Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships

Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships
Average customer rating:

very good seller

Excellent companion, but missing something important...

Form Analysis

visual exercises - for serious designers

A Good Guide

Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships
Gail G. Hannah
Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1568983298

Book Description

A hands-on book design students and designers alike will welcome. Elements of Design is a tribute to an exceptional teacher and a study of the abstract visual relationships that were her lifelong pursuit. Rowena Reed Kiostellow taught industrial design at Pratt Institute for more than fifty years and the designers she trained-and the designers they're training today-have changed the face of American design. This succinct, instructive, invaluable book reconstructs the series of exercises that led Kostellow's students from the manipulation of simple forms to the creation of complex solutions to difficult design problems. It includes her exercises and commentary along with selected student solutions, and concludes with examples of work from former students who became leaders in the field, including such well-known figures as Tucker Viemeisater, Ralph Applebaum, Ted Muehling, and many others.

Customer Reviews:

very good seller.......2007-09-28

It was very fast to get the product and I experience a very good seller!

Excellent companion, but missing something important..........2007-03-28

To truly get the most out of this book, you need one of Rowena's dwindling number of students still left at Pratt teaching to stand over your shoulder. The exercises in this book can all produce amazing results in terms of beautiful abstract relationships but to "know" what is right or wrong with an object using this visual language really takes someone showing you what is wrong with a transition or how this proportion is too similar to that one or how this spacial relationship is not quite right. In the end, you need to know what is wrong in order to really be able to see what is right and it takes someone to show these things to you over and over again. The book is an excellent companion and record of Rowena's interesting and effective exercises, but it's difficult to use as a guide for someone not dialogging with one of her former students and even that is challenging because each one delivers her gospel of 3D a little differently.

Form Analysis.......2007-03-19

This book is a nice window into a professional display of techniques and exercises that garner superior forms and shapes. I bought this book for an industrial design class, it was not mandatory, but completley necessary and helpful. i highly recommend it.

visual exercises - for serious designers.......2004-05-04

This is a technical book that is an attempt to teach what RRK developed over a lifetime obsession with visual compositions. She did one thing, over and over, refining it over a long and productive career at Pratt, in Brooklyn. As such, I believe that it would best be used in the classroom, rather than as a simple read for those who want to understand modern design. Being ignorent about issues in studio design - really doing it, rather than observing it like I do - I got a lot out of it. But I will need to refer to it and read through many more times to truly absorb the exercises. For what it is, the book is a masterpiece as an exercise in visual thinking and the method left its imprint on many of the greatest American designers from before WWII to the 1980s.

Recommended, but for designers rather than design critics.

A Good Guide.......2004-04-14

I agree with one of the reviewers in that the rules presented in this text should not be applied loosely and expected to produce "a beautiful design". As far as industrial design goes it still is not even so great. HOWEVER what it does teach is basic 3-dimensional design. There are lessons in here that anyone who works in a 3-d medium (interior, industrial, fashion, sculpture, etc) should be fluent in. I did the exercises and it has allowed me to get such a tighter grasp on my work and understand all the subtle effects I can produce in it. It is also invaluable to me as a reference guide. Study this book in order to help develop your sense of 3 dimensional structure and compositions but not as a base for design education (only because design incorporates much more than "beauty").

Book Description

Ceramic objects have been important in all cultures—whether they have been used for domestic or religious purposes. Interestingly, sex and sexuality have often been reflected in the way these objects have been shaped and decorated—perhaps thereby mimicking the concerns of the society in general.

Eroticism has been a main theme of art since the days of cave painting. However, the very permanency of ceramics has ensured that examples of eroticism on ceramics have survived while examples on other materials such as canvas, wood, paper, and textiles have not. Ironically, it is this same quality of permanency that will probably ensure that ceramic works from the present will survive into the future in a way that art on some of our current high-tech materials will not.

In Sex Pots, Paul Mathieu looks over a variety of themes dealing with eroticism and ceramics—including aesthetics, sexualities, and the societies that engendered them—to produce a clear view of not only the history of ceramics and sexuality but also a view of contemporary practice and trends with an insight into future developments. He is aided by Catherine Hess of the Getty Museum, who has produced an invaluable chapter on the erotic ceramics of the Renaissance period. Although not meant to be a history, Sex Pots provides a unique overview of the interconnection between two of the most persistent themes in human society: eroticism and art.

The Basic Darkroom Book: compl GT Processing ptg Color Black White photogs for Beginners thru Experts
Average customer rating:

SO ****ING BORING

Superb Darkroom Manual

Best Photography book!

Terrible book!

This "Basic" Darkroom Book has it ALL.

The Basic Darkroom Book: compl GT Processing ptg Color Black White photogs for Beginners thru Experts
Tom Grimm
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452274362

Book Description

Third Edition, newly revised, the companion edition to the bestselling Basic Book of Photography.

This completely updated edition of Tom Grimm's classic how-to darkroom guide explains all the steps necessary to develop and print professional quality photographs at home. This third edition of The Basic Darkroom Book is totally current with the latest technology and equipment, including electronic imaging in the "digital darkroom."

Like most books on darkroom techniques, The Basic Darkroom Book contains illustrations, but what sets it apart is the amount of explanatory text devoted to each step in the development process. Written with clarity and concision by a 40-year veteran in the photographic arts, this accessible master reference is the only darkroom assistant a photographer needs.

Customer Reviews:

SO ****ING BORING.......2006-09-17

This book, is so hard to read, i don't know how any one could possibly turn a book that i, a darkroom hobbist my self could have wirtten in perhaps two hundered pages into a 464 page snooz fest. he includes all this unessiccary stuff aout how the film works and summerizeds stuff hes going to explain before he explains it... WHO CARES!!?? if i wanted to know how film works id buy a book on film! If you want to set up a drak room, eihter take a class, or buy a diffent book, thats not so hard to read, its basicly a text book. is it a bad book? nay, but don't expect to use it as a instruction manual, it has about fifty pages of nonsense between the actaul process of making a god damn darkroom!

Superb Darkroom Manual.......2005-12-17

This book by Tom Grimm is by far the most comprehensive and practical handbook on darkroom information and procedures that I have yet read. I have been involved in photography since the early 1950's and this is one of the best books on this aspect of photography that I own. I believe it surpasses that excellent book "Enlarging" by Jacobson and Mannheim that I also own and still use (1975 edition). I just do not understand the previous criticism made that the book requires "a degree" to understand it! The only criticism I would make is that products listed by the author are not always available to UK photographers, as it has, naturally, an American bias, however, even with that small defecit, the book is well worth the price!

Best Photography book!.......2004-09-10

This is one of the best photography books around, in my opinion. Very very detailed coverage of most all aspects of B&W and color photography. The author does not assum that you have your very own private dark room and makes sigguestions as to how you can use things you probably allready have around your house instead of expensive photography equipement. For instance, the author sigguests that you might use a fish tank and heater to control the temperature of color chemicals! And I tell you what, that is a lot less expensive compared to buying a rotary processor from Jobo.

The author gives detailed explinations of how processos work, and some hostory behind them. He also lets you just jump ahead to the quick and simple overview. This lets you learn about what your doing, if you new to the area, or get a quick review if you're not sure your quite remember how to do something.

Truly a great book, or even textbook for college classes.

Terrible book!.......2001-07-26

I am writing this review in order to warn new-comers to the field of photography against buying it. Although the title specifies, "for beginners through experts," this book almost requires a degree to comprehend it. Techniques discussed are not for beginners! The book insists you need to spend vast amounts of money and time to develop prints; this is untrue. In fact, a beginner would need to read 6 chapters of the book, which are extremely confusing, before being able to develop a black-and-white print. The process could quite easily be explained in less than a page.

In short, I do not recommend anyone buy this terrible book.

This "Basic" Darkroom Book has it ALL........1999-08-14

As it says on the book's cover, for beginners through experts. Basic indeed! The author covers virtually every subject in photofinishing from basic black & white printing through color processing & printing with various films, papers and chemistry to delving into the digital darkroom! The author explains each subject in entertaining and conversational style to build the foundation for a more detailed and thorough explanation of the science & art of custom darkroom procedures and techniques. Photographs, illustrations and tables compliment the text. Loaded with information making it a valuable reference book even for those of us who have been doing custom black & white and color darkroom work for 20 years! If you have only one book on this subject, this is the book to own. The Basic Darkroom Book third edition is a must have.

Book Description

Baker Street, the center of England's punk movement in a London few would ever know, a life even less would ever see. Where being different is the rule, "ratting" the gambling vice of a city's underground, and death is often around the next corner. Here is where mystery, intrigue and suspense are more than a game to the residents of post-Victorian London, it's a way of life. Now the cobblestones run red with blood as a series of murders terrorize the night. But as Sharon Ford may soon find out, sometimes the solution is more costly than any crime.

Guy Davis is a self-taught writer/illustrator who has worked in the comics industry for over 17 years. He was the long-running artist on Sandman Mystery Theater with Matt Wagner and Steve Sagle for DC/vertigo. He designed and illustrated the Nevermen series for Dark Horse Comics and most recently worked as the artist on the Marvel series Deadline. He is currently working on his second creator-owned book, The Marquis.

Gary Reed was the publisher of Caliber Press, a specialty publisher of comics and books that released 1,500 issues in the 1990s. In addition to serving as President of Caliber, Gary was also publisher of Stabur Graphics and Vice President of McFarlane Toys during the inaugural launch of that company. He has written over 200 comics and books, including Baker Street, Renfield, Saint Germaine, Raven Chronicles, and others.

Customer Reviews:

A Holmes and Watson like no other.......2006-12-04

I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, and I'm a Guy Davis fan, and when I first heard of HONOUR AMONG PUNKS: THE COMPLETE BAKER STREET, I figured if I couldn't have Guy Davis drawing Holmes' adventures, I could get the next best thing - a reimagining of the Sherlock Holmes mythos in a alternate world, with art by Davis! In this modern yet very Victorian London, the Baker Street area is the center of the punk movement. Crime, intrigue, and a good mystery are the order of the day. American Susan Pendergrast comes to London for medical school, getting room and board by keeping house for punks Sharon and Sam. Susan comes to realize that there is much more to Sharon than meets the eye, as she is often consulted by the London police for her uncanny deductive skills. As Susan begins to fill in the blanks, she assumes the role of Watson to Sharon's Holmes, realizing there's a whole `nother side to London, the punk movement, and even her newfound friends.

This book collects all of the Baker Street stories by Guy Davis and Gary Reed, plus numerous illustrations and sketches. I found the first story, "Honour Among Punks", to be something of a hump. It sets up the Baker Street stories, and it's a decent mystery, but it introduced too many characters, groups, and concepts for me to keep straight. By the time it was over, I breathed a sigh of relief, still not understanding exactly what happened. As this story takes up about 1/3 of the book, it was a pretty tough haul; however, the main characters were appealing enough for me to keep moving with the second story, "Children of the Night". This was a very engaging story, much more intimate, and with an excellent mystery at its core, as Ripper-style killings are taking place in the community... but this time, the victims are male. The final pieces, "Elementary My Dear" and "A Case of the Blues", provide a nice cap to the collection; however, as they occur before the disastrous events of "Children of the Night", they're actually quite bittersweet.

The biggest treat of the book is getting to see Davis' artistic style evolve. What starts as almost Rick-Geary-esque work soon turns into the style that gave Sandman Mystery Theater its distinct look. As publisher ibooks has apparently gone out of business for good, it looks like this won't be reprinted anytime soon, so grab it quickly - it's definitely worth it!

A forgotten classic.......2006-06-18

I just happened to stumble upon this in my brother's library, not surprising since he's a punk himself. Seeing as I'm a big graphic novel enthusiast with an ever-growing personal library, I decided to read it. The story takes place in a post-Victorian London, where the whole "punk" fashion originated, where an American medical student named Susan Predergrast has flown into and settled into an apartment, with her gothic/punk roommates--Sharon "Harlequin" Ford, and cross-dressing, I-don't-give-weasel's-tail Sam. Geeky Sue quickly finds herself in a world of gang wars, drugs, sex, intrigue, leather, and murder. Suddenly the streets are plagued by a series of ghastly murders carried out by a modern "Jack the Ripper." Harlequin, an ex detective of the England C. I. D., forced to resign under shameful circumstances, now intends to help the same police force that retired her solve the mystery.

The story is easy to follow and surprisingly good. I had never even heard of Guy Davis or any of the works--other than "Honour Among Punks--he has done. There are quite a few written sequential artworks and writers/artists out there that, since the mid to late 80s, have forever changed the way people look at comic books. When this conversation comes up you're guaranteed to hear about Alan Moore and, what many consider the *definitive* comic book, "Watchmen," or Frank Miller and "The Dark Knight Returns." Davis's "Honour Among Punks" belongs on any list of the best graphic novels, or perhaps just novels in general, ever written. Like the said titles, Davis's story is dark, disturbing, and very violent. Davis also does his own artwork here, too. Davis's drawings are black-and-white only, purposely filthy and somewhat distorted, to match the atmosphere of the story. It's an overlooked masterwork for people, like myself, who like *definitive* comics, or people who like Sherlock Holmes, which this book is actually a gothic parody of. I must remember to look into more of Guy Davis's work. Highly recommended.

The Game Is Afoot!.......2004-02-03

This is a grand re-telling of the seemingly ageless story of Holmes and Watson, this time from a punk perspective. The artwork is edgy (yeah, I know; but it is) and the story a grand piece of work. Sherlockians everywhere muyst buy this, but be warned: it ain't your father's Holmes.

early best of guy davis.......2003-06-15

exciting alternate london murder mystery with a punk background

Amazon.com

There is no way for any collection to do real justice to a photographer of Eisenstaedt's reach, but this book goes far, including not just the celebrity images but many others that give a keen sense of the times in which he lived. There is a streetwalker in knee-high boots on the Rue Saint-Denis; a polished Rolls-Royce in front of the Ritz; an aged accordionist begging for a living outside Carnegie Hall; a Mississippi fiddler.

Like those of his contemporaries Cartier-Bresson, Lartigue, and Kertész, Eisenstaedt's photographs stop you in your tracks, their meanings more complexly layered with every passing decade. Take his shot of 5- and 6-year-olds, wide-eyed and screaming at a puppet show in a Paris park in l963, just as television was beginning its long, depressing siege on childhood's imaginative realm. Or the image of women in their spring chapeaus, taking afternoon tea on the roof of the Excelsior Hotel in Florence in 1934, pretending that their pleasant world would endure. The historical resonance of such images is what makes this a thinking person's book, but of course it is possible to love it just for the celebrities, nearly all of them now gone. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

If you really want to know what the 20th century looked like from a front-row seat at the main stage, this book will show you. Alfred Eisenstaedt, who was born in 1898 and lived until 1995, apparently didn't miss a thing. To give but a glimpse of the view he captured, this volume, published on the hundredth anniversary of his birth, includes scores of his most famous photographs. The portrait of a scowling Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Culture and Propaganda, showing exactly what educated evil looks like; a sultry Marilyn Monroe, somewhat fuzzy around the edges because the flustered photographer used the wrong film; the adorable Mary Martin (pre-Pan), girlishly singing a Cole Porter tune; Jackie Kennedy, radiant, seated between her husband and the man who would succeed him; Bertrand Russell; Martin Buber; Helen Keller; Albert Einstein; Gordon Parks; Rebecca West; Learned Hand--they're all here.There is no way for any collection to do real justice to a photographer of Eisenstaedt's reach, but this book goes far, including not just the celebrity images but many others that give a keen sense of the times in which he lived. There is a streetwalker in knee-high boots on the Rue Saint-Denis; a polished Rolls-Royce in front of the Ritz; an aged accordionist begging for a living outside Carnegie Hall; a Mississippi fiddler. Like those of his contemporaries Cartier-Bresson, Lartigue, and Kert+sz, Eisenstaedt's photographs stop you in your tracks, their meanings more complexly layered with every passing decade. Take his shot of 5- and 6-year-olds, wide-eyed and screaming at a puppet show in a Paris park in l963, just as television was beginning its long, depressing siege on childhood's imaginative realm. Or the image of women in their spring chapeaus, taking afternoon tea on the roof of the Excelsior Hotel in Florence in 1934, pretending that their pleasant world would endure. The historical resonance of such images is what makes this a thinking person's book, but of course it is possible to love it just for the celebrities, nearly all of them now gone. --Peggy Moorman

Customer Reviews:

Light and more light .......2005-08-31

Eisenstaedt was for more than four decades a central maker of those images through which America held up a mirror to itself, and to the world. His remarkable persistence helped produce some of the most famous photographs of the twentieth century, including the signature- piece photograph of the sailor kissing the nurse at Times Square on V-J Day. Though he presented many pictures of scenes from everyday life in America he is perhaps best known for portraits of the famous, from all walks of life. His Blanchard and Davis captures the pugnacious spirit of the great West Point running duo, his Buckley family portrait captures the casual elegance of America's most famed Conservative intellectual family, his cold camera catches the very epitome of evil hatred in the famed photoportrait of Goebbels, his most difficult subject Hemingway nonetheless projects a somewhat misleading strength and solidity.
Eisenstaedt loved his work and lived for it. And there is a certain special kind of light which emanates from his best photographs, the light of life seen into , recaptured on film and presented to us as gift for our immediate viewing and deeper reflection.
I by the way strongly recommend reading the more extensive and simply better review by Donald Mitchell of the Eisenstaedt work which also appears on the Amazon site.

Simple Genius.......2001-03-25

Many people consider Mr. Alfred Eisenstaedt the defining photojournalist of the 20th century. His best known work is probably the photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on VJ Day in 1945. In this superb volume, you can test that assessment with your own eyes. The images in this book were culled from over 290,000 frames available to the editor. I found the quality to be remarkably and consistently high. The reproduction quality is more than adequate as well.

Mr. Eisenstaedt straddles the 20th century almost perfectly. He was born in West Prussia in 1898 and died in 1995. He started photography as a hobby while a youngster, and only turned it into a livelihood as a 31 year-old man. He served in the German army in World War I and was severely wounded in the legs in Flanders during 1918. While recuperating, he visited art museums to study the compositions the painters used. It was time well spent. Later he would comment, "I seldom think when I take a picture." "But, first, it's most important to decide on the angle at which your photograph is to be taken." After the war, he sold belts and buttons. But he continued to take photographs as a hobby.

His big break came when he photographed a women's tennis match in 1927. Discouraged with the results, it was pointed out that the image of the woman serving in one frame would work well if everything else was cropped out. This image is in the book for your reference. This photograph immediately sold, and he was encouraged to come back with more. By 1929 he was doing well enough to start photography full-time.

Because of the rise of the Nazis and the popularity of photojournalism in the United States, Mr. Eisenstaedt came to the New York in 1935 where he visited Time. There he learned about plans for a new weekly photography magazine, LIFE, and became one of four staff photographers in 1936 when the magazine started. Over the years more than 80 of his photographs graced its cover.

Sophia Loren was his favorite assignment, and Ernest Hemingway was his least (Hemingway tried to throw him off the dock).

"I like photographing people only at their best." "This means making them feel relaxed and completely at home with you in the beginning."

Unlike most portrait photographers, he was informal. "I always prefer photographing in available light." His approach to equipment was similarly simple. "A Leica, a couple of lenses, a few rolls of film -- that's all he needed."

Totally devoted to his art he said, "I will never retire," and he never did.

Familiarly known to his friends and colleagues as "Eisie," "'Cold fish' or 'horrible man' were his epithets. 'Unbelievable' was his word for wonder."

These details and observations are taken from the excellent introduction by Bryan Holme.

I found Mr. Eisenstaedt's work here to be amazingly luminescent. He captures a spiritual glow in his subjects and in nature. Realizing that he was using natural light, the images and detail are very well illuminated regardless, much like what you find in Ansel Adams's work. His people have an animation of body and personality that makes the viewer feel more alive as well. Whether professional actor or ordinary person, they each resonate with the viewer through intense and attractive emotion.

Here are some of my favorite images (reduced to fit the space allowed): Italian officer sledding, 1933; Toscanni, early 1930s; La Scala, 1934; Carriage, near La Scala, 1934; George Bernard Shaw, 1932; Ruth Bryan Owen, 1934; Robert Oppenheimer, 1947; Albert Einstein, 1949; Bertrand Russell, 1951; Dancers pause, 1936; Roofs of Prague, 1947; Trees in snow, 1947; Janet MacLeod, 1937; Katherine Hepburn, 1938; Carole Lombard, 1938; VJ Day, 1945; Edward R. Murrow, 1959; John F. Kennedy and Caroline, 1960; Dame Edith Evans, 1951; Marilyn Monroe, 1953; Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen, 1949; Frank Lloyd Wright, 1956; Alec Guinness, 1951; W. Somerset Maugham, 1942; Robert Lowell, 1959; Charlie Chaplin, 1966; W.H. Auden, 1955; Children watching, 1963; Gunter Grass, 1979; Norman Rockwell, 1974; Gilbert Murray, 1951; Menemsha harbor, 1937; Thomas Hart Benton, 1969; First lesson, 1930; Propeller, 1951; Willie Mays, 1954; Leonard Bernstein conducting, 1960; and Tree-lined road, 1978. The effects of well-known painting compositions on these images will be obvious to you.

After you view these photographs, I suggest that you try your hand at capturing people at their best with your camera. Once you get to be reasonably good at that, I encourage you to try to catch them at their best without your camera. Practice the skill of subtly encouraging people to fulfill their potential. That will make you a person of simple genius, as well.

Evoke the best!

Remembrances
Average customer rating:
Remembrances
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Manufacturer: Bulfinch Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NZU4J4

Eisenstaedt Remembrances
Average customer rating:
Eisenstaedt Remembrances
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O561GS

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Eisenstaedt Remembrances

Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GVNDYS

Eisenstaedt: Remembrances
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Eisenstaedt: Remembrances
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Manufacturer: BULFINCH PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WTM33G

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Eisenstaedt: Remembrances
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Manufacturer: Bulfinch (Little Brown)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MAONQU

Eisenstaedt: Remembrances (Newly Revised, 100th Anniversary Edition)
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Eisenstaedt: Remembrances (Newly Revised, 100th Anniversary Edition)
Alfred; O'Neil, Doris C. Eisenstaedt
Manufacturer: Bulfinch Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M2HK18

Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia
Average customer rating:

Big Ears Du, Pockmarked Huang & Brokentooth Kwoi

Tremendous

Great Survey of Roots of Asian Crime & Its Political Ties

Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia
Bertil Lintner
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1403961549

Book Description

From pirates singing Ricky Martin to mob hits carried out with samurai swords, Bertil Lintner offers a fascinating look at organized crime in the Asian Pacific. Both Western and Asian pundits assert that shady deals are an Asian way of life. Some argue that corruption and illicit business ventures-gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, gun running, and oil smuggling-are entrenched parts of the Asian value system. Yet many Asian leaders maintain that their cities are safer than Sydney, Amsterdam, New York, or Los Angeles. Mak-ing use of expertise gained from twenty years of living in Asia, Lintner exposes the role crime plays in the countries of the Far East. In Blood Brothers, he takes readers inside the criminal fraternities of Asia, examining these networks and their histories to answer one question: How are civil societies all over the world to be protected from the worst excesses of increasingly globalized mobsters?

Customer Reviews:

Big Ears Du, Pockmarked Huang & Brokentooth Kwoi.......2005-07-01

Bertil Lintner belongs to a long, fruitful tradition of Anglo-American journalism on Asia. Here he collects a huge amount of historical and current data on large-scale organized crime in East and Southeast Asia; drugs, prostitution, gambling, labor rackets, extortion, "protection," kidnapping, piracy and smuggling are all covered. He defines this difficult, even dangerous subject broadly, including Russia and activities of Asian gangsters in Australia and the USA, with plentiful background on the region to provide context. Lintner discusses infamous secret societies and gangs such as the South China Triads, Japan's yakuza and the Qing Bang (Green Gang) of old Shanghai; their ties to law enforcement and governments; and roles in variously thwarting or promoting political change. It is a pleasure to read an exciting work on an exciting topic, but there are some flaws. Lintner uses interviews and published sources well, but seems to have done little archival research. Some fine, better-documented works cover aspects of the topic: on Java, R. Cribb, "Gangsters & Revolutionaries;" B. Martin, "The Shanghai Green Gang;" and Pan Ling, "Old Shanghai," by a native of the city. Maps would greatly aid in understanding a vast geographical area, and illustrations are sorely missed (wouldn't you like to see how Huang, Du and Kwoi got their names?) Finally, Lintner's grim, brutal tales may induce creeping paranoia and depression among readers. "Blood Brothers" is hardly uplifting but still very worthwhile.

Tremendous.......2003-11-22

This book is simply tremendous. It provides a rare glimpse of a magnificent lost world, one I never imagined existed. It lifts the slimy rock of civilization and shows you the teeming throngs underneath. Enter 1930's Shanghai, a city with three governments, French, British and Chinese, each with their own laws, so that someone could rob a man in one part of the city, flee down the street and escape prosecution. It was a place where the chief of police was also China's most notorious gangster. Enter a world of secret societies, pimps, hustlers, hookers in high collared silk gowns split up to their thighs, gangsters who traced their origins to the Shoalin temples, gamblers, ravenous opium smokers, pirates and every other form of low life. Relive a time where a government fought two wars to force another country to do drugs, rather than ban them. All in all a fabulously researched, well written book that paints a vivid picture of bawdy times you didn't read about in history class. Maybe if they had taught this in history, it would have been a heck of a lot more fun.

Great Survey of Roots of Asian Crime & Its Political Ties.......2003-07-07

Lintner does a good job of providing the reader with a basic understanding of the roots behind many of the predominant crime syndicates found in Asia today. The chapters are basically separated by country, although there are cross-references throughout the book. "Blood Brothers" does not cover all of the countries in Asia, and the biggest emphasis is on the Chinese "Triads" and their derivative influences across the globe. Although the text gets kind of slow sometimes with the abundance of naming and terminology used, this book should be a great resource for anyone interested in studying crime in Asia. Overall, the book is a very valuable and well-written study of the Asian underworld and its implications for global governing and U.S. foreign policy.

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Underworld of the East
James S. Lee
Manufacturer: Green Magic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0953663116

Book Description

An amazing forgotten classic that rewrites the history of drug use! James S. Lee was a young Yorkshire engineer in the late Victorian era, and he wanted a bit of adventure. He went to India, where he narrowly avoided death in a pit gas explosion and escaped a man-eating tiger. Ill with fever, he consulted a doctor who administered morphine. Impressed, he got his own syringes and supply. Before long, he had a habit. But this isn't a moral tale about the evils of drugs: Lee returns to the doctor-who recommends injecting cocaine systematically with the morphine to cure his mild dependency. It works, and he spends much of the next thirty years in the Far East and Africa with his bag of syringes having a swimmingly good time with morphine, coke, opium, hashish and a several still-unknown drugs he discovers in Sumatra. China holds most fascination for Lee, and his account of Shanghai in the Twentieth Century's early years is compellingly decadent. His journal ends when the ruling classes ban his drugs of choice, fearful of the effects of consumption on their social inferiors. Lee relinquishes them with equanimity and no after-effects.

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