Elements of Government Contracting: Practical Advice for Negotiating and Performing Government Contracts

I'm very familiar with virtually all books on government contracting, also known as federal contracting. Most of them have their merits except for a handful that are cut-and-paste "books." You have to be careful to avoid those. Most but not all the academic books are produced by professors at George Washington University and published by Commerce Clearing House (where I got this one as well as many others). They are intended for law school students, attorneys and contracting officers. All the books on the subject that have either the George Washington Law School logo or the Commerce Clearing House (CCH) logo are among the legitimate and quality books on the subject. There are other good books too. One example of another helpful book is Federal Contracting Made Easy by Scott Stanberry, which is primarily aimed at small businesses that are getting into the field. Elements of Government Contracting, the subject of this review, is probably the first book that one would read to become knowledgeable about federal contract administration. As such, it covers everything one needs to know in an introductory manner but it is at the reading level of a law school student. One would ideally read this book twice and then further their understanding by committing themselves to much larger academic books that cover the same topics but in much greater depth. Such books would cite both the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and other authoritative sources in greater depth and provide case history. Of course one does not have to go beyond this book. Perhaps your goal is just to get a working foundation of government contracting. Then this is still the book for you. However, nobody can master the entire subject. That is because all the different authoritative sources on the subject together are more voluminous than the United States of America Tax Code. Finally, I think this book is just about perfect as an introductory book on government contract administration. There are other short books that introduce one to concepts of the business of federal contracting. Some are basically definitional, others are geared toward small business managers and others are targeted toward procurement personnel. But this book has no major competitor in its category. That, I believe, is why the price is so great for such a short and modest dimension paperback book.