Reviews (1)

a still-dominant US
In light of current events in Iran and North Korea, this book is certainly germane. It asks in part what types of arms races might occur between the US and other countries, and who those might be. What is striking about the book is how dominant the US is, compared to the Cold War, when there was a real feeling that it might not be able to maintain a parity with the Soviets.
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Subjects:  1. Americas (North Central South West Indies)    2. Arms race    3. Ballistic missile defenses    4. Current Affairs    5. General    6. International Relations - Arms Control    7. Military & War    8. Military Policy    9. Military Science    10. Nuclear Proliferation    11. Nuclear arms control    12. Nuclear weapons    13. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    14. Politics / Current Events    15. Politics/International Relations    16. United States    17. Arms negotiation & control    18. History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)    19. Theory of warfare & military science   

Reviews (2)

Spread but more like the Purdue Spread Offense
This book has some interesting points to make.The title is a bit deceptive for those who are trying to defend offenses modeled after Florida, Utah, Boise St., Oklahoma etc...This has more application if you are defending a multiple team that isn't a real spread team.

Thorough Coaching Resource
This book contains a myriad of strategies for defending the spread offense, whether you run an even or odd front, zone or man coverages. Included are various pressure and coverage concepts (man, zone, and combination). A special section is devoted to defending empty formations. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Coaching    2. Defense    3. Football    4. Football - General    5. International Relations - Arms Control    6. Political Science    7. Politics/International Relations    8. Sports & Recreation   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Government - Comparative    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. International Relations - Arms Control    5. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Political Science / Foreign Legal Systems    10. Politics | American Politics | Foreign & Defense Policy   

Subjects:  1. Arms Control    2. Arms Control And Disarmament    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Foreign relations    6. General    7. National security    8. Soviet Union    9. United States    10. Rowny, Edward L   

Subjects:  1. History    2. History - Military / War    3. International Relations - Arms Control    4. International Relations - General    5. Military    6. Military - General    7. Military - Other    8. Military - Strategy    9. Military Science    10. Revolutionary    11. World - General    12. International relations    13. Irregular or guerrilla forces & warfare   

Reviews (6)

You folks are morons
I found this "How To" book while researching shop tools to purchase on Amazon.Hey morons, this stuff is ILLEGAL!
Warning! Try at your own peril
Making a homemade suppressor for anything larger than a .22 caliber weapon is foolhardy. I doubt the designs in this book would even be up to that task. The pressures exerted by modern guns is extreme and you risk serious injury trying to contain them with a "soda cansilencer". Oh, and I forgot to mention that making one of these will land you 10 years in federal prison every time.

Not worth the paper it was written on
I just got taken for 10 dollars(plus shipping and handling). Do not be conned by this author. This is the most worthless book i have ever read in my life. The author even says in his "Apology" that he has never made or tested any of these silencers.None of these designs work, and some of them are dangerous.The people who wrote a good review of this book are either the author himself or on his payroll.Don't let them waste your money like they did mine.If you are interested in silencers just look for info online, this book tells you nothing useful at all. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Crafts / Hobbies    2. Design and construction    3. Firearms & Weapons    4. General    5. International Relations - Arms Control    6. Military Science    7. Political Science    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Silencers (Firearms)    10. Small firearms, guns & other equipment    11. Technology / Military Science   

Subjects:  1. History & Theory - General    2. International Relations - Arms Control    3. International Relations - General    4. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    5. Political Science    6. Politics / Current Events    7. Politics/International Relations    8. International relations    9. Nuclear weapons    10. Political Science / International Relations   

Subjects:  1. Political Freedom & Security - General    2. Political Freedom & Security - Intelligence    3. Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Civil rights & citizenship    8. Political Science / Arms Control   

Subjects:  1. Demography    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. International Relations - Arms Control    4. Modern - 20th Century    5. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    6. Political Science    7. Politics - Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    10. Population & demography   

Subjects:  1. International Relations - Arms Control    2. Nuclear Proliferation    3. Political Science    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Politics/International Relations    6. U.S. Foreign Relations    7. Political Science / Arms Control   

Reviews (4)

Sometimes hot, sometimes cold
This book has some interesting insights. However, there are quite a few factual errors. For example, he states that Brazil signed the NPT in 1996. First, Brazil acceded to the Treaty in 1998, not 1996. Moreover, in the non-proliferation literature, there is a difference between signing and ratifying/acceding. The fact that Brazil did not accede to the Treaty until 3 years (not one, as he suggests) after Argentina did is not problematized. Thus the factual errors, in my mind, also cast doubt on the quality of his analysis. My advice to anyone using this book is to cross-reference the facts with another source.

New theory of nuclear armament
This book is quite revolutionary because instead of asking the question why states develop nuclear weapons, T.V. Paul ask why, despite their perceived utility, states choose NOT to develop nuclear weapons. Situated within the realist school of thought, it offers a new way of looking at deterrence in conflict prone regions.

Scrubbed Liberal Argument Repacked as "Prudential Realism"
T.V. Paul says he's going to combine the best insights of realism and liberalism in explaining why so many states have not acquired nuclear weapons.Basically, he argues that states in low and medium conflict zones are less likely to want nuclear weapons because they pursue other forms of power, such as economic and diplomatic.States in high conflict zones, however, are more likely to seek nuclear weapons.Read more

Subjects:  1. Current Affairs    2. International Relations - Arms Control    3. Military & War    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Public Policy - General    7. Nuclear weapons    8. Nuclear nonproliferation    9. International Security   

Reviews (7)

I'm a big fan of this book
As far as I can tell, all the reviewers agree that sven lindqvist has done some incredible research for this book.He does envision a world without war. While most people cannot imagine such a world, this book is written in a way that encourages the reader to see that history unfolds in unpredictable ways.Things that once seemed commonplace now seem CRAZY, and ideas that once seemed crazy now seem commonplace.I think that the reviewer who says that the white on white bombing of WWII contradicts Lindqvist's ideas about the racialism of aerial bombing's social history has missed the point.Lindqvist shows that history only reached this point because earlier europeans who were using bombs to subdue their colonies could not really IMAGINE white on white bombing, so they did not support laws that would outlaw or regulate aerial bombing. A lack of imagination can be a terrible thing.Although all of us suffer from a lack of imagination at times, this book gave me hope.I hope that future generations will see war as an absurd and antiquated phenomena.That would be cool, don't you think?

...focus your comments on the book's contents...
... That such people disapprove of this book makes me proud to number it among my favorites. Alright, alright, I WILL focus on the book but I'm allowing myself some potshots.The book is unabashedly pacifist but not so at the expense of intellectual rigor. It is a fair critique that the author has an anti-war bias, so S.O.F. types need look no further unless they are interested in, God forbid, understanding a point of view that might disagree with their own and learning a thing or two. Rather than prattle on in the usual bleeding heart hyperbole the author presents an almost legalistic case for his ideas. He is anti-war, but it is important to note what KIND of war the he inveighs against in this book, namely, the large-scale killing of civilians from the air simply because they ARE civilians, not merely of the other side, but of a lesser, somehow inhuman, group of beings. This is where the author's chilling insight into the strategic bombing mindset is most profound. A previous reviewer implies that though large-scale bombing of civilians began in WW1 it should be exempt from the book because it was only "white on white." What this fails to recall about the actual point of the book is: the author argues that such a thing happened precisely because the European powers were able to think of each other in an almost racist fashion. Racism, or more accurately, dehumanization, is the necessary step in this scenario. He presents evidence that this process with had begun with the pre-WW1 use of bombing against civilians in colonial uprisings and was only accelerated between the wars and afterwards.The author's main premise is that an inhumane mindset, be it racist, colonial, or what have you, is a prerequisite for the acceptance of the bombing the civilians by governments or by individuals, whether passively or actively. I don't think the author would argue with the assertion that 9/11 was a direct consequence of such a mindset, further, that Gen. Curtis LeMay and Osama bin Laden might have something in common: they both showed complete disregard for the lives of innocents in the accomplishment of their strategic goals. What is most compelling about the book is the way it demonstrates thoughout history the temptation to use bombing simply because one can; how early Science Fiction racist pulp novel fantasies had an ugly way of coming true, in some form, all through the 20th century, much the same way "The Turner Diaries" were horrifically actualized at Oklahoma City.Apart from all the rubarb of whether any of this is gospel truth, the author has a fascinating and truly poetic way of trying to prove a point. The book flows in fragments and you are forced to read it in pieces by jumping around from numbered section to numbered section instead of page by numbered page, like you were reading random articles from a newspaper. I have'nt read it yet "out of order," that is, by page number in sequence, but I think it must be something like a vast version of "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, only much more heart- breaking and closer to home.If you are interested in an invigorating, disturbing (no matter what side of the political fence you read from) and thought-provoking read, give this book a chance.

bullfight is easy behind the barrier
This book has, I think, three different parts or points of view; the first is well worth, and these is the good documentation about the theme of aerial bombing, abundant and accurate.Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Bombing, Aerial    3. Bombings    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. International Relations - Arms Control    8. Military - Nuclear Warfare    9. Modern - 20th Century    10. Ordnance    11. Social History   

Reviews (7)

VeryGood
I thought the Myths that Divide Us, was a very good book, and I learned things that I never knew. I had never even heard of the Rev. Sharpton situation until reading about it in this book or about John Thompson, thinking that it was racism that athlete's have to have a certain test score to play sports. Like, I said, I learned a lot from reading this book and I think other's would too, if they gave the book a chance, even if you don't agree. One good lesson, I got from the book is two wrongs don't make a right.

A book that could change America
"John Perazzo, must be some kind of a kook," I thought as I began to read.Why even attempt to write a book that would overturn everything that was general knowledge about race in America? However, far from being a kook Perazzo is an able writer that proves his points.
Required reading for the societally aware!
This is an excellent book.In it, John Perazzo examines, chapter by chapter, some of the common myths and sociological fables that continue to separate parts of the US populace today.Perhaps his most valuable contribution is showing how so-called leaders such as Jackson and Sharpton have twisted reality to suit their own ends.To me, the most compelling and honest part of the book looked at the myth of race in the United States.US blacks are clearly the most privileged people on earth, yet vicious racists such as Kwesei Mfume, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Carol Moseley-Brown continue to perpetuate groundless black grievance, hatred, and jealousy towards our larger society.This stands in direct contradiction to the tremendous achievements of many, many blacks, who are now predominantly members of the US middle-class.Perazzo correctly and explicitly points out (in Chapters 3 - 7) that a comparative handful of vicious racial hypocrites (Jackson, Sharpton, et al) distort and hinder (the "myths" in the title of the book) what ought to be an honest, helpful conversation on society in America today.As a black man, I feel privileged to live in the United States, and don't understand why anyone could possibly complain about how we've been treated here when we compare it to the horrid, brutal life common throughout Africa these days.Perazzo has authored an impressive appeal for us all to set aside the people who wish to gain by anger and bitterness, and he wants us all to work together for a common good.This is a great book - I'd highly recommend it.His extensive foot-noting and meticulous research make it a valuable text for those of us who want to help all Americans move forward peacefully and with our due intelligence.Buy it today at Amazon.com and pass it on to a friend. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. African Americans    2. Civil rights    3. International Relations - Arms Control    4. Minority Studies - Race Relations    5. Political Science    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Race relations    8. Sociology    9. United States    10. United States - General   

Subjects:  1. 1945-    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. International Relations - Arms Control    6. International Relations - General    7. Military - Nuclear Warfare    8. Modern - 20th Century    9. United States - General    10. World politics    11. International relations    12. World history: postwar, from c 1945 -   

Reviews (6)

Two interesting topics
Sagan examines the safety record of the Strategic Air Command, the organization responsible for US land- and air-based nuclear weapons, as a way to contrast two different theories about how organizations that deal with high-risk technologies avoid accidents.The more optimistic theory is known as the High Reliability theory: it holds that organizations can hope to prevent all accidents through a strong organizational emphasis on safety; redundancy (in both the technological and human senses); and a commitment to organizational learning.The pessimistic theory is known as the Normal Accidents theory: it holds that organizations are driven by internal politics, that greater levels of redundancy can actually cause accidents, and that what Sagan calls "tight coupling" between processes can cause small mishaps to rapidly escalate into major disasters.The book is well-written and about as riveting as a book on this topic can be, and I learned a lot about US nuclear weapons history.(It's amazing we survived the Cold War.)Sagan is considerably hampered in his choice of topic - you have to assume that more skeletons are hiding in the military's top-secret closet - and as Sagan admits, it is difficult to draw any conclusions regarding safety from near-accidents.(Is a near accident evidence that redundancy in the system works as designed, or is it evidence that, under slightly different circumstances, a major disaster could have happened?Sagan favors the latter interpretation.)Thought-provoking.

The Limits of Readability would be more accurate
I purchased this book because I have a great interest in the most deadly of ordnance; the atomic bomb. I was hoping for a book that was slanted towards the actual weapons system. Instead, this book is a treatment of how the concept of safety applies to the Nuclear Weapons Program. Sagan and organizational theory
With nuclear technology entering its seventh decade of use, one may have surmised that issues surrounding the safety of this technology would be well agreed upon with a consensus view of the potential pitfalls involved in nuclear security.However, as Scott Sagan reveals in his book called The Limits of Safety, the problems surrounding atomic safety lie not in the components of the system, but in the paradigm that structures our view of atomic safety.By highlighting near misses from the Cuban Missile Crisis and other events, Sagan uncovers how close the world may have come to accidental detonations and possible accidental nuclear war.Sagan interprets these events from two different perspectives concerning organizational learning: the high reliability organization learning theory (an optimistic view of nuclear safety) and the normal accident theory (more pessimistic).These perspectives present and interpret the near misses in totally different lights, as this analysis of the competing paradigms of nuclear safety is the essence of his work.Based on his research, Sagan was forced to change his prior view of nuclear safety and concludes with recommendations to make nuclear weapon systems more secure.Read more

Subjects:  1. History    2. History - General History    3. International Relations - Arms Control    4. Military - Other    5. Modern - 20th Century/Nuclear Age    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Safety    8. American History    9. History / Military / Other    10. Nuclear issues    11. Nuclear weapons    12. Peace studies    13. Political Science and International Relations    14. Sociology   

Reviews (6)

It recalls it quite well....

interesting but unsatisfying
there are a number of vignettes in this book that are interesting, however the general tone of the book is very America centric, perhaps with an underlying tone of "we won", which detracts from those essays that are more balanced. Generally this was unsatisfying, frustrating eneough to write this review, as although the better essays are quite good, overall there is a lack of substance.
Excellent but Incomplete
The book is a series of articles by many prominent modern historians and it begins at the beginning (a very good place to start) of the Cold War with an article entitled, "The Day the War Started."
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Subjects:  1. 20th Century World History    2. 20th century    3. Cold War    4. History    5. History - Military / War    6. International Relations - Arms Control    7. Military    8. Military - General    9. Military - Nuclear Warfare    10. Military History - Modern    11. Military history    12. Modern - 20th Century/Nuclear Age    13. History / Military / General   

Reviews (36)

The media of moral relativism?
The media of moral relativism?
A useful overview
This book may actually deserve four stars. But I spent many years in journalism myself, so to me most of Bozell's revelations are old news.
National Hypnosis
Oh please, would you Neoconservatives stop the lies that you and the liberals are political enemies. There will no meltdown of the liberal media because the conservatives DESPARATELY NEED the liberal media to survive to keep third party candidates off the ballot, and dupe the masses into believing that modern Liberalism and Conservatism are different political ideologies (they both came from the same philosophers, Hegel and Machiavelli). Writers such as Bozell, Liberal or Conservative are merely pawns of the Demopublican/Republicrat elitists. My suggestion is to read both Liberal and Conservative books and sort out the lies for yourself, don't just read one side. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Government - U.S. Government    2. International Relations - Arms Control    3. Journalism    4. Mass media    5. Objectivity    6. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    7. Political Science    8. Political aspects    9. Politics / Current Events    10. Politics/International Relations    11. United States    12. Current Events / General   

Reviews (11)

Model of an Illicit Program
The book provides excellent insight into the Iraqi program throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.The most insightful portion is how they pulled it off.They needed and acquired materials and expertise from Sweeden, Italy, and even the United States.It tells in detail how they used cover stories to get their hands on sensitive items and would then use front companies to ship those items back to Iraq.Once the program was discovered, the book details how the regime attempted to cover it up.In one case, they literally tore down a building, rebuilt it, and moved the top layer of dirt from all the way around the area to cover any traces of nuclear material at that location.It is a truly facisnating book!!

Genuine truth from a wonderful man !
This is not only a trilling read, in part due to it's non fictional aspect but also it's a wonderful book because it reflects the character of it's author.
#66 Most wanted man in Iraq once, tells his story
"This is the man who will deliver the enriched uranium," Hussein Kemal said to his father-in-law Saddam, nodding at Mahdi Obeidi."He has already made great strides.""In less than 3 years," Dr. Obeidi writes in this book, "our staff of only 200 talented men and women had progressed from almost total ignorance of centrifuge technology to the successful enrichment of uranium and to the verge of large-scale production."How he accomplished this feat (beginning in 1988) is he story of "A Bomb in my Garden"; so entitled because of his hiding of a test centrifuge---the single most dangerous piece of nuclear technology---& detailed blueprints on its manufacture for over 12 years (buried in his backyard) while UN inspectors searched Iraq for just such proof that Saddam was a lot closer to acquiring a nuclear device than he was willing to conceed (an ability, moreover, he could reconstitute fairly rapidly when desired). Dr. Obeidi explains herein how centrifuges draw the heavier isotope uranium-238 from the lighter uranium-235 "in much the same way that water is drawn out of laundry in the spin cycle of a washing machine."In this way natural uranium---which contains less than 1% uranium-235---can be accumulated & progressively enriched until it reaches lethal quality (at over 90% purity).Centrifuges, however, need to rotate at over 50,000 revolutions per minute to facilitate this process; an engineering miracle in of itself.Only certain materials can bear the stress of such force and have to be manufactured to such precise tolerances that Dr. Obeidi sent dozens of his engineers & researchers to train undercover in the world's best institutes & high-tech companies once he was able to procure the requisite classified plans for such; as he (simultaneously) "put together a strategy for acquiring parts, materials, and know-how on the international black market."This he did in total secrecy, under direct command of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law."It is difficult to describe," he writes, "the sense of total fear we lived under" trying to meet arbitrarily imposed deadlines from above---the penalty being prison and/or execution for failure.It's an amazing story; and the details of meetings and events of interest are fascinating: details of meetings with Qusay Hussein & Saddam Hussein, being threatened by Saddam's son-in-law, watching Colin Powell address the UN on satellite televison, dodging American bombs during the invasion, wooing German & Swiss industrialists and scientists to provide classified materials & so on.Once he even had to tear down half of his development facility---walls, floor, etc. and remove tons of topsoil surrounding it before UN inspectors---having surprised him by taking samples---would be expected to return once those samples (as he expected) tested positive for radiation.If you are interested in the Iraq War, Saddam Hussein's dastardly doings---or need to be convinced of such, this is the book for you.Even if you don't need convincing, this book is a rare glimpse into Iraq that you will read cover to cover with keen interest.It is well written & hard to put down. Cheers! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1944-    2. Biography    3. History - General History    4. International Relations - Arms Control    5. Iraq    6. Middle East - General    7. Military Science    8. Modern - 20th Century/Nuclear Age    9. Nuclear Physics    10. Nuclear Weapons    11. Nuclear nonproliferation    12. Nuclear physicists    13. Obeidi, Mahdi,    14. Science/Mathematics    15. Scientists - General    16. Technology    17. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    18. Biography: political    19. History / Modern / 21st Century   

Subjects:  1. International Relations - Arms Control    2. Japan    3. Military Science    4. National security    5. Nuclear nonproliferation    6. Nuclear weapons    7. Political Science    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Politics/International Relations    10. United States    11. International relations    12. Political Science / Arms Control   

Reviews (4)

That Reagan was a persistent cuss . . . and so was this author
While reading this book, I had the distinct impression that it was actually a dissertation aimed at proving to a doctoral committee that beyond any shadow of doubt Ronald Reagan's primary mission in life, particularly during his presidency, was to abolish nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.Few would have believed that in the 1980s, but the author of this book more than proves it. He does so by thoroughly researching his subject and then meticulously analyzing Reagan's thoughts as distilled from his writings, interviews, broadcasts, speeches, and actions from the early 1960s through his presidency.In the process, he also clearly demonstrates that Ronald Reagan's thinking was so far beyond that of his contemporaries that even his closest advisors had difficulty understanding him or even taking his ideas seriously.Who, in the 1960s-70s, for example, seriously believed that by stepping up the arms race you could bring the Soviets to the negotiating table, let along get them to negotiate in good faith?But Reagan did.
Important Book On Reagan's Dismal View of Nuclear Weapons
Paul Lettow's "Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons" is an important scholarly account of Reagan's aims for his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) - perhaps better known - if incorrectly - as "Star Wars" and his strongly felt desire to abolish nuclear weaponry. It is a scholarly account which deserves to be read by a wide readership, since it demonstrates convincingly what Reagan actually thought of nuclear weaponry. Lettow observes that Reagan's keen interest in the abolition of nuclear weaponry is one that isn't widely known, even today, and that this interest arose immediately from the 1945 nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lettow not only does an admirable job in exploring Reagan's interest in the abolition of nuclear weaponry, but also makes a persuasive case as to why Reagan may be the most visionary leader of the late 20th Century, having created the world which we still live in.
Leadership: Reagan
Leadership against the bomb (WMD) including the Reykjavik summit and Gorbachev defined SDI policy review shifts. "The soviet policy review group submitted the dreaft decision directive to the NSC in early December 1982." (p. 77) The center of the book inquires deeply into the results of that start. It was aimed toward Soviet imperialism. It was anti-elitist. That defined Reagan and ultimately undermined his constituency. Gorbachev pressured Reagan. It didn't work well. The President stood. There was START and INF, ABM and NSDD. It was a tangle. Reagan provided leadership. He stood his ground more sucessful with the Soviets than the U.S. Eric J. Lindblom PhD Harvard ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ballistic missile defenses    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: American    5. International Relations - Arms Control    6. Modern - 20th Century/Nuclear Age    7. Nuclear Proliferation    8. Political History    9. Strategic Defense Initiative    10. U.S. History - 1980s    11. United States    12. United States - 20th Century    13. History / United States / 20th Century