Average customer rating:
- A tribute to a genius and a true patriot
- a reader's review
- Nothing new but in greater detail
- A fascinating book on World War II secert communications.
- Fascinating reading for anyone interested in cryptography
|
The Story of Magic, Memoirs of an American Cryptologic Pioneer (Cryptography)
Frank B. Rowlett
Manufacturer: Aegean Park Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Military & Spies
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Military Science
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0894122738 |
Book Description
Text tells the story of Frank B. Rowlett, a codebreaker whose work was done for years before and during World War II in deepest secrecy. Although dozens of cryptographic systems of both friends and enemy were broken, the greatest triumph was perhaps that of breaking the Japanese PURPLE diplomatic cipher machine, the machine used for transmission of Japan's most secret and sensitive diplomatic messages before and after the entrance of the United States into World War II. Adding greatly to the book is its Foreword and Epilogue, written by David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers. Text includes pictures.
Customer Reviews:
A tribute to a genius and a true patriot .......2005-10-20
I thought the book was very interesting and hard to put down.The detail was amazing until I realized the subject had kept notes of his early career. It left me wishing for more information about his war and post-war career. While the intricisies of the cryptanalytic processes described were hard to follow sometimes,enough information was given to keep the reader's interest. A real tribute to a genius and a national treasure. The book aroused my patriotic emotions.
a reader's review.......2000-09-28
Frank Rowlett's story is an intense day-by-day account of life as a cryptanalyst in the Signal Intelligence Service during the years leading up to WW II. This story puts together important pieces of the historical puzzle. As a story, it is exciting, and brings history alive.
This book was published as a well bound, hardback, dust jacketed book by Aegean Park Press, a publishing house well known for re-printing (keeping available and alive) important Cryptanalytical, Cryptological, Cryptograhic publications in softcover 8-1/2" x 11" format. Just the way this particular publishing house, who specializes in crypto works is treating this book "screams" the high regard they have for it.
If you're looking for crypto course work, the how-to-do-it, Aegean Park Press has it, (though not in this book). If you are looking for the taste and feel, the heart and soul of real cryptanalysts enjoying their work, that IS the form & substance of this book; as well as being an important historical work.
Nothing new but in greater detail.......1999-10-19
This book goes into considerable detail regarding what was done but provides almost no information on how it was accomplished. Rowlett was one of a small group of mathematicians who were introduced to cryptography by the legendary William Friedman. As recounted in the book, the group had remarkable success in breaking both Red and Purple,the Japanese diplomatic codes in use prior to WW II. Rowlett describes how the group was trained under Friedman's direction but supplies no information what so ever regarding the nature of the training. This is the case throughout the book as it relates to how every issue of importance was analyzed. The section of the book which describes the construction of the device to decode Purple is excellent in recreating the intensity of the event. One can almost smell the odor of burning electrial equipment when the contacts on the first version of the device melt and then fuse. Rowlett was obviously acutely aware of the importance of protecting the technical information related to the activities he was engaged in ; however, in doing so he produced a document which although descriptive is not at all informative. It is highly unlikely, because of antiquated security considerations, that the full story of this remarkable accomplishment will ever be presented at a level of granularity it deserves.
A fascinating book on World War II secert communications........1998-10-29
This book by a pioneer cryptanalyst gives a fascinating insight into how Army cryptanalysts developed the skills and techniques that lead to the breaking of the high level Japanese Diplomatic code "Purple". It describes how the team lead by Rowlett duplicated the complex Japanese Purple cipher machine from manually broken intercepted messages - a feat that astonished Navy cryptanalysts. It describes how Rowlett developed the concepts for a code machine used by the United States during World War II that was never broken by enemy cryptanalysts. The overall account is exciting. It gives the reader a behind the scene look at the numerous obstacles American cryptanalysts faced both internally and externally - and how they overcame them. It is written by a man who for security reasons remained in the shadows for years but in the world of secret communications stood as a giant. After reading The Story of Magic one should read Hitler's Japanese Confidant by Carl Boyd. The reader can then begin to fully appreciate how reading Japanese diplomatic messages contributed to the United States diplomatic and military successes.
Fascinating reading for anyone interested in cryptography.......1998-10-27
Truly a great American hero -- Rowlett provides an abundance of detailed history and information regarding U.S. cryptography during WWII.
His book demonstrates how he applied his genius in extremely high stakes military situations involving the development and application of code breaking and encryption technology.
The author is able to keep the reader's interest in dealing with a complex subject.
An intriguing disclosure of highly secret activities that moves one from the days of the "Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Pin" to the ultimate in the use of electronic machines in the 1940's.
Book Description
This is the complete, original biography of the best-documented psychic in America. It tells the story of how Edgar Cayce discovered his astounding psychic gifts and what led him to a life dedicated to helping others. Cayce's "readings," given in a trancelike state, ranged from phenomenal medical cures to advice on spiritual growth, psychology, and the prophesy of world events. A philosophy section outlines Cayce's revelations about our origin, purpose, and destinies on the earth, making this book a valuable resource. This book contains many photos of Edgar Cayce, his family, and close friends.
This special edition features Auras, the only book written by Edgar Cayce himself.
Customer Reviews:
wonderful!.......2007-04-13
If you've ever wondered "Who is Edgar Cayce?", then I suggest in reading this book! It is the story of Edgars' life from his beginings. I learned so much, infact he is the real deal. Edgar was leery of his ability to "see into the unseen" and worried if possibly his gift was not a gift at all but a tool of the devil ment for evil purposes. It wasn't till he knew for a fact that his "gift" was helping people all over the world that he felt comfortable and ready to give with out reservations.
Also it's easy reading except I had a hard time understanding the "readings" and would have to re read them. Other wise, Easy enjoyable reading.
More like a novel.......2006-12-20
It would be wonderful, if what Mr. Cayce realized, were the truth. As to the book, it isn't bad. It reads more like a novel, than like a biography. A little slow of a read but then most biographies are. I like the fact it did not embellish the character. It seemed to tell the facts the way they were. Probably not the end all of Mr. Cayce resources, but overall a good book.
A decent book about an interesting man.......2006-04-07
I had heard of Edgar Cayce before, mainly because I shelved so many books by or about him in my years as a bookseller. It was only recently, though, as I was browsing through one of the Stranger than... books by the late Frank Edwards that I came across a brief biography of Edgar Cayce and learned more about his mysterious diagnoses given while unconscious. I remembered that I had this book, one of the Time-Life Collector's Library of the Unknown reprints, on my shelf and so I dug in.
For the most part, the prose was easy to read and written in a straightforward, familiar style, so that I felt like I was seeing the events of Cayce's life as they happened. The book begins like a normal biography, discussing early romances, jobs, family incidents, etc., with very little to indicate how strange Mr. Cayce's life would become. Around 1/3 of the way through the book, we discover, along with young Edgar, that he can memorize written materials just by sleeping on them. He also discovers that he has miraculous powers to diagnose illnesses and prescribe cures for people he has never met, all while unconscious. (In his waking life, Mr. Cayce was very modestly educated, and was as surprised as anyone at the ideas and language that came from his unconscious form.) The way that this section of the book reads, you would imagine that Cayce's cures were always successful and that skeptics were fools.
The book begins to drag after the second half, though, for a variety of reasons. First, Cayce could never actually put his powers to any real end. Every attempt to establish a multidisciplinary hospital to implement and research his unconscious revelations, as was his dream, came to an unsuccessful conclusion. This is fairly anticlimactic and does not make for a very "heroic" story. Second, one of his benefactors, a man quite interested in matters occult, began to ask Cayce more arcane questions, and so the revelations began to drift into, to me, less interesting areas-the typical new age stuff about Atlantis, reincarnation, soul mates, etc. Finally, it became more apparent to me, based on the later, more thoroughly documented cases, that Cayce's "miraculous" cures might not have been as amazing as they seemed in the earlier chapters; the earlier cures seemed more amazing simply because the way in which they were recorded and related was more "oh gosh" and less stringent. (In other words, as he gets older and more jaded, even his cures seem less special and miraculous. Maybe this was the writer's intention.)
The conclusion of the book was, for me, the worst part. It is divided into two appendix-like sections. In the first section, the author tries to systematically describe Cayce's philosophy. Boring. Too much like the Ascended Master stuff that I find hard to swallow. Maybe it is true. Maybe not. Whenever I read this stuff, I just get the feeling that I am listening to some pedantic, New England minister lecturing on matters that were expressed much more interestingly 2,000 years ago by Hindus and Buddhists. The second section in the conclusion recounts six case studies from the Cayce files, and these are interesting only for those who want to see how difficult to understand Cayce's medical diagnoses could be, due to the odd structure of his language and the outdated medical terminology.
It was a quick read, except for those two concluding sections, so if you are at all interested, I highly recommend reading it. As for what it means, though, I really have no clue. And I don't plan on re-reading it to find out, though the pretty Time-Life book will remain on my shelf as decoration.
The Story of Edgar Cayce: There Is A River.......2005-09-30
This book adds to the wonders that can be achieved with dedication
to the life's guide lines laid down in the Bible and survival after death studies
An eye-opener.......2005-07-23
For those with strong religious faith, but no sort of flexibility, don't buy this book. However, if you are open to suggestion and the possibility that you don't have all the answers, then this is a must read.
A devoted Christian his entire life, Edgar Cayce's life story challenges what many claim to be the "truth" or the "meaning". Cayce's faith was never in question - he read the Bible one time for each year of his life by the time he was 13. His readings on the other hand, challenged even his convictions, forcing him to open his mind, body, and soul to the possibilities that he once thought foreign and possibly blasphemous.
While many of his stories about growing up are on the boring side, and very slow reading, the information sprinkled in his biography about where his talent comes from is interesting. His talents produced results that many attempted to disprove, but the facts always sided with Cayce.
If you believe that humankind is capable of more than the simplicity of thought that we consider intelligent by today's standards, read Cayce's story.
If you believe that there are many unanswered questions that science can't necessarily answer, read the book.
The book is easily worth the price and the read for the end alone. After the biography there is a brief section that deals with the aspect many are amazed by: the supernatural. The tidbits of his thoughts and readings in relation to after-life, the beginning of time, religion, and various other deeply philosophical questions...are words I will never forget.
Product Description
Man or miracle? The astounding true story of Edgar Cayce, the fantastic seer who could: Correctly describe someone he had never seen; Diagnose illnesses he had never studied; Outline medical treatments that he had never even heard of. And in more than ninety percent of the cases was proved to be completely accurate! The true story of a man in touch with the unknown told by the only writer who knew and investigated him while he lived.
Book Description
This is one doctor's experience with nutrition in the treatment of cancer. Dr. Binzel has been using Laetrile and other nutritional therapies in the treatment of cancer patients since the mid 1970s. His record of success is astounding. He tells of his ongoing battle with the medical establishment, but this is primarily the story of his alive-and-well patients, many of whom had been told by their previous doctors that they had only a few months to live. Medical case histories are included.
Customer Reviews:
Start here for an insight into the Cancer industry.......2006-03-04
Written from a Doctors' perspective, the journey he took to educate himself in order to help his cancer patients and the hurdles and objections from the medical establishment he endured to continue his successful treatments.
Interesting read about nutrition, health, and politics .......2004-12-13
What if there was an medical doctor with an outstanding nutritional program for cancer? Would the FDA try to squelch the doctor's findings and try to prevent him from practicing? Cancer treatment is a huge industry for big pharmaceutical companies and cancer treatment centers. Would they go out of business if there was a simple, nutritional protocol with excellent results against cancer? What if simple nutritional methods to nourish the body's own immune system and prevent cancer's spread are much better than the expensive, toxic radiation and high-priced proprietary toxic chemo drugs dispensed at today's oncology centers? What if the cancer drug your doctor dispenses depends on which drug company's pharmaceutical rep takes him out to lunch? This book tells you that "what if," in detail, and in real life. It details various government agencies' attempts to harass Dr. Binzel through "enforcers" and the legal system. Binzel presents an astonishing record of 85% 5-year survival among his patients with primary cancer and 60% survival for those with metastatic cancer. These results can't be verified, because of the privacy of his patients' medical records. But some of the survivors agreed to let their names and medical histories be released, and they are shown in this book. The book also shows you the 3-part treatment system Binzel used - 1. Vitamins and enzymes, 2. vegetarian diet, and 3. nitrocilides, or vitamin B17, which is found in everyday foods like millet, lentils, alfalfa sprouts, garbanzo beans and apple seeds. This is an enjoyable read if you suffer from cancer, or know someone who does. It is not the promise of a cure. The basic idea is to support and enhance your body's own natural defenses against cancer. Highly recommended, whether you support today's cytotoxic chemotherapy methods or not. The FDA would never try to lie to you, or manipulate the results of drug studies funded by big drug companies, would they? Drug companies contribute to political campaigns, but that doesn't influence laws about our health, does it?
Take it From a Qualified Expert!.......2002-11-03
Many of the pro-Laetrile works that I have read were written by private citizens and laymen, and as a result one would say that these were not qualified to make claims. And such accusations have been made.
Now we have hard evidence in favor of Laetrile from a MEDICAL DOCTOR! Finally! A qualified source since Dr. Ernst Krebs' initial discovery has been found. A must read to accompany World Without Cancer by G. Edward Griffin.
Showing the way forward for cancer treatment ..........2000-11-30
Dr. Binzel backs up the information found in "World Without Cancer" with actual case histories and results.
For those that think that Laetrile is the only component in cancer treatment, this book shows why, and how, cancer needs to be treated - a combination of vitamins, diet and laetrile.
Actual programs used to achieve 82% success rates in treating primary cancer, and 65% in treating metastates cancer, show you the vast difference between "orthodox" cancer treatment, with success rates of less than 10%, to this "un-approved" treatment.
Most definitely something you want to share with your friends.
He may be onto something..........2000-06-20
After frequenting alternative medicine newsgroups, which are full of "cancer cure" vendors, it's nice to see a book that is written with a large degree of humility. Dr. Binzel has, for many years, used the controversial chemical "laetrile" to treat cancer. The first 96 pages are stories of his legal struggles and court appearances (including a few major newsworthy cases in which he was called to witness to the efficacy of laetrile). In some ways his run-ins with the state read like a good novel. While a very conservative company publishes the book, I (a moderate) did not find any grand conspiracy theories.
The last 40 pages are devoted to his controversial approach (diet, laetrile, enzymes, Vitamin A, etc) and his results using his therapy. He even includes photos of some of his success cases. The results are clinical data and are thus not considered as scientifically valid as a randomized test. However, his statistics suggest that he is onto something. For instance, his five year survival rates for metastasized cancers (cancers that have spread throughout the body) are impressive at 60%. His results for primary tumors are higher at an 80% 5 year survival rate. However it is important to remember that his data have not been published scientifically and thus have not been peer-reviewed. However his statistics do show that the laetrile-metabolic approach should not be characterized as "completely worthless." I would say to read this with an open, yet critical mind (as all non-fiction should be read). Anybody who has read the popular 70s book, "Laetrile Case Histories," will see an immediate similarity between that book and, "Alive and Well." In some ways this is the "Laetrile Case Histories" for the new millenium.
Book Description
The skills used in the making of wine are directly relevant to the consumer, for the choices made in the vineyard and in the winery are crucial to the quality of the end product. Here, for the first time, is a book that enlightens the wine lover on the "hows" and "whys" of the winemaker's choices.
Today, winemakers have at their disposal an unprecedented array of opportunities to influence the way their wine will taste: science and technology have granted them creative power undreamt of only twenty years ago. Wine is no longer entirely the product of nature; it is a collaboration, and one in which the winemaker is becoming more and more the dominant partner.
The winemaker's choices begin in the vineyard with the selection of the grape variety and the way it will be farmed. In the winery, every step poses questions, from crushing the grapes to bottling the wine. The sum total of the decisions taken by the winemaker is the taste of the wine in our glass, and this book explains how this taste is achieved.
Hugh Johnson and James Halliday explore this fast-moving new world, looking at the influence of tradition, the effects of modern technology, and the latest thinking of winemakers from every continent.
For everyone for whom a glass of wine is worth a moment's reflection, this is an essential book. Beautiful, absorbing, and entertaining, The Vintner's Art combines the best in wine writing with dramatic modern design, using graphics and superb photography.
Customer Reviews:
Unique.......2006-12-31
There are four main sources of flavor in wine.
* The grape variety.
* The place where it is grown.
* The way in which it is grown
* The winemaking techniques used.
This valuable book is mostly about the last of these sources,
although there is a brief nod to vineyard management at the
beginning.
You could argue for any of these sources as the primary source
of wine's flavor and could easily produce pairs of wines that
support your claim. Grape varieties, like apple varieties,
have different flavors. These differences become accentuated
when grape juice ferments into wine and produces or reveals
its unique set of acids, esters, and other flavor chemicals.
Vineyards have their own flavors, too. Apart from obvious
considerations like sun exposure and soil structure, we
know depressingly little about how this works. People who
own the vineyards that produce the best wines often make
a great deal of the unique contribution of their particular
patch of ground, and we can hardly blame them. "Them" in
this case is mostly the French, who use the word "terroir"
to express this influence. Many of these winemakers consider
their mission to be allowing their wine to `"express the
nature of the terroir" Incidentally, all the possible
jokes about "terroirists" have already been made.
The management of grape vines in order to optimize flavor
has been a realm of extreme conservativism until recently.
Peasant farmers are understandably reluctant to undertake
experiments when tradition is recognizeably safe.
Winemaking techniques expand, contract, or radically alter
the taste of wine. Some of these alterations - like
prolonged contact between the freshly crushed juice and
the grape skins or the choice of yeast - are in deliberate
service to the flavors they produce. Others, like filtration
and pasteurization, are driven by economic considerations
and have secondary-and sometimes unfortunate-flavor consequences.
It's the discussion of this last area-a matter often hinted
at in other publications-that this book does so well. Taking
each of eight categories of wine, the book discusses the
winemaking choices that go into producing the characteristic
taste of that category. So we have chapters on:
Light-bodied Whites
Wooded and Full-bodied Whites
Sparkling
Sweet
Light-bodied Reds
Medium-bodied Reds
Full-bodied Reds
Fortified Wines
There is a brief section on the rôle of barrel storage,
but it's far from complete.
The description of winemakers' choices in this book
is clear, extensive and beautifully presented. Their
occasional snide remarks about New World winemaking should
be taken lightly as a bit of Euro-Austro provincialism.
Delightful reading for anyone who wants to know where
all those great tastes come from.
--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN
9781601640005
Not merely a coffee-table book.......2003-05-30
I bought this book as a companion volume to my little home winemaking library and am very glad I did. The authors explain and illustrate very clearly the choices that winemakers make in response to, and to complement, what nature gives them: The Grape. Four stars because of the exclusive focus on "great" wines (far too expensive for you and I), which as Johnson freely admits, are as much a product of mystique, fame, and rarity as of winemaking practice. Also, the authors' constant fawning over everything French at the expense of the rest of the world lessens the book's value to someone interested in winemaking in California. Still, beautiful photography combined with clear illustrations and excellent, sharp writing make this a must read for the serious winelover interested in more than snobbery, or the amateur winemaker intent on improving his/her closet-full of cab.
Winemakers Options.......2002-09-22
Winemaking books come in three flavors. For beginners, some books present scores of 'home' recipies including fruits, veggies, meads, beers, &c. At the other extreme are advanced textbooks for enology courses. And in the middle are a few intermediate books that focus on simple wines, but without hinting all the vintner's options.
Johnson and Halliday assume a basic knowledge of making and tasting wine and proceed to discuss all the options open to the winemaker. Simple charts depicting sequences of events are unique to this book and quite interesting.
I still can't put it down. For a winemaker its a wealth of ideas and possibilities.
Excellent!.......1999-02-21
James Halliday and Hugh Johnson do a fabulous job of explaining different wine styles and the reasons for the differences.
Terrific photos and diagrams. A good read and an outstanding reference for winemakers and wine lovers. One oddity... they managed to write the book without using the word "zinfandel".
Excellent reference.......1998-12-15
Found this book thoroughly delightful. A must for anyone interested in wines. Easy to read. Gives complete explanations about each wine type. Beautiful pictures, too. Keep it on my coffee table and refer to it regularly.
Average customer rating:
|
Animales Domesticos / Pets and People: Psicologia de sus duenos / The Psychology of the Pet Ownership (Saberes Y Cotidianos / Daily Knowledge)
Barrie Gunter
Manufacturer: Ediciones Paidos Iberica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Spanish
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Cuidado del Animal y Mascotas
| Hogar y jardinería
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
No-Ficción
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
| Automotriz
| Ciencias Sociales
| Crimen y Criminales
| Educación
| Estudios de la Mujer
| Feriados
| Filosofía
| Gobierno
| Hechos Verídicos
| Planeamiento Urbano y Desarrollo
| Política
| Sucesos de Actualidad
| Transportación
General
| Psicología y Consejería
| Salud, mente y cuerpo
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: 8449312612 |
Average customer rating:
|
Pets and People: The Psychology of Pet Ownership
Barrie Gunter
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Animal Care & Pets
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1861561164 |
Book Description
In an examination of the relationship between pets and people, Barrie Gunter illustrates the many psychological benefits that animal companionship can bestow upon us; providing security for the anxious, companionship for the lonely and status symbols for the image conscious.
This book examines the phenomenon of pet ownership and the importance placed upon this strange relationship by people in modern society.
Book Description
Internationally acclaimed designer Jil Eaton has again put simple design and style into children’s hand knits. In
MinnowKnits™, Too, she’s created twenty-six innovative patterns using her signature bold colors, chic styling, and spirited details. From sweaters to rompers, bibs to bunting, here are one-of-a-kind outfits for kids of all ages and knitters of all skill levels. Illustrated with full-color photographs, drawings, schematics, and clear step-by-step instructions,
MinnowKnits™, Too brings bright looks and a fresh attitude to knits for kids.
Amazon.com
With lively colors, charming styles, and wonderful patterns, professional knitting designer Jil Eaton presents 26 beautiful and varied knitted children's outfits in MinnowKnits, Too. Each item is complete with thorough instructions and good schematics as well as excellent color photos. Organized by season and sized for ages 3 months to 8 years, projects range from sweaters, coats, and hats to dresses, vests, and overalls. Though some plans are more complex, a number of them should be within the skill level of the practiced novice. The appealing designs provide ample incentive for even beginners to get going, and the book's introductory section teaches all the beginner basics. As Eaton reminds us, "We all may be wildly busy with our full and varied lives, but knitting remains a time to be still, to dream and create."
Product Description
Purple Martin
Book Description
Childcare has always been a concern for parents. There are more than 20 million U.S. households with young children, more than half of whom receive care from someone other than the parents. So how exactly is a mother and/or a father to wade through the options to determine what's right for their family? The Unofficial Guide to Childcare can help set minds at ease with its unbiased, street-smart style and practical tools to help parents interview caregivers and evaluate childcare facilities. From assessing a particular child's needs to finding a caregiver, assessing health and safety practices to noticing warning signs in daycare facilities, to transitioning a child into daycare, this guide will aid parents as they make one of the biggest decisions of their lives.
Customer Reviews:
Answers every possible childcare question.......2004-06-18
I agree with other reviewers. This is a very helpful guide to choosing childcare, whether you are looking for childcare for a baby, a toddler, a preschooler, or a grade schooler. The author covers both in-home and out-of-home childcare options -- everything from family daycare to childcare centers to nannies and babysitters. I also thoroughly recommend Choosing Childcare for Dummies, another book by Ann Douglas (the author of The Unofficial Guide to Childcare) as well as The Nanny Book by Susan Carlton and Coco Myers (for parents who are considering hiring a nanny).
Very comprehensive guide to selecting daycare.......2002-02-06
There is not a whole lot of helpful information out there when evaluating childcare choices. I found this book to be a wonderful source of information about all daycare options. It really tells the pros and cons and was very comprehensive. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for childcare!
A smart person's guide to choosing childcare.......1999-10-27
If you're the kind of person who likes to research things thoroughly, this is the book for you. It's far more comprehensive than any other childcare book on the market, covering important issues that most other books ignore, like how to prevent problems in your relationship with your childcare provider (whether a nanny or a member of the daycare center staff) and how to troubleshoot any difficulties that happen to arise. There are also tons of great checklists and valuable resources (e.g. a list of caregiver-child ratios for various ages and for each state; lists of the most useful childcare web sites; the inside scoop on what to pay your childcare provider; and more). I think this book should be required reading for every working parent in America!
A big disappointment.......1999-10-25
Why is it so difficult to find a book that is succinct and gets to the point quickly? I could not believe how much useless information was in this book, burying the information I was really looking for.
I am an intelligent working mother. I want answers quickly. I don't have time to wade through so much stuff that is irrelevant to me. Who has time to read all this stuff? It seemed like the author kept adding more "stuff" so the book would be longer. Some chapters... like returning to work while breastfeeding... were completely irrelevant to the topic of locating childcare.
What I did like about this book was that it made me feel "normal" about the feelings I am having. However, there was way too much of that kind of stuff in a book that I hoped would be a more hands-on guide that would help me understand all my childcare options and guide me through the minefield of locating somebody I could trust.
I'm still waiting for the "official" guide to childcare!
A terrific, comprehensive book that tells it like it is........1999-05-21
Having this book on hand is like having a sympathetic, understanding friend who knows everything there is to know about finding and keeping the best care for your child, how you and your child feel about all the childcare issues, and what you need to do to prevent trouble -- and to fix it all those times you can't prevent it! The appendixes are especially helpful, with their lists of organizations, books, websites, important documents and relevant statistics. I would recommend it highly for parents, caregivers and childcare professionals.
Customer Reviews:
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK for anything over $100.......2007-09-26
The Dahesh Museum of Art is taking orders right now (Sept. 2007) for a new printing of the hardcover English version of the book, to be shipped at the end of October. I just put in my order, the new price is $95 (it was $90 at the first printing). For those who have been waiting to purchase this book for months, the new printing is only a few weeks away.
A definitive statement of ideals.......2007-03-11
I've heard many times that students of drawing used to draw from master drawings and plaster casts before being allowed to work from life, but I was not aware that courses were in place to direct such study. One course that came into existence under the direction of academic artists Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérôme, at once a definitive statement of ideals and a last hurrah for the academic tradition, was edited by Gerald Ackerman and published a few years ago.
Ackerman writes:
"The abandonment of the study of the classical ideal in the last quarter of the nineteenth century was a serious break in an established yet vital artistic tradition. After all, Western art is an artificial activity that became self-conscious in antiquity and again in the Italian Renaissance, each time articulating an intellectual, apologetic theory of art that continued to influence the creation and teaching of painting over the centuries".
"The twentieth-century break in this developed tradition is problematic for young, contemporary artists who may not be attracted by the many schools and movements of modernism but are instead drawn to the imitation of nature. Without access to the rich lore and methods of humanist figure painting, they find themselves untrained and underequipped for many of the technical problems that confront them as Realists. Without help, today's young Realist artists may end up uncritically copying superficial appearances, randomly selecting from nature, and unwittingly producing clumsy and incoherent figures".
I've pointed out before that our present situation in art is not characterized by pluralism, but by false pluralism. Real pluralism would provide for a situation in which both the realists and the various modernists could flourish together. Instead, realism as it would have been understood by Gérôme is not generally taken seriously by art professionals and not commonly taught at schools.
The change has been good for the various modernists - I feel like I came out okay - but bad for the realists. The above is one of the first acknowledgments I've seen that the tradition of painting and sculpture requires a community of like-minded people for sustenance. The realists have it especially hard because their craft is so difficult.
No doubt about it - if you copied every plate in the course, as is recommended, you would become a champion renderer. You might also die of boredom; I doubt that each and every plate is necessary to get the fundamentals across. You might also find yourself at a loss when faced with the female model, as not a single plate in the last series, which pictures the figure in schematic sketches, is an image of a woman.
But it's clear that realists need a particular kind of education, and I think it would do the modernists no harm to revive parts of the traditional curriculum. It didn't interfere with the progress of the Impressionists, the Cubists, or the early abstractionists. Ackerman's book provides an important look into the past, and suggests constructive ideas about how art could be nurtured in the future.
Charles Bargue Et Jean-Leon Gerome: Drawing Course.......2007-03-08
The book is a complete reprint of the fabled but rare Drawing Course ("Cours de Dessin")of Charles Bargue and Jean-Leon Gérôme, published in Paris in the 1860s and 1870s. For most of the next half-century, this set of nearly 200 masterful lithographs was copied by art students worldwide before they attempted to draw from a live model. This book will be valuable to a wide range of artists, students, art historians and collectors, even as it introduces them to the hitherto-neglected master, Charles Bargue.
The Drawing Course is separated into three sections, in an ascending order of difficulty. The first section consists of lithographs by Bargue after casts of sculptures, mostly antique examples that present the structure of the human body with remarkable clarity and intelligence. The second part contains the lithographs that Bargue made after master drawings by Renaissance and modern artists, and the third section almost 60 exemplary drawings of nude male models.
The first two sections were for use in commercial or design schools to teach the principles of good taste based on classical form, the better to turn out competitive goods for commerce and industry. The last section, drawing from live models, was reserved for fine-art academies, opinion being that such training was beyond the grasp or need of humble commercial artists.
By and large the subjects for the plates are quite elevated. A prettily turned foot is taken from the first-century Medici Venus at the Uffizi in Florence; a sinewy shoulder and arm from Michelangelo's ''Moses'' at San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome; and the serenely spiritual-looking head of Anne of Brittany, wife of Louis XII, from her recumbent tomb figure by Giovanni Giusti (1515-22) in the Cathedral of Saint-Denis in Paris.
This portrait was a subject of fascination for van Gogh during a period when he was studying for the ministry. ''The expression of Anne of Brittany's face is noble, and reminds one of the sea and rocky coasts,'' he wrote to his brother in 1877, mentioning that he had hung the plate with her likeness in his room.
Experienced artists will recognize the skill and insight with which Bargue solved problems of drawing from nature; they will want to copy these plates to sharpen their professional skills. For art students, the Drawing Course is a practical introduction to realistic drawing based on the observation of nature, a course blissfully free of the usual charts and schemata requiring memorization and often productive of stultification.
For art historians, the Drawing Course documents the longstanding tradition of accurate draftsmanship prized by the late nineteenth-century figure painters who stood at the convergence of classicism and realism.
This volume concludes with a biography of Charles Bargue and a preliminary catalogue of his paintings, accompanied by reproductions of works both located and lost. Bargue started his career as a lithographer reproducing the drawings of commercial illustrators for a popular market in comic, sentimental and erotic subjects.
By working with Gérôme, and by preparing the plates for this Drawing Course, Bargue was transformed into a master painter, equipped with the skills to match his taste, talent and ideas. He became a master of telling details and exquisite tonal harmonies.
The Drawing Course (Cours de dessin).......2007-03-07
The Drawing Course(Cours de dessin); produced with the collaboration of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), France's greatest academic master; and designed to prepare beginning art students to draw from "nature", that is, objects, both natural and man-made, inthe real world. When the Drawing Course was first published (Parts I and II beginning in 1868; Part III in 1871) it was assumed that the imitation of nature was the primary goal of the artist, and that the most important subject was the human body.
The original Drawing Course contained 197 loose-leaf lithographic plates of drawings after casts, master drawings, and male models. These sheets, which were widely disseminated and very affordable when first published in the late 19th century (either individually or bound) are now quite rare. The 160 original plates featured in the exhibition have been generously loanedby Bordeaux's Musée Goupil, which possesses two complete sets of the Course.
Bargue's own paintings and drawings confirm his skills as a master artist, skills which he himself refined as he produced the Course. Bargue, therefore, can justly be called the first graduate of the Bargue-Gérôme Drawing Course. A Crisis in Art Education The Drawing Course was a response to widespread dissatisfaction with the skills of French commercial art students in the mid-19th century. The root of the problem was believed to be a deficiency of taste--which in turn reflected the inferiority of models that students had been given to copy, a basic element in drawing education. In 1865, French critics called for "a complete reorganization of the teaching of drawing" that would explicitly redress the dearth of appropriate models, and help French students of industrial design and decorative arts compete in an international market. Goupil & Cie, Paris, the most important art dealer and publisher of its time, seized the opportunity to develop a new curriculum for this market and quickly developed the Drawing Course, a series of lithographic plates that would foster the evolution of taste through the study of classical form, which was defined by the style of antique statuary. The work was advertised as a collaboration between Jean-Léon Gérôme andCharles Bargue. While Gérôme certainly contributed his celebrity to the enterprise, his actual role may have been supervisory. The drawings were executed by members of the Gérôme circle, and all were copied onto stone by Bargue.
The three parts of the Drawing Course correspond to a widely accepted sequence of art education in the 19th century. Part I, Drawing After Casts (Modeles D'Apres la Bosse) and Part II, Copying Master Drawings (Modeles d'Apres Les Maîtres), began publication in 1868 and were intended for students of industrial and decorative arts--the very ones whose deficiencies argued so forcefully for the Course's necessity--as well as beginning fine arts students. Part III, Charcoal Exercises in Preparation for Drawing the Male Academic Nude or Académie (Exercices au Fusain Pour Preparer a l'Etude de l'Academie d'Après Nature)presented charcoal sketches of the male nude.
It was completed in 1871 and intended for fine art students only--drawing live models was discouraged if not forbidden in most European and American schools of design. Published without instructive text because they were meant to be used primarily in art schools, the Drawing Course sold briskly from its first publication, and continued to do well for at least three decades, with individual plates made available by Goupil & Cie and its successors until the firm's final dissolution in 1921. Its primary purchasers were institutions: the city of Paris ordered a special printing for its schools almost immediately after the first plates were finished, and the Drawing Course was adopted in Great Britain by the extensive system of schools and academies supervised by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum).
Its influence was also widespread in America -- the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, for example, bought Parts I and II of the Drawing Course in 1876, the year Thomas Eakins began teaching there. Self-trained artists could also easily make use of the plates, progressing in an orderly, rational sequence through a program designed to develop their technical skills, while mature artists would use the plates to hone their skills, as a trained pianist might return to the discipline of Czerny's piano exercises.
Mirroring the selection of casts found in the collections of the best European and American art schools, most plates in Part I of the Drawing Course are copies after famous antique sculptures. They were meant to guide a student through a pedagogically-grounded sequencefrom plates depicting separate body parts -- eyes, ears, noses, feet, arms, and legs, with great emphasis on the head - to partial, and then complete male and female figures. Key to understanding this section are Bargue's angular schemata that lie to the left of the finisheddrawings in most of these plates, simplifying the composition of the cast, suggesting reference lines and geometric configurations that the student might use in organizing the contours of his own drawing.
Several of Pablo Picasso's student copies of Part I are reproduced in this section of the exhibition. Nineteenth-century art schools considered a collection of plaster casts a necessity; students were required to draw from them before they were allowed to turn their attention to livemodels. Museums likewise considered such collections essential to their mission. Within 30 years of its founding in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art had amassed more than 2,000 plaster casts, which they kept on continuous view until the late 1930's. For pedagogical purposes, casts offered ideal drawing models for the student. They were immobile, and their white or light coloration allowed easy reading of light and shadow.
The drawings in Part II were selected both for their aesthetic value and their demonstration of specific techniques that could be learned in practice. Bargue made most of the plates for this part of the Drawing Course from copies rendered by artists again chosen by Gérôme from among his colleagues and students. The originals include works of the Old Masters--Michelangelo, Raphael, Filippino Lippi, and Hans Holbein the Younger, among them--as well as Bargue's contemporaries -- academic luminaries such as Gérôme, his teachers Paul Delaroche and Charles Gleyre, and other artists represented or employed by Goupil & Cie.
The copying of drawings by distinguished artists had a long history. Under the guild system that predated the French Revolution, apprentices copied drawings, studies, and travelnotations from their masters' portfolios. Beyond its advantages to the master--students thus trained could assist in his projects without noticeable discrepancies in style--the practice allowed the apprentice to develop a personal repertoire of subjects and poses for eventual use in his own work. This practice continued in the studios of the academic masters of the nineteenth century, and, of course, was famously reinterpreted a century later in AndyWarhol's "Factory". Twenty-eight of the 70 drawings are after Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), said to be a favorite of Gérôme's.
Like all Old Master drawings in Part II, these are "interpretations" of Holbein, rather than precise facsimiles. They have beenfreshened and made whole: faded lines have been strengthened and fading coloration translated into lines so that they are easier to copy.
Part III: Drawing the Nude Charcoal Exercises in Preparation for Drawing the Male Academic Nude or Académie (Exercices au Fusian Pour Preparer a L'etude de L'Académie d'Après Nature) or Part III ofthe Drawing Course, contained 60 plates. Published in 1871, it is Bargue's work alone. As the plates of Part I prepared the student to work from plaster casts, the drawings in Part III represent the final step before depicting the nude male model in a "noble and classic" pose. (As the most representative product of the academic curriculum, such drawings, or academies,became synonymous with their institutions.)
Seen as preparatory notations to assist in the creation of polished drawings, rather than finished works themselves, these plates show the student how to capture a figure's most salient points. The models assume traditional poses that express a catalogue of human emotions -- thinking, beseeching, sincerity, melancholy, despair -- emotions that all academically trained artists were taught to render through specific poses and expressions. Such poses as taught by Bargue were often reused by figurative painters throughout their careers.
Vincent van Gogh, for example, copied the plates of Part III many times during his career. Excerpts from his letters to his brother Theo, reproduced in the exhibition's wall text, underscore the hold that the "Bargues" had on the artist. In 1881, he wrote to Theo, "Careful study & repeated copying of Bargue's Exercises au fusain have given me a better insight into figure-drawing. I have learned to measure and to see and to look for the broad outlines so that, thank God, what seemed utterly impossible to me before is gradually becoming possible to me now...I no longer stand as helpless before nature as I used to do.
Little is known of Bargue's early life, although it seems likely that he received much of his training at home, within a family of professional lithographers. While working as a lithographer for Goupil & Cie, he became acquainted with Gérôme and his circle, and was soon included in a group of talented painters employed to make smaller copies ("reductions") of popular paintings. After Bargue received the commission for the Drawing Course, the next five years of his life, from 1865-1870, were almost entirely devoted to that single project.
While the teaching of traditional academic practices almost died out between 1880 and 1950, Bargue's curriculum helps us reconstruct what generations of traditionally trained representational artists were taught to copy and admire. But the Drawing Course is no mere dusty artifact in the archeology of art education. The explosion of figurative work being made today by young artists; the energy of new academies, ateliers, and other institutions for training artists; and the growing critical appreciation of the importance of drawing for artists, illustrators, and even animators, promise a new life for Bargue's comprehensive curriculum. With the republication of this groundbreaking work, a rich and vibrant tradition will be sustained.
Overall a great buy.......2007-02-21
The Bargue Drawing Course has an interesting history. To understand it properly, some understanding of how academic art was taught in the late 19th century, when it was published, will help.
A typical art education in the 19th century would begin with drawing from casts of Greek and Roman statues. This was supposed to teach students not only to draw well, but to appreciate the noble beauty of classical sculpture, and to be educated by copying from example in what was then considered to be 'good taste'. Following a period of drawing from casts, students would move on to copying old masters. This education was common to all the visual arts, including commercial variants like industrial design. Once this thorough grounding in good taste had been achieved, only 'fine art' students would then go on to draw and paint from the nude.
The Bargue Drawing Course is split into three parts, roughly following this pattern. The first part is a series of drawings from casts, the second part a series of copies of old master drawings. The third part would only have been undertaken by fine art students and is a series of what we now call 'life drawings' - drawings of the male nude in various poses. Students were expected to copy these drawings with great accuracy, producing work which was to all intents and purposes indistinguishable from the originals, assuming they were up to the job.
In France in the 1860s there was a general official hoo-ha about the low standard of the work being produced by the students at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The consensus was that this was due to the low standard of the work the students were copying. Goupil and Cie, the prominent Parisian art dealers at the time (and Theo Van Gogh's employers and for a while Vincent's too before he became a painter himself,) saw a commercial opportunity, and organised the production of the Bargue Drawing Course to answer the need for better models for the students to work from. It did pretty well for them apparently, for thirty years or so, but fell out of favour when those pesky post impressionists stopped worrying about how accurate their drawing was and started worrying about the expression of their personal vision instead.
In simple terms, academic art institutions and ateliers at that time were mainly concerned with reproducing nature. In fact, this idea that the goal of art was to copy nature, either realistically or in an idealised version, had held sway pretty much since the time of Aristotle.
To be fair, Medieval art got a bit wayward and tended to subjugate the faithful reproduction of nature to the communication of the message (Christianity), but the artist was then even less a creative individual in the sense that we're used to thinking about them now, he was a workman. The Renaissance marked a return to the natural and idealised forms of classical Greek and Roman art, but now often in the service of the Church. Those poor Renaissance artists had to spend lots of time and energy re-learning what their Medieval brothers and sisters had forgotten, how to represent nature faithfully. On the plus side though, they were beginning to be seen less as low class artisans and were gradually becoming invested with a higher social status. Michelangelo in particular was instrumental in this change of the perception of the artist. All the same, it wasn't until the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that the expression of the personal vision of the artist became more important than the faithful reproduction of nature.
This book is a reproduction of the entire Bargue drawing course, together with some extra information about Bargue himself and a few other tidbits, including excellent coverage of the technique of sight size drawing. According to the introduction of this publication, there were a few competitors on the market at the time, but the Bargue course had something extra going for it. It managed to straddle the two main camps in academic art at the time, one of idealisation of nature along the lines of Raphael, what you might call classicism, the other a part of the growing realist movement which held that art should be honest, including being truthfully ugly if the subject was ugly. Bargue's drawing style represents a synthesis of these two camps, showing his models as they really are, but with nothing so ugly that it would outrage the idealists. Bargue also had the knack of simplifying his forms in order to make them clearer and easier to copy for the aspiring student.
Although it's a very good thing that this course has been republished, the book does have a couple of shortcomings in it's present form. Firstly, the plates are much smaller than the originals, which means that they have to be blown up if you want to do a proper job of copying them. Now that's alright for the bigger plates which are A4 size, but some of them are only a couple of inches high so that the publishers can squeeze a few on a page. It seems pretty obvious to me that if you reproduce something that small you'll lose a lot of the detail because the resolution (in dpi) of these reproductions is the same as for the large ones, so these plates may as well have not been included at all in my opinion. To be fair I haven't tried it yet, but it does seem to go against common sense. I wonder if they were included to justify the "in it's entirety" selling point.
Secondly, it's in book form, with a hard spine. These plates are supposed to be taped up onto a drawing board with the copies done beside them, the same size, the better to judge the accuracy of the copies. Of course you can get them blown up, as I've done, but they're also difficult copy cleanly with no distortion on a flat bed scanner because of the book format. The printer I took them to had to try a couple of times for some of them, it's not a thin book.
Given that these drawings are supposed to give one an appreciation of what good taste was over a hundred years ago, you could be forgiven for thinking that the book is hopelessly out of date. I can't disagree on that score, but what saves this book for me and makes it worthwhile is the quality of the drawings. Bargue was a superb draughtsman, it fairly drips off the pages, with plate after plate of beautifully realised drawings. For many of the plates, a one or two stage simplification of the final finished drawing is included, breaking the drawing down into simplified forms. I haven't got that far yet (I'm still on the first plate,) but I do believe that this will be very useful when it comes to seeing the building blocks of shapes in the real world.
It must be said also that the publishers do make the point that the book is only partly intended as a course for students. It's also intended to be used by historians and also simply to be enjoyed by lovers of fine drawing, and on that score it delivers.
Apart from the reservations I've cited above, I'm happy I've got hold of a copy of this book. Of course, as with all teaching materials, you can't absorb the knowledge and skills through osmosis by sitting in the same room as the book or just flicking through the pages. You have to get your charcoal out and draw. A lot.
That the beautiful drawings in this book are being brought to a wider audience is a very good thing. The manner in which it has been done is considerably less impressive. I hope another publisher with a better idea of how to go about their business produces a more usable, better constructed one.
Customer Reviews:
Jean Leon Gerome by Gerald M. Ackerman.......2003-12-04
The book was delivered very quickly and in excellent condition. The book itself is excellent, I only wish in the description it had been mentioned that it was a French version, I did not see the fine print that it was in French. I purchased the book for my art school unfortunately I am the only French speaking person there. I would not have purchased it had I known.
Jean Leon Gerome by Gerald M. Ackerman.......2003-12-04
The book was delivered very quickly and in excellent condition. THe book itself is excellent, I only wish the description had mentioned that it was a French version. I purchased the book for my art school unfortunately I am the only French speaking person there. I would not have purchased it had I known.
Average customer rating:
|
Gerome
Helene Lafont-Couturier
Manufacturer: Herscher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Painting
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Arts & Photography
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 2733502719 |
Average customer rating:
|
Gerome & Goupil: Art et entreprise
Manufacturer: Musee Goupil
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
| Architecture
| Artists, A-Z
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Drawing
| Fashion
| General
| History & Criticism
| Instructional & How-To
| Museums & Collections
| Other Media
| Painting
| Performing Arts
| Photography
| Reference
| Religious
| Schools, Periods & Styles
| Sculpture
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Arts & Photography
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 2711840034 |
Product Description
TEXT UNMARKED; PAGES TIGHT TO SPINE - 78 page monograph.
Average customer rating:
|
Jean Léon Gérome
Lafont
Manufacturer: Herscher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 273350312X |
