Research Books

John English's "A Perspective on Infantry," and its revised edition, have been enduring residents on the bookshelves of military professionals since first publication in 1981. English's topic is the tactical role of infantry on the twentieth century battlefield. As a Canadian officer, his focus was primarily on the wars in which Canada participated, but this is not a history of the Canadian Army. His narrative closely examines the evolution of infantry organization and use in the American and British armies, and in their 20th century opponents such as the Japanese and German armies.

English discusses, in very accessible prose, how changes in warfare and technology tended to drive changes in basic infantry organization down to the fire team and squad level, and how infantry was used on the battlefield. He relies heavily on the historical record of the two world wars, but other conflicts are referenced. English's prose is straightforward and matter-of-fact, even sometimes moving, as in his description of the heroic performance of the U.S. First Marine Division in the breakout from the Chosin Reservoir in 1950.

English was a professional writing primarily for other professionals. The reader without military or historical background may not fully appreciate the value of this work.

The extent to which integrated joint and combined operations have come to dominate the actions of the U.S. military and to a lesser degree of its NATO allies is an event largely postdating this edition, as is the degree to which netcentric warfare is now commonly used. Nevertheless, the basis of the infantry continues to be the human soldier: on that basis, "On Infantry" endures as a very worthful professional read.

Books such as English's "On Infantry" are difficult to review because it is wise to examine source material in conjunciton with the text. I ordered this book a year ago and have been working on this review since.

Due to the scope of this book, I'll only talk about the evolution of the infantry squad as English and Gudmundsson outlined throughout "On Infantry." Please note that there are multiple interpretations.

The infantry squad had its roots in ancient times as an administrative unit, a sort of "family grouping" with a big brother serving to mold the younger soldiers. The authors pick this up in the first chapter, "The Open Order Revolution," in the period between 1854 the Crimean War) and 1914 (the outbreak of World War One.) A combination of rifling (extending range) and repeater mechanism (increased fire volume) rendered the earlier means of command, control, and concentration of combat power a certain means to defeat; the enemy would shoot the closed-ranks regiments to pieces in minutes. Dispersion while mutually supporting the rest of the regiment or brigade forced the very junior leaders to assume responsibility for what had been the regimental commander's decision-making, as the battlefield became "empty" in the face of the hail of accurate rifle bullets. Rapid fire weaponry, which included both the machine gun and the quick-fire field piece (one with a recoil mechanism that limited the necessity to relay the gun after each shot--and often used recoil energy to eject spent cartridge casings, increasing the rate of fire), only added to this revolution--and made the old Napoleanic tactics pure suicide.

The squad (often thought of as an American invention) became a tactical unit during the Great War, and its evolution from administrative element (for guard duty, for fatigue details, for grouping into mess elements for distributing rations or for issuing supplies) into a tactical element possessing independant internal manuever and fire elements is spread out through "On Infantry"-- but the most important chapter is 7, "A Corporal's Guard." Oddly enough, the French Army almost got it right during the Great War, and was one of the three models for the modern infantry squad. The French put an automatic rifle in the squad and formally divided the squad into two elements--one grouped around the automatic rifle for fire support, and one for manuever with "ordianry riflemen." The French squad leader went with the maneuver element and the assistant squad leader stayed with the automatic rifle--but the French failed to exploit this innovation. French Army regulations stipulated that the squad was indivisible and that the smallest element capablie of being assigned an independant task was the platoon. The Germans did it right (funny about those Germans) by exchanging the squad's automatic rifle for a light machine gun, keeping the squad leader with the LMG and making that element the main killing system, with the assistant squad leader running a manuever/assault element of riflemen that supported the machine gun's tasks. The Germans called this universal squad the Einsheitsgruppe, and then proceeded to reinvent the wheel due to deterioration in their non-commissioned officer cadre due to casualties to form a second, "guerrilla" formation armed (on paper) with the assault rifle and grenade launcher. Simplified tactics also reduced the ability of the squad for independant action--for a single objective (ie, taking or holding a single small building) the minimum maneuver element was the platoon or even battalion. It should be noted here that even though--on paper--the 1944 German Volksgrenadier squad was supposed to have eight men, it was more common for the actual strength to be four, five, or six. There was no assistant squad leader, and Germany relied upon indoctrinating every soldier to take charge of the situation and continue the mission even when leadership personnel became casualties. The third squad formation is one I was most familiar with, the USMC's three fire team rifle squad standardized in March of 1944. Derived from the Chinese Communist practice of grouping three men around a single automatic weapon, this system was first tried out by the Marines in the Second Raider Battalion under Colonel Carlson. Three independantly-maneuvering four-Marine "fire teams," each organized around the Browning Automatic Rifle, achieved a balance of mobility and firepower which could be controlled under chaotic battlefield conditions that was hard to improve upon. Too bad that it was squandered in mostly frontal attacks against an enemy whose defense was basically an area ambush, a trap that sucked in attackers for annihilation. It is a credit to the Marines and their lowest-level tactical organization that they managed to prevail over the Imperial Japanese infantry's defensive webs--something like the fly overpowering the spider after getting entangled in its web.

There are other subjects covered in "On Infantry," but for brevity, I've just covered the evolution of squad organization. This evolution was impacted by such things as changing American Army drill--instead of forming the squad as two ranks of four men, the "new" squad of 1940 formed as a single file of 12 men--or any other number. Another factor in the evolution of the squad was conversion from foot mobility to motorization--the twelve-man squad of 1940 became a six-Soldier dismount team aboard a Stryker or Bradley. Due to low priority given to "bayonets on line," these dismount teams may number a mere two soldiers at times. Infantry squads always suffer attrition-often administrative attrition (mess duty, guard details, "give me a guy for a patrol,") and frequently casualties due to non-combat accidents, illness, or combat injuries. This messes up tactics because it isn't unusual for a rifle squad to be missing as much as 2/3rds of its strength in combat. The American idea of men as interchangable cogs in a massive machine ignored the human element, but this has changed due to combat experience. When a bunch of "weekend warriors" who have limited training time, but have known each other for years and have built mutual bonds of confidence out-fight "better-trained" active-component soldiers in both war games and actual combat, something is obviously wrong with regarding the infantry squad as an ad-hoc grouping of individuals. Sports teams train together to develop team work. The best individual players tossed into a game as a mob will almost always lose to a team of mediocre players who are lead by a competent coach and who play as a team. Infantry combat is a "team sport" rather than an individual event, and the long-overdue recognition of this simple fact is one reason why American infantry out-fights the Iraqi "insurgents."

An extensive bibliography and a very useable index enhances "On Infantry." This well-read book is an important part of my small unit tactics library.

John English is a brilliant tactician and historian who has written THE masterpiece on the origins of Infantry. I would have English describe infantry to about the Vietnam era and have Col Dan Bolger take the coverage from there to the future in his own book Death Ground: American infantry in battle. Bruce Gudmundsson was attached to the updated English book to attempt to bring the work up to date.

Taking the masterpiece for what it is, it delivers an important lesson mechanized maneuverists do not want to realize---that the German "blitzkrieg" died in the forests and cities of Russian when it met infantry that would not crumble if surrounded or cut-off from comfortable supply lines. Using a defense-in-depth, a nation on a total war footing can absorb and defeat another less committed nation that hopes to use a smaller force to penetrate and collapse. Many, maybe even most people mistake the German defeat in Russia--and hence WWII---with the cold Russian winter, and this is incorrect. The next critical---perhaps most important lesson and contribution English makes to the defense of freedom is---that a mechanized "combined arms" unit is ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS INFANTRY. When terrain and weather go sour, artillery and tanks will reach a point where they cannot contribute--and the entire battle then falls on the infantry. When this took place in Russia--the German infantry was NOT up to the task with inadequate numbers, clothing and bolt-action rifles. English points out and lesser historians should take note--that the German war machine was good together but not really that good because its PARTS were weak. When combined-arms technotactics could not be employed in the forests of Russia, the battle rested on the German infantry and it failed.

The cryptic lesson here is that we need GOOD infantry in large numbers and we don't get it by placing them into the back of armored vehicles in less than squad sizes, shut off from what's going on because they can't open a hatch out and see because we put a turret on the vehicle and we are afraid it will rotate into them. The Army made this mistake with the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, is trying to correct it with its vehicle for the new Brigade Combat Teams while the marines are about to repeat the error with a huge autocannon turret on their next generation amphibious assault vehicle. The second lesson of English is still being ignored---those that do mechanized combined arms don't value infantry action---they ride too long in their vehicles and get ambushed by missiles and RPGs fired from enemies hiding in key terrain that should have been taken first by the infantry. To do this you need a large amount of aggressive, not complacent infantry. As the Russians found out in Grozny, when their armored vehicles became flaming coffins, the battle then falls on the infantry to clear out enemies hiding in urban terrain.

This is not to say English believes in a "Super Infantry" since we saw in Mogadishu the best light infantry in the world get shot up because it was without armored fighting vehicles to shield it from enemy fire. What English is saying is that we should start with quality infantry when building forces and not in the process of creating combined-arms organizations ruin the infantry capability by reducing numbers, battle awareness and use as a separate maneuver element.

On Infantry should be required reading for ALL U.S. military personnel coupled with Bolger's Death Ground. I'd like to see the book updated to the present with a fresh perspective for the 21st Century where we apply English's lessons to the future battlefield.

This is an excellent discussion (historical and schematic) of what goes on at the nitty-gritty level of infantry combat; the squads, platoons, companies, and battalions. It shows how various systems succeed or fail at tasks such as flexibility, manouver, combat cohesion and morale, and why the German army was generally qualitatively superior to both Western and Eastern rivals in both world wars.

That being said, the authors tend to overemphasize the capabilities of infantry on its own -- particularly unsupported light infantry, and particularly in the theoretical section which concludes the book.

While rightly critical of the excessive logistical tail some modern "armies of drivers" drag around, they lose sight of the fact that foot infantry by itself totally lacks operational mobility -- 20 miles a day vs. over 200 for forces with their own organic transport. And they neglect the degree to which infantry alone lacks even tactical mobility on a battlefield saturated with automatic weapons.

It's no accident that the armies which actually do a lot of fighting -- the Israelis, for instance -- structure combined-arms teams around honking great monster tanks like the Merkava III or the M1A2 Abrahms, 70 tons or so of massively protected lethality.

Mobility means the ability to move, but tactical mobility means the ability to move _under fire_.

This poses a genuine strategic dilemma; forces light enough to move rapidly _strategically_ are often too heavy to be mobile in the tactical and operational sense -- you can fly light infantry quickly to the other side of the world, but they can't move when they're actually fighting.

Still, an excellent book on the whole.

This is one of a series of surveys by Bruce Gudmundsson on different combat arms. (This book also has John English as a co-author.) As always, Gudmundsson's books are informative and delightfully easy to read. In this book the authors examine the evolution of infantry tactics resulting from the massive increase in firepower as muskets gave way to rifles and then to automatic weapons, in addition to the vast array of supplementary infantry weapons (i.e. grenades, anti-tank weapons, mortars, etc.).

They start off by looking at the effects of dispersing troops in open order to mitigate casualties and different armies' responses to this organizational and mental requirement. As the machine gun speedily became ubiquitous early on in World War I, some armies adjusted rapidly and easily, such as the Germans, while others lagged behind, e.g. British, Americans. English and Gudmundsson examine and compare the tactical infantry doctrines and small-unit organizations of the French, German, Russian, British, Japanese and American armies of World War II. Also examined are the Chinese Army from the Korean War and the Vietnam-era American army. In each case, they utilize real battlefield examples to demonstrate how this doctrine was actually put into practice, how effective the chosen tactics were, and their strengths and weaknesses (e.g. the American army's reliance on firepower instead of expert technique). They also examine the importance of psychological conditioning in preparing infantry soldiers for 'the emptiness of the battlefield'. The concluding chapter then briefly examines how different modern armies have organized their infantry arms, e.g. by reducing mechanization & heavy equipment.

This was a great survey on infantry organization and tactical doctrine. I highly recommend it as a brief introduction to the infantry arm. A more detailed study by Gudmundsson of the evolution of small-unit tactics can be found in 'Stormtroop Tactics'.

Outstanding work with clear illustrations and examples of how to improve your library research. I learned more about library research in this book than in all my years pursuing a doctorate degree.

A MUST have for anyone who spends time in the library. You do not have to be a professional researcher or academician to get useful tools from this book. My kids have read the book as well, and their research projects for school improved dramatically.

I strongly recommend this book is you plan any research projects in the future.

Dr. Mann really pulls out the stops with this excellent reference guide. After 18 years at the LoC he knows the tricks!

The third edition of Thomas Mann's "Oxford Guide to Library Research" is an indispensable friend for students and scholars, or anyone in the general public who has a hobby, a pet project or just the desire to know, and wants not only to improve their research skills but to learn - and take full advantage of - all the resources available to the library researcher in the Computer Age. When the second edition of the "Oxford Guide" was published, all the way back in 1998, computer programs in libraries were pretty much limited to a catalogue of a library's holdings, a smattering of databases perhaps, and Internet access, maybe. Dr. Mann unfolds the riches that may now be found at library workstations and the new ways to find the best on its shelves.

And you can't hope for a better guide. A reference librarian in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress for 25 years, Dr. Mann's firsthand experience in helping patrons get the most out of their library experience is evident in this book. While some would consign libraries and the outmoded technology they were built to house (known as books) to the dustbin, Dr. Mann reveals how computers have done more for library research and serious scholars than for the search for general, often disorganized and unreliable, "information" on the Web.

In the early days of computerization there was a popular acronym for the uncertain results of Internet searching, GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). It has been supplanted nowadays by the kinder, gentler "I feel lucky" or, for the happy-go-lucky, the "sloppy search." Use these methods, whether on a search engine or a library computer catalogue, you'll likely lwind up with thousands of hits. (Good luck.) But here's Thomas Mann to the rescue. In his chapters on subject headings, on keyword searches and on Boolean combinations and search limitations, he sets out to help you define your subject concisely and precisely, and choose the search methods that will get you to the best sources for your project, instead of settling for what is "good enough." (Is it?)

In "The Oxford Guide to Library Research" you will learn how the indexed subheadings in a subject browse on the library computer catalogue can turn up unexpected sources - instant bibliographies, so to speak - that are just right for your topic, as well as how to negotiate such as the electronic databases with full-text articles from thousands of journals and newspapers. The rest of the book is devoted to the range of print and electronic resources: the specialized encyclopedias on topics that you would never imagine have encyclopedias of their own; microform and CD-ROM databases; online programs that can locate books in a more distant library if it turns out that what you seek is not available in your local branch. An innovation in this edition of the "Oxford Guide" is facsimiles of the actual search pages of major databases to illustrate examples in the text. His invaluable chapter, "Hidden Treasures," has grown by half again from the one in the second edition, now noting print collections that are also available in online databases, as well as a selection of collections exclusive to the web.

Dr. Mann's major goal is to get you to the sources you want, and ones you don't yet know you want, in the most direct and effective way; to make you think, not like a librarian, but as someone with a specific personal research goal, and to give you the knowledge and skills to accomplish it. He peppers the book with anecdotes from his firsthand experiences with researchers, the college student, the accomplished professor and the weekend scholar, while relating information in a conversational, descriptive fashion with sparing use of professional jargon. With "The Oxford Guide to Library Research" at hand when you get to work on your next project, you may discover that doing the research for it is half the fun of getting there. Or, maybe, all of it.

This is a terrific book for anyone interested in books and finding information. The author works at the Library of Congress, and has extensive experience looking for information of all kinds. he uses both print and electronic sources, and both to great advantage. His tips on using ordinary sources are exceptional; for example, did you know that the AMERICANA often prints important American speeches in their entirety? If you are a book lover, this is a useful guide, which you will use for a long time.

Besides being packed with information that will aid research at any level, it is an enjoyable read as well.

This is a good comprehensive and easy-to-read book on Parapsychology. This book covers key areas to understanding the field of parapsychology such as the important historical areas of Parapsychology, the methods of parapsychologists in history up to the present, various psi or paranormal topics such as ESP, PK, OBEs, NDEs, apparitions, etc. It also covers ideas and theories regarding some of these psi phenomena (i.e ESP, PK, etc.), and even points that skeptics bring up and most of these objections/points were answered for definitively. I must say though this book is not up-to-date as far as current results from research goes. There have been many experiments like the Ganzfeld experiments which have been done between the release of this book ca. 1991 up to now 2007 with new results and views; other than that the other information is still relevant to parapsychology today. And this is still the best comprehensive introduction to parapsychology I've read thus far. Now this book does not conclusively or strongly prove psi phenomena such as ESP and PK, but only to a small degree at most. This book does prove that parapsychologists are improving their experiments and understanding of psi and are trying new things that would work to prove psi. Based upon reading this book I'm convinced that the future of psi research looks good and reasonable.

This is an excellent book that never seems to go out of date. The information is just as current and pertinent to learning about the field of parapsychology as it was when first published. It is a great book for an over-all foundation in parapsychology.

It was the first book I ever read about parapsychology and I read it through and learned many things that I never would have bothered reading about had it not been written so comprehensively. I enjoyed the references to the relativity theory in relation to psi phenomena, the history of parapsychology,the names of prominent people in parapsychology,the different experimental methods used through the history of parapsychology,and that the book was so contemporary. The thing I disagreed with about the book is the fact that it talked of telepathic experiances as ocurring as non-continuous, as in, being isolated experiances, whereas I know that tele-pathic experiances can occur moment-by-moment,day-by-day, week-by-week,month-by-month,i.e. continuously. Thank-you

My general impression for the book as a psychology graduate student is that it provides the reader with a scientificly oriented, but easy-to-understand general knowledge about the field. There is only one point that seems irrelevant to me which is the application topic. As a controversial science, parapsychology should seek and maintain a more pure-scientific orientation. My idea is that by being so, parapsychology may lead the scientific endeavor of discovering human nature more deeply and in a more multi-facet fashion.
Kürsad Demirutku, Middle East Technical University

I think Broughton's book is a wonderfully interesting and crafted introduction to this science. He provides fascinating examples of case studies and clearly explains the scientific approach paraspychologists take in studying anomalies. It has changed my viewpoints about many areas I had previously shunned, before being educated by Broughton. Bravo!

I knew Col. Burton (I, too, am from Normal, IL). When you look up "integrity" or "hero" in your dictionary, you may find his picture there!

When I saw the HBO movie based on this true story, I was a bit offended at first that it was presented as a comedy. But I changed my mind -- the movie brilliantly got the story out. Oh, that there were more Col. Burtons in our world!

The "Old Guard" of out-of-touch and can't-handle-the-truth milicrats still run the Pentagon--even after the 9/11 attacks clearly showed a "house-cleaning" is in order to meet the challenges of 21st Century asymmetric warfare by cunning enemies. Colonel Burton's book outlines how 1980s reformers sought to get reliable, safe and affordable weapons into U.S. military service and how these common sense efforts are opposed by the egotists with other agendas. The point is that the U.S. military culture BREEDS self-seeking, egotistical, vain milicrats not common sense warriors with values of honor and troop welfare and mission accomplishment.

The sad thing is that the 1980s military reformers are now gone and not on duty to stop the current round of Pentagon losers like the lav3stryker, V-22, AAAV and F-22 all stricken with the disease of Tofflerian gadgets while ignoring sound physical robustness, reliability and combat effectiveness at their own level. The current generals runnng DoD have simply transplanted their bureaucratic pass-the-buck mentality to the foot Soldier and pilot by hoping a computer "mouse-click" will deliver some magic firepower to solve the battlefield problem instead of empowering lower ranks to fight and win at their own level.

What makes this book so haunting is that its a true story that is repeating itself before our very eyes with the Army's thin-skinned, air-filled rubber-tired LAV-3 Stryker armored car boondoggle that will get our men killed in combat. The book shows the exact same PR tactics and lying "spin" the Army and DoD use to put people second and their programs/promotions first. The depiction of how the Army will cheat on tests to masquerade that "all is well" with a program is common as seen by the recent efforts to deceive the public by flying overweight lav3strykers a short distance by C-130 aircraft with less fuel inside to compensate--exactly how in the Bradley's fuel tanks were filled just with the minimum fuel to drive in front of the audience grandstands and to the aim point for the test anti-tank weapon to hit it.

The tragedy is that after 2 decades, the Army today is rushing the lav3stryker deathtrap into production without ANY live-fire testing against fully fueled and ammo loaded vehicles fired at by RPGs or 14.5mm heavy machine guns thanks to a loophole in DoD procurement. Too bad Colonel Burton wasn't on duty now in the Pentagon. When they make the movie sequel to this book, "Pentagon Wars II: the lav3stryker" it looks like the ending will not be a happy one with a better vehicle (upgraded M113A3 Gavins) going into service. The horror of hundreds of dead American Soldiers Colonel Burton wanted to prevent will be our "wake-up call".

If we ignored the film and Col Burton's book its based on, what makes us think the Pentagon Old Guard will change after needless deaths?

This beast that we creat, "the Military-Industrial Complex," influence in shown in every instiution in this country. This tells the story from inside the Pentagon, and shows how insane it has got. CUT MILITARY SPENDING BY HALF. NO MORE 300 billion a YEAR! Oh Lord, help me. I am clear, for the future now lies in our hands.

I read this book after seeing the HBO black comedy film The Pentagon Wars. It is all true!! I was part of the U. S. Army Chemical Research Development Engineering Center at Edgewood Arsonal back in the late 1980's. I assisted with the testing of the xm-22, xm-21, cadnet, nbc recon. vehicle (a m-113 that got its butt kicked by the then west german fuchs vehicle) and other systems. There were times that you just had to shake your head at the way the officers and civilians conducted some of the tests. The Col is right on the money.

A very interesting book that not only details certain aspects of the defense procurement culture, but also goes into the politics of some of the different services. While the focus is primarily on the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, there are other great bits of information (such as the creation of the F-16) and amusing stories (any involving the "Blitzfighter" aircraft).
The DOD politics that the author experiences are fascinating, and remain relevant today. One example is the discussion of the A-10, its amazing record in the 1991 Gulf War, and how the Air Force really hates it and the close air support role it plays (today the Air Force is moving towards replacing the A-10 with higher flying, faster planes for the close air support missions).
Overall this book is an important read for anyone interested not only in defense procurement, but DOD politics and modern warfare as well. A good book to have as a reference.

This is probably the best political biography I have ever read. Phil Burton was a fascinating man, and Jacobs does a terrific job of profiling him. Whether the reader is liberal or conservative, he will enjoy this book.

Burton was out there. Great book though despite the author being overly enamoured with the subject. Good info and California politics.

The best background piece on California politics. Similarly, a fantastic insight into a legislative master whose personal vices cut short a meteoric rise to power and influence.

As a San Franciscan who grew up hearing about the exploits of Burton and other more-or-less mythical characters, I feel I owe Jacobs a serious "thank you" for providing this view of what went on inside. The man who nearly became Speaker, who wielded and exercised his power lustily and well, who was known for both creating environmental protections and shunning nature, is now a lot more real.

John Jacobs has done a spectacular job of capturing and relating the career of Congressman Phil Burton, a swaggering, ruthless liberal from San Francisco who came within one vote of serving as House majority leader in 1976. For anyone who wants to understand the history of the contemporary Congress, they need only read "A Rage For Justice," and "The Ambition and the Power," by John Barry, which tells the story of Congressman Jim Wright, the man who beat Burton by that one vote. Both books are chock with candid interviews and revealing anecdotes, and written with style. Each serves as a model of congressional biography.

As we enter another Presidential Political campaign, where the issues of saving Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will be hotly debated, this is an important book that documents the history of the Medicare program from the 1930's to the ultimate passage of the program in 1965. Professor Marmor is uniquely qualified to bring life to the events. It should be read by all who will want to understand how we "got where we are", and perhaps give insight to ways to make these important social programs more vibrant in the 21 st century

Have you ever wondered how Medicare-the federal health insurance program for the elderly and some disabled--became such a hot news topic, or why its administration and benefit package (the lack of outpatient drug coverage, for example) seems so inexplicable and byzantine?

If so, Theodore Marmor's reissue and revision of The Politics of Medicare is the book you want to pick up. There is no comparable book of its kind. Other scholars have studied Medicare's origins. Journalists trace the ebb and flow of contemporary Washington battles over Social Security and Medicare. But Marmor, a Yale professor and health policy guru, has written the definitive analysis of how the political battles waged over health insurance and Medicare from the 1940s onward powerfully shape the debate over the program to this day.

Wondering why Medicare, unlike almost all major private insurance plans, fails to cover most prescription drugs? The seeds of an answer may be found in the fears of 1960s legislators that the unpredictable cost of drugs could swamp the program at its outset. Unsure why medical expenditures took off in the 1960s and 1970s? Partly because doctors, who had led the charge against a government-sponsored social insurance program for the aged, benefited enormously from generous rules that were designed to assauge their fears about participation. Puzzled how Medicare became such a political hot potato after years of uninterrupted popularity? Marmor deftly shows how the Reagan administration reoriented widely-held fears about medical inflation into narrower fears about the supposedly unsustainable cost of public programs.

Another reason that this astute volume bears reading, or rereading: Marmor shows that elections can really matter. In the absence of the Democratic majority in Congress that emerged from the 1964 elections, passage of Medicare would have been delayed or forestalled altogether.

Within the cozy world of health policy analysts, Marmor is known for being a staunch proponent of national health insurance and a skeptic about the potential of HMOs and different forms of "managed competition" to control health costs and delivery quality care. His convictions enliven the text rather than detracting from its rigorous logic. This is a book that anyone interested in the politics of health care, and in American politics in general, will appreciate.

One thing alone mars this otherwise impressive book: its packaging. Sadly, any seven-year old with access to Microsoft Excel could have improved on the volume's rudimentary and unappealing charts and graphics. But the reader shouldn't let this superficial flaw detract from Marmor's important and unusually well-written book.

The first edition of The Politics of Medicare, reprinted in part for the second edition, provides an engaging analytical structure for understanding the complex forces of governments and politics. While studying under the author, a gifted political scientist, years ago, the first edition was a cornerstone in our studies of healthcare politics and programs in the United States. The book equips the reader with the tools and knowledge to understand political forces well beyond the Medicare program.

The analysis of Medicare in the 1990s, found in the current volume, is excellent. This is an ideal time to read or reread the book since Medicare program changes will face our new President and the newly elected or reelected members of our House of Representatives and Senate during 2001. This fall I read the second edition and found the book very informative and enjoyable.

Revised for the first time since 1973, Marmor's *The Politics of Medicare* still stands as the best single book on the political genesis of Medicare. In this valuable new edition, Marmor brings his classic analysis up to date while addressing the arguments of contemporary critics of the program. During an election year in which Medicare looms large, there is no better guide to the political past and future of America's public health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

I have read two reviews of this book in odd places, both of which are highly favorable. According to John Glasel of the Musician's Union in NYC, Professor Marmor's 'perceptive work analyzes the partisan squabbling that hs shaped Medicare over the years. The first part, a reprint of the first edition of this book, traces the history of the fight for government health insurance from the 1930s to the passage of Medicare in l965. The book's second part, completely new in this edition, brings the history up to date. Many scholars, according to Glasel, have long considered the first edition of this book the "definitive work on the subject. Its new edition should now be accorded that distinction." I agree with that judgement very much. So does Jeff Levine of WebMD's Washington Bureau, who described The Politics of Medicare as "a book for serious students of public policy," one which does not simply recite "historical facts" but analyzes the origins of Medicare and then, in a complex and thoughtful way, tells the story from l965 to l999.

Clear mathematics goes all the way from statistics, probabilistics, to #D geometry and Simplex mthod. all applied to the one financial problem:how to select teh adequate portfolio.

Although an old work, it established the basis of modern portfolio selection theory. Foundations are mandatory for those who want to get a grasp on the matter and helps better undestand modern theory. First half of the book is a ride, second half is a harder time.

While Markowitz is a name well-known in economics (joint winner of the Nobel Proze in 1990) and the investment industry, it is known hardly at all among the public. Perhaps this is the inevitable fate of a man well ahead of his time: Markowitz's work on the relationship of risk and return is truly one of the staggering intellectual achievements of modern economics, and has a great practical impact on people's economic welfare. This volume recapitulates his argument that risk is what drives return, rather than being (as was thought by earlier generations of money managers) merely an unfortunate by-product of the search for higher returns, that the portfolio dominates its constituent assets, and that the way to minimise risk for a given level of expected return is to minimise the covariance of returns of the assets within that portfolio using a quadratic programming algorithm. This is brilliant, seminal stuff, written with a liveliness usually lacking in economic texts.

Almost 50 years after its first printing there is not a single word that should be changed. As some of Markowitz' important original insights have been ignored or overlooked by many of his successors, this is still a must-read for anybody truly interested in portfolio theory.

This is a reprint of the text that first considered risk along with return in portfolio management! Nobel-prize winner Harry Markowitz explains the theory upon which modern portfolio theory is based in minimal mathematical terms. Of course there has been much subsequent academic research in portfolio theory (much of which is contained in an included bibliography up to 1970), but this book is an outstanding starting point for anyone interested in the efficient management of financial portfolios

If you are senior RD, then it's the book for you, especially in hardware system industry. I personally appreciate the section of composite design and the concept of product platform. It provide general guide to learn from competitor and way to surpass them.
Software portion is not recommended since the example it provide is not solid enough to work out the argument to apply the same concept to software. However, you may workout your ideas from original platform concept in software planning. Maybe. It remain as a question to me until now.

As the co-author of this book,using this text in teaching at 3 universities, Northeastern, Boston Univ. and U. Of Penn. in their graduate programs, I have come to realize the power of this book's teachings, its rules and tools for robust product platforms and derivative products, goods and services as well as software platforms.

We are now in the 4th edition and have published it in Spanish with a Barcelona publisher.

Companies that Marc Meyer and I consult with have found it extremely informative and useful.

Our follow up book will be an extension of this book, filled with rich examples of applications to goods, services, software and processes.

Included will be workshop materials for easy application to the users' unique products and business services.

Keep looking.......

Al Lehnerd

After taking a course at Northeastern University taught by Marc Meyers I decided to read his books. He is very forward thinking and offers ideas coupled with real-world experiences. This book is a must read, right up there with The Goal. As a supply-chain consultant, I give this book to my clients to read.

This book changed how I approach product design. It focuses on designs that will succeed in the market place. It's not a book specifically on designing for a market, but how a set of systems built on a common platform will allow you to compete in multiple markets at the same time. Meyer and Lehnerd combine marketing, manufacturing, design and strategy. It's loaded with great examples from companies like Black and Decker and EMC. Also impressive is that the authors show how apply platform principles in software and service markets as well as traditional manufacturing

This terrific book explains how to plan and execute a product platform which leads to a series of continuously improved products. We have used the system at our company to plan and evolve both software products and services. We have been able to spin out many different services that seem very different, but were really variations on the basic platform we had previously built. We can provide tailored solutions for clients with less than 10% of the effort that went into the initial platform development.

I have just read this book and it's excellent. Mr. Walker gives great tips on how to become a better speaker. Also, he lets the reader know that if someone wants to become a better speaker, the person needs to make a lifetime commitment to it. Anyone wanting the basics on giving a speech should read this book. But only do so if you are serious about improving your public speaking.

T.J. Walker is the very best of his breed. His advice, based on decades of experience, is sharp, insightful, accessible and immediately applicable. His books, CDs and his personal coaching have been invaluable to me and my business.

Presentation Training A-Z is the #1 book I've found on this topic and I recommend it highly to beginners who want to learn the basics of good presentation skills, regular speakers who want to take themselves to the next level, as well as expert presenters who are going for the gold!

T.J. Walker's Presentation Training A-Z takes the mystery...and the terror...out of making presentations. More importantly, it made my realize I'm not the hot shot speaker I thought I was. With a straightforward, practical style, T.J. offers pearls of wisdom and experience on how to move from good to GREAT with your presentations. Now, whenever I have one coming up, I hit the sections that address the weaknesses from my last presentation and fine tune performance. Response to my presentations has become much more enthusiastic and requests for speaking have picked up so much that I'm now charging more. Thanks to T.J.,I have reason to be comfortable in front of an audience and no one has to know my dog-eared copy of Presentation Training A-Z is in my briefcase.
Roger Landry MD

In a world that is over-crowded with Information, Mr TJ Walker's simple yet lucid style of preseneting a fairly complex subject comes as a refresher! Goes well beyond the plethora of 'how to ' books, thus creating a new bench-mark.
His ability to convince the reader, that this, is an opportunity to combine 'Substance and Style', goes down rather well, with effective examples. The Author's ablity to enable the reader 'experience' his examples and test the methodology of this art and science of story telling makes it compelling and extremely readable.
A must read for pro's who want to 'make it' in life!and pass the 'Water-cooler' test that he so clearly enunciates!

After reading Walker's excellent Media Training A-Z, I decided to see if he had any other interview or presentation resource materials. I was happy to find Presentation Training written in the same easy-to-follow style, packed with tips. There is relatively little overlap between the 2 books, though they do complement each other. I also liked the up-to-the-minute topical references that make the book feel extremely current and relevant. Another very handy reference.

For years there was a void in the horse book market about Racehorse Care. With Landers book the void is now filled. This book is unbelievable in its content. I've never read a better Ho -To book in my life on any subject as that of PROFESSIONAL GROOMING & CARE OF THE RACEHORSE. The reader will become a better all around horseperson after completion. I reccommend without a doubt

This book is an excellent sorce of information concerning both Thoroughbreds & Standardbreds,As an owner I now have a good insight as to the level of care my horses should get while on the racetrack , Thanks to Landers. I truly reccommend this book to anyone remotely connected with horseracing.

This book has got to be the best HorseCare book on the market. Easy to read and understand, Anyone connected with racehorses should read it. The author puts you in the place of a groom and indicates the important role of the groom in a racing stable. It is sad that the professional groom gets little recognition for their efforts but this book surely places the spotlight on their skills. Anyone can learn how to perform the skills stated in the book by following the step by step instructions and illustrations. A must have book for any horseowner,

I have received Professional Grooming And Care Of The Racehorse, and it was much much more than I expected it to be. The best literature on this topic that has ever been published. Hands down. Never have I seen an author put so much meticulous time, effort, and knowledge into creating an informative book. Everything you could possibly want to know about racehorses is just a few pages away.

here at last is a reference volume that deconstructs all the mysteries of how and why we work around horses. starting with the premise that the reader knows nothing, it goes step by step though every process that a groom would ever have to perform. although written for the racing industry, this book belongs in the tackroom of every owner, trainer and groom - regardless of discipline! constantly stressing safety for both horse and groom, it cannot help but impart a competent professionalism to those who chose to read it and practice these techniques.