Hoffman, Daniel

Bringing Peace Into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution

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Bringing Peace Into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution

Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in Conflict Resolution
Mediating Dangerously: The Frontiers of Conflict Resolution
The Promise of Mediation: The Transformative Approach to Conflict
The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict
Mediation Career Guide: A Strategic Approach to Building a Successful Practice

ASIN: 0787968501

Book Description

Bringing Peace Into the Room examines the personal qualities that make a mediator effective. The eminent authors of this volume go beyond traditional descriptions of academic training, theoretical orientation, and refinement of technique to confront issues related to personal temperament and the crucial psychological, intellectual and spiritual qualities of the mediation professional— qualities that are often the most potent elements of successful mediation. In this comprehensive resource, Daniel Bowling and David Hoffman bring together a stellar panel of practitioners, academics, teachers, and trainers in the field— Michele LeBaron, Kenneth Cloke, Robert Benjamin, Don Saposnek, Sara Cobb, Peter Adler, Jonathan Reitman, Lois Gold, Marvin Johnson, and others— ?who share their personal experiences as mediators. Each contributor demonstrates that at the very heart of conflict resolution is the subtle interaction between the parties and the mediator's personal and authentic style.

Customer Reviews:

Good design book .......2007-05-13

This book is a must read for anyone taking a course in software design, or software engineers who are interested to design better software systems. The book is not for casual reading, each research paper requires a lot of effort from the reader, to understand and appreciate the depth covered in these papers. It is amazing to find Parnas papers on software engineering, has been tested by time, and has remained undisputed for the last 4 decades. I liked the following papers, criteria used for decomposing system into modules (information hiding), hierarchical software structures, design for ease of extension, program families, and software aging.

Well-Organized Review, Insightful Content........2004-01-01

I consider this book on two levels:
1. How well does it capture and present the important contributions Parnas has made to the Software Engineering discipline?
2. Is the content (i.e. Parnas' papers) useful?
---

This book does a beautiful job of collecting and organizing Parnas' papers. Each paper is preceeded by an introduction from a peer or other recognized prominent computer scientist. Almost all of these introductions are insightful in themselves: they help create a context for the essay which made it easier for me to fill in the gaps. Almost all of the contributors' writting styles are lucid and easy to read. I found reading through this book quite enjoyable.

Parnas' contributions are critical, no doubt. The concept of Information Hiding as a criteria for modular decomposition really helped form modern "object-oriented" thinking. It seems to me that returning to the first well-formed idea can often grant insights into how to be more effective with its offspring. Indeed, Chapter 7 in this text is essentially a primer on how to think in object-oriented terms.

You'll not find a passage that reads, "now here's an example of that in Java/C#/C++" But that's the blessing: Parnas communicates the essence of the principles that yield quality software engineering without getting lost in unnecessary details. The fact that some of these papers were written 30 years ago helps bring home the fact that novel ideas are rare.

One aspect of 30 year-old writtings that may be a stumbling block for similarly aged programmers is that these works live in an iron world: where programs lived very close to their hardware. Parnas uses phrases like "4 bytes packed in a word" and "core" that seem primal (not to say that some folks aren't concerned with word-sizes and which endian, just that the overall percentage is much lower). For some, this may seem to be a waste of time to try to understand. I encourage the reader to ferret out the bigger message...the more abstract picture of principles that guide one to conceive, organize, implement and document quality software.

If you are a journeyman programmer looking for the original latin, enjoy this well-polished collection for yourself.

Still relevant in the world of Software Engineering.......2003-08-22

Anyone who considers themself a Java developer should know who Dave Parnas is. Without the insight of Dave Parnas in the 60s and 70s there would be no such thing as the Java programming language. Ever heard of information hiding (the basis for all Object Oriented programming)? Yeah, Parnas came up with that. Exception Handling? That's him too. Interfaces? Parnas. (Get the idea?)

This book reprints 33 of Parnas' most influential papers. Each paper is started off with an introduction from one of Parnas' peers (like Barry Boehm), giving the paper a connection to the modern state of Software Engineering, and trying to give the reader an understanding of just how seminal the particular paper was to the world of Computer Science and Software Engineering.

I believe you become a much better programmer if you understand where things come from. Once you understand how things were before "Information Hiding" came about, you get a better appreciation for why its such a necessary and important practice. You'll become a better programmer because you're more aware of what would happen if you didn't have exception handling. And you'll be come a better writer when you understand why buzzwords can be so dangerous in technical papers.

Dave Parnas has been a huge influence over the world of Software Engineering. Everyone should have the chance to read his work.

The most influential book I've read on software engineering!.......2003-05-30

The ideas presented in this collection of papers changed forever the way I think about developing sofware. These papers separate the men from the boys. If you understand the concepts layed out by Parnas in these papers you are well along your way to understanding the fundamentals necessary for developing quality software. The papers are clearly research oriented and don't have modern real world applications presented in the text, however, the ideas are timeless. The reader will need to make some connections with the modern world on their own. It is well worth the time and effort to read and digest what Parnas has to say.

There's nothing new under the sun..........2001-09-18

The software world is full of "revolutionary" ideas that seem to be periodically rediscovered. Topics such as refactoring, data hiding, and "design for change" have all made recent rounds in the development world. However, most of these concepts have been part of the research literature for decades.

Much of the software development work done today is done by people lacking the requisite fundaments for the job. Very few are capable of assessing the true technical strengths of software products. Most are content to read the glossy sales brochures or shallow write-ups in trade magazines to maintain their knowledge of the state of the art. A careful reading of the collected papers in this volume go a long way towards protecting the reader from the modern snake oil salesmen of the software industry.

This book should be required reading for all software developers who strive to deserve the title "Engineer."

A New Housing Policy for America: Recapturing the American Dream
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A New Housing Policy for America: Recapturing the American Dream
David C. Schwartz , Richard C. Ferlauto , and Daniel N. Hoffman
Manufacturer: Temple Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0877225680

Book Description

This book proposes a comprehensive, innovative, and largely self-financing plan to meet America's housing needs in the 1990s. Showing how current housing policies and housing needs are diametrically opposed, the authors analyze more than two hundred new state, national and international housing efforts to derive a plan that will meet the challenge of U.S. housing and demographic trends in the 1990s.

Projecting the special needs of young families, single-parent families, and low- and moderate-income families in the 1990s David Schwartz, Richard Ferlauto, and Daniel Hoffman propose new roles for non-profit organizations and employers. Their new plan advocates a federal down payment assistance loan program, a lease purchase home-buying program, an employer-assisted homeownership plan, a mortgage interest rate buydown fund, shared-equity mortgages, a new National Housing Investment Corporation, and a Federal Housing Trust Fund to construct needed rental units. In addition, special programs are suggested to provide housing help to elderly people, single-parent families, and the homeless.

Run Run Run
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Read After Viewing STEAL THIS MOVIE!

Compassionate last portrait

Run Run Run
Jack Hoffman , and Daniel Simon
Manufacturer: Tarcher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman

Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman 2 Ed

ASIN: 0874777607

Amazon.com

Abbie Hoffman comes fully to life in this portrait, which features an especially good depiction of the 1960s radical's embattled relationship with his father. Author Jack Hoffman is sympathetic to his brother's controversial political beliefs but regretful about what he sees as Abbie's insatiable need for fame and an inability to separate his public and private lives. Coverage of Hoffman's glory days as clown prince of the counterculture, his years underground, and his reemergence in the '80s all gain dimension from the personal insights of a family member.

Customer Reviews:

Read After Viewing STEAL THIS MOVIE!.......2001-02-25

I was compelled to visit the Emmaus Public Library by my renewed enthusiam for STEAL THIS MOVIE! in its video form, which I viewed last Saturday. Their collection didn't contain the biography upon which the film was based (AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY), but it did feature this 1994 biography of Abbie Hoffman by his brother Jack.

Last summer, I had seen a special sneak preview of STEAL THIS MOVIE! at the County Theater in Doylestown, PA (at which the film's director gave a short talk). I loved the film, and I was horrified when it received such little fanfare from reviewers and so little time in the multiplexes.

The video confirmed my enthusiasm: it's a great film which captures the hopes and chaos of the 1960's in America, as well as the struggles of one manic-depressive to keep those in power accountable to the American Public.

Jack Hoffman's biography of his brother Abbie fills in a huge quantity of details which the film ignored. It's the old tale of the blind men and the elephant: each man speaks the truth, but one needs the data of each individual in order to perceive the full picture. One needs the film AND this biography to begin to understand the complex person who was Abbie Hoffman.

I believe Abbie Hoffman was a hero, but he also was human. RUN RUN RUN reveals the importance of family in Hoffman's life and in his career as an anti-war activist (and then activist for various environmental causes). The film completely ignores Hoffman's first wife and two children with her, as well as Hoffman's close links with his younger brother and sister.

As I have read about Hoffman and watched his film biography, I have been struck by the idiocy of his harrassment by the American government, particularly the FBI. What a waste of taxpayer's dollars!

Readers wishing to better understand the history of America in the 1960's through the melancholy tale of one person who sought to change the System through satire and media activism would do well to read Jack Hoffman's thoroughly honest, engrossing, and empathetic portrait of his brother, of a family, and of an era.

Compassionate last portrait.......2000-07-09

Although I prided myself on being leftwing, I thought I understood everything there was to know about Abbie Hoffman. The final tribute by his brother is sympathetic without covering or making excuses for less than stellar behavior with various drugs.

Intially starting out as a clean cut middle class psychologist, Abbie Hoffman gradually morphed into one of the most recognizable revolutionaries in America during the 1960's and 1970's. This noteriety also placed him on the FBI's most wanted list, in court following the 1968 Democratic National Convention and eventually undeground in Mexico to evade a drug bust.

Although he was certainly eccentric (a string of marriages and divorces)and a proponent of free love, he also came across as an average guy who worried about his kids, liked sports and remembered his roots. In turn, his family stuck by him even when it was not easy to be related to Abbie.

I was also struck by how depressed Abbie felt when younger generations did not want to take on the system so vigorously. For somebody who prided himself on being hip and with it,realizing that young adults of the 1980s did not share his same moral righteousness must have been worse than fear of aprehension by the FBI and/or CIA.

It is this state that Hoffman spent his final years. Although he still organized, it was apparent the 60's were long over. Nonetheless, he was optimistic that Michael Dukakis would become president in 1988.

Although this dream did not become realized, it is interesting to theorize what kind of reaction he would have had to Clinton's election.

Even if this book is intended to be a personal tribute to another family member, it convinced me more than ever that, if the world is more democratic and open minded since the 1960's,Abbie Hoffman, (among others) deserves the credit for this victory.I do not remember Hoffman's death,but am certain that he will remain deeply missed by many of those who did.

Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe
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Hoffman Hoffman Hoffman Hoffman

Lively, Humorous, Engaging and Reverential Study of Poe

Get it!

Better than most

a critcal study that should go out of print!

Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe
Daniel Hoffman
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Edgar A Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance

ASIN: 0807123218

Customer Reviews:

Hoffman Hoffman Hoffman Hoffman.......2006-04-24

i always wondered why i keep returning to read Poe and now i somewhat understand after reading Dr. Hoffman's work.This evaluation of Poe's works is lively with alot of soul to it.If you haven't read it yet and you love Poe,why do it now!There is alot of humour and psychological insight into Poe's works. the chapter on Poe and how he viewed God was a little rough but worth sticking to it.

Lively, Humorous, Engaging and Reverential Study of Poe.......2001-02-15

It surprises me that one could read Hoffman's humor in this engaging critical study as anything but reverential to Poe's work. Hoffman isn't (as so many reviewers here have suggested) picking on Poe; instead, he's tempering his reverence with some very honest comments about an author whose work (like that of all authors) is not entirely consistent. I found it enlightening to read Hoffman's section on Poe's poetry, which brings out the steadfastness ofthe author's attempts, whether they succeed entirely or fail. In fact, Hoffman's honesty about the writings of Poe was this Poe devotee's first view of the author from a perspective other than absolute worship. Hoffman doesn't dwell on the misses in Poe's ouvre to belittle the author; he does it to show the experimental quality of the author's work. He illuminates the author's process and his struggle. Considering that writing is a struggle, and that "genius" is a problematic term, I think Hoffman justly humanizes Poe in this excellent, engaging book.

Get it!.......2001-01-08

One thing Mr. Hoffman definitely cannot be accused of is hating "poor Eddie Poe" - except when to hate means to criticize (good-humoredly) verses like "Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best / Have gone to their eternal rest"... This book is both a work of art and a work about art. It's equally recommendable if you are doing serious research on Poe - Mr. Hoffman offers psychoanalytical criticism of all of Poe's major works - and if you like imaginative writing as much as Poe's beautiful dead women or simply want to read an extremely amusing book. Of course this is only possible if you don't take Poe, Mr. Hoffman or yourself too seriously. Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy!

Better than most.......2000-05-02

Too many Poe books play on the reputation Poe had as a genius who lost a high number of woman he loved to TB, and drank himself to death. Hoffman can't ignore history and doesn't, but he does talk, unlike many others, about the writing. He does it in a playful, flirtacious way, yet engages a Poe fan in something beyond the 'same old, same old'. If it is the last word on Poe you want, that authoritative tome of all things Poe, go elsewhere. If you want to kick back and ENJOY a new look at one of the most influential American writers ever, buy this one.

a critcal study that should go out of print!.......2000-01-19

I encountered this wildly overpraised critical study in college. I've should have known I was getting into trouble just by the stupid title. Hoffman's attempts at humor are lame (Camille Paglia is far more livlier and insightful on Poe in her book "Sexual Personae")and his insights pitiful (Paul Coates, in "The Realist Fantasy", gives a much more subtle reading of Poe's "William Wilson" in just three paragraphs than Hoffman is able to accomplish). What really undermines the whole book is Hoffman's complete ignorance of fantastic literature which I think would be essential to doing a critical study of Poe. Only passing mention is made of E.T.A. Hoffmann, a major influence on Poe (and among other great writers). Consequently the influence of Hoffmann's doppelganger tales (such as "The Double" and "Devil's Elixirs") on Poe's doppelganger tales ("William Wilson" and "The Black Cat" among other tales)and their influence on such short story writers as Borges, Paul Bowles, and Julio Cortazar, is not mentioned because Daniel Hoffman is ignorant of it all and the whole genre. And his conclusion that Poe only wrote "pure" tales devoid of any inner meaning is pure bunk and pure laziness on Hoffman's part. To any unfortunate reader or student who picks up Hoffman's book expecting any critical acumen be warned: this book isn't it. Two other critical studies (David Ketterer, J. Gerald Kennedy) are far better.

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An excellent overview of classical American fictional tropes

Form and Fable in American Fiction
Daniel Hoffman
Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0813915252

Customer Reviews:

An excellent overview of classical American fictional tropes.......2007-01-20

I enjoyed this book immensely and relied on it heavily for a Master's thesis on the impact of medieval literature on the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hoffman's theories about the evolution of American archetypal characters is a must-read not only for those in the American literature academic community, but anyone desiring to write in a method that draws strength from that which is authentically American. Hoffman's analysis of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow sets an impressive stage, and his chapters on the impact of folk tales on Hawthorne's short stories are very insightful. The writing style is clear and scholarly without devolving into the common risk of pedanticism. On the creative side, as someone who is working on an historical fantasy set in early colonial Connecticut, I found this book to be helpful in tapping into the historical American voice. It is a volume to which I will often return.

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Makes You Stop and Think: Sonnets
Daniel Hoffman
Manufacturer: George Braziller
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

A collection written over fifty years, Makes You Stop and Think is the latest work from the accomplished and renowned poet Daniel Hoffman. "The sonnet… is a sacred // vessel, it takes a civilization / to conceive its shape or know / its uses," the poet Louise Bogan told "a crowd of bearded youths" and "rumpled girls." Hoffman's harvest of half a century's sonnets shows the richness and power of their form. These poems revel in exploring memory and feeling: For reality is vintage and delicious Especially when you taste it while it brews Because it comes as love comes, heart-skip sudden, Yet long as a lifetime in a once past wishes, A gift you couldn't have the wit to choose.

Paul Bunyan: Last of the Frontier Demigods

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Paul Bunyan: Last of the Frontier Demigods
Daniel Hoffman
Manufacturer: Univ of Nebraska Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0803272162

Book Description

Paul Bunyan is the giant of American folklore, so huge that several states claim him as their own-some say he was born in Michigan, others claim Minnesota, still others, Maine. Daniel Hoffman's Paul Bunyan shows that the hero's origins are more surprising still.

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