Dartmouth Authors
Charles C. Plummer '59 and David McGeary, Physical Geology. William C. Brown Co., 1979. Softcover. 462 pp. A new textbook for college-level courses in physical geology. "We wrote this text," say the authors, "because we believe that it will fill the needs of geology students and professors who have noted inadequate treatment in current texts in the areas of writing level, depth of coverage, organization of topics, treatment of plate tectonics, utilization of the scientific method, and number and clarity of illustrations." The text is accompanied by both an instructor's guide and a student study guide. Plummer teaches geology at California State University, Sacramento.
Arthur Williams III '63, Managing YourInvestment Manager: A Complete Guide toSelection, Management, and Control. Dow Jones-Irwin, 1980. 281 pp. Williams starts from the premise that the results achieved over the past decade by investment-fund administrators or trustees have been "poor." To operate their "large pool of assets" more profitably, he urges, "the principal components needed are a management framework for establishing goals, trained managers for implementing the goals, and an information system which provides the necessary feedback so that corrective action can be taken" if results become unsatisfactory. Throughout Williams, a Tuck School alumnus also, adopts the point of view not of the investment manager but of "the trustee or the fiduciary who works with investment managers."
Denis G. Sullivan, Robert T. Nakamura, and Richard F. Winters, Department of Government, How America Is Ruled. Wiley, 1980. 550 pp. Collaborators on previous books on politics and government, Sullivan, Nakamura, and Winters have now produced a college-level textbook on the American political system. Central to the book is their premise that American political institutions serve primarily to balance the "tensions" inevitably created by two opposing theories of government: centralization vs. decentralization of power. The tensions are examined in three contexts. "The Constitutional Process" places them in historical perspective as the original constitutional system was established and then evolved "over the course of history from an undemocratic instrument of government to one more responsive to the popular will." "Politics and Elections" analyzes "the tensions between those who wish to make elections the principal determinant of public policy and those who defend a more fragmented decentralized system." "The Policy Making Process" examines "the struggle between the president, administrative agencies, Congress, and the courts." Among chapters of the book written by other contributors, is one about "The Court System of the United States" by Kate Stitch Pressman '73.
