Culture Books - Page 13

Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another Great Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is another great book by this author. I enjoy her story telling ability and feel lucky that she has shared it with us.
I think it's remarkable book. No one can imagine they could have ever have the chance to experience what she did and Iraq will never be the same. It's too bad we have lost so many interesting cultures which had survived since the beginning of mankind. I'm sure it must make her quite sad to see what has happened to Iraq's rich culture during these past 40+ years.

a look into a hidden culture 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I just finished this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, both her writing style and her subject matter. Yes, she may have gone in somewhat ignorant about many aspects of the lives of Iraqi women but she left with an obvious affection for those same women as well as a deeper understanding of herself. That affection was clearly reciprocated by the Iraqi women she met and lived among. That she lived as they did, was genuinely curious about them as people and made an effort to learn their language negates any criticism of her being a typical, arrogant American. She may have had preconceived notions about the culture but she also seemed perfectly comfortable admitting her mistakes and learning from them. For the reader the book was like being along with the writer and enjoying the journey. I can't think of a much higher compliment to give someone writing about a relatively isolated place over 50 years ago.

Editorial Review:

A delightful, well-written, and vastly informative ethnographic study, this is an account of Fernea's two-year stay in a tiny rural village in Iraq, where she assumed the dress and sheltered life of a harem woman.

RACE MATTERS

Cornel West

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Exploring Race Relations in the USA 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I didn't know Clarence Thomas was despised by many, until I read this book in 1997. I always assumed Thomas was a serious scholar of the law, until Dr. West painted a rather unflattering picture of the Supreme Court Justice. He describes Thomas as unqualified, lazy, callous, ignorant, selfish, and to sum up, Thomas is the "token Black guy" on the Supreme Court.

Dr. West goes into detail about his views on the Crown Heights Riots and why he believes the rioters were tolerated. He doesn't take sides or justify anything; rather he looks for the causes and the facts as they are. He lays bare the sad details of race relations and leaves the reader to decide. Dr. West can really tell is like it is!

But there's a sad irony.

Dr. West has become just like the people he despises. His conflict with Lawrence Summers shows that he's become a selfish, publicity-hungry showman who wants to use his color as an excuse. Calling his boss the "Ariel Sharon of higher education" doesn't bug me because I'm a Jew (I'm used to left-wing radicals using Israel as a metaphor for evil), it bugs me because instead of admitting he made a mistake, he defames his boss as being un-academic. Instead of saying "brothers and sisters, I have been neglecting my writing and giving out too many A's," he blames it on racism.

On the other hand, everyone is entitled to make at least one mistake. But I hope Dr. West will realize that while sad things have happened in the history of the USA, we are evolving for improvement. Racist laws have been overturned, careers that were once closed are now integrated, and the over-empowerment of the President in the post-9/11 age shows that liberty is something that we'll always be fighting for.

The first step in the fight for liberty and equality is the freedom to express our views. I look forward to reading more of Dr. West's work in the future.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1993 on the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots, Race Matters has since become an American classic. Beacon Press is proud to present this hardcover edition with a new introduction by Cornel West. The issues that it addresses are as controversial and urgent as before, and West's insights remain fresh, exciting, and timely. Now more than ever, Race Matters is a book for all Americans—one that will help us build a genuine multiracial democracy.

Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats

Steve Ettlinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A pop-science journey into the surprising ingredients found in most common packaged foods

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he didn’t have a clue as to what most of the ingredients on the labels mean. So when his young daughter asked, “Daddy, what’s polysorbate 60?” he was at a loss—and determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the oil fields in China, Twinkie, Deconstructed demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients— where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they’re often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration of the modern food industry, if you’ve ever wondered what you’re eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter a food-grade equivalent of plaster of paris), this book is for you.

Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century

Michio Kaku

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 64 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Read & Invest 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Visions can be broken down into 2 different "main" subjects...computer technology and the medical field, and how they will evolve in the near future; as well as in the distant future.

If you read this book, one of your thought processes should be about investing; especially when the computer chip is no longer made on silicon wafers and tranistors. If you are a person who thinks outside the box, and if you invest in certain companies...you'll see when you done reading this one!

I read this book a few times. My wife also read this, and it sparked an interest in science that she never had. I certainly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

New in paperback, from the bestselling author of Hyperspace, this spellbinding book brings together the cutting-edge research of today's foremost scientists to explore the science of tomorrow. Michio Kaku describes the development of computers and artificial intelligence, reveals how the decoding of the genetic structure of DNA will allow us to alter and reshape our genetic inheritance, and observes how quantum physicists are perfecting new ways of harnessing the matter and energy of the Universe. Visions is an exhilarating adventure into the future of our planet and ourselves.

The Medical Science of House, M.D.

Andrew Holtz

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Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The facts behind the addictive medical drama starring Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie.

Week after week, House, M.D. has held viewers' attention with brilliant cast performances and intriguing diagnostic mysteries often solved with daring treatments. But how much of the medical detail is real and how much is fabricated? In The Medical Science of House, M.D., Andrew Holtz, a well-known medical journalist, reveals how medical detectives work-how they follow symptoms to their source. He examines each case in detail and provides answers to such questions as:

- How can a teenager adopted at birth nearly die because his biological mother didn't get a vaccine?
- How can a husband's faith in his wife's fidelity determine whether radical treatment will cure her or kill her?
- How can a missed eye-doctor appointment reveal a genetic disease?
- How can doctors choose the right course for a pregnant woman when one may kill her and the other would abort her fetus

Africa

John Reader

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the primeval cataclysms that formed the continent to the civil wars and genocide that ravage it today--a work of startling grandeur and scope that provides a remarkable panoramic history of Africa, by a deeply intelligent writer who has spent most of his adult life there.

We all originated in Africa, and no matter what our race, our most ancient relationship is with that continent. Reader tells the story of our earliest ancestors' adaptation to Africa's ferocious obstacles of jungle, river, and desert, and of how its unique array of animals, plants, viruses, and parasites has over millions of years helped and hindered human progress to a degree unknown anywhere else on Earth.

Illustrated with many of the author's own beautiful photographs, which capture the staggering diversity of human experience in every part of the continent--from the inland estuaries of the Niger and the rain forests of the Equator, to the deserts of the north and the high veld of the south--this book weaves together into a richly fluent narrative the rise and fall of ancient civilizations, the changing patterns of indigenous life over the millennia, the complex history of slavery, the devastating impact of European settlers, and the fragile reemergence of independent nations. John Reader has given us an extraordinary biography of an infinitely fascinating continent.

An Underground Education : The Unauthorized and Outrageous Supplement to Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, and Other Fields of Human

Richard Zacks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Underground Education 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

An Underground Education


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Sigh, just another 98 times and then I have to go home and start my history homework. I guess my teacher didn't like some of my more creative answers to the exam. What does she know? She is totally oblivious to Area 51, Tesla's death ray, or that Hitler's Brain is hooked up to a supercomputer and is the president of Brazil. I love reading, but she makes history soooo boring. She just teaches us what we are supposed to know. Nothing I'm not supposed to know, nothing quirky or surprising, or interesting. I mean, why did Napoleon really lose the battle of Waterloo? * Textbooks can be so plodding, far too logical and way too orderly. History is messy and it can be amusing and not so serious, and even a little bizarre...

I want to know the good stuff and that's why I turned to An Underground Education: The Unauthorized And Outrageous Supplement To Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, And Other Fields Of Human Knowledge by Richard Zacks. Forget what you learned in school, and the teacher's angry red marker. Zacks debunks many popular cultural myths and gives new life to old history. Zacks has divided the book into ten different sections: Arts & Literature, Business, Crime & Punishment, Everyday Life, Medicine, Religion, Science, Sex, World History, and American History.

Zacks covers a wide variety of topics, but he keeps the writing simple and attention grabbing. His emphasis, however, is definitely on the strange and often perverse. So, if you are easily offended, and a bit conservative you should probably skip this book. I mean the title does have business and sex in the title, so that should tell you it's not for the thin-skinned. For example, you might read today's headlines and get the impression that Iraqi War profiteering is something new, but the unfortunate soldiers of the Civil War often wore shoes with no soles, slept in disintegrating tents, and fired weapons that blew up in their hands, all due to the greed of America's great capitalists.

Surely you would have paid more attention in English class if you knew the Bard was so bawdy or that Chaucer made sly jokes about sex. Sure, you knew Edison was credited for inventing the incandescent light bulb, but did you know he secretly helped develop the electric chair in a devious scheme to have the death-dealing device named after his archrival, George Westinghouse? There are lots of interesting facts and tidbits, though it's far from complete. For example, he joyfully explores the evolution of the codpiece, but skips over the symbolism of the long-toed shoes, or poulaines. European folk beliefs equated foot-size with penis-size (think also of noses...) and the tips of the poulaines were thus phallic symbols. The tops of poulaines were also often painted with images of male genitals. You just can't make this stuff up!

Yes, history is way more interesting, and vastly more complicated, than the dried-out sentences in high school history books that leave me feeling deeply unsatisfied. Perhaps great men and women should be pushed off their pedestals. They do not stand on the shoulders of giants (not an admission of humility by Sir Isaac Newton, but rather a bitter insult to a hunchbacked dwarf he was feuding with); they are human, like you and me. Made of flesh and blood and sometimes just a little strange-the famous Mari Hari was no master spy, Cleopatra was ugly as sin, and Pope Innocent III authorized a holy quest for Jesus' foreskin. I guess history can be entertaining, warped and worth remembering. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

*Theories abound, but the brilliant strategist had a raging case of hemorrhoids, which prevented him from riding out and surveying the troops. Ahh, but for a nail...

History, condemned repeating it, or seeing if we can escape it? Email me at frommyshelf@epix.net. Miss a column? Our archives are available at www.frommyshelf.blogspot.com read the history of Hobo in "Hobo Finds A Home" A charming story about a barn cat who wants more out of life. Don't miss the in depth documentary about Hobo the cat, soon to be aired on the History Channel

Editorial Review:

A fabulous compendium of alternative takes on nearly every aspect of human experience. 200 photos and illustrations throughout. National reviews.

Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture

Marita Sturken, Lisa Cartwright

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Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ideal for students studying visual culture for the first time, Practices of Looking explores the ways we use and understand images. Truly interdisciplinary, this comprehensive and engaging introduction can be used in courses across a range of disciplines including media and film studies, communications, art history, and photography. Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright examine the diverse range of recent approaches to visual analysis and lead students through key theories on visual culture, providing explanations of the fundamentals of these theories and presenting visual examples of how they function. Using over 175 illustrations, they examine how images--paintings, prints, photographs, film, television, video, advertisements, news images, the Internet, digital images, and images from science--gain meaning in different cultural arenas, from art and commerce to science and the law. They also consider how these images travel globally and in distinct cultures; how they are an integral and important aspect of our lives. The images are analyzed in relation to a range of cultural and representational issues (desire, power, the gaze, bodies, sexuality, ethnicity) and methodologies (semiotics, marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonial theory). Central topics such as ideology, the concept of the spectator, the role of reproduction in visual culture, the mass media and the public sphere, consumer culture, and postmodernism are explained in depth.

Mars and Venus Starting Over: A Practical Guide for Finding Love Again After a Painful Breakup, Divorce, or the Loss of a Loved One

John Gray

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

There's nothing more devastating than the loneliness that comes with a breakup, divorce, or the loss of a loved one.But even though it feels like the end of the world, you will survive -- and you will love again. John Gray's bestselling books about the Venus and Mars factor have helped millions of men and women develop better relationships. Now in Mars and Venus Starting Over, his gentle guidance, compassionate wisdom, and healing practices will help you feel whole again after a relationship ends.

With warmth and insight, John Gray shows that, while the process of healing is similar on Mars and Venus, there are distinct differences between the ways men and women heal their bruised hearts. Here he offers people of both sexes specific advice for how to deal with pain, find forgiveness, discover the strength to let go, rebuild confidence, and rise to the challenge of finding fulfillment again.

Mars and Venus Starting Over is a gift of love, a light in the darkness of your grief. Even if you're new to the Venus and Mars philosophy, you can trust John Gray to steer you through this difficult time and turn a painful ending into a joyous new beginning.

Christ and culture (Harper torchbooks, the Cloister library)

H. Richard Niebuhr

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

Dated . . . but . . . Foundational 4 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

What do I mean by dated . . . but . . . foundational?

DATED
Christ and Culture has been around for over half a century now. When first penned it attempted to describe all the various ways in which Christians interact with culture, and make sense of it. The book was profound, for its time period. However, a lot of theology has been written since 1951 and culture has changed even more. At first glance the reader might find himself or herself toying with several ideas that are more recent than Niebur's.

FOUNDATIONAL
This book made such a splash that some Christian colleges adopted similar classes. This was the prevailing text. Therefore, most of the ideas on this subject that churn in the modern Christian reader's mind were formed in reaction to this book, even if the reader is unaware of it. Therefore, if the reader of today can grasp the concepts of this work, that reader will have a deeper understanding of his or her own beliefs.

RECOMMENDATION
This book is dated, but not outdated. Read it and compare it with newer works for a broader grasp of the subject. By the way, this is one of the most important subjects that today's Christian can wrestle with. Too many of our Christians react to culture with limited understanding of what they are doing or why they are doing it. We Protestants, of which I am one, are horribly weak in our understanding of what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ in a fallen world.

Editorial Review:

This book is one of great significance, and anyone who claims to be at all an courant with modern theological thought will certainly wish to become familiar with it. --Time and Tide.