Book Description
After the Ball is that rare true story that reads like an epic novel, a sweeping chronicle of an era, and an intimate account of the hope and betrayal of a son whose father gave him everything -- except the training to find his way in territory ruled by the rapacious.
James Hazen Hyde was twenty-three in 1899 when he inherited the majority shares in the billion-dollar Equitable Life Assurance Society. Only five years later, he fell from grace in a Wall Street scandal that obsessed the nation and commanded 115 front-page articles in the New York Times.
Hyde was intelligent, cultured, and ambitious, but he was no match for an older generation that had mapped the backstreets of high finance. Vying to control the Equitable's vast investment pool, the most famous financiers and industrialists of the era -- among them E. H. Harriman, Henry Clay Frick, and J. P. Morgan -- put Hyde on forty-eight boards and included him in deals that shook Wall Street. And then, at the pinnacle of social success, he made a fatal miscalculation.
On the last night of January 1905, James Hyde held a fabulously flamboyant, eighteenth-century, Versailles-themed costume ball. His enemies used the party as the hook to hang him on, claiming that he was too frivolous to run a company dedicated to protecting widows and orphans; and spread the rumor that he had spent two hundred thousand dollars of Equitable money on a night's entertainment. By the time a government investigation established that Hyde had paid the bills himself, his reputation was ruined.
The bitter campaign to wrest control of the Equitable and its vast investment capacity from Hyde followed on the heels of the ball. As the fight escalated, clandestine alliances between insurers and Wall Street burst to the surface, exposing techniques that are the stuff of twenty-first-century scandals: self-dealing, insider trading, accounting malpractice, and corporate funding of private pleasures.
After the Ball tells a tale that riveted millions of Americans a century ago. Its themes are as fresh today as they were in 1905: greed and chicanery, the flawed love between fathers and sons, and contradictory American attitudes about wealth -- all unfolding against a setting of magnificence, excess, and corrupting glamour.
Customer Reviews:
A Greek Tragedy in The Gilded Age. .......2007-04-02
"After the Ball" is a biography of James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959), Gilded Age aesthete, sportsman, patron of the arts and heir to the majority shares in The Equitable Life Assurance Society, which his father Henry Baldwin Hyde had founded in 1859. The emphasis is on the decisive event of James' life: His battle to retain control of his father's company that played out over the course of 1905 against Equitable's president James Waddell Alexander and its ruthlessly ambitious 2nd vice president Gage Tarbell. That battle commanded 115 front page articles in "The New York Times" alone and resulted in the passage of New York's Armstrong Laws in an attempt to regulate the insurance industry. Author Patricia Beard knew James Hyde's only son Henry Hyde -Henry was godfather to her son- which explains the late chapter dedicated to Henry Hyde's life.
James Hyde became the majority shareholder in The Equitable at the age of 23 upon his father's death in 1899. Henry B. Hyde had planned that his son serve as 1st vice president under the tutelage of James Alexander before assuming the role of company president at age 30. But Henry had ill prepared his son for the murky realities and unbridled ambitions of the business world. And James was ill-suited to the job, being by nature a man of arts and letters and high society. James idolized his father and took his legacy seriously but didn't understand his responsibilities until it was too late. In 1905, frustrated by James' ability as majority shareholder to stifle his plans for the Society, unscrupulous, dogged Gage Tarbell recruited malleable and unstable James Alexander as his ally and launched a campaign to force The Equitable to mutualize (give shareholders voting rights) with the intent of ousting James. They expected James to resign, sell his stock, and move to France. Instead, he put up a fight.
"After the Ball" provides a blow-by-blow account of The Equitable crisis and the attempts to resolve it, from James Hyde's lavish 18th century France-themed ball in January 1905 until his self-imposed exile in France a year later. Although it occasionally bogs down in minutiae, the battle for The Equitable is a page-turner. Histories of Henry B. Hyde, The Equitable, James' later life in Paris and New York, and his son's service in the OSS during World War II bookend the drama. Prominent industrialists and financiers from Wall Street's boom years of the 1890s-1920s are the cast, and The Gilded Age itself is a character. James' flamboyance, active social life, and ostentatious wealth exemplified the ideals of the era. He was praised for successfully juggling his business, social, and artistic pursuits. But he couldn't. "After the Ball" is the story of a doting father who gave his son an empire but neglected to teach him how to rule for fear that his image would be tarnished in the boy's eyes. It's the story of a son who inherited great wealth and power but little motivation to comprehend or exploit them and so fell victim to those more willing.
Superb.......2006-10-02
Well-written, interesting and sheds new light on a long-forgotten subject. The author has the gift of understanding and writing well about both Gilded Age high society and finance, and uses her gift to good advantage. Occasionally the inner manueverings in the Equitable drag a bit, but this is a hardly noticeable defect. Five stars +; buy and and read it with enjoyment.
Cloak and Dagger on Wall Street and ....There's MORE to the Story!.......2005-12-17
This is a well presented and gripping account of the clash of the titans of industry of a century ago. It shows them in their true, unsavory, colors, albeit a tad muted....
We find the anything-but-poor, yet unsuspecting Mr. Hyde (heir in his 20s to the Equitable Insurance fortune) shaken from his elite complacency and thrust into the eye of a storm that is kept stirred by the machinations of Equitable board member Henry Clay Frick, one of the more amazing and alarming capitalists from Pittsburgh's steel days.
In a bid to oust Hyde from control of the mega-insurance concern that his father founded with wit, skill and sleight of hand, Frick engineers a negative publicity juggernaut that calls Hyde's personal financial ethics into question and ends up in the courts. The Equitable goes into receivership-with some luminaries like George Westinghouse in temporary control-until, beset by the scandal, Hyde sells out, shakes the dust off of his well-heeled shoes, and departs for Pre-World War I Paris. He remains a Francophile expatriate for the remainder of his days.
There is more to the story and some of it is here, and well worth the reader's time and attention, especially since Ms Beard had access to some privately held family papers and files that cast the story in a Schubert pink spotlight, with few shadows. The author, a personal friend of Hyde's granddaughters and a member of the same giltetry social set, goes easy on some of the tale. What is left on the cutting room floor is even more fascinating than what made it into this book.
For, shadows there are, and there is oh so much more of the story to be told, ranging from the Johnstown Flood (this family is connected to the infamous South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club) to the crafty ire of Mr. Frick's European counterpart, the equally effective and furiously ambitious harridan, the Archduchess Isabella of Austria-Hungary (again, an extended family connection).
What a yarn and all of it, true!
Perhaps Miss Beard will muster the courage to follow up this book with a prequel about Mr. Frick's very similar, skillful machinations regarding Mr. Hyde's future father-in-law, and a sequel that more fully addresses the irony of World History that found Mr. Hyde's son among two generations of this extended family who served diligently, on both sides of W W I and W W II, some as top level spies. Then again, perhaps not.
But if not, one hopes that other historians might take note, there is so much more to be told! This is a real life E Phillips Oppenheim novel. It would find as its centerpiece, Hyde's father-in-law, a rags to riches success - an orphan who rose to the top of the tree, on both sides of the Atlantic and who had his hands in many a pie, industrial and diplomatic....
Now...The only question is: Who will be the first to tell it?
Perhaps Martha Sanger, or Teresa Carpenter or Les Standiford or - of course - the incomparable David McCullough!
If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.
The Downfall of a Child of Fortune.......2005-05-03
"After the Fall," Patricia Beard's clear-eyed look into the excesses at the tag end of the Gilded Age, focuses around a costume party thrown in 1905 by then 23-year-old James Hazen Hyde, who was expected to accede to the presidecy of the Equitable Life Insurance Company when he turned thirty.
It never happened. Instead his enemies, in the company and outside it, used the ball as an excuse to start a power play that would bring him down. As sometimes happens, however, they brought themselves down as well.
The book is almost like a musical comedy in structure. The title is somewhat misleading as the ball itself comes in the middle of the book (imagine the ball as the big production number that brings the curtain down on act one). It begins with James's father, Henry, skips quickly through James's adolescence and early manhood (there'll be a production number having to do with James's hobby, racing horsedrawn carriages), the premature death of his father, and his rise to the first vice presidency of the insurance company, where, or so his father had hoped, he would be tutored by the interim president, James W. Alexander, who was nearing retirement age.
When the curtain rises on act 2, you will encounter an array of schemers, some driven almost batty as they struggle for power, and a parade of the gilded age financiers, J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Henry Clay Frick, and James Fortune Ryan, as well as President Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President Grover Cleveland, and Charles Evans Hughes, who would some day be, thanks largely to his investigation of the scandal, Chief Justice of the United States.
You'll maybe hear patter songs in your head as the robber barons form committees, make deals, break deals, and leak their doings to the press, as they scheme to acquire the faltering company for themselves.
And when the curtain comes down on the tale as the chastened but hardly impoverished Hyde leaves for France--saying his goodbyes aboard the ship that's about to sail perhaps--it comes down, as well, on the Gilded Age itself.
Notes and asides: The afterword, about Hyde's later life and that of his son, who was in the OSS during WWII should not be skipped.
Can't wait to see the movie.......2005-03-21
A well-researched history book that reads like a novel is a rare find, but this is one. In an era when corporate greed and corruption are once again a part of everyday life, it's also a nice reminder of where years of deregulation and laissez-faire policies got us last time. James Hazen Hyde was a product of that time: spoiled, overly entitled, shamelessly extravagant in a city where poverty was widespread, and fond of business practices that have since been made illegal. But he was also the victim of even greedier - and smarter - associates, and Beard does a great job of portraying a rather unsympathetic character sympathetically.
Hyde's downfall seems to have been a lack of ambition or interest in learning the business he inherited, coupled with an overeagerness to reap the benefits of his father's financial success. Illustrating the latter is the party that serves as the book's climax, an incomprehensibly extravagant affair by the standards of any era. Beard argues that Hyde's detractors had already been hoping for years to bring him down, and the ball simply served as a welcome excuse to do so. Whether she's right or wrong about that, the event certainly proved to be fertile ground for scandal. In a classic case of "the truth is never juicy enough," rumors began circulating that Hyde had paid for the ball with company funds (he hadn't) and that the already-obscene cost was four times as much as it really was. Despite being guilty of nothing worse than bad taste, Hyde was soon bought out of his father's company and out of Wall Street society. Investigations and reform legislation followed, but those who were guilty of real wrongdoing were never punished.
Beard's overview of the financial events and disputes will probably be too simple for those with a strong knowledge of finance and business, but it's perfect for the rest of us. In any case, she is clearly more interested in Gilded Age high society and how it set the stage for James Hyde and his party, and her research in that area is impressive. The era's many excesses leap off the pages, with various Vanderbilts and Roosevelts making cameos throughout, making the greed and injustice palpable without anything approaching preachiness. Hyde himself becomes a somewhat tragic figure, living off his inheritance in Europe, outliving the damage to his reputation but emerging as a walking anachronism on his return to New York in the 1940s.
Sad, but very well done!
Average customer rating:
|
Seize the Day: My Autobiography
Tanni Grey-Thompson
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
Track & Field
| Other Team Sports
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0340819715 |
Average customer rating:
|
Genesis: A Latvian Childhood
Chaim Bermant
Manufacturer: Robson Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Authors
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Jewish
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
| Afghanistan
| Armenia
| Bangladesh
| Belarus
| Bhutan
| Brunei
| Cambodia
| Central Asia
| China
| Far East
| General
| Georgia
| Hong Kong
| India
| Indonesia
| Japan
| Korea
| Laos
| Malaysia
| Maldives
| Mauritius
| Mongolia
| Myanmar
| Nepal
| Pakistan
| Philippines
| Russia
| Seychelles
| Singapore
| South Asia
| Southeast Asia
| Sri Lanka
| Taiwan
| Thailand
| Tibet
| Turkey
| Vietnam
Latvia
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Eastern Europe
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Jewish
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Deconstructionism
| Feminist
| General
| Hermeneutics
| Marxist
| Semiotics
| Sexuality in Literature
| Structuralism
ASIN: 1861051751 |
Average customer rating:
|
GENESIS: A LATVIAN CHILDHOOD
Manufacturer: Robson Books New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IA3TWS |
Book Description
In the pre-Internet, pre-VCR—oh, go ahead, call them prehistoric—days of baby boomers' grade school, the high art of audiovisual classroom programming was the filmstrip. If you're old enough, you remember the darkened room, the hum of the projector, and the beeep that signaled the teacher to turn to the next frame.
If you weren't busy shooting spitballs, filmstrips might even have taught you something about science, hygiene, the great bounty of American farms and factories. With simple illustrations and quaint photographs that evoke a more innocent era, Change Your Underwear Twice a Week is the first book to collect dozens of these filmstrip treasures together, creating a panorama of four decades of overlooked graphic design, popular culture, and inadvertent humor.
Readers from the Internet generation will get a good chuckle over what appears to be electronic cave art. But you'll also discover one of the great subtexts of postwar American life. From the mid-1940s until the late 1960s, filmstrips were the coming attractions of capitalism and the American way, teaching youngsters how society wanted them to view the world.
Filmstrips celebrated our foundering railroads ("Tommy Takes a Train Trip"), the space program ("The Moon, Our Nearest Neighbor"), and our trusted friend the butcher, the milkman, the mailman, and the cop. They taught us not to sit too close to our new TV sets and why we should change our underwear twice a week (presumably, Commies did this only once a week).
A chronicle of America's filmstrip experience, Change Your Underwear Twice a Week is also a glimpse into the companies and eccentric pioneers who created these graphic gems and how they influenced several generations of American youth.
Customer Reviews:
The making and lessons of classrom AV filmstrips of yesteryear.......2006-03-18
Before the Internet, before the VCR, there was the audiovisual classroom filmstrip which taught kids many fundamentals about hygiene, farming, etiquette, and more. Relive the messages and days of these strips with CHANGE YOUR UNDERWEAR TWICE A WEEK: LESSONS FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF CLASSROOM FILMSTRIPS. From the space program to daily life, the American filmstrip, the companies and creators who produced them, and their marketing to American classrooms are revealed in an engaging history which compliments commentary with pictures from the strips. A 'must' for any who would research filmstrip history and marketing.
Fun but could be better.......2005-06-17
If you are old enough to remember the wonderful world of filmstrips then you will probably find this book fun. But don't expect too much. I have to disagree with another reviewer. This is NOT a scholarly look at filmstrips- just a fun jaunt. The text has a few good laughs and sometimes Gregory's social commentary is annoying and predictable. He sometimes sounds like one of these filmstrips by spouting the obvious. The photos from the strips could have been presented better. They were far to small and difficult to follow.
But this book works as a fun evening read. Don't expect much more then a fun few hours stroll down memory lane and you will be pleased. Also worth checking out is Mental Hygiene by Ken Smith- an excellent and fun look at the film equivalent of the film strip.
Good, but could've been better.......2005-01-23
This is a fun book. The excerpts from the film strips are accompanied by very interesting text about the subject.
My big complaint is that I feel that whoever laid out this book was more interested in showing off their skills than in celebrating the film strips. The images & text from the strips are made small & a few frames dropped out of each strip even though they could easily have been included. While one or two frames are blown up to take up the majority of the page.
Scholarly and insightful, but lacking in humor.......2004-12-20
Despite the book's title, this is not a humor book. Gregory offers no witty banter about the subjects of the filmstrips in his book a la Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Rather, Gregory explains the social and political agendas that were present in the classroom filmstrips we watched in elementary school.
If you are looking for a laugh, look elsewhere. But, if you are looking for a scholarly treatise on filmstrips and the serious stories behind both their messages and their creation, this book is for you.
Lileks wannabe.......2004-12-17
This book reminded me very much of James Lileks' book, "The Gallery of Regrettable Foods," which ironically picks apart 1950s cookbooks. The difference is that Lileks' accompanying commentary is absolutely hilarious. Danny Gregory writes well enough, and draws a few laughs, but mostly he just describes the filmstrips without adding any insight.
The filmstrips themselves that are featured also aren't that interesting. I'm not old enough to remember any of them, but that shouldn't matter. Several years ago I read a book on the graphic auto-safety films that used to be shown to high schoolers. I didn't remember those films, either, but I still enjoyed it.
The book itself is beautiful, and if you grew up in the 1950s and remember these filmstrips, this would make an excellent coffee-table book. Otherwise, I can't recommend it.
Book Description
Ten years ago, Up Against the Wal-Marts helped smaller businesses take on the corporate retailing empire. Now, with the giants bigger and more influential than ever, the underdogs have an even tougher struggle. The second edition of Up Against the Wal-Marts is here to help, with an updated focus on marketing and brand new ways to conquer (or at least co-exist with) the Goliaths of the shopping mall.
The authors have updated many of the businesses profiled in the original edition -- so readers can see how those companies have refined their operations to stay competitive -- and they detail the best practices of hundreds of successful small companies. The book also examines several fast-growth chains in a variety of markets. With advice for improving customer service and loyalty, maximizing the power of electronic marketing, hiring and keeping great employees, and more, Up Against the Wal-Marts is a formidable strategic tool any business can use to become (and remain) competitive.
Customer Reviews:
This book was probably helpful in 1994!.......2005-01-01
I can see that this book may have added value in 1994, but it is entirely out-dated at this point. The copywrite itself is from 1994, and the examples are dated back to that point. I am interested in seeing if the customer examples they list are actually still in business. Although I am sure they are, the techniques recommended in this book are only 1/2 the story for a modern day business. Perhaps the authors could update the book, with new statistics for the Wal-Mart's of the world, along with strategies to succeed on the Internet. It is a little strange to read a book that talks about how important it is to fax, and to trim phone bills by dialing after 11pm... as I said, this book is for the dinosaurs.
An MBA in a BOOK !!!!.......2004-01-15
I have no relationship with anyone connected with this book - it just sounds like I do. We stumbled across this book- and have now bought more than 12 copies for our key staff over three years. IT IS the BEST TRAINING BOOK for RETAIL MANAGERS I HAVE EVER SEEN. Whoops - sorry I get excited - but you get my point.
It is NOT about Wal-Mart - it is about being smart in operating your own business - and when you are smart - you have a much better chance of success.
Every chapter is solid with good info -- no fluff.
Try it
A Slingshot, But at Least it's Something.......2003-07-15
The Wal-Mart behemoth-beast's unchecked onslaught on our landscapes and local economies continues, but now there is more help to at least momentarily stymie the beast. With small victories here and there (the meatcutters' union win, for one, and that decision rendered right there in ARKANSAS, no less), this is one of the books that shows how we can be as good a friend to Wal-Mart as that it is to us, and we can learn from that very intelligent, mutating virus. This book helps a person think about retailing in the shadow of Wal-Mart the way an FBI profiler thinks about a criminal. It's not fighting fire with fire, but learning the weapons of the opponent and then thinking beyond them, to a more advanced level. It's an escalating fight. But it's a fight the little guy will win because Wal-Mart is now TOO big. The little guy is far more agile.
Learned about this book at sprawl-busters.com, a very helpful site (Al Norman's book is great as well!).
A Slingshot, But at Least it's Something.......2003-07-15
The Wal-Mart behemoth-beast's unchecked onslaught on our landscapes and local economies continues, but now there is more help to at least momentarily stymie the beast. With small victories here and there (the meatcutters' union win, for one, and that decision rendered right there in ARKANSAS, no less), this is one of the books that shows how we can be as good a friend to Wal-Mart as that it is to us, and we can learn from that very intelligent, mutating virus. This book helps a person think about retailing in the shadow of Wal-Mart the way an FBI profiler thinks about a criminal. It's not fighting fire with fire, but learning the weapons of the opponent and then thinking beyond them, to a more advanced level. It's an escalating fight. But it's a fight the little guy will win because Wal-Mart is now TOO big. The little guy is far more agile.
Learned about this book at sprawl-busters.com, a very helpful site (Al Norman's book is great as well!).
Remember the Spanish Armada.......2000-01-07
Don Taylor and Jeanne Smalling Archer explain how to prosper "in the shadow of the retail giants." This is quite literally a "how to" manual, filled with hundreds of specific examples, suggestions, strategies, and cautions which can be of substantial benefit to literally any small-to-midsize retail operation which is currently struggling to survive and then succeed. Of course, the David and Goliath metaphor is invoked. The co-authors stress the importance of courage, ten survival strategies, and "about 500 stones." (David needed only one well-placed stone. Today, he would need more "ammunition" because there are so many different "giants" to conquer. It is worth noting that David did not wrestle Goliath.) Interestingly, the "Big Three" (Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target) all opened their first stores in 1962. They were not the first discounters but they had learned a great deal from pioneers such as Ann and Hope, Korvettes, Zayres, Arlands, and Gibson's. Once "Davids" themselves, they eventually became "Goliaths", demonstrating (in process) the importance of the ten strategies which are examined in Up Against the Wal-Marts.
The authors organize the material according to three overriding themes: change, improve, and succeed. In the 1990s, change has been the only constant. Improvement is not an option; it is an imperative. With regard to success, the co-authors leave their reader with this final statement: "Many small businesses are going to be successful competing with the giants, and we can't think of any reason why yours shouldn't be one of them."
Book Description
Ben HoganÂ's former ball shagger recounts firsthand stories of the golf legend—and reveals, for the first time, HoganÂ's Swing Secret, a source of mystery to golfers for more than fifty years.
Ben HoganÂ's pro-golf record is legendary. A four-time PGA Player of the Year, he celebrated sixty-three tournament wins and became known as a man of few words and fewer close friends. Most of what we know about Hogan has been based on myth and speculation. Until now.
In the 1960Â's, though HoganÂ's competitive career was over, he kept the practice habits that had made him famous and remade modern competitive golf. He hired fifteen-year-old Jody Vasquez to help. Each day, after driving to a remote part of the course at the Shady Oaks Country Club, Hogan would spend hours hitting balls, and Vasquez would retrieve them. There, and over the course of their twenty-year friendship, Hogan taught Jody the mechanics of his famous swing and shared his thoughts on playing, practicing, and course management—unknowingly revealing much about his character, values, and beliefs, and the events that shaped them.
In Afternoons with Mr. Hogan, Jody Vasquez shares dozens of stories about Hogan, from the way he practiced, selected his clubs, and interacted with other star players to his little-known humor and generosity. Combining the gentle insight of Tom KiteÂ's A Fairway to Heaven (which recalls KiteÂ's golf education under Harvey Penick) with the sage perspective of PenickÂ's own Little Red Book, VasquezÂ's tribute is funny, poignant, and full of advice for golfers of all levels.
Customer Reviews:
A Pleasant Book with Interesting Lessons.......2005-11-15
Any novice golfer interested in developing a good swing eventually finds his way to Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons." That book, however terrific, provides little information about Hogan's life as a golfer and raises curiosity about a man that some have called "the Garbo of golf." "Afternoons with Mr. Hogan" provides insight into a golf legend from the point of view of a young man who worked for him for several years.
This is indeed a "small" book - it doesn't pretend to be anything else - but the stories are interesting, unusually personal, and quite revealing. The author clearly has great respect and even love for Mr. Hogan, and presents vignettes that provide windows into the personality of an extraordinarily talented, driven, highly secretive man. Even the "secret" of Mr. Hogan's swing is presented as an interesting story, rather than as a crucial tip that will unleash the latent PGA champ in all of us. (I suspect the "wrist cup" tip will be helpful primarily to those who have trouble controlling a hook, which was Mr. Hogan's main golfing issue for many years).
In sum, Mr. Vasquez offers his book as no more and no less than a series of stories that might be of interest -- and most students of golf will find the stories interesting, educational, and touching in their sincerity. An enjoyable and rewarding read.
Great book...ignore the 1 star reviews..........2004-08-07
The 1 star reviews were written by a pitiful little man who has a personal vendetta against the author. If you read the review you understand it is an attack and not a reflection of the book material. The stories in the book are personal experience stories telling of the human side of Hogan. These stories have never appeared in print before. The reviewer is simply jealous of the experience as everyone in Ft. Worth, Texas well knows....sad that jealousy plays here...To see real reviews...go to WWW.JODYVASQUEZ.COM
Don't Believe low Ratings on this book...........2004-07-27
Do not believe the low ratings on this book. I am a Hogan "Nut" and this was a great little book to get a refreshing glimpse of "The Man". I cannot remember the last time I laghed out loud when reading a book, but I did in several places while reading "Afternoons with Mr. Hogan". This book is written by a person who saw Ben Hogan in a very different setting, ie. as a caddie and ball shagger. Mr. Vasquez treats his subject with respect but not with the blind hero worship that sometimes accompany stories or books about Hogan.
Buy this book and enjoy a refreshing and unique look at the man, Ben Hogan!!!
Not much to this book.......2004-07-16
Not much here that hasn't already been written about Hogan, including the ?Secret? which is nothing more than a rehash of some old swing tips from years ago. I thought it was interesting that the author (a scratch golfer) never thought the ?Secret? was important enough to incorporate in his own swing, but now after 37 years he thinks it is ?book material?. In my opinion there isn't much to this book at all and it wasn?t very interesting. I watched Hogan hit shag balls and that was a lot more interesting than reading this book.
Not much to this book.......2004-07-16
Not much here that hasn't already been written about Hogan. The so-called "Secret" is nothing more than a rehash of old swing tips that the author (a scratch golfer) apparently never thought was significant enough to incorporate in his own swing, but now after 37 years, believes is "book material". In my opinion, there isn't much to this book and it wasn't very interesting. I watched Hogan hit shag balls and that was a lot more interesting than reading this book.
Customer Reviews:
The best 'popular' history of Muslim Spain.......2007-04-28
This book initially grew in popularity over a decade ago through Ivan Van Sertimas book on the Moors in which this book was well quoted. Stanley Lane Poole was one of those unique writers who could write an accurate historical book in a style that was easy to read. This book covers the hstory of Andalusia or Muslim Spain from the initial conquest to the downfall of Granada and the expulsion of the Muslims from their homeland.
Its almost comical these days that a book like this would be considered 'politically corretc' Thing is, it was published over a century ago in an age much less tolerant than our own when Britain and the was in conflict with a declining Ottoman Turkey and almost at the peak of European colonialism. Yet still, we could find scholars of this quality.
Highly recomended.
True moorish history for the first time.......2006-08-26
I am very glad Mr. Stanley Lane Poole wasn't as prejudiced as the eurocentric scholars and students today.If he had been he wouldn't have been able to peice together such an exquisite peice of work on the facts of history. It seems eurocentricists and those miseducated by eurocentricism, are absolutely obsessed with trying to prove that other nations, races and peoples are "less" than them and will go to no ends to convince themselves that their illusion is true.Its really pitiful. I understand though because for a eurocentricist to admit the moors were black africans whom raised and taught the people of Spain ,whom were savage barbarians at the time, would be giving the africans..a little too much credit.
By the way, if you want to know who the moors were race-wise, check the country of Morocco's archives, look up Sultan Sidi Muhammad, grandfather of the sultan who signed "the treaty of peace and friendship" with America (in 1787), when you see his picture you will see without a doubt,that he was a black african.A descendant of the african moors who occupied spain.
A Classic Monumental Work. Historically Significant For the Ages........2006-07-21
A debt of gratitude is certainly in order to the eminent historian Stanley Lane Poole for his voluminous literary contribution to Moorish/Islamic culture and history. Lane Poole was a pioneer whose works in his field not only carried the standard of the era, but were nonpariel in his day.
The Story of the Moors in Spain, written roughly a century ago, is of course, a classic work, and its resurrection today to a rife readership, along with Lane Poole's general body of work and other literary contributions from authors addressing Moorish history, coincides with the contemporary movement of conscious Moors to awaken the general masses to an almost obscured and "forgotten," but relevant history.
Lane Poole renders an outstanding educational retelling of the history of the rise and fall of the Moorish Empire's North African annexed rule in Spain, which is ultimately the account of the beginning of the end of a once powerful people and their empire. I am most pleased and impressed that the book hedges not to identify the Moors in subject, as an African phenotype, although some will insist otherwise. There is much included here for conscious readers to be thankful for; but then there is perhaps much omitted. We must consider that recording the truth about African civilizations and their viable contributions to the world was a daring academic initiative in the 1800's for any author (even before the ascent of anti-Arab prejudice), especially since European academia obsessed with the golden rule of proliferating copious volumes of repugnant canards about Africa in general.
Readers will perhaps shed a tear or two (as I initially did and still do) ingesting Lane Poole's account of the final stand of the Moors; the fall of Granada. From the fierce resistance in the alpajarras, where vivid descriptions of battle read like Tolkien; to the gallant charge and final battle of Musa, who deserves much more ink in any historian's account of this time period; to the disgrace of King Boabdil as he relinquishes the throne he hastened to obtain through viciously selfish motives, and foolishly squandered through cowardice and ignorance; and finally, to the sad exile of the Moors, "You may weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man."
So, this work certainly earns its place in the firmament of Moorish history literature (a sky which, unfortunately, doesn't necessarily teem with stars), and students of history will find it a great read and perfect Moorish History consultation. It is a monumental work for the ages, beautiful in that while holding a firm position on the tapestry of scholarly and academic merit, Lane Poole writes in a style that even children can comprehend and appreciate. An overall great and wonderful read.
And while it is unlikely that lane Poole could have predicted his work would one day find profound appreciation with a reading constituency that didn't exist as such when he wrote, he must be pleased today, for his contribution extends well beyond his grave.
Do some research please. (ooops, I meant only to give it 1 star).......2006-05-18
Ok, Im Portuguese and I have done a lot of research on the Moors and the Berbers (Moroccans). Now, they "are" from North Africa, but that doesnt make them black. Actually, if you look at the Andalusian drawings and paintings (done by the Moors), they look alot like Middle-easterners (Olive skin, dark hair, so on). The word "Moor" means "dark", not black. I have olive skin, dark hair, and my friends in the Military always called me an A-rab (jokingly of course). Its pretty obvious i have some DNA left over from the Berbers. But my wife is of Irish, Scottish, English descent. Next to her i look dark (Moor). Im not prejudice, and I dont want to steal your thunder. But I would have to ask you to do some homework before you draw lines in the sand and become just like the ones you seem to despise. ps...some of these painting (drawings) do have blacks in them. Its usually one or two people out of the group (of say 20). Here are the pictures I refer to: [...]
not impartial enough.......2006-04-19
The book was OK, but I felt there were too many bias comments. In my opinion the writer needed to be more impartial.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-03-22
Before Ivan Van Sertima began telling the undisputable truth about the Moors, there was Stanley Lane Poole. Its refreshing to finally be able to enjoy truthful history without the disgusting taste of racist eurocentric propaganda smothered throughout a book to try and impress upon the world's mind the foolish biased-ignorance that prevails in the west.The truth is the truth and though its a known fact that europeans knowingly and purposefully tried to write Africans out of history, the Africans have so much history that it is/was impossible to cover up a peoples story when that peoples story is so very old and eventful..and much more old and eventful than the people who try and alter the facts of history. Its about time books like this one, unblemished by the putrid racism that plagues most books today, are back in the streets...
Book Description
The Lucifer Principle is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to put forth the thesis that "evil" is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric. "An act of astonishing intellectual courage." -- Leon Uris; "Destined to be the Future Shock of our time." -- Spin; "A revolutionary vision of the relationship between psychology and history, The Lucifer Principle will have a profound impact on our concepts of human nature. It is astonishing that a book of such importance could be such a pleasure to read." -- Elizabeth F. Loftus, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington, and author of Memory and Eyewitness Testimony.
Customer Reviews:
I can't help but be a fan.......2007-06-10
This book will always have a spot next to my heart since it was the book that got me interested in things like evolutionary biology, sociology and ethology. Even if some of his theories are hackneyed the book still achieved the goal of changing the way I think about the world around me and opened up new areas of study that have truly enriched my life. It's hard for me not to be generous with this book.
Also the book is a great reference for finding other books on many topics that should be read which has been a great help for me. Mr. Bloom's book is probably not for the professional sector or the semi-pros, but for amateurs like me the book can be an eye opener. Plus the book is so well written that it is a very good read in its own right. I found myself engrossed throughout and unable to put the book down in some places.
Don't come to this book looking for the definitive work to define your philosophy about the subjects of this book, but more to get a taste of the ideas that are out there and I think you won't be disappointed.
I think in my case the book was a huge success and if you're an amateur like me I think the book can really be a paradigm shift in your life.
Eye opener....Don't let the name fool you!!.......2007-05-20
I have to say, as a person who has always had a hard time understanding man's "methods of maddness", this book shed a interesting light on human behavior. I've read this book about 5 times (just to keep the concepts fresh in my mind) and have recomended this book to anyone looking for a little more information on the nature of man. To any scared of the title: Lucifer's name is simply used as a way to describe the kind of behavior examined in this book. Bloom confronts more of man's darker traits in this book and what better a name (or diety's name) to affix to these tendencies. I call this a must read for anyone looking for another angle from which to examine life.
The Lucifer Principle is eye opening 5 stars plus.......2007-04-05
This book is one of the most revealing in how the masses get suckered into believing lies, much like the stupidity of mormonism.
Howard Bloom is a genius in making the principals of thinking for yourself a revelation in simple terms.
Get it and never be suckered into BS lies again, unless your a mormon and your all ready screwed up bad.
OK for thinking but not believing.......2007-03-01
It is important when reading this book to keep in mind the book's foreword by David Sloan Wilson - he gives sound advice to 'not read it and believe but read it and think'. Sloan Wilson also rightly describes Bloom as having the 'brashness of a mass media denizen'. Sloan Wilson's support is essentially for the group selection argument which Bloom presents in his personal, passionate and largely flawed way.
Bloom takes the reader through a galloping overview of human group violence. His descriptions of group identification, group pecking-orders, group loyalty, imperialism etc are pretty much obvious and undeniable. Also the fact that nature is profligate and that much of what nature produces is expendable is largely true but Bloom's argument that this proves that the social unit comes first is flawed.
Bloom compares the social unit to the body - just as body cells die in order for the body itself to live, so individuals are sacrificed for the life of the group. This, of course, is a false analogy because body cells share identical DNA and the reproduction of the body's DNA is left to the germ cells. No other body cells could ever reproduce (naturally) into the next generation and therefore are sacrificing absolutely nothing.
Bloom confuses an apparent greater importance of the group with what is in reality the dependence of individuals on other group members for individual reproductive success/fitness. He also confuses individual survival with the survival of genes through time and seems not to understand inclusive fitness. His idea that people who commit suicide are altruistically ridding their group of a burden should mean that the sick, elderly, homeless, unemployed etc should be killing themselves by the thousand. It is far more likely that it is more to do, ultimately, with reproductive defeat where they are no longer able to compete or compare well with peers and are no longer attractive to the opposite sex and/or are a failure as a parent. If the group is being relieved of a burden it is incidental. They would, after all, not be a burden to the group if they took on some undesirable though necessary low status work rather than kill themselves.
If the social unit comes first there should be no dissent, no anti-social behavior, no interest groups etc. The fact that these exist in all societies shows that individuals whose self-interest is not being satisfied by the group will attempt to cause trouble for the group. Bloom is only right in pointing out the obvious fact that members of a group, like members of a family, will tend to pull together if attacked from outside but this is also mutual self-interest.
Another aspect of Bloom's book that is flawed is his weak treatment of the differences between the sexes. He uses a few bits of evidence to supposedly prove the violence of females and then resumes the main theme of the book - ie male violence - as if the matter has been properly dealt with. Bloom uses the usual argument about females having selected male traits through mate choice yet he also writes of how women have been kidnapped and raped throughout history by the violent men he depicts. There is an unresolved contradiction here between the idea that females choose their mates and the fact that most girls throughout history and in much of the world today are simply resigned to the fact that they will have the father of their children chosen for them by their own father or brothers. Female sexuality has clearly been under the control of men for a very long time and it should at least be given some consideration that male traits have been selected for by males themselves which could have created a feedback loop of male violence etc.
'The Lucifer Principle' is an entertaining read in its description of male-male competitive behavior. Violence between groups of humans is as grotesque as Bloom describes but it is a mistake to believe that this proves group selection and to lose sight of the individual's self-interest - and especially the gene's self-interest - in what shapes human behavior. This book is worth reading only as an aid to thinking - not to any great understanding or belief.
Changed the way I deal with people.......2007-01-09
This book is so startling in the way that Bloom looks at people it is almost a new paradigm for sociology. After reading the book it changed the way that I looked at every aspect of my personal and business relationships with friends, colleagues, everybody.
Well researched and argued.
A must for anybody who deals with other people, which means everybody.
Average customer rating:
|
Water and Wastewater Management in the Tropics
Manufacturer: IWA Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Water Supply & Land Use
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General & Reference
| Technology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Environmental
| Civil
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Water Supply
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Living on the Land
| Ecology
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
| Architecture
| Hunting & Fishing
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Water
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1843390132 |
Books:
- Agent of Change: My Life, My Practice (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)
- American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries (American Biographies)
- Architect of Quality : The Autobiography of Dr. Joseph M. Juran
- At Any Cost: Jack Welch, General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit
- Bill Gates: The Path to the Future
- Blood On My Briefcase: 30 Years In The Advertising Wars
- Boone Pickens: The Luckiest Guy in the World
- Broken Toy: A Man's Dream, A Company's Mystery
- Business Masterminds: Roads to Success -- Put Into Practice the Best Business Ideas of Eight Leading Gurus
- Casey's Law: If Something Can Go Right, It Should
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
- On The Wings Of Heaven
- The Age of Consent : The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture
- LUCKY MAN: A MEMOIR
- Inu-Yasha : A Feudal Fairy Tale, Vol. 1
- Introduction to Fourier Analysis and Wavelets
- Migrating Raptors of the World: Their Ecology and Conservation
- John Brown: Queen Victoria's Highland Servant
- My Life in Search of Africa
- Wild Flowers of Marin: A Laymans Handbook
Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age
American Country Houses of the Gilded Age (Sheldon's "Artistic Country-Seats")
The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: All 203 Photographs from Artistic Houses, with New Text
First Four Hundred : New York and the Gilded Age
Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900
