Nash gives us a chapter by chapter review of most every famous celebrity murder occuring from 1877 (Jim Fisk) to 1982 (Sunny Von Bulow). His details about the murders are very good. In some chapters he gives a strong psychological evaluation of the killer. In others he doesnt, so you have to figure out why the killer did what they did. I guess Nash did most of his writing from secondary sources, so one can see that some murders flat out puzzled people. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

This is at once a pragmatic and a bold book. Combining urgency and optimism, it calls for higher education to take religious diversity seriously, and uses examples from the author's long career as a professor of applied ethics and philosophy of education to explore what this might mean for teaching and administrative practice.

In particular, Nash suggests that fostering a dialogue culture within the academy, in which students learn to 'imagine the world from the other side of the barricade', can promote shared respect, disseminate information, sharpen critical thinking skills, and ultimately, serve wider societal goals regarding the maintenance of a secular, pluralist society. Much of his book outlines how this might be achieved, centring around the activity of story telling. Nash encourages students to narrate their construals of meaning and value, and to develop an approach to their own and others' stories / convictions that is respectful and (in the best sense of the word) critical.

Religious Pluralism in the Academy will be of interest and relevance to those working in religious studies (and cognate disciplines), and teacher education, and to all those interested in widening participation and in education's role in the development of civil society. In short, it is a good book to 'think with', and a welcome offering in a much neglected field.

From Louis Masset on Jan. 9, 1900 to Joseph M. Majczek in May 29, 1983. This book gives a dated and graphic acoount of every Headliner in the business. It includes the real interviews, with some of the criminals themselves. It is divided into the major areas of crime. Take your pick and enjoy the ride.

Truth in advertising? This is solely about the U.S., with a very few token entries on people and place outside it. Nothing on the Triads, nothing on the Golden Triangle, nothing on Marseilles or Hong Kong, nothing on modern international gangs such as the Jamaicans or Nigerians, etc., etc. I returned my copy to Amazon in great disappointment. If you want biographies of some U.S. figures (only some: nothing on Harold Meltzer, for example) with ugly pictures, this might be of some use. But it's solely oriented to personalities, not to analysis

Trying to find a good reference book about organized crime? Want one at a good price? Jay Robert Nash has created the perfect book for you with World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime from De Capo Press.

The over 600 pages of the Who's Who in organized crime is covered in an A to Z format. From Joe Adonis, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugs Moran and so many others, you'll find the fascinating stories and cross-references.

You may find other books more detailed, but I have found this book to be complete in the overall number of people covered. The book is an easy read and the index makes it easy to look up anybody or any topic.

You'll be hard pressed to find a better value for your money. About the only thing missing is a cd-rom software application.

I don't think there has to be much explanation here. I've been studying the American Mafia for a couple of years and I have never seen or found such a variety of information. I have movies and books alike and I have to say that this is probably my best investment in any book or movie I own.

For all his talk of making the 8 track church into a CD one he gave no insights or ideas. Everything he said was unclear and general and I came away with nothing of value.

The title is most catchy....the content is only "somewhat catchy" at best. Nash's experience in theological circles (including three pastorates)well qualifies him to address a subject in which he only scratches the surface. I found myself finishing the book in a couple of hours, and wanting him to say more. His three or four or five or eight points in each chapter were helpful, useful, and thought-provoking. The issues of community wasn't as fully explored as I was anticipating or expected it to be. Maybe the author could team up with Dr. Stephen Green at Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene (California) and further examine exactly what the "modern church" must do to adequately address and minister to folk living in the throes of postmodernity. The almost comical analogies with the new WALMART Super Centers were cute at best, and lent just a tad to his discussion. Surely there are some "CD churches" in North America somewhere. The problem is only somewhat clear; now the author should help us find some biblical, meaningful and usable solutions.

I am an engineer and go to Church somewhat regularly. After reading this book, I now have a better idea of why I have been discouraged with my religious experiences at Church. Dr. Nash explains the problems that face today's church and its congregation. The points that Dr. Nash discusses, establish a starting point to experience Christianity within our world of mass information and search for a meaningful life. Dr. Nash describes what the new Church will be, and explains there are many roads to get there. It will not be easy, but rather extremely difficult. Mainly because congregations go from "group-followers" to individuals with individual responsibility and in that, lead the Church into a new open world with the ministers and pastors being coaches and supporters. As time passes, we will see who is up for the responsibility to be a Christian and who remains locked behind walls in the old world. Welcome to the new world we live in, thanks Dr. Nash.

I ordered the book because I thought it would help identifybuildings in the New York skyline. The book lists and describesseveral buildings of interest but the accompanying pictures are sketches and do not allow for easy identification. It was a dissapointment and I am going to request a refund.

This latest in City & Co's useful series of "50 Best" books is one of its most entertaining. It is almost impossible to miss NY's skycrapers, due to their size. But we do not always take the time to consider them individually. Nash's text is very informative, if at times a little dry. The real delight of the book is Parker's illustrations. With a single smooth line he regularly captures not only the appearance but the soul of these majestic buildings. And his humorous drawing style more than makes up for any occasional overseriousness in Nash's prose. Together the two men make a fine team, and their book of these big buildings is itself a little gem. Buy one for a friend, a visitor, an ex-Manhattanite. And keep one for yourself

Shoddy speculative fiction from one of America's worst crime writers.

This book is largely a reprint of Nash's wildly implausible 1970 book, Dillinger: Dead or Alive?, though coauthor Ron Offen is left out of the credits this time. The "evidence" for Dillinger's survival as presented in Nash's first book was based mainly on erroneous notations in Dillinger's long missing autopsy report and has been largely rebutted by more serious Dillinger researchers, notably Girardin and Helmer in Dillinger: The Untold Story. New "evidence" introduced by Nash in The Dillinger Dossier consists mostly of the revelations of "Blackie" Audett, an obscure ex-con and author of a volume of tall tales entitled Rap Sheet. Audett, now deceased, claimed to have known every major outlaw of the 30s, to have been involved in nearly every crime of the period, and to have aided John Dillinger in his permanent escape from justice. This alleged eyewitness to the Kansas City Massacre, who was in Leavenworth at the time, seems to have found a willing dupe in Nash but Audett's word doesn't hold a candle to the three known sets of postmortem fingerprints taken from the dead man by the FBI. While scarred by acid, the prints remained easily identifiable as Dillinger's. This book originally came with a mail order offer of Nash's taped interviews of Audett. It seems that few, if any, who ordered the tape ever received it and at least some got a refund check, with no further explanation. The late Joe Pinkston, author of Dillinger, A Short and Violent Life, owner of the John Dillinger Historical Museum and himself a trained lie detector examiner, once suggested to this reviewer that possibly Nash, or his publisher, realized that the tape could be tested with a PSE (Psychological Stress Evaluator) which would indicate Audett was lying, and removed the tape offer for this reason. At any rate, The Dillinger Dossier, like most of Nash's books, is one best avoided by serious historians but perfect for conspiracy freaks and anyone who appreciates a good joke.

This book (an expanded and updated version of Nash's earlier "Dillinger: Dead or Alive") tells a fascinating tale and (as is always the case with Nash) tells it well. Was John Dillinger really gunned down at the Biograph Theatre in July, 1934, or was the dead man a double set up to take the fall? At first, the idea that Dillinger might have survived the Biograph shooting for several decades seems right up there with alien abductions, but Nash makes an excellent case. And with what we now know about Hoover's FBI, the idea that the Bureau would have covered up the debacle for decades to avoid criticism is hardly shocking -- in fact, it's pretty hard to believe that Hoover would *not* have covered it up.

Even if you don't buy Nash's central hypothesis, the book is a great read, full of colorful period detail. If you have any interest in Dillinger or the early history of the FBI, buy it.

The book does a reasonably good job of covering the elementary aspects of using SPSS 10.0 for data analysis. Its primary weakness is the lack of data to duplicate the ample examples provided in the book. The book directs the reader to a web site for download of data. However, the data sets at the web site have changed and the results presented in the book cannot be verified or used for practice (e.g., the "bodyfat" data set is now "fat" and the data has changed). The book needs to be distributed with a data set. SPSS 10.0, Guide to Data Analysis by Norusis includes a data disk and it is nearly identical in most other aspects of the book. The Carver and Nash book has short sections on nonlinear models, basic forecasting techniques, and the Chi-Square tests not covered in the Norusis book if this is important to the reader.