Book Description
Every parent would happily give up ever scolding, punishing or threatening if she only knew how to ensure that her toddler/child/teen would thrive and act responsibly without such painful measures. Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves is the answer to this universal wish. It is not about gentle ways to control a child, but about a way of being and of understanding a child so she/he can be the best of herself, not because she fears you, but because she wants to, of her own free will.
"Aldort's book should be on the must read list of all Moms and Dads. This book could carry a subtitle: "Saving the Emotional Lives of Our Children and The Future of Humanity.""
- James Prescott, Ph.D. Institute of Humanistic Science
"Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves operates on the radical premise that neither child nor parent must dominate; it is for those who want to give up scolding, threatening and punishing. Her SALVE "formula" alone is worth the price of the book." - Peggy O'Mara Editor and Publisher of Mothering
"Every once in awhile, a writer comes along who is comfortable speaking the truth, no matter how much it might challenge us or make us uncomfortable. Naomi Aldort is one of those people. In Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, Naomi Aldort takes the struggle out of parenting and replaces controlling and shaping style of parenting with one that values, trusts and nurtures children's innate abilities and autonomy."
- Wendy Priesnitz Editor of Life Learning magazine, author of School Free and Challenging Assumptions in Education
"In this stunning insight into human nature, Naomi Aldort opens a window into harmonious family living. This book should to be widely read and not just by parents but by every being who strives for a more peaceful world."
- Veronika Robinson, Editor of The Mother magazine, UK
Customer Reviews:
I'm buying it for every parent I know.......2007-09-10
I recently read "Raising our Children, Raising Ourselves"
and I have to say that it is an amazing book and one that has created a
fundamental shift in how I approach my relationship with my children. I
have always been an advocate for gentle and respectful parenting, but this
book has offered me "mental" tools to examine my own internal world and
reactions to my children, and frankly, my spouse. I've passed it along to
several friends and they feel the same.
Like any other good parenting book..........2007-08-31
...you take what is reasonable for you and your family and discard the stuff that is not. It flows along the lines of attachment parenting, Easy to Love; Difficult to Discipline type of thinking. I found many parts useful and enlightening AND there were parts where I found myself thinking "do what??" So, as with everything else; use it as a guideline, not a bible.
If I recommended only one parenting book...........2007-04-13
This book is wonderful! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I want to recommend this to every parent I know, and some who aren't.
It is validating not only what I've been doing as a parent, but also what I secretly want to be doing, but am not sure about. I also struggle at times with compromising my commitment to my child to avoid losing approval from my parents. I feel totally clear now about not making that trade-off ever again.
And it's validating so, so many experiences and feelings I had as a child... Helping me have huge clarity around what I need for my healing process as an adult (just reading has felt immensely healing), and clarity around how to better respect and honor my husband in our marriage
This is EXACTLY the information I was looking for.
Thank you so much, Naomi Aldort
Excellent Book.......2007-03-08
Very good book with focus on communication and relationship which nurturing child personality and dignity. Almost al "theoretical" explanations are provided with some examples. The underlined logic present in explanations are so acceptable.
I'm indeed interested in Montessori education. On some Montessori forum recommended this book. It's really very, very god book!
Our world needs this book - QUICK!.......2007-03-06
I agree with most of the 5-star reviews here. This is the best parenting book I've found - a great leap from the many modern parenting books out there. In fact, I'd say it is the only parenting book you will ever need! Like another reviewer, I am ordering many copies and actively distributing to all the parents I know.
Finally, a book that spells out with crystal clarity that yes, you can respect and trust your children fully, and love them unconditionally, without any "ifs" and "buts".
Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves provides the tools for being always kind and loving in our day-to-day interactions with our children, and illustrates the guidance via eloquent real-life examples. These tools are easy to remember and put to practice, and they actually work. This book has transformed my relationship with my 10-month old, giving me permission to fully love her the way I always felt - without holding back ANYTHING! Quite a liberating shift. The guidance carries all the way from infancy through the teen years, and I am so grateful that I stumbled upon it while she is still little!
The transformative effect of the book goes way beyond parenting, as both the title, and the subtitle proposed by James Prescott on the cover ('Saving the emotional lives of our children and the future of humanity'), suggest. It lays out a readily available path to self-healing and self-realization through our relationship with our children (as well as with other people): simply by starting to examine how we respond to others a little more closely. Imho, this is one of the most important books ever written, period.
I have a wish. I grew up in Europe (France) and, really, I CANNOT WAIT to see the book available there as well, in other languages, and start infusing its wisdom and compassion overseas. Any publisher out there interested in making a difference? Call Naomi today, you'll do yourself and the world a favor. Our world needs this book. QUICK!
Book Description
Environmental disasters. Terrorist wars. Energy scarcity. Economic failure. Is this the world's inevitable fate, a downward spiral that ultimately spells the collapse of societies? Perhaps, says acclaimed author Thomas Homer-Dixon - or perhaps these crises can actually lead to renewal for ourselves and planet earth.
The Upside of Down takes the reader on a mind-stretching tour of societies' management, or mismanagement, of disasters over time. From the demise of ancient Rome to contemporary climate change, this spellbinding book analyzes what happens when multiple crises compound to cause what the author calls "synchronous failure." But, crisis doesn't have to mean total global calamity. Through catagenesis, or creative, bold reform in the wake of breakdown, it is possible to reinvent our future.
Drawing on the worlds of archeology, poetry, politics, science, and economics, The Upside of Down is certain to provoke controversy and stir imaginations across the globe. The author's wide-ranging expertise makes his insights and proposals particularly acute, as people of all nations try to grapple with how we can survive tomorrow's inevitable shocks to our global system. There is no guarantee of success, but there are ways to begin thinking about a better world, and The Upside of Down is the ideal place to start thinking.
Customer Reviews:
Eloquent and timely.......2007-09-05
In this pathbreaking work Thomas Homer-Dixon illustrates the complex and tenuous relations between the human ecology and the natural systems upon which society, markets, and structures of governance are based. He warns that human populations, and their high rates of resource consumption, are rapidly outstripping the regenerative capacity of the planet. A principal contribution of the work lies in his argument that energy flows play a central role in the maintainance of economic and socio-political stability. Homer-Dixon's exploration of the role of energy in the collapse of previous political institutions is rather novel and deserves serious consideration.
Moreover, Homer-Dixon has a rare talent for weaving advances in the natural sciences into the policy literature and communicating advanced concepts to the reader with clarity and precision. His discussions of complexity, emergent properties, and panarchy are particularly illuminating. A wonderful read.
Reflecting in the fog.......2007-08-24
The key question in this book is raised in the very middle: "Why don't we face reality?" A major reason is that we are groping in a fog to learn what that reality is. Homer-Dixon likens our society to a driver careering along a country road in a dense fog. We can barely see what's ahead, but we're somehow confident that no mishap will befall us. We've gotten this far safely. As we drive, we're guided by the mantra of "endless economic growth". We have some idea where we've been, but remain uncertain about what lies ahead. Worse, we don't seem to care. Ignoring the warning signs indicating that all might not be well we continue along our course. In this excellent study of how our society is progressing and where it's likely going, the author clearly outlines the various options before us and what actions we can take to prevent serious disruptions.
The book is a call for preparation. Resilience is what our outlook and our policies should undertake to prevent disasters that we cannot handle. Having observed and reflected on these issues for several years, Homer-Dixon concludes that major difficulties lie ahead. We cannot avoid them - they're already here or loom in the near future. He lists some of the obvious ones: terrorism is now a part of life, climate change beyond our experience is already with us, and economic and social disruption causes have already been pinpointed. His model used as the basis of assessment is the Roman Empire. He cites three examples of what the Empire accomplished, the Colosseum, the road and aqueduct networks and the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, Lebanon. All these enterprises required immense amounts of energy, yet a society without engineering schools achieved them all successfully. It worked only so long as the energy was available and applied efficiently. Our schools taught us that the Romans built their imperium on slavery, but Homer-Dixon shows that concept to be false. Oxen pulled the 256 carts of material required by the Colosseum and free peasant farmers supplied the basic energy needs. The Empire collapsed only when the energy required failed. We need to understand what can be learned from that Empire offer, and Homer-Dixon demonstrates how pertinent the lessons are today.
The author's formula for assessment is EROI - Energy Return On Investment. We've been profligate in energy use, and it's future availability is a major concern of the his. "Peak oil" has been the topic of so many books and articles, it should be old news. The author notes how the petroleum industry and those dependent on it keep up a continuous barrage of denial propaganda to discourage us from believing that evident fact. The "globalised" economy was supposed to reduce the distinction between rich and poor. Not only is it having the opposite effect, but it's increasing the consumption of energy in the process. While a number of recent books stress the threats posed by environmental change, Homer-Dixon sees that as but one element in a far larger picture. He deals with a full range of pressures building up to threaten society. He likens them to tectonic stresses likely to snap unexpectedly at any time.
Unlike some books making forecasts or offering timetables of potential catastrophe, Homer-Dixon's more circumspect. He's more concerned with demonstrating that the kinds of "growth" we've experienced cannot endure. What and when surprise setbacks occur is of less importance to him than how we adjust to them. He's not addressing a small coterie of "movers and shakers" with this work His prose style is just short of that of a story-telling narrative. He means for all of us, taxpayers, policy-makers and even academics and scientists, to participate in the development and preparation of new sets of options for survival. We will all be effected by the unfolding events. While this may seem that the author's "Down" is inevitable and final, he prefixed it with "Upside" for a reason. His opening depicts the destruction of a city - San Francisco in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The city didn't collapse and die, but recovery meant a new approach to disaster planning. We must follow that example, or our collapse will be more severe. It will be global and possibly all-consuming. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Required Reading for all Who Care About the Planet.......2007-07-05
This brilliant, courageous, inspiring, multidisciplinary book unflinchingly examines the ominous, ever increasing tectonic pressures--population imbalances, energy shortages, environmental damage, global warming, and the widening gaps between rich and poor--that threaten to disrupt, if not topple, civilization.
Historical, ecological, political, economic, scientific, sociological and psychological threads are woven together in a fascinating, extremely readable analysis of the mess we are in, how we got here, what we can expect in the future, and what we can do about it.
Homer-Dixon does not provide magic bullet solutions to our problems because, in fact, none exists. He does, however, suggest four important actions, including boosting the overall resilience of our civilization, especially critical systems like energy and food distribution. Most importantly, he stresses the cultivation of the prospective mind, which includes an openness to radically new ways of thinking about our world and about how we should live our lives.
The author states that "when a social earthquake erupts--when the established order starts to crack and crumble--much depends on what happens in the period immediately following the initial shock." A mega-crisis has the potential to jolt people awake from their social conditioning, and can bring out the very worst or the very best in people. Homer-Dixon tells us to prepare for that moment, so the forces of reason, tolerance and compassion will prevail.
This book is not for those wanting to pretend that band-aide solutions from corporate-owned politicians will save us. This book is a zen-like slap in the face designed to zap denial, and awaken prospective, creative intelligence, so that bold new solutions to our planetary problems can emerge.
If I could, I would make The Upside of Down required reading for everyone on the planet. When it comes to defining the global crisis, it is by far the best of the following related books which I've recently read:
James Howard Kunstler, The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil,
Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-
First Century (2006)
Stephen Leeb, The Coming Economic Collapse (2006)
Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2006)
Sir Martin Rees, Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning (2003)
David Korten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (2006)
Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable
Future(2007)
Raine Eisler, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics
(2007)
Jerry Mander & John Cavanagh, Alternatives to Economic Globalization
(2004)
Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came
into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming (2007)
Lester Brown, Plan B2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a
Civilization in Trouble(2006)
Paul & Anne Ehrlich, One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption and the
Human Future(2004)
An Excellent Read.......2007-05-17
This book dispels myths about global warming and sets the stage for what may or could likely happen. It's not just about global warming, that is just one consequence of how we choose to live. I'm not sure if Thomas Homer-Dixon has it all, but his book is very well researched and referenced. It reads well and one of those books that you don't want to put down, even if that is the upside of down.
The Upside of Down.......2007-05-07
Homer-Dixon suggests that the current state of the Western world in many ways mirrors that of Rome prior to its fall. He argues that the increasing complexities of maintaining such a society as Rome contributed greatly to its demise. Speaking to some of the complexities of today's world, he addresses such issues as globalization, desolving energy sources, socio-economic disparaties, terrorism, and others, Homer-Dixon.
The Upside of Down is a fine negotiation of the many issues involved. Homer-Dixon demonstrates the interconnectedness of global events and issues while remaining optimistic. He answers the exreme optimism of writers like Thomas Friedman without being alarmist. He has also made great efforts to make this readable. I would recommend The Upside of Down to anyone interested in globalization, global warming, energy resources and the like.
Book Description
By the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Economics, an essential and paradigm-altering framework for understanding economic development--for both rich and poor--in the twenty-first century.
Freedom, Sen argues, is both the end and most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population. Releasing the idea of individual freedom from association with any particular historical, intellectual, political, or religious tradition, Sen clearly demonstrates its current applicability and possibilities. In the new global economy, where, despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers--perhaps even the majority of people--he concludes, it is still possible to practically and optimistically restain a sense of social accountability.
Development as Freedom is essential reading.
Customer Reviews:
Development as rhetoric.......2007-06-17
This is Amartya Sen's, Nobel Prize winner in Economics and collaborator of Martha Nussbaum, most famous work. In "Development as Freedom" he gives a broad and general overview of his views on development economics, and in particular on the priorities that must be made in creating social and economic policy in the developing world. The general thesis of the book is that many economic advisors have far too much relied on measurements of real income alone, and ignored the fact that income and wealth are a means to an end, and that this end is freedom (broadly defined as capacity); and that for this reason any policy which increases income but decreases freedom must be rejected. This thesis of itself is strong and well-made, and a deserved rebuttal to the ideas of many Asian development economists and politicians who see a right-wing dictatorship à la Lee Kwan Yew as the most effective way to create economic growth, and therefore desirable.
But that is, unfortunately, the only point of the book. Sen's actual discussion of which economic policies would lead to the results of increasing freedom is so general as to be practically unusable. He has a completely unwarranted faith in the capacity of markets (albeit interventionist ones) to create these increases in freedom, and incorrectly claims that the proof is overwhelmingly in favor of markets leading to growth on their own, when the evidence is in reality wildly conflicting and the strongest proofs are against markets. What makes this even worse is his ignorant conflating of markets as such with capitalism, which leads to such silly canards as dismissing criticisms of capitalism as not understanding freedom, since after all, what can be more free than freedom of exchange? In this way, his defense of mainstream development policy is worse than undergraduate level.
Moreover, the very greatest part of the book is filled with meaningless and saccharine rhetoric of the most astonishingly unintelligent kind. In each short chapter addressing some major aspect of development economics and its problematic, he will, after much talk, come to such stunning conclusions as "take the middle road" and "there are arguments for and against interventionism and we must consider both", as well as the whopping conclusion that we need to take the whole spectrum of effects on people into account when suggesting policies. One hardly needs to have a Nobel Prize to come to these 'insights'.
To add insult to injury, his discussion of past economic policies and economists in general is incompetent and historically dubious. He claims that no democratic state has experienced famines, but then qualifies this by excluding colonies of such states, without however giving any reason for this - creating a wholly ad hoc argument for an unproven link between 'democracy' (which apparently includes pre-Reform Bill Britain) and well-being. Similarly, he constantly cherry-picks quotes from Adam Smith to cast him as a concerned and judicious proponent of development, while a more objective look at the entirety of Smith's oeuvre would quickly reveal the degree to which he appeared as a propagandist for the Glasgow mercantile and industrial interests. It must be said in Sen's favor though that he does recognize that famines can easily occur where free markets are present, which at least puts him at a level above most apologetics for economic orthodoxy.
On the whole this book is a major disappointment. Sen's vague and hand-waving rhetoric is useless for any kind of policy purpose and yet fills most of the book, even obscuring the one point he does have about freedom as end and means. With the idea he originally had, he could have done a lot better, but his unwarranted support for mainstream economics and its equivocations has made this impossible.
a wonderful work .......2007-05-21
This is a must read for all people, the work is not just on economics but how we live our lives. One of the top economists in the world, shows how there is more to economics then just markets. Freedom is more then just free speech, and is critical in human development.
Connecting economic and political development.......2006-09-13
What is economic development? This book argues that economic development is the expansion of human choice; i.e. freedom and capability to do what we want. The emphasis of this books is the duality: freedom and capability. Hence a society can give freedom to its citizens, but if they are not equipped with the mental and/or physical capabilities to use these freedoms, then the freedoms can be meaningless. Therefore, investing in education, providing health care, equal rights and other social programs that improve the capabilities of individuals are often as important to economic progress as building roads, airports and starting up businesses.
The Indian, Nobel-prize winning author of this book backs up this argument with empirical evidence from multiple countries and time periods across the world, with special emphasis on China, India, and other locales in Asia that one might not normally consider as textbook examples of economic development. By comparing specific actions taken by specific governments, the author shows how personal development, in terms of increasing literacy, providing family planning services, and spreading basic health care are often the prerequisite for economic development for a society as a whole. The book backs this up with examples of Japan, Korea, and the US itself; three countries where industrialization and economic growth came after social reform, the spread of basic education, and equalization of rights between genders.
Overall this is a great book. It connects economic policy to human actions, and shows how government policies connect the two. Great reading and highly recommended for all those interested in the social sciences.
Freedom as a better goal than GDP.......2006-07-28
Freedom as a better goal than GDP.
This book describes new concepts and presents important, controversial, conclusions. The concepts are relevant for developed and developing countries. The foundation is Sen's view of well-being formulated as follows: "We all want the capability to live long (without being cut off in our prime) have a good life (rather than a life of misery and unfreedom)" and "We would all like to lead a kind of life that we have reason to value". To achieve that goal requires the removal of unfreedoms like poverty, lack of ability to be accepted for a job, lack of economic opportunities, health problems, discrimination, repression and arbitrary justice.
Freedom is an end in itself a means to be able to lead a satisfactory life. Individual freedom is also a condition for being able to act responsibly. Without opportunities because of a lack of capability, no responsibility. Increasing freedom as a goal is more complete than increasing the GDP per person. People have good reason to want income and wealth precisely because it "produces" freedom. GDP/person and freedom are related. When people can act responsibly because they have capabilities and can a find job, the GDP will increase automatically. .
The book is very rich in "surprising" conclusions all convincingly documented and presented. Only a few will be referred to here.
(1) An important cause of poverty in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia is explosive population growth. If women have the freedom to decide the number of children to have the explosive population growth stops. There is no justification for using violent means to reduce family size. (2) All poor countries can afford basic healthcare and basic education as these are labour intensive and therefore low cost. (3) The opinion that democracy with free speech and elections is not suitable for Asians because of different Asian values has no factual basis.
(4) One of the fundamental freedoms people cherish is to buy what they want from whom they want and sell what they can to whom the want, that is the"free market". The idea that the free market can be left alone and will function perfectly as it is based on self-interest and greed is false. It requires effective legal structures that support the rights ensuing from contracts, that people can trust each and behave decently. Sen warns on the danger of "high minded sentimentality, assuming that all people are peculiarly virtuous and keen to be just" or the equally unrealistic "Low-minded sentimentality, which some economists appear to prefer, that we are only influenced by crude consideration of personal advantage". The free market" to function requires freedom, regulations and ethical values beyond greed and self-interest.
The book is brilliant but requires effort to read. Read at least chapter 1 The perspective on freedom, 6 The importance of democracy, 9 Population, food and freedom, 10 Culture and human rights and 11 Social choice and individual behaviour (100 pages).
Excelent book.......2006-03-23
The ideas presented by Professor Sen is beyond any research already made in the area of development. It's not only about economic development, but it's a new and wider approach to the concepts, theories and values that other scholars had made only superficially. Mr. Sen's development is beyond the general and simplified thought related to a so strict concept like economic and/or social development.
Book Description
In Connection with the UNDP-RBAS
Since 1990, the United Nations Development Program has been providing annual “Human Development Reports” that set out the basic social and economic indicators for the nations of the world. The Arab Human Development Report, which is focused exclusively on the twenty-two Arab states, provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of the region. Filled with charts, tables, and sidebars, the book provides analysis of the current situation, compares Arab performance with other world areas, and provides an agenda for action. Past AHDRs have focused on the deficits of freedom, knowledge, and women’s empowerment that exist in the region; the 2004 edition will focus on freedom and good governance. The reports have received considerable attention from the press, policy makers, and politicians, including Thomas L. Friedman in his column for the New York Times: “There is another tremor shaking the Arab world. This one is being set off by a group of courageous Arab social scientists, who decided, with the help of the United Nations, to begin fighting the war of ideas for the Arab future by detailing just how far the Arab world has fallen behind and by laying out a progressive pathway forward.”
Customer Reviews:
Infected by PCism But Readable.......2006-06-15
Patrick Clawson said that the first Arab Human Development Report in 2002 broke from the usual blame-the-foreigner excuses by Arab intellectuals and concentrated instead on the shortcomings of Arabs themselves as the principal reason for the problems of Arab societies. Not surprisingly, this candor sat poorly with Arab governments and hate-the-West intellectuals. As a result, this report, the third annual volume in the series, includes an executive summary and a chapter that bow in the direction of Arab political correctness, departing from the rest of the volume in its focus on the pernicious West as the source of restrictions on Arab freedoms. A particularly bizarre box criticizes Israel for its restrictions on churches--this in a volume that says not a single word about religious freedom for non-Muslims in the Arab world, not even about the ban on organized non-Muslim worship in Saudi Arabia.
The 2004 report focuses on freedom with chapters on the intellectual basis of freedom, an overview of problematic issues, human rights ("denial of fundamental individual freedoms"), legal architecture ("legislative restrictions on freedom"), political architecture ("the vicious circle of repression and corruption"), and societal structures ("the chain that stifles individual freedom"), before closing with a chapter offering "strategic visions of freedom and governance." In the areas it covers, the analysis is quite solid if usually abstract: the authors obviously felt constrained from offering specific examples about freedom deficits in particular countries.
Even accepting those limitations, the report's approach suffers from some obvious omissions, such as ignoring the rampant discrimination against non-Muslim and non-Arab populations, which are significant minorities in most of the Arab world. (In the four large Arab states of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, and Sudan, which between them have a majority of the population of Arab states, minorities constitute a larger share of the population than do blacks in the United States.) The report also suffers from the mythology that an "Arab world" actually exists when problems and accomplishments differ remarkably from one Arabic-speaking country to another. Still, Nader Fergany and the rest of his large team are to be congratulated for being blunt about the Arab world's freedom deficit, a topic that only a few years ago would have been unthinkable as a subject for a report from an international organization.
The painful truth.......2005-10-21
The Arab world has failed to meet the challenge of modernity. It has failed to confront antiquated regimes with leaders who seem far from capable of confronting the real problems of their people. The lack of freedom, discrimination against women of this world mark out its backwardness.
The young Arab intellectuals working to change this are to be commended for their effort.
Regression.......2005-06-14
The first The Arab Human Development Report (2002) reasonably diagnosed the three key constraints to development in the Arab world to be the low status of women, lack of knowledge and lack of freedom. The 2003 Report dealt with the knowledge deficit. The 2004 report is concerned with the lack of freedom in Arab countries which is probably the most fundamental of the three deficit areas.
It is unclear whether the authors would have fearlessly, objectively and honestly dealt with this most important issue if given a free hand. However, being sponsored by a UN organization, in which the Arab governments have a major say, they probably never got the chance. They ended up damning with faint praise. Reading between the lines the authors consider that a very bad situation has become even worse.
The authors continue to tiptoe around the relationship between Islamic values and practices and the fact that functional democracies are almost unknown in the Islamic world. They really do not come to grips with why virtually every Arab state is repressive and corrupt even though some were colonized by the British, some by the French, some by the Spanish and a few never colonized at all. They fall back on that old Arab way of avoiding reality - blaming Israel (and oil) though most Arab states neither border on Israel nor have oil.
If these reports do not recover their rigor and intellectual integrity they will just represent so many trees unnecessarily slaughtered in a bad cause.
(...)
Book Description
In "Human Rights and Development", award-winning author Peter Uvin extends the examination of development aid and human rights violations that he presented in his book on the Rwandan genocide, "Aiding Violence." Whereas that book is diagnostic, "Human Rights and Development" is prescriptive—a response to requests from development and human rights organizations to help them effect strategies for reducing conflict and improving human rights outcomes.
By advocating a rights-based approach to development, Uvin shows how practitioners can surmount the tough ethical and human rights obstacles encountered in their endeavors. But "Human Rights and Development" is much more than a "how to" book for practitioners. It is also a major scholar's profound, passionate, and clearly written analysis of the need to effect principled social change throughout the global arena that solidifies rather than fragments our common humanity.
Customer Reviews:
This is the "go-to" reference for OpenSource licensing.......2007-07-17
I purchased this book 18 months ago, along with two other references. Since that time, I have learned that when I have a question, this is the book to turn to first. In fact, I haven't read the others since first buying them.
This week we had a request to license some code under the CPL. Not only does this book cover that license, but it has a chapter interpreting each of the clever sections, and its repercussions.
As both a licensee and licensor, I have yet to come across an issue which this book did not address. It is the single volume you need.
Must-read for licensors.......2006-08-31
I have studied and compared Open Source licenses for a number of years. I came to the conclusion that the licenses created by Mr. Rosen were the best and I adopted one of them for my own Open Source projects. I have also read his book on the subject and I have concluded that it is also the best in its field. I recommend his book as a must-read for licensors of Open Source content.
Great for reference.......2004-10-23
When I recieved this book I was excited, finally I could read a book which would help my brain really understand all the licenses! I sat down to read it, and was impressed with how the author took the popular licenses and broke them down into more easily understandable. I mean, they *are* fairly straight forward, but the author gets into what they actually mean in legal terms, and that's interesting.
Unfortunately it turns out that reading about specifics of Open Source law is not terribly interesting to me (I guess I'll never be a lawer) After the few introduction chapters I had to stop reading straight through it and skip around and skim the parts that interested me.
In my case this is not such a good book for snuggling up with in front of the fire (some computer books are), but it is a fabulous reference book, written for us mere mortals.
Readable and by a Lawyer........2004-09-08
Open source software is growing explosively around the world. The SourceForge web site now lists 87,006 projects being done by 912,545 people. That's almost a million people writing code, probably more than all of the programmers employed by Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, etc. etc.
The code being produced is distributed free of charge. Free of Charge, but not without restrictions. This book, written by the general counsel of the Open Source Initiative is intended to explain the various licenses that are in common use in the Open Source Community. It is written in English, not lawyer-speak, and intended for developers, managers, users and of course lawyers. If this is what you need to know, you'll not find a better source.
Good material, but not for the stated audience..........2004-09-07
If you're looking to get an in-depth understanding of open source licensing and all the issues surrounding it, you should read Open Source Licensing by Lawrence Rosen (Prentice Hall).
Chapter list: Freedom and Open Source; Intellectual Property; Distribution of Software; Taxonomy of Licenses; Academic Licenses; Reciprocity and the GPL; The Mozilla Public License (MPL); The Common Public License (CPL); The OSL and the AFL; Choosing an Open Source License; Shared Source, Eventual Source, and Other Licensing Models; Open Source Litigation; Open Standards; The Open Source Paradigm; Appendices; Index
On the positive side, this book will teach you more about licensing than you thought existed. This book deals with all the legal issues that either have arisen or could become a problem as open source continues to make inroads against commercial software. The analysis is detailed as only a lawyer can do it. Another positive aspect of the book is that the author covers how different open source licenses mesh with each other. You may be forced into choosing a certain type of license if you've incorporated software that already uses a license that you're expected to apply to your software. All good stuff.
On the negative side, I don't think the book delivers on its promise to present "a plain-English guide to open source law for developers, managers, users, and lawyers". I see this as a book by a lawyer for lawyers needing to understand software licensing and how open source licensing fits into that. Companies that are building a business model around open source will need this material, but the typical developer and nearly all users will be bored to death as individual words are pulled out and dissected as for potential legal interpretations that could be applied.
I'm inclined to rank this a little higher than I'd like just because there's not a lot of material about this subject, and the author *does* cover it in great detail. But if you think you're going to get an easy-to-digest explanation of open source licensing, you will probably be disappointed.
Book Description
The corporate market is now embracing free, "open source" software like never before, as evidenced by the recent success of the technologies underlying LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Each is the result of a publicly collaborative process among numerous developers who volunteer their time and energy to create better software.
The truth is, however, that the overwhelming majority of free software projects fail. To help you beat the odds, O'Reilly has put together Producing Open Source Software, a guide that recommends tried and true steps to help free software developers work together toward a common goal. Not just for developers who are considering starting their own free software project, this book will also help those who want to participate in the process at any level.
The book tackles this very complex topic by distilling it down into easily understandable parts. Starting with the basics of project management, it details specific tools used in free software projects, including version control, IRC, bug tracking, and Wikis. Author Karl Fogel, known for his work on CVS and Subversion, offers practical advice on how to set up and use a range of tools in combination with open mailing lists and archives. He also provides several chapters on the essentials of recruiting and motivating developers, as well as how to gain much-needed publicity for your project.
While managing a team of enthusiastic developers -- most of whom you've never even met -- can be challenging, it can also be fun. Producing Open Source Software takes this into account, too, as it speaks of the sheer pleasure to be had from working with a motivated team of free software developers.
Customer Reviews:
In my case, five stars is an understatement.......2007-07-27
Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about this book and we discovered each other very glad with it. First of all, the author has a lot of experience with the theme in question. Furthermore, Karl Fogel is very compelling with words. He knows how to write down his experience in a way that is pleasant, certainly due to a lot of writes he had made through plenties of open source projects.
With this book you will be in touch with topics like the needed infra-structure to setup open source projects, the dinamics of the open source community, strategies for packaging and releasing software, common issues that arise in open source daily development and how to workaround then, a brief about licenses (with properly links for more information on this topic); just to highlight some aspects.
This book was the first hand someone land me into the open source world. It's helping me in three ways: to extract more from open source softwares that already exist, to start my own open source project, and to look at software development through a new, different, and till now better perspective.
Hope this review helps you!
Required reading for Open Source project leaders.......2007-06-19
If you have already read pretty much everything that there is to be read about why you'd want to start, manage, fund or participate in an Open Source project, but want to know everything about how best to do it, then Karl Fogel's Producing Open Source Software is the book for you.
Drawing from his extensive experience with the Subversion project, Fogel provides in this book a comprehensive overview of all aspects of Open Source software development, covering technical, social, political, economical, legal, and managerial aspects.
While the book is more aimed at medium-to-large scale projects, especially those involving some kind of corporate entity, there is much in it that is applicable to most projects, excluding maybe only those little, one-man efforts that rarely become successful. But if you are the originator of one of the latter and, should it suddenly attract a wide following, you'd better be prepared to face the unavoidable problems that popularity brings.This book will come in handy in this case.
Here are, in my opinion, the strong points of the book:
* Providing a concise, yet comprehensive, overview of all aspects of Open Source development. This is really the manual of open development.
* Demonstrating that there is much in open development that is similar to more traditional, corporate-style software development (you cannot always rely on good will and volunteers), but also much that is different, in motivation, rewards and objectives.
* Putting the accent on the human aspect of development: mutual respect between participants is often the deciding factor in determining whether a project will thrive or fail. Since even the best of intentions sometimes are not enough to foster a peaceful, productive and collaborative environment, Producing Open Source Software contains a lot of useful, practical advice that you can follow if you want to keep developers happy and motivated.
"Must Read" for Open Source Participants.......2007-04-29
It's easy to make the mistake of viewing this book as "too fluffy" or perhaps too soft to be of any use to the practical user or developer of open source software. Nothing could be further from the truth: in a classic open source way, the author has compressed man-centuries of OS community experience into a practical working guide for anyone who wants to do something serious in this area.
Gives you a feel for the why, not just the how.......2006-12-27
The book impressed me by the breadth and depth of the thinking that must have gone on before it was written. Mr. Fogel being an active open-source developer, I was at first suspicious that he might just be presenting his way of doing things as gospel. Quickly, though, he convinced me that he reflects his ways more profoundly than most other people I know, myself included. Maybe that, in itself, is a consequence of open-source development processes?
sound advice for an oss project.......2006-08-03
sound advice for an oss project
please note that the entire text of this book is avaiable online - but the paper book is ofcourse nicer to read!
Book Description
Since oil is the primary fuel of global industrial civilization, its imminent depletion is a problem that will have a profound impact on every aspect of modern life. With-out international agreement on how to manage the decline of this vital resource, the world faces unprecedented risk of conflict and collapse.
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The Oil Depletion Protocol describes a unique accord whereby nations would voluntarily reduce their oil production and oil imports according to a consistent, sen-sible formula. This would enable energy transition to be planned and supported over the long term, providing a context of stable energy prices and peaceful cooperation. The protocol will be presented at international gatherings, initiating the process of country-by-country negotiation and adoption and mobilizing public support. To this end, this book:
• Provides an overview of the data concerning Peak Oil and its timing
• Briefly explains the protocol and its implications for the reader and for
decision-makers in government and industry around the world
• Deals with frequently asked questions and objections
• Looks forward to how the protocol can be adopted and how municipalities and ordinary citizens can facilitate the process
Timely and critically important,
The Oil Depletion Protocol is a must-read for policymakers and for all who seek to avert a Peak Oil collapse.
Customer Reviews:
Overly optimistic.......2007-05-19
This book gives a good overview of peak oil. It's main thrust is the assumption that economics will not carry us through this turmoil, and only an early adoption of a "protocol" will save human from much crisis.
The logic behind this assumption is still lost on me, and I continue to seek a clearer picture of the future.
hopeful suggestion for a solution to the upcoming oil crisis.......2007-04-25
Of the many books now available that review peak oil, Richard Heinberg's "The Oil Depletion Protocol" is unique in that it outlines a practical solution to survival the upcoming energy crunch.
After reading a few books about the upcoming energy collapse, read this book to energize yourself with hopeful solutions. We should all read this book, think deeply, and get to work soon.
Bottom Line Deadly Serious.......2007-02-08
All of the non-fiction reading that I have done supports this author's presenation of both the consequences of doing nothing, and practical bottom line: a 3% reduction per year for the next ten to twenty years, of gross consumption (per capita is meaningless when the number of people are growing rapidly) of oil is the only way to transition gracefully.
Amazon visiters need to be aware that the oil industry, and Exxon in particularly, is applying considerable funds to pay for disinformation and misrepresentation. As Al Gore stated in his briefing to 10,000 Republicans in the Taco Bell Arena of Boise State University, the oil companies (less BP and Chevron) are adopting the precise strategy of the tobacco industry, seeking to turn facts into "theories" that are "in dispute."
Reality is not in dispute. What is in dispute is the ethics of the Exxon CEO, among others, who choose to lie to the American people and others and take credit for improving gas mileage when what is really needed is a massive turning away from the use of both oil and water.
This book is a great companion to "Peak Oil Survival," and discusses at the macro levels the implications of oil depletion.
I also like this book because at the back I found a page that informed me that the publisher, New Society Publishers, is both committed to books helpful to society, but that its use of recycled paper as a directly measureable benefit in saving 25 trees, 2,281 gallons of solid waste, 2,512 gallons of water, 3,276 kilowatt hours of electricity, 4,150 lbs of greenhouse gases, 18 lbs of HAPs, VOCs, and AOX combined, and 6 cubic yards of landfill space.
WOW. See my growing list on "true cost" information. Above is the "true cost" for books that do NOT use recycled paper.
Double-Barreled Ignorance.......2007-02-05
The two biggest assumptions discussed in this book are: 1) The world is running out of oil and 2) World governments can cooperate to bring peace and stability.
Let's start with the first assumption and look at some hilarious historical quotes:
1885, U.S. Geologic Society, "Almost no chance of finding oil in California."
1914, U.S. Bureau of Mines, "At most, the U.S. will run out of oil in 10 years."
1939, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, "US oil reserves will be exhausted in 13 years."
1951, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, "US oil reserves can only last 13 more years."
1970, the peak in U.S. oil production as environmental concerns limit any expansion.
1991, U.S. Geological Survey, "Texas and California are running out of oil."
And here we have the reality...
November 2005: 1.28 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves in the world, the highest level that has ever been recorded. A crude oil price over $40 makes it financially viable to use many extraction methods to recover even more oil out of old wells that were "depleted" using older methods.
It is an entertaining hobby to predict the end of oil, but they are always wrong.
Now assumption number 2: governments will cooperate. I don't even know where to begin but I'll try; 70% of the world's oil is controlled by dictators; OPEC has never been able to control its own member states (let alone influence other countries); when money is involved - none of the 8 most influential countries in the world have agreed on anything; since Ghandi was assassinated, I haven't found a single politician interested in much beyond their own career, celebrity, or wallet; how are you going to get nations to cooperate when even the U.N. couldn't administer a little oil-for-food program without corruption and oil cheating amongst countries, politicians, individuals and companies - even the U.N. Secretary General's son profited!
These authors are living in a fantasy world so far from reality I don't know why you'd waste your time with their spin of facts.
A unique concept that deserves thought .......2006-12-21
Oil is the primary fuel of the world - and thus, vulnerable to terrorist efforts. THE OIL DEPLETION PROTOCOL: A PLAN TO AVERT OIL WARS, TERRORISM AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE does more than the usual charting of a known problem: it offers up solutions, reviewing data on peak oil production and describing an accord where nations would voluntarily reduce their production and imparts by an agreed-upon formula to enable energy transition planning and ultimately more stable prices. A unique concept that deserves thought and which is well planned, here!
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
This book shows how political argument in terms of rights and natural rights began in medieval Europe, and how the theory of natural rights was developed in the seventeenth century after a period of neglect in the Renaissance. Dr Tuck provides a new understanding of the importance of Jean Gerson in the formation of the theories, and of Hugo Grotius in their development; he also restores the Englishman John Selden’s ideas to the prominence they once enjoyed, and shows how Thomas Hobbes’s political theory can best be understood against this background. In general, the book enables us to understand more fully the characteristics of the natural rights theories available to the men of the Enlightenment, and thereby to appreciate the complexity and equivocal nature of modern right theories.
Customer Reviews:
Natural Rights Theories for Grown-Ups.......2006-05-13
This book is a scholarly masterpiece. It surveys the history of European political philosophy from the High Middle Ages down through the seventeenth century, with particular emphasis on how "natural rights" emerged from the more general theory of Natural Law. It is a fascinating process, particularly as to the definition of "right" in this context: how can an individual have rights that are not granted by the State and can be asserted against the State?
This is certainly not an easy book to read, particularly because it presupposes some familiarity with a wide range of authors -- mainly political philosophers such as Francisco Suarez and Hugo Grotius -- that are no longer widely read. On the other hand, Tuck's exposition is meticulously clear, so readers who have the required familiarity will be rewarded with a series of wonderful insights into the development of modern human rights.
Before I read this book, it was regularly recommended to me, by scholars whom I regard as authoritative, as among the best ever written on early modern political philosophy. I am happy to recommend it in return.
Book Description
Bestselling author Francis Fukuyama brings together esteemed academics, political analysts, and practitioners to reflect on the U.S. experience with nation-building, from its historical underpinnings to its modern-day consequences. The United States has sought on repeated occasions to reconstruct states damaged by conflict, from Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War to Japan and Germany after World War II, to the ongoing rebuilding of Iraq. Despite this rich experience, there has been remarkably little systematic effort to learn lessons on how outside powers can assist in the building of strong and self-sufficient states in post-conflict situations.
The contributors dissect mistakes, false starts, and lessons learned from the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq within the broader context of reconstruction efforts in other parts of the world, including Latin America, Japan, and the Balkans. Examining the contrasting models in Afghanistan and Iraq, they highlight the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as a cautionary example of inadequate planning.
The need for post-conflict reconstruction will not cease with the end of the Afghanistan and Iraq missions. This timely volume offers the critical reflection and evaluation necessary to avoid repeating costly mistakes in the future.
Contributors: Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution and Stanford University; James Dobbins, RAND; David Ekbladh, American University; Michèle A. Flournoy, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Francis Fukuyama, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Larry P. Goodson, U.S. Army War College; Johanna Mendelson Forman, UN Foundation; Minxin Pei, Samia Amin, and Seth Garz, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; S. Frederick Starr, Central Asia--Caucacus Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; F. X. Sutton, Ford Foundation Emeritus; Marvin G. Weinbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign
Customer Reviews:
Welcome addition to the literature on nation-building.......2007-09-15
This is an excellent edited volume. The well known conservative theorist, Francis Fukuyama, has pulled together a well integrated set of essays in nation-building, featuring detailed analyses of Iraq and Afghanistan. One positive aspect of this volume is the outstanding quality of contributors, including such well-known experts as Larry Diamond, James Dobbins, and Marvin Weinbaum, as well as, of course, Fukuyama himself. The editor has written two earlier works related to nation-building. This builds upon that previous work.
Fukuyama's introductory chapter lays out key concepts as well as the purpose of this volume. As in earlier works, he explains the slipperiness of the concept of "nation-building." He goes on to distinguish two aspects of this phenomenon, "reconstruction" (". . .the restoration of war-torn or damaged societies to their preconflict situation" [Page 5]) and "development" (". . .the creation of new institutions and the promotion of sustained economic growth. . . ." [page 5]). He laments the loss of American institutional memory on nation-building, noting that the Bush Administration essentially ignored the lessons from history as to how to carry out "nation-building." At the heart of this volume is a comparative case study of Iraq versus Afghanistan, and Fukuyama takes some time to distinguish these two interventions.
The first full section of the book examines the historical experience of and lessons from nation-building. The various authors consider post World War-II nation-building, the Ford Foundation's experience of the 1950s and 1960s, the American track record in the 20th century. Part II focuses on the Afghan experience of the United States. Starr's chapter suggests some potential "happy ending," as a result of the U. S. changing course in 2003 and 2004. He concludes that (page 124): "As of this writing, there is extensive evidence that the new approach is contributing directly and powerfully to nation-building in that long-suffering land." Weinbaum suggests that Afghanistan may actually be more likely to be a success story than Iraq, and indicates why. Goodson contends that the facts "on the ground" in Afghanistan may work out--but that the facts on the ground in Washington, D. C. undercut efforts in Afghanistan Iraq? Part II features essays exploring matters there. Larry Diamond's assessment is consistent with many others'--the US blew the nation-building after the successful military invasion, even though there is still the hope that matters will work out. Forman notes simply that (page 211): ". . .the mistakes made in the occupation of Iraq have made. . .the postconflict reconstruction program more difficult."
Fukuyama concludes the volume with suggested guidelines for future nation-building ventures.
In the final analysis, this is an important contribution to the relevant literature. One may not agree with all of the contributors or with various themes raised throughout the volume. But it is a thoughtful effort to address what is at stake in successful nation-building.
contributions to a vastly urgent subject.......2006-08-15
After watching events in Afghanistan and Iraq unfold over the past several years, you can't help but wonder exactly what the U.S. government was thinking. How could so many mistakes have been made? If you find yourself asking these questions, then Nation-Building should be the next book you read.
Fukuyama has put together a very good collection of articles that will help the reader put current nation-building projects in perspective by including a section at the beginning of the book that talks about nation-building in general. This section discusses what the U.S. has learned from its past foreign adventures, and unfortunately what it hasn't learned, and also what the Bush administration actively unlearned. This first section has a lot to offer in the way of historical analysis and explains how the U.S. got to where it is now, and all four of the articles contributed important perspectives.
The second section deals with Afghanistan. The imbalance of coverage between Iraq and Afghanistan in a more general sense is almost criminal, so any literature on the latter should be welcome. The first article by S. Frederick Starr is fantastic and will probably tell you more about Afghanistan than a year of reading the newspapers or watching relevent news shows. The other two articles on Afghanistan are not nearly as good as Starr's though. The content in these articles are important, but I felt Starr dealt approached them with more care and precision.
The final section about Iraq is also quite good. The chapters by Diamond and Dobbins are fantastic, but the Forman article did not compare. All three dealt with specific mistakes the U.S. has made in Iraq and how these mistakes could have been avoided. I believe Forman's weakness comes from the fact that she appears to be more of a Latin American specialist, rather than someone with experience in Iraq. That doesn't mean her comments aren't relevant, but when you're only going to put three articles about Iraq in a book called Nation-Building, I think a chapter by someone like Noah Feldman that had spent time as a CPA advisor would have been a much more appropriate choice.
Aside from these few minor weaknesses, this is a fantastic book. The more people that read this book the better. While not necessarily a book for beginners, it would be entirely appropriate for grad students, and an absolute necessity for any scholar that deals with the Middle East and/or nation-building in general.
A sober testimony and very highly recommended.......2006-03-03
Nation-Building: Beyond Afghanistan And Iraq is an anthology of essays by highly esteemed academics, political analysts, and skilled practitioners regarding the American experience with nation-building, from historical roots to modern-day issues. Examining the present cases of building Afghanistan and Iraq into nations in the context of reconstruction efforts in other areas of the world, including Japan, Latin America, and the Balkans, these writings particularly question the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq as an example of poor planning. A valuable resource filled with critical reflection and evaluation and offering valuable suggestions to reduce future mistakes and costs in human lives, Nation-Building is a sober testimony and very highly recommended.
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