Urban Books - Page 16

Cities in a World Economy (Sociology for a New Century Series)

Professor Saskia Sassen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Saskia Sassen has pursued an increasingly sophisticated research agenda, deepening and refining her vision of globalisation’s impact on the economic and social structure of contemporary cities. Cities in a World Economy is a good illustration of this evolution...There is no doubt that it will remain an essential reference item on economic geography and urban sociology reading lists." 
-Corinne Nativel, University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France


The Third Edition of Cities in a World Economy shows how certain characteristics of our turn-of-the-millennium flows of money, information, and people have led to the emergence of a new social formation: global cities. These developments give new meaning to such fixtures of urban sociology as the centrality of place and the importance of geography in our social world.

Key Features:

• Offers a multidisciplinary perspective: This book features a cross-disciplinary approach to Urban Sociology using global examples. With both depth and clarity, this book examines the impact of global processes on the social structure of cities helping students increase their world awareness. In addition, the book strikes the perfect balance between maintaining academic rigor and employing new and innovative concepts.
• Includes a new chapter: The new chapter on Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits discusses the highly gendered and unequal nature of the global city and how it forces the underprivileged to live a dangerous and unpredictable life on global survival circuits.
• Incorporates the most recent data: This new edition updates nearly every piece of data with the most recent facts and figures available. In addition, this book introduces new concepts for understanding contemporary urban sociology.

Intended Audience:

This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Sociology. It can also be used in courses such as Urban Studies, World Cities, Regional Studies, Urban Development and Planning, and Regional Development in the departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and Geography.

(20061205)

Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin (California Studies in Critical Human Geography)

Gray Brechin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

POWERFUL, ENTERTAINING HISTORICAL NARRATIVE 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I am long overdue in giving praise, and thanks, to Gray Brechin for writing one of the definitive and most unique historical treatises on the incomparable and often barbaric history of California, San Francisco, and the American West. He opens with an examination of urban-centric empires, particularly Rome and London, and shows how the process repeated and accelerated in California, due to the unprecedented economic boom triggered by Gold Rush, Silver Boom, the "green gold" agricultural explosion, real estate, ship building and military hardware. His portraits of the ruthless visionaries/profiteers like California's Big Four and Comstock Load barons gives a historical and cultural understanding of how the West became a major economic and political engine that helped transform America into the lumbering financial juggernaut it is today. Brechin dissects the phenomenon of faux wealth perfectly: explaining how hundreds of millions of dollars invested in Gold Mining stocks fueled the Western boom and expansion, investments that were several times greater than the actual amount of gold taken from the land. He dissects the financial "pyramid" that he attributes to mining: how elevator shafts that went down into the grown soon becamse elevator shafts that moved people up into the heavens in high rise buildings, transforming the brief gold mining bonanza into the real estate phenomenon that continues in California to this day. It a truly fresh, original, eye-opening and flawlessly documented observation. And Brechin is not shy about showing the human and environmental costs: the deforestation of the entire Lake Tahoe Basin, the astonishing wastelands created by high pressure water mining for silver in the High Sierra. This is mesmerizing, wonderfully written, a reflective and predictive tale, told as deftly and poignantly as any California history I have ever read, and I have read many. This book should take its place alongside Walter Bean's "Abe Ruef's San Francisco", Marc Reisner's "Dangerous California" and Gladys Hansen's "Denial of Disaster" as a pivotal tome on where we started and where we are headed in America and particularly the American West. James Dalessandro, author, 1906.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1999, this celebrated history of San Francisco traces the exploitation of both local and distant regions by prominent families--the Hearsts, de Youngs, Spreckelses, and others--who gained power through mining, ranching, water and energy, transportation, real estate, weapons, and the mass media. The story uncovered by Gray Brechin is one of greed and ambition on an epic scale. Brechin arrives at a new way of understanding urban history as he traces the connections between environment, economy, and technology and discovers links that led, ultimately, to the creation of the atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race. In a new preface, Brechin considers the vulnerability of cities in the post-9/11 twenty-first century.

On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City

Janet Braun-Reinitz, Jane Weissman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Energizing the visual landscape since 1968, New York City's community murals beautify, educate, protest, celebrate, and often motivate residents to action. Collaborations between artists and neighborhood groups, these painted walls reflect the social, cultural, and political climate of their times.

The result of six years of research and hundreds of interviews, On the Wall brings to light murals that were hitherto "lost" to history or unknown outside their immediate surroundings. Documenting six chronological periods, the book highlights significant murals and introduces the artists and sponsors that created them. In relating the many fascinating stories behind the murals, the authors describe the interactions between artists and residents--including the controversies that have led to the destruction of several notable murals.

On the Wall gathers together 150 color images and offers an aesthetic perspective on New York's community murals in a lively and perceptive history.

Janet Braun-Reinitz, a painter and community muralist, is the president of Artmakers Inc. and coauthor, with Rochelle Shicoff, of The Mural Book: A Practical Guide for Educators. Jane Weissman, a writer and public relations professional, has been a participating artist and project director of several Artmakers murals. Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! Denis Moynihan is outreach director of Democracy Now! Timothy W. Drescher is an independent mural historian and photographer and the author of San Francisco Bay Area Murals: Communities Create Their Muses, 1904-1997.

The Life of Olaudah Equiano (Dover Thrift Editions)

Olaudah Equiano

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Equiano's Life... 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano" has always been spoken of in literature courses but to finally read his book gave me good insight into who this man really was. To understand the language used in the 18th century and how that language helped to push the abolitionists into action is key within the study of slavery during this time. If you have never read a narrative by an African who was stolen into slavery and eventually became a self made man, this is the book for you.

Editorial Review:

Compelling work traces the formidable journey of an Igbo prince from captivity to freedom and literacy and recounts his enslavement in the New World, service in the Seven Years War with General Wolfe in Canada, voyages to the Arctic with the Phipps expedition of 1772–73, six months among the Miskito Indians in Central America, and a grand tour of the Mediterranean as a personal servant to an English gentlemen. Skillfully written, with a wealth of engrossing detail, this powerful narrative deftly illustrates the nature of the black experience in slavery.

Urban Problems in Sociological Perspective, 4/E

Thomas R. Shannon, Nancy Kleniewski, William M. Cross

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Editorial Review:

The latest edition of this well-regarded text continues the tradition of excellence established in previous editions, providing an urban sociology text that is concise, clearly written, and theoretically balanced. The authors maintain their focus on the sociological analysis of contemporary urban problems and bring breadth and depth to their analysis by examining urban conditions within the context of U.S. urban history and sociological theory. Moreover, they present an even-handed evaluation of the social policies advanced to address urban problems. While retaining the topical organization of previous editions, the fourth edition offers an up-to-date look at urban trends in the United States as well as new and updated material on such topics as urban migration flows in the Third World, the impact of immigration on the ethnic mix in cities, and the persistence of poverty as a problem of low-wage workers. Readers will appreciate the chapter on urban conditions in other societies, which gives them a cross-cultural framework for thinking about urban conditions in this country.

Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.

Harry S. Jaffe, Tom Sherwood

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the best intros to DC politics and Marion Barry 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Barry era was more than just the grainy footage in the hotel room, and Jaffe does an excellent job of recounting the hope and promise that many Washingtonians held when Barry was first elected Mayor as part of an grassroots coalition of low-income blacks, liberal whites and a growing gay and lesbian community and how badly that promise was betrayed.

There is no doubt the 80's were an awful time for DC. Crack, violence and economic abandonment by the middle class, nearly killed DC. Most major urban centers faced similar problems in the 80's thanks to Reaganism and white flight but Jaffe clearly documents Barry's inability to anything besides compound the problems faced by DC through financial irresponsibility(largely due to patronage) incompetent and criminal staff and Barry's growing personal addictions to drug and sex. He documents Barry's failings without demonizing him or resorting to the disguised racism of many of Barry's detractors.

It should be added that Barry was recently elected back onto City Council, representing the nearly all black and poverty stricken Ward 8. Many outside DC couldn't believe that DC residents would want this guy back on the City Council, but those folks don't know Ward 8 or Barry's appeal. While DC is booming economically, Ward 8 continued to be ignored by the rest of the city and the Mayor. By voting for Barry against a Mayoral ally, Ward 8 was warning the rest of the city that they will not be ignored.

Editorial Review:

Arguing that citizens of Washington, D.C., live without basic American rights, two respected Washington journalists show how the country's capital contains huge and often vicious contradictions and devastating race, class, and power problems.

The Riverside Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great as a textbook, wonderful for personal use 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare is excellent. I bought it as a textbook, but if I were looking for a complete works right now, I would buy it simply for its excellence.

Not only does it contain all of Shakespeare's works, but it has extensive notes on the text as well.

The Riverside Shakespeare 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is all you'll ever need for Shakespeare. It contains great introductions and excellent footnotes for each play.

Complete collection 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

A comprehensive and complete collection of Shakespeare's works. It also has very well written introductions about the plays and sonnets.

all of Shakespeare in 1 book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I knew this book would be HUGE because I've seen other students carrying it around and I always told myself, "I would take Shakespeare just PLEASE not THAT book." and La di da, it's this book. It's humongous and I describe it as, "Dictionary Size book and Dictionary thin pages." It's heavy and it's one the greatest books of Shakespeare I will ever own.

It has every single Shakespeare play, sonnet, poem, and etc. of what he wrote. It gives you the play and has some decoding words at the bottom of each column which explains how a certain word is used or what the word means or the story behind the words. I love it and recommend it to any and all Shakespeare fans and readers.

Editorial Review:

The Second Edition of this complete collection of Shakespeare's plays and poems features two essays on recent criticism and productions, fully updated textual notes, a photographic insert of recent productions, and two works recently attributed to Shakespeare. The authors of the essays on recent criticism and productions are Heather DuBrow, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and William Liston, Ball State University, respectively.

Blaming the Victim

William Ryan

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The classic work that refutes the lies we tell ourselves about race, poverty and the poor

Here are three myths about poverty in America:
– Minority children perform poorly in school because they are “culturally deprived.”
– African-Americans are handicapped by a family structure that is typically unstable and matriarchal.
– Poor people suffer from bad health because of ignorance and lack of interest in proper health care.

Blaming the Victim was the first book to identify these truisms as part of the system of denial that even the best-intentioned Americans have constructed around the unpalatable realities of race and class. Originally published in 1970, William Ryan's groundbreaking and exhaustively researched work challenges both liberal and conservative assumptions, serving up a devastating critique of the mindset that causes us to blame the poor for their poverty and the powerless for their powerlessness. More than twenty years later, it is even more meaningful for its diagnosis of the psychic underpinnings of racial and social injustice.

Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black, and Male (The City in the Twenty-First Century)

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Editorial Review:

Typically residing in areas of concentrated urban poverty, too many young black men are trapped in a horrific cycle that includes active discrimination, unemployment, violence, crime, prison, and early death. This toxic mixture has given rise to wider stereotypes that limit the social capital of all young black males. Edited and with an introductory chapter by sociologist Elijah Anderson, the essays in Against the Wall describe how the young black man has come to be identified publicly with crime and violence. In reaction to his sense of rejection, he may place an exaggerated emphasis on the integrity of his self-expression in clothing and demeanor by adopting the fashions of the "street." To those deeply invested in and associated with the dominant culture, his attitude is perceived as profoundly oppositional. His presence in public gathering places becomes disturbing to others, and the stereotype of the dangerous young black male is perpetuated and strengthened. To understand the origin of the problem and the prospects of the black inner-city male, it is essential to distinguish his experience from that of his pre-Civil Rights Movement forebears. In the 1950s, as militant black people increasingly emerged to challenge the system, the figure of the black male became more ambiguous and fearsome. And while this activism did have the positive effect of creating opportunities for the black middle class who fled from the ghettos, those who remained faced an increasingly desperate climate. Featuring a foreword by Cornel West and sixteen original essays by contributors including William Julius Wilson, Gerald D. Jaynes, Douglas S. Massey, and Peter Edelman, Against the Wall illustrates how social distance increases as alienation and marginalization within the black male underclass persist, thereby deepening the country's racial divide.

Slavery: A World History

Milton Meltzer

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Slavery is not and has never been a ”peculiar institution,” but one that is deeply rooted in the history and economy of most countries. Although it has flourished in some periods and declined in others, human bondage for profit has never been eradicated completely.In Slavery: A World History renowned author Milton Meltzer traces slavery from its origins in prehistoric hunting societies; through the boom in slave trading that reached its peak in the United States with a pre-Civil War slave population of 4,000,000; through the forced labor under the Nazi regime and in the Soviet gulags; and finally to its widespread practice in many countries today, such as the debt bondage that miners endure in Brazil or the prostitution into which women are sold in Thailand. In this detailed, compassionate account, readers will learn how slavery arose, what forms it takes, what roles slaves have performed in their societies, what everyday existence is like for those enchained, and what can be done to end the degrading practice of slavery.