Book Description
In the Origin of Wealth, Eric Beinhocker offers a thorough and convincing new way to think about economic growth and business management. The author begins by exploring the roots of modern economic theory and ultimately declares it outmoded and wrong. Instead, he suggests, markets and growth can best be explained by drawing on the emerging field of complexity economics: the study of markets and social systems as complex adaptive systems. Although biological metaphors in business have become familiar (i.e., organizations are living organisms), Beinhocker moves beyond metaphor to explain the revolutions in science that will inevitably change the way we think about economics, competition, and business. The Origin of Wealth raises important questions such as: How can one create strategy in uncertain and fast moving environments? Why is it hard for large organizations to be innovative and how should we organize for better results? What role should governments play in this new era?
Customer Reviews:
Evolution, a recipe for innovation.......2007-10-14
The author has carried out a tremendous amount of work to study the latest developments in many different fields clustered around the concept of "complexity economics". The two most interesting ideas for me were about innovation and strategy development. I was amazed to learn how you can generate new insights and innovations in products , systems and organisation by computer simulations where "agents" compete in the way the evolution works. That is those features, and organisms, survive that successfully adapt to changes in the environment. These "agents" are simplified computer models of human beings, of a system or of a component. The characteristics of these agents change at random, similar to mutations in evolution. The agents compete in a computer. At the end of a simulation round the best performers engage in "computer sex" leading to new generation of more competent "agents". After many rounds innovations develop "automatically"
The second interesting area is about innovation strategy. Luck remains a factor, but its influence can be reduced by having a portfolio of innovative projects. Microsoft with its Windows strategy is a fascinating example.
The purpose in these simulations is important. On page 280 it says that the goal of a business is making a profit. This is what many people in society at large also think. It is not what the most read management gurus like Peter Drucker, and Jim Collins think. Their view is that profit is a condition for survival and a measure of success. Interestingly on page 411 the first view is corrected where it states that "profitability is not an objective in itself but a fundamental restraint that must be met". The cause of this contradiction may be the almost total absence in the book of the subjects of ethics, values, corporate citizenship and CSR. May be it is difficult to create synthetic "agents" with values other than greed. That should be possible though and would be a very interesting development.
Modern Classic.......2007-09-25
I would classify Eric Beinhocker's book as an instant classic. Although it is more of a survey of broad spectrum of economic studies, it is extremely well put together and well written. I promised myself that this is a book that requires a more detailed review but since I have not had time to write that yet, I want to at least share the following with the would be readers of this book:
Buy this book! The primary focus of the book is analysis of how emergence (no pun intended) of complex dynamical systems is changing the fundamentals of economics. Book does an excellent job of giving historical account of how mathematical foundations of economics was developed and influenced by the math/physics of the time: math of systems in equilibrium. Afterwords it methodically studies the complex dynamical systems, their impact on agent based modeling of complex phenomenon and how this development in mathematical thinking is already impacting economics. Last couple of chapters also provide ponderings of complex dynamical systems analysis and its impact on policy making and international relations.
Book is clearly written, well researched with excellent bibliography and captures some of the most throught provoking research in the industry in a simple and conherent fashion.
If I get time I promise to write a longer and more deserving review of this book.
Eye-popping paradigm shift in economics unveiled.......2007-07-14
On the subject matter...
Ever wonder why macro-economics didn't make sense?
Want to know more about how economies and markets really work?
On the writing...
The author provides a simple, compelling narrative which debunks a large portion of economics as it has been taught for the last 200 years. It then goes on to synthesize broad swaths of recent economic research into a cohesive vision of economics as an evolutionary open system and that observable macro-economic patterns are largely a product of the evolutionary algorithm at work.
If a high level understanding of the workings of economies or markets is of interest to you -- or you just want to unlearn a lot of false theory -- The Origin of Wealth is for you!
Must have for anyone who gave up on economics... like me.......2007-07-02
If you ever tried to read a book on economics, you probably loved the classics (Adam Smith, Shumpeter, Keynes...) but then you probably had an uneasy feeling about people trying to use some kind of Maxwell equation to explain the workings of the economy. That's where you probably decided that this science was either too complex for you (in fact, it is the world that is too complex for traditional economics) or that scholars were probably more interested in masturbating their brains than truly explaining the world. That's usually where a science needs a paradigm shift in order to stay alive in the world, and not just in academia.
Hopefully, things have changed and economists are now introducing concepts that gracefully embrace the nature of the subject : evolution, non-linear functions, psychology, sociology, and intelligent mathematics (the one that tries to fit with the actual world, not the opposite)
This book is a must have... The kind of book that makes you feel intelligent not because it's full of obscure concepts that you think you can loosely fit together, but because it is fact-based, well written, sometimes surprising, and most of all it feels right... which is truly groundbreaking.
Just like in nuclear physics, this science finally takes off the very moment it stops trying to fit the world in an a+b=c equation. Instead of having a precisely wrong theory, we now have something that accounts for the inherent complexity of the economy and unveils new and fascinating territories for us to discover.
A must for economics students!.......2007-07-01
I am an undergraduate student of economics and was always critical about the Traditional Economics theories that were presented in class. I never just accepted the textbook's mathmatical models as the ultimate truth and always looked for more. I read books from a wide range of areas, all supporting my view that there was something more to our economic life than what professors told us in class, but never making a clear connection to economic theory. I bought this book by chance before a long flight and can't say how happy I was when I realized what Beinhocker was saying. I could not stop reading and finished it in about a week. Beinhocker showed me how to break through the mathmatical barriers of traditional economics and think about economics in an exiting and liberating new way. His introduction to Complexity Economics (as he calls it) has given me new hope for economics and enthusiasm for my studies. I am already diving deeper and deeper into work mentioned in the references and a whole new world is opening in front of me! A. J. Sutter makes many valid points in his lengthy review above. I still think Beinhocker managed to write a book that is groundbreaking in its range of topics covered and its comprehensive overview of Complexity Economics.
No student of economics who has not at least heard about the topics mentioned in this book can say that he knows the subject he is studying.
Amazon.com
The thesis of this provocative and potentially important book is the increasing threat of violence arising from renewed conflicts between countries and cultures that base their traditions on religious faith and dogma. This argument moves past the notion of ethnicity to examine the growing influence of a handful of major cultures--Western, Eastern Orthodox, Latin American, Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, Hindu, and African--in current struggles across the globe. Samuel P. Huntington, a political scientist at Harvard University and foreign policy aide to President Clinton, argues that policymakers should be mindful of this development when they interfere in other nations' affairs.
Book Description
Based on the author's seminal article in Foreign Affairs, Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is a provocative and prescient analysis of the state of world politics after the fall of communism. In this incisive work, the renowned political scientist explains how "civilizations" have replaced nations and ideologies as the driving force in global politics today and offers a brilliant analysis of the current climate and future possibilities of our world's volatile political culture.
Customer Reviews:
Pure hate... Author wants to blame everything to muslims.......2007-07-11
It scares me to find out that educated (so called intellectuals) are writing this type of hate infested books that are aimed at nothing but inflaming more hate and voilence in the world. Author has a stubborn belief that all muslim cultures have speriority complex and they are there to destroy the western influence. He needs to wake up and understand that every culture even western or african or latin is sustaining because there are good things there to fullfill the needs of the people along with bad things that represent historical events/influence, economic or social problems etc. Author completely ignores the fact that one (Malaysia) out of all muslim countries are run by our appointed dictators with the exception of Iran and Syria who are kept in isolation so they have no reason to praise us have any dialog going. I would suggest that the author should cosider psychotherepy and need to start reading outside of his shell.
A Classic?.......2007-05-18
As a retired agronomist with a strong science background I tend to check out references that are commonly used. This book is very often quoted, not always favorably. If you have recently, like I, become interested in world politics and especially Islam this is definitely one of the texts you should read. From my weak politics and history background I found Dr. Huntington making a lot of interesting observations. I found the book very intriguing and educational. I really enjoyed his take on the Bosnian War.
Helps you to understand current global affairs.......2007-05-16
This book helps you to understand current global affairs. Although one might not agree with some of the author's theories.
Although this book is from the Western perspective, the author does not glorify the western civilization and has shown respect for other civilizations.
Clash of Cultures and Politico-Religious Hegemony.......2007-05-11
Huntington provoked worldwide outrage by this book, both from conservative westerners who thought he was too "nice" about Muslim extremists, and from non-conservatives who believed him to be arrogant and ethnocentric. My opinion is that both are correct: there is a clash between those using religious identities to promote political agendas, and those attempting to keep religion at the personal level and politics at the macro level of society. This book infuriated many non-readers because of its apparent linking of Islam with political terrorism. Careful readers understood that this was merely reporting of what "experts" said, and not a personal attack by Huntington on faithful adherents to Islam. Below are a few of my favorite quotes:
--"This awakening is comprehensive--it is not just about individual piety; it is not just intellectual or cultural, nor is it just political. It is all of these, a comprehensive reconstruction of society from top to bottom."
--One study of militant leaders of Egyptian Islamist groups found they had five major characteristics, which appear to be typical of Islamists in other countries. They were young, overwhelmingly in their twenties and thirties. Eighty percent were university students or university graduates. Over half came from elite colleges or from the intellectually most demanding fields of technical specialization such as medicine or engineering. Over 70 percent were from lower middle-class, "modest, but not poor backgrounds," and were the first generation in their family to get higher education. They spent their childhoods in small towns or rural areas but had become residents of large cities. While students and intellectuals formed the militant cadres and shock troops of Islamist movements, urban middle-class people made up the bulk of the active membership. In some degree these came from what are often termed "traditional" middle class groups: merchants, traders, small business proprietors, bazaaris.
--Islamist activists "probably include a disproportionately large number of the best-educated and most intelligent young people in their respective populations," including doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, teachers, civil servants.
There is a clash today, and Huntington calls it rightly. There is violent conflict between those seeking political power through the power base of religious identities are opposed by those unwilling to give up values and ideals in their secular political system.
Already happening?.......2007-05-06
What exactly makes a 'civilization'? Why do tribal conflicts in Africa not spread too far outward? Why did the conflict in Yugoslavia prompt Orthodox Russia to support the Serbs, and Muslim Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Islamic states to support the Bosnians? Why couldn't the civil war in Lebanon be solved by dialogue? Why are Islam's borders so bloody? Even though Saddam Hussein was a vicious tyrant and killed many of his own fellow Muslims, why did so many in the Islamic world proclaim him a hero when the United States invaded Iraq? Will demographic decline in the West change the balance of economic and military power in the world? Is the West in severe decline and can it turn itself around?
If there is any book that can fit into the context of today's global political sphere and shed light on the questions above, it is this book. The book defines what a civilization consists of, and why some are incompatible with each other. World demographics are depicted and used to make predictions about the future balance of world powers. The buildup of non-Western armed forces is highlighted and used to show how the West could lose its military dominance, and what will the future hold with such a change in power. Will it be multiculturalism and tolerance, or will it end up being a giant Lebanon or Yugoslavia, and how could we prevent such a disaster if it were to occur?
Regardless of your political position on the book, I must say it is by far the most comprehensive one I have come across on this subject. Accurately and extensively researched and documented, this outstanding book may be the most important one explaining the conflicts of the 21st century.
Amazon.com
The "commanding heights," according to Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Yergin and international business advisor Joseph Stanislaw, are those dominant enterprises and industries that form the high economic ground in nations around the globe. In their analysis of the new world economy, The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the Modern World, they examine "the individuals, the ideas, the conflicts, and the turning points" that are responsible. And by considering events such as the ongoing Asian monetary crisis, they suggest what the ultimate interconnection of financial markets might mean in the future.
Book Description
The Commanding Heights is about the most powerful political and economic force in the world today -- the epic struggle between government and the marketplace that has, over the last twenty years, turned the world upside down and dramatically transformed our lives. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins with a leading expert on the new marketplace to explain the revolution in ideas that is reshaping the modern world. Written with the same sweeping narrative power that made The Prize an enormous success, The Commanding Heights provides the historical perspective, the global vision, and the insight to help us understand the tumult of the past half century.
Trillions of dollars in assets and fundamental political power are changing hands as free markets wrest control from government of the "commanding heights" -- the dominant businesses and industries of the world economy. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw demonstrate that words like "privatization" and "deregulation" are inadequate to describe the enormous upheaval that is unfolding before our eyes. Along with the creation of vast new wealth, the map of the global economy is being redrawn. Indeed, the very structure of society is changing. New markets and new opportunities have brought great new risks as well. How has all this come about? Who are the major figures behind it? How does it affect our lives?
The collapse of the Soviet Union, the awesome rise of China, the awakening of India, economic revival in Latin America, the march toward the European Union -- all are a part of this political and economic revolution. Fiscal realities and financial markets are relentlessly propelling deregulation; achieving a new balance between government and marketplace will be the major political challenge in the coming years. Looking back, the authors describe how the old balance was overturned, and by whom. Looking forward, they explore these questions: Will the new balance prevail? Or does the free market contain the seeds of its own destruction? Will there be a backlash against any excesses of the free market? And finally, The Commanding Heights illuminates the five tests by which the success or failure of all these changes can be measured, and defines the key issues as we enter the twenty-first century.
The Commanding Heights captures this revolution in ideas in riveting accounts of the history and the politics of the postwar years and compelling tales of the astute politicians, brilliant thinkers, and tenacious businessmen who brought these changes about. Margaret Thatcher, Donald Reagan, Deng Xiaoping, and Bill Clinton share the stage with the "Minister of Thought" Keith Joseph, the broommaker's son Domingo Cavallo, and Friedrich von Hayek, the Austrian economist who was determined to win the twenty-year "battle of ideas." It is a complex and wide-ranging story, and the authors tell it brilliantly, with a deep understanding of human character, making critically important ideas lucid and accessible. Written with unique access to many of the key players, The Commanding Heights, like no other book, brings us an understanding of the last half of the twentieth century -- and sheds a powerful light on what lies ahead in the twenty-first century.
Download Description
The Commanding Heights is about the most powerful political and economic force in the world today -- the epic struggle between government and the marketplace that has, over the last twenty years, turned the world upside down and dramatically transformed our lives. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize joins with a leading expert on the new marketplace to explain the revolution in ideas that is reshaping the modern world. Written with the same sweeping narrative power that made The Prize an enormous success, The Commanding Heights provides the historical perspective, the global vision, and the insight to help us understand the tumult of the past half century. Trillions of dollars in assets and fundamental political power are changing hands as free markets wrest control from government of the "commanding heights" -- the dominant businesses and industries of the world economy. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw demonstrate that words like "privatization" and "deregulation" are inadequate to describe the enormous upheaval that is unfolding before our eyes. Along with the creation of vast new wealth, the map of the global economy is being redrawn. Indeed, the very structure of society is changing. New markets and new opportunities have brought great new risks as well. How has all this come about? Who are the major figures behind it? How does it affect our lives? The collapse of the Soviet Union, the awesome rise of China, the awakening of India, economic revival in Latin America, the march toward the European Union -- all are a part of this political and economic revolution. Fiscal realities and financial markets are relentlessly propelling deregulation; achieving a new balance between government and marketplace will be the major political challenge in the coming years. Looking back, the authors describe how the old balance was overturned, and by whom. Looking forward, they explore these questions: Will the new balance prevail?
Customer Reviews:
Capitalism won. Socialism lost........2007-08-13
That's the central message of this book. But to know why it happened, how it happened, and the geographic extent of this outcome, you need to read this fascinating book.
Now if we can just get our own federal government to realize this . . .
Also read what could be a good companion book: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
Good Primer But Authors Show Shallow Understanding.......2007-06-19
This book offers a good historical review of the struggle between free market and government controlled, socialist economies, the ideas behind the struggle, the main characters and the intellectuals who shaped the struggle.
Nevertheless, the book makes it look like market controlled economies have achieved the ultimate triumph when the case is far from that. The so called 'capitalist' economies of today are more controlled by government that they ever were and they have been rather re-regulated than deregulated.
The book would make a good reading for those interested in history but I wouldn't subscribe too much to its premise that Capitalism has triumphed.
Not critical enough; offers one perspective and does not back it up.......2006-11-18
This book was rather fun to read but I am not convinced that the authors have as deep an understanding of the phenomena they are writing about as they would like the readers to believe. The book reads like a narrative, full of assertions that are not backed by rigorous analysis of hard evidence. The authors do not critically explore causal relationships, nor do they talk about research that has done so. They present only one particular perspective on the unfolding of events, and they do not defend this perspective against potential criticism.
My experience with economics has always reinforced the idea that causality can be difficult to establish, and can often operate in unexpected ways. An economist must proceed skeptically, being careful to explore alternative explanations and being prepared to defend assertions with theory and data. The authors do not seem to share this view, taking instead a more naive approach.
Maybe I was expecting too much; after all this book is meant to be accessible to non-economists. However, making a book more accessible does not necessitate a lack of rigour or the absence of critical thought; the authors could have removed some of the redundancy in the book (their writing is far from concise!) and replaced it with explorations of alternative perspectives. The book would be greatly enriched by adding more discussion of research that supports (or opposes) their views.
Very Good Review of 20th century political economy.......2006-11-07
This is as painless an education on world 20th century political economy as possible. It is very interesting, providing a lot of good intellectual background to the major events and excellent descriptions of the events themselves. The book places excessive emphasis on Hayek, who was an important figure representing a strong "pro-market" voice in economics, but probably less important than Friedman and no more important than several others. The "conflict" bewteen Hayek and Keynes is somewhat overstated. However, this is an excellent book and the corresponding DVD is also very good.
an excellent report of the world economy.......2006-02-13
Public sector economy or market economy, this is the epic quest of the twentieth century. In a time of unemployment and global markets, everyone is looking for an answer to get growth and employment high. Daniel Yergin examines the twentieth century under the aspects of political and economic point of views.
He begins with the New Deal; in witch Roosevelt tried to regulate the liberal free market. The Anti-Trust- Rules were the first step in a modern regulated market. A neoliberal market constitution was introduced by the German economists. Walter Eucken, Mueller-Armack and Roepke were the person who introduced the „Ordoliberalismus"(Freiburg school of economists) into the economic policy. Yergin and Stanislaw discussed the transformation of the socialist states from a socialist market condition into a free market, after the Soviet Union broke down. These new economies of the Warsaw Pact states troubled with the release into the capitalist world. They showed how these transformation works, especially in Poland. Against this transformation they show how the Old Europe had problems with the expansion of the market into the east. In Western Europe the unemployment rate rose to an unknown high and the social problems of the welfare system rose too.
Yergin and Stanislaw explained the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher and the third way of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder.
Beyond this political point of views Yergin and Stanislaw explains the theoretical background of the modern economics. The Chicago school by Milton Friedman, Alfred Kahn economic of regulation and Keynesianism is discussed.
The future lies in the Asian markets and the growing Indian market. They explain the population problems of these countries and how the World Bank gets further with it.
I think it is an excellent book for the economist. It shows how the theoretical background is applied. There are good examples to explain it to the reader who are not familiar with the economic thinking.
Book Description
This concise overview of the labor movement in the United States focuses on why American workers have failed to develop the powerful unions that exist in other industrialized countries. Packed with valuable analysis and information, Hard Work explores historical perspectives, examines social and political policies, and brings us inside today's unions, providing an excellent introduction to labor in America.
Hard Work begins with a comparison of the very different conditions that prevail for labor in the United States and in Europe. What emerges is a picture of an American labor movement forced to operate on terrain shaped by powerful corporations, a weak state, and an inhospitable judicial system. What also emerges is a picture of an American worker that has virtually disappeared from the American social imagination. Recently, however, the authors find that a new kind of unionism--one that more closely resembles a social movement--has begun to develop from the shell of the old labor movement. Looking at the cities of Los Angeles and Las Vegas they point to new practices that are being developed by innovative unions to fight corporate domination, practices that may well signal a revival of unionism and the emergence of a new social imagination in the United States.
Customer Reviews:
a great introduction to the American labor movement.......2005-07-15
In this book, Fantasia and Voss--two long-time, respected labor scholars--provide a great overview of and introduction to the American labor movement. The book was actually originally written for a French audience, so they assume you know very little about the American labor movement, explaining things like the National Labor Relations Board and the Taft-Hartley Act, instead of assuming you know about them. They also at times contrast the American labor movement with those in Eruope, which is also frequently illuminating.
Building upon Voss' previous work, they address the question of the supposed exceptionalism of the American working class--the fact that, unlike European working classes, they never developed a militant labor movement that fought for the interests of all workers and embraced socialist or social-democratic politics; instead, the labor movement has fought primarily for benefits for its members and embraced mainstream politics. But, Fantasia and Viss argue, the American labor movement was not always like this--in the mid- to late nineteenth century, the American labor movement was as militant, broad-minded and radical as its European counterparts, if not more so. What was exceptional was not the American working class, but the American capitalist class, which was far more hostile to labor than their European counterparts. This hostile social environment, in which any major labor organziation that showed signs of a broad vision of social justice was brutally crushed, lead to the thoroughly domesticated politics of the AFL-CIO, in which they agreed to act as business' junior partner, gaining increased wages and benefits for their members, in return for abandonning any broader vision and supporting the Cold War agenda.
Even at its height, this bargain excluded most workers outside the core manufacturing industries. When the US and global economy began to undergo major changes in the 1970s (changes Fantasia and Voss don't explain well--this is one of the few weaknesses of the book), US business decided this bargain no longer suited its needs, rolling back the gains workers had made, a process that accelerated once the Reagan administration came to power. Traditional labor leaders were totally unprepared for this assult and it looked like organized American labor might go down the tubes.
Fortunately, the decentralized structure of some unions, while allowing for local corruption, had also allowed for progressives to survive in some localities. They have responded to the crisis of American labor with innovative new tactics and a new vision that embraces the interests of all workers, not just union members. They have begun working with other community groups and organizing groups unions had traditionally ignored--people of color, women and immigrants. (This is the other big weakness of the book--Fantasia and Voss don't pay enough attention to how deeply entrenched racism, sexism and nativism were entrenched in mainstream unions. They treat these matters casually instead of as central to understanding the crisis of American labor). With the election of Sweeney and the New Voices slate to the leadership of the AFL-CIO, these efforts began to get some official support. It is in this new, social movement unionism Fantasia and Voss see hope. However, it faces huge obstacles, both in the form of the entrenched leaders of many labor unions, leaders who are often conservative, corrupt or both; and the continuing hostility of American business and government to organized labor.
Despite the weaknesses I have mentioned, overall Fantasia and Voss do a great job of summarizing the history of the American labor movement, how it got into the mess it is today, and possible avenues out of the mess. The book is hopeful without being naive.
Amazon.com
American history has often been influenced by ethnic conflicts, but what we sometimes forget is how central the meetings between various ethnic groups were to the formation of what would become the United States. In New Worlds for All Colin Calloway offers a readable, fascinating account of how the English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Native Americans came together in a wilderness and went through tumultuous conflicts that eventually created a hybrid society. This conglomerate, which was different from any other on earth, eventually led to the creation of the United States.
Book Description
"Calloway employs lucid prose and captivating examples to remind us that neither Indians nor Colonists were a monolithic group... The result is a more nuanced appreciation for the complexity of cultural relationships in Colonial America... He surveys this complex story with imagination and insight and provides an essential starting point for all those interested in the interaction of Europeans and Indians in early American life." -- David R. Shi, Christian Science Monitor
Although many Americans consider the establishment of the colonies as the birth of this country, in fact Early America already existed long before the arrival of the Europeans. From coast to coast, Native Americans had created enduring cultures, and the subsequent European invasion remade much of the existing land and culture. In New Worlds for All, Colin Calloway explores the unique and vibrant new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America. The journey toward this hybrid society kept Europeans' and Indians' lives tightly entwined: living, working, worshiping, traveling, and trading together--as well as fearing, avoiding, despising, and killing one another. In the West, settlers lived in Indian towns, eating Indian food. In Mohawk Valley, New York, Europeans tattooed their faces; Indians drank tea. And, a unique American identity emerged.
"I cannot think of another work that sets out to accomplish what Colin Calloway has achieved. New Worlds for All stands poised to become the most successful synthesis of North American ethnohistory from contact to the early national period." -- Gregory E. Dowd, University of Notre Dame
"Colin Calloway's grand synthesis of the experience of Indians and other Americans before 1800 is exceptional in its breadth of vision. Taking as his canvas the entire North American continent--examining everything from war and disease to trade and sex, from clothes and houses to foods and cures--he nonetheless never loses sight of the individual, human story, the vivid encounter or striking incident that brings the past to life." -- James H. Merrell, Vassar College
Customer Reviews:
Amazingly researched and balanced.......2004-06-10
I recently graduated with my B.A. in History and am about to start my M.A. in United States History, and I have never read such a well-balanced and amply researched book, not to mention thoroughly enjoyable to read. Neither colonist nor Native American is deified nor demonized.
I loved how the book was divided by subject rather than chronologically. One is able to read about everything from both peoples' interaction with the beaver population to their views on religion and politics. I highly recommend this book.
A summary of recent historiography of the American Indian........2000-04-06
In this book Colin Calloway sums up another cycle in the historiography of the American Indian. The book is arranged topically, and is really more a series of essays than a single narrative. Calloway is even-handed in his approach, avoiding the demonization of both settlers and Indians that have been features of other works on the same topic. Calloway tries to cut through the mythology that has encrusted much of American Indian history and get at the way things really were--cultural give and take, misunderstandings, and accomodations. Overall, an excellent book and a necessary antidote to wrong-headed notions about cultural interactions in early America.
Book Description
Arguably the most influential document in the history of urban planning, Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, coauthored by Edward Bennett and produced in collaboration with the Commercial Club of Chicago, proposed many of the city’s most distinctive features, including its lakefront parks and roadways, the Magnificent Mile, and Navy Pier. Carl Smith’s fascinating history reveals the Plan’s central role in shaping the ways people envision the cityscape and urban life itself.
Smith’s concise and accessible narrative begins with a survey of Chicago’s stunning rise from a tiny frontier settlement to the nation’s second-largest city. He then offers an illuminating exploration of the Plan’s creation and reveals how it embodies the renowned architect’s belief that cities can and must be remade for the better. The Plan defined the City Beautiful movement and was the first comprehensive attempt to reimagine a major American city. Smith points out the ways the Plan continues to influence debates, even a century after its publication, about how to create a vibrant and habitable urban environment.
Richly illustrated and incisively written, his insightful book will be indispensable to our understanding of Chicago, Daniel Burnham, and the emergence of the modern city.
Customer Reviews:
Gripping, tightly written book.......2006-12-17
As an architecture tour guide, I've read "The Plan of Chicago" and know some Chicago history. Smith succinctly summarizes prevailing circumstances so the reader knows the context of the development of The Plan, but he deftly includes colorful and precise detail. The book is under 200 pages, reflecting a distinctive self-restraint by this distinguished scholar at Northwestern University. Moving from background of Chicago history and of Daniel Burnham, Smith summarizes the Plan's development, describes the other players, analyzes the Plan's effects, and brings readers quickly up-to-date with urban planning of today. This excellent narrative, supplemented with photographs not commonly seen, ends with a "bibliographic essay" to guide interested readers in their subsequent investigations.
Average customer rating:
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Remaking Chinese Urban Form: Modernity, Scarcity and Space, 1949-2005 (Planning, History, and the Environment Series.)
Duanfang Lu
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415354501 |
Book Description
This book charts the evolution of the contemporary Chinese urban built environment. Following the socialist revolution of 1949, China's architects and planners attempted to remodel urban settlements according to modern neighborhood design and planning principles. However, the gigantic social upheaval left these attempts unsuccessful. The result was a divided landscape: a modern functional urban world of work units (danwei) - the largely self-contained entities which integrated workplace, housing, and social services - strictly separated from an underdeveloped rural world.
Against this background and drawing on urban studies, environmental design history, urban studies, and critical theory, questions of Chinese modernity, nation building, spatial injustice, and urban-rural conflict are explored.
Book Description
In this account of the Algerian War's effect on French political structures and notions of national identity, Todd Shepard asserts that the separation of Algeria from France was truly a revolutionary event with lasting consequences for French social and political life.
For more than a century, Algeria had been, legally and administratively, part of France; after the bloody war that concluded in 1962 it was other, its eight million Algerian residents deprived of French citizenship while hundreds of thousands of French pieds noirs were forced to return to a country that was never home. This rupture violated the universalism that had been the essence of French republican theory since the late eighteenth century. Shepard contends that because the amputation of Algeria from the French body politic was accomplished illegally and without explanation, its repercussions are responsible for many of the racial and religious tensions that confront France today.
In portraying decolonization as an essential step in the inexorable "tide of history," the French state absolved itself of responsibility for the revolutionary change it was effecting. It thereby turned its back not only on the French of Algeria—Muslims in particular—but also on its own republican principles and the 1958 Constitution. From that point onward, debates over assimilation, identity, and citizenship—once focused on the Algerian "province/colony"—have troubled France itself. In addition to grappling with questions of race, citizenship, national identity, state institutions, and political debate, Shepard also addresses debates in Jewish history, gender history, and queer theory.
Book Description
Exposing the inadequacies of old conceptions of static cultures and detached observers, the book argues instead for social science to acknowledge and celebrate diversity, narrative, emotion, and subjectivity.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Example of Postmodernism.......2006-05-25
I had to read this book for an anthropological theories course but it's the kind of book I can always come back to when I think anthropology is getting too full of itself. This book is very easy to read. Rosaldo uses a semi-conversational tone that makes the reader an accomplice of his studies. In true postmodernist form, his study of the head hunting ritual of the Philippino Ilongots takes on personal interpretations that are shaped by the loss of his wife.
Trying to reconcile his personal loss with the controversial study of a murder ritual make for an important ethnographic approach that should be an essential read for anyone who observes cultures and tries to understand them within their personal terms.
Thought provoking. Could be a bit more concise........1998-07-12
I read this book as part of a cultural anthropology correspondence course through the University of California, Berkeley in 1997-98.
The book contains many important ideas. For example, chapter three on imperialist nostalgia is a must-read for anybody who wants to understand the underpinnings of Western attitudes toward other cultures. Very eye-opening.
There are other important ideas throughout the book. The tone of the book is scholarly and a bit labored. It took me more than a little discipline to finish the book. I don't fault Rosaldo for this; the blame goes to the editor. This book is important and needs a light to moderate developmental edit to make it accessible to its audience.
Rosaldo has made a very important contribution to cross-cultural understanding.
Book Description
Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and will comprise a quarter of the country's population by mid-century. The process of Latinization, the result of globalization and the biggest migration flow in the history of the Americas, is indeed reshaping the character of the U.S. This landmark book brings together some of the leading scholars now studying the social, cultural, racial, economic, and political changes wrought by the experiences, travails, and fortunes of the Latino population. It is the most definitive and comprehensive snapshot available of Latinos in the United States today.
How are Latinos and Latinas changing the face of the Americas? What is new and different about this current wave of migration? In this pathbreaking book social scientists, humanities scholars, and policy experts examine what every citizen and every student needs to know about Latinos in the U.S., covering issues from historical continuities and changes to immigration, race, labor, health, language, education, and politics. Recognizing the diversity and challenges facing Latinos in the U.S., this book addresses what it means to define the community as such and how to move forward on a variety of political and cultural fronts. All of the contributions to Latinos are original pieces written especially for this volume.
Customer Reviews:
a much-needed book on Latinos in America.......2007-08-01
*Latinos: Remaking America* is heady stuff that is the perfect textbook for a Sociology class with an emphasis on Latinos. It's perfect because there are so many issues that this book addresses that readers can relate or connect to today's current events on Latinos. Such issues are education, language, religion, health, women, employment and many more. This book should serve as the bible of Latinos in America.
The reason I said it was heady stuff because there are a lot of statistics in the book. While I believe that statistics are important, I do have to say that some of the graphs are not "friendly".
However, I did wish that there were essays or articles by grassroot Latinos to give readers a "breather" from heavy reading. I took me over a month to read this detailed book. With Latinos constantly growing in America, I will not be surprised if this book has to be revised in the near future.
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