Industry Books

The writer thoroughly researched his work. He studied how technology affects organizations and how crisis of information come into play when dealing with mass markets and new technologies. This is a must read work.

If you have, like Beniger, asked the question "Why is information so critical for our current mode of production? Why Information? Why Now?" You need to read this book.

His basic argument is that the seeds of our contemporary information intensive society was sown way back during the start of the Industrial Revolution. In fact, information was critical to make the transition from feudal to industrial society. The reason being that the industrial revolution (entailing mechanization, steam power, assembly line etc.) speeded up the process of production to the extent that human beings on their own physical powers would be unable to keep up with the speed of production. In feudal/agricultural based societies, the production process was slow (i.e., ploughing using ox) and it remained in control of the individual. With the industrial revolution, the production process was speeded, resulting in what he terms as "a crisis of control." This reminds me a lot of the Charlie Chaplin movie "Modern Times." Don't know if you have seen it, if you have, you know exactly what I am talking about.

In order to resolve the crisis of control emerging from the speeded-up production process, you need information. Example: Steam engine travels faster than a human being. How do you keep track of the train if you can't run faster than it? String telegraph line along the railway track connecting different stations along the way. When train reaches station, the station master informs the next station about the next estimated arrival time. Think about it, if you didn't have a schedule or an estimated time of arrival/departure, it would be impossible to operate a passenger train service or a goods service. Speed brings uncertainty which can only be resolved through the acquisition of information.

Today, just-in-time production (epitomizing the heights of efficiency and speed) would not be possible without flow of information to control this process.

This is a great book! Much recommended for people who would like to exercise their grey cells. WARNING: Business travellers nourished on Tofflerian hype may have indigestion!

Beniger has published two sole-authored books. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society (Harvard University Press, 1986) gained a full-page review (with brief biography) in the New York Times Book Review and the lead review (and cover illustration) in the special book review edition of Science, journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Now in its third printing, The Control Revolution won the eleventh annual Association of American Publishers award for "the most outstanding book in the social and behavioral sciences" and the Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award; the 1989 softcover edition was selected by the New York Times Book Review as a "Notable Paperback of the Year." Recently Harvard University Press announced contracts to publish The Control Revolution in two additional languages: in Italian by UTET Libreria, an Italian book publisher, by December 1995; and in Mandarin Chinese by Laureate, a U.S. book publisher specialized in foreign translations for export, by May 1996.

Beniger has synthesized findings from scores of fields to produce a plausible and remarkably original view of economic change and commercial development in America. While some of his explanations are a bit murky and some of his linkages a bit half-baked, this a brilliant book. Nobody to my knowledge, saving perhaps only Alfred Chandler, has done a better job of explaining the evolution of administrative systems or the linkages between that evolution and the advances in information technology occuring in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in management control, competitive dynamics, or technological/economic history.

I only wish the author had taken one more cut at simplifying and clarifing his basic thesis, It is also a pity that the volume was written prior to the development of transaction cost economics.

This is an excellent synthesis of great information from a number of different fields. I want to point out (for anyone reading these "reviews") that the person who gave this book only one star is actually referring to a book by another author. The two authors have books with similar titles. For that reason, I urge you to disregard that irrelevant ranking and read this excellent book for yourself.

Twelve-year-old Grace, daughter of immigrant parents from Canada, is a bouncing, energetic, vivacious rural Vermonter. Grace is torn between her teacher's desire for her to make a better life through education and her mother's desire for her to work in the mills to support her family. Highly intelligent Grace is eager to grow up and go to work, but discovers that, being left handed, she is less capable than the other workers. One day, Lewis Hine, a photographer, comes to secretly investigate the mill and takes Grace's picture. This fantastically well-written book (completely in Grace's voice) is one of the best young adult novels I've ever read. Grace's world is very real, from the detailed descriptions of the mill to the characters that surround her and determine her destiny. The historical tale (set in 1910) makes us, as Lewis Hine's photographs do, look directly into the eyes of the child labor issue. Grace, in her excitement and need to work in the mills to provide for her family, but her even deeper need to do more with her life. Grace--as all young teenagers do--must face her domineering mother's expectations for her life and to become her own person. A beautiful, funny, clever, well-characterized, poignant, and powerful novel. Grade: A

When a children's author wishes to write a piece of historical fiction, there are a number of ways to do so. They can write about a specific historical moment. The fall of Pompeii, for example, or perhaps a battle during the Civil War. They can also just pick a period in time rather than any one single moment. The most difficult historical fiction, however, is when an author decides to incorporate a real person into their fictional narrative. This technique is a staple of poorly written children's books. You know what I mean. The old idea that falls along the lines of Martin Luther King Jr. meets a kid from the future and teaches him a valuable lesson, yadda yadda yadda. Ugh. It takes a careful hand and a steady talent to do what Elizabeth Winthrop has accomplished with, "Counting On Grace". Winthrop knows that if you were going to write a book where, for example, a small girl meets someone like Lewis Hine, you're going to have to give your hero (not the historical figure) enough of a backstory and life to make her just as real as Hine himself. The joy of "Counting On Grace" is that even though this is a story about a horrific time concerning horrific events, it's not depressing or much in the way of a downer. It's a beautiful, emotional, remarkable little book. Mangled hands and all.

Grace can't stand still. Every day her family goes to work in a Vermont cotton mill while she goes to school with the other mill children. She's a good student, of course, but she can't even read without her feet dancing about. That changes fairly soon, however, and much to her delight. She and her friend Arthur are going to go work on their mothers' machines in the mill, she willingly, he unwilling. But finally making some money for her family isn't as much fun as Grace had anticipated. She's incredibly tired and Arthur seems to have a dangerous plan in mind for getting out of working. It isn't until the two kids help their former teacher Miss Lesley contact the authorities about the working conditions of the mill that something begins to change. Something in the form of a photographer by the name of Lewis Hine. Now Grace needs to decide what to do with the rest of her life. Spend her days working in the mill or seek something more?

The inspiration for this tale, author Elizabeth Winthrop says, came in the form of a picture of a young girl named Addie. The photograph, taken by Lewis Hine, was on display in the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. The photograph is shown at the back of the book, and Winthrop tells the story of the real girl shown there. Her tale is just as interesting as that of Grace's and "The Story Behind the Photograph" worthy reading in and of itself. Add in Winthrop's meticulous Bibliography and you've got yourself some well-researched top-notch writing.

Part of the wonder of this book is that Grace's parents are neither heroes nor villains. There's a great deal of respect given to their difficult situation. They love their children, of course they do! But these are poor people who need as much money as they can get, given their circumstances. Sure, their kids could get seriously hurt tending to the machines in the mill, but there's always the thought that the attentive ones will survive the "lazy" or inattentive ones. At one point the schoolteacher Miss Lesley complains that she's tired of wanting more for the mill children than their own parents want. This lack of ambition for a better life could easily have turned the story into a children = good, parents = bad tale. But life itself is not that simple. Nor, for that matter, is this book. Grace's mother is a rough woman with a great deal of violence to her, but you understand why she does the things she does. Still, it's hard not to agree with Grace when she happens to remark, "Suddenly, I don't like the family God gave me".

I learned a great deal from "Counting On Grace" about why these children worked in the mills as often as they did. At first I couldn't understand why Arthur's mother insisted that he help her in the mill when it was clear that the two of them preferred him in school. It becomes far more understandable when you see that the mill owners owned their employees' homes. A child that didn't work in the mill could place his or her parents' jobs in danger. Lewis Hine probably said it best when Winthrop quotes him saying, "I have always been more interested in persons than in people".

I know I said that the book wasn't depressing, but not all endings in this book are happy ones. They're there to give the novel a feeling of authenticity. Winthrop doesn't employ any miraculous occurrences or deus ex machina. Still, there is happiness here. And as Winthrop herself says of historical fiction, "I'm not saying it happened, I'm saying it could have happened". A remarkable novel.

Although identified as a children's book, "Counting on Grace" is a book that should reward readers of all ages. The author, with great skill and sensitivity, weaves a fictional account of a young girl who is forced to work in the local cotton mill with historical fact about the documentation of these conditions. especially by the renown photographer of working children, Lewis Hines. With three grandchildren exactly the age of Grace, I found this gripping story provided a rare look at how some children were forced to enter the adult world, with its difficulties and dangers, and were summarily deprived of their childhood and education. This is a unique look at mill towns and the people and families who struggled there at the turn of the 20th century. I highly recommend "Counting on Grace" for readers whatever their age.

As you will probably all find out, the true story of Addie is in this month's issue of the Smithsonian Magazine. I have not yet read Counting on Grace but I will do so now that I have seen the magazine article.

This book is probably one of my favorites. It is based on a picture, which is very unique. Some parts were confusing, like the parts about the equipment and how Grace had to do her job, but once reread was clearer. I also wish something more would have happened between her and Aurther.
A great book, though. I reccomened it for all ages.

Creative Destruction presents a fascinating revival of an old concept in the context of recent technological developments and innovation. It offers a brilliant account of how information technologies accelerate the process of creative destruction today and helps understand how information society articulates with in a wider framework of economic history. Those interested in Latin America will appreciate, in particluar, the recent developments in the telecommunications industry in the region.

It is a thorough analysis of the technological advances of our era and the depth of the internet industry. I was particularly interested in the implications for Latin America and the technological transfer from liberalization. It is a useful book for practictioners and for more academic minds.

This is an outstanding collection of articles. These papers combine scholarly depth with usefulness for practitioners. They will help you understand where we've been and forecast where we are going with the Internet. I teach courses on Internet Business Strategy and will use this collection next year. My favorites are Baumol's "Innovation and Creative Destruction; McKnight's "Internet Business Models: Creative Destruction as Usual" and Lehr's "A New Theory of the Internet Firm." They provide a solid conceptual basis for understanding the implications of the Internet economy. One thing truly unique about this book is the thoughtful and detailed discussions of the implications of the Internet on international business. There are six papers that focus on these issues. I have not seen this anywhere else. In a world where people publish books peddling derivative nostrums about the network economy, it's a pleasure to finally find one that deals with these issues in a serious, thoughtful and, most of all, useful way.

Rather than focusing on a single angle and building a long argument in its favor, this compendium's treatment of diverse dimensions of creative destruction lets the reader paint his or her own picture of the net effects of Schumpeter's famous concept. The book's 11 articles touch on topics as diverse as the future of telecommunications firms in a Net-centric world, the impact of regulatory reform on the Internet in Europe, the institutional barriers to Internet-driven creative destruction in Japan, and the impact of open-source software business models.

Creative Destruction is a Lego-box of interesting ideas that managers and academics can recombine into constructs valuable to their work, teaching, or research. I found it very rich reading.

There are three recent publications with the same title (Creative Destruction) whose authors correlate Joseph Schumpeter's concept of "creative destruction" with the contemporary business world. Foster and Kaplan explain "why companies that are built to last underperform the market -- and how to successfully transform them" whereas in their work, Nolan and Croson offer "a six-stage process for transforming the organization." In the third volume co-edited by McKnight, Vaaler, and Katz, various authors and co-authors of 13 anthologized essays examine various "business survival strategies for the global Internet economy." I highly recommend all three volumes as well as two of Schumpeter's works: Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, and, Essays: On Entrepreneurs, Innovations, Business Cycles, and the Evolution of Capitalism.

This book grew out of a symposium held at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the spring of 1999. The topic was "Creative Destruction -- or Just Destruction?" Those who presented papers were asked to address "the key technological, regulatory, organizational, and competitive dynamics compelling change in the way firms and stakeholders do business in an increasingly global and Internet-centric society." At the symposium there were (and in this volume there are) four points which are consistent with the theme of "creative destruction":

The Destruction of Traditional Industry Structures

The Destruction of Traditional Regulatory Structures

The Destruction of Traditional Competitive Positioning Strategies

The Destruction of Traditional Technological Assumptions

It is important to keep in mind that this is not a manual. Although there are numerous suggestions, checklists, points of emphasis, graphic illustrations, and examples offered, the volume's primary purpose is to stimulate continued discussion and debate on the major challenges now facing firms, governments, and other players -- while suggesting "how to exploit the new opportunities created by creative dynamics."

The material is organized within five Parts: Introduction, Theory and Practice of Creative Destruction, The Global Context for Creative Destruction, Business Destruction Strategies in the Global Internet Economy, and Creative Business Survival Strategies. For the reader's convenience, the editors offer brief comments about each subject and about each of those who address it. After reading the excellent Introduction, you may decide not to read the everything that follows from beginning to end. In that event, select what is directly relevant to your and your organization's most immediate and urgent needs and interests. (In all probability, some of those needs and interests will soon change.) The editors provide three supplementary sections (Contributors, Notes, and References) which assist and encourage further study as well as "continued discussion and debate."

I am curious to know what Schumpeter would say about the material in this book if he were discussing it as I am now. My guess (only a guess) is that he would observe that his basic concept of "creative destruction" remains relevant but the process is occurring at an ever-increasing velocity and in ways and to an extent he could not have envisioned 50-60 years ago. Another guess (only a guess) is that, based on what is now happening (and not happening) in the global community, he would suggest that process of "creative destruction" in all organizations (regardless of their size or nature) has only begun. The Chinese character for the word "crisis" has two meanings: "peril" and "opportunity." For many (perhaps most) organizations, the process of creative destruction means death; for others, it offers the opportunity for at least survival and perhaps regeneration. The authors represented in this superb volume help us to understand the differences between the two groups....also, the probable consequences of those differences.

Jan Yager's Creative Time Management doesn't talk in generalities. If you work or don't work,if you are young or old, you will find her suggestions practical and easy to apply in your daily life. The major bonus in her book is that she is willing to address the concept that our emotional state of being plays a major part in our ability to handle and manage our time appropriately. So few books include this component. I refer back to the book from time to time, (no pun intended), to specific sections to help me make changes in my own life that will benefit better use of my time. As a professional speaker and trainer, I recommend this book to my audiences and class participants as an excellent resource. We all need a guide like this to read and refer to in order to help balance our busy lives.

I've always considered myself to be a pretty well organized person. My life is full of many projects, both at work and at home. However this book surprised me with many clever and innovative ideas I can directly apply to my daily life to make my many activities go even smoother. The book is very thorough, and covers almost every aspect of a person's daily life where saving Time would be a major benefit. Thank you, Dr. Jager, for writing such a down-to-earth book all of us can use!

Without a doubt, this is the best book on time management I have read in a very long time. Dr. Yager's approach to the biggest challenge we all face each day is well organized, direct, and easy to follow.

The book's opening chapter has a self-evaluation test consisting of five questions that will stimulate your brain and open your mind to new ideas for change. You will learn her 7 Principles of Time Management, emotional blocks that keep us from managing our time wisely, a list of bad habits that affect not only you but those around you, and 4 Simple Organizational Guidlines. And that's just the beginning!

Dr. Jager not only identifies time wasters, but gives you the tools to eliminate them. Her techniques are so practical and hands-on that you'll immediately see ways to change your patterns. Her research documents organizational challenges, andshe clearly prescribes ways for you to overcome them.

While other self-improvement books list the ailments and suggest their way to fix the problem, Creative Time Management gives you the permission to help yourself. That's what growth is all about, now, isn't it?

I thought this book would change my life. But I never thought it would also... oops... I forgot my watch.

As a working mother of a working mother, Creative Time Management for the New Millennium by Dr. Jan Yager is invaluable. The advice about "making productive use of your 'Hidden Time" is worth the price of the book. She writes: "For example, you may use the five minutes you usually spend waiting for the bus, or the half hour waiting in someone's office, to plan, dictate, read, work on your laptop computer, return or receive calls on your cell phone, or just relax and meditate. " She also admits that when her children were young, she forced herself to wake up by 4 am. so she could work uninterrupted until at least 7 am. She advises how to discover your energy highs and lows. There is little doubt that time will be even more difficult to find in the new millennium so this book will certainly help readers make the future less frantic while finding the time to be successful in parenting and in a career.

Affairs, pirates, the death of a king and queen-who knew the history of kona coffee was rooted in such intrigue and heartbreak? After reading about the process involved in getting those beans to market, I have gained a new respect for that cup of coffee in the morning. Photos included add interest to the story. The book inspired me to try kona coffee for the first time, and now I'm hooked.

I thought that I knew a fair amount about Kona coffee, but I was wrong. The author (who grew up on a Kona coffee farm) says exactly the same thing. The coffee industry has gone through a number of transformations during its 175 years in Hawai`i. So if you were involved in the industry for "only" 20 years, you would only see a small part of the story! I couldn't put this book down because it's actually high drama! Many times in its history, coffee growing in the Islands has been pronounced dead by experts, but each time the farmers have bounced back (often just barely). Survival often meant changing old ways, introducing something totally new, or following the lead of a particular individual. Being a Kona coffee farmer has never been easy, and it still isn't. Kinro packs the entire story of the Kona coffee industry on the Big Island (and its grower's and promoter's business and social histories) into this small, very readable little book.

There were two epics of Kona coffee -- the reputation of the coffee itself, and the struggle of the farmers who grew it.
Gerald Kinro, who grew up on a Kona coffee farm, hits the highlights and lowlights in "A Cup of Aloha," which reveals that there was nothing inevitable about it.
In fact, until 1969, although Kona farmers were growing the delectable arabica variety, they were selling into the world market for the common robusta beans. It was the Superior Coffee Co. of Illinois that rescued a nearly dead Kona coffee business by buying the entire crop and paying a premium price. Not until 1984, when growers formed the Kona Coffee Council, did the reputation of the Kona bean establish itself widely.
As a result, prices went from less (sometimes much less) than a dollar a pound to more (sometimes much more) than $10.
The image of Kona coffee now, at least in the islands, is of tiny mountainside farms worked by Japanese families, with the help of Kona nightingales (donkeys). The image has charm, and people like Kinro remember that episode fondly, but it was not an easy life, and it was not the whole story.
The sunset side of Mauna Loa and Hualalai is now regarded as perfect for the coffee tree, but in the 19th century coffee was planted all over the islands, not by small farmers but by plantations, or, in Olaa, by Russian revolutionaries.
A price slump in the 1890s encouraged these capitalists to sell out to immigrants -- largely but not only Japanese -- who were finished with sugar plantation labor contracts. The business prospects were not rosy, but Kinro says "they came for independence."
Of course, they knew nothing about growing coffee, but after World War II extension agent Edward Fukunaga began a series of experiments that "revolutionized coffee production in Latin America," though the Kona growers were slow to respond his suggestions.
The experience of the Kona families was not greatly different from immigrants in other parts of the Territory. They struggled to see their children educated, they formed cooperatives, they became sophisticated -- at least, those who made it through the Depression did.
About two-fifths of the farmers gave up during the 1930s, and those who kept on were able to only because AMFAC (an agricultural/commercial conglomerate, since gone bust) wrote off their debts.
Kinro describes the efforts of the farmers as "heroic." The heroic phase may be over now, although the margin between profit and loss is nearly as precarious as in times past.
But one thing has changed. For the first century of Kona coffee, it was more hope than calculation that kept people at it.
Today, Kona coffee provides the most promising model of island agriculture -- a premium crop that can be marketed at high prices with elite branding.
That doesn't solve the Kona farmer's problems of shortage of labor, periodic droughts and the other difficulties that face every other Hawaii farmer. But at least it promises a good price in the market, which is more than the people who keep saying "we should be growing all our own food" have figured out.
Although this book does not mention it, Kona has now been surpassed in volume of beans by Kauai and will soon be by Maui and perhaps Molokai. Coffee is now grown in a variety of environments, some very different from Kona's. This will give connoisseurs many more opportunities to practice oneupmanship.

I thought that I knew a fair amount about Kona coffee, but I was wrong. The author (who grew up on a Kona coffee farm) says exactly the same thing. The coffee industry has gone through a number of transformations during its 175 years in Hawai`i. So if you were involved in the industry for "only" 20 years, you would only see a small part of the story! I couldn't put this book down because it's actually high drama! Many times in its history, coffee growing in the Islands has been pronounced dead by experts, but each time the farmers have bounced back (often just barely). Survival often meant changing old ways, introducing something totally new, or following the lead of a particular individual. Being a Kona coffee farmer has never been easy, and it still isn't. Kinro packs the entire story of the Kona coffee industry on the Big Island (and its grower's and promoter's business and social histories) into this small, very readable little book.

At first glance, "epic" might seem a bit strong, or even pretentious, a term to describe this thin book on the history of Hawai`i's Kona coffee crop. It becomes more appropriate when you realize that Gerald Kinro's book is (much) less a touristy guide to Hawaiian coffee plantations than it is a work of social history and (perhaps inevitably) a look at a dying way of life.

Author Kinro was born and raised on a Kona coffee farm, and this book has the personal feel you'd expect from an author with those experiences. His is a story of people and families ... of the causes and consequences of individual decisions ... and how they and their culture were shaped by, and themselves helped shape, the local and even international economy. People with an interest in coffee, commodity economics, or Hawai`i generally might find this worth a read. But its main audience, I think, will be readers drawn to the social and cultural history of Hawaiian communities, the mixture of Japanese, Hawaiian, and European-American influences, and the way those communities and influences have blended (good coffee term!) over time.

Very thought inspiring collection of essays that address the social and economic implications of technology. Not very light reading and not very heavy - somewhere in between. May help to have some very elementary economics background. Worth reading if you're interested in understanding what technology may do to capitalism and the workforce.

A great collection of essays for those looking to understand and begin their studies of the new technological/electronics revolution occuring in the productive forces of society and its resultant new class formations and alignments. A praise to Herr Marx!! The productive forces do take the lead and along with the deeper proletarianization and destitution of the masses(to the point of their labor becoming redundant) and the high level of technology and robotics in production, there is but only one way to go.

The book and modern application and interpretation of classical Marxist economics is excellent. It would have been helpful to have an Index as this text is excellent as a reference and the editors could have taken time to properly index pertinent topics (e.g. When value is created by labor p.75)

This collection of essays examines the historical and current role of technologies- never neutral, but always integral to a dominant class' agenda and planning masked as a reified objectivity - in partially determining the class struggle. Particularly, the ongoing telecommunications, "information" and robotics sectors introduce a qualitatively radical transformation of social relations by appropiating into capital the mind and soul of the workers, rendering us redundant just as the steam engine and electric motor technologies earlier rendered workers' bodies and physical power partially without value. The increasing genocide (for the workers at the low edge of the global hierarchy) and pauperization of various degrees for the rest by the corporate transnational state is made possible for the greedy rulers and technocrats by the degradation of the power of labor in the context of a society approaching total automation and terrabit-per-second panoptic global communications. The maintenance of coercive class relations through such contrived means as "intellectual property rights", the artificial scarcity and thought control induced by such media as cable tv and the dismantling of public services is turning more of us into a new Roman proletariat, with technology serving the role of ancient slaves in marginalizing our vital endeavors. Instead, we're force fed a sad circus of televised slaughters for our patriotic entertainment while the Reagans, Bushes, Clintons and Mc.Cains thank us "for serving". A worthy book which I found full of insights for aggessive resistance against the old masters now beaming in cyber cloth. To their new digital hype, we should be armed with essays like these- along with some physical ammunition, for certain- and give a convincing reply of Non Serviat.

Cutting Edge has considerably advanced my revolutionarly understanding. I intend to read parts of it again & again. My 10 rating should be applied only to parts of this collection of essays. The balance of the book I would rate a 5. I was particularly impressed with chapter 8, The Digital Advantage by Jim Davis & Michael Stack. Warning! Don't read this chapter before bed time. My brain was so stimulated, I had a hard time getting to sleep after I read it. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Great stuff! On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 20! The other chapters that got the a lot of yellow from my hilighter: Introduction, Robots & Capitalism, High-Tech Hype, The Digital Advantage, The Biotechnology Revolution, Structural Unemployment & the Qualitative Transformation of Capitalism, The New Technological Imperative in Africa, and The Birth of a Modern Proletariat by one of my heroes, Nelson Peery. I strongly recommend this book to any thinking person!

Georg Pawer was an extremely well educated German in the Humanist tradition of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. It was natural that he turned his Greco-German name into Greco-Latin, labeling himself Georgius Agricola. Both versions mean Farmer (Georgios) Farmer (Pawer = Bauer / Agricola). He was a physician by profession. Neither side of his background would seem to suit him to write one of the great books on mining and the refining of ores, but as an official town physician, responsible for treating miners at no additional charge, he seems to have won their trust. The result was a manual, aimed not at people who would have to dig up ores, but at potential investors, and officials and lawyers, who would have to deal with financing, administration and litigation. He set out the basic customs and practices of mining, described the remarkably elaborate machines needed to keep mines dry and ventilated, and processing and refining, with their devices and chemicals. Naturally, he wrote it in the language of real scholarship, Latin, not sixteenth-century German.

Since surviving classical Latin is not abundantly supplied with appropriate technical terms, and those which exist are not always clear, the resulting text was soon found to present formidable difficulties, despite important aids from accompanying illustrations. There were early attempts at translating it into German, and even a rendering into Chinese (an early attempt to emulate the mysterious Occidentals and their terror-weapons), but when this translation appeared in 1912, German scholars were humiliated to find that they had been outclassed by a couple of mere "Englanders". They were probably even less happy to find that the translators were Americans.

Actually, Lou Henry Hoover, a good classicist, made a perfect team with her husband, the mining engineer Herbert Hoover, who was shortly to become much better known for humanitarian relief work, and an unhappy experience as President of the United States. The engineering half of the partnership knew what the problems were, and the sort of thing that Agricola must have been trying to say, and the classicist could tell whether the vocabulary and grammar could carry that meaning. The result was a book which was not only beautiful, with its reproductions of the original illustrations, but a genuine contribution to the history of technology.

The Dover reprinting of 1950 was one of the first, if not the first, of that publisher's adventures in bringing important works back into print, in attractive editions, at reasonable prices. It remains a gem, whether regarded from points of view of the history of technology, of art, or of Renaissance Humanism. The only thing missing is Agricola's companion treatise on other hazards of mining, like kobolds and other malicious spirits (yes, I am serious; he had lots of testimony from honest miners, after all).

Of course, nothing human is perfect, and there are some hints of why such a practical man as Herbert Hoover, with a real concern for human suffering, proved so doctrinaire in the face of the Depression. At one point, the Hoovers scold the Romans for concentrating on German metal resources, instead of trying to build up the only true source of wealth, Agriculture. A lovely sentiment, very eighteenth-century Physiocratic, but it did not seem to occur to them that any agricultural surplus would have had to be shipped down the Rhine, into the North Sea, and around Europe, to be of any immediate benefit to Rome. If it stayed in Germany, it would just feed more nasty, Roman-hating Germans -- so much better to concentrate on something more compact and worth carrying across the Alps, or at least useful for arming the Legions. (Of course, there are also the problems of whether Italian agricultural techniques were of any value in the Rhine valley, and why the Germans had not learned appropriate methods from the neighboring Gauls -- but that leads in other directions.)

This book is a great read. The sections are well defined to cover each topic, including measurements where applicable and even the definition of tracts and management of said lands. He has written other books too. I hope they reprint the translations soon.

This is one of the great classics, richly illustrated with over 200 woodcuts, most full page. It was published in 1556 by Georgius Agricola. The English translation is by former U.S. President Herbert Hoover, and first Lady Lou. Virtually all of the equipment illustrated was current until a few decades ago. Agricola describes and illustrates such "modern" methods as amalgamation, and the use of spiral inclines for transporting heavy equipment from the surface to underground. The (unnamed) "books" (chapters) which compose the book could be titled: 1 The Social Impact of Mining; 2 Mine Management, Exploration, and Prospecting; 3 The Theory of Ore Deposits; 4 Mining Law; 5 Shaft Sinking, Drifting, and Surveying; 6 Mining Equipment, Haulage, Dewatering, Ventilation, and Hazards; 7: Assaying; 8 Beneficiation; 9 Smelting; 10 Separation of Gold from Silver and Silver Refining; 11 Separation of Gold and Silver from Copper and Iron and Copper Refining; 12 Industrial Mineral, Chemical, and Glass Production. The text is a bit dense, but is worth the trouble.

This early work describes the thinking of early technologists and shows the development of materials technology and related engineering knowledge of the late 15th century. Of particular interest is the detailed research done by Herbert Hoover, former President and mining engieer. His research is detailed in extensive foot notes. The illustrations are exact copies of the originals. Some of the early chapters are the most intersting reading because of the insights gained into archaic thinking that extrapolates to modern times.

This book is not a simple read for those looking for the basics, it a detailed review of the process of mining in the 16th Century throughout Germany with the inclusion of some surrounding regions. All aspects of the search for and creation of metals are covered from how to determine where a vein of materials is most likely to be found thru the methods of ore refinement and ingot production. The footnotes are incredibly helpful and sometimes (necessarily) take up more space than the text they refer to. This is not a basic overview, it is a manual designed to educate in specifics.

As a reference this text is wonderful. The woodcuts alone provide a review of the methods and technology used that is more detailed than any other source I have found - although I am admittedly a novice in this particular field of study in Early Modern German History. As an amateur historian I would say that this manuscript is not a `friendly' read for a general audience, however as a reference for those deeply interested in the subject of mining or Early Modern German metal working it is invaluable. Great companion for Pyrotechnica.

If you've ever asked--or been asked--for a "just give me a number" estimate, this book is for you. It is simply one of the most important texts for Decision Support you can find. This book and supplementary software is an excellent value and a must-have for Program Managers, Project Managers, and Parametricians. Dr. Savage presents a wonderful way to learn a nontrivial subject by integrating concepts into simple learn-by-doing exercises that you can execute in MS Excel (with the included software ad-in). In terms of application, this book is virtually unlimited. If you need to make sound, objective, business-critical decisions, this book will provide you with the tools to do just that. Highly Recommended

Dr. Savage, a second generation statistician and consulting professor at Stanford University, provides a practical and hands-on introduction to analytical decision making. The book is jam-packed with sound theory presented in an easy to read format. The methods presented use the familiar language of Microsoft Excel to crack complicated problems with relative ease! This book & accompanying software helped me better understand 6-years of advanced engineering and business training. Recommended as an excellent resource for researchers, practioners, and educators alike.

I bought this book in 2003 and have learned a lot from it since then. This is not just a book, but a whole decision support system. For starters, just the software on the CD would more than justify the package price. The accompanying Monte Carlo software XLSim (an Excel add-in) is good enough for real applications - it will make you think twice before buying a premium competitor at a much higher price.

According to his website, author and Professor Sam Savage discovered that an Algebraic Curtain separated the bulk of his management students from management science. Prof. Savage has successfully dedicated much effort to removing that curtain. He has extensively used Excel, Monte Carlo, and resampling techniques to that effect. This book is an outstanding example of his work.

What is really great about this book is that it teaches you potentially complicated techniques through simple and straightforward examples that you can replicate using only Excel and the software included in the CD.

The 8 book chapters cover spreadsheet modeling in general, random variables, Monte Carlo simulation, queuing theory, discrete event simulation, Markov chains, forecasting (exponential smoothing, trends, and seasonality), decision trees, linear programming (including the Excel Solver), stochastic and non-linear optimization - all with clear and simple examples in a single book.

The author's writing style is informal, easy to read and sometimes even funny. A great learning (and teaching) resource. Highly recommended.

In his book, Decision Making with Insight, Dr. Savage really does lift the algegraic cloud that hinders the learning of management science and modeling. I second the above remark, I wish I had this type of text when I was in MBA school. The examples are truely enlightening.

I am actually reading this book for plan fun!

I wish we had this book at Wharton. This is an excellent book on Monte Carlo modeling and optimization, among other things. You just can't beat the value of the book + software, and I personally like XLSim better than Crystal Ball because it gives you the EXACT SAME result, but in a much faster time frame and with far less complicated programming. Dr. Savage teaches you while you do the examples in the book. It is truly a great way to learn a complex, but very rewarding subject. You'll never do an IRR or NPV proforma analysis in the same way again.

This is the only guide you will ever need to understanding how to put a business plan together and in so doing you gain invaluable lessons on what makes business tick, from a master. I have used this book in an earlier edition, as a blueprint to attract finance for 3 ventures so I can vouch for its easy style and elegant solutions. Highly recommended whether you're starting, running or turning around a business. If you are in business you need to read this book from cover to cover and you don't need to be Einstein to understand it.

An excellent book that takes you through start to finish on the operating principles of a business and the reasons behind each process. This provides a good framework for you to fashion what is appropriate for your business given the circumstances you are in at this point in time. The book is logically laid out, explained in simple language and very easy to apply in a practical business environment. This is the best book I have read on establishing a business plan that can either be highly operational, tactical or strategic in nature or have these elements combined in a manner that meets your current needs.

I think this is an excellent and practical introduction to writing business plan.

Peter

I find this book way superior to many other books on the subject. At the same time, it approaches business plans with small boxed anecdotes and an easy-going attitude (alla "...for dummies" but a far better level). Also differences between British and U.S. accounting terms are explained, giving the book a touch of international reach. At all times you have the feeling of being in company with a very talented and experienced author.

Written for serious professionals, and assumes a modicum of intelligence, out of all the books claiming to assist in designing a business plan, this is the only one that actually comes close to anything serious. Have a look at the sample pages to see what I mean.

For those of us who live in tourist towns and see how the incredible number of visitors changes them, this is the book! It looks at a large number of places -- from Santa Fe to Maui, from Las Vegas to Aspen -- and shows in great detail how they change. It reads well too, on a par with better known authors like Robert D. Kaplan and Tim Egan. I heard the author speak here in town--I guess he lives here-- and it made me buy the book. I came away extremely impressed. This is not my usual reading. I'm more a John Grisham type. But this one rang bells for me. After I read this book, I was in Thailand on business and I found myself using Devil's Bargains as a lens for what I was seeing. The comparisons were striking and I wondered if this book might apply to more than the West. Well written and snappy, showing a lot of research, this one is a real winner, especially for anyone in city planning or tourist development.

For discerning travelers planning a western vacation this summer, or for that matter, for anyone curious about the popular allure of the West, Hal K. Rothman's "Devil's Bargains" is a must read. Rothman, a professor of western and environmental history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, provides a richly detailed assessment and critique of the development of tourism as it has evolved from the late nineteenth century to the present in the inter-mountain West. Synthesizing the existing scholarship on tourism, enhanced by wide ranging primary research, Rothman reveals a fascinating, yet disturbing, underside to the glitz and glamour of the tourist economies firmly established in western resort towns from Santa Fe to Las Vegas.

"Devil's Bargains" presents a series of provocative histories recounting the development of resort towns and tourist sites across the inter-mountain West including the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley, and Las Vegas, among others. The book also codifies the history of tourism under a new interpretative framework which divides the development of tourism into three phases: cultural and heritage tourism, recreational tourism, and entertainment tourism. Beginning at the turn of the century with cultural and heritage tourism spawned by the transcontinental railroads seeking to expand passenger traffic, tourism evolved into recreational tourism made possible by the automobile and a growing fascination with exercise and the outdoors in the aftermath of World War I, and culminated after World War II with entertainment tourism dependent on the Jet airplane and the dramatic expansion of widespread prosperity, a leisure ethic, and a pervasive consumer culture. Rothman focuses on the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe to illustrate cultural and heritage tourism; various western ski resorts define recreational tourism; and Las Vegas embodies entertainment tourism. These three phases of tourist development reflect the historical transformation of tourism from an elite pastime to a more individualized, democratic experience, to a mass culture phenomena. They also reveal a process of economic development, reflecting the evolving strategies adopted by western communities to replace tapped out extractive economies.

Defining tourism as the quintessential service economy, the pinnacle of post-industrial capitalism, Rothman argues that the promises of tourist industries have been embraced as a panacea for economic decline in towns throughout the West. However, as his research reveals, locals and even "neonatives" have found tourism to be a bitter pill to swallow. Although the advent of tourist economies in places such as Jackson Hole, Steamboat Springs, and Sun Valley has resulted in phenomenal economic growth, prosperity has come with a price. As the book's title suggests, in the process of reviving the economy, tourism displaces locals with outside capital and corporate control, sapping a place of its soul, and leaving in its stead a facade of hollow images and a service economy manipulated by distant corporations whose only interest is the bottom line. What has emerged in places like Vail and Santa Fe is a two-tiered class system where workers who are predominantly people of color (Hispanic, African, or Filipino) hold low-paying, menial jobs providing for the comfort and amusement of wealthy second home owners and visitors. There is little room for an established community of year-round residents when the bottom line centers on the paying visitor. Las Vegas is the exception. In defining itself as the ultimate themed destination resort constantly reinventing itself to satisfy visitors' desires, Las Vegas remains one of the last places where unskilled workers can earn a middle-class income replete with benefits and job security. Las Vegas alone, according to Rothman, has succeeded at perfecting the service economy, becoming a model of sorts for the rest of the country. "The colony became the colonizer," he writes, exporting a model of entertainment tourism for a nation entranced by the spectacles of multi-media consumer culture.

In detailing the ways in which western communities reinvented themselves as tourist resorts, marketing an idealized western ambiance and a scripted history, and in the process losing control of the very community they sought to promote and preserve, Rothman provides a rich assessment of the social and political impact of tourist-based economies as they evolved from local ventures to corporate productions. But more than that, he presents a thoughtful and disturbing critique of the promises and realities of post-industrial, post modern capitalism as manifested in the twentieth-century tourist's West.

Marguerite S. Shaffer, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

I read the book as part of a course I took, and I found the book to be too long, and somewhat dry. However, Dr. Rothman, a UNLV history professor, does make a very clear point: that tourists towns or places are dealt a "devil's bargain" in which they lose the authenticity of the place for the funds or profit that is brought in by tourists.

Overall, Dr. ROthman does drive his point home. But the same point is made in 20 different ways.

At once extremely learned and passionately engaged, DEVIL'S BARGAINS puts forward a startling analysis of Western tourism. From Rothman we learn about skiing and much else: the economic and historical forces shaping our sense of place, our connections to nature, and our troubled relationships to one another. A travel book of another sort, it takes the reader to a vantage point from which our Western landscapes can be seen most clearly.

I was born into the park service and lived the tourist experience. This book really helped me form a perspective about my early years growing up in western tourist and resort environments. Western history is fascinating, but this angle on western history really gives another intriguing dimension to america's perception of the mythic frontier.