The critically acclaimed account of life in Iraq under US occupation with a new afterword.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The definitive account of America's conflict with Islamic fundamentalism and a searing exploration of its human costs—an instant classic of war reporting from the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, we witness the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, the aftermath of the attack on New York on September 11th, and the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins is the only American journalist to have reported on all these events, and his experiences are conveyed in a riveting narrative filled with unforgettable characters and astonishing scenes. Brilliant and fearless, The Forever War is not just about America's wars after 9/11, but about the nature of war itself.

"The best book to have been written about the Vietnam War" (The New York Times Book Review); an instant classic straight from the front lines. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time. Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.

Throughout the management literat ure , as elegantly trumpeted by management consultants and gurus, there seems to be a common message: tor a firm to be competitive it must produce quality goods or services. This means that firms, to remain competitive, must at the same time produce at the least cost possible to be price competitive and deli ver high quality products and services. As a result, quality has become strategie overnight, involving all, both in and out of the firm, in the management of its interfaces with clients and the environment. To give quality, suppliers, buyers, operations and marketing managers, as weIl as corporate management must become aware of the mutual relationships and inter-dependencies to which they are subjected, so that they will be able to function as a coherent whole. This involves human relations and people problems, organizational design issues, engineering design options, monitoring and control approaches and, most of all , a managerial philosophy that can integrate, monitor and eontrol the multiple elements which render the firm a viable quality producing and profitable whole. To realize the benefits of quality it is imperative that we design products to be compatible with market needs, market structure, eompetition and, of course, that we are constantly aware and abreast of consumers' tastes and the manufacturing technologies that are continuously emerging.

The Architecture of Survival: Setting and Politics in Apocalypse Films offers a compelling exploration of how popular films and TV series from the past two decades use architectural spaces to comment on socio-political issues. The authors harness varied theoretical perspectives to demonstrate how, through set design, these works suggest that certain kinds of architecture support human development, community, and freedom, while other kinds separate us from our fellow humans and make democratic politics impossible. The clean lines of modernist design serve in films such as Contagion and Ex Machina as a metaphor for the sanitized, sterile politics that drive disaster. In The Walking Dead apocalypse survivors favor traditional architectural styles when rebuilding society, a choice that symbolically affirms their democratic principles. The massive walls and super-gentrification as seen in Elysium and Army of the Dead divide humanity, with those on one side wielding illegitimate power. Empty streetscapes intensify loneliness, alienation, and the destruction of civil norms. "Smart cities," offering a blend of high-tech surveillance and big data, erode social capital and community in Her and Transcendence. The book concludes with a somewhat hopeful glimpse into architecture’s potential to mitigate the catastrophic adverse effects of climate change, as seen in films like Zootopia.

The business, commercial and public-sector world has changed dramatically since John Oakland wrote the first edition of Statistical Process Control in the mid-1980s. Then, people were rediscovering statistical methods of ‘quality control,’ and the book responded to an often desperate need to find out about the techniques and use them on data. Pressure over time from organizations supplying directly to the consumer, typically in the automotive and high technology sectors, forced those in charge of the supplying, production and service operations to think more about preventing problems than how to find and fix them. Subsequent editions retained the ‘tool kit’ approach of the first but included some of the ‘philosophy’ behind the techniques and their use. Now entitled Statistical Process Control and Data Analytics, this revised and updated eighth edition retains its focus on processes that require understanding, have variation, must be properly controlled, have a capability and need improvement – as reflected in the five sections of the book. In this book the authors provide not only an instructional guide for the tools but communicate the management practices which have become so vital to success in organizations throughout the world. The book is supported by the authors' extensive consulting work with thousands of organizations worldwide. A new chapter on data governance and data analytics reflects the increasing importance of big data in today’s business environment. Fully updated to include real-life case studies, new research based on client work from an array of industries and integration with the latest computer methods and software, the book also retains its valued textbook quality through clear learning objectives and online end-of-chapter discussion questions. It can still serve as a textbook for both student and practicing engineers, scientists, technologists, managers and anyone wishing to understand or implement modern statistical process control techniques and data analytics.

Product safety problems really waste company resources, alienate consumers, frustrate employees, and leave company stakeholders disgusted. It is easy to understand why most consumer product companies are committed to product safety and why they often seem willing to devote even more resources to increase their organization’s safety commitment. Their logic seems to be that this kind of action will result in higher levels of safety performance. Achieving excellence in product safety is not about seeking more commitment. It is all about understanding what to do and how to do it using the fine organization one already has. Product Safety Excellence defines the seven vital elements that are essential to achieving state-of-the-art product safety performance with the benefits of product liability prevention, product quality improvement, and higher levels of consumer trust and loyalty. This book is appropriate for anyone interested in understanding the concepts underlying product safety excellence. It should especially be read by management and technical personnel with a responsibility and/or desire for eliminating product safety problems and improving profitability and consumer loyalty.

This handbook is a comprehensive reference source designed to help professionals address organizational issues from the application of the basic principles of management to the development of strategies needed to deal with the technological and societal concerns of the new millennium. The content of this fourth edition has been revised to reflect a more current global perspective and to match the updated Body of Knowledge (BoK) of ASQ’s Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE). In order to provide a broad perspective of quality management, this book has specifically been written to address: • Historical perspectives relating to the evolution of particular aspects of quality management, including recognized experts and their contributions • Key principles, concepts, and terminology relevant in providing quality leadership, and communicating quality needs and results • Benefits associated with the application of key concepts and quality management principles • Best practices describing recognized approaches for good quality management • Barriers to success, including common problems that the quality manager might experience when designing and implementing quality management, and insights as to why some quality initiatives fail • Guidance for preparation to take the CMQ/OE examination. Organized to follow the BoK exactly, throughout each section of this handbook the categorical BoK requirements associated with good quality management practices for that section are shown in a box preceding the pertinent text. These BoK requirements represent the range of content and the cognitive level to which multiple-choice questions can be presented. Although this handbook thoroughly prepares individuals for the ASQ CMQ/OE exam, the real value resides in post-exam usage as a day-to-day reference source for assessing quality applications and methodologies in daily processes. The content is written from the perspective of practitioners, and its relevance extends beyond traditional product quality applications.