Book Description
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industry
In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.
Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by:
- Eliminating wasted time and resources
- Building quality into workplace systems
- Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology
- Producing in small quantities
- Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the Toyota Way and Lean Manufacturing!.......2007-09-07
Jeffrey Liker clearly knows what he writes about. The book is the result of more than a decade of study, on site visits and interviews with several Toyota key people. It describes 14 toyota principles, which go through the Toyota Philosophy, the Toyota Production System, the relationship with employeees, customers, suppliers and partners, and a focus on continuous improvement. No wonder Toyota is one of world top most admired companies!
Very interesting is also the Japanese management principles and mindset - slow but determined, patient, self-reflection, learning by actuall observation and doing, consensus seeking, and managing for the long term.
By coincidence, yesterday (6/Sep/2007) the news came up that Jim Press (American Toyota President)was hired by Chrysler - I can imagine why.
Good Book on Toyota and Lean.......2007-06-30
A good book on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing. Liker does a good job of explaining both. I especially liked his cautions about mis-using Lean principles and pitfalls to failure.
Like most business books, the important stuff could have been expressed in many fewer pages. Liker almost gushes about Toyota to the extent that it somethimes reads as a vanity or promotional publication by Toyota - this makes me wonder if it really presents a balanced perspective.
Overall, I recommend it to anyone interested in Toyota or Lean.
Attitude Check.......2007-06-12
Great expose of the attitude of one of the worlds most impressive business organizations. Detailed, but not cumbersome. More than just another "how to" manual. A "must read" for decision makers in any business.
Yes, the book lives up to what the slip cover says........2007-06-10
Any business owner, manager or individual team member who wonders how companies improve should read this. If you wonder why some people love lean processes while others say it does not work should read this book.
I've been a manufacturing engineer since 1981, and I joined a lot of start-up companies because I love the growth and development phase of building a company up. Some worked, some did not. This book has a nice way of explaining what Toyota does and what the others fail to do.
Excellent book!.......2007-05-19
One of my clients saw this book in an airport stand and asked me if it was worth reading. I read the book out of mere curiosity and was totally engrossed. It is well-organized, simple, and clear. While not all companies can implement the Toyota Production System, there are certainly great ideas in this book that can be implemented by any company.
Book Description
"This crystal-clear book offers to any who will listen invaluable, detailed guidance on how and why to move toward a true culture of excellence in hospital care. It isn't easy, but, as their results show, it's a journey well worth taking."—Donald M. Berwick, MD, president and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
The Baptist Health Care Journey to Excellence presents tested principles and best practices to help improve your corporate culture and customer satisfaction, which will lead to loyalty, stability, sustained productivity, and profitability in your own organization. Order your copy today!
Download Description
An insider’s look at corporate culture at one of Fortune’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work for in America
A business can purchase, imitate, or replicate most of its elements, but when a business places its competitive advantage with its people, it can become the market leader. The Baptist Health Care Journey to Excellence illustrates how Baptist Health Care went from a customer satisfaction rating of less than 20 percent to being consistently ranked in the 99 percent range. Written by the man who made it happen, this book sets benchmarks and best practices for organizations to measure themselves against by creating a service-centered culture that cares first and foremost about customer satisfaction.
Al Stubblefield (Pensacola, FL) is President and CEO of Baptist Health Care Corporation, a position he has held since 1999. He is on the board of directors of the American Hospital Association, VHA Southeast, and the National Committee for Quality in Health Care, and is Chairman of the Regional Policy Board 4. Geoffrey Colvin is Editorial Director of Fortune magazine.
Customer Reviews:
The Baptist Health Care Journey.......2007-08-06
I think there is much to learn from the culture Baptist Health Care has been able to create and sustain.
hard copy good... electronic copy very bad........2007-04-13
Still waiting for the hard copy... the electronic copy was not useable. The idea is a good one the execution is not up to par. Most other eBook sites offer an option for Adobe (.pdf) format so it can be viewed while off line, Amazon does not. You can only view or print a single page at a time with Amazon, also not very useful.
Fantastic book.......2006-11-07
Great book, well written. Hard to argue with their results. Many practical ideas.
A great read........2006-08-05
I enjoyed every page of their journey. It was fun to read and a great learning experience about how to truely engage your employees and help them behave as owners of the company.
Inspiring, Instructive, Energizing. Must Read........2004-12-14
When Gordon Bethune, then President and CEO of Continental Airlines, wrote "From Worst to First" in 1999, executives in all fields were fascinated by his tale of how he turned around a company that many had given up for dead. He told the story and unquestionably his leadership was paramount in Continental's incredible success. Of course, as you might expect from a true leader, he shared the achievement with everyone in the organization.
The tale of the turnaround, the awards, and the ongoing success helped thousands of executives and managers improve their operations.
Now Al Stubblefield steps forward in his role as President and CEO of Baptist Health Care in Pensacola, Florida. When he assumed this leadership position in 1999, he faced major challenges...but he and his team were already on the journey to excellence. The picture was bleak when the transformation began in 1995: patient satisfaction was at an all-time low, morale was dangerously low.
The 5,500 employees of this largest healthcare organization in northwest Florida worked together to become recognized by FORTUNE magazine as one of the 100 Best Places to Work, was recognized as an Employer of Choice® , and received the Malcolm Baldrige Award in 2004. The story of how this was accomplished rivals the saga of Continental Airlines. The Baptist Health Care achievement ranks as one of the most valuable case studies you'll read.
Stubblefield takes you on their journey, explaining what was done and how it was done. Examples and illustrations illuminate the text, making the path even easier to follow. Applying what you'll learn in these pages will empower you to move your organization, regardless of your field of endeavor, to substantially higher levels of performance.
Read this book now...before your competitors do!
Book Description
Innovation is an evergreen topic because it is such an essential ingredient for successful growth—and this book provides a new and fascinating perspective on how new innovations can best be found and developed
Managers from all kinds of companies will find this book of interest. This book is so well written and is filled with such engaging examples that we expect it to break out beyond a business audience to general readers.
It is similar to The Tipping Point in terms of tone, readability, and rich, interesting stories, which show how innovative ideas were born in intersections that combined arenas as diverse as card games and sky rises, Palm Pilots and carrots, airplanes and cookies, ants and truck drivers.
Offers practical strategies anyone can use to develop novel new ideas big and small, in all areas of life and work.
Note: The book’s title refers to an explosion of creativity that occurred in Florence during the Renaissance, when the Medici banking family funded creators from many different disciplines to come together to debate, discuss, and discover new ideas. The book is about how any of us can create our own “Medici effects” using the concept of “the intersection”
Customer Reviews:
Better than it would appear.......2007-10-01
This book is about developing ideas. It starts out very slowly and it seems like just another rehash of the tales told a hundred times before. It goes through the normal diversity is better arguement, which is a plus and a minus (he never gives us the minus). But as the book develops he provides a family of keen insights. He reviews much of the literature in an interesting way. Even old news is presented nicely. For example, at this point most people know that brainstorming does not really get you anywhere. Indeed, individuals will come up with more ideas than a team all working together, one after the other. He goes through this and then suggests alternatives. By the time I was done with the book I was impressed and I would recommend it to others.
Nice Book.......2007-08-01
You actually feel inspired when reading it. Just get done and you'l feel real effect.
Good for getting in an innovative and integrative mindset.......2007-06-04
This book was really easy to get through and I came away thinking more about how to keep my mind open to ideas from lots of different disciplines. It provides good examples of cross-discipline collaboration and why you should care. The book provides a few little tricks to get you thinking in a different way, but I found the subject matter itself to be more inspiring than directly applicable.
Interesting, thought provoking and you really can learn "creativity" from it .......2007-03-13
Copied from pg 2, "The idea behind this book is simple: When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas." Somehow you may vaguely have a similar concept as the author's in mind. What he did much more than the rest is that he had studied and consolidated on it, given it a an exotic name "The Medici Effect", and furnished it with plenty of vivid, interesting and memorable examples for others, presumably less bright people like me, to read and follow. In short, quite outstanding in the sea of books on creativity and innovation. Really helpful! Highly recommended!
Ultimately society decides whether an idea is both new and valuable...It is impossible to determine if a person's products are innovative if they have never been seen, used, or evaulated. pg 15
In essence, these people (Marcus Samuelsson, Charles Darwin) succeeded at breaking down their associative barriers because they did one or more of the following things: exposed themselves to a range of cultures; learned differently; reversed their assumptions;, took on multiple perspectives. pg 45
The most successful innovators produce and realize an incredible number of ideas....Pablo Picasso produced 20,000 pieces of art; Einstein wrote more than 240 papers; Bach wrote a cantata every week; Thomas Edison filed a record 1,039 patents. This holds true today. Prince is said to have over 1,000 songs stored in his secret vault, and Richard Branson has started 250 companies. pg 91
Research has shown, in fact, that the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would and would not work in the market. The dominant difference between successful and failed ones, generally, is not their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset is not nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources (or having relationships with trusted backers or investors) so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate towards a new strategy are the ones that will fail. - Clayton Christensen pg 130
Risk homoeostatis: people will compensate for taking higher risks in one area of life by taking lower risks in another. - Gerald Wilde pg 167
The most effective way to combat fear is to acknowledge it...For starters, you have to come to terms with what is at stake and admit that you might lose it. Often this means that you must be comfortable enough to know that if everything is lost, you can still move on. pg 180
interesting book but need to be better.......2007-03-04
1. the author have something to say, and he say it in a easy way that friendly to understand. it's good. But the author seems too hush to run into the conclusion, it seems if he spend more time in detail study, this book will be much better;
2. For the same topic, I suggest "A Technique for Producing Ideas" which is short but powerful; and it from a master's hand, if you compare that book with "Medici Effect", you will find how good it is, ;-);
Book Description
Polygamy, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, punishing women for being raped, differential access for men and women to health care and education, unequal rights of ownership, assembly, and political participation, unequal vulnerability to violence. These practices and conditions are standard in some parts of the world. Do demands for multiculturalism--and certain minority group rights in particular--make them more likely to continue and to spread to liberal democracies? Are there fundamental conflicts between our commitment to gender equity and our increasing desire to respect the customs of minority cultures or religions? In this book, the eminent feminist Susan Moller Okin and fifteen of the world's leading thinkers about feminism and multiculturalism explore these unsettling questions in a provocative, passionate, and illuminating debate.
Okin opens by arguing that some group rights can, in fact, endanger women. She points, for example, to the French government's giving thousands of male immigrants special permission to bring multiple wives into the country, despite French laws against polygamy and the wives' own bitter opposition to the practice. Okin argues that if we agree that women should not be disadvantaged because of their sex, we should not accept group rights that permit oppressive practices on the grounds that they are fundamental to minority cultures whose existence may otherwise be threatened.
In reply, some respondents reject Okin's position outright, contending that her views are rooted in a moral universalism that is blind to cultural difference. Others quarrel with Okin's focus on gender, or argue that we should be careful about which group rights we permit, but not reject the category of group rights altogether. Okin concludes with a rebuttal, clarifying, adjusting, and extending her original position. These incisive and accessible essays--expanded from their original publication in Boston Review and including four new contributions--are indispensable reading for anyone interested in one of the most contentious social and political issues today.
The diverse contributors, in addition to Okin, are Azizah al-Hibri, Abdullahi An-Na'im, Homi Bhabha, Sander Gilman, Janet Halley, Bonnie Honig, Will Kymlicka, Martha Nussbaum, Bhikhu Parekh, Katha Pollitt, Robert Post, Joseph Raz, Saskia Sassen, Cass Sunstein, and Yael Tamir.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent survey of an important debate.......2006-05-08
"Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?" consists of Okin's initial essay addressing that question, followed by a collection of essays commenting on her thoughts, followed by another essay by Okin in defense of her thesis. I admittedly was slightly disappointed the first time I read Okin's initial essay. Although her thesis is clear enough (that the liberal values of feminism and multiculturalism must necessarily come into conflict considering that a large number of cultures encourage the oppression of women), she fails to rigorously define her terms or to support her thesis with more than a few anecdotes. She also tends to conflate culture with religion at times when it is not appropriate, a tendency on which a number of respondents comment.
Although I was initially disappointed by Okin's essay, I came to appreciate it more as I continued reading the book. Although her refusal to define her argument rigorously or to specify at what point multiculturalism should give way to feminism leads some authors to talk past one another, it also allows a number of bright minds to express a variety of viewpoints on different aspects of Okin's essay. The comments range from absurd to brilliant, from obvious to unique and insightful. Fortunately, more of the essays fall into the brilliant and insightful categories than in the obvious or absurd categories. The contributing authors' comments address a number of issues, including: support for specific cultural practices; the empirical validity of some of Okin's claims; the importance of group rights versus individual rights; the practical political and legal problems involved in placing women's rights above certain group rights; and many others.
The final essay in the book, Okin's last word on the topic, is well-reasoned and spelled out. She adequately addresses most of the criticisms provided by the contributing authors, and, perhaps more importantly, she clarifies her position and provides more concrete guidance regarding when she would advocate the rights of women and when she would defer to cultural practices.
The whole book is an excellent (and quick) read, beneficial not for the answers that it provides but for the debate it encourages. In a world that is growing smaller and more connected by the day, and especially in a country to which many oppressed women from around the globe look for a better life, few debates could be of more importance.
clash of values.......2001-11-08
In this slim volume of essays collected from the pages of the Boston Review, a cross-section of contemporary intellectual life is represented in debate over Okin's central thesis that the values of multiculturalism and feminism are at odds (at some level). The hinge of Okin's argument is that feminism is universalist in intent, arguing that all women, by virtue of their being women (or being human), are entitled to certain rights and freedoms; multiculturalism, on the other hand, is often used to support cultural difference, and is local in scope. Conflict emerges when we encounter cultures in which women are regarded as lower in social standing than men, and thus denied rights and freedoms that feminists have (traditionally) held in esteem -- the right to vote, assemble peacefully, earn income, etc. (see Martha Nussbaum's work in "Sex and Social Justice" and "Women and Human Development" for a fuller exposition of a feminist conception of rights). In Okin's estimation, multiculturalists back off from criticism, arguing instead that different cultures must be respected, and indeed cannot be judged because they do not share the same cultural foundation as we (i.e., Westerners) do. Hence, for Okin, a committed feminist, multiculturalism is often bad for women.
This is a contentious and controversial argument, but essential (I believe) in that it forces Western liberal intellectuals to confront the simple fact that certain ways of thinking and being cannot easily coexist. The papers included in this book reflect the divisiveness of Okin's argument, with some coming down squarely on her side, and others arguing that this represents only another attempt at Western intellectual imperialism. Enough diversity in opinions is presented to give readers much to think about and debate.
Multiculturalism, Feminism and Liberalism.......2000-05-20
This book is designed around the first essay, "Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?" The premise of the essay is that liberalism has long advocated both multiculturalism and feminism as philosophies not in conflict with one another. However, what is the obligation of a liberal democracy to cultural minorities that oppress women within their culture? Can the needs of women and minorities be met or are their respective agendas mutually exclusive to one another? Does the sovereignty of a larger state supercede that of a smaller state and to which group does the majority owe its protection- minority cultures or individuals (women)?
These are some of the questions addressed by this book. The first essay asserts that the goals of multiculturalism and feminism are not compatible and that by protecting one, the other is sacrificed. It is a provocative idea and one not addressed enough by political theorists, feminists, or policy specialists. From it, one discovers that there is an inherent tension to these two schools of liberal philosophy (although there are some very good critics of Okin's ideas). See writers like Kymlicka, Nussbaum, or Habermas (to name a few).
If the intricacies and contradictions of liberal philosophy and feminism interest you, then you should try this book. It is very short and can be read in one sitting. It's essentially a collection of essays from a number of theorists reflecting a variety of perspectives on this specific topic. Thought-provoking and worth the effort to take a gander.
Book Description
This compelling account of the effect of technology and development on indigenous peoples throughout the world examines major issues of intervention: social engineering, economic development, self-determination, health and disease, and ecocide.
Victims of Progressprovides a provocative context in which to think about civilization and its costs.
Customer Reviews:
Too boring to read.......2007-10-02
I had to buy and read this book for a class in school, and I can say, it is probably the most boring book that I have ever read. I cannot stand to read it, the information is good, but its just written in such a bland and biased way, the author sounds like a total hippie who thinks we should all still be living in tribes in the forest.
this book is something else............2004-02-25
i think - it is impossible to write a book with such a great subject more boring and annoying than Bodley did.....the telephone book seems more appealing to me.........
Other Worlds.......2003-09-11
This book is amazing in what it achieves - a thorough, comprehensive view of expansive, global civilization and its affects on local, indigenous, autonomous peoples around the world. Bodley clearly and succinctly summaries the last two and a half centuries of colonial and imperial expansion, the people who resisted and continue to resist that expansion, and the negative consequences of being incorporated (usually by force) into large, impersonal, irresponsible nation-states. A must read for anyone who wishes to step outside our consumer-frenzied, totalitarian culture of domination and see what other worlds were and are possible.
Book Description
New to this edition: Every new copy of Mass Media/Mass Culture is packaged with a Free Making the Grade CD-ROM, Free Access to PowerWeb: An Online Reader and Resource Guide, and a Free Text-Specific Online Learning Center Website.
Written for the Introduction to Mass Communication course, Mass Media/Mass Culture: An Introduction demonstrates how media impacts our culture today, and how the interrelationship of media and culture has influenced our civilization since dawn of mass communication. This textbook gives students the tools to understand the world around them and teaches them how to critically analyze the media that influences their lives.
Customer Reviews:
excellent!.......2005-09-12
Service was exccellent. Exactly the book with the exact description was recieved, with-in excellent time frame. Great work!
Very helpful.......2004-05-18
This book has been very helpful and interesting. I teach Communications at a Community college, and this book will be a great addition to the fall curriculum. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in a good communications book. I would also like to thank djtom33; the book I bought from him was in excellent condition and was delivered swiftly.
Mass Media Mass Culture.......2003-10-14
I use this book in my television production class and I must say it is a great book. It is easy to read and easy to understand. The photos and up to date articles make it even better! A+ for this book!
Excelent Book.......2003-02-03
This book is the best text book I have seen in years. With easy and fun to read chapters, color photos and the CD aide, you can't go wrong with this book. Wheather you are using it for a class or just want to learn about Mass Media, this is the book for you.
Book Description
Called "a triumphant piece of reporting" (The New Yorker), Snowblind is an all-out, nonstop, and now classic look at the cocaine trade through the eyes of smuggler Zachary Swan. In a brief Roman-candle career, Swan served an elegant clientele, traveling between Bogota and the nightclubs of New York, inventing intricate scams to outmaneuver the feds. Creating diversions that were characteristically baroque, surviving on ingenuity and idiot's luck, he discovered in the process a hip, dangerous, high-velocity world that Robert Sabbag evokes with extraordinary power and humor. "One of the best books about drugs ever written." -- Robert Stone "A flat-out ballbuster. It moves like a threshing machine with a fuel tank full of ether...." -- Hunter S. Thompson "One of the first books about the cocaine trade and it is still among the best." -- Norman Mailer
Customer Reviews:
Will be timeless.......2007-03-29
I just reread after 30 years and the book still holds up.
amazing.......2003-05-28
I heard that Robert Sabbag was a good writer so I decided to pick up Snowblind up and read it and I couldn't put it down. I thought that it gave a really close look into the drug trade and it was very detailed so you really got a feel for the life that was lead. I have started reading his books now and I can't stop. I have told many of my friends to read the book.
One of the best........2002-07-18
If we consider Thomas de Quincey's "The COnfessions of an English Opioum Eater", Baudelaires "The Artificial Paradises" and Ludlows "The Hasheesh Eater" the three classical pillars of the drug books, "Snowblind" sets a new way of approaching the theme.
Sabbag manages to write a funny, entertaining and well defined book about what the beginning of the cocaine smuggling was. He has inherited the best ways of HUnter S. Thompson without loosing and inch of his own style. This book is the "bible" for all smugglers. In the last edition of Cannongate there is an introduction by Howard Marks, author of the bestseller "Mr Nice". Well, if you liked "Mr Nice" this book goes way beyond in the form and in the content. The characters shown are interesting and relevant to the story, the information delivered will not bore you. Sabbag tells what he has to (a lot) and misses what would bore you.
Normally drug books will fall into topics like rude language and obscure characters most of the time very badly developped, now, Zachary Swan is a dandy, the language is only rude when there are direct implications for it to be so (not often) and when you finish the book you have the feeling you have gone through the adventure with the Silver Fox (name given to Swan by Canadian Jack).
Thanks Sabbag!
Interesting, But Dated.......2002-03-10
I enjoyed this book, but it was a slow read. I thought it was interesting how Swan smuggled in the 70's, but I'm sure none of these techniques would work today--if for no other reason, the cocaine-sniffing dogs! The author writes very well, but he was so sharp and witty, that I'm afraid a lot of those witticms flew right over my head, and I had to re-read many times to figure out what was meant, and even then, sometimes couldn't.
Too detailed, where's the excitement.......2001-12-17
After seeing the movie Blow and reading the related book, I enjoyed the subject so much I bought this book. I was disappointed. First, this is a very old book written in the 70's. Almost an amatuerish attempt. This book describes the drug smuggler, how he gets in the business, how he imports and makes his connections, and how he eventually is caught. Unfortunately, the author didn't know how to edit the book and instead starts on a story and then decides to give you an education on everything he has read about the subject. Then he goes back to the story. Therefore, I found this book to be verrrrry slow.
On the positive side, it's almost comical how this guy falls in the business and decides to go to Columbia to set up his product. Not really knowing anyone, he just meets street people and eventually runs into connections. The smuggler's real talent is concocting the scam on bringing the product in. Most of his shipments are not stopped, but even if they were, he develops stories so his mules can act like they had no knowledge and won't be charged. You should be aware, this is really not a big-time smuggler on the scale of the Blow character, but rather this smuggler brings in enough to last him a few months, then goes back for another trip.
If you're interested in drug smuggling, this book may fill in the holes. But from a pleasurable fascinating pleasurable read, there are better books like "Blow".
Book Description
In this fascinating excursion through popular culture and marketing history, design critic Thomas Hine decodes the secret language of packaging -- and explains the many subtle ways that boxes, bottles, and cans persuade us to spend our hard-earned money. Tracing the art and science of package design from its emergence late last century to today's most instantly recognizable brand images -- the Campbell's soup can, the Coca-Cola bottle, the Marlboro box, and many others -- Hine has written an essential book for students of popular culture, designers, marketers ... and anyone who goes shopping.
Customer Reviews:
What a fantastic surprise!.......2007-07-23
I was actually interested in the history of the cigar box when Amazon suggested The Total Package to me. I bought the book as an impulse purchase (despite the cheap yellow cover that the book itself criticises) and I have been very happy that I did. I have not been able to put this book down. This book far surpassed my expectations and has been a wealth of historical facts and connections between the technology of packaging and our civilization.
I have read one strong critique of Hine's book in that it does not go very deep into the psychology of packaging and how it shapes the choices that consumers make. I think that is beyond the point here. Hine's work does an outstanding job of making an interesting historical narrative about packaging. Hine sees the world through the eye of the consumer from the epoch of the proto-package, through the world of boxes and tin cans, and on through cellophane and plastics. That perspective in this book has opened the world up to me.
I cannot recommend this book enough!
You buy, therefore you must read this book........2005-04-11
My community college graphic design students read this book for a class, so I've read it six or seven times now. Every year I look forward to it. It is a wonderful way to get my (mostly) American students to think their role in an economy they've rarely questioned. They learn about how products have been adorned and contained over the centuries and they also learn why great cities thrived with the advancements in packaging, why suburbs keep growing and why cars and groceries are an intertwined pair.
There plenty of insights here for the consumer who wonders why there are so many kinds of toothpaste and why there will always be a battle between Coke and Pepsi. You eat a lot of tuna? Did you know it was canned for the first time because a cannery ran out of sardines? Did you know that canning itself was developed for Napoleon's military campaigns? You know yellow makes products look cheap? You do, but you didn't know you did.
For designers it is an indispensible history that will help you locate your place in the world of business and the American economy.Thomas Hine discusses how research dominates design and how brand managers can wipe out your precious work with a single "Natural!" violator.
Packaging Is What We Are.......2005-01-02
I fell in love with Thomas Hine's The Total Package: The Secret History and Hidden Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Other Persuasive Container from page 1 for this book pulls you into a world that on the one hand is so familiar to you, but on the other hand yet also so unknown, namely the world of package - design and the world of stores.
In his book, Mr. Hine writes about the development of things that I had never even given a thought like the invention of the shopping cart and how it should not take up too much space or the design of the grocery store as a maze, but the book also tells so much more like what colors on the packages say about the products and so on. Mr. Hine even argues that "packaging is what we are" for "packaging mirrors its expected customers, and thus it provides an unfamiliar and provocative perspective about who we are and what we want."
Well, I consider this book to be a true eye-opener and I experience just walking down the aisles in a store as a truly unique experience now for I came to realize that there is a whole theory behind everything I see around me or every aspect of the store.
Excellent Book!.......2004-05-21
A wonderfully interesting book about the history of product packaging. Very thorough and engaging -- I had no idea how important the paper bag was! Rich with insights about consumer behavior in marketplaces and the geographic evolution of the American shopping experience. I go it from the library and wound up buying it as a reference book for years to come!
What's up with the icky cover?.......2001-09-30
What can I say? As a book about packaging, it should take a lesson from itself. Sheesh...!
Book Description
This meticulously researched study represents the first effort to provide a nonpartisan and objective analysis of how the United States should approach the drug legalization question. It surveys what is known about the effects of different drug policies in Western Europe and what happened when cocaine and heroin were legal in the US a century ago. The book shows that legalization involves different tradeoffs between health and crime and the interests of the inner city minority communities and the middle class. The book explains why it is so difficult to accomplish substantial reform of drug policy.
Customer Reviews:
Filled with data-rich insights.......2006-05-30
I'll admit that any book with the work heresies in the title has an automatic advantage in peaking my interest, but this volume does so much more than merely entice. MacCoun and Reuter have done an amazing job of looking that drug prohibition from a new point of view. Frankly, despite the passage of a few years, I believe that this book is absolute essential if one hopes to really understand the controversy over the War on Drugs.
Rather than attempt a summary of the contents, let me simply point to three specifics as representative of the wealth of insight the reader will encounter. First, MacCoun and Reuter have expanded the typical dichotomous legalization v criminalization perspectives to include depenalization and commercialization. Counter the arguments of drug prohibitionists, depenalization does not seem to be inextricably intertwined with massive increases in the prevalence of drug use as is anticipated with legalization. Also, legalization may have less negative increases in prevalence without the accompaniment of commercialization. By adding these two considerations, MacCoun and Reuter enable expansion of the debate into potentially fertile areas for improving the consequences of prohibition.
Secondly, the careful analysis of the 48 negative consequences of prohibition and the related causal linkage to enforcement, illegal status, and use should be the focus of careful reflection by every reader. In many respects, the damage caused by the War on Drugs is a kind of collateral damage - unintentionally caused by the implementation of US prohibition efforts.
Thirdly, MacCoun & Reuter reconceptualize the total harmfulness of illicit drugs as the interaction of three factors: prevalence, intensity, and micro harm (i.e., user self-damage). Much of the criticism of drug prohibition deals with the extensive micro harm without equal weight being given to the total harmfulness to our society. The negative correlation between prevalence and micro harm is among the more interesting possibilities to consider.
In summary, it is quite difficult to imagine a more sensitive evaluation of drug prohibition that so carefully considers the US case in light of the European context and the historical experience with legal addictive substances (alcohol and tobacco). I cannot recommend this book more highly.
Top quality analysis.......2004-09-12
The 'War on Drugs' in the United States grew from a million dollar acorn absentmindedly planted by President Nixon to a thriving 18 billion dollar oak three decades on.
The outcome of the 'war' is not satisfactory. The prevalence of illicit drug use is down but the substances are still readily available for people who really want to use them. The collateral damage is alarming, including one of the highest per capita rates for imprisonment in the world and regular reports of ghastly mistakes by law enforcement officers.
This book presents a massively researched and dispassionate cost/benefit analysis of the likely effects of various forms of legalisation for the major categories of illicit drugs. The subtitle of the book signals that the conceptual framework is enriched by a survey the international experience in the control of prostitution, gambling, alcohol and tobacco as well as the illicit drugs.
Drug War Heresies is a really excellent source for a wide range of literature and for the standard arguments that are likely to be bandied backwards and forwards for some time to come. It is clearly written and it provides a model of policy analysis in a deeply controversial field where the authors articulate a position of their own without apparently biasing the analysis.
The centrepiece of their analysis is the estimation of the Total Harm from a drug as the product of Prevalence (number of users) x Intensity (average number of doses) x Harmfulness (harm caused by each dose). This is a complex equation because the intensity is not uniform in the drug-using population and the harms arising from particular levels of drug use depend on the public health provisions and other policies (such as policing) that are in place.
The highly nuance stance that they adopt calls for modest law reforms that would result in increased prevalence (more users) in conjunction with other policies which would moderate both the intensity of use and the harms that result from drug use. The harms include the cost of crimes to support expensive habits, and other costs that result from policing zero-tolerance prohibition policies.
The analysis is far from complete, partly because the financial costs and benefits cannot be calculated accurately, also because the attractiveness and the political feasibility of the options depends on highly subjective (and widely divergent) appraisals that different people apply to drug use and its consequences.
The authors concluded that there is very little likelihood in the near future for reform, even for cannabis. All the problems in the analysis favour the status quo. So far only one major political figure, the Republican Governor of New Mexico, was prepared to put the ball of reform into play in the political arena and he was rebuffed by the Democratic majority in his legislature. This was a most unfortunate outcome from a scientific point of view because some of the imponderables that dog the cost/benefit analysis might have been illuminated in the light of experience in one state.
After the authors put down their pens both terrorism and Iraq became major issues, hence the prospects for change in drug policy are even more dismal, partly due to the diversion of attention to other areas and partly on account of the deterioration in the civility of public debate in general. This does not detract from the value of this excellent book, merely from the impact that it is likely to have in the short term.
A Careful and Honest Look at Alternative Drug Policy.......2003-09-05
"In Drug War Heresies, Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter ask whether drug prohibition makes sense and whether legalization might achieve a better balancing of the costs and benefits associated with drugs and drug policy. They draw on a broad range of social science literature, and they emphasize the lessons provided both by drug prohibition in other places and by prohibitions of other goods, such as alcohol and prostitution. In discussing this evidence, they raise most of the key issues that should be considered in evaluating drug policy. Their book is an excellent starting point for anyone who wishes to understand the debates about prohibition versus legalization.
MacCoun and Reuter make a compelling case that many evils typically attributed to drugs result instead from drug prohibition and its enforcement. According to their analysis, prohibition causes increases in property crime because users face elevated prices; increases in violent crime because traffickers cannot resolve disputes using the courts; diminishments of civil liberties owing to the difficulty of detecting crimes without natural complainants; increases in corruption of police and politicians; disruption of countries that produce coca and opium; diminishments of users' health because of poor quality control; increases in the spread of HIV because of prohibition-induced restrictions on clean needles; excessive restrictions on medical uses of drugs; and reductions in respect for the law bred by widespread violation of prohibition-among other consequences.
And yet the authors do not endorse legalization. They find great fault with the heavy emphasis on criminal sanctions in current U.S. prohibition, and they believe substantial deescalation to, say, the level of enforcement in western Europe, Canada, or Australia would diminish many of the harms of prohibition while causing only small increases in drug use. Still, they do not endorse legalization. Why not?
Their position rests on four arguments: that moving from weak, European-style prohibition to legalization would produce a substantial increase in drug use; that this increase would be a bad thing; that most of the benefits from legalization are achieved simply by deescalating prohibition; and that the effects of legalization are uncertain."
"The authors' basic points move in the right direction. They have done a great service in carefully, honestly, and scientifically considering both theory and evidence on the effects of alternative drug policies. Room remains for reasonable persons to disagree about certain pieces of evidence, but if more persons were to analyze drug policy as dispassionately as MacCoun and Reuter, both drug policy and the country would be in far better shape."
An astonishing analysis of the dark side of public policy.......2003-07-03
This is one of the most comprehensive, objective or "bi-partisan," and current studies available to the general public. Although it is indeed an academic study and is written to influence policymakers, the educated public can easily follow most of the arguments posited by MacCoun and Reuter. Both thinkers have extensive experience in the area of drug policy, both are senior consultants with RAND (Drug Policy Research Center) and have published a considerable amount of literature on the nature of drugs and drug laws. This dynamic text attempts a comparative analysis of vices, such as gambling and prostitution, with that of recreational drug use, including alcohol and tobacco. The purpose of this study is to research whether or not there are any correlations between vices and, if so - can they assist in our understanding of how to regulate drugs and the desires of individuals for drugs. For example, of the kind of comparisons made, is that of prostitution and gambling. Both are legal in Las Vegas, NV - both are thought to be harmful vices, nevertheless, the law has provided a place for them in a legal context - can the same be done for drugs? The text also evaluates extensively, the European models of drug law enforcement and treatment and compares them to America's own models of law and treatment. The authors do not offer any solutions to the drug problem, but what they have done is contribute a comprehensive study with an extensive and diverse amount of data on the subject, something of which has not been achieved as thoroughly as it has been done in this study. The authors also analyze many of the drug reformer's arguments and parse them for consistencies and/or inconsistencies; in the conclusion, they offer a sympathetic gesture to the reformer's contentions because the authors admit to realizing the inanity and harm current drug laws are causing society, but they do so cautiously. They realize that something "must change," but what? and the future can only hold speculations. This book is highly recommended.
Another interesting companion study is the Consumer Reports study that was released in 1972. It is comprehensive and treats the many aspects of the "drug problem" in America. See:
Breacher, Edward M. et al., Licit and Illicit Drugs: the Consumers Union report on narcotics, stimulants, depressants, inhalants, hallucinogens, and marijuana - including caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. (Boston: Little Brown, 1972).
Drug War Heresies.......2002-01-27
Drug War Heresies may be the best book ever written about modern U.S. drug policy. Written by a psychologist and an economist, the authors draw on attempts to control other substances (such as alcohol prohibition in the U.S.) and exhaustively examine the alternative and experimental European drug policies that most American readers will find particularly useful. The authors are careful to not impose their values and beliefs into their work, instead focusing on the consequences of alternative drug policies. The result is a persuasive case for policy reform in America that is not doctrinaire. Required reading for all who are interested in illicit drug policy in America.
Book Description
The past 30 years have seen vast changes in our attitudes toward crime. More and more of us live in gated communities; prison populations have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and "zero-tolerance" policies dominate the headlines. How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice has come to be so dramatically reconfigured? David Garland charts the changes in crime and criminal justice in America and Britain over the past twenty-five years, showing how they have been shaped by two underlying social forces: the distinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s.
Garland explains how the new policies of crime and punishment, welfare and security—and the changing class, race, and gender relations that underpin them—are linked to the fundamental problems of governing contemporary societies, as states, corporations, and private citizens grapple with a volatile economy and a culture that combines expanded personal freedom with relaxed social controls. It is the risky, unfixed character of modern life that underlies our accelerating concern with control and crime control in particular. It is not just crime that has changed; society has changed as well, and this transformation has reshaped criminological thought, public policy, and the cultural meaning of crime and criminals. David Garland's The Culture of Control offers a brilliant guide to this process and its still-reverberating consequences.
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