An inside look at crisis management in the 21st century, Feeding Frenzy tells the story of two companies at war with each other, and of the trial lawyers determined to keep the conflict on the front pages. The Ford-Firestone tire crisis was the biggest business story of 2000-2001. Deadly and mysterious rollover accidents of Ford Explorers with failing Firestone tires took a toll of more than 270 lives in the U.S. and at least 100 more in Venezuela and other hot-climate countries. In compelling narrative, Feeding Frenzy provides a richer case study than can be found in other books on crisis communications. The reader climbs into the front seat for an eventful ride with the Ford PR team, as the automaker tries to understand what's causing the maddening accidents. Firestone's recall of millions of tires does nothing to abate unprecedented scrutiny from international media, safety advocates and an angry U.S. Congress. All the while, trial lawyers are leaking a new inflammatory document virtually every day to journalists competing with one another to break the next big story in this epic crisis. Jon Harmon is a chief communications officer with experience in all facets of reputation management. Over a 23-year career at Ford Motor Company, Harmon served in numerous roles requiring adroit media relations. He was Ford's chief spokesman during national labor negotiations with the UAW, and for many of Ford's high-profile legal cases and safety issues. As head of public relations for Ford Truck, Harmon was thrust into defending the Ford Explorer throughout the epic Ford-Firestone tire crisis. Harmon is the author of the Force for Good Communications blog for "aspirational public relations" at www.forceforgoodcom.com.

Why do so many different people with widely dissimilar ideas and customs get along as Americans? In American Beliefs, John McElroy identifies and explains those essential ideas that promote the unity of a vast nation and a diversified people because they have been shared and acted upon by generations of Americans. Tracing these beliefs historically from their origins in the earliest experiences of the American colonists, Mr. McElroy shows how they became continuing convictions that together form a pattern distinct from those of other peoples. Work, he argues, shaped the primary beliefs of Americans, for the task of the early settlers was first of all to survive in a new wilderness. He then goes on to discuss beliefs that grew from the experiences of immigrants, from life on the frontier, and from the ideas that Americans developed about religion and morality, politics, human nature, and the workings of society. It is not birthplace or skin color that makes a person an American, Mr. McElroy observes, but a common behavior based upon principles of freedom and equality, individuality and responsibility, improvement and practicality. American Beliefs is a book greatly needed, a powerful antidote to decades of historical and political writings that have concentrated on the differences among Americans.