Since the 1950s, Warren Buffett and his partners have backed some of the twentieth century's most profitable, trendsetting companies. But how did they know they were making the right investments? What did Buffet and his partners look for in an up-and-coming company, and how can others replicate their approach? A gift to Buffett followers who have long sought a pattern to the investor's success, Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett presents the most detailed analysis to date of Buffet's long-term investment portfolio. Yefei Lu, an experienced investor, starts with Buffett's interest in the Sanborn Map Company in 1958 and tracks nineteen more of his major investments in companies like See's Candies, the Washington Post, GEICO, Coca-Cola, US Air, Wells Fargo, and IBM. Accessing partnership letters, company documents, annual reports, third-party references, and other original sources, Lu pinpoints what is unique about Buffett's timing, instinct, use of outside knowledge, and postinvestment actions, and he identifies what could work well for all investors in companies big and small, domestic and global. His substantial chronology accounts for broader world events and fluctuations in the U.S. stock market, suggesting Buffett's most important trait may be the breadth of his expertise.

“This book is well written and meticulously documented; it will add significantly to the available literature on West Virginia’s industrial and community history. It should find a receptive audience among college and post- graduate scholars of industrial and labor history, West Virginia history, and Appalachian studies.” —John Lilly, editor, Goldenseal The company owned the houses. It owned the stores. It provided medical and governmental services. It provided practically all the jobs. Gary, West Virginia, a coal mining town in the southern part of the state, was a creation of U.S. Steel. And while the workers were not formally bound to the company, their fortunes—like that of their community—were inextricably tied to the success of U.S. Steel. Gary developed in the early twentieth century as U.S. Steel sought a new supply of raw material for its industrial operations. The rich Pocahontas coal field in remote southern West Virginia provided the carbon-rich, low-sulfur coal the company required. To house the thousands of workers it would import to mine that coal bed, U.S. Steel carved a town out of the mountain wilderness. The company was the sole reason for its existence. In this fascinating book, Ronald Garay tells the story of how industry-altering decisions made by U.S. Steel executives reverberated in the hollows of Appalachia. From the area’s industrial revolution in the early twentieth century to the peak of steel-making activity in the 1940s to the industry’s decline in the 1970s, U.S. Steel and Gary, West Virginia offers an illuminating example of how coal and steel paternalism shaped the eastern mountain region and the limited ways communities and their economies evolve. In telling the story of Gary, this volume freshly illuminates the stories of other mining towns throughout Appalachia. At once a work of passionate journalism and a cogent analysis of economic development in Appalachia, this work is a significant contribution to the scholarship on U.S. business history, labor history, and Appalachian studies. Ronald Garay, a professor emeritus of mass communication at Louisiana State University, is the author of Gordon McLendon: The Maverick of Radio and The Manship School: A History of Journalism Education at LSU.

Industrial conflict has been well documented; dispute resolution much less so. In this book, Pat Lowry evaluates the work of conciliations and arbitrations. He critically examines the value of courts of inquiry and traces the development of pay review bodies and wages councils. He writes, too, of the little publicised work of the TUC in sorting out problems between member unions. Pat Lowry covers the events leading to the expulsion of the Electricians' Union from the TUC and he casts an expert's eye over such new developments as single union agreements and pendulum arbitration.

Bilberry: A Seed in Good Soil is a thematic history of the first 25 years of Bilberry Creek Baptist Church (BCBC) in Orleans, Ontario, Canada (http://bilberry.org). It describes how this English-speaking church entered into a “partnership of equals” with its French-speaking sister church Église Évangélique Baptiste d’Orléans to serve their bilingual community through a single church plant. This arrangement had unique programming and financial advantages for both congregations. Together, both experienced vibrant spirituality and engaged in effective evangelism and Christian service to the community that was recognized by the media from coast to coast. The history addresses five themes: (1) Worship; (2) Preaching, mission and evangelism; (3) Teaching; (4) Fellowship; and (5) Service. In its approach, BCBC is inclusive among Christian organizations and multi-ethnic in the make-up of its congregation. It is affiliated with Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec.