This book will certainly challenge the non-scientist. It is not an ideal introduction to evolutionary thought. However, this book is filled with interesting insights that make it worth the effort. While their core metaphor, the contention that evolutionary science has appropriated developments in the physical sciences, does not always work, their analysis of historical developments in science and the philosophy of science is inevitably thought provoking and worth the effort to grasp. If you are looking for a straight-forward explanation of developments in Darwinian evolutionary theory, I am sure that there are better places to start than this book. If you are looking for a thoughtful examination of how and why those developments happened the way that they did, this book will serve you quite well.

An excellent and articulate summary/commentary of the history of natural selection. Complexity theory is covered with taste and intelligence, and not with the silliness that dominates many popular science books. Highly recommended.

This overlooked book is by far the best book in science I have read in a very long time and is as important as Kuhn. I urge readers interested in the major ideas of science - from Plato to nonlinear dynamics - to buy this book. It is beautifully written, elegant in its thought, embracing of the reader, and enormously suggestive.

Weber has put together a selection of informative essays by different authors, all dealing with the famed Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Given that the (for a time successful) uprising took place, the question for students of history is the standard one: Why?

As the essays in this book point out, there is no one answer to that question. There are, instead, many answers, and additional questions.

In history, it's not so much a case of arriving at the "truth." Rather, it's the journey of discovery that really counts. The essays Weber has collected run the gamut, from turgid academic writing and sniping to refreshingly clearly-stated prose. His introduction is masterly, the bibliographic references invaluable, and the overall effect one of having learned just how complex and diverse the causes of an effect can be.

Highly recommended for readers interested in this area, especially for classroom use at the college and university level.

This book was an amazing account of the Spanish in North America. Many of the themes that occur during this time period occur in almost every time period and place. Dealing with religious intolerence, slavery, econmoy, unification, and the influence of all people on one another this book captures everything. Themes this book expresses about this time period are even more evident in today's information age as more people from different backgrounds and heritages come together on the internet. This was a good book to read, and made it easy to see the flaws and benefits of the past showing what not to, and what to, repeat.

This is an excellent study of Spain in North America, well written and superbly organized.

Finally a book that takes upon itself to find the truth about the real drive of the Spanish colonization of North America. After decades of mostly subscribing to the Black Legend (the claim that spaniards where just cruel exploiters in search of gold and little else) and partially romanticizing the Spanish presence in this land, a book that puts thing in perspective. The author pays attention to the evolution, not only of the spanish conquest itself but of the interpretations this conquest has had over time. The underlying thesis of the book, namely that the influence of Spain on the natives was reciprocal, not a single sided event is very appealling and well documented. The book is organized in chapters that deal with the spiritual, pollitical and commercial aspects of the settlement. It is by no means a mere account of dates and names; on the contrary, it gives the reader a good feel of the fabric of history: the decline of the spanish impulse that started with the "Reconquista" and the wars against the moors, the uprising commercial ideology that would hand this empire to a younger nation, the obsolescence and impracticality of the religious spanish agenda and conquest methods, the misconceptions about natives and the ambivalent relationship with them, sometimes as fellow citizens when converted, most times difficult and mortal. In general, I enjoyed the book a lot. I recommend it to any serious historian of the Spanish Empire indigested with partial accounts and uncritical acceptance of the myths of our times.

While this is an absorbing and interesting tale, it is difficult at times to distinguish between fact and fiction. In his introduction, Dr. Weber examines myth versus authenticity in Coyner's work on trapper Ezekiel Williams' life in the early 1800's. It is a good book and worthy of reading.

The book is very interesting reading. I could hardly put it down after starting it. I'm not sure of total accuracy in all points but I believe its close to factual, maybe some embellishment but generally writters do that in order to fill in the cracks.
Ezekiel Williams was the first white man to settle in Benton county Missouri. He founded the town of Cole Camp, Mo. where we celebrate the Williams reunion every two years.
Maybe I have a more positive view of the book because Ezekiel is my 6th. generation grandfather.
Bob

This title of this book is misleading to the detriment of the book's sales by understating the book's focus.

The subject matter is really how to create new business models for outperforming competitors by taking advantage of the potential of computers and electronic communications. You can become more digital and not differentiate yourself in the eyes of customers, and that will be a losing strategy, as the authors make clear. In fact, almost all companies fall into that trap now.

I found this to be by far the best book that the authors have written. The ideas are immediately applicable, the concepts are clear, and the writing is especially transparent.

This book will be valuable to CEOs by making them more aware of how to redesign a business model, and to bring them up-to-date on the potential applications of information technology for this purpose. The book will be valuable to CIOs by making them aware of business model redesign as a discipline.

Companies usually make computer investments because the old system can't be kept running any more, or because of some potential for incremental cost savings. By contrast with those approaches, the authors' concept of Digital Business Design is "about using digital options to craft a business model that is not only superior, but unique."

So before you spend all that money to put in all kinds of new data processing capability, consider this book. It will be your best investment.

But realize that the book is also not focused on technology, per se. So if you want to learn specifically about which digital technologies you should be applying, look elsewhere.

The book is made practical by a four quadrant approach to help you diagnose the quality of your business model's design and how digital you are. Most companies will find themselves in the weak business design quadrant. The dot coms are highly digitalized, but usually have weak business models. Some innovative companies have great business models but are slow to put in computer technology. In a series of case histories, the authors make the case for having much more rapid revenue, profit, and stock price growth from using Digital Process Design. The examples include Dell versus Compaq, Cemex's computer-based dispatch of roving cement trucks in Mexico, Charles Schwab versus Merrill Lynch, Cisco Systems versus 3 Com et al, GE, IBM, AOL, eBay, and Yahoo! I enjoyed the way the authors posed the next set of business model challenges these companies face today.

The benefits of this new approach include improvements in knowledge, better fitting with customers, operating in real time to get results faster, customers happily serving themselves to create better results at lower cost, preventing errors rather than fixing them after the fact, enormous productivity improvements rather than small ones, and totally integrated business systems within and without your company.

The authors give you a set of questions to lead you through the analysis necessary to develop your new business model, based on market and information technology perspectives. They also show you how to establish an organizational culture that will facilitate these changes.

I particularly enjoyed the sections show examples of 1000 percent improvements and misconceptions that hinder progress.

The only significant limitation I found to this book is that it did not discuss enough the ways to use nondigital methods to create improved business models. For best results, you should combine digitial and nondigital approaches. Many people try to overturn communications barriers totally with technology, but bad personal habits can steal away most of the benefit. A small amount of training in better communication practices can improve the business results by several hundred percent, independent of any spending on technology. Combine the two approaches, and the results can be astoundingly good.

After you have finished reading and implementing what you have learned, I suggest that you ask yourself where else we need new models of focus and operation. How could the charity you give money to or volunteer for be improved ? How about the operations of the government in your city or town? The indicated changes described in this book can be even more dramatic and powerful if done in these institutions as well. Then the whole society can move forward more rapidly.

Make a difference that matters!

As the books about digital technologies continue to pile up, you may wonder which ones to read, if any. The authors readily acknowledge this in their introduction, but claim differentiation from their focus on strategy first and technology second.

They are smack on the money.

Almost all books today speak about how the "Internet changes everything," how there is "this technology" and "that technology" that can turn your company into a super power. What they don't consider is how your business model itself is affected. As a businessperson, it is the latter that I want to understand - how will my strategies need to change, and what are the new concepts I should integrate into my current strategy to ensure competitiveness over the next year or two. This is the focus of the book.

You have already seen many of the companies that are covered - Cisco, Dell, GE - but they are now dissected with a focus on their strategies rather than technologies. Much more interesting are the discussions of trends and concepts that you can apply right away. For example, as customers change from passive to active, how can you leverage that trend to enable faster growth and better service? A second example involves the Choiceboard, a strategic tool you can use to raise your business model. As I see dot.com's falling like flies, I continually consider how they would have fared if they could have focused on their business model rather than just introducing cool new technologies.

While the book was weak on the technology side, I was fine with that. My priority is to focus on my business model first, and then to understand which technologies will get me where I want to go.

Overall, I'd highly recommend it for any strategist. Those with a deep focus on technology may be dissatisfied, but anyone who is concerned with their business model will find much insight within.

This is not a book on the latest technology fad. Instead, it is about business strategy, and how to use technology to develop and execute the right strategy. The book has three key premises:

1) A business must be run according to its "business design" (the framework the authors use for developing and articulating the strategy a business should follow).

2) Digital technology dramatically enhances the strategic opportunities available to any business today -- even if it is not obvious at first how.

3) Business success (i.e. growth and profitability) depends crucially on figuring out what those opportunities are, determining how to exploit those opportunities, and then aligning the company around executing on those opportunities.

The natural audience for this book is anyone who has P&L responsibility (or aspires to have such responsibility) in a business or a division.

In my opinion, the message is dead-on. In particular, I think the "business design" construct they use is extremely powerful and actionable. My only complaint is that I wish they had spent a chapter explaining the "business design" construct in more detail for readers not already familiar with it. (The authors might respond that they have already done so in their earlier books -- "Value Migration" and "The Profit Zone" in particular -- but as they themselves say, you must repeat your message 700 times if you want it to be heard!)

The book is extremely readable:

* The first two chapters explain the basic concept.

* Many of the subsequent chapters are devoted to an analysis of a particular business and how that business used technology to its strategic advantage.

* A few chapters are devoted to particular digitally-enabled strategic options or themes that the authors believe deserve highlighting.

* The last chapter exhorts the reader to champion and execute digital opportunities tirelessly, and gives some tips for how to do so.

All in all, a great book for anyone interested in this topic.

This is a useful book for both students and teachers alike. Putting the Mexican frontier in perspective is a formidable task, but by using first hand accounts from all walks of life, the reader can develope an accurate image. The only negative comment is the lack of more period illustrations.
Most aspects of frontier life are covered, from the clergy to the military. Both the positive and the negative views are included.

This book is good but, makes to many assumptions about ethnicity Severino's parents that he no proof of. It also takes much from Chavez's "But Time and Chance" much better book.

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