Brooks Books

Very practical and good at teaching basic skills in helping. Good for therapy based professions.

I'm reading this for class. It's well-written and an easy read, and helpful for brief psychotherapy. Very practical and solution-focused.

While I'm learning and practicing the helping profession, and reading the book, the content just coincides with my progress concurrently, from active listening, to probing, then challenging. With vivid examples, dialogues, readers can grasp the theory and idea in a very solid way and in my actual sessions working with my clients. The content is comprehensive and I believe it has already become a bible in the Helping Field.

Last of all, the condition of the book delivered by Amazon is excellent and I appreciate the service.

Simply the best book in learning ways to help people; based on Carl Rogers and Carkhuff teaching.

This book is wonderful. It was assigned reading for a course I voluntarily took to improve my professional consulting skills. The book is full of valuable information that is easy to read yet full of depth. With some practice I have made this a regular part of my life, and my relationships both personally and professionaly have improved for it. I think everyone should read this book!

Expecting a rather grim trek through familiar territory I found instead a remarkable story of loss and endurance told with a surprisingly lyrical and at times humorous touch. A twelve year old Anglo-Burmese boy tells of the flight of the Brookes family from the advancing Japanese army in Burma during the second world war. Fleeing first to China then back through Burma and on to India young Stevie tells of his frustration and anger at being dragged along not knowing what was happening or why.

There were several attempts at escape,each thwarted by events or the stubborness of one or other parent,eventually leading into the mountains of Upper Burma. Walking knee deep in mud, fighting off ambushes by renegade Chinese soldiers, or just surviving the malarial conditions of the monsoon jungle, the family trekked and starved along with thousands of others on the same journey, Worse was to come as they eventually reached the so-called safety of a British controlled village. There Dr Brookes came up against colonial racism when he was refused help by an acquaintance he had entertained in happier days - a Burmese wife was acceptable when offering hospitality but not apparently when the roles were reversed. Meanwhile the child had a man's responsibility thrust upon him as he struggled to provide food and medication for his ailing family as his father died. A harrowing tale of tragic mismanagement but also telling of the blitheness and strength of a young boy who had to learn the hard lessons survival yet managed to retain a joy and wonderment at the miracles of nature A brilliant read; even if you only buy one book this year make sure it is this one.

This was an enjoyable and quick read. Brookes as a boy escaped with his family from wartime Burma. During the trek north to China, back to Burma, and then ultimately India, Brookes lost his father and saw his family become sick because of malnutrition and malaria. However the boy became a man, and came to understand the struggle of life after seeing death every day. This is a true story of endurance, and why people should never give up.
There is both a sad and happy end to this true story. Brookes becomes a man and raises a large family. His childhood family is destroyed by the war. After the war, his mother goes back to Burma with one of his brothers. He goes to live in Great Britain. The war basically destroyed the family he loved.
This is a great read for those that need to understand the tragedy of war.

Stephen Brookes has written an engrossing account of his Anglo-Burmese family's flight before the Japanese army in 1942. Plagued by monsoons, starvation, disease and personal tragedy, harassed by the desperate remnants of the Chinese army, and abandoned by the British authorities, it is amazing that anyone survived the long circuitous trek from Burma to India. Scores of thousands did not. Brookes does an excellent job of recounting the horrific journey from the viewpoint of a young boy, but it most definitely is not a children's book. It is a book for anyone who appreciates a fascinating tale of survival in the face of incredible adversity.

Expecting a rather grim trek through familiar territory I found instead a remarkable story of loss and endurance told with a surprisingly lyrical and at times humorous touch. A twelve year old Anglo-Burmese boy tells of the flight of the Brookes family from the advancing Japanese army in Burma during the second world war. Fleeing first to China then back through Burma and on to India young Stevie tells of his frustration and anger at being dragged along not knowing what was happening or why.

There were several attempts at escape,each thwarted by events or the stubborness of one or other parent,eventually leading into the mountains of Upper Burma. Walking knee deep in mud, fighting off ambushes by renegade Chinese soldiers, or just surviving the malarial conditions of the monsoon jungle, the family trekked and starved along with thousands of others on the same journey, Worse was to come as they eventually reached the so-called safety of a British controlled village. There Dr Brookes came up against colonial racism when he was refused help by an acquaintance he had entertained in happier days - a Burmese wife was acceptable when offering hospitality but not apparently when the roles were reversed. Meanwhile the child had a man's responsibility thrust upon him as he struggled to provide food and medication for his ailing family as his father died. A harrowing tale of tragic mismanagement but also telling of the blitheness and strength of a young boy who had to learn the hard lessons survival yet managed to retain a joy and wonderment at the miracles of nature A brilliant read; even if you only buy one book this year make sure it is this one.

This book makes clear from the outset that suffering, pain and grief are sure to come. What comes as a pleasant surprise is the ability of the author to convey the process by which the human spirit adjusts to that pain and above all how compassion and love can be found and shine out even when humankind reveals its darkest depths. The mismanagement of the wartime retreat from Burma is one of the greater injustices the British were able to consign to anonymity but Mr Brookes goes a great way to lighting a memorial flame for both his family and the thousands of others who set out on the road to India and safety. His extraordinay journey is punctuated by moments of pure magic - further proof that when approached with an open mind life has many many mysteries still to reveal to us.

Alongside the misery (and the magic), there is a sense of a vanished way of life, not just that of Empire but also of the lost opportunity for a different reality for so many nations that demanded the integrity of independence at the cost of an increasingly fragmented social order.

A heartrending story but an inspiration to us all about just how magnificent and strong the human spirit can be - feed your soul and read this book.

This book does a great job of delving into the text of revelation and trying to understand it through a similar framework of the first readers. The first time I read it, I thought they spent two much time talking in the first chapter about alien encounters and such. Then one of my friends led a bible study on revelation and the first comment was that it was an alien encounter/out of body experience. The authors were thinking ahead. Great book.

Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther have written an excellent commentary on Revelation. Like most mainstream scholars they believe that John of Patmos was writing about the Roman empire of his day. What I found especially unique about this book, was its very fascinating account of the imperial court and imperial worship. The authors make a very good case that Revelation's message to its Asian Minor audience was not to compromise with the deadly - both to soul and body - Roman imperial culture.

Furthermore, the authors also discuss applications of Revelation to current social justice issues. I really learned a lot form this book. I also used Unveiling Empire to teach an adult education class at my church. The class seemed fairly well received, and part of the reason was due to this book.

This is a thematic rather than verse-by-verse commentary. An underlying premise is that the churches of Asia Minor who originally received this letter were not under the severe persecution from Rome that has long been assumed. The authors assert that it was in fact a time of peace and affluence, and the churches in Asia Minor were succumbing to assimilation. The parallels with churches in the West are therefore more exact and evocative than previous interpreters have understood. The authors are not shy about drawing out the similarities between Babylon (as depicted in Revelation) and contemporary global capitalism (the incarnation of Babylon that surrounds us today). Drawing inspiration from Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement, as well as the interpretive and prophetic work of Daniel Berrigan and William Stringfellow, this is a provocative reading of a consistently neuralgic but unavoidable part of the canon. The political implications are drawn out in a final chapter dialogue between the authors.

Howard-Brook and Gwyther unpack what Revelation really means. Studying the book in its original context - remember, Revelation was written for the first century, not for us! - the authors still connect the concerns of John of Patmos' day to our own. They see Revelation's message of faithful resistance to the surrounding patriotic culture and how John warned the early Christians to resist it and preach the good news instead. And they uncover what the "beast" really is in modern society. A thoughtful and passionate understanding of this fantastic book's true message to both its time and our own.

Every truly great read has an exciting ending. The last chapter is where it all comes together.

Yet most who daily read the most popular book in the world, have never comprehended the last chapter, the Book of Revelation.

"Becoming Empire" identifies hundreds of 'hyper-links' in the text of Revelation to the preceding books of holy scriptures. The veil lifts, and the reader begins to see and hear not fictions of starwars, but God moving through history and pointing to the here and now.

Today is the battle, and God's children are in the front lines. The whole Bible, understood, is their map to victory.

This book was read as part of the Catholic Mosaic program with our kids. It happened to be read around the first week of school and the subject of being a scholar and how important books are to EVERYONE was highly appropriate. Definitely a keeper!

In the Year of Our Lord, 521, in the Dark Ages that haunted Europe, was born Columcille, the son of a minor king in Ireland. This is the story of Columcille, his growth, his education, and his founding of the great monastery on Iona, in Scotland. The book itself is written for the younger reader, and contains many colorful and extremely beautiful illustrations.

Overall, I found this to be a very good book. It does a good job of telling the story of St. Columcille in an easy-to-read, no-nonsense way. It's a very entertaining read, and an educational one. I highly recommend it.

"Columcille was born in 521. He was the son of a king, from a corner of Ireland scrubbed hard by ocean winds, in a time that came to be known as the dark ages..." So begins Don Brown's marvelous picture book biography of the scribe and monk, known now as Saint Columba. Brown traces the Celtic legend of this remarkable man who desperately wanted to bring learning and books back into the world after much was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire. After a bloody war was waged over the copying and ownership of a special book of psalms, Columcille left Ireland forever and with twelve followers "set sail on a dark and wild sea." Landing on the tiny Scottish island of Iona, he and his followers built a monastery and scriptorium where books were copied and scribes were trained. "Books were made and dispatched, like small boats on a dark and wild sea, to places where reading and writing had been forgotten or ignored. The books made colonies of learning, and people's minds, once dark with ignorance, were brightened." Mr Brown's poetic text is filled with imagery, is rich in history and drama and complemented by powerful and evocative artwork in quiet and subdued tones. Together word and art bring Columcille's inspiring story to life with passion and respect. Perfect for youngsters 8 and older, or as a read aloud for younger children, Across A Dark And Wild Sea includes an Author's Note to enhance and complete the story, the Unical alphabet used by scribes, and a bibliography. This is a rare and wonderful story celebrating books and learning, that shouldn't be missed. "Columcille, the man who loved books, helped the world love books. So we remember him and retell his story."

The only thing that I can add to the professional and reader reviews is that St. Columcille is also known as St. Columba. All the other reviews do a great job of describing this book.

Deftly written and superbly illustrated by Don Brown, Across A Dark And Wild Sea is the true story of Columcille (also known as Columba), a beloved figure from Celtic history. Columcille loved books so much that he secretly copied a volume of psalms from Rome against it's owner's wishes. The resulting and bitter fallout in 521 A.D. caused Columcille to deliberately leave Ireland in a tiny boat, vowing never to return. He founded a famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona and left a legacy that endures to this day. Brought to life with moody, windswept color illustrations, Across A Dark And Wild Sea is a most engaging picture book and recommended for readers of all ages.

My only complaint is that the pages are as thin as tissue paper, otherwise it is a superb text.

I mostly bought it to silence my mother who is a big Adelle Davis fan. For those out there who aren't ancient enough to remember that hypocritical nutritionist, she had a series of bestsellers in the '60's, but smoked and died from cancer. Anyway this book did the trick--mom quit giving me crackpot advise about vitamins.

A real textbook. Food science to it's fullest.

Kira Levy
Naturopath

If you want (or need) to go deep into nutrition, this is the book. Very well organized and researched information. Covers in depth nutritional physiology and biochemistry. I used this book in an advanced undergraduate nutrition course and I consider it one of my prized possessions. If there is a better book on the subject, I would like to know about it.

Currently, many people are becoming seriously interested in the role of nutrition in human health. Fortunately, there are many good books on nutrition and health for the interested lay person. But once one begins to understand the extreme importance of nutrition for achieving and maintaining good health where can a seriously interested lay person turn for more detailed information? The answer is to this book. Yes, this book requires some serious study, but it is quite well written and does not require a degree in chemistry or biology to follow. A dilligent lay person can gain much valuable information from it. If you are really serious about understanding the role of nutrition in human health I highly recommend this book.

I am a graduate student who majors in Nutrition. This is a best biochemical nutrition textbook I ever read! What I like about this textbook is: (1) relatively light weight (575 pages) for this type of textbook, yet very comprehensive. It contains from basic physiology and biochemistry to a current field such as antioxidant nutrition; (2) a large amount of well summarized figures (almost every page has al least one figure); (3) plain English; (4) each chapter concludes with annotated bibliography so that you could use this book as a sort of literature review on a specific field; (5) well-made index, so that you could use this as a sort of encyclopedia of nutrition. Title says "advanced", but I recommend this book to undergraduate students who look for explanation on the biochemistry basis in the nutrition field.

If this is a textbook... you don't have much of a choice: get it, or drop the class.

Other than that, the textbook is OK. Not great, since it does not explain to well. Basically, it gives you a forumla, spends about 1/4th of a page using that forumla once, and then moves on. At the end of each section, there are about 100 questions, at the end of the chapter there are another 100 questions. The concepts in here are not too easy, so you probably need to actually learn it using the book (or teachers lecture). However, the book itself does not help much. Basically, it's just a section with 5 concepts (more or less), and each one has one example. That is the only thing which teaches you. The rest is for you to figure out by doing examples.

If you're a very fast and comprehensive learner, it may be good for you, as it expects you to learn on the first try, and do examples to complete your learning. Otherwise, you will need to spend more time to understand the concepts, or pay good attention to the teacher/professor.

After reading other reviews on this book here on Amazon, I chose it for my independent study of precalc. I don't regret the choice.

I find it particularly well-suited for my learning preferences. Accordingly, this will be a text you will love if:

-you like learning systematically; that is, starting from simple concepts and rapidly building upon them
-you take the time to work many of the problems; the problems are expertly written and do wonders at isolating specific concepts and allowing your mind to be aware of them and master them.
-you enjoy solving problems of a mathematical and logical nature
-you have an interest in the subject that may be slightly broader than simply gaining mastery.

On the last item, the author does an excellent job of weaving tidbits of the miscellaneous and sundry of mathematics and using them to keep the mind interested while also teaching a lesson. Often these concepts are treated within an exercise. There is a good balance between including this extra information and sticking to the core subject. The extra information is never off-topic and keeps the material from becoming too dry while not being annoyingly inserted for the primary purpose of filling space. I am not a great fan of lengthy and marginally useful vignettes in textbooks.

If this is what you're looking for in a precalc textbook, this is the book for you.

I learned pre-calculus from this textbook, and now I've been with a youth math program that uses the book for 3 years. This pre-calc book is excellent and is the first book that was of actual use to myself when learning new material.

The examples in the text are clear and helpful, which makes a world of difference with the material. The problems are also well-designed and there are several different types of problems in this book.

Although the price is high and the book is fairly heavy, it is worth it. If you are taking a pre-calc class and this is the required book, rejoice. If you are taking a pre-calc class and it is not and you have problems with pre-calc material, consider getting a 3rd edition of this book (3rd, not 4th, edition -- save on money).

This is THE math book for those preparing for the calculus or (like me) revisiting the subject. The book is clear, concise, and stands up well to heavy use. Additionally, the book has tons of examples; contains sections A & B for each chapter. The 'A' section is all that is necessary to continue to calculus, but 'B' will enhance learning if you choose to delve deeper. The study guide that accompanies the book is absolutely excellent--an average student like me can go through the whole book without an instructor if aided by the study guide.

While I have not taught from this book and have not gone through the entire text, from what I've seen this is an excellent text.
From the preface: "[E]xamples are consistently used to introduce, to explain and to motivate concepts...all of the initial exercise for each section are carefully correlated with the worked examples in that section." Based on my observations, this is true. Exercises following most sections are grouped into three categories: the first consist of these relatively routine problems closely correlated with the examples in the text of the section, and two more categories, each successively more difficult. There are many nice exercises that guide the student through a discovery process. The text is quite thorough and contains many topics not included in the bare-bones precalc text. For example, iteration of (the composition of) functions is presented in the section on composition. But the topic follows, with clear demarcation, that of basics of composition and hence can be omitted cleanly. Elegant results, some of which I had not been familiar with, such as Brahmagupta's theorem, are developed in some exercises. In the section on exponential growth and decay, the logistic growth model is developed in the exercises. But the text works fine even when omitting such challenge problems or those problems developing such optional topics.
While the book does have calculator applications exercises, I agree with the author's philosophy, that while "The graphing utility is and invaluable tool for learning mathematics... the mathematics curriculum should drive the technology, not the other way around."
I also use this book as a reference text.
Apparently the author, Prof. Cohen, was the director of the precalculus courses at UCLA. His experience shows in this book.
Update 5/4/2005: One reservation I have about the text is that the graphs are not always accurate. I feel strongly that graphs should always be presented as accurately as possible to reflect the true nature of the curves.

This book contains some of Gwendolyn Brooks best poetry. It is definitely a keeper!

Gwendolyn Brooks is one of my favorite poets and this anthology of her work gives a glimpsing answer to the question 'why?' "Blacks" is a veritae encyclopedia of the America experience written in Brooks' lucid but unsettling style.

It's people like T.S Eliot which make us think art is an inclusive privilege of a born, elite few. And then artists -like Brooks- go right along and prove that, at its best, art is inclusive, fun and thought-provoking. Rather than tying itself up in esoteric knots, Brooks' poetry flows along personal but recognizable paths that most blacks have experienced at one time or another.

I go to Northwestern U. and we've had the privilege of her speaking at our school many times. And after meeting her my respect only grew.

Forever "young, gifted and black" Gwedolyn Brooks deserves nothing less than the attention given to the likes of Langston Hughes or Phylis Wheatley. This books shows us why.

A collection of poetry by Brooks, probably the most honored African- American poet. It also includes "Maud Martha," Brooks' single novel to date. I liked the novel, but felt it was a little too much for me. I like poetry, but I think I like it in small doses, where I can relax and read and reread it without concentrating on how much time it is taking me to do so. Her fiction is like poetry, in the sense that it had as much to do with the vision of things as it did with the characterization or the plot. This is my failing as a reader: I've never cared that much for description, and the longer it continues, the more likely I am to tune out.

But the short poems here, especially from her earlier period, I like a lot. The subjects are strong and powerful, the economy and purpose of the prose admirable. One of my favorites was a poem called "Queen of the Blues," which contrasted the stage persona of a Billie Holliday-like singer with the treatment she receives as an African-American woman. Queen or no queen, she still has the blues. Or "The Murder," about a young boy who sits his toddler brother on fire then doesn't understand when the little brother isn't around afterwards. I did not care as much for her later poems, which were much more experimental in form and harder to follow in content.

"Blacks" is a collection of several decades' worth of the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, who is one of the most significant figures in 20th century American poetry. At over 500 pages long, "Blacks" is a truly monumental text. Included are several books in their entirety ("Annie Allen," "In the Mecca," etc.) as well as excerpts from some later books ("Primer for Blacks," "The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems," etc.). Although most of the books represented are works of poetry, "Blacks" also contains the text of Brooks' 1953 novel "Maud Martha."

Brooks is a stylistic virtuoso, proficient with the sonnet, ballad, free verse, and other forms. She is an expert with alliteration, rhyme, and other musical effects. Her vocabulary is encyclopedic; she evokes not only African-American vernacular speech, but also the entire sweeping history of the literary tradition in English. In this collection are both short poems and longer poems.

Many of Brooks' poems deal with aspects of African-American life. She writes of anti-Black violence and other forms of racism, and reflects upon enduring figures in African-American cultural history. She also writes of family relationships and intimate personal crises.

Her novel, "Maud Martha," is a poetic chronicle of the life of a dark-skinned urban Black girl. We follow Maud Martha through her girlhood, marriage, and motherhood. "Maud Martha" is a memorable vision of an African-American woman's life, and, in my opinion, should stand beside such literary works as Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," and Audre Lorde's "Zami."

Of Brooks' long poems, I found the most memorable to be "In the Mecca," a tragic and haunting narrative poem that takes place in a Chicago apartment building. "In the Mecca" is a sort of urban, African-American "Odyssey" in which we encounter the various inhabitants of this world.

In her poetic tribute to Langston Hughes, Brooks writes that he has "a long reach, / strong speech." I would say the same of Brooks. Her amazing body of work deserves to reach into the 21st century and beyond.

Its been a few years since I thought about this book. I was searching around suggested items from Amazon, and memories of this great writer came rushing back to me. This book is a collection of poems, short stories, a novel, highlights from several decades of excellent writing. I wish Chicago would do more to honor her like Europe honors their great writers regardless of race. Anyway, Ms. Brook's poetry is influenced by the classical literature she studied during her time and she takes that style to the south side of inner city of black Chicago. The results are poems that feel quiet, calm, much like the demeanor she displayed when she was alive. However she can communicate anger, depression , anguish, without hitting you across the head with it. This changes a little when you read through some of her sixtites work such as the "Riot" which describes the riot in the sixties after Dr. King was assasinated. I find myself missing her reading "We real cool" but at least I have this and other books from her memory alive in me.

This is a clear and inspiring story of the life and art of a great american artist. (and not as expensive and art speaky as a catalogue raisonne) Good for children and adults. I highly recommend it!!!!!!

I'm an artist and art teacher, and I recently read this book tomy high school art students as an introduction to gridded portraiture.Don't let the age 9-12 reading level put you off--my high schoolstudents really enjoyed learning about Chuck Close, and were impressedby his work and his life story. In addition to having some greatpictures of Close's work, the book has a lot to say about the artist'sability to develop strategies to deal with his learning disabilities,and his perseverance to continue to work despite an injury that lefthim paralyzed from the neck down. Many of the students could relateto Close's learning differences, and viewed his story as veryinspirational. I like this book so much, in fact, that I'mrecommending it on my website where I have a detailed lesson planbased on teaching kids portraiture via a similar gridded method! END

Greenberg and Jordan's book is a pretty good introduction to the work of one of our modern masters, Chuck Close. Chuck Close is a phenomenal painter, both before the onset of his disease and even more so after. You won't find many books on him, or many that contain his work. Until something a bit more 'adult' or comprehensive comes out, this is a good selection. It discusses his life and work. There is also a brief chapter on what is a portrait. They finish it off with a list of museums that have some of Chuck Close's work. It's a nice intro to a great artist.

Chuck Close has been a bridge for introducing the world of possibilities to children and adults alike who are physically challenged in some way. What Christopher Reeve did so eloquently in speaking to us all, so does Chuck Close. A gifted artist, Close's now highly regarded works demand our attention. By using his techniques developed because of his paralysis, he has magnificently demonstrated how portraits are built from cells/cellules that when viewed up close appear to be a gorgeous abstraction of oversized pointillistic units only to come profoundly into focus with distance. He has re-educated our eyes and the way we visually dissect images.

The writing in this fine book is sophisticated and endearing, and without being the least bit maudlin it shows how a gifted artist has utilized his challenges to become one of America's foremost representational artists. This is an exceptional little book. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 05

Both elementary and high school readers get something from this book. The straightforward prose coveys this artist's powerful talent, humanity and relevance without being sappy. My students like to be read to when they work - its great to see them process and internalize this information as they struggle with these skills and concepts. Clean design and beautiful photos lay it all out simply. If more art history grad students would get to the point this well and this fast, I could coach art history as a sport.

This book goes beyond a must read to a must do. It provides clear, compelling guidance for growing stronger, better performing companies from within. It challenges organizations that compete in the knowledge economy to move beyond "people are our only assets" to "We, the people". But it is not mere smarmy and naive trash that extols empowerment without responsibility. If people are to seize the moment and become companies of citizens -- become contemporary equivalents of "Athenians" -- then they must take responsibility individually and together. They must risk their futures on learning from the distant past so well described in this excellent book.

Whether you are looking for a model of a democratic yet decisive organization or for an example of the timeless lessons of ancient history, you will love A Company of Citizens. The authors, a businessman and a classics professor, deserve a victory wreath for this short, sparkling, and inspiring guide that takes us from the Acropolis to the organization of the future.

History was never my favorite subject so I was a little leery of how much I might appreciate from a book about ancient Athens. How wonderful to find refreshing insights and practical teachings page after page! The authors use Athens as more of an illuminating example or clever case-study than a mantra for what modern managers should do now. They address both historical challenges and modern day dilemmas to get at the heart of how to build community while supporting individuality at the same time. Through stories that could almost seem ripped from today's headlines, they show refreshing ways of working together, learning from one another, and networking for the good of a geographic or business community. I was especially impressed with chapter 5, Practicing Citizenship, because it offered a series of Athenian practices that (as the authors said) "embody the combination of 'doing' and 'learning'--things that modern managers still tend to keep in separate jars." In my work, helping people and organizations discovery alternative ways to learn and work together, I'm sure to surprise people with some fresh approaches that are anything but new.

Ancient Greeks bear gifts to management.
By RICHARD DONKIN.
1,073 words
27 February 2003
Financial Times
16
English
(c) 2003 Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved

The authors of a new book argue that the ordered society of Pericles' Athens offers transferable models of organisation for the modern company.

There is a memorable scene in the Monty Python film The Life of Brian, where a group of Jewish resistance fighters asks: "What did the Romans do for us?" before producing an ever-growing list of achievements. It is just as well that the Python team did not include the Greeks or the scene would have run and run.

Ancient Greece has so much to offer that it is perhaps surprising that the management book-publishing industry has taken its time to evaluate the Greek city state for ideas that may be applied in the modern company. It is not as if business publishers have been coy about historical studies. We need only look at the exhaustive examinations of the methods of Sun Tzu, the fourth-century BC Chinese general, and Niccolo` Machiavelli, the Florentine Renaissance politician.

The interest in both is understandable, since they had much to say about the dark arts of manipulation and strategy, perceived for so long to be instructive for bosses who wanted to be sure of their power base.

But what could the city state of ancient Athens with its democratic traditions have to offer the autocratically run company?

The authors of a new book* believe the time has come for greater democracy and citizenship in the workplace. They argue that the ordered society of ancient Athens - what they describe as the world's first "company of citizens" - offers transferable models of organisation for the modern company.

It is tempting to dismiss this collaboration between Josiah Ober, a classics professor at Princeton University, and Brook Manville, a chief learning officer in Saba Software, a human resources and management consultancy, as a flight into faddism. But their comparisons provide an intriguing reflection on the modern company.

They do not, for example, explicitly compare today's companies with another Greek model, Spartan society - but there do seem to be similarities. The Spartans were reared as warriors and trained in military systems from childhood. Society was controlled from the centre. What the authors describe as a "grim and joyless military camp" sounds like the pared-down efficiency expected of lean manufacturing or the no-frills office.

There is a big difference, however, between tightly controlled Spartan society and the various degrees of semi-autonomous decision-making work teams in more progressive manufacturing businesses today. Some companies, flush with the ideas of empowerment, do appear to be heading towards more consensual models of organisation. But they have yet to achieve the devolution enjoyed some 2,400 years ago by the citizens of Athens.

As the authors point out, the decision to build the Parthenon, still one of the world's most potent symbols of democracy, emanated from accountable leaders who proposed it in an open forum and had the work plan approved by a citizens' assembly. "It did not spring from the head of an egotistical tyrant," they write. How many corporate decisions today can boast such participative involvement of employees?

The Parthenon remains, say the authors, "a product of tens of thousands of people working together to create something of lasting value and excellence, a reminder to us that similar excellence can be achieved today."

The achievement of such excellence was founded on a strong emphasis on the involvement of citizens in decision-making, the system of poletia that embodied a sense of civic duty, common purpose, learning, governance and community values. If the same spirit could be replicated in a company's workforce, say the authors, it could produce the same kind of sustained dynamic performance that characterised the success of Athenian society.

But, as they point out, the Athenian poletia was not socially engineered from above. "(It) did not start with a strategy, then devise a structure then finally plug the people into the framework. It began with the people themselves, and let values and structure and design emerge through the aligning practices of citizenship." But it relied on the direct involvement of citizens in the direction of society. "We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all," said Pericles, the Athenian statesman.

There is a big difference between this view and that of the typical board-run company. It is one thing to communicate decisions to staff. It is quite another to involve those staff in the decision-making process. As the authors acknowledge, most experiments in workplace democracy to date have taken place in village-sized enterprises, such as the St Luke's advertising agency, the Oticon strategic management group and a jet engine plant run by General Electric in Durham, North Carolina.

They argue, however, that the Athenian model of organisation, consisting of "networks of networks" of citizens based primarily on neighbourhood groups called demes, could be scaled up to cover communities of tens of thousands of people.

The authors are not completely starry-eyed about the Athenian model. Ultimately, after 200 years, it was replaced by hierarchical rule after the city's conquest by Macedon. Athenian citizenship was never inclusive. It did not grant citizenship to women and it exploited the practice of slavery, although a small minority of slaves did manage to prosper and some even won their freedom.

But there is no doubting the power of involved citizens in democracy or that of involved employees in a genuinely democratic enterprise. Even so, can we really expect the chief executives of traditional businesses to become more accountable to employees? Recent developments in corporate governance are forcing boards to become more accountable to shareholders. Moreover, increasing numbers of organisations appear to be acquainting themselves with the stakeholder concept of the organisation. But this has yet to extend to any sophisticated understanding or practice of corporate citizenship.

Greek civilisation emerged in a turbulent world of warring nation states. Athens discovered that the organisational power unleashed by its system of governance endowed it with a real competitive advantage. That alone is enough to justify a more active experimentation in corporate citizenship today.

A Company of Citizens is concerned with two themes. First, "workers in today's Knowledge Age," mindful of their contributions and responsibilities, increasingly expect to become full citizens of their organizations with rights to self-govern and to develop practices of cooperation. Secondly, the Greek city-state of Athens in the fourth and fifth century B.C. is presented as the most significant example of a large organization/society that operated as a thoroughgoing democracy, and, as such, is suggested by the authors as the best practical model for modern firms desirous of a transformation to democracy. But the connection between the democracy of Athens which existed primarily at the level of the state and participatory democracy in modern, private enterprises is hardly straightforward. The authors contend that reality for today's employees is one of being forced to "check their values and sense of purpose" at the door to their firms, much to the detriment of the firms.

A large portion of the book consists of a discussion and breakdown of what the authors term the core elements of the Athenian democratic system: "democratic values, governance structures, and participatory practices." The basis of the widespread participation by Athenian citizens in the affairs of state was an unprecedented freedom and equality. There was not a layer of elites that trumped the various citizen assemblies, and any leaders chosen remained accountable to those assemblies. There was frequent rotation of citizens among the various bodies performing legislative, executive, and judicial functions. The art and responsibility of governing was widely distributed among Athenian citizens.

The authors focus on the Athenian concerns for defense and the domination of neighboring city-states as evidence of the positive workings of the Athenian democracy. But the authors make little mention of the economy of Athens, which is surprising since this book attempts to address the relevance of the Athens model to modern private enterprises. They make the claim that redistribution of private assets was not part of Athenian policies. But the redistribution of power or economic goods in the name of fairness and the wellbeing of communities is invariably part of democracies. That is a fundamental principle of modern social-democratic states, and, one guesses, of the Athens city-state.

For both communities and organizations, issues of "who can be members" and "the permanency of membership" are primary. An oddity by today's standards, citizenship in the Athens city-state was limited to native-born males. Unfortunately, the authors seem to have been unduly swayed by that restriction by pondering whether levels of membership will need to be established in firms employing workers with varying degrees of importance to their firms' success. However, a caste system is a dubious proposition for a modern democratic community. As a further consideration, in most genuine communities, members are protected by the group and not cast aside in difficult times. Yet the authors see "downsizing" as a possible action by democratic communities, though perhaps distasteful. The damage to an organization's fabric is not discussed.

The oft-repeated, hollow slogan of modern companies, "the people are the company," certainly had validity in Athens. There can be no state without citizens. But modern companies have legal, independent standing and are generally owned by outside shareholders, not workers. The reality is that workers are more like "wage slaves," not citizens of their companies with long-term, essential standing, legal or otherwise. The authors briefly touch on the necessity of redefining and reprioritizing the concept of "stakeholder" in modern companies. Obviously, a company of citizens cannot be trumped by absentee owners and still be a democratic community.

Closely tied to the issue of ownership of a firm is the role of management. The difficulties in transforming a company being operated by a managerial elite backed by a board of directors to one governed by employee-citizens cannot be exaggerated. A company of citizens cannot simply be mandated with power being retained by some overriding authority, no matter how enlightened. The authors point out that a democracy evolves through experimentation and mistakes by citizens. It is difficult to envision a modern CEO permitting his authority to be eliminated, let alone diminished, or allowing himself to be rotated out of the job. In addition, a huge issue is whether modern workers can really embrace and accept the responsibilities of democracy.

The emphasis on the Athens city-state is instructive from the standpoint of describing a "strong" democracy, despite some of its shortcomings. But one could ask whether it is even necessary to turn to ancient history to shed light on employees trying to find empowerment within their workplaces. The labor movement has struggled since the beginnings of industrialization to gain a voice for workers within enterprises. The authors do not present in the main text any examples of companies where employees are full citizens. It would have been interesting for the authors to comment on the well known example of the Saturn Corporation as to its fit as a company of citizens. Or perhaps the works council systems found in Europe could have been mentioned.

The authors repeatedly make the point that a company of citizens must be concerned with a "steep performance challenge," but why the condition? One would think that those advocating for democracy would do so on the fundamental basis of citizens controlling their destiny and not on the existence of some unusual circumstance. The book is thought provoking. But far too much space is devoted to the Athens city-state and the attempt to capture its workings in a set of textbook-like generalizations. There is little in this book that leads one to believe that the U.S. will be establishing companies of citizens any time soon. Nor is the book much in the way of a blueprint of how to do so. In some respects this book can be added to a large list of management books that talk employee empowerment, but don't quite get it.

Gosh! This is for people who count, what else does a combinatorist do? Before people dismiss me as somebody who don't know hoot about math: I took a class with Prof. Stanley (the author) in college, and I had actually used vol 1 as a text. The material is highbrow (I agree on the 'hardcore' math observation) but the main theme of the book is how to 'count' -- needless to say not in the sense of everyday counting, but in the sense that 'topology' is 'coffee-to-donut transformation' and 'analysis' is 'honors calculus'. You have to know how to count, and comfortable with combinatorial proof to actually learn from this. I like the fact that Prof. Stanley asks for combinatorial proof to some known results, marking them as unsolved -- he really elevates the status of combinatorial proof, a method many dismiss as 'handwaving'. There is a number given to each exercise, according to the level of difficulty: [1] for trivial, [5] unsolved. I saw a professor who worked in differential topology for 40 years refer to this book -- and first year undergrads thumbing through the pages for exercises marked [1] and [2] to solve in spare time. This is a book for all levels of mathematicians: I am sure even the armchair amateur mathematicians can grasp some of the materials after a hard day's thought. I dont see this book as any less than a definitive text on enumerative combinatiorics.

This book is a must for anyone who likes how to count. In addition to the superb exposition of deep and important mathematics, it contains so many intriguing problems, some of them even puzzle-like. Read this book cover-to-cover or open it at a random page. Either way you would love it!

This is an excellent book on combinatorics, but it is quite difficult to understand--written for experts, not novices. The author often chooses a more general framework in which to present things, and this can make the material quite difficult to follow. But the rewards for the diligent reader are great. Occasionally I question how Stanley chooses to present a certain topic, but usually if I look closely enough, I see that there are deep reasons for his choice of notation or presentation.

Some of the material in this book is easier than others; some of it depends on earlier chapters, but some stands on its own. People interested in partially ordered sets and lattices may want to jump ahead to that chapter--much of this chapter stands on its own, and it is an excellent exposition of that topic, and I think somewhat easier to understand than the rest of the book.

The most precious thing about this book is that the author manages to provide several comprehensive frameworks for solving large classes of enumeration problems. Combinatorics seems a hodge-podge subject to many mathematicians, but Stanley manages to see it as a unified subject with a number of general theories and common techniques. This book is truly the only text I have ever read that has this perspective on the subject.

I would recommend this book only to someone who has a strong background in mathematics and wants a challenging text that can take them to a deeper level of understanding. Students of combinatorics may want to take this book out of the library and read the introductory pages; there are some particularly useful comments right at the beginning. As a final note, the exercises in this book are also helpful and of diverse difficulty levels--and Stanley classifies the exercises by their difficulty level. People who find this book difficult to follow may want still benefit from some of the easier exercises. Students wanting an easier-to-follow text might want to check out Cameron's "Combinatorics", or Wilf's "Generatingfunctionology". As a final note I would like to remark that this book is very reasonably priced, especially when you consider the wealth of material it contains.

I agree with the other reviewers. The book is a masterpiece on enumerative combinatorics. However, I am not so sure that it is a good book for a beginner. If you are a beginner, then you should read another book first, like John Riordan's book on "Combinatorial Analysis." Stanley's book is best suited for an advanced student who has a high level of mathematical mental maturity. The reason I say this is that in a few places Stanley's formalism, which is entirely appropriate for professional exposition, actually obscures the underlying simplicity of the mathematical ideas. We have all seen this in research papers, where a mathematician takes a trivial idea and "obsures" the underlying simplicity with too much formalism. However, for an advanced student, the book has a high density of important ideas and methods.

There was an earier review that claimed this book is for "people who like to count." That's a little silly. This book is a rigorous math text. And it's glorious. It's probably my favorite text. But it's not light reading at all.

I spent a semester actively reading and working on this book with my advisor. I read this book and worked on research, 50/50 split on my time. I got through 2.5 of the 4 chapters, and I'm damn proud of myself. It's a great book, but if you didn't know that 'enumerative' was for "people who like to count", you probably want a different text.