Books about Unreasonable from Amazon.com

Renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw once said "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." By this definition, some of today's entrepreneurs are decidedly unreasonable--and have even been dubbed crazy. Yet as John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan argue in The Power of Unreasonable People, our very future may hinge on their work.

Through vivid stories, the authors identify the highly unconventional entrepreneurs who are solving some of the world's most pressing economic, social, and environmental problems. They also show how these pioneers are disrupting existing industries, value chains, and business models--and in the process creating fast-growing markets around the world.

By understanding these entrepreneurs' mindsets and strategies, you gain vital insights into future market opportunities for your own organization. Providing a first-hand, on-the-ground look at a new breed of entrepreneur, this book reveals how apparently unreasonable innovators have built their enterprises, how their work will shape risks and opportunities in the coming years, and what tomorrow's leaders can learn from them.

Start investing in, partnering with, and learning from these world-shaping change agents, and you position yourself to not only survive but also thrive in the new business landscape they're helping to define..
Price: $17.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

As chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee, Sam Dash challenged the Nixon administration's abuse of presidential power in the 1970s. Now he turns his discerning legal mind to the Bush administration's increasing intrusion on the privacy rights of American citizens.

What is the best way to balance the competing interests of national security and individual liberty in our post-9/11 world? To answer that question, Dash examines the factors that led to the Fourth Amendment's protection of the people against unreasonable searches and seizures. Covering almost eight hundred years of history, he begins with King John of England and the Magna Carta, then moves to early America as colonists resisted searches mandated under King George III. These tensions eventually contributed to the birth of the United States and the adoption of the Bill of Rights with its essential Fourth Amendment.

The story of the next two centuries is how effective that protection has been as the U.S. developed "from sea to shining sea." Dash explores the struggle for privacy rights by relating dramatic legal battles throughout our history, including landmark Supreme Court cases. He reveals the sometimes humorous experiences of the people involved, such as the unlucky gambler with a shoplifting wife and the police lieutenant turned king of the bootleggers. It becomes clear that to some extent, judicial safeguarding of Fourth Amendment protections depended on which justices made up the majority of the Court at any given time.

By 2001, a conservative majority of the Court had given law enforcement agents greater search and seizure authority than ever before. Dash challenges the legal justification of the Bush Administration's grab for extensive search, seizure, and wiretap powers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He reminds us of government abuses in prior emergencies in American history, and concludes that the best security is dedication to our belief in individual liberty and the enforcement of our Bill of Rights.

The Intruders should be read by every American concerned about the increasing encroachment of government on one of the principal values that defines who we are, our hard-won right to individual privacy and freedom..
Price: $13.85 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When you're reasonable, you use the same strategies everyone else uses. You do things like set your goals a bit higher than last year's, say yes to things because everyone else likes them, and pad your deadlines so you can reach them on time.

Being reasonable about your business will only bury you deeper in the pack. If you want to get out in front, you have to break away from yesterday's conventional thinking.

Paul Lemberg shows you how unreasonable strategies can bring you unprecedented success. Through real-life case studies of successful and unreasonable businesspeople, Lemberg shows you how to

BE Uncompromising by sticking to your goals no matter what.

BE Demanding by expecting more, not less, from everybody.

BE Critical by changing old systems that just don' t work.

BE Outrageous by creating your own Business Brain Trust.

BE Prepared for real success on your terms.

Paul Lemberg, one of the world's leading business growth consultants, teaches top level executives and entrepreneurs how to get more out of themselves, their companies, and their clients by using strategies that sidestep the prevailing business thinking.

Being unreasonable is about assessing the situation and leaping into the unknown-not foolishly, but courageously. Only by going against the norm, and perhaps ruffling feathers, can you be competitive, innovative, and successful.

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Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs is a passionate yet analytical critique of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural fundamentalists. Schimmel examines the ways in which otherwise intelligent and bright Jews, Christians, and Muslims defend their belief in the divine authorship of the Bible or of the Koran, and other religious beliefs derived from those claims, against overwhelming evidence and argument to the contrary from science, scholarship, common sense, and rational analysis. He also examines the motives, fears, and anxieties of scriptural fundamentalists that induce them to cling so tenaciously to their unreasonable beliefs.

Schimmel begins with reflections on his own journey from commitment to Orthodox Judaism, through doubts about its theological dogmas and doctrines, to eventual denial of their truth. He follows this with an examination of theological and philosophical debates about the proper relationships between faith, reason, and revelation. Schimmel then devotes separate chapters to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural fundamentalism, noting their similarities and differences. He analyzes in depth the psychological and social reasons why people acquire, maintain, and protect unreasonable religious beliefs, and how they do so. Schimmel also discusses unethical and immoral consequences of scriptural fundamentalism, such as gender inequality, homophobia, lack of intellectual honesty, self-righteousness, intolerance, propagation of falsehood, and in some instances, the advocacy of violence and terrorism. He concludes with a discussion of why, when, and where it is appropriate to critique, challenge, and combat scriptural fundamentalists. The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs is thoughtful and provocative, written to encourage self-reflection and self-criticism, and to stimulate and to enlighten all who are interested in the psychology of religion and in religious fundamentalism..
Price: $14.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When Diane Wilson, fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she decides to fight back. She launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. In an epic tale of bravery, Wilson takes her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant, and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way she meets with scorn, bribery, character assassination, and death threats. Finally Wilson realizes that she must break the law to win justice: She resorts to nonviolent disobedience, direct action, and hunger strikes. Wilson's vivid South Texas dialogue resides somewhere between Alice Walker and William Faulkner, and her dazzling prose brings to mind the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, replete with dreams and prophecies..
Price: $10.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $0.81 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book explains how to identify carcinogens and other toxic ingredients on product labels, boycott such products, and shop for safe alternatives from non-mainstream industries. This is critical as we are losing the winnable war against cancer, which now strikes nearly one in two men and more than one in three women in their lifetimes, and as the increasing incidence of allergies and hormonal diseases is now recognized..
Price: $22.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Culture of the Copy is an unprecedented attempt to make sense of our Western fascination with replicas, duplicates, and twins. Through intriguing historical analysis and case studies in contemporary culture, Hillel Schwartz investigates most varieties of simulacra, while working through a range of modernist, feminist, and postmodern theories about copies and mechanical reproduction. This work is a stunning, innovative blend of microsociology, cultural history, and philosophical reflection that will fascinate anyone concerned with problems of authenticity, identity, and originality..
Price: $18.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]