Practice Management Books

Finding a decent book on CAM has been difficult. This is the best book I have seen yet! Being a nurse certified in pain I always look for familiar authors. The authors and contributors to this book are both familiar and local to the Boston area where I practice.
An area of importance in treatment of pain is concern for the patient. This validates the pain and the patient knows someone is listening. This book enables the patient to "accept their limitations" (of pain) and be able to live a life that is best for them. The model of this book emphasizes therapeutic approaches to enhance healthy forms of living "while factors such as candy bars and coffee consumed all day long" will not be ignored.

The gossip is mine, not in the book. Most librarians won't know this, but Virginia Boucher, aside from being emeritus professor of libraries for the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the mother of Eric Boucher, better known as punk rock legend Jello Biafra. It's only logical that one of the most erudite voices to emerge in the modern musical counterculture should have its roots in the scholarship of such a remarkable family. Virginia's daughter, by the way, was also a scholar at the U. of C. Boulder, where an annual award for free speech has been named in her honor.

If you want to understand the internet this book is for you. Doesn't go into great detail but explains complex systems succinctly and clearly. Especially good for someone who wants to understand the internet beyond just URL's, what's a server and WWW. A bit pricey but it's directnes more than makes up for that. Finally a thick internet book that actually needed to be thick.

This book is an excellent source for setting up communication workshops. The easy to read and follow format includes activites that hit home for the participants and will prove to enhance your training sessions. Giular has designed a manual and workbook for effective communication enrichment and excellent team building. He covers conflict management and lets the trainer use the material offered with a hands-on approach. I highly recommend this book.

This is a well organized comprehensive guide for all Intravenous therapy
instruction and or review.
I highly recommend it.

The best Wildlife and Fisheries book that I have EVER read. A superb resource for the Wildlife professional or student.

I read close to 5 major books on warehousing, including Excellence in Warehouse Managment. I found most to be little more than books defining warehouse terminology. Bragg has clear ideas to improve warehousing (inventory management). "Nearly 200" says the dustjacket. I'd buy this one again.

This book describes in great detail how major British corporations have become more socially responsible. Editor John Hancock includes in-depth chapters from various British experts and executives on key topics related to social responsibility, including investing, the environment, corporate governance and improving the quality of life. The contributors describe how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement is changing the way many U.K. companies conduct their day-to-day operations. U.S. corporate managers who are contending with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance may feel somewhat challenged as they read about how their U.K. counterparts now feel obligated to conduct business in a way that meets CSR standards. In fact, many U.S. business leaders may feel that the CSR push smacks of unprecedented outside interference in company goals. Since this movement is likely to strengthen, we believe this book is essential for British executives, of great interest to their U.S. peers and important to all corporate strategists and leaders. Never mind that the text is dry, and the various authors' subjects sometimes overlap. Senior executives who even skim it will get a pretty clear idea of capitalism's next phase - and many may not like what they learn.

"The author provides an interpretive analysis of major cases that gives readers a context for viewing and understanding the significance of the decisions, how they were arrived at, and how they changed precedent. Each analytical section is followed by documents such as intra-Court memos, legal briefs filed by the various parties, and resolutions passed by Congress on school desegregation.

Whitman deftly and skillfully explains the Court's movement from initially requiring segregated schools to provide only for nondiscriminatory attendance and placement policies to a requirement that such schools be integrated. Along the way he also shows the backlash and the affected school boards' delaying tactics. The irony to which the author refers in his title is that schools are quickly becoming resegregated, and current judicial pronouncements provide very little relief. Highly recommended . . . ."
-Choice

Mark Whitman is professor of history at Towson State University.

BOOK REVIEW

IRONY OF DESEGREGATION LAW

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History, vol. 66, no. 1 (2000)

The landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) has generated a vast literature. A number of scholars, among them Lino Graglia, Gary Orfield, Mark Tushnet, J. Harvie Wilkinson, and Raymond Wolters, have studied the contested course of school desegregation. Mark Whitman contributes to this growing field with a well-textured analysis of the leading cases that interpreted and sought to implement the Brown ruling. He examines both the complexities of school desegregation litigation and the often modest substantive results achieved.

Whitman traces many of the uncertainties plaguing desegregation law to the Brown decision itself. Was Brown intended to eliminate state-imposed racial categories, or to embrace an affirmative duty to achieve integration? Although in 1954 most observers understood the decision simply to outlaw racial segregation, by the mid-1960s courts increasingly insisted upon a degree of actual integration. Courts began to infer segregative intent from policies that appeared to be neutral on the face of them--such as neighborhood schools--as well as from circumstances beyond school board control. As a result, the link between past discrimination and judicial findings of constitutional violation grew attenuated. Indeed, some judges based desegregation remedies more on educational theories about the benefits of racially diverse schools than on past illegal conduct. In this light, the lines separating city and suburban schools appeared suspect. Moreover, the drive for school integration spread beyond the South to northern and western communities. Yet as the remedies imposed grew more sweeping, the rationale articulated by the Supreme Court became strained and confused.

Whitman treats the formulation of desegregation law within a broad context of public opinion, political currents, and constitutional thought. According to Whitman, a number of factors coalesced to undermine the social experiment of school integration. Busing and proposed interdistrict remedies chilled public support. Massive demographic changes in urban areas frustrated desegregation plans. Eventually prominent black scholars challenged the integrationist premise as demeaning and cast doubt on the supposed educational advantages.

Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court in the 1990s slowly retreated from judicial supervision of racial balance in schools. "It is highly doubtful," Whitman aptly observes, "that a revolution as profound as the long-term integration of America's schools could have been accomplished by judicial fiat under any long-term circumstances" (p. x). This work reminds us that judicial behavior is restrained by political realities. Thus, Whitman lends support to the thesis of Gerald N. Rosenberg (The Hollow Hope [Chicago, 1991]) that courts have limited capacity to achieve social reform.

The irony in Whitman's view is that by the end of the twentieth century school desegregation law has seemingly returned to the basic nondiscrimination principle of Brown. The author certainly stresses the significance of Brown in eliminating formal segregation, but he suggests that American society is not prepared to support a more aggressive push for school integration. Although he does not break new ground, Whitman has provided a perceptive synthesis of the struggle over school desegregation. A unique feature of this volume is the inclusion of excerpts from judicial opinions, attorneys' briefs, and articles at the end of each chapter. Accessible to both scholars and students, The Irony of Desegregation Law will be welcomed by a wide audience.

Quite a scholarly work. I commend Dr. El-Gamal for his deep knowledge of the subject and his unmatched academic approach to a politically/religiously sensitive issue.

A must-read for everyone interested in understanding Islamic Finance.