Celebrate the Months December

Book Description

January 1

Todd told me earlier he had plans for the evening, and I thought he was going out with another girl. I never guessed the plans were with me!

We finally got to talk about "us," and we both said we wanted to be the kind of friends who were friends forever.

Then Todd stopped at this intersection. He pulled me out of the van, and when we stood in front of the headlights, I realized it was "our" intersection!

I was laughing and telling him this was crazy; and then he gave me this bracelet! It's so beautiful. I love it! It's a gold ID bracelet with the word "Forever" engraved on it. That's when he told me that no matter what happened in the future, we would be friends forever.

I'm smiling so big right now. I've never felt like this before in my whole life-.

A uniquely personal look at the hopes, prayers, and dreams of Christy Miller-

Customer Reviews:

inspiring.......2003-05-20

I can't wait until her next book comes out...I've heard there's going to be another book...I hope there will be the 3rd book in the college series ended so soon...awww What happens when Todd opens his wedding present, huh? and what about Katie and Rick...She has to write another one, she just has too.

Not as Good.......2002-11-30

I didn't like this book as much. I own every Robin Jones Gunn book available and i was sadly disappointed with this book. I found it kind of boring. I read it really quickly and got very little out of it. I also didn't like that this thin little diary had 5 years of her life in it. It missed way too much. The only part i really liked was when she was talking about the meaning of her 'Forever' bracelet

COOLI BOOK!!!.......2002-06-05

This book is about Christy Miller, only deeper. It shows her life over five years in high school and in college. It gives a unique outlook on teen life with a Christian view. I couldn't put this book down! I would reccomend this book for all Chistians and people who are looking to be a Christian. This is a great way to start the Christy Miller series or to read along with it. JUST READ THIS BOOK! IT'S REALLY GOOD!

These are the best books!.......2001-10-25

Hello everyone. Robin Jones Gunn's books on Christy Miller are absolutely the best books I have ever read. When you read them, it's as if you've crawled inside the book and you're there with her everywhere she goes! Todd is such a great character, and he's the exact type I've dreamt of marrying ever since I got book 1. I cry when she cries. I laugh, and trust me, there's plenty to laugh at. I have a smile on my face during every book, and I definitely recommend every single on of them. These books are sweet and romantic, but realistic and give you a Biblical perspective on the way life should be. I have actually grown closer to God through these books. Especially the college series. Thanks, Robin! You're the best!

A READER FOR FLORIDA!.......2001-09-29

Hey ya'll...I think that these books are the most incredible books i have ever read. I have read all 12 of the Christy Miller Series and 1 and 2 of the College Series! I instantly Fell in Love with Todd, and I pray that the guy I marry will be just like him. He has the qualities every guy should have! I wish that my life was just like Christy's and I can't wait to read the 3rd book of the College Series! These Books have helped me in my life more ways than I can count! I love them and I can't wait to read them over! The things todd says to Christy are so sweet and caring, it makes you want to cry. I commend Robin Jones Gunn, she is an amazing writer. I like books that I can sit down in my room, and just get lost in a book. I couldn't put them down. I havne't been able to do that with a book in a long time! I encourage everyone to read these books, every one of them, and open their hearts to learn from them. God spoke to me in so many ways while i was reading the college books the most. I learned so much and my relationship with god was grown immensly. I look up to christy...and I try to be more like her each day!

Book Description

Antibodies have become one of the most important tools in the areas of cell and molecular biology. Antibodies offer a unique combination of sensitivity and specificity that surpasses nearly all other detection systems. Hence immunoassays of all types are now widely used in many areas of research. This book describes in clear, very precise protocols the whole range of important immunodetection methods in current use in cell and molecular biology and as such it will be essential for anyone either using or about to use antibody techniques in their work. The Essential Techniques Series books are designed to provide you with immediate access to the protocols you require every day. These handy pocket-sized manuals are easy to carry around, and conveniently spiral bound making them ideal for lab bench work. Written by experienced laboratory researchers, each book in the Essential Techniques Series gives up-to-date, tried and tested practical information for the life scientist. For each key technique these books:

introduce the most commonly used methods,
explain the advantages and disadvantages of the methods, and give advice on which procedure to use,
provide easy to follow step-by-step protocols, with experimental notes and tips on where to pause, plus information on safety and suppliers.

Book Description

The Handbook's coverage of sensors is extensive, ranging from simple photodiodes to complex devices containing components in combination. It offers hard-to-find reference data on the properties of numerous materials and sensing elements and emphasizes devices that are less well-known, whose technology is still being refined, and whose use permits the measurement of variables that were previously inaccessible.

Aip Handbook of Modern Sensors: Physics, Designs and Applications (Modern Instrumentation and Measurements in Physics & Engineering)

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Aip Handbook of Modern Sensors: Physics, Designs and Applications (Modern Instrumentation and Measurements in Physics & Engineering)
Jacob Fraden
Manufacturer: American Institute of Physics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Scientific Instruments | Experiments, Instruments & Measurement | Science | Subjects | Books

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General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Obtain, for the first time, descriptions of physical principles, practical designs, and applications of modern sensors for virtually all measurement needs. This work addresses fundamental physical principles of sensing and shows how information is converted from non- electrical into electrical format, digitized, and transmitted. Readers will discover hard-to-find reference data on physical, electrical, optical, mechanical, and other properties of materials and sensing elements that are of great practical importance in modern applied science and engineering. Of special interest to applied physicists and research engineers involved in the detection and measurement of physical effects.

Book Description

"The books line up on my shelf like bright Bodhisattvas ready to take tough questions or keep quiet company. They stake out a vast territory, with works from two millennia in multiple genres: aphorism, lyric, epic, theater, and romance."
—Willis G. Regier, The Chronicle Review

"No effort has been spared to make these little volumes as attractive as possible to readers: the paper is of high quality, the typesetting immaculate. The founders of the series are John and Jennifer Clay, and Sanskritists can only thank them for an initiative intended to make the classics of an ancient Indian language accessible to a modern international audience."
—The Times Higher Education Supplement

"The Clay Sanskrit Library represents one of the most admirable publishing projects now afoot. . . . Anyone who loves the look and feel and heft of books will delight in these elegant little volumes."
—New Criterion

"Published in the geek-chic format."
—BookForum

"Very few collections of Sanskrit deep enough for research are housed anywhere in North America. Now, twenty-five hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the ambitious Clay Sanskrit Library may remedy this state of affairs."
—Tricycle

”Now an ambitious new publishing project, the Clay Sanskrit Library brings together leading Sanskrit translators and scholars of Indology from around the world to celebrate in translating the beauty and range of classical Sanskrit literature. . . . Published as smart green hardbacks that are small enough to fit into a jeans pocket, the volumes are meant to satisfy both the scholar and the lay reader. Each volume has a transliteration of the original Sanskrit text on the left-hand page and an English translation on the right, as also a helpful introduction and notes. Alongside definitive translations of the great Indian epics — 30 or so volumes will be devoted to the Maha·bhárat itself — Clay Sanskrit Library makes available to the English-speaking reader many other delights: The earthy verse of Bhartrihari, the pungent satire of Jayanta Bhatta and the roving narratives of Dandin, among others. All these writers belong properly not just to Indian literature, but to world literature.”
—LiveMint

”The Clay Sanskrit Library has recently set out to change the scene by making available well-translated dual-language (English and Sanskrit) editions of popular Sanskritic texts for the public.”
—Namarupa

The second volume of Jina·ratna's thirteenth-century The Epitome of Queen Lilávati completes his story. Embodied souls undergo all too human adventures in a succession of lives, as they advance to final release. The primary purpose of Jain narrative literature was to edify lay people through amusement; consequently the stories are racy, and in some cases the moralizing element is rather tenuous.

Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation

For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org

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Nice read

Amazingly Funny and Poignant

The refreshingly sweet memoir of a young Czechoslovakian girl whose parents transform an endless supply of lemons into lemonade

Very informative and entertaining

I wish I could give 6 stars!

The Twelve Little Cakes
Dominika Dery
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1594481393

Book Description

Equal parts testimony to the struggles of a bygone era and a love letter to a bright-eyed childhood that no outside force could dim, this is Dominika Dery's acclaimed memoir of Communist-era Czechoslovakia.

Customer Reviews:

Nice read.......2007-10-16

I recommended this book for my bookclub since it had so many 4-5 star reviews on this site. This book was a nice easy read but I would only give it 3+ stars. Most of my bookclub agreed. It has some cute and touching stories in the various chapters but doesn't get into much depth regarding actually living under a communist regime. Some of the stories seemed alittle unbelieveable.

Amazingly Funny and Poignant.......2007-03-05

You wouldn't think that a novel about being the daughter of dissidents in Communist Czechoslovakia would be funny, but this novel is hilarious. I shared my copy with several persons and purchased others as Christmas gifts (2006). I'm dubious whether Dominika could so accurately recall conversations as a young child as detailed in the book, but you will fall in love with her in this autobiography. Her refreshing honesty and childish innocence opened some of the hardest hearts in a difficult time when adults were fearful whom to trust and honest conversation had to be guarded. It's an insider's look into hard times under a Communist regime without being preachy. And their family vacation to Poland makes you understand why the Poles were the first to throw aside the iron curtain. I cannot recommend this book more highly, particularly to our newest generations (X and Y) who did not grow up in the Cold War.

The refreshingly sweet memoir of a young Czechoslovakian girl whose parents transform an endless supply of lemons into lemonade.......2006-12-22

After taking off my "skeptical of vivid early-childhood memories" hat and cutting the Czechoslovakian-born author a bit of "English as a second language" slack for her sometimes awkward grammar, I enjoyed The Twelve Little Cakes very much. The anecdotes of Dominika Dery's early life as a precocious, sometimes naive girl growing up during the mid-seventies to mid-eighties in Cernosice, Czechoslovakia are refreshingly told. Initially, the family lives in a house renovated into a triplex, but after they prevent Dominika's maternal grandmother from confiscating their home through the courts (in an attempt to disinherit Dominika's mom) remodeling of the house, and its associated stories, begins. The author's mother, Jana, "the granddaughter of a founding member of the prewar Communist Party," was a writer (of books) at the State Economic Institute which "her Communist bosses took credit for." Her father, Jarda, "bewilderingly positive" in light of "having lived a terrible life" worked odd jobs, primarily as a taxi driver, having been "blacklisted by the Russians after the 1968 invasion" after briefly working for the Czech government as an engineer. Dery writes of the political situation under communism, "By the mid-eighties, communism was like an old dragon that would occasionally crawl out from its cave and eat someone for dinner. As long as it wasn't you the dragon was eating, you could live with the sound of screams in the distance." Her parents were both expelled from the party for refusing to sign a political document that went against their beliefs and so lived under the watchful eye of a never-ending stream of informers (including the couple in a neighboring apartment) throughout the story. The real story, however, is of a family's ability to survive, and often thrive through the toughest of times. Everyday childhood happenings; a carp in the bathtub, an encounter with a famous ballet dancer, the amusing behavior of boys vying for her large-bosomed sister's attention, the antics of their large, former movie star dog, a bout of dysentery, and a misfortune-filled vacation to Poland, are skillfully brought to life in Dery's memoir. The stories in The Twelve Little Cakes are sure to raise your spirits and warm your heart.

Very informative and entertaining.......2006-01-02

This is an autobiographical novel that covers the author's childhood in a village outside of Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, in the late seventies and early eighties. The country was a Soviet bloc state, a fact which ruled over most aspects of life, and the author makes this very clear. She also makes clear her feelings about communism and the Soviet occupation, but what makes this a good read is that she also explains why. She uses facts and her own (many) personal experiences, and those of her parents, who rebelled against communism.

The author/narrator Dominika, as a little girl, is fun to read. She is extroverted, confident, and loves to talk loudly and in exclamations. Yet she is not perfect, and does not fully understand the political and economic situation around her. The author does not tell her story only from a little girl's eyes, but fills in with information that she had learned or realized later. This is both from a child's point of view and an older, informed, and quite intelligent point of view.

This was an easy read, as I finished it in half the time I normally take to read a book this size. The book covers her various adventures and acquaintances: an old Austrian caretaker, three kind old women who bake cakes, the neighbor children who are not allowed to play with the dissidents' daughter, ballet school and performances, Communist spies and informants who kept an eye on her parents and who her father played tricks on, Dominika's mother's parents (who have disowned her despite the father's reluctance), the family dog famous from Czech movies, the beautiful sister, the Easter when Dominika disguised herself as a boy so she could collect eggs from the women (until the other boys then stole her basket as well), and a somewhat stressful vacation in Poland.

Indeed, there are many other stories in this novel, complete with references to Czech culture and holidays. There are so many events that it's never a problem if I get to one that's rather boring -- it is soon over and another story is begun.

The Czech names weren't too hard to keep up with: the characters are introduced very gradually. Only, I found it maybe a little annoying that some characters had English words for last names (such as "German" or "Backyard") and I get the impression that she is translating Czech words into English, and leaves untranslated the names that aren't words. I would much prefer to see the original names.

The story ends around 1985, when Gorbachev came into power and Dominika's father was (correctly) hopeful that the Soviet occupation and Iron Curtain days would be over soon. I was a little disappointed because I wished to see what happened with the family when their hopes finally came true. Still, Dominika ends the story on the note that even if they continued to live under Communism, they would survive because they had each other.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in life in Soviet satellite countries (it didn't vary too greatly from country to country), or simply interested in a book filled with rich and exciting detail on a life that is both ordinary and unusual (especially to people from the West).

I wish I could give 6 stars!.......2005-11-02

Reading this book was like going home. I also grew up in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and Dominika's (I feel like I know her so I will be on ty with her!) memoir took me back to a very happy, yet also sad time. Her descriptions of the neighbors, the sights of Prague, even her dog (yes, he was so famous in the Czech Republic although he's long gone you can see him a lot on old movies on tv there!) made me miss my country so much.

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Twelve Little Cakes
Dominika Dery
Manufacturer: Riverhead Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O6221U

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Twelve Little Cakes
Dominika Dery
Manufacturer: Putnam Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MD4PPQ

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Twelve Little Cakes
Dominika Dery
Manufacturer: PENGUIN PUTNAM @ TRADE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N76YQE

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How did German social groups react to the Reich?

Worthy Study of Complex Period

Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life
Detlev J.K. Peukert
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0300044801

Customer Reviews:

How did German social groups react to the Reich?.......2002-02-24

The main emphasis of this book is on German social groups and classes and their behavior in Nazi Germany. Peukert looks at the working and middle classes, as well as the youth, and shows how each choose to conform or resist to authority. The youth, we are told, resisted actively by banding together in small groups to resist the Hitler Jugend and passively by listening to forbidden music. Working class organizations resisted in small ways but were generally unable to offer any real challenge to the Nazis.

The book's second half looks at Nazi terror and racialism. Peukert explains how much of Nazi ideology was in fact borrowed from 19th Century sources. He also argues that the Third Reich broke up traditional social networks, thereby 'atomizing' every German.

My one major fault with this book is that pivotal events such as the seizure of power in 33, the Rohm purge and the Kristalnacht are referred to only in passing. I know the author did not intend to write a general history by any means, but such fascinating events should not be thought unimportant by any researcher of Nazi Germany

Worthy Study of Complex Period.......2001-05-16

While this book isn't as revealing as it's title would suggest, it's a worthy contribution to the vast amount of literature on the subject. It makes good use of primary sources to illuminate the era, though the author often quotes these at excessive length. Some of the revelations surprised me, like the amount of juvenile resistance to Hitler that took the form of listening to "decadent" forms of music like Jazz. It's admirable in it's lack of willingness to point the finger at anyone for the existence of Nazism and level-headed in it's conclusions about the amount of continuity between the "Third Reich" and it's predecessors and successors in Germany. Sometimes the sobreity of it's tone can be grating, but there's enough fascinating details to keep you reading.

Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life

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Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life
Detlev J.K. Peukert
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OS0H5G

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This book sticks with you

Another right wing attempt to divert your attention and anger.

No There There

Uncivil War

Another highly readable book from David Lebedoff

The Uncivil War: How a New Elite is Destroying Our Democracy
David Lebedoff
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Democracy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It

ASIN: 1589791517

Book Description

The New Elite are the self-proclaimed smartest people in the land, a test-score meritocracy that believes the consent of the governed has been made obsolete by th SAT. Lebedoff says the real fight is between those who believe in majority rule and those who believe in rule by experts.

Customer Reviews:

This book sticks with you.......2007-02-07

I read this book a few years ago when it first came out, and have not re-read it since. Then again, I rarely have the time or inclination to re-read most books. I have not returned to "The Uncivil War" only because of a lack of time; the inclination is absolutely still there. Truthfully, some of the main points Lebedoff makes are a bit lacking in coherence, as I recall. Occassionally, he leaps from premise to conclusion while implying assumptions which are not altogether obvious. Therefore, the book is not as crisp of a read as it otherwise could be.

So, why do I give it 5 stars? Because, three or four years later, not having returned to the book since I first read it, those premises keep returning to me. I constantly find myself thinking about Lebedoff's insightful points when considering contemporary politics. The framework of his conclusions about the New Elite rest on a well-explicated theme in political science -- Majoritarian Rule -- but allowed me to consider that theme from a perspective that was unique, memorable, and compelling, notwithstanding some of the more attenuated secondary conclusions he makes based on his main one.

Still, for getting wheels in my head to shift into gears and directions I had contemplated at best superficially as applied to current events, and for providing an unfamiliar, if not quite fully paved, path for desultorily and at times subconsciously exploring the terrain of contemporary American politics, I give the book "highest honors." A book that sticks with you like this one does is certainly deserving.

Another right wing attempt to divert your attention and anger. .......2005-07-29

Another attempt by a far-right ideologue to shift the onus for the wreckage of America's current domestic and foreign policy from the Neo-Conservatives who run the Bush administration to some vague notion of a non-existent liberal "elite". This group of hard right Republicans, who have inflicted more material damage to this country, its security, economy and future than any other collection of policy makers in our history, have been able to operate with relatively little interference thanks to this sort of tripe.

If anyone actually gives this book, and ideas like the ones expressed in this book, any real credence, I suggest you look at any one of the last 4 budgets that have been sent to congress by the Bush Administration. The numbers don't lie. Within all the tax cuts for the ultra rich, funded by the sheer gutting of federal programs for the working poor, children's health, port and transportation security, veterans health care, etc, etc, you will see the REAL identity of the elite who are destroying this country.

The ability of the people pushing this type of social Darwinism to succeed rests in the fanning of popular resentment toward the last few people in the press, government and academia with the courage to speak up for the middle and working class in this unique and troubling era in our history.

No There There.......2005-07-16

"There's no Intelligent Life out here. Only You." This is the way the Toyota Trucks ad runs. It has for some time. And if you want to understand why, Read this book.

An Uncivil War, claims Lebedoff, is being waged by a group of Americans whom he calls the New Elite. He defines them as being self-identified people who are 'interested in ideas.' They are often college educated people who have verbal skills but lack other qualities of concern to Lebedoff, most notably that they consider themselves smarter than every one else. But are so in a shallow or unsophisticated way.

Lebedoff points to a long list of fairly obvious problems in the current practice of democracy in America.
1) A crumbling sense of community.
2) Unresponsiveness of government.
3) Elections have ceased to be a forum for the discussion of ideas.

These and a number of other complaints he discusses briefly. Then he posits that all these ills are caused by the class of people he has identified.

The great flaw of the book is that it completely fails to argue persuasively for any link between his New Elite and these problems.
It scarcely argues this central thesis; it assumes it. And this is the fundamental flaw of the book

I agree with Lebedoff in his identification of the problems. I agree with him that these problems need to be solved. And to a limited degree I think his analysis points us in a new direction - a direction that might help. The New Elite - to the extent there is one - has some blind spots. But he implies throughout the book (though denying it once or twice) that there is some sort of conspiracy among the New Elite to grab power and subvert the whole system of democracy in America.

In this area and others the book stumbles seriously. For example, when one identifies a group of Americans numbering close to one hundred million, it is inevitable most sweeping generalizations one makes of the group are bound to be wrong in many or even most instances. One would rightly be skeptical to assert that there is a cohesive group of people with all the following traits:
1) Avoid Risks
2) Advocate Government by Experts
3) Reject Traditional Values
4) Embrace Symbols over Substance
5) Engage in Moral Posturing

Read between the lines and find that these traits are those of the only really clear example of the New Elite to reach the White House. And then suddently realize that one could simply read this book's title as "How Bill Clinton Ruined Democracy in America." I have concerns about some of his policies and some of his attitudes. But in many ways Clinton was a populist. And in many ways both his success and his tragic flaws arose from the qualities in him that gave birth to both his New Elitism and his Populism.

Lebedoff argues that morality and civility should be taught . He advocates a return to 'traditional values.' When most thoughtful people hear these things they hear code language for 'let's use our schools to turn everyone into bible-thumping evangelicals" and run away screaming hysterically. Lebedoff argues that the New Elite fails to respect the traditional values but that it should do so. To the extent Lebedoff is referring to the virtues Hume advocates or the ones advocated by Aristotle, I think he is completely correct. Both sides of the aisle will benefit greatly by adopting these virtues. But when his lines are interpreted as code, I would say we need to be careful to avoid turning our country into the Fourth Reich.

The overarching argument that technocrats should not be the ones responsible for making law is an interesting one. Certainly it is true that when a person runs for political office he should be able to clearly articulate political ideals and philosophies. And he should temper his practice as a legislator or executive according to those ideals and philosophies. A political process that gets us back into the practice of doing this is something I wish for as much as the author. I am skeptical that bashing technocrats or even banishing them from office would be enough to bring about this end.

The founders of the country were unconvinced that America's institutions were quite up to the task of teaching the right virtues. This is why we have mandatory education (which should teach them but falls far short of doing so) and why we have representative democracy and the electoral college. Even Lebedoff argues that the process of introducing more direct methods of electing political convention delegates played a major role in the degredation of political discourse.

Lebedoff takes it as an item of faith that 'majority rule' is the right thing. He is completely unconcerned about history's lessons about failed states run by majority rule. Nor does he spend any time examanining this premise. He simply imagines that there is some sort of sacred right to majority rule, that it is always ultimately best for a country and that anyone who questions whether this is necessarily the case is somehow unfiit to be an American - even if their viewpoint is informed by study of history and a concern about the moral or political weaknesses of majority rule.

It was a member of the British political elite who posited 'The masses are asses" and H.L. Menkin "Democracy is based on the idea that people should get what they ask for. And get it good and hard." Perhaps Lebedoff is right. Perhaps our country will be better if it drives itself into a brick wall at 60 mph than it would be if someone else were to take the wheel. Perhaps we stand in Ghandi's shoes saying "it is better for us to rule ourselves badly than to be ruled well by someone else." Perhaps this is the only way we shall internalize the lessons of history. Perhaps the minority who has read a little bit of history and has concerns for the future of the country should sit silently on their hands while everyone else learns by experience. Perhaps this is Lebedoff's argument. But I hope not.

Uncivil War .......2005-02-07

"The Uncivil War" is mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to understand politics and culture in early 21st century America.
This is a full five star opus.

Another highly readable book from David Lebedoff.......2004-12-19

I read David Lebedoff's "The New Elite" soon after it was published in the early 1980's, and was impressed with how the author was able to put into perspective the trends in our society that were leading many down the wrong path. In "The Uncivil War", Lebedoff shows what the path looks like after twenty more years of traveling. He uses significant events that we've lived through in recent times to illustrate the messes caused by the self-appointed whom we've allowed to take leadership positions in politics and business. With wisdom and wit, he again shows the patterns that to many are easy to miss.
If enough people read this book and take what it says to heart, there is still time to self-correct. To paraphrase, "it's the (lack of) values, stupid!" that we've got to fix. You'll enjoy the book, and will be the wiser for having read it.

Book Description

This collection of ethnographic and interpretive essays fundamentally alters the debate over indigenous land claims in Southeast Asia and beyond. Based on fieldwork conducted in Malaysia and Indonesia during the 1980s and 1990s, these studies explore new terrain at the intersection of environmental justice, nature conservation, cultural performance, and the politics of making and interpreting claims.
Calling for radical redefinitions of development and ownership and for new understandings of the translation of culture and rights in politically dangerous contexts—natural resource frontiers—this volume links social injustice and the degradation of Southeast Asian environments. Charles Zerner and his colleagues show how geographical areas once viewed as wild and undeveloped are actually cultural artifacts shaped by complex interactions with human societies. Drawing on richly varied sources of evidence and interpretation—from trance dances, court proceedings, tree planting patterns, marine and forest rituals, erotic poems, and codifications of customary law, Culture and the Question of Rights reveals the ironies, complexities, and histories of contemporary communities’ struggles to retain their gardens, forests, fishing territories, and graveyards. The contributors examine how these cultural activities work to both construct and to lay claim to nature. These essays open up new avenues for negotiating indigenous rights against a background of violence, proliferating markets, and global ideas of biodiversity and threatened habitat.
This collection will prove valuable to anthropologists, political geographers, ecologists, environmentalists, legal scholars, and those interested in indigenous rights.

Contributors. Jane Atkinson, Don Brenneis, Stephanie Fried, Nancy Peluso, Marina Roseman, Anna Tsing, Charles Zerner

Culture and the Question of Rights: Forests, Coasts, and Seas in Southeast Asia.(Book Review): An article from: Pacific Affairs

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Culture and the Question of Rights: Forests, Coasts, and Seas in Southeast Asia.(Book Review): An article from: Pacific Affairs
Paul K. Gellert
Manufacturer: University of British Columbia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000ALRU84
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on December 22, 2004. The length of the article is 693 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: Culture and the Question of Rights: Forests, Coasts, and Seas in Southeast Asia.(Book Review)
Author: Paul K. Gellert
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2004
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 77 Issue: 4 Page: 772(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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