Artisans in Europe, 1300-1914 (New Approaches to European History)

Book Description

This book is an introduction to the history of work in general and of artisans in particular in Europe from 1300 to 1914. It focuses on many aspects of artisan culture, including economic and guild life, and discusses social, rebellious, ceremonial and leisure experience as well. Women, masters, journeymen, apprentices, and non-guild workers all receive substantial treatment, and the text is illuminated with fascinating illustrations.

Book Description

Industrial Democracy in America begins its close examination of what came to be known among collars of any color as "the labor problem" with the railroad strikes of the 1870s. The contributors cover the theory and practice of the American labor movement, the promise and demise of industrial jurisprudence, the law of collective bargaining, workplace contractualism, and shop-floor reality in the United States auto industry, and compare these with employment systems in Japan. Industrial Democracy in America contemplates America's industrial decline and will provoke questions, even within management circles, of the long-run viability of a work regime that does not respect or motivate its workers--that does not persuade them to identify themselves with the enterprises of which they are members.

Average customer rating:
Henny Youngman's 500 All-Time Greatest One-Liners

Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0523426097

Average customer rating:

bordering on hysterical

Small Book With Big Laughs

Henny Youngman's 500: All-Time Greatest One Liners
H. Youngman
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

Henny Youngman's 10,000 One -Liners: An Encyclopedia of One-Liners

ASIN: 1558174842

Customer Reviews:

bordering on hysterical.......2002-02-15

The one liners are so clever. They are easy to memorize and make wonderful icebreakers at dinner, parties and the office.

I especially enjoy the "clean" sex. At least I can understand the punchline.

Small Book With Big Laughs.......2001-03-05

The cream of the crop--Henny Youngman's best one liners. I have several Henny Youngman joke books, but this is the best one.

I do not appreciate off-color humor, and there are a few jokes of that variety, but most of them are clean--and funny.

How about this one: "My doctor's such a nice guy. I couldn't afford an operation, so he touched up the X-ray."

Short but very funny.

Average customer rating:

Words that vary from the commonplace to the obscure

Harvard book

An Invaluable Music Dictionary

Harvard Dictionary of Music

Quick and excellent service

The Harvard Dictionary of Music: Fourth Edition (Harvard University Press Reference Library)

Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Reference | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Directories | Catalogs & Directories | Reference | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (Harvard University Press Reference Library)

A History of Western Music

Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 1: Ancient to Baroque

Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century

Essential Dictionary of Music: Definitions, Composers, Theory, Instrument & Vocal Ranges : The Most Practical and Useful Music Dictionary for Students ... (The Essential Dictionary Series)

ASIN: 0674011635

Book Description

This classic reference work, the best one-volume music dictionary available, has been brought completely up to date in this new edition. Combining authoritative scholarship and lucid, lively prose, the Fourth Edition of The Harvard Dictionary of Music is the essential guide for musicians, students, and everyone who appreciates music.

The Harvard Dictionary of Music has long been admired for its wide range as well as its reliability. This treasure trove includes entries on all the styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East; descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background; and articles that reflect today's beat, including popular music, jazz, and rock. Throughout this Fourth Edition, existing articles have been fine-tuned and new entries added so that the dictionary fully reflects current music scholarship and recent developments in musical culture.

Encyclopedia-length articles by notable experts alternate with short entries for quick reference, including definitions and identifications of works and instruments. More than 220 drawings and 250 musical examples enhance the text. This is an invaluable book that no music lover can afford to be without.

Customer Reviews:

Words that vary from the commonplace to the obscure.......2007-07-30

This is a large useful book for students, musicians, music lovers and the curious. It contains types of music, instruments, music notation, etc. There are some drawings randomly placed throughout. More drawings would be helpful, though.

Harvard book.......2007-03-16

This book is the best there is out there it is worth every cent and has everything for the novice musician to the most experienced in terms. Recommended to all!!!!

An Invaluable Music Dictionary.......2007-03-09

I don't have a music degree, but took lessons from my accomplished pianist Mom for 8 years beginning on my 4th birthday. Since I don't have much theory knowledge, even though I've been playing the piano for over 48 years, I wanted a music reference book that I could also learn from. I am planning to add the Harvard Biographical Music Dictionary to my music collection, as this music dictionary doesn't give in-depth biographies on composers, since it is a MUSIC dictionary. This book is for anyone wanting to own a great music reference book and will be an invaluable addition to your music library.

Harvard Dictionary of Music.......2007-01-19

If you have a term or musical symbol that you don't know, it will be explained in this book. A great reference book.

Quick and excellent service.......2007-01-11

The item ordered was received in a very timely manner, especially as it was the Christmas season.

Book Description

In 1965, Larry Keenan spent over a year photographing the Beats-in their homes and with their families and friends. His portraits constitute a unique chronology and reportage of this era, and many of these photos have since become iconic images that represent a generation. Here, in this book of 20 postcards, is a timeless rendering of the spirit of the Beats.

Customer Reviews:

Keenan's incredible ocular journey.......2000-11-23

Thanks to Larry Keenan's masterful photography, we are left with a visually potent view of the Beat Generation and beyond. Keenan's photo-documentation is necessary, for it captures many essential moments of Ginsberg, Whalen, Cassady, McClure, Dylan, and many others. Without Keenan's illustration of people and events that have already hooked us deeply, we would no doubt be struggling along empty-eyed, wondering where's the color, the depth, the light, and the angle of the Beats? We know their literature; we know something about their personal biographies. Yet equally (if not more) important is knowing what everything looked like. Keenan has provided us the images. He has provided us the most incredible ocular journey, one that goes wham and hits us with sentiment and longing. Keenan wasn't just behind the camera; he was and is part of the rich fabric that wraps around several ripples of 'eras,' including the Beat Generation. Keenan has transcended a few decades of American history and created a movie for us that is shot in still-frames, but which is alive and three-dimension.
...

Book Description

Illustrates key computing concepts using examples in the most popular programming languages. This is an essential guide for the hundreds of thousands of students studying Introduction to Computer Science or Introduction to Programming, presenting the basic concepts of computer science and illlustrating them with examples in C/C++, and Java. More than 285,000 college majors and 11,000 high school Advanced Placement candidates are enrolled in required Computing Science courses. Explains algorithm development and data abstraction. Supplements leading computer science textbooks.

Customer Reviews:

Good supplement for anyone learning basic computer programming.......2006-07-29

This is a pretty good introduction to basic undergraduate ideas in computer science including different number systems (hex, binary), computing structures (components, architecture), and the concept of program layout and algorithms. This book does not go deep into these concepts, but at least it makes the student aware that these issues exist and gives a very brief idea of how they work. In other words, don't expect any in-depth examination of computational complexity in the section on algorithms. The lion's share of the book is dedicated to simple programming concepts. First the ideas of variables, constants, operators, operator precedence, and input/output are introduced. Then these concepts are used to examine the constructs of control structures, functions, subroutines, arrays, strings, files, and data structures. There is a very basic chapter on object oriented programming that includes the advantages of object orientation as well as an introduction to terminology and program structure. Simple programs are shown as examples and also given as exercises in four popular languages - C, C++, Visual Basic, and Java.

This book was written in 1999, so the properties of the four featured programming languages have changed some, but not enough to nullify the usefulness of this book. I would say that this book is suitable for high school and freshman college students getting their first look at the basics of computing and of programming in any language. This book does not substitute as an introductory textbook for learning the four programming languages used, but it would make a nice supplement.

overview of 4 popular languages.......2000-03-28

This book is unique in that it is both low-priced and provides an overview of four popular languages - C, C++, Java and VisualBasic (I couldn't find anything on Pascal and Fortran, unlike what the Publisher's review implies). It is sometimes heavy going and or lacks detail in places, and will need to be supplemented by other books and courses. Still, it's good value for the price.

Introduction to Computer Science (Schaum's Outline)

Average customer rating:

Difficult to write this book

Introduction to Computer Science (Schaum's Outline)
F. Scheid
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0070551952

Customer Reviews:

Difficult to write this book.......2002-10-31

Of all the Schaum's Outline books to write, this one has got to be the hardest. Why? The field of computer science is changing everyday, and that makes it difficult to keep this book up to date.

Some of the basics will not change. For instance, this book discusses boolean algebra, arrays, sorting, and subprogram, which should not change too much. The section on programming languages and computer design will probably see quite a bit of variation. If you buy this book used, you will want to verify what year the book was copyrighted.

Like the other outline books, there are some supplementary questions to test your understanding and grasp of the information. In the back of the book, there are answers to most of the questions. There is also a bibliography, which is good, but could also go out of date quickly.

The writing of the book is fairly straightforward and easy to understand. I would recommend this book as a supplement to all computer science students.

Average customer rating:
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE SCHAUM'S OUTLINE SERIES THEORY AND PROBLEMS
Francis Scheid
Manufacturer: Schaum Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RRRN42

Average customer rating:
Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Introduction to Computer Science
Francis Scheid
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RULTD0

Average customer rating:
Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Introduction to Computer Science.
FRANCIS SCHEID
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OG0K8C

Average customer rating:
SCHAUM'S OUTLINE SERIES - THEORY AND PROBLEMS OF INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE
SCHEID FRANCIS
Manufacturer: MCGRAW HILL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PGIF5Q

Book Description

A fascinating study of five twentieth-century Latin American novels that focus on one particular search for El Dorado: the infamous 1559 expedition, headed by Pedro Ursua and the first legendary colonial rebel against the crown, Lope de Aguirre. Author Bart Lewis approaches these five works as both representations of Latin American literature during the mid to late twentieth-century and as re-examinations of the notorious figure of Lope de Aguirre.

Book Description

An Excerpt... In 1963 there were only seven black police officers on the Akron Police Department. The total strength of the department was approximately three hundred officers, two of them female. The assignments were segregated. If you were black you were assigned to walk a beat in a black area of the city, or the Detective Bureau where you had a black partner and were assigned cases where the victim was black or the suspect was black. No blacks were assigned to work in marked cruisers.

Average customer rating:

Buy this book!!!
Essential for ex-pat Clevelanders
A tale to remember, characters to cherish
clever, fun, poignant, compelling

Cleveland Anonymous: A Novel
Keith Gandal
Manufacturer: North Atlantic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1583940626

Book Description

The first line of Cleveland Anonymous is “We lost our virginity on the banks of the Cuyahoga the day the river caught fire.” The “we” are the novel's narrator, Sam, and his foster sister, Mary Jane, and the fire becomes a defining moment in both of their lives as Mary Jane disappears and Sam is struck by a severe disability. Fast-forward 20 years to 1989. When an earthquake destroys Sam's home, he is miraculously cured. He sets off to find his sister and is haunted along the way by a series of fires and a bizarre cast of characters. This daring mystery mixes old-school whodunit with a contemporary sensibility.

Customer Reviews:

Buy this book!!!.......2002-10-22

This book is amazing! It really does have it all. Murder, mystery, and damn funny as well! The story is very original and keeps you guessing throughout the entire book. It also has an amazing cast of characters. One of which is probably the craziest, and funniest character in any book i have ever read. This book is completely great, and everyone should read it!

Essential for ex-pat Clevelanders.......2002-09-28

Let's face it: If you're from Cleveland, you don't get no respect. No respect at all. And it mostly stems from the Cuyahoga (pronounced "Cuya-HOG-uh" you out-of-towner) River catching fire. (Well, *that* and our...sports teams.) It's the ultimate absurdity--a body of water catching fire--and therefore a good jumping off point for a stridently absurdist novel.

Gandal's novel delivers. It's the great absurdist Cleveland novel that I've been waiting to read for more years than I can count.

The best moment in the novel, for me anyway, takes place in New York. One of the Cleveland Anonymous members has been discovered with a one-way ticket back to Cleveland in his possession. The Clockwork Orange-esque method used to keep him from going back is an absolute scream.

...

A tale to remember, characters to cherish.......2002-05-08

Keith Gandal is a teacher,and a friend, but most importantly, a fresh, new, and exciting contemporary voice that has emerged from the events of the tail-end of the 20th century. The natural disasters, the unfinished, seemingly unconnected, human tendencies that we all share, and the need to communicate with someone, anyone: these are all themes that one will find in Keith's novel, Cleveland Anonymous.

When I finished reading this novel I thought it was great, but I knew there was more to it; there was a substance below the surface that hadn't hit me yet, which is why I waited a couple weeks to write this review. I wanted it to be from a non-biased POV; and it is. I don't really know what to say, so I will try my best. I thought that by denying a genre, by concentrating on story, not a literary mindframe, which there is way too much of in contemporary fiction, that Gandal approached real life as closely as one can possibly achieve in fiction. The characters were amazing; the dialogue was real; the scenes were perfectly drawn out, perfectly realized, completely truthful; and the prose was dream-like, even magical. The atmosphere that Gandal's has created in this novel is fantastic. When I read a novel I look for something different, something real. I look at a book as an experience; I look at it as a piece of culture that can not and should not be detached from it's place in the world. And when I finished reading Cleveland Anonymous I had a sense of closeness and sense of story and literary attachment to the characters that I have not experienced in any other contemporary novel that I have ever read.

This novel is a wonderful accomplishment, an amazing piece of art, or literary achievement. If a good novel is supposed to give the reader an experience that utilizes all the senses and makes them care about the characters, then Gandal has written one heck of a good book! His fictive world is original and inspiring from not only a writers perspective, but from a human perspective.

I don't want to tell you anything about the plot (I think reviews should deal more with other, more 'inputish' type things, you'll know the plot when you read it!), but I can say that this book moves!! It moves with speed, with grace, with purpose, so fear not. It is a concise piece of fiction, a collection of people that all seem to exist in this modern world of ours without the slightest hint or notion that the bigger things that they experience shape them and make them who they are. But this is special. Too often an author will tell you what you need to know, but Gandal lets you figure it out; he writes a book filled with people, realistic people who think, act, and react like you and I do. If nothing else, read this book for a good, fast story, but if you, like me, like to see a writer experiment with the lives we take for granted everyday, then there is something here for you too.

The list of people who may have inspired this book must be immense, but here are some ideas: Thomas Pynchon (same sense of magical realism [though that is more Gabriel Garcia], the same witty sense of humor), Flannery O'Conner (short, sweet, but emotion filled sentences), Cormac McCarthy (the use of imagery), amongst many others.

Please read this novel. It is a magnificent story, and I hope that this review has inspired someone to pick up Keith Gandal's first (but hopefully not only) novel, but if you don't read it, at least I can say (when this thing hits big) that I told you so!!! Happy reading!

clever, fun, poignant, compelling.......2002-05-06

The setting of this book shifts back and forth in place and time -- between Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960's and New York City in the late 1980's. It helps if you know something about one or both of those cities, otherwise you'll miss some of the inside jokes. But ultimately this book is not about Cleveland or New York (and I say that as a compliment). Ultimately this book is a love story, a relationship that actually doesn't even begin -- or resume? -- until the book is almost over. It's a mix of romance and friendship between a man who's not quite sure who he is or what he's about, and a woman who's essentially just the opposite -- or maybe she isn't. You'll have fun trying to figure it out. An amazing, original, and haunting love story.

It's also a murder mystery. And a suspense thriller. But if you're looking for something that reads like John Grisham, look elsewhere. Gandal is speaking to a more thoughtful, more profound audience. If I had to describe this book in one sentence, it would be: "This book is a cross between Fight Club (the book, not the movie) and the poems of Emily Dickinson."

If that's hard to imagine, then you'll just have to read the book. Cleveland Anonymous has the intensity, the directness, and the muscle of Fight Club (the book, not the movie). But Gandal's book also has an extraordinarily light touch with language. Over and over again Gandal taps you on the shoulder -- or gooses you in the rear -- with the precisely-right word, the perfect phrase. Like an Emily Dickinson poem.

This is the best novel I've read since . . . well, since Fight Club (the book, not the movie).

Book Description

Ohio’s First Peoples depicts the Native Americans of the Buckeye State from the time of the well-known Hopewell peoples to the forced removal of the Wyandots in the 1840s. This book presents the stories of the early Ohioans based on the archaeological record. In an accessible narrative style, it provides a detailed overview of the movements of Fort Ancient peoples driven out by economic and political forces in the seventeenth century. Ohio’s plentiful game and fertile farmlands lured tribes such as the Wyandots, Shawnees, and Delawares, which are familiar to observers of the historic period. Although founders of the state pointed to the natives' prehistoric earthworks as evidence that the architects were a people of “ingenuity, industry, and elegance,” their rivalry with the Indian inhabitants led to decades of warfare and treaty-making. Native American armies managed to win battles with Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair, but not the war with Anthony Wayne. By the early nineteenth century only a few native peoples remained, still hoping to retain their homes. Pressures from federal and state governments as well as the settlers’ desire for land, however, left the earlier inhabitants no refuge. By the mid-1840s they were gone, leaving behind relatively few markers on the land.

Ohio Water Firsts : Sagas of the Events and the People Who helped Make Water History in the Buckeye State Volume II (two 2)

Average customer rating:

Ohio Water Firsts : Sagas of the Events and the People Who helped Make Water History in the Buckeye State Volume II (two 2)
Frost. Sherman L. Et al
Manufacturer: Water Resources foundation of Ohio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KDFD7C

Average customer rating:

Ohio water firsts: Sagas of the events and the people who helped make water history in the Buckeye State
Sherman L Frost
Manufacturer: Water Resources Foundation of Ohio, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Water Supply & Land Use | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

My First Guide About Ohio (State Experience)

Average customer rating:

My First Guide About Ohio (State Experience)
Carole Marsh
Manufacturer: Gallopade International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

School & Education | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0635013258

Ohio's First Peoples.(Book review): An article from: The Historian

Average customer rating:

Ohio's First Peoples.(Book review): An article from: The Historian
Barbara Alice Mann
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 548 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: Ohio's First Peoples.(Book review)
Author: Barbara Alice Mann
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68 Issue: 1 Page: 159(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

$Fourth Letter to the People of England. On the Conduct of the M--rs in Alliances, Fleets, and Armies, since the First Differences on the Ohio, to the Taking of Minorca by the French.\$
Average customer rating:

Fourth Letter to the People of England. On the Conduct of the M--rs in Alliances, Fleets, and Armies, since the First Differences on the Ohio, to the Taking of Minorca by the French.\
John Shebbeare
Manufacturer: Collyer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IFVZ6U

Average customer rating:
The Ashmunella rhyssa (Dall) complex (Gastropoda: Polygyridae): Sierra Blanca-Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico, (University of Texas at El Paso. Science series, no. 5)
Edward M Stern
Manufacturer: Texas Western Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0874040396

Book Description

Energy efficiency and energy conservation are often thought to be the same. They are not, according to Herbert Inhaber. Only when less total energy is consumed by all users will energy actually be saved. Energy efficiency schemes do not accomplish this goal of conservation: when one person or nation conserves energy, there is just more of it for others to use elsewhere. This is the first book to answer, comprehensively and objectively, the question: Do government energy conservation programs hinder or help the nation? Says Inhaber, "the fact that billions of dollars have been spent on energy conservation programs, without giving a searching look at what has been accomplished, is a national scandal." Clear, concise, and with numerous useful graphs and tables, this book is an important first step toward making us all aware of what energy conservation actually is--and is not--and how it can and should be implemented. This work includes chapters on how conservation is applied in the electric utility world, whether waste truly exists, the economic aspect of conservation, its relation to Marxism, and past examples of conservation failures. Inhaber reviews many of the points that were first made by Stanley Jevons, the father of modern quantitative economics, who stated more than 130 years ago that increased efficiency often produces greater overall energy use, not less. Inhaber concludes that "a remedy claimed to cure all ills will cure none. The faith placed in conservation as a solution to a mountain of problems is, in large part, misplaced. The words 'energy conservation' have captivated people of almost all political and philosophical persuasions. My book should cause many people to rethink their blind faith."

Customer Reviews:

This Book was written by Cheney's henchmen.......2004-03-18

What is gonna be the next right wing book gonna be? "Exporting American Jobs Overseas is Good for America"? Apparently thats one of the lies that the Bush Administration beleives in as well. This sad excuse for an author provides the most poorly researched conclusions I've ever seen. He seems to sound like hes still in grade school judging by the laughable argument he presents. I guess traffic lights are a bad idea too since there will always be a person who runs a red light eh?

Dont buy this book. In fact, dont even read it in a library. It'll make you sick to your stomach the lengths that these oil corporations will go to denial global warming & the harmful effect of pollution & deforestation on this country.

Our children's future DEPENDS on conservation. Instead of buying this book, use the money to pay for a electric hybrid car instead. They only cost about 18,000- as much as a standard sedan. Plus it'll pay for itself w/ its 60 mpg mileage, especially with the $3 per gallon gas prices that Pres. Bush has created.

Excellent for students of logic and clear thinking........2004-02-21

I bought this book as I am concerned about our nation's and the world's energy future. What a disappointment.

At first I thought this was just a poorly written book, but as I read on it got quite humorous. Silly analogies and selective use of information abound. Not to mention a positively laughable example of conveniently forgetting the data used in an earlier argument when making yet another incredible leap in logic not 3 pages later.

Should become recommended reading for anyone interested in the study of false logic and fallacious argument. Or to simply discover for oneself the lengths some will go in an attempt to manipulate facts and clear argument to fit an ideological view.

Not worth buying for any other reason.

Alan Caruba in Bookviews.com, January 2003.......2002-12-27

An interesting book exposes the fallacies of "conserving" energy. It is a fundamental fact that energy unused is not "conserved." Why Energy Conservation Fails by Dr. Herbert Inhaber, Ph.D. (Quorum Books paperback), an economist, explains why in an interesting book that why artificial and coercive policies aimed at conserving anything simply do not work. Supplemented with detailed illustrations and calculations, he demonstrates this truth that is as certain as the law of gravity. The decades of government mandates, instituted by so-called "environmentalists", to require "saving" energy and other natural resources demonstrates that the failure to use energy is the failure to grow the economy and provide for our national needs to provide the electricity and heat for our expanding population and the creation of new jobs through industry and small businesses. The bottom line is that our improved technology provides ways to both find and use all forms of energy and natural resources. Just one example will suffice. The use of fiberglass, made from the most abundant mineral in the Earth's surface, has transformed communications and reduced the dependence on copper. Americans are beginning to reexamine the claims made by environmentalists, discovering they do not stand the test of scientific or economic facts.

Review by Dr. Jay Lehr, Environment & Climate News, 11/2002.......2002-12-06

A Page-turner on Economics (!?)

Book review by Jay Lehr
Published: in Environnment & Climate News, November 1, 2002

Why Energy Conservation Fails
by Herbert Inhaber, PhD
Quorum Books, paperback, 237 pages

Why Energy Conservation Fails is, in many ways, the most readable book on economics you will ever read. It is so innovative and fascinating in its approach that it is a page-turner.

Dr. Inhaber uses basic economic theory coupled with our well-known human nature to prove in dozens of ways that no artificial coercive strategy aimed at conserving anything can ever succeed. Through simple prose, supplemented with detailed illustrations and ample calculations, he makes his premise as certain as the law of gravity.

In making his case, Inhaber stands on the shoulders of giants of the past. These truths have been illustrated and handed down for centuries ... and yet the folly of coercive conservation runs rampant even today. Sadly, those who do not study the failures of the past are destined to repeat them, and that we do again and again.

Over the past two decades, Americans have been subjected to an unprecedented barrage of government edicts telling them to save energy, water, natural resources, and many other substances.

If we trade in a large car for a small one, surely we use less gasoline ... or do we? If cars are smaller and driving is cheaper, families may own two cars instead of one, and they will drive more miles with their cars. The counterproductive end result is that people will ultimately use more gasoline. Simple economic reasoning makes it clear: When the price of a commodity falls, more of it will be used than if its price had remained constant.

Conservation on a national scale does not and cannot exist. In the case of gasoline, its use has risen, not fallen, since the imposition of strict mileage standards in the late 1970s. According to those who advocated those laws, gasoline use should have declined.

In our homes, when we attempt to save electricity through improved insulation, our electric bill goes down ... so we tend to use more electricity in other ways, such as by raising our indoor temperature in the winter or lowering our indoor temperature in the summer.

Inhaber points out that Karl Marx made a similar mistake when he reasoned capitalism would fail when production efficiency increased, thereby making many employees redundant. He failed to see that with increased efficiency comes a decline in the effective price of a service or commodity and that in the face of a lower price, increasing demand will require more workers.

The statues of Karl Marx have come down all around the world, but the conservationists who say that saving a kilowatt hour here and there will reduce the total amount of energy we use still have a loyal following. Inhaber feels strongly that their efforts should be-and can be-thwarted by teaching simple economics to coercive conservationists.

Inhaber explains clearly how conservationists have always assumed that man would run out of this or that resource, though it never happens. Why? Because brain-power followed by improved technology leads to better ways to find and refine everything or to replace it with even better substitute materials in even greater abundance. Fiberglass, for instance, is formed from silica dioxide, the most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust.

While many of us try to save energy at home, we may imagine waste occurs frequently at the industrial level. At home we replace light bulbs when they burn out. In a factory, bulbs are replaced on a timed schedule to coincide with the average life of a bulb. Many perfectly good bulbs are discarded in this way ... but a tremendous amount of labor, and thus cost, is saved. Waste is in the eye of the beholder. For a manufacturing company, labor is too valuable to be wasted.

These examples are but a small illustration of the meticulous and comprehensive manner in which Dr. Inhaber dissembles the ill-fated do-gooders' desire to conserve a wide variety of resources that never were, are not now, and never will be in short supply. They overlook at every turn man's indomitable intellectual creativity, which allows him to expand or replace every imaginable resource.

Dr. Jay Lehr is Science Director for The Heartland Institute

Down Goes Another Myth.......2002-08-11

If one doesn't look too deeply, it is somehow obvious that if our machines are more efficient, we will use less energy overall. But what is superficially obvious isn't necessarily true. If nothing were to change *except* the efficiency, the result would indeed be lower overall consumption. But that is never the case.

For example, if an automobile engine required 500 gallons to get us a few miles to the grocery store, nobody would use automobiles for anything. The consumption of gasoline would be negligible. In truth, as automobile efficiency has improved, the overall usage of gasoline has increased.

In the matter of steel manufacture, superficial logic says that when we improve efficiency, we should reduce consumption of coal used to manufacture steel. But Bessemer's process, which greatly improved efficiency, led to greatly increased consumption of coal, along with an abundance of high-quality steel.

Inhaber presents an excellent case, piling example upon example, to show that improved conservation has consistently resulted in increased consumption. His book is a great antidote to the journalistic nonsense to which we are daily exposed.

Incidentally, Inhaber is not making a case that we should be wastrels. He is merely pointing out the unintended consequences of conservation.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books