Services Books

If you're looking for a concise and throughout book in C programming. Don't look further!
I wouldn't recommend it for beginners though (as the title says it's for advanced programmers)! If you're beginner I'd recommend to start with C in 21 days from Sams publishing or similar book.

This may be the best book I have ever bought for any language! Very well written with examples of the features of the C language that you will use everyday. This book assumes that you know the basics of the language. There should be a book like this for every programming language. I especially appreciated the parts on pointers, memory management, and data structures. This book is sure to turn the some-what experienced C programmer into a real pro with good style and good problem analysis skills. It has helped me get passed the basics and move on to the next level with a solid knowledge base and confidence. Buy it if you can find it! Worth every penny and more!

I own hundreds of programming texts and this is by far one of my very favorites, and my absolute favorite book on C.

This book tackles the tougher issues of C programming in great detail, with concise and self-contained examples you can type in directly, compile and run (many books only provide code sections, not entire programs).

Each chapter includes quiz questions that are just difficult enough to challenge the reader, but not so difficult that you will skip over them. I found the quizes to be very useful.

This book is pleasantly slim (although dense). Does anyone really read those 800 page books? I don't. This book will take you a long time, as the content is dense, but you can actually read the whole book and get a sense of completion.

I also enjoyed the author's commentary on C and other programming languages.

I'm really amazed that more people do not own this book.

The title of this fantastic book is misleading since the author's name is John Perry NOT Example. Who's Example? It should have been called "Advanced C Programming by John W. Perry" :)

Also, John Perry shouldn't be confused with Greg Perry, the guy who wrote -among many other books- a similarly entitled beginner's book called "C by Example" in the Que series. Both claim to have been written by Example, but have been written by different programmers who are possibly relatives? Or are totally unrelated, but have same last names and almost identical book titles. strange... ;)

I've got a few C-programming books, but this is the one that I love best of all. It is a gem of a book that resonates with simple, crystal-clear explanations on topics so seemingly difficult to understand in the classic book by Kernighan and Ritchie. I would recommend using these two books together.

What makes this book even more entertaining and readable is that Perry is not afraid to lay on his idiosyncrasies regarding the practice of programming. There is a little hiccup, though, when he recommends the use of gets() and sscanf() together for nearly all input of strings from the terminal: gets() is widely known to be inferior to fgets(), and sscanf() is not discussed in the book at all!

But all in all, a book that deserves full marks.

An excellent primer for a psychotherapist who uses art for evaluation and treatment in psychotherapy.

This is an informative book for Art Therapists or those interested in learning more about Art Therapy. It is written in a easy, readable manner. I am an Art Therapist and I used it a lot when doing research for a presentation and found it very helpful.

Having found myself a little out of depth as regards people needing release from pain and stress, I have found the practicality of this book invaluable. It has opened my eyes to understand a lot more of the history of art therapy, and the exercises are helpful. I found the pictures included also enable one to grasp some of the concepts within the text and the layout of the book makes it exciting reading.

Usually these types of books are theoritical (for example why art therapy works) while this one is practical with many activities to work with.

This book is very useful for the beginner of art therapy.

This book was one of those ones that you just don't put down because you are so eager to see what happens next. I hate getting taken advantage of by retail sellers and service providers, so this book helped me understand their MOs and figure out how to get help from them to get satisfaction. Can't go wrong here - I'm loading up for Christmas presents.

I enjoyed this book so much. Barbara has a great sense of humor and you can't put the book down. What will she do next! It's helped me in many situations with businesses and made asking painless.

Do you feel cheated when it comes to customer service? If you do, then you might enjoy this book about getting complete satisfaction when dealing with business. Whether it's a replacement for a defective product; a complimentary product or service; or a complete refund, this guide explains what to do for maximum customer benefit.

The majority of businesses are ethical and provide good products and services, but there is always going to be the occasional exception. When things don't go the way they should, you need to take prompt action to get the situation remedied. This book emphasizes the importance of ASKING for what is due to you, as a customer. Businesses want customers to be happy, but they are not going to come to you when things don't work out. You must take the initiative and explain your dissatisfaction to the business. You will never get anywhere if you don't begin by asking.

Besides the emphasis on asking, this book is loaded with examples of customer service mishaps, defective product encounters, and sloppy service experiences. In each instance, the book explains what was done to correct the problem and what results were achieved. In most every case, the business agreed to correct the problem in some way- either by replacing the product, offering a discount on a future visit, or giving a full refund.

Most of what you read in this book is common sense and unless you don't have any skill dealing with people and customer service reps specifically, you will likely find only a small amount of value in this book. I found it to be ok, but nothing special since I already have gotten into the habit of speaking up with things go wrong.

This book is a good motivational tool, if nothing else. The first step to achieving customer satisfaction is to ask for it. If you don't do this, you will never get what you want. And this book does a good job in the way it emphasizes the importance of asking. Don't settle for bad products or services. If you don't like what you got, ask the company to make it better. You'll be surprised how quickly they respond.

This book gave me some fun, useful tips on how to assert myself as a consumer in an often treacherous marketplace. It helped me to realize that I have rights as a consumer to get what I am paying for. The author also emphasizes that businesses like to please customers, and will often go to great lengths to do so. I will no longer feel uncomfortable about asking for the best price or best interest rate or best whatever. This book gave me the tools to feel confident and to deal with businesses nicely so that both me and the salesperson walk away feeling good (and I save money!). This book will be on my Christmas gift-giving list. I know my mom will love it.

This book leaves nothing unchallenged. Barbara does NOT take No for an answer. She probes and questions till businesses are worn down and give her what she wants. She's not intimidated by their usual tactics -- "It's not company policy," "No one has ever asked before--" yadda, yadda. She's daring and audacious and shows us how we can ask too, without changing or going through a special program. Just by reading the book, you get empowered and start Asking, not being cowed and intimidated. The bullets on the cover don't do the book justice. It's a lot more than getting deals, but an empowerment and a way to not feel helpless in the marketplace. Plus, the book is such fun and easy to read.

I have been looking for this book EVERYWHERE! My problem was that I didn't remember the title correctly. I first read this book 13 years ago when I was 12. I remember Just falling in love with it. the next 3 years I would go back andre check it out several times. I know it is probably a simple read for me now, but its one of those books that I loved so much, I memorized the whole story.
I love the characters and their special bond with each other. In the beginning, you get to see how normal they are. they're just teens with the normal stresses of other teens(except for the prince who has to deal with all the pressure that brings)
and its interesting how their"episodes" just become a normal part of life. I could go on and on and basically retell the story, so all I will say, is that it is an easy read that you won't be able to put down.

Connie ("I hate Constance") Hendrix and Rudolph (Rudy) - the crown prince of the ficticious Thulgaria - were born at the same moment, with brain waves that are nearly identical, though this is theoretically impossible. These similarities, besides making them the best of friends, even across vast distances, also give them the special gift of sharing their minds by telepathy. It was during one of these involuntary sharings that Connie is witness to Rudy's kidnapping and is the only one who can help him.

Although the plot is fantasy / sci-fi in nature, just about anyone will enjoy this wonderful story. In fact, I think this is probably the first fantasy book that I read. Hmm, and ten years later I'm still reading it! Definitely a must read!

I read this book as the mother of an advanced reading 8 yr. old and was very pleased to see a book with action and adventure WITHOUT the sex, swearing and other things so many today think is necessary to tell a story. I'd like to write the author personally to thank her!

it was pretty short, but completely aweseom! i enjoyed every words of it. Connie and Rudy are so neat. i loved the idea of sharing minds! DEFINATELY RECOMENDED!!!!!!!!!

One of the many books that pushed me into enjoying the science fiction genre. The concept for this book is incredibly original and really appealed to me when I was younger and still appeals to me many years later.

This story alternates between the point of view of the two main characters - Connie, a typical American teen and Rudy, the crown prince of a small (fictional) European country. They share a secret bond that no one else is aware of - they suffer headaches and fainting spells, but when one passes out they enter the other's mind and share what they see and hear. The 'visitor' cannot communicate with them, but the 'awake' teen is aware of the other's presence in their mind. Both guard their secret relationship fiercly until one night Rudy is kidnapped while Connie is 'with' him and she has to convince her family, and his, so that she can help to rescue him.

Connie and Rudy are both extremely well developed characters. The plot is well developed and keeps the reader involved to the very end.

Something about the idea of occasionally co-existing with someone from so far away and sharing a relationship that is so close and so private is really appealing, despite the problems it caused the main characters. Every kid wants a friend who truly understands them and this is a great manifestation of that desire.

As a sole adult responsible for my elderly mother, I found DeGraff's book to be my best friend. Prior to getting this book, I felt like a ship at sea without a rudder. Now I have direction, confidence, and clarity when it comes to making decisions for her and for me. It is a resource that offered great ideas and perspective to support her quality of life, at the same time,ensuring my own quality of life.

This book helped me understand that I'm the one in charge. The caregivers work for me and I see now that I need to take more control of the situations. It's a great resource for all aspects of people management.

This book is a treasure of facts and helps for any family member, friend, or professional seeking caregiver/personal assistant care for another, or for an individual seeking such care for him/herself. The book is reader friendly and proceeds in logical steps. The information is practical and useable. Compassion for and insight into the feelings of the care receiver are a part of the writing and this is invaluable to all as they move through the process of finding caregiver/personal assistants. The author "thought of everything" and addresses every question one could have because he has been in the situation of finding care for himself and knows what does and does not work. His expertise and information will be a welcome and comprehensive guide to anyone who needs to find, hire and manage caregiver or personal assistant help.

As indicated by the title, this book gives you all the information you need to "Find, Hire and Manage the People Who Help You (or your Loved One!). The author speaks from profound personal experience of his more than 30 years of living as a high level quadriplegic. As one who has know Mr. DeGraff since early in that experience, I have followed him as he has gone through rehabilitation, college, graduate school and beyond to where he is today and can readily vouch for his abilities. No detail has been left out of this remarkable publication.

Finally, DeGraff has a new book! He is THE authority on personal care assistance, and I trust his experience, wisdom and advice. We have waited for this new edition for several years, and we find it chocked full of practical how-to's. This is a must for families seeking advice on managing care at home, for students and for health care workers. This book should be required reading for legislators and public policy advocates because this provides practical, up-to-date, relevant information for real-life settings; and it reminds us that legislation must support independent living and home care. With the graying of America, more and more people are going to realize the value of living at home with effectively managed personal care. Agency care often does not work, and it is not aimed at promoting the care recipients' need for independence, respect and wholesomeness. Managing care at home provides sensible and healthy options -- and DeGraff's expertise and advice shows how to go about it. This is learning from the best! Margaret A. Short, Ph.D.

Cause for Success recently won FIRST place for "Best Business Book" at the Nautilus 2005 Awards ceremony that honored books that contribute significantly to conscious living and positive social change.

According to the editors at Marilyn McGuire & Associates, Inc., the company that hosted the awards: "There is hardly a wasted word in this succinct homage to ten corporate exemplars who prove that "conscious business" is not an oxymoron. These high-purpose companies are changing the face - and the principles - of standard business practice with a diversity of commitments to ethics, partnership, economic justice, environmental wisdom, and service to a greater good. In a world of rampant corporate malfeasance, it's heartening to know that companies with a soul do exist, and are thriving because of it."

Cause for Success was a most inspiring book. Ms. Arena helped me to realize even more ways to better run my business. It helps to know that the big guys are working hard to do what they can too.

Thank you Ms. Arena for writing an articulate, interesting and exciting book.

As a corporate social responsibility professional, I am always reading to expand my CSR tool belt. "Cause for Success" proudly joins my list of "must read". In her book, Ms. Arena provides specific examples of the strong business case and social need for corporate citizenship. Each case study includes valuable reflections from business executives, and measured outcomes of the organizations program. While the entire book is worth reading, Ms. Arena also provides several boxes in each case study that highlight program components and quotes that are extremely useful for future reference. For me, it is a great tool that will assit me in presenting the case for CSR initiatives in an enterprise. Thank you Ms. Arena.

"Cause for Success presents fascinating insights into a new paradigm for business success in the twenty-first century. It shows how a leading set of "high-purpose" companies moved beyond charitable giving and used constructive social engagement as the central means of improving their performance in the marketplace."
- Bradley Abelow, Global Head of Operations, Goldman Sachs

"At a time when business confidence is depleted and cynicism about corporate conduct rampant, Christine Arena raises our sights and expectations. She reminds us that the companies which seek to make both a difference and a profit are the same ones that attract the most gifted, committed and ambitious people. The cycle of virtue she describes is rooted in real case studies, not wishful thinking. Cause for Success is a cause for cerebration as well as celebration."
- Richard D. Parsons, Chairman and CEO, Time Warner

"I loved this book. It will help all leaders redefine success in broader, longer-term ways previously overlooked in traditional business analysis."
- Jonathan S. Lavine, Managing Director, Bain Capital

"The way that businesses are run has a profound impact on the lives of pretty well everyone in the world, including those in the poorest countries. Christine Arena's book shows through the use of inspirational examples that companies and their leaders can establish a powerful new role for business in society. An important call to arms for all business executives to recognize the vital responsibility they have in this world."
- Philip Rowley, President, AOL Europe

"Cause for Success demonstrates the power of innovation and leadership. CEOs that recognize the true costs to communities and the planet of unfair or unsafe business practices, and who therefore commit themselves to a better way, have actually built highly profitable and widely respected companies. By examining several well known and widely regarded examples, the author effectively argues that it is in fact the commitment to do the right thing that has differentiated these companies and driven their success."
- Amy Domini, President, the Domini Social Equity Fund

"In the face of mounting evidence of a world in disequilibrium, the compelling stories in Cause for Success inspire hope. They are stories of visionary leaders who are "redefining normal" in the business world, creating and nurturing companies that serve society. They remind us that it really is within our power to walk more lightly on this Earth."
- Liz Dowdeswell, President, Nuclear Waste Management Organization

"When you Google "success" the first hit should be Cause for Success! This is a rare book: interesting leaders, packed with useful knowledge, and well written and edited. Read it. Keep it close."
- John O'Neil, President, The Center for Leadership Renewal; and Author, The Paradox of Success

"An inspiring, compelling and highly readable set of stories about courageous corporate executives who have demonstrated beyond any doubt that social responsibility and a commitment to sustainability not only make the world a better place but also drive a better bottom line. This is a book that makes you excited about the powerfully positive role that corporate America is capable of playing in these perilous times."
- Tony Schwartz, Bestselling Author, What Really Matters

"Cause for Success makes a compelling case that the great companies of the future will be companies that have integrated the motive for profit with the imperative to care about their community and the environment. The common good and private gain are not contradictions but complements for skillfully navigating an integrating world."
- Jim Garrison, President, State of the World Forum; and Author, America As Empire

This terrific book clearly demonstrates how great companies achieved greatness - financially and socially - by taking on some of the world's worst problems. It defies critics who still contend that social responsibility is unrelated to business performance, and sets a higher standard that made me expect more, not only from my business, but from other companies that I support. It's one of the best books I've read this year.

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

This can be a very helpful starting point for your travel planning, containing useful information about many attractive, special places in Italy. In this modern era, however, it is also important for the reader to leap to the Internet for additional information before making those reservations.

That done, you will discover that there are several potentially disappointing errors in this book, most notably the transposition of the photos for the magnificent Villa San Michele (Fiesole; attributed to Michelangelo) with the Hotel San Michele in Cortona. The former is one of the most beautiful and expensive hotels in Tuscany, standing atop a hillside overlooking Florence. The Cortona San Michele (while quite nice) is a more modest, affordable hotel, on a steep, narrow city street. One can only imagine the dismay for the visitors who arrive in Cortona, expecting the first, and found themselves at the latter! "Certainly doesn't look like its photo, now does it?"

Tighter editing--- and diligent reader investigation-- is essential. But all totalled, a recommended starting point for travel planning, especially if you recall that ancient Roman admonition, "Caveat Emptor!"

Great descriptions, unbelievable quality photos; compact. Never having visited Italy befoe, we wanted to travel in teh countryside, in Tuscany and the Lake District. We used the 'Editor's Choices'. Our first stay at Villa Simplicitas near Lake Como was perfect, like we were visiting friends, fabulous service and food, locally made aperitifs. It was inexpensive and fabulous. Just perfect. It set the tone for the trip, and what a relief to find, after driving from Milano and flying in from California. We stayed at other places and were perfectly informed by this guide. There's nothing as valuable as relief from worry when traveling in a foreign city, without speaking the language well.

Originally published in 1995, this book was updated in 1999. My wife, who is in the Navy, found it in Singapore when her ship visited there. It is a wonderful book with delicious recipes, well explained procedures and clear illustrations, that calls for easily accessible ingredients -- no need to go to the non-existent "Indian foods store" all the other cookbooks send you to. Recipes are detailed and well-explained. I have over fifty books on Indian and South/Southeast Asian cooking in my library (most of them gathering dust), and this is by far the best. I use it every week, and friends and work colleagues demand the recipes. This is a book for the beginner and pro alike. I lived in London for years and had a lot of curry, and the results of these recipes taste authentic and are uniformly delicious. A great book!

I would recommend this book to someone who is not familiar with Indian cooking but enjoys the cuisine. It gives a basic idea of Indian cooking methods and Indian spices....people can play around with it a little to come up with variations on their own. I've cooked almost 50% of the recipes in it and have been satisfied with the result on 75% of them....not a bad record.
In case you're wondering, this review comes from an Indian who bought this book as soon as she got married to obtain a few Indian recipes. But now, I just look at the book to inspire me with new ideas.

Excellent pictures that guide you to delicious Indian Cooking, with useful tips, a great gift for a new bride

I am a native Indian; I LOVE this book. The dishes come out tasting VERY real; like a restaurant or even an Indian 'Dhaba'. I gave my copy to a friend for his wedding and have regretted my decision; I CANT FIND IT. Please help me someone.

I am a Native Indian and immigrated to this country and loved this book and all its illustrations and wish I could find it.

PLEASE HELP. Publisher please reprint.

More good fun from Chester Himes. On the plus side, he finally includes some entertaining sex. On the other hand, one of the main bad guys here (the "Colonel") is particularly flat and unbelievable. Also, as usual, the end is much less satisfying than the ride to get there.

The dialogue, the action, the characters, it's Harlem world and it's all here! What else do you want?

Chester B. Himes wrote a series of "Hard Boiled" detective novels set in Harlem during the the 1950's and 60's. His two main protagonists were "Coffin Ed" Johnson and "Grave Digger" Jones, a couple of black police detectives operating in the seedy underworld of Harlem and New York City. Himes himself had served time for armed robbery in Ohio. While in prison he first read the works of Dashiell Hammet("The Maltese Falcon","The Thin Man",etc.)and decided that he could write similar fiction set in Harlem's vibrant African-American culture. He moved to France after his prison release and then began to write (in French!) his own brand of mysteries set in the New York City section that had become world famous for it's culture, nightlife and intellectual renaissance. The first of these mysteries was "A Rage in Harlem"(first published in French as "For Love of Imabelle" in 1959). Coffin Ed and Grave Digger were only minor characters in this first novel, but by the time of the 5th novel "Cotton Comes to Harlem" they were the stars of the series.

In "Cotton..." a ex con named Deke O'Hara scams $87,000 from a group of families who want to go to Africa to start a new life free from segregation and prejudice. Before O'Hara can abscond with the money a group of white gunmen steal it in the middle of the "Back to Africa" rally O'Hara is hosting and then escape. All this takes place in the first few pages, and the action only steps up the pace from that point on. Cotton Ed and Grave Digger are assigned to the case, and their brand of brutal, violent police work may not be always legal, but they have their own code of honor, which demands that they do all in their power to see to it that the families get their money back, as in most of the cases it amounts to their life savings. Through a maze of deceit and treachery filled with white supremacists, voluptuous women, scam artists, underworld informants, and real to life street people the two cops thread their way with both violence and guile. I won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say that Himes delivers.

The book was made into a movie in 1970 which played up the humorous aspects of the book. While there is much mordant and cynical humor in Himes' writing, the book is much more than that, and deserves a place in the "Hard Boiled Detective" Hall of Fame. If you like this one I would recommend Himes' other works, especially "The Real Cool Killers".

A definite 5 stars.

This novel has some of the same characters as Himes' Rage in Harlem. This is not a sequel and it is not imperitve that you read "Rage" first, but I think that you will like this book more if you have read about Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones in the early novel.

... The book doesn't concern Bible Flowers. It's about the efforts of two black detectives, "Grave Digger" Jones and "Coffin Ed" Johnson, to recover $87,000 in money stolen from a con-man/storefront preacher in 1960s Harlem. Along the way, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed encounter a few murders, a southern colonel, and a 50-pound bale of cotton.

Raymond Chandler wrote that detectives must walk the mean streets, but they must not themselves be mean. Well, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed walk the mean streets just fine, but the "not being mean" part gives them trouble; they doubt the feasibility of solving a case without, say, slapping around a few witnesses or firing a few shots into a crowd. Despite the detectives' unhesitating brutality, this novel compares well to the best of Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker. This is due not only to the spot-on dialogue and the stark, vivid character depictions, but also the detectives' uncompromising determination to bring justice to Harlem. The plot is better, i.e., less predictable, than any of Parker's, and Himes's depiction of 1960s Harlem is so bizarre, yet compelling, that it invites comparison to Carl Hiassen's Florida rather than Chandler's LA. Add to this Himes's unique, excruciatingly honest depiction of race relations in the 1960s, and you have one of the best detective novels I have read in years.

...

I would like not to see the parallels. Any rational and compassionate person should like not to see the parallels. But the parallels are there, and Miller lays them bare in this devastating and meticulous extended analogy.

This is an astonishing book. Its thesis is provocative, to say the least, and it may not be for everyone -- but if you've ever wondered if just maybe our current federal drug policy wasn't delivering quite what you'd hoped, crack this book open and prepare to lose sleep.

The author has done the work and now the citizens must spread the "gospel". Like a seer Lawrence is able to anticipate the insane trajectory of where this drug war is leading. Though the picture he paints is ugly, if these drug warrior zealots are not vigorously challenged now he clearly shows how much uglier it will become. The evil of Nazi Germany and that of the US drug war are clearly shown to progress via the same chain of events: identification, ostracism, confiscation, concentration, and the final solution ie annihilation. Miller is an American hero doing the best he can to awaken conciousness.

This is one of the most powerful books I've read in a long time. Richard L. Miller deserves an award. In this book, the author details the erosion of civil liberties by the current war on drugs. For those familiar with this area, he trots out the typical points: harsh penalties for minor violations and loss of civil liberties for all.

But what makes this book special is the author's analysis of legal issues and history. Richard Miller is an independent scholar who has written about Nazi justice (in "Nazi Justiz"). I thought his application of Nazi jurisprudence to the drug war was overkill at first. Little did I know just how wrong I was. As one reviewer put it, this book will help you lose weight.

What sets this book above the others on the drug war is that Miller explains how the war effects the innocent, and how innocence is no longer an adequate defense. In fact, Miller has a Justice Department official quoted as saying that innocence was not a defense to forfeiture of assets. He argues that asset forfeiture has corrupted law enforcement at all levels.

In one example, Miller tells of an elderly couple in one California county who owned a mutil-million dollar ranch adjacent to a national park. Apparently, the Park Service wanted the land, the local law enforcement the assets (in the form of the house, possessions, etc.). Thus, police had to get a warrant to raid the property. First, they searched it illegally. This is a typical tactic of DEA agents and local law enforcement, who search a house and either plant or discover evidence that they can use to get a warrent later. Regardless, the courts have determined that even illegal searches and seizures are acceptable in the war on drugs. All of this is documented in the book. Even in the illegal search, no drugs were discovered. An elderly couple, go figure?

If you think that stopped the police, DEA, et al., then you haven't read the book. One local officer testified before a judge that "thousands" of marijuana plants were being cultivated on the property. This testimony was based on a lie told to the officer by another. Although both were aware of the lie (and the couple's complete innocence of ANYTHING), this way neither officer could be chared with perjury. Needless to say, the judge issued the warrant.

During the raid, the husband was sleeping. He was roused awake by his wife's screaming and was shot to death as he put down his rifle, which he had becuase he thought he was being robbed and was defending his wife. The agents participating in the raid evicted the wife. Even agents of the U.S. Park Service were involved, in case you doubted their complicity.

It gets better. The location of the ranch was in a different county than the one in which the local police were from! They went out of their own jurisdiction for the express purpose of seizing property from people THEY KNEW were innocent. All of this was expressed by the county prosecutor (where the ranch was), when he said that they appeared to be motivated by a desire to obtain the property and assests of its owners.

This book is meticulously documented and researched. The analysis of the legal issues with references to the Nuremburg Tribunal and Nazi legal principles is stunning. As well as his telling of the internment of Japenese-Americans to demonstrate how segments of society can be treated if the propaganda warriors desire their elimination.

If you're not enraged by the time you're finished reading this book, your heart is dead.

This is one of the best books I have read. I am against prohibition. Many people are but whenever the subject comes up in conversation the retort to my sugestion that prohibition be repealed is typically something along the line of "all you want to do is smoke pot" ...followed by some chuckling and then some stories about the days when we use to get high as kids.
This book is not about smoking pot. It is about the use of the drug war and prohibition law to circumvent Americans civil liberties. It is very well written. It helped me to form reasonable counter arguments to the for mentioned statement such as... "is it OK to strip search a child?"
This book is made even more relative when used as background material to analyze what I witness while watching the Judge Alito confirmatio hearings.
The scariest part of this book is watching the events described come alive right before our eyes on C-span.
I think you should read this if you, like me, suspect that something is rotten in Denmark and the official version of what is happening just isn't making sense.

This book is an anomaly amidst the typical drug policy literature available. Miller's argument stems from his scholarship on Nazism. He applies Raul Hilberg's "chain of destruction" to the current "war," not on drugs, but on drug users. William Bennett was less than secretive about his abhorrence for those who used drugs, especially those "hard-core users who were too far gone to care about" - stated differently, the real issue is not the drugs themselves, but the type of people who use drugs. America is full of social problems, e.g. poverty, crime, &c.; problems that most politicians are timid in addressing because of the complexities involved in solving them. Yet, politicians need a platform to stand on and the American public needs a scapegoat. Drug users, that most alien element in the population, according to Miller, are the perfect group to identify, ostracize, confiscate, concentrate, and then annihilate as scapegoats for all the ills in society: in fact this sequence of stages is Hilberg's "chain of destruction." It is from his "seminal" study on the Holocaust, later published as: The Destruction of the European Jews, that Hilberg constructed his theory of the chain of destruction. Nazi Germany, like America, was in the throes of profound social discord and the public demanded a scapegoat. The Jews became the literal manifestation of a scapegoat for the German people. Hitler, faced with harsh social problems, exercised his own prejudices to isolate, blame and thus use the Jews as a scapegoat for Germany's problems. It was identification of the scapegoat with a real entity and the eventual acceptance of this scapegoat by a German majority that led to the conceptualization and employment of a "final solution" for the riddance of social ills from German society. Miller's argument is provocative, to say the least, in that he sees a direct correlation between the processes of Nazism and the processes of the "drug warriors." Moral indignation when it is directed toward a highly specified group of people can have disastrous consequences. Miller is not the only scholar who has applied the scapegoat theory to drug users in American society, but he is the first to take it to its disturbing, but logical end.