EE Books

In his own data modeling consulting, David Hay discovered that for all enterprises, there were common patterns of entities and relationships in various topical areas, whatever the organization. So he set about capturing those ideas in very high-level data models, and he put them together in a book.

This book is quite an intellectual accomplishment, because he has boiled down many different areas into their essentials and has captured those essentials. If you face a data modelling problem, it's likely that one or more of his patterns will work for you and jump-start your efforts.

These are high level models, and don't take you all the way to database design. You'll still have a lot of design decisions to make. But the framework given in these models will help you explore your own problem to discover if you've covered all the eventualities that Mr. Hay considered in his work.

If you have any interest in modelling domains, then you've probably already read, or are planning to read, Martin Fowler's Analysis Patterns. The models here share some overlap with that book, but this is a gentler introduction, so I would recommend this book for a beginner, before they read the Fowler book. A more experienced modeller should probably consider this as a catalogue of off-the-shelf models.

This book covers modelling enterprises - e.g. businesses and government agencies, and the relationships between their employees, organisational structures and the products and services they provide.

The fundamental models applicable to enterprises are covered here: the business itself, its employees and their positions; the products they produce and the equipment used to produce them; the activities carried out to produce the products; and the contracts between a buyer and seller that deliver the products and services. Later chapters cover some more specific examples, including accounting, laboratories, and manufacturing.

It is true that the models aren't very detailed, but that's the point of the book - for pretty much any enterprise, these models can be used as starting points, while covering most of the relationships that are likely to be encountered. It's true that you won't get any advice on actually converting the models to a database or an object oriented design, but that's beyond the scope of the book.

While an expert modeller won't find the in-depth treatment they might be looking for, I would definitely recommend this to a beginner. Unfortunately, there's no insight into the process of decomposing a domain, although the last chapter demonstrates wide applicability of the models by applying them to a theatre. What you do get are lots of simple examples of the finished output, which will provide inspiration, even if you have no particular interest in the enterprise domain itself.

Very satisfying reading experience. Starting off rudimentary and keying into a maturity withing 5 chapters - hats off to David.

I am looking forward to his new book on meta data.

I can understand why this book has gotten some mixed reviews. The author addresses many common modeling problems. But readers looking for instant solutions to those problems will probably be disappointed. Those looking for oop patterns are reading the wrong book. And anyone looking for a beginner's introduction to data modeling will be completely lost. But if you've been feeling as if your database designs could be better, but you're not sure how, you need this book.

Mr. Hay covers many real-world modeling problems. His discussions of these problems give incredible insight into the thought process of a professional data modeler. That is the true value of this book.

I first read this book about three years ago and now I am totally embarrassed by every database I created before. I've re-read it many times since and my copy is beaten and dog-eared. Thankfully, it's a hardcover book.

Make sure you read all the footnotes in the book. Some of them are hysterically funny.

I've done some data modeling, and much more process modeling, so I was familiar with Mr. Hay's objectives with respect to data and restricting the model to logical representations of data, whatever that may be.

About six chapters into this book, I realize that while I could continue through to the end, I would likely find this more useful as a companion to a problem. I think the majority of non-academic readers, software practitioners if you will, will extract the necessary value from owning this book given a specific objective, i.e. I have to develop a work management model from scratch, and these are my (current) business rules.

The book covers so many kinds of models that it's entirely possible a reader will have no practical frame of reference, such as the chapter on accounting. Modern accounting software is primarily off-the-shelf, so developing a data model for it isn't something very common today. However, the smart developer understands that living "in the spaces between" software is a very good line of business, so to that end knowing what an ideal data model might have is certainly valuable ammunition when weighing vendor claims and evaluating solutions.

Because it lacks that sort of accessible readability, I am withholding a star. I'd have withheld a half-star if it were possible; I believe the book has great value to a developer or analyst.

Fred

Mr Talese is clear about his interest in sex.
Sex was reborn (as a public issue) in the late sixties.
Today, sex is all over the media (and maybe, this is not good news).
Sex is life.
This is an interesting book if you are interested in the history of sex.
If you are interested in sex, don't read this book. Do it.
If, however, you wish to understand how the liberalization of sex in the US came about, read this book. And you'll do it with pleasure.
Isn't that what sex is all about?

Gay Talese spent the 1970s studying the Sexual Revolution in the USA. He was no detached scientific observer in a white lab coat like Masters and Johnson. He threw himself into his work with enthusiasm. He lived the life he studied and the results of his work are in this book. But this is not just one man's report from the sexual frontier. As a disciplined reporter, he conducted countless interviews, but as a participant he was able to obtain trusting relationships. This is not Sociology; he reports on the people making money from the Sexual Revolution and their customers. It is primarily a book about men using women's sexuality to make money from other men.

This is not an exhaustive history but rather a look at selective people and their impact on the times. John and Barbara Williamson's Sandstone Retreat, a sexually open community in the hills near Los Angeles, is one group that Talese focuses on. Through interviews with many of the participants he explores the effects polyamory (openly maintaining multiple sexual relationships) has on the couples who belong to this group.

A large portion of the book examines the publishing pioneers who, after World War II, risked fines and jail to sell erotic books and magazines in the US. The Post Office laws against sending sexual materials through the mail was the core legal restraint in the US and Anthony Comstock was the chief enforcer of this law. Some of Comstock's more famous exploits are recounted. Talese also reports on the Supreme Court, its decisions, the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, and the Nixon White House's response to the loosening sexual climate. Hugh Hefner, one of the most famous people in sexual publishing, is also studied in some detail.

Feminism was another revolution developing in the 1970s, but Talese only gives it passing mention. The only feminist mentioned is Betty Dodson, whose drawings of female genitalia and visits to Sandstone are discussed.

Talese also looks into the history of sexual expression and repression in the US. John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community is looked at as a precursor to the open sexuality of the 70s. The community was built on Noyes' concepts of Perfectionism which included communal sharing that extended to sexual relationships.

These are just the major themes. A 20 page alphabetic Index ends the book with entries from Abortion to Emile Zola. I found the history of sexually explicit publishing most interesting. The depth of the personal interviews related to the Sandstone community was excellent. So much has changed in the past 25 years in terms of sexual expression and the sex industry. This book is a wonderful study of this period and the people involved.

This book must have been a phenomenon back in the 80s. Gay Talese: conservative gentleman, respected journalists, family man, and...sex researcher. In the last twenty pages, or so, of this book, Talese opens up and recounts for the reader his personal odyssey of visiting massage parlors, sex shows, strip clubs, as well as his philandering experiences shacking up at free love communities in California -- all before the outbreak of AIDS. Talese speaks about himself in the third person, probably as a narrative technique to distance himself from the guilt he might have felt participating in such research as a married man. While the soul searching wasn't quite enough for me, the journalism really hit the mark. Talese describes the history of pornography, from the time it was banned in the U.S., up through the major Supreme Court obsenity cases of the 60's and 70's. Along the way, Talese tells the story of Playboy power-man Hugh Heffner, describing his hedonistic lifestyle in envious detail. (There is a naughty man buried inside Talese. TNW treats the voyeuristic reader to the show Talese puts on as he lets us watch this naughty man struggle to climb out.)

The book also chronicles a number of "regular" folks from the 70's who happened to fall into Talese's circle of aquaintences as he was writing the book. (It did, after all, take Talese nine years to write TNW -- and, as an aside, I never did figure out why Talese chose this title; never, once, does he write about his or any neighbor's wife. He could be refering, however, to the general "free love" culture that emerged in the 60s and 70s.) These "regular" folk are supposed to represent the average 1970s American. Not once was I conviced that the people Talese followed through his narrative were actually average. But this is secondary. The journalism is first-rate.

I bought this book because I am a student of the narrative non-fiction genre. Talese is a Master of the discipline. This book keep the Master's reputation secure. If you're looking to learn about writing non-fiction, and you're looking for a topic a little out of the ordinary, choose this book. Talese's most recent book from a few years ago, A WRITER'S LIFE, is said to briefly follow-up (in a few chapters) with his observations about American sexuality. I have not read this new book, but it will be interesting to see what 25 years have done to this man's perceptions.

This is a vital book, a work of witty and searching defiance in the face of American puritanism. Why on earth is it out of print?!

While I enjoyed "Unto the Sons", and may read Talese's other works, I only thought so-so of this endless tome on the sex industry in the USA. I like his style of writing non-fiction in an engrossing manner, like reading a novel. His section on Noyes and the Oneidan community was wonderful. Then there is Hugh Hefner, who has sexual relationships with countless women, but was hot and bothered when his wife had an affair. And Talese's nine-year commitment to the work is highly commendable. But the scope of such a work needed more/wider coverage. The selection of scenes were few, and overdone. Not much on Masters & Johnson, or Sheryl Hite (sp.?) or Alfred Kinsey. The material on judicial matters, while important was tedious. Sandstone Retreat was saturated with coverage as well. After "Unto the Sons", a wonderful work on Italo-Catholics, who, like me, have roots in southern Italy, this was a let down. Catholicism becomes a punching bag in this work. He might have set up a thesis - antithesis dialogue about the understanding behind Pope Paul VI's "Humanae Vitae", but didn't do that either. In the end he speaks of his italian Catholic background as a means to help him live in a licenteous, heathenistic manner, one that nearly rips his marriage apart. Very strange.

I have seen David Geary speak and have read his writing many times and there is no one I know that makes JSP more interesting or more understandable. Core JSTL: Mastering the JSP Standard Tag Library is easily the best book on the subject I have read, or used in practice, or recommended to others. It is clear, concise, and logical. Trust me on this one... you will be a fan of Geary and his books after reading this one.

Clear, concise. solid coverage of a core technology for web development in java. This book is at the same time a useful reference and an easy tutorial. Covers the EL scripting language, base, iteration, xml, sql, networking actions.
Complete, easy to read and with working example code for EVERY concept. D.Geary and M Hall are the reference authors in the
Servlet-JSP World. If you are doing any kind of development using JSP you need this book. 'nuff said.

One of the best books i found on JSTL. Provides in-depth knowledge & extensive examples of JSTL.
This book helps us to understand why, where and how to use JSTL tags. follows the typical MVC pattern [ a clear separation of View from Model]
Though, I am not a great fan of SQL, XML tags, the Core & I18N JSTL tags are not only valuable but also easy to use. Now we could have non-Java programmers to design all of your JSP pages.
[our last project leveraged JSTL/ Struts/ Tiles frameworks]

I was new to JSTL with some JSP/Servlet experiences.
This is all I need to get started with JSTL.
Lots of example codes to help me understand.
I was particulary interested in I18N and Formatting sections and this book covers every area of JSTL including these sections fairy well. (Lots of books tend to cover very lightly on i18n sections)

I highly recommend this book! This is my JSTL reference book. I also looked at other JSLT books, but I think this is the best by far.

Last year I built a website that used Java Server Pages to dynamically generate most of the pages. It worked well, but was very kludgy. JSPs invariably mix the HTML display code with some of the internal data logic. Through a judicious use of the
Model-View-Controller paradigm, I was able to reduce this mixing. But a minimal amount was still inevitable. This is a common experience with JSPs. You end up with files containing java code and HTML. Ugly and brittle. Plus, it calls upon two areas of expertise. A separation of the two would be much more
robust, and allow people with skills in only one of these areas to still contribute to the development.

In answer to this, Sun has been refining its Standard Tag Library. Specifically, it now has an expression language that is a programming language in its own right and is comprehensively described in this book, which bears Sun's official impramateur. Programmers versed in other languages can quickly absorb this. Thru it, you can easily write code to access Java Beans and other java programs. Plenty of clear examples are provided.

Of interest to several will be how to use STL to hook up to back end SQL databases; transferring from them into webpages and transmitting user changes back into the databases.

The author also covers the important case of interacting with XML, which is now a de facto standard for data interchange. Nor does he neglect describing issues of internationalisation. Practical for those who have to support several languages.

The sum of all these is to make this book very useful for those of you needing to build JSPs in business applications. I do wish I had this book last year!

I was very impressed with the quality of the writing as well as the depth of coverage. The authors explain them well and it is easy to follow the examples. I especially liked the fact that authors present GWT code using design pattern, e.g. Facade - I was able to re-factor my own code.

Using this book, I was able to teach myself GWT and also successfully build a GWT based Ajax application at work.

I am starting with GWT with this book after using various internet tutorials. The book proved really helpful to get me started. As an added bonus, the authors really like to write and provide small yet inspiring examples which you can download and test yourself.

Some reviewer criticized the order of the chapters. I did not have any problems with that - there is a very useful short introduction in the beginning. I could jump ahead to interesting chapters like RPC without any problem.

I would recommend this book for web developers currently writing web applications in any language and who are looking to add Ajax to their application. Although Java back ends benefit the greatest from GWT with GWT-RPC, JSON, a lightweight data format, can be used and so ASP.NET, PHP, Perl CGI, etc. can be used. Also a great reference guide for those currently using GWT. Here is a more detailed review (and a shameless plug for my blog): http://www.jlhdevelopment.com/wordpress/?p=6

Also check out this title coming out soon: GWT in Practice

I liked this book. It walks you though the subject with enough detail to get you started. It will not give you a very deep insight into how GWT is implemented, but still leaves you with sufficient understanding and plenty of practical examples to borrow

This is the 2nd book I bought to do GWT. "GWT in Action" is by far the best book to learn GWT (at least when I bought it in summer 2007). Since I had already been using GWT, I used this book to successfully resolve a number of issues I was having, especially with event handling.

An area that could use improvement in future editions is explaining how to integrate with existing javascript code libraries, something that really has to be assumed is a requirement with GWT. A good javascript reference, like O'Reilly's "Javascript: The Definitive Guide" should also be acquired.

I use Instantiations GWTDesigner Eclipse plugin to do my code work.

This is a terrific book. I have not read such a clear, liberating account of the causes of anxiety and depression. I highly recommend this.

This is the most profound book I have ever studied. During the past 20 years I have invested my time and money in books that detail the human condition and the causes and possible relief of our pain and suffering. This book takes an objective stance and casts a reality check on politics, religion, and many other belief systems we employ in our societies in order to alleviate pain and suffering and to strive for those things that can bring us joy and everlasting happiness. This book has helped me to better understand the belief systems of those around me and to have more empathy and compassion knowing that we all have our own 'happiness projects'. Essentially we're all on an unknown journey. Our Happiness Projects are our coping mechanisms. This book gives me comfort in knowing that we're all doing the best we can do given what we know.

Leifer leverages his background in psychiatry and psychotherapy to explain a Western view of the human condition.

Leifer leverages his background in Buddhism to explain an Eastern view of the human condition.

His combined experiences and his skill at synthesizing them enables him to explain both views. Which would be nice if that led somewhere constructive.

For the reader, certainly Leifer's efforts provide the additional advantage that one can (as I did as a Westerner) relate what Leifer says about Buddhism to my understanding of psychotherapy. I would expect an Easterner would similarly benefit from what Leifer says about psychotherapy based on the readers understanding of Buddhism. The two approaches complement and strengthen each other. In doing so, it seems to undercut any superiority assumed by advocates of either Eastern or Western approaches: one may be able to appreciate correspondences one hadn't been aware of before (as different as the two approaches may remain). So what more can one ask? For something that works.

A key missing element was a consideration of a science that has identifies deadly faults in both religions and psychotherapy, namely radical behaviorism. Radical behavorism in its criticism of fictitious explanations undermines Freudianism and Buddhism. Unlke radical behaviorim, psychotherapy apes religion and so doesn't add much in a modern, scientific way. Why continue to try solutions that have failed for millenia when a modern understanding of the probem of the self has emerged from behaviorism. "Basic bewilderment" can be seen for what it is, the product of bad ways at explaining oneself and one's behavior. Real scientific advance now seems possible (and in much less time) to help people to an extent that Buddhism and psychotherapy have not been able to. As to morality, recent freedoms have enabled atheists to public declarely themselves and it has been possible to see that their moral behavior may match, if not exceed, that of religous people.

When I read B.F. Skinner's "Science and Human Behavior", I realized that there were productive alternatives to religious authorities and speculative psychologies. Radical behaviorism is fairly new so it hasn't had the time to develop practices that religions and even psychotherapy has had, but I'm beginning to realize that investing in this modern, scientific effort holds more promise than resort to relgion and (Freudian) psychotherapy, however captivating that may have been (intentionally) designed to be. Leifer should move on: he thinks things through well and presents well, but he is attached to obsolete material. Radical behaviorism could use people of his caliber to help it develop further.

Note: I've written some recent reviews on Buddhism and Dzogchen. I had read those books before but didn't review them because I felt they were way beyond me. Recently my views changed, in part due to my exposure to radical behaviorism and the promise it holds. I felt less intimidated by religious traditions and certainly by speculative psychological systems,so I decided to reread and review some of those books, such as this one. I believe at this time that it is important not to be content or impressed that an author writes well or presents a viewpoint clearly but that they are choosing the right material to write about. A book like this one, covering a psychological approach (Freudian) all but discredited and a relgious approaches (such as Christianity and Buddhism) which even Leifer admits have had serious problems, seems a poor way to spend one's time if one has the skills that Leifer has. Dummies like me just write reviews and manage to get by, but I expect more of someone like Leifer, who, despite my concerns about his subject matter, shines thru for his smarts and compassion.

Clearly written, easy to understand and put into practice. After reading over100 books on eastern ideas,this book struck a cord in me(a light went on).

Dr. Leifer, a psychiatrist, borrows from his Buddhist practice and his
clinical experience to offer profound insights into the sources of
anxiety and depression in the West. He makes a compelling case that
the projects we develop to make us happy become the sources of our
unhappiness. Meditation can help reduce the three "poisons"
that make us miserable--desire, aversion, and ignorance.

I began using Ant as part of my build process for Joomla! (CMS) development to save time on building, debugging, and deploying new Joomla extensions. While Ant and "Ant in Action" are geared toward helping a developer with a Java project it was also very useful for PHP web development. It contained great code examples and covers all of the useful ways one can use ant (many of which people are un-aware of).

"Ant in Action" is really the second edition of "Java Development in Ant." I think the original title was more descriptive as the book focuses more on process, tools and techniques than most Ant books. For example, they introduce continuous integration and why you would want to write unit tests. Not that the Ant coverage isn't good - it's excellent - just that the book is so much more. The book assumes you know Java, but walks you through everything else.

Like most Ant books the authors don't rehash the excellent online manual and API. For those new to Ant, features are clearly described with good examples and good descriptions of "what happens if ____." The flow diagrams helped visualize concepts nicely.

For those who have been using Ant, there are margin notes about what was added in 1.6/1.7 along with coverage of Ivy. I also liked the Java 6/JEE 5 examples. The techniques for writing reusable/maintainable code and extending Ant provided significant value. I was a little disappointed that the JUnit examples used JUnit 3.8. The authors did explain the reasoning and I understand their reason. I still would have liked to see it though as this book will still be used when JUnit 4 is in wider use.

Coverage of related tools is also useful. It's good to know what libraries to look into to increase productivity with Ant. I've been using Ant for complex builds for three years and still had a page of take away points from this book. I recommend it for the valuable information and techniques.

Being a general novice with Ant, I needed to get up to speed to amateur/expert level for my new job. So far its been a great reference getting in depth information about lesser used tasks in Ant.

Since I work on a large scale project here, Chapter 10, Working with Big Projects has really been the most useful for me. Overall, I would say this book fits my needs and doesn't require me to buy any additional Ant books at this time. I would recommend it to others in similar situations.

Boy, was this new version that covers version 1.7 needed! Manning's first version was 2003 (Own it, too), and it was really starting to show its age. This book was, and still is, the only game in town. Its therefore a good thing it is written so well!

So why 4 stars? I really, really, wanted a thorough treatment of the Ant API, and didn't get it. I selfishly want to call Ant from within Java code, but the section on Embedding only had a very simplistic example using echo().

I also have to give 4 stars because as the only book out there on Ant (at this level), there is nothing to compare it to.

As a build tool, Apache Ant has been in existence for quite a while now and remains the number one Java build scripting tool. A large number of books have been written on its implementation - both good and unfortunately bad - and here is a brand new one which covers Ant 1.7.

This book is a retitled second edition of Java Development with Ant by the same authors but is not just a minor update - the back cover quotes 50% new content and I can well believe it. Personally, I have implemented lots of build processes using Ant and even written a book on its implementation myself. I therefore thought I knew most things about the tool - however I was pleasantly surprised that I still managed to learn some new things from this book.

In general I don't really like books over 250-300 pages - and this one stretches over 560 pages. Although there is probably some content that could have been left out, there are also gems such as Managing Dependencies with Apache Ivy (although I prefer the Ant tasks for Maven), Working with XML and Automating Deployment using a tool called SmartFrog. For me these chapters made the purchase of the book worthwhile.

If you are new or have limited experience of Ant then you should add an extra star to my rating. I believe this is probably the most complete book at taking you from an Ant novice to expert, in as short a time as possible.

It would have been nice to see some more examples of how Ant can be integrated into automated build processes, and rather strangely the book uses Luntbuild as an example rather that the more popular CruiseControl tool. Also it would have been nice to see how Ant can work alongside commercial tools such as the Build Forge build/release framework, application servers such as Weblogic or WebSphere and deployment tools developed by the likes of Tivoli or Microsoft. On the whole however, these are relatively minor complaints.

In summary, if you are new to Ant then buy this book now. If you are an experienced Ant user then well, still buy this book!

Whalen presents the fact, using actual Masonic sources. He also provides Masonic history, which is something I really needed. Not just explanations of the Blue Lodge, but also the Shriners, York Rite, Scottish Rite, Acacia and branch organizations like Order of the Eastern Star, DeMolay, etc.

This book will give you the three Masonic rituals and illustrations. You can decide for yourself if the rituals do not interfere with your Christianity. Are other civic and service organizations permissable? You'll find out. Why is it that some denominations permit Masonry while others condemn? Answered. And what are the Mormon ties to Masonry? Answered.

This book is a great follow-up to John Salza's Masonry Unmaksed. Salza will you give enough background information to appreciate Christianity and American Freemasonry.

This book is just as advertised, it is not sensationalist but well researched and presents the real facts. You will not go wrong purchasing this book if this subject interests you.

I was doing a little research on freemasonry and came across this book. I like it. It's clear, concise, objective and lacks the sensationalism that some masonry books have.
Masons in good standing were interviewed (anonymously) as well as some that were disgruntled. The rituals are explained and accompanied with some illustrations as well as an explanation as to why the Roman Catholic church has the stance that it does against membership. Clears up a lot of misconceptions while not compromising any truth. Gave it to my bro who was in the middle of the first steps of initiation. (He wanted to know what he was in for). Of course, that's not why I wanted him to have it! LOL

William Whalen, a retired Professor of journalism at Purdue University and a Catholic layman, has written a very readable, well-organized and complete book detailing the Church's (most specifically, the Roman Catholic Church's) objections to the Masonic fraternity and the practice of Freemasonry. He presents his material in a straightforward, non-polemical fashion that is far from the almost hysterical, conspiracy laden ranting which nearly all anti-Masonic works fall into. That is not the same thing as calling the Church's objections to Freemasonry rational or temperate, for they demonstrably are not.

When and where religious institutions have differed with Freemasonry, it has largely been because of the fear that the Masonic conception of "that natural religion in which all men agree" might take the Church's place in society, pastoral eyes apprehensively fixed on the secret rituals, initiatic vows, ethical philosophy and the notion that all men of whatever faith might worship a Great Architect of the Universe around a common Altar. In short, Freemasonry was seen to have become a rival to Churchly devotion for the attention and resources of its members.

There has always been conflict between any two opposing ideas. For centuries organized religion fought scientific thought and progress with the explanations of Scripture. The doctrine of the divine right of kings ran headlong into the doctrine of the rights of man. Galileo was tortured and Giordano Bruno roasted alive for making assertions about the nature of the universe that today every civilized human being accepts as self-evident, because their assertions displaced the authority of the Church.

This should be no surprise: the author of the Roman Catholic Church's condemnation of Freemasonry, Pope Leo XIII, was the prolific author of a host of encyclicals condemning not just Freemasonry, but such threats to ecclesiastical power as humanism, freedom of expression, parliamentary democracy, a universal franchise, women's emancipation, "modernism" and countless other horrors. Typical is the sentiment in his encyclical "Inscrutabili Dei Consilio" (1878) which succinctly states the Church's position:

"[And] If any one of sound mind compare the age in which We live, so hostile to religion and to the Church of Christ, with those happy times when the Church was revered as a mother by the nations beyond all question, he will see that our epoch is rushing wildly along the straight road to destruction; while in those times which most abounded in excellent institutions, peaceful life, wealth, and prosperity the people showed themselves most obedient to the Church's rule and laws. Therefore, if the many blessings We have mentioned, due to the agency and saving help of the Church, are the true and worthy outcome of civilization, the Church of Christ, far from being alien to or neglectful of progress, has a just claim to all men's praise as its nurse, its mistress, and its mother. That kind of civilization which conflicts with the doctrines and laws of holy Church is nothing but a worthless imitation and meaningless name. Of this those peoples on whom the Gospel light has never shown afford ample proof, since in their mode of life a shadowy semblance only of civilization is discoverable, while its true and solid blessings have never been possessed."

Clearly, the (then) pontiff did not view the Dark Ages in which unquestioned obedience was the Church's due and unbridled ignorance civilization's lot as anything other than a happy, peaceful and just society, a culture to be admired and emulated.

Freemasonry is a philosophy which cannot exist side by side with certain ideologies, among them absolutism, superstition and tyranny. Either the latter must be consigned to the dustbin of history or Freemasonry must be annihilated. Wherever men have believed that one man or some men are above the law which applies to the many; wherever government is by men and not by law, there Freemasonry is unwelcome.

Freemasonry stands and has always stood for freedom of political thought; for freedom of religious thought and conscience; for the dignity and worth of the individual: in Freemasonry, as it is said, "We meet upon the level.". In Freemasonry there is no compulsion. In Freemasonry is no religious sect elevated above others: indeed, therein lies the problem for the Christian Church. Because of its rubric that any who be admitted to the Craft confess a belief in a supreme intelligence that rules the cosmos and in the immortality of the soul, and nothing more, it is viewed as contrary to the exclusivist claims of Christianity. It is, in other words, not Christianity, and therefore worthy of condemnation.

Dr. Whalen's book focuses on the Craft as practiced in America, but also touches upon the English and Grand Orient Lodges of the continent. He reviews the Blue Lodge degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason) with just the right amount of detail and avoids the needless repetition often found in "exposes." He explains the history of the Blue Lodge, the Scottish and York Rites, the Shrine, Prince Hall Lodges, and other aligned bodies. For the most part, he lets Masonry speak for itself, citing Masonic sources both supporting and in opposition to his - and the Church's - claims.

I highly recommend this work for anyone interested in the history of Freemasonry and in its opposition by the Christian Church, and specifically to those interested in understanding the Catholic Church's objections to the Craft.

I'm Roman Catholic. This is a truly remarkable book that is informative and well researched and tells the truth about Freemasonry being a subversive cult against the Catholic Church. All Catholics should read it so they will see the true and dark evil that has and is contaminating society. Masons will always deny their demonic schemes and plans in fomenting revolutions, engineering secular humanism, and their anti-Catholic attacks. People, be devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and you will be able to win the battle against Freemasonry, which is the devil's religion that has warped society.

The authors are acknowledged experts on the mechanics of the U.S. Congress. They convey acquaintance with the human side of the institution through a folksy style and many anecdotes. They describe "two Congresses", the first relating to constituents, and the second to colleagues. What about performance? What about effectiveness?

Polls now (2008) record an all-time low of 9% for Congress's approval rating. This highlights the authors' glaring myopia and essential omission of the reason for the existence of Congress - to manage the affairs of the nation in a balanced and efficient way.

No doubt, most Senators and Representatives do an excellent job of helping their constituents. They know that reelection depends on this service. The U.S. Congress is probably unique in the world in citizens' access to effective assistance in interfacing with government on a personal level.

But it was not until I recently had occasion to compare U.S. lawmaking with that in leading European nations' parliaments that I realized - to my shock - the arbitrary, serendipitous, and dysfunctional way Congress has come to function since the 1960s. In EU nations' parliaments the party in power initiates a concept for a new major law by first sending it to a relevant ministry. There the concept gets a careful assessment: short-term, long-term impact, vetting with various constituencies affected by the proposed policy, cost, etc. A draft law with the assessment comes back to the governing party or coalition. It is then submitted to the full parliament for debate, amendment, and vote. The pre-analysis process catches conflicts with earlier laws, policies that will generate problems or hostilities gaps and other weaknesses. Dialoging and communication is key.

The post-1970s U.S. system could not be more different. ~10,000 bills [pour into each (2-year) Congress. The majority get no action at all in the standing committees- many are framl;u introduced mainly to register activity and concern about issues with constituents. Many are blatantly partisan and narrowly drawn. Even more carefully written bills are rarely coordinated with other authors - or similar initiatives in other committees. Except for assessing cost and links to existing law the fate of bills is largely at the discretion of committee chairpersons and majority leaders. Partisan gridlock has largely paralyzed Congressional activity in the big issues. In these or noncontroversial areas Members feel free to write fragmentary, intrusive, micromanaging laws in areas where Congress has no formal expertise - like science, environment, that should rightfully be in the hands of professional agencies. With the enormous crush of new bills and other activities that every committee and the Congress as a whole must manage, there is no way Congress can maintain continuous oversight over detailed programs initiated by past enacted legislation.

So it is no wonder that in the past 30 years or more the landscape has become littered with failed or foundered Congressional initiatives - each of which may have begun with enthusiasm and often substantial funding outlays.It's shocking but part of the reason that the U.S. is in the trouble it is in, that experts like the authors, as well as politicians, can absorb themselves in their special interests and forget all about "minding the store". Three stars for mechanics - zero for the rest.

I received my book on time and in great condition!! Better than I had expected! Thank you!!

I have ordered this book in its many editions for classes that I have taught on Congress and Legislative Politics. It is one of the best general texts available--and readily accessible to those who are simply interested in the politics of Congress.

One of the key points made by the authors is that there are "two Congresses": One of these is the Congress of "how a bill becomes a law," of the actions and politics characteristic of Capitol Hill. The other is the operation of representatives in their home districts, acting on behalf of their constituents, "the folks back home." The two worlds that members of Congress live in (Washington D. C. and "back home") can produce tensions and dilemmas for members of the legislature. But these conflicts help us to understand the complex nature of Congressional politics and decision-making.

Lawmakers cannot just live in the one Congress or the other. They must navigate and negotiate between the two.

This text covers the full territory, from the history of Congress, to how one ends up getting elected to Congress, to how Congress works and its interactions with other key political actors, to the policy process of which Congress is a key.

For anyone--students or citizens--interested in the nature of Congress, this represents a good starting point.

If you are looking for a textbook for upper-division classes on Congress, this is the one. It is thorough, full of interesting stories and examples, it's not too long, and it's easy to read. Oh, and it has lots of pictures! If you want to know how the US Congress works, this is the best text I've seen.

This is probably the best textbook on Congress for undergraduates that I have seen. Primarily I like it because it's easy to read and very well written, covers all the important topics, and is not tedious. Now you might think being easy to read isn't important since it's for college students. But believe me, if you want students to actually read the assignment, more engaging texts are important.

Very easy to read and simple but clear layout the culture differences between US and Mexico. One can draw parallel easily from this book when comparing other cultures in similar clusters. Although the data was collected years ago, it seems the conclusions are still valid based on the feedback from my Mexican classmates. Highly recommended.

I am a Consultant on Cross-Cultural Communication Mexico-U.S. I read this book in a few hours last night in preparation for a research project. I was expecting to find new information or information based on the latest cross-cultural research. Then I looked at the publishing date and found my answer. The first edition is from 1989, thus some of the information even on second edition is outdated. Ms. Kras does a wonderful job comparing and contrasting an exhausting list of cultural values which works as a first step. Yet, I am looking for the next level. What happen to the Mexican and U.S. managers when they actually interact and how those misinterpretations and misunderstandings get resolved effectively?
A "laundry list" is a good start but does not answer questions nor does give light to getting pass those differences.

It provides specific differences between US & Mexican executives, the way they work, plus the cultural & educational reasons to react different to a same situation. It's a great tool to undestand and learn how to work with executives from both sides of the border...

Much has been written on the economic dimensions of U.S.-Mexican business relations, but little on the more subtle and sensitive cultural issues involved. Eva Kras has now provided us with a book that confronts head on the problems that arise out of the cultural diferences between U.S. and Mexican managers. And it could be not be more timely.

Mexico's ambitious Maquiladora program - designed to foster the establishment of foreign, especially U.S., maunfacturing plants in Mexico along the U.S. border - has been strikingly successful. All along the border jointly management industries have sprung up. The result has been a significant increase in the amount of contact between managers from the two cultures and a dramatic rise in the stakes involved in their developing effective working relationships.

This practical handbook is based on extensive interviews with Mexican and U.S. managers. Ms. Kras compares the critical areas of a managerial setting in which the values and behaviors of the two cultures differ, and offers specific recommendations as to how the disparities between them can be handled. In the process, she deals realistically with the problems and misunderstandings that arise between Mexican and U.S. managers and demonstrates clearly how simple but hard-to-achieve changes in attitude and style can resolve them.
--- from book's back cover

Very good analysis of US and Mexican cultures and management styles. Easy to read, great for employees working in both US and Mexican business cultures.

I read this book from two perspectives (1) is it useful for business? (2) Does it present some innovations in modern Buddhist thinking?
Every substantial business holds innumerable internal meetings. The participants will all say that they waste a lot of time in those meetings. Why do they waste so much time? Jack Welch in his book "Winning", in chapter two, "The biggest dirty little secret in business", writes that the problem is LACK OF CANDOR. "People do not express themselves with frankness". "They just don't open up; instead they withhold comments or criticism". "It is absolutely damaging". "Yet, lack of candour permeates almost every aspect of business."
David Bohm explains why this is the case and what you can do about it. The cause is that people hold opinions to which they are attached and when another person expresses another opinion and criticises the opinion of the first person, the instant reaction of the criticised person is to defend his opinion. This leads to an incredible waste of time and emotional energy. Instead the person whose opinion is criticised should suspend immediate reaction and try to understand what the assumptions are on which the opinion of the other person is based and suspend judgement and reaction. Before reacting he should also examine the assumptions on which he based his different opinion. This does require control over one's emotions and thought process.
David Bohm, being a great scientist, includes an amusing story about scientists. Max Planck a German Nobel Prize winning physicist, said about dialogues between scientists: "New ideas don't win, really". "What happens is that the old scientists die and new ones come along with new ideas". If that happens in business, that is no innovation, the company dies sooner rather than later.
This is one of the best books to understand and learn about creating candid dialogues.
Buddhism and new ideas.
The Dalai Lama refers to David Bohm as his guru. They met many times. Some useful ideas you can not easily find in Buddhism are the following.
Buddhism emphasises that you must try to reduce negative thoughts and emotions like, anger, jealousy and greed. Bohm emphasises that you must learn to observe your thinking process including the influence of emotions. Observing the thought process is a step beyond reducing negative thoughts and emotions. Another insight is that thoughts are from the past and so are feelings for which there is no word, he suggests the word "felts". Thinking is a current process that is influenced by thoughts and "felts". Also something you have to watch.
Bohm recommends that that if you talk and listen to other people you have to observe their body language, people do not communicate only with their voice. Candid dialogue depends on the ability to listen, to ask questions, almost more than on what you say.
Bohm explains the importance of coherence. Incoherence means that your intention and your results do not agree. Ordinary light is incoherent, the light goes in all sorts of directions, and if it is coherent it becomes a laser that is very powerful. Most groups are incoherent; the thinking of the members goes also all over the place. If they can think coherently and constructively the group develops enormous power. The power of coherent thinking in a group is an important concept. Coherent does not mean that all follow the leader. It means the group of many thinks creatively as one.
The book actually concentrates on dialogue on the level of society, so you have to modify some of the ideas to fit in a business environment.

This book is a gem. It is very intelligent. It is a great resource for culture, building communinity, the nature of thought and how to train ourselves to witness our thoughts, moving beyond our habitual patterning. It speaks about participatory thought and using counsel to create meaning within culture. Well articulated, engaging and applicable to our current culture.

The book titled "On Dialogue", by David Bohm,is an important read for anyone who has the interest to learn and understand the many causes affecting humankind. First, by understanding how our mind has become so conditioned and is so full of preconceptions that we are unable to listen and learn from others through an honest, open and unbiased process. We have become so fixated in our opinions and points of view and in our argumentative thinking that we are simply unable to learn by discovering through a process of sharing meaning with others.

It is written in very simple terms but it gets to the core issues impeding a true process of dialogue. Worthwhile reading and re-reading to help us be more cognizant of the need of suspending judment and beliefs when others do not think like us and how we may learn from others by all being opened and discovering together the essential needs and elements to function towards the betterment of humanity. One could say that the message is perhaps too naive in a world where the motto is driven by personal or national interests first before anything else. This does not take away the fact that we have become so sophisticated in constructing all sorts of arguments, which we use as pretexts to hide some essential truths that lie at the core of not wanting to forego our personal interests in favor of our common good. No wonder we are where we are.

David Bohm (1996), wrote about proprioception, which is the basically the self-awareness that allows us to realize that our bodies our wired to know when we move them versus being moved by something else. In other words, we know when we have moved our arm or when someone else has moved it. Not so with thoughts and emotions, he said:

"You may get a feeling that you don't like from a thought, and then a second later say, "I've got to get rid of that feeling," but your thought is still there working, especially if it's a thought that you take to be absolutely necessary. . . .

"We could say that practically all of the problems of the human race are due to the fact that thought is not proprioceptive. Thought is constantly creating problems that way and then trying to solve them. But as it tries to solve them it makes it worse because it doesn't notice that it's creating them, and the more it thinks, the more problems it creates--because it's not proprioceptive of wht it's doing. If your body were that way you would very quickly come to grief and you wouldn't last very long. And it may be said that if our culture were that way, our civilization would not last all that long, either" (p. 25).

Bohm's contribution to servant-leadership is his resonance with Greenleaf (2002) on the topics of awareness and responsibility. The latter said that the "servant views any problem in the world as in here, inside oneself, not out there" and that it is not just problems that the self generates and is responsible for because "So it is with joy" as well as trouble (p. 57).

When you work with people, or as a matter of fact, when you live among people, as we all do, having some knowledge about how interactions work are essential. David Bohm's book On Dialoge is a very handy book on this topic.

In our world everything happens so fast, with modern technology, television, computers, air travel and sattelites. There is a network of communications which has influence on our everyday life. Just push a button and you are in contact with people from all over the world.

How we communicate is a question for all of us. And in On Dialogue David Bohm is helping us to at least find some answers.

The book enlightens topics as on communication, on dialogue, the nature of collective thoughts and many more. We read from the foreword: "Perhaps most importantly, dialogue explores the manner in witch thought is generated and sustained at the collective level."

Read this book, and you will learn alot about your own life, the life you are bond to live in interaction with people around you.

Britt Arnhild Lindland