Shaw Books

There is much to appreciate here, such as the detail of the case studies -- the Memphis case in particular, brings us back to an earlier era in our nation's history.

But the broad themes of the book strike me as its greatest weakness. The analogy between Reconstruction in the period just after the Civil War on the one hand, and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that Kousser calls the "second" Reconstruction, is lame.

The very first sentence shows some of the problems with this book. "Institutions and institutional rules -- not customs, ideas, attitudes, culture, or private behavior -- have primarily shaped race relations in America." If he took that sentence seriously, it would lead him into a definitional swamp, analyzing the different but overlapping meaanings of all the words used there, discussing which one is "primary" and for what reason. He does not take it seriously enough to get us mired in that swamp, but it remains a weak opening.

The best book in this field is David T. Canon's, RACE, REDISTRICTING, AND REPRESENTATION.

The anonymous reviewer's comparison of Colorblind Injustice to David Canon's book is misplaced. Although both books are good and address the issue of minority voting rights, they raise very different, though, equally broad questions. Canon asks who is represented in majority-Black districts, while Kousser is concerned with the impact of the court's voting rights decisions for minorities and the country. It is like comparing apples and oranges. I strongly recommend Kousser's book. It is historically grounded and makes quite plain how institutional arrangments systematically limit the political influence of minority voters. Kousser writes extremely well and quite vividly. I especially recommend it for courses on Black politics and parts of the book (chapter one, for instance) for instructors who provide supplemental readings in their introductory American government courses. In the past I used the late Frank Parker's book Black Votes Count to follow our discussion of the civil rights movement in my courses on Black politics. Parker's book is a case study of the legal challenge to Mississippi's long efforts at suppressing the Black vote. It is especially useful because it shows how the state of Mississippi discriminated against its Black citizens not only in its past but very recently through the 1980s. Kousser's book does the same but covers more ground to include California and is current.

Shaw v. Reno is at the heart of Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction, historian J. Morgan Kousser's closely reasoned critique of the Court's recent rulings on the constitutionality of "majority-minority" congressional districts-districts created for the purpose of ensuring adequate minority representation in the House of Representatives...

Colorblind Injustice is an angry book. Kousser is convinced that in a series of recent decisions, beginning with Shaw v. Reno, the Rehnquist Court has destroyed the hard-won gains that African Americans have made in political representation. Kousser considers those decisions to be bad law, bad history, and bad public policy, and he hopes "to set voting rights policy straight by getting its history right" (p. 2). In the pursuit of that ambition, he has written an exhaustive study of the recent history of voting rights, a study so carefully researched and intelligently reasoned that it will probably become the definitive work on this subject...

Kousser begins his analysis with a celebration of the achievements of the Second Reconstruction, a period when "the Court's willingness to protect the rights of minority citizens or let Congress do so, along with the stable majority of experienced and sympathetic members of Congress from 1954 to 1994, allowed judges, Congress, bureaucrats, and interest groups to improve federal protections [for minority rights] gradually and pragmatically" (p. 53). In Kousser's eyes, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been central to this process of minority protection, especially Section 5 of that act, which requires states that had prohibited black voting in the past to submit changes in electoral laws to the Justice Department for approval...

In Kousser's eyes, progress came to an end with the Supreme Court's ruling in Shaw v. Reno that two sprawling congressional districts, which were carefully drawn to ensure that they held black majorities, were in probable violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law...Like Javert in Les Misérables, Kousser is relentless in the pursuit of his quarry. He devotes 250 pages of text to careful historical analyses of white politicians' successful attempts since passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to reduce or deny minority representation in Los Angeles, Memphis, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. Kousser then spends the remaining 150 pages of his book explicating his thorough and scathing critique of the Rehnquist Court's decisions on the constitutionality of the majority-minority congressional districts that state legislatures created in response to Justice Department pressure. In Kousser's eyes, the Rehnquist Court-usually by five-to-four votes-has (1) ignored the relevant historical contexts of the cases it decided, (2) made bad law, and (3) defined central concepts in these cases in a manner contrary to their clear meaning. Shaw v. Reno illustrates all these problems...

Often Kousser's critique of the Rehnquist Court is so extreme and his use of language so hyperbolic that they weaken his credibility. For example, a reader of Colorblind Injustice, ignorant of the Court's history, might conclude that only the Rehnquist Court-and its racist predecessors-made decisions that were "abstract, formalistic, and factually incorrect" (p. 466) and substituted its own public-policy preferences for established judicial precedent...

When Kousser ends his book by comparing the Shaw cases with the Dred Scott decision and Plessy v. Ferguson, arguing that they "all buttressed a seemingly uncertain white supremacy" (p. 465), he goes too far. Dred Scott asserted that African Americans had no "rights which the white man was bound to respect" and that "the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the constitution." Plessy v. Ferguson upheld racial segregation and contained the cynical and racist observation that "if one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." Whatever the shortcomings of Shaw v. Reno, neither its reasoning nor its impact is comparable to those ugly, vicious, racist judgments...

Historically, African Americans and other minorities have made their greatest political gains through the formation of interracial coalitions. The abolition of slavery was a biracial effort, as were both Reconstructions. After World War II, African Americans in the industrial states of the North and West shrewdly exercised their voting rights in a manner that led to their courtship by politicians of both major political parties. Black votes often decided the outcome of state and national elections, as they did in the 1948 and 1960 presidential races. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed, civil rights leaders and congressional leaders of both parties were present in what was a truly biracial and bipartisan celebration.

COLORBLIND INJUSTICE is a magnificent book with mighty themes. Built upon historian J. Morgan Kousser's two decades of work as an expert witness in voting rights cases, enriched by his rigorous state-of-the-art political analysis, and supported by massive and precise documentation, this powerful work will fundamentally alter discussion of race and politics in modern America. Most significantly, it convincingly refutes currently-fashionable talk about the benefits of eliminating government protection of the political rights of minorities. Kousser demonstrates, for example, that several supposedly "colorblind" 1990s voting rights decisions by the United States Supreme Court have been unfairly partial to the Republican Party, unjustly biased against the interests of African-American voters, contrary to the original intention of the relevant laws and constitutional amendments, and revolutionary in overturning well-established precedent. He also demolishes the underpinnings of the advocacy of supposedly "colorblind" racial policies by Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom in AMERICA IN BLACK AND WHITE, a "benchmark" conservative study of 20th century race relations. One central subject of COLORBLIND INJUSTICE is the relentlessly-political process by which state legislatures decennially draw congressional district boundaries. In 1991 the federal Justice Department, implementing the 1982 amendments to the federal Voting Rights Act, pressed states to create districts according to criteria that allowed minority politicians and voters to play a fairer role in the process than ever before and to increase the number of black-majority districts. Minority representation in Congress grew, but in no state did white representation fall below the white portion of the population. The Thernstroms have condemned the Justice Department's 1991 effort and have urged the Supreme Court to prohibit any minority preferences and to forbid any reference to racial classifications in drawing districts. Such "colorblind" policies, they claim, will reduce racial divisions and will foster racial healing, harmony, and equity. But the Thernstroms fail to deal with crucial political realities that Kousser demonstrates conclusively, realities that render the supposedly "colorblind" Thernstrom proposals unfeasible and unjust. For example, the Thernstroms and the Supreme Court implicitly assume that state legislatures adhere typically to "traditional race-neutral districting principles," thereby creating compact non-political districts that embrace natural communities. Kousser demonstrates instead that congressional redistricting has continually been an inherently-political no-holds-barred pushing and shoving process in which contending politicians relentlessly gerrymander in political party and protecting the interests of powerful incumbents. Moreover, since blacks vote solidly Democratic, politicians pursuing such partisan and incumbent benefit will inevitably and always give painstaking attention to race, vying fiercely to arrange a politically advantageous allocation of the predictably-Democratic black voters among districts. Typically Republicans will strive to pack most black voters into a very few heavily black urban districts, thereby "wasting" many black votes and keeping them out of suburban "Republican" districts. Typically white Democrats will seek to spread the black vote around into several contested districts, keeping it below 50 percent in each district so that black candidates cannot challenge white Democratic incumbents, but also carefully placing black voters where they can be useful in helping to defeat white Republicans. Neither white Republican nor white Democratic leaders will really want to allow minority voters the opportunity to elect the candidates they most prefer. The Thernstroms' notion that "colorblind" Court decisions can cause politicians to draw districts without reference to race is unrealistic. Court prohibitions will merely drive the inevitable partisan and incumbent-serving racial calculations and manipulations underground and out of sight, rendering them more unfair and more disadvantageous to the black voters themselves. Only in the 1991 redistricting, under the supervision of the Justice Department, was the ubiquitous political manipulation of race constrained in a way that allowed black voters a fair chance to elect their preferred candidates. But, starting with Shaw v. Reno in 1993, the five-member conservative majority of the United States Supreme Court has ruled some but not all of the 1991 black-majority districts unconstitutional. The Thernstroms have applauded the Court's direction, but have urged it to be more consistent and to go further--to declare unconstitutional any attention to racial classifications in drawing districts. Instead the Court has muddled along, and Kousser meticulously demonstrates that the muddling five-member conservative Court majority, all appointed by Republican presidents, has rendered a series of inconsistent decisions that are at once partisan (pro-Republican) and anti-minority. For example, the Court majority has condemned partisan redistrictings as racial in North Carolina and Texas, where they had been designed to aid Democrats, but it has endorsed equally partisan and racial redistrictings in Ohio and California, where they had been designed to aid Republicans. Also the Court majority has unfairly applied a "compactness" requirement to black-majority districts, but not to white-majority districts. If Shaw v. Reno and similar decisions stand and govern the 2001 congressional redistricting process, Republican strategies for advantageously manipulating race will be legal, Democratic strategies illegal. The entire process will be less open, more furtive and devious, less accessible to minorities, more vulnerable to anti-minority gerrymandering, and more often thrown finally into the hands of state and federal courts, which tend to favor conservative Republican interests. The five conservative Supreme Court justices sanctimoniously claim that their 1990s decisions adhere to a principle of "colorblindness" derived from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. But as Kousser observes, their commitment to "colorblindness" has "collapsed when the interests of the Republican Party were at stake." Moreover, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were originally designed for the express purpose of protecting blacks against a palpable prospect of anti-minority discrimination and anti-minority party maneuvers. The conservative justices misread and misuse those protective amendments when they find in them only an abstract "colorblind" principle and when they invoke that principle not to protect against, but in fact to foster a continuing palpable prospect of anti-minority discrimination and anti-minority partisan gerrymandering.

Barleybridge is a small and cozy British village in the Yorkshire hills of England. It's a place where the pace is slower, the people gentler and kinder (for the most part), and where everybody knows your name.

Kate Howard is nineteen years old and has taken a job with the Barleybridge Veterinary Hospital as the receptionist and bookkeeper. Barleybridge employs a number of 'vets' who care for large and small animals.

Kate would have loved to had studied to become a 'vet' but had had some problems with her A level exams. She tries to think of her job as a new adventure that allows her to be with animals and companionable humans.

The more Kate strives for independence as a woman and yearns to become a 'vet,' the more her steady but boring boyfriend, Adam rebels at the idea. After all, why would she want a career when she could marry him? Let me count the reasons, folks.

If you're looking for an exciting and suspenseful story, or a James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small) tale, this isn't it. What it is, is a charming story about a young woman finding herself and learning to trust what is best for her. And along the way you'll meet a whole lot of interesting and unique people who make up the landscape of Kate Howard's life in A Country Affair.

Armchair Interviews says: This is a read best suited for a lazy day when you just want to read something nice and satisfying.

I really enjoyed the Barleybridge novels. It felt like the Mitford Series intertwined with James Herriot's wonderful books. I love a good story that's easy to read and makes you like the characters and "feels comfortable". I hope she will finish all the great stories she began in these books.........I want to know what happens to them all~!

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were fleshed out in such a way that I got to know them and was a bit sad when the book ended.

Reticent Kate Howard arrives in the rural Yorkshire hills to work as a receptionist at the Barleybridge Veterinary Hospital that has a vast menagerie of clients ranging from pets to farm animals. The workforce and most of the customers are friendly to the newcomer. Especially nice and encouraging is another outsider Australian veterinarian Scott Spencer, who pushes her to become a vet too though her one attempt at the test was disastrous.

Kate is attracted to her handsome mentor, but is wise enough to know she is out of his league. While Scott encourages her to try again, Kate's boyfriend Adam ridicules her dreams and aspirations saying she proven she can't make it. Kate has decisions personal and professional to make turning to her kindhearted boss Joy, who can commiserate as she too furtively love one of the vets.

A COUNTRY AFFAIR, the first of the Barleybridge trilogy (COUNTRY WIVES AND COUNTRY LOVERS are to be released in America later), is a terrific amusing inspirational character study. Kate and Joy are the stars as they make decisions on what they want out of life. The support cast is solid and somewhat eccentric whether they are pet owners, other vet employees or the lead duo's family. Fans will appreciate this upbeat insightful look at two women making the best of a good life in a small English village.

Harriet Klausner

I wholly recommend this to anyone considering a veterinary career - or a client who takes their vet for granted! Good reading - Dr Shaw is great.

There are plenty of cute, endearing animals in Chuck Shaw's Walpole, NH, veterinary practice. Hobbs, for instance, the clinic cat, an obese fellow who gorges on junk food, perhaps in memory of his feral days, and reverts to wild ferocity whenever the whim strikes him. But these animals afford mostly comic relief in Whynott's behind-the-scenes portrait: a serious tale of human drama; of passion, ethics and personalities.

Chuck Shaw is a focused man who chose his work after serious deliberation and before going to Vietnam as a bomber pilot. He wanted a well-lived life in a profession that involved physical activity, outdoor work, and the prospect of working with people and helping others. He also wanted to be independent and own his own business. Veterinary medicine fit the bill and after two years in practices that didn't quite fit him, he bought a "mixed practice" in bucolic, beautiful Walpole.

A mixed practice is unusual these days and growing more so, involving both large animals and small. Chuck might spend the morning checking a dairy herd for pregnancies, the afternoon treating cats and dogs at the clinic and be called out at midnight for an emergency lambing or an "HBC" (dog hit by car). Over the years Chuck had gone through eight associate vets who stayed from a few months to four years.

Roger Osinchuk, the best fit, is beginning his fifth year in the practice as the book ends. Osinchuk, a Canadian from Alberta, grew up wanting to be a veterinarian. His experience with horses is extensive and he quickly builds an equine practice and embarks on a side business breeding and training horses of his own.

Roger, exhausted by the long hours and the on-call weekends, convinces Chuck to hire a third associate - not an easy task for a mixed practice in a rural community. Erika Bruner, a new graduate from a suburban, academic background, wants to work with cows. She likes getting mud and manure on her boots, enjoys the placid, wise look of the cow, and doesn't flinch at being shoulder deep in the animal's anal tract. Enthusiastic and determined, she lifts everyone's spirits. At first.

Whynott spends long days with each of these people, getting them to talk while they work. They talk about the work, and Whynott describes it in details that range from fascinating to gross, often at the same time. They save animals and lose them and Whynott shows us their jubilation and sadness - and sometimes their self-doubt. Inexperienced Erika has a lot of that, but no one is immune.

The patients can't talk, and, not owning their own bodies, have no say in their treatment or even their death. From cows who don't produce enough milk to dogs that bite, death is sometimes the only treatment the owner wants and this is a critical issue in the practice, particularly with pets. Though Chuck early on makes it a rule not to kill healthy pets, it's a rule he sometimes has to break. During Erika's first months a healthy dog is brought in to be put down. The owner refuses to have it adopted by someone else and so Chuck orders it done. Erika is shocked and furious, but Chuck explains that the owner would only have abandoned the dog or had a neighbor kill it. At least he had the power to end the animal's life humanely.

Ethical dilemmas are frequent in a practice where the doctors are surgeons, cancer specialists, emergency doctors, radiologists, dermatologists, obstetricians, etc., and the patients are property. Overwork and underpay (beginning associates with $100,000-plus in debts earn $45,000 a year) also fuel frustration.

Whynott's ("Giant Bluefin," "Following the Bloom) portrayals are moving and involving. He is a mostly invisible observer. Though it's clear people are talking to him, he makes no judgments and offers no personal comments. Traveling with the veterinarians through the beautiful Connecticut River countryside, he shows us the working farms, which each have their own owner-imposed personalities, and the hobby farms with their horses and pet pigs and sheep (which are generally cheerier places, even if the owners are sometimes clueless). He gives us the drama of daily life in the practice, and shows how the underlying dynamics change with the entry of a newcomer.

This is an absorbing inside look at a changing profession and the interplay of personalities between a veteran owner, an experienced young man with ambitions of his own, and a neophyte struggling to find her place. A book to be enjoyed by anyone who likes animals and a must for aspiring veterinarians.

If you are looking for a book like All Creatures Great and Small, this book isn't for you. James Herriot is the ultimate writer in this category, and it is hard to find any authors that compare to him. As far as this book goes, I found the writing style hard to read and somewhat disjointed, since it is being written by an outside observer. It isn't a smooth read. Also, most of the book is about the trials of being a vet and owning your own vet practice. If you are a vet student or another vet, you might find it interesting. But for the average reader there aren't a lot of animal stories in it. The only reason I found it OK was that I am a dairy farmer and was interested in the types of problems this vet encountered in the dairy herds he visited. Also, I live in Vermont, close to this vet's location, and I knew some of the dairy farmers he had as customers. However, if you are looking for more animal stories like James Herriot's, I can't recommend this book. Instead, I would recommend books by Dr. John McCormack or books by Dr. David Perrin.

Dedicated in memory of Bob Zeidler, an Amazon reviewer.

Hobbs the current clinic cat was a survivor. He had once been a feral cat and somehow found himself in the Walpole, New Hampshire Veterinary Clinic. Fat and sassy and beloved by all.

The author, Douglas Whynott followed Chuck Shaw, Vet practice owner, and Roger Osinchuk, his associate for a year learning the ins and outs of a veterinary clinic that saw a mixed practice. Mixed practice in this sense means large and small animals. That is quite an ark full, so to speak. This kind of practice can run a man into the ground, particularly when you are on call every other night and every other weekend. The stories of the owners and their animals and the struggles of daily life become real and vivid in this engaging novel.

As the practice grows, Chuck and Roger decide they need to take on a third associate. Erika Bruner, a fresh graduate from Tufts Vet School, an intelligent, articulate woman answers the call. Thus begins her first year of a grueling, grinding profession. Erika allows us into her life, her emotions, her ups and downs, her insecurities and the struggles she encounters as she starts her job. The cows, yes, always the cows, the joys of examining cows by first removing all of the feces in the anus, and then examining the cows with a long sleeve on the arm and the "feel" of the insides of the cow. This is how one goes about finding out if a cow is pregnant or ready for pregnancy. Vermont and New Hampshire are farm country and cows are a specialty. We get inside the farmer's minds and how they practice their craft- how they care for their animals. A fascinating study of farm life and the people involved.

Chuck Shaw the Vet in charge is an honest, silent man. Straight forward and truthful, he is a Vietnam vet. Ready for anything, but getting tired of the life of a vet. Roger Osinchuk, the associate has a love of horses and with his skill he develops the practice of horses and in his own life grooms the champion of horses, Shawne. Chuck is married and he and his wife try to have a normal life, sometime having dinner at 11pm after a harried night call. Roger is in love and during this year proposes and gets married to a girl he met in Alberta. He is five years into his practice with Chuck. The other staff in the Vet practice tells a tale of a dedicated staff who love animals and give much, too much at times.

"Country Practice" is a tale of the love of animals. The profession of caring for and loving those animals is a big part of this story. The lives of those involved tell the intimate stories of life in rural New Hampshire. I have much more gratitude and understanding of a veterinarian's life. The life and death of our animals, a big part of our families, is in good hands in the Walpole Vet Clinic . Highly recommended. prisrob

Introduction In the book Discontinuous Change the authors use anecdotes of prestigious organizations to enhance the understanding of the theoretical and practical ideology concerning organizational change. The authors begin the text by identifying the precursors of organizational change. The precursors are shifts in industry structure, technological innovation, macroeconomic trends and crises, regulatory or legal changes, market and competitive forces and growth. The authors introduce the concept of sustained success as arrogant, insular, and complacent. By remaining in the sustained success idealism, the authors state that the organization will fall into the trap of success which tends to lead to an internal focus; the perception that knowledge, insight, and ideas are found inside the organization rather than outside. Throughout the text, the authors create a clear distinction between incremental and discontinuous change. The authors define incremental change as a continuous pattern of large and small changes that may impact the functioning enterprise in small or large increments. In contrast, discontinuous change is defined as a shocking impact that creates radical departure from the past. Using a variety of models, the authors give the reader a visual picture of the types of change that could occur in an organization. Portrayed in one of the models, the reader will identify the leadership as the "champions and gatekeepers" of the change. By setting the pace, the leaders identify the new corporate identity, the degree to which change needs to happen, the design and organization of the change plan and the interventions needed to keep the plan on course. The authors conclude with discussions concerning the different types of leaders that have been involved with organizational change throughout the years. The authors identified three types of leaders, heroic, instrumental and institutionalized. The authors concluded that the institutionalized leader would be more effective in directing the discontinuous change. Gut Reactions The authors believe that the organizational change should begin with the senior management, by analyzing their "point of view" relative to organizational strategy and policy level. In addition, they also focus on the behavioral dynamics of the organization, believing that the organization is a complex yet active system of human behavior. As practitioners, the authors give valuable insight for contemporary use in organizational change. Citing large organizations, such as, AT&T, Chrysler, and GE as examples, the authors state that the need for change in these organizations came from life-threatening business issues not just questions of organizational work life or corporate climate. In addition, the authors state that the issues that arose in the organizations were generated from external sources, such as, competition, new technology, deregulation, maturation of product sets, changes in ownership, shifts in fundamental market structure, or rapid growth opportunities. Further, the authors state that these changes altered the core of what the organizations represents to its customers and members, not just individual parts or subsystems. Based on the authors insights it has become clear that the days of effortless dominance of large organizations are history. Every organization needs to continue to develop and focus if they are to survive. The authors make it clear that change is inevitable, however, how that change is managed is the key to success. As individuals are resistant to change, so are organizations, however, the risk of an organization resisting change is much greater. The new environments demand that organizations develop speed, innovation, and flexibility, the very opposite of stability. Discontinuous change is a defined analysis of Schein's frame-breaking change in that it is more traumatic, painful and demanding on the organization than incremental change. Big Ideas The changed techniques used in the past are no longer sufficient to manage the complex transitions that are taking place in organizations today. Hence, the authors have determined that there is a need for further development of the old techniques, in order to manage the new types of transitions. Change has out grown the perception of being the exception it has now become the rule. With this perspective in mind, the authors' goal is to transform those things that are practice into theory. The authors are focused on proactive strategic responses to change, rather than, reactive. They offer propositions based on trial-and-error approaches. These propositions create the foundation for diagnoses of the readers current situation. With the understanding that not all leaders are capable of changing, the authors provide a framework to assist in assessing the ability of the current leadership. There are times when it becomes necessary for an organization to invoke change in an effort to avoid complacency. Implications In this era of intense organizational transitions, there is a need for every individual in the organization to adapt to change, beginning with the executives and management. This text speaks of long-term change that will continuously impact an organization over the period of its existence. The types of change needed in organizations are progressing towards frame-breaking, as opposed to historical cosmetic restructuring. Past techniques do not create the immediate turnaround needed to effect change. Therefore, just-in-time interventions are needed to create new behaviors immediately. However, the authors have conceded that often times tried-and-true techniques from decades ago are the most effective, but are often denounced because of the time sensitivity. The authors suggest that there are only two types of change, incremental and discontinuous. Those organizations that will be successful must create core capabilities that are not easily replicated by others. In order for discontinuous change to be effective, organizations must unlearn their old habits, orientations, assumptions, and routines.

One of the very best books read for my graduate degree. Nadler and Shaw point out that only those companies able to respond quickly and effectively to changing environmental conditions will survive in the coming decades. Successful firms must learn and act at a faster rate than their competition. Many leaders can affect some change in an organization-but it is normally short lived. But, to make change more long term and make that change take place at a faster rate-you must create destabilizing events in significant scope to get attention-and keep it! There are many take-aways in this book. If you want an outstanding "Leadership 101" book in 276 short pages-this is the one you want.

Have you ever closed a book after finishing the last page and wondered how you might apply all that you've learned from its contents? By the same token, have you ever struggled through a book which you knew had great information and yet its presentation left a dry, chalky feeling in your head?

If not, then this book is for you. I found it to be very enlightening and the book gave clear examples of organizations which either failed to anticipate change or proactively sought to position itself for change. Nadler, et al, break down the stages of change management into readable bites and provide stepping stones of the thought processes that should be involved in change management.

Even better, the authors discuss how the corporate culture is directed by leadership's attitude towards change and covers how to bring about change in spite of internal resistance.

That said, this is tough stuff to dig into for any length of time.

Introduction In the book Discontinuous Change the authors use anecdotes of prestigious organizations to enhance the understanding of the theoretical and practical ideology concerning organizational change. The authors begin the text by identifying the precursors of organizational change. The precursors are shifts in industry structure, technological innovation, macroeconomic trends and crises, regulatory or legal changes, market and competitive forces and growth. The authors introduce the concept of sustained success as arrogant, insular, and complacent. By remaining in the sustained success idealism, the authors state that the organization will fall into the trap of success which tends to lead to an internal focus; the perception that knowledge, insight, and ideas are found inside the organization rather than outside. Throughout the text, the authors create a clear distinction between incremental and discontinuous change. The authors define incremental change as a continuous pattern of large and small changes that may impact the functioning enterprise in small or large increments. In contrast, discontinuous change is defined as a shocking impact that creates radical departure from the past. Using a variety of models, the authors give the reader a visual picture of the types of change that could occur in an organization. Portrayed in one of the models, the reader will identify the leadership as the "champions and gatekeepers" of the change. By setting the pace, the leaders identify the new corporate identity, the degree to which change needs to happen, the design and organization of the change plan and the interventions needed to keep the plan on course. The authors conclude with discussions concerning the different types of leaders that have been involved with organizational change throughout the years. The authors identified three types of leaders, heroic, instrumental and institutionalized. The authors concluded that the institutionalized leader would be more effective in directing the discontinuous change. Gut Reactions The authors believe that the organizational change should begin with the senior management, by analyzing their "point of view" relative to organizational strategy and policy level. In addition, they also focus on the behavioral dynamics of the organization, believing that the organization is a complex yet active system of human behavior. As practitioners, the authors give valuable insight for contemporary use in organizational change. Citing large organizations, such as, AT&T, Chrysler, and GE as examples, the authors state that the need for change in these organizations came from life-threatening business issues not just questions of organizational work life or corporate climate. In addition, the authors state that the issues that arose in the organizations were generated from external sources, such as, competition, new technology, deregulation, maturation of product sets, changes in ownership, shifts in fundamental market structure, or rapid growth opportunities. Further, the authors state that these changes altered the core of what the organizations represents to its customers and members, not just individual parts or subsystems. Based on the authors insights it has become clear that the days of effortless dominance of large organizations are history. Every organization needs to continue to develop and focus if they are to survive. The authors make it clear that change is inevitable, however, how that change is managed is the key to success. As individuals are resistant to change, so are organizations, however, the risk of an organization resisting change is much greater. The new environments demand that organizations develop speed, innovation, and flexibility, the very opposite of stability. Discontinuous change is a defined analysis of Schein's frame-breaking change in that it is more traumatic, painful and demanding on the organization than incremental change. Big Ideas The changed techniques used in the past are no longer sufficient to manage the complex transitions that are taking place in organizations today. Hence, the authors have determined that there is a need for further development of the old techniques, in order to manage the new types of transitions. Change has out grown the perception of being the exception it has now become the rule. With this perspective in mind, the authors' goal is to transform those things that are practice into theory. The authors are focused on proactive strategic responses to change, rather than, reactive. They offer propositions based on trial-and-error approaches. These propositions create the foundation for diagnoses of the readers current situation. With the understanding that not all leaders are capable of changing, the authors provide a framework to assist in assessing the ability of the current leadership. There are times when it becomes necessary for an organization to invoke change in an effort to avoid complacency. Implications In this era of intense organizational transitions, there is a need for every individual in the organization to adapt to change, beginning with the executives and management. This text speaks of long-term change that will continuously impact an organization over the period of its existence. The types of change needed in organizations are progressing towards frame-breaking, as opposed to historical cosmetic restructuring. Past techniques do not create the immediate turnaround needed to effect change. Therefore, just-in-time interventions are needed to create new behaviors immediately. However, the authors have conceded that often times tried-and-true techniques from decades ago are the most effective, but are often denounced because of the time sensitivity. The authors suggest that there are only two types of change, incremental and discontinuous. Those organizations that will be successful must create core capabilities that are not easily replicated by others. In order for discontinuous change to be effective, organizations must unlearn their old habits, orientations, assumptions, and routines.

If you are like me and have read hints in other books referring to the Egyptian military but have always wondered just what the structure of the army was at different points in Pharaonic history and how many men were in each type of unit, this book is for you! Shaw whisks over topics relevant to ancient Egypt's military with chapters on "Egypt's Enemies", "Fortresses and Frontiers", "The Egyptian Army", "Weapons and Military Technology", "Imperial Strategies and International Diplomacy" and "Naval Battles" among others. A well-illustrated (b/w) little work (part of the Shire Egyptology series) that supplies good information without eating up your wallet and your bookshelf.

This new booklet in the series "Shire Egyptology" is warmfully welcomed. It was time to have a short, concise, serious and nice synthesis on actual knowledge about Warfare in times of the Pharaohs. The book is nicely designed, as it is usual in this series, and the text is accompanied by 52 figures with useful images of unfrequently depicted material on the subject-matter. Recommended as a must-have-it!

This book was rated so highly that I bought it thinking that I would learn a score of information about ancient Egyptian warfare. However, this was not the case. This book only conglomerates notions of warfare that anyone could have picked up from reading at least three texts in Pharonic Egyptian history. The topic is dealt with only at a medicore level and unfortunately, does not go into enough detail about the conquests of Ahmose (the Hyksos expeller) and Thutmose III (who expanded the empire to its greatest extent). Instead I got the same old stuff: a description of the battle of Kadesh, Megido, and the invasion by the Sea-Peoples. Although, I sound harsh in this review, it is still a good book, just don't think it will answer all of your questions unless you do further research.

Ian Shaw is a relatively well known scholar in the field of Ancient Egyptian studies. This book is one of several books he has written. Little is written in the field of ancient weaponry. Ian Shaw makes a great contribution to this field by gathering into one source the necessary inscriptions, paintings, and archaeological evidence to create one of the clearest views of ancient Egyptian warfare and the weapons they used. The organization of the book begins with fortifications, enemies of Egypt, and the Egyptian Army. Ian Shaw does a good job of identifying Egypt's enemies with primary documents such as the "Execration Texts," that give a list of everyone that the Egyptians desired to destroy. He also provides ample examples of fortifications and discusses archaeological remains from several fortresses, most notably Buhen -- one of the most well preserved fortifications in Egypt. He provides photographs of material remains of weapons and analyzes reliefs and other wall inscriptions. This combination brings to life the various periods of ancient Egypt and gives the reader a good understanding, through examples and illustrations, of the "why" and "how" of Egyptian fortifications and weapons. Next Ian Shaw provides us with descriptions of two of the most famous ancient Egyptian battles of Megiddo and Qadesh as examples of Egyptian strategies and international diplomacy. The battle of Megiddo brought all of the Palestine region under the control of Egypt. This region was important because of Egypt's lack of wood and other desired resources. The book recreates the battle and simplifies it to show the strategies used by the Pharaoh (Tuthmosis III) to conquer the city. After describing the battle of Megiddo Ian Shaw uses letters such as Ribaddi's to show that Egypt also used diplomacy to control the area of Syro-Palestine. Lastly the book illustrates in photographs and interpretations the great battle of Rameses to against the Hittites at Qadesh. This battle has never been more clear with illustrations of troop placements and movements. Finally, Ian Shaw shows through wall reliefs the beginning and eventual decline of Egyptian military technology. Greater military powers, such as Assyria, beat down Egypt's frontier walls, and though none of them took total control over Egypt, it left them open to invasion from other peoples and finally to Alexander and his conquests. Ian Shaw creates a masterpiece of combining all of the different sources to compile all of the necessary and interesting pieces of the ancient Egyptian warfare and weapons puzzle. Anyone interested in this subject should begin with this book in order to get the clearest picture with the least effort.

The love of her father, her murdered father, is a sort of madness. Electra notes that Niobe wept perpetually. She awaits the coming of Orestes, her banished brother, being childless, husbandless, past child-bearing age. She wonders how it could be honorable to forget. Aegisthus sits on her father's throne and occupies his bed with her mother, Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra had a problem with Agamemnon's conduct. He sacrificed her child, a daughter. It is falsely reported to the House of Atreus that Orestes is dead.

Orestes comes into the scene when he deems it safe with only the chorus and Electra present. He advises Electra then that he is alive. Electra prays to Apollo to know what plans the Gods will exact for wickedness. Clytemnestra is dealt with by Orestes in the absence of Aegisthus. Aegisthus then is compelled to see her wrapped dead body as he views it under circumstances wherein he believes that he will be seeing the deceased Orestes and the end of the danger to his own life, presumably pursuant to an oracle.

Orestes leads Aegisthus away, reminding him that he is not to dictate the details of his own demise.

Great drama. I'm not a huge "classics" fan and yet I enjoyed this. If you're into Greek mythology and like flowery language and prose (and lots of melodrama) you will enjoy this. HINT: don't read these plays line-by-line like a poem - I find that it's more difficult to follow them that way. Read this like you would a novel.

The murder of Clytemnestra by her son Orestes is unique in Greek mythology in that it is the one story for which we have extant versions by all three of the great tragic poets. Consequently, it is insightful to notice how each tragedy privileges different parts of the story. In "Choephoroe" ("The Libation Bearers") by Aeschylus, the middle part of his "Orestia" trilogy, Orestes is obedient to the gods in avenging the death of his father and the pivotal scene is the confrontation between mother and son when Clytemnestra begs for her life. In "Electra" by Euripides the title character has to persuade Orestes to go through with the deed and the dramatic confrontation is now between mother and daughter. In the Sophocles version of "Electra" the emphasis is on the psychological dimensions of the situation; after all, it is from this play that Freud developed his concept of the Electra complex.

Towards that end Sophocles creates a character, Chrysothemis, another sister to both Orestes and Electra. The situation is that Orestes is assumed to be dead and the issues is whether the obligation to avenge the death of Agamemnon now falls to his daughters. There is an attendant irony here in that Clytemnestra justified the murder of her husband in part because of his sacrifice of their oldest daughter Iphigenia before sailing off to the Trojan War (the curse on the House of Atreus, which involves Aegisthus on his own accord and not simply as Clytemnestra's lover, is important but clearly secondary). The creation of Chrysothemis allows for Sophocles to write a dialogue that covers both sides of the dispute. Electra argues that the daughters must assume the burden and avenge their father while Chrysothemis takes the counter position.

Sophocles does come up with several significant twists on the Aeschylus version. For one thing, Sophocles reverses the order of the two murders and has Clytemnestra slain first, which sets up an interesting scene when Aegisthus gets to revel over what he believes to be the corpse of Orestes and makes the death of the usurper the final scene of the play. This becomes part of the most significant difference between the Sophocles version and the others. Whereas Orestes emerges from the skene distraught after the murder of his mother in "Cheophoroe" and is repentant in the Euripides version of "Electra," Sophocles has Orestes calmly declaring that all in the house is well.

Electra is not as central a character to the drama as she is in the Euripides version, mainly because she does not have a functional purpose in this tragedy. Her main purpose is to lament over the death of the father and the supposed death of her brother. She does not provide Orestes with a sense of resolve because in this version he does not consult the oracles to learn whether or not he should kill his mother but rather how he can do the deed. Still, the part of Electra has enormous potential for performance. Ironically, this "Electra" is the least interesting of the three, despite the fact Freud made it infamous: by his standards the Euripides play speaks more to the desire of a daughter to see her mother dead, but since Sophocles wrote "Oedipus the King" it probably seemed fair to point to his version of this tale as well.

In this play, Electra, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, awaits the return of her brother Orestes so that he can avenge the murder of their father. I think that many scholars have tended to misread this play. It is a play about Electra, not about Orestes or Clytemnestra or Aegisthus. And, it is a tragedy. Should one allow hatred to rule their own lives to such an extent as seen in Electra, even when one is in the right? A number of scholars regard this play as inferior to Aeschylus discussion of the same events.

A down to earth account of her life. A refreshing look at both our contemporary and yester year world.

Each line of this book is a distillation of the personal experience of the author. The everyday care and tireless efforts of women such as her make life continue and society function. Like many other foreigners, I came to America with naïve illusions of everyone's prosperity, relatively easy success, and happiness. This book leads the reader through a story of hardships for a family in years difficult for the United States, happiness that one can earn, the wisdom of love, and the gift of giving. Engaging and interesting to read.

Inspiring autobiographical account of a woman growing up during the Depression and dealing with unexpected and unpleasant twists on the road to the American dream of the 1950's. The author's descriptive style allows the readers to create their own personal emotional reactions to the scenes - thereby literally sharing the author's life with her readers. The recurring theme of the two things that really matter - birth and death - and how they are dealt with by the author and others - provides perspectives for each of us in how we handle the rapids and shoals of our personal "rivers" of life.

This book is an interesting, compelling story of one woman's courage, as mother, nurse and writer, overcoming obstacles which surround all of us, to make life a symphony of triumph and joy! Read this one...it's true to the bone.

English not being my native language, I never had to read Dickens in high school. I decided to try Great Expectations as my first introduction to the great English author, on the recommendation of a friend of mine. And I was not disappointed!

That said, I had a bit of a difficult time at first getting used to Dickens's use of language, and I found the first part of the book a little hard to get into, but I didn't have to struggle too much or for too long: after a short while the characters came alive for me and the story became so absorbing, that I could not put the book down. The novel has a fantastic, very tight plot, and the characters are memorable. This always works for me as a reader!

Great Expectations was my first Dickens read, but it will certainly not be the last.

First of all (as I like to say!) I'm no smarter than you and I thought this book was great, that said, this book is not THE easiest to read in that it does take a while for things to get really interesting. I rated it 5 stars because it is excellent but you need to have some patience with this book, in the end it is much worth the effort....and keep me updated!

I wanted to revisit this "classic", having read it in high school and remembering it fondly. I was not disappointed, for I found the story more applicable to my life now, ten years later, than at the time of my first reading. Back then, it seemed a good yarn - lots of fun characters, intriguing plot twists - a grand adventure. Upon rereading, I was able to absorb the story while thinking about my own "coming of age", and weigh the morality of Pip's universe. At the same time, my original impressions were not misguided - the moral/societal questions Dickens explores are layered into the fun characters and strong plot development.

In addition, there are some interesting "reading group" questions at the back, as well as some interesting commentary by various authors since the time of the original publication. For that reason, I would recommend this edition.

the course of the year I try to read a few, "Important Novels" in order to get a fuller understanding of literature. Dicken's "Great Expectations" has been on my list for nearly a year. I completely dreaded reading what I thought would be a long and drawn out story about something I could careless about. Well, I was wrong.
"Great Expectations" is now #1 on my all-time favorites list. While, admittedly, it took me roughly 150 pages to get any enjoyment out of the novel- once I was in- I was hooked. Pip's journey through life is a very refreshing look at how distorted we let our lives become by focusing on the unimportant. Dicken's ability to slowly alter Pip's views on life, without changing his essential character/morales (Ex. How Pip looks to help his friend in his business pursuits). Some have called "Great Expecations" his masterpiece... but in my opinion, it may be the "Masterpiece" of English Literature.

I also wonder why this is required High School reading. While I loved this book at age 28, I think most 16 year-olds would find it unbearable. It seems like such a waist to ruin both the book and Dicken's name on minds that are not ready for such a reading task.

I purchased 1100 copies of this book for my local High School's civics class thinking that it was about the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that passed through the House by a narrow margin. Caveat emptor.

This is a cute book that was very well written. My son likes the mouse story and giggles every time I read it to him. It features "The Senate Mousejority leader and the Sqeaker of the House". Parents that are in to politics will get a good laugh out of reading this one.

As a teacher, I love the way they presented the concept of how a bill becomes a law. However, as a mother, I find it becomes confusing for a preschooler when you use terms such as "Squeaker" of the House instead of "Speaker" and "Mouse-jority" Leader. A great book, definitely worth the buy, but if your child can't read yet, use the real terminology to avoid confusion.

This book is fairly well done, but treats an enor-mouse-ly complex subject very simply (by necessity, of course). Despite it's simplicity, it still seems too complex for the age bracket it is aimed at (4-7 years). The drawings are adequate, but there are some perspective problems. The rhymes are adequate, but tortured in places. This book would seem to be either a great primer if you plan to take your children to Washington DC or a great souvenir of a trip there. As a lesson of how government works, I am a little more dubious. The great value of the book is the connection of system with place (such as committee room or house floor), not as a lesson of how the system works. The separation of representatives and the people is also a bit disconcerting, from a Jeffersonian point of view. The story would have been improved if the students that developed the idea of a "national cheese" would have been allowed to follow their idea through the process, rather than just send a letter and see the results on TV. Senator Thurmouse, well, that's just downright spooky.

I hope that Ms. Shaw is busy writing a sequel to this book, because I coudn't put it down! I just kept reading until I finished. (around 2am!)

Great characters, fully developed, fast paced and fun. Just the kind of book I have been waiting for.

Congratulations to Allie Shaw for a really great first work, and I can't wait to read more and more!

In Texas in 1888, Tyler Hamilton has just been hired as campaign manager to Senator Maxwell, who is running for reelection. Marlena Maxwell is none too happy about this turn of events, partially because she is such a vital force behind her father's campaign, and secondly, because Tyler is a Harvard-educated Bostonian.

Despite their differences, Tyler and Marlena cannot deny their attraction for one another. Though he is a Yankee, Tyler respects Marlena's ability to aid her father's political career. Their mutual attraction does become complicated by the fact that Marlena's mother demands that her father fire Tyler as campaign manager because his accent causes her to remember the Yankee that slashed and scarred her face during the Civil War.

Marlena becomes very confused about her feelings for Tyler, for there is no denying the spark between them, but she wonders how she can fall for a man who could be responsible for the breakup of her family, as her mother is not on good terms with her father. Tyler and Marlena decide that their love for one another must surpass all other concerns as they continue to meet in secret.

When scandal erupts in a local newspaper, Tyler and Marlena must stand together to help Senator Maxwell weather the attacks on his credibility. Their bond becomes stronger as they publicly confess their love, and together aid Mrs. Maxwell's recovery from a debilitating illness.

Ms. Shaw has written a fine debut historical while employing a clever combination of wit and romance. The hero and heroine are very likeable characters. Tyler is depicted as strong male who is very respectful of Marlena's intellectual abilites, and Marlena is much more than the typical simpering southern belle. With this page turner as a first book, readers can look forward to future enjoyable historicals from Allie Shaw.

I came across this book while looking for Texas fiction. While I'm not finished yet I was hardly able to put it down to write this review, it's a page turner and the characters are irresistable. A Texas native myself, I know how stubborn those from the lone star state can be - - Marlena sounds just like a lot of my sister Texans. I have no doubt that she'll get her man - - that is if she still wants him (we're fickle too)!!!! Thanks to the author for such a good read. I'm hoping for a sequel.

In 1888 Texas, Marlena "Lena" Maxwell thinks her father made a colossal error bringing the Harvard carpetbagger to run his state senate reelection campaign. Instead, Lena feels her father should have appointed her as his campaign manager because she believes she is the best man for the job.

Tyler Hamilton III sees his new position as an opportunity to succeed at an endeavor without his family's help. However, he never counted on his employer's daughter as an obstacle. Still, he quickly falls in love with Lena, who in spite of her feelings about anything Northern, reciprocates. As the election campaign runs into some nasty situations and nastier people, Tyler begins a second campaign, but his goal is a one-time election as Lena's husband.

THE IMPOSSIBLE TEXAN is a strong American romance that never misses a beat as the lead couple conducts their own sexy battle of the War Between the States. The key cast members are fully developed so that the audience understands Lena's feelings, the senator's selection, and Tyler's needs. Though the moral antics of the journalist seems a bit pat, the story line is fast-paced and hooks the audience into following the election as well as the romance. Allie Shaw provides sub-genre fans with a superb novel that will garner the author her own following.

Harriet Klausner