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No industries had greater impact on everyday life and work in the second half of the twentieth century than consumer electronics and computers. Yet the epic story of the founding of the Information Age remains almost completely unknown. Now Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr. systematically records for the first time from a global perspective the origins and evolution of these transforming industries. In this marvelous chronicle of the trailblazing high-technology companies and products that laid the foundation for the Electronic Century, Chandler shows with unerring command of fact and data precisely where, when, how, and by whom technical knowledge was initially commercialized.

In richly textured magisterial prose, Chandler describes how Radio Corporation of America shaped the consumer electronics industry from its beginnings in the 1920s to the 1960s. He explains how catastrophic management decisions that brought about the collapse of RCA opened the door to Sony and Matsushita and ultimately to Japan's worldwide conquest of consumer electronics markets. At the same time, Chandler shows that the computer industry has been a strikingly American triumph. Readers will discover a wealth of penetrating insights in Chandler's riveting account of the rise of the mainframe, the minicomputer, and the microprocessor. What is more, Chandler documents the surprising and little-known fact that first mover IBM dominated the computer industry from the 1950s to the 1990s and that the Japanese, first by making IBM plug-compatibles and later with their large systems and servers, became its major competitors.

Only by following the history of firms that commercialized these new technologies and knowing the details of competitive success and failure can managers truly understand their industries. Inventing the Electronic Century is timely and essential reading for every manager and student of high technology.Amazon.com Review
Start-ups get all the attention, but the credit or blame for much of the 20th century's gadget frenzy lies squarely with giants like IBM and Sony. Business historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr. thoroughly documents the rise and fall of big players in the consumer electronic and computer industries in Inventing the Electronic Century.

It's not light reading--Chandler draws on mountainous reserves of knowledge of business, politics, technology, and social trends to reach his conclusions, and the narrative relies equally on boardroom stories and commercial data. Still, the book's compelling, often cautionary tales should help managers and investors see patterns underlying their own industrial behaviors, and perhaps emulate Sony more than RCA.

The scope of the book can be daunting, and in many ways parallels the global changes seen throughout the century, including the rise of the Japanese economy, the capricious American commercial sector, and the relative stasis of postwar Europe. Committed and patient readers will gain insight into the nature of the tech industry in Inventing the Electronic Century, and then start inventing the next one. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Basic History, First Mover Theory
Alfred Chandler is an award winning author and management theorist.This book documents the history of the consumer electronics and computer industries adequately.It describes the ways in which Europe died, the US took the lead in some sectors and how Japan has cumulatively dominated the scientifically based components.

The proposed theory seems weak.First mover advantage matters, except when it does not.Many other conclusions can be drawn from the author's accurate history.Corporate advantage is often the random fate of chance.Really smart individuals change history 2 or 3 times.IBM failed so many times, but emerged a winner because it left hardware for services.Computer Associates successfully pursued an acquisition strategy but others could not.US anti-trust agreements really matter.US corporations have been dabbling in other countries for 120 years.Dell's growth stemmed from a production innovation, rather than marketing experise.MicroSoft's key triumphs came from leveraging its monopoly position in operating systems, repeatedly.

Deep technical skills and first mover advantage DO matter in technical industries.They are not the only factor.

The brilliant strategy of Japanese Companies in electronics
Alfred Chandler has organized the factual information of the key companies in the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries during the second half of the XX century. The title of my review is a suggestion of another apropriate subtitle of this book.

The subject is very complex, specially if we look at the technology involved. My major comment is: the author has a limited technical knowledge and this has limited the depth of his analyses, comments and conclusions. This does not invalidate the major conclusions that he has presented in this book.

I think that it would be interesting to expand the story told in this book by studying/describing the evolution of the whole envinronment around these industries, including the engineering schools and research institutes that supply the brains to develop all the technology involved.

The history of the electronics industry carry an important lesson, about concentration of skills and economic power in only one company (RCA). It was a good thing, while RCA was leading, but when it started to make major strategic mistakes it brought down the whole American Industry. The Japanese Industry used several companies to compete against American and European Companies, this created a whole envinronment, that included engineering schools, research facilities, several different companies where one could make a career and different ideas being tested and pursued at the same time. When you look at the capacity of inovation and development of new technologies of the japanese companies and their envinronment they were a lot more competitive. They created a competitive envinronment so agressive in Japan that western rivals were later decimated by them.

The lesson hidden in the history of the electronics industry is very important, when we look at the industrial policy in America in other industries, like Automobiles, where there is only two American Manufacturers, it is easy to see why Japanese companies are doing much better, they are following the same type of competitive organization in this industry... Ford and GM are going in the same direction of RCA... This will raise a very important question, in what industries does America plans to remain competitive in the future??? This will determine the long term stability of the American Democracy.

One may criticize the quality of this book, but the history told in this book should be understood and deserves attention.

One aspect related to the industries studied that should be brought to attention is the availability of information about the japanese industry due to the language barrier.

More company histories than analytic principles
In earlier books by Chandler that I liked very much, such as Strategy & Structure and The Visible Hand, historical narrative took precedence over facts and figures. Epic stories were told, and individual biography was subordinated to broader historical developments.In this book, I felt the balance tilted the other way: I found myself fighting to concentrate on the story, while wading through very specific details that I quickly forgot as I moved onto the next company history.

Chandler has certainly done his homework.In the Preface, he notes his limited technical knowledge of the consumer electronics and computer industries, but one would never guess that from the adept way he handles technical terms and explains the significance of various innovations. With many tables in the text and more in the appendix, Chandler convincingly documents his story.

It is a simple one: firms that came to dominate their industries did so by being first movers that established integrated learning bases, based on technical, functional or managerial knowledge. They thus gained economies of scale and scope (another concept that Chandler has contributed to the business history literature), obtained a critical head start, and successfully beat back most entrepreneurial startups.In consumer electronics, a handful of Japanese firms built on their initial advantages to not only dominate world markets but also to destroy domestic producers in the U.S.In computers, however, IBM built a lead it never relinquished, even though it was repeatedly challenged by European and Japanese firms.

Chandler noted, with obvious relish, that top executives in many firms engaged in short-sighted strategies that eventually brought them down. For example, RCA created many innovations that it licensed to the Japanese firms that ultimately destroyed it. Indeed, perhaps the major benefit of including so many detailed company histories is that they remind us of just how wrong so many excutives have been!

If you know little about the history of these two industries, Chandler's book will give you an excellent overview.If you are familiar with them, you can still appreciate Chandler's skill in conveying the international comparative context for their evolution in the 20th century. In his provocative conclusion, Chandler asks whether the Japanese firms, with their strong integrated learning bases and dominance of consumer electronics, will ultimately triumph in the struggle for control of the world's information technology industries. ... Read more

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Inventing Film Studies offers original and provocative insights into the institutional and intellectual foundations of cinema studies. While many scholars have linked the origins of the discipline to late-1960s developments in the academy such as structuralist theory and student protest, this collection reveals the multiple material and institutional forces--both inside and outside of the university--that have long shaped the field. Beginning with the first investigations of cinema in the early twentieth century, this volume provides detailed examinations of the varied social, political, and intellectual milieus in which knowledge of cinema has been generated. The contributors demonstrate how multiple instantiations of film study have had a tremendous influence on the methodologies, curriculum, modes of publication, and professional organizations that now constitute the university-based discipline. Extending the historical insights into the contemporary moment, contributors also consider the future directions of film study in a changing technological and cultural environment.

Inventing Film Studies shows how the study of cinema has developed in relation to a constellation of institutions, technologies, practices, individuals, films, books, government agencies, pedagogies, and theories. Contributors illuminate the connections between early cinema and the social sciences, between film programs and nation-building efforts, and between universities and U.S. avant-garde filmmakers. They analyze the evolution of film studies in relation to the Museum of Modern Art, the American Film Council movement of the 1940s and 1950s, the British Film Institute, influential journals, cinephilia, and technological innovations past and present. Taken together, the essays in this collection reveal the rich history and contemporary vitality of film studies.

Contributors: Charles R. Acland, Mark Lynn Anderson, Mark Betz, Zoë Druick, Lee Grieveson, Stephen Groening, Haden Guest, Amelie Hastie, Lynne Joyrich, Laura Mulvey, Dana Polan, D. N. Rodowick, Philip Rosen, Alison Trope, Haidee Wasson, Patricia White, Sharon Willis, Peter Wollen, Michael Zryd ... Read more

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The telegraph and the telephone were the first electrical communications networks to become hallmarks of modernity. Yet they were not initially expected to achieve universal accessibility. In this pioneering history of their evolution, Richard R. John demonstrates how access to these networks was determined not only by technological imperatives and economic incentives but also by political decision making at the federal, state, and municipal levels. In the decades between the Civil War and the First World War, Western Union and the Bell System emerged as the dominant providers for the telegraph and telephone. Both operated networks that were products not only of technology and economics but also of a distinctive political economy. Western Union arose in an antimonopolistic political economy that glorified equal rights and vilified special privilege. The Bell System flourished in a progressive political economy that idealized public utility and disparaged unnecessary waste.

The popularization of the telegraph and the telephone was opposed by business lobbies that were intent on perpetuating specialty services. In fact, it wasn't until 1900 that the civic ideal of mass access trumped the elitist ideal of exclusivity in shaping the commercialization of the telephone. The telegraph did not become widely accessible until 1910, sixty-five years after the first fee-for-service telegraph line opened in 1845.

Network Nation places the history of telecommunications within the broader context of American politics, business, and discourse. This engrossing and provocative book persuades us of the critical role of political economy in the development of new technologies and their implementation.

Customer Reviews (1)

New light on an old subject
This book, based on new archives, presents a wealth of new information on Western Union and Bell.An invaluable resource.In particular, possibly the most useful book on Western Union yet published. The Bell sections present new information that threatens many of the existing theories of why AT&T came to rule American telecommunications as a private regulated monopoly. ... Read more

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The Roman author Pliny the Younger characterizes Christianity as "contagious superstition"; two centuries later the Christian writer Eusebius vigorously denounces Greek and Roman religions as vain and impotent "superstitions." The term of abuse is the same, yet the two writers suggest entirely different things by "superstition."

Dale Martin provides the first detailed genealogy of the idea of superstition, its history over eight centuries, from classical Greece to the Christianized Roman Empire of the fourth century C.E. With illuminating reference to the writings of philosophers, historians, and medical teachers he demonstrates that the concept of superstition was invented by Greek intellectuals to condemn popular religious practices and beliefs, especially the belief that gods or other superhuman beings would harm people or cause disease. Tracing the social, political, and cultural influences that informed classical thinking about piety and superstition, nature and the divine, Inventing Superstition exposes the manipulation of the label of superstition in arguments between Greek and Roman intellectuals on the one hand and Christians on the other, and the purposeful alteration of the idea by Neoplatonic philosophers and Christian apologists in late antiquity.

Inventing Superstition weaves a powerfully coherent argument that will transform our understanding of religion in Greek and Roman culture and the wider ancient Mediterranean world.

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In this pathfinding study, Ross draws upon the life histories of imprisoned Native American women to demonstrate how race/ethnicity, gender, and class contribute to the criminalizing of various behaviors and subsequent incarceration rates. Drawing on the Native women's own words, she reveals the violence in their lives prior to incarceration, their respective responses to it, and how those responses affect their eventual criminalization and imprisonment. Comparisons with the experiences of white women in the same prison underline the significant role of race in determining women's experiences within the criminal justice system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Brilliant, Honest, Revealing, and Powerful Book
Luana Ross demonstrates superb scholarship by weaving a rich variety of sources, including written documents and oral interviews.The result is a work which provides voice for the women prisoners, in particular Native American women prisoners.This ground breaking book provides an analytical portrayal of the experiences of these women.She sets it within the framework of realities of life in Montana, as well as, larger concepts of racism and colonization.Inventing the Savage is a must read book in the field.

A brilliant study on Native women in prison
This book is a model of what research on Native communities should look like.Ross allows Native women in prison to tell their stories, and then she brilliantly contextualizes these stories within the larger context ofracism, sexism, and colonialism.Unlike so many other books on Nativecommunities, she does not portray Native peoples as tragic characters, butdemonstrates the ways they resist oppression.A must read ... Read more

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To be Australian': what can that mean? Inventing Australia sets out to find the answers by tracing the images we have used to describe our land and our people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Challenging the notion of cultural identity
White's book is a fascinating read for anyone who has ever thought about the question of national identity and how the rest of the world perceives a particular country's people.While White's focus is the Australian identity and the images associated with it, what he has to say applies tothe rest of us, as well.His argument is that national identity changeswith different ages, but that the images which become those identities, forinstance, the World War I "digger" or the "convict"identity which have at different times been seen as "Australianidentity," are really the constructions of people in power who believea particular identity will further their own or the country's aims.Theimage, then, of the Australian "digger," the tough-minded,uncomplaining and stalwart soldier of World War I, is an identity that wasnecessary and helpful to those in power as they tried to convince peoplethat Australians had a duty to fight and were good at it. The book may notbe as interesting to those who are unfamiliar with these Australian imagesof themselves, but it is not hard to apply it to American identity.Ourown images of ourselves as an "immigrant," "wealthyindustrialist," or "pioneering" society are just as vital toour perception of our own history, and just as challenged by White'sthesis.However, the book may be most interesting to those who have spenttime outside of their own culture or have had experiences being stereotypedbecause of their nationality. This is a challenging and useful book foranyone who has ever wondered about cultural issues and how nationalidentity is influencing policy and history. ... Read more

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This volume traces Richard Crozier's approach to landscape portraiture. It provides analyses of perception and landscape construction and colour, gives a description of the way atmosphere, light and seasonal changes affect the landscape, and explains how to approach painting at close range. Crozier then provides a personal visual travelogue which takes him on a painting journey across the United States, from the tropical greenery of Hawaii to the rocky coastline of Maine. The book concludes by covering elements of the studio, which include colour interpretation, comparisons of formal and informal painting decisions, painting as a metaphor, abstraction of space and realism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent Resource
This plein aire artist does a great job of defining and demonstrating his craft. Very inspiring. Have recommended it to other artists.

A must-have for any landscape painter
I am a Virginia landscape painter and have kept this book close at hand in my studio for many years.While I do not paint like Richard, I nonetheless pull this book out out several times a month, for inspiration or information or just to look at how he has handled various problems of light and color. As noted in another review, this is not a step-by-step book, but rather a beautiful record of the process of one dedicated painter that will inspire and encourage.

A serious book for serious painters.
This book really isn't for "Sunday painters" or beginners. There's very little on technique and not a single trick for churning out cute landscapes. What it offers is image after image of suberbly crafted landscapes,images worth studying again and again. His handling of values, and the subtle variations of hue, temperature, and intensity within each value shape, are absolutely masterful. Clearly, he practices what he preaches: landscapes which blend artistic invention with an acute observation of what exists in the landscape. There's not a lot of text in this book, but like his landscapes, what he writes is succinct, intelligent, and well worth taking to heart. As I become a better painter, this book offers more valuable instruction, not less. ... Read more

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Thoughtfully re-edited with the student reader in mind and featuring expanded coverage of women in the military, women's healthcare, divorce, and women of colour - especially Spanish speaking, American Indian, African American, and Asian American - this well-balanced interpretive account of women's experiences as they shaped and were shaped by American history resounds as a remarkable feat of insight and inclusion. ... Read more

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Filled with over 100 inquiry-based activities, Activities for Mathematical Thinking addresses the changing ways in which students learn and teachers teach mathematics.  The emphasis is on hands-on learning and an inductive, rather than deductive, approach to mathematics. Organized in 11 sections, activities range from understanding number systems to developing geometric thinking to exploring part-whole relationships. While diverse in content and complexity, all activities emphasize inquiry and process and include recommended grade levels as well as NCTM process and content standards. Worksheets and handouts are provided in the back of the workbook to help support many of the activities.

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"In this wonderful book, Thomas Patterson effectively dethrones the concept of 'civilization' as an abstract good, transcending human society."
--Martin Bernal

Customer Reviews (3)

THIS BOOK MAY SHATTER YOUR PERSPECTIVE!
If you truly believe that Western civilization is the worldwide and most complete civilization, while all others are parochial, then this book may shatter your perspective.

In "Inventing Western Civilization," Thomas C. Patterson suggested that "civilized people are obsessed with their uncivilized kin and neighbors--[so] they call them savages, barbarians or the `masses' who lack their polish, refinement, and sophistication; who... have moved en mass into their midst."

Patterson develops his argument and explores the idea of civilization in only five short chapters.He examines the constantly changing "social and political conditions in which civilization is produced and deployed."

The work questions conventional knowledge about the idea of western civilization created by white, male, elites to preserve and perpetuate their power in society.

Marvelous achievement!Quick, clear, and powerful!
In the short span of 123 pages, Thomas Patterson delivers a stunning and succinct overview of "Western civilization" and its encounters with "savages," different "races," and the Other.He recounts briefly yet movingly the Spanish onslaught of Native Americans, ancient Greek notions of barbarism, the British colonization of Ireland, and more.

But Patterson only gives the briefest sketch of these meetings--he is more concerned with the ever-changing ideologies with which some Europeans justify the wholesale looting, enslavement, murder, and colonization of others around the globe.He portrays conservative and liberal ideas, as well as racial and economic notions.He sketches the involvement of science with racism and colonialism, and he brings to life the deeply classist and sexist hatreds of Europeans elites--hatreds which easily translated into colonialism (inferiors and feminine types around the world "needed" to be ruled).

Remarkably, Patterson manages to find space for critiques of "civilization," both from within European societies and from those they encountered.In this way agency is not restricted to a few rich, White Europeans, and the dialogue is constant and contested.

I assigned this book to my upper division college students, and they comprehended and thrived on this book.It is quick, clear, and powerful--truly a marvelous contribution.I will surely assign it again.Highest recommendation!

this really makes you think
This book was an assigned book in my Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course.Although the premise of the book has nothing to do with the field of cultural anthro, reading it helped me put the notion of "civilization" and such ideas as "culture" and "race" into perspective.Definitely not a book to take to the beach, but a good read for those looking to expand their knowledge of political institutions. ... Read more

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Most scholars believe that the numerous similarities between the Covenant Code (Exodus 20:23-23:19) and Mesopotamian law collections, especially the Laws of Hammurabi, which date to around 1750 BCE, are due to oral tradition that extended from the second to the first millennium. This book offers a fundamentally new understanding of the Covenant Code, arguing that it depends directly and primarily upon the Laws of Hammurabi and that the use of this source text occurred during the Neo-Assyrian period, sometime between 740-640 BCE, when Mesopotamia exerted strong and continuous political and cultural influence over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and a time when the Laws of Hammurabi were actively copied in Mesopotamia as a literary-canonical text. The study offers significant new evidence demonstrating that a model of literary dependence is the only viable explanation for the work. It further examines the compositional logic used in transforming the source text to produce the Covenant Code, thus providing a commentary to the biblical composition from the new theoretical perspective. This analysis shows that the Covenant Code is primarily a creative academic work rather than a repository of laws practiced by Israelites or Judeans over the course of their history. The Covenant Code, too, is an ideological work, which transformed a paradigmatic and prestigious legal text of Israel's and Judah's imperial overlords into a statement symbolically countering foreign hegemony. The study goes further to study the relationship of the Covenant Code to the narrative of the book of Exodus and explores how this may relate to the development of the Pentateuch as a whole. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Stupid Proof
This book want to "prove" something that it's not true.

First how you can know that the Laws of Hammurabi were written before The Five books of Moses?

second even if you want to believe that the Laws of Hammurabi were first, they only have in commona few laws, that it's possible that God want to include inThe Five books of Moses, andThe Five books of Moses has a lot more to teach...


If you want to find the truth I recommend
Kabbalah and the Age of the Universe

Permission to Receive ... Read more

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"If you have ever turned on the TV after the 11 o’clock news and laughed, you owe Steve Allen a debt of gratitude." That’s how Entertainment Weekly described Steve Allen’s enormous contribution to American popular culture in a tribute to the legendary entertainer after his death on October 30, 2000. Steve Allen created the Tonight show—America’s longest running entertainment show and most successful late-night TV show. In so doing he led the way for other American icons: Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, David Letterman, and Jay Leno. The formula we all now take for granted did not exist before Allen: the desk, the opening monologue, breezy chats with celebrities, wacky stunts, comedy sketches, cameras roaming down the hall and outside the theater, off-the-cuff interviews with passers-by, and ad-lib banter with the studio audience. It’s all great fun and it’s all due to the incredibly witty, incurably silly, musically gifted, and ever-likeable Steve Allen.

Based on exclusive interviews, Ben Alba has produced this wonderful history of the first Tonight show, complete with terrific photos from the show and revealing insights from over 30 entertainment legends who knew and worked with Steve Allen—including Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, Bill Dana, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, Tim Conway, the Smothers Brothers, Diahann Carroll, Eartha Kitt, and Bill Dana. In addition, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill Maher, Bob Costas, and other TV veterans reflect on Allen’s contributions.

Starting with Allen’s early career in radio, Alba shows how the young radio talent developed many of the elements that would soon light up late-night television. He then highlightsAllen’s many innovations that made the Tonight show so appealing and enduring: the single-guest and single theme shows, road shows and live segments from across the country, Broadway shows visiting Tonight, creating a forum for jazz artistry and a groundbreaking showcase for African-American talent, musical tributes, and the use of the studio audience as a comedy goldmine.

Alba has created an invaluable, entertaining, and revealing behind-the-scenes look at the birth of an American television institution and its brilliant inventor, whose influence continues to make America stay awake and laugh—night after night. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Smock Smock!
Interesting book about Steverino. One interesting item that I've never seen written was that when Steve said Smock ! Smock! what did that exactly mean...it was Nelson (Smock) Riddle's (the arranger's) middle name and Steve said it as a joke to Nelson.

Steve Allen's TONIGHT show
INVENTING LATE NIGHT arrived quickly and in the condition stated by seller.The person for whom I purchased the book extremely pleased with it.In this viewer's opinion, Steve Allen's TONIGHT SHOW was by far the best.He established the format that his successors have used to this very day.

If you remember the entire family staring at a 12 inch appliance...
Us war babies, those born b/w '41 &'45, you know who you are do yourself a favor, give yourself a treat and devour a retrospect of what was really going on in the room where "everyone" was watching the one appliance only the most prosperous family member had.
I got this at a 1/2 price store, sorry Ama, was going to save until after my two week school hiatus.
I made the mistake of reading the intro and then the first 100 pages and now my new friend is going on vacation w/me wheather it wants to or not.
A great book brings you back to when you were innocent and young...readers of my zeitgeist this work does just that.

A Bio It's Not
Be forewarned, for those interested in a full fledged biography of the true inventor of late night TV, who provided the 'template' of late night variety/talk TV , Steve Allen, this is not the book for you. After a brief, cursory review of his early life the book dissolves into a review of Allen's TV career, especially on NBC. Using lots of secondary sources, e.g.newspaper and magazine accounts, with some oral history mixed in, the book has a choppy format, occasionally going back and forth in time. The stories are fun to read but one doesn't really get to know what made Steve Allen tick. Although not particularly well written, it's a good book to at least get an idea of how significant Allen was in TV history.

Before Johnny Carson, There Was Steve Allen.
Steve Allen invented the late-night TV talk show as we now know it.The whole rigamarole was his creation, the desk, the band, the opening monolgoue, the tacky skits, the going up into the audience to answer questions, the guest chatter, according to Ken Tucker in an 'Entertainment Weekly' article tribute in 2000.Steve Allen was born in New York City on St. Stephen's Day and named for the first Christian martyr. His parents were vaudeville performers. Mother was from an Irish family in Chicago. His first job at the age of seventeen (same as me) was as a salesman at $15 per week. He in Chicago, me in backward Knoxville. Neither of us was doomed to be the world of sales. His first job in the entertainment business was as d.j. at KOY as a staff announcer and d.j. on KFAC on Wilshire Blvd. in L.A. He had gone to high school one year in Hollywood.

Allen wrote a lengthy autobiographical poem in '38 then rewrote it in '56 after his success on television for 'Chicago' magazine. Men know much less for certain than they think they do. How much intelligence does it take to play records? He started writing songs but found Tin Pan Alley to be a 'myth' for success financially; $5,000 or $6,000 as royalties was considered "peanuts" back then in the magic world of music.

He grew jaded and considered t.v. a passing phenonmon. How wrong he was!Some of the musicians/singers who performed on his Tonight Show included Alan Jones, John Scott Trotter, Paul Desmond, Eddie Fisher, Dorothy Collins, Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, Buddy Rich, Lester Young, Victor Young, Bob Crosby, Eddie Heywood, George Shearing, Johnny Desmond, Polly Bergen, Dinah Shore, and Vaughn Monroe.A plethora of actors also agreed to be interviewed including Marjorie Lord, William Bendix, Andy Devine, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, Cornel Wilde, Gordon MacRae, Judy Holiday, Andy Griffith, Rhonda Fleming, and Ray Bolger.Some public figures were Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Truman, and Countess Alexandria Tolstoy.Writers on t.v. to promote their books include Tennessee Williams, Dorothy Kilgallen, James Michener, Carl Sandburg, and Herman Wouk.Some of the composers were Aaron Copland, Adolph Green, Bob Merrill, Don Costas, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Jimmy McHugh.Comedians Pinky Lee and Ernie Kovacs were regulars as were some people in the audience.

One of his early books was "Mark it and Strike it" meaning a direction to stagehands used in t.v., a command to the crew to mark the position of the scenery and then remove it. He claims he used that title due to the "impermanence" of the medium. He says he didn't ever let television become his whole life becaues of its "here-today-gone-tomorrow" existence'.

These were the magic years of television for the above listed stars. They were actual stars of their time, and now their time has past. We are the here-and-now.His show was on NBC from 1956 to 1960 and introduced the world to Steve Lawrence and Edyie Gorme, for whom he wrote a song, and furthered their individual careers and as a team.In 1986, Allen was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame for his lifetime contributions to t.v.He died on October 30, 2000 and is sorely missed by his fans, family and friends. ... Read more

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This book is a history of an astounding transatlantic phenomenon, a popular evangelical revival known in America as the first Great Awakening (1735-1745). Beginning in the mid-1730s, supporters and opponents of the revival commented on the extraordinary nature of what one observer called the "great ado," with its extemporaneous outdoor preaching, newspaper publicity, and rallies of up to 20,000 participants. Frank Lambert, biographer of Great Awakening leader George Whitefield, offers an overview of this important episode and proposes a new explanation of its origins.

The Great Awakening, however dramatic, was nevertheless unnamed until after its occurrence, and its leaders created no doctrine nor organizational structure that would result in a historical record. That lack of documentation has allowed recent scholars to suggest that the movement was "invented" by nineteenth-century historians. Some specialists even think that it was wholly constructed by succeeding generations, who retroactively linked sporadic happenings to fabricate an alleged historic development. Challenging these interpretations, Lambert nevertheless demonstrates that the Great Awakening was invented--not by historians but by eighteenth-century evangelicals who were skillful and enthusiastic religious promoters. Reporting a dramatic meeting in one location in order to encourage gatherings in other places, these men used commercial strategies and newly popular print media to build a revival--one that they also believed to be an "extraordinary work of God." They saw a special meaning in contemporary events, looking for a transatlantic pattern of revival and finding a motive for spiritual rebirth in what they viewed as a moral decline in colonial America and abroad.

By examining the texts that these preachers skillfully put together, Lambert shows how they told and retold their revival account to themselves, their followers, and their opponents. His inquiries depict revivals as cultural productions and yield fresh understandings of how believers "spread the word" with whatever technical and social methods seem the most effective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Faulty Conclusions, Fascinating Reading
Frank Lambert sets out to prove in this book that the Great awakening was the creation of a particular group of evangelical Christians who saw themselves as pioneers and promoters of the work of God. He contends that fiery preaching alone cannot account for the legendary status of the religious awakenings that permeated the transatlantic area of the United States fromj 1735-1745. Credit must also be given to revivalists like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and John Gillies, who knew how to use the printed word as a medium to spread their interpretation of what was happening in the colonies.

Lambert also notes the indefatigable work of Old Light clergymen such as Charles Chauncy, who vigorously opposes the revivals and their emotional excesses. These excesses, along with Whitefield's excoriating missives against parish ministers, and the eloquent anti-revivalist propaganda, helped to cool off the revival fires burning across the American landscape.

Lambert writes well and holds the attention of the reader, and he is right that the revival narratives of Prince and Edwards and others played a role in establishing the "legendary status" of these awakenings.

But Lambert does not give enough credit to the Spirit of God, nor enough accolades to men like Whitefield and Edwards, who crafted compelling pieces of theological rhetoric that were used by the Lord.

I recommend this book as interesting history, but would also direct the reader to the primary source documents of the Great Awakening, namely, the sermons of Whitefield and the writings of Edwards.

Rev. Marc Axelrod

Inventing the "Great Awakening" by Frank Lambert
The only inventing uncovered by this book is the inventing that Frank Lambert did in weaving together what he claims are historical facts to showcase his obvious disdain for things Christian and any Christian influence on the history of the United States.He cannot possibly objectively write about something that he does not in anyway understand and that he clearly abhores.Frank Lambert fancies himself an historian but he is nothing more than a propagandist plying his craft on unsuspecting but predesposed readers.

Thoughtful
This is a very thorough and well written analysis of the first Great Awakening.Lambert's point of departure is a fairly narrow point of historiography, the existence of the Great Awakening.Some scholars have argued recently that the Great Awakening was actually only one of a series of local revivals in Colonial America and that the concept of an inter-colonial Great Awakening was imposed retrospectively by 19th century American evangelicals looking for a 'usable' past.Lambert examines the evidence for a Great Awakening as traditionally conceived, its origins, dynamics, and conclusion.Lambert reasserts the existence of the Great Awakening as an inter-colonial event.While it was triggered by and preceded by local revivals in parts of New England and the middle colonies, several features, including the important role of itinerant preachers like the famous George Whitefield, the use of proto-modern publicity, the sense of a general phenomenon, and its trans-Atlantic character, were all novel.Lambert shows well how the Great Awakening began with groups with well established revival traditions, notably New England Puritans and some Presbyterian groups of Scots origin.These movements became linked with a broader reform movement in England led by the Oxford Methodists and with revival movements in Scotland.The trans-Atlantic character of these movements served to reverberate and amplify the significance of events on each side of the Atlantic.The robust print culture of the greater British world made possible the linkages and innovations characteristic of the Great Awakening.Lambert shows well how the Great Amakening was a planned, not spontaneous event.Implicit in his narrative is the sense that the Great Awakening was a crucial factor in the development of an American religous marketplace in which the laity play the key role of discriminating consumers.Recommend strongly for those interested in colonial America.

A must-read for fans of Lambert or colonial America
This is a well-written analysis of a much misunderstood event in western history.Lambert attempts to explain the establishment and perpetuation of the First Great Awakening in the American colonies and effectively argueshis case that the event was one of deliberate planning and execution ratherthan a spontaneous, pervasive religious revival.The reader is drawn intoLambert's discussion of the causes and effects of the Awakening on bothsides of the Atlantic and can not help making comparisons to modernevangelists attempts to spread their messages to the masses.While not ofinterest to all, this book is a rewarding and entertaining read.I eagerlyawait his next opus. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Never mind how the West was won; this pictorial history of howit was sold is far more interesting. Harvey, who emigrated fromEngland at 15 and started out as a dishwasher, created the first chainof restaurants and railroad hotels in the U.S.--which his heirsexpanded into a virtual empire. A person traveling from Chicago toCalifornia could stop at Harvey's flagship hotel in Albuquerque andhave a complete Southwestern cultural experience without ever leavingthe hotel--or so the sales pitch went. All told, a beautifullyillustrated, down-to-earth chronicle of how Native America's culturewas bastardized for a buck. ... Read more

Product Description
Sue Miller's stories from a chapter in the moral history of our time

Like Sue Miller's bestselling novels, this collection of short stories explores the treacherously shifting ground of erotic and family relationships with deftness and depth. The title story is about a young man who takes up successively with three daughters of the most fashionable family in town. In other stories, whose characters range from a young girl in the first blush of sexual curiosity to a stricken dowager whose seizures release a brutal and sometimes obscene candor, Sue Miller presents a compelling gallery of contemporary men and women with hungry hearts and dismayed consciences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Lovely writing, weak structure
Miller is a wonderful writer. Her prose is fluid, her characters believable, and her themes--jealousy, loss, estrangement--are eternal. But, judging from the uneven quality of these stories, it is clear that the short story is not Miller's ideal medium.

The two best stories in this collection were the title story, Inventing the Abbotts, and Appropriate Affect. These were the stories that really shone. They were tightly-structured, played out their themes to the end, and neatly resolved a central conflict. In the manner of all good short stories, these two ended with a nearly audible "click." The rest of the stories, while thematically interesting, tended to fizzle rather than click. (Miller seems to have particular problems with stories involving sexual themes. These just ground to an unceremonious halt, as if Miller herself didn't know what she was trying to say.)

Miller definitely deserves accolades for her writing, and for her honest look at the darker side of human relationships. If these are qualities you admire in an author, then this collection will appeal to you. If you prefer a well-structured plot and an ending that packs a punch, you will only be disappointed.

The stars rated have nothing against the service provided.
The item arrived quickly. Service was excellent. The product unfornately was not what I was quite expecting. It does however make for an interesting read. I think it may be the first time I prefer watching the movie over reading the story.

Wow, reviewers, why all the hate?
I quite liked this. I put this sentence first because I was quite surprised at the negative reviews on this amazon.com page--the stories were quite entertaining, the characters and settings real, the plots weren't too complex. Yes, to some people that may be boring, but gracious, these stories are character studies. Having read one too many (that is, one and a half) Nicholas Sparks books, where the characters are all rugged but gorgeous, independently wealthy, gourmet cooks and flat, flat, flat--how delightful to read about a man in love with a woman who has a 'half frozen face' and can't contain his love to one person, no matter how much he loves her. True and real, and her words are sheer poetry. In "Calling," for instance, is this : She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat down at the table opposite him. She looked out of the apartment window at the dead geranium on her fire escape. A sparrow stood on the rim of the pot and puffed itself up.

I just love that. The geranium is dead. The sparrow "puffed itself up." I'm tired of reading these bestseller novels where you only read what happens and not what characters think and feel. He sat down. She sat down. He wore a grey shirt... blah blah blah. Everything is pretty and wrapped up in a nice little package, and usually coffee and beer are described in words that are not coffee and beer but "brew" and "hot liquid," or the pronunciation of a name is slipped into the book, usually 70 pages in when you've established it in your head already. Sue Miller writes about normal people with amazing insight.

Short Stories with a Pervasive Theme of Sexuality
This book is a collection of short stories by the Sue Miller, the author of The Good Mother: A Novel andThe Senator's Wife (Vintage Contemporaries).

There is a very pervasive sexual theme throughout this book - - on the sexuality present in most aspects of our banal, everyday existence.Oftentimes, our motives are pervaded by sexuality when we're least aware of its presence.Good vs. bad motives - - points of view - - shades of gray - - how our sexuality influences what we do - - how others see us - - These are the shared themes of these stories.

Miller Works Best On A Vast Canvas
This collection of novelist Sue Miller's short stories, some pre-dating any of her longer fiction, are a mixed lot and all tend toward explorations of love's more dismal hemisphere. Be forewarned, if you read this anthology you cross into frequently depressing territory. Only the title story about a now middle-aged man's recounting of his older brother's affairs with three sisters in the 1950's, carries any real weight or lingers in the memory. Fans of Miller's novels, like the masterful suburban tragedy, Family Pictures, or the dark morality play, Lost In The Forest, might like to read this simply to round-out their experience with this author, but for those who appreciate how much can be done with the short story art form might be mildly disappointed, as was I. ... Read more

Product Description
Inventing Modern America profiles thirty-five inventors who exemplify the rich technological creativity of the United States over the past century. The range of their contributions is broad. They have helped transform our homes, our healthcare, our work, our environment, and the way we travel and communicate.The inventors profiled include such well-known figures as George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, and Steve Wozniak, as well as unsung technological pioneers such as Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar, and Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the first implantable cardiac pacemaker.Inventing Modern America is designed to create excitement about invention through the personal stories of these American scientists, technologists, and researchers. It is accessible enough to engage high school students yet wide-ranging and interesting enough to appeal to anyone who has ever wondered where microwave ovens and traffic lights come from.The book was developed by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, whose mission is to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Way To Inspire Young Inventors!
If your child is heading off to higher education, or is just looking for a book that has some great information for a middle to high school book report, a parent can't go wrong with the book "Inventing Modern America: From The Microwave To The Mouse" by David E. Brown (2002, MIT Press, 209 Pages).

One of the features that grab the reader right off the bat is the fact that the book centers upon modern innovations, such as that friendly little gadget that makes home computer use such a joy--otherwise known as a `mouse'.Another great inclusion is the contributions of Black inventors, such as Dr. George Washington Carver and Garrett Morgan.No, we are not talking about just a `paragraph or two', we are talking about royal treatment of each of the inventors contained within its covers--including glimpses at other inventions by featured inventors.

Of course, to a real info-junkie, the book is too short.However, it does provide a lot of inspiration to those who have the talent and the drive to invent.It is an encouraging work, as it talks not only about the successes of each inventor and innovator, the book is full of diagrams, photos, and pictures of many other inventions by those selected for discussion.

If you are looking for a book to encourage and uplift your future inventor, you can't go wrong with presenting a copy of this work to your son or daughter--or even as a gift for yourself, if you have that hidden desire to want to create a better mousetrap; or even improving upon something that already exists.It is a reference book that will keep on giving, and inspiring long after its purchase.I highly recommend it.

Mike Ramey

Best book ever!
this was the best book i have ever read in my entire life!it really made me think about were all this stuff we use in our everyday life comes from.3, no 4 thumbs up!

Best book i ever read!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this was such a cool book. i mean, i never really thought about the beginnings of these famous things before, but now this book got me thing.3 thumbs up! ... Read more

Product Description
The Charles River Basin, extending nine miles upstream from the harbor, has been called Boston's "Central Park." Yet few realize that this apparently natural landscape is a totally fabricated public space. Two hundred years ago the Charles was a tidal river, edged by hundreds of acres of salt marshes and mudflats. Inventing the Charles River describes how, before the creation of the basin could begin, the river first had to be imagined as a single public space. The new esplanades along the river changed the way Bostonians perceived their city; and the basin, with its expansive views of Boston and Cambridge, became an iconic image of the metropolis.The book focuses on the precarious balance between transportation planning and stewardship of the public realm. Long before the esplanades were realized, great swaths of the river were given over to industrial enterprises and transportation--millponds, bridges, landfills, and a complex network of road and railway bridges. In 1929, Boston's first major highway controversy erupted when a four-lane road was proposed as part of a new esplanade. At twenty-year intervals, three riverfront road disputes followed, successively more complex and disputatious, culminating in the lawsuits over "Scheme Z," the Big Dig's plan for eighteen lanes of highway ramps and bridges over the river. More than three hundred photographs, maps, and drawings illustrate past and future visions for the Charles and document the river's place in Boston's history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Well Researched, Informative, and Presented in a Digestible Manner
Book is as described.Very well researched and documented, with excellent images/drawings/maps which aid tremendously in bringing to life the changes to the Charles River Basin over the past 300 years.

ASLA Award Winner
This book received an Award of Honor from the American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards Program in 2003.

Gorgeous, and so intelligent
This extraordinary book brings together a confluence of compelling themes: The history of a city and its self concept; the evolution of city planning and the politics of public space; visionary thinking and the implications of decisions on the future of urban living; and the visual record of 19th century Boston through historical photographs and maps. These ideas have been woven into a highly readable book, stunningly designed by Yasuyo Iguchi. For anyone who lives in or has lived in Boston, this book is the best history of the city's evolution. For others who may not be as compelled by the specific story of how the Charles River came to be or the significance of the Big Dig, this book is a fascinating and provocative exploration of the implications that face all cities as they envision themselves into the future. How should public space be used? Who decides what is the public good? Haglund cares passionately about these issues and has assembled a thoughtful, readable and provocative response to these important questions. Don't miss it. ... Read more

Product Description
The Vietnam War has been depicted by every available medium, each presenting a message, an agenda, of what the filmmakers and producers choose to project about America's involvement in Southeast Asia. This collection of essays, most of which are previously unpublished, analyzes the themes, modes, and stylistic strategies seen in a broad range of films and television programs. From diverse perspectives, the contributors comprehensively examine early documentary and fiction films, postwar films of the 1970s such as "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now", and the reformulated postwar films of the 1980s "Platoon", "Full Metal Jacket", and "Born on the Fourth of July". They also address made-for-television movies and serial dramas like "China Beach" and "Tour of Duty". The authors show how the earliest film responses to America's involvement in Vietnam employ myth and metaphor and are at times unable to escape glamorized Hollywood. Later films strive to portray a more realistic Vietnam experience, often creating images that are an attempt to memorialize or to manufacture different kinds of myths.As they consider direct and indirect representations of the war, the contributors also examine the power or powerlessness of individual soldiers, the racial views presented, and inscriptions of gender roles. Also included in this volume is a chapter that discusses teaching Vietnam films and helping students discern and understand film rhetoric, what the movies say, and who they chose to communicate those messages. Michael Anderegg is Professor of English at the University of North Dakota, and author of two other books: "William Wyler" and "David Lean". ... Read more

Product Description
What is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves.

In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple eet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang's book shows that many items of knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and when people accept the authority of science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Temperature tribulations
Inventing Temperature tells the long and intriguing history of thermometry, the science of the measurement of temperature. First, thermometers had to be invented, followed by methods to calibrate them. But to calibrate a thermometer at least one reproducible phenomenon that always took place at the same temperature was needed. But how would one know that something, say the boiling of water, always took place at the same temperature if one didn't have a calibrated thermometer? This circularity was behind most of the hurdles the pioneering thermometrists had to overcome. Finally, temperature scales, a multitude of them, were devised--almost one by each independent thermometer maker.

I learned quite a bit from this book. Among the more interesting episodes were a series of experiments by Marc-Auguste Pictet in the late 18th century that demonstrated quite puzzlingly that cold, like heat, could be reflected from a mirror and Charles Darwin's grandfather potter Josiah Wedgwood's almost contemporaneous invention of a pyrometer to measure very high temperatures--it used small pieces of clay, the amount of shrinkage of which at a given temperature were supposed to have been reproducible.

I wish Chang's prose were a bit more straight and readable and the contents of the book a bit more uniform. The first 4 of the 6 chapters have 2 parts each: a historical narrative followed by an analysis that dwells into philosophical issues that I thought were boring and not always relevant. I confess I skipped most of the analyses.

Chang ends his book with a chapter on "complementary science", his provocative research program that intends, by utilizing the historical and philosophical aspects of a particular scientific area, physics, in his case, to "generate scientific knowledge in places where science itself fails to do so."

Subtle, difficult and underappreciated ideas
Several years ago, the science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote a short story set in the far future. He depicted a time so advanced that the simplest arithmetic was done by computers, and forgotten by humans. And so it goes here, in Chang's book. He has done us a service by revisiting solved problems that have been solved for so long that their basic importance is no longer appreciated by practising scientists.

Consider your typical undergraduate textbooks that discuss heat and temperature. Very little mention is given about the bootstrapping problem. Without modern instrumentation, how do you define a temperature scale that is consistently reproducible? One might wonder why it took scientists of an earlier age so long to strive over such a simple problem. Were they stupid back then?

Not so. Chang shows that the problem is divided into two closely related parts. One experimental and one conceptual. The former relates to the search for fixed points, like the freezing and boiling points of water. Not as straightforward as it might first seem. And no, it was not the dependence of these on the atmospheric pressure. That was quickly discovered and accomodated. But other phenomenon like the supercooling of liquid water, which can push it below the normal freezing point, were harder to understand.

It turned out that the key conceptual problem is just as serious, if not more so. One runs into a circular pattern of logic. One way out is to follow Euclid's approach by starting with a small set of axioms that everyone accepts, and build from them. Anyway, the core of Chang's book is how this problem was tackled and solved. It took some of the most prominent scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries to tie this down. And that is the merit of this book. Chang helps us appreciate one of the foundations of our science. ... Read more