This book is a study of the interactions between different types of systems, their environment, and their subsystems.  The author explains how basic systems principles are applied in engineered (mechanical, electromechanical, etc.) systems and then guides the reader to understand how the same principles can be applied to social, political, economic systems, as well as in everyday life.  Readers from a variety of disciplines will benefit from the understanding of system behaviors and will be able to apply those principles in various contexts.  The book includes many examples covering various types of systems.  The treatment of the subject is non-mathematical, and the book considers some of the latest concepts in the systems discipline, such as agent-based systems, optimization, and discrete events and procedures. 

Asish Ghosh is a retired Control Systems Engineer. In his professional life he held various research, engineering, and consulting positions while working for ICI in England and The Foxboro Company, and ARC Advisory Group in Massachusetts, USA. He studied Physics at Delhi University in India and Control Engineering at Cambridge University in England. He has authored and presented many papers on process control and safety systems. With Howard Rosenof he co-authored the first book on batch process control. He is a Chartered Engineer registered in UK. He now resides in the historic town of Plymouth Massachusetts with his dog Oskar.

Thinking in Systems.- The Engineered Systems.- Political, Social, and Biological Systems.- The Fundamental Behavior Patterns.- Modeling and Simulation.- Optimization.- Distributed Intelligence.- Discrete Events and Procedures.- Unintended Consequences.- The Seven Habits of a Systems Savvy Person.- Epilogue: Future Directions and Challenges.