Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914

Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914 Review

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In this vivid, sweeping history of the industrial revolution, Gavin Weightman shows how, in less than one hundred and fifty years, an unlikely band of scientists, spies, entrepreneurs, and political refugees took a world made of wood, powered by animals, wind, and water, and made it into something entirely new, forged of steel and iron, and powered by steam and fossil fuels. Weightman weaves together the dramatic stories of giants such as Edison, Watt, Wedgwood, and Daimler, with lesser-known or entirely forgotten characters, including a group of Japanese samurai who risked their lives to learn the secrets of the West, and John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson, who didn’t let war between England and France stop him from plumbing Paris. Distilling complex technical achievements, outlandish figures, and daring adventures into an accessible narrative that spans the globe as industrialism spreads, The Industrial Revolutionaries is a remarkable work of original, engaging history.

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Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine

Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine Review

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The remarkable rise and shameful fall of one of the twentieth century’s greatest conglomerates

At its peak in the 1930s, the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben was one of the most powerful corporations in the world. To this day, companies formerly part of the Farben cartel—the aspirin-maker Bayer, the graphics supplier Agfa, the plastics giant BASF—continue to play key roles in the global market. IG Farben itself, however, is remembered mostly for its infamous connections to the Nazi Party and its complicity in the atrocities of the Holocaust. After the war, Farben’s leaders were tried for crimes that included mass murder and exploitation of slave labor. 

In Hell’s Cartel, Diarmuid Jeffreys presents the first comprehensive account of IG Farben’s rise and fall, tracing the enterprise from its nineteenth-century origins, when the discovery of synthetic dyes gave rise to a vibrant new industry, through the upheavals of the Great War era, and on to the company’s fateful role in World War II. Drawing on extensive research and original interviews, Hell’s Cartel sheds new light on the codependence of industry and the Third Reich, and offers a timely warning against the dangerous merger of politics and the pursuit of profit.

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Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure

Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure Review

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In the years since the 9/11 attacks—and the subsequent lethal anthrax letters—the United States has spent billions of dollars on measures to defend the population against the threat of biological weapons. But as Lynn C. Klotz and Edward J. Sylvester argue forcefully in Breeding Bio Insecurity, all that money and effort hasn’t made us any safer—in fact, it has made us more vulnerable.

 

Breeding Bio Insecurity reveals the mistakes made to this point and lays out the necessary steps to set us on the path toward true biosecurity. The fundamental problem with the current approach, according to the authors, is the danger caused by the sheer size and secrecy of our biodefense effort. Thousands of scientists spread throughout hundreds of locations are now working with lethal bioweapons agents—but their inability to make their work public causes suspicion among our enemies and allies alike, even as the enormous number of laboratories greatly multiplies the inherent risk of deadly accidents or theft. Meanwhile, vital public health needs go unmet because of this new biodefense focus. True biosecurity, the authors argue, will require a multipronged effort based in an understanding of the complexity of the issue, guided by scientific ethics, and watched over by a vigilant citizenry attentive to the difference between fear mongering and true analysis of risk.

 

An impassioned warning that never loses sight of political and scientific reality, Breeding Bio Insecurity is a crucial first step toward meeting the evolving threats of the twenty-first century.

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Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change Review

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Every day the newspapers report more corporate mergers and restructuring. Every day thousands of lives are altered by these changes. Most managers and employees, however, do not have the experience to effectively work through such transitions. In Managing Transitions, William Bridges provides a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization, and he shows how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change.Directed at managers and employees in today’s corporations, where change is necessary to revitalize and improve corporate performance, Managing Transitions addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. It not only talks about what should be done, but also shows how to do it, giving managers practical ways to bring the people ”on board.” Armed with this new information, managers will look at future changes in a new way, no longer feeling anxious and hopeless, but rather looking at opportunities.Everybody talks about ”managing change” and ”resistance to change,” but Bridges is the first to talk about what is going on inside the people who have to make the change work. He is the first to provide any real sense of the emotional impact of change and what can be done to keep it from disrupting the entire organization. Bridges’s years of experience helping organizations and individuals successfully take control of change has proven the need for specific, concrete guidelines for dealing with change. Managing Transitions provides these guidelines.

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