Research Books

A very good book for all healthcare professionals.
I used to use my PDA as an address book and appointments manager.
Reading this book made my usage of my PDA essential to the extent that now I can't afford to round in the hospital without that small machine in my pocket.
I liked very much chapter 10 " Carrying the web wiyh you "
Thank you Dr. Al-Ubaydli.

Dr.Fahad Al-Nouri

Prince Sultan Cardiac Centre, Riyadh
Saudi Arabia.

A better title for this book would be, "Handheld Computers for Medical Professionals". Nurses, Respiratory Therapists, Physical Therapists, Clinical Pharmacists and anyone else in the clinical environment would benefit from the ideas presented in Dr. Al-Ubaydli's book.
Best of all, he gives web addresses for software information that can be modified for any specialty. If you're interested in increasing your productivity in the clinic either as a student or full fledged professional, this is the book to start with.

'Handhelds For Doctors' by Dr Al-Ubaydli is an excellent book for beginners like myself. The information provided is easy to understand and the style of writing makes reading it a pleasure. It has inspired me to start using my PDA 1 year after purchasing it!

This is a great little book, full of hints and tips on how to manage your handheld. Written with hospitals and doctors in mind, there is still a wealth of information for those who just want to get to know their handheld better. It covers both Palm and Windows operating systems. Mo Ubaydli is a handheld guru and his enthusiasm for these wonderful machines shines through. Even better is that it is also a very easy book to read. Thoroughly recommended and a great resource, well written with several examples of how to make the most of these little marvels!

This book is the best guide around which explains the various a PDA applications that doctors can use in their day to day work . My PDA was a glorified diary before I found this book. Now its an integral part of day to day work. I am now trying to convert my colleagues to do the sameBut beware ! The enthusiasm of the authors can be infectious !!!

Reading The Hard Truth is like taking a cool shower. Its' two most powerful messages are that salespeople don't have to sell the way the gurus say to sell and that how you chose to sell doesn't have anything to say about how ethical you are. The authors say that is question about honor, not selling style.

This book needs to be read by everyone in sales trying to resist being forced into a mold. It might make you mad. Parts of the Hard Truth will sting sales big shots telling everybody else what to do. Salespeople will laugh out loud because every salesperson who has ever been made to sit through training classes taught by the likes of big headed frauds like Rev. Dr. Reginald David Barfkon will instantly connect with the Hard Truth About Soft Selling. The chapter called the final irony at the end whacked me with something I never realized. Their revelation about soft selling and the big guns that sell it packed a jolt that opened my eyes forever. I will never listen in the same gullible way again to so called sales experts telling me what I have to do to succeed in sales. If you are in sales you need to read this book and get your sales life back.

The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling is phenomenal. The research is so thorough; the message is clear; and (if you'll forgive my wording) it creates a paradigm shift in thinking. Also, I got such a kick out of reading it - it was dripping with unique humor, metaphors and writing style, which made me read it more slowly to savor the experience. I loved how the authors backed up statements with so many quotations from soft-sell gurus. What's more, "the hard truth" about soft-selling will surprise you.

Every salesperson and sales manager should read this book regardless of their sales processes - it will change thinking and provide clear vision for better decisions. It could, in fact, change our industry in very positive and flexible ways.

This book is about so much more than selling. The authors use a funny, irreverent style, and story after story to illustrate their points about what makes selling so hard, but good salespeople so valuable. Dr. Tanner is an academic but, other than the lapidary research statistics included in the book as fodder for the authors' claims, the writing style and examples are anything but academic. As a CRM consultant, I'm often vexed by the time spent de-constructing why companies can't compete. This book emphasizes the people issues, and takes on the well-worn sales shibboleths that have ultimately impeded so many corporate strategies. Kudos to Tanner and Dudley for getting it right, and being so original in the process.

Internationally noted behavioral scientist George Dudley and Associate Dean of Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business present The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling: Restoring Pride & Purpose to the Sales Profession, a discussion of the latest trend in "soft-selling", and how modern salespeople are often told they must present themselves as "advisors" or "consultants" while remaining accountable for closed sales same as always. Chapters discuss the lexicon of soft-selling; the many types of selling styles; sales training across cultures; how to sell with "radical honesty"; and much more. Written in terms easily accessible to novice and veteran salespeople alike, The Hard Truth About Soft-Selling is a must for any salesperson striving to stay on the cutting edge of their career path.

The most popular kind of packaged training program bought in corporate America is for sales people. There's a dirty secret though: Those sales training programs are more likely to hurt sales performance than improve it. If you buy such training programs, sit through them or have to deal with their aftermath as sales droop, you owe it to yourself to read The Hard Truth about Soft-Selling.

What is soft selling? The authors lump together a broad variety of styles that have in common " . . . a client-centered approach to sales in which the primary role of the seller is to create an atmosphere of trust and cooperation which enables the consumer to reach an informed buying decision free from pressure or manipulation." Anyone who has ever been made acutely uncomfortable by an aggressive, hard-sell sales person probably wishes that such people could be banned. Since we've all had that experience, that's probably one of the sources of the search for a kinder, gentler side to selling.

But that search hasn't yet paid off, as this book documents. That's the bottom line for this book.

If you are pressed for time, I suggest you begin reading on page 154 and continue through page 161. Everything you need to know is there. If you want more detail on any point, you can use the excellent index and thorough list of references to answer your questions.

I've met hundreds of trainers and people who design training course. Within those groups, rarely have I found anyone who is interested in using experimental techniques to identify best practices, improve on those practices and help people learn how to master better methods. Instead, these are people who feel good with the material they are presenting and evangelize based on faith in the "logic" or "ethics" of their approach. The people who buy training courses usually buy on the same basis. They don't bother to check out the track record of a course . . . but rather look to the feel good qualities and techniques for keeping people awake.

Few new methods can be learned and employed successfully with less than 30 days of continual reinforcement. The typical sales training course is less than a week. That's the good news. People don't learn too many bad habits through adopting soft selling. But apparently, they do learn to be less aggressive . . . and that's what hurts sales after sales training.

The authors also point out that many sales people are demoralized. They know their profession has low public esteem. They are also afraid of offending people. So when asked to change, they assume that they should . . . in the absence of any compelling evidence that this will improve matters.

Beginning on page 156 the authors propose practical ways that sales people can improve their performance. It's good advice. I recommend you follow their suggestions whether you are a sales person or a sales manager. Beginning on page 159 there's good advice on how to find a potentially beneficial sales training program and books that will teach helpful skills. I was particularly pleased to see that this book comes down hard on unethical selling . . . regardless of the style in which the bad behavior is couched.

To me, the most amusing part of the book comes where the authors point out that most soft-sell authors, writers of sales training programs and sales people for soft-selling training use hard-sell techniques.

These days almost every job has some elements of sales in it. I was intrigued by the research reported about bad selling habits that soft-selling approaches can encourage: becoming reluctant to canvass for leads; investing time in "upgrading" presentations rather than going to meet with prospects; over preparation for meetings; and becoming rigid in how sales calls and contacts are handled. In over thirty years of supervising people who have performed in various sales roles for me, I've seen all those bad habits in action. The only thing those with these bad habits have had in common is that anyone with these habits never amounted to a hill of beans as a sales person. I've also found that I could never persuade a sales person with one of those bad habits to change to better habits. My best sales people have always been the most uninhibited, friendly people who enjoyed meeting others and firmly believed that we wouldn't sell anybody anything unless it would do the person a lot of good.

Daniel Taylor's book is a wise and authentic book about creativity as it applies to the spiritual self. Any aspiring writer and, actually, anyone who has felt the urge to create (that would be everyone!) should buy this book and read it. It is a permanent addition to my writing book collection.

this book was one of the most meaningful books i've ever read.not only was the read enjoyable,but the content was at a life changing level for me.i learned from this book what recognizing your own story did for you.the importance of story in not only books and movies,but in every art form.even the 12-step community and in the world of psychology,understanding your story and sharing your story are vital.the importance of each of our individual stories and how we must understand them to grow and mature.it is a book our chidren and our culture really need today.i continue refer to and give copies away today.

This book is so good I kept putting off writing a review on it, afraid my words would not do it justice.

Daniel Taylor explores the ways that STORY has power in our lives. We have our master stories which shape the way we view our world. We have our cultural and community stories. They all are interwoven in the core of our beings.

Somehow, reading this book, I got an image of Daniel Taylor as a gentle little English professor (Me being over 200 pounds, it's not hard for me to picture people diminutively.) I met Dan last month, at my StoryCon meeting and he is a biggg guy. But gentle, very gentle, and soft spoken. Yet his stories and his understanding of story are so powerful. This book should be required reading for anyone who works with story, any psychologist or minister.

I mark up books with wise words. This one must have [drained] the ink out of two or three pens with all the quotable, wise words I triple starred.

This is an excellent book, both for writers and for readers who are interested in analyzing stories. It is also an excellent book for those who want to reclaim their lives from the meaninglessness and fragmentation of our day and age.

Taylor provides a thoughtful rationale for the role of narrative in giving voice to those who are all-too-often voiceless, and meaning to those who see their lives as being a series of fragmented events.

He also explores epistemological questions as he examines the specific type of knowing that narrative knowledge provides; which stands in contrast against, but also complements, fact and statistic-driven knowledge.

His chapter on plotting examines how people search for patterns and order in their lives, and his chapter on characterization moves beyond merely creating a personality or an image, to the use of fully complex, multi-dimensional characters in order to build character in readers of the story.

Taylor includes an excellent chapter on the relationship between story (narrative) and the formulation of different worldviews. This is a particularly important chapter to read, given the tendency of most people to take their worldview for granted.

Throughout the book Taylor illustrates his points with, well, stories of course. There are quite a few well selected references from literature (mostly a few paragraphs at a time -- to illustrate a particular point) as well as stories from his own personal experiences or those of people he knew.

It is an engaging book but it is not lite reading. On the other hand, it is not overly "academic" either. Graduate students who are interested in doing narrative research and who care about principle and moral integrity in their work would do well to begin with this book. Others will benefit from a refreshing point-of-view that it can give them on life, and on how to become actively engaged in making choices in one's life, as opposed to being a mere spectator.

Short, insightful, highly readable, and mind-opening, this book sheds light, not heat, on such topics as diversity, individualism, and values. He helped me see the importance of taking personal responsibility for my actions, and the role story can play in helping me live up to my ideals. The idea of seeing myself as a character in a story gives me the perspective to do what I already know is right. Why is this marvelous book out of print?

If you've ever had an experience of what seemed like an after-death communication, you know it's something you will remember and wonder about for the rest of your life. Yet there are few people to talk to about such a thing, particularly when you aren't sure if it's possible, even though it happened....The Guggenheims have collected true stories from reliable, stable people for many years and compiled those stories into an enjoyable, fascinating book. No matter what you believe or don't, as human dramas these stories can stand on their own. If you have had an experience or two, you may be stunned to find that it falls into a category of similar types of experiences that others share. Give yourself the gift of learning more about this compelling research, and about the struggle we all share to make sense of experiences that fall outside the norm, yet inside the heart.

After the sudden loss of my brother in 1997 I started reading everything I could get my hands on trying to find comfort and healing. This book provided just that. Believing myself that life does in fact go on this book warms your heart with very personal experiences from others that have experienced a loss.

This book offers peace and hope to everyone. The information flows beautifully. Well researched and lovingly written. An extremely important book for anyone dealing with loss

This book gives so much hope to those who are mourning the loss of a loved one. Whether or not one has had an ADC experience, reading this book will not only help you to get through the grief, it may also help you to put aside the nagging question of "will I ever see my loved one again?"

This book is wonderful. It provides hope and comfort for those who have lost someone dear to them. The author sensitively embraces a subject which is controversial. It is an inspiring read. Just beautiful.

Jeff Beck's 1965 to 1980 era is vigilantly and tirelessly documented in this comprehensive book. It is now high time to update this book for two reasons. Jeff Beck's guitar virtuosity has actually advanced especially from 1999 to 2005. Lamentably, his popularity has declined. Fellow guitarists consider Jeff Beck the greatest living master, but young guitar fans have failed to embrace the peerless Jeff Beck. Maybe, an updated book will bring Jeff Beck the acclaim that he truly merits !

This book contains so much info you have to read it twice. It is wonderfully written and the pictures are most excellent. It's a very un-biased account of Jeff's daily routines. This is not to be missed.

I recommend this book if you like Jeff Beck, like his genre of music, and don't want to or don't have the time to read a novel. I read this book over a period of 5 months, sometimes as little as a page at a time. I didn't have the feeling of losing the red line or anything like that because I didn't read it quicker. The book gives you a good view at Jeff Beck's career but also generally the music scene during the described time period ('65-'80). The book is written journal-like with almost day by day accounts of concerts. I found that odd at the beginning but got into it as time progressed into the seventies (I'm not much of a Yardbirds fan). The book focuses on the music, gives some account of Jeff Beck's equipment used, and explains interpersonal group dynamics where neccessary. The book is written with its head on its shoulders and does not only quote positive statements about the artist. I've never met Jeff Beck in person but have a feeling this is an objective account of his story. Is it a must-read? Well, I enjoyed it but can only speak for myself. It made me hope he tours at least one more time in the US so I can go see him play live, which I never have so far.

This book is an astounding work, containing a wealth of information on the formative years of British guitar giant, Jeff Beck. Painstakingly researched, the book rewards the reader with stories of star-studded jams, sessions that never reached the public, and years of toil on the road. All the more poignant is the fact that today, Jeff Beck, has continued to scale new heights in creating an original approach not only to the guitar, but to music as well. His new CD, "You Had it Coming", is a finely composed and performed testimony to his artistry. If you enjoy Jeff Beck, you can't be without this book!

Not only is this book a must have for any Jeff Beck fan, but for any fan of rock music and the guitar. Woven in and out of the almost daily chronical of Jeff's life, is rock and roll history. Jam's with Hendrix, collaborations with other artists and multiple versions of the split with the yardbirds makes compelling rock and roll reading.

The compilation of essays on military leadership edited by Mr. Kolenda ought to be among the "essential reading" books on the shelves of anyone aspiring to leadership in any form, in any walk of life. "Warrior" in the title deceives, even though warriors have practiced the art through millennia, and many became its masters. Civilians would gain substantially by learning from those who never perused a "how-to" treatise on leadership, and often paid for lessons with their own blood rather than the declined value of corporate shares. Kolenda's book contains a series of such lessons, and the price is cheap: one evening spent on excellent reading, and not a drop of blood spilled. Yet, every "Boardroom Warrior" will discover a lot of highly practical wisdom in this unassuming volume. Maybe, then, the "Warrior" in the title does not deceive after all.

Chris Kolenda has put together a fantastic study of leadership that kept the cap off of my highlighter. "The Warrior's Art" gives the most in depth and comprehensive look at leadership that I've seen. If you want to lead and not just manage, you MUST HAVE THIS BOOK.

The book encapsulates the leadership studies of the great philosophers to allow the reader to rediscover the foundations of leadership. These insights are priceless and allow the true student of leadership (private sector or military) to see through the clutter of modern philosophies into what a leader really needs to do to make an organization or team work. Some of the most accomplished leaders in America follow with studies that give further historical insight and a look into the future. It is important to note that there are no step by step instructions and Chris and the other incredible authors allow you to evaluate the lessons and how you can apply them on your own.

BRAVO!

Chris Kolenda has put together a fantastic study of leadership that kept the cap off of my highlighter. "The Warrior's Art" gives the most in depth and comprehensive look at leadership that I've seen. If you want to lead and not just manage, you MUST HAVE THIS BOOK.

The book encapsulates the leadership studies of the great philosophers to allow the reader to rediscover the foundations of leadership. These insights are priceless and allow the true student of leadership (private sector or military) to see through the clutter of modern philosophies into what a leader really needs to do to make an organization or team work. Some of the most accomplished leaders in America follow with studies that give further historical insight and a look into the future. It is important to note that there are no step by step instructions and Chris and the other incredible authors allow you to evaluate the lessons and how you can apply them on your own.

BRAVO!

This was some pretty intriguing literature. A little dry if you aren't really wanting to learn something from another. Everyone seems to feel that they are natural born leaders and books like this are for others. I'm here to tell you leaders are made not born.

The truth is plain here. Learn from the past or repeat in the future. The story has been told many times and read many ways..but, no one seems to ever learn.

No point in repeating the other reviews. They are all pointing in the same direction.

This book is a fantastic compendium of essays on leadership, specifically as it applies to the military experience. Chris Kolenda compiles a list of some of the most talented senior and junior leaders today, both in and out of uniform, as well as renowned historians. The vast majority of the authors taught at the U.S. Military Academy during some point in their career, ranging from the Departments of History, Social Sciences, and Behavioral Sciences & Leadership, to the Department of Physical Education.

The book is comprised of three major sections, 1) Ancient and Modern Concepts of Leadership, 2) Historical Case Studies, and 3) Contemporary Experiences and Reflections on Leadership, with author biographies, endnotes and index at the back. General (Retired) Barry McCaffrey wrote the foreword, while Lieutenant General (Retired) Walter Ulmer wrote the Introduction. The authors consist of such leaders as LTG Daniel Christman, former Superintendent of West Point, General (Retired) Gordon Sullivan, former Chief of Staff of the Army, and Professor Frederick Kagan, just to name a few.

This work contains a tremendous selection of thoughts and experiences on the art of leading soldiers. I will keep it on my shelf to refer to time and time again. As the editor writes in the preface, "developing the vibrant intellectual core from which a leader can draw insight into the art of leadership requires the courage and humility to immerse oneself in the ideas and experiences of others." Leadership: The Warrior's Art acts as a tremendous vehicle toward achieving that end.

Highly recommended for the military professional!

This is one of the better English books I have used. It has a great variety of short stories and discussion topics.

It's an excellent anthology. Here are some of the writers, playwrights, authors, and others who have contributed to this text.

Aesop; Matthew Arnold;
Anne Bradstreet; Aphra Behn; William Blake; Robert Burns; Lord Byron; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Robert Browning; Robert Bridges;
Thomas Campion; Richard Crashaw; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Lewis Carroll;
Michael Drayton; John Donne; John Dryden; Emily Dickinson;
Anne Finch;
Thomas Gray;
Robert Herrick; George Herbert; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Frances E.W. Harper; Thomas Hardy;
Henrik Ibsen;
Ben Jonson;
Henry King; John Keats;
Richard Lovelace;
Christopher Marlowe; John Milton; Andrew Marvell; Moliere;
Thomas Nashe;
Katherine Phillips; Alexander Pope; Edgar Allan Poe;
Sir Walter Raleigh; Christina Rossetti;
Sophocles; Saint Luke; Edmund Spenser; Sir Philip Sidney; William Shakespeare; Jonathan Swift; Percy Shelley;
Edward Taylor; Lord Alfred Tennyson; Mark Twain;
Sir Thomas Wyatt; Edmyund Waller; Phyllis Wheatley; William Wordsworth; Cornelius Whur; Walt Whitman;

Obviously I purchased this for class, but unlike some textbooks which can be boring this one was really great. It's more of a collection of plays, stories, poems, etc. than a "literature is blah, blah, blah". It's also very informative, some of the english books I've had for other classes have been really boring or they've cut some of the authors work short. This one gives you so much that I'd really call it more of a book of collected works than a textbook.

It's also broken into sections like Fiction, Poems, which makes it easy to navigate through and the sections are further broken into chapters such as theme, setting, etc. with works that correspond, so you really get a good example of what each chapter is talking about.

One negative though would be the size, it's really big but with all that's included I guess it only makes sense that it would be that massive.

All in all it was a great purchase plus I think I bought it from someone on Amazon for a $1 (for a hardcover!) so it was also a good buy. My suggestion would be that more English professosrs should use it or for anyone who just wants to be informed literally, this is a really good book.

Used for my college English II class, this text presents many literary ideas which could be useful for fully learning the many apsects of english.

There is an adjunct video course also usually taught in conjunction with this text, and its available for free on demand online at learner dot org.

I've kept this text for the many stories and usefull English info. Worth having.

This book has a companion video series called Literary Visions. That series alsoo includes a study guide. I would highly recommend it.

When I was teaching mathematics at a small college in the 1980's, like everyone else we were expanding our computer science department. In talking with a colleague, our discussions went to the area of programming in Lisp and Prolog. This generated some interest in me about Lisp, so we purchased an inexpensive Lisp interpreter and I read this book. As I worked through the examples, the contrast with Basic and Fortran, the two languages I was familiar with, was striking.
Despite my initial difficulties, I continued to slowly plow through the examples and began to appreciate the power of Lisp. It took some time, yet was well worth it. The examples take you through the features of Lisp using the programmatic equivalent of baby steps. Even though this edition was written almost two decades ago, it is still an first tool in the learning of Lisp.

The pinnacle of the act of teaching is to be simultaneously clear, simple, interesting, and complete. This is rarely achieved in person, and almost never in writing; "The Little LISPer" achieves it. I believe this defines what a teaching book can be. It is brief. It can be read in snippets, at any pace. It will maintain the interest of anyone who comes to learn. The reader is left ready to write Lisp code, no matter what background precedes it.

I read this book in high school in 1982; it taught me enough that five years later I aced a four-credit independent study class in Lisp (at an Ivy League college) without any further reading. Hey, I *told* him I already knew Lisp! Dr. Friedman, I hope you come across this endorsement some day; please accept my thanks for creating this wonderful little gem. (Pass the pizza, please, I have a little more to write...)

I cannot endorse this book highly enough. If you want to learn Lisp, I know of no better place to go.

...it's been obsoleted by its own fouth edition. No place on the listing for this book do I find a hint that this is the third edition of a book currently in its FOURTH edition. They renamed the book The Little Schemer for the fourth revision. Buy that book instead.

I'm still struggling with lisp, but this book was simple, to the point, and clear. I didnt even get annoyed by his goofy attempts at humor.

I gave an earlier edition of The Little LISPer a glowing review in Byte in 1980. It was then the best introductory book on programming, regardless of language, and I still haven't seen anything to compare with it.

The greatest strength of LISP is its firm base in the essentials of the mathematics of computability, including Goedel's recursive functions and Church's Lambda calculus. It uses a single data structure, the linked list, and a minimum of programming primitives, all with well-known mathematical properties. For those who don't know the mathematics, this base in simple concepts means that LISP is one of the easiest programming languages to understand, and at the same time one of the most powerful.

The greatest strength of Little LISPer is its easy and natural sequence of steps for introducing data types and structures (numeric, text, and Boolean atoms organized in lists and trees) along with the recursive programming structures that are natural for creating and processing them.

I have just ordered the third edition for my son who is learning programming (if he can get it away from me).

I found this very interesting book and above all of easy consultation. In the area I believe it is one of the best for its clarity and the advice to all those that work in the field of the additions and not only. Also I can add, having known the author, that the book reflects in full everything its skill and its extreme preparation in merit.

F. Michler Bishop's seminal volume "Managing Addictions" breaks new ground in the field of substance abuse counseling and psychotherapy. The author manages to provide a perfect blend of science and clinical wisdom whereas other books addressing this difficult work tend to favor one over the other. The result will have clinicians being able to apply a variety of empirically validated techniques while at the same time not sacrificing individual style. On a personal note, this book has converted me from conducting exclusive non-substance use/abuse disorders psychotherapy to becoming interested and receiving training in substance abuse work (specifically nicotine addiction). Herein lies the greatest value of Bishop's efforts: its value to ALL in the helping professions, regardless of their training or area of specialization. Not only do I highly recommend this book, I believe it should be required reading for all mental health professionals.

In my professional opinion, Mr. Bishop's book, Managing Addictions, is one of the two or three best books written for working professionals or interested lay people in the area of the treatment of addictive behaviors. My graduate students and clinical interns have found this text to be extremely useful and helpful in developing their skills when working with their clients with addictive problems. Also, some of my clients have read the book and have been able to apply many of the cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques for their own benefit and positive change. Great book and a great contribution!!! Hope many more people will end up reading and using Mr. Bishop's valuable information!!!

As a master's level, state credentialed substance abuse counselor that has been in the field for over 15 years, I found Bishop's book to be one of the best texts that I have read in my career on addiction counseling, treatment and recovery. Bishop elegantly synthesizes the often conflicting models of abstinence based/12 step recovery and harm reduction. He very pragmatically values both perspectives and guides the practitioner in finding what works best for his or her individual client. I can honestly say that this book provided me with a much needed professional epiphany and I will keep it within easy reach for reference purposes for as long as I practice my profession. I highly recommend this book to anyone that works with substance abusing clients.

This book is more complete than I thought! In my modest opinion it's magnificent. It has a great practical value and will be very helpful in my work as therapist. And it's exactly the kind of help I was looking for! This publication will be a guidance not only for me but for all of my coworkers here in my province, since I'll make sure that this useful work and his author be of everyone's knowledge.
I am a cuban psychologist working in a clinic for foreign drug dependence patients. This work has enriched our experience and it has been of great help. It combines successfully both Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy and addiction. I recommend it to every therapist working in this field, including those from Latin American countries. Some of my colleagues who have already read it as well as me, have commented about the values of this book, that is, for all of us, a masterpiece!

I liked the way Handel compares the classical thoughts of Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. This a good way of understanding the fundamental similarities and differences in approach to war the West and East have.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of classical military thought. Although some would argue that this book is for military scholars, I beg to differ, and, heartily suggest this book to any First Year Student of Military Studies. It will greatly assist you in your comparison and analysis of theory and theorists and will also give you a comprehensive understanding of the universal logic of the principles and tenets of war.
This is a great book.

Dr. Terry Tucker
Combined Security and Transition Command-Afghanistan

is how I would describe Handel's 'Masters of War'. This however should not deter the keen reader from purchasing the book as it is indeed a wonderful, clear and interesting read.

In the course of his analysis, Handel sets out to compare and contrast the different schools of thought that 'the greats' developed, with particular attention being paid to Sun Tzu and Von Clausewitz. Perhaps this is where the text comes into its own for the academic. If one was to consider writing a study on the conduct and role of the military in this day and age, this book brings not only Sun Tzu and Von Clausewitz, but also Jomini and Machiavelli into focus. The student will hardly require a more comprehensive guide to different schools of thought for the construction of their essays.

In conclusion therefore, I would reaffirm my belief that this text would prove invaluable for any classical military analyst trying to find a text helping and perhaps reducing the amount of time devoted to sifting through Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' and Von Clausewitz's 'On War'. However, taken out of this context, although highly readable, it is perhaps beyond the requirement of the casual reader whom might be better served reading abridged texts of the originals first.

Michael Handel's third and final version of his "Masters Of War" may be the most accessible analysis of classical military thought available to the military professional or academic. Handel's patient, methodical, side-by-side textual analysis of the works of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz overcomes the deceptive simplicity of Sun Tzu's precepts and the equally deceptive dense verbiage of Clausewitz's "On War." The result is an enlightening exploration of what may be mankind's most complex and most dangerous collective activity. For all its wastage and terror, war continues to be a final arbiter of the destiny of nations and ideologies.

Handel's work is an intellectually challenging read designed for the military professional or academic. He examines important concepts such as the centers of gravity, the correlation of ends and means, and the relationship of military and political objectives through a compare and contrast analysis of the writings of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz. The writings of some other authorities such as Mao and Jomini are cited where especially relevant. Handel's prose is straightforward. He uses examples from a broad range of military history to illustrate his points.

The author, who died in 2001, completed his revisions for this edition before the start of the Global War on Terrorism. Nevertheless, both classical military thought and Handel's analysis continue to be relevant.

This book is very highly recommended for the mid-grade military professional, especially for those studying at the intermediate service college level, and for the military academic seeking a broader understanding of the operational and strategic levels of war.

The best side-by-side comparison of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and Jomini strategic thought one can find. Included is Mao's strategic approach to completely round out classical perspective on war and strategy. The single best reference for understanding the similarities and differences between the masters of strategy.