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Rating: 
Summary: Can't wait for the Prequel & the Sequel.
Review:
I had to read this book twice.
First time with my jaw hanging and the second time highlighting, annotating and working up a storm of sticky notes so I could go look up the names & the fames.
The ripple effect has been tremendous, and I'm looking forward to Dr. Hoopes moving his socio-managerial microscope back to the Middle Ages to dissect vassalage and explain the pathology of serfdom and its parallel to today's corporate structures as well as why this phenomenon persists (prequel).
Then, I'd really like to see him turn the scrutiny on managers of the Great Shareholder Abandonment of the 2000's (WorldCom, CSFB, Enron, Global Crossing, etc.) and prescribe some remedies (for example, a vigorous enema would be just the ticket for Quattrone). I'd also like to see him attend to the waves of college graduates whose opportunity has been sold out from under them to the third world countries with the best Washington lobbyists (this book would be the sequel).
As it is, FALSE PROPHETS is a righteous "Perils of Pauline" cliffhanger, ending with Pearl White (who did all her own stunts, btw) tied to the tracks.
Or, to upgrade the reference, FALSE PROPHETS stops at a corporate "Empire Strikes Back" chapter, with dutiful nonexempt employee Han Solo frozen in a block of schmutz while all the jobs are being offshored and the middle class is posing for the picture that will decorate milk cartons.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated
Review: A book of considerable potential, which it fails to achieve. Worth investigating, but check it out from the library and read it before you buy it. His basic thesis is that all employees in commercial organizations need to be led from above, but that power corrupts so we should all be skeptical of being led from above. He does have some interesting and useful observations on managment/organizational behavior experts through the nation's (U.S.) history. Unfortunately his personal opinion of their merit keeps getting in the way. Personally, if I have to choose between Drucker or Hoopes as a management theorist, I'll opt for Drucker. What was interesting and amusing was the contrast between his (Hoopes') story on Elton Mayo and that offered by the Harvard Business School history on the subject. I've never liked Mayo, and don't hold HBS in anything close to the esteem it holds itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Despite its title, this book doesn't say much, or much of substance, about business today. Instead, it concentrates on lively professional and personal profiles of eight twentieth century management theorists of varying impact. Hammer and Champy, who launched the 1990s re-engineering movement, are mentioned only in the conclusion, and the gurus behind managing for shareholder value aren't mentioned. A little less detail about peccadilloes of the long dead and a little more about crucial management ideas that have shaped contemporary business might have made the book more relevant. Interestingly, it indicates that slave owners anticipated some of the progressive ideas in modern management but the author leaves it to the readers to make the connection: voila, contemporary workers believe the cant of empowerment about as much as the slaves believed the plantation master's pieties. We recommend this book for its anecdotal, gossipy entertainment value. It will make you cautious about management consultants - but if you aren't already, you can't have spent much time in business.
Rating:
Summary: A mind widening book
Review: False Prophets provides its readers different angles to view fallacies within ideas. Each of the ideas Hoopes examines have, in its own ways, dominated the management fields of corporations and of manufacturing through out decades. Professor Hoopes, above all, offers readers an honest revelation about the moral conflicts within management not just of our times but of all times. This is truly a wonderful book for any business student, leader in the making, and, of course, all existing managers. False Prophets speaks beyond its monetary value by offering readers timeless lessons and warnings crucial to every citizen living within the social ladders of society. Jim Hoopes is not just an extraordinary storyteller, but as well a moralist and a mentor. You will not regret!
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Summary: The Myth of the Democratic Workplace Exposed
Review: Hoopes does an very good job deconstructing the neo-managment concept of a democratic workplace, contrasting it with the juxtaposition of top-down power in an ostensibly democratic society. If one believes that the US is a democratic society (it's not, it's a republic), then one might take umbrage with his not novel revelation that the workplace functions best in a top-down style. Americans, in particular unionized America, has a big problem accepting this. His examples support this, but further, add light to the discussion that top-down power must be mitigated to some degree (the adage of absolute power corrupting withstanding). After reading his book I beleive that top-down power within a workplace that changes its policies as needed based on the demands and needs of the workers while fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities, is the best mix for success: keep you eye on why the institution exists (profit and/or service), but take care of your workers to accomplish your goals, and yes, management is in charge... This book helps illuminate how we got where we are, without burying the reader.
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