CIMA Study Systems 2006: Management Accounting Fundamentals (CIMA Study System Series-Certificate Level)

Book Description

The 2006 edition of CIMA's Official Study Systems are published by Elsevier on behalf of CIMA. Key sections of the 2005 Study Systems are again written by examiners so each text fully reflects what could be tested in the exam.

Updated to incorporate legislative and syllabus changes, the 2006 Study Systems provide complete study material for the May and November 2006 exams. The new edition maintains the popular loose-leaf format and contains:
* practice questions throughout
* complete revision section
* topic summaries
* recommended reading articles from a range of journals
* CBA style mock exam

* The official study systems are the only study materials endorsed by CIMA
* Key sections written by examiners for the most accurate, up-to-date guidance towards exam success
* Complete integrated package incorporating syllabus guidance, full text, recommended articles, revision guides and extensive question practice

Book Description

Learning to lead others is the critical skill for today's managers. Every day, you are challenged to lead-to get others to work at your direction towards your organizations goals.

Get Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction offers proven, easily understood, step-by-step instruction in how to get others to follow you. Whether you have to lead, hope to lead, or need to create change in your organization, the advice it offers is invaluable.

Customer Reviews:

Solid information to get everyone on the same page.......2007-07-26

One of the biggest problems in business is getting everyone pulling in the same direction. The larger the organization, the more diverse the goals and aims of the different departments. This is a delightful book that gives some great ideas to make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

The book presents five principles which any business needs to follow to ensure that its people are all pulling together.

The first question to ask is "What is important here? What are the values of the individuals? The business?"

The second question to ask is "Where is the busines headed? You must create a common vision based on shared values."

The third question to ask is "What do we stand for? Who are we?" You need to concentrate your focus. Trying to stand for too many things means you stand for nothing.

To be successful you must learn to fall in love with risk. Most managers shun risk. No risk no reward. You need to learn to view risk as a positive force. This certainly does not advocate taking foolish action. But learn to understand risk.

To be successful you must learn to motivate people. The leader cannot mandate a vision. A leader must get everyone in the business to buy into the vision.

The book is easy to read. It is well written and contains lots of examples.

It would be helpful to read periodically to keep the ideas fresh.

Get Everyone in your boat rowing in the same direction.......2007-05-14

This book is a must have for any leader in a new role or new enviornment.
It is a quick read that keeps you engaged from the first page. There are many great thought starters and exercises to get your team inspired and motivated. I would highly recommend this book!

Important Messages Said Simply.......2000-05-14

Books about vision and mission are usually excursions into the ether of fine thoughts and noble thinking. I appreciated how Boylan reduced these concepts to very practical concerns and actions that once expressed will get an organization effectively pointed in the same direction. This is a book I recommend to anyone who needs to get an organization from here to there, when the group is unclear about which "here" and which "there" is intended.

Boylan's ideas can be put immediately into practice........1999-03-15

Leadership isn't a commodity, but a process - one that Bob Boylan lays out clearly, step by step, so that almost anyone can follow it and put it immediately and successfully into practice in their own organizations.

Boylan's book could transform your career and your company........1999-03-15

I have used Boylan and the concepts from his book, at both KPMG Peat Marwick, and ARAMARK. Bob's ideas work because they are understandable, memorable and realistically actionable.

Get Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction: 5 Leadership Principles to Follow So Others Will Follow You

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Get Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction: 5 Leadership Principles to Follow So Others Will Follow You
Bob Boylan
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WV3FDG

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Customer Reviews:

A picture is worth 10,000 words........2003-11-15

Dr. Arp has long advocated that quasars and other high redshift objects can be ejected from nearby lower redshift galaxies. This catalog presents numerous examples of the associations he finds between high redshift objects and their low redshift parents. The book begins with an overview of the patterns and then proceeds to an extensive catalog with maps, descriptions, lists, and recommended follow-up observations for each object. Seventeen color plates are found at the end of the catalog. The numerous examples are compelling and make a strong case for follow-up observations. The book is a good read and a great look!

Book Description

The common topic of the eleven articles in this volume is ordered aperiodic systems realized either as point sets with the Delone property or as tilings of a Euclidean space. This emerging field of study is found at the crossroads of algebra, geometry, Fourier analysis, number theory, crystallography, and theoretical physics. The volume brings together contributions by leading specialists. Important advances in understanding the foundations of this new field are presented.

Amazon.com

In Gorgon, geologist Peter Ward turns his attention reluctantly away from the asteroid collision that killed all the dinosaurs and instead focuses on a much older extinction event. As it turns out, the Permian extinction of 250 million years ago dwarfs the dino's 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary armageddon. Ward's book is not a dry accounting of the fossil discoveries leading to this conclusion, but rather an intimate, first-person account of some of his triumphs and disappointments as a scientist. He draws a nice parallel between the Permian extinction and his own rather abrupt in research focus, revealing the agonizing steps he had to take to educate himself about a set of prehistoric creatures about which he knew almost nothing. These were the Gorgons, carnivorous reptiles whose ecological dominance preceded that of the more pop-culture-ready dinosaurs.

They would have had huge heads with very large, saberlike teeth, large lizard eyes, no visible ears, and perhaps a mixture of reptilian scales and tufts of mammalian hair.... The Gorgons ruled a world of animals that were but one short evolutionary step away from being mammals.

With characteristic enthusiasm, Ward transports readers with him to South Africa's Karoo desert, where he participated in field expeditions seeking fossils of these fearsome creatures. He suffers routine tick patrols, puff-adder avoidance lessons, stultifying thirst, and the everyday humiliations of being the new guy on a field team. Besides telling a fascinating paleological story, Gorgon lets readers feel a bone-hunter's passion and pain. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

The gorgons ruled the world of animals long before there was any age of dinosaurs. They were the T. Rex of their day until an environmental cataclysm 250 million years ago annihilated them—along with 90 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet—in an event so terrible even the extinction of the dinosaurs pales in comparison. For more than a decade, Peter Ward and his colleagues have been searching in South Africa's Karoo Desert for clues to this world: What were these animals like? How did they live and, more important, how did they die?

In Gorgon, Ward examines the strange fate of this little known prehistoric animal and its contemporaries, the ancestors of the turtle, the crocodile, the lizard, and eventually dinosaurs. He offers provocative theories on these mass extinctions and confronts the startling implications they hold for us. Are we vulnerable to a similar catastrophe? Are we nearing the end of human domination in the earth's cycle of destruction and rebirth? Gorgon is also a thrilling travelogue of Ward's long, remarkable journey of discovery and a real-life adventure deep into Earth's history.

Customer Reviews:

Now I want to be a geologist.......2007-03-08

I ordered this book used but it came in perfect condition. I had been reading a library copy but it was two weeks overdue. This book has captured my intrest like no other non-fiction book ever has. I want to be a geologist or a paleontolgist now!

Monsters of the Permian.......2006-08-22

By now, almost everyone must be familiar with the discovery of the iridium concentrations at the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary, and the Chicxulub impact crater, first reported in 1981, that appears to exactly the right age and the right size to have terminated most of the life on Earth, sixty-five million years ago. The author of "Gorgon" began his career with field work on the proof of the quick and terrible extinction at the K-T boundary--the death knell of the dinosaurs.

However, Dr. Ward found himself more and more intrigued by an even great extinction event that occurred 250 million years ago at the boundary of the Permian and the Triassic (P/T). Was it caused by another comet or meteor strike? Did the elimination of 95 % of Earth's marine life and 70% of all land species proceed as quickly as at the K-T termination, or did it take place in pulses over a much longer period of time?

According to the author (and others), there is no credible, unambiguous evidence for an impact as is the case for the K-T extinction. What is more likely is that massive greenhouse gas emissions reduced oxygen availability, ultimately resulting in the collapse of marine ecosystems, and most of the land-based systems as well. This was possibly caused by volcanic eruptions on the supercontinent of Pangea, in what is now Siberia (the Siberian Traps).

In the final chapter of his book, "Resolution," the author puts forth two interesting observation-based theories: (1) the abundance of oxidized, reddish rock in the Triassic beds above the P/T boundary (about 50 million years worth) implies "...the oxygen in our atmosphere plunged to very low levels as it became tied up in the rocks...so low, in fact, that any poor human...would very quickly suffer from altitude sickness, even at sea level."; (2) on land at least, the near extinction of animals that didn't use oxygen efficiently, including most but not all of the mammal-like reptiles that dominated the Permian. "Heat [greenhouse effect] and asphyxiation [were] the two agents of the long mysterious mass extinction."

Except for the last chapter, "Gorgon" is light on theory and heavy on field work and proof-of-concept. Here is how geologists, paleontologists, and other scientists interact in the field, braving the heat of South Africa's Karoo Desert, the omnipresent ticks, flies, and puff adders, and the digestive challenges of bad water and mystery-meat pizza. Dr. Ward takes his readers not only on a trip through the lost world of the Permian, but also through an African culture that seems to be on the brink of chaos. He is a sensitive and at times acerbic observer of both present and deep past. "Gorgon" is a compelling, thoroughly readable story.

"Why do we do what we do?".......2006-03-20

I used to do a bit of Fossil Hunting about 30 years ago and read a fair bit about fossils and the Fossil Record. Most of what I did was searching for Belemnites,shark teeth,and hopefully some bones in Cretaceous marl and an adjacent stream bed in New Jersey.At that time there were great discussions going on as to what caused the great extinction of the huge creatures that roamed the earth.The Cretaceous Period was 60-120 million years ago. I can't recall any discussions about creatures the size of lions roaming around 250 million years ago called Gorgons;and a possible extinction at the end of the Permian Period. So,when I saw this book ,I figured it would make interesting reading.
As other reviewers have already stated,the book is pretty short on data and provides very little proof. However,it is well worth reading for anyone who has ever searched for fossils and all the mud,muck,heat,cold,wet and just plain hard dirty work that is involved. However,the rewards come when your hunches or bull work pay off;and you find something good.What a thrill it is, when you unearth a fossil and realize that this thing lived over 100 million years ago and has been waiting there for you to find.
I found this book to be a great read and shows how people can devote years of their lives pursuing an interest or obsession.
It is well written and the author reveals himself and his associates ;and I think that is more what one should look for in this book ; rather than the answer;because the search will continue and the theories will be put forward and debated as long as there are people with the desire to find those answers.Just imagine,if every question could be answered,what a dull world it would be.The excitement of the journey often surpasses the destination.

Disappointed .......2006-03-03

I anticipated that this book would be a lengthy discussion of evidence proving the author's theory instead I experienced a long and not too interesting travelogue until page 224 when in five pages 'proof' of the theory was offered. No supporting data was offered. Very disappointing

Eye-opening.......2006-02-10

As a high school student who doesn't particularly care about much anything and who reads fantasy books right and left-- i was skeptical about this book. i found it on the bargain shelf and thought "what the hell?". Just having finished Seabiscuit, i was on a bit of a roll with the whole non0fiction genre. i was caught completely unprepared by this book; it was nothing i expected. instead of some dry account about an extinction long ago, i found a book that read like a novel. it had a point. it had pitfalls and triumphs. i found i couldn't put it down. would he find the cause of the extinction? would he survive the desert climate and roiling political situations? i got sucked into his real-life story and read it during english, calculus, history, biology, etc. you catch the drift. the sedimentary drift that is. despite it's mostly personal accounts, the book possesses surprisingly good insights and background about both the extinction and paleontology in general.
if i had to sum it up in one word: fascinating. definitely worth the wasted school periods...

Gorgon Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History

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Gorgon Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History
Ward Peter D.
Manufacturer: Viking Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF0EJ2

Book Description

In his inaugural adventure, Elias Hackshaw, the wry and irascible editor of a small-town upstate New York weekly newspaper, finds himself reluctantly investigating the death of a local farmer. Hack’s half-hearted snooping soon leads him to unscrupulous land developers, then to an eccentric millionaire, angry Indians, and, finally, a scheme (his own) to use old Iroquois artifacts to “salt” an archeological dig – but only as a way to lure the killer out into the open, he assures us. Any personal gain on Hackshaw’s part is, ahem, strictly serendipitous.

Book Description

In 1902 when Lt. Ridley McLean first wrote this "sailor's bible," he described it as a manual for every person in the naval service. One hundred years later, it continues to serve as a primer for newly enlisted sailors and as a basic reference for all naval personnel--from seaman to admiral. New technology is artfully blended with ancient heritage, facts and figures are augmented by helpful advice, and the mysterious language of the sea is preserved and deciphered in a volume that has served the United States Navy for an entire century. Updated throughout, the book provides the latest Navy ratings, uniforms, ships, aircraft, and weapons as well as current Navy policies on hazing, fraternization, education, and physical fitness, and a completely new chapter explaining the Navy's mission in terms of its rich heritage.

The author, winner of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Naval Literature, has served the Navy in many capacities, both as an enlisted man and officer, and he brings that experience and his devotion to the service to these pages. He explains new terms and such concepts as leadership and core values in both inspiring and pragmatic terms. Relevant photographs, diagrams, and tables enhance the presentation, and accompanying appendixes include a glossary and a wealth of reference material that every sailor will want to keep at hand.

Customer Reviews:

A Classic!.......2007-07-03

The Bluejacket's Manual has been a staple book of US Navy seamanship for the last century. I'm pre-Recruit Training, but knowing your trade before you're supposed to has never hurt anybody.

The hardback version is perfect for the mantle of any sailor past or present...

The Ten Rules for being a sentry........2004-04-22

1.} A sentry will NEVER leave his post unless properly relieved. That is the 1st rule. There are ten of them. read the book, before I throw it at you.

Excellent source of information.......2002-10-16

My fiance is in the Navy and he bought me a copy of this when I went to see him pass-in-review. He told me that it would answer a lot of my questions I might have had- well it has! I learned about differnt ships, all of the information on Tricare (the Navy's insurance), dependents...you name it, it's in there! If you've got a loved one in the Navy (child, spouse, fiance/e, girlfriend/boyfriend, sibling, etc.) I suggest this book!

THE source of information about the Navy.......2000-05-19

Although everyone is issued this manual in boot-camp (RTC) it is still essential reading for several people.

If you are in the Delayed entry program (DEP) or thinking about joining the Navy, this book will give you valuable insight and get you well prepared for your career. Start reading the material right away so you can be prepared for boot camp (making it easier...yes it can be done!) You will get one of these in boot camp, so give this to your family or spouse so they can look up questions they may have. It helps when your family knows what the heck you are talking about when you say such Naval jargon as 'head', 'starboard', 'plankowner', 'scuttlebutt', etc.

Secondly, anyone who has an interest in the Navy and how the enlisted do it will sureley find this valuable. It covers everything from the enlisted ratings (the specific jobs), officer ranks, re-enlistment procedures, commissioning procedures, firefighting, damage control, nautical flags, ship information, etc, etc, etc. It's one of the books that has everything packed into it!

I still have my original book from RTC after nearly 8 years and still look at it now and again.

Fair winds and following seas...

THE source of information regarding the Navy........2000-03-05

The Bluejacket's Manual is the most complete source of information for young Bootcamps and old salts alike. The information contained in the pages are a very valuable asset to the sailor. There is naval history, history on the military in general, and where the Navy will stand in the future. I don't recomend this book to civies, unless you are a navy buff, and i don't recomend buying this book if you plan to join the Navy (They will give you one in Boot Camp). If you are a sailor who has lost his BJM, buy it. Call your Navy recruiter.

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How to Win the War of Poverty
All the information you should need on the US Navy

The Bluejackets' Manual
B. Beardon
Manufacturer: Naval Inst Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1557500509

Customer Reviews:

How to Win the War of Poverty.......2002-04-27

On a cold day in the month of December, the year off hand escapes me, I obtained a copy of THE BLUE JACKETS MANUAL!
after skimming through the numerous pages of this text, it was truly found that many items within could be applied to everyday life...
Practicle know-how and knowledge within the covers domain, kept me glued for many hours reading with enthusiasim. I rose in rank and reputation...
Compiled with the survival kits and manuals of WW2's A,B,C,'s of the Victory Garden, left to me by an anonymous relative of long military history and background, the war on poverty was a cinch toward victory and moral boosting.
I strongly reccommend this manual to anyone who may have run into that "Right-Wing" conspiracy of social monsters!

All the information you should need on the US Navy.......1999-07-20

This manual contains everything that you should ever want to know about the US Navy. It is officially for issue to recruits upon arrival at boot camp, and contains all current operational procedures, information on Naval careers, descriptions of Naval equipment (ships, planes, weapons), and even lists the standard day-to-day duties of sailors at sea. It also contains a very informative section on Naval history, dating back to the Revolutionary War up until today, and a glossary of terms used by Navy sailors.

For anyone interested in joining the US Navy, who has friends/relatives serving in the Navy, or would just like to know more about the organization, this book is invaluable.

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The Bluejackets' Manual 1940

Manufacturer: United States Naval Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000GB1FIO

Product Description

Manual made for men in the Navy. It has many illustrations showing flags, badges, guns, uniforms, rope tying, ships, more. Actual photographs of ships, insignia, Corps devices, and much more. Flexible leather or letherette binding Great item of nostalgia and educational.

The Bluejackets Manual, United States Navy

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The Bluejackets Manual - A Ex-Sailor's Review

The Bluejackets Manual, United States Navy

Manufacturer: United States Naval Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000B9ECAY

Customer Reviews:

The Bluejackets Manual - A Ex-Sailor's Review.......2006-08-15

In 1940 the United States Navy was an antiquated collection of well-built ships and slow but durable aircraft. These two features were to save countless lives in battle with an at-the-time superior foe ie; the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Never short on guts, the average 1940 Sailor was not prepared for W.W.II but how quickly things change. Five short years later we were the most powerful fleet EVER.

While the 1940 edition of the "BJM" differs greatly from the one I was issued in 1994, the core values of "Honor, Committment & Courage" have never changed. Pride isn't specifically listed but it's there nonetheless.

The "BJM" is a fascinating book for all the practical sailing knowledge it carries. It should be on every yacht owner's bookshelf. Tying knots, heaving lines, rules of the road (sea), etc. Plus it's just plain interesting to read.

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The Bluejackets' Manual

Manufacturer: U. S. Naval Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7NYKS

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Bluejackets Manual 20ED
Bill Bearden
Manufacturer: Naval Institute Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0870211110

The Bluejacket's Manual - 1944, Twelfth Edition

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The Bluejacket's Manual - 1944, Twelfth Edition
United States Navy
Manufacturer: United States Naval Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KDLOMK

The Bluejackets' Manual, 17th Edition, 1967

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The Bluejackets' Manual, 17th Edition, 1967

Manufacturer: U. S. Naval Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Illustrated with black and white photographs and diagrams.

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The Bluejacket's Manual
United States Navy
Manufacturer: United States Naval Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S5RFIW

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The Bluejacket's Manual 1918
Lt. Norman R. Van Der Veer
Manufacturer: Edwin N. Appleton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000T67YP4

Product Description

'The Bluejacket's Manual,'' by Lieutenant Norman R. Van Der Veer. NY: Edwin N. Appleton: 1918. The sixth edition of this hand-held Navy manual is fully illustrated with sketches and diagrams. Chapters cover subjects to be mastered by various seamen, from new recruits to Chief Petty Officers.

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Fine blend of erudition and entertainment

Remember this book the next party you go to . . .

You'll Never Look at a Dinner party the Same

Witty, charming, informative

The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down: An Informal History of Hospitality
Jesse Browner
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Special Occasions | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Dinner Is Served: An English Butler's Guide to the Art of the Table

Elegant Eating: Four Hundred Years of Dining in Style

Feast: A History of Grand Eating

The Uncertain Hour: A Novel

Town & Country [1-year subscription]

ASIN: 1582344434
Release Date: 2004-10-21

Book Description

Partisan, witty, and laced with astonishing historical detail, The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down is dedicated to a new understanding of the art of hospitality. Jesse Browner leads the way back through Western civilization, from a present-day poker game where Browner's devastatingly delicious sandwiches leave the best players penniless, to the ancient Greeks, whose gods punished or exalted the mortals according to their excellence as hosts. On the way, we visit Hitler at his summer home, Gertrude Stein in Paris and Lady Ottoline Morrell in England, Audubon in nineteeth-century America, Louis XIV at Versailles, and the Roman emperors, for whom classic dinner-table entertainment was a good poisoning. As delightful and edifying as an evening in favored company, The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down is a must-read for anyone who's ever accepted an invitation-or wonders why they keep sending them out.

Customer Reviews:

Fine blend of erudition and entertainment.......2004-11-04

From the ulterior designs behind his own modern poker refreshments to Nero's dubious habit of poisoning dinner guests, Browner's succinct and lively history of Western hospitality delights as it informs.

Novelist Browner ("Conglomeros," "Turnaway") loves to entertain and suffers from the insecurities and appetite for praise of hosts everywhere. But few hosts have the wit and knowledge to explore the subject analytically - as universal power play, manipulation, social arbiter, and occasion of fear.

Browner proceeds back in time through Hitler, the Renaissance courts of Europe, the Dark Ages, the Romans and Petronius' "Satyricon," and the Greeks' kindness to strangers, and ends with a poignant, personal meditation on his family's Thanksgiving.

Each chapter is a small feast of historical detail, anecdotally presented and peppery with humor, opinion and personal identification. Against the forbidding, sumptuous settings of despots and kings, we imbibe personal foibles, like Hitler's dyspeptic asceticism ("His tastes in food hovered somewhere between the mundane and the revolting"), and Louis XIV's adroit humiliations (the duchess who preferred to stand than accept a stool).

He reveals the personalities behind the successes of Gertrude Stein and Audubon ("confidence and hubris") and their failed counterparts. His chapter on the Dark Ages - its incivility attributable completely to the Germans' uncouth disregard for any but drunken hospitality - is a savage delight.

Two portraits of men behind the thrones - Olivier de la Marche who proudly arranged parties for the ambitious Duke of Burgundy, and Petronius, who orchestrated Nero's excesses, while secretly penning the "Satyricon" poking fun at it all - take us behind the scenes to muse on the motivations of those who stand and watch. And then there are the Greeks, whose generosity to strangers was compelled by fear of divine retribution.

Browner's personal engagement and breadth of knowledge combines fortuitously with his natural storytelling ability and effortless prose style, like the consummate host who makes it all look easy. For those who want more, he appends a chapter-by-chapter bibliography. A well-nigh perfect blend of erudition and entertainment.

Remember this book the next party you go to . . ........2004-01-13

If asked to define the essential duty of a host, most of us probably would agree with the ancient Akkadians: "Give food to eat, beer to drink, grant what is requested, provide for and treat with honor." Well, the author shows that it's much more complex than that. Who's in charge? The guest or the host? (Well, who decides the dinner menu, who sits where, etc?) Do you invite only friends to a party? Or do you go with the original Greek meeting of "hospitality" and welcome strangers to your home? Browner also makes a convincingly case that for a ruler, like Hitler or Louis XIV, hospitality is a manipulative tool of state policy. He claims not to be an historian, but his grasp of the past is quite solid, and his witty, felicitous style makes for a pleasureable and entertaining read. The chapter comparing Lady Ottoline Morell and Gertrude Stein -- the former a nearly complete failure as a hostess, the latter a considerable success -- is especially good, as is his discussion of what he describes as the historical antithesis of hospitality: the German takeover of the Roman Empire.

You'll Never Look at a Dinner party the Same.......2004-01-11

Have you ever thought about what a two-way street hospitality is? How the host gets a benefit, too? Has it occurred to you how hospitality marks civilization's progress, how impossible travel would have been without it, in the days when there were no motels or inns? Probably not, but Jesse Browner has pondered these things, and he has written a thoughtful, eclectic recap.

The title refers not to a doting hostess, but rather to the ludicrous protocol in the French court at the time of Louis XIV. Browner's historical sorties can grow ever so slightly tedious, but they all have their lessons. Long before "Lives of the Rich and Famous," Louis created a cult of celebrity that makes our current breed of gossip column inhabitants look positively reclusive by comparison. His political enemies were completely distracted by the complicated and petty games they had to play to gain favor in the court. Louis paid the price of spending every moment on display.

Hitler, Gertrude Stein, Caligula-they're all here, and as you learn how each treated his or her dinner companions, you gain a newfound sense of what hospitality is. Hitler was gracious and boring. (An edgier title for the book might have been The Vegetarian and Animal Rights Pioneer Who Was a Genocidal Maniac.) Stein's inflated ego led to a very proactive style, which succeeded very well in her circle of artists and writers. The Roman emperors who followed Julius Caesar were jaw-droppingly brutal and decadent. Typically Browner reports his often bizarre stories in a lively style, and then ends his chapters with perceptive insights.

One of his comments in introducing his bibliography is very telling: "I have tried, wherever possible, to stick to primary source material, which I have read with the eye of a novelist, seeking out character and story." Browner's is a very personal and candid approach, which may be too impressionistic for some. But the topic of hospitality touches us all, and this book gave me a much more careful point of view on the matter.

Witty, charming, informative.......2003-11-17

Novelist Browner ("Conglomeros," "Turnaway") loves to entertain and suffers from the insecurities and appetite for praise of hosts everywhere. But few hosts have the wit and knowledge to explore the subject analytically - as universal power play, manipulation, social arbiter, and occasion of fear.

Browner proceeds back in time through Hitler, the Renaissance courts of Europe, the Dark Ages, the Romans and Petronius' "Satyricon," and the Greeks' kindness to strangers, and ends with a poignant, personal meditation on his family's Thanksgiving.

Each chapter is a small feast of historical detail, anecdotally presented and peppery with humor, opinion and personal identification. Against the forbidding, sumptuous settings of despots and kings, we imbibe personal foibles, like Hitler's dyspeptic asceticism ("His tastes in food hovered somewhere between the mundane and the revolting"), and Louis XIV's adroit humiliations (the duchess who preferred to stand than accept a stool).

He reveals the personalities behind the successes of Gertrude Stein and Audubon ("confidence and hubris") and their failed counterparts. His chapter on the Dark Ages - its incivility attributable completely to the Germans' uncouth disregard for any but drunken hospitality - is a savage delight.

Two portraits of men behind the thrones - Olivier de la Marche who proudly arranged parties for the ambitious Duke of Burgundy, and Petronius, who orchestrated Nero's excesses, while secretly penning the "Satyricon" poking fun at it all - take us behind the scenes to muse on the motivations of those who stand and watch. And then there are the Greeks, whose generosity to strangers was compelled by fear of divine retribution.

Browner's personal engagement and breadth of knowledge combines fortuitously with his natural storytelling ability and effortless prose style, like the consummate host who makes it all look easy. For those who want more, he appends a chapter-by-chapter bibliography. A well-nigh perfect blend of erudition and entertainment.

Book Description

Who pays for science, and who profits? Historians of science and of France will discover that those were burning questions no less in the seventeenth century than they are today. Alice Stroup takes a new look at one of the earliest and most influential scientific societies, the Académie Royale des Sciences. Blending externalist and internalist approaches, Stroup portrays the Academy in its political and intellectual contexts and also takes us behind the scenes, into the laboratory and into the meetings of a lively, contentious group of investigators.
Founded in 1666 under Louis XIV, the Academy had a dual mission: to advance science and to glorify its patron. Creature of the ancien régime as well as of the scientific revolution, it depended for its professional prestige on the goodwill of monarch and ministers. One of the Academy's most ambitious projects was its illustrated encyclopedia of plants. While this work proceeded along old-fashioned descriptive lines, academicians were simultaneously adopting analogical reasoning to investigate the new anatomy and physiology of plants. Efforts to fund and forward competing lines of research were as strenuous then as now. We learn how academicians won or lost favor, and what happened when their research went wrong. Patrons and members shared in a new and different kind of enterprise that may not have resembled the Big Science of today but was nevertheless a genuine "company of scientists."

A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences.: An article from: Renaissance Quarterly

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A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences.: An article from: Renaissance Quarterly
Jim Llana
Manufacturer: Renaissance Society of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on March 22, 1997. The length of the article is 625 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: A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences.
Author: Jim Llana
Publication: Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1997
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: v50 Issue: n1 Page: p332(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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