Curtis Books

The USS PUEBLO, which was captured by the North Koreans on January 23, 1968 was attacked by North Korean naval vessels and MiG jets. One man was killed and several were wounded. The Eighty-two surviving crew members were captured and held prisoner for 11 months -- was the first U.S. Navy ship to be hi-jacked on the high seas by a foreign military force in over 150 years. To date, the capture has resulted in no reprisals against the North Koreans; no military action was taken at the time, or at any later date. This lack of military response guarantees the Pueblo's place in history as a watershed event in our national conscience.

JANUARY 23, 1968 - A SHAMEFUL MILESTONE IN THE DECLINE ANO FALL OF THE UNITED STATES"
-- Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery, USN (Ret.)

In this hard-hitting, controversial book, Dan Gallery says what he thinks about the incident in which the U.S.S. Pueblo was boarded, captured and surrendered--the only incident of its kind in the United States Navy since the early days of sail. He examines the whole sorry affair beginning with the ship's mission and ending with the Navy's Court of Inquiry and the public's reaction to it. His targets include Commander Bucher, the Naval high command and the Pentagon.

"His critics will accuse him of being pure Hawk," says the Boston Globe, "but his theme is much larger and deeper."

When I first embarked in the late 80's on a quest to start my own small strategy consulting business, after spending twenty-four years in the corporate world, I actually acquired this wonderful book, after a deliberate search, to help me to think through all the potential problems & opportunities.

What attacted me to this book was the anatomy of asking questions in the prologue of the book. According to the two authors, both business consultants, every successful ideas passes through three phases. Each phase involves a different perspective. To implement an idea, all three need to be integrated. They label them as follows:

- Visualising What to Do: Seeing & painting a clear picture of my company: identity, resources;
- Charting the Position: Aiming & drawing up a blueprint for action: strategic objectives, trends;
- Activating the Plan: Doing & implementing my objectives: tactics, role expectations;

As you can see from the above, the first one refers to the process of conceptualisation. The second one refers to the process of strategising i.e. formulating the strategic blueprint. The final one refers to operationalising i.e. putting the strategic blueprint to work.

The full value of seeing, aiming, & doing comes when they are integrated. Questions like (adapted for my own personal application):

- what business am I really in?
- what are my strategic objectives?
- what are my tactics?

are part of a larger mosaic. The answer to any question affects the others.

The next part of the book comprises the integration model. It starts off with the development of a Questioning Mindset. The authors emphasise that the same question can be asked in many different ways, depending on the intended results. Answers alone may not be the only objective. Just right questions can affect attitudes & perceptions. They can be asked to get the process started. Here the authors outlined the three basic question-asking techniques:

1. Startling: The Surprise Question:

The intent is to be creatively upsetting. The authors illustrate with a classic business question: What business am I in? To make it startling or confrontational, the question could be re-stated: What makes me think I am still in the business I say I am?

Questions asked this way are confrontational. The intent is to open my eyes & undermine outdated assumptions.

2. Supporting: The Helping Question:

I call this the Discovery Question. The authors draw an analogy of a trial lawyer. An experienced trial lawyer avoids asking questions whose answers he/she is not certain of. In a trial, lawyers use questions to promote their own understanding of the case to the judge & jury. Any discovery of information should happen before the trial starts. In my case, the purpose of such questions e.g. 'what business am I in?' is to discover what I already know.

3. Searching The Inquisitive Question:

Example: what business am I really in? The purpose is to find out what I don't know but need to know. The emphasis is the spirit of inquiry.

The authors stress that the best answers are open-ended, thereby resulting in useful answers that keep evolving.

The rest of the book comprises a series of well-thought question units covering every aspect of business management. , There are a total of forty four units, & each is supported by a brief rationale. They are logically allocated to the three foregoing distinct phases. Each unit is designed to develop a broad "just right question" such as:

- what business am I really in?

& expands its implications through a series of "follow-up questions" such as:

- what business will I be in a few years from now?
- what business could I be in?

As you can see from the foregoing examples, the whole exercise of the questioning processes is intended to facilitate understanding of the implications of the question & pondering of the answers. In other words, to facilitate a question-asking approach for an answer-producing payoff.

By the time I have gone through all the question units under each distinct phase, I have finally painted a constructive & enlightening picture of my dreams-come-true.

This book really stands up to its title, A Question of Business: Questions for Managers Looking for Answers. Until today, I have yet to come across another business book under this particular genre.

Even today, despite the torn yellowing pages & stained dog-ears, I still dip into the question list of the book to refresh my strategic thinking on emerging issues.

To sum up my review, I am proud to say that I am still running my own small strategy consulting business today. Today is my 15th year in business.

I am very happy to share this wonderful gem with readers. This book will definitely help you to develop useful answers by learning to ask incisive questions.

[READERS! PLEASE NOTE: Content-wise, this book is exactly the same book as 'Asking Just Right Business Questions' by Curtis Page.]

Race In 21st Century America considers the issues and problems of race in the U.S., gathering intellectuals and scholar activists who present different critical appraisals of how the nation's social and political settings have changed due to race and racism. From the implications of racist practices to systems of public policy and racial usage, Race In 21st Century America charts the struggle for democracy.

From The Tombstone Epitaph ,Oct 1997,Vol.CXVIII,#10 ...The story of the ride, which comprises the basis for the book--there are interstices in which historical accounts from previous travelers are used--consists of Thoreau-like...reflections on man and nature, with plenty of Larry & Curly Ride The santa Fe Trail (note that they left Moe behind--he's the smart one) incidents to keep it from ever getting dull. The book is a good,fun read that works on several levels, from brain food to belly laughs....

Right now it seems the most popular book among Canada's intellectual elites is "Fire and Ice" by Michael Adams. Adams basically used a lot of flawed and twisted poll data to manufacture a "statistical conclusion" that the United States is some sort of evil backwards right-wing fundamentalist kook hole, while Canada is an unbridled utopia of liberalism and egalitarianism.

It's unfortunate that Adams' polemic, partisan pseudo-study gets so much attention and "Regions Apart," a much better book, will no doubt go largely ignored.

"Fire and Ice" was popular because for the large part it preached to the choir. Many Canadian "nationalists" desperately want to believe that there are huge, insurmountable differences between the US and Canada, and Adams, with his clever and often dishonest statistical calculations created data that seemed to prove just that. The authors of "Regions Apart" have a different argument, however. Through a calm, careful, and (most importantly), completely transparent analysis of recent polling data from the US and Canada, Edward Grabb and James Curtis argue that many of Canada's most cherished myths are in fact not true.

Looking at North American history and historiography, the two authors attempt to explore the roots of the modern-day myths of "liberal, collectivist Canada" and "conservative, individualistic America." They then look at polling data to see if such myths have a basis in contemporary reality.

In the end their findings may upset many Canadian nationalists, or even conservative American Canada-bashers. The two professors demonstrate that Canada and the US are more alike than different. The US, for example has a much lower church attendance rate than its "religious" reputation would suggest, and most Canadians profess support for lower taxes and individualism, in a far cry from their supposedly inherently "collectivist/socialist" character.

Most notable of all however is their argument that North America is not really two nations, but rather four: English Canada, the Northern US, Quebec, and the Southern US. The authors show that the Northern US and English Canada are largely identical in terms of values and beliefs. It's only when you look at the super-left wing views of Quebec and the far-right views of the US South that noticable deviations become apparent.

Despite what Canadian lefties like Michael Adams will allege, Canada and the United States ARE getting more and more alike. The Southern US still tends to push American politics to the right overall, and Quebec still pushes Canada to the left, but even these two regions are generally getting more moderate and centrist as the years progress.

The book for the most part is well-written and easy to follow. At times it gets a bit academic, but overall it is an enjoyable and engaging read.

This is a very important book that all Canadians should read, ESPECIALLY those who have already been subjected to the works of Michael Adams.

These four stories, each centered around an old house, are truly heartwarming. If you are feeling down, these great stories will definitely "restore" you too.

"There is a root of strength and vitality about everybody and
everything. The right speech with the right tonic in it can animate it into
astonishing virility. Even an apparently dead tree is reachable by those
with the tone of this vitalizing mystery, in their secret speech. It is an
unkillable quality resident at the roots of life, just as the actinic ray, that
sweetens the grape, is an unquenchable constituent of the sunshine." - Res.

"The needle cannot attract like a magnet if it does not yield itself in
toto, to the magnet. So it is that no one can be the embodiment of the
five eternal proclamations, unless they have let their mind, their life, their
heart, and their body, go free to the winds of the Divine Fiat, looking up often to the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings." - Res.

"The Soul-Self is the everlasting reality of every person. The outer
body is the shadow system hiding the smiling Soul-Self. If anybody will
turn to recognize their own Soul-Self, or Free Omnipotence, they will
find their outer form improving in looks, in health, in strength, and in
speech.
The Christ Jesus Name is an embodying Name, causing to see
embodying of beauty, wealth, strength, and fresh life. If we recognize
out spiritual Self, we must go on recognizing it. Years and years of
turning to the flesh with its bones and nerves can hardly be undone by a
little hit-or-miss attention to the Shekinah glory that stands behind us." - Res.

"Authority with God discloses authority with the Self. The divine Self
lies quiescent and still, waiting in all humankind to be stirred into action
by the outer self. Two kinds of action stir the still Self into action:
command and praise.
Once the Spirit is recognized, it acts. Recognition has a subtle law of
its own. Body and its speech are woven into relationship with the Soul,
or Self, by recognition.
We are to turn and speak to the divine Self back of us. As our
speech has so far been shot forward, speaking to our neighbor, so now
at the turn of the tongue, we speak backward to raise up our outer self
by our hidden Self. This Self back of us, like a Shekinah pillar of cloud by
day and of fire by night, is the friend of our outer self or outer life. It can
make the outer life whole, strong, and sane. For the truly sane know,
that health can be awakened outwardly by the recognition of the Soul's
free, flawless and immortal excellence. "The Spirit of a man is the candle
of the Lord."(Ps 20:27) And by recognizing this candle sound health is
established in the outer experience. "Awake up, my glory!"(Ps 57:8)
Those whose Soul glows and flames through all they do and think,
have discovered a bottomless well of living refreshment to draw from.
Everything they do has the touch of spiritual charm about it. For the
Soul is the everlasting reservoir of enchantment. "The fifth angel
sounded," said John the Revelator (Rev 9:1) and a star-like character
appeared upon the depths of their own Soul, or the bottomless well of
power and glory. And John saw that the being of Soul showed
humankind how to put their consciousness of flesh limitation and
common sensation of pain and pleasure into trance, or sleep, for the
sense of God's Presence to be most real. And thereby humanity should
know new laws of life...." - Res.
"Awake thou that sleepest!"(Eph 5:14) This is addressing with everstrong
command the ever-present, glorious Soul.

Alexander uses Richard Allen's original autobiography to tell the story of Allen's impact on African American education and social development. The story is important and it is explained admirably with many wonderful, lengthy, primary resource quotes included. Alexander's stance on issues current at the time of his writing may strike some as dated. However, even this provides the historical researcher with double the history to explore and ponder.

Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," "Soul Physicians," and "Spiritual Friends."

Adults and teens interested in their legal rights as family members will discover in this fine book that the ACLU is truly interested in their personal welfare, and that it wants to educate them on their rights both as American citizens and as family members. The book is nonpartisan. All ACLU books relating to civil rights are first rate and very satisfying to read. Martin Guggenheim, the author of this work, is a national figure in the area of civil rights law. After consulting this work - in Q&A format - consider reading other ACLU books for invaluable information about American civil rights law.

Matinee idols are those larger than life presences in the theater to whom audiences flock irrespective of the plays they are in. Their enduring magic, from the turn of the century to the present day, is recollected nostalgically and defined with discrimination by a distinguished team of writers.