1990 Books

One of the most compelling human needs can be summed up in four words: Tell me a story. Sudye Cauthen is a storyteller; from the first paragraph of the preface, I was hooked on Southern Comforts.

Cauthen writes, "This work emerged from a struggle to see my home community and myself in perspective . . . Who I am is intrinsically entwined with place." Her place is Alachua, a small, rural community in northern Florida. A fifth generation Floridian, Cauthen is a writer, poet, folklorist and oral historian who has made a decades-long study of Alachua. She has preserved on tape the voices and stories of generations now gone or almost gone, as the community and the world around it changed. Those voices are added to Cauthen's own in her narrative.

Cauthen has been part of the change, but she has also been the watcher, the seeker, the chronicler of the community's fitful struggle to adapt to a new reality. Her strength of feeling for place, her simple and graceful prose, and her understanding of the ties between rural people and their land bring to mind Wendell Berry. But her voice is all her own - wry and insightful, with a restrained passion for the place that defines her. She has an acute eye for the telling detail. And like good poetry, her work carries a weight that is more than the sum of its parts.

To read Cauthen's words - like hearing the wind in longleaf pines, the calls of sandhill cranes, or the songs of Will McLean - is to be touched by the real Florida. Southern Comforts is at once a rewarding memoir, an astute social history and an evocation of a unique place that is disappearing. Don't miss this book. Really.

"Southern Comforts" is an evocative prose poem of a place - Alachua, Florida - its countryside and town - its people, Native Americans, black, white, young, old, family, friends, living, and dead - and their stories, fact and fable, that coalese and collect in one woman's search for herself. The author is a rare species, a fifth-generation Floridian whose ancestors came to Alachua in horse-drawn wagons in a state ever increasingly populated with transplants.

"Tell me the landscape in which you live," Cauthen quotes Jose Ortega y Gasset, "and I will tell you who you are." Through her exploration of all aspects of her landscape comes, if not peace, self-knowledge and the comforts of understanding, a portal to the present through memories of things past. "Southern Comforts" points a way to those of us who seek why we are who and where we are and how we may find our way and place in today and tomorrow.

Beautifully written, beautifully bound - I purchased six copies and gave five to friends, all of whom love this book.

Sudye Cauthen is a fifth-generation Floridian who blends memoir, oral history and cultural geography to consider the vanishing elements of a place she holds dear. Southern Comforts: Rooted in a Florida Place is a recommended pick for any library strong on Florida history and culture, surveying the roots of changes to tradition and sense of place and considering archeology as well as history in the process.

Harvard Business School professor John Kotter has followed the career paths of the members of the Harvard Business School Class of 1974 -- and what he has found will astonish you if you are like me -- an MBA hopeful working for a large corporation. Kotter observes that the Harvard MBA's have succeeded financially and personally because they have followed volatile and nontraditional career paths outside of large firms. He argues that the world economy is so globalized and the boundaries of corporations are so blurred that the best career opportunities abide in the virtual corporation. In this new career marketplace, great rewards accrue to competitive risk-takers who continually renew their skills. Read this, but be warned: You may decide to quit your job and never work for a large corporation again. -- Dan Green, Harvard Business School Class of 1999.

Similar to the advice offered by Darden finance professor Bob Bruner, himself a member of the HBS class profiled in this book, Kotter demonstrates that those who shunned the corporate world in favor of more impactful jobs with smaller companies have succeeded beyond the levels of their corporate ladder classmates.

Go to small companies and make a difference in the world. Push yourself. Don't accept a slow climb up a bureaucratic corporate ladder.

The book has numerous student profiles to demonstrate the benefits of the road less traveled. Kotter fleshes out the backgrounds and experiences of the students as effectively as character development in a Stephen King novel. The characters come to life and you really feel the urge to break out and go with the start-up company of your own or others. Considering today's dot-com world this advice from the mid-90's appears ahead of its time.

Relative to his other books this one is average, but what's average for Kotter would be exceptional for most.

Also by Kotter: "Leading Change" and "What Leaders Really Do" are also outstanding works by Kotter. HBR article Managing Your Boss (incorporated into "WLRD") is a great reading for MBAs, managers, and workers of all levels.

Dr. John Kotter of Harvard Business School is one of the few scholarly business writers who consistently blends leading edge, visionary concepts with the tough-mindedness that most successful executives admire. I bought this book while looking for something else entirely, but it was well worth it.

I certainly discovered a real gem. Kotter gives us straight talk about the hard realities of today's executive business world. He disabuses us of the notion, if any of us still hold it, that there will be any safety or security in a career based on steady upward mobility in a traditional corporation. He wraps his stoic "new rules" around a twenty-year longitudinal study of the careers of Harvard Business School graduates of the Class of 1974. Showing the actual career paths of a plethora of genuine American success stories is not only fascinating reading, but highly educational.

Kotter bluntly states what it will take to be successful at work in the 21st century: "Settling for good, much less mediocrity is dangerous..Large numbers of people have been taught by big business, big labor and big government that fair-to-good is adequate...ten years from now fair-to-good will probably NEVER lead to success."

In order to get beyond the "fair-to good" range of performance, Professor Kotter makes a strong case for executive assessment, maintaining that a careful, realistic and candid self-examination is imperative, and he places special emphasis on the need for self-awareness regarding gaps in one's development. He couples this with counsel on the need for constant learning.

What does Kotter's study imply for our concept of Executive Community? He says that for those who aim to lead large organizations, their role should be that of the revolutionary, breaking down hierarchies and replacing then with a "flexible network organization" with many more people taking up the responsibilities for leadership. There is a need, he says, to create "self-confidence in competitive situations" through education in both schools and business organizations.

Kotter calls the new business environment "Phase III", marked by globalization of markets and competition. He urges readers who feel that they are working in a business environment "that is not helping prepare him or her for an even tougher Phase III future should move out of that environment as fast as possible. AS FAST AS POSSIBLE."

I love Kotter's sense of urgency. And he is right about so many things, that, if you have not done already, get this book AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. It may be the best business book you have read in a very long time, and one of the few that may stir you to self-improvement.

I would like to maintain an absolute neutrality concerning the book, THE NIETZSCHE LEGACY IN GERMANY 1890-1990 by Steven E. Aschheim, Associate Professor of History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1992, when this book was published. I would only wish to comment on a tiny point which concerns me greatly. The book provides a scholarly look at the manifold positions taken by those who have read Nietzsche and have expressed opinions regarding German nationalism, particularly regarding Zarathustra in the trenches in World War I, the Third Reich, National Socialism, and Nazism. Notes are at the bottom of each page, but many names and a few topics can be located in the book by using the index on pages 331-337. The index has three minor entries for music. In this season, I am concerned about music as a form of artistic expression which allows someone to communicate a message that surpasses logical forms. Overall, Nietzsche might be associated with a form of transcendental irony that throws in comments about music whenever philosophy seems to be missing the boat on which he would like to embark. A quick look in the index of THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY establishes that Nietzsche wrote about German music and German songs in sections 19, 23, and 24 in the first edition of 1872, and even more aptly in sections 6 and 7 of the "Attempt at a Self-Criticism" added at the beginning of that book (BT) in 1886.

"But let the liar and the hypocrite beware of German music: for amid all our culture it is really the only genuine, pure, and purifying fire-spirit from which and toward which, as in the teaching of the great Heraclitus of Ephesus, all things move in a double orbit: all that we now call culture, education, civilization, must some day appear before the unerring judge, Dionysus." (BT, section 19, Tr. by Walter Kaufmann, p. 120).

Nietzsche thought the key to culture was in its highest form, "if only it can learn constantly from one people--the Greeks, from whom to be able to learn at all is itself a high honor and a rare distinction." (BT, p. 121).

In 1918, Ernst Bertram's NIETZSCHE: AN ATTEMPT AT A MYTHOLOGY appeared in Germany. In it, Nietzsche's analysis of German spirit as a link to the primitive spiritual power which Nietzsche expected music to express, seriously opposes a pallid form of civilization:

"The identity of music and Germanism which the young Nietzsche sensed everywhere enabled him to perceive this Germanism as the most serious and eternal opponent of everything that was mere civilization. ... (The idea of the polarization between civilization and culture is as typically Nietzschean as it is typically German.)" (Aschheim, p. 150).

As an American, I am more likely to associate rock 'n' roll with an ability to assert ultimate values, but the need for an intellectual analysis of the difference between rock's potential and the dominance of commercial forms acceptable within modern society seems to be the same as Nietzsche's preference for Dionysian ideals "at a time when the German spirit, which not long before had still had the will to dominate Europe and the strength to lead Europe, was just making its testament and abdicating forever, making its transition, under the pompous pretense of founding a Reich, to a leveling mediocrity, democracy, and `modern ideas'!" (BT, SC section 6, p. 25).

My inability to derive any larger message from THE NIETZSCHE LEGACY IN GERMANY 1890-1990 is probably due to the intellectual seriousness of this book, in which countless thinkers find themselves in a political situation which suffers from great shifts almost yearly, if Thomas Mann, DIARIES 1918-1939, as quoted on page 149 of this book, is a good indication. I would prefer to picture the German people being led more dimly, subject to a vast fraud, constantly trying to do the impossible, orchestrated from on high by someone more powerful than Richard Wagner. But in my book, instead of being serious politics, it would be a joke, like reading `The Onion' or watching news on the Comedy Channel.

"Because both Nietzsche and Nazism are central to the twentieth-century experience and because both retain their symbolic explosiveness, the disputed nature of their relationship has become a defining part of the cultural and ideological landscape, one index to our perceptions of the modern world" (232). This brilliant quote provides in a nutshell the basic existential weight of Steven E. Aschheim's fascinating historiographical work concerning the many mis/uses of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche in Germany between 1890 and 1990. It has become customary - and for good reason, too - to see in Friedrich Nietzsche, the self-proclaimed "anti-Christ" of the late 19th century, a type of proto-Nazism, particularly in its glorification of aesthetics at the expense of any metaphysical notions of human dignity. Although this may - and perhaps even should - be the way that Nietzsche is thought of, Aschheim shows that it is by no means necessary that this should be the case. The book very much could have been titled "The Nietzsche Legacies in Germany 1890 - 1990".

St. Paul exhorted the early Christians to be "all things to all people". In what Nietzsche himself would likely consider a delightful twisting of Paul's words, we can truly write that Nietzsche was, after the time of his insanity (and even more so after his death), "all things to all Ubermenschen (overmen)". Briefly, Nietzsche proclaimed "the Overman" who would lead humanity to a more Dionysian (as opposed to more Christian) "humanity". He knew that some would consider him this great human-overcoming-of-humanity, but in his greatest (or at least most literate) work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche denied it, painting himself as a type of proto-prophet, prophesying about the prophet who would truly point the way to the Ubermensch/Overman. This concept of the Overman - of being the Overman - seems to have caught on in Germany quite quickly.

Perhaps as with all religions - and it does indeed seem that there really was a type of Nietzschean religion (even temples dedicated to him were designed, but not built - there were as many interpretations of Nietzsche after his death as there were followers of Nietzsche. It seems that early on, he was the most popular among the avant-garde in Germany, but by first World War, he had become a household name. During the Great War, an Englishman even dubbed it the "Euro-Nietzschean War"; it appears that by this time Nietzsche was known internationally and his influence on the Germans just as much.

There is a type of subplot to this book, however, and that is the quest of certain Germans in the 20th century to subsume Nietzsche to a type of ahistoric German-ness: there were some, for instance, who would drawn a straight line from Martin Luther's longing for freedom to Friedrich Nietzsche's ultimate rejection of Christianity. The idea of a German religion and a German mysticism (which actually is at least as old Martin Luther, who polemically titled - against the Italians/Roman Catholics - a popular, anonymous, high medieval-era mystical work "The *German* Theology" - and it has been called this ever since). Thus, the book is true to its full title: this is the story of the competing legacies of Friedrich Nietzsche *in Germany*.

The Nazis do come in for treatment in the final quarter of the book; Aschheim notes the various ways in which they used a number of Nietzsche's themes while also, at the same time, found it necessary to explain away various statements in Nietzsche's writings that ran counter to their thought - especially his remarks about the stupidity of anti-Semitism. Within this hermeneutical conundrum emerged the Nazification of Nietzsche and their horrific usage of him against the Jews: by hating Christianity and seeing it as the product of Judaism, the Nazis claimed that they really were fulfilling Nietzsche's dreams of a world without the Church by first annihilating the Jews. Such logic - which only feels like a small stretch - causes one to wonder whether or not a text is not just the totality of its variations, but the totality of its readings as well. Can Nietzsche be blamed - at least in part - for the Holocaust?

But the book ends in cryptically Nietzschean mode, the man with his doppleganger, the light with its shadows: the question is unanswered. If any sense is to be made of it - a subtle sense, no doubt, nuanced and refined through repeated examinations - this is a fine place to start. The various types of Nietzscheanism discussed throughout the book are likely to leave many readers perplexed, for they could be as bewildering as they were socially and politically charged. But, speaking and writing are never neutral - and Nietzsche never intended to be, either.

Like the battle for the body of Patroclus, conflicting interpretations of Nietzsche are strewn across the twentieth century, leaving few proofs of a triumph of the will. Between the irrationalism indicted by Lukacs and the vigorous liberal depicted by Kaufmann, we are still in search of Nietzsche. The work of Kaufmann,especially, was a critical first step to any reevaluation of this legacy. Yet its perspective fails to completely account for the record and the shadow behind the man, now too often exempted of the implications of his own savage eloquence. This work is a corrective and traces the whole history of the question from the 1890's onward, and resummons the grim stages of Nietzsche's appropriation by preposterous figures of all hues. From the not-so-discrete Nietzscheanism of the avant-garde to the Zarathustra in the trenches of World War I to the phantom of the opera during the Third Reich the horrific travesties seem too recurrent to release their author from all complicity, even as they leave the deeper Nietzsche intact. It is difficult not to swing between extremes of interpretation here, and the book carefully constructs the middle ground, as we pass on and say goodbye to all that.
The book details that several hundred thousand copies of Zarathustra were printed for distribution to the soldiers in the trenches during Great War. One can begin to deduce the rest from that.

This book is the result of Sills' consuming photographic affair with a rural family in Georgia. After thousands of photographs we see this basic American Southern family grow and develop before our eyes. Sills' eyes and camera allow us to discover beauty where others may see ... trash and dirt. Tina Toole develops into a Frida Kahloesque sort of chameleon-like woman, often pretty, sometimes tough, but always mesmerizing. This is one of those books that every photographic aficionado should buy.

This book won the 2000 Southern Books Competition Award of Excellence in Book Design from the Southeastern Library Association. This award is given in recognition of the book's aesthetic appeal and design and for fine craftsmanship in its printing and binding. Congratulations to author Vaughn Sills, designer Kyong Choe, printer C & C Offset, and the University of Georgia Press.

Vaughn Sills' One Family has done something, but done it very sublty; by focusing for twenty years on photographing the Toole family from Georgia, Sills has managed to photograph many families, represented by this proud and tenacious family whose corner of world happens to be the American South. You could easily call this a book "a photgraphy book looking at the rural south"; and it is, the dialogue and writings in the book sometimes show that Southern vernacular; the scenery sometimes seems typically "Southern"; but to stop there at "Southern" as a despricition is missing the larger picture. To stop there would be to miss the wonderful, wide, world of people in every day life, engaged in just simply living. The writing included in the book is revealing, personal and touching, Some of it is dialogue with family members and some is poetry by Tina Toole Truelove. These words and feelings are what help tie the book to the world at large because we see that, even in the South, people feel a certain way, have certain experiences. Yes, this book would be a great source for a vew on a part of the American South,but don't stop there on your journey with this beautifully photographed book. I treasure mine and treasure the truths I see in their faces.

Probably, the story of Rwandan genocide is the most shocking international scandal of the post World War II era. The book is a brilliant reconstruction of that time, written with amazing clarity and based on well established facts.
In three months of 1994 about one million people was killed in organised genocide. The killing rate was five times faster than that achieved by the Nazis during WWII holocaust. But on the contrary to the Nazis, the Rwandan genocide happened in the full light of the international media, with the full knowledge of the UN Security Council and the Western governments.
Linda Melvern describes and documents in detail the role of the West in the genocide.
The story is so bad that almost all of the publishers in the UK refused to publish this book with comments like "the story is really too awful" or "I cannot see people forking out money to read about such an unspeakable subject..."

Do you think you can fork out some money for the truth? I think this book is certainly worth any money.

`Quite extraordinary: precise, and yet overwhelming; a fine balance in the face of depravity... Linda Melvern has written an extraordinary account of the Rwanda genocide, and the shocking failure of the West to lift a finger... What Melvern demonstrates so powerfully is that where Western geopolitical interests are absent, Western morality and `civilised' concerns are nowhere to be found ... A brave and compelling book.' - Professor Richard Falk, Center of International Studies, Princeton University

`This is a devastating account of lies, deceit, complacency and tragic neglect.... All we can hope is that this fine book will provide lessons for the future, because it provides all of us who lobby and campaign for early warning systems and conflict prevention with invaluable evidence. Looking around the world, you wonder what has been learnt since 1994. Linda Melvern deserves our thanks for investing so much in breaking the silence and revealing the truth.' - Glenys Kinnock, MEP; Chair, Forum on Early Warning And Early Response (FEWER)

'What happened in Rwanda is one of the most appalling, heartbreaking tragedies that the world has known. Why did it occur? And what more could have been done to prevent it? This serious, very thorough attempt to answer those questions will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand what happened. This is a powerful and important book.' - The Right Reverend Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford

`A riveting and well-researched account of the horrendous crimes committed in Rwanda while an indifferent world, to its shame, looked the other way. There are grim lessons here for everyone, from international statesmen and politicians to responsible citizens and decent human beings everywhere' - Dame Margaret Anstee

'This is a very important book. It is a book that a large number of people should read....what is good about the book is that it shows the big picture. It shows the failure that actually took place. It tells the story of what really happened. An outstandingly good book... ...compelling.....its content is exceptional.' - Colin Keating, Secretary for Justice, New Zealand Ministry of Justice, and former New Zealand Ambassador to the UN

After all the fine words and 'never agains' the truth is out. Genocide will slip right in front of major organs of news and nothing happens to stop it.
This short but detailed account of the Rwanda genocide 1994 is both low-key and shocking and needs examination.

The story continues and in color too! A brilliant third volume from the curator of the Photorealist art movement and made more enjoyable because the six hundred plus paintings are all in color. I have the two previous books and good as they were I always felt they were let down by having too many of the 2,323 pictures in black and white but here's an interesting point, the first book had 710 color and 493 b/w, the second book had 560 color and 560 b/w, this latest book has 620 color and no black and whites, does this mean the Movement is on the wane? I hope not because I feel that Photorealism is somehow a uniquely American art movement.

The format follows the same style as the others, an upfront essay (in this case Linda Chase writes about the use of photography by artists over the last century or so) followed by hundreds of illustrations from the featured artists, twenty-eight in this book. These artists are continuing to record 'the fascinating in the familiar' as Ms Chase succinctly puts it and this is one reason I love these paintings, they record Americana so wonderfully, though it is worth remembering that when these paintings, many of them huge, are reproduced a few inches wide it tightens up all the detail and they become even more 'photographic'. On page seventeen of the first volume twelve artists work was shown (unfortunately in black and white) the same size as the original painting and you can see how different their brushstrokes are.

Of the artists, some of my favorites are Davis Cone for his movie theaters (and if you like him too, have a look at a lovely book about movie theaters and his paintings, eighty shown in 'Popcorn Palaces') Robert Gniewek for street scenes at night, Charles Bell the pinball wizard, Linda Bacon for her toy tableau's including one called 'Crash' which has a three toy car pile-up and artfully uses Grant Wood's painting 'Death on the Ridge Road' as a backdrop. Perhaps the most amazing paintings in the book are Don Jacot's 'Retro-Active' (it took most of 1998 to paint) and 'Garbo's' (2001) both show shop-fronts with the windows crammed with nostalgia antiques. I sometimes think these artists do their best to make the painting as hard to do as possible!

So, a lovely book to enjoy over and over and thank you Mr Meisel for your faith in these artists and the Photorealist movement. I'm looking forward to the fourth volume around 2010.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Louis Meisel et al. have produced yet another beautiful edition to the definitive series on photorealism. Like the two previous volumes ("Photorealism" and "Photorealism Since 1980"), this gorgeous coffeetable book contains page after page of beautiful plates. New work by all the old favorites is here including Estes, Goings, Bell, etc. plus many new artists not featured in the earlier volumes. If you liked either of the two previous volumes, jump on this quick before it's outta print and you gotta mortgage the pig farm to pay for a copy from a used art book dealer. Thoughtfully, this volume is the same dimensions as the previous books in the series so it looks real cool parked next to 'em on the old art book shelf.

Me like!!! 'Nuf said.

This book, along with the earlier 'Photorealism' and 'Photorealism since 1980' are quite simply 'the best' in my collection of art books. I never get tired of looking at the masses of incredible images by these great modern artists. Louis Meisel is to be congratulated for allowing the rest of the world to share these great works, many of which would otherwise be hidden to most of us.

A must have for a house officer or practitioner. Though it is a little big to put in you pocket it is well presented and well organized. Actually you can get it into your lab coat pocket.

The book is very easy to use and has been an asset in pharmacy school. Gives you the pertinent information quickly. I like it better than our required Drug Information. Many students in both the Pharmacy and PA program like it.

If you can only have one drug reference book, this is it. It's better than anything else I've seen. If you're a pharmacist or a pharmacy student, and don't have a photographic memory, get this book. Unlike Facts or PDR, this book let's you look up essential info quickly. I've notice APhA's handbook is full of typo's.(e.g take food w/APAP) I've been using this book for six years now. It's my favorite book! (At least until the new edition comes out.)

A few years ago, Quimby's books in Chicago had a whole bunch of these little digest-sized, xerox-produced, hand stapled booklets by Raymond Pettibon. I never bought any, and always regretted it. Some savvy art-speculator probably snatched up the whole lot. They were selling them for a dollar or two each, and now they go for hundreds on the market. They were personally handmade by the great Pettibon himself, and thus qualified as actual Pettibon original artworks. Anyway, I missed my chance to get any of these--not necessarily to profit from them, just to, y'know, have 'em--but here is your chance(I've already got it) to have a near-complete collection. The books are presented actual size (approx. 8.5"x5.5"), arranged chronologically, each issue complete with front and back covers, and a detailed bibliography at the end. Aging punkers will probably recognize some of this stuff from their SST record covers and gig flyers, but there's alot of stuff I had never seen before. Truly, truly great.

This has all the great early Pettibon images, as seen in his
renowned 'zines from the early 1980's. It is worth getting, and
is all you need when it comes to early Pettibon. Very Powerful
stuff.

This book is Raymond Pettibon complete works from 1978-1978. If you never heard of Raymond Pettibon he was the in-house artist for SST records. He's done art work for Black Flag, Sonic Youth, and the Minutemen. His artwork looks at the social and political confusion of life. Pettibon's artwork consist of somewhat viloent imagery but with a twist of humor. Anyone that has a since of humor will love Pettibon's artwork.

I recently spent a month in Europe. I was suprised after visiting Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and London- that Berlin emerged as my favorite place.... that despite what I thought beforehand, I left my heart in Berlin, not Prague.

I only went to Berlin because I studied many historical events that took place there, and Berlin was the epicenter of The Cold War! West Berlin was THE capitalist showpiece and East Berlin was THE communist showpiece. United, Berlin will become (when all the construction has been completed) Europe's showpiece and greatest city- WITHOUT A DOUBT.

This book is the story of the awesome history of Berlin, a history that seems more embedded in tragedy than triumph. But, alas, Berlin has survived two devastating wars and the harsh reality of the WALL. Now, it is Berlin's turn. It's Berlin's turn to show the world what a magnificant place she was, is, and will become.

The Rebuilding of the Reichstag not only talks about the post-Wall renovations, but illustrates in great detail the history of the building, and thus the history of Berlin- you are taken on a journey of the history of a city and it's people....the people of Berlin who always seem to have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and begin again. In this book, the Reichstag shares with you what she has witnessed. You are there in 1933 when Hitler's men torched the place. You are there in 1945 witnessing the hollow shell of the war damaged Reichstag. You are there witnessing the division of the city as the Wall ran directly behind the building. You are there witnessing the divisions end as the wall comes tumbling down, and you are witness to the jubilation outside the Reichstag upon German unification.

After reading through this great book, I realized what a centerpiece to Berlin's history the Reichstag truly is. It's not just a parliament building- it's Berlin! The Reichstag speaks for Berlin's history. The fate of the Reichstag seems to run parallel to that of Berlin. What has happened to the Reichstag has happened to Berlin.

This book is full of awesome illustrations, from grand photos, to models, to architectural plans. Not only does it show the evolution of the Reichstag- it shows various plans for the building from the beginning and throughout its history. That is perhaps the most interesting part- the plans that people came up with. It's really too bad the "Big Roof" idea didn't pan out- because it would have been truly awe inspiring.

Even if you are only interested in architecture and have no interest in history- this book is still definitely for you.

That is why this book is so great.... I thought upon first seeing it, it would be pure architecture... it is pure architecture, but Foster has managed to capture something huge and so great. Foster has managed to capture Berlin.... a city on the verge of finally becoming.

If you want to know more about Lord Norman Foster's contribution towards Germany, then, this book would be it. It tells you all you need to know about Reichstag, probably the most controversial building ever built in the history of Germany. Along the way, you get to learn more about Germany as a country. This book was well presented with high quality pictures abound, taken by several prominent photographers of all aspects & angles of Reichstag, pictures of Lord Foster's previous works (to understand his way of seeing things), pictures of Reichstag's past and present (to let us appreciate how far that building has gone through). Moreover, to enhance diversity & to understand Reichstag from many prespectives, Norman Foster invited several scholars to complement his own writings. The final result was simply spectacular. I wouldn't find this book academic. Rather, I found it highly entertaining & I came out of it a better knowledgeable person. Definitely a must-have for architecture enthusiast or if you want to have a cerebral hard bound book to display on top of your coffee table. Among the highlights of the book was reading about the competition stage, about Lord Foster pitching against other international superarchitects (such as Santiago Calatrava) and local architects from Germany, & of his reservation if Germany was sincere towards its invitation of international people other than Germans to participate or the whole thing was just for show; his emphasis of 4 points, ie. Parliament being intertwined with Reichstag's history, an understanding of the institution & its inner workings, economics in terms of meeting the budget in the restoration of Reichstag & the savings achieved through reduced running costs via technology advancement & clever planning, & lastly the emphasis on energy ecology by using sustainable environment friendly for sources of energy other than its reliance on fossil fuels- reinforcing Germany's image as the country that takes the lead in fostering better technology that would reduce the unfavourable impacts towards our fragile environment; a project all on its own for Lord Foster to design the eagle or better known as the "fat hen" that signified Germany; Lord Foster's involvement with avantgarde artists such as Jenny Holzers (American), Christian Boltanski (French), Gerhard Richter & Sigmar Polke (German) & many others -reminding readers that Reichstag is not merely acting as a Parliament but also as an important Art Gallery (3% of the construction cost of the building, already 1% higher than the norm); the evolving stage of deriving the iconic dome, which was deemed as a 'boiled egg' by some critics at one stage but eventually, being deemed as the icon that all Germans are proud with in the end; Lord Foster's invitation of Danish graphic artist, Per Arnoldi to look into colour coordination of the place; the intensity (at times, heartbreak) but effectiveness of constant dialogues with the Building Committees, the techniques used in the restoration process re the graffitis left behind by the Allies armies after WW2, Claude Engle (lighting consultant)'s invaluable contribution of the lighting design by channelling xenon lights towards the cone & thus, channelling them through all corners of German, symbolising the democracy at work & spreading thru all corners of the land, & so forth. The book also contained a proper Reichstag's chronology, end credits, postscripts to bombard us with even more information. Lord Foster stressed the significance of getting in touch with the past, to live the present, & anticipate the future with optimism, sensitivity towards the history of a building to come up with a building solution that is appropriate for its time rather than having to resort to brutal reconstruction, the necessity of having transparency & lightness interior in contrast with the solid mass exterior to show the passage of time & the changes made in terms of thinking. Highly recommended.

I recently spent a month in Europe. I was suprised after visiting Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and London- that Berlin emerged as my favorite place.... that despite what I thought beforehand, I left my heart in Berlin, not Prague.

I only went to Berlin because I studied many historical events that took place there, and Berlin was the epicenter of The Cold War! West Berlin was THE capitalist showpiece and East Berlin was THE communist showpiece. United, Berlin will become (when all the construction has been completed) Europe's showpiece and greatest city- WITHOUT A DOUBT.

This book is the story of the awesome history of Berlin, a history that seems more embedded in tragedy than triumph. But, alas, Berlin has survived two devastating wars and the harsh reality of the WALL. Now, it is Berlin's turn. It's Berlin's turn to show the world what a magnificant place she was, is, and will become.

The Rebuilding of the Reichstag not only talks about the post-Wall renovations, but illustrates in great detail the history of the building, and thus the history of Berlin- you are taken on a journey of the history of a city and it's people....the people of Berlin who always seem to have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and begin again. In this book, the Reichstag shares with you what she has witnessed. You are there in 1945 witnessing the hollow shell of the war damaged Reichstag. You are there witnessing the division of the city as the Wall ran directly behind the building. You are there witnessing the divisions end as the wall comes tumbling down, and you are witness to the jubilation outside the Reichstag upon German unification.

After reading through this great book, I realized what a centerpiece to Berlin's history the Reichstag truly is. It's not just a parliament building- it's Berlin! The Reichstag speaks for Berlin's history. The fate of the Reichstag seems to run parallel to that of Berlin. What has happened to the Reichstag has happened to Berlin.

This book is full of awesome illustrations, from grand photos, to models, to architectural plans. Not only does it show the evolution of the Reichstag- it shows various plans for the building from the beginning and throughout its history. That is perhaps the most interesting part- the plans that people came up with. It's really too bad the "Big Roof" idea didn't pan out- because it would have been truly awe inspiring.

Even if you are only interested in architecture and have no interest in history- this book is still definitely for you.

That is why this book is so great.... I thought upon first seeing it, it would be pure architecture... it is pure architecture, but Foster has managed to capture something huge and so great. Foster has managed to capture Berlin.... a city on the verge of finally becoming.

Don't worry if you are not a science-oriented person! This is a great resource for anyone interested in evolution, dna and natural selection. The book is almost a dialogue between the authors and each topic's history, growth and purpose is given in everyday language and images. If you are a scientist, you will still find this a valuable tool, especially if you've ever tried to explain some of these issues to non-scientists.

Edey and Johanson do a splendid job of detailing the philosophies and scientific discoveries that led to the formation of modern evolutionary thought. The history they present is filled with interesting details and offers a good refresher on high school biology. It begins with many pre-Darwinian thoughts and works its way up to the present (or 1990). Along the way the authors occasionally dialogue between themselves explaining various topics, offering analogies for concepts, presenting possible theories, and giving personal details about the men and women involved in this field.

...the book is more presentational rather than apologetic. On occasion the authors did generalize creationism with Biblical fundamentalism, but they also admit once to the difficulty of originating life. I would also have liked to have seen more fossil discoveries outside the realm of humanity, a discussion on stem cell and embryo development, and perhaps a brief tracing of the likely line of descent from single celled bacteria to the major classes of vertebrates. (I am a theist, so take into consideration any bias.)

Overall, there were only a few tedious pages, but it is otherwise an excellent book that I had a hard time putting down.

Blueprints is just what the title says. A look at how evolution performed its magic work, on our species and others. While I started reading this book knowing what evolution was, I left it knowing how it works. Taking you from the first scientific investigation of the relations of species, through to the discovery of DNA, Maitland Edey and Donald Johanson clearly and easily walk you through time. The concepts are explained simply and succinctly, in an entertaining style that often includes humorous incidents as the world of science lurched toward our current level of understanding. I would recommend this book to anyone, including students, who wishes to experience the evolution of evolution