Going Public: A Field Guide to Developments in Art in Public Places

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Going Public: A Field Guide to Developments in Art in Public Places
Jeffrey L. Cruikshank , and Pam Korza
Manufacturer: Univ of Massachusetts Arts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0945464002

Book Description

Going Public is the classic primer for understanding issues, policies,and processes in the administration and preservation of public art. Case studies, checklists, and information from over two hundred ongoing public art programs are offered along with a resource list and extensive bibliography.

Going Public is a primary resource for anyone involved in the field or who aspires to develop public art programs or projects. Published in cooperation with the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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A MUST HAVE!

Expected More...

Great intro to digital, but worthwhile for experienced too

A promotion for his PS actions...

great tool!

Digital Photography Boot Camp: A Step-by-Step Guide for Professionals
Kevin Kubota
Manufacturer: Amherst Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Digital Photography | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Digital Photography | Digital Photography & Video | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1584281693

Book Description

Professionals can shoot freely, preview images, and not worry about the cost of film when they master the enhancement capabilities of the powerful digital imaging program Adobe Photoshop. This approach to navigating the digital camera universe details the technical and creative changes that digital cameras have brought to traditional film photography. How a digital camera's features must be set differently from a film camera's to ensure correct digital exposure, color rendition, and resolution for high-quality, well-balanced images is thoroughly discussed. From the camera to the desktop, photographers learn how to cultivate a seamless digital workflow that can be applied to a studio or lab of any size. The preview stage, with tips on workflow output with slides, Web galleries, proof sheets, and prints is emphasized, providing photographers with the image techniques that can make or break the sale. A cache of the author's self-assignments, personal anecdotes, and insights are included to help photographers analyze scenes, develop ideas, and put their artistic vision into action with their new set of digitally enhanced tools.

Customer Reviews:

A MUST HAVE!.......2007-08-09

Every Digital Photographer should have a copy of Kevin's book. This is the book I've been waiting for... Kevin Kubota answers the questions I've been asking about digital workflow for years, his simple straight-forward language makes it easy to understand. Kevin's also willing to teach you little tricks with layers, masks and effects that will give your photos a polished look. Kevin's willingness to share his artistry & expertise is a rare find; his laid back manner in doing so makes this book well worth the price!

Expected More..........2007-07-28

I wanted more from this book... it left me a bit disappointed. It was not very user-friendly. He barely skims the surface when explaining difficult concepts, making it hard to understand him. I was left disappointed.

Great intro to digital, but worthwhile for experienced too.......2007-03-11

This is a great book written with obvious enthusiasm for photography, but particularly digital photography. Kubota reveals all the tips and tricks you'd ever need to make the transition from film to digital, but the book is just as useful for those already on that path who might need some structure or guidance to get organised!

I found the sections on workflow to be very useful, although it does focus on one software program that not everyone will purchase. The photo effects and ideas on Photoshop actions was also excellent - it has saved me hours of time doing conversions to black & white, reducing file size for the net etc.

All in all an excellent book!

A promotion for his PS actions..........2007-02-25

If you happen to like K. Kubotas actions - then buy them and forget about the book - really its not that much of a book but just a promoion for his Ps actions. There is a 6-7 page chapter in the book wich contains a littel image enhancement - three or four tutorials on his Ps actions.The rest - setting up PS, shooting raw ect you can read about in much better books like Martin Evenings or K. Eismanns.

great tool!.......2007-01-04

Great book for photographers working to get a grip on Photoshop. Kevin Kubota is a known talent and teacher and does a marvelous job giving simple, easy to understand instructions and I use what I've learned from the book everyday I work in Photoshop. I've recomeded it to my fellow photographers and I bought another copy to send to my daughter who is a photographer in Australia.

Book Description

Rebecca's fourth collection of juicy pin-ups returns to the all-girl theme of the first two volumes, but also includes watersports to add to the perversity.

Customer Reviews:

4th great collection.......2005-04-11

Adult black & white collection of drawings.

This is the fourth collection of drawings involving housewives. There are exactly 33 well-drawn detailed drawings of women inside the book. The pictures range from somewhat tame to somewhat extreme (involving bondage in one form or another, humiliation, getting caught in action, whipping). The women are mothers and daughters, neighbors, students, teachers, lactating women, pregnant women, and friends. There are two visible men in the pictures. One doesn't count because he is on the front cover (and I haven't been counting the book cover pictures) and the other is just barely in the picture and could conceivably be a woman. The action occurs in-doors (like the picture where the mostly nude woman catches, I assume, her daughter stealing some cookies) and outside (numerous, like the daughter that drives her nude mother around, or the girl who receives a ride from another girl ("thanks for the ride, queer")).

Overall, the collection is interesting, and well-drawn. The collection contains pictures of incest, bondage, whipping, exhibitism, and humiliation. Note: some of the collections contain a page that collects the title of the pictures, and this is one of those collections. The page is at the very back of the book and is called the "Table of Contents."

Book Description

Insulting poems, cruel epigrams, parodies of bad fiction, character assassinations by America’s bitterest, wittiest humorist. Selection includes lampoon of Oscar Wilde; ghoulish horror stories; sarcasm that caused duels, more. Edited by George Barkin.

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The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce
George Barkin
Manufacturer: Dover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GS7ASG

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The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Manufacturer: Dover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKTK5W

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The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Manufacturer: Dover Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O85OG8

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The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce
George. Editor Barking
Manufacturer: Dover Publications Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXG936

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The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce

Manufacturer: Dover Publications Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H7GO8S

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Short Cuts: The Western Genre

The Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey (Short Cuts)
John Saunders
Manufacturer: Wallflower Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1903364124

Book Description

The Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey offers close readings of the definitive American film movement as represented by such leading exponents as John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Sam Peckinpah. In his consideration of such iconic motifs as the Outlaw Hero and the Lone Rider, John Saunders traces the development of perennial aspects of the genre, its continuity and, importantly, its change. Representations of morality and masculinity are also foregrounded in consideration of the genre's major stars John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and such films as Shane, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch, and Unforgiven.

Customer Reviews:

Short Cuts: The Western Genre.......2001-11-13

Brevity is the soul of wit--and of wisdom. Brevity finally hit film studies in the last decade with the publication of the on-going BFI Film Classics and Modern Classics series, and continues with the welcome appearance of Wallflower Press' Short Cuts series.

Published in London, England, and so far almost exclusively featuring UK-based authors, the series focuses on genres, historical periods, production forms, and formal dimensions rather than individual films.

Always wise and occasionally witty as well, The Short Cuts series offer fast-paced, concise, learned, readable, and often fun studies of The Horror Genre, Disaster Movies, Science Fiction Cinema, The Star System, Early Soviet Cinema, with more topics on the way.

The seventh entry, The Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey by John Saunders, is based on detailed summaries and analyses of 12 films, grouped around mid-century classics, the cinematic depictions of the outlaw Jesse James, the changing status of the Indian, the genre revisons of the 1960s-70s and the reconsidered genre in the 1990s.

Dutiful summary and description is the keynote of the book, which often has a dry Cliff Notes quality in the opening chapters. Although he focuses on just a few titles, and doesn't plow a lot of fresh ground, Saunders manages to fruitfully lasso most of the genre's major films, directors, stars, thematic variations, historical precedants, and references many of the classic scholarly works on the genre. And he is not at all shy to point out shortcomings in established classics and Oscar winners.

Surprisingly, Saunders first in-depth analysis is of Shane (George Stevens, 1953), a film which serves as "the archetypal western, a self-conscous attempt to reproduce the familiar themes and characters in a classically pure state," but a film which also appears when the genre is already half a century old, giving just brief consideration to predecessors like The Iron Horse and Stagecoach.

Shane has been analyzed quite a bit and Saunders' analysis lacks the profound, archetypal interpretation offered by Robert B. Ray in A Certain Tendancy of the Hollywood Cinema (1985), a book too many film scholars seem to have not heard of.

Although director Anthony Mann resides in Andrew Sarris' second tier of great directors, he is far from a household name. Saunders includes him in a classical troica of Ford-Hawks-Mann, suggesting that Mann's reputation will continue to ascend.

The book becomes more compelling when dealing with "revisionist" or "deconstructive" westerns like The Wild Bunch, Little Big Man, Dances With Wolves, and Unforgiven. The tension between classic form and revisionist impulse, as well as the turbulant social history of the 1960s and its aftermath, quicken the pulse of his discussion.

He gives short shrift to the Sergio Leone westerns, which deserve at least as much space as forgotten entries like The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid and The Long Riders, and he completely ignores Robert Altmans' bitterly revisionist westerns (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Buffalo Bill and the Indians; Or Sitting Bull's History Lesson) and the low-budget existential westerns of Monte Hellman (The Shooting).

He briefly considers the migration-extinction of western themes to other genres in a sentence on Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys, but ignores the larger transference of western values to other genres--notably science fiction and the action film--as evidenced in postmodern/pastiche/hybrid films like Star Wars, Outland, and The Road Warrior.

I suspect that omission is deliberate. Saunders probably prefers his genres straight--or only bent so far--and films like Blazing Saddles, Dead Man, and MTV westerns like Young Guns may seem merely desacrations, unworthy of discussion.

The term "postmodern" is mentioned warily without definition--suggesting a menacing philosophical vulture circling over the dying western like the vultures seen at the end of The Wild Bunch.

Other Short Cuts titles, such as The Horror Genre and Science Fiction Cinema, are more willing to engage the high concept, more blatantly commercial variations on classic genres.

Like many western films, the book ends on an elegiac, nostalgic note; Saunders laments that Unforgiven could be the last memorable western.

Perhaps it is inevitable that a scholar of the classic western might identify with Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) in the last shot of John Ford's The Searchers: his job done, turning his back on a future in which he doesn't belong, may not be welcome, and may not want to take part in--striding into the whirling sands of memory.

Book Description

As Warner Bros. celebrated its 75th year in 1998, this four-book series paid tribute to the magic of the Warner Bros. movies, particularly the brilliant music that has supported and highlighted so many of the studio's greatest films. Volume 4: '80s & '90s includes 53 songs, including Oscar-winning themes and songs, a history of the studio during these two decades, and dozens of movie stills and original sheet music covers. Titles in this folio include: Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) (Arthur) * Beautiful Maria of My Soul (Mambo Kings) * Chariots of Fire (Chariots of Fire) * Crazy for You (Vision Quest) * Gotham City (Batman & Robin) * I Will Always Love You (The Bodyguard) * (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) * I Believe I Can Fly (Space Jam) * That's What Friends are For (Night Shift) * We Don't Need Another Hero (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome) and many more.

Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary: A Tribute in Music from the 20s Through the 90s : 60s & 70s

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Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary: A Tribute in Music from the 20s Through the 90s : 60s & 70s

Manufacturer: Warner Bros Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This four-book series pays tribute to the magic of the Warner Bros. movies, particularly the brilliant music that has supported and highlighted so many of the studio's greatest films. Includes sixty-six great works of music, including Oscar-winning themes and songs, a history of the studio during these two decades, dozens of movie stills and original sheet music covers, and music from My Fair Lady, Bonnie and Clyde, Woodstock, Bullitt, The Exorcist, and dozens more.

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*Probably* useful

JustAProfessor

This is one of the worst economics textbooks ever

Essentials of Investments with Standard & Poor's Educational Version of Market Insight + PowerWeb + Stock Trak Coupon
Zvi Bodie , Alex Kane , Alan J. Marcus , and Alan Marcus
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Essentials of Investments (Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate)

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ASIN: 0072855584

Book Description

The market leading Essentials of Investments, 5/e by Bodie, Kane and Marcus is an undergraduate textbook on investment analysis, presenting the practical applications of investment theory to convey insights of practical value. The authors have eliminated unnecessary mathematical detail and concentrate on the intuition and insights that will be useful to practitioners throughout their careers as new ideas and challenges emerge from the financial marketplace. ESSENTIALS maintains the theme of asset allocation (authors discuss asset pricing and trading then apply these theories to portfolio planning in real-world securities markets that are governed by risk/return relationships). ESSENTIALS continues to develop modern topics. The major objective in this revision is to maintain the current level in content and coverage, with greater emphasis on the Internet and global issues, and to improve the text's accessibility by enhancing presentation, pedagogy, and design.

Customer Reviews:

*Probably* useful.......2005-12-21

I found the book to be redundant for my finance class, but the content is well presented. The book serves as back-up for a finance course. The content is more detailed (longer) than in a typical college level lecture, so it's good for you don't understand a concept from the lecture. Information is long-winded but not confusing and attractively presented.

Bottom Line: It's a solid finance book, but you shouldn't need it much if your professor is competent.

JustAProfessor.......2005-08-26

I have used this book in the investment class I teach for 4 years. I have had very little negative feedback from students. Most seem to like it, otherwise, I would have switched books.

Maybe Justablokes problem is he thinks he is reading an economic textbook, but it is actually a financial investment book.

This is one of the worst economics textbooks ever.......2004-04-12

I have to say that this is one of the worst economics textbooks that I have ever read. The font is tiny and reading it strains my eyes. The book is not written in a clear style at all. In fact, I often have to reread paragraphs just to understand what's going on. Sometimes, the authors go into needlessly long and complicated tangents to explain simple concepts. Someone needs to seriously condense and clarify the material in this textbook or else it'll become the bane of every college economics student's existence.

Essentials of Investments with Standard & Poor's Educational Version of Market Insight + PowerWeb + Stock Trak Coupon

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Essentials of Investments with Standard & Poor's Educational Version of Market Insight + PowerWeb + Stock Trak Coupon
Alex Kane, Alan J. Marcus, Alan Marcus Zvi Bodie
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGENQ2

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An All-American Ranch Family

A Very Impressive Lady!

An image of the old Southwest

O'Connor reminisces about her childhood

Ranch Stories

Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest
Sandra Day O'Connor , and H. Alan Day
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Lawyers & Judges | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
West | Regional U.S. | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
O'Connor, Sandra Day | ( O ) | People, A-Z | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice

Chico Chico

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The Oatman Massacre: A Tale of Desert Captivity And Survival

ASIN: 0812966732
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Amazon.com

Deep in the granite hills of eastern Arizona in 1880, H.C. Day founded the Lazy B ranch, where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother Alan spent their youth, a time they recall in this affectionate joint memoir.

"We belonged to the Lazy B, and it belonged to each of us," write O'Connor and Day. "We thought it would always be there." Weathering events from the Great Depression to cyclical drought, they worked the ranch's 300 square miles alongside a colorful crew of cowboys, learning the ways of cattle, horses, and people, lessons they share in well-turned anecdotes. They also learned a system of values that "was simple and unsophisticated and the product of necessity," one that has followed them into the larger world. Court watchers and fans of Western writing alike will take pleasure in this multigenerational account of life on the range. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Now, for the first time in paperback, here is the remarkable story of Sandra Day O’Connor’s family and early life, her journey to adulthood in the American Southwest that helped make her the woman she is today—the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the most powerful women in America. In this illuminating and unusual book, Sandra Day O’Connor tells, with her brother, Alan, the story of the Day family, and of growing up on the harsh yet beautiful land of the Lazy B ranch in Arizona.

Laced throughout these stories about three generations of the Day family, and everyday life on the Lazy B, are the lessons Sandra and Alan learned about the world, self-reliance, and survival, and how the land, people, and values of the Lazy B shaped them. This fascinating glimpse of life in the Southwest in the last century recounts an important time in American history, and provides an enduring portrait of an independent young woman on the brink of becoming one of the most prominent figures in America.

Customer Reviews:

An All-American Ranch Family.......2006-12-10

I loved reading this memoir about growing up on a huge cattle ranch in the American southwest. Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother H. Alan Day write from the heart in an easy to read book with lots of pictures. This is a tribute to their parents, a portrait of a colorful childhood in a remote setting on the Arizona border. The Day family raised cattle for a living; real cowboys worked the ranch, broke wild horses, built and mended fences, rounded up cattle, drilled wells, and built windmills. The children participated in all aspects of ranch life.

The story is about three generations of a family surviving on an arid and strange land - what the land taught them and how they coped with extremes of drought and distance. Individual stories of the cowboys, their love of horses and cattle and other animals are portrayed in a warm and loving way, as if the authors are smiling as they remember those happy days and their parents who taught and encouraged Sandra, Alan, and their sister Ann; the fun times, hard work, windmills and wells, rodeos, the first train thru the area, school, and so much more.

Short chapters, wonderful pictures, and a pleasure to read about a part of America where it truly was "home on the range", and where the cattle industry flourished over a span of a century. Thank you authors for sharing. The quotations are priceless. Here is one of them: When Time, who steals our years away, Shall steal our pleasure, too. The Memory of the past will stay, And half our joys renew. (Thomas Moore, "song")

A Very Impressive Lady!.......2006-07-07

"Lazy B," like the title implies, is the story of Sandra Day O'Connor and her younger brother growing up on a ranch in south-eastern Arizona. They grew up in an isolated environment that mandated self-reliance and initiative. Sandra received much of her formal education through riding the train to El Paso to stay with her maternal grandparents while attending a local girls' school. Her father had wanted to attend Stanford but the responsibilities of taking over the family ranch prevented that. Sandra O'Connor was able to achieve that for him, where she excelled academically, was then inspired by one of her instructors to study law (also at Stanford), met her husband (and also dated classmate William Rehnquist), and then struggled to begin a law career at a time that women had almost no such opportunity. (Despite Sandra graduating from Stanford Law #2 in her class, her early job searches were at best met with "Can you type?")

Then it was on to Phoenix where she started a law partnership, then moved to the Attorney General's office, became elected to the State Senate, became a Superior Court Judge, was promoted to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Babbitt (D), and then selected by President Reagan to the Supreme Court.

Personal Note: In the late 1970s I appeared in Judge O'Connor's court as a witness and was astounded at her astute (and polite) questioning of one of the attorney's. Later, I witnessed the buzz as those who knew her stopped to congratulate her Supreme Court appointment. And most recently I had the opportunity to hear her and her brother give a presentation on this book - very insightful, witty, and again - polite. (She autographed my copy!)

An inspiring person!

An image of the old Southwest.......2006-02-25

This book meant a lot to me on many levels, a special tale for this transplanted Southwesterner. I was attracted first because of the co-author, who is one of Our Country's great ladies. She and her brother have put together an inside look at life in the Southwest, the cattle ranch family life, that is no more. A whole chapter on rain and what it means in an arid land. Their loving but reserved father and how he made a living off the land. It reminded me of my own stern but loving father - when dads were supposed to be that way. The ranch life, the family and characters that inhabited it are fascinating. Wonderful story of a different place and time.

O'Connor reminisces about her childhood.......2005-08-31

This book is a colorful portrait of the world O'Connor grew up in. It is simple and lovely - very little mention of her later life in the law.

Ranch Stories.......2005-08-05

This book contains the childhood memoirs of Justice O'Connor and her brother, H. Alan Day. They grew up on a ranch in Arizona in the 1930s and 1940s where their lives revolved around cattle, horses, and water. In this book, they describe what ranch life was like during those times. They tell stories about the cowboys who worked on their ranch, the roundups they participated in, and some of their favorite animals. Growing up on the ranch entailed a lot of hard work, and their father, a perfectionist himself, kept very high standards for his help and his children.

O'Connor and Day begin the book by tracing the history of the ranch, how it came into their family, and how their family developed it over the years. A central issue in the book is water, how they established and maintained their wells, how water sources were used in determining grazing rights on public lands, and how they managed water use over the years. Towards the end of the book, they discuss the changes brought about by the mushrooming of land use regulations. They were quite disturbed by seeing the offices of land management, once staffed by 2-4 people, eventually being filled by hundreds of employees, all needing tasks to engage in, and many lacking practical experience on the land. As they describe it, the overstaffing and over-regulating of the land management agency made it much more difficult for ranchers to make ranching pay in the Southwest.

The stories of ranch life are absolutely fascinating for the window they provide on this part of American history. This is very much a book about cowboys and cattle, and not a book about O'Connor's professional life, so there is very little material included about her higher education or career. Instead, we come to see her as a simple ranch girl, married in a barn, with seating on hay bales covered with canvas. Who would have thought that a kid growing up on a ranch an hour from town, who had no running water or other amenities, would eventually find herself serving as a justice on the Supreme Court? While the book is quite engaging, it can be a little repetitive in places, perhaps because of the dual authorship. The political commentary about the land management agency can also be a little heavy-handed, given the general nature of the rest of the book. In general though, as a storehouse for memories of cowboy life, this is a great resource coming from a somewhat unexpected source.

Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest

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Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest
Day, Sandra, H. Day, Alan O'Connor
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000060KGS

Lazy B; The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox; & Some Memories of a Long Life: 1854-1911.: An article from: Michigan Law Review

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Lazy B; The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox; & Some Memories of a Long Life: 1854-1911.: An article from: Michigan Law Review
Laura Krugman Ray
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Michigan Law Review, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 7390 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: Lazy B; The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox; & Some Memories of a Long Life: 1854-1911.
Author: Laura Krugman Ray
Publication: Michigan Law Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 101 Issue: 6 Page: 2103(15)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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The Peninsula Campaign of Eighteen Sixty-Two, Volume 1: Yorktown the Seven Days
William J. (ed.) Miller
Manufacturer: Savas Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBUFM0

Average customer rating:
The Peninsula Campaign of Eighteen Sixty-Two: Yorktown to the Seven Days Two Volumes
Unknown
Manufacturer: Savas Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J49KIU

Book Description

Modern America owes the Roman Empire for more than gladiator movies and the architecture of the nation's Capitol. It can also thank the ancient republic for some helpful lessons in globalization. So argues economic historian Harold James in this masterful work of intellectual history.

The book addresses what James terms "the Roman dilemma"--the paradoxical notion that while global society depends on a system of rules for building peace and prosperity, this system inevitably leads to domestic clashes, international rivalry, and even wars. As it did in ancient Rome, James argues, a rule-based world order eventually subverts and destroys itself, creating the need for imperial action. The result is a continuous fluctuation between pacification and the breakdown of domestic order.

James summons this argument, first put forth more than two centuries ago in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, to put current events into perspective. The world now finds itself staggering between a set of internationally negotiated trading rules and exchange--rate regimes, and the enforcement practiced by a sometimes-imperial America. These two forces--liberal international order and empire--will one day feed on each other to create a shakeup in global relations, James predicts. To reinforce his point, he invokes the familiar bon mot once applied to the British Empire: "When Britain could not rule the waves, it waived the rules."

Despite the pessimistic prognostications of Smith and Gibbon, who saw no way out of this dilemma, James ends his book on a less depressing note. He includes a chapter on one possible way in which the world could resolve the Roman Predicament--by opting for a global system based on values as opposed to rules.

Customer Reviews:

Glosses over the Iraq war and its effects on the American economy.......2007-04-09

While the author wrote a cogent synopsis of Gibbon's study of the end of the Roman empire and told those who didn't already know that Adam Smith's works consisted of more than the "invisible hand," he writes of the effects of globalization on economies as though the war in Iraq is just an aside.

When comparing the economic consquences of past wars he rightly states that the Gulf War of 1991 was too short-lived to have any significant effect on the economy in terms of inflationary/deflationary effects. However, he then states that the same holds true for the 2003 war.

Hunh? This book was written in 2006 after three disastrous years of a failed policy, or lack thereof, in Iraq. In mentioning Iraq he states: "Moreover, it is possible to envisage more attention being paid in advance to the management of post-conflict situations in a manner that in the Iraq case was made impossible by the rush of events." (91)

First of all, the war in Iraq was a war of choice engineered by lies and a rush to judgement before anyone had a chance to point out that the people leading the charge had no hard evidence for their casus belli. Secondly, there was no plan for post-war Iraq. International law makes it incumbent on the occupying force to restore infrastructure and care for the non-combatants. The Bush administration made no plans for the occupation. In fact, in order to escape its responsibilities in that area, as in so many others, the administration installed Bremer as a sort of pro-counsel who, legally it is claimed, was not a part of the US government. So the Coalition Provisional Authority could not be held liable under international law for the failures of the war planners to fail to plan for the aftermath of the war.

Got it?

They then rushed elections with people of their own choosing standing for office, another violation of international law. Elections held under the auspices of an occupying force are by definition not free elections. However, here stands the CPA again as a buffer between the US government and the nebulous Iraqi candidates, and the machinery entity that resulted from the orgy of purple fingers is supposed to be a legitimate governing body.

The book, as a whole, is interesting to those already familiar with international relations and the events of the last thirty years. However, Professor James and his publisher did a great marketing job by placing George W. Bush in a laurel wreath on the cover and then eliding over the deficiencies and outright fiscal irresponsibilities perpetrated on the American way of life by this current group in Washington.

There are better places to get an overview of American empire and militarism, specifically Chalmers Johnson's trilogy and Andrew Bacevich's The New Militarism. Niall Ferguson's books provided a counter point to Mr. Johnson's works.

Professor James could have done a much better job; instead of disingenuously marketing this book using Bush's image while absolving him of any responsibility for the crimes committed against the American system of government, he could have compared the end of the Roman empire to where we find ourselves today.

Gibbon: "Such is the constitution of civil society, that, whilst a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honours, and by knowledge, the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance, and poverty." James writes: "Inequality was the social problem that provoked the rise of what he saw as the ideology that would undermine the Roman empire." (86)

Instead of giving George W. Bush a pass and referring to "the rush of events" in Iraq, the author would have served his readers better by assigning the blame for that rush where it squarely belongs.

Lessons from the past.......2006-04-04

The current global political climate has led many observers to draw parallels between the American empire and those of Rome and Great Britain, and to the extent that all three, at the height of their power, were globally dominant, this comparison holds superficially. Prof. James, however, has not simply taken this comparison at face value, but sought the lessons and rules of empire as understood in Edward Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" and Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations". His reading of the two leads to the idea of the "Roman dilemma", that peaceful economic prosperity under a liberal order of free commerce cannot be maintained because the rule and enforcement of the laws necessary for such commerce require power, and power tends to be unequal and to concentrate itself, leading to two opposing and irreconcilable camps: "people who believe in universal rules and people who see power behind the rules". For its modern application, Prof. James draws upon Robert Kagan's "Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus" view of how the current military power disparity across the Atlantic inevitably leads to the unilateral use of that power by America and its opposition by Europe, i.e. Americans believe in the exercise of military power despite rules and Europeans believe in the universal application of rules as a result of its relative military weakness, both in pursuit of a liberal economic order and sustained prosperity.

We can already see how such a global hegemony draws to itself the very seeds of instability it tries to contain. This, then, is the current incarnation of the Roman predicament: the growing resentment and suspicion towards the United States demands further use of power, increasing opposition towards that power, resulting in a cycle of increasing instability and the possible dissolution of not only empire, but the very peace and stability it tries to maintain.

But this does not have to be, as Prof. James, at the end of his concise and cogent book, attempts to lay the foundation for a new world order based not on unilateral decrees and legal officiousness, but rather shared values and aspirations. Unfortunately, when rigid fundamentalists--religious, ideological, or otherwise--hold sway in opposing camps, common ground becomes an ever-widening gap. We must depend, therefore, on thoughtful, rational and reasonable moderates and progressives from both sides to represent not fundamentalist views but fundamental values, and proceed from there.

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