Culture Books - Page 10

Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests

James A. Miller, Tom Shales

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Live from New York: An Interesting behind the scenes look 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Background:
The authors interview most of the living cast and crew from SNL and gather/mold the various responses into a kind of oral history of what went on behind the scenes of the show from day one. The book also takes a look at what was happening at the network level and the encounters that Michaels and the other producers of the show had when corporate sensibilites clashed with comic creativity. The version I read also has an extra 30 pages or so of what various people think about Lorne Michaels.
----
This was a pretty interesting book if your like me and werent even born when the first show came and only really became aware of it in the mid 90's. It does a pretty good job of showing how the show changed (it seems in the casts eye's first) from a show were you did envelope pushing comedy to a place that was more of a spring board to a movie career. The book also does go into detail on most of the famous feuds, deaths, bad hosts/good hosts, and other incidents that have popped up over the years. A great majority of the book deals with how the show comes together, which I think is the most interesting part, and how all the people somehow manage to work together depiste massive pressure and somtimes conflicting personalites. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes SNL and wants some background info on how the show came to be in its current form and perhaps those who might want an idea of what happens on the road to stardom.
m.a.c

Editorial Review:

The New York Times bestselling oral history of Saturday Night Live that finally reveals what really went on backstage, on the set, in the writers' offices, and on the town, is now in paperback!

In their own words, a galaxy of stars--including Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Dana Carvey, Tina Fey, Molly Shannon, Al Franken, and other members of Saturday Night Live's extended family--recall a quarter-century's worth of great backstage stories, behind-the-scenes gossip, feuds, foibles, drugs, sex, struggles, and calamities. The result: a page-turner that reveals how and why SNL has become the longest-running television comedy of all time.

Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

Marjorie Shostak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Dense, informitive, sad, and often moving 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Majorie Shostak's account of her anthropology trip to Africa's Kalahari Desert examining the rituals, lifestyles and existence of the !Kung tribe is not to be read like an expanded version of a National Geographic article. It is written with academic rigor and precise examination of a !Kung woman Nisa. The majority of the book is told through Nisa's words which are translated into English with as much accuracy possible by Shostak. Shostak prefaces each chapter with a more general description of the events of Nisa's life which follow. The !Kung have such a different life style than Westerners, so naturally the story telling methods Nisa uses are a little unfamiliar. There is much more repetition of certain phrases and ideas that some of us might find excessive. If one can get past this they will soon see what an expert Nisa actually is. Also it is a tribute to Shostak that she didn't slice up the narrative to make it more accessible for Westerners.

The book in begun with an extensive introduction, about 40 pages. Although at first this might feel over detailed and cumbersome, it is a necessity to read it before jumping into Nisa's narrative because some of the actions taken might seem unfathomable without a better understanding of !Kung life. For instance, when Nisa describes stealing and hoarding food for herself as a child, we might feel she is extremely selfish. But after reading the introduction we understand that in !Kung life there is virtually no private property. Imagine being a young child and having nothing of "your own." I think we all would have stolen to some extent. Also during the time the book was written there was a struggle within the anthropology communities as to whether these "field work" expeditions we're even worth taking. There were many who thought that the "white man" was so engrained with his own cultural sense of morality that any attempt to interpret or understand someone different would be wasted time. So it is possible that in parts of the long introduction Shostak was justifying to her academic circle why it was important that she did go to see another kind of life.

After the introduction is over, we move into various important events in Nisa's life, described by Nisa and prefaced by Shostak. Although these interviews were not given chronologically they are presented in as workable a series events as possible. We are taken first through her childhood in which Nisa's mother has her second child and no longer allows her to breast feed because it is believed that once her younger brother is born, it is his milk. We are then taken, to various cases of childhood problems. The `Discovering sex' chapter is worth noting, children go away and as Nisa says "play sexually". Although the parent's sometimes mildly scorn this, they remember how important is was for them in developing as sexual beings, so they pretty much look away. I think that our incredibly sexually conservative and private culture could learn something from this. It shouldn't necessarily be discouraged for children to discover certain aspects of themselves, and have sexual feeling, (we should stop pretending as if they don't!)

We are then taken through trial marriages; theeseoften "fail", because the girl married is too young. The most important events in a !Kung woman's life are first menstruation, marriage, and childbirth.

Another chapter worth noting is most clearly illuminates why Shostak's expedition into the Kalahari was so vital to understanding !Kung life. The chapter entitled 'Change' accounts the arrival of the very different Christian cattle herders. The Hero brought, (among other things), permanent villages, alcohol, western religion, tobacco, etc. Although some people might consider some of these things "civilization", (and I would not count myself among this crowd), the sad truth is that !Kung culture is dieing. More and more are forsaking the old way of life for the much more stable continuous food source. And even if the corrupt regimes they live under exploit their way of life to promote tourism, they are being stifled the the exact same regimes. Nisa's generation is the last link to the nearly completely un- westernized !Kung life. Without Shostak's magnificent book we would have a much harder time understanding this beautiful nomadic way of life.

One of the amazing thing about this book, unlike many other cross cultural examinations, is that it doesn't concentrate on some of the "shocking" taboos that might have made it a bestseller, (just under Tom Clancy). It instead just tells the story of a woman. One does not finish it and say, "wow they're different they need Jesus." One feels a connection to Nisa, and we realize not that we are different but that we are more similar than we would know or like to know. This also shows us that they're clearly are universal human emotions. Nisa goes through, love, hate, guilt, grief, regret, resentment, fear, happiness, etc, just like every human being! To go through it is to be human. Even in a culture totally different than ours these emotions are still there. In an age where we feel like we must "spread democracy", like we're spreading humanity, it is all the more important to realize that the same humanity exists whether or not they are infested with corrupt corporate puppets. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels lie they want to know more about other societies, and ways of life, in a more in depth format.

We have two wonderful women to thank for this powerful book on !Kung life, or !Kung life as it should be.

Editorial Review:

This classic paperback is available once again--and exclusively--from Harvard University Press.

This book is the story of the life of Nisa, a member of the !Kung tribe of hunter-gatherers from southern Africa's Kalahari desert. Told in her own words--earthy, emotional, vivid--to Marjorie Shostak, a Harvard anthropologist who succeeded, with Nisa's collaboration, in breaking through the immense barriers of language and culture, the story is a fascinating view of a remarkable woman.

Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era

Elaine Tyler May

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Many Shortcomings 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era encapsulates the life of the average American family from the decade prior to World War II through the decade of the 1980s, primarily focusing on the Cold War period of the 1940s through the 1960s. Although the threat of the Cold War and use of atomic weapons always loomed in the background, May's work essentially emphasized the social and economic happenings of the time. Homeward Bound is an easy read with each chapter following a format that introduces the reader to the chapter's subject, backs it with statistical data, and provides a summary. And lest the reader think the book is balanced and fair to men and women, later chapters show the author's true intent which is to show how American women were trapped into becoming housewives and not being able to explore their own interests or careers in favor of their husbands'. Nine chapters guide the reader through the Great Depression, World War II, the Eisenhower years, the turbulent decade of the 1960s and ends with the election of Ronald Reagan. Since the book was originally published in 1988, there is a follow-up section for the new 1999 edition. Further, there are several appendices with statistical data describing the demographics of the people about whom it is written. Also, the questionnaire from the Kelly Longitudinal Study, which is the basis for the data provided in the text, is also included.

Vice President Richard Nixon's "kitchen debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is the opening salvo in a book that paints a bleak picture for American women in the 1940s and 1950s. Much of the information provided to support the author's thesis is from the Kelly Longitudinal Study, which consisted of surveys of six hundred white middle-class families and spanned the period from the late-1930s to about 1955. Families actually began in the 1930s and 1940s for security and economic reasons and "...laid the foundation for a commitment to a stable home life...." Even though women worked outside the home and were in many ways functional within the job market, they were discouraged from working during the time of the Great Depression, since working women took jobs away from men. This changed after America's entry into World War II where full employment existed and the need for workers to drive the military production machine required that women enter the workforce. However, once the war ended and veterans returned from overseas, many women left the job market on their own or were forced out so that men could be employed. The expectation was for women to become housewives and mothers and cater to their families rather than have a career of their own. In fact, many government officials, like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, for example, stated that being a housewife was one of the most important careers a woman could have to provide stability in the country as an attempt to thwart the growth of communism.

Many women were not satisfied with that life. Although the marriage rate increased significantly and the birth rate jumped after WWII (producing the "Baby Boom" generation), women from the survey experienced a sense of despair in their lives due to their societal subservience to their husbands. Though many believed raising a family and keeping a happy home was quite satisfactory to them, many women were depressed and unsatisfied with their lives in general. May describes in great detail the miserable lives of many of these women whose husbands treated them badly, were not affectionate or sexually gratifying, and who were inattentive fathers. The life of the average housewife was gloomy because she worked where she lived whereas men worked away from the house and saw their home as a sanctuary for them to relax and, seemingly, be waited on hand-and-foot by their jobless wife. Certainly divorce was available for these women; but, unless their husband was abusive or adulterous, most did not exercise that option since a high social stigma was attached to it during that era. Further, from an economic standpoint, most women with children could not survive on their own. Indeed, the economic fortunes of divorced women declined while that of divorced men increased.

Consumerism and the ideal American family bring the reader back to the Nixon - Khrushchev debate. New appliances, new homes, new cars, and other "big ticket" items were the staple of American life and what separated the U.S. from the U.S.S.R. and made American appear more affluent then their Communist counterparts. Not only did Americans want more things, they also wanted more children. Couples who had no children were seen as unsuccessful. "Large families were an indication of a man's potency and ability to provide and a woman's success as a professional homemaker." Women should be able to manage a larger household, after all, because many of the appliances (e.g., washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and electric irons) were invented to make their lives easier and thus enable them to have more time to raise children and keep a clean house.

This era of the nuclear family began to unravel in the early 1960s with the publication of the best-selling book The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. In it, she questioned the status quo and "...spoke for thousands like herself whose dreams and desires withered under the weight of domesticity." Moreover, as the children of the baby boom era came of age themselves, they rebelled against the lifestyles of their parents and turned the 1960s in a decade that saw "free love" and the move away from the nuclear family. This brought about cohabitation without marriage, premarital sex, and an increase in the divorce rate. The author concluded that the conservative movement that helped Ronald Reagan to become elected president and harkened to return to the days of the nuclear family and the stable 1950s was misguided because that era actually diminished the role of women and prevented them from realizing their potential.

As stated earlier, the author shows herself as a feminist whose goal was to prove that women were kept down in subservience to men after World War II. From a statistical standpoint, since the surveyed families were mostly located in the New England area of the country it is debatable that the data the survey provided is applicable to the rest of the country. Basically, twelve hundred adults were surveyed from a 1950 population of over one hundred and fifty million. Does that really represent the American population as a whole, especially when the survey is geographic specific? Further, May is critical of the conservative movement and the supporters of Reagan which further paints her as a liberal feminist. Although there is nothing wrong with having that viewpoint, it diminishes the work in general. What starts out to be a statistical analysis of married couples during a specific time period results in a generalization of the country as a whole and sheds a negative light on men of that time. Although Homeward Bound gives the reader a glimpse of a time in recent American history, it should not be considered the decisive work for which to judge that generation.

Editorial Review:

In the 1950s, the term ”containment” referred to the foreign policy-driven containment of Communism and atomic proliferation. Yet in Homeward Bound May demonstrates that there was also a domestic version of containment where the ”sphere of influence” was the home. Within its walls, potentially dangerous social forces might be tamed, securing the fulfilling life to which postwar women and men aspired. Homeward Bound tells the story of domestic containment - how it emerged, how it affected the lives of those who tried to conform to it, and how it unraveled in the wake of the Vietnam era’s assault on Cold War culture, when unwed mothers, feminists, and ”secular humanists” became the new ”enemy.” This revised and updated edition includes the latest information on race, the culture wars, and current cultural and political controversies of the post-Cold War era.

Public & Private Families: An Introduction

Andrew J. Cherlin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great textbook, but too challenging for my students 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This review is from the perspective of a sociology instructor and refers to the 4th edition of the textbook and reader. I've used this pair of texts twice in a Sociology of Family course at a medium-size, medium-quality Midwestern university. The textbook is the most accurate, complete, well-organized, and sociological of the many family textbooks I've reviewed. However, I don't plan to use it again. It is too challenging for my students. Cherlin assumes a basic knowledge of sociological concepts and social facts that my students don't have. They become confused and frustrated when reading. There is a good website associated with the textbook that gives students study help, but I can't use the instructor version because of bad publisher customer service (tech support and my publisher's rep have been passing the buck about who should help me for the past month). I'd recommend this book if your students have the basics in place before the course starts. I plan to look for something written for students who don't. UPDATE Spring Semester 2008: I am still using the newer edition of this text and reader and providing more basic-sociology and explaining-Cherlin's-points during lecture. I haven't found anything I like better but am still looking. Website problems are ongoing and publisher support continues to be nil.

Editorial Review:

Written by one one of the leading authorities in the field, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FAMILIES examines the family through two lenses, the familiar private family in which we live most of our lives and the public family where we, as adults, deal with broader societal issues such as the care of the elderly, the increase in divorce, and childbearing outside of marriage. Thus the books looks at both intimate personal concerns, such as whether to marry , and societal concerns, such as government policies that affect families.

The Culture Of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid Of The Wrong Things

Barry Glassner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 165 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

There has never been another era in modern history, even during wartime or the Great Depression, when so many people have feared so much. Three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today then they did twenty years ago. The Culture of Fear describes the high costs of living in a fear-ridden environment where realism has become rarer than doors without deadbolts.Why do we have so many fears these days? Are we living in exceptionally dangerous times? To watch the news, you’d certainly think so, but Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. The Culture of Fear is an expose of the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV newsmagazines that monger a new scare every week to garner ratings.Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears.

The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6: Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age

Gloria K. Fiero, Gloria Fiero

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Nice !! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ordered and received the text within 7 days. Paid 1/2 of what I would have at the campus bookstore. New and in plastic wrap. 100% satisfied !!

I've never read this either.... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

However giving the book a one star review based on the fact that you had a bad experience with Amazon is unacceptable. Your poor rating hurts the author much more then it hurts Amazon. Many a casual browser will not even browse further past a one star rating. And despite your experience many a writer makes a great deal of money from sales on this site.

The Humanistic tradition 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

At first glance the book looks like a mess of pictures thrown in to fill space. Once you start reading the text the contents makes sense.I have actually come across some of the subject matter in my everyday life, a lot of things that would of gone unnoticed.

Editorial Review:

Beginning with the startling twentieth century developments in physics and the Freudian revolution, this book of The Humanistic Tradition addresses 100 years of precipitous change. The exciting conclusion to the six-book series, Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age can also be used as a literary or cultural supplement to courses on the art or the history of the period from 1900 to 2000.

The Great Transformation

Karl Polanyi

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

The satanic mill 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 17 people found this review helpful.

Polanyi's great transformation starts in the 19th century with the installation of a self-regulating market system ('the satanic mill') for labor, land and money and by letting the whole society be run by the system without any intervention. It provoked a wholesale destruction of the `traditional fabric of society'.

Attack on the market economy and democracy
In fact, this book is not only an attack against `laissez-faire', but also against a `regulated' market system and against, for Polanyi, the main cause of this great transformation (democracy). His book is not less than a plea for a return to the `Ancien Régime', for Polanyi the Golden Age of mankind, `the traditional unity of the Christian society', `the social fabric of the village under the supremacy of squire and parson', the society of `the benevolent gentlemen of England with their compassion from the heart', when economics where `embedded' in the whole society.

What was this Ancien Régime?
A disaster for 999 out of 1000 individuals. The poor had only one option: 'steal to be hanged' (J. Swift, D. Defoe, E.J. Burford). But for Polanyi, `under the regime of feudalism and the village community, noblesse oblige, clan solidarity, and regulation of the corn market checked famine'.
The kings owned the salt mines and sold (!) as a monopoly their salt (a necessity for survival) dearly: one block of about 5 kg was worth a whole village, population included (the ancient salt mines of Krakow are well worth a visit). For Polanyi, `it is the absence of the threat of individual starvation which makes primitive society more humane.'
Polanyi defends the guild system, feudalism and mercantilism: `Feudalism and landed conservatism were only seemingly contrary to the general interest of the community' and `neither under tribal nor under feudal nor under mercantile conditions was there a separate economic system in society'. But the guild system was an antidemocratic closed shop and mercantilism (F. Colbert) was a system for strengthening the Nation, in other words, the power of one man (`L'Etat, c'est moi').

What is the cause of this great transformation?
`The democratization of the political State which caused the separation of the economic and political sphere', `the transition to a democratic system and representative politics'.

What is Polanyi's solution?
`The passing of the market-economy can become the beginning of an era of unprecedented freedom.' What we need is planning, control, power and compulsion to ensure conformity which is needed for the survival of the group. Contradictio in terminis? Absolutely not: `the individual person should not fear that power and planning will turn against him'.

Of course, submitting the whole society to a pure self-regulating market system (e.g., the gold standard) is asking for disaster. The market system, a must for democracy, should be regulated and parts of the fabric of society should be managed by the State under a democratically elected government (R. Kuttner, J. Stiglitz). Indeed, `The economic order is merely a function of the social order'.

This book is an extraordinary reactionary and naïve defense of a `black' past.
However, the introduction by J. Stiglitz is excellent and justifies a modest outlay.

Editorial Review:

One of the twentieth century's most thorough and discerning historians, Karl Polanyi sheds "new illumination on . . . the social implications of a particular economic system, the market economy that grew into full stature in the nineteenth century." -R. M. MacIver

Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures (5th Edition)

Myron W. Lustig, Jolene Koester

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Maximum incompetence. 1 out of 5 stars.
20 of 43 people found this review helpful.

Intercultural competence! What a totally inappropriate title for a book, especially when the subject matter is; view points of different cultures. Who gets to decide who is competent and who is not? Would one become competent after they read this book? People who do not agree with the authors, are they incompetent? After the initial shock of the title, I started reading this book, in fact I had to read the whole thing since it was the text book of a class that I was taking. Unfortunately the shock intensified. They define things that are not definable and they categorize things in the most reductionist and mechanistic fashion. Not only that but they don't even use English properly. They ask a question about apples and then give an answer about oranges, not realizing that the question has really no answer and should not be asked to begin with. This book is supposed to be about different points of view but there is nothing in it that would make one understand other cultures. It is all about the extremely narrow and linear point of view of the authors. They explain the simplest concepts in the most convoluted way possible but in reality the information is extremely superficial. They basically name and categorize things and consider them understood. After a few weeks our class turned into 'lets find out how wrong the authors are' class. I must admit after that it was kind of fun. When I asked my teacher as to why she chose this book, thinking perhaps I am missing something, her answer was "because it seems to be quite popular"! So now we are reading books not because of their content but because of their popularity. What a disappointment.

Editorial Review:

Striking a unique balance between skills and theory, Intercultural Competence provides readers with the background and confidence to succeed in today's multicultural environment. Blending both the practical and theoretical, the concrete and abstract, this book is both enjoyable to read and thoroughly researched. By clearly explaining different theories and the significance of cultural patterns and having readers practice what they learn via examples in the book, Intercultural Competence better prepares readers to interact in intercultural relationships. The book also provides a discussion of important ethical and social issues relating to intercultural communication. The authors cover U.S. cultures as well as global cultural issues.

Gothic & Lolita Bible (v. 3)

Various

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Still a disappointment. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I really don't see much of an improvement between this and the first issue. It's still caters to the beginner lolita, in my opinion. I suggest save your money and get the japanese issues.

Gothic and Lolita Bible 3 Review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I loved this issue of Gothic and Lolita Bible. It continues to give a huge amount of inspiration to me with pages and pages of gorgeous clothes, and articles. This issue had some great cooking ideas for Halloween, and also offered more free Gothic and Lolita sewing patterns than the previous issues, which I'm glad for. A must have for a Gothic Lolita fan.

Editorial Review:

More than any other publication, "Gothic & Lolita Bible" has played an instrumental role in defining the Japanese Lolita style. A quarterly mook (magazine/book hybrid) that's a combination fashion magazine, culture guide, and art book, the Bible caters to fans of two separate but related fashions: Gothic and - to a greater extent - Lolita. Volume 3 of the U.S. edition offers content from volume 26 (September 2007) of this definitive Japanese mook, published in English for the first time, along with exciting original content covering the Gothic and Lolita culture in North America.

Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects

Dmitry Orlov

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Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The title of this book is Reinventing Collapse, and I have to say that's exactly what this book manages to do. It's a short book, so you could reqad it in just a few hours, but it is packed with information and "make you think" moments. Orlov's unique perpsective on American life engages the reader and opens your eyes to what life in America is like to an outsider.
Without a doubt the most useful aspect of this book are the details of what the situation was like in Russia after their political collapse. This book is a tutorial on how the reader might modify thier life in the future if (or when) America collapses.
Reviewed by Matt Mayer - Groovy Green

In the waning days of the American empire, we find ourselves mired in political crisis, with our foreign policy coming under sharp criticism and our economy in steep decline. These trends mirror the experience of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for coming events.

Rather than focusing on doom and gloom, Reinventing Collapse suggests that there is room for optimism if we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation. With characteristic dry humor, Dmitry Orlov identifies three progressive stages of response to the looming crisis:

• Mitigation—alleviating the impact of the coming upheaval
• Adaptation—adjusting to the reality of changed conditions
• Opportunity—flourishing after the collapse

He argues that by examining maladaptive parts of our common cultural baggage, we can survive, thrive, and discover more meaningful and fulfilling lives, in spite of steadily deteriorating circumstances.

This challenging yet inspiring work is a must-read for anyone concerned about energy, geopolitics, international relations, and life in a post-Peak Oil world.

Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad and immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. He was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late eighties and mid-nineties. He is an engineer and a leading Peak Oil theorist whose writing is featured on such sites as www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and www.powerswitch.org.uk.