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This book starts out being about criminal William Kemmler and the first case in which the electric chair was used. However, as the story progresses, it becomes more and more a tale of Thomas Edison (America's prized inventor and advocate of direct current) and his primary competitor George Westinghouse, who utalizes alternating current. Moran paints a dark picture of Edison, who will seemingly stop at nothing to slanderize Westinghouse by encouraging use of alternating currents for electrocution. This proves a major problem for Westinghouse, because in having his current branded an 'executioner's current', something dangerous to the public and only suited for providing death, he could lose valuable customers.
In this work, Moran's primary goal is to show how the invention and enactment of the electric chair as America's primary method of execution was chiefly motivated not by a desire to improve the humaneness of execution, but by corporate greed. When Edison and his lackey Harold Brown (another electrician) propetuate propaganda about alternating current as 'the best current for electrocutions due to its deadly nature', they are not looking out for the public's well being but for the good of Edison's company. And even when intentions for a better method of execution are good, as Moran points out, 'no execution can really be considered humane'.
Electrocution was advocated as a humane improvement over hanging, but it was promoted as commercial propaganda. Electricity was being wired into homes via two systems, the system of direct current advocated and sold by Thomas Edison, and the system of alternating current pushed by George Westinghouse. Edison opposed capital punishment, but realized that making Westinghouse's system the basis for execution would reinforce that it was a dangerous current, unsuitable for customers' homes. Direct current was safe, Edison maintained, but alternating current was "the current that kills." Before the word "electrocution" was coined, as there was no word for executing by electricity, Edison proposed that condemned criminals be "Westinghoused." No amount of his propaganda could have made direct current easy to transmit or easily transformed from high voltage transmission to low voltage home use, but without Edison's efforts, the push to install electric chairs would not have been nearly so strong. Most states eventually switched from hanging, despite the botched electrocutions that revolted observers. Kemmler's was one of these, requiring a couple of jolts before he had ceased breathing, but leaving him frothing at the mouth and stinking up the execution room with the smell of his burned flesh.
While there were more successful electrocutions which were quiet, quick, and scentless, no one knew at the time whether the procedure was painless (although many maintained it was), and this is still a matter of some controversy. No one really knows the details of the internal process, and no one lives to tell us if it hurt. Moran's exhaustive book traces the legal acceptance of electrocution in our country, with courts at different levels assuring all that it may have been "unusual" when it was novel, but is no longer, and it was not cruel since it seemed to be fast, at least in some cases, so it is not "cruel and unusual punishment" forbidden by the Constitution. The electric chair has continued to be used and "remains the only electrical appliance that has not undergone major modification since its invention more than one hundred years ago." When we have to apply euthanasia to our pets, we would never take them to a veterinarian for electrocution, and the system of intravenous injection seems as painless as any could be. The Gerry Commission examined the use of injectable morphine, but thought that such a painless descent into permanent sleep would unnecessarily rid execution of a needed scare factor. This fascinating book shows that of such judgments, and corporate shenanigans, was electrocution born.
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A basic understanding of the extreme hardships early Americans (Colonists) went through can be gathered through this book, and this understanding should be required basic knowledge in all schools. The birth of this nation, was founded on some of the most remarkable physically, financially, emotionally and seemingly impossible acheivements by a few who had the courage to see the delivery through. Freeman captured these trials and victories in marvelous detail.
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George Kleinman's vast experience in the markets, enables him to focus in his book on those aspects of trading, analysis, and money management, that really matter to become a successful trader. I trade for quite a few years now, and still take his book to hand regularly.
The stories and anecdotes that George offers us throughout the book would be a reason in itself to buy it, and could only come from somebody who knows the exchange floors.
With that said, if you want a solid fundamental understanding of how and why the futures markets work - this is the book for you. George has an uncanny ability to break down the market into vey easy and understandable terms. He even throws in some stories that not only make this an educational read but a fun one.
I really wish this book was around before I studdied for my Series 3.
Kevin Cotter, former publisher of the Cents Financial Journal
PS As to the dummies comment that was made by another reviewer - big words and fancy formulas do not make for substantial portfolios.
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P.S. As a gay guy, there were occasional references that made me feel a bit excluded. It would be nice if the "men" in Men's Health was truly inclusive. I wish I could expect equity but on balance I'm still very satisfied. There are also some very friendly books out there like "Basic Training" by Jon Giswold and any of the books from the brothers Brungardt.
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In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.
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I think the author of the book needs to visit Ukraine and Russia soonish and re-write the book, or get some treatment for..., racism, cold war and a shield from what the media brings to your TV screens (everyone knows that only bad news and breakthroughs make news), so please use your brains!
I read the book after my mother-in-law's remarks and was sick in my stomach, for quite a while.
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The "Limoges Porcelain Box: From Snuff To Sentiments" by Richard Sonking has everything true collectors could possibly want. This is one coffee-table book that will not gather dust. The photographs are beautiful. It will provide wonderful reading, with a wealth of information and history in addition to how the boxes are designed from start to finish.
Tre's Magnifique!!!!!
Louis Mauriello, World Press Review magazine
Therefore when the fifth edition was announced I placed my order. Rarely have I've been so disappointed when expectation sees reality.
First of all, the wonderful global comparisons of oceans, climate, wealth, energy etc., have been replaced with common continental summaries. Worse though is the fact that these summaries consist only of those incomprehensible theme maps of temperature, precipitation, vegetation and land use. It was because all the rest of the atlases had these useless enigmatic diagrams that I gave them away. I defy anyone to dig any useful information off a January Temperature map. I rather suspect that this information is more readily available and cheaper to obtain making the publication more cost effective for OUP. That it becomes more useless to the reader by the same turn doesn't seem to matter.
The country summaries have been ordered a-z as opposed by continent. This certainly makes it easier to find them but renders them out of any context whatsoever. But even here the work is substandard. For instance in the summary of Argentina, the section on the Economy ends with "...which are heavily" One wonders - heavily what? Sloppy.
Why UOP would take such a solid franchise and ruin it through conscience manipulation and sloppy design and editing is beyond me.
For the killing of truly useful tome OUP should not receive even one star, but I will give it two. The first is for the editions that bravely preceded this one. And the second is for my hope for the sixth edition. In the meantime I strongly recommend that the staff at OUP convene at the pub for it is apparent that their office decisions regarding the Oxford Encyclopedic World Atlas are abysmal.