Competitive Solutions: The Strategist's Toolkit
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • An Indispensable Book
  • Packed with content, no fluff
  • A Terrific Primer for Strategic Thinking
Competitive Solutions: The Strategist's Toolkit
R. Preston McAfee
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & CompetitionStrategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ManagementManagement | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
PricingPricing | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Systems & PlanningSystems & Planning | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
EconomicsEconomics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books | Agricultural | Commercial Policy | Comparative | Consolidation & Merger | Cooperatives | Debt & Deficits | Development & Growth | Econometrics | Economic Conditions | Economic History | Economic Policy & Development | Exports & Imports | Free Enterprise | Inflation | International | Labor & Industrial Relations | Macroeconomics | Microeconomics | Money & Monetary Policy | Natural Resources | Privatization | Public Finance | Statistics | Sustainable Development | Theory | Unemployment | Urban & Regional
GeneralGeneral | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Business & InvestingBusiness & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0691096465

Book Description

Competitive Solutions is an entertaining and wideranging introduction to successful business methods applied to a variety of real-world situations. Rejecting the one-size-fits-all premise that underlies so many guides to business strategy, Preston McAfee develops the intellectual tools and insights needed to confront many marketplace problems. Drawing on his broad experience as a consultant for major U.S. companies, as well as extensive research, McAfee emphasizes cooperation, pricing, litigation, and antitrust as vital to a firm's competitive posture--and focuses more attention on these elements than do most business strategy accounts.

McAfee begins by considering strategy as successfully applied by America OnLine, an example that introduces many of the tools discussed in greater depth throughout the book. From here he moves to industry analysis: By examining the context for developing a strategy, he points out uses of positioning and differentiation that enable a firm to weaken price competition and deter rivals from stealing customers. McAfee's exploration of a product's life cycle proves an invaluable guide to positioning new technology in order to maximize the potential for future customers.

In the centerpiece of the book, McAfee lays out a how-to manual for cooperation, providing tactics crucial for setting standards, lobbying the government, and fostering industry growth. Writing in a conversational manner, McAfee also addresses such deep topics as organizational design and employee compensation and incentives. More detailed discussions examine antitrust enforcement, which is an increasingly important constraint on strategy, as well as strategies for pricing, bidding, signaling, and bargaining.

This book is a fascinating examination of modern business strategy and its application in many different settings. Students of business and economics--as well as executives and managers--will recognize Competitive Solutions as an indispensable resource as well as a definitive vision of the strategic firm: one in which each element of company strategy reinforces the other elements.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars An Indispensable Book.......2006-03-12

McAfee presents the issues facing modern businesses with subtleties and explanations that are essential for maneuvering intelligently in a complex competitive environment.

Instead of merely dumbing down the ideas to simplistic charts, the book lucidly explains the best modern thinking from economics and how it relates to real business situations. The author, one of the leading American experts in business economics, is well-suited to the task, since he is co-edited the top journal in the discipline for a decade. Nevertheless, he never loses sight of the practical issues and the text is packed with (a seemingly endless array) of fascinating practical examples.

The writing is clear, punchy, and often funny.

If you want to get an accessible, useful view of business economics that is much deeper than what is offered to the typical MBA, this book is a must.

5 out of 5 stars Packed with content, no fluff.......2004-05-18

The best description I can come up with is "MBA in a book." However I think that title has been applied to many books of much less quality so I need something better.

McAffee provides an "in-depth introduction" to business economics, including competition (as the name implies), pricing strategy, statistics, industry analysis, organizational design, incentives, and more. For anyone looking to get their feet wet in business, or just to understand what the marketing and business guys are talking about (or think they're talking about), this book is excellent!

If you're looking for a fluffly book with executive summaries, this is not the book for you. If you want a book packed with content that will improve your nascent business acumen, this is it.

5 out of 5 stars A Terrific Primer for Strategic Thinking.......2002-10-22

This is a terrific book which provides a wide range of strategies relating to business today. The best way to describe this book is as a sort of Art of War for business strategists (although Professor McAfee is quick to point out that war in business as in other areas should be engaged in sparingly if at all). Perhaps most impressive about the book is that McAfee is able to present several solutions to one problem and present to the reader how these solutions would play out in the real world: take for example his discussion of the variety of auction formats available for businesses or the bargaining solutions available for negotiations between a union and a large corporation. This book is also loaded with poignant examples from business throughout this century. Particularly useful in this book is McAfee's discussion about industrial analysis: this chapter would be useful for any manager who wants to know what forces (new entrants, buyer bargaining power, supplier bargaining power, substitute products, rivalry, and complements) should be kept in mind when making business decisions. McAfee has written a terrific book and has every reason to believe his book indeed fulfills a niche before neglected by writers.

Attitudes In and Around Organizations (Foundations for Organizational Science)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Attitudes In and Around Organizations (Foundations for Organizational Science)
    Arthur P. Brief
    Manufacturer: Sage Publications, Inc
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    GeneralGeneral | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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    ASIN: 0761900969

    Book Description

    How do the attitudes people bring with them to the workplaceùattitudinal baggageùaffect thoughts, feelings, and actions in organizations? How are the attitudes of those outside an organization (stockholders, customers, suppliers, government officials, and the public-at-large) affected by the organization? Attitudes In and Around Organizations provides a concise summary of what we know about attitudes and suggests what we might discover by adopting novel means, both conceptual and methodological, for studying attitudes in and around organizations. Arthur P. Brief provides an overview of the job satisfaction literature, including a redefinition of job satisfaction. In addition, he examines the various means by which attitudes have been measured, attitude formation and change, and the resistance of attitudes to change efforts. Groups whose attitudes are organizationally relevant (customers, for example) are examined in order to illustrate how organizations affect the attitudes of people beyond their boundaries and to determine how organizations can influence salient attitudes in their environments. The concluding chapter offers the reader a view of the future and suggests ideas for future research. Students, researchers, consultants, and organizational decision makers will find this a relevant, engaging, and thought-provoking resource.

    Soil and Plant Analysis: Laboratory Registry for the United States and Canada, Second Edition
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Soil and Plant Analysis: Laboratory Registry for the United States and Canada, Second Edition
      Soil & Plant Analysi
      Manufacturer: CRC
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

      GeneralGeneral | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
      Soil ScienceSoil Science | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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      ASIN: 1574441795

      Book Description

      With the renewed current emphasis on agricultural production efficiency and environmental quality, the technology of soil and plant analysis has taken on even greater importance. Several states now require soil testing as part of their nutrient management programs. Soil testing and plant analysis are important components of the Food Security Act and under consideration as safeguards for the new Clean Water Act. The Council on Soil Testing and Plant Analysis, established in 1969, promotes soil testing and plant analysis, including efficient use of nutrient resources, maximizing profits, and encouraging proper soil management and environmental protection. Compiled by the Council in response to the growing need for information about soil testing and plant analysis laboratories, Soil and Plant Analysis Laboratory Registry for the United States and Canada, Second Edition provides up-to-date information about public and private laboratory services, including:

      Jung and Reich: The Body as Shadow
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Jung and Reich: The Body as Shadow
        John Conger
        Manufacturer: North Atlantic Books
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

        GeneralGeneral | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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        ASIN: 1556435444
        Release Date: 2005-01-12

        Book Description

        Although contemporaries, Carl Jung and Wilhelm Reich, two giants in the field of psychoanalysis, never met. What might have happened if they had is the inspiration behind this detailed investigation. Jung and Reich succinctly outlines each man's personality and compares their lives and their work, emphasizing points of convergence between them. John Conger provocatively puts Jung's mystical and psychological approach to spiritual disciplines on the same plane as Reich's controversial theories of "genitality" and character armor. The result is a heady "what if?" bound to intrigue and inspire readers.

        Readings in biological science
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Readings in biological science
          Irving W Knobloch
          Manufacturer: Appleton-Century-Crofts
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Unknown Binding

          GeneralGeneral | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
          Natural HistoryNatural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
          ASIN: B0006BRO6G
          Animal Behavior Readings
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            Russell D. Fernald
            Manufacturer: Ginn Custom Publishing
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Paperback
            ASIN: 0536033153

            Product Description

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            The awesome oyster: The life and times of the oyster in Long Island Sound, a theme unit for grades 4-6
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              Penny Parsekian
              Manufacturer: Mystic Seaport Museum
              ProductGroup: Book
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              The Biblical perspective of science;: Readings in physical and biological science,
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                The Biblical perspective of science;: Readings in physical and biological science,
                Fred R Brock
                Manufacturer: MSS Information Corp
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                Science & ReligionScience & Religion | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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                Biological Sciences: Developing Reading Skills in English (Materials for Language Practice)
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                  Valerie Kay
                  Manufacturer: Pergamon
                  ProductGroup: Book
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                  ASIN: 008031063X
                  Biophysical Chemistry: Physical Chemistry in the Biological Sciences: Readings from Scientific American, With Introductions
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                    Victor A. Bloomfield , and Rodney E. Harrington
                    Manufacturer: W H Freeman & Co.
                    ProductGroup: Book
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                    The development of modern biology;: A text for history of science examinations and background reading in biological science for VI forms, (C.I.L.)
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                      The development of modern biology;: A text for history of science examinations and background reading in biological science for VI forms, (C.I.L.)
                      P. T Marshall
                      Manufacturer: Pergamon Press
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Unknown Binding

                      GeneralGeneral | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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                      Ecosystem Management: SELECTED READINGS
                      Average customer rating: Not rated
                        Ecosystem Management: SELECTED READINGS
                        F.B.,ED. SAMSON
                        Manufacturer: Springer
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Hardcover

                        GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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                        Natural ResourcesNatural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
                        WildlifeWildlife | Animals | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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                        ASIN: 0387946683

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                        Ecosystem management has emerged in the past several years as the new paradigm for managing public and private land. It combines the principles of ecosystem-level ecology with the policy requirements of resource and public land management. This collection of selected readings will serve as an introduction to the concepts of biological diversity, ecological process, biotic integrity, and ecological sustainability that underlie ecosystem management.
                        Reading in the Biological Bases of Human Behavior
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                          Paul A. Garber
                          Manufacturer: Ginn Press
                          ProductGroup: Book
                          Binding: Paperback
                          ASIN: 0536584486
                          Reading proficiency in French: biological sciences
                          Average customer rating: Not rated
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                            Jean Scammon Hyland
                            Manufacturer: American Book Co
                            ProductGroup: Book
                            Binding: Unknown Binding

                            FrenchFrench | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
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                            ASIN: B0006C2EAG

                            Ski Skating With Champions: How to Ski With Least Energy
                            Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
                            • Great Contribution to XC Skiing
                            • Detailed, analytical approach
                            • Extensive Work
                            Ski Skating With Champions: How to Ski With Least Energy
                            Einar Svensson
                            Manufacturer: Ski Skating with Champions
                            ProductGroup: Book
                            Binding: Paperback

                            GeneralGeneral | Winter Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
                            Cross-CountryCross-Country | Skiing | Winter Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
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                            ASIN: 0964194104

                            Book Description

                            272p. Paper, Landscape format, indexed. This book, the most comprehensive text on cross country Ski Skating available today, is written by 11-times World Master Champion (1988-1998) and international Norwegian and Swedish top level coach, Einar Svensson. This superb text-of-choice for teaching, learning and improving ski skating technique on all levels of experience, for one of the fastest growing new winter sports in the world, is UP-TO-DATE, thorough, instructive, informative and easy to understand and follow.

                            It's 350 color and black/white photos of recent World and Olympic Champion cross country skiers in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, Norway, and 1993 World Championships, Sweden, are presented in action sequences, with physical and mechanical analysis of 17 skating techniques, elaborate graphs and illustrations, and scientific test results.

                            Topics are: basic skills and exercises, advanced techniques, detailed explanations of poling, skating and downhill techniques, criteria, terminology, ski skating history, environment, and special analyses of mechanics of skiing and skating movements using 72 professional quality illustrations and graphs. Includes results of wind tunnel testing and information on friction, and inertia.

                            Customer Reviews:

                            5 out of 5 stars Great Contribution to XC Skiing.......2001-04-23

                            Einar Svensson has put an amazing level of effort and care into producing "Ski Skating With Champions: How to Ski With Least Energy," and it shows.

                            Trying to capture Cross-Country Skiing technique and be comprehensive yet concise, is nearly an impossible task for a written work, multimedia, or video. Einar Svensson has contributed an important work to the sport.

                            If you are a serious xc skier, then you have to have this book as a reference on your shelf. I do.

                            David McMahon, 1993 Canadian National Biathlon Champion

                            5 out of 5 stars Detailed, analytical approach.......2000-11-15

                            Mr. Svensson's book presents detailed analyses of 17 skate skiing techniques and more. I really liked that each technique was presented in a several different ways. Anyone who has teaching experience knows that two different students may find different approaches to a subject more effective. As to 'technical errors' found by 'elite skiers' I have a feeling nordic skiiers are like musicians. It is said that the only thing two musicians can agree on is the incompetence of a third. Indeed there are a variety of tweeks and variations on each technique that will prove to be effective for each skiier. This book provides ample material for a starting point. This is a really amazing book.

                            4 out of 5 stars Extensive Work.......2000-08-24

                            A lot of work went into writing Ski Skating With Champions. It dissects ski skating like no other book before it. Many intermediate level skiers will find it thought provoking.

                            The expert and elite skiers many find a variety of technical errors, or that the text is overly complex - lacks a consolidated and simple understanding of skiing, but for the sport racer the book is a good one to have on the shelf. I also recommend "Tao of Skiing" which takes an entirely different approach.

                            The New Well Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
                            Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
                            • Cute
                            • Great Review
                            • Structurally questionable at times, but amusing.
                            • Appealing with its gothic, romantic presentation, the book offers only moderate help
                            • A progressive classic for the new age!
                            The New Well Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
                            Karen Elizabeth Gordon
                            Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
                            ProductGroup: Book
                            Binding: Hardcover

                            GeneralGeneral | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
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                            ASIN: 0395628830

                            Book Description

                            For over a decade THE WELL TEMPERED SENTENCE has provided instruction and pleasure to the wariest student and the most punctilious scholar alike. Now Karen Elizabeth Gordon has revised and enlarged her classic handbook with fuller explanations of the rules of punctuation, additional whimsical graphics, and further character development and drama -- all the while redeeming punctuation from the perils of boredom. For anyone who has despaired of opening a punctuation handbook (but whose sentences despair without one), THE NEW WELL TEMPERED SENTENCE will teach you clearly and simply where to place a comma and how to use an apostrophe. And as you master the elusive slashes, dots, and dashes that give expression to our most perplexing thoughts, you will find yourself in the grip of a bizarre and beguiling comedy of manners. Long-time fans will delight in the further intrigues of cover girl Loona, the duke and duchess, and the mysterious Rosie and Nimrod. The New Well-Tempered Sentence is sure to entertain while teaching you everything you want to know about punctuation. Never before has punctuation been so much fun!

                            Customer Reviews:

                            4 out of 5 stars Cute.......2007-06-03

                            As an English teacher, I agree with the reviews that express dismay at Ms. Gordon's idiosyncratic application of traditional grammar rules. However, the handbook's examples, illustrations, and dry wit make it a much more palatable resource for the teenagers I teach than the musty handbooks provided by my district. Those who find interesting the vagaries of the English language's structure will be charmed.

                            5 out of 5 stars Great Review.......2007-05-14

                            This is what needs to be taught in schools. I taught in high schools for several years and the punctuation was very bad. Any teacher can keep it handy for their own review or for lesson ideas.

                            3 out of 5 stars Structurally questionable at times, but amusing........2007-01-04

                            Karen Elizabeth Gordon, The New Well-Tempered Sentence (Houghton Mifflin, 1993)

                            I'm still not quite sure how much I enjoyed The New Well-Tempered Sentence. A lot of it is dead-on and well worth reading, but there were a few places where I wondered what on earth Gordon was thinking (when did it become grammatically correct to end a question with any punctuation but a question mark?). The structural aspects, though, are not the reason this book (and its companion volume, The Deluxe Transitive Vampire) has been through two editions and a number of printings that's rapidly approaching the "countless" level; the book is still read (and re-read and re-read and...) for the examples Gordon uses to illustrate the structural points, which gradually unfold into, almost, a novel of their own, an odd little comedy of manners that makes very little sense, but is intriguing enough to keep people wondering.

                            Interesting, and certainly enough so to send me on to The Deluxe Transitive Vampire. *** ½

                            3 out of 5 stars Appealing with its gothic, romantic presentation, the book offers only moderate help.......2006-02-07

                            'The Well Tempered Sentence' is a slim volume (only 93 pages) and is well presented with a pleasing font, playful examples, and some interesting illustrations. The good part of the book is the easy layout and vivid, to-the-point examples. The bad part is that it is just a little bit cheesy, and of no great help if you are a serious writer.

                            I think this would be a fine volume to gift a teenage girl with, especially one who loves to write, whether it is stories or her diary or journals. The chapters are well separated, making it easy to find a quick-and-dirty example of the punctuation's usage. The book covers the period, the question mark, the exclamation point, the comma, the semicolon, the colon, the hyphen, the dash, multiple punctuation, quotation marks, parentheses, brackets, and ellipses.

                            Certainly a pleasing and helpful reference for those just beginning to find the pleasure of placing pen to paper, it becomes useless after high-school English has been conquered. If you are looking for a nice, useful gift for a budding young female journalist, 'The Well Tempered Sentence' would be a useful tool for her. If you want in-depth help with advanced writing, pass on this book.

                            4 out of 5 stars A progressive classic for the new age!.......2006-01-23

                            This book has helped me so much with my grammar. Really! I were flunking out of college English so my friend said to me, "You should get this book - it is really good" and so I got the book and boy was she right it really helped me with my run on sentences and the other problems I was having like not knowing, how to use, commas and stuff.
                            The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
                            Average customer rating: Not rated
                              The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed

                              Manufacturer: Ticknor & Fields
                              ProductGroup: Book
                              Binding: Hardcover
                              ASIN: B000I3HY1C
                              The New Well Tempered Sentence: a Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
                              Average customer rating: Not rated
                                The New Well Tempered Sentence: a Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
                                Karen Elizabeth Gordon
                                Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
                                ProductGroup: Book
                                Binding: Hardcover
                                ASIN: B000N76J2S

                                Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War
                                Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
                                • needs better fact checking
                                • Freedom Rising - The Capital in Crisis
                                • Excellent feel for what was going on in the city during the war
                                • Strong Presentation.
                                • A History of Official Washington, not the District of Columbia
                                Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War
                                Ernest B. Furgurson
                                Manufacturer: Knopf
                                ProductGroup: Book
                                Binding: Hardcover

                                GeneralGeneral | World | History | Subjects | Books
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                                United States Civil WarUnited States Civil War | Military | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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                                ASIN: 0375404546
                                Release Date: 2004-11-02

                                Book Description

                                Freedom Rising is a fresh, intensely human account of how the Civil War transformed the nation’s capital from the debating forum for a loose union of states into the seat of a forceful central government.
                                    
                                Before 1861, Washington was a dusty, muddy city of 60,000, joked about by urban sophisticates from New York and Boston. But at the onset of war, thousands of soldiers, job seekers, nurses, good-time girls, gamblers, newly freed slaves–all kinds of Americans–poured in. For days, Washington was cut off from the North, and no one was sure whether it would become the capital of the Union or the Confederacy.
                                    
                                Ernest Furgurson–author of the widely acclaimed Chancellorsville 1863, Ashes of Glory, and Not War but Murder–tells the story through the men and women who brought the city to rambunctious life. He re-creates historic figures such as William Seward, who fancied himself Abraham Lincoln’s prime minister; poet Walt Whitman, who nursed the wounded; and detective Allan Pinkerton, who tracked down Southern sympathizers; and he introduces intriguing others, such as Mayor James Berret, arrested for disloyalty; architect Thomas Walter, striving to finish the Capitol dome in the middle of war; and accused Confederate spy Antonia Ford, romancing her captor, Union Major Joseph Willard, operator of the capital’s premier hotel.  Here is Mary Lincoln, mourning the death of her son Willie, seeking solace from fakers who conducted séances in the White House. And here is the president–in all his compassion, determination, and complexity–inspiring the nation, wrangling with generals, pardoning deserters, and barely escaping death on the ramparts of Fort Stevens as Jubal Early’s Southern army invades the outskirts of Washington and fights the Union Army within five miles of the White House. For four years, the city was awash in drama and sometimes comedy, until the assassination of Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth became the tragedy of the century.
                                    
                                By the time the grand two-day victory parade of 150,000 troops surged along Pennsylvania Avenue, the men and women who had arrived in such great numbers at the start of the war had made Washington a capital to be reckoned with throughout the world. Freedom Rising is an invaluable aid to understanding the making of America.

                                Customer Reviews:

                                3 out of 5 stars needs better fact checking.......2007-07-26

                                This is a well written book. It is comprehensive yet not overwelming with detail. I am confused though how a journalist with Mr. Ferguson'snewapaper backgound would get some of the little facts WRONG! I am a member of the voluminous number who would be called Civil War Buffs (whatever that means)...yet I am not by any means an expert or an academic. But, with my ameteur acquantence with the topic I am appalled that in one line Mr. Ferguson puts Gettysburg in "Franklin" not Adams county, Pennsylvania and in another states that Mrs. Lincoln's Brother in law was killed in September at "Chattanooga"-when in fact he was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga. I must confess that such looseness with the facts-easlily checked-tends to put distrust in any other factual information he presents. A newspaperman, which Mr. Ferguson was for many years, must get the Who, What and Where correct! Sloppyness might be a result of poor editing...the final responsibility goes to the author.

                                5 out of 5 stars Freedom Rising - The Capital in Crisis.......2007-01-17

                                Ernest Furgurson uses the statue atop the Capitol as a metaphor for the survival of the U.S. and the liberation of African-Americans. Even throughout the turmoil of the war, construction of the Capital continued, albeit haltingly, its progress symbolizing the triumph of the Union. This book is a must read for anyone who lives or works in the capital.

                                Riddled with southern sympathizers and spies, the capital nevertheless became a truly federal city. Slave markets stood on the south side of Independence Ave, now a two-mile-long chain of government departments, and even on Lafayette Square. D St. and 21st, the present location of the State Department, was a huge stables; on Boxing Day, 1861, a fire broke out that killed thousands of horses and sent thousands more running through the city. For days afterwards, the city stank of burned horse meat. Present day conservatives would say that they still haven't cleaned out all the horse---- from the area. Federal Triangle was the red light district, catering to all tastes; digs have found piles of bottles of expensive French champagne where the bawdy houses one stood. Constitution Avenue was a canal -- Tiber Creek -- and all of the mall west from the Washington monument was the Potomac. Within months of the outbreak of war, Washington saw a string of firsts -- the first use of trains for strategic mobility, the first use of aerial reconnaissance, the first machine gun, the first suspension of habeas corpus, the first nursing corps, the first aircraft carrier (a balloon moored to a boat in the Potomoc that allowed the feds to observe the Confederate withdrawal from Occoquan and the Pohick Creek area where I now live). Furgurson writes of Lincoln, Stanton, Seward, Chase, Winfield Scott, Grant, and McLellan; of Confederate spies such as Antonia Ford; of dozens of soldiers and nurses, poets such as Whitman, and others who created the rich fabric of a capital at war, surrounded by hostiles. Washington, Furgurson writes, went from a town divided and fearful in 1861 to a "place of focused and confident power" in 1865. He does a superb job of reporting this huge political and physical transformation.

                                Some other notes. George Washington's grand-nephew fought on behalf of the Confederacy, and was killed in September 1861. Some vengeful Northerners wanted to confiscate Mt. Vernon but a collection of women persuaded the military authorities to let them retain it as a national historic landmark. If the hallmark of sharp political speech is that it remains as relevant today as when it was uttered, these words of Lincoln to a crowd celebrating his re-election bear diirectly on the calls of some to postpone the Iraqi elections of January 30, 2005. "We cannot have free government without elections, and if the rebellion could force us to forgo or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

                                "Freedom Rising" was enlightening as well in how deeply runs the Democratic Party's visceral distrust of the federal government, whether as a player on the national stage or more currently in the international arena. The Democratic platform in 1864 "shrugged at slavery" and all but assured Lincoln's reelection. Gideon Wells described the platform as "unpatriotic, almost treasonable to the Union. The issue is made up. It is whether a war shall be made against Lincoln to get peace with Jeff Davis. Those who met at Chicago prefer hostility to Lincoln rather than to Davis." Democratic Party leaders still struggle with the dilemma of supporting a Republican leader in time of war.

                                5 out of 5 stars Excellent feel for what was going on in the city during the war.......2006-12-11

                                I work in Washington, D.C, specifically in the US Capitol, and I felt that while this work lacks significant historical interpretation (as some reviewers point out) we should remember that the author is a journalist first. This book gives a strong feel for what was going on in the city during the civil war, as if the reader were following events as they were likely to be covered in the newspapers at the time. There is also more in depth coverage, gleaned from personal accounts - as though the author were interviewing those writers, and as though the author / reader were working or living in the city at the time. It should be noted that MANY of the sites by the author are from contemporaneous periodicals. No surprise there. All these first hand accounts shed some much needed light on other than a typical military history of the city and its suburbs.

                                Looked at in that light, this is an excellent work. It is unfettered with the typical historian's personal academic spin on events. I felt I was looking through a clearer and more familiar window into the past, as opposed to those fogged by the breath of the historian. Based on this read, I will definitely purchase the author's work on Richmond during the civil war.

                                4 out of 5 stars Strong Presentation........2006-11-02

                                I must begin this review by stating that this is the first book I have ever read on the Civil War. My review, thus, will be from the perspective of a person who possessed limited knowledge of the subject in retrospect to the other fine reviewers who have written in great detail about the subject.

                                Overall, I enjoyed Ernest B. Furgurson's 'Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War', as I found many interesting and well researched subject matter easily presented and carefully constructed in the narrative. Through an incredible amount of research that is well placed, Furgurson managed to keep my interest from the beginning of the book, which starts out with the creation of Lady Liberty's bronze statue, all the way through the inevitable. In between, the reader learns of the many scandels, the outlandish behavior of all the players, the suggested but failed compromises, and the evolution of the slavery issue from not as significant with respect to Lincoln's desire to keep the Union as one, to the importance of the matter in keeping the country one nation. In contrast to the detail, I felt some of the more important players were minamized, particularly of U.S. Grant. There were times that I felt there was a lack of consistancy on the author's direction, but was more than willing to take the journey, and understand the issues presented in the country's capitol.

                                2 out of 5 stars A History of Official Washington, not the District of Columbia.......2006-07-28

                                This book is not what I thought it would be (or possibly wanted it to be). To be certain, it is a fine story of the Civil War written from the perspective of Washington. But instead of detailing the events and personalities in the District of Columbia and the environs that make up its modern-day suburbs, it focuses instead on official Washington and the decisions it made for the nation. Ferguson spends a lot of time explaining legislation, military orders, and presidential decrees that were issued from the capital, but the ramifications of them have little or nothing to do with Washington itself. Furthermore, for anyone who has studied the Civil War in any detail, there is very little offered on these subjects that is revealing.

                                I was hoping for a Civil War-era version of David Brinkley's "Washington Goes to War" (which is limited to observations of how the nation's capital evolved during World War II). That book is riveting reading for anyone who wants to understand how Washington looked, felt, and grew during a critical period in its history. This was the expectation, which admittedly may have been unfair, that I held for Freedom Rising.

                                To suggest that there is nothing pertaining to my interests in the book would be inaccurate. There is, for an example, an interesting tale of how Mount Vernon was preserved from hostilities. There also is a great chapter on the history of slavery in the area and Lincoln's compensated emancipation in the District. There are other stories taken from the Capitol, White House, and streets of the city. But these nuggets are few and far between, leaving me feeling unfulfilled most of the times that I sat down to read it.

                                The purpose of this submission is not to discredit Ferguson or his work. It is well-written and well-intentioned. I mean the author no disrespect. But for readers like me who are interested in a detailed account of Washington the city during the Civil War, I cannot recommend this book.

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