This is really a unique novel. I don't recall reading anything by Ben Bova before this book. After reading this novel I decided that Mr. Bova wrote a good novel and I bought several more of his titles to see if he is consistent. Well, that is not the point of this review. This is a review of 'Empire Builders' not Ben Bova.

What a really good novel this was. The protagonist Dan Randolf is a wonderful creation on Bova's part, as a previous reviewer noted. I don't know how much of the science involved in the book is realistic but it was written in such a way that I found it believable. The motives of the key players were logical and the plot made sense. What more can you ask for.

Amazon did an adequate job of giving the plot overview so I won't waste your time here with the same. I will only add that this novel succeeds in nearly every particular. As you are reading the novel you are constantly confronted with actions and reactions that are surprising to you, as the reader, but seem like the only logical event after reading them. A definite recommend on my part.

The best thing about this book is how Bova is able to please the entire political spectrum on the enviromental issues that are addressed in the book. Left wingers will be pleased that the plot includes pending enviromental catastrophe caused by humanity's excesses while right wingers will be pleased that the solution is more freedom, not less. Dan Randolf, the main character of the book, is the best protagonist Bova has ever created.

To understand capitalism, read the Wealth of Nations. But, to really understand it, as well as the other ideas of Adam Smith, read his essential works. This book allows the reader to fully grasp the concepts of capitalism and get a clear picture of how and why it works. Thankfully, Heilbronner did not dilute the works of Smith, he just condensed them for the modern day reader. With this book you can cut through the jargon and see the real points that Smith was trying to get across.

After reading Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers, I decided to read Smith's Wealth of Nations, but found myself daunted by the length and language of the book. Then I discovered Heilbroner's Essential Adam Smith and was hooked. The book offers the essential parts of Wealth of Nations, as well as a good sampling of some of his other works. As a result, I have not only read the entire Wealth several times, but have also read everything by and about Smith that I can find. Heilbroner's book is a good way to get to the heart of Smith's thinking, but, like me, you will probably find yourself wanting to learn more about the man, his ideas, and his life. Enjoy!

As the original editor of this book, I am very gratified by the review already posted. I am writing now (February 2000) simply to differentiate this book from Guide to Cost Management, an all new, much less expensive, and--I believe--far better book published in January 2000. Handbook of Cost Management was originally published in the mid-1990s; since 1997 it has been edited by someone else. Although there have been many expensive loose-leaf updates to the original book, I believe that much of the book is still outdated. (The new book--Guide to Cost Management--is also listed on Amazon.com under my name; it was published in January 2000 by John Wiley & Sons with all new material.)

The most useful and comprehensive book I've found regarding cost management. Provides in-depth information on activity-based costing, abc software, investment justification, target costing, functional analysis, and performance measurement.

For us we have used it as a pocket and reference book in our facility.

Most imaging books on trauma are either written by the physicians for the physicians or the radiologists for the radiologists.

Fortunately, this book provides the best of both worlds. Easy to read and explanation provided that gives meaning to why we do this and that in our facilities.

Perhaps an update would include more radiographs or line drawings which would make reading easier.

This small book makes it easy to carry around while at work for quick references.

There are useful tables and best of all recommendations on the types of view (plain radiographs) that would be appropriate for each situation. In addition, highlighting the advantages of using a particular view.

There are overviews, on how to improve and reduce risk of missing abnormalities on films taken at the emergency department.

Overall, the book is divided into chapters that are sensible that makes referencing easy. I would recommend this book for physicians (especially trauma), nurses, technologists and interns/housemans.

The quality of writing by Davis is some of the best I have ever read dealing with science and technology. The book has a significant weakness in its simplistic treatment of scientific discovery, concerning both Lawrence and Teller. The tremendous achievement of Groves is similarly given less than its due. I think Rhodes two books on this topic are much more balanced, but for the feeling of how science works, this book has few equals. I lent my copy to a friend some years ago (alas), and I'd love to reread this. Interesting two people would write reviews on a book they read many years ago.

I read this book probably 15 yrs. ago, & at that time realized J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the most historically unrecognized people of our century. This story blends facts with the human side of the man, producing a tragic hero, whose life ended in obscure and unjust abandon.

This is an extreemly well thought out book, with great insight that allows the reader to better undestand what it takes to figure out the workings of a man's mind and to place it into a film. A barage of well layed out photos accent this book nicely. Also a great history of the movie is written: beginning with the life of T.E.L, following the arduois making of the film, the lives of nearly all who had a hand in it, the wide range of response to the film, and the recent restoration. This book is priceless and definitely a must for anyone.

A great book on a great film! Everyone who loves this film should buy this book.

This book came about as a result of the public debate about the direction of United States trade policy. In September of 1989, the Brookings Institution put together a conference entitled An American Trade Strategy: Options for the 1990s. The three main papers presented at the conference each defended an alternative policy approach, namely multilateral free trade, aggresive bilateralism and managed trade. This tome contains revised versions of these three documents, along with the remarks of the official discussants of each paper and the comments of a panel of three experts. As a bonus, the volume also includes two introductory chapters in which the editors, Robert Lawrence and Charles Schultze, both affiliated with the Brookings Economic Studies Program, sum up and evaluate the strategies at hand, which, by the way, are spoused by Anne Krueger (free trade), Rudiger Dornbusch (bilateral trade) and Laura Tyson (managed trade).

Lawrence and Schultze, in assessing the different arguments and proposals put forth in regards to the aforementioned central issue of the book, first evaluate the two chief objectives -- improvement in the terms of trade and strategic industrial policy -- and then turn their attention to the various means suggested for their attainment.

Traditional economic analysis suggests that free trade is the best approach to raise global welfare. Given the importance of the US in the global economy, this country's actions are likely to have systemic repercussions. Protectionist policies by the US might prompt other nations into taking defensive and retaliatory actions.

As long as other countries help companies that produce goods America imports, the US gains. But if countries subsidize their exports to third markets or protect domestic firms against US exports, they can lower US living standards.

On the other hand, Dornbusch believes that the informal, mainly nongovernmental, barriers to imports into Japan have biased the terms of trade against the US. He claims that the negotiation of free trade areas with other US trading partners might put pressure on Japan to agree to trade concessions in the form of increasing its imports of US goods. Dornbusch is not explicitly concerned about the specific composition of US exports. Therefore, when he proposes the negotiation of numerical goals for the expansion of imports into Japan, he envisages an aggregate target for manufactured goods.

Tyson contends that some industries are more important than others. She voices two concerns: that market forces left to their own devices will not channel enough resources into the critical high-technology industries, and that the trade and industrial policies of other countries will drive US producers out of these key sectors and thus lower US living standards.

According to Tyson, there are three principal kinds of departures from the scenario of efficiently functioning markets that make some industries ''more equal than others'' and that warrant interventionist policies. One, because of the nature of their products and production processes, some markets are necessarily imperfectly competitive and can generate, for a limited number of firms in the world market, surplus profits (rents) -- profits higher than the necessary to induce investment in the sector. If a country can somehow secure a place for its firms in such markets, it can earn rents -- its capital investments would make more than could be earned in other uses. Two, some industries pay workers surplus (premium) wages, more than their experience and skills could earn elsewhere in the economy. Expansion of those industries will increase real wages and living standards. Three, the production of certain goods creates ripple benefits for the rest of the economy, that is, the benefits to the economy from the production of the goods in question are greater than the revenues earned by the producers.

In recent years the analysis of trade has moved to take into account the widespread reality of imperfect competition. The new trade theories suggest that in imperfectly competitive situations a country may be able to use government intervention to enrich itself at the expense of other nations.

However, the circumstances under which these monopoly-promoting policies might pay off are difficult to detect in practice. They depend on the behavioral features in the market, the degree to which other countries retaliate and the supply response of other firms to the government intervention. Moreover, the government must know the full consequences in the industries from which the resources are drawn. Redirecting scarce resources into a particular sector could produce losses elsewhere in the economy that outweigh the gains in the sector being promoted.

Since the ability of economists to estimate demand and costs' curves with precision is very low, to predict the response of other firms to the market changes induced by government intervention is lower still and to calculate the general equilibrium effects from the drawdown of resources elsewhere in the economy is virtually nil, there is slim chance that the government could know in advance whether any particular policy of subsidy or protection will add to or substract from national income.

Some have advocated using trade policies to enhance employment in sectors with premium wages. If what appear to be rents are in fact payments for skills, abilities or other characteristics of jobs, a governmental policy that subsidized the expansion of these industries could have damaging consequences, for instance, a regresive distributional impact.

The view that some industries provide productivity-enhancing spillover effects to the rest of the US economy lies at the heart of the arguments of many proponents of policies for managed trade. One unresolved problem is how are these industries going to be identified and favored.

Although published ten years ago, this book addresses issues that are still current. Trade policy is a topic that is likely to surface in every presidential and congressional election for years to come. In addition, there are sufficient theoretical concepts thrown around in this tome to make it a good read.

I love art history and I got some old prints of these paintings. However, I wanted to learn more about them. After much time and research I finally came across this book. It helped me out more then any other resource. I fell in love with it when I read it. It answered all my questions I had about the paintings, like why they are displayed together even though they were painted by different artists? or, Who was bluleboy and pinkie? The book also touches on other paintings by the same artists, which I found helpful and made me want to learn more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves art, or art-history. It would be a good source for art-history teachers too!

Breathes There a Soldier is a fitting tribute and in depth look at what our soldiers went through before during and after World War II. This is a story of teenagers and twenty somethings plucked from all walks of life and shipped to far flung military camps in the U.S. for extensive training and finally combat. The memoirs of Robert Heatley describe in detail what it was like to be transformed from a citizen to a soldier while retaining what aspects of civilian life that he could.

The story of the 81st Infantry Division is not unlike any other military unit in its preparation and ultimate departure for battle, but the grueling schedule of nearly two years of stateside training takes its toll as 45 members of the Division were killed before even seeing a shot in anger. Fed into a war planning pipeline the 81st "Wildcats" with a proud lineage back to World War I trained from Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, California and Hawaii.

The memoirs show an unbending devotion to country, family and fellow soldiers, bonds that were surely tested by spending four years away from home and under very trying circumstances. During his combat duty in the Pacific while witnessing the horrors of war and fighting for his life and others, Robert Heatley learns over time that not only has his father passed away but his mother as well. Upon his return home after the occupation of Japan he learns that his childhood home and all possessions are gone, having been foreclosed upon by a bank.

We owe this man and others like him a debt of gratitude. Where would we be today if Robert Heatley and millions of others like him did not answer the call to duty. He offers four years of his life and endures relentless training and the hell of the Pacific in places such as Peleliu. This island battle has received little notoriety, but is referred to by experts as one of the worst battles in the Pacific campaign. Surviving this and several other invasions he comes home to nothing.

The book is an intimate look at the life and times of an American, combat infantryman, and devoted father. Nice job Larry and thank you for your service Robert Heatley.

This is one of the best books I have ever invested in this is great if you are ever interested the life of the midshipmen. The book is very insitefull. You recive an in-depth view of the traditions and expectations of the Academy and the Midshipmen. It is worth your time and money to purchase this book.