interpreting interviews
Mustin: A Naval Family of the Twentieth Century
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Morton, John Fass, PUBLISHER: US Naval Institute Press, Three generations of a distinguished naval family are profiled in this biography whose publication coincides with the commissioning of the USS Mustin (DDG-89) the U.S. Navy's newest Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer. The family's story intertwines with the history of the U.S. Navy as it rose through the century to become the preeminent maritime player on the international stage. Key participants in many of the major naval milestones of the twentieth century, the Mustins dealt, with tremendous technological and historical change, from the rise of the battleship and naval aviation to the introduction of missiles, nuclear submarines, and atomic weapons. Henry Mustin is acknowledged as one of the fathers of naval aviation. His son Lloyd followed a career in ordinance and gunnery becoming proficient in everything from small arms to nuclear weapons testing Lloyd's son, Hank, was a key player in the restoration of the surface Navy in the s and one of the first to execute the maritime strategy of the s. Hank's brother, Tom was a decorated brown-water warrior in the Vietnam War. Drawing upon oral histories, interviews, and family letters, papers and photographs, the book profiles the careers of these four men. For both the general reader and sea service professional, it features firsthand accounts of many important naval actions, including the Philippine Insurrection, Vera Cruz, Guadalcanal, and Operation Game Warden. The chapters dealing with the Vietnam War, in particular, afford multi-faceted insight into that tragic conflict from three perspectives. Lloyd serving, in Washington, Hank on the Pacific Command staff, Tom in the Mekong Delta. The intense degree to which technology,operations, and bureaucratic politics intersected their careers proves timeless.
Between the Lines: Not-So-Tall Tales from Ray "Scampy"
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Scapinello, Ray / Simpson, Rob / Bowman, Scotty, PUBLISHER: John Wiley & Sons, An insider's look at life on the lines To hockey fans, Ray Scapinello's name and face are as recognizable as any star player or coach in the NHL. Scampy, as he is affectionately known has had a long and storied career as a linesman in the NHL. His 5-foot-7 frame and 163 pounds belie his ability and endurance on the ice. When Ray retired in after 33 years in the NHL, he had officiated in regular season matches (never missing a game), 426 playoff games, and an astounding twenty Stanley Cup final series. His untouchable statistics make him a lock to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame as an official, but even they do not do justice to the respect he has earned from officials, players, coaches, and fans alike. On and off the ice, Scampy is considered one of hockey's great personalities, a consummate professional, a chronic practical joker, and a true ambassador of the sport. "Between the Lines" gives a rare glimpse inside the world of hockey from an unusual perspective -- through the eyes of one of the game's greatest and best-loved officials. Scampy shares his tales of life both on and off the ice as an official, an inside look at what those players and coaches are really like, what they really say and do, and what the game looks like between the lines. Full of fun stories, perspective on how the game has changed and evolved, and stories and interviews about Scampy from players, coaches, and other officials, "Between the Lines" is a captivating memoir of a truly unique life in hockey.
Padres: The National Chicano Priest Movement
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Martinez, Richard Edward, PUBLISHER: University of Texas Press, "This is a powerful documentary of a movement whose greatest visibility was in the barrios and inside the church, where the least history is known, where much uncovering has to be accomplished in order for the Chicano community to begin to know its own Catholic history." -- Rodolfo Rosales, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Texas at San Antonio From the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the s, Mexican American Catholics experienced racism and discrimination within the U.S. Catholic church, as white priests and bishops maintained a racial divide in all areas of the church's ministry. To oppose this religious apartheid and challenge the church to minister fairly to all of its faithful, a group of Chicano priests formed PADRES (Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos y Sociales, or Priests Associated for Religious, Educational, and Social Rights) in . Over the next twenty years of its existence, PADRES became a powerful force for change within the Catholic church and for social justice within American society. This book offers the first history of the founding, activism, victories, and defeats of PADRES. At the heart of the book are oral history interviews with the founders of PADRES, who describe how their ministries in poor Mexican American parishes, as well as their own experiences of racism and discrimination within and outside the church, galvanized them into starting and sustaining the movement. Richard Marti nez traces the ways in which PADRES was inspired by the Chicano movement and other civil rights struggles of the s and also probes its linkages with liberation theology in Latin America. He uses a combination ofsocial movement theory and organizational theory to explain why the group emerged, flourished, and eventually disbanded in .
Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: D'Antonio, Michael, PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books, If ever there was a figure who changed the game of baseball, it was Walter OaMalley. Criticized in New York and beloved in Los Angeles, OaMalley is one of the most controversial owners in the history of American sports. He remade the major leagues and altered the course of history in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles when he moved the Dodgers to California. But while many New York critics attacked him, OaMalley looked to the future, declining to argue his case. As a result, fans across the nation have been unable to stop arguing about himauntil now. Using never-before-seen documents and candid interviews with OaMalleyas players, associates, and relatives, Pulitzer Prizeawinning writer Michael DaAntonio finally reveals this complex sportsman and industry pioneer. Born into Tammany Hall connections, OaMalley used political contacts to grow wealthy during the Great Depression, and then maneuvered to take control of the formerly downtrodden Dodgers. After his defeat in a war of wills with the famed power broker, Robert Moses, OaMalley uprooted the boroughas team and transplanted them to Los Angeles. Once in Los Angeles, OaMalley overcame opponents of his stadium and helped define the city. Other owners came to regard him as their guideaalmost an unofficial commissioneraand he worked behind the scenes to usher in the age of the playersa union and free agency. Filled with new revelations about OaMalleyas battle with Moses, his pioneering business strategies, and his relationship with Jackie Robinson, "Forever Blue" is a uniquely intimate portrait of a man who changed Americaas pastime forever. His fascinating story is fundamental to the history of sports, business, and the American West.
Casebook for the Foundation: A Great American Secret
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Fleishman, Joel L. / Kohler, J. Scott / Schindler, Steven, PUBLISHER: PublicAffairs, Unique in all the world, the American foundation sector has been an engine of social change for more than a century. In this companion volume to "The Foundation: A Great American Secret," Joel Fleishman, Scott Kohler, and Steven Schindler explore 100 of the highest-achieving foundation initiatives of all time. Based on a rich array of sources--from interviews with the principals themselves to contemporaneous news accounts to internal evaluation reports--this volume presents brief case studies of foundation success stories across virtually every field of human endeavor. The influence of the foundations on American, and indeed global society, has only occasionally come into the public view. For every well-known foundation achievement--Andrew Carnegie's massive library building program or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's public efforts to curb tobacco use--there are a great many lesser-known, but often equally important stories to be told. The cases in this volume provide a wealth of evidentiary support for Joel Fleishman's description of, and recommendations for, the foundation sector. With lessons for grant-makers, grant-seekers, public officials, and public-spirited individuals alike, this casebook pieces together 100 stories, some well known, others never before told, and offers hard proof of the foundation sector's immense and enduring impact on scientific research, education, public policy, and many other fields. The work that foundations have supported over the past century has achieved profound results. Yet foundations are capable of more and better. This volume, a window onto great successes of the past and present, is at once a look back, a look around, and a point of reference as we turn to the future.
Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Laderman, Gary, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, Though it has often been passionately criticized--as fraudulent, exploitative, even pagan--the American funeral home has become nearly as inevitable as death itself, an institution firmly embedded in our culture. But how did the funeral home come to hold such a position? What is its history? And is it guilty of the charges sometimes leveled against it? In Rest in Peace, Gary Laderman traces the origins of American funeral rituals, from the evolution of embalming techniques during and after the Civil War and the shift from home funerals to funeral homes at the turn of the century, to the increasing subordination of priests, ministers, and other religious figures to the funeral director throughout the twentieth century. In doing so he shows that far from manipulating vulnerable mourners, as Jessica Mitford claimed in her best-selling The American Way of Death (), funeral directors are highly respected figures whose services reflect the community's deepest needs and wishes. Indeed, Laderman shows that funeral directors generally give the people what they want when it is time to bury our dead. He reveals, for example, that the open casket, often criticized as barbaric, provides a deeply meaningful moment for friends and family who must say goodbye to their loved one. But he also shows how the dead often come back to life in the popular imagination to disturb the peace of the living. Drawing upon interviews with funeral directors, major historical events like the funerals of John F. Kennedy and Rudolf Valentino, films, television, newspaper reports, proposals for funeral reform, and other primary sources, Rest in Peace cuts through the rhetoric to show us the reality--and the real cultural value--of the American funeral.
Discourse in Educational and Social Research
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Maclure, Margaret / Maclure, Maggie / Maclure Maggie, PUBLISHER: Open University Press, WINNER: AESA Critics' Choice Award ""With wonderful clarity Maggie MacLure shows how deconstructionism opens new avenues of critical inquiry and understanding for educational researchers. In exposing the hidden, ideological side of terms like clarity, certainty, mastery, and relevance she allows us to see schooling and educational policy in new ways. In so doing she allows us to imagine classrooms as liberating, pedagogical places, as places where new forms of desire, knowledge, and learning take place" Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" This book is both practical and provocative. It demonstrates the insights and the challenges of a discourse-based orientation to educational and social research. Drawing on a variety of educational and social science 'texts' - including press articles, life history interviews, parent-teacher consultations, policy debates and ethnographies - the author shows how knowledge, power, identities and realities are constructed and problematised in discourse. The book also deals with research itself as discursive practice, examining the texts that qualitative researchers produce and consume: reports, monographs, journal articles. Practical examples are included for researchers and graduate students wishing to 'interrogate' their own data from a discourse perspective. The author develops a critical awareness of the researcher's role as writer/reader of texts. The book makes the case for 'discursive literacy' in research. While its primary allegiances are to poststructuralism and deconstruction, it draws from a wide range of disciplines, including interaction sociology, feminist ethnography, literary theory, critical discourse analysis and art history. What holds the book together is the persistent question: how to do educational research and social research within a 'crisis of representation' that has unsettled the relationship between words and worlds?
Entrepreneurialism and the Soul of the American Economy: How
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Dearie, John, PUBLISHER: John Wiley & Sons Inc, Essential insights on fostering business startups and their integral role in the overall economy Recent research has demonstrated that a majority of "all" net new job creation in the United States over the past thirty years has come from businesses less than a year old--true "start-ups." On average, start-up businesses create three million new jobs each year, while existing businesses of any size or age shed a net average of about one million jobs annually. Unfortunately, the vital signs of America's job-creating entrepreneurial economy are declining, but there is a way to get back on track, and "The Entrepreneur's Manifesto" will show you how. Based on extensive research and interviews with hundreds of entrepreneur's, this practical guide provides a host of ideas to stimulate and nurture business startups and spur overall economic growth and job creation. "The Entrepreneur's Manifesto" skillfully explains the entrepreneurial plight in the Great Recession and offers dozens of recommendations to reinvigorate business startups of all kinds.Highlights over thirty actions, from reducing the tax rate on startup ventures to providing U.S. students with a tax credit for graduating with a technical/science degree that could nurture business startupsReveals why the failure of policymakers to understand the unique needs of startups in part explains the ineffectiveness of recent efforts to stimulate the economyExplores how startups are very different than existing businesses, large or small, and puts the issues they face in perspective Engaging and informative, "The Entrepreneur's Manifesto" addresses what it will take to provide startups with the incentives, regulatory certainty, and skilled workers necessary to succeed and, in the process, generate millions of new jobs.
A Small Town Near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Fulbrook, Mary, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, In A Small Town Near Auschwitz, historian Mary Fulbrook tells the story of Udo Klausa, a civilian administrator in the small town of Bedzin, an ordinary functionary who helped implement the Nazi's inhumane policies towards the Jews. Using a wealth of personal letters, memoirs, testimonies, interviews, and other sources, Fulbrook pieces together Klausa's role in the unfolding destruction of the Jews under his authority, as well as the heroic attempts at resistance on the part of some of his victims. She also offers fascinating insight into the inner conflicts of a Nazi bureaucrat who, throughout, considered himself "a decent man." Udo Klausa's case is so important because it is in many ways so typical. Behind Klausa's story is the larger story of how countless local functionaries across the Third Reich facilitated the murderous plans of a relatively small number among the Nazi elite--plans that could never have been realized, on the same scale, without the diligent cooperation of these very ordinary men. As Fulbrook shows, men like Klausa "knew" and yet mostly suppressed this knowledge, performing their day jobs without apparent recognition of their own role in the carnage, or any sense of personal wrongdoing or remorse--either before or after . For Fulbrook, an eminent historian, the story of Udo Klausa hits very close to home, because Fulbrook's mother was both a refugee from Nazi Germany and a close friend of Klausa's wife. Fulbrook has known the Klausa family all her life, but had no inkling of Udo's true role in the Third Reich until a few years ago, a stunning discovery that led directly to this deeply personal history of life in Nazi Germany.
The George Gershwin Reader
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Wyatt, Robert / Johnson, John Andrew, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, George Gershwin is one of the giants of American music, unique in that he was both a brilliant writer of popular songs ("Swanee," "I Got Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me") and of more serious music, including "Rhapsody in Blue," "An American in Paris," and "Porgy and Bess." Now, in The George Gershwin Reader, music lovers are treated to a spectacular celebration of this great American composer. The Reader offers a kaleidoscopic collection of writings by and about Gershwin, including more than eighty pieces of superb variety, color, and depth. There is a who's who of famous commentators: bandleader Paul Whiteman; critics Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and Brooks Atkinson; fellow musicians Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Alec Wilder (who analyzes the songs "That Certain Feeling" and "A Foggy Day"), Leonard Bernstein, and the formidable modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg (who was Gershwin's tennis partner in Hollywood). Some of the most fascinating and important writings here deal with the critical debate over Gershwin's concert pieces, especially "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris," and there is a complete section devoted to the controversies over "Porgy and Bess," including correspondence between Gershwin and DuBose Hayward, the opera's librettist (a series of excerpts which illuminate the creative process), plus unique interviews with the original Porgy and Bess--Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. Sprinkled throughout the book are excerpts from Gershwin's own letters, which offer unique insight into this fascinating and charming man. Along with a detailed chronology of the composer's life, the editors provide informative introductions to each entry. Here then is a book for anyone interested in American music. Scholars, performers, and Gershwin's legions of fans will find it an irresistible feast.
Now the Wolf Has Come: The Creek Nation in the Civil War
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: White, Christine Schultz / White, Benton R., PUBLISHER: Texas A&M University Press, In the winter of , nine thousand Native Americans in Indian Territory took a chance. Drawing on little else but wits, raw courage, and unshakable faith in the old gods, and their aging leader, Opothleyahola, they made a desperate escape from Confederate troops that were closing in. Seeking to reach the protection of federal forces in Kansas, their dramatic journey, recounted here from a unique Creek/Muskogee perspective, was filled with hazards; their destination, with disillusion and despair. The fleeing tribes suffered on the trek from blizzards, disease, and starvation. Constant harassment and desperate pitched battles with rival bands of the Creek Nation led by the Confederate-allied McIntosh family, adjoining Cherokees under Colonel Stand Waitie, and Texan Confederate sympathizers whittled away the number of survivors. When they finally straggled into Kansas, two thousand were dead or missing. Even then, their trials were not over: Federal "protection" proved to be hollow and harsh. Along with many others, Old Opothleyahola himself died in one of the bleak Federal camps. The complexity of the relationship between Opothleyahola and McIntosh--and the Native American strategies they represented--the passion of the Civil War, and the drama of battles and pursuits fill the pages of this story of an earlier day's refugee plight. Told from the Native American view of the events, never before written, this narrative account relies heavily on Creek oral tradition. Personal interviews with members of the Muskogee Nation have been supplemented with academic research in state, federal, and university archives and in the records of the Museum of the Muskogee Nation in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Not only students of Native American history but also those interested in the Civil War will find this volume invaluable reading.
Deliver Us from Darkness: The Untold Story of Third
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Gardner, Ian / Dicarlo, Mario, PUBLISHER: Osprey Publishing (UK), Ian Gardner, co-author of "Tonight We Die as Men," is back with the second installment of the exploits of the in WWII. Drawing on years of research and more than seventy extended interviews with veterans and civilians caught up in the fighting, "Deliver Us from Darkness" begins where the earlier book ended, with the troops taking R&R back in England after weeks of grueling fighting in Normandy. "Deliver Us from Darkness" explains how, with little notice on Sept , the 101st Airborne Division parachuted into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden. Their mission was to secure the main highway that passed through the city of Eindhoven and facilitate the advance of Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey's Second British Army towards Arnhem. The soldiers had been lead to believe that after the capture of Eindhoven their mission would be over. In the end, however, it was only the beginning of a bloody 72-day campaign that would see no quarter given by either side. Thousands of heavily armed enemy troops trapped behind Allied lines were reorganized into temporary fighting groups and sent on the offensive. Supported by Tiger tanks and self propelled artillery, the German army began an audacious series of counter attacks along the road to Nijmegen that became known as 'Hell's Highway.' Over the next two weeks the 506th was constantly called upon to defend the transport hubs north of Eindhoven at Sint Oedenrode, Veghel and Uden suffering horrendous casualties. The mission in Holland would be one that the men would never forget. Many felt that their lives had been misused and wasted--Normandy had been bad enough, but this time the members of had been through hell.
Giuseppe de Santis
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Vitti, Antonio / Lawton, Ben, PUBLISHER: University of Toronto Press, One of the founding fathers of the Neo-realist movement and a Communist dedicated to populist filmmaking, Guiseppe De Santis (b. ) has been a significant force in Italian cinema. In spite of his crucial contribution De Santis has received little critical recognition and his work has been largely excluded from the canon of traditional cinematic teaching. In this first book-length study of De Santis, Antonio Vitti explores the filmmaker's life and work, and addresses why he has been marginalized as a result of the politics of critical reception in Italian cinema and within the academy. Through critical analysis of such films as Riso amaro (Bitter Rice), Non c'? pace tra gli ulivi (No Peace Among the Olives), and Cesta Duga Godinu Dana (The One-Year-Long Road), Vitti offers an informative profile of a director who refused to compromise what were often unpopular political and aesthetic principles. De Santis emerged as a strong opponent of government censorship in Fascist Italy and strove throughout his career to remain faithful to his political objectives: to create a genuine popular narrative voice, and to offer, through filmmaking, a form of entertainment for the masses and a means of promoting social and political change. At the same time, possessed of considerable technical abilities and a passion for formalized beauty and sensuality, De Santis resisted the rigid rules for socio-realistic representation dictated by the Soviet Union. He conformed neither to the mainstream nor to the leftist critical expectations of his day. He anticipated, in his own critical approach, the direction of contemporary film theory, and focused on the role of the medium itself as a means of mass communication and a repository of collective imagination. Vitti draws on his extensive personal interviews with De Santis as well as on the latter's previously unpublished writings. This volume captures the intelligence, passion, aesthetic flair, and occasionally fiery temperament of this important filmmaker.
Shattered Dreams--Lonely Choices: Birthparents of Babies
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Finnegan, Joanne, PUBLISHER: J F Bergin & Garvey, Dreams of pregnancy include the expectation that nine months of waiting will end with a joyous event. But, each year, a "shattered dream" occurs for thousands of couples who receive the news that their child will have a disabling condition severe enough that they may question if they are the best parents for their child. Societal expectation is that parents will raise their child or, if the condition of the child is detected prenatally, abortion is offered as an alternative. Parents who explore other options face scrutiny and, sometimes, condemnation--"lonely choices." Joanne Finnegan shares her personal experience and that of several families she interviewed who, like herself, explored options other than raising their child with a disability. Parents express with candor the overwhelming pain they felt when receiving "the news," the frustration when searching for options, the "no-win" feeling of decision making, the resolve with a final decision, and finally, life after the decision. Parent quotes also address issues such as spiritual dilemmas and interactions with friends, family, their other children, and medical professionals. Words of advice for new parents include how to build support systems and gather information, how to search for an adoptive family, and arranging the details of communication between adoptive and birth parents. Interviews with adoptive parents, poetry, and extensive resource lists complete the book. Written as a gift for other parents to help them cope with the pain and loneliness of decision making, this book will also be a valuable resource for medical professionals, adoption and social workers, counselors and spiritual advisors, and friends and family of theparents. It is a helpful as well as a deeply therapeutic book, providing a strong lesson in how to manage during this stressful time, from receiving "the news" about the baby's condition and prognosis, to weighing the factors involved in the various decisions. Should one take the baby home from the hospital? If not home, then where? Foster care, respite care, guardianship, and other forms of substitute care are mentioned. The author also examines decisions about finances and support services, family issues, finalizing an adoption plan, living with the decision, regrets, and future pregnancies.
The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Ricks, Thomas E., PUBLISHER: Penguin Press, "Fiasco," Thomas E. Ricksas #1 "New York Times" bestseller, transformed the political dialogue on the war in Iraqa"The Gamble" is the next news breaking installment Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began. Since early a new military order has directed American strategy. Some top U.S. officials now in Iraq actually opposed the invasion, and almost all are severely critical of how the war was fought from then through . At the core of the story is General David Petraeus, a military intellectual who has gathered around him an unprecedented number of officers with both combat experience and Ph.D.s. Underscoring his new and unorthodox approach, three of his key advisers are quirky foreignersaan Australian infantryman-turned- anthropologist, an antimilitary British woman who is an expert in the Middle East, and a Mennonite-educated Palestinian pacifist. "The Gamble" offers news breaking information, revealing behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders. We learn that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge. Many of Petraeusas closest advisers went to Iraq extremely pessimistic, doubting that the surge would have any effect, and his own boss was so skeptical that he dispatched an admiral to Baghdad in the summer of to come up with a strategy to replace Petraeusas. That same boss later flew to Iraq to try to talk Petraeus out of his planned congressional testimony. "The Gamble" examines the congressional hearings through the eyes of Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and their views of the questions posed by the presidential candidates. For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten yearsaand that that outcome is a best case scenario. His stunning conclusion, stated in the last line of the book, is that athe events for which the Iraq war will be remembered by us and by the world have not yet happened.a
The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Price, David A. / Drummond, David, PUBLISHER: Tantor Media, The Pixar Touch is a story of technical innovation that revolutionized animation, transforming hand-drawn cel animation into computer-generated 3-D graphics. It is a triumphant business story of a company that began with a dream, remained true to the ideals of its founders-antibureaucratic and artist driven-and ended up a multibillion-dollar success. We meet Pixar's technical genius and founding CEO, Ed Catmull, who, inspired by Disney's Peter Pan and Pinocchio, dreamed of becoming an animator; however, realizing he would never be good enough, he instead enrolled in the then new field of computer science at the University of Utah. It was Catmull who founded the computer graphics lab at the New York Institute of Technology and who wound up at Lucasfilm during the first Star Wars trilogy, running the computer graphics department. He also found a patron in Steve Jobs, just ousted from Apple Computer, who bought Pixar for five million dollars. Catmull went on to win four Academy Awards for his technical feats and helped to create some of the key computer-generated imagery software that animators rely on today. David A. Price also writes about John Lasseter, who catapulted himself from unemployed animator to one of the most powerful figures in American filmmaking; animation was the only thing he ever wanted to do (he was inspired by Disney's The Sword in the Stone), and Price's book shows how Lasseter transformed computer animation from a novelty into an art form. The author writes as well about Steve Jobs, as volatile a figure as a Shakespearean monarch.Based on interviews with dozens of insiders, The Pixar Touch examines the early wildcat years, when computer animation was thought of as the lunatic fringe of the medium. We also see the studio at work today-how its writers, directors, and animators make their astonishing, and astonishingly popular, films. The book also delves into Pixar's corporate feuds: between Lasseter and his former champion, Jeffrey Katzenberg (A Bug's Life versus Antz), and between Jobs and Michael Eisner. Finally, Price explores Pixar's complex relationship with the Walt Disney Company as it transformed itself from a Disney satellite into the $7.4 billion jewel in the Disney crown.
Finding the Best and the Brightest: A Guide to Recruiting,
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Thoms, Peg A., PUBLISHER: Praeger Publishers, We all choose our leaders. We hire them to run our companies. We vote them into office. We appoint them to committees. We decide to work for, serve, and follow them. In fact, all leadership is relative; by taking direction or orders, going to bat or war, marching behind, listening, and agreeing, we are choosing to allow another individual to lead us. Whether the stage is a corporation, a country, a club, a school, or any other organization, effective leaders matter. Yet despite such high-profile examples of leadership disasters--from the California recall of Gray Davis to the fall of such business titans as Ken Lay and Sam Waksal--we continue to choose, hire, and elect poor leaders. Finding the Best and the Brightest explores this phenomenon in business, politics, and other sectors of society, and proposes an antidote--an approach to choosing leaders based on a set of criteria designed to align individual qualities with organizational or institutional goals. Peg Thoms challenges the popular trend toward "transformational" leadership, which focuses on identifying universal characteristics, arguing instead that leadership must be developed in context. Many organizations, for example, need "operational" leaders who can focus on present-day tasks, such as designing superior products and delivering exceptional customer service, and not inspirational or "visionary" leaders, whose otherwise admirable qualities might be ill-suited to the challenges at hand. Outlining six typical leadership search scenarios--from school principal to hospital CEO--Thoms shows readers how to identify the traits and behaviors that are most essential for the position and how to structure interviews and other search techniques to elicit the most informative responses and home in on the best candidates. She also reminds us that many organizations fail not because they can't find good leaders but because they can't keep them, and offers strategies to promote leadership development. Whether you are an executive giving the nod to a new department head, a concerned citizen casting your vote for a municipal councilman, a club member choosing a new president, or an aspiring leader deciding which offer will provide the greatest growth opportunities, Finding the Best and the Brightest offers fresh insights on the dynamic relationship between leaders and those who follow them.
American Disease
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Lodge, George C. / Bellamy Foster, John, PUBLISHER: New York University Press, In this provacative study of the "disease" afflicting American industry today, George Lodge, a distinguished professor at the Harvard Business School, reveals the malady as a psychological disorder, characterized by a refusal to face the facts of interdependence in a competetive world; by a reluctance to confront the grave inadequacies in the operation of our great institutions--business, labor, and government; and by the fact that "leaders do not lead; those with responsibility do not fight. Timidity, born of resignation, discourages change." Lodge begins by defining the disease through its symptoms: failing industries, stubborn unemployment, lagging economic growth, stagnant productivity, overseas competition, focus on short-term financial gain, and, perhaps most telling, the pervasive feeling among Americans that their land of plenty has become a land of want. He examines the gradually changing roles and relationships between government, great corpoations, and trade unions that are nevertheless obscure by traditional and detrimental assumptions, distrust, and a set of ideologies that are increasingly inefficient, ineffective, inconsistent, and irrelevant. And he finds the incoherence of American industrial policy exemplified by the fact the we preach the old virtues of free trade and the sanctity of the market while in actuality we pursue a strategy--including tax incentives and trade subsidies--the misshapes the free market. Based on interviews with more than 150 leaders of the nation's institutions, "The American Disease" goes beyond diagnosis to offer logical and feasible proposals to cure this dangerous condition. Lodge suggests, for example, that the office of the United States Trade Representative be expanded and strengthened to deal with the growing pressure for protection against imports and with the confusion among our trading partners. He shows why business and labor must work together more closely in a non-adversarial way with federal and local government to determine community needs. He explains why Washington will be forced to direct the future of electric power in America, rather than leave the decisions to fifty different sets of state regulators. And he makes a number of recommendations to alter the ways in which corporations manage themselves and deal with government, and to reduce the social and economic costs that are implicit in these changes. George C. Lodge believes that recovery from our institutional ailments is possible, and this timely and perceptive book offers a resoundingly rational course toward that crucial goal.
The Deficit and the Public Interest: The Search for
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: White, Joseph / Wildavsky, Aaron, PUBLISHER: University of California Press, Political time is counted, not in years, but in issues--the depression defined the political era of the s just as the cold war did the s and civil rights the s. Today the federal budget looms as the dominant issue by which all others are considered and has become a concern which catalyzes debate again and again in our nation's capital. In this definitive new work, Joseph White and Aaron Wildavsky describe and analyze the struggles over taxing and spending from Carter's last year through the Reagan administration. The battle of the budget is largely about how we define the role of the government and its relationship to the people. It is a story of congressional horsetrading, partisan posturing, and technical tricks that affect billions of dollars. It is also a story of politicians operating within constraints set by both public opinion and political interpretation of economic reality. Though budgeting has always been important, its impact on the national agenda has grown dramatically in the last decades. Based on extensive interviews with participants and thorough use of documentary sources, this book both explains how budgeting works so the reader can see what is at stake in seemingly arcane disputes and locates budgeting within larger ideological trends in American society. It also explains the relationship of the budget to media, party and policy activists and explores the ways in which the deficit represents a crisis of self-confidence in the ability of our institutions, preeminently Congress and the presidency. Along the way, it provides a uniquely comprehensive account of the entire budget problem, exploring Gramm-Rudman, tax reform, and the continuing stalemate around this issue. "The Deficit and the Public Interest" offers a wide-ranging "solution" to the deficit that encompasses several ideas: the authors demonstrate that institutions have performed better than their members and critics believe, and they contend that extreme solutions would likely be much worse than the original problems. Further, they redefine the problem as one of reducing interest costs so the deficit becomes manageable, and they proffer political advice on how to make this approach politically acceptable, both at home and abroad. This meticulously researched work provides an invaluable journey through the last decade of American politics. In its theoretical depth and incisive new approach to policymaking, "The Deficit and the Public Interest" lends a fundamentally new understanding of the place of the federal government in American society.
China Inc.: The Relentless Rise of the Next Great Superpower
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Fishman, Ted, PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster, China today is visible everywhere -- in the news, in the economic pressures battering america, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of china's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred -- and why it already affects us all. How has an enormous country once hobbled by poverty and Communist ideology come to be the supercharged center of global capitalism? What does it mean that China now grows three times faster than the United States? That China uses 40 percent of the world's concrete and 25 percent of its steel? What is the global impact of 300 million rural Chinese walking off their farms and heading to the cities in the greatest migration in human history? Why do nearly all of the world's biggest companies now have large-scale operations in China? What does the corporate march into China mean for workers left behind in America, Europe, and the rest of the world? Meanwhile, what makes China's emerging corporations so dangerously competitive? What could happen when China will be able to manufacture nearly "everything" -- computers, cars, jumbo jets, and pharmaceuticals -- that the United States and Europe can, at perhaps half the cost? How do these developments reach around the world and straight into the lives of all Americans? These are ground-shaking questions, and "China, Inc." provides answers.Veteran journalist and former commodities trader Ted C. Fishman paints a vivid picture of the megatrends radiating out of China. Fishman's account begins with the burgeoning output of China's vast low-cost factories and the swelling appetite of its 1.3 billion consumers, both of which are being driven by historically unprecedented infusions of foreign capital and technological know-how. Traveling through China's frenetic landscape of growth, Fishman visits the factories, markets, streets, stores, towns, and cities where the story of Chinese capitalism is being lived by one-fifth of all humanity. Fishman also draws on interviews with Chinese, American, and European workers, managers, and executives to show how China will force all of us to make big changes in how we think about ourselves as consumers, workers, citizens, and even as parents. The result is a richly engaging work of penetrating, up-to-the-minute reportage and brilliant analysis that will forever change how readers think about America's future.
The Weekend That Changed Wall Street: An Eyewitness Account
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Bartiromo, Maria / Whitney, Catherine, PUBLISHER: Portfolio, A first-person account of the white-knuckle weekend that brought the financial world to its knees and changed Wall Street forever, from America's most famous business reporter. During a single historic weekend (September ) the fate of Lehman Brothers was sealed, Merrill Lynch barely survived, AIG became a ward of the federal government, and the roots of our seemingly strong economy teetered on the edge of collapse. As bankers and government officials scrambled to keep the economy from total collapse, and Americans tried to make sense of it all, top CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo spent the entire weekend taking frantic phone calls from the most powerful players on Wall Street and in Washington. Those CEOs, politicians, and dozens of other sources gave Bartiromo behind-the- scenes details on the crisis and its aftermath, the personalities involved, and the emotions at work during one of the most stressful periods in American economic history. Now she draws on her high-level network to provide an eyewitness account of the biggest events of the financial crisis, including exclusive interviews with former treasury secretary Henry Paulson, former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg, former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, and former Bear Stearns chairman Ace Greenberg, among many others. Her sources candidly divulged personal and unreported information. For example, during a commercial break on her show, Paulson, who had been explaining the government bailout package, told her, "In six months, you will understand why we did what we did." It wasn't apparent then, but months later it was revealed that the government's secrecy regarding who got the bailout money was intended to hide the shocking financial condition of Citigroup-the largest bank in the world. Writing with both authority and dramatic flair, Bartiromo not only weaves a thrilling and fresh account of the events of that fateful weekend but provides a unique analysis of the crisis and its aftermath She shows how decades of unbridled risk taking led to one of the biggest and most dramatic economic meltdowns in history and tackles the big questions: is any company too big to fail-and if so should it be? Should the government spend taxpayer dollars to bail out companies whose plights are largely the result of their own mismanagement? And finally, what have we learned from this crisis? Will we return to business as usual or has Wall Street really changed?
Berlin in the Balance: The Blockade, the Airlift, the First
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Parrish, Thomas, PUBLISHER: Da Capo Press, In June , Soviet authorities in Germany announced a land blockade of the American, British, and French sectors of Berlin. Isolated more than one hundred miles within Soviet-occupied territory, western Berlin was in danger of running out of coal, food, and the courage to stand up to Joseph Stalin.As "Berlin in the Balance" recounts, this crisis was a turning-point for U.S. policy. Just three years earlier, the Soviet Union had been an ally and Berlin the target of American bombers. In Winston Churchill had ignited protests by calling for an Anglo-American alliance against the USSR. The Berlin blockade made Churchill's "iron curtain" through Europe an inescapable reality.Led by Harry S. Truman, the Western Allies refused to back away from Berlin. Instead, they took to the air, packing passenger planes with coal, potatoes, flour, and other necessities. Not even the commanders of the year-old U.S. Air Force believed this fleet could supply western Berlin for long. Its main airport was squeezed among apartment buildings. Autumn would bring blinding fogs. And nobody had ever tried to supply a city of millions by air."Berlin in the Balance "tells the full, gripping story of this critical conflict--how it developed and how it played out. Noted historian Thomas Parrish shows us the crisis through the eyes of Truman, Stalin, and other leaders. We hear Berliners cheer the arrival of each "raisin bomber"; the planes' roar was assurance that the democratic powers had not abandoned them. Through sources made available only after the fall of the USSR, we learn how Soviet leaders planned their strategy to drive out the West, what they feared, and what they hoped to achieve."Berlin in theBalance" spotlights a different kind of air force heroism--flying heavy transport planes in weather so bad "the birds walked," harassed by Soviet fighters but never firing a shot. Under the decisive leadership of General William H. Tunner, crews took off every three minutes around the clock. Soldiers rushed to maintain the airplanes and runways, master a new radar system, even build a new airport. The operation depended on support from Frankfurt to London to Montana, on the sacrifices of German civilians and the boldness of French saboteurs. Using archives and fresh interviews, Parrish details the full scope and success of "Operation Vittles."The Berlin airlift stopped Stalin's expansion in Europe. It helped Truman win his upset election in . And it set the course of East-West conflict for the next forty years. More than sixty U.S. and allied fliers died in this great operation, keeping a besieged city fueled, fed, and free. "Berlin in the Balance" is a masterful chronicle of this crucial, stirring saga.
Reluctant Witness: Memoirs from the Last Year of the
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Mahoney, Brian H. / Mahoney, James J., PUBLISHER: Trafford Publishing, The late James Mahoney went overseas in the spring of as the leader of one of the four bomb squadrons in a B-24 bomb group (the original 492nd) which endured extraordinary losses for 89 days of operation before being disbanded. The enduring mystery of why such an exceptionally well qualified and prepared group suffered so singularly is one of many significant themes he addresses in his 52 vignettes. Mahoney was reassigned to a bomb group with much better luck (the 467th), and finished the war as their Deputy Commander. As both a 'man among men' and a recognized natural leader, he was positioned to note character and ability, and took it as his charge to develop both of these in the course of administering to the technical and demanding business of a combat organization comprising souls. Later in life, wanting to make sense of what he experienced and to record the terrific sacrifice of his peers, he distilled and organized his memories. Overcoming his natural reticence to show his hand emotionally, and fearful that grisly accounts might register as sensational horror instead of sobering lesson, he labored carefully to build for his readers a rich context for his 'war stories'. These memoirs take the reader through the methodology and equipment of aviation and strategic bombing in the era before stand-off weaponry, when hundreds of planes at a time, each with ten-man crews, flew in unpressurized planes through flak and fighter filled skies for hours at a time at 40 degrees below zero, to bomb targets in Hitler-occupied Europe. He introduces the reader to his acquaintances and friends, commanders and charges - a range of memorable rascals, unforgettableheroes, and ordinary mortals showing their true mettle and courage under dire circumstances. Jim Mahoney's account of his 13 months in combat is an engaging mix of timeless morals and enduring humor. The big themes are laid out with common sense, while the practical joke, the stroke of genius, or personal quirk are offered as clear windows to the host of characters and their relationships. These certainly capture the fact and flavor of the daylight bombing campaign over northern Europe and make a contribution to the historical record, but they also transcend that specific time and place, drawing the readers in any era into human drama, played out in all of its variety in the pressure-cooker of wartime. The son's contribution has been to document some of the more unusual aspects of his father's account, so that these can be received as more than just precious memoir - as contributions to the historical record.This has entailed many interviews, travel to remnants of his father's Rackheath and North Pickenham bases in East Anglia, and contemplation of the horrible effectiveness of aerial bombardment on several of the Mighty Eighth Air Force's 'ground zeros' in Germany. Additionally, the son supplies the reader with a variety of material designed to make the dated techn