Future Books

This is a beautifully written book that clearly articulates difficult ideas from several disciplines and puts them together to create a compelling argument for change. It's short, readable and brings together the theses many of the most important progressive thinkers of our time. Everyone should read this book.

Tom Wessels uses excellent examples to support his arguments in Myth of Progress. He has a writing style that is fluid, understandable, enjoyable, and uplifting. If more people read this book we would be on our way to a sustainable future with an environmental ethic.

I pulled this book from my waiting stack after reviewing Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency While all that we do wrong is rooted in corrupt politics such as Dick Cheney represents so well, I wanted to get away from the personalities and focus on the underlying truths of the greatest challenge facing all of us, preserving the planet for future generations.

This thoughtful careful author from New Hampshire has created a really special book, small, readable, and packed with fact (superb footnotes). He gives all due credit to his predecessors in the field--Georgescu-Roegen, Meadows, Dalay, Hawken et al.

He brings out the nuances of complex systems and how our linear reductionist thinking, and our false assumption that technology will resolve our waste creation and earth consumption issues, combine to place all that we love at risk. I was personally surprised to learn that even if we fund 100 water desalination or decontamination plants, and resolve our shortfalls of clean water, that the energy required to do so would result in entropy and further losses.

The author brings up the need for better metrics (see my reviews of "Ecology of Commerce" and "Natural Capitalism" as well as my list on "True Cost" readings. He points out that the GDP does not reflect the non-cash economy or the degree of equality/inequality in the distribution of new wealth. I would add to that the importance of counting prisons and hospitals as negatives rather than positives.

A good portion of the book (a chapter for each) is spent discussion the three fundamentals: the limits to growth; the second law of thermodynamics (entropy); and the nuances of self-organization and what happens when you reduce diversity.

The author lists the attributes of complex systems as being emergent properties that arise from the interactions (i.e. the space between the objects); self-organization, nestedness, and bifurcation into either positive or negative consequences.

The bottom line for the first part of the book is that in complex systems, especially complex systems for which we have a very incomplete and imperfect understanding, "control" is a myth, just as "progress" is a myth if you are consuming your seed corn.

The author excels at a review of the literature and demonstrating the flaws of economic theories that are divorced from reality and the "true cost" of goods and services (e.g. a T-shirt holds 4000 liters of virtual water, a chesseburger 6.5 gallons of fuel).

I have reviewed a number of books on climate change, in this book the author makes the very important point that the annual cost of weather disasters has been steadily increasing, and is the annual hidden "tax" on our reductionist approach to clearing the earth, losing the forests and mashlands, and so on.

He points out that concealing or ignoring true cost does not make it any less true, it simply passes the cost on to future generations. In the same vein he is optemistic in that he believes that if we take positive action now, however small, the benefits of that action as the years scale out, will be enormous.

This is actually an upbeat book for two reasons: first, it makes it crystal clear that the classical economics that have allowed corporations to pilage the world, bribe dictators and other elites, and generally harvest profit at the expense of the commonwealth; and second, it ends on a note of hope, on the belief that we may be approaching a dramatic cultural shift that embraces reciprocal altruism, true cost calculations, equitable wealth distribution, and so on.

He cites other authors but gives very positive insights into public ownership (by stakeholders, not the government), essentially repealing the flawed court-awarded "personality" of corporations, and re-connecting every entity to its land-base and the people it serves. He recommends, and I am buying, David Korten's "Post-Corporate World." By restoring the populace to the decision process, we stamp down the greed that can flourish in isolation.

The book ends hoping for a cultural shift from consumption to connection. I believe it is coming. Serious games/games for change, fed by real-world real-time content from public intelligence providers including the vast social networks from Wikipedia to MeetOn to the Moral Majority, could great a wonderfully distributed system of informed democratic governance that implements what I call "reality-based budgeting," budgeting that is transparent, accountable, and balanced.

This is a much more important book than its size and length might suggest. It is beikng read by and was recommended to me by some heavy hitters in the strategic thinking realm, and I am disappointed at the lack of reviews thus far. This book merits broad reading and discussion.

See also:
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen

This will no doubt be one of those rare books I read over and over again. If you believe that profligacy holds empty promises; that we are spiralling on a downward course of natural resource depletion and want to go out into the world armed with a message of hope inspired by nature and supported by scientific principle then this is the book for you.

This book was recommended at a preparation course for the NLN CNE exam for nurse educators. This book, The New Leadership Challenge: Creating the Future of Nursing is excellent at providing needed information related to leadership and nursing. This book would also be a good textbook to the nurse educator teaching a nursing leadership course to nursing students. I definitely recommend this book to anyone preparing for the CNE exam as well as for general information on leadership as it applies to nursing.

As a new leader and returning nursing student, I find this book engaging and insightful. The content is pertinent to my current practice.

As an author myself, I search for references that cover new concepts in a concise, comprehensive, and inviting way. Grossman and Valiga give us just what's needed to motivate nurses to think about the importance of acquiring leadership skills at all levels of nursing. Beautifully designed, well written, and just the right size (Seinfeld would definitely call it "bag-worthy"), this book uses a concise format to cover everything from stewardship to chaos theory in context of a changing health care setting.

I recommend this book for any student or nurse. If you happen to teach nurses, you'll love the critical thinking exercises that guide and challenge new nurses to ponder their own growth as a leader.

As an author myself, I search for references that cover new concepts in a concise, comprehensive, and inviting way. Grossman and Valiga give us just what's needed to motivate nurses to think about the importance of acquiring leadership skills at all levels of nursing. Beautifully designed, well written, and just the right size (Seinfeld would definitely call it "bag-worthy"), this book uses a concise format to cover everything from stewardship to chaos theory in context of a changing health care setting.

I recommend this book for any student or nurse. If you happen to teach nurses, you'll love the critical thinking exercises that guide and challenge new nurses to ponder their own growth as a leader.

I honestly can't recall ever having been so profoundly affected by something I read in all my adult life (I'm 23). When this book arrived on my doorstep, I picked it up at lunchtime, intending just to read the foreword and get back to it after the weekend - and twenty-four hours later the book was finished. It was terrifyingly gripping. I have never read anything that touched so many of my nerves at the same time.

I lent it to my boyfriend - I was worried about getting him to read it, because I'm still trying to get him past page eight of Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights, and I didn't want to be a nag. I shouldn't have worried. As with me, it consumed him from the first page. When he had finished, I received a somewhat distraught phonecall, consisting of about half an hour of intense ranting, which basically boiled down to "I need a hug."

Furthermore. I was contacted by one of my boyfriend's friends today, who picked this book up idly and flicked through the first couple of pages, and then desperately wanted to get hold of me and ask if she could borrow it because she couldn't put it down.

I want to hang on to this book, because I know I'll be wanting to re-read it soon. But I also feel very strongly the importance of getting this book read by as many people as possible. It deals with so many issues which are not traditionally tackled in modern literature, and it has the potential to be an incredibly important step in breaking those taboos and understanding why so many people do the things they do to themselves.

Buy it. You may be many things by turns - unnerved, horrified, enlightened, disgusted... But you will not be disappointed. A consuming read.

After taking my Prozac, getting my Botox injection, and readying my iPod, I sat down with this book hoping for a mind-blasting, soul-flaying vision of a world that almost is. I was not disappointed. I was impressed by much in this book; particularly the style of writing. The author seems very comfortable using words to create a sense of manic urgency which can otherwise be quite difficult to produce without the aid of music or some other sensual medium. Ready your Prozac, and read this book.

The writing is fluid and poetic, and the imagery is vivid and haunting. It made me laugh out loud, and revel in horror. It's both a dark modern parable and engrossing personal story of a character in whom I believe many will see components of themselves. I read the book in one (intense!) sitting - I couldn't put it down. Amazing!

I read this book straight through in two and a half days, hardly pausing to eat or sleep or get off my reading couch. It is chilling, disturbing -- the kinds of chills that send goosebumps up your spine, the kinds of chills that cause your chills to get chills. The unnamed heroine of this story goes through transformations (mental as well as physical) which caused me to often panic, break out in sweats, and put the book aside for a few minutes -- but then I was compelled to continue reading it. There are very few books that can instantly shudder the most sunny of days -- but Bromberg's manages bravely to do this. I was stunned silent on finishing this book. No other author has ever transformed me in this way.

This is a book beyond genre. In the ending pages of the book, Bromberg puts forth a new post-postmodern esthetic, but for the majority of the book, she is deeply rooted in the postmodern tradition. She will never tell you directly what she is up to; she works gradually by gradually, indirectly but never innocently, to shape her story strand by strand. Her wordplay is frenetic, furious, and follows the heroine's mental state for a full year inside a tiny cubicle of a room, trapped inside the room for all to see on the web, unable (and perhaps unwilling) to leave. This is a story midway in spirit between William James and Samuel Beckett, with perhaps a dash of powdered insects and rotting squashes thrown in for a disturbing effect.

This book is written in an obsessive, frenzied style -- if you're like me and you feel that contemporary literature has lost its cutting edge, you'll be excited (terrified!) by the knifesharp wit which Bromberg uses in "A New You" to skewer everything you once thought was true....

This delightful book covers the full gamut of emotions. A myriad of topics ranging from flatulence to world events are covered in this book. This is Donna Williams, uncensored and ready to disclose her brilliant insights and gems of wisdom and humor. Gems like this should put to rest the misperception that people with autism are incapable of seeing beyond the literal and are incapable of using metaphoric language. If you want to climb the mountain into the world beyond the neurotypical, then join us in reading this treasure.

From surreal to hilarious, the collection in Not Just Anything is as diverse and disclosing as all of Donna Williams' autobiographical collection put together. From farting to terrorism, from merging with objects to mania, from explorations of psychopathy to celebrations of eccentrics, Donna Williams holds back from nothing here. For anyone who likes to dip into another world, here is the dipping pool.

These poems affected me, touched me, sometimes made me chuckle. They are full of the creativity and inspiration for life that is Donna Williams. In other words, they are another installment in the Donna Williams autobiography series though told episodically, and more sensingly. The book is a journey of feeling, quite an experience.

If you can get your hands on this book, and if you read only one book by Donna Williams, read this one.

This is a collection of poems, stories, paintings, and photographs. It's very uneven -- some of them are great, and some of them are just kind of there. Some of them are silly and humorous, others are serious and frightening or uplifting.

My only complaint, if I had one, would be that some of the poems -- like "The Loft", and "The Mountain" -- contain ideas of a sort of compartmentalized nature that I find unfortunate, especially since she applies some of these hierarchies of understanding to all autistic people in her later books. But the other poems more than make up for this.

My personal favorites include "Cat's Cat", "Simply Be", "Chortle", and "Enemy Lines", among others.

"Cat's Cat" is a combination poem/short story about a cat. What I like about it can be summed up well in the last line -- "'Cat's Cat,' said Cat, in Cat." The cat's perspective on the "blob" who lives with and takes care of him is both amusing and real. "Simply Be" reads almost like a prayer or a plea. "Chortle" is a funny poem about the arrogance and snobbery of a person going on about his fancy toilets. "Enemy Lines" is a darker poem about living in a hostile environment.

These poems show the variation of topics in this book, but really you'd have to read it. It describes emotions and experiences I've yet to see described so clearly elsewhere. Some people seem to love this book and some seem to hate it, but I like it a lot, despite its flaws and unevenness. It's definitely, in my opinion, her best book, and possibly the best (or close to the best) book of poetry by an autistic person. It's about a whole lot more than autism, but many autistic people find it speaks to us directly.

I bought three books about Greece by Matina K. Psyhogeos, including (i) Olympic Games, Past, Present and Future: Passing the Torch to a New Millennium; (ii) Make Your Journey to Greece an Unforgettable Experience; and (iii) History of Greece in a Nutshell. I shared her books with some of my Thai friends and we very much enjoyed reading them. Although there are many books about Greek history, travel, and Olympics out there, they can't be compared with Ms. Psyhogeos' books as her books contain resourceful information (a lot of which could not be found somewhere else) and rare pictures. Combined with her unique writing style (which distilled the information in a thoughtful manner), the stories in the books have become very interesting to follow indeed. We've learned a lot about Greece and the Greek people from her books. Moreover, the layouts and font sizes in her books make the books very easy to read without straining the eyes. This is also a very important characteristic of her books. Many other travel-related books are generally inconsiderate to readers as they are published in very small font sizes which can hardly be read. With all these unique and positive characteristics, we rate these books of hers five stars.

B. Boonyaketmala (Author of various books and articles on Thai politics, media, films, and culture)

I was amazed with the concept of this book. It was entirely different than any other one on the subject. Every aspect of it offered a new meaning to the Olympic Spirit and the ideals of the Games. It is indeed a wonderful book which, anyone interested in the noble competition, should read.
My two teenage daughters were thrilled as well.
Congratulations to its author!

This is the most uplifting book I've read on the Olympics. The author's approach to the subject is unique to say the very least. I've learned not only about the history of the Games but also the reasons and the rationale that created these idealistic contests. The comparison among the ancient and contemporary games is also an eye-opener and last, but definitely not least, the optimistic thoughts on future Olympiads are indeed very encouraging and provocative. I highly recommend it for children and adults.

With the 2004 Olympics to be held in Athens, this book is the perfect way to prepare yourself for the historic event! The Olympic Games recounts the history of the original Olympic Games, as they were held in Ancient Greece. The author provides beautiful pictures of Greece and of the original site of the Olympics to draw the reader back in time. This book would make a perfect gift for anyone training ofr the 2004 Olympics, or anyone planning to attend the games in Athens.

I can't say enough about how informative this book is for parents of LD kids who are just about to turn 18. A great source of info that is hard to find. Her other book, "Laughing Allegra", is also an incredible read for those with younger kids, especially those who live in New York.

Such a crucial, scary time..."on their own." You wonder if it can ever happen successfully. Very knowledgeable, ungarnished yet helpful and hopeful.

This is the book every parent of an adult child with LD should read, especially in those times when you feel so hopeless and that no one truly knows what you are going through. As the parent of an adult son with learning disabilities I can honestly say that On Their Own has changed the way I think about my son and his future. Most of all it has given me hope that he has a future at all! The book helped us see the whole person with all their strengths and weaknesses. Nothing is sugar-coated here, and parents of adults with LD will find many points where'll they'll nod in agreement and realize that yes, after all someone truly does understand what we are going through. I absolutely loved Anne Ford's previous book Laughing Allegra. In that book, I felt she spoke to me personally as we followed her step by step while raising a child with LD. On Their Own continues the story, but it is a much more hands-on approach and with a great deal of practical information. Even so, I found it as readable as Laughing Allegra, with many insights and anecdotes that separate it from so many other dry academic books in this field. Parents of adult children with any disability will benefit greatly from On Their Own

I was worried that I would be bored by all the language specific jargon so commonly used by professionals in books like these, but the insight and personal account of dealing with learning disabled adults kept me totally engrossed for the entire book. I wish more books about dealing with disabilities were written with such a human voice.

Author Bill Watkins wishes that life in Ireland was as simple as people think it is. "The Once and Future Celt" is his reflections on growing up in the Celtic culture. Frank, honest, and hilarious, Bill's anecdotal stories range from his encounters with gypsies, whose culture has shocking similarities to his own, to trying to make it in Birmingham during a time where the economy was so bad that the most appealing job prospect was washing dishes in a local University. "The Once and Future Celt" is a strong choice for anyone who enjoys real-life, down-to-earth storytelling.

They say that the third part of a triolgy is often the weakest part of the whole, not in this hillarious, but thought-provoking book. I loved it every bit as much as Celtic Childhood and Scotland is not for the Squeamish, and what is more amazing is, the more I learned about Bill and his adventures, the more I learned about myself. Great read!

This book is the final book in a trilogy of memoirs that Bill Watkins has written about his youth and coming of age as a Celt. The whimsy in a title that refers back to "The Once and Future King," King Arthur, is an indication of the intellectual humor that permeates the books.

Watkins himself was born in Birmingham, England of an Irish mother and a Welsh father. Both parents were storytellers as well as speakers of their native languages. Watkins learned a lot of both as a child and then continued on in a search for self that would make him a Druid or wise man. This particular book begins with Watkins sustaining a severe cut on his foot that is tended to and healed with the aid of a Gypsy (Romany) shuvani healer and her niece, Riena. As he is healing, he stays with the Gypsy caravan and finds himself discovering many connections between the Romany traditions and those of the ancient Celts.

This is an intriguing book. Bill Watkins gathers and shares knowledge of poetry, folk tales, folk music, and folk wisdom that he has gathered while traveling throughout Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England and with the British merchant marines. He intersperses poetry, song, philosophy and lots of humor with wonderful descriptions of the people he meets as he rambles about, returns home and then moves on again. As he finds out more about Celtic traditions he also finds out more about himself and how he might fit into the present day world. He is driven in part by the request of his father to work to keep the Celtic traditions from being lost. Part of his quest is to find ways to fulfill that mission.

It's a book that perhaps not everyone would enjoy, but I liked it a lot. I'm now interested in reading his earlier books too.

Armchair Interviews says: Most interesting, especially if this region of the world interests you.

Even if you haven't read either of Bill Watkin's first two books (and if you haven't, you should!) The Once and Future Celt stands alone as an absorbing and entertaining memoir....a young man's adventures as he seeks to find the place his rich celtic heritage has in the world he is fast growing up in.

The book is peopled with an array of fascinating, touching, and very often humorous characters and situations, filled with snatches of traditional poetry and song, and bits of history brought to life by the hand of a true storyteller.

Armchair travellers will delight in the colorful people and places these books introduce us to, and -- who knows -- maybe some will decide to strap on their own backpacks and take to the road in search of their own adventures!

Always an up-to-date work. The excellent analysis of every aspect of options ranks it a must for the researcher (speculator or agent trader) in order to comprehend thoroughly the real nature and forces of the derivative instruments of the markets and obtain a strong infrastucture for consequent reading on strategies and technical analysis. Mathematics of the book are plain and worth reading to the last equation, for they prove to be the key to the understanding and valuation of any novelty work on the subject.The authors' state-of-the-art multiple remarks and explanations on options prices,their factors and sensitivity factors makes it an everyday's book, besides its academic value. A stand alone book for traders that once you get it is to be read over and over in sequence with any new techniques to be tested.

This was our options text book at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For all the technicalities involved, "Options Markets" is relatively easy to understand and follow with plenty of examples charts, graphs and tables.

John C. Cox and Mark Rubinstein also provide sage advice and recaps, even far into the book, for example:
"for initiating and maintaining neutral positions:
1. Never initiate a neutral position where one side of the position is unfavorable
2. Whenever one side...becomes unfavorable, liquidate that side and replace it with another option with a favorable price
3. Never adjust by buying an overpriced option or selling an underpriced option
4. If possible, always adjust by buying an underpriced option or selling an overpriced option

Although the book is a little old, the fundamental principals are sound and so well explained as to make this a truly valuable learning tool for puts, calls, market structure, general arbitrage relationships, exact option pricing formulas, and general option applications.

I bought this book 7 years ago, and just recently took it back off the shelf to read/reread sections related to my current work. Book is packed with explanations that facilitate understanding of these complex instruments. And it's nice to see how the binomial model is developed by its inventors. I highly recommend this book to all seeking to understand how to price and analyse options. The reason I gave it 4 stars was that book has an equities focus.

Always an up-to-date work. The excellent analysis of every aspect of options ranks it a must for the researcher (speculator or agent trader) in order to comprehend thoroughly the real nature and forces of the derivative instruments of the markets and obtain a strong infrastucture for consequent reading on strategies and technical analysis. Mathematics of the book are plain and worth reading to the last equation, for they prove to be the key to the understanding and valuation of any novelty work on the subject.The authors' state-of-the-art multiple remarks and explanations on options prices,their factors and sensitivity factors makes it an everyday's book, besides its academic value. A stand alone book for traders that once you get it is to be read over and over in sequence with any new techniques to be tested.

"Our World: Our Future" is a must read for anyone interested in peace and survival of our race. In spite of our affluence and scientific excellence, over half of our race live in poverty and subhuman condition, but none of our scholars ever addressed this most important human problem in any of the books available in the world today. Dr. Anil K. Sarkar, a medical specialist was born in utmost poverty in East Bengal 76 years ago and could see the East and the West, poverty and affluence and the realities of the unkind world in a way never posible for anybody born in
affluence and in the West. To know how our race progressed from the Stone to the Computer Age and how our religious fanatics and the selfish military industrial complex are about to destroy our world, and also to know how easy it is to bring peace and survive, this is the only complete but comprehensive book one has to read.

No one seems to want to address the inhuman indifference we exhibit towards poverty, disease, homelessness, and the lack of hope among us. Dr. Sarkar has courageously taken up this task, and explores the dark side of human existence in his work, Our World Our Future.

Half of the inhabitants of this small planet live in abject poverty while the other half lives in affluence and wealth. If all of the human beings on this planet do not get the basics they need to survive, there will be unrest and friction. We seem more focused on destroying life on this planet as we know it, and accumulating ungodly amounts of wealth in the process.

Dr. Sarkar examines this problem and warns of the impending danger to the human race if we do not correct our callous indifference to our fellow man. We must develop an attitude of caring for every one and reject the way we currently treat the poor and less fortunate. And we must do so quickly. Our World Our Future is a must read: it is an urgent call that we must listen to or perish from the face of this planet. The book is chilling and thought provoking; it defies time, geography and race. It is a sobering look at the dark side of human nature.

Despite this perspective, Dr. Sarkar offers concrete solutions and hope for mankind. I share in this hope, and encourage you to read this work and do the same.

A nation cannot stand half slave and half free, Lincoln proclaimed to a nation on the brink of a national bloodbath. Can the world of today survive half enslaved by the scourge of poverty and half affluently flaunting its wealth?
Comes now OUR WORLD, OUR FUTURE, a unique and fearlessly subjective history of the world by an author who rose out of the depths of low-caste impoverishment in India and Pakistan. Dr. Anil K. Sarkar became a physician as well as a self-educated polymath who has spent a lengthy lifetime in pursuit of knowledge in all disciplines.
Clearly his summa is not meant to be a scholarly exercise for academics, a dispassionate display of historical erudition, but rather an outspoken and populist bias in favor of the oppressed peoples of developing and Third World countries. Such a view demands a wrenching shift in international strategies by both the United Nations and the major powers of the globe. The alternative: endless terrorism, wars, famine, and disease rooted in poverty and its spawn: overpopulation and environmental decimation that is destined one day to shut the door on a prosperous and peaceful planet.
Out of an insatiable thirst for learning in all areas of human endeavors, astronomy, physics, geology, paleontology, archeology, anthropology, religion, political science, and economics, Dr. Sarkar has fashioned not just a richly factual tapestry of our planetary and human evolution but an incisive social critique of past events, especially of the last century, that have shaped our present and threaten to shatter our future.
In looking back, the author has boldly laid bared the foibles, follies, hubris and horrors of the power elite of history, including the religious manipulators and mullahs no less than the political machiavels and megalomaniacs.
Despair and despondency, however, are not the sum of his panoramic study of 15 billion cosmic years in the evolution of a rational animal, Homo Sapiens. Only a lover's quarrel with our imperfect past could drive such a voracious curiosity in search of a remedial wisdom to our global problems. Plus a desperate hope and dogged faith that our collective sanity and humanity can prevail over the darker dimentions of our nature.
OUR WORLD, OUR FUTURE is an awesome achievement, an illuminating and inspiring labor of love painstakingly built from a life of hardship, struggle, deep thought, and a passion to communicate a prescription of salvation for an ailing world, an alternative to apocalypse, an option for a nobler, more peaceful and harmonious home for the entire human family.

A Reviewer's Comments on Anil Sarkar's, Our World: Our Future
Bloomington, Indiana: 1st Book
Library, 2002
ISBN:0-759-66980-5

FOR AMAZON COM

Dr. Anil Kumar Sarkar, a retired physician, is an Indian immigrant who was motivated by global social inequalities to write this book. He critically viewed "the affluence of the West," and asks a profound question, "Why, in spite of all our prosperity and technological excellence, are the majority of our fellow human beings malnourished and without the basic needs for life or human dignity?" As a social activist, Dr. Sarkar has personally experimented with social development demonstration projects on rural development in his native village in India with some success, and draws on this experience in writing this book.

This book is a comprehensive history of the world civilization designed primarily for the general public rather than for scholars of world history or political science. It is written in a style designed not to focus on historical chronologies, but on the social dimensions of historical events. The author's analyses thus are that of a social critic, rather than as a scholar of history, and that is precisely where the value of the book lies. Towards the later pages of the book, Dr. Sarkar has specific public policy recommendations for the policy makers of developing countries and for affluent western nations. In sum, he recommends changes in domestic and foreign policies of nations, and the strengthening of the global governance system while keeping in mind the need for serving the entire mankind without becoming unnecessarily Utopian in his work.

This book is primarily aimed at general readers who will enjoy reading this book by Dr. Sarkar. He has offered clear and enlightened descriptions on complex social and historical issues and events, which will be appreciated by general readers.

Dr. Sarkar's book also represents a new type of American ethnic literature, specifically, Indian immigrant literature. There is already a large body of literary writings by the Indian immigrants in the USA who constitute about slightly over 2 million people according to the 2000 census. But Dr. Sarkar's book stands out as the first or only such book on the social history of mankind. American public libraries that stock fictions and novels by the Indian immigrants to enrich their holdings with ethnic literature should seriously consider adding this work to their collection. This reviewer is of the opinion that that this highly readable book should find a place among the American tapestry of ethnic writers. American public and university libraries are a rich gold mine of South Asian American writings would be remiss if they fail to acquire this book by a physician from India, now an American citizen by choice.

Prof. Manindra Mohapatra
Director, Center for Governmental Services
INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

Excellent Excellent Excellent, its been a long time since I actually read a hard cover book ( I usually prefer them in paperback or on audio tape) but I read Patriot Future and I couldn't put it down. It was like reading the Hunt for Red October before Tom Clancy got famous

A timely, prophetic vision of America's possible future. Filled with heart pounding action, the book's characters are 3 dimenionsional. Matt Sheridan's pain,anger,love are made suprisingly real to the reader. I couldn't put it down. I can't wait for Johns' next book

It's one of those books that, once you start, you can't stop reading. I found the setting to be all TOO plausible. Sheridan's character is a cross between Bruce Willis in Die Hard and Keanu Reeves in Speed. Lots of action, but with a human element that I also enjoyed. A great beach book, but it only lasted one day!!!

This book is a great read with very interesting characters and a storyline lifted from the front pages of today's papers. Regulated political correctness in this alternative history society (a la Robert Harris) is an all too believable phenomena, and "jazz" another name for any of the number of trendy drugs that are sold on our streets today. Matt Sheridan is an interesting (and slightly quirky) character. He's not quite your regular tough cop character, he has a strong presence without being stereotypical. I'm not going to ruin it for you or anything, but the ending is really terrific.