Architect of Quality : The Autobiography of Dr. Joseph M. Juran

Architect of Quality : The Autobiography of Dr. Joseph M. Juran
Average customer rating:

Outstanding Book

Enjoyable and Enlightening

Will appeal to any interested in the quality concept

An interesting look at the man who brought us Quality

Architect of Quality : The Autobiography of Dr. Joseph M. Juran
J.M. Juran
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Business | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Total Quality Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services

Juran on Leadership for Quality

Out of the Crisis

ASIN: 0071426108

Book Description

"Whatever advances American manufacturing has made in the last 30 to 40 years, we owe to Joe Juran." --Peter Drucker

No one in the last hundred years has had more influence on the worldwide practice of quality in business than Dr. Juran. The roots of Six Sigma, TQM, ISO 9000, and other major quality movements can all be found in his teachings and writings.

In Architect of Quality, the man who helped invent and champion quality management systems, quality circles, and teams long before they became standard practice tells the inspiring story of his life.

Juran relates a classic American tale of a Romanian immigrant who overcame dire poverty and a childhood in a tar paper shack to make a profound impact on business and society. He candidly describes his rapid success and dramatic failure in his early years at Western Electric's famed Hawthorne plant and relives his experiences working on the war effort in Washington, DC, in the '40s and then advising postwar Japan on how to rebuild itself.

Juran describes how he developed the core ideas behind the quality movement that started more than 60 years ago and now finds expression in the Six Sigma quality improvement movement.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding Book.......2006-06-05

This is an excellent autobiography by one of the most renowned quality gurus in the world. His contributions to the field of quality management in his over 70 active working years is outstanding. Dr. Juran was the first to incorporate the human aspect of quality management which is referred to as Total Quality Management.

Among the quality management ideas and concepts for which Juran is well known include top management involvement, the Pareto principle, the need for widespread training in quality, the definition of quality as fitness for use, the project-by-project approach to quality improvement.

Juran was born in 1904 in Rumania. The family immigrated to the USA some few years later in search of the American dream and to escape poverty in their country. Young Juran was a gifted scholar with special aptitudes for mathematic and science. In 1920, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota. By 1925, he had received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He worked at the Western Electric Company in the Inspection Department of the famous Hawthorne Works in Chicago. This was a huge and complex factory, manned by 40,000 workers. This presented Juran with his first challenge in management.

Juran was one of two engineers for the Inspection Statistical Department, one of the first of such divisions created in American industry.

By 1937, Juran was the chief of Industrial Engineering at Western Electric in New York. His work involved visiting other companies and discussing methods of quality management. During WWII, Juran served in Washington, D.C. as an assistant administrator for the Lend-Lease Administration. He and his team improved the efficiency of the process, eliminating excessive paperwork and thus hastening the arrival of supplies to the USA allies. Juran finally left Washington in 1945 and chose to devote the remainder of his life to the study of quality management.

Juran became Chairman of the Department of Administrative Engineering at New York University (NYU), where he taught for many years. He also created a thriving consulting practice, and wrote books and delivered lectures for American Management Association (AMA). It was his time with NYU and the AMA which allowed for the development of his management philosophies which are now embedded in the foundation of American and Japanese management. His classic book, the Quality Control Handbook, first released in 1951, is widely used reference work for quality managers.

This is an excellent book that is highly recommended for managers as well as quality specialists.

Enjoyable and Enlightening.......2004-02-11

Juran is known as a Quality "guru", but this book makes clear that he made significant contributions to management theory, human resources management and consulting as well. The historical perspectives provided by such a distinguished leader in these areas is illuminating. The book is a fast read, and is focused on his professional journey, with only a little about his life outside work (I would have liked more about this side of his life). His affection for the United States, and his work with the Japanese come through as high points.

Will appeal to any interested in the quality concept.......2004-01-13

This autobiography of Dr. Juran, who overcame childhood tragedy to make an impact on business and society, examines his career and work life with an eye to showing how they influenced his professional development and eventual reputation in the business management world. His concepts of quality eventually became a part of businesses around the world: Architect Of Quality will appeal to any interested in how the quality concept became embedded in the business plan.

An interesting look at the man who brought us Quality.......2004-01-12

This book was a real eye opener for me. I know a little about the Quality world -- and Juran is the #1 man in Quality.

He pulled the tools together into one place for identification of waste, putting the ideas into forms management could understand, and developing problem solving methods for fixing it.

It was really interesting to see where this man came from and how his concepts and ideas came together.

Easy reading and the sort of book that will make you want to dig into his other heavier management and engineering books.

Book Description

This extensive collection of writings from Gordon Mackie leads us into a world of fly-fishing adventure, mystery, and debate. We explore a wide range of waters, with trout and grayling the principle quarry, while the author is forever seeking to identify the less tangible secrets of successful fly-fishing and discover some of the joys of the natural world that trout sport embraces. The work is largely anecdotal in nature, laced with humor, pithy comments, and delightfully surreal happenings.

Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology
Average customer rating:

A Much Needed Balance to the World of Self Help

Angry Intellectual's Paradise: The Unreal World of Literary Criticism

A wonderful book of powerful literary criticism

Death of a Sacred Cow

Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology
Stewart Justman
Manufacturer: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Culture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
History | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless

Self Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life

The Last Self-help Book You'll Ever Need: Repress Your Anger, Think Negatively, Be a Good Blamer, And Throttle Your Inner Child

Crimes Against Logic

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

ASIN: 1566636280

Book Description

Award-winning essayist Stewart Justman traces the inspiration of the pop psychology movement to the utopianism of the 1960s and argues that it consistently misuses the rhetoric that grew out of the civil rights movement. Speaking as it does in the name of our right to happiness, pop psychology promises liberation from all that interferes with our power to create the selves we want. In so doing, Mr. Justman writes, it not only defies reality but corrodes the traditions and attachments that give depth and richness to human life.

Customer Reviews:

A Much Needed Balance to the World of Self Help.......2006-01-27

Justman clearly exposes many of the contradictions and outright bouts of logical errors found in self-help tomes. He rightly describes the way self-help authors seek to estalish themselves as your one true friend, while accusing the rest of the world, especially your parents and any traditional insitutions, of conspiring to make you unhappy. Today's self help gurus rant against tradition and the past, while blindly building on the past tradition of the self help movement. I give Justman 4 stars because I think there are some self-help books, authors and techniques that can be useful. Not all of them can be pigeonholed as snake oil. Anyone who reads self-help books should read Fool's Paradise to get a different perspective on the subject. I would also recommned Paul Pearsall's The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need. Pearsall, a practicing psychologist, offers critique's of self-help backed up by studies, while at the same time allowing for self-help to be, well, helpful.

Angry Intellectual's Paradise: The Unreal World of Literary Criticism.......2006-01-15

I read this book after listening to the author in a radio talk show. On the air, his comments on the history of psychology were surprisingly vague; he was irritable, and rebuked callers (some therapists) who moderately tried to consider some benefits of pop psychology. Nonetheless, I reasoned, maybe the book is better...

It raises good points againt pop psychology: that it is solipsistic, blindly non-judgemental, immediatist, and formulaic. The author also makes interesting, even if loose, associations between pop psychology and the civil rights movement and classic Romanticism.

However, the author totally ignores the vast scholarship on individualism trends, counterculture and the New Age, and never considers what psychologists or readers may have to say about pop psychology. A textual analysis that reinvents the wheel, and ignores the producers and consumers of the cultural texts under consideration, is anything but persuasive.

Yet, what ultimately undermines the book is its excessively corrosive style. The essay basically is the outraged opinion of someone who read a bunch of self-help books and utterly hated them. With no further justifications, the author indulges in an overkill strategy of restless sarcasm that becomes quite tiring after a while. The angry essay unfortunately backfires on what could otherwise be a compelling critique of pop psychology.

For a balanced analysis, Anthony Giddens' "Transformation of Intimacy" considers pop psychology in the context of social reflexivity and growing demands for interpretations of the self.

[PS: It is curious that low-starred reviews tend to be voted "unhelpful", no matter how objective and elucidating they may be. How interesting...]

A wonderful book of powerful literary criticism.......2005-11-28

It is important to understand that this takes on the world of pop psychology as a subject for literary criticism rather than debating its medical claims, a subject for humorous satire, or by offering its own "therapy". Any of the alternatives would be justified and could have been successful, but I really do appreciate the serious way literary criticism is used in these essays because we get so little of it in our post-modern values-neutral deconstructionist non-judgmental age. Here, instead of a bunch of emotional ranting trying to pass as analysis we get an informed and reasoned approach that demonstrates the ways in which the world of pop psychology has inverted and misused literature from the past, contradicts itself, and actually creates a toxic interpersonal environment.

Stewart Justman teaches English at the University of Montana. He has written previously on psychology, studied at Columbia, and is an award winning essayist. He begins this book with an extended essay on the ways in which pop psychology is intertwined with the Utopian movement of the sixties. Not that one sprang from the other, but that the culture was ripe for both and the mis-readings of Utopian literature led to ignorant writings advocating unworkable system. He shows us how these advocates misuse even our Declaration of Independence and its right to the pursuit of happiness for a right to happiness! He notes that some claim this movement is rooted in American Individualism, but the author wonders if any individualist would so completely submit to the dictates of a Wayne Dyer, Steve Covey, or a Phil McGraw (among countless others).

He goes through a series of seven chapters demonstrating how this literature inverts traditional values and puts its adherents in even greater isolation and dependency. We go through blame, guilt, obligation, patience, choice, morality, and self-transformation. He shows us how serious psychologists such as Maslow and Laing extend us into a narcissistic world where all relationships are about "me" and even children become accoutrements! Where we must realize that all relationships in our life, our family, our religion are all toxic, EXCEPT for our dependency upon our therapist or guru (again, Dyer, Covey, McGraw, and more).

I think the strongest chapters are those devoted directly to literary criticism. Literature Rewritten and Constructing Stories are absolutely terrific and powerful. The author demonstrates the way the reader of this literature is manipulated. It demonstrates how the stories the literature uses also fail the requirements of art and why this important to understand.

The last chapter on liberal guilt is quite entertaining because the author shows how this is a guilt of discussion not emotion. If you actually feel the guilt you talk about something is then wrong and the emotion must be disposed of.

This is a very good book and I strongly recommend it. I hope college students get an opportunity to read it. Of course, having a professor of the quality of this author would help the class discussion a great deal. Still, this book can help any reader understand better so much of what is going on in our culture and why it is not only wrong, but very damaging to its adherents and their accoutrements.

Death of a Sacred Cow.......2005-10-15

Stewart Justman shoots a diseased sacred cow in Fool's Paradise. He systematically, logically, and humorously holds Pop Psychology and its practitioners in front of a spotlight to strip away the nonsense and reveal their pseudo-science for what it is - repetitive, self sustaining, Utopianism for children.

The author describes the self-awareness, discover and liberate your inner child movement as narcissism struggling against the evils of morality, responsibility, and duty. It's a great book for those stuck in a destructive loop of, "maybe the next self help book will make me happy."

Second Edition Starting a Collection Agency, How to make money collecting money
Average customer rating:

Everything You Wanted To Know About Starting A Collection Agency And More

Good information

Good guide

STARTING A COLLECTION AGENCY

A Good Business for Women to Get Into

Second Edition Starting a Collection Agency, How to make money collecting money
Michelle Dunn
Manufacturer: Never Dunn Publishing LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Home Based | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
New Business Enterprises | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

How to Start a Home-Based Collection Agency

Ultimate Credit and Collections Handbook

An Attorney's Guide to the Collection of Bad Debts

Credit & Collection Letters That Get Results

Collections Made Easy: Fast, Efficient, Proven Techniques to Get Cash from Your Customers

ASIN: 0970664559

Product Description

Do you want to start your own debt collection business? Don't know where to start? This book can help you start and run your own successful collection agency. When I started my business I did all my own research, read a lot of books, networked online and offline and took many classes. I started my business with nothing and built it up to a successful home based business that I sold after eight profitable years. Because I have researched, done all the legwork and know what mistakes you will make and can help you avoid them, I am confident my book can help you start and run your own home based debt collection business. I have many success stories from people who have used my book and my consulting that have successful collection agencies today! It worked for me, for them and can work for you. The advantages of using my book when you start your agency are many. Something that would take you 20 hours to research, may have already been done and the answers are in my book. When you use the resources I share with you you will have support while you work, you will be inspired to do your best, you can overcome challenges that might seem overwhelming to you alone and you can make your dream a reality. My book will help you get information on any licenses or permits you may need, marketing, pricing, setting up your home office, dealing with interruptions, time and distractions, growing your business, increased sales, income and any questions you may have. I make recommendations to you on how you can save money while growing your business, cheap to free marketing ideas, and ways to promote yourself online and off. Hiring a consultant to help you in the beginning stages of building your business will help you achieve success twice as quickly than if you tried to do it alone. If you do not wish to utilize my consulting, you can use this book as a guide and successfully start, run and grow your own debt collection business. If you are serious about starting your own collection agency, this is the book you need. I wrote the first edition of this book because of the demand for it and now offer you a Second Edition filled with even more details and resources to help you be successful and be your own boss.

Customer Reviews:

Everything You Wanted To Know About Starting A Collection Agency And More.......2007-07-02

There is a lot to like about Michelle Dunn's second edition of Starting A Collection Agency. First it is written by someone who really is an expert and knows her stuff. Although she had lots of credit manager experience, she had never worked in a collection agency when she decided to run one herself. Through trial and error and lots of hard work and study, she became successful and later sold the business so she could work full-time on her writing and consulting. She gives practical advice with lots of forms,letters, and checklists to use. In addition, she gives many websites and references for people in the field to contact. She has formed her own website for networking and discussions so that people new to the field can get information that took her years to collect. Her personality shines through and one can tell that she loves this kind of work. She is generous with her information and she really wants her readers to succeed. I highly recommend this book to people who want to start a collection agency. but it is also interesting to anyone who wants to know more about the collection process. I also loved the cover photo which consists of stacks of money.

Good information.......2007-03-16

Nicely laid out, easy to read and informative. Good book for beginning agencies.

Good guide.......2007-03-15

The book is a good guide on where & how to start your company.

STARTING A COLLECTION AGENCY.......2007-01-09

Excellent book! It taught me the basics and as it was written in a very simple way i read through the whole book in 1/2 hour. I've actually given it to my partner who has been in the collection agency business for 20+ years and to date he's pointed out a few ideas!

Great writing.

A Good Business for Women to Get Into.......2006-11-05

A debt collection agency is one of those businesses that literally can be started by working off of the kitchen table. You have to present a business like, dignified image to the outside world, but over the phone or at the end of an e-mail message there is no way for the outside world to know if you're still in your bathrobe and slippers or an expensive business suit.

This is also a pretty good business for women to start. There is a reluctance on the part of many women to be so agressive that they wind up being called a word that rhymes with 'witch.' Still, most business creditors are male, and being called by a friendly female automatically makes the male feel better.

On the other hand, it may well be a business that women don't like starting. Just remember this is a business, not a hobby. If you have the ambition and drive to start a business like this, here is a lot of the background information regarding how to do it. You could probably find a lot of this information available on the Internet, but here it's conveniently located in one place.

Average customer rating:

Considering Starting Your Own Collection Agency? Michelle Dunn Will Walk You Through It!
Enthusiastically recommended for anyone seriously interested in starting their own collection agency.
Save your Money
Don't believe the positive reviews - this is JUNK!
Very well laid out book in both design and content.

Starting a Collection Agency
Michelle Dunn
Manufacturer: Mad Collection Agency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guides | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Home Based | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

New Business Enterprises | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

How to Start a Home-Based Collection Agency
Credit & Collection Letters That Get Results
Hard-Core Collections: Brutal But Effective Techniques For Getting The Money
An Attorney's Guide to the Collection of Bad Debts
Collections Made Easy: Fast, Efficient, Proven Techniques to Get Cash from Your Customers

ASIN: 0970664508

Book Description

How to make money collecting money, Starting a Collection Agency Michelle Dunn, Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, $29.

Starting a business is a daunting task, and starting a debt collection business is even harder. Between licensing, bonding, Fair Debt Collection Practices and so many more qualifications a debt collector starting his or her own agency must face, where do they begin? In her instructional guidebook, How to make money collecting money, Starting a Collection Agency, debt collection expert Michelle Dunn explains the critical steps to take when starting your own agency.

Dunn begins by helping Entrepreneurs gather all the information they need to start their own collection agency. She then goes on to explain how she started, set up and ran her own successful collection agency for over 8 years. This book acts as a guidebook to anyone on how to get your business up and running, she says, and if you follow the steps outlined you will have your own successful agency.

Dunn's easy to read format takes the "scare" out of everything that is required when starting a collection agency. With chapters such as What is a collection agency, Should I start my own agency, and explanations of the business plan, legal requirements, state licensing information and helpful tips, Dunn successfully answers questions anyone might have when starting their own agency.

In How to make money collecting money, Starting a collection Agency, readers learn how to find clients, whom to contact to obtain a collection agency license in your state, information on business plans, marketing, The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and many other things you will want to be aware of when starting your agency.

Sharing her knowledge and experience from starting and running her own agency, Dunn teaches readers how to get a successful agency up and running. With the tips and information provided in this book, Entrepreneurs can confidently start their own debt collection business. Armed with the knowledge of who to contact, what associations to join and how the debt collection industry works, they will be able to be the owner of a collection agency with resounding success.

Michelle Dunn, founder and president of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, is a writer, publisher, consultant and the Editorial Advisor for Eli Financial Debt Collection Compliance Alert Newsletter. Michelle started M.A.D. Collection Agency in January 1998 and ran it successfully until December 2004, when she sold it. She still owns and runs Credit & Collections.com an online community for credit and business professionals. She has been featured in Ladies Home Journal, PC World, Home Business Magazine, Home Business Journal, Entrepreneur, The Internet Web Source, Professional Collector, and in Home Based Business for Dummies, Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies, From the Home-Front The Simple guide to starting and Running a Home based business, on (NPR) National Public Radio and many newspapers nationwide. She has many published articles and 3 published books to add to her list of accomplishments. She is now publishing two more titles in her Collecting Money Series as well! as a boxed set.

Customer Reviews:

Considering Starting Your Own Collection Agency? Michelle Dunn Will Walk You Through It!.......2007-04-26

Michelle Dunn offers sound advise to anyone considering opening a collection agency. Michelle is very specific in the steps you must take to successfully open your business.

This book covers it all... From the equipment you'll need, to laws that govern the collections industry, to state specific licensing requirements throughout the United States. Every aspect of opening a collection agency is covered here.

If you are considering opening a collection agency as a home based business, Michelle Dunn will guide you every step of the way.

[...]

Enthusiastically recommended for anyone seriously interested in starting their own collection agency........2006-11-06

Michelle A. Dunn presents her fifteen years of experience running a collections agency in distilled form in Starting a Collection Agency, a no-nonsense, step-by-step guide to getting a collections business off the ground. Starting a Collection Agency does not waste effort on extraneous prose; each chapter is only a few pages long, yet each chapter condenses need-to-know information into key, easily memorized points. From the precise legal requirements, to recommended sample marketing plans, to a layman's language breakdown of exactly what the Fair Credit Reporting Act says, Starting a Collection Agency gives the reader the invaluable basics at a glance, along with lists of resources easily accessible from libraries or online for additional reference. Enthusiastically recommended for anyone seriously interested in starting their own collection agency.

Save your Money.......2006-04-09

Save the $29.99 for a printer ink cartridge to print all the information you need from the Internet.
I read this booklet in 20 minutes and then returned it day I recieved it.
I found way more free information on the Internet about the collection business than this booklet provided.
Go to your local Library and check out Collection Agency Harassment: What the dept collector doesn't want you to know.
by Richard L. DiMaggio
I read this book while waiting for Starting a Collection Business booklet.
This book was written by a lawyer who collected depts.
Read this book to find the proper way to collect dept following the FDCPA and keep yourself from being sued.
It also has collection form letters that follow FDCPA.
Also register with Collection Insustry.com (Free) for the latest Collection Industry news.
Follow these free steps and use Google and Yahoo search engines to find vast amounts of information about the collection business.
Good Luck... Mark D.

Don't believe the positive reviews - this is JUNK!.......2006-02-22

Do you have time and money to waste? Then buy this book. If you want to get the real answers or a true guide for starting a home based collections agency, THIS IS NOT IT!

In my opinion, it is generic - simple - vague - short - and a waste of time. It does not give a detailed outline or a complete process needed to start a collection biz.

Very VERY dissapointing product.

Very well laid out book in both design and content........2005-12-21

Dunn's self published title, Starting a Collection Agency, How to make money collecting money, is a very well laid out book in both design and content.The text is logical and easy to follow. The samples are effective and easily understood. The flow between chapters makes it easy to follow. A good cover and a good job of selling the book on the back cover also lead to its success. - Writer's Digest

Starting and managing a small credit bureau and collection service (The Starting and managing series)

Average customer rating:

Starting and managing a small credit bureau and collection service (The Starting and managing series)
Harold A Wallace
Manufacturer: Small Business Administration
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Read Rand's own never-before-scene journal entries about the Brandons. Author Valliant shines light on the truth hidden by the Brandens' biographies and sets the record straight.

Customer Reviews:

About time.......2007-10-06

Like many supporters of Objectivism, who for various reasons are too busy leading their normal lives to delve into the background and politics, I had often wondered about the Branden issue. I just assumed that the current "custodians" of the philosophy probably had good reason to just ignore it - in all probability, that it wasn't worthy of response. But that curiosity remained.

This book was a very worthwhile purchase. It is fresh and reaffirms the clear spirited view I have always had of Objectivism. It's heavy going though, and not something that will hold the attention of one not indignant, as I am and Ayn Rand was, at injustice.

I should add also that it will not convince any of the critics. This is not because it is in any way factually innaccurate, illogical, or lacking in substance. It's only becasue the author wears his righteuos indignation on his sleeve from page one, and as a *style*, that's not going to be as persuasive to a neutral observer as a more clinical writing style might.

A few good points, but mostly silly.......2007-08-19

After Ayn Rand died in 1982, her ex-followers Nathaniel and Barbara Branden wrote tell-all memoirs of their years with her. Their portrait of Rand - as an eccentric and authoritarian - has pretty much carried the day. Now, James Valliant tells us that Rand wasn't any of that.

Of course, the Brandens books are a bit self-serving and probably one-sided in their presentation of Rand. If Valliant had wanted to point out the various flaws in their accounts (which isn't that hard to do), he might have written an interesting article. Instead, The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics is an exercise in how to write a tendentious account of people you don't like. Did Barbara Branden tell us that Rand wasn't a very happy person? Well, she says that when Rand was younger, she was happy on a certain occasion. So a generalization has to take into account every waking moment in a person's life? This is pretty much Valliant's modus operandi.

Even the one thing that might have made this book interesting - the publication in Rand's diaries - turns into an exercise in hagiography. Valliant can't just quote what Rand says. No, he has to add pages and pages of commentary telling you how wonderful Rand was and what great insights she had into everything (except, interestingly enough, how Nathaniel Branden was running a cult). If you ever wondered if Objectivism was and is a cult, Valliant has now made, inadvertently, an iron-clad case.

At the end of the day, I don't see any reason to doubt the basic image of Rand described by the Brandens, a description which has been supported by almost everyone else who knew her.

Getting It Wrong.......2007-06-16

I received this book as a gift from a friend, and read it while I was a "captive audience" in my hospital room. What struck me most about this book is that it is the mirror image of the William F. Buckley, Jr. book, "Getting It Right."

Along with the venerable Mr. Buckley's tome, this book is an obsessive crusade to wage once again long-since stale vendettas over Ayn Rand's *personal* legacy. Whereas Buckley painted himself into a corner with his ridiculous theme that the conservative movement was "rescued" from "fringe lunatics" like Ayn Rand and the John Birch Society (Rand would have called this "package dealing"), Valliant puts forth a valiant effort to demonstrate, once and for all, that Ayn Rand was a saint beyond moral reproach, and implies throughout that Dr. Leonard Peikoff was objectivism's most important advocate during Rand's lifetime.

What a bunch of hooey! Even though both the Brandens' memoirs could at times be self-indulgent, Valliant's mischaraterizations of them could only be described as a smear job.

This is muckraking quackery of the worst sort. It is sad to watch grown adults sweat blood trying to convince the world that a woman dead now for 25 years was either an infallible saint or a wickedly manipulative devil. This book has the "feel" that Mr. Valliant was "put up" to this unenviable task of playing Grand Inquisitor to the Brandens. Although I haven't any proof, this book seems to have the fingerprints of one Dr. Leonard Peikoff -- an incessant recycler and retreader of Ayn Rand's legacy, whose ability to squeeze every last penny from the ephemera bequeathed him by Rand would impress even Yoko Ono -- all over it.

If you live in the real world -- and not within the Ayn Rand or Buckley cults -- don't waste your time on this fanatical tract.

An Unfortunate Book.......2007-05-11

The basic trick of this rationalistic attack on Barbara and Nathaniel Branden is to show what a louse NB had once been and still supposedly is and then to attack the basic credibility of BB's "The Passion of Ayn Rand," which he did not write, ON THAT BASIS. It's all basically a bunch of argumentum ad hominem.

Barbara Branden's biography exalted the life and work and person of Ayn Rand, but not as beyond criticism (nor is her "Passion"). PARC makes Rand look like a conceited fool, which she emphatically wasn't, dabbling in Nathaniel Branden's psychotherapy, albeit with the encouragement and the lying of the subsequently famous psychologist.

It's all part of a cultist, Orthodox Objectivist (Ayn Rand without Ayn Rand) context that figuratively wants to display Rand's corpse as it is most attractively imagined, forgetting that fortunately it's six feet under in Valhalla, New York.

--Brant Gaede

Essential Reading.......2007-02-25

Essential Reading for anyone who has been exposed to either, or both, of the Brandon's vicious Ayn Rand biographies.

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Average customer rating:

I Enjoyed This Book!

Good overview, but uneven.

Great book

Rich and beautifully written - must read for skeptics of all stripes

Amazing.

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Jennifer Michael Hecht
Manufacturer: HarperOne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

Funny (Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry)

The God Delusion

ASIN: 0060097957
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

I Enjoyed This Book!.......2007-09-06

This is my first review for [...], but I feel like I need to share my thoughts on Jennifer Michael Hecht's survey of doubt because of my response to how she has done us a great favor in putting this before us.
This is not intended to be a complete, in-depth treatise on the entire history of doubt. What Hecht has done is to illustrate the surprising ways that doubt has informed our societies over the past 2600 years. Doubt has led to change, to revolution, to enlightenment and to freedom. None of these things could have been achieved by faith in revealed religion.
Hecht includes the philosphers we have never heard much of, people who lit candles in the darkness and said "Wait, this doesn't make sense!" It is a history of challenge, courage and seeking further answers than provided by our priests, gods and kings.
And it is a survey. It can't be all-inclusive, but what it has inspired in me is to seek out further readings of the men and women who came before us and dared to ask what the universe was made of if not the manifestations of gods. So, read it and keep it as a reference.
The author lets in glimpses of her own personal beliefs and so it is not a purely scholarly work; but I hope it does for you as it has done for me in opening up pathways of exploration that may never have occurred to you in the past. And finally, a brief excerpt from the final chaper:
"People should be able to speak to each other about doubt without having to establish all of the old arguments every time the conversation begins again. Doubters and believers alike should know that Epicurus and Lucretius, the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, and the teachings of the Buddha have been remarkably constant resources in the history of unbelief. So has the whole history of Skepticism and doubt in our ability to know the world from the Carvaka, Socrates, Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus, Montaigne, Charron, Hume, Bayle, through to all of the modern skeptics."

Good overview, but uneven........2007-09-01

This book has been called 'magisterial' (Publisher's Weekly) and the ever interesting-and-quirky Garrison Keillor calls it 'bold and brilliant'. This praise is deserved, I think, because Hecht addresses an important, neglected subject. And she's hot, in a nerdtastic way -- I love her photo on the back of the HarperSanFrancisco paperpack.

'Doubt' is an excellent ramble through history, and the bibliography gives you a good source for further reading. Hecht hits most of the high points ably, and she manages to pull off the difficult trick of being both passionate and objective.The index is well-done. She writes very well, if sometiimes *too* simply.

I have only a couple quibbles with the book. First, maps should have been included -- especially when she discussed the clockwise migration of doubt around the Mediteranean from the fall of Rome until the Renaissance. Here, here 'hands of the clock' metaphor is a bit strained, and without maps it's downright vapid. Second, she perhaps over-corrects, emphasizing women free-thinkers. Although I think this correction is needed, sometimes it drifts free of context, and the book seems to be about the role of women in free thinking, rather than free thought itself -- especially in the 17 and 18 hundreds. Finally (and significantly, I'd say), Hecht totally misses the boat on Darwin: a few scant sentences are granted him, and as his biographers have compellingly argued, he was a quintessential doubter. I would have been perfectly happy if she'd said something like 'Darwin, great doubter, see other sources', but she ddn't. She just breezed by. Fundamentally, I think she is much more comfortable in letters than in science, and it tells here. (Yes, her discussion of Einstein is better than that for Darwin -- but less essential, and therefore it compounds the omission).

Overall, a well-orgainzed, lucidly written overview. My copy won't be going to the library book sale.

Great book.......2007-08-11

I was excited to read this book after reading the review on it and I wasn't disappointed. This book is a must read for all atheists, free thinkers, brights, or humanist. It makes you feel proud to know that us skeptics or unbelievers, have a great history of people who have been skeptics about religious claims. You hardly ever hear about the history of atheism and its a shame because we really do have a a great history to be proud of, and this book tells you about it.

PS- It's not surprising that the people who gave this book a bad review are religious people. It's hard to read about the history of atheism and realize its more beautiful then the history of religion.

Rich and beautifully written - must read for skeptics of all stripes.......2007-04-24

This book is excellent.

The Freethought Society and Humanist Association in Philadelphia co-sponsor a Secular Book Club, and Doubt: A History was the first book we discussed. Surprisingly, the moderator said the book wasn't recommended to him, but rather, he found it by browsing in a book store. That's a shame because this book is such a wonderful survey of religious doubt in the Western World, that also touches on some aspects of doubt in the Eastern World as they influenced and related to the West.

Jennifer Hecht is a historian and award-winning poet. Her writing style is narrative, clear, and full of personality. At my book club meeting we spent several minutes just raving about how much we enjoyed the writing style.

The story begins with the ancient Greeks, then moves into ancient Judaism, Rome, and early Christianity. Jesus himself becomes an important figure in the history of doubt because by emphasizing faith in a way that Judaism never did, Christianity invented the doubt of the believer and the concept of doubt itself as a grave sin. (Jews, Greeks, and Romans were fine with you as long as you practiced religion. Genuine belief was secondary.) From there it moves into Buddhism and some lesser Eastern schools of thought, Islam, and relates them all to how Christianity and Judaism evolved over the middle ages and into the Enlightenment and modern times. Of course it discusses the role of religion in politics, especially in the era of the secular state, covering the French revolution and the foundation of the United States. The book touches on so many figures in the history of Doubt that even the seasoned freethinker is sure to encounter some new names and stories.

Because the book focuses exclusively on doubt, we get to read about all the arguments among doubters, such as Cicero's fictional story of three debating philosophers: an Epicurean, and Stoic, and a Skeptic. Later comes the long line of doubters who go about their doubting with quiet respect toward believers, in contrast to the doubters who view religion as a scourge that should be removed for the sake of bettering the human condition.

In her conclusion, Hecht states why she wrote this book: "The only thing such doubters really need, that believers have, is a sense that people like themselves have always been around, that they are part of a grand history. I hope it is clear now that doubt has such a history of its own, and that to be a doubter is a great old allegiance, deserving quiet respect and open pride." I confidently declare that she provides this. Doubt: A History is a wonderful resource for doubters of all stripes to have on their shelves.

Amazing. .......2007-03-12

History is normally taught as a series of conquests -- this man over those men; this nation over that nation; this religion or idea over that culture; and so on. History is presented as tedium punctuated by fits of violence.

How much more useful to humankind it would be if history were taught like this: as the struggle of the concepts underpinning human liberty and dignity -- physical, intellectual, spiritual -- to survive and thrive in the face of human ignorance and knavery. We debase the human spirit when we hold up the worst blunders of Aristotle and Plato as greatness -- because they were co-opted by church and state power in the centuries to come and became great instruments of human slavery in the process -- and ignore the genius of thinkers Democritus and Epicurus, which helped human beings learn to be free every time they were discovered and rediscovered over the years.

Today we're steeped in a culture that equates doubt and thought with deviance and immorality. The culture-warriors of the Right wouldn't be able to get away with it, though, if the masses knew the history that is laid out clearly and delightfully in this book. When you realize that throughout recorded history men and women with no prior knowledge of modern physics and biology were able to dismiss the manipulations of the religious state with nothing more than curiosity, honesty, and common sense as their allies -- that's a history that does a body good.

Doubt: A History : The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson

Average customer rating:

Doubt: A History : The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Jennifer Hecht
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA2FCM

Average customer rating:

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Jennifer Michael Hecht
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000QY759Y

Average customer rating:

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Jennifer Hecht
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA5HAO

Book Description

The 2004 presidential election was closely watched from all corners of the world and dominated the media for nearly a year. From the opening announcements of campaigns through the primaries and debates to the first Tuesday in November, the presidential election was ubiquitous, filling our email inboxes and directing our dinner conversation, turning us all into amateur political analysts. Electing the President, 2004 offers the views of the professional political operatives who ran the campaigns.

In this volume, the consultants who brought the country the Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards contest of 2004 explain the strategies behind the ads and debates, discuss what they did and failed to do to elect their candidates, and reveal their differing perspectives on the issues that mattered. Electing the President, 2004 focuses on events from September 11 to the release of the Osama Bin Laden tape that affected the outcome of the elections. The debates, the advertising, the work of 527 groups, the campaign organizations--all these components contributed to an eventful election season, with the two campaigns continually vying for the attention of the American public. Through this analysis of strategy--their own and their opponents'--these insiders offer a ringside seat to a hotly contested democratic process.

Contributors: Mary Beth Cahill, Alex Castellanos, Elizabeth L. Cheney, Nicolle Devenish, Mike Donilon, Matthew Dowd, Tucker Eskew, David Jones, Bill Knapp, Chris LaCivita , Joe Lockhart, Brian McCabe, Mark McKinnon, Mark Mellman, Stephen Moore, Robert M. Shrum, Erik Smith, and Bill Zimmerman.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson: "Finding Out" what matters in the world of national politics.(Electing the President 2004: The Insiders' View)(Capturing Campaign ... Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media
Average customer rating:
Kathleen Hall Jamieson: "Finding Out" what matters in the world of national politics.(Electing the President 2004: The Insiders' View)(Capturing Campaign ... Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media
Patricia L. Dooley
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000VXR2UM
Release Date: 2007-09-11

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1293 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: Kathleen Hall Jamieson: "Finding Out" what matters in the world of national politics.(Electing the President 2004: The Insiders' View)(Capturing Campaign Dynamics 2000 and 2004: The National Annenberg Election Survey)(Book review)
Author: Patricia L. Dooley
Publication: Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Page: 398(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

A rigorous and in-depth approach to environmental systems and processes
Concern over environmental changes resulting from oversubscription and exploitation of Earth's resources is mounting. Acid rains from power generation and industrial process emissions to the atmosphere, contamination of water resources by spills and discharges of hazardous chemicals, the greenhouse and global warming effects of carbon dioxide generated by consumption of organic fuels, and the depletion of ecosystem stabilizers such as oxygen in lakes and streams overfertilized by human wastes; these are a few of the considerations facing environmental engineers and scientists today. These are complex and confounding processes and phenomena, and their effects vary widely among the virtually limitless number of environmental systems and subsystems on Earth. Environmental Systems and Processes: Principles, Modeling, and Design is the first book to explain that, although environmental systems are virtually limitless in number, change is controlled by a relatively small set of fundamental processes.
Written by one of the initiators and foremost proponents of the "first principles" approach to environmental system characterization and problem solving, this informative volume details how three fundamental issues lie at the base of every environmental process; i.e., the amount and form of available energy, the rate at which that energy can be exercised, and the configuration and dynamics of the system in which the process occurs. The author demonstrates how the mastering of relatively few fundamental principles can provide the reader with the tools necessary to solve a broad range of environmental problems.
Topics discussed in Environmental Systems and Processes: Principles, Modeling, and Design include: fluid flow and mass transport; passive and reactive interphase mass transfer; elementary and complex process rates; ideal, hybrid, and nonideal system modeling and design; and multiphase and interfacial process dynamics and design.
The unique and highly effective format of presenting several simple but essential fundamentals first, followed by detailed illustrative examples and explanations of how these principles describe various complex specific environmental systems and processes, makes Environmental Systems and Processes: Principles, Modeling, and Design a requisite for environmental sciences and engineering classrooms, and a staple for the bookshelves of all environmental professionals.

Customer Reviews:

Not a good book to use for education.......2005-05-19

I am an envoronmental engineering student, and my instructor for a course used this book. I thought it was cumbersome to use, I came from a civil engineering department, as much of it was referencing chemical engineering material without sufficient review and background. I also thought that it made so much reference to PDES, weber's other text, that it should just be included as part of that book. I wouldnt recommend this to another sudent.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books