Social Sciences Books

The book was fine I wish the writing had stated the book did not come with the Program CD; I would not have purchased it.

this book is useless without the CD Rom which was missing. I want a refund. Keven Mosley-Koehler
koehlerk@ewashtenaw.org

This book is very good for people, who just now have started to work with SPSS and never have done it before: easy to understand how to enter data, make graphs, and other very important things. Almost all is shown by examples of SPSS.

This book is very helpful in becoming acquainted with the rather complex SPSS statistics software program. I recommend the book for others who need assistance in learning how to use this statistical software and need it presented in a practical manner for the lay person.

The "For Dummies" series are funny books and are sometimes helpful but, much like Sparknotes or Cliffnotes, they are inherently flawed. This is ESPECIALLY true for anything that has to do with computerization; if you really need to earn something then you really need a book that will teach you a solid way to generate results. In the case of SPSS I really thinks this is true and then some - the program gives you all sorts of ways to test and to generate answers BUT the word dummies doesn't really play here.
If anything, it seems criminal to tell people they can learn something without hammering away at it.

A few of my students have used this book and the truth of the matter is this: they learn the most basic functions of the program but, when asked to perform something a little more difficult, they freeze and their eyes frost. The book doesn't add in the terminology needed, doesn't cover the ideas behind concepts, and doesn't even cover the stuff an introduction class would.
If you need help and need it badly, this would set you back and confuse you even more. Instead, you could buy a SPSS Basics book to grasp the immediate, look into an Experimental Design class to learn what SPSS is attempting (you can look online and see what classes require, then mirror the class without taking it if you can't afford the time), or you could consult the program and the book that accompanies it. Either way, this is not progression but the illusion of progression and you can tell that by reading exactly what it promises to teach you.
Very bad primed.

I received the book in in a timely fashion, and the book is in great condition.

The book was iin better condition than i expected, and it sent out the day after i ordered it.

This book is a staple in the early childhood mental health field. It represents everything good in the promotion of social-emotional development in our society. Creating neurobiologically friendly environments for young children is a crossroad our society faces in an effort to have a positive impact on the mental health for our time. Implications for risk and resilience research contributions are included.

I purchased this book, because I am doing a Graduate Diploma in Maternal & Child Health in Australia. Many of our lecturers were taking quotes from this book and referring to Jack Schonkoff's remarks contained within, pertaining to new evidence on myelination and the importance of interaction and stimulation of small children and the relationship between this and brain growth. It is easy to read and I am confident that both the lay person and health professional alike will glean valuable insight. I find myself constantly referring to this book and know that this will have an effect on my future practice as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse.

An amazing breadth and depth of neuroscience and its implications for how we treat children. Must reading for anyone wishing to get beyond prejudice and rhetoric to the core of what needs to be done in public policy to protect and preserve childhood in modern America. Should be 5 stars, but now a little dated, although references are excellent and it's not hard to follow the themes into the most recent research.

This book is recommended to members and anyone who is interested in joining a African American Greek Letter Organization. It gives a good history on the fraternities and sororities.

The book is kind of old, but the history is there.

This book overall is great for someone interested in anj African-American Fraternity/Sorority. There are only a few downsides which include the distracting pieces of information about famous members on various pages. The profiles of these people should've had its own chapter. I also believe that the author has biased views since he is an Alpha and his wife is a Delta. I couldn't get over what he said about him thinking of Deltas when he thinks of the future and other similar staements (I probably misquoted but if you read the book you know what I mean). I understand he is entitled to his own opinion, but this book is suppose to be about history and facts. Leave the opinions out of it especially if you are obviously favoring one sorority/fraternity over the other. But overall it gave a good amount of history. I learned a lot by reading it.

I don't think this book is written in the best format possible, but the information it contains is good. Buy it if you are really interested in the content and can deal with a little nonsense in the formatting.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that this book was written without bias and did an adequate job of providing information on the 'divine nine'. I think it's wonderful that a person can pick this book up as a resource of the historical backgrounds of our cherished greek organizations.

As a member of one of the D9 sororities (Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.) I found this book to be a great intro for those that don't know much about the 9 organizations which make up the NPHC. Each organization's history and achievements are briefly reviewed along with some interviews of famous members and undergrad and grad chapters. I don't however find the answers to many questions that many people (D9 and non-D9) want to know. For a more in depth look into the history, legacy, and future of the D9, as well as the WHY's of Black Greek Letter Organizations, there is a phenomenal book out there titled "African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and The Vision." This book was written by D9 professors and scholars and is well worth the read. It will answer or attempt to answer many of the questions that most want to know, such as WHY D9 organizations do what they do? and HOW did it all get started? The book African American Fraternities And Sororities: The Legacy And The Vision is a great value to D9 members and non-D9 members alike, and especially for the other ethnic orgs (other BGLOs, Latin, Asian, Multicultural) that have copied the D9 in how they currently do things but do not know WHY we/they do them. It's a part of our history and heritage and you will find many of the answers to your questions in the book. If you want a great overall look into the D9, I recommend buying both books.

My boys and I listen to this in the car; they beg me to leave the car turned on "just a little longer" once we arrive at our destination so that we can finish a chapter. Jim Weise is our favorite narrarator, and we are learning all kinds of history. MUST have for all children.

I am so glad I bought this! My 7 year old daughter had a hard time paying attention to the subject matter....she prefers more pictures. She enjoys the audiobook and follows along with her book. I am free to do housework and can still enjoy the story of the world...you moms know about multitasking! I would highly recommend this. The storyteller keeps it interesting.

We really enjoy using the CDs with the books. Keep in mind, however, that the CDs don't include the illustrations that are in the books. These make a great supplement, but I wouldn't use them to REPLACE the books.

Another book that Dr. L had us read. During the 2008 presidential debate I see one party is trying to buy votes even though the failures of socialism have been proven time and time again throughout history. This is the singular short work on the failures of socialism.

Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom was written at a time when the Labour Party of Britain was openly socialist. Although modern social democrats renounce the 's' word, socialism is indeed the root of their thinking, and in this exposition, his magnus opus, Hayek unabashedly sends socialism to the gutter where it belongs. Hayek's thesis, that socialism and totalitarianism are two birds of the same feather, has stood the test of time, and it continues to show up today in the cases of Venezuela or Bolivia. Hayek was arguably responsible for Labour's (and the Democrats') turn to the right, set in stone by former PM Tony Blair (and former President Clinton). This book is, however, still very relevant, exemplified by the Democrats' plan to invade the health care sector, the countless bureaucracies located in Washington, and President Bush's reckless invasion of privacy (which is related to Hayek's arguments about war time and peace time). Although Hayek often comes off as soft on a number of issues, he could not be nearly as dedicated as Milton Friedman to absolute freedom because the intelligentsia was on the far-left in the 40's.

For classical liberals, modern leftists, and conservatives alike, The Road to Serfdom is extraordinarily eye-opening.

Friedrich Hayek, the Nobel prize winning economist, wrote this brilliant classic as a critique of government intervention and manipulation in markets. I am neither an economist nor a political scientist, but I was led to this book after watching with horror the recent outrages that are consciously being inflicted on us by our elected officials, most recently the bailout and socialization of the two giant mortgage lenders, Freddie and Fannie. I couldn't remember that I ever received any share of the loot when those companies were making huge profits and their CEOs were earning tens of millions per year, but now I find that our elected officials have written a blank check in my name, the taxpayer, to bail out these companies' losses and stupidity, and then handed the check to a group of unelected officials (and, surprise, surprise, those two companies spend hundreds of millions on congressional lobbying). Privatize the gains, socialize the losses: sounds like a win-win situation for somebody.

This kind of disastrous socialism is exactly what Hayek critiques in devastating form in this book, specifically government control of the economy. Apparently, they say, this book has been very influential, but a layman could certainly never tell by looking around. Hayek was writing from the perspective of a central European who had recently witnessed first-hand the unfolding development of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany, and he is warning that the exact same attitudes and policies that had been followed in Germany were uncritically being followed by the Allies, merely at a few years distance.

He begins by recollecting the ideals of old, classic liberalism, "the forgotten road". Of course, in Hayek's context, "liberal" means the true, historic liberalism of limited government, free markets, and private property, not "liberal" in the bastardized sense somehow hijacked by Leftists to mean unlimited government, socialized markets and massive forced wealth redistribution. He looks at the rise of collectivist thinking versus individual (it's all for the greater good); the problems of central planning in a democracy (someone in power makes the economic decisions for everybody else); the downfall of the Rule of Law (government is no longer bound by fixed rules announced beforehand but instead possesses arbitrary power limited only by its own discretion); the inextricable link between centralized economic planning and totalitarian regimes (if we're going to follow a plan, someone's got to force everyone to follow it); the problem of deciding how the society's production will be distributed; a chapter showing that "nothing is more fatal than the present fashion among intellectual leaders of extolling security at the expense of freedom" (Republicans apparently didn't get the memo); how in a socialized economy the worst individuals inevitably rise to the top (Really? Can it be? Obama and McCain?); the necessity of manipulating truth in a socialized society; and the fact that Nazism was a direct outgrowth of socialism and socialist ideology.

The relevance of the points enumerated above does not require comment. We are running madly down the road to serfdom, which is the road of socialism. Unfortunately for those of us who are being dragged along against our will, history is not neutral, and we will suffer the consequences of other peoples' decisions, just as the Jews in Germany did and the Russians in the Soviet Union did. Socialism has always led to poverty and oppression, and freedom, on the rare occasions it has been tried, has produced unparalleled prosperity. Hayek shows in detail why. We've decided to give socialism another try. God help us.

The only, effective way to reject socialism is by attacking it's fundamental philosophical ideas. That collectivism is good and the individual must be sacrificed for the "good of the people". Attacking a philosophy such as communism or socialism, because it is not "practical" is a contradiction and undercuts any argument against such a corrupt philosophy. These ideas are not good in theory but bad in practice. They are evil in theory and therefore evil in practice.

I would like to also recommend Ayn Rand's, "The Virtue of Selfishness". This is THE work to understand Man's Individual Rights based on His Rational Nature. It is from these fundamental Truths that the ONLY proper function of a legitimate government is derived - The protection of Individual Rights.

Considering it my duty as an economics major, I took it upon myself to read this book, with little expectations as to its brilliance, and was completely swept away. Not only is Hayek extremely eloquent in articulating the case for free trade, he supports his arguments with facts (e.g. what was then going on in Nazi Germany) and with theory (e.g. why without even the historical evidence that we do have we must conclude that a centralized system cannot equally favor everyone).

Since it is my tendency to look at the 1 star reviews before making a 5 star one, I recognize that some people don't like Hayek because he doesn't recognize the great things about socialized medicine (like how a guy in Canada signed up for a CAT scan under his dog's name because animals are not covered under their highly efficient centralized health care...true story by the way) or the kind thoughts of socialist thinkers (please don't make me choose my selection of Marx quotes). But what Hayek does is present a prima facie case against socialism; before anyone can advocate socialism, they MUST address Hayek's arguments.

This is why I think before any socialist and libertarian face each other in a squabble, both must have read The Road to Serfdom so that they can hit on the applicable issues instead of babbling on about poverty statistics. Are you a socialist and disagree with Hayek? Fine, but read the book so that you know where your opponents stand. I really think that socialists think lovers of capitalism are greedy and have no ethics. But if you read our spokesman Hayek, you'll see why we think that the free market is actually BETTER for society.

Let's change the scope of the argument. Socialists should stop arguing about how some people are poor...yes, some people are poor...and demonstrate how a centralized system can make people BETTER than they would be under the free market system. How planning the systems of production would be more efficient and prosperous than under the system of competition. How giving all our freedoms to one entity would guarantee them for all. If you can effectively address these issues and the many more that Hayek brings up, we will soon see a blessed change in the current headache of debates on socialism.

Why just read about where people traveled? Make your own map of it! This is such a wonderful product, I wish there was one for World History so my children could visually follow Alexander the Great or Marco Polo on his journeys at younger ages.

This is not a difficult craft book, it is quite easy and well worth it. My 7 year old daughter loves it.

The day after I received this book I used one of the ready made activities in my fifth grade classroom. The kids loved it! I like the fact that it incorporates visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetics into teaching history. Also a great value - this book was twice the price at a local store.

It is really unfortunate that the Washington Post review is so prominent on the Amazon page. To be fair, it is a well-written review: it is precise and supported with the sort of concrete examples that demonstrate a close reading. On the other hand, it is so vituperative that one wonders why the reviewer even bothered; it almost seems suspicious.

I picked up the book despite the pause that the Post review gave me, and I am glad I did. This short book is, overall, a treat. Part manifesto, part literary criticism, part personal reflection, I see it as an essay in the etymological sense of the word (essai)--that is, as a "try" or an "attempt" to understand and explore a topic. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder if the book would have been received differently had Wilson been a Frenchman.

In any case, the book is a wonderful mixture of the poetic and the profound. Readers familiar with the likes of John Berger, Susan Sontag, and even Roland Barthes, will find something similar in Wilson's style, though no familiarity with these writers is necessary. Nor does one need to be familiar with Heidegger, de Beauvoir, or Ernest Becker, but one will sense their presence scattered about the pages.

What works about the book is that it is readable at so many different levels, offering something for academics as well as for a general audience. Never pedantic, Wilson's reflections on the nature of melancholia, sadness, suffering, death, but also of happiness, joy and beauty are at once inspiring, comforting, and always thought-provoking. It is not so much an argument against happiness, as it is a poetic meditation on living authentically: recognizing that "we are forever incomplete ... fragments of some ungraspable whole." And that the anxiety or despair that comes with the recognition that we are part of a "dying world" is also our "invitation to transcend the banal status quo and imagine the untapped possibilities...".

Wilson worries that our (peculiarly) American endeavor to eradicate unhappiness risks alienating us not only from our fears and anxieties, but also from much of what makes life worth living. Our supermodels all look alike, air-brushed on the covers of popular magazines. Gone is what Joseph Campbell (à la Joyce) would have called "aesthetic arrest," that which stops us in our tracks and overwhelms us with its uniqueness, sometimes its grotesqueness, sometimes its moribundity.

The book is so rich that one could go on and on, citing (as Wilson does) the lives of numerous artists, philosophers and psychologists on the topic. Some passages felt a bit repetitious, hence the four stars. Yet, overall, I found the book extremely rewarding. Late in the book Wilson reminds the reader of the importance of irony, something it is easy for us to confuse with cynicism or nihilism. The real irony, of course, is that you do not leave the book feeling glum or morose, but refreshed, invigorated.

Bombarded by advertising images and soundtracks that promise eternal happiness and fulfillment with the next purchase or pill, a little irony is probably just what we need.

An intriguing book, and I found myself agreeing with much of it, so I'll start with that. The author describes a scene from his teenage years, in which he enjoyed spending summer days in the darkness of his bedroom, blinds drawn, contemplating the cracks in the ceiling, "brooding over lost memories, now envisioning impossible futures." I did exactly the same thing (and still do, sometimes), constantly daydreaming in the dark, daydreaming in school, on the bus, anywhere. Always inside my head. Alas, he eventually "killed reverie and endeavored to succeed," leaving the darkness for the garish sunlight, exiting the "winter of my own mind's making", and so did I.

This book is beautifully written...I'm not sure why so many critics are disdainful of that. Anyway, I also appreciated his description of Jesus, "not a jovial minister but a tortured prophet, a man who realized from early on that the only way to gain salvation is to enter the deepest shadows." How true. I've never thought of Jesus as a "happy" person, for he was often angry (at the market being open in the Temple on the Sabbath, for example) and afraid (to be crucified). Happiness does not make you a good person, a perfect person, a smart person. Several of the world's best inventors, writers, artists, and musicians cannot be described as "happy people". In fact, melancholia makes one more introspective, looking deeper into oneself to find one's identity, to look for answers. Or as Carl Jung wrote, "neurosis is knowledge".

I liked the chapter about Terrible Beauty. "All pretty things are almost exactly alike, while all beautiful events are distinct," writes the author. This makes me think of Tolstoy's opening to "Anna Karenina": Happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Unhappy families are more interesting - no one wants to read a book about a happy family because it would be boring. Pretty things are often boring and similar to other pretty things. No rough edges, no darkness. But the beautiful is unique, deep, powerful. Also, the musician Tori Amos said "Pretty is never beautiful." I agree.

The author likes to criticize capitalism, and while I understood some of his points (capitalism destroys the beauty of nature to build buildings/homes, capitalism ruins American education (in preparing students for capitalism, not the value of education itself), there are positive things about capitalism. Building provides jobs and helps the economy; students should be prepared to live in a capitalist society. That is the reality. Who would sponsor theater, the symphony, and other arts without donations from large corporations? Who would provide the money needed to restore old buildings to save their historical value? A crumbling facade (such as the author's home) may be melancholically beautiful, but not if it becomes unstable as a structure. Capitalism doesn't always destroy. And I think that American education prepares students for capitalism and to value their education..it's a combination. Sure, a lot of students go to college with the main goal of earning a degree that gets them a high-paying job. But that doesn't mean that the student didn't thoroughly enjoy the education. And there are capitalists who don't see money as the equivalent of happiness. Most people know that money doesn't buy happiness, although some marketing firms would disagree.

The other problem I had with this book was the quotation about anti-depressants: "We can take Paxil or Prozac and in a few days enjoy an unreal gratification." NOT true. These medicines may take as long as 2 months until the patient feels a difference...and it may not be a "happy" feeling. I have been on these drugs and they are not "happy pills" but "functional pills". They allow me to get out of bed in the morning, provide energy, allow me to get a good night's sleep. I have never felt great happiness through them. The Prescribing Information for most anti-depressants will not even mention the word "happy" as an indication. The wording is more like this: "May improve your mood, energy level...decrease nervousness and the number of panic attacks." The author does acknowledge, earlier in the book, that he knows clinical depression is more severe than melancholia and may require medication. But he still goes on to criticize "happy pills." A good physician will inform the patient that these pills won't immediately make you happy, or even happy at all. But they will ease the symptoms of depression, which allows one to function in society. I blame the media for proclaiming these pills as "cures" to depression. The manufacturer never made such a claim.

The author also demonizes the suburbs as a "flight from the real," "a virus", an "exit plan." But not all suburbs are homogenous places of escapism. Cities may be more melancholic, but they are also often dangerous, dirty, and expensive. People like fresh air and grass. Cities are not practical for everyone; people don't want to deal with the negatives of city life, and that's fine. I live in more of a rural suburban area and I find plenty of melancholic places. There are also several old homes and buildings in my area. Yes, we have malls and chain stores, but not everything is new. I can sit in the backyard at sunset and watch bats fly over the trees, dark against the sky, as I listen to lonely crickets. I can take a walk along the rusty, forgotten train tracks overgrown with weeds, or go to the cemetery and lie on my back between the leaning graves, some of which are inscribed in German in the 1600's. You can find beauty in a lot of places, including the suburbs.

Overall, this is a good book to remind you that melancholy is a gift, a catalyst of creativity and thought. It should not be dismissed as weird or bad. Because "we feel most alive, most vital when we suffer this rich confusion over the things of the universe."

It's a bit of a dry read, but the overall comfort and joy of knowing I'm OK and not alone in my inability to ever truly reach an extended period of happiness is worth it.

This book attempts to tackle an interesting and important subject, but ultimately it's a somewhat difficult read unless you are an English/History/Philosophy Major. The book appears to wander around for a while, eventually settling on the notion that it's ok to be `melancholoy', because that state of mind is a requirement of creative genius.

As I see it, the real 'happiness crisis' in the US and Europe today is that we are bringing up a whole generation of children who think that there's something wrong with being sad/disappointed/melancholoy from time to time. We award trophies for merely taking part in sports as if no-one must be allowed to 'fail'. We tell our children that they are `brilliant' at everything, when they patently are not, and *could not* be. Our schools (at least k-5 and beyond) and health care professionals appear to be active participants in this 'happiness and achievement delusion'.

When I grew up in the 60s/70s, failure to win at something was greeted with parental guidance such as "never mind, as long as you did your best [get over it]" or, "its taking part that matters [not just winning]". Today, our kids get a silver-colored cup and a certificate of achievement just for showing up.

So what happens when it dawns on these children (or young adults) that they aren't destined to play for the Yankees or swim in the Olympics? For some, it appears to be depression and a feeling of lack of self-worth. Why do so my teenagers - particularly girls - harm themselves? Perhaps because we've given them an unrealistic view of themselves in the world: We have failed to impart that it's ok to feel sad sometimes; that's its ok not to look like a fashion model; that its ok to lose sometimes; and, that we can't all be the `best at everything' so long as we give it our best shot. The current parenting solution to this self-created crisis appears to be to pharmacological.

This book could have considered these issues and possible solutions in much more detail, which I had originally thought was part of the thesis.

Still, in my opinion the book certainly deserves three stars for raising a difficult subject and I hope the author follows up with something that's a little less academic.

As a society, we are in love with happiness. We lust for it, we search for it, we will do anything to have it. And it's almost never questioned. In fact, if you don't want happiness, your own or at least someone else's satisfaction, most people probably think you're crazy and you'll probably never be respected. Here, finally, is an intelligent, philosophical and beautifully written defense of the viewpoint that melancholy is a natural state, that, to a certain extent, being unsatisfied is being true to yourself. Wilson uses examples from literature and history to show that melancholy makes one more sensitive to the beauty of the world and a more authentic, alive human being. For those that want to make the most of life, who want to understand why we're here, this is an essential perspective. An almost perfect book.

This is honestly the best AP Human Geography study guide I can find, and it is SERIOUSLY worth every penny!!!

If you're going to take the exam (or even if you aren't but are taking the class) I recommend that you get a copy of this book!

If you don't have the previous edition it is a good buy...if you do have a previous edition, not many changes.

I bought this book with a couple of others for a presentation I was preparing at church. I read three or four chapters before putting it down. It didn't really address what I was interested in for the presentation, and otherwise wasn't providing me with any knowledge or insights that I felt was useful. Oh well.

Pointless book, simply the history of and mundane observations on masculinity. It's not very readable, I decided to put it down after skimming through and reading the first few pages.

Don't let the clever title get you to waste money on this one.

According to a previous reviewer, the first 1/3 of the book was insightful, and I agree. However, after that, the author's Left-Liberal-Environmentalist biases seem to take over. I don't mind that he has these leanings, but I do mind that they seem to be his only "solutions" to the problem of integrating manhood into life.

I have been in a journey to explore and discover what is both right and wrong with my masculinity - to see the strengths and weaknesses I have, as well as where I have failed to take responsibility for how I have used, misused or neglected them. After reading "Iron John", "Self-Made Man", "What Could He be Thinking" and others, I lost interest in this book about 1/2 way through.

If I had to describe Sam Keen in one word, it would be "authentic." I would describe myself as an androgenous woman. (A more precise word would be "tomboy," I suppose.) A male friend dragged me to see Sam Keen speak some years ago. ("But, dearest, if he's going to speak to men, why must I come along? Can't you simply go have a listen, then call me later and tell me all about it?") Once Keen began speaking, I was riveted. He was not loud, nor charismatic (in the dynamic, hands flailing image). He was simply honest, sincere and insightful. He sat on a stool, relaxed, and spoke from his heart about what he's learned as a man. We are blessed in that Keen is also a good, solid writer. I have purchased this book again and again over the years for male friends, and will continue to do so, as each one of them has told me later how meaningful the book was to him.

Now the truth is that I am no newcomer to philosophy, not am I a newcomer to the idea that man must learn to create himself in order to come to terms with his own concept of manhood. This is an essential vision from a very wise writer. A man owes it to himself to make this exploration if you do not want to end up an unhappy life-trudger. I came originally into this exploration from zen, from Nietzsche and from the seduction community. This is for a man willing to explore the truth... to explore his own truths and is willing to embrace his own fears to get to something new. Just read it.

This was an interesting book that I would highly recommend to anyone NOT number-savvy. I had heard good things about it, and as someone who appreciates the importance of math, I thought it would be great to check out. It was written with the lay-person as its target audience, so being someone who already knows a great deal of mathematics, I was underwhelmed. The book is clearly written, and explains concepts slowly and carefully as it illustrates every-day math for the common person.

Honestly, this book felt a bit like "See Spot Run," but for mathematics instead of the English language. Even though it was a bit boring for the mathematically inclined, I highly recommend it for anyone suffering from "Mathematical Illiteracy." If you have ever said to yourself "I'm not a numbers person," then this book is for you.

"Innumeracy" goes beyond the expectation of a non-mathematician, user-friendly book. It wakes up your awareness of what passes as "statistics", "experts", "economics", and various numeric analysis in the popular media.

I bought the book after seeing it referenced in another science book. I was interested in a basis for how much bias, or straight ignorance, was posing in the guise of expert. I was more than satisfied with "Innumeracy" in this regard.

Read it twice. Put it down for a month, pay attention to what's in the news, etc. then read it again. You will be a much better consumer of numbers.

I have read several "mathematics for a popular audience" books as a high school math teacher who has done graduate work in mathematics. This is considered a classic, but I felt like it was no longer up to date at times. Also, I had the feeling I had read many of the better examples and such in other places - again this book is now a classic. It is good, but I have read similar books that I enjoyed more.

I felt like I knew about numbers before the book, and now I realize that I need to review and study numbers! I asked a bunch of friends about some of the simple problems in the book and found that many of them could not figure it out! Definitely read this

An otherwise interesting, thoughtful book is marred by the phrase that seems obligatory in most popular mathematical books, "the occasional difficult passage can be ignored with impunity." As the title suggests, this book addresses the general public's inability to deal with numbers and their uses. To provide another excuse for avoiding "difficult" mathematics really tends to defeat the purpose of the book and could possibly be considered as a psychological "put down." Are these passages really important to the reader or are they in some manner more important to the author and merely serve to distract the reader? Most often, as is the case in this book, such passages have reasonably comprehensible explanations. Why not use the space to provide another paragraph of explanation?
With this initial hurdle addressed, it should be pointed out that Paulos does a very good job in presenting interesting examples of the use and misuse of numbers, many of which are used in our society, and to some extent are being used to shape it. For example, consider the fact that in general female workers earn approximately 59% the salary of males, which has been used as the argument for stiff equal pay legislation. This fact alone does not take into account the additional information that a greater percentage of women work part-time and many have only recently entered the job market and so have yet to work their way up the hierarchical job ladder. Many other examples deal with the continued popularity of pseudoscience, despite the alternative "reality" that all the "evidence" for it can easily be explained by random variations in the data.
Written in the author's relaxed style and sporting an occasional pun, this book should be read by anyone concerned with the general lack of mathematical sophistication among the general public. Unfortunately, the conditional probability that a person will read it, given that they are themselves innumerate, is no doubt quite low.