Most Popular Books by Philip Smith

Shot down over Communist China, U.S. Air Force Captain Philip Smith was imprisoned for over seven years. Subjected to near-total isolation, torture and brainwashing, Smith resorted to strict adherence of the POW''s Code of Conduct and to iron-willed self-discipline to keep his sanity--and was able to survive without long-term psychological damage.

Smith''s hilarious and profound memoir about coming-of-age in 1960s Miami with a decorator father who discovers he has the power to talk to the dead and heal the sick.

Philip Smith attacks the comfortable notion that punishment is about justice, reason and law. Instead, he argues that punishment is an essentially irrational act founded in ritual as a means to control evil without creating more of it in the process.

This fascinating study of the Mandeans of Iraq—considered the last of the Gnostics—traces their history back to John the Baptist and the days of early Christianity. Among the casualties of western intervention in Iraq and ISIS are the Mandeans of Southern Iraq. These peace-loving people are now fleeing to the west. They are the last Gnostics—the only surviving remnant of the ancient sects who taught the direct knowledge of God, created their own gospels and myths, and were persecuted as heretical by the church in the second and third centuries. The Mandeans place weekly river baptisms at the center of their religious life, and the primary exemplar of their religion is none other than John the Baptist. So, what is the real history of this mysterious and long-lived sect? Can the Mandean peoples really be traced back to the first century? And who was John the Baptist? This book follows the history of the Mandeans from their present plight back through their earliest encounters with the West, their place in Islamic counties, their possible influence on the Templars, back to their origins as a first century baptismal sect connected to John the Baptist, and beyond.

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Despite all the jokes about the poor quality of physician handwriting, physician adoption of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) in hospitals still lags behind other industries’ use of technology. As of the end of 2010, less than 22% of hospitals had deployed CPOE. Yet experts claim that this technology reduces over 80% of medication errors and could prevent an estimated 522,000 serious medication errors annually in the US. Even though the federal government has offered $20 billion dollars in incentives to hospitals and health systems through the 2009 stimulus (the ARRA HITECH section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), many organizations are struggling to implement advanced clinical information systems including CPOE. In addition, industry experts estimate that the healthcare industry is lacking as many as 40,000 persons with expertise in clinical informatics necessary to make it all happen by the 2016 deadline for these incentives. While the scientific literature contains numerous studies and stories about CPOE, no one has written a comprehensive, practical guide like Making CPOE Work. While early adopters of CPOE were mainly academic hospitals, community hospitals are now proceeding with CPOE projects and need a comprehensive guide. Making CPOE Work is a book that will provide a concise guide to help both new and experienced health informatics teams successfully plan and implement CPOE. The book, in a narrative style, draws on the author''s decade-long experiences of implementing CPOE at a variety of academic, pediatric and community hospitals across the United States.

Why did America invade Iraq? Why do nations choose to fight certain wars and not others? How do we bring ourselves to believe that the sacrifice of our troops is acceptable? For most, the answers to these questions are tied to struggles for power or resources and the machinations of particular interest groups. Philip Smith argues that this realist answer to the age-old "why war?" question is insufficient. Instead, Smith suggests that every war has its roots in the ways we tell and interpret stories. Comprised of case studies of the War in Iraq, the Gulf War, and the Suez Crisis, Why War? decodes the cultural logic of the narratives that justify military action. Each nation, Smith argues, makes use of binary codes—good and evil, sacred and profane, rational and irrational, to name a few. These codes, in the hands of political leaders, activists, and the media, are deployed within four different types of narratives—mundane, tragic, romantic, or apocalyptic. With this cultural system, Smith is able to radically recast our "war stories" and show how nations can have vastly different understandings of crises as each identifies the relevant protagonists and antagonists, objects of struggle, and threats and dangers. The large-scale sacrifice of human lives necessary in modern war, according to Smith, requires an apocalyptic vision of world events. In the case of the War in Iraq, for example, he argues that the United States and Britain replicated a narrative of impending global doom from the Gulf War. But in their apocalyptic account they mistakenly made the now seemingly toothless Saddam Hussein once again a symbol of evil by writing him into the story alongside al Qaeda, resulting in the war''s contestation in the United States, Britain, and abroad. Offering an innovative approach to understanding how major wars are packaged, sold, and understood, Why War? will be applauded by anyone with an interest in military history, political science, cultural studies, and communication.

Since sociologists returned to the study of culture in the past several decades, a pursuit all but anathema for a generation, cultural sociology has emerged as a vibrant field. Edited by three leading cultural sociologists, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology presents the full theoretical and methodological vitality of this critically significant new area.The Handbook gathers together works by authors confronting the crucial choices all cultural sociologists face today: about analytic priorities, methods, topics, epistemologies, ideologies, and even modes of writing. It is a vital collection of preeminent thinkers studying the ways in which culture, society, politics, and economy interact in the world. Organized by empirical areas of study rather than particular theories or competing intellectual strands, the Handbook addresses power, politics, and states; economics and organization; mass media; social movements; religion; aesthetics; knowledge; and health. Allowing the reader to observe tensions as well as convergences, the collection displays the value of cultural sociology not as a niche discipline but as a way to view and understand the many facets of contemporary society. The first of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology offers comprehensive and immediate access to the real developments and disagreements taking place in the field, and deftly exemplifies how cultural sociology provides a new way of seeing and modeling social facts. "This groundbreaking, readable handbook [is] the first single volume to attempt to unify its diverse contemporary applications in a wide range of traditional genres of sociology...Valuable for college universities and libraries supporting undergraduate and graduate degree programs in sociology and history."-CHOICE

Cisco® IOS software is extensive and it can often be difficult to navigate through the detailed documentation. Cisco® ISP Essentials takes those elements of IOS software that are of specific interest to ISPs and highlights many of the essential features that are in everyday use in the major ISP backbones. This book not only helps ISPs navigate this complex and detailed world to quickly gather the knowledge they require, but is also helps them harness the full feature-rich value by helping them identify and master those features that are of value to their particular area of interest and need.

This second edition provides an excellent overview of the field by covering the traditional themes and current trends in image centred photographic visual inquiry but extends this by demonstrating the rich possibilities available through the analysis of everyday objects, places and interactions. The book includes chapters on researching 2D and 3D visual data, along with lived and living visual data, and also features a brand new chapter on researching the virtual world of the internet. Drawing on theoretical traditions as diverse as semiotics, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism and material culture studies, the second edition provides an invaluable guide for researchers interested in conducting innovative visual inquiry. Packed with exercises and projects, the book makes it easy for students to undertake their own research with limited resources and budget. The new edition also features helpful icons alerting researchers to important ethical considerations that are vital in the field of visual research. Generously illustrated with images and diagrams, this new edition is the perfect companion to those doing projects, dissertations or theses involving visual research.

This second edition of Cultural Theory provides a concise introduction to cultural theory, placing major figures, traditional concepts, and contemporary themes within a sharp conceptual framework. Provides a student-friendly introduction to what can often be a complex field of study Updates the first edition in response to reader feedback and to the changing nature of the field Includes additional coverage of theorists from the classical period to include Nietzsche and DuBois Introduces entirely new chapters on race and gender theory, and the body Considers themes that have become more important in theoretical activity in recent years such as computers and virtual reality, cosmopolitanism, and performance theory Draws on theories and theorists from continental Europe as well as the English-speaking world

Between 1887 and 1895, the British art student Miles Vandercroft travelled around the world, sketching and painting the soldiers of the countries through which he passed. In this age of dramatic technological advancement, Vandercroft was fascinated by how the rise of steam technology at the start of the American Civil War had transformed warfare and the role of the fighting man. This volume collects all of Vandercroft''s surviving paintings, along with his associated commentary on the specific military units he encountered. It is a unique pictorial guide to the last great era of bright and colourful uniforms, as well as an important historical study of the variety of steam-powered weaponry and equipment that abounded in the days before the Great War of the Worlds.

A fire lookout tower (fire tower or lookout tower) provides housing and protection for a person known as a fire lookout, whose duty is to search for wildfires in the wilderness. The fire lookout tower is a small building usually located on the summit of a mountain or other high vantage point in order to maximize the viewing distance and range, known as viewshed. From this vantage point, the fire lookout can see any trace of smoke that may develop, determine the location by using a device known as an Osborne Fire Finder, and call fire suppression personnel to the fire. The typical fire lookout tower consists of a small room known as a cab and located atop a large steel or wooden tower. However, sometimes natural rock may be used to create a lower platform. In some cases, the terrain makes it possible, so there is no need for an additional tower, and these are known as ground cabs. Ground cabs are called towers even if they dont sit on a tower. Towers gained popularity in the early 1900s, and fires were reported using telephones, carrier pigeons, and heliographs. Although many fire lookouts have fallen into disuse as a result of neglect, abandonment, and declining budgets, some fire service personnel have made an effort to preserve older fire towers, arguing that a good set of human eyes watching the forest for wildfire can be an effective and cheap fire safety measure.