History Books

MV=PQ (and other variations)

Monetary History of the United States is one of the greatest and most historic economics book written. Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in economics for this masterwork. It revolutionized economics. The only other book that is better is The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. I highly recommend both books.

At the time Monetary History was published, monetary economics had fallen out of favor because of the Great Depression. Economists had thought that monetary forces were ineffective as stimulating the economy in a severe downturn. The phrase "pushing up on a string" became famous. That led to the belief that government intervention of fiscal policy was always needed to keep the economy stable.

Friedman and Schwartz proved beyond a doubt that monetary forces contributed greatly to the Great Depression, contributed to the strong recovery under Franklin Roosevelt from 1933-1937, and caused the recession of 1937-38.

Monetary forces matter. Monetary History has never been effectively refuted, although Peter Temin did show that monetary forces were not the only cause of the Great Depression in his book Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? The weakly regulated financial system collapsing so easily was partly to blame, as was the gold standard. The New Deal made the financial system stronger so it would not collapse again, and FDR removed America from the gold standard.

I highly recommend Monetary History. I also highly recommend Essays on the Great Depression by Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Great Depression is the ultimate riddle and they understand it.

I hated this book because it's hard to read. I don't like wading through sentences as long as paragraphs full of obscure words that require a dictionary nearby.

I just wanted to get a general understanding of money and the Federal Reserve from a source I trust and admire - Milton Friedman. I don't mind facts and figures but I resent writing that forces me into hard labor to decipher the meaning. I think good writing is communicating in the simplest way possible, not in trying to impress the reader with the author's vocabulary and ability to construct impenetrable, wannabe-sophisticated, long, compound sentences.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an engineer and I've got a decent vocabulary and fairly decent language skills.

I've found the books by Murray N. Rothbard to be much easier to read than this book though not as easy to read as I would like. I'm still looking for the perfect monetary history/economics book. I hope there's one out there somewhere.

Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz' A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 is an analysis and explanation of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its conclusion, first published in the early 1960s, differs from the two main explanations that existed at the time.

Austrian Business Cycle Theory had argued that the Great Depression was caused by excessively loose monetary policy that fed an unsustainable economic boom during the 1920s, which eventually collapsed into depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that instead it was excessively tight monetary policy following the boom of the 1920s that turned a run-of-the-mill recession into a depression. (For the Austrian explanation of the Great Depression, see Sir Lionel Robbins' The Great Depression or Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression.)

Keynesianism argued that the Great Depression had been caused by insufficient consumer product demand and lack of investor confidence, and that government should compensate for this by increasing its spending and financing it with government debt. Friedman and Schwartz argued instead that the problem and solution were not so much a matter of fiscal policy as they were a matter of monetary policy. Government, particularly the monetary authorities, was the cause of the depression, not the solution. Stimulative fiscal policy as prescribed by Keynes would in the long run not lead to an increase in economic growth and employment, but only to an increase in inflation. (For the Keynesian explanation of the Great Depression, see John M. Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money or John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash, 1929.)

At the time of its publication, A Monetary History was not immediately accepted by the economics profession, which then was still dominated by Keynesian thinking. But when Keynesian theory could not explain the stagflation (recession combined with high inflation) of the 1970s, monetarism came to rule the day, and Friedman would go on to win the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Friedman and Schwartz's analysis has by now become the standard explanation for the Great Depression. In the very least, the book helped reestablish the importance of monetary over fiscal policy in the stabilization of the business cycle. Money matters, even if it is not the only thing that matters. In addition, the importance of the book was methodological, in that it emphasized the importance of the empirical testing of one's economic propositions. What makes the book so persuasive is the great lengths to which the authors go to sort out the causation behind the correlation-the causation, they found, ran from money to output and prices rather than vice versa or via a fourth variable.

A Monetary History is a classic work in the canon of economic literature. It is on occasion still reviewed in the literature (e.g. Journal of Monetary Economics, August 1994; Cato Journal, Winter 2004). It clearly is an academic work written for trained economists, making it perhaps less accessible to a general audience. But several highly readable summary versions of the book exist, such as chapter 3 of Milton and Rose Friedman's Free to Choose, and even a one-paragraph summary conclusion in Capitalism and Freedom (on p. 45 of the paperback edition), which was published around the same time as A Monetary History. Alternatively, ch. 13 ("A Summing Up", pp. 676-700) is reprinted in The Essence of Friedman.

I read the reviews and found them helpful, but the unnamed reviewer that attributed the Great Depression to causes totally other than this book cites, and bashed Friedman as "not having a leg to stand on" concerned me because it seems the reviewer missed the very point of the book. Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman and his co-author undertook the monumental work of tracing money supply for each year for nearly a century. In doing so, they did the staggering amount of work required to show all of us something very powerful. To say they don't have a leg to stand on is disconcerting because it seems to indicate a review without a reading, or at least understanding. Obviously the Great Depression was the result of of complex interactions within the economy. What Friedman tries to do is show us the EMPIRICAL evidence for interaction between a contracting money supply and a worsening economic situation, and a steady money supply and a bettering economic situation. The Great Depression may have come about because of arrogant decisions and cascading failures, and those who decided to contract the money supply evidently were a very important trigger. I can say "evidently" because Friedman's research gives us the chance to observe the evidence for ourselves. To have advanced our knowledge of economics in a practical way, to have given useful facts for fending off depressions, is a gift. That's why this book will remain a watershed work in the history of economics.

Friedman and Schwartz(1963)did a great deal of worthwhile data compilation.The problem(an identical problem occurs in the 1956 work of Philip Cagan) occurs when they attempt to fit the data to the standard quantity of exchange equation MV=PO,where M is the supply of money(Friedman always selects MI to be equal to M),V is the velocity,P is the price level,O is real GNP(GDP),and PO is nominal GNP(GDP).The correct specification of the equation of exchange is M(Vw)=PO,where w is defined on the unit interval between 0 and 1.w is Keynes's measure of the weight of the evidence or Ellsberg's (rho)measure of the confidence a decision maker has in the information set he will use to calculate the probabilities of different outcomes.Friedman is a lifelong adherent and advocate of the Ramsey-De Finetti-Savage subjective approach to probability which argues that ,while the existence of vagueness(J M Keynes's weight of the A Treatise on Probability(uncertainty of the General Theory) or Ellsberg's ambiguity)is undeniable,it can't be modeled in a decision theoretic context.Only risk,represented by a normal probability distribution and its mean+ or- 3 standard deviations,can be operationalized.Friedman's section 4 of chapter 12,titled "Expectations about Stability ",discusses exactly what Savage called vagueness,Keynes called uncertainty,liquidity preference being a function of uncertainty AND NOT RISK,AND ELLSBERG CALLED AMBIGUITY.Friedman has no variable in his model to deal with it.He admits this on the second paragraph of p.675.Friedman's analysis abstracts from the role that expectations,confidence,uncertainty,and the flexibility of money(Keynes's liquidity preference)play in the demand for money .All of the Friedman-Schwartz analysis needs to be redone using the correct specification of the equation of exchange.Friedman's existing specification only holds in the special case where w=1.0,i.e.,that there is no uncertainty,ambiguity,or vagueness. MV=PO is a correct specification of the equation of exchange only if risk,measured by the normal probability distribution's standard deviation(or the standard deviation divided by the mean),is the only decision theoretic variable.All current forms of the equation of exchange ignore ambiguity and/or uncertainty and conflate risk with uncertainty.The equation of exchange has been misspecified from Hume to Friedman and Lucas.Only Keynes correctly derived a generalized equation of exchange.Keynes's analysis is contained on p.209 and chapter 21 of the GT.Lucas has already admitted that his framework of analysis breaks down completely if Keynesian uncertainty or Ellsbergian ambiguity prevents him from using his normal probability distribution.The massive 50 plus years of statistical analysis by Benoit Mandelbrot of data from all financial markets(stock,money,commodities,futures,currencies,bond) provides overwhelming empirical support for not using the normal distribution.Keynes,of course,would agree that, if the only decision theoretic variable of consequence is risk(Mandelbrot's mild risk),velocity would be stable or predictable.The fact that velocity is not constant or predictable means that Friedman's monetarism is only a very special case of Keynes's general theory,which,in terms of Mandelbrot's definitions,deals with mild and wild risk.Friedman can only deal with mild risk.

Very good book. If your interested in football (i.e. soccer) this covers everything. There are some slow parts but not that many and that could be attributed to not growing up with the sport. Great read but I think only if your really into football.

I've read a lot of books about sports in my relatively short time on this planet and while I have really enjoyed many of them and reread a few multiple times, this was definitely the first sports-related book I have ever NOT wanted to finish. Based on my rating, you can tell I mean this in a completely positive way: this book was easily one of the most informative and engaging texts I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

The main point of this text is the history of soccer (or football, whichever you may prefer - I'm an American, so soccer it is), which is clear from the subtitle on the cover. Yet there is so, so, so much more contained within the roughly 900 pages that span the book's binding. You have a lot of politics, great human successes and failures, stories of survival and disaster, as well as small passages that set you in a certain time and space where Goldblatt takes you to a scene important to the chapter or section.

For a well-read fan of the game, the importance of this book lies in the first half of it, as Goldblatt starts from the very beginning, discussing ball games of the ancient world, moving to the late 19th century and the creation of the English FA and the FA Cup, the development of professionalism (both accepted and hidden) versus amateurism, and while he obviously takes the history all the way to the present, the first half of the book opens up a history of the sport that many know absolutely nothing about. Soccer in the first half of the 20th century is not a well-known history, one Goldblatt marvelously elucidates.

For those who like the sport but know little about it, the book shows you how much there was to soccer before the advent of the Premier League, corporate sponsorship, and 32 teams in the World Cup. Goldblatt does a tremendous job of really digging into the social and political implications and uses of the sport in various countries, from the first world to the third.

Perhaps the most impressive part is that this text is all-inclusive. You don't just get a history of European soccer with a decent bit about South America and occasional mentions or anecdotes from Africa, North America, Australia, or Asia. Goldblatt delves into every continent's history and relationship to the game, truly showing how soccer really is the global game. All in all, this is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anyone.

This is amazing, wide ranging work that tells the story of football (soccer) and places it in the social context of the times. It is a dense and scholarly work which covers a lot of world history and social class because football does not stand on it's own as simply a game but it is much more important than life and death(to paraphrase Bill Shankly's famous quote).
Goldblatt is a very good writer who had me reaching for the Dictionary, who is able to synthesize the rich history of world football into a readable account. I appreciate the match accounts from great matches.
I see this book as an companion to the excellent History of Football BBC series. The only drawback with this book is that it should have more photos

I found this book to be phenomenal. I must admit that I am a rather new prosylyte to "futbol" or soccer as we call it here in the States. I really new nothing about the history of the sport and very little about modern rules or teams or leagues. That having been said, I found the book to be very informative. Goldblatt begins with the "pre-history" of soccer, exposing many nationalist myths about soccer's origins and placing it firmly into the realm of a Celtic game taken up by elite public school boys in Victorian England.

The chapters dealt with specific subjects and I actually found the book to be extremely well organized. Time periods are gone through and after World War I, Goldblatt begins seperating chapters by region (Latin America from 1934-1954, Europe from 1934-1954, Africa from 1900-1974, Latin America from 1955-1974, etc.).

Having said all of that, what made this book especially interesting to me was the placing of soccer within a much larger context. He takes the narrative of soccer and places it within the meta-narrative of world history, economics, sociology, and anthropology. Soccer serves as the thread through which modern history is successfully traced. The writing is brilliant, at times incredibly deep, but always readable and always urging the reader to continue. Each chapter contains a reflection on a notable match of that time period. These are written in a completely different style than the rest of the book and are absolutely incredible. The writing is brilliant and the imagery is transportive.

All in all, more than deserving of five stars. This soccer "newbie" has become a seasoned vet in a span of less than one thousand pages.

There is ccombat for some in the military. So far as the army is concerned it is the men in the rifle companies who bear the brunt of combat. They are in touch with the enemy, face to face and hand to hand. Bill Mauldin was a master at expressig the life and times of the infantryman. Somehow he managed to picture a very serious busines with humor. Not an easy task, but he was a master of it.

A very good collection of the cartoons of Maldin. A very good selection of his cartoons and a good case study of him.

For those who lived through World War II, this is a sweet reminder of Bill Mauldin's fight to show the mud and toil of the war.

Had an original copy a number of years ago, misplaced it somewhere along the line. It's like finding an old friend.

As a veteran of the army (1st Bn 75 Inf ) I could relate to the situations that Willie and joe found themselves in.The humor that soldiers see in different situations can be appreciated by soldiers and civilians alike. Mr. Mauldin illustrates these situations very well and has clever captions to go with them. If you ever wondered what army life is like or want to remember some of the situations you as a soldier were in, then take a look at these two books. If you enjoy them half as much as I do then you will be very happy you bought them. Happy reading.
"Rangers Lead The Way"

One other person wrote that this book is fascinating but depressing and that is why he/she chose to give it less than 5 stars.

I beg to differ, one of the reasons why I gave it 5 stars is because it was depressing. It caused me a lot of anguish reading how much we have damaged this planet and how part of this damage will take 1000s of years to go away. I guess that would have been part of the message of this book, which it delivered on superbly.

Another user also chose to give it less than 5 stars because it had too much focus on NYC and not other places. Again I beg to differ; the book did devote a whole chapter to Houston. Also I do not think this a huge shortcoming for the book, after all, it was written by an "American" for a largely American audience. Additionally, I think the author was limited by space. He could have gone on and on about other places, but he would have ended at something like 500+ pages. I think the book did deliver on it's message within the limitation of 350+ pages.

After reading this I would love it if someone banned the plastics used in shampoos. The author ended up taking us to some interesting places to seek out where humans have had to let go of portions of the earth and seeing what happened. I'm very happy I read this and I think you will like it too.

Haven't read the book yet, but the way Amazon sent it was awful!
I submitted an order for this book and an order for canned goods. They arrived together in one box. The book had just been tossed in with the cans and you can imagine what shape the book was in. I had assumed the book would have been boxed or wrapped separately, even if they put it into the larger box of canned items. Makes you wonder what kind of idiots work in their shipping department and what kind of supervision is in place at Amazon. In the future I will never order a book WITH any other item.

When I first picked up this book, I was concerned that it would simply be a lesson on how plants and animals would overtake our cities and houses once humans had disappeared from our planet. That is a major part of the book, but I never found it to be overdone. The parts of the book that I loved were the history and places that are explored in this book. From the DMZ zone in Korea to the nuclear fallout of Chernobyl to the beginnings of human history in Africa. There is a lot more to this book than should be judged from the cover.

I also loved the look into the everyday things that we use and how they affect the world around us. It really made me think about how small changes in what I use could make a difference.

This book is great for anyone interested in the effect that humans have had and are having on this world.

Alan Weisman's book is an extension of a previous essay article, and unfortunately, that is how it often reads. The chapters (and sections within chapters) jump from subject to subject and through different time lines without real feeling for order or reason. The statements he makes are backed up by well researched evidence and via discussion with some very interesting characters but sometimes, one gets lost in trying to figure out what the point is of each section, rather than go with the flow.

However, he does make some very interesting and important points in regards to human impact and the fact that there are large numbers of species and populations that will not even notice that we are gone. He does also point out the fact that some of our inventions are likely to still be hanging around for mellenia and beyond.

Overall it is an interesting read, though I feel that if it was written by someone with more of a science background rather than journalistic, than it would have made for excellent reading.

In his latest book "Prophecy", Robert T. Kiyosaki predicts a major stock market crash in the near future. This, he says, is a result of the baby boomers (mostly) saving for their retirement via stock investments and given that a large number of them will retire from 2016 onwards their investments will have to be cashed in as it will be needed and as a result the market will fall if not crash. Apart from that, RK says, that most baby boomers may not actually see their money ever again as more often than not most of it is invested in their own companies, i.e., the ones they work for, and if their employer goes down the drain so will their funds saved for retirement. Kiyosaki uses the demise of Enron as an example to demonstrate this.
Granted, there is nothing really new about all this. If you have spent any time working in the financial field you would know about this - although over the years I felt that people tend to stick their heads in the sand and hope that this will not happen or somehow go away

Apart from complaining about the existing system and the financial illiteracy of the vast majority of the market participants (and that would appear to be the main problem), Kiyosaki in Part II of the book sets out a game plan on how to build your own financial ark.

What I like about Kiyosaki's book is that he is pointing his finger straight at what could potentially happen and he does it in rather convincing style. There is indeed a good deal of information here that Kiyosaki has mentioned in his previous books, but I am not terribly upset about this as it serves to reinforce the message. Besides, if you haven't read any of the previous Kioysaki books, you would be stuck in the middle of nowhere if Kiyosaki left out the previously published information.

The premise of the phrophecy is that the baby boomers will pretty much take their money out of the stock market suddenly and cause it to crash. I suspect the market is far more vast than considered and the baby boomers' 401ks combined represents only a few drops in the bucket. If the market crashes, it won't be because of this prophecy's premise.

Robert Kiyosaki is a motivational speaker that also happens to sell books. If you are looking for a "How To", then you're in the wrong place. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad author seems to always strive to make you think about your financial future, and Rich Dad's Prophecy is no different.

Using scare tactics to elicit a response from you, this book strives to tell you that the stock market is a bad place to invest your money, and presents reasons for this opinion. However, looking historically, this has not been the case. One of Kiyosaki's main points is that the market will crash because all of the baby boomers will be drawing out their money at a rate that the stock market won't be able to handle.

Kiyosaki's point could be a valid one, but there is too much wealth in the world (that is not controlled by the United States' small group of retiring workers) for this speculation to be factual. Read Kiyosaki's book for the motivation it will provide if you need it. Don't read Kiyosaki's book if you're looking for ideas on how to invest your money (unless you're thinking of building a motivational book series with your "Pay Yourself First" funds).
http://rhapsodiesofross.blogspot.com/2008/06/rich-dad-richer-dad.html

Kiyosaki does a great job explaining the decline to come. Par for the course, the author is less than clear with his advice. If you have not read "The Second Great Depression" or other books like it I do highly recommend this volume. However, your money may be better spent on a more technical manual on how to profit during a declining market.

There is nothing to see (read) here. You know now what you will get from this book. Spend your money elsewhere on Amazon.

This book is a good reminder of how the bottom of the bottom billion survive, and the importance of a minimal level of governance. Nonetheless, the author overdoes the comparisons with pre-independence Congo. Although the colonial masters undoubtedly lived well, life was far from a bed or roses for the masses--the fact that Belgium invested so little in basic services for the Congolese, is one reason the country is still a mess, even as many African countries are now rapidly advancing.

When Tim Butcher describes a city in the modern Democratic Republic of Congo as "a sad collection of ruins," he could well have been describing the entire country, whose endless struggle over control of its rich resources during the past 100-plus years has left it mostly in shambles. This highly readable account of Butcher's attempt to follow the path of Henry Stanley's 1784 expedition to map the Congo River gives ample testimony to the difficulties of not just travel but of daily life in this sadly exploited nation.

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

Tim Butcher's book BLOOD RIVER was recommended by Amazon last summer and I bought it because I am fascinated by the Congo. Having read King Leopold's Ghost,In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, Heart of Darkness as well as The Poisonwood Bible, I was intrigued by an update on the Congo, especially by someone adventurous (I did think crazy)enough to try to follow Stanley's journey across Africa from east to west in the current political/savage climate.
Mr. Butcher is a journalist, so he knows how to use words to convey a mood, or a place or a person. And in this book, he is at his best. You are tugged along almost reluctantly on his trip,knowing that he obviously survived, but wondering how he could have possibly made it all the way. Everyone told him not to try it, but somehow there were also very helpful people along the way.
The one man who begged him to take his four year old with him, the guys on the motorbikes, the pirogue pole guys and the captain of the boat are all unforgettable. I especially liked that Mr. Butcher would bring in historical asides, liked the making of the African Queen and Katherine Hepburn in the hotel that is no longer there, or the travel guide that his mother had. He brings in all the hard historical stuff also, like the Belgians and the hand cutting, as well as the slavery trade.
If you want a book that has it all, plus pictures, get this book and hop on behind Mr. Butcher as he pursues a dream/nightmare journey through Africa.

Fifty years ago the Democratic Republic of Congo -- then just ceasing to be the Belgian Congo -- had a modern network of roads, railways and river transportation, with adequate accommodation available in all of the main centres. Today none of that exists, and the only practical way of getting about is by air, and that with difficulty and even danger. As Tim Butcher remarks at one point, "I looked at the sickly child and tried to think of another country in the world where a baby born in the same place half a century earlier had less chance of surviving than today" (the last few words are quoted from memory, and hence are probably quoted inaccurately).

So when he decided to follow Henry Morton Stanley's land route in the 1870s from Lake Tanganyika to the River Congo and then follow the river to Boma, on the coast, this was not the trivial task it would have been in the 1950s, and many experts on the country said it would be impossible and dangerous and that he would almost certainly be killed if he attempted it. In some ways he had an even more difficult task than Stanley, with no Zanzibari bearers to carry all his stuff, and no guns to shoot anyone who tried to thwart him. Nonetheless, he largely succeeded (with considerable help, it must be said, from a series of aid workers and United Nations representatives), apart from flying about a quarter of the total distance, from Mbandaka to Kinshasa ("no capital city in the world more unrepresentative of its country"), when he felt to ill to continue. He describes Mbandaka as "a sad collection of ruins", but unfortunately this description applies equally well to almost everywhere he went.

Apart from its interest as a modern adventure story, Blood River is well worth reading for what it tells us about the modern Congo, and how it got that way, with much information about Stanley's initial colonization, exploitation as the personal property of King Leopold, later as a Belgian colony, and now independent, with essentially permanent armed conflict.

If you are looking for a book about peak oil and the associated economic problems don't buy this book. Its all about the standard conspiracy theories we have been hearing about for the last 40 years and is so poorly written, lengthy and disorganized that its not worth reading. Is there a rating less than 1 star?

With the referenced facts laid out in this book, there is NO DOUBT why no one was put under oath at the 911 hearings!!!

This is an incredibly disturbing book, but does dovetail
with issues that disturbed me before I read it. I agree
with others there are a lot of dots and not all are
well connected. Nevertheless, I don't want to rehash what others
have said, but make a few points.
The WTC was struck on 9-11. The Patriot Act, one individual
listed as the lead author, is over 340 pages, was passed
Oct 24. One and a half months later. How? How can something
complex be done in that time, especially with the confusion
and activity surrounding those events. I have wondered
if the Patriot Act wasn't already on the shelf waiting to
be pulled out.
The author points to the Daschle anthrax as being of CIA
origin. Interestingly, Richard Preston's "The Demon in the
Freezer" hints that this bioweapon was very sophistocated,
and may have fingerprints pointing to a USA origin.
On page 23 Ruppert refers to the need to reduce the world's
population by 4 billion (it may soon need to be 5 billion!)
To do this, bioweapons are needed. To spare infrastructure
and livestock, there aren't many candidates -- smallpox would
seem to be the most likely choice. And it seems that smallpox is
at large in unknown labs (again, see Preston's book). I am
an Inf Dz specialist and had the opportunity to study under
some of those who "eradicated" smallpox, and am somewhat familiar
with that story. One concern for anyone who opens that Pandora's
box is whether the vaccines will be effective to what may turn
out to be a bioengineered strain. On page 158, reference is
even made to a ethnospecific bioweapon.
In the end, I have more questions unanswered than answered. But
who could even invent this stuff?

Michael Ruppert's "Crossing The Rubicon" is nothing less than a masterpiece. It was the first book I read that put 9/11 and the anthrax letters in context. It's a long book, over 600 pages, and I did not intend to read it all, but each chapter left me hungry for more information. This is an investigative book that encompasses much more than 9/11. It explains the financial and oil crises the US is in and the geopolitical strategy the neo-cons have developed to keep all the big lies alive. It explains the war games and Dick Cheney's complicity. If you are an American and you CAN read, then this book is a MUST read. Understand the era in which you live and you will understand the crises in which most of us will die.

This book is the best explanation yet for why the executive level of government committed the 9-11 false flag operation. Being an engineer, the physics of 9-11 is what got me asking questions. But for most peope this will not be compelling for they lack physics training. So this book is a outstanding in the sense that it proves 9-11 was an inside job with everything other than physics. So this book can wake up more people to 9-11 truth than any other source in my opinion. And the book is written like a legal case. You could hand the book to a lawyer and put cheney in jail, if it wasnt for the corrupt legal imunity of government. Cant rate this one highly enough. 5 stars just doenst do it justice. It deserves ten.

I am really enjoying this book - but it's all but impossisble to read in bed! Truly a delight and very educational.

Possibly useful for children with no knowledge of art, the book is cumbersome in size and slightly loathsome in outlook. '30,000 Years of Art' lumps all creative output from both past and distant cultures into one whopping big format. That being one big picture beside one simple page of text. It renders equivalent Australian aboriginal art and French nineteenth century eroticism, an idea that I find thoroughly absurd. There are many better books around that introduce world art without ruining the distinctive character of entirely different enterprises. The best introduction to art is William Fleming's 'Arts and Ideas', the pictures are not quite as big but what it lacks in size it makes up for in depth. It covers roughly the same period and includes a brief discussion of music and architecture as well. This book reminds me of those giant roadside attractions (the big pineapple etc) that some cities cling to to create tourist interest. Like this book they represent nothing more than empty imaginations.

This is a full color work on ancient artwork,
as well as modern art. The renditions date back
to 50,000 BC. Sample pieces are as follows:
o France- Dappled Horses of Pech at 25,000 BC
o Australia- Sash at 17,000 BC - rock pigments
o Spain- Altamira Bison limestone at 15,000 BC
o South Africa- Cold Stream Burial Stone
o Iraq- Samarra Plate at 5,000 BC
o Peru- Paracas Embroidered Mantle 50 BC
o Italy- Cubiculum Fresco at 19 BC - a colorful dress
o China- Watchtower at 100 AD
o Italy- Opus Sectile Panel of Christ (marble)

A beauty of this work is that readers can observe
Christian themes which coincide at or near the time
of Jesus Christ. In addition, a clear sense of the
people and fashions of the times is evident throughout.
The acquisition is worth the price of admission.
This book will have a wide constituency of readers
from business, academe and the arts.

It is always stunning to see a photograph of the approximately 28,000 year old cave paintngs. In the eeriness of a flame-lit cave, a human being probably not much different than you and me depicted the world around him or her. All we know for sure is that someone had a need to express themselves. And so humans have done so for the past 30,000 years, with a sampling of 1,000 artworks between the covers of this magnificient book.

One of the most amazing features of this book is the price. Incredibly low for such a large book with so many finely reproduced photographs of artworks. Truly a bargain - and one that belongs in every home.

Why should a book on art be in every home? Because this is a book of history. Not the history of art, per se, but the history of humankind.

In many cases, the art is actually artifact - remnants of a culture, of a civilization. (It can be argued that much 20th Century Western art is actually evidence of the devolution of civilization, but that belongs in another venue.) Virtually every culture is representedd from across the globe. The collection is relatively eclectic, especially for what we consider "primitive" cultures where what we see as "art" was for that culture merely a everyday tool.

We see from the art that much of the time, it was the province of the powerful or the rich. We can see the preoccupation of certain cultures with religion, which is actually the theme of most of the works here. That may be a result of such works often being large and more survivable. One can only imagine how much of what we would consider art today has been destroyed or plundered. Think of all the gold objects carried off by invaders or the indigenous work destroyed, such as the Mayan manuscipts burned by the Spanish or the recurrent repressions of the Jews and their religions. Of course, much art was simply destroyed because it had outlived it usefulness: many Greek and Roman bronzes were melted down over time.

We should be thankful that we have what we have and that thanks to miracles of modern technology, we can enjoy and appreciate it in the comfort of our own homes. Truly amazing.

The commentaries for each of the artworks shown are mercifully plain-spoken. The pretensiousness of academics is happily absent.

Overall, this book is an admirable overview of the history of art and really should be in every home. It is a great value.

Jerry

A superlative review of human accomplishment in the visual arts. Intelligent, well designed. Beautifully printed and bound. Unbelieve bargain- without a doubt the single best buy of recent times!

This book is an excellent reference book for the true fan of the early days of Walt Disney's Imagineering and the people who most influenced the way the Disney Theme Parks are so different from any other. Lots of early pictures and stories. Highly recommended for the true Disney Theme Park fan.

Well, we've all been waiting nearly four years for this latest Jeff Kurtti Disney piece (it was originally listed on amazon with a 2005 release date), and on the whole, it's been worth it. The text is extremely thorough without being overly encyclopedic; at times it's casual, light and anecdotal. I bought my first copy here and a second for friend during a recent visit to Disneyland (the book is available at the parks)--it's that good.

I agree with some of the other posters that several key women are missing from this volume--I was looking forward to reading more about Mary Blair in particular. Perhaps the recent controversy with the Blair family over additions to it's a small world is the reason she was left out?

I've been a reader of Disney history for years (and I'm even doing my design masters on theming), and there were several tidbits, even for the well-versed fan, that are new. In other words, you can pick this one up thinking you know everything about the history of the parks and still learn a thing or two. Many of the photographs have never been published before, either.

The only reason I can't give this book 5 stars is the design. Bruce Gordon (a wonderful former imagineer, he passed away far too young in the fall of 2007) is the culprit. Although he was the mastermind, along with Tony Baxter, behind Disney creations like Splash Mountain, he's a self-taught graphic designer, and it shows. Granted, the typography and layout are a considerable improvement over the positively awful design of Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever. No more tacky drop shadows and garish font choices--and thank God there's at least some white space this time. Still, the look and feel of the book is considerably amateurish when compared to Kurtti's stellar, well-researched text. I just wish Disney hadn't fired Bruce Gordon from WDI in 2005, causing him to poorly lay out books like this full time.

But don't take that as disrespect...Bruce, you will be missed.

Do yourself a favor, Disney park fans. Pick this one up, pronto.

In my work I'm at Walt Disney World every week, and the more I research it the more impressed I am. It is a place of boundless imagination. After Walt Disney's original vision, the bulk of the creative work has been in the capable hands of the Disney Imagineers. This book profiles 30 of these Disney artists and engineers.

Although you could argue about the list (I'd love to see Mary Blair, but I guess her role wasn't really as an Imagineer) you can't argue with the depth of the research. Within each profile, Kurtti has gathered not only anecdotes, reminiscences and quotes, but also photos and sketches. The best photographs show the Imagineers at work, painting and sculpting and model-making. The conceptual art is the most fun; you can see Bill Martin's conceptual layout for the Peter Pan attraction in Disneyland, and Rolly Crump's concept sketch for the Enchanted Tiki Room.

I do wish more current Imagineers were included, especially the visionary Joe Rohde, the chief architect of Disney's Animal Kingdom. But then again he's not a Legend. Maybe in a sequel, Jeff?

The design of the book is a little loose for my taste, with some clunky typeface choices and layout. Several of the photos are not rectangles, but rather circles or other shapes, and many are reproduced too dark, at least in my copy. But overall the book is an excellent resource -- and makes for fascinating reading -- for any Disney fan.

Jeff Kurtti is also the author of SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN: WALT DISNEY WORLD: THE FIRST 25 YEARS.

Here's the chapter list:
Foreword: Growing Up With Imagineering, by Martin A. Sklar
What is Walt Disney Imagineering?
The First Imagineer: Walt Disney
1. The Prototype Imagineers
* Harper Goff
* Ken Anderson
* Herbert Ryman
* Sam McKim
2. The Executive Suite
* Richard F. Irvine
* Bill Cottrell
3. The Place Makers
* Marvin Davis
* Bill Martin
4. The Story Department
* Marc Davis
* Claude Coats
5. Masters of Mixed Media
* Morgan "Bill" Evans
* Roland "Rolly" Crump
* Yale Gracey
* Blaine Gibson
6. The Model Shop
* Fred Joerger
* Harriet Burns
* Wathel Rogers
7. The Machine Shop
* Roger Broggie
* Bob Gurr
8. The Music Makers
* Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman
* Buddy Baker
* George Bruns
* X Atencio
9. The Unofficial Imagineers
* Ub Iwerks
* Bill Walsh
* James Algar
* Ward Kimball
10. The Renaissance Imagineer
* John Hench

Another excellent book from Jeff Kurtti and the late but very awesome Bruce Gordon. Lots of great information on little known Disney Imagineers, beautiful page layouts and wonderful rare photographs. I highly recommend this book.

My only issue, which would have resulted it 5 stars instead of 4. Where are Alice Davis, Mary Blair and Leota Toombs? While it's great to read about the legendary Harriet Burns, I was disappointed that she was the only woman represented. Certainly Alice and Mary contributed so much to the classic Disney attractions, and why a picture with Leota Toombs but no information on her? Maybe a follow-up book is in order?

In any case, thanks for finally releasing the Imagineering Legends book. I have to say it is definitely worth the 2 & 1/2 year wait!

I have always been a huge Disneyland fan, but only begun delving into the history for the past 2 years, so I would consider myself somewhat of a newbie amongst the die-hards. This book's strength is its encyclopedic all-in-one format (although as Lannie's excellent review points out, there are a few glaring omissions such as Alice Davis), the wonderful photos/illustrations (many are new to me, with a few familiar ones), and the excellent design that is featured throughout. Each chapter features a different skill/talent for the Imagineers, such as:

*The Prototype Imagineers (Harper Goff, Ken Anderson, Herbert Ryman, and Sam McKim)

*The Executive Suite (Richard F. Irvine & Bill Cottrell)

*The Model Shop (Fred Joerger, Harriet Burns, and Wathel Rogers), and many more.

The common thread throughout the book is obviously Walt himself; his talent for putting all of these geniuses together and challenging them to do things they'd never attempted before created the magic that is now Disneyland and WDW. Walt fostered the creative and "can-do" environment that allowed The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, it's a small world, and the Jungle Cruise to become the beloved attractions that every guest rushes to experience over and over again. To quote Tony Baxter from the book: "I found it interesting to see that when Walt was alive he was able to pull everyone together, and I think that was his great talent: to be able to get everyone to work together in harmony." This quote is in the section of Claude Coats, and refers to the fact that Marc Davis (characters) and Claude Coats (the environment/background) created magic together on Pirates of the Caribbean, even they didn't necessarily get along with each other. Walt put them together and 40 years later, it is still one of the favorite attractions at the parks.

Another issue addressed in the book is how Disney is often bashed for idealizing and whitewashing history, leading to the negative term "Disneyfied." In the section on John Hench, he is quoted as saying "There's order about it, and there're some other kinds of things about it that speak to [the visitors] and where they live. It is reassurance. And it's beyond something that they have to rationalize or think about intellectually. They can just feel this." In the footnote section, another source is quoted as saying "In Manhattan, where the clarion against Disneyfication has recently been sounded, one wonders at the precise cause for alarm. Fears of lost authenticity sound hollow in a city where themed restaurants...have existed since the turn of the century and a favorite museum is a reconstruction of a twelfth-century Spanish cloister."

Each Imagineer is given approximately 2-3 pages; I enjoyed reading not only about what they did for Disney, but learning their background and early information. Blaine Gibson initially refused the invitation to join WED and leave animation, as he felt more than satisfied having sculpting just be a hobby. Once Gibson learned that the job offer was a personal invite from Walt, he changed his mind. It was also nice to note the lack of egos and mutual admiration that the Imagineers have for each other (most attractions were the work of multiple Imagineers, not just one, so it was refreshing that there was no "jockeying for credit." It is somewhat sad to note that many of these legends have passed away (Harriet Burns just recently), but great to know that their work lives on through quality publications such as this one.

I would highly recommend this book as a great addition to your Disney Library. However, the cover currently shown on Amazon does not match the art on the finished book.

I have followed 2600 for years, but am by far not old enough to have been there for the start of it, this ... I hate to call it a book, but it is... book fills in a lot of very interesting and important history of the estranged phreaker/haxxor communities alike through republishing many of the key articles featured in the magazine/news letter as well as some extended back history on the whole shebang that was probably know to very few before this book came out. Understanding the histories of your favorite subject is important, it keeps you from repeating mortal mistakes, and teaches you what kind of things to look for in future exploits and conquests... hopefully ones without malintent. Hacking and prheaking is about the quest for knowledge, hopefully if you are of the mindset to cause anarchy, destruction, or 'own' someone, this book will set you on the right path... plus it is much more challenging to make something than to break something, though, the latter is often part of the process for the first.
But regardless of your ideologies, this is an important book to consume if you are in any way interested in the dark underbelly of computers, networks, or phone systems.

Very good read. Still reading it but the first section alone is worth the price. I wish they would have released it in 3 sections so I can easily travel with this book.

The hacker ethos is beautifully captured in this anthology. I've often skimmed 2600 at bookstores but it was only when I went through this hefty tome that I realized how deep and rich are the culture and accomplishments of the hacking community.

More than just the cartoonish representation in popular media, the hacking movement is a testament to creativity and innovation. Rightly so, this book is a celebration of cleverness and ingenious engineering instead of the more malevolent applications.

Emmanuel Goldstien and his companions have written alot about hacking over the years, but now most of their writings have come together in tome form.

If there was anything you ever wanted to know concerting what hacking was like before the explosion of the Internet, or how hackers have been portrayed with biased by the media and in some cases the government, this is a must read book.

If you subscribe to 2600: The Hacker Quarterly or if you patiently wait at the book store or mail box for a new issue every three months, you will definitely want to pick up this book.

It will be interesting to see in the future, online hacker zines to try their hand at publishing their writings such as TOTSE and Phrack.

I would like to first point out that information in this book and others does not mean that someone should go into someones system or other types of areas. Informing people on potentials that may hurt them in the future does not mean or imply someone will steal or hurt another. It's mealy for security. For example if you told someone their sneakers were untied that doesn't invoke a reaction that you wanted to steal them!
The problem with any form of security is it assumes that people breaking generally cannot think. It's been said that locks keep honest criminals out. Of course the other problem with this is if there's no forced point of energy that could nullify insurance claims!

I listen to 2600's Off the Hook and Off the Wall radio shows (streaming, wbcq, wbai, wusb). I encourage people to do so because they are brining up things that frankly most of the media won't. For example practically all locksets on the market are compromised via "bump keys" not a peep came out of the major media on this. Top rated mainstream locks are about 15 minutes for someone to open! Like it or not the more we obtain new technology the more we better get used to using it.

Getting into this book it has quite a large amount of articles going back decades. Much of this stems from the concept that somehow someone has created something that cannot be opened. Never assume something cannot be done with a piece of electronics!

I've experienced a number of interesting related things. I worked for a company that hosted all internal finance documents on a server that granted access not only to everyone in the building but everyone in the company! No password required! At the very least put a password, restrict access to certain terminals etc. I also worked for a major retailer that had back doors into their own systems from a hr portal people could view at home. Huge amounts of data could be found on policies and procedures that the management did not want people to know. All of this was access one could get at work without passwords so it wasn't even violating a law.I should say that I myself was hacked a number of years ago. Someone ended up saying I was selling a motorcycle on ebay using my account! Not cool but it was a learning experience.

Also 2600 makes good points as that it seems that we are no longer simply buying products but buying licenses. But since a license is an agreement it technically is NOT an agreement when there's only one party engaging.The innovations that have been achieved with technology should not be used by the government to data mine people and/or for companies to dictate their usage.

Most people believe that the products and services they buy and use will work properly and have (hopefully) integrity. When that trust is taken away it means everything is compromised. If a building collpases you can physically determine as to why but with a network it is not always apparent.

I highly recommend this book because it reinforces the mindset that technology is supposed to be free and open to use.