The Penguin Dictionary of Art And Artists: Seventh Edition (Dictionary, Penguin)

Customer Reviews:

Essential Reference for the Art History Student.......2001-03-06

Excellent reference for art history research, art criticism, or for deciphering someone else's writing about art.

Examples of entries: academy, encaustic wax, Lembruck, Suprematism. So there are techniques, movements, institutions, and individual artists... all explained concisely but with essential dates and details.

Saves lots of time when you need to refer to some movement or influencing artist but don't want to get caught up in an enormous amount of data.

Western art only. (You won't find Buddha, Sumi-e, etc).

Great resource.......2000-09-25

As an art education major this book came in handy. It is a great reference for anyone who wants to learn more about an artist as a person and as an artist. It gives short bios on many different artists from different periods through art history. It was well worth the money.

Book Description

“What distinguishes this title is its 180 color illustrations, which depict in rich detail figures representing varied social classes of European (and later American) society from 1066 to 1990. A succinct glossary and a one-page introduction provide complementary text to the parade of the ‘great years of fashions’...a valuable and interesting research tool. Recommended.”—Library Journal.

Customer Reviews:

It's good for descriptions and definitions.......2007-05-27

I don't regret getting this book, but I have seen better. The illustrations are a good source but not an ideal one. I did notice, and maybe it's just me, that the drawings were not proportional and a little too cartoony (it's definately a personal preference). However the garments themselves are nicely drawn and will be helpful to me in the future.

good for fashion design and for fashion history students.......2006-04-18

a book with just illustrations and some helpful notes on the garment details. it doesn't dig deep into history and all that, but visually, it's awsome...it's essential for your studies...

A Very Good Reference Book.........2001-06-04

I just recommended this book to a friend who wanted depictions of clothes from 1650-1700. It really is a very good timeline of fashion. Also,the drawings are very colorful and full of detail. A worthwhile investment for anyone who's interested in costuming or European history.

The author is an unoriginal, untalented illustator & writer.......2000-01-22

This is an absolutely pathetic book. The illustrator/author merely copied famous works of art from the Reniassance period. Wait, I shouldn't say copied: He made weak attempts at the imitation of these masterpieces. Could he not come up with something slightly original in text and drawing? Please save your money.

...not the best one.......1999-06-02

This book has really nice pictures at all but after learning so much about the history of costume at university I was really unsatisfied with this book. It could have been more structure in it, too.

Book Description

A reader for Advanced Real Estate Finance courses, including Masters and Doctoral level. This version is combination of classic material and emerging topics for high-level Real Estate Finance coursed and seminars.

Contemporary Real Estate Finance: Selected Readings

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Contemporary Real Estate Finance: Selected Readings
John B Major
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall College Div
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIRYCA

Book Description

The legendary Jack the Ripper murdered as many as ten women between the years of 1887 and 1891 in the East End of London. The debate over his true identity has never been resolved. The unbiased history of the different suspects, including two women, will give even the novice reader the basic ground to make an informed decision regarding the identity of the Whitechapel Murderer. Suspects include influential artist Walter Sickert, children's author Lewis Carroll, Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill (father of Winston Churchill), and others ranging from doctors and politicians to wandering lunatics.

Listed alphabetically, the encyclopedic entries provide historical features such as major events in a suspect's life, a complete chronology surrounding the case for particular suspects, suspects' biographical data, and a basic analysis of the relevant theories. The entries explain and analyze the suspect's particular connection to the case and describe theorists and research that have contributed to the suspect's positive or negative candidacy as a viable suspect. Within these pages may lie the true name of Jack the Ripper—the author places all the available facts before the reader, leaving him to draw his own conclusions.

Customer Reviews:

Jack the ripper Suspects by Stan Russo.......2005-01-23

Excellent book, lists suspects not yet discussed, written in a totally unbiased opinion,direct an to the point, doesn't go over facts already known in boring detail, touches on what we already know without boring us half to death. I loved the book. Stan did a great job, he voiced his opinion on other author's suspects with tact . He did not only oppose other's opinions with the usual here's why not, he also listed the here's why this person should still be considered. A very professional writing with a down to earth opinion, for the pluses and the minuses. I would highly recommend this book for J the R fans as myself. Good job Stan great forward also Christopher.
Best regards judyjanes (ripper fan for years)

A good book just missing four stars.......2004-08-29

This book just misses the four star mark - The final factor in grading was the price. If a paperback copy comes along for under twenty dollars, I would push the book up to four stars. Don't get me wrong, this is a good book, but not good enough to merit the forty five dollar asking price. I was able to get a copy for twenty-five, and that was plenty to spend on this book. Alright, now that I've talked about the price, let me talk about the book. The title states " seventy persons CITED" - If you buy this book keep that in mind, because in many cases that's pretty much all you get. The book I feel could have been so much better. No pictures of any of the seventy persons to be found in the book, and please note there are extant pictures of some of these people. I'm afraid that a novice to the ripper murders will become confused, as the suspects are not treated with enough detail. Very brief on most subjects. This author certainly has gone to lengths in finding all the sources, and does a great job in listing them at the end of each suspect. The strength of the book lies in the fact that if a certain suspect interest you, you will know exactly where to go to find more information on the subject in question. The author also gives his opinion, and you are to treat it as fact, and not to question - He does have some good thoughts, and opinions, but it AIN'T the gospel. If your after a listing of suspects, and where to look for addiional informaton this book serves that purpose excellently and gets an A+ for that. However, if your looking for a book that goes into unbiased detail with an open mind, I'm afraid this book misses that mark. It is an interesting read, and I do recommend it for beginners and for well versed ripper reseachers. However, I don't recommend it, if it cost you over thirty dollars.

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A social history of music, from the Middle Ages to Beethoven
Henry Raynor
Manufacturer: Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0805234462

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Social History of Music: From the Middle Ages to Beethoven
Henry Raynor
Manufacturer: SCHOCKEN BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKV7DK

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Social History of Music, A : From the Middle Ages to Beethoven and Music and Society since 1815
Henry Raynor
Manufacturer: Taplinger Publishing Company, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KWP7PQ

Book Description

BradyGames' La Pucelle: Tactics Official Strategy Guide features a detailed walkthrough for the entire game, including every ending. Complete lists of all 149 items. In-depth bestiary and incredible boss tactics. Exhaustive coverage of every side quest. Game secrets and more!

This product is available for sale in North America only.

Customer Reviews:

a good RPG.......2004-07-21

If you liked Disgaea: Hour of Darkness then you will thoroughly enjoy it's sequel, La Pucelle:Tactics. Basically, this game like a lot of other games I know is about stopping the battle of good and evil. However, this game implores a lot more strategy as one has to purify portals to the netherworld in order to stop even more enemies from participating in battle. One can also recruit monsters to your side as well. As for graphics, I would say that I actually prefer the traditional animation here. In some games it works in others it doesn't. The sound was great considering the voice acting. All in all, I think that this game is pretty good for a sequel and since it is kind of a rare gem so to speak, one would definitely want to add it to his/her collection.

Book Description

Stochastic Calculus for Finance evolved from the first ten years of the Carnegie Mellon Professional Master's program in Computational Finance. The content of this book has been used successfully with students whose mathematics background consists of calculus and calculus-based probability. The text gives both precise statements of results, plausibility arguments, and even some proofs, but more importantly intuitive explanations developed and refine through classroom experience with this material are provided. The book includes a self-contained treatment of the probability theory needed for stochastic calculus, including Brownian motion and its properties. Advanced topics include foreign exchange models, forward measures, and jump-diffusion processes.

This book is being published in two volumes. This second volume develops stochastic calculus, martingales, risk-neutral pricing, exotic options and term structure models, all in continuous time.

Master's level students and researchers in mathematical finance and financial engineering will find this book useful.

Customer Reviews:

Great, easy to understand introduction to mathematical finance.......2007-06-22

I say it's an "introduction" because I have little background in both stochastic calculus and finance but find this to be fairly easy to read. Unless other texts that present the material in a much more dense manner, i.e. skipping over the majority of derivations, Schreve goes through the derivation for even the most routine of derivations--which is actually great for a newbie like me.

The text is self-contained and covers a wide range of topics. I would like him to cover some practical aspects of modeling in finance, but that's really not what the text is about. For what it set out to explain, it does a great job. 5 stars.

Pre-digested chicken soup for the "aspiring quant".......2007-04-14

While writing a review for Hull's text, I suggested that an easier (than to start with Hull) way to learn quantitative finance is to pick up one of the more focused books on the subject. There is a huge deluge of these books - I think one comes out every few weeks. They all cover the same topics, in roughly the same manner, so there is little that distinguishes one from the other. There is certainly not much different in content in Shreve than in others - in fact you cannot go wrong by picking any well known book - just pick the cheapest.

What is different about Shreve is that he does not skimp on the details. As another reviewer pointed out, this is not an elegant book. For people new to quant finance, this is actually a good thing. There are pages after pages of ugly equations written in gory detail. In almost any other quantitative book (I don't mean quantitative finance book - but any book that is of a quantitative nature, be it wireless communications or information theory or what have you) these details would have been omited. But not here, and for a good reason: There are PhDs in areas that are only remotely quantitatve - who want to switch to quantitative finance just because they think there is money in the area. These people don't have the mathematical maturity or stamina required to actually go home and do the (mechanical!) math between equations themselves. They want to see it all done, served to them on a platter with fries and ketchup, please - because they haven't done math in a while but are "interested" in it. Shreve obliges. And succeeds beautifully in serving pre-digested food to those that need it.

Shreve even gives you a sense of having done something yourself through his exercies. Again the excercises in his book are unlike anything that I have see in any mathematically inclined text - they make up a whole section in each chapter. Again, Shreve is serving you things on a platter - the exercies essentially come with the equivalent of a verbose TA built-in - Shreve guides you to the solution, in a very tenderly-holding-your-hand manner. Of course, this is a good thing, for those that need it.

The chapters on SDEs and even on jump processes will make good chicken-soup introductions to these topics, and are written in a more rigorous (and, though I repeat myself, verbose) fashion than some of the other books I have seen. The book also strikes a good balance between the PDE approach and the martingale approach to pricing. The chapter on PDEs itself, in particular, is well written and does a good job of pointing out the Feynamn Kac connection between the two approaches. In general, this book covers everythying that my friends who are faculty in mathematical finance courses teach in a (continuous time finance course in a) typical MS in Qfin program.

While my review may sound negative, the verbosity of the book is its asset, because most people approaching it are looking for it. When grad students, who otherwise are not interested in talking to me, learn about what I do for a living and suddenly become extremely ingratiating, (and start drooling a bit from the side of their mouth) and go on to ask me for what to read, this is the book I recommend to them. It will take them from cluelessness to the point where they can actually see what Hull has been sweeping under the carpet.

Let me say it again, this is not a negative review for the book. The book does its job beautifully. But it doesnt have a soul. But then, nor does the greedy grad student who is suddenly interested in quantitative finance.

Good for introduction.......2007-01-10

This book introduced Symmetric Random Walk and then proved its properties before introducing Brownian Motion. More detailed proofs should be included in Ito integrals.

Shreve has done a tremendous job in communicating the concepts.......2006-10-31

Although I work in a major global bank at a senior level I don't use stochastic calculus in my job. My maths and physics background goes back to the 1970s when stochastic calculus was not part of undergraduate studies. Indeed, one usually did stochastic theory at postgraduate level. I have memories of reading Halmos for measure theory, Feller for probability theory, Wiener and others. None of this was easy.

Suffice it to say that there were a lot of abstract building blocks one had to erect first before one could actually do anything useful.

Stochastic calculus is not easy. It is less intuitive than ordinary calculus. The vast majority of textbooks launch into a wall of definitions that seem divorced from the motivation for them. I am always suspicious of authors who do that. It's fine if you are writing for a very specialised audience but I am with Richard Feynman who reckoned that if you can't provide a simple explanation you don't really understand what is going on. In that context read his PhD thesis - it is most readable and understandable.

What Shreve has done - and this is a significant achievement in my view - is to present something that is rigorous enough (and we all know that in this and other areas of mathematics one can go on and on with minute points of detail all in the name of rigour) yet grounds the concepts in something that is understandable.

The simple pedagogical fact of life with this type of material is that there is a large overhead in getting to a particular point and Shreve had done a very good job in getting readers to a good standard without destroying their will to go on!

When one looks at areas of mathematics with much longer pedigrees - and Fourier Theory is an example - there are some extremely good presentations of the theory at both mathematical and physical levels. Elias Stein, for instance, has done some marvellous work in the area. Stochastic calculus is really very young in terms of mainstream appeal. I can recall actuarial subjects I did in the early 1980s that had no stochastic calculus at all in them. All that has changed and I think Shreve's attempts in this area can be improved upon too but this will only happen over time.

My colleagues in quant like Shreve's books so I guess that says something too.

Very good graduate text book.......2006-06-23

This book makes no claims to be the mathematical bible on stochastic calculus and I believe that the author refers (in a blatant piece of marketing) to the other Shreve book with Karatzas, which trust me IS a very intractable read.

This is a good book and covers all the topics in a well rounded manner, he also has a very good little section in which he addresses his competitors, such as Steele etc etc,

IF you want a really ridiculous read and to show off to your mates then I recommend Musiela and Rutkowski, which I use to prop my door open in hot weather, this book has pretty much everything but is written in a very dense and inaccessible manner, you get nervous opening it, as you find something new you didn't know every time, I don't like abook to make me feel that dumb and its not really an sde book!!!!!!

In summary I am happy with my purchase of Shreve, many moons ago, I will use it again to teach an MSc course and the students will again complain that its too hard, until I give them a few refs and they will understand that you can't just waltz into the city and say I wanna be a quantitative analyst it takes hard work. Reading Shreve puts you on the right road and you can't say anything more highly than that.

As to the discussion by previous reviewers on the Ito-Doebin formula I suggest Karatzas and Shreve will answer you arguments.

Book Description

He saw her across the Piazza San Marco and fell in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice café a year later, he knows it is fate. He knows little English; and she, a divorced American chef, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena thinks she is incapable of intimacy, that her heart has lost its capacity for romantic love. But within months of their first meeting, she has packed up her house in St. Louis to marry Fernando—“the stranger,” as she calls him—and live in that achingly lovely city in which they met.

Vibrant but vaguely baffled by this bold move, Marlena is overwhelmed by the sheer foreignness of her new home, its rituals and customs. But there are delicious moments when Venice opens up its arms to Marlena. She cooks an American feast of Mississippi caviar, cornbread, and fried onions for the locals . . . and takes the tango she learned in the Poughkeepsie middle school gym to a candlelit trattoría near the Rialto Bridge. All the while, she and Fernando, two disparate souls, build an extraordinary life of passion and possibility.

Featuring Marlena’s own incredible recipes, A Thousand Days in Venice is the enchanting true story of a woman who opens her heart—and falls in love with both a man and a city.

Customer Reviews:

Delightful.......2007-09-19

If you are looking for a wonderfully human story of pure delight, this is the book for you... It gives you a real flavor for one of the most romantic cities in Italy.... You can almost smell the food... and feel the puch of the tourists... She is steeped in the Italian experience...

Fairytale for Grown-ups.......2007-09-12

In a world of multitudes of choices, Marlena chose the road (or actually, waterway), less travelled. She fell in love with someone she barely knew and moved half way round the world in the process. She opted for the unexpected - an adventure. I chose Marlena's story as my "beach read" this summer and it was perfect. It's quick and light - fun! She didn't weigh her story down with complaints about how different we all are - she chose the language of love (and food) to find commonality - yet she still added charming stories that suggested how Italian lifestyle and priorities are a bit different from Americans. Instead or wondering "what if..." - she did it! What a brave soul!

An excellent read at all times.......2007-07-22

Reading De Blasi's story is like going to Venice in person. Love her comments on italian men and all her recipes that come with the book.

Fantastic, candid memoir!.......2007-06-19

I was really impressed by the author's honesty in chronicling her new life in Venice and the changes that came with her marriage. She didn't sugarcoat the bad parts and unlike others, I understood the narrative reason why she continued to call her husband "the stranger". Who has not gotten married and at one time or another thought, "Who is this? Did I marry this person?"
I loved her attention to detail of Venetian life and culture and the care in which she described the people she came in contact with. A truly enjoyable book from cover to cover...and some day I'll be brave enough to try the recipes in the back!

Living The Good Life...........2007-06-12

Blasi's little story of her whirlwind romance does not read conventionally, as a novel with readily discernible plotting and themes would. This is not to say the book is difficult, since it is not: the prose is clear and straightforward. However, "1000 days" is far more introspective than a typical armchair traveler read, and this makes it more about Blasi's inner life and the changes in attitude and values she experiences after deciding to change her circumstances.
I found it an extraordinarily thoughtful and intimate book, almost like reading a personal diary, and the embellishments of an exotic locale and gourmet recipes did not turn it into another cliched "life with the eccentric locals of generic popular place #4". Instead I found myself absorbed in Blasi and her choices. I will look for more by this author.

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A Thousand Days in Venice

Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1865089362

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Thousand Days in Venice

Manufacturer: VIRAGO (LITT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSEVEW

A Thousand Days in Venice (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

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A Thousand Days in Venice (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Marlena De Blasi
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVOK88

A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance

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A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance
Marlena De Blasi
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHD2SG

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A thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance
Marlena De Blasi
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHCBPG

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A thousand days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance
Marlena De Blasi
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHAH9I

Book Description

In this volume, Professor Colin Gray develops and applies the theory and scholarship on the allegedly historical practice of the "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA), in order to improve our comprehension of how and why strategy "works".
The author explores the RMA hypothesis both theoretically and historically. The book argues that the conduct of an RMA has to be examined as a form of strategic behaviour, which means that, of necessity, it must "work" as strategy works. The great RMA debate of the 1990s is reviewed empathetically, though sceptically, by the author, with every major school of thought allowed its day in court.
The author presents three historical RMAs as case studies for his argument: those arguably revealed in the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon; in World War I; and in the nuclear age. The focus of his analysis is how these grand RMAs functioned strategically. The conclusions that he draws from these empirical exercises are then applied to help us understand what, indeed, is - and what is not - happening with the much vaunted information-technology-led RMA of today.
The popular idea that, because war occurs in the realm of chance, strategy is characteristically chaotic is considered and - on balance - rejected. Rather, the author concludes, a somewhat chaotic unpredictability about the consequences of strategic behaviour is a defining characteristic of, but not a literally fatal impediment to, strategy.

Customer Reviews:

Great discussion about Transformation and RMA.......2007-03-11

Dr. Gray really straps on the RMA/Transformation cowd with this extraordinarily measured study of the RMA argument. His deatiled analysis makes the compelling argument that RMAs, are, by and large, bunk. He proposes an alternate, more rational evolutionary view. As with all his books, this is an excellent, thorough, thought provoking work on an inportant curent topic. Explains much of what has been going wrong w/RMA and Transfomation-inspired military development over the past decade. Not an easy read...

Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.(Book Review) : An article from: Joint Force Quarterly

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Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.(Book Review) : An article from: Joint Force Quarterly
Barry Watts
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Joint Force Quarterly, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1535 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.(Book Review)
Author: Barry Watts
Publication: Joint Force Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 38 Page: 109(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.(Book Review): An article from: Air & Space Power Journal

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Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.(Book Review): An article from: Air & Space Power Journal
Gilles Van Nederveen
Manufacturer: U.S. Air Force
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Air & Space Power Journal, published by U.S. Air Force on December 22, 2003. The length of the article is 634 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History.(Book Review)
Author: Gilles Van Nederveen
Publication: Air & Space Power Journal (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2003
Publisher: U.S. Air Force
Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Page: 98(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Strategy for Chaos; Revolutions in Military Affairs and The Evidence of History (Strategic Studies)

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Strategy for Chaos; Revolutions in Military Affairs and The Evidence of History (Strategic Studies)
COLIN GRAY
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUFVAC

Book Description

"A masterful combination of emerging theory and empirical comparison of one of the most intriguing areas of transnational politics. Keck and Sikkink access a broad range of theory from social movements, international relations, and comparative politics research to glean from a wealth of their own research findings solid and thought-provoking conclusions about the most interesting and least well-understood area of contentious politics in the world today."--Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University (Government)

"Activists beyond Borders is a searching exploration of advocacy networks, providing compelling accounts in areas such as human rights and environmental protection and an intriguing glimpse into the transnational politics of the twenty-first century."--Robert O. Keohane, Duke University

Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists that coalesce and operate across national frontiers. Their targets may be international organizations or the policies of particular states. Historical examples of such transborder alliances include anti-slavery and woman suffrage campaigns. In the past two decades, transnational activism has had a significant impact in human rights, especially in Latin America, and advocacy networks have strongly influenced environmental politics as well. The authors also examine the emergence of an international campaign around violence against women.

Customer Reviews:

A voice beyond the mainstream IR theories.......2002-04-14

Who are the most relevant actors in international relations? The answer is states for both neorealists and neoliberals though the latter also consider some non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations (MNC) as remarkable units in international politics. Constructivists, on the other hand, pay considerable attention to non-state actors while they also keep states as central actors. Margaret E. Keck and, Kathryn Sikkink present us a well-designed discussion about the significance of non-state actors of world politics in Activist Beyond Borders. First of all, they classify transnational actors into three groups; MNC and international banks that have instrumental goals, epistemic communities that insist on causal ideas and transnational advocacy networks (TAN) that carry principal ideas.Then, they analyze the significance of TAN in international politics by searching for how do TAN work and how do they change conceptions of national interest and principles of policies organizations? Keck and Sikkink mention four fundamental strategies of TAN; information politics, symbolic politics, leverage politics, and accountability politics. They generate information, use symbolic elements, put pressure on states and international organizations, and follow their accountability to international norms. Their effectiveness, however, depend on the issue and actor characteristics that they are targeting. What they do? They cause to reformulation of national interests and they eventually change behavior of states. The principled ideas are the key for TAN and they also lead ideas to transformation of states interests and policies. Activist Beyond Borders has three case studies in the area of TAN; human rights, environment, and violence against women. In these cases, transnational human rights advocacy networks changed authoritarian Latin American governments' notions and policies of human rights. TAN in environment shifted the World Bank's funding policies in corresponding to the protection of environment. TAN in women's rights lead to change state policies in two areas. One of the most significant arguments for IR theory that Keck and Sikkink state is that TAN lead to changes in state understandings of sovereignty. Then states begin to accommodate to re-conceptualized sovereignty at the expense of realist notion of absolute sovereignty. In this sense, they question the realist premises of state interests. They also emphasizes that TAN are important source of new ideas, norms and identities that make repercussions over behavior of states and international organizations. They carry transformative and mobilizing ideas into international system and finally shape fundamentally policies of both state and non-sate actors in world politics. In addition, the authors stress upon the importance of domestic actors for TAN to be successful. Overall, Activists Beyond Borders asserts that TAN endeavor to transform the terms and nature of the debate on fundamentals of international politics.

Destined to become a classic.......2001-10-10

Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikink's "Activists Beyond Borders" is almost certainly the most significant book yet to have appeared on the role of activist networks in shaping global politics. It's a joy to read, theoretically rich but never overly dense, and it's also inspiring -- probably why it received the prestigious Grawemeyer World Order Award. The introduction, on "Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics," would make an excellent reading for a graduate course on International Relations theory. But the same could be said for almost every chapter in the book. The case-studies build upon the prior research of both authors to present fascinating overviews of the evolution of activist networks in the fields of human rights, the environment, and violence against women. In each instance, the authors are careful to include examples of networks that did *not* crystallize in certain issue-areas, and to explain why some endeavours succeeded while others failed (or were less successful). While the book will be of considerable interest to I.R. scholars, it should also be read by activists, who will learn a great deal about how to maximize their reach and influence.

A good introduction to international politics.......2001-03-24

This book provides an excellent introduction to the world of international politics. It has several very detailed chapters exploring such issues as timber logging, for example, and then goes into detail describing how various groups influence the industry.

The focus of their book is how "advocacy networks", as opposed to the traditional government agencies, effect change. These advocacy networks work alongside and often against governments in often non-traditional methods to achieve a desired result. In the case of timber harvesting, for example, advocacy networks were unsuccessful in persuading governments to alter their poicies so the organizations within that network focused on the consumers of timber. They successfully exposed the objectionable timber harvesting practices of various companies and enabled consumers to exert pressure on timber harvesting companies to change their practices.

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