Book Description
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People is a groundbreaking book that dissects a slanderous history dating from cinema's earliest days to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters that feature machine-gun wielding and bomb-blowing "evil" Arabs.
Award-winning film authority Jack G. Shaheen, noting that only Native Americans have been more relentlessly smeared on the silver screen, painstakingly makes his case that "Arab" has remained Hollywood's shameless shorthand for "bad guy," long after the movie industry has shifted its portrayal of other minority groups. In this comprehensive study of nearly one thousand films, arranged alphabetically in such chapters as "Villains," "Sheikhs," "Cameos," and "Cliffhangers," Shaheen documents the tendency to portray Muslim Arabs as Public Enemy #1-brutal, heartless, uncivilized Others bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners.
Shaheen examines how and why such a stereotype has grown and spread in the film industry and what may be done to change Hollywood's defamation of Arabs.
Customer Reviews:
A MUST HAVE! .......2007-07-22
I knew once I bought this book it would change my life, and it did. When a person learns to read she or he can never look at letters in the same way again. In the same way, once a person is exposed to this book and the critical lens that it offers through which to view, he or she will not be able to consume U.S. popular culture in the same way ever again.
Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, a pioneer in media and Arab American studies, unpacks and analyzes the representation of Arabs in U.S. and Western popular culture films. In the introduction he summarizes the "five basic Arab types--Villains, Sheikhs, Maidens, Egyptians, and Palestinians" that "pop up in a hodgepodge of melodrama and mayhem," and challenges the viewer to "pay special attention to those Arabs you do not see on movie screens...ordinary Arab men, women and children, living ordinary lives."
The vast majority of the book functions as a reference, reviewing films alphabetically from A-Z, and outlining specific examples of how films fall into Hollywood's trap of stereotyping, in which Arab characters wear an "Orientalist face" and perform according to the West's fears and fantasies. Some have suggested that in a post-9/11 world, the stereotypes and negative media coverage of Arabs has gotten worse, and this is arguably true. However, Shaheen points out that the smearing campaign against Arabs and Semites is nothing new, as seen in films outlined from throughout the 20th century.
This is a must-have read for college students in media and ethnic studies and for anyone who wants to understand media representations, stereotypes, and "how Hollywood vilifies a people."
A great complement to this book is the newly released documentary of the same title produced by The Media Education Foundation. Dr. Shaheen communicates the gist of the book, while specific examples are seen on screen. An excellent 50-minute teaching tool, and an eye opener for any audience.
Reel Good!.......2007-07-22
Reel Good!
Arabs have been negatively misinterpreted in the American popular media. Dr. Jack Shaheen has documented over 900 motion pictures since 1893 that portray Arabs in an offensive way. Some may say that this is pure entertainment. But is it?
In Reel Bad Arabs, Dr. Shaheen shows us how we, the West, have come to depict "Arabs" as different from us. We view the typical Arab male as a "terrorist" and the typical Arab woman as oppressed, covered and subordinate to the male. What may seem as fiction in the American popular media is now becoming reality to viewers.
We often see images of Arabs with machine guns on screen and this unfortunately generates stereotypes and hatred in the minds of the public. When we experience this reality, we do not question what an Arab is.
Dr. Shaheen's message is clear. The understanding and acknowledgment of the other culture is very important. I agree. These ongoing stereotypes and incidents that have been occurring should be an open opportunity for us to learn more about Arabs and who they are in order to avoid such confusion.
-Rima Abdelkader
An accessable survey of Arabs on the big screen.......2007-07-19
I have spent a number of years researching various relationships between people and governments in the Middle East and North America. Dr. Shaheen's academic articles have always been an important resource in this pursuit, especially on the topic of Arabs in the popular "Western" imagination. However, this book brings his life's work to a much broader public audience. Like Edward Said, he poignantly describes a fictitious and twisted world wherein Muslims and Arabs are cast into a mold that does little to explain the reality of their existence in America or abroad. Unlike Said, this book is a little more accessible to read and the main points are well summarized in the introduction. The remainder of the book extensively catalogs just about every film made by Hollywood which uses Arab and/or Muslim stereotypes. The book could be a great reference for anyone with an interest in movie stereotypes of minorities. However, if you really want to get the gist of his point in an even easier format, than I would recommend his film/documentary of the same title. It seems Dr. Shaheen has taken a lesson from Hollywood that people easily learn through the power of motion pictures.
Eye-opening book.......2007-07-19
Dr. Shaheen's book in an eye-opener when it comes to exploration of the vilification of Arabs in Hollywood films, however it is a must read for all Americans. What's shocking is the consistency by which Hollywood has depicted Arabs as evil or backwards since the inception of film, and all of this prior to the events of 9/11. In example after example, Dr. Shaheen shows how Arabs are constantly depicted as terrorists, stupid, greedy, megalomaniacs, misogynists, backwards or just plain evil. Equally disturbing is the dearth of any positive Arab characters in films such as fathers, mothers, doctors or heros.
Dr. Shaheen doesn't make the argument that all portrayals of Arabs should be positive, just that there need be a balance. Like it or not, Hollywood's films contribute to perceptions throughout the world. Aside from the barrage on the self-esteem of young Arab-Americans, stereotypical portrayals such as this are dangerous as they justify violence and civil rights violations that will eventually affect all Americans.
To think this book only affects Arabs and Arab-Americans would be a mistake. Once civil liberties are violated for one group, others will follow. I highly recommend it.
Interesting publish date.......2007-07-07
The book is released in Jul, 2001. 2 months later Arabs comit the most notorious single act of terrorism in history... 9/11. I'm not saying Hollywood has done anything good to break stereotypes... but all stereotypes, good or bad, come from somewhere... and there are many Arabs who proudly do nothing but perpetuate the "bomb toting" stereotype every day in the evening news... way more influencial than Hollywood could ever pretend to be. Shaheen should set his sights on mainstream news media and how they could present a broader perspective on Arab culture. Instead of complaining that Robert Zemeckis had Doc Brown dupe some Arabs out of their plutonium to make a time machine... the last believable scene in Back to the Future.
Average customer rating:
- 31 flavors of an emotion
- entertaining and provacative
- When good books are written by other people
|
When Bad Things Happen to Other People
John Portmann
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Ethics & Morality
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History & Surveys
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Emotions
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Faking It
-
The Anatomy of Disgust
-
Eye for an Eye
-
The Mystery of Courage
-
The God Delusion
ASIN: 0415923352 |
Book Description
Now in paperback, John Portmann's provocative and groundbreaking book explores what the Germans call Schadenfreude--the all-too-human foible of deriving pleasure from the suffering of others. When Bad Things Happen to Other People examines the complexity inherent to Schadenfreude by engaging not only philosophers like Kant and Nietzsche but a variety of thinkers and writers including Freud, Baudelaire, Dickens and even contemporary novelists like Umberto Eco and Toni Morrison. What makes this book compulsively readable is that Schadenfreude becomes a springboard to explore many pressing issues in contemporary society, ranging from debates over institutional punishment to our insatiable desire for media images of power, scandal and betrayal. Encyclopedic in its scholarship yet accessible and strangely intimate, this highly original book challenges all of us to reexamine our feelings about suffering, sympathy and the ambiguity of justice.
Download Description
How can we derive pleasure from others' suffering? Portmann explores Schadenfreude, drawing on writers and thinkers such as Kant, Freud and Toni Morrison and challenging us to re-examine feelings about suffering, sympathy and justice.
Customer Reviews:
31 flavors of an emotion.......2003-12-31
The real title of this study might have been something much less appealing, like, Schadenfreude: It's Meaning, Experience and Social Ramification. Or, The Anatomy of Schadenfreude. That would have seriously limited its appeal to the average reader perhaps. (So it's just as well that the title parallels the recently very popular, but not so good, book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People.)
But, the fact is, that really is the content of the book, and fascinating and delightful it is. The prose style is crystal and orderly, almost like a serious dissertation that went through a top-notch editor (although there is a typo here and there, but who's counting?).
This emotion that has no proper English name is dissected not only in a variety of ways, but also at a variety of angles, revealing unexpected relationships between this pecadillo and our construct of justice. For example, Do we take pleasure in the justice that is served when one who "deserves" it gets his/her comeuppance? Or is it that we take pleasure in the knowledge that we were lucky enough to have been spared the same nasty spill of fate? Is Schadenfreude the same thing as malice? What about the element of anticipation? Even if we may not consciously wish any person any harm, but still find it somewhat pleasurable to discover that so-and-so was laid-off or demoted, are we guilty? Why is that some tiny little part of us "dies" when our friends succeed, and do better than we do?
How is Schadenfreude different from envy, malice, jealousy, and resentment?
Questions such as these and many more are carefully examined by cross-referencing Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and modern scholars of ethics, including John Rawls. Complex theme but Portman is a gentleman scholar, goes out of his way (albeit effortlessly) to make clear all his references.
entertaining and provacative.......2000-07-15
Why do we (sometimes) delight in the suffering of our fellow humans? Should we fell ashamed of schadenfreude and other "outlaw emotions," as the author calls them? John Portmann has produced an elegant and readable meditation on the significance of the pleasure we take in the spectacle afforded by the misfortures of others. Portmann carefully distinguishes schadenfreude from garden variety malice in the course of his examination of what great philosophers and the world's major religions have to tell us about the subject. Throughout the book, the author comes across as brilliant and compassionate, but never dull or stuffy, even when he argues (in the conclusion) that the satisfactions of mercy can be every bit as great as those of revenge. When Bad Things Happen to Other People is an important contribution to the growing literature on human emotions.
When good books are written by other people.......2000-01-30
As a law professor, I thought I knew everything about schadenfreude, but then I read John Portmann's fascinating book, and it made me think about the terrible things that happen to people who deserve to have even worse things happen to them in a completely new light. Why is it that we feel such satisfaction at the misfortunes of others? Portmann explains, in a wonderfully lucid and elegant style, the differences among the various senses in which we view the bad things that might happen, ranging from comedy through true tragedy. This book is a real crossover between scholarship and a delightful read.
Book Description
This was a transformative period in English history. In 1783 the country was at one of the lowest points in its fortunes, having just lost its American colonies in warfare. By 1846 it was once more a great imperial nation, as well as the world's strongest power and dominant economy, having benefited from what has sometimes (if misleadingly) been called the 'first industrial revolution'. In the meantime it survived a decade of invasion fears, and emerged victorious from more than twenty years of 'war to the death' against Napoleonic France. But if Britain's external fortunes were in the ascendant, the situation at home remained fraught with peril. The country's population was growing at a rate not experienced by any comparable former society, and its manufacturing towns especially were mushrooming into filthy, disease-ridden, gin-sodden hell-holes, in turn provoking the phantasmagoria of a mad, bad, and dangerous people. It is no wonder that these years should have experienced the most prolonged period of social unrest since the seventeenth century, or that the elite should have been in constant fear of a French-style revolution in England. The governing classes responded to these new challenges and by the mid-nineteenth century the seeds of a settled two-party system and of a more socially interventionist state were both in evidence, though it would have been far too soon to say at that stage whether those seeds would take permanent root. Another consequence of these tensions was the intellectual engagement with society, as for example in the Romantic Movement, a literary phenomenon that brought English culture to the forefront of European attention for the first time. At the same time the country experienced the great religious revival, loosely described under the heading 'evangelicalism'. Slowly but surely, the raffish and rakish style of eighteenth-century society, having reached a peak in the Regency, then succumbed to the new norms of respectability popularly known as 'Victorianism'.
Book Description
One of the "president's men" in the Watergate era recalls how he lost his way and destroyed his life under the pressure of politics and power, and provides lessons in what integrity--and success--really mean.
In 1971, Egil "Bud" Krogh was summoned to a closed-door meeting by John Ehrlichman, his mentor and key confidant of President Richard Nixon, in a secluded office in the Western White House.
Krogh thought he was walking into a meeting to discuss the drug control program launched on his most recent trip to South Vietnam. Instead, he was handed a file and the responsibility for the SIU, Special Investigations Unit, later to become notorious as "The Plumbers." The unit was to investigate the leaks of topsecret government documents, particularly the Pentagon Papers, to the press. The president considered this task critical to national security. Nixon said he wanted the unit headed up by a "real son of a bitch." He got the studious, zealous, and loyal-to-a-fault Bud Krogh instead.
In that instant, Krogh was handed the job that would lead to one of the most famous conspiracies in presidential history and the demise of the Nixon administration. Integrity is Krogh's memoir of his experiences--of what really went on behind closed doors, of how a good man can lose his moral compass, of how exercising power without integrity can destroy a life. It also tells the moving story of how he turned his life back around. For anyone interested in the ethical challenges of leadership, or of professional life, Integrity is thought-provoking and inspiring reading.
Customer Reviews:
A Needed History Lesson For Our Times.......2007-09-22
At a time when we are governed by an administration that whole-heartedly believes "the ends justify the means", it is crucial to step back and look at history; to see where that motto has failed again and again. Bud Krogh writes an insightful and extremely timely account of his time in the White House under Nixon and his direction of the "Plumbers"--created to seal up real (or perceived) leaks that were threatening our national security.
After the 2000 elections, Krogh wrote an open memo, published in the Christian Science Monitor, to Bush's new staff--VP Cheney, Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld--all of whom Krogh had worked with under Nixon in the 1970s. He said as he watched them raise their right hands and swear to uphold the Constitution, it brought back a flood of memories for him when he stood before Nixon and swore to the same oath.
"As I pondered what the new Bush staff would encounter, I realized that I might be able to help by writing a memo to them about one of the central ideas that I had not understood as well as I should have when I was on the White House staff...the absolute imperative to maintain one's sense of integrity in the face of enormous pressures to get results at any cost."
Krogh explains how a good person, raised in the right way, given all the advantages of a young American male, could end up pleading guilty to depriving another of his civil rights and going to prison. Loyalty to his superiors, including Nixon, overshadowed his oath to uphold the Constitution and that lead him to orchestrate the illegal break-in of Dr. Louis Fielding's Psychiatric office in California for the express purpose of stealing Daniel Ellsberg's personal file to try to discredit him. Ellsberg had leaked the "Pentagon Papers" to the press and Nixon believed this to be a serious national security threat.
History has remembered Watergate as the downfall of Nixon's administration, but through Krogh's easy-to-read narrative of the events leading up to Watergate, we find that the break-in and burglary of Dr. Fielding's office was the "seminal event in the chain of events that led to Nixon's resignation".
Obviously, Krogh's letter to the Bush staff has gone largely unheeded as we learn almost daily about unwarranted wiretapping; holding prisoners without cause; torture at Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay; Rove; Libby; the list goes on and on.
Who was it that said "those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."?
At the end of his book, Krogh has created a model called the "integrity zone"; steps that each individual in public or private life can take to ascertain whether the path they have chosen is one of integrity or convenience. With three questions: Is it whole and complete? Is it Right? Is it good? one can quickly figure out if they're standing on solid ground or standing at the edge of a slippery slope. After the events of 9/11, if the Bush administration had stopped to ask those questions, we may well be living in a vastly different world than the one we live in today.
For anyone who is concerned about today's political environment and interested in where we've come from and how we got here, this is a must read. I think Krogh is an appropriate person to get this message across. It speaks volumes about who Bud Krogh is as a man of integrity that Daniel Ellsberg wrote the forward and calls him a friend today.
Product Description
The quiet spinster who erupted one day in a blinding flash of violence, the brilliant scientist that was terrified of women wearing pearl earrings, the inexperienced pilot who took off from New York bound for Los Angeles and landed 27 hours laterin Dublin! These are just a few of the many saints, sinners, hucksters, and oddballs you'll meet in The Good, The Bad & The Mad.
In this compellingly off-beat peek into America's past, E. Randall Floyd examines a fascinating array of men and women who achieved fame, fortune, or notoriety because (or in spite of) their glaring peculiarities. Did you know that: Stonewall Jackson was as renowned for his odd personal habits as for his daring flank attacks? Conan the Barbarian author Robert Howard lived all his life with his mother and committed suicide immediately after she died? All of General Custer's Indian scouts survived the Battle of Little Bighorn because he'd fired them just hours before?
Discover why financier Jay Gould was known as "the most hated man in America," who called social activist Jane Addams "the most dangerous woman in America," and how shy photographer's assistant Edgar Cayce achieved the title of "America's most mysterious man." They're all right here in The Good, The Bad & The Mad.
E. Randall Floyd is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, motion picture screenwriter, and author of several books, including Deep in the Heart and Great Southern Mysteries. His history lectures at Georgia's Augusta State University helped inspire The Good, The Bad & The Mad.
Customer Reviews:
Academic, yet fluffy!.......2007-02-20
The author of this book lectures at Augusta State University, in Georgia, and the tone and structure of a historian often become apparent within this book.
Every short chapter in "The Good, the Bad, and the Mad: Some Weird People in American History" deals with a different figure in America's past. Many of the characters are people everyone has heard of and that really don't seem that weird. Others are weird but are used more as devices to talk about a weird subject such as a house full of staircases that lead nowhere, or the wilder revivals of the early West.
The chapters, like essays in a historical review, often start with summaries of everything that's going to be in that chapter, and then go on to tell the stories. Some of the chapters feel like four summaries of the same information in a row. Most end with the character dying.
The characters seem arbitrarily selected, with a disproportionate amount of fantasy authors and people who believe in lost continents. The Western half of the country is notably underrepresented, as are any Spanish colonizers (many of who were very weird), and as are very many people before the nineteenth century.
The chapters could have been placed in a more sensible order--for instance chronologically--but instead jump around from nearly modern day to Cotton Mather to the early-1900s to an Indian chief.
The book's ending is abrupt, without any sort of an afterword, and the entire thing feels fluffy and forgetable. In fact, leafing through it now, on the same day I finished reading it, I can't match stories to all of the names in the table of contents.
The book also lacks any sort of notes, index, or bibliography, and seems to turn a lot of fascinating stories into slight little anecdotes.
All that said, I basically enjoyed this book, though it left me feeling a little ripped off. Some of the characters it introduced to me made me want to read more about them elsewhere, and the author does have a knack for finding very amusing quotes.
I liked this book. I'll keep it. But I wish it were better--more complete, indexed, with longer chapters, a wider cast of characters, and the guts to decide if it was something academic or something to be read on an airplane.
Some interesting people........2006-09-27
Floyd gives short biographies of 38 interesting people. As he states in his introduction, he selected out of his own criteria. The author seems fascinated with science fiction writers, and believers in the continent of Atlantis. There were at least three each of those people. Other than that, Floyd selects the usual selection of interesting people in American life such as Custer, Pillow,and Chivington.
This is an OK read. I learned about some interesting people. However, there is not a lot of meat in this book. It is a quick light read.
HAVE FUN LEARNING ABOUT WIERD HISTORY!.......2006-06-08
If you like to learn about the other side of those people who have shaped our history you will love this book.Many of the people you read about here are also in our history books,but this tells about the eccentricities of these individuals that history has tried to cover up.I was a big fan of "IN SEARCH OF "as a kid,and now I like "SIGHTINGS".If you can relate to what I'm saying,this will be the type of book that will keep your interest.The stories are short and sweet,enough to feel like you get to know a good deal about these people without drawing out the story like some of the biography's do.Great for someone like me with a short attention span!!I came away feeling like it was the wierdness of the people that led them to take the chances in their lives that took them to greatness.
Book Description
More than 130 full-color photographs adorn this handsome re-creation of daily life in a Plains Indian village in 1868. Readers will meet Real Bird and his family, part of a Northern Cheyenne tribe in southeastern Montana. Each member has an important role: Men prepare to become warriors and hunters, while women learn to raise crops and build a home-a tipi-from poles and buffalo hides. The clothes the family wears, from elaborate ceremonial headdresses to colorful beaded moccasins; the foods they eat; the games they play; the crafts and jewelry they make; and the spiritual rituals they perform are among the many topics included. This large-format book, with clear text and informative sidebars, provides a detailed pictorial account of the Plains Indian life more than a century ago.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic resource.......2003-08-04
Even though this book is geared to the older elementary student, I used it to supplement my instruction for third graders. It has a wealth of strong information and contains clear and interesting illustrations.
A Wonderful Resource for Plains Indian Information Seekers!.......2003-02-17
At first glance this book looks like it is simply another children's book but once you open it the beautiful, full color photos speak for themselves! The book is 100% full color and shows a variety of men and women of different Plains tribal affiliations and their routines of daily life. Everything from styles of clothing to weapons, to men's and women's roles is covered in accurate, deatiled photography accompanied by brief commentary. Each subject is attired in meticulously replicated regalia done by the author who is a well known and respected Plains Indian authority. Another nice feature is the addition of a resource page listing historical sites of the Great Plains region. For such a small price tag this is one book that should be on every American history buff's bookshelf! You will not be disappointed!
An Excellent Book for Children or Craftworkers.......2002-03-31
Michael Terry's "Daily Life in a Plains Indian Village, 1868" is a wonderful book that, although geared toward children and adolescents, provides a colorful overview of the ways of life of the Plains Indian peoples for all readers. The full color, large photograaphs on every page are incredible. Northern Palins replica makers and craftworkers will also find a wealth of close-up photos and descriptions of tools, weapons, and art to which they can refer in their work. If you wish you could see the Plains Indians in the full color splendor for which they are known then this is the book for you!
Beautiful! Very discriptive! Excellent for all!.......1999-10-04
A very well done, beautifully illustrated book for all ages, highly recommend it.
Customer Reviews:
Humanity........2006-08-12
The author tells a deep and neglected story of how Italians proved their humanity during the worst period of 20th century history, despite Nazi brutality. After Kristallnacht in 1938 the authors family fled to Italy. There his family survived because strangers kept risking their lives to save them. The chilling narrative will surprise the reader with how tenious life was in that era.
Horrific times, heroic people.......2004-10-14
Walter Wolff's book is an exercise in reading a book in one sitting! Not that it is a quick read but that you cannot put this book down. The story is compelling and the writing style keeps you wanting to read the next chapter. I am still fascinated why no one is mentioning this amazing story in History classes. A must read for history buffs.
Book Description
Tyranny of the Bottom Line tells how the corporate system, originally created to serve the public interest, has acquired immense power over the public. Largely unconstrained by a captive regulatory bureaucracy, corporations today exercise a silent dominance over much of our society. This dominion can produce substantial good, but can also bring injury and death to employees, financial and personal loss to customers, desolation to communities, poisonous pollution and hazardous waste to the nation.
In Tyranny of the Bottom Line , Ralph Estes tells the story of corporate power gone awry: permanent layoffs affecting millions of people while CEO salaries go through the roof; toxic waste poisoning the land, water, and air; unhealthy and dangerous products on the market; injury and death on the job; white-collar hustles in the S&Ls and on Wall Street that ultimately cost us all.
Emphasizing the notion that all of us are stakeholders in the large corporation-with an investment, an interest in its performance, and a right to accountability-Ralph Estes offers proposals for creating more effective and humane companies, restoring the original public purpose of the corporate system, and allowing managers to make choices that effectively and ethically balance the interests of everyone. Estes lays out a practical, specific plan for the development of a new, fair score-keeping system that shows the effects of a corporation's actions on all its stakeholders, not merely its stockholders, and then tells managers that they will be responsible for these effects.
Based on the author's many years of research and experience, Tyranny of the Bottom Line lays out this prescription in an effective and workable program that can make corporations safer and more rewarding for all of us, and more enjoyable, more honorable, for the people who run them.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Read!.......2001-03-29
Are you in the mood for some top-notch, well-documented corporation bashing? Ralph W, Estes' powerful work is widely considered one of the most important books written on American corporations and their vast power, and he has nothing kind to say. Compelling and clearly written, his book shines a bright light into some very dark, creepy corners. And although he overstates, over-generalizes and tends to blame corporations for every evil in society, there's no debating that the concept of stakeholder accountability that Estes sets forth has moved to center-stage. Estes' book specifically covers United States-based corporations, but we [...] recommend this book to anyone who is subject to corporate influence, and - from the rainforest hunter-gatherer to you - that's everybody.
A must read for all Americans!.......1998-10-13
I have been using this book with great success in a senior-level management class for several semesters now. Students' eyes are really opened by Estes' arguments and examples. It's truly sad how little they know about this alternative perspective. I highly recommend it to anyone who works in or is affected by corporations (which means ALL of us!). I encourage everyone to join Estes' "Stakeholder Alliance" mentioned in the last chapter.
Tyranny of the Repetitive Theme.......1998-04-10
It's not that the reader can argue with most of what Estes brings up. His diatribes against the bottom-line mentatility at the expense of all else are logically presented. It is depressing to read how single-minded many corporations have become and how they have strayed from the original idea of incorporating so as to serve the community as well as the industry or shareholders. But Estes basically repeats the same theme chapter after chapter after chapter. He innundates the reader with multiple examples of the same thing, and repeatedly hints: "What is needed is a 'new scorecard' that will judge corporations on more than just profit margins. But we'll get to that later. Let me devote yet another chapter to more examples."
I first became interested in reading this book after reading his fascinating Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post last year. I finally bought the book expecting a more meaty discussion of the issues that he brought up in the article. I wound up feeling like I read that Op-Ed piece 20 times over. This was potentially an excellent book, mired in repetition.
Tyranny of the Repetitive Theme.......1998-04-10
It's not that the reader can argue with most of what Estes brings up. His diatribes against the bottom-line mentatility at the expense of all else are logically presented. It is depressing to read how single-minded many corporations have become and how they have strayed from the original idea of incorporating so as to serve the community as well as the industry or shareholders. But Estes basically repeats the same theme chapter after chapter after chapter. He innundates the reader with multiple examples of the same thing, and repeatedly hints: "What is needed is a 'new scorecard' that will judge corporations on more than just profit margins. But we'll get to that later. Let me devote yet another chapter to more examples."
I first became interested in reading this book after reading his fascinating Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post last year. I finally bought the book expecting a more meaty discussion of the issues that he brought up in the article. I wound up feeling like I read that Op-Ed piece 20 times over. This was potentially an excellent book, mired in repetition.
Average customer rating:
- Biography lite - very cool
- Weird people in American history?
- Recommended Reading!!!
- It's the "dark side" of history
- Creepy...Entertaining...Fascinating!
|
The Good, the Bad & the Mad: Weird People in American History
E. Randall Floyd
Manufacturer: Harbor House (GA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1891799150 |
Book Description
Probes the dark side of more than 40 unforgettable men and women who made history in profound, sometimes shocking ways.
Customer Reviews:
Biography lite - very cool.......2007-05-04
Containing extremely short biographies of some of the most intriguing people in American History, "The Good, The Bad & the Mad" is a book well worth reading for anyone who is interested in American history and/or the characters that made it up. Containing vignettes on such personages as P.T. Barnum, Marie Laveau, H.P Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce and Nikola Tesla, just to name a VERY few, this is a very easily-accessible way to learn a little bit about a lot of people. It has made me interested to learn more about many of these fascinating people who helped create our melting pot.
Weird people in American history?.......2002-01-27
I'm not sure the author of this book knows the definition of 'weird'. What makes Isadora Duncan 'weird' or Tecumseh or 80% of the other people listed in this book? One of my all time heroes Nikola Tesla's actual 'weirdness' is glossed over in less than three sentences, then we're told it's 'bizzare behavior' to watch and enjoy a lightning storm or to feed and care for animals in the park. This book is pap, a meaningless collection of watered down facts about people you've barely or never heard of and won't care about once you have.
Recommended Reading!!!.......1999-07-14
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of "mini-biographies" by E. Randall Floyd. These people were truly good, bad and mad--and definitely "weird" in every sense of the word.
I have passed this book along to several friends who have also enjoyed learning so much "dark stuff" about some of America's greatest literary, artistic and historical icons. I hope to see a follow-up book very soon!!!
It's the "dark side" of history.......1999-07-14
This book makes me wish I had Professor Floyd as a history teacher. These crazy people come to life in a way that makes me almost cry one moment, laugh the next. Some were quite scary and makes me wonder how I missed knowing all this stuff about them for so long. I really think more teachers should tell the truth about the people in our country's past the same way Prof. Floyd has done. Excellent job and highly recommended!
Creepy...Entertaining...Fascinating!.......1999-07-14
I didn't know what to expect from this book. I bought it because I have read some of Professor Floyd's other books and liked them all, especially the "unsolved mystery" varieties. This book was fascinating! In fact, I liked it so much I read it through at a single sitting. My wife kept asking: "What are you doing?" I kept saying, "I'm reading about Stonewall Jackson." A few minutes later, she'd ask: "What are you doing?" And I'd say: "I'm reading about General Custer." So it went for about three hours. From Jackson and Custer to Huey Long and Cotton Mather and Isadore Duncan. These were definitely some of the strangest people in American history! After reading the book, I passed it on to my brother, a history professor in Alamaba. Just wanted to say thanks for a fascinating book!
Average customer rating:
|
Bad People in History
Roland Barker
Manufacturer: Gramercy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Reference
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 051716311X
Release Date: 2001-04-17 |
Books:
- Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't
- Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm's Way and Thrive at Work
- Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence, 3d Edition
- Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
- Sledgehammers: Strengths and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II
- Son of the Morning Star
- Spirit Song: The Introduction of No-Eyes
- Suite Française
- Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol 12 : Ancient History)
- The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, Revised and Expanded Edition
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- USMLE Step 1 Secrets: Questions You Will Be Asked on USMLE Step 1
- Mastering Autodesk Revit Building
- Residential Landscape Architecture: Design Process for the Private Residence
- Satellite Communications
- Understanding the Process of Economic Change
- The Piano Mans Daughter
- Native to Nowhere: Sustaining Home And Community In A Global Age
- Sustainable Architecture White Papers
- Beginner's guide to seaweeds
Silent No More: Confronting America's False Images of Islam
Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World
The TV Arab
They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby
Film and Television After 9/11
