Ethics Books

This book states the reality of madical practice. It's a good book.

Everone should read this book!

My 85-year-old mother recently fell and severely fractured her hip. Unfortunately, she belongs to a Medicare HMO based in Southern California. Because of the nature of her fracture, she required pinning of her femur, a more extensive procedure than the usual treatment for hip fractures. The HMO which was contractually responsible for her care denied payment to the Skilled Nursisng Facility after l8 days, in spite of written reports from her physical therapists and her doctor detailing the remarkable progress she was making. Thanks to this book, we were able to appeal the HMO's denial, which was immediately again denied by the HMO. The appeal then went on to HCFA for review and the denial was reversed. This has saved my mom thousands of dollars. It should be required reading for anyone involved with HMO's!

Don't Let Your HMO Kill You is an invaluable resource which every family should have. It empowers the consumer to take charge of their and their family's health care. Drs Theodosakis and Feinberg bring both insight and useful advice to help the patient make the most of managed care. From better organizing your doctor's visit to learning how to successfully appeal a denial from your HMO, there is something for everyone in this powerful book.

Read this before you go to the doctor! It explains how to work with your doctors, rather than against them, to get the care you need. It points out why the red tape exists, why the doctors are bound by it, and how the two of you can get around it. This book should be issued to every patient. It will benefit doctors and patients alike.

As a physician who has dealt with many HMOs, I believe this will become the premier guide for people to get the best care out of whatever system they're using. It is about time someone put all of the secrets and resources in one place. Medicine has changed significantly in the last few years - right under the noses of most patients and doctors. It's caused frustration as quality care has diminished. This book will help you get back in charge. I think it should be given out by insurance plans as a guide to how patients should use the system. Congrats to the authors!

I LOVE this book! I encourage you to pass this along to mothers, daughters, sisters, friends...everyone will love it and be enriched greatly just by reading this sweet, funny, thought-provoking book by the incomparable Beth Moore!

I'm a parent of 2 little ones, and I've been reading one of her essays each morning. They're sweet and real and funny (just like Beth Moore always is) - and they're a real encouragement to me to see the long view of godly parenting, rather than getting stuck in the preschool weeds. I also gave it as a gift to my mother-in-law whose chicks are long gone from the nest, and she loved it too.

Very touching...touches all emotions. I bought three more to share with other family/friends who are mothers. Great choice as a gift for moms whose children are leaving for college.

This wonderful little book about Beth and her husband going thru empty-nest made me feel a wide range of emotions. She is a brilliant writer and always amazes me how she can be a faithfull follower of Jesus but still have so much FUN!! What a refreshing christian woman..Buy the book.. you won't be disapointed.. Beth allows you a 'peek' into her private life. If you have taken a bible study that she wrote you will get snapshots of her life.. this book fills in the holes a bit..Great reading!

I read Beth Moore's book after experiencing two miscarriages and trying to get pregnant for the third time. Her Godly approach to motherhood made me realize that God gives us children as gifts and blessings - regardless if it is for a few months in utero or for decades on earth! She gives a personalized insight on how to try to raise children to love Christ - in a world that often makes that difficult! I would highly recommend this book to any woman - moms, daughters, moms-to-be, or as I was when I read it, a mom wanna-be!

I would reccommend this book to anyone concerned about the environment, both physical and socio-economic. It is eye-opening. What is especially valuable is that the book empowers the reader.

I read this book because I am a fan of David Rippe's writing, and I was told this would be a good book for me to read, because right now I am living an "upside down" life. I'm not much into reading self help books, which I thought this book was but I thought I would give it a try. I personally don't think this is a self help book. This is a book that doesn't tell you what you have to do to change your world, it is a book that gives you choices on how you can change your world. You can either to choose to live in a world where everything is chaotic and out of control. You can choose to continue to walk through life as a robot settling for what you have or have been given, or you can choose to change those things and live in a more harmonious life and making decisions...choices for yourself.

This book takes you through everything from your thinking, emotions, entertainment, the way we eat and the medications we take, politics, war, religion etc....In every chapter there are several interviews with well known celebrities, leaders, writers, investment advisors, doctor's and so forth. Also you are given those choices you can make to live in an up-right world.

After reading this book I have chosen to flip my life around and live in an up-right world and will take what I have learned from the book to make that happen. It might not happen over night but it will happen. I definitely recommend this book to anyone living in and upside down world. You will not regret it. In fact you will want to thank both David Rippe and Jared Rosen for helping to change your life.

I found this book to be one of the best I've read. It puts so many things into perspective as we go through these changing times.

I'm buying this for my mom and sisters!

Again, it's awesome!!!!

Kathy
Spokane, WA

Like a friend who says, "Let's go for a walk," this engaging book persuades with a conversational ease, inviting you to walk through gardens you think you know so well. You are given simple facts and numbers, without any strident rhetoric. And you are startled by the leaves and petals you just now really see, in such clear light.

THE FLIP persuades because it resonates with what you know deep within to be true, but unrealized because you think them distant, perhaps irrelevant.

Before you know it, you have traversed from your little room, explored issues such as the sustainability of our world, and returned to face the metaphysical questions of your life and values- and all these, while on an easy stroll with a new friend.

As you move from garden to garden, THE FLIP stops at bridges where you meet fascinating people who tell you of their choices. The book has a spare, consistent chapter layout, giving you a web link to explore the topic yourself, and offering a quick list of practical actions.

What do you do with those precious six free hours you have of the daily twenty-four? Look at a leaf, and you see the world. Look at the choices made, and you see the values held.

This book begins, and leaves you with a softly spoken challenge: what choices do you make?

THE FLIP provides visionary wisdom for a new world, offering a chatty guide which rebels against materialism and offers 'Flip Tips' for making spiritual, physical and environment-sustaining changes for work, home life, entertainment and more. If you wish to follow a 'greener' route, THE FLIP is for you, offering insights from a range of disciplines and writers, from political and social change to flipping channels, burgers, values and more.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Of the three Josef Pieper books I have read (namely i) the anthology and ii) Faith, Hope and Charity and this present one), this has been the best for me. Pieper excels in crystalline clarity of thought; he exudes the wisdom of St Thomas. The brilliance of this book lies in Pieper's ability to see the depth of meaning in things, how we human being are configured towards right order and that when we damage and destroy this order, such as by committing an injustice, we not only damage others but counterintuitively harm ourselves more. Pieper examines Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, shows their ranking in the order of virtues and shows how they interrelate.

Pieper has shown me something I would simply never have come to know myself, namely that prudence (as classically understood, not the cunning of the tactician, as understood in modern times) is the pre-eminent virtue. But, not only that, he shows clearly the true nature of the virtues and distinguishes them from the counterfeit virtues which society labels by the same name. Pieper is particularly good at showing how counterfeits of these virtues are in fact manichaeistic in nature, often showing disdain of the body. Thus, he cites St Thomas as saying that in paradise the pleasure which man derived from the sexual act would have been greater rather than impaired by an over-spiritualism. He is also excellent on anger. The tendency towards an overly spiritualist attitude with disdain for the body has resurfaced in recent years (see, for example, the talks of Anthony de Mello SJ where he indicates that Christ's manifestation of the natual passions, such as anger, is indeed a short coming!). Referring to St Thomas, Pieper shows that "anger" at times may be in fact a manifestation of right reason and the lack thereof may show deep spiritual disorder.

In this book, one finds one continually surprised, almost taken aback by a train of thought. The real star of the book is the Great St Thomas, mediated by the great Josef Pieper!

This book contains four separate sections, one on each of the cardinal virtues. In each of these, Pieper takes a look at the virtue as defined, or often mis-defined by the contemporary world and he contrasts this with how the Church in general and St. Thomas in particular understand that given virtue. What emerges is a picture of true humanity. Often what the world offers us is appealing but insufficient, God calls us to go deeper and strive to reach higher, and in return He promises us true joy. As other reviewers have noted, this is a challenging but rewarding read. The insights it provides leave much to ponder as to how we can truly begin to live more richly in God's desire for us.

Simply brilliant reading. Living naturally is what the crux of this book is all about.

The book delves into ethics, civics, justice, philosophy, psychology, and I think it is a healthy tool for understanding classical literature: Shakespeare, for example, and the inner psychology of his characters as this moral plain, that Pieper describes, is so much closer to his than most of what we hear in our modernity.

Pieper, here, spends time defining what the classic moral compass is, taken primarily from the last officially sanctioned church doctor St. Thomas Aquinas. Pieper brings Aquinas and other philosophers' language up to date, for the ears of the modern mind. Christianityfs definition has too much to do with how it's enemies, or alterior users, wish to define it and Pieper spends a short time correcting this in places.

If you liked this you might like Pieper's Virtues of the Human Heart which is a bit less discriptive but more powerful.

Pieper also makes the point that the most important stuggle is the internal struggle for meaning and direction in any organization or person.

Tapping into the core of the western philosophical tradition, Pieper shows the reader how the ancient virtues of Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance, have a universal and pressing contemporary application, in the world of human decision making....i.e., the right thinking that clears a path ahead. Formulated out of the Greek, Roman, Hebrew, and Christian traditions, he reminds of their elemental spirtual basis in Faith, Hope, and Charity.

He notes with special emphasis, the primacy of the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence, as the clear eyed and humanly perfectable, effort to take a hard, and as objective as possible, look, at the entire factual context of a decision. And, in one of the most beautiful chapters among many in this wonderful book, is Pieper's elucidation of how this caluclation is aligned and informed by the the Spiritual Virtue of Charity.

I find the book to be both a practical and a spiritual insight into human awareness itself.

I first came into contact with this work because it was a required text for my seminary class on ethics. Pieper is a first rate German philosopher and expert on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.

If you study this book, The Four Cardinal Virtues (fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence), along with his other book, Faith, Hope, Love (the three theological virtues), you will have a wonderful primer on ethics.

One word of warning. Philosophy is not light reading. I know, it was one of my majors. Philosophy written in German and translated into English produces a book not for the timid. If you are willing to take on the challenge, more power to you. It is worth the effort, but you should know what you are getting into before you put down your money. This is a book for those who want to think and wrestle with ethics. It is not for everyone.

A good introduction to an evangelistic strategy that uses buisness to promote missions. For those who are new to the field of microcredit finance and kingdom business, this is an easy read that will provide a satisfactory overview.

This book is well written. The understanding of business/global business was informative and applicable to my direction right now. Biblical principles work and this book is confirmation for me. I work at a company that employs workers from at least 40 different countries in one setting, with additional plants world wide. The book could not be more on point. I highly recommend reading this book. Be ready spiritually and seek wisdom for the future world business exchange.

Absolutely brilliant read.

We may be happy to acknowledge that God is at work, but is God at our work. For too long, God has been kept in the Church, but Ken Eldred is saying, look; you business women and men, you are not gifted in business just to make money, you are gifted in business, in the same way as a pastor is gifted to pastor or nurse is gifted to be a nurse. To be a witness for Jesus Christ.

Today 'the' word for business,is 'investors in people'. Well Christians in business should be doing that demonstrating the love of Christ in their employment ethic, both in the UK and overseas. People don't want to go to Church, but they want to go to work, so show them Jesus in how you treat your empoyees. Build business in developing countries and make a real difference by creating jobs, not giving hand outs, create a spirit of achievement, not a spirit of dependency. Show people Christ makes a difference in work and in the Church.

Every significant movement can point to a book, paper, article or series of all of the above that communicates in one clear voice the vision of a movement...

God is at Work by Ken Eldred defines and gives examples for the movemement of Business as Mission with clear cut precision. Sharing from personal experience with 2 companies and acclaimed success Ken forecasts a movement of the Church and the Christian community to Business as Mission with speed similar to that of the response to the California gold rush.

Taking what appears to be some content from a previous book that he catered called On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions Through entrepreneurial Strategies the book establishes the baseline definition for the movement. The books also goes on to dispel what is not really business as mission and nothing more than ways to gain access to countries by misrepresenting intentions or living in that gray area of "creative access".

The last chapters of the book clearly outline the key forms of business as mission and the role that each play. Everything from microenterprise development to overseas privately owned companies. One of the things that is most insightful about the book are the specific case studies of people that are living out the concepts in countries around the world. It is refreshing to see a book that it so intent on highlighting specific next steps rather than living in a world of theory.

One of the key areas of emphasis may be enlightening to some while fundamental to others. It addresses what to some perceive to be the white elephant in the room... Profits. For the non-profit driven para church ministry, or the church itself this can be a perceived evil... For the business community it is the lifeblood to fight the next day. This in itself may be the single most differentiating characteristic of what some might call tendencies and that which is a self sustaining business on mission to be successful in both business and making a spiritual impact in the community.

It's a great read, I was happy to post it on a blog about Business as Mission to recommend it to others. You can check it out here: http://businessasmission.blogspot.com/2006/05/god-is-at-work-by-ken-eldred.htmland

Every once in a while, an idea or an individual comes along that changes the playing field, the rules of the game, the expected outcomes, or a little of it all. God Is At Work has the potential for such an impact.

I read this book in tandem with "Why Globalization Works" by Martin Wolf. The "co-reading" had a unique effect. I felt like Wolf was doing the best job I had read yet of being realistic in his assessment of the free market's potential in emerging markets, given the various undeniable and constraining dynamics at work in those places --- be it infrastructure, tariffs, corruption, education, etc. Then I was opening up GIAW and reading very similar things yet in ways that coupled an understanding of how the spiritual world was relevant as well.

The immediate impression was that GIAW was obviously not written by surmising Christian business hacks. This book had serious weight and knew its stuff. To me this was very refreshing as I am an admitted skeptic of Christian culture trying to photocopy yet one more secular realm --- from self help, to Christian music, to Christian novels, to Christian movies, now to Christian business.

These were my key impressions...

1) Few people really address well the "corruption tax" of developing nations ... GIAW nailed it. De Soto quantifies it in "Mystery of Capital" (to some extent), but GIAW got to the heart with the concept of "spiritual capital" which I found to be absolutely profound.

2) Few people really address well the concept that for business to succeed in emerging markets there has to be reformation in every corner of society --- cultural, spiritual, political, and the underlying economics. Of the works I've read, most people hone in on the last two --- I think because there afraid to attempt the first and don't know where to begin on the second (because they probably honestly don't count it).

3) The clarification of differences between business as missions, business for missions, etc was terrific and much needed. I think things can get fuzzy in this corner and some of the practical application points might need further fleshing out, but in general, the value of business as a mission in and of it self desperately needed to be clarified among Christians. Again, GIAW nailed this.

4) My one hang-up was the terminology "kingdom business". It probably really boils down to semantics and my previously noted "resistance" to Christianity's persistent need to clarify its Christian intent. On the flip side, there is the need to distinguish the characteristics of the business model proposed by GIAW from that pursued by most "secular" business people, so a title or nomenclature is probably required.

I hope this will be a breakthrough for the thousands of Christian businesspeople who have longed to know how they can contribute and who have felt on the short end of the very real, yet very wrong spiritual totem pole. I hope the church embraces the thinking, and that in the long term the game changes in ways that will elevate the impact of this and future generations of believers.

If you want to read a book of significance, look no further. While it may be a difficult read it is one of the most influential and important books ever written.

There were only 9 reviews on this book . . . what can one say. . . either something brings you to this book or it does not. . . if you are reading these reviews, then buy it.

This book is one of the most important and influential works on ethics. It is dense, not an easy read, the structure is loose and troublesome at times, but it is groundbreaking and brilliant.

There are many internet resources to guide you along the reading,. so do not be intimidated. Much of future work will rest on the contributions by Kant.

This version of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals provides a clear and concise introduction. You will find it useful to understand how Kant's moral philosophy fits within his general philosophy and to get acquainted with some of the debates around his work. Although this book is rather expensive for what it is, it is useful and worth buying if you are really interested in this topic.

As translator H.J. Paton states in his introduction, 'Kant's "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals" is one of the small books which are truly great' despite the unapproachability of the title. Many rank this book alongside Aristotle's 'Ethics' and Plato's 'Republic'. Its main topic is the supremacy of morals and moral action, and Paton gives a section by section analysis of Kant's book. The purpose of this work is not to work out all of the implications and difficulties with the a priori part of ethics, but rather to set a foundation of the supreme principle of morality.

The centerpiece of the Groundwork is Kant's most famous proposition, the Categorical Imperative. While this is often equated with the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you), the Categorical Imperative argues for a more universal set of moral action - for example, if one does not mind being lied to, then lying does not become a problem, according to the Golden Rule, but for Kant, this would be unacceptable as it is a violation of the rational principles of what morals are.

Kant proceeds to look at issues of law, duty, free will and the good will, and autonomy of action. Kant argues strongly for the need for philosophy to guard against whim, taste and personal desire from becoming normative agents in the way we construct the moral universe. He argue for objective principles to govern the will, and categorises these as either hypothetical or categorical. 'All imperatives command either hypothetically or categorically. Hypothetical imperatives declare a possible action to be practically necessary as a means to the attainment of something else that one wills (or that one may will). A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself apart from its relation to a further end.'

Kant goes from this discussion to the formulation of universal law and the way in which rational agents should formulate and view this kind of law. The final section of this work introduces ideas that will be more fully developed in Kant's 'Critique of Practical Reason', the second of his three-volume Critiques. He also covers some of the arguments from 'Critique of Pure Reason', but not very fully; as Paton states in his analysis, 'Kant cannot assume the elaborate arguments of the "Critique of Pure Reason" to be familiar to his readers nor can he attempt to repeat these elaborate arguments in a short treatise on ethics.' The finite, rational person must regard himself or herself both as a member of the world of experience/perception and also as a member of the world of ideas/rationality. This is the essence of the Empiricist/Rationalist split that Kant synthesises together in the first Critique.

This is not easy going - the original 'Groundwork' had 128 pages, contained here in less than 100 (allowing for type-face differences as well as translation). Paton's version has 40 pages of analysis, endnotes, an index, and a statement about the translation - it is the 40 pages of analysis, keyed to section-by-section sequence, that makes this a very useful edition. This is perhaps the best first text of Kant to read to get a sense of his style, thought, and the foundation of what has become known as his most important principle.

'Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals' by Immanuel Kant is easily the most important work devoted exclusively to thinking about morality in the history of Philosophy, especially considering it's size.

The cornerstone of the work, and the end result of Kant's analysis is the categorical imperative which says that a moral law are only those for which you can state should be true of all people.

In one fell swoop, Kant marginalizes all thinking about relativism in morality and at the same time distinguishes moral from religious thinking.

If you pair this up with St. Paul's statements in his letter to the Romans (3:19-28) which states strongly that adherance to the law has virtually nothing to do with salvation, it should make things pretty clear to all concerned.

Unfortunately, things are rarely that simple. As important as Kant's conclusion is, it is necessary but not sufficient for a complete analysis of morality.

One excuse may be that this work is really Kant's version of 'Cliff Notes' to his moral argument. His full presentation comes in the 'Critique of Practical Reason', which, however, is not often read.

Note that contrary to another review of this edition, the translator and commentator is the noted Kant scholar of 70 years ago, H. J. Paton.

To people who are not used to reading philosophy, I will not hide the fact that Kant is tough going. He may not be quite as tough as Hegel, the Existentialists, or the ancient Greeks, but he is definitely harder to understand than any modern nonfiction book I can think of.

The biggest argument against the 'Groundwork' and the categorical imperative is usually the fact that it does not rule out trivial rules, such as 'you must always eat a starch at least once a day'. This rule is physically possible for anyone living anywhere in the world, yet it is certainly not a moral law. It is not even a very good dietary law, but that's neither here nor there. A second argument is that Kant's argument seems a bit circular, when he says that the only thing which unqualifiedly good is a good will.

For anyone who has been vexed by moral questions, an honest reading of this work will at the very least give you hope that with the right amount of thought, one can make sense of moral issues.

A truly great book.

It's a good book and a easy read. I enjoyed it and it gave me some really good positive affirmations that I now use in my dailey life!!!

Many self-help books leave you thinking...oh gee...I have to do all that? Jim Donovan's book, however, is very easy to read (as the other reviewers have said) and offers very simply suggestions that can be put into practice right away (getting into action, making decisions quickly are just two examples).

I interviewed Jim on my radio program, EverydayWealth Radio, and found him to be warm, sincere, and wanting to help others find the happiness he's achieved -- just as you would imagine from delving into this delightful book.

Handbook to a Happier Life is a first rate, simple to read book. No stranger to self-help on a personal level, Jim Donovan helps the reader tap into the dormant power that lies within each of us that when properly used leads to personal fulfillment and joy. Handbook to a Happier Life is a user-manual for living. I highly recommend it

I loved this book. I love it so much, I want to give copies to my sisters, my friends and to get my husband to read it. The ideas seem so simple and straight forward, that when you read it, you say "of course, I can do that in my life."
Much of it covers identifying your goals, focusing on those and affirming that you can achieve them. I found it very rational and not just wishful thinking.
I really like the exercises included in some chapters. One exercise was to write a description of what would be a your perfect day. He explains the purpose of each exercise and ask questions/gives direction for carrying it out.
It's the type of book that can be sampled and parts re-read at intervals to reinforce your efforts for a happier life.

Handbook to a Happier Life is Personal Development 101. For those who haven't already steeped themselves in self-help books and courses, Donovan offers an easy entry to the idea that you can indeed create your own happiness by following some simple steps - 62 to be exact. "Developing a Positive Attitude," "Willingness," and "Energy Pickup" are among the bite-sized personal growth nuggets Donovan offers to simply change our lives for the better.

Each of the 62 nuggets is a 2-3 page chapter of personal stories (his and others) along with his thoughts about the topic. By answering the questions he poses, we can take each concept to a deeper level. The wisdom he shares with us is timeless and his questions are often provocative. For example, he writes, "I've been amazed at how often I have seen the effectiveness of ...[having consistency of purpose]. Why, for instance, do people age differently? What keeps some people going strong, while others seem to have given up on life...? I am convinced the difference lies in having a purpose. We need a reason to get out of bed in the morning. We need something outside ourselves to keep us going."

Although any of the 62 nuggets could potentially be life changing if applied, reading them all in one serving could be overwhelming. My suggestion for getting the most out of this book is to take just a few minutes each morning to read a chapter and then apply what you've read throughout the normal course of that day. In a mere two months, there's a good chance you'd live up to the promise of this book -- a happier life!

My friend gave me this audiobook as a gift after she saw the author on "oprah." I don't normally listen to audiobooks, but on a trip up the coast of California, I popped it in.

I never considered myself an activist, but these tapes totally make sense! It so easy to make a difference and it doesn't take a lot of time to do it. I totally recommend these tapes to everyone! And as the author says...when you're done with them, donate the tapes to a local library!

I saw Danny on CBS This Morning sharing ideas from his book Heaven on Earth. I ran out that morning and bought it and was pleasently surprised.

Danny's ideas are so simple and easy to do. He tells you where you can, for example, send your cell phones so watchdog groups can use them to call 911. Or where to send sneakers so Nike can recycle them into playground surfacing.

This book is changing my community and my life. This holiday season, I'm buying copies for all of my friends and family. With so many hokey self-improvement books out there, Danny is right: To be a better person, you muse do selfless acts.

Thank you, Danny!

I was at the mall the day after Thanksgiving---fighting for a parking space, shoving my way through the stores---when I realized how silly this whole Christmas shopping thing is.

SO, I gave up. Instead, I'm giving away this book to everyone on my list (well, except the kids). It's really been a life-changing book for me, and I hope it'll be for other people, too. The reality is, I could buy something for my friends and family, but do they really need more clutter in their life? I don't think so. This book is a great gift to give.

This book should be required reading! It's an incredible handbook for anybody interested in being part of the solution rather than part of the problem. There's a great section on volunteering also. Many people don't feel like they can make a difference in the world. But, this book shows that it takes very little effort to bring about positive change.

I couldn't help but see Danny on tv, in magazines and even on my local radio station once. He really touched my life.

I saw Danny lecture @ Amherst a month ago and he truly has a heart of gold. I bought his book and read it all in one night and it REALLY changed my life.

We focus so much on material things and wanting lots of fancy stuff, but we forget that items can't bring happiness. I give so much back now because I get so much in return: true joy and happiness.

Heaven on Earth is a fantastic book. I can't wait to give it to my friends and family this holiday season and for many years to come.

Thank you Danny. You are an angel.

G'day,

This seminal tome is a great shelf and operational ally to those works produced by Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, Masanobu Fukuoka & P.A. Yeomans etc. Allan Savory's grazing techniques are revolutionary and are a perfect antidote to rising atmospheric CO2 levels, as the regenerative development of healthy functional ecosystems, especially grassland, are the most cost-effect and potent means of reversing this trend and its associated impacts, which include runaway desertification....among many other assaults on the carbon bank...

Decision making processes are what this book is really about though and it is life changing in that respect....and simply so as the process is easy to use and as thoroughly considered as it needs to be. In the "Great Retrofit", as I like to call it, of our human effected landscapes (which is most of the biosphere), adoption of these processes together with Mollisonian & Holmgrenian Permaculture Ethics & Principles, Fukuoka's philosophy, and Yeomans' techniques would cause to make a "paradigm" shift in the state of the world, its landscapes and organisms, and indeed humanity.

Very interesting tome that is overwhelming because it changlenges all of the mindsets that one generally has concerning land management. The book has sections that are good for everyone, not just the land manager, and should be skimmed by anyone who cares about this planet and wants to make a difference.

I found the entire book very interesting, in that it talked in great detail about low-rainfall, brittle environments. These environments are hardly covered in most science books. Nevertheless, I expected to read more about the details of running livestock succesfully on these brittle environments. I am looking forward to further, more specific publications from Mr. Savory.

Don't missunderstand me. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and would highly reccomend it to anyone who lives off the land and who is in close contact with nature.

AW

This is a book could be beneficial to anyone ... from individuals, to families, to cooperations, to farmers/ranchers, to governments.

Go to his webiste *holistic management dot com* for some of the most enlightening truth about the environement and our responsibility and what ACTUALLY WORKS in saving and preserving the environment. You will many Ah-Ha moments.

A very empowering book as well as you write out your QUALITY OF LIFE statement, your forms of production and your future resource base. An empowring book because it deals with really getting at the root and working towards a solution no matter who is involved.

If you want to solve problems and live with purpose and actually make a difference towards a sustainable civilization .. This book is at the top of the list.
AND.. It is just plain interesting !! Thank you Mr. Savory.

Sustainability has become the central drama of our time, yet within the sustainability movement there is a huge conflict. It isn't the environmentalists against the dam builders this time--it is between those who see nature mainly as a domain, reserve, or area, and those who see nature as a process. Both sides largely agree that there is a serious ecological crisis, we are on the brink, and that humanity needs to change its ways. But there is an enormous disagreement on the problem, and on the prescription.

For the majority of writers on sustainability, the causes of our crisis are greed, overpopulation, consumption, development, and multinational corporations. For them, sustainability is a modern, industrial-era problem. The solutions are political: shift power from the wrong people and organizations to the right people and organizations, or quit logging, grazing, or using chemicals.

Savory's book shows, in convincing and elegant detail, that those who concentrate on shifting ideology or politics to move toward sustainability are just rearranging the deck chairs. The backlash and the revenge of unintended consequences will continue. If we are serious about this, we must change our decision framework. The way we make decisions, which is usually unconscious and habitual, is the key factor. Savory and Butterfield show us how this works, from start to finish.

This impeccably reasearched and skillfully written analysis of the baby products industry is a "must read" for all--not only just parents and child care providers. As a collegiate professor, Department of Business and Management, University of Maryland University College, Europe, I've used it in classes to illustrate the principles of product liability, to raise business ethics issues, and to examine the machinery of federal regulation. Resulting discussions have lasted for hours, and rank among the most interesting that I've facilitated. Kudos to the author!

An intelligent and thorough analysis of an industry that has much to answer for in terms of business ethics. I highly recommend this book for parents, grandparents, and educators on all levels, particularly those teaching the intricacies of products liablility law and consumer {misinformation}. Felcher is an excellent writer and builds both compelling and heartbreaking arguments for legislative change. Don't miss this one.

American families trust that the products our babies use, from strollers to cribs to swings, will keep them safe. Unfortunately, we found out the truth in the most terrible way. Our beloved son Danny was the fifth baby to die in the Playskool Travel-Lite Portable Crib. When we discovered that it had been recalled five years earlier, our friend Marla Felcher embarked on a groundbreaking investigation of the juvenile product industry that led to this book.

Read "It's No Accident" and ask yourself, why aren't American manufacturers required to safety test most baby products before marketing them? How can they be allowed to set their own voluntary safety standards? Why don't most parents hear about the tens of millions of unsafe children's products recalled every year? What is the CPSC and why can't it effectively protect our children from disabling injuries and death?

"It's No Accident", which Marla dedicated to Danny's memory, shows that his death was a symptom of a fundamentally-flawed system. Read this book and warn your friends. Nothing will bring Danny back to life, but "It's No Accident" will prevent other, needless tragedies. It is the cornerstone of the next big consumer movement.

Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar Chicago, IL

Grandparents buy a large percentage of infant products. This book clearly outlines the products that could prove dangerous. I recommend this book as a must for all prospective grandparents before they take that trip to buy what they believe to be safe for their granchildren.

Do you think the government is protecting your children from unsafe products? If you believe this is so, THEN THINK AGAIN. Felcher does an admirable job pointing out the numerous flaws in the juvenile products industry and showing how your own young children could be at serious risk. For example, did you know that those popular bath seat rings actually contribute to bathtub drownings and that many, many popular juvenile products are recalled because they are dangerous without your knowing? You will be outraged after reading this book once you discover how little is being done to protect young children from dangerous products at the expense of corporate profit. This book is a must read for all parents of young children and would make a terrific baby shower gift.