This book is a standard in the field of analytical chemistry, especially wet chemistry. It is not intended to be a textbook for a quant course, unlike Dan Harris's Quantitative Chemical Analysis or Doug Skoog's Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry, which are both excellent college texts. However, it is an outstanding ready-reference for chemists and chemistry graduate students. It is the authority for all sorts of chemical analyses, and it gives concise, complete background along with exact procedures, including problems likely to be encountered, precautions to be taken, or deficiencies of the method. It is well-indexed and quite complete is breadth and scope.

I don't think any other text covers this information so completely; although it is notoriously hard to come by in your average book store. Any edition of it would be excellent.

At this side of the millennial threshold, wading through the deepening waters of change, the issue of reexamining the nature and future of the church is foremost on the minds of theologians, church educators, ministers, and denominational leaders. What will the church look like at the midpoint of the next century? Will the structure of the church require change to survive? Will the mission and functions of the church change? Will the institutional church survive its own success or succumb to a structure too rigid to adapt to the winds of change? Understanding the Church sidesteps contemporary conversations of the sociological dynamics of the church or the usual speculation as to generational shifts within the body. Being a compilation of papers presented at a 1997 colloquium at Grace Bible Chapel in St. Louis, Missouri, the book reviews basic questions about the nature, structure, and functions of the church. The seven essays that make up the chapters of the book do not stray far from the biblical text for interpretations and prescriptions on rudimentary questions about the church from a strictly Protestant theology. The book begins with an almost apologetic chapter on the necessity of maintaining the primacy of Scripture in understanding the nature of the church and any interpretations as to her form and function. This foundational chapter limits its understanding of the church not only to a Protestant theology, but more, to that of the Brethren Church (and even narrower, the Open Brethren, at that). This self-limited understanding of the nature of the church is the book's greatest weakness. The following chapters explore further the nature of the church from a strictly biblical theology, and issues of the identity, nature, and character of the local church versus the universal church. The final two complementary chapters examine issues concerning the autonomy and the interdependence of local churches. Rather than providing a new vision for the church in the 21st century, the book offers up a 19th century conservative evangelical biblical theology of the church typical of what would be found in a sophomore year systematic theology course at a Bible college. The "biblical ideal" for a 21st century church that appears in the book's subtitle seems to be a call for a return to an idyllic "first century church"-the yearning to return to the days of a fabled ecclesiastical Camelot. Some will find comfort in the certitude that a propositional systematic biblical understanding of the church provides. Unfortunately, such a stance is inadequate in helping churches deal with the overwhelming complexities that the church faces in the 21st century.

In Understanding The Church: The Biblical Ideal For The 21st Century, Joseph Vogl and John Fish effectively collaborate to address such fundamental questions as what is meant by "the church" within a Christian context, the purposes of the Christ in founding the church, what resources were endowed with its creation, and did Christ intend that the function of the church be essentially connected with its nature and purpose. With scripture having primacy in exploring these issues, Understanding The Church then addresses the nature of the church, the character and life of local churches, as well as the autonomy and interdependence that govern interaction between the churches and within the broader Christian community. Originally presented as a series of essays for a colloquium sponsored by Grace Bible Chapel in St. Louis, Missouri, Understanding The Church is a welcome addition to contemporary Christian studies reading lists and reference collections.

In this book, published in 1992, a group of academics from the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy have written a series of brilliant and provocative essays on the economic foundations of the next security system, that is, of the XXI century. They define three broad scenarios: a) Controlled multilateralism; b) coexistence of blocks; and c) neomercantilism.

So far, it seems that they were right in predicting that the most likely and desirable outcome would be some form of controlled multilateralism. Certainly, it could be said that coexistence of blocks is also a reality, but we are seeing a lot more interrelation between these blocks than what the scenario took into account. Some countries have built institutional bridges across the blocks, like Mexico, which belongs to NAFTA, but also has a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, several Latin American countries, Israel, and is now negotiating one with Japan, beyond its membership in APEC.

The security system seems to stay also within controlled multilateralism, as actions on the former Yugoslavia and Irak show. Summing up, the book's arguments and points are still relevant to analyze the world's options regarding this new century. The interplay between the economic and the security systems are clearly defined, and the tone of the book is objective, neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic. It's good analysis, even if not each and every detail is still accurate. Recommended for students of very different specialties: international economics, national security, prospective studies, etc.

This snorefest of a book is chock full of redieration from every other political based textbook I have ever read. This complete waste of a tree, is a pointless exercise in jargon and double speak. Spare yourself hours of trance-like boredom and buy something else.