Security Books

I needed this book for a class I am taking, however, I would have read this book just for pleasure, I finished it before the class even started

In a very good way, I got more than I bargained for by reading this book. While seeking a solid source to inform myself on the "nuts and bolts", policy implications, and development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), I continued to come across this title. Expect some dense and intense reading; there is not a wasted word here. The book focuses exclusively on the covert delivery of a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon against an American target, exploring possible methods, limitations, locales, preventive measures, and consequences. This book will considerably broaden the knowledge of any first-timer looking into WMD and likely provides substantive material for discussion among policy makers and experts in the field.

This is a comprehensive analysis of the threat without being alarmist.

It is far too easy to find shocking explanations of the biological weapons potential that do not describe some of the difficulties in their procurement and delivery. This "sexy" approach captures our attention and makes for good entertainment, but the `Chicken Little' approach doesn't help us develop rational methods for dealing with the issue.

Read this book if you want a levelheaded examination. It also contains a good description and solid recommendations for a national strategy.

I picked up this book as a research tool for a paper. Not only did I find the book to contain everything I needed, I became so enveloped in the reality of what I was reading that I couldn't put it down. A fan of Tom Clancy novels, this book describes the harsh reality that we live in, while detailing both the strengths and the weaknesses of the US response to bioterrorism. A must read for those with an interest in national security issues.

couldn't be happier with it - gorgeous pictures, great cause and it was delivered ahead of schedule.

I was looking for a 2007 calendar for my son's room, and saw the special on Amazon for the Amnesty International calendar. Not only does it offer great photography each month, but I was able to introduce the organization to my son. Great pictures, great cause.

I recieved the calendar carefully wrapped in a cardboard box. The item arrived only 3 business days after I purchased it.

An interesting selection of black & white and color photos from the Magnum photographic cooperative showing people from all over the world. The tone is optimistic and life-affirming, and the cause is certainly worthwhile!

Wyatt has gotten below the slick surface of the politicized 9/11 to the human reality below. Well done!

9/11 is one of those days that we all remember, I was in my office about 35 miles from the World Trade Center. Our controllers husband was on the 106th floor of one of the buildings -- they found him about 11 days later. There were a lot of stories that I remember. But I never thought to write them down and then to compile them into a book.

David Wyatt did. He noted his thoughts, his observations of other people and discussions. He has combined these into an awesome tale. It is not a tale of the heroic. It is not a politically motivated diatribe dripping with hatred like Fahrenheit 9/11. Somewhat autobiographical, this book is also a reasoned yet emotional and reflective essay on the way our world changed on 9/11.

I have the feeling that this book is too emotional, too thoughtful to be the all time best seller on the incident. I also have the feeling that when many of the other books have faded away this one will remain.

The greatest compliment I can give a book is that the writing is honest, because only with honesty can truth be gleaned. David Wyatt's memoir based on the events in his life after 9-11 does an excellent--and honest--job of capturing the contradictory emotions felt by many. But what I found most interesting about his book was his notion that small collisions or accidents between people and their lives often have far-reaching implications. I am glad that I took time to read David Wyatt's memoir--a truly transforming book.

In a time when memoirs are lining the bookstore shelves like never before, Wyatt's _And The War Came_ emerges as one of those books that you'll read more than once, and then never forget. This is a writer who pays attention, a writer who knows the necessity for words as we navigate through the upheavals-and delights-of our lives. And so with the events of September 11th, Wyatt took to the page, chronicling "the days" that followed:

"The sound of this war feels as if it were reeling straight out of my mind and heart. ... To accept this, to come to savor it, is to agree that Hamlet was right when he said that the readiness is all. But there is no getting ready for what has happened and for what will go on happening to us, no way to manage the soul-bruising overload of feeling and fact or the sheer incommensurability of taking it all in while we continue to live our little lives."

But this "accidental memoir" should not for a second be regarded as merely a book about war; in fact, its understatedness refuses to smack its reader over the head with sentimentality or political agenda, as is so often the case. Wyatt, an accomplished university professor and restaurant owner, bravely gives us, by way of his diary, a candid entry into his "quotidian life," though he resists, quite remarkably, the tendency to be overly reflexive, often letting the words of those around him do the work. Written in the present tense, Wyatt's crisp and incisive prose imparts an energy that endures, just as the past, which he so effortlessly dips in and out of, endures. In reading, I was compelled by how this book, like any good book, is very much alive. In a sense, this memoir speaks to how we are all living in this "Great Good Time"-how we find our bearings, and sometimes our discomfort, in our relationships with others; how we age; how change changes us. But it speaks also to pleasure (food here, for example, carries a lip-licking sensuality) and love-not only romantic love or the love for family and friends, but love for a country, or for something as simple yet grand as "a particular turn in a road, where an entire mountain range swims into view."

This is truly a wondrous book, one that I would whole-heartedly recommend to anyone.

David Nibert does a wonderful job of using social theory to explain animal oppression and show the ties of animal oppression to the institution of capitalism. He enhances his topic by showing how the oppression of animals is deeply entangled with the oppression of humans based on ethnicity, gender, and social class. Using a slightly modified version of Donald Noel's theory of ethnic stratification, Nibert clearly maps out his ideas concerning the oppression of non-human animals. He covers all aspects of oppression, ranging from the truths behind flesh consumption to the use of animals in vivosects. His topics then expand to show how the autrocities committed against animals then lead to, and help support, the oppression of humans.
This book is a must for anyone concerned with animal rights AND human rights. Equality will not come from seperate movements fighting for one cause. Coming together, and realizing that the cause being fought for is universal and spans the bridge between humans and animals, is the only way to make progess. David Nibert makes this issue painfully clear.

Whereas a large portion of the scholarship regarding humans' ethical responsibilities towards animals has focused on the roles and morality of the individual - this book takes a sociological perspective in order to express a direct correlation between the systematic exploitation of humans and other animals. It is the same sort of attitudes and social norms which cause humans to promote and sustain oppresive systems towards all subjects of a life, and Nibert's book does an excellent job of chronicling this reality.

In this ambitious undertaking, Nibert attempts to demonstrate the entwined fates of humans and animals throughout the history of the western world. In a style that will be well received by fans of Howard Zinn, Nibert uses this historical review to put contemporary oppression in a broader context. Framing this overview in sociological theory, Nibert suggests that the capitalist system and neoliberalist, global development policies and practices bear considerable responsibility for much of the suffering of humans and animals throughout the world today. A very good read for students and progressive activists for all causes.

While I was familiar with historical episodes of oppression and violence, I never really connected the dots to see how many of these events were related and largely motivated by greed and avarice. I was opposed to cruel treatment of animals, but I did not realize the connections between their treatment and human oppression until reading this book. This book opened my eyes to the structural causes of oppression (and motivated me to become a vegetarian). I highly recommend it.

This books is well-written, interesting and fairly well-researched for anyone who likes this sort of thing. With the pace that technology advances at, particularly with regards to computers, this 15 year old book has become entirely historical. Absolutely none of the events or technologies are relevant to the present day except in the context of history.

Nevertheless, if you're looking for background info on hacking, phreaking, viruses and other computer security related matters, it's well worth a read. Most of the information could be found in other books written about the same time as this one, however it's still very readable and does provide a comprehensive, though not particularly detailed, gathering of most of the relevant events over the past 30 years. In that regard it's also a good reference if you want to know how hacking and phreaking started, right from the very beginning.

Also, it's a good introduction for the lay person interested in finding out what what hacking and phreaking is, and describes things like basic virus writing, boot sector viruses, executable file-based viruses, basic hacker exploits, the original tone-based phreaking methods, etc... However anyone really interested in this stuff would need to continue on learning through to updated information.

It's an old book now; the terminology is quaint both because it's targeted at the lay person and it almost predates the Internet. But does form an important part of the limited literature available which covers that time period. Also, although it suggests that the doom and gloom scenario touted at the time with regards to technology destroying us all is over-hyped (as we can see in hindsight) the book still indulges in jumping on the hype bandwagon itself to some degree.

The book is amazingly interesting. I believe for a beginner who wants to know some history and have some basic idea of what hacking and virus is, this is the book! The writer also has done a good job on collecting all kinds of examples.

This is a fantastic book for anybody interested in the begginings of the hacker and phreaker world. This book accounts many of the first large and small feats by these amazing pioneers of the computer and electronics world.

This book is a bit scattered, and if you're looking for a novel on computer crime this is not it. However, these real life accounts of hacking are fascinating. The authors did a great job researching these accounts and the result is an intreging book that keeps your interest throughout. It's a nine.

Dr. Pascual has managed to cut right to the nerve of some very complex current issues: the roots of Islamic terrorism, the anger focused against the U.S., the troubles with our long-term allies, and U.S. policy in the Middle East, explaining it in such a way that anyone can gain an understanding of the events that are shaping our future. If you are looking for a well-written, interesting overview of the situation, this is the book for you. Pascual quotes policy experts extensively, but you don't have to be a political scientist to understand what is there; in fact, the research is presented in such a way as to make the book a fascinating, but easy, read. Buy this book to see what only an "outsider" who has come to love our country can teach us about ourselves.

arma against faith is a well thought out way of looking at our great american society in the light of middle earstern cultures
it can be a great way of introducing those who are just begining to understandthayt the middle eastren world looks at us americans from a very diffrerent point of veiw

this comes froma man who can stand outside our culture and look in. an excellent read

Its a compelling book with everything thats happening now.Thrilling and informative "arms Against faith" is a must read.

A must read for all radical anarchists! In "Arms Against Faith" Dr. Eladio Pasqual presents a bi-cultural perspective on how America's complacency led to it's own demise on the fateful day of September 11th. Dr. Pasquals' religious and spiritual background assist him in analyzing the Islamic faith and offshoot radical fundamentalists and how their interfacing with the United States ends in near implosion. With great passion he speaks of the America that he loves having become so grandious that it enters a war alone and with no end in sight.
A brilliant read! I encourage you all to go on this journey with Dr. Pasqual as he examines pertinent issues of this war from his American and Spanish roots; countries each that he cherishes but only one that he grieves.

Krepinevich has a cult following among professors and students at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. After reading his work I understand why. It is rare that ones comes across a book that radically changes the way one looks at military history. Thousands of books have been written on Vietnam and the movies "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now" brought the war to millions of Americans. Until I read this book, I thought I understood the causes and conduct of the war. Krepinevich brilliantly analyzes how the U.S. Army planned for and conducted the war. How it tried to fight the war it wanted to fight, vice the war as it actually existed. Army leadership brought their conventional mindset to the jungles of Vietnam. The inability to adapt to change proved a greater threat to the U.S. Army than the North Vietnamese Army. The book rises above the personal narrative style that dominates most Vietnam books. Instead, the book is based on solid military analysis. Even more telling was how the U.S. Army failed to grasp the lessons of counter-insurgency following Vietnam and quickly returned to the conventional mindset it preferred. The writing is crisp and powerful. The lessons of this book remain vital today as the U.S. continues to struggle on how to best defeat America's latest enemies.

This book deserves to be far more widely read than it is--and I have no idea why it isn't. Krepinivich's thesis is a brilliant one--the US army was "conceptually" unprepared to fight the Vietnam war: it brought a cold war mentality to the jungles of Vietnam and spent the first seven or eight years of the war trying to "find" this war. The US army imagined that the Viet Cong was a variant of the Soviet army--they "must" have been controlled by a central organization and "must" have had "hidden armies" lurking in the jungle. Decively defeating them would, the Army believed, end the war.

In fact, Krepinivich convincingly argues, the VC was not in the jungle at all--but in the cities along the coast. "We should have done less 'flit'in' and more 'sit'in'", he says.

The war was actually fought more effectively after US troop reduction prevented the "jungle search" strategy from being implemented. This was something akin to what the Marines performed in I Corps: rather than participate in large scale jungle sweeps, troops were divided up and put in small villages with radios. The strategy was more hazardous as troops, because of their small numbers might be overrun. However, it was more effective because it allowed allied forces to prevent the VC from retaking a village after they had withdrawn from their major operation.

This book should eventually allow for US military operations in the first part of the war to be put in the context of greater US cold war culture. The "willing blindness" of the US military during much of the sixties came from what amounts to a cultural fixation on a way power was imagined to function. Even in '71, Nixon believed that the Vietnamese communists was controled by a "COSVN", which functioned like a sort of "tumor": nip the tumor and the body will fall. This, Krepinivich proves, was all part of the American imaginary. Our blindness went far beyond the generals: it was part of our culture.

This is an excellant book that should be read by every military professional and anybody interested in civil-miltary relationships and what happened in Vietnem. The authors premise is that the Army was unprepared for a war in Vietnam. Krepinevich states that Army training, doctrine and organization was geared toward a conventional conflict like what had happened in WWII and Korea. The Army was not prepared to fight a counterinsurgency against a foe that was only going to fight when they had to and when the circumstances and odds were in their favor. The senior leadership of the Army thought the war would be won be killing VC and NVA. According to Krepinevich this is all wrong. To defeat an insurgency you must protect and convince the people of the country you are trying to save that their fortunes lay in siding with you. If the people aren't going to back you then you will lose. It doesn't matter how many VC you kill. The Army's senior leadership did not want to deal with the pacification programs that would have won the war. Many in the military like to lay the blame for the loss in the war at the feet of the politicians in Washington. And there is justification for that. But Krepinevich makes a strong arguement that the war would have still been lost due to the poor/lack of strategy by our military leaders. Reading this book really angered me. Prior to this I had just finished reading "Street Without Joy" by Bernard Fall and I could not help but note the similarities between the failed French efforts and our own. It was like reading the same book over again except the units and the names of the leaders were different. There were almost no lessons learned by our senior leadership from the French debacle.

Although coming to this work as a result of a contemporary (2006) news story about the author I was shocked at the relevance of the book to the issues facing the US Army (and others) in Iraq.

The Army and Vietnam is a fascinating study of how not to organise and fight a counter-insurgency campaign amongst a resentful populace using the most aggressive and technologically advanced "shock and awe" methods.

It appears, not least from the paucity of reviews, that this is a book that was seen to lack relevance or lessons for America's warriors. How wrong they were.

I would strongly commend this book both to students of the history of the Vietnam War and those looking for a fresh, professional, perspective on the problems the US faces in Iraq.

I read a lot of books and articles on personal finance and investing - this book is one of the best I have read and acted on....the author really motivates you to plan your portfolio...and he sure has a lucid way to make it look easy. If you're committed to getting a sense of your financial life and want to build a comprehensive investment portfolio, get this book!

This book provides the most systematic approach to investing I havc encountered. Its step-by-step approach walks one through the process from establishment of investment objectives through examination of investment alternatives and the selection of funds based on meaningful criteria. Very well presented, and most certainly highly recommended!

I thought I knew how to select a mutual fund and to diversify my portfolio before I read this book. Now I have adjustments to make. Conover gives valuable tables of criteria for bonds and funds, which I copied for personal use, and he offers his own slightly-outdated top picks. This is a must read for unsure investors with any investing horizon!

A terrific book for anyone trying to gain a better understanding of investments and how to prepare for the major financial events in life. Conover combines common sense with specific advice about which mutual funds to buy and how to create a personalized financial game plan. Very readable and concise.

This book contains timeless principles about business, making money and how to preserve money. They seem trivial but the U.S. economy early 2008 would be in a much better shape if all participants followed them...We just forget these words of wisdom and we should revert to the work of P.T. Barnum more frequently to avoid the foolish business mistake we all make.

Solid, timeless advice for anyone seeking wealth... and how to keep it once you get it.

This is a book that every young man and young lady should read - so that they ensure their safe passage along the road to success as opposed to the road to destruction.

Barnum gives 20 "rules" that a person must abide by in order to be successful. Given that Barnum was one of the wealthiest men in America during his day, given that Barnum was received by Kings and Queens the world over, his "rules" are worthy of attention.

If you are already striving along the path to success, you will likely find the "rule" that you have been breaking to this point, that has been holding you back. When you read this book, you'll see it, and your success will be accelerated greatly.

By the way, all 20 of these "rules" are fully applicable to today's world and environment. There is absolutely nothing that is "dated" about this book.

As an aside, this book was actually a speech that Barnum gave on the "speakers circuit" of his day. As such, it provides a great model from which a person can construct a speech of their own. You'll see how Barnum gets "personal", uses jokes, quotes, and stories to bring his speech to life and make it interesting.

Lastly, in the realm of success books, there isn't an easier book to read anywhere since this book is a mere 32 pages long.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 - April 7, 1891), American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

In Brooklyn, New York in 1871, he established "P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus", a traveling amalgamation of circus, menagerie and museum of "freaks", which by 1872 was billing itself as "The Greatest Show on Earth".

There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum. However, when Barnum's biographer tried to track down when Barnum had uttered this phrase, all of Barnum's friends and acquaintances told him it was out of character. Barnum's credo was more along the lines of "there's a customer born every minute" -- he wanted to find ways to draw new customers in all the time because competition was fierce and people bored easily

Barnum wrote several books, including The Humbugs of the World (1865), Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and his Autobiography (first in 1854, and later editions including 1869).

The Art of Money Getting is really the story of how to run a sales organization by understanding the mind and tastes of your primary customer base.

Barnum is a treat to read and is never boring! I highly recommend his books.

It is China's burgeoning energy demand which has nurtured an increased interest into the energy reality in Asia; and yet we still lack the conceptual lens through which to analyze the way that energy markets, and by extension geopolitics, are affected by the profound asymmetry between the demand for energy and the supply of resources in Asia (and East Asia in particular). It is this gap that Robert Manning bridges with the "Asian Energy Factor."

Mr. Manning's angle is captured in these words: "Whether they [Asia-Pacific nations] gravitate--as some have already begun to do--towards market-based solutions and realize the myriad commercial possibilities of foreign investment, regional integration and privatization, and deregulation or older dirigiste models may be the difference between increased conflict or increased cooperation in Asia." Alone, this sentence offers a useful conceptual take on the energy challenge which confronts us: how to push the world to geoeconomics rather than geopolitics in the scramble for energy. Exposing this broad dilemma is the book's prime contribution.

Mr. Manning is also useful in showing how one should approach the analysis of energy questions. Although some of his information is dated (the book came out in 2000), he demonstrates that energy is intricately linked to politics, economics, and geography; any analysis which fails to take so inclusive a view is bound to fail. (His section on Central Asia, in particular, is very good at this integrationist approach.) Mr. Manning's argument that Asia's energy situation can produce sufficient interdependence for cooperation is also very interesting.

To be honest, I diverge with Robert Manning on two counts: he confuses a country's domestic energy realities with its foreign policy. It is possible for a country to combine a commitment to markets with an aggressive foreign policy (there are various times when America and Britain would fit this profile). By referring to many countries' market friendliness he logically concludes that the prospects for conflict are diminished; but in assuming an identity between foreign and domestic policy, I believe that he errs.

(In a later article he exposes the dilemma in these terms: "It is unclear how Asian policy-makers will view the global politics of Asian energy markets. Will they view it through the lens of traditional geopolitics of real estate and sea-lane security? Or will they view it through the lens of geo-economics, where international investment, joint ventures and global cooperation rather than competition for resources and conflict is the prevalent means to satisfy energy security requirements?" But he resorts, again, to looking at domestic politics.)

My other disagreement is with Mr. Manning's unwillingness to explore the ways in which energy can lead to conflict; although I agree with his assessment that energy is often a mere manifestation of underlying geopolitical rivalry, it is still important to uncover the mechanics which can link energy to conflict. By choosing not to explore this idea in detail, I believe that is evades a very important subject.

These disagreements aside, the "Asian Energy Factor" is one of the most important contributions on the subject; by debunking some of the most important fallacies, Mr. Manning allows for the debate to focus on the significant topics. This is even more useful today than it was when the book was first published.

Without a doubt, energy will be among one of the most important factors determining diplomatic behavior and relations in Asia in the coming decades. The Asian Energy Factor tackles this emerging geopolitical concern through an intriguing analysis of Asia's growing demand for energy and its global political, economic, and strategic consequences. Unique from other authors addressing this under-examined issue, Robert Manning sets the stage by exposing the myth that the world is quickly running out of oil. Technology and new methods of both collection and use of energy have made the impending energy crisis espoused by the doomsayers less of a concern. Manning proceeds to focus on the regional powers (China, India, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia) and where their individual energy abilities and needs puts them on the collective strategic map. He examines the commercial and political dynamic between the countries demanding increasing amounts of energy (China, Japan, and India) and those with the reserves (the Middle East and Southeast Asia).

As The Asian Energy Factor aptly points out, energy security is the crux upon which the economic, social, energy, and military policies of Asian nations converge; it is among the most critical issues in the coming decade. Manning delves deep into these economic and strategic complexities and continues to challenge the prevailing wisdom about Asian power structure and energy competition.

An excellent work from one of our most important scholars on Asia. Riddled with numbers and graphs, the book is still readable for those just encountering energy politics. The referencing is also excellent, and allows one to delve further into the topic.

His initial chapters on environment/pollution and population growth/demand, and scarcity are important by themselves. Understanding the differences between a scarcity of resources and political limitations or economic bottlenecks on those resources is essential to being able to really forecast the strategic environment. Consequently, the time Manning spends belittling Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome is well spent. The country analyses are also very useful, and give one a sense not only of the economics of energy, but of the two way impact of energy and political relationships between countries. With our noble leaders beginning to evoke various fears about Asia, this is very important in understanding the nature and degree of "emerging threats."

Manning might be too bold in divorcing extending military interests with growing energy demands, but it is worth reading the book to develop an opinion on the subject.

I also recommend checking out the Energy Information Administrations's website, which Manning used heavily. It was of great use to me in a recent project: www.eia.doe.gov

Also useful is the cover piece of the January 2001 'Atlantic Monthly.' The piece, "The New Old Economy: Oil, Computers, and the Reinvention of the Earth," in helping advance perspectives of the oil industry. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/01/rauch.htm

Robert Manning covers a lot of ground in this book, from the Caspian, to India, to Northeast Asia, and challenges a lot of established notions, but two of the points he makes really stand out:

First, he argues that energy interdependence is a potential positive force for Asian regional stability. While a number of analysts (from the serious scholar Kent Calder to the more shrill "Blue Team" types) have argued that China's entry onto the stage as a major oil importer will have serious negative consequences for regional stability, Manning argues that this is far from clear, and that it may actually have positive consequences. Other energy development issues looming in the future, such as the need for natural gas integration in Northeast Asia, can only be addressed by cooperation among regional governments and some degree of mutual interdependence.

Second, Manning points out in his preface how little contact and exchange there is between American analysts who focus on political and security issues, on the one hand, and those who focus on energy from an economic perspective. (As an example, he points out the differing views of the South China Sea between energy specialists and security policy analysts.) Energy issues involve tie-ins with a broad range of national security, economic, and environmental issues, and Manning argues that the policy community could benefit from more dialogue between these two separate sets of analysts. (I've long known this - since my own academic and professional background sort of straddles both groups.)

While the book does suffer a bit from poor editing in some spots, it is definitely a must-read for anyone interested in Asian security issues and/or the region's rapidly growing energy sector.