An Album of Maya Architecture

Book Description

Magnificent guide presents 36 sites from Central America and southern Mexico as they appeared more than a thousand years ago: Temple of the Cross, Palenque; Acropolis and Maya sweat bath, Piedras Negras; Red House and north terrace at Chichén Itzá; more. Each illustration features text of archeological finds and line drawing of remains. 95 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding Drawings.......2003-09-20

There are currently two versions of this beautiful book available that does a marvelous job of recreating the Maya world. The one entitled "An Album of Maya Architecture"(the other version has no An in the title) is published by Dover and is unabridged and is therefore a rebulication of the original published by the Carnegie Instition of Washington D.C. in 1946. This book is a labor of love by Tatiana Proskouriakoff whose excellent illustrations will and have stood the test of time. In the acknowledgement the author gives credit to all who made this project possible as there are several unpublished drawings and notes that were put at her disposal. Having visited the great temples of the Maya in Copan(Honduras), Guatemala and the Yucatan(Mexico) I can bear testament to their magnificent presence in the jungles. Buried for years in the jungles they have only "resurfaced" recently for archeologists to study and preserve for future generations. In this book the author takes the liberty of informing us of the uses of the various temples based on her extensive knowledge and field research. Since many of the building have deteriorated with the passing centuries,Tatiana Proskouriakoff mastefully recreates the buildings as they were, based on her studies. Her lively depiction of the famous Ball Court is in stark contrast to the actual court that is desolate with only tourists and the spirits of the skillfull atheletes who once graced the courts. The black and whilte illustrations are simple yet lavish in certain details. Each section or chapter comes complete with text explaining the visual and begins with an elaborate illustration of a particular part of the site in full rich detail.This is a beautiful book that anyone who is interested in the ancient Maya should have in their library. The author also suggests other books and works to compliment the study of the complex world of the mysterious Maya.

Beautiful drawings.......2002-08-05

A very nice and useful book.Throughout 29 plates Tania covers from Early Classic to Postclassic,from Uaxactun to Chichen-Itzá, showing many buildings and structures.According to her time,this Proskouriakoff's masterpiece displays highly accurated B&W drawings, plenty of details and suggestive forms, bringing to light Maya history not only from the jungle, but also from the obscurity of past. As the back cover says, her work combines "the imagination of an artist and the precision of a scientist". A great book by a great mayanist.

Great reading.......1999-04-10

This book although perhaps slightly out of date is an excellent way to get started in this field. Tania Proskouriokoff is one of the most influential archaeologists ever to work in the feild of Maya history. She was a great scientist and researched this book well and with great regard for the imperfections of the study of the Mayan history.

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AN ALBUM OF MAYA ARCHITECTURE

Manufacturer: U of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000HFFTXQ

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An Album of Maya Architecture

Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0806105763

Product Description

Study of major buildings of known Maya sites. Illustrations done by an artist depicting the buildings of the ancient temples and religious compounds.

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Album of Maya Architecture
Titi Proskouriakoff
Manufacturer: UNIV OF OK + PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000TXF25G

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An Album of Maya Architecture
Tatiana Proskouriakoff
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000V505HW

Product Description

36 restorations of magnificent Maya buildings as their builders saw the scenes more than a thousand years ago.

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An Album of Maya Architecture
Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000PS98OG

Customer Reviews:

Dedicated mainly to Austro-German metal sculpture.......1999-10-25

Disappointing book. The title should be Germanic influenced metalwork from 1910 through 1935 to be more realistic. Does not cover the wide spectrum of Art Deco sculpture in Western Europe, deals mainly with European sculpture and metalwork east of the Rhine river.

A FLOP.......1999-05-13

The chryselephantine sculpture is disappointingly covered both in content (just worth a couple of lines) and pictures (awful, tasteless and neglected duotone photos). Clearly, the author focuses just on arty sculpture rather than serial manufacture, missing the point of art deco sculpture, a blend of art and craftmanship.

Book Description

Tulips have been a source of fascination for centuries. Photographer Sabine Rosner has created vivid photos that truly capture the majesty of this almost mythical flower. Following a single bunch of tulips as it passes through time, the twenty-eight large format photographs in this book document the subtle

Customer Reviews:

Profound beyond words.......2007-01-11

This big book of photos is as spare, elegant and moving as a Basho haiku. i first encountered this book in a bookstore and it stopped me in my tracks. it is essentially a book of photographs with no text. the photographs depict the "life cycle" of a bunch of white tulips, which are photographed in tight detail. They change page to page, from pristine, virginal buds to literally the dust and fallen pollen of spent petals crumbling into the air. It is heartbreaking, beautiful, mysterious, sad-- almost a religious series of images if you roll that way. i gave it as an xmas gift to several people this year who have endured personal loss recently. The pages over oversized folios, printed on a double fold of high grade paper, which gives the image more gravitas and dimension. the page design, print registration and binding are exquisite. it will change your life (or your perception of your life).

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Becoming Being Passing
Sabine Rosner
Manufacturer: Verba Volant
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N66IRA

Being and becoming; or the passing of spirit

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Being and becoming; or the passing of spirit
Fenwicke Lindsay Holmes
Manufacturer: So. California Metaphysical Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

New Thought | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008AR1NG

Amazon.com

The best thing about this book is that it doesn't answer the question asked in its title. At least not directly. Joel Cohen understands that nobody really knows how many people can fit on our planet, thanks to constant technological advances in areas like crop yield. He is rightly skeptical of the Malthusian doomsayers who constantly predict catastrophe, but also shows that current rates of population growth cannot continue forever. A more extended discussion of politics might have helped--China's horrific one-child rule barely comes up--but for an honest treatment of human population dynamics, this is a very good source.

Customer Reviews:

What we know about constraints on population growth.......2004-11-22

Obviously, the population of the world has been growing dramatically for the past few centuries. How high can it go? At how high a level can it be maintained? What restrictions are placed by the available resources, such as food and water?

This book asks many of the right questions. And it admits that we don't have all the answers. But it does give some clues about where we may be headed.

Cohen shows that basically, if we want to support people indefinitely on 3500 kilocalories per day from wheat energy, with 9000 cubic kilometers of annual fresh water supply, well, we can support only 5 billion people. We're already beyond that. Right now, we're using up resources at an incredible rate. And while the Earth could support 10 billion people in theory, it is hard to see how it could do that for long in practice.

The author thinks that we'll never get to the absolute maximum that the Earth can support. Most people would all be right on the edge of starvation, and we'd simply be unable and unwilling to stay in that state indefinitely. But I did realize after reading this book that we could stay at about 5 billion people for a very long time if we put our minds to it. Standards of living would not be high, but they would be tolerable for the majority, and the ones who found such a life acceptable would keep having children who found it acceptable.

Those of us who have political views ought to wonder if time is on our side or not. And that is why I think it makes sense to try to imagine what options are available for our mutual future. That's why I think this book is worth reading.

Typically naive.......2003-02-20

Using the Rule Of 70, a population which grows at 1% per annum doubles in 70 years. A population which grows at 2 % doubles in 35 years. Both are considered fine examples of exponential growth (each at a constant rate of growth, producing a lovely exponential curve). The question is, if a population grows at variable rates, but always between 1 and 2 % (and thus
is guarenteed to double in 35 to 70 years) - is this exponential growth?

Not only does Cohen fail to discuss the variable compound interest version of the Malthusian Growth Model, but he fails to adequately explain the importance of negative rates of growth.

Finally, an honest book.......2000-05-14

This is a book that should be used to bludgeon every Julian Simon fan and every Zero Population Growth fanatic to depth. (You hear that Brian Cornell at overpopulation.com? I'm coming over your place with a hardcover edition to smash your cornucopian little mind!) This book doesn't pander to either the alarmists who think doom is just a year or two ahead, or to the giddy technocrats a la Julian Simon who think that technology combined with human beings' ineffable goodness is about to bring about a golden age like the United Federation of Planets on Star Trek. For straight thinking on population growth, read this book.

Very good.......1999-04-24

I thought that this book was a very refreshing change from the many other books I have read on the subject of overpopulation. Joel Cohen is very fair and writes without a political agenda. He helped me understand the issues and variables much better than any other author on the subject. However, I sometimes got lost in the statistics and mathematics and found some parts hard to wade through.

Probably the best book ever written on population........1999-04-18

Definitive, yet almost breezy. Should be required reading for anyone thinking seriously about the future, be they science fiction writers, futurologists, policy analysts, strategic planners, portfolio managers or concerned citizens.

How Many People Can the Earth Support? (book reviews): An article from: Issues in Science and Technology

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How Many People Can the Earth Support? (book reviews): An article from: Issues in Science and Technology
Niles Eldredge
Manufacturer: National Academy of Sciences
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Issues in Science and Technology, published by National Academy of Sciences on March 22, 1996. The length of the article is 1971 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: How Many People Can the Earth Support? (book reviews)
Author: Niles Eldredge
Publication: Issues in Science and Technology (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1996
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Volume: v12 Issue: n3 Page: p82(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

How Many People Can the Earth Support?: An article from: American Scientist

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How Many People Can the Earth Support?: An article from: American Scientist

Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

A brilliant investigative marrative: How six average Soviet men rose to the pinnacle of Russia's battered economy.

David Hoffman, former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post, sheds light onto the hidden lives of Russia's most feared power brokers: the oligarchs. Focusing on six of these ruthless men Hoffman reveals how a few players managed to take over Russia's cash-strapped economy and then divvy it up in loans-for-shares deals.

Before perestroika, these men were normal Soviet citizens, stuck in a dead-end system, claustrophobic apartments, and long bread lines. But as Communism loosened, they found gaps in the economy and reaped huge fortunes by getting their hands on fast money. They were entrepreneurs. As the government weakened and their businesses flourished, they grew greedier. Now the stakes were higher. The state was auctioning off its own assets to the highest bidder. The tycoons go on wild borrowing sprees, taking billions of dollars from gullible western lenders. Meanwhile, Russia is building up a debt bomb. When the ruble finally collapses and Russia defaults, the tycoons try to save themselves by hiding their assets and running for cover. They turn against each other as each one faces a stark choice-annihilate or be annihilated.

The story of the old Russia was spies, dissidents, and missiles. This is the new Russia, where civil society and the rule of law have little or no meaning.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing.......2006-07-29

I have just finished reading The Oligarchs - all 496 pages of it, and I just wanted to let anyone know who was thinking of reading it that it is an absolutely, incredible piece of quality work. I enjoyed every page.

Good Job!.......2002-10-06

Much better than I expected, a serious work with a great deal of research invovled. It avoided the typical lurid embellishments of the genre, and also made the point of the important period of transistion in the Gorbachev period, where nascent Russian capitalism started. It lacks somewhat in that it focuses on only six men, and they are of varying importance in the post-Yeltsin period. As Putin reportedly said when asked about Berezovsky--"Who?" Nevertheless, a good job, an interesting read and thankfully avoids falling into the tabloid style of so much of the literature on the topic.

The Power of Six.......2002-04-28

David Hoffman's "The Oligarchs" documents in great detail the rise of 6 businessmen--Aleksandr Smolensky, Yuri Luzhkov, anatoly Chubais, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky--who became the "oligarchs" who shaped the political and economic landscape of the New Russia. They were merely ordinary Russians until the Soviet Union collapsed. So how did a mere handful Russians end up controlling such an epic proportion of Russia's economy and have such great influence in its politics? And how did they manage to rise at Russia's decline? Hoffman's book will answer these questions by piecing together extensive research and interview to create a well-balanced, serious but at the same time, a downright fun and readable book. "The Oligarchs" is a landmark.

The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia

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The Oligarchs
A good thumbnail sketch of the oligarchic interregnum
Provides Great Insight into Russia
Loving portrait of grand larceny
Great book to learn the new Russia!

The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia
David E. Hoffman
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1586482025
Release Date: 2003-12-23

Book Description

Hailed as "the most dramatic and comprehensive account" of the early years of Russian capitalism (New York Times Book Review)

David Hoffman, former Moscow bureau chief for the Washington Post, sheds light onto the hidden lives of Russia's most feared power brokers: the oligarchs. Focusing on six of these cunning and ruthless men--Alexander Smolensky, Yuri Luzhkov, Anatoly Chubais, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Berezovsky, and Vladimir Gusinsky--Hoffman reveals how a few players rose to the pinnacle of Russia's new capitalism.

The oligarchs started small. Before perestroika, they lived the lives of Soviet citizens, stuck in a dead-end system, cramped apartments, and long bread lines. But as Communism loosened, they found gaps in the economy and reaped their first fortunes by getting their hands on fast money. As the government weakened and their businesses flourished, they grew greedier. The state auctioned off its own assets, and they grabbed the biggest oil companies, mines, and factories. They went on wild borrowing sprees, taking billions of dollars from gullible western lenders. When the ruble collapsed, the tycoons saved themselves by hiding their assets and running for cover. This is a saga of brilliant triumphs and magnificent failures, the untold story of how a rapacious, unruly capitalism was born out of the ashes of Soviet communism.

Customer Reviews:

The Oligarchs.......2006-08-04

I'm about a quarter into the book. I am very impressed. It is riveting. I went on a tour of Russia in June and wanted to know more about what is going on. I have talked my husband and sister into reading it. I think Americans get some insight into a country we know little about.

A good thumbnail sketch of the oligarchic interregnum.......2006-06-17

Daniel Hoffman of the Washington Post has written a good introduction to the interregnum between the reign of the Commununist Party of the USSR and the Presidency of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. When Communism and the Russian legal system collapsed, the boldest and brashest quickly amassed fortunes in rather unusual circumstances.

Hoffmann's account is a good introduction to these times and to the "oligarchs" who shaped these times. His book is by no means a work of investigative reporting, being liberally littered with phrases along the lines of "we'll never know the whole story", "there must have been more going on, but there are no authorative sources," "we can only surmise that much of the episode is opaque." Nor do I understand why Hoffman considers mayor Luzhkov of Moscow, Moscow's answer to Richard Joseph Daley of Chicago, an "oligarch."

All the same, this is a well-written and entertaining book about an extraordinary time.

Provides Great Insight into Russia.......2006-02-12

This book provides a great background to understand Russia and the current situation today. If you want to know about business and the history of Russia from the 80's forward, written in a way that reads like a novel, read this book.

Loving portrait of grand larceny.......2004-11-22

David Hoffman, the author of this fascinating book, intends to give us a portrait of dynamic, progressive entrepreneurs. But he actually gives us a picture of greedy criminals.

Russia's privatisation programme was huge, rapid and unprecedented. By 1996, 18,000 industrial enterprises, 80% of the total, employing 80% of Russia's industrial workers, producing 90% of Russia's industrial output, had been privatised.

Russia's 1992 Privatisation Programme, which the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs fought for, allowed directors and workers to buy 51% of the voting shares in their organisation, at a nominal price, using the enterprise's own funds. All were given vouchers, which could buy shares.

All too often, workers agreed not to interfere with the management, in exchange for promises of job security. Often, managers bought workers' shares before they had any market value, or outbid the workers, in collaboration with banks. In some cases, President Boris Yeltsin issued special decrees, excluding outsiders.

Factory managers used cooperatives, joint ventures and later, shell companies and offshore havens to leach cash and raw materials out of public enterprises. They created banks and trading companies that seized the factory's output and put the profits into their offshore accounts. Law and order were shredded.

These management buyouts led to short termism, parasitic profits (not productive investment, not rebuilding), asset stripping and capital flight (totalling possibly $150 billion between 1991 and 1999). Russia's wealth, produced by its workers, went into thousands of offshore bank accounts, real estate holdings and offshore companies.

For example, in 1993 Boris Berezovsky, Yeltsin's friend, bought 35,000 Ladas at low export prices from the producer Avtovaz, Russia's largest car factory, paying 10% down, the rest to be paid 30 months later in a time of huge inflation, nearly bankrupting the producer. He then sold them to Russians at high market prices, making $3000 a car, in a $105 million deal. Later, Berezovsky bought a third of the company for just $3 million, in a one-bidder auction. Berezovsky loaned the government $100 million for 51% of Sibneft, Russia's sixth biggest oil company, in 1995, and sold it to himself 18 months later for $110 million.

Anatoly Chubais, head of the State Privatization Committee, said of Russia's capitalists, "They steal and steal and steal. They are stealing absolutely everything and it is impossible to stop them." By 2002, five capitalists controlled 95% of Russia's aluminium, 18% of her oil, 40% of her copper, 20% of her steel and 20% of car production. The Mafia ran nearly half the private sector and owned half of Russia's largest banks. Criminal gangs controlled 80% of Avtovaz's output, which did not deter General Motors from starting up a joint venture with the giant car company.

"In sum, neither the workers nor their unions have much power over privatisation", said a US privatisation adviser. By 1999, 38% of Russia's people existed below the poverty line. 90% of the people endured worsening conditions, while the handful of arrogant capitalists made colossal profits by crime and corruption.

Great book to learn the new Russia!.......2004-09-09

Hoffman did a good job. Six main characters, Smolensky the Banker, Luzhkov the Mayor, Chubais the Economist-reformer, Khordorkovsky the oligarch, Berezovsky the Master Mind, and Gusinsky the TV Media King, controlled the Russia Yeltsin-regime economy. Many of them are Jewish, started from humble beginnings and got rich at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, with 1998 stock crash, ruble devalutaion, Putin as the new president, their wealthy empires quickly fizzled. It is a must read for any one doing business in Russia.

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The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia
David Hoffman
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N656L4

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