Since 1990, direct sales have attracted over two million recruits in Mexico and are characterized by a belief in the power of positive thinking. Through an ethnographic portrait, Cahn demonstrates that the quasi-religious commission of self-empowerment--more than any economic commission--accounts for the explosive growth of commission-based sales in the developing world.

The German original of this Handbook of Loss Prevention was compiled during the course of many years' work by the engineers of the Department for Engineering Insurances, the scientists of the Allianz Centre for Technology and representatives of industry. It is based on the loss experience and practical loss research studies of the Allianz over a period of more than five decades. The Handbook of Loss Prevention is a supplement to the technical literature from the field of engineering in the form of a collective work comprising examples of damage to machinery and technical plant and pertinent pointers on loss prevention. It hus ranks among the recognised handbooks for engineers in the filds of planning, design, manufacture and operation. The great interest and wide acclaim according the German edition of this handbook by industry in 1972 confirm the traditional aims of the Allianz in placing loss prevention in technical plants in the foreground of their service to clients. The English edition of the handbook under review here enables this valuable engineering know-how to be made available at international level, with the object of preventing losses by the exchange of ideas and experience. The literature references have been taken over from the German edition in unchanged form, in order to bring to the atten tion of English-speaking experts a bibliography, which is little known outside Germany."