He was bound determined not to paint people reading and women knitting, but instead to show people who breathed emotions into his darkly suggestive prints. "Death in the sickroom" showed family members at the ages when they were painted, not when his sister Sophie died; it expressed unity in grief as one of death's longlasting effects by seemingly overlapping planes flowing together across bleakly empty areas, starkly B&W contrasts, and stiffly posed mourners frozen in misery. "The mirror" heads of a disembodied man and woman was his first woodcut to give up the Japanese method of printing each color with a separate woodblock; instead, he jigsawed blocks into pieces according to compositional design, linked each piece with a different color, and put everything back together into a multicolored print. He considered his "Sick child II" his most important print: his first color lithograph, it focused on the diseased upper chest and the head in profile facing right against a large pillow in order to gaze with tragically meditative resignation into the flatly patterned looming void on the far right. However, his "Scream" became the most compelling image for the late twentieth century: it expressed terror before the universe by powerfully decorative lines reverberating through the starkly opposed black lines and bleakly white voids of pulsing land and sky. Elizabeth Prelinger and Michael Parke-Taylor have applied reader-friendly illustrations and text to their catalog of the Vivian and David Campbell exhibition. Their SYMBOLIST PRINTS OF EDVARD MUNCH goes down good with PROGRESSIVE PRINTMAKERS by Warrington Colescott and Arthur Hove, PRINTS AND PRINTMAKING by Antony Griffiths, EDVARD MUNCH by Josef Paul Hodin, and THE PRINT IN THE WESTERN WORLD by Linda C Hults.

Steve Zaloga is one of the leading scholars on Russian and Warsaw Pact armor, and this book was one of the first to take advantage of the new information that became available after the fall of the Soviet Union. It traces the development of the weapon and its deployment by Russia, its allies, and the third world customers who bought the export versions. Zaloga also reveals the Soviet designations for the various subtypes. The Russian obsession with secrecy meant that many spurious designations appeared in NATO manuals on the subject, and the author finally clears up the actual designations of the variant models. The T-72's poor performance in combat is examined and the reasons are discussed, and it is compared to its design rivals, the T-64 and the T-80. There is a nice selection of pictures of all subtypes, and a color center section by artist Peter Sarson shows the markings and camouflage of the vehicle. This title is aimed at model builders, wargamers and those with a casual interest in military technology, but the format is too limited for the dedicated historian or defense analyst.

This book brings agency back into the discourse on globalization in urban theory. This is a particularly welcome addition to a field that has been dominated for two decades by unconvincing narratives of city life as an inevitable byproduct of capitalism's structural logic.

it is fine

This remarkable book reexamines the intellectual history of eighteenth century France and Germany in order to bring to light a richer, more nuanced view of this pivotal period. More specifically, many writers, commonly characterized as "post-modernist," have used the European Enlightenment as a "whipping boy" in order to promote their own vision of the history of ideas. The editors use a very judicious strategy in order to analyze this tendency to attenuate the richness of 18th century European culture: they choose essays that are about the Enlightenment; they also choose essays that expose how the dubious dichotomy, "Postmodernity v. Enlightenment" came into being. Every one of the essays in this collection is of great intellectual rigor and constitutes a serious contribution to the enduring question, "What is Enlightenment?" This volume deals frontally with the important issue of the role of women during this time. The essays in this book are energetically, interestingly argued, and the editors have chosen a very stimulating organizational approach; they have divided the book into three sets of problems: "Enlightenment or Postmodernity?," "Critical Confrontations," and "A Postmodern Enlightenment." Essays dealing with postmodernism tend to be arcane or incomprehensible; the essays in this book are difficult, challenging, and wonderfully readable.

This was better than the movie, only because it was had more room to fill in details, draw our attention to small touches, and give more of an internal view of the characters. Peter David seems to have a real feel for the characters within the Babylon 5 universe, and there are no jarring notes struck throughout the book.

If only the Dell series of books had been able to approach this general quality of writing.

When I heard that Peter David -- author of such ST:TNG classics as Q-Squared, Imzadi, and Vendetta -- was writing the novelization of "In the Beginning," I knew I would end up buying the book. I'm glad I did.

When I read this book, it was impossible to tell where JMS's script left off and David's writing began. I watched the movie afterward, fully expecting to hear Londo's thoughts at the beginning. After watching the movie, I felt certain that some parts of the book had been cut from the movie for time.

Now, as for the book: Great piece of work. This, I feel, is truly the best way to introduce someone to the series. It covers many topics, linking events in the book to those in the series with David's usual flair. The scene between G'Kar's assistant and the young Londo Mollari is especially powerful, and one that took me entirely by surprise when it didn't turn up in the movie. As with all of his works, you can tell that David is an avid viewer of the series.

There is one thing that could have been better, though: MORE!!! THIS WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH!!! I NEED MORE!!!

Thanks for another great work, Mr. David!

The movie "In the Beginning" has not yet been shown in my country and that is why I can not compare the book with the movie. Besides, I don't feel a good book should be compared with the movie it is based on. "In the Beginning" is a wonderful book. It keeps in line with almost everything in the Babylon 5 universe. Characters, dates, places, occurences, it all feells right. Any B5 fan, who has seen all of the show, such as myself, would feel at home. Although it is regretable that gaps in the story arc are filled in movies and books instead of in the show itself, the book is a "must read" for any one who wants to truly understand what led to the creation of the Babylon project, what really happened in the Earth-Minbari war and how it all comes together. Very important info is passed along in the book. The story itself is well written, fluent and enjoyable. I most deffinetly recommend!

Public prosecutors lie and withhold exculpatry evidence, judges refuse to let inmates go even though DNA-tests prove inmates innocence and juries convict people who were hundreds of miles away from the crime scene - and George W. Bush refuses to let a convicted, but innocent, man leave jail. This book should be forced reading for all proponents of the death penalty. Maybe then there would be a real discussion about the massive numbers of innocent people who have been released from Reath Row - because they were innocent. What happens when americans learn that innocent people have also been gassed/electrocuted or killed with a needle. Is death penalty still a valid option?

There is no more crucial time to read this book. The authors detail their work with DNA evidence in wrongful conviction cases through the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School in New York. Typically, these are criminal cases which were tried prior to the type of DNA technology we currently possess. What this book brings to light though, is that for every conviction where actual innocence is later proven via DNA evidence, there are likely countless more situations of wrongful conviction where such evidence does not exist. Wrongful conviction is a serious problem in our criminal justice system today, as the State of Illinois demonstrates. Since reinstituting the death penalty, Illinois has executed twelve people and has released seventeen from death row due to later findings of actual innocence. Scheck's work is impressive and necessary, and this book offers an excellent portrayal of it.

This is a terrifying but important book that should be read by everyone with an interest in the American judicial system and a concern for justice. Regardless of your position on the death penalty or other artifacts of the tough on crime spree this country has seen over the last several decades, it's hard to see how you can object to attempts to ensure people are put behind bars only for crimes they are in fact guilty of.

Scheck and Neufeld have convincingly shown there are serious flaws in our judicial system which cause many people to be convicted of crimes they did not commit. They show this primarily by use of DNA testing and explain with compelling case histories how these convictions are obtained: faulty eyewitness testimony, lying snitches, coerced confessions, racism, falsified lab results, incompetent defense attorneys, and dishonest prosecutors. It doesn't help that we have a Supreme Court that seems more interested in expediting the process than in ensuring justice.

The current scandal with the Ramparts division of the LAPD is a vivid reminder of how bad matters are, even though it "only" involves lying police officers and prosecutors willing to accept "testilying".

The DNA evidence can't really be argued against. My guess is that defenders of the current system will try to ignore the work done by these two and others. We know that when finally forced to do pay attention the conviction of innocents, the morally and intellectually bankrupt argument is made that the fact of overturning the convictions is proof the system works. I predict that when DNA evidence finally does start freeing even more wrongly convicted, the argument will be that things are now cleaned up and we can safely conclude the problem to be solved. Of course, it won't have been. Only those few cases where DNA evidence is available will be cleared.

"Actual Innocence" closes with a series of suggestions for improving the system to decrease the number of innocent people convicted. They are sensible and it's hard to see how they could be argued against, except perhaps by saying it's too expensive to keep honest people out of prison. Or even alive, since we do have a death penalty in this country. Again, the likely prospect is that an attempt will be made to ignore the proposals.

The only possible improvement I can see to this book would have been a chapter dedicated to making a case for how many innocents are routinely being convicted. Careful and conservative estimates for how often this happens based on the data available might be a key piece in discussing the subject with others. The message is there if you're awake while you read the book, but can get lost in the specific miscarriages of justice described.

I'm not sure of Michael Schrage's actual background in this field, but from the book, I got the impression that he's more of an academic/writer than someone actually deeply immersered in this process of "serious play" (prototyping or modeling).

He certainly provides some useful tips and advice about the modeling or prototying process yet, for me, I found the book coming up short.

One device the writer uses is to consistently ask the reader questions about the modeling/prototyping process, i.e."Is it better for a company to do more [modeling] iterations to perfect the product, or to use less and send the product quickly to market with less iterations, but beating the competition?" While this is an effective device in getting the reader to realize that these are very real questions any company will face in using extensive prototyping, unfortunately, Mr. Schrage doesn't really provide much guidance or assistance in how companies have arrived at conclusions regarding these issues.

I'd like to ask Mr. Schrage, "How have these companies resolved these issues?, What kind of metrics do they use to decide those types of questions relating to decisions surrounding the prototyping process?" Maddeningly, these issues are never substantively dealt with.

As Mr. Schrage informs the reader on page 201 (near the end of the book, but the start of a brief 13 page "User's Guide") ... "A time-pressed innovator hungry to benefit from serious play might prefer a book entitled 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Innovators' or 'The One-Minute Modeler'. This is not that book."

I agree with that statement.

When I first heard of this book, it didn't interest me: I work for a company that specializes in simulation software, and most of the books on this topic that I've seen focus on the boring nitty-gritty of "how to write a simulation." Then I went to a Tom Peters workshop in which he recommended this book, and decided to take a look at it anyway. I'm glad I did: not only is the book well-written and easy to read, but it laid out the questions we should be asking our clients before we agree to create a simulation for them! As the author points out, simulations and prototyping are excellent tools, but they're only tools: what a corporation chooses to model and NOT to model is often telling, and politics and unexamined assumptions about the business often get in the way of the learning a good simulation could provide to a corporation. Another point he makes that I feel can't be over-emphasized: prototyping and modeling are often a process of "learning from failure," so a corporate culture that rewards only "successful" prototypes is cutting off one of its most fruitful sources of innovation. He also has a good discussion of the tradeoff between modeling in too much detail vs. oversimplifying. All in all, I felt that the book was an excellent high-level discussion of the pitfalls and benefits of simulation, and very thought-provoking.

Prototypes, simulations, beta versions, these, according to author Michael Schrage, are the stuff of Serious Play.

Serious Play is a book that I found myself taking very seriously in deed. Its well-researched, highly readable pages gave me a framework for understanding so much of my own experiences, both in the development of games and the development of technography, that I found myself having genuinely serious fun reading and rereading this remarkably intelligent little book.

The subtitle, "how the world's best companies simulate to innovate," explains a great deal of the power of Schrage's vision. His is a deep, and firmly rooted understanding of the emergence of a key practice for doing business in the new economy. He draws his insights from Microsoft and Disney, Boeing and Shell, top design firms and winners of the America's Cup.

Designing games, I learned over and over again the value of a good prototype. No matter how clear my vision or how carefully sketched and documented the game might be, the only way I could successfully communicate the concept was by giving people something they could actually play with. At Ideal Toys, the toy and game designers worked next to the model making group. At Mattel Multimedia we had a whole division of people who spent their days creating storyboards or prototyping our ideas in Director. The more detailed and functional the prototype, the more successfully I was able to engage my programmers, my designers, my marketers, my bosses, my salespeople, and my audiences in the design and development of a truly innovative game.

"Prototypes," explains Schrage, "should turn customers, clients, colleagues and vendors into collaborators...That's why such invitations should emphasize play...errors can be captured before they become obstacles, serendipity becomes a colleague. The more flexible and dynamic the prototype, the more flexible and dynamic the play -- and the greater the opportunities for profitable innovation."

The efficacy of the outliner as a tool for supporting collaborative work can be explained by thinking of the dynamic outline itself as a prototyping tool. Every technography-enabled consultation has at its heart the goal of helping people play with their ideas.

Schrage quotes British management professor David Lane: "Rather than attempting to take the position 'I am an expert in techniques that will teach you about your business,' the consultant should offer a process in which the ideas of the team are brought out and examined in a clear and logical way."

Technography works because it gives people the chance to see their words on screen, and then to play with their ideas, to organize and reorganize, iterate and reiterate, until they are able to synthesize individual views into a coherent, well-structured vision.

When I first met Michael Schrage and demonstrated technography to him, he was so moved by the power of what he experienced that he wound up writing Shared Minds. Today, reading Serious Play, I find my own ideas "brought out and examined in a clear and logical way," and myself moved to a new and clearer perspective on my work. As Tom Peters says of Serious Play, it is "simply the best book on innovation I've ever read."

Karl von Clausewitz's (1780-1831) masterpiece On War, has deservedly been translated into most major languages. The Everyman's Library Edition of On War introduced by Peter Paret is the perhaps most widely acclaimed English edition.

Long recognized as the classic the strategic principles of armed conflict, the book continue to influence military thinking. On War is an attempt to reach an understanding of the nature of war itself. The Prussian general defines war as violence intended to compel the opponent to fulfill the will of the proponent. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy is the object.

The ultimate goal of war is political - armed combat is the means to a political end, without which war becomes «pointless and devoid of sense». Another key thought is that the total defeat of the adversary is the essence of war. A critique often heard against this strain of thought is that Clausewitz's focus on decisive battle and over strategic maneuver invites bloodbath.

The book is experiencing a renaissance in the post-Cold War era -reading it may well help to explain the phenomenon of war also in the years to com

Karl von Clausewitz's (1780-1831) masterpiece On War has deservedly been translated into most major languages. The Everyman's Library Edition of the work - introduced by Peter Paret - is the perhaps most widely acclaimed English edition.

Long recognized as the classic the strategic principles of armed conflict, the book continue to influence military thinking. On War is an attempt to reach an understanding of the nature of war itself. The Prussian general defines war as violence intended to compel the opponent to fulfill the will of the proponent. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy is the object.

The ultimate goal of war is political - armed combat is the means to a political end, without which war becomes «pointless and devoid of sense». Another key thought is that the total defeat of the adversary is the essence of war. A critique often heard against this strain of thought is that Clausewitz's focus on decisive battle and over strategic maneuver invites bloodbath. This can also serve to illustrate why the book has carried relevance over the centuries. -It focuses on the -how's of war rather than considerations that are bound to be influenced by Zeitgeist.

The book is experiencing a renaissance in the post-Cold War era -reading it may well help to explain the phenomenon of war also in the years to come.

I have the Regnery edition- "War, Politics, and Power," but this edition surmising Clausewitz's writings seems more widely available. So I offer my review on his writings and recommend this book. This book was widely disseminated in Red China, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union.

Essentially, this book contains the best writings of the German military theorist. Clauswitz, the Prussian Sun Tzu, effectively brought the concept of total war into acceptability. Gone our the days Antonie Henri Jomini's chilvarious code of conduct and honor- Civilians will not only be subject to attack - they'll bear the brunt of the battle in an age of total war. Several points are made- which are crucial to surmising Clausewitzian theory- 1) "War is the continuation of state policy by other means;" 2) "All war is based on the art of deception;" 3) "No one starts war... without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it;" 4) War is "an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will." 5) "If the enemy is thrown off balance, he must not be given time to recover. Blow after blow must be struck in the same direction: the victor, in other words, must strike with all his strength... by daring to win all, will one really defeat the enemy."

To me this work is valuable in its historical context- and as an ardent student of military history.

Lemuel Gulliver is a surgeon/ship¨ˆs captain who embarks on several intriguing adventures. His first endeavor takes him to Lilliput, where all inhabitants are six inches tall, but resemble normal humans in every other respect. His next voyage lands him on Brobdingnag, where a grown man is sixty feet tall, and even the shortest dwarf stands thirty feet tall. On his third trip, he travels to several locations, including a floating island. During Gulliver¨ˆs final voyage, he is abandoned by his mutinous crew on the island of the Houyhnhnms, which are extremely intelligent horses. No evil or concept of lying exists among these creatures. The island is also inhabited by Yahoos, savage, irrational human-like creatures who are kept as pets by the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver wishes to spend the rest of his life on this peaceful island, but he is banished and forced to return to England.
I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to people 14 or older. Since the novel was written in the 1700¡¯s, the words, grammar and usage are a little confusing. The reader also must have prior knowledge of 18th-century politics to get a full image of what Swift is trying to convey. At some points, the author goes into detail about nautical terms and happenings, and that tends to drag. Overall, the book is well-written, slightly humorous, if not a little confusing.

Swift's classic satire of English and European governments, societies, and cultures should be required reading of every college student. (Except for those who appear to be in law school as is the earlier reviewer who referred to Swift as being an "18th century Unabomber." Swift may have been conservative in his beliefs and not cared much for individuals such as Robert Boyle, who is satirized in the book, but he was not violent. Perhaps our "law student/reviewer" is offended by Swift's biting satire of lawyers and politicians in part four.) The version I read was an annotated edition by Isaac Asimov and contained many passages that had been deleted by previous publishers. Asimov's comments enable the reader to more fully appreciate Swift's satire. In part one of the novel, a ship's surgeon, Lemuel Gulliver, is shipwreaked and finds himself on the island of Lilliput, the inhabitants all being only six inches high. This section is great satire of English politics and wars. Royal ponp, feuds amongst the populace, and wars are made to look rediculous. In the second part, Gulliver finds himself in Brobdingnag in which he is only six "inches" tall (relatively speaking). This part forms another satire of European governments. In part three, Gulliver visits the flying island of Laputa where shades of ancient scholars can be called up. This section is a satire on philosophers and scientists. Scientists are portrayed as men so wrapped up intheir speculations as to be totally useless in practical affairs. Absurd experiments are described (for example, extracting sunlight from cucumbers (but, extracting energy from cucumbers and other plants is no longer so absurd Jonathan)). Also described in this third part are the Struldbergs, men and women who are immortal but who turn out to be miserable and pitiable. In part four, Gulliver travels to the Land of the Houyhnhnms, horses with intelligence but who have no passion or emotion. The word "Yahoo" originates in this part. READ IT!

Gulliver's Travels is an excellent book. In it Swift satirizes what he thought were the foibles of his time, in politics, religion, science, and society. In Part One Lemuel Gulliver is shipwrecked on Lilliput where the inhabitants are only 6 inches tall. The rivalry between Britain and France is there satirized. In Part Two he is marooned on the subcontinent of Brobdingnag where the inhabitants are giants. The insignificance of many of mankind's achievements are there satirized. Next in Part Three Gulliver is taken aboard the floating island of Laputa, where Swift takes the opportunity to satirize medicine and science altogether - incredibly Swift did not make up the crazy experiments he describes; all were sponsored at one time or another by the Royal Society. Finally in Part Four Gulliver is marooned by mutineers on the island of the Houyhnhynms, in which Swift takes his parting shot at human society - presenting them in degraded form as the Yahoos. Most people read no further in the book than Brobdingnag - I urge you to read the rest.