A marketing expert who for many years made an ethically questionable living by enabling naive lottery winners to convert their payout terms into less-valuable cash settlements reveals how many winners of the lottery find themselves worse off for their changed circumstances, in an account that evaluates the American obsession with playing the lottery and gambling. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

The founder of the Grameen Bank relates how he developed the system of micro-credit to help eradicate poverty in countries such as Bangladesh by providing financial education and small loans to rural families.

Tells the unlikely story of Silicon Valley and discusses the future of American business and free enterprise through the life of Jim Clark, who founded Silicon Graphics, Netscape and Healtheon.

From agriculture to big business, from medicine to politics, The Cigarette Century is the definitive account of how smoking came to be so deeply implicated in our culture, science, policy, and law. No product has been so heavily promoted or has become so deeply entrenched in American consciousness. The Cigarette Century shows in striking detail how one ephemeral (and largely useless) product came to play such a dominant role in so many aspects of our lives—and deaths.

A close-up look at the career of the colorful and charismatic scoundrel who developed the most famous scheme in the history of American finance explains how, in 1920, Charles Ponzi successfully raked in millions of dollars from would-be investors by promising them he could double their investments in three months. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

"If you look at Southwest Airlines, and I admire what they do, they've been the most successful airline in the industry." --Gerard Arpey, CEO, American Airlines "Through extensive research Jody Hoffer Gittell gets to the bottom of what has sustained Southwest Airlines' positive employee relations and high performance through good and bad times." --Thomas A. Kochan, professor, MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Global Airline Industry Program In an industry with losses in the billions, Southwest Airlines has an unbroken string of 31 consecutive years of profitability. The Southwest Airlines Way examines how the company uses high-performance relationships to create enormous competitive advantage in motivation, teamwork, and coordination among employees. It then goes further to show how any company can foster these powerful cooperative relationships and explains how to: - Lead with credibility and caring - Invest in frontline leaders - Hire and train for relational competence - Use conflicts to build relationships - Make unions its partners, not its adversaries - Build relationships with its suppliers

Presents the story of financier Alfred Lee Loomis and his role in the American victory during World War II, discussing Tuxedo Park, the lavish safe haven he created for some of the world's greatest scientists to meet and share ideas.

This entertaining and playful book views Disney World as much more than the site of an ideal family vacation. Blending personal meditations, interviews, photographs, and cultural analysis, Inside the Mouse looks at Disney World’s architecture and design, its consumer practices, and its use of Disney characters and themes. This book takes the reader on an alternative ride through "the happiest place on earth" while asking "What makes this forty-three-square-mile theme park the quintessential embodiment of American leisure?" Turning away from the programmed entertainment that Disney presents, the authors take a peek behind the scenes of everyday experience at Disney World. In their consideration of the park as both private corporate enterprise and public urban environment, the authors focus on questions concerning the production and consumption of leisure. Featuring over fifty photographs and interviews with workers that strip "cast members" of their cartoon costumes, this captivating work illustrates the high-pressure dynamics of the typical family vacation as well as a tour of Disney World that looks beyond the controlled facade of themed attractions. As projects like EuroDisney and the proposed Disney America test the strength of the Disney cultural monolith, Inside the Mouse provides a timely assessment of the serious business of supplying pleasure in contemporary U.S. culture. Written for the general reader interested in the many worlds of Disney, this engrossing volume will also find fans among students and scholars of cultural studies.

The author offers strategies for crafting alternatives to privatization and increasing the power of the public sector, presenting current debates over medical care, education, law enforcement, national parks, and the line between the military and civilian sectors. Original.

Stories, life lessons, and insights are provided in this review by a woman whose philosophy and work ethic built the Carlson empire of hotels and restaurants while she maintained her ability to be a devoted wife and mother along the way.