Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collections

Book Description

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons presents contemporary art from the private collections of Eli and Edythe Broad, which are among the most important in the world. Featuring works by 22 significant artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Cindy Sherman, this handsome volume addresses major movements such as American Neo-Dada and Pop, and German Neo-Expressionism, as well as art of the 1980s and current works from California.

An interview with the Broads and scholarly texts addressing important aspects of the collections situate the 160 full-color plates in art-historical context.

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Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collections
Stephanie; Crow, Thomas E.; Zelevansky, Lynn; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Eli Broad Family Foundation Barron
Manufacturer: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Johns, Jasper | ( J-L ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Koons, Jeff | ( J-L ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000J5JTAS

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Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collections Lacma
Crow Thomas E Eckman Sabine
Manufacturer: Abrams Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Johns, Jasper | ( J-L ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Koons, Jeff | ( J-L ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0810921154

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Collars to Knit and Crochet (Aunt Ellen's Treasury)
Workbasket Magazine
Manufacturer: Modern Handcraft Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0866753036

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The Workbasket and Home Arts Magazine November, 1974 (November, 1974)

Manufacturer: Workbasket and Home Arts Magazine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M0D4VU

Product Description

The Workbasket and Home Ars Magazine. November 1974. 46 complete pages. Crochet: Afghan, jacket, pot holder, shawl collar jacket & cap, Knit: boys v neck slipover, girls poncho, infants ensemble.

Book Description

This book is centred around an engaging and lively conversation on the Hindi/Urdu film song between the renowned poet and lyricist, Javed Akhtar and documentary film director and author Nasreen Munni Kabir.

One of the first on the subject, the book also includes a selection of sixty songs written by Javed Akhtar for the many hugely successful films to which he has contributed. These songs are a reminder of the excellence of his work and for those unfamiliar with Hindi/Urdu, English translations are
also provided.

It is an established fact that the Indian film song enjoys an enormous impact, and has always been a vital part of the national culture. For the reader, it is a rare privilege to discover the thinking that went behind a song that can be heard in a billion homes. This book will interest and appeal
to Hindi film and music buffs within India and outside.

Talking Songs: Javed Akhtar in Conversation With Nasreen Munni Kabir And Sixty Selected Songs by Javed Akhtar

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Talking Songs: Javed Akhtar in Conversation With Nasreen Munni Kabir And Sixty Selected Songs by Javed Akhtar
Javed / Kabir, Nasreen Munni (TRN) / Azmi, Shabana (FRW) Akhtar
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKJN2W

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Unforgettable Swing Era Classics
Lee Evans
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 063400686X

Book Description

Features Lee Evans' incomparable piano solo arrangements of 16 standards: April in Paris * How Deep Is the Ocean * Moonlight Becomes You * Stella by Starlight * Tangerine * Thanks for the Memory * To Each His Own * With a Song in My Heart * and more.

Book Description

This authorized history of Bo Randall and his blades was compiled through meticulous research that included correspondence, original sketches, personal interviews and rare photos - including his never-before-seen first knife. Destined to become the definitive history for collectors, bladesmiths and historians.

Customer Reviews:

A RANDALL ENTHUSISTS MUST HAVE.......2002-05-22

With the popularity of these handemade knives on the rise, as well as current prices for them, this book will enlighten the collector and enthusist as well.

RANDALL MADE KNIVES.......2000-04-04

If you are a collector of Randall Made Knives this book is a necessity.It will give you the history of the company and the models made by Randall.There are pictures of the models and information about each knife.This book will educate the novice collector as well as help a seasoned pro.I recommend this book to all knife enthusist.

Time line history of Randall Knives and the Randall Family.......1999-05-03

This is a nice history of Randall Made Knives. The book gives a time line history of the Randall knife production and an historical perspective. The various models and the history of how they came into being is presented. The story of the development of these knives is excellent and a lot of details are included. A nice set of photographs of the different models and configurations is included along with excellent photographs throughout the book. What is missing is a discription of the knife making process, an explanation of the different sheaths and the meanings of the different markings. There is no discription of the changes in the knives over the years that would help in establishing dates of manufacture, etc. A very informative and enjoyable book for any knife collector. A must for anyone interested in Randall Made Knives.

Average customer rating:

Good resource

Great Book, A Small Business Probably Should Not Advertise

Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers To Rave About Your Business & Create Lasting Success
Michael Phillips , Salli Rasberry , and Diana Fitzpatrick
Manufacturer: NOLO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Marketing | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Entrepreneur Magazine's Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide: Over 1500 Great Marketing Tricks That Will Drive Your Business Through the Roof

The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth

How to Run a Thriving Business: Strategies for Success and Satisfaction

Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force

Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, And Stay Out of Trouble! (Small Time Operator)

ASIN: 1413301843

Download Description

"The best marketing you can do for your business is to concentrate on creating a high-quality operation that customers, employees and other businesspeople will trust, respect and recommend. Marketing Without Advertising teaches small business owners practical strategies to: · encourage customers to spread the good word about your business · attract new customers and gain their trust · turn dissatisfied customers into loyal supporters · list your products or services widely and inexpensively · plan marketing events that will keep customers involved · encourage the media to comment positively on your business List of Forms Physical Appearance That Develops Trust Evaluating Your Pricing Policy Employee Questionnaire Questionnaire for Suppliers How Open Is Your Business? What My Business Does The Domains in Which Your Business Operates Do People Know What You Do? Do You "Tell Them Yourself"? How Customers Can Evaluate Your Business Referrals Customer Referrals Phone Accessibility Checklist Mail Accessibility Checklist Walk-In Accessibility Checklist Listing Questionnaire Customer Recourse Policies and Practices Your Marketing List Designing Direct Marketing Events Designing Parallel Marketing Events Marketing Event Worksheet"

Customer Reviews:

Good resource.......2007-05-14

I think that this is a complete guideline of non-traditional approaches to moving any company or product into more of a felt part of the community, rather than an ideal merely thrust into the memory. Good POV.

Great Book, A Small Business Probably Should Not Advertise.......2005-07-21

Having been involved with many small businesses for many years I picked up this book with some skepticism. Then I turned to the first chapter. It's called Advertising: The Last Choice in Marketing. And it was dead on right -- To be sure there is a place for advertising, Pepsi up against Coke has no choice (which isn't to say that they do it well). They have no choice because they can't do the kinds of things this book talks about. They can't produce a new product -- Remember New Coke?

In any case, this book isn't about Coke, it's about marketing a small business or service. That means you need to market locally. Effectively you can't advertise. I was recently involved in promoting a play for a local community theater. We had posters all over town, both supermarkets, half the business windows on main street, three articles in our local paper plus announcements every issue in their Community Calendar, there was a twenty minute interview program on the local radio station -- all the kinds of things this book talks about. The play was a great success, both performances sold out, standing ovations for the performers. Afterwards a great number of people came up and said, "I heard you put on a play, I didn't know anything about it, tell me about it when you do another." What possible good would advertising do?

If I had run a few thousand dollars of advertising do you think any of these people would have noticed? If they didn't read the articles, see the calendar or tune in the radio. What else could I have done?

Marketing now is a different matter. We marketed, it worked. We paid very little money out. Did we do everything the book said? No. We didn't do internet for instance. This was a local play to a local audience in the back room of a local restaurant. The book talks about the internet. And yes, I have to agree the internet is excellent for some kinds of marketing, not for every situation. A small business with a specialty product for which you couldn't possibly find enough customers in a local community couldn't do better than the net. Example -- crystal radio kit. You might could sell one in our little town. You could make a business of selling them world wide.

Great book. If you're just starting out or need to improve marketing the ideas expressed here can be agreat help.

Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business to Create Lasting Success, Fourth Edition

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B. Cornelius
Comprehensive and Up-to-Date

Marketing Without Advertising: Inspire Customers to Rave About Your Business to Create Lasting Success, Fourth Edition
Michael Phillips , and Salli Rasberry
Manufacturer: NOLO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Advertising | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Marketing | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Reference | Law Practice | Law | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0873379306

Book Description

The best marketing you can do for your business is to concentrate on creating a high-quality operation that customers, employees and other businesspeople will trust, respect and recommend.

Marketing Without Advertising teaches small business owners practical strategies to:

*encourage customers to spread the good word about your business
*attract new customers and gain their trust
*turn dissatisfied customers into loyal supporters
*list your products or services widely and inexpensively
*plan marketing events that will keep customers involved
*encourage the media to comment positively on your business

The 4th edition includes a new chapter on using interactive websites for marketing and selling online, and provides the latest marketing trends. It also covers "stealth marketing," building customer trust through openness and developing your customer base through personalized marketing efforts.

Download Description

"The best marketing you can do for your business is to concentrate on creating a high-quality operation that customers, employees and other businesspeople will trust, respect and recommend. Marketing Without Advertising teaches small business owners practical strategies to: encourage customers to spread the good word about your business attract new customers and gain their trust turn dissatisfied customers into loyal supporters list your products or services widely and inexpensively plan marketing events that will keep customers involved encourage the media to comment positively on your business The 4th edition includes a new chapter on using interactive websites for marketing and selling online, and provides the latest marketing trends. It also covers ""stealth marketing,"" building customer trust through openness and developing your customer base through personalized marketing efforts. "

Customer Reviews:

B. Cornelius.......2005-05-23

A choppy read with too many personal, empirical observations and too few research-based findings. The book has a very left-leaning tone. Pro-employee, anti-capitalist to a fault. I found a few of the examples to be inappropriate - for example the company literature describing the sizes and features of sex toys could have been deleted without compromising the message. Overall, a very disappointing book. There are many better resources out there. Check out Guerrilla Marketing by Levinson.

Comprehensive and Up-to-Date.......2003-11-02

The authors begin the fourth edition of their book with a declarative statement: "Marketing means running a first-rate business and letting people know about it. Every action your company takes sends a marketing message." Clever ads, the authors suggest, are a waste of resources. Advertising is not effective for business building, customers lured by ads are fickle, and there are better ways to invest resources for business building. That said (Chapter 1: Advertising: The Last Choice in Marketing), the authors proceed to give us a comprehensive, practical, in-depth journey through a wide range of marketing strategies.

Topics covered include the physical appearance of your business, pricing, people treatment, openness and trust, educating prospective customers, demonstrating expertise, helping customers find you, dynamic interactive marketing, and use of the internet. A valuable section of this book deals with designing and implementing a marketing plan, the all-important work of organizing your strategy.

An appendix includes recommended reading, how to contact the authors for consulting help, and 21 worksheets to help you evaluate how you're doing. Good index. This book covers a lot of information-strategies and techniques-that will be valuable to any small or mid-sized business. I mention this broad-base value since the book is published by a firm that specializes in law books. Obviously, there's great value to law firms in these pages, but readers should not expect the book to be exclusive. In fact, the chapter on Creating a Calendar of Events uses examples of an interior design firm and a chiropractic clinic. Questionnaires and call-out boxes throughout the book help readers get the message and understand it.

The only negative I would share, which is minor, is the unusual page numbering system. Instead of starting with page 1 and continuing, as most books do, this book numbers the pages by chapters. Example 9/15, indicating the 15th page in chapter 9.

Useful as a read-through and as a reference book. A worthwhile read for anyone seeking to build a business without dumping a ton of money into advertising that won't produce a return.

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first rate!!

The Unknown Matisse Revealed

Painful Beginnings

Meet Matisse and Enter His Landscape for Reading Pleasure

Matisse's Colors

The Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908 (Unknown Matisse)
Hilary Spurling
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Matisse, Henri | ( M-O ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954

The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism

Matisse, His Art and His Textiles

New Art City

Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)

ASIN: 0679434283
Release Date: 1998-10-27

Amazon.com

"Matisse was born in 1869 in northern France and grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, near the Belgian border, on the drab, cold, wet beet fields of French Flanders. The same area, culturally and geographically speaking, had produced Vincent van Gogh sixteen years before." Thus begins the first full biography of an artist who, more than any other, is associated with Mediterranean heat, brilliant color and light, and languid, luxurious interiors. As author Hilary Spurling points out, an open window is one of Matisse's frequent motifs. Given the climate of his youth, that image speaks more of escape than of the sea air of the French Riviera.

If all biographers wrote with Spurling's warmth, empathy, and intelligence, no one would likely want to read any other kind of book. The Unknown Matisse is thoroughly researched, with pages devoted to minutiae that Spurling imparts with wit and style, making every nuance of Matisse's early development fascinating. She tells too the story of Matisse's family life (Mme. Matisse risked her respectable reputation by adopting Henri's first, illegitimate daughter), his brilliant ideas about art, and the years it took for his paintings to find their rightful audience. It was her intention finally to give as much weight to Matisse's life as has been given to his work, but in the process of examining the man she sheds new light on the art as well. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

Henri Matisse is one of the masters of twentieth-century art and a household word to millions of people who find joy and meaning in his light-filled, colorful images--yet, despite all the books devoted to his work, the man himself has remained a mystery. Now, in the hands of the superb biographer Hilary Spurling, the unknown Matisse becomes visible at last.

Matisse was born into a family of shopkeepers in 1869, in a gloomy textile town in the north of France. His environment was brightened only by the sumptuous fabrics produced by the local weavers--magnificent brocades and silks that offered Matisse his first vision of light and color, and which later became a familiar motif in his paintings. He did not find his artistic vocation until after leaving school, when he struggled for years with his father, who wanted him to take over the family seed-store. Escaping to Paris, where he was scorned by the French art establishment, Matisse lived for fifteen years in great poverty--an ordeal he shared with other young artists and with Camille Joblaud, the mother of his daughter, Marguerite.

But Matisse never gave up. Painting by painting, he struggled toward the revelation that beckoned to him, learning about color, light, and form from such mentors as Signac, Pissarro, and the Australian painter John Peter Russell, who ruled his own art colony on an island off the coast of Brittany. In 1898, after a dramatic parting from Joblaud, Matisse met and married Amélie Parayre, who became his staunchest ally. She and their two sons, Jean and Pierre, formed with Marguerite his indispensable intimate circle.

From the first day of his wedding trip to Ajaccio in Corsica, Matisse realized that he had found his spiritual home: the south, with its heat, color, and clear light. For years he worked unceasingly toward the style by which we know him now. But in 1902, just as he was on the point of achieving his goals as a painter, he suddenly left Paris with his family for the hometown he detested, and returned to the somber, muted palette he had so recently discarded.

Why did this happen? Art historians have called this regression Matisse's "dark period," but none have ever guessed the reason for it. What Hilary Spurling has uncovered is nothing less than the involvement of Matisse's in-laws, the Parayres, in a monumental scandal which threatened to topple the banking system and government of France. The authorities, reeling from the divisive Dreyfus case, smoothed over the so-called Humbert Affair, and did it so well that the story of this twenty-year scam--and the humiliation and ruin its climax brought down on the unsuspecting Matisse and his family--have been erased from memory until now.

It took many months for Matisse to come to terms with this disgrace, and nearly as long to return to the bold course he had been pursuing before the interruption. What lay ahead were the summers in St-Tropez and Collioure; the outpouring of "Fauve" paintings; Matisse's experiments with sculpture; and the beginnings of acceptance by dealers and collectors, which, by 1908, put his life on a more secure footing.

Hilary Spurling's discovery of the Humbert Affair and its effects on Matisse's health and work is an extraordinary revelation, but it is only one aspect of her achievement. She enters into Matisse's struggle for expression and his tenacious progress from his northern origins to the life-giving light of the Mediterranean with rare sensitivity. She brings to her task an astonishing breadth of knowledge about his family, about fin-de-siècle Paris, the conventional Salon painters who shut their doors on him, his artistic comrades, his early patrons, and his incipient rivalry with Picasso.

In Hilary Spurling, Matisse has found a biographer with a detective's ability to unearth crucial facts, the narrative power of a novelist, and profound empathy for her subject.

Customer Reviews:

first rate!!.......2007-09-19

i loved this book - many new insights on matisse, the preeminent modern artist - very well researched and written -

The Unknown Matisse Revealed.......2006-03-24

I was impatiently awaiting the arrival of The Unknown Matisse and have not been disappointed. Hilary Spurling has truly written a superb book. For all those who are interested in the passing from the old school of art to the new concepts that gave way to modern art as we understand it, this book is for you. This book compares favorably with John Richardson's massive Picasso biography. The Unknown Matisse is a book I will keep going back to over the years.

James Townsend

Painful Beginnings.......2006-01-27

Matisse has always suffered from bad press. In his home town he was known as a triple failure: He couldn't take over the family seed store, he didn't make a career in law work and he threw away a chance to be a popular Salon artist. When people saw his latest paintings, they were often overwhelmed and unprepared for what they saw. Only a few visionary collectors and fellow artists understood his ground-breaking efforts. Picasso and those who supported Picasso felt that they had to run down Matisse to help their own cause . . . despite having "borrowed" heavily from Matisse. Later, most of Matisse's early masterpieces were hidden away in foreign, private collections while crowds jeered at his latest work.

The pain of all this was immense for Matisse. But his private sorrows were made even greater by the difficulties he had in developing his style, the birth of an illegitimate child whom he acknowledged who suffered from serious health problems, and the poverty that dogged him until he was around 40. What is less well known is that his in-laws became embroiled in one of the most celebrated scandals of all time in France, and Matisse found himself drawn into saving them.

Ms. Spurling does well in capturing the agony of being Matisse.

Her style though leaves something to be desired. Much of the information is superficial rather than revealing. In many cases, I felt like I was reading someone's unreflective daily diary. An exception was the material on the Humbert Scandal which Ms. Spurling has also written about quite well in La Grande Therese.

Ms. Spurling also could have included more about Matisse's art in this book.

But you will learn a lot about Matisse from this book that you won't find in most other sources.

I found the recent companion volume, Matisse the Master, to be much more rewarding. If you decide to read only one of the two books, I suggest that one. But you may decide to come back and read this one later, as I did.

Meet Matisse and Enter His Landscape for Reading Pleasure.......2003-05-20

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) came from the somber northern region of France. The landscape of his youth was sketched in the somber colors of a provinical childhood. His family were seed merchants, sober and no nonsense in their approach to the realities of life. As Matisse grew his art expanded as he journeyed to Paris and to the South of France where he discovered the glories of coloration in his art. Matisse was the greatest of the Fauvist painters; the chief rival of Picasso and the grand old man of French painting.
In this first volume of her life of Matisse, Hilary Spurling the British born biographer draws France in the dawn of the 20th
century as we see Matisse struggle from poverty to stability. He was supported by a loving wife, good friends and a genius which
burst forth in all its glory as the great master continue to grow in his art.
The book is well illustrated, detailed in its description of Matisse's families, friends and opponents and well worth the reader's time.
With the current exhibition of Matisse-Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Mordern Art it is a pleasure to turn to Spurling's fine volume on Matisse to gain further insights into this giant of modern art. I recommend this book to everyone from art expert to the educated general reader seeking further insights into the evolution of a painter of genius.

Matisse's Colors.......2001-11-29

This is a genuinely inspiring biography, clearly written and deeply felt, powerfully communicating the revolutionary ideas of what painting could and should be that drove, and were driven by, Henri Matisse. Spurling vividly describes Matisse's struggles to balance his need to paint with financial reality and his society's disdain, often using the artist's own letters and recollections to depict his growing obsession with color and impatience with representation.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on January 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1625 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.

From the supplier: French painter Henri Matisse did not take the typical path to the artistic life, and surprised many of his friends and colleagues with his eventual international success. Matisse's original goal was to attend law school. He was introduced to painting while recovering from an illness. He failed at his first attempt to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He suffered through 15 years of poverty. He began to find himself as an artist when he celebrated the intrinsic value of color.

Citation Details
Title: The Unknown Matisse A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908.(French painter)
Author: Kenneth Wayne
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1999
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 17 Issue: 5 Page: 65(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Early Years, 1869-1908

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Unknown Matisse: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Early Years, 1869-1908
Hilary Spurling
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0756779219

The Unknown Matisse: a Life of Henri Matisse: the Early Years, 1869-1908 (Unknown Matisse)

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The Unknown Matisse: a Life of Henri Matisse: the Early Years, 1869-1908 (Unknown Matisse)
Hilary Spurling
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N66UUK

Book Description

The author concentrates on the Battle of Metz which was to be decisive for the operations in Lorraine which followed.

The history of the battle is told step by step, constructed from the testimony of numerous veterans giving a unique first hand account of the fighting by the men who were on the ground

Photos taken at the time are juxtaposed with photos taken at the present day and accompanied by documents and artifacts from the veterans themselves.

This is a huge book, in the typical Heimdal fashion, packed with hundreds of photos, maps and graphics. It will be the ultimate book on this important battle

This memorial to the Battle of Metz is a prequel to the earlier publication in 1984 by Heimdal, Memorial Lorraine.

Book Description

A San Francisco group of dissenting intellectuals analyzes the present collision of military neo-liberalism and the new politics of the spectacle.

Afflicted Powers is an account of world politics since September 11, 2001. It aims to confront the perplexing doubleness of the present—its lethal mixture of atavism and new-fangledness. The world careers backward into forms of ideological and geo-political combat that call to mind the Scramble for Africa, and the Wars of Religion. But this brute return of the past is accompanied by an equally monstrous political deployment of (and entrapment in) the apparatus of a hyper-modern production of appearances. Capital is on the move again. In the Middle East and elsewhere it is attempting, nakedly, a new round of primitive accumulation and enclosure.

Now, however, it is obliged to do so in unprecedented circumstances. Never before has imperialist victory or defeat depended so much on a struggle for hegemony in the world of images; never before has the dominant world power been subject to real catastrophe in the realm of the spectacle. The present turn to empire and enclosure—what Retort terms military neo-liberalism—is confronted not only by various forms of radical Islam but by a new kind of vanguard armed with the toolkit of spectacular politics. This book attempts to rethink certain key aspects of the current global struggle within this overall perspective, and to provide some critical support for present and future oppositions. Its main themes are the spectacle and September 11, blood for oil, permanent war and illusory peace, the US-Israel relationship, revolutionary Islam, and modernity and terror.

Customer Reviews:

Left-Wing Cornucopians.......2007-03-06

Usually cornucopianism (ie, there is no real imminent danger of "peak oil," there is no energy crisis, etc.) is housed on the right; Peter Huber, Daniel Yergin, etc.: "free market" economists and engineers who are afraid that a coherent energy policy will mean government intervention, regulation, rationing. Now in this book we have it on the left, and to a certain extent it makes sense: if your position is that the foundation of value is human labor, and not energy inputs from fossil (or other) fuels, you will hold that the future of mankind is infinitely bright (literally and figuratively), so long as we have some form of Marxist revolution. Revolution, in other words, trumps the necessity of downsizing, powerdown, sustainability culture, etc., options that are dismissed here as "Malthusian." Oil is just another commodity, like peanuts or hog bellies.

Well, let's just keep hoping that. If you can accept that thesis, then the rest of the arguments in this book are coherent and well argued. If not, look elsewhere.

Al Gore has maintained that "Global Warming is not a political issue, it is a moral one." The same could be said of "peak oil." And...last but not least... it's a scientific one.

Uneven, but its a start.......2006-03-03

This book, by the collective Retort, seeks to develop a Marxian theory adequate to 9-11 and events since, notably the war in Iraq. Really the product of four different authors, it is uneven but generally fascinating. The theory that 9-11 was a defeat for the US above all at the level of the spectacle is quite stimulating. I loved their critique of the peak-oil paranoia of the US left, but the explanation they offer for the war in Iraq--that capital again needs primitive accumulation--founders on the central question any explanation of that war should answer--why did Germany and France fail to support it, particularly given that the US had made clear that this was an important action to greenlight? The chapter on support for Israel is useful in avoiding Jewish-lobby hysteria, but is ultimately too optimistic in its conviction that Israel's status as the 'democracy of the Middle East' has faded. It hasn't all that much (at least in the US), and furthermore, Israel now has a status as a sort of Rambo heroically fighting 'terrorists'. Their comment that political Islam seems to epitomize the politics of Hardt and Negri's 'multitude' better than anything else is well-taken, although their claim that the global justice movement (which they of course champion) does not, like the Islamists, use the internet much is bizarre and wrongheaded. But ultimately, they fail to follow Marx in seeking to descend into the hidden abode of production. These days, that would be China. Understanding the recentering of the world economy in East Asia transforms our understanding of US empire-building, in ways that would require a book to clarify. But if Marxian theorists aren't going to clarify the significance of shifts in the world economy, who will? Nevertheless, don't let this deter you from grappling with the ideas here, which operate on a much higher level than most of the discussion on the American left.

This book is a work of plagiarism.......2006-02-26

Nitzan and Bichler, authors of the groundbraking book, "The Global Political Economy of Israel", wrote a detailed article showing how "Retort" massively and repeatedly plagiarized their original work and presented it as their own. (go google Nitzan, Bichler, "The Scientist and the Church").

Nitzan and Bichler predicted that the Iraq War would lead to inflation and rising oil prices when everyone was predicitng the opposite. Now Retort endorses this view after the fact while pretending to be original thinkers.

Nitzan and Bichler also show how the authors of Retort had troubles understanding the material they were plagiarizing.

To sum up, read the source.

I've read a lot about the "post 9/11 world" but this is the best.......2005-09-22

This is an intelligently researched and forceful polemic. It is intellectual without being academic and engagingly well-written without simplifying ideas or resorting to clever word games.

You probably shouldn't start with this book if you still have an unshakeable faith in the idea that the United States or Israel (or any other state for that matter) are great defenders of liberty and freedom. However, I do think the audience for this book goes beyond merely the "Chomsky left." The authors have a rich historical perspective on the basic institutions of modern life and use that understanding to explain many otherwise mystifying aspects of the current "War on Terrorism."

Compared to much of what I have read on the subject, the analysis here seems to be refreshingly unclouded by the demands of any particular political, economic, or philosophical ideology. The anarchist/situationist basis of the critique is clear, but that body of thought seems to have liberated rather than constrained the thinking of the authors.

A waste of words.......2005-09-20

Words can be used to make strong points. And whether they are used in this way or not, those who use them ought to be aware of their meanings.

This book does not make any strong points. And it also tosses words around a little too freely.

There is plenty that could be written about Western society. Obviously, like all societies, ours has some problems. And one ought to ask questions about whether we are too worshipful of consumer goods. As well as whether our existence and happiness are too dependent on the overuse of non-renewable resources. If that were true, it could be a serious flaw in the way we live. After all, in the long run, which humans will dominate this planet? Almost surely, it will be folks who will be relatively happy living on far fewer resources than we Westerners do now.

On the other hand, the world of the far future is very unlikely to be dominated by those with the attitudes of some present critics of the West who favor nihilism, destruction, and arbitrary and reactionary opposition to human rights. One of this book's big failings is that it does not dwell on these problems with the revolutionary Islamic opposition to Western society.

The authors say that Israel has a "grotesque legally enshrined apartheid." That's a good example of just tossing words around without regard to their meanings. Arabs live in Israel. Israel is practically a bantustan in the middle of a vast Arab Empire. Inverting the situation by calling Israel an apartheid state is simply a perverse misuse of words. Of course, the authors do not stop there. They dismiss Israeli self-defence out of hand, calling it "state violence." And they refer to "an increasingly extreme version of the Zionist project." That's a preposterous choice of words. Zionism is simply Jewish nationalism. It is based on universal human rights, and on the fact that if all humans are to have human rights, Jews (by virtue of being humans) must have human rights. That is not extreme. Of course, if Jews were greedy and laid claim to far more land than the share they could purchase if the entire planet were up for sale, one would indeed be able to refer to that as "extreme." And my point is that the Jews have not been greedy at all. The argument about land is whether the more than 5 million Jews of Israel are to be permitted to live on 8000, 9000, 10,000 or 11,000 square miles. Israel is land-poor. The Arabs are the ones with 5,500,000 square miles, not the Jews.

I think that getting rid of Israel would help no one. I think it would be an error to do as the authors suggest and have the United States join the fight against human rights in the Levant. And I think the authors' total mischaracterization of Israel casts further doubt on the scholarship of their entire work.

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