Customer Reviews (1)

Anglo-Irish Fire-eaters and Duellists
Like many aspects of Irish history, the history of duelling in Ireland had been largely ignored by scholars for many years. James Kelly has changed this situation and written a thorough and engaging history of honor duelling in Ireland. Kelly has mostly ignored the topic of duelling among the Gaelic Irish, but other research I have done indicates that the cultural interplay between the Anglo-Irish and the Gaelic Irish was more common than might be expected. Kelly does *not* point out that while many of the Anglo-Irish were the descendants of English settlers, many were also the descendants of Gaelic Irishmen who "turned Protestant" to keep their ancestral lands in the family. Thus some of the duelling traditions of the "Anglo-Irish" are probably Gaelic in origin. Irish authors of the 18th and 19th centuries who were actually duellists themselves have left us a large amount of information on this topic. But modern readers interested in understanding the overall history of the duell among the Anglo-Irish, will find this book a fascinating history of the topic. ... Read more

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This unique and fascinating book concentrates on the varying roles and functions that material culture may play in almost all aspects of the social fabric of a given culture. The contributors, from Africa, Australia and Papua New Guinea, India, South America, the USA, and both Eastern and Western Europe, provide a rich variety of views and experience in a worldwide perspective. Several of the authors focus on essential points of principle and methodology that must be carefully considered before any particular approach to material culture is adopted. One of the many fundamental questions posed in the book is whether or not all material culture is equivalent to documents which can be 'read' and interpreted by the outside observer. If it is, what is the nature of the 'messages' or meanings conveyed in this way? The book also questions the extent to which acceptance, and subsequent diffusion, of a religious belief or symbol may be qualified by the status of the individuals concerned in transmitting the innovation, as well as by the stratification of the society involved. Several authors deal with 'works of art' and the most effective means of reaching an understanding of their past significance. In some chapters semiotics is seen as the most appropriate technique to apply to the decoding of the assumed rules and grammars of material culture expression. ... Read more

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Contains the text of the Report of the Regional Consultative Meeting on Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development Indicators, held in Bangkok in November 1996, as well as background documents, and a review of the work done on compiling indicators of sustainable development for the region. N ... Read more

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The diversity of contemporary London is extraordinary, and begs to be better understood. Never before have so many people from such diverse backgrounds been free to mix and not to mix in close proximity to each other. But increasingly people's lives take place behind the closed doors of private houses. How can we gain an insight into what those lives are like today? Not television characters, not celebrities, but real people. How could one ever come to know perfect strangers?
Danny Miller attempts to achieve this goal in this brilliant expos? of a street in modern London. He leads us behind closed doors to thirty people who live there, showing their intimate lives, their aspirations and frustrations, their tragedies and accomplishments. He places the focus upon the things that really matter to the people he meets, which quite often turn out to be material things, the house, the dog, the music, the Christmas decorations. He creates a gallery of portraits, some comic, some tragic, some cubist, some impressionist, some bleak and some exuberant.
We find that a random street in modern London contains the most extraordinary stories. Mass murderers and saints, the most charmed Christmas since Fanny and Alexander and the story of how a CD collection helped someone overcome heroin. Through this sensitive reading of the ordinary lives of ordinary people, Miller uncovers the orders and forms through which people make sense of their lives today. He shows just how much is to be gained when we stop lamenting what we think we used to be, and instead concentrate on what we are becoming now. He reveals above all the sadness of lives and the comfort of things. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

interesting and detailed; but not the book for me
I got halfway through this book when I decided I had to abandon it... It was interesting and the detail and language of the writing was very rich. I loved the concept and the purpose of the book, but it didn't leave me hungry to read more. If you enjoy research and a bit of psychology, this book is a great read. Unfortunatly, in my case, this book was perfect to read before bed, as it put me right to sleep :)

I've toldmany people about this book! I appreciate the peronal accounts that make up each chapter, but I needed to move on to something more fast-paced. ... Read more

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This book is a collection of characters and places that stand proud and robust over thirty-six years of newspapering in Minnesota. Some of the people you read about here are well-known and others are not. They share, however, a knack for accomplishment. Whether it was building a community, running a restaurant, caring for the sick, making ice, writing poetry, selling groceries, baking bread, tending a bridge, winning at poker, or merely trying to stay alive, all the people here knew or know something important, something of value. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Book for nostalgic Minnesotans
An entertaining book for nostalgic natives of St. Paul.However, it did not quite fully live up to our expectations, as we think there was more there than covered in the book. ... Read more

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True: Freemasons are the longest lasting fraternal organization in the world. True: ItÕs members include George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, John Wayne, and Charles Darwin, men who have helped shape the world we live in today!

So how is it that this group is shrouded by mystery, myth, and murder?

101 Things You DidnÕt Know About the Freemasons examines this society and dispels the rumors, uncovers the truth, and brings to light such topics as:

• Masonic symbols, rites, and rituals
• Famous Freemasons and their contributions to art, literature, and science
• Alleged connections to Jack the Ripper, the KKK, and the Holy Grail
• Freemasons vs. the Catholic Church
• Freemasonry in todayÕs society
  With 101 Things You DidnÕt Know About the Freemasons, youÕll unlock the secrets of this fascinating, age-old organization in no time!With a Technical Review by John K. Young, Ph.D. ... Read more

  Customer Reviews (3)

  Public Image Limited
  I admit there is a lot of nuts and bolts basic information here but it reads like something the Masons released themselves. There is almost nothing controversial. All suspicious and sinister activitees are dismissed or given lame explanations. The 'G' in their symbol stands for 'Geometry'? Give me a break. It felt like I was reading some kind of recruitment manuel.

  Great book to pass around....
  This is a book you could easily give someone who has been curious about Freemasonry but who might easily be put off being handed a 'Dummies' or 'Idiots' book. It's very compact (6 1/4" tall by 5 1/2" wide) and fits easily in a car's glove compartment or a suit pocket. For the price, it's inexpensive enough that you won't mind losing a few in the process. The topics are basically free-standing so it can be picked up and put down at a whim. It has a positive view about Freemasonry but it also notes the warts and pimples of time. Grab a copy: you won't be disappointed!
  

  Title is misleading
  From the name of the book, I was expecting a list of 101 different facts about the Freemasons.It's actually a well written book covering the history and controversy of the masons.
  If you want to know the complete details of what is inside, just check the reviews for "The Everything Freemasons Book" because both of these books are one in the same.If you look inside the cover of this book it states "portions of material adapted or abridged" from the above mentioned book.It actually is the same book.I don't understand why the same book was published under two titles by the same company, unless you figure it's another way to pull in a few bucks.
  That said, if you want to get one of these books, I would recommend this one since it is five dollars cheaper and smaller if you want to take it somewhere. ... Read more

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   History from Things explores the many ways objects—defined broadly to range from Chippendale tables and Italian Renaissance pottery to seventeenth-century parks and a New England cemetery—can reconstruct and help reinterpret the past. Eighteen essays describe how to “read” artifacts, how to “listen to” landscapes and locations, and how to apply methods and theories to historical inquiry that have previously belonged solely to archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and conservation scientists.

   Spanning vast time periods, geographical locations, and academic disciplines, History from Things leaps the boundaries between fields that use material evidence to understand the past. The book expands and redirects the study of material culture—an emerging field now building a common base of theory and a shared intellectual agenda. ... Read more

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From the opening sequence, in which mid-nineteenth-century Indian fishermen hear the possibility of redemption in an old woman's madness, No Aging in India captures the reader with its interplay of story and analysis. Drawing on more than a decade of ethnographic work, Lawrence Cohen links a detailed investigation of mind and body in old age in four neighborhoods of the Indian city of Varanasi (Banaras) with events and processes around India and around the world. This compelling exploration of senility--encompassing not only the aging body but also larger cultural anxieties--combines insights from medical anthropology, psychoanalysis, and postcolonial studies. Bridging literary genres as well as geographic spaces, Cohen responds to what he sees as the impoverishment of both North American and Indian gerontologies--the one mired in ambivalence toward demented old bodies, the other insistent on a dubious morality tale of modern families breaking up and abandoning their elderly. He shifts our attention irresistibly toward how old age comes to matter in the constitution of societies and their narratives of identity and history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

beautifully written, if thickly argued
Cohen, in a wonderfully written ethnography, makes us question the categories of Alzheimer's, aging, and dementia by systematically destabilizing our notions of what it means to get old in both our own and India's culture. A worth-while read for anyone interesting in any of the above. However, be forewarned - the text is dense and takes some time to wade through - and it could be suggested that by making so many arguments in so short a span, the book's main thrust isn't there at all, much like Alzheimer's itself.

Approachable, yet profound
As a medical student beginning research on Alzheimer's disease, this book provided me a deeper understanding of the full ramifications of such a disease on the lives of the patient and family members. The interactions described in this book are really quite complicated, yet the clear writing and organization makes this subject matter approachable.

absolutely first rate
professor cohen may be the most brilliant anthropologist of our time as it pertains to south asia.this book is a sparkling example of a prodigious mind at work.it is both scholarly and playful; rigorous and light-hearted.may be read for both pleasure and for what it can teach us about all manner of things.may be the beat scholarly work i have ever read.first-rate.

1998 Winner of Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing
Brilliant ethnographic research fused with engaging narrative that makesfor truly enjoyable reading. Cohen dissects the phenomenon of an agingpopulation and their role in culture and society, while explaining thegreater implications both for policy and popular opinion, with reflectionson US and Western societies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Material Culture In Indonesia
Jika di Indonesia yang kaya dengan material culture dan diungkap dengan pendekatan yang pak David tulis di buku ini maka akan lebih terbuka lagi khasanah kearifan kebudayaan yang ada di Indonesia tidak seperti yang nampak di media masa sekarang ini. Sekarang ini bangsa Indonesia kurang memahami jatidirinya yang sebenarnya sudah di contohkan oleh kebudayaan pendahulunya.
Dan saya sarankan untuk pak David untuk memperluas kasus-kasus yanga ada di Indonesia sehingga lebih familier bagai pembaca di Indoenesia. Khususnya arkeolognya.terima kasih. ... Read more

Product Description
These 50 writings by jailed journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal include several recent pieces on censorship, justice, and the meaning of constitutional rights in America. Also included are the banned essays from Mumia's controversial tenure as on-air columnist for All Things Considered, and those that aired on Democracy Now over Pacifica Radio. Also included is a one-hour CD of Mumia Abu-Jamal reading his on-air pieces written for All Things Considered and commentary from Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Adrienne Rich, Howard Zinn, and many others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Some murderers are intelligent and insightful....

Abu-Jamal is an intelligent and insighful man, and the book is thought-provoking at times, but do people really know the details of the murder case that made him a celebrity?To me it does matter who the author of a work is.Please, look into the primary sources as I have since drinking the Abu-Jamal Cool-Aid along with many others.Racism, classism, and punishment for being outspoken all may be issues our society must work to eliminate from our criminal justice system, but they're not the reason Abu-Jamal was convicted.I am sick that I was duped and will not read more by Abu-Jamal.

Well written, thought provoking and very Compationate
It is a very well written and thought provoking work. I truly admire what he is doing in such limited circumstances, further more appreciate his courage and strength. I was always against death penalty but after reading "all things censored" I was more aware why death penalty is such cruel and in human form of punishment. Must be abolished just like slavery!

Brilliant Writer, Mighty Suspicious Guy
Mumia Abu Jamal is undoubtedly correct with regard to his opinions about the American Judicial System, and many of the essays in this book, on everything from rap music to jail suicides, are heart rending and angering.But with regard to Jamal himself, the claims his supporters make of his innocence get more and more tenuous the harder one looks at the case.And his silence on the matter is also a bit disturbing.If an innocent man were rotting in a jail cell on death row in one of the worst prisons in the country, he would not be reminiscing about the past and the significant flaws of the system--he would write ceaselessly about the circumstances of his case, why he is innocent, what really happened that night between him and Officer Faulkner, and perhaps give us a little insight into why even his own brother would not testify on his behalf.A lucid, unsparing mind, an amazing talent, a true political activist and revolutionary, yes, all this and a vicious murderer to boot.When the smoke clears and a fair trial finally happens, some of these young kids who worship him are going to be mighty disappointed.All the lefty lawyers and goofball celebrities in the world can't cloud the actual truth, as romantic as Jamal's background may be.

I'd still recommend the book.Just remember what kind of a human being wrote it.

Read this book before it's too late
All Things Censored

Mumia Abu-Jamal has not only a good oratory style, but also writes vividly and convincingly. Mumia has a rare perspective, as his background as a reporter and his long and unjust incarceration give him an understanding of the political economy of the media, which serves to silence dissent, and the prejudice of the trial and punishment system. This book is essential for anyone who has an interest in US politics, justice, the issue of the death penalty and Mumia's case in particular. It is also an excellent insight into modern American society - the aspect that we are discouraged from seeing by politicians and the media. Any person who has a grasp of America's recent history knows all about police brutality, the oppression of minorities and the choking conformity of censorship, but rarely has a writer conveyed all of this so clearly. If this book is inflammatory, it is only because that is the rightful response to an injustice of the magnitude Mumia has been subjected to. His case encapsulates the blatant and ruthless prejudice of the police and the courts, and their highly pervasive and authoritarian grip on mainstream media discourse. His case echoes that of Nigeria's Ken Saro-Wiwa, and it would be to America's shame if he were to pay the same price for his dissent. Don't believe the corporate-controlled mass media - reject censorship. Find out the facts of Mumia's case and then decide.

Voice of Humanity
The wisdom of Mumia Abu-Jamal has transcended the grim sentence our system handed him.Whether or not he murdered a man is not as important as the fact that our penal system dehumanizes its inmates.Not only that, our justice and law enforcement systems are profoundly discriminatory, especially against minorities in the lower economic classes.The death penalty merely tortures these inmates until their execution, at a much greater cost than keeping them incarcerated.Why does the system kill to teach our children that killing is wrong?Until we abolish the death penalty, our society can not hope to be truly humane, and the blood of Mumia will be on our hands. ... Read more

Product Description
What do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects after the check-out reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for "the real thing" become so important because the high tech world of total virtuality seems to threaten to engulf us?

This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point in objects' "lives." Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings that reflect and assert who we are. Defining design as "things with attitude" differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary artefacts that are taken for granted. Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to "clutter," the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. But beyond this, she shows the materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment. ... Read more

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A light-hearted exploration into the science, history, and culture of all things Southpaw

If left-handedness were a religion, where would Mecca be? This book recounts one lefty's quest to uncover the causes and consequences of left-handedness. Wolman's travels take him from the halls of history to the halls of science, as he visits a Scottish castle designed for left-handed sword-fighting, nineteenth-century brains on display in a Paris museum, and a California laboratory where he experiences first hand the brain-zapping tools of modern neuroscience. He confers with an Atlanta primatologist about connections between chimpanzee coordination, handedness, and the evolution of language, while also seeking the mystical significance of left-handedness at a handwriting analysis conference in Virginia, a palmistry training program in Quebec, and in the woods of Left Hand, West Virginia. Along the way, he meets colorful Southpaws such as Diabolos Rex, follower of the Left Hand Path, an inspiring amputee named John Evans, and members of Japan's National Association of Left-Handed Golfers.

Weaving his personal experience with a blend of sharp-eyed reporting and intriguing personalities, Wolman crafts an entertaining and accessible narrative about his search for the essence of what it means to be a Southpaw.Amazon.com Review
Far more detailed than a typical collection of left-handed trivia, David Wolman's Left-Hand Turn Around The World examines 200 years of anatomy in a search for the roots of hand preference. The results are surprising, and perhaps a bit disappointing to anyone who prefers believing "left-handed people are the only ones in their right minds".

Wolman travels the world for answers, from a mildly gruesome visit to Broca's bottled brains in a Paris museum to the latest Berkeley research labs. Throughout the journey, the science is as accessible as any animal documentary and as well-documented as any rigorous reader will demand. Included in the mix are a trip to a graphologist's convention and a visit with a gentleman whose handedness is the result of surgically combining his left hand with his right arm. Wolman's Fulbright fellowship-winning reporting is always clear and entertaining—he has a fine knack for presenting complex theories in direct, dryly amusing language. He frequently inserts himself into the research, in one case borrowing his nephew for a visit with a pediatric neuropsychologist.

With the most recent research offering the theory that strength of hand preference is more important than the actual hand preferred, the final conclusion could be an eye opener to those who prefer the old ideas that lefties are more creative, athletic, artistic and generally more wonderful. As Wolman says in conclusion, you can still says lefties are special, because they are. Jill Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Rigorous Look At What Is Known
This is not a book of trivia. Instead, it is a serious attempt to glean what is known about left handedness and its implications, if any, for the human race. Wolman is adept at tackling a wide range of issues but I must confess that I read this in the midst of a more detailed analysis of the thought processes associated with left-handedness. I did not find the silver bullet here. This is a great book about as many things as this author knows about.

I will forward that there is one significant area where he did not venture--and I feel that the neglected area is in fact the most interesting. Since I am working on my own work on the same topic, I will leave it at that.

Left Hand Turn a great book
this is a must read for any left hander! It was very informative, and it was interesting to read just how unfairly left handers were treated thru the ages!

Much-Enjoyed Combo of Science, Travel, and Humor
This is a great book. As a (mostly) right-handed person, I wasn't too sure at first, but it was truly a delight. I learned a lot about the brain and a mysterious little facet of human behavior that people usually overlook. Wolman's side-excursions into the worlds of palmistry, graphology, and lefty golf are a welcome -- and funny -- change of pace from the science material, and his portrait of the guy with the hand transplant is terrific. Think of Kurlansky with a sense of humor, and Sobel with a sense of adventure. A good read for left-handers, of course, and anyone who's curious about the world.

An absorbing and entertaining book
You're probably a left-hander if you think that driving a stick shift (in an American car, at least) is an invitation to disaster; if you've ever jangled elbows with the person on your left at a dinner party; or if you have a story about a grade school teacher who was just sure she could make you change your sinister ways.If so, then I have a book for you.(The rest of you oppressors can stop reading.)

In A Left-Hand Turn Around the World, fellow lefty David Wolman chases down "the mystery and meaning of all things Southpaw."I learned a good deal from reading this book, though some of it was useless (like chapters on how handwriting analysis and palmistry are crocks, which I knew already) and some way over my head (like the chapter on genetic shifts, which I tried desperately to understand but found confusing and counterintuitive).But there's plenty of other fascinating stuff here to chew on, and Wolman is a fine and engaging writer, with the quirky humor and keen eye for irony that I would expect from an enlightened lefty.

One thing he debunks right away, for example, is the popular misconception that people who can write with either hand are ambidextrous.This is not ambidexterity, which requires an equal facility with either hand for all handed tasks (eating, writing, drawing, throwing, sweeping, cutting, etc.).True ambidexterity is actually extremely rare. (p. 15) In contrast, many people evince some kind of "mixed-handedness."

What Wolman says about mixed-handedness, in fact, may turn out to be the greatest revelation of the book.It may well be that we've been asking the wrong question about handedness all along, supposing a dichotomous lefty-righty split when in fact the real question is mixed-handedness versus strong-handedness.(p 117)People who demonstrate a consistent, across-the-board preference for one hand or the other are considered strong-handed, and may share certain traits and abilities, while mixed-handed people are wired differently and have other natural advantages and disadvantages.

I've already recommended this book to a couple of cool Southpaw friends.Other people probably won't understand our compulsion to read it, and the numerous "that's just like me!" moments we'll experience from its pages.They are so accustomed to ruling their righteous world that they never have to stop to think about how the other ten percent live.But hey, I'm not mad.Some of my best friends are right-handed.Just tell them to please, please, stop designing the cars I have to drive.

A longer version of this review was posted on February 6, 2006 at The Review Revolution (janariess.typepad.com).

Very interesting - I learned something new
Being left handed and having been forced to write with my right hand since a child, I can sympathize with the author's experience as a left hander. His one year quest to learn more about this subject is very illuminating. I agree with many of the assertions and conclusions. For example, I was a fencer in College Varsity and I definitely agree with the fact that there is a distinct advantage in some sports for a left hander. I always thought the condition is based on genetics but I learned that it was not as simple as first appears. I recommend this book for all people to learn more about the complexity of life and to accept and celebrate our differences. ... Read more

Product Description

In Winning Is the Only Thing, Randy Roberts and James Olson take a hard look at the dark side of American sports. The scandals. The role of organized crime. How politicians and businessmen exploit the Olympics. Who gets rich and who goes broke. Why the fitness craze has nothing to do with fitness. And how TV sports czars like Roone Arledge--inventor of the "instant replay"--actually dictate how games are played.

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Deal
This was a great buy! I recieved the item in a fast manner and was please with the condition of the book, thanks again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A clever, witty retrospective
This is a wonderful little retrospective, with some very creative and funny observations.If you are anywhere between 25 and 45, the memories will come flooding back (and if you're like me, some embarrassment, too). It is also peppered with some great cartoon illustrations, a seventies quiz("The 70's SATs") and a music anthology.Well worth it!

A hilarious book for everyone who lived through the 70's!
This book really had my friends and me rolling on the floor with laughter!What a great collection of memories of this stupid decade-- the people, the fads, the TV shows and music.It's great for parties or just to have lying on your coffee table-- but watch out, your friends will try to steal it (unless they're really groovy).Highly recommended!!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Stories, Horrible Translator
The late Ted Gorelick's translations of Sholem Aleichem's monologues figure in a long list of disservices done to Yiddish literature and culture in recent years. Where Sholem Aleichem writes in an inexhaustibly stylish, idiomatic, quotable Yiddish, the efforts to replicate his fluency come across as awkward, patched-together, and completely removed from English as it's spoken anywhere in the world today. Moreover, his efforts to replicate the voices of uneducated, lower-class Jewish women of Eastern Europe--always the most dramatic, comic, and memorable of Sholem Aleichem's characters--come across like a vaudeville performer in drag and in blackface: an offense simultaneously to the Yiddish original and to the English reader. The cumulative effect of this depressing and unreadable collection suggests that Ted Gorelick in fact must have hated the Yiddish language. I KNOW that he hated the English language. What were the editors of this series thinking?!

a disappointment
I felt guilty rating this book with two stars because I am a big fan of the author.However, I really had to struggle to get through this collection of Monologues by Sholem Aleichem.I found them hard to stay focussed on and I don't know whether to blame myself, the translator, or the works themselves.Some years back I read another collection of Aleichem's works titled "Old Country Tales".My favorite part of those stories were the ones called "Monologues".In it, Aleichem has characters go on and on talking about some subject or other.The slang, the inflection, the rambling on and off topic all create a very enjoyable and very ethnic impression.Although they fit the same format, I just didn't enjoy these selections.I have no credentials to blame it on the translator although they did not seem to read nearly as smooth as the previous ones I read.I was under the impression that some or many of these monologues were appearing in English for the first time.Could it be that the best was translated long ago and these were deemed lesser quality and so were only recently translated?I did enjoy the last three selections but, by then, I was just trying to finish the book.I previously read four other books by Aleichem and I thoroughly enjoyed them all.This one was a complete turnaround. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume brings together the most innovative historical work on the conjoined themes of gender and consumption. In thirteen pioneering essays, some of the most important voices in the field consider how Western societies think about and use goods, how goods shape female, as well as male, identities, how labor in the family came to be divided between a male breadwinner and a female consumer, and how fashion and cosmetics shape women's notions of themselves and the society in which they live. Together these essays represent the state of the art in research and writing about the development of modern consumption practices, gender roles, and the sexual division of labor in both the United States and Europe.
Covering a period of two centuries, the essays range from Marie Antoinette's Paris to the burgeoning cosmetics culture of mid-century America. They deal with topics such as blue-collar workers' survival strategies in the interwar years, the anxieties of working-class consumers, and the efforts of the state to define women's--especially wives' and mothers'--consumer identity. Generously illustrated, this volume also includes extensive introductions and a comprehensive annotated bibliography. Drawing on social, economic, and art history as well as cultural studies, it provides a rich context for the current discourse around consumption, particularly in relation to feminist discussions of gender. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Gender and Consumption Historically Explained
In The Sex of Things:Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, the authors aim to analyze political demands through consumer history.Victoria de Grazia asks whether consumption a measure of economic well-being, a manner of constructing social hierarchies, or is it a way to relate to the body politic the desires of the people?Within these contexts, three themes are further examined, including the framework of European-American consumerism, the history of consumer culture, and the methodology of feminist analysis.
The purposes of these essays are to provide a historical context for the rise of consumer culture through the transition from the aristocratic to the bourgeois society.Rather than specifically detailing each essay's thesis, I will focus on the particular essays that involve a slightly more historical analysis rather than a critical, theoretical framework (although those are interesting as well).
Jennifer Jones' essay, "Coquettes and Grisettes: Women Buying and Selling in Ancien Regime Paris" tracks the "consumer revolution" between 1650 and 1789, following with a "commercial revolution."The initial transactional atmosphere during this period involved a male consumer and female merchant.This, she explains, was a broader, more public setting for a courtship ritual between the seller and buyer.As salons, cafes, promenading became leisurely pursuits, so did shopping, and it became a form of public life, resulting in more female buyers from all classes in the 1780s.According to Jones, the reasons for women being seduced by goods changed as a result of the Enlightenment:Biblical reasons like Eve seducing Adam were no longer acceptable, so inquiries into female psychology and their mental capacities through "scientific" explanations took hold (35).The female aesthetic sense and imagination became dominant reasons for their desires.These "scientifically-based" explanations were seen as acceptable and permissible, as long as the buying on the part of women were for suitors or husbands.Growing female merchants changed the courtship aspect, and it was replaced by a class system that emphasized the difference between female merchants and female consumers.
Women's work was also largely confined to the home in cottage industries during the late 19th Century.Soon, the transition from producer-based households to modern consumer households led to new democratic ideologies and problems.Anna R. Igra's "Male Providerhood and the Public Purse: Anti-Desertion Reform in the Progressive Era" reveals how the anti-desertion movement regulated man's use of wages to family and ideas of manhood.However, women were still obligated to be domestic to impede desertion.In the end, desertion implicated women as well as men.
To this de Grazia notes while families were seen as providers, it was under the State that passed laws on credit, property, retail, and defined public spending versus private spending (public spending being housing, health, education and pensions).One method to divert the attention of women from their domestic duties was the rise of department stores and commercial districts.Political commercialism fragmented centralized patriarchal systems, and individual ones. Performative politics led to collective politics.De Grazia has also, as previously mentioned, employed the feminist inquiry that combines politics with methodology.This leads us to the question, is consumption for women liberating or repressive?
In "Making Up, Making Over: Cosmetics, Consumer Culture and Women's Identity" by Kathy Peiss, the author of "Cheap Amusements" explains how earlier 20th Century female identity went from "essential, interior self to one formed in marking and coloring of the face." (330) and that commodities became the language that destabilized cultural hierarchies among women. Issues of Race and class were brought to the table by both the marketing of whiteness to African-Americans through products such as Madame C.J. Walker's hair straightener to "exotic" looks disbursed through film media, specifically Cleopatra.
De Grazia admits, as do other scholars of leisure, that there is no unified field of inquiry into consumer history. Ultimately, the book as a collection of essays examines how the consumption of an individual leads to the collective desires of families and communities, which ultimately help to define national character. ... Read more

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A provocative investigation of the links between contemporary advertising images and 19th-century medical discourse. ... Read more

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An updated and expanded edition of a classic of modern archaeology gathers information about the daily life of the American colonists, including women and blacks, based on the analysis of domestic objects and architecture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good scholarship, easy reading
One of the earlier entries into the field of material culture and above-ground archeology, this is a winner

Little things mean a lot
I enjoyed Deetz' newly updated introduction to Historical Archaeology in America. He makes clear that much can be gleaned from the seemingly insignificant material things that are left behind in the process of living. I greatly enjoyed his putting the pieces of the puzzles together. Sometimes the result was an interesting surprise. For instance, I didn't know that porches, which became so popular in America, were not a feature of European houses and were introduced by Africans. "Shotgun houses" also have African roots.Another surprising story is told by the changing styles of Colonial gravestones.They change subtly as the religious climate changes. The oldest being very stiff and stern and later ones becoming more decorative, replacing deaths heads with angels.

Non Fiction
This text looks at the recovery of everyday items from the past in the United States of America.Things like plates, cup, bowls, what stuff was thrown in the rubbish bun, all that sort of thing, as opposed to recovering things that are of highly significant historical, political or scientific importance.So, trying to piece together personal life.

Remember Small Things
The main thrust of Deetz's argument in this book points to the incomplete nature of the traditional historian's approach to understanding past societies.By focusing only on written documentation, traditional historians necessarily confine the groups they can examine to literate societies, thereby excluding most people in the history of human existence.Furthermore, written documents contain the bias of the author, and so cannot always be trusted.

Deetz argues that historical archaeology and the study of material culture opens the door to understanding a far wider band of human societies, and can further help us relate to the literate cultures we study, by providing corroborating evidence, in some cases, and filling in the gaps overlooked in traditional written documents in other cases.

This work focuses mainly on early New England societies, but the research methods Deetz puts forth readily adapt to studies in other areas.The fact that this book still stands as required reading on university course lists 25 years after its first publication testifies to its usefulness...

copied directly from Scientific American Nov. 96
History is pretty much junk, one might conclude after finishing this breezy introduction to historical archaeology. Poring over estate listings, pottery shards, gravestones and excavated foundations, James Deetz reconstructs the changing face of American life during the colonial era, as immigrant traditions and aesthetics adapted to the New World. The book makes a powerful argument for an empirical kind of history far removed from the anonymous assertions of high school textbooks ... Read more

Product Description
Examining the history of material culture in early modern China, Craig Clunas analyzes "superfluous things" - paintings, calligraphy, bronzes and other objects owned by the elites of Ming China - and describes contemporary attitudes to them. He places these objects in their social context of economic growth, commercialization and the breakdown of traditional social barriers, emphasizing the importance of the market for commodities and the ways in which they functioned as symbols of social status. Clunas compares these attitudes to Renaissance Italy and other early modern European countries. ... Read more