Bradley Books

FDA Regulation of Medical Devices is an excellent overview of the history of medical device regulation and serves as an excellent training tool for regulatory professionals. It provides how-to instructions on filing IDE's 510(k)'s and PMA's with a checklist for all required components. Since the book was published in 1995, it does lack updated information regarding FDAMA and new FDA initiatives.

I found this book to be very helpful and informative

Friday's Laws not only lends stability and comfort, but shows how easy it is to make oneself stable and comfortable. Dr. Friday catches and fries the fish for us, but also give us the line and teaches us how to use it ourselves. The conversation-like prose enables participation by using humor, and the book includes some revealing self-exams and memorable laws to live by. I recommend this book for anybody who craves some stability in life. Thank you, Dr. Friday.

Technically speaking, George C. Marshall: Education of a General 1880 - 1939 by Forrest C. Progue is not a comprehensive biography but rather a study of the experiences that shaped the mind of someone who became the leader of the Army during World War II and Secretary of State and Defense during very challenging times during the development and implementation of the containment policy. Perhaps, Gen Marshall felt that a biography sponsored by the think tank/academic foundation that bore his name was both egotistical and not as productive as a study of how one grows to fill some of the most difficult jobs imaginable. Regardless, Mr. Progue takes a broad-brush view of what education means so that we see the formative experiences of Gen Marshalls childhood, personal life, and, to a certain extant, social life that have contributed to shaping his worldview and intellectual biases.

The only real critique that I can make about this semi-biography is that it was done by someone who obviously deeply admired Marshall. As such, you will not read about his secret vices or weaknesses of character. One can only conjecture at what urges drove Marshall to buy the most expensive luxury car on the market when he was selected for Brigadier General. His health issues are also a matter of concern. Should he have stepped aside and let a healthier man take the senior leadership roles in the Army? Latter in his career - 1939 through 1941, General Marshall ruthlessly drove elderly (over 60) Colonels (because Patton was commissioned at age 25 instead of the more normal 21-22, he was given a waiver) and unfit General officers out of the military. How did he reconcile that with the health issues that under the same scrutiny would have ended his career in the mid-thirties?

Some of the characters in this book were surprises to me. I had already heard about Fox Connor and how he was one of the guiding intellectual forces in shaping the pre-World War II army. I was unaware of Major John F Morrison. He was one of the intellectual lights that took the lessons learned of the Wars of German Unification and the Spanish American War and turned them into not only new doctrine, but new ways of thinking and understanding the nature of warfare. Indeed, his teaching was so intense that a decade later his students could compare and contrast the battles of the Franco-Prussian War to the ongoing battles in World War I without notes or even reference to maps.

Additionally, while Marshall and Progue take great pains not to criticize some of Marshall's peers and near peers, some negative comments, perhaps unjustly, leak in. For example, Progue (or perhaps Marshall) obviously disapproved of one of the commanding generals in China and singled out his rough and abrasive behavior as well as questioning his focus on back-braking marches and physical fitness. This reviewer (and perhaps General Stilwell - who was part of the American Army in China when Marshall was there, see Stilwell and the American Experience in China) believes that the General in question was abrasive to the other foreign militaries and dignitaries to highlight the unique and, more or less, selfless goals of America as opposed to the other foreign powers that maintained troops in China. Additionally, the brutal physical training was clearly a technique to deal with drug addiction and alcoholism among the ranks.

Overall, this is an excellent book that provides unique insight on American history. First, it shows the growing professionalism of the American Army from 1900 - 1939. Second, it reflects the nature of civil-military affairs over a period when most considered the Army an anachronism from the Indian Wars and a temptation for civilian leaders to engage on foreign adventures. Third, it shows the skills necessary to rise to great responsibility in a complex bureaucracy. For any of these reasons, this book should be required reading for military historians and military officers.

Ian Bradley invites us to think about the religious basis of the monarchy. He is faithful to this theme throughout the book. He speaks of recovery of the metaphysical imagination and "the revaluing of religion in contemporary Britain" (p.xix). His approach, however, has merit for revaluing (the Christian) religion outside Britain. In the chapters entitled, "Monarchy in the Old Testament" and "Monarchy in the New Testament", he offers a thorough treatment of the relationship to kingship of covenant spirituality with its roots in the scriptures. He makes the pertinent observation that "the kingdom theme in the New Testament has proved an even more problematic and controversial subject than that of monarchy in the Old testament" (p.25). To his credit he does not shy away from nor gloss over the problem areas in this relationship. Observations such that the visit of the magi places "no imperative on earthly rulers to surrender their crowns" and "Jesus does not reject the people's hailing of him as a king, but he does reject their expectation of what a king does" are typical of Bradley's insightful theological interpretation. He draws on a wide array of appropriate sources, academic and popular, but always with reference to his theme of relating spirituality and the British monarchy throughout the latter's history. As a theologian, I found his discussion about the spiritual significance to the Crown of Princess Diana's life and death enlightening and encouraging. From my perspective, living in Canada, he interprets her life and the public response to her death in a way that is not yet appreciated nor understood in North America. In contrast to Western postmodern self-centredness, I think that Bradley's assessment of the current debates about the monarchy are most informative, pertinent and significant. They offer a theological contribution to the discussion about the future role of the monarchy in Britain and on the world stage. Bradley notes that "theologically informed contributions to the debate on the future of the monarchy are few and far between" (p.180). His observation that debates about the future of the monarchy in contemporary Britain being conducted "outside the churches and the university theology departments, and in overwhelmingly secular terms" (p. 181), reminds me of the remark by a North American theologian. "The theologians have moved increasingly into the secular academy, where they cannot use a church or even the church as an automatic reference group." (Marty, M., 1980. North America: The empirical understanding of religion and theology, in Eliade, M & Tracey, D (eds), What is Religion? An Inquiry for Christian Theology. Concilium 136). With his book Bradley redresses the lack of theological appreciation of the monarchy to our benefit.

Guardian of the Great Lakes is the saga of USS Michigan an iron-hulled war steamer launched in 1843. It's mission was to patrol the often volitile Great Lakes region, quelling port town civil disturbances, while at the same time rescuing both Canadian and American ships in distress.

During the course of it's duty ship and crew engaged in battling lumber pirates, The Mormon tyrant (King) Jesse James Strang of Beaver Island as well as Miners and conflicts associated with the Civil War.

An excellent book about episodes in Michigan History that are often times overlooked.

This is a return to the old Mitchell, though more of a 'cosy' than Mitchell used to be. It deals with witchcraft (three witches - Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, the Chaucerian Aunt Eglantine, and the mysterious Gloria Mundy, half her hair red, the other half black, her ancestor burnt as a witch). Gloria Mundy arrives unannounced at the house of her former lover, various accidents happen, and Gloria Mundy's body is found at the dower house - a red wig lying on the corpse. This is good mystification - but the next event is superb. Gloria Mundy, now deceased, is seen working in a dress-shop by a young journalist narrating the story. If Gloria is dead, how did she manage to come back from the dead? This is good Mitchell - good mystification, bizarre events, and a good plot. While similar to Helen McCloy's classic THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, the book is distinctive - and the ending is excellent: surrealistic and dream-like with witchcraft, voodoo dolls, and ancient British barrows mingling... The only reason that the book does not have 5 stars is that better Mitchells exist: COME AWAY, DEATH; THE RISING OF THE MOON; DEATH AT THE OPERA; THE 23RD MAN; ST. PETER'S FINGER.

Great book for lovers of horses--many great full color photos

I only have one complaint with the book, it's small size. Wish it was A3 format, otherwise it is a very informative and great book covering rods through the decades after the war.
Rods photographed in their own era, a boon for rodders trying to build a car true to a particular style or simply looking for a decade to build. Many of the cars photographed recently show that a well engineered and built rod can stand the test of time.
Recommended to the true rod enthusiast especially if you want to view more than just cool cars.