Customer Reviews:
Essentials of Firefighting.......2007-03-08
This manual helps not only the new recruit, but the veteren firefighter to enhance their basic training or to review techniques on tasks & operations.
this is a very good book........2005-08-12
i've taught the fire academy using the textbook. it is a very good book for beginning firefighters as well as those who been firefighters for a while.
jim davis
Great Read.......2003-03-01
I recently joined a volunteer fire department and this book
truly helped me through the six months probationary period.
Great!!.......2002-12-02
This is a must have for anyone who aspires to being a firefighter. Vivid descriptions, Helpful tips, How-to Skill Sheets, and Clear illustrations help the student master otherwise difficult material. I'm currently going through firefighting class and would not be able to live without this book.
Firefighter Review.......2002-04-22
The book is excellent in its layout. Is easy to follow and is a very imformative piece of necessary literature for any firefighter taking firefighter 1. Is very informative on NFPA regulations and guidelines. I was impressed with the detail that was given in the book, our instructor was impressed with this book as well.
Book Description
Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio.
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a key component of the .NET Framework 3.0, giving you the power to create richer and more compelling applications than you dreamed possible. Whether you want to develop traditional user interfaces or integrate 3D graphics, audio/video, animation, dynamic skinning, rich document support, speech recognition, or more, WPF enables you to do so in a seamless, resolution-independent manner. Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers it all, in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by .NET guru and Microsoft developer Adam Nathan.
· Covers everything you need to know about Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)
· Examines the WPF feature areas in incredible depth: controls, layout, resources, data binding, styling, graphics, animation, and more
· Features a chapter on 3D graphics by Daniel Lehenbauer, lead developer responsible for WPF 3D
· Delves into non-mainstream topics: speech, audio/video, documents, bitmap effects, and more
· Shows how to create popular UI elements, such as features introduced in the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Galleries, ScreenTips, custom control layouts, and more
· Demonstrates how to create sophisticated UI mechanisms, such as Visual Studio-like collapsible/dockable panes
· Explains how to develop and deploy all types of applications, including navigation-based applications, applications hosted in a Web browser, and applications with great-looking non-rectangular windows
· Explains how to create first-class custom controls for WPF
· Demonstrates how to create hybrid WPF software that leverages Windows Forms, ActiveX, or other non-WPF technologies
· Explains how to exploit new Windows Vista features in WPF applications
Customer Reviews:
Great.......2007-08-25
Great book: a fast and well written introduction to WPF. I think it's a must for anyone is thinking to start with this technology.
From basic to advanced topic.......2007-07-30
This is a complete book on WPF. It start with the basic of XAML and then it introduce the new concept that WPF use (dependency properties, Routed events and Commands).
It give an introduction to the WPF controls and the layouts mode available.
Then it goes deep with databind, theming and skinning, drawing (2d and 3d) and finally animations.
It is The Book for WPF.
Great unleashing of WPF.......2007-07-16
From Resource binding to databinding and beyond, pretty much every bit of WPF that you need to know to get started well is covered.
The "full color" is awesome. The examples are great. The explanations are very clear with great comparisons to the "old" winforms way of doing things.
The only guide to WPF.......2007-07-13
For beginners or expert developers, this is the only guide you'll need to learn WPF. Excelent print quality, code markup as shown in Visual Studio, and complete information from scratch.
DataBinding, 2D drawning and animations chapters, are really impressive.
Good Stuff.......2007-07-09
This is one of the better computer books I've read in a long time. I've read a few of the big yellow "Pro this" and "Pro that" series and they were generally a bad rehash of MSDN documentation. In contrast, this book explains the framework on which WPF is built. It starts with describing XAML itself along with type converters and markup extensions - essential details. Once it gets to the chapter on controls, where most books slide into repetitive descriptions of control after control, this book categorizes them and points out their properties with respect to the framework in which they are embedded. Generally speaking, if you are interested in how the WPF classes fit together this is the book to get. If you are interested first in foremost in gradient brushes then this is not the book for you. It gets to them too but only after some worthwhile work. The only area where this book is weak is its description of the layout system that still has me generally confused. Perhaps that will resolve itself when I have something better than the [...]CTP installed.
Book Description
The market leader among all books for Step 3, Crush is an easy-to-use and effective high yield review for USMLE Step 3. The concise presentation is perfect for the busy house officer who needs a review that hits all the commonly tested concepts. The coverage also weaves in the case-based scenarios that are important part of Step 3.
Customer Reviews:
Preparation for Step 3.......2007-09-12
I am finishing my preparation for Step 3. It's September. The application process started already. I am doing a rotation in Mount Sinai Hospital Miami in Critical Care and at the same time I am studing for my Step 3, which I must take before January to have chance of H Visa. I have done Qbank with USMLE World and Kaplan, I have read First Aid and I bought Crush Step 3 as one the the last points before getting ready to take the exam. Pleasantly, I found this book very helpful. I really recommend it.
concise, quick, sufficient.......2007-05-22
crush is a well-written, succinct, adequate step 3 review source. i used it along with some online questions, and after having taken the exam, feel that it prepared me well.
Good, but overrated........2007-03-31
This book has been the "gold standard" for USMLE step 3 for a long time, mainly due to its size. It is a good book and contains a lot of information in a small volume, but it is NOT enough. The pediatrics and OB&GYN parts are very incomplete, and unless you are a resident in those specialties, you will have problems. The pictures are not enough. In my opinion, Kaplan Notes are better. If you have time, it is better to read Peds and OB&GYN from Step 2 Kaplan notes, and then review Step 3 Kaplan notes. At the end, use this book for rapid review. It would be nice if this book had a CCS section like "First Aid to USMLE Step 3"First Aid for the USMLE Step 3 (First Aid). Bottomline: Don't rely on it as the only source for preparation.
Nice concise read.......2007-03-28
A great, fast, and easy review. Great for step 2, not just step3.
Quick review for USMLE Step 3.......2007-03-09
Crush Step 3 is an excellent book for rapid, high yield review of material commonly tested on the exam. The material is presented in a nicely organized semi-textbook format which makes for easy reading. This is in contrast to the material in First Aid for Step 3 where the material is poorly presented although high yield as well. In summary, Crush Step 3 is an ideal book for last minute review for the USMLE Step 3 and a great add on to more substantial preparatory material.
Book Description
A new take on the classic, definitive text on the full spectrum of neurology. Reflecting a modern approach to neurology, Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology, 8/e new format highlights a more complete and accessible approaches to treatment and clinical management strategies. This thoroughly revised edition features more coverage of treatment and neuroimaging, renown signs and symptoms sections integrated throughout, and over 800 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2007-05-07
Detailed book in Neurology. This book is wealth of new information and researches in Neurology. I would recommend this book for who is interested in Neurology as reference and text book.
An ideal and a superb text.......2006-04-08
This book is a classic reference text in neurology surpassing any other book in the field . Every resident in neurology should possess one and neurologists are no exemption . The minute details in genetics are kept to the bare minimum and at the same time the clinical aspects are stressed . The neuroanatomy and physiology at the beginning are simply fantastic. Kudos to Professor A. Ropper .
Professor K.N.Viswanathan, AVMC, Pondicherry, India.
good reference.......2006-02-21
It's not the most complete reference in neurology, but it's objective, go straight to the point, suitable clinical information. I recommend.
A classic text........2005-04-29
The book is a "must have" item for those interested in neurology.
It is written beautifully, and in my opinion it is one of the best texts of neurology ever written. The only suggestion I have for the next edition is NOT to use a font which is significantly smaller and harder to read.
Book Description
"What is abstract art good for? What's the use--for us as individuals, or for any society--of pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves?" In this invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts the uncertainties we may have about the nonrepresentational art produced in the last five decades. He makes a compelling argument for its history and value, much as E. H. Gombrich tackled representation fifty years ago in Art and Illusion, another landmark A. W. Mellon Lectures volume. Realizing that these lectures might be his final work, Varnedoe conceived of them as a statement of his faith in modern art and as the culminating example of his lucidly pragmatic and philosophical approach to art history. He delivered the lectures, edited and reproduced here with their illustrations, to overflowing crowds at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in the spring of 2003, just months before his death.
With brilliance, passion, and humor, Varnedoe addresses the skeptical attitudes and misunderstandings that we often bring to our experience of abstract art. Resisting grand generalizations, he makes a deliberate and scholarly case for abstraction--showing us that more than just pure looking is necessary to understand the self-made symbolic language of abstract art. Proceeding decade by decade, he brings alive the history and biography that inform the art while also challenging the received wisdom about distinctions between abstraction and representation, modernism and postmodernism, and minimalism and pop. The result is a fascinating and ultimately moving tour through a half century of abstract art, concluding with an unforgettable description of one of Varnedoe's favorite works.
Customer Reviews:
overrated and wordy.......2007-09-19
a disappointing book - pretentious and unenlightening - get hilton kramer's "the trium of modernism" instead!
They really need a Zero Star category for books like this one.......2007-07-24
I watched the excellent series on art on DVD called "Power of Art" by Simon Schama. The last episode of the series is on Mark Rothko, an abstract painter. It made me want to learn more about abstract art, so I bought this book. Annnt! Thanks for playing. This book is a dog. It didnt help me understand abstract art one bit . In fact, it goes on and on about pieces of "art," but does not explain them beyond being smears or smudges or works of technique. The basis of abstract art is not explained at all.
BTW, it appears from this book that these guys were often making paintings just as rude jabs at one another's work.
I found the book a total waste.
Review by P Hutchings, Melbourne, Australia.......2007-06-13
Kirk Varnedoe's Pictures of Nothing is a masterpiece of empirical art chronology/criticism. It is gritty and on the ground. This is a relief after Danto's warmed-over Hegel and Clement Greenberg's star-spangled marx with a small M. If one might venture any hypothesis about the artists about whom Varnedoe wrote it would have to face, square on, any counter-instances. No Zeitgeist, just Popperian falsifiablility. Good. It is of course a pity for those of us who were not in New York at the right time. But, that's life.
Patrick Hutchings
Department of Philopsophy
University of Melbourne
Australia
Abstraction clarified.......2007-02-07
A brilliant and thorough explication of contemporary abstract art. The lectures were not intended for
arts professionals but are a literate and enjoyable guide to the visual arts since Jackson Pollock.
If You Could Have Only One Art Book..........2007-01-14
I'm married to a librarian and between the two of us, we have at least 8,000 books (we both love books just about more than anything), but if I could only have one book - this would definitely be it. The late Kirk Varnedoe, former Chief Curator of MoMA, has so clearly, easily and deliciously put into one gorgeous volume the whole picture of what I've been studying my you-know-what off to understand over the past 7 years. I've been The Menil Collection's Twombly Guard during those 7 years, so you can believe that I am especially enthusiastic with Varnedoe's illuminating explanations on Cy Twombly's art! Buy this book and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. The reproductions are also first-class. Varnedoe gave these lectures knowing that he was dying of cancer; his last sentence is "And now I am done." Three months later he did die and was never able to see them published. This book may be the best book that has ever been written about abstract art.
Customer Reviews:
For those who love hardbacks.......2007-08-31
Most of us who have read and enjoyed the Hitchhikers books (I won't say trilogy) have reached a point in life where getting by on 30 Altarian dollars a day and reading paperbacks has lost some of its charm. I'm in the process of cleaning up my bookshelves by replacing all the battered paperbacks of my youth with real books. I saw this omnibus edition and thought it was the perfect thing. One book with a pleasant appearance to displace a large number of ratty paperbacks. I almost didn't buy it because the price seemed to low. I thought it would sit pleasantly on my bookshelf until I was in the right mood, but I found myself diving right in and enjoying things I remembered and remembering things I forgot. The quality is much higher than I expected. The binding is very solid and the pages supple. I consider this one of my best book purchases of the year.
Great Quality Book.......2007-08-08
For the price, this book is incredible. It's a nice leatherbound copy, and shipping and everything was extremely quick. Couldn't be happier.
Incoherent is the best!.......2007-07-31
This book was introduced to me by one of the craziest persons I will ever meet in my life: My good canadian friend Amber. Once I read the first page, I was hooked. It's so incoherent, it makes you see your life in another perspective, plus the new vocabulary it uses makes you want to review your dictionary! If you have an open mind, read this whole book. Only one isn't enough (this book has 4 stories and one novel). Amazing, just amazing
Excellent!.......2007-07-25
I've always been meaning to read the Hitchhiker series, and now I have it all in one book, and get to look suave and sophisticated reading it with the impressive binding and annoying little ribbon bookmark!
Plus, it came in good condition and time, so I needed waste no time both diving into the amusing stories and flaunting about it's shiney cover n' pages.
From Far Left, and a slight bit to the right . . ........2007-07-24
Written with unique intellectual talent, unexpressed humility, and an uncanny method of tripping-up readers with a seemigly impossible use of English Language. Read on . . . read on . . . 4#! (ticker-tape readout available upon request.)
Book Description
The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith
It is symbolic that Adam Smith’s masterpiece of economic analysis,
The Wealth of Nations, was first published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence.
In his book, Smith fervently extolled the simple yet enlightened notion that individuals are fully capable of setting and regulating prices for their own goods and services. He argued passionately in favor of free trade, yet stood up for the little guy.
The Wealth of Nations provided the first--and still the most eloquent--integrated description of the workings of a market economy.
The result of Smith’s efforts is a witty, highly readable work of genius filled with prescient theories that form the basis of a thriving capitalist system. This unabridged edition offers the modern reader a fresh look at a timeless and seminal work that revolutionized the way governments and individuals view the creation and dispersion of wealth--and that continues to influence our economy right up to the present day.
Customer Reviews:
Surprisingly readable.......2007-09-12
If you have any interest at all in Economics, you'll want to go to the source. This is the source. Adam Smith lays the groundwork for the study of Economics in this very readable treatise.
Though he is discussing 18th century Britain, the topics he discusses have direct analogs in the modern American economy. Taxes, trade, money, monopoly, tarrifs, and international trade balance are all tackled with aplomb.
He really lays into Mercantilism and blasts the protectionism it engenders. Never anything less than a champion of the common man, Smith decrys monopolies and other taxes on those most unable to afford them. Though he seems to be a total free marketeer, he takes great pains to examine the types of taxes which would be useful and prudent for a government to levy.
Once or twice may be fine, but Smith uses this construction for almost every sentence in the book. It is just a stylistic gripe, but the length and complexity of each sentence make digesting the information quite a bit more difficult than it otherwise could have been. I would not be at all disappointed to see this book translated to a more modern style.
Again, if you're interested in Economics at all, this book is the place to start. There is so much good information here to be absorbed and pondered. I recommend it highly.
Adam Smith was a fabulous writer!!.......2007-08-13
Do not be dismayed by the book's substantial girth! The Wealth of Nations is not only an essential, brilliant, philosophical read for anyone interested in economics... but, it is also thoroughly entertaining and even humorous at times.
Seminal work from the father of economics.......2007-05-25
Nobody seriously involved in economics can do without this exhaustive work, originally published in five volumes as An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. This classic is a pragmatic and accessible milestone in the history of economics. Its author, Adam Smith, is woven into every economics textbook. However, Smith's theories, which today often are recounted mostly in fragments, frequently incorrectly, reveal their entire social and economic innovative power only in context. Smith burst onto the scene at a time when absolutist national states monopolized the world's precious metal reserves and tried to increase their own wealth through stringent export policies. These states were motivated by an entirely new concept about national wealth: that it stemmed from the work of the country's people, not from gold. Based on that idea, economic markets should balance themselves as if guided by an "invisible hand," impelled by each individual's self-interest. The state has to provide only an orderly framework and specific public goods and services. Even though Smith's image of idealized economic and social harmony may have developed a few cracks over the course of time, his ideas have inspired many well-known economists during the past 250 years, including David Ricardo, Vilfredo Pareto, Friedrich August von Hayek and Milton Friedman. We highly recommend this seminal work.
Go with Bantam.......2007-02-12
If you're wondering which Wealth of Nations to purchase, get the Bantam paperback. This is Smith's complete and unabridged final version of the Wealth of Nations. It provides footnotes on Smith's wording, the historical context, and the differences between Smith's 5th edition and previous editions. In addition, the margin of the pages contain useful notes which summarize Smith's writing. For the price, this is clearly the superior choice.
Now, if you're wondering whether you should undertake such an endeavor, let me just say that Adam Smith was a professor of rhetoric. He explains everything so precisely, yet so comprehensible. Smith's writing is by no means difficult; I actually found it a surprisingly easy read given its antique nature. Once you get through the first chapter, you get quite used to Smith's writing style. If you put adequate time and energy into it, it's not hard at all.
A must read if you are in economics.......2006-09-02
The works of Adam Smith are an essential part of universal culture, especially for economics. The introduction to the book places you at the time it was written, which makes it even more valuable.
Book Description
In this groundbreaking new history, Adam Tooze provides the clearest picture to date of the Nazi war machine and its undoing. There was no aspect of Nazi power untouched by economics—it was Hitler's obsession and the reason the Nazis came to power in the first place. The Second World War was fought, in Hitler's view, to create a European empire strong enough to take on the United States. But as The Wages of Destruction makes clear, Hitler's armies were never powerful enough to beat either Britain or the Soviet Union—and Hitler never had a serious plan as to how he might defeat the United States. The Wages of Destruction is an eye-opening and controversial account that will challenge conventional interpretations of the period and will find an enthusiastic readership among fans of Ian Kershaw and Richard Evans. BACKCOVER:
Advance praise for The Wages of Destruction:
“One of the most important and original books to be published about the Third Reich in the past twenty years. A tour de force.”
—Niall Ferguson, author of Colossus
“Unputdownable epic history . . . Transforms not only our reading of Hitler's sordid regime, but the history of the twentieth century itself. Brilliantly written, its original scholarship is telling and lightly borne on every page.”
—John Cornwell, author of Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
Customer Reviews:
A PROFOUND AND FAR-REACHING STUDY.......2007-09-17
I certainly agree with other reviewers who give "Wages of Destruction" highest praise. The only wonder is why it took so long to get the story out. We've been reading histories of the war for more than sixty years, and yet I cannot recall reading anything that lays out the economic choices and consequences as well as Adam Tooze has done here. My only criticisms in this regard would be that Tooze tends to look through a lens of economic determinism, as though weight of resources would inevitably result in Germany's defeat, no matter who was in charge. What Tooze does not delineate with any degree of specificity is Hitler's confidence in the risk aversiveness, if not downright cowardice, of the Western democracies. That was certainly the case with France, which went to war profoundly divided, and whose failure of leadership echos to this day. Great Britain under Nevelle Chamberlain was hardly better. As late as May, 1940, members of the Cabinet were still debating whether to try to cut a deal with Hitler. As for the Soviet Union, the idea that Germany could defeat the Red Army in the field and expect to hold onto captured territory was wishful thinking at its worst; even if Moscow had been captured, which Napoleon did in 1812, Hitler had to know that in Stalin he faced a man as ruthless as himself. The idea that he could repeat the German Imperial Army's success against Russia in 1917, and then confront the Western Allies, throws all rational calculation to the wind. The only other comment I would make about Wages of Destruction would be that Tooze tends to summarize the events between the Summer of 1943 and May, 1945, as though that 18 month period simply followed on what had been in the pipeline before.
Profound Analysis of Nazi Germany's Economic Situation.......2007-09-11
Recently, there has been a spate of excellent books arguing that Germany was a much weaker state than it has generally been thought to be, and that the tactical brilliance of its military obscured economic inadequacies and strategic incompetence. Isabel Hull's "Absolute Destruction," Ian Kershaw's "Fatal Decisions," and now Adam Tooze's "Wages of Destruction" all make a similar point in their very different ways. They also suggest something very interesting -- that given the insane premises that Germany should be a hegemonic power and that war and conquest were the means to attain that power, Germany's military decisions in World Wars I and II made sense.
Tooze points out in convincing fashion that not only was Germany an economic basket case compared to the United States (capable of produing perhaps 1,000 warplanes at the same time the United States could produce perhaps 50,000), but that even if it were matched against the British Empire alone, its long-run prospects were little better than 50-50.
Tooze goes on to show that after France fell and Britain would not make a separate peace, Hitler faced an economic and strategic dilemma. The United States was not likely to stay out of the war indefinitely; when it inevitably entered the war on the allied side, Germany would be grossly outnumbered and outproduced.
The only possible answer was Russia, either as an ally or as a colony. As an ally, the Soviet Union was unreliable, opportunistic, and probably treacherous. Moreover, Germany would have to bend a great deal to Stalin's wishes to keep the Soviet Union happy. As a prostrate colony, Russia might just provide the material to resist Britain and the United States. So, Tooze suggests, Hitler was not so irrational when he invaded Russia (provided, of course, one does not ask the question "If Hitler faced such a daunting situation even after France was unexpected defeated, how could he ever have figured on winning the war while France was still in the allied camp"?)
If anything, Tooze suggests, Germany got lucky -- it had no business being as successful as it was by June 1941. Even at that, so many things had to go right for Germany to come out of the war in any decent shape that total victory was an impossibility. Could he successfully invade England? Little or no chance. Could he starve England out? Not with the United States on Engalnd's side. Even if he had conquered Russia where would he be -- Facing the United States across a narrow strait with his army streched from the Bering Sea to the English Channel. This was not a winning hand.
Tooze presents plenty of evidence to show that the Nazis ran a miserable war economy; that it had no idea how to put together a coherent economic or military strategy; that its solutions were ad hoc, duplicative, inefficient, and ultimately monstrous. The famous "German efficiency" takes a terrible hit, at least on the strategic level. In sum, Tooze concludes, absent a complete collapse of allied will, Germany never had a chance. But given the fact that it never had a chance and chose to take one anyway, its seemingly irrational moves made a certain kind of mad sense.
Wages is Scholarly Blut Dull.......2007-07-21
Adam Tooze has made a great contribution to the history of Germany under Nazi party rule, breaking into territory trod by few hisorians. His scholarship is superior. Few have found a way to enliven economic history and Toonze has failed to break that barrier. This along keeps the book from a five star rating.
great book.......2007-07-07
Germany lost the Second World War was because the allies out-produced them. I've known that for a long time -- but until I read The Wages of Destruction I never really understood what that statement meant, and all that it entailed. The Wages of Destruction explains, in gripping, readable detail, how the Nazi war machine worked, how it failed, and how it shaped the strategy and some of the worst crimes of the Third Reich.
So let me add to the chorus of five-star reviews. I consider The Wages of Destruction required reading if you want to understand Nazi Germany, particularly if you have an interest in economics or business. Also, if you have read Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich, you'll be interested in this book for the counterpoint it provides.
STOP HITLER WITH BORROWED MONEY?.......2007-06-25
"Wages" presents a blow by blow history of the steps that the Nazis took to prepare for war, the German war economy, and the economic collapse of the Third Reich. The book discusses topics such as employment, incomes, prices, resource allocation, war industries, imports/exports, foreign exchange, inflation, etc - all the subjects you'd expect in an economics textbook.
Tooze shows that Hitler intended to fight from the word go. As soon as he was made prime minister in 1932, Hitler immediately started a military buildup, quickly setting plans to divert roughly 20% of Germany's national income into armaments. The main theme of the book, which Tooze reasserts over and over through examples is this - the Nazis could not summon the human and productive resources required for their war aims. Hitler started a World War the Germans could not win. Right from the start he was "in over his head."
The German economy that Hitler inherited from the Weimar Republic contained some excess resources, in particular, millions of unemployed Germans. But Germany's overall resource position was not good enough. Hitler needed oil, rubber, iron, copper, food and other resources that he did have. Germany could not afford to import these resources because the Reichsbank did not have the foreign currency reserves. The Nazis military buildup was constantly frustrated by a lack of foreign exchange. In terms of population, natural resources, industrial capacity, even technological devices, Germany was looking at potential coalitions of enemies whose resources dwarfed German resources. Germany's productive resources were about equal to Britain's, but add in the United States, or France, or Soviet Union and the German position was relatively inferior. That's why many of Hitler's generals, his economic advisors, and his foreign policy establishment were scared stiff by the prospects of a new World War.
Who should read this book? Seems to me that a reader can't fully understand this book without a college-level understanding of economics, including banking and foreign trade, currency reserves and devaluation, etc. This is especially important in understanding the economy the Reich inherited from the Republic, understanding the steps that the Nazis took (or did not take), their decisions about prices and inflation, foreign trade, production versus investment tradeoffs, etc. I'm a college professor. I deal with many of these issues in my own work. Yet I can't say I understood all of it.
Let me offer one illustration of the kind of relationships a reader must comprehend:
After the First World War, the victorious Allies imposed huge war reparations on Germany. But, the Germans could not pay, not really (Why not print money?). Moreover, the Americans insisted that England and France repay their own war indebtedness to America, but England and France could not pay, not really (Why not print money?). Wall Street figured out an answer. Americans lent money to Germany, which the Germans handed over to England and France, who turned around to pay their debts in America (Why did this work?) If this system had continued to work from 1928-1932, the German government would not have been forced into devastating financial policies. When the Germans could no longer obtain the American loans, their only choices were default and breaking the Versailles treaty, or tight money and public budget cuts (Why?). The German government cut their budget, raised taxes, controlled imports, retreated into bilateral trading .........all of it leading to lower incomes, excess capacity in industry, unemployment, higher interest rates, etc - just like the IMF would advise today (Why?). As a result, the Nazis support skyrocketed from merely 3% of voters in 1928 to 32% of the vote in parliamentary elections, paving the way for Hitler's takeover in 1932 (Why?). In effect, American financiers could have stopped Hitler-- if they had kept lending to Germany. Huh?........If a reader can't understand all this, the book is pitched above his head.
To sum up, it's a fascinating book for readers who bring some knowledge of economics plus a profound dedication to understanding the Nazi period. Serious history for serious readers.
Book Description
If you know all of the concepts in this book, you should do much better than pass USMLE Step 2: You should CRUSH STEP 2! Bestselling author Adam Brochert, MD, who scored in the 99th percentile in Steps 1 and 2 of the USMLE, offers you high-yield coverage of all of the specialty and subspecialty knowledge tested on the most recent administrations of the USMLE Step 2 exam. A well-written, easily accessible approach, with plenty of helpful lists and tables, makes studying easy. You'll also find numerous tips, insights, and guidance on maximizing your score and on getting the most benefit from computer-based simulations.
Customer Reviews:
Just what I needed!.......2007-07-08
This is a great review book. It isn't swarming in details and really outlines the high yield stuff for step 2 without being overwhelming. Format is similar to a text book...but there are lots of memorization charts that are helpful.
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!.......2006-11-30
This book is amazing. I used for the USMLE Step 2 CK and get a 220. I used with the First Aid, because this book has different information than the FA. I highly recomend to read chapter 29-34 a couple of time they are very helpful.
Good Luck!!!!!
Well presented chapter but .............2006-11-06
If you are looking to add further information to this book ( as is needed from other sources ) the fact that the contents are not in alphabetical order might waste allot of time flipping back and forth and on every occassion having to look to the content table. Unlike First Aid, where the contents are in alphbetical order ( ex: Cardiovascular, Dermatology, Endocrine .... etc.). If it was alphabetical it would allow for faster and more efficient stydying as is needed in preperation of a Step exam. Best of luck.
useful book.......2006-08-07
The format is excellent. Concise and easy to read; a lot of pertinent information for the step 2 preparation.
great book.......2006-07-10
everything it claims to be, and a great brush up before step 2.
Book Description
As one of the first titles in Atlantic Monthly Press’ “Books That Changed the World” series, America’s most provocative satirist, P. J. O’Rourke, reads Adam Smith’s revolutionary The Wealth of Nations so you don’t have to. Recognized almost instantly on its publication in 1776 as the fundamental work of economics, The Wealth of Nations was also recognized as really long: the original edition totaled over nine hundred pages in two volumes—including the blockbuster sixty-seven-page “digression concerning the variations in the value of silver during the course of the last four centuries,” which, “to those uninterested in the historiography of currency supply, is like reading Modern Maturity in Urdu.” Although daunting, Smith’s tome is still essential to understanding such current hot-topics as outsourcing, trade imbalances, and Angelina Jolie. In this hilarious, approachable, and insightful examination of Smith and his groundbreaking work, P. J. puts his trademark wit to good use, and shows us why Smith is still relevant, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and why the pursuit of self-interest is so important.
Customer Reviews:
A Waste of Time if You Want to Understand Adam Smith.......2007-10-02
I got this book because I wanted to read something on Smith, an author who is not, contrary to what is repeatedly said by other reviewers, difficult to read or superseded by later writers. What I quickly realized was that O'Rourke has no intention of seriously engaging with Smith at all and that the book might easily have been written without his having read the Wealth of Nations at all using a research assistant to pull out some quotes to sprinkle around. That he didn't read the book is the only explanation for the presence of so many gross errors in the book, such as when O'Rourke lumps labor unions together with chartered companies, etc. as a market distorting institution that Smith abhors; whereas, as any reader of the book knows, Adam Smith is quite explicit in his defense of collective bargaining for workers and condemns the laws of his day that impede workers' ability to organize. Whatever one thinks of these matters, Smith was clear as to his own view.
There is also a generally philistine and puerile element to O'Rourke's style and humour which I found extremely grating. If you are interested in work of Adam Smith, don't waste your time with this book. Just because O'Rourke didn't read the original doesn't mean you ought not to. So save your money and but a copy of the Wealth of Nations itself if you haven't read it already.
Recommend highly.......2007-09-02
P. J. O'Rourke makes Adam Smith's master work come alive with witty asides and modern examples to succinctly illustrate principles that Smith had expanded upon at daunting length. Everyone who thinks they might someday want to go into business, run for office, vote, or engage in intelligent conversation should read it, as should those who just want thought-provoking entertainment. The lengthy "dictionary" of quotations in the back is an added bonus.
A terrific guide to the ideas and writings of Adam Smith - with some jokes, too.......2007-08-13
Adam Smith has been written off my many people who find themselves too sophisticated for his 18th Century views. Each time, it is they who prove themselves and their ideas dispensable. Adam Smith continues to influence new generations of people trying to understand not only economics, but what Smith called Moral Sentiments. Was Smith a Prophet? Of course not. Did he get everything right? No. But there is more right there than you will likely find in a library full of most other writers on economics who think they know more than Smith.
However, there are many fundamental concepts that have become central to our understanding of how human beings interact and create wealth that some of us treat him with a kind of devotion and veneration. We probably overdo it. Still, like scripture, he is more often talked about than read. And that is why the wonderful humorist P.J. O'Rourke wrote this book. It is a short guide through Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" (a much shortened title).
O'Rourke also gives us a brief view of Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and a very brief look at Smith's life and times. As O'Rourke quote William Kristol, most of us only read in Smith. It is just so long and dry and tied to his times, it takes a special reason to read every darn word. O'Rourke did so he could write this book.
While there is much to enjoy in the book, O'Rourke has created a dictionary of Smith's best sayings (lightly edited). He also provides a list of other readings and points you to the best editions of Smith's works.
This book isn't just a funny book that riffs on Smith. Yes, O'Rourke is great at making things funny, to the point you will laugh out loud. But his humor is most often insightful rather and it is a way of getting the reader to take in the point thinking he is getting dessert. I like this insight from page 62:
"A recurring lesson in "The Wealth of Nations" is that we shouldn't get greedy. And no people are as rapacious and grabby as those who work for the public good. They don't want mere millions or billions of dollars to satisfy personal avarice. They seek the trillions of dollars necessary to make life on earth better for everyone. The World Bank should content itself with private good, from which all good things flow"
Yeah, it isn't that funny. But it is concise and right with a nice bite.
Get it, read it and enjoy it. And, hey, you will probably learn something. Especially if you haven't read Smith (or even read much in his writings).
This was my O'Levels assignment!.......2007-07-25
This is the best book I have read so far this year. The author succeeds in presenting this heavy work in an entertaining and humorous way. I think anyone reading this book will be encouraged to read the Wealth of Nations and inquire more on Adam Smith, if they haven't already done so.
The Wealth of Nations, a book of free-market thinking and a book that shapes the world to this day, was first published in 1776, the year The United States of America gained its independence from Britain. The book was instantly recognized as being fundamental to an understanding of Economics. The original edition totaled over nine hundred pages in two volumes, which was considered long. It is a large volume because Adam Smith felt he was at the end of his life and he wanted to say all he could. In fact, The Wealth of Nations was orally dictated, significantly contributing to its length.
According to P.J. O'Rourke, to understand The Wealth of Nations, you also need to read Smith's first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. But now with On The Wealth of Nations, you don't need to read either, or so the book back cover claims. In fact, this book reads like a Cliff Notes, with laughter added.
Adam Smith only wrote three books, the third, on law, being left uncompleted.
P.J. Rourke shows us why Smith is still relevant today, why what seems obvious now was once revolutionary, and how the division of labor, freedom of trade, absence of government interference (the famous two words, `invisible hand'), and pursuit of self-interest espoused by Smith are vital to the welfare of mankind. There is nothing inherently wrong with the pursuit of self-interest. That was Smith's best insight. Smith further gives suggestions on how governments should be run, and how various classes of men should behave. Smith illuminated the mystery of economics in one flash: "Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production."
Far from being an avatar of capitalism, Smith was actually a moralist of liberty. O'Rourke says, "it's as if Smith, having proved that we can all have more money, then went on to prove that money doesn't buy happiness. And it doesn't. It rents it." (I just love this quote!)
I had to read Wealth of Nations for my O-Levels, and I got a B, the highest score in my class. I was hoping for an `A' actually, but I didn't have O'Rourke's book at the time.
Some interesting quotes from the book:
"Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery, but of liberty. It denotes that he is subject to government, indeed, but that, as he has some property, he cannot himself be the property of a master."
"To improve land with profit requires an exact attention to small savings and small gains, of which a man born to a great fortune...is very seldom capable."
Never complain that the people in power are stupid. It is their best trait. In recent years we've seen a variety of powerful figures barter their authority for the gratification of childish vanities. Perhaps the Saudi royal family will be next to suffer the fate that Adam Smith described: "Having sold their birth-right, not like Esau for a mess of pottage in time of hunger and necessity, but in the wantonness of plenty, for trinkets and baubles, fitter to be the playthings of children than the serious pursuits of men, they became as insignificant as any substantial burgher or tradesman in a city.
In 1776, Britain was the most powerful country on earth. The reason for this, wrote Smith, was plain: "That security which the laws in Great Britain give to every man that he shall enjoy the fruits of his own labour, is alone sufficient to make any country flourish."
Military power depends on economic success. Economic success depends on freedom. "No regulation of commerce," Smith wrote, "can increase the quantity of industry in any society... It can only divert a part of it into a direction into which it might not otherwise have gone."
The rulers of Great Britain have, for more than a century past, amused the people with the imagination that they possessed a great empire on the west side of the Atlantic. This empire, however, has hitherto existed in imagination only. It has hitherto been, not an empire, but the project of an empire; not a gold mine, but the project of a gold mine...It is surely now time that our rulers should either realize this golden dream, in which they have been indulging themselves, perhaps, as well as the people; or, that they should awake from it themselves, and endeavour to awaken the people. If the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up...Great Britain should free herself from the expence of defending those provinces in time of war, and of supporting any part of their civil or military establishments in time of peace, and endeavour to accommodate her future views and designs to the real mediocrity of her circumstances."
"What institution of government could tend so much to promote the happiness of mankind as the general prevalence of wisdom and virtue? All government is but an imperfect remedy for the deficiency of these."
One reviewer on Amazon.com had the following to say:
"Socialism can work, but it requires people with the qualities of saints. The difference between O'Rourke's rant and the reality of earthly socialism was aptly seen by Leacock, who explained `socialism won't work except in Heaven, where they don't need it, or in Hell, where they already have it.' "
Adam Smith died on July 17, 1790, leaving us a book that is still shaping our way of thinking! His stoic attitude toward death, recorded in his Moral Sentiments, was as follows: "Walk forth without repining; without murmuring or complaining. Walk forth calm, contented, rejoicing, returning thanks to the Gods, who, from their infinite bounty, have opened the safe and quiet harbor of death, at all times ready to receive us from the stormy ocean of human life."
If you find The Wealth of Nations too long or too hard to read, then read P.J. O'Rourke's On The Wealth of Nations, and you will understand all the major concepts of Smith's book.
Interesting and VERY funny.......2007-07-12
I really, really enjoyed this Book on CD.....I think it made it much better than if I had just read the book. Listen to the jokes was really cool. Lots of very good information.
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