Sales Books

You can find an abundance of books about doing business in China. This one, however, takes a rare approach. Ad expert Tom Doctoroff confines his commentary (for the most part) to a subject he has the expertise to address - advertising - although he tends to generalize a bit about Chinese history and philosophy. He offers evidence and examples from both successful and unsuccessful ad campaigns to support his assertions about what will work if you want to build your brand in China. We find that this short book offers interesting perspectives on the Chinese consumer market, while it also provides a refresher course on the main principles of advertising and brand building in any market, whether it be East or West.

Confucius, Daoism, Communism, Industrialization, Urbanization, One-Child Families, Great Leap Forward, Education and Profit Is Good: What do these themes mean for those who wish to sell in China? They are all important influences which you need to understand. Each Chinese consumer is uniquely influenced by the combination. The result includes some pretty interesting apparent contradictions such as prudishness about sex in advertising in a country where sexual trade is wide open at the street level.

In this insightful book, JWT Greater China CEO, Tom Doctoroff explains those influences and how they operate today. That's just the beginning.

From there, he shows you case history after case history of how global and Chinese companies have done well and poorly in acknowledging those influences. I found seeing the actual advertisements to be extremely helpful in understanding the book's points.

If that weren't enough, Mr. Doctoroff goes on to provide excellent perspectives into management challenges of properly serving 1.3 billion consumers in China.

Most books about China are filled with glittering generalities that leave you just as uninformed as you were when you started. Through careful description, segmentation and exposition of specific marketing challenges, Billions makes you feel as at home in China as you would feel in marketing a new video game to American teens.

As an example of how focused the book is, Billions provides:

-- Ten basic tips for effective Chinese advertising
-- Five mistakes most often made by multinational companies in China
-- Five structural barriers within Chinese corporations that harm the development of strong local brands
-- Three areas of Chinese domestic brand stagnation
-- Three areas of Chinese domestic brand progress
-- Six effective MNC-counterattack strategies to offset the domestic Chinese brands
-- Ten ways to shape international brands into global icons with Chinese characteristics to serve the Chinese community world-wide.

I thought that the description of how the Beijing Olympics should be pursued as a branding opportunity was worth the price of the book alone.

Usually, companies send second-raters to markets like China. JWT obviously sent its best when Mr. Doctoroff took over. Read and learn to profit!

Great book if you would like to obtain an indepth view of the Chinese Consumer. A MUST read!!

BILLIONS: SELLING TO THE NEW CHINESE CONSUMER comes from a CEO with direct experience selling into the Chinese market, and discusses the code of marketing as it relates to modern China. Many companies come to China with ideas on how to apply Western thinking to their very different marketplace: thus BILLIONS' tips are a necessary set of instructions for any who would break into the Chinese marketplace. From cultural influences in buying patterns to investment challenges and multinational lessons on winning and losing in China, BILLIONS is a recommended pick for any company who would consider entering this new, large market.

Love this book. Focus group, quantitative analysis, qualitative research, or any else you learned in the Marketing Research course at the MBA curriculum, may not work in China. WIth 1.3 billion customers, this is the dream market for any multinational corporations: Unilever, Ford, Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Samsung, Protor Gamble, DeBeers(DTC), VW, Shell, Pepsi, Coke, Nestle, Avon, Nike, Siemens, IBM, Dell.... While they are compeitng, the locals are copying quickly: Haier, TCL, Konda, China Mobile, China Unicom, Lenovo, CNOOC, Yili Diary, Sedrin beer, 999 Pharmaceutical..... hundreds of them doing shampoo, shoes, ....every thing under the sun. How can you win? That is the beauty of this book. It got many strategies laid out in the step-by-step fashion. It is a must read for any one who is doing business in China. The book will be better if more comparison can made on the effectiveness of the ad such as Motoroal vs a Chinese brand.

When friends come to visit, the Breakfast Book comes out. Dutch Babies, Apple Pancakes, Raw Apple Muffins, Oatmeal Raisin Scones, Bridge Creek Ginger Muffins -- the list goes on. The food tends to the rich and decadent so I mix the menu up with lighter fare. But even so, it is hard to be moderate with this food, so I save it for special occasions. It is specialized, but breakfast needs more serious attention than it usually gets so I consider it a must have for every serious cook.

Marion Cunningham taps into everyone's nostalgia for breakfast foods beyond cereal or scrambled eggs. The recipes are straightforward and feature a wide variety of tastes and types. Ms. Cunnigham's book reads as if she was a favorite aunt sharing her recipes.

Cunnigham also edited the new edition of Fannie Farmer's time-honored cookbook; she is a thoughtful writer and has a keen sense of how food fits into our modern lives. Her recipes are varied and you're sure to find something that you've never tried before but might want to.

A real pleasure and the 1 book you might want to have in your cookbook collection for breakfast.

PS - The recipe for Cream Biscuits (attributed to James Beard is a real winner and unbelievably simple to make.

Enjoy!

This was not what I expected, thou recipes are easy to follow. I like pictures of reach recipe, so it should be noted in description that there are NONE! This would be great as a gift for newly weds, singles venturing out on their own, etc.

Simply delicious and a great way to start a day. Highly recommended.

Janet Sue Terry author of A Rich, Deliciously Satisfying, Collection of Breakfast Recipes ISBN 1932586431

I collect breakfast cookbooks (yep, there are TONS out there!) but Marion's book has become one of my absolute faves: stained, dog-eared and notated. The Dried Fruit Cream Scones are excellent as are the Shirred Eggs, but her recipe for Pulled Bread (the easiest recipe in the world!) made me a fan for life. Many recipes have variations, and chapters consist of everything from breads to meat, as well as accompaniments including spreads and beverages and pies! Many of the recipes are ways to use up leftovers and hail from times past; don't look for new-fangled fusion cooking here, as Marion has strong opinions about not "startling" anyone that early in the morning. This is comfort food, folks, tried and true.

It is too bad that way too many managers, supervisors and leaders in the secular world will not follow the timely and true advise Mr. Sanders lays out in this book.

This is the first book I have read that has the correct way to view the secular world with a biblical reference. With that said, I dare you to read this book AND try some of the points in it and see if your work will not succeed!

An Important Book written by
Dan J. Sanders
CEO United Supermarkets

Reviewed by M. Joyce McMenamin

CALL IT THE CLEVERLY PACKAGED LITTLE BOOK
THAT CAPTURED MY ATTENTION & INSPIRED US TO
CREATE A NEW SECTION IN OUR
LITTLE MAGAZINE!

CALL IT WHAT YOU WILL, WE THINK THAT MR. SANDERS HAS DONE A SUPERB JOB OF POSITIONING THE IDEA THAT "BUYER & SELLER'S INTUITION", COMBINED WITH EMPIRICAL DATA, CREATES A BLENDED SUCCESS MODEL OF THOUGHTFUL & INTELLIGENT PROFITABLITY & LONGEVITY.

SANDER'S GOES BEYOND MERELY MIMICKING PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MODELS AND
WE WERE ACTUALLY IMPRESSED WITH THE DOWN-TO-EARTH MODELS PRESENTED IN
THIS NEW BOOK BY THE CEO OF UNITED SUPERMARKETS. NO SMALL FEAT. THE CAREER,THE BOOK, NOR THE SUCCESS OF THE ORGANIZATION. ASIDE FROM THE
"INSIDE THE BOOK" ADMIRATION BESTOWED BY BEST SELLING BUSINESS AUTHORS,
STEPHEN R. COVEY & KEN BLANCHARD, THIS BOOK DELIVERS ON IDEAS THAT NEED
TO BE DISCUSSED MORE IN THE FUTURE. IDEAS THAT NEED TO BE TAUGHT IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS & NEED TO BE PUT INTO PRACTICE BY ANY ORGANIZATION THAT
WANTS TO GROW AND THRIVE, LET ALONE SURVIVE, INTO THE NEXT DECADE.
THIS IS A MESSAGE THAT ALL LEADERS NEED TO HEAR, BELIEVE & PUT INTO ACTION.

SANDERS SHOULD GET A TEAM OF FACILITATORS TOGETHER TO BUILD WORKSHOPS
AROUND HIS PRINCIPLES & TAKE IT TO THE MILLIONS OF MANAGERS OUT THERE THAT
STILL DON'T "GEDDIT". BACK WHEN I WAS CONSULTING & FACILITATING CORPORATE GROUP SESSIONS, I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE HAD MATERIAL LIKE THIS TO DRAW FROM. SANDERS GETS IT!

WHAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE?

IN A WORLD WHERE TOO MANY, WHO "SHOULD KNOW BETTER",MERELY SPEAK TO THE METRIC-MODEL, IT'S OBVIOUS THAT SANDERS & UNITED LEARNED HOW TO WALK BEFORE THEY TRIED TALKING. SOMETHING MANY PROFESSIONALS SHOULD EMULATE. IN LIFE LEARNING HOW TO WALK, STUMBLE, FALL AND GET BACK UP AGAIN, IS THE NATURAL PROGRESSION TO GROWTH. WHO KNOWS? IF THIS BOOK HAD BEEN AROUND 20 YEARS AGO MAYBE WE'D STILL HAVE A STRONG AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY! BY THE LOOKS OF THINGS, UNITED SUPERMARKETS AND THE GROCERY INDUSTRY IN GENERAL ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE... AFTERALL, WE ALL GOTTA EAT, RIGHT?

BRAVO!
UNITED, WE STAND & APPLAUD.

Reviewed by: M. Joyce McMenamin
Publisher, Producer and author of The Integrity Channel [m.j.m. estrada]
Network Abundance sponsored by Sensitive Pie Productions

This review originally appeared in NoNiche Magazine November 2007 Issue

This is a beautiful business book. It really teaches you that your business vision and mission must serve a higher purpose in this life. Your mission should not be money, but instead of servitude to humans. All businesses must serve, lead and help their employees and customers attain a higher purpose in this life, and you as a business leader must do just that instead of focusing on profits. Read it, you will have a different view of business after you are done with it.

United Supermarkets, the company Dan Sanders runs, has long been a strong presence in the community I live in...a very strong and a very positive influence.

The environment and culture Mr. Sanders talks about in his book are evident, from a customer's view point, so it was great reading what was going on behind the scenes of this corporation to help create this atmosphere. He does practice what he preaches.

The most difficult thing a person can achieve naturally is a requirement and achievable in Christ, and that is to serve another human being.

We try and do things our way only to end up pursuing wealth, power, status, stuff and things. All along we miss out on the one thing that will bring fulfillment into our lives.

There are many books written on Management and Leadership; most prescribing tools and processes that when implemented over time the companies eventually retreat to nothing but empty warehouses and broken livelihoods, placing cities and towns under a burden of unemployment and families and governmental structures in a deficit. Built to Serve hits the nail on the head by providing practical steps on how to operate in a process that is proven to work.

Serve the people and they will spend more money just to be served; serve them well and they will drive great distances to spend their money because of how being served by your company made them feel. The three keys that I feel made this book so outstanding is that it deals with the reality of a current business mindset which operates in most businesses today which is that you the customer should be glad we are here to take your money and treat you like the ignorant customer that we you and believe you are. Go into businesses and organizations right where you live and you will surely come across this mindset and current prevailing attitude. Serving, the value of people (internal/external customers), and keeping the faith, are all keys that this book really addresses. Combine all of these together and you find yourself in relationship with your customers. Greater is the fact that you can actually begin to reproduce quality leaders.

This book touches my heart for people and helping them to employ daily their talents to assist people and bless their employers. I look forward to the day when more businesses, PNP's, companies, and organizations begin to apply the right tools for today's business problems. This is well written and contains many great truths...good job.

I just received this book in the mail a couple of weeks ago and I'm already on my second read through. It is such an uplifting book. I read a few pages with my son everyday. What a clever idea of putting all of these wonderful quotes into one little gem of a book. I look forward in getting your other quote books. Thanks for the smile!

I wish I could give half star ratings sometimes. This book would have gotten a 4 and 1/2 rating if I could.
The only thing that I did not like about it was the Bible passages. To me they do not lift my spirit, but that is just because I am not of that faith. Otherwise this is a great book.

I've purchased many copies of this little book over the past year. They are great girl friend books or for any quote lover. I've keep one on hand for myself and often reference it when I need some inspiration. Buy two, one to give away and one for you!

we write a quote in our elementary class each day and use this book as one of our references.

This is one of those purchases where I really felt like I got my monies worth. I refer to the quotes within this book on a weekly basis as I offer a "final thought of inspiration" to my yoga students. Since my family is a group of bathroom readers, Ive also been thinking about doing a bathroom wall of quotes. This book offers a variety of quotes nicely arranged in categories. Great to sit, read and ponder!

This is an amazing book about human nature and the dictatorial vilanry of Stalin. What amazes me is the parallels with the Bush Administration in the immediate post 911 -with me or against me mentality. Stalin's paranoia reflected by the whole connerie of Donald Rumsfeld/Dick Cheney circus. Human nature does not change: only circumstances and names of events. God help us all.

Today I read this as a Journalist from AL-JAZIRA testifies here in Geneva regarding his 6 year holyday in Cuba grace à la govenment de texas. Merde.

Rybakov does a masterful job of showing the complexities of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Through the eyes of a clique of young Soviet students in the 1930's we are caught up in the post-revolutionary euphoria as Stalin sought to build "socialism in one country." Gradually the sinister aspects of Stalinism become apparent, as each character must decide the path they will take. Some simply go along and hope for the best, some work within the system (joining the NKVD), others are exiled to Siberia. _Children of the Arbat_ has been righly compared to _Dr. Zhivago_. It is a masterpiece of contemporary Russian literature. Highly recommended.

This book is excellent. It great for people like me who don't like history. Through this book you will go in the world of Russia in the time of Stalin. The history is interestingly incorporated in the lives of the Russian people. I hope that you will read this book because it's really great.

I picked up this book after being told that it's a "must read" for anyone wishing to gain insight into life in 1930's Stalinist Russia. This is a gripping, though tragic, story of an idealistic boy who aspires to a life of service to the Soviet Union. His idealism is ultimately used against him, and his life thrown away by party members whose sole concern is self-protection and advancement. Unfortunately, while this is clearly the story of the author, the reader can't help but sense it's also the story of millions of youth in that time and place.

If you want a glimpse into the proverbial "Russian soul" and the factors that have shaped it, this book is an excellent place to start.

It is not always easy to keep track of the many threads in this sprawling 685 page novel about the Soviet Union in 1933 and 1934, on the eve of the murder of Kirov and the Reign of Terror. But it gives a superb picture of the period: a vivid portrait of Stalin and his thought processes, of the lives of young people in Moscow, of how it was already possible for devoted and loyal communists to be sent into political exile. (Most people know about the slave labour in the Gulags, but fewer know of what life was like for political exiles, who lived more freely among the villagers of Southern Siberia). Among the people we meet are idealistic and decent communists as well as ambitious and scheming ones. It stands up remarkably well in the light of all the new knowledge that has become available since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the archives. In particular, Rybakov's picture of Stalin is confirmed by Simon Sebag-Montefiore's chilling "Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar" (2003)

Its been a good reading so far. Interesting points of view. I'll keep reading it for sure.

I can't speak for every industry but it's dead on for the media industry. When we look at the diminishing number of clients or prospects that have a solid respect for what we do, many of the answers (the little things) are in this book.

I don't hide the fact that I go against the grain in my search to improve procedures and systems to super serve clients while strengthening a company's bottom line. In that quest, a book called, "Close Like The Pros" by Steve Marx, had an impact on me. It's the closest strategy that I have found to date that I totally agree with in terms of real and realistic sales. "Close Like The Pros" is not a sales style, but rather a sales strategy for sales professionals who already understand why and how you should focus on customer needs. The book explains that providing the focus, power, and direction for the sale are important points to make during the sale. Oftentimes, management forces their own sales style on other members of their team and loses focus of the common goals to fill the client's needs while generating revenue for your company.

It's clear that Steve Marx has a sales training company because he provides a useful resource for the employee-focused manager. Those who live by partnership creation realize that it takes a great deal of work to provide that training and teach that skill to others. As an effective tool for the sales staff you want to educate and inspire, "Close Like the Pros" tells it like it is with clear, easy-to-follow examples. The book also includes easy and precise "how-to's" and encourages the exploration of the sales process in steps that permit growth. For the sales person who welcomes the opportunity to become even better, and for the manager who would appreciate an effective format for addressing the subject with new life, "Close Like the Pros" sets the stage for discussion in an active and energetic manner. I don't think there's any doubt that interactive selling is effective - "Close Like the Pros" will boost your own enthusiasm and renew your skills, whether you manage a staff of sales individuals or sell directly yourself. I've heard it said that 90% of all jobs are sales in one way or another. This book benefits people in every field because the ability to interact, to sell our product, or ourselves, is part of life as we know it.

If you are a seasoned sales person/manager who knows the pain of too many Nos or no answer proposals, this is your book. This is a fitting up to date replacement for the New Solution Selling. Marx has been there, dione that and got all the T-shirts,. It is a pure sales book which happily ignores completely the need for nurturing etc. But for pure in the trenches, gut feel selling this is the book. I took a while to read it as the title put me off. But boy was I was mistaken. Marx could have been listening in on many Rocket Builders consults wrto sales and the buyer's journey. He is so bang on. Some insights:

* The salesperson gains power by empowering the buyer.
* Selling is tough but so is buying today.
* Your prospects want to buy, why would you be invited.
* Contracting is essential to set and maintain buyer expectations.
* What is the buyer doing to move the sale forward?
* Use half baked/straw man ideas before you present the maximum idea
* Use progress reports to show how far you have come
* A critical path details where you are going.
* There is no correlation between a rapid turnaround of a proposal and a good sale. None.

This is a salesman's/manager's must buy book.

This book is outstanding. Excellent real world examples. Takes readers from top to bottom through the industry. Really geared toward the whole independent/amature film community and how to achieve professional results working within the industry. I highly recommend this book cover to cover.

Being a skeptic, I tested Mark's capsule exercises on a script I was preparing for the IFP Spotlight Award. The results were unnerving - I discovered buried treasure I didn't know I had within my story and eliminated an entire subplot that didn't service the STORY. Mark demystifies the concept of marketing, asking simple, direct questions. By asking "why would anyone want to see your film?" Mark goes past just marketing and addresses the issues that draw people to filmmaking in the first place. When I put the book down, I had a clear vision of the kind of filmmaker I want to be - and a great set of tools to get there.

In the course of making a film, we found this book to be very helpful. It organizes info about the business side of the filmmaking process.

A lot of people throw the title "guru" around, but Bosko's the real deal. As a filmmaker, if you've ever wondered how to: get press coverage, create a media kit, find an attractive title; identify your movie's hooks, locate distributors, exploit the power of the web, get audiences and distribution and actually sell your movie or video...then GET THIS BOOK! Bosko "tells all" in an easy-to-read style that gets the creative juices flowing. No filmmaker should go anywhere near a camera without reading the hard-core, straight-up instruction and advice in this book.

This book is so great! I got a copy after reading a review and it lived up to every claim. The techniques in the book's "Self-Distribution" section showed me how to set up regional sales for a film that otherwise has not made any money up until this point! I can now proudly say that my DVD is available in 17 video stores in Pennslyvania and New York thanks to the tips in this book! Get Bosko's book if you want to sell your film - it is that simple.

I will be using Sandra's title as a recommended resource in my upcoming High Profile Hiatus: Career Comeback Series starting June 2, 2008.
The 8-week tele-course will show ambitious career women, entrepreneurs and other professionals seeking to re-enter the workforce how to stay visible, credible, confident and connected "during a hiatus" or lay-off to help them avoid career suicide, re-launch their careers with confidence and ease the re-entry process when they're ready to return to work.

Barbara Bamba is a career hiatus expert who specializes in "career hiatus marketing and management." She is the founder and former owner of the Philadelphia Speakers Bureau, a sought after speaker and creator of the High Profile Hiatus: Career Comeback Series for ambitious women, entrepreneurs and other professionals who step-out, opt-out or get pushed-out of the workforce. Contact Barbara for more info at: barbarabamba@aol.com [...]

Complete Publicity Plans: How to Create Publicity That Will Spark Media Exposure and Excitement (Adams Streetwise Series)

as a public relations director, i was really missing this book. It refreshed my knowlege and added new inputs to me. this book is good for beginners as well as PR professionals. I highly recommend it for those who want to grasp pulbic relations and corportat communications subjects.

As PR has become more of a necessity for more companies, the world of public relations has become just as cluttered as the world of advertising, yet it remains a completely distinct animal. Gone are the days when writing a decent press release was enough to get you exposure. Today you need to take a strategic approach and have a complete plan. This book helps you develop that plan (and also helps you with how to write a good press release if you've not done that before).

As the host of a radio show called The Publicity Show, I have spoken with a lot of publicists and PR professionals. This book gives an insiders view on what it takes to break through the clutter that reporters are bombarded with and create real momentum that will snowball. If you are looking for how to get consistent exposure instead of just a quick hit, this is the book.

This is an excellent book to create publicity for your business. It tells you step by step how to write and implement a publicity plan to promote your products or services. I cannot recommend it more highly.

I classify business books as follows: read and forget, take notes and dump, keep for reference. This book is definitely in the latter category. For small businesses, typically characterized by a tight budget, PR is often a mystery. How do so many businesses get into the media - sometimes repeatedly? This book demystifies PR in plain language. It also has formats, elements and numerous examples of the varius types of press releases. The book also makes the valid point that money is better spent on PR than advertising. Buy this book, save thousands of dollars for a consultant, and increase the probability to make thousands for your business.

This book gives a picture of how customers buy to day. If you dont change according to this, you'r out!!

Great job on this book Michael and Elizabeth!! It is an easy, fresh read and I really, really liked the "real world" companies and individuals you used to illustrate your points so well.

I have always considered myself the "reluctant salesperson", but what I now realize is that I had it right all along -- figure out what people really want and give it to them with integrity and sincerity.

Great Book! Lots of information about how to work the way your customers demand - with honesty and integrity. What a refreshing concept for sales and marketing!

I am a fan of both Michael Port and Elizabeth Marshall. They're top-notch trainers and thought leaders. The Contrarian Effect did not disappoint.

Port and Marshall pulled off their own contrarian effect: their book is an easy read and packed with substance! Their knowledge, passion, and personal touch flow through the pages.

In these economic times more than ever, sales professionals and other business leaders need the information in this book to identify and seize the many opportunities that are right in front of their eyes, if only they know how to look for them with the right perspective.

Your clients need you to own your expertise and all of the value you provide to them, be transparent, listen and respond to them, and collaborate with others to bring them even more value. They need you to be contrarian!

This book walks you through in detail how this win-win relationship works - the more you give, the more you will receive. I strongly recommend you read this book today!

Mollie Marti, Ph.D.
www.BestLifeDesign.com
Author of "The 12 Factors of Business Success" and "Selling"

I have been in sales for 10 years selling everything from life insurance to consulting to food.

Many people's livelihood is reliant upon selling a product or a service. The world of sales has changed and old techniques and old "truths" are not true anymore. People who haven't realized this yet need to take heed to what a lost sale really is and to the words I am saying now:

"If you wan't to succeed and it requires that you sell a product or a service to do it, this book is required reading. For years people have known something was being done wrong in sales, Elizabeth and Michael are the one's to finally say it and correct it!"

Some readers might find some parts slow going, but this classic work remains an excellent introduction into how and why our understanding of the heavens (and ourselves) changed so radically following the work of Copernicus. Those interested in reading Kuhn's seminal and more famous "The Stucture of Scientific Revolutions" will enjoy reading "Copernicus" to see how his thinking grew from this earlier work.

I asked my son when he was 4 years old why the Sun moved across the sky over the day. He answered me "because the earth turns". This seems like an obvious answer even for a 4 year old, but 400 years ago his response would be meet with ridicule and even worse would be considered heresy. Thomas S. Kuhn is able to beautifully and logically describe from a scientific perspective the ideas and discoveries through the ages that lead to the enormous conceptual leap from a geocentric to heliocentric world. This alone makes this book a great read. But what I valued more from the book is Kuhn's revealing of the impact of the "Copernican Revolution" outside the scientific world. It's influence on religion, society and the entire scientific process is still felt today. The idea of a heliocentric universe was not only a great scientific theory, it was really a turning point in the human race and how we see ourselves in the universe. I would also recommend "The book nobody read" and "Galileo's Daughter" as more modern follow ups to "The Copernican Revolution".

Kuhn's The Copernican Revolution was written as a text for an undergraduate course in the intellectual history of science. As such, its approach is focused and temporally expansive. The drawback of such an approach is the deficit of analysis in key areas. The analysis of the Church's role in science during the late middle ages and Renaissance was rather one-dimensional, but this obviously is not Kuhn's focus. Instead, he would like the reader to realize that any set of data can be modeled to an infinite number of paradigms (in anticipation of Structure of Scientific Revolutions). The heliocentric argument solved some qualitative problems but was largely Ptolemaic in articulation. Its aesthetic and geometric harmonies were extracted by astronomers who could could apply a mathematical rigor to it, in a post-Ptolemaic tradition (Kepler and Newton).

Kuhn challenges the reader's imagination to decipher the heavenly phenomena in the same way Ptolemy might have, without being hampered by the technical minutia of astronomy. He writes so lucidly as to pick the reader up and drop him or her under the ancient sky, and to follow a long, through time. Paramount to Kuhn is the practical importance of astronomical data and the logic of its categorization.

Perhaps the most persuasive analysis that Kuhn endeavors is that of the progression of the Renaissance neo-Platonics: Brahe, Galilei, Kepler, Descartes, and the mutation of the Copernican system into Newtonian synthesis. In one sense, his analysis is very non-Kuhnian as it can't point to a singular moment, and involves more of a patchwork of adopting new features (that is until Newton).

A concise introduction to the evolution of astronomical thought from antiquity to newton and a compelling classic.

This is a great overview of the development of the Copernican system. The main text is very clear and readable and the "technical appendix" has good expositions of key mathematical arguments. Nevertheless, I think Kuhn's interpretation of "the Copernican revolution" has some shortcomings. Kuhn wishes the Copernican revolution to conform to his idea (as presented in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) of a revolution brought on by a crisis: "[Copernicus'] famous preface still provides one of the classic descriptions of a crisis state" and "Ptolemaic astronomy had failed to solve its problems; the time had come to give a competitor a chance." But Kuhn does not support this position very well. For instance he writes: "When Copernicus listed the aspects of contemporary astronomy that had led him to consider his radical theory, he began, 'For, first, the mathematicians are so unsure of the movements of the Sun and the Moon that they cannot even explain or observe the constant length of the seasonal year.'" Here Kuhn is using a rather underhand trick. He is implying, of course, that this calendar issue was Copernicus' primary motivation, but fails to address two crucial counterarguments. First, Copernicus' preface is addressed to the Pope and he is clearly interested in emphasising that "my labors contribute somewhat even to the Commonwealth of the Church, of which your Holiness is now Prince," mentioning specifically how the calendar issue was a concern for Leo X, etc. Second, when Copernicus says "first...", he does not mean "first" as in "most important," for he continues with a "second" and then reaches "the chief point of all." This chief point of all is the fact that the Copernican model has a beautiful implication: the planetary distances. A geocentric model cannot give such information because we could scale the orbit of Saturn, say, to make it twice as big and it would still look exactly the same seen from earth. But in a heliocentric model the distances are determined because if we scaled the orbit of Saturn then it would look the same seen from the sun but different seen from earth. So with the earth in the center we cannot determine planetary distances because we are the center of scaling, but with the sun in the center we would notice scaling and thus the planetary distances are locked, or, as Copernicus puts it, "this correlation binds together so closely the order and the magnitudes of all the planets and of their spheres or orbital circles and the heavens themselves that nothing can be shifted around in any part of them without disrupting the remaining parts and the universe as a whole." Thus he can claim triumphantly that earlier astronomers "have not been able to discover or to infer the chief point of all, i.e., the form of the world and the certain commensurability of its parts. But they are in exactly the same fix as someone taking from different places hands, feet, head, and the other limbs---shaped very beautifully but not with reference to one body and without correspondence to one another---so that such parts made up a monster rather than a man." (I'm using the translation from Goldoni's excellent article in the Mathematical Intelligencer.) Kuhn admits that the Copernicus' determination of the planetary distances is "crucially important" but dismisses it as the main reason for the acceptance of the theory: "'Harmony' seems a strange basis on which to argue for the earth's motion... Copernicus' arguments are not pragmatic. They appeal, if at all, not to the utilitarian sense of the practising astronomer but to his aesthetic sense and to that alone. ... New harmonies did not increase accuracy or simplicity. Therefore they could and did appeal primarily to that limited and perhaps irrational subgroup of mathematical astronomers whose Neoplatonic ear for mathematical harmonies could not be obstructed by page after page of complex mathematics leading finally to numerical predictions scarcely better than those they had before." The correct reading---beauty before truth---is staring Kuhn in the face but he refuses to recognise it, opting instead to dismiss Copernicus as "strange" and Kepler as "irrational."

"The Copernican Revolution" tells the epochal story of how the earth-centered cosmology of Ptolemy was replaced by the sun-centered cosmology of Copernicus and Kepler. The book is a classic. Kuhn understood how ideas influence each other and hang together in a system. He could write with equal erudition about observational astronomy, medieval theology, astrology, and Aristotelian physics.

"The Copernican Revolution" is a trove of historical and intellectual insights. Perhaps the main lesson is that scientific progress is not a simple matter of theory being adapted to observation. Multiple theories can account for the same observations, theories have complex non-observational bases of support, and extra-theoretical assumptions provided by "common sense" (such as the immobility of the earth) can be highly contingent products of a culture. Scientific progress is never guaranteed. Erroneous theories -- such as the theory placing the earth at the center of the universe -- can hold sway for centuries and generate a vast body of supporting evidence, only to fall out of sync with new observations and a new climate of opinion -- at which point they can hang on tenaciously, or collapse "suddenly" over the course of a generation or two. It all comes down to history.

Kuhn's great contribution to thought was to situate the history of science within the history of ideas -- he treated scientific theories as the products of cultures, institutions, and sheer accidents, not as deliverances of pure logic. "The Copernican Revolution" is fantastic and should be ready by anyone who enjoyed and learned from "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." It's become fashionable to bash Kuhn lately but his books have a secure place in the canon of history and philosophy of science. Six stars!