Otto Kahn: Art, Money, and Modern Time

Book Description

In the early decades of the twentieth century, almost everyone in modern theater, literature, or film knew of Otto Kahn (1867-1934), and those who read the financial press or followed the news from Wall Street could scarcely have missed his name. A partner at one of America's premier private banks, he played a leading role in reorganizing the U.S. railroad system and supporting the Allied war effort in World War I. The German-Jewish Kahn was also perhaps the most influential patron of the arts the nation has ever seen: he helped finance the Metropolitan Opera, brought the Ballets Russes to America, and bankrolled such promising young talent as poet Hart Crane, the Provincetown Players, and the editors of the Little Review.

This book is the full-scale biography Kahn has long deserved. Theresa Collins chronicles Kahn's life and times and reveals his singular place at the intersection of capitalism and modernity. Drawing on research in private correspondence, congressional testimony, and other sources, she paints a fascinating portrait of the figure whose seemingly incongruous identities as benefactor and banker inspired the New York Times to dub him the "Man of Velvet and Steel."

Customer Reviews:

From Business History Review.......2003-07-21

"a genuinely transnational biography and a model for those who wish to engage in that rapidly growing field of historical scholarship."(Michael Kammen, Cornell University)

Modern-day Medici.......2003-07-09

In his day, J.P. Morgan was the best-known head of an American financial house. But Otto Kahn was a close second. Today, Morgan enjoys immortality in the popular imagination, while Kahn is all but forgotten. Thankfully Theresa Collins ... has produced a biography of Kahn that illuminates his importance as a man who successfully combined modern business sensibilities with art patronage. (Review by Ian Drake, Philanthropy Magazine, May/June 2003)

From Aufbau.......2003-03-15

"A considered and nuanced account of [the] early twentieth century American Medici. . . . Collins' accomplished biographical study profiles from the cinematic deftness with which she crosscuts facets of Kahn's life, an altogether appropriate technique in limning an existence so enamored of and beholden to modernity. Her use of the language of theater and film in interpretive contexts seamlessly brings his many worlds into a unified vision."--Aufbau

From Opera News.......2003-03-15

"Collins shows how [Kahn] gave away money nearly as quickly as he earned it, his contributions to music, literature, theater, dance, painting and design establishing New York City as an international cultural mecca. . . . Essential details are expertly negotiated, and thornier questions on the reality of latent anti-Semitism among the heirs of the Gilded Age are explored in depth. . . . As Collins aptly demonstrates, this 'self-made aristocrat' mastered the East without losing his soul, and in the process, he ennobled the arts he loved."--Opera News

FROM THE PUBLISHER.......2002-07-06

"This rich and fascinating biography tells the remarkable story of a remarkable man who, combining the power of an international financier with the finesse of a patron of the arts, helped make New York City a world cultural capital."--Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

"Theresa Collins's Otto Kahn is a superb piece of biography and a major work of historical reclamation. This is history written in the grand manner--sweeping in scope, majestic in style. And it restores to us in all his grandeur and cultural consequence a remarkable figure from our past."--Martin Duberman, City University of New York

"This first full-length biography of Otto Kahn offers a compelling portrait of a major figure in the history of American finance and culture. The keen eye and vivid prose of Theresa Collins illuminate the many facets of this fascinating character and his world."--Maury Klein, University of Rhode Island

Book Description

Over the course of his career, J.G. Ballard has revealed hidden truths about the modern world. The essays, reviews, and ruminations gathered here-spanning the breadth of this long career-approach reality with the same sharp prose and sharper vision that distinguish his fiction. Ballard's fascination for and fixation upon this century take him from Mickey Mouse to Salvador Dali, from Los Angeles to Shanghai, from William Burroughs to Winnie the Pooh, from the future to today.

Customer Reviews:

Ballardophile.......2000-01-27

Ballard describes this collection of published essays and reviews as a continuation of his fiction "by surreptitious means". Those accustomed to Ballard's imaginative gifts will be pleased to discover them no less diminished in describing the extravagances and banalities of our fin du monde era. Above all, Ballard's distinctive, fluid flashes mark this book. On Max Ernst's "The Eye of Silence": "This spinal landscape with its frenzied rocks towering into the air above the slent swamp, has attained an organic life more real than that of the solitary nymph sitting in the foreground. These rocks have the luminosity of organs freshly exposed to the light. The real landscapes of the world are seen for what they are--palaces of flesh and bone that are the living facades enclosing our own subliminal consciousness." Ballard's words and worldview are always intelligent, if not always welcome. For those who can keep up, this book offers marvelous vistas.

Continuing Iconography in the World According to Ballard........1998-06-30

In this, the first I believe, collection of J. G. Ballard's non-fiction writings, Ballard is again writing about his favorite themes and obsessions. Dali, Burroughs and Mae West all appear. This time, however, he is writing about them in reality, for book reviews and the like, not as characters and archetypes in a hallucinatory fictional landscape. Despite our knowledge that we a reading an alleged non-fiction collection, the overwhelming presence of the Ballard worldview remains and makes one wonder if perhaps the non-fiction of reality and the imagination of Ballard are more closely linked that we would like to admit. Ballard's prose and style shine through illuminating the seemingly mundane subject matter. Also the careful categorization of the essays/reviews furthers the reader's impression that this is indeed a Ballard collection. The chapter headings of Film, Lives, The Visual World, etc. and titles such as "Hitman for the Apocalypse" adorning the review of a book on Burroughs bring to mind the headers and chronology of The Atrocity Exhibition. This in not necessarily a book for Ballard beginners. Another point of entry would better initiate a reader new to Ballard. But if you are familiar with his work and his common themes and elements, it is fascinating to watch his skill as a writer and constructer as he creates vehicles of ideological validation from Sunday supplement subjects.

A User's Guide to the Millennium Essays and Reviews

Average customer rating:

A User's Guide to the Millennium Essays and Reviews
J. G. Ballard
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTKAK2

Book Description

These 50 original puzzles are packed with film-related clues--stars, titles, and more. But with Henry, solving the "regular" puzzle is usually just the first step and this book is no exception. As each crossword is solved, some of the filled-in letters are transferred to the corresponding dashes of a "fill-in-the-blank" passage and ... you've spelled out a bit of movie trivia that's tied in to some of the clues in the puzzle. For any puzzler who's a movie fan, this double feature is a must!

Average customer rating:

Concise, To the Point, Practical

FAirly good. Very small book

Big changes in little packages

Good little book

.::. Finally Prescriptive Guidance .::.

The Visible Ops Handbook: Implementing ITIL in 4 Practical and Auditable Steps
Kevin Behr , Gene Kim , and George Spafford
Manufacturer: Information Technology Process Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery Process Model

Foundations of IT Service Management: based on ITIL (English version)

Measuring ITIL: Measuring, Reporting and Modeling - the IT Service Management Metrics That Matter Most to IT Senior Executives

Implementing ITIL: Adapting Your IT Organization to the Coming Revolution in IT Service Management

Metrics for IT Service Management

ASIN: 0975568612

Product Description

The Core of Visible Ops Visible Ops is a methodology designed to jumpstart implementation of controls and process improvement in IT organizations needing to increase service levels, security, and auditability while managing costs. Visible Ops is comprised of four prescriptive and self-fueling steps that take an organization from any starting point to a continually improving process. Making ITIL Actionable Although the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a wealth of best practices, it lacks prescriptive guidance: What do you implement first, and how do you do it? Moreover, the ITIL books remain relatively expensive to distribute. Other information, publicly available from a variety of sources, is too general and vague to effectively aid organizations that need to start or enhance process improvement efforts. The Visible Ops booklet provides a prescriptive roadmap for organizations beginning or continuing their IT process improvement journey. Why Do You Need Visible Ops? The Visible Ops methodology was developed because there was not a satisfactory answer to the question: I believe in the need for IT process improvement, but where do I start? Since 2000, Gene Kim and Kevin Behr have met with hundreds of IT organizations and identified eight high-performing IT organizations with the highest service levels, best security, and best efficiencies. For years, they studied these high-performing organizations to figure out the secrets to their success. Visible Ops codifies how these organizations achieved their transformation from good to great, showing how interested organizations can replicate the key processes of these high-performing organizations in just four steps: 1. Stabilize Patient, Modify First Response Almost 80% of outages are self-inflicted. The first step is to control risky changes and reduce MTTR by addressing how changes are managed and how problems are resolved. 2. Catch and Release, Find Fragile Artifacts Often, infrastructure exists that cannot be repeatedly replicated. In this step, we inventory assets, configurations and services, to identify those with the lowest change success rates, highest MTTR and highest business downtime costs. 3. Establish Repeatable Build Library The highest return on investment is implementing effective release management processes. This step creates repeatable builds for the most critical assets and services, to make it cheaper to rebuild than to repair. 4. Enable Continuous Improvement The previous steps have progressively built a closed-loop between the Release, Control and Resolution processes. This step implements metrics to allow continuous improvement of all of these process areas, to best ensure that business objectives are met.

Customer Reviews:

Concise, To the Point, Practical.......2007-06-01

Word for word, this is the most valuable book about running IT operations that you can find. Forget the buzzwords, forget ITIL (although it's addressed inside) - this book contains the guts of what it really takes to manage infrastructure well.

Imagine if everything it took to run operations well could be distilled down to four easy to remember steps. Then imagine that this content could be put inside a thin little book you could give to your boss, your coworkers, and your employees. This is that book.

I have already bought more than half a dozen copies, because I keep on giving mine away. It's just that good.

FAirly good. Very small book.......2006-12-22

Not as detailed as I expected. Many times, the same principles are told over and over again. All about change control. We all know it's important, but implementing is not as easy. REquires more beauracracy in the system to successfully implement it. Other topics such as serv. mgmt, finances, etc., related to IT are not covered. Beware the actual content of the book is only about 40 pages, excluding introduction and appendices. Tiny book. The book is about 7 x 5". I was very surprised when I received the book. Everyone knows that change control is important. Everything in this revolves around it. Good narrative examples. I bought the foundations of IT serv. mgt and this one to take the exam.

Big changes in little packages.......2006-11-28

The leading cause for down time is poor process management and user error. This small and easy read provides real and applicable suggestions for reining in and ultimately transforming cultures that have traditionally caused the most downtime in your production environments. This is a must read and a must keep.

Good little book.......2006-11-23

If you've been in IT long enough, the information in this book might not be news to you. However, it is nice to see it all put into words that are easy to read. The book is almost pocket-sized.

Even if you don't want to implement ITIL full out, this book still offers good information that may spark your own ideas. If your company is not behind this type of improvement, at least you can use this book to do some small, but big impact, improvements to make your life/job easier to bear :)

.::. Finally Prescriptive Guidance .::........2006-10-31

The thing I love most about the book is you actually provide an actual process for implementation of ITIL. All too often, seminars and books (of all kinds)fall short of their promise to equip us with a toolbelt and map.

Visual Ops delivers. A close second for me was the brilliant use of typifying examples to illustrate the problems facing today's IT shop.

I'm confident any reader will see his/her IT shop in the examples provided in the book...almost word for word in some cases.

Average customer rating:

good book

a book to read

So Far From Home

Going to America

Not Best Dear America Book

So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts 1847 (Dear America Series)
Barry Denenberg
Manufacturer: Scholastic Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Fiction | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Fiction | United States | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Dear America | Historical | Series | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower 1620 (Dear America Series)

Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 (Dear America)

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847 (Dear America Series)

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic 1912 (Dear America Series)

Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan (Dear America)

ASIN: 043955506X

Customer Reviews:

good book.......2007-03-06

'voyag of the great tittanic' was about a girl who travels to new york on the tittanic. while she is abord she meets new people and she says what she did while on abourd. later in to the book when the ship is sinking it tels how everyone is trying to make it out.
i would recemend this book because i learned something from the book that i did not know befor. it was also intresting to know things from first person.

a book to read.......2007-03-06

"so far from home" is about a 13 year old girl who travels to america from irland. while she is their she works in sweat shop to earn money for he rpearrents so they can come to. this book also shows how tough the irish had it back then and how mistreated they were by the yankees
i would recemend this book becuase it is intresting looking at thing from the way those poeople lived back then.

So Far From Home.......2006-08-15

Mary Driscol, or "Quiet One" as her sentimental aunt calls her, lives in a land of tragedy and gloom, starvtion and fear. Ireland, 1847. Not only the potatoe famine afflicts the Irish people: They are persecuted by unreasonable Eglish land lords who ought to be helping them in their time of need. Desperate to start a new life for her family, Mary ventures to America, where she hopes to earn money to pay for her parents' voyage by working in a mill in Massechusetts. She gets a job, stays with her aunt, who is a school teacher, and makes a friend named Annie, who is an American girl. But her struggles are not over. She has an overbearing boss, a prejudiced co-worker, and the hardships of daily life to contend with. But she finds contentment in making the most of her blessings, in prayer, in singing her mother's old lullabye to herself, and in the hopes that, one day, she will be re-united with her family. A touching, poignant story of a brave Irish girl who made her little world a better place. I highly reccomend.

Going to America.......2006-05-22

So Far From Home is about a girl (Mary) who moves from Ireland to America to live with her aunt and to work at a mill. On the ship when she is traveling to America, she meets the O'Donalds and a boy named Sean. The O' Donalds have a daughter already in America (her name is Alice). While on the ship the O' Donald's end up dying from black fever. So Mary decides to go find Alice. When she finds Alice, Sean's uncle decides to take her in. After a while Mr. Quinn (Sean's uncle) sends Alice to a convent. There was a group of people who didn't like the Irish so they started a mob. Sean goes to the convent to keep Alice out of danger and brings her to his uncle. Then he goes back to the convent to stop the mob. He ends up getting arrested and Mary goes on a quest to save him.
I really liked this book because it is emotional and easy to read. I say it's emotional because when she is on the ship the O'Donalds die. Also Later in the book when she is with her aunt, she finds out that her parents are dying and won't be able to come to America. Like I said this book is easy to read I read it in two hours. As you can see I really liked So Far From Home and I think you would, too.

Not Best Dear America Book.......2005-08-25

I must say, when I read So Far From Home, I was a little disappointed. It was surely not as good as other Dear America books, and not very good period. I felt the story line was far too rushed, and could have been longer, it also ended too abruptly. The epilogues was weird too, and not as complete as other epilogues in the series. The characters I felt were not relatable as other Dear America characters. Overall, the book was alright, but surely not my favorite in the series.

So Far From Home - The Diary Of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 - A Dear America Book

Average customer rating:

So Far From Home - The Diary Of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 - A Dear America Book
Barry Denenberg
Manufacturer: Scholastic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VMLDUI

Customer Reviews:

African-American History done well.......2006-11-01

Peter H. Wood did a thoroughly researched well written history of African-Americans in South Carolina from 1670 to the Stono Rebellion. I am African-American and read this book for the first time in college; it was assigned to me by a terrific professor, (Thomas R. Hietala). I came to that class with my own concept of what slavery was and what it meant; this book totally challenged me to question my perceptions of slavery. I believed the stereotypic view that Africans were brought here and taught skills here and picked cotton and it was all misery and this book and others he assigned showed me how our modern vision of slavery is very shallow.

This book focuses on the rice growing region of South Carolina and it shows how slavers concentrated on capturing Africans from the rice coast because of their agricultural knowledge and skills; he shed a light on who these African people were before slavery. It explores how the cash crop in South Carolina came to be rice. How South Carolina was established as a colony of Barbados and the slave owners in South Carolina were formerly working class overseers who worked for the royal owners of Sugar Plantations in Barbados and later became land and slave owners in South Carolina; in both places (Barbados and South Carolina) the populations became Black majorities.

It also shows how slavery system in South Carolina evolved for the enslaved from something that was oppressive and informal into something brutal, permanent and hopeless. The evolution of slavery also changed the owners as they became a numerical minority the also became increasingly paranoid, determined to establish brutal absolute authority over the slaves and blinded by their own propaganda.

It seems even more astonishing they began to believe that Africans were better off and happy under a system that enslaved them. The most powerful thing Professor Hietala ever said in our class was "Never forget that slaves always wanted ownership of their own bodies and the power to direct their own lives and destinies; nothing was more important."

At times I think historians forget this when writing about African-American slaves. Wood understands this and he also shows respect for how enslaved Africans not only yearned for their freedom but how they planned and took risks for their freedom. He explores in depth the complexity and challenges of their struggle in choosing to look at the Stono Rebellion and the events that lead up to this big risk.

The story Wood tells begins with the history of these two communities (Barbados overseers who become South Carolina planters and enslaved Africans) continues with the development of the system of slavery in South Carolina and climaxes at the Stono Rebellion. The most fascinating thing about this act of Resistance is how close they came to success. When reading it for the first time I found myself saddened that they did not succeed because their success could have rewritten African-American History by altering the issues that sparked the Civil War and subsequent events; Reconstruction, Jim-Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. In essence their success could have changed my history and had far reaching implications with respect to who I am.

I think it is worth reading because of the history it explores and because Wood is an excellent researcher and writer. He not only uncovers the history but he exposes readers to the lives of enslaved Africans in a new way by portraying them as whole human beings who had a life before slavery. He treats with respect their existence and culture in Africa and acknowledges how it (African culture) influenced the economy and agriculture of South Carolina and by inference the South. It is a brilliant well researched and written work, as a student I came to appreciate that brilliant scholars were not always brilliant writers, Wood excels at both. I recommend it highly to any one interested in learning more about African-American history.

Well written....kind of slow.......2005-02-21

Black mojority is a momagram written to examinne the life of an african american in carolina during the colonial era. While it is very thourough in ts analysis of the slaves role and growth durning this time, it moves very slowly. I was assigned to read this book for a history course i was taking in college, so this wasn't a book i would noramlly pick up and read. I did find that i learned may things i did not know about this time and slaves. I found it all very facinating. this is a great book to read if you plan to major in history. It is thorough and well put together, all in all a great book to learn and grow from.

Good Study of Africans in 18th Century South Carolina.......2003-03-11

Peter Wood presents a very thorough account of Africans in South Carolina in the 1700s. From the first Africans to arrive on a Spanish expedition in 1526 and the African migrants arriving from Barbados in 1670 to the social tensions of the 1700s, Wood covers such topics as cattle raising, rice cultivation, disease, family life, religion, Black English, growing anxieties between whites and blacks, and the Stono Rebellion in 1739. Blacks became the majority population in South Carolina by the early 1700s. They were brought in as laborers and were immune to many lowland diseases that led to the higher mortality and morbidity rate among European settlers. Interestingly, the sickle cell trait heightened Africans' resistance to malaria. What I gathered from this work is that, while Africans were enslaved by the whites, Africans shaped South Carolina more than any other group through such things as their knowledge of cattle grazing, rice planting and cleaning, etc. Interesting book but, due to the narrowness of the study, I would only recommend it to those interested in black history or South Carolina.

Excellent Overview.......2001-11-16

This study of slavery in early SC is well researched and well written, a social history told in narrative style with a clearly defined chronological structure. Makes a great companion to Philip Morgan's Slave Counterpoint.

Fascinating history, told well.......2000-03-07

Peter H. Wood describes the experience of Blacks in early South Carolina. In the initial stages of colonization, planters welcomed the skills of Africans, encouraging Black initiative in many projects. Some Africans herded cattle and cultivated rice and indigo, as they had in various parts of Africa. Eventually, however, landowners shifted to intensive plantation development. Planters then sought to limit the strikingly independent economic pursuits of enslaved African-Americans. Wood sets the stage for the outbreak of the Stono Rebellion in 1739; he then chronicles the revolt with a combination of magnificent scholarship and tremendous narrative skill.

Black Majority - Negroes In Colonial South Carolina From 1670 Through The Stono Rebellion

Average customer rating:

Black Majority - Negroes In Colonial South Carolina From 1670 Through The Stono Rebellion
Peter H. Wood -
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton Publishing -
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000T8FHJM

Average customer rating:

BLACK MAJORITY -NEGROES IN COLONIAL SOUTH CAROLINA FROM 1670 THROUGH THE STONO REBELLION

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GR9D1Y

Book Description

With the rise of science, we moderns believe, the world changed irrevocably, separating us forever from our primitive, premodern ancestors. But if we were to let go of this fond conviction, Bruno Latour asks, what would the world look like? His book, an anthropology of science, shows us how much of modernity is actually a matter of faith.

What does it mean to be modern? What difference does the scientific method make? The difference, Latour explains, is in our careful distinctions between nature and society, between human and thing, distinctions that our benighted ancestors, in their world of alchemy, astrology, and phrenology, never made. But alongside this purifying practice that defines modernity, there exists another seemingly contrary one: the construction of systems that mix politics, science, technology, and nature. The ozone debate is such a hybrid, in Latour's analysis, as are global warming, deforestation, even the idea of black holes. As these hybrids proliferate, the prospect of keeping nature and culture in their separate mental chambers becomes overwhelming--and rather than try, Latour suggests, we should rethink our distinctions, rethink the definition and constitution of modernity itself. His book offers a new explanation of science that finally recognizes the connections between nature and culture--and so, between our culture and others, past and present.

Nothing short of a reworking of our mental landscape. We Have Never Been Modern blurs the boundaries among science, the humanities, and the social sciences to enhance understanding on all sides. A summation of the work of one of the most influential and provocative interpreters of science, it aims at saving what is good and valuable in modernity and replacing the rest with a broader, fairer, and finer sense of possibility.

Customer Reviews:

of course some people wouldn't like this book.......2003-07-18

i loved this book: it questions the idea of repeatability, which means that it questions the religion of science (as practiced by amateurs)and it shows you how language has served the impulse towards duplicity. the book also has a certain tongue-in-cheek wit about it, and that makes the ideas more interesting to read.

i can see where latour would make people nervous if they were fully invested in a point of view not fully understood. but, until the government takes down the bill of rights, diversity in thinking is still allowed and maybe even encouraged.

enjoy this book. it is fun.

Interesting, but hard to read.......2000-10-30

I'd like to think I'm not a dummy, but this was hard to read. It looks to me like the book was translated to English by someone who might know more about Anthropology than written communication. There were times when I felt that maybe it had been run through Babblefish.

Dissing of the translator aside, the author assumes the reader is completely knowlegable of all the apparently pretty divisions and differences in opinions between one group of scientists and another. Man I could care less, unless it leads to an advancement of a science, and I wasn't convinced. But maybe because I didn't care.

There were times where I felt that a greater service would have been done if the soap opera would have been skipped.

That said, the book contains some insightful and thought provoking ideas on how societies view each other and themselves. I found some concepts a powerful catalyst in my design efforts.

It only takes a French accent..........2000-03-02

Anglophone readers probably don't realise that Latour meant this book as a tongue-in-cheek exercise to capture the postmodern social theory market in his own country by using a postmodern style to show what an illusion postmodernism has always been. But, as fate would have it, when someone sneezes in Paris, an Anglophone is felled with pneumonia. It's hard to believe that anyone with a firm grasp of the history of the last 250 years of Western culture would find this book anything more than a diversion worthy of maybe a couple of arguments in the pub. It's telling that historians of science, who are really the people who are in a position to hold Latour accountable to anything he says here, have given the book a chilly reception. Classify this one under 'Pseud's Corner'.

a great, new work; serious social theory for scientists too.......1997-12-17

For this reader, Bruno Latour's book is one of the most ambitious, original, and important reformulations of social theory since 1989. It is getting lots of attention among scholars, and deserves a wider public. The press reviews here don't do this book justice.

Latour, for those of you who don't know him, has been at the forefront of the emerging field of "science studies", the history and sociology of science, for the past 15 years. He's also a rather bizarre fellow. His "Aramis" is a book of real sociology that is told in the form of a novel, in which the metro car of a failed Parisian public transportation project becomes one of a series of narrators. In "We Have Never Been Modern," he conscisely summarizes the theoretical basis of his work, and stakes out ground that is genuinely new. The book should excite humanisitic academics, scientists, and intellectually adventurous people from all walks of life with a taste for theory.

The thesis -- the basis for the "we have never been modern" part -- is that the "great divide" between nature and human, subject and object, science and society, was never real. Instead, he says, this subject/object divide was the great dirty fiction of the "modern" world.

To give you the gist of the argument as briefly as possible: the separation of nature and human, that has marked Western intellectual life since the 17th century, allowed both science and the humanities to make their own claims for absolute truth. This divide was the basis for our image of "modern western man."

But these claims hid the fact that "hybrids" were springing up all the while. Modernity also spawned technological "quasi-objects" that blur the line between the natural and the human. The tremendous multiplication of these "quasi-objects" (Latour's neologism)in our times has finally forced us to the point where we are at a startling conclusion: the divorce of man from nature never really took place.

What we thought of as scientific Western man was never real. Latour wants us, the generation left with the consequences of this revelation, to exhume this past of hybridity, and seek out a new relationship between nature and culture. In short, he wants to both humanize science and render the humanities more scientific.

This brief bastardization does not do justice to the work. Latour elegantly and convincingly lays out his thesis, and the results are dazzling and compelling. He's also sharp and witty, and fans of the like of Baudrillard and Derrida will see their idols tossed about a bit.

On the other hand, the book is immensely ambitious in its theoretical claims, and has a tendency to pretend that complex and difficult ideas are obvious truth. One wonders at times if he is practicing the French intellectual's habit of making our heads spin for the sheer thrill of watching the confusion. But he's not, and most readers, I think, will finish the book that Latour is ultimately both a sensible man and a humane one.

As a graduate student in the humanities, I know that this book is getting a growing audience in academia. I hope that some non-academic visitors to amazon.com (especially science buffs who enjoy the likes of Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennet) will treat themselves to this intellectual adventure. It's a truly original book, not much over 100 pages, reasonably priced, and well worth the experience.

Average customer rating:
WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN
Bruno Latour
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RAW2PO

Book Description

"Sustainable development" quickly became the universal goal for environmentalists in the 1990s, motivated by the 1988 Brundtland Report and the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. When the time came to bring theory into reality, sustainable development revealed far more complexity than first anticipated. To attain sustainable development in the full sense of the phrase"meeting present needs without compromising the resources needed for future societies"environmental and social concerns would need a constant presence in all major economic decisions. The Cornerstone of Development: Balancing Environmental, Social, and Economic Imperatives profiles many of the first attempts to implement sustainable development initiatives worldwide. The model: Canada's experience with "multistakeholder" decision-making. Under the guidance of Canada's National Task Force on Environment and Economy, nationwide and provincial round tables brought government officials together with corporate officers to formulate sustainable development guidelines. Authorized by the Canadian government to serve as an "Agenda 21 organization," the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) subsequently researched the feasibility of adapting the multistakeholder approach to the needs and practices of developing countries. The results are in these pages: valuable case histories from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Canada, each recounting the risks and benefits from integrating environmental, social and economic policies. When IDRC members were asked for ways to address environmental sustainability, they had few examples to follow"and little evidence that such endeavors could be fulfilled. The research and problem-solving efforts they produced are now collected here, for the guidance of other environment/development balance programs worldwide.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books