“O Mother of Mares, send me a change in the wind!” Jessa, Healer to a nomadic tribe, is content enough among them but life is routine and predictable, and her heart is empty. She prays for change, and apparently the Gods hear her, for change arrives – most unexpectedly, in the shape of a warrior from an alien world. As an officer with the British Army in Afghanistan, Captain Malcolm Redwing finds life anything but routine and predictable. It becomes even less so when after a serious accident on active duty he wakes to find himself among Jessa’s tribe, a stranger on a world that is not Earth. At first he is regarded with dislike and suspicion, but eventually he makes his peace with The People and settles down as one among them. As a professional soldier should, he waits for his chance to discover how he came to their world, and whether he can make his way back to his own by the same means. As time passes, however, the friendships he makes and his developing relationship with Jessa begin to come into conflict with his loyalty to his regiment and the comrades and friends he has left behind. His duty is to return home if he can, but as the months slip by he begins to question where his true loyalty really lies. Then news comes that a long-feared invasion by a strange and warlike people from the South has begun, and both Malcolm and Jessa are swept up into a conflict for which the peaceable Tribe are utterly unprepared.

Few topics are more ubiquitous in everyday life and, at the same time, more controversial in practice, than that of one’s moral obligation to loyalty. Featuring essays by scholars working in a variety of subjects from law to psychology, Loyalty presents diverse perspectives on dilemmas posed by potential conflicts between loyalties to specific institutions or professional roles and more universalistic conceptions of moral duty. The volume begins with a philosophical exploration of theories of loyalty, both Eastern and Western, then moves to examine several problematic situations in which loyalty is often a factor: partisan politics, the armed forces, and lawyer-client relationships. A fair and balanced analysis from a wide range of disciplinary and normative viewpoints, Loyalty infuses new life into an oft-tread avenue of scholarly inquiry. Contributors: Ryan K. Balot, Paul O. Carrese, Yasmin Dawood, Bernard Gert, Kathleen M. Higgins, Sanford Levinson, Daniel Markovits, Lynn Mather, Russell Muirhead, Nancy Sherman, Paul Woodruff Sanford Levinson is the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin and author or co-author of many books, including Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It). Paul Woodruff is former dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies and currently Darrell K. Royal Professor in Ethics and American Society at the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book is The Ajax Dilemma: Justice, Fairness and Rewards. Joel Parker is Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

At a time when age-old political structures are crumbling, civil strife abounds, and economic uncertainty permeates the air, loyalty offers us security in our relationships with associates, friends, and family. Yet loyalty is a suspect virtue. It is not impartial. It is not blind. It violates the principles of morality that have dominated Western thought for the last two hundred years. Loyalties are also thought to be irrational and contrary to the spirit of Capitalism. In a free market society, we are encouraged to move to the competition when we are not happy. This way of thinking has invaded our personal relationships and undermined our capacities for friendship and loyalty to those who do not serve our immediate interests. As George P. Fletcher writes, it is time for loyal bonds, born of history and experience, to prevail both over impartial morality and the self-interested thinking of the market trader. In this extended essay, George P. Fletcher offers an account of loyalty that illuminates its role in our relationships with family and friends, our ties to country, and the commitment of the religious to God and their community. Fletcher opposes the traditional view of the moral self as detached from context and history. He argues instead that loyalty, not impartial detachment, should be the central feature of our moral and political lives. Writing as a political "liberal," he claims that a commitment to country is necessary to improve the lot of the poor and disadvantaged. This commitment to country may well require greater reliance on patriotic rituals in education and a reconsideration of the Supreme Court's extending the First Amendment to protect flag burning. Given the worldwide currents of parochialism and political decentralization, the task for us, Fletcher argues, is to renew our commitment to a single nation united in its diversity. Bringing to bear his expertise as a law professor, Fletcher reasons that the legal systems should defer to existing relationships of loyalty. Familial, professional, and religious loyalties should be respected as relationships beyond the limits of the law. Thus surrogate mothers should not be forced to surrender and betray their children, spouses should not be required to testify against each other in court, parents should not be prevented from willing their property to their children, and the religiously committed should not be forced to act contrary to conscience. Yet the question remains: Aren't loyalty, and particularly patriotism, dangerously one-sided? Indeed, they are, but no more than are love and friendship. The challenge, Fletcher maintains, is to overcome the distorting effects of impartial morality and to develop a morality of loyalty properly suited to our emotional and spiritual lives. Justice has its sphere, as do loyalties. In this book, Fletcher provides the first step toward a new way of thinking that recognizes the complexity of our moral and political lives.

Deep friendship may express profound loyalty, but so too may virulent nationalism. What can and should we say about this Janus-faced virtue of the will? This volume explores at length the contours of an important and troubling virtue -- its cognates, contrasts, and perversions; its strengths and weaknesses; its awkward relations with universal morality; its oppositional form and limits; as well as the ways in which it functions in various associative connections, such as friendship and familial relations, organizations and professions, nations, countries, and religious tradition.

Consumer-facing and business-to-business organizations know that if they get their approach to customers right, they will be rewarded with unprecedented customer loyalty. This will lead to increased market share, improved sales, an enhanced reputation and higher profitability. Despite this, many of today's companies fail to recognize that the notable improvements in their service delivery are not keeping up with increased customer expectations. Creating Customer Loyalty outlines simple, easy to understand strategies for creating a sustainable customer loyalty management programme that will win loyal customers. Demonstrating how to focus solely on the things that enable and enhance success, this book shows how to make loyalty a habit and structure a business that attracts and retains the best customers. Using examples from both UK and international companies such as Lexus, Aldi, Dyson, The Ritz-Carlton and Virgin Atlantic, Creating Customer Loyalty explains why customer experience management alone does not build lasting loyalty, and why customer expectation and customer memory management are essential. It outlines how to make every occasion epic by removing those 'ouch' moments, replacing them with 'wow' experiences, and developing dazzling recovery techniques to create unforgettable stories and positive memories.

Could you choose between family and justice? Thomas Mayfield learned everything from his older brothers, including how to evade the law. A tragic event makes him question his life choices, and Mayfield realizes that maybe following in his brothers' footsteps is not the best path for him. To distance himself from his brothers’ criminal tendencies, Mayfield travels west to a small Texas town to accept a position as sheriff's deputy. When his brothers show up and wreak their havoc , Mayfield must choose between family and the law.

American philosopher Josiah Royce (1856-1916) delivered three lectures on the topic of loyalty at the Twentieth Century Club in Pittsburgh in February 1909. These lectures, “The Conflict of Loyalties,” “The Art of Loyalty,” and “Loyalty and Individuality,” are indispensable for a complete and coherent picture of the development of Royce’s philosophy of loyalty. This publication marks the first appearance of these lectures in a book, making them widely accessible to readers. Included in this volume is an Editor’s Introduction by Mathew A. Foust, a preeminent scholar of Royce’s philosophy of loyalty. Foust details the mysteries long surrounding these lectures and the clues that led to their solutions. Foust then demonstrates how the 1909 Pittsburgh Loyalty Lectures constitute a “missing link” between The Philosophy of Loyalty (1908) and subsequent works by Royce such as “Loyalty and Insight” in William James and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Life (1911), The Sources of Religious Insight (1912), The Problem of Christianity (1913), War and Insurance (1914), and The Hope of the Great Community (1916). Students and scholars of American Studies, the history of philosophy, ethics and moral philosophy, and social philosophy will find much of enduring relevance in Josiah Royce’s 1909 Pittsburgh Loyalty Lectures.

This book is a fictionalized attempt to chronicle our time, much the same way that "Tale of Two Cities," and "War and Peace" chronicled the time of the French Revolution and its aftermath. I believe that there are three phases to any revolution, I. The events that divide the population by class and institutionalize the classes, II. The revolution, and III. The chaos of building a new social structure. I believe we are in a Phase I right now. This book, and the other three in this series may not match the literary achievement of Dickens and Tolstoy, but they may give the reader more insight into what is happening in our time. What happens next depends on what we have learned from the past, but will probably follow a pattern that is beyond the control of any one person, or any group of people.

In business, it’s not enough for people to like you, they need to love you! Learn how building loyalty and modeling great customer service behavior to develop frontline teams is the key to building raving fans. To thrive in today’s economy, it’s not enough for customers to merely like you. They have to love you. Win their hearts and they will not only purchase more—they’ll talk you up to everyone they know. But what turns casual customers into passionate promoters and lifelong buyers? Loyalty experts at FranklinCovey set out to unlock the mysteries of gaining the customer’s loyalty. In an extensive study that involved 1,100 stores and thousands of people, they isolated examples that stood out in terms of revenues and profitability. They found that these “campfire stores” burned brighter than the rest thanks to fiercely loyal customers and the employees who delight in making their customers’ lives easier. Full of eye-opening examples and practical tools, Leading Loyalty helps you infuse empathy, responsibility, and generosity into every interaction and: Make warm, authentic connections Ask the right questions and listen to learn Discover the real job to be done Take ownership of the customer’s issue Follow up and strengthen the relationship Share insights openly and kindly Surprise people with unexpected extras Model, teach, and reinforce these essential behaviors through weekly team huddles It’s time to invest in building loyalty. Leading Loyalty reveals the principles and practices of everyday service heroes—the customer-facing employees who cultivate bonds and lift revenues through the roof.

Annotation A guide for marketing professionals and managers to research, plan, and start programs that reward customers with tangible financial and non-financial benefits to foster long-term loyalty. It includes case studies of such programs begun by companies including Volkswagen, Swatch, and Porsche. The second edition adds chapters on pricing for customer loyalty and customer loyalty on the Internet. The author is an international business consultant based in Bonn, Germany. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).