William & Harry: A Portrait of Two Princes

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Author should have called the book "William: His evil mother, His saint like father, and His brother (whose name escapes me )!

Life of Royals

Bad taste

A little new information, a lot of bias

I liked it...

William & Harry: A Portrait of Two Princes
Ingrid Seward
Manufacturer: Arcade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Prince Harry: The Biography

William: HRH Prince William of Wales

After Diana: William, Harry, Charles, and the Royal House of Windsor

William: The People's Prince: His Life in Pictures (Nunn Syndication Books)

William: The People's Prince

ASIN: 1559706902

Customer Reviews:

Author should have called the book "William: His evil mother, His saint like father, and His brother (whose name escapes me )!.......2007-05-08

As a Prince Harry fan, I was excited about reading a book that I believed would tie his life experiences in with his brother's as the author took on the huge task of jamming two biography's into one book. I soon found out that it was really easy for the author to write two biographies in one book when one of the biograghies is only mentioned when it boosts the others. In other words, Harry is rarely mentioned unless it seems to help William. This is a Prince William biography. The only reason Harry's name was mentioned in the title is to boost sales because, like me, I'm sure many people think it would be great to read about how the two famous brother's relate to each other. You will not get that here. I literally feel like I learned more about Harry in the first couple pages of the Introduction then in the rest of the book. She actually talks more about Diana (even after her death) then Harry. And at the end of the book she gives up pretending that the book has anything to do with Harry and doesn't even talk about him in the last couple chapters.

In addition, the author is RUTHLESS toward Princess Diana. I am not a Princess Diana fan and I actually like Prince Charles but man did she work Di over in this book. Plus she hands Charles a pass on anything he ever did. She attributes all the bad in marriage to her and all of the attempts to heal the marriage to Charles. Not some, ALL. Plus she gives the worst account of her as a mother I have ever heard. In her account, the boys seem to love and want their nannies more than their mother and the only time Diana stepped in to do anything with the children was to fire their nannies if the boys loved them too much. She works over Diana so much that when Diana dies in the car crash (I am not joking when I say this) I actually felt that William and Harry seemed so brave because they were glad their physco mother was died! This is not the author's assetion but after 12 chapters of Diana bashing you can't help but feel sorry for the boys. It is definetly a one-sided picture of life at Highgrove.

The only thing I appreciate about the book is that the author names her sources, she doesn't just make huge claims without any kind of back up. Almost everything that she asserts has someone's name and job title behind it.

If you are a Prince William fan, you might like this book, it has a whole lot of information on him. But other than that, the book doesn't do justice to anyone else in it.

Life of Royals.......2006-10-19

This book about the lives of William and Harry starts off with the meeting of their parents Prince Charles and Diana Spencer and into their early married life.

After this it goes into the lifes of William and younger brother Henry (Harry) from their early lives to school and their relationships with their parents after their infamous split and the death of Princess Diana in 1997 in Paris.

This book is very detailed because the author had spent alot of time with both boys and their mother. It is a very well written book with fun stories about the two young Princes

Bad taste.......2004-01-27

What a dissappointment, if you are a fan of Diana, Princess of Wales then this is not the book for you. I was hoping for an autobiographical picture of the two Princes, no such luck. Ingrid Steward has devoted a large portion of this book to attacking Diana, who she obviously dislikes. Prince Charles is also attacked gently, but Steward maybe saved her worst venom on the lady unable to defend her self anymore. God forbid she fall from favour with the living. I was disgusted with the book and would not recommend it to anyone other than a fan who see's no wrong in the warped world that is the House of Windsor.

A little new information, a lot of bias.......2003-09-20

For your money you get quite a bit of the same old stories, some new information (the Prince Harry drugs episode told differently to what I'd read before)and a lot of bias.
Seward doesn't really spare anyone, managing to come up with something unflattering about each of the players in the story, but somehow the Princess almost always seems to come out worse than Prince Charles (and for a book about the two boys there is too much material about their parents).
It seems that every rumor about Diana's love life is taken as fact while the official version (how many people really believe that?)about Charles is taken as fact. William and Harry get a lot told about them of course, some of it not flattering and mostly old news but in the end Seward seems to think well of them.

I liked it..........2003-08-29

I thought it was a pretty good book. There was a lot about Charles and Diana that should have been left out. I have been following William all my life, and there were a few stories about him and his brother in this book that I have not heard of yet. It gives you a very well insight about the marrige but more about that than the boys.

Book Description

When deciding which athletes to profile, our editors take into account not only a player's statistics, but also his character. SPI takes care to select athletes who are known to be community minded and can serve as role models.

The biographical material on each athlete covers him from his earliest days to the present.

Customer Reviews:

Just goes to show what a little persistence will do!.......2000-04-07

In life when you attempt something 129 time before you're victorious, most people would give up. Dale Jarrett started 129 races before winning his first race and today he ranks fourth on the all-time money list with over $21 million in earnings.

These are but a few of the things you'll find in this book. You'll also read about his 1999 Winston Cup Championship, his 1993 win in Daytona, his wins in Darlington, Charlotte and Michigan. You'll meet his crew and even get a glimpse of the owner of his team.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2005-02-12

So, this is yet another coffee table book. See, what it is is that I have a friend who knows I am a NASCAR fan so he didn't know what else to get me for Christmas so he got me 3 NASCAR books. One of them was this one and I was fairly disappointed, mostly due to the fact that the title does not accurately describe the book.

See, Daytona Speedweeks is a racing happening. There are a dozen motorsports events, culminating in the Daytona 500. There's a European-style 24 hour race, a motocross event and literally a half-dozen NASCAR races. Check their website!

This book, however, focuses primarily on the Daytona 500 (90%) and barely mentions the other non-NASCAR events. In fact, some events it doesn't mention at all. I have no problem with the NASCAR focus, just give the book a different title. This, truly, is a book that you cannot judge by its title.

I give this book a "D". The title thing annoyed me but there was nothing here about the history of the speedway or of the race.

Average customer rating:

A must for the Dale Jarrett fan

Dale Jarrett
Frank Moriarty , and Frank Moriarty
Manufacturer: Metrobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Dale Jarrett: Son of Thunder

ASIN: 1586630482

Book Description

Dale Jarrett is the consummate stock car racer, fiercely competitive on the track and gracious off, and the perfect representative of the sport. Here is the exciting story of his career behind the wheel, told by an award-winning journalist and filled with more than 100 action and behind-the-scenes photographs. As the son of Ned Jarrett, a former Grand National stock car champion and current dean of television motor-sports analysts, Dale seemed born to drive. But his first love was golf, and only later did he begin to race with his trademark determination and establish himself as a smart racer with superior car and track knowledge. The result was an enormously successful, decades-long career, capped by the highest honor any NASCAR driver can earn: the Winston Cup championship. Numerous quotes by and about Jarrett flesh out a remarkable portrait of one of stock car racing's hottest athletes.

Customer Reviews:

A must for the Dale Jarrett fan.......2007-02-13

If you are a Dale Jarett fan, or know one, this is a must-add to your collection. It has intimate details of his family and his life growing up. There is even a little humor sprinkled here and there. Worth the oney! I got mine used through the Amazon marketpalce and am very happy with it.

Average customer rating:

Dale Jarrett (Nascar Champions)
L. James
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 1404234594

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Dale Jarrett (Racer)
John Regruth
Manufacturer: Motorbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Dale Jarrett struggled with underfunded teams and worked hard to climb to the top of the NASCAR ladder. In 1999, the whole package came together when Jarrett won the Winston Cup Championship with Robert Yates Racing.In addition to comprehensive race data and track-by-track results, a selection of color photography spanning Jarretts entire NASCAR career includes candid shots of the driver and action photos of the cars he has driven through the 2001 season.

Dale Jarrett's Stats and Standings (Nascar Stats and Standings)

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Dale Jarrett's Stats and Standings (Nascar Stats and Standings)

Manufacturer: Futech Interactive Products
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1582240175

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Dale Jarrett: In the Fast Lane
David Armentrout , and Patricia Armentrout
Manufacturer: Rourke Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 1600442161

Dale Jarrett: It Was Worth the Wait (The World of Nascar)

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Dale Jarrett: It Was Worth the Wait (The World of Nascar)
Jim Gigliotti
Manufacturer: Child's World
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 159187002X

Book Description

One of the sport's great heroes, race car driver Dale Jarrett struggled many years to achieve his success. Kids can follow his career from ticket-taker at the local Speedway to Winston Cup Champion to NASCAR winner. This is a tale of perseverance and dedication that is sure to inspire.

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The Jarretts (Race Car Legends)
Richard M. Huff
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0791050181

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Concert at Castle Hill
John Updike
Manufacturer: Lord John Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0935716602

Book Description

BradyGames Nintendo 64 Secret Codes, Volume 5 is an updated collection of the best cheats, tricks and secret codes for the latest, top-selling Nintendo 64 video games! Some of the games covered in this guide are Pok¿n Gold & Silver, Paper Mario, Pok¿n Stadium 2, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing 2 and other hot Nintendo 64 titles.

Book Description

Today’s computer trading programs can be a godsend to traders looking for an extra edge. They can also be filled with dangerous—and expensive—pitfalls for the uninitiated. Trading Systems That Work reviews and analyzes today’s major software programs, and helps traders determine which will work best for their personal trading style and habits—and which could actually work against them. Emphasizing Tradestation and Excel (the two most popular software trading programs), this valuable guidebook covers all aspects of building, understanding, and evaluating a system. Traders will keep Trading Systems That Work handy for its: *Clear, step-by-step assistance with intricate systems *Techniques to evaluate the true performance of any system

Customer Reviews:

Good.......2007-03-20

This is good for programmers. It's a bit beyond me but I still got some useful stuff out of it that gave me an edge so that made it worth it. If someone is a programmer, this is your book. He's great and gets you thinking.

Useful but.......2006-10-14

remember: there is no such thing as a free lunch..you have to build systems yourself and test test test and then optimise a bit.(I said a bit :-)

Good techniques for developing a system.......2006-01-31

If you want a caned system, this is not the book for you. What this book will teach you is how to evaluate a system that you are developing. It is a little hard to read, but the excel formulas are worth it.
It covers the essetials of a good trading system (entry, exit and money management) and explains why not all good trading systems are profitable. (All profitable trading systems must be good first).

professional methodology of systems dvelopment.......2005-06-08

Very good book for serious system developers. Most books on the topic present a system, optimize it so it fits a particular market, show couple of very convincing graphs and voila, here is the contribution to the trading science.

In this book the author presents system development in the context of portfolio trading: a robust system should work in a variety of markets. Stridsman takes you through his process of testing a system, from setting the data, to performance measures. Results of his systems, by the way, are not "fantastic", and that for me adds credibility. Analysis of his systems is done in a statistical manner, so that all aspects of a system are set up using statistical methodology, as opposed to conventional wisdom. A lot of work is also done in an attempt to introduce some degree of predictability in the author's trading approach. Aspects of system design are discussed in sophisticated detail: MAE, MFE, kurtosis, different types of drawdown, trade efficiency etc.

His optimization techiques are interesting. This is the first time I have seen the use of surface graphs to present two-variable optimization.

Not once in this book I have sensed an advertisement for the author's methods. The author simply discusses his approach. There is no hype, exclamation marks. The book is very concentrated and packed with ideas, which can be applied to any other system or markets. I don't think it would be possible to make it any shorter.

Good value for money if you like quantitative approach to trading.

Trading systems that confuse.......2004-10-13

If you're building a computer based trading system, this title offers some interesting insight. There are several example trading systems that implement commonly used system features, and these systems are analyzed and commented on. But this is far from a blueprint--the methods used are too rough to actually use as defined, and the descriptions are very confusing in many places. Included TradeStation code is a bit easier than most to understand, but that's not saying much. Every time I read this book, I feel like my time would be better spent reviewing Conway & Behle's "Professional Stock Trading: System Design and Automation", which covers much of the same material but with considerably more coherance.

Tradings Systems That Work: Building and Evaluating Effective Trading Systems

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Tradings Systems That Work: Building and Evaluating Effective Trading Systems
Thomas Stridsman
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUDJJ2

Book Description

Fighting fires since 1965, veteran smokejumper Murry Taylor finally retired from his legendary career after last summer-the worst fire season in more than fifty years. After three decades of parachuting out of planes and battling blazes in the vast, rugged wilderness of Alaska and the West, Taylor recounts in Jumping Fire, with passion and honesty, stories of man versus nature at its most furious and unforgiving. He shares what it's like to hear the deafening roar, to smell the acrid burn, to feel the intense heat, to breathe the thick fumes, and to finally run for your life with exploding flames two hundred feet high and a mile wide licking at your heels. Written with a keen eye for detail and a talent for storytelling, "Jumping Fire is a tale of love and loss, life and death, and sheer hard work, set in an unforgiving and unforgettable landscape, that's second only to Norman Maclean's classic Young Men and Fire" (Publishers Weekly).

Amazon.com

To most of us, the smokejumping world is as alien as Mars or the deep seabed. Yet for Murry Taylor--as for many other Alaskan smokejumpers--it's not just an annual summer job, it's his heart's blood and life's core. He, with all the smokejumpers, strains yearly to achieve the three-mile qualifying run in the requisite 22.5 minutes or under, his physical pain superceded by the fearsome anxiety that he might not make it, that he might never again do what sounds more like a nightmare than a cherished dream: parachute repeatedly from 3,000 feet out of small planes into searing fires.

Taylor is 50 and has been smokejumping since 1965. Jumping Fire, his first book, focuses on one particularly incendiary summer in 1991, from April 29 to September 24, recording the day-to-day minutiae of an Alaskan smokejumper (including the tale of that summer's doomed love affair) while interspersing the narrative with memories accumulated from his nearly three decades of smokejumping and stories by and about his colorful colleagues.

The writing is vivid and immediate. Taylor clarifies the workings of parachute drogue release handles, Stevens connections, and cut-away clutches, but he doesn't inundate us with alienating terminology. The technical details are explained as they come up in the many scenes and anecdotes that shape the book. There are stories of jumps that ended in strangulation and multiple fractures and jumps that ended more comically, with the hapless jumper planted deep in a puddle of duck excrement, or landing on top of a moose. The guys rib each other mercilessly, perform their preflight gear checks religiously, and come to the assistance of their jump partners with a dedication that is inspiring.

The beauty of Alaska infuses Taylor's narrative. He describes the miraculous shift from winter to summer, with willow trees and red alders budding, massive plates of ice shattering, and the sunset-sunrise specials that last all night with the same care that's devoted to his scenes of blazing trees and scorched hills. By the time he pens the epilogue, dated December 1999, Taylor has become the oldest active smokejumper in the field's 60-year history and is trying to decide whether to sign up for the coming season. Should he choose to finally retire, he could always take up writing full-time. He's a natural. --Stephanie Gold

Customer Reviews:

What's smokejumping *really* like? Read this book and find out!.......2007-06-14

Bar none, Murry Taylor's book does the best job I've ever read of capturing the essence of the smokejumper's job... the chaos, adventure, awe-inspiring sights, sounds, smells, and emotions, physical and mental demands, comradeship, and routine brushes with near-disaster.

I was a wildland fire fighter for the first half of my nearly 35-year Forest Service career and was even a smokejumper for one fire season way back in 1974. Through the years I've read many pieces about fire fighting and smokejumping only to be disappointed by their shallowness, falsehoods, and lack of essential realities. In my opinion, Taylor's writing does the finest job ever of capturing the essence of the endeavor. Want to get a taste of what smokejumping and wildland fire fighting are like, and the kind of people who zealously do it for a whole working career? Read this book and find out... get a genuine feel for the people who parachute from planes to contain and control wildland fire!

Furthermore, while wildland fire fighting, and smokejumping in particular, can be harrowing and exciting anywhere they occur, nearly all of Taylor's stories are from the edgy, rugged frontiers of Alaska where nearly every day brings an encounter with at least one "near death" experience, avoided only by varying proportions of astute situational awareness, professionalism, grit, and good luck. Paying close attention, Taylor's writing can evoke adrenaline releases from the reader, providing vivid glimpses into the workday life of a smokejumper.

Taylor's stories are readably told in the colloquial vernacular of a very well seasoned and aged smokejumper. He thoroughly conveys the realities of the job and puts the reader inside the head of one whose entire working life has been spent doing one of the most adventurous, if not dangerous, civilian jobs today.

great book.......2007-05-22

I bought the book mostly to get some technical details about smokejumper's work and obviously did not expect author to be high-skilled writer. I was surprised to find it a very engaging read and better quality than many novels written by a professional writers.

Great Book on Wildland Firefighting!.......2007-05-19

This is most definitely a must have for anyone in the fire service. Although I have not been a jumper, I do have a long career in wildland firefighting. This book is RIGHT ON THE MONEY, and brings back many fond memories on the line.

Smokejumper's, wow!.......2007-02-20

A great read. Funny, sad, thrilling. I borowed this from the library and it was an older version. Without the extra afterword, but had some really nice pictures in it. I then bought it, and while I love the afterword, I wish it still had the photos. Still a book I have on my must read list.

Wildland Firefights at their best.......2006-06-14

Jumping Fire is a passionate, thrilling, yet easy-to-read account of Alaska Smokejumper Murry Taylor. This edge-of-your-seat first-person account of the 1991 fire season will keep you reading. Vivid stories, lightly interetwined with the rollercoaster love life afforded by wildland firefighing, help propel this wonderful book through its chapters.

Taylor became Alaska's oldest Smokejumper in 1995, yet continued until his retirement at the end of the historic 2000 season. Even if you've never been on a fireline, eating smoke and chasing down flames, you'll enjoy Jumping Fire.

Jumping Fire : A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire

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Jumping Fire : A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire
Murry A. Taylor
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJGAYW

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Jumping Fire : A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire
Murry A. Taylor
Manufacturer: Harvest/HBJ Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJHR6W

Book Description

Now in paperback: The definitive account of the multiple plots to kill Hitler and the extraordinary security created to protect him.

"I am immortal!" exulted Hitler in the wake of the failed assassination plot of July 20, 1944. As Peter Hoffmann shows in this startling book, that bombing was only the best known of more than thirty attempts on Hitler's life, the first coming as early as 1921, when he was the leader of the German worker's party. Using extensive archival material, Hoffmann details these assassination plots and outlines the fanatically complex security measures that developed to keep Hitler safe. He analyzes Hitler's SS escort and the other security groups responsible for his life--there were so many of them that they often counteracted one another--together with their arrangements for his transportation, public appearances, residences, and wartime headquarters. Providing remarkable new information about the workings of those devoted to defending and destroying him, this book is an invaluable contribution to the history of the Third Reich.

Customer Reviews:

Definitive work.......2004-04-11

This is by far the best work every on Hitler's secruity and the various assassination plots against him. It's especially strong in the early, seminal years of the Nazi party and there are some extremely rare photographs of Hitler in Munich in the mid to late 20's. Hoffman's research is extensive and he unearths material not found in other books. He relies on primary sources for many of his arguments and these interviews enhance an already strong book. If you have an interest in Hitler's incredible knack in evading assassinations, this is the preeminent book on that subject.

Book Description

When Americans talked about politics in the 1950s, they always seemed to be talking about sex. Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War argues that the highly gendered and sexualized language of cold war politics was the product of specific anxieties that centered around post-war notions of masculinity. Investigating the major cultural contributions of figures like Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Joseph McCarthy, JFK, and Richard Nixon, Cuordileone offers a sexy reinterpretation of cold war politics.

Customer Reviews:

The rhetoric of the Cold War explained.......2007-07-18

Read this for graduate American history course.

K. A. Cuordileone's book examines the work of Daniel Bell's 1955 essay on the "radical right" and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s 1949 book, The Vital Center, which illustrates the burgeoning Cold War political divisions in the U.S. that had come into prominence in the 1950's. Bell explained that the discourse had become polarized into two camps--"hard" and
"soft." People were deemed "hard" if they believed that both international and domestic Communism posed a grave threat to the security of the U.S. Conversely, People were deemed "soft" if they believed that the danger from domestic Communism was nil. In his article, Cuordileone points out that Bell failed to examine the roots of this new polarizing language that dominated the political lexicon in the U.S. for several decades. Although Bell lamented this seemingly amorphous division in U.S. politics, Cuordileone's research proved that conservatives were not the inventors of this new rhetoric. Actually, Schlesinger's book introduced the hard /soft dichotomy in his defense of liberal anti-Communism. This new polarizing language had a gender component to it as well. The analogy was that a hard stand against all forms of Communism was masculine, and that it was feminine and a real danger to the security of the U.S. to be soft on Communism. It was this gender-based language that helped to push Cold War politics to grow more divisive and mean spirited. Thus, the purpose of Cuordileone's book was to identify and explain the: "excessive preoccupation with--and anxiety about--masculinity in early Cold War American politics."

Schlesinger's book, "The Vital Center is habitually cited as a turning point for American liberalism, an unequivocal rejection of extremist politics and an articulation of a new liberal anticommunist political realism." Schlesinger's opening premise was that the industrial revolution put mankind in a state of fear and anxiety, and thus made mankind more apt to turn to utopian and totalitarian forms of government to assuage their fears. Only in the aftermath of the terrible events of WWII were liberals forced to recognize that humankind indeed had the capacity to do evil. This recognition made liberals give up their long held belief in humankind's perfectibility and rationality. Schlesinger realized that the history of appeasing Hitler prior to the war, and the dangers that loomed in making the same mistake with Stalin in the days ahead, made it important to construct a liberal response to Communism that could stand up to the criticism of the political right in America. He wanted to prove that a new liberal doctrine would in fact occupy the vital center in American politics.

He attacked the conservatives for their unwillingness to tackle social reforms during the industrial revolution, and he saw insipid conservative capitalists meeting their responsibilities by hiding behind destructive tariffs and monopolies. Schlesinger observed that historically, conservatives turned their backs on robust men, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill; men who acted masculinity. Instead, conservatives embraced the effeminate Neville Chamberlains of the world, men who traded responsibility for isolationism. Thus, Schlesinger charged conservatives of becoming "impotent" men politically.

On the other hand, Schlesinger ridiculed the progressive left, which he named "Doughfaces," because they were too pliable and "hopelessly and irrevocably feminine." Doughfaces live within utopian beliefs and do not recognize the harsh realities of the world. For Schlesinger, Doughfaces had a genuine concern for the betterment of humankind but could only muster up enough energy to be dreamers and critics; they were not masculine enough to be doers. Thus, "Schlesinger took the progressive's politics as evidence of emotional maladjustment, what the postwar intelligentsia so frequently and indiscriminately called `neurosis.'" Schlesinger's conclusion was that the reconstituted postwar liberal leaders would occupy the vital center politically by proving that they were doers and not just complainers. Schlesinger argued that these new leaders were the only people capable of producing "a secure and restored American masculinity."

Cuordileone astutely concluded that despite "Schlesinger's effort to masculinize the liberal reform tradition...it did not prevent liberals (including Schlesinger himself) from being accused of softness." Cuordileone noted that the hard right's political rhetoric became much cruder and targeted such men as Secretary of State Dean Acheson and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson as paragons of pompous "eastern establishment liberalism," too soft to stand against the pernicious evils of Communism. Thus, Cuordileone's research proved that throughout the 1950's, hard right political leaders such as Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy successfully put Democrats on the defensive with their accusations that they were soft on Communism and guilty of not working diligently in ferreting out Communists from government agencies. The hard right even had some success in convincing the American public that Communists had a higher propensity than other segments of society to be sexual deviants and homosexuals, and if Democrats were unwilling to go after them hammer and tong, then they must be guilty by association. Cuordileone wrote, "In the fallout from the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, the bleeding-heart liberal egghead superseded the image of the pragmatic, educated, manly liberal bureaucrat of earlier years." If Schlesinger and Democrats who believed in his thesis were to prove his point, that liberals were masculine leaders that were hard on Communism, then they would need a new young vigorous standard-bearer to propel their political party to victory in the 1960 presidential election. Thus, Cuordileone observed that for the Democrats: "John F. Kennedy became not just the incarnation of the virile `vital center' liberal whose template Schlesinger had created ten years earlier, but the antidote to the nation's crisis in masculinity."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

Tying Cold War Masculine Discourse to the Invention of Liberal Consumer Choice and the Death of Regionalism's Sacred National.......2006-03-25

Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War by K.A. Cuordileone engages the cultural symbology of cold war politics from approximately 1948 thru 1963. It seeks to situate the origins of masculine rhetorical binaries such as "soft" and "hard" in a milieu of cultural reinvention. To do this, it deploys masculinity to center a framework of inquiry around sexuality and identity. This framework is then applied as an interpretive of Cold War political discourse and change. The text claims that accusations of emasculation helped to reshape liberal politics, forcing it toward an anticommunist center. This ultimately translated into support for interventionist government that cracked down on danger and deviance in private life. Among numerous junctures that the author uses to highlight this is the 1952 presidential race, in which Adlai Stevenson was denounced by mainstream press for "teacup words and a "fruity voice (p. 88)." His decisively anticommunist rhetoric could not overcome his vision of American identity as rooted in "plains," "mountains," and "seas (p. 89)." Indeed, such rhetoric evoked the regionalist art of the New Deal era, in which American identity and the sacred national were constituted of land and laboring people. Cuordileone demonstrates how this rhetoric becomes anachronistic and effeminate, and how the new sacred national of science and industry was inscribed upon on the male body.

American political culture was also a site of intellectual contestation. The author sees this epitomized in the work of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. which she uses to frame the centering of liberalism in a narrative of epiphany and natural political maturation. Such efforts saw New Deal pluralism as a noble naivete and postwar consumerism/individualism/anti-communism as emergent from an adolescence ill-informed about the birds and the bees of the human condition. According to Cuordileone, Schlesinger saw the liberal coming of age as "[rejecting] facile notions of progress and human perfectibility (p. 5)" and instead being informed by a pragmatism that understood "the unconscious dimension of political behavior (p. 26)." Indeed, such rhetoric in political discourse resembles the rhetoric of commodity advertisement which seeks to access the unconscious desires of the citizen consumer.

Cuordileone's analysis hits its stride in connecting the masculinist trappings of Cold War political binaries to changing ideas of the public and of human nature. It devotes an extensive literary survey to the meanings of conformity in the cold war era. The author's consideration of works of popular psychology like David Riseman's The Lonely Crowd help demonstrate the catch-22 of modeling the individual as object in which there is indulgence beneath the surface that constitutes untapped economic expansion. Riseman, who writes about men as they were the only category of agency in his period, divides society into the "other directed" (feminine) man who is presumably the stable employee of a business organization and the "inner directed" man who presumably indulges competitively in commodities like those produced by that organization (p. 120). In a similar paradox, regionalism died because the land became profane, populated by persons of uncertain pathology who could only assure their civility by aligning that indulgence with sanctioned commodity. Yet it is the gendered excision of uncertain pathology that throws that same land into constant redemption. While Cuordileone is not as convincing when she extends her consideration of masculinity to a phenomenon that is particularly liberal, she avoids the trap of simple determinism and supports her core thesis with a broadly considered and intricately synthesized work.

Book Description

This book focuses on the evolution of energy-using activities in a dozen industrialized countries and many developing countries as well, with particular attention paid to the energy-intensive branches of manufacturing, automobiles, air travel, home heating, and electric appliances. The authors draw scenarios of future energy efficiency improvements, based on their findings about past improvements, and their survey of the potential for change. The study concludes that only massive improvement in energy efficiency in the near and medium term can provide the world with breathing room to develop and deploy a mix of relatively clean energy sources that will not further aggravate environmental or climate problems.

Energy Efficiency and Human Activity: Past Trends, Future Prospects. (book reviews): An article from: The Energy Journal

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Energy Efficiency and Human Activity: Past Trends, Future Prospects. (book reviews): An article from: The Energy Journal
Joel Darmstadter
Manufacturer: International Association for Energy Economics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Energy Journal, published by International Association for Energy Economics on April 1, 1993. The length of the article is 845 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: Energy Efficiency and Human Activity: Past Trends, Future Prospects. (book reviews)
Author: Joel Darmstadter
Publication: The Energy Journal (Refereed)
Date: April 1, 1993
Publisher: International Association for Energy Economics
Volume: v14 Issue: n2 Page: p199(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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