American Cinema/American Culture

Book Description

Developed to accompany the Annenberg-funded telecourse American Cinema, and written under the aegis of The New York Center for Visual History, this text offers a fascinating look at the interplay between the movie industry and mass culture in America.

Ideal for film appreciation and film and culture courses found in Cinema Studies, English, History, American Studies, or other departments, American Cinema/American Culture first examines the industry, its narrative conventions, and its cinematographic style.

Following this introduction, students are exposed to the sweep of film history in the U.S. using five genres as the bases for discussion and focusing on the point at which each had the greatest affect on the industry, film aesthetics, and American culture.

Finally, the book concludes with a look at Hollywood post World War II, giving separate chapter coverage to the effects of the Cold War, television, the counterculture of the Sixties, directors from the film school generation, and the trends of the Eighties and Nineties.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent as a Historical Text Book.......2007-03-24

So, I expected this book to be a bit more fun. Unfortunately, the fun element is missing. However, in fairness, the book serves as a thorough textbook for the history of American Cinema and its techniques and various genres. I did enjoy reading about the early studio system and the vast amount of control this oligopoly held. There were some very good critiques and studies of specific films, and a bit about specific actors and actresses. Even a bit about directors. Though packed with information, the book just lacks an entertainment value that it could and should have pulled off based on the subject matter.

The different genres studied include:

Westerns
War Movies
Silent Films
Film Noire
Screwball Comedies

As well as an overall dissertation on Classical Hollywood Style and its various techniques.

Not very good..........2005-03-05

I got this book for a class on the history of cinema. Unfortunately, as the title implies, it only deals with American Cinema. If this is a book for school, check out the class to see if foreign films and film history will be discussed. This book is, again, as the title implies--one-sided. Most of the movies it discusses, gives away crucial plot-points and endings. Some movies that I've been dying to see were ruined in just one or two sentences. This book is also very puffed-up and biased (I don't know any other way of explaining it). Many times throughout the book, Belton seems like James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio", and goes on and on about the greatness of Hollywood, actors, director's, and films with nothing negative to say. It's not at all critical of anything and the author frequently inserts his own interpretation of films into the general text, which I found a little pompous. The book does offer up some interesting facts about the early history and the birth of cinema, but there's something about the way this book was written that makes it hard to stay interested. I think the chapters about film genres exaggerate the importance of some of them, and neglects other genres completely, ie. Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Sci-fi, Animation, Epics, etc. Again, question the instructor and/or look at the class syllabus before siging up if this is the only book for this class. I don't believe this is a comprehensive and unbiased view of cinema and it's history.

A very useful beginners guide to American film........2003-01-08

Years ago I took an intro-level film class at a community college. This was the text for the class. It was accompanied (at least in my class) by a PBS video series that combined film clips with interviews and historical information. Going into the class I had little more than a passing interest in film and film history. But after taking that class, my passion for film has grown exponentially with each year. But back to the book, I really liked this book and highlighted my way from the front cover to the back cover. There are of course limitations to this book. Firstly, it deals only with American films. Secondly, this book barely breaks the 300-page mark - hardly a comprehensive volume. You aren't going to get any information on John Cassavetes here or anything. Now if you have a chance to use this book in conjunction with the PBS films, I think you'll do much better (in fact I think the vids even give a nod to Cassavetes), but even then please note that this material is for an INTRO-level film class, and won't be much good for someone who already knows a fair amount about American film. But with that in mind, the book still has a lot to offer someone looking to introduce themselves to film history.

The first third of the book starts with the birth of film, moves quickly on to the Hollywood studio system, and walks us through the basics of film style (camerawork, lighting, editing, etc.). The second third covers the basics of film genre; there is a chapter about film noir, one on comedies, one on war films, and one on westerns. This second section was particularly useful to me. I could read each chapter, jot down a list of promising titles, hit my local video store, and I was good to go. The third section covers American film after World War II. In this section things seem a little compressed. 110 pages for 50 years of film? A lot is lost on the cutting room floor. But there's lots to dig into all the same. There's a chapter on Hollywood during the McCarthy years (yikes!), one on film's evolution during the emergence of television, a chapter on 1960s counterculture films, one on the film school directors of the 1970s and 1980s, and finally a pretty weak chapter on film in the 1990s. Oh yeah, and at the end of the book there's a handy glossary (in case you're ever stuck on what point-of-view editing is) and a pretty thorough index.

Again, not a book for someone who already has a good feel for film history. But definitely a great resource for someone new to film studies, or for someone who has trouble finding a movie at Blockbuster on Fridays. It did a great job getting me excited about movies, and I imagine its done the same for others.... A good companion to this text (or possibly an all-out replacement of it) is Scorsese's VHS/DVD, "A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies."

Movie spoiler.......2002-10-08

This would be a great book to read if you have no intention of watching the films discussed within, or if you've already seen them. On quite a few films, it tells the whole plot, in detail, from opening to end credits.

I also don't like the prose of the author, as he excessively uses sentences "in quotations". The writing structure is very formulaic and boring. The "5 paragraph essay" format is good for high school students learning to write, but imagine an entire book written that way. I can only read it for 15 minutes before losing interest.

The book does, however, provide plenty of examples from a variety of films.

Book Description

This extraordinary handbook was inspired by the distinctive concerns of anthropologists and others who film people in the field. The authors cover the practical, technical, and theoretical aspects of filming, from fundraising to exhibition, in lucid and complete detail--information never before assembled in one place. The first section discusses filmmaking styles and the assumptions that frequently hide unacknowledged behind them, as well as the practical and ethical issues involved in moving from fieldwork to filmmaking. The second section concisely and clearly explains the technical aspects, including how to select and use equipment, how to shoot film and video, and the reasons for choosing one or the other, and how to record sound. Finally, the third section outlines the entire process of filmmaking: preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution. Filled with useful illustrations and covering documentary and ethnographic filmmaking of all kinds, Cross-Cultural Filmmaking will be as essential to the anthropologist or independent documentarian on location as to the student in the classroom.

Customer Reviews:

Good Resource for Documentarians.......2000-09-06

Although this book is geared toward professional, experienced filmmakers, film students or aspiring documentarians will learn from this text, as well. The book has thoughtful details, descriptive paragraphs, and helpful advice on how to create effective "ethnographic films." But despite this focus, the book's guidelines can be applied to any kind of documentary project. It's also simply a good read.

The Object of Labor: Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production

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The Object of Labor: Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production

Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262122901

Book Description

The Object of Labor explores the personal, political, social, and economic meaning of work in the context of art and textile production. The ubiquity of cloth in everyday life, the historically resonant relationship of textile and cloth to labor, and the tumultuous drive of globalization make the issues raised by this publication of special interest today. The seventeen essays cover topics ranging from art-making practices to labor history and the effects of globalization as seen through art and labor. The artists' projects--twelve striking and beautiful eight-page, full color spreads--conduct parallel investigations into art, cloth, and work.

The contributors explore, from historical and personal perspectives, such subjects as the charged history of offshore garment workers; the different systems of production and consumption in factories, homes, studios, and exhibitions; the revelation of class, gender, and sexuality through cloth, costume, and textile images; textile production as commemorative acts in South Africa, the United States, and India; transnationalism, cultural hybridity, and race in the work of individual artists; lost histories of garment production and embroidery; the physical act of art-making as labor; and the value of handmade and "technologically improved" objects.

Essays by:
Ingrid Bachmann, Carol Becker, Andries Botha, Lou Cabeen, Helen Cho, Alison Ferris, Nancy Gildart, bell hooks, Alan Howard, Mary Jane Jacob, Janis Jeffries, Neil MacInnis, Margo Mensing, Kevin Murray, Sadie Plant, Maureen Sherlock, and collectively by Viji Srinivasan, Skye Morrison, Laila Tyabji, and Dorothy Caldwell.

Artist projects and portfolios by:
Susie Brandt, Nick Cave, Park Chambers, Lisa Clark, Lia Cook, Ann Hamilton, Kimsooja, Barbara Layne and Sue Rowley, Lara Lepionka, Merrill Mason, Darrel Morris, Pepón Osorio, J. Morgan Puett and Iain Kerr, Karen Reimer, Yinka Shonibare, SubRosa, Christine Tarkowski, and Anne Wilson.

Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions (Managing Cultural Differences)

Average customer rating:

Great textbook!
Getting Multicultural Teams to Work!
Getting Multicultural Teams to Work
This book is really helpful
This book is really helpful

Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions (Managing Cultural Differences)
Lionel Laroche
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750675810

Book Description

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' provides managers of technical professionals with clear and tested strategies to improve communication and increase productivity among culturally diverse technical professionals, teams, and departments.

Dr. Laroche outlines the differences in education and training, career expectations, communication styles, and management expectations in countries around the world. He explains cross-cultural concepts and presents his case for the importance of cross-cultural competence supported by hard data, including charts, tables, and readily accessible schematics.

You'll benefit from the author's experience and expertise as a manager and consultant in this area, illustrated by numerous anecdotes, critical incidents, and mini case studies, centered around two central themes:

* Most technical professionals do not recognize the impact of cultural differences in their work
* Cross-cultural issues lead to a significant under-utilization of talent and affect productivity negatively

'Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions' offers proven tactics for improving your personal effectiveness and the efficiency of your multicultural teams, breaking the communication barrier in the multicultural workplace.

* Provides specific, tried and tested suggestions for managers to improve employee effectiveness within the North American technical workplace
* Examines many aspects of the professional lives of technical people in the U.S. and Canada and how they compare to those in other parts of the world
* Contains an appendix specifically written for HR managers and diversity trainers, describing how you can modify your approaches to suit this specific audience

Customer Reviews:

Great textbook!.......2003-09-23

I am using this book as a textbook in a course that I facilitate for international engineers at the University of Manitoba. We're using the text to explore cultural parameters and the different ways they manifest themselves in different cultures, both generally and specifically in engineering business. I value the book for the work it does in framing the larger concepts behind specific cultural differences, but also for the practicality it offers through anecdotes and tips for working with other cultural styles.

While it's early in the academic term, this book has already been extremely useful in framing discussions in our class. Also, as I talk to employers in Manitoba, many have asked for the bibliographic reference to source the book for their corporate library.

Getting Multicultural Teams to Work!.......2003-02-23

We all know how much difference there is when a team functions well - the tricky part is getting it to happen. This new book tackles this topic in the context of Canadian engineering teams, which are almost all composed of people from many cultures. In this insightful book, Dr. Laroche includes lots of material to help get multicultural teams firing on all cylinders.

Written for both managers and technical contributors, the book uses a multicultural lens to look at management styles, teamwork, communication and career management. This new perspective drives home a central theme that cultural differences are key in how our teams work, and not widely recognized in their importance. In these kinds of abstract topics I find concrete examples very helpful, and the author includes numerous anecdotes drawn from his consulting background. These vivid examples show the profound impact of what sometimes seem like small issues, like the Mexican engineer who resigned the day after getting some negative feedback in front of his colleagues.

The book also includes a number of quantitative charts and tables showing how different cultures have quite different expectations of the importance of hierarchy, individualism, and risk tolerance. Having read this book, I now much better understand the experience I had in Canada managing an employee from another culture. What I experienced as a lack of assertiveness was actually the case of an employee expecting highly directive management, and their way of showing respect. Had I understood that well at the time, I would have approached the situation quite differently, even starting at the interview stage. On the flip side, the book would have helped me a lot during my two-year stay in France. In particular, it wasn't until I read this book that I realized that when my French colleagues were jumping in and finishing my sentences, they were demonstrating their agreement by showing they knew how my sentences were going to end!

The book closes with a number of interesting comparisons, like the different emphasis on theory and hands-on work that exist between engineering schools in Canada, the United States, France and Mexico. And to finish off, an entertaining appendix containing explanations of expressions which we take for granted from such diverse areas as baseball ("to be out in left field" - to make no sense at all) and warfare ("loose cannons" - ones which are not fixed down, and fire a different direction each time).

Getting Multicultural Teams to Work.......2003-02-23

This book is really helpful.......2003-02-22

This book is really helpful in a way to understand cultural difference. It focuses on new immigrants issues, multiculture team work and communication barrier. Also focuses on why this has happend and how to overcome it. Different countries have different working style and one really understands this when reading this book. It also emphasises all the ideas a technical person needs to overcome all barriers and get aquainted with
multiculteral system.

The most important representation for me in this book are pages 69, 91, 93,and 148, as well as the graphs on pages 188, 216, and 217.

This book is really helpful.......2003-02-22

This book is really helpful in a way to understand cultural difference. It focuses on new immigrants issues, multiculture team work and communication barrier. Also focuses on why this has happend and how to overcome it. Different country have different working style and one really understands this when reading this book. It covers all the ideas a technical person needs to overcome all barriers and get aquainted with multiculteral system.

The most important representation for me were page numbers 69, 91, 93, and 148. I found the graphs on pages 188, 216, and 217 really helpful.

Average customer rating:

Please, get a real film buff to edit your book

Bait and Switch

A must read for vintage horror film fans!

Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968
Kevin Heffernan , and Kevin Heffernan
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Astounding B Monster Book

Monster Kid Memories

Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film

Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing (Suny Series, Interruptions - Border Testimony(Ies) and Critical Discourse/S)

Mexploitation Cinema: A Critical History Of Mexican Vampire, Wrestler, Ape-man And Similar Films, 1957-1977

ASIN: 0822332159

Book Description

The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Tingler, the Mole Peopleâthey stalked and oozed into audiences’ minds during the era that followed Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein and preceded terrors like Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Chucky (Child’s Play). Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold pulls off the masks and wipes away the slime to reveal how the monsters that frightened audiences in the 1950s and 1960sâand the movies they crawled and staggered throughâreflected fundamental changes in the film industry. Providing the first economic history of the horror film, Kevin Heffernan shows how the production, distribution, and exhibition of horror movies changed as the studio era gave way to the conglomeration of New Hollywood.

Heffernan argues that major cultural and economic shifts in the production and reception of horror films began at the time of the 3-d film cycle of 1953–54 and ended with the 1968 adoption of the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings system and the subsequent development of the adult horror movieâepitomized by Rosemary’s Baby. He describes how this period presented a number of daunting challenges for movie exhibitors: the high costs of technological upgrade, competition with television, declining movie attendance, and a diminishing number of annual releases from the major movie studios. He explains that the production and distribution branches of the movie industry responded to these trends by cultivating a youth audience, co-producing features with the film industries of Europe and Asia, selling films to television, and intensifying representations of sex and violence. Shining through Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold is the delight of the true horror movie buff, the fan thrilled to find The Brain that Wouldn’t Die on television at 3 am.

Customer Reviews:

Please, get a real film buff to edit your book.......2006-12-06

Could have been ****, but there are many errors about the things you know about. What is accurate about everything else? Do you like existential conjecture (presented as fact) about the subconscious "meaning" of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" compared to "House of Wax?" I don't. Why treat religion snidely? Why interject politics and sour grapes...much less in the same sentence, "right-wing faux film historian Michael Medved?" Cut the politics, cut the existentialism. Chuck your ego and get someone knowledgeable about film to check the facts. Michael Medved would have done a better job. Sorry for being so tough on this book, but this is the second one in a row that has had the same flaws.

Bait and Switch.......2006-10-18

"Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold" would have been better off titled "Decline and Fall of the Neighborhood Cinema." That is because the real subject of this book is not the horror genre. Instead Heffernan uses the horror genre as a lens to show the increasing pressures on the neighborhood cinemas as the big studios retrenched after the Paramount decision and made fewer films at the same time that TV made more and more people stay home in front of the tube.

Yes, Heffernan has some interesting comments about "House of Wax" and "Curse of Frankenstein" but by and large he ignores the content of the films to focus on how the films let the theater owners stave off the end for a little bit longer.

I absolutely hit the wall with this book when I read the chapter that covered in detail which films were part of which TV syndication package. At that point, I realized that Heffernan had written a book for business historians and not for people interested in horror movies.

A must read for vintage horror film fans!.......2004-09-18

This book is a well-written piece dealing with the period of horror films that many people remember--That of the early 1950's-late 1960's(i.e. From the start of 3-D films to the release of Night of the Living Dead). It largely argues that the horror boom during this time was due to two things:

1. Theaters needed product for their screens
2. TV stations(UHF stations in particular) needing movies for their programming

In a good sub-argument, it also mentions about the rise of imported horror from Britain and Italy(largely due to tax and other economic issues and also as a reciprocal to the expansion of the US film industry overseas). Lots of good research and it is written in a way where you get plenty of information, but yet it does not feel like a dry read. The chapter on horror film TV syndication packages is a highlight for me(outside of a talk that the author did about 2 years prior to publication at a UC Berkeley conference on Trash Cinema, I had not seen anybody do any research on this before.)

I also recommend the work of Eric Schaefer(who has a sequel coming to his book Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!), when when combining these works would give you a well-grounded education on horror and exploitation film cultures.

Media and Society: The Production of Culture in the Mass Media

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What the culture machine does and how it works
As good as it gets
Wonderful book

Media and Society: The Production of Culture in the Mass Media
John W. Ryan , and William M. Wentworth
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0205174000

Book Description

In this large-scale, postindustrial society, the mass media has become deeply embedded into the lifestyles of everyday citizens. People are lured by television ratings, celebrity-sponsored products, and high-profile crimes and scandals, all finding their way into living rooms across America by satellites, cable wires, and modems. This book examines the real, imagined, and potential effects of the mass media on individuals and society. The book explores the processes through which the mass media is enabled and constrained by such factors as technology, law, industry structure, and occupational careers, accounting for the vast changes that have developed in recent years. This book is divided into two parts. Part I defines mass communication and locates its role in social life. Part II considers the factors which influence media content, providing insight into how the industry operates. Sociologists, Communication and Mass Media specialists, film, music, and pop culture critics, and enthusiasts of these fields.

Customer Reviews:

What the culture machine does and how it works.......2002-08-05

In looking for possible textbooks for my Popular Culture class I am considering "Media and Society: The Production of Culture in the Mass Media" by John Ryan and William M. Wentworth. While as the audience for mass media we have a vested interest in how culture is produced, this book will be of greater utility for those who will be involved from the production standpoint. "Media and Society" is a book that would benefit from having the table of contents reproduced so instructors interested in selecting this book for class would have a better idea of what is covered. In the absence of that, I offer the following:

Part I details The Mass Media and Society, considering what mass communication is, starting with (1) Human Communication and the Mass Media, which focuses on the basic characteristics of the mass media as well as critical perspectives taken on the mass media in academia. (2) Classical Sociological Theory and the Mass Media deals briefly with Marx, Durheim, and Weber, while emphasizing Mead as providing the transition to a modern social psychology of communication. (3) Mass Media Effects I: Individual Effects presents both the early attempts to search for mass media effects and the evidence that exists against those effects. (4) Mass Media Effects II: Societal Effects actually does not do the same thing as the previous chapter on a societal level, but instead looks at the new ways of communicating that exist in modern society, such as time use, globalization and shared identity, and agenda setting.

Part II covers The Production of Culture and the place of the mass media in social life, beginning with (5) Mass Media Technology, in which the seven general principles of media technology development are extended to the internet, desktop publishing, and the electronic cauldron of the new "datasphere." (6) Regulating the Media covers government regulation from Freedom of the Press and the Fairness Doctrine to Obscenity and Copyright Law. (7) Industry Structure deals with some theoretical concerns, such as resource dependency theory, but focuses primarily on industry structure and effects from newspapers to the internet. (8) Media Organizations and Occupations has interesting sections on the problem of creative production where the role of the artist collides with organizational forms and the organizational requirements of the media for stars and new material. There are a couple of case studies of Hollywood looking at "Heaven's Gate" and "Jaws." (9) "Show Me the Money": Advertising and the Mass Media goes from the rise of marketing to the role of advertising to the effects of target marketing and narrowcasting to fragmented audiences. (10) The Mass Media Audience deals with special problems of culture markets such as creating brands, to measuring the audience and the consequences of having inaccurate pictures of that audience.

The idea here is that Part I describes what the "machine" does and Part II describes how the machine works. From the perspective of the production-of-culture Ryan and Wentworth look at the influence of technology, law, industry structure, organizational structure/occupational careers, advertising, and ideas about audience, separating each to highlight the specific impacts of each, although obviously they all act in concert to influence media content. I am more interested in how the products produced by the mass media impact upon audiences in general, and my students in particular, but there are certainly many key aspects of the production process that I would like my students to understand. "Media and Society" covers a lot of concepts with enough references to contemporary examples that most students will make the connection.

As good as it gets.......2001-08-28

In the world of academic textbooks, a truly enjoyable read is something to be cherished. Media and Society: The Production of Culture in the Mass Media by John Ryan and William M. Wentworth is perhaps the most interesting, richly informative, and thoroughly enjoyable literary work I have had the pleasure of reading throughout my collegiate career. The authors perform a marvelous job of outlining theory, while interweaving real world examples throughout the text resulting in a comprehensive investigation of the mutually affective relationship between leisure, mass media and society. Much of the writing could be equally likely to reside in an academic journal as well as any respectable main stream periodical such as Time magazine. Due to its unique blend of writing styles, this book is not only highly recommended to scholars but anyone wishing to learn of the fascinating relationship between leisure, the mass media, society and the production of culture. Well done!

Wonderful book.......1999-07-16

This is simply the best book on the mass media that I have read. It does a terrific job of covering academic research while maintaining its appeal to a general audience. The chapter on the effects of the media are powerful examples of what good sociology can be. If you want to increase your understanding of the internal workings of media industries and the effects of the mass media on the individual and society, you couldn't make a better choice.

From Quarry to Cornfield: The Political Economy of Mississippian Hoe Production

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From Quarry to Cornfield: The Political Economy of Mississippian Hoe Production
Charles Cobb
Manufacturer: University Alabama Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf: The Story of One Man, Two Cows, and the Feeding of a Nation

Average customer rating:

Another reason to give up meat
A rational, unbiased, informative, yet heart rendering saga...
From Conception to Consumption
Thorough, scholarship, thought provoking, spiritual
A book which helped me decide to give up meat

Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf: The Story of One Man, Two Cows, and the Feeding of a Nation
Peter Lovenheim
Manufacturer: Harmony
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0609605917
Release Date: 2002-07-16

Book Description

Four years ago, journalist Peter Lovenheim was standing in a long line at McDonald’s to buy a Happy Meal for his little daughter, which would come with a much-desired Teenie Beanie Baby—either a black-and-white cow named “Daisy” or an adorable red bull named “Snort.” Finding it rather strange that young children were being offered cuddly toy cows one minute and eating the grilled remains of real ones the next, Lovenheim suddenly saw clearly the great disconnect between what we eat and our knowledge of where it comes from. Determined to understand the process by which living animals become food, Lovenheim did the only thing he could think of: He bought a calf—make that twin calves, number 7 and number 8—from the dairy farm where they were born and asked for permission to spend as much time as necessary hanging around and observing everything that happened in the lives of these farm animals.

Portrait of a Burger as a Young Calf is the provocative true story of Peter Lovenheim’s hands-on journey into the dairy and beef industries as he follows his calves from conception to possible consumption. In the process, he gets to know the good, hard-working people who raise our cattle and make milk products, beef, and veal available to consumers like you and me. He supplies us with a “fly on the wall” view of how these animals are used to put food on America’s very abundant tables.

Constantly vigilant about wanting to be an observer who never interferes, Lovenheim allows the reader to see every aspect of a cow’s life, without passing judgment. Reading this book will forever change the way you think about food and the people and animals who provide it for us.

Customer Reviews:

Another reason to give up meat.......2007-05-07

Author Peter Lovenheim provides a rare glimpse into the life trajectory of an animal in today's modern agribusiness industry. Intended as a dispassionate chronicle of a calf from birth to slaughter, I found it one of the saddest books I've read. The animal farmers we meet are normal, basically decent people. Yet because of the economic priorities and inertia of how the business is done, the animals suffer mightily at their hands. Removed from their mothers at birth, they're deprived of her protective milk, and many sicken. Tethered by the neck, shivering in wooden hutches with no opportunity to play and minimal protection from the bitter winter weather, it's little wonder that only nine of 15 calves survive their first two months. And these are the ones not sent at once to slaughter. Cows are cycled through artificially inseminated pregnancies, milked (literally and metaphorically) through a string of calves until their production drops below quota. Then, as a final gesture of thanks for their service, they're put to death. That is if they don't first become "downers," when they are winched and dragged to the dead/dying pile to await the renderer's bullets.

This book should be on the reading list of all who continue to eat meat.

A rational, unbiased, informative, yet heart rendering saga..........2005-12-10

This book is not for the faint of heart where animals are concerned, but it IS for those who want to know what life is like for an American calf, as told by someone who simply wondered about this hidden reality. The story is not biased toward animal rights or vegetarianism; rather, it is the factual and firsthand account of someone who chose to be informed rather than not.

For those of us who dare to wonder about the food we eat, where it comes from, and who is affected by our decisions, this is a book that will open our eyes and hearts. It is a well told story in an easily readable style, and although it may not tell you about a world you want to belong in, it will tell you about a world we have chosen to create.

From Conception to Consumption.......2003-05-09

Imagine that you are walking into a McDonalds restaurant with your child, who is all, excited because with every happy meal you get a teanie beanie baby. This is part of the Ty Beanie Baby promotion that is done every year, with different beanies to choose from each year. As you are standing in line you glance over at the toy display on the counter and notice that one of the beanies is a red bull named "snort" and another is a black and white cow named "Daisy". Do you think that when you saw this you would immediately think of the irony of it all? Standing in a restaurant that sold cow patties on a bun to, probably millions daily all over the world and here they are selling cute little stuffed cows with names.
This is how Peter Lovenheim came up with the idea for his book about watching a cow go from "conception to consumption." "
"It struck me as odd that a company selling ground beef would offer toys in the shape of cattle. Were children really expected to hug and play with a toy cow while eating the remains of a real one?"
In the process of producing this book Lovenheim meets many interesting people on his journey through farms, meat auctions, and a stud center in Ithaca, New York where the journey began.
In Ithaca there is an artificial insemination factory where they keep prime bulls for semen collection to sell to farms across the country. Lovenheim watches one bull in particular, Bonanza, as they collect semen from him and package it in a straw sized tube. It is then put into a container filled with liquid nitrogen to freeze it for shipping. This shipment is being sent to Lawnel Farm in York, New York. This farm is owned and run by Andrew and Sue Smith who raise dairy and beef cattle.
On their farm the cows are assigned numbers instead of names. One in particular is of interest to the journalist and that cow is number 4923. This is the cow that was artificially inseminated with the frozen semen from Bonanza. She gave birth to twins, a heifer and a steer, numbers seven and eight, both of which Lovenheim saw birthed and bought to raise and follow through the beef process.
Another farming family he meets is Shelly and Peter Vonglis who lived just five miles south of the Smith's. At this farm he boards his two calves, and gives strict instructions to Peter to raise the bull, number eight, as he would any other beef critter. Lovenheim visits each farm on a weekly basis, traveling half an hour from his home to the farms. On his visits he observes the cows, watches the milking process, accompanies Andrew on his harvester machine in the fields, and overall has basically free run of the Lawnel farm. At the Vonglis's he watches his calves grow bigger, and talks with Shelly and Peter about their daily lives and what goes on.
Throughout this book he goes over the ethics of raising cattle on farms, and gives descriptions on the various diseases and health problems that dairy cows face because of the standing and the overly large udders that are genetically bred into their genes for higher milk production. The cows that are not producing enough milk daily, below the percentage line of the daily milk productions are culled out of the herd and shipped away to the Pavilion where they are auctioned off as beef. After arrival the cows and calves are separated and then divided into "good cows" which are healthy, "slow cows" which are weak and somewhat sickly, and the "double-exes" which are the cows who are about to die anyway. Here big companies and some small businesses buy beef. This is the place where his calves will be auctioned off and bought either by Taylor Packing who buys, slaughters, and sells the meat for McDonalds food, where this all started.
As the ending of the book draws near Lovenheim is having second thoughts about selling his two calves for beef at the pavilion. He has done just what he didn't want to do in the first place and that was get attached to them.
I found this book to be a very interesting read. Before this class I never really gave any second thought about where my food came from. I knew it came from farms and slaughterhouses but I never had so much detail about what goes into the process raising beef and dairy cattle. As I read through the book it was easy to see the struggle that some farms go through while others are somewhat well off. It shows this in the difference between the Smith's farm and the Vonglis's farm. The Smith farm is a small farm that raises cattle to sell locally and for the family with Peter working full time at a larger farm, and Shelly is going to school to become a nurse. Sue and Andrew run their farm and have employees who help with the milking shifts and the cows.
I think that it is rough what these animals have to go through but it is also rough for the farmers who raise the animals and put them through "conception to consumption."

Thorough, scholarship, thought provoking, spiritual.......2002-11-21

When I started this book I imagined another informative expose reinforcing my concerns about the eating of beef. However, what I found was a thorough, thoughtful, and engaging study of the dairy and beef industries, in which the author went to painful lengths to give fair consideration to all sides on the issue.

Lovenheim's book is not sensationalist muckracking. While I think his observations would reinforce many of the worries of those concerned about eating beef, or drinking milk induced by bovine growth hormone, the most striking part of this work is the otherwise overlooked consideration of cows as living creatures. I was struck by his descriptions of the cows' actual sense of community, their adaption and response (or seeming lack thereof) in the face of continual danger; that in fact they aren't quite the dumb animals we have been raised to believe they are. Lovenheim makes you consider that these animals are different than plants, and that you are making a conscious decision to take a living feeling creature and choosing to process it as a commodity entirely out of your own dietary choice and convenience.

The author's sensitivity, compassion, and admiration for those engaged in the various aspects of the dairy and beef industries is admirable. He also gives ample consideration to the historical place of beef in our diets, frequently alluding to his own Jewish spiritual tradition.

This is a substantive, worthwhile, and quite "readable" work. I highly recommend it; I was pleased to have picked it up, and felt I had both learned and acquired greater sensitivity as a result of completing it.

A book which helped me decide to give up meat.......2002-11-12

This book first caught my eye when it was featured on BookTV, what struck me the most was that the author was not a vegetarian. Although at first glance this book might appear as a story of the dirty meat industry, it is instead unbiased truth. Yes, the meat industry is dirty and farmers don't have it easy, but it allows one to not feel pressed to give up meat, but presents the facts, or the story which allows the reader to become informed and go from there. From this story which I could hardly ever put down, I realized that I could not eat a cow. Furthermore, it also showed me that there was a lot more about the food I eat than I realized, which led me to other books. I encourage anyone and everyone to read this book and to understand where their meat comes from, and how they should go from there.

Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture (Routledge Studies in International Business and the World Economy)

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Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture (Routledge Studies in International Business and the World Economy)

Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0415331013

Book Description

Since the Second World War there has been considerable growth in the importance of non-manufacturing based forms of production to the performance of many Western economies. Many countries have seen increased contributions being made by industries such as the media, entertainment and artistic sectors. The Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture collects together a leading international, multi disciplinary team of researchers and presents in an accessible fashion, cutting-edge perspectives on how these industries function, their place in the new economy and how they can be harnessed for urban and regional economic and social development.

Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design (Studies in Design and Material Culture)

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Henry Ford: Mass Production, Modernism and Design (Studies in Design and Material Culture)
Ray Batchelor
Manufacturer: Manchester Univ Pr
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Binding: Paperback

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