Singapore Business Intelligence Report

Book Description

This law handbook contains information on basic business legislation, laws and regulatoins affecting export-import, business, foreign investments, property rights, taxation and banking.

Role of emotional intelligence in organisational learning: an empirical study.: An article from: Singapore Management Review

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Role of emotional intelligence in organisational learning: an empirical study.: An article from: Singapore Management Review
Sanjay Kumar Singh
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Organizational Learning | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000UC27BS
Release Date: 2007-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Singapore Management Review, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2007. The length of the article is 7812 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: Role of emotional intelligence in organisational learning: an empirical study.
Author: Sanjay Kumar Singh
Publication: Singapore Management Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Page: 55(20)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Singapore Business Intelligence Report
Global Investment & Business Inc
Manufacturer: International Business Publications, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ethics | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0739726501

Book Description

This report contains business intelligence information for succesful export-import, business and investment operations, strategic contacts and more... The report also contains selected information on investment and business opportunities, international economic projects, tenders, government projects, as well as, marketing and export-import opportunities information.

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Graphic SF Reader

great art, fun writing

+++

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things

Great

Courtney Crumrin, Vol. 1: Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things (Courtney Crumrin (Graphic Novels))
Ted Naifeh
Manufacturer: Oni Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Horror | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Occult | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Courtney Crumrin, Vol. 2: Courtney Crumrin & The Coven of Mystics (Courtney Crumrin (Graphic Novels))

Courtney Crumrin, Vol. 3: Courtney Crumrin In The Twilight Kingdom (Courtney Crumrin (Graphic Novels))

Polly & the Pirates Volume 1

Gloom Cookie, Vol. 1

Death, Jr.

ASIN: 1929998600

Book Description

Presenting the initial Courtney Crumrin miniseries in a new digest-sized format. Courtney's parents have dragged her out to a high-to-do suburb to live with her creepy Great Uncle Aloysius in his spooky old house. She's not only the new kid in school, but she also discovers strange things lurking under her bed.

Customer Reviews:

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

I didn't think I would like this till more than one person mentioned it was pretty decent. While aimed at kids, it has enough to interest the older reader.

Courtney and family move in with a wealthy and quite odd uncle. It is only the kid that finds out what is really strange about the town, the places surrounding it, and what her other relative really gets up to.

She gets in over her heard more than once.

great art, fun writing.......2007-06-21

I'd put it in the same category as "Bone" and "Sparks: An Urban Fairytale", for fun story-telling, great art, strong female protagonists, and sly humor. Also recommended for anyone who liked "Thief of Time" or "Something Wicked This Way Comes" as a kid.

+++.......2007-05-19

Ted Naifehs work always keeps my intrest. This series is no exception. Its not quite as drastic as his other work but a cute book regardless.

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things.......2006-11-11

The only "good thing" was Courtney on the front cover. We have been creating books, graphic novels, and paintings for over two decades and more. The way Courtney was dawn on the cover, she looked neat. The rest, however, was extremely disappointing

Great.......2006-03-13

Courtney Crumrin can be compared to Harry Potter, but it's not really the same thing. Read this if your into the more gothic parts of magic and also have a sense of humor. The only thing I want to complain about is that the book is too short - I read it from cover to cover and immediately wanted to read the next book.

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Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things
Ted Naifeh
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Horror | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Horror Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0606333657

Customer Reviews:

Gloriously Tacky!.......1999-12-15

REVENGE OF THE SON OF THE WORLD'S TACKIEST POSTCARDS is indeed tacky. I had no idea that the world was peppered with postcards such as these. In here you'll see hilarious cards from the 50's and 60's and find yourself asking, "why would someone send a postcard about chopped Balkan horse hearts?" Just be glad someone did, otherwise your everyday boring life would be deprived of such campy, pointless humor. This is a book you'll pick up periodically for years and laugh ferociously every time. I promise. A BONUS: The postcards are perforated and ready to send! Certainly a must!

Book Description

Why did Fonzie hang around with all those high school boys?

Is the overwhelming boy-meets-girl content of popular teen movies, music, books, and TV just a cover for an undercurrent of same-sex desire? From the 1950s to the present, popular culture has involved teenage boys falling for, longing over, dreaming about, singing to, and fighting over, teenage girls. But Queering Teen Culture analyzes more than 200 movies and TV shows to uncover who Frankie Avalon's character was really in love with in those beach movies and why Leif Garrett became a teen idol in the 1970s.

In Top 40 songs, teen magazines, movies, TV soap operas and sitcoms, teenagers are defined by their pubescent "discovery" of the opposite sex, universally and without exception. Queering Teen Culture looks beyond the litany to find out when adults became so insistent about teenage sexual desire—and why—and finds evidence of same-sex desire, romantic interactions, and identities that, according to the dominant ideology, do not and cannot exist. This provocative book examines the careers of male performers whose teenage roles made them famous (including Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, Fabian, and James Darren) and discusses examples of lesbian desire (including I Love Lucy and Lavern and Shirley).

Queering Teen Culture examines:

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver: Were Ricky, Bud, and Wally sufficiently straight?

the juvenile delinquent films of the 1950s: Why weren't the rebel-without-a-cause "bad boys" interested in girls?

horror, sci-fi, and zombies from outer space: "Body of a boy! Mind of a monster! Soul of an unearthly thing!"

teen idols—pretty, androgynous, and feminine: No wonder they were rumored to be "funny"

beach movies: She wants to plan their wedding but he wants to surf, sky-dive and go drag racing with the guys

Biker-hippies boys of the late 1960s: "I know your scene—don't think I don't!"

the 1950s nostalgia of the 1970s: Why does Fonzie spend all his time with high school boys?

teen gore: What makes the psycho-killer angry?

and much more, including the Brat Pack, buddy dramas, nerds, teen "operators,The Real World, and the incredible shrinking teenager Queering Teen Culture is an essential read for academics working in cultural and gay studies, and for anyone else with an interest in popular culture.

Customer Reviews:

Male bonding and the "gay coded" character in 50's-90's media.......2006-06-24

Like many of my generation, I can trace back some of my earliest same-sex attractions to teen characters I saw on TV shows or in films of the early 1960's. Frankie Avalon had Annette Funicello as a girlfriend, but why did he seem to be so much happier when he spent all of his time with his surfer buddies? Why was Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) always starting the show by telling the audience that "I really like girls", but then spent most of his time with his best buddy, Maynard (Bob Denver), and only chasing one girl, Thalia Menninger (Tuesday Weld) who obviously didn't like him? And why did I always prefer Ricky Nelson, even though he seemed to be a bit of a sissy compared to his athletic big brother David?

In his comprehensive study of homoeroticism and subtle portrayals of the (few and far between) "gay-coded" characters on the big and little screens in the last half of the 20th Century, Jeffrey P. Dennis explores the prevailing subliminal trends and intentional messages made by writers, directors and agents of the time. He explores how masculinity was portrayed and protected in each genre of teen films over the years: films about juvenile delinquents, monster movies, hippie-biker films, psycho-slasher flicks, and all the way to the Brat Pack. He also explores the filmography of popular teen idols, putting in perspective his take on why certain roles were taken, perhaps to quash rumors of his sexuality. Lots of background on popular sitcoms of the periods, from "Father Knows Best" (Did you know there was a whole series of episodes where teenager Bud's lack of masculinity or interest in girls was a concern for his family?), through "Happy Days" (Why did Fonzie seem to always prefer the company of teen boys?) and all the way past "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Xander confronts a character he suspected of hiding the fact that he is actually a werewolf, but is more unnerved when he finds out his secret is that he is actually gay!)

The content is not just the author's theories, but indexed with source footnotes in most cases. (I found more than a half dozen films with gay content I never knew about, which I intend to explore on cable or via DVD.) I also found out about long-forgotten films TV series that were made to play up the masculine charms of aging teen idols (such as 1965's "Never Too Young" in which Tony Dow played an auto mechanic who never seemed to have a shirt on, after having never appeared shirtless in 6+ seasons as big brother Wally in "Leave It To Beaver".)

Recommended reading for all ages, though "baby boomers" who remember early TV shows will especially get a kick out of the revelations about their favorite shows. I give it four stars out of five.

Book Description

In Transnational America, Everett Akam brilliantly addresses one of the most fundamental issues of our time--how Americans might achieve a sense of racial and ethnic identity while simultaneously retaining the common ground of shared traditions and citizenship. This book transcends the current debates over multiculturalism and cultural pluralism by retrieving the tradition of cultural pluralist thought neglected since the first half of the twentieth century. Visit our website for sample chapters!

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Volo's Guide to Waterdeep (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons/Forgotten Realms)
Ed Greenwood
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Greenwood, Ed | ( G ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1560763353

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Volo's Guide to Waterdeep
Ed Greenwood
Manufacturer: TSR, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000P0LRWK

Book Description

The vast majority of Oracle SQL books discuss some syntax, provide the barest rudiments of using Oracle SQL, and perhaps include a few simple examples. It might be enough to pass a survey course, or give you some buzz words to drop in conversation with real Oracle DBAs. But if you use Oracle SQL on a regular basis, you want much more. You want to access the full power of SQL to write queries in an Oracle environment. You want a solid understanding of what's possible with Oracle SQL, creative techniques for writing effective and accurate queries, and the practical, hands-on information that leads to true mastery of the language. Simply put, you want useful, expert best practices that can be put to work immediately, not just non-vendor specific overview or theory. Updated to cover the latest version of Oracle, Oracle 10g, this edition of the highly regarded Mastering Oracle SQL has a stronger focus on technique and on Oracle's implementation of SQL than any other book on the market. It covers Oracle s vast library of built-in functions, the full range of Oracle SQL query-writing features, regular expression support, new aggregate and analytic functions, subqueries in the SELECT and WITH clauses, multiset union operators, enhanced support for hierarchical queries: leaf and loop detection, and the CONNECT_BY_ROOT operator, new partitioning methods (some introduced in Oracle9i Release 2), and the native XML datatype, XMLType. Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition fills the gap between the sometimes spotty vendor documentation, and other books on SQL that just don't explore the full depth of what is possible with Oracle-specific SQL. For those who want to harness the untapped (and often overlooked) power of Oracle SQL, this essential guide for putting Oracle SQL to work will prove invaluable.

Customer Reviews:

For the Intermediate Oracle Developer.......2007-05-20

The goal of the authors is to explain how to write good readable SQL queries in Oracle 10g. The book starts with how to construct SELECT statements to group, filter and format result sets for dates, reports and data analysis. Then it proceeds to cover Oracle-specific queries and functions for hierarchies (data in tree structures), object-oriented types, XML documents, regular expressions and models (spreadsheet-like objects). Where relevant, there are notes about the differences between SQL for Oracle 10, Oracle 9 and the ANSI standard.

As expected from the title, the chapters using declarative programming (i.e. SQL queries) for relational data, hierarchical data and reports are the most comprehensive. Chapters on interfacing Oracle SQL with other technologies such as scripting (Oracle's PL/SQL), object-oriented types, XML and regular expressions, or on optimization, are brief but sufficient to get you started, especially if you have a existing background in those technologies.

This is the 2nd edition, so it's not surprising that the scope of the book is well-defined and that the writing is easy to read and polished. The example data and queries are just complex enough to demonstrate the issues without obscuring the main points. Minor annoyance about Chapter 15, "SQL Best Practices", which does not explain how to use the query analyzer and bind variables.

I was already familiar with basic Oracle SQL but didn't really understand the language; this book blew away many of the fuzzy concepts in my mind and provided me the framework to tackle more complex problems.

Kam-Hung Soh, 21 May 2007.
[...]

Great first SQL book, and useful reference.......2006-01-12

I'm no SDE, but I had a need to learn enough SQL to enable me to hit my company's Data Warehouse tables directly and employ some complex joins. This was the book recommended to me, and it did the trick. I sat down and began reading it and was quickly writing increasingly complex queries. I found the explanations easy to follow, and the format intuitive. The only fault I found is that there is a lack of more complex join examples, as when there are more than one field being joined on or more than two tables being joined.

Inadequate.......2005-05-12

Half of this 450 page book surveys basic SQL, and the other half is on features Oracle added to SQL in versions 9i and especially 10g. The book seems to have been intentionally "crippled" to limit it to the category of introductory overview, because much of what you need to know to work with Oracle SQL is simply not there:

* Most technical books begin the discussion of each new operation with a syntax diagram. Not this one! All you get here is a code example or two that supports the text.

* There is little discussion of built-in functions beyond the date/time ones.

* The index is very skimpy. It doesn't even contain all the Oracle reserved words that are used in the text. For example, has the use of the SIBLINGS keyword slipped your mind? Don't expect any help looking it up again! Heck, there aren't even entries for DUAL, COMMIT and ROLLBACK, or COUNT() !

* There isn't a single word about materialized views, which is something you will need to know about in the real world.

* There is nothing about triggers.

* There is no discussion of the various Oracle clients available (Toad, SQL*Plus, SQL Navigator, etc)

Ironically, since the book wants to cover all the new extended functionality, some very basic information is included only as it pertains to an advanced topic. For example:

* DDL is generally ignored. This leaves you clueless about the regular CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW (for example) statements that you will encounter and use daily as an Oracle developer. But there's lots of DDL in the sections on classes and objects, hierarchical queries, collections -- stuff that you'll use infrequently if at all.

* There is nothing about performance. Yes, a full discussion of tuning is beyond the scope of an introductory text, but jeez they don't even discuss indexes, except in the section on partitioning!

* There is nothing about relational integrity (or constraints of any kind) except in the section on hierarchical queries.

It's clear O'Reilly wants you to buy this expensive but slim volume as part of a set, probably with another book to provide the rest of the information about SQL; a "nutshell" book to cover syntax and options; a guide to Toad or some other client; a DBA book for basic information about DDL and indexes; a performance/tuning book; and a PL-SQL book.

Another area of major weakness might not bother a reader who is completely new to relational databases. But if you are coming to Oracle from DB2 or SQL Server, this book is not much help. Oracle SQL is only superficially similar to ANSI SQL. Unfortunately, this bookmakes no mention of the things Oracle leaves out. Two big issues for me, were that Oracle won't let you write an outer join that uses both join-conditions and where-conditions; and Oracle has no simple way to insert into one table from a join with another table. I wasted several days in anguished de-bugging of SQL logic that I "knew" worked in all DBMSs -- NOT! (Now I know why Oracle code so often consists of a mess of layers and layers of inline views).

There are other, less-major problems with this book that I might as well pile on:

* There is too much explanation of how things used to be done in 8i. Hello, that version is five years old! If any shop is still running 8i, they have lots of dusty manuals laying around. 8i shouldn't take up more than a paragraph or two in a book that purports to cover 9i and 10g.

* The author's coding style is idiosyncratic, in my opinion. Is it too much to ask that elements at the same logical level be indented to the same number of places??

To sum up, this book is like a series of magazine articles describing *what* can be done with Oracle SQL. But it doesn't do a good job of telling you *how* to do it.

Good overview of Basic DML & advanced features.......2004-12-23

I will agree with other reviewers that cite this book as an excellent resource. It is well organized and easy to follow from topic to topic without getting lost. The examples are well introduced and written with few minor errors. These will be easy to spot for someone who has used any flavor of SQL.

Some issues that I did have with the book revolve around what it isn't. Most of the book revolves around features that are new to 10g rather than a solid overview of the Oracle DML. This means that readers will not be properly introduced to string manipulation outside of the regular expression implementation which is new to 10g (Legacy DBs?). Also, you will have to look elsewhere for good information on CAST, CONVERT and case changing functions. These can be crucial as Oracle is much more strongly typed with regards to data than MS SQL Server.

As DBAs or reporting analysts aren't always privy to the latest release, I see the concentration on 10g's new features as a flaw. Over all this book will introduce you to Oracle SQL in an easy to follow manner. Experienced SQL users will be able to become functional by using this book but, will scratch their heads when they encounter the DML language gaps.

An extensive reference, meant for the experienced programmer.......2004-12-12

The collaborative work of Oracle experts Sanjay Mishra and Alan Beaulieu, Mastering Oracle SQL is now in an expanded and updated second edition covering Oracle Database 10g. An extensive reference, meant for the experienced programmer looking to elevate his or her skill in Oracle SQL to the point of expertise, Mastering Oracle SQL especially focuses upon the software's strengths such as regular expressions, interrow calculations, recursive queries, analytic and advanced GROUP BY functions, and more. Examples, sample code, and detailed walkthroughs for applying Oracle SQL to given tasks and challenges make Mastering Oracle SQL a practical and thorough tool for independent study and professional use.

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National Standards for History: Basic Edition
Gary B. Nash , Charlotte A. Crabtree , and National Standards for History Taskforce
Manufacturer: Natl Center for History in
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
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NSTA Pathways to the Science Standard: Guidelines for Moving the Vision into Practice, Elementary School Edition

ASIN: 0963321846

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Holes In The Grand Narrative.

Thought-provoking Analysis

An Invaluable Deconstruction of the Liberal Grand Narrative.

Magisterial

Interesting Insights.. but book has its flaws

From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents
David Gress
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
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In Praise of Love: A Conversation with Plato's Symposium

American Higher Education: A History, Second Edition

The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape

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From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present

ASIN: 0743264886

Amazon.com

In From Plato to NATO, political historian David Gress takes a wide-ranging look at the development of Western Europe and its colonial outposts. Gress views Europe not just as a geographic entity, but as a complex of conflicting ideas such as social good and individual rights, control and freedom. Those ideas come from many traditions, and they have blended to make the region politically and economically unlike any other in the world. Gress's viewpoint is conservative, but the author also calls himself a "skeptical liberal." Readers of all political stripes will find much food for thought in these pages.

Book Description

An in-depth intellectual history of the Western idea and a passionate defense of its importance to America's future, From Plato to NATO is the first book to make sense of the legacy of the West at a time when it is facing its greatest challenges. Readers of Francis Fukuyama, John Gray, Samuel Huntington, and other analysts of the dilemmas of Western nations in the twenty-first century will find in David Gress's original account a fuller description of what the West really is and how, with the best of intentions, it has been misrepresented. Most important, they will encounter a new vision of Western identity and how it can be recovered.

Early in the twentieth century, American educators put together a story of Western civilization, its origins, history, and promise that for the subsequent fifty years remained at the heart of American college education. The story they told was of a Western civilization that began with the Greeks and continued through 2,500 years of great books and great ideas, culminating in twentieth-century progressive liberal democracy, science, and capitalist prosperity.

In the 1960s, this Grand Narrative of the West came under attack. Over the next thirty years, the critics turned this old story into its opposite: a series of anti-narratives about the evils, the failures, and the betrayals of justice that, so they said, constituted Western history.

The victory of Western values at the end of the cold war, the spread of democracy and capitalism, and the worldwide impact of American popular culture have not revived the Grand Narrative in the European and American heartlands of the West. David Gress explains this paradox, arguing that the Grand Narrative of the West was flawed from the beginning: that the West did not begin in Greece and that, in morality and religion, the Greeks were an alien civilization whose contribution was mediated through Rome and Christianity. Furthermore, in assuming a continuity from the Greeks to modern liberalism, we have mistakenly downplayed or rejected everything in between, focusing on the great ideas and the great books rather than on real history with all its ambiguities, conflicts, and contradictions.

The heart of Gress's case for the future of the West is that the New must remember its roots in the Old and seek a synthesis. For as the attacks have demonstrated, the New West cannot stand alone. Its very virtues -- liberty, reason, progress -- grew out of the Old West and cannot flourish when removed from that rich soil.

Customer Reviews:

Holes In The Grand Narrative........2006-07-21

The heart of the text disputes Martin Bernal's thesis & reduces the somewhat exaggerated influence of ancient Greece. While the soul of this book is that the future of the west depends on the new remembering its roots in the ancient foundations of Rome, Christianity, and the Germanic traditions to create a smoother synthesis. The virtues we hold as sacred liberty, reason, and progress grew out of the old west. "We cannot flourish when its roots are ignored, or vilified." The author uses well crafted points to refute the emotional histrionics of political correctness used by his critics. He eloquently defends the west with a finely sharpened pen. Painfully pointing out that the west is more under siege from within than from external enemies. "Note this was written before 9-11-2001." The crucial points he made were as follows. Ch1-47-8, ch2-debunking some of our Greek roots 74-6,91-4. Ch3-108-9 He thoroughly proves that Rome deserves far more credit than the faulty "grand narrative gave it." Notable scholars like Fergus Millar and J.M. Roberts support his point. Ex: Without Rome's legions, how would Greek culture have reached central and western Europe? Ch4-He dissects Hollywoods distorting of our history and the non-scholars who fed their scripts. Ex: on 162, he proves how the revisionists were wrong, the Dark Ages were very bleek! Ch5-185-7, he reveals our often neglected German Heritage. Ch7-261-70, how the growth of the new west came about. Ch8-He reveals the various schools of the west in debate. Note-on 335 it is revealed that French author Arthur Gobineau inadvertantly founded "Nazi racial doctrine." Ch9-Goes over the mistakes the west has made. Ch10-He deconstructs the "New Lefts Delusions." Ch11-The west vs. itself, how we have become overly self critical. Lastly, in ch12, on 556-9 Universalisms failure and how the west can thrive.

Thought-provoking Analysis.......2005-09-09

Gress' book is intensively researched and well formulated. It somewhat overstates the case "against" Greece as an ancestor of the modern West, but this really amounts to the author being very vigorous in deconstructing the "Grand Narrative" (the post-WWI narrative concocted by mostly American scholars and public intellectuals that celebrated Greece as the cradle of Western "democratic" civilization).

I would suggest, as someone who was an undergrad in the 1970s, that the "Grand Narrative" no longer needs quite so much deconstructing. It was much criticized in the 1970s, and I don't think it's taught at all today. The 19th century German penchant for locating the source of all political enlightenment in Ancient Greece is just no longer a problem for us.

Moreover, any modern Westerner surveying the history and literature of the ancient world will find his political sympathies lying with that of Greece, and specifically and definitely NOT with that of China, India, Persia, or Egypt. Gress' thesis that the modern West arose from a synthesis of Roman, Christian, and Germanic philosophies and practices is useful in highlighting the undoubted contributions of those influences. Certainly the American ideas of individual liberty and self-government did not spring unmediated from Ancient Greece. But there is a reason why a modern American can read Thucydides' account of the political bickering in ancient Athens and see himself -- and why he doesn't have a like sensation when encountering ancient texts from other parts of the world. Athenian Greece, alone among ancient civilizations, had an idea of citizenship and self-government that has survived into the modern era -- modified over time with ideas on individual worth and equality before law, as well as limited government and checks and balances, that came from Rome, Christianity, and the Germans of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

If Gress were to write this book again, in later life, I think he might tone down his argument AGAINST Western ideas having Greek origins, and rather emphasize that although some key Western ideas were indeed found in Ancient Greece, others derived from separate or more recent sources. Considered in this way, his contribution in identifying the other sources, and their importance in creating all of what the West is today, is outstanding.

An Invaluable Deconstruction of the Liberal Grand Narrative........2004-07-13

David Gress's _From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents_ is not only a 550 page book on the history of Western culture and civilization, but a deconstruction of the way Western history has been commonly taught in the past twentieth century. The so-called "Grand Narrative," developed after WWI by Columbia University, the University of Chicago and the popular historians Will and Ariel Durant in their multi-volume _History of Civilization_ series, told a story of the progressive development of civilization, democracy, freedom and liberty beginning in ancient Greece, continuing unabated until modern democratic states. Actually, not totally without negative incidents. The history of imperial Rome, the rise of Christianity in late antiquity with its subsequent Church-state symbiosis, and the middle ages, represent a break in this historical liberal continuity that reemerged during the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment out of which the modern West arose. This Grand narrative failed to acknowledge, the main point Gress makes, the contributions of Rome, Christianity and Germanic culture to Western civilization. However, the Grand Narrative's time frame was limited from its origins in the 1920s until roughly 1960 when far-left, multicultural, universalistic, postmodern and feminist interpretations of Western history made their appearance. While the Grand Narrative took a positive look at the West as a bastion of liberalism and progressivism, the 1960s interpretation took a totally negative perspective: the West as racist, sexist, patriarchal, capitalistic and oppressive. According to Gress, one of the reasons the Grand Narrative became so unpopular so quickly was that it was founded on the wrong presuppositions as to what constituted the West and overemphasized Greece at the expense of Rome, the Germans and the Catholic Church. Part of the entire problem with interpreting history is how the all-important concept of "liberty" is to be defined. Two distinct definitions exist. One is the original or classical definition of liberty as freedom over one's property without any undue government interference. The other, more upbeat stance defines liberty in terms of equality-of rights, privileges, etc. for everyone in society. However, liberty and equality tend to cancel each other out; people can be dummied down to be "equal" with others but they cannot be "forced to be free." Although Gress dismisses environmentalist concerns as pseudo-science and impeding progress especially in the Third World, I agree that environmentalism should not be attached to collectivist left-wing political agendas. In his conclusion, Gress discusses the different views--all of them liberal and multicultural--which have attempted to define Western identity since the fall of the Soviet Union, such as it continues to remain distinct from the rest of the world. The "West" itself has stood for many different things in the past. It is a land of youth, power and beauty but simultaneously where the sunsets and darkness and decline seem to inevitably set in.

Magisterial.......2003-09-18

In this thought-provoking book, Dr. David Gress examines the history of the very idea of the West. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American educators put together a "Grand Narrative" of Western civilization, that claimed that democracy and freedom began in ancient Greece, suffered a setback with that civilization's fall, and then re-evolved in later times, reaching its height in twentieth century America. However, during the 1960s, and later, Western Civilization came under attack by a liberal elite that sees it not as a glorious march towards freedom, but a disgusting trail of racist, sexist (and so forth) crimes against humanity.

Dr. Gress shows how the West evolved, from ancient Rome right to the end of the twentieth century, and how the idea of the West evolved right along side of it. He shows what it is, what it is not, and how historians from all sides of the argument have gotten it wrong. This book is magisterial in its reach, which admittedly does mean that it is somewhat long and drawn out. For all that, though, this book is absolutely fascinating, and it gives the reader an excellent understanding of the West, where it came from, and (quite possibly) where it's going. I recommend this book to all serious thinkers.

Interesting Insights.. but book has its flaws.......2003-07-15

This is an interesting book but a little flawed. Author wishes to downplay the role of greeks in shaping of modern west and emphasize christianity, Rome and Germanic contributions, and he does offer some interesting perspectives, but the book could easily have been shorter.

I didn't find an in-depth analysis of how the synthesis of christianity, rome and germanic character traits resulted in identity of west. It appeared as if author had an intuition about the same but he couldn't build a logical, detailed case out of it (It appeared more as hand-waving than convincing arguments, and repeating the idea 100 times doesn't make it a fact)

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on February 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1709 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: From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents.(Review)
Author: James Bowman
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 1999
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 17 Issue: 6 Page: 71(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

In his new book Michel Odent shows how farming and childbirth have been industrialized side by side during the 20th century — with dramatic and disturbing consequences. The similarities are striking. In both cases innovations have been presented as the long awaited solution to an old problem: the advent of powerful synthetic insecticides has, overnight, dramatically reduced the costs and increased agricultural productivity; the advent of the modern safe technique of caesarean section has offered serious new reasons to create gigantic obstetrical departments. In both spheres a small number of skeptics voiced doubts and fears concerning the negative long-term consequences of the widespread use of novel, little tested practices; although these repeated warnings initially went unheeded, they have motivated the development of "alternative" approaches and movements. At the turn of the new century the history of industrialized farming has suddenly speeded up. A collective global awareness has been sparked by a series of disasters, particularly "mad cow" and foot and mouth diseases. Industralized childbirth has not yet reached the same phase of its history, but the parallels between these two industries suggest that there is more to link the farmer and the obstetrician than we had all realized

Customer Reviews:

Healing the Earth by Healing Birth.......2002-06-26

Possibly Michel Odent's most important book to date, The Farmer & The Obstetrician details how agri-business and the medical MANagement of childbirth were co-arising in the last century and the devastating impact these industries have had upon the Earth. The author suggests what we can do about it by adopting a sustainable model of childbirth care -- at the close of the chapter entitled, "Being a Midwife or an Obstetrician Before 2032", Odent writes, "Understanding the laws of nature and working with them ... is the main characteristic of a biodynamic attitude, whether in plant, cultivation, animal breeding or childbirth. The evolution of antenatal care gave us an opportunity to illustrate and clarify the comcept of a biodynamic attitude."

As an author, speaker, and midwife for the conscious childbirth movement this last generation, I heartily recommend Odent's new book to not only perinatal professionals but anyone who eats and was born. After reading The Farmer and the Obstetrician, your view of food and having babies will be transformed! This is a brilliant and hopefully prophetic contribution to the 21st century -- indeed, it's benestrophic. Read it and share with your friends for the sake of our shared planet's future.

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Farmer and the Obstetrician
Michel Odent
Manufacturer: Free Association Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QY59E2

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