Why Firms Succeed

Book Description

When John Kay's Foundations of Corporate Success first appeared in the U.K., it commanded the attention of the corporate world--and drew widespread praise. The Financial Times hailed it as "a powerfully argued book, which casts a fresh light on a range of practical business challenges." And Business Age wrote, "You must read John Kay's new book Foundations of Corporate Success. Kay is currently the best management theorist in Britain, bar none.... He is a rare find." Now John Kay has produced an American edition of this landmark book. In this freshly revised volume, Kay applies his groundbreaking theories to the U.S. experience, illustrating them with examples of success and failure in the American market. For too long, he writes, managers have chased after the latest fad in business planning and strategy, beguiled by military analogies and the demand for overarching vision. Success, he believes, should not be measured by organizational size or market share, but by the added value--the amount that output exceeds the input of raw materials, payroll, and capital. Corporate strategy should be aimed at this basic goal, beginning with the question, "How can we be different?" Kay identifies four key ingredients: innovation, reputation (especially in the form of brands), strategic assets (government mandated monopolies or other measures which restrict market access by competitors), and architecture (the relationships between a company and its employees, suppliers, and customers). Success comes not when managers drive through a towering vision of the company's destiny, but when they act on their organization's specific capabilities and advantages--especially in the key area of architecture. Honda, he notes, captured a third of the American motorcycle market within five years. No vision was required for this success, he writes: Honda simply did what it did best (making a simple, inexpensive product), followed by careful attention to the architecture of its business ties to distributors, customers, etc. He ranges through industries from airlines to retail clothing, pointing out the reasons for successes and failures. Kay also draws on game theory to underscore the importance of stable, long-term relationships. Other writers have hit upon some of these points, the Financial Times noted: "But none has explored them as thoroughly as Kay, who succeeds in marrying an authoritative grasp of economic, legal, and sociological theory with an impressively detailed knowledge of contemporary business practice." This volume transforms Kay's theoretical and practical knowledge into a powerful tool for today's American business manager.

Customer Reviews:

A Solid Effort!.......2001-06-02

Using the approach of an economics business model, John Kay defines the major characteristics firms have used to succeed where others fail. To get on the right side of that fence, he says, work your corporate strengths. Kay maintains that success hinges on distinctive abilities a firm can muster to add value for its particular customers. These unique traits include skills, reputation, and relationships. While the book (and the reader) may choke a bit on the academic charts and examples, real meat is hidden here. On the plus side, Kay writes in a fairly clear, spare style that makes complex ideas easy to follow. On the minus side, he repeats the same basic principles and ideas. While executives might glean some real support for developing their companies' strengths, we [...] recommend his book primarily to business school academics and to those top-level managers interested in studying and applying theoretical models.

How would he know?.......2000-11-28

After the spectacular collapse of the firm he founded London Econmics???

Why creating a learning organization leads the high tech firm to succeed.: An article from: Ivey Business Journal Online

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Why creating a learning organization leads the high tech firm to succeed.: An article from: Ivey Business Journal Online
Denis Couillard
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000X4ECHU
Release Date: 2007-10-12

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Ivey Business Journal Online, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2007. The length of the article is 4073 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: Why creating a learning organization leads the high tech firm to succeed.
Author: Denis Couillard
Publication: Ivey Business Journal Online (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: NA

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Why Firms Succeed
John Kay
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKGJ1A

Book Description

This book is a blueprint for coping the revolution, it gives a new vision of finacial markets outlined clearly and succinctly in print for the first time.

Customer Reviews:

Futures As The Future of Financial Markets.......2000-07-22

As the cover of this book says: Liquidity! Accessibility! Transparency!

The authors take a European perspective to challenge the traditional way that financial markets have operated in the United States and elsewhere. They point out, correctly I think, that the revolution is here. Fully automated markets now do the bulk of the worldwide futures trading. For example the Chicago Board of Trade was overtaken in futures volume by the fully automated German-Swiss EUREX in Frankfurt in 1998. London was charging from behind to take a big piece of the automated futures business as well. Automated trading experiments are going on in a number of other places, as well.

The vision the authors have is captured by a quote from Ludwig von Mises: "Economic history is the story of the gradual extension of the economic community beyond its original limits of the single household to embrace the nation and the world."

This vision is essentially of convergence into one global market, with one clearinghouse, and one regulator to do everything. The need to get costs down will require that convergence as the ultimate solution. How imminent this vision is has to be a guess (the authors convey the vision in the form of a dream), but the stories in the book show how often the complacent, traditional view has been wrong. The authors are good at pointing out the speed bumps that will delay progress, and outline good ideas for better and faster implementation.

But they are definitely tolling the bell in the near future for face-to-face selling. "In the future there will only be electronic traders." They also see a rise of small traders, small banks (doing direct placements of IPOs over the Internet with traders without underwriting syndicates), and greatly squeezed paychecks for traditional investment banking and trading activities.

I found the book to be consistent with my own vision. I was still left with the question of why the transition has not been a faster one. Financial markets should be converging at a much faster rate, if one looks only at the technology and the use of the Internet. Which aspects of human stalls are the worst delayers? Probably the tradition and bureaucratic stalls, because the existing markets and regulators are very slow to see new opportunity. Consider how recently fixed trading commissions disappeared. Those should have been gone in the Roaring Twenties.

If you want good detailed information on the state of the electronic market revolution, this book is essential reading. If you own a seat on an exchange, your pocketbook requires immediate attention.

There is an excellent section on how to prepare for the transition, and another one on the dangers to be cautious of.

Good look in building your wealth faster through more efficient markets!

View from the Boardroom.......2000-03-22

In reading the book, there are many things that would scare traditionalists in our business. The rules are changing, and unless we adapt as traders and exchanges, we will be doomed. As I have discussions with other board members, and other floor traders, some intuitively understand the coming electronic age. Others pass it off as a purely European phenomena. "It won't happpen here.", is a phrase I hear every day. Brokers and traders see that the computerized competitors are having a tough time gaining a foothold in the American futures market. They rest thinking that their future is secure, and that maybe their margins will be squeezed a little. The revolution has only begun. While some of the positions the book posits seem outlandish, Columbus was seen as outlandish in 1492 too. This is a must read for any person associated with floor trading or an exchange. This also makes good reading for anyone involved in government regulation. Barriers are being broken down. Borders set by politics are not relevant to the sea change taking place in the financial marketplace. The U.S. is the titan of investment capital today, but a government that shackles the growth of the marketplace due to over regulation, is doomed to see all that capital leave for less regulated environs. I am on the Board of Directors at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, so I speak from experience. The revolution has begun, and we are trying to embrace it.

The New Futures World Order.......2000-01-18

Building on the monthly news and insight from Patrick Young's ADTrading.com newsletter, Patrick Young and Thomas Theys have put together a concise history of recent developments in capital markets, especially the futures markets, and the steady advance of electronic trading. As a longtime reader of the newsletter I have been exposed to most of these ideas on a monthly basis; as an industry executive I have watched the events unfold day by day. Nevertheless, this compilation provides fresh insight into Capital Markets trends.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in an overview of the recent history of the futures, equity and FX markets and a plausible view where the markets are heading.

I would also recommend Capital Markets Revolution to industry insiders who are well aware of the events and ideas discussed, as they can benefit from the framework and view of the future into which current events are placed.

For everone inside an outside the Markets.......2000-01-12

Following a concise and accurate history of the markets last 2-3 years and the possible developments that may effect participants in the markets.

This book is worth a read, by anyone interested in the markets.

I'm only sorry that I think the political aspects of these changes not happening is not addressed.

capital markets revolution.......1999-11-25

Patrick Young looks into his magic eight ball and reveals what the future holds for the financial markets. Very radical and probably very acurate. A must read for those traditional brokers who are contemplating a second house in the Hamptons

Book Description

Testimony from the Director of the General Government Division of the General Accounting Office before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs of the Committee on Government Operations of the U.S. House of Representatives, primarily on the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to detect and deter tax law abuses relating to tax havens.

The Federal Government is concerned about tax havens primarily because they afford significant opportunities to abuse the tax system, particularly through tax evasion. While the extent of illegal use of tax havens cannot be readily quantified, IRS estimates that tax evasion through the use of haven countries is costing the Treasury billions of dollars annually.

Book Description

This volume focuses on the effects of various toxic agents on human health. It covers advances in research, testing, remediation, and removal methods.

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Chelkash And Other Stories

Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HWX15W

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Chelkash and Other Stories
Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov)
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GLJTTQ

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Chelkash

Chelkash and Other Stories
Maksim Gorky
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1417903252

Book Description

1929. From the Preface: Alexei Maximovich Peshkov is the real name of the man whose fame as Maxim Gorky, the bitter, has spread rapidly over the world...At the age of fifteen he tried to enter Kazan University, but, failing to gain admittance, he found work in a biscuit factory at 6s. a month; a description of this grey episode is given in Twenty-six of Us and One Other. After this he led a vagabond, Gipsy life, traces of which appear in A Rolling Stone, In the Steppe, and One Autumn Night. He sold apples and, at another time, beer in the street, became a railway porter, a recruit, and secretary to a barrister. Then again, he rambled through the countryside in southern Russia, Ukraina, the Crimea to the Caucasus; and from this came Chelkash. Contents: Chelkash; Comrades; One Autumn Night; In the Steppe; Twenty-six of Us and One Other; The Green Kitten; A Rolling Stone; Her Lover; and Chums.

Download Description

When the dock laborers, knocking off work, had scattered about the dock in noisy groups, buying various edibles from the women hawking food, and were settling themselves to dinner in shady corners on the pavement, there walked into their midst Grishka Chelkash, an old hunted wolf, well known to all the dock population as a hardened drunkard and a bold and dexterous thief.

Customer Reviews:

Chelkash.......2000-04-13

Chelkash is a very deep story, which involves a thief named Chelkash and a young man on he finds on the street and hires. The story focuses on the use of the ocean to reflect moods and events as well as the importance of money in our society. The story leads one to question how far one would go for money. The book is much deeper than the story. One must take the time to think about it before the meaning becomes clear or one can simply enjoy the story which is a page turner.

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Chelkash/Other Stories
Maxim Gorky
Manufacturer: ALFRED A. KNOPF
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WS5VIG

Book Description

An exhaustive resource that effectively doubles the expanse of Navajo literature surveyed and indexed, Dine Bibliography to the 1990s is an invaluable tool that both highlights the literature already available and expands such data to include coverage of genres that have been previously underrepresented.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about drugs but were too afraid to ask

Better In Theory Then Execution

An interesting case against the global "war on drugs".

Rambles through the land of narcotics like a lost tourist...

A good book overall

The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics
R. P. T. Davenport-Hines , and Richard Davenport-Hines
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Pharmacology | Medicine | Subjects | Books | Drug Guides | General | Pain Medicine | Pharmacy | Toxicology
History | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

A Brief History of Drugs: From the Stone Age to the Stoned Age

Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World

Drugs And Narcotics In History

Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800-2000

In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine, And Patent Medicines

ASIN: 0393325458

Book Description

A startling account of the history of drug abuse, this book forces us to reconsider many of our views on a controversial issue.

Spanning five centuries and several continents in a sweeping portrait of addiction, The Pursuit of Oblivion traces the history of the use and abuse of narcotics, revealing their subtle transformation from untested medicines to sources of idle pleasure and, relatively recently, to illegal substances. Richard Davenport-Hines, an eminent, prize-winning historian, uncovers the centrality of drug abuse in our modern industrial society, from the drug habits of Charles Dickens and John F. Kennedy to today's $400 billion annual worldwide trade in illicit drugs (the same volume as the oil industry). A vivid portrayal of the people and events that have shaped the history of narcotics, The Pursuit of Oblivion reveals that, contrary to the assumption underlying current drug policies, our need to escape reality and our body's need for physical pleasure are both ineradicable aspects of our humanity, unchangeable by government initiative. 16 pages of b/w illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Everything you ever wanted to know about drugs but were too afraid to ask.......2006-08-23

It is rare to find a nonfiction book that, if read, will render the reading of other books on the topic almost superfluous. Yet that is the case with "Pursuit of Oblivion." Richard Davenport-Hines has set himself the very ambitious task of chronicling, as the subtitle states, "A Global History of Narcotics", and he does it well. Nearly 500 pages of salient prose are presented, assiduously researched and encompassing all corners of the globe and all illicit substances of note, from early experimentations with opiates (the first known narcotic) right through to designer drugs and the explosion of the club scene at the end of the past millennium.

Great pains are taken to explain not only the origins, but the proliferation and subsequent legislative backlash against each drug as well. Liberal use of quote and anecdotal evidence are inserted to keep the text flowing throughout. The body of research undertaken by Davenport-Hines is commendably daunting. The ongoing Drugs Wars wages unsuccessfully by every modern nation are exposed in all their folly. A various times, prohibitionists have attempted to promote the idea of drug user as moral deviant, criminal, hedonist, pedophile, rapist, psychotic, and unapologetic vagrant, none to great success. As Davenport-Hines navigates the history of drugs, a recurring theme emerges, one which the author states directly in the Prologue: "It is not the supply of a drug that turns a user into a criminal, but the illicitness of that supply." Simply put, making drugs a crime creates a world full of criminals. And, in a world increasingly dominated by the "destructive idealism" of American uber-moral drug policy, this book proves a welcome elixir to the scourge of narcotic fear-mongering that has spread throughout much of the modern world.

Lamentably, (as the book shows) this is a debate that has been raging in contemporary society for hundreds of years, and one in which both sides of the dispute have precious little interest in hearing the views of the other, as both have long been self-assured of the validity of their claims. It should not be lost on the reader that those who would most benefit from studying a book such as this will be those who would least seek to give it credence. Nowhere will you find such a number of cogent, concise arguments against the ineffectiveness of anti-drug legislation, and such a formidable body of evidence against the reigning cabal of would-be substance eradicators who govern over most of the world's nations today. But alas, this book, like countless others which preach an ethic of sense and sensibility regarding drug production and use, will be condemned to the fire by moral imperialists who inveigh against the turpitude of even giving such issues public discourse.

An invaluable reference for scholars seeking to prepare work on the topic, but equally suitable for the curious and open-minded, full of wonderful anecdotal ammunition for the next time you find yourself asked to defend more liberal drug laws, "The Pursuit of Oblivion" very adequately fulfills the task it sets out to achieve. If there is one complaint, it's that perhaps this book is too comprehensive - in an effort to explain it all, there are parts where the anecdote is overwhelming, and the evidence almost seems excessive. But if too much of a good thing is the worse offense a scholarly work can be accused of committing, it makes the efforts of the author no less laudable.

Better In Theory Then Execution.......2006-05-12

Several people have taken exception to the author's call for a cease to the prohibition of drugs. It's rather absurd to argue the point the the money organized crime pulls out of drugs is a small factor in their power. This is simply emotionalism and ignorance. Anyone familiar with the five Mob families of New York? Like the more respectables, uh, say the Kennedy family? Who are also prodigious users. All made their fortunes on the most devious prohibited drug of all :alcohol. Of course, the criminals would still have [...] and prostitution, but those vices involve keeping people (i.e Victims) involved all the time, thus making them less desirable and less profitable than relatively clean drug sales. In fact, it's often the drugs that keeps prostitutes obedient. There's too much real evil in this world to waste our resources trying to stop people from doing what the want in their own homes. The only government that EVER had the slightest success in defeating drugs was the Chinese when the emperor (circa 1900 or so) made using, possessing or selling opium subject to immediate execution. It worked. But we don't have a totalitarian state...yet. Personally Barbara Hodgeson's book on Opium in America is better and more enlightening. (I discovered recently that both of my grandmothers were addicted to legal over-the-counter patent opium medicines in the 1940's) so let's be careful about heaving stones from our glass houses, eh?

An interesting case against the global "war on drugs"........2005-03-30

This 498 page compendium of stories that go back thousands of years (to Sumer), detail in extraordinary (sometimes stifling) detail, mankinds continuous love hate relationship with intoxication. Be it with narcotics, hypnotics, stimulants, inebriants, or hallucinogens, mankind, for good or ill, loves to get f***'ed up.

Hate that fact, or appreciate it; regardless, the global illicit market for narcotics is nearly half a trillion dollars and growing. Growing despite centuries of government regulation, and, more recently, decades of intense global conflict.

Richard Davenport-Hines makes a powerful argument against the war on drugs, but he doesn't do it like so many authors of that thought genre, who, between tokes, rant and rave about the plight of users, or the unfair religious influence on "modern" policy (no dig on them intended, that was my best attempt at humor now that all my malt balls are gone and it's 3am)... Instead, the author makes a factual case, drawing in statistics that demonstrate clearly how ineffective public money is spent combating drug use. The stats used aren't homogeneous to the US, many extensive statistics are used from our more experimental neighbors across the Atlantic.

Like many, I believe this book could have been condensed considerably without losing its argumentative efficacy. However, there were more than enough compelling stats and human stories to keep me engaged. Among them, stories of the founding of Coca Cola, or the first western experimentors with Cannibus, or the lengths some have gone to stay intoxicated...fascinating stuff.

If you have a particular interest in understanding the relationship between man, drugs, government, and the societal impacts of interrelationship between them, then run and get this book. If however, you have a more casual interest, and would like to sharpen your argument for or against the war on drugs, walk to get this book, and skip chapters 2-5.

Enjoy,

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California

Rambles through the land of narcotics like a lost tourist..........2004-10-29

The author leads us to believe that prohibition of drugs in any form is a terrible idea and is the reason why so many people are getting rich off of the drug trade. His theory has many holes and though I understand what he is trying to say, I didn't like his Marxist-style commentary. He rambles through the first 5 chapters like a lost tourist and has some very foolish ideas on how to treat the drug epidemic. Not one of the better books on the subject of drug use and abuse.

A good book overall.......2004-06-01

I expected a more thorough evisceration of the idealogies behind the war on drugs from this book. Davenport-Hines doesn't really get down to attacking what is really our modern inquisition until near the end.

Too much of the book is a litany of statistics and dry accounts of the spread of drug abuse and the subsequent escalation of authoritarian measures to counter it. Although he adequately demonstrates how prohibition created the global black market in drugs he does not hammer home enough how criminalisation is responsible for most of the ills associated with drug abuse, including violent crime, overdoses and the spread of diseases like HIV.

Although this is a history and not a polemic if there is one thing the history of drug abuse amply demonstrates is that prohibition has been a collosal failure if not a profound evil. Davenport-Hines could have emphasized this theme more throughout the book to unify the disparate elements. And while I would not expect a romanticization of drug use I would think that a complete history of narcotics would give at least some attention to the perspective of the user. Davenport-Hines seems too preoccupied with maintaining an air of compassionate but stern disapproval. I got the feeling that this guy has never had a drink let alone smoked a joint.

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"Drug use and responses to it in history".(Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World)(The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics)(Book ... Review): An article from: The Historian
H. Wayne Morgan
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000B9DVM4
Release Date: 2005-09-03

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 2155 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: "Drug use and responses to it in history".(Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World)(The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics)(Book Review)
Author: H. Wayne Morgan
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 66 Issue: 2 Page: 336(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000

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The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000
Richard Davenport-Hines
Manufacturer: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORR51Q

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In 1999, an editor of the New York Times Magazine approached Witold Rybczynski, the well-known student of architecture and urban design, and asked him to write a short essay on the best and most useful common tool of the past millennium. Rybczynski took the assignment, but when he began to look into the history of the items in his workshop--hammers and saws, levels and planes--he found that almost all of them had pedigrees that extended well into antiquity. Nearly ready to admit defeat, he asked his wife for ideas. Her answer was inspired: "You always need a screwdriver for something."

True enough. And, Rybczynski discovered, the screwdriver is a relative newcomer in humankind's arsenal of gadgetry, an invention of the late European Middle Ages and the only major mechanical device that the Chinese did not independently invent. Leonardo da Vinci got to it early on, of course, as he did so many other things, designing a number of screw-cutting machines with interchangeable gears. Still, it took generations for the screw (and with it the screwdriver and lathe) to come into general use, and it was not until the modern era that such improvements as slotted and socket screws came into being.

Rybczynski's explorations into that lineage, here expanded to book length, are highly entertaining, and sure to engage readers interested in the origins of everyday things. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

The Best Tool of the Millennium

The seeds of Rybczynski's elegant and illuminating new book were sown by The New York Times, whose editors asked him to write an essay identifying "the best tool of the millennium." An award-winning author who once built a house using only hand tools, Rybczynski has intimate knowledge of the toolbox -- both its contents and its history -- which serves him beautifully on his quest.

One Good Turn is a story starring Archimedes, who invented the water screw and introduced the helix, and Leonardo, who sketched a machine for carving wood screws. It is a story of mechanical discovery and genius that takes readers from ancient Greece to car design in the age of American industry. Rybczynski writes an ode to the screw, without which there would be no telescope, no microscope -- in short, no enlightenment science. One of our finest cultural and architectural historians, Rybczynski renders a graceful, original, and engaging portrait of the tool that changed the course of civilization.

Customer Reviews:

Great short book on history.......2007-05-14

Too many people consider history as the story of individuals and groups of individuals. This is unfortunate as some of the best history are those of objects. This book is a good example; it traces the history of the screwdriver. Told in reverse chronological order, the author starts with modern technical literature, and progressively finds older and older documents that refer to tools used for similar purposes as a screwdriver. At last, in the final chapter, the author arrives at Archimedes as the inventor of a tool similar to today's screwdrivers. Throughout the book, the author lays bare the technological advance of Western society in terms of hand tools. The book includes numerous drawings of various hand tools throughout the centuries. Overall, a great book.

True Scholarship.......2007-01-13

This is an impressive little volume. Not only a quick, interesting and highly enjoyable read, it serves as a fine example of scholarship. The student who bemoans having to write a term paper needs to read this book and discover the joy of learning something new; of uncovering lost knowledge and thereby casting light on an indispensable tool of our modern world.

The author begins by answering a question: What is the most important tool of the millenium? That's a tall order and requires a good amount of thought by itself, but the answer to that question--the screw and screwdriver--provides a wonderful journey through various arcane references. Indeed, Rybczynski finds an error in no less a reference standard than the Oxford English Dictionary.

Though the origin of commonplace objects can seem somewhat arcane, the sheer enjoyment of scholarship is evident in his book--Rybczynski does not take shortcuts and is as fine a craftsman with his words as he is with a builder's tools. He takes pleasure in his discoveries and the pleasure is shared with and experienced by the reader. I'm reading more Rybczynski as soon as I can.

Highly Recommended.

Point well made.......2006-12-28

I am a big fan of books on the history of science and technology. This book is a valuable addition to my collection.

In this book, the author makes a good argument for the screwdriver being the most important tool invented in the last thousand years. It seems like such a simple invention, yet he demonstrates vi good research the importance and discovery of the screwdriver. He makes a less-well researched claim to the history of the screw.

Many tools that we commonly use are much more ancient than the last millennium, like the hammer, axe, plane, and so forth are ancient tools, well developed in Roman times. Yet the screw and screwdriver, essential today, are fairly new, developed during the late middle ages or early renaissance periods.

One of the best parts of the book is chapter 5, where not only reveals the 'first' screwdriver, but information on Henry Maudslay, Jesse Ramsden. Joseph Whitworth, Joseph Clement, Richard Roberts, and James Nasmyth, most of whom I had never heard of before. Maudslay and this small group of mechanical geniuses were the people who 'invented precision' as another writer put it. In other words, this group devised the machine tools required for precision work. They are mentioned in this book because a lot of their work revolved precision screws, their use and manufacture.

That's one of the things that I like about this kind of history. One good book can lead to an area of discovery and knowledge that the reader might not know about. Since reading this book, I have become interested in the history of machine tools and their inventors.

A good book, well written. Recommended.

PS the title of my review contains a 'screw' pun!

Look around..........2006-07-10

Look at all the little things around you that you overlook everyday. Hangers, buttons, electrical sockets. Can you imagine your life without them? Can you imagine your life without screws?

When given an assignment to write about the millennium's greatest tool, Witold Rybczynski became interested in the screwdriver. This book sets out to tell the history of the tool so useful that even people who don't have a toolbox own one.

It almost reads like a mystery - he begins with an entry in a dictionary that puts the invention of the screwdriver in the late nineteenth century. But then he digs deeper and deeper, looking at old illustrated tool guides, antique guns, and suits of armor, and finds it's much older than the dictionary reported.

I won't get too carried away here with praise - I mean, after all, it's a book about tools. It isn't a summer blockbuster, and will probably never make any bestsellers lists. However, I am really glad I read this. It's nice to know the complete story of a little thing that's so easy to take for granted.

Fascinating.......2006-02-24

A charming, well researched account of something we take for granted. Now you can get a whole handful of nuts and bolts at the hardware store--cheap. And they're interchangeable. If you lose a nut, another one will fit. No one stops to think of how this came about, how the first screws and nuts were handmade and each one was unique. The story is fascinating.
Rybczynski is an easy-going, genial writer. It's a pleasure to explore this bit of technology with him, and it gives the reader an interesting view of history.

One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw

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One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw
Witold Rybczynski
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RBUHDC

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One Good Turn A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw

Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IIZYPU

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Parks & Recreation, published by National Recreation and Park Association on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 2091 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: The excellent city park system: what makes it great and how to get there. (History: UPARR at 25).
Author: Peter Harnik
Publication: Parks & Recreation (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: National Recreation and Park Association
Volume: 38 Issue: 4 Page: 64(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The excellent city park system: What makes it great and how to get there

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The excellent city park system: What makes it great and how to get there
Peter Harnik
Manufacturer: The Trust for Public Land
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Urban & Land Use Planning | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006S8VZM

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