Dr. Charles Marks offers his personal insights into the workings of the medical care system in the Florida Department of Corrections. His thesis is that the structure of the system discourages innovation and promotes the status quo, even when to do so leads to more expensive and poorer quality of care. He provides many examples in support of this position. And it is these fascinating stories which make this book so compelling. Anyone who has ever questioned how medical care in a correctional system is delivered, why things are the way they are, and why it is so hard to make changes will find this book fascinating. Dr. Marks story leaves the reader pessimistic about ever affecting any true reform of "the system."

At the end of a successful career as a surgeon in many parts of the world, Charles Marks took up an appointment as Medical Director of a large Florida Correctional Insitution. There his personal humanitarian drive came into conflict with the essential security requirements of a prison, a place that scars all those who live within its walls. Dr Marks' ideas for a more compassionate and cost effective medical system could save the State about one sixth of its current massive expenditure; since this would be at the expense of entrenched interests he soon provoked many intraprofessional and political antagonisms.

His clinical anecdotes and other stories are cogently told. He gives us a clear exposition of his views, developed after deep reflection on his experience, about the causes of criminal conduct, and its relation to mental derangement. He discussses the death penalty and related appeals processes. This readably written book should be of wide interest, especially to those who would reform the system, or might contemplate a career with the Department of Corrections.

Ridley selected some of Darwin's most important passages from his various works- from "Voyage of the Beagle" to his well-known "Origin of Species". Although some of Darwin's original passages are a bit hard to read, Ridley does a great job in summarizing beforehand the aspects of each selection in the introductions to the passages. Ridley also points out some of the truths and misinterpretations made by Darwin without bias.

If you want a compilation of Darwin's important passages in one book, or just a solid introduction to Darwin, his theories and works, this book will be sufficient for everyone.

The Darwin Reader, Second Edition, is well worth the read. I have yet to find a more helpful and interesting compilation of Darwin's works. With the second edition, Ridley expands the book with more information about Darwin's life and gives helpful hints on where to continue research in this field. In my opinion, this book is targeted for the college student with the new preface. A top ten in my library!

This anthology covers the American anarcho-individualists gathered around Benjamin Tucker in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The essays do a pretty good job covering different aspects of these figures, their acts and disagreements and so forth. Those with a particular interest in these individuals will want this book, but it lacks wider relevance. Anarchists of other stripes may also find it of interest.

Nearly every student in the making disciplines - architecture, and design, fine art, and applied - sees the crit as a difficult experience. Whether it involves a project during study or the final presentation for a degree, the crit is a central aspect of an education in these fields. Understanding how to make best use of the crit will help design scholars in every field.

This book is a useable, well-written guide to the crit. Directed to students, it will also help teachers and research supervisors. While many fields of design research make no use of the crit, nearly every design student and design teacher will take part in a crit or review at some point. This book offers helpful suggestions and benchmarks. It is also useful for professional presentations.

Despite its value as a practical guide, this book is less satisfactory in scholarship. It is seasoned with useful quotes and citations that are poorly sourced. It is unacceptable to cite a single fact or a one-sentence quote from a 257-page by casually referring to author and year. The scholar's work involves organizing sources and making them useful. When architecture and design professors make claims to scholarship, the standards of good scholarship apply.

Good scholarship also involves critical attention to historical fact. The authors claim that the crit began with the eighteenth-century tripos of Cambridge University. Their dates are off by over a thousand years.

The crit is rooted in two traditions, the guild tradition, and the academic tradition. When guild apprentices sought journeyman status, they were required to submit a piece of work to a board of masters. The jury of masters reviewed the journeyman piece and conducted an oral examination on technique, craft knowledge, and professional ethics. After passing this crit, an apprentice advanced to journeyman and was allowed to work freelance. A similar examination took place when a journeyman submitted his masterpiece for advancement to master standing. These traditions are probably rooted in ancient history. Some aspects of these traditions go back to the ancient crafts of the Middle East. These customs were clearly in place among European guilds by the Middle Ages.

The academic tradition of public debate to defend a scholarly thesis began more than two thousand years ago with the philosophers and rhetoricians of classical Greece. The medieval universities established the custom of public lectures, debates or defense of a thesis by the 1200s. Public presentation was required for the inceptio that inaugurated a candidate into the body of masters or doctors.

The authors of this well structured book on educational and professional practice should have restricted themselves to what they know. They attempted to spice the book with learning, enhancing its authority with scholarship and history. When designers, architects, and artists make scholarly claims, they must respect the requirements of scholarship. These include proper sourcing and critical investigation of factual claims. KF

Book review published in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 8, Aug 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Well-written, well-researched accounts of fiddlers whose time has passed but whose reputations as masters of the instrument grow with time. A bonus is Wolfe's research on many early recordings of these musicians and how they came to be. Highly recommended for anyone remotely interested in the subject. This author knows his subject. I went looking for CD samples of their music, which wasn't easy to find but was worth the effort. Jim Travis, Nashville

I found International Development clearly written and informative. The vocabulary used is not highly technical making the book easy to understand, even for those with only an elementary background in development.

International Development introduces the reader to the different facets of development, including both the theoretical and the practical aspects, but treats no subject in great depth. Therefore, because the book is only an introduction to the topic of development, further reading must be done for a through understanding of the topic.

The text addresses the political as well as cultural, social and economic aspects of the development process. The majority of the information is explained with no evident bias, though the political preference of the authors is made clear as they advocate democratic, capitalist methods of development and condemn Communist practices in some sections.

With the second of his general Southwestern cooking recipe books, Mark Miller has joined the likes of superstar chef Bobby Flay in putting a region long misunderstood on our culinary map. In the early to mid 90's Mr. Miller helped develop our palets to appreciate gourmet where we used to expect less. This book will add fire and and great recipes to any chef's repertoire. It is a fantastic example of what a great cook book can be.

This book is both inspiring and informative. Many effective techniques are discussed which can add much to any therapist's list of favorites. You'll refer to it often

This books is for administrators looking to secure an NT Server. It covers a broad base of topics with step by step explaining how to implement the topic. The book details what each setting does and explains it better than the NT resource kit. It is not as detailed as Windows NT 4.0 Security, Audit, and Control by Jumes, Cooper, et al; however, it does cover more topics.

This is a well written story, that goes to the heart of the matter, namely, the burden placed upon a juror in a well known trial. This book places you in the juror seat thoughout the trial process. You experience both the defense and prosecutions side of the evidence, as presented to the jurors, through the use of text from the actual trial transcripts etc. I would recomend this book to anyone, who likes an easy read, and a story, that keeps your interest up. The author, did a fine job, of conveying the mood of the trial and of all the participants involved.