1990 Books

(Spanish version)
La comunidad educativa habia esperado por mucho tiempo contar con un libro como el que acaba de publicar el Dr. John S. Levin. Su trabajo resume con mucha precision los principales retos, lecciones aprendidas y direcciones futuras que el sistema de Colegios Comunitarios tendra en el futuro proximo.
El trabajo de John S. Levin es una aportacion novedosa, inteligente y que aporta bases para una concienzuda reflexion acerca del sistema intermedio de educacion superior. Su lectura es no solo util para los Estados Unidos y Canada, sino tambien para paises de America Latina que estan buscando desarrollar sus sistemas de educacion superior intermedia, como es el caso de Mexico.

These authors aim to understand. They look at real people across the world who are drawn to fundamentalist answers. Like the American mother trying to protect her daughter from the chaos of moral relativity, who decides "I think she is going to have less options thrown at her in a Christian school than if she was in a public school ... I would rather control her environment as much as possible while she is young ...". (p. 75) The book reviews the effects on families or communities of "infallible" solutions, which can get frightening. But of course, if we can't understand people's concerns, we can't really talk with them about finding better solutions.

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

When I purchased a 1993 Chevrolet Caprice the logical follow up to that purchase is a repair manual that will keep this baby on the road. If it breaks down, it has to be fixed mannualy because I haven't any services near my location with appropriate prices.

I found the information to be well indexed, so that I could find precisely what I wanted (replacing the flasher unit). The descriptions are clear and concise. Most of the descriptions are illustrated with photographs. There are generous placement of exploded views and clear line illustrations. Clean and direct.

looked everywhere to fineon

This story is so outrageous that its sad to be true. Mr. Campeau is directly responsible for much of what we see and don't see today in the department store industry, especially industry behemoths and the disappearance of once celebrated stand-alone department stores. It is a warning for investment bankers, private equity buyers, and corporate buyers who have quickly forgotten how the excesses of the 1980s came crashing down, as well as providing a solid foundation the department store retail sub-sector. To top it off, it is a good, well written, and entertaining story.

That George W. Bush wanted to get rid of Saddam Hussein from day one there is no doubt. It was, after all, the lament of every conservative that his father and General Powell had put on the brakes 40 miles from Baghdad in 1991. The need to finish the job was a barroom and boardroom commonplace. 9/11 fueled the fear, the rage, and the reason to get them before they get us.

That Bush 2 was careless about who "them" was is historical fact, as is the falsity of his rationale - weapons of mass destruction. But how were Congress, the British, and the public brought along? The simple answer, like Robert Redford said in The Sting, is "he cheats". Yes, says the victim, but How does he do it? Russ Hoyle shows how. And it is a much more complicated tale than I for one thought.

Under the microscope Bush does not appear as the puppet of Cheney or Rumsfeld or both. Rather he is a major actor himself - buying into Blair's high road strategy - WMD as justification, and Colin Powell's concurrence that a UN vote was needed for legitimacy. The decision to follow the WMD/UN strategy greatly complicated the effort to mount the campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime. And greatly frustrated Cheney and Rumsfeld.

In the end the most important element may have been that the desire to take action, the belief that bad actors do bad things, led to the conclusion that possibility was probability, that fear was more important than fact. In that process the Director of the CIA knuckled under, contrary evidence was spurned, Congress trusted the untrustworthy, and the press was largely tricked and trapped into giving George Bush the free ride to Baghdad from which it will take us a generation to recover.

But a generation won't be long enough unless we learn the lessons of the necessity for independent political intelligence, and independence of judgment that are the teaching of Going to War, the only really necessary book if you want to know how we went to war in Iraq.

As an ex-IRA "blanketman," already imprisoned in his teens, interned for 17 years at Long Kesh, Anthony McIntyre knows his subject by having lived most of his life as a volunteer. After prison, he earned a Ph.D. in political science at Queen's. This Belfast native collects various articles and interviews from the past decade or so that list the deathbed rattles and defiant ralliery of Sinn Féin, the IRA, and the stalemated peace process after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The chicanery with which this deal was finagled to a rank-and-file previously misled about the continuation of their armed struggle led to McIntyre's break with the "Republican Movement" at least as constituted under the control of Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, and their devoted cadre.

Becoming a leading voice for those who disagreed, not for a return to the "physical-force tradition" but a renewal of the ideals which the IRA he and others joined had abandoned, Dr McIntyre combines two rarely encountered areas of expertise. As an insider, he betters the academics and reporters in relating the perspective of an Irish republican who's proven his credibility on the blanket. As a commentator, he's able to silence the "militant Republicans of the verbal type" eager to perch on barstools or boast to the naive their exploits, fueled with Dutch courage.

Admirably given his doctoral competence, McIntyre never lapses into jargon (although "etiology" escaped onto his keyboard once). He avoids sounding sanctimonious or overbearing. He, as with his model Orwell, manages to keep the human dimension within his sustained criticism of the IRA leadership that, for 320 pages, motivates his setting down-- with as much proof as can be summoned against an organization committed to double speak and clandestine councils-- the reasons why one can be principled, yet oppose the GFA packaged as "the peace process." Furthermore, he relates details to us in a calm, wry manner so that any newcomer can clearly understand the participants who support or oppose this intricate strategy.

Chapters cover the GFA, republican dead, The Colombia 3, Decommissioning, the 1981 Hunger Strikers, the supression of dissent, Robert McCartney's murder, informers "Stakeknife" and Denis Donaldson, comrades who speak out against the Adams-McGuinness party line, the dissembling by SF and the IRA in response, the Northern Bank robbery, policing under the PSNI reforms, and the strategic failure of the Republican Movement. Although all are collections of journalism at the time of the events, without the benefit of update or the ease of hindsight, they provide, from one who wrote what he heard and saw and thought in the West Belfast heartland for Gerry Adams of Ballymurphy, a counterspin to the PR machine that dominated so much of the media's attention during the past dozen years in the North of Ireland.
(My blog via my profile has a much longer, detailed review of this book.)

Pathology, neurology, anesthezyology, pediatrics

I can't believe that more people have not taken the opportunity to rave about this book. Probably because they are too busy getting into grad school. This book has all the information about schools that applicants want to know. It lists accurate GRE and GPA scores for almost every school. It includes information on cost, orientation of the program, housing, financial aid, etc... This book is a must-have for anyone seriously considering applying to graduate programs in psychology!

Liz McQuiston takes on the world! She gives an excellent overview of protest graphics from every continent (even Antarctica!) and from a very diverse range of debates: democracy movements, debates over reproductive rights, the environment, counter culture, civil rights, AIDS and health awareness and feminism, among many others.

The book is very well designed and will bring back memories. Lots of great colour reproductions and a nice size and paper weight make it an aesthetic treat. It is also a valuable sourcebook for studies in visual culture. Check out the screaming red cover!