The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry (Railroads Past and Present)

The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry (Railroads Past and Present)
Average customer rating:

Good for all who love trains

WONDERFUL COMBO OF HISTORY, PERSONALITY, HI-STAKES BIZ

Great book to sit back and enjoy the read

Review on "The men who loved trains"

The Men Who Loved Trains:The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry by Rush Loving

The Men Who Loved Trains: The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry (Railroads Past and Present)
Rush Loving
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0253347572

Book Description

A saga about one of the oldest and most romantic enterprises in the land--America's railroads--The Men Who Loved Trains introduces some of the most dynamic businessmen in America. Here are the chieftains who have run the railroads, including those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry.

As a journalist and associate editor of Fortune magazine who covered the demise of Penn Central and the creation of Conrail, Rush Loving often had a front row seat to the foibles and follies of this group of men. He uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars and turns them into a page-turning story for readers.

Included is the story of how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, was inept as a manager but managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Men such as he were shy of scruples, yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading, and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States. This book will delight not only the rail fan, but anyone interested in American business and history.

Customer Reviews:

Good for all who love trains.......2007-09-29

As a train lover and a man who grew up along Connecticut's shoreline during the waning days of the New Haven (and an uncle who worked on the NY Central) I found this book an amazing archive of the key players in the demise of the "great" roads and the emergence of the "modern" US railroads. The only drawback was the necessity to understand the terms of stocks, shares, corporate finance and other things financial. So some of this book required some homework (and a lot of reading portions two and three times!) But nonetheless, a great historical railroad document.

WONDERFUL COMBO OF HISTORY, PERSONALITY, HI-STAKES BIZ.......2007-02-18

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In one way or the other, THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS is the book Rush Loving, Jr., a journalist and specialist in business and transportation, has spent most of his career preparing. For a debut book, even a non-fiction one, THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS is very effective in covering the modern railroad merger movement yet fun to read with a can't-put-it-down quality and a surprisingly vivid cast of characters. In the early 1960s, Loving begins, the modern merger movement was already underway following Norfolk & Western's acquisition of the Midwestern Wabash Railroad. The N&W brass then asked itself where next to try a merger and the answer was obvious: The Pennsylvania Railroad, "Pennsy" or "PRR" to its friends. The two roads had a kindred history of cross-ownership, complementary coal routes (Pennsy-anthracite / the Norfolk-bituminous), excess Midwestern lines crying for rationalization, nicely meshing home regions (Industrialized Northeast / Upper South) that would eliminate the freight-car handoffs that made so many huge railway yards imperative, similar "command" or top-down military-style departmental operating cultures, even a history of shared passenger livery ("Tuscan Red.") The mighty Pennsylvania, with its extensive Northeastern route system, coveted electrified line from Washington to New York, and far reach into the industrialized eastern Midwest was proud to call itself "The Nation's Standard." Such hubris would play such a large part in wrecking the road and its successor.

The marriage that sounded so good in theory was shot down by the Interstate Commerce Commission, an agency not far from its Progressive Era / New Deal origins that was beginning to look increasingly archaic by the 1960s. (The ICC wouldn't let N&W and Pennsylvania merge, but it had a suggestion of its own: have PRR merge with NYC--the New York Central.) It wasn't until nearly thirty-five years later, 1997, that Norfolk Southern (a merger of Norfolk & Western plus Southern Rwy.) bought nearly sixty percent of Conrail, most of that successor to the old Pennsylvania, later Penn Central routes. Meanwhile rival CSX needed the eastern half of Conrail's (previously New York Central's) famous old "Water Level Route" mainline of New York City - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - Chicago so desperately that, all told, it settled for just over forty percent of Conrail. The two carriers paid, pledged or put up stock totaling nearly Twenty BILLION dollars, the result of a "never-say-die" debt race. Even the "mere" $600 million less CSX owed did not buy a proportional share relative to the sixty percent NS got. What CSX did get, looked a great deal like the old Central--minus the western half of the Water Level route. Norfolk Southern's acquisitions paralleled even more closely the exx-PRR lines. People still argue about whether NS cheated CSX.

What happened in between makes for much of the history in this yeasty and well-laid-out book, which comes out readable, fun--yet with a moral in the middle. In merger matters the ICC's opinion was law, but even it couldn't keep railroad executives from climbing the corporate ladder. On October 1, 1963, an attorney from charming Bedford, Virginia and previous CEO of the Norfolk & Western (Roanoke, VA), Stuart Saunders, reported to his new job as CEO of the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad (Philadelphia). Saunders was not a railroad guy of the type who rides in locomotive cabs, sets up steam-engine drawn excursions, or likes to talk with the hourly employees. Saunders was a businessman specializing in investment at that precise time in American business culture when it started to look as though the latest management techniques, along with conglomerating a palate of unrelated subsidiaries, would be key to corporate success--knowing a core industry intimately was not quite so high a priority. No doubt that the Pennsylvania Railroad was a step up in grade from N&W, if not in class. October first should have been one of the proudest days of his life. Yet fate intervened in the form of a statement released by the Kennedy Administration, that very day. Doing its own end-run around the stolid ICC, the Administration opined that a merger of Pennsylvania and New York Central was not in the public's interest.

As early as the mid-1950s, many prime American railroads were losing the patronage of businessmen who forsook Pullman comfort for aircraft speed. It was almost inevitable that first-class service would decay. New York Central's Twentieth-Century Limited, favored by celebrities and famous for Alfred Hitchcock's witty portrayal of Eva Marie Saint stowing away Cary Grant in the 1959 film North by Northwest--was cancelled in 1963. Well, actually no. The deluxe services of the train were dropped, the boutonnières for passengers, the red carpet leading to the train, stewardesses (as they were called then) and white-tablecloth diner all got tossed. A train without a name, only a number, kept running the same route. But increasingly less emphasis was put on punctuality or upkeep of equipment. And the shorter the train, the larger the union-mandated crew relative to revenues.

When the mid-Sixties hit, most of the railroads of the Northeastern United States faced a quadruple challenge: Air travel by the general public began to soar owing to the new domestic-route jets. The toll-free, federally funded Interstate Highway System led to bigger trucks, carrying heavier loads faster, and with a truck's traditional advantage of not having to tie up along a specified rail route. Most American railroads -- especially the Eastern lines here discussed -- lacked the money to innovate with the kind of high-techish stuff that now dominates railroad freight travel, especially piggyback trailers and shipping cubes. In fact, many saw their roads deteriorating and couldn't do a thing about it. Finally, Suburbia, cheap gas, more cars per family and the impromptu spirit of the Sixties made for a generation of young people whose parents had relied heavily on trains for intercity travel during World War II, but themselves rarely saw the need for one - sometimes not even the inside of one. America had lost the habit of including rail in its long-distance travel options.

After assuming the CEO post at Pennsy in 1963, Saunders and his opposite number at the New York Central, Al Perlman, spent the next four-and-a-half years or so trying to plan a merger anyway. They tried to anticipate the inevitable headaches that would result when and if the two systems actually were allowed to mesh together in (hopefully) revenue-earning reality, not theory. The Central was a smaller road than the Pennsy, but together a new merged system would have allowed for service cuts and rate consolidation, which is where the American railroad industry, of which most observers predicted only a slow decline, had ruefully settled. Al Perlman is generally portrayed in railroading-business writing such as this as a hot-tempered but good-hearted, with an innovative flair for the operations side of railroading that Saunders lacked. Saunders was a smooth guy, a Southern gentleman by training and a Philadelphia Main Line suburban resident who settled into genteel (and largely exclusive) Main Line historic societies and country clubs with surprising speed, given the customary standoffishness of Main Liners to strangers. He put that suave quality to good purpose in stumping for a PRR/Central merger, eventually winning over reluctant politicians of both parties, labor, most media, and community-leader types. Working all sides, Perlman and Saunders eventually persuaded the decision-makers that a Penn/Central merger would work.

They were mistaken. The new, merged Penn Central's first day was February 1, 1968. Eight hundred and seventy-one days later, in the spring of 1970, it filed for bankruptcy, the biggest American bankruptcy ever. In the brief interim the new Penn Central never really jelled as an operating railroad. In fact, no one in his wildest dream could have imagined how poorly the non-merged merger came down. Freight cars that used to be computer-located (using a type of colored bar-code plaque that was the peak of innovation in the late Sixties) got lost or got sent - AWAY - by yard manages already facing a yard full of mystery freight. Needless to say, the customers stayed away in droves. Penn Central's employees were incompatible Central vs. Pennsy. The computers were incompatible. Scheduling proved incompatible. And the increasingly rickety commuter coaches and dilatory long-distance diesels provided passenger service incompatible to the human spirit.

After the crash and the ensuing bankruptcy of a score of regional Northeast railroads dragged into the maelstrom, it took a long time to find politically acceptable solutions. Yet, by the mid-Seventies, a culture and polity traditionally suspicious to "socialism" found itself with local-government commuter systems, a federally-controlled service to operate the remaining passenger trains (Amtrak); and finally a mopping up and consolidation of the overly vast, tangled and superfluous number of freight railroads (Conrail, 1976).

Not all the news was bad: Conrail's steady recovery and return to profitability pleased its friends and astounded its detractors. The Conrail during this period was run by two bosses with different operating styles and personalities. Stanley Crane was an industry insider, a veteran who knew not only how to run a large rail system but also whom in Washington to talk to for increased funds, relaxed rules, and the like. He was succeeded by the innovative David LeVan, a down-to-earth type who loved to schmooze with the rail crews on the ground and in the cabs of locomotives. At one point it looked as though Conrail would die simply because it didn't have enough federal funding, even though the balance sheet was headed toward profitability. LeVan had to go to the head of Conrail's biggest labor union and ask for a twelve-percent pay cut across the boards. His rep as a "regular guy" got the almost unheard-of consent of the workers.

The Eighties held a combination of ironic developments and surprise. Nineteen-eighty saw the beginning of the end of the hallowed and hated Interstate Commerce Commission; few mourners were present when the ICC finally closed shop for good, in 1995. (That's because in the meantime, Congress had set up a modern agency, the Surface Transportation Board ("STB"), which was far less tied to rigid categories of service, areas of service, rates of service and employees in service.) Since the government-controlled Conrail was still off-limits, big Southern-based carriers forced themselves into bed with partially compatible routes and contrary corporate cultures. The Norfolk & Western's top-down executive structure that would have meshed so well with the old PRR clashed badly with the more congenial and collegial Southern Railway, epitomized by the urbane Graham Claytor and his brother Robert. The two roads agreed to merge, effective 1982.

Part of the reason was fear, not operating economies in and of themselves. In 1980, an incredibly large (and to some observers, awkward) merger tied most other Southern lines together: the predominately east-west C&O/B&O (or "Chessie System") got hitched to the "Family Lines," already an amalgam of coal roads like the L&N and Clinchfield under the protective wing of the mostly route-incompatible Seaboard Coast Lines, whose famous streamliners "Silver Star" and "Silver Meteor" still run today, under Amtrak. In 1986 the corporation took railroad slang to heart and officially christened the railroad and related operating divisions "CSX" for Chessie, Seaboard and that certain "je ne sais quois" represented by the X factor.

Who were the losers in all these goings-on? Marketing and railroad-ops specialists in Penn Central, most of them ex-NYC, the innovative train guys who got shoved aside by the bean-counters. Lyndon Johnson, trying to play catch-up to the Japanese, who decreed that the new experimental Metroliner must attain 150 mph, when in fact the trainset behaved not at all like a bullet train but very much like the souped-up electric commuter train it is at heart. Financial institutions and individual investors who relied on wildly bogus, inflated financial data when they invested in Penn Central. The traveling public who suffered the rapid deterioration of long-distance service in the Sixties and on into the underfunded Amtrak era. Commuters. A labor union that had to take a twelve percent pay cut or risk killing its employer. The American taxpayer, who had to pay for rehabilitation of roads and services that never should have sunk so low in the first place. Last but not least, the remaining two American-headquartered mega-survivors from the Southeast: Norfolk Southern and CSX, which together ran up almost twenty billion dollars in debt after a preventable bidding war over Conrail.

It was Loving's great talent - plus opportunity - that he knew how to portray his more vivid characters. THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS is populated with almost as many colorful guys as a novel out of Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. A "blue-eyed Jew from Minnesota," Al Perlman, ran the New York Central from 1955 until the Penn Central merger in 1968; he ranks high in Loving's esteem for his creativity and custom of forging consensus within the company. But Perlman and his fellow ex-NYC "green hats" clashed in terms of corporate culture with the Pennsy's more buttoned-down "red hats," and those divisions were never really resolved. David LeVan, his duty done at Conrail, left and entered another facet of American transportation: he opened a Harley-Davidson dealership in Gettysburg, PA. Fear a threat of hostile takeover from the South? Say hello to the Claytor brothers, Graham and Robert, who loved railroading so much that they spent innumerable hours in diesel cabs or hunkering with workers on the ground. Robert even qualified to operate the iconic N&W Class J streamlined steam engine, no mean feat for an experienced engineer and almost inconceivable for a suit. A useful connective sinew in this history results from following the career of Jim McClellan, a rising N&W exec with a Forrest Gump-like ability to be in the right place at the right time.

But what narrative is complete without a couple of villains? A big black hat goes to Stuart Saunders, that attorney from the charming small town of Bedford in Virginia. Primarily a bean-counter, it was Saunders who rapidly dieselized the N&W in the late Fifties. It was Saunders who fired Al Perlman from Penn Central in 1969. And it was Saunders who first diversified the PRR's money into anything but railroad maintenance in the mid-Sixties, temporary fixes that made the balance sheet look good but disguised the deteriorating home road's profitability. The strategem worked: undiminished dividends and healthy-looking profits released as "Consolidated Statements of Earnings" perpetuated the myth of the invincible Pennsylvania Railroad enough to pacify the shareholders and keep the investigators at bay. No observer figured out that Saunders' pet investments in utilities and real estate were the real cash-generators and that "The Nation's Standard," its revenues slowly sinking, was getting into a situation of chronic deficit.

Saunders' strange and largely hostile relationship at the recently-turned Penn Central with the company's chief finance officer, David Bevan, got the line into some serious fiscal cheating, yet little came of it. When Saunders' investments could no longer pump up the railroad's earnings statements enough to declare a profit, Saunders turned to Bevan with suggestions that Bevan made come true. Thirty years before the event, Penn Central's "creative accounting" eerily anticipated Enron: the threat to fire an independent analyst unless he rosied up pessimistic conclusions. Buying and selling various parts of the physical rail infrastructure with the help of shell corporations and tax dodges, while the real railroad saw none of these changes. Toward the very end, Saunders and Bevan came close to paralleling Lay and Skilling: they booked money onto PC's ledgers--money that had no origin. Nobody but the federal government can introduce additional money into the American economy. To do otherwise--in effect, pose as financiers--was and is very illegal. And except for a conflict-of-interest hearing into the "finance club" Bevan and a few friends set up in 1962, the two executives largely escaped censure or punishment.

This book deserves a wide readership among the general public, along with railroad people and railroad enthusiasts; also people who like a good, well-written and real corporate saga along the lines of BARBARIANS AT THE GATE should like THE MEN WHO LOVED TRAINS. The book (out of Indiana University Press) is a good sturdy product, enlivened with before-and-after route maps in the frontispiece and back of book, respectively. These colorful charts come courtesy of America's largest-circulating Railroad magazine, TRAINS of Waukesha (suburban Milwaukee), Wisconsin. Twenty-seven ninety-five is not an unrealistic retail price but Amazon and others offer online discounts.

Great book to sit back and enjoy the read.......2007-02-14

The Men Who Loved Trains is an excellent book about railroads, economics, politics and backroom deals without needing a political science or economic degree.

I am glad to have added this book to my collection.

Review on "The men who loved trains".......2007-01-18

This is probably one of the best books I have read in years. Even though my background is not economics this book is excellently written to make you interested what's going on in the railroad industrry. This book in many ways is more written like a novel than a documentary. It is really fun to read and I learnd a lot by reading it. Highly recommended!

The Men Who Loved Trains:The Story of Men Who Battled Greed to Save an Ailing Industry by Rush Loving.......2007-01-16

I bought this book for my husband who works for the railroads mentioned in this book. Because of his busy schedule, he does not usually read books prefering to read magazines instead. However, I gave him this book as a Christmas present and he read it in one week. He said the book was excellent! He found it an excellent source of information. He was there during a lot of what happened so it was of special interest to him.

Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--and How We Take It Back

Average customer rating:

Great seller!
Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government --And How We Take It Back
Good, But Biased
Give them as Gifts
Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--and How We Take It Back

Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--and How We Take It Back
David Sirota
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0307237346
Release Date: 2006-05-02

Book Description

Do you ever wonder if there’s a connection between the corruption scandals in the news and the steady decline in the quality of life for millions of Americans?

Do you ever wonder what corporations get for the millions of dollars they pour into the American political system?

Do you ever think the government has been hijacked by forces hostile to average Americans?

Do you ever want to fight back?

Millions of Americans lack health care and millions more struggle to afford it. Politicians claim they care, then pass legislation that just sends more cash to the HMOs. Wages have been stagnant for thirty years, even as corporate profits skyrocket. Politicians say they want to fix the problem and then pass bills written by lobbyists that drive wages even lower and punish those crushed by debt. Jobs are being shipped overseas, pensions are being cut, and energy is becoming unaffordable. And our government, more concerned about maintaining its corporate sponsorship than protecting its citizens, does nothing about it.

In Hostile Takeover, David Sirota, a major new voice in American politics, seeks to open the eyes of ordinary Americans to the fact that corporate interests have undermined democracy, aided and abetted by their lackeys in our allegedly representative government. At a time when more and more of America’s major political leaders are being indicted or investigated for corruption, Sirota takes readers on a journey that shows how all of this nefarious behavior happened right under our noses—and how the high-profile scandals are merely one product of a political system and debate wholly owned by Big Money interests. Sirota considers major public issues that feel intractable—like spiraling health care costs, the outsourcing of jobs, the inequities of the tax code, and out-of-control energy prices—and shows how in each case workable solutions are buried under the lies of lobbyists, the influence of campaign cash, and the ubiquitous spin machine financed by Big Business.

With fiery passion, pinpoint wit, and lucid analysis, Hostile Takeover reveals the true enemies of reform and their increasingly sophisticated—and hostile—tactics. It’s an essential guidebook for those of us tired of the government selling us out—and determined to take our country back.

Also available as an eBook

Customer Reviews:

Great seller!.......2007-08-08

The book was in excellent condition as promised, it was well packed and delivery was prompt. Great buying experience; highly recommended!!!

Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government --And How We Take It Back.......2007-07-31

I am not sure how I can say I love this book when what it is saying makes me so angry that I can only read it for a short period of time before I have to take a break from it. It/he speaks truth to power---a very ugly and perverted power. I fear that no politician is free from the corruption; and, I wonder how we can ever take back our government.

Good, But Biased.......2007-07-24

"Hostile Takeover" was an excellent book showcasing just how tight Corporate America and the US government are when it comes to domestic issues. It is highly recommended for everyone to read. I found a few flaws in it however. One was that it did not focus on the hostile takeover of US foreign policy for big business interests. However, this subject could be a different book entirely, which is the job of Noam Chomsky. It is good he doesnt focus on the same subject as Chomsky and many others, but I felt he could have at least mentioned some of the issues of foreign policy. Another problem for me was that the author had no problem calling out think tanks and institutes as conservative, but never labeled others that he supported as liberal, instead constantly calling them "nonpartisan". I am a libertarian, but I enjoyed this book. He is most certainly a liberal but he does have some pretty good ideas to the solve problems of the hostile takeover and I continually found myself agreeing with him. Recommended for any thoughtful person concerned with our counry's future.

Give them as Gifts.......2007-02-23

I got this book from the library and read it over a month. It took me that long because every night I read it, I was sick to my stomach. It is so chock full of facts that I want the paperback when it comes out just so I can use it as a reference tool when I argue with my conservative friends about politics. Come to think of it, I'd like to buy copies for anyone that still feels free trade is a good idea, that CEO's really deserve the pay they are getting, and it would be a good idea to privatize social security.

Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--and How We Take It Back.......2007-01-09

goood

Defensive Measures Against Hostile Takeovers in the Common Market

Average customer rating:

Defensive Measures Against Hostile Takeovers in the Common Market

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792308344

Resisting Hostile Takeovers: The Case of Gillette

Average customer rating:

worth reading
an excellent , detailed account
Taking the outsider in

Resisting Hostile Takeovers: The Case of Gillette
Rita Ricardo-Campbell
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0275958302

Book Description

Written by the first woman director of the Gillette Company, this is an exciting first-hand account of Gillette's successful fight against four hostile takeover efforts during the late 1980s. After a brief, insightful history of the company and the growth of its world-famous products--Gillette razors and blades; Braun coffee machines and electric razors; Oral-B toothbrushes; Paper Mate, Waterman, and Parker pens; and cosmetics--the author tells the inside story of Ronald Perelman's three attempts and the Coniston Partners' one attempt to take over Gillette. Ricardo-Campbell, who chaired Gillette's Finance Committee during this period, provides a fascinating look at the ensuing proxy battles and other intricate financial maneuvers. Combining academic theory and first-hand experience in its discussion of topics such as greenmail and poison pills, this work also features such world-renowned corporate figures as Warren Buffett, Joe Flom, and Eric Gleacher.

Customer Reviews:

worth reading.......2003-12-26

I believe Resisting Hostile Takeovers is worth reading though I don't completely agree with Ms.Ricardo-Campbell's writing style. This book discusses two events Gillette had experiened through 1986 and 1988: hostile hakeover attempt and proxy battle. The author, as economist, very concisely details the major issues arising in the takeover battle such as business decision rule, antigreenmail, proxy battle, anti-takeover legislation etc. Caution is required, however, since this book is written from a board member's viewpoint and there are relatively not much about how managements and other legal and financial advisors reacted to the threats.

an excellent , detailed account.......1999-09-25

This excellent thesis has great credibility because it was written by someone who was actually in the game and not on the sidelines looking in. The detail is such that it could also serve as a text on the subject of takeovers. This book serves as a testament that even the some of the best managers(Gillette) should and will be constantly challenged ( if need be by outsiders like Perelman, etc) to increase shareholder value.

Taking the outsider in.......1997-12-12

Well, perhaps not many students find takeover sories interesting. Perhaps,... But for an insight into real business problems, the Gillettte story is one of the very best. It shows that women may be better managers (even in a razor company), provides a fresh written perspective, and should be considered as a wounderful learing example for further geneations.

Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood

Average customer rating:

Required Reading for Parents (er, do I have that authority?)
A Bit Tedious at Times, Yet Highly Redeeming
clearly written, well-documented
A wake up call for parents
The branding of children

Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood
Susan Linn
Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Consumer Behavior | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers
philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 1565847830

Book Description

A shocking exposé of the $15 billion marketing maelstrom aimed at our children and how we can stop it.

With the intensity of the California gold rush, corporations are racing to stake their claim on the consumer group formerly known as children. What was once the purview of a handful of companies has escalated into a gargantuan enterprise estimated at over $15 billion annually. While parents busily try to set limits at home, marketing executives work day and night to undermine their efforts with irresistible messages.

In Consuming Kids, psychologist Susan Linn takes a comprehensive and unsparing look at the demographic advertisers call "the kid market," taking readers on a compelling and disconcerting journey through modern childhood as envisioned by commercial interests. Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books. All aspects of children's lives—their health, education, creativity, and values—are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace.

Interweaving real-life stories of marketing to children, child development theory, the latest research, and what marketing experts themselves say about their work, Consuming Kids reveals the magnitude of this problem and shows what can be done about it.

Customer Reviews:

Required Reading for Parents (er, do I have that authority?).......2005-12-21

I see the reader review preceding this one states: "The only reason I do not give this book 5 stars is that the author focuses primarily on child-directed consumerism."

Perhaps said reader didn't notice the TITLE of Susan Linn's book? :(

Why CONSUMING KIDS isn't a national bestseller in perpetuity (and required reading for parents), I cannot explain, other than to suggest that Mattel and Disney have formed a conspiracy against it. Kudos to Susan Linn.

A Bit Tedious at Times, Yet Highly Redeeming.......2005-04-29

I learned about this book from the author when she was a guest on a local radio talk show. I like to describe my opinion as "not-so-humble-yet-worthless". In the case of this book that would be especially so, because I'm not married and don't have any children (a confession for which I am fully prepared to be lambasted behind, because I have the nerve to have an opinion on the topic).

Now that I've gotten that off my chest...I feel that this book was very good at shining a light on the ever increasing problem of the marketing and advertising blitz of consumer products that targets teens and working it's way all the way down to infants. I especially liked Linn's work as a "mole" during a marketing and advertising conference, how she exposes the way public schools have now become a hotbed for marketing executives, and I found myself empathizing with parents who are sports (mainly baseball & football) fanatics that may feel as if watching a sporting event on television is an indirect encouragement to drink, because of the flood of beer commercials that usually accompany televised sporting events.

I happened to be reading a portion of the book on a Saturday morning, and as I put the book down to turn on the television, the channel just happened to be on Fox. Linn speaks in specific detail about every single thing that I saw in that short TV break...the Fox/4Kids TV collaboration in the book, how that collaboration allows a particular ad agency to market to kids all morning long, every Saturday, how Companies like Lego have begun to offer playsets that are designed to create only one particular thing and as a result, stifle the creativity of young minds, and the way products devoid of nutritional value are marketed in this fashion, as well as the effects it may have on child obesity. So it's certainly not difficult to locate the evidence of which she speaks.

The book does drag at times and in just about every chapter, stops at or leaves room for many open-ended questions that as a result, make it at times begin to read a little too much like a buck-passing project put together by parents in search of a scapegoat for their bratty children. I could write an entire book myself on the questions that this one book raised for me.

But where I feel this book is superb, and I believe most readers will find the most useful, is in the final chapter...Ending The Marketing Maelstrom: You're Not Alone. Here, Linn constructs a detailed, yet highly attainable list of suggestions for solutions to the problem where everyone - young or old, parent or childless, marketing executive or schoolteacher, politician or clergyman, working with children or not - has a part to play. And while everything that Linn outlines is not attainable by everyone, I especially liked how she started the out with five segments of "WHAT PARENTS CAN DO"...in the home, in the community, in the schools, in the marketplace, and limiting television and why it's important...the things that are the most attainable by just about everyone. Because I truly believe it begins at home, and we can shine a spotlight on the problem until times get better, but at the end of the day, the reality of this world is that children are not a reflection of a cunning advertising agency or a slick TV commercial. Children are a reflection of the people raising them.

She also offers a list of other books as a suggestion to get people discussing the issue. I think I'm going to take her up on some of her suggestions. Having said that, I'll leave anyone humoring me by reading this review with a quote from one of America's more popular TV Dads, Bernie Mac, when speaking of his own less-than-well behaved TV children: "This is war, and I don't plan on losing."

clearly written, well-documented.......2005-04-07

It's hard to imagine someone picking this book up who already doesn't think kids are overly targeted by commercial interests, so the question of "does it make its point" doesn't seem to matter much (the answer is yes). If it won't convince you of its argument since you've already been convinced, what it will do at times is startle you with just how blatant or over-the-top that targeting is.
The book itself is well-documented in a variety of ways--a pleasing and effective mix of personal anecdote (a mother herself), academic scholarship/studies, psychiatry, and old-fashioned journalism involving interviews, internal company memos, and in some of the most interesting scenes, "under-cover" experience at some marketing conferences/workshops.
All the major and expected culprits are examined: tobacco, alcohol, sex, toys, television, etc.. Each one given roughly equal treatment of analysis, anger, and disdain. For the most part, the analysis is even-toned (though always with a sense of sad anger or urgency), though she occasionally stacks the deck against the book's villains a bit too obviously.
Linn closes with some proposed solutions. While she acknowledges the role of parents in such simple solutions as "hey, turn off the TV!", her main argument is that the balance of power has shifted too greatly over the past 20 years or so and the govt. needs to step in on a more aggressive parental/child-friendly fashion. Some will find her solutions overly-intrusive, others will cheer them on, and sadly, I think many will nod in agreement while thinking the genie's already out of the bottle.
There's really very little to complain about with regard to the book. As mentioned, it's a bit self-evident, so one doesn't expect any "wow" moments. And perhaps some more historical context could be helpful. A bit more balance from the other side would have been nice, even if it's hard to imagine much of a defense. But overall, it's a detailed, lucid argument made in pleasant fashion, even if the end result is frustration and sadness over just how far things have gone. Recommended.

A wake up call for parents.......2004-11-12

The central premise of this book is that parents are being told that it is their responsibility--not that of the government or private industry--to shield children from the harmful effects of marketing while at the same time, advertisers are using methods specifically intended to undermine parents' efforts. Young children are extremely vulnerable to advertising, and marketers exploit that vulnerability without any concern about the well-being of the children or the population at large. It is not realistic to expect parents to have control over these influences when they come from all directions and with such force.

What is most disturbing about this well-researched study is how unabashedly exploitative the advertising industry has become toward children. They are proud of "cradle to grave" marketing that can begin when children are toddlers or infants. The "nag factor" is considered a perfectly reasonable way to get children to convince their parents to buy them things. Harmful products such as obesity-inducing fast foods, nicotine, and alcohol are pushed the hardest at children, and statistics show that even the most well-intentioned and involved parents can fail teach their children to make wise choices.

The only reason I do not give this book 5 stars is that the author focuses primarily on child-directed consumerism. As a parent, I have experienced the secondary effects of marketing when I've purchased over-hyped products for my son that he hasn't even asked for. Such is the power of advertising that parents become trained to anticipate what they will be nagged for.

The suggestions offered to parents in this book range from actions we can take at home to political issues we can champion to help protect our children. There is no step-by-step guide to making our kids marketing-proof. The point of the book is that parents currently do not have the power to protect their children, and should not be viewed as solely responsible for their well-being. Things are getting worse and only pressure from consumers and from our political representatives can level the playing field.

The branding of children.......2004-09-15

Parents, grandparents, teachers, caretakers, and anyone who cares about children and the future of our nation, must read Susan Linn's, Consuming Kids, and take action. At it's core, Consuming Kids, examines the negative affects that marketing and advertising have on children. The disturbing fact is that marketing to children is a booming industry that is essentially profiting from programming children. The question Linn presents to the reader is: who is responsible for shaping our children? Is it McDonald's? Is it the Worldwide Wrestling Federation? Is it Pepsi? Is it Barbie? Linn argues and I agree with her, that today's generation of children are not basing their identity or values around those of their parents or friends, but are rather being shaped by brands and large corporations.

I myself am a student of media and marketing, having chosen a major in Communication Arts. In addition to this, I have spent my past six summers as a full-time nanny, and one day hope to be a mother myself. Why is this so important? All of these credentials provided me with the ability to read Linn's book from many different perspectives, however, in the end I received the same message no matter through what lens I was looking; marketing to children needs to stop, not only for children's benefit, but also for the benefit and well-being of society.
Linn brings a new perspective, as a mother and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Linn also serves as Associate Director of the Media Center at Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston. Her background allows her to speak from a mother's perspective, while also utilizing her experience in psychology when examining some of the tactics in campaigning and marketing to children. She successfully finds a balance between the concern of a mother and a deliverer of facts, making her a reliable and credible source. Through multiple personal examples, in addition to statistics and data, Linn reveals the harms of marketing to children.
Linn reflects on an era when children spent their time playing outside and creating fantastic imaginary worlds; however, as Linn points out, today a child cannot even read a popular novel, such as Harry Potter and bring his/her own imagination to it. Harry Potter has been constructed for them, no need to imagine what Hogwart's School looks like because they can see Harry Potter's entire world by watching the movie. Essentially Linn shows the reader that children are becoming programmed by the media and advertising. No longer do they stretch their minds and think for themselves, but rather they have become desensitized and need to be constantly entertained by way of television, video games, and computer games. When I nanny in the summers, the phrase "I'm bored" is uttered by every child in the family usually multiple times a day. My suggestions to play outside, color, or play a board game, are met by whines and responses of "I don't want to". Instead they prefer for me to take them to the video store to rent a movie or to simply act as couch potatoes, staring blankly at the television.

Linn's point is that corporations, commercial media, and advertisers are concerned with one thing and that is making a profit. The notion of instilling the correct values and lessons in children, in addition to reinforcing creativity and individuality, seems to have fallen to the waste side and has been replaced by images of sex and violence. Marketers strive to grab children's attention; sex and violence are only two examples of tactics that have proven to be successful. Not only is it problematic for a six year old to be playing with "lingerie Barbie", but also on a larger scale, where is the responsibility on the part of the marketers? Would they want their child playing with a scantly clothed doll? What lessons does that doll teach a child?

These questions of social and ethical responsibility are the heart and core of Linn's book. Linn recognizes that parents can only do so much and say "no" so many times before it begins to take a serious toll on their child/parent relationship. Therefore, she reassures parents that they are not the ones to blame, nor should they be blamed for problems surrounding children's exposure to negative and harmful images, but rather, people need to ban together and take action against the source of the problem which is the media themselves. Keeping consistent in tone and purpose, Linn offers a list of simple suggestions for parents to do their part in stopping the "marketing maelstrom". The future looks bleak if the media's messages to children revolve around sex, violence, and materialism. We must stop the advertising beast before it causes permanent damage and jeopardizes the future of society.

Average customer rating:

Guns and Anarchy
Not terribly original, but well written and well executed SF
Interesting Book
Good old-fashioned military SF. 4.6 stars
Pretty Darn Good

Hostile Takeover
S. Andrew Swann
Manufacturer: DAW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Moreau Omnibus (Daw Book Collectors)
The Dwarves of Whiskey Island
Fearful Symmetries: The Return of Noha Rajasthan (Moreau, Bk. 4)
The Dragons of the Cuyahoga
Broken Crescent

ASIN: 0756402492

Book Description

In the 24th century, humans have built a star-spanning Confederacy that encompasses 83 worlds-plus one. The 84th planet is Bakunin, where power belongs to whoever can seize it. With no taxes, no antitrust laws, and no governing body, it's the perfect home base for mega-corporations and criminals.

Customer Reviews:

Guns and Anarchy.......2007-03-19

This is a business-military SF trilogy with focus on an anarchistic planet. This is no libertarian utopia; this is a very rough world. It is not held up as a model and neither is it scrutinized. There are no special ideas that I noticed, but it is an interesting read.

I like having a complete trilogy in my possession (or some autonomy in the novels), and this single binding, though hard to handle, does put the trilogy in my hand.

(The first novel is a little harsh on religion, but the others are not so bad.)

Not terribly original, but well written and well executed SF.......2007-01-13

This series is hard to categorize. Equal parts space opera, cyberpunk, speculative fiction, and social commentary-none of the individual elements are terribly original but Swann manages to weave them into a satisfying melange nonetheless.

Swann has improved his pacing considerably since his last outing in this universe (the Moreau series, which I read after Hostile Takeover). He has a distinct knack for description and excels at portraying spectacular action setpieces, but he no longer seems to feel the need to string together long, mostly gratuitous, series of breathless fight/chase sequences with their correspondingly high bodycounts. Make no mistake, there's plenty of action to go around, but it isn't the focus of the story.

There is a considerable amount of exposition here, as Swann spends no small amount of time developing his future history, but he manages to avoid coming off as didactic. Rarely did I find myself bored-Swann has put together a compellingly detailed picture of a balkanized star-faring humanity held together in an uneasy compact by the most tenuous of ties-avoiding the naive notion that nationality and ethnicity will magically stop mattering once we reach the stars. Of particular interest is Bakunin, which is an anarchist free-for-all split between corporations who carry out business (often violently) from heavily-armed fortress compounds and isolated communes of misfits and radicals pursuing their own idiosyncratic paths largely oblivious to goings-on outside their walls. It's all very gritty, paranoid, and disturbingly plausible.

The characters are reasonably well-drawn, though the star (Dominic Magnus/Jonah Dacham) is by far the best realized. The lethal sibling rivalry between Klaus and Jonah does a good job providing narrative drive, though Swann could have stood to make Klaus a little less one-dimensional.

All is not rosy however. The book's main flaw is that there is _too_ much going on. Between the political maneuvering on earth, the ground war on Bakunin, the Dolbrians (a vanished alien race), Proteans (a commune of post-humans with complete mastery of nanotechnology), the non-humans of Tau Ceti (products of 21st century genetic engineering), the Tetsami/Dominic romance and myriad other subplots there's precious little time for the reader to absorb it all, or for any of the characters to really develop.

Hopefully Swann will rectify some of these problems in the sequel (which judging by the end of Revolutionary looks to focus on the nonhuman seven-worlds and the Dolbrians). A tighter focus and a little more attention to characterization could make this into a hard-SF great. As it stands it's still a solid and enjoyable effort by an author who knows what he's doing and doesn't insult the intelligence of his readers.

I'm lined up for more.

Interesting Book.......2006-09-06

Although I am not a big fan of cyber-punk novels this was a bit different. I picked this up at a book kiosk at a train station and was very pleasantly surprised.

This book seems like a hybred of several genres, time travel, cyber-punk and military SF. With a mix like that I was expecting a mess but what I got was a well woven tale. The characters are well fleshed out and are not all perfect.

If you are looking for a different kind of SF book then take a look at this one, like me, you will not be disappointed.

Good old-fashioned military SF. 4.6 stars.......2006-01-03

______________________________________________
"Dominic Magnus" owns an arms factory on the anarchist world of
Bakunin, which has long been a thorn in the side of the Confederacy.
A TEC task force commanded by Dom's estranged brother is dispatched
to deal with the situation...

"Hostile Takeover" is a page-turner with lots of shoot-em-ups, but a
surprisingly low body-count. No startling innovations here - tho the
Church of Christ, Avenger comes close - just intelligent writing, well-
drawn characters, and clever plotting. I liked it. If you like mil.sf, so
will you.

Note that "S. Andrew Swann" is the pseudonym of Steven Swiniarski. Nice omnibus reprint.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

Pretty Darn Good.......2004-12-30

This is the second book I've read by Swann (after the Moreau Omnibus), though both are actually complete trilogies. First, let me just get this out of the way - Daw has significantly cleaned up its editing errors on this book. The Moreau trilogy was so badly edited that it made an otherwise outstanding story jerky and second-rate. Hostile Takeover is far cleaner - thank you.

Okay, on to my take on the story. Set in the same universe as the Moreau books, Hostile Takeover tells of the dissolution of the government that the Moreau books began to set up. The year is 2350, and all of human space (80+ worlds) is joined into one unwieldly Confederacy, which is starting to seriously fray around the edges as the various ethnic and political divisions start to diverge.

The planet Bakunin, established as a dumping ground for Earth undesirables, is now an anarchic 'pirate planet', where anything goes, and established Nation-States are anathema. Colonel Klaus Dacham is sent in to take over a local arms manufacturer as a prelude to a full-scale Confederacy invasion. The whys and wherefores of this action are the meat of the story, and very tasty meat it is...

The main character is Dominic Magnus, the exiled brother of Dacham, and also the CEO of the targeted arms manufacturer. His character is by far the most well-developed and sympathetic, but Swann does an outstanding job of taking us into the minds of even peripheral characters. The fates some of these characters meet is not at all what I expected, and is the reason I gave 4 instead of 5 stars. Granted, that's merely a personal opinion; the story itself deserves at least 5 stars.

The technologies, the byzantine political maneuverings, and the motivations for each character are so well thought-out that this universe really came alive for me, even more so than the Moreau trilogy.

I can only hope that Swann will someday write a sequel to this work, letting us know what became of Tetsami and Shane...

Average customer rating:

Revolutionary (Hostile Takeover)
S. Andrew Swann
Manufacturer: DAW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0886776996

Average customer rating:

Come and conquer!

Profiteer (Hostile Takeover)
S. Andrew Swann
Manufacturer: DAW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0886776473

Customer Reviews:

Come and conquer!.......2000-07-31

It's still possible to find tiny little undervalued gems in sci-fi land. This is one! (Trust me) It's your average tuff-hero-runs-into-big-trouble little sci-fi, but a precious one. With a very nice hero and a nice bunch of friends. With a bad brother on his tail. With a huge dooming fate hanging all over him. But you'll love it. This is just the first one of three and I bet you won't be able not to order the other two once this one is in your hands...!

Average customer rating:

Great sequel to Profiteer!

Partisan (Hostile Takeover)
S. Andrew Swann
Manufacturer: DAW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0886776708

Customer Reviews:

Great sequel to Profiteer!.......1998-12-02

This is a sequel to Profiteer, and pretty much takes off where that book left off. In this novel, the plot thickens. You find out more about the backgrounds of some of the main characters. There is a good plot, lots of action, and some cool futuretech.

Average customer rating:

Seriously Enjoyed it!
A Different Kind of Space Adventure!
Not worth the time
That's it?
A FUN BUT SOMEWHAT OBVIOUS STORY

Hostile Takeover (Tor Science Fiction)
Susan Shwartz
Manufacturer: Tor Science Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, Book 1)

ASIN: 0765343827
Release Date: 2005-11-29

Book Description

CC Williams is a financial analyst who's on the fast track of life and is determined to stay there.nbsp; She clawed her way out of the hell of the powerless underclass and keeps herself grimly focused, with nightmares of either being frozen into a shipsicle and sent to the Outer Rim or dying slowly as the authorities harvest her limbs and other body part to pay off the massive debts she accrued getting where she is.nbsp;When the multi-planetary company she works for sends CC to audit the far flung Vesta Colony to learn why assets keep hemorrhaging away, she knows this is her big chance to make the Ultimate Career Move and be finally free.nbsp;Vesta turns out to be unlike anything CC has ever seen and the deeper she delves, the more twisted things get until her life--not to mention her career--hangs in the balance.nbsp; CC finds herself confronting not just insider trading and fraud, but attempted murder as well.nbsp; Who's at fault?nbsp; She's got a colony of suspects, including old friends, old rivals, and a dashing EarthServ pilot who knows a whole lot more about CC and her world than he's letting on.nbsp;Will CC find out in time--or will the takeover she fears turn not just hostile but deadly?nbsp;

Customer Reviews:

Seriously Enjoyed it!.......2007-04-08

I don't get why others would dislike the protagonist. She's great. The universe is interesting and I am looking forward to more stories from it.

A Different Kind of Space Adventure!.......2006-05-14

Susan Shwartz's Hostile Takeover was an engrossing read. CC Williams was a different kind of character, and it was refreshing to read a space adventure with such a unique twist. In this novel, fledgling corporate auditor CC Williams is assigned to audit the business activities on the asteroid Vesta. The details about what it would really be liked to travel in space, and live on a micro-gravity asteroid showed a lot of research and thought, and gave this book a really fresh perspective. The plot was full of intrigue, and kept me guessing (which is hard!) and I applaud Ms. Shwartz for writing a hard s.f. novel with plenty of heart and excellent characterizations.

I recommend this book to all who like a rousing adventure in space that has a really unique point of view of the future of space travel.

-A.C. Crispin
[...]

Not worth the time.......2006-02-05

I bought this book because it was ranked "alongside the likes of Asimov and Heinlein." I should have known better, I know. Not only do I concur with other reviewers about the weakness of plot and lack of any real action, but it is written very poorly. After the third confusing passage where we start in the present, progress to a past/future flashback, and then end up back in the future present...I gave up. The use of this writing tool in the book makes it completely confusing and unreadable. I hated it, put it down for the day, cussing the entire time, and later burned in my fireplace for kindling. It was useful for something, though a bit pricey compared to other forms of kindling.

That's it?.......2005-06-03

This is a book that has no real justification for its existence.

Problem 1: CC, our heroine. She's a paranoid obsessive-compulsive social-climbing insecure workaholic anal-retentive corporate drone. She's not very likable, nor very interesting. I grant that, within the tale's backstory, it doesn't seem unreasonable that she's the way she is--but it doesn't make her any more attractive as a protagonist. (She gets a little better in the course of the book, but not much, and not very convincingly.)

Problem 2: the plot. CC spends the bulk of the book doing financial analysis. Shwartz doesn't describe what she's doing except in broad terms. That may seem understandable, given that most people don't find forensic accounting that interesting--but it means that the reader has no way of following the "action". To make an intrigue story work, the reader has to be able to, as it were, play along--to experience the "aha!" moments along with the character. In this case, we're left on the outside, mere spectators to CC's (extremely repetitive) all-nighter computer ssessions, each of which boils down to the following paragraph:

"CC did some stuff."

Oh, and there are several attempts to kill CC, about which she does ... nothing.

Problem 3: the resolution. Any experienced SF reader will figure out what's going on around 1/5th of the way into the book. But when we finally get to the big climax, CC promptly *SITS AROUND WITH HER THUMB IN HER EAR* while a secondary character walks on and makes stuff happen. And then ... deus ex machina! POOF! Powerful benevolent forces show up--not through the doing of any plot developments shown in the book--and there's a magic happy ending

_Hostile Takeover_ could have survived an unsympathetic main character if it had had an engrossing plot. It could have survived a lackluster plot if it had had a good protagonist. Without either, and with a limp anticlimax at the end to boot, the book just sits there.

_Hostile Takeover_ isn't actually badly written, incoherent, repellent, shrill, or insulting to the reader's intellect. However, it's an uninvolving story about an unattractive person with an unexciting resolution. In other words, it's a mess. I'm frankly surprised the book's editor didn't red-flag it for a thorough going-over before it was released.

A FUN BUT SOMEWHAT OBVIOUS STORY.......2005-04-06

In a future where corporations effectively rule mankind CC Williams, a midlevel auditor, is sent out to the asteroid belt to check up on some suspected hanky-panky with the books. In a corporate world where even the damning with faint praise on a evaluation can result in not only unemployment but death CC has to keep her bosses as well as the clients happy all while someone is trying to kill her.

For the most part an average bit of fluff but at least the universe Ms. Shwartz creates is interesting and the story line fun. Unfortunately it is also pretty obvious from the first couple of pages what the outcome for at least part of the storyline will be.

The characters are fairly well developed and enjoyable to follow but the buzz-speak of the corporate cultural is overdone and distracting.

All in all a fair result but I'm going to remain NEUTRAL on this one. It just didn't do much for me.

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