Wm. Lashner is a great writer. He creates an exciting story and also caused me to think about how I would react in the same situation.
I am looking forward to his future books!
The chapters written by the four professors have a strong academic/pedagogic orientation. Dealing with basic issues in extreme analytic detail, they frequently belabor the obvious and often come across as though they have all the answers (chapters written by Sahlman were especially bad for this). The book does, however, provide some thought-provoking discussion and a reasonable introduction to the issues of assessing viability, planning and managing a new business, and of attracting resources. Some of the chapters not written by the professors provide a good "textbook" reference for subjects such as patent law, raising venture capital, and management technique in checklist style.
I give the book three stars for its rigorous analysis but not five because of its presumptuous tone and the fact that too many of the chapters lean toward the hypothetical. It lacks the genuine, practitioner-based input this subject deserves.
However, I often felt that it was missing more on the practical side. For example, there are a few case studies, but only on certain topics. It was missing more of the "been there, done that" perspective. Definitely there were stories, but in those there was more of a strategic analysis rather than visionary or inspirational.
Overall, this is a very good book to use as reference to certain topics, especially in an academic environment.
List price: $39.95 (that's 75% off!)
This 450-page book consists of 27 chapters, grouped in 5 parts, namely The Framework of the Century, The Eurocentric World 1900-1945, The Cold War 1945-1900, The Wider World, and finally Envoi.
Part 1 is an overall review of the century from different points of views, science, technology, economy, politics, culture and art. This gives you a very brief yet concise idea of what the century is like, what happened, and what were eventually the consequences.
Part 2, a very exciting part, tells about the politic and military situations in the two world wars.
Part 3 is on the post-war period after the second World War. This tells you about the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and its influences.
Part 4 is dedicated to the development of areas other than Europe and the U.S. If you are interested in the history of a specific area other than those dominant countries in the century, or if you would like to look wider than just those countries, this part surely gives you what you want.
And finally Part 5 concludes the 20th century and looks forward to the 21st century.
This book did a very good job in trying to gather different opinions. The 27 chapters were actually written by 26 leading professionals, including Nobel prize winner Steven Weinberg. As each chapter is dedicated to one particular interest, you can easily jump to where you are interested - if that's what you prefer.
In conclusion, this book is a very good choice for anyone, who want to widen their world view and know more about the 20th century, a remarkable century in human history that makes today's world the way it is.
It is organized both by period and by geographical areas, and commences with an excellent social, economic, and political snapshot of the world as the new century dawns. By employing a number of different essayists to describe various aspects of the unfolding drama, it provides the reader with relatively concise overviews of salient topics without having to muck about in the mind-boggling details some more expansive histories would. In essence, the text neatly describes the major events and phenomena of the century, discussing the various aspects of each, and analyzing the particulars of both social disruptions via shifts of power as well as the remaining elements of social cohesion and continuity. As the reader soon discovers, however, the former far outweigh the latter in the events and trends characterizing the times.
Indeed, when one considers the radical departure between what existed throughout the world at the onset of the century as opposed to what prevails at its close, one is moved by the sense that the world had been literally transformed over the hundred-year span. Where once proud and autocratic kings, tyrants and potentates ruled with despotic indifference, now indifferent democracies, uncertain dictatorships, and benignly ignorant despots rule the stage. We've moved from unreliable telegraphs to instant wireless phones, from horse and buggy to space travel, and from death to an early age to whole societies of seniors planning to live well into their eighties and nineties. Where once people lived in splendid isolation from the outside world in a sphere only painfully connected from one community to another by mail, telegraph, and slow travel, we now have instant awareness of all that happens around the globe. So, if some of us are not entirely convinced of the progressive nature of this change, even we have to admit that W. B. Yeats captured the kernel of the times by warning things had "changed utterly".
As I mentioned above, this book provides the reader with a quite handy reference tool and a terrific overview, and is organized both in terms of time periods, geographical area, and also thematically around several key master processes that were instrumental influences in the century. It is expressly not the sort of expansive, detailed, and authoritative source for understanding or researching particular events such as the Depression or the Cold War. For those kinds of discussions one must turn elsewhere. But for its intended purpose of providing the serious student with an approachable, readable, and useful guide to understanding the main currents and highlights (or perhaps low points) of this explosive century, this is a wonderful book that belongs on every 20th century history student's bookshelf. Enjoy!
What happend to the other super heros? and where is pete and lana's son?
seeing john kick luthor's butt really made me feel good. and superman too. he has broken down supes dna so now luthor has gotten superman's powers.
P.S. we get to see wonder woman in a night gown.
heros: john, superman, lois lane, green lantern, flash, martian manhunter, wonder woman, aquaman, batman, lana lang, pete ross.
villans: lex luthor, morgan edge {mentioned.}
Is his father still alive? What was behind Superman's disappearance? How will the world deal with the Son of Superman?
I liked how these questions were answered, but I left wanting more--maybe that's a good thing. However, I would have liked to have seen more detail on the changes in the world, more of the oppression that the terrorists were fighting against. I also wanted the battle at the end of the book to be a little longer.
Beyond those comments, this is a good story. It's worth buying. Like one of the other reviewers had mentioned, I would also like a sequel.
He admits that this a minority position. It is not subscribed to by most political and financial leaders, who he contends are greedy and short-sighted, the former being funded and controlled by that latter.
A philosophy group I belong to spend four months reading this book and discussing it chapter by chapter in weekly hour and a half sessions. The group does not lack liberal voices, nor are defenders of the global system absent. I think we gave the book a fair read.
Since the book was written the world has had five more years of experience with global capitalism. Are ominous cracks showing? I was surprised to find that Greider did not come up with specific examples of countries in which global capitalism has demonstrably worsened societal conditions and wreaked economic havoc. In fact, he reluctantly points out several possible benefits of globalization: (1) the women's movement has been considerably advanced in countries where women have become major breadwinners (this may help solve the over-population problem!), and (2) the likelihood of war may be decreased because "it becomes increasingly difficult to select a proper enemy--someone who is not also a major curtomer or co-coproducer" (p. 470). Note, incidentally this is the converse of the usual argument that global arms sales threaten world peace.
The cracks in the global economic foundation should appear in America first, according to Greider, since our well-paid workers are the first to be displaced by cheaper foreign labor. Yet our unemployment rates are currently at 30 year record lows. In April an article with the title: "0% Unemployment. Everybody Has a Job in Madison, Wisconsin" appeared in the New York Times Magazine.
I think the clue to the error in Greider's thinking is contained in the NY Times article. Madison is a university town, a forward-looking town. Industries are springing up there which were not even conceived of ten years ago. This suggests that the future lies with the innovators, and not in trying to retain ideas and arrangements that have worked in the past. Innovative global capitalism has spread much more wealth around the world in the past twenty years than global Communism could deliver in its eighty year span of influence. Greider comes close to the latter when he proposes as his two main courses of action (1) national government controls on international investment, and taxes to redistribute the wealth.
What is vitally needed in order to understand global capitalism is a well-thought-out, balanced perspective. In my opinion, Greider does not provide that in this book.
William Greider addresses the most important issue concerning America's economic future: the globalization of the economy and it's implications. In the new world order, capital is in limited supply but labor is in overabundance. As would be expected in a laizze faire economy, the cost of labor will remain depressed in the industrialized world.
In the developing nations across Asia and Latin America, the factory workers simply don't have the purchasing power to buy the products they are manufacturing. Since Japan has never matured into a consumer based society, developing nations especially China will add to the global oversupply of labor and production.
While few mainstream economists predicted the recent economic collapse of the 11th largest economy (ie. South Korea), William Greider's prediction of global economic chaos and collapse can no longer be ignored. "One World, Ready or Not" should be heeded by Washington policymakers mesmerized by the exuberance of the stock market.