Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference (Rodolfo DeBenedetti Lectures)

Book Description

As events highlight deep divisions in attitudes between America and Europe, this is a very timely study of different approaches to the problems of domestic inequality and poverty. Based on careful and systematic analysis of national data, the authors describe just how much the two continents differ in their level of State engagement in the redistribution of income. Discussing various possible economic explanations for the difference, they cover different levels of pre-tax income, openness, and social mobility; they survey politico-historical differences such as the varying physical size of nations, their electoral and legal systems, and the character of their political parties, as well as their experiences of war; and they examine sociological explanations, which include different attitudes to the poor and notions of social responsibility. Most importantly, they address attitudes to race, calculating that attitudes to race explain half the observed difference in levels of public redistribution of income. This important and provocative analysis will captivate academic and serious lay readers in economics and welfare systems.

Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference (Check Info and Delete This Occurrence: ºc the Rodolfo De Benedetti Lecture Series)

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Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe

Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference (Check Info and Delete This Occurrence: ºc the Rodolfo De Benedetti Lecture Series)
Alberto Alesina , and Edward L. Glaeser
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0199267669

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Customer Reviews:

Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe.......2005-08-22

Absolutely fascinating, very thorough discussion of the reasons why the US and Europe have such different approaches to social welfare policy. The presentation is systematic and extremely detailed, with data to support every point and reject competing hypotheses. It is compact and easy to read, though the writing style is a bit dry. I found the book very very useful, and I haven't encountered anything else that fills this intellectual niche so well.

Fighting Poverty In The Us And Europe: A World Of Difference (rodolfo Debenedetti Lectures)

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Fighting Poverty In The Us And Europe: A World Of Difference (rodolfo Debenedetti Lectures)
Edward Glaeser Alberto Alesina
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLCYJ0

Book Description

Law can be viewed as a body of rules and legal sanctions that channel behavior in socially desirable directions for example, by encouraging individuals to take proper precautions to prevent accidents or by discouraging competitors from colluding to raise prices. The incentives created by the legal system are thus a natural subject of study by economists. Moreover, given the importance of law to the welfare of societies, the economic analysis of law merits prominent treatment as a subdiscipline of economics. This two volume Handbook is intended to foster the study of the legal system by economists.

*The two volumes form a comprehensive and accessible survey of the current state of the field.
*Chapters prepared by leading specialists of the area.
*Summarizes received results as well as new developments.

Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science: Financial Engineering, Volume 15 (Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science) (Handbooks ... Operations Research and Management Science)

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Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science: Financial Engineering, Volume 15 (Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science) (Handbooks ... Operations Research and Management Science)

Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The remarkable growth of financial markets over the past decades has been accompanied by an equally remarkable explosion in financial engineering, the interdisciplinary field focusing on applications of mathematical and statistical modeling and computational technology to problems in the financial services industry. The goals of financial engineering research are to develop empirically realistic stochastic models describing dynamics of financial risk variables, such as asset prices, foreign exchange rates, and interest rates, and to develop analytical, computational and statistical methods and tools to implement the models and employ them to design and evaluate financial products and processes to manage risk and to meet financial goals. This handbook describes the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field in the areas of modeling and pricing financial derivatives, building models of interest rates and credit risk, pricing and hedging in incomplete markets, risk management, and portfolio optimization. Leading researchers in each of these areas provide their perspective on the state of the art in terms of analysis, computation, and practical relevance. The authors describe essential results to date, fundamental methods and tools, as well as new views of the existing literature, opportunities, and challenges for future research.

Handbook of Law and Economics, Volume 1 (Handbook of Law and Economics)

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Handbook of Law and Economics, Volume 1 (Handbook of Law and Economics)

Manufacturer: North Holland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Law can be viewed as a body of rules and legal sanctions that channel behavior in socially desirable directions for example, by encouraging individuals to take proper precautions to prevent accidents or by discouraging competitors from colluding to raise prices. The incentives created by the legal system are thus a natural subject of study by economists. Moreover, given the importance of law to the welfare of societies, the economic analysis of law merits prominent treatment as a subdiscipline of economics. Our hope is that this two volume Handbook will foster the study of the legal system by economists.

*The two volumes form a comprehensive and accessible survey of the current state of the field.
*Chapters prepared by leading specialists of the area.
*Summarizes received results as well as new developments.

Book Description

The Oxford History of English Music will survey in two volumes the whole field of music by English composers. This first volume begins with the settlement of the North German peoples and the cultivation of church music following the mission of St Augustine in 597. Relations between France and England form the background to the account of medieval music after the Norman Conquest, and the growth of a distinct national style is then traced from the early fifteenth century, through the early Tudor period and that of the Reformation, to the outstanding achievements of Elizabethan and Stuart England. The arrival of Handel is related to the period of experimentation following Purcell's death in 1695 and the volume concludes with his decision to remain and the end of the Stuart monarchy. The contribution of such outstanding figures as Dunstable, Taverner, Byrd, and Purcell is placed in the context of the music of their contemporaries, while the social, religious, and historical background to their music is given full attention. There are over two hundred musical examples and sixteen pages of plates.

The Oxford History of English Music : Volume 1: From the Beginnings to c.1715 (Oxford History of English Music)

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The Oxford History of English Music : Volume 1: From the Beginnings to c.1715 (Oxford History of English Music)
John Caldwell
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MU935Q

Book Description

Concentrating on the post-colonial and post-industrial eras since 1945, this book provides a broad range of international case-studies to examine how sport has helped to shape national identities, and how national cultures have shaped contemporary sport.

Book Description

In this revision of the market-leading text, Susan Eastman and Douglas Ferguson, two noted scholars and experts in the area of broadcast programming, provide students with the most accurate and current information on the techniques and strategies used in the programming industry. The text has helped professors teach this course with clear current illustrations and examples, and just right approach of student friendly writing. Comprehensive, accurate and up- to- date, the text covers all aspects of programming for broadcast, cable, radio, and the Web.

Book Description

The building blocks of Flash games tools are explained in this guide for developing high-quality games with Web programming. It demonstrates the construction of these tools, the methods for importing graphics in GIF/PNG and JPEG formats, and the creation of clips, buttons, and animation effects. Motion Tween and Shape Tween animations are presented, and instructions for changing ActionScript code for working with the program shell, integrating the Shockwave Flash component into the Delphi environment, and writing a C program for working with a Flash movie are provided. Practical information on an ActionScript, coding the game scenario, game interaction with the server, and preparing game graphics will help the shareware developer and game programmer utilize Flash tools effectively.

Customer Reviews:

confusing is the best word to describe the book.......2006-06-21

I bought this book to learn how to program games in flash. I had no experience what so ever in programming, so maybe thats why I found this book ingredible confusing. The book tells you how to create a tetris game and a chess game. In the first pages of the book the author does a great job explaning how to go from one step to another, but only after some few pages he jumps around like crazy using terms that the program doesn`t have. Forinstens he change insert new symbol (which is in the program) to new clip (which isn`t in the program) Later in the book you figure out that its the same in his univers. There is alot of those confusing language in the book. The other problem in the book is that some describtions simply doesn`t work, forinstens he tells you to push on layer ones frame 1, then go to the edit actionscript, and write something there. Unfortunately atleast my actionscript tells me that"current selection cannot have actions applied to it" Then what? If you are in to puzzles, to figure out what the author actually means, then go for the book, because it give you a good idea of how to begin creating the most simple games in flash, but if you just wanna learn how to create a game with out having to figure out the many words for the same purpose the author use and some less confusing ways to the result, then don`t waste the money on this book!

Book Description

Each pilot and bombardier/navigator sat side by side in an all-weather jet built for low-level bombing runs, precision targeting, and night strikes. Their success-and their very lives-depended on teamwork in flying their versatile A-6 Intruders. And when the North Vietnamese mounted a major offensive in 1972, they answered the call.

Carol Reardon chronicles the operations of Attack Squadron 75, the "Sunday Punchers," and their high-risk bombing runs launched off the U.S.S. Saratoga during the famous LINEBACKER campaigns. Based on unparalleled access to crew members and their families, her book blends military and social history to offer a unique look at the air war in Southeast Asia, as well as a moving testament to the close-knit world of naval aviators.

Theirs was one of the toughest jobs in the military: launching off the carrier in rough seas as well as calm, flying solo and in formation, dodging dense flak and surface-to-air missiles, delivering ordnance on target, and recovering aboard safely. Celebrating the men who climbed into the cockpits as well as those who kept them flying, Reardon takes readers inside the squadron's ready room and onto the flight decks to await the call, "Launch the Intruders!" Readers share the adrenaline-pumping excitement of each mission-as well as those heart-stopping moments when a downed aircraft brought home to all, in flight and on board, that every aspect of their lives was constantly shadowed by danger and potential death.

More than a mere combat narrative, Launch the Intruders interweaves human drama with familial concerns, domestic politics, and international diplomacy. Fliers share personal feelings about killing strangers from a distance while navy wives tell what it's like to feel like a stranger at home. And as the war rages on, headlines like Jane Fonda's visit to Hanoi and the Paris Peace Accords are all viewed through the lens of this heavily tasked, hard-hitting attack squadron.

A rousing tale of men and machines, of stoic determination in the face of daunting odds, Reardon's tale shines a much-deserved light on group of men whose daring exploits richly deserve to be much better known.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Customer Reviews:

Summa cum laude.......2007-05-21

It is written: now let us praise famous men. Professor Reardon,though an academic, has told a very human, very touching story about the men who answered their nation's call during turbulent times. They all served aboard USS SARATOGA. This book is a great tribute to that ship and her men. A momentous accompishment!

a true classic.......2007-03-10

...as a Puncher who served with VA-75 during this period and the men mentioned within,I can personally attest to the accuracy and detail that the author has so wonderfully and painstakingly written.She does the men a high honor,and is a class act herself.I found myself sucked in reading it and reliving my time with them.Not a better book written on the A6 Community.Very highly recommended.

Excellent depiction of squadron life.......2007-01-03

I flew Intruders with several of the people who were prominent in the book - I wish I had been able to read about what they had been through at that time. As students and young pilots we heard bits and pieces about this cruise, but never an end to end account. The squadron and their families are captured very well by the author, as good people doing their best under trying circumstances. Top Gun captured the glamor of Naval Aviation, but this book has the real story, the real people, and the real hurt that goes with the job.

A Former World Famous Sunday Puncher Review.......2006-08-03

From start to finish, I could not put this book down. I felt the emotions when the crew members were told about the emergency recall over what must have been an unforgettable weekend. I felt I was back in my squadron all over again, except this time I was observing countless A-6's launching off the Sara with live weapons going into battle. I remembered Bruce Cook who had dreams of flying with the Blue Angels and whose life was sadly cut short flying a C-1. I had flashbacks of sitting in the VA-42 Ready Room at Oceana while news reports announced that Da Nang was being overrun by Viet Cong and thought that our government had truly let down the brave pilots and b/n's of VA-75 who flew during the Vietnam War. Most of all, I thought of my B/N, John Pfrimmer, and tried to imagine both of us in combat. I think we would have done the Punchers proud. God bless these guys, they are truly heroes.

Superb.......2006-02-09

Excellent in all regards. Dr. Reardon captures the wartime ready-room environment in detail rarely seen by other authors. As a carrier aviator and a former student of Dr. Reardon, I whole-heartedly recommend this book for anyone interested in a snippet of carrier aviation's near-100 year history.

Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War 1972.(Book review): An article from: Air & Space Power Journal

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Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War 1972.(Book review): An article from: Air & Space Power Journal
Nicholas Evan Sarantakes
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Air & Space Power Journal, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2006. The length of the article is 621 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: Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War 1972.(Book review)
Author: Nicholas Evan Sarantakes
Publication: Air & Space Power Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Page: 124(1)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Amazon.com

Jane Dunn's Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens offers a blend of history and biography that traces the "dynamic interaction" between two of the most powerful women in Western history. Dunn remains ever aware of the uniqueness of her two central figures: both women ruled as divinely ordained monarchs in a male dominated power structure; and both women were from the same family (Elizabeth I was the granddaughter of Henry VII, and Mary Queen of Scots the great-granddaughter of King Henry).

By focusing not on pure biography but instead on relationships, Dunn is able to narrow her book (still mammoth in scope) to the most salient and interesting events in the two queens' lives. The book begins in 1558, the year in which Mary first wed and Elizabeth assumed the throne of England. Almost immediately the cousins were embroiled in a conflict that would endure for the remainder of Mary's life. A restless, sexually-active Catholic, and leader of the Scottish people in alliance with France, Mary was ever a conduit for rumors of rebellion. The "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth used Mary as a dark reflection to underline her own celibate constancy as a ruler of law and order.

The pair never met face to face, but as Dunn reveals, their lives were closely intertwined. After holding Mary in Fotheringhay prison for nearly two decades, Elizabeth ordered her cousin executed in 1587. Mary had chosen martyrdom in favor of a confession to complicity in the Babington assassination plot. In court, she declared: "I would never make Shipwreck of my Soul by conspiring the Destruction of my dearest Sister." Though the ostensible victor, Elizabeth (who had struggled to find a way to release her cousin while still upholding her own power as queen) confessed, "I am not free, but a captive." In Elizabeth and Mary, Dunn has built a rich world that underlines the tragic struggle between private emotions and the public faces history puts on them. --Patrick O'Kelley

Book Description

The political and religious conflicts between Queen Elizabeth I and the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots, have for centuries captured our imagination and inspired memorable dramas played out on stage, screen, and in opera. But few books have brought to life more vividly than Jane Dunn’s Elizabeth and Mary the exquisite texture of two women’s rivalry, spurred on by the ambitions and machinations of the forceful men who surrounded them. The drama has terrific resonance even now as women continue to struggle in their bid for executive power.

Against the backdrop of sixteenth-century England, Scotland, and France, Dunn paints portraits of a pair of protagonists whose formidable strengths were placed in relentless opposition. Protestant Elizabeth, the bastard daughter of Anne Boleyn, whose legitimacy had to be vouchsafed by legal means, glowed with executive ability and a visionary energy as bright as her red hair. Mary, the Catholic successor whom England’s rivals wished to see on the throne, was charming, feminine, and deeply persuasive. That two such women, queens in their own right, should have been contemporaries and neighbours sets in motion a joint biography of rare spark and page-turning power.

Customer Reviews:

Jane Dunn should reflect on her own issues before writting another book about women..........2006-04-22

Jane Dunn, Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens - I would not advise any avid Mary Stewart admirers (or feminists) to purchase this book. Jane Dunn in my mind (and from the extensive text I have read) does Mary Stewart a great injustice with her blatant Elizabethan bias. She over looks the obvious motives of Queen Elizabeth for Mary's murder, instead painting Elizabeth as a strong woman in a man's world who had no option but conspire against, imprison and eventually have her cousin put to death.

I was looking forward to an in-depth read, a psychological & sociological perspective of these two female power brokers... but instead found the book to view Mary in a very sexist fashion (surprising, as the author is female!). Jane Dunn's `Mary bashing' stems around her intolerance of Mary expressing and ruling with her female traits intact... Mary rules from the heart and is often merciful, and led by her intelligence and her emotions.

In contrast to this, Elizabeth kills off the feminine aspects of herself, and rules with a cold, calculating and ruthless vision. She is the archetype that we 21st century women still struggle against...we do not want to have to behave like men to function at a effective level in this world, we want to be respected for our feminine qualities of caring, understanding and tolerance; something this world sadly lacks. Mary had these qualities and used them to great effect (i.e. allowing the blend of the two dominant religions in her land to co-exist). Mary had her faults as we all do but she accepted others and there faults and tried to negotiate for compromise and tolerance.

Mary could have made a real difference in her time if it were for two factors.

1. If she had the chance to grow and learn free of imprisonment.
2. If she had had the support of her so called `sister' Elizabeth!!! Something that Elizabeth would never give...in fact Elizabeth was wriggled with the most terrible of negative female expression `Jealousy'... because she had suppressed her femininity, she became a twisted version of a woman, one who could not allow a real female Queen to share the same island...so much so she murdered her!
Mary was wronged enough in her lifetime and Jane Dunn should be ashamed that she finds it necessary to slander her character and trivialize her even in death.

"This island isn't big enough for the two of us".......2006-03-31

First, I would like to review the book itself, and then address some of its critics.

Two of history's most famous queens, one for her unexpected and remarkable greatness, the other for her inexplicably poor judgment and bad luck. But was their famous rivalry inevitable? Was Elizabeth always the popular, talented, dominant one while Mary remained in her shadow? Jane Dunn asks these questions, and I was surprised - and pleased - by some of her answers.

The first part of the book is essentially a point-by-point comparison of the two queens, detailing their very different youths and explaining how they would influence the women in later years. Essentially, Mary had a huge sense of entitlement, was overconfident in her own power and security, and was a much more 'traditional' woman - and Queen - of her day. Elizabeth, whose childhood was punctuated by dramatic changes of fortune, had a much more acute sense of how tenuous her position was, and how much she depended on the good will of her people to maintain power.

Dunn does beat the Mary-as-charming-but-spoiled and Bess-as-brilliant-control-freak comparison into us a bit, but it is a good way of looking at the very different natures of these two women. Her book isn't a full biography of either queen; rather it's a look at the intersection between them - their relationship with each other, their competition, rivalry, and common causes. As such it's a fascinating look at a unique time in European history, the so-called "Age of Queens".
Posterity-wise, Mary got the short end of the stick. History will always remember her as Elizabeth's paler shadow, a major annoyance and minor queen who had no one but herself to blame for her tragic end. Although Dunn does occasionally (perhaps unavoidably) slip into Mary-bashing and Bess-worship, on the whole she does a good job pointing out that that wasn't always the case - and, had a few things gone differently, we would paint a very different portrait of the two cousins. Her Mary and Elizabeth are fully human - flaws, quirks, charms, and all. It's the best way to explain the convoluted relationship between the two, and it provides a lot of useful character insight into all other aspects of these Queens as well. (I do wish Dunn had gone further into the possibility that Mary was bipolar. It's a fascinating hypothesis, and it would explain a lot.)

Mary's end - which also serves as the book's - is too rushed; twenty years are covered in a handful of pages and the account of the execution itself offers nothing new. But until that point, I thoroughly enjoyed this provocative and inspiring portrait of two very different women whom circumstances thrust into such fierce competition.

Now: Some reviewers seem to feel that Dunn was somehow "unfair" to Mary and that her comparison of the two queens is misogynist. I admit to being completely baffled by this point of view. It appears to stem from the argument that somehow Mary was a better "feminist" queen than Elizabeth, I suppose because Elizabeth "betrayed the sisterhood" by having Mary executed.

Further, Dunn's critics seem to argue that Mary was a better "feminine" role model than Elizabeth was, apparently because she ruled through emotion rather than reason. They complain that Elizabeth is too "cold" and "calculating" to be a good example of a female ruler, while waxing rhapsodic about Mary's "mercy" and "gentleness". Let me be blunt: this is the sort of idiotic, feel-good, p.c. claptrap that has set the cause of working women back 50 years. Yes, there is something to be said for women's differing management styles; you will get no argument from me that in today's world, women should not have to emulate uber-masculinity to succeed. But - newsflash! - this was the 16th century. Not only were the roles of men and women completely different - and thus incomparable - than they are today, have you ever actually tried to get anything done with the kind of dithering, vapid leadership exemplified by Mary and her ilk?

Attempting to repaint Dunn's dual biography as some sort of feminist management manifesto does a disservice, both to the author and her subjects. We should admire both Elizabeth and Mary for who they were and what they did, while admitting their flaws and shortcomings. But this is not the 1500s, and trying to appropriate their story to make a point about women today is grossly misrepresentative, self-centered, and intellectually careless. If you want to adopt antiquated delusions about women in the workplace, try reading Forbes online - not "Elizabeth and Mary".

engrossing dual biography.......2006-02-28

Jane Dane has done an excellent job in this dual Bio of
Mary,Queen Of Scots And Elizabeth I,and how previous history
and that of the era they lived in contributed to and helped
their destinies.QWould recommend it to anyone with an interest
in the time period.

Too repetitious.......2006-02-05

The authors over determination to create parralells in the womens lives create an unending series of repetitions. Not only are the sequences of events repeated, the conclusions she makes are also said at naseum. Any possible flow to the story is replaced by poorly adjoined references.

A waste of reading time.

Same old story.......2005-12-22

I was disappointed with this book. I was looking for a book that would give me an unbiased discussion about these two women and their relationship. Instead I found it was really just another of many many books that put Elizabeth on a pedestal and Mary somewhere very much lower.

Average customer rating:

Good-but could be confusing
The dangers of royal blood in Tudor times
Fascinating book

Tudor Cousins
Dulcie M. Ashdown
Manufacturer: Sutton Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0750925477

Book Description

This book reveals the ways in which proximity to the throne dominated and frequently marred the lives of the Tudor cousins, sometimes contributing to their deaths. At almost any time, the Tudor succession might have been diverted to a descendant of one of Henry VIII's sisters. To be a Tudor cousin from the 1520s to the end of the sixteenth century was to live in constant uncertainty, wondering if 'fate' would offer crown and throne. There were times when the crown hovered just out of reach. The descendants of Henry VIII's sisters showed many of the traits admired or deplored in the characters of the Tudor monarchs. Their stories offer a new perspective on the Tudor monarchs' actions and policies. It is a dramatic one, containing conspiracy, rebellion, usurpation, treason, execution, and themes that are more often the stuff of fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Good-but could be confusing.......2004-01-19

I found this book to be very good, but at times it could be sort of confusing. Ms. Ashdown gives the reader the information on who exactly the clements were to the throne of Henry VIII. Ms. Ashdown discusses almost every one of them in detail. Even thought I like and know a lot about the British Royal Family it was hard for me sometimes to know whom I was reading about and had to check with the genealogical chart at the beginning of the book to see who that person was and how they fit in with the family.

Ms. Ashdown spends the most talking about Henry VII's daughters Margaret and Mary whose descendents were the strongest contenders to the throne after Henry VIII died. Some other people Ms. Ashdown talks about are Mary's daughter Frances and her daughters Jane, Kathrine, and Mary as well as Margaret's children Margaret and James whose children Mary and Henry married each other and whose son James became king of Scotland and England. Some of the other people they talk about are another son and granddaughter of the younger Margaret.

All in all, I would say that this is an informative book and I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in the lives of the Tudor-Stuart family.

The dangers of royal blood in Tudor times.......2003-01-27

This book highlights the danger of being close to the throne in Tudor times. It concentrates not on the Tudor monarchs but on their various cousins from the first generation of those related to Henry VIII though to those who were still around at the time of Elizabeth 1st death.

This book is well researched and written and is particularly good in covering Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox and Margaret, Lady Strange - both people who only get short mentions in many books. It discusses things like the annulment of various marriages and the impact of legitimacy in relation to the throne - and how both Mary and Elizabeth were not in a situation to comment too much on it or they risked their own claims to the throne by the terms on Henry VIII will. The author has also taken the time to point out gaps in documentation on the lives of these various cousins and has reproduced some letters not seen in other books on the same people.

I suspect at times readers may become slightly confused by the cousins as their stories weave in and out of each other and as some people change their names with various marriages and the acquisitions of titles. However, if you have any interest in the minor Tudor royals this book is defiantly worth picking up, as I've certainly read worse accounts of these people's lives.

Fascinating book.......2000-10-25

Fascinating book for anyone interested in the Tudor period. Dulice Ashdown does a nice job of shedding some light on some of the more obscure members and branches fo the Tudor family, especially Lady Margaret Douglas who was Mary Queen of Scots mother-in-law and had near as wild of a life as her daughter-in-law,for not only was her first husband imprisoned by Henry VIII for daring to marry her and dying there, she also may have had a brief flirtation with Charles Howard, the brother of Katheryn Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife executed for adultery. It is an excellent read not only for historians and students of the period but for anyone. While the book did shed light on people like Margaret Douglas and had interesting tidbits on Eleanor Brandon (Lady Jane Grey's aunt), there were a few people mentioned but it was unclear exactly who they really were in terms of familial relations, i.e. an Arthur and Edmund Pole, presumably relations in some way to Margaret Plantagenet-Pole, Countess of Salisbury and Reginald Pole, Archbishop-Cardinal of Canterbury, are briefly mentioned among others. It would have been nice to know a bit clearer who some people were and what relationships they bore to previous mentioned people. But a definite must-read. I can't wait to see how Dulcie Ashdown's planned biography of Margaret Douglas turns out.

Book Description

Featuring numerous satellite images and case studies, this book brings together an impressive group of experts to assess the implications of this emerging information technology.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic High-Quality Book on Policies and Capabilities.......2002-03-11

This may well be the best book RAND has ever produced--certainly the best I have ever seen or reviewed. An edited work, it brings together thirty-one authorities and integrates very high-quality editing, photography, and references. It even has an index.

As one who regards the collection of imagery as a supporting event, in support of the creation of geospatially-based all-source databases and integrated analysis, I would observe that this book must be regarded as skewed toward policies and capabilities related to commercial imagery collection. It does not address the many vital topics having to do with geospatial databases, the integration of diverse sources of geospatial imagery including Russian military maps and classified digital terrain elevation data, or the integrating of imagery into the all-source analysis process.

Commercial imagery is running roughly twelve years behind the early projections on both its adoption and its gross revenue potential. This is in large part because of a consistent prejudice against commercial sourcing by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Defense Mapping Agency (now the National Imagery and Mapping Agency). There are implications to this on-going negativity for the business marketplace--the cost of commercial imagery is still much higher than it need be, simply because the government is as yet unwilling to recognize that it should spend billions on acquiring commercial source imagery, not on building even more useless secret imagery satellites.

I recommend this book strongly, both for commanders who would like to exercise some control over national imagery collection policies and investments; and for business leaders who might wish to contemplate how the taxpayer dollar could be better spent in support of generic commercial imagery capabilities whose fruits can be easily shared with the private sector and especially non-governmental organization.

The editors and the authors of this book have excelled. I can find nothing to criticize--indeed, I expect the editors to get to work immediately on a follow-on book that brings together different authorities and focuses on the database and analysis side of the matter.

Thumbs up from SpatialNews.com!.......2001-04-26

Review provided by Glenn Lethm, Managing Editor SpatialNews.com & WirelessDevnet.com -- This joint publication of RAND and the ASPRS takes a technological and political view in an effort to help readers better understand the political, security, and market implications of today's commercial satellites. The book will satisfy readers from government, industry, NGO's, and academia looking for answers that explain both the benefits and risks associated with using remotely sensed data acquired from a number of commercial observation systems.

It is apparent that the publication was put together with a great deal of support from the commerical agencies responsible for maintaining the observation systems mentioned in the book, as well as from government agencies around the world. The book kicks off with a detailed examination of policies and issues associated with the development of commercial remote sensing programs. A number of detailed examples of remote sensing applications to international problems are presented along with a section dedicated to emerging International political issues faced by policy makers.

Readers should take away a good overview of who the traditional and new users of remotely sensed data are as well as an understanding of uses and applications of the data.

If any chapter is not to be skipped over, it's section 2 dealing with National remote sensing policies. An excellent historical account of national policies since the Cold War years covers the military and civilian policies of the US, Canadian, Russian, Japanese, French, Middle East, and India governments. Excellent examples of applications are offered up, as are detailed technical specifications of each nation's observation systems.

Appendices included with the title are not too lengthy and provide a list of abbreviations, bibliography, sample images, and not to be missed, a very interesting time line detailing the past, present, and future of the medium and high-resolution satellite world. About the only thing I could have asked for in this publication would be more example images included in the text. Students of geo-spatial and remote sensing courses, academics, researchers, government, and commercial agencies needing a primer on commerical observation systems and Satellite imagery will find this a very useful resource - this one will be a valued resource on your bookshelf for years to come.

Table of Contents: Section 1 - The Policy Making Context Section 2 - National Remote Sensing Programs & Policies Section 3 - Remote Sensing Applications to International Problems Section 4 - Emerging International Policy Issues

Book Description

The first balanced look at the evolution and significance of environmentalism, THE GREENING OF A NATION demonstrates the many attitudes Americans have held toward nature, as well as how these attitudes have created the social and cultural concerns of the post-1945 era. The text synthesizes the many facets of environmentalism in an even-handed manner, showing both the triumphs and shortcomings of the concept.

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