William Ogburn is viewed as the founder of the Cultural Lag theory. The argument of the book is that material conditions, for instance, technology, influence creation of non-material culture: mores and values. In other words, material condition (cultural or even environmental) walk in front of customs and laws. That view is not altogether new and was mentioned earlier by Marx and later by Hayek. Unfortunately, Ogburn, for some reason, usually gets little credit for his development of Cultural Lag. What distinguishes Ogburn from Marx and other theorists is that he particularly stressed out that cultural values and laws do not have time to adjust fast enough to meet the demands of technological change. Today, for instance, transnational corporations use instant monetary transactions due to increadible technological innovations in computer science, while governments have no laws and power to tax the TNCs properly, nor to regulate flux of American jobs abroad. Ogburn would have said that federal governments in the world today are operating with the rules and ideology emerged 200 years ago, while transnational corpoprations do not wait and embrace any innovations technological process presents. Until a terrible disaster has happened due to maladjustment of the system as a whole, the modern states are unlikely to take any radical action. That is the caltural lag.

JB Priestly wrote a book about time ('Man and Time') and in it he referred to a WH Hudson novel called 'A Crystal Age'. His couple of paragraphs about 'A Crystal Age' stimulated my interest but nowhere could I find the novel he referred to. However, I did find 'Green Mansions' and I have read it several times. It is a beautiful novel with an undertone of darkness (is death the darkness that we all live with during the beauty of life?). Perhaps 'Green Mansions' disappointed me a little after triggering my romantic nerve. I did, however, keep exploring the writings of WH Hudson - 'Long Ago and Far Away', 'The Purple Land', 'Idle Days in Patagonia' and the wonderful 'A Shepherd's Life'.

On a recent trip to the States I visited a small specialist bookshop where it was suggested I might be able to get access to 'A Crystal Age' through abebooks.com. This was great advice. I have just finished reading 'A Crystal Age' and I concur with JB Priestley's assessment. 'A Crystal Age' is worth the effort of pursuing - it is a surprising first-person utopian novel in which Hudson's love of nature does not render him oblivious to the fact that there are downsides in all worlds - all imaginable worlds. Just like the dark shadows in 'Green Mansions'. The end of 'A Crystal Age' is so surprising - I believe very few readers would see what is coming - I certainly didn't as I rushed on towards it. There is a certain illogic to the ending, but there is also something that haunts me continuously. I hope the illogic has not been a contributing factor in this novel's failure to be reprinted. But why else has it not been picked up - I am sure there is a market.

'A Crystal Age' is a stronger less romantic novel than 'Green Mansions', but it is also exceptional for many reasons. I don't hesitate in recommending 'Green Mansions' but I also urge readers to pursue 'A Crystal Age' - it is only a matter of time before I will be re-reading it myself. As for publishers who are looking for books from the past to reprint - give 'A Crystal Age' a look.

I read the Classic Comic version of this book many times when I was a kid. I've only now just read the original and found it's haunting beauty lingered in my mind for the last 2 weeks. The description of Abels mental travails at the end of the book is a particularly memorable and inspired.

My mother having read this book sometime before I was born in the 50's, was so moved that she named me after Rima. When I was 12 I read it for the first time, and after moving many times the book was lost. I have always wanted to re-read it as an adult feeling that there was quite a bit more I would appreciate now. I am delighted to have located this novel, and will be thrilled not to have to explain to my friends once more where my name originated. I will just loan them the book!

I picked up this book while browsing through my county library one day and I must admit it made for a fascinating read. Young adult suspense-novelist Lois Duncan has collaborated with parapsychologist William Roll to create the definitive overview of psychic phenomena for those whose interest in the subject is just budding (primarily teenagers). Duncan describes the various aspects of psi such as out-of-body-experiences, near-death experiences, apparitions, telepathy etc. while substantiating those descriptions with evidence from Roll's laboratory research and case histories. That being said,however, the book is not without some faults and as such it won't appeal to everyone. Skeptics may blanch at the lack of alternative, rational explanations for psychic phenomena and those who are already interested in psi may find it too generic (the vast majority of the writing is done by Mrs. Duncan, Roll contributes only a short foreword and conclusion). However, this is easily forgivable as the book is not targeted at people who have already established their beliefs on psi but is intended, rather, to act as a sort of catalyst for further interest. I think Duncan and Roll have succeeded admirably on this score and I highly recommend the book to people who would like to learn more about the fascinating nature of psychic experiences.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in true psychic phenomenon. There are things that happen that William Roll is trying to scientifically study, measure and authenticate here. Totally fascinating.

Dr. Roll, world renound for his expertise on the poltegeist phenomenon, has writen a great book explaining the terms and common perceptions of modern parapsychology. He presents the matierial in a light and anecdotal fashion that hits close to home. A must read for those curious about parapsychology

I am a great fan of Shakespeare, so when I bought this book what I was expecting wasn't what I saw. I saw the most intriguing sonnets probaly ever known to man. It wasn't all about love and fear. It was involving a great many things. It had all the human feelings, sadness, happieness, hate, love, curiosity, fear, pain, grief, stress, and you get the ideal. I don't want to give it away so if you seem interested read this wounderful book.

I read these sonnets two a day over the summer, and I wish there were more than 154 of them so I could keep going into the fall. I think I'll pick up "The Tempest" next.

The poetry in this volume is beautiful, equisite and full of passion. What makes Shakespeare worth reading is the way he lets the world into his lines. His metaphors appeal deliciously to the senses, like a beam of sunlight through a high window in the afternoon, or the smell of a new cut lawn in the spring. Shakespeare's writing is immortal, not because a conspiracy of teachers got together and decided it should be, but because it is full of life, and nothing that is full of life can really ever die.

If you're not used to reading Elizabthean English or are put off by the thought of Shakespeare, this is a good place to start. This edition helpfully "translates" each sonnet into modern English on a facing page along with definitions for the more troubling words. Even with the help, I still don't think Shakespeare is all that easy to read. But anything you do in this world that makes you feel more passionate about life is a pretty good thing. If you give Shakespeare some of your time, he's bound to pay you back with plenty of interest.

This edition of Shakespear's sonnets is all you need to read and understand the great Bard.

A very nice feature is the paraphrasing of the sonnets in contemporary English and a translation into ordinary language of the more difficult words.

The edition is a paperback small enough to be carried around to read during one's leisure.

Terrific book great for helping to get a finance job! A must buy for any MBA.

I help manage the career center an elite business school in the Northeast - and this is one of our most popular books. Along with the VaultReports.com Guides, this book is essential preparation for a career in investment banking.

Terrific book great help for getting a job in finance. Great information direct for a huge number of the top finance firms.

This little book is fairly representative of that genre known as the unit history. Such accounts derived from participants in combat, or even at the far-remove of unit After Action Reports, fill a niche in the huge library of "war books." This is one of those books. It is not a general history, its references are sometimes imprecise, and it sometimes bogs down in the chronology of the European campaign, but it does chronicle the gallantry of a group of men thrown into combat in a sub-standard tank-- the M4 Sherman.

In this day and age, when the United States is possessed of a tank (the M-1 Abrams) that maximizes crew survivability and stand-off killing power, it is easy to forget that from 1941-1946 we fielded a vehicle referred to by German anti-tank gun crews as "the Ronson," after the cigarette lighter of that name.

This little book has a wealth of technical detail on the Sherman, and it offers a look at the extent to which the Sherman's flaws were known and discussed publicly in 1944-1945. Also detailed are the field expedients attempted by the tank crews to enhance the vehicle's armor. The photographs which accompany the text are rather dark, but still viewable. The lack of maps is a regrettable deficiency not uncommon in such texts.

Overall, this is a decent little volume that enhances our respect for the citizen soldiers of World War Two. It also heightens our appreciation for the improvements made over the years by the villified "military/industrial complex" to the weapons the sons of this nation must sometimes use in combat.

Not very many people who study military history may be aware, but the 743d TB was rated the most proficient Armored unit in World War Two. They took the fewest casualties, lost the fewest tanks, destroyed a very large number of enemy vehicles, were engaged in five campaigns and collected a great number of honors from D-Day through occupation duties ending in December, 1945. This book offers an excellent narrative of actions and engagements in which the 743d took part. Having fought along side the 29th ID, 1st ID, 30th ID and XIX Corps, the 743d was in the very thick of battle throughout the war. The author makes the unit history personal, with names of people and places involved, and often very graphic. I recommend the book to any one wanting to see the true elements of combat, coming to know the people who fought so valiantly with the 743d. My father-in-law, then Capt. Edward D. Miller, was one of them. This book recognizes the human efforts and elements that makes story-telling come alive. Buy the book--you will not be disappointed.

Mr. Duncan sets out on a journey that registers on the odometer but fails to touch the raw nerve of the West. Tours of museums aren't exciting road stories, more like your bald uncle's excruciating vacation stories to Buena Vista. The Reagan-era "John Wayne" America is in full display here, with Native American issues handled with bizarre insensitivity considering how close he gets to them. God bless factories and tenderloin, we are supposed to cajole! Forget this book and its banal understanding of American history (I'd rather return to an 8th grade history class for better insights) and western life. Read Rick Bass or Abbey, Stegner or McCarthy, for the real stuff.

Duncan's Out West is an immensely enjoyable read! His humor, insight and detail make the book one of my all-time favorites. I grew up only ~3 miles from where the cover photo was taken, I have since relocated. This book takes me home.

When a review copy of Dayton Duncan's "Out West" arrived in the Ohio newsroom where I worked in the mid-1980s, I snagged it and devoured it within days. I knew right then I'd have to make the trip myself someday. When I got the chance to write a guidebook to the trail in the early 1990s ("Traveling the Lewis & Clark Trail," also available via amazon.com), "Out West" rode shotgun with the Lewis & Clark journals on my pickup seat. "Out West" is among the best American road books ever written, full of insight about the Lewis & Clark Expedition and how America has changed in the 200 years since then. From Duncan's "road rules" to his insider tips on the best cafes and most colorful characters along the way, you can't go wrong going "Out West" with Dayton Duncan.

I read this book over a decade ago and it stills makes me chuckle. It taught me a lot about Lewis and Clark's Mississippi voyage and kept me laughing along the way. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's craving a relaxed, intelligent, historical read. Enjoy!

This is fascinating reading for all who dream of following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and "discovering" those parts of the country that we know only in our imaginations. Especially interesting for us "born & bred" Easterners.

Ever since I read a few books about Lewis & Clark, I've been planning (in my head) a journey out west. This story captures the essence of how I envision my trip. Road rules, no highways, mom & pop restaurants, making new friends along the way.

I found this book very well written, fun, and engaging. I was able to feel what I think L&C and Mr. Duncan all felt. The excitement of a new journey, the weariness of such a long trip, and the saddness once the trip ended. I hope I can one-day follow in their footsteps.

This is a first rate academic introduction to Buddhist environmentalism. 'Buddhism and Ecology' is one of a series of volumes on world faiths and ecology produced by the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions. It contains 19 essays from a variety of perspectives, all seeking to make a Buddhist contribution to the ongoing discussion of the environmental crisis.

While a number of essays are philosophical in nature, practical outcomes are not neglected. The essays consider Buddhism as practised in Thailand, Japan, India, America and elsewhere. Theravada, Mahayana and Zen traditions are specifically considered, as is 'engaged Buddhism'.

I would recommend this work as an excellent introduction to a continuing discussion, with only the following two reservations. First, most of the essays are written by American, or American based, authors. This is not necessarily a problem, and it reflects the nature of the conference which produced the papers presented here. But given the wealth of writers on Buddhism around the world, a greater breadth could have been represented. This leads to my second minor gripe, which is that there are no essays specifically on Tibetan Buddhism. This is a great shame, although, clearly, not everything can be considered, even in a fairly weighty tome such as this.

There is an extremely useful bibliography, and I now recommend this book to interested people, alongside 'Dharma Gaia', which covers similar ground, but in a more populist, less academic way. 'Dharma Rain' is another recent work covering similar ground in a slightly less academic fashion.

I've checked out the third edition from the library, and found it is very well written. It is concise, without leaving important steps or information out.