The Abrams Guide to Period Styles for Interiors

Book Description

A companion to The Abrams Guide to American House Styles, this stylish, compact guide makes it a snap to identify and incorporate various period styles into any design. From Colonial to Art Deco to Modern, this comprehensive desk-and-field reference-the only book of its kind-combines unprecedented depth of content with unparalleled ease of use when featuring 32 period styles of design common around the world. Further distinguishing this volume is its unmatched consideration of the various substyles of the Modern period-the trendiest of all the period styles today-including International Style, Midcentury Modern, Italian Modern, Scandinavian Modern, and Sixties Style. Each featured style is described in a concise historical summary, as well as a detailed discussion and list of its hallmark characteristics. Striking illustrative images, distinguishing color palettes, and fabric swatches complete each of the entries. At a time of near-obsessive attention to home design, restoration, and renovation, this book is an indispensable tool for both the home style-conscious layperson and the seasoned design professional.

Customer Reviews:

Surprisingly incomplete.......2007-06-18

First, understand that this is primarily a furniture book, not an architecture book. No real examples of window or door trim, crown molding, etc. As such, it's not really a companion to The Abrams Guide to American House Styles. I thought it would show the interior architecture that accompanied the exterior architecture characteristic of different periods, but no such luck.

Second, while the book may be fun (for some) to browse, it shows itself to be surprisingly incomplete once you start to look for specific periods. What I was looking for was Greek Revival. A fairly prominent American style, and yet not even mentioned in the book.

Overall a disappointment for someone who wanted to see what architects did on the inside to complement the outside of major American architectural styles.

Pleasantly Surprised!.......2006-11-18

I ordered this book having never seen it - based soley upon the reviews and description (which was risky). I must say, however, that when I received the book I was pleasantly surprised! It is a nice size (to carry to project sites - it is not too large), yet it has a ton of information packed into it's 424 pages. Beautifully assembled and high quality of printing. Many color photos. Separates each period, gives examples of colors for the period, home furnishing examples and architectural details.

Well Written and Expert Photography.......2006-05-09

The perfect reference book. Judith knows her stuff and doesn't mince words when trying to relate distinctive styles. Expert comparisons and differences between periods and countries. Superb photography.

Abrams Period Styles for Interiors.......2006-02-20

Beautifully conceived and designed, with great images and concise cogent texts. An engaging introduction to elite furniture and interior styles.

fantastic.......2005-10-15

a beautiful and intricate look at the period styles from the baroque to modern looks. Very interesting and high quality pictures. I also liked the inclusion of palettes and swatches.

Book Description

"With its unprecedented depth and range, this massive new history of Surrealism from veteran French philosopher and art critic Durozoi will be the one-volume standard for years to come. . . . The book discusses expertly the main surrealist artists like Jean Arp, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, but also treats with considerable understanding the surrealist writing by Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard, Robert Desnos, Julien Graçq and, of course, the so-called 'Pope of Surrealism,' André Breton. . . . This book should turn up in all serious collections on 20th century art."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

From Dada to the Automatists, and from Max Ernst to André Breton, Gérard Durozoi here provides the most comprehensive history of the Surrealist movement. Tracing the movement from its origins in the 1920s to its decline in the 1950s and 1960s, Durozoi tells the history of Surrealism through its activities, publications, and reviews, demonstrating its close ties to some of the most explosive political, as well as creative, debates of the twentieth century.

Drawing on a staggering amount of documentary and visual evidence—including 1,000 photos—Durozoi illuminates all the intellectual and artistic facets of the movement, from literature and philosophy to painting, photography, and film, thus making History of the Surrealist Movement its definitive encyclopedia.

Customer Reviews:

Astonishing and thorough history of Surrealism.......2002-04-02

This book is awesome. I've purchased histories of Surrealism before--all of which are now desperately out-dated and out of print besides...including the great Abrams book on Dada and Surrealism. This book beats them all. For one, it covers not just the Surrealists in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, but examines the spread of the movement to the US, Africa, Japan, India, and South America during the 1940s-1960s. For two, it deals with all media: painting, sculpture, poetry, philosophy, fiction, film, etc. For three, it features biographies of all the major stars, and also of all the minor players in their orbits. For four, it includes 1000 illustrations--many of them documentary and never published before this book was originally released in the French edition, as well as many many color plates scattered throughout the text. A beautiful production, and a terrific text by Durozoi, who was linked to the Surrealists in the 1950s and 1960s by virtue of his involvement with philosophy.

Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement

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Extremely Useful Book
Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement

Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement
Whitney Chadwick
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Surrealism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0500276226

Customer Reviews:

Extremely Useful Book.......2001-11-07

This book is an excellent overview of the lives and careers of some key Surrealist women artists - and it was a wake-up call for me, when I realised that, despite several years of tertiay study in the field of Art History, the only artists I knew anything about was Frida Kahlo.
A good summary of some neglected figures in art.

Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement.......2000-04-21

Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement contains interesting and useful biographical information, color illustrations and some of the major female contributors to the surrealist movement including Frieda Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, and Leonor Fini. Chadwick provides the reader with useful biographical information that may have influenced the artists work. Women Artists contains an easy to use index , a list of the illustrations and their location in the book, and a brief biography of each author. This book is a wonderful reference for research or for personal interest.

Surrealist Subversions: Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States

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A poetical/politcal Necronomicon for the 21st Century
Foreplay is about it

Surrealist Subversions: Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States

Manufacturer: Autonomedia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Surrealism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1570271224

Book Description

From its auspicious beginnings in the summer of 1966 to the present, the Chicago Surrealist Group — and the Surrealist Movement in the United States, which grew out of it — has brightly illuminated the pathways of absolute divergence that define the intrinsically anarchist trajectory of the surrealist adventure. Drawing on the full range of U.S. surrealist publications and communiques from the front lines of the battle against miserabilism, this volume contains over 200 texts (many appearing here for the first time) by more than 50 participants, in the most comprehensive, diverse and lavishly illustrated compilation of American surrealist writings ever assembled.

Customer Reviews:

A poetical/politcal Necronomicon for the 21st Century.......2003-01-05

What can I say about this book? I find it utterly marvelous, fascinating and invigorating. I have waited with impatience for this volume since I learned of Sakolsky preparing it in the 'Surrealism in the US' issue of Race Traitor magazine.I had been in communication with members of the Surrealist group in Chicago for several years, and I was shocked when they asked me to contribute a piece to the book, which I did. Surrealism, to me, and to my comrades, is not some embalmed artistic 'ism'-it is a dynamic force, aimed at drastically changing the world through the unfettered mind's power. The book contains valuable essays and articles on manifold topics-women's rights, the necessity of the destruction of capitalism, revolutinary influences in popular culture (and it is a shame Franklin Rosemont's essays on the poetic power of Lovecraft's writings are left out), the marvelous nature of the natural world, and above all, the omnipotence of love and desire. A number of great surrealist thinkers and poets contribute: Franklin and Penelope Rosemont, Philip Lamantia, Ted Joans, Rikki Ducornet, Debra Taub, Paul Garon, and many, many others. Illuminations and intriguing points can be found, literally, upon every page. The numerous illustrations also benefit the book, and contain a number of masterpieces. 'Turgid', 'boring'? The criticisms of the above 'reader' are relatively light compared to the onslaught of misinformation and slander the surrealist movement throughout history, and especially in this country has been forced to endure; a sign of the repressive, anti-poetic and miserabilist world global capitalism and co. have created. Surrealism is a vibrant, living force. It will fight on. As one of the founders of the Surrealist Movement in the US, Franklin Rosemont said, "What it remains for surrealism to do far outweighs what surrealism has done."

Foreplay is about it.......2002-12-31

What can one say of a surrealist anthology that is more boring than illuminating, and more turgid than exhilerating? What can one say of a surrealist group that allows the publication of an anthology that, in presenting an astonishing range of subjects, also reveals an imponderable superficiality in doing so, save in several brilliant texts sometimes written by creators who have only marginal affiliations with that group, have broken completely with them, or who are no longer surrealist? Rhetorical enthusiasms and historical justifications aside -- although they are difficult to place aside in this book as they appear again and again, ad nauseum -- a reader will have to search to find keys that inspire.

So good luck, reader; but remember this: the weight of this volume may prevent you from carrying it with you when awake or asleep.

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The Forecast Is Hot!: Tracts & Other Collective Declarations of the Surrealist Movement in the United States 1966-1976
Franklin Rosemont , Penelope Rosemont , and Paul Garon
Manufacturer: Charles Kerr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Criticism & Theory | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Contemporary Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0941194299

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History of the Surrealist Movement
Gerard Durozoi
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP73OC

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History of the Surrealist Movement
Alison Anderson Gerard Durozoi
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MUGQ8S

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History of the Surrealist Movement
Gerard (Author) Anderson, Alison (Translator) Durozoi
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP3L8O

Book Description

Full range of Victorian color chromolithographs: women, children, men, animals, birds, flowers, sentimental notes, more. 344 images for collagists, decoupeurs, artists.

Customer Reviews:

A History Lover's Delight!.......2005-05-26

This is one of the best books by Ms Grafton. The images are colorful, sharp, and clear. Ms Grafton provides authentic advertisements from the turn-of-the-century, as well as furniture, cars, luggage, and cigar ads. Many of the graphics are old photographs. This decoupage book is simply beautiful and very useful, also containing the old stand-bys such as holidays,butterflies and flowers. Highly recommended!

Pink of Perfection.......2001-04-21

These quaint old victorian vignettes in bright colors are perfect for collages and scrap books. Victorian era lovers, this is for you!

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Cat's are Mental!

Kitty Weirdness Scale reveled

Owned By A Cat Or Twelve? Get This Book.

Excellent book about the qurky antics of a cat

Wow? What a funny, clever and beautiful book!!

Test Your Cat's Mental Health
Missy Camp Dizick
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1558507124

Customer Reviews:

Cat's are Mental!.......2005-01-20

This is a short book (80 pages) about cats, and the weird things they do. There really isn't a lot of reading involved - this is more of a pictorial. Very good, descriptive pictures portray the things we love about cats the most - their weirdness and individuality (or so you thought until you see this book & realize ALL cats do this stuff!)

For the cat lover - this book is a must! You will thoroughly enjoy this fun loving book! Included is a Kitty Weirdness Scale (KWS) so that you can score your own cat and compare him/her to other cats. One excerpt; 275 points or more "Verify that your animal is not a Tasmanian Devil."

A few of my personal favorites in this book include Laziness, Drinking, Body Language, and (I'm sorry to say it) Barfing. These pictures are the best in describing cats and the (definately weird) things they do!!

Enjoy! I sure did!!

1smileycat :-)

Kitty Weirdness Scale reveled.......2003-04-08

Great book with brilliant art pictorial descriptions of weird behavior. I am afraid that all of mine are off the scale. However it id difficult to find a behavior that is not in the book. With the exception of washing the caned food in the water dish like some sort of raccoon.
In the back of the book is an attempt to help you deal with these little (ok maybe big) wierdies.

Owned By A Cat Or Twelve? Get This Book........2000-07-22

My cats...you should meet them, they're insane. And until I bought this book, I thought that a) I was the only one with odd cats and b) perhaps my perceptions were clouded. No, it's true, my beadspread sucking, flapping and screaming, last pair of pantyhose shredding, gettin' stuck on the roof overnight, fighting with the wrong dogg kitties, all 12 of them, just test really high in the KWS, or Kitty Wierdness Scale. Missy Dizick writes from the perspective of a person who could only have many very wierd cats who shred seedlings, eat wierd stuff, and so on. Even after 30 or so readings, this book still has me rolling on the floor every time. I laugh so hard that my abs are improving just from this book. It's been loaned to so many cat loving friends it's falling apart. You must have this book. Its so funny you won't believe it.

Excellent book about the qurky antics of a cat.......1999-12-31

Very interesting, had very good drawings of real live cats. This entertaining piece of mind, had sub-topics and scoring. Most enjoyable for your inner love of cats. Covers most antics of cats, from vainess to drooling. Last, but not least, my personal favorite, the kws scale (kitty weirdness scale). Has a delightful description on every level. I highly reccomend this book.

Wow? What a funny, clever and beautiful book!!.......1999-03-05

This is one funny book! I have finally found someone who is as crazy about cats as am I. Missy Dizick clearly knows cats and cat owners. Plus, her art is beautiful!I know that my cats are crazy and that is one thing that I love about them. Dogs are . . . BORING. I recommend this book to all of my cat-loving friends and they tell me that they love it also. Thanks, Missy.

Customer Reviews:

waynes world.......2007-03-28

Waynes World
The book review of Frank Fortuanos "Wayne Gretzky: star center

Frank Fortuanos "Wayne Gretzky star center is a marvelous book full of facts and career statistics of Wayne Gretzky. He tells a great story of his upbringing and even why he tucks his jersey in one side. But, the book does slow down. When he gets into a career it is repetitive to some degree. In each chapter he tells how many points he had in that season, and how hard he worked to win the Stanley cup. But it gives a great story of his life. I highly recommend it to anyone who is doing a report on him

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The Girls Report: What We Know & Need to Know About Growing Up Female
Lynn Phillips
Manufacturer: National Council for Research on Women
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
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People Who Have Stolen from Me: Rough Justice in the New South Africa

Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap

ASIN: 1880547244

Book Description

Adolescence can be both a rich and challenging time for girls as they confront new ideas, explore life's possibilities. and navigate through the stormy seas of physical, social, and emotional changes. How are girls meeting these challenges? The research and policy studies reviewed and analyzed for this report provide a mixed picture of progress and continuing struggles. The Girls Report maps theoretical debates, counters popular myths with recent research findings, and highlights successful programs serving diverse populations. Chapters on education, health, violence, sexuality, and economic realties conclude with clear recommendations for action. The report also outlines specific actions that individuals and groups, including parents, teachers, policy makers and funders, can take to support girls. In The Girls Report, girls speak to their own situations and their own words suggest some solutions: "If I could tell adults anything that would make my life better, it would be to listen to young people and help them out. I'm young and strong and independent, but there is also areas where I need help, like at school and my neighborhood and at home. Kids need health care and good schools and safe streets and constructive things to do with ourselves."

--Tara, age 15 "I think adults should know that kids know a lot more than people think. Give us a chance, because we have a lot of good ideas and a lot of energy, and we can really make a difference."

--Laurie, age 14

Customer Reviews:

Sharks in Question.......2001-01-16

If I had to recomend one book to the layman or budding scientist interested in sharks this would be it. It has excellent info on the biology, taxonomy, evolution and ecology of sharks. While all the information is based on the most recent science it is geared toward the reader who might not have a biology education. It also has an superb bibliography for anyone wanting to delve further into this facinating topic.

A good basic comprhensive look at sharks........1998-07-25

This is a very interesting book. I liked the way the authors structured the information in the for of answers to some basic questions people have about sharks. If I had any complaints it would be about the shortage of color pictures. Also all the color pictures were inserted as plates into a 12 page section of the book, instead of over the whole book. Even with that complaint I would reccomend this book to anyone interested in sharks.

Customer Reviews:

Thought provoking.......2004-10-26

Peter Bardaglio's "Reconstructing the Household: Families, Sex, and the Law in the Nineteenth-Century South" is a polite reassessment of, as well as an expansion upon, Michael Grossberg's "Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in Nineteenth-Century America." Through the use of similar primary sources, i.e. records from lower and appellate courts, legal treatises, and personal papers, Bardaglio challenges Grossberg's assertion that America uniformly moved from a family structure dominated by patriarchs to one shaped by jurists and the state over the course of the nineteenth century. The author of "Reconstructing the Household" claims that the American South served as a massive exception to that argument by maintaining a strict adherence to an organic, or patriarchal, family organization until the Civil War fundamentally changed many aspects of domestic relations law in the region. Moreover, Bardaglio contends that this male centered family unit served as the central organizing feature of the southern state, a unit that acted as an intermediary between the state and the rest of society.

The author divides his study into two sections: one outlining the hierarchy of the southern legal system and the organization of the family prior to the Civil War, and one examining the radical restructuring of domestic relations law after the conflict of 1861-65. Antebellum society centered on the heads of the household, which in the South meant free white males. All aspects of the family unit--including women, children, and even slaves--revolved around this all-powerful male figure. The law not only recognized but also encouraged this reality in its rulings concerning family relations. For example, in the rare cases of divorce or other instances of family dissolution the courts routinely awarded custody of children to the father. Women possessed few rights outside of their husband's domain, and could usually only maintain control over the children when their spouse specifically granted guardianship to his wife in his will. Slaves, tied to their owners and thus nominally under their absolute control, presented southern jurists with a dilemma. The fear of miscegenation led state governments and courts to interfere in the family arena, which Bardaglio indicates was the most significant instance of state intrusion into private life in the South before the Civil War.

The Civil War was a catastrophic disaster for the southern legal system. The widespread destruction of court records and the loss of talented legal scholars and lawyers on the battlefields represented a momentous setback to antebellum legal practices. But the subsequent resurrection and reshaping of courts by northern authorities rapidly brought about a massive change in how new southern judges and advocates practiced domestic relations law. Just as significant was the introduction of market capitalism, which eroded the agrarian based economic system over the following decades. This change had the same effect it did in the North; it translated into an emerging legal emphasis that shattered the monolithic patriarchal family by recognizing the individual. The terms seen in Grossberg's book, the "tender years" doctrine and the "best interests of the child" among them, moved to the forefront in southern legal rulings. Tentative recognition of rights for women and children that began as a trickle before the Civil War became a flood as judges paved the way for the state to decide who could adopt children, who could raise children, what constituted rape, and a host of other family related matters. In other words, the southern family morphed into Grossberg's republican family, or an amalgamation of individuals within the family possessing rights not contingent on the traditional head of the household.

Bardaglio's book is most effective when it describes how southern judges avoided intruding on the patriarchal society. The author discovered that the issue of incest presented a startling example of how the legal system could function as a protector of the elite class and its beliefs. Relationships between family members or in-laws are not rare occurrences in any society, and the American South was no exception. Judges spoke out about the practice in an unequivocally hostile manner, arguing that sexual contact between kin relations was a practice that would undermine the society built upon elite conceptions of how that culture should function. But, as Bardaglio convincingly argues, southern jurists went out of their way to condemn the behavior on an individual basis instead of denouncing the patriarchal system as a whole. Because the organic family fosters an environment of extraordinarily close physical and emotional contact between the dominant male and subordinate females, the author contends that the result often drifted into a sexual relationship. For the judges who had to preside over the resolution of such distasteful behavior, it was easier for them to believe incest was an anomaly instead of an inherent problem in the structure of southern domestic relations.

Arguably the biggest difference between the Grossberg and Bardaglio treatments of domestic relations law in the nineteenth century deals with abortion and contraceptive practices. Grossberg examined these two aspects in great detail while Bardaglio omits them. Why? Both methods of birth control must have played some part in southern life, if not in the years before the Civil War then definitely afterwards when market capitalism made major inroads into the South. It is no secret that slave owners looked forward to bondswomen giving birth to children because they could hold them as property. Were there stringent bans on black women practicing birth control? How did southern slave owners enforce these bans, if they existed? Moreover, was there a change in law and public opinion on the issue of birth control after emancipation? If so, how and why did it change? None of these questions begin to scratch the surface of the role birth control played amongst the white inhabitants of the region. These questions are fascinating, and the potential answers might very well increase the understanding of how southern domestic relations law differed from its northern counterpart in the nineteenth century.

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Our precarious habitat : fifteen years later
Melvin A. Benarde
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00005WJGZ

Book Description

If you think the world is a time bomb ready to explode, consider this: Cancer deaths are going down, not up. The infant mortality rate is at an all-time low, while our population over 60 is at an all-time high. The 1988 U.S. summer drought was caused by tropical disturbances in the Pacific Ocean and, contrary to the popular media, had little to do with the "greenhouse effect." Here's the book that explodes the many myths about… Our Precarious Habitat Fifteen Years Later Earth Day 1970. "Apocalyptics" such as eminent physiologist and Nobel Laureate George Wald were predicting large-scale environmental doom by the year 2000, and a movement was under way that would influence our thoughts and opinions about the health of the planet to this day. Today, nearly twenty years later, those predictions appear well off the mark. In this book, Dr. Melvin Benarde, one of today's leading environmental experts, challenges the remaining environmental myths of our time. He comes armed with a healthy skepticism of the "facts," plus scientifically documented evidence indicating, in many cases, that "our precarious habitat" is not as precarious as the doomsayers would have us believe. Questioning current environmental myths is an idea whose time has come. By initiating the inquest, Our Precarious Habitat stands at the forefront of a new environmental era, an era whose watchword is accountability. This book benefits all of us—concerned citizens, elected officials, members of industry, and the media alike—who want a clearer perspective on the issues that will determine our environmental fate.

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