Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller

Book Description

Jan Steen, the quintessential seventeenth-century Dutch painter, set himself apart from other painters with an astonishing range of brushwork skills and diversity of themes and genres. This lavishly illustrated book shows Steen`s consummate skill as painter and storyteller, reassesses the artist in the context of his times, and presents the most comprehensive biographical profile of Steen yet published.

Customer Reviews:

Great Introduction.......2005-12-01

This painter was an amazing combination of excellent artist, sarcastic and humorous person, and historian -- he painted what he saw - and each tells a story. This book helps guide you through it and points out things in his paintings that I would have missed.

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Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller
H. Perry; Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr.; Jansen, Guido; National Gallery of Art (U.S.); Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr.; Kloek, W. Th Chapman
Manufacturer: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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JAN STEEN: PAINTER AND STORYTELLER.
H. Perry et al. Chapman
Manufacturer: National Gallery of Art, Washington & Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller.
H. Perry, et al. CHAPMAN
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Jan Steen Painter and Storyteller

Manufacturer: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Jan Steen Painter and Storyteller
Guido M. C. Jansen
Manufacturer: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Funny and perceptive

LOVE IT!

A Collector's Item

Humor About Authors, Publishers, Book Sellers, and Readers

The New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons

Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0671035584

Book Description

Here is a cornucopia of 104 dead-on drawings and eye-opening ruminations on all things bookish, writerly, and readerly, courtesy of The New Yorker's renowned stable of cartoonists, including Charles Barsotti, Roz Chast, Ed Koren, J.B. Handelsman, Jack Ziegler, and Victoria Roberts. In the bestselling tradition of such classics as The New Yorker Book of Lawyer Cartoons and The New Yorker Book of Cat Cartoons, this collection of literary laughs is manna straight from bookworm heaven.

Customer Reviews:

Funny and perceptive.......2002-02-15

Almost anyone familiar with publishing will enjoy this book. It may be a little too painful if you are still a midlist author.

LOVE IT!.......2000-12-09

I purchased this book for my favorite english professor in college and took a glance in it myself and fell in love with it! You do not have to be a professor to get this--the humor is for all!

A Collector's Item.......2000-12-02

No matter how jaded, how cynical, how hard-boiled you may think yourself to be, at least one of these cartoons from the archives of The New Yorker will make you smile! Mr. Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker since 1997, has put together a classic assortment of 104 drawings from the archives. "The New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons" captures the cachet of the City, while poking fun at writers, editors, publishers, booksellers, and, most of all, at books, and those who read them. From the bookstore browsing Bibliophile Bikers Club to Mme Sartre's empty mailbox ("Sacré bleu! Again with the nothingness, and on my birthday yet!") to the hilarious note magnetized on "James Joyce's Refrigerator," one will find sterling examples of the wonderful satirical wit which has graced the pages of this magazine for 75 years. Buy this book for yourself! (Highly recommended for writer's block.) Better yet, buy this book for your editor or for your bookworm friends!

Humor About Authors, Publishers, Book Sellers, and Readers.......2000-09-21

This group of 104 cartoons features works by Charles Barsotti, Roz Chast, J.B. Handelsman, Ed Koren, Victoria Roberts, and Jack Ziegler. The cartoons capture the wittiest New Yorker views, and leave you with a wry taste in your mouth. Selected by Bob Mankoff (cartoon editor of The New Yorker since 1997), this collection is one of the best that has been produced recently from the past offerings of that venerable publication. If you like authors, books, and reading, you'll love this book!

I graded down the book because of the inexplicable lack of an introduction. What better subject for one than literary cartoons? The books in the series which featured such introductions are clearly more interesting than the ones that don't.

It was hard for me to pick a few cartoons to feature for you. I was tempted to include all but a few.

Author humor

(1) Man leaving home wearing suit and carrying a brief case: 'Wait a minute. Where am I going? I'm a writer.'

(2) James Joyce's refrigerator to-do list: 'Forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.'

(3) Raven says to Poe: 'Nevermore. And you can quote me.'

Publisher humor

(1) Editor to Dickens: 'I wish you would make up your mind, Mr. Dickens. Was it the best of times or the worst of times? It could scarecely have been both.'

(2) 'It doesn't work as a novel. But we're willing to publish it as a desk calendar.'

(3) 'Chicken Vindaloo for the Hindu Soul is but the tip of the iceberg in our initial strategy of global expansion.'

Book Seller Humor

(1) 'Let me get you another copy. Someone left a slice of salami in this one.'

(2) Book shelves organized by length of attention span.

(3) Book shelves organized by size of author advance.

Reader humor

(1) 'I do want to solve all my problems, but I'll wait till it comes out in soft cover.'

(2) 'Lately, I've been reading Jane Austen -- just to clear my palate.'

(3) Fan to author: 'I really enjoyed your hype.'

Media humor

(1) Talk show host holding enormous tome, addressing author: 'If you were to boil your book down to a few words, what would be its message?'

(2) 'Oprah is definite, Barnes and Noble is giving you front windows and Norman Mailer has agreed to a feud.'

The others are just as good or better. These are just samples to whet your appetite.

After you have read, chuckled, and enjoyed these wonderful cartoons, consider why we find these cartoons to be funny. Is it because books have become a commodity, rather than works of important ideas and art? Is that really so funny? What should we do about that? If you find these questions provocative, read The Business of Books.

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New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons

Manufacturer: SIMON & SCHUSTER
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H9CNCW

Book Description

This original NCL collection brings together Leacock’s comic masterpieces, the many varieties of his remarkable humour. In one story a young man is seized by fear as he attempts to open his first bank account. In another, Lord Ronald, the beloved of Gertrude the Governess, “flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.” In a third, the Mariposa Belle sinks in the shallow waters of Lake Wissanotti.

Completing these timeless comedies are two of Leacock’s own essays on humour.

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My Financial Career and Other Follies
Stephen Leacock
Manufacturer: McClelland & Stewart Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000RTB1HK

Customer Reviews:

Case studies of screen adaptations.......2007-09-13

I recall growing up around kids who would say of movies, "It's not as good as the book." I began wondering if a movie COULD be as good as the novel it adapted. Then "Star Wars" came along... but in that case the script certainly came before the book.

Boyum argues that screenplays can rise to the level of the novels from which they are adapted, or even transcend them. To support her thesis, she offers up such films as "Apocalypse Now", "A Clockwork Orange", and "The Magnificent Ambersons", which gets its own chapter. As a counterexample, she throws in "Ragtime". In all, she does case studies on 18 movies, but references many more.

Curiously, "The Maltese Falcon" gets only a few sentences, although its not becoming a success until its third adaptation might make for an interesting comparative analysis. But then the author, a professor of English, sticks to what would be more often called novels and literature. No help here on how to adapt the latest Crichton or Turow...

The 18 movies are: The Great Gatsby, The Innocents, Sophie's Choice, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Tess, Under the Volcano, Apocalypse Now, Women in Love, Ragtime, Daisy Miller, A Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Flies, Wise Blood, Death in Venice, Slaughterhouse Five, the Day of the Locust, Swann in Love, The Magnificent Ambersons

Book Description

When the million-selling series meets the most popular puzzles around, sales are sure to sizzle!

Since the Sit & Solve series arrived in stores, these amusingly-shaped books have sold so many and so quickly they just won’t stay on the shelves. And the coffee-cup inspired Sip & Solves are well on their way to the same success. So, they’re a natural format for sudoku, the puzzles that are rapidly replacing crosswords on everyone’s list of favorite pastimes.
It’s a brainteasing sensation that’s a no-brainer for any seller!

Customer Reviews:

Sneak and Solve.......2005-12-13

I bought this book because it's nice and tiny. I thought, I could rip out the pages and sneak them into boring lectures and presentations. Which I do. In fact, that's all I do. I think it's slightly less rude than sitting in a lecture and playing Backgammon on my Palm Pilot, which is itself slightly less rude than openly napping during a lecture. At least that's how I justify it. They're good puzzles but they are all on the easy side. They were nice confidence builders in my first days of Sudookin', but now I need something a little more challenging to keep me going. But I won't go back to Free Cell, I just won't. Worked well, a la Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory, in over 5000 games I averaged 72% success, but once reeled off a series of 37 straight wins when I was suppose to be studying for the USMLE part I.

Did I answer your question?

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Introducing Business to New Entrepreneurs

Small Business Classic

How To Get Started in 24 Easy Chapters

Useful and easy to understand

Excellent Resource

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting your own Business, 4th Edition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
Edward Paulson
Manufacturer: Alpha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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New Business Enterprises | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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The McGraw-Hill Guide to Starting Your Own Business : A Step-By-Step Blueprint for the First-Time Entrepreneur

What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business: Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs (What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business)

Small Business for Dummies, Second Edition

Business Start-Up Kit

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Business Plans (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

ASIN: 1592571387
Release Date: 2003-12-02

Amazon.com

The revised second edition of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business, by author and entrepreneur Ed Paulson and marketing consultant Marcia Layton, is an extensive handbook of small-business basics for those who already have the desire and drive mandatory for launching an individual commercial enterprise--but it does not include all of the specific day-to-day skills that significantly increase its chances for survival. The book begins with plainspoken advice on matters such as choosing a business, setting goals, and initiating the plan that makes it all happen. This is followed by material on sales and marketing and developing business structures, which is bolstered at appropriate intervals with useful definitions, additional resources, and warnings about potential pitfalls. The next two sections on finances and growth, however, may ultimately prove most valuable. The best information here includes sections about evaluating competition and defending against potential incursions; why business bankers reject loan applications and how to make them your allies; and why production plans are critical. This book also looks at the "secrets of success," suggesting ways to cope with the ups and downs that any entrepreneur will inevitably encounter. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Now with a CD-ROM!

Newly revised for the ever-changing world of business, this book offers stress-free guidence for anyone who wants to turn a good idea into a good living. This edition also includes a CD-ROM featuring commonly requested forms and documents essential to business start-ups.

€ Completely revised and updated edition of this top-selling title
€ CD-ROM included, featuring commonly requested forms and documents
€ Nearly 1.5 million new businesses are formed in the U.S. each year, most of which are "small businesses"
€ One in 12 Americans will start his or her own business at some point, according to the Jan./Feb. 03 issue of The Atlantic Monthly

Download Description

This is the perfect get-started guide to opening a business. In a lighthearted, friendly format, this book helps you act on your dreams of starting a business, and provides expert advice on business plans, financing, legal concerns, and marketing issues. It explains all you need to know and do to be your own boss.

Customer Reviews:

Introducing Business to New Entrepreneurs.......2005-05-12

When most entrepreneurs first get the yen to start a business, they realize that there must be a lot that they don't know. The legal, accounting and tax choices often seem particularly daunting . . . and there's often no money to retain an attorney.

Not knowing where to turn, many take local adult education classes (like the kind I teach). In those classes, these strivers often find out that what they didn't know that they didn't know is even more dangerous than what that they do know that they don't know.

The fourth edition of Starting Your Own Business is a good resource for such new entrepreneurs.

You will learn many of the fundamentals of picking a business to start, preparing a business plan, selecting a legal structure, organizing for success and operating the business once you start it.

Based on my experiences with new entrepreneurs, this book will answer about 80% of the questions that they usually have . . . and about 60% of the questions they should be asking.

One of the book's strengths is the CD-ROM that has sample forms and form letters for handling routine matters. While these won't substitute for having an attorney (I am one, so I know), they will allow you to work with an attorney in more effective and less expensive ways.

The areas where the book is weakest are as follows:

1. Doesn't spell out how the choice of business type affects your chances of success and the difficulty of raising money.

2. Doesn't do enough about the pros and cons of being a franchisee and how to pursue that opportunity.

3. Doesn't teach you how to create an advantaged business model and improve upon it.

4. Doesn't provide enough perspective on how to establish a management team.

One of the things I did like about the book is that it considers manufacturing businesses as well as service and professional service companies. Most resources about starting up businesses ignore the opportunity of manufacturing.

This book won't make or break your business, but it will speed your process of getting ready to launch if you don't have any background in this area.

Small Business Classic.......2004-08-24

Starting Your Own Business has been a top seller for many
years and for good reason: it's the classic handbook for
business owners. For the 4th edition, this book has been totally updated. If you have the 3rd edition, it is worth buying the new one just for the CD. An indispensable guide to those thinking about buying a business. Buy this book before you begin the process -- it is a must-have volume. If you are in business, keep this volume handy -- it addresses the most important challenges facing business owners today. Highest Recommendation.

How To Get Started in 24 Easy Chapters.......2004-07-26

I'm about halfway through this book and it's exactly what I was looking for. Over the years I've considered going out on my own but had no idea how to start. I needed an introductory guide to the setting up and running of a small business from the legal, financial & business side and that's exactly what this book does. It's a great overview of what any entrepreneur will face when they take the plunge. On top of that, it's not a bad read, for a non-fiction book.

Useful and easy to understand.......2004-07-14

I am using this book to help my friend's painting business get organized and focused. Bids and jobs take up much of his time, so this is a great tool to understand some of the "bigger" picture without having to take a bunch of business classes. The CD also has useful general forms.

Excellent Resource.......2004-07-14

This book was very easy to read and understand. If you are thinking of starting your own business and need to know how to go about doing it, this book is the only book you will need. The book comes complete with a CD containing forms and helpful resources and information.

Average customer rating:

Talking Back....

It's a journalism memoir, not an autobiography

Interesting read

She loses her objectivity

Snapshot of American politics and interesting tidbits

Talking Back: . . . to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels
Andrea Mitchell
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0143038737

Book Description

No TV reporter today is more respected than NBCÂ's Andrea Mitchell. SheÂ's covered stories from Jonestown to the fall of the Berlin Wall, gotten unexpected answers from such interviewees as Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton, and balanced her high-wire career with a very public marriage to former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Dr. Alan Greenspan. MitchellÂ's candid, funny, and riveting memoir is filled with unprecedented behind-the-scenes views of the television news industry and official Washington. A classic of contemporary journalism by a woman who has taken on her professionÂ's entire old-boy network, Talking Back deserves a place on the shelf alongside the memoirs of Hillary Clinton and Katherine Graham.

Customer Reviews:

Talking Back...........2007-08-11

This is a fabulous read...you can hear Andrea speaking as you read ...descriptive, exciting and historically fascinating.

It's a journalism memoir, not an autobiography.......2007-05-20

And people who are expecting a tell-all, fully detailed account of Andrea's life had better look elsewhere. This book is about her rise into the national broadcasting media. (If people want a detailed account they should read Magdaleine Albright's book "Madame Secretary.") This is not a book revealing every secret, ever detail of every person she interviewed or her feelings of all the events she covered. She's more "Just the facts, Sir" type of writer.

Now, with that out of the way, this is an easy-to-follow chronology of events as Andrea Mitchell saw them starting her days as a Philadelphia reporter for KYW and then the Jonestown massacre in late 1978. But it was later with Three Mile Island in March 1979, her first national exposure as an energy correspondent that brought her to the forefront as an aggressive reporter. It was a line on page 46 that summed up Andrea's personality, when she wanted to be there to cover the Three Mile Island melt-down but was denied her chance to report because her supervisor, an elderly and paternal Sid Davis didn't want Andrea, as a woman of child-bearing age, be exposed to potential nuclear radiation: "Men's testicles were as vulnerable to radiation as women's ovaries. I was on a plane to Three Mile Island the next day."

She was there for the rise of Ayatollah. She spoke well of Reagan as a gentleman, but also reported on his often-noticed fatigue, disorientation and his lack of detail which he delegated to his advisors. She was much less forgiving of Reagan's Chief of Staff, Don Regan.

Had Mitchell written with greater detail there's no doubt that this book would have required many more pages. One thing I can fault her with is not revealing much about her personal life and how her profession often dictated her personal life. She was very careful not to reveal too much about her early years with her now-husband Allan Greenspan.

The Paperback edition also provides additional reporting since the hardback book was published, which gives Condoleeza Rice much credit for her stance in the Middle East.

I will agree with Bill O'Reiley when he described Andrea Mitchell as one of the more non-partisan reporters. This book reflects that.

Interesting read.......2007-05-14

If you enjoy a mix of autobiography, history and current events, this book will delight you. Andrea Mitchell covers the American scene through the eyes of a journalist who, as husband of Allen Greenspan, was, at times, participant. Fair and balanced. Goes well with a shade tree and glass of lemonade.

She loses her objectivity.......2007-03-14

I thoroughly enjoyed the approach of this book, reading about her experiences as a journalist & working with various presidential administrations. I never felt mislead as some others have written, that she was going to write an autobiography; she calls it a memoir.
This book seemed very objective until it hit the Clinton section. In my opinion, it became extremely evident Ms. Mitchell is not a fan of the Clinton's. That would not be an issue, had she not attacked them as she does, taken this section to also delve into her personal relationship & in future chapters, brag about White House get togethers with the Cheneys, Rumsfelds & Bush's.
It's too bad Andrea lost her objectivity & took her jabs. She would have had an excellent book, had it been written in it's entirety as a journalist.

Snapshot of American politics and interesting tidbits.......2006-11-20

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it is very easy to read and covers the main political events of the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations. Yet somehow I felt left out in the "cold". There really is no analysis of geopolitics simply a black and white picture of each political event spread between colour photos of high profile social events. It would seem that Andrea Mitchell is more concerned about her associations rather than associating political events to offer us some insight into their nature......Perhaps this is how she was trained...to report not to analyze not to think independently.

She reports well. She does not think or critically appraise. Alas, I can hardly fault her for it given the visible absence of intellect and veiled presence of imbecility in the media.

Regardless, if you do not expect much it makes for light afternoon reading.

TALKING BACK : ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels (Numbered, Signed First Edition)

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TALKING BACK : ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels (Numbered, Signed First Edition)

Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000CJXJKM

Product Description

True first edition, limited to 1490 copies, signed by the author.

Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels

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Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels
Andrea Mitchell
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJWY6U

Air time: Andrea Mitchell sat front row for 30 years of American political history--and came away with nothing to say.(On Political Books)(Talking Back ... Review): An article from: Washington Monthly

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Air time: Andrea Mitchell sat front row for 30 years of American political history--and came away with nothing to say.(On Political Books)(Talking Back ... Review): An article from: Washington Monthly
Jason Zengerle
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Washington Monthly, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1251 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: Air time: Andrea Mitchell sat front row for 30 years of American political history--and came away with nothing to say.(On Political Books)(Talking Back ... to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels )(Book Review)
Author: Jason Zengerle
Publication: Washington Monthly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 37 Issue: 9 Page: 48(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

An inspirational and instructive memoir: Andrea Mitchell, a real-life Brenda Starr, looks back at an action-packed career in broadcast journalism.: An article from: American Journalism Review

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An inspirational and instructive memoir: Andrea Mitchell, a real-life Brenda Starr, looks back at an action-packed career in broadcast journalism.: An article from: American Journalism Review
Carl Sessions Stepp
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Journalism Review, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 831 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: An inspirational and instructive memoir: Andrea Mitchell, a real-life Brenda Starr, looks back at an action-packed career in broadcast journalism.
Author: Carl Sessions Stepp
Publication: American Journalism Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 27 Issue: 5 Page: 85(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

We are all acutely aware of the devastation and upheaval that result from war. Less obvious is the extent to which the military and war impact on the gender order. This book is the first to explore the intersections of the military, war and gender in twentieth-century Germany from a variety of different perspectives. Its authors investigate the relevance of the military and war for the formation of gender relations and their representation as well as for the construction of individual and social agency for both genders in civil society and the military. They inquire about the origins and development of gendered images as they were shaped by war. They expound on the multifarious mechanisms that served to reconstruct or newly form gender relations in the postwar periods. They analyze the participation of women and men in the creation of wars as well as the gender-specific meaning of their respective roles. Finally, they investigate the different ways of remembering and coming to terms with the two great military conflicts of the very violent twentieth century. The book focuses on the period before, during and after the two World Wars, closely linked 'total wars' that mobilized both the 'front' and the 'home-front' and increasingly blurred the boundaries between them. Drawing on sources ranging from forces newspapers to German pilot literature, police reports on women's food riots to oral history interviews with soldiers' wives, the richly documented case studies of Home/Front add the long-overdue gender dimension to the cultural and historical debates that surround these two great military conflicts.

Book Description

Nelson Mandela, freed from prison after twenty-seven years, found himself leading a country where the victims of apartheid now live side by side with their oppressors. How could the new South Africa survive? Mandela decided a truth commission would be the first step towards reconciliation, and, in 1995, he set government investigators to work examining the horrors perpetrated on both sides in the name of apartheid or equality. In Unspeakable Truths,Priscilla Hayner delivers a profound, definitive exploration of past truth commissions, and the anguish, the injustice, and the legacy of hate they are meant to absolve. She examines the twenty major truth commissions established around the world, paying special attention to South Africa, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala, where official investigations into the atrocities of the past seemed like the only medicine available to cure the symptoms developed under years of tyranny.
As she explores the inner workings of these tribunals, Hayner finds that victims are torn between the need to remember and the need to forget. In the new post-Cold War order, the future of democracy and peace may rest on this debate. For those concerned with the fate of democracy and freedom on the international stage, Unspeakable Truths is essential reading.

Customer Reviews:

"The" Reference, Applies to 9-11 and USA Truth Commissions.......2005-12-27

The publisher has been lazy and inconsiderate in failing to post adequate information about this superb book. It is without question the single most important reference, covering the theory, the history, the practice, and future of truth commissions. It is comprehensive, clear, easy to read, and superbly documented.

This book has special meaning for me, at the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction about global issues and national security and prosperity issues, because on the basis of real-life experience and reinforced by the 600+ books I have reviewed in just the past four years, I have become convinced that the US public must demand two Truth & Reconciliation Commissions if we are to reach the next century in any kind of good order: one must focus on the ills that America has bestowed on the world through its Cold War years (see Derek Leebaert, "The Fifty Year Wound" as well as--among many others--Chalmers Johnson, "The Sorrows of Empire"), its support of 44+ dictators world-wide (see Ambassador Mark Palmer's "The Real Axis of Evil"), and our predatory immoral capitalism (Cf. Perkins "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," Greider "The Soul of Capitalism," and Prestowitz, "Rogue Nation").

We also need an internal Truth & Reconciliation Commission that could usefully start with the treasonous, treacherous, immoral, and disgraceful failure of local, state, and federal government in the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina, and go backwards from there to explore not only our abuse of minorities, but our abuse of the working poor (see Ehrenreich, "Nickled and Dimed," David Shipler, "The Working Poor: Invisible in America") and then go from there to the pernicious deliberate looting of the Commonwealth by a combination of military-industrial, pharmaceutical, and energy special interests; corrupt Congressmen, and a Wall Street that thrives on laundering drug money and picking the pockets of the middle class (Cf . Michael Ruppert, "Crossing the Rubicon."

Most interesting to me, although not mentioned in this book, if one Goggles for truth and reconciliation USA one discoveres the Greensboro North Carolina Truth and Reconciliation endeavor, to explore past human rights abuses through slavery and related themes. This is a proven process that is clearly relevant to all countries, and especially to the 900-lb gorilla called America. The growing gap between rich and poor is the moral equivalent of global genocide and ecocide. If the rich wish to see their future generations survive, they had better start thinking about this important alternative to popular justice.

It is in this very American context that we can conclude that not only is this book at least as important to every American as it is to the rest of the world, but that the 9-11 Commission was a cover-up, a farce, that failed to engage the people, failed to discover all that could be known, and failed to hold anyone accountable.

I am most impressed by the diligence, scope, and coherence of this book. This is an extraordinary examination, based on global travel, deep research, and penetrating personal insight that is graceful and low-key, into the role of truth commissions, the great difficulties that accompany the creation and maintenance of such commissions, and the long-term implications of a successful outcome.

On page 23, after discussing the new emerging field of "transitional justice" the author declares that it "is certain that more countries will be turning to official truth-seeking in the coming years." As we review books like Jonathan Schell's "Unconquerable World" and "Why They Hate Us" and many others, two things are clear: 1) the dictators are not long for this world--I give them twelve years at the most; and 2) it is not just "dictatorships" that need commissions, but also those democracies that are fraudulent, among which I would include the United States of America (see my review of Jimmy Carter's new book, and the books recommended there, including Peter Peterson's "Running on Empty").

The author is to be commended for blending a reference work that concisely and clearly covers the 21 existing truth commissions at the time of the first writing as well as the 12 emergent between the hard copy and the new soft copy, and that brings out the reasons, the lessons, the benefits, and the costs. The most important benefit is mentioned on page 135, in which the author discusses the importance of honoring the past and overcoming what some call the conspiracy of silence. I would refer readers to Robert Parry's "Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press, and Project Truth" as well as Larry Beinhart, "Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin". The list goes on.

The book has a practical side as well, identifying key factors in whether a truth commission will succeed or fail, chief among which is whether they get an adequate staff and budget, and whether there is a good process of engaging the public in defining the goals and the process.

The appendices and the index are quite professional, and overall this is a world-class reference work of enormous value to the possibilities of using transitional justice to achieve sustainable peace around the world.

The Margins of Truth.......2001-07-11

Priscilla Hayner is, very likely, the world's most expert writer on 'truth commissions'. This book is a follow-up on the article '15 Truth Commissions', published in the Human Rights Quarterly, which was the first systematic review of the issue up to the mid-1990s. This book deals with dozens of examples up to 1999. Hayner describes how truth commissions are being established.How they operate under very different mandates, e.g. on presidential order, by parliamentary decision, under U.N. auspices, or as a judicial commission of enquiry. How some commissions deal with a large pattern of abuses, such as in Soutth Africa, and others have been concerned with selected violations only, such as the 'disappearances' which were the subject matter of the Argentine commission. How these commissions report, or do not report, on their findings. How commissions are concerned with, or show less than the necessary concern for, the victims. Much of Hayners observations are based on interviews with those directly involved in these commissions. The book has a couple of very useful appendices, where one can compare the mandate, membership, dates, operations, findings, and other characteristics. A few points of criticism are due too. Hayner's book may be the first of its scope, but it is not really, contrary to what is said in the Introduction, the first on the subject. A more serious point is that Hayner deals with these commissions rather as a standard concept. In fact, the commissions have shown wide divergencies and quite a few, if not the majority, may after all be considered less than an outright success. Hayner's optimism about future commissions may be somewhat misleading. It seems at present not at all sure that there is a sound future for truth commissions, the more so as the issue of national and international trials for those responsible has gained prominence in recent years.

Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions.(Book Review): An article from: International Journal on World Peace

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Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions.(Book Review): An article from: International Journal on World Peace
Tisa M. Anders
Manufacturer: Professors World Peace Academy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from International Journal on World Peace, published by Professors World Peace Academy on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1021 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: Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions.(Book Review)
Author: Tisa M. Anders
Publication: International Journal on World Peace (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Professors World Peace Academy
Volume: 22 Issue: 1 Page: 86(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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