Mussolini in the First World War: The Journalist, The Soldier, The Fascist

Book Description

How did Mussolini come to fascism? Standard accounts of the dictator have failed to explain satisfactorily the transition from his pre-World War I "socialism" to his post-war fascism. This controversial new book is the first to examine Mussolini's political trajectory during the Great War through his journalistic writings, speeches and war diary. The author argues that the 1914-18 conflict provided the catalyst for Mussolini to clarify his deep-rooted nationalist tendencies. He demonstrates that Mussolini's interventionism was already anti-socialist and anti-democratic in the early autumn of 1914 and shows how in and through the experience of the conflict the future Duce fine-tuned his authoritarian vision of Italy in a state of permanent mobilization for war.

Book Description

Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir belongs to the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau: the "confession" of a life that is a quest for truth. It is in large part the story of two major episodes from Abigail Rosenthal's early adulthood, bought putting personal identity dramatically at risk.

As a young Fulbright scholar in Paris, Rosenthal met and entered reluctantly into a love affair with a young Greek communist philosopher who believed (along with many Parisian intellectuals of that era) that force and deception were justified by a utopian vision of world history. In the inevitable collision of values—between Jew and Greek, liberal and revolutionary, theist and atheist, woman and man in unequal truggle—they separated.

Suffering in the aftermath, she at last turned for help to a young African American woman graduate student whom she met in London. This woman's Gnostic Christian rejection of personal and cultural history eventually left Rosenthal without defense against her new mentor's remarkable use of charisma, ridicule, and moralistic reproach to usurp the author's life story. These stratagems of mind control reached a climactic phase in Portugal, where the two went—Rosenthal to paint the other woman to write—in what would turn out to be the terrifying reverse of a summer idyll. With the U.S. State Department, the Portuguese Policía Internacional devised an extraordinary rescue.

This arresting narrative, which deals with relations between blacks and whites, Christians and Jews, and men and women, delivers its own philosophic theory of the individual in history.

Book Description

An indispensable and timely guide, Risk is the authority for assessing threats to your health and safety. We continually face new risks in our world. This essential family reference will help you understand worrisome risks so you can decide how to stay safe and how to keeps risks in perspective. Expert authors David Ropeik and George Gray include information on: - 50 top hazards - your likelihood of exposure - the consequences - ways to reduce your risk They cover topics such as: - cancer - biological weapons - indoor air pollution - pesticides - radiation

Customer Reviews:

The antidote to media scares.......2007-05-27

Though its prose style is deliberately dry, this wonderful reference work is the perfect antidote to the "scare of the week" that the media continually inflict upon us. Has short sections on each of 48 risks (e.g. indoor air pollution; pesticides; firearms; X-rays; caffeine; breast implants) containing data and the relevant scientific knowledge, summarized by two scales of "likelihood of being affected" and "seriousness of being affected". Even those who consider themeselves knowledgeable about risk will learn something; I recommend it for my undergraduate seminar course at Berkeley.

great for browsing.......2006-10-07

I thought this was a really fun and interesting book to read, and it is great for learning to think about things from a public health perspective. It also introduces a wide variety of scientific terms and concepts in an interesting and easy to read way. While I believe that the general conclusions on specific risks are valid in a general sense, I also feel as though the heavy reliance on population data makes this less of a practical guide on the individual level. For example, looking at the risk of developing health problems due to air pollution for the U.S. population in general is interesting and informative but may not accurately reflect my individual risk in New Jersey. Because of the complexities involved in risk assessment, I thought the risk meter presentations (although very interesting, and truly a browser's delight) were too general and simplistic. In the author's defense, the narratives often give more practical detail, identify modifiable risk factors and acknowledge some limitations of the data and assessments. While at times I took issue with the validity of generalizing the data and the practicality of some conclusions at the individual level, I recommend this book highly for those interested in how public health risk is evaluated.

Easy to read and comprehend .......2006-04-01

This publication brings more complex concepts of risk management to a common level of understanding for many college students. It helps create a foundation for proper risk communication and arms students with the knowledge to address a large variety of issues affecting our lives today.

MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT.......2005-08-24

I recognize the authors to be significant scholars capable of important work, but this book is downright deceitful in that the title and subtitle suggest that it is a scholarly effort when in fact it is a pop culture "digest" or collection of superficial lists. There is very little discussion worthy of the researchers and you should save your money for a real text if they do one. You can find ALL the information quite easily on the internet.

An Interesting Read, But Has Some Shortcomings.......2005-06-28

I've been interested in the topic of perceived versus real risks for quite some time. When I bought this book I was hoping for a source for comparisons of data that would be useful to someone with such interests. While this book addresses many common risk situations with practical advice regarding them it lacks much really hard data or statistical analysis. No specific references are provided (footnotes, end notes, sources) for teh materials in the book. However, sources for further investigation do appear regularly at the end of each chapter.

Also, despite publication in 2002, after the "9/11" attack and all of its attendant fall-out it fails to address even at a superficial level the preceived risks of terrorism in the US. In the index the word terrorism is noted "see biological weapons (bioweapons); perceived risk." In my opinion, this lack of coverage is glaring. Granted the book was doubtless in the works before 9/11; still, had I been the author or publisher, I'd have delayed publication until a relevant section could have been added.

This is a handy book, a relatively easy read, and probably a decent introduction to the basic concepts of relative risk assessment. As long as one understands this is a basic layperson's text and not a serious look at risk assessment, this may be a good book for you.

Book Description

This book is filled with recipes to make your own gifts. Each mix fits into a quart jar. The book even includes tags complete with recipient directions with each recipe. Just cut it out, personalize and attach to the jar. Fun to make and affordable, gifts in a jar make great gifts for neighbors, teachers and friends!

Customer Reviews:

Not the Greatest.......2007-01-10

I love to bake, so I thought cookie and bake mixes in a jar would be fun holiday gifts this year. When I got this book I was disappointed just looking through the recipes - most of the cookie mixes called for store bought biscuit mix. I think this is because biscuit mix contains flour, leavening and often powdered shortening, thus saving the recipient of the gift jar from having to add their own shortening. But have you ever had cookies made with biscuit mix? Sub-par at best, and why would I give that to my friends? So I wrote down the 2 recipes in the whole book that I considered usable and returned the book. I found plenty of gift jar recipes online for free, it just took a little google searching. The m&m site has a very good one. This book just isn't worth the money.

A unique liitle book.......2007-01-09

If you have time to putz this book is fun for the holidays!! There are
a wide variety of recipes. If you are making quantities make sure you
have enough ingredients-it takes more than you think.

Gifts in a Jar: Holiday Fun, Cocoas, Cappuccinos, Coffees & Teas

Average customer rating:

Gifts in a Jar: Holiday Fun, Cocoas, Cappuccinos, Coffees & Teas

Manufacturer: CQ Products
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1597950785

Product Description

Make your own gourmet gifts in a jar! This crafty 2-set offers dozens of recipes for making festive cookie, cake, and beverage mixes. Each recipe fits into a quaint quart jar and includes gift tags and decorating tips. With Gifts in a Jar Cocoas, Cappuccinos, Coffees, & Teas, and Gifts in a Jar Holiday Fun, youll learn to make: Holiday Hazelnut Cookies, Spice Cake, Mocha Coffee, Caribbean Tea, and much more! This fun and functional 2-set ensures youll give a gift worthy of the season.

Average customer rating:

Even better!

Jane Snedden Peever is my favorite crochet designer

A wealth of more Aran-style designs with new stitch patterns

Aran Sweaters part 2

More Crocheted Aran Sweaters
Jane Snedden Peever
Manufacturer: Martingale and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Crocheting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Knitting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Needlework | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Crocheted Aran Sweaters

Crochet with Style: Fun-to-Make Sweaters for All Seasons

From Knit to Crochet: How to Get the Look and Feel of Knitting with Crochet!

Couture Crochet Workshop: Mastering Fit, Fashion, and Finesse

Amazing Crochet Lace: New Fashions Inspired by Old-Fashioned Lace

ASIN: 1564775909

Book Description

It was proven in Crocheted Aran Sweaters—you can create the traditional look of knitted Aran sweaters in crochet! This popular author returns with more Aran-style designs featuring all-new stitch patterns.

· Give a fresh twist to this fashion classic with 13 beautiful sweater and vest patterns

· Create the look of knitted cables, bobbles, moss stitches, and more in crochet

· Use the helpful step-by-step stitches guide for easy reference

Customer Reviews:

Even better!.......2007-01-05

Well, I didn't think it could get any better, but this book does just that. More beautiful sweaters and again, the best instructions and schematics. If you love the first book, you will love this one also. Just not enough time for me to make all the beautiful sweaters.

Jane Snedden Peever is my favorite crochet designer.......2006-08-29

When I picked up this book I was surprised at the designs. They look great and straddle that fine line between conservative and boring. The yarns used are easy to find and make substitutions, and the directions are clear and easy to follow. Most of all I would wear any of the sweaters in the book. Can't wait to start crocheting more aran sweaters.

A wealth of more Aran-style designs with new stitch patterns.......2005-11-06

Jane Snedden Peever's More Crocheted Aran Sweaters provides a sequel to her popular Crocheted Aran Sweaters, providing a wealth of more Aran-style designs with new stitch patterns. Thirteen sweaters and vests are created with the look of knitting cables and moss stitches, plus some crochet patterns. The stitches guide helps make professional, polished results from even the most basic beginner efforts, while the styles are contemporary and appealing.

Aran Sweaters part 2.......2005-09-12

This is the second volume of crocheted Aran sweaters. The first offered a variety of patterns and styles that tempt crocheters of most skill levels to try an Aran sweater. This volume has more of a "traditional Aran" feel to it and seems to be for the more skilled crocheter, with the emphasis on cables and twists. The instructions are clear. Experienced crocheters looking for a traditional Aran look will find much to make in this book. Less experienced crocheters will be happier with the first volume.

Book Description

The Compendium of Ornamental Palm Diseases and Disorders provides current information on diseases and disorders affecting palms during nursery production and later in the landscape. With the help of 237 color images, detailed descriptions, and treatment methods, readers will learn to visually identify and treat diseases and disorders that affect the health and beauty of these important ornamental plants.

Palms lose their beauty, and sometimes die, for numerous reasons - not all caused by diseases. The goal of this work is to help readers separate, for example, leaf spots caused by a disease vs. leaf spots caused by a nutritional deficiency; death caused by a bud rot vs. death caused by lightning; or leaf shredding caused by a disease vs. leaf shredding caused by wind. The ability to determine the cause is critical to selecting successful control measures, which can vastly vary.

New to the Compendium of Plant Disease Series, this is a thorough revision of a bestselling palm disease guide first published in 1991 by APS PRESS. This ambitious new treatment of an economically important host is presented in the popular APS Compendium format with new high quality photographs, up-to-date diagnostic and treatment information, and references provided for each topic. An introduction on palm morphology and biology are added in addition to new diseases and enhanced detail. Readers will find data on distribution of pathogens within the United States and worldwide, descriptions of laboratory techniques including information on pathogen isolation and maintenance techniques, a list of potential hosts for each pathogen, and step-by-step treatment methods for diseases and disorders.

This book is applicable to any geographic location where palms are grown, whether indoors or outdoors, and will be valuable for a wide range of readers, including nursery growers, extension professionals, plant pathologists, horticulturists, landscape professionals, diagnosticians, arborists, landscape consultants, landscape architects, botanical garden professionals, palm researchers, and palm hobbyists.

Customer Reviews:

Enhanced with 237 color images.......2004-07-09

Enhanced with 237 color images and 4 black/white illustrations, Compendium Of Ornamental Palm Diseases And Disorders is the collaborative work of horticultural experts M.L. Elliott, T.K. Broschat, J.Y. Uchida, and G.W. Simone. The section on "Diseases" is alphabetically organized with each of the succinct entries covers symptomology; causal organisms; occurrence and specifies effective; diagnostic techniques; as well as prevention and treatment. The section on "Physiological Disorders" is similarly laid out and covers everything from Albinism, Cold Injury, Herbicide Toxicity, and Lightning Injury, to Potassium Deficiency; Powerline Decline; Root Suffocation; Water Stress; and more. An exceptional and strongly recommended addition to professional and academic gardening and horticultural reference library collections, Compendium Of Orna-mental Palm Diseases And Disorders is enhanced with thirteen appendices including "Common names of some palm taxa".

Diseases and Disorders of Ornamental Palms

Average customer rating:

Diseases and Disorders of Ornamental Palms

Manufacturer: Amer Phytopathological Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Horticulture | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Ornamental Palm Diseases And Disorders (Compendium Image Series)

Average customer rating:

Ornamental Palm Diseases And Disorders (Compendium Image Series)

Manufacturer: Amer Phytopathological Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0890543151

Average customer rating:

Informative, easy to understand book on depression.

Mayo Clinic On Depression: Answers to Help You Understand, Recognize and Manage Depression
Keith Kramlinger M.D.
Manufacturer: Mayo Clinic Trade Paper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Depression | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Manic Depression | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Reference | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Family Health | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Essential Guide To Depression (The American Medical Association Essential Guides Series)

Mayo Clinic Guide To Self-Care: Answers for Everyday Health Problems

Mayo Clinic on Osteoporosis: Keeping Bones Healthy and Strong and Reducing the Risk of Fractures ("MAYO CLINIC ON" SERIES)

Mayo Clinic on Chronic Pain (Mayo Clinic on Health)

Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 1893005178

Customer Reviews:

Informative, easy to understand book on depression........2006-12-27

I checked out three books on depression from my local library. After reading all three, this one seemed the best, so I bought a copy for my personal library. This book is great, I don't know why no one else has written a review. The Mayo Clinic is a well known medical research facility, so it is a credible source of medical information. The book is straight forward, easy to understand. It covers recognizing depression and the different treatments available. Since the book is by the Mayo Clinic and not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, you hear information that you normally would not hear. Such as the medical study that showed exercise was as effective a treatment for depression as pharmaceutical drugs. See page 113. I did not see that research in any of the books sponsored by drug companies.

Traditionally depression is viewed as a "loser's" illness, but the book presents depression from a vantage point that anyone can suffer from depression. It covers a personal story of a Medical Doctor who was overworked and fell into depression. Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression. Prior to Lincoln becoming President of the United States, he wrote to a close friend, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better it appears to me."

I recommended this book.

Book Description

Each chapter of this inventive consideration of American culture evokes an actual meeting between American writers and artists, from Henry James and Mathew Brady, to Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, to Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore, to Norman Mailer and Robert Lowell. The accumulation of these pairings draws the reader into the mysterious process by which creativity has been sparked and passed on, from the Civil War through the civil rights movement.

Customer Reviews:

An Intimate Portrait of Various Artists.......2007-01-20

Much like her narrative, Cohen's eyes draw the reader into her own world from the surface of her dustjacket. And what is that world? A world of intimiate connections expressed through the smallest of gestures and the shortest of moments. It is obvious from reading A Chance Meeting that Cohen has entwined herself with each and every one of her subjects to become their close friend, despite being decades away from meeting them in person. That doesn't stop her, however, from creating a wonderful narrative of shared moments and chance meetings between various artists of the early 20th Century. Whether those actors or authors managed to sustain a relationship for years, or merely sense each other from across the room, doesn't matter as Cohen has an art for deeply plumbing each character's soul to see the impact that such meetings have upon their decisions. Not every one is moved by such small encounters as an introduction, but Cohen pieces together a rich tapestry of influential artists, each of which motivated another through such moments, and does a fine job of it. Finally, one gets to see the authors completely naked, instead of through the rough hewn lens of their work.

Past Cultural Icons Lead the Way on their Inter-connected Path.......2006-06-08

Everything the editorial reviews say about "A Chance Meeting" is all true. Rachel Cohen has placed 30 major American cultural figures--writers and artists--in 36 intertwined encounters ranging more than a century (1854-1967) that reads like a cross of a gossipy letter home (back when we did that) and carefully thought-out commentary and conjecture.

This book is not only an informative, fun, and thought-provoking read--for artists and writers, it is a well of companionship. Have you ever been lonely in your studio or study as you created? Have you ever been broke, searching for that next fellowship or contract? Have you ever been inspired by a chance meeting of a fellow/sister artist and writer? Did you ever wonder what pleasures and problems fame might bring? These and many other questions are answered in these rich encounters.

Authors and artists I've studied are presented here as human beings working to remain human while they create their work. This is a tremendous guidebook not only for lovers of cultural history, but also for current makers of culture.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author "Sightlines: A Poet's Diary"

A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854-1967

Average customer rating:

A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE IN HISTORICAL IMAGINING
Excellent Book About Artists in America
Relax and Set Sail on Artistic Adventures with a Noble Cast
William Dean Howells liked blueberry cake
Comfort Reading

A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854-1967
Rachel Cohen
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1400061644
Release Date: 2004-03-09

Book Description

“They met in ordinary ways,” writes Rachel Cohen in her introduction, “a careful arrangement after long admiration, a friend’s casual introduction, or because they both just happened to be standing near the drinks. . . . They talked to each other for a few hours or for forty years, and later it seemed to them impossible that they could have missed each other.”

Each chapter of this inventive consideration of American culture evokes an actual meeting between two historical figures. In 1854, Henry James, as a boy, goes with his father to have a daguerreotype made by Mathew Brady and is captured in a moment of self-consciousness about being American. Brady returns to photograph Walt Whitman and, later, at City Point in the midst of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant. Meanwhile, Henry James begins a lasting friendship with William Dean Howells, and also meets Sarah Orne Jewett, who in turn is a mentor to Willa Cather. Mark Twain publishes Grant’s memoirs; W.E.B. Du Bois and his professor William James visit the young Helen Keller; and Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz argue about photography. Later, Carl Van Vechten and Gertrude Stein, who was also a student of William James’s, attend a performance of The Rite of Spring; Hart Crane goes out on the town with Charlie Chaplin; Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston write a play together; Elizabeth Bishop takes Marianne Moore, who was photographed by both Van Vechten and Richard Avedon, to the circus; Avedon and James Baldwin collaborate on a book; John Cage and Marcel Duchamp play chess; and Norman Mailer and Robert Lowell march on the Pentagon in the anti–Vietnam War demonstration of 1967. The accumulation of these pairings draws the reader into the mysterious process through which creativity has been sparked and passed on among iconoclastic American writers and artists.

Ultimately, Rachel Cohen reveals a long chain of friendship, rebellion, and influence stretching from the moment just before the Civil War through a century that had a profound effect on our own time. Drawing on a decade of research, A Chance Meeting makes its own illuminating contribution to the tradition of which Cohen writes.

Customer Reviews:

A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE IN HISTORICAL IMAGINING.......2005-11-12

Rachel Cohen's A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists 1854-1967 is an exceptional work of literary detection and interpretation. In thirty-six chapters, Cohen narrates a set of encounters of distinguished American literati and artists across the span of 113 years, laying out changes in the preoccupations and sensibilities of American writers and artists in the century that followed the Civil War. Some meetings are brief, even one-time, and peripheral to the protagonists' lives as, for instance, the Henry James, still a child, sitting with his father for a photograph by Matthew Brady, or William Dean Howells' one-time meeting with Walt Whitman, or Richard Avedon's photo shoot of modernists Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg. The meeting of James and Brady is also a "might have been" meeting, for Cohen takes a daring chance to capture and describe James's literary and intellectual sensibility on the brink of radical change. Other chapters describe longer standing relationships -Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, Edward Steichen and Alfred Steiglitz, Joseph Cornell and Marianne Moore, Hart Crane's disastrous stay in Mexico with Katherine Anne Porter, the complicated father and son relationship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes, the advance-retreat relationship between Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

This is not a book of strict factual history (although nothing in it runs counter to what can be proved using historical methods) but rather a book of rich historical sensitivity that illuminates a critical period in the maturing of our country's literature and art. It is written with exceptional grace: each chapter can be read separately without loss in pleasure or comprehension. This is a bold venture that deserves a wide readership.

The reader who enjoys A Chance Meeting may also enjoy Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club: A History of Ideas in America (which I am reading right now).

Excellent Book About Artists in America.......2004-06-24

This is a collection of essays about the private lives of important American authors and artists. Cohen's essays are based almost entirely on secondary works and begin with 19th Century authors and artists and then continue on through the 20th Century.
These essays are written in such a way that you get a feel for the kind of folks that these artistic types actually were. The reader learns all sorts of interesting things about these people such as their vices, lusts and secret desires.

This is an excellent book about the history of artistic endeavor in America.

Relax and Set Sail on Artistic Adventures with a Noble Cast.......2004-06-09

Rachel Cohen has created a diversion in A CHANCE MEETING: INTERTWINED LIVES OF AMERICAN ARTISTS, 1854 - 1967 that is more a series of illuminated daydreams than it is a sourcebook for biographical data on the important artists in American over a century spanning 1860s through 1960s. No, this is not a code of secretive encounters between unlikely and disparate writers, photograpahers, and artists, nor is it a professed series of inside stories meant to reveal the truths about those we deem as gifted. Cohen writes splendidly, and though she documents with copious bibliography and chapter notes the instances she encountered in her survey of 'chance meetings ' by a diversity of disparate artists, she seems more intent on using fact as springboard to create cadenzas of intricately woven possibilities to stimulate the reader to enter the wonderful world of 'what if?' than in declaring new-found discoveries of data/gossip.

Here in short and terse chapters we meet Matthew Brady, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Marcel Duchamp, Langston Hughes, Hart Crane, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Alfred Steiglitz with and without Georgia O'Keefe, Charlie Chaplin, Richard Avedon, Gertrude Stein with and without Alice B. Toklas, etc., etc. - you get the picture. The joy of Cohen's writing is the possibilities created by perseverating on the conversations that might have occurred among these people, whether in duet or in orchestrated outcome. My bet is that if the casts of characters here discussed were to read these informative and provocative pages, they doubtless would smile, swoon, curse, or laugh, but in some way react to the vision and imagination of Rachel Cohen. This is a delightful book for devout readers and lovers of artistic history. There is so much to learn about artists who even today are on the periphery as well as the giants we all 'think' we know! This wonderful book is for relaxation and diversion and the rewards are many.

William Dean Howells liked blueberry cake.......2004-04-19

A CHANCE MEETING, divided into into 36 short chapters, contains stories of the relationships between noted writers and artists from just before the Civil War to the late 1960s. Most of the chapters are framed around a single meeting, but contain digressions which sometimes encompass other famous figures.
What are we to make of this unique, celebratory, and quite often infuriating work? Each chapter is backed up by Rachel Cohen's source notes, detailing the basis for the events and behavior described. Yet, throughout the book there's a curiously speculative tone, Cohen describes many of her beloved figures as "maybe" doing or thinking this or that. In the opening chapter, Henry James (then a young boy) is described as feeling a "persistent uneasiness" while eating ice cream after having his portrait taken by Matthew Brady. Cohen notes this episode is invented, but then one must ask, "Why is this important?" Surely a book very much like this could have been written without such flights of fancy?

Indeed, several chapters fail to coalesce at all. In a chapter on Willa Cather and Sarah Orne Jewett, Cohen asserts that the fact Cather did NOT meet Henry James changed the artistic direction of her career. How can this be proven? In most of these vignettes, no direct suggestion is made of how the characters influenced each other. Cohen is edging away from history and criticism and dangerously close to short fiction here. The book picks up in the last third, with some gossipy stuff about Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop and a funny scene of Marianne Moore and Muhammad Ali together, but the whole thing is much too ephemeral. The photographer Richard Avedon provided several photos - he's thanked in the acknowledgements - but did he deserve to be included in the title of several chapters? It's not as if the people he photographed (Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, for example) hadn't met before.
A suggestion: read some of the books Cohen sites in her bibliography instead of A CHANCE MEETING.

Comfort Reading.......2004-04-19

What an exhilierating experience! I savored these 36 essays over a few weeks, reading only a handful a night before I went to bed. The book is just beautiful; there is no other word to describe the writing, tone, and voice of Rachel Cohen's book.

Book Description

This work on Hiratsuka Raichÿ at last fully assesses her key role in the history of the Japanese women's movement. It provides a full and contextual analysis of the life (1886-1971) and work of this leading Japanese feminist, all in the light of the changes affecting women in Japan. At the same time the author compares her working with similar historical shifts and movements in western countries, notably Great Britain and the United States. International comparisons at the level of personal biography and associated ideas are made, to see the influence of Western feminists on Hiratsuka's feminism. Hiratsuka is compared with other Japanese feminists, whereby her pivotal role in the history of the Japanese women's movement becomes clear. With extensive footnotes for further reference - and research -, a number of appendices, a detailed bilingual glossary and bibliography; a true reference on an important subject.

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