The Watson Dynasty: The Fiery Reign and Troubled Legacy of IBM's Founding Father and Son

Book Description

For an extraordinary fifty-seven-year period, one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing companies was run by two men who were flesh and blood. The chief executives of the International Business Machines Corporation from 1914 until 1971 were Thomas J. Watson and Thomas J. Watson, father and son. That great corporation bears the imprint of both men -- their ambitions and their strengths -- but it also bears the consequences of a family that was in near-constant conflict.

Sometimes wrong but never in doubt, both Watsons had clear -- and farsighted -- visions of what their company could become. They also had volcanic tempers. Their fights with each other combined with their commitment to leadership and excellence made IBM one of the most rewarding, yet gut-clutching firms to work for in the history of American business.

We are accustomed to describing professional behavior as if men and women leave their emotions and vulnerabilities at home each day. In the case of the Watsons, filial and sibling strife could not be excluded from the office. In closely studying the desires and frustrations of the Watson family, eminent historian Richard S. Tedlow has produced something more than a family portrait or a company history. He has raised the nearly forbidden issue of the role of emotion in corporate life.

This book explores the interplay between the person- alities of these two extraordinary men and the firm they created. Both Watsons had deeply held beliefs about what a corporation is and should be. These ideas helped make "Big Blue" the bluest of blue-chip stocks during the Watsons' tenure. These very beliefs, however, also sowed the seeds for IBM's disasters in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the company had lost sight of the original meaning behind many of the practices each man put into place.

Tracing the family's idiosyncratic ability to cope with each other's weaknesses but not their strengths, The Watson Dynasty is a book for every person who ever went to work but didn't want to check his personality at the door.

Customer Reviews:

Two Men of Men.......2004-01-20

Those who have read Tedlow's Giants of Enterprise are already aware of his unique and abundant skills as a brilliant thinker and eloquent writer. In this volume, he focuses his attention on Thomas Watson Sr. and Jr. who established and then developed one of the great dynasties in modern business history. (Watson Sr. was among seven "Giants" Tedlow discusses in his previous book.) This volume consists of several separate but carefully integrated parts: Watson Sr.'s life and career, his son Tom's life and career, and their often volatile personal as well as professional relationship at IBM.

Of special interest to me is Watson Sr.'s career with the National Cash Register company during which he observed first-hand the leadership and management style of its founder and CEO, John Henry Patterson. Tedlow suggests that Watson Sr. learned many lessons from Patterson which later proved invaluable when, after being asked to resign his position at NCR, Watson accepted an offer to head the Computing-Tabulating-Recording company, renamed the International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. By then, Watson had demonstrated his genius as a salesman. "It was, however, his very appreciation of selling that prompted his constant push for better products and his support of engineers and the interest risks of research and development....What made Watson great was his understanding that in order for marketing to succeed, the marketers needed a product to sell which the market would accept....Selling was the art of helping the customer to understand that he did indeed both need and want what you were selling to him." Tedlow leaves no doubt that Watson's years at NCR fully prepared him to thrive as CEO of IBM, choosing the right product to bet on, taking full advantage of any and all opportunities to sell it, and -- meanwhile -- building a culture in which ever-increasing sales and profits were driven by technical superiority and a total commitment to serving each customer's needs.

Also of interest to me is the relationship between the two Thomas Watsons. Theirs was a love-hate relationship, to be sure. Thomas Watson Sr. ran IBM for 42 years and one week, from May 1, 1914, until May 8, 1956. Throughout that period, father and son frequently had "hellacious" arguments. According to Watson Jr., their fights were "savage, primal, and unstoppable" and yet, as Tedlow explains, they deeply loved and greatly respected each other. Following Watson Sr.'s death, he was proclaimed the "World's Greatest Salesman" in a front-page New York Times headline. Watson Jr. was devastated, so much so that he took several months off to cope with his grief. He then returned to his duties as CEO and proceeded to transform IBM into what was then, by all accounts, the world's best managed corporation.

A brief commentary such as this simply cannot do full justice to what Tedlow achieves in this volume. Suffice to say that he draws upon a wealth of historical and biographical information to reveal and explain the full significance of two great corporate leaders, to be sure, but also to reveal and explain them in compelling human terms, warts and all. Eventually, Tedlow observes, IBM encountered in the 1990s, a near-death experience. "The problem with IBM was not Watson principles and practices. It was that those principles and practices had ossified. Rather than being living, breathing, flexible guidelines within which creative people could work and be playful at their work, they had degenerated into mere words which had lost their meaning. They were only limiting, never liberating. The shadow [of the Watsons] remained; the substance had disappeared." Thomas J. Watson Jr. died on December 31, 1993. The next CEO, Lou Gerstner, was the first successor to Watson Jr. who would not have him looking over his shoulder. On Gerstner's watch, IBM survived its near-death experience and is now led by Samuel J. Palmisano, an executive who has spent his entire career at IBM. To say that IBM has returned to its roots is to say that IBM has re-established itself in alignment with the principles and practices of two visionary leaders named Watson.

A good bio on the father and son that founded IBM.......2003-12-15

If you are interested in the lives of the father and son that built IBM, this book is a pretty good place to start. It is an interpretive essay rather than an academic or formal biography. Since the author is basing this book on secondary sources, he carefully lists all the sources he relied on to write this book, He doesn't claim to provide original research or to have had access to primary sources that aren't publicly available. But it is good for a quick read and introduction to the Thomas Watson Sr and Jr.

Since business is done by actual human beings, I enjoy peeling back the corporate veneer and the impersonal language of saying the company did this or that and looking at the real people and what they did with a touch of why they made their choices if such evidence is available. Not for the soap opera or supposition of it, but to learn real lessons about the character, the luck, the blunders, the brilliance that makes up all of the stories of history. One of the phony things corporations do in misusing the language is to say things like ABC Giantcorp made the decision to do XYZ. Actually, the men and women who run the organization made that decision. The Watsons both knew this and were, by today's standards, surprisingly human (if hard driving).

Watson Sr. was a special character who came out of that early period of the first vast American corporations. He learned the right lessons and had the right traits. He found the right opportunity in building what he turned into IBM. Watson Jr. turned into a special character partly from the training from his father, but more by his experiences in WWII. But like a great many families of men of vast ambition and ability, the family of Watson Sr. did not get all the benefits of wealth and experience without cost. There was a lot to live up to and, for the most part, they met their responsibilities (with some all-too-normal failings). All in all, the author tells a cautionary tale.

The book is well documented. There is a list of the sources used for each chapter, a bibliographical essay with a good list of the sources you can use for more reading on the Watsons an IBM and a good index.

I will say that the author's informal writing style, especially when he flips into the first person, can be disorienting. Yes, he has a breezy style that reads like a class lecture sounds, but at times it caused me to stop and have to parse the language to figure out exactly whom he was talking about and what he was saying. There were a couple of times that I had to make surmises and am still not absolutely sure that the meaning I finally took away was what the author intended.

But it is really a pretty good and valuable book.

Book Description

Once described as "that irrepressible Irishman from Ottawa who was 135 pounds of muscle and conversation," Francis Michael "King" Clancy is the grit and substance of what great hockey stars are all about. From the time he began his professional career as an enthusiastic 18-year-old with the Ottawa Senators in 1921, Clancy's flamboyant style and skills on the ice earned him the undisputed title of hockey's first and all-time King. Here he tells his own story to sportscaster and author Brian McFarlane, reminiscing about the good, grand old days of play with the Senators and Maple Leafs, and teammates like Red Horner, Charlie Conacher, Howie Morenz, Joe Primeau, and Busher Jackson. Such days, he recalls, "were gay and carefree and rollicking." And it is with this spirit in mind that the King recreates memories as colorful and hardy as the men who made them, and the name of the game they played.

Average customer rating:

Clancy; the King's story,
Francis Michael Clancy
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006BWNDA

Clancy the Kings Story as Told to Brian McFarlane

Average customer rating:

Clancy the Kings Story as Told to Brian McFarlane
Brian McFarlane
Manufacturer: McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc.,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KHFFV2

Customer Reviews:

Twenty Six Views on Black Performances.......2006-06-21

This book contains twenty six essays on black culture and how it has moved from Africa to the United States and from there to the world. It is specifically oriented to the performing arts, loosely defined to include everything from gospel music to sports to television series. The contributors are an eclectic mix of scholars (mostly), critics and practicing artists who express their own views about black culture.

The writers, like people everywhere offer a diverse set of views from their own perspectives. In these times the influence of Black culture in areas like popular music and sports that even these writers have a hard time defining things like Black Music. Music for instance that started as black has found homes in other cultures as diverse as Gospel groups in Australia and Broadway.

This book could be used for readings in Black studies, or by anyone interested in the differentiation in Black performing arts.

A thought-provoking discussion.......2006-03-23

This is not a collection of essays celebrating the tremendous influence of black culture around the world.

Instead, as Tricia Rose states in the Foreword, "The traffic in black culture to which this volume is dedicated is tethered to the trafficking in black bodies on which these cultural exchanges are based. They share several disheartening characteristics: similar trade routes, unequal forms of exchange, and often, a soulless focus on capital gain." But she adds, "Despite the troubled ground on which these traffic patterns are set, a good deal of black culture emphasizes sacrifice for the larger good and a steadfast commitment to affirmation and confirmation against relentlessly long odds."

I suspect that if the 26 contributors - an international and interdisciplinary mix of scholars, critics, and practicing artists - met together in a room, they would not reach consensus on exactly what constitutes "black culture" or "appropriation" or "authenticity." But therein lies the book's strength; there is no company line here, but rather a dynamic, thought-provoking discussion.

Racial "hybridization" and public perceptions are a common thread, as in Caroline Streeter's "Faking the Funk? Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys and (Hybrid) Black Celebrity."

Others explore the commodification - or "trafficking" - of black culture. It is not addressed as a simple matter of whites exploiting blacks. As Kennell Jackson notes in "The Shadows of Texts: Will Black Music and Singers Sell Everything on Television?" the sort of collaboration taking place between black artists and television ad creators "reminds us that in late capitalism black cultural material often travels in commercial contexts with collusion of the makers of cultural products."

It's impossible to sum up this diverse collection in a few paragraphs. Suffice to say I think it provides much food for thought to anyone interested in cultural studies, African American Studies, vernacular culture or the arts in general.

The book came out too early to address Dave Chapelle's rationale for terminating his show, which he summed up to Oprah as discomfort over "the white guy laughing." Here's hoping the second edition includes something by or about him, since it would be a perfect fit.

Book Description

Even more great games for groups of all sizes. Includes active games, quiet games, mixers, relays, seasonal games, and more!

Customer Reviews:

One of the best resources for group play I've ever read........1999-10-19

As an activity director for a camping and cottage resort, I found this book to feature one crowd pleaser after another. Not only are the activities enticing, the format (activities grouped for large and small groups as well as indoor and outdoor play) is particuarly user-friendly. A great buy and a great sequel to Play It!

A resource for fun, learning and interaction.......1999-10-05

At first glance it seems to be somewhat daunting choosing which game to select for a given occasion. However, this book has proved to be an invaluable resource in creating hours of fun, laughter and overcoming those quiet moments in which a group is still in the "getting to know" stages. I would recommned it to teachers, youth pastors or anyone who deals with large groups of people with whom rapport is crucial.

Amazon.com

Regular expressions are a central element of UNIX utilities like egrep and programming languages such as Perl. But whether you're a UNIX user or not, you can benefit from a better understanding of regular expressions since they work with applications ranging from validating data-entry fields to manipulating information in multimegabyte text files. Mastering Regular Expressions quickly covers the basics of regular-expression syntax, then delves into the mechanics of expression-processing, common pitfalls, performance issues, and implementation-specific differences. Written in an engaging style and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use.

Book Description

Regular expressions are an extremely powerful tool for manipulating text and data. They have spread like wildfire in recent years, now offered as standard features in Perl, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, MySQL, awk, Emacs, and many other popular tools and languages. If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regular expressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener. In spite their wide availability, flexibility, and unparalleled power, regular expressions are frequently underutilized. Regular expressions allow you to code complex and subtle text processing that you never imagined could be automated. Regular expressions can save you time and aggravation. They can be used to craft elegant solutions to a wide range of problems. A command of regular expressions is an invaluable skill. Yet what is power in the hands of an expert can be fraught with peril for the unwary.

Mastering Regular Expressions will help you navigate the minefield to becoming an expert. Once you've mastered regular expressions, they'll become an invaluable part of your toolkit. You will wonder how you ever got by without them. Mastering Regular Expressions, Second Edition has been thoroughly updated to include all the new features of Perl 5.8, as well as several other languages, including Java, VB.NET, C#, Python, JavaScript, Tcl, and Ruby. Written in the lucid, entertaining tone that made a complex, dry topic crystal-clear to thousands of programmers, and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use. Topics include:

A comparison of features among different versions of many languages and tools
How the regular expression engine works
Optimization (major savings available here!)
Matching just what you want, but not what you don't want
Sections and chapters on individual languages

Customer Reviews:

More than expected........2007-08-24

I have been in computer software developer over 7 years now and never really used regular expression until a year ago. True, you can live without it. But, with regular expression at hand, you climb up another level of programming. Code will be much concise and code research will be like a breeze.

Anyway, I didn't read this book entirely since later chapters explain intricacies and subtle differences of each specific language, e.g., java, perl, php, etc. It didn't take long to apply the knowledge I gained to real work and benefit. By the time I completed the first chapter, I already started to get rewards. My life is a lot easier now.

Even with only the first 3 chapters, this book is well worth its price. The author did superb job explaining what's going on behind the scene and guide you through the right way of constructing regular expressions for various situations. Of course, he will show you common pitfalls to avoid, too. Very detailed and comprehensive.

Highly recommended.

Best Regex material I've ever read.......2007-08-16

Before reading this book, I would have considered myself an intermediate regexer. After the first 2 chapters, I realized how novice I really was. Having only made it through 5 chapters of this book, I can't say enough about it. The detail and step-by-step analysis that Mr. Friedl takes to describe the regex matching process is the best I've ever seen. It's little things that make the analysis easy to follow -- like the brackets he uses to mark the regex, and the small triangle cursor to show where the engine is in the matching process. I continue to look forward to each new chapter. Thank you for a wonderful work of art.

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!.......2007-05-23

Are you a programmer working on text-related tasks? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Jeffrey Friedl, has done an outstanding job of writing a cool book that will interest anyone who has an opportunity to use regular expressions.

Friedl, begin with an introduction to the concept of regular expressions. Then, the author takes a look at text processing with regular expressions. Next, the author provides an overview of features and utilities, plus a bit of history. He also explains the details of how regular expressions work. The author continues by working through regular expressions examples. Then, he discusses efficiency in detail. Next, the author covers Perl regular expressions in detail. He then looks at Sun's java.util.regex package. The author continues by looking at .NET's language-neutral regular-expression package. Finally, the author looks at PHP's preg suite of regex functions.

This most excellent book should expand your understanding, even if you consider yourself an accomplished regular-expression expert. Perhaps more importantly, the book concentrates on mastering a particular implementation!

Good Information.......2007-05-07

Many people only barely utilize regular experssions, having been unable to get more than basic expressions to work. There are a lot of reasons for this - shell escapes, man pages that are terse to the point of being cryptic, etc. This book is a clear and very readable trip through practical regular expression creation and application that will enable the reader to get the most out of grep, awk, perl and other programs that use regular expressions.

The ultimate book for the ultimate demands - For an introduction just too heavy weight.......2007-05-03

Jeffrey Friedl describes regular expressions at an amazing depth and precision. Regular expressions are not easy and the quirks of the different tools (including their exact version and for what operating system) make writing them to an irritating black art. A black art to almost anybody. MRE sorts everything out in a comprehensible fashion. The price the reader has to pay: a very dense book, a need to follow the details until your head starts swimming and a lot of strain on the memory about what works, how and where.

MRE is somewhat easier to comprehend for a reader with a strong Pearl background. Also a good prior understanding to regular expressions is a true asset here. If you have neither, you do not need to despair. Jeffrey Friedl explains everything thoroughly from the ground up.

The writing style is very pedagogical. Important things get repeated quite often. Still this book is very dense. The flow is dry: no rhythm, special sense of humor or wit sweetens your wading through the material. Nevertheless Jeffrey Friedl kept my interest through the pages though the reading felt like hard work.

I do recommend this book to the truly dedicated reader.

Book Description

Dusty Springfield led a tragic yet inspiring life, battling her way to the top of the charts and into the hearts of music fans world-wide. Her signature voice made songs such as, "I Only Want to Be With You," "Son of A Preacher Man," and You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," international hits. In Dancing With Demons, two of her closest friends, Valentine and Wickham, capture, with vivid memories and personal anecdotes, a Dusty most people never glimpsed in this no-holds-barred yet touching portrait of one of the world's true grand dames of popular music.

Customer Reviews:

Dusty was a Character.......2007-01-09

If you are a Dusty Springfield fan, as I am, you will be appalled and fascinated by this book. Her manager and some "friends" tell everything she ever did, and how hard she could be to get along with. There is to this day a huge number of DS fans who continue to talk about her and admire her fabulous musical qualities. She died in 1999 of breast cancer after overcoming most of her demons. Dusty was known all over the world as a great musican, and you can still hear her voice on that diamond ad, in the movie about Enron, and once you get tuned in, you will hear her constantly in movies and on TV as accent music.
This books has a lot of errors, but it still stands as the definitive book on Dusty. I sure hope when I die, my friends don't get together and tell everything I ever did!! Wow....

Authorized??? Biography of Dusty Springfield..........2006-09-02

Authorized, I don't think so...
This book, as well as being 95% negative, is very poorly written.
It's difficult to follow at times, even rereading some of the long run on sentences...It appears that no one edited it before publication.
Some of the "facts" and dates, even names (Dinah Washington is refered to as Ella Washington), are questionable.
It does shed light on the seemingly very sad life of Dusty Springfield, but is the most poorly written book I've come accross ever.

Absolute Rubbish.......2006-08-03

This book if full of complete rubbish. Vicki Wickham should be ashamed of herself. She did nothing but portray Dusty in a negative light when we all remember her as the HAPPY AND POSITIVE PERFORMER. Of course i didn't personally know Dusty but to write such negative things is shameful. You should be ashamed of yourself Vicki. How can you call yourself a friend of Dusty? She knew you were going to do that to her. It makes me sick. This book is a waste of money and i don't reccommend it to anyone. I'll continue to love Dusty the way she was no matter what this book says.

Definitely NOT definitive!.......2006-07-17

I have no idea how the word "Authorized" got into the subtitle. While it's entirely possible the two writers knew Dusty and were part of her intimate circle, they absolutely dropped the ball on this one. I have no doubt that her life was as troubled as they claim, but I'm furious that the so-called biographers often decided to go all "coy" on us. Why not name Dusty's lovers? Instead they use pseudonyms along with tantalizing descriptions. This perpetuates the stereotype that being a lesbian is embarrassing. Also, they'll make a statement saying that one song was probably the worst cover ever recorded in the history of the world -- and then not name the song! What is wrong with these people!? I hope to God that with the renewed interest in Dusty -- and let's face it, she is and will always be a legend, no matter how troubled her life may have been -- a truly definitive book will come out that will be straightforward and real. This one isn't it--though I wish it were.

Lopsided negatively... And who on earth edited this thing??.......2006-06-10

This is a pretty awful book... I could have written a better one... The authors portray Dusty as emotionally needy, and there is precious little in the book to suggest that the authors even liked Dusty. Whoever edited this thing should find a different line of work. It reads like a lengthy and very poorly written tabloid article! I wish that someone would write more balanced portrait of this artist. It seems that any literature on Dusty is either "sugar-coated" or trashy. This book falls in the trashy category. I only hope that the upcoming film of Dusty's life will be more balanced, and sympathetic towards its subject.

Dancing with Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield

Average customer rating:

Dancing with Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield
Vicki Wickham Penny Valentine
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTDFDG

Book Description

If you've ever wondered exactly what a Zapf is, or if Baskerville has anything to do with Sherlock Holmes, Type is the answer to these questions and more. This is the story of the passions, and obsessions of the creators of type; of the influences of wars, persecution, and political upheaval, and the effects of business and technological breakthroughs on fonts and typography. From Gutenberg's first moveable type to the Internet, Simon Loxley tells the stories behind the letters, giving readers a cultural history unlike any other. After reading Type, readers will never look at the printed word in the same way again.

Customer Reviews:

About the people, not about type itself.......2007-06-04

I bought this book, thinking it would educate me about the different kinds of type and how the edesign of type evolved. This is an interesting book, but it's mostly a history book about the people who designed type and does not focus on their innovations. I'd recommend a book more focused on design "Elements of Typographic Style" if you are looking for a book about type itself.

I'd retitle it to "The Secret History of the people behind Letters"

Ah, the poverty of Times New Roman . . ........2005-10-09

Even though I'm not a typographer or type-designer, when I began engaging in desktop publishing a decade ago and sought out guidance for the decisions I suddenly had to make, I became interested in the history and minutiae of fonts and letterforms for their own sake. Also, in pursuit of a master's degree in library science more than thirty years ago, I took an elective in the "History of Books and Printing," so the background knowledge was already there. Loxley has produced a thoroughly fascinating social and philosophical history of the development of type, beginning with Gutenberg (who may or may not have been the inventor of moveable type) and following the development of words-in-print down through the centuries to the Nazi affection for Blackletter and the present-day democratization of the field via the personal computer. The author is very knowledgeable, especially about biographical details and personalities among western type designers. Illustrations and quotations are frequent and the book itself, naturally, is very nicely designed with footnotes and cut-lines set off in a one-third-size outside column. Though this is Loxley's first book, I hope it won't be his last.

Book Description

New York City's American Museum of Natural History is a national treasure, attracting four million visitors annually. Its dioramas-a dazzling mixture of nature, science, and art-have inspired young and old alike, and are world-renowned examples of the unique diorama craft: art in the service of science. Now, in the only book of its kind, readers get an insider's view of these "windows on nature," witnessing their creation step by meticulous step.

More than forty of the museum's finest dioramas are featured here, depicting the fauna and flora of myriad ecological environments. Stephen Quinn, a diorama artist at the museum, introduces the explorers, naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists behind these three-dimensional marvels, and explains how their collaborations make the displays so lifelike. This enchanting book is the perfect gift for nature lovers, art enthusiasts, and museum goers everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

Monuments to Wilderness.......2007-09-16

There is nowhere beneath a roof, anywhere on earth, that means more to me than the great diorama halls of The American Museum of Natural History. It is stunning (and, really, rather sad) that it has taken this long for a popular book to be written about these magnificent works of art and science, but at least it has been done well. (It is also gratifying to see the book getting such good--and well deserved--reviews here.)

For many millions of people habitat dioramas have been their first taste of the beauty, calm, and nobility of wild creatures and wild places. More people are familiar with nature documentaries these days, and since I love good documentaries too I can't really complain about that. Nonetheless there are some things that habitat dioramas, when done well, can convey that the flickering image, even on an IMAX screen, just can't. No medium portrays the spacious calm of wild country, and the simple dignity of wild animals, better than dioramas. It's also important to remember the valuable record dioramas can provide: many of the dioramas in this book are of places no longer wild.

Stephen Quinn's credentials for writing this book are probably as good as anyone alive. He started as an artist for the museum and has been an important force in helping keep the medium alive through the dark years of the 60s to 80s, when across the U.S. it was frequently neglected, if not despised, by curators though not, blessedly, by the general public. Things are at least somewhat better now, and Mr. Quinn is now project manager for exhibitions at the museum. He has done a fine job with this book. The text is engaging and informative and the photos are big and beautiful.

I do have a few quibbles. He sometimes uses the word "captured" for animals collected (read killed) for the dioramas. I'm sympathetic with why he felt he had to do that, given what he's trying to do with the book and given the cultural forces with which he must contend. The moral issues behind hunting and museum collection are complex and beyond what a book like this could be expected to cover. Nonetheless, animals are never "captured" for taxidermy.

I should hasten to add that animals do not need to be killed specifically for taxidermy. Many if not most animals mounted for museums in the last few decades died in zoos, were hit by automobile traffic, etc. That generally was not a realistic option at the time these dioramas were created.

My other reservation is deeper, but harder to articulate, and I don't have a real solution to it. I also know that a lot of readers will be unsympathetic with it. I'm not completely comfortable with "behind the scenes" stuff in anything other than technical manuals, trade magazines, etc. The people who made these dioramas were of course just people but had high ideals (ideals that Mr. Quinn without question shares) and they wanted the dioramas to be about their _subjects_. His behind the scenes writing will engage people more with the medium and is interesting in itself, no argument. But how much does it really help to have people thinking "I wonder if that rock in Diorama Z is the one that employees used to go to make out behind on their lunch hour."?

I don't know the answer, and so I can't really fault the author. I also recognize that many of the reviewers here loved that aspect of the book. My hope, and I'm sure it's the author's as well, is that it will all stay in perspective. Let's hope that's right. It would be very sad to see dioramas become the subject of the kind of psychologizing and trivializing that permeates the world of "fine" art.

That said, this is a beautiful and well-written book about a noble, if often neglected, realm of art and natural history. If you've read through a long review like this one about a book on this subject, I promise you won't regret owning it.

Beautiful........2007-05-12

Stephen Christopher Quinn, Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History (Abrams, 2006)

Dioramas are amazing things. Looking at them may not make it seem so, but that, more than anything, is testament to the artistry practiced by the men and women who construct them. Windows on Nature goes behind the scenes of the construction of the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

This is a coffee-table book, so there are a large number of excellent pictures of the dioramas themselves accompanying the text on how they were created. Both are as fantastic as they are fascinating. If you're a fan, this is a must-have. ****

great nature book.......2007-01-16

This was a gift for my mother who visited this museum years ago. It brought back great memories we had when we went. The book was very well done.

unbeatable and unique book on the Museum.......2006-07-26

I am not a scientist nor museum professional, simply a museumgoer. This book is a clear and attractive presentation about the dioramas that have helped define this wonderful museum for decades. Anyone who has ever visited the American Museum of Natural History will be captivated by the behind-the-scenes perspective presented. Understanding this background adds depth to our appreciation of the habitats. Quinn must have dug up old diaries, records and I wonder if he even listened in on some conversations as well because he offers little known factoids which are fascinating to read about and which enhance our experience as a museumgoer. I highly recommend this volume to anyone who has visited the museum. For those who have not visited, the book provides a wonderful view of what you've been missing!

What a Gem!.......2006-06-04

I found this treasure at my local bookstore (could have got it cheaper here!), looked it over, walked away, came back and looked again, walked away again, but couldn't find anything else I wanted as badly. It is an elegant masterpiece. I happen to thrill at anything remotely connected to taxidermy, but this book will also interest those who like nature, museums, or art.

This book is specifically about the dioramas of one museum, but in telling how they were constructed - taxidermy, foreground, and background painting - it is enlightening to anyone who loves natural history museums in general. There are color photos of the dioramas today, and black-and-whites of the artists working on various stages of their development decades ago. The step-by-step pictures of how a huge elephant mount is put together are nothing short of fascinating. Then, in addition, there are behind the scenes stories about how each diorama came together, and some hair-raising tales of specimen collecting in Africa.

If I have a complaint, it is this: the author has written the text as if only addressing fellow New Yorkers, assuming his readers have already been to this museum and seen these dioramas in person. "Think back to your memories of visits to the grand diorama galleries of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City." I can't help but feel a bit excluded, having never been there, although I am perfectly able to appreciate the exhibits based on the museums I have had the pleasure to visit. Perhaps he underestimated the broader appeal this book would have, but at any rate he unknowingly sparks a desire in the rest of us to try to get there someday!

Stephen Christopher Quinn: Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History.(Book review): An article from: New Criterion

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Stephen Christopher Quinn: Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History.(Book review): An article from: New Criterion
James Panero
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2006. The length of the article is 999 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Stephen Christopher Quinn: Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History.(Book review)
Author: James Panero
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 24 Issue: 10 Page: 97(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

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