History Books

The author's thesis is that the answers of huge numbers of people tend to be more accurate than those of individuals even if these individuals are experts in the specific subject. He makes clear that this is not true for any specific trial in which one individual might score better than the average, but in a series of trials, the crowd outperforms any individual. The author also explains "magnification " of mistakes by peer conformance, a phenomenon that does not occur when the answer comes from a random crowd. Results from crowds or groups should be averaged and not "consensed" in order to obtain unbiased results.

In general I found the author's thesis quite interesting. During an exercise in class on peer conformance, we have seen, how the group's consensus gave a worse result than the best individual answer. Thus I agree with the author that peer conformance is not generating the best results. On the other hand, I doubt that this approach would work with more complex things than assigning magnitudes like weight, value, size, etc. to a common item. I do not believe that this method would come up with a cure for cancer or even assigning a magnitude like mass to a not so well known object like for example a W boson or a quark. It would also be interesting to find out if the crowds can predict the energy at which the 3 forces of nature unite (or even the four forces, including gravity).

All in all a good book.

As the title suggests, this books attempts to explore the collective intelligence of crowds. It covers a variety of settings, from traffic jams to the stock market performance. The book reminds me of Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" but feels a bit more cerebral and densely written.

In talking about the wisdom of crowds, Surowiecki recounts a 1958 study that demonstrates the collective wisdom of groups. Students were asked to meet someone in NYC. They didn't know where to meet, and had no way to talk to the other person ahead of time. Yet the majority of students chose the very same meeting place: the information booth at Grand Central station. Not knowing what time they were supposed to meet, just about all of the students said they would show up at the stroke of noon. "In other words, if you dropped two law students at either end of the biggest city in the world and told them to find each other, there was a very good chance they'd end up having lunch together" (p. 91).

All told, a fun read.

Hee, hee, hee! This title and this book sure look funny right now (September 22nd, 2008). Do we follow the wisdom of the crowds on Wall Street (which, if left to its own devises will continue to drive financial titans into bankrupcy), or the machinations of the dubious experts (Paulson & Bernanke), who will put us on the hook for hundreds of billions for years to come?

Maybe it's time to dust off that 19th Century classic "The Madness of Crowds" instead of reading this smug balderdash.

I have a confession to make. I started reviewing this book before reading it, based purely on the rather lengthy subtitle `Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations'. First, I planned to make a sneering reference to the dotcom bubble as evidence of this collective wisdom. Then, point to Charles Mackay's classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. How sad that this ignorant journalist had pinched the title but absorbed none of the content. Finish with a brief summary of the theory of information cascades, which shows how it can be individually rational to follow the crowd instead of your own opinion.

I thought all this, and suffered terrible embarrassment, if only in the privacy of my own home. For James Surowiecki, of course, covered all these bases and more. The book is not a mindless hymn to the virtues of the marketplace but a nuanced analysis, supported by many historical and contemporary examples, of the conditions under which groups can and can't make better decisions than even the most brilliant individuals.

He argues that there are

"four conditions that characterize wise crowds: diversity of opinion . . . independence . . . decentralization . . . and aggregation"

Unfortunately, the meaning of these terms is not entirely clear. And later in the book the necessary conditions are whittled down to three, aggregation for some reason being left out. Similarly, his classification of cognition, coordination and cooperation problems is not well explained. Since the entire first half of the book is based on these distinctions, it can be a little hard to follow. The second half, which applies these concepts to real world problems like traffic jams, peer reviewed science, committees, company organization, markets, and democratic government, is much better.

So much for the form of the book. Fortunately, the content is excellent. The pages are crammed with humorous and illuminating tales. My own favorite: In the wake of the Challenger disaster, the stock of the four major contractors involved with the shuttle program all lost value. By the end of the day, Thiokol (who built the solid fuel boosters) was down 12%, the other three only 3%. The next day, the New York Times reported two rumors unconnected with Thiokol and declared there were "no clues". Six months later the Presidential Commission revealed its findings: the O-ring seals on the boosters were responsible. There was no evidence of any insider trading.

If this story does not take your fancy, there are dozens of others to choose from (many from more systematic if less memorable studies). Failures of rationality are given space along with successes: stock bubbles, intelligence failures, the Columbia disaster. Some of the conclusions are commonplace to economists and possibly surprising to those who are not: seemingly "wasteful" competition can be a valuable discovery procedure, central planning fails because those who have the information lack the power and incentive to act on it, fund managers tend to underperform market indexes, prediction markets (which were so strongly rejected when proposed for terrorism) are the way of the future. And some may be shocking to economists and commonplace to everyone else: sometimes the collective good is served by individually irrational decisions, such as voting or paying taxes.

Like Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds is based on a wealth of informative and amusing material that is partly spoiled by its presentation. Unlike Freakonomics, it is a book which is unashamedly devoted to one central theme. As such, the sheer abundance of information is sometimes a distraction. It also lacks an index, which can be a considerable nuisance. A little pruning, combined with clear and consistent terminology and organisation, would have lifted this book into the five-star category.

Originally published in the Economic Record, September 2006.

There's a reason why democracy is the crappiest form of government, except all others (to paraphrase somebody famous).

The theme of this book is that groups of people are smarter than individual people. It's sort of counterintuitive to the American spirit of individualism, but James Surowiecki does a creditable job of providing a good case to support his thesis in a very readable format. Anyone who regularly works in problem-solving groups will immediately recognize the fundamental truth of the author's message.

It contains excellent (and entertaining) historical examples that should provide plenty of food-for-thought for any student of government, economics or history. Which means, in a perfect world, it should provide something of interest for just about any participant in any collaborative, collective or power-sharing structure (ie, any effective organization, and a double-dose for every ineffective organization).

My only problem with this volume (and it's not really a problem) is that Surowiecki didn't go far enough. He could have productively doubled the size of this book, and given many more prescriptive formulas for effective group participation and leadership. It would provide a great counter-weight to a number of existing works that seem to suggest the same thing (but are far more tedious). A good updating would be helpful as well (considering the plethora of abundant, and more recent, examples of the disasters of individual [or 'siloed'] decision-making).

In its current form, the book is a great primer on the subject; in an expanded format it could be enormously powerful. His basic thesis, however, could not be more relevant. I strongly recommend it.

I received this book as a part of the Vine Program; I ordered it because I found the description intriguing. I won't give a plot synopsis as that has been done well by many others. I'm sorry to say that I just could not get in to this book. I never made the connection with the characters necessary for me to care enough about what happened to them. I have had this book for two months and have put off writing the review because I just can't seem to find much good to say about it. I love to read and very rarely do I have to force myself to finish a book, and this one was a chore for me to finish. I found the characters unsympathetic and didn't see any real character "growth" that caused me to see them as any more sympathetic by the end.
I seem to be in the minority on this so I hope that anyone considering this book reads several reviews and makes an informed decision.

I got this book for my 11 year old daughter. She loves to read so I thought this might be a good book for her. She never got completely hooked, but she read it dutifully.

Though she mildly liked the story, it was more violent than the stories she would normally read. She found the story very confusing and didn't think it was engaging enough. I think she found the violence distracting.

Since she normally get's very involved in the books she reads, I'd say this wasn't the book for her. She tells me that this book is probably targeted to a boy her age.

Her final assessment was the book was okay but not great.

I think that one of the biggest drawbacks that this book will face is the constant comparison to Dickens' body of work especially Oliver Twist. I see the similarities and I understand why people are making those comparisons but I think this is a very different book than Dickens would have written. Tinti is no Dickens, nor should she strive to be. Dickens is a great writer and Tinti is not too shabby herself.

The story is set in 19th century American and begins with Ren, a young boy growing up in an orphanage. The monks who run the home are a bit neglectful but treat the boys well enough. One day Ren is adopted by a goodlooking and charming young man, Benjamin Nab, who somehow convinces the monks that he is Ren's older brother. Nab weaves a fantastical tale of how they got separated and paints himself in a heroic light. But to no one's surprise once he gets Ren away from the orphanage, we find that he is nothing that he has represented himself to be. The long and tall of it is that he is a grifter who seems mostly interested in making a buck by almost any means necessary, both legal and illegal.

Ren begins his new life with Nab and finds that it is nothing that he expected when he dreamed of being adopted. When Ren envisioned his life away from the orphanage, he thought he would get a happy life with a mother and father who loved him and gave him plenty to eat but what he gets with Nab is a life of tricking people out of their money and possessions, with his missing hand serving as a tool for sympathy. But despite Nab's obvious poor qualities as a father figure, he is not at all an unlikable character. He is obviously charming and is shrouded in mystery that makes you want to know more.

In one of Nab's many efforts to make money, he decides to become a grave robber. During this escapade, we meet Dolly. Dolly is a corpse that is dug up but then mysteriously becomes animated. I found the resurrected murderer Dolly to be a bit of an odd character and not in a good way. I felt that his presence brought in an unnecessary supernatural element to a story that was doing well on its own. He is a cross between a zombie and a robot. I think he was an unnecessary addition that did not do much toward moving the story along.

There is nothing in this story that is terribly original. Things get tied up a little too neatly and the end was a bit trite. But I still found it to be an entertaining story with many interesting characters.

Good stuff!!

I really enjoyed this tale by Hannah Tinti!

Amazingly creative and vivid characters throughout the book, definitely a page turner right up until the end of the book.

A one handed orphan, a dwarf, a murderous giant, twin brothers, the Mousetrap girls, the Hatboys and many other one of a kind characters....

The ending could have gone alot of different ways, I enjoyed the one she chose.

Fun read, highly recommended!

If you are a sucker for off-beat but believable characters (like me), you will enjoy this cross between Huck Finn and Oliver Twist. Hannah Tinti has peopled her debut novel with some wonderful folks who stop just short of caricature and made them come to life with strong back stories and layers and layers of interesting detail.

Twelve-year-old Ren is the star of the piece, a one-handed orphan who alternates between fearfulness and fearlessness in just the right situations. His pursuit of the real story behind how he lost his hand and who his parents really were is perfectly balanced with his day-to-day struggle to do the right thing despite being perpetually involved in situations that dictate he do wrong. It would have been easy for Ren's tale to drown in treacle, but Tinti keeps its head above the surface.

Ren's foils are a motley, jolly crew: the charming conman, the dwarf who lives on the roof above his perpetually-shouting sister, the over-sized murderer they accidentally dug up after he'd been buried alive, the maleficent industrialist who owns a grimy mousetrap factory. These colorful characters somehow never seem forced or over-drawn, which makes The Good Thief a Good Read.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

Is anybody out there tired of the rhetoric? Are we destined to shout at one another until we blow each other to smithereens? What ever happened to the admonition of the apostle Paul to the early believers living in Rome? "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18 (New International Version) Can the adherents of the two great monotheistic faiths (Christianity and Islam) really defy 1500 years of bloody conflict and live in peace? Mark Siljander not only thinks so, he is living it out. In this book, "A Deadly Misunderstanding" Mark chronicles his personal journey from a freshman congressman, vehemently opposed to Islam and the inroads that it seemed to be making in the West, to someone who loves and appreciates those whom he used to consider as enemies. Along the way, he discovers some possible misinterpretations of the ancient texts that have fueled the enmity that has bedeviled the last 1500 years of history between East and West.

The narrative reads like a Robert Ludlum novel as Mark takes us down the path of his personal experiences in capitals and the back corridors of cities across the globe, meeting with both movers and shakers and common people in countries like Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The concepts in this book have been embraced by many on both sides of the great divide that now separate and threaten to consume us.

Sir Francis Bacon wrote, "Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." This is one of `some few'. Get this book. Read this book. Pass it on to a friend and encourage them to do the same.

I received Congressman (retired) Mark D. Siljander's book, A Deadly Misunderstanding in the mail two days ago. I couldn't put it down! From first to last I was riveted, hooked, shocked, elated, and challenged. I was also filled with hope - for the expanding heart and gut-wrenching conflict between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in today's chaotic world. Mark Siljander may not have all the answers but he certainly has some essential pieces to the puzzle.

I first met Mark Siljander four years ago at the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, DC. I was impressed then by his obvious passion for Christ, his deep love for Muslims, and his commitment to peaceful solutions in a world in turmoil. All these traits are strikingly evident in his book.

Over the past thirty-five years Mark's life chronicles congressional and ambassadorial visits with at least a hundred leading world personages including religious leaders and heads of state in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries and many world trouble-spots. His message has always been the same, love, forgiveness, and mutual understanding based on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ.

In the book he chronicles his journey, what he terms as his "paradigm crash." This path took him from violent hatred for his "enemies" like Yasir Arafat to the place where he could genuinely hug the same man while hosting a dinner for him in his home. That does not mean ex-Congressman Siljander agrees with or validates all the ideologies, especially Islamic ones, he comes in contact with. It does mean that he applies the words of Jesus to reach out and "love our neighbors (both friends and enemies) as ourselves."

His numerous personal stories are gripping and hope-ful. They are easily worth the price of the book itself. GET THIS BOOK AND PASS IT ON TO OTHERS. I am proud to call Mark my friend.

Edward J. Hoskins, MD, PhD
Author - A Muslim's Heart

I personally feel that this should be required reading for every biology or anatomy and physiology class in the country. I read the book over the summer and have been looking for ways to work it into my science class. It is a lucid explanation of why the human body is such a wonder and at times such a Rube Goldberg device. It all makes perfect sense in an evolutionary light. The author's opening chapters are enlightening in his explanation of the predictive power of the Theory of Evolution and how it has been tested repeatedly and supported by the evidence. I am very happy to see so many other teachers finding and utilizing this book with their classes.

In terms of physical makeup, how did human beings get to be what they are? In order to provide some answers, the author's journey of discovery took him to a remote site in the Arctic to look for fossils. This site fit the requirements of containing exposed sedimentary rocks dating back some 370 million years ago, to the time when previously found fossils begin to show terrestrial rather than purely aquatic adaptations. With a combination of luck and skill, he succeeded in finding what he was looking for: the fossil remains of a creature that had the anatomy not quite of a fish but not quite of a land animal either. From that starting point, the author provides anatomical examples of how human adaptations - everything from limbs to teeth to the inner ear - can be seen to have evolved from much simpler organisms.

The study of fossils and anatomy does have its limitations in that only gross similarities can be noted; the process itself is hidden; and there is not much that can be done experimentally. But the subject matter can be approached from a different angle. The author recounts initial experimental methods in embryology that found an "organizer" site of cells that appears to control growth in embryos. When these types of cells of one species were substituted for another, they still enacted their role of organizing. Significant progress since the 1980s in genetics, especially the discovery of the Hox gene, has unlocked the role of DNA in explaining how the "organizer" works. Scientists can then search out the similarities of DNA in different species.

The author combines his knowledge of paleontology and anatomy with genetics and molecular biology to posit how single celled organisms could have developed the means to combine together over time to the point of developing bodies. The details here are rather sketchy - as this book is a primer not a technical work. The study is limited to a discussion of how certain anatomical structures developed as life became more complex. It is interesting to consider the external circumstances that were at work. The primary motivation for assuming more complexity appears to be the desire to evade predators. The first appearance of bodies appears to have coincided with a noticeable increase in oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.

One note: This book is about science not religion, but I could not help but being struck by an analogy the author draws between developing life and the construction of a building: the role of DNA in the cells of a body is analogous to there being a blueprint of a building in every brick. In other words, instead of the plans coming from the outside, life develops from plans from within. On the basis of this insight, it should be fair to say that intelligence has to be inside rather than outside; that is, the Intelligent Designer is not separate and apart from all of Creation.

As interesting and informative as other reviewers have promised it to be.
If one is a Creationist however, you will not like this book.

I should confess up front that my not loving this book is partly my own fault. Given Shubin's academic pedigree -- and it is impressive -- I expected the work to be more substantive. That he decided to write for a more general audience is not so much a problem as a simple disappointment.

But that's only part of my issue with the book. Simply put, it's poorly written. While literary style is not the forte of the majority of scientists, you'd expect them to have at least relied on a competent editor. Most offensive of all was his labored redundancy; important sentences were deemed so important that they were sometimes used -- essentially verbatim -- multiple times; if a point could be made in a short paragraph, Shubin used three.

Still, he has some interesting stories to tell, and while their connections to broader concepts are sometimes forced in rather painful transitions, the episode and ideas should hold the attention of most general readers.

This is a somewhat breezy overview of the deep links between humans and all other animals that have lived on earth, including not merely fish but worms, jellyfish and even the earliest one-celled creatures. Choosing different aspects of the human body (e. g. hands, heads, sense of smell, hearing, vision etc) Shubin describes how they developed from features present in ancient forms. The earlier forms often served quite different functions but were modified over eons of time in ways quite traceable through the fossil record or DNA. Indeed one of Shubin's main points is that the ancient forms were not replaced but were virtually endlessly modified over time to assume and support (often awkwardly) new functions and support different ways of life. The bodies of living animals (including humans) are thus in many respects Rube Goldberg devices, jury rigged amalgams of various parts, many of which originally served far different purposes.

Shubin writes clearly and with obvious enthusiasm for his subject. The book is short and is an overview intended for a general audience. It does not presume any scientific background nor does it present detailed argument or evidence for its positions. It is not aimed at those who are familiar with the field. There is a subtext against intelligent design, but this position is never explicitly articulated much less argued. It is present only in the implications that follow from Shubin pointing out how many of the modern forms fit their current functions clumsily. The drawings in the book, unfortunately, are only sometimes helpful. The book also has fairly extensive suggestions for further reading. Overall a very good, and very basic, work of popular biology.

***** Combat troops of all branches have, with few exceptions, e.g. Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin, little trust or regard for journalists. Having spent time in both camps, I side with my brothers and sisters at arms and understand why they are leery of these foreign beings spying on them. Therefore, I picked up "Generation Kill" with much skepticism. To my surprise, it wasn't what I had expected.

Evan Wright, a contributor to "Rolling Stone" and other journals, joins a United States Marine Corps Recon (Reconnaissance) Battalion and is attached at the platoon level or lower for their blitzkrieg drive through northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He endures what they endure and faces what they face with little, if any, more knowledge than they have of their situations. Wright captures the terror, the confusion, the fatigue, the stress, the bonding, the ennui, the bravery, the incompetence, and the soul-searching that are part of combat.

As a read, I found old comrades living on in this younger generation, but the conversations were similar to my generation's and to my father's with only some idiomatic changes. There were the same SNAFUs, FUBARs, REMFs, RAMFs, POGs, and other things that make up the grunt-speak of the various generations. And true today as it has always been, the more specialized and proficient the warrior, and Recon Marines are among the top 1% in the Corps, which puts them among the elite warriors of the world, there is more thoughtfulness about their job and about each mission--mindless drones they are not. A character in a novel once commented, not so tongue-in-cheek, that they should hand out mortarboards instead of berets upon completion of the Army's Special Forces training, except the mortarboards are a pain in a firefight. The ironies of war are not lost on these intelligent young Marines nor are their coping mechanisms ignored or considered particularly unusual...highly paid professional athletes often have quirks, too.

Wright grasps the current socio-political climate quite well, as we see when he recommends "Groundhog Day" as the best film to describe a grunt's view of war. I will wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that, unlike Vietnam, when it comes time to look for those to be held in shame, the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shall not and must not be among that group. "The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall." Or as Wright puts it, "It's the American public for whom the Iraqi war is no more real than a video game" (a reference to a quote in the the book about Grand Theft Auto). In short, war is still war and it is a horrible undertaking...but we still wage it upon each other with all the skill and lethality we can muster. Evan Wright's book is masterful telling of how the U.S. does it today; complete with the warts and flaws for all to see. *****

Reviewed by Dr. Phil Rhyne for Huntress Reviews.

This is a must read. I couldn't put it down. It finished it in two days and I've gone back and read it again to make sure I didn't miss out on it since I went through it so quickly. It was great to see the soldier's experience and not the politicians view point. I'm sure there were still a lot of things that were left out due to censorship, but it was still a great read.

While not as deep and emotional as Micheal Herr's Dispatches, Generation Kill still provides a great look into one facet of America's war in Iraq, the tip of the spear the 1St Marine Recon following the doctrine of maneuver warfare.

However it is one facet and one reporters viewpoint on a highly complicated war, deeper understanding would be found in Fear Up Harsh (intelligence and interrogation) and House to House (Battle of Fallujah) as well as Fiasco: War in Iraq.

That author did a fantastic job of interviewing the soldiers and getting the truth behind the mistakes and horrible leadership.
It was a great series on HBO and a must read book.

This book provided wonderful insight into what our troops were and are thinking. Everyone should read this to truly understand the quagmire that is Iraq and the boondoggle created by this administration. Thank you Evan Wright for being there and capturing so eloquently what needed to be brought to light.

If you're looking for a book to try and make sense of what's going on in the world right now, this book is for you. I bought this book when it first came out and have read it several times over. I never cease to be amazed at how the events today seem to be falling in line with the authors speculations. It is more relevant today than at any time since it was published.

I dismiss this book as a prophecy even though it's included in the title; instead I would categorize it as a reasonable and educated theory on the cycles of history and how they impact different generations. I'm not so gullable as to believe these authors are clairvoyant; however, their hypothesis and general premise has enough validity to make one seriously watch modern events under the lens of their theory.

As I read the last 100 pages of the book, I find myself shaking my head and marveling at how many of their assertions are coming true. For those of you that are trying to put some sense on the confusing events that transpire around us every day, I urge you to read this book with an open mind and consider whether we are living in a period of historical unraveling.

About four years ago, I saw the pattern, people are going to wonder how to deal with the new generations entering the workforce. Articles were surfacing in just about every workplace communication newsletter. The volume in magazines and newspapers started to overwhelm me.

Some place along the line I heard about this book. It is a terrific basic understanding of the values/beliefs of the generations. This book helped me launch my career on "Intergenerational Communication in the Workplace." It gave me the basics -- which, I believe hold true today. It gave me a real understanding which I have been able to add on to as more and more articles and research continue to surface.

Great background for Veterans (Traditionalists), Baby Boomers, beginning of the X Generation entering the workforce. You'll need to supplement with later information on Generation X and Y -- Yet, feel this is a book that those of you who are interested in intergenerational communication need to have in your library."

Kathy Condon, Executive Coach, Speaker and Trainer and Author of the book: "It Doesn't Hurt to Ask: It's all about communication."

The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy I found the book too academic to be of any practical value. Although its thesis is interesting, its application seems forced, even sophomoric. Also, the authors seem to have an overenthusiastic regard for Hillary Clinton. The book is outdated and has less impact than the authors may have wanted. We have been through this "the sky is falling" scenario in may other ways, many times before. Its suggestions for surviving the crisis seem like material for fortune cookies or tabloid zodiac advice. Still worth reading-it has some merit, pointing out patterns and interesting ideas.The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy

This startlingly apt volume offers the best explanation I have encountered of how generations create history and history creates generations in a kind of chicken and egg dance through the centuries. It has always seemed a puzzle to me that definable generations exist, given that births are pretty randomly distributed through the months and years--and yet, of course, they do. The cycle described by Strauss and Howe makes clear sense.

However, this book is much more. It presents a vision of history as cyclical and in many ways predictable, bolstered by a look backward through American and English cycles over the past several centuries. The authors then looked forward and made very specific predictions about the coming decade--a period just ending as I write this review. (The book was published in 1997.)

A major event that would trigger reordering of the American psyche? Check. Increased divisivness? Check. Increased xenophobia? Check. An election by 2008 or 2012 at the latest that would bring major change in America's leadership? Can you say Obama? (The movement more than the man, in my view.)

If the authors' presience holds true we are in for some very rough sledding but with the strong possibility that we will emerge from this part of the cycle with a new vision, a new unity, a new pluralism and a new egalitarianism.

A stunning book.

I loved this book! If you hate history, this is not the book for you. Some parts of this book are slow and some parts of this book there is just too much history. I am concerned about now and today and the next twenty years. I believe in the core idea of the book. Page 6, "the next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium." "Around the year 2005, a suddend spark will catalyze a Crisis mood." "Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode" "Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve question of class, race, nation and empire." "The very survival of the nation will feel at state." "sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and WWII." "The risk of catastrophe will be very high." "The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule." I believe this. Just look at American and World History. It's a history of conflict and economic ups and downs. If you believe nothing bad will ever happen and the next 20,30 or 40 years will be just like the last 20,30 or 40 years and you will never have to suffer, then don't buy this book. On page 277, the author states "war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction." How did the author know this in 1997? War aganist terror? Weapons of mass destruction? It's clear that President Bush read this book. The book is worth the price and time just for chapter 10 and 11. I enjoyed it very much. Regards, Keith Renick, Peachtree City, Ga.

Awesome book by an excellent Commander. Ready 6 takes the reader in a journey through the BCT's intense and extended deployment to Baghdad during the crawling stages of the war (2003-2004). The historical facts in this book help you understand the complexity of the situation, both leaders and Soldiers were faced with on a daily basis. His detailed narrative portrays without a doubt, the BCT's combat and civil operations. Colonel Mansoor also addresses full spectrum operations and the reorganization of the armed forces to better suit its current and future counterinsurgency operations abroad. As an OIF veteran and a proud member of this fine Brigade Combat Team during this and its subsequent deployment (2006-2007), I recommend this book, especially to fellow veterans and deployed service members.

T.H. Berrios
SFC, USA
Provider One November (2003-2007)

My father-in-law received an advanced copy of Baghdad at Sunrise as a gift from the author. I began reading it with many questions about the handling of the Iraq War mixed with extreme respect for our nation's armed services. I am a lifetime civilian with very little exposure to military history and tactics, yet couldn't put the book down while learning a ton about what are servicemen and women have accomplished in their time in Iraq.

Col. Mansoor's book is a great mixture of military theory, Islamic history and cultural anthropology, all thrown into a personal account of his personal goals and associated challenges. I can't began to list off everything I learned and truthfully believe it would be great for everyone from military historians to those with no knowledge of military tactics and jargon (like yours truly).

On a separate note, I just finished two years of business school with a number of former officers who served in our nation's War on Terror. Reading this book left me with a clear picture of what life on the frontlines is really like, as well as a new appreciation for their hard work and sacrifice. I will hopefully be at the USMA in a few weeks to see a classmate and close friend of mine who is now a West Point professor. Although it may embarrass him in front of new colleagues, he will be getting a hug and a sincere 'thank you' from a friend whose freedom and safety he risked so much for.

Colonel Mansoor, thank you for such an enlightening read. My best for you and your family (Jana, the children and even the dogs) in the future.

I am an Army historian who has accessed many, if not most, of the existing (and they are relatively few) records pertaining to the Ready First Brigade Combat Team's operations in Iraq during the period discussed in this book. Therefore, I can set the "bar" a bit higher when it comes to informed analysis of the book's value. I am also acquainted with an extremely candid and capable senior non-commissioned officer from Colonel Mansoor's Brigade Reconnaissance Troop who interacted with the author on a daily basis during the 1st BCT's deployment in Iraq. If my friend did not believe that Colonel Mansoor was an effective combat leader, he would have told me so in no uncertain terms. Quite the contrary, Colonel Mansoor was a well-respected and credible leader who "figured out" what was happening long before other commanders.

All professional affilitations aside, this review represents my personal opinion. That said, I believe Colonel Mansoor has produced a forthright, factual, and valuable narrative of his experiences in the tumultuous months following the fall of Sadaam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

A respected historian prior to assuming brigade command, Colonel Mansoor took it upon himself to record each day's events in a notebook for posterity's sake. He does not rely solely on his memory, media reports, or the recollections of others. This fact alone sets his account apart from other OIF related personal accounts. His book is even more important given the relative lack of historical material, when compared to later OIF deployments, on the operations conducted by 1st Armored Division during the period 2003 - 2004.

If Mansoor has an unstated agenda, it is a subtle one focused on educating our nation's future political and military leadership. He is not trying to rehabilitate the public's perceptions of his actions in Iraq. Indeed, his candor and objectivity are very refreshing in comparison to other books covering that same period which I have recently read.

Although it felt like it took me a long time to read this book, I realize looking back over the past eleven days, that this is not a book that can be rushed. I had a hard time figuring out exactly how to classify this book. It reads like a memoir, yet it also contains lessons in history, battle analysis, and diplomacy.

Because Peter R. Mansoor was a colonel, and the commander of a brigade, this book is written from a commander's point of view, and thus includes more of an overview of how things come together in battle. He writes about policy, placement of forces, troop morale, and dealing with local leaders.

Other Iraq war stories that I have read (such as A Fist in the Hornet's Nest by Richard Engel, and The Devil's Sandbox by John R. Bruning) have been written about the common soldier in the heat of battle. This book, though still compelling, is quite different.

I think a lot of the difference comes from the fact that Colonel Mansoor has a graduate degree in military history from Ohio State University, and taught history at West Point. Woven into his recollections of his year in Iraq is an overview of the history of Iraq and the conflict between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam.

To date, of all the military books I have read, this book contains the most thorough treatment of the military issues in Iraq, and I found Colonel Mansoor's ideas for dealing with the insurgency to be quite enlightening.

Overall I thought this book contained excellent information, and if you have any interest in military policy in Iraq or military history I would highly recommend it.

Up until a few months ago I'd never heard of Phyllis Tickle, but a few weeks ago I ordered her latest book The Great Emergence; How Christianity is Changing and Why

It arrived from the US on Friday; it's only a short book (162pages) so I read most of it the following day.

Tickle (refreshingly) is not an academic or theologian, but is recognized by CNN, USA TODAY, NEWSWEEK, TIME and The NEW YORK TIMES as one of the most respected authorities on religion in the US, she is also the founding editor of the religion department of Publishers Weekly, she is also a lay Eucharistic minister of the Episcopalian Church and a senior fellow of Cathedral College, so she is well credentialed to make these observations.

In the opening pages of the book she makes a timely but also disturbing observation (at least to some!) She says; "every five hundred years or so, the Church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale"

She articulates the challenges facing the Church in a way that few others have, she takes us right back into the early days of Christendom and points out with great accuracy starting with Gregory the great in 500AD and in a brief yet comprehensive fashion creates a broad picture of the issues (and what would appear) and unrelated facets in this period of history and shows with some conviction the factors that contributed to the demise of the first "Great" re-formation. This was followed by a similar tectonic shift around 1000AD and of course the Great Reformation of Luther, Calvin and co in 1517.

Tickle points out in each instance that the great unrest started in years and in many cases sometimes even centuries before the event was officially recognized, and in may cases as pointed out earlier these co-contributors were not religious in nature, a good example of this was the first printing press by Gothenburg, it started its production within a short time of the famous "Wittenberg Door" and the nailing of the thesis to the same, this reformation owes its so called success in no small way to the arrival of the printing press. This fuelled the state, national and international debate and discussion on a level unprecedented in history.

In our own case the end of modernity and the painful dawning of a new era called post-modernism has challenged to the very core all that we hold dear, this in itself has created untold anxiety, fear and uncertainty, we are by nature (not all of us thankfully!) Creatures of habit and the Church more than any other institution has been woefully unprepared for change on any level. Not only do we want things to stay the same, but we will move heaven and earth to make sure that it does, and woe betide anyone who has the temerity to even think of doing this, as one minister once pointed out when taking over a church with a very conservative congregation, `how do you move the organ in a church...inch by inch, week by week'

The emerging Church has attempted over the last few years to move the church with what would appear to be great haste, and the old warhorses of modernity have had much to say about this, most of it scathing in nature. When looking at the different eras of the church over the last 2000years modernity has brought its own unique challenges, its obsession with black and white absolutes, its manic need to have everything reduced to quantifiable outcomes and then bringing out the old black and white plans to see if everything measures up to the millimeter, this has made things difficult indeed, the old guard in terms of all things theological, has mostly produced Christians that are `sentry guards' or `boundary keepers'

McLaren has rightly pointed out that this is a conversation not a blue print for the final model. Unfortunately modernity has for far to long turned any conversation into a monologue, wanting to monopolize the end result, conversation brings with it the suggestion of a mutual exchange of ideas, not the old model where the defense of a worn out theology that has long had its day. The rummage sale will always be stressful, when moving house one will always feel that everything is sacred, it is no longer about what to keep but what to let go of, and the reasons (within this context) will more than likely contain elements of co-dependency. To let go is to feel that one will not be caught and so plummet into the depths. Modernity has finally come to the cross roads, it is time to put aside its adolescent angst, and realize that is time to `grow up and grow out' of its obsession with not only a theology that was systematic but a whole lifestyle, the emerging church as an observer over many years is declaring that this is now problematic. Tickle brings two new words to the table and the conversation, "orthonomy" and "theonomy" these words are a good description of what the `great emergence' are endeavoring to do;

* Orthonomy:

This is a difficult word to describe; it was used in the Septuagint and the New Testament it is best understood as meaning the employment of aesthetic or harmonic purity as a tool for discerning the truth, this word presents a great challenge for those who are steeped in doctrine and or practice.

* Theonomy

It means to say or name the principle that only God can be the source of perfection in action and thought...As is patently clear, the burden of the argument of theonomy is still the principle of sola scriptura, albeit in more modish and culturally attractive clothes.

These new words also describe in more comprehensive fashion the new model;

The old model looked a little like this, it could be described as `the quadrilateral' this was simple divided into four boxes that looked like this;

* Liturgicals
* Renewalists
* Social justice Christians
* Conservatives


These four categories are well defined by four square boxes, this model will never lend itself to any sort of mergence, the boundaries are too well defined, within this old model one was forced to guard the boundaries for fear of theological contamination, this in itself and by its very nature created friction, this was and will always be divisive, forcing people into one camp or the other, and one would be challenged when the pressure was on to declare ones `colors' little wonder that we have more than 20,000 denominations always looking for an edge, this model bordered on compulsive-obsessive, like the man who washed his hands dozens of times a day, never wanting to suffer any contamination, and so with this model theological purity at all costs leads one to break away again and again, pride will always seek to express itself in elitist language, will always major on the minors, never wishing to see that as a body of Christ we will always have much more in common that not.

The new model looks more like a `rose' with the petals interwoven towards the center, indeed as one gets closer to the center the greater cohesion where each petal compliments and supports the other, the goal of this new model is nothing short of miraculous, since when and where has the body of Christ ever worked in harmony every sought to compliment and support those with different ideas and views. This new model is seeking to create a dynamic where for the first time the boundaries (which have always bordered on the level of autistic in the sense that there has been a repulsion of any and all intimacy and contact) are removed and we are encouraged to embrace for the first time. The real need here is for a fresh understanding a more informed view of the bigger picture. Only the spirit of God is capable of creating this sort of cohesion

Summary: Phyllis Tickle's, The Great Emergence is my choice for book of the year in 2008. Tickle carefully crafts the historical shifts and tipping points leading up to what she calls a rummage sale on the church. She answers three questions: What Is It, How did it come to be, and Where is it going? The defining question of all reformations is clear: Where is our authority? The book takes an important look at the events leading up to Sola Scriptura and the current events leading away from it.

The value of this book cannot be understated. It helps us understand not just what is happening but also why it is happening within our previous history and current social-religious systems. It's much more than a history book. It's a clear and concise look into the strings that moved and are moving the system.

The book breaks down three sections: What Is It, How did it come to be, and Where Is It Going? Each section builds on each other. The first gives the metaphor for understanding what is happening. The second gives us the nuts and bolts of why. This fifth chapter could easily be expanded and become a book in itself. If you read one chapter, let it be that. The diagrams Tickle uses are some of the best I've seen to really explain what is happening.

A more detailed review can be found here: (http://jonathanbrink.com/2008/10/07/the-great-emergence-book-review/)

Phyllis, with this book, has hit a chord which is sure to resonate through the hearts of many Christians today and for years to come. Through social, political, economic, and scientific threads she draws up a beautiful analysis of Christianity since Jesus' ministry in Galilee and speaks the patterns of this Narrative into our lives today. That is to say--the patterns of what she calls 'pivot moments,' significant changes throughout the theology/aesthetic of the Church taking place roughly every 500 years--in Christianity for the last 2000 years give us a deep insight as to how and why the church is changing today. This change we are experiencing has been and is spurred on by, appropriately the title of the book, 'The Great Emergence.'

If you are interested in the Emerge/ing/ent conversation, this book is a must read. Phyllis has taken the pulse of our world for the last 2000 years, taken a breath, reflected and subsequently wrote a masterpiece outlining the bumps and details of the history of the Church.. and more importantly: where it is going.

Don't pass up this book! Read it!

Phyllis Tickle's newest book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why, arrived yesterday. At 172 pages, this small but elegant volume (aren't all Tickle's books elegant?) both informs and disappoints. Tickle takes on the daunting task of reviewing the major turning points or `Great' events in the life of the Christian church. Her contention is that every 500 years or so the church goes through a `great' transformation.

Counting back from the present, the Great Reformation took place about 500 years ago -- 1517 to be exact. Prior to that, The Great Schism occurred when the Eastern and Western churches split over icons and statues. Five hundred years earlier, Gregory the Great blessed and encouraged the monastic orders which would preserve the Christian faith through the Dark Ages. Of course, 500 years before that, we're back in the first century and the time of the apostles. Today, Tickle contends, the church in in the throes of The Great Emergence.

But, the Great Emergence is not just religious. It is also cultural, technological, and sociological. Of course, context shaped each of the other `great' church transformations as well, and this time is no different. Tickle takes the reader on an overflight of church history, world events, and charts the shifts in the center of authority in the life of the church. In the Great Reformation, of course, the cry of authority was sola scriptura - only scripture. Tickle traces the diminution of the authoritative place of scripture in culture and Christianity from its heady beginnings in the Reformation to its marginalization in the current postmodern era. The book provides thoughtful tracing of influential elements as Tickle leads the reader on a quest for a center of authority.

But, while Tickle's insights and examples provide clues to the transformative forces in our culture and society, the book disappoints when we arrive at the present. Tickle sees all denominations, all churches, all movements in the quadrant of Christianity -- conservative, liturgical, renewalist, and social justice -- as converging toward the center. Granted, there are those denominations and groups that cling to their identities in a kind of resistant pushback, but Tickle's vision is that we are all being swept up into the next great moment of the church -- The Great Emergence. Every church, not just the cool emerging church types, are part of The Great Emergence. I'm not sure that is happening, but I could have lived with Tickle's opinion except for some examples she uses.

Tickle uses John Wimber and the Vineyard churches as an example of this new kind of emergence. She correctly credits Quakers -- Richard Foster, Parker Palmer, etc -- with great influence on the spirituality of the Great Emergence. I might add Elton Trueblood to that list, as mentor to Foster, but Tickle doesn't. But, in her citing of John Wimber, she goes off track. She credits Wimber with being a "founder" of the Church Growth department at Fuller, and calls Peter Wagner his colleague. I was present at Fuller during Wagner's tenure, and I was enrolled in the DMin program in church growth. I attended one of the Signs and Wonders classes, heard Wimber speak, and got a sense of his idea of `power evangelism.'

Wimber was not a founder of the church growth movement. He was an adjunct faculty member at Fuller. Dr. Donald McGavran was the founder, Peter Wagner was his protege. I met McGavran once, although he had retired when I was enrolled at Fuller. Tickle misunderstands Wimber's approach, and also overestimates the Quaker influence on Wimber. Wimber left the traditional church in which he had become a Christian because he wanted to `do the stuff' -- heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and so on. I also attended the Vineyard church that Wimber headed, and it was no Quaker meeting. So, at the end of the book, Tickle disappoints. Simple fact-checking could have offered a corrective to her inclusion of Wimber.

While Wimber did create a powerful new church community called Vineyard, he used signs and wonders as power evangelism to win people to Christ. All of that was very much part of the church growth movement that believed in attractional evangelism. Wimber's brand just happened to be one of the more interesting versions of church growth techniques being used to gather people. She also wrongly attributes the concept of bounded sets and centered sets to Wimber when actually it was Paul Hiebert, the missiologist, who used those concepts to illustrate new approaches to understanding the place of persons in the Kingdom of God.

Would I recommend the book? A qualified yes is in order here. The book succeeds in all but the last chapter. If you want a great overview of where Christianity has been, what the influences were that got it there, and where it might be headed, Tickle's book provides a good, concise overview. My disappointment was that it fails to see clearly the way forward, and misinterprets some of the church's most recent experiements, such as Vineyard. But, Tickle is an elegant writer, and the book is a valuable resource to those aware of its short-comings.

in a recent video post by doug pagitt (http://dougpagitt.com/emergent/emergent-and-emerging-church-distinction), he talks about the relationship between the terms "emergence", "emerging church", and "emergent" (or emergent village). the emerging church, as many have come to use the term, is a subset of a greater shift that has been happening in our culture for the last couple hundred years. the emerging church is, one might say, the ecclesiological implications (or at least the discussion of those implications) of the grander shift taking place in our broader mindset, both in academia and in the popular conscience.

phyllis tickle engages this discussion at both levels -- giving us much of the historical reasons for, and milemarkers of, this greater emergence. she weaves a discussion of the emerging church throughout. but this is not a book about emergent village; and, to be fair, tickle writes about the emerging church in the broadest terms possible, including vineyard churches and calvary chapels as indicative of the shift.

i heard phyllis give a talk on this content at one of our national youth workers conventions last fall. it was stunning. it blew people away, to the extent that she received a long and loud standing ovation that showed a level of respect for both who she is and what she said. of course, she really ticked a few people off also, which one should expect from any hearty discussion of change in front of a large and diverse audience. but for me, and many others present, it was one of the most memorable talks i've heard in years, and has shaped my thinking and discussions since. knowing that this book was coming, i've been extremely eager to read it, and was thrilled to get my hands on a pre-pub copy of the manuscript (the book releases in october, though amazon seems to have it in stock already).

tickle is a recovering academic, and this is no lightweight book of observations and anecdotes: it's a sweeping analysis of sociological, cultural and religious shifts. tickle contends that the church seems to transition through massive changes about every 500 years, as a result of changing worldviews in the culture at large. she posits that we're a good ways into one of these epochal hinge-points; and following the language of "the great schism" and "the great reformation" for the last two hinge-points, uses "the great emergence" for this shift (though the term is not, as she acknowledges, hers).

because the book is a cultural analysis, and not a theological treatise, there's not much to anger anti-emergent people in this book. they might not agree with the cultural analysis, i suppose; and tickle's pro-emergence leaning (clearly, she sees this shift as positive, not neutral or negative) isn't masked. so some might choose to be dismissive on that count (we all have our biases). but the case is well made -- we're clearly not a part of the same worldviews that existed prior to darwin, scientific discoveries of relativity, postmodern language deconstruction, and a variety of other factors that have (in tickles language) so severely pocked the cable of meaning that connects our religious thought and practice to its mooring.

truly, the great emergence is one of the most important books written, to date, on the shifts happening in the american (and worldwide) church -- particularly protestantism, but all of christianity also. it's must-reading for anyone who desires to be an active participant in the shaping of the church today, whether at a local level, or at broader levels of discussion and practice.

i'm smarter because of this book. i understand more. i am better equipped to both enter into dialogue about the church today, as well as to live out my calling as a practitioner of the church of jesus christ in the real world.

Okay, so this is probably as preachy as Dr. Suess gets, and it just might get on the nerves of some people, but the tree hugger in me salutes him for it, even as he paints a grimmer picture of environmental destruction than Al Gore ever thought of.

Even so, it's clearly Suess with his imaginative worlds and funny characters.

It's a solemn book of warning that it pretty darn good into scaring kids into being careful with the environment.

And that's not a bad thing.

I could not wait to present this lesson to the class this year. Teaching seventh grade and the 5 themes of geography this book lends itself to many of those themes but mostly human-environmental interaction (how human interact and change the environment to fit their needs). Not only does this book show that but it really visualizes how we negatively impact the Earth for our own selfish needs. Again my students are in love with the facts that I am reading them a storybook and after the discussion they see that it isn't a plain, old storybook but it really does have a significant meaning.

Review by Sherry North, Author, Because You Are My Baby

While most Dr. Suess stories are pure fun without any heavy message, The Lorax delivers an extremely blunt lesson on ecology. What's amazing is that Dr. Suess does this with a narrative that is engaging, entertaining and ultimately inspiring. You might think a book with such a heavy message could be a turn-off to young children, but I have found the opposite. My preschoolers find this story absorbing. I think they understand there is something truly important at stake, so the book means more to them than other Dr. Suess titles.

Is it a coincidence that Thneed rhymes with Deadly Sin #3? Growth for the sake of growth is where we are today. This too shall pass, UNLESS....

Dr. Seuss, turned holier-than-thou by his elevated status in society, decides to preach to us about the evils of industrialization. Does he realize that the many millions of copies of "The Lorax" were all made in factories, using paper that came from trees?

This book has greatly helped me. I think this should be required reading in any school, be it home or public. I will certainly have my new born read it (well, once she is old enough). Now I have so many more tools available to me while reading. You will not read the same after reading this book. If you apply this book your skill will greatly increase. It has help me love to read!

Daniel Fuller, John Piper's hermeneutics teacher uses this book for his class. He doesn't believe in special hermeneutics but general hermeneutics. You can learn more here: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/1994/ and http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/2006/1625_Where_can_I_learn_more_about_the_Bible_study_method_called_arcing/

A great book on a seemingly obvious subject. Very insightful and a must for any begining researcher.

This is a review of "How to read a book" by Adler (May 2008).

This book was recommended to me by several authors I liked so aftr reading the positive reviews I decided to buy it. I can see that some see this book as 'timeless' and I think that is true, but I have also some criticism.

Pros:
- I see the main value of the book in teaching you the ability to structure your reading process/effort so that you get maximum value out of reading any book. For experienced readers (age 35+) this may be already a kind of automatism, but for less experienced (either in terms of #years or in terms of type of topic) this is probably not the case.
- I liked in particular the fact that the author not only discusses how to read book with emphasis on analytic content (rational / scientific / factual type of books), but also other kinds of literature.

Cons:
- The book is way too long. The author takes many pages to make a point that can also be done in 30% of the space. Fortunately, the author provides summaries of his 'rules' and tips. Nevertheless, an author who writes about how to efficiently read a book, should be brief himself! Just as you may expect from a dedicated reader that he reads efficiently, you may expect from a good writer he thinks through how to make a point, and be brief in the end, not forcing a reader to read many superfluous pages. Adler failed here. This makes me downgrade my rating.

Bottom line: If possible get it from a library; I would not recommend buying this book if you are in the second half of your 'reading life'.

i bought this book to learn how to read, but then i found out i couldn't read it. :(

nothing in this book is revolutionary. these are things any reader already knows and does, things that one had to learn to get through college. If you have a thirteen or fourteen year old definitely make him or her read it. The last section is sort of a plug for a different work by the author, which doesn't make it bad, just approach it with the necessary skepticism. On the whole a good and interesting read. The list of books at the end is mostly crap. There is a difference between being educated and well rounded and a crusty old lit snob. one could waste an awful chunk of ones life reading dusty old greeks or Proust instead of Beard of Lewis or Vonnegut. Update it yourself and don't tread it as a holy document, (which is pretty much how it was represented to me) and remember that its probably just articulating better than you could things you already know.