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Confeccion En Telas Especiales/Sewing Specialty Fabrics (Singer Sewing Reference Library)
Singer Sewing Reference Library , and
Cy Decosse Inc
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Sewing Specialty Fabrics
Singer
Manufacturer: QUAYSIDE PUB + CREATIVE PUB
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Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SGHOQY |
Book Description
This remarkable biography traces the life and times of Joshua L. Chamberlain, the professor-turned-soldier who led the Twentieth Maine Regiment to glory at Gettysburg, earned a battlefield promotion to brigadier general from Ulysses S. Grant at Petersburg, and was wounded six times during the course of the Civil War. Chosen to accept the formal Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Chamberlain endeared himself to succeeding generations with his unforgettable salutation of Robert E. Lee's vanquished army. After the war, he went on to serve four terms as governor of his home state of Maine and later became president of Bowdoin College. He wrote prolifically about the war, including The Passing of the Armies, a classic account of the final campaign of the Army of the Potomac.
Customer Reviews:
A true American Hero.......2006-03-29
In the Hands of Providence is a very well researched look of the life of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Alice Turlock presents a definitive biography of this modest professor from Bowden College, who met challenge after challenge to become one of the greatest leaders in Civil War history. Chamberlain had extraordinary observational and superb writing skills. His persistence at recording the historic events, which included his emotional reactions, gave Trulock's wonderful historic accounts for her book.
The book starts by giving us an in depth look at his obscure Christian upbringing in rural Maine, and follows his processes of becoming a great young man. He was an exceptional college student, receiving the praise of his instructors. He was also highly regarded by his neighbors and towns' folk alike. Many considered him to have the highest moral and ethical standard. He was so trusted and respected as a young man in his home town that an older business man of Maine, who was an acquaintance of Chamberlain's, entrusted him with the dealings of his estate.
While finishing his studies at Bowden, Chamberlain married his sweetheart Frances Caroline Adams. They had a very close and loving relationship. But during the war, the constant distance between them put a great deal of strain on their relationship. After graduation, he accepted a position as a professor at Bowden, and held that position for several years. Chamberlain maintained a very close relationship with his family, and he was especially close to his father in law George Adams.
When the war broke out in 1861, Chamberlain ask for a leave of absence from Bowden to enlist, but was turned down. Not to be left out of the war, he again applied for a sabbatical to study in Europe, and this time it was granted. He had no intentions on going to Europe, and instead immediately enlisted in the army as a lieutenant colonel, and never looked back. He played a huge role in the recruitment of the men for a regiment, which would later come to be known as the 20th Maine.
With no military experience, Chamberlain showed great promise in his leadership shills and military expertise. He became friends with his unit's commander, Colonial Ames, who became his tutor. According to Trulock, Chamberlain held a great deal of respect and admiration for Ames, and he gave Ames credit for his military success.
Trulock's description of Chamberlain's military life is extraordinary, and she supplies us with great details about the battles in which he was involved. At the battle of Antietam, Chamberlain was not directly involved in the fighting but was brought up in reserve the next day. Trulock gives a very vivid description of horror that Chamberlain witnessed upon arriving at the battlefield that day where 22,000 lay dead or wounded on the field. It was the bloodiest, one day battle in the Civil War.
Next, she transports us to the Fredericksburg, and the final assault by the North on Marye's Heights - the charge that involved the 20th of Maine. All the other divisions that day were either driven back, laid dead or wounded on the field. She describes tremendous courage that Chamberlain and his men showed as they made their charge on the now famous wall at Marye's Heights, the wall that was heavily guarded by Confederates. The division suffered great loses that late afternoon. They remained among the dead or wounded for 2 days and nights before the order was given to retreat.
The episode in history that Chamberlain is most remember for is the courage and heroism he displayed at the battle of Gettysburg. He was ordered to the top of a hill known as The Little Round Top where he was placed at the far left flank. There, Chamberlain was instructed to hold that position at all cost. The 20th Maine repelled assault after assault by the Confederates that day. When ammunition ran out, Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge, an event that many historians say was the turning point of the Civil War.
Trulock also gives a very detailed account of the battle of Petersburg, where Chamberlain was horribly wounded. After hearing of his heroic actions during the battle, General Grant immediately promoted Chamberlain on the battlefield to Brigadier General. This was the only battlefield promotion ever issued by Grant. Somehow, Chamberlain survived his wound, due to the skilled surgery that was preformed on him that night and next day. Chamberlain's two close friends, Dr. Shaw and Dr. Townsend worked for hours repairing the damage inflicted by the mini ball. The wound he received that day would trouble him all of his life and required numerous surgery's to repair the damage.
His persistent heroism and outstanding leadership were the deciding factor when Grant chose Chamberlain to receive the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. He showed great respect for his fellow countrymen that day when he gave the order to his men to give a solders salute to the surrendering confederate men. His honorary actions that day were later critized by many people.
This book contains a lot of historic photos of Chamberlain's family, friends, fellow soldiers and numerous battle maps. The book also gives a great account of Chamberlain's life as Governor of Maine and President of Bowden College, but these accounts do not compare to the bravery and patriotic devotion that Chamberlain displayed during the Civil War. His actions made him a hero to his men, and the country he served.
Trulock has given us a great biography, not only one of the Civil War's greatest commanders, but one of the United States most distinguished citizens. The book flows very smoothly while covering details of battles that would interest even the most die hard Civil War enthusiast.
Finally, a book that does justice to an astonishing person. I highly recommend this book.
Man of character, man of faith whose story should be proclaimed!.......2006-01-25
Chamerlain's heroism is similar to Teddy Roosevelt, Alvin York, and Audie Murphy who came behind him, but have been better publicized.
The difference is that his act of confidence, courage and decisiveness may have been the one that changed the outcome of the Civil War, the 1864 election and the future of America.
In The Hands of Providence is the story of Chamberlain's exemplary character before, during and after that momentum changing moment. All Americans should read and learn this story.
- Richard V. Battle - Author of The Four Letter Word That Builds Character
Well rounded biography.......2005-05-10
I found Alice Trulock's biography on Joshua L. Chamberlain to be quite readable, well researched and well grounded. Considering the length of the book, Trulock's book read quite well for most readers of any level. Well, it may not be good as the one written by John Pullen but it definitely is superior to the one written by Edward Longacre. I put that in just for comparison purpose.
I think this biography may served as a good introduction to Chamberlain who's name have definitely reached near mythological level nowadays among Civil War readers thanks to Jeff Daniels and his role in that movie "Gettysburg". Of course, most readers would probably be disappointed that Jeff Daniel's portaryal of Chamberlain will not jive with Joshua Chamberlain of Trulock's book.
The biography covers all aspects of Chamberlain's life. The book does a good job covering Chamberlain's military career which proves to be the most important period of his life from which Chamberlain's life will be centered around until his death. I do wish to make a point here. He died at the age of 86, a very ripe old age and I doubt if his wounds he got from Petersburg really hasten his death, it may have cause him a lot of pain but even in modern days, most people don't live that long!
Overall, an very good biography on one of Union's more natural soldiers. A non-professional who performed better then most professional soldiers.
Excellent Title of an Excellent Leader.......2005-03-13
The Duke of Wellington supposedly stated that it is impossible for a Christian to serve in the military. Too bad he wasn't around during the American Civil War! Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the South and Joshua Chamberlain and Otis Howard from the North are notable exceptions to Wellington's thesis.
Trulock has written what is the best account of the hero of Little Round Top and who personally oversaw the surrender of Confederate troops at Appamattox.
Among the important events in Chamberlain's life covered include:
1. Birth and Christian upbringing in rural Maine.
2. His days as a student and adminstrator at Bowdoin College.
3. His early Civil War service including the formation of the famous 20th Maine Regiment.
4. Fascinating accounts of his involvement in major Civil War battles: Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and other engagements.
5. The horrible wound suffered at Petersburg that eventually killed him some 50 years later.
6. His loving yet strained marriage to Frances Caroline Adams.
7. Postwar public service as President of Bowdoin College and Governor of Maine.
Reading the book was a joy - the narrative flowed smoothly while covering several details of a fascinating character. The author managed to keep the story from becoming too bogged down in dry detail without insulting the reader's intelligence. Oh, how I wish more biographies were written like this!
The book also contains excellent battle maps and numerous photographs of the main characters: Chamberlain, his wife, parents, sister and brothers, many Civil War officers, and other important people in Joshua Chamberlain's life.
All in all, an excellent and highly recommended read. Read and enjoy!
Well Researched Look at a Major Civil War Figure.......2004-10-02
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was the epitome of the American citizen-soldier. Since the birth of the republic, American soldiers have left home and hearth to serve the nation and many of them have come home physically shattered and haunted by what they have seen while still others have not come home at all. Thrown into the breech, some of the citizen solders found they did not have the fortitude for what was asked of them while many others have excelled, performing better than graduates of West Point or Annapolis, America's most prestigious military academies. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a citizen soldier who became a great hero of the Civil War, a man who met challenge after challenge and became a great leader of men and afterward, the course of his life was forever altered. An academically inclined young man, Chamberlain left Bowdin College and his studies and teaching in theology to accept a lieutenant colonel's commission in the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The modest young professor took part in most of the important battles of the North's Army of the Potomac. He was a participant in the Battle of Antietam, still the bloodiest single day in American history. Today, we can walk the battlefield off Sharpsburg Pike, in rural Maryland and see "Burnside's Bridge and the cornfields where so many men fell and get some small measure of what men like Chamberlain went through. We can also visit the battlefield at Fredericksburg and see the heights that he and his 20th Maine and the Union Army tried to take in bloody frontal assaults into the teeth of Confederate guns and under the pounding of their artillery on the hills. Today Chamberlain's comrades - as well as the fallen Confederate troops - are buried on the commanding heights they failed to take, one of the Civil War's bitter ironies. Colonel Chamberlain then immortalized himself at Gettysburg's Little Round Top where he anchored the Union left, repelling assault after assault and winning the day by leading a charge down the slope that broke the Rebel troops. He was given a general's star by General Grant at Petersburg and was honored to receive the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. His heroism and leadership qualities helped him win the Governorship of Maine no less than four times, after which he retired to the Presidency of Bowdin College, his alma mater. Alice Trulock who wrote this book, was not a professional writer and after her retirement from civic affairs, this book took her ten years of careful research, writing and rewriting to complete. She based her work on a great deal of new research and handles the account of infantry combat beautifully. Unfortunately, Trulock died before the book was released and so she wasn't able to accept the accolades that were due to her for such a well-written and moving biography of an emblematic Civil War figure.
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Making Freedom Pay: North Carolina Freedpeople Working for Themselves, 1865-1900
Sharon Ann Holt
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0820324426 |
Book Description
Blending the theoretical with the practical in the instruction of modern algebra, Modern Algebra with Applications, Second Edition provides interesting and important applications of this subject—effectively holding your interest and creating a more seamless method of instruction. Filled with in-depth insights and over six hundred exercises of varying difficulty, this invaluable text can help anyone appreciate and understand this subject.
Download Description
As a cornerstone of mathematical science, the importance of modern algebra and discrete structures to many areas of science and technology is apparent and growing with extensive use in computing science, physics, chemistry, and data communications as well as in new areas of mathematics such as combinatorics. This book contains the essentials of abstract (or modern) algebra together with a wide variety of applications.
Customer Reviews:
The best modern algebra text I have seen.......2006-07-22
It has been some time since I taught a course in modern algebra, but if I were to teach it again, I would use this book. The first chapter covers the basics of binary operations and algebraic structures. Seven pages in length, it is a basic overview of what the students should already know. Chapter two covers what is arguably the simplest abstract algebra, Boolean algebra. Propositional logic, switching circuits, posets and lattices are the examples used. I am in strong agreement with the introduction of switching circuits this early in a course. It is an application of abstract algebra that students can easily understand and relate to. Switching circuits also immediately demonstrates that the inclusion of "with applications" in the title is not a misnomer.
Basic group theory is the topic of chapter three, quotient and symmetry groups are covered in chapters four and five. The Polya-Burnside method of enumeration is the topic of chapter five, monoids and machines the focus of chapter seven, rings, fields, polynomial, Euclidean and quotient rings are examined in chapters eight, nine and ten. Field extensions are covered in chapter eleven, Latin squares in chapter twelve, geometrical constructions in chapter thirteen and error-correcting codes in chapter fourteen.
The exposition is excellent, it is one of the more readable texts in advanced mathematics that you will find. There are many examples of the applications of modern algebra to the real world and a large number of exercises are included at the end of the chapters. Solutions to the odd numbered exercises are found in an appendix.
Modern algebra is a difficult topic due to the abstract nature of the material. It is easy for students to get confused and lost when they are studying the book on their own. The risk of that is minimized if they are reading this book.
important computer applications.......2005-01-01
This book is pitched at the level of a third or fourth undergraduate year in maths, or at a graduate level course. Gilbert assumes a solid background in maths, especially linear algebra. He expounds on groups and rings.
You can certainly treat this book as a pure maths text on algebra. But there is a twist to it, for some of you. He discusses applications in engineering. Notably Boolean algebra. Boolean logic forms the conceptual and practical basis of computer hardware and software. Gilbert shows how to represent a Boolean expression in a normal form and how to simplify it. Very practical and vital to circuit design.
Later on in the book, he gives a good but all too brief discussion of finite state machines. These can be used in control systems and even in the construction of computer languages like Java. Where the Java bytecode can be validated precisely because Java is a finite state machine.
Finally, error correcting codes take up an entire chapter. Important in communications theory, and even in such common items as storing information on computer media like DVDs.
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Modern college algebra and trigonometry: With applications
Ronald D Jamison
Manufacturer: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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ASIN: 0155604309 |
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Modern college algebra: With applications
Ronald D Jamison
Manufacturer: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0155604155 |
Amazon.com
Parents are advised to approach this wrenching memoir with caution--it will evoke all their worst fears. It's not just that Martha Tod Dudman frankly delineates her daughter Augusta's descent into drinking, smoking, drug use, and truancy, as well as casually lying about all of it. Dudman also acknowledges her own feelings of isolation, despair, and incredible guilt. Has she caused Augusta's behavior? Is it because she divorced Augusta's father? Did she spend too many hours working at her family-owned radio network? Is Augusta mimicking Dudman's own troubled teen years, when she got thrown out of high school for smoking pot? There aren't any easy answers, merely an agonizing litany of fears realized as Augusta comes and goes in her mother's house, vanishing for days at a time, moods ranging from manipulative to sullen to openly defiant, until things get so bad that Dudman enrolls her first in a wilderness program, then in a school program for troubled kids. Nothing miraculous happens, only more ugly confrontations, until Augusta finally runs away. Through the turmoil, however, we can see the troubled girl slowly and painfully turning a corner. Dudman's plain, punchy prose perfectly conveys the terror of a parent watching her child's life, along with her own, careen off the tracks, yet she also captures the charm and vitality of her "impossible, enraging, engaging, infuriating" daughter. As upsetting as this narrative often gets, there's always a trace of hope that Augusta and her family will pull through. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
The story of a girl who is doing everything to hurt herself and a mother who would try anything to try to save her.
True, she had stopped coming down for breakfast. Stayed up in her room, ran out the door late for school, missed the bus and had to have a ride. But you think, well, that's how they are, aren't they, teenagers? And you try to remember how you were, but you were different and the times were different and it was so long ago. And she's suddenly so angry at you, but then, another time, she's just the same. She's just your little girl. You sit with her and you talk about something, or you go shopping for school clothes and everything seems all right. And you forget how you stood in her room and how the center of your stomach felt so cold. When you found the cigarette. When you found the blue pipe. When you found the little bag she said was aspirin.
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"I'm not telling you where I am. Don't try to find me", says Martha Tod Dudman's wayward daughter at the start of Augusta, Gone. A single parent, Martha was sure she was giving her two children the perfect life, sheltering them from the wild tumult of her own youth. But when Augusta turned fifteen, things started to happen; first the cigarette, then the blue pipe and the little bag Augusta says are aspirin. Just talking to her is like putting a hand in the garbage disposal. Martha doesn't know if she's confronting adolescent behavior, craziness, her own failures as a parent -- or all three. Augusta, Gone is the story of a girl who is doing everything to hurt herself and a mother who would try anything to save her. This fiercely gripping memoir unfolds at a relentless pace, with pedal-to-the-metal narrative drive. Yet its ultimate message of forgiveness and redemption charts a course through the troubled waters of adolescence, and leaves an indelible imprint.
Customer Reviews:
My Worst Nightmares.......2007-08-22
This book was wrenching to read. It is the story of a kid's life gone wrong, from a loving, caring, frustrated parent's point of view.
As a parent of young children, I wanted to see something like "If I had or had not done (fill in the blank), my kid would never have gotten into trouble"
But it's not that easy. I think the sad point to this book is that, well, stuff happens sometimes (as the edited forrest gump said on TNT the other night).
The family is split, and the mom does work a lot. But that's common. The mom tries to instill good values (be non-judgmental, hard working, honest) into her children. But somehow, it doesn't take with her daughter. Her daughter, simply put, goes down a dark path.
There is not a real happy ending. There is some closure. But for a mom of young kids, this is a horror story.
(*)>
Interesting.......2007-05-07
I remember watching this movie on tv. I really enjoyed reading the book. Helped me to understand my own family member's addiction.
850125 Review for Wachtel's Comtemp Lit Class.......2007-05-01
To start off, I didn't like this book. My thoughts aside, I thought this book was very well written and I can feel for Ms. Dudman. Ms. Dudman's personal narrative is heart felt and really showed her feelings on the subject of out of control teens. The fact that it was a true story really hits home.
There are a few negatives of the book. One is that it seems a little bit over the top. Although don't know anyone like Augusta, and I bet there are some out there, the fact that she was so out of control is doesn't seem possible to me. In my experience, there are people that are rebellious, but not to the extent of Augusta. Another negative of the book was that it got to be repetitive. At the beginning of the book, Martha's feelings and problems with Augusta are interesting, but when you reach the middle of the book, Ms. Dudman is still talking about her problems with Augusta, and it just gets boring.
A positive of the book is the writing style. When you're reading the book, the way Ms. Dudman writes makes you feel like you're in her head, thinking what she is thinking. Her descriptions of her feelings are very good, and you can imagine how she is feeling.
In conclusion, this book is a good pick if you enjoy reading about teen drama. Personally, this book was boring and I could not connect to the characters. This has been a review of Augusta, Gone by Martha Todd Dudman.
DPHS 720234 Review For Wachtel.......2007-05-01
Let me start off with this statement: I did not particularly enjoy this book. That is mostly due to my own tastes in books. Having said that, I found it to be a very well written book. I could definitly feel for Ms. Dudman and her trials and hardships through all of this.
For those of you who have not read the book yet, it is a true story about a mother (Martha Tod Dudman), once a free, rebellious spirit, gone corporate mother of two. The story follows her as she tries to fix her relationship with her daughter, while trying to be a good mother and repair her shattered life. It not only shows her attempts with her daughter, but also her own personal growth and healing during the process.
The book has quite a few social commentaries about families, especially motherhood, substance abuse, and social responsibility. Dudman uses her own experiences to relay these lessons, mostly through her explanations of Augusta's life. She explains all the consequences and the problems that happened in her own life, and how they seemed to be occurring in Augusta's as well, though at a much more dramatic level.
Like I had said earlier, it was a very well written book, with a lot of lessons for life, however it did not strike a very good chord in my heart. I just couldn't find it as consuming as most of the books I read, however I would definitely recommend reading it once, just for the lessons and messages sent across.
Breakdown-
Entertainment:**
Perspective:****
Depth:*****
Overall:****
Augusta, Gone.......2007-01-13
Augusta, Gone by Martha Tod Dudman is the tragic story of a teenage girl's struggle with smoking, drugs, a wild teenage experience and her attempted recovery in the end. The book is a true story written years later by Augusta's mother as she looked back on the desolation of Augusta's teenage years. Martha worries about her children as any maternal figure would, but is unable to control them as a single mother. Augusta goes out late at night, spends days at friend's houses and does not go to school. She smokes cigarettes, marijuana, does cocaine, speed, acid, and just about anything else she can get her hands on. As Augusta becomes more and more unruly, Martha becomes desperate to help Augusta by some means. Martha hears from a friend about a program in Montana that helps children like Augusta dry out and improve their behavior. After the summer program, Augusta is sent to a school that also deals with these problems and is meant to guide the children in their new life. While there are many twists and turns in the end of the story, the main fact of the matter is that Augusta can not break away from her wild lifestyle until she is ready to, and she is able to receive support from her family.
This book is an excellent read and something that many teenagers would enjoy reading. Some scenes were shocking and almost disturbing that one girl could be so substandard. When Augusta is at the school and must tell her parents everything that she has done, she has a list of fifteen-plus "confessions" that she makes and for me, this was a very rude awakening. It is scary that this is actually a true story and many teens have these problems with drug abuse, eating disorders and suicide attempts. This is a very meaningful book because it shows a great deal of truth in many frightening situations. People can learn from this book the consequences of poor choices made as teenagers.
Augusta, Gone is very similar to the book Go Ask Alice (by an anonymous author). Both are true stories of teenage girls and their struggles with drug abuse and their attempt to put an end to their addictions. In Go Ask Alice, the main character runs away from home to be on her own in a new city with a new life, but constantly slips into her old ways because she does not have support from her family. In Augusta, Gone, Augusta is actually sent away by her mother to recover but as her program ends, she also slips into her old ways. Both girls in the stories return home when they are ready and want to start over with a new life. Augusta was much more fortunate because she is about to begin a new school that she will fit in to. Unfortunately for the girl in Go Ask Alice, she lets go of her diary when she returns home and we find out she died of a drug overdose just two weeks later. Again, books like these have a very important meaning and show us what not to do in this dangerous world we live in.
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The Training and Socializing of Military Personnel (Military and Society)
Peter Karsten
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0815329768 |
Book Description
These five volumes concern one of the most important institutions in human history, the military, and the interactions of that institution with the greater society. Military systems "serve" nations; they may also "reflect" them. Soldiers are "enlisted"; they may also be said to "self-select." Military units have "missions"; they also have "interests". In an older, more traditional military history, while the second reflects a newer approach. Although each statement in the pairs may be said to be true, the former speak from the framework of the military sciences; the latter, from the framework of the social and behavioral sciences.
The military systems of our past differ from one another over time, in political origins, size, missions, and technological and tactical fashions, but to a great extent their historical experiences have been more noticeably similar than they were different. When we ask questions about the recruiting, training, or motivating of military systems, or of those systems' interactionswith civilian governments and with the greater society, as do the essays in these five volumes of reading on "The Military and Society" we are struck by the almost timeless patterns of continuity and similarity of experience.
In each of these volumes approximately half of the essays selected deal with the experience in the United States; the other half, with the experiences of other states and times, enabling the reader to engage in comparative analysis.
Book Description
In this provocative and thoughtful book, Amy Zegart challenges the conventional belief that national security agencies work reasonably well to serve the national interest as they were designed to do. Using a new institutionalist approach, Zegart asks what forces shaped the initial design of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council in ways that meant they were handicapped from birth.
Ironically, she finds that much of the blame can be ascribed to cherished features of American democracy—frequent elections, the separation of powers, majority rule, political compromise—all of which constrain presidential power and give Congress little incentive to create an effective foreign policy system. At the same time, bureaucrats in rival departments had the expertise, the staying power, and the incentives to sabotage the creation of effective competitors, and this is exactly what they did.
Historical evidence suggests that most political players did not consider broad national concerns when they forged the CIA, JCS, and NSC in the late 1940s. Although President Truman aimed to establish a functional foreign policy system, he was stymied by self-interested bureaucrats, legislators, and military leaders. The NSC was established by accident, as a byproduct of political compromise; Navy opposition crippled the JCS from the outset; and the CIA emerged without the statutory authority to fulfill its assigned role thanks to the Navy, War, State, and Justice departments, which fought to protect their own intelligence apparatus.
Not surprisingly, the new security agencies performed poorly as they struggled to overcome their crippled evolution. Only the NSC overcame its initial handicaps as several presidents exploited loopholes in the National Security Act of 1947 to reinvent the NSC staff. The JCS, by contrast, remained mired in its ineffective design for nearly forty years—i.e., throughout the Cold War—and the CIA’s pivotal analysis branch has never recovered from its origins. In sum, the author paints an astonishing picture: the agencies Americans count on most to protect them from enemies abroad are, by design, largely incapable of doing so.
Customer Reviews:
Too Hard to Fix on the Margins--Fix Big or Don't Fix At All.......2000-04-08
This is a very worthy and thoughtful book. It breaks new ground in understanding the bureaucratic and political realities that surrounded the emergence of the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA was weak by design, strongly opposed by the military services from the beginning. Its covert activities emerged as a Presidential prerogative, unopposed by others in part because it kept CIA from being effective at coordinated analysis, for which it had neither the power nor the talent. Most usefully, the book presents a new institutionalist theory of bureaucracy that gives full weight to the original design, the political players including the bureaucrats themselves, and external events. Unlike domestic agencies that have strong interest groups, open information, legislative domain, and unconnected bureaucracies, the author finds that national security agencies, being characterized by weak interest groups, secrecy, executive domain, and connected bureaucracies, evolve differently from other bureaucracies, and are much harder to reform. On balance, the author finds that intelligence per se, in contrast to defense or domestic issues, is simply not worth the time and Presidential political capital needed to fix but that if reform is in the air, the President should either pound on the table and put the full weight of their office behind a substantive reform proposal, or walk away from any reform at all-the middle road will not successful.
Powerful intellectual analysis by a dazzling newcomer.......1999-11-15
With Flawed by Design, Zegart makes a spectacular splash into the world of professional political academic analysis. Trained at Stanford University, Zegart employs an approach that is both refreshingly "old school" in its historical approach and new school in its analytical rigor. In short, Zegart has offered up a piece of academic literature that is certain to become a classic. Look out for this rising star over the next 10 years. Let's only hope that the "rational choice" dogma of the field doesn't precluding Zegart from continuing her Tiger Woods-like path through the political science circuit.
Average customer rating:
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Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC.(Review) (book review): An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly
Kevin V. Mulcahy
Manufacturer: Center for the Study of the Presidency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B0008J7TIE
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Center for the Study of the Presidency on December 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1736 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC.(Review) (book review)
Author: Kevin V. Mulcahy
Publication:
Presidential Studies Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2000
Publisher: Center for the Study of the Presidency
Volume: 30
Issue: 4
Page: 802
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
A Grand Life of a Grand Woman!.......2007-07-20
When I moved to Florida in 1973 I almost immediately fell in love with the pine forests, the bayheads, the shallow lakes, the hardwood hammocks and the swamps. By then much damage had been done to the state and more was contemplated. The drainage canals around Miami, the cross Florida Barge Canal and other, often quite unfeasible schemes, had either been done, started and then scrapped, or were in the works. It seems like the temptation to "improve" Florida from the late 1800s on was so strong it was almost impossible to stop. A number of people had warned about the fragility of the Everglades and other Florida ecosystems, but few listened. However one talented writer with a remarkable background was able to help along the effort to protect the Everglades. Almost simultaneously with the establishment of Everglades National Park, Marjory Stoneman Douglas published her "Everglades: River of Grass'" now the standard work on the subject. In it she demonstrated that the Everglades was not a worthless swamp, but a vibrant ecological community with a long history. Her book's first printing was sold out within 2 months! Other fights were raging by the time I reached Florida- the Florida Barge Canal, of course, but also efforts to protect the Big Cypress and Fakahatchee Strand. Among the people involved were Archie Carr and his wife Marjorie Carr (the latter is included in a photo in the current book).
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, in her autobiography based on tape recordings by John Rothchild, subtitled "Voice of the River," was an institution in the Sunshine State and her book informs her many admirers of the struggles and triumphs she had in a life that spanned a whole century. It is a fascinating tale and full of associations with the most prominent names in Florida and in literature, newspaper publishing and politics. I recommend it highly to anyone, but especially those who are interested in the Florida that used to be.
This brings up another point, and a very sad one. I got to see some of what was left of Florida's natural environment, including Everglades National Park and the Ocala Scrub while I was in Florida (some in the company of Archie Carr). It was a ghost of what once was! Even though the citizens of Florida voted in monies to buy up thousands of acres of sensitive areas, there were many tragic losses. The state's wilderness has deteriorated further since I left it in 1978. I have no wish now to return and see the result, but what is left in Big Cypress, the Everglades, the Ocala Scrub, and many others, is there because of people like Marjory Stoneman Douglas!
REMARKABLE STORY.......2007-02-05
It was a great surprise to find that there were no customer reviews for a book that was first published in 1987. This remarkable book is an insight into an American legend, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She began as a young girl to write for the Miami Herald in 1915. The book shows how she was able to achieve a long history of publications and books to her credit. Additionally, this eminent conservationist who died in 1998 at age 108 has been honored with the saving of the Florida Everglades. This book is a must read for all American women because it provides insight into just what can be accomplished when one woman is motivated to take action.
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