For anyone who wishes to understand the process of news gathering, this book is the best available. I use it in all my international news classes at Scripps School of Journalism. Rosenblum extracts from his lifetime of journalism a clear, logical and comprehensive explanation of how the story you read got there, and what influences affected its selection and presentation at every stage of the process. It's also a fascinating and exciting read, by one of the world's most prolific and professional journalists. He introduces you to individual correspondents, both as individuals and as types. He explains how geography, economics and sheer prejudice can determine what you learn about the world. He tells great bar stories -- the kind of thing journalists tell each other over a beer. And he does it all with skill and style. Worth reading by anyone -- a must for anyone interested in news.

A great book. Even though it focuses primarily on american media, it's lesson can be applied in all parts of the world: We need to start making demands on the media, instead of letting it dictate what we need to know. An eye-opener.

Whether you're familiar with Dr. Janson's previous work or not, you'll immedately recognize the quality and value of this book. The information is very well organized, divided into four sections based on time periods. Each of those sections is divided by the type of art (paintings or sculptures). With more than 500 illustrations (89 in full color), the book is not only an excellent source of reference, but also just plain interesting reading. Many of the stories are fascinating, encouraging the reader to dig even deeper. The details are impressive, particularly with accurate journalism being a relatively recent concept. Obviously, the information could only have come from extremely knowledgeable sources. Excellent book for art lovers on any level!

Most books which present collections of art objects treat the subject as that: an object. Emphasis is put on value or history. This book treats stones as a source of inspiration. Rosenblum takes individual objects and explains what he sees in them and how they effected his life as well as his artwork. He infuses the art of collecting stones with the original intent of the Chinese scholars who began the practice. The value he places on the stones are not so much monetary but how they speak to him on an individual basis. This book complements "Worlds Within Worlds", the first book about Rosenblums collection. That book explained technical and historical data, this one humanizes the collection. An excellent book, a great addition to the genre of viewing stones, suiseki, scholar stones, etc.

This book deserves all of the praise it has earned. Dr. Rosenblum is passionately involved in the art and craft of photography. She has a world view that she puts to great use here. One of the best and most respectful things about this survey, aside from its obvious profusion of well-chosen photographs and the assured and authoritative commentary, is the effectiveness of Dr. Rosenblum's knowing method of assemblage. In the arrangement of these photographs there is ample room for readerly associations, emotions, and thought. The commentary, both in form and content, reinforces this. We are in the hands of a gifted teacher, in fact. Whether it is a series of photos of human hands, folds of clothing, leaves, children's faces, natural forms - the reader is taken on a deeply affecting, associative journey, and the results run deep. This is in addition to this book's obvious workhorse usefulness as a terrific reference work.

One hundred pages at the book's end are devoted to notes, careful and thorough biographies of the photographers, a selected bibliography, and an index. The production values are first-rate. A wonderful book.

Whether you have a casual interest in the life and/or works of Ingres or you are a dedicated admirer, you are sure to find yourself enjoying this book. There are approximately 40 pages of text mingled with relevant b/w illustrations, some by Ingres, some by a variety of other artists including Picasso, Raphael, Poussin, Delacroix, Courbet, and Matisse. The author compares Ingres to Picasso because of his ability to take on many forms in his artwork while remaining true to himself. He also discusses the tension between Ingres and Delacroix over visible brushstrokes and the use of color. Ingres is described in this book as being "one of the greatest draftsmen of all time" and it is easy to understand why when examining the colorplates. There are 151 illustrations in all with 40 plates in color. Included in the colorplate section are _Bonaparte as First Consul_, _Bather of Valpincon_, _Oedipus and the Sphinx_, _The Turkish Bath_, _The Dream of Ossian_, and _Grande Odalisque_, among others. Each colorplate comes with an extensive commentary by the author that includes historical background and an analysis of the work's artistic merits. This is absolutely a great buy for *anyone* interested in Ingres.

I was fortunate to be able to visit the Musee D'Orsay on my last trip to Paris. This book was filled with lovely photos of what the museum displays. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane of one of my favorite experiences.

While some art buffs may find it hard to believe that anything new could be said about the unquestionably great and unquestionably over-publicized Pablo Picasso, this Museum of Modern Art catalogue actually manages to re-invigorate the discussion of an artist whom some might say the MOMA (having held four colossal exhibitions on Picasso within 15 years) should stop shoving down the public's throat. While the paintings are, for the most part, quite familiar to Picasso enthusiasts (with some delicious exceptions), the catalogue contains several excellent essays which approach the works of art from a personal, rather than art-historical perspective. Picasso's relationships with his various women, and the effect each wife/mistress had on his vision of reality, are thoughtfully and, for the most part, intelligently explored, despite some occasional descents into blatant "National Enquirer"-type celebrity gossip on the part of these supposedly "scientific" critics. Fortunately, Picasso's art stands above the possibly-too intimate concerns of the authors (a careful perusal of the gossip-filled footnotes will amuse you for hours). Page after page of excellent reproductions stun, startle, amuse and amaze the beholder through their sheer perversity. Nearly 30 years after Picasso's death, his art still shocks and challenges the public. My personal favorites are the paintings of the sad and sensual Dora Maar, which are unmatched anywhere in Picasso's oeuvre for sheer, brutal power. Their distortions haunt the mind, although the joyous and often semi-pornographic pictures of the teenage mistress, Marie-Therese, possess an equal charge. This book is a definite must in any art library.

"Picasso and the War Years" surveys his art during his years of isolation in Occupied Paris, as well as the three years leading up to the cataclysm. Although several exhibitions have been held on this same subject in Europe, this is the first such survey of Picasso's wartime production to take place in the United States. A series of outstanding essays by several prominent critics explore the complex political, social, and personal circumstances which inspired these still-challenging paintings, and the initial reactions to them. A warning: this book is not for everyone. If you are disturbed by violent and harsh art, forget it. These images still retain their power to shock, disorient, disgust and sadden, even if sixty years have gone by since their creation. Yet all the pictures possess a deep geometric structure, formal balance, and intense affect which engraves them on the viewer's mind. The sorrowful, neurotic, and unforgettable face of Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and model during these tragic years, is transformed in these paintings into a symbol of a world gone mad. This is definitely one of the most significant art books produced this year.

Rosenblum's Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art is still one of th best and most inspiring books on the art of neoclassicism and early romaticism. Encompassing both pictorial arts and architecture, it points central themes in the arts of that time. It offers clues to further investigations as to the seminal character of the fundamental changes in the art and architecture of the late 18th century. And it is wonderfully wide in perspective and clear in its argument. It presents a number of focus in a period where one gets easily lost in either superficial statements or far too detailed information.
It is a great starting point for any research into its period.

I wonder how many art collectors and even scholars have had the pleasure of encountering the work of Vilhelm Hammershoi.......This Danish painter (1864 - 1916) discovered his own form of impressionism and figure painting out of the main stream of world renowned painters. Yes, people who know Scandanavian art surely are familiar with this master, but how can the rest of us be conversant about the likes of Edvard Munch and not have had the introduction to this master painter? This wondrous volume fills a gap for all of us. Hammershoi has been compared to Vermeer for his uncanny sense of light, shadow, and composition. Just browse through the pages of this stately volume and drink in the atmosphere of the dark interiors and architectural renderings of Denmark's buildings and towns and bridges. His figures often face away from us as though the nearby window or other sensitive light source were more significant than their face. His palette is limited to umber/sienna/brown,black/white with only the ocassional use of warmer tones. But how these paintings illumine us! Hammershoi is in that rare class of painter with Antonio Lopez Garcia - two men who reveal our world to us as though we had never seen it. An utterly elegant and quiet monograph. Highly recommended.