Understanding Complexity is a about a new science developed by Warfield between 1970 and the year 2000. Warfield's Interactive Management system is one branch of the science: the "action branch" which springs from the foundations of a scientific theory which he tries to outline in this book.

When finally finished, this book contained large complex figures on 8 ½ x 11 pages. Every potential publisher wanted to reduce page sizes, which also meant reducing the size of the figures, making them unsatisfactory as a study tool. Warfield wanted large pages, 8 ½ x 11 or larger but could not find a publisher willing to produce such a text. Warfield incorporated his own Florida company and published the book himself. It is now for sale on the Internet. The name of the new publishing company was AJAR. It is supposed to convey the thought that a door is ajar for people to walk through if they will.

History of the book: The manuscript was completed in 1999, with a 268 page manuscript dated 12 October 1999 with title of "A STRUCTURE BASED SCIENCE OF COMPLEXITY". At that time, the entire book had been assembled and Warfield had finished his final version of the manuscript's index - the same index which was eventually published with the book in the year 2002. Neither page numbering, nor figures, nor text nor index have changed since that 268p manuscript which we called ASBSOC draft 6. Over time, subsequent drafts to ASBOC appeared, but they were all minor drafts, containing a few changes to the prefaces, but these were written to reflect changing publication dates and changing potential publishers. 2 June 2001 was the date the ASBSOC Draft 11 manuscript got its title changed to UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY (Draft No. 1). All book material including its new title remained essentially the same after June 2, 2001.

Draft No. 1 is the spiral bound draft manuscript which was shipped to GMU on April 20, 2003. Since 2001 when this draft was printed, the book has been published (March 2002, AJAR PUBLISHING, PALM HARBOR, FLORIDA). THE 2002 PUBLISHED VERSION IS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME TEXT AS THIS JUNE 2 2001 SPIRAL BOUND MANUSCRIPT WHICH WE CALL DRAFT 1 The manuscript history includes several later drafts because of Warfield's efforts to get the figures incorporated into an electronic text that would correspond with his index. These later drafts were of the type that in old days would have been a publisher's typesetting chores.

UNDERSTANDING COMPLEXITY (Draft No. 6) dated 14 September 2001 was the "finish day" on which Warfield finally had his figures all digitized and inserted correctly into his WordPerfect manuscript. In December 2001, Warfield took a CD-ROM holding Draft No. 6 to Sir Speedy Printers, in Largo, Florida, where Mr. Jerry Sheaffer, the proprietor, was planning to copy the CD files onto 8 ½ x 11 pages, send it to the bindery, then get it back and store it in his warehouse and ship it out to purchasers. Mr. Sheaffer had intended to print electronically, from the CD-ROM, but when he tried computerized printing with Warfield's WordPerfect manuscript the figures were so large they would not stay on the right pages. The book was so complicated, with large detailed figures plus an index, that converting to electronic printer software such as PageMaker was beyond Warfield's expertise. Hiring someone to use PageMaker would have meant proofing and editing their mistakes. It could have taken another year to make sure the book, including the index, was correct.

Rather than convert to another software Warfield printed out Draft No. 7, a WordPerfect manuscript dated Feb 22, 2002, on his home printer, to be sure each figure was on the correct page and the page numbers matched the index. The only manuscript changes in Draft No. 7 were on verso and preface pages rewritten for a March 2002 target date for publication. To create the book, Mr. Sheaffer used the Sir Speedy photocopier, rather than his print shop's electronic presses. In addition, Mr. Sheaffer designed and printed the outside cover for the book, as well as the little AJAR logo on the spine, showing an open door. Mr. Shaeffer kept Warfield's printout of Draft No. 7 as his master manuscript as well as the CD-ROM created by Warfield, however these seem to have been lost since then.

There were very few sales of the book. Rose got it listed in Books in Print, and with Greg Thomas's help the book was listed on a new 2004 website jnwarfield.com. Warfield retained Mr. Shaeffer as shipping agent, to store the books, and to pack and mail the published book to buyers. However because of poor sales it did not seem worthwhile to keep the books at Jerry Shaeffer's warehouse. So in 2004 Warfield collected all the remaining copies from Mr. Shaeffer and brought them home in boxes. He placed a few copies on his home bookshelves in case someone wants to buy a copy. Most of the copies of the book were stored in a private mini-storage unit in Palm Harbor, in a climate controlled room along with other Warfield papers. Warfield continued to sell the books one at a time, when requests come to him through email from persons who have seen the jnwarfield.com website. The complete record of sales was kept in Warfield's notebooks. In 2006 the Warfields moved to Alabama. The remaining copies of Understanding Complexity were then shipped to daughter Nancy Warfield, in California, where she had room for storage. A few copies remain.

PRINTING ERROR: In June 2004 Rose discovered that the outside cover of the published book displayed an INCORRECT ISBN NUMBER. The correct ISBN number is printed on the verso page, but not on the outside cover..The correct number is 9716962-0-9. On the outside cover the ISBN is 9716962-0-9-6 (with an added digit 6). COPYRIGHT INFORMATION. It was over 2 years before we got around to a formal copyright registration. The Library of Congress Cataloging Office Application Form TX was filled out and signed on 3 July 2004. An official publication date was given as 4 March 2002, the date Warfield made a final payment to Sir Speedy Printers "for Understanding Complexity." This must have been about the time Sir Speedy got it finally printed and bound. I forgot to make note of any official publication date, but since Warfield wrote a check for it on 4 March, that is a good enough publication date for the copyright office. 1 February 2002 was written down as "creation" date on the copyright form. The application was mailed 5 July 2004, AND AN OFFICIAL CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION FROM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COPYRIGHT OFFICE WAS RECEIVED IN OUR MAIL IN MID SEPTEMBER 2004.The EFFECTIVE DATE OF COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION IS ON THE CERTIFICATE, IT IS 14 JULY 2004, there is also a number on the certificate above a bar code, the number is: TX 5-984-723 One copy of the book (published by AJAR. 2002) is in Special Collections and Archives REFERENCE SHELF, Fenwick Library, George Mason University, where its call number is H61 .W37 2002. The book was cataloged at George Mason University USING THE INCORRECT ISBN. It is described as "gift of John N. Warfield". Rose Warfield asked them to correct the ISBN number in July 2004, and probably it will be done sometime.