Pittsburgh Books

If you want to find your way around Pittsburgh, this map book is for you. It's just the right size for use in your car, and is very detailed. I use it frequently so that I can navigate Pittsburgh. If you don't trust MapQuest, this book will be a big help.

Groceries is possibly one of the greatest poetry collections ever written. A series of poems, each dealing with the various colorful and desolate denizens of a grocery store, spills out in this disturbing and powerful collection. It is worth reading every word with the deliberation one would normally use to study the Bible.

It's easy to see why this book is still in print: it has intriguing coverage of the origins of Christianity in Hellenistic religion. About a third is Greek. Daring and fun for those who know a few Greek mystery-religion terms.

Doesn't cover mystical Judaism much but does acknowledge that research area -- Goodenough's 1935 book By Light, Light: The Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism might provide complementary coverage of that.

This is just one of a whole bunch of book that will be coming out. The invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation, in combination with other events has changed the world order.

This book is primarily about changes in the US stated strategy of not necessarily waiting for an attack before attacking a suspected enemy. With the advent of WMD's and the stated intent by organizations such as al Qaida to use them, can a country wait until a city is gone before using force to prevent it? This has been a a question for many years, such as England/France attacking Germany in 1938 rather than signing a treaty.

This book is written by a series of experts from all around the country that bring differing points of view to the problem. Other books that are out or coming out will stress different points of view, and different, shall we say, levels of approval.

The whole concept of Preventive Force is new and being developed, this is still the early phases. This book gives a good analysis of where the doctrine is at the moment.

In contrast to the numerous histories of West Virginia, Mr. Curry challenges conventional wisdom head-on. Though this book has been available for over 40 years, Civil War historians continue to write WV history from biased and unresearched sources. The most valuable aspect of this book is his detailed account of the county votes in key elections, the Ordinance of Secession vote on May 23 1861, the Statehood referendum of October 24 1861, and the vote on the Willey Amendment of March 26 1863. He details the position of John Carlile, the single-most important figure of statehood, who started the ball rolling and yet did all he could to stop it, even voting against the West Virginia statehood bill in his position as US Senator from Virginia. This book, along with McGregor's "Disruption of Virginia", are required reading for all West Virginians.

Is Diesing's book an instance of "undiscipline?" He states that those socialized into a research community carry on its canon, (his term is "the main texts") and those "unsocialized translators" (referring to himself) write texts "in their own language by filling in their own tacit assumptions, problems, and ways of drawing implications" (p. 122). He sees his role as a writer as an "emancipatory" one, and he seems to call into question the role of authority or the "status quo of the discipline. He describes scholars who begin their works by using "the proper language" the positivists esteem, only to abandon the substance that language is supposed to represent later in the work (p. 84). It is true that Diesing is not directly advocating this tactic, but he does later make the statement that those who read his descriptions can act however they wish upon them, leaving acceptance of the tactic as an option open. Could the preferred action be the "trickery and deception" (p. 52) of the kind Feyerabend admired-noting that Diesing has dedicated his book to Feyerabend?

In his chapter on pragmatism, Diesing explains the process by which research is conducted by having one's results critiqued by an adversary to help establish validity. He states here that "the clinical supervisor will need sensitivity and much patience to watch the field worker produce data" (p. 101). The words chosen convey a different image to the reader than the sentence intends. That which is clinical is sterile and not sensitive (to use Freudian word-association here). Additionally, one does not see a supervisor/worker relationship emphasizing patience, but efficient, rapid production achieved by a hard-driving supervisor whose presence reminds the worker does not lapse into complacency by reminding him of the possibility of no raise, bad reviews, dismissal from the job, and so on. Diesing takes another veiled swipe at pragmatism by describing the fact that John Dewey's union, the American Federation of Teachers, is a rather right-wing group when Dewey himself had advocated socialism, yet the AFT officially and publicly still recalls Dewey's founding membership with pride (p. 81). Pointing out an awkward situation in his adversary's camp must be "delicious," to use the term Diesing chose very early in his text (p. 9).

Diesing had said he was unaware he was practicing hermeneutics in his early career (p. 144). This statement in itself is telling, as it indicates the inseparability of the scientist from the things studied, as well as from the methods deployed in those studies. Logical empiricism had attempted to erase that fundamentally human fact, as did later antitheses to positivism including Popper, who had tried to play off his pessimistic conception of human nature to achieve vertical progress (to borrow a term from Dryzek) in the sciences. Diesing responds to the Popperian modifications by employing more psychoanalysis. Diesing states that Popper's method of relying on falsification for testing a hypothesis rather than looking for confirmation takes advantage of two human tendencies-"dogmatism and the critical attitude," to make progress in scientific theory-building (p. 32). When Diesing begins to critique Popper, it seems he calls attention to yet another human tendency-hypocrisy, by stating that Popper never followed his own methods of falsification upon his own theories (p. 38)? Diesing never uses the word hypocrisy; he only describes it.

Diesing discusses Milton Friedman's imposition of the quantity theory of money in economics on the facts, conceiving of no other alternative (p. 112). This seems similar to the issue that Shapiro brought up in his article "Public Law and Judicial Politics" in Finifter's edition-Friedman's method is a case of "working backward" to make their conclusions match their desires (p. 374). Many view this type of activity as a way of biasing one's results, especially in reference to judges who use this method in deciding cases ("legislating from the bench"). Because of the way in which Diesing writes (or the way I read), it is difficult to tell whether negative connotations are being attached to Friedman (a probable ideological adversary), or to the method itself. It would be easier to believe Diesing if the criticism were attached to Friedman and not the method he describes, since Diesing should recognize yet another human tendency to make the "facts" come out in a way that is desired in advance. After all, Diesing can be easily (and deliberately) "misread" here, Diesing himself says that a major hermeneutic maxim is "no knowledge without foreknowledge" (p. 108).

Diesing admits that these schools survive by having external "political and social support" (p. 103). He adds, "the National Science Foundation is not likely to...fund research in voodoo, witchcraft, rain dancing, and demonology (p. 103). Maybe not, but the Nobel Prize has just been awarded to Robert Mundell of Columbia University, an architect of supply-side economics, famously referred to by then-presidential candidate George Bush in 1980 as "voodoo economics." Many observers say the award was given to Mundell for his work on the EU currency, the Euro, in order to boost confidence in the new regime. This indicates the discipline is itself political (even in other social science disciplines including economics). Philosophers of science, according to Diesing, are the "rule makers and judges" (p. 83). Diesing's disdain for this political authority can be seen in his description of positivists as having used their methods and influence to "colonize" the discipline (p. 84). Taken together, these assumptions make politics, power, and scholarly research inseparable.

This is an excellent source of information concerning modern trafficking. This book gives you a critical variety of views on the issue. Anyone that is concerned about human trafficking, anyone in government, and anyone that is active in the business world should read this book. We all impact and can bring positive changes to the human trafficking problem. By understanding human trafficking in the Balkans, we can understand effective ways to bring change globally.

Oh, everyone can bash Penn State so I figured I would bash pitt. This book along with the I hate Penn State book gets anyone fired up. Just make sure you do not get stabbed at pitt while reading this book.

Dr. June Hobbs' book is a must-read for anyone interested in the role hymns played in the development of late nineteenth-century American culture. The focus on women as writers, singers, and subjects of various hymns provides clear insight into the way women shaped hymnody for expression of their own spiritual and social insights. Fascinating subject presented by June Hobbs in an insightful as well as enjoyable study. Highly recommended.

What a great story about growing up in the coal fields of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Characters were engaging in this well written autobiography.