Events Books

The picture on the cover of this text is of The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: translit.: Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah, Hebrew: translit.: Kipat Hasela, Turkish: Kubbetüs Sahra). It is an Islamic shrine.

It is not the 'Church of the Holy Sepulchre' as mis-identified in the Atlas itself.

The Dome of the Rock is located at the center of an ancient man-made platform known as the Temple Mount (Hebrew, Har haBayit; literally, the Mountain of the House) to the Jewish people and the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to the Muslims. The platform, greatly enlarged under the rule of Herod the Great, is the site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

In 637 AD, Jerusalem was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate army during the Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire. And in a rivalrous act of competition with the original historical religions of Jerusalem with long prior religious history in this place, Judaism and Christianity, the Dome of the Rock was erected between 685 and 691 AD. And, unfortunately, there it remains.

Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin on Friday, 2 October 1187 and the Haram was reconsecrated as a Muslim sanctuary. The cross on top of the Dome of the Rock was replaced by a golden crescent and a wooden screen was placed around the rock below.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, unsurprisingly and typically, non-Muslims were barred from the area. Since 1967, non-Muslims have been allowed some entry, but non-Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount are not allowed.

In 2006, the compound was reopened to non-Muslim visitors free of charge, between 7:30-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m. during Summer and 7:30-10:30 a.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m. during Winter. Non-muslims may never enter on Fridays, Saturdays, or Muslim holidays. Entry is through a covered wooden walkway next to the security entrance to the Western Wall known as the Mugrabi or Maimonides Gate. Entry to the mosques themselves is prohibited to non-Muslims, as is access to the Temple Mount through the Cotton Market. Visitors undergo strict security screening, and items such as Hebrew prayerbooks or musical instruments are not allowed.

The Muslim presence in the Holy Land began with the initial Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. The Muslim armies' successes put increasing pressure on the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire.

In the year 1009, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (That's not a surprise, is it.) The Dome was not destroyed but the Sepulchre was. In 1039 his successor, after requiring large sums be paid for the right (no surprise there, either. Dexter Filkins of the New York Times references a conversation with an Iraqi following an interaction with an American, in which the Iraqi says "We take their money, but we hate them."), permitted the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it. Pilgrimages were allowed to the Holy Lands before and after the Sepulchre was rebuilt, but for a time pilgrims were captured and some of the clergy were killed. The Muslim conquerors eventually realized that the wealth of Jerusalem came from the pilgrims; with this realization the persecution of pilgrims stopped. However, the damage was already done, and the violence of the Seljuk Turks became part of the concern that spread the passion for the Crusades.

One of the best compositions of Bible maps. I recommend all my students to purchase this book, so they can better understand the sites mentioned in the Bible.

This product was delivered to me in excellent condition. It was brand new just as promised. I am very satisfied with the books that I have received from Amazon.com.

These maps are incredible. Places in the Bible in the OT that you can't find in some others, it's here! On the outside, it looks like a children's book; but once you utilize it in your study of the Scripture, it is phenomenal.

An affordable atlas of bible lands. Great for college students to get a general background on the topology and locations where historical Biblical events occured.

Wow! This book is a godsend for getting yourself organized and creating a strategy for promoting your book. I found it to be extremely informative, providing a wealth of great tips and advice for bringing a book to your intended audience. The author's experience comes through with clarity, empathy and humor. Brava, and Thank You to Carol Hoenig! She has provided a tool I am sure I will refer to again and again as I prepare to bring my work and my audience together.

Mary Greenwood, author of award-winning How to Mediate Like a Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes and How to Negotiate Like a Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes

I love this book about planning book events. As an author of two books myself, I got a lot of great ideas about launching events both outside and in bookstores. In addition, the author gives detailed descriptions and templates that she used in her own book events. I can see why this book has won awards. All authors have to market their books and this book is a must to give authors fresh and new ideas for their PR for their own books.

Most people think that writing a book is the hardest part of being an author - it's one of the easiest! Selling the darn thing after it has been written is the toughest part. If you are an aspiring author know this: There is no book-selling fairy and publishers can't sell your work either. It's the job of the author to get his/her work into the hands of the public. Carol Hoenig's new book is the perfect guide to how it should be done. in this book you will not find fancy tricks and make-believe exercises that will make you wonder why you ever put pen to paper. Instead, you'll find great examples of how it should be done. Carol makes it clear that book signings alone will not bring you the revenue that your hard work deserves. You must be creative and learn who your audience is, catering to their likes and dislikes. If you're a newbie author this book will give you the knowledge that would take 3 years to learn. If you're a seasoned keyboard tapper you'll find out why your book is not on the best-seller list and you'll learn what to do to get it there.

As a first time author Question Of The Day - Where Truth Is The Dare, I find myself full of enthusiasm and ideas. What I needed was a foundation to work off of. Carol Hoenig provides a blueprint that any self promoting author will benefit from.

Most important for me was finding out what to prioritize. Carol takes you through every aspect of planning your book event from the ground up in an extremely user-friendly manner. Carol speaks with a unique authority both as an experienced event coordinator and an author herself. Her perspective in this area is indispensable.

Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (11/07)

Carol Hoenig's "The Author's Guide to Planning Book Events" is an excellent guide to the author about to be published, and seasoned authors may also find some good ideas for their own book events.

Hoenig makes it very clear in the book that an author cannot sell books unless the author is willing to promote the books. She cites many authors who are willing to sit behind a desk and quietly sign books, but she makes it clear that book signings are often not effective. Authors must entertain their audiences by having book events. As an author myself, I have found that even a book signing is going to require some public speaking skill. People will approach you and ask what your book is about, and you must be able to describe your book in a couple of sentences that grab their attention or they will walk off without buying. Hoenig tells authors not to sit behind the table but stand and talk to passers-by. She also suggests doing creative activities like bringing holiday paper and wrapping books for customers at the holiday season.

Hoenig is an excellent source for information about book events, not only because she is an author and can tell us what worked and did not work for her, but more importantly, she is the former owner of a bookstore where she had many authors come to sign books and give presentations. She has worked with everyone from bestselling authors and publishers to unknown and up-and-coming authors, and she provides many examples of what works and does not work.

The real strength of Hoenig's book is she makes it clear YOU MUST DO EVENTS if you want to sell books. She understands many writers are shy, so she makes suggestions to help them, such as finding other writer friends to interview you before an audience, or doing events with other authors, so you are not by yourself. She also suggests linking up with artists or musicians to cross promote the arts and provide your self with a new audience.

The only aspect where I wish Hoenig suggested more was in addressing authors' shyness. She provided many suggestions for book events, but I felt she needed to spend more time helping authors improve their public-speaking skills, such as providing more examples of successful speeches and ways to describe your book to make it interesting and ways to overcome shyness. She needed to address how authors can overcome shyness and improve their public persona and public-speaking skills. I am surprised she did not recommend authors go to Toastmasters or similar groups for public speaking.

Overall, I would recommend "The Author's Guide to Planning Book Events" to other authors, especially new authors. Then I would suggest they find a way to practice the activities Hoenig suggests and to get friends to come to their events and give them feedback on what was and was not successful. The bottom line: to sell books, YOU MUST DO BOOK EVENTS! And you must also figure out how to do them well.

As a relative newcomer to the field of historical criticism, I appreciate Provan/Long/Longman's work. It is truly a sign of good scholarship to be able to take the complex and make it understandable. I don't mean easy, but understandable. Provan's command of his topic is clear and thorough, especially in regard to epistemology and testimony. Those who by faith and reason trust the Biblical texts as reliable testimonies of ancient Israel will find encouragement in this book.

The authors are to be congratulated for their beautifully laid out and tightly argued book. The first third of the book lays out their philosophical basis for the history and provokes many questions and encourages much thought. We are in their debt for this fine, fine book on Israel's history as its comes to us from the "testimony" of Scripture. The authors are to be appreciated for their answering the so called "minimalists"
approach to "biblical" history. I found the book well written, wonderfully argued, and extremely helpful. This book should belong on the shelf of everyone interested in ancient Israel's history.

The first 100 pages discusses the methodology of modern historiography and demonstrates how biblical critics continue to use out of date methodologies in their attempt to destroy the concept that ancient Israel actually existed. Especially telling is his discussion on testimony. They maintain that the biblical testimony about Israel's history is as valid a source as any other. Even modern archeaology is not neutral but needs to be interpreted; therefore it becomes another testimony in the mix.

The next two hundred pages discuss the history of Israel with this positive-testimony model. They do not paint as comprehensive a history as some might like (along the lines of Bright). Instead they focus on the problem areas rasied by the text.

This is a terrific book and it is taking a very important place in my library.

Having only recently dived into the pool of historiography, this book has helped me tremendously to understand the complexities that go into a historiographer's reconstruction of history.

As to why this book is leaps and bounds better than most of your popular apologetic works, here are a few differentiating factors:

A. Philosophy of historigraphical reconstruction. This is perhaps the most unique feature of the book. Before even diving into the various evidences being considered for a reconstruction of the history of Israel, the authors spend roughly 100 pages in dealing with the philosophical underpinnings of historiography. I found this section IMMENSELY enlightening and the book is worth the price for this exposition alone. On what grounds do we accept or reject historical testimony? Does the presence of ideology in a text imply that historical details have been interpolated? What can archaeological evidence tell us about the past? What are the limitations of science in reconstructing history? These and more questions are dealt with in "History of Israel". Rather than merely beginning with a given set of assumptions, the authors dissect the assumptions of themselves and their counterparts in Israeli historical reconstruction.

B. Expertise in the field of historiography. Unlike the many Josh McDowells and Lee Strobels, the authors of this book are professionals in this field of study and it shows in their knowledge of the material at hand, as well as their treatment of the material.

C. Objectivity in a reconstruction of Israel's past. What I loved about this book, especially in comparison to other books on the trustworthiness of the Old Testament texts, was the cool-headed, objective handling of the evidence. The word "prove" is rarely, if ever used. The authors' make it clear that nothing in history is "proven"; only plausible and implausible. This is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the oftentimes dogmatic assertions that are made by many other Christian authors who propound their conclusions with a matter-of-fact, case-closed confidence that leaves many, like myself, wondering what side of the story I'm not hearing from dissenters. The author of "History of Israel" provide ample examples (although sometimes too brief, but there is only so much room when dealing with an topic of this magnitude) of those who do not believe in the historicity of the Biblical texts. Mud-slinging and demonization of dissenters is not present in any of the book. Dissenting views are given what I considered to be a fair (but perhaps too brie) treatment.

"History of Israel" does not set out to prove the Old Testament reliable. It attempts to demonstrate how the Biblical texts can, and likely do, fit in with the evidence at hand. Can this be proven? No. But they certainly make a compelling case for why we ought to trust the traditions handed down to us.

I have always felt that you should believe someone unless you have good reason not too. Many biblical minimalist seem to take the view that the bible is wrong as history with very little, if any proof to back their claims up.

This book is a ultra maximalist defense of the bible as a historical work. If you are interested in this subject, its a must read.

This is a fantastic book. If you only buy one book about the flu pandemic, this is the one you should get. It has great instructions for planning, preparation and home care.

If you are someone who would like to learn more about bird flu and the potential effects of a pandemic, this is a great read. I think the author is a bit too doomsday, but he gives a good description of the disease and what can happen, and also some very good practical ideas of ways you can prepare for a pandemic. I have employed some of his suggestions and think this book is an excellent practical guide.

If the worst case scenario occurs and a pandemic occurs this book should be stored with the home emergency supplies. It is an invaluable resource for how to deal with possible medical, home logistics, and self presevation. Not suitable for young readers due to frank, graphic medical discussions.

This book covers pandemic concerns not covered by many other sources including solid suggestions for home nursing. I'm especially pleased to see it address psychological aspects and how to handle them in the absence of professionals - which may well be the reality.

This information is useful for any emergency where folks will be isolated - something we should all be prepared for. Better to be prepared than scared.

This book has it all and is well worth the expense.

Because a pandemic happens in many places at once, it is absurd to believe that the government and an over-extended healthcare system can take care of everyone's needs. We'll face the next pandemic with the resources we personally set aside to do so. The Bird Flu Manual explains what we need to do to prepare in advance of a pandemic (as in now). Most importantly, it explains how we can care for loved ones should they fall ill. Because a pandemic emergency may result - and likely will - in disruptions to basic services such as Internet and electricity, it's a very good idea to have essential information in print, on the bookshelf. That's why this invaluable book is in my library.

This book is a classic and will be an important title in my library. It's worth a second read.

Love this entire series. It's such a different viewpoint of the Bible stories that we are all familiar with. The author makes it very plausible. I really enjoyed it.

Xmas (or X-mas) is an abbreviation for Christmas. It is derived from the word ×ÑÉÓÔÏÓ, transliterated as Christos, which is Greek for Christ. Greek is the language in which the whole New Testament was written.
Originally, in "Xmas", X represented the Greek letter ÷ (chi). It was pronounced with an aspirated [kh], which is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek. However, because an upper-case ÷ has the same shape as a Latin alphabet letter X, many people who do not know the history assume that this abbreviation is meant to "take Christ out of Christmas"

This is a terrific story, placed in a prospective where characters come to life that you knew existed in the lives of the main characters but never came to know until Gene Edwards brought them to life in story. It is like seeing God's plan come into fruition before your eyes. Even a small child can comprehend the awesomeness of God as it is being read to them. It brings relationships between people into view that are so natural and normal that it makes you feel you are a part of story, like a friend standing right there in the midst of all the events. Mr. Edwards carrys an anointing that most good writers can't even imagine exist.

This is Book 5 of the Chronicles of the Door. It deals with future events, mostly from the viewpoint of the angels in heaven. I really enjoyed the entire series; my only wish was that it had been longer and more in depth. This is a great finale which finally brings to light the mysteries pondered by man and angels. I strongly recommend the entire series, which begins with, appropriately, "The Beginning."

Lamb is just great at this kind of compilation. A great take-along or for kids who show an interest in American history.

What we have here are 79 condensations of one-hour interviews of eminent historians previously conducted by Lamb, founding CEO and host of the the C-SPAN "Booknotes" television series. ("My interview questions are omitted so that readers can focus on the author's words.") It is important to keep in mind that these are, literally, "stories from American history" rather than traditional academic briefs. That is to say, they are not dull and dry. On the contrary, their format, tone, and style are casual but at no time careless. Credit Lamb and his associates for a first-rate job of editing the material. Those interviewed are erudite raconteurs. Lamb organizes the essays within nine parts: Revolution and Founding (1776-1815), The Young Nation (1815-1850), Slavery and the Civil War (1850-1865), Rebuilding America and the Guided Age ((1865-1901), Progressive Era and Reaction (1901-1929), Depression and War (1929-1945), Early Cold War (1945-1957), Social Transformation (1957-1975), and The Culture Wars (1975-2000). I am especially grateful to Lamb for his headnotes for each chapter. Here is how he introduces Joyce Appleby and her comments on "The First Generation of Americans":

"The census of 1800 reported 1.1 million people living in the United States -- more than twice the number in the colonies at the beginning of the American Revolution. There were four cities with a population greater than 10,000 -- Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. Half of the population was under sixteen years of age. On June 18, 2000, Joyce Appleby, a U.C.L.A. professor and author of Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans, published in 2000 by Belnap Press, appeared on Booknotes to tell us about this era and how this `first generation' helped shape the young nation."

Headnotes such as these serve as appropriate introductions, of course, but also suggest additional sources which readers may wish to explore. It is also helpful to have the "Complete List of C-SPAN Booknotes (1989-2001)," then totaling 619. This is one of three books published thus far, based on 79 of those interviews. The other two, also edited by Lamb, are Booknotes: Life Stories, Notable Biographers on the People Who Shaped America and Booknotes: America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas. If you have an especially strong appetite for American history, Lamb and his associates offer a "feast."

Bon Appetit!

If you've ever read any of the BOOKNOTES series by C-SPAN host, Brain Lamb, you already know their value. I personally find this volume, STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY, to be the best of them all. As with all of Lamb's books, the list of contributing writers reads like a Hall of Fame roster.

This volume is divided into nine different time periods. Each one covers not just historic and political events, but also offers pieces on social events, biographic profiles and more. For example, in the chapter on the Gilded Age, you will find an essay on the building of Central Park, the first Transcontinental Railroad, the political career of Grover Cleveland, historian H. W. Brands on the events of the 1890's, a look at William Randolph Hearst and the rise of "yellow journalism" (so named for Hearst's introduction of one of the first colorized print cartoons, "The Yellow Kid"), and concludes with an essay on J.P. Morgan and the banking industry.

This is a wonderful addition to your library and critical for home-schoolers. The writing is superb and unbiased, allowing the reader to form their own conclusions to events of American History. This volume concludes with 23 pages of a complete list of C-SPAN Booknotes, where you are sure to find more to add to your reading list.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

Overall this is a great book -- engaging, insightful. The chapters are brief, easy to read, and the reader gets a wide range of viewpoints from the various authors feautred. The only criticism I have is that the last section, The Culture Wars, is deficient. It covers well the conservative end of things with chapters on neo-conservatives, Reagan & Bush. However, the book ignores Carter & Clinton. And except for race, the book ignores civil rights issues that have been so divisive in the "culture wars," such as feminism and gay rights.

I was watching the Don Imus Radio Program "Imus In the Morning" when he recommended to his listeners this book edited by Brian Lamb, the founder and current executive of C-SPAN. After hearing numerous recommendations from other viewers and notables on the Imus program, I decided to purchase the book myself and see if it was as good as others said it was. I was not disappointed in the least.

The book is in overview exerpts of interviews of notable historians and other personalities who have written a book about a historical figure or event and was on the C-SPAN show "Booknotes" to talk about the book they have written. Such authors as James McPherson, the excellent Civil War Historian to NBC News Anchorman Tom Brokaw who talked about the World War II generation. The book starts with the American Revolution and ends with the year 2000. Each chapter is a brief overview of what the historians/authors on C-SPAN said during the show that they appeared and it is interesting and to the point.

The chapters are short 5 to 8 pages at the most, but they keep the reader's interest throughout. There is an introduction at the beginning of each chapter that tells the date that the historian/author appeared on Booknotes and what the name of the book was that they have written.

Each chapter is interesting and dare I say "fun" to read. From the founding of America, to the Civil War, to current day is fascinating reading. Such notable figures as U.S. Grant, J.P. Morgan, John F. Kennedy and so many others are discussed as well. From historical acts to controversy, this book has them all. It provides a "taste" of the individual book that is presented by the authors and also some tell the motivation to why they wanted to write about an event or historical figure.

This is easy to read and does not get bogged down in detail. If you want detail, then buy the actual book that the various authors have written about.

This is the kind of book that would be excellent for a upper level high school U.S. History Class or for College U.S. History Classes as well to use as a companion to the required textbooks assigned for the classes. This is also the perfect book for the "armchair" historian who enjoys a good read about interesting people and events, but dosent want to know the minute details involved in a huge biography or book on a historical event.

Highly Recommended!

The strength of this book, as some of the other reviews state, is that it clearly illustrates that the promise of technology will be fulfilled only if governments and other organizations understand how the human side of organizations either supports or undermines the implementation of technologies. This has become very clear particularly this past year as we read press reports that focus on how political divisions between government departments inhibit our ability to effectively pursue critical initiatives (e.g., terrorism is the most striking example, but decisions related to health care is another example). By describing and analyzing several real cases, Fountain identifies problems that hinder the best use of technology as well as solutions that promote best practices in an engaging way. The theoretical rigor, as well as practical application, makes this a useful book for both academics and practitioners. Personally, I hope that all people who are responsible for implementing policies related to the use of technology in government read this important book.

I whole-heartedly agree with the other reviews and add one additional comment. I used this book in my Information Technology course to Masters of Public Administration Students. The response to the book was terrific. It helped me make the point that a significant part of information technology in organizations is the people element, and led to terrific discussions on the role of social capital in organizations, among other things. In short, it is a very useful text for an MPA Information Technology course. Fountain's book is a major contribution to the literature on information technology in the public sector and is raising important points about the challenges ahead for e-government.

This book is the first work analyzing Digital Government, with special emphasis on the the risks and caveats of egov projects and dynamics between structure and technology. Fountain's "Technology Enactment" framework is specially useful for analyzing egov projects, and understanding their complexity generated by strength of institutional barriers and required operational change.

A number of books on the information technology and public management have been published. The better ones provided a solid rendition of conventional stories of either agency empowerment or implementation hurdles. Jane Fountain's exquisit "Virtual State" is excitingly different. Using clear language and razor-sharp analysis, she provides a comprehensive framework to understand the interaction of information technology and public management. Eminently readable, well researched case studies complement crisp analysis. Fountain has done nothing more than providing the new yardstick all future works of this genre have to measure against - and nothing less! A must read!

Jane Fountain wants to understand the implications of information technology - particularly the Internet - for institutional change in government. The research reported in this book deals with three experiments in applying information technology in the U.S. government in the 1990s: the establishment of an International Trade Data Base (ITDB) for administering the North American Free Trade Agreement, the development of a one-stop shopping informational web site for small businesses called the U.S. Business Advisor, and efforts to modernize the use of information technology within the Ninth Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. On the basis of these three cases, Fountain concludes that the introduction of information technology "disrupts complex ecologies of institutionalized power relationships" (p. 205) inside governments and institutional actors, as a result, attempt to reconstruct those disrupted relationships in unanticipated and sometimes regrettable ways. Sometimes the disruption is so great that the resistance to the introduction of new technology prevails and "many potential connections remain unforged, and numerous opportunities to gain stunning efficiencies, cost savings, integrated services and joint problem solving in complex policy areas lie fallow." (p. 201)

In Chapter 1, the author distinguishes between "objective" and "enacted" technology. Enacted technology is the result of the introduction of objective technology in a set of social relationships where resistance to introduction is possible. This distinction reflects the author's concern for possible gap between the potential of objective technology and the actuality of enacted technology.

Chapter 2 focuses on the National Policy Review (NPR), an initiative of the first term of the Clinton administration that was led by Vice President Al Gore. The NPR was supposed to come up with recommendations on how to "reengineer" government in a manner analogous to the contemporaneous reengineering of business - that is, via the introduction of information technologies to reduce the costs of sharing information within organizations. It was hoped that this would reduce hierarchy, make possible huge cost savings, and empower citizens. The NPR provoked a lot of discussion and debate within the government about how to accomplish these aims and the three experiments studied by Fountain were all influenced by it. Nevertheless, each of these experiments had its own impetus and logic that went considerably beyond the NPR.

The first experiment, the establishment of ITDB, followed mainly from the signing and ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA required important changes in the handling of trade-related traffic across the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican borders. The previous growth in international trade had already forced the U.S. Customs Bureau (a sub-agency of the Treasury Department) to automate its processing of trade clearances. The ITDB proposed to go much further by integrating a variety of trade and non-trade functions at the borders to deal with trade in both legal and illegal goods, legal and illegal immigration, while simultaneously upgrading the ability of the government to collect and analyze trade data. Unfortunately, worries about the potential delayed deliveries of goods due to overly ambitious government monitoring of trade on the part of businesses gave them a good reason to support efforts of the Customs Bureau to maintain primary authority over the processing of trade documents. The Customs Bureau felt threatened by ITDB and resisted efforts by other agencies to invade its turf. A series of bureaucratic battles ensued with the results well described by Fountain in Chapter 7.

In Chapter 8, Fountain considers the efforts of an interagency task force to establish a web site to provide a single portal for information about government regulations for small business owners. The U.S. Business Advisor was developed and deployed successfully and it won awards for utility and user-friendliness. However, the incentive structure within the U.S. government was not very good at encouraging the sort of continuous interagency coordination and cooperation needed to maintain the site, so it soon developed broken links that were not repaired and needed upgrades did not occur.

In Chapter 9, Fountain describes the efforts of the Ninth Infantry Division to modernize its information systems by creating a Divisional intranet. The first problem, that of overcoming the resistance of field commanders, to substituting paper-and-pencil-based systems with electronic ones, was dealt with by giving too much power to mid-level officers to design the system. The superior officers had difficulty specifying what particular information they needed because of the complexity of the tasks they performed, so they ended up being swamped with a lot of unnecessary information. The soldiers who previously were trained to submit written forms to the mid-level officers moved to electronic submission without sufficient training and without complete knowledge of how this information would be used at higher levels. They became "de-skilled." The mid-level officers suggested intranet designs that enabled them to do their jobs more efficiently but did not enhance the quality of information that went to their superior officers.

The best feature of this book, therefore, is the honest description of what actually happens -- as opposed to what is supposed to happen - when new information technology is introduced into government agencies. In order to get to this part of the book, however, the reader is made to plow through six chapters on theory, all quite well done, that do not necessarily have to be there given the empirical focus of the research. Students of bureaucracy and technology will certainly benefit from the reading of these chapters. But other readers may be excused for getting impatient when the first empirical material is introduced on page 107. Nevertheless, Jane Fountain's book is a serious and well-written effort to understand the challenges associated with modernizing the U.S. government by introducing new information technologies.

This writer has a unique style that keeps you up late at night wanting to read more. Good points were made and I appreciated the references to back the information provided.

If you have wondered where this administration came from, Marc Umile does a great job of answering that question. He makes it abundantly clear--with compelling arguments and persuasive evidence--that George W. Bush is neither compassionate nor conservative. It brings to mind the witticism about the meaning of "compassionate conservative": they still won't help you, but they feel really bad about it! Except this guy doesn't feel a thing. Not a thing.

As you read this book, think about the principles that have defined traditional Republicanism: a commitment to balanced budgets, Constitutional government, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and keeping the government out of our personal lives. This administration--with its massive federal deficits, its promotion of the Patriot Act, its aggressive wars abroad, and its intrusion into the most intimate aspects of our privacy-- violates all four of those principles.

Mussolini observed that "fascism" could be defined as corporatism, since it represents the merger of big business with big government, a coalition characterized by rampant nationalism and aggressive militarism. The leader is identified with the state, which makes criticism of the leader unpatriotic or even treasonous. Ask yourself where we find ourselves at the beginning of this new millenium. As you will discover here, the situation is more than a little frightening.

My Democrat friend begged me to read one chapter, 'just this one chapter' she said. I was bitten by the information, by Mr. Umile's straight-forward writing style and read the entire book.
His voice is fresh, he's a political independent who tracked down incredible information on Mr. Bush, his family and regime; how can I ignore the facts. Just the facts.
Read this and weep my fellow Republicans.

The remarkable thing about Marc Umile's Bush Unplugged is that it accessible to people from all parts of the political spectrum. Umile's style is conversational, the information easily absorbed. I had fun reading this book even as I shuddered at the implications of the myriad undemocratic, self serving, and downright immoral activities of the folks currently administering The People's affairs. We should ALL read Bush Unplugged - NOW - BEFORE NOVEMBER 2nd!

I'm an avid reader but I tend to focus my attention on the likes of John Grisham and James Patterson. I've never read a political book in my life because I have no interest in,or clue about politics. For this very reason a friend of mine insisted that I read Bush Unplugged and I am so glad I finally took the literary political plunge. I was riveted from the first page,and throughout the book I could not believe what I was reading.I was blown away by what I did not know about the president and his cronies and how these stories are not reported on the evening news.Thanks to MR. Umile's book I feel like my eyes are open and I should spend more time reading about the money and power issues that drive our political figures.I had no clue and always put my trust in our leaders.What a fool I've been. Umile calls himself a "research junkie."I call him a brilliant public servant who opened my eyes.


Lisa Nelson
Montgomery County Pa

David Barsamian asks good questions (he's had years of practice) but it's Arundhati Roy's answers that make this book so rewarding. She combines an impressive knowledge of facts with real commitment and passion.

She doesn't let the interview format get the best of her, turning her responses into lectures. Instead, she is a smart-alec sometimes and just plain smart at other times. Her dedication to making the world a better place is personal, with roots in her childhood in India. As she describes US imperialism, corporate power, and corruption in the Indian government, she ties it all to her own political development. This is an important book, easy to read but very informative and inspiring.

This book is wonderful for those who are already familiar with Roy's work, providing an opportunity for her to reflect on prior work and speak her mind openly. Along with discussion of contemporary issues, such as 9-11, US imperial hegemony, and the Narmada Dam project in India, The Checkbook and the Cruise Missle fleshes out the context of Roy's upbringing in Kerala, India, as well as the deeper motivations behind The God of Small Things, Power Politics and War Talk. David Barsamian, veteran underground media guru, asks fresh, penetrating questions that will keep you interested throughout. A wonderful addition to Roy literature.

Here is everything you've come to know and love of Arundhati Roy - and David Barsamian. Roy's political observations are of an exceptionally acute and pithy intelligence. Her wisdom has a way of turning a phrase completely unique to Roy, yet without losing the common touch. It lashes out in fury at injustice everywhere, yet with compassion as vital and common as sodden sand squishing through barefoot toes on a riverbank.

Despite her success, Roy is quite content to live away from celebrity, in India, which she says maintains a measure of the wildness that has long been put under the bulldozer of Western "progress":

"In India we are fighting to retain a wilderness that we have. Whereas in the West, it's gone. Every person that's walking down the street is a walking bar code. You can tell where their clothes are from, how much they cost, which designer made which shoe, which shop you bought each item from. Everything is civilized and tagged and valued and numbered and put in its place. Whereas in India, the wilderness still exists - the unindocrinated wilderness of the mind, full of untold secrets and wild imaginings. It's threatened, but we're fighting to retain it. We don't have to reconjure it. It's there. It's with us. It's not got signposts all the way. There is that space that hasn't been completely mapped and taken over and tagged and trademarked. I think that's important. And it's important that in India, we understand that it's there and we value it.

Roy expresses a remarkably matter-of-fact courage and an unbiased reason in the face of the rabid nationalism and religious fundamentalism and fanaticism that engenders, among other dark clouds, the nuclear brinkmanship between India and Pakistan.

There is something almost otherwordly about the honesty and modesty of Roy's political discourse, something in her expression so humane and plain-spoken you had despaired ever hearing it again. It is othwordly precisely because it's so obvious, so expected, and yet almost always lacking.

After the smash success of her first novel The God of Small Things, Roy says rather than any of the large publishing houses from which she could have had her pick she chose South End Press to publish her next two books of essays:

"People really imagine that most people are in search of fame or fortune or success. But I don't think that's true. I think there are lots of people who are more imaginative than that. When people describe me as famous and rich and successful, it makes me feel queasy. Each of those words falls on my soul like an insult. They seem tinny and boring and shiny and uninteresting to me. It makes me feel unsuccessful because I never set out to be those things. And they make me uneasy. To be famous, rich, and successful in this world is not an admirable thing. I'm suspicious of it all."

Quintessential Roy, and such a beautiful thought. In its own right, but especially in contrast to the seething, insatiable appetites of capitalist greed. Whatever happened to beautiful thoughts in beautiful minds?

Who else but Roy will say piercing truths we all feel, but cannot quite enunciate such as the fact that all the attention to terrorism today "completely ignores the economic terrorism unleashed by neoliberalism, which devastates the lives of millions of people, depriving them of water, food, electricity. Denying them medicine. Denying them education. Terrorism is the logical extension of this business of the free market. Terrorism is the privatization of war. Terrorists are the free marketeers of war - people who believe that it isn't only the state that can wage war, but private parties as well."

Elsewhere, Roy gives a psychology of terror in which U.S. and U.K. resorts to war in reaction to terrorist strikes actually empower terrorists, because before the terrorist were only weak, wretched and anonymous. Now they can start wars. Now they have their finger on the nuclear button.

This too, vintage Roy:

"In a country like the United States where books like Chomsky's 9-11 are starting to reach wider audiences, aren't people going to feel a bit pissed off that they had no idea about what was going on, and what was being done in their name? If the corporate media continues to be as outrageous in its suppression of facts as it is, it might just lift off like a scab. It might become something that's totally irrelevant, that people just don't believe. Because ultimately, people are interested in their own safety.

"The policies the U.S. government is following are dangerous for its citizens. It's true that you can bomb or buy out anybody that you want to, but you can't control the rage that's building in the world. You just can't. And that rage will express itself in some way or the other. Condemning violence is not going to be enough. How can you condemn violence when a section of your economy is based on selling weapons and making bombs and piling up chemical and biological weapons? When the soul of your culture worships violence? On what grounds are you going to condemn terrorism, unless you change your attitude toward violence?"

I read and very much enjoyed Ms. Roy's book, The God of Small Things. A short time ago I was driving home after having participated in a candle light vigil in support of Cindy Sheehan and our troops in Iraq when I heard a broadcast of a speech she made in Australia. I was so impressed that I immediately ordered the book which contains that speech and other NPR interviews. While I've not had time yet to read the book, the teaser I got from listening to her, tells me that this will be a "5" experience!

Originally titled "The Globalization of Dissent", "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile" is a series of four interviews with author Arundhati Roy. The interviews, guided conversations, really, are conducted by radio producer David Barsaman. Roy is perhaps best known as the author of the Booker Prize winning novel "The God of Small Things", but she has also written three collections of essays dealing with such various subjects as the corruption of the Indian government, American Imperialism, and nuclear arms proliferation. This book touches on many of these same themes, but also deals with Roy's personal life in a level her essays have not.

The first interview "Knowledge and Power" was conducted in February 2001. As the title suggests, the focus of this interview is on knowledge and power and what both mean to Arundhati Roy. Roy discusses, as she does in her essays, the abuse of power by the Indian government and the arrogance of controlling knowledge. Roy mentions how knowledge can (and has) caused arrogance and corruption in the intellectual elites. Specific instances mentioned include the government letting Enron control and own so much of India's power structure, and the irresponsible destruction caused by the Big Dam projects. This interview paints, in broad strokes, a picture of the overall worldview of Arundhati Roy. This is fantastic stuff. In Roy we discover an intelligent, accomplished, passionate woman who has taken the very human responsibility of trying to make a difference in the world.

The second interview, taken in September 2002, is a much shorter essay. Titled "Terror and the Maddened King", the essay begins with David Barsaman questioning Roy about the charges brought against her because of the novel "The God of Small Things". This interview deals more with Roy's reaction to, and experience with, government bullying. This interview feels as if it is setting up a future discussion, that there is a reason why Roy and others must speak up to the injustices caused by governments and Empires of the world.

In the longest interview, "Privitization and Polarization", Arundhati Roy makes some bold, inflammatory statements. She writes "terrorism is the privitization of war. Terrorists are the free marketers of war - people who believe that it isn't only the state that can wage war, but private parties as well." (92) She then goes on to say that "Osama Bin Laden and George Bush are both terrorists". To the American reader this is a shocking and even inconceivable. Taken from a different perspective and reading how Roy explains her viewpoint, it is not as unbelievable as it seems. From the viewpoint of one who is against globalization and the bullying of the government of the American Empire, the connections in Roy's logic are understandable. She does make a point, however, to distinguish the American people with the political power machine. This interview was conducted in November 2002.

The final interview was conducted on May 26, 2003. The title here, "Globalizing Dissent", is particularly apt. While it is never stated directly, the primary theme running through this interview is the idea that the globalization of a "world economy", which Roy feels is the globalization of the American economy, is necessarily also globalizing a dissent against that same globalization. This, Roy contends, is why the world is seeing a higher amount of and more intense form of terrorism against the forms of globalization. It is seen against America in Iraq and Roy sees it firsthand in India. In this interview Roy talks about how the terrorism of George Bush in Iraq is doing nothing more than causing more and more of this dissent.

There is very much a strong tone of anti-globalization running through "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile". Arundhati Roy is against the broad application of power which is wielded by the world's most powerful nation. She feels strongly about looking after all of humanity, not just those with power. Ultimately, that is what Roy is trying to accomplish.

The voice of Arundhati Roy is vitally important, no matter what one's opinion of her message. At the very least it is a point of view which should be seriously considered as an alternative. She makes very good points and argues them passionately and with intelligence. She suffers no fools and has no patience with an argument made from simple nationalism. This is an important voice, but perhaps one that many in the world will find uncomfortable as she argues against many of the foundations of Western Society.

The bottom line is that this book expands and explains Roy's essays and gives a deeper personal look inside the life and mind of an important writer.

-Joe Sherry

This book contains four basic elements that despite the name of the book do not all deal directly with the Chinese Communist Party in power. The first element of the book deals with the political history of P'eng Shu'tse and his wife. The second deals with the theoretical differences between Stalin and Trotsky, P'eng Shu'tse and Mao Tse-tung. A third element deals with the Chinese Communist Party's rise to power. The third element then finally deals with P'eng Shu'tse's analysis of the Chinese Communist Party in power. All of these elements are important to the message of the book so I will try to cover them all briefly here.

Background, The Political History of P'eng Shu'tse

In 1911 the feudal Qing dynasty fell. It had been destroyed by years of humiliating imperialist subjugation as well as having been destroyed by its own feudal backwardness and a yearning of the people for a better society. Included in this subjugation were unfair trade policies and the British militarily enforced selling of opium to the population.

The new capitalist government, however, failed to stand up to imperialism in any meaningful way and left the feudal relations of the countryside intact. As a result, the new government also collapsed and authority disintegrated into the hands of regional warlords under the sway of competing imperialist interests.

It was during this time of chaos, in 1920, that P'eng Shu'tse joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He joined the party at a time when the total failure of capitalism in China was self-evident as was the need to end imperialist subjugation. Communism held a strong appeal in its advocacy for anti-imperialist revolution as well as for worker's power, the smashing of feudal land relations, and for the end of the subjugation of women and youth to the old patriarchal system.

In 1921 P'eng Shu'tse moved to Moscow where he attended the Communist University of the Toilers of the East until 1924. There he was elected and served as secretary of the Moscow branch of the CCP for the time he was there.

At the time of P'eng Shu'tse's attendance at the university the revolutionary government of the Soviet Union was young and had only been born four years earlier of the October 1917 revolution. The revolutionary leadership in power was the Communist Party under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. Joseph Stalin was part of that communist party as well, and he held some power, but he had not yet risen to the position of absolute power that he would later enjoy.

Upon P'eng Shu'tse's return to China in 1924 he published two articles in the CCP's theoretical magazine, New Youth, and the CCP's official organ, New Guide, both of which he became editor of. One was a defense of the Boxer movement of 1900 as an anti-imperialist and not an anti-foreigner movement. Another was on the nature of the coming revolution in China, where he argued that the wealthy classes of China were timid and weak and utterly incapable of leading the bourgeois anti-imperialist revolution. He pointed out that the only hope for revolution would be one led by the working class that was socialist in nature.

A year earlier Mao Tse-tung had published an article in New Guide advocating the opposite position of P'eng Shu'tse on the nature of the coming revolution. In it Mao advocated a bourgeois capitalist government and called on the unity of the merchants to help bring it about.




The Theory Of Permanent Revolution, The Koumintang, And The Interference Of Moscow

The debate between Mao Tse-tung and P'eng Shu'tse was not a new one for the socialist movement. The same debate had taken place in Russia before the 1917 revolutions. The ideas of P'eng Shu'tse dealing with the conditions of China coincided heavily with Leon Trotsky's analysis of Russian conditions written in what later became called the Theory of Permanent Revolution.

Trotsky wrote the Theory of Permanent Revolution in a Czarist jail after his experiences in the failed 1905 revolution. He saw through his experiences in the revolution that not only was the working class the only class interested and capable of carrying out the revolution; he also saw that the Russian revolution would have to be socialist to succeed.

The reasons given by Trotsky were several, but the most important being that the capitalist class would sabotage production if the workers took power. He correctly saw that the only way to have a working economy was to nationalize industry and to implement a socialist economy.

Lenin later adopted these fundamental tenants of the theory of Permanent Revolution in his famous April thesis of 1917. As a result Lenin and Trotsky's parties merged at that time to lead the socialist revolution against the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries who since taking power in February were restarting the war with Germany on behalf of the bourgeoisie and refusing land reform and a socialist revolution.

Trotsky also explained that not only was there no need for Russia to go through a bourgeois capitalist revolution, but that the bourgeoisie was utterly incapable of leading such a revolution in Russia. He explained that the working class had developed to a point that the bourgeoisie feared revolution more than anything else because they saw that a revolution, no matter how small in its original leadership's goals, would potentially unleash the power of the working class to carry out a full socialist revolution. Thus the bourgeoisie sided with the old feudal system instead of trying to bring about their own power.

Trotsky explained this phenomenon as compared to the developments in the west, such as the the bourgeois revolution in the United States, through his theory for Russia of Combined and Uneven Development. Simply put, the technological advances of the capitalist west had become part of Russian society and had created a working class capable of overstepping the bounds of the bourgeois revolution against Czarism, making the bourgeoisie uninterested in any kind of revolution.

In Russia the Menshevik's ridiculous attempts at establishing a bourgeois government confirmed this with the bourgeois representatives they appointed trying to impose military dictatorship and hand power back to the old feudal system. Later Stalin repeated this same sort of mistake carried out by the Mensheviks in his support for the corrupt and murderous bourgeois Kuomintang in China. In fact, in Russia, Stalin had been negotiating the unity of the Menshevik and Bolshevik Parties before Lenin's arrival from exile in April.

As Stalin took the reigns of power in the Soviet Union he also exerted his influence within the Chinese Communist Party to remove P'eng Shu'tse and other like minded leaders that opposed Moscow's position of dissolving much of the CCP's work into the corrupt and brutal Kuomintang. Despite the Koumintang carrying out numerous massacres of the CCP and their worker peasant supporters, the CCP maintained this position of subjegation to the leadership of the Kuomintang from for much of the time from the late 1920's up until not long before the 1949 revolution when Chaing Kai-sheck's attacks finally forced Mao onto the road of leading the struggle for power.

Due to P'eng Shu'tse's opposition to any kind of support for the Koumintang and his defense of Trotsky and Permanent Revolution he was first stripped of his leadership position in the CCP and later completely purged with other fellow travelers. They set up their own political organization and publications. These positions in light of Chaing Kai-sheck's massacres, including his butchering of the workers of Shanghai in 1927, and Chaing Kai-sheck's failure to fight the Japanese, attracted recruits to their Trotskyist organization, but also attracted the oppression of the Kuomintang themselves.

Many of P'eng Shu'tse's comrades were jailed or executed by Chaing Kai-sheck. P'eng Shu'tse spent a number of years in prison under Chaing Kai-sheck himself and was only released after a Japanese bomber destroyed the prison he was in.

Yet while Mao and the CCP had the luxery of Soviet aid to bolster their movement by paying their full time party cadre and writers for much of the time from the 1920s to the 1949 revolution, the Trotskyist movement always stayed a lesser party despite their superior program, because they never had foreign aid. Mao was even able to make gains during the Japanese occupation while he was capitulating to the hated leadership of Chaing Kai-sheck, while at the same time the Trotskyist movement that had been mostly jailed before the Japanese invasion was paralyzed by their small size and Japanese oppression during the occupation.

After the defeat of Japan the Chinese Trotskyist group once again grew in size and was about 350 people at the time that Mao was on the verge of seizing power. Knowing they were not large enough to do much in the coming revolution, and knowing what kind of oppression other Stalinist regimes had carried out against Trotskyists in eastern Europe, the party's last meeting before the 1949 revolution made a decision that all prominent Trotskyists should leave the country and that those that the CCP members did not know should join the CCP.

P'eng Shu'tse and Ch'en Pi-lan moved to Hong Kong where the Trotskyist movement was also being hunted and persecuted by the British. The oppression they faced there forced them to then immigrate to Vietnam. In Vietnam comrades of theirs were under attack from the Vietnamese communists so P'eng Shu'tse and Ch'en Pi-lan were then forced to immigrate to Europe where they continued to be active around the issues of China in the Trotskyist Fourth International.

Some members who stayed behind in China were rounded up in the night by the PRC government with their entire families. Many were never seen again. Others were released from prison in 1976.

The Chinese Communist Party in Power

From exile P'eng Shu'tse continued to speak and organize on the issue of China. He held the position that an undemocratic Stalinist government had taken power in China with the 1949 revolution, and while he saw many improvements for the Chinese people come from that regime, he was highly critical of the leadership of Mao Tse-tung.

In the early years, among other things, P'eng Shu'tse criticized Mao for not holding real elections, for suppressing the freedom unleashed by his earlier slogan of "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom", for the horrible and predictable failure of the "Great Leap Forward" and its attempts modernize China by producing useless steel in backyard furnaces, for the forced collectivizations that he saw as copying the methods of Stalin's same project with both causing unecessary hardship amongst the peasants as well as having a horrible impact on food production.

In his analysis of these events P'eng Shu'tse saw an opposition open up within the CCP to Mao's ultra-left adventurist failures that forced Mao's resignation in 1958. The leadership Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Peng Zhen, Bo Yibo were then forced to deal with correcting Mao's mistakes. They ended the production of backyard steel, restored private plots of land in the countryside, personal ownership of livestock, and the free market in the countryside. Even where collective farming can be more efficient, it will never be unless it done on terms that the peasants enjoy. The peasants greeted these reforms with enthusiasm and production increased. By 1963 food production had risen to levels that ended the famine caused by Mao's policies.

In the international arena P'eng Shu'tse also felt that Mao was also discredited in 1965 with a U.S. backed coup d'etat in Indonesia that left half a million Communists dead. The Communists were close allies of Mao and P'eng Shu'tse saw this as a repeat on a larger scale of Mao's policy of subordinating the national, worker, and peasants struggle to the bourgeoisie just as Mao had done with the Koumintang. Some party members also blamed this defeat on the CCP's influence, with P'eng Chen stating, "Everyone is equal before the truth, and if Chairman Mao has made some mistakes he should be criticized."

After this further setback for the prestige of Mao, Mao proceeded to organize the so-called "Cultural Revolution" to regain power. Mao used sections of the military as well as highschool aged youth organized as "Red Guards" to launch a civil war against intellectuals that had criticized Mao as well as large sections of the leadership of the CCP that were fed-up with the leadership of Mao. This was a coup d'etat carried out by Mao against the collective leadership of the CCP that was supposed to be the proper channel of discussion. Mao did not feel he could get his way through the CCP.

In response to Mao's coup, many local leaders organized their own youth groups to fight back against the Red Guards, as well as turning to military units loyal to them, and even mobilizing workers on their behalf. Ultimately, however, Mao was successful in his power grab through violence that ushered in the reign of terror of the gang of four. In 1976 Mao died and the Gang of Four went on trial. Like his mentor Stalin, Mao had managed to silence his opposition and get rid of all of the leaders that had fought beside him to make the 1949 Revolution.

The 1949 revolution, among other things, made major advances in women's rights, healthcare, and education for the people of China. Yet the legacy of the gains made by the Chinese people through the 1949 revolution must always be tempered by a knowledge of the crimes of Mao.

I think that P'eng Shu'tse would have given up a long time ago if he didn't have a strong love for the truth and for the people combined with an overwhelming optimism. As a revolutionary socialist he did not feel that the Stalinist system was an inevitable product of socialist revolution, but that the money and popular influence of Stalinism at a certain point in history caused China and Eastern Europe to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union. There is no reason for future revolutions to repeat those same mistakes.

Today P'eng Shu'tse would also oppose the headlong jump of China into capitalism under the continued brutal rule of the CCP and instead advocate the road to democratic socialism in China and around the world.

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