Governments

I first heard of this book in the late 1980s, when I was at Western Kentucky University. Alfons Heck was touring universities with a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, and together they would tell the stories. Mr. Heck was amazing -- a sweet, gentle old man, now not only horrified at what he had participated in, but very worried that this could happen again, that people could allow themselves to be twisted in such a way. It was his message over and over -- look for ways that you are being manipulated, think twice before you look for blame on how your life or the economy is going, or you get caught up in a movement, etc. I bought the book right then and there. It is not a very well-written book, true, but the honesty and detail are spell-binding and put this book in the five star range. It's a must-read for anyone wanting to try to understand how entire communities/nations can go so very wrong. I had him sign my copy, and he said at the time that the rights had been bought to make it into a movie. I asked him who he wanted to play his part. He looked up from the book, smiled, and said, "Someone good-looking!" The Jewish lady he was touring with came up at last and put her hand on his shoulder. "Alfons, Alfons, we must go now. We have to go." It was said with such affection.

I think a book is good if it is thought provoking, enjoyable reading, written in an easy-to-read style. Although the style I found not so easy to read, I found this book very thought provoking and enjoyable. I was able to identify (somewhat tenuously) with this Nazi zealot. I was able to feel that "there but for the grace of God (went) I". This, despite the fact that his twin brother was not as zealous as he, that he saw his best friend taken away as a subhuman Jew, that even the people of his small town knew about concentration camps (what did he think went on there?), and that he witnessed a proud old German Jew WWI veteran, who had lost his leg in that war, punched in the nose till blood spurt forth merely because he complained that he could not get into the truck due to his missing a leg. I wish the author had written somewhat about how he managed to rationalize away these things he witnessed directly. But then, what can he say? We all want to see ourselves as superior to others and must work at learning that the ugly, the short,the blacks, homosexuals, women, the crippled, the retarded, the mentally ill etc. are just as good as we are. Certainly there are plenty of prejudices present here in the USA also and if we had gone through what Germany went through prior to Hitler's ascendancy, we might also be susceptible to a leader such as he. At any rate, I found this honest personal history very enlightening. One example: he says "I wish I could shoot the bastard who killed them (his dog and horse)" to which the General replies, "Nothing wrong with a desire for revenge." This sentiment seems so normal on the face of it, but he was a Catholic and don't they teach, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord"? I'd like to think an American general would say to me, "My boy, war is hell. They kill our loved ones and we kill their loved ones". At any rate,I thought this was a great book. I would recommend it for a book group, so that members would be prompted to discuss the issues it raises.

I should have read this book first, but I stumbled onto Mr. Heck's Burden of Hitler's Legacy in my local library. Mr. Heck was 17 years of age when his country was defeated on March 10, 1945. It took him more 30 years to begin to come to terms with what Hitler did to Germany, Europe, and the millions of people who lost their lives, which includes the 6 million Jews, yes, but also the millions and millions of men, women, AND children who died because of Hitler's determination to be all powerful in the world. There were also those millions who lived on, after the war, who would have to adjust to the results of Hitler's need for power.

Mr. Heck shows us that Hitler prepared the children of his "beloved" Germany to fight for his vile beliefs and thought nothing of the impact his hatred had on these kids. One of the saddest things that I thought about as I read this gifted writer's treatise about the Hitler Youth movement was the waste of this man's talent. He should have been writing all his life. He should have had the FREEDOM to develop the talents he was born with. Read this book and weep, as I did, when I read Mr. Heck's final paragraph in this powerful, true story of the Hitler Youth. For me, what Hitler did to the children of his country, there are no words to describe what I felt. Just writing this review makes me cry.

Mr. Heck, if you are still with us, I hope you will continue to write and publish. And I hope you have peace at last.

This is one of the most powerful books I've read in a long time. Richard L. Miller deserves an award. In this book, the author details the erosion of civil liberties by the current war on drugs. For those familiar with this area, he trots out the typical points: harsh penalties for minor violations and loss of civil liberties for all.

But what makes this book special is the author's analysis of legal issues and history. Richard Miller is an independent scholar who has written about Nazi justice (in "Nazi Justiz"). I thought his application of Nazi jurisprudence to the drug war was overkill at first. Little did I know just how wrong I was. As one reviewer put it, this book will help you lose weight.

What sets this book above the others on the drug war is that Miller explains how the war effects the innocent, and how innocence is no longer an adequate defense. In fact, Miller has a Justice Department official quoted as saying that innocence was not a defense to forfeiture of assets. He argues that asset forfeiture has corrupted law enforcement at all levels.

In one example, Miller tells of an elderly couple in one California county who owned a mutil-million dollar ranch adjacent to a national park. Apparently, the Park Service wanted the land, the local law enforcement the assets (in the form of the house, possessions, etc.). Thus, police had to get a warrant to raid the property. First, they searched it illegally. This is a typical tactic of DEA agents and local law enforcement, who search a house and either plant or discover evidence that they can use to get a warrent later. Regardless, the courts have determined that even illegal searches and seizures are acceptable in the war on drugs. All of this is documented in the book. Even in the illegal search, no drugs were discovered. An elderly couple, go figure?

If you think that stopped the police, DEA, et al., then you haven't read the book. One local officer testified before a judge that "thousands" of marijuana plants were being cultivated on the property. This testimony was based on a lie told to the officer by another. Although both were aware of the lie (and the couple's complete innocence of ANYTHING), this way neither officer could be chared with perjury. Needless to say, the judge issued the warrant.

During the raid, the husband was sleeping. He was roused awake by his wife's screaming and was shot to death as he put down his rifle, which he had becuase he thought he was being robbed and was defending his wife. The agents participating in the raid evicted the wife. Even agents of the U.S. Park Service were involved, in case you doubted their complicity.

It gets better. The location of the ranch was in a different county than the one in which the local police were from! They went out of their own jurisdiction for the express purpose of seizing property from people THEY KNEW were innocent. All of this was expressed by the county prosecutor (where the ranch was), when he said that they appeared to be motivated by a desire to obtain the property and assests of its owners.

This book is meticulously documented and researched. The analysis of the legal issues with references to the Nuremburg Tribunal and Nazi legal principles is stunning. As well as his telling of the internment of Japenese-Americans to demonstrate how segments of society can be treated if the propaganda warriors desire their elimination.

If you're not enraged by the time you're finished reading this book, your heart is dead.

The author has done the work and now the citizens must spread the "gospel". Like a seer Lawrence is able to anticipate the insane trajectory of where this drug war is leading. Though the picture he paints is ugly, if these drug warrior zealots are not vigorously challenged now he clearly shows how much uglier it will become. The evil of Nazi Germany and that of the US drug war are clearly shown to progress via the same chain of events: identification, ostracism, confiscation, concentration, and the final solution ie annihilation. Miller is an American hero doing the best he can to awaken conciousness.

As a passionate archenemy of the "Drug War", the "Drug Czar" and everything else brearhing of fascism in this once-free country, I have read many many boks and articles against this so-called war. I even try (if possible without gagging) to read books that try to support this horrendous farce - many of which are written by people who are drug warriors themselves or just terribly deluded) because I think it's very important to know my enemy. Of all the books that I have ever read on this atrocity, this book has got to be the most articulate and momentous. Other books slash at the war, make fun of it, and are often quite entertaining as well as frightening. Entertainment definitely has its place, and it is great when one is (somehow) able to laugh at even matters as horrendous as child-beatings, rapes, and drug warriors. Sometimes that's the only way we can face the grim realities. This book spares, for the most part, any humor, however, and just tells us, very convincingly, how it is. The author's thesis is simple: He sees a direct parallel between the drug war and the Nazis in Germany. I would like to believe that he is being too extremist in his position. Surely our drug czar and his henchmen will never be as ruthless and terrifying as Hitler! That's what I once thought too, but after reading the book I was convinced otherwise. The creators of this "drug-war" are no mere well-intentioned fools or people ignorant of abstract concepts such as freedom. They have one clear goal in mind: power, power and more power. Let's hope enough Americans wake up in time and the see chasm into which the road is leading us! This incredibly well researched and articulate just may wake us up in time - that is, if it doesn't scare us to death first. Read the book! Read it NOW!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!

Gordon Wilson (Mathematician, Libertarian, and a bit of a mixture between Paul Revere and Patrick Henry )

"The Fix" is one of the most superb works I have read on a relatively new topic in society. Mr. Massing, although he does suggest that the war on drugs has failed, does not preach in this book. He explains in gripping detail the trials of drug abusers, rehabilitation clinics, poor communities, and more. This is neither a text book nor a piece of fiction; it seemlessly integrates key facts and scholarly commentary with a powerful narrative on the effect on drugs on society. If you are interested in the subject of drugs in society, you are missing out on one of the most incisive books on the top if you don't read this book.

This book is about drug policy in America. It is a celebration of the Drug policy enacted by Nixon and a criticism of the drug war. The book is two layered, the author follows around a worker who deals with drug addicts and talks about his life running a poor under funded agency while at the same time talking about the broader issues.

All drugs cause society some problems. Probably the most costly drugs for society are alcohol and tobacco. Heroin and Crack however have a very visible cost in an increase in criminality. Drug dependant people often drift into various forms of crime to support their habits. Other drugs such as cannabis also have side effects and there is evidence that long term use can cause a range of problems.

The book suggests that the policy developed by Nixon was in fact the correct policy. That is by making provision for rehabilitation centres for treatment of drug addicts. Rehab centres are cheap by comparison with jails and significantly cut drug use and criminality. The author of the book refers to studies carried out by the RAND Corporation into the cost benefits of such programs to support his case.

During the Reagan years the direction of drug policy changed. A number of parents groups had sprung up suggesting that teenage use of cannabis was responsible for a range of adolescent social problems. Money was taken from rehab centres to fund Nancy Reagan's "say not to drugs campaign".

In reality the "say no to drugs campaign has been successful." Cannabis and other drug use in American is far lower for adolescents than for other comparable countries. The basic problem was that as resources were taken from rehab centres hard drug use skyrocketed. This in turn led to the substitution of imprisonment as the main response to drug dependant criminality. The cost has been significant with a tremendous social cost of prison construction lessening funds for other government programs such as eduction. The arrest of drug dependant people also has led to massive increases in the imprisonment of Afro American people.

This book is one of the more impressive written on one of the significant issues facing American society,

Michael Massing's book is an engrossing account of the evolution of drug policy in the past 30 years. He traces the ineffective twists and turns of the government's approaches, ironically beginning with the promising work of Dr. Jerome Jaffe, the first drug czar in Nixon's first term. His narrative shifts between the policymakers in Washington and the efforts of an outreach worker in Spanish Harlem to help others with virtually no resources. Massing concludes that a lot more resources need to be applied to the treatment of hard core addicts with less for interdiction. He maintains that treatment does work, we know what to do, but have been influenced by fadism all along the way. An obvious example is "Just Say No" but a less obvious one is the effort that suburban parents began in the late '70s to move resources to treat kids for pot smoking. Policy makers in the drug arena will find this book valuable in presenting a case for the enhancement of resources for those most in need.

I've read all the reviews of Schmidt's efforts on matter of European Integration. And here's what I think. She is destined to embrace the English model and the English model, I'm convinced will embrace her. They will be as one. A European Union far more robust than anything concocted in Brussels. So I, for one, would like to celebrate that true union of politics and passion and hoist a glass to Schmidt and this English Model!

As I see it, the English model must be (and no doubt is, in Schmidt's extraordinary hands) smart, generous, and prone to displays of great good humor. The English model must display the kind of maganimous spirit that say, one brother-in-law might display to another brother-in-law if the latter brother-in-law were, say, a writer needing a place to stay in England.

I've read through the review string, and I must ask about the referenced English model. Please tell me more. I know of course of Schmidt's work on French models and German models and the energy she devoted to the models of Italy and America. Before I endorse this new effort, I think we should know more.

An excellent handbook for the endless challenges encountered in the affordable housing field. Clear,concise and easy to read.
The author has obviously handled these situations in the past and has thankfully provided a tool for housing managers everywhere to use now and for years to come. A must for any property manager's library!

Glenn French, the author demonstrates his extensive knowledge of the Property Management process.The multidiciplined functions of property management are clearly defined in a very usable and sequential manner. The content and writing tempo in each chapter are professionally written in such a manner that provides the student/beginning Property Manager with a useful learning tool. The book is also interesting reading for persons who are interested in a better understanding of Professional Property Management.

All residential managers would profit by reading this book. Mr.French obviously has extensive experience that he conveys very effectively.

Bill Wrights' PEOPLE'S LIVES is a straightforward approach that uses photography to show that our skins may be different colors, and our cultures may be diverse, but we are all tied together as members of the same humanity. Bill Wright is a photographer that shows us the world without making us voyeurs. His photographs invite us to have a clear understanding of our part in the family of man.

A beautifully simple and simply beautiful book. Wonderfully seen photographs that really do capture and celebrate the human spirit. So many other photography books seem to be published solely to be jarring, hip, and fashionable. People's Lives stands out from this crowd as genuine, authentic, and mostly, just plain real. Well worth the price of admission to this more gentle view of our world.

Bill Wright's wonderful photographs and commentary have a unique abilty to draw the reader/viewer into an emotional attachment to his subjects. I've yet to see one that didn't make me think, "I'd like to know this person."

This book is solidly grounded in theoretical and analytical rationales. Yet, it presents a counterintuitive conclusion: Sanctions and boycotts do not work. We may have wasted our time pressuring multinationals that operated in South Africa, and now in Burma, Iraq and Israel. A must read to understand the dynamics of global power and how multinationals stave off controls.

This book takes an academic view of the theory behind multunational corporations.

Strengths: It skilfully questions some of the basic assumptions behind the modern theory of the multinational -- as the author illustrates these assumptions permeate all our other global theories but do not have predictive validity. It also tackles a very important social issue, whether our methods to influence multinational corporations work. Did they work in South Africa? The author very convincingly proves that they did not.

Weaknesses: Some of the weaknesses are inescapable in a scholarly work. The detailed quantitative analysis and data may be skipped (as the author indicates) by policy-makers. However, a large chapter deals with this issue. Also, although the author extends her theory of multinational corporations as chameleons from South Africa to other hotspots such as Myanmar (Burma) and Nike, I would have liked her to tackle some social questions: such as whether our pressuring multinational corporations to leave South Africa extended white economic domination in the country. This question and others of its ilk are probably politically incorrect, or beyond the book's already large scope, and the author skirts them. Consquently, this book leaves you thinking -- and that may be what a good book should do.

All in all a very comprehensive, systematic and courageous look at the assumptions, theories and institutions that shape global society.

Five stars!

The scholarly literature on multinational corporations is very weak when it comes to explaining why multinationals leave. This is the focus of this book. After one of the best reviews EVER on research regarding the multinational corporation, the author presents a very detailed study on why they left South Africa. The implications for this study extend to anyone who wants to know why multinationals leave -- or anyone who wants to influence whether they stay or leave! Excellent and highly recommended

Jane Fountain wants to understand the implications of information technology - particularly the Internet - for institutional change in government. The research reported in this book deals with three experiments in applying information technology in the U.S. government in the 1990s: the establishment of an International Trade Data Base (ITDB) for administering the North American Free Trade Agreement, the development of a one-stop shopping informational web site for small businesses called the U.S. Business Advisor, and efforts to modernize the use of information technology within the Ninth Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. On the basis of these three cases, Fountain concludes that the introduction of information technology "disrupts complex ecologies of institutionalized power relationships" (p. 205) inside governments and institutional actors, as a result, attempt to reconstruct those disrupted relationships in unanticipated and sometimes regrettable ways. Sometimes the disruption is so great that the resistance to the introduction of new technology prevails and "many potential connections remain unforged, and numerous opportunities to gain stunning efficiencies, cost savings, integrated services and joint problem solving in complex policy areas lie fallow." (p. 201)

In Chapter 1, the author distinguishes between "objective" and "enacted" technology. Enacted technology is the result of the introduction of objective technology in a set of social relationships where resistance to introduction is possible. This distinction reflects the author's concern for possible gap between the potential of objective technology and the actuality of enacted technology.

Chapter 2 focuses on the National Policy Review (NPR), an initiative of the first term of the Clinton administration that was led by Vice President Al Gore. The NPR was supposed to come up with recommendations on how to "reengineer" government in a manner analogous to the contemporaneous reengineering of business - that is, via the introduction of information technologies to reduce the costs of sharing information within organizations. It was hoped that this would reduce hierarchy, make possible huge cost savings, and empower citizens. The NPR provoked a lot of discussion and debate within the government about how to accomplish these aims and the three experiments studied by Fountain were all influenced by it. Nevertheless, each of these experiments had its own impetus and logic that went considerably beyond the NPR.

The first experiment, the establishment of ITDB, followed mainly from the signing and ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA required important changes in the handling of trade-related traffic across the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican borders. The previous growth in international trade had already forced the U.S. Customs Bureau (a sub-agency of the Treasury Department) to automate its processing of trade clearances. The ITDB proposed to go much further by integrating a variety of trade and non-trade functions at the borders to deal with trade in both legal and illegal goods, legal and illegal immigration, while simultaneously upgrading the ability of the government to collect and analyze trade data. Unfortunately, worries about the potential delayed deliveries of goods due to overly ambitious government monitoring of trade on the part of businesses gave them a good reason to support efforts of the Customs Bureau to maintain primary authority over the processing of trade documents. The Customs Bureau felt threatened by ITDB and resisted efforts by other agencies to invade its turf. A series of bureaucratic battles ensued with the results well described by Fountain in Chapter 7.

In Chapter 8, Fountain considers the efforts of an interagency task force to establish a web site to provide a single portal for information about government regulations for small business owners. The U.S. Business Advisor was developed and deployed successfully and it won awards for utility and user-friendliness. However, the incentive structure within the U.S. government was not very good at encouraging the sort of continuous interagency coordination and cooperation needed to maintain the site, so it soon developed broken links that were not repaired and needed upgrades did not occur.

In Chapter 9, Fountain describes the efforts of the Ninth Infantry Division to modernize its information systems by creating a Divisional intranet. The first problem, that of overcoming the resistance of field commanders, to substituting paper-and-pencil-based systems with electronic ones, was dealt with by giving too much power to mid-level officers to design the system. The superior officers had difficulty specifying what particular information they needed because of the complexity of the tasks they performed, so they ended up being swamped with a lot of unnecessary information. The soldiers who previously were trained to submit written forms to the mid-level officers moved to electronic submission without sufficient training and without complete knowledge of how this information would be used at higher levels. They became "de-skilled." The mid-level officers suggested intranet designs that enabled them to do their jobs more efficiently but did not enhance the quality of information that went to their superior officers.

The best feature of this book, therefore, is the honest description of what actually happens -- as opposed to what is supposed to happen - when new information technology is introduced into government agencies. In order to get to this part of the book, however, the reader is made to plow through six chapters on theory, all quite well done, that do not necessarily have to be there given the empirical focus of the research. Students of bureaucracy and technology will certainly benefit from the reading of these chapters. But other readers may be excused for getting impatient when the first empirical material is introduced on page 107. Nevertheless, Jane Fountain's book is a serious and well-written effort to understand the challenges associated with modernizing the U.S. government by introducing new information technologies.

This book is the first work analyzing Digital Government, with special emphasis on the the risks and caveats of egov projects and dynamics between structure and technology. Fountain's "Technology Enactment" framework is specially useful for analyzing egov projects, and understanding their complexity generated by strength of institutional barriers and required operational change.

The strength of this book, as some of the other reviews state, is that it clearly illustrates that the promise of technology will be fulfilled only if governments and other organizations understand how the human side of organizations either supports or undermines the implementation of technologies. This has become very clear particularly this past year as we read press reports that focus on how political divisions between government departments inhibit our ability to effectively pursue critical initiatives (e.g., terrorism is the most striking example, but decisions related to health care is another example). By describing and analyzing several real cases, Fountain identifies problems that hinder the best use of technology as well as solutions that promote best practices in an engaging way. The theoretical rigor, as well as practical application, makes this a useful book for both academics and practitioners. Personally, I hope that all people who are responsible for implementing policies related to the use of technology in government read this important book.

Paul Slanksy evidently hates everyone, and the 80's supplied him with more than enough material to nail them all. Obviously, Republicans take far more abuse because the book IS about the Reagan era. This book is funny and really cuts through the nostalgia many (GOP in particular) hold about the 80's. Great Read.

If I owned a time machine, I'd go back to the late seventies when Reagan was starting his campaign and drop copies of this book all over the country.

Perhaps it could have helped.

The idea that someone so incompetant and clueless could become PRESIDENT is a sobering thought.

The cover has been crudely taped on backwards, the cover laminate is gone, the pages are dog eared, but my copy still holds together after countless re-readings.
Chronological, exhaustive coverage of the gaffes and shocking lies told to the american public that made reagan so memorable (or should have), combined with gems of pop culture, entertainment, crime, and so on. An illustrated, cynical diary of soundbites and factoids. If you were under the general impression that reagan wasn't that bad of a president, you will walk away from this a changed person: he WAS'NT the president! The ascerbic commentary may seem occasionally unfair, (more so if your a republican), but 9 times out of 10 it hits straight on, attacking both democrats and republicans with their own quotes and foolishness. But mostly reagan.

As an Egyptian who came to America I was amazed by an American who had such a clear view and analysis of what is going in Egypt, and I hope many American and non-Egyptians would read her book. She tried (with a great success) to let her readers be "Egyptians" in their view to what is happening in their country. Her best conclusion, and which she, intelligently, leaves to the reader to conclude, is that a grassroots solution is always much more effective (and democratic) than an imposed solution (where the solution here is having an Islamic society)

Abdo's work is very impressive and timely. While Abdo has made clear a clear distinction between Orthodox and militant Islam, she seem to have been completely unreceptive to other genuine forms of Islam such as Sufism or moderate Islam. As such, she has adopted a narrow view of Islam, that of Orthodox Islam or Brotherhood's Islam and saw all others as either secularists or militant.

The Jest of Abdo's findings of the non violent nature of the vast majority of Fundamentalist or Orthodox Moslems was very well presented in her first chapter. Her analysis of the multitude of educated and affluent women willingly taking up the veil was enlightening.

Most fascinating was Abdo's contrast of the situation in Iran to that of Egypt, and how the non-political social Islamic movement in Egypt has produced a more religious society than the Political imposed from above Islam of Iran

Most disappointing is Abdo's failure to represent the alternate pious views of Islam in Egypt, views that accept the religion but see a separation between Government and religion. Such as separation, contrary to Abdo's reading of history is more than the norm of an Egypt that had separate roles for the Sultan, and the Caliph for centuries

Religion and people all over the world are the same, this book is no different in that it has a hidden undertone for a search for truth. Thats why I rate it 5 star. Any time we have authors like this we are receiveing a great contribution. The book does have a message, in general for help, enlightenment, and a cry for response. These are the undertones of this book not the outward message of Islam in Egypt or any place else. I highly recommend reading SB 1 or God By Karl Mark Maddox.