Public Interest Books

William Schulz' book is a pamflet on human rights which does easily fit in the tradition of human rights 'classics', such as have been written by Thomas Paine and Voltaire. His argument is that human rights are in "our" best interest - in particular, in the best of American interests. His book was clearly written for an American readership - which somewhat limits the "universal" scope of the subject but gives his arguments a good focus. Since Americans are known to love statistics, this book provides quite a few. For example, that 82 percent of Americans think nuclear arms are the major threat, while only 39 now mention "protecting and promoting human rights in foreign countries" (down from 58 percent in 1990). Schulz is more than an average scholar however - he is director of Amnesty International's US section, and a former minister of the church. He mixes facts with lots of human interest. He recalls how he brought Northern Ireland's David Trimble to tears, his hand on Trimble's arm. How he was cold-shouldered when presenting an Amnesty report on police violence to the NYPD, only to record within a year that the NY force had raped an immigrant from Haiti, and shot an unarmed man 41 times. How he was shocked by learning that a total of 18 foreign businessmen had been trapped and convicted by the Chinese government. And how he has been confronted with gruesome abuses by the Taliban, the US trained Salvadorian army, the Indonesian para-military and many others, in his everyday Amnesty business. This is a pamflet, yet it covers a large array of topics (including business, the environment, epidemics and humanitarian interventions) and is very soundly documented (in hundreds of footnotes). Schulz shows convincingly that Americans may be do a lot of good (they spend over $190 billion annually on charities) but more often than not do not think, or sympathize, much beyond their borders. As a European reader, I had occasional difficulties with the rhetoric, but was thrilled enough to read through the entire book on a Sunday afternoon. What is it that makes the US such a source of both indifference and commitment? Just the other day, I saw an Italian tourist in Amsterdam with a Martin Luther King quote on her T-shirt: "I fear less the words of those that are violent than the silence of those who are honest." The quote, by the way, was in Italian. What more prove do we need that American examples can be international standards of human rights awareness?

William Schulz is the Executive Directory of Amnesty International USA. In Our Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All is an articulate explanation and defense of our using personal, economic, political, national, and international resources to intervene in behalf of victims of governmental and paramilitary atrocities wherever in the world we encounter them. Very highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in the politics and perpetuation of human rights, In Our Own Best Interest explains the moral underpinnings respecting the never ending struggle for human rights; the role of human rights in promoting democracy and peace, why human rights are good for business; and the role played out by the struggle for human rights in the world at large. Other issues informatively covered include public health and human rights; the economic rewards arising from a defense of human rights; human rights violations occurring within the United States of America; and what ordinary citizens can do to promote human rights at home and abroad.

To be honest, I really don't care to make people believe it's in their own self interest to care about human rights. I'd rather people give up caring about their own self interest altogether. But if I'm truly concerned about human rights, and dedicated to working for change, perhaps it has to be any port in a storm. If torture, rape, starvation and abuse are stemmed by the voice and demands of millions of people motivated by the wrong reasons, they are stemmed nonetheless. Right?

I think William F. Schulz would agree with me, and I venture a guess that such an argument convinced him to write this book. It is a well-researched and clearly written exposition of the ways that it truly is in our own best interest to care about human rights. He shows that political "realists" who believe that a country cannot afford to make human rights a priority when forming and implementing foreign policy are, despite their hard-nosed and pragmatic appearance, naive to believe that human rights don't matter.

For instance. Working democracies very, very rarely go to war with other working democracies. Thus it is in the best interest of the US to promote democracy across the world, and thus make stable allies. Of course, the definition of "working democracy" has to do with human rights -- democracy in itself is fundamentally based on a respect for each individual's voice and decision-making power, and where this is not respected (as in Milosevich's Yugoslavia) the stability does not exist.

For instance. As globalization races across the planet, political stability in a country is a vital element in a solid investment choice. The 3 basic factors that enhance political stability -- lack of corruption in government, rule of law, and feedback loops (freedom of press, independent investigation, etc.) are all intimately tied to human rights issues. Countries that abuse human rights are notoriously unstable. And instability scares away investors.

For instance. Crowded and unsanitary prison conditions are breeding grounds for disease. And in a world that gets ever smaller due to the ease of intercontinental travel, a super-strain of tuberculosis developed in a prison cell in China can easily have reached the other end of the world -- that's us in America -- in no time at all.

For instance. Torture not only provides unreliable information, it hardens whole communities againt their oppressors. To torture one terrorist may provide you with the names of five others, but likely motivates fifty others to become terrorists. And in a world as interconnected as ours is, where they will strike out has become wildly unpredictable.

And the instances continue. Schulz makes an incredibly convincing argument that we can no longer "let well enough alone". There are no isolated places, no isolated incidences in the world anymore, and it is indeed naive to think that such destructive forces as human rights abuses will have no effect on us. James the brother of Jesus tells us that if we know what good we ought to do and do not do it, we sin. And if that is not motivation enough, it is in our own best interest.

Let's start with the negative. The author comes from a religious background. The first chapter promotes the concept that commitment to human rights is related to religiosity, the most destructive force ever created by our species. If he ever mentioned the role of religious fundamentalism in war, torture, and human rights abuse in general, it was a minor comment. To be fair, he did explain that he was pragmatic ,and he obviously wants to reach politicians and CEO's, who rather effectively exclude atheists and secular humanists from their ranks. However, his comments in the first chapter were totally unnecessary and inappropriate. Virtually every advance in human rights has been opposed by mainstream religion and fundamentalist sects, and supported by atheists and agnostics.

Aside from the first chapter, the tempo builds, although it is not for the very squeamish. The litany of abuses is interspersed with detailed descriptions of individual experiences, and usually prefaces and followed by comments on the economic impact. Some examples were familiar to me, most were not. It is too easy to get lost in the stories and forget the main point that all life on this planet is interdependent, but there are enough reminders for the intelligent and attentive. (Of course GW5-4B will not read it!) The volume of references is impressive.

The issues balance in geography and American participation is difficult to judge. He fairly presents cases in which the United States is culprit and hero, but he slights the role of Arab regimes.

This text could be quite beneficial to students: it's easy to read and covers a large number of countries. However, Mr. Schultz's vision and depth of understanding about human rights are severely weakened by a pro-U.S. and pro-west world view that renders it as useless as many of our partisan texts on world wide human rights abuses. Even though he notes how important it is for countries to first examine their own human rights record, he only discusses the US record in chapter seven of the text. He repeats the same old superficial human rights dogma that one finds in newspapers like USA Today. He rarely touches on the middle-east question, and the refusal by the Israeli government (with U.S. complicity) to recognize (and respect) a decent sized homeland for the Palestinians. This has proven to be the central human rights issue and abuse of our current time. I was saddened to know that the head of Amnesty International thinks so narrowly but understand why that organization has made so litte progress in this arena over the past few decades.

Since the 1960's, an emphasis on individualism and personal autonomy have shaped public policy debates, including debates about the right to personal privacy. While many scholars and advocacy groups claim that privacy is under seige, an alternate view of privacy exists, one in which it is weighed against other public interests. In The Limits of Privacy, Etzioni espouses a communitarian approach to determining the relative value and, as the title suggests, the limits of privacy. Privacy, the author argues, is not an absolute right, but is a right that must be carefully measured against the "common good," which for Etzioni is defined as public health and safety. At the heart of this book is the question of if and when we are justified in implementing measures that diminish privacy in the service of the common good.

To answer this question and to identify criteria for evaluating the relative trade-offs between privacy and the common good, Etzioni examines several examples in which privacy, depicted as an individual right, is in conflict with societal responsibilities. Five public policy issues--namely the HIV testing of newborn babies, Megan's Laws, encryption and government wiretapping, biometric national ID cards, and the privacy of medical records--are examined in detail. Through his analysis, Etzioni attempts to prove that, in most cases, champions of privacy have actually done more harm than good by stifling innovation and curbing necessary democratic discussions about privacy. A notable exception is in the case of personal medical records: The author notes that, while "Big Brother" is normally associated with privacy violation, in the case of medical records, unregulated private industry, which Etzioni aptly coins "Big Bucks," is a pertinent and immediate threat.

Etzioni's analysis, while flawed in several respects (e.g. Etzioni largely ignores evidence suggesting that national IDs will do more harm than good from a security perspective), results in four criteria that can be used in examining the tension between liberty and the public interest, or in this case privacy and public health and safety. The four criteria are as follows: First, society should take steps to limit privacy only if it faces a "well-documented and macroscopic threat" to the common good; second that society should identify and try any and all means that do not endanger privacy before restricting privacy; third, that privacy intrusions should have minimal impact; and fourth, that the undesirable side effects of privacy violations for the common good are treated (i.e. if a patient's medical record must be digitized and shared, the confidentiality of the record must be guaranteed).

The Limits of Privacy is necessary reading for anyone involved in accepting, shaping, debating, and enacting privacy policies. While many readers, including this reviewer, disagree with many of Etzioni's proposed solutions to the problems he examines, his four criteria are useful for anyone attempting to understand the intracasies involved. Likewise, while Etzioni's views are contrary to many of his peers, whose arguments he credits in his analysis, his arguments for justifiable invasions of privacy are a useful foil for privacy advocates and a useful reminder that privacy issues will always present real and costly trade-offs.

In a recent New York Times column, Bob Herbert alluded to a conversation he had recently with famed author William Manchester. Manchester mentioned that he had learned over the years that the majority is not always right. He cited two examples where he felt they were clearly wrong: 1) during the McCarthy era, only 29% of the public felt McCarthy was acting inappropriately; and 2) despite all evidence to the contrary, 70% of the American people still believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.

I mention these comments, because it seems to me that they point up one of the dangers in letting community standards dictate behavior. Certainly most reasonable people today (with the exception of die-hard conservatives like William F. Buckley) would agree that McCarthy's tactics were way out of line, but at the time, they were seen as legit by a 2/3 majority of the American public. This indicates one of the leading flaws in Professor Etzioni's argument: the community can not be counted on to enact laws that will ensure the protection of those who behave differently or who disagree with the majority opinion. I am afraid that Manchester's comments ring true. For that reason, I believe that a logical consequence of communitarianism is retribution towards those who step out of line or depart in any way from "community standards". Behavior may be banned merely because a majority of the people don't like it, not because there is anything intrinsically wrong with it. Look at the ignominious history of sodomy laws in this country. Would Professor Etzioni wish to see these laws extended? If it suited the community, would he like to see prohibitions against gays in the military?

All in all, I would like to see Professor Etzioni address these issues more thoroughly and satisfactorily in his next book.

If one seeks a current book that is creating great controversy in the public policy field, "The Limits of Privacy" should fulfill your search. This book combines philosophical discussions with actual issues and then draws its own conclusions. Whether one agrees or not with the author's opinions, this book definitely creates spirited debate.
The author, Amitai Etzioni, is a leading proponent of the commutarian viewpoint. Commutarians argue that policies should consider what is best for the community while simultaneoulsy attempting to protect privacy rights. A balance needs to be established between these two goals as they often are in conflict. Amitai Etzioni argues that individual rights should be protected except when such preservation presents a clear threat to the community welfare.
The author claims in this book there are public safety and health concerns which are adversely affected by attempts to defend personal privacy rights. Etzioni argues these concerns should be evaluated according to their moral, legal, and social aspects. In this book, the common good wins out over privacy issues in most of the issues presented, namly universal identification, Megan's law, testing infants for HIV, and encryption for online privacy. On examining the issue of the privacy of medical records, the author sides with the advocates of individual privacy versus the community welfare.
The prescription for policy analysis, as presented by the author, is that privacy concerns should be considered first with policies restricting such persoanl privacy being accomplished with as minimal intrusion as possible. Crtics will argue the author seems to readily advocate proceeding with such intrusions.
Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with each conclusion, most readers should find this an insightful book with coherent yet controversial arguments. It will spark much rich debate.

This book gives the pros and cons of several policies and practices concerning privacy. I found it refreshing to have a book that tries to be balanced. People at the extremes will not agree with the author's view that technnology is not all bad or all good. It is not a technical discussion but I didn't find it to violate technical plausibilty at any point.

An engrossing read about the way Americans have prioritized their rights. Etzioni shows that we have been erring on the side of the radical individual for too long. Individual actions can indeed harm the community, at times unnecessarily.

Booklist calls The Limits of Privacy "a valuable and informative analysis of a timely and interesting topic." I wholeheartedly agree.

This book has much solid advice from what appears to be
an experienced private detective. The writing is clear and
there are helpful lists of addresses and other information.

In fact, I was successful in a search where I'd failed before.

Some of the info was outdated or not true (for example, Texas
universities will not confirm enrollment via a phone call), but this is nitpicking.

There are MANY books out there on finding people and/or getting information on them. "Find anyone fast" is by far one of the most superior books out there. As an experienced investigator it still provides me with invaluable leads and resources!

The first chapter gives you 'case studies'. Invaluable to anyone just starting out in this field or looking for someone. Understanding how people are found is easy when you see the different twists and turns it takes. This is no movie where finding people is easy and glamorous.

Johnson and Knox also provide information on using the internet to find people (of course one of the easiest and free ways to do it), performing adoption related searches with ease (they provide the necessary places to check and how to do it) , military searches (I also recommend getting the book "How to locate anyone who is or has been in the military" also available on Amazon.com), and they also provide a very valuable section: Solving difficult cases...something I haven't seen in very many books on this subject!

You also get a great resource: every state address and phone number for all sorts of informaiton...you need this information! And they provide it in a very easy and comprehensive manner. There is also federal resources and civillian resources in this appendix as well.

You are also taught how to do a FOIA or Freedom of information act request letter, get a data sheet so you can organize your investigation and more!

Get the book, you will not regret the small investment you'll make in it!

This book was o.k., but it is basically for someone who doesn't know anything. The word "Fast" in the title was also misleading. That's really the only reason I bought it, because I thought it would give some other facts and instructions other than the old-fashioned "go to the court house", "haggle with the clerk", "write to some records office somewhere using snail mail" stuff. It's just a little outdated, though that is not unusual for todays fast-moving technological pace. There were a few informative points and references, but generally I'd say it is very basic. For those who are just now needing to learn the basics, it's a good place to start. For those who already know a thing or two, I doubt it would help all that much.

A well presented collection of some of the best sources of public information available both off-line and online.

"Find anyone fast" is a well thought out and great resource for anyone who is new to conducting an investigation or who is unsure of how to proceed with one. There is a good mix of actual case histories as well as how it is done and how it can be applied in 'your' case.

And the best part is a well laid out appendix of every state with names, addresses and phone numbers of virtually anyone you might need to contact for records or assistance.

All in all, it's a definite 'must have' for both the amateur and intermediate layman conducting their own investigation to find anyone.

I mean of course I have not read this book yet since it has not been released. But I greatly look forward to having SOMEONE point out to the world that for most reasonable peole in our culture, the greatest moral crises in this country are NOT about abortion and gay marriage but rather concern deeper issues such as our overly profit-oriented and inadequate healthcare system, the devastating effects of abject materialism, political and corporate dishonesty and the ethics of war. It is about time someone point this out and I am pre-ordering this book now.

The title of this book is definitely overly ambitious. It is quite a stretch to claim that there is a moral center in the US. If anything, there is a lot of inflated, contradictory, hypocritical, cynical, and ignorant thought concerning a fundamental moral center. Actually most of the recent buzz in America concerning values is part of an immense propaganda campaign that panders to susceptible groups by constructing a specious and sinister social reality geared to manipulate behavior. The author makes a stab at detailing some of these contradictions, but does not really address the pairing of ignorance and propaganda that makes the continuation on the current course almost inevitable.

The author looks at the areas of family, sex, media, crime, work, poverty, and patriotism with considerable overlap to locate moral discontinuities and concerns. The biggest disconnect in American thinking in these areas is the notion that morality can survive the zealous drive to turn all areas of life into profit-making centers. The laissez-faire, free-market capitalism that is the current rage absolutely has no conscience, crushing social bonds and moral considerations in its path. Extremist individualism scarcely acknowledges social connections, morality, or values. The author is unwilling to really confront the American version of corporate capitalism other than to mildly chide it.

The following examples of the author serve to show the power of profits to overwhelm a culture, while simultaneously hiding their true impact. Cultural conservatives bemoan the prevalence of sex in the media but prefer to blame cultural elitists (liberals), while failing to see the immense profits of huge media companies. To not be working or to be impoverished is viewed by conservatives as an absence of personal character - again a complete failure to understand power dynamics of capitalism, where the welfare of individuals, families, and communities is irrelevant. There are no concerns for family values. Patriotism was once a shared value for all citizens, now it has become profits for the wealthy and duty and loss of life for the average citizen. Except for a very few high profile cases, corporate crime goes largely unpunished, while petty street criminals and drug users get prison sentences. Any concerns with this disparity are quickly labeled as coddling of criminals.

The author, like so many recent commentators, seems to think that pointing out these contradictions in a book will gain some traction with the public. But if Americans were inclined to analyze the cynical use of values and personal responsibility that is a part of the examples above, the US would not now be in its current state. Corporate capitalism now so permeates our entire society that it is ridiculous to suggest that a little information infused into this hegemonic situation will reverse our course. The wealthy, the wannabes, and all of those who have been so propagandized as to totally believe that liberals are destroying their way of life seemed to have formed a significant majority that is unlikely to diminish in the near future. The author's suggestion that liberals be more receptive to the American Dream, or the supposed opportunity to become rich, simply reaffirms the values of the selfish society.

There has been quite a spate of books in the last few years that purport to discuss American values and then suggest that liberals must adopt or recapture the meaning of conservative rhetoric. How this is supposed to happen, no one addresses. Just how is it that the media, educational institutions, and churches will be transformed from being propagandists for corporations into purveyors of knowledge and information for the benefit of all people. They just ignore that huge hurdle. There seems to be the belief that there are substantial numbers of untainted people just waiting to reject the current direction of society. Well, what have they been waiting for? Read the book if you want a quick rehash of the values clash - that's about it.

If you want a list of all of the traditional ways liberals want to spend money, go ahead and read this book. Callahan offers some well developed reasons for making these investments, but none are new or bold. And the jabs at the conservatives, Bush 43, and Regan, we've heard them all before. I didn't notice a mention of even one liberal program that didn't work, and that should be cut (I guess Callahan thinks we're batting 1000). This book fails because it doesn't offer anything but the same arguments from the extremes that has done nothing for America (except to let the religious fundamentalists take over).

The book's title might tempt that part of the electorate hoping to dethrone the religious fundamentalists into picking up the book. But Callahan's argument falls flat, leaving me with a picture of the sleek shark of fundamentalism with the little remora of liberalism hanging on for dear life.

From a technical perspective, the book had quite a few typographical errors, where the first letter of a word was wrong (town vs. down), as if it were dictated, and nobody proofread. That took it down from a "2" to a "1" in my rating.

The book cover, with it's red on the left, and blue on the right, signifies what it is: the old, tired "us versus them" with no new ideas. Another book with red on the TOP and blue on the bottom does have some bold ideas for real change in American politics. It's not what you think. It's written by a gay catholic philosopher (Andrew Sullivan). Although I'm politically in the center, I have read both books from the right and left that claim to have an idea for getting US politics out of the ditch. Sullivan's boldness holds promise, whereas Callahan's stale ideas fall flat.

THE MORAL CENTER: HOW WE CAN RECLAIM OUR COUNTRY FROM DIE-HARD EXTREMISTS, ROGUE CORPORATIONS, HOLLYWOOD HACKS, AND PRETEND PATRIOTS argues that underlying concerns such as eroding values, and the rise of greed, are the real problems neither party is addressing in political campaigns. A new vision and strategy is needed based on acknowledgment of this underlying erosion: one provided in THE MORAL CENTER, which argues for change in the face of polarized differences which paralyze both parties and reduce effective strategies.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The author addresses a difficult theme, couched as it is in the entrenched rhetoric of today's politics, Conservative, Democrat, right and left. Yet at the heart of this argument is a call to return to the traditional values that are inclusive rather than exclusive. While the right champions a return to religion and family values, the left is mired in a definition that fails to bring them into the conversation. And at the heart of all is the free market, the cornerstone of personal liberty, the success of which depends upon the pursuit of self-interest. The question posed: are traditional values a match for unfettered capitalism?
Liberals have morphed into the ubiquitous "me generation" and social responsibility, although an intended consequence of the equation, is left languishing by the road in a rush of consumerism. The result is a proliferation of Care-Not's (as opposed to Cares), the Cares unable to make themselves heard, suffering a pervasive moral anxiety that has no apparent remedy.

Repeatedly offering a narrow interpretation of the problem, Democrats struggle to articulate a moral solution. As middle class insecurity grows with international competition, technology and corporations siphoning off the future, the economy must be dire for people to respond to this threat. At the same time, purchasing items at incredibly low prices has become pervasive, even though these prices are the result of global economics. We come to the premise of the book: Democrats or a new Third party can submit a moral agenda to restore America's values and politics. To this end, the following chapters address family, sex, media, crime, work, poverty and patriotism, establishing "a workable balance between freedom and responsibility."

The dynamic of the culture wars, tradition vs. modernism, misses the point in the current debate, where the real culprit is the free market. Any change in this culture that confronts the pertinent issues must be synonymous with real values for Americans, those we readily embrace, rather than the pandering of extreme ideologies. In essence, the author is asking us to put aside our differences, responding to the current divisiveness with an appreciation for the spirit of change for the better good. Neither party comes off well, the Democrats inarticulate, stuck in past decades of grandeur, the Republicans riding a wave of popularity with the marriage of evangelical fervor and a free market unhindered by social responsibility. A fine idea and well put, but not likely to be heard by either party in the current climate. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

As someone recovering from a serious illness, Bernie Siegel's book really spoke to me. Your emotions and thoughts have such a big effect on your physical health. And he really gives some good advice for learning how to make changes in your life.
I really enjoyed the book, and would recommend it for anyone who is in a health crisis, and wants to work on the "inner" person.

The prescriptions offered in this book touch the heart and give us greater insights into what we are here to do in this life. In a humorous and heartfelt style, Dr. Siegel blends his own special wisdom with his heartfelt words. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a shot in the arm or some real soul medicine.

In Prescriptions For Living, Bernie Siegel opens up a new view for any open minded person to explore. It gives new insight into a world of love and understanding in order to help oneself and others. This book is for all to read because everyone can use improvement on relationships with loved ones, work-related stress, or just to accept the fact that love and time can heal all. With his own personal experience and anecdotes to share, this book is a very enjoyable and beneficial read.

If you've not read a Bernie Siegel before, a pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, I encourage you to find his Love, Medicine & Miracles as well. I've reviewed Dr. Siegel's works from the start & I've always been helped, enlightened & interested by his take on living. When we met at conventions, we'd glance at our name tags, grin & energetically compare notes about how it was, at that time, in that moment. Later, as we zoomed hither & yon about our itineraries, we'd collide laughing, embrace & wave farewell. That's how Bernie Siegel affects you & that's how he writes. Vivid, energetic, affectionate & refreshing. I've often wondered what would happen to our relationships with our own doctor/s were we to brazenly carry a copy of any one of Bernie Siegel's books to our appointments.

I had read about this book on Dr. Weil's web site and thought it sounded interesting as a light sort of "feel good" book. It was disappointingly beyond light and full of yawns. The few pearls of "inspiration" that the title promises are shadowed by gobs of superficial, self-congratulatory fluff about the obvious. I often read this genre of book as a relaxing "intermezzo" to work, other more demanding reading or just to learn someone else's way of looking at the world, but this one didn't do it for me, as they say. The book sells because of the name of the author: if an unknown had written it, it wouldn't have gone passed the manuscript stage.

This a very good pronouncing word book that makes you realize how to make your words powerful. You use the information first in the book and then you go to the 30 something minute cassette tape to hear examples of people you immediately recognize as the wrong way voice communicators. I learnt a lot from this book and I enjoyed every page.

I was a little disappointed that the CD come with the book contains not much - especially the part that suppose to help you to practice your voice.

I have always admired people who spoke with charisma, confidence and seemed as if they have had voice coaching. Thats what I wanted to do too!!!! Sadly though, this book/CD is not for that, the CD bored me completely, I have no problem pronouncing words but I wanted to know how to project it to get power, confidence etc. this book didnt show it- it is for people who have to learn how to use each sound properly.

So if your'e looking for a book which shows you how to PROJECT CONFIDENCE, POISE AND POWER ITS NOT FOR YOU!!

Congratulations for the way you do business. I am very happy for the way you handled my purchase. On time, well packed, the datail of book mark and the request for feedback.
The book is very good, ease of understand and a must for thouse who sing or speak a lot.

If English is your second language, it is a very useful book.

Cudahy has done a good job of outlining the hisstory of New York subway syastems. Good reading!

Cudahy does a great job detailing the development and progression of the New York City subway system, but his focus is much more on providing the necessary details almost in reference book form than in trying to construct any sort of compelling narrative. Conspiculously absent is any portrait of the key figures involved, or the social forces at work as the subway system was born and then rapidly expanded. The entire history of the New York system, in fact, is covered in the first seventy pages. While keeping the critical details about subway car specifications and the like, it would have done Cudahy well to provide much more gloss to these facts rather than occupying so many pages with discussions of the rail systems in London, Boston, and the New York suburbs. Other books on the specific subject in Cudahy's title do a much better job of painting the complete picture and might be better suited for the casual reader interested in a focused but complete history of the New York City subway system.

New York's subway system has been written about, painted, painted on, talked about, griped about, even sung about. (Don't sleep on the subway, darling...) There are a fair number of books about it, most of them are technical. And the technical achievements of the subways system are amazing.

But only Brian Cudahy can write with the excitement and enthusiasm for this complex transit system to bring its history and experience to life. The word "Celebrating" in the subtitle is more indicative of his attitude than the bland "A Century of Subways." He starts with the asphyxiating conditions of Manhattan's streets immediately before 1900, and the need of developers, businessmen, and employers alike to expand into the other boroughs. This system, once built, would ease the overcrowding of Manhattan's slums, provide capital for real estate and housing barons in Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and northernmost Manhattan, and turn places like Coney Island into true party spots.

Of course, skeptics did abound: "New Yorkers will never go into a hole in the ground." And this is where Brian Cudahy then delivers to us the fanfare, thrills and--efficiency (!)--of the first subway ride, as bystanders cheered from clean, beautiful (!!) subway stations. At the center of it all is August Belmont, and the admiration Cudahy has for him is evident. Yet he doesn't resort to worshipping the tycoon/developer.

A CENTURY OF SUBWAYS is a fun and educational book. Its tone is miles away from his sober, but equally fascinating book, THE MALBONE STREET WRECK. While this disaster was waiting to happen in 1918, Cudahy, in A CENTURY OF SUBWAYS, savors the joyful moments of 1904.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS CONCLUDED

An impressively informative work by transportation historian Brian J. Cudahy, A Century Of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years Of New York's Underground Railways tells of the amazing and critically important history of subway systems as a remarkable technological achievement in mass transportation which legendary for its practicality. A grand presentation that takes the reader and subway enthusiast on a vivid trip through time as an aptly and extensively researched tribute to the visionaries and power brokers behind the creation of New York's famous subways, A Century Of Subways would grace the American History and Transportation History collections of any academic or community library system.

Don't be misled by the title into thinking that this book is mainly about the history of the NYC subway system. While the genesis of the NYC subway is covered, particularly the first IRT line, it forms only a modest part of the book, which also describes the start of the Boston, London, Glasgow and other subways, and the development of the commuter rail network into New York City. The book also dwells a lot on the physical, mechanical and electrical attributes of rolling stock, electricity supply, line construction methods, etc., for the various systems. While this does put the NYC subway system into context, it doesn't make for a particularly "light" read or give the reader an overall perspective on how the entire NYC subway system developed during the past 100 years and its impact on the city.

The Travelers' Tales franchise faces a challenge that is a result of its own success. They've put out some truly splendid collections of travel literature, creating a resulting demand for more. And it's tough to keep finding great travel pieces up to the standards of the best work they've released.

The pieces in this collection are united by a theme of "danger." If you travel long enough, especially in the developing world, you'll likely ultimately have a few close shaves, experiences that threatened your security and which taught you valuable lessons.

This subject is tailor-made for good reading, the type that gets your blood pressure up, palpably sensing the threat and the fear as you read.

There are several very fine selections in this volume. I particularly liked "Just Desert," wherein the author is lost in the Sinai and finds himself alone in a room with some locals making ominous gestures, far from any aid. "Shaking in the Congo" is also good, a piece in which the author falls ill on the road in the Congo and must lie down unprotected in an out-of-the-way village.

"A Zambian Nightmare" is truly that, in which a young couple is besieged by a gang of thieves in the house they are renting. I also appreciated "Dangerous Liaisons," about a mountain expedition in Pakistan with a nasty, corrupt military officer running the show. "The Season of Fear" captures some of the wild, exotic beauty of the Borneo forest and the people who live within it.

But for every fine piece like these, there is one that doesn't have much to do with travel at all. "The War" is about gang activity in LA. "Flying Blind" is about military flight training sessions in Utah. "Ditching at Sea" is terrifying but is about a helicopter rescue mission going wrong, and is not the sort of story most readers are looking for from Travelers' Tales.

The one piece that really tried my patience was "When it Goes Off," an excerpt from "Among the Thugs." "Among the Thugs" is a book about soccer hooligans, and this isn't the first time I've come upon a similar excerpt from that book in a Travelers' Tales collection. I don't fully understand the fascination that these authors have with soccer riots, but there is no apparent reason to keep recycling these stories in their travel collections.

It's not that these pieces are bad so much as they don't really belong. Presumably the person who picks up a travelers' tales series book is looking for something that captures the adventure of travel in all of its aspects, not just looking for a collection of disparate pieces that interest the compilator.

The best of this and other collections do take you away into that wondrous frame of mind that does the best travel; it's just that this volume doesn't consistently deliver that.

I picked this book up after reading RYP's The Worlds Most Dangerous Places. My brother was in Iraq, my best friend in afghanistan, and I had recently returned from Eastern China. I was looking for info on other countries as well as a good read.

This book is filled with stories from different travelers, and all pertain to near death, near rape, or near something else and how they managed to survive. The book is gripping, and as much as I enjoyed and learned from it, I hope never to be able to share a story like any of them.

I recommend this book. It's easy to read and shares lessons learned, and adventures had.

I try to stay away from cheap thrills, and quick fixes. So when I picked this book up, I told myself that I would only read two pages, and if I got bored, it was going back. It took 2 paragraphs and I was hooked.

Each short story is a true account of harrowing danger. The writing is excellent. You don't expect professional adventurers to write well, but they do; And they keep you in it. Each story starts climaxing within 3 pages, so you're on literal adrenalin high almost all the way through the book. I really enjoyed the book and will keep on the lookout for others in the series.

Recommended when you need to kill an hour.

It was quite intriguing to learn that when the publisher of the book entitled DANGER! TRUE STORIES OF TROUBLE AND SURVIVAL attempted to mail me a copy of their book it was returned to them due to "heightened security reasons." Furthermore, the US Postal Services insisted that the book be delivered in person to the post office before they would even consider permitting it to be mailed to Canada! After reading the 28 episodes, each narrated by 28 different authors and edited by James O'Reilly, Larry Hebegger,Sean O'Reilly, I can well appreciate their concern.

All of the essays support Tim Cahill's assertion in the introduction to the book: "danger is entirely about mortality. It is an elucidation and illumination of the final mystery of human experience, a matter, if you will, of life and death."

The essays divide themselves into four sections each of which emphasize different situations. The protagonists either willingly place themselves into dangerous situations or involuntarily are faced with daunting encounters. In the first section entitled "dangerous territory" the emphasis is on the geographical location where a possible disaster is averted. We read about such encounters as a war correspondent in Bosnia who, if he makes one wrong move, is a "goner," A couple living in Zambia who are attacked by some local thugs, a Python wrapping itself around someone's body, a face-to-face meeting with a bear in Alaska.

The second and third sections, which are called "going to the edge" and "heart of darkness," recount adventure tales where the principal characters actually seek out dangerous situations or are exposed to the darker side of man's behaviour towards his fellow human being. Mountain climbers who endeavour to climb the highest peak in the former Soviet Union, Mt. Communism, are faced with an avalanche as well as the falling into a coma of one of their co-climbers; a medical doctor treating the casualties resulting from the savage war being waged between the "Hutu"-and the "rebels"- Tutsi;

The final section entitled "crossing to safety" is a philosophical essay that addresses when something inside of us says, "it is time to quit" or as the author states, "get down, there is danger here, and it does not serve."

Each one of these stories is written in a different style, yet they all have the same underlining theme. The reader is constantly shaking his head and saying to himself "oh no!" After reading all of the 28 tales, we are left with the impression that it certainly takes a very special individual to withstand some of the various experiences that are exposed in the book. It also makes you ask the question why seek out danger! What is it that seduces a traveller to go out of his way to experience terrifying encounters?

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Travelers' Tales Danger takes you on a tour of Danger's world. My favorite story in the book is Blademaster. Learn that when faced with a knife wielding attacker that must say to yourself, "today I must bleed a little." Discover the insanity in Rwanda, encounter the hoods of America and the hoodlums of England. I also learned how terrifying it must be to fly in the dark and not know whether you are going up or down. Whether you want to climb perilous crevasses or play with Stinger missles, this book has something for all those looking to safely jack into the violent and dangerous world around them.

Habermas' work, though written more than four decades ago, still retains most of its original relevance for the study of the public sphere. If you are interested in this subject, and if you are into critical thinking, then this book is certainly worth reading. Why? Well, if you take in consideration the fact that no other book has been written so far on the subject that has been able to surpass Habermas' account both in depth and originality, then you begin to get my point. As to a critical reading of the argument put forth by Habermas, one should read "Habermas and the Public Sphere", edited by Craig Calhoun. This book includes an appendix by Habermas where he revises some of his original positions.

Okay, perhaps I've got the social-theory-geek gene, but when I first read this book some fourteen years ago (during grad school), I was able finally to put together a lot of things that had been swimming around in my brain. I'd already read a good bit of Adorno before a professor (with whom I was doing an independent study on Adorno) recommended that I read this. Habermas's historical analysis was so compelling that I simply couldn't put the book down. Moreover (all this may seem hard to believe), the lucidity of his presentation also helped me put a lot of what was going on in Adorno's writings in a clearer light.

While I don't agree with the directions in which Habermas later went--I strongly resist the notion of recuperating the modern project--this book provides a compelling analysis of how Western society and culture got to where it is now.

... This is Habermas' dissertation, but his writing is so poor, in English or in German, that it really doesn' matter. The book is a response, in my opinion, to Carl Schmitt, and specifically to Schmitt's argument that the core of liberal democracy is debate in parliament, that liberal democracy is rule by discussion (or, as its called now, "political discourse"), but that that discussion is now more real than painted flames on a radiator. Liberal democracy is in fact the triumph of aliberal, private, hidden powers, who rule from the shadows and through the true organs of power, the media, and through the hidden power of the private vote cast in the illicit privacy of the voting booth, where the bourgeois individual is free to exercise his worst prejudices and basest motives. So argues Schmitt. Habermas gives an interesting historical account of the rise of "Offentlichkeit" (which translates into the all-too-easy abstraction "public sphere," whatever that is), from the letters passed in the mail relating the news from town to town, to French salons, to newspapers, to television and radio. Habermas, like Schmitt, seeks to unmask the illiberal powers lurking behind the good liberal prejudices, but he, like Schmitt, mistakes liberalism for a debating society when in fact it is much more sophisticated than that. Habermas needs to read the Federalist Papers and the debates (!) at the constitutional convention to understand how little the founders of one liberal democracy thought of the power of discussion.

When you talk about the public sphere in front of intellectuals, Jürgen Habermas's name is bound to come up. Habermas's 1962 study, "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere," examines the creation, brief flourishing, and demise of a public sphere based in rational-critical debate and discussion. The feasibility of a true public sphere, which is inclusive of anyone who would participate, is for Habermas of utmost importance. Habermas follows a methodology similar to the one Michel Foucault takes in "Discipline and Punish," which analyzes the abolition of public displays of power, and the process by which the structures of power are inculcated in the individual from the 17th through the 20th centuries. Habermas analyzes historical, economic, and political conditions from classical antiquity through his own historical moment, tracing the circumstances in which the public sphere arises, how it functions, and ceases to function over time.

Habermas begins with a delineation of the terms 'public' and 'private,' orienting them philologically from their roots and meanings in classical antiquity. From here, he traces the adoption of the words and their synonyms into the European Middle Ages and the era of feudalism. Habermas says that in this period, the feudal lord and the monarch, for whom `representative publicness' functioned as a display of power before their subjects, dominated the public. Authority figures embodied virtues and powers in a public fashion. Public representation of political and economic power continued, unabated until the Reformation, at which time, the privatization of religious faith signaled a separation between society and the state. Economically, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the spread of trade necessitated the spread of news from various locales. As news outside of the home became relevant to home economy, the private individual begins to take an interest in public events. Consolidation of 'national' financial administration and state-controlled taxation, along with the rise of print culture, facilitated the dissemination of news, initially in the form of governmental decrees, market conditions, and happenings at court. Through this, the actions of the authorities came under the scrutiny of a reading public.

The 18th century is the key moment for Habermas. In this period, the government, along with private individuals, made use of the press, for the first time, in persuasive appeal to a public made up of private people. The press now presented the public with information, with which they were to use reason and discussion to determine what was in the public's interest. Habermas emphasizes the theoretical parity that this brings about - the rise of the coffee houses and salons, in which merchants met with gentility and engaged in rational-critical debate over issues of public import. Stretching this into the realm of the franchise, Habermas is careful to point out the problematics of a situation in which actual decision-making was restricted to those with money and land, but stresses that the opportunity for anyone to acquire these prerequisites was, again, theoretically, open to all.

For a brief time during the 18th century, Habermas sees the flourishing of a public sphere, born out of a reading public, that began to interact with the processes of public policy, legally, and morally. The purpose of this public sphere, according to Habermas, is to eliminate the domination of authoritative power, and establishing a government that is actually representative of the public will and contingent upon public opinion. Unfortunately, in the 19th century, with the stratification of party politics, the proliferating press encouraged less rational-critical discussion. Increasingly, debate moved into parliamentary circles, and the public was asked only to approve of party measures, not participate in the formation of the rules that governed them. In the 20th century, along with the creation of the welfare-state, consolidation of moneyed interests, and the expansion of universal suffrage (ironically), the public sphere disintegrated even further. New media - radio, television, etc. - turned its addresses to the public into mere advertising. Even the illusion of a private people engaged, as a public, in matters of their own governance, was gone, and the public became vessels for mass media.

To recuperate a true participatory public sphere, Habermas takes a guarded approach. He indicates that some kind of elite could be formed. These private individuals would undertake the responsibility of rational-critical debate, determining the public interest. The general public, then, would give their approval or disapproval to the measures decided on by this elite. This is kind of a bleak outlook, and one I don't much care for myself. Of course, this is a horribly limited review of Habermas's "Structural Transformation". I haven't even noted the break he takes to outline the historical-philosophical evaluation and critique of the public sphere by Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mill, and Tocqueville. Nor did I note the extensive use Habermas makes of political and economic changes in his key nations - England, France, and Germany - and the contributions these make to the disintegration of the public sphere. At any rate, "Structural Transformation" is an exhaustive (and exhausting) study, as relevant now to the study of literature, economics, government, history, etc., especially of the last three centuries, as it ever was. Even though it is a pain to read, you'll be glad you finally read it. Think of it as theoretical medicine - it may not taste good, but in the long run, it's good for you.

In this monograph, Habermas tracks the origination, the evolution, and the dispersal of an informed "public sphere" among democratic Western nations. He defines public sphere as "private people com[ing] together as a public" (27). Once these individuals, gathered as reading groups or as aficionados of theatre, the arts, and politics, the individuals melded into a public capable of debating the government. Habermas locates these fledgling "publics" primarily in eighteenth-century France, England and to a lesser extent in the areas of Europe designated as German. Tellingly, Habermas strongly links the formation of the public sphere with the rise of capitalism and a continuing bourgeois revolution. Comprised of literate individuals governed by the principals of the Enlightenment, these "publics" eventually challenged the validity and legitimacy of governments, most notably in France during the French Revolution and England during the English Civil War.

Habermas builds a compelling argument based upon his interpretation of Rousseau, Kant, Locke, Hegel, and Marx. He links the works of these philosophers and sociologists in a credible chain stretching back to the eighteenth century. However, he only deals thoroughly with the educated, propertied elite of society. Habermas views the "unpropertied" and illiterate as a separate from and incapable of participating in a true public sphere. To do this he must dismiss a plethora of lower class uprisings found throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Even when the various governments quickly quashed these rebellions, the Ludites in England and the various rebellions of 1848 come to mind, it is difficult to dispute the effect these rebels and rebellions had upon the public discourse. As an early work on the subject, it is almost certain that Habermas had to amend his arguments following E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, published in 1963 a scant year after this work. His exclusion of the great press of society from a functioning public sphere seems arrogant at best and naïve at worst.

I can't really recommend this book. Like many non-fiction books it's very repititious and doesn't really offer insight. Never quite gets to the crux of the matter. He puts together very complex charts for simple concepts that did nothing but fill pages. I found the techniques so commonplace as to not be useful.

Even though I've been through a great healing process with severe depression, I only recently began therapy for incest abuse. My anger and depression was incredibly awesome and needed direction. This book helped me understand the why's and how's of recognizing, understanding, and expressing my anger--and all of my emotions. I highly recommend this book! I'm discussing the procedures covered in the book with my therapist as well! I feel less isolated after reading it. Thank you, Bill!

This book will teach you the nature of anger, how you can accept it, how you can use it, and it will teach you how to stop losing your temper! It's the best book on the subject I've ever read. From page one you will start to heal. Buy this book!!!

This is a good book if you struggle with anger. the book is easy to read though I must admit that the diagrams in the book are hard to follow at times. I liked best the fact that the book made good effort to link the source of your anger to the past or wherever it is coming from. The book took me a step closer to overcoming anger.