Book Description
Not satisfied with the new T-shirts on sale at the local mall? Maybe you'd like a wedding invitation that expresses your own vision, not your party planner's? How about some personalized stationery? An upgrade to your website? A business card? A poster for your political campaign? A CD package for your band? Sound good? Then get up off your couch and Design It Yourself! Avoid graphic identity theft: build your own. Ellen Lupton, bestselling author of Thinking with Type, will show you how.
DIY: Design It Yourself, provides you with all the tools you'll need to create your own projects, from conception through production. Here you will find:
- simple ideas on how you can "think like a designer"
- clear and coherent explanations of design technologies, from silk-screening to web development
- what materials you'll need to get your job done
- where to find and buy them
- how much time and experience your project demands
- diagrams that show how to handle complex tasks
- basic typographic dos and don'ts
- the history and theory of the DIY design movement
- hundreds of innovative and beautiful projects for inspiration
No more excuses. With this book, virtually any design task is within your grasp. Just do it (yourself)!
Customer Reviews:
Good coffee table or bathroom reading book.......2007-08-10
This is basically like all those magazines - Sunset, Martha Stewart Living, etc. etc, - wherein you buy it with the hopes of being inspired to create, update, remake, etc. and you ACTUALLY NEVER WILL, except in book form!
I love reading the book - it's cute, kitschy and definitely entertaining, but really, who can create these crazy wall decorations and/or press kits and have them turn out flawless!?!??
Who is this book for?.......2007-07-12
I know a little about Lupton's career -- teaching, writing, and curating shows. She seems very intelligent, but I don't understand who this book is really for. Beginning or advanced people? Crafters or designers? Some of the ideas in this book (wrapping paper) are so obvious that I think anyone with an ounce of creativity has already figured them out. Some things (commercial embroidery) seem very advanced and specialized, and not useful to most people. The layout of the book is nice, but the content is very inconsistent. Was this really a student project, as someone mentioned? If so, I think Lupton should have made more of an effort to make sure that everything came together and made for a coherent whole. I think there are better DIY books out there.
How To Be Ironically Tacky.......2007-04-08
Pretentious art student tripe, mostly. I discovered that I can wrap gifts with newspaper! I can use a graph paper notebook for a scrapbook! I was looking for examples of cutting-edge design, and a methodology to implement it. What I got was the product of the tragically hip after too many lattes.
A excellent beginners guide.......2007-03-30
Design It Yourself is a lucid and accessible introduction to design basics for the lay-designer/artist or small business owner. An invaluable find!!!
Inspirational.......2007-03-12
This inspirational book was born and bred at Baltimore's Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), under the direction of its graphic design director. There's no doubt that DIY design has been on the rise over the last twenty years, and this handbook does an excellent job of introducing the concept to the uninitiated. It starts with two sections, "Why DIY?" and "DIY Theory" which serve to set things up nicely without being overly dense. The excellent design and outstanding photography showcases tons of nice examples in 28 categories across a range of media, from blogs to zines. This is definitely not a step-by-step guide that holds one's hand through processes -- but it will help anyone understand how to start seeing the world as a designer. It's not perfect by any means, and experts in particular fields will find small details to quibble with. For example, the embroidery section doesn't provide complete DIY details, instead directing the reader to outsource it to commercial embroidery firms. Another example is in the web site section, which advocates the use of nested tables, a technique long out of favor in the web development community. But these are very minor quibbles about an excellent book that belongs in the hands of anyone (especially kids and teens) with the slightest interest in self-expression.
Book Description
D.I.Y. Kids encourages young readers to use basic design principles and on-hand materials to express their individuality through more than eighty imaginative projects. The book is divided into four sections—Graphics, Toys, Home, and Fashion—each packed with ideas for making fun and useful items, including step-by-step instructions and colorful photographs of cool designs and the kids who made them.
D.I.Y. Kids is designed to trigger imaginative play, it’s for parents, teachers, aunts and uncles, friends and babysitters, neighbors and citizens—anyone who wants to create a better world not only for, but also with, the next generation. Ellen Lupton is a curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the director of the graphic design MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is the author of numerous books, including D.I.Y. Design It Yourself and Thinking with Type. She received a Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the AIGA in 2007.
Customer Reviews:
Artist view.......2007-08-30
I think that writing this book with my mom was really interesting. Everyone will enjoy doing crafts with their family. There so many ideas in this book. My favorite projects were making stuffed animals and mod-podge purses. The stuffies are cute and cuddly and there's room for one in everybody's heart. The purses are very stylish and unique. This book is wonderful and you should definitely buy it.
Book Description
George Dance (1741-1825) was a pioneering architect who designed the first Neo-Classical building in England (All Hallows, London Wall) as well as the first Indian-style elevation (the City of London's Guildhall), introduced the circus and crescent to London town planning, invented the ammonite capital, designed a prototype art gallery and made early use of structural iron and other technical innovations. As architect to the City of London and a founding member of the Royal Academy, Dance was an establishment figure and yet was considered by his contemporaries as a 'poet architect' who spoke of an 'Architecture unshackled'. The designs at the Soane Museum include drawings made during Dance's six years in Rome, designs for churches, monuments, prisons, a major hospital, town houses and country houses as well as an art gallery, bank, law court, library, museum, and anatomy theatre. His important role as a town planner and structural innovator is well illustrated and so is his skill as decorator and even garden designer. Dance's eloquent buildings, which include the strikingly austere Newgate Prison, as well as his use of daylight, canopy domes, stripped forms and decoration had a powerful influence on his protege John Soane, who acquired his master's drawings in 1836. They remain in Sir John Soane's Museum, an invaluable record of an exceptional architect. The catalogue also includes the drawings of the elder George Dance (1695-1768), architect to the City of London for more than 40 years. His major building, the Mansion House, is unusually well documented and is catalogued here by Sally Jeffery.
Book Description
If you are serious about learning photography this is the book needed to get started.
This authoritative classic, written by a leading international photography writer and lecturer has been updated by successful photographer, lecturer and best-selling Photoshop Elements author, Philip Andrews.
Benefit from his skill, experience and knowledge quickly as you learn how to use photography creatively, from scratch. All the fundamental basics are covered: how to select and compose a good picture; how different cameras operate, whether film or digital; how to use the cameras controls shutter speed, focus, zoom, flash etc; advice on how best to tackle different subjects people, places, animals, landscapes, or close-ups, as well as invaluable scanner and printing techniques.
* Comprehensive and friendly guide to get you started fast whether using film or digital cameras
* Lavishly illustrated with inspirational color images throughout to illustrate what can be achieved
* Practical suggestions for experimental projects help improve your technique
Customer Reviews:
Not enough........2007-07-24
The beginning is very basic, which is good. But after the beginning, I was left saying "and...". There was no more. It went on to other aspects of photography that doesn't really help you with picture taking. It was about troubleshoot and other useless information that if you needed to know, you would just look on your owners manual.
This book is not NEARLY enough to "start photography". I suggest something like Understanding Exposure to get a more detailed look on photography.
Well illustrated and explained........2006-11-08
If you are just starting out on photography, I highly recommend this book. It begins immediately on the first chapter on picture making! For this reason alone, I would give it 5 stars. Here in the first chapter, the authors wasted no time to tell you what makes good pictures: the photographer, not the equipment. They then proceed to explain why the majority of our pictures (at least, the rest of us non-professionals) turn out unflattering despite our best efforts and high-tech cameras.
If you read nothing else but the first chapter alone, I would bet that your photography will already begin to improve. Or if not, the first chapter will at least inspire you to try the suggestions and see the result yourself. In fact, even if all you have is a humble point and shoot film camera, the things they teach in the first chapter are still totally valid, as the principles of good photography remains the same whether you use film or digital.
The next chapters give details about camera operations, how to creatively use camera controls, and another great topic, how to tackle different photographic subjects. Just what I needed! I like the chapter on how to process you own film in black and white. Although I'll probably not dive into it, this chapter gives you good grounding on the grassroots of photography.
Other good stuff inside:
1. Projects at the end of most every chapter. I dare you to do all the project at chapter one and tell me if it will not improve your understanding of what makes a good picture!
2. Information on digital aspect of photography. Although I shoot film slr, I know that one day, I'll want a digital slr so the info on it is nice.
3. All the illustative pictures are ones that can be done by amateurs! In keeping with the beginner's purpose, this is intentional on the part of the authors. If you are looking for award winning photos or famous photographers, you wont find it here. But the pictures in the book are beautiful in their own right and they drive home the points taught.
4. Modest studio lighting you can create yourself! The principles on the very important aspect of light taught here are very revealing to me. The diagram of how to photograph a subject using only your own flash and any old white card to reflect some light is already a good starting point.
However, I am tempted to give this book 4 stars since I felt that despite it's generous information, attractive layout, highly readable text, and wide pages, the authors skimmed the topic on tricky exposure problems. The use of grey cards, spotmeters, and handheld lightmeters to solve these tough light problems were only briefly explained. On the other hand, they provided easily applied solutions to our most common exposure problems. So I give them the benefit of the doubt that such issues correctly belong to advanced photography topics which might only discourage the wobbly beginner if mentioned here. Now that you are aware of it, you will probably do more research on it. Meanwhile, a lot of my pictures are already much improved by the application of the principles in the book alone.
I therefore, highly recommend this book to fellow beginners in photography!
A snap at half the price!.......2001-03-27
For a first in photography you really couldn't ask for more. Michael Langford guides you round the jargon with ease and will soon have you talking like a professional! With the added bonus that you'll actually understand it! He covers everything you'd need to know in an easy to read stlye. Including projects to do easy enough for total beginner or the more serious amatur. You don't need a high tech camera to follow either there is something for everyone. The book only lost one point with me because i felt the chapters weren't well enough defined. Reccommended to all!
A user friendly guide to taking great photo's!.......2001-03-27
I would reccomend this to anyone wishing to start photography or develop their knowledge. Michael Langford guides you through photography jargon and explains digital, APS and SLR cameras with ease. Including projects for practical starting points easy enough for a total beginner with only a disosable camera or professionals with the latest stuff! The book covers using your first camera, lighting, trouble shooting, effects, working indoor and outdoors and briefly about making your own dark room. It is a comprehensible guide which doesn't cost a packet! A definite thumbs up!
Amazon.com
Fifty issues--collected into 15 volumes that total 2,000 pages--the Hernandez brothers' Love and Rockets is an enormous achievement that helped to create a new audience for comics. Notable for their strong female characters and their focus on relationships, rather than on traditional comic-book 'action', the stories collected in this volume, and the rest of the series, show how the comic format can be used to create characters and situations as detailed and compelling as in any novel.
Reviewers have compared Gilbert Hernandez's work--set in the fictional Latin American town of Palomar--with that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Robert Altman. Reading his brother Jaime's work--most of which focuses on a group of Southern California Mexican American women--is like reading Tolstoy, if only Tolstoy had written about twenty-something punk girls. Love and Rockets has certainly earned its legendary reputation among the comic-book cognoscenti, and deserves to be read by an even wider audience. Welcome to the world of Los Bros Hernandez.
Customer Reviews:
Not in Kansas Anymore.......2005-05-18
My two cents: starting reading L&R with this collection is muy loco.
The sense of dislocation present in this collection is palpable. With classic visual authority, these comics pose questions: where are we? where are our heroines? what does all of this mean? These panels are crowded with figures and faces and pieces of plot. Sensory overload.
Ultimately, I am glad I read this but found it to have more than a little narrative wheel-spinning. I wanted more traction.
One of the best.......2004-07-05
Wigwam Bam is a change of pace in the Love and Rockets saga. Hopey and Maggie are stranded somewhere out East after H.R. Costigan kicked them out of his mansion. Meanwhile, they've fallen in with an arty, gay crowd. Early into the book, Maggie and Hopey split up. And so, much of Wigwam Bam is really all about Hopey.
There is definitely a greater sense of the surreal in this collection than there have been in others. One of the reasons, I think, is that Hopey and Maggie are both sort of out of their element in this collection. There's a sense of weirdness and dislocation that wasn't present in earlier collections. Especially in the beginning, several characters bring up the fact that Hopey and Maggie are from California, and in the case of Maggie, that they are Mexican. In this collection, Hernandez raises questions of ethnicity that he hadn't before.
Wigwam Bam definitely isn't as lighthearted as some of the other collections. Hopey rapidly falls in over her head. One wonders whether this has something to do with the fact that she has lost Maggie, seemingly for good. And the collection does end on a dark note. In this collection the characters in it are tested and a lot of the things they counted as sure things are lost.
Gratuitous.......2002-08-27
Great Jaime Hernandez artwork, as you'd expect. But in this collection it's mostly in service of some pointless and fairly humourless lampoon of some LA clique that may or may not still exist - if it ever did in the first place. And Jaime's perennial problem with the creation of believable women undermines the plot still more. Sure, we love Hopey and Maggie, but if we're supposed to take them seriously now, how come they still act like complete whack jobs? Other female characters featured (i.e. Aging Media Lesbians Who Keep Young Women As Pets - of which there are apparently so many, they have their own club) are so out-there and stupid that you wonder if maybe Jaime is having a joke at our (the readers) expense (fifteen dollars plus shipping). It's not coincidence, I think, that the sexual content was ratcheted up in the stories of this collection - a good indicator of narrative bankruptcy.
Wigwam Bam, probably the best Love and Rockets Book ever.......1998-06-15
Wigwam Bam has to be Jaime Hernandez' most compelling comic book ever. It mainly focus on Hopey and the residents of Hoppers, as Maggie (Hopey's girlfriend) leaves Hopey after a snooty party. From then on Maggie doesn't turn up again. In wigwam Bam, we find out more about Hopey and that she actually does love Maggie and has a heart. We also get to delve deeper into Isobel's twisted psyche as she goes and looks for Maggie and Hopey. I honestly admit that I had never had such an emotional involvement with any comic characters as I did with Wigwam Bam. Even if you haven't read the other volumes of the Love and Rockets series, Wigwam Bam is most definately worth a look.
Average customer rating:
|
Grass Widow: Making My Way in Depression Alabama
Viola Goode Liddell
Manufacturer: Fire Ant Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Authors
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Educators
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
South
| Regional U.S.
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Alabama
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 081735090X |
Book Description
Filled with splendid photos by Harold Barkley, this book contains profiles of 74 great players, action photos, statistics on players and teams. It is treat for any fan.
Customer Reviews:
Hockey's Finest Photographic Record.......2006-08-09
I own many hockey books, and this book is, by far, the one I open up most often. Each picture takes you into a world of NHL hockey that has long passed away. The beautiful full-color photographs will cause you to forget that they are images of the fastest moving sport in the world. It's as if the players have posed for the camera in an attempt to recreate hidden moments of the game. The facial expressions alone will capture your eye. You'll find yourself scanning every detail of the pictures, looking for that elusive black puck (and you'll find that puck in nearly every picture). This book is a pure treasure for fans of the game of hockey, in particular those fans who remember the simple days of 6 teams, 120 players, 1 Cup.
Practically better than watching hockey on TV!.......2001-01-20
You can literally spend hours looking at this book and not tire of the images. They're so life-like it's eerie. Harold Barkley's strobe photography techniques give the pictures a "3-D" quality that is completely absent in today's "flat" images. Of course, the fact that the stars in the photos are from the "Golden Era" (50's and 60's) make the book all that much better. These stills make you yearn for the hockey of yesteryear, even if you weren't there! The flat sticks, the glossy narrow skates, the bryl-cream donned hair (helmet, what helmet?) - it's all here right down to the ice-shavings littering the goal crease, all in awesome detail.
Frank Selke's introduction is excellent as well. Here is a man that makes no bones about why this was hockey's greatest era. My favorite example - fights were seen as a gentlemanly way to settle differences, not as an indication of a sport gone awry with "violence". My only complaint is that his anecdotes are only a few pages rather than a few chapters.
But the photographs are really what this book is about. Sure, the statistics and history of each player featured are there, but I found my eyes continually wandering from the print back to the image - they're that good. It's tempting to cut them all out and frame them.
This book will be enjoyed by any hockey fan, but if your over 40 it will be a treasure.
Crystalline color photos from hockey's glory years.......1999-05-31
Wow! Buy this book just for the fabulous photographs taken by Harold Barkley, a long-time photgrapher with the Toronto Star. Barkley pioneered the use of the strobe in sports photography, and the detail he captured in these bright color photos is phenomenal--the texture of the ice, the meticulously greased and combed hair on the players, the rows of dark-suited spectators in the audience. This is how hockey used to look! The text consists of 1-2 page spreads on individual players of the day. The stars are all here, of course, but more interesting, to me anyway, are the players who've slipped from memory--Andy Hebenton, Norm Ullman, Camille Henry, Elmer Vasko. These names ring bells for fans who grew up in that era, but you seldom hear them now. Yet, here they are, preserved for us both in prose and in pristine photographic detail. This book's a gem.
Average customer rating:
- good
- Warren Smith's heroics are matched only by his imagination
- Warren Smith's heroics are matched only by his imagination
- Baloney!!
- COVERT WARRIOR
|
Covert Warrior: A Vietnam Memoir
Warner Smith
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Vietnam War
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Vietnam
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Southeast Asia
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0671014307 |
Book Description
North Vietnam. Laos. Cambodia. Thailand. China.
Officially, no American troops were there in 1965. But as part of FRAM 16, a super-secret elite fighting team trained by the CIA for reconnaissance and covert combat patrols, Warner Smith repeatedly engaged enemy forces deep within their own territory. Now, revealing for the first time the incredible black-ops combat missions that were hidden from even the military, Smith tells the true account of his harrowing twenty-month odyssey as a CIA covert warrior.
From busting American fliers out of a Laos POW camp to a solo mission into China to locate surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) crippling U.S. aircraft, Covert Warrior is an intensely riveting memoir of remarkable heroism against impossible odds -- and an explosive new chapter of the Vietnam War that can only now be told.
Customer Reviews:
good.......2004-03-04
THis a very good book. i could not put it down. very interesting.
Warren Smith's heroics are matched only by his imagination.......2002-06-22
Warren Smith has written a brilliantly detailed and suspenceful male fantasy that would leave even Ian Flemming in stiches. This book is ridiculous! Shame on Presidion Press for printing it and Amazon from selling it. ...
Warren Smith's heroics are matched only by his imagination.......2002-06-22
Warren Smith has written a brilliantly detailed and suspenseful male fantasy that would leave even Ian Flemming in stitches. This book is ridiculous! ...
Baloney!!.......2002-01-13
There were so many inconsistencies & fabrications in the book that I almost put it down before I was 30 pages into it! As I read on I got more & more upset with the author's baloney that I steamed from page to page! Don't waste your time with this one!!
COVERT WARRIOR.......2000-11-09
WHEN YOU READ ABOUT MR. SMITH'S SOLO RECON MISSION 30 MILES INSIDE SOUTHERN CHINA EVERY PARAGRAPH WILL KEEP YOU WIRED!HE KEPT TWO CYANIDE PILLS WITH HIM. CAPTURE WAS NOT AN OPTION.
Book Description
Dramatic social and economic change during the middle ages altered the lives of the people of Britain in far-reaching ways, from the structure of their families to the ways they made their livings. In this engagingly written economic history, Christopher Dyer provides a vivid new account of British medieval life from the Viking invasions through the Norman conquest to the colonial expansion of the sixteenth century.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Christopher Dyer's Making a Living in the Middle A.......2004-11-08
Christopher Dyer presents a general economic history of England during the Middle Ages. He uses primary sources to support his claims and addresses a number of issues that this broad topic encompasses. His language is accessible to a wide audience, yet contains elements that require some scholarly background in order to fully appreciate the impact of the information that he presents. The main problems with Making a Living in the Middle Ages revolve around the inconsistency between Dyer's introduction and the majority of his book.
This book was written very recently so one could assume that the author would take into consideration some of the most recent theories on the matter. While it is possible that this is the case, Dyer does not make specific reference to any such sources. Overall, the text is well written. Syntax and word choice make it accessible. His transitions were lacking, which would make it difficult to read if the reader lacked background knowledge. The vocabulary in the book was not at all difficult, and the author defines terms on initial and subsequent usages. When he fails to provide clear definitions, his context clues make his word choice accessible, providing a general impression of the meaning of the terminology. The book to me was appropriate with occasional oversimplification. The nature of the oversimplification was a lack of depth, but he has chose to cover an extremely broad topic, which I do not think should be approached in one book.
The book deals with the economic history of England from 850 C.E. -1520 C.E. The author has a well-written introduction and clearly states the importance of the subject and his reasons for approaching it. I would not go so far as to say he fully addressed those reasons in his book. One reason he presents for doing an economic history is to gain insight into the daily lives of the people during this time period. I did not get a feel for this upon reading the text. Instead, I saw broader claims. These claims were well supported through the use of primary sources, both written and archeological. Dyer explains a lot about his reasoning for his choice of topic, and it is very convincing. However, he fails to live up to his superb introduction. The material addressed in the book is by no means unimportant. On the contrary, it is well constructed and very important in the overall canon of English history. However, I think that the introduction implied a different treatment of the subject than what I found in the body of the text. Dyer breaks up his book into chronological sections, and within those sections he addresses various topics, some dealing with class, other with important events that effected the economy. This construction makes sense in regard to the topic. Other organizations might allow for more detail, but the scope of the topic does not allow for such a lengthy treatment, at least not to be contained in one book. The length of the book is already on the excessive side. This is not to say that a treatment of this topic could fit into a smaller book. Rather, the topic would be better suited for a series of books, with each book dealing with a shorter time period so as to allow for more detail. In this way, Dyer would have been able to fulfill all his reasons stated in his introduction.
Dyer claims to intend an analysis and present historical theory, but I felt that he relied almost exclusively on making a claim based on the facts without much conjecture or analysis. A broad topic such as this one would be difficult to approach in terms of a thesis, so I think both the actual and intended approaches are appropriate for the topic, but are not consistent with each other.
The book is obviously meant as an economic history, and it does achieve this goal. However, there are also elements of social and political history, which Dyer indicates in his introduction. Considering the subject matter, it would be impossible to address it from a purely economic perspective. Therefore, Dyer was correct in mentioning social and political elements. The problem with this is that he did not go into enough depth in the social realm. He could have done a lot more psychological analysis. While this is not necessary for an economic history, Dyer's introduction and various comments throughout the book indicate that he meant to approach the thought processes of the people living in this period.
One of Dyer's stronger points is his use and treatment of documents. For the purpose of a general economic history of England, a decent body of documents exist, including various charters, wills, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and Domesday Book, all of which Dyer uses. Dyer presents plenty of evidence from primary sources to back up his claims. He gives specific examples on a regular basis throughout the book. On first analysis I concluded that Dyer was being overly cautious with his treatment of documents. However, upon further thought and examination, I found that he was merely pointing out historiographical problems that could arise form the nature and availability of documents. He discusses the lack of written evidence dealing with marginalized groups of society. He also provides a partial solution to this by emphasizing the importance of material archeological evidence. My one complaint about Dyer's use of documents is that he could have used diary or journal entries to address the thinking of the people at this time and therefore addressed all of the reasons for choosing the subject that he indicates in his introduction. To his detriment, Dyer fails to acknowledge his own bias. However, to his credit, Dyer does mention the bias inherent in primary sources.
Due to the broad scope of this topic, Dyer is unable to present a complete treatment of it. He also attempts to address much more in his introduction than he actually addresses in his book. Because he does not fully address the ideas set down in his introduction, I must argue that the book is not balanced. Even excluding everything but economic concerns, Dyer still lacks balance in that his treatment of women is highly lacking. I feel justified in this criticism because he claims that the book is a general economic history of England. He does make an attempt to balance the material by making references to continental Europe. Dyer compares England to the rest of Europe in an appropriate fashion. He does so sparingly, which is good, but makes enough connections to put the information in the proper context.
The general content of the book solidified many concepts for me. The chronological presentation and mention of events of political importance put the ideas in a context that is relevant to my prior knowledge. Various facts were new to me, but were not surprising upon consideration in light of what I already know.
I found this book to be empirically good. Dyer is accurate and concise in his introductions, and supports his claims well. He does, however, go on at length at times, and this feature made it difficult for me to organize my thoughts. The introduction to a section was so far from the end that it was often difficult to place the information in a cohesive unit of thought. In this regard, the book provides a great deal of information about the economic history of England, which needed to be broken into smaller sections. Furthermore, I do not feel that the book fully explored the concepts that were indicated in the introduction. An entire series of in depth and incredibly useful books could have been formed from the ideas in Dyer's introduction, yet he failed to even touch on some of the ideas, while providing an excess of cursory examples in other cases. This was disappointing to me because the title and introduction sparked my interest and led me to anticipate something different. As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, I had hoped to see more detail in regard to the everyday lives of the people and hoped that Dyer would address their motives and thoughts much more thoroughly. Such detail would be both intellectually stimulating and would have practical applications for various aspects of Medieval reenactment. Overall, this is a good economic history that is accessible to a wide audience, and I can see its usefulness in spite of its shortcomings in regard to my personal expectations.
A richly illuminating ride through life in the medieval past.......2003-11-10
This is a splendidly readable and highly informative book.
Dyer takes us from Anglo-Saxon England, through the Normal Conquest, the long medieval surge then the calamitous C14th (as Barbara Tuchman memorably called it) and ending in early Tudor England. We are guided with erudition and ease through the choices the various levels of society faced, the rich texture of life and the ebb and flow of social change.
Carefully evidence based, and willing to admit uncertainty, Dyer nevertheless informs with a telling mixture of general trends and revealing examples.
I was struck, for example, how the owners of lordly (and other) estates faced similar types of management choices as modern firms, whether to engage in direct command-and-control (farm oneself), franchise (lease), donate (grant) or sell. The balance of choices shifted back and forth, as circumstances changed.
This is an excellent book I would heartily recommend to anyone interested in economic and social change in the long run and medieval history in particular.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Albion, published by North American Conference on British Studies on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 967 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850-1520.(Reviews of Books)(Book Review)
Author: L.R. Poos
Publication:
Albion (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: North American Conference on British Studies
Volume: 35
Issue: 3
Page: 456(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1109 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain, 850-1520.(Book Review)
Author: Anna Dronzek
Publication:
Canadian Journal of History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 40
Issue: 2
Page: 295(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Books:
- Design For Life
- Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw Castles and Cathedrals, Skyscrapers and Bridges, and So Much More... (Draw 50)
- Drawing and Designing with Confidence: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream
- Eric Sloane's An Age of Barns: An Illustrated Review of Classic Barn Styles and Construction
- Estimating for Interior Designers
- FE Review Manual: Rapid Preparation for the General Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (F E Review Manual), 2nd ed.
- Frances Elkins: Interior Design
- From Concept to Form: In Landscape Design
- Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Google Hacking for Penetration Testers, Volume 1
- Dark Justice: The History of Punishment and Torture
- Careers for Crafty People & Other Dexterous Types
- Churches of Minnesota: An Illustrated Guide
- Cracking the SAT Biology E/M Subject Test, 2007-2008 Edition
- Explaining Psychological Statistics
- Crewel Yule
- Alvaro Siza: Complete Works
- Bohemian Modern LTD: Living in Silver Lake
- The Empress of the Last Days: A Novel
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)
How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
![ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/1400081076.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer
Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt
Forms, Folds, and Sizes: All the Details Graphic Designers Need to Know but Can Never Find
