Book Description
Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Make Mad — Euripides, 480 - 406 B.C.
·All treasures chests revealed
·Maps of every level
·Extensive Art collection with developer commentary
·Challenge of the Gods, secret costumes, and more
·Classic Mythology history and factoids
·Every foe's strengths & weaknesses revealed
Customer Reviews:
Product has changed. NO DVD!! Amazon get with it!!!.......2006-07-18
I ordered this new direct from amazon because of the great ratings on the included DVD, however, after an extremely long wait, the DVD wasn't included with the guide, so I ordered a replacement copy, same problem! I ended up buying a used one because amazon couldn't supply it. At least they offered me a refund and return postage. Overall a great guide if you can find one with the DVD.
Great Book!.......2005-09-23
This book is EVERY detail you'll ever need to play this game. Game is so intricate, you'd miss so much without it.
God Of War.......2005-08-09
This is highly addictive action adventure game that will make you lose track of time. This game is an instant classic with unbeatable graghics. It also has a good storyline and suprise twists all this way until the end of the game. I highly recommend it to the mature gamer.
Walt Hickman
Snellville Georgia.
Very Helpful.......2005-07-27
I really only needed the book for some ending parts to the video-game and as for instructions on getting past these parts it was very helpful on helping me finish and complete the game and the grahics in this book are very good visual aids and very artistic. Thanks for the help in helping me conquer this awesome game just waiting for the next game from them to come out
Ain't really necessary.......2005-05-02
The game isn't too hard and is quite short, so the price tag is kind of high. The game is epic, but I don't know if the length justifies $70, that's all.
Book Description
"Bernays' honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies."-Noam Chomsky
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."-Edward Bernays, Propaganda
A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891–1995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed "engineering of consent." During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would "Make the World Safe for Democracy." The CPI would become the blueprint in which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.
Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and, incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928 bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science and education. To read this book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary institutions of government and business have become in regards to organized manipulation of the masses.
This is the first reprint of Propaganda in over 30 years and features an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, author of The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant - but he already knew that.......2007-10-04
Edward bernays laying the groundwork for the control of population via descrete means. Enjoy BEING the product, TV watchers!
Insightful and Essential.......2007-01-30
A master of his craft, in "Propaganda" Edward Bernays splendidly advocates the art he defines as the "consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group." (p.52). Some may recoil from his assertions that propaganda is necessary to give order to a chaotic world and that in a democracy an intelligent minority must "regiment and guide the masses" ... "to clear understanding and intelligent action." (p.127 & 128)
As refreshing today as when he wrote eighty years ago, Bernays explains that, contrary to what many believe, propaganda is not confined to corporate advertising, but is indispensable to political parties, special interest groups, news media, and some government agencies. Indeed, today's global warming "crisis" would cease to exist without it.
Bernays declares propagandists should maintain certain principles including refusing clients believed to be dishonest, products that are fraudulent, and not engaging in deceit or outright lying. Though severely criticized for establishing the successful cigarette advertising campaigns for tobacco companies, he demonstrated his integrity by dropping the companies as clients when he became convinced of the strong association between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer. Unfortunately, many modern practitioners are not as scrupulous.
This concise book is compelling for those who dare to think on their own rather than being told by an elite few what to think and how to act.
Conceptually Brilliant.......2006-11-28
From the creator of public relations, Edward Bernays describes how he discovered to manipulate and engineer the consent of public opinion. This book is a conceptual model for governments, corporations, and lobbying firms to show the principles behind swaying public thought and opinion and controlling the masses. As the nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays was able to learn from the master of psychoanalysis and through his many opportunities working for various of the United States largest corporations.
This book was incredibly useful and informational. I would recommend it to anyone interested in swaying opinion or being able to identify it in advertising, news, or public figures. Edward Bernays is the utmost authority on the subject so much so that even the Germans in the Nazi political party used this book to spread their policy beliefs. This book is still relevant today in a world of spin.
Edward Bernays runs through the psychology of developing public opinion and runs through several different areas where it could be applied from government to being implimented in the education system. Regardless of the brilliance this book contains, it still was written as though a lay-person was the intended audience. I would highly definitely recommend this book.
Very Revealing Expose of Present Day Government.......2006-11-04
This book clearly shows how those in power think of the every day citizen. Bernays provided a "peek" into the world of propaganda where what you eat, drink, watch, and drive is really managed to the extent that you do not really know what is going on. In additioin the attitudes that brought this about are clearly explained.
If you want a primmer on how the elite looks at you, check this out.
Propaganda and the manufacture of consent!.......2006-09-10
Bernays, the Guru of prapaganda who pioneered the technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion which he named "engineered consent," has written an iteresting book on this topic that might be worth reviewing. His book has superficially tackled the propaganda techniques, and gave the reader a taste of the mass manipulation machine.
However, I found the cover page to be the most profound and enlightening. It contains Bernays' views which reflect the reality and the condition of the masses or the bewildered herd (as called by Walter Lippmann, another propagandist), as well as the genuine elitist view on the stupidity of the people. Here are some examples from the cover page: "Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware and act upon new ideas." "A presidential candidate may be drafted in response to overwhelming popular demand, but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room." "Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses."
This book might be an eye opening reading for the oblivious person.
Book Description
In Disinformation, a veteran investigative reporter and bestselling author Richard Miniter debunks the myths of the left (and the right) with hard evidence, high-level interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen countries.
Customer Reviews:
How much to believe?.......2007-08-27
Miniter sets out to debunk 22 Medial Myths, and presents compelling facts for each myth. Is he correct?
I only have the expertise to evaluate his treatment of the 17th Myth: Suitcase nukes are a real threat. Miniter, like most authors, is not a nuclear physicists or engineer. He must take the representations of others as factual. Herein lies the problem. He has been trapped by using incorrect (not necessarily disinformation) to support his position. I will constrain my comments to Myth 17.
LG Alexander Lebed is referenced and ridiculed. On page 138 Miniter says, "He [Lebed] said the bombs would fit `in a 60-by-40-by-20 centimeter case' [23.6 in x 15.75 in x 7.9 in] and would be `an ideal weapon for nuclear terror. The warhead is activated by one person and easy to transport.' It would later emerge that none of these statements were true." Miniter shot himself in the foot with this statement. A small gun-type nuclear device, weighing less than 100 pounds is possible. A mock up of such a device was presented to a Congressional committee. Such devices are Special Atomic Demolition Munitions (SADMs), something Miniter acknowledges on pages 141 and 143. The U.S. SADM used an implosion warhead, not a gun-type one, which accounts for the larger size reported on page 141.
Miniter, and most other authors, suffer from a lack of understanding definitions and terms. Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is a good place to start. Weapons graded HEU is 90% or more of the isotope U-235. Reactor grade HEU is between 5% - 20% U-235. The dual definition creates problems because most authors do not specify which HEU they are writing about.
Suitcase nuke is also a vague and improper term. It is used to describe items varying is size from a briefcase to multiple trunks. Unless the KGB produced a small SADM disguised as a small suitcase, there is no such thing. There are SADMs weighing less than 100 pounds that can be carried in a knapsack. The U.S. had them, and I have no reason to doubt that the Soviet's developed them too.
Proper terminology. SADM is a man portable nuclear device with a yield of less than 1 KT (probably less than .5 KT). ADM, atomic demolition munition, is a nuclear warhead, weighing hundreds of pounds, with yields as high as several hundred KTs. ADMs could be used as mines. Their main purpose was a welcoming device for Soviet troops who had captured U.S. or NATO positions--sort of a surprise party favor.
Mr. Miniter makes my point on page 140 when he presents Rose Gottemoeller as seeing a "suitcase-sized nuclear device" that "actually required three footlockers and a team of several people to detonate." What Ms. Gottemoller saw was an ADM. She did not see a SADM, which one person can cause to detonate. Miniter continues with the assumption that because Ms. Gottemoller did not see a SADM, there were none. He concludes his argument by saying (page 148), "For now, suitcase-sized nuclear bombs remain in the realm of James Bond movies." Really? The last above ground nuclear detonation at the Nevada Test Site was a Davie Crocket nuclear warhead, the same warhead used in our SADMs.
I have no specific knowledge of Soviet SADMs, but it is reasonable to assume the early ones did not have safeties. I helped fit a prototype PAL (prescribed action link) safety device on the Davie Crocket warhead.
Miniter's worst error (page 140) is his perpetuation of another myth which begs debunking: nuclear material has to be replaced every six to nine months. Miniter refers to LG Igor Valynkin who denied [Soviet] nuclear suitcase nukes were ever produced (note he did not say SADMs), then mentions that they are technically feasible, and acknowledges that such weapons would have "a life span of only several months." At this point Miniter jumps to faulty conclusions. "Radioactive weapons require a lot of shielding," [not so] and "The half-life of the most likely materials in the infinitesimal weighs necessary to fit in a suitcase is a few months. So as a mater of physics and engineering, the nuclear suitcase is an impractical weapon. It would have to be rebuilt every few months." The half-life of pulotonium-239 is over 24,000 years. Uranium-235 is 700 million years. What LG Valynkin was referring to was the polonium-210 half of the neutron source (nuclear trigger)--a tiny gold foil packet much smaller than the blue or red sweetener found on a restaurant table. Makes one wonder what Litvinenko and his pals were doing with Po-210.
My novel, The Rings of Allah, presents a technically accurate description of how simple nuclear weapons work, and how a terrorist can plant one in a U.S. city. The Po-210 nuclear trigger is discussed on pages 58-59.
I found the rest of Miniter's book interesting. Except for Myth 17, I would have given the book four stars.
A Must Read for those regular honest folks seeking the Truth In this War Against Al-Qaeda.......2007-07-29
This book is a must for all those regular, hard working, honest people out there who need the truth (raw facts) on the war on terrorism (Al-Qaeda).
What we have here is a fine straight forward documentary on what is real, and what is a mythology or straight lies fed to us through the mass "drive by" media on the war, Osama Bin Laden, and many others things including the Iraq conflict.
I really like this author's work and have found his other books just as insightful.
WOW.......2007-02-07
Show this to your University Prof's and it'll make their heads spin! It's brilliant!
MrCajunBoy.......2006-10-25
Great book. A "must-read" for anyone surrounded by libs. I love the footnotes and research available.
Great Book! Must Read!.......2006-07-27
Nevermind the inebriated folks who can't get over the fact that Haliburton stock has climbed since 2003 because they're solely focused on one stock and blinded by their previously installed hate for anything Republican or conservative.
If they had an objective eye towards anything (let alone the stock price of Haliburton [ticker symbol: HAL]) they would never have written anything about Haliburton seeing growth in their company over the past three years. The fact is that almost EVERY company has seen enormous growth over the past three years (thanks in large part to the economic stimulus of our current administration and management of the FOMC) and the stock market has been going STRAIGHT UP since 2003! Haliburton was losing money hand over fist for the three years prior to 2003, but along with the rest of the economy and business ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan they made a turn around, but STILL are not doing any better than they were in the 1990's!
One guy said that he "would have loved to have invested some money into Haliburton in 2003", when all he had to do was invest some money into ANY company in 2003 and he would be sitting pretty! The economic growth that our country has seen in the past several years can only be rivaled by the the growth we saw in the late 90's! What about Google? They had an IPO at $80 and now they're trading upwards of $400 per share!!! Are they conspiring along with Haliburton? C'mon!
Anyone who uses the stock price of Haliburton to debunk this book clearly doesn't have an understanding of modern economic movements and they clearly don't understand how ALL oil companies have seen growth year after year for the past decade!
This is a must read for anyone who wants a different point of view other than what nearly ALL of the media outlets are spewing these days. You will at least have something to debate in your mind instead of listening to the mind numbing crud that comes from Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer's pie hole!
Book Description
What happens when Washington, D.C. pundits and journalists run in the same social circles as the powerful people they cover? When the President and his administration trade press access for loyalty? You get a complicit, uncritical press greasing the skids to a brutal war, conspiring to out a CIA agent, and muddying the waters of a grand jury investigation. In the fearful aftermath of 9/11, much of America’s pride — its free press — became an unquestioning propaganda arm.
Marcy Wheeler’s Anatomy of Deceit documents how the media promoted the Bush administration’s justification for war — that Iraq was on the verge of acquiring weapons of mass destruction — even though much of it was debunked. And it provides a play-by-play account of how Vice President Dick Cheney’s office first used the media to target a critic, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, and then to avoid criminal charges in the CIA leak case.
While the media was beating the drums of war and cozying up to the administration, citizen journalists were digging for the truth. Wheeler's compelling account tells the story, as it needs to be told — from outside the Beltway's cocktail circuit.
Customer Reviews:
It's not deceit when they do it openly.......2007-08-27
The only fundamental error is the notion that the media has ever worked for the interests of the common man. In fact, the media licks the hands of its masters most of the time; it is the exceptions that give the illusion substance. Yellow journalism sold papers. Hearst reborn is Murdock plus Ailes. Buy this and learn the hows and whys.
terrific!.......2007-07-19
marcy wheeler is a terrific, talented writer: she took a complicated, not to say convoluted, story and rendered it not just readable but compelling. great job! two thumbs up on this one.
The facts speak for themselves...........2007-07-03
I finally got around to reading this book, finishing the day that GW commuted Libby's jail time. Looking back on what has transpired in the court case and the various motions before trial and since the guilty verdict (virtually ALL of which went against the accused/convicted), and recognizing that Marcy's book was finished months before the trial even started, it's quite incredible how many facts she had right, and how her understanding of the case reflected the TRUTH of the matter. She's not a lawyer, nor her writing lawyerly, which was to this layman's advantage...she simply lays out many facts that were revealed over time, makes reasonable and sound analysis of those facts, and shows how they all point to the culpability of the many powerful liars involved in this case and the unassailable guilt of Libby for crimes related to his lies and those of his superiors.
Finally, I must confess that I find it incredibly disheartening that the defenders of this liar and the supporters of the commutation so quickly revert to their disproven claims of Libby's innocence and their uncontrollable need to blame those who sought to bring truth to the debate in the first place. I speak specifically of the renewed attacks on Joe Wilson, who's initial report on the Niger uranium deal was exactly correct and exactly what Bushco did not want to hear, either then or now. So they and their minions (i.e. David Brooks and other dogs) assault the messenger, even when it's in the defense of a CONVICTED liar...the highest ranking White House official ever CONVICTED. What part of "convicted liar" don't they understand?
Refreshing Straight Talk.......2007-05-08
Wheeler stayed with her story that's thoroughly documented. The clearly-written presentation is factual but not boring, truthful without the embellishment so common today. A quick and excellent read.
How to write the plain truth: Anatomy of Deceit.......2007-04-02
Outstanding. Clear and simple writing. In this media world of "spin, spin, spin", this stands out as an exceptional example of how NOT to spin but to speak the truth.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent as a Historical Text Book
- Not very good...
- A very useful beginners guide to American film.
- Movie spoiler
|
American Cinema/American Culture
John Belton
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ASIN: 007004466X |
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.
This book is a companion piece to the PBS series by the same name. The series is much more interesting. Don't bother with the book. A much better film text is "Film: An Introduction", by William Phillips, ISBN: 0312258968.
Amazon.com
James Stewart has done it again. The author of the mega-bestselling Den of Thieves, about the 1980s insider-trading scandals on Wall Street, and Bloodsport, the 1990s tale of the Clintons' Whitewater affair, now gives us another epic story, this one culminating in late 2004. With DisneyWar, Stewart turns his investigative and storytelling lens on Michael Eisner and the corporate intrigue which has overtaken the Walt Disney Company in the last decade. He explains how this once-proud institution, long one of America's most admired and well-known businesses, has stumbled in recent years amid a disastrous swirl of egos, personalities, and bad business decisions.
Like one of the roller coasters at DisneyLand, Stewart's epic book takes readers through a wild up-and-down ride as it describes Eisner's regime as CEO. The tale begins with Eisner's early successes rejuvenating Disney's live-action movie franchise and theme parks, the kickoff of the modern animation era with blockbuster hits like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, and the cultivation of a highly talented cadre of lieutenants, which reads like a Who's Who of executive talent now dispersed across the Fortune 500: Stephen Bollenbach (Hilton Hotels), Steve Burke (Comcast), Geraldine Laybourne (Oxygen Media), Richard Nanula (Amgen), Joe Roth (Revolution Studios), and so on. Stewart makes clear that Eisner has had a major eye for strong creative content himself, both as a young executive in his pre-Disney years at ABC and at Paramount Pictures and more recently in building partnerships like Disney's extremely lucrative one with Pixar.
Just as he credits Eisner for various Disney successes, though, Stewart assigns blame for the failures, too. The thoroughly researched 534 pages of DisneyWar make clear that his overall verdict on the CEO is negative. Much of the book describes detailed and specific interactions between Eisner and his rivals. Readers interested in the entertainment industry or in the personalities which drive it will not be disappointed. The blow-by-blow accounts of Eisner's feuds with Dreamworks SKG founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was his chief aide for nearly two decades, and Michael Ovitz, the superagent from CAA who had been friends with Eisner for even longer than that, are amazingly detailed. They show Eisner to be creative, funny, and charming when he wants to be--and devious, dishonest, and horribly Machiavellian when he doesn't.
Though dispassionate in his writing, Stewart assembles a withering portrait of Eisner as a grasping, self-centered, manipulative, and ultimately self-destructive executive. He shows how the Disney CEO has consistently undercut his potential successors within the company, in many cases drawing on Eisner's own writings and conversations with board members. He shows how Eisner's erratic attitude towards paying severance to former employees--in some cases being overly stubborn (as with Katzenberg, to whom he had a chance to close out for $90 million, but whom Disney ended up paying $280 million) and in others being shockingly lenient (as with Ovitz, who received a $140 million golden parachute after one relatively ineffective year at the company). He shows the overreach of grandiose projects like Euro Disney, and the missed opportunities like Lord of the Rings, Sopranos, and Survivor, on all of which Disney passed.
In the end, Stewart has returned with DisneyWar to what he does best: drilling into a murky and complex subject, capturing an enormous amount of detail through personal interviews, emails, memos, court records, and other data sources, and then weaving together a rich tapestry of people and events to bring others to the same conclusions he has clearly reached himself. Though some readers might tire of the reams of detail Stewart offers--at certain points, the book reads like a gossip rag, with intricate he-said, she-said accounts of individual meetings--most will enjoy it. Beyond the entertainment value, this book also has serious value to students of corporate governance, as it presents a scathing portrait of Disney's captive board of directors and shows what happens with the lack of proper CEO oversight. --Peter Han
Book Description
"When You Wish Upon a Star," "Whistle While You Work," "The Happiest Place on Earth"—these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world—everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished.
DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America's best-known entertainment company to civil war, told by one of our most acclaimed writers and reporters.
Drawing on unprecedented access to both Eisner and Roy Disney, current and former Disney executives and board members, as well as thousands of pages of never-before-seen letters, memos, transcripts, and other documents, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years: What really caused the rupture with studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who once regarded Eisner as a father but who became his fiercest rival? How could Eisner have so misjudged Michael Ovitz, a man who was not only "the most powerful man in Hollywood" but also his friend, whom he appointed as Disney president and immediately wanted to fire? What caused the break between Eisner and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs, and why did Pixar abruptly abandon its partnership with Disney? Why did Eisner so mistrust Roy Disney that he assigned Disney company executives to spy on him? How did Eisner control the Disney board for so long, and what really happened in the fateful board meeting in September 2004, when Eisner played his last cards?
Here, too, is the creative process that lies at the heart of Disney—from the making of The Lion King to Pirates of the Caribbean. Even as the executive suite has been engulfed in turmoil, Disney has worked—and sometimes clashed—with a glittering array of stars, directors, designers, artists, and producers, many of whom tell their stories here for the first time.
Stewart describes how Eisner lost his chairmanship and why he felt obliged to resign as CEO, effective 2006. No other book so thoroughly penetrates the secretive world of the corporate boardroom. DisneyWar is an enthralling tale of one of America's most powerful media and entertainment companies, the people who control it, and those trying to overthrow them.
DisneyWar is an epic achievement. It tells a story that—in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax—might itself have been the subject of a Disney animated classic—except that it's all true.
Download Description
"""When You Wish Upon a Star,"" ""Whistle While You Work,"" ""The Happiest Place on Earth"" -- these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world -- everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished. DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America's best-known entertainment company to civil war, told by one of our most acclaimed writers and reporters. Drawing on unprecedented access to both Eisner and Roy Disney, current and former Disney executives and board members, as well as thousands of pages of never-before-seen letters, memos, transcripts, and other documents, James B. Stewart gets to the bottom of mysteries that have enveloped Disney for years: What really caused the rupture with studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who once regarded Eisner as a father but who became his fiercest rival? How could Eisner have so misjudged Michael Ovitz, a man who was not only ""the most powerful man in Hollywood"" but also his friend, whom he appointed as Disney president and immediately wanted to fire? What caused the break between Eisner and Pixar chairman Steve Jobs, and why did Pixar abruptly abandon its partnership with Disney? Why did Eisner so mistrust Roy Disney that he assigned Disney company executives to spy on him? How did Eisner control the Disney board for so long, and what really happened in the fateful board meeting in September 2004, when Eisner played his last cards? Here, too, is the creative process that lies at the heart of Disney -- from the making of The Lion King to Pirates of the Caribbean. Even as the executive suite has been engulfed in turmoil, Disney has worked -- and sometimes clashed -- with a glittering array of stars, directors, designers, artists, and producers, many of whom tell their stories here for the first time. Stewart describes how Eisner lost his chairmanship and why he felt obliged to resign as CEO, effective 2006. No other book so thoroughly penetrates the secretive world of the corporate boardroom. DisneyWar is an enthralling tale of one of America's most powerful media and entertainment companies, the people who control it, and those trying to overthrow them. DisneyWar is an epic achievement. It tells a story that -- in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax -- might itself have been the subject of a Disney animated classic -- except that it's all true. "
Customer Reviews:
INSIDE DISNEY.......2007-07-28
I am a HUGE Disney fan and even a passholder to Disney World. However, I knew that Eisner was not someone I liked. I did during the final few years the book cover had stock in Disney and was one that voted to without my vote from Eisner. After reading this book I am glad I did.
This is some of the best investigative written with facts to back it all up. You find out how the magic begun and how it got all turned into making money over the people that worked so hard for the company. I could not put the book down and had to run to work and tell all the other Disney fans the news from my read the day before. You will also find out due to Eisner hiring and firing people whenever he likes is what ended up leading to the creation of DreamWorks.
The only thing I would say is it is hard to maintain who everyone is and what they do and where they placed as they do pop in and out throughout the book. This is not the writers fault as this is just due to the players being changed and moved so often. I would recommend this book as a business education and corp corruption book.
Great book, why the suprise?.......2007-07-14
I thought that this book was outstanding. What I dont understand is why everyone seems to be so shocked that Disney is a cut throat corporation. You dont become one of the most powerful companies in America by being nice.
The whole "Magical" aspect of Disney is simply an illusion used to sell, and they are great at preserving that image. People say "if you read this book you will never look at Disney the same way again". Well, anyone that has ever bought a Disneyland admission ticket within the last 5 years should know full well that Disney is a company that is indeed strictly profit driven. I like Disney and I enjoy Disneyland, but lets face it, Disney wants to be as powerful and wealthy as any other company, this is not breaking news, rather this book is a fantastic insight into the rise of power of Disney and the behind closed doors politics and greed.
If Walt Disney were alive, this story might kill him.......2007-05-21
After reading "War," I felt I needed to take a shower. The company once known for its wholesome family images seems to have been run for the last twenty or so years by people wholly unlike Wal Disney, bright and egomaniacal people who might know how to do lunch but not people I'd want to sit down to share lunch - not that they'd share lunch.
In retrospect, much of the financial boom of Disney they owe to leveraging well-established assets. I remember going to Disney World in Florida in 1973 for $4. Today it's more like sixty dollars. The Eisner dynasty got off to a good start simply by rapidly tapping the highly inelastic demand for Disney theme parks by jacking up prices considerably, then mining its warehouse of Disney characters and movies, and realizing the power of the video market.
Disney made some good animated features under Eisner, only Disney did not make them, Pixar did. And Eisner so enraged Steve Jobs that Disney lost that gold mine. Disney also thought that they could open another equally profitable amusement part outside Paris, ignoring the fact that France is the center of anti-Americanism and Paris weather leaves a lot to be desired. Disney made some great movies but also a lot of duds. One good film can balance ten or twenty bad ones; such is the economics of moviemaking.
What was most revolting was the self-serving, narcissistic, egomaniacal behavior of the main players in this very expensive, very bad melodrama. Disney officials threw around tens of millions of dollars paying off fired, disgruntled, and even more egotistical former employees. Even a late attempt to embrace Sarbanes-Oxley governance legislation was twisted, misused and misconstrued; the definition of independent and dependent directors seemed to be arbitrary. George Mitchell may have been a good senator, a great diplomat, and a nice guy, but he comes across as a gullible, unsophisticated dupe among this cast of egos.
Stewart assembled a long, tiresome if highly readable book. It's a sad story just the same.
A fantastic insight of corporate America...........2007-05-15
A rather lengthy book (over 600 pages), but I found that I went through it much quicker than I ever imagined I could. Both me and my wife read it and just couldn't put it down. There really wasn't any boring parts to it and thats simply because Eisner did so much backstabbing and just plain afwul things to his underlings, you are constantly turning to the next page to see what happens next.
About the only "complaint" overall is that there are just too many names to keep track of and what jobs they performed within Disney. This is no fault of the author's and actually a direct result of Eisner's non-stop turnstile of corporate executives. Eisner would hire/fire anyone at anytime (actually, he would never do it himself. He always would get some poor schmuck to carry out his dirty work even after he directly told the person getting fired that they were safe, etc).
Having grown up watching Disney classics and visiting the parks, this book certainly raises your blood to the boiling point seeing how Eisner asserts himself as Walt Disney's equal, if not better. Stewart does clearly point out that although the Eisner/Wells team vaulted Disney from rags to riches in 10 years, the death of Wells pretty much spelled the end of Eisners good fortunre. However, that death of good fortunre makes for a great story and a superb job by Stewart to put it into book form. Anyone that can drive off the beloved namesake of the very company he works for certainly gives you an idea of the no questions asked power Eisner held over Disney's Board, the company, and its shareholder.
Who else can not honor a contract, say you won't pay, reneg on a $90M settlement, and then have to pay $300M in court when you are found guilty?? Who could hire their best friend as President, fire them after 14 months, pay $140M in severance pay? Who could purchase a cable network with no real advisement, buy it at $5.2 BILLION, afterwards have your accounting dept. realize it is only worth $1.75 BILLION, and then not do a tax write off in order to save your shareholders MILLIONS of dollars? Who could do all of that and STILL remain Chairman and CEO of ANY company?Its pretty simple when you are Michael Eisner. These are just some of the things he did in this book that keep you wanting to read more.
The book ends just as Eisner is asked to step down as Chairmen of Disney's board, but still keeps his CEO title. Its a shame that Eisner hung on awhile longer and that didn't make it to book. Even without it, I found it unbelievably fascinating and shocking that this kind of behavior finds a home in the board rooms and companies of America. But look no further than Enron to even worse, which is probably why Stewart picked that topic for one of his books, too.
That's corporate politics .......2007-03-16
I was initially told to not read this book if I at all valued the "magical, pixy dust" side of Disney. However, I think reading this book did not change my opinion of Disney simply because I am aware that Disney is what it is, a corporation.
Eisner, in my opinion, for the most part, had a great rein in Disney and really helped it make it what it is today. However, as time went on he became increasingly power hungry and greedy. One may also be shocked by the amount of good ideas and movies Disney turned down but you know what they say, "Hinde sight is 20/20". (Them turning down of "Lord of the Rings" particularly struck me personally, since I am a huge fan. I couldn't help but think. "You fools! Why?!")
All in all, the book showed me nothing worse then what I expected from any multi-billion company. The drama, the betrayal, the lies, THE POLITICS.
Book Description
From the oilfields of Saudi Arabia to the Nile delta, from the shipping lanes of the South China Sea to the pipelines of Central Asia, Resource Wars looks at the growing impact of resource scarcity on the military policies of nations. International security expert Michael T. Klare argues that in the early decades of the new millennium, wars will be fought not over ideology but over access to dwindling supplies of precious natural commodities. The political divisions of the Cold War, Klare asserts, have given way to a global scramble for oil, natural gas, minerals, and water. And as armies throughout the world define resource security as a primary objective, widespread instability is bound to follow, especially in those areas where competition for essential materials overlaps with long-standing territorial and religious disputes. In this clarifying view, the recent explosive conflict between the United States and Islamic extremism stands revealed as the predictable consequence of consumer nations seeking to protect the vital resources they depend on.A much-needed assessment of a changed world, Resource Wars is a compelling look at warfare in an era of rampant globalization and intense economic competition.
Customer Reviews:
best characterization of the geopolitical framework of the Post-Cold War era .......2006-11-19
copyright 2006 Kat W.
In Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict Michael Klare argues that the post-Cold War era can be best explained by a perspective that focuses on the "global demand for" what he calls "key materials." These materials include but are not limited to water, oil, old-growth timber, uranium, copper, rutile, bauxite, diamonds, gold, other minerals, gems and the global atmosphere. Klare's concept of what Thomas Friedman would call `The One Big Thing' readily explains the major global conflicts in the post-War era. Klare concedes, however, that his conception of dynamic global order, as it is informed by disputes over resources "may not be " The One Big Thing" that lies at the heart of all international relations, [but] it helps explain much of what is happening in the world today" (14).
Klare's perspective is a useful and accurate one. I think that Klare's text stands above Friedman's Lexus and the Olive Tree, Sam Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, and Stigliz's Globalization and its Discontents. Klare gives the most parsimonious description of the current geopolitical climate. His characterization of conflicts as "resource Wars" is adaptable enough to be a useful paradigm for the next 40-60 years, perhaps longer if technology creates viable renewable forms of energy. This is because Klare's resource-based view of the global political climate is founded on the undeniable fact that as the world population soars and industrialization spreads; vital, finite resources will continue to diminish rapidly. Two hundred and fifty years of heavy industrialization in Europe and the United States has taken a toll on the world's resources. As India and China look to reap the benefits of a fully industrialized economy, resource allocation will play a priority role in the geopolitical climate of the coming decades.
American Capitalism was able to provide benefits and commodities that Soviet Communism failed to deliver. It was able to avoid the shortages that befell the Soviet Union. The fall of Communism in the Soviet Union was marked in economic terms more than in ideological terms. Klare usurps the view of Christopher Warren who claimed that "economic competition is eclipsing ideological rivalry"(8).
Currently, Nations perceive economic strength as a vital part of National security. Nations believe a strong economy is necessary for political influence in the world. Klare explains, " the adoption of an econocentric security policy almost always leads to an increased emphasis on resource protection" (14). A thriving economy is necessary for strong national security and open access to vital resources is a necessary component for a strong economy. Klare makes a compelling connection between national security, economic growth, and strategic military operations. In the post Cold-War era there is a shift from the "weapons technology and alliance politics [that] once dominated the discourse on military affairs, American strategy now focuses on oil-field protection, the defense of maritime trade routes, and other aspects of resource security" (6).
We see that documents of official U.S. foreign policy target resource-rich regions such as the Persian Gulf. When asked why the United States invaded Iraq instead of North Korea Donald Rumsfeld responded that the country swims on a sea of oil. Where Huntington sees clashes of civilizations as the main challenge to peace in the world, Klare sees "intensified resource competition" pushed by private and state interests as the main purveyors of global conflict in the current era. We see that the United States is all-too-often able to avert its watchful eyes from humanitarian atrocities as long as those atrocities don't hurt U.S. business' access to "vital raw materials." The United States allies itself with "three Muslim states -Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan -against two prominently Christian ones, Armenia and Russia" The Reason? : to have a claim to the Caspian Sea basin's impressively rich reserves of petroleum and natural gas(Klare 12-13). The strategic desire to acquire high-demand resources becomes more important than playing along civilizational lines. Klare's Resource-based perspective on international and domestic conflicts speaks to me in a compelling way for several reasons.
1) I am an environmentalist and I am well versed in the stubborn attitudes that certain senators (ex. =Voinovich from Ohio!) have toward diminishing U.S. economic output (measured in G.N.P) by limiting the use of finite fossil fuel resources. The U.S. senate regularly fails to pass climate change initiatives aimed at CO2 reductions because they believe investment in non-CO2 producing technology and subsequent shifts away from a coal-based economy will lead to a net loss of jobs and a drop in GNP. Klare does a nice job of connecting resource acquisition with the economy. He then relates the economy to national security, which informs political and especially military policy.
2) I am an atheist. I think this predisposes me to be more receptive to Klare's claims about the geopolitical climate of the post Cold War world, and less receptive to Sam Huntington's strongly argued and conceived civilizational division of global regions of power. Religion seems to be ( as Huntington explains) the heart of civilization. Klare is able to bring conflicts into focus with specific regional resources at the center when ostensibly these outbreaks of violence appeared to be results of ethnic or religious clashes and nothing else. Klare takes time to address conflicts (such as water wars between Israel and Palestine) that at first appear to be civilizational. He successfully convinces the reader that at its core the conflict is because of a dispute over resources.
3) I read the forementioned books with the U.S. occupation of Iraq in the forefront of my thought. Klare actually makes a cameo appearance in Hijacking Catastrophe, a movie that explains some of the ways that Bush's " War on terror" (which I believe to be a misnomer in the first place! - I think Wars are against nation states not decentralized, non-state actors) is not about preventing the spread of terrorist cells and "Islamo-Facism" but instead the war is about securing vital oil resources of the Persian Gulf region. The Plan for the New American century literally said that Persian gulf oil would be of vital interest to U.S. and that the U.S. should be prepared to act unilaterally to gain control or influence over the use of this oil. My previous exposure to the role that resources play in U.S. foreign policy made me very open to the core thesis of Klare's book.
4) I don't know very much about Islam in general, and my exposure (a few days a week for 14 years) to Christianity in America left me uninspired. Klare's discussion of the politics on the Arabian peninsula speak to me where perhaps, if I knew more about the region I might find Huntington's civilizational, demographic, and core state/ cleft state/ torn state perspective more compelling.
5) My interest in global politics is based in my desire to create a more egalitarian society in the United States and to spread the riches of industrialization to the poorest people in underdeveloped countries. With this purpose I see resource re-allocation as a way to pull some underdeveloped countries into the class of those who have what they need to survive comfortably. "The United States alone consumes approximately 30 percent of all raw materials used by the human population" (Klare 13). Each human requires a minimum of " approximately 1,000 cubic meters (265,000 gallons) per" year and there is currently enough for every person if the water is shared equitably (Klare 142-144). Klare's statistical data is a very useful tool that can be used to the meet the end of securing nutritional necessities for humans living in countries without infrastructure or exploitable assets (that could be used to get them out of poverty). Klare's thesis leads to a conclusion where he argues that the best outcome for the human population would be to manage and control resources in a peaceful way, under the regulation of a "global authority." He believes this, coupled with a concerted effort among nations to develop technological revolutions could help solve resource crises. Klare is weak on policy suggestions (it seems like less than 10 pages of the book is policy recommendations) but his `One World' unificationist ending is much more satisfying, hopeful, and accurate than strong challengers' ultimate conclusions about the strife-ridden, perpetually divided future of the world.
Religion haunts the text of Klare's Resource Wars. Interspersed between strong arguments for his resource-based perspective on Global politics Klare makes concessions to the popular conservative, Samuel Huntington. These concessions do not de-value the central thesis of the book, however. He does not attack a straw man's version of Huntington's, Friedman's and others' characterizations of the geopolitical climate. Instead, he critically engages these popular frameworks that are in opposition to the main trend he lays out. In terms of politics and conflict in the Middle East Klare admits," Even before the discovery of oil, the states in this region were torn by internal divisions along ethnic and political lines, and by historic rift between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. ... This fiery cauldron has been further heated in recent years by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and the endurance of authoritarian regimes, and deep frustrations (among many Arabs) over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians" (45).
However, at the same time, Huntington is unable to preach along civilizational lines without giving some mention of the fact that Saudi Arabia is both the "original home of Islam" and the land with "the world's largest oil reserves" (Huntington 178). Similarly Iraq is both the land of Babylon and the land with an estimated 112.5 billion barrels of oil, the second greatest oil reserves in the world (Klare 45). Lands of great religious significance are the same lands under which vital resources sit ready to be fought over. Conflicts in the Middle East must be approached with some previous knowledge of cultural, ethnic, historical and religious lines drawn between groups of people, but the significance of middle eastern conflicts and their primary significance all around the world lies in the fact that the region sits on top of resources that the rest of the world wants access to.
If I were to rewrite Klare's book I would change very little. I would expand on the policy implications that can be extracted from the paradigm that Klare lays out. I would probably offer stronger critiques of the United States' claims to unfair portions of global resources. I think Klare strikes the balance between the influence resources exert over global politics and the influence that culture and civilization exert over global politics. If I were Klare I would have gone one step further and in rewriting the book I would address Global climate change as it is related to the acquisition of fossil fuel resources. In addition, treaties such Kyoto would be areas of global politics that I would examine. I believe that issues having to do with the global warming will become very important in the coming decades. Densely populated regions face loss of coastal land and this means that there will be mass migrations of peoples. An environmentalist spin on Klare's Resource Wars may move a bit toward Friedman's claims that Green energy industry will be a prime money-making market of the new century.
Ultimately I believe that Klare's lens gives the least distorted view of international relations as they exist and operate in today's world. It is not what Huntington's followers may belittle as "vacuous" "western universalism" that pushes Klare to plead for resource allocations to be parsed out by transnational organizations (or "global authorities") ; it is the universalism of the basic rights and physical needs of the body that are common among all human beings. This is something that can be understood without religion, without culture (Huntington's definition) and without nationality.
Power where does it all stem from..........2006-11-03
This is a good book and it really opens your eyes to all the bickering that occures over the use of resources.. When you think of resources a lot of people think of hard material items such as gold or oil as scarce but even the most basic element water is faught over on a day-to-day basis in rugged territories and contested borders. How many people know that Roosevelt had a meeting with King Abdel-Aziz in 1945 and the bearing it had on US Saudi relations to date? How many people know about France's ties with Saddaam Hussein before the 90's? How about the divide between the rich and the poor refered to as globalization?
Good book on resource geopolitics. My 13 yo son loves it.......2006-10-09
We all knew that respources, like money, move the world. And that by explaining the concentration, consumption and need to control them, everything we see in geopolitics can be somehow explained.
What is also amaizing, is that this book is written in a way that my pre-teen son (13) was so inetrested that he read it with calm and eagerness, so you know that the style is not dry or uniteresting. Try it with your kids or those teens you are close to.
It woud be good to have a update, specially now that the venezuelan oil supply is in control of an american hating militaristic madman with pretention of waging a war against the "empire".
Needs a 2nd edition.......2006-02-12
This is a decent book. It is well researched and referenced, and it contains a lot of interesting information about foriegn policy with respect to resources (especially oil and water). Klare remains rather nuetral throughout, which is rather refreshing. Unfortunately, it is a little dated by now (written when the Taliban still controled Afganistan and before the Iraq war). Most of the US foreign policy dates back to the Clinton era.
The problem is that the book is not very well written. There aren't mistakes, it is grammatically correct, etc., but painfully dry. In place of indepth anaylsis, I felt like a lot of pages were devoted to term-paper type intros and conclusions, with really obvious and vague statements. These statements seems to be repeated ad nausem. At times the book fell from my hands. I almost gave up on the book after wading though the painfully long intro and half the first chapter. I finally just skimmed ahead to chapter 3. The first 50 pages do nothing more than to say basically "oil is important and most of it is in politically unstable areas."
It is unfortunate, because it is an important book, and there is a lot of good info burried in it. It could just be about half as long.
balanced and dispassionate analysis.......2005-11-17
Thirty or forty years in the future, people will look back at Resource Wars by Michael Klare as one of those books they wished they had read, or as one that policymakers should have read.
Klare takes a serious look at the types of potential conflicts that will emerge as a result of increasing population and decreasing natural resouces. Many would cover oil exlusively (and Klare has written on oil alone), but this book was refreshing because it also looked at resources such as lumber, and water. The book covers a wide range of topics in a very practical, matter-of-fact fashion. This is not a polemical book and that is refreshing.
Resource Wars could almost be compared to Huntington's Clash of Civilizations in the way that each author is making a prediction about future conflicts. While Huntington's thesis is interesting, Klare's seems more likely.
Highly recommended.
Book Description
Games and other playable forms, from interactive fictions to improvisational theater, involve role playing and story--something played and something told. In Second Person, game designers, authors, artists, and scholars examine the different ways in which these two elements work together in tabletop role-playing games (RPGs), computer games, board games, card games, electronic literature, political simulations, locative media, massively multiplayer games, and other forms that invite and structure play.
Second Person--so called because in these games and playable media it is "you" who plays the roles, "you" for whom the story is being told--first considers tabletop games ranging from Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs with an explicit social component to Kim Newman's Choose Your Own Adventure-style novel Life's Lottery and its more traditional author-reader interaction. Contributors then examine computer-based playable structures that are designed for solo interaction--for the singular "you"--including the mainstream hit Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and the genre-defining independent production Façade. Finally, contributors look at the intersection of the social spaces of play and the real world, considering, among other topics, the virtual communities of such Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) as World of Warcraft and the political uses of digital gaming and role-playing techniques (as in The Howard Dean for Iowa Game, the first U.S. presidential campaign game).
In engaging essays that range in tone from the informal to the technical, these writers offer a variety of approaches for the examination of an emerging field that includes works as diverse as George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series and the classic Infocom game Planetfall.
Second Person features three complete tabletop role-playing games that demonstrate some of the variations possible in the form: in John Tynes's Puppetland, players take on the roles of puppets in a land ruled by the villainous Punch; Greg Costikyan's Bestial Acts imports the techniques of Bertolt Brecht's theater of alienation into a dark role-playing structure; and in James Wallis's The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the gameplay revolves around spinning elaborate tales in the style of the famous raconteur.
Book Description
How does the spectacle of the sufferings of others (via television or newsprint) affect us? Are viewers inured-or incited-to violence by the depiction of cruelty? In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity-from Goya's The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and the Nazi death camps, to contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine, and New York City on September 11, 2001. In Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag once again changes the way we think about the uses and meanings of images in our world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time.
Customer Reviews:
A Book that Everybody Must Read!!!.......2007-09-15
Susan Sontag only passed away recently. She was more of a philosopher, social activist, literary critic, and essayist than a fictional writer. In this book, she points out British writer Virginia Woolfe's view of war in today's society. War is a crime and an outrage where ever it might be whether it's in the boardroom, Wall Street, Sarajevo, Kabul, Baghdad, etc. War comes in many shapes and forms but what does war really mean to us. Is it about killing human lives or what about the destruction of the human soul in our society, we are transformed by the images displayed on cable television about the two wars going on and the lives lost. We are close to four thousand American soldiers being killing in Iraq. We had no reason to go but we did and now we must clean up the mess. I totally support our troops overseas because they are selfless human beings who would sacrifice their lives for their country. But what about the leaders who sent them there only to return home in coffins or end up at Walter Reed Medical Center for the injured veterans. Are the injured better off than the casualties? Maybe not because they have to live with their images of war and their actions. Sontag's book works because it makes us think about war without thinking so much about it. Where do we stand? Of course, it would be a perfect world without war and peace prevailed but war is a fact of life. Maybe Sontag should have used examples of wartime strategies that are not so gory or gloom with images of death and destruction. She did not live long enough to see Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast. What about the business world where casualties are not just in coffins but at the unemployment office? This book made me think so that's why I'm writing about this situation. We lose 18,000 Americans every year because they lack health insurance, that's six times the amount of the victims of September 11, 2001. Maybe we don't have to declare war, uninsured Americans are at war with a society who has neglected them or disregarded their needs for whatever reason.
Suggestive but incomplete.......2007-01-10
Sontag's essay is concerned with the moral implications of looking, through photographs, at people who are suffering or dead. Much of the book is a history of war photography, which is intimately bound with the history of public tolerance of violent photos. While Sontag does not provide any revolutionary ideas, the essay is a succinct and thorough examination of the issues surrounding photography. And, if there is no grand thesis to keep in mind, her exploration is full of smaller, thought-provoking observations. She notes, for example, that displaying photos of dead bodies is less taboo the more foreign and faraway those bodies are. Until she pointed it out, I had not even realised how North American coverage of 9-11 included practically no pictures of corpses, although picturing the dead in foreign conflicts is an expectable way of rallying support for the victims. Her remarks on the way a photo replaces the memory of the thing itself are, if not surprising, good to have restated.
Sontag also does not ignore the uncomfortable reality of the pleasure which most people have in regarding suffering, but in this as in many areas of her essay, I wished that she would go further, spend more time teasing out and elaborating her analysis -- I wished, in other words, that she had written a real book-length book, not a long essay. On the other hand, the incompleteness of her discussion means that it is particularly good at stimulating further thought, at opening questions rather than closing them off.
Sontag adds here name to the after postmodernism movement.......2006-05-30
Sontag questions her ideas that have influenced half a centary. She is not alone Terry Eagleton (After Theory), Elain Showalter, Sandra Gilbert, and even Derrida (life.after theory) have done the same
Visual means are not enough to understand visual realities .......2006-01-22
As another reviewer of this book on Amazon has pointed out the title of this book is somewhat misleading. This is not a general consideration of the subject of how we regard the pain of others. And it is too not even a comprehensive treatment of how we regard the pain of strangers when that is represented to us through the media. It is rather a kind of historical consideration of the subject of representation of war through visual images, and how that has effected its intended audience.
Sontag begins with the horrifying representations of Goya, considers Civil War photography, images of the two great wars, including images of the Holocaust, representations of 9/11 and of recent horrors in Kossovo, and what her publisher refers to as Israel/Palestine.
As another Amazon reviewer has pointed out she does not really make a coherent strong argument. Her essay is a loose discursive one, written in her ordinary complex, awkward and difficult to understand style.
One important insight she has is that 'photographs' will always have a place for us because we can contemplate and remember them in the way we cannot the flow of images in video or film. The startling images that remain in mind of horrors of war are those given in photographs. And she too points out that it is the content of these photographs which is important, and that often the work done by amateurs who catch a vital moment is more memorable than that of professionals. This was she writes the case with many Holocaust photos, and also with the photos from 9/11.
Sontag wrote this book while she herself was going through the pain of terminal cancer. And for me this gives her absorption with the subject a certain authenticity.
Nonetheless I believe that she has only scratched the surface of the questions raised about the 'public presentation of the horrors of war'. The guilt over being entertained by the nightly news horror is one question i.e. whether 'looking at such photos' is not in a certain way a kind of 'moral failing'. But of course this when the 'turning away' can also be a moral fault.
But this leads to what I believe is a major error in the whole enterprise, the whole laying out of the subject. Photos alone , video alone cannot give enough background and context to make the reality wholly understandable. To see something horrible and be repelled by it( a little girl running naked with her hands up as in the famous Vietnam war photo, or emaciated bodies lying on bunk beds unable to move- as in photos of the liberation of concentration camps) is humane, and moral. But to really understand those realities, and all the realities which she is writing about a person has to know what is going on in a deeper way.
Here I come to another kind of criticism of Sontag, one which relates to her work in general. Her extreme - left often anti-American views have always repelled me. In this book she talks about how militants from both sides of the Israeli/ Arab Palestinian conflict look at their own victims. She picks as the Israeli victim one blown up in a suicide - bombing in Sbarro pizza in Jerusalem. And she picks as the Palestinian victim a child hit by an Israeli tank shell. These examples and her presentation of them it seems to me expose a basic misperception and immorality in her whole enterprise. The Israeli victims in Sbarro including four members of one family were civilians who were deliberately targeted. A photo of their scattered remains would no doubt be horrifying. A Palestinian child torn apart by a tank shell would present a no less horrifying picture. And it would fill every decent person with revulsion. But the fact is nonetheless that Israeli tankists do not fire deliberately at civilians. In fact they have orders to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. This is in complete opposition to the policy of Palestinian terror groups who aim to murder and maim.
Being horrified by the images does not enable us to understand fully the reality.
Again the main point is that a more comprehensively truthful approach to the visual representations would have to closely relate them to literary presentations.
Finally. Sontag makes the point that the horrors of war cannot be understood really by those who have never really been in such wars. I believe that she is probably right. But that does not mean that those who have been exposed automatically have higher moral judgment.
As I understand it Sontag throughout her writing life, raised real questions but provided most often inadequate and even morally mistaken answers.
A Fine Career Bookend.......2005-08-23
I think this book would be more aptly called "Regarding War Photography" or "War Photography as Metaphor" (keeping Sontag-style titles intact). Unfortunately misnamed, this is a book about the effect of war photography on the viewer. It's about representation and what the image means to us, what the absence of an image does or doesn't mean to us. Not a book about the pain of others, it demonstrates how images of others' pain shape our views of their pain.
Sontag writes a brief history of war imagery, beginning with the advent of photography (the result of the amount of time required to take a picture) to faster and lighter cameras (likely to capture, rather than to re-recreate or to show only war's aftermath), to television, to the present (the internet, constant access and the expectation of constant access to images). She goes back, pre-photography, to discuss a few specific paintings that depict war or other suffering. She describes the methodology of the photographs--often naming specific images and photographers--analyzes their impact, how the images are viewed during the war and, because of the images, the war thought of by future generations.
Her interpretations are largely familiar and unchanged since "On Photography," but "Regarding the Pain of Others" discusses only war photography. That her analyses are expected doesn't detract from them; Sontag's input about this topic is valuable -- some early war photographs are staged; specific atrocities have become more urgent or real after being viewed; photojournalism is given a special veracity unlike other art forms; images shape our memories of wars that took place in prior generations. Sontag is clear about disbelieving in "collective memory" and states that it is the artifacts, photographs, we are left with that determine our feelings.
Worth seeking out is a shorter piece Sontag wrote called "Regarding the Torture of Others" (quite true to its title) after the Abu Ghirab prison photographs were released. In a way, it's a finer example of what this book achieves, though far more condensed.
Toward the end, she revisits "On Photography." She's recently re-read it and isn't sure if she agrees with certain elements. She debates herself in a way, though in my opinion, only in the smaller scheme of her general argument about representation and its relationship to fact and result. On a personal level, I was glad to see her revisit "On Photography." It read as a celebration of her groundbreaking work and ways of thinking about photographic representation. The circular nature, yet diffierent topics, discussed at the start and near end of her brilliant life and career rendered this, for me, satisfying and somewhat sad. I will miss her flow of opinions.
Book Description
Fresh from his tour as an embedded journalist in Iraq, bestselling
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