Chinese Export Art and Design

Book Description

Exhibition catalogue. Explores the impact that trade between China and the continents of Europe and North America had on Chinese works of art made for export during the late Ming (1368-1644) through the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. 21 black & white illustrations.

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Chinese Export Art and Design
Craig, ed. Clunas
Manufacturer: Victoria and Albert Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K4XPIU

Tea and design in Chinese export painting,

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Tea and design in Chinese export painting,
Kee Il Choi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006R0FVG

Book Description

Color Management for Photographers: Hands on Techniques for Photoshop Users, by Andrew Rodney, addresses the difficult subject of color management in a way that can help you get real work accomplished. This is the first book that moves beyond esoteric color management theory and detailed explanations of how things work to explain how to achieve a desired effect with step-by-step instructions so you can get on with creating and printing successful images. Complete with what-button-to-push-when explanations, this guide will help you navigate color management and further solidify comprehension of techniques with self-paced tutorials that enable you to practice what Rodney preaches. This practical, learn by doing approach is enhanced by the accompanying CD-Rom which includes sample files for practice as well as tutorials and software.

Written with the photographer in mind, this book is also a great hands-on guide for graphic designers, those in prepress/print and, more generally, the majority of people who feel color management is too difficult. This book will help to explain this difficult concept in terms you can understand so that you may control and enhance your photographic vision.

* Covers CS2!
* Distills theory and concentrates on the tools at hand to get the job done
* CD ROM with tutorials and software help you better understand the concepts and teach you how to use Photoshop and its CMS features correctly
* Provides the working professional with a resource in the critically important area of printing and prepress

Customer Reviews:

Good resource for color management........2006-12-27

This is a great book on color management. Color management is a oft-misunderstood subject and it is fair to say that there are good reasons for this - mainly that it is complicated.

Andrew Rodney does not simplify the subject, thus the reason I did not give this four stars. However, if you are serious about the subject, this book is a vital tool in trying to understand color management.

Some of the book is tedious and some of it is hard to understand, but there are large parts of the book which offer valuable and understandable information on color management and your quest to achieve this "holy grail."

My suggestion is that if you are casually trying to understand how to calibrate your monitor, this book may not be for you. If you are seriously trying to understand color management and are building a library of useful references and gleaning useful nuggets of information from several different books in your quest to achieve color management nirvana - then this book should be in your library.

Meh... Next........2006-05-23

Nobody can deny that Mr. Rodney knows how color management works in Photoshop better than most people, but unfortunately, knowledge of a subject doesn't make you a good writer. I find the bulk of Mr. Rodney's ramblings (both those published on his website-that-time-forgot and posted to various discussion groups and mailing lists) to teeter on the verge of complete unreadability most of the time, and while my hopes were high that a good editor might tame his curious linguistic proclivities here, they were quickly dashed upon skimming through the text. What's worse, the illustrations and photos in every single copy of this book I've ever seen have suffered from severe magenta color casts, leading one to wonder why the author and his publishing company failed to practice what they preached in bringing this title to the public. If you didn't know who Andrew Rodney was to begin with, you'd likely think him full of beans based on the appearance of the plates in this volume. After all, why should readers believe consistent, predictable color in print to be a realistically attainable goal when even the guy who wrote the book on the subject can't seem to achieve it?

There's certainly some good information in between these covers, but none of it is groundbreaking in any way. You might learn something interesting about WWII by asking your grandfather to tell you some old war stories, but you'll have to suffer through a lot of pointless rambling to get to it, and that's pretty much what reading this book feels like. About the only thing this book really has going for it that its competitors lack is the nostalgia longtime Photoshop users will likely feel at the sight of the dog image gracing the cover. Since you can see that image right here for free, there's not a lot of point in paying for yet another rehashing of this subject matter, even at amazon's substantially discounted price. I have no doubt that Mr. Rodney is a very technically proficient color management consultant who can deliver $10,000 worth of results to all who can afford his services, but his efforts in the creative fields of writing, illustration and design just ain't worth a plugged nickel.

It may also be worth noting that more than one of the glowing 5-star reviews that have been posted here were planted by friends and associates of Mr. Rodney. How's that for class?

The best tutorial introduction to CMS........2005-11-27

Get Andrew Rodney's book, and a copy of Real World Color Management, and you'll have the best existing CMS tutorial and the the best reference text.

Edmund Ronald, Ph.D, (...).

Real world techniques to tackle color management.......2005-09-25

Thanks Andrew Rodney, I just received your new book and I just couldn't wait to thank you for having made all this knowledge available to us. This book will be a milestone on the subject of color management as it dares to go into the nitty-gritty details of "how to make it work in real life".

Andre Dumas "Colorman 042000"

Charming, lightweight banter.......2005-09-16

There are entirely too many books like this. 100 pages of information hidden in clouds of personal chatter, name dropping and cliches. Too bad because this is an important area that is almost completely misunderstood. This material should be presented to experienced photographers at an engineering level. It isn't an "all you have to do is..." subject.

If you don't know anything about color, the first 30 pages of this book might help. If you know a lot about photography this book will irritate you, especially when the author runs aground on the subject of Gamma, as so many others have. There is excellent information on the Web that covers this subject so well, nobody needs to misunderstand it.

If you already us Photoshop CS2 and Camera RAW you don't need this book. If you don't use them, you should. Then go to the Adobe website and pick up the white papers by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe. They are free, very well written and focussed on how Photoshop works and what you need to know.

I would recommend anything written by Blatner & Fraser, or Schewe. Add your own experience and just do it. You'll be better off.

COLOR MANAGEMENT FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS HANDS ON TECHNIQUES FOR PHOTOSHOP USERS

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COLOR MANAGEMENT FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS HANDS ON TECHNIQUES FOR PHOTOSHOP USERS
ANDREW RODNEY
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Adobe Photoshop | Digital Photography & Video | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OPXUKS

Book Description

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Book Description

Providing a whimsical but informed view on air travel by a leading management guru, this book supplies a much-needed outlet for the frustrations of the troubled traveler. Flying is an experience the author defines as akin to cattle-car herding, which begins at depressingly generic and chaotic airports and continues through agonizing hours in cramped, sardine-class seats, where the passengers are served skimpy and unidentifiable meals and bombarded with "customer service" that amounts to constant interruptions while trying to sleep or read. Containing hilarious anecdotes about fellow passengers and stories of suffering, this witty rant is the author's revenge on the airlines and the culture of commercialism that has reduced a once-enjoyable adventure to a loathsome farce.

Book Description

A year before his death, the great Italian film director Federico Fellini sat down with documentary-maker Damian Pettigrew for a series of intimate, in-depth interviews. I'm a Born Liar contains the highlights of these conversations. With great candidness, Fellini discusses every aspect of his work, from his early life to his relationship with Italian culture to the inspiration behind his films.

Pettigrew's immensely readable interviews illuminate the life of the director of La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8(tm), and other classic films, and demonstrate his wild imagination, his energy, and his passion. Fellini reveals much, on subjects ranging from women ("the unknown planet") to his neuroses ("fabulous treasure buried at the bottom of the city") to his actors ("puppets"). In between, the director muses on marriage, memory, cinema, and Marcello Mastroianni.

Accompanying the interviews are 125 film stills and never-before-published photographs from the Fellini Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna. Published on the 10th anniversary of Fellini's death and in conjunction with the release of Pettigrew's film of the same name, I'm a Born Liar provides rare insight into one of the world's most innovative and influential directors.

Customer Reviews:

Spiritual Testament.......2004-01-23

This deluxe edition of what renowned Fellini specialist Tullio Kezich describes as the Maestro's "spiritual testament" (in his superb foreword to the book) is bona fide Fellini-esque. Hilarious anecdotes are squeezed in beside a number of very moving meditations on old age, sex, LSD, unemployment, Trivial Pursuit, God, Dante, death and the Hereafter. The newly restored black-and-white photos capturing the Italian director's surreal world are well-served by an excellent English translation. The final entry in the lexicon is a fairy tale titled "Zio Lupo" or "Uncle Wolf" and it pretty much defines Fellini's insatiability. Highly recommended.

I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon (ISBN: 0810946173)

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I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon (ISBN: 0810946173)
Damian Pettigrew
Manufacturer: Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LCBUQK

Book Description

NEW MISERABLE EXPERIENCE provided rock fans with some of the most indelible musical moments of 1994. This excellent folio features authentic transcriptions of eight great songs: Lost Horizons Hey Jealousy Until I Fall Away Cajun Song Hands Are Tied Found Out About You Allison Road Pieces of the Night.

Selections from Gin Blossoms-New Miserable Experience, Guitar Tab Ed.

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Selections from Gin Blossoms-New Miserable Experience, Guitar Tab Ed.

Manufacturer: Warner Bros. Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Sheet music
ASIN: B000HDFGSQ

Book Description

The

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Interesting

Rediscover the Incredible You!

More Management Advice

Excellent !

"An expert on charisma--because he is charismatic"

Charisma: Seven Keys to Developing the Magnetism that Leads to Success
Tony Alessandra
Manufacturer: Business Plus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Power of Charm: How to Win Anyone over in Any Situation

The New Secrets of Charisma : How to Discover and Unleash your Hidden Powers

Executive Charisma: Six Steps to Mastering the Art of Leadership

Irresistible Attraction: Secrets of Personal Magnetism

The Platinum Rule: Discover the Four Basic Business Personalities andHow They Can Lead You to Success

ASIN: 0446675989

Amazon.com

Call it what you want: charm, personality, or sex appeal. Fact is, wildly successful people seem to have a lot more than their fair share of it. Fortunately for the rest of us, Tony Alessandra, author of a dozen books and popular speaker on marketing tactics and business relationships, believes everyone has the ability to cultivate and take advantage of it. In Charisma: Seven Keys to Developing the Magnetism That Leads to Success, he teaches the basics with the aid of "quick quizzes" and demonstrates their uses with the help of inspiring examples. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

For over 20 years, Tony Alessandra has been researching and studying human performance. In that time, he has discovered that only one factor unites truly successful people: charisma. Now, for the first time, this business expert shows how the all-important combination of positive energy, confidence, and vision can be learned.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting.......2007-06-28

I liked especially the straightforward step-by-step illustrations on how to make properly make personal and successful connections with people.

Rediscover the Incredible You!.......2007-04-06

This book halps put things in perspective when you wonder what wonderful things people see in you that you can't see for yourself. I have ben enlightened and can see the charisma that resides in myself and the opthers that I am surrounded by. This is a great book for those of youwho want to improve you and be the best you , you can possibly be!!

More Management Advice.......2006-09-06

This book has nothing to do with charisma and everything to do with selling and management. If you want to learn how to sell cars or inspire your secretary, go ahead and get this book. If you want to sway crowds with your powerful words, look elsewhere. And no, I haven't found the book that teaches that yet.

Excellent !.......2005-02-07

You don't need to born with charisma. You can learn it, but you must read this book.

"An expert on charisma--because he is charismatic".......2002-03-22

There is a lot of information packed within these pages. More in fact than I could get from one reading. I found this book to be better than any I've read yet on the subject... yet, it still seems that there is an elusive, magical aspect of charisma that each author seems to miss. This may just be my personal viewpoint. Who knows, maybe I need to find the magical gem, insert it into the puzzle, and write the book myself. I have listened to tapes; watched videos; and read books by Tony Alessandra, and this guy rocks. Read this book by all means and add to your own charisma.

Book Description

In this major new biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the first to appear in English based on Turkish sources, Andrew Mango strips away the myth, to show the complexities of one of the most visionary, influential, and enigmatic statesmen of the century. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was virtually unknown until 1919, when he took the lead in thwarting the victorious Allies' plan to partition the Turkish core of the Ottoman Empire. He divided the Allies, defeated the last Sultan, and secured the territory of the Turkish national state, becoming the first president of the new republic in 1923, fast creating his own legend.

Andrew Mango's revealing portrait of Atatürk throws light on matters of great importance today-resurgent nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and the reality of democracy.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating biography.......2007-06-29

This is a fascinating biography of Ataturk who rose from the confusion surrounding the end of the Ottoman empire to become the driving force in founding the Turkish Republic. Mango's account is a must read for anyone interested in Turkey.

Authoritative biography.......2007-05-09

The current political disputes in Turkey between secularists and Muslims, between those who look to the West and those who look to the Muslim East, mirror the very similar conflicts that took place in Atataturk's day. This authoritative biography provides a detailed picture of Ataturk and his efforts to bring modernity to Turkey. It took a strong and authoritarian leader to accomplish the task, which remains incomplete. Mango gives as full an account of Ataturk's complex character as is available in English. Ataturk had brilliant leadership and rhetorical talents as well as many personal shortcomings. He drank heavily, had difficult relations with women, and became suspicious, even somewhat paranoid in his later years. His style was often dictatorial. Mango, while providing much enlightening background and insights, sometimes inclines to weigh the scale of judgement too heavily in Ataturk's favor. Nonetheless, this fascinating work is compulsory reading for anyone wishing to understand the creation, culture and politics of contemporary Turkey.

Good bio of incredibly interesting man.......2006-08-27

Ataturk is an amazing man, both for what he accomplished and for his creation of the modern Turkish state. The book does a good job of taking you through what Ataturk did, how he accomplished it, and the changes he wrought to create Turkey from the remains of the Ottoman empire.

I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because the writer is a good biographer, not a great one. He's not bad, he's just not great. So it's more like you are watching the history unfold instead of being there.

With that said, it's an incredible story. It is one of the most amazing transformations in the history of civilization. He started with the remains of the Ottoman Empire that was about to be divided up into pieces by the great powers and ended with a Turkish state that is secular and part of the modern world. And he did this in 30 years.

Simply amazing.

a must read for ppl interested in the history of Turkey.......2006-05-16

Andrew Mango's "Ataturk" is a thorough depiction of Ataturk's life and the circumstances in which it was shaped. While reading this book you will feel that the author did a substantial research on the subject.

Ataturk I The Founder of Modern Turkey.......2006-04-29

Mr. Mango outdid himself. Excellent book. Well researched, well written, easily readable. Very highly recommended.

Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey.(Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of International Affairs

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Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey.(Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of International Affairs
George E. Gruen
Manufacturer: Columbia University School of International Public Affairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of International Affairs, published by Columbia University School of International Public Affairs on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 3108 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: Ataturk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey.(Review) (book review)
Author: George E. Gruen
Publication: Journal of International Affairs (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: Columbia University School of International Public Affairs
Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Page: 311

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Ataturk The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

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Ataturk The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey
Andrew Mango
Manufacturer: Overlook Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

View the Table of Contents. Read the Preface.

"An interesting book that raises many important questions"—Journal of Peace Research

"Comprehensive examination of the myriad costs of war."
—Forecast

"A compact and cogent study. Goldstein makes a fine example of a nonideologue at work."
—Publishers Weekly

"Goldstein does an admirable job in breaking down current war costs and who we pay them."
—Jewish Herald-Voice"Goldstein is not an economist but a political scientist who takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of war. Here he argues that the war on terrorism is much more expensive than we have been told and that we must spend now to win it quickly or we will pay far more in the future to do so. Recommended for all public libraries."
—Library Journal

"Forget the astronomical numbers you read about in the press --- $120 billion here, $87 billion there. Here's how much the war is costing you personally. Goldstein, political scientist and "scholar of war" creates a crude but credible model for determining the cost of war per household in the United States."—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"An important book for all Americans about the real costs of the War on Terror. It asks the tough questions about who pays and gives us a better understanding of the war's impact on our everyday lives."
—General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO

"The Real Price of War ought to be required reading in the Kerry campaign and among all Americans who want their government to do the right thing. It is a timely book with far-reaching implications for every American."
—David Moats, Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing

"Joshua S. Goldstein's argument is simple, powerfully argued, and persuasive: we have not spent enough to win the war on terror, and we cannot afford not to. For those who say we are already spending too much, he marshals an impressive range of historical evidence to prove that we are spending much less than we have on past wars. For those who say the status quo threat level is acceptable, he presents frightening scenarios to prove that it is not. The conclusions he draws are as convincing as they are dire."
—Nisid Hajari, Managing Editor, Newsweek International

"Engaging."
—Kirkus Reviews

"In this engrossing and Cassandra-like book, the respected Professor Joshua Goldstein tells us, just as we need it most badly, of the true 'costs' of war-and warns America of the new era that it has inaugurated in the world."
—Georgie Anne Geyer, Syndicated Columnist, Universal Press Syndicate, and author of Guerrilla Prince: The Untold Story of Fidel Castro

"Joshua Goldstein has always written about big topics, and this is the biggest: If the war against terrorism is to be won-and it must be won-what will be the likely costs and how should they be allocated among the American people? He writes with passion, insight, evidence, and fundamental fairness on an issue that will shape all our lives."
—Bruce Russett, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Yale University

Are Americans in denial about the costs of the War on Terror? In The Real Price of War, Joshua S. Goldstein argues that we need to face up to what the war costs the average American—both in taxes and in changes to our way of life. Goldstein contends that in order to protect the United States from future attacks, we must fight—and win—the War on Terror. Yet even as President Bush campaigns on promises of national security, his administration is cutting taxes and increasing deficit spending, resulting in too little money to eradicate terrorism and a crippling burden of national debt for future generations to pay.

The Real Price of War breaks down billion-dollar government expenditures into the prices individual Americans are paying through their taxes. Goldstein estimates that the average American household currently pays $500 each month to finance war. Beyond the dollars and cents that finance military operations and increased security within the U.S., the War on Terror also costs America in less tangible ways, including lost lives, reduced revenue from international travelers, and budget pressures on local governments. The longer the war continues, the greater these costs. In order to win the war faster, Goldstein argues for an increase in war funding, at a cost of about $100 per household per month, to better fund military spending, homeland security, and foreign aid and diplomacy.

Americans have been told that the War on Terror is a war without sacrifice. But as Goldstein emphatically states: "These truths should be self-evident: The nation is at war. The war is expensive. Someone has to pay for it."

Customer Reviews:

Required "Learning" Reading.......2005-12-31

This is both a great and a frustrating book. The title and the heroic effort the author took to make it "readable to the common man" are astounding. The topic list is very nearly complete. It needs a companion book on "How to win such (and I guess all) wars." that is the main missing element; but, the author honestly tells us he is not going there. The frustrating parts for me were the number of the author's "shoulds" which come from nowhere we can read about in his book or its references, and that he didn't/couldn't go deeper. It's my lifetime pick for required reading for all of us, so we can get the rest of the job done, eventually!!!!

A Start.......2005-12-24

Goldstein begins by pointing out that the total cost of the War on Terror includes money spent through government, private and indirect costs, and added costs that we may pay in the future. Goldstein then comes up with a current cost total of about $500/month/household, which includes funds for the Defense Dept, Energy Dept. for nuclear weapons, Homeland Security, Other agencies, Veterans Affairs, servicing past military debt, and the Iraq War itself. And then there are the "costs" of the over 2,100 American lives lost so far, and the tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans.

In addition, there are costs for added corporate security (eg. chemical plants, large office buildings), delays and added costs in receiving goods from overseas, etc. However, no credible estimate of these costs was given.

Finally Goldstein suggests that additional funds will be needed to win over other nations - for improved education, healthcare, military arms, and general economic aid. Again no credible estimate of these costs.

The "real" issue, which Goldstein fails to realize, is that it is economically and operationally impossible to realistically defend against all credible terrorist threats. Thus, the only feasible solution is to think of how we can stop generating terrorists - eg. rethink our policies towards Israel, Iraq, cheap oil, dictating to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, a paper was recently presented at the American Economic Association meeting estimating that the war is costing far more than estimated - close to $4 billion/week, when one includes the long-term costs of injuries and deaths.

Bottom Line: Goldstein quotes bin Laden, as follows - "It is very important to concentrate on hitting the U.S. economy through all possible means." However, he fails to realize that given all the added cost to-date, our continuing self-defeating policies that generate more terrorists, and the impossibility of "terror-proofing" the U.S., Osama is winning.

The economic costs in detail and personalized.......2005-06-01

Joshua Goldstein is a political scientist with a special interest in war and international relationships. In this modest volume he itemizes the economic costs of war in general and historically and shows specifically how much the average household in America is paying for the war on terror. (That would be $500 a month according to a "bill" he presents to "The Smith Household" on page 16.)

His position is nonpartisan and his tone is measured, factual and amazingly calm. It's apparent that he didn't think the war in Iraq was necessary, and it is clear that he thinks the Bush tax cuts put too much of the financial burden for the war on terror onto the shoulders of Americans of modest means. He shows that historically the rich have paid a larger portion of the cost of war than they are paying for the current war. This would only seem right since they have more to lose financially speaking. He also thinks we ought to pay for the war as the expenses arise and not put off the cost by borrowing or through deficient spending as the Bush administration has done. That way just increases the total cost of the war because we have to pay interest on the money borrowed.

Regardless of how the war is financed Goldstein shows that there will be an additional cost in terms of inflation. He sees inflation as one of the "hidden" costs of war, and relates a "History of War-Induced Inflation" on pages 76-81, and then asks, "Will the War on Terror Trigger Inflation?" His answer is most likely. However, it will not be as bad as the inflation that began during and following the Civil War, World Wars I & II, and the Vietnam War, mainly because the cost of the war on terror is nowhere near as great in terms of total GDP. As an example of the kind of inflation we have experienced in the past, Goldstein points out that the dollar was worth $18.19 in today's terms in 1915 before WW I began and worth only $9.18 in 1920, two years after the war was over. ( p. 79)

Goldstein believes "Americans are in denial about the substantial war costs we face." (p. 161) He would like to see us get over the denial and to urge our government to spend more money on the war on terror so that it might be won more quickly and in the long run cost us less. To this end he recommends increasing expenditures so that the average household would pay another $100 a month so that the "bill" would be $600 a month. (p. 196) Goldstein believes there is no such thing as "a war without sacrifice" and wants the Bush administration to be more open about that fact and to become more Churchhillian (if you will) in asking the America people to make the necessary sacrifices. Obviously, by detailing the costs of the war on terror and making that cost personal with his "bill" to the average American household, Goldstein is attempting to do this himself. I think it's a good idea; however, if the average American household had to write a check for $600 a month to the government rather than having that money just disappear from their living standard (either today or down the road) I think Mr. and Mrs. Average American would balk. One wonders if that is not Goldstein's veiled point, although his expression would deny that.

Of course the real "real" cost of war goes much deeper than the economic. The lives lost, the injured and maimed, the waste of human effort and the displacement of energies from something productive and life-affirming are most significant. Goldstein is not to be faulted for leaving these out since such matters are not part of his thesis, and that is fine since every book should have an end as well as a beginning. However, I cannot read about the subject of war without thinking about its "real" significance in human affairs beyond not only the economic and the personal costs, but the species-wide costs as well. And I would ask not just "what price war?" but what can we do about it? As an instrument of the tribal structure, has war insured that those tribes that committed themselves to its unrestricted use are the ones that have survived (and are "us") or is it the case that those tribes that survived are guaranteed to eventually go the way of the swordsman?

Good Analysis, Impractical Solution.......2005-02-09

It's certainly true that War has a cost. And the analysis given here by Mr. Goldstein is probably not far off, especially as we see each new special appropriation that gets submitted to Congress.

He goes into quite a few of the indirect expenses that don't show up in the regular budgets, things like Veterans expenses. He aludes to some expenses that are real but harder to measure, things like the slow down in air travel after 9/11 that affects not only the airlines, but the rest of the travel industry from hotels to Boeing.

The second point worth noting is that his solution is typical of Massachusetts Democrats, raise the taxes on the wealthy. After the least election, I don't see this happening.

Required reading for Republicans.......2004-11-08

Professor Goldstein has done a wonderful job of presenting a complex subject in terms that we all can understand. I wish this book had been published years ago and that more people had read it, maybe things would be different today.
The book explains in no uncertain terms why we cannot wage a war and cut taxes at the same time, it uncovers all the hidden costs of war and shows how we cannot possibly afford those costs without increased revenue. Goldstein has shown here that we are incurring debt that we, and our children and grandchildren, will be strapped with for many years. If we are to believe that a war on terror is in our best interests than we need to make some hard choices on how we pay for that war. This is a book that the current administration should be required to read.

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Been Brown So Long It Smelled To Me.

It's the Life Suppoort System, Stupid

Required reading for environmental activists

Common Sense Defense of the Earth

Chainsaw massacres

Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature
Jeffrey St. Clair
Manufacturer: Common Courage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1567512585

Book Description

From the co-founder of CounterPunch, "America's best political newsletter" (Out of Bounds Magazine) comes a comprehensive seven-part reader on environmental politics. Covering everything from toxics to electric power plays, St. Clair gives you a shocking view of how money and power determine the state of our environment.

St. Clair names the culprits and exposes the deeds. The book opens with Oregon as a metaphor for the nation. Now becoming "Californicated," Oregon's mythological beauty is transforming into just that: more myth every day.

In Been Brown So Long, It Looked Like Green to Me you'll meet:

Bill Clinton, "saving" Yellowstone National Park from the miners. This turned out to be a thinly disguised a payoff of Noranda who was given leases on other federal lands.
Not to be outdone is Chainsaw George. Bush II is out to stop forest fires by stopping forests.
But St. Clair also profiles the heroes like David Chain who gave his life fighting for the forest, and founder of Friends of the Earth David Brower railing against the -increasing conformity of the environmental movement.

From the struggle over the lobo wolf in New Mexico to the fight to save the Grizzly (in Idaho), from the shooting of wild Bison in Montana to how the Sierra Club provided the cover for a federal program that shoveled federal lands into the hands of private investors, St. Clair gives a well-rounded account of where the environment stands -today-and what to do about it.

Praise for Jeffrey St. Clair's White Out: The CIA, Drugs and the Press:

"A history of hypocrisy and political interference the like of which only Frederick Forsyth in a dangerous caffeine frenzy could make up."-The Guardian

Customer Reviews:

Been Brown So Long It Smelled To Me........2005-08-24

But the book itself smelled GOOD! It is a very interesting read and an eye opener as well. An eye might just even pop right on out of your head matter a fact! Though it shouldn't, just look around at our world today and our exploited environment. Some issues may just be speculation at the least, but it is definitely a great book for the critical reader.

It's the Life Suppoort System, Stupid.......2004-07-13

It's the Life Support System, Stupid.

MICHAEL DONNELLY

"They say we can't win without the Big Greens and the funders. Yet, that's the only way we've ever won."
Mike Roselle, co-founder Earth First!

Jeffrey St. Clair's book, "Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green To Me" (Common Courage Press, 2004) is a 400-page verification of Roselle's statement.

After a brilliant "Opening Statement," the book starts out with an edited version of Alexander Cockburn and Ken Silverstein's summary of the events that led to the modern environmental movement and giving credit where due, surprisingly for many, to our "greatest environmental president" Richard M. Nixon, and, not so unexpectedly to the great Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and his allies.

The summary goes on to chart the rise and fall of the Big Greens as they tepidly challenged Republican-led depredations and then completely collapsed in a spasm of Clinton sycophancy -- illustrated perfectly by their surrender of the grassroots' Ancient Forest victory.

From there, it's the same thing over and over again in campaign after campaign. St. Clair charts how local activists rise up to challenge corporate assaults on nature only to see the Groundhog Day-like script repeat -- the Big Greens and their foundation masters come in, take credit for the grassroots' hard work, use the issue to raise funds and then cut a Democrat and corporate-friendly "compromise."

There are so many issues covered here, it could very well be the definitive history of every ecological issue since the first Earth Day.

Wilderness issues appear first, as they did for the early environmental movement's heroes like the arch-druid, David Brower. Contrast Brower's life-long dedication to all things wild with the sorry tale of Eastern millionaire G. Jon Roush, then president of the Wilderness Society, who clearcuts ancient forests on his own hobby ranch in Montana's Bitterroot Valley - an act called "roughly akin to the head of Human Rights Watch being caught torturing a domestic servant."

The slaughter of Yellowstone's bison, the strip-mining of the oceans, the suffocating of salmon streams and the murder of activist David Chain all come under much needed scrutiny.

The toxic nature of Big Ag is dissected early on, as are the predations of Big Oil, King Coal and the conscienceless Nuclear industry.

Excellent uncovering of the continued assault on America's indigenous people, their remaining lands and barely hanging on culture is perhaps the books most necessary section. These stories have been all but ignored in the mainstream press. That the spineless Democratic Party Senate "leader," Tom Daschle (D)-SD is able to get Big Green support for yet another raid on Paha Sapa (the Black Hills), the sacred lands of the Sioux is just about all one needs to know about the rot that permeates the Democrats and the DC-based environmental establishment. That the sorry deal on the Black Hills is being used by the Bush administration as the template for "post-fire" logging assaults all over the West shows exactly where the bankrupt pro-Democrat leanings have led.

Stories about military pollution and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and what's happened to the good people of Fallon, Nevada are the creepiest in the book. It's enough to make one throw up one's hands and run for a cave in the hills.

But, in the end, hope is all over the place. As St. Clair notes time and again, real activists are valiantly working to hold off the predators and their political and nonprofit enablers. Reading their stories and realizing that there are hundreds of folks out there who are fighting for the fate of Gaia, is the antidote to the despair one easily could get locked into.

This is an important tome. Unlike so many other cautious tomes written about environmental issues, it names names and has the facts to back it all up. It also names places - places that deserve better. And, hopefully, with this fine compilation out there, we'll see more support for these special places and an even greater vision motivate generations to come.

Required reading for environmental activists.......2004-07-10

Don't send in that Sierra Club membership renewal payment just yet, before you read this book!

"Been Brown So Long..." is author Jeffrey St. Clair's best work yet. Consider it required reading for anyone who's ever given money to an environmental group, and especially for environmental activists who want to know which groups are doing the critically important work and which are not. In an era where environmentalism is in decline as a grassroots movement, it is critically important for those who care about the fate of the Earth to examine the nature and cause of this crisis that is perhaps invisible to those who are not involved in movement politics on a daily basis.

One of the most incisive critics of industrial environmentalism today, Mr. St. Clair is, sadly, one of the few writers willing and qualified to dissect the body impolitic of the big enviro groups and their patrons, the Environmental Grantmakers Association and its member foundations chief among them.

Common Sense Defense of the Earth.......2004-04-02

Capitalism, the free-market and progress give noble aim to the spirit of man. As documented by St. Clair, their gifts include the advent of factory fish trawlers that make a haul of 400 tons of fish, crabs, and squid in a matter of a couple of hours in the Alaska Bering Sea, 40 percent of which is by-catch waste, churned up and spewed back into the sea, some 550 million pounds a year. What are fish after all, next to Almighty Dollars?

St. Clair disposes the myth of the tree-hugger in his common sense description of the wanton destruction of 95 percent of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, an irremediable teasure. You'll seethe with him at the six figure incomes of leaders of the co-opted and ineffectual environmental NGOs like the Sierra Club. Corporations that "patent" mineral claims for as little as $2.50 an acre by virtue of the anachronistic 1872 Mining Act, and thereby reap millions of dollars of profits off public lands for pennies on the dollar gives animation to the old saw about if you're not outraged!

When Louisiana-Pacific discovers that its newly-patented and supposedly innovative Inner Seal siding emits deadly fumes when exposed to humidity it is quietly shipped off to the mere dusky-hued in Vietnam and Bolivia. Separately, politically connected, L & P profits handsomely in buying cedar off the publicly-owned Tongass Forest in Alaska for $1.50 per thousand board feet and then sells it to Japanese sawmills for as much as $1,500 per thousand board feet. What are American jobs next to corporate profits?

"Hostile intentions toward the people of another country. Deployment of chemical weapons and biological agents. Pursuit of a scorched-earth policy. Sounds like Saddam's Iraq? Think again. This neatly sums up the Bush administrations ongoing depredations in Colombia, all under the shady banner of the war on drugs." Nice to know St. Clair bothers to keep us informed even if our pathetic media don't.

Through all this and more, St. Clair counsels good humor and optimism. And while the stark immensity of what he reports in this book ought by all rights engender a hopeless despair, through the skill of a singular investigative jounalist and a peerless story-teller, just the opposite is true.

Only in Michener's story of the missionaries' sailors' attempt to round Cape Horn in a storm in "Hawaii," have I found the printed word exceeded as viscerally compelling and dramatic, as in St. Clair's narrative of coming face to face with a rattlesnake in the Mojave Desert.

Chainsaw massacres.......2004-02-02

Crusading environmental journalist Jeffrey St. Clair has written a devastating tale of corporate plunder, political hypocrisy and ecological loss. The book opens with a description of a wooded canyon in the Pacific Northwest, where osprey soar and cougars still prowl. It ends with a grim portrait of Butte, Montana, a toxic slag-heap of a town that is the country's largest Superfund site. In between, it takes on the Bush administration, the mining and timber industries, the Wise Use movement and the country's private utilities, among other worthy targets.

St. Clair metes out criticism in a decidedly non-partisan way. While giving Reagan and Bush officials a series of well-merited thrashings, he is equally relentless in detailing Clinton/Gore era wrongs. Nor does St. Clair have much patience for the environmental lawyers who drive BMWs, populate corporate boardrooms, and negotiate politically-expedient compromises. "Institutional environmentalists," he calls them, with disdain, "corporate-tolerant greens."

The book is hard-hitting and opinionated, but fair. If you want to understand what's been happening to the nation's mountains, forests, rivers, and wild creatures over the past couple of decades, you should read it.

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