Amazon.com
The image of salmon battling upstream through whitewater cataracts to spawn in their birthplace is integral to any happy vision of the Pacific Northwest. Sadly, because they face more insidious obstacles than swift currents, few people today actually witness this remarkable spectacle. Armed with exhaustive research and an ability to synthesize his findings into a concise, readable indictment of the status quo, Jim Lichatowich, a fisheries scientist for 30 years, traces the sudden decline of Northwest salmon populations following the onset of Euro-American settlement. He points a finger at the usual suspects: logging, mining, damming, grazing, irrigation, commercial fishing, and development. Moreover, he cites the political establishment for a failure of nerve. Since the shift from a Native American "gift" economy based on sustainability to a profit economy based on self-interest and short-term financial gain, the historically resilient salmon have met one adversary after another, with little or no help from the legal apparatus charged with their protection. In fact, federal and state governments have responded to the deepening crisis mainly by building fish hatcheries up and down the West Coast. Contrary to the beliefs of entrenched bureaucrats and sport fishermen, says Lichatowich, hatcheries have merely diluted the gene pools of wild stocks while allowing resource extractors to continue their multifarious operations and politicians to shirk their responsibilities. In 1960, for instance, after decades of declining runs, the Washington Department of Fisheries reported, incredibly (and characteristically), that new advanced management techniques would soon result in "salmon without a river"--more welcome news to those who would continue to exploit these iconic fish and their habitat. At the dawn of the 21st century hundreds of hatcheries still operate, yet Northwest salmon populations have decreased 95 percent.
Lichatowich is a learned and persuasive advocate for wild salmon. He's also eloquent, as in this description of his first visit to the Columbia River's Grand Coulee dam:
As I sat there wondering and swatting mosquitoes, the face of the dam lit up. It was the start of the nightly laser show.... Appropriately, the lasers sent a series of large green dollar signs floating through the darkness. Then a series of laser salmon swam across the face of the dam. Here were the ideal salmon, I thought, the fish that fit perfectly into our worldview. We have complete control over them--press a button and they appear; press another and they change from green to red; press another and they swim over the dam. Salmon and dams are compatible--as long as you are not particular about the kind of salmon.
So what to do? Lichatowich opines that we need a new "worldview," one that places natural resources within a context of respect and sustainability. He looks to state and federal governments to enforce the protections already granted by laws like the Endangered Species Act. And he sees evidence that public perceptions may be changing on such issues as habitat conservation and biodiversity; breaching four dams on the lower Snake River to aid fish passage would have been unthinkable even in the early 1990s. Whether this new worldview can save salmon in time is another question. --Langdon Cook
Book Description
"Fundamentally, the salmon's decline has been the consequence of a vision based on flawed assumptions and unchallenged myths.... We assumed we could control the biological productivity of salmon and 'improve' upon natural processes that we didn't even try to understand. We assumed we could have salmon without rivers." --from the introduction
From a mountain top where an eagle carries a salmon carcass to feed its young to the distant oceanic waters of the California current and the Alaskan Gyre, salmon have penetrated the Northwest to an extent unmatched by any other animal. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the natural productivity of salmon in Oregon, Washington, California, and Idaho has declined by eighty percent. The decline of Pacific salmon to the brink of extinction is a clear sign of serious problems in the region.
In Salmon Without Rivers, fisheries biologist Jim Lichatowich offers an eye-opening look at the roots and evolution of the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. He describes the multitude of factors over the past century and a half that have led to the salmon's decline, and examines in depth the abject failure of restoration efforts that have focused almost exclusively on hatcheries to return salmon stocks to healthy levels without addressing the underlying causes of the decline. The book:
- describes the evolutionary history of the salmon along with the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest over the past 40 million years
- considers the indigenous cultures of the region, and the emergence of salmon-based economies that survived for thousands of years
- examines the rapid transformation of the region following the arrival of Europeans
- presents the history of efforts to protect and restore the salmon
- offers a critical assessment of why restoration efforts have failed
Throughout, Lichatowich argues that the dominant worldview of our society -- a worldview that denies connections between humans and the natural world -- has created the conflict and controversy that characterize the recent history of salmon; unless that worldview is challenged and changed, there is little hope for recovery. Salmon Without Rivers exposes the myths that have guided recent human-salmon interactions. It clearly explains the difficult choices facing the citizens of the region, and provides unique insight into one of the most tragic chapters in our nation's environmental history.
Customer Reviews:
Peter Morrison.......2005-09-11
This is a must read book for anyone interested in salmon, rivers and the ecology and history of the Pacific Northwest. Excellent information and a good read.
Great read.......2005-08-02
This is an excellent book that documents the history of salmon, how native Americans viewed them and how modern Americans view them. It focuses on why the pacific northwest is facing a salmon crisis, and our failed attempts to replace what we have lost. Great read for anyone who is concerned about environmental issues.
Pacific Northwest Salmon History Book.......2003-12-02
Salmon Without Rivers is a great book of historical facts. It includes many issues like; original salmon locations/populations, "Economy over Environment" issues, and the ineffectiveness of large decision making commissions/agencies. However, with all his good background information the book does not propose any solutions nor investigates today's coastal human communities as they relate to the salmon and/or habitat.
A captivating, human, informed book.......2001-01-16
As a freelance author writing a piece about salmon for a California-based magazine, this book was indispensible and eye-opening. It is unfailingly sensitive and intelligent about salmon, discussing the fish as fellow creatures in the "natural economy" in which we all live, rather than as mere commodities in the "industrial economy" that has transformed the West in the last 150 years. It is fascinating about the geology that shaped the salmon's environment, the evolutionary history of the fish, the relationship between Native Americans and salmon in the Northwest, and it provides a detailed history of the many factors that have led to the salmon's decline, including habitat destruction, misbegotten hatchery programs, overfishing, dams, mining, grazing, irrigation. If you like to read books about ecology, the creatures of the earth, fish, or the Northwest--you can't go wrong. This is a wonderful book.
Save the salmon and us.......2000-12-24
A thoroughly researched and impassioned presentation including the history of salmon, their decline, why billions of tax dollars in restoration efforts have had paltry returns, and insights into the where we should go from here. A complex issue is examined from many perspectives in an easy to read and compelling book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in salmon.
Book Description
Few topics are as timely as the growth of government. To understand why government has grown, Robert Higgs asserts, one must understand how it has grown. This book offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation, guided by a novel analytical framework firmly grounded in historical evidence. More than a study of trends in governmental spending, taxation, and employment, Crisis and Leviathan is a thorough analysis of the actual occasions when and the specific means by which Big Government developed in the United States. Naming names and highlighting the actions of significant individuals, Higgs examines how twentieth-century national emergencies--mainly wars, depressions, and labor disturbances--have prompted federal officials to take over previously private rights and activities. When the crises passed, a residue of new governmental powers remained. Even more significantly, each great crisis and the subsequent governmental measures have gone hand in hand with reinforcing shifts in public beliefs and attitudes toward the government's proper role in American life. Integrating the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, Crisis and Leviathan makes compelling reading for all those who seek to understand the transformation of America's political economy over the past century.
Customer Reviews:
First rate.......2007-04-05
Crisis and Leviathan is a hard hitting and imaginative book about the growth of government in the United States throughout the 20th Century. It is this book which has made Higgs into a modern intellectual giant of classical liberalism/libertarianism amongst the likes of Richard Epstein, Murray Rothbard, James Buchanan, Douglas North, Paul Craig Roberts, Walter Block and Hans Hermann-Hoppe.
Robert Higgs' Crisis and Leviathan is a lucid and scholarly tract with painstakingly researched references, footnoted and jam packed with nuggets of analysis which may modern historians pass by without a second thought. The reason for this can be easily pointed out. During the 20th century the dominance of functionalist in sociology has swayed many historians to embrace the growth of government as an outcome of civilized society. Therefore they tend to think of the growth of government as an exogenous factor; as if it magically appears out of thin air.
Unlike the previous reviewer, I don't think that Higgs' book is just another rehashing of libertarian theory or ideology (If it were we may ask - is this a rewriting of the Libertarian Manifesto by Rothbard or Capitalism and Freedom by Friedman; my answer would be hardly). Higgs is hardly unimaginative; in fact he is a creative thinker with a penchant for understanding history while incorporating economic theory. Anyone who would question this would profit by actually spending some time reading the theoretical section of this book instead of skimming it. Here Higgs demonstrates within a few pages a technically sound method of understanding and interpreting facts of historical value. No one is questioning the originality (Weber or Spencer thought it up before him, for example - do we need to mention Schumpeter, who is mentioned extensively) of his argument, only its application to the growth of government in the United States during the 20th century. (1st - that is the thesis of this book. 2nd - If you don't believe that government did grow - then you need a few more history lessons.)
Higgs, unlike the many of his modern conservative contemporaries, thankfully disdains war and like Robert Nisbet carefully shows why the `will-to-power' is so attractive to conservatives who are in a position to abuse it. From this vantage point it is easy to envision Higgs scorn for the dominant ideology, one which has lead to the rise of what he calls participatory fascism. He points out decisively and consistently that each successive crisis during the 20th century has begat questions by the `public' of how the government can and ought to fix the problem and ultimately "do something" to fix it.
Under the wave of new legislation, property rights by regulation are eroded concurrently so that its ownership is no longer de facto, yet still de jure. Higgs employs Schumpeter's analysis contained in `Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy' to formulate a similar conclusion to what C. Wright Mills' called (who was not a libertarian; neither was Schumpeter for that matter - it is truly amazing that someone can be a Marxist and a scholar or a Neo-Con and a scholar, but when it comes to being a libertarian and a scholar, then your intentions are no longer pure) totalitarian democracy in his famous `Sociological Imagination.' Although Higgs focus tends to gravitate towards the welfare/warfare state, rather than the gradual socialism of Schumpeter.
Higgs does tend to gloss over some historical details or the periods without crisis. While some may claim that this is inconsistent or incoherent, his reasoning doesn't seem off base to me. Its difficulty lies in the functionalist progressivism, which is more reactionary than revolutionary.
Although many assertions appear to be sweeping to some, his references are well documented and scholarly. Again, this frees him from being bogged down by anything other than the question which is pertinent to his thesis. Higgs, although selective, tastefully intertwines his historical accounts while showing how his theoretical model works. Interestingly enough, the answer that he comes up with is that ideology drives history. Again, this may be nothing new to an astute scholar; but is certainly path breaking for those who are stuck in the never-never land of pure materialism, like so many in the economics profession.
In fact, this is not an escape hatch, but a demonstration of how history used to be understood. What ultimately drives the plans of man is an ideological vision of the world, not merely the interplay of things. This was the error of many neo-classical economists, who desperately wanted to show that men were mere profit maximizers or the economic man; which has little or no way to explain the appearance of Marxism, for instance.
If his book is a polemic, then there is no question his ideological pedigree. Fortunately, unlike so many other recent scholars, he is not hiding it. After all, it is truly unfortunate that most modern scholars feel it necessary to conceal their political and philosophical origins in order to give them a false air of objectivity. (In fact, Higgs quotes Mises, as a hardcore libertarian, within the first page of the book.) This may be a reason to attack his core ideas, but I found that Higgs was no pure ideologue.
If anything, his more recent books, like `Depression, War and Cold War' are considerably more radical.
Government as the source of all evils..........2006-07-09
This book is somewhat intriguing. It is indeed an authoritative scholarly account of the growth of government in the United States, and for that reason only well worth reading. However, there is a pervading subtext of libertarian conspiracy theory about governmental power in the book that leaves the reader wondering if the author might not be masquerading a scholarly endeavour (that in itself is very rewarding) in order to suggest that government is the incarnation of evil. The fundamental truth which is developed here, that there is a permanent and necessary contradiction between the development of governmental power and individual liberty is unsophisticated, not to say outright crude. In addition, the author's thesis that after each crisis resulting in the growth of governmental capacities and power the government (always conceptualized as a large undifferentiated whole in the book) tends to rationalize its subsequent business in order not to loose what it just gained is not a discovery of the highest order. This is the rule in every institutional setting, whether corporate or bureaucratic, we know that since Max Weber's work on bureaucracy, without the libertarian hogwash.
Well researched classic.......2003-06-08
This book is a well researched classic on the horrors of the state. Tediously footnoted and well organized, the book offers the concept of the "ratchet effect"- government taking advantage of (sometimes creating) "crisis" as an excuse to dramatically increase government power, and fails to reverse this after the so called emergency passes. Higgs succeeds at proving his hypothesis beyond any doubt with history backed by many, many sources and does this in a way that is both readable and academic. In today's world, few books could be a more relevant warning about government
More significant now than ever.......2003-05-28
Robert Higgs presents an interesting and painfully obvious thesis: that government takes advantage of crises in order to grow larger, but then never shrinks to its previous size once the crisis has ended. As a case study, Higgs analyzes the growth of Big Government in the United States - a horrendous story of the degradation of constitutional values and the seemingly inevitable growth of the Leviathan State.
The book is more significant now than ever, since its publication in the 1980s. Government has grown substantially, especially the various "wars" on drugs and terror that have greatly increased the size of government and US government involvement in several aspects of domestic life and foreign affairs.
The scholarship is particularly good - mountains of empirical evidence, all relevant to his thesis, are well documented and presented concisely in this book. The book is straightforward and easy to understand; it should be accessible to economists and intelligent non-economists alike. If you've wanted to understand how government insidiously (or naturally) becomes larger regardless of constitutional constraints, read this book. It might fill you with rage, but maybe you can put that rage to good use. Are the ideas of limited government destined to be considered a failure in the far future, or can leviathan be chained down? If this is all government is about, in the United States or anywhere, do we really want a government at all?
Read this book. Libertarians will consider it a great read and invaluable intellectual ammunition; everyone else should read it, if for nothing else, to better understand the nature of the beast.
The hogs of war.......2001-11-16
As of this writing the president of the United States is prosecuting a war* with admirable objectives. But at what cost to American society?
Within weeks of the initiation of the U.S. effort the administration has announced steps that will curtail the civil liberties of citizens and visitors alike, even circumventing the right to proper trial. There appears to be a good chance that U.S. citizens will be required to carry so-called national ID cards.
Higgs explains why this should come as no suprise since war is the grand historical excuse offered by politicians to increase their powers and diminish those of their subjects, whatever the merits of their original objectives. This is one of the essential books in the literature of liberty, and it could not be more pertinent as a siren and antidote to the threat to freedom posed by ever-larger government.
*The war I referred to was against the Taliban, not the subsequent Iraq debacle.
Book Description
Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Award, American Society for Environmental History
Customer Reviews:
Making Salmon Makes Us Human.......2003-01-03
There's your text books on salmon, and there's required reading.
Of the 300-odd salmon titles, Making Salmon is one of those you
must read. Like First Fish, First People, Making Salmon is about
the human side of the fishery, its evolution and confabulation
as a fought-over resource. Absolutely fascinating history, you
realize right away that nobody has an absolute moral high ground
in the salmon debate. Everything is allied against its survival,
and yet magically, miraculously, the salmon continue to return.
Like Mountain in the Clouds, put Making Salmon on your booklist.
Understates negative impact of logging.......2001-11-06
Mr. Taylor accurately identifies most of the causes of the salmon population crisis facing Washington state, Oregon, Alaska, and British Columbia. And he is dead on in his assessment of the impact of farm fisheries on salmon ecology.
The book grossly understates, however, the impact of logging on salmon habitat. Without canopy to cool streams, temperature-sensitive salmon simply cannot spawn successfully. And let's not overlook the role that clear-cutting plays in causing erosion, sedimentation, and flooding. It's true that salmon ecology can still suffer from genetic contamination by farm fish, point-source and non-point-source pollution, illegal overfishing on the high seas, legal overfishing in fresh water, damming, and overuse of water by irrigators and developers. But let's not downplay the egregious impact of logging.
Swimming Against the Current.......2000-05-11
Making Salmon is the definitive work on the problems facing the salmon fishery of the Pacific Northwest. For as long as man has lived he has exploited the salmon. Joseph Taylor takes the reader on a journey through time as he leads us step by step through the decline of these once great fish. There is plenty of culpability to go around. Foresters, developers, commercial fisherman, native Americans, even sport fishermen all come in for their share of blame. Although focusing on Oregon, Taylor's work is easily transferable anywhere salmon swim, from Alaska to California.
Extremely well documented (fully a third of the book is taken up with notes and other addenda) Making Salmon is occasionally dry but never dull. What is most dramatic about this story is the resiliency of the salmon. Time and time again they manage to survive despite our best efforts to save them!
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of dams, hatcheries, consumption or conservation, you will find merit in this work. Making Salmon is a must read for anyone interested in the rivers and fisheries of the Northwest.
Swimming Against the Current.......2000-03-30
As long as man has lived in the Pacific Northwest he has exploited the salmon. In this thorough history of the travails of the pacific salmon, Joseph Taylor does not hesitate to mince words or point the finger of blame, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Native Americans, commercial fishermen, loggers, farmers, sport fishermen, politicians, the states, the feds, the hatcheries, and others, all share the responsibility for the decline of these great fish.
Although focusing on Oregon, MAKING SALMON is easily transferable anywhere Pacific salmon exist, from California to Alaska. Extremely well documented, (fully a third of the book is taken up with notes and other addenda) MAKING SALMON takes the reader step by step through the last two centuries of development in the Northwest and what that has meant to the salmon fishery there. Taylor paints an excellent history of failure and simplistic answers to a complex problem. What comes through, as most intriguing, is the resiliency of the salmon. They somehow manage to survive despite our best efforts to save them. Resiliency should not be confused with immortality however.
Not always an easy read, MAKING SALMON nonetheless remains essential to anyone wishing to better understand the plight of the Pacific salmon or who is interested in the fine detail of what happens when man and nature collide.
The definitive history of the Northwest salmon crisis.......2000-02-06
Joseph Taylor's award-winning history of the Northwest salmon crisis is the best book to date on this important topic. No other study is as well researched or beautifully written as MAKING SALMON. Taylor, who teaches environmental and Western United States history at Iowa State University, traces the historical decline of salmon runs throughout the Pacific Northwest, focusing primarily on Oregon. His argument--that while many have claimed to speak for salmon, most have actually articulated their own needs instead--takes the current debate beyond the politics of blame. Understanding the complex social and environmental history of the "salmon crisis," he argues, is essential to thinking more clearly about the future of our region's fisheries. Most impressive is his critique of the role hatcheries have played in diminishing Northwest salmon runs. Science and technology, he concludes, have not always saved nature from human abuses. Abundant illustrations, detailed maps, and a rich bibliography round out the book. There are many titles that explore the decline of salmon in the Pacific Northwest. None address the issue as artfully and intelligently as MAKING SALMON. It is required reading for anyone who cares about the future of Northwest salmon or the people who depend upon them.
Average customer rating:
|
America and the East Asian Crisis: Memos to a President
Philip D. Zelikow
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
| Afghanistan
| Armenia
| Bangladesh
| Belarus
| Bhutan
| Brunei
| Cambodia
| Central Asia
| China
| Far East
| General
| Georgia
| Hong Kong
| India
| Indonesia
| Japan
| Korea
| Laos
| Malaysia
| Maldives
| Mauritius
| Mongolia
| Myanmar
| Nepal
| Pakistan
| Philippines
| Russia
| Seychelles
| Singapore
| South Asia
| Southeast Asia
| Sri Lanka
| Taiwan
| Thailand
| Tibet
| Turkey
| Vietnam
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Relations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Theory
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0393975525 |
Book Description
A new text in the Aspen policy series, this brief book encourages new thinking about U.S. national security, conflict reduction, and international policy. Arranged as a collection of memos from experts in academia and government to a president facing a policy challenge, each book in the series offers succinct explanations of the background and context behind a handful of key issues in a particular region of the world.
Amazon.com
The fighting that waged across the Philippines during World War II ranks among the most vicious in the annals of war. Nearly 80,000 Americans and Filipinos were taken prisoner on Bataan, the name of which is forever linked with the notorious "death march." During the three years that Japan occupied the archipelago, 130,000 American and Filipinos were killed. Prisoners in Japanese prison camps were 10 times as likely to die in captivity as soldiers held by the Germans. When they returned to retake the islands, American troops preferred not to take any prisoners at all. Gerald Astor gives voice to the soldiers who participated in this gruesome period of world military history.
Book Description
From the depths of defeat...
On December 8, 1941, one day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Air Force struck the Philippines in the first blow of a devastating invasion.
With an undersupplied patchwork army at his command, General Douglas MacArthur led a valiant defense of the Philippines. When defeat came, MacArthur swore he would return, while thousands of POWs fell into Japanese hands — and faced a living hell that many would not survive.
To the dawn of victory...
In this gripping oral history, Gerald Astor brings to life the struggle to recapture the Philippines: the men who did the fighting, the battles that set the stage for an Allied invasion, and the acts of astounding courage and desperation that marked the campaign on both sides.
From Corregidor to the Battle for Manila, from horrifying jungle warfare to cataclysmic clashes at sea, on beachheads and in the air,
Crisis in the Pacific draws on the words of the men who were there — capturing this crucial heroic struggle for victory against Japan.
Customer Reviews:
Completes this often skipped chapter of WWII.......2002-06-25
What do you know about the Battle for the Philippines? Like most, you probably know that: 1) The Japanese invaded, 2) There were intense defensive delaying actions fought at Bataan and Corregidor, 3) MacArthur escaped vowing "I shall return!" 4) Captured survivors suffered greatly in their forced march from Bataan, and 5) Later, MacArthur did triumphantly return and everyone lived happily ever after. But there's much more to this battle than all that. Read about how MacArthur altered the defense plan for the archipelago from the original US plan and why he did so. See how the Imperial Japanese Navy almost dealt a blow to the US Naval Task Force. Learn why MacArthur was portrayed in the limelight (it wasn't personal vanity as some might think). But most of all, experience the bitter conflict through the eyes of the men who made it possible, and also paid for it. Astor's work is very readable, informative, and entertaining.
Crisis in the Pacific; The Battles for the Philippine Island.......1999-12-07
Excellent review of the war in the pacific. This story is long overdue. Hats off to Mr. Astor for the way he intermingled history with the personal stories of the courageous men and women who endured, fought and overcame an extremely vicious enemy. Anyone who had a family member in the pacific during WWII should read this book! Thank you Mr. Astor for a job well done!
Insight to the men who fought in the Philippines during WW2.......1998-06-27
Another great effort by Gerald Astor, this time he offers the reader an oral history of the fighting in the Philippines during WW2. The author draws his narrative from the experiences of American Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen and covers the first and second campaigns conducted in the Philippines during the war. The book provides an interesting and detailed insight into the experiences of the common soldier and helps those who have never experienced such things an understanding why men do certain things. An enjoyable and easy to read account of a WW2 campaign.
He wrote it like I remember.......1997-11-22
The 32 nd Div had 654 days of combat the longest of any Division. It is nice to see our story told.
Book Description
In the 1930s and 40s, Los Angeles became an unlikely cultural sanctuary for a distinguished group of German artists and intellectuals--including Thomas Mann, Theodore W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Fritz Lang, and Arnold Schoenberg--who had fled Nazi Germany. During their years in exile, they would produce a substantial body of major works to address the crisis of modernism that resulted from the rise of National Socialism. Weimar Germany and its culture, with its meld of eighteenth-century German classicism and twentieth-century modernism, provided served as a touchstone for this group of diverse talents and opinions.
Weimar on the Pacific is the first book to examine these artists and intellectuals as a group. Ehrhard Bahr studies selected works of Adorno, Horkheimer, Brecht, Lang, Neutra, Schindler, Döblin, Mann, and Schoenberg, weighing Los Angeles's influence on them and their impact on German modernism. Touching on such examples as film noir and Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, Bahr shows how this community of exiles reconstituted modernism in the face of the traumatic political and historical changes they were living through.
Customer Reviews:
Not at all distant or forgotten an era in LA life.......2007-10-04
I was a student at Caltech in the late 60s and the influence of the European emigree community in LA in science, music, literature, and the arts was still very strongly palpable; indeed many of my best professors were themselves emigrees. Reading this book makes far clearer and more comprehensive than anything I have read before the broad outlines of who these people were and what they accomplished while in the US.
Later a student and businessman myself in Germany and Asia, I see even more clearly what an extraordinary European elite blessed LA with their presence. Not all of them are appealing (I personally don't care for Bertold Brecht or Adorno), but even their influence was no less visible, sometimes on well-known radicals like Angela Davis.
Book Description
The financial crises across Asia in 1997-98 ignited fierce debate about domestic economic weaknesses and flaws in the international financial system. Some analysts blamed Asian governments for inadequate prudential supervision, widespread failures of corporate governance and even "crony capitalism." Others assailed the inherent instability of global financial markets and what they considered to be hasty and ill-conceived liberalization taken at the behest of western-dominated international financial institutions. In this volume a distinguished group of political scientists, economists, and practitioners examines the political and economic causes and consequences of the crisis. To what extent were domestic economic factors to blame for the crisis? Why were some economies more prone to crisis than others? What are the costs and benefits of international financial liberalization? Who bears the risks and the costs of measures taken to reduce them? And what are the prospects for reform of the International Monetary Fund, international banking standards, and foreign exchange systems?
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2002-08-31
Ravenhill and Noble have edited a disappointing collection. The topic is of great importance, but the collection is shallow. This might be because it was brought together rather quickly, when the discussion of the Asian Crisis was still somewhat recent. However, the contributors do not come to grips with the long term consequences of the crisis and nor do they offer a very deep analysis of the genesis of the crisis. There is little deep discussion of over-production, global production trends, inequality or poverty. I expected more from the editors and authors.
Average customer rating:
- No longer topical or relevant
- dated (when it was written)...
- Filled with information and insight.
- more reflective from US scholar after Asian financial Crisis
|
Asian Advantage : Key Strategies for Winning in the Asia-Pacific Region, Updated EditionAfter the Crisis
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economic Conditions
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Exports & Imports
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
International
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Economic Conditions
| International
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| International
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0738203513 |
Book Description
How a rapidly changing Asia offers new opportunities for Western business
Despite the recent financial turmoil in the region, many Asian economies are restructuring and are poised for sustained growth. Asian Advantage is the most comprehensive strategic resource for analyzing business, political, and cultural conditions in each of Asia's fourteen most vibrant economies. From Australia to Japan to Vietnam, Asian Advantage provides a rigorous and practical framework for evaluating each country's potential role in a company's global strategy. With careful planning, multinational companies can greatly increase their fortunes by expanding into new markets, establishing new production sites, entering into wide-reaching alliances, and tapping new sources of intellectual capital. Featuring the recent experiences of six major multinationals-Matsushita, Motorola, Phillips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, and Unilever-as well as numerous other companies active in the region, the book shows any company how to create a customized global strategy program for Asia.
Customer Reviews:
No longer topical or relevant.......2000-10-04
The Asian crisis has changed much and this book does not address issues or circumstances that concern managers or researchers today.
dated (when it was written)..........1999-05-27
This is at best a choppy book, written by various people on their perceptions of Asian business. I think it does little to explain how Asian businesses actually operate -- some it is PR, some of it hype and some just regurgitation from mewspapers, etc. These are some of the same types of people so picked on by the IMF now for failing to inform them how business actually functioned in Asia! The most telling evidence - although written just prior to the onslaught of the Asian crisis, none of the "experts" foresaw it or its effects on competitive business operations in Asia. It is even less useful now. Marginal at best.
Filled with information and insight........1999-03-25
Offers an evaluation of 14 Asian countries in terms of each one's potential role in the global strategies of multinational companies, from both a market and production or supply vantage point. The author examines the extent that strategy must be adapted to each nation and how each is strategically used by companies. It also provides a framework for developing regional and country strategies. Filled with information and insight. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates and HRconsultant.com InfoCenter.
more reflective from US scholar after Asian financial Crisis.......1998-07-13
Asian Financial Crisis is a drama for major multimational group, this book emphsizes new point for observation in asian area. After F.C., all of companies are rethinking regional stratigics and the exactive roles each country in this region. The collection of more 14 scholars which have researched in different asian county for long time. Offering some foundimental ideas could be helpful.
Average customer rating:
|
Dead Reckoning: Confronting the Crisis in Pacific Fisheries (David Suzuki Foundation Series)
Terry Glavin
Manufacturer: Mountaineers Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Fish & Sharks
| Animals
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 089886514X |
Book Description
North America's West Coast, once known for its plentiful fish population, increasingly loses fish and biodiversity as years go by, with dramatic declines in species populations and the concentration of remaining stocks into fewer populations. In Dead Reckoning, author Terry Glavin offers an honest and detailed assessment of the state of these fisheries in the context of what's happening elsewhere in the world. After introducing the players in the fisheries crisis--from fishermen to biologists to "average citizens"--Glavin suggests ways the Pacific fishery can be better managed, and offers solutions to ensure its long-term sustainability.
Average customer rating:
- Inside the Military in a Korean Crisis
- An eye-opener
|
Korea on the Brink: A Memoir of Political Intrigue and Military Crisis
John A. Wickham
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Military & Spies
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| South
| Korea
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Korea
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Middle East
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Relations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1574882902 |
Book Description
In October 1979, a series of potentially catastrophic events was set into motion: President Park Chung-hee was assassinated, South Korean officers staged a coup d’état, and South Korean troops brutally suppressed civilian demonstrators during the controversial Kwangju uprising. Any one of these incidents could have sparked another major conflict on the Korean Peninsula. General Wickham contends war was avoided largely because of resolute action taken by the governments of the United States and the Republic of Korea, and because of the combat readiness of U.S. and South Korean forces. Moreover, he believes that this deterrent contributed to a political-economic evolution in South Korea and to subsequent peaceful transfers of power. Korea on the Brink sheds light on how political-military policy is formulated within the U.S. government and on how such policy is shaped and executed “in the field†under trying circumstances.
Customer Reviews:
Inside the Military in a Korean Crisis.......2007-09-24
This remarkable memoir by the then Commander of U.S. Forces, Korea, the U.S.-Korean Combined Forces Command, and the UN Command is a significant contribution to the history of U.S.-Korean relations and to the major political as well as military role that a senior commander is called upon to play in a major international crisis. It is an excellent companion piece to the diplomatic history of much the same period by former Ambassador William H. Gleysteen (Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence -- see review) and covers the dramatic period following the assassination of Korean President Park Chung-hee, the subsequent internal Korean military coup, the tragedy of Kwangju, and Chun's assumption of the presidency. While written within a narrower frame than the Gleysteen chronicle, General Wickham digs deeper into the internal Korean military intrigue and personalities, and the dialogue between himself and Korean senior officers.
An eye-opener.......2001-04-12
When a country is in the news regularly, I like to read up on that country so can understand the politics of the region. I got this book to learn more about Korea and how it reacts to its neighbors. What an eye-opener! Our troops have played a major role in keeping that part of the world stable and Ambassador Holbrooke comments' make it clear that a stable Korea will help considerably with the balance of power in that region. THis should be required reading for the diplomatic corps and the Foreign Service.
Books:
- Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
- Sharpe's Enemy (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #15)
- Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
- Shattering the German Night: The Story of the White Rose
- SHE WHO DARED: Covert Operations in Northern Ireland with the SAS
- Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front
- Son of the Morning Star
- Stalin's Ghost: An Arkady Renko Novel
- Tales From a Tin Can: The USS Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay
- The Battle of Mogadishu: First Hand Accounts From the Men of Task Force Ranger
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717-17
- A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle With a Deadly Industry
- Safari Beneath the Sea: The Wonder World of the North Pacific Coast
- Sleep Deprivation: Clinical Issues, Pharmacology, and Sleep Loss Effects
- The Lost Colony
- Behavior in Organizations: Understanding and Managing the Human Side of Work
- Tony Hillerman: The Leaphorn and Chee Audio Trilogy: Skinwalkers, A Thief of Time & Coyote Waits
- Ron Arad Talks to Matthew Collings About Designing Chairs, Vases, Buildings and ...
- Simply Safari
- Cultivation of New Zealand Trees and Shrubs
King Of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run Of Salmon
The Behavior And Ecology Of Pacific Salmon And Trout
A Common Fate: Endangered Salmon and the People of the Pacific Northwest
Atlas of Pacific Salmon: The First Map-Based Status Assessment of Salmon in the North Pacific
Field Identification of Coastal Juvenile Salmonids
