Economic-Life Books

In The Death and Life of American Cities, Jane Jacobs demonstrated with clarity, intelligence and righteous indignation that city planners had for decades -- going on a century, in fact -- misunderstood the virtues that cities possessed, and hadn't understood why people wanted to live in them. According to Jacobs, all of orthodox city planning was built around the belief that what city dwellers most wanted was to leave the city and live in a suburb or on a farm. So they bulldozed blighted neighborhood after blighted neighborhood and replaced them with parks. When many of those parks themselves became blighted, filled with the familiar sight of the homeless and drug users, orthodox city planners could only scratch their heads; that simply wasn't supposed to happen. If anything, this only confirmed cities' incorrigibility. So they wiped out sizable sections of major American cities and built freeways out; clearly people would prefer to be elsewhere. The millions who continued to live in American cities were an inconvenient datum.

In Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jacobs claims that national governments repeat the same misunderstandings of their cities on a larger -- and possibly more tragic -- scale. At this larger level, they believe that they can produce economic activity just anywhere. Struggling farmland? Dam up their rivers, build schools, give them tax breaks, and invite foreign companies to build factories there. Wait a few years and watch a million economic flowers bloom.

City planners believed -- and maybe still do believe -- that a city was just a defective pasture. According to Jacobs, national planners likewise believe that a city could thrive anywhere. So they build cargo-cult cities and pray that the same thing which animates their real cities will turn their farmland into the next New York. But of course that normally fails. A real city has a good reason for being there; a cargo-cult city does not. People aren't fooled. They want real cities.

Jacobs wants to recast all of macroeconomics using these insights and others, and has the rhetorical skills to convince at least one non-economist that she's on to something. All the dynamism in a national economy, says Jacobs, comes from its cities. Even the vaunted "heartland" of the United States only survives because cities have brought industrial technologies to their farms. If you want to understand why a nation succeeds or fails, says Jacobs, look to its cities. The title of her book is no accident: she wants to yank economics off the track that it's been on ever since Adam Smith.

Wow. Jacobs is so adept at explaining the complex currents of global, national and local economies that even the casual reader will be spellbound. The book is simultaneously radical (she essentially repudiates all modern macro-economic theory) and reasonable. This book is a great asset to anyone who wishes to comprehend the world around them.

"Any settlement that becomes import-replacing becomes a city." Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs

Written by an economist, this is a very unusual book. Ms. Jacobs is not hampered by orthodox preconceived notions, misleading postulated theoretical myths like utility optimization, rationality, or efficient markets. These standard phrases of neo-classical economic theory cannot be found in her book. Instead, and although her discussion is entirely nonmathematical, she uses a crude qualtitative idea of excess demand dynamics, of growth vs. decline. Her expectation is never of equilibrium. The notion of equilibrium never appears in this book. Jacobs instead describes qualitatively the reality of nonequilibrium in the economic life of cities, regions, and nations. She concentrates on the surprises of economic reality.

Jacobs argues fairly convincingly that significant, distributed wealth is created by cities that are inventive enough to replace imports by their own local production, that this is the only reliable source of wealth for cities in the long run, and that these cities need other like-minded cities to trade with in order to survive and prosper. Her expectation is of growth or decline, not of equilibrium. If she is right then the Euro and the European Union are a bad mistake, going entirely in the wrong direction. As examples in support of her argument she points to independent cites like Singapore and Hong Kong with their own local currencies. Other interesting case histories are TVA, small villages in France and Japan, other cases in Italy, Columbia, Ethiopia, US, Iran, ... .

The book begins in the chapter "Fool's Paradise' with discussions of Keynsian economics and Phillips curves (the Philips curve idea is demolished convincingly by Ormerod in "The Death of Economics"), I. Fisher and monetarism, and Marxism. These were all ideas requiring equilibria of one sort or another. Also interesting: her description why, in the long run, imperialism is bound to fail, written in 1984, well before the fall of the USSR. Her prediction for the fate of the West is not better. Jacobs is aware of the idea of feedback and relies on it well and heavily. She is a sharp observor of economic behavior and is well versed in economic history. This book will likely be found interesting by a scientifically-minded reader who is curious about how economies work, and why all older theoretical ideas (Keynes, monetarism, ... ) have failed to describe economies as they evolve.

I'm grateful to Yi-Ching Zhang of the Econophysics Forum for recommending this book.

Some of your other reviewers have said that they believe this book is outdated.

That is, I can't help but think, the reaction of internet babies, who are spoiled by the 24 hour round-the-clock updating of bloggers.

This is a printed book that gives evidence of having been written at a certain moment in history, and in a certain portion of the planet. So what? That is true of all great books, and the question for us is whether we can (a) appreciate that context while (b) taking from them something lasting.

The answer, for this book, is decidedly afirmative.

It is true that the opening chapter of this book sounds dated, but the book as a whole still stands up well.

The first chapter provides the motivational background for the rest of the book by discussing the problem of stagflation, and how existing schools of economic thought failed to account for it (prices should not go up when the economy is in a slump). This does have a dated ring to it; who has been worried about stagflation in the past 20+ years? But the discussion of stagflation merely serves as motivation for what follows, and contemporary readers will be able to think up similar economic mysteries that we live with today, e.g. why did years of near-zero interest rates fail to stimulates Japan's economy as theory said they should, and similarly why is the US still struggling to recover from a recession when it interest rates have been at historic lows for several years?

The rest of the book is devoted Jacobs's thesis that the economic unit that matters is not the nation, nor the individual nor the corporation, but the city (or "city regions" as she calls them). She describes (using examples which still hold up today) the economic effects that cities have on each other and on less developed areas.

As in Jacobs's other books, the writing style is clear, direct and easy to understand.

I would like to hear Jacobs's perspective on European currency union: if she holds to the analysis of the effect of national currencies on cities given in this book then she should be predicting (in the long term) serious economic malaise in Europe, especially in those parts of the union which are currently less developed.

This well-written book has added facts to my fears about the impact of an exaggerated emphasis on football. At some institutions it has had a negative impact on education of college students. It is definitely worth reading if you are afraid it could be happening at your alma mater.

Dowling, a Rutgers English professor, argues that commercialized division 1a athletics negatively effect the intellectual rigor and atmosphere of the colleges and universities that are involved in them.

In the book, Dowling states that he has witnessed the following in his 20+ years at Rutgers:
1) much larger classes
2) an explosion in the cost of tuition
3) classrooms in an ever-increasing state of disrepair
4) decreasing morale among the faculty
5) the elimination of a number of non-revenue sports, including men's swimming and the crew teams
6) at least 100 million dollars spent on the football and basketball teams (scholarships, coaches, perks, facilities, etc...)

Dowling inspired a number of undergraduate students to create Rutgers1000 in the early 1990's. The goal of Rutgers1000 was to remove Rutgers from division 1a sports and to make Rutgers a non-athletic scholarship university. While the students, faculty and alumni all had branches of Rutgers1000, Dowling focuses on the student and alumni groups in his book.

Dowling details some of Rutgers1000's explanations that are listed on their website in his chapter "Warriors on the Web":
1)most Div 1a football teams lose money - the few programs that make money put the money right back into the football program
2)there is a big difference between exposure (Miami, Nebraska) and reputation (Berkeley, Harvard) - big-time athletics result in exposure, not reputation
3)if Freshmen go to a school because of a final four or bowl game appearance, these are not the kind of students that a college or university wants
4)Michigan is one of the few examples of a good academic school that also has a good Div 1a sports program - supporters of big time athletics often cite Michigan; this is false logic, as Michigan is an exception rather than the norm

Dowling details a number of scandals that have rocked colleges and universities over the last 30 years. He explains that there is a common pattern in the way they are usually handled:
1)college officials express shock
2)an investigative committee is established
3)there is a protest that the scandal does not truly represent the university
4)there is an announcement that "nothing like this will ever happen again"

Ever since it joined the Big East football conference under former president Francis Lawrence, Rutgers' rankings and admission standards have moved downwards. William Dowling here describes the battles of the Rutgers 1000 group (to which he belonged) against the corruption and cynicism of 'big time' athletics at Rutgers, and details the harm done by 'booster culture' to the intellectual and academic tradititons of America's 8th-oldest university.

For those who believe that universities exist primarily for the transmission of knowledge and free intellectual enquiry, this is not a pretty story. It details how, under a weak president chosen by a board of govenors concerned foremost with 'making it big' in sports, Rutgers withdrew from over a century of competition with schools like Princeton and Cornell and modelled its sports program on institutions like Virginia Tech and Miami. The consequences - including the flight of many of the brightest students, and a run down, crowded, shabby campus offset against the first-class athletic facilities provided for 'student athletes' are well documented in the book.

As a Rutgers student, it angers me that my university has thrown away at least $150 million over the past 15 years on football alone - money that could otherwise have gone into scholarships, new buildings, and facilities for ALL students. In these days of hype and hooplah over a 'winning' football program at Rutgers, it is worth remembering the price Rutgers has paid and continues to pay for such 'success'. I salute Professor Dowling for detailing the numerous reasons why many of us at Rutgers view div 1A football as an expensive sham that does far more harm than good to this great university.

This timely and riveting book beautifully describes what happens when big-time college sports, in this case football, take precedent over the quality of education at an Eastern university (Rutgers). The author, a professor of English at Rutgers, describes the valiant student-led effort to return college sports at Rutgers to the era when football players were indeed student athletes (emphasis on student) and the opponents were Princeton, and the rest of the Ivy League, Bucknell, Colgate and other private eastern schools with colonial roots. He describes how funds are stripped from non-revenue sports (crew, fencing) to build "professional" sports facilities for the football team at the expense of resources for the non-athetlic student body. The role of the New Jersey legislature, the Rutgers Admmissions office and the Rutger's Board in enabling the diminution of the intellectual quality of a great university for a few apearances on ESPN is especially sad

To put my cards on the table at the first opportunity: I have recently retired from Rutgers, New Brunswick after 37 years on the Math faculty. For several years, I worked with Bill Dowling and the Rutgers 1000 to try to find a way of diverting the university from the cesspool that is big-time Div 1-A football. I am mentioned in the book in one or two places.

That said, I have to say that I don't miss teaching very much and that the atmosphere created by the dominant jockocracy, especially now that the "program" is a "winner", is an important factor in my indifference. Div 1A football is pure poison when one longs for an atmosphere where serious students predominate and their genuine intllectual curiosity flourishes. I have had such students, of course, and met quite a few of them in the defunct Honors Program, which Dowling accurately describes. These days, they seem like remnants of a doomed race.

Note that it's not jocks, as such, who now flourish in New Brunswick? The best and brightest of them--those who participate in the "non-revenue" sports as free individuals motivated only by their enthusiasm--have, in most cases, been victims of a wholesale purge (unreported in Dowling's book, alas, though it is the saddest and most ironic aspect of the moral rot that concerns him). Fencing, Crew, and Men's Tennis and Swimming have vanished without a trace, despite intense lobbying from outraged parents and alumni and universal bewilderment among undergrads. Why? The pretext is that they are "too expensive". But this happens as more and more cash is poured into a bloated and self-indulgent football program, in the form of luxury accommodations to entice recruits and astronomical pay-scales for coaches and administrators. If you need further reasons, such wholesale aboliton of varsity teams is a cheap and cynical way of "satisfying" Title IX requirements, so that there is no legal obstacle to providing the football team with all the cannon fodder it claims to need.

Likewise, the roster of listed courses continues to decline across the board, especially the small specialized courses that give undergrads access to serious scholarship and research as opposed to once-over-lightly survey courses. The physical plant is ill-maintained. Even the newest buildings, poorly designed to begin with, are allowed to decay in short order. The Banks of the Old Raritan are now tilted so that all the loose cash flows directly into the football program's coffers, with a bit diverted to basketball. The univeristy boasts of the academic success rates of its "student athletes"; funnny thing, though: I've never seen one in any of my classes and I strongly suspect that that if transcripts were on the public record, there would be little sign of anything that deserves to be called higher education.

Alas, the same is true of all too many ordinary students. The student culture has simply plunged into "party school" mode, which is why, as a previous evaluator notes, its a pretty rag-tag bunch, academically, despite the continued presence of a first class faculty. [By the way, to address another point brought up in the previous post, the reason Rutgers outranks such schools as Nebraska is purely a matter of faculty quality; there are still departments at the school that outshine anything in the Ivies. My own department has been consistently listed among the top 15 or so for decades (from a research point of view, of course).] But even the most loyal faculty get pretty disgusted at seeing some lunkhead of a football coach who is making ten times what they are (salary alone, excluding all the little side-deals that fill a coach's pockets when his minions do what they're supposed to and knock their brains out to get a bowl invitation without ever seeing serious money themselves). I know of a few cases where top scholars have gone on to other venues after long Rutgers careers, and I don't think the jockocracy can be let off the hook.

I think Dowling leaves some other factors in the decline of Rutgers (and universities in general) unvisited, since his focus is exclusively on the depradations of the Div 1A program. The snottiness, cynicism, and off-the-shelf nihilism of what may be called the postmodern turn in the humanities convinced many students that their teachers were self-indulgent and out of touch, blind to their own gullibility. So, too, the heavy emphasis on "identity politics" and all the machinery of mandatory righteousness (usually called "political correctness") that came with the package. Academic quirkiness of this kind drove off far more students than it recruited, so far as the life of the mind is concerned.

Equal blame goes to the ethos of pure utilitarianism that colonized much of the academic world utterly indifferent to the vapors of postmodernism. Too many programs and departments, along with their students, came to view their function as credentializing bureaucrats, technocrats, and corporate functionaries, without any concern for deeper cultural values unconcerned with the generation of high incomes and vocational perks.

But, still, there is something about the omniverous football culture that dwarfs everything else in determining the ethics and values that are commonly understood to characterize a campus. If you have a big-time program, you know damned well that sooner or later some high-ranking administrator is going to be caught cheating and lying on a grand scale, and that it will be the chief goal of the top dogs to paper the whole busines over and get back to business as usual. Meanwhile, the program will pass tons of meat on the hoof through the system every year, chewing most of it up past the point of usefulness, and sending the poor kids who signed up for football glory out into the world with no real education and a host of joint problems that will grow worse over the years.

As Dowling points out, the people responsible for this meltdown at Rutgers were for the most part local businessmen and politicians for whom access to a skybox at the stadium of a ranked team is the summum bonum of existence. President Bloustein, who might have known better, wasn't able to hold them off (I think Dowling treats Bloustein too generously, by the way). Presidents Lawrence and McCormick were in their pocket from the getgo. How a decent academic, like McCormick, decays into that forlorn state, I do not know. It's the American version of "Die Blaue Engel", I suppose.

In any case, Dowling has said what needed to be said. The jock-sniffers will howl, either because they are emotional cripples, or because they are cynical parasites who thrive on the crumbs that are dropped from the table of big-time NCAA sports. To hell with them.

This book takes a much more realistic approach to business life-cycles. Mr. Hartung has taken a fresh look at the way a business should view their stages of growth and learn how to look out for the stages that take you down a path that may be impossible to get out of -- Very relevant for our recent economic state.

Of the companies in the 1957 S&P 500 list, only 39 survived into 1987, and only 2 maintained above average rates of return.

As Adam Hartung puts it, companies rarely make the transition from one technology to another because of what he calls Lock In. They believe that the system that made the company revenue in the past will continue to make revenue if they just improve the system incrementally. That keeps resources focused on the same old product line, ignores competition and effectively prunes new ideas. Success becomes defined as continuing to do what you always did, and that actually becomes more important to the company than revenue growth!

Fortunately, Adam doesn't stop there. He succinctly describes how to counter Lock In, and remain on the growth curve.

Only those companies that give their managers permission to violate Lock In, funding them adequately to try new things, make the transition, and survive, even thrive. Will you be in one of those companies?

Adam Hartung has set the pace for enterprise renewal with this phenomenal book. It is simply an incredible blockbuster that belongs beside all truly great works from insightful business strategists. I have rarely enjoyed a book as much as this one and I read dozens a year. Well written, succinct, and prescient - this book's insights will not disappoint you unless you fail to heed their wisdom. Trust me, let your competitors make that mistake and remember Napoleon's advice - "Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake." Hats off to Mr. Hartung and sound the well-deserved applause - this should be business book of the year. It's just that good.

This book was extremely enlightening. It was well-researched, thoughtful and easy-to-read. Hartung's points are so well supported by sources or case studies, they cannot be disputed. The advice seems refreshingly common-sense, but he establishes principles never quite put into these straightforward words.

For anyone reading this book, it should resonate for years, affect career choices and feed decision-making. One can't help but want to avoid Defending and Extending and embrace disruption based on the compelling case Hartung makes.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a perspective on business today, regardless of title or function.

In Create Marketplace Disruption, Adam Hartung succeeds brilliantly in illuminating the root causes for the shockingly high rate of business failure - especially among those companies that graduate to the ranks of exalted Fortune 500 status. His analysis of hundreds of companies confirms the reality of what Hartung calls "innovation lock-in" - the paralyzing effects organizations suffer when they commit themselves through their practices and structures to perpetuating and optimizing behaviors that once succeeded in gaining competitive advantage. The problem is that business markets are highly dynamic environments, and static management approaches quickly lose their relevancy. Yet these approaches are exactly what is being taught at business schools around the world today. He builds a compelling argument against employing "Extend and Defend" management strategies that inevitably lead to corporate rigor mortis. Having identified these root causes of business failure, Hartung outlines his provocative approach to overcome innovation lock-in, which he calls "The Phoenix Principle." The Phoenix Principle helps ensure that companies avoid the tailspin of innovation lock-in by instilling mindsets and practices that lead to regenerative business strategies with a foundation of continuous innovation. He calls on corporate leaders not to fear marketplace disruptions, but to actually embrace them - instigate disruptions if possible - and use this "creative destruction" force to keep the competition off-balance and keep their own organizations both agile and substantially more profitable over time.

- Peter G. Balbus, Innovation Expert and Managing Director, Pragmaxis LLC

As a local of Baltimore, I enjoyed reading a local author's input. As a past Orioles fan of our baseball team, Ron Shapiro was one of the few people I still admire and trust, from a "press" or "in the news" standpoint.

As a professional, I test hardware. I am new to this line of work and needed a base from which to learn. This book helped outline a gameplan for me to approach my day-to-day work load and also look long term at where I want to be as an employee of a Fortune 500 company.

Per the title of my review, the anecdotes Ron uses are from cool people, some everyday "Joe's" and some superstar, living the high-life people. The anecdotes apply to each idea he presents, which make them relevant. However, some of these anecdotes are very high-level and don't hammer out many details. For instance, one person might say, "You have to make a plan and stick to it!" That's great, but what was your plan and how did you execute?

I recommend this book for anyone, as the material is transitive and can be applied to any situation in life.

I am not a natural leader, but "Dare to Prepare," by Ronald M. Shapiro, gave me great insights on how preparation can create success. Following his outline minimizes time spent in the nebulous world of ideas; instead, he gives practical information to make those ideas a reality. Easy to read, well organized, practical advice that almost anyone can use. I stumbled across this book in the local library, and as I read it, I realized that I had to have my own copy. Now I refer to it as I plan meetings and projects for the workgroup I chair at church. I can't believe how much more efficient I am as a result of following Shapiro's suggestions. Business settings, civic/religious groups, social groups, even personal life decisions can all benefit from your reading this book.

I loved this book. I wish I had read this book back when I was a teenager. Better yet, I wish I had remembered to apply its messages when I tried to start my first few businesses. As a SCORE counselor I find myself preaching, yes preaching, to most of my clients about the importance of researching and writing a sound business business plan BEFORE they file for incorporation or register an LLC, get a bank account in the company name, and start generating revenues. And I read this book last night in order to see if I should recommend it to my clients so they MIGHT get the message that a sound busness plan will be their key to success. Now that I've read it - Yes, this is the book a wanta-be entrepreneur should read in order to KNOW they need a sound WRITTEN business plan.

This book has 14 chapters and an appendix:

1. Put me in coach
2. I would like to thank the Lord Jesus Christ and Eric Mangini
3. What's your destination? Understand your objectives
4. Someone, somewhere has done this before. Plan with precedents
5. What's the forecast? Know the alternatives
6. It's in the best interest to know their interests. Define the interests
7. Look before you leap. Set your strategy
8. When the rubber meets the road. Do a timeline
9. The right parts for the right people. Pick your team
10. What you say and how you say it. Write the script
11. The constant preparer. Adjust and learn from your mistakes
12. Confidence
13. Prepare and conquer. A mantra for effective people
14. You can get some satisfaction
Appendix: The preparation principles checklist

Chapters 1 and 2 are kind of an introduction to the book. Chapters 3 through 11 are the various preparation principles that one follows in order to hedge their bets at being successful. All these principles are important to consider when writing a business plan for a new business or doing strategic planning for an existing one. And chapters 12 through 14 cover the benefits one receives from doing the proper preparation.

The material contained in this book is obvious stuff. It's unfortunate that most of us need to be reminded that planning and preparation for a game, whatever game that is, is necessary if we want to do well. Is it a sporting competition? A test in school? A job interview? A management meeting? A contract negotiation? A closing? Qualifying for a loan? Starting a business? Or selling a business? All the big things I have accomplished in my lifetime I planned for and done the required preparation in order to succeed. Read this book and be reminded that you too must plan and prepare for the things that are important to you. 5 stars!

Success stories from the people interviewd by the authors are what makes this book really come to life. Even though the people profiled in this book are from so many diverse professions, the power of preparation carries each of them to the top. I especially like the book's core philosophy - preparation is the only aspect over a situation that one has control. Shapiro and Jordan have cleanly mapped out a systematic approach to preparation that everyone can put into place immediately after finishing this book. They even give you the preparation checklist as an appendix. I use it for every one of my sales calls, and I have noticed a BIG increase in confidence, which has allowed me to close more deals.

Dare to Prepare is probably the single most useful how to book I have ever read. And the stories are entertaining, so in addition to the tangible tools the book lends, it is also a quick read. If you're looking to improve upon your confidence so that you can perform at a higher level, check out this book.

I desperately needed this book. Not because I'm not successful; I've won many awards in my field and the last time my employer made me take a cognitive test I astonished them by getting a perfect score. No, I needed this book because I want something more. I want the next level up, the bigger stage. You know the level I'm talking about, the big-gun level. And on that level, as one person in this wonderful books states, "EVERYONE is talented." You have to be more than just talented, you have to be prepapred.

And so we have "Dare to Prepare", a brilliant distillation of the anatomy of success. The book urges to you to prepare until failure is not a possibilty, and to not waste time in the wrong types of preparation. I will not outline the tips here, as they so beautifully intergrate into the whole. People from all professions are interviewed, people with nothing in common except wild success and serious, serious preparation skills. The steps to being fully prepared for opportunity if it comes knocking and even if it doesn't flow perfectly into one another; I can safely say there isn't anyone who wouldn't benefit from following them, no matter how good you may think you already are.

That's pretty much it. A short review for me, but there isn't much more I can say. I picked up the book on a whim, began reading before bed in an effort to fall asleep, and ten minutes later was wide-awake, completely wired. Shapiro's little masterpiece will excite you, inspire you, and guide you like nothing I've read in a very long time. And in the Codemaster's book, that gets "Dare to Prepare" the rarely bestowed-

GRADE: A

to truly live a meaningful life it is time to downshift. pick this up and read Simple Life and create purpose and meaning - why not add the four-hour work week to the mix. you can do this. you can live better. simply. beautifully. -beth
Simple Grace: Living a Meaningful Life

Having accomplished my own downshifting more than ten years ago I can attest that John Drake has developed a solid grasp of the needs and concerns of those thinking about a change/reduction in their work schedule. Very insightful and helpful thinking.

The author consulted with readers trying to slow down the hectic paces of their professional lives. He helped them cut back on work and downshift by offering real-life anecdotes. The tone of this book is serious; the advice seems solid.

Jack Drake has provided an easy to read, road mapped dialogue that is very important in today's work scenario. He recognizes the need to communicate with the thirty somethings and emphasize the importance of personal, as opposed to material, life. Well Done! The self help format should allow everyone to evaluate their individual needs. There is life after work!!

If you are on the fence, Downshifting will get you to move. Great psychological and spiritual insights to help live a more peace filled life.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I also read and studied "The Mother Factor". Both of these books should be used in conjunction with each other for the best results.

This book will help you overcome the career problems instilled in you from the way your father raised you. The first step is to be aware of the things written in your father factor "rule book". The next step is to figure out a way to change these rules to ones that will help you in your career. If you go on denying that the problems encountered in your career have anything to do with the way your father raised you, then you will run into more problems changing the pattern then you would otherwise. The book points out that denial is a way of allowing your father factor rules to creep up on you and sabotage your career. Most of us try to solve our problems by cutting the "branches and stems" instead of the roots, hence allowing our problems to crop up all over the place. By studying this book and following the author's advice however, you will not likely be blind-sided by those unwritten father factor "rules".

This book is written by an extremely knowledgable professional. In general, I tend to be skeptical about self-help books but this one was worth every dime and more. I felt that I was receiving quality phychotherapy, which I could partake of at my own rate of comprehension. While it's true that a portion of its content is clinical--maybe a tad dry--the bulk of it is engaging and illuminating. The advice, checklists and exercises are extremely valuable. If you are open to this man's message, able to think critically about your behavior and its influences, and motivated enough to change by doing the difficult work herein, then this book will help you. For me, it was validation. It was the first, and most important, step toward healing and reform. It took me several months to read it because I re-read a lot of material, using it more as a textbook. Not only did I recognize myself in its pages but also many other types of my coworkers. This book increased my awareness and understanding of why people do the dysfunctional things they do, thus increasing my empathy and sympathy and, inevitably, my productivity and progress.

I am always leery of new ways to blame our parents for our struggles. Fortunately this book didn't fall into that trap. It does offer some interesting insights into how our leadership and management styles at work may be influenced by the styles and preferences of our dads.

It's not all bad news. I can attribute my creative approach to problem solving, the use of humor to put people at ease as well as my reluctance to play office politics to my dad.

In my work coaching executives, this book is helpful in shedding a light on previously misunderstood behaviors. Seeing the source of a lack of power, low self esteem of hesitance in decision-making has been very useful. This helps in my work with men who are dealing with a sense of disconnection with their professional success. Dr Poulter offers some interesting sources of blind spots - those unexplained reasons why we do what we do. This can really help with those "hot-buttons" we all have and a new way to work with them

I wrote an article about this book on my blog at my website about "The Disquiet in Men".

This is a very intense book requiring a lot of self honesty and much self reflection. However, I highly recommend it for any man or woman who experiences a lot of anger and frustration related to career and "father" issues that they just can't resolve.

The Father Factor: How Your Father's Legacy Impacts Your Career comes from a psychologist who maintains the influence of a father is key to understanding choices and roadblocks in a career. Both positive and negative impacts are surveyed, from a passive or absent father's influence to understanding how destructive messages translate into workforce action or inaction. The 'what you can do about it' section is critical for change and a successful career approach.

I believe that this book should be required reading for anyone who is concerned about the debilitating trends in our society: students shooting their classmates, breakdowns in family relationships, high divorce rates, and out-of-wedlock childbirths. The author presents significant evidence to show that these may all be symptomatic of adult America's obsession with work outside of the home, and subsequently leaving young America to try and invent its own culture and morality.

Recent studies have shown that today's youth suffer from a far higher rate of mental illness than those who grew up just a couple of generations ago. Social disconnectedness and a sense of impending doom have driven many of our youth toward immediate gratification and away from a long-term interest in education and work. At the same time, technological change and the knowledge explosion makes a successful vocation even harder to attain. This is especially true among young men, whose participation rates in postsecondary education, in the electoral process, and in civic activities are at an all-time low and declining rapidly.

Although Robertson's book is deep and well documented, it is very readable. He is at his best in the chapter where he discusses the contrast between the work of a full-time mother with that of a "career woman." Homemaking, which was considered the ideal by feminists as recently as the middle of the twentieth century, is now looked upon as demeaning and destructive of self-esteem, while a "career" outside of the home is viewed as something highly desirable and worthy of achievement. "The work of raising children requires constant hidden sacrifice, unacknowledged and unrewarded by society, often unacknowledged and unrewarded by one's own family-particularly the children themselves. ... A society that measures success exclusively in terms of material or professional attainment is unlikely to accord much status to the hidden work of the mother in the home."

Especially upsetting to those who believe that the traditional family is the foundation of civil society is the palette of economic incentives that government and business offer to the mother who chooses to select "professional" childcare. Childcare credits, tax-exempt childcare flexible spending accounts, and higher IRA savings limits abound for the two-earner family, while the mother who elects to raise her own children receives no benefits in exchange for sacrificing a dual income and striving to make ends meet on a single income.

Robertson offers criticism for Republicans and Democrats alike. Neither major political party has found a way to support the concept of the traditional family, despite their continual touting of "family values" and "family-friendly legislation" that further drives wedges between mothers and their children. Instead of discouraging divorce and/or out-of-wedlock childbearing, welfare policies have forced mothers to accept out-of-the-home childcare so that they can go to work full time.

"There's No Place Like Work" offers a well documented examination of current destructive trends in family and workplace dynamics. It is certain to stimulate provocative discussion, and I hope it will receive the wide readership it deserves.

I'm a 20 year-old highly motivated student at a prestigious university. My entire life I've worked diligently so I could have a successful career. However, after I began reading this book, my thinking has been turned on its head. Now I can see that I've been motivated by all the wrong things: ego, self-aggrandizement, money, and status. This book has helped me understand all that motherhood used to be and could be. It is not a banal existence; there are beautiful possibilites open to the imaginitive mind. Our country was founded on the Protestant ethic that the most noble thing one could do is to be selfless, to give everything you have to your children and your family. My words are like gravel in the mouth compared to Robertson's eloquence. I wish I could capture the beauty of his words here. Please, read this book. It changes everything.

The West is struggling with the related issues of women in the workforce, childcare, maternity leave, and family breakdown. The usual wisdom is to say that we just need to try harder to balance work commitments with family responsibilities. But Brian Robertson, a writer living in Washington DC, believes the answers lie elsewhere.

Indeed, from a historical perspective, the current crisis is really an anomaly. The modern feminist movement of the 60s taught that the only good woman is a career woman, and that homemaking and motherhood were to be despised and fled from. But interestingly, the women�s movement prior to that fought for the right of a mother to stay at home with her young children, and not be conscripted into the paid workplace.

Thus the struggle for those in the earlier years of the women�s movement was to protect women from the encroachment of market forces, and to prevent them from being forced into career at the expense of their families. Motherhood and homemaking, in other words, were seen as honorable and valuable ends in themselves.

But with the late 60s and onwards, the new wave of feminists took a totally different line: only in the paid workforce can a woman find meaning, freedom and dignity. Thus the vitriolic attack on mothers and the family. Betty Friedan therefore could call the home a "comfortable concentration camp" while Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown could label a mother and housewife as "a parasite, a dependent, a scrounger, a sponger � a bum".

A woman�s freedom, said these feminists, meant that a woman should and could be independent both in the economic and the reproductive realms. Women just do not need men, and are better off without them. Establishing a career and gaining financial independence is the first goal of the modern woman. And millions of Western women bought this line of thought.

Of course now the inherent contradictions are coming all too clear. Women who were told that they could have it all are now fining that they have very little. They may have a good job, but they have no husband or boyfriend, no children and no family. And many today are deeply regretful of this fact.

But it is not just women who have suffered at the hands of feminist orthodoxy. Children have been the big losers. Millions of children today are being raised by strangers. Yet all the social science research shows that children desperately need their mums and dads. No day care system can ever compete with the love and attention of a mother and a father.

Yet as Robertson documents, while the social research on all this is quite clear, very few are willing to promote the findings, for fear of incurring the wrath of feminists and of making working mums feel guilty. So although the research is clear, that attachment is important for infants and mother-child bonding is crucial, millions of mothers are ignoring the evidence, and their maternal instincts, and are abandoning their children in droves.

The harmful effects of extended periods of time for young children in day care are well documented in this book. Even child care workers admit that they would not dare to leave their own children in day care. Yet many mothers have been so indoctrinated into believing that their needs and desires must come first, that they are offering their children second best.

And seeking to alleviate the problems by better day care, more workplace flexibility, or seeking to obtain an unobtainable balance between work and family just is not sufficient. And it is not just short-sighted governments offering these inadequate solutions. The corporate world in effect has bought the feminist myth as well that women can have it all. But the truth is, they can�t have it all, at least not at the same time. Thus more corporate day care centres will not solve the bigger problems.

Indeed, the corporations are shooting themselves in the foot here. The really productive worker is the worker who has a happy and satisfying home life. But the corporate world, even with generous paid maternity leave policies, cannot stop the hemorrhaging of the family. Maternal deprivation is harmful to children, and unhappy children make for unhappy families, and unhappy families result in poor workers.

Governments also lose, as they seek to press women into the paid workplace, and do not deal with the root causes as to why so many families are forced to have two incomes. By bribing mums into the paid work place, whether by child care subsidies or other financial incentives, the growing problem of falling fertility rates, for example, will only increase. Less people mean less taxable income, and the inability to pay for expensive social welfare programs.

Thus both governments and businesses need to radically rethink what family-friendly workplaces actually mean. Robertson concludes by proposing some radical measures to put the interests of families first. These are predicated on the principle that human societies need the traditional family structure with a mother as the principal caregiver. Marriage and family are non-negotiable first principles. If that is accepted, then the following steps can be explored:

-Treat families as a unit in the tax code
-End "no-fault" divorce
-Replace the current welfare system with one that does not encourage illegitimacy and undermine intact families
-Pare back affirmative action legislation and programs
-Give all parents, not just those in the paid work place, child care credits or tax breaks.

These and other proposals, will help to ensure that real family-friendly policies are pursued. Yet Robertson knows that legal and economic change alone is not enough. The much harder cultural element needs to be addressed. But we have to start somewhere. And this volume is a good beginning point.

...This book is a wonderful distillation of Brian's views on the workplace, political and social movements and most interestingly his work here is a roadmap for the analytical process he undergoes to arrive at his conclusions.

Brian's book is an outstanding example of constructive critical thinking...one feels envigorated, enlightened, and most importantly tested and forced to confront deeply held truths and defend those ideas within that are found lacking.

It is a book to be proud of and I enjoyed it, unreservedly.

Agree with him or not, give him a chance to make his case in this book which addresses the foundation of a polite society, family.

Robertson shows how the best care is maternal care and why society is in denial of this fact. I found this book very informative and enlightening, and has forever changed the way I look at alternative child care and the media, whose refusal to tell the truth about parenting is causing the millions of children to be neglected.

I read a book a bit to late - during the last weeks on a notice period. Many people were asking me at that time, how could I not find myself in a thriving, well known and one of the biggest corporations in the world. And to my surprise, I couldn't give a concise and plausible answer! To be honest, I didn't understand myself "How and where it all went wrong?"

After reading the book, I not only know why I had an urge to leave, but also understand all previous cases when I was changing the job. Furthermore, I know what tasks or roles should I look for to enjoy my work there. And believe me, it wasn't an obvious answer.

I wholeheartedly recommend that book to everyone, who spends at least a third of his life at work.

This book is a must-have for anyone looking to improve their current work experience. Even if you're looking for a new job, succeeding at a current job is the BEST step forward to a new one. VERY HELPFUL!

I loved reading about the different varieties of people in the book- how they react and interact. It really helped me to understand the people around me- and not react to exhibitied characteristics that are consistent with their personality type. Great book!

This is a must read for anyone who has had 'one of those days (weeks, months or years!) at the office.'

Up to now, it had been my belief that human interaction and concise, measurable solutions have little or no common ground. These authors have not only found that common ground, they've created a road map of it for us all!

This book provides measurable, quantitative solutions for human issues with regard to individual and team dynamics and it does so in an entertaining, easy-to-understand way.

Bottom Line: The things I learned while reading this book made my work experience much more enjoyable. Many thanks to the authors for the 'Road Map'!

I loved that the book gave useful suggestions that could be implemented right away. In addition to some great team exercises (www.LikeWorkAgain.com), the book also provides exercises that you can do right away by yourself. I also enjoyed the balance that the book struck between helping your current situation and deciding if you need to start looking elsewhere (it actually lives up to its title).

I was always thought that Myers-Briggs was the queen of personality theories, until I read this book. After reading this book, I was able to work much more efficiently with one of my co-workers (with whom I previously felt like I was always spinning wheels and getting no where in terms of accomplishing work tasks). This book also offered specific tips that improved my communication with my roommates. I've always been intrigued by personality theories, but this is the first system that I was able to seamlessly implement in my life, with positive outcomes. Unlike a lot of personality theories, you don't have to give everyone a 20-page questionnaire and then scratch your head trying to figure out how these newly found "insights" might inform your interaction. No, it's much less awkward and much more useful than that. It gives you simple, specific cues to look for to assess the person's preferred mode of functioning, along with specific tips to improve your interaction. (Don't get me wrong, I still think that Myers-Briggs is good, but this book is so much better, that even if you dislike Myers-Briggs or personality tests in general, I'd recommend giving this book a try.)

It is obvious that Dr. Seagal has worked extremely hard to confirm her research since 1979. Her style of writing is clear, concise and void of jargon. I found the content easy to absorb, understand and apply. Just the heightend awarness of how diverse we are has made a significant difference in how I work and related to people. I can see some real possibilities for applying in a business context.

Models to describe human personality are presented. Each model has it unique characteristics, its strengths and weaknesses. Each model will respond most effectively to certain modes of communications. This understanding of the different models presented will help a manager, a teacher, a student or just about anybody to understand themselves and people around them better. This will enable better communication of ideas and thoughts. Students will learn better and managers will be able to communicate more effectively with individuals. The models can be taken up to an organizational level. The applications of this book are far and wide. It is also simply and clearly written.

the first time that I have found an approach which looks at humans holistically and systemically. It is not a group of personality characteristics describing superficial behaviours, but a way of understanding and recognising internal processes particular to various human dynamics. It therefore goes much deeper than any other personality assessment technique I have seen and because of this can not be reduced to a paper and pencil test. However, the gift this approach brings is that it can be taught to everyday people and can provide access to better relationships and a greater understanding of how to release our judgement of others. A truly life changing book.

If you have found most personality tests insignificant, unhelpful, or unrevealing, then perhaps this book is for you. Human Dynamics goes into much more depth and provides a greater understanding of human communication and actions than any simple personality test. While people can be placed into certain "dynamics," these dynamics are not nearly as restraining or stereotypical as personality tests tend to be. Rather than explaining one's personality, dynamics explain how groups of people tend to process information, not necessarily how aggressive, passive, or "likeable" they are. This book helped me in terms of personal discovery, and has also helped me understand why it always seemed that so many people "just never seemed to think like me."

I really enjoyed the heart felt and brutally honest stories in this book. Being a women in her 20's, this book spoke to me greatly.Every girl should read this at least once while in her twenties or even in her thirties just to have a laugh. I've been the girl in each of these stories and it lets me know- I will survive these years of confusion, frustrations and let-downs.

This book is the perfect antidote to the quarterlife crisis blues. Covering all topics ranging from love relationships to housing to careers to friends, whatever is bothering you, there will be an essay reminding you that yes, your 20s aren't that great, but no, you definitely aren't alone, and the best news: you'll survive, and likely end up far happier and fulfilled than you think you will. Overall, an inspiring read, with little bites of wisdom and perspective.

It isn't set up like I expected it to be, but it's definately the truth. hah.

As a twenty-something, I picked up this book for obvious reasons. It was so heartening to learn that what I am going through, other women have gone through and no one has all the answers no matter what path you choose. I plan to share this book with all of my girlfriends.

I was in Borders when I stumbled along this book and thought " What a clever title and concept." As a twenty something professional in higher education that deals with early twenty something women on a regular basis, I highly recommend this book. It is a quick read but able to be put down and picked back up easily. There were times when I shook my head in agreement and laughed aloud hysterically.