To access that overview, visit the following web site: http://web.psych.ualberta.ca/~aleksiuk/power.htm

If you want to make the big bucks sueing the deep pockets because there are a lot of stupid people in this country then this is the book and class for you! However, if you subscribe to the outmoded idea that personal responsibility for you actions is a value worth having then I would skip this subject.

Every small business could use publicity that brings in customers, and pays back the time that it takes to get the publicity. Small businesses don't have the resources to hire this work done, nor can they afford the time to do a lot of self-learning. This practical guide should be effective in helping any small business to a good payoff in publicity.

The book focuses on the basics: developing a promotional plan; implementing the plan to get the publicity; and doing the interviews and other publicity activities. Topics covered include writing press releases, media advisories, press kits, cover letters to the media, fact sheets, public service announcements, getting magazine placements, follow-up calls to the media, handling TV and radio interviews, and special events.

The book has several strengths that make it a good resource. First, there are self-assessment tools here to help you understand what you are capable of doing for yourself. Second, there are examples of how to do each step of the publicity process so you have something to use as a guide. Third, there is an excellent list of suggested reading to get you more detailed information to expand your thinking after you have mastered the basics. Fourth, I found resources cited here that I had never heard of before despite having done a lot of self-publicity over the years. I'm sure this will save me lots of time on my next book tour!

The author also indicates that the book is good for business managers, students taking public relations classes, and those managing communications for nonprofits. While that is true, I think that these audiences would find the book to be a little off target. So I would rate it as 3 stars because it is too simple for a larger business, 4 stars for a student as being a bit too limited, and as 3 stars for a nonprofit (not developing enough about the special issues of nonprofits).

Good luck in overcoming the communications stalls that keep people from becoming customers of your enterprise!

As a word of advice, I suggest you spend a fair amount of time thinking up what is unique about your small business that would make it newsworthy. That may mean actually changing your business. That could be the best payoff you could get from seeking publicity.

Donald Mitchell

Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (available in August 2000) and The 2,000 Percent Solution

(donmitch@fastforward400.com)

Take one overwhelmingly male-centered and predominantly white society, add huge portions of power, racism, sexism, a misinformed public and gross displays of injustice, and you've got a recipe for the American way. This collection of essays written at the time of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings holds every bit of relevance now as it did nine years ago. Highlighting earlier civil rights legal battles and connecting their influence to the hearings themselves, each essayist examines in progressive detail just how pervasive--indeed, how dangerously latent--racism and sexism are in our society. How the volatile and often avoided issue of race can blind the equally volative and often dismissed issue of sexism in any race. In these essays, we are given a shockingly clear image of the circus that was the mishandling of the hearings. Explosive, revealling, and thought-provoking, this book yanks the proverbial rose-colored glasses from our collective American conscience and dares us to think for ourselves.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Radiative Heat Transfer by Michael F. Modest is a college-level mechanical and chemical engineering textbook, specifically written and intended for advanced students already familiar with basic calculus. Individual chapters address radiative exchange between a variety of surfaces; equations, functions, and methodologies; the influence of conduction and convention, and much, much more. An advanced resource and an excellent text or supplement to engineering education, Radiative Heat Transfer is especially commended to students of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

A philosopher of history as much as a historian and a sociologist, Michael Mann focuses here on early Modernity among the Occidental Great Powers -- France, Britain, Austria, Prussia/Germany, and the USA. While an inclusion of non-Occidental powers would be enlightening, there is sufficient material here to get an appreciation for the shift from agrarian to industrial bases for power. Mann also well elaborates the asymmetrical nature of power distribution and the variety of strategies used by those in power to maintain and build their power during this shift.

The intensive power of states increased dramatically, as did the larger aggregations and awarenessess within and between them: the nation-state was being born. Small level policies had unintended and often catastrophic effects at larger levels -- which is the kernal of Mann's anaysis of the causes of World War I. An upper-division college level book, perhaps a bit denser than it needs to be, still Vol. 2 is a most stimulating book. I look forward to Vol. 3.

Lerner is a lifelong radical who turned to therapy and class analysis to understand why leaders and activists in social movements are often overwhelmed or defeated by their own sense of powerlessness- even when they are winning.

Field tested in support groups, workplace stress groups and family oriented programs with union members and other workers in Northern California, Lerner's work at asks most of the important questions about why work disempowers so many of us and damages our social anmd political lives. This work is also informed by Lerner's reclaiming the transformative power of religion in his own life.

Michael Lerner is a former editor of Ramparts, student and anti-war leader, and editor of Tikkun magazine.

Steven J. Zaloga is one of the most gifted popular historians of armored combat. Unlike industry-oriented publications like Jane's, Zaloga explains the concepts and methods of land combat with a maximum of clarity and a minimum of jargon. It is well-illustrated as well. The book was published before the First Gulf War, and so does not reflect the changes brought on by the current generation of satellite-guided munitions, but the basic concepts remain valid.

Definitely a great book for teachers at all levels! This comprehensive guide to coorperative learning is simply written and succinct while providing me with a good understanding of the concepts. It utilised relevant examples and suggested many activities I am keen to try. The Teacher's Sourcebook of Cooperative Learning is well-worth the money and one of the best books in this field I have come across. I would recommend it to everyone.

I read this cuz I got this book called runes and it made no since so I got the book called understanding runes and so it made since to me, it's really kewl and fun! ~*Stacy*~