Departments Books

Good reference book includes many colored pictures. The book has good descriptions of latest figurines as well as retired 56 Village figurines. This book will not only help novice collectors, experienced collectors will also find a lot of attention-grabbing information.

I was really impressed with this Kaplan book. I purchased it because I was debating about whether or not I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. This book gives you step by step guides on how to apply (from writing essays to asking for recommendations), how to find money for school (scholarships, school funding, loans: types of, etc.), and wake-up calls on the real-life of a Ph.D. student and after graduation. There is also a section in the back on where to find scholarship money.

I read this book straight through with a highlighter and pencil and it helped me get through the application process smoothly. It's well written and user friendly. I strongly recommend purchasing this book even if you're just thinking about applying to graduate school. It really makes you think about the entire process, not just the "going-to-school" part.

This is exactly what I was looking for to find out what grad schools i want to apply to. I just wish they had something that could rate the programs, so I know how good the program is.

Oron Hale's work details how the Nazi Party acquired control over a vast, decentralized, and multi-faceted system of newspapers and magazines in Germany in between 1920 and the third reich's fall. This is, perhaps, a fairly narrow topic, but Hale's book is a complete account of this aspect of Nazi history. His research is excellent, utilizing interviews, published accounts, statistics rescued from war-torn Germany, and notes of denazification trials for many of the people mentioned in the book.

I bought this book hoping to learn a little about the propaganda system of the Nazis. Certainly, gaining control over the print industry was part of this system, but it is not all of it. Hale's account does not delve much into other forms of Nazi propaganda, nor does it spend much attention on the content of the propagandistic work contained within the Nazi papers. There are two crucial points in this book: that while the Nazi Party officially approved some newspapers as party organs, the Party did not own these papers. Since the papers were owned by party supporters, they were in effect under Nazi control. This established a bit of a smokescreen in that the public may not have recognized that a supposedly independent newspaper may have been inextricably linked with the Party. The other major point was that when the Nazi's acquired other papers, it was usually not out of a need to gain additional avenues for their propaganda, but rather to eliminate competing points of view.

So this book is not without its lessons for contemporary times. Most importantly is the idea that a political faction with control over the media can help its cause not so much by using the media to propogate its point of view, but by confining that media so that no alternative political view is represented.

I do not reccomend this book for the casual reader; but it is a fine resource for scholars of Nazi Germany, propaganda, or mass media.

This handbook provides a "nuts and bolts" look at teacher supervision. First time and experienced department chairs will find themselves referring to it over the span of their careers because it provides perspectives and ideas on planning, policy-making, and supervision. The numerous sample forms are a great starting place for schools ready to create their own. The only drawback is that the book is so tightly packed with information that it may take a little time to locate exactly what you need. This book is a definite "must have" resource for department chairs and principals.

Like many documents from the Federal government, this book is not an easy read. The text is dense, complex, and full of jargon.

However, it is critical that those in the area of health policy at any level (local, state, or Federal), cultural competence, or health literacy be aware of this outline of public health policy.

This work was originally prepared in two volumes after the Korean War for use as a textbook at the Army Intelligence School located at Fort Holabird, MD. The first volume was declassified and printed by a commercial firm. The second volume to my knowledge has yet to be released and has attained the mythic reputation akin to that of the erstwhle true history of the British Security Coordination in America during WW II. That volume has just been released with a commentary by Nigel West. The rather embellished work "A Man Called Intrepid" was based loosely on the latter.
But back to the work at hand. Since was prepared almost fifty years ago, and purported to cover everything from the operations overseen by George Washington to the current day, it was necessarly based on what was available at the time. Most of what it was based on has proved in the light of more modern and rigorous scholarship to be pure brag, boast, and BS, especially the memoirs covering the Civil War. As to operations later during the Spanish American and Phillipine wars, there was precious little documentation used. The operations during the Mexican Punitive Expedition and on the border were slighted in a few pages.
Once one gets into living memory (and even much of that was mistaken) it gets much better. The story of operations in France and in the 1930s is as complete as could be done at the time and is based on archival research in part.
But there are several major gaps. Due to security concerns and the emphasis on wartime support of the army in the field, there is nothing on SIGINT, very little on IMINT, and little on Counter Intelligence and HUMINT.
The book is still a must for the serious collection of books on intelligence process and organization. So start using it for the period after 1917 and you will not go far wrong. Ignore all the 19th century material.
A much better overview of the period is "American Espionage: From Secret Service to CIA" by the British scholar Rhodri Jefreys-Jones which does have the advantage of covering SIGINT in WW II and is based in part on archival research.

It's a slim volume and a bit expensive for being less than 100 pages, yet it gets to the point and gives you the nuts and bolts basics of WestEd's Program for Infant and Toddler Caregivers (PITC).

This is best used with Module I (Social-Emotional Growth & Socialization).

At first glance, this would seem to be an extremely specialized text, with only military applications. Appearances can be deceiving.

Where could Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) be applied, *except* in the military? Anyplace where a decision has to be made in a competitive environment, or in an environment that is less that welcoming.

The process is simple;
-Define the operational environment.
-Describe the operational environment's effects.
-Evaluate the opposition.
-Determine opposition's courses of action.

The result is a package of information to assist a leader in making a decision.

In manufacturing, the defining and describing the environment may focus on availability of labor and materials and access to a transportation network to move products. In marketing, it may be demographics and media influence information. In law enforcement, it may be routes used by perps and their social support networks. In environmental protection, it could be poachers' markets and animal migration routes.

The steps of evaluating the opposition, and identifying opposition courses of action can be applied to business competitors, criminals, or target audiences for a media campaign.

The most valuable aspect of the IPB methodology is that it clearly identifies the next questions to ask. Hypothetically, a competitor has three major options for action. Correctly executed, IPB will help the user frame out ways to determine early which option the competitor has selected. Again, this could be used in many environments other than military.

The process is simple and powerful. Regrettably, the book is so focused on military combat applications that most readers would be unlikely to take the time to think through the broader applications. The conceptual tool set presented is flexible enough to aid any decision-maker, or anyone providing them with research support, if only they'd take the time and apply the imagination to appreciate this model.

E. M. Van Court

Waltzer's writing is riveting and transports the reader into the "Big Chair" as a department head. Practical, hard-hitting advice is masterfully woven with whimsical anecdotes to make this book a captivating piece literature. As an active educator, I believe Waltzer's book to potentially be the best prose to come out of Miami University in the last 8 years. The easy to read format and writing style allows the reader to quickly reference such topics as: the ethical use of alcohol for faculty recruiting; pipe selection to get noticed by graduate students; official opinions on mascot changes; and selecting the right khaki pants for casual summer classes. As a briefcase bible, or a nightstand slumber-aide, this book is a must for any academic who is gunning for Department Chair.