In his book, Shenkman does an excellent job of ferreting out and explaining presidential ambition. While it may seem that Shenkman is concentrating on the negative, he is vigorously fair, and his ability to empathize with his subjects is his greatest asset. His central themes are:

1.Our presidents have been (from Washington onward) insatiably ambitious men who have done not-so-nice things to get and maintain power;

2.Their ambition and willingness to bend the rules often provided the leadership needed to steer the country through difficult times; and

3.Changes in the media, immigration, political parties, and technology forced presidents to take extreme measures to get and keep power.

What makes his book even more interesting is that he uses evidence from the historical record of presidents *before* Truman. And Shenkman spends a lot of time discussing presidents that most people know nothing about: Cleveland, Hayes, Buchanan, Polk (and his chapters on Buchanan and Polk are the best of the lot). This alone makes the book worth reading: I can't wait to suggest it to my blowhard uncle who claims Clinton was the first president besides Nixon to lie in office.

So why 3 stars, given that I am so enthusiastic about the content and the rigor of Shenkman's work? His writing has been called "breezy" and "journalistic". And his prose is both of those things, but there are times in this book that Shenkman gets in his own way with his self-conscious prose. He overuses two devices that should never, ever be overused in prose--sentence fragments and slang. The first time he used the word "caved" to describe a presidential capitulation, it was refreshing, but by the fourth I was tired of it. More annoying was his continued use of sentence fragments. Some of his points flourished with the punchy use of such informal prose; but in other cases, the device felt to me like an affection-an affection unworthy of someone like Shenkman whose prose in other places was indeed breezy and graceful.

That said, these problems are not serious enough to diminish the maturity of Shenkman's commentary. I think it is an excellent book for people (of any age) interested in the presidency. Some readers may be put off by Shenkman's moral relativism, and I guarantee the book would make for a lively discussion for a book group.

Presidential Ambition is an elementary read on the politics of the presidency. It significantly misleads the reader into believing that they are going to read a political/psychological analysis of the presidency, by treating each president individually. Rather we get a historical recap of what events forced the president to act "ambitiously" and "without scruples." Although each time we are reminded that the President did not really want to act in this matter, but the events around him forced him to do so. Shenkman offer little in terms of analysis and my reasons for offering an average review is that while there is little in terms of political analysis or an a look into the presidential psyche (in terms of analyzing personal papers, decisions, etc.); Shenkman offers a very good history on the presidency in an easy to read manner. His anectodes are interesting and purposeful chosen to support his rather simplistic thesis that to be President one must be ambitious, and as the country grew more complex, the more ambitious the president. Ambitious as the sole reason for propelling a President to make any decision sets up an unrelaistic scenario that suggests the President acts unilaterally. It is a historical delight, but as a book of political sciecne, it is underwhelming and a travesty

This book offers a fascinating insight into the lives of some of the men who have held the office of President. The author maintains that as times have gotten more complex, presidents are pressured to break the rules, lie and lend themselves to scandal to maintain political power. Shenkman poses and interesting question when he asks if the system is flawed or the individuals. He fairly concludes that both are flawed and proceeds to give example after example of how different presidents manipulated situations and circumstances to achieve and maintain their presidential ambitions.

The thing that I liked best about this book is that it spotlights some obscure presidents that you rarely hear about such as James K. Polk, James Buchanan and Chester A. Arthur. I particularly found the chapter on Franklin Pierce very interesting. He had high presidential ambitions but at the same time, he had to keep his ambitions a secret from his wife because she did not want him involved in politics.

The book does an excellent job of covering presidential amibitions up until the Eisenhower administration. After this, the author gives an abbreviated view of the Cold War, Vietnam and Watergate. I found this to be strange because it would seem that this period of American history would provide the most blatant examples fo men manipulating events and circumstances to maintain power and shape policy. In anycase, this was the only shortcoming that I didn't like but overall it is a very good easy to read book that is well worth your time.

This book is in two halves, only one of which I was really interested in and enjoyed. I have enjoyed some of Horsley's other books but this one, while having good material was too bogged down in the first section on Roman religious practice, mainly of interest to the academic I suspect. I was also disappointed to discover that much of the material has been published before elsewhere.

Nevertheless there is some great material here that should be of value to those interested in the origins of Christianity and the work being done by the Jesus Seminar. Of particular interest to me was the point that Paul was not setting up a religion and cannot be called a Christian by today's definition.

Professor Horsley's anthology of essays (primarily by other authors), and his introductions, do much to appropriately redefine Saint Paul's writings within social and political contexts. Explicitly rejecting the notion that Paul is to be read exclusively as religious literature intended for a religious community, Horsley (et al.) painstakingly demonstrates that the preaching of the crucified Christ was a direct challenge to the Roman Empire. Similarly, the building of Christian communities around the proclamation of the resurrection were intentional rejections of secular values and order.

Living in an age when religion has too often been high-jacked by fundamentalists of all denominations and faith groups, to serve only petty theological agendas, Horsley's collection stands for us as a useful reminder that faith can be something more.

This is a useful anthology on an important subject in Pauline studies. Although the fourteen essays presented here have been published elsewhere, it is very helpful to have them collected in one place. Further, Richard Horsley's introductory material offers a significant synthesis of the material. In short, the collection depicts St Paul as developing an explicitly anti-imperial movement, in opposition to the all-pervasive emperor cult of Rome. Three aspects of this movement are focussed on: Theology (Parts 1 and 3), Patronage (Part 2) and church as an alternative society (Part 4). I would recommend this book to undergraduate students of the Bible, and indeed to anyone who doesn't see what politics has to do with the New Testament. I would also recommend Neil Elliott's 'Liberating Paul', some of which is reproduced in this volume.

Being a teen who has been close to suicide many a time, I know from experience that reasons for suicide are plentiful, but finance is a main problem. Why sell a book on how to prevent suicide? To me thats a little bit of a tease. Also... I don't think parents would buy this book, as the symptoms of a suicidal teen are not in great supply. We hide our feelings. Well, thats just my opinion.... An online 'How to prevent suicide' would be much more effective

Unlike many other books on adolescent psychology, this book takes more initiative in teaching teenagers to help each other during tough times. The tips included can be used immediately after reading them, and the authors stress certain important points repeatedly so that, although they may seem redundant to those who already know them by heart, no one can finish the book without having them permanently inscribed in their minds. The first person point-of-view style taken by the authors when explaining suicide helps, but not completes, a teenager's understanding of why his or her peers may consider suicide. There were a few detractions though. More fundamental information on depression as well as the increasing necessity to consider sexuality and ethnicity as aggravating factors in suicidal teens may have helped. A few sections were over-generalized, but the most important info (such as the "fact or fiction" of suicidal behavior) were well-covered. Combined with a book on teenage affected (i.e. emotional) disorders, alcohol/narcotics addiction, and/or risky environments (e.g. abusive families, violent neighborhoods, homogenous communities), whichever is helpful to the reader, this book can go a long way in reducing the heart-breaking statistics on suicide among young people. A newly revised edition with updated information is eagerly awaited.

Nelson & Galas have put together an excellent book packed full of information such as the myths, facts, risk factors and warning signs as well as how to prevent suicide from happening. This powerful book is geared towards teenagers to help each other but it is also an excellent resource as well for parents, teachers and para-professionals. As a graduate student in elementary education, I found this book easy to digest and relative to the issues facing todays teens. As a parent of four girls, my concern in the prevention of the skyrocketing suicide rate is of utmost importance. As I read, I was able to recall what life was like as a teenager and the high importance of some issues to teens of things that I now would think of as minor or temporary. I recommend this book highly for parents, teachers, school nurses as well as any teen (contemplating suicide or not). It is a MUST resource, and should be easily available for all who would benefit. Maybe if more people can understand why teenage suicide happens, we can recognize the distinguishable warning signs and be more successful in preventing it.

THIS BOOK HAS A SHORT DISCRIPTION ON THINGS LIKE CHAKRAS,ESP,CLAIRAUDIENCE,ETC. BUT THATS IT. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO TELL YOU HOW TO MANIFEST YOU PSYCHIC ABILITIES DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. THATS WHAT I BOUGHT IT FOR AND WAS VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED. SO ONLY BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT SHORT DESCRIPTIONS ON THE SUBJECTS BUT DON'T BUY IT IF YOU WANT TO MANIFEST YOUR PSYCHIC ABILITES. IN FACT, DON'T BUY IT AT ALL. ALL OTHER PSYCHIC BOOKS TELL YOU ABOUT ALL THE SUBJECTS IN THIS BOOK AND GIVE A BETTER DESCRIPTION ON THEM. THEY ALSO TELL YOU HOW TO MANIFEST THEM. SO DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. IF YOU WANT TO WASTE YOUR MONEY LIKE THAT JUST GIVE IT AWAY TO SOMEBODY(LIKE ME). :)

I found this book fascinating. It's a comprehensive insight into what being psychic means and dispells the myth that it's a God given gift to just a few. The author also explains how becoming psychic can bring a positive aspect to your life and the world! A must read for anyone wanting to know about unlocking their psychic potential.

I found this to be an excellent book. There is so much garbage spoken about what are psychic powers but this book gives an extremely accurate overview. It is obviously written by someone who has not only researched the field thoroughly, but is himself an excellent psychic. I highly recommend this as the best book I have read on psychic development. Personally, I think it is vitally important to present the psychic world with clarity - and Dr. Lawrence does that.

Back in AD 1964, the sordid details of Joe Kennedy's life were kept secret. So what you have here is a very incomplete picture. But, if you want to understand his stock trading or his ambassadorship to Great Britain, then this book is for you. But compared to Kearns-Goodwin and Kessler, this is very lop-sided.

oddly, you may be surprised about the kennedy's of massachusetts when you finish Whalen's work. It is possible that many have been quick to judge the family in a negative manner. Whalen, however, certainly points out Joseph Kennedy's very wonderful points including love of his family and gracious help for mankind. His charity for a man who wandered into his office off of the streets of Boston having just lost his son-and Mr. Kennedy buying the man a suit and paying for the funeral of that son-is particularly touching. Also of great interest to anyone interested in making a buck is how Mr. Kennedy made so much money in so many different arenas-sold out and took his profit on to the next venture-a sixth sense he had for making big money! author whalen points out this was almost always the case except his keeping ownership of Chicago's Merchandise Mart in the Kennedy name up, I believe, until currently-1998. Buy this work and then be prepared to not put it down for 48! ! hrs.! Of added interest was a historical look at how Joseph Kennedy got into B grade motion picture producing in Hollywood in the early days.

As the title indicates, it is a book to teach readers how to read tarot with intuition. Thus, Mr. Prosapio offers FEW card meanings (this is a 92-page book and uses Morgan-Greer Tarot as illusitration) In this book, he teaches some tips and methods to do an intuitive reading. Somehow they just do not work for me. Probably it is because I need broader and deeper knowledge of tarot as foundation before doing an intuitive reading. Personally I believe that a beginner needs a textbook that can lead readers (especially who is not very intuitive) step by step; and an experienced student is probably interested in symbolism or other sort of occult knowledge releated to tarot. Neither this book can meet. For me, this book is worth to read but not to buy.

This book is wonderful as a workbook, especially for an intuitive type person. I have gone through it twice so far, each time enriching and personalizing my use of the Tarot. Richard's book and style have given me the confidence to bring intuition into readings for myself and friends. Although this may not be the first or only Tarot book you'll want, it can help you to integrate knowledge from other Tarot sources.

Schonberger hits on several strong manufacturing ideas in this book, but overshadows these good points with a severe lack of focus. One comes away from this book with lots of buzzwords floating around in one's head, but no idea where to begin applying any of them, or what form such an application would take.

The mantra of the book appears to be "do everything," when what a lost manufacturing manager needs is help on what are the (very few) key points of control in a system, how to identify them, and how to use them to powerful effect.

The author would have you believe that "customer service" should be the goal of production. Nonsense. Customer service is a very important tool that is a means to an end: cash flow. If cash flow could be best guaranteed by ignoring customer service, then companies would be foolish to do otherwise.

As it happens, customer service is a vital key to production, but only so far as it directly or indirectly supports the financial engine that drives a company. Evidence: it would be trivial to design a production system that supports the customer better than any in the world and that loses all viability in month.

This book gets a couple of stars due to the presence of a few good thoughts, but the author seems to have no clue what to do with them, or which are most critical.

For better results, go straight to the source with Deming, or get some focus with Goldratt.

When Dick Schonberger first showed us a glimpse of the research that was going into this book, I could not wait to see "the real thing." This book is, like all his work, an important and major examination of what makes a manufacturing organization excellent. Built from "the numbers', as well as years of observations, Schonberger's work allows anyone - consultant, practitioner, teacher, executive - to understand the critical points at which a group defines its capabilities. HIs comprehensive References and Bilbliography show that he gets around; his overall vision shows that he sees where good process is headed. Read this book for a measured look at manufacturing progress over the past ten years or so.

Both in style and content this is a heavily theoretical, academic work. The concept of spheres of influence does little to advance the discussion beyond what could be achieved using conventional portfolio models and competitive theory. The constant reliance on historical, non business related examples only increases the abstract nature of D'Aveni's argument.

D'Aveni is unable to provide examples of companies who have followed the approach he describes and thus his argument is weakened by a lack of coherent or consistent case studies. He is forced to rely on a series of vignettes that attempt to justify small parts of his argument.

As an academic exercise in reviewing similarities across social, military and business history, Strategic Supremacy offers some interesting insights. As a tool for understanding the competitive environment and developing strategies it does not, in my opinion, offer a great deal that current tools cannot provide.

I did not find this book useful, instructive, or even interesting. There is something about these high-brow academics that just seems to make them incapable of grasping the real world. I'm sorry but this book read like it was written by a junior in business school on the night before it was due.

I have read virtually every book there is on business strategy - this one rates as one of the worst.

Transcends the simplistic Chicken Little strategic approaches that recommend you blow yourself up to save yourself in the face of change and chaos. Rather than assuming the sky is falling, D'Aveni reveals, through wisely analyzed cross-industry and longitudinal studies, how the underlying character of firms can lead to startlingly successful and varied approaches for marketplace triumphs.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld,
Associate Dean, Yale School of Management,
& Founder and CEO, The Chief Executive Leadership Institute, "The CEO College"

Rosecrance feels that China and India and a few other places are about to become mere body countries -- body and head are his terms --manufacturing goods for head countries, such as the US, which will specialize instead in services.

His argument sounds to me suspiciously like the old fungible commodities / surplus value contrast, once used to characterize The Developing World and rationalize its economic subjection to The Developed World: the low profit margins in the former's economic activities ultimately made them prey to the high profit margins in the latter's -- Celso Furtado and many others torpedoed this idea long ago.

I also find it difficult to accept that China and India et al. willingly will don the old Latin American latifundia role of becoming merely offshore manufacturing and assembly sites for US and European managerial / owner consumers. There will be resistance to this, not least from all the US and European - educated hitech entrepreneurs who now are back home in Bangalore and Shanghai setting up startups: there are some very bright folks among them, and they are not entirely ignorant of the economic history which Rosecrance blithely assumes away in his book.

So there may be more conflict than Rosecrance postulates -- _will_ be, if the US and Europeans use their current economic and political muscle to force their current world market capitalism views on the Chinese and Indians and others. President Clinton is trying this out this week (11/22/99) in Florence on the Europeans, and some among even them are balking.

The very old international law view that the essential function of The State is the monopolization of the use of force -- somebody's got to do it -- could come back into fashion, then. Rosecrance also assumes away this conflict issue: he thinks that Developed and Developing, locked into a happy dance of mutual economic dependence, somehow never will find anything to fight about, or at least will see personal loss in fighting.

This begs the question of inequality, the fatal flaw in Mercantilism and Colonialism and a number of other World Economic Orders which foundered long before Rosecrance's Virtual Statism is going to founder. I expect myself that Chinese computer design and Indian software design, and the _local_ finance and management of same, all are going to be pretty good, actually -- and those people will fight to create and keep their comparative advantages in these and other economic areas. Trade is merely warfare by peaceful means -- an equation which easily becomes reversed under stress.

The Virtual State is a good idea, but Rosecrance's formulation of it is not: the new flows of goods and services have been analyzed by others -- the issues which Rosecrance derives from this novelty are old, and their resolution is very old and not at all virtual. This is a simplistic book, uninformed by economic history. Rosecrance preaches to the choir in the US, but his ideas will play differently overseas.

This book has been written from what the scholars of International Relations would call "Pluralist - Liberalist" perspective. The argument in the book about the "head" and "body" nations is convincing but it is not adequate to fail to acknowledge the realist interpretation. It is easy to see that it is too early to predict that the trade relations between states will undermine the security interests as the states perceive them. And a big negative for the book is the lack of empirical research.

This book brought me to the recognition of a number of features current in our society and business world, and helped me to put a number of puzzling events in perspective. Just the idea that land is now less important in the economic world itself is an important revelation. I think everyone in the investment community, as well as the academic area of the author, should read this book.

This is a very well written book that covers Nixon's birth through the aftermath of Watergate. My interest in this book bloomed when I watched Anthony Summers on Face the Nation on the 30th anniversary of Watergate. He even shared the spotlight with John Dean to the somewhat disgust of the author if body language means anything.

Summers has done quite a bit of research and links quite well the major partners in Nixon's campaigns and in addition the men that eventually help run the country. There is so much about Nixon's personal flaws and self gain obsession there is a question of balance. On the one hand I am amazed at the amount of detail that links Nixon to win at all costs campaign men, illegal money contributions even from mobsters, a long association with Howard Hughes, money laundering through Beebe Rebozo's bank, Swiss bank accounts, Nixon's plan to screw Johnson's peace initiative to win the election, his over compulsion with dirty tricks. It's hard to conclude otherwise that Nixon was a bad man more caught up with his own style of government. However, at times when the author goes back to Nixon's HS days its almost seems impossible for anyone retrospectively to say anything nice about Nixon other than his earnest desire to succeed. You almost expect someone to say "I remember Nixon when he was in diapers, even my dog didn't like him!" A question to be explored upon a broader canvas is how bad was Nixon compared to other politicians. Was illegal fund raising rampant and typical of the candidates in that era? Is it still happening today? After all, Nixon even on tape seems to say the other guys are doing it too. And the author concludes that Robert Kennedy was bugging Nixon while he served as his brother's Attorney General which Nixon discovers.
During the presidency, Nixon finds out the Joint Chief are spying on Kissinger (The Radford Affair).

Besides the illegal contributions, the most devastating part of the book deals with not so much Nixon's development of the plumbers but in his post Watergate obsession to deal with Watergate instead of running the country. Summers does a great job of accounting of Nixon's whereabouts in the final 18 months of his presidency where according to the logs, Nixon spends a great deal of time on the California coast or Florida with Beebe. In addition, the critical tapes show Nixon totally focused on Watergate In addition, Summers states quite emphatically that Nixon without his secret psychotherapist was unstable due to the use of Dilantin, alcohol and sleeping pills. The latter part almost sounds like Elvis' final hours as Nixon is portrayed as a mentally compromised man who could no longer govern. It's a pretty frightening portrayal and if the Nixon Summers describes is accurate, then Al Haig and Henry Kissinger did a disservice to the country in not working to ease Nixon out of power. In Summers' portrayal, the final period of Nixon's presidency almost reminds me of the movie "Dave" where the Chief of Staff tries to take over the government by not disclosing that the president had a stroke. While reading these parts of the book I was hoping that this was overstated because if not, Nixon was not lucid over the final 12 months of his presidency.

A book worth reading but a little more balance on how Nixon compared to his political adversaries would have been helpful, gosh Tom Dewey supported Nixon and he appeared to have similar fund raising issues. And didn't Nixon do more than just break down the cold war barriers a bit with Russia and China? Did he have any interest in domestic issues at all?

Now if Summers would do a book on John Dean. Dean acts extra clean since he bailed out first. Is a hit man any nicer because he cut a deal?

Anthony Summers setting of his decision to spend five plus years working the details of the life of Nixon is important. Along with Norman Mailer, he was pissed off at the obits cranked out in 1994 on Nixon's death, Obits written in the spirit of the cover-up. Perhaps the best way to frame this book is an obit crafted by an enemy list wanna-be. As yet another citizen still distressed at being left off that famous list -- I think Summers got Richard M. Nixon right on.

"Arrogance" is a full biography crafted around a collection of psychological insights into the subject -- it is a tale of one soul's journey through 20th century American Politics -- a tale of predictable disasters. It is so much more than Watergate, though readers knowledgable of Watergate detail will find much here that is new, and demands integration into one's Watergate fact file. But since Nixon materials are scheduled to be opened by various archives well into the second quarter of the 21st century, we probably will need more Summers-like books, books that synthesize new materials either as additions or corrections into the detailed analysis of Nixon.

But in year 2000 Summers adds it up as follows: Nixon as a kid learned telling the truth frequently led to a whipping, telling lies avoided that possibility. He learned to stuff his emotions so deep, they never really matured. He came to doubt his parents evangelical Quaker piety -- but he never explored so as to replace it with a mature value and belief system. He was ripe to be caught by that place where the American Mafia and American Business intersect, and need presentable political actors. In 1946 they needed a vet, good education, someone with a velvet fist to bust the labor movement, someone who would serve interests so long as he was well paid, (under the table mind you). Nixon got and took the offer -- and Summers details the whole long list of transactions that salt Nixon's rise...all the way to the post resignation annual visits to his secret Swiss Bank Accounts.

Much has been made in the press of the possible physical abuse of Pat Nixon at her husband's hand -- the sources are interesting, but not convicting. Nonetheless, the narrative is filled with instances of psychological abuse, a profound story of attachment disorder. One wonders why no one speculated about this during the long Nixon public career?

Summers provides the basis for raising the question needing debate -- how was it that a political party selected this flawed person for leadership? Just reading through the sources one understands Nixon's intimates knew something of the truth -- but they nominated him twice for Vice President, and three times for President -- we need to comprehend why. His own psychologist seemed to know in 1951 that he could not handle stress, but professional ethics of course kept him from speaking out. His profound problems with truth and trust were apparent to his political allies -- but they turned away from the responsibility to act. Summers does not ask these questions, but readers ought to consider them.

I have always been struck by the particular choice of words "I am not a crook" that Nixon used to disclaim his role in Watergate. After all, if Watergate was a politically motivated crime, his words should have reflected the constitutional issues involved--something to the effect that "I am not a self-serving traitor." To me, being a crook connotes theft, racketeering, extortion, and other crimes involving money and other property. Among many other virtues, Mr. Summers and Ms. Swan have made it clear that from the beginning of his career, Nixon was in fact on the take, and his subsequent political life was spent substantially on covering up his earlier crimes. What a tangled web indeed! No wonder he cracked under the strain.

As in his previous book about "Jaye" Edgar Hoover--pun intended for fans of "The Crying Game"--Summers has used a sensational but semi-corroborated allegation as a publicity hook for an otherwise exhaustively researched and important book. But if this is what it takes to get people to read about such dangerous men--Hoover with rentboys at the Plaza Hotel, or Nixon beating his wife--then more power to the authors. Regardless, these allegations are consistent with everything else we read about in the books. Unfortunately in the case of Nixon, it seems as though it was the evil that was interred with his bones, not the good. Thanks to Summers and Swan for exhuming it.