Francis Books

This book has a variety of information that is easily accessible in tabbed sections on plants, fish, and maintenance issues. It is great for someone who is considering a pond or water garden or someone who is troubleshooting a problem in an already existing garden. Although it lacks detail in some areas it is meant to be a quick reference guide to the most common aspects of water gardeing. And it does a fabulous job at that!

This book was very good. It has TONS of information. It has sections on all parts of a water garden. The fish section has lots of kinds and I got the fish for my pond using the book for a reference. The book is very helpful and has good projects.

This is one of the best New Critical Idiom titles: well-organized, clearly written, balanced and thoughtful, both comprehensive and comprehensible. If you need an introduction to the field of ecocriticism, this is the best place to start.

Contrary to what the previous reviewer claims, the book has well-informed discussions of both Christianity (in a chapter on Apocalypse, where he contrasts millenialist visions of the end of the world with Augustine's "comic" (i.e. unpredictable) eschatology) and of various eco-feminist and deep-ecological ideas of the Great Mother. Garrard is a generous reader, but does not hesitate to point out excesses and contradictions. His distinction between "problems in ecology" (which call for scientific analysis) and "ecological problems" (requiring social and cultural understanding) is worth the price of the book.

I got this book not expecting much. As I've seen it the ecocriticism field is just as rotten through with poor thought as most fields of literary criticism. But the book turned out to puncture many ecopieties and call into question almost every preconception but two.

One is that Christianity is destructive of the earth. Yes, he left that unquestioned on the table. The earth is a gift from God so to not respect it or to trash it as this book implies is just purely wrong for Christians.

Second, that matriarchy is a good thing. The notion of a primitive matriarchy that preexisted patriarchy is shaky and based on wish-fulfillment. The very definition of matriarchy is hard to pin down, and doesn't turn out to mean anything. Feminist scholars have turned the idea upside down and inside out and find that it's largely a 70s feminist idea that is based purely on the essentialism of that era.

But those are small blemishes. The prose is sharp, and the ideas are otherwise fairly sound throughout the book. There is a great bibliography, and many new ideas. It is also fairly simple and easy to read. I only had to look up one word.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like an overview of ecocriticism. Not only does this book provide that, it provides a fairly sound drubbing to most of ecocriticism. At 20 dollars this book is a very sound investment. It's probably the best book of literary criticism I've read in a long time. I'm glad I have it. I'm going to read it two or three times. The mind here is playful and expansive and erudite. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Saltman has left no stone unturned in his examination of Edison Schools. From the business practices and economic theory behind the very idea of privatizing schools to the curricular and pedagogical theory that drive the schools' daily activities, he covers every aspect of Edison and of Chris Whittle's mission. Saltman's writing is detailed and thorough, defending and proving his arguments with ample evidence and providing ideas for the future of schooling in America.

Very readable (even if you don't like non-fiction), well-organized and absolutely indispensible in the discussion of school privatization.

The role of public schools in a democratic society is undergoing scrutiny on a scale never before seen in this country. Do schools exist primarily to educate thinking voters or to provide docile workers for multinational corporations? Kenneth J. Saltman reveals the real motives of neoliberals who are behind the carefully orchestrated campaign to privatize all schools under the guise of helping children. It's a true story that contains all the elements of a thriller movie. And the author tells it exceedingly well, using the Edison Schools as the focal point. Concerned citizens need to read "The Edison Schools" in conjunction with the excellent "Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools?" by Kathy Emery and Susan Ohanian. Both books describe how corporations are hijacking American education. While Saltman confines his case to the Edison Schools, Emery and Ohanian go beyond one company in delivering a compelling manifesto.

Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the UCLA Graduate School of Education.

If you have had the opportunity to listen to Dr Hillson in one of his lectures or presentations in a PMI Congress, you will be able to appreciate what to wait from this book. It is one of the best I have read related with project risk management, my prefered knowledge area in project management.

The book is well structured, according to the Project Management Institute standard (PMI) PMBOK 2004 Exposure Draft and it goes deep into the different risk processes. The risk identification chapter is packed with consulting techniques, explained with detail. I also enjoyed the qualitative assesment process chapter. The quantitative risk analysis chapter is devoted to Monte Carlo simulation and misses Decision Tree analysis, but he did well describing how to feed data into a simulation, given the results of the qualitative risk assesment, and interpreting the outputs of the simulation.

His exposition is perfectly clear, sometimes going into the subject over and over, so it is a great learning book suitable as a risk text book for a Project Management masters or postgraduate courses. Excellent as well for PMP candidates
Don't be fouled by the title. The author goes into negative impact risks as well as to positive impact risks (opportunities).
I understand the price is high for a risk management book, but it is worth every penny.

Jorge Alsina, PMP

I'm pleased to offer this long-awaited book to colleagues and peers interested in the developing world of risk management. The aim of the book is to explore the implications of extending the definition of "risk" to include opportunity. If the definition is broader, then the risk process should also be expanded to address upside uncertainties. This book presents the definition debate, then describes a generic process for risk management including both threats and opportunities together. A closing section on implementation issues deals with how to make it work in practice, including the role of psychology. Hopefully this book will move the debate forward, as well as giving practical guidelines allowing opportunities to be identified and captured more effectively.

This is a fascinating book filled with detailed descriptions of "classic" experiments in electrostatics. The person responsible for reprinting this rare book is Dr. Oleg Jefimenko, well known to those working in electricity and magnetism, electrostatics, and electrets.

Electrostatic Experiments (G.W. Francis) -- The subtitle for this book is "An encyclopedia of early electrostatic experiments, demonstrations, devices, and apparatus." The book lives up to its name. A great book for an overview of the field. I know it sounds a little silly, but the nice bright white paper and crisp illustrations are a real boon to this book. The font is well chosen and the leading is easy to read. The publisher put some effort into making this an easy book to read.

This book was originally published in the middle of the 19th century under the title "Electrical Experiments." This new version has been edited and reformatted by the listed author Oleg Jefimenko (West Virginia University).

In this book you will find reference to odd-ball experiments that other books just don't get around to talking about. For example, Eggs illuminated. (p.200) and Illumination of oranges (p.201). If you are looking for demonstrations or ideas for creating new displays for lecture or theater, this book has plenty of inspiration.

The author's edits help the material -- making it a bit easier to access. In addition there is an included glossary at the back of the book which will explain many of the terms used by the original authors from the 19th century.

Homemade Lightning (R.A. Ford) -- If you are interested in putting together an electrostatic device, this is the book for you. Lots of how-to with pictures and explanation. I think as a first book this is your best bet. And as a book for creating running examples, this is your best bet. However, I don't believe I would want to have just one book on the subject. The other three books mentioned below add their own dimension to the subject and are (in my opinion) worth the few dollars needed to create a mini-library on the subject.

Electrostatics (A.D. Moore) -- A nice home experiments how-to book. The book is a little chatty in parts. I liked this. The author speaks with a direct, sitting across the table, style.

Static Electricity (J.H. Pepper) -- This material is extracted fom Cyclopaedic Science Simplified 1889. I use this for historical reasons and to poke around in. The book since it was written in 1889 assumes a fair degree of background by the reader. Great pictures and some nice explanations of how things work. You just need to be able to penetrate the older text.

Along with his "Answers To Objections," Mr. Nichol has written two volumes of work that have withstood the test of time. Most of the same old criticisms of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Ellen G. White being rehashed today, were answered by this gifted apologist years ago. Read for yourself, then decide. Excellent material. And check-out his "The Midnight Cry" when you get the chance. All about the "Millerite movement" and the so-called "fanaticism" surrounding it. Even "Kingdom of the Cults" author Walter Martin changed his thinking on that, after reading Mr. Nichol.

This is one of the best books written to tell the truth about Ellen White's writings and help people understand what the truth of the matter is.

Marie D. Glass

When it was published in 1992 this book was the first significant scholarly biography of the emperor Domitian (ruled AD 81-96) since 1894. The author is an Associate Professor and a leading specialist in Flavian political and prosopographical history, and has produced a very reliable, readable work that is a critical and valuable interpretive synthesis of the considerable modern scholarship relating to Domitian. The study is organized thematically and with a very solid prosopographical approach. The first chapter examines the social and political rise of Domitian's family, his early life and role under his father Vespasian and brother Titus (both emperors). The next two chapters provide a detailed examination of Domitian's court and his relationship with his courtiers. These are then followed by two chapters on Domitian's financial, administrative and provincial policies. Chapters 6 and 7 examine the major wars of Domitian's reign and his military and foreign policies.! After these there are two chapters on the senatorial and equestrian aristocracy during Domitian's reign, and his relationship with them and other policies and problems. The conclusion completes the study with detailed end-notes and an exhaustive bibliography. The three indices (on persons, ancient authors and general subjects) at the end of the book are very useful and effective. For serious scholars of this period this biography is an indispensable work. A more recent biography of Domitian with a psychological approach ('Domitian: Tragic tyrant') is in many ways simply based upon the present study.

The Emperor Domitian presided over a period in which many of the later New Testament texts were written, such as Revelation and the Gospel of John. Close study of the reign of Domitian provides enormous insight into these biblical texts and the situations they addressed for their own readers. Jones' biography of Domitian should be standard reading for anyone seeking to understand the world that generated such claims for Jesus as "savior of the world" (John 4) and "Lord and God" (John 20), both attributed to Domitian. One of the great strengths of Jones' book is its placing of Seutonius' own "Twelve Caesars" in historical context. Many previous interpretations of the lives of the caesars took Suetonius as a reporter, rather than as the imperial propagandist for his patron that he was.

Very readable and highly recommended.

This book is vital reading for anyone and everyone interested in thinking about Hardt and Negri's "Empire." Most of these are new essays--not recycled book reviews. And, the topics and contributors are amazing--top people in law, feminism, environmentalism, sociology, philosophy, new technologies, international relations etc. There are chapters by Ernesto Laclau, Slavoj Zizek, Saskia Sassen, Peter Fitzpatrick and a host of others. There is also an interview with Michael Hardt. In a nutshell, this book establishes THE debate over Empire.

"Empire's New Clothes" is a scholarly collection of essays that critique and comment on Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's influential book "Empire". The analysis is consistently incisive, penetrating and thought-provoking; many of the contributors offer their own theories and challenge Hardt and Negri's interpretation of the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, Marx, Spinoza and others. The result is a book that pushes the debate about "Empire" to a new level of philosophical sophistication.

Interestingly, each chapter focuses on a particular theme found in Hardt and Negri's "Empire". For example, "Immanence", "Transcendence" and the "Market" comprise the subtitles of the first three chapters, respectively. I found this helpful as it provides value when using the book as a research tool.

In several essays, Hardt and Negri's concept of the 'multitude' is critiqued. Instead of a multitudinous and spontaneous 'being-against' Empire as envisioned by Hardt and Negri, Ernesto Laclau argues that "any 'multitude' is constructed through political action - which presupposes antagonism". Because Laclau believes that "political articulation" will be needed to coordinate struggles among diverse groups to achieve liberation, he concludes that "Empire" offers "incoherence" between mobilizing the multitude and achieving specific political objectives.

Peter Fitzpatrick points out inconsistencies in Hardt and Negri's theory of U.S. exceptionalism. The assertion that the U.S. serves as the vital center of global economics clashes with Hardt and Negri's claim that the U.S. 'is not [Empire's] center'. Fitzpatrick goes on to highlight the imperialistic and exclusionary history of U.S. conquest and expansion to contend that the U.S. record has not been substantially different from past and present European empires, in turn implying that historical circumstances have not changed significantly enough to suppose that Hardt and Negri's revolution might occur anytime soon.

Kevin Dunn contributed a very interesting essay about Africa's ambiguous relation to Empire. Challenging Hardt and Negri's assertion that there is no 'outside' to Empire, Dunn describes African power relations to show that the continent does not conform to the Western development model. The militarization of borders in Africa and elsewhere argues against Hardt and Negri's 'smooth space' of Empire. The embrace of a uniquely conservative brand of Christianity among many in Africa also suggests that differences within the multitude pose problems for mobilization as envisioned by Hardt and Negri but may suggest alternative strategies for organizing resistance against Empire.

However, my favorite essay was the feminist critique penned by Lee Quinby, who compares the millennial rhetoric found in "Empire" with the use of dualities (such as good versus evil) in the Christian Bible. Quinby finds fault with the assertion that the revolt against Empire will be an us-against-them event as depicted by Hardt and Negri. Quinby also critiques Hardt and Negri for overlooking Foucault's lesson that resistance against power manifests in many forms and for different reasons. This point leads Quinby to a discussion of Hardt and Negri's failure to locate gender as the predominant source of power, violence and poverty. Ultimately, Quinby cites Amartya Sen's work about women's struggles as offering greater insight into the "intricate gendered relations between sovereign power and biopwer" when compared with "Empire".

Jodi Dean's article about "communicative capitalism" was also informative. Dean addresses the problem of articulating politics in a communications media dominated by large corporations that mainly produce what Hardt and Negri term 'spectacle'. Dean believes that Hardt and Negri offer "hope" but little concrete evidence that the multitude might be successful in constructing a language of liberation in the face of such overwhelming oppositional power.

In a key section, Michael Hardt answers some of the critics in an interview with Thomas Dumm. Hardt states that he and Negri recognize the need to develop a more comprehensive theory of the multitude and its possibility of realizing a political form, which he believes is the book's greatest shortcoming. Hardt also responds to some who objected to the "eclecticism" found in "Empire", contending that "dogmatism" stifles understanding and that communist thought does not necessarilly begin and end with Marx. Hardt defends the idea that the nation-state must be overcome to achieve "absolute democracy"; elsewhere, he explains why he and Negri reformulated Foucault's top-down conception of "biopower" into a bottom-up theory of emancipation.

Other noteworthy articles include Malcolm Bull, who stresses the importance of politics that are founded in hybrid cultural identities; William Chaloupka, who faults "Empire" for offering a weak environmental critique of capitalism; Saskia Sassen, who finds in many political struggles identifications with particular urban locales and disadvantaged populations; Ruth Buchanan and Sundhya Pahuja, who discuss the role of the World Bank and the nation-state in controlling and enforcing the world market system; Slavoj Zizek, who contends that the state is exercising power in the "strongest" terms yet, as evidenced by the war on terror; Kam Shapiro, who envisions a politics of diversity that is "experimental, tactical and provisional", as opposed to uniform; and Paul Passavant and Jodi Dean's concluding essay on the need to resurrect a politics that values life and non-capitalist values in a manner that provides "a more adequate response" to the threat of terrorism than surveillance, oppression and war.

I highly recommend this outstanding book to everyone who has read "Empire" and may want to further their understanding of its key themes and ideas.

This book is the most comprehensive reference I have seen on Japanese business related topics. Entries cover business history, leaders, management, technology, and company profiles. The authors appear to be well informed and up-to-date on what is happening in Japan, the writing is concise and the citations are helpful for research. I highly recommed this as a must-have reference for anyone interested in Japan and/or global business.

For the dictionary on Japanese economy, ¡®MIT Encyclopedia of the Japanese Economy¡¯ has been widely used. Such a dictionary is needed for you can¡¯t read all the material on the Japanese economy. Literatures on Japanese economy are still flooding on the market. Moreover, there are so many sub-disciplines that you can never read through them all, and even making a reading list is prohibitively time-consuming.
MIT Encyclopedia was updated in 1999 to the 2nd edition. It deals with mainly big topics such as unemployment with some length. But this book, published in 2002, tackles not only general economic subjects, but business affairs like Sony, Japanese business in US, and Chalmers Johnson, as title implies. And that I think the quality of articles is not behind MIT¡¯s. This book¡¯s contributors are well-known figures in Japanese studies. And like MIT¡¯s at the end of each article is the reading list on that subject.

College-level students of chromatography will find the 2-volume reference Encyclopedia Of Chromatography an invaluable reference offering more than just definitions of physics processes and chemistry systems. Topics range widely from the identification of additives in biopolymers and capillary electrophoresis to displacement equilibrium, known in chromatography for its usefulness in analytical scale separations. It's the depth and detail of these articles, arranged as an A-Z encyclopedic reference and authored by major contributors from around the world, which makes the set both authoritative and exhaustive. Add charts, graphs, tables of results and rates, and formulas and you have a far-reaching reference. Specialty collections with solid science holdings will consider this newly updated and expanded second edition of the Encyclopedia Of Chromatography to be a 'must'.

Complete, easy to read, easy to understand! Good reference book for Chromatographers!