Conferences Books

Good book about how God uses praying men who are mighty in prayer.

God does not anoint plans, but praying men. Prayer is our mightiest weapon to use against the enemy.

This simple book (only around 50 pages long or so) is quite inspiring. In it, Mr. Bounds expounds upon not only the many different reasons why we should pray, but also that we are being called to pray. He reminds us of how essential prayer was to the fathers in the Old Testament and how much prayer centered in the lives of Jesus and his disciples. While this book is written for pastors and other preachers of the gospel, it's a good inspiration to anyone wanting to grow closer to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While I do not think anyone will literally "study" this book, I believe that reading it once or twice in our lifetimes would benefit us in more ways that we might imagine. Pray, pray, and then pray some more!

I have never read a book like this book about prayer with such an overwhelming weight, compelling exposition and reasoning in regard to why not only preachers, but christians should pray. What I mean by pray is one that is "...strongly into the heart and life as Christ's "strong crying and tears" did; must draw out the soul into an agony of desire as Paul's did; must be an inwrought fire and force like the "effectual, fervent prayer" of James; must be of that quality which, when put into the golden censer and incensed before God, works mighty spiritual throes and revolutions."(Ch.4)

I can not say I agree with everything Bounds said, but I can not help but be stricken with so many strong statements he made or quoted from the giants of Christianity in the past, among which are as follows (I have to restrain myself from revealing too much of the book):

- Preaching which kills is prayerless preaching. Without prayer the preacher creates death, and not life. The preacher who is feeble in prayer is feeble in life-giving forces. Professional praying there is and will be, but professional praying helps the preaching to its deadly work. Professional praying chills and kills both preaching and praying. Much of the lax devotion and lazy, irreverent attitudes in congregational praying are attributable to professional praying in the pulpit.(Ch.3)

- Prayer--secret fervent believing prayer--lies at the root of all personal godliness. A competent knowledge of the language where a missionary lives, a mild and winning temper, a heart given up to God in closet religion--these, these are the attainments which, more than all knowledge, or all other gifts, will fit us to become the instruments of God in the great work of human redemption. (Ch.4, quoted from Carey's brotherhood)

- Preachers who are great thinkers, great students must be the greatest of prayers, or else they will be the greatest of backsliders, heartless professionals, rationalistic, less than the least of preachers in God's estimate. (Ch.4)

- The character of our praying will determine the character of our preaching. (Ch.4)

- Prayer is humbling work. [1] It abases intellect and pride, [2]crucifies vainglory, and [3]signs our spiritual bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and blood to bear. It is easier not to pray than to bear them. ...perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion.(Ch.5)

- No ministry can succeed without much praying, and this praying must be fundamental, ever-abiding, ever-increasing. (Ch.6)

- A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up. (Ch.9)

- "The leading defect in Christian ministers is want of a devotional habit." Richard Cecil (Ch.10)

- "I urge upon you communion with Christ a growing communion" -- Sam Rutherford (Ch.11)

- "All the minister's efforts will be vanity or worse than vanity if he have not unction." -- Richard Cecil (Ch.16)

- Apostolic praying was as taxing, toilsome, and imperative as apostolic preaching. They prayed mightily day and night to bring their people to the highest regions of faith and holiness. They prayed mightier still to hold them to this high spiritual altitude. The preacher who has never learned in the school of Christ the high and divine art of intercession for his people will never learn the art of preaching (Ch.17)

- "If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith." -- Martin Luther (Ch.20)

This is an unquestionably must read for Christians who long for sweet and growing communion with Christ and need some fuel and fire to do so.

E.M. Bounds's brief work, "Power Through Prayer," is well-deserving of its recognition as a classic work on prayer. This ought to be required reading for pastors. My only hesitation, and the reason I rate it with 4 stars, is that it is rather difficult to hand it off to laypeople, so directed as it is to clergy. But if you are a pastor and have not read this work, it must be pushed to the top of your reading list (it can be read in one long evening of study).

Edward McKendree Bounds (1835-1913), was a mighty man of God, a Methodist minister and devotional writer. Born in Shelby Country, Missouri, he first became a lawyer, but after the American Civil War he became a minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Bounds is most remembered today for his "Spiritual Life Books," all of which were written in the last seventeen years of his life, after a lifetime of serving God and his fellow man.

This wonderful book was written by Rev. Bounds as advice to the preacher, and in it he tells the reader why prayer is important, how to pray, and what it means. But, don't get the idea that this is a philosophical work directed at learned readers. Instead, this book is wonderful advice on prayer that will inform and convict any Christian reader.

Indeed, I must say that Rev. Bounds really knew what he was talking about. The book is very readable, and I found myself convicted by what he had to say. This is a great book on prayer, one that I would recommend for any and every preacher, and also any and every other Christian. This is a Christian classic that I highly recommend to all believers.

By the way, here's a great quote from Power Through Prayer: "What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use-men of prayer, men mighty in prayer." As true today as the day it was written!

Certainly it was the definitive biography; although there was something troubling about his use of illegally gathered materials that the FBI collected to damn Martin, the picture painted is a real picture of a real life. Certainly Martin was always an inspiration to me, and I felt that I knew him better as a man after this biography, more so than after earlier ones.

My one major criticism is that Garrow uses a possibly mythical "night in the kitchen" as the spiritual turning point for Martin--I think it more likely that if any night mattered it was that in a jail, perhaps Selma. (Though I don't accept the idea that he chickened out for the Selma-Montgomery march--he had no reason to expect the brutal response that occurred.) Because a night in jail can really make you think about what your values are, whether it is worth suffering for truth, and whether others really WANT the truth. One of the things I think I learned from Martin is that people may not be ready for the truth now, but it is only a matter of time.

I also learned something that seems obvious, but wasn't to many of us. It is one thing to violate an unjust law publicly--and let other people see you unjustly punished. It is another to violate an unjust law privately, for even if you are in the right, when you are punished, this injustice is unlikely to draw the outrage of the citizenry, and you find yourself alone.

Of course, at the time that Martin and the SCLC were active, the courts were basically on our side--the side of the little guy. Now, as far as I can see, the law really only exists to protect large companies. Why, if Martin were to do this now, he'd be sued out of existence for "defaming" and "slandering" the good name of the great state of Alabama! If he couldn't "prove" that America really had given his people a blank check...why then, HE'D be in the wrong. And if he really let the law proceed in its own way, he'd have spent a lot more than one or two nights in jail, I can tell you that!

And from Garrow's book, I believe he still would have done it. He wasn't the initiator, but when fate knocked on his door, he opened it up and invited fate in. And that should be an inspiration to us all. [9]

There are so many positive things to say about this comprehensive book on Dr. King and the civil rights movement. Garrow's research and story-telling are both outstanding, leading to a book that I couldn't put down and one that provided me with so much information.

One reason I love the book is that I would neither call it an overly sympathetic nor critical portrayal of King. Garrow simply presents the facts in an easily understandable fashion, allowing the reader to make his/her own conclusions. Positive and negative aspects of King's personal life and movement leadership are pointed out; it's up to us to determine his legacy. And in my mind, his legacy is as strong as ever. King sacrificed himself to the cause, and not only in his premature death, but also in living a modest life with virtually no relaxation or leisure. And what he endured at the hands of the FBI just broke my heart.

I was also impressed with the way King and the other movement leaders were humanized. Garrow didn't only list the facts about their achievements and tactical errors, but he also provided great insight into the lives of these men and women.

Here are my two gripes that, in my mind, keep the book just a hair shy of 5 stars. One, I would have liked to have learned more about King the husband and father. I know he wasn't home much, but there was very little information about the type of father he was. And two, the book ends so abruptly. How did Coretta receive and react to the news? How did America react? What was the story behind the assassination? What was his funeral like? How did the movement proceed in the immediate aftermath of his murder? These were things I wanted to learn about.

Despite that, I am so thrilled that I chose to read this book, and I would recommend it to anyone.

BEARING THE CROSS is a very detailed book on the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American hero, civil rights activist, preacher and admirer of Ghandi and his nonviolent approach to social change. King came to the forefront of the mid-century civil rights movement when Rosa Parks, a seamstress, refused to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It wasn't the first time a black woman had been tossed out of her seat in the Black section of the bus when a white customer needed a seat. Along with the removal usually went insults and threats and Ms. Parks just wasn't having it that time. The local activists asked King, a new preacher at Dexter Baptist Church, if he would take on the responsibility. Reluctantly, he agreed to do so and thus began the legend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Over the years, Dr. King has taken on an almost mythical position in the civil rights movement. Those who were present at the time find themselves wondering if the Dr. King they remember is the same man that is now raised in the American consciousness. He is frequently given a saintly aura that leads children reading about him in history books to believe there was never anyone like him before and that there can never be another like him again. David J. Garrow dispels those myths as he lets us in on the life of the man who led this country to reconsider its segregationist behavior. We see Dr. King when he is depressed and feeling unworthy of his position in the movement, when he is being a chauvinist about his wife, those moments when he smokes and drinks too much and Garrow gives credence to the rampant rumors that he had women in his life other than Coretta.

In addition to the very humanness of King, we also get to witness the foibles of the United States as it dealt with its Black citizens. We get to know the actions of three presidents of the United States, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, as they vacillated about the civil rights movement. None of them wanted to upset the Southern voting population so they tended to send mixed messages: on one hand they knew that Blacks were being treated unfairly but to offer help through legislation, federal troop protection for besieged nonviolent marchers or verbal support for the movement was beyond where they wanted to go. The levels to which the FBI stooped to discredit King are by themselves, phenomenal. Each of the presidents was definitely aware that King's rights as a citizen of this country were being abused as his home, his phones, his motels, hotels and friends were wiretapped. The agency also used the illegally acquired information to terrorize and blackmail Dr. King. Not one of them objected to this horrendous invasion of privacy.

BEARING THE CROSS is a definite must read for every caring citizen of the United States who has a desire to understand and appreciate the civil rights movement, the life and times of Dr. King and the role that the country has played in keeping some of its citizens in bondage. I would also recommend it as a reference book for the civil rights movement.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of the RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

This Pulitzer Prize winning biography proves to be superbly reseached and well written (although bit dry for some) account of the great civil right leader. However, the book seem to be geared around his public life and his involvment with the Civil Rights movement of SCLC. Although this part of his life seem to be well documented and covered, the book don't tell us much about King's private life, his relationship with his family, or his sexual indiscretions and his own relationship on the personal level with so many of his fellowers, friends and rivials.

But its a superb coverage of King's Civil Rights involvement and actually tell a sad story of man who was definitely over reaching the limits of his own personal, mental and physical endurance. A good example would be how MLK's venture in the Vietnam War which definitely overextended his reach when so much still needed to be done on the Civil Rights front. This distraction also cost him friends and allies who could have helped him on that issue which should have been the main focus of MLK. I guess he lost focus in the end. I am bit surprised that the book didn't make any commentary on the legacy of MLK or anything like that. The book stopped with his death which almost sound like a blessing for MLK who seem at the end of his life, an unhappy man, totally stress out and overwhelmed by his burdens.

But as biography goes, I thought this book was honest and interesting picture of a man. And thats good in my opinion, MLK was a man with combination of greatness and flaw that the book clearly points out with a great deal of objectivity. I thought it was kind of an ironic statement when the author stated that the only people who really knew MLK were his closest friends and the FBI who wiretapped him.

I should note that this may not be an ideal chocie for first time reader of MLK since there are overwhelming amount of material in this book which may create an information overload for some people.

My paperback book didn't have any photos which I thought to be bit strange. Book like this need photos. But overall, this is the best biography I have read on MLK regarding his public life. Will there ever be one of his private life??

You must have to really work to turn a life so packed full of meaning and world-changing events into a snoozer of a book. I have no idea how "Bearing the Cross" received a Pulitzer Prize -- certainly not on the basis of its prose. While the author undoubtedly did an enormous amount of research, the book reads like a high school history essay; i.e. a monotonously linear string of events -- "Then King did this; then he did that; then they had an SCLC meeting; blah, blah, blah...". The book virtually no character development; in fact everyone but King are merely names on a page. It took a herculean effort to slog through the 600+ pages, but perhaps the book wasn't meant to be read straight through. Maybe this is one of those research tomes meant for reference by historians -- check out the ample index for the names, places and events you're interested in at the moment and read only snippets at a sitting.

Despite being far too long, the book has a couple major oversights. First, there are no photographs whatsoever -- for someone as widely seen on TV and newspapers as King, couldn't they have sprung for a few pages showing historical events? Second, the book abruptly ends with the assassination -- when King dies so does the book -- nothing on the national reaction to his death, nothing on Ray or the motivation for/theories around the killing.

In sum, great research, poor writing. Perhaps Taylor Branch can edit his multi-volume set into a readable single-volume account. Until then, look elsewhere for a good King biography.

I read Stewart Mandel's stuff in Sports Illustrated. I like his take on college football. When he wrote this book, I knew that I had to have it. I was not disappointed.

He tackles all the weirdness that is college football. He makes as much sense of the BCS as a person can. He writes about rankings. He tells stories about the great programs and even delves a little bit into history.

All college football fans like to this that they are knowledgeable. Few of us are as knowledgeable as Stewart Mandel. After reading his book, I am a little closer.

I am very pleased with the book and the service provided!

Thanks

I have been reading Mandel's columns and Mailbags for 3 years now and love his writing style. His book BP&TS has all of what makes his writing great on [...] plus even more detail than you can get into an online column.

The book provides a wonderful inside look at the politics of college football. You understand (kind of) the motivations of the bowl system after reading this book. It makes for fascinating reading.

I really like the snarky asides he puts into the book. The footnotes are almost more entertaining than the regular text.

Overall, an excellent buy and a good Christmas present for anyone on your Christmas list that loves college football.

This book is for the true college football fan.It is a rehash into the deeper issues that pertain to this sport. For someone not familiar with the recent bowl situations, the history of the game, or the nuances of college sports, i would not highly recommend this book. It can get a little tedious with numbers and poll rankings, but more than makes up with that with the insightful observations of the author.Mr.Mandel is an excellent journalist who has a very sarcastic tone, and doesn't take himself too seriously. Especially worthwhile were the stories pertaining to the holier-than-thou Notre Dame football factory. It was a pleasure to read an honest appraisal of the college sports climate from an astute observer.

"(NFL) scouts are to football what the third base coach is to baseball - an excuse for a whole bunch of old-timers to stay a part of the fraternity and collect a paycheck to boot." - Stewart Mandel

There are two U.S. sport seasons: Football and No Football. As far as I'm concerned, it's even a finer point than that: College Football and No College Football. BOWLS, POLLS & TATTERED SOULS tells me more than I thought I wanted to know about the collegiate game. But, now that I've read this book by "Sports Illustrated" writer Stewart Mandel, I'm so very glad that I did. It's a completely absorbing volume that I devoured over two days. I wish it was longer.

Mandel examines ten of college pigskin's greatest ongoing controversies, one per chapter:

1. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) - how we got to this impasse, who supports it and doesn't, and why it's not likely to change dramatically anytime soon.

2. The team ranking system - its evolution, politics, and how it's affected by the BCS.

3. The Heisman Trophy - its history, and why it's become a media exposure contest not necessarily based on playing ability.

4. The hiring and firing of coaches, particularly the latter - the growth of their salaries and the precariousness of their tenures (or "What have you done lately?").

5. Notre Dame - what makes this independent university so damn special that it has BCS equality with the Pac-10, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big East?

6. The recruiting of top high school players - the stand-alone spectacle it's become, and the impact of the Web.

7. The formation of, and school re-alignments with, conferences - it's all about money, particularly TV revenue $. (Say it ain't so, Joe!)

8. Post season bowls - their history, why there are so many, and the team motivation (or not) to participate.

9. NFL recruiting - the joke that it's become.

10. Scandals - who the perps are and why the NCAA doesn't necessarily have jurisdiction (much less care).

Mandel being an ultimate insider himself, his book should be required reading for all the insider-wannabe fan(atic)s who populate the off-field margins of the sport and who come off their couches in droves to demonstrate vociferously with torches, pitchforks, tar and feathers whenever their favorite teams, coaches, or players are perceived to have been criticized unfairly or gotten a raw deal in the polls or BCS standings. While BP&TS won't make such partisans more reasonable, it will perhaps raise their stridency level and make the collegiate football season even more deliciously confrontational and loud than it already is. I love it!

I myself have followed USC on and off - mostly off - since the late 60s when I numbered among my friends several who graduated from the university and got me interested in the Trojans' game at the time OJ was still a hero and not a bum. I've never been a fan(atic), but rather now follow the extraordinary career of Coach Pete Carroll and his gridiron squads much as one would intellectually admire the craftwork of an expert glass blower or master stonemason. In the doldrum years of such head coaches as Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett, I couldn't be bothered. I'm a Fair Weather Adherent, and proud of it. (Would I switch allegiance to the UCLA Bruins if their new coach proves as succesful as Uncle Pete? Most assuredly not. Who can root for a team whose colors include powder blue for Chrissakes!) But even I found BP&TS enormously satisfying and interesting for the insider knowledge it imparts and will better appreciate the moment at the beginning of the 2008 season when USC charges onto the field to beat the Bandini out of its first opponent, Virginia.

Fight On!

As Brookings revealed in 2000, most of the world's 10000 biggest organisations don't yet have the measures to govern the vast majority of value now produced in services and knowledge businesses because as our networking age blossoms value dynamics are mainly intangible, deeply woven into the human relationships we self-organise, not for precise planning and overpowering command and control from the top. Value multiplication is a core gravity which should be embedded in everyone's right to work, learn , behave openly.

Whilst some of those of the transparency communities interlinking at http://www.valuetrue.com open source the simplest maths of intangible systems, others have much more fun voting on what are the safest methods to protect your system from doing an Andersen or a NASA self-destruction of its greatest purpose. Open Space is voted as the number 1 method uniting transparency communities, and because of its simplicity I predict it will always be the gateway to anyone who prizes self-organising, a term which actually means making the most of everyone's time, learning and passions to make a diffeernce to our overall purpose. A very valuable book, which in my dreams would start any MBA course or any professional's training.

Open Space is now 21 years young and over 100000 experiences mature and networked by people who are both most open with their knowlhow and conscious that you learn something subly more about human relationship trust from every Open Space you particpate in. It is as near as organisations (seen as human relationship infrastructures) can get to a modern day miracle, and long may Harrison light up the open world. See his latest deep concerns with conflict resolution applications at http://www.practiceofpeace.com

Harrison Owen presents a hands-on, step-by-step manual for putting on an open space technology workshop. In OST workshops, participants basically set and facilitate the agenda with some guidance from a facilitator. Here, the book's examples are particularly handy. Owen suggests conference duration, agenda and techniques including how to set up a meeting, invite participants, prepare the logistics and meeting site, facilitate activities and more. While these workshops generally involve hundreds of people, you can also put on an OST event with as few as five. If you want to read gripping business philosophy, look elsewhere - this is a practical how-to manual, a task it accomplishes quite well. We [...] recommend this informative guided tour of the OST process to those who want to know how, because they already know why

Open Space Technology is nearly identical to the "unconference" approach to workshop and event planning that's currently fashionable (see "Foo Camp" or "Bar Camp" or many other geek-oriented "camps). Basically, abandon a traditional agenda and force the workshop participants to self-organize a schedule, goals, and work. It's profoundly counter-intuitive, everyone assumes that a strict plan is necessary...but it turns out to work. People really enjoy participating in an event where their opinions matter, and where everyone's responsible for raising issues they find important.

This book can come across as annoyingly new agey and dippy at times (I see someone's tagged it "embracing group genius" here on Amazon...your mileage may vary a bit from that). It's probably more helpful in getting you the facilitator into the right mindset, and encouraging you not to fall back on the crutches of detailed schedules or keynote speakers. It's pretty dated when it talks about using computers in your event, but that doesn't really matter.

This is a very good hand-book for open space newcomers.Easy to understand and easy to read.I strongly suggest this book for anybody who want to start learning open space technology

I recommend using open space tehcnology and/or other large scale intervention techniques to mine the collective emotional intelligence of a group of people (this may be your company, or people from an acadamic field you belong to).

This book gives you the details on HOW to organize and facilitate an open space meeting - (what kind of location you need, how to organize the room, how to use break up rooms, how to facilitate, ...). You'll also get imporatnt rules and lessons for making this technology work. In short, it's pretty good at doing this "HOW TO" part.

WARNING: If you want to know WHY it works and if you want some examples, there are 2 other books to take a look at:

- tales from Open space (Harrison Owen, Editor, 1995)

- Expanding our now (Harrison Owen, 1997)

Good luck!

Patrick E.C. Merlevede, MSc -- author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"

This is more a book on historiography than on history. It tries to put in chronological order the different steps that were taken that lead to the Final Solution: the extermination of European Jewry, decision that seems to have been taken in Wannsee.

It gets entangled in the effort, and therefore never moves on with the Conference, which is what made me by this book in the first place. If there are no documents to exactly know what was the purpose of the conference, and what were the personal stands of the people gathered there on the issue, we should have been warned in the title.

Discussing over dates and the proper chronology of decisions regarding the Holocaust seems to me like discussing security measures when the thiefs are already in the building. Who cares? The author never gets there, I mean, to the Conference. It was aggravating.

This book is exceptional (which is also the same book as the paperback version which goes under the slightly different title of "The Villa, the Lake, the Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution). It succinctly explains how the "removal of the Jews from Germany" became the genocidal project known as the Holocaust. Indeed, the book explains this much more than the conference itself -- the conference being more like a presentation by one of the SS's top officials, Reinhard Heydrich, that genocide was now official policy, and that the job of the state ministers and other bureaucrats present was to facilitate the "evacuation" (i.e., murder) of the Jews.

I recently completed a college faculty study trip on the Holocaust and puchased this book at the Wannsee mansion. It is the best single summary of the evolution of Nazi policy toward the Jews up to 1942 out there. Browning's Origins of the Final Solution is much more detailed, but this work gets at the core issues of how the Nazis used anti-semitism as a political tool and the role it played in Hitler's bureaucratic politics. The work focuses on elite decision making among the perpetrators. If you want a recent book looking at the Holocaust more from the perspective of victims, Lawrence Rees' work is the way to go.

In just barely 125 pages, this short volume looks Hitler's final solution squarely in the eye to provide new perspectives. Roseman successfully, I think, argues that the concept of genocide developed much later in the war than one would believe and that such was not initally part of the Third Reich's master plan for the elimination of the Jews. Rather, official policy seems almost to have just "drifted" in the direction of genodice without it---of much of anything else---having been planned for.

His premise is that all of Hitler's rhetoric, and even his actions, up to Wannsee were aimed at just getting the Jews completely out of Germany in any way possible, seeking to accomplish this not through mass murder but rather through combinations of the failed Madagascar and Jews-to-Palestine plans, making conditions so miserable for the Jews that they would leave on their own, and finally to begin shipping them further east as the Reich expanded. This resettlement would have continued toward harsh, unsurvivable Sibera, once he brought Stalin's armies to its knees. But his early military successes ultimately both smothered this plan and doomed the Jews.

True, the elimination of "undesirables" began early in the war. But the scale was relatively small and was limited on the homefront to the short-lived euthanasia program which ended quickly enough from adverse public opinion, and in the newly conquered eastern territories to the overzealous actions of their Reich governors to whom Berlin gave virtual free rein to secure the area for precious lebensraum. While the number of deaths were considerable by any standard, it pales in comparison to the staggering final total.

But the ever-expanding Greater Germany which was being created as Hitler successfully moved east took on not only the Jews already living there but also those continuously deported from the west---many more than could be eliminated or moved further along quickly enough under all previously assumed methodologies (which in the text are referred to by Reinhard Heydrich himself as "provisional, until something better came along", further supporting Roseman's "drift" proposition).

Roseman points out that these deportees were literally dumped out in the open, left on the hands of the territorial governors who were provided with no comprehensive plan for dealing with a population increased by those banished from Berlin. Even with their unlimited authority, the governors could not keep up with elimination necessities. Obviously, something had to be done, and fast.

All the previous vagaries of policy quickly coalesced to form the final solution. The inefficiently crude, hands-on methods of the early liquidations (firing squads, beatings, etc.) were replaced by impersonalized, production-line mass murder, providing the Nazis with a twisted means of separating, distancing themselves from personal blame or responsibility.

The race to genocide thus began not merely in the ravings of the lunatic himself, although Hitler certainly provided the emotional map to it, but rather in an academic exercise by supposedly enlightened individuals thinking their way through just another production problem.

This is a readable, thoughtful monograph on the origins and historical significance of the Wannsee conference, the notorious January 1942 meeting where Nazi officials finalized plans to exterminate European Jewry. Noting that the decision on genocide was probably taken by Hitler in late 1941, author Roseman concludes that Wannsee's real purpose was to assert Reinhard Heydrich's control over Jewish policy and to sort out bureaucratic disagreements about the treatment of half-Jews and Jews married to German gentiles. Roseman writes well, has a full command of the secondary literature, and understands the nuances and grotesqueries of bureaucratic politics (I'm a career State Department official). Highly recommended for readers interested in World War II or the Holocaust.

Gay Talese spent the 1970s studying the Sexual Revolution in the USA. He was no detached scientific observer in a white lab coat like Masters and Johnson. He threw himself into his work with enthusiasm. He lived the life he studied and the results of his work are in this book. But this is not just one man's report from the sexual frontier. As a disciplined reporter, he conducted countless interviews, but as a participant he was able to obtain trusting relationships. This is not Sociology; he reports on the people making money from the Sexual Revolution and their customers. It is primarily a book about men using women's sexuality to make money from other men.

This is not an exhaustive history but rather a look at selective people and their impact on the times. John and Barbara Williamson's Sandstone Retreat, a sexually open community in the hills near Los Angeles, is one group that Talese focuses on. Through interviews with many of the participants he explores the effects polyamory (openly maintaining multiple sexual relationships) has on the couples who belong to this group.

A large portion of the book examines the publishing pioneers who, after World War II, risked fines and jail to sell erotic books and magazines in the US. The Post Office laws against sending sexual materials through the mail was the core legal restraint in the US and Anthony Comstock was the chief enforcer of this law. Some of Comstock's more famous exploits are recounted. Talese also reports on the Supreme Court, its decisions, the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, and the Nixon White House's response to the loosening sexual climate. Hugh Hefner, one of the most famous people in sexual publishing, is also studied in some detail.

Feminism was another revolution developing in the 1970s, but Talese only gives it passing mention. The only feminist mentioned is Betty Dodson, whose drawings of female genitalia and visits to Sandstone are discussed.

Talese also looks into the history of sexual expression and repression in the US. John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community is looked at as a precursor to the open sexuality of the 70s. The community was built on Noyes' concepts of Perfectionism which included communal sharing that extended to sexual relationships.

These are just the major themes. A 20 page alphabetic Index ends the book with entries from Abortion to Emile Zola. I found the history of sexually explicit publishing most interesting. The depth of the personal interviews related to the Sandstone community was excellent. So much has changed in the past 25 years in terms of sexual expression and the sex industry. This book is a wonderful study of this period and the people involved.

This book must have been a phenomenon back in the 80s. Gay Talese: conservative gentleman, respected journalists, family man, and...sex researcher. In the last twenty pages, or so, of this book, Talese opens up and recounts for the reader his personal odyssey of visiting massage parlors, sex shows, strip clubs, as well as his philandering experiences shacking up at free love communities in California -- all before the outbreak of AIDS. Talese speaks about himself in the third person, probably as a narrative technique to distance himself from the guilt he might have felt participating in such research as a married man. While the soul searching wasn't quite enough for me, the journalism really hit the mark. Talese describes the history of pornography, from the time it was banned in the U.S., up through the major Supreme Court obsenity cases of the 60's and 70's. Along the way, Talese tells the story of Playboy power-man Hugh Heffner, describing his hedonistic lifestyle in envious detail. (There is a naughty man buried inside Talese. TNW treats the voyeuristic reader to the show Talese puts on as he lets us watch this naughty man struggle to climb out.)

The book also chronicles a number of "regular" folks from the 70's who happened to fall into Talese's circle of aquaintences as he was writing the book. (It did, after all, take Talese nine years to write TNW -- and, as an aside, I never did figure out why Talese chose this title; never, once, does he write about his or any neighbor's wife. He could be refering, however, to the general "free love" culture that emerged in the 60s and 70s.) These "regular" folk are supposed to represent the average 1970s American. Not once was I conviced that the people Talese followed through his narrative were actually average. But this is secondary. The journalism is first-rate.

I bought this book because I am a student of the narrative non-fiction genre. Talese is a Master of the discipline. This book keep the Master's reputation secure. If you're looking to learn about writing non-fiction, and you're looking for a topic a little out of the ordinary, choose this book. Talese's most recent book from a few years ago, A WRITER'S LIFE, is said to briefly follow-up (in a few chapters) with his observations about American sexuality. I have not read this new book, but it will be interesting to see what 25 years have done to this man's perceptions.

Mr Talese is clear about his interest in sex.
Sex was reborn (as a public issue) in the late sixties.
Today, sex is all over the media (and maybe, this is not good news).
Sex is life.
This is an interesting book if you are interested in the history of sex.
If you are interested in sex, don't read this book. Do it.
If, however, you wish to understand how the liberalization of sex in the US came about, read this book. And you'll do it with pleasure.
Isn't that what sex is all about?

This is a vital book, a work of witty and searching defiance in the face of American puritanism. Why on earth is it out of print?!

While I enjoyed "Unto the Sons", and may read Talese's other works, I only thought so-so of this endless tome on the sex industry in the USA. I like his style of writing non-fiction in an engrossing manner, like reading a novel. His section on Noyes and the Oneidan community was wonderful. Then there is Hugh Hefner, who has sexual relationships with countless women, but was hot and bothered when his wife had an affair. And Talese's nine-year commitment to the work is highly commendable. But the scope of such a work needed more/wider coverage. The selection of scenes were few, and overdone. Not much on Masters & Johnson, or Sheryl Hite (sp.?) or Alfred Kinsey. The material on judicial matters, while important was tedious. Sandstone Retreat was saturated with coverage as well. After "Unto the Sons", a wonderful work on Italo-Catholics, who, like me, have roots in southern Italy, this was a let down. Catholicism becomes a punching bag in this work. He might have set up a thesis - antithesis dialogue about the understanding behind Pope Paul VI's "Humanae Vitae", but didn't do that either. In the end he speaks of his italian Catholic background as a means to help him live in a licenteous, heathenistic manner, one that nearly rips his marriage apart. Very strange.

Chris' book helped me prepare for my thru-hike. I owe this man!! I could have been hungry, thirsty or dead! Christopher Whalen KNOWS!! Thanks Chris!!

Chris Whalen's book, helped me prepare for the long walk through the mountains. I just hiked the AT, I used Chris' book to prepare. It was like a workbook, I was able to tear out and photocopy the pages for use in preparation of my trip. There are charts, diagrams and important info. I would've been in trouble a few times had I not gotten this book first. Thanks a lot Chris!

Christopher Whalen gives a good basic planning device for a Thru-Hike and the information can be applied to any long trek. The area that brings me some concern is the divergence from accepted advice regarding clothing. CW recommends cotton underwear and most who hike now advise that a quick drying material be utilized. If this is a result of the book being written before the implementation of new materials then the later editions of the book should provide up to date information rather than to just crank out additional copies of out of date material.

Another way that this book could be improved is to put it in loose-leaf form so that pages can more easily be copied since that is a recommendation of the book for certain pages.

There is much in the book that is very helpful but there is room for improvement.

This book has that, "Hey-Man-I-know-what-I'm-Talking-About" feel, because he's been there. Why learn from your own mistakes, learn from his. I suggest buying this book if you're planning a to hike the AT or any other long hike.

Thanks for your help Chris

While this workbook is not as inclusive as Wingfoot's, it is more current. It also addresses some issues that are not covered in Wingfoot's. If you are planning on hiking the AT, I would recommend purchasing both..... Happy hiking. Its always an adventure...

It has the advantage of telling the story using concise details, without all the fluffy language that loses most people.

We originally bought this version for our children, age 6 & 8. As it turns out, the rest of the family preferred it over the other book we had been using. The adults (including the 84 year old grandpa of the family), who have been going to seders their entire lives, said they actually learned some new things from this version.

We used this haggadah a couple years ago when our kids were five and three years old. It was much too complicated and wordy for children this age. All the younger children were bouncing off the walls only half way through the seder. However, it was beautifully illustrated!

Our 11 and 6 year old grandchildren love this Haggadah. They are able to follow the order of the Seder and the Passover story. A note for the reviewer who stated "Well it does not mention Moses at all." In fact, Moses is not mentioned in any traditional Haggadah. This is deliberate because the Jewish people are discouraged from treating Moses as a diety.

We fell in love with this Haggadah. Our three year old was very interested in hearing the story in terms she could understand, the text refers to slavery in terms of not being able to go to movies, school, etc. We added playgroups, no treats, and so on. She loved the illustrations and was able to stay interested throughout the book. We look forward to using it this year for our seder. I beleive young children will be able to stay interested in this haggadah much longer than a traditional one. I don't think it is realistic to expect children three to five to be able to sit for an hour of anything. This book should make our evening flow nicely and fun for everyone. The text is not so simplistic that Parents would not enjoy it as much as the children.

Our children are 4, 6, and 10. This Haggadah is terrific for all of them. It is beautifully illustrated. It has all of the traditional elements of a seder presented in a way that kids can understand, and also will enable you to get through the seder on a brief enough timeline to get the point across within a child's attention span. The book is entirely in English, but also shows Hebrew words for things in the seder and Hebrew blessings.

Don't waste your money on this book. The other reviewers must have been the author's friends and relatives! You get real marketing ideas from the Guerilla Marketing books, marketing books by Rick Crandall, Dan McComas etc. This book is just fluff...no ideas...just bad promotion for the author.

However valuable how-to books may be, most of us haven't time for them. Many of the books geared to the business world are fat, ugly, and bone-dry.

Jeff Tobe has taken his book on creativity, marketing and sales quite a few steps beyond that. He has been thinking , creating, and "Coloring Outside the Lines." He presents basic approach to business within a slim, memorable volume.

The author polishes up a dull subject with images from the sports world and from children's games. He supplies an intriguing diagnosis of stale business practices he calls BPIP (Business Professionals Innovation Deficiency) with all its symptoms. These include Past-a-Plegia, Internal Myopia, and Psycho-Sclerosis, all of which make anthrax seem innocuous. You will want to learn about these because they are diseases anyone can contract.

The book itself is a tribute to Tobe's own philosophies. The cover looks more like an Easter egg than a business book, the typeface is positively enchanting (and readable) and his advice is anecdotal, not built with dry-old, tired-old businessese. His message is to achieve success by thinking differently; this book illustrates this very premise. Tobe takes a risk and it works.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"

I read approximately 20 business books per year and I have never read a treatise that combines marketing, sales and creativity in such a complete and succinct way. The content is solid, commonsense advice to skyrocket your product or service to the front of the pack. Kudos to Jeff Tobe for finally sharing his wisdom with the business world in print form. It's long overdue!!!

The basic metaphor is obvious. Less obvious is the profound importance of understanding (a) why there are "lines", (b) how they got there, and (c) who decided where to place them. Of even greater importance is understanding how to take initiatives in those areas in which creative thinking is not only appropriate but essential. New product development, for example, or positioning which differentiates an organization from its competition. (Other areas obviously require "coloring" only inside the "lines." There are some highly creative accountants who now receive their mail at a federal penitentiary.) I am all in favor of "thinking outside the box" even as I remain convinced that, at least most of the time, answers to questions or solutions to problems can only be effective when implemented inside a "box" of some kind. Only breakthrough thinking (e.g. mass production of automobiles, development of the Internet) creates entirely new "boxes" which then replace the old ones. Subsequent innovations then reconfigure the "lines" until other new "boxes" become dominant. Of course, Jeff Tobe understands all this as he shares his thoughts on creativity, marketing, and sales. He has a great deal of value to share.

His is a much more personal book than those written on the same general subject by others such as Claxton, de Bono, Levesque, Michalko, and von Oech. It covers less material. That's OK. This book would be much easier to re-read on a regular basis (which I highly recommend) for those involved in marketing and sales who need to reactivate their creative "juices" from time to time. Of course, it would also be of substantial value to just about anyone else. To school and college students, for example, or to those who have only recently begun a career, or especially to those who have (voluntarily or involuntarily) reached a crisis point in their career.

One of the book's greatest benefits is derived from Tobe`s own "coloring" outside various "lines" throughout his own life and career. Perhaps he agrees with my own opinion that most human limits are self-imposed. That is to say, on many occasions we feel constrained by "lines" we ourselves have drawn. (Long ago, Henry Ford said something to the effect "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.") Tobe wrote this book primarily (but not exclusively) for marketing and sales executives. As indicated previously, I recommend it to anyone who now feels constrained by real or imagined "chains." Tobe offers new "crayons" with which to "color" and strong encouragement to re-think assumptions about creativity. Two chapter titles suggest how: "If It Is [italics] Broke, Don't Fix It...Yet" and "To Err Is Right...or at Least Necessary."

Once you have read this book, you will be much better prepared to read other books written by the aforementioned Claxton, de Bono, Levesque, Michalko, and von Oech. More to the point, you will be much better prepared to increase and enhance your ability to think creatively whenever that may be necessary...which is to say, all of the time.

When you're raised with the oft-repeated admonition to stay inside the lines when you're coloring, the message sticks. When you're an adult, coloring outside the lines, out of the box thinking, and challenging the status quo can be really difficult. The old tapes come on and hold you within established boundaries. Creativity is a useless exercise: it's outside the limits. And that's our problem. We're all so bound by limits, we can't find new solutions. We're stuck with the old solutions, even though the problems, the playing field, and the rules have changed. And the tape plays on.

It is said that if you tie an elephant to a stake with a thin rope when it's young, the elephant learns that it is secured to that stake. The learned behavior "sticks," enabling handlers to secure huge, powerful elephants to stakes with thin ropes. The elephant doesn't believe it can break free. Humans are not so different.

Then Jeff Tobe comes along and shatters all those imaginary boundaries. A salesman and professional speaker, he specializes in stimulating creativity and innovation in business organizations. As demonstrated by his stories in this book Tobe helps companies break through "innovation deficiency," characterized by Internal Myopia and the Ostrich Syndrome. He argues that business leaders-and everyone else in the environment-must change the way they perceive, think, and behave to succeed in today's competitive world.

You get an immediate sense that this book is going to be a bit different when you open the cover. There is no traditional Times New Roman type between these covers. The typeface--throughout the entire book--looks like something from a primary school primer on the fine art of printed word penmanship. The message is clear: this book is going to be different and fun. And it is, but it's serious, too.

"Coloring Outside the Lines" is organized into three sections: Creativity, Marketing, and Sales. Each section has 6-9 chapters that stimulate the thinking and illustrate how things can be done differently. The lessons are valuable-some are fresh and some are the old saws that we've all learned for years. Each lesson is presented in the context of a story that you might hear on a fun walk through a meadow with the author. The chapters are filled with personal stories and experiences with titles like "Are Your Bagels Hot?" to "Step into My Office." These narratives are enjoyable (yup, chuckles in this book), comfortable and reasonable, yet highly instructive. The book is deceivingly simple in appearance; the educational aspect sort of sneaks up on you.

This easy-to-read volume will be thought-provoking and stimulating for salespeople, marketers, and other executives and managers who welcome inspiration (or permission) to do things just a little bit differently. If the thinking and behavior or different, (surprise!) the outcomes are different.

I first located this book from the library. I ended up checking it out for an additional few weeks. It was so full of useful information, I decided I needed to add it to my arsenal of information for repeated use.

This book is the assigned reading for the Event Planning certification course I'm taking. It's great, very concise and to-the-point. Lots of realistic resources and handy tips.

This has been a really great book and has been a huge help in getting started in event planning. I've planned six events now, and this book is helping me understand some of the processes better and help me better hone my skills. Definitely recommended!

I think this is the best guide for event and meeting planners. there is a lot of source references (especially internet sources available for professional event planners or prospective event planners) It is fun and easy to follow. Everything is clearly explained. There is not too many jargon words used.
I am yet in the middle of the book and I can't wait to see the later parts of it. I am getting all the necessary information I need.

This is a comprehensive introductory book for anyone starting out in the meeting planning industry. The title is a bit misleading (Meeting AND Event Planning) as there is very little information on event planning itself - about 10 pages. The event planning section mostly concentrates on the events that would be part of a meeting (golf tournament, fundraiser, final night gala, etc.) but doesn't go into great detail. There are, however, concepts and information presented about meeting planning (checklists, timelines, vendors etc.) that can be easily transferred to the event planning process.

If meeting planning has recently become part of your job responsibilities, this guide will help you understand the basics. If you are looking for information about becoming an independent meeting planner or event planner (i.e.: getting clients, starting your company) you might need to continue looking for other resources.

Overall the book is well written, has plenty of examples and explains the underlying concepts to organizing a meeting.