Note: Amazon has grouped together reviews of several different editions of this book; this review is for A Message to Garcia (Little Books of Wisdom) .
This is one of the most widely reprinted self-help pamphlets ever written, and it is still quite relevant today after more than a century, in part because while there are countless books and pamphlets about how to be a good leader, this is one of the very few about how to be a good follower, and given the disparity in numbers, more of us will be the latter than the former.
This edition also includes a later introduction, written by Hubbard in 1913, explaining how and why it was written and so widely reprinted. According to this Apologia, Hubbard dashed it off one evening in a heated fervor as filler for his magazine,...
and it shows.
As debunkers are quick to point out, Hubbard greatly oversimplified the details of Rowan's mission to Garcia and got a little overwrought with his language, to the point that the willfully obtuse have long accused him (and anyone who reprinted him) of desiring to create mindless slaves. However, nothing could be further from the truth; Hubbard's TRUE goal, which is obvious to anyone who actually READS him, is to get employees to STOP acting like mindless slaves and to show a little initiative instead, or a lot of initiative if the task requires it. (There is a reason that those with a military background have little trouble grasping this concept while it can be a great stumbling block to the lifetime civilian and proud of it.)
For example it is downright silly to suggest that Hubbard really meant that an employee given a task should never ask necessary questions, just that he shouldn't use a lack of answers as an excuse to give up. Of course anyone in Rowan's place would have asked, "Where is he at?" if he didn't already know the answer. The difference is that being told "somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba" would not have been a legitimate excuse to quit. In the later suggested test of one's underlings, it would be a foolish clerk indeed who did not ask, "Which encyclopedia?" or "Where is the encyclopedia?" if he didn't already know the answer, but of all the excuses Hubbard suggests you'd hear, the most damning is also the one most likely to be heard a century later:
"Was I hired for that?"
THAT attitude is what Mr. Hubbard is preaching against here, and anyone with any sense realizes that it is an attitude that STILL neads preaching against.
Note: Some reviewers have complained that this book is available online for free. Well, yes, what part of in the public domain do you not understand? However, trying to get away with giving someone a printout as a gift will earn you the nickname of cheapskate. If all you want to do is read it yourself, then by all means stick to the free sites. However, if you are looking for a way to get through to someone else, you are better off buying a copy, and a solitary sawbuck for this sturdy pocket-sized reprint is going to be tough to beat. The chief virtue of it being online is your ability to read it first and make sure that this is the book you want to give before ordering it.
A Spanish language edition is also available from Applewood Books: Un Mensaje a Garcia .
Note: Applewood Books has produced a nice looking inexpensive series of sturdy pocket-sized reprints of important American books, documents, speeches, pamphlets, and poems, the Little Books of Wisdom, uniform with this volume, that are ideal for gifting to doctors, lawyers, teachers, business professionals, and students of same: The Way to Wealth , George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation , The Constitution of the United States of America , On the Art of Teaching , The Poems of Abraham Lincoln , The Strenuous Life , The Bill of Rights with Writings That Formed Its Foundation , The Path of the Law , The Constitution of the Confederate States of America, The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, A Declaration of Sentiments, Robert's Rules of Order, Good Citizenship, On Being Human, A Discourse Upon the Duties of a Physician, The Declaration of Independence with Short Biographies of Its Signers, Teamwork, Stick-To-Itiveness, Opportunity, & You, The Wants of Man, George Washington's Farewell Address, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Speech of Chief Seattle, Common Sense, The Articles of Confederation, The Emancipation Proclamation, and The Gospel of Wealth.
Some selected volumes are also available in boxed sets: Books of American Wisdom Boxed Set, CEO's Gift Box of Wisdom, Doctor's Gift Box of Wisdom, Lawyer's Gift Box of Wisdom, New Citizen's Gift Box of Wisdom, and Teacher's Gift Box of Wisdom.
And one other has been published in Spanish: Constitucion de Los Estados Unidos.
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