change Books

I found this book so interesting that I incorporated many of the concepts described in a business course I taught. I believe that "Corporate life cycles" should be a must read text book in every business school and a recommended reading to entrepreneurs managing startups and managers of large corporations as well.

If you are thinking about setting up your own business, or have actually started up yours, you better read this book. It could really save you many a headache.

I did not quite understood why companies would behave in given ways. Even worse, I had not realized how to cope with common entrepreneurial problems until I came accross Dr. Adizes' work.

"Lifecycles" is written in an enjoyable style. Once you start reading it you will not put it down. Dr. Adizes book deserves all praise.

Lots of common sense. A few good insights. But all buried beneath mountains of endless repetition. Simple ideas obscured by turning them into psudo-mathematical formulas. Endless repetition. Dozens of made-up acronyms. Did I mention endless repetition. Of the same ideas. Repeatedly. Author laments no room for specific case studies, which might have actually given some color and life to the book. Of course there was no room for real-life examples. He was too busy turning simple ideas into obscure psudo-math and impossible-to-follow diagrams. Repeatedly.

If you are a person who desires to create change in your organization, improve profitability, manage the implementation of Strategic or Succession plans, or build a management development process, This book is for you! Most of my clients cannot put the book down as they read about their organization and how predictable companies grow and die.

I insist my clients read this book in order for me to help them build strategic or succession plans, as well as implement them. I do not have a CEO or Senior Exec, who has read the book and found it usesless or meaningless. This book helps me communicate with executives, as to what they see and experience within the company, in order for me to help them.

This is a "MUST READ" before you begin a "Change or Strategic Implementation Process." This is not a "touchy-feely" book. It is right to the point, and has good examples of each element. My favorite part is the Insultant vs Consultant discussion.

Adizes really does explain how and why corporations (indeed all organizations) grow and die...and what to do about it. He has identified a series of specific "lifecycles. His analysis of each (within a sequence) is especially valuable because, as he explains each with meticulous care, each lifecycle is best understood within a broad as well as deep frame of reference. A careful reader of Corporate Lifecycles can thus determine (a) where his or her organization is now within the sequence, (b) what will be required to reach or return to Prime or Stable (the two most desirable locations within the sequence), and (c) what to expect in terms of obstacles, perils, etc. en route.

Because the ideal combination, the ideal balance, of four critical "factors" (ie performance, administration, entrepreneurship, and integration) will always be a "moving target" under constant "attack" by internal as well as external forces, each organization must constantly be aware of what that ideal combination is for it at any given time, what that ideal balance should be. Change is the only constant.

There really isn't another book quite like Corporate Lifecycles. My brief comments can only begin to suggest Adizes' knowledge, wisdom, and experience which enable his reader to understand how and why organizations grow and die...and what to do about it.

This book has opened the eyes of skeptics who believe that coconut oil is bad for you because it is saturated. Until I read this book, I didn't realize how healthy coconut oil is. I've loaned this book to my friends and they have started using coconut oil. I only use coconut oil for cooking and coconut concentrate for spread on bagels or toast instead of butter. It's very yummy! Tropical traditions's coconut products are excellent!
If you want to learn about coconut oil, then read this book. This book will enlighten you.
Marina, Bremerton, WA

The authors of this book have done a great service in bringing coconut oil to the attention of health conscious people. If you want to learn more about how to use coconut oil in your diet, you can also consult EAT FAT, LOSE FAT written by Sally Fallon who is a superb cook, and has included a wide range of delicious recipes. That book is also authored by Mary Enig, the leading expert on healthy fats who was 30 years before her time in pointing out transfats dangers.

What is up with the negativity about this book? This is Robinson doing what he does best: creating memorable characters inside a plot driven by hard science.

Robinson has an eye-opening grasp of sprawling complexity. He gets the nitty-gritty details as well as the ramifications of science as it exists and is applied today.

He also gets the fact that science is applied by people, and that people are complex and not-quite-rational creatures. The character of Frank Vanderwal is the lens through which Robinson focuses our attention on our primal instincts, and as such acts as a great foil for the uber-rational scientists he works alongside.

Robinson also clearly has a good grasp on how politics interacts with science, and he shows a stunning intimacy with the on-the-street details of life inside the D.C. Beltway.

I enjoyed this book because it was so typically, beautifully multi-dimensional in a way that only Robinson seems able to pull off. He anchors the plot with concrete details about the species of trees in Rock Creek Park, the feel of the schist under Frank Vanderwal's hands when he goes climbing, the inner workings of the National Science Foundation, and the daily intimacies of married life (...and big raspberries, by the way, to everyone who complained about the breast-pumping details early in the book! Robinson pays attention to everyday life and he got those details right. If you have a problem with that, stick to reading Clancy's spy novels.)

Anyway, "Forty Signs of Rain" is a vividly imagined, engrossing and plausible vision of both our present realities and our future. Any primate with an open mind and an ounce of discernment should give it a shot. Oooooop!

In a 394 page book titled Forty Signs of Rain, shouldn't there be some sort of rain event, however small, BEFORE page 354?! What's up with that? If you buy this book looking forward to some page turning enviromental disaster thriller you'll be terribly disappointed. This book is awful. You will learn more than anyone has a right to know about how grants are reviewed at the National Science Foundation (NSF). You'll learn lots about new mothers pumping their breasts to provide their newborns with milk. Throw in some lengthy discussion of molecular polymers, in vivo insertion, and mathematical modeling of biological processes and you have one roller coaster of a techno thriller! Not! Here is an example of the exciting prose you have to look forward to if you make the mistake of buying this book. "They want to immobilize cytoskeleton networks on biochips and explore whether tubulin can be used as bits in protein logic gates. They intend to do this by measuring the electric dipole moment and what the P.I. calls the predicted kink-solitonic electric dipole moment flip waves." Now if that doesn't get your heart a racin there's something seriously wrong with you! And trust me, there is a LOT more of that prose to look forward to. My biggest regret next to the time I wasted reading this book is that I bought the sequel at the same time, Fifty Degrees Below. Let me guess, 400 some pages before the first snowflake falls? Don't think that's movin to the top of my reading list soon. Maybe since I haven't read it yet I can talk Barnes and Noble into giving me my money back? Do not buy this book. Take your nine dollars and just flush it down the drain. At least you won't be wasting your time that way.

Although this book was not fantastic, it still was enjoyable in many ways. I found both the Quiblers to be interesting characters (when they weren't speaking with the Khembalis), and their parts flowed quickly.

Perhaps the biggest problem is Frank. He's just not an appealing character, and not in a good way. His tendency is to think everything in long, drawn out passages about how everything can be seen in the context of primates and biological anthropology, which might be interesting in a textbook but makes for poor reading in a novel, and very slow characterization.

Overall, though, this book really needs a better editor. It just didn't flow very well, and the sequence of events that occurred didn't seem to connect well into an overarching plot of sorts. That can be a good thing if a book is very character-driven, but this book is not that.

This is a really fun book that raises many very important points. This trilogy mixes reflections on science policy, science and climate change politics and everyday life choices. Driven by the stories of a few characters dealing with their everyday life, this is an absolutely wonderful book!

I'm motivated to write this both because of how much I've enjoyed this book, and my disappointment with the ratings it's received. In fact, I'm rereading it for the second time. As in all of his works, KSR demonstrates his extraordinary writing talents. I'm constantly amazed by his powers of description. His depictions of everyday life perfectly capture reality, but in brilliantly orginal phrases. As a mother, I would have adored the book just for its marvelous scenes of a small active boy. (I raised two. I felt that they had somehow crawled into the pages of the book.) But more than that, and far rarer, are the faithful depictions of science and mathematics, and the industries that surround them. Most books that try, have no conception of what it means to do research, or to live the life of a scientist. One sees stereotyped characters, and made-up theories. In particular, KSR understands the paradoxical nature of a rational field, which is populated by human beings, with all their subjective qualities, and how this affects scientific progress. Thus in the book, the science is alive. It's seen through the eyes of practitioners - passionate, cynical, but never neutral. Purely as fiction, I found the characters fascinating, (many charming) and couldn't wait to follow their stories. But beyond that, I'd recommend the book for its insights into the nature of scientific research - and its tenuous position in today's world. It's a book I want my boys to read, because our ability to bring rational thinking into our social and political debates, will radically affect our future.

The manual is very user-friendly. It takes a while to really sift through all the ideas, but the first two parts are designed so that you don't have to re-read the important ideas several times. The main themes are recapitulated in different wordings and contexts to make you understand. The treatment section is extremely clear, with both step-by-step guidance and explanations for the activities. Though the design is quite explicit, the authors urge you to design the treatment specifically for each patient, and even give suggestions of how to do so.

This is a fantastic tool, giving the therapist useful theory as well as specific outlines for sessions. Great for the beginner ACT therapist. The CD contains lots of useful worksheets for clients, and step-by-step outlines for therapists including lots of wonderful metaphors and stories.

This book is an important contribution to therapists who want to increase effectiveness in their work with suffering beings while also learning to incorporate Eastern psychological teachings in their practice. I found it easy to read, practical, enjoyable.

Having been trained in the 70's as a behavior therapist, I moved away from BT in the 80's as I became disillusioned with the mechanistic quality of the approach. Eifert and Forsyth's book beautifully brings the best of behavior therapy together with a more humanistic and interpersonal focus to provide in ACT a truly new paradigm. The so-called "third wave" of behavior therapy incorporates much of the best of other schools while remaining grounded in solid science.
I have found ACT to be a potent weapon in dealing with the anxiety disorders that our clients bring to us. I highly recommend this book for any practitioner of any orientation to wants to broaden their perspective and become more effective in treating these most debilitating disorders.

Startling new way to treat anxiety disorders from a humanistic view aimed at creating a meaningful life despite high anxiety. The book is written very clearly and contains techniques such as metaphors and stories that are excellent and can be used with more traditional therapy.

To use ACT alone in therapy to treat anxiety disorders by just reading the clear instructions of the book and using the CD that comes with it may be dangerous. It is a counter intuitive approach that must be consistantly maintained; the therapist must be 100% present at all times. It is not just a technique that can be applied; the therapist must model this approach in real life or he/she could cause more harm than good. I would love to attend in person some training in this approach and have some live supervision (as is required for EMDR therapy). Definitly worth reading and staying in touch with any new research in this approach.

Theda Perdue's book, "Cherokee Women" is an intelligent, well written work on the history of the Cherokee prior to their removal in the late 1830s to what is today Oklahoma. Far from being a book that simply high-lights certain Cherokee women or certain moments where Cherokee women influenced their people's history, Perdue sets about providing an excellent account of the Cherokee past. She skillfully demonstrates that women were an integral part of the story. Indeed, after reading her book one sees that the history of the Cherokee can not be fully told without the perspective that Perdue provides.

In three parts, Perdue describes how women shaped and defined Cherokee culture from pre-contact with Europeans, during the initial contact period, and through the "civilization" efforts of European Americans. She points out the cultural differences between women of Cherokee and Anglo-American societies, and adds a new dimension of thought to these subjects. This book is highly recommended as an important contribution to Cherokee History and to History in general for its illuminating ideas about the roles of women.

Thea Perdue adds an excellent addition to the Indians of the Southeast series by giving a new perspective on the role of women in Cherokee society. There are very few books that assess how women were affected by European invaders in a traditional society. The women existed in a matrilineal world where they controlled trade and social functions which are retold expertly here. Perdue recounts how war, diplomacy, and economics changed the roles of women and how the European viewpoints were dominant. The book ends with a look at the supposed Renaissance that occurred when missionaries from the Moravians began to work on a language and develop societal roles in Cherokee tribes.

The literature on Indians of the Southeast, and Indians in general, is growing quickly and this will become a staple within the historiography. For those who want to look at the history of the Cherokee this is an invaluable source. Furthermore for those who want to look at matrilineal roles and how they affected European and Indian relations than this is a great way to study them.

In her well-written Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, historian Theda Perdue argues that "the story of most Cherokee women is not cultural transformation...but remarkable cultural persistence." This is not to say, she argues, that these women did not experience significant changes in their status and condition, especially if one looks at the "decline" of Native Americans only in terms of land losses and military defeats. If, however, historians looks at "other indices of cultural change, including production, reproduction, religion, and perceptions of self, as well as political and economic institutions," then a different image emerges of Cherokee women over time: one of cultural persistence. Perdue does not deny that contact with Europeans had a profound, and ultimately negative, impact on the lives and well being of native peoples, including women of the seven Cherokee clans. She is particularly lucid in describing how the deer skin trade, military alliances and the insistence by whites of negotiating only with males in treaty making and land deals diminished much of the influence women had in terms of trade, material possessions and political status.
Perdue interprets the changes in Cherokee life for men and women, beginning in the 18th century, as a cultural retooling, in which men became predominantly involved in external affairs of the tribe (war, military alliances, commercial enterprises, treaties) and women maintained internal power and status within the tribe. "While women became dependent on men in some respects," she notes, "men also relied increasingly on women to plant corn, perpetuate lineages, and maintain village life." She goes on to state that the deerskin trade may actually have enhanced the power of women within their Cherokee communities "by removing men for much of the year." Additionally, for most of their yearly sustenance, male hunters still relied on the bounty of agricultural production, which remained almost exclusively the domain of females. Finally, Perdue argues that despite the encroachment of whites, the male takeover of tribal political leadership and institutions by the late 18th century, and relocation to the west by 1839, "a distinct culture survived removal, rebuilding, civil war, reconstruction, allotment and Oklahoma statehood." As proof of the survival and persistence of this culture, Perdue briefly points to the continuing significant role of women at the end of the 20th century. Thus, she concludes that the fate of Cherokee women has not been one of cultural declension, but one of "persistence and change, conservatism and adaptation, tragedy and survival."
Much of Perdue's interpretation of persistence and survival of women's culture within the Cherokee clans is quite persuasive. However, her treatment of the growing external role of men with regard to leadership and war and the corresponding decline in female power and influence on tribal matters of extreme (and ultimately devastating) importance to the Cherokees is problematic. By arguing that the male takeover of political power and control of land allowed women to consolidate internal, domestic power within the tribes seems to make a virtue out of an inescapable necessity. This is not to refute Perdue's recognition of the important spheres women continued to control; nevertheless, her contention that the external pressures of the U.S. government's "civilization program," land sessions, wars and eventual removal did not result in "declining status and lost culture" may be significantly overstated. For example, she asserts that although men dominated most aspects of commercial relations with whites, "women did occupy one position that had long-term implications for the Cherokees-they became wives of traders." While marriage to whites may in fact have been an effective method of survival and adaptation for Cherokee women, Perdue's use of this trend as evidence of cultural persistence is questionable. Similarly, Perdue argues that when Cherokee wives of British soldiers at the besieged Ft. Loudoun in 1760 provided supplies and intelligence to their husbands, they "acted according to long-established standards of behavior for married women." These women saw themselves not as part of "an abstract Cherokee nation," but as "members of clans and lineages," of whom their red-coated husbands were part. This assertion refutes her earlier statement that husbands were not kinsmen of their wives, they were outsiders to her clan. Furthermore, the fact that these native women were willing to defy their own people in a time of war in order to help the enemies of the tribe may also be seen as evidence of waning tribal cohesion.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ms. Perdue's book about the Cherokee Women. It is a well researched volume. It opened my eyes to a lot about the life of the Cherokees, both men and women. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Native American cultures.

Ms. Perdue makes what could be a boring subject into a great read. The book held my attention and piqued my interest in the lives of Native Amercian women from the past and today.

CHEROKEE WOMEN, Gender and Culture Change 1700 to 1835. Theda Perdue
University of Nebraska Press 1998




Although this book is eight years old it is a good one and deserves a new review. We used this book in teaching the workshop to the Chiefs in July of this year.

The book is constructed of three major sections. The first is called a Woman's World and has two sub-sections on Constructing Gender and Defining Community.

These are exceptionally well done and show how Cherokee women were equal in the world to men as they were of the Earth medicine while the men were of the Sun. It shows how this balance, much as in the story at the beginning of the Newsletter, was achieved and maintained.

This was not a shallow equality under the law but a deep spiritual one with each group having their own power that made the other powerless without it.

It no more represented slavery to stereotype than being a Soprano or a Bass does to the opposite gender. The Creator gave the place and so their job was, again like the singer, to fulfill it completely.

The community and the ceremonials in the community all pointed the way to the achievement of the goals of significance by each Kituwah person. For they were all followers of the Kituwah faith at that time.

In the second section she traces the beginnings of the breakdown of Cherokee equality as the Men, through hunting and trade start to assume political power.

This is like the Sun coming too close to the earth and killing the plants and that is what happened. Agricultural technology withered as the women lost power and they became enslaved to the exotic trade goods that were largely inferior to their hand made original articles. To counter the men, the women married traders and even soldiers to gain back the lost power.

This led to the section on War. It is a well trod trail and yet Perdue still has some insights to offer.

In this second section however, I believe she falls to the aggravating factor that makes so many of these stories predictable and lacking in insight. At the root is an inability to assign quality without romance to Native forms. Did Indians have science, technology, law, and the arts? How about economics? Well yes. If that is so then how were they different earlier and how did they change later? Were they as successful?

In the third section on Civilization she tries to deal with this but again doesn't succeed in really drawing out the full adult lives of the individuals involved. It is a depressing often told story.

I have been surprised in my own research to find such full rich lives in our ancestors when they are so often depicted as being without a deep psychological and spiritual life. Although this is now being explored it will take many more books before we can explore the egg tempera of Cherokee artists working with bird yokes and berry dyes on woodplanks. The few extant are exquisite.

How about the Agricultural technology? And where is the music? The rhythmic complexity of real Southern drumming is both powerful dance and powerful art. Where are the scholars to study, preserve and develop that?

In Selu meets Eve, Perdue almost brings this to life but the "gift" is missing. An energy exchange (economics) exists in all cultures and is one of the crucial elements of human communication. It need not be money but an exchange does happen. It can be a payment or it can be a gift. Either way it has rules.

I would and have encouraged Dr. Perdue to look into this in another book. I hope she will for she writes wonderfully and is a first rate scholar.


Ray Evans Harrell (written for the nuyagi keetoowah newsletter sept 2005)

I haven't read it in years, but it was one of three book that I would rate as life-changing for me. Since it was introduced to me in college, I've bought and given this book away so many times I cannot count, but each time it was gone I would seek out another copy (sometimes in bulk). What an important work!

This thin book is so refreshing. It is anything but predictable to the self-help junkie. This is not self-help. This a realistic look at the discipline that it takes to change oneself. It takes an unexpected turn, bringing the reader closer to the author's own struggles. A great compassion came over me after reading this book.

I loved this book when it dealt with very deep issues of personal choice in the therapeutic process, and I hated it when the author dated himself by insisting on treating homosexuality as if it were a mental disease. This was obviously written several decades ago, before the American Psychiatric Association finally removed homosexuality from its list of disorders. And Wheelis seems to bring up the issue a lot, even if he seems well-intentioned. I really would love to recommend this book to people, and have even given it out with apologies and explanations, but it really should be re-written with all homophobic comments removed.

Wheelis might argue that my writing this review is a conundrum: mandatory necessity versus arbitrary necessity. I cannot or will not answer that question. Suffice it to say that you the reader ought to make the time to read this slim book.

His writing is embarrassingly succinct and refreshingly frank. Thus, the book invites several readings; I have read it several times. Keep in mind that the subject of this book is self-directed change. "So long as one lives, change is possible; but the longer such behavior is continued the more force and authority it acquires." How then do we change? "Insight is instrumental to change, often an essential part of the process, but does not directly achieve it."

The author, to his credit, includes himself as a portrait of one who struggles with change. Read the chapter entitled "Grass." A friend, reading it, refused to borrow the book. She condemned the story as an example of child abuse. Superficially, it certainly seems so. One cannot avoid, however, the poignancy of the father's heartfelt remarks, "I wish you could understand, though, that I wouldn't be trying to teach you so fast if I knew I would live long enough to teach you more slowly." The father lay sick with tuberculosis, dying but months later.

Wheelis puts the story in context that will resonate with all who read it: "Thus I was made a psychological slave." But, "A slave is one who accepts the identity ascribed to him by a master." So, can one change? How? I cannot answer that question. I can give you one last quote from Wheelis, "The new mode will be experienced as difficult, unpleasant, forced, unnatural, anxiety-provoking. It may be undertaken lightly but can be sustained only by considerable effort of will. Change will occur only if such action is maintained over a long period of time."

Or, was B.F. Skinner more correct? "A person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him."

This book was written in the early '70s and, as such, touches tangentially on issues of the day such as homosexuality. With hindsight, we can easily condemn Wheelis' statements on that topic; but I firmly believe that the author himself would think differently today. Criticism of this book on that basis is specious at best and dishonest at worst. Wheelis draws on his own insight to discuss in a wonderfully accessible way what can happen when we make profound change. It is a very small book -- Wheelis does not mince words. He gets to the heart of the matter and stays with it. Most of us shrink from change, we are afraid of the dark. Wheelis shines a light of hope that inspires courage without minimizing the difficulties of change. To a great extent, he demystifies it while keeping its wonder.

I researched a lot of books about this subject to use as a resource when the time was right to have a discussion with my 9 year-old daughter. This was an excellent book and was exactly the tool I needed to have a discussion about sexuality with my child. I love that the book sends the message that sex happens after "a man and woman fall in love and get married." I think the messages and the illustrations are perfect and I would recommend this book to anyone who knows this looming discussion is on the horizon.

After reading several of the choices... I loved this one. It is very factual and more scientific in nature. It did not have opinions interjected as other books do. It is my job to give the opinions and cultural practices and I appreciated the plain facts in this one. Cute pictures too!

I bought this book for my 9 1/2 year old daughter. I was very surprised to discover that the note for parents page is the 1st page of the book, and the reverse of that page is the first page you would want your child to see.

The publishers should have printed the note for parents on a page by itself, preferably perforated, so it could easily be removed from the book if a parent so chose.

I thought about trying to black it out with marker, but I'm afraid it will bleed through the page, and ruin what should actually be the 1st page of the story. As of now, I am undecided about giving her the book.

It would also have been better if they had included the pronunciation of the terms for body parts, etc.

The words and drawings are detailed and specific. Be aware that in additon to separate drawings of the inside and outside of the reproductive organs of male and female, there is also a drawing of the outside and inside view of intercourse.

My daughter's fourth grade science book uses similar drawings and the terms sex, sexual reproduction, ovaries, egg, fertilization by the male, etc., in lessons on flower pollination and reproduction. So, I feel that this book would be a comfortable way for her to get answers to her questions about how this all works in humans, how children get certain characteristics from both mother and father, what tampons are for, etc.

I strongly agree with the author that you should follow up with an offer to answer any questions they have and a discussion about your values and beliefs regarding sex, marriage,

I struggle trying to decide what to write about this book. On the one hand, large portions of it are extremely tedious to get through and seem like overkill. On the other hand, a few parts are some of the best writing on the global warming issue I have read recently. The book begins with a section that covers about the first half, which is basically an almost blow-by-blow accounting of all sorts of censorship, editing, distortion, and intimidation by political appointees in NASA. I suspect many people will give up on this book before finishing this part. I think it is too long and detailed. Perhaps more summary with a few well-placed examples would have sufficed. Around the middle of the book, the tone changes greatly, and there is much more coverage of Hansen's actual work through the years and what it showed about global warming. In this section Hansen is depicted as a careful scientist who basically got it right 30 years ago and has been getting better since. This section contains some of the best descriptions of how real-world data and modeling fit the picture, and why global warming deniers are way off base. Finally, towards the end of the book emphasis shifts to Hansen's more recent advocacy in favor of doing something, and (the author's)dire predictions for what's in store if we don't. Curiously, the descriptions of how much Hansen has been doing found at the end of the book seem a little out of synch with the claims of censorship and muzzling found at the beginning of the book.

In the second half of the book, Bowen seems to rely on the work of Journalist Ross Gelbspan, who shares an interest in how political forces have tried to distort or derail the science of global warming, and some of the material from his own previous book on the study of ice.

I think the following extremely important points can be gleaned from the book:
1) Hansen is a very meticulous scientist who shys away from political involvement or spectacular claims in public, in spite of how is he generally characterized by those hoping to smear him.
2) Hansen is perhaps the most important global warming researcher in the US, and has an incredible 30+ year record of solid work and correct predictions or views on things.
3) We have essentially lost many years of attacking the problem of global warming by allowing short-term corporate interests to dictate a policy that puts profit above long-term stability of the environment.
4) There is overwhelming and basically unassailable evidence of what is going on, and a strong basis for solid predictions of what could happen.

I will conclude by suggesting this book, while being very important in some aspects could have been much better in many ways. It can't decide if it's a biography on Dr. Hansen, an investigative report on Bush administration attempts to stymie science, or a scientific wake-up call on global warming. I give it three stars because it's so hard to get through the first half. However, I do suggest that anyone interested in this topic give it a try.

It used to require bad drugs or hard liquor if one wished to hide from reality and get wasted. Now the federal government quite intentionally shields everyone from frustrating and embarrassing reality. In response to NASA findings, for example, they hire a college failure to correct punctuation, and in so doing, the failure edits scientific papers that are of ultimate consequence and importance. For example, "melting perennial ice and replacement with thinner ice" becomes "melting perennial ice and replacement with thinner ice, or it could be thicker ice."

We stand at the crossroads where half of us want to journey down the road to further truth and enlightenment and the other half believe they know too much already and that fate and destiny will end their misery. The enlightened are labeled as elitists and are condemned by biased politicians and mainstream media to banishment from our beloved Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We are called to wonder "Is our children learning?", but the apparent response is, if they is then we must certainly stop that. Inconveniently for the people of the world, truth is too awful to be believed.

The War on Intelligent Thought has escalated from habitual lies to organized bureaucratic idiocy. The truth hides in the closet while consequences are thrust upon the people. It is evident in Iraq when secret lies come out one at a time. It is evident in science when scientists have to seek permission from the federal government to speak. It is evident when activists are required to be inside "free speech zones" to exercise the First Amendment. It is evident when knowledgeable people are labeled "elitists" and the mainstream media fires up the crosses and pushes hate. All of these are battle maneuvers in the War on Intelligent Thought. Petrifaction, stupefaction, and hopelessness all are weapons used against the people.

No book is more pertinent today. Mark Bowen tells the story of Dr. James Hansen and his fight for the truth of global warming.

The most important scientific issue confronting our fellow Americans, and indeed, all of humanity, is global warming. On a warm, humid afternoon in June 1988, NASA climatologist James Hansen alerted us to its ever present danger, testifying before a U. S. Senate committee, and then, afterwards, to a group of reporters. One mere sentence uttered by Hansen to these reporters, emphasized this danger, "It's time to stop waffling.... and say that the greenhouse effect is here and is affecting our climate now." It is an ever present danger that has garnered the keen interest of diplomats and other politicians worldwide, including those here in the United States. But it is also an ever present danger whose very significance has been ignored by the current administration of President George W. Bush, which has instead, been engaged in scientific censorship of the most virulent kind. Physicist and writer Mark Bowen's "Censoring Science" takes a cold, hard look at the Bush administration's undeniable scientific censorship of NASA climatologist James Hansen in a fast-paced literary style that's more reminiscent of a well-plotted Ian Fleming espionage thriller, than a serious, rather credible, work of investigative scientific journalism. "Censoring Science" offers compelling evidence as to how that censorship worked, trying to cast "doubt" on superb climate science in extensively-edited scientific reports that "demonstrated" the "uncertainties" of this science, not the undeniable facts pointing to the reality of global warming. Bowen offers an inspirational portrait of Hansen, his research, and his colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies - the research center headed by Hansen - that's located at the southern end of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus; ones which are among the most important reasons to acquire this splendid book.

Bowen demonstrates how Bush administration political appointees fostered this censorship, especially through "editing" of press releases of newly published scientific research, and in determining how scientists like Hansen could speak to professional journalists. One of these political appointees was a new appointee, college dropout George Deutsch, who soon announced his keen interest in and support of Intelligent Design by noting in an e-mail to NASA science writer Flint Wild, "... it is not NASA's place, nor should it be, to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.... We, as NASA, must be diligent here, because this is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one half of this debate from NASA." Regrettably, an e-mail such as this one merely reflected the political mindset of those Bush administration appointees like Deutsch, who regarded global warming as "just a theory" unsubstantiated by actual scientific evidence; actual scientific evidence which was being presented by Hansen, other NASA climatologists, and their colleagues across the globe. In his unflinching, unsympathetic depiction of NASA scientific censorship of James Hansen and his research, Bowen deserves ample praise for writing what is truly one of the most important books published this year; one that ought to be read by a wide readership.

Living in Phoenix and continually experiencing record-setting temperatures, I don't need another book to remind me of global warming. That, however, was only a portion of the material in "Censoring Science."

The initial focus is on Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA's Climate Research Center for 25 years, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences for ten. Despite over 95% of credible climate scientists agreeing that average temperatures have been climbing at an accelerating, and nearly as many agreeing that man-made greenhouse gases are the major factor, Dr. Hansen's reports of his supporting findings came under extensive bureaucratic attack in the Bush II administration through efforts to suppress, limit access to him, "edit," firing threats, and budget cuts. While clearly unconscionable, this campaign becomes almost comic when implemented largely through those lacking even a basic science degree, and in one instance, any degree whatsoever - all to save the utilities (who pass on all their costs to consumers anyway, and lack overseas competition) and encourage "intelligent design."

Bush II, however, is not the only culprit - the Bush I administration also engaged in rewriting scientists' findings. Nor have censorship efforts been limited to NASA - NOAA (weather specialists) and other agencies also incurred similar harassment, in many cases directly traced to the White House.

"Censoring Science" at times becomes overly detailed, especially regarding Dr. Hansen and those immediately around him. However, it also takes time to reassert important points in making the case for global warming, including refuting Michael Crichton's silly foray into the topic (he has no recognized expertise in the area), and explaining how one of the few "peer-reviewed" articles refuting global warming was snuck into a little-known journal without following normal procedures.

"Censoring Science" is not especially optimistic about American policy addressing global warming in time, citing the tobacco industry's ability to postpone meaningful action for over three decades at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives each year.

Hansen's Recommendations: 1)Phase out coal, except where CO2 is captured and sequestered, impose rising carbon emission taxes, and reduce methane and black carbon emissions.

Third Nobelist? Yes, more on that in a minute.

If you want to know just how far BushCo has gone in collaboration with Big Oil and Big Coal in general, and folks like ExxonMobil and Peabody in particular, to censor sound science on anthropogenic global warming and its degree of certainty, this is THE book to read.

If you want to understand how this censoring, while it starts with the attacks on James Hanson, goes far beyond that, throughout NASA and onto the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this book has the details.

If you want to see how this attack came out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, to the degree a paper/e-mail/phone log trail was left, this book will connect the dots.

If you aren't familiar with the major players in global warming denialism, how they stole pages from Big Tobacco's cancer denialism (ironic that global warming denialist Richard Lindzen, a smoker, denies the tobacco-cancer link, too), and how "global warming denialism" has been respun into "global warming skepticism," you need to read this book.

And ... it will connect the dots on the stellar scientific research of Dr. James Hansen, who should have been at Stockholm last December with Al Gore and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change head Rajendra K. Pachauri as the third Nobelist, a voice sounding the alarm on global warming for 20 years.

Author Mark Bowen, with a Ph.D. in physics himself, knows the value of free scientific discourse. That, along with the career and achievements of Hansen himself, intertwine in this book.

How bad is the attack on science? NASA's mission statement used to include the phrase, `To understand and protect our home planet." In late 2006, that phrase was removed, about the time NASA Administrator Michael Griffin started machete-whacking the budget for Earth science.

I have been trying to educate myself about this very complex topic. I have at this point read four books on it, two pro and two con. Thus far, the con books are making more sense to me. I found Singer & Avery's book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years to be very good.

I think this book is even better. Singer & Avery argue that the slight level of global warming which we have seen thus far is more compatible with a natural 1,500 warming and cooling trend than it is with the theory of it being caused by greenhouse gases. They make a good case, but they leave two questions in my mind. First, their 1,500 cycle seems rather unpredictable and variable. How do we know that it is happening now, this end of the century? Second, it is clear that the amount of CO2 in the air is increasing. What effect has this had, and what effect is it likely to have? Singer & Avery do not address that point, which leaves me wondering about it.

Micheals has a very different argument than Singer & Avery. First, Micheals is a very different kind of guy. He is a working climatologist. He actually studies this stuff for a living, and he knows the details of this stuff, backwards and forwards. Here is his take, in a nutshell. Increased levels of CO2 have lead to a modest increase in temperature, which will largely be beneficial. From past trends, we have a very good idea how much global warming will increase due to CO2, which is, not much. In short, nothing to worry about here.

Stated baldly like that, there is no reason to believe or disbelieve Micheals' conclusion. But he is not stating an unsupported personal opinion. He gives chapter and verse. He cites study after study, and he methodically takes apart the Al Gore crowd. Micheals' great joy in life is vigorous mockery of unscientific nonsense, and he gives himself free rein in this book. He is actually quite funny; he gets a great deal of humor out of making fun of this stuff.

He also has a long discussion on exactly why science has gotten this whole thing so wrong. HInt: follow the money. There is huge money in scaring the hell out of the taxpayer. Global warming climate modeling has extracted $20 billion from the US taxpayer so far, with no end in sight. That gravy train would end if the public accepted Micheals' view.

I am not 100% persauded, as yet, simply because I do not feel that I have read the A Team from the other side. I have read Al Gore's book and Elizabeth Kolbert's book. Neither one of them struck me as the best work that their side can do. Given what I have seen thus far, Micheals is winning this argument, but I would like to see somebody of his ability and knowledge on the other side before I make up my mind.

As the media and global warming alarmists are changing the term to "climate change" this book captures many scientific facts that clear up the "distortion" presented by greedy government grant scientists who make money off of this so-called crisis. A book well worth reading and easy to understand even for the novice who doesn't know much about the weather.

This is a very thorough, objective analysis of global warming science and the forms of bias that exist within politics and the media. Anyone who is honestly interested in the facts on this subject should read this book!

This is an impressive, well-researched book. Meltdown is an excellent counterpoint to all the Chicken Little books on global warming. Warning: this is not an easy read, as there are many graphs and charts throughout the books. Michaels shows that while the planet is warming, we are not headed to the end of civilization. I also recommend, as a calm, rational alternative, Bjorn Lomborg's more recent book, Cool It. I especially like the last chapter, as it strongly criticizes the peer-review process that has corrupted science.

This book introduces the corruption of the scientific method in the pursuit of a political conclusion: anthropogenic global warming.
I was always of the impression that the research one engaged in was supposed to lead to conclusions based upon your research results and that if your research data did not support your hypothesis, that the contrary conclusion was what was presented and submitted for review. This doesn't seem to be always the case any more as research is guided more by a foregone conclusion, man is causing global warming, and further research must in some way support this hypothesis in order to be peer reviewed, printed in scientific publications, and to get further research funds.
This well written book puts such things into perspective and shines a spot light upon the subjugation of scientific endeavors for a political agenda when it comes to climate change.
Wes Wotring