Book Description

The American economy is in good shape: profits are soaring, employment is expanding, and technological advances abound. Yet inequality between genders and among races still exists. In ComplexInequality, Leslie McCall sifts through the complexities surrounding wage differences and economic restructuring to provide an important new understanding of the differences gender, race, and class make in inequality. McCall's vision of inequality will offer a new way to approach and address the complexities of inequality. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An excellent, comprehensive resource
I regularly teach a drama unit which focuses on child labour, and have found that this book provides the most comprehensive range of resources to accompany it. It's got everything - facts, interviews, stunning photos... and a respect for the point of view of the children themselves. Although I usually just pick a few sections to read out in class, I often recommend that students take the book out of the library themselves, as it's very accessibly written, even for middle school students. The section on exploitation of young workers in industrialized countries, e.g. fast food employees, has some great material to get teenagers thinking about labour issues and the role that they can play in creating change in their own environment. But Springer also gets the reader to identify with children from all over the world, and that's what really makes this a fantastic resource. ... Read more

Book Description

A three-part plan to help you create a booming business

Nearly 25 million Americans operate a registered home-based business--and those numbers are growing every day. In The 30-Second Commute, leading home business experts Beverley Williams and Don Cooper tell you everything you'll need to know, from determining potential markets to securing financing and developing a marketing plan.

Every vital business and personal issue is covered--how to choose the right business, strategies for overcoming lifestyle and family issues, tips for making the business successful, and more. Organizing the subject into three essential topics, this action-based book covers:

• Part I--Techniques for determining what business is right for you
• Part II--Nuts-and-bolts issues: securing financing, setting up a work space, and more
• Part III--Strategies for conquering problems unique to home-based businesses

Book Description

At last--the definitive one-stop guide for anyone who wants to know what mediation is and how it works. The Mediation Field Guide is a comprehensive primer that is filled with practical strategies for elevating conflict resolution to a process that can effectively resolve business, personal, community, and institutional disputes on multiple levels. Throughout the book, expert mediator Barbara Ashley Phillips provides insights into both the simplicity and complexity of the inner workings of mediation that will enable you to use the process with the skill and finesse of a professional mediator.

... Read more

Book Description

Cook exposes the hidden facts of his client's heroic crusade againist incompetence, autocracy, greed, and corruption. ... Read more

Book Description

Monitoring Sweatshops offers the first comprehensive assessment of efforts to address and improve conditions in garment factories. Jill Esbenshade describes the government's efforts to persuade retailers and clothing companies to participate in private monitoring programs. She shows the different approaches to monitoring that firms have taken, and the variety of private monitors employed, from large accounting companies to local non-profits. Esbenshade also shows how the efforts of the anti-sweatshop movement have forced companies to employ monitors overseas as well.

When monitoring is understood as the result of the withdrawal of governments from enforcing labor standards as well as the weakening of labor unions, it becomes clear that the United States is experiencing a shift from a social contract between workers, businesses, and government to one that Esbenshade calls the social responsibility contract. She illustrates this by presenting the recent history of monitoring, with considerable attention to the most thorough of the Department of Labor's programs, the one in Los Angeles. She also explains the maze of alternative approaches being employed worldwide to decide the questions of what should be monitored and by whom. ... Read more

Book Description

With the introduction of new production methods and technological innovation, tradesmen and workers encountered new challenges. This study examines the development of trade unions as a manifestation of working class experience in late Gilded Age America. It underscores both the distinctive and the common features of trade unionism across four occupations: building tradesmen, cigar makers, garment workers, and printers. While reactions differed, the unions representing these workers displayed a convergence in their strategic orientation, programmatic emphasis and organizational modus operandi. As such, they were not disparate organizations, concerned only with sectional interests, but participants in an organizational-network in which cooperation and solidarity became benchmarks for the labor movement. ... Read more

Book Description

It was the particular talent of Samuel Gompers to have perceived the realities of the position of working people in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century during a period of massive industrialization and large-scale immigration. Gompers was part of the working class himself. Pragmatically, he developed a pattern of action and a philosophy that enabled one segment of the labor force to organize itself effectively. Those who joined his American Federation of Labor were largely skilled workers. Although the great mass of industrial employees was still unorganized when Gompers died, the forms he outlined and the procedures he followed provided the basis for the ultimate formation of a powerful American labor movement. Livesay's thoughtful book clarifies the main forces that operated not only in the life of this colorful figure but also in the economic and social background against which Samuel Gompers acted. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Great Book
While working near Marion, Illinois (Williamson County) in the winter of 2002 and spring of 2003 I was (at first) completely unaware of the history of the area. Finding that I was a history lover, a co-worker, native to the area, told me about "the troubles" and recommended this book. I quickly decided that Bloody Williamson was one of the better books I had ever read concerning this violent era in American history. While reading the book, I rode over many of the roads and visited as many of the old sites as I could find.

Only in America
Williamsburg County had an unbelievable amount of violence, in both variety and magnitude, in such a short period of time. In less than fifty years this one county had labor wars, Ku Klux Klan wars, gang wars, and one of the worst feuds in American history. Paul Angle is a good writer, but that is only an added benefit. Reading the media accounts of these events would be fascinating enough. Anyone interested in a case study of a dysfunctional community should read this book.

First read the book
I write primarily to prevent the interested reader from being influenced by Alan Mills's review. It seems that Alan's review is based on a look at the dustjacket, or perhaps something someone told him while he wasn't exactly paying attention. Had he been listening more closely, he might have learned that Williamson is not a town, but a county. Had he finished Chapter One he might not have missed the central fact that it was not the miners who were killed in what came to be known as the "Herrin Massacre", but the company's mine guards and a group of recent Irish immigrants working the mine during the strike,who surrendered to the union under promise of safe conduct, before being taken to a field and shot by striking miners, who then cut the throats of their victims and urinated on their bodies. It is possible that a reading of the book would have alerted Alan to the fact that in 1922 Williamson County the union was not only well established, but had the support of a majority of the populace, and the collusion of some county officials. It was a combination of public intimidation and bribery that prevented jurors from convicting anyone in the two celebrated murder trials that followed the massacre. I don't understand Alan's point about the federal government fostering the wealth of the rich; worrying about this may be a hobby of Alan's, but the concept has nothing to do with Angle's book, or the events it describes. Those who do go on to read Angle's classic book will find a well-written and exciting account of an extraordinary period of lawlessness in Southern Illinois. It is also well-researched and accurate. Some of the participants in these events later refused to write books of their own, saying that they could never tell the story as well as Paul Angle already had.

Obscure Town teaches a great lesson for us all
Starting with a strike of the coal miners, the company hires outside thugs, who end up massacring the miners. But this is only the beginning of the blood that made Williamson (a small coal mining town in southern Illinois in the 1920's) Bloody!

The thugs didn't leave. They rather liked having the run of the town. Bootlegging, gang wars, and all [heck] breaks loose.

Its important to remember the context when reading this book--because the author doesn't give you much. The worst race riots in American History happened a few miles away, in East St. Louis, in 1916--a few short years before the time covered in this book. Unions hadn't been legally recognized--that came a few years later, amidst the depression. Coal, and the economy in general, were booming. The stock market was exploding. And the federal government took the position that its role was to foster the wealth of the rich.

Anyone who thinks that political corruption is confined to big cities, hasn't spent much time in small town politics. This book is an eye opener. Of course, anyone who thinks that this sort of corruption is a part of America's long distant past, hasn't been reading the paper much recently. Political shenanigans in down state Illinois are alive and well. Of course, the big economic engine driving the southern Illinois economy today is the prison industry, but that's another book. (see Going Up the River, by Joseph Hallinan, for a description of the same area today, dominated by Tamms Supermax Prison).

A must-read history of violence in small-town America
Down-home bullies, organized labor, the KKK and gangs of '20s bootleggers converge in this reporter-style history of the bloody county of Williamson in southern Illinois. Formed in 1839, the county reeled from 780 murderous assaults and 50 murders (with only 6 convictions) in its first 37 years and was called a "disgrace to the state" by the Chicago Tribune in 1875. By the early 1900s, the Klan and union mobs moved in, leading to "The Herrin Massacre" of 1922, which General John J. Pershing called "ruthless murder" and the New York Sun disdained as "butchery." This is a fascinating read by a top-notch midwestern historian, who examines the unusual mix of forces leading to generations of fear and lawlessness. "Bloody Williamson" will rock your world; you will marvel at the terrifying history that belongs to this quiet corner of rural America ... Read more

Book Description

A sustained examination of the politics and decision-making surrounding the origins, development and maintenance of Britain's main policy addressing international competitiveness. The Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy has not transformed Britain's economic competitiveness, as intended. This examination of VET sheds much needed light on factors of policy development and implementation which will benefit ministers, officials and the business community in developing future policies, balancing the demands of short term imperatives and long-term objectives, and catering for internal workings and accountabilities amongst quangos and executive agencies. A textbook for postgraduate studies in education, as well as educational policymakers. ... Read more

Book Description

Job Satisfaction is the most frequently studied variable in organizational behavior research. This new book provides an overview of the vast literature on this topic. The nature of job satisfaction is discussed along with techniques for assessing job satisfaction including existing scales and new instruments. In addition, the book summarizes the findings concerning how people feel about workùincluding coverage of cultural and gender differences in job satisfaction. Possible reasons for job satisfactionùboth personal and organizationalùare explored as well. The book concludes with a discussion of the potential consequences of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Those using this volume for study or classroom purposes will particularly appreciate the extensive list of references and the Job Satisfaction Survey included in the Appendix. Job Satisfaction is written for professionals and students in business, management, organization studies, human resources, industrial psychology and public administration. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Transforming the American Dream into Reality
America is called the Land of Opportunity because people of all backgrounds are given a chance at advancement through education and hard work, but these opportunities are not available to all students.

Professor Rosenbaum has studied the educational opportunities given to students of low SES (socio-economic status) backgrounds for over 35 years.In this book, he evaluates the adequacy and extent of American vocational education programs and compares them with successful models in other countries such as Japan and Germany.In this analysis, he points out a tragic irony:due to their egalitarian ideals, American schools are uncomfortable with creating a substantial vocational education system and instead offer a college preparatory curriculum to nearly all students, a choice which ends up depriving students of the means to earn a good living.

The American educational system sends the signal to students that they ought attend college:in surveys, most students say that they plan to attend college.At the same time, students have little idea what colleges require:as Prof Rosenbaum's _Making Inequality_ (1976) showed, students were ignorant of basic college application processes.Students do know that community colleges are open to all and perceive that grades don't matter, giving them little incentive to study.Even non-college-bound students also know that employers don't look at high school grades, and so have little incentive to study.

After high school graduation, students enter community colleges ill-prepared for the courses;most students must enroll in remedial courses, which they're paying for, but do not earn college credits.Disappointed with this process, high numbers of students drop out with few or no college credits.

By contrast, in good vocational education programs, students have incentives to do well:teachers develop relationships with employers, who trust their opinions of students, and students see that their performance in the classroom has a direct effect on their employability.In addition, the voc ed curriculum is clearly relevant to the real world, and students gain self-esteem from learning real world job skills such as auto mechanics or computer assembly;making a device work is a clear source of motivation, unlike algebra.

Students in vocational education programs also attain higher levels of competence at the same skills than they would in college preparatory courses.Cognitive psychology studies show that students are often better at solving real-world problems than abstract ones:uneducated Brazilian street children selling fruit on the street are capable of solving complex arithmetic problems, but unable to solve the same problems when phrased in abstract terms.

In sum, the American educational system perpetuates a false egalitarianism through its failure to offer more substantial vocational education programs.Rather than stigmatizing students, vocational education programs empower them to gain competence in fields which are often technically complex and high-paying, and which offer substantially more opportunities for advancement than those jobs open to high school graduates. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent book on the life of the different ethnic groups.
This book revives memories of times gone by.It covers a period of laborers working in the sugar plantations of Hawaii.A diverse group of people, coming together under hardships, overcoming adversity and languagebarriers.Mr. Takaki did an excellent combination of relating the daysthat made sugar King, and how it was built on the backs of the Portuguese,Japanese, Chinese, Filipino's.Today's descendents can read this book,smile, weep, and relate from stories told to them as children by thesehardy laborers. ... Read more

Amazon.com

If the 1996 presidential election marked the year of the soccer mom,then the 2000 campaign ought to usher in the year of Joe Sixpack, according toRuy Teixeira and Joel Rogers. Or, at least an early-21st-century version of thewhite working stiff who was widely viewed as the key to success in Americanpolitics between the New Deal and 1980s. "It's next to impossible to cement adominant electoral coalition without capturing the support of a good share ofthe forgotten majority"--i.e., the roughly 55 percent of the voting populationthat is white, earns a moderate income, has a low-rung white collar job orlabors in the service industry, and lives in the suburbs. As Teixeira and Rogersadmit, this is an incredibly diverse group of people. Yet, the authors claim,they also share common interests--mainly economic--that neither the Democratsnor the Republicans address. America's Forgotten Majority suggests thatthese folks played a central, if unappreciated, role in the elections of the1990s, and it proposes some ways both parties might change their approaches totap this hidden reservoir of votes.

Here the authors' own political biases become clear. "We need a new era ofstrong government--one in which government doesn't sit on the sidelines butmakes a serious effort to solve the great national problems that divideAmericans from one another," write Teixeira and Rogers. That sounds like thetalk of Democrats disaffected by their party's Clinton-era moderations and,indeed, the authors essentially urge Democrats to revive their party'sworking-class roots. As for the Republicans, Teixeira and Rogers think theyought to act more like Democrats. Until one of the parties remembers theforgotten majority, "Democrats and Republicans will be reduced to 'marketing atthe margins'--attempting to cobble together temporary electoral coalitions in abasically unfavorable and dealigned political universe." It's an intriguinganalysis, albeit one more suited to Democratic interests than Republican ones.Fans of E.J. Dionne, John Judis, Robert Kuttner, and Robert Reich will want tohave a copy of America's Forgotten Majority on their shelves. --JohnJ. Miller ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Timely
The mere mention of a white working class causes many pundits to cringe. Liberals, because the notion of a "white" anything smacks of political incorrectness; conservatives, because mention of any kind of working class puts the fear of Marx in their soul. For decades this key demographic group has been either ignored in polite conversation or caricatured in popular culture. Either way their collective existence has remained submerged, like an iceberg. Yet, as Teixiera and Rogers point out, this grouping composes 55% of the American electorate, or more than enough votes to guarantee governance to any party that can win their allegiance.

This slim volume is elegantly structured, very plainly written, effectively argued, and numerically buttressed, (being neither a statistician nor a political scientist, I'm unable to critically analyze the numbers & so, take them at face value). The authors' aim is to show that this key grouping is identifiable (by income and educational levels), grossly underserved by government ( falling income levels since 1973, without compensatory programs that are perceived as favoring minorities), and without fixed partisan loyalties. ( though working class men have lately trended toward conservative appeals).This last is significant, because the authors seek to show how the loyalty of this class can be won in today's politico-economic mix by advancing the right kind of programmatic appeals, ones that importantly seek to unify along class lines rather than divide along racial lines. In the process the authors must also attack some of the myths that currently surround this grouping, such as their endemic racism or the alleged disappearance of their very existence. No lasting governance can be won by any party, the authors provocatively contend, without significant support from this forgotten majority that has been so used, abused and ignored by the elite powers that be. In sum, there is in the book abundant grist for Republicans, Democrats, and third-partyites to chew on and is well worth the price.

You know it's an election year . . .
when books like this roll around. "America's Forgotten Majority" is clearly written for the Democratic Party, even though the authors claimed to be apolitical in the book's preface ("the content of politics is not our chief concern").

The central thesis is that the biggest chunk of the American electorate (55%) consists of the white working class. The authors define working class not just in old, heavy-industry terms (the USA is a post-industrial society and relatively few of us earn our living in industry) but also in low-level white collar, technical and secretarial fields. These are exactly the fields that have had the roughest times economically since 1973. The members of this forgotten majority are better educated in the past (they tend to have a high school diploma or even a two-year college degree) but they tend to vote like the working class.

The press, and by inference the Democratic Party, however, has become infatuated with the upper-middle-class, college-educated "soccer mom." College graduates are the people whose standard of living accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. College graduates may or may not constitute a reliable "swing" faction but they are only about one-fifth of the electorate, say the authors.

It is clear that the authors want the Democratic Party to try to court the much larger (though fickle) "forgotten majority" of white working class voters. This is a good book to read right now but it will probably be obsolete after the 2000 presidential election. By the way, in the whole book I counted only 21 paragraphs having to do with the Republican Party. ... Read more

Book Description

When the people of British North America threw off their colonial bonds, they sought more than freedom from bad government: most of the founding generation also desired the freedom to create and enjoy good, popular, responsive government. This book traces the central issue on which early Americans pinned their hopes for positive government action--internal improvement.

The nation's early republican governments undertook a wide range of internal improvement projects meant to assure Americans' security, prosperity, and enlightenment--from the building of roads, canals, and bridges to the establishment of universities and libraries. But competitive struggles eventually undermined the interstate and interregional cooperation required, and the public soured on the internal improvement movement. Jacksonian politicians seized this opportunity to promote a more libertarian political philosophy in place of activist, positive republicanism. By the 1850s, the United States had turned toward a laissez-faire system of policy that, ironically, guaranteed more freedom for capitalists and entrepreneurs than ever envisioned in the founders' revolutionary republicanism. ... Read more

Book Description

Work is bad enough, but what if things go really wrong? The Worst-Case Scenario authors come to the rescue with expert advice for surviving dozens of nightmare on-the-job scenarios, whether in the office or on the loading dock. From savage bike messengers to a bag of pretzels stuck in the lunchroom vending machine, peril is everywhere. Learn how to sneak out of a meeting, treat a deep-fryer burn, and survive a stockroom avalanche. Expertly remove a dent from the company car, extract a tie caught in the photocopier, and survive a workplace romance. Hands-on, step-by-step instructions guide you through these and other crises that can strike between 9 and 5, or on the swing shift. With an appendix of useful interview phrases, a career-path decoder, instructions for playing Jargon Bingo, and more, this is the one desk reference you can’t live without. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

IT HAS IT ALL
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK AND SERIES. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING SIMILIAR ABOUT WAITING TABLES, CHECK OUT CLAMCHOWDER.BIZ. THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC.

Silly, entertaining, but may actually be useful to someone!
Everyone has had dreadful bosses, scary or annoying co-workers, and everyone has felt that they arent' qualified for at least one job for which they are interviewing. Fewer of us get to sneak out of meetings- although many would love to!, or how to get out of various small places one could get trapped in. I personally really loved the section on "How to fix a Dented Company Vehicle" since my Volvo has a few dings I'd love to see gone.

The non-emergencies might be do-able; you might remember the various steps needed to pull those things off when you need a status-enhancing rumor to start flying around the workplace. Sadly, the emergencies will likely catch you unaware and you won't have the handy smooth edged guidebook in your pocket to pull out just as the office supplies start avalanching down upon you. Alas.

I was writing this review in order to be able to move the book out of my house when I decided I might need a refresher on some of these things. After all, someday soon my children will grow up and I'll need this book in case I decide to be a slacker! Just kidding!

Worst Case Scenario: Having to Return This Book
I have the first two worst-case scenario books and when I saw this one, I was very excited. This book continues the tradition of the series by offering detailed, and often humorous, instructions on things that may happen to you at work.

Things you may learn from this book are how to get jobs without experience, survive in a storeroom "avalanche," escape from a boring meeting, what to do if your tie gets caught in the paper shredder, and many more.

This book is very funny and quite interesting. A must pick-up book if you have a job or are a fan of the series.

listen to this on your way to work
This is a great book that all people in the work force should read but why read it when you can listen to it. I listened on my commute to work-- its unabridged (so you don't miss a thing) It is entertaining & no matter what your profession is..you will be able to relate to the funny but true advice in this book

I actually bought another copy for my neice who just graduated college-- and she loved it too! ... Read more

Book Description

Signaling the changing demography of the workforce, the largest percentage of new workers in the coming decades will be individuals often labeled as "nontraditional" employees. This new diversity presents both challenges and opportunities to individuals and to the organizations of which they are a part. Benefits include a broader talent pool and the opportunity for individuals to more fully develop their potential. At the same time, however, new perspectives on creativity, innovation, and performance can be perceived as intrusive and lead to tension, misunderstanding, and even hostility between old and new, creating problems of coordination and cohesion for diverse organizations. The editors of Diversity in Organizations gather forces to work out the difficulties generated by diversity and reap the rewards. Applying varied perspectives and approaches--such as analysis of individual psychology, dyadic interactions, small group dynamics, and organizational outcomes--the contributors provide scholarly coverage of a topic that is both contemporary and foresightful. The current interest in diversity in organizations makes this book a boon to scholars and students in a variety of fields, including psychology, social psychology, management and organization studies, sociology, social work, cross-cultural studies, and public administration, as well as to interested readers who seek a deeper understanding of the problems and promise inherent in diverse organizations. ... Read more

Book Description

Is your organization constantly battling the nursing shortage? Are you having to cancel elective surgeries due to lack of available nursing staff? Are your current nurses nearing retirement age?

If your organization is suffering from the decreasing number of qualified nurses, this new practical book, Rx for the Nursing Shortage, will help you create an environment that both attracts new nurses and helps you keep the ones you have on staff.

Written by two nurses with over 50 years of experience between them, this practical book provides strategies for recruiting and retaining nurses; describes the roles of the executive, senior, and middle nurse managers; and highlights the qualities that make an organization attractive to nurses. Also included are "toolbox lists" of 100 practical ways to recruit, retain, and lead RNs. ... Read more