History Books

What an unrelentingly gripping series of stories -- life, death, animals, boys, girls, men, women, horses, snakes, water, wind, earth, blood, fire and sky. Mark Spragg's style is a bit like David Hockney doing his photograph collages. He doesn't show you everything, just bits and pieces to make the whole. He lets you put some of the pieces in place. What a style. It's shot through with his own strong character and some compelling scenes of raw Wyoming life. The stories follow an amazing arc that you don't see coming until the last chapter and then you just kind of want to start all over again, and meet the boy that became the man. Beautiful stuff. Look, I'm not really out here trying to sell my book at every corner but the people who told me about Mark Spragg are readers of my book, "Antler Dust." I had three recommendations from "Antler Dust" readers to check out Mark Spragg, mostly because, I believe, of the detailed outdoors action and the fact that my book takes place in a neighboring state, Colorado. I am going to read more Mark Spragg but for others who like him, please also consider Antler Dust.

Mark Spragg writes beautifully, even poetically, of teenage life in a Wyoming family struggling to make ends meet by catering to "dudes" come West for the seasonal fishing and hunting. His collection of stories is varied, but all are tied to the splendor of unshod love for the land and for the horses he rides through a journey that will steal your heart.

These are two feelings I got from reading this memoir. Life in NW Wyoming is not easy. Days are spent with horses and one's life is taken by horses. In fact, if you love horses this is a great book.

One thing that kept creeping into this book is the distance the author had toward his parents, especially his father. Little but dialogue is written about the father, but he comes across as callous and more worried of turning the boy into a real man. The boy, in turn, writes about his concerns about the man he will become. At times that dragged on too much.

Still, it's wonderful prose written in a manly tone. For rugged cowboys and ranchers it's a perfect read.

I'd worry about peope who don't hurt themselves laughing while reading Wapiti School. My goodness, these stories are terrific, sometimes tough and bitter, sometimes perfect poetry. Just wonderful.

The author writes excellent prose with innumerable well turned phrases and descriptions. The subject matter is primarily his adolescence on a Wyoming dude ranch and hunting guide service that his family, Pennsylvania expatriates, operated in the 1960s, some vignettes from his adult life and descriptions of friends and conditions in windswept Wyoming. The chapters are actually a series of essays rather than a progressive narrative with the ones about life and work on and around his father's ranch, where he essentially lived as a hired hand in the bunkhouse with hardened wranglers from about the age of fourteen, being the most interesting.

I enjoyed the book principally due to the excellent writing and colorful recounting of the author's experiences as a real "cowboy" in an era when most of us male baby boomers only experienced the same thing through ubiquitous western TV shows and movies of the 50s and 60s. It was a life in another era when so many of us grew up in boring suburbia. I recommend it for these reasons.

But maybe I missed something because I never came across any explanation for the author's seeming sense of hurt, isolation, melancholy and general unhappiness that begins, for unstated reasons, during his college years.

I purchased the sandwich spreader and metal spatula. I paid twice what I would have paid anywhere else. They turned out to be junk. Both plastic handles separated from the metal parts within 9 months of the purchase.

I absolutely loved this book. Doris Christopher's ideas and humble beginnings are absolutely inspiring! She has built an amazing company and shares it for everyone to realize their own potential. Her basic no nonsense attitude towards life and her company are shared in this incredible story. I do not sell Pamperd Chef, but if I was not trying to build another direct sales business I know I would after reading this book!

I have been purchasing Pampered Chef products for over 16 years and my husband and I have always been huge fans. After many years of buying from someone else, I decided to give it a try and then so did my husband. . . yes, we are both consultants because we believe so much in the products.

I signed up as a consultant a few days after the book was released and read it in one night! After reading the book I was more of a fan than ever. The story is very inspiring to anyone who wants to take the leap of faith in themselves and try to start their own business.

Doris' vision of having a business to earn extra money and still have time to raise her family is very much alive today as it was 25 years ago. The book takes you through the 25 years of her dream from where she started the business in her basement with $3,000 to being the founder a of multi-million dollar company with thousands of women and men who work with The Pampered Chef as hobbyist, part- and full-time consultants.

A must read for anyone who wants to be inspired to start their own business.

An interview with the author and her daughter, who grew up in the culinary business, supplements The Pampered Chef, a story of Doris Christopher, a former teacher and home economist who returns to the work world with a vision of making cooking more convenient for families. Selling high-quality kitchen tools through demo groups and growing her business, The Pampered Chef, from a basement enterprise to a successful franchise. A story of personal success comes alive in audio.

In 1980 author Doris Christopher, former home economist and teacher, wanted to return to the workforce after raising her children: she began selling high-quality kitchen tools through cooking demonstrations and began her company, The Pampered Chef, from her basement. Twenty-five years later it's a corporation specializing in kitchen shows - and The Pampered Chef: The Story Of One Of America's Most Beloved Companies tells of how she became a culinary industry success. Insights on how the company expanded and handled its challenges provide entrepreneurs and cooks alike with much inspiration.

For somebody interested in art, a book with many pictures is easy to read and enjoy.

The convenience of the pocket edition is incredible and the quality of the images and analysis is excellent.

The Story of Art is a classic introduction to the history of fine art. The sweeping scope is matched only by the driven narrative that will fascinate the neophyte and the well versed. This book is THE introductory text for any study of art.

As his title indicates, in The Story of Art Gombrich presents the whole of western art history as a chronological narrative -- from prehistoric times on up to his own times -- clearly setting out everything from ancient sculpture to Renaissance painting to modern architecture.This book can change the way you look art.Intellectually and physically pure delight.

Having already been exposed to art history and criticism, I felt at times that this book was overly simplistic. (It was originally written for "young people" after all...) What was harder for me to appreciate were the frequent passages in which Gombrich gives vent to his own personal opinions (gushing on about Rubens for instance.) He makes a token effort to be objective but his Eurocentric bias toward the superiority of Classically-inspired Renaissance art is clear.

However, as an introduction to Art History and Art Appreciation, you could do a lot worse. Gombrich is easy to read, he states himself clearly, he presents the history of art (in Europe) as a steady evolution of ideas, rather than a compartmentalized series of Eras & Styles as so many academic textbooks do. He selected illustrations that most effectively elucidate his point. Useful as his book is, it would be a mistake to treat him as a final authority on the subject. _The Story of Art_ is merely an INTRODUCTION to art. Once Dr. Gombrich has opened the door for you, you should leave him behind and continue your explorations on your own, or at least with a different guide. Form your own opinions; that's part of the experience of art.

About the Pocket Edition specifically: The text is in the front (printed on very thin "Bible" paper) and the illustrations are in the back. Phaidon has provided two built-in ribbon bookmarks so you can keep your place in both sections. It's an interesting solution for making the book smaller. I can vouch for the fact that it's easy to carry around, since I took it with me on two trips while reading it, but the arrangement does have its drawbacks. Having to flip back & forth to look at the pictures as they are referred to in the text, and having to hold two places simultaneously while reading means that you have to use both hands. I like to read while I eat (yeah, I'm one of THOSE people) but found it was impossible with this edition. If portability and price are your top concerns, then this is the edition to get. Otherwise, shell out the extra $$ for the full-sized version.

I have been interested in the Titanic story most of my life, and this still taught me things I did not know about it. The illustrations are beautifully done.

"Titanic An Illustrated History" is an excellent title for anyone who wants to know more about the Titanic from building the ship to the investigations into the sinking.

The book is around 225 pages, has numerous photographs and colorful illustrations, and contains around 12 chapters and focuses on the following main areas:

1. Inception and building the ship.
2. The maiden voyage and details of the sinking.
3. Evacuating the boat.
4. Rescue efforts and memorial services.
5. Investigations into the sinking.
6. Discovery the Titanic on the ocean floor several years later.
7. Some of the Titanic artifacts found during the discovery.

The narrative was smooth throughout the book and was very enjoyable to read. The book also served to dispel myths presented in the latest Titanic movie from Hollywood (1997?) that starred Leonard DiCaprio and others. In particular, while people of different social classes were pitted against one another in the struggle for survival in the movie, the book was full of examples of people who willingly sacrificed their lives so that others may live. While the movie was okay, Hollywood did seem to twist some of the facts. Thankfully, the book was more accurate.

Read and enjoy this great account of an unfortunate episode in maritime history. Recommended.

This book is great! The art work by Ken Marschall can't be topped! What can be said about the history within those pages?!

OKAY NOW I AM 24 YEARS OLD AND HAVE BEEN INTERESTED IN TITANIC SINCE I WAS 14. SO A GOOD 10 YEARS. I READ THIS BOOK FOR MY SENIOR PROJECT IN 1999, MY PARENTS AND FRIENDS WEREN'T SUPRISED. THIS ONE BOOK WAS THE ONE THAT HELPED ME THE MOST. THE DETAILS WERE EXCELLENT, AND I LOVE READING IT. I CHECKED OUT OF THE LIBRARY ABOUT 30 TIMES THAT YEAR. THERE'S ONE MORE BOOK THAT IF YOU CAN FIND IT ITS GOOD READING TOO, I FORGET THE TITLE IT HAD REPRODUCTIONS OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES OF THE TIME (1912)AND THATS ALL IT HAD.

This is my favorite Titanic book. It includes everything to a dinner with Bruce Ismay discussing his idea of 3 olympic class ships, to try and try to beat out the Cunard Line to how it affects us now. The pictures are amazing and leave me in awe, everytime I look at them. This book is on the top self, in room, and am very proud to say, this is my alltime favorite book.

This is probably one of the few books you are going to find about Badfinger, who are another very essential but overlooked rock band. Sure they had hits, but they got screwed over. The book arrived in great shape and very quickly, so I was completely happy with everything.

I ordered this for my brother's birthday and he loved it! The book arrived in perfect shape. This is one of my brother's favorite bands from 'back in the day'!!! He was very happy with it. Thanks

A wonderful book. I knew very little about this band other than a couple of great songs I heard on the radio in the early 70's. By the time I finished the book I felt like I'd known them all my life. I couldn't help but get emotionally involved in their plight...Highly recommend

The most engrossing band bio I've ever read, and also one of the saddest stories in music. I find it funny that the two biggest debunkers of the author of this book are also two people who haven't read it! The story spans the very beggining, when they were known as the Iveys, to the ASCAP debacle in which Pete Ham and Tom Evans were utterly disrespected in front of an audience for their wonderful accomplishment of having written Without You. No stone is left unturned and unfortuntely some of the people involved should crawl back under theirs but haven't.

Dear Joey and Kathie: You can fool some of the people, but you haven't fooled me. At least Pete doesn't have a grave, or else I'm sure you would have been dancing on it quite happily. Why did you have to be part of the problem?

The "tragic" story of Badfinger couldn't be a better title for this book or this band. So much talent and ability and such bad management and naivete' destroyed not just a band but many lives in the process. I believe every young musician should read this book and learn from their mistakes.

I love Absolut ad's and have always wanted to get one. They are expensive new , so I got an used copy from an amazon seller. It came quickly and I flipped through the book for about 20 min when it arrived 2 days later. I love all the ads and they are all so clever. I might not get some of the modern art ones, but I love the city ones in particular. Anyway, I got this book for my new house and new coffee table book, I think it is one of the best hardcover coffee table book (marketing story book) ever.

Compulsory addition to the coffee table library. An excellent example of a clever, consistent, cutting edge branding campaign helping to position a generic product at the top of consumer mind. Absolut genius.

If you like the Absolut ads, this is a good book for you. It's what you'd expect - big pictures of the Absolut ads with explanations from the ad agency guys who made it happen. A fun coffeetable book.

Absolut is one of the best selling vodkas in the world and the advertsing for it is second to none. In this fabulous book were are told the inside story behind the marketing and selling of this tasty treat. The paper is first grade and the pictures are outstanding to say the least. Absolut original with a bottle looking like a Roman ruin is probably my favorite one but there are so many nice advertising ideas that have become stupendous posters. Absolute Enivironment is also a nice one. This is a good coffee table book and a nice gift for the person that likes vodka and to read.

This is a wonderful, informative, and beautiful book.
This book is about the Absolut Vodka advertising campaign. How it began, and what it is about. There are many beautiful, and breath taking images which makes you see the entire light of the campaign which looks so simple from the outside. Now, you get the inside looks and it isn't simple at all but an amazing experience.
WOW!!

I adore this book and honestly who knew pop up books could be so informative? This book was so much for me to read and great for my little cousin too. She's three years old and she likes to sit on my lap as we look through the pages. Theres even a little catapult inside where you can throw little pieces of paper across the room! (I'll admit I had a bit more fun at that) This book is really a piece of art that I plan to save for her so when she gets older I can give it to her :) that is after I get one for my own collection. Again a great book and an even more fabulous read.

I have looked at Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart's books on their website as well as Amazon.com. I finally bought this book and I love it!

The craftsmanship and artistry is beautiful. Children of any age, including adults like me, will love this book!

Not only is it well-crafted but it's educational and loads of fun. After this book, I ordered another!

This was a huge hit with my nephew who brought it with him
everywhere the first week. He loves playing Runescape, so it was a natural for him. He still loves it, but at least he puts it down while eating! The details are beautiful and it's a high quality pop-up book, well executed, substantial and with great background material.
I'm a pop-up fan myself and could have gladly kept it!

Great pop-up, but Robert Sabuda never fails to delight. Especially liked the house, even has someone using the 'privy'! Kids thought it was super cool and had lots of new terms explained. Good for med. history work.

Artistic and material quality and depth are fabulous, I bought three, should have purchased a few more while it was on super sale.

Outstanding look at new palaeontology and dinosaur work. Taking the various papers that Bakker wrote for scientific journals and converting them to a book that is slightly more understandable to the public. The basic premise is that dinosaurs were not cold-blooded lizards, but warmer blooded and quite fast at times. See Jurassic Park for an example of the theories in action. Really great work.

Bob Bakker book describes so brilliantly why Dinosaurs were so successful and ruled the Earth for 150 million years. The Dinosaurs were so successful that mammals throughout this time never grew larger than 1 meter long and many were rat sized. If it wasn't for a giant asteroid that hit 65 million years ago, they would be still around and we would not.

Bakker in this book describes how the Dinosaur's warm blooded metabolism was integral to their success and how cold blooded animals like reptiles back then as now were limited. He also goes to show us how Dinosaurs were fast growing, dynamic animals that were constantly changing, how bird evolved from dinosauts and how dinosaurs were key the spread of flowering plants.

A book you must read before you die.

In the second half of the twentieth century the current thinking about dinosaurs completely changed, so that they are now accepted as warm blooded, vigorous alternatives to the mammals, and in fact the ancestors of birds (though not all that bright, whereas birds can be). Bakker was a major player in this change of views, and offers some fascinating anecdotes on how various experiences led to insights which permitted proper interpretation of the fossil evidence. The reader comes away not only with an understanding of the dinosaurs, but with many insights into evolution in general, and all the types of reasoning and analysis necessary to glean the truth from fossil evidence. Bakker has a lively style, giving detail without getting bogged down (well, I occasionally skimmed a bit, but that is because I have little interest in anatomy). There are many illustrations, but I was not always happy with them. Some illustrations serve as hand drawn alternatives to Power Point slides, and are very good. However, the drawings to illustrate anatomy were often not simplified enough for me to better understand the point. I do wish Bakker had speculated why, in the world of the dinosaurs, it was the mammals who apparently occupied all the really small ecological niches, comparable to current day mice and squirrels. Also, his final chapter on the demise of the dinosaurs was stimulating, but not as well thought out as the rest of the book. He points to the development of land bridges (as water levels dropped) which permitted worldwide migration of larger animals, and the consequent extinction of many species which could not compete, and also the spread of pathogens and parasites. Interesting, but competition would not eliminate all species, and no arguments are presented as to why small animals, e.g. mammals, would be more likely to survive than large animals (great numbers?). While this book was published in 1986, I read it based on Richard Dawkin's recent recommendation, and I do not believe it is outdated.

This book talks about new theories(at the time) of dinosaurs and their extinction, ranging from warm-bloodedness all the way to dinosaurs evolving into birds. There are five parts to this story.

Part I:The Conquering Cold-Bloods: A Conondum
Basically this part describes reptiles and their advantages/disadvantages when it comes to either cold blooded or warm blooded animals. It even compares mammals to reptiles. It talks about how cold blooded and warm blooded reptiles/mammals how active and how their eating habits are different. Also talks about dinosaurs if they were warm or cold blooded. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "Ornitholestes was an impressive little dinosaur, and even the diehard defenders of orthodoxy yield a little to admit that perhaps Ornitholestes and its kin might have had high metabolism. Such a concession, however, would lead to yet another incosistency in the theory of mass homeothermy. Big dinosaurs, all of them, evolved from small-dinosaur ancestors. The idea that little ancestors had high metabolism and their bigger descendants didn't, would be tantamount to arguing that evolution reversed itself"(Bakker 98).

Part II:The Habitat of the Dinosaurs
This section discusses dinosaurs with their habitat and how their diet/body features adapt to their environment. It discusses dinosaurs who helped use gastroliths for digestion. Also talks about the evolution of plants in relation to dinosaurs. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "Brontosaur teeth, moreover, confirm the heretical idea that they ate a tough vegetable diet. If the brontosaurs dined only on soft water plants, then very little wear would appear on their teeth. But infact the teeth of Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus and their kin manifest very severe wear, which could only have been produced by tough or gritty food"(Bakker 136).

Part III:Defense, Locomotion, and the Case For Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs
The third section discusses the locomotion of dinosaurs in comparison to lizards,crocodiles,etc. Discusses dinosaur defense, like Triceratops' horns and the "boneheads" of the Pachycephalosaurs. Also talks about Pterosaurs. Discusses Archeaopteryx and it's feathers helping to support warm-bloodedness.
Here is a short excerpt from this part. "Anchisaurs' tails were stoutly muscled and they could easily have reared up, foreclaws at the ready, to face their enemies. Anchisaur hind claws, especially the one located on the large inner toe, could lash out with even more powerful blows than the foreclaws"(Bakker 256).

Part IV:The Warm-Blooded Metronome of Evolution
Talks about dinosaur sex, with threat displays of intimidation. Discusses growth in dinosaurs who were probably warm blooded. Talks about dinosaur lungs, heart, and large brains. Here is a short excerpt from this part.
"How can the dinosaurs' growth be measured? An accurate estimate can be derived from the texture of the fossil bone. A thin slice can be cut from a fossil-bone chip and glued to a glass plate"(Bakker 350).

Part V:Dynastic Frailty and the Pulses of Animal History
This final section discusses the Kazanian Revolution. During the Kazanian Revolution, warm blooded animals exploded in population. Discusses the dinosaur extinction and the animals who died along with them. Talks about the evolution of the Dinosauria and that they should be in their own class. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "A truly scientific skeptic would start assuming neither cold-bloodedness nor warm-bloodedness, and then reevaluate the evidence without prior terminological bias. So long as the DInosauria remain stuck in the class Reptilia, this type of analysis is impossible. Let dinosaurs be dinosaurs. Let the Dinosauria stand proudly alone, a Class by itself. They merit it"(Bakker 462).

Overall, this book is excellent. Bakker did all his own illustrations(which are very artistic) and even assumed dinosaurs were feathered even before they were discovered. Even though some of his theories may be outdated now, I still recommend this book to anyone. I read it back in seventh grade and it took me a while, but reading this book is surely worth the time!

Incredibly compelling book about the possible evolution of velociraptors into birds.

Dinosaur Heresies goes beyond mere dinosaur evolution, however. As an enthusiastic gardener, I was bemused and delighted to learn of the powerful link between Cretaceous herbivorous dinosaurs and the rise of flowering plants, how it was BECAUSE of these saurian herbivores that we have flowering plants instead of a world of gymnosperms (aka pines, cycads, ginko, etc.).

It was a FUN read!

This book "flows" easily and it does a great job covering the meteoric rise of both Bill Gates and Microsoft. The narrative is never dull and both, the man and his company, are given a fair treatment. This book was published in 1993 and a lot of interesting stuff remains to be told. Wish the authors would team up for a sequel. This is a well written and authoritative account of Microsoft and its founder.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

This book is a must-read for people who consider themselves ambitious and driven. It taught me the importance of single-minded drive and determination, coupled with a passion for the line of work one is in. IT is a tough line of work to be in - jobs could be outsourced anytime, skills become redundant quickly and there isn't the glamor or get-fabulously-rich possibility of finance or investment banking... but this book demonstrates that as long as you are passionate about what you do, there is always room at the top. Take heart from it!

This is the definitive Book about Bill Gates (and the history of Windows). It covers all the management aspects of how he drove Microsoft and how the work became his life. The man doesn't do business... He LIVES it. And this book describes it in very much detail.

The details includes how Bill "turned over" IBM... Promissing them the OS/2 under the "NT Technology" flag and how he realeased Windows 95 and killed IBM forever from the Desktop business. It also shows Gates apreciation for Older woman (and many that took him to bed). As part of this "private" package, it also explains the problems that He had with Steve Ballmer. How Ballmer was showing poor management and leadership under Gates perspective and how Ballmer got over it and made his loyalty to Gates forever.

I was more interested on the part that explains how Microsoft Windows 1.0 was developed. How disastrous the first Office was compared to the competition and how they managed to "work around" and fix it, by "coping" the competition and improving it "the Microsoft way".

Buy this if you want to know how business can be done... or be "copied".

Delightful book. Its one flaw is its addictiveness, I couldn't put it down which did cost me sleep (I'm an IT professional with an entrepreneur spirit- your results may vary).

The Microsoft/Gates biography is impeccable in its wealth of interesting details and engaging story-telling.

Bill Gates is a fantastic decision maker. He would be as successful selling water or space suits, he just happened to be at the right time in the right booming industry and pushed with his business-business mentality to the limit. Right decision after right decision, the Microsoft journey is a story that any entrepreneur should nitpick and absorb as much as possible.

Of course, his terrible capitalistic drive is a perfect subject for a discussion on morals, social responsibility and related matters, but without a doubt when it comes to maximizing outcome while playing by our economic rules, Hard Drive tells a tale of epic proportions featuring a superhero / villain that rivals the best of science fiction.

This is really a story of how Gates led Microsoft to its apex, ending in about 1992. It is well written and a good balance bewteen criticism, an explanation of the business model, and historical detail. The story is, to put it mildly, remarkable no matter what you think of MS and Gates.

While a student at Harvard in December, 1974, Bill Gates III and Paul Allen informed Ed Roberts by telephone that they had invented a BASIC computer language for the MITS Altair 8080, which was the first "personal computer" kit for hobbyists. Could they license it along with each Altair kit, Gates asked, to customers for a royalty fee? It was an audacious proposal, because not only had Gates and Allen invented no such thing, but they neither owned an Altair kit nor did they even know the technical specifications for the Intel 8080 chip. Skeptical of their claim, Roberts replied that whoever demonstrated a working BASIC would win the account: Gates and Allen were in competition, he told them, with 50 other "geeks" who already had made the same claim. Gates and Allen then hunkered down for 8 weeks to write the first BASIC for a microcomputer. The resulting "software", which immediately won over Roberts, was the first application of what would become Microsoft BASIC. Gates was 19.

As the company founders, Gates and Allen shared a vision that virtually every home and every office desk would eventually have a PC on them, all operating with their software. To run Microsoft full time, Gates dropped out of Harvard in January, 1977. Their business quickly expanded beyond the Altair as competing brands of personal computers emerged, including the Tandy from Radio Shack and the Apple II computer; they were also called upon to program BASIC into a number of other electronic devices. All along, Gates' goal was to gain market share, in effect setting the software standard for most, if not all, PC users. As a true believer who intimately knew the product, Gates was the principal salesman, while Allen concentrated on technical development.

During this formative period, Microsoft's corporate culture was established. Perhaps as a result of hiring many of his programmers straight out of university, Microsoft's offices (and later the campus in Redmond, Washington) took on the look and feel of a college campus, that is, an informal and a freewheeling intellectual atmosphere with "late hours, loud music, walls full of junk, anything goes dress, Coke, adrenaline, unbuttoned behavior." Employees tended to be very young with a programmer or engineering mentality; they designed their products for tech-savvy customers - male in their early 20s - like themselves, a kind of fellowship for computer adepts. Like Gates, they loved to play with and program electronic gadgets.

Microsoft hired the brightest programmers with demonstrated practical abilities. Employees were also expected to work extremely long hours as a team toward a common goal, not as strident individualists. Gates encouraged them to develop their entrepreneurial passions, forcefully advancing their own ideas of useful products for new markets. Overseeing it all was Gates, who gained the reputation of a harsh and challenging critic with a relentless drive for excellence, whether to beat the competition or out of fear of falling behind in such a fast-changing industry. As the sole remaining founder after Allen's departure in 1983, Gates remained deeply involved in both technical and business details as well as the general direction of company strategy. Nonetheless, as the principal revenue generators, Microsoft's product groups increasingly became the seats of decision-making power, in spite of Gates' active engagement.

At the end of 1979, Microsoft had $US 4 million in sales. Most of these revenues came from BASIC, which enabled programmers to create applications, such as word processing and accounting spread sheets. The level below BASIC and the other languages under development at Microsoft was the computer operating system, which performed the most elementary tasks required to run computers. With the prospect of providing software to IBM for the basic PC it was planning to market for a reasonable price, Gates and Allen began to acquire the rights to, and then develop, software for a computer operating system. Known later as DOS, it again set an industry standard that would enable Microsoft to efficiently develop languages and software applications in a single engineering environment rather than painstakingly customize them for a variety of incompatible operating systems. This would immensely simplify Microsoft's programming process as well as enhance its efficiency.

As Gates foresaw, this was a near-ideal position to occupy at the moment that the PC market was poised to grow explosively with the introduction of the inexpensive IBM PC, which was made of off-the-shelf components and hence easy to copy, or "clone". With the dual ownership of DOS and several major programming languages, Microsoft became one of the fastest growing companies in the world. By 1985, just prior to its IPO, on revenues of $US 140 million, Microsoft had a pre-tax profit margin of approximately 34%, no long-term debt, and cash reserves of $US 38 million. By 1987, the company surpassed Lotus to become the world's largest software vendor for PCs. Gates was on his way to become the richest man in the world, at least for a time.

However, the ownership of DOS and the programming languages would also, critics later claimed, confer an "unfair advantage" on the company. First, the Microsoft applications groups were accused to obtaining "inside information" from the operating systems group, which enabled them to design their products to function more quickly and smoothly than competitors could. Second, because each change in DOS required competitors to supply their latest products to Microsoft programmers to ensure compatibility, critics charged that this amounted to an inside peek into their strategy at the cutting edge of their capabilities. It was a symbiotic relationship that made many outside vendors - independent companies developing applications to run on Microsoft operating systems -uneasy and resentful. Third, DOS programmers were accused by rivals of inserting "hidden bugs" into the operating system in order to hinder the function of competing products, such as the Lotus spread sheet, damaging their competitive position and brand. The resulting negative publicity did a great deal of damage to the Microsoft brand, which began to be seen as the industry bully.

While Gates insisted that he had erected a "Chinese Wall" between Microsoft's applications division and its Operating System's Group, it was not enough to deter the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from opening a probe into the company for anti-competitive practices that purportedly hurt consumers. By 1991, when the FTC probe became widely known, Microsoft controlled one-quarter of the applications market and dominated the operating systems market with Windows. There was speculation about the imminent breakup of Microsoft into separate companies for these markets, similar to the dismantlement of AT&T. For their part, defenders of Microsoft argued that it was winning because it was better and smarter, presenting its customers with superior products at bargain prices.

This a pretty much where the book stops, which badly dates it. Not only is the story of the anti-trust law suits left untold, but subsequent business developments - notably the internet - are not even mentioned. Thus, this is an excellent early history, but the reader must look elsewhere for more detail. Of the shelf of books on MS, in my opinion this is one of the best, and it was most useful to me for a research project. Recommended.

I read The Promise and it was a baseball fans dream, full of Yankee anecdotes and the sharing of personalities such as the batboys Ralph and Joe, the clubhouse man Pete Sheehy, big pete little Pete, Al Rosens stolen bat, the great Rizzuto, Berra, the antics od Stengle and martin, and the GREAT JOE DIMAGGIO- I aM AFRAID THAT BEN CRAMER'S BOOK ON DIMAGGIO WILL TRANISH HIS MEMORY. i HOPE NOT. WE NEED HEROES AND TO ME DIMAGGIO WAS A BASEBALL HERE AND A MANS MAN--

If you like tradition and the history of the game read Searching For Heroes The Quest oF a YANKEE BATBOY . i LIKED THE BOOK BECAUSE IT WAS INFORMATIONAL AND INSPIRATIONAL- The Yankees of the fifties were team players who played for the love of the game---A GREAT BOOK.

I read The Promise and it was a baseball fans dream, full of Yankee anecdotes and the sharing of personalities such as the batboys Ralph and Joe, the clubhouse man Pete Sheehy, big pete little Pete, Al Rosens stolen bat, the great Rizzuto, Berra, the antics od Stengle and martin, and the GREAT JOE DIMAGGIO- I aM AFRAID THAT BEN CRAMER'S BOOK ON DIMAGGIO WILL TRANISH HIS MEMORY. i HOPE NOT. WE NEED HEROES AND TO ME DIMAGGIO WAS A BASEBALL HERE AND A MANS MAN--

my name is dean and i live in farmingdale---- about two months ago Mr. Carrieri appeared a Borders book store and spoke about his experiences as Yankee Batboy in the 50s---- his eperiences were fastinating. His hero was Joe Dimaggio wh kept his promise to young joe and Joe Carrieri kept his prmise to the reeaders who share his love of the game. Dimaggio may not have been a hero to everyone but he was a hero on the field and that was the focus of the story. The writing was clean and the read fast----I loved it.

I HAVE BEEN READING SOME NEGATIVE COMMENTS ABOUT DIMAGGIO AND THAT MAKES ME MAD. THESE INSIDE WRITINGS SHOULD BE BETTER LEFT UNSAID. WHAT RIGHT DOES A WRITER HAVE TO REVEAL THE INNER MOST SECRETS OF A PERSON BE HE BEGGAR KING. IT IS NOBODIES BUSINESS TO READ THAT DIMAGGIO WAS GREEDY OR CHEAP.THAT IS WHY I LIKED THE PROMISE. IT DESCRIBED A GREAT BASEBALL PLAYER WHO SYMBOLIZED GRACE AND STYLE-AN AGE OF INNOCENCE-WHEN PLAYERS PLAYED FOR THE FUN OF IT-