Great Toy Train Layouts of America

Average customer rating:
Working big: A teachers' guide to environmental sculpture
John Lidstone
Manufacturer: Van Nostrand Reinhold
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0442247958

Book Description

In this richly illustrated volume, featuring more than fifty black-and-white illustrations and a beautiful eight-page color insert, Barbara Novak describes how for fifty extraordinary years, American society drew from the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875, all kinds of Americans--artists, writers, scientists, as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions, and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts, journals, and periodicals, Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected onto the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Fitz H. Lane, and Martin J. Heade, and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Frederich Wilhelm von Schelling. Now with a new preface, this spectacular volume captures a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the idea of nature served, not only as a vehicle for artistic creation, but as its ideal form. "An impressive achievement." --Barbara Rose, The New York Times Book Review "An admirable blend of ambition, elan, and hard research. Not just an art book, it bears on some of the deepest fantasies of American culture as a whole." --Robert Hughes, Time Magazine

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875 With a New Preface

Average customer rating:

Beyond the Purely Visual to Avoid Stalled Artistic Thinking

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875 With a New Preface
Barbara Novak
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Themes | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Landscape | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 019510188X

Book Description

In this richly illustrated volume, including a number of stunning color prints, Barbara Novak explains that for fifty extraordinary years, American society bestowed in the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875 all kinds of Americans--artists, writers, scientists, as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions, and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. During these years Nature, God, and Man converged to become a trinity, and it was through the landscape painters, the leaders of this intellectual movement, that the nation was reminded of divine benevolence "by keeping before their eyes the mountains, trees, forests, and lakes." Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts, journals, and periodicals, Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected on to the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Fitz Hugh Lane, and Martin J. Heade, and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Wordsworth, Theodore Rousseau, and Frederich Wilhelm Schelling. Adding a rich new dimension to the discussion of nature's influence on the American mind, Novak explains how religion, philosophy, science, and literatrue served as the support system for the idea of God in Nature. She shows that the idea of nature as a national vested interest was invaluable to a young expanding nation, but ultimately this essentially monolithic view collapsed from within, undermined by the Civil War, Darwinism, and a burgeoning technological landscape. Taking American landscape painting in its golden era as a product of society, she examines the cultural background of paintings as an index to their intrinsic meaning. She explains, for example, how new discoveries in science were made consonant with Deity, how religion itself permeated nature with the idea of Creation, and how the landscape artists were given the task of providing the images of nature that became the national iconography. Novak goes on to demonstrate how American landscapists, handling rocks, clouds, plants, and other natural elements, paralleled and diverged from scientific developments, and also how the landscapists who accompanied explorers on their westward expeditions related to their scientific colleagues. Now with a new introduction, this incisive volume encompasses a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the influence of the nature served, not only as a vehicle for artistic creation, but as its ideal form.

Customer Reviews:

Beyond the Purely Visual to Avoid Stalled Artistic Thinking.......2000-05-17

Nature and Culture is one of those breakthrough books that makes you wonder how a field could possibly have missed the obvious for so long. Ms. Novak looks at American landscape painting from 1825-1875 from the perspective of what those landscapes meant to contemporaries, by drawing on nonpainting sources.

This is a critical step forward because landscape painting for this group had a theological and philosphical context that is remote to us in these post-Darwinian days. The intent of the artists and the perceptions of the first viewers are in many ways as remote from us in the 21st century as the cave dwellers in Lescaux.

I found this work to be exceptionally well balanced and provocative. I will never again be satisfied to understand a work only from my own perspective and time. Ms. Novak has opened up a whole new world for me that I should have been able to open for myself, as someone trained as a social historian. I humbly thank her for helping me extend my understanding of art beyond where it would otherwise have gone.

Well done! Enjoy!

Average customer rating:
Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875
Barbara Novak
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK87FQ

Average customer rating:
Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875. Revised Edition
Barbara Novak
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKQSV6

Average customer rating:
Nature and Culture; American Landscape and Painting 1825-1875
Barbara Novak
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K4SUPI

Book Description

From the official Oracle Press comes a comprehensive guide managing, customizing, and tuning this key component of the Oracle Applications Suite. You'll learn to install and update Oracle Financials, apply various patches, and much more using this essential resource.

Customer Reviews:

Go with the online documentation.......2002-04-23

After comparing a sample chapter of this book (chapter 5, Managing the Financials Environment) with the free "Maintaining Oracle Applications" PDF in the 11i documentation set, I must agree with most of the other reviewers here. Chapter 5 of this book parallels the PDF *very* closely -- except that the PDF has a more thorough treatment of the subject!

I had hoped that this book would provide extra, real-world, practical insights that went beyond the product documentation. It appears to do nothing of the kind. Looks like I'll be printing the PDF's on our high-speed laser printer and sticking them in a 3-ring binder....

Dont get into any tussle trying to get your hands on it........2002-03-01

First thought that this book was worht enough to get a copy of regardless of whatever means were used, but to my dissapointment the book turned out to be just another one of those also rans. 90 % Contents are from Oracle Applications Documentation.

Book Disappoints.......2002-02-20

It really does not discuss financials specific issues - a lot of it is discussing Oracle tuning etc.

No screen shots are available either .

Most topics are not covered in any depth- Ex Chapter on Open Interfaces mostly explains autonomous transactions, bulk binds and invokers rights - not really open interfaces

Don't waste your money.......2002-01-30

Other reviews for this book say that it's just a reprint of the Apps documentation, if only that were true it might be of some value. I'm new to Apps and wanted a book that would give me the basics without having to wade through the App's documentation on-line. However, even at my beginner level this book disappointed. I feel like I've been conned.

Contents of the book exactly match the contents of 11i docs........2001-12-21

Contents of the book exactly match the contents of 11i docs. Don't waste your money buying this book. It is not worth at all. Oracle documentation (install guide, maintain apps, concepts etc) are better when put together in a folder than this book.

Average customer rating:

A MUST READ!

Interesting Read

Geeks

Not entirely what it claims to be...

Could "geek" really refer to Asperger's Syndrome?

Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho
Jon Katz
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Fasting, Feasting

Media Unlimited, Revised Edition: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives

The Plague

Civilization and Its Discontents

Running to the Mountain: A Midlife Adventure

ASIN: 0767906993
Release Date: 2001-02-20

Amazon.com

Teenage hackers Jesse Dailey and Eric Twilegar are the heroes of Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho, a thoughtful, affecting pop ethnography--and heroes is exactly what Jon Katz wants you to see them as. To the rest of the world, themselves included, they are geeks, which is a complicated thing to be these days. With the rise of the networked economy, the world and its wealth have become increasingly dependent on the expertise of Star Wars-loving, cola-swilling propellerheads everywhere. Yet at the same time, the typical geek--especially the typical adolescent geek--remains a consummate outsider, with passions for technological arcana that are both alienating and empowering.

Katz, a writer for both Rolling Stone and the profoundly geeky Web site Slashdot.org, does a fine job of mapping this ambiguous new state of affairs (the Geek Ascendancy, he calls it). But the book's heart and soul is the well-told tale of Jesse and Eric's adventurous flight from lonely, dead-end lives in Idaho Mormon country to brighter possibilities in Chicago.

Katz argues that this great escape couldn't have happened without the networks (both social and technological) that are the lifeblood of '90s geekdom, but he doesn't let his celebratory argument get in the way of the story. Although he's a tireless advocate for geeks (the last chapters retrace his impassioned advocacy for brooding teenage weirdos in the face of post-Columbine media attacks), he presents their culture warts and all, with its tendencies toward social awkwardness and arrogance recognizably intact. He doesn't demand your sympathy for his heroes and their world--but he wins it anyway, by bringing them vividly and honestly to life. --Julian Dibbell

Book Description

Jesse and Eric were geeks: suspicious of authority figures, proud of their status as outsiders, fervent in their belief in the positive power of technology. High school had been an unbearable experience and their small-town Idaho families had been torn apart by hard times. On the fringe of society, they had almost no social lives and little to look forward to. They spent every spare cent on their computers and every spare moment on-line. Nobody ever spoke of them, much less for them.

But then they met Jon Katz, a roving journalist who suggested that, in the age of geek impresario Bill Gates, Jesse and Eric had marketable skills that could get them out of Idaho and pave the way to a better life. So they bravely set out to conquer Chicago—geek style. Told with Katz’s trademark charm and sparkle, Geeks is a humorous, moving tale of triumph over adversity and self-acceptance that delivers two irresistible heroes for the digital age and reveals the very human face of technology.

Download Description

The eye-opening, heart-rending account of how an alienated and disenfranchised generation is finding solidarity, opportunity, and hope on the Internet, by the author of "Running to the Mountain."

Customer Reviews:

A MUST READ!.......2006-08-15

Every teenager and college student - especially those super smart and those who are computer savvy - should present this book to an adult in their world! An absolute MUST read and own!

Interesting Read.......2005-11-19

I found this book while wandering aimlessly through the library, so I didn't really know what to expect. Jesse and Eric's story is very intriguing and quite well written. It had me reading it through most of my classes. While I don't necessarily identify with Jesse and Eric and geeks as they are defined in this book, I can understand where they are coming from with their frustrations at not being accepted. I would recommend this book to anyone just for the issues and discussion that can be brought up though it. The only big problem I had with Geeks is Chapter ten, where Katz almost makes himself out to have single-handily connected all geeks to receive support from each other.

Geeks.......2005-07-18

I wasn't too thrilled when my mother told me to read this book over the summer. It didn't appear to be all that interesting, and since I have no experience with computers, and already a lot of experience being the outsider, I didn't see the point.

Well, the book wasn't exceptionally well written, and was even slightly boring in some parts, but I still enjoyed it. The reason is that I liked hearing what the actual kids had to say about being outsiders. It is a wonderful feeling to realize that other people have had the same sensations as you about not belonging. It makes you feel less alone. Not to mention the fact that Jesse was very eloquent about the way it feels.

I'm lucky. I have never been beaten up or badly insulted to my face, and I haven't had anywhere near as many bad experiences as these kids have. But it was good to finally hear someone addressing the issue of... well I don't know what to call it. I can't think of the right words. It's like being sexist, except against people who are different. I'll make up a new word and call it boxism. :)

The story was very inspirational, if not the best told one I have read. Against seemingly impossible odds, Jesse and Eric actually made something of themselves. Sounds familiar, huh? But this is actually a TRUE story. Everyone should read this book to learn something. If you've experienced this kind of mistreatment you should read it - it's a story you can identify with. If you have never experienced being an outsider, you should still read it to gain some insight into what it's like. And just because some people are different doesn't mean they need medication or social counseling, as other people seem to think!!!

I don't think I'm doing the story justice in this review, but words can't really describe it. Just read it - once you get past the intro, it's great. Even just to read how a real outsider feels.

Not entirely what it claims to be..........2005-07-12

Bottomlessly self-congratulatory, Geeks' unfortunate flaw is that it is more about Katz's savior complex than it is the two real-life protagonists it claims to champion. I admire the book's stated intent, and I was excited about the possibility of a book that gave a voice to and empowered the kinds of people I've called friends for most of my life, but in the end (literally and figuratively), Geeks is really just two hundred pages of Katz patting himself on the back. Wait until the part in which Katz almost single-handedly claims credit for healing America's disenfranchised and marginalized youth after the Columbine shootings. I'm absolutely shocked that he didn't try to find a way to work 9/11 in somehow. Avoid at all costs or read only for the truly interesting story of Jesse and Eric and attempt to ignore Katz's self-loving tone.

Could "geek" really refer to Asperger's Syndrome?.......2005-07-06

"Geeks" was a fascinating book on many levels. What struck me most, however, was the alienation the boys felt from their peers and society in general. They felt "different", like outsiders who never understood how to maneuver in society.
To me, Jesse and Eric, and many so-called "Geeks", present classic cases of Asperger's syndrome, which basically means you don't read nonverbal social cues that most people instinctively know and react to. It is also usually accompanied by a negative world view, passions for select topics, and a determination to "win", and often depression and anxiety.
There is marked lack of eye contact; facial expression is flat; body posture is awkward.
There is failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level; a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people, and a lack of social or emotional reciprocity (see www.aspergers.com).
Eric, in particular, seemed immobilized by many of these factors. He needs help, and there is SO much help available. Medication and social coaching can make a HUGE difference.
I hope and pray Mr. Katz helps these young men find that help, so they may at last enjoy and experience a richer, fuller lives.

Book Description

What are the future workforce needs for lawyers in California?

Book Description

The fall of the Manchu Empire in 1911 ended thousands of years of Imperial rule and ushered in almost 40 years of conflict in China. From the abdication of Pu-Yi, the last emperor, the invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese, and the 'long march', to the birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949, this book looks in detail at the fighting men, and women, who fought for the communists, imperialists, republicans, nationalists, warlords and the puppet armies. The result is a comprehensive and illuminating work covering a large and complex series of combatants and conflicts.

Customer Reviews:

Adequate Introduction to early 20th C Chinese Uniforms.......2003-08-28

This is a useful introduction to Chinese uniforms of the first half of the 20th century. I'm not familiar with any other work on this subject which makes this a very valuable resource. However I have some problems with Osprey's booklet-style format.

As always there are 8 pages of colour plates presenting 3 soldiers each. These illustrations, by Stephen Andrew, are detailed coloured sketches in a somewhat comic-book style. A nice touch is that each clour plate includes a colour close-up of cap badges. This volume also provides b&w illustrations of rank insignia of Chinese Nationalist and "puppet" forces. There are text descriptions (illustrations would have been nice) of Imperialist and "warlord" insignia. As always there are 40-odd b&w reference photographs of period troops. A map of the area of operations is provided, as well as a useful overview of Chinese unit formations. Note that in addition to descriptions of each colour plate in English, the last page of the book provides translations of the plate descriptions in French and German. As there is no translation of the body of the book, however, this is a somewhat odd use of space.

As always 48 pages is a limited amount of space to adequately cover all the variations of army uniforms, especially ones as varied as those of this period. More detail on winter and summer uniforms and headgear would have been useful. Gear and weapons are as always not specifically presented. I would recommend this as a useful adjunct to a more comprehensive work on uniforms of the Chinese Civil War - but I don't think that there is one!

Highly Informative Little Work.......2001-12-22

Growing up in the late forties, as a child, I vaguely remember hearing about McCarthy and the Great Debate about "Who Lost China." Well, I can tell you that with no hesitation. Chaing Kai Shek lost China when he invaded Manchuria in 1945 but he made a long run at the pole and almost grabbed the prize. If it had not been for the Japanese invasion he probably would have finished off the Reds and taken over the whole country.
I knew the story of Chaing and Mao and Chou En Lai but nothing about the warlord period before 1930.
As an adult I have read some widely in recent years about the post 1940 period but admit much ignorance about the early days from 1911 to then. Well, since ignorance is curable but stupidity is not, and I am not stupid, I have been able to satisfy my curiousity with this volume and dispelled as much ignorance as I wanted to.
So if you want a detailed history of this period, go elsewhere, if you want excellent illustrations of what the various contenders for the rule of China looked like and a quick overview of what they did, then this is for you.
Many volumes in this publisher's ouevre are lacking in depth or in scholarship. The series began years ago as an aid to the makers of military minitures but in the last 15 years has improved considerably where the latest volumes could claim space on a public library shelf. This is one of those.
My curiosity is satisfied. Yours might be also.

Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49.......2000-05-17

For the past 20 years, I have been looking for a book that describes uniforms and equipments used by the Chinese Armies during WW II. This book is the one I have waited for. It is precious because I know it is impossible for a Chinese author to write a book as such without any political overtone, and I was wondering why would anyone else have the interest. This book is smartly titled "Chinese Civil War Armies", not "Chinese World War II Armies" to reflect the internal conflict within the country during that time. The detail description of the uniforms and equipments, as well as the historical accounts are execellent. The color plates are unprecedented. My only criticisms are 1. There is no glossary for all the tranlated Chinese terms mentioned in the book. 2. The text and the related pictures are far apart. I congradulate the author, Mr. Jowett, for the monumental book.

Average customer rating:

Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49
Philip Jowett
Manufacturer: Osprey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GRAA20

Average customer rating:
The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Mamluk Sultanate, 1250-1382
Robert Irwin
Manufacturer: ACLS History E-Book Project
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 12601281 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)

Protectors or Praetorians?: The Last Mamluk Sultans and Egypt's Waning As a Great Power (Suny Series in Medieval Middle East History)

The Mongols (The Peoples of Asia)

The Arabian Nights: A Companion

ASIN: 1597400483

Book Description

Straight from the internationally renowned bird-watching team of Kit and George Harrison comes the shocking, eye-opening truth: raw facts of love and sex among the feathered species. The Harrisons introduce the reader to multiple variations of love among birds, ranging from the friendly wren in your backyard to the over-endowed alpine accentor, from the cuckolded chickadee to the lesbian gulls of Santa Barbara Island. The details are fascinating, amusing and frank. With a light, wry touch, the Harrisons chronicle scientifically accurate tidbits, as illustrator Michael James Riddet wields a delicate pencil capturing each moments in striking black-and-white detail.

Customer Reviews:

I love this book.......2007-03-25

Birds are smarter, fussier, funnier and more interesting than you might think -- and here's the proof.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books