Parkinson spent eight years in Malay as a professor of history. The brief author biography casts him as artist, journalist, soldier and historian. And part of the joy of this book is Parkinson himself who makes this 300 page history entertaining and informative in equal measures. In his introduction Parkinson writes, "My view of history is one of many and no more accurate than any other. All that I can claim for my interpretation is that it may be thought specially relevent to the age in which we live".pg.4
The book was written in 1963 and Parkinsons theory is that the east and west have alternately been dominant, "the periodic decline of one civilization creating a cultural vacuum that was filled by the adjacent rising culture." At the end of his book he predicts that the east is about to go through a period of ascendancy or renascence and that Russia allied with the west will be the "new Byzantium" which keeps the rising east at bay. Little could he have known in the cold war climate of 63 how prescient he would prove to be. Parkinson tells history in an easy going manner which nonetheless proves how comfortable he is with his material which ranges from the Persian Empire to Alexander the great to the Crusades and into the modern era of English Empire, Gandhi and the rise of marxism. He records how from the earliest trade routes the east and west were in contact and so were never at any point purely east and west as there was a continual flow of influence between the two. Parkinson finds the east to have been the more advanced cicilization and to have had a more significant effect on the west than vice versa until 1500, at which time the west began to become technologically superior most markedly in its application of eastern navigational knowledge to discover the new world. After 1500 Parkinson suggests the western nations began a period of accelerated growth spurred on by competition between themselves that left the east far behind. One reason for this Parkinson claims is that in the east the different areas of expertise were strictly regulated by the caste system which did not encourage communication between the various branches of knowledge, while in the west there was much more social mobility and a freer exchange of ideas which allowed and encouraged the flow of knowledge which resulted in the wests great advances in the sciences and technologies.
But Parkinson also argues that the period of western ascendancy ended around 1850 at which time he believes began to lose faith in itself. And thus his prediction that the moment is ripe for an eastern ascendancy. Part of the reason for writing the book he says was in the hopes that by understanding this east west dynamic we will be better equipped to deal with these inevitable shifts in power in a peaceful manner. He also adds that he thinks the dynamic is a good one and preferable to a universalism which would lead to stagnation on both sides.

THIS BOOK IS A HISTORY OF THE AGE-OLD CONFLICT BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN SOCIETIES FROM THE GREEKS THROUGH THE CRUSADES TO THE STRUGGLES OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION WITH ISLAM IN OUR OWN DAY. IT IS EXTREMELY WELL PRESENTED AND QUITE PROFOUND IN ITS VIEW OF INTERCULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS AND CONFLICTS AND THE REASONS FOR THOSE SPECIFICALLY OUTLINED. IT PROVIDES THE READER WITH SOMETHING MORE VALUABLE THAN KNOWLEDGE, AND THAT IS AN UNDERSTANDING OF AN ASPECT OF HISTORY AND OF CONTEMPORARY ISSUES THAT MAY WELL DECIDE THE FATE OF MANKIND. PARKINSON LOOKED BEYOND THE COLD-WAR STEREOTYPES THAT DEFINED THE ERA IN WHICH HE WROTE AND WAS BOLD ENOUGH TO INCLUDE RUSSIA IN THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE REAL CONFLICT. RUSSIA'S FATE, SAYS HE, IS INEXTRICABLY TIED TO THE WEST, AND THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE WILL IN FUTURE BE INSTUMENTAL IN HOLDING THE FRONT LINES OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM, BETWEEN AN EASTERN CIVILIZATION EXTENDING FROM CHINA TO THE ARAB STATES OF THE NEAR EAST AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT. AS IN THE DAYS OF THE CRUSADES, JERUSALEM IS THE SYMBOLIC, AS WELL AS THE TRUE CENTER POINT OF THIS CONFLICT. THE DAYS AHEAD WILL SEE AN EVER-INCREASING TENSION AS THE EAST AND WEST ONCE AGAIN WAR FOR SUPREMACY. THIS SUPREMACY HAD ACTED LIKE A PENDULUM IN HISTORY, EACH SIDE HAVING ITS ALTERNATING PERIODS OF GLORY AND DECADENCE. IF PARKINSON IS RIGHT, THE WEST IS IN DECAY AND THE EAST IS ON THE RISE. THE DANGER IS THAT THIS TIME MAY BE THE LAST TIME. THIS BOOK WAS SO INFLUENTIAL TO A HISTORY PROFESSOR OF MINE THAT IT IS USED AS THE PRINCIPAL LECTURE CURICULUM FOR HIS COURSE ON WORLD HISTORY. MY VIEWS HAVE ALSO BEEN BROADENED BY ITS STUDY.

I must admit that I read the first edition over 10 years ago. The impression I got was enough to change my entire political beliefs. This book studies the real effect of taxation on the people in any country. The question of why governments fail have always puzzled political scientist. Prof. Parkinson takes a historical/politic/financial look at this question. This book is not presented in a 'techincal' format but rather in a clear a-b-c prose veiw of what is important.

This is a reprint of the author's 1970 fictional biography of Horatio Hornblower. C. S. Forester wrote the first five Hornblower novels in chronological order, starting with Hornblower's service as a Royal Navy captain in 1807 and continuing to 1815 when the war ended and most of the Royal Navy was laid up. In the sixth book, he skipped back to cover the beginnings of Hornblower's career as a midshipman. That point seems to have been lost to later authors like O'Brien (who invented ways to keep Aubrey at sea, rather than dropping back to cover his early beginnings).

Parkinson created this biography by placing the Forester novels in chronological order, and then adding in details to explain Hornblower's early life, his family, and his years in retirement. It is so well written it is difficult to classify the book as fiction. The recent made-for-TV motion pictures on Hornblower have changed the details of the stories to a significant degree, but are generally following Hornblower's career (there was no Court Martial in Jamaica, only an inquiry, with the blame for Sawyer's death laid on the escaped Spanish prisoners, and no charge of anyone pushing him into the ship's hold).

Parkinson himself is an exceptionally good author of novels covering the Royal Navy of that time period. I am pleased to see that those novels are now being reprinted.

Of all the fictional characters in literature, only a handful have been compelling enough to be appropriated directly into stories by writers other than their original creators. Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is one such character. C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower is another. This work by C. Northcote Parkinson is just such a continuation story, but with a twist. Instead of an historical novel, Parkinson writes the book as if it were an actual biography complete with illustrated plates, footnote citations to other (probably fictional) sources, and extended quotes from letters supposedly written by the characters. The Hornblower enthusiast will appreciate the few extra episodes wedged into the chronology created by the original author, as well as a detailed account of Hornblower's ancestry, boyhood, and forty years of life after the period of active service originally chronicled by Forester. But the purist might take exception to one or two new characters that Parkinson takes the liberty of introducing. Parkinson is also quite knowledgeable about the period, and does an excellent job of framing a life such as Hornblower's within the society (both civilian and naval) in which the character is supposed to have lived.

Although written as a serious biography, the author is clearly a Hornblower fan having a bit of fun as his retirement project. Parkinson is best known as the originator of "Parkinson's Law" (work expands to occupy available time) and the author of a popular series of humorous but pointed commentaries on management practices written in the 1950's and 1960's. In these books, he often feigns being a sociologist discovering universal principles of human behavior. So it is no surprise that he should follow up with this story in which he pretends to be an historian researching an actual person. The same tongue in cheek humor is at work.

For fans of C.S. Forester's "Horatio Hornblower" series, this book is a must and a delight. Horatio Hornblower was a fictional British naval officer during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and his adventures are fictionalized in the Forester novels. I believe that the Hornblower series constitutes the best sea adventures in all of literature. Horatio Hornblower is unforgettable, both in the novels and in Parkinson's "Life and Times..."

This book is a great read. It contains fascinating little facts about Hornblower, but in my opinion the best part of the book is that it chronicles Hornblower's career in a manner that allows the reader to compare the reality (which this book presents)with Forester's wonderful stories. The result is absolutely engrossing. I always thought that in Forester's novels Hornblower had too many adventures for one real person to have had. Parkinson does a fine job of showing us that if anything, Hornblower's life was filled with even more adventure than presented in Forester's novels.

Parkinson answers numerous other questions I always had about Hornblower, such as why Bush was not promoted after the South American voyage, what Lady Barbara was really like and, most important--how did Captain Sawyer come to fall down the hold on HMS Renown? This book answers these questions and others as best it can, and this adds to the book's fascination.

Another thing to like about this book is that it does a good job of placing Hornblower within 19th Century British society. The Forester novels pretty much concentrate on Hornblower's sea adventures. American readers in particular will appreciate Parkinson's insights into the nature of the society in which Hornblower lived, and Horblower's place within it.

The next sentence will possibly confuse some readers. This book is a work of fiction.

This book is well-written, well-researched and is quite simply a book that every Hornblower afficianado will want to own, read, and re-read.

This book is quite unlike most naval fiction. Its focus is really more military than naval, more strategic than tactical. Naive teenager Richard Delancey, from the British isle of Guernsey off the French coast, is trying to find a career in England, but is swept into the British navy at the outbreak of the American Rebellion. This is the story of his quest for the king's commission, with lots of help and winking from his captains along the way. It is not a story of ships under sail. Most of the novel takes place on shore in New York, Jersey and Gibraltar. He hears of the grand strategy of the American Revolution, finds his American relatives, and meets several traitors. Through his eyes we witness a farcical French invasion atttempt. Then we see the strategy of the 1782 Franco-Hispanic attempt to take the peninsula of Gibraltar back from the British. Delancey's boat attack against the monstrous floating batteries is the only full naval action described in the whole book. Again the land battles are discussed with greater relish. Delancey should have been cast as an artilleryman. He is described as a mediocre ship handler, and that applies to the author's (in)attention to such matters. We don't see Dick handle anything larger than a rowboat.

Parkinson's tone is precise, clear, clinical and detached, as bloodless as he could make a war novel. He spares you all the "agonizing" and technical detail standard in salty sail-navy fiction. Someone new to the genre might like that. His prose is a bit formal and academic, interestingly didactic, but too learned for the mouth of an unschooled youth. Delancey is made effortlessly wise beyond his age by Parkinson's deep historical understanding of the Revolutionary era. The McBooks edition is pretty, with useful maps. They commit a couple of whoppers in the running heads, and the cover picture is strictly generic.

I found this book a little on the slow side with not enough action at sea. However, DeLancey is likable for all of that, despite his propensity to social climb. I think Parkison is better than most people credit and should give him a second try.

After you've read all of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester, what do you do? You can either re-read these classics of naval warfare or search for other similar authors. Are you more interested in a great story with a lot of action, deep realism without an idealized hero, or do you demand a literate and well written story? You must accept some trade-offs among the remaining age of sail authors such as Alexander Kent, Dudley Pope, Dewey Lamdin, James L. Nelson, Richard Woodman and C. Northcote Parkinson.

I personally want "all of the above" qualities in my reading, with the absolute requirements that it be a realistic, literate and well written story. I am willing to sacrifice some excitement and action in favor of these qualities. I wasn't sure based on the previous reviews if Parkinson would meet my criteria. After reading the first four novels in this series, I would say that he does without qualification.

As the other reviewers have pointed out, most of the action in this first book takes place on land, although there is definitely a naval flavor to the story. Even if we are missing the traditional naval broadsides here, the story is a very good one that holds the reader's interest. Much of the story takes place in America, Jersey and Gibraltar. Upon finishing this first book, I immediately went on to the next three of the Richard Delancey novels. It is too bad there are only six in the series.

I rate this series as five stars on the basis that Parkinson is, in my opinion, in the top four of the naval warfare authors whom I've read. Richard Woodman's Nathaniel Drinkwater series is also in this top group, whereas Kent, Lambdin and Nelson fall slightly below, but still worth reading. I enjoyed some of Pope's works but I often get annoyed with the lack of realism.

The fireship is a novel of the naval war with revolutionary France. I'd say it is a "must read" for serious fans of this genre. Casual readers may find it a bit too didactic.

Richard Delancey, unlike the heroes of some other heroes in this genre, like Alexander Kent's Bolitho, and Dudley Pope's Ramage, has difficulty getting promoted, he even had terrible difficulty finding a ship in the previous novel in this series. Delancey has zero "interest", zero patronage, a very important aid to promotion in the RN of this time.

But 1798 finds him second lieutenant aboard the Glatton, a 50 gun ship fitted with an experimental armament of all large caliber carronades. It is an interesting time in the RN. The Army has recently given enlisted soldiers a substantial pay raise, but there has been no corresponding raise for enlisted sailors for decades. The sailors are discontented. There is a mutiny aboard the ships of Admiral Duncan's fleet. It couldn't come at a more awkward time. Admiral Duncan's fleet is supposed to be blockading the Dutch.

Quick thinking on the part of the first lieutenant of Delancey's ship prevents the mutiny from taking hold, and the Glatton is able to join Admiral Duncan's ship, and bluff until the rest of the fleet joins him. But he had to kill a mutineer to do so.

Since the death occurred in port, the first lieutenant has to stay ashore, and Delancey has to assume his duties. He is acting first lieutenant when the Dutch fleet leaves port and is engaged by Admiral Duncan's fleet.

The Battle of Camperdown is a decisive victory. Every ship's first lieutenant is to be promoted. But Delancey's colleague has been acquitted, and the Captain wants him to receive the promotion, not Delancey. The Captain wants to make sure the trial does not put a black mark against this loyal officer's career. And the 1st lt after all had the primary responsibility for training the crew so that they performance was examplary.

Delancey is bitter, but he does receive command of a fireship. He makes the most of this, by researching the history of fireships. Fire was a very serious danger aboard sailing ships. Their upper works could be bone dry, and very highly flammable materials, like pitch, were used in their construction. Fireships werre ships intended to be sailed against enemy fleets at anchor, loaded with incendiaries. Big hooks are hung from her upper works, to entagle with the enemies ship's rigging. When they get close to the enemy fleet, the incendiaries are set alight.

Delancey finds that if he can find an opportunity to make effective use of his vessel, and it is destroyed while burning an enemy vessel he can count on promotion.

It seems a long shot. But a French expedition to stir up sedition in rural Ireland provides him with his opportunity...

The only other novel I know of that deals with the mutinies is Showell Styles "Camperdown"

Most readers are more familiar with the author's books on management, such as "Parkinson's Law," which drew some examples from the British military bureaucracy. His fictional accounts of Richard Delancey, Royal Navy, tend to be overlooked. I am pleased to see that they are now being reprinted. There are a total of five, of which this novel (copyright 1975) is the third chronologically (see my Listmania list for the full series).

In this particular novel Delancey is still a lieutenant without influence to help him obtain promotion. Like the fictional Hornblower, he must rely on chance (surviving and being in the right place at the right time - see Frederick Hoffman's, "A Sailor of King George") and his own skills. His assignments take him aboard several ships and involve him in the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore, the battle with the Dutch at Camperdown, and action on the Irish coast. The story (set in 1797-1798) is well researched, well written, and includes maps of the various places of action. The author provides a somewhat detailed look at the life of a British naval lieutenant, including various excursions ashore (Frederick Hoffman's autobiography notes the tendency to go ashore for socializing).

The original publisher's printing quality was not the best, so it can be hoped that the reprint is an improvement. Of books in this genre, it is one of the more suitable for children, avoiding the graphic sex and violence used by some more recent authors. Richard Woodman's novel, "A King's Cutter," is set in 1792 - 1797, covers some of the same events from a different perspective, and is also recommended for readers interested in that time period.

This is the fourth novel, chronologically, in the Richard DeLancey series. The first, "The Guernseyman," covered the beginning of his career in the Royal Navy. The next two, "Devil to Pay" and "The Fireship," covered his service as a lieutenant. The present novel starts with his promotion to command the sloop Merlin in early 1799 after serving 16 years as a lieutenant. Some officers were promoted due to connections and influence (see Frederick Marryat's "Frank Mildmay or the Naval Officer"), some by surviving and being at the right place when someone was needed (see Frederick Hoffman's "A Sailor of King George"), and some like the fictional DeLancey or Forester's Horatio Hornblower for exceptional action against the enemy.

The Merlin is assigned to dreary convoy duty and carrying dispatches, but eventually sees action with the fleet at Malta in the capture of Valletta (see Showell Styles "The Malta Frigate" for more details about Malta). That is followed by further action and a brief meeting with Commander Lord Cochrane. DeLancey makes a side excursion which takes him to a slave market on the North African coast, before eventually arriving at Gibraltar in time for Rear Admiral Saumarez's attack against the combined French and Spanish fleets in July 1801 (a fictional account of that action will also be found in Patrick O'Brien's "Master and Commander," where he has replaced the real life Cochrane with the fictional Aubrey). Ordered home to England, DeLancey makes a detour for his own profit with some help from his old smuggler friend Sam Carter.

The cover illustration, for unknown reasons, shows what appears to be a single masted cutter which seems to play no part in the story. There are a few technical glitches. The sloop Merlin is described as having 121 men and 24 guns, but later is said to have 9 men in each gun crew.

As an added note, W. P. Gosset's "The Lost Ships of the Royal Navy" shows Commander Lord Cockrane's brig sloop Speedy was captured by the French fleet under Rear Admiral Linois on 3 July 1801, and taken into Algeciras two days before the British attack on the anchored ships on 5 July 1801 during which the Hannibal was lost.

This is the 3rd book in the Richard Delancy series by Parkinson. I had heard of these books for several years but until recently was not able to obtain one. Most of the action takes place in the Mediterranean Sea in 1799. Delancy, Captain of the sloop HMS Merlin, is sent on several escort missions, and encounters Lord Cochrane and his ship the sloop Speedy. Cochrane tries to enlist his aid in a little ambush of French sloops raiding British commerce...Not as epic in proportion to other books of this genre, but by all means a most excellent read.

The year is 1805 and England is at war. At the end of the last novel, "Touch and Go," Richard DeLancey was a commander returning home to England as a peace treaty was signed. This novel (copyright 1978) finds DeLancey married to Fiona, a former actress. He has just been brought back onto active service, promoted to captain, and been given the older 32-gun frigate Laura for service at the Cape, in the Far East, and in the Indian Ocean. He must part from his young wife for an unknown period of time.

He has the usual assignments, including convoy escort, and is given a special assignment to chase down a French privateer. He also seeks his long-lost brother. He has exploits in escorting a convoy of East Indiamen attacked by French ships, and participating in the capture of Mauritius (repeated to some extent by the fictional James Aubrey in later novels written by Patrick O'Brien). After taking command of a different frigate, DeLancey finds a creative way to bring the ship's crew up to full strength (losses from disease and battles had been high). He then wins honors for himself and his crew in a final confrontation with the French.

Very little of this series, or this story in particular, takes place aboard ship. Parkinson clearly prefers life ashore to that afloat, his ships serving largely to move his wooden hero, Delancey, from one intrigue or action on land to another. Following an abortive raid on the Breton coast, Lt. Delancey, at loose ends again, suddenly becomes proactive and joins the coastal Revenue Service (as does Bolitho in the first volume of his much more exciting series by Alexander Kent). Eventually sent out of the way as a privateer, he runs into the shore and instantly constructs himself a spy mission (in effect this is the story Forester failed to complete in his novel, "Hornblower During the Crisis"). While crossing enemy territory Delancey gets into the most impossible situations and concocts one preposterous and elaborate cover story after another. It's fun to see how instantly inventive he is.

These are really stories of naval people, not of the British Navy in the Age of Sail. The few sailing episodes are precisely correct, as if from an instruction manual, worse still when Delancey is just imagining what must be happening elsewhere. The stories do highlight an unusual locale, the British Channel Islands (the "cow" islands: Jersey, Guernsey) just off the French coast. They are not romantic novels in any sense of the word, but plotted in a workmanlike fashion to go where the author wishes them to go, no more. There are too few characters introduced to successfully, suspensfully misdirect the reader from the traitors along the way. Parkinson, of all people, should have known to expand the roster to fill the time available. The volume has good sets of maps for each locale. The cover illustration is a more or less contemporary painting but has nothing to do with this story.

This novel, first published in the U.S. in 1973, jumps forward over 11 years from the end of book No. 1 in the series. The reader finds himself in the middle of a scene in 1794 with no knowledge of preceding actions. Richard Delancey is still a lieutenant - assigned to the Grafton, a hulk at permanent anchor, after some unexplained incident alluded to in the plot. A temporary assignment takes him back to Guernsey and the coast of France, but he then finds himself on the beach again, unemployed with no prospects.

Being in the right place at the right time, Delancey receives the temporary command of a Revenue Service cutter. His success leads to certain business interests offering him command of a privateer both in recognition of his abilities and as a means of removing him from the Revenue Service where he was a bit too successful. This provides Delancey with some profit, but also leaves him shipwrecked on the French coast and attempting to escape through Spain, just as the Spanish are entering the war. The remainder of the novel covers his flight through a hostile countryside, and action in Leon as he rejoins the Royal Navy.

The story is a mixture of action on land and at sea. Delancey has some interesting interactions with smugglers. Interaction with smugglers was also used in the plot of "Ramage and the Guillotine" by the late Dudley Pope.

In 1794 war with France gives Lt Richard Delancey his first active duty since the American Revolution. Delancey's previous naval career was undistiguished. He has no naval mentors, so he is pleased that his knowledge of French, gained through being a native of Guernsey, has lead to him to called on for a special mission landing secret agents in France.

Through no fault of his own, the secret mission further tarnishes his reputation and prospects. It leads to a duel. Reduced to his half-pay Delancey is ready to seize any opportunity.

A chance encounter leads to Delancey learning that the Captain of a customs vessel has been injured. He seizes his chance! He decides that if he carries the news to the Customs Collector for the Isle of Wight he may receive an interim appointment to replace the injured man.

It is not a great opportunity. His acting command only has a crew of 20. And his only hope of remuneration lies in figuring out how to outsmart the wily sm! ugglers. But at least he is at sea.

Delancey's brief experience in the world of intelligence pays off. He has first one, then two, then three early successes. Delancey's confidence returns. He has mastered this task sufficiently well that he realizes that the owners of the smuggling vessels will take steps to keep their vessels out of his grasp. Perhaps they will send them to other parts of the coast?

No, instead he is offered a much better job by a gentleman he suspects owns several smuggling vessels. He is offered the command of a private man of war, the 22 gun Nemisis, based in his home town of St Peter's Port.

Delancey has further adventures aboard the Nemesis, and ashore in France and Spain.

I'll close this review with two comments. I know of no other novel of this period that deal with the nautical aspect of collecting customs duty. I regret that this novel lay out of print for such a long time.

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Another way of saying "people spend what they can afford". That statement makes certain simplifying assumptions in describing the action. Parkinson claims that Administrator A will, when overworked, call for subordinates C and D. And each of these, when overworked, call for two subordinates. Perhaps only a third subordinate E is more likely to be hired? Unless its a monopoly running on a "cost plus" economy.

The increase in Admiralty officials may be due to political decisions that reflect the feudal system and its pride in larger numbers. This increase from 1914 to 1928 may reflect the rise needed for The Great War, and a reluctance to cut back afterwards.

The author notes the growth in the Colonial Office from 1935 to 1954, while the size of the Empire decreased. But it assumes there was no longer any involvement in the colonies, and no new work assigned to them. Perhaps a need for political appointees?

In Chapter Four the author discusses the optimal number of members in a committee: somewhere between 3 and 21. Assume a committee meets to do work, not to make work. There is a limited number of hours in a day; if each member speaks for 15 minutes, then 12 will take up half a work day. Time constraints will limit the number who will speak; those who only listen can be given a printed report. Somebody must control the topics and meeting.

Chapter Five answers the question: why are students of the "Liberal Arts" generally considered for top positions? The answer is the adoption of the Chinese system for competitive examinations. Those with a Classics background were perceived as fittest to rule; those with a scientific background were perceived as followers. The author does not discuss the class differences usually covered by this distinction. His comments on advertising positions is interesting, but ignores the fact that an acceptable candidate may chose another firm. His final advice on choosing a Prime Minister is not always followed.

Chapter Six claims the health of an institution can be gauged by its buildings, and cites St. Peter's in Rome. A more modern edition might cite the former AT&T and IBM buildings in midtown Manhattan, instead of the Palace of Nations in Geneva. But office buildings are recyclable commodities. A monumental edifice can be the mausoleum of an organization. Does this apply to the Department of Agriculture building in Washington?

Chapter Seven shows his wit and powers of observation by summarizing the cocktail parties that he attended. Chapter Eight discusses the question of why organizations decline. One way to judge an organization is by the quality of their cafeteria. Chapter Ten claims the compulsory retirement age is set at 3 years past the age when people begin to decline. More simplifying assumptions and playing with numbers? If not, what objective facts were used to arrive at this conclusion?

The value of this book is its observations on the common activities that are not often studied.