Colleges and Universities Books

This was the first book I've read on this subject and already I feel like I know so much! I don't know about you, but I'm doing much of my son's work in this area, so I feel like I'm doing the reading for him as well. It's important for the parent to be knowlegable even if the child DOES do the work, for they (the parents) will be doing much of the speaking and "negotiating" (key word you will learn much about) for the child. Have the facts to back you up. This author has been around and worn every 'hat' having anything to do with the whole issue of college athletics from parent to recruiter to agent to coach and MORE! You get the impression that you're really getting the inside information that you need to get the best deal for your child's education. Thank you Mr. Wheeler!

A friend's daughter who followed the recommendations for overcoming the Division III confusion & duplicity and successfully used the Ultimate Negotiating Weapon chapter recommended this book to us. Our daughter is a high school sophomore and wants to play ball in college. After reading the book, I know we will be prepared for every step of the recruiting process.

Arlene B.
Illinois

This is a great book if you have a high school athlete who wants to play in college. It really opened my eyes and one coach did something the book predicted he would.

Prior to acquiring this book we knew next to nothing about the whole process. It is especially helpful for those who live in areas where a potential scholarship candidate is not likely to be seen by very many if any recruiters. The author does a great job in laying out a step by step process that a potential college athlete should take beginning long before their senior year in high school. He stresses over and over that it will not be easy and success will likely only be achieved through the same hard work that led to the development of that person's athletic skills. A couple of areas that were not covered as well as I'd have liked were a more delineated seperation of the strategies for Div 1 & 2 schools as opposed to Div 3 and more discussion of the pluses and minuses of parental involvement. These are not significant drawbacks, however, and I would give the book 4 1/2 stars if possible.

This is an outstanding way to gain the knowledge needed to go up against the college coaches and recruiters and still come out ahead of the game. I found this to be an easy read full of valuable information and marvelous insight into the world of college athletic scholarships.

Hume's book is an invaluable asset for anyone even considering going on the market. It covers every detail of the job search: application packets, interviews, campus visits, follow-ups, and negotiating. Moreover, it provides specific advice for landing a position at both research and teaching institutions. Particularly helpful are the lengthy lists of interview questions and the sample documents--which go well beyond the simple CV-and-Cover-Letter combination. Make reading this book the first step of your job search, and refer to it regularly as you work through the process.

I can't overstate how valuable this book was to me when I was on the academic job market (2006/2007 academic yr). From my earliest pre-planning for the job search (including tips for professional development and invaluable timelines) to the moment I touched down to all of my campus visits (questions to ask, questions to avoid, tips for the job talk) and even to that final stage: managing offers and contracts, this book helped me figure out how to proceed on the academic job hunt. If you think you'll ever apply for an academic job in the humanities (even years down the line), this book will be useful to you now.

These features were especially useful for me:
*models and tips for CVs, application letters, dissertation summaries
*practice questions for MLA interviews
*what to expect at MLA
*a primer on handling campus visits and job talks
*timelines (how long you can expect to wait to hear about MLA and campus interviews, for example)
*things you'd never think of, like what to ask when you get the call from a department head inviting you to campus.

Having been through this often mystifying and incredibly stressful process, I can attest to the author's sound advice. Now that I'm in a tenure track job (and she has advice for once you get a job, too) I've recommended this book to job seeking grad students in my own department, and I recommend it to you, without reservation.

This is an excellent and very comprehensive guide through the academic job search process. Hume tells it like it is, and much of what you find in this book is (for whatever reasons) not often shared with graduate students as they embark on their job searches. The many anecdotes and sample CVs are a nice bonus. My department buys this book for every PhD student as they enter their job search year--it is required reading.

This book is an excellent resource for any doctoral student's job search. The advice about interviewing, putting together a job application packet, and making the transition from a graduate student to a faculty member is very timely and helpful. The sample documents, which range from c.v.'s to cover letters, are the best feature of the book. I would highly recommend it to anyone on the job market in the humanities or thinking about the process in the future.

For the last 4 years I've been involved in helping our English graduate students find academic jobs. Hume's book was of immense help in this regard. As the placement chair, I ordered it for our department, but I also encouraged our job seekers to get their own copies. It is simply the best book out there right now covering all the ins and outs of the humanities job market. Hume's advice, always provided in clear and direct language, is deeply rooted in both her own experience as a long-time professor at Penn State who has seen many job candidates come and go and the experience of the many students with whom she successfully worked as Penn State's placement advisor. In addition to excellent insights into the dos and don'ts of writing one's job application materials--letters, c.v.'s, teaching portfolios, follow-up communications, etc.--one of the greatest strengths of the book is its presentation of the feed-back Hume received from "her" job seekers in form of long lists of questions people were asked at MLA interviews or on campus, for instance. Working with "my" graduate students, I frequently staged mock interviews with them based on a sampling of the questions provided in Hume's book. Many of our students commented to me that one of the main reasons they felt they did well at MLA or on campus in terms of handling the various and varying questions they had to engage was that they were never really caught off-guard because Hume's book seems to cover every conceivable question one could possibly be asked. Also of great help are the many sample-documents Hume included in her book--again directly taken from her successful seekers. In short, if you at all wonder about the academic job market--what it is like, how you should prepare for it, how you might want to negotiate its various stages, and even how to handle yourself in case of success (negotiating your job offer, becoming a new faculty member)--you could not do better than get your hands on this book. There might be a question or two that the book doesn't touch on--but I can't think of any right now.

I slogged through half a dozen tactful, dignified, dripping-with-sincerity guidebooks, where you have to read between the lines to discover if the college in question is snobby, dope-infested, riddled with dirty bathrooms, or populated by spoiled princes and princesses. This is the ONLY guide I've found that gave us a good feel for the personality of a given school, and the only one my high school junior actually enjoys reading. Use it with Fiske's, or Peterson's, or other guides--but use it.

Let's up front state my bias: My undergraduate (Lehman College in the Bronx, NY) and graduate (Queens College in Queens, NY) schools were not part of the 328 mix. Also excluded was my son's school Clayton College and State University (the comprehensive IT degree is no animal party degree) in Georgia. Guys those urban schools were great and from what I know remain highly regarded.

Pitch aside for my alumni. This is overall a comprehensive easy to follow reference book that lays out the choices from a variety of perspectives. Besides the obvious overview of each school, the guide includes listings by best value, drug/alcohol free, and overall education, etc. The authors also rank schools by attendance (class presidents, valedictorians, etc.), animal house, and outside the box, etc. Titles of sections are obvious. The data comes from survey responses by counselors, attending students, and recent graduates (no wonder they didn't ask me about good old Lehman) as well as personal observations from the authors (the intelligent sidebar guide comments are worth the cost of the book).

Though the survey tool may not be reliable in a strictly statistical sense, THE UNOFFICIAL, UNBIASED GUIDE TO THE 328 MOST INTERESTING COLLEGES 2004 is a tremendous reference for high school juniors and seniors and their parents and anyone thinking of transferring to another school or an adult returning to school. The key is the ease of following the categorical break out that facilitates an individual customizing a selection for their needs.

Harriet Klausner

This is an excellent source of information on the subject. I view it as a professional second opinion to the better-known 'The Best 351 Colleges' from the Princeton Review. Actually, both guides have a near identical structure and methodology. They both rely on extensive surveys of students who went to these schools. So, you get excellent qualitative feedback on what the schools are like. You also get a lot of quantitative information, including range of SAT scores, acceptance rate, student yield, etc... Both guides have numerous lists including best academics, and a lot of other similar lists ranking schools along a single factor. Also, they essentially cover the same pool of colleges.

While 'The Best 351 Colleges' does a better job at rating all schools among several factors such as: Campus Life, Academics, Selectivity, Financial Aid; 'The Unofficial Guide' provides much valuable qualitative information.

For my part, I really feel that you have to acquire both guides. If you would give these guides an overall personality, The Best 351 Colleges is more of a quantitative left brain type of information source. While the Unofficial Guide is sometimes more creative. The two co-authors, Trent Anderson and Seppy Basili, give their own 'biased' opinions within small text box on every single college they review. Somehow, their short humorous sound bites are very helpful. They give you the essence of what the school is like. Sometimes, just by reading their short quotes, you can readily tell whether a school is for you or not.

The way to use these guides together is to read the reviews in both guides about the schools you are interested in. If the two reviews give you the same impression about a school, you can easily assess if a school is right for you.

When it gets interesting, is when the two reviews differ. I ran into such a case, with Lewis & Clark, a liberal arts college in Portland. Within The Best 351 Colleges, I got that Lewis & Clark had a very liberal college culture that pervaded both the student body and the teaching staff. But, in The Unofficial Guide, Lewis & Clark was described as fairly apolitical. In such a case, that is when you have to do more research on the Internet. If you go to Studentsreview or Epinion, you will see comments from students who went to particular colleges. In the case of Lewis & Clark, I got that The Unofficial Guide's review was closer to the truth. Liberal political activists who went to Lewis & Clark were disappointed about the lack of political activism on campus.

Additionally, the co-authors of The Unofficial Guide have to be commended on their very healthy approach to college selection. They promote that the college fit is much more important than the college name. I could not agree more. Thus, one will be far more successful if they are very happy at Kenyon College, because of a great match between their own temperament and the college culture, than being miserable at Harvard, because the fit was not so good.

I am giving this book 4 stars reluctantly becasue it really sould get only 3.5 stars. It did not live up to its title of "328 most interesting colleges." This is because it fails to tell me why each college listed in this book is interesting. Howver, it does provide information very similar to, though not as good as, "357 best colleges" by Princeton Review.

What should have been done in this book is to add a section for each college that briefly describe the aspects that make that college "interesting."

Two summers ago, I had a rough list of where I wanted to apply for university. But I had no idea what I was getting into. Then I got my hands on this book and that has affected my whole list. Back then, dream school was Johns Hopkins, then Duke and Rice. Reading through all of those comments about each university, including comments from students, swapped the members of my list around. I figured I'd go for campus visits, and that's when I noticed that a lot of what I had read were definitely true; even the campus tour guides confirmed a lot of the things that were written in here.

Now, I'm at Rice, having the time of my life. My college search was a success; I do not think I could be happier anywhere else.

If what you're looking for is a book that profiles a lot of America's top universities through the eyes of the students; stuff that they do not show you on college viewbooks, definitely get this one. A lot of the things that are in this tome of knowledge are facts about each campus. But I definitely do recommend campus visits as well. Especially overnight visits.

If anybody reading this plans on applying to Rice, definitely go for an overnight stay in the last week of March. That's when student life is at its best.

I cannot recommend Gerda Lerner's book highly enough. And it's very timely. People the world over are organizing around important issues and coming to realize that we must work TOGETHER to effect real change. Read Why History Matters to learn exactly why all oppressed peoples must work AS ONE to transform a patriarchal world that will, if left unchallenged, self destruct.

I cannot recommend Gerda Lerner's book highly enough. And it's very timely. People the world over are organizing around important issues and coming to realize that we must work TOGETHER to effect real change. Read Why History Matters to learn exactly why all oppressed peoples must work AS ONE to transform a patriarchal world that will, if left unchallenged, self destruct.

I cannot recommend Gerda Lerner's book highly enough. And it's very timely. People the world over are organizing around important issues and coming to realize that we must work TOGETHER to effect real change. Read Why History Matters to learn exactly why all oppressed peoples must work AS ONE to transform a patriarchal world that will, if left unchallenged, self destruct.

I used Lerner's book to conclude my graduate seminar in U.S. Women's History in part because it makes such a compelling case for why, in this postmodern moment, history does matter. Lerner does not pull punches; her memories of the holocaust and her return to Austria years later remind us of the burden of history. At the same time she makes a compelling case for a writing of history that is scholarly and rigerous yet personal and political. I use parts of her book in both graduate and undergraduate courses to articulate to students why history still matters and why we are not free from the burden of history. The book provokes fascinating discussion and, in the end, reminds many of us as to why we studied history in the first place. In the end it inspires as well as challenges.

I am quite astonished that no one has commented on the importance of Dr. Lerner's book. I propose that it be read in tandem with any other book that shows the treatment of women. Books ranging from "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant,which takes place in the Biblical era all the way to Anna Quindlan's "Black and Blue," which relates to an abused wife today, begin to have even more signficance when one becomes familiar with Lerner's thesis: women have suffered from a patriarchal society since time began, and by understanding our history, we should begin to realize the power and influence that HALF the population of the world could wield. Lerner's book is surely academic, but it is worth reading. Imagine if ALL women really determined we should strive for peace, equality, freedom, etc. Lerner is a cautious optimist about the future, sensing that the women's movement does suggest a new paradigm for the future. I read Lerner's book two years ago and I find it relates to nearly every book I have read, fiction and non-fiction, since.

I highly recommend this book for high school students planning to apply to competitive colleges and for their parents. The book gives an honest and straightforward explanation of the process, from the earliest college visits to how to what to do if offered a spot on a college waitlist.

This is actually two books in one -- one geared to parents, the other for students. While some of the content overlaps, the advice, comments, and discussion is different in each section, geared to answer the different concerns and questions that students and parents have.

Despite the title, this is not one of those books that claims to explain what hoops the student must jump through to get into Ivy League schools. Rather, the author emphasizes the importance of finding a college that is a good fit for the student and disregarding the hype surrounding college rankings, and provides good tips for the student in narrowing down choices. He also tells parents to back off and let their kids take ownership of the process, while at the same time giving valuable pointers as to way parents can support and guide their teenagers along the way.

I think the book's greatest strength is the author's frank and eye-opening discussion of the hidden agenda that drives college admissions and financial aid decisions. Peter Van Buskirk provides an inside view of how applications are processed and reviewed, what admissions staff is really looking for, what catches their attention, and understanding concepts like enrollment management and how financial aid is awarded. I wish I had this book before my kids applied to college -- so I am speaking from experience when I say that this book contains some important and valuable truths that are ignored, misunderstood, or glossed over in other college books.

If you are new to the process, buy this book first -- and if you are in the midst of the process and hopelessly confused.... buy this book. It really will help you cut through the hype and gain insight into how to find the colleges that best meet your needs, and how to put together an application package that maximizes your chance of acceptance.

You have to really want to understand how college admission works to like this book. It is not written in a sensational or glib way like so many "get into college" guides. It gets at the driving forces behind how colleges set enrollment goals and then recruit and admit (or not) to meet them. Van Buskirk's writing is a blend of practical advice and scholarly insights - very challenging and very helpful for students and parents.

With wisdom, insight, and realism, Peter Van Buskirk tells it like it is. This book provides practical advice for how to succeed in the college admissions process, not just survive. The best part is that as a parent and an admissions professional, Van Buskirk knows that "winning" the game means something different for every student. The objective is to identify and gain admission to the colleges that will best fit each individual's academic, professional, and personal goals. Van Buskirk's book will help students make that happen.

The only thing wrong with this book is that I got it when my daughter was a junior and not a freshman or in the eight grade. It is actually two books in one. One is for the student and one for the parent(s). It tells what you should be doing year by year which leads into how the colleges choose their students. It goes into the importance of the student doing the work, the essay and the choosing of the right college for the student. It gives advice on financing, its availability and how to apply for it. It has a realistic "pyramid" on what your chances are to getting accepted at certain schools. The best part is that nothing is held back and it is so very easy to read and to understand. Considering its low price and the amount of money the student and parents are thinking about spending on college this book becomes "a must have" for any family considering college. I also believe it is a book that any teacher or administrator needs to own or have access to.

Peter Van Buskirk was always one of the few admission deans who was willing to tell it like it is. His chapter on "What Colleges is Want" is a gem and could only have been written by someone who spent the better part of his career doing just that. As a school counselor myself, I am weary of books that sensationalize and distort the reality of the admission process. This one lifts back the curtain on college admission and also gives sound counseling that will help both parents and students keep their feet on the ground. Highly recommended.

I've read this great work for many times. In Taiwan, there are too much fascinating heritage from US education and some unethical stuff, too. Although it seems to be a little unorganized, that's the ways of conducting academic research and nature of science. After all, Dr. Kennedy did write something insightful and helpful and, somewhat practical. Read it and know the academic community. I would say: "salvation lies within." I would like to see more revisory supplements and concurrent issues like Dr. Kennedy's works.

An outstanding antidote to misinformed university bashing. All new assistant professors should read this book. It gives excellent advice and insights into the inner workings of the university.

Great book. Not only should all assistant professors read it, but it should be required reading for all new doctoral students no matter what discipline. It illuminates the way universities actually work and details common pitfalls into which people entering the profession (academe and the professoriate)can fall. In addition, the reader is given an insider's look into one of the major research universities in the world (Stanford). It has the bonus of being extremely well written and a pleasure to read. Again, great book.

As an academic aspirant, I read this book with diligence and thoroughness. Twice. Donald Kennedy has an impressive academic achievement as an environmental scientist, along with institutional leadership experience as former President of Stanford University. In this book-inspired by a conviction of the need for academic aspirants to know the true workings of the academia- various duties of members of the academia are elaborated and modern day issues facing the universities are dissected. However, after reading the book twice, as excited as I was with the book, there were some deficiencies.

Traditionally, the roles of a professor in a university have been to teach and to research, with different emphasis on the two roles, in different universities. With this as an accepted view, Kennedy further breaks down the roles of the academic into mentoring, institutional service, publishing, as symbols of truthfulness and perhaps, closest to his heart, as agents of change.

In the 303 pages, Kennedy warns the current and the future members of the need to balance academic duty with academic freedom. With no implicit arguments, he stressed the need to re-focus on undergraduate teaching, a central role of universities. The members of the academia are not only teachers but also mentors and influential role models of the students in institutions of higher learning.

He also questions the current style and intensity of producing Phd students, the majority of whom make up the future professoriate. Kennedy exposes truths about the over-production of PhD students; the subsequent failure of many to break into the academia; the lack of teaching training for those who eventually become young professors.

What is personally the most exciting discussion was without doubt the one on research, research misconduct and the pursuit of truth. Kennedy carefully elaborates examples of the difficulty of research with appropriate stories of fictional but realistic characters. However, as a student of social sciences, I was nonetheless disappointed that many of the examples were in the field of sciences and there was no significant discussion of the field of social sciences or humanities. Added to that, there were hardly any examples of Kennedy's own experiences in research. Perhaps, the author thought that any personal experiences were materials insufficient to demonstrate the arguments or that he was uncomfortable in using his own experiences as examples. Either way, I felt that lessons of his own research experiences would have been very enlightening.

However, this short book has powerful insights and lessons for the future members of the academia, not excepting me. Somehow, after reading this book, I understand the fallacy of the ivory tower. Much of the universities' world, as a scholarly enterprise, lofty in their pursuit of truths and free of political man-handling, has changed into an institution under public scrutiny and subjected to public accountability. This book has inspired me to write a piece for a scholarship application. Despite the challenges to be faced by hopeful academics, the resolve is still strong in me to become one and that is, I believe, the essence of this book-the academia, despite its pitfalls, will always be sustained in its important mission of education and discovery, by future members, themselves the product of that mission.

It is the best book to be fowarded to the students all over the world

It is the best book to be fowarded to the students all over the world

It is the best book to be fowarded to the students all over the world

It is the best book to be fowarded to the students all over the world

This is a fairly good book, although I didn't think so on first looking at it. I bought it having done little research into my other options (e.g., Princeton Review, Cliffs AP, etc.), and I discarded it soon after buying it.

However, I picked it up again a couple weeks before the AP exam to review (I had also since bought two other AP Euro books, Princeton Review's and Cliffs AP's; I recommend the latter, but not the former) and discovered that it's actually a very good book. I especially liked the practice tests, which seemed very authentic to me (I just glanced at the free-response questions) and the auxiliary material, such as a list of historical movies.

i've used closly 3 AP euro books, and this is BY FAR the best one. it has the perfect amount of detail not a ridiculous amount but defently enough, and coveres all the topics to perfection. the author barber still teaches AP euro and from what i've read his students do great on the test. i take the test this may and i'm hpoing to do very well thanks mostly to this book.

I had 4 Euro books. REA, Arco, Princeton, and Barron's.
All four had their strong points. I'll list those:

Arco

A great review book. Has a concise and quick review. The timelines at the end of each chapter are great to get the idea of when everything occurred. The test were real good too.

Princeton

If only getting one book, this would probably be the one. Longer reviews than Arco but shorter than REA. Bolds keywords which is really good. This book probably had the best questions matching the test.

REA

This book has a lot of information. Longest and most detailed by far. It is like a textbook. It has six tests. The tests are almost all fact based. It is a very good book. THis book and Arco are good counterparts.

Barron's

It only has one review. The reviews aren't very lengthy. Only good thing about this book is that it has questions about each section after the chapters. It helps with the class preparing for specific tests. Only advantage this book has over the others.

I am a junior and I'm in AP European History and this book has helped me soooo much! I feel more prepared for my class and the unit tests!

I think I read all of Max Schulman's books while attending Florida State University in 1947, the year FSU was born. Until then, except for The Holy Bible, I had read little fiction and suddenly realized what I'd been missing. The best part was talking with girls about my new reading habit. It apparently impressed them and I got laid a lot. Thanks, Max.

At the suggestion of my father, who read the book while in the AirCorp in WWII, I decided to read this book. I believe it to be one of the funniest books I have ever read! It is a timeless classic about a small town boy and his transition into college life. It covers all the problems that freshman face: going to see an advisor for suggestions on classes, the courses themselves, the attempt to make friends, the different type of people one meets on a university campus, and the homesickness one feels for their family and an old love. This book is a well written comedy that you will not be able to put down!

When I was in high school I was a big fan of the writer Max Shulman. He published "Barefoot Boy With Cheek" in 1943 when he was in his early twenties, a new graduate of the University of Minnesota. ("The University of Minnesota is, of coure, wholly imaginary.") There he had earned a reputation as the editor of "Ski-U-Mah," the campus humor magazine. He published a half dozen novels, two of which became musical comedies on Broadway, while two others became television series and movies. He is probably best known for "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which became a successful TV series, and "The Tender Trap," a movie starring Debbie Reynolds.

I recently came across a well-worn copy of "Barefoot Boy---" in a used-book store and read it again. It's an outrageous satire of college life, a story of the hilarious freshman year of Asa Hearthrug at the (imaginary) University of Minnesota.

"St. Paul and Minneapolis extend from the Mississippi River like the legs on a pair of trousers. Where they join is the University of Minnesota."

Asa is promptly registered into a liberal arts program in order to become a "well rounded-out personality," and is then recruited into the Alpha Cholera fraternity, where he emotionally joins in singing the frat song:

"Stand, good men, take off your hat
To Alpha Cholera, our swell frat.
In our midst you'll find no rat,
And don't let anyone tell you that."

He soon meets Yetta Samovar, and is promptly recruited into the Minnesota Chapter of the Subversive Elements League, where he emotionally joins in singing:

"Workers, workers,
Don't be shirkers,
There's a job we have to do.
Flee your prison,
Collectivism
Is the thing for you to do."

Back at Alpha Cholera he gets invited to a sorority song-title party at Beta Thigh, which he attends as "Tea for Two," with a silver tea service balanced on his head. His date, arranged by his frat brother, is the beautiful Noblesse Oblige, whose song title costume includes a smudge pot attached to her navel. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," of course!

Asa becomes torn between Noblesse, the fraternity, and the Belongers, or Yetta, the Subversives, and the Unbelongers.

He loses his bid as the dark horse candidate for the student council, flunks all his classes, and returns to his home at Whistlestop and his girlfriend Lodestone La Toole.

Each chapter of the book is preceded by a penetrating quotation in French or Latin, like the one I chose as the title for this review.

An appreciation, or at least a tolerance, for silliness and absurdity is the minimum requirement to enjoy this outrageous satire of college life. I will highly recommend the book to those with that appreciation or tolerance.

You may or may not be aware of this characteristic of Minnesota Scandinavians: We LOVE to make fun of ourselves!

I first read this book in high school (in the mid '50's). I still haven't stopped laughing when I think about it. I want my h/s son to read it, since he's thinking about going to college soon. I think Asa's adventures would help him. Or, have I misspelled "Asa's name." I sure hope not. It's a great book, really, and are Shulman's others.

To let a multibillion dollar creation escape from you is something hard to get over. "Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Face Book Era" is Aaron Greenspan's amazing story of having developed the enormously popular Face Book software, only to let it escape from his grasp to the benefit of others. Greenspan candidly lays out the inherently fascinating story of his life - the memoir of an idealistic young man with huge dreams and an innovative idea -- only to be betrayed and have his creation stolen from him, then exploited for millions. "Authoritas" is a highly recommended look behind the famous Face Book website, and a recommended addition to academic and community library Biography collections.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

That is the famous line from Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, Catch 22.

Authoritas is the autobiography of Aaron Greenspan's adventures growing up in Shaker Heights, then attending Harvard, and then finding himself in Harvard's 21st-century version of Heller's Catch 22.

Authoritas is an interesting, fast paced and a times humorous read.

While at Harvard, Greenspan develops by all accounts the very first version of what is now the international website "Facebook."

Aaron Greenspan writes very well and really knows computing. With that combination I think we will be hearing a lot from Mr. Greenspan in the future.

Heller's John Yossarian would have loved reading Authoritas.

This book is odd. It's well written and the narrative is compelling; enough for me to read it all in one go.

The stories of inadequate ego-driven teachers and students early on in the book are relayed well. The book's exposure of incompetence, back-scratching and favoritism from supposedly upstanding academic leaders is excellent. This is a good reason to read this book, and for excellently depicting an often overlooked part of academic life, this book deserves 4 stars.

The problem is, that's not why I bought the book. I was expecting a book about the "founding of the Facebook era" as the sub-title suggests. This, however, is certainly not a focus. From 335 pages in all, the name "Mark Zuckerberg" first appears on page 287, and any facts relating to Facebook's rise are within only the last 40 pages, mixed with of indignation.

Initially the author developed a system called CriticalMass that allowed students to rate their satisfaction of different academics at Harvard. Textbook Central, a textbook trading site, followed. Another system called FAStWebmail allowed Harvard students to access their official Harvard e-mail accounts over the Web. These were eventually rolled into a system called houseSYSTEM that included some other features like course preselection and calendars.

For a few chapters after explaining how these systems were developed, the focus is on how the administration and some other students considered houseSYSTEM to be insecure and flawed, due to its pseudo-requirement to have users' official Harvard passwords (in order for the webmail function to work) and a lack of proper SSL (HTTPS) security.

In dealing with these concerns the author showed a lack of technical knowledge. He protested that only an MD-5 hash of users' passwords were stored, but if this were the case, how did his system then access the users' official e-mail accounts? The author doesn't provide a proper level of detail to make a judgment as an independent reader, and the way he portrays it may just be very poor.

The author also says "Brian Wong is telling people that MD-5 generates 16-byte hashes, when it doesn't! There are 32 characters in all of them! Each ASCII character is one byte!" MD-5 generates a 16 byte hash (128 bits). That a textual hexadecimal representation of that 16 byte hash takes 32 characters does not make it a "32 byte hash."

The author has a habit of "quoting" his mental monologue, nearly all of which is negative in nature, and assuming whoever he's talking to is either an idiot or out to get him. The author's paranoia (warranted or not) permeates the last half of this book enough to make for uneasy reading. He also jumps to exaggerated conclusions. Shortly after the initial security concerns, the university decides that Greenspan needs to delete the password hashes he had collected so far and "forward the list of all those whose information you have collected" in order that those students could have their passwords reset. Instead of complying with this reasonable request, the author rants about how the users table has other information like phone numbers in it and asks "What, do they want those, too?" The e-mail he quotes requested a list of people who signed up for his site, not other details. This doesn't stop the author from eventually sending the whole user table anyway!

On the SSL issue, the text implies that a self-signed certificate was used, but the author appears not to understand the identification issues with this (though those who e-mail him appear to). It's a common theme that the author quotes well-thought-out e-mails and refutes them poorly. He argues that a wildcard certificate would be necessary - costing some $1000, though InstantSSL had them for under $500 at the time - not realizing he could use a regular SSL certificate (under $50) for the password transfer (the parts where security really counted), and a wildcard cookie for cross sub-domain authentication beyond that.

On Facebook, he seems to feel that Zuckerberg's developments, though independent, were a rip off of his own even though Zuckerberg is constantly quoted as remaining separate. houseSYSTEM did have a "face book" feature where pictures of students were located along with their names, but this had no social networking aspect. Zuckerberg's did. Nothing the author relays gives me the impression he "founded" the "Facebook" era.

On page 302, I feel that Greenspan attempts to blackmail Facebook. Despite considering Zuckerburg "inarticulate and naive," he suggested that he join Facebook. When told they needed an engineer with 15 years' experience, Greenspan highlighted Facebook's problems with ConnectU (who were suing Facebook for allegedly copying their idea and stealing code) and suggested that he had "grounds to sue both of you" before suggesting that if Facebook would hire him, he'd be on their side and help the lawsuit go away.

The last 20 pages are dire. The author claims that having a full Facebook profile "would have meant I endorsed intellectual property theft" without realizing that information willingly shared is not "thieved."

Lastly, the author appears to rub most people in the book up the wrong way. Other than his closest associates and his family, almost every social interaction seems to result in the author antagonizing someone or being ignored. In most cases, he relies on his father to write e-mails and letters on his behalf (mostly unsuccessfully), rather than fight his own battles. "If Mark can get $2 billion for my ideas, I should at least be able to get a couple million!" sums up what I see as a jealous, paranoid individual who, as it happens, has written a gripping and interesting book.

As good as this book is, I sense Greenspan isn't the sort of person to get over his envy and indignation, and it saddens me that his personality appears to restrict him from achieving all that he could be.

At some levels, the book is just an absolutely engaging story. At other levels, it shines a harsh light on uncaring, uncreative, and unimaginative people involved at administrative levels of education. At times, you'll be astounded at the depths educational administrators go to squash creativity, deny entrepreneurship, and cover themselves at the expense of providing service to education.

Aaron Greenspan graduated from Harvard. And although he is a successful CEO of his own company (Think Computer), his success came despite his Harvard education. In Authoritas you'll find Aaron struggle to avoid the crushing of the human spirit and the crushing of the innate desire to learn and his determination to provide compassionate assistance to his autistic brother.

Aaron's story is personal, engaging, and important.