Departments Books

During World War II the War and Navy Departments published an extensive series of pamphlets for use individually by military personnel on a wide variety of subjects. One subset of pamphlets are basically travel guides with a military/World War II twist.

Here is a list of the countries (or areas) that I have confirmed as of this moment: Great Britain, France, Italy, North Africa, West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii, India, China, Netherlands East Indies, New Guinea and Solomon Islands, Panama, Burma, Northern Ireland, Syria, Germany, Iran, New Caledonia, and Egypt. I am sure that there are more and I am very interested in just learning about them (not to mention reading and obtaining a copy for myself).

Initially (1942) the pamphlets were titles "A Short Guide to...." Later the names were changed to "A Pocket Guide to...." To further complicate the series, sometimes the article adjective was used and sometimes it was not. In at least one case, the Short Guide version was used on the cover, but Pocket Guide was used on the title page.

From this introduction, it might seem that the guides were poorly done. In fact they were quite well done from a prose, art, typography, and manufacturing (two colors) point of view. The text is very interesting. Quite obviously the booklets were intended for use by military personnel travelling to the respective country or area.
The booklets therefore include appropriate geographical, cultural, monetary information, a local language guide and other information that would be of use to them and would be useful to tourists today. Additionally, the booklets include political and military information. This information is of particular interest because it is from a decidedly United States 1942-1944 point of view. That is what makes them of particular interest to me.
The guides vary in length from 48 to about 80 pages. One notable feature is the quality of the art used to illustrate the pamphlets. It is uniformly good. The center spread is a map of the country or area. The pamphlets themselves are undated but most have a date and job number from the Government Printing Office on the last page. Both the date and number are useful in studying the pamphlets.
I enjoy reading all of the pamphlets and am working on finding all of them or at least developing a list of all of them.

The Pocket Guide To West Africa is one of my favorites. For me this is a particularly fascinating time and place to read about. Futhermore, it and its companion "Pocket Guide to North Africa" are different in covering an area reather than a country. It is shorter than many of the pamphlets at 39 numbered pages (plus some blank note pages (I would have rather had more text or art!)).

Pocket guides were published for military personnel long after World War II. In fact they may still be published, but my own interest ends with the World War II period so for the time being I do not have much information about the later issues.

Finally, some local unofficial guides were published for areas that did not rate the real deal.

Transaction cost theory has been applied to public administration since early 1980s. However, most of these researches are not very sucessful, thus making many public administration theorists suspect the promises of using transaction cost theory to public administration. It is at this critical point that Horn prove to us that transaction cost theory is an attractive theory for public administration research. The Horn model is concentrated on the legislature institutional choices. To him, institutional choices of the legislature will be affected by various transaction costs, and the legislature must trade-off among these transaction costs. It is obvious that the Horn model had followed the Williamsonian transaction cost theory rather than North's perspective of transaction cost theory. However, different from other theorists using Williamsonian transaction cost theory to public administration, Horn had not limited himself to the narrowing category of Market and Hierarchy. In sum, this Horn model combined recent work of Williamson (Private and public bureaucracy: perspective of transaction cost theory, 1999)has convinced students like me that transaction cost theory is a productive perspective for public administration research.

This book provides informative insights into the Administration of Democratic Governor George Leader, a young reformer who served as Pennsylvania Governor from 1955 through 1959. Not only did his term end a long period of Republican political control, Leader decided to change the usual form of governing and, with a fair amount of success, he alered the governance of Pennsylvania into one that was more responsive to the public and less controlled by the existing political machinery. This book points out how it was both Leader's vision and his wise choice of appointments of people who undertook their positions with zeal and with goals of improving their departments that helped the Leader Administration to reshape of Pennsylvania government.

George Leader was a politician with principles. He believed his campaign promises were his word and not rhetoric that could be forgotten. He demanded and achieved passage of legislation he had campaigned supporting on prohibiting conflicts of interest in government services and vastly expanding placing state employment under civil service. He insisted that school segregation be halted, began a Civil Rights division with the Attorney General's office, fought and won the passage of legislation creating a Fair Employment Practice Council and then successfully fought Republican legislators in seeing that it was funded. Leader not only fought for increased employment for members of racial minorities, he appointed Pennsylvania's first African American Cabinet member and increased the employment of African Americans in Executive offices from 98 to 450.

Leader was willing to turn to others for assistance, and he preferred to ask advice from people who he thought best knew the answers regardless of political party. He asked the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Society for Public Administration to study state government and recommend changers. Leader then acted to adopt many of their recommendations. This process of adopting these changes also had the benefit of attracting qualified people to administer these programs, rather than the past reliance on political patronage appointees to be the administrators. By Executive order, he moved 10,000 professional and technical positions from patronage to civil service employment.

Some managerial changes Leader implemented reshaped how government operated. He created the Office of Administration, which has provided all Governors with more direct responsibility over administering policies. He moved the state's accounting methods from a cash basis to one that let everyone know outstanding obligations.

Leader was a believer in citizen participation. He often used citizens committees to advise him on issues. He felt they both could provide useful information as well as increase the opportunities for a greater voice from citizens.

Education was an area where Leader made an effective difference. He consolidated 81 school districts, increased teacher salaries so more graduates of Pennsylvania's teacher's college would stay within Pennsylvania, and he increased aide to community colleges and to student scholarships through a one cent tax on soft drinks.

Expanding special education was another of Leader's accomplishments. In so doing over 100,000 children were added to the school roles. He created a Commission on Handicapped Children and convinced Pearl Buck to be its chair. This Commission reviewed and advised local governments on how to increase services to children with disabilities.

Leader looked at the Health Department, whose mission was to eliminate several diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis, and he expanded it to increase working against air pollution, drug addiction, alcoholism, and for research on cancer and heart disease.

Floods and hurricanes hit Pennsylvania during Leader's years as Governor, leading to a study of flood control and 394 flood control projects. Leader also directed that state parks be improved, which helped increase attendance to these parks from 8 million in 1955 to 20 million in 1958.

Readers learn of effective lobbying efforts. Leader's Agriculture Secretary convinced legislators to approve the construction of a new department building by inviting them to a meeting in the old building during a particularly warm and sticky day. Agriculture also advanced during the Leader years, with 20 soil conservation districts established during Leader's four years compared to 30 over the previous decade.

This book serves as a tremendous guide to how one Administration helped to transform Pennsylvania governance. It also presents the human side, such as Governor Leader's political break with his Lt. Governor and Leader's forced resignation of his Labor and Industry Secretary for resisting his efforts to reduce political influences. The new Secretary than transformed the Department into one that opened the nation's first state rehabilitation center, instituted inspections of migrant camps, and increased the minimum wage for women and children. Readers also see how Leader antagonized some Republican legislators by the previous Republican Administration in his inaugural address, and how the legislature then killed some of his proposals, including one for a breathalyzer analysis. While the passage of time makes this more of an historical analysis than a useful current guide to improving government, the basic qualities that Leader presented: truthfulness, dedication, and above all, placing the needs of the citizens as the goal of government, remain useful as a guide to all.

The edition by iUniverse never got off the ground because of publication errors. The current publisher (without errors) is Trinity Publishing, with ISBN 0-7414-0690-X, and with 61 maps.

Here is a booklet that captures the history and very interesting growth of a busy American Fire Department in the upper NorthWest of our country. Real treasures await the reader regarding the unique apparatus, and brave men and powerful horses from the early days of firefighting. Get a copy for your bookshelf!

I got my book in a quick time. I am very happy with the purchase.

In this book, John Donohue challenges the promise of privatization as a cure-all to the problems of government. He offers a persuasive argument which defines the two realms of privatization, and follows up with a discussion of when privatization is sensable. He reframes the privatization debate from several general areas.

Donohue draws three basic conclusions from his work. First, that the best elements of government to privatize are those in which the government can precisely specify in contractual terms the work to be performed. Second, He explains the lengths at which it is reasonable to go to make a privatization effort work. Third, to emphasize the need for competitiveness -- albeit from private companies or government itself.

The book is well written and researched, and is easy reading.

The Range Plant Handbook, prepared by the U.S. Forest Service and first published in 1937, is still a very valuable reference for grasses and grass-likes, forbs, and shrubs. It is useful for identification of the key range plants in the westers U.S, but for me, it has been especially useful for management implications such as paltability, use in seeding, season-of-use, resistance to grazing, etc. I recommend this book to anyone involved in range management.

Great pictures and a simplified story without the film's vulgar `humor' which seems so prolific of family movies today makes this little book better than the movie itself. Just an easy to read story about an Irish Terrier and the boy and firehouse he befriends.

I recently decided to go back to school and received this book as a gift. I cannot imagine trying to get through the admissions process or the loan application process without this book. Great information and easy to read.