If you are considering putting in a low maintenance lawn or meadow suited to your local climate, this is the book for you. I have not found anything to compare with the information packed in this slim volume. The authors examine the requirments of each geographic region and each type of grass available in detail, and even give a list of sources. With the information I gleaned here, I'm ready to get started on my own project this year. Without this book, I wouldn't have know where to begin.

This book covers a difficult topic in exactly the right amount of detail. For anyone studying EU competition law, its without doubt one of the best guides, and a must for the bookshelf.

This book is one of the most earth connected, well thought out and evolved books on the shelf today. It is highlighted by profound transcendetal poems that elucidate each essay.

Interested in manatees, but over 12 years old? this is a scientific case study of the manatee, revealing everything from their sex lives to their swimming patterns in diagrams and detailed text. If you're lookng to do serious research on the manatee, this is the book for you. I used the book as a source for the manatee subsection of my design page, manateebay.com; it is not a "coffee table book" by any means, but considering the fact that it is intended to be a scientific source text, it is fairly readable.

Why should economists bother studying moral philosophy? So that they will be better economists.

At least, that's what Daniel Hausman and Michael McPherson argue in this fine book. They also want to get moral philosophers interested in economic theory, but that's a secondary aim; this book is primarily directed at economists.

Why is it that people who pride themselves on doing Wertfrei (value-free) positive economics are so often the first people to think they are in a position, even the best position, to settle large normative policy questions? Hausman and McPherson say it's because positive economics isn't really "value-free" at all.

Why not? Well, according to our authors (and by the way, they're right), economists tend to identify human well-being with preference satisfaction, apparently in blissful unawareness that they are thereby committing themselves to a highly controversial ethical theory. Moreoever, those same economists tend to invoke a minimal, "thin" notion of _rationality_ that really means nothing more than efficient adjustment of means to ends in the satisfaction of preferences. The question whether some preferences may themselves be irrational tends not to be raised (by economists, that is; Hausman and McPherson are happy to name several moral philosophers -- e.g. Nagel and Parfit -- who have not only raised the question but answered it affirmatively).

In consequence positive economics is not even close to "value-free." By way of their implicit acceptance of well-being-as-preference-satisfaction together with their reliance on rationality-as-means/end-adjustment, economists have quite definitely and unambiguously imported a foundational ethical theory into their analysis. No wonder, then, that they feel uniquely qualified to pronounce on normative policy matters.

And no wonder they're not _really_ thus qualified. For the facts are that the moral theory on which they are relying is highly questionable, and that in any case genuine experts don't espouse moral theories by accident. (I should add at once that there are plenty of positive economists who are aware of this problem even if they're not sure what to do about it; see e.g. Steven Landsburg's _The Armchair Economist_, which I have also reviewed.)

Hausman and McPherson want to remedy this problem by getting economists interested in moral philosophy. So their book presents a short but thorough tour of the field, especially as it relates to economics. The reader is briefly and by turns introduced to utilitarianism and consequentialism; libertarianism; egalitarianism; and contractualism.

Readers should be aware that this is _only_ a tour; Hausman and McPherson are highly critical of the moral theory underlying "welfare economics," but they do not give their critical faculties much of a workout when discussing alternative theories. However, as an introduction to what the alternative theories actually say, their exposition is excellent and insightful. And they have a healthy sense that well-being is not simply a matter of "preference-satisfaction," even if they are a little shy about saying what _else_ it is. (And as a libertarian myself, I am happy to say that their chapter on libertarian theory is one of the better accounts written by nonlibertarians.)

A final portion of the book, in a nod to the ethical philosophers at whom the book is aimed secondarily, presents a little bit of economic theory for those who may not be familiar with it. This stuff comes a little late in the exposition, and for some reason the authors limit themselves to social choice theory and game theory. But these are good enough choices although far from exhaustive, and the authors do a nice job with them.

Then an appendix deals with a fairly meaty issue: why should ethics matter to economics? This portion could probably have come earlier in the book too, dealing as it does with the main point of the volume. But wherever it belongs, it raises and effectively answers a series of typical objections to the claim that economists should know something about moral philosophy.

I should add in closing that their bibliographic information is just splendid, not only in economic theory but also in ethics. A reader unfamiliar with either field can use these references as an introduction. These guys know the literature.

All in all, then, a fine book that succeeds in what it sets out to accomplish. Recommended to anyone interested in economic theory and especially in its relation to moral philosophy.

Hi!My name is Irina,I am from IASI,ROMANIA,&I'd like to know more about the author of this book[Daniel Daianu].Thank you.

Having had the priveledge of reading a pre-release of this book it my pleasure to share my findings. The book is a great place for people new to Authorware to start. Yet, there are many chapters that even an experienced Authorware programmer can gain from. The book is written in a light and easy to understand fashion. As well, the Author has a good sense of humor that make's reading this title even some-what fun. I highly recommend this title to those intersted in picking up Authorware.

This is a small book (3 1/4 x 4 inches). It is almost a type of ornamental book with glossy pages. It also has a nice star of david connected as a book marker. It has songs and a recipe following each night of Hanukah. A nice gift for a teenager or younger.

This work is a compilation of newspaper advertisements for runaway servants. A brief introductory essay offers a good summation of general patterns. The masters offered thorough descriptions of the servants they wanted captured and returned. These detailed descriptions also give us a good look at these individuals.

Those interested in Irish history would find this interesting. While a number of ethnic groups are mentioned, an overwhelming majoirty of the servants advertised in 18th-century Philadelphia were Gaelic-speaking Irish just beginning to learn English. This should also be interesting for students of labor history. The skills and experience of the servants are listed, as are a number of injuries, most presumably work-related.

Oneof the best book with latest information on this subject. Detail and lucid explanation keeps you discovering the subject enchantingly.