I purchased this book in 1975. It is the remaining text from my undergraduate days that I keep on my book shelf... a tremndous resource.

I actually took the class of the same title at UC Santa Barbara from Dr. Ebenstein himself. Back then, he was a giant in the political science field (still is) and we stood in awe of him. At the same time, he was the only professor I had there who would invite us to a brown-bag lunch each week to discuss course work and his personal experience in Europe before and during WWII. I cherish the text as a reminder of my unbelievable good fortune to have known this great scholar as well as a kind and gentle man. He and this book continue to inspire me.

I used this book in college, I think maybe an earlier edition, very good readings of different political thinks, put together very well, I must say one of the best political science text books.

I was required to read this for my intro. to Political Science class, respectfully named Western Political Tradition. I could not think of a more useful and concise book for students to have during their studies, especially for those wanting to have the main arguments of the worlds leading philosophers.Starts with the Greeks on to present thinkers such as Hayek and Rawls, with biographical backgrounds followed by some of the works they are most famous for.

Using a model of an enterprise, this book is a guide for exploring key aspects of organization, revealing how they are interrelated, and assessing them. The work focuses on: the external environment; leadership; strategy; business processes; goals and measurement; human capabilities; knowledge management; organizational structure; and culture. There are self-assessment questions throughout the book and numerous guidelines for diagnosing and designing a healthy organizational. Illustrations are used to flesh-out the diagnostic process. The work is a how-to guide; it is well organized, comprehensive, and highly useful. As a management consultant in organization analysis and design, as well as editor of Stern's Management Review, I seldom have encountered a book on this subject that is as straight-forward in its delivery of value as this work. Highly recommended.

How many times have we been disappointed in the content of a book after having been impressed by the slick words on the jacket? Well, prepare yourself! Sometimes things really are the way they are stated. No illusions. And this is just such the case with Alan Brache's new book "How Organizations Work."

From his opening quotation of holistic unity from Chief Seattle on the jacket to his final inspiring words at the conclusion of the book, Brache ties all the elements of improving organization performance together in a scholarly, yet easy to read creation. His "Enterprise Model" for organizations, provides an impressive blueprint or x-ray for understanding the "complex network of interlocking factors" which contribute to How Organizations Work.

Using a model analogous to human biology, Brache has provided a framework within which we might better understand our organizations and the various factors that influence performance.

It is a great, easy read -- just in time for our serious summer reading list. Enjoy!

It is refreshing to run across a business book that goes beyond generalizations. In How Organizations Work, Alan Brache deconstructs the business organization to reveal all the elements of which it is made up. He then examines each, methodically, raising questions that really enable an executive to take stock and stock planning for improvement.
I worked with Alan many years ago, and I'm pleased to say that he is as lucid and logical as ever--and remains just as witty. His writing is crisp and to the point, and the real-life case studies that he intersperses ensure that the reader is never bored.
Alan has done a fine job with a subject that, in other hands, could have been not only dull but also purely theoreti-cal. Instead, this is a book you can read once to get the big picture, then go back to again and again for practical day-to-day advice.

Dale Corey, Business Writer & Researcher

Not just for the individual but also for the person in firm. I have applied Alan's ideas in selling professional services and differentiating my "products" from in-house work and competitors. The book is packed full of ideas. Implement two and it may take awhile to see the results - but it comes. As the other editorials write - it's not about cold calling - it's about the client(s) coming to you. Sound impossible. Read the book, it will be the best investment you ever make!! And I do mean investment - it'd take you take years to think of some of these ideas - if ever.

More fantastic consulting practice advice from Alan Weiss.

Eight months into building my leadership influence consulting practice, Mr Weiss has given me the gift of branding. He has shown me how to build the "gravity" to draw prospects to me, how to get more specific about the value I offer to clients, and what actions I need to take now to build the brand that will build my business.

I have seen some of these elements before, but this book wraps it all up in a neat template for action, and it has got me moving. I keep this book on my desk, not my shelf.

As a full-time practicing consultant to FDA-regulated industries for the past 5+ years, I enjoy and benefit from all of Weiss' books. 'Tho much of the information is repeated, it still serves to motivate. And, if each reading causes me to initiate only one more new (to me) technique, it is money and time well spent. Consulting tends to be a somewhat lonely profession, and part of my support group are books such as this. If you agree w/ such benefits, then I recommend this (and his others) heartily.

This beautifully produced book of 170 black and white photos by David Plowden, taken between 1956 and 1992, captures everyday man-made America before it vanishes, railroads, steamboats, farmland, small towns, bridges and the subject I like best, the grittyness of the US industrial city. Each page photo has a generous border and a caption centred below.

All the photographs are wonderful compositions, many of them divided into threes, horizontally, some land in the foreground, then a freight train and finally the sky. This is interesting because they show things that could not be moved, unlike studio photography, here the photographer had to move the camera to get the best shot. David Plowden seems to know instinctively when he sees something that it will make an interesting photograph. If you want to have a keepsake of slowly disappearing man-made America get this book.

Imprints is a wonderful representation of the America of our fathers and grandfathers that will soon exist no more, for better or worse. The photographic record in Imprints speaks wonderfully of the articulate and experienced eye of David Plowden. His images depict the unglamorous parts of life that most of us grow up with. Yet, at the same time, his keen vision shows us that there is beauty and art in everything. I grew up in the American Midwest in the 1950's and this book elicits nostalgia, sentimentality and a sense of loss. I wish I had been more observant, aware, appreciative at that time. Plowden has given me a second chance.

David Plowden has spent a lifetime taking his camera into small towns and down the backroads between them trying to capture an America that has almost completely vanished. We are fortunate that he arrived in time with a wonderful sense of composition that invests his black and white photographs with grace and beauty. This retrospective collects the best of these images into a cohesive photo essay of small towns, lonely farms and abandoned railroads. Placed against these small and quiet images are Plowden's photos of brutal industrial and mechanical structures. These nightmare images of factories and elevators and rail yards, draped in smoke and soot, make us as uneasy in turn as the rural photos made us nostalgic for the old ways. Plowden can cross between these two worlds so easily because they are really two sides of the same American coin. His brilliant photograph of a dark, brooding steel mill at the end of a grimy residental street combines the best and worst of the American dream. Plowden clearly would return to the simple small town days, but he has seen enough to understand that we are too far down the other path to turn back now. The photographs in this book are heartfelt. Some are very sad, and some impart a terrible sense of unease - as though we have stumbled onto an ugly secret. Plowden can take his place next to Walker Evans and Wright Morris with this book. He has captured our lost America and, for better or worse, marked the way into the new century.

If you are considering getting this book, I would recommend the hardbound edition. The paperback edition of this book, due to the size and dimensions of the book, has a clumsy feel to it.

The pictures in this book are stunning. This is a beautiful production. The only "gripe" I have with this book is that it shows certain cultural biases by the writers (they refer to Argentina as "uncivilized" in some areas), and the other being the same complaint I have about the movie this book is about: the slippery interpretation of Argentine history. That is where this book faulters most, in its attempts to describe Peronist politics and what they mean to Argentina.

But would most people who buy this book buy it for the sake of shedding light on Argentine politics? Not likely. They would buy it for the beautiful photographs, most likely of Madonna and Antonio Banderas. And there are plenty of those in this book.

This book was awesome. It had wonderful photography, and a very good and understandable explanation of the movie. I could no put it down. I think that he pictures, though, made the book. Both Antonio, and Madonna looked great!

I loved the movie Evita, starring Antonio Banderas and Madonna. I read this book and couldn't believe it. It told me all I ever wanted to know about the movie, and more.

The kids are hip and modern, the stories are fantastical and mysterious, and, somehow, in spite of our hardened sophistication, the stories are able to bring tears to our eyes.

Miracles is terrific! This collection is written for real-life American Jewish kids; for kids who while mindful of the import of Judaism for their parents, are struggling to define and understand their personal Jewish connection. The children in these stories are identifiably real, and that is part of the book's power. My own children identify with their ambivalence and are moved by their spiritual revelations.

The other source of power for these stories is Radding's sensitive understanding of a child's world and his ability to give voice to it at a level that captivates children.

I think you will really enjoy this book.

This is a wonderful set of stories: warm, gentle and quite moving. I think it would be an ideal bed-time book for little kids. An excellent holiday gift for the family with little kids (and maybe older ones, too)to help them build their connection with Judaism. Highly recommended.

This tightly written little gem of a book is packed full of interesting insights about the mental side of the game. Mr. Shapiro draws on material ranging from clinical psychology to zen, and from Hogan, Nicklaus & Woods to the double-digit handicappers most of us are more intimately familiar with in shaping a realistic and workable strategy for golfers of all abilities to not only get the most out of their golf games but to find more balanced lives away from the course. I highly recommend it.

This is the 3rd book on Mental Golf that I have read, and by far the best. The author provides a great test (similar to Myers-Briggs) that helps to focus on 6 areas that can be improved mentally. Each of these areas then has a chapter that has golf-related ideas (instead of some other books that provide overall life changing fixes...yuck) to get over the mental hurdles. For me, Hazard 5 (control freak) and 4 (trying to live up to other's expectations) were right on the money as far as the test scores then the anecdotes. I now have alot of new, useful golf-related ideas to try. Thanks!

One of those "little" books that turns out to be a gem of wisdom "Golf's Mental Hazards" is a book that will definitely inform your game, whether it's the game of golf or the game of life. A clincal psychologist, Dr. Shapiro employs a deft and insightful quiz to help the golfer establish his/her personality profile and then uses the profiles to point out strategies to improve the game. The book can be read as a straight "how-to" on the game of golf (and this avid duffer clearly knows and loves the game) but it also delves deeper into strategies that can inform and enhance the golfer's life when off the links, as well. Calling upon such eclectic references as Zen, Existentialist Psychology and death anxiety, Dr. Shapiro weaves together a philosophy of golf, and of living, that will expand the mind and spirit as much as it enhances the game. Delivered with both elegant insights and the rollicking style of a stand-up comic,"Golf's Mental Hazards" is a thoughtful, funny, delightful, and very helpful book, destined to become a classic in the literature of golf.

I love Lou Campanozzi's fresh style of writing. I picked up this book because I'm a Rochester, NY native and thought the similarity of the backdrop would be interesting. What I didn't expect, was to be glued to the pages! This book is well crafted with many twist and turns, told in a voice that puts you right in the scene. Only a real cop could bring the words on these pages to life as Mr. Campanozzi has done. Bravo! Ground Lions was equally as good. I'm hooked. Now that I'm a Mike Amato fan, I can't wait for the next book in the series. Hollywood will no doubt come knocking.

In Lou Campanozzi's The Killing Cards, a serial killer is stalking the city. Methodically selecting his victims according to the symbolism of their names, this ruthless murderer marks his success by leaving a "calling card" on each body, beginning with the Ten of Spades, then the Jack of Spades, then the Queen of Spades. Homicide detective Lieutenant Amato must work against the odds to identify this killer before he can crown his lethal spree with an Ace of Spades in this deadly and bizarre game. Lou Campanozzi's debut mystery is deftly narrated by film and television veteran Alan Zimmerman who does full justice to a compelling suspense thriller in this highly recommended audiobook adaptation. (Running Time: 360 minutes).

As a Rochester, New York cop for twenty-two years, Lou Campanozzi worked undercover in narcotics, commanded robbery and homicide squads, and rose in rank to a Captain after serving as District Commander on Rochester's west side. Lou and his wife Nancy presently are retired in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Lou presently serves as a Police Chief on an Indian Reservation. The Killing Cards is the winner of the 2001 Audie Award, for Best New Audiobook Publisher.

When Ace Amato is called to the murder scene of Frankie "Ten Times" Lanovara on February 2nd, he thinks it might be a mob hit. Ace is a Lieutenant on the Rochester Police Department, has twenty-five years in, and sometimes thinks that he should retire. He is tough, resilient, is a Viet Nam vet, and has, as one of his worst enemies, his Chief of Police, Westfield. Ace talks to his contact, one "Fast Eddie," who swears this isn't a mob hit. Furthermore, most mob hits don't leave playing cards on bodies as clues. Even Ace's superior officer, Charles Novitski, is stunned when Westfield demands briefings every day from Ace. Something is up:

"You know the story about me and him, boss. He hates me and I wouldn't give a fat rat's ... for him. Our feeling go way back. You know better than anybody what that's all about.' I do,' Charles Novitski said. Than he paused and looked down at the seat of his chair, as if he would find the words he needed there. He usually wants nothing to do with you, and he's one for sticking to the chain of command. Now out of the blue, he wants you to go directly to him every single day. It don't make sense to me, Mike.'"

In this gritty tale, Campanozzi writes a powerful, riveting story about a maniac committing serial murders and the effect this type of stress has on actual police officers and detectives. Campanozzi presents a reality package in this story that goes far beyond a normal police procedural.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

This is a wonderful book which stayed with me for days after reading it. The author essentially boils down the cultural differences between pre and post 1960s America to the rise of personal freedom along with its inherent companion, the demise of societal authority. He does so with a mixture of anecdote and fact, ignoring the mainstream stereotypical view of that era, making for an easy and engaging read.

Whether you view that time through the prism of the establishment, the dispossessed, or the child of either, you will find plenty here to mull as we approach the next phase of our evolving American culture. A fun, interesting read.

Alan Ehrenhalt's premise is a provocative one: People in the 1950s were happy, and they were happy because they accepted authority. The book is a rebuttal to all those who portray the 1950s as the 'dark ages' of US history, and the author argues that even blacks were better off than popularly believed. Ehrenhalt takes us to three Chicago neighborhoods: the Southwest Side with its working-class Catholic population, the suburban community of Elmhurst, and the black ghetto of Bronzeville. In each, he shows that people in the 1950s were content with their lives, and in many ways were better off than they are now. Even Chicago's black ghetto had a multitude of black-owned businesses and black social organizations, which have since vanished, replaced by nothing but vacant lots and failed housing projects. This is a provocative work of social history that challenges our image of the 1950s, and in addition, it challenges our assumptions about the benefits of free choice and the 'evil' of obedience to authority.

It is not often one encounters a scholarly work that is difficult to put down, but The Lost City is just that. I found this book to be immensely readable. Ehrenhalt's writing style is fluid and intriguing. By zeroing in on the individuals and communities that were archetypes of social conditions in the 1950s, the author is able to ground his argument solidly, while weaving an interesting dialogue of people and community.
If you have ever wondered about the "Fabulous Fifties" and what its communities were like, this is the book for you. Those longing for the security and morals of that decade may well be surprised by what was necessary of its citizens. The Lost City is a great read, and belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in society, community, and change.

This book serves better as a handbook or manual for mentors or those interested in becoming mentors. It is not necessary to read the entire book unless you want to know more about the history and background of teacher development and its trends.

What I liked most about this book was that you can refer to any given part of the book that was of interest for guidelines and suggestions in mentoring. The authors provide you with various Development Activities to use with your mentees. Also, things that you can put together in your professional portfolio as a teacher or mentor.

There's a great move to using the Coaching Plan in supervision. There's a sample plan included. A plan of action is included along with follow-ups with dates. You can also assign special assignments or readings for mentees as a suggestion to improve certain skills.

The use of journal writing is highly encouraged and promoted. Various formats are provided. It is suggested that at the end of the month, you go back to reread your entries to look for ideas, themes or feelings that surface from these entries. It's a good way to reflect on your practice through this type of analysis of your journal entries.

I used this book as a resource in a graduate level course on mentoring. It proved to be a comprehensive text on adult learning and learning theory in general. The case studies were poignant and highlighted the theories being discussed. The book does point out the need to reflect on one's practice which is often forgotten in the education field. This book comes highly recommended as an excellent textbook for mentoring classes at the graduate level in education. Even though it is comprehensive and therefore lengthy, the text is well indexed and can be easily used as a topical reference.

This book has a fairly complete background and history about teacher supervision and mentoring. Its academic and practical approach allows access for the classroom setting, field supervision scenario and practical tips for mentors and their mentees. It is both a research tool and practical tool for learning how to supervise, be a mentor and what the current thinking is on participatory action research & mentoring. The authors have brought together a workable blend of insightful case studies with theory. The result is a useful reference for field supervisors and their induction phase teachers.