EC Books

Dumarest is on the planet of Toy seeking information about Earth. There he gets swept up into a plot to overthrow the Toymaster, who runs the economy as a tyrant. In the end, the Toymaster is overthrown, but all Dumarest gets is the information that Earth is also known as Terra. So his quest continues.

WTO-NEWS Review

Due to fast-paced technological changes - most notably the rapid development of the Internet - cross-border electronic trade in digital content products (movies, music, software, etc.) has become an increasingly important phenomenon. However, such trade is not explicitly recognised within the current WTO-framework.

In this book, SACHA WUNSCH-VINCENT - an economist at the OECD - provides the first detailed and comprehensive analysis of the steps WTO Members must undertake if they want to remedy this state of affairs - thereby reducing the serious risk of rising discriminatory barriers to digital trade. First the author elaborates on the WTO's work relating to digitally-delivered content products and on the various measures required in the Doha Negotiations to guarantee market access for this category of products. Secondly, he discusses the factors that impede reaching a consensus between the principal players in the negotiations (i.e. the EC and the US) - which is a crucial condition for progress in this area. Thirdly, WUNSCH-VINCENT compares how the multilateral Doha Negotiations and the parallel (US-driven) bilateral and regional trade agreements have - to date - contributed to securing a liberal digital trade regime.

A central conclusion of the book is that only very few of the identified negotiation requirements have been satisfactorily met at the multilateral level. It is demonstrated that the coverage of digital content products by WTO rules remains at best uncertain and that free trade in digital content has not yet been secured. Moreover, although some modest progress could be achieved in the framework of US preferential free trade agreements, the latter are unlikely to be able to lock in free trade for digital content. Prompt and decisive efforts by the WTO in the current negotiation round are therefore imperative.

In conclusion, as new technologies are an increasingly prominent source of trade disputes (see the recent US-Antigua Internet Gambling case), this book is a pragmatic assessment of how WTO Members can maintain the relevance of the multilateral trade framework in a changing technological and economic environment. Given the lack of an in-depth treatment of these issues in the existing academic literature, it is clearly a highly important contribution and will become compulsory reading for anybody interested in this subject area - academics, policy practitioners and members of the business community alike. Martin Gedult v. Jungenfeld

I really was looking forward to this volume, especially based on the praise it has garnered in the reviews from Amazon shoppers here.

To be honest, this stuff is simply awful. Anyone who thinks these tales were "ahead of their time" doesn't know much about the history of either horror stories in general, or the comics industry. The drawing is often amateurish, with no real attempt made to place characters in realistic historical costuming. The plots are derived from stuff that was hoary with age even in the early 1950's, including a pastiche of F. Marion Crawford and a ghost ship. Stories rely heavily on plot device, unbelievable coincidences, and a very tired "twist" approach to endings which severely limited what could actually be done in terms of creative storytelling. I'd always understood that EC was the motivator for the comics industry getting cleaned up by congress, but it certainly wasn't due to anything in this comics collection. There is far better cutting-edge horror out there, and there even was better stuff than this from this time period. None of this would scare a six year-old, let alone someone looking for an adult-level chill.

First let me say that before I was
truly impressed by the quality of text
and art I wasn't overtly enthusiastic
about it.Being labelled
as "tame" by some readers and in the
beginning of its lifecycle, I was a bit
apprehensive to buy this expensive hardcover.
The plot ideas or "springboards" by William Gaines,
while not wholly original (the majority of them
"borrowed" from classic literary weird fiction
of such authors as William Hope Hodgson, Mary
E. Wilkins Freeman, H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur
Machen among others), are masterfully developed
(despite some stilted dialogue and other minor
flaws) by Al Feldstein (some of them are
beautiful examples of classic cinematic
storytelling).
The art is almost always top notch. Here you'll
encounter amazing artwork by Jack Kamen,
Johnny Craig , Graham "ghastly" Ingels, Wally
Wood (the last two being my all time favorites)
among others.
While not all stories are top notch
the majority of them are excellent and
even the lesser ones are worth reading.
Here you'll find classy hitchcokean
thrillers (Mute Witness Murder), nautical
horror (Ghost Ship!, The Thing from the
Sea!), standart crime/detection drama (The
Corpse Nobody Knew), medical horror
(Death Must Come!), vampire fiction
(Blood Type "V"), out-and-out horror
(Terror Ride), zombie fiction (Zombie),
clever psychodramas (Madness at
Manderville), teen horror (House of Horror)
conte cruel (Death Suited Him), classic
monster fiction (Curse of the Full Moon!),
nightmarish thrillers (The Living Corpse),
revenge from beyond the grave (The
Thing from the Grave!), gothic/lovecraftean
fiction (Rx... Death!), ironic grand guinol
(The Maestro's Hands), cozy fantasy/horror,
(Impending Doom) even cheesy, silly sci fi
(Cave Man).
If you like vintage horror and weird fiction
do yourself a favour and read it.



Here is the contents and personal ratings (* to *****):

THE E.C. ARCHIVES: TALES FROM THE CRYPT VOL.1


The Crypt of Terror #17:

Death Must Come! ========================== ****1/2
The Man Who Was Death ===================== ****1/2
The Corpse Nobody Knew ==================== ***
Curse of the Full Moon!==================== ****1/2

The Crypt of Terror #18:

The Maestro's Hand ======================== *****
The Living Corpse ========================= *****
Masness At Manderville ==================== ****1/2
Mute Witness Murder ======================= ****1/2

The Crypt of Terror #19

Ghost Ship! =============================== ***
The Hungry Grave ========================== ***1/2
Cave Man ================================== **1/2
Zombie ==================================== ***1/2

Tales from the Crypt #20

The Thing from the Sea! =================== ***1/2
A Fatal Caper! ============================ ****1/2
Rx... Death =============================== *****
Impending Doom! =========================== ****1/2

Tales from the Crypt #21

A Shocking Way to Die ===================== *****
Terror Ride =============================== ****1/2
House of Horror =========================== ***1/2
Death Suited Him ========================== *****

Tales from the Crypt #22

The Thing from the Grave! ================= *****
Blood Type "V" ============================ ***1/2
Death's Turn ============================== **
The Curse of Arnold Clan ================== ****1/2

I used to read EC Horror Stories long ago, and always loved them. When I had the chance to buy the original Volumes, I ran and did it.

Great quality for a classic work, I really recommend it!

First read an EC comic when I was 10 years old and have been hooked ever since. I am now 67. When the large slip-cover b/w reprints were issued I bought most of them. This Archive series is better than I expected. Any true EC fan would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to own this well produced set. The size, color, print, paper, presentation is all one could ask for. Beautiful and thank you Russ Cochran.

In April of 1950, William Gaines and his staff of writers and artists at EC Comics started publishing a line of comic books that were entirely devoted to the themes of horror and science fiction. Breaking with the convention of the superhero, the "funnies," the westerns, and the romance comic books of the day, their new format dispensed with the motif of a recurring character in a continuing storyline and, instead, offered five or six complete stories that were frequently inspired by classic genre literature like that of Bierce, Poe, Verne, and H.G. Wells. By the mid-1950s, all of EC's horror and science-fiction comics were quite popular, and the company's success with these "New Trend" titles soon inspired competitors to publish a plethora of inferior imitations.

Unfortunately for EC and its fans, the popularity of their horror titles also drew the attention of conservative parental groups, glory-seeking politicians, and an ambitious psychiatrist named Dr. Frederic Wertham. The publication in 1954 of Wertham's book SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT: THE INFLUENCE OF COMIC BOOKS ON TODAY'S YOUTH led to Congressional investigations into possible links between comic books and juvenile delinquency. Though the existence of such a link was never proved, fear of possible legislation prompted the comic-book industry to establish The Comics Code Authority (CCA), a program of standards and self-censorship, and comic books that did not comply with those standards could not get the seal of approval from the CCA. Since horror was one of the primary themes targeted by Wertham and Congress, it was therefore the primary genre frowned upon by the CCA, thereby making EC the CCA's primary target. Sadly, most comic-book distributors and dealers feared the CCA and the influence it had on parents, and subsequently they quickly agreed to carry only those comics that carried the CCA seal of approval. Since Gaines and his staff refused to compromise their artistic and literary integrity in order to comply with the draconian "guidelines" of the CCA, EC was all but finished. Only MAD magazine somehow escaped the iron fist of the CCA and kept EC from disappearing altogether.

To a large majority of the people who are today familiar with comic books and their history--from art historians and English teachers to avid and affluent comic-book collectors--the horror and science-fiction comic books that were published by EC Comics prior to the establishment of the CCA exhibit a quality in both the writing and the artwork that has yet to be surpassed. Original, pristine copies of most of those titles (which include the famous TALES FROM THE CRYPT and VAULT OF HORROR series) are highly sought-after collectors' items, and they command prices that are sometimes as high as those of masterpiece oils on the high-art market. Because of this, and also to preserve the art and writing of the great EC comics for posterity, Russ Cochran began publishing hardbound reprint volumes of EC's "New Trend" comics in the 1980s. To keep costs down and preserve the quality of the artists' original line drawings, Cochran's reprints were over-sized black-and-white reproductions. Yet, in spite of the lack of color, the reproductions were beautiful and very popular sellers, and now that they've gone out of print, they are sought-after collectors' items in their own right.

Sometime in recent years, Cochran struck a deal with Gemstone Publishing to yet again reprint the original EC greats in hardbound volumes, but this time the reprints were to be sized according to the original comics, and they would also be reproduced in full color. But now that these color volumes are being released, it appears there's been a proverbial monkey-wrench thrown into the works. The coloring process being used is similar to, if not exactly the same as, the computerized coloring process that is currently the rage in the comic-book industry. While this pseudo-airbrush technique might look great for modern comics and graphic novels that are designed with its use in mind, the technique just looks garish when applied to the fantastic artwork that was lovingly hand drawn by Gaines' bullpen of greats like Al Feldstein, George Evans, Graham Ingels, and Wally Wood.

Fans interested in collecting some great reprints of the original EC horror and SF are advised to avoid the aesthetic travesty currently being peddled by Gemstone Publishing and, instead, seek out some used copies of Russ Cochran's black-and-white reproductions. The black-and-whites might be a little pricey now that they are out of print, but they are far superior to the Gemstone reprints in terms of readability and aesthetic enjoyment. (Keep in mind that the artists who drew the original comics often executed the artwork in black-and-white anyway, and while they may have offered suggestions about the final color schemes, the coloring was actually done by another.)

NOTE: The 1-star rating of this review is for the Gemstone reprints only. The EC comics themselves are always 5-star items.

EC, in all of its incarnations, help shape and influence my own art, WEIRD SCIENCE not withstanding. Buy this you must! BTW mine was printed upside down. Odd.

EC comics weird science rocks! If you are a fan of 50's sci-fi movies you'll love this stuff.

I bought this for my boyfriend and he is enjoying it very much. He says that the illustrations are better than he thought they would be. He recommends this book.

In April of 1950, William Gaines and his staff of writers and artists at EC Comics started publishing a line of comic books that were entirely devoted to the themes of horror and science fiction. Breaking with the convention of the superhero, the "funnies," the westerns, and the romance comic books of the day, their new format dispensed with the motif of a recurring character in a continuing storyline and, instead, offered five or six complete stories that were frequently inspired by classic genre literature like that of Bierce, Poe, Verne, and H.G. Wells. By the mid-1950s, all of EC's horror and science-fiction comics were quite popular, and the company's success with these "New Trend" titles soon inspired competitors to publish a plethora of inferior imitations.

Unfortunately for EC and its fans, the popularity of their horror titles also drew the attention of conservative parental groups, glory-seeking politicians, and an ambitious psychiatrist named Dr. Frederic Wertham. The publication in 1954 of Wertham's book SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT: THE INFLUENCE OF COMIC BOOKS ON TODAY'S YOUTH led to Congressional investigations into possible links between comic books and juvenile delinquency. Though the existence of such a link was never proved, fear of possible legislation prompted the comic-book industry to establish The Comics Code Authority (CCA), a program of standards and self-censorship, and comic books that did not comply with those standards could not get the seal of approval from the CCA. Since horror was one of the primary themes targeted by Wertham and Congress, it was therefore the primary genre frowned upon by the CCA, thereby making EC the CCA's primary target. Sadly, most comic-book distributors and dealers feared the CCA and the influence it had on parents, and subsequently they quickly agreed to carry only those comics that carried the CCA seal of approval. Since Gaines and his staff refused to compromise their artistic and literary integrity in order to comply with the draconian "guidelines" of the CCA, EC was all but finished. Only MAD magazine somehow escaped the iron fist of the CCA and kept EC from disappearing altogether.

To a large majority of the people who are today familiar with comic books and their history--from art historians and English teachers to avid and affluent comic-book collectors--the horror and science-fiction comic books that were published by EC Comics prior to the establishment of the CCA exhibit a quality in both the writing and the artwork that has yet to be surpassed. Original, pristine copies of most of those titles (which include the famous TALES FROM THE CRYPT and VAULT OF HORROR series) are highly sought-after collectors' items, and they command prices that are sometimes as high as those of masterpiece oils on the high-art market. Because of this, and also to preserve the art and writing of the great EC comics for posterity, Russ Cochran began publishing hardbound reprint volumes of EC's "New Trend" comics in the 1980s. To keep costs down and preserve the quality of the artists' original line drawings, Cochran's reprints were over-sized black-and-white reproductions. Yet, in spite of the lack of color, the reproductions were beautiful and very popular sellers, and now that they've gone out of print, they are sought-after collectors' items in their own right.

Sometime in recent years, Cochran struck a deal with Gemstone Publishing to yet again reprint the original EC greats in hardbound volumes, but this time the reprints were to be sized according to the original comics, and they would also be reproduced in full color. But now that these color volumes are being released, it appears there's been a proverbial monkey-wrench thrown into the works. The coloring process being used is similar to, if not exactly the same as, the computerized coloring process that is currently the rage in the comic-book industry. While this pseudo-airbrush technique might look great for modern comics and graphic novels that are designed with its use in mind, the technique just looks garish when applied to the fantastic artwork that was lovingly hand drawn by Gaines' bullpen of greats like Al Feldstein, George Evans, Graham Ingels, and Wally Wood.

Fans interested in collecting some great reprints of the original EC horror and SF are advised to avoid the aesthetic travesty currently being peddled by Gemstone Publishing and, instead, seek out some used copies of Russ Cochran's black-and-white reproductions. The black-and-whites might be a little pricey now that they are out of print, but they are far superior to the Gemstone reprints in terms of readability and aesthetic enjoyment. (Keep in mind that the artists who drew the original comics often executed the artwork in black-and-white anyway, and while they may have offered suggestions about the final color schemes, the coloring was actually done by another.)

NOTE: The 1-star rating of this review is for the Gemstone reprints only. The EC comics themselves are always 5-star items.

Here's a listing of this edition's stories:

From the May/June 1950 issue:
1.) "Lost in the Microcosm" by Albert B. Feldstein (Script) & Harvey Kurtzman (Art)
2.) "Dream of Doom" by Feldstein (Script) & Wally Wood (Art)
3.) "Experiment ... In Death" by Feldstein (Script) & Jack Kamen (Art)
4.) "'Things' From Outer Space!" by Feldstein (Script & Art)

From the July/August 1950 issue:
5.) "The Flying Saucer Invasion" by Feldstein (Script & Art)
6.) "The Meteor Monster" by Feldstein (Script), Harry Harrison (Pencils) & Wood (Inks)
7.) "The Micro-Race!" by Feldstein (Script) & Kamen (Art)
8.) "The Man Who Raced Time" by Feldstein (Script) & Kurtzman (Art)

From the September/October 1950 issue:
9.) "Destruction of the Earth!" by Feldstein (Script & Art)
10.) "The Sounds from Another World!" by Feldstein (Script) & Kurtzman (Art)
11.) "Machine from Nowhere" by Feldstein (Script) & Harrison (Art)
12.) "The Eternal Man" by Feldstein (Script) & Kamen (Art)

From the November/December 1950 issue:
13.) "Panic!" by Feldstein (Script & Art)
14.) "The Radioactive Child" by Kurtzman (Script & Art)
15.) "House, in Time!" by Feldstein (Script) & Graham Ingels (Art)
16.) "I Created a ... Gargantua!" by Feldstein (Script) & Kamen (Art)

From the January/February 1951 issue:
17.) "Made of the Future!" by Feldstein (Script & Art)
18.) "Return" by Feldstein (Script) & Wood (Art)
19.) "The Last War on Earth" by Kurtzman (Script & Art)
20.) "The Man Who Was Killed in Time!" by Feldstein (Script) & Kamen (Art)

From the March/April 1951 issue:
21.) "Spawn of Venus" by Feldstein (Script & Art)
22.) "Man and Superman!" by Kurtzman (Script & Art)
23.) "Sinking of the Titanic!" by Feldstein (Script) & Wood (Art)
24.) "Divide and Conquer" by Feldstein (Script) & Kamen (Art)

This is a very unique Carle book. Your child can learn more about shapes and how to follow clues to lead to the next step. My daughter enjoyed reading the story and following the "clues" to the next shape to find the present at the end - a puppy.

If you take the story literally as an adult, you will agree with one of the reviewers that was upset a puppy was being stored in a cave/basement. But it's not meant to be taken literally. It's a fantastical journey for children. To this day, my daughter enjoys following the trail to the present waiting for her at the end.

I must be the only parent on the planet not to like Eric Carle's books. I don't like his illustrations at all (see A FAIRY WENT A-MARKETING for some GOOD illustrations, imho!) & the story bores me to tears...that is, until the end when I see the present is a live puppy who has been waiting God knows how long in a cave to be found by the birthday boy--then I get mad...& what kind of message does that send to little ones about caring for animals? Anyway, I gave this 3 stars because my 2 year old does enjoy it alot & has memorized the shapes & has fun with it, but it leaves me cold...just call me the Grinch, I guess...

This book is an excellent choice for beginning readers. The story is constructed from very short sentences and the associated visual effects are colorful and based on shapes constructed from partial pages. It opens with a riddle that is a secret message directing Tim to where he can find his birthday present. That present turns out to be something that nearly all children wish for, so the trek is one that will interest most children. I strongly recommend it for all children who are taking their first steps in learning to read.

Prior to my grandson's 3rd birthday, I gave him several books about birthdays. This one was his favorite. He was immediately drawn into searching through the clues which use directional words such as below, behind . . . He was breathless to find the surprise at the end of the book. And I'm not telling what the surprise is;it's a secret. I will tell you that it's a gift that most every child dreams of receiving. Of course, Eric Carle's art work is magical. Make a child's day--give him or her this book.

Tim gets a message in code that will lead him to his birthday present. The code contains shapes, and the shapes correlate with cutout pictures of such things as the moon, a star, rocks, and a cave entrance. The cutout pictures half reveal, half conceal the pages behind it, as we fellow the code, a set of directional instructions: Below the star, behind the rock, down the stairs, up and through... After finding Tim's gift, first a pair of eyes but revealed to be a puppy, we are asked if we can find our way back. A map on the final page shows a spatial layout of all the previous instructions. At first I thought of this book as a single gimmick stretched, inflated into a full text, but it is actually more clever than that. It is a fun book that kids can quickly memorize and get the hang of, with the same fertile and detailed illustrations you are familiar with if you've seen any of Carle's books. But it is also challenging children to think through a set of instructions, think sequentially and directionally, then have to shift sets and run the sequence backwards. Good stuff, thanks Carle.

And who doesn't love a cute puppy?

WOW! Okeh, I'll use some more words. If you wanted to know about the history of EC Publications this is the book to own. Very well researched and a labor of love that comes shining through!

Without a doubt this is the book for anyone interested in EC Comics. Not only does it feature cover reproductions of almost every pre-trend, new trend, and post-trend comic but it also has handy annotations of who did what in that particular issue. In addition it sheds a good deal of light upon Maxwell Gaines, the originator of EC and the father of Bill, who has for me remained a shadowy figure in the early history of comics. All in all it's a great book that I'll probably be dipping into for years to come.

While the bibliographical data is literally a life-long labor of love, I was disappointed by limited amount of images reproduced from the original artwork; the illustrations seem to be limited to photographs of the author's personal collection. The complete series of Graham Ingels' Old Witch paintings and sketches screams out for inclusion. I would have liked to see panel pages reproduced from the originals; full-color reproduction of line art reveals editorial changes, paste ups, blue pencil, and other subtleties undetectable in conventional reprints. A greater outreach to the art collector community could have yielded a definitive reference book/coffee table art book, but TALES OF TERROR fall short of this potential.

If you have any interest in EC comics, horror comics, or the history of the comic book genre at all, this is THE book to have. I cannot praise it highly enough. The scholarship is incredibly thorough and the details the authors have dug up is amazing. Also, the book is beautifully well done, with top-notch production values. This book is the ultimate, believe me.

This is, simply put, the greatest work of comic book scholarship ever in print. The authors delve so deeply into EC facts, history and lore that you can depend upon the thoroughness of this work. Much more than a history, this tome is also a beautiful art book. Don't delay......buy it now!

Before he created Mad Magazine, Harvey Kurtzman worked on EC Comic Titles: "Frontline Combat" and "Two-Fisted Tales" in the Early 1950's.
Well, Right here in this Fantastic Volume, are the first Six Issues of: "Two-Fisted Tales" in Glorious...COLOR !!!

With Art by Jack Davis, Will Elder, Alex Toth, John Severin, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig and Harvey himself, this is Stunning Stuff. All of these Tales were scribed and edited by Harvey, and with Themes that vary from Pirates, Cowboys, Jungle Tales, World War II and Korea, these Gritty Stories are Dark, Funny and Smart.

This isn't your Father's, Sgt. Rock or Nick Fury...These are "Two-Fisted Tales" and if you enjoy Top-Notch Comics, you are gonna have a great time reading this Book. If you want to find out just what the fuss is all about concerning the EC Comic Books, give this Volume a try...These are Excellent Stories with some of the Greatest Art, ever seen in the Comics Genre.
Four Stars !!!

This is an excellent reproduction of the anti-war comics that were published by Entertaining Comics (EC) in the early 1950's. The archive collection is in color (as compared to an earlier collection printed in black and white format). The stories cover the Korean War, World War II, World War I, and many other wars dating back throughout history. The artists were the best in the field at that time and the stories by Harvey Kurtzman are considered comics classics. This volume contained the first six comics in the Two-Fisted Comics series. Three more future volumes will provide the complete run of this highly collectible title.

When you think about EC Comics you normally think about those wonderfully ghoulish titles such as Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear. However, EC Publisher William Gaines and editor/writer Harvey Kurtzman were nothing if not resourceful and pragmatic. While EC's horror titles get the most notoriety, the company produced a multitude of different types of comics including thrillers, science fiction and fantasy comics, medical dramas, adventures, and much more. On the surface, Two-Fisted Tales appears to be nothing more than the average war comic...but in truth, nothing was average about EC Comics. These stories were produced in the early 1950's, just a handful of years after World War II. America was settling in and enjoying a decade of prosperity and relative peace.

The Korean Conflict had broken out and EC was there to produce war comics just as so many others were. Yet Kurtzman went in a completely different direction than most of his contemporaries. While most war comics were gung-ho, rah-rah, all aboard the patriot train rides, Kurtzman and EC were the first to truly look at the serious side of war. As Kurtzman states, he felt an obligation to the youth of the nation not to glamorize war but to rather show the reality of war as opposed to the comical stereotypes that we'd seen in comics since the early 1940's.

This kind of groundbreaking realism is exemplified in a tale simply called "War Story" written by Kurtzman with art by John Severin. This is a Korean War yarn about a soldier who hurls racial slurs, as well as bullets, at the enemy and is only too happy to kill the them, even after they've surrendered. This sadistic view of the American soldier had to shock many readers in 1950 whose idea of military men were formed primarily by pro-American war films of the 1940's.

But before you think that Two-Fisted Tales is only about war, think again...These stories are brimming with adventure, from mutiny on the high seas to intrigue in the Far East, to diamond smugglers in the Amazon to shootouts in the Wild West. As usual, the roll-call of artists whose work is included in the book features some of the all-time greats including Wally Wood, Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Alex Toth, and Kurtzman himself, who also wrote all of the stories.

As a long time fan of the mercurial Wally Wood, I loved all of his work in Two-Fisted Tales. "Brutal Captain Bull" finds a young English gentleman pressed into service aboard a British naval ship in the early 1800's, serving under the sadistic Captain Bull. Later, Wood's story "Devils in Baggy Pants" features his brilliant art in a tale about the legendary paratroopers of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

Two-Fisted Tales Vol. 1 features the first six issues of the series in a hardcover format that includes several side articles by Publisher Russ Cochran. It's a gorgeous book with re-mastered colors making them look as bold as the day they were printed.

I had this book along with two others. This book had a helpful practice test, but overall it only scratched the surface of what you need to study. The overview was too broad and not comprehensive enough. I took the TEXES Generalist EC-4 yesterday. If I had only had this book as my study source, I don't think I would have been prepared. I suggest getting Preparing to Teach Texas Content Areas (Nath/Ramsey). That book was much more detailed and provided me with what I needed for the test.

All content in this book, line by line is so important and easy to remember that I think the writer really knows what he is talking about!
I feel like I'm going back to school but just to review the basics and most important of each chapter which is what we all want. This book is not a waste of time and money. It's worthe the buy.
I recommend it 100 percent!
Thank you.

This book was recommended by my professor. It's just what I need to pass the PPR test. Thanks for the great service!

John Kenneth Galbraith called this book "a source of first-rate information for the layman and a fine cautionary tale for bankers."

This fascinating book about the world of big-time banking is by the same author who published previously a study of major oil companies (The Seven Sisters) and the trade in international arms (The Arms Bazaar).

While this book was first published a while ago now, in the early eighties, I find that most of the material is not dated. The machinations of the world's "superbankers" is about the same today as this author expertly describes.

Recommended for all readers interested in finance and business, particularly on a world scale.

Although part of this book is out of date, it is still an interesting look into the dealings of the international banking community.
The author begins with a survey of the most important events in world monetary matters: the creation of the big banks in the Middle Ages, the crash of 1929, the foundation of the IMF, floating exchange rates, the power of OPEC.
The second part are comments and analyses of events in the nineteen seventies and eighties of the past century:
- The New York City debt crisis (as Walter Wriston put it: We have also our LDC's : our least developed cities)
- the recycling of the OPEC money surplus (Paul Erdman: What the Arabs cleverly have done is to put the New York banks in the front row of risk. In other words, if Zaire goes kaput, Chase Manhattan is in trouble.)
- the credit card business (one Korean business man built a whole apartment block on one card)
- OPEC: Milton Friedman predicted that the OPEC cartel would soon break up.
An interesting read, not only for historians.

This book provides a detailed chronology of the United States' response to the North Korean capture of the USS Pueblo and its crew in January 1968 (1 KIA and 82 POW) and the downing of a USN EC-121 electronic reconnaissance aircraft (31 KIA) on April 1969, less than four months after the release of Pueblo's crew. It does not recount more than the bare outlines of the two incidents themselves. I served in a Navy unit in Japan that was the permanent station for two of men killed in the EC-121 shoot down and participated in post-shoot down deployments in that theater during 1969-70.

Commander Mobley traces the U.S. response from Washington and in the Western Pacific to each event. Both incidents follow the same pattern: 1) initial confusion and inability to respond to the attacks in real time, 2) a rush to deploy military assets into the region, 3) a period of air and naval saber rattling in apparent preparation for retaliatory strikes against North Korea and 4) eventual standing down for a negotiated release of the Pueblo crew and, well, nothing at all for the EC-121 shoot down. Both events take place against a backdrop of a major war in Vietnam, where South Korea (ROK) and North Korea (KORCOMs) were both involved,. In both cases the North Koreans took, and won, the calculated gamble that the U.S. would not risk opening a "second front" in Northeast Asia. Lame U.S. response to both incidents, especially from the then-new Nixon administration in 1969, illustrate how unprepared the U.S. was (and is?) to engage the North Koreans. Oddly, in that era the ROK's forces were numerically much stronger than the KORCOM's and their martial governments were seemingly anxious. to attack - they, after all, suffered more casualties than the U.S., plus the KORCOMs tried to kill the ROK president in 1967.

As Mobley describes, but, in my opinion, fails to put into full context, the period from about November 1966 through mid-1969 saw hundreds of actions between KORCOM and both ROK and U.S. forces along the DMZ and along the ocean boundary on both the Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea coasts. These several hundred firefights are, along with the Pueblo and EC-121 incidents, referred to by participants as the Second Korean War, a small scale war that claimed more than 1,000 ROK and U.S. casualties (the approximately 186 U.S. casualties - 75 KIA and 111 WIA from all services - are a significantly higher casualty RATE than U.S. forces suffered during Desert Storm) and a larger number of KORCOM deaths (most fought to the death rather than be captured). By treating the Navy incidents as almost totally separate from the U.S. land and ROK land/sea incidents (which were NOT much publicized at the time since the media usually can't handle more than one story at a time, and Vietnam was the big story) Mobley does not capture the feel of the era that participants in-theater experienced. Also, Mobley glosses over or fails to describe some post-EC-121 U.S. responses in the theater.

Mobley illustrates how the ROK land forces at the time significantly outnumbered estimated KORCOM forces, although the KORCOMs had a numerical advantage in tactical aircraft. The U.S. air forces were pathetically small - although more could be brought in - and U.S. Army units were under strength, and remained so, due to needs in Vietnam. The big question remains, "What was North Korea trying to do?" The best Mobley comes up with, and it's as good an answer as anyone else has ever publicly provided, is that it was all related to some internal policy struggle among North Korean elites (hawks v. super hawks?) that died down when the risks began to outweigh the perceived internal political and propaganda advantages. Or perhaps, as one U.S. official remarked following a seemingly pointless KORCOM outrage, "That's just what they do."

I recommend this book to anyone interested in Cold War, Korean peninsula and Northeast Asian military and political history. The author is a former U.S. Navy officer who served in Korea and Northeast Asia a number of years after the incidents described in this book. His primary sources, documented in footnotes and a bibliography, are from declassified DOD and State Department records, Congressional hearing records and oral histories of senior civilian and military officials. The maps are inadequate in either detail or content to follow the progress of deployments or identify the location of some events. Several black and white photographs add little information since they are of well know people (e.g., President Johnson and Defense Secretary McNamara) or widely published stock photos of military aircraft and vessels.

Richard Mobley has done an excellent job of placing the Pueblo capture and the subsequent shoot down of an EC-121 in it's proper historical perspective. Instead of focusing on each incident as other books have done, Mobley delves behind the scenes using newly available information to set up the then current situations and then shows what followed. A timely book considering the current climate in North Korea. I might have had second thoughts of flying the DMZ right before leaving the ROK back in '91 if I'd read this book first. Having been painted by NK radar the whole time now takes on a whole new meaning for me.