Golden Phoenix: The Biography of Peter Munk

Book Description

During the past decade or more the American remake has increasingly characterized Hollywood's relationship with the French cinema, as films ranging from classics like A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) to contemporary comedies like Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Baby) and La Cage aux Folles (Birdcage) are adapted for US screens.

In this comparative, interdisciplinary study Carolyn Durham shows how the remake phenomenon reveals striking differences not just in film theory but also epitomizes larger issues of competition, political and economic tensions, and social, gender, and aesthetic constructs. Durham establishes the metaphor of Euro Disney, which American investors envisioned as the quintessential transcultural entertainment but many French denounced as "a cultural Chernobyl," and then applies it to a close analysis of the films, showing how significant changes between original and remake further our understanding of national identity in both countries. France's belief in its own cultural superiority, she writes, leads to a perceived duty to "disseminate French culture worldwide in the guise of civilisation itself," an attitude that clashes with Hollywood's filmmaking hegemony and its "openness to new ideas, including the foreign." While the central concern is the meaning of cross-cultural differences, this engaging and incisive book also outlines an ongoing battle between a nation convinced of its aesthetic and cultural patrimony and an American industry driven by its own sense of global destiny.

Book Description

Among the Mansions of Eden is a fascinating and dishy exploration of Beverly Hills -- a rarefied community that has become a part of our country's mythos, a city renowned for its ostentatious displays of wealth. It takes you behind the gates of the rich and famous for an insider's view of the elite's rapturous and tragic attempts to realize the American Dream.

From Rodeo Drive to Beverly Hills High School, Among the Mansions of Eden tells the city's story by capturing the individuals who are emblematic of various factions of Beverly Hills society: The cast of unforgettable characters includes the late Milton Berle, who spent his last days surrounded by aging cronies in the cavernous ballroom of the Friars Club, haunted by the ghosts of the past; Fred Hayman, a former banquet manager who opened a boutique called Giorgio and transformed Rodeo Drive from a provincial retail district to a phantasmagoric midway that caters to the world's most affluent shoppers; Gavin de Becker, a poor kid from a broken home who became the security broker to the stars; Mark Hughes, the health-supplement wunderkind who parlayed a trunkful of vitamin pills into a billion-dollar empire known as Herbalife and planned to build his own San Simeon on the last undeveloped mountaintop in Beverly Hills; Jim Forester, a teenager with an overriding passion for a righteous buzz that led him on a Dante-esque journey through the city's underworld of pushers, delinquents, scam artists, and sleazoids; and Norm Zadeh, who used the millions he made as a hedge-fund manager to start a girlie magazine, fill a Beverly Hills mansion with curvaceous nymphets, and emulate the life of Hugh Hefner.

You'll also meet a fascinating array of con artists, hucksters, and libido-crazed pleasure seekers and gun fetishists who are willing to resort to whatever means necessary to steal a piece of the Beverly Hills Dream. Among the Mansions of Eden weaves their individual stories into a spellbinding tale of wealth, fame, and the lust for land, power, and social status in the most opulent city in America.

Customer Reviews:

Best Book of it's Kind.......2005-07-29

I've read a lot of these "tell all" books and David Weddle's is by far the most impressive. He's a great story teller- expertly weaving the past with the present in a style that is both baudy and touching at the same time. I found myself rereading certain paragraphs that were so well crafted and yet completely serving to that particular anecdote. There is no wasted space in this book (read the first 30 pages and you probably know more than the average citizen whose spent their entire life there).
This book wasn't written in a day- and it shows. Well done.

A Great Real Estate History of Beverly Hills.......2003-08-02

Originally born in California, I travel often to Los Angeles on business and pleasure and enjoy looking at Westside real estate and staying at the Peninsula Hotel. While this book limits it's history to Beverly Hills leaving out other interesting areas like Bel Air, it does a magnificent job of summarizing the history of 90210 as well as chronologically tracing the changes in the city.

Some of the significant stories that I liked were the history of the original developer, the influx of what were considered lower status people, ie, actors, the history of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Arab influence in the 1970s and the changing retail environment of the Golden Triangle. This book also has some great pictures. My personal favorite was the BH Hotel with massive empty land all around. If you've been by in the last 30 years you know how weird empty land appears.

This book also devotes a chapter to a Howard Hefner wannabe who started Perfect 10 magazine. Beverly Hills definitely attracts beautiful women, many of whom are looking for a way to live in the mansions. Also, there is a great chapter on the founder of Herbalife who came from nothing to own a great old mansion while planning to build a 40,000 sq. foot mansion. One year later, he's dead.

If you want a history of Beverly Hills and what it is like to live there, this is the perfect book.

Among the Mansions of Eden.......2003-05-22

Mr. Weddle is our Virgil taking us on a tour of some of the poshest circles in the world. Lifting the curtain he allows us access to a world we can only dream about, to discover a nightmare world of bloated egos as well as bankbooks, that sadly proves ephemeral. Intriguing, eye-opening and fun!

Be Careful What You Ask For.......2003-05-20

As a twenty-year resident of Beverly Hills, I found Among the Mansions of Eden fascinating. It's the first book I've read that actually talks about what happens here. Throughout his investigation into the checkered history of Beverly Hills, Weddle's wry pen skewers a series of what seem to be over-the-top archetypes, but by the time he's finished, he's deftly revealed them as very human beings driven by understandable demons. I expect his penetrating look into the drug scene and quiet racism of this town to draw intense criticism, but his observations match my first-hand knowledge. And his observations concerning the corrosive effects of too much "success" resonated long after I put the book down.

Hilarious and Revealing.......2003-05-20

I found "Among the Mansions of Eden" to be a hilarious and riveting study of the rich who go to Beverly Hills to build their personal monuments. David Weddle lays bare the fallacy of materialism. He does this not by simply ridiculing the materialists--though god knows they ask for it--but by getting inside their heads and understanding their doomed aspirations. He sees that materialism is a romantic impulse, heartfelt and desperate. The wealthy erect their impossibly oversized palaces in the hope that they can build a perfect world and thus bring grace and contentment to their lives. By looking to the outside world and material achievement instead if within for fulfillment they of course end up failing, but do so spectacularly.

This book is full of unforgettable characters: greedy real estate hustlers, aging movie stars, porno kings who aspire to emulate Hugh Hefner, Iranian refugees who arrived in Beverly Hills with millions of dollars stuffed in their pockets, high school druggies, body guards to the stars and snake oil salesmen who struck it big through infomercials. It is not just about the wealthy, but all of us who are endlessly fascinated by their outrageous exploits. It is about one version of the American Dream that Beverly Hills has come to represent--a twisted and corrosive dream but one that has a everlasting hold on the American imagination.

Among the Mansions of Eden : Tales of Love, Lust, and Land in Beverly Hills
Average customer rating:
Among the Mansions of Eden : Tales of Love, Lust, and Land in Beverly Hills
David Weddle
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OABBR2

Gambling Scams: How They Work, How to Detect Them, How to Protect Yourself
Average customer rating:

One the best gambling sources out there

One of the best sources for information on gambling scams

Outdated and Impractical

The greatest book ever written on gaming

Fantastic! Ortiz delivers! Educational, fun,fast!

Gambling Scams: How They Work, How to Detect Them, How to Protect Yourself
Darwin Ortiz
Manufacturer: Lyle Stuart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gambling | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Phantoms of the Card Table: Confessions of a Card Sharp

Players: Con Men, Hustlers, Gamblers, and Scam Artists

The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man

Expert Card Technique: Close-Up Table Magic

ASIN: 0818405295

Customer Reviews:

One the best gambling sources out there.......2003-09-18

If you purchase a book with Darwin Ortiz's name on it, you are making a good investment. Gambling Scams shares not only the methods used by card sharps, but also shares some of Darwin's priceless personal experiences. If you are looking to actually learn to execute methods used by cheats, this wouldn't be your best choice due to the lack of photographs and explanations. This book teaches you how to CATCH the cheat, not BE the cheat. If you're looking to BE the cheat, check out The Annotated Erdnase by Ortiz.

One of the best sources for information on gambling scams.......2002-09-27

Gambling Scams is really an encyclopedic description of gambling scams, from con men to cheating at dice games and card cheating in private games. The author's repute, experience and skills in card and dice manipulation are unquestioned. Darwin Ortiz is truly providing worthwile information to protect oneself from gambling scams from the "inside". Thus, the correctness of his publication is undoubted. I highly recommend this publication to anyone wishing to protect themselves from dishonest gamers or those with a particular interest in gambling scams in general. If you're thinking of buying the book to learn card manipulation then perhaps you should look elsewhere for more descriptive explanations of particular "moves", such as "The Expert at the Card Table," by S.W. Erdnase, a classic which describes numerous manipulations, in minutia.

Outdated and Impractical.......2002-01-05

First of all, let me state that I do not doubt the skills of Mr. Ortiz. His card skills anyway. His writing skills, however, leave something to be desired. He claims to have completed some course work at NYU Law. With the writing skills demonstrated in this book, though, either that was a long time ago or my opinion of NYU Law have just dropped.

Beyond the style of the writing, I found the majority of the work's content to be of marginal value. Many of the scams that he illustrates in his book have been out of use in major gambling establishments for years (see the chapter on slot machines). In addition, most of the scams that he describes would occur outside of most reputable gambling establishments. While I do not doubt that such places exist somewhere in the universe, not only have I never seen one, but probably would have never trusted such a place even before having read this book.

The one chapter which I did find somewhat useful was that on crooked carnival games. Overall, I would recommned that you save your money and just learn the general theme of the book, don't gamble.

The greatest book ever written on gaming.......1999-07-13

This book will expose the world of scams and cheating you never thought possible. It covers card markers, sleight of hand, casino cheating, amateur cheating, and anything else you need to know. Plus it gives you a couple of realistic proposition hustles you can use on your friends, and enemies to easily pay for the book

Fantastic! Ortiz delivers! Educational, fun,fast!.......1998-06-18

I've read this book and it really is good! I've been doing sleight of hand for 12 years now and loved every bit of this book. The scams are great! He gives you a detailed, informative description of how these scams work! A must read for anyone interested in con games!

Book Description

How do you find your way in an age of information overload? How can you filter streams of complex information to pull out only what you want? Why does it matter how information is structured when Google seems to magically bring up the right answer to your questions? What does it mean to be "findable" in this day and age? This eye-opening new book examines the convergence of information and connectivity. Written by Peter Morville, author of the groundbreaking Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, the book defines our current age as a state of unlimited findability. In other words, anyone can find anything at any time. Complete navigability.

Morville discusses the Internet, GIS, and other network technologies that are coming together to make unlimited findability possible. He explores how the melding of these innovations impacts society, since Web access is now a standard requirement for successful people and businesses. But before he does that, Morville looks back at the history of wayfinding and human evolution, suggesting that our fear of being lost has driven us to create maps, charts, and now, the mobile Internet.

The book's central thesis is that information literacy, information architecture, and usability are all critical components of this new world order. Hand in hand with that is the contention that only by planning and designing the best possible software, devices, and Internet, will we be able to maintain this connectivity in the future. Morville's book is highlighted with full color illustrations and rich examples that bring his prose to life.

Ambient Findability doesn't preach or pretend to know all the answers. Instead, it presents research, stories, and examples in support of its novel ideas. Are we truly at a critical point in our evolution where the quality of our digital networks will dictate how we behave as a species? Is findability indeed the primary key to a successful global marketplace in the 21st century and beyond. Peter Morville takes you on a thought-provoking tour of these memes and more -- ideas that will not only fascinate but will stir your creativity in practical ways that you can apply to your work immediately.

"A lively, enjoyable and informative tour of a topic that's only going to become more important."
--David Weinberger, Author, Small Pieces Loosely Joined and The Cluetrain Manifesto

"I envy the young scholar who finds this inventive book, by whatever strange means are necessary. The future isn't just unwritten--it's unsearched."
--Bruce Sterling, Writer, Futurist, and Co-Founder, The Electronic Frontier Foundation

"Search engine marketing is the hottest thing in Internet business, and deservedly so. Ambient Findability puts SEM into a broader context and provides deeper insights into human behavior. This book will help you grow your online business in a world where being found is not at all certain."
--Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., Author, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity

"Information that's hard to find will remain information that's hardly found--from one of the fathers of the discipline of information architecture, and one of its most experienced practitioners, come penetrating observations on why findability is elusive and how the act of seeking changes us."
--Steve Papa, Founder and Chairman, Endeca

"Whether it's a fact or a figure, a person or a place, Peter Morville knows how to make it findable. Morville explores the possibilities of a world where everything can always be found--and the challenges in getting there--in this wide-ranging, thought-provoking book."
--Jesse James Garrett, Author, The Elements of User Experience

"It is easy to assume that current searching of the World Wide Web is the last word in finding and using information. Peter Morville shows us that search engines are just the beginning. Skillfully weaving together information science research with his own extensive experience, he develops for the reader a feeling for the near future when information is truly findable all around us. There are immense implications, and Morville's lively and humorous writing brings them home."
--Marcia J. Bates, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles

"I've always known that Peter Morville was smart. After reading Ambient Findability, I now know he's (as we say in Boston) wicked smart. This is a timely book that will have lasting effects on how we create our future.
--Jared Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering

"In Ambient Findability, Peter Morville has put his mind and keyboard on the pulse of the electronic noosphere. With tangible examples and lively writing, he lays out the challenges and wonders of finding our way in cyberspace, and explains the mutually dependent evolution of our changing world and selves. This is a must read for everyone and a practical guide for designers."
--Gary Marchionini, Ph.D., University of North Carolina

"Find this book! Anyone interested in making information easier to find, or understanding how finding and being found is changing, will find this thoroughly researched, engagingly written, literate, insightful and very, very cool book well worth their time. Myriad examples from rich and varied domains and a valuable idea on nearly every page. Fun to read, too!
--Joseph Janes, Ph.D., Founder, Internet Public Library

Customer Reviews:

Well, THAT was weird..........2007-06-22

This book is an interesting follow-up to Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by the same author. This time, instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of IA, the author spoke about the nature of findability itself.

Morville shares research and anecdotes from business, history, library science, anthropology, and neurobiology in his quest for the perfect system where everything in the world is instinctively easy to locate. Can we ever achieve ambient findability? And what would the world look like in such a place? What are the social and political ramifications of findability? Will it be big brother, or will the very concept of unquestionable authority wither and die?

Recent manifestations such as Google, Wikipedia, and blogger watchdogs suggest the latter is more likely...

Ironically, the more information we have, the less likely anybody is to use it. Obtaining information is very painful, even if the data is easy to find. The relatively unknown Mooers law states:

"An information retrieval system will tend to NOT be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a customer to have information than for him not to have it." -- Calvin Mooers

Meaning, if I have a problem, I can either look up the answer, or ask somebody for help. If I ask somebody, then they might do all my work for me, which is good for me. However, if I look up the answer online, then I have to read it, understand it, and implement the solution myself. Not only must I confront my own ignorance, but its a lot more work.

Stupid Google.

Along the same lines, it's insufficient for information merely to be available and findable... it must also be believable, useful, and tailored to the audience so its easy to absorb. That's the top-to-bottom challenge, and very few people understand it. This book doesn't give much practical advice about absorbability, but it covers findability needs and existing technology quite well. The rest is up to you.

Another Rambling Book from O'Reilly.......2007-06-17

Like most O'Reilly books, the credentials of the author are impeccable, and the concept is current and relavant.
However, like most techincal publishing houses, O'Reilly does not have enough editors fluent in enough technical areas of expertise to impose order on its authors. The result is that they produce excellent texts for those already familiar with the subject, and dreadful experiences for those hoping for something other than a "Dummies" book.
"Ambient Findability" is no different. The subject is broad, the concepts are deep, and the order is completely lacking. O'Reilly seemed to have exercised no editorial restraint in the publishing of this book - it is andectoal, rambling and repetitive in parts, and generally jumps around (much like the subject of the book), without any common touch points.

The main point of the book is that information is grouped in structured and not so structured ways on the web, and being able to "find" information is predicated on how it is percieved by other parts of the web. This already is a vast ocean of space to cover. 180 pages with a lot of graphics is bound to be light, but add on rambling discourse, and you can only swallow 20-30 pages at a time, before bed.
I really believe the author is a great mind on this subject. He could do much better w/ a well disciplined editor.

A philosophy book, not a how-to book . . ........2007-06-08

. . . . But what a great philosophy book it is!

This may be the only O'Reilly book I have ever read that changed some of my basic notions about things I thought I understood, not at a "how to code this or that" level but at a "how the world works" level.

The book presents itself as a thoughtful ramble through some issues around finding and retrieving content that a person might wish to have. And it does a very good job of laying out the landscape, identifying pitfalls, and pointing out unpredictable successes (and failures).

But the real beauty of this book is its own internal organization. The author starts with tangible physical location and navigation, and then moves onto to fluently-written descriptions of virtual location and navigation. The book is thought-provoking and fairly balanced in presenting the perspectives of people who feel strongly about these issues while disagreeing vehemently with one another.

This volume offers no easy solutions, but it illuminates a landscape that needs desperately to be better understood by more people, and it does so in a readable, accessible way. I learned some things, I unlearned some things, and I had a heck of a good time doing so. Will it make me a better information architect? I hope so, but it certainly made me a more thoughtful one.

I am very interested in this kind of topic, BUT could not get into this.......2007-04-19

This felt like a long college senior thesis. Rambling, unfocused and without real-world applicability.

A good survey, timely..........2007-02-16

I find the book most useful as a survey of technologies and ideas suitably themed "ambient findability". I agree with the idea that the future of search will be more than cyberspace. The ability to search the physical world with a search engine will be extremely useful and how to make (physical world) objects findable (even at different levels of granularity) an interesting challenge (RFID tagging is one way but perhaps there are others). The combination of cyberspace and physicalspace and how to bridge between them (from augmented reality, ambient objects, to ambient sensing) is interesting. The book provides a convenient overview, in one place, of where much of computing is heading.

Amazon.com

British journalist and historian Brian Moynahan does not spare details of the lechery and drunkenness that Rasputin brought with him on his journey from the squalor of rural Siberia to St. Petersburg, where he captivated the tsar and tsarina with his mysterious ability to ease their hemophiliac son's hemorrhages. Yet Moynahan also credits "the mad monk" with intelligence, generosity, even a weird spirituality. In elegant prose, he retells with panache the saga of an illiterate peasant's rise to a position of fearsome power in the waning days of the Russian monarchy.

Book Description

First time in paperback: The acclaimed life of the "mad monk" who wielded immeasurable influence over the last Czar and his family

Grigory Efimovich Rasputin-drinker, thief, womanizer-arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903 as if from the medieval past...tattered, black-clad, muttering. By the time of his sensational murder thirteen years later, the peasant was the "beloved Friend" of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, with a seemingly supernatural power to stop the bleeding attacks of their hemophiliac son, Alexis.

Drawing on confidential police reports, cabinet meeting memos, and many documents only now available, Moynahan sheds new light on Rasputin's life and disputes some of the widely held details of his death. The Detroit Free Press hailed the book as "truly mesmerizing....The text is based on carefully documented historical research, but the story rolls along like a good novel with rising suspense and an array of colorful action as vast as Russia itself."

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2006-07-30

Instead of a book that is only re-telling really what we know or have heard of Rasputin, this is remarkable in its history and life of a very interesting person.

Kitty Kelly Lives!.......2005-10-03

The reason Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra became a modern classic was because it presented its story through the dispassionate historian's eye. The sensational tone of this book makes one think that 70 years of Soviet disinformation on the Romanovs all found a home in this volume. One would do better to stay with Massie (no lover of the Romanovs) and read books like A Gathered Radiance to get a more nuanced picture.

fun read.......2004-07-08

Although it has its errors, this is an engrossing biography about Rasputin. Full of new information and little-known facts, it's not afraid to shy away from the nitty-gritty, it's not afraid to give us the dirt on this guy, without all the false romanticism about Rasputin being so saintly and such. But this is an honest portrait of Rasputin, giving him credit where credit is due. I like this gritty lurid style of writing, which doesn't downplay or leave out the salacious sensationalistic stuff. There is no doubt that you will be convinced of Rasputin's iron hold on the Russian royal family due to his supposed supernatural powers, which included healing the Tzar's hemophiliac son and heir to the throne, Alexei. But, alas, there would never be a new Tzar, as through his scandalous public and priavte life Rasputin unwittingly contributed to the Romanov dynasty's fall. I recommend this book especially to people who enjoy reading a good bio about unusual personalities from the past.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

Titilating Tale..........2003-12-22

...but worthless as a historical biography. This book is a collection of the most salacious gossip from the latter days of the Romanov Empire. It is both entertaining and gives some insight to the "mood" of St. Petersburg at that time, but is filled with "inaccuracies", from references to Rasputin's youth as a time of living in primitive poverty to refering to him as a monk to descriptions of a life style of unrestrained, wild debauchery. In fact, his father was a land owner, Rasputin grew up in a nice home in a town that benefited from being located by rivers (making commerce an important part of the town), was never a monk, remained married to the same woman, brought his two daughters to live with him in St. Petersburg so they could have an education, and for a complex set of reasons, allowed himself to be a scapegoat. While he admitted to "falling into sin", those incidents were a very small part of a very complex and interesting person/life.

Biased, foul-mouthed trashy biography.......2002-07-02

There used to be (or still is if you are a conspiracist) a lot of mystery surrounding Rasputin and the collapse of the Russian Empire during WWI. I became intrigied after seeing the HBO version of Rasputin and swept away by the magic of Rasputin in Edvard Radzinsky's account (be it true or false...). I felt compelled to find out more and this book came highly recmmended at Amazon so...

Moynahan starts off with the clear, descriptive and simple writing style of the brilliant book on the last Romanov's by Robert K. Massie. Then somewhere in the middle of the book, he descends abruptly into a vitrilic foul-mouthed tirade at Rasputin - which is in shocking contrast to the start of the book. As the chapters kept on unfurling with this pure vitriol, my respect for the biographer and patience with the book deteriorated. Then suddenly, towards the end, Moynahan suddenly finds compassion for Rasputin in his (sensationalised) theory for Rasputin's death. However, Moynahan had lost my respect by then and the book was thrown into the bin - I couldn't bring myself to even subject it to the people at my local library where I usually donate books.

... If you want to read a masterpiece on a good biographer turned bad - this is the book for you. If you want to learn about Rasputin, there are other books on the market which are infinetely more informative!

Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned (ISBN:0679419306)
Average customer rating:
Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned (ISBN:0679419306)
Brian Moynahan
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQM6CQ

Average customer rating:
Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned
Brian Moynahan
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSLC7S

Average customer rating:
Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned
Brian Moynahan
Manufacturer: Random House Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM21VU

Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
Average customer rating:

Outstanding History of Horror on the High Seas

Puts modern serial killers to shame

Mutiny ,murder, mayhem

The Senseless Death of One and All

Incredible history..mutiny, murder and the revenge of justice.

Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
Mike Dash
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Australia | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
17th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors

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Tulipomania : The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused

FLOATING BROTHEL, THE: THE EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORY OF AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SHIP AND ITS CARGO OF FEMALE CONVICTS

ASIN: 0609807161
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Amazon.com

In 1629, the Dutch merchantman Batavia grounded on a desolate atoll near Western Australia. Of the 200 survivors, 115 were subsequently murdered, in coldest blood, by a group of the ship's sailors and their psychopathic leader, Jeronimus Corneliszoon. Batavia's Graveyard is Mike Dash's unnerving, measured account of the incident. The victims included children, babies, and pregnant women; the crimes took place over a period of several months. Though the killings make a substantial, chilling tale in themselves, Dash adroitly places the shocking spree in larger context with illuminating discussions of 17th century medical practices, religious heresy, global politics, and shipboard sociology and daily life. Additionally, he draws dozens of portraits of the participants in this ghastly drama, most fascinatingly that of Corneliszoon, who emerges as a grotesquely charismatic predecessor of the likes of Charles Manson and Ted Bundy. Batavia's Graveyard, a skillful melding of accessible scholarship and evenhanded narrative and of overview and telling detail, is a welcome achievement. --H. O'Billovitch

Book Description

In 1628 the Dutch East India Company loaded the Batavia, the flagship of its fleet, with a king’s ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java; the ship itself was a tangible symbol of the world’s richest and most powerful monopoly.

The company also sent along a new employee to guard its treasure. He was Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a disgraced and bankrupt man with great charisma and dangerously heretical ideas. With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, he hatched a plot to seize the ship and her riches. The mutiny might have succeeded, but in the dark morning hours of June 3, 1629, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The captain and skipper escaped the wreck, and in a tiny lifeboat they set sail for Java—some 1,500 miles north—to summon help. More than 250 frightened survivors waded ashore, thankful to be alive. Unfortunately, Jeronimus and the mutineers had survived too, and the nightmare was only beginning.

Download Description

From the bestselling author of Tulipomania comes Batavia's Graveyard, the spellbinding true story of mutiny, shipwreck, murder, and survival.

It was the autumn of 1628, and the Batavia, the Dutch East India Company's flagship, was loaded with a king's ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java. The Batavia was the pride of the Company's fleet, a tangible symbol of the world's richest and most powerful commercial monopoly. She set sail with great fanfare, but the Batavia and her gold would never reach Java, for the Company had also sent along a new employee, Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a bankrupt and disgraced man who possessed disarming charisma and dangerously heretical ideas.

With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, Jeronimus soon sparked a mutiny that seemed certain to succeed -- but for one unplanned event: In the dark morning hours of June 3, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The commander of the ship and the skipper evaded the mutineers by escaping in a tiny lifeboat and setting a course for Java -- some 1,800 miles north -- to summon help. Nearly all of the passengers survived the wreck and found themselves trapped on a bleak coral island without water, food, or shelter. Leaderless, unarmed, and unaware of Jeronimus's treachery, they were at the mercy of the mutineers.

Jeronimus took control almost immediately, preaching his own twisted version of heresy he'd learned in Holland's secret Anabaptist societies. More than 100 people died at his command in the months that followed. Before long, an all-out war erupted between the mutineers and a small group of soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes, the one man brave enough to challenge Jeronimus's band of butchers.

Unluckily for the mutineers, the Batavia's commander had raised the alarm in Java, and at the height of the violence the Company's gunboats sailed over the horizon. Jeronimus and his mutineers would meet an end almost as gruesome as that of the innocents whose blood had run on the small island they called Batavia's Graveyard.

Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Batavia's Graveyard is the next classic of narrative nonfiction, the book that secures Mike Dash's place as one of the finest writers of the genre.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding History of Horror on the High Seas.......2007-03-19

I came across the bloody story of the shipwrecked Batavia as a footnote somewhere and decided then and there that I needed to learn more about it. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was wowed by the almost unbelievable story of mutiny and murder in the seventeenth century.

The nonfiction book "Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny" by Mike Dash is a detailed, readable, and exciting portrait of Jeronimous Cornelisz, a Dutch apothecary (and heretic) who lost his child and abandoned his wife to escape dept and scandal by going to sea. He ended up on the Batavia, the flagship of the Dutch East India Company, which was making its maiden voyage to Java. While on board, Cornelisz helped incite a near mutiny, and then survived a horrible shipwreck on a desolate chain of islands near Australia. Only after the Batavia's commander and his officers sail away on a gunboat to find rescue does Cornelisz make a true power play, taking over an island with his cronies and engaging in deliberately vicious acts of violence meant to terrorize and subordinate those survivors allowed to live.

The detail in this book is amazing. If you want to know what life in seventeenth century Netherlands was like, look no further. If you want to know what life was like at sea in the seventeenth century, this book is for you. If you are at all curious about the Dutch East India Company, this book will give you a great introduction to one of the most powerful companies in the world ever. And, if you want to read about a real horror story and real-life adventure, well, "Batavia's Graveyard" has it all.

Do note that this story has moments of extraordinary violence, including rape and the cruelest of murders. The rapes are not provided in detail, thankfully, but the murders are. The fitting executions of the killers are also described in astounding detail. All in all, it is not a book for those with weak stomachs.

Puts modern serial killers to shame.......2006-10-07

It says a lot for a story when it begins with a shipwreck and builds in intensity from there.

Batavia's Graveyard, painstakingly researched and written by Mike Dash, starts shortly before the proud, richly laden Dutch merchantman Batavia, on her maiden voyage for the Dutch East India Co. in 1629, shattered its hull on a coral reef near Australia and some 1,500 miles shy of its destination in Java. It could have been a simple story of survival if not for the presence of Jeronimus Cornelisz aboard the doomed vessel. At first glance a simple, mid-ranking official for the company, Cornelisz harbored heretical ideas and an overblown sense of his own importance in the scheme of things -- and he had the intelligence and charisma to bend others to his will. Long before the shipwreck occurred, Cornelisz had plotted mutiny and piracy on the Batavia. But once he found himself stranded with more than 250 survivors and limited resources to keep them alive, the Dutchman decided to take matters into his own hands and decide who should live and die.

It might be somewhat hard to believe if this were fiction, but Dash has drawn his story from the logs, court records and testimonials of the day. As history, Batavia's Graveyard is a gripping, deeply disturbing tale. Dash should be commended for his ability to present the story with such perfect balance between sensational drama and stark historical facts. There are enough notes and references to sate even the most passionate researcher, and the narrative never falters in its flow.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

Mutiny ,murder, mayhem.......2006-02-19

This was in my view an edge of the seat thriller of the world greatest mutiny. The author placed the historical narrative in perspective by outlining in sufficient detail, the individuals involved, the prevailing political and religious climate and the Dutch East India company mentality and methodology, placing all in their historical context. The scheming, planning, execution and finally the retribution of the mutiny are all stripped bare to provide a brutal insight into the the human psyche of paranoia and survival nearly 400 years ago. The development of and the understanding of the lead protaganist Jeronimus Cornelius was excellent.The narrative is fast moving from begining to end but interspaced with periods where the reader can really reflect and understand what it mght have been like to be trapped on a flat barren island off the West Coast of Austalia with your family, friends and some callous schemers and murderers for company. The coincidental appearance of the rescue ship on the day the mutineers attacked the remaining survivors and the subsequent race between survivors and mutineers to reach the vessel was thrilling. The final summarization was also very helpful and re-assuring that the punishment actually did fit the crime in those far off days. An excellent read.

The Senseless Death of One and All.......2006-02-19

This is a first rate historical book. Mike Dash has done a wonderful job of writing about a dreadful into the evil of man, in such a way that makes it readable. It is straightforward and unapologetic. "Batavia's Graveyard" accounts the action taken by the people who were shipped wrecked in truly desperate conditions, and explains how certain flaws in personalities can feed off each other. This is not a book for the faint of heart, because it is a story about mass killing, committed in most violent means contrived.

Incredible history..mutiny, murder and the revenge of justice........2006-01-29

Author takes us back to Holland in the 1600's, how the Directors of The Dutch East India Company made millions by investing in funding the construction of ships, and paying a crew to sail them to Java, and trade small amounts of jewels etc for spices, which were sold at a huge profit when the ship rturned. The wealthy exploited the poor, who were recruited to sail the ships in a 2-3 year round trip voyage. The book details the first and final voyage of "Batavia", which ran aground on a reef of the West Coast of what is now Australia. The story of mutiny, murder, survival, rescue and the brutal punishment is compelling. The details of the Dutch legal system of the 1600's helps to explain the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. A must read for any history buff; those with an interest in Indonesia, Australia, or the Dutch legal system.

BATAVIA'S GRAVEYARD : THE TRUE STORY OF THE MAD HERETIC WHO LED HISTORY'S BLOODIEST MUTINY

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BATAVIA'S GRAVEYARD : THE TRUE STORY OF THE MAD HERETIC WHO LED HISTORY'S BLOODIEST MUTINY
MIKE DASH
Manufacturer: THREE RIVERS GROUP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Australia | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

17th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 140004510X

Book Description

From the bestselling author of Tulipomania comes Batavia’s Graveyard, the spellbinding true story of mutiny, shipwreck, murder, and survival.

It was the autumn of 1628, and the Batavia, the Dutch East India Company’s flagship, was loaded with a king’s ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java. The Batavia was the pride of the Company’s fleet, a tangible symbol of the world’s richest and most powerful commercial monopoly. She set sail with great fanfare, but the Batavia and her gold would never reach Java, for the Company had also sent along a new employee, Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a bankrupt and disgraced man who possessed disarming charisma and dangerously heretical ideas.

With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, Jeronimus soon sparked a mutiny that seemed certain to succeed—but for one unplanned event: In the dark morning hours of June 3, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The commander of the ship and the skipper evaded the mutineers by escaping in a tiny lifeboat and setting a course for Java—some 1,800 miles north—to summon help. Nearly all of the passengers survived the wreck and found themselves trapped on a bleak coral island without water, food, or shelter. Leaderless, unarmed, and unaware of Jeronimus’s treachery, they were at the mercy of the mutineers.

Jeronimus took control almost immediately, preaching his own twisted version of heresy he’d learned in Holland’s secret Anabaptist societies. More than 100 people died at his command in the months that followed. Before long, an all-out war erupted between the mutineers and a small group of soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes, the one man brave enough to challenge Jeronimus’s band of butchers.

Unluckily for the mutineers, the Batavia’s commander had raised the alarm in Java, and at the height of the violence the Company’s gunboats sailed over the horizon. Jeronimus and his mutineers would meet an end almost as gruesome as that of the innocents whose blood had run on the small island they called Batavia’s Graveyard.

Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Batavia’s Graveyard is the next classic of narrative nonfiction, the book that secures Mike Dash’s place as one of the finest writers of the genre.

Book Description

"To read Heidegger is to set out on an adventure. The essays in this volume--intriguing, challenging, and often baffling to the reader--call him always to abandon all superficial scanning and to enter wholeheartedly into the serious pursuit of thinking....

"Heidegger is not a 'primitive' or a 'romanitic.' He is not one who seeks escape from the burdens and responsibilities of contemporary life into serenity, either through the re-creating of some idyllic past or through the exalting of some simple experience. Finally, Heidegger is not a foe of technology and science. He neither disdains nor rejects them as though they were only destructive of human life.

"The roots of Heidegger's hinking lie deep in the Western philosophical tradition. Yet that thinking is unique in many of its aspects, in its language, and in its leterary expression. In the development of this thought Heidegger has been taught chiefly by the Greeks, by German idealism, by phenomenology, and by the scholastic theological tradition. In him these and other elements have been fused by his genius of sensitivity and intellect into a very individual philosophical expression." --William Lovitt, from the Introduction

Customer Reviews:

understand.......2004-04-26

After reading Heidegger I feel as if I sort of understand nature and the nature channel.

Heidegger at his best and most relevant.......1999-10-01

The Question Concerning Technology frequently has been criticized as lacking content beneath Heidegger's stormy language. Not true! It may take more than one reading (it took me about 5), but once the meaning of the concept of Enframing really takes a hold of you, it becomes the most powerful and relevant philosophical concept since Nietzsche's will to power. Responding to the challenge of Enframing, man has reduced the world of Being to his own self-referential bubble. Heidegger's words are at times the bleakest that the 20th century has to offer, yet in the second essay "The Turning," he suggests that Enframing's pervasive control of the world also provides a context for true, authentic behavior through the resistance of this powerful force. Authenticity is not a possibility for Heidegger without danger. For the detailed and patient reader, Heidegger provides a compelling description of global technology and its implications, distinguishing between the essence of technology and technological activity as well as the vibrations the essence of technology stirs in the realms of truth and ethics.

The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays

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The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays

Manufacturer: Harpercollins College Div
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0060904194

Average customer rating:

The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays
Martin Heidegger
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF2KYK

Average customer rating:

The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays
Martin Heidegger
Manufacturer: Harpercollins College Div
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEXQE4

Book Description

Frontiers in Ecology: Building the Links is a vital book, identifying the major links in ecology. Not only does it consider the role of ecology in the future, but it provides critical lessons from the past and present. It challenges researchers, managers, politicians and the general public to broaden their understanding of ecology and environmental management. The challenge for ecology is to find ways of developing and applying a crucial science to a world that is driven by economics, policies and people. This book takes an important step in identifying the need to forge strong links between these disparate fields as we focus on the frontiers of ecology in the new millennium.

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