Westerns Books

This book and the study and listening guide are a great combination. The material is structured for the best learning, and it does so in as concise a manner as one can have with thousands of years of music to cover. Anyone who loves music would find the book and guide (including necessary CDs) a great help.

Here in this book are the age old ideals and philosophies that inspired great peoples throughout the world and many of those who faught for and formed the foundations of America. These are not new ideas, even at the time of this rulers ponderings, but are concepts that have been handed down by the wisest of individuals in one form or another from time immemorial.

If only we the frail creatures of Gods providence would walk towards this wisdom, rather than away from it as we seem to be doing these days, we would be more capable of addressing the problems that face our world and our nation better. Unfortunately our two party system of government requires that one side be totally apposed to these great thoughts and concepts and "We The People" have to deal with both sides being at odds on just about everything important and in the end both are right and both are wrong on scores of issues.

This happens because everytime the modern day scholar (nearly all of them) attempts to interpret these wonderful concepts of old, they forget to take into account the thought processes and conditions of those who wrote them, and instead look with eyes blinded by their own feeble twentieth and twenty-first century concepts, ideals and minds. They do not have a real tinme sensitive basis upon which to raise above their own egos, partisan thoughts and special interest prejudices and see clearly the significant meanings behind the great thoughts presented to them. This is not only in reading Marcus Aurelius but the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the writings of our Founding Fathers and Mothers.

This is an excellent book, masterfully put together, for the individual to look inwardly and make adjustments to his or her soul that will enable him/her to be a better person, spouse, father, sibling, friend and citizen. It can bring inner peace to those who have nothing but constant turmoil of spirit.

It is unfortunate that this wisdom is no longer being taught to our children. I certainly never was exposed to this by any instructor I ever had, in any form in primary or secondary education nor my college work. It was only through an innate desire to read everything I could get my hands on both politically and philosohically that I found and ordered this book.

One finds a quiet peace after reading this book and pondering it's contents and I would recommend it to anyone who yearns for a higher understanding of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness so inculcated and enshrined in the founding philosophies and documents of our nation.

Cetainly a great book to be readily available for reference.

Obviously, one may think the tag line is a bit of a dramatization, but it is not.

This collection of verses speaks to the timeless wisdom Aurelius distilled while at war. Truly a philosopher well beyond his time, his successful attempt to expound stoic ideals and how they can be APPLIED is always inspiring.

My only word of caution is that where you are in life right now may not be the right time for you to read this book. I have bought over 15 copies and given them out to close friends who I think would benefit from the words.

If you enjoy the book, I suggest reading reading the Enchiridion of Epictetus. I read that first, and was stunned by the current translation and text in comparison, even though the core assertion of truth is the same.

Best of luck, and enjoy!

This review is of the translation, not of the work (which I would rate 5 stars).

The translation in "The Emperor's Handbook" is probably more readable to a general audience than the much more accurate Loeb Classical Library translation, but the writing has been spun into soundbites. Marcus Aurelius did not write in soundbites. This results in a punchier work that is more accessible yet unfortunately shallower as well. The tone of a man writing for his own edification is turned into an almost preachy self-help book. Which is apparently what the publisher wanted, something to follow "The Book of Five Rings" and "The Art of War" as the latest book to help businessmen sound pseudo-intellectual and impress their non-reading fellow businessmen . . . and there are lots of readily-quotable soundbites separated out for easy use.

I am not being snarky. Read the intro and see who their target audience is. See what they are trying to accomplish.

Marcus Aurelius never would have named his work "The Emperor's Handbook," because he was not trying to teach people how to be emperor. He did not write in preachy soundbites.

Marcus Aurelius was a man trying to remind himself how to be a better person and live according to his stoic principles. This translation abandons that basic point.

This book will give you the rare opportunity to read a book of wisdom written by a Roman Emperor. Marcus Aurelius was a well liked emperor you lived from 120 A.D. to 180 A.D. ruling in the late part of his life. The book's theme is to live your life in balance with the universe. Do your duty and fulfill the role the "Gods" put you on earth to do. Let reason be your master always doing what is beneficial to all. Do not sin because you only sin against yourself. Why worry about correcting others behaviors when you have so much uncompleted work to do on yourself. If you enjoy reading Plato, Epictetus, or philosophy in general I know you will enjoy reading this book, it is truly packed with wisdom and will take you back to Roman times and let you see how the wise among them thought before the dark ages and modern religion came on the stage of civilization. Very interesting read.

This book is a collection of philosophical thoughts that were written down by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The Hicks brothers did an excellent job of translating these thoughts into Modern English. Some words appear to be inaccurate as they refer to concepts or atomic particles that were likely unknown to the Romans. Regardless, the use of these words and concepts does not diminish the greater point being made by Emperor Aurelius.

The book is only 145 pages long and is broken into twelve "books" or chapters. Each chapter usually runs between 30-60 thoughts or passages. Because the book is essentially a collection of passages, it is not something that one should sit down and read cover to cover. Some readers may want to use a pencil to underline certain thoughts for quick reference. One nice aspect of this book is that several significant passages were highlighted in gray boxes for quick recall. All in all, this book is best read in short bursts. The reader may also want to re-read certain passages over again in order to grasp Marcus Aurelius' true meaning.

The thoughts presented by Marcus Aurelius offer a unique perspective on how the Romans viewed life and death. Marcus spent a great deal of time thinking about death and how people should approach it with dignity. He also looked down on those people who approached death in an undignified way, often with "histrionics." No doubt, these were the Christians who were being put to death and persecuted at the time. Despite this unique Roman perspective on life and death, the book is full of useful guidance. Most of his ideas are still applicable today. Some of the very same thoughts can be found in modern-day books on leadership. For example, Marcus noted "anger is as much a proof of weakness as grief. Both involve being wounded and giving in to one's wounds." This bit of wisdom is as applicable today as it was for the Romans.

Bottom line, this is an easy to read book of philosophical passages. The thoughts on leadership, death, and how to live a good life are as applicable today as they were in the time of the Romans. The reader would be hard put to find another book with as much wisdom as is contained in these 145 pages.

The work is a complete rendition in applied accounting. It is
geared for the average college student. This version is
best-suited for a two-term or 6 credit course in accounting
or an accounting with lab course. There is good treatment
of the fundamental rules of accounting with ample examples
and homework problems. The work is scarce on theory.
Therefore, the instructor should supplement this version of the
book with a textbook for majors in accounting. In addition,
the author publishes a smaller text with fewer chapters.
This text is heavy and a bit unwieldy to carry to class.
The upper echelon of the class did very well with this text.
In fact, the class average was a "B" over 8+ sections of
my students. If your class roster is very large, I would
consider segmenting the class into advanced placement,
mid-quartile and lower-quartile students. It is tough
to cover this text in a single semester while teaching
marginal and advanced students in the same class.

Kant is one of those modern philosophers whose presence looms large over much of what has been achieved over the past couple of centuries in modern philosophy, and yet he is not very likely to be read in most introductory philosophy classes. Part of the difficulty lies with Kant's highly technical and oftentimes convoluted use of language, which gave even his contemporaries who were native German speakers some difficulties. The philosophers and scholars have since had a chance to debate, oftentimes vehemently, the "true" meaning of Kant's works and it is unlikely that those debates will end any time soon. With such formidable baggage, it would be very difficult for an absolute novice in philosophy to just plunge into Kant's work and start reading it on its own. A good first exposition by an expert is invaluable and this thin volume serves exactly such purpose. It does a remarkable job of delineating the scope of Kant's thought and bringing this philosopher to life for the new generation of readers.

It's a pretty good introduction, I'd recommend reading several introductions to Kant before diving in (he's pretty dense). I think Goethe said that reading Kant was like walking into a well-lit room, I hardly think he was talking about Kant's dry, scholastic writing style. The clarity of his thought, however, is pretty intense. I do recommend this book, merely because jumping straight into Kant probably isn't going to fare well. When, and if, you do choose to read Kant, take a look at Jonathan Bennett's website (a philosopher and Kant scholar), I think he translates Kant into more readable English. Early Modern Texts or something. I agree with some of the other commentators, that this introduction is kinda hard for a first time look into Kant. A history of philosophy book might be your best bet to read first. It is pretty good for such a short introduction though. Take your time and don't do it in a day. Digest it. Good luck all.

Immanuel Kant's life work focused on solving the mistakes of the rationalist philosophy that he had learned from men, like Gottfried Leibnitz, and the mistakes of the empiricist philosophy that he was so intrigued with through the writings of David Hume. Kant wants to move beyond the mistakes both schools of philosophy made and synthesize their truths into a new philosophical understanding of knowledge. Rationalist philosophers held the view that all knowledge came from the exercise of reason alone, unpolluted by the view of any experience held by the observer. "Reality itself is accessible to reason alone, since only reason can rise above the individual point of view and participate in the vision of ultimate necessities, which is also God's." Thus, Leibnitz argues that human understanding contained certain innate principles known to be true, which when used with our ability to reason, could explain all questions in and of the world. Rationalists were convinced that experience was not a reliable tool to gain knowledge of the world. The rationalist method was very convincing and was the dominant school of philosophy in Kant's day. The criticism of rationalist philosophy was that you had to "trust" in reason to be able to deduce answers.

On the other hand, empiricist philosophers believed that knowledge of the world was only possible through learning by experience. Hume "denies the possibility of knowledge through reason, since reason cannot operate without ideas, and ideas are acquired only through the senses." Hume and other empiricist philosophers argued that without observing proof of something, the observer could not have knowledge of it. Knowledge of the world, for Hume, is knowledge of the world through the eyes of the observer. Hume argues that reason can only provide relationships between ideas; reason cannot produce ideas on its own or provide facts. Hume was even distrustful of the writings and teachings of others being capable of providing answers. "The only experience that can confirm anything for me is my experience." Hume's skepticism even rises to the level of doubting the existence of self. Thus, Hume earns the moniker of "the Great Skeptic." Hume's skepticism is in direct contradiction to the rationalist philosopher, Rene Descartes, whose rationalist investigations led him to utter the famous words, "Cogito, ergo sum, I think, therefore I am." The criticism of empiricist philosophy is that we can be sure of so little, since one can actually prove through direct observation so little in the world. For Kant, Hume puts so much of scientific thought into question since Hume doubts the concept of causality occurring in nature. Thus, Kant says it was Hume who "awoke him from his dogmatic slumbers." Kant so desperately wants to solve the philosophical dichotomy between these two schools.

Kant believes that both schools make the same fundamental mistake in their approach to the question of epistemology. He argued that philosophers were essentially asking the wrong question, which was, how we can bring ourselves to understand the world. Kant said the real question to ask was how the world comes to be understood by us. Kant will solve this dichotomy between the two schools in his first book Critique of Pure Reason.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

Kant is clearly one of the 4 or 5 most influential thinkers of the last half-century, however, the complexity of his ideas combined with an often difficult writing style (for modern readers) makes for a difficult study. In order to get the most out of Kant (or to get through him at all, for that matter), it is essential to read and study modern introductions and commentaries first. This "very short introduction" is an excellent example. It is concise, highly readable, and a good beginning for more detailed study. However, it is still not enough to allow one to tackle Kant immediately and I suggest further introductory study.

This is an heroic attempt by Scruton to summarize the entire philosophy of one the most important thinkers of all time. Unfortunately, Kant was also not the greatest writer of all time and often made his own great insights almost incomprehensible to the casual reader. Scruton does a wonderful job of making Kant clear.

This books brings into light fundamental findings about mass incarceration. Studying the causes and the consequences of the imprisonment boom in the US. Western demonstrates how mass incarceration increased socio-economic inequalities in American society, and particularly for African-Americans. He brings evidence that the prison boom is the product of economic and political changes, rather than evolution of crime rates (crime rate actually decreased). Western supports his claims with evidence he compiled and produces compelling tables and figures. In one of his most important findings, Western demonstrates that the economic expansion of the 90s was actually overstated because the poorest layers of the population had disappeared from statistics while incarcerated (this thesis was developped in an article with Becky Pettit). Therefore, the seemingly good performance of US economy compared to European economies has to be reassessed in the light of mass incarceration: regulated economies might not be the cause of unemployment.

Chapter 7 "Did the prison boom cause the crime drop" is probably the most difficult and controversial one. Western examines claims of Levitt and Spelman that increasing incarceration reduced crime rate, and demonstrates the lack of evidence for such a claim. Western considers that incarceration rate and crime rate are actually unrelated and mass imprisonment is the result of economic and political factors.

Bruce Western has stepped into the realm of public sociology, I feel, with this excellent book. This is a well-written, thoroughly researched, book that is accessible to scholars and others alike. Even though the book teems with tables, figures, and analysis, Western presents them without relying on the reader to interpret regression coefficients for meaningfulness, yet also appends many of the chapters with methodological clarifications just for those kinds of people.

Western presents what is essentially a political book without a political tone. The data speak for themselves, and it is very difficult to think that, after all the work put into this, that he incorrectly attributes so little of the decrease in crime trends to the prison boom (and the absurdity of the cost/benefit for its effect on the decrease). It does seem, however, that he echoes the racial claims of Loic Wacquant in the final chapter, but that's only for a brief moment.

Western also excellently argues and shows off the immense disconnect between crime rates and corrections policy; although only a portion of one chapter, this is a significant point to make. If our policies do not reflect what criminals are actually doing, well, why are we doing it?

My only concern with this book involves Western's "all or nothing" approach to showing the economic/social cost of the prison boom. His analyses show the wage gap, parental gap, and other penalties suffered during and after release by prisoners. He astutely points out the selection bias in unemployment and wage estimates in minority populations due to leaving out the far-more-likely-to-be-incarcerated blacks. However, his analysis in later sections, where he shows the change if none of these people were in prison (to prove the selection bias argument), is one based outside of reality. First, there will never be nobody in prison; second, his own data show that prisoners are of a different background than nonprisoners (such as the "dropping out" of the bottom that artificially raises the mean wage for blacks), so it's hard to estimate where they would fit in among family and work if they were released. Many of them would remain unemployed as well. I understand that this is some of his point, but the difficulty lies in the picture painted, where we exist in a world where the prison boom did happen, Western argues what we would look like if none of the prison boom happened, and the real effect of that is somewhere in between. He is unfoundedly optimistic about the work and family choices (and chances) in these sections of the book. It doesn't change his argument about the problems of the prison boom, however. It merely muddles the otherwise fantastic clarity of his book.

This is a book that can appeal to all sorts of scholars, researchers, policy analysts, and even those who merely wonder what direction out prison policies have taken us. An excellent, excellent work.

This is a book the policy makers and students and everyone in-between would be well served by reading. It can be a little repetitive at times, but the author makes his points well. One of the strengths of this book is that through painstaking but necessary detail in the analysis, the author shows how incarceration damages the lives of those already affected by inequality. Most authors draw correlations, but Western has been able to detail how it is not just the characteristics of those who go to prison that are responsible for recidivism, but that the process of being in prison actually exacerbates the already existing problems in social and human capital that offenders have. I would have liked the author say more about being discerning with crime policy and who should go to prison. There are some people who belong in prison, but this fact seems to be lost in the amount of evidence that is detailed in this book. This however, does not take away from the quality of the book.

The author also does a very nice job in explaining the relationship between the crime drop in the 1990s and the increase in incarceration - increased incarceration is not related to a decrease in crime. The author explains how a 66% increase in incarceration was associated with only a 2- to 5% decrease in crime, at a cost of over $50 billion clearly making the point that incarceration is not an effective means of reducing crime.

My only complaint is that the author does attack Republicans a bit much early on in his book which I believe to be counterproductive. If the author would like Republicans (those who he claims make the worst crime polices) to implement better crime policy, than he should not scare them off but rather, make them think the ideas he is espousing are their own. Just an idea.

Good book, read it.

As a PhD student teaching global strategy and international business, I like this book, not only for its comprehensive theoretical framework, but also for its openness for a series of debates on globalization. The theoretical framework can help students analyze the complex global business environment. More importantly, a series of debates can open their eyes, and can help them build more skills to deal with challenges in a globalizing world (think about the current buzz on offshoring and outsourcing).

Many textbooks attempted to teach students how to arrive at "correct" answers. They just tell students what is already known, and do not describe the sorts of problems that the professional may be asked to solve and the variety of techniques available for their solution. This textbook deviates from the rest of pack, because the author tries to integrate many new fronts (and yes, even debates!) in the academic and practitioner world (see the long list of references) and cultivates a "global mental set" based on his rich experience in many countries. What is most refreshing is that the author does not give a single answer or simple evaluation for many questions, but provides many possible approaches to widen the reader's mindset. In fact, every chapter has a beefy section devoted to "Debates and Extensions," with no given conclusions.

Even vivid business cases will fade quickly and be forgotten in this dramatically changing world. So a set of "divergent thinking skills" will play a more important role in helping students develop long-term capabilities in their career success. Through this book, students will learn how to recognize and evaluate many problems to which no unequivocal solution has yet been given, find an arsenal of techniques (industry-based view, resource-based view, and institution-based view) for approaching these problems, and develop "global mental sets" to judge the relevance of these techniques and to evaluate the possible solutions.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi once said: "Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day; but teach him how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime." Truly, this exciting book may teach our students how to fish!

I'm presently a student studying International Business and Marketing at a local university. This review is based on the copyright 2006 edition.

The real-world examples are extremely out of date for a global business book. For example, the interactive case 1.1 states 2000 annual report figures for GN Netcom. Another example, mentioning Yahoo! back in 2001. We all know how this competitive marketplace has changed dramatically over the past few years, and in fact changes every 6 months. When I am paying $113 for a textbook that publishers push out a new edition every year or two, I expect my money to go towards updates in the examples that are used. I realize that strategic principles don't change and can be applied towards any case in time- but this author charges a premium on a book that should be at least half the price.

Second, the structure and layout of this book is horrible. It does not break out the key points or core concepts from this rather blandly written book. The end of chapter questions are not intuitive enough, and lack the depth that a textbook should require. There is also not enough use of diagrams to illustrate the points in the text.

Third, this book is printed in black and white- another cost savings that should not justify the high price. It reminds me of reading textbooks from 15 years ago. This book will definitely be sold back at the end of the class.

So, if you are a teacher- please seriously evaluate this book before you require students to purchase it. I'm fortunate that I am taking another strategy class and there is enough overlap that I can just skim over Global Strategy by Mike Peng to fill in the gaps that I miss in the other book. A far better recommendation- Crafting and Executing Strategy by Arthur Thomson Jr., etc. Fellow students, I feel your pain if you have to read this book.

As a professor, I have used several books for International Business classes and I have to say there are Global Business books that should have been titled as International Politics or American Business. This book has a good balance between country analyses such as EU regulation, privatization in emerging economies, and company perspectives such as entering into foreign countries, creating synergy between divisions. The cases cover companies from a lot of countries; they provide enough information to complement the chapters but are not too long so that it's easy to read through. My students and I enjoyed this book very much!

This is by far the best written business textbook I read in college. The book offers a very wide variety of real-world examples of the different strategies and actions explained in the book. These examples span all kinds of companies, from large MNE's to small businesses based in developing nations. The text is written very straightforward and the book seems to flow well from chapter to chapter. I was lucky to have Mike Peng as my professor in international business, because he devoted as much attention to his students as he did to his textbook.

Would you like to determine your own motivation / leadership style? Are you task-oriented or people-oriented? Although I have not used the entire book, Chapter 12 of this book presents several self-assessment surveys based on McGregor's Theory-X / Theory-Y, McClelland's Achievement-Power-Affiliation, and Herzberg's Motivators-Hygienics models. Chapter 10 has a self-assessment survey based on Likert's System (Authoritarian-Benevolent Authoritarian-Consultative-Participative). Very useful.

An excellent guide to understanding an important Buddhist writing. Down to earth with a practical running commentary, I find it equally appealing as A Course in Miracles and de Mello's timeless book, Awareness. All three stand tall in helping us make sense of and survive in this sometimes "crazy" world in which we live.

No Time to Lose reads like a compassionate literary analysis of sacred prose, Pema takes us through stanza by stanza Shantideva's inspired work from the 8th century, revealing the cultural and spiritual relevance and sharing what she's learnt along the way, leaving plenty of room for us to also experience and apply its meaning in our own lives. Pema is well studied and an empathetic teacher who encourages us to try methods that she's tested some even as simple as copying down one or more of your favorite Shanitdeva's verses and reading it when we need to rekindle and reaffirm purpose. Here are some of my favorites:

On Transcending Hesitation:

"Just so and for the benefit of beings,
I will also have this attitude of mind,
And in these precepts, step by step
I will abide and train myself"
3.24

On Enthusiasm:

"Therefore leaving everything that is adverse to it
I'll labor to increase my perseverance
Through cheerful effort, keenness, self-control
Through aspiration, firmness joy and moderation."
7.32

Pema says for example about firmness that with commitment and steadfastness we can connect with and find confidence in our basic goodness which is our birthright as human beings. Pema provides ways that we can work to eliminate addictive behavior which she describes as `like licking honey on a razor's edge' (ouch!)

Reading books like this we see that the truth has not changed over the centuries; it merely awaits our committed response, as the concluding line to Shantideva's work challenges us,"Concern for others is the way to heaven"

I have always liked Pema Chodron's short easy-to-read essays.
This book is fatter than any of her books. The chapters are
uncharacteristically lengthy. I have not read the whole book,
but I will probably spot read it. An interesting feature is the
poems included in each chapter. They are surprisingly different
to Pema's work. I'm not sure if I like this feature or not. I
am a Pema Chodron fan, however, and her books have always given
me solace in this difficult world. "No Time to Lose" is worth
reading -- the title, at least, is like a gentle whip to our
flaccid brains.

I am discovering a whole realm of wisdom of the ages. She is commenting on an ancient rule of life in a whole new way...I have been reading other, older commentaries, from other cultures, in translation. Here, an American woman is sharing her Western version...and it illuminates the others.

Easy to ready. Well worth it!

Pema Chodron's book is not for everyone Unlike some of her more popular books, this text stays closer to tradition: it is a line-by-line commentary on an ancient text, "The Way of the Boddhisattva." I bought it not knowing quite what I expected: but what I did find was nourishing food for the journey: support for staying open-hearted and compassionate in a global time of confusion and suffering.

Brought it for a class have not used it out of those confines but good for what I brought it for.

This is an excellent chronological overview of the art, music and architecture of the Western world. It's well written and the color illustrations are well chosen and helpful. All in all, it's a good way to brush up on a few thousand years of cultural history in a short time.