transport-economics Books

Mr Maxtone Graham's work is a pure piece of art for all people with a love for classic liners and their times. It revives a (regrettably) lost way of life. A true bible.

I have two copies of this book and keep one on our boat in Ft Pierce, FL for guests to read and one at home for ME to re-read. Although we have cruised on the blue-water fleet numerous times, I love to read about the pre-jet crossings of a (seemingly) romantic and for the most part, by-gone era. When you read this book, it is so evocative tht you can close your eyes and almost imagine that you are there on a chilly quai in New York City about to depart for the great cities of Europe on one of the great liners. An absolute MUST READ for any ocean liner fan. I re-read this one often in the wee hours of the morning.

I devoured this book and you will too. John Maxtone-Graham is one of a kind, a marine historian who is urbane, erudite, and literate. He has written an absorbing book, filled with fun, details, anecdotes, and marine dreams. Here's to Big Ships and big dreams - That toast has a kind of 1920's ring to it. But I loved it. You will too.

I had the pleasure of meeting John Maxtone-Graham aboard the SS Norway in 1985. He autographed a copy of "The Only Way to Cross" and I have read it at least 3 times. I'll never tire of his detailed accounts of the ships and the people that made that era.

What I found really wonderful about the book was not only learning about the best parts of transatlantic travel but the worst as well. The section on Steerage as well as on the Boiler rooms show you every side of what life was like aboard the grandest ships to ever ply the oceans of the world.

If you buy only one book in your life buy this one!

This is a must read for any Oceanliner or ship fan. It will transport you back to the days when the steamship was truly the only way to cross. After reading this book you'll realize that those floating barge-hotels that Carnival and the other Megalines call ships will never be Luxury liners! Long live the SS Norway!

This brilliantly written text shows Ritter's ability to take a very complex subject and make it simple and easy to understand. As pioneer of Total Security Management, Ritter provides the reader with a value management solution within their core business function. This is extremely valuable information for anyone in the trade, safety and security, logistics and transportation industries. Susan Wellman, Business Owner, SA Advisors Securing Global Transportation Networks

Ritter's book is a lesson for all CEO's and C-level execs on the importance of understanding the value of security at each critical link in their supply network. Through real examples and thorough explanations the book takes a practical approach to explaining and encouraging the value of security -- for most it is the most critical piece of their business because when it fails, the business usually fails. It's that simple. Securing Transportation Networks helps any executive understand how security adds value to their bottom line and their long term success. In my experience the ROI for any investment is management's top concern -- the book provides the why's and the benefits of a system that more holistically includes security in every day processes ultimately assuring business continuity and survival. Can't recommend it highly enough -- not only for those involved in supply chain but for any executive who relies on other suppliers or networks for their business.

This is an excellent book for anyone involved at any level in securing our global transportation networks; or ultimately for anyone that makes decisions that will have an affect positively or negatively on the ability for security personnel to execute their jobs. The book provides a solid foundation by presenting the Total Security Management (TSM) concept in building blocks that tie in together to formulate a strong base of knowledge.

The presented information is easy to understand for all personnel and shows how by following these guidelines they will achieve greater security of all assets (fixed, in-transit, brand equity, and human capital) and just as importantly, how they will do so with costs in balance to the risk level needed for that particular industry or organization. By providing such a strong foundation, the security industry and more specifically security personnel, now have another strong tool at their disposal for presenting a common frame of reference to advance all aspects of securing the transportation network and doing so in line with the concerns of companies that are facing a down and challenged economy.

Perhaps this is its strongest asset, in providing personnel in the security field with a solid tool and base of reference to assist them with highlighting and justifying what are truly legitimate concerns for their specific industry while at the same time providing strong evidence to support their conclusions; and ultimately show how well thought out actions and expenditures based on sound metrics will be in that organizations best interests and will ultimately prove cost effective in the long term both in terms of dollar values and brand equity.

Its a great book, very usefull. The product arrived in time and in proper conditions.

Everything we use everyday comes from somewhere. Getting that product from point A to point B in a timely, cost-effective way is important to everyone in the transportation industry. But the attacks against America both domestically and abroad have shown that we are as vulnerable as ever, and one way to secure our business interests is to secure our transportation networks.
That is the subject of this excellent book, written by three veterans of the industry and featuring a foreward by Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security. Using their years of experience, the authors develop in the book the concept of Total Security Management, and use compelling case studies to illustrate their point that a secure business is a successful business. The book breaks down the global transportation process, shows where value is added along the way, and how to maximize that value while minimizing risk, not only from terrorism but from other less malicious but equally damaging impacts. The book further demonstrates the financial benefits of investing in security, and also how to protect physical corporate assets, whether they be fixed or goods in transit. A "Book of the Month" of the American Society for Industrial Security in December 2006, this book is a must for anyone working in or around global transportation industries.

Fanny Trollope (1779-1863) wrote over 35 novels and several non-fictions books in her effort to rescue her family from poverty. However, the most read of all her books is "Domestic Manners of the Americans" which she published in 1832. It was in that distant year that Fanny and two of her children traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. Her purpose was to join a utopian community in Tennessee whose denizens were freed slaves.
Fanny left her impecunious and feckless husband the barrister Thomas Trollope back home in England. Her famous son Anthony did not make the trip as he was a student at Harrow School. Fanny knew her husband would join her in the USA when money became available. Later the family would flee to Bruges to escape creditors. Fanny eventually lived out her life in Florence near her son Thomas Trollope.
After leaving Tennessee the Trollopes settled for two years in the Queen City of the West Cincinnati, Ohio. Fanny did not like America or the American people! She found us xenephobic; boastful, prideful and violent.She hated the hypocrisy of life in Midwest Ohio although she did attend such cultural attractions as opera, plays and lectures. She favored the state Anglican Church of Great Britain not caring for America's separation between church and state.
This book could well be read alongside Charles Dickens' "American Notes for General Circulation" based on his 1842 six month trip to the USA.
Both Trollope and Dickens found the Americans crude, lacking in manners
and eager to make a quick buck. Listen to Trollope at her most scathing:
"..among the rich and the poor, in the slave states, and in the free states...I do not like them. I do not like their principals, I do not like their manners, I do not like their opinions." (p.314).
Fanny Trollope's book is more interesting than Dickens since she discusses colorful characters and shares anecdotes about her sojourn in our young republic. Like Dickens she hates the odious practice of tobacco chewing and the mangling of the English language. Trollope found us Yankees to be too serious and viewing us as poorly read. Unlike the wealthy and famous Dickens, Mrs. Trollope was a middle-aged woman fighting off poverty with her pen. I enjoyed her descriptions of nature such as those she paints of the Potomac River, Northern Virginia and the Niagra Falls area in New York and Canada. She is aware of flora and fauna and describes them with knowledge and in beautiful prose.
Dickens and Trollope give us the eye to see America in the days prior to the Civil War when the curse of chattel slavery ruled the land. Since those days America has granted freedom to all citizens. I wish both Fanny and Charles could visit us again in the 21st century. Their remarks would be of great interest to this reviewer and countless others!

Very entertaining read of the author's trip through 19th Century America, full of wonderful description and enlightening observations. Despite the griping below, Mrs Trollope simply reports what she sees - men spitting tobacco on the floor, ladies off in another room while the guys have a good time, etc. She reports accurately on our forefathers' rugged pioneer spirit, but points out the lack of education everywhere. We want to shout "lies!" but Mark Twain wrote about the same thing, and the aspects of our society that haven't changed much are still being commented on with the same frankness by writers like Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Dawn Powell, Paul Theroux and Joan Didion. Many true-hearted Americans will enjoy this book no end. Mrs Trollope clearly loved America and simply wrote truthfully about; she is simply beholden to no one - the essence of good writing. A thoroughly refreshing read.

This is an extremely entertaining commentary on American manners and well written. I agree, however, with Mrs. Trollope's son, Anthony, who commented that Mrs. Trollope is a keen observer but she understands little. Certainly her complaints about the lack of gentility among Americans is valid but she completely missed the wonderful lack of class restraints endemic to English society which afforded Americans "class mobility"--freedom of opportunity (except for native Americans and slaves).

This is both a great read and an important historical document. Fanny Trollope was the mother of Anthony Trollope, perhaps the most prolific English novelist of the nineteenth century and my favorite. Fanny's husband was ineffectual in the breadwinning department, but fortunately for the family, Fanny herself was energetic and enterprising. She took one of her sons (not Anthony) and an artistic young man to the United States. She was planning to join a friend of hers who was a mover in setting up the utopian community in Harmony, Indiana, but the place turned out to be squalid, and she didn't stay long.

Fanny spent most of her time in the U.S. in Cincinnati and in her book is very hard on the city and its inhabitants. She especially objected to the pigs' role as garbage collectors. (In those days, pigs roamed the streets freely, like sheep grazing.) Fanny felt most of the people she encountered were loud, dirty, vulgar, and fanatically patriotic. It is her vivid descriptions of the physical conditions and the people that give this book its historical and entertainment value.

While she was living in Cinci, she opened a retail emporium and filled it with rather shoddy merchandise sent from England by her husband. She also attempted to bring culture to the inhabitants. Not surprisingly, both ventures failed.

After Mrs. Trollope returned to England, she supported her family by writing novels that were quite popular at the time, though they haven't become the classics her son's have. She spent her final years living in Italy with another son and his wife.

All I can say is: what a great read! Who knew? Quite frankly, upon first sight of this book I must admit a bit of dread as the puritanical artwork does not smack of fun and games. Of course, as a literature student, I should know better than to ever judge a book by its cover.
Had I been Fanny Trollope writing such an account of America in the 1820s, I would be hardpressed to say that I would have changed a single word. Trollope has been the victim of many mean spirited caricatures and accusations by Americans and it still continues today, but what is interesting is that no one can do more than attack her person. In other words, no one seems to be able to refute her claims.
Trollope's "bitchiness" seems, for the most part, merited by my standards and while she finds much to complain about concerning an American democracy in its adolescence, she certainly discovers just as many things that she likes or finds beautiful.
Plain and simple, Americans collectively have a hard time taking criticism, especially from an outsider...and at that time, political criticism from a woman was deemed absurd if not audacious.
Last but not least, Fanny Trollope is always sure to preface anything she says with the conscious realization that she can only speak for what she has seen/heard personally and is thereby not judging ALL of America.
Trollope is witty and anecdotal and I think anyone interested in what an outspoken Englishwoman had to say about the New World should certainly pick up a copy. I found particular interest in gender/religious issues but got the most laughs out of her descriptions of American manners (or the lack thereof).
It is always interesting to see how much things have changed, and better yet, how many things have remained exactly the same!

I highly recommend this to anyone in the technology and engineering fields. I had Augustine autograph and earlier edition. He asked what I thought of the book, and I replied that I "did not know whether to laugh or cry over the information." He replied that I really understood the book. I b ought this to read the update, but I am keeping my autographed copy with followup entries I made. I see that Augustine is still in there pitching, most recently selected to head a study team on manned space flight.

This irreverent collection of 52 "Peter Principles" of "What NOT to do" if one wants to become a successful problem-solving manager, is management thinking of a very high order. There is just nothing else like it in the management literature.

It is prescriptive thinking and advice that can be, and indeed should be applied to any field of problem-solving. It is nothing if not a reference manual on why "common sense" approaches should not be relied upon exclusively. Augustine, without trying, and without saying so explicitly, demonstrates how and where "common sense" often breaks down. That is not to suggest that Norm Augustine was not often an advocate of "common sense' approaches himself, far from it: he just always warned against complete reliance on common sense.

As one of only a handful of Analysts who had the privilege of working with Norm well before he became famous, and went on to become the CEO of Martin-Marietta, among his many other accomplishments, Augustine's Laws have evolved from Norm's own personal management style and timely admonitions, from the time of one of his first management jobs as Manager of the "Systems Analysis Directorate" of the Douglas Missile and Systems Division (which was at the time, soon-to-become "The McDonald-Douglas Systems Analysis Directorate."). Even then, Norm was cautious about over-reliance on "common sense" especially in complex-problem solving situations. He always wanted to "look beyond and behind" the common sense approaches.

At the time that I worked for Norm, he was a young honors math graduate from Princeton U. who hit the ground running as one of "Mac Narmara's whiz kids" ready to help solve the many problems of the "Cold War." He was thrown into a den of other elite and very talented Mathematicians and political scientists, to head up, and solve, among other interesting projects: that of helping to develop the MIRV missile system; designing launch vehicles to take payloads to the moon; and designing adequate missile defense systems (like the Nike-Zeus system) to protect the U.S. homeland.

I may be the only person in the world who still has one of his beautifully written unclassified mathematical analyses of how MIRVs actually solved the American "throw-weight' disadvantage problem with the then Soviet Union. Frank Eastman, Joe Rebholtz, Richard Johnson, Robert Young, James Brinsley, and Wayne Martin, all of whom are Phds now and who also went on to their own separate stellar careers, can testify to Norm's brilliance and skill at applying these 52 laws doing those heady days.

This is an invaluable compendium of pragmatic wisdom that should be tucked away in a safe place not just in the library, but also in the brain, always available for ready use.

50 stars

Norm Augustine has captured the government defense aerospace industry "sprawling on a pin" for dissection. In one particularly humorous bit he points out that just when the aerospace industry's trend to more and more expensive combat aircraft looked like it might be stalled since adding weight is anathema to aircraft -- along came something expensive and weightless to fill the gap -- software! This is one terrific book! Just the figure showing there is no correlation between what executives are paid and the performance of their companies is worth the price of admission.

Accurate, Funny, and informative. This book captures the real (and not so real) world of government and other large projects spot on. Having been on both sides (NASA and contractor), there be truth in this wit. Enjoy. To be appreciated, best read while sitting on a $600 toilet seat.

I would not have ever expected to find myself laughing out loud, nor even smiling often while reading a book that discusses government projects and corporations who contract them. Norman Augustine provides a clear and critical insight into the corporate-government affairs world with just enough graphs and charts to make it comprehensible yet not overbearing. I found it as light reading - which is a virtue on it's own when reading about such complex a subject.

This book is great as a reference and as a source of important information concerning no frill airlines. The author's writing style is relaxed and lively. Whether you are just trying to kill some time by reading, or, you are a frequent flier, this is a great book for you. I learned a lot of useful information that I am planning on using whenever I travel again.

Having lived and worked in Dallas since 1976, I am among those who heavily depend upon Southwest Airlines for both business and personal airline transportation, and, who feel great respect as well as affection for its former CEO, Herb Kelleher. It was thus with special interest, indeed eagerness that I began to read Calder's book in which he carefully examines each of those European airlines which are obviously in great debt (both philosophically and operationally) to "Herb" and his unique airline. It is important to remember, however, that imitation may be the highest form of flattery but there is far more involved in approximating Southwest's success than many may assume. According to Kelleher, "You can get the same airplane. You can get the same ticket counters.  You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways. That is why I say that our employees are our competitive protection."

That is precisely why David Neeleman and his JetBlue associates continue to commit so much of their resources to identifying, interviewing, hiring, and then training new "crewmembers," NOT "employees" nor even "associates." Long before Neeleman went to work for Southwest, he recalls a conversation with Kelleher. According to Neeleman, Kelleher said "I don't care about my shareholders." Neeleman was shocked. What did he mean? Was Kelleher really serious? "Because I just take care of my employees. I know if I take care of my employees, they'll take care of my customers, and my customers will take care of my shareholders." Presumably Michael O'Leary (then deputy chief executive of Ryanair) has comparable memories of his own conversations with Kelleher, especially during his (O'Leary's) visit in Dallas (1991). As he explained to Calder during one of several interviews, "Once we saw what Southwest was doing we thought this could be the way forward. We're imitating Southwest: selling at the lowest possible price to the maximum number of people. We've been replicating that successful formula now for the last twelve years with tremendous success." It is noteworthy that in 1991, Ryanair was (in O'Leary's own words) "hovering on the verge of bankruptcy. In Spring 1991 I thought it would be a miracle if we were still in business three months later." In 2001, Ryanair was more valuable than the biggest airline in the world.

In this volume Calder, explains how that extraordinary turnaround was accomplished. He also examines with equal rigor other airlines and their CEOs, revealing sometimes similar but often different strategies and tactics with which they compete against each other during what Calder characterizes as "the low-cost revolution in the skies" above the UK and continental Europe. All of these airlines (e.g. Ryanair, easyJet, Buzz, Go) have obviously been influenced by "the Southwest way." That said, of greatest interest and value to me is how extensively Calder takes his reader "behind the scenes, where the decisions that change the way we travel are taken, and scores are settled." The reader may conclude that "the no-frills runway is more like a school playground; but to traditional airlines, and even some train operators, the no-frills carriers represent a potentially deadly threat." It will be interesting to see which of the no-frills airlines throughout Europe and Asia prosper, which struggle, and which fail. It will also be interesting to see how the traditional airlines respond to the on-going, always volatile, and inevitably unpredictable "revolution" now in progress. Perhaps Calder will share his thoughts about all this in another book which (obviously) cannot be written for several years.

Those who enjoy this book as much as I did are urged to check out Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg's Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, James Wynbrandt's Flying High: How JetBlue Founder and CEO David Neeleman Beats the Competition, Jody Hoffer Gittell's The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance, and Gordon Bethune's From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback.

The No Frills sector of airlines is revolutionizing the way airlines do business. Simon Calder does an excellent job of exploring this trend in both Europe and the United States. If you are not somewhat familiar with European airlines and the difference between No Frills, flag carriers, and majors than you may want to read some other books before coming to this one. If you are somewhat knowledgeable though this is a great book to start with. Very well written and covers things in exhausting detail. The analysis is top notch and this book is essential for anyone studying the airline industry.

"No Frills: The Truth Behind the Low Cost Revolution in the Skies" is a guide to understand how this kind of airline works.
It's perfect to understand the structure and the way they manage to get the profits, Simon Calder has made a perfect book.

I highly recommend this book for those people who want to know how a low fare airline works.

The growth of low cost airlines in Europe, the USA and elsewhere in the last few years has been astounding to many observers. The carriers have profoundly changed the nature of the airline industry in the largest aviation markets in Europe and the USA. The book "No Frills" by Simon Calder is therefore very timely and informative to all the stakeholders of the aviation industry ranging from airlines, governments, the travelling public, airline management, employees, regulators, distributors of airline services and suppliers of aircraft, spares and other related services.

Millions of people are enjoying the benefits of low cost services. Large numbers of passengers are defecting from the traditional legacy carriers to these low cost airlines, not just those who traditionally travel economy class but also those who normally fly business class. This excellent book traces the low cost carriers from the early success story of South West Airlines in the USA to the highly profitable and dynamic airlines such as Ryannair, easyJet and others.

Those wishing to learn about this latest phenomenon in the airline industry are recommended to read this book. Readers will be able to understand why some of the largest legacy carriers are having it rough and why some have gone under. Those wishing to establish their own low cost airlines will benefit immensely from the experiences of the successful low cost airlines.

My grandfather was a conductor on the railroad and retired about 10 years ago. He is recently widowed and is very lonely. I'm not sure what this book is like or about but he loves the railroad and is always talking about his years on the rails. I would like to know if this book would be a good birthday gift for him next week.

Gritty, dusty, muddy, ballast-strewn dirt under foot. A coppery feeling in the mouth. Eyes strained and burning, almost too tired to open. Perpetual noise---the incessant squeaking, grinding, thumping and crashing of heavy, lumbering machinery. Break time, and the codgers slumping in straight-back chairs leaned against the wall are all snoring, smoking, or describing their latest sexual conquests. Oily, smoky air stinking of hot grease. The feel, smell, look and sound of heavy industry, all the same day after day, night after night. These are the sensations that Niemann and Bertucci's book leaves in the reader's mind.

The title and even the subject matter notwithstanding, I hesitate to categorize this book as a volume on railroading. The impressions of the people and their work-lives that are featured in the prose and the photographs are descriptive of all those who labor in the blue-collar jobs of heavy industry. These railroaders have much in common with miners, steel mill workers, grain elevator operators, truck builders, and all the rest on whom our nation's economy depends.

If we must, because of its focus, speak of it as a railroad book, let us be clear about what it is not: There are no ballads or wreck songs here, no folklore about John Henry or Casey Jones, no heroic histories of rail disasters, no financial analyses or statistics of ton-miles hauled or ruminations on the nostalgic era of steam locomotives. What we really have is a book of contemporary photographs, some taken with film and some painted with the brush of words. Both kinds of photos reveal the grass-roots operating railroader and the real, unembellished, and usually uninspiring environment in which he or she labors.

What is the lasting value of this book? It is truly American sociology and history. Not the history of the corporate board room. Not the history of company economics. Not even the technological history behind roller bearings and the huge diesel-electrics that haul unit trains from Powder River coal fields to the ravenous furnaces of east coast electrical generating plants. The history in this book is both more basic and more essential, for it shows us the working conditions of the people who make the machine run, whose work enables the rail corporations to prosper, and whose personalities are shaped by the unsympathetic and unending tasks set for them.

If, Gentle Reader, you react badly to harsh language, to untempered sexual remarks, or to photos including "explicit" centerfolds taped to a yardman's locker door, then perhaps this book is not destined for your reading list. On the other hand, if you find fascination (or perhaps reminiscence) in unexpurgated portrayals of blue-collar working Americans or if you merely wish to understand the demands of such work and how it shapes the people who perform it, then I believe that you will treasure this book as a most worthy addition to your library. Whether you shelve it with your books on sociology, heavy industry, American history, or transportation will be your call. It integrates them all.

By the way, if you find fulfillment with "Railroad Voices," explore "Set Up Running," a similar exploration into the life of a real, unremarkable railroader, an engineman on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Both books show us the real world of the railroad employee with grease on his (or her) clothes, gloves on his (or her) hand, and a union dues deduction in his (or her) paycheck.

Niemann's quick patter, penetrating heartfelt look at the people around her, and brevity take us on an adventure that caters to my Tom Boy and captures my short attention span. I read it cover to cover in one day, thought about it for days later.

This is one of the best railroad books I have read in my 30+ years in the railroad industry, and I found it difficult to put down. I have shared my copy with my railroad colleagues, including several women, who all said they enjoyed it immensely, and want their own copies.

The two women have a gift for capturing the true essence of our industry. Ms. Niemann writes in the language of the trainmen's locker rooms, switch shanties and locomotive cabs, a mixture of railroad slang and profanity, but, that is the way it really is.

Lina Bertucci's photos truly convey the sense of never-ending fatigue, boredom, grime, that was (is) part of railroading, then and now. (I also had the pleasure of knowing Ms. Bertucci and some of her female co-workers when they became the first women hired by the Milw RR for train service in the '70s. Those women fought some real barriers to be accepted in what had been a all-male environment.)

I've only worked for the railroad for 2 years but reading this book brings back memories of some of my trips. I was going to wait to read this book on the plane but I just couldn't put it down. Once you read the first page, you're hooked and you want to keep reading. The railroad, in a way, is like one big family and this book brings that to the reader.

This excellent book will give you the insight to understand how transportation and cities interact.

This book presents a right track of understanding and solving the problems of today cities.

This book has provided a clear insight on sustainable transport strategies and policies which have been adopted in different countries. It is very well explained and I must say that it is the best piece the authors have actually written. It amalgamates the previous work carried out by the authors and therefore is an excellent reference book, which should be present in every transport planner's shelf and in every university.

A must-read for city planners, environmentalists, urban policymakers, and all those generally concerned with "smart growth," sustainability and a vision for the 21st century. Newman and Kenworthy make a clear case for the rethinking of our current pattern of development and why it just doesn't make sense. They offer an alternative pattern that is not only achievable, but attractive. Their study of global cities throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia is clear and conclusive. And their vision is inspiring. American cities are making their comeback based on many of the principles expressed here. Read this book and share it with all those you know!

In "The Life and Death of Great American Cities" written in the 1960s Jane Jacobs embraced complexity as a goal in itself. "How" she asked "can cities generate enough mixture among uses, enough diversity throughout enough of their territories, to sustain their own civilisation?" For Newman and Kenworthy the key idea is sustainability - "one of the most diversely applied concepts among academics and professionals discussing the future..." that "...has cut across all disciplines and professions and has developed many complexities." The car enters Newman and Kenworthy's consideration as a technology of widening individual choice. Why then is the car not the transport technology, par excellence? What unintended consequence has meant its proliferation has blighted the very thing it might have been expected to nurture?

Newman and Kenworthy argue that the car, unlike public transport, offered people who could afford it freedom to live anywhere in a city and get quickly to any other part of it. It appeared to remove the need to plan land-use. Anything could be built anywhere with drivers determining their own routes to and from home to work, shops, schools and entertainment. In the "car-city" - which Newman and Kenworthy distinguish from the "pedestrian city" and the "transit city" - it is possible to develop in any direction and not just along rivers, tramlines or railways. Dispersed low density housing becomes accessible and popular. Town planners can separate residential from industrial zones accelerating decentralisation. Public and commercial buildings no longer need to cluster as a product of the convergence of private and public investment in a particular place. Public transport constricted by timetables and fixed routes becomes second class travel.

Where the car city has been taken to extremes as in Newman and Kenworthy's intellectual territory - America and Australia - the penny dropped soonest. The social consequences that attended driving people off streets and creating boundaries round parks, squares, promenades, pavements - which had served as milieu for human interaction - only began to be widely accepted quite recently. Only now is a wedge of new economic logic being driven between the car and its enduring connection with the good life.

The car, once it ceased to be an indulgence of the rich, always represented a balance between liberation and dependency. Today, the choices promised by cars are linked transparently to those they take away. Everyone knows about exhaust emissions and most drivers, outside of advertisements, experience worsening road conditions. There is growing despondency among those who would like to use their cars less. They realise alternatives won't work unless people switch in large numbers to other ways of getting around. But the public space needed to take to the streets to walk or cycle and take trains and buses is unavailable. Many see public space as hazardous for themselves, and perilous for their children. Deprivations long imposed on people without cars apply, with increasing force, to people with them. New technology may reduce vehicle emissions. It cannot recover the enormous interaction space taken out of circulation by road traffic. Before that lost social space can become available for people outside cars, a legal and moral space has to be reclaimed.

This is why the idea of sustainability is slowly and surely turning into a value. It is the big idea which legitimates unpopular regulation. It offers space for the entrepreneurs of the future, exciting third world policy makers who want to leap a stage in the industrial revolutions of the richer nations. It is the idea around which people are ready to form alliances that go beyond their interests; a concept which "did not come so much from academic discussion as from a global political process." Newman and Kenworthy speak of their book being "many years in preparation", a book that is a "combination of text book and life story" deriving from work with city governments and voluntary groups attempting to address a major global and local issue of how people "can simultaneously reduce their impact on earth while improving their quality of life".

This books aims to show how a city's use of land determines and is determined by its dominant forms of transport. It describes how policies aimed at creating sustainable relationships between humans and their environment necessarily revolve around a city's land-use-transport formula. Getting this right is a prerequisite for urban renaissance.

What makes this book of especial value and its focus provocative is that so many cities and towns are now "auto-dependent". Because cars are sold on the basis of the freedoms they offer, policies to regulate so dominant a form of transport, even when those freedoms are nurtured in the imagination rather than available in the material world, arouse strong protest. Attempts to diversify people's transport choices are regularly characterised as restrictive and even oppressive. Instead of being seen as a catalyst for wealth production, governments addressing challenges to the reputation and wealth of cities caused by "auto-dependence" are seen as depriving large numbers of citizens of fundamental freedoms. The "motorist" has become a late 20th century everyman, affected from all angles by policies to restore a balance in cities between space allocated to rapid movement and space where citizens can engage in civil exchange.

This book is a mine of arguments, backed by statistics, illustrations and graphs. Readers concerned about global warming may be disappointed to find no thinking about the impact of air transport on the sustainability of cities. Officials and politicians thinking of purchasing this text may ask whether it arrays anti-car prejudices against a "normal paradigm" of improving cars and roads and a friendlier planning regime for building of homes and businesses on green field sites. For Newman and Kenworthy that argument is over. Their book is primarily for those who seek to understand the implications of a paradigm which doesn't treat gridlocks or bypasses as the only options.

Thank you for this historically accurate protrayal of the airplane, the Martin 130; and the organization ( Pan American Airways ) that opened the Pacific to international aviation! Stan Cohen's great book is an amazing historic achievement!

Stan Cohen's book is a wonderful pictorial exploration of the commercial aviation conquest of the Pacific. I found the discussion of the North Haven Expedition and the Pacific Clipper base construction most interesting. Cohen shows pictures of their heyday and as the looked when he researched the book. Cohen also has some photos of the China Clipper I had not seen previously. If you are a Pan Am Clipper history buff - this is a must have book.

Jamie Dodson, Author
[...]

Cohen's book is among the better works to document the short but exciting history of Pan American's pacific clipper operations, providing insight into the pilots and aircraft that flew it and the route they took. My few complaints were with the relative dirth of information following the outbreak of World War II, some speculative accounts which have been correctly described in other books, and a lack of color photos. Still, for the price it is a most valuable addition to anyone's aviation library.

This book is one of the finest collections on information regarding Pan-Am's famous flying boats. Loaded with old photos, classic ads, maps and much more, this book details the building of the reknown yet short lived Pacific air route. I read it from cover to cover in two days and enjoyed every page of it.

For the lay person who doesn't understand aeronautical engineering, but thinks the Clippers were possibly the coolest thing in the world, this is a great book to have around. The pictures are excellent, there's enough--not too much--technical info to make it interesting and it's a concise introduction to this phase of history.

WORKING THE SKIES: THE FAST-PACED, DISORIENTING WORLD OF THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT is a fine choice not only for any business library focused on careers or aviation choices, but for general-interest collections. It covers the life of the flight attendant, surveying the realities of the modern job, offering experiences of flight attendants past and present, and offering behind-the-scenes stories of their special challenges. It's an excellent, lively survey certain to reach a wide audience.

The definitive work on this fascinating and often misunderstood profession and subculture.

In Working the Skies, Drew Whitelegg takes the interviews and study of a multitude of flight attendants and creates a readable, enjoyable tale of the perils and possibilities flight attendants face. The book is part psychology, part history and part cultural study with plenty of personal tales from retired and active flight attendants. The majority of flight attendants are women, which places the job in a unique historical and social context.

Commercial flight became popular and accessible during the 1950s and 1960s. Originally, flight attendants were registered nurses to allay any health and safety concerns by fliers. It also became a respectable way for women to "escape" the house and have jobs.

As flight became safer in the 1960s, with pressurized cabins and other improvements, airlines began using the attraction and sex appeal of their flight attendants. The exotic destinations and glamour of air travel was celebrated. The author makes the case that there is currently nostalgia for this glamorous ideal of the flight attendant's world that is at odds with the demands and hazards of the job.

"Space-out" was an often-repeated phrase/concept used by the author. Flight attendants in the capacity of their job are able to create a separate world from their home world. This gives them a particular freedom of autonomy and self-expression not as available to other women, working or not. The excitement and freedom that the job allows flight attendants in the "space-out" is countered by the guilt that many flight attendants with children and those in a relationship. It's a complex issue combining cultural and social norms of what a woman should be for her children and partner with the affects of the job on the psyche along with the enjoyment of being able to "get away."

The airlines are painted as worried more about bottom-line then the lives and concerns of flight attendants: shorter layovers, less staff, a return to the "sexy" flight attendant imagery of the past that causes a "squeeze-in" where freedom becomes restricted. It's worth noting that most upper management staff are male, compared to the female-dominated flight attendant staff.

Working the Skies is an easy read, and I really enjoyed it. After reading this book, on my next flight I will be paying more attention and respect to the flight attendants I see.

Whitelegg has written an accessible account of the fight attendant profession for those in the airline industry, travelers, and academics. As a flight attendant for nearly 22 years now, I know how airlines manage workers through fear and intimidation. The fact that Drew Whitelegg does not work in the industry and was still able to solicit candid responses from interviewees alone is a great feat. My labor contract states that a flight attendant can be terminated for talking disparagingly about the airline! It is understandable that some respondents had to size him up to determine his true intensions and for whom he actually works.

Most accurate in his portrayal of flight attendants is the cost-benefit decisions made daily, which often hold "lifestyle" over wages and benefits. I continue in this profession because I love my lifestyle--my job is my identity. This, however, doesn't mean that I accept continuing discriminatory practices, labor and management conflicts, abuse from passengers, and harm caused by extreme cuts to labor, but flight attendants are left with little choice when labor unions, in many ways, have a history of complicity in the commodification of labor.

Many books about or even by flight attendants are anecdotal at best, and a sociological perspective long overdue. I suspect that those who choose not to read this book do so because they wish to keep flight attendants firmly as a retro icon of servitude, rather than acknowledge us as safety professionals. No one should feel disposable in their job, yet soon after 9/11 a pilot told me just that: "Put your body between a hijacker and the flight deck door--you are disposable."

I hope those who read this book look differently at your cabin crew the next time you fly. We are human and have the right to make a living just like anyone else whether we are aging, overweight, married, or have children. This book is a must read and I also recommend "Femininity in Fight" by Kathleen M. Barry.

This book intrigued me because of my lifelong fascination with careers, career choice and career change. I am also a fan of Arlie Hochschild, the sociologist who drew our attention to emotional labor. And I used to travel extensively and talk to the flight attendants. (More than once I've been asked, "Are you sure you didn't fly? I can't believe you know this!")

So I was predisposed to like this book and mostly I did. I like the author's sociological approach, placing the attendants' work in a broader context of managing space and time. The book reads like a novel. If I were still teaching I can imagine assigning the book for a "sociology of work" or "work life balance" class.

However, after awhile I felt the author needs to introduce a healthy dose of economic reality. The book emphasizes the negativity of the job: low pay, long hours, health-threatening (and sometimes life-threatening working conditions) and more. But let's get real: ever since the jobs opened up to women, the airlines have gotten so many applicants they can afford to be demanding, selective and even unreasonable. When demand exceeds supply it's a buyer's market, i.e., the airlines are buyers and flight attendants (like all workers) sell their labor.

For some reason, most of us have no trouble understanding this idea in the real estate market but we resist applying the idea to the labor market. To be sure, as a society we want to protect workers against unsafe conditions. But whether we're talking about entry level editorial assistants, movie production assistants, adjunct professors of liberal arts or flight attendants, we need to recognize that people get paid more when their skills are scarce and/or in high demand. That's why janitors and house cleaners often earn a higher hourly wage than, say, preschool teachers and yoga instructors.

Second, many flight attendants loved (and continue to love) their jobs. Read Elliott Hester's book, Plane Insanity. I remember talking to one attendant: after complaining about her job, she said, "I have too many neat privileges to give up flying."

Back in the early days of the 40s, 50s and 60s, flight attendants did conform to stereotypes and fantasies. But you have to compare their careers to the available alternatives. Watch the video The Best of Everything to get a reality check down Memory Lane. Southwest began as the Love Airline. But the author fails to note that today's Southwest attendants wear khaki slacks or hiking-style shorts with sneakers and socks. They wear letter sweaters during football season. Not exactly seductive!

True, media often glamorize the flight attendant profession. True, the "Coffee Tea or Me" series seems bizarre, especially today. But the Gwyneth Paltrow movie actually is a very funny satire (anybody else notice the uncanny resemblance to the Cinderella story, dwarf and all)? The book and movie Catch Me If You Can depicts "stewardesses" very respectfully: many came from strict religious backgrounds and most resisted the pseudo-pilot's charms.

Finally, as in many studies of occupations, unions are presented as heroes and saviors. True, unions may have helped remove weight and other petty restrictions. However, one flight attendant told me, "They don't always help. Sometimes they make deals, where they'll help one person and not another." I have no idea if that's common or accurate perspective. But I have heard first-hand stories (mostly from management) in other fields, describing some pretty amazig deals with the unions.

In the end, the book comes across as an insightful glimpse into a profession that has fascinated outsiders since the early years of passenger flying. I would like to see a more balanced view but this book will be a welcome addition to the publications on the sociology of work.

I picked this book up on a whim and couldn't put it down. Simple and easy to understand, it answers every question I hear about in the news almost daily. This is the first book that I have read which really explains how 9/11 unfolded.

This is the first book I've read that really explains why 9-11 happened. Nowhere else have I found the FAA failings detailed. It is scary to think that our government enabled the hijackers to do what they did. Even more scary is the fact that it could happen again - after all the billions and hassle.

In this riveting account, Thomas has pieced together the sad history of aviation security. A great read, it made me very angry. Intensive research and attention to detail show how aviation security BEFORE and AFTER 9/11 is still not taken seriously by our government. A necessary book for all Americans.

As a resident of Massachusett's South Shore and a frequent user of Logan Airport, I am saddened and angry at what Mr. Thomas has revealed in his case study of Boston's Logan Airport - a culture of compromise. Despite the steps Logan has taken since 9/11, the genie is long since out of the bottle. FAA Civil Aviation Security was responsible for oversight of the airport and airlines at Logan and failed miserably in the lead up to 9/11. Massport, then and now, was the least culpable entity charged with security responsibility. The airlines and their fawning sycophants within the FAA's New England Region Civil Aviation Security Division have the blood of thousands on their hands. Willie Gripper and Mary Carol Turano should be fired. I thank Mr. Thomas for recording their wretched performance and at least holding them guilty in the court of public opinion. Mr. Thomas is absolutely correct when he says "No accountability - No justice - no progress." The state of aviation security today leaves much to be desired. We certainly are not getting what we've paid for from the TSA. The airline industry, so critical to the economic well being of our nation, remains vulnerable, but the margin of error has been reduced significantly. I can't imagine what would happen to the air industry and our economy should we experience another downed aircraft in a terrorist attack. The problem is, as before, it is not a question of if, but when. Without accountability we will continue to see a culture of bureaucracy more focussed on trying to convince the traveling public that it is safe to fly, rather than one which actually has the chutzpah to make it safe to fly. Where are our elected representatives who are charged with providing the necessary oversight to insure the American public is protected? What an outrage!!