Definitive VoiceXML

Customer Reviews:

Superior book on VoiceXML and Voice Technologies.......2003-10-30

I seldom write reviews for books on Amazon, but I just had to do it for this excellent book. This book is by far the best resource for building enterprise caliber voice applications. I have purchased 5 other VXML books and none of them delivers the information that this book does. This book not only delivered the content I needed, but it's comprehensive and deals with complex issues in a simplified fashion. The real highlights of this book are Chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 explains Enterprise applications, possible architectures for dealing with state, and interacting with a backend. Chapter 5 deals with more of a deployment and physical architectural angle. Get it for those two chapters alone.

The only thing that I found missing was techniques for versioning a voice application (No not the CVS source-code control type versioning). I mean having the same backend server provide different content to the same voice browser and techniques on structuring your application to smoothly transition from one set of content to another. For example, the voice browser cache is full of old static content - how can I gracefully switch to new content without forcing a dump of the existing cache through the HTTP headers or some other external mechanism - It has to do with using relative pathing beneath the application root document for vxml scripts and static content. Some information about Browser to Browser interactions might also be nice - but I recognize the VBI specs are just emerging.

Anyway, anyone thinking of building a real voice application with speech recognition and integration to backend applications and data should definitely add this book to their library. It has helped me tremendously. Two thumbs up!

One of my better tech book buys.......2003-02-08

This book is really two books in one. A VXML tutorial and an overview of all the technologies used to build voice applications. The authors, in the overview portions, have presented detailed information yet have made it manageable enough to allow the reader to gain a good hold of the material without getting lost in the detail. Where the book really stands out though is in the VXML tutorial. The tutorial is written in a layered fashion in which the basic concepts are presented before moving on to the next more advanced feature. At each step an example is used to help make the concepts concrete. I loved the fact that the authors never underestimate the my intelligence nor did they seek to impress the me with their advanced knowledge. I was very happy to find this in a recently published technical book. I was able to move quickly though the tutorial building on the example presented. I bought the book hoping to come up to speed on new voice application technologies having been out of that field for many years. The book has done that and I consider it one of my better tech book buys.

Average customer rating:

Definitive VoiceXML
Adam Hocek; David Cuddihy
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHX8SK

Book Description

Development of Non-Bank Financial Institutions and Capital Markets in European Union Accession Countries assesses the role of non-bank financial institutions and capital markets in the financial sectors of the eight first wave EU accession countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia), the current state of development and prospects for future growth, and the likely impact on these segments of the financial system of accession to the EU. Throughout the paper, the level of development of non-bank financial institutions and capital markets in the accession countries is benchmarked against comparable development levels seen in existing EU member states. The paper concludes with a series of policy recommendations to facilitate future development of non-bank forms of financial intermediation

Download Description

This study assesses the role of non-bank financial institutions and capital markets in the financial sectors of the eight first wave EU accession countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia), the current state of development and prospects for future growth, and the likely impact on these segments of the financial system of accession to the EU. Throughout the paper, the level of development of non-bank financial institutions and capital markets in the accession countries is benchmarked against comparable development levels seen in existing EU member states. The paper concludes with a series of policy recommendations to facilitate future development of non-bank forms of financial intermediation.

Customer Reviews:

You must read this book.......2007-08-18

I read this book, here in Brazil.I'm an agronomist.Even unemployed today, I feel very good, when I find someone defending the true agronomy.I must tell you that this book isn't only for agronomists or farmers.This book is made to be read for everyone.
Examples of great parts of this excellent book:
Page 74:"Researchers are still looking for the first death from pesticide residues, fifty years after DDT was introduced and thirty years after its use was banned in the United States, but mannure is claiming lives almost daily through bacterial contamination of organic food."
Page 77:"Vegetarianism neither is the "original human diet" nor is more natural than any other diet."
Page 119:"She says, "if Elizabethan England had the sort of regulatory system we have now, there is no way the potato would ever been introduced into this country(Linden 1999)."
Page 127:"However throughout the less-developed world, iodine is still necessary for control of goiter and mental retardation(Giroud 2000)"
Also on page 127:"Many affluent urbanites, who wouldn't know the difference between a cow patty and a rice paddy if they stepped in one, have become "experts" on agriculture on agriculture after reading tracts written by those who know virtually nothing about the subject "
Page 130:"It should be not in fact have come as a shock to anyone who had followed the debate on the safety of DDT over the last thirty years.Numerous studies studies on those most exposed, including those who were dusted with DDT during World War II, those who worked over ten years manufacturing DDT, and those havely exposed to DDT in antimalaria spraying campaign, failed to find any adverse health effects on humans(Mellanby 1992,73-82;A. Smith 2000). "
Page 142:"No matter how one compares losses, the agricultural tecnology of the green revolution has made more food available for far more people than any time in human history.From 1945 to 1989, many important crops, including some that are heavy users of pesticides, such as corn(maize), more than doubled their yield per acre.The accompanying increase in insect loss was actually a decrease in loss per unit of output and still resulted in a massive increase in food availability."
Page 151:"Vegetarianism and commitment to organic agriculture were a component in Nazi ideology.According to Arluke and Sax (1992), Hitler and other elite Nazis became vegetarians in emulation of Wagner."
Page 157:"It is hard to imagine anyone opposing the green revolution.The increase in yields from the green revolution in rice alone has produced enough to feed one billion people(DeGregory 1987b)."
Page 162:"Eating fresh, uncooked produce may have many taste and health benefits, but it can also be dangerous unless proper cautions are taken(Bruhn 1997;Zink 1997; Lindsay 1997; Beauchat and Ryu 1997). "
Page 173:"Chrorination of water in the United States began in the early part of twentieth century and very quickly "produced dramatic reductions in morbidity and mortality associated with waterborne, such as typhoid, cholera, , amoelic dysentery, bacterial gastroenteritis and giardisis".Chlorinating contaminated drinking water stopped a potential typhoid epidemic in Chicago in 1908."
Page 183:"They found that that if the mortality rates in 1900 had prevailed throughout,half of all americans Americans would not be alive today."
Page 184:"As White and Preston(1996)tells us, "mortality reduction throughout the world has been more rapid in the twentieth century than in any prevous period"(415)."
Page 185: "Over the last four to five decades, life expectancy has increased about twenty years(USAID 1998,1;Goklany 200,171)."
Page 187:"The good news about life seems to be getting better."
Page 190:"Some humanists can oppose the construction of dams for irrigation and power or the use of pesticides for crop protection.For them, electricity is flipping a switch, water flows with the turn of a faucet, food is a trip to the supermarket, health food store, or fast food outlet, and one's family's future is a serie of paychecks with a pension at the end of the line."
Page 198: "The gains made during twentieth century in the fight against infectious would have seemed utopian,had they been predicted in 1900."
Page 204:"To be pro-tecnology is to be pro-people."

Great presentation of agriculture's past and future........2002-10-24

DeGregori defends the importance technology has played in feeding the world and offers insights into where it will push forward to feed the 2.5 to 3 billion people left to arrive over the next half-century. His accounts of the technology, and the ideologies both opposing and supporting the technology, keep the book entertaining while his use of numbers gives the book an expansive scope. A definite read for any scholar or interested layman of agriculture, technological progress, or both.

Book Description

Chromatography is a major analytical technique that is used throughout research, development and manufacturing in the pharmaceutical, medical device and associated industries. To demonstrate fitness for purpose with the applicable regulations, the systems must be validated.

Validation of Chromatography Data Systems introduces the basics of computer validation. It looks in detail at the requirements throughout the life cycle of a CDS for any regulated laboratory, from its concept, through writing the user requirements specification to selecting the system, testing and operational release, including using electronic signatures. This logical and uniquely organised book provides the background to the regulatory requirements, interpretation of the regulations and documented evidence needed to support a claim that a system is validated. Development of the system, risk management, operation and finally system retirement and data migration are discussed. Case studies and practical examples are provided where appropriate.

Validation of Chromatography Data Systems is ideal for the chromatographer working in analytical laboratories in the regulated pharmaceutical, contract research, biotechnology and medical device industries seeking the practical guidance required for validating their chromatography data systems in order to meet regulatory requirements. It will also be welcomed by consultants or those in regulatory agencies.

The Field Guide to Geology: Updated Edition
Average customer rating:

An excellent science or study text for young adults, especially recommended for high school library collections.

And how is this a field guide?

Excellent beginner book.

This is an excellent guide for beginning geology students.

The Field Guide to Geology: Updated Edition
David Lambert
Manufacturer: Facts on File
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Geology | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Earth Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Practical Geologist: The Introductory Guide to the Basics of Geology and to Collecting and Identifying Rocks

Geology: A Self-Teaching Guide

Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals (Smithsonian Handbooks)

Field Geology Illustrated

Dictionary of Geological Terms: Third Edition (Rocks, Minerals and Gemstones)

ASIN: 0816038406

Customer Reviews:

An excellent science or study text for young adults, especially recommended for high school library collections........2007-05-13

Written by award-winning science author David Lambert and The Diagram Group, The Field Guide to Geology is an overview of the geologic history of the Earth. Accessible to middle and high school students as well as lay readers alike, The Field Guide to Geology is now updated with two new chapters: one on new technologies used to measure behavior of the Earth's complex systems in real time, and one on notable scientists whose research advanced the field of geology. The Field Guide to Geology includes more than 750 two-color maps, charts, and illustrations, and covers everything from plate tectonics to the distinctions between types of rock and stone to how rivers and seas shape the land to means used to date rocks and much more. An excellent science or study text for young adults, especially recommended for high school library collections.

And how is this a field guide?.......2007-02-21

The words "field guide" imply a book that can be carried in the field to identify features (e.g. "Audubon Field Guide" series). A looser interpretation would be a manual that teaches people to interpret features in the field (e.g. Robert Compton's classic "Geology in the Field"). David Lambert's "The Field Guide to Geology" is neither. It is a simple introduction to geology accompanied by many drawings and diagrams. The book is useful for high school earth science students and younger, but any basic college-level physical geology text provides a more thorough introduction to geology -- with more sophisticated graphics, too.

So, if you want a snapshot of important concepts in basic physical geology, take a look at "Field Guide to Geology" or search in Wikipedia under "Geology." If you want a detailed introduction, take a look at an introductory-level college physical or historical (for fossils) geology textbook. If you want a true field guide, there are many good series such as the Audubon or Peterson series.

Excellent beginner book........2002-11-26

As a student in engineering geology, I found this book to be
a very good reference but with no in-depth reading. For the novice, I would recommend
this to see if you're interested in the field of geology; but for an intermediate
or advanced geology enthusiast, I would recommend a more scientific book.

There are no photographs but rather drawings of the various
components of geology. The artist did well, but nothing can amount to the incredible
display of mass wasting, or the delicate detail of Micas

This is an excellent guide for beginning geology students........1997-11-11

This is an excellent guide for beginning geology students and a very good review for more advanced students. Should be on all geologist's shelves.

Book Description

The highly variable conditions in the Earth-related space environment, including the Sun, the interplanetary medium and the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere system, are collectively known as space weather. In the recent past we have experienced that space weather influences the performance and reliability of space- and ground-based technological systems. Although several technological impacts of space weather had been known for some time, it was not before the 1990s that their significance increased dramatically and their severity became apparent. Furthermore, an increasing susceptibility of spacecraft systems to space weather disturbances has been noticed, presumably due to "softer" designs of electronic components, reduction in subsystem sizes, and increases in performance demands. On the ground side, previously unidentified effects of space weather on power grids have been discovered recently.

The 17 chapters of this book provide an update of the existing knowledge on dynamic physical processes at the Sun, the interplanetary space and the geospace, as well as thorough reviews of the major mechanisms in which space weather disturbances influence technological systems. The book moreover reports recent advances in monitoring and predicting space weather and its impacts on technology systems and introduces new tools and methods for accurate predictions of space weather disturbances.

Target audience:

researchers, teachers and students in space physics and space-related engineering, electric power and space communication technology community, astronomers, non-specialist physicists and engineers.

Sweetheart, Indiana (Berkley Sensation)
Average customer rating:

come on now

I absolutely loved it!

Couldn't put it down!

Sweetheart, Indiana

fabulous contemporary romance

Sweetheart, Indiana (Berkley Sensation)
Suzanne Simmons
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Goodnight, Sweetheart (Berkley Sensation)

Lip Service

Delicious (The Buchanans, Book 1)

Irresistible (The Buchanans, Book 2)

I'm In No Mood For Love

ASIN: 0425197794
Release Date: 2004-08-03

Book Description

These authors know what they're talking about. Sweetheart, Indiana is one of the most acclaimed new romances of the year--a scintillating battle of wits from one of the stars of the genre.

Socialite Gillian Charles inherits a town--with one caveat: she has to live there. What can a small town possibly offer a Big City girl? For starters, handsome Sam Law, the executor of the will, who has his own mysterious plans for Sweetheart--and for Gillian.

Customer Reviews:

come on now.......2005-01-08

I read the whole thing. There are gaps in the storyline. Huge chunks of time pass and you have to figure this out. AND the lead woman character is PERFECT. Perfect looking, speaking, every action is perfect. She doesn't make any mistakes- she is not human! The guy is great- at least he shows some humanity. Save your money, save your time for better books. This was a dud.

I absolutely loved it!.......2004-09-30

Sweetheart, Indiana is a wonderful town and a wonderful book! The characters are rich and warm, the setting true and as comforting as your favorite blanket, and the story itself filled with everything a reader could want--some sass, some laugh-out-loud lines and a touch of suspense. Gillian is not your average socialite and I found myself warming to her from the first page. Sam Law is, in a word, delicious, and I can't wait for his brother's book! All around, a great read with depth and wit!

Couldn't put it down!.......2004-08-18

I couldn't put this book down! I stayed up half the night last night and read the whole thing. It was sexy and funny and it had a really interesting story, too. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because I used to live in a small midwestern town. I highly recommend this book. Dorothy Brammer. New Jersey.

Sweetheart, Indiana.......2004-08-17

It's not Gary, Indiana, but it is the long lost home sweet home of the Charles family. Now that she's been left the estate, it's the town Gillian Charles owns, or will if she lives there six months. Rolling with the punches, she agrees to the terms of the will, moving into the executor's, Sam Law, house while he housesits for his parents. It's love at first sight, for her and his dog; maybe for the two humans as well. It's already assumed that they are in love, can reality be far behind? However, there is a sinister foe lurking, waiting for their chance to end all of Gillian's hopes if she gets in the way.

** There's a bit of everything in this novel; sensuality, humor, and suspense, but with so much, the overall effect shortchanges each aspect. **

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore

fabulous contemporary romance .......2004-08-03

Three years ago Sam Law fled his Manhattan practice because he detested the lack of morality in the legal system. His fiancé ended their relationship refusing to accompany him as he opened a practice in his hometown, Sweetheart, Indiana. However, upper crust Manhattan is coming to his town as socialite Gillian Charles needs to take up residence for six months to inherit her grandfather's "last gift", which includes owning Sweetheart. She will meet the will's stipulations simply because she would do anything for her beloved grandfather.

Sam is stunned from the moment Gillian arrives in town as she nothing like the pompous spoiled brat he expected; instead she is amusing and friendly. Even his anti-female dog Max dumps him for Gillian. Ginny receives anonymous nasty letters and a dead bird warning her to leave but most of the townsfolk like her and believe she is his former fiancée and that she and Sam belong together. As Sam and Gillian fall in love they try to find out what Jacob meant by his "last gift" and how to share "water from the moon" as he is small town and she is big city?

This fabulous contemporary romance is awesome as Gillian slowly is "sweetheart-ized" as proven by the clever usage of postcards and grandfather's "last gift" will keep the audience wondering until readers learn what Jacob truly bestowed on his beloved. Though the threat to Gillian adds superfluous suspense, fans will appreciate visiting SWEETHEART, INDIANA starring two people who seem so opposite that their metaphor of a duck and fish falling in love is apropos.

Harriet Klausner

Average customer rating:

Sweetheart, Indiana

Manufacturer: Berkley Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GS8WNI

Amazon.com

Eric T. Dean Jr., a lawyer whose interest in the Civil War prompted him to return to school to obtain a Ph.D. in history, makes a unique contribution to Civil War studies with his research on the psychological effects of the war on its veterans. Digging through the pension records of Civil War vets, Dean documents the great number who, suffering from severe psychological problems triggered by intense combat experience, were dutifully provided with disability pensions by the U.S. government. Dean's central thesis--that these veterans provide a mirror for the experiences of their counterparts in Vietnam a century later--is supported with lucid reasoning. Of particular interest are the many stories of intense Civil War combat and its psychological aftereffects, including many cases of Civil War veterans committed to asylums well into the 1890s--case studies seldom found in standard histories which offer painful testimony to the war's enormous impact on the nation. --Robert McNamara

Book Description

Vietnam still haunts the American conscience. Not only did nearly 58,000 Americans die there, but--by some estimates--1.5 million veterans returned with war-induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This psychological syndrome, responsible for anxiety, depression, and a wide array of social pathologies, has never before been placed in historical context. Eric Dean does just that as he relates the psychological problems of veterans of the Vietnam War to the mental and readjustment problems experienced by veterans of the Civil War.

Employing a multidisciplinary approach that merges military, medical, and social history, Dean draws on individual case analyses and quantitative methods to trace the reactions of Civil War veterans to combat and death. He seeks to determine whether exuberant parades in the North and sectional adulation in the South helped to wash away memories of violence for the Civil War veteran. His extensive study reveals that Civil War veterans experienced severe persistent psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, and flashbacks with resulting behaviors such as suicide, alcoholism, and domestic violence. By comparing Civil War and Vietnam veterans, Dean demonstrates that Vietnam vets did not suffer exceptionally in the number and degree of their psychiatric illnesses. The politics and culture of the times, Dean argues, were responsible for the claims of singularity for the suffering Vietnam veterans as well as for the development of the modern concept of PTSD.

This remarkable and moving book uncovers a hidden chapter of Civil War history and gives new meaning to the Vietnam War.

Customer Reviews:

Good research.......2003-11-01

I have been reading more about the Civil War over the past three years, and took a short survey course on the topic which first introduced me to Eric Dean's book Shook Over Hell, a discussion of post traumatic stress disorder during the Civil War. I found it a very interesting topic, particularly the discussion of the experiences of military surgeons and nurses. Having grown up with the TV series Mash, and being myself a nurse, I found the Civil War experiences surprising similar to those of the Mash staff, and even to some extent to my own in ICU (though of course the ICU is a more controlled environment, and I am not subjected to the same exhausting routines).

The character of the volume suggests the published form of a doctoral dissertation, and indeed Dr. Dean had only just received his doctorate in history from Yale when the book was published (1997). The fashion these days is very much toward introducing statistical methods into the social sciences in an effort to give them a "legitimacy" through quantization and to "extract" as much information from the data as possible. This is in an effort to put them on an "equal" footing with the "hard" sciences. Having done a statistical project myself in a social science (industrial relations) and having seen the effects of this fashion on my present profession, the practice of nursing, I usually find myself frankly unimpressed with the results. Fortunately the author limits his statistical manipulations of the data to the final chapters of the book, where he attempts, among other things, to determine whether the victims of post war psychological problems were characteristic of veterans of the war in general. He very honestly points out the caveats of treating the patchy and scant information in this way, and in fact is able to come up with only very little of statistical significance. The demographics of the patient population he investigates is, however, very suggestive, as are some of the diary entries. The latter are indicative of the attitudes of teenage veterans toward war prior to combat and of their reaction to the reality of it on the battle field.

The work seemed a little labored at points by virtue of it's attempt to discuss both the experiences of the Viet Nam veteran and the Civil War veteran with respect to the traumas of their war experiences. To some extent I felt that Dean had some sort of soap box mission in his treatment of the Viet Nam veteran, though I'm not quite sure what it was, since the discussion seemed all over the place at times. To the degree that post traumatic stress was defined by our own times and that the modern veteran and his treatment is a model of that definition, I see the information as pertinent, otherwise it seems intrusive.

As long as the author remained on his topic of Civil War soldiers, the research was very impressive. He must have spent some considerable time delving in libraries and public archives to bring so much personal data together. The men whose lives he describes are solid individuals; though information was obviously limited, it was well and carefully selected and makes their experiences very real for the reader.

I also was a little surprised to find a non-health care person take up a subject that is to some extent a medical problem. His understanding of psychology and it's confusing array of theories and course changes through its history is quite good, but I suspect he is not quite as aware of some of the more recent biochemical theories of human behavior. These theories might far better explain the symptoms of his veterans. To the extent that any theory of human behavior is a social construct, Dr. Dean's veterans-or at least their families-received a surprising degree of support for the time.

An interesting book on the psychological effects of the Civil War on the veteran.

Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder new?.......1998-01-31

The author demonstrates convincingly that not only did the Civil War soldier suffer maladies hauntingly similar to Vietnam vets', but suggests, by extension, that these may be a consequence of war from time immemorial.
Dean, in his careful attempts to define and delineate the problem, notes that the character and dimensions of PTSD are not clear, and that there are powerful interests, with monetary incentives and ideological agendas, to encourage continued attention to, and perhaps promote, the problem. His research is impressive (Dean seems to have read everything ever written on the subject); his writing clear and compelling, and the flaws inconsequential. It might have been instructive to learn whether "McNamara's Hundred Thousand" (a cohort of draftees of low mental ability) are significantly represented in the prevalence of PTSD, and a formal bibliography would be useful, even though extensive source notes are provided. These are quibbles: Dean's work is highly recommended for anyone interested in the effects of war on the individual.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

World According to Peter Drucker
Average customer rating:

Drucker, Pol Correctness, Pomposity

Superb Overview

Reasonably good look at the great man and his works

A history book

A Good Read!

World According to Peter Drucker
Jack Beatty
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management

Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind--How the World's Foremost Management Thinker Crafted the Essentials of Business Success

Adventures of a Bystander

Post-Capitalist Society

The Definitive Drucker

ASIN: 0767903021
Release Date: 1998-12-29

Amazon.com

Over a remarkable 60-year career, Peter Drucker has written the book on management theory, executive advice, and various aspects of social and political thought. He's also penned a monthly editorial-page column for the Wall Street Journal, contributed to publications ranging from The Economist and the Harvard Business Review to Forbes and Esquire, taught at several major universities, lectured worldwide by satellite, consulted for leading global corporations, and still found time to write two novels. His impact on individual and corporate philosophy has truly been astounding, so much so that it's often difficult to grasp its full scope. Jack Beatty's The World According to Peter Drucker is up to the task, however, offering a satisfying examination of his ongoing legacy for followers as well as a great introduction to specific works for neophytes.

With Drucker's full cooperation and assistance, Beatty (an NPR commentator and Atlantic Monthly senior editor) mixes bits of previous interviews and passages from his subject's voluminous writings with personal analysis to explore the range of his always provocative views on business, government, nonprofits, and the future. Beginning with the experiences in Europe during World War I that ultimately shaped Drucker as a writer, Beatty looks into themes like fascism, freedom, decentralization, and bureaucracy while tracing the transformation of Drucker from political scientist to management theorist. In combination with other particularly interesting observations, like those on Drucker's prescient prediction of a "new world economy" and his defining conceptualization of both privatization and "knowledge workers," the book serves to whet one's appetite for a bigger helping of the master's works--many of which, fortunately, remain in print. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Peter Drucker is arguably the most influential architect of today's corporate society. Yet no concise overview of his life and work has ever appeared--until now. Creating a Drucker primer as much as a biography, Jack Beatty has distilled the essence of Drucker's beliefs and strategies into one engaging volume. Spanning Drucker's childhood in Vienna during the first world war, through his first American teaching jobs when raging factions debated the best form of government (if any), to his immersion in modern management theory using General Motors as a model, and finally, to the era of downsizing facing his Fortune 500 clients, The World According to Peter Drucker also captures our own corporate evolution in this century.

Customer Reviews:

Drucker, Pol Correctness, Pomposity.......2005-09-16

When I first read Peter Drucker in 1982 I was bored to tears
by a pompous man telling us the pol correct. Unfortunately,
those who teach business are not those good at practicing
it. In fact, many of them loathe it and seek revenge for
their own unemployability. Recently, with the advent of
differential pay, we have faculty who don't even care, but
who switched form teaching operations in engineering, psychology or economics in liberal arts or even
biostatistics. This is why you don't see Drucker
(who proclaimed Japanese "participative" management
before it came into fashion - MacArthur deliberately
forced socialism on Japan to de-fascistify it) apologising
for the failures in Japan today. No, now they tell us
to emulate communist China, or the "knowledge" feudalism
of the university. Wait, didn't the university-style
environment they promote cause Arthur Andersen and KPMG
so much trouble? Did they ever tell you that large USA
made cars weren't the problem in the 1970s, but that gas
prices made consumers buy smaller USA-name cars made
with defective Asian parts and yet somehow the peaceniks
who rebelled and bought "pacifist" Japanese cars turned
this into something else. Also, as USA education was deteriorating, our mechanics weren't telling us the
reason they preferred foreign cars was because they had
no clue how to upkeep the computerised USA carborateurs.
Now, as customer service has returned to 1970s levels,
did anyone mention it was caused by the inflationary
environment, and the excellent customer service of
the 1980-90 era was due to low inflation, as inflation is intimately involved with mass paranoia and irrationality?

Superb Overview.......2003-01-11

In this superb, slim 186-page volume, the author manages to capture the quintessence of Drucker's life-work on management. Drucker's neo-Weberian sociology, the search for the moral basis of capitalism, the influence of Schumpeter (the renegade Austrian economist), the roles of European intellectual currents, his spiritual underpinnings in Kierkegaard, and the social context of Drucker's thought and development--all are ably portrayed here, in all the richness of their context. Penetrating, insightful and never blinded by adulation, the book is also extremely well written. I read a chapter a night and was done inside a week. There are only 2 blemishes. First, he is a bit skimpy on some biographical details (*when* was Drucker born, for example?). Secondly, what in the world does "elide" mean? Here's the sentence: "...Drucker's bold reinvention of government...elides the cardinal difference between government and business...--democratic accountability." You can't even infer the meaning of this strange word from its context. Before I was even finished, I was able to use information in this book to choose (and purchase) 3 other Drucker classics. And excellent, valuable read--don't miss it.

Reasonably good look at the great man and his works.......2002-11-27

I enjoyed some aspects of this book, especially the concise biography of Drucker at the start, but found it a bit dull overall. The author takes a good look at all Drucker's work, the developments in his thinking over his long and productive life, even his writing style, but it is all done in a rather dry, humourless, academic manner. It is clear that Drucker is a great thinker on management and society, but it doesn't always come across like that when reading the passages from his books that are quoted. I think the way the passages are quoted, in boxes separate from the main body of text, serves to decontextualize them, making some of them appear rather shallow and commonplace.

Having said this, The World According to Peter Drucker is still a worthy introduction to/critique of Drucker's writings and worth reading. It is largely concise and to the point, which helps given that it is not all that exciting.

A history book.......2001-10-12

This book gives you glimpses of the influence Drucker has had on society. But, unless you are looking for a biography, I do not recommend this book. It is dry and tedious to read.

A Good Read!.......2001-06-02

Peter Drucker's philosophies and theories have shaped management all over the world. Drucker is highly respected. He has always taught that people are an organization's most important resource. In 1954, Drucker virtually invented 'management.' Although, of course, management existed before, nobody had ever treated it as a distinct field.

Jack Beatty's book about Peter Drucker is not just another biography. Beatty criticizes Drucker in some areas and extols his virtues in others. The book is sometimes entertaining and consistently well written. Enough of Drucker's ideas are included to make you want to read his books. Most of the book summarizes Drucker's work chronologically. Company leaders who want their top people to learn about management should make this required reading. We [...] recommend this book to managers in all industries.

Book Description

This book addresses the difficulties faced by environmental regulation, attributing them to competing ideas about regulatory legitimacy that have accompanied the growth of the American state. The authors propose a more complex and nuanced dialogue between all participants in regulatory policymaking, and they apply their analysis to case studies of actual environmental disputes over hazardous waste regulation in the 1980s and 1990s in New Jersey, Ohio, and Florida.

Customer Reviews:

Mervelously Enlightening!.......2006-07-11

Bruce Williams and Albert Matheny put together a cohesive collection of insights into the regulation of hazardous wastes. This book is all about dialogue, and the characters that come into play here are on three very different levels. Of course the unspoken character is the environment, and that is the one that is the most impacted by the discussions. This book illustrates just how confused and confusing policy making can be. This book is a fantastic read, but also very frustrating when you really think about the implications.

Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation. (book reviews): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues

Average customer rating:

Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation. (book reviews): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues
Martin King
Manufacturer: Association for Evolutionary Economics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00096N8BI
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Economic Issues, published by Association for Evolutionary Economics on September 1, 1996. The length of the article is 997 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: Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation. (book reviews)
Author: Martin King
Publication: Journal of Economic Issues (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 1996
Publisher: Association for Evolutionary Economics
Volume: v30 Issue: n3 Page: p907(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation. (book reviews): An article from: Publius

Average customer rating:

Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation. (book reviews): An article from: Publius
Kenneth M. Holland
Manufacturer: CSF: Publius
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Publius, published by CSF: Publius on January 1, 1996. The length of the article is 1008 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: Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation. (book reviews)
Author: Kenneth M. Holland
Publication: Publius (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1996
Publisher: CSF: Publius
Volume: v26 Issue: n1 Page: p150(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Democracy, Dialogue and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation

Average customer rating:

Democracy, Dialogue and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation
Bruce A. Williams
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OS53R8

Average customer rating:

Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation
Bruce A. Matheny, Albert R. Williams
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORRQOW

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books