stories are easy to read and you can put the book down after a few stories or devour it. You almost feel jealous of all the wonderful people Father Behrens has met. He is trying to tell us that we have met similar people you just have to SEE them. Youll want to read it again and again.

James Stephen Behrens brings us behind the cloister wall of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit with stunning simplicity of language in this highly accessible and tender telling of tales from the monastic life. Through a series of brief, beautiful vignettes, easily read in a day, the Trappist monk observes the world around him and the world within the human heart with a gentle knowing, informed by faith and contemplation. Fr. Behrens has taken seriously Hemingway's advice to use simple sentences, crafted expertly, because simplicity fosters clarity, and clarity lets the idea shine through. The result is a marvelous book that quietly reminds us that the sacred is present in every ordinary moment.

James Behrens's Grace is Everywhere treats the reader to a delightful series of vignettes about real people and real events to convey powerful truths. Far from being a theological treatise or a philosophical discussion of ultimate concerns, the book's essence shows us simply and easily that God's love and grace are present at all times and in all places in our daily lives. What makes this book different from others with a similar theme or intent is Behrens's ability to relate concepts of such moment gently and clearly, at times even humorously, using his past and present as the backdrop for his insights. Behrens writes as if he were speaking with us; indeed, as if he's known us for years. Grace is Everywhere is a wonderful book. Read it and feel good.

Perhaps I expected something more. The essays in this book are often repetitive and non-progressional in subject matter. The softcover version of the book has stills that are more brown and white than black and white... For my money, I am a bigger fan of Hirsch's "The dark side of the screen". It is a well thought, well researched look at noir with a cohesive structure. This all is not to say that a majority of the essays in the Reader are not helpful. Of course it is great to read Schrader's piece and some others which deal with nice specifics (how economics affected growth of B genre, lighting, etc.) but at the end of the day I feel too many of the essays are only about defining the genre (or not genre) rather than delving into other things. Also, I probably will buy more books by these authors simply because their care for noir is so true and strong...

Film Noir Reader 2 is as interesting as its forerunner. Not every article is great, but there is a lot of interest here.

The book opens with film writings from the Forties that show that while Americans did not coin the term film noir, some writers did notice a trend developing.

There are interesting articles on Cornell Woolrich, Sam Fuller and noir and painting. The article on British Film Noir is quite fascinating.

At the end of the book is a piece by a professor who discusses how he teaches a course on film noir. So this book traces film noir from a barely discerned trend to an academic course of study. Neat.

This is a very good anthology of noir criticism. It contains three of the first assessments of noir in English, by Higham, Durgnat and Schrader right next to each other - boom, boom, boom - so one can see the criticism of noir developing before one's eyes.

The rest of the essays/arcticles are mostly very interesting. There is one on John Farrow, who is usually overlooked, so it is good to see his films grouped together and examined. The essay on Anthony Mann's noirs is quite strong, and Ursini's article on noir TV, shows such as "Peter Gunn" and "The Fugitive" is very interesting and makes one wish that there were more written on this part of TV history.

I think this would be an essential part of any noir fan's library.