This is a set of case study information out of a highly competitive commercial industry that has seen both public outlook and technology change dramatically over the last four decades. While told in story form, the lessons are real and translatable to other industries rather readily. It suggest that management (upper) should take a close look and the non-conforming individuals to find the results of their actions, and potentially give them some more rope to succeed with.

I had a great surprise when a friend from work lent me this book and said, "You have to read this." The book reads effortlessly, like a good friend telling you a great story. When I finished reading it I found the author had put a lot of things into perspective for me. I have a much greater insight into the maverick and how mavericks can benefit a business organization. For anyone in business this is required reading. For everyone else it is enlightenment and entertainment.

Cheverton's been-there-done-that business sense combines with a novelists knack for entertainment makes The Maverick Way a star in the crowded field of business books. Instead of charted, statisitically oriented information on climbing the corporate ladder, Cheverton takes us on a wild ride as the corporate Maverick is identified, makes waves, gets things done, leads when necessary, follows when he must and works his way through the system with a vision that can't be confined. The Maverick Way made me want to get to work, rethink my strategies and be a maverick too. When I was finished with this book I wasn't left with a list of things to do but with the true spirit of what makes business great, risky and so satisfying. A must read for anyone who is serious about making a mark.

Although classification etc. is out of date, the descriptions and drawings make this an excellent botanical source for any student.

In the 90's I taught 4th and 5th grade in Baltimore, Maryland. I was so delighted with this textbook--with all of its stories and illustrations--that I just had to have it for teaching my own children.

It is a lot like a good literature book with "DK" style illustrations. My male students used to be mezmerized by the full-page, full-color diagram of a continental soldier---I confess I was too. That's not all though, the book is very easy to use-for student and teacher alike.

Far from being a dry,social studies text, this book has excellent photographs, illustrations, maps, diagrams, charts, time-lines, and primary-source literature.

This book teaches social studies the way that children prefer to learn it----visually!

The female child of a white female outcast and a black freeman, the author gives a detailed account of what it was like being raised by a white family in the pre-Civil War North of the United States (a household where she was abandoned by her mother at 3). This biography gives a general idea of what a Negro's life in the North was like -- and it was not much different from that life of a slave in the South. The mistress of the house was brutal beyond measure, but many of the other family members were reasonably kind (though not kind of enough to put a stop to the abuse), and it makes one shudder to think of what could have happened in a family who had nothing but Negro-haters in it. Still, she recounts how she got a small measure of schooling, and how she eventually became a Christian (something which the lady of the house -- a Christian herself -- opposed) and her eventual marriage. An upsetting story, it is nevertheless of much more value than "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as it was told from the point of view of the victim and not a sympathetic white.

Writing is a cathartic process and Our Nig is the author's attempt to come to terms with her life as a second, no, fourth-class citizen in America. The author is a racially-mixed Black woman. The title reveals a lot. The main character is not called by her name, Frado, she was called "our nig," short for "our nigger." The book gives the reader an idea of the author's relationship to society at that time. The book shows that racism and cruelty was not a Southern experience. And that freedom from slavery did not mean that one was not treated as a slave.

The main character suffers abandonment, rejection, and cruel treatment by the many people who have power over her life. Or do they? She manages to survive many indignities inflicted upon her and leaves a written legacy for us today so that we can understand what life was really like back in the days of extreme ignorance. This story has much value in the same way that the poetry by Phyllis Wheatly and the essays by Frederick Douglas have value. It's a first-hand expression of how those who were oppressed truly felt at that time. While Our Nig is not technically an autobiography, it reveals much of the author's thoughts about herself and those who surrounded her. This is a book to contrast with Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book about slavery, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe who is white. The difference in perspective and the way characters are developed is monumental.

I'm so glad that Henry Louis Gates discovered this writing that was ignored for so many years. The story needed to be told and heard. Reading it, one will have a different version of "Once upon a time in America..."