Great Books

"Gerber's books never disappoint. These Ten Principles help you dig in to create newer, bigger ideas during our deeply troubled times, ultimately producing a great renewal—of mind, of body, of spirit, and leading to a new operating system where anything is possible and growth is built into the culture." —Stephen M. R. Covey, author of the New York Times and#1 Wall Street Journal bestseller The Speed of Trust "This book doesn't just describe great business principles—it MAKES business history. Your economic survival hinges on you reading this book!" —Jack Canfield, coauthor of the New York Times #1 bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul® series and author of The Success Principles "Gerber is the master in giving us the essence. Every business begins small, then grows and endures in accordance with its founding principles. His new book scores a perfect 10!" —Denis Waitley, author of The Psychology of Winning "New books recycle old ideas. This one is brand-new thinking for our deeply troubled times. Gerber takes on the tough issues of the day, and provides liberating insight and compelling principles on creating small business success in any economic or political environment." —Dr. Ivan Misner, New York Times bestselling author and founder of BNI "Entrepreneurship has been the high road to success and satisfaction for 200 years. In this book, Michael shows you how to start and build your own business better and more meaningfully than you ever thought possible. Good Luck!" —Brian Tracy, bestselling author of The Psychology of Achievement

World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways through Time integrates world prehistory with a discussion of archaeological methods and techniques—emphasizing the relevance of how we know what we know about our human prehistory, providing the tools to allow for a lifelong engagement with archaeology and drawing students into the process of archaeological research and discovery.    Chazan brings students right up to the cutting edge of archaeological research by presenting the most recent discoveries and theoretical perspectives.  How we know the past is inseparable from what we know of the past. This new text allows students to see that archaeology is a dynamic field in which knowledge is continuously refined through scientific inquiry while providing a sense of the relevance of archaeology in the contemporary world.    As the cornerstone of this book is to present an integrated picture of prehistory as an active process of discovery, we cannot relegate methodological issues to the opening chapters alone.  While the introduction to archaeological method in the first two chapters is necessary, the questions of how we know the past cannot be abandoned at that point.  A number of features have been developed to draw together an integrated presentation of prehistory throughout the entire text.

Experiencing the World's Religions provides a clear and compelling account of the world's major religious traditions. With an engaging narrative and powerful photographs from around the globe, the text conveys the vitality and richness of the world's religions. It views religion as a living cultural wellspring that not only concerns systems of belief but how those beliefs are expressed in ceremonies, food, clothing, art, architecture, pilgrimage, scripture, and music. The text goes beyond traditional approaches to personally connect students with the traditions discussed. With additional pedagogy, primary source excerpts, expanded discussion of religious controversies, and more, this fifth edition has been thoroughly updated in both content and design to provide students with a better understanding of religion and the world at large.

From The Breaks of the Game to Summer of '49, David Halberstam has brought the perspective of a great historian, the inside knowledge of a dogged sportswriter, and the love of a fan to bear on some of the most mythic players and teams in the annals of American sport. With Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls he has given himself his greatest challenge and produced his greatest triumph. In Playing for Keeps, David Halberstam takes the first full measure of Michael Jordan's epic career, one of the great American stories of our time. A narrative of astonishing power and human drama, brimming with revealing anecdotes and penetrating insights, the book chronicles the forces in Jordan's life that have shaped him into history's greatest basketball player and the larger forces that have converged to make him the most famous living human being in the world.

One of the finest nonfiction writers in any lineup, Halberstam likes to alternate what he's deemed his serious work--books like The Best and the Brightest, The Fifties, and The Children--with his sporting interludes, though in his hands, sports are much, much more than fun and games. Books like The Breaks of the Game and October 1964 use sports as a prism. Culture, race, society, and history are all filtered through it, and Halberstam refocuses--and interprets--what comes out the other side. That he would now turn his considerable abilities to exploring Michael Jordan is not surprising. Halberstam loves hoops, and Jordan not only defines the game, he defines an era. His fame crosses international borders as easily as he dribbles past half-court lines. In focusing on Jordan--as athlete and force of nature--and his osmosis from a young hoop dreamer to product pitchman to the world, Halberstam is really examining intangibles like myth and legend, celebrity and fame, wealth and image, excellence and genius, race and style, the qualities of heroism and the pursuit of perfection. "That there had been even one Michael Jordan seemed in retrospect something of a genetic fluke," he writes, "and the idea that anyone would arrive in so short a span of time and do what he did both on and off the court seemed highly unlikely." But the phenomenon that is Jordan did just that. Understanding, even admiring, what he did, how he did it, and what it means in a basketball context and a larger one is Halberstam's goal, and, despite Jordan's lack of cooperation--or maybe because of it--Halberstam's muscular prose and thinking scores powerfully. Yet, there is a wistfulness, in the end, to Playing for Keeps; the game doesn't seem as much fun and collegial as it used to for Halberstam, and Jordan, great as he may be, emerges with less of the historic grace exhibited by Jackie Robinson, Ali, and Arthur Ashe than with a quality that Halberstam deems the athlete-explorer "in terms of going beyond previously accepted limits of what was humanly possible, and somehow by dint of physical excellence and unmatched willpower, pushing those limits forward that much more." Dazzling, certainly, but not necessarily heroic. Playing for Keeps is also available on audiocassette. --Jeff Silverman

By the time the First World War ended in 1918, eight million people had died in what had been perhaps the most apocalyptic episode the world had known.This Very Short Introduction provides a concise and insightful history of the Great War--from the state of Europe in 1914, to the role of the US, the collapse of Russia, and the eventual surrender of the Central Powers. Examining how and why the war was fought, as well as the historical controversies that still surround the war, Michael Howard also looks at how peace was ultimately made, and describes the potent legacy of resentment left to Germany.This edition was previously published in paperback as The First World War.

ON THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL, MICHAEL MEYER PROVIDES A RIVETING EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE THAT BRILLIANTLY REWRITES OUR CONVENTIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE COLD WAR CAME TO AN END AND HOLDS IMPORTANT LESSONS FOR AMERICA'S CURRENT GEOPOLITICAL CHALLENGES." Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" President Ronald Reagan's famous exhortation when visiting Berlin in 1987 has long been widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The United States won, so this version of history goes, because Ronald Reagan stood firm against the USSR; American resoluteness brought the evil empire to its knees.Michael Meyer, who was there at the time as a Newsweek bureau chief, begs to differ.In this extraordinarily compelling account of the revolutions that roiled Eastern Europe in 1989, he shows that American intransigence was only one of many factors that provoked world-shaking change. Meyer draws together breathtakingly vivid, on-the-ground accounts of the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland, the stealth opening of the Hungarian border, the Velvet Revolution in Prague and the collapse of the infamous wall in Berlin. But the most important events, Meyer contends, occurred secretly, in the heroic stands taken by individuals in the thick of the struggle, leaders such as poet and playwright Vaclav Havel in Prague; the Baltic shipwright Lech Walesa; the quietly determined reform prime minister in Budapest, Miklos Nemeth; and the man who privately realized that his empire was already lost, and decided -- with courage and intelligence -- to let it go in peace,Soviet general secretary of the communist party, Mikhail Gorbachev.Reporting for Newsweek from the frontlines in Eastern Europe, Meyer spoke to these players and countless others. Alongside their deliberate interventions were also the happenstance and human error of history that are always present when events accelerate to breakneck speed. Meyer captures these heady days in all of their rich drama and unpredictability. In doing so he provides not just a thrilling chronicle of the most important year of the twentieth century but also a crucial refutation of American political mythology and a triumphal misunderstanding of history that seduced the United States into many of the intractable conflicts it faces today. The Year That Changed the World will change not only how we see the past, but also our understanding of America's future.

One of America's leading foreign policy thinkers provides an "important and compelling" look at today's new power realities Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times In a time of war and uncertainty, The Ideas That Conquered the World offers a major statement about the fault lines of the twenty-first century, from globalization to terrorism, from great-power conflict to common security. Michael Mandelbaum argues that three ideas dominate the world: peace as the preferred basis for relations between and among countries, democracy as the optimal way to organize political life, and free markets as the indispensable vehicle for the creation of wealth. While not practiced everywhere, they have-for the first time in history-no serious rivals. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the American military excursions into Afghanistan and Iraq that followed have not changed this. In The Ideas That Conquered the World, Michael Mandelbaum describes the uneven spread over the past two centuries of peace, democracy, and free markets around the world. And he assesses the prospects for these ideas in the years to come, giving particular attention to the United States, which bears the greatest responsibility for protecting and promoting them, and to Russia, China, and the Middle East, where their fate will affect the rest of the world.

Grant is "justly recognised as an expert and civilized guide to the ancient world."--The Economist. The Romans changed the Western world and theirs became the first golden age. This is their empire of magnificence and corruption; the republic, the dictators and the slaves; the civilization and the Pax Romana, the brutality and the collapse.

In this sequel to Jurassic Park, Crichton delivers his trademark mix of speculative science and suspense.

Written in the wake of Jurassic Park's phenomenal box-office success, The Lost World seems as much a guidebook for Hollywood types hard at work on the franchise's followup as it is a legitimate sci-fi thriller. Which begs the inevitable questions: Is the plot a rehash of the first book? Sure it is, with the action unfolding on yet another secluded island, the mysterious "Site B." Is the cast of characters basically the same? Absolutely, from a freshly minted pair of cute, compu-savvy kids right down to the neatly exhumed chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (who was presumed dead at the close of JP). But is it fun to read? You betcha. Hollywood (and Michael Crichton) keeps telling us the same old stories for a very good reason: we like them. And the pulp SF formula Crichton has mastered with Jurassic Park and The Lost World is no exception. --Paul Hughes