General-Order

Izutsu presents several essays dealing with the mystical and theological foundational beleifs of Sufism, in contrast with Vedantic and Buddhist Concepts. His attempt is to find harmony between key mystical concepts at the core of these beleif systems. The purpose of his efforts is based in his beleif that religious values are at the core of every society, and to find harmony among the worlds people we must do so through a deeper understanding of scripture and a reconiciliation of key theological concepts. THIS IS FAR TO DRY A REVIEW!!!! Izutsu genius though, not only takes us through these concepts, but you become so immersed simply in the explanation of Concepts like the Unity of being, or the paradox between a light and darkness presented here, that the reader is drawn to a place beyond intellectual understanding, to a place of 'knowing', that make a strong argument that these concepts may be seemingly in conflict, but are actually complimentary and open new windows of knowledge for the reader when understood this way. This book is a must for those intersted in universalist mysticism, and a deep understanding of core theological tenents in Sufism.

Why has America experienced an explosion in crime rates since 1960? Why has the crime rate dropped in recent years? Though politicians are always ready to both to take the credit for crime reduction and to exploit grisly headlines for short-term political gain, these questions remain among the most important and most difficult to answer in America today.

In CRIME AND POLITICS, award-winning journalist Ted Gest gives readers the inside story of how crime policy is formulated within the Washington beltway and state capitols, why we've had cycle after cycle of ineffective federal legislation, and where promising reforms might lead us in the future. Gest examines how politicians first made crime a national rather than a local issue, beginning with Lyndon Johnson's crime commission and the landmark anti-crime law of 1968, and continuing right up to such present-day measures as "three strikes" laws, mandatory sentencing, and community policing. Gest exposes a lack of consistent leadership, backroom partisan politics, and the rush to embrace simplistic solutions as the main causes for why Federal and state crime programs have failed to make our streets safe.

Drawing on extensive research and including interviews with Edwin Meese, Janet Reno, Joseph Biden, Ted Kennedy, and William Webster, CRIME AND POLITICS uncovers the real reasons why American continues to struggle with the crime problem and shows how we can do a better job in the future.

"Ted Gest's book is a unique contribution to understanding how criminal justice policies are fashioned at the national level. The book offers a compelling insider's view of the deals, political bargains, individual egos, and agency turf wars that shape the real world of federal criminal policy. The book spans several decades in which the modern criminal justice system was born and shaped. It is a must read for those who want to know how America lost its way in the war against crime--and how we might find a path back to enlightened and rational domestic policies."--Dr. Barry Krisberg, President, National Council on Crime and Delinquency

"Crime is not just a continuing national problem, it is also a major focus of jockeying for political advantage. Ted Gest is a distinguished journalist who has dvoted his career to studying both crime and the political machinations it engenders. His book is filled with important insights into the problems of crime and its political battlegrounds."--Alfred Blumstein, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University

This book is a meticulously-researched look at the forces that shaped religious thought in early America. Dr. Field traces the political infighting and economic pressures on church leaders that led to the separation of religious and secular cultures, a condition evident in our present-day factionalism. This is not a book for the faint of heart. It is detailed, precise, and reads like a mystery novel as we follow the threads of intellectual, cultural, and religious thoughts from the Puritans and Calvinists to the Unitarians and beyond. Field's book brings us to Emerson and the brink of the Industrial Revolution, another turning point in American culture. This book is a "must" for understanding the intricacy of our religious expression.

Scary stuff. This is not a job I think I could do. I was amazed by the immense variety of family distress situations faced by the court. Judge Ross seems to maintain great powers of objectivity and analysis in the face of a near-constant stream of the most painful decisions one could have to make. I was stunned by some of the descriptions of what many kids before his court endured before they got there. Fascinating book. I hope more are forthcoming from Judge Ross.

The autor have done a very clear presentation of the construction of fields (a Pierre Bourdieu's concept) in law legitimation and social creation of power. Tis book isn't only an important work on international arbitration but a fundamental reading to all that would like to understand law and society. The history of international arbitration field on ICC and other institutions, illustrated by several examples, is, perhaps, the best way to undersatnd how and why the international ADR have developed and works.

An excellently written, deeply researched, book on problems within the Church body. Not only covering what happens, but giving the warning signs that every Church leader (Minister or Laity) should read and KEEP! I found it difficult to put it down, it is very readable although academic standards are top level. I am recomending this work, to all my pastor friends, as an indispensable resource for avoiding the pitfalls that are in the ministry.

I really enjoyed reading this book, though it did take me a while to read through it. Rothman advances an argument to explain why America turned to instituionalization of different classes of people during the Jacksonian period. His basic thesis is that medical elites feared the growing democratization of American society and therefore advanced the idea that institutionalization could make unproductive citizens productive and simletaneously serve as a model for the rest of the society.

In Rothman's model, the "Discovery of the Asylum" was both a progressive and deeply conservative event. This conflict is never resolved, and was ultimately at the root of the great failure of the rehabilative model of insitutionalization in the post civil war period. Rothman persuaively argues that by the 1880's, the idea that individuals could be rehabilitated by the process of instituionalization had been abandoned in favor of a "custodial" model.

Rothman looks at the examples of poor houses, pentientaries, orphanages and insane asylums to explicate his thesis.

Fans of Foucault's "Discipline and Punishment", Goffman's "Asylums" and Sykes "The Society of Captives" should find this book enthralling.

Highly recommended

Dr. Creflo Dollar exemplifies the art of simplistic, understandable teaching as he treats this matter of the "Divine Order of Faith: How to Get from the Problem." The book is quite concise and to the point. An excellent quick read.

Head has written a solid work on historical scholarship. The area under study is called the Grisons, the Grey Leagues, and Graubunden, and is part of early modern Switzerland. Head takes on a number of historiographical battles that raged at the time of the writing, and some still do. One is the argument that communalism, the notion that common people could and here did work together to create a liberating and progressive political system, to be idealized along with ancient Athens as heroic models for today. Head shows how communalism was an idea that was preached and discussed, but that elites and factions combatted its core tenets, hindering its ability to function. He also looks at a famous uprising that some see in it communalism, but he shows how the Faehnlilupf movement never succeeded in its ambitious mission.
As for the factionalism in the region, which Head shows without a doubt existed and affected any idyllic wishes for pure democracy, it is shown to be an outcome of the major political forces in Europe using this part of Switzerland in turf wars for geopolitical advantage. The great powers competed for control of the area, leading to factionalism among its elites. And so this is another blow to those who want to find democracy or proto-Parliamentarism in 16th century Switzerland.
That said, however, the Grisons still presents a rich area of study, because of its tradition of independence from outsider control, and because it boldly evoked the language of communalism and freedom for all citizens, and as such should be paid attention to, especially by students of political language and of democratic movements in the past. And it is in the region's use of political language and its creation of a unique political culture that is the strength of Randolph Head's book.
It is to be highly recommended.

This is the kind of book that is a delight to find and read, in that the author not only voices highly contrarian thoughts about the sacred cosw of macroeconomic theory, political science, rational expectations, the primacy of democratic institutions, but produces the data to back up his positions. While equations are non existant, the working relationships that mathematics oriented macroeconomics attempt to derive are explicately stated and supported. For those who are either working with developing nations as they become industrialized, or with former Soviet bloc nations as they transition to free market, democraticly oriented economies, Professor Weede offers several nuggets to chew on intellectually. A brief summary of the chapters, in Professor Weede's words: Chapter 2: Discusses the economic model of human behavior, summarizes some of the most powerful criticism of it, and then endorses it.The market is an imperfect substitute for altruism, but a substitute it is. By contrast, group decisions, such as done by a government, are likely to be deeply flawed

Chapter 3 addresses how public goods encourage freeriding and discourage cooperation in the use of such goods: often governments become a tool for special interest groups, and act against the interest of the groups they are supposedly protecting.

Chapter 4 addresses how and why the West outperformed the East in the last millinium, and comments on China's emerging sociocapitalism.

Chapter 5 addresses why some people continue to remain poor in the era of mass consumption and open markets; Chapter 7 suggests a coming decline of the West as the East flexes its economic muscles. Chapter 8 exaamines the positive results of war and wars, and how the almost constant turmoil in the West led to the establishment of law, order, property rights and other characteristics those in the West take for granted; some of these characteristics are only slowly coming into existance in the East. Chapter 10 Concludes with a summary, and some comments on emerging geoploitical coalitions, and how this may affect peace and trade.

In my opinion, anyone who understands the issues that macroeconomics addresses would have significant food for thought after reading this book.