The Salk Institute (Building Block Series)

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The Salk Institute (Building Block Series)

Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Architects, A-Z | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Building Types & Styles | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1568982003

Book Description

These new titles in the Building Blocks series showcase four more icons of modern architecture, as portrayed by renowned architectural photographer Ezra Stoller. Two buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater and Taliesin West, Louis Kahn's Salk Institute, and Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building are shown in original condition, with original furnishings, as the architects intended them to be seen. Wright's integration of architecture and landscape, Kahn's dramatic yet humane monumentality, and Mies's austere elegance are revealed and preserved in Stoller's classic compositions. Small, elegant, and affordable, each volume presents the photo-graphs that made these structures famous. With 60 rich duotone plates (and 16 color plates for Taliesin West), a brief introduction, and newly drawn plans, sections, and elevations, these books constitute the essential photographic histories of the most important works of modernism.

Book Description

In this quincentennial year of Holbein's birth, this is the first comprehensive annotated bibliography of texts relating to this important Northern European Renaissance artist, with an accompanying historiographic essay on various aspects of Holbein's reception.
The first part of the book, "Some Notes on Reception," contains overviews of texts about specific works such as The Dead Christ, The Solothurn Madonna, and The Meyer Madonna. Other themes addressed include the perception of Holbein's character and his place among other Renaissance masters, his work as a portraitist, his use of illusion, authenticity controversies, and a brief chronicle of Holbein collectors. Previously unaddressed topics include Holbein's influence on later artists, and his impact on fiction, including his influence seen in the works of writers such as Dostoevsky, Henry James and Edith Wharton. This part of the book also contains synopses of the most significant and recent Holbein scholarship. These vignettes constitute a multi-dimensional approach to Holbein reception, sharpened by selected quotations from his critics.
The second part of the book is a comprehensive listing of over 2,500 bibliographic citations for works dealing with Holbein and his oeuvre, each accompanied by an annotation outlining the authors' principal contributions. The range of material covered includes not only books and scholarly journals but also newspapers and other popular publications. Individual sections include texts dealing with primary sources, monographs, compendia, and exhibition catalogues. Others are devoted to texts about Holbein's paintings, drawings and prints, as well as to iconography, technical studies, patronage, collections, influences on Holbein, and Holbein reception. General Index. Author Index.

HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER: A GUIDE TO RESEARCH

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HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER: A GUIDE TO RESEARCH

Manufacturer: Garland Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

This book introduces one of the great photographers of our century, Emil Mayer, a turn-of-the-century Viennese street photographer whose prints were largely destroyed by the Gestapo after his death. Viennese Types is Mayer's surviving masterwork, a recently discovered portfolio of original prints that is published here for the first time. It is by any measure one of the most extraordinary collections in the literature of photography, lyrical, meditative, and deeply moving.

Customer Reviews:

a world long gone.......2004-01-14

Despite its rather blunt title: VIENNA TYPES is Dr. Emil Mayer's surviving masterwork of street photography. The plates are deeply moving & offer glimpses into life in that grand old city of 100 years ago. Like a Sleeping Beauty aroused by the careful ministrations of Edward Rosser, this collection of exquisite photgraphs is timeless & evocative.

Edward Rosser unfolds the details of Dr. Emil Mayer's life & times, explaining how societies were in those days before two World Wars. He also describes the particular process, bromoil, which Dr. Mayer used.

Each plate demands to be gazed upon in quiet admiration, for their details as well as their composition. You can almost feel the fabrics of people's clothes, sense the vitality of the market, smell the horses, leather & tobacco, as everyday people go about their lives.

If you love photography, Rebeccasreads recommends VIENNA TYPES for its unique & enchanting look at a world long gone.

ARTISTIC, MOVING IMAGES.......2001-06-26

Images such as those found in "Viennese Types" render words superfluous. Capturing a time long past, a serene turn-of-the-century Vienna, Dr. Emil Mayer has preserved street scenes perfectly representing individuals often seen, such as sidewalk vendors, window shoppers, a scissors grinder, a carriage driver, and more. All of these photographs are artfully composed, beautifully rendered. Most amazing, perhaps, is the intimacy and sympathy these images convey. It is almost impossible to view them without being moved.

Born in 1871 in Bohemia, Dr. Mayer was a Jew who was the victim of Nazi oppression. Following his suicide at the age of 66, his possessions, including his photography collection, were lost. Thus, regrettably, little is left of his great work.

Nonetheless, "Viennese Types" is mute testimony to his photographic artistry. This is a rare volume, one to be treasured.

Beautiful photographs of a vanished world.......2001-05-18

In photography when things turn out well it's often because there's been an especially graceful coalescence of art and science. The photography of Dr. Emil Mayer (the "Dr." was an honorary title in common use by lawyers in Austria) is a sublime example of that happy merging. Mayer was an enthusiastic practitioner, teacher, and proponent of bromoil process photography - a method that allows for a freedom of expression via a series of laborious chemical manipulations of the negative, and produces a monochrome print that has a softly grainy appearance, and a sort of quietude, in addition to effective, evocative painterly depth. From this collection and the essays that accompany it one comes to understand Mayer had the soul (and the eye) of an artist, and the patience and skill of a scientist. The results are terrific.

Rudolf Arnheim's Foreword offers an elegant preview of these atmospheric documentary photographs of a vanished time and place: turn-of-the-century Vienna, a city and a culture that has been called a "uniquely civilized world."

Edward Rosser's sensitive accompanying biographical essay, "The Life and Art of Dr. Emil Mayer," is both an appreciation and a fine critical piece. Mayer, a Jew, was born in 1871 in Bohemia. His family moved to prosperous, bourgeois Vienna when he was a child. He was well-educated, and became a lawyer and a passionate hobbyist photographer, leading a large Viennese amateur photography club for 20 years, from 1907 to 1927. Mayer published numerous monographs (some in the US) on bromoil process.

Rosser explains that Hitler's annexation of Austria intervened, however. In June 1938 Mayer and his wife committed suicide. Their possessions, including of course most of his photographs, were confiscated, lost, or destroyed. Rosser's essay elaborates: Many if not all of the Europeans who would have remembered him after the war fell victim to the Holocaust themselves. Mayer's disappearance, then, was nearly assured in a scenario replicated - unthinkably and by the millions - in our time.

But in fact Mayer's photographs were rediscovered, and the facts of his life reconstructed by the hard work and efforts of several people (credited in Rosser's essay).

The complete portfolio of the 51 photographs in this collection reside in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. They are of everyday street life - a sort that vanished with the coming of the First World War. They are portraits: at least one interesting person is in each. People conduct all sorts of business on the streets. Horses pull wagons and coaches. (Most everyone wears a hat, a cap, or a kerchief - and aside from a group of men in bowlers, the hats are quite thrilling - to this modern eye). The cobblestone streets are for people, goods, and horses - and there are many. The profusion of things to buy and to sell, so emblematic of the bourgeois ideal that was Vienna, caught Mayer's eye - and caught mine, too.

This book engaged, challenged, and delighted me. Anyone with an interest in European street life at the turn of the century, in the deep and absorbing technique known as bromoil process, and the sensitive, artful, and deeply humane photography of a man who very nearly disappeared - will appreciate this fine book.

a remarkable compilation of photographs.......2001-02-14

Viennese Types :: Wiener Typen is a remarkable compilation of the photographs taken by the late Dr. Emil Mayer in Vienna around 1910. A lawyer and photographer active around the turn of the century, Mayer's photographs are exceedingly rare because most of his prints were destroyed by the Gestapo after his death (Mayer and his wife, both Jews, committed suicide in June 1938, soon after the Anschluss). But two copies of a remarkable portfolio of his original prints survived the Holocausts, and it is this portfolio which has now been published by Blind River Editions, augmented with an informative essay by Edward Rosser and a foreword by Rudolf Arnheim. Viennese Types :: Wiener Typen is a unique and outstanding contribution to the history of photography in general, and the memorable, impressive, beautifully executed work of Emil Mayer in particular.

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Viennese Types
Edward Rosser
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUGXMC

Customer Reviews:

Dated and sometimes unnecessary..........2006-08-01

One obvious critique of this book is not the fault of the author. In short, the topics that it covers are extremely dated. Mr. Asay would be well-served to produce a current book, as many of these cartoons have lost their punch because the issues are no longer on the table.

My other complaint about the book needs to be established under the notion that I am a rather staunch conservative, particularly as it relates to moral issues. So, I ultimately agree with many of the points that Asay tries to make.

However, I found his approach to be rather arrogant and disheartening on occasion, even when I totally agreed with his ideology. I find it discouraging when we resort to name-calling and finger-pointing, regardless of whose side we're defending.

Of course, many will claim that I'm missing the point of political cartoons. And if you think that political cartoonists have the right and even responsibility to make statements as insulting as possible, then you will appreciate Asay's approach.

However, I have read hundreds of political cartoons over the years that have made their point with wit and intelligence, which Mr. Asay is capable of doing as demonstrated in a number of his cartoons. I just wish that he had captured that spirit of intelligent disputation and critique throughout the entire body of work.

This book will probably make some conservatives hoot and holler with glee. But I suspect that more thoughtful readers, conservative or liberal, should look elsewhere for a better (and more current) commentary on the issues of the day.

Asay's doodles.......2000-06-15

You need this book for your coffee table: if you're a conservative, to stimulate your liberal friends and spread the word, and if you're a liberal, to irritate your liberal friends and let them worry what word you're trying to spread. Face it, there aren't many conservative toon makers. Asay has to be the best. This little book has his toons grouped under 13 topic headings: Big Government, The Justice Department, The Presidency ... on down to World. Since it's 5 years old, it's dated, but then again, not out-dated.

Editorial Cartoons from a Conservative Point of View.......2000-03-26

Asay Doodles is possibly the best collection of editorial cartoons from a conservative point of view available today. The artwork is wonderful and the jokes are fresh and funny but the ideas really grab you. Very often I got a new insight on an issue I thought I knew very well. Whatever your political perspective I think you will both enjoy this book and find your thinking on our issues and culture challenged by it. Hey Chuck, isn't it about time for another book?

Book Description

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the structure of corporate ownership is undergoing major change. The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism chronicles the rise of fiduciary institutions--primarily public and private pension funds--which now own almost 50 percent of the equity of American corporations. In turn, approximately 50 percent of Americans either own stock individually or, more typically, have an ownership or retirement interest in these fiduciary institutions.

James P. Hawley and Andrew T. Williams argue that, because of their extensive diversification of ownership, fiduciary institutions have become "universal owners" with a significant stake in a broad cross-section of the largest publicly traded firms in the economy. Forced to evaluate portfolio-wide effects of individual firm actions, these institutions have a quasipublic policy interest in the long-term health and wellbeing of the whole society. As universal owners, fiduciary institutions are in a unique position to develop and pursue policies of virtuous efficiency, minimizing negative externalities and encouraging positive outcomes by the firms in their portfolios. In this way, they have the potential to make the firms in which they own stock more responsive to the needs of the Americans to whom they are responsible and thereby make those firms more democratic.

The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism investigates the nature of property and ownership in the modern corporate setting, the effects of the decline of traditional, personally held property in equity form, and the governance implications of the developing new form of corporate ownership.

Customer Reviews:

Best Synopsis to Date on Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism.......2005-03-20

Many have chronicled the shift from owner-founders to managerial capitalism and on to fiduciary capitalism but Hawley and Williams are among the first to spend the majority of a book on the implications of fiduciary capitalism and where this recent development might lead. In 1945 corporate equity was valued at slightly less than $120 billion; more than 90% was owned by individuals and about 4% by institutions. The value of corporate equity has grown enormously to $7.8 trillion in 1998. While the share of individuals has fallen to 44%, the proportion owned by institutions has risen to 48%. State and local pension funds owned about 1% of outstanding corporate equity in 1969; by 1998 they owned more than 10%.

Ironically, although the Employment Retirement Income Security Act has been interpreted by the Department of Labor to require proxy voting by ERISA funds on behalf of beneficiaries, the authors point out that the Employment Retirement System Act (FERSA), established for federal employees, provides that voting rights are delegated to the administrator, appointed by the trustees. We don't trust our federal trustees to vote the shares of what is likely to become the world's largest institutional investor. Fortunately, other funds, such as the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), are not under the same restrictions and have become effective owners whose monitoring has added value.

Hawley and Williams review the record of corporate governance interventions. A few of their observations are as follows:

Board independence does matter for some tasks such as replacing poorly performing CEOs and not overpaying for acquisitions.
Visible and aggressive activism results in substantial increases to shareholder wealth but quieter activism doesn't yield the same results.
Binding bylaw amendments are potentially one of the most important new tools for institutional investors.
Tying director compensation closely to firm performance may have the unintended consequence of making the board more risk adverse and deferential to the CEO because, unlike the typical diversified shareholder, board members will be subject to the fortunes of one firm.

Hawley and Williams argue that many large funds have become "universal owners," since 1/3 of the assets of the 200 largest defined benefit funds are invested in indexed portfolios. As such, they should not only be concerned with monitoring individual firms but also with portfolio-wide effects. Universal owners will still need to pay attention to the alignment of manager and shareholder incentives but that won't be enough.

For example, the authors argue that universal owners have a responsibility, derived from the duty of care, to oppose policies that create negative externalities, like pollution, and support policies that produce positive externalities, such as corporate education and training programs. In contrast to single firms who may find it advantageous to throw off the costs of pollution to society, universal owners will suffer the costs of cleanup through deteriorating infrastructures, higher taxes and other costs to their other holdings.

At the same time, universal owners are able to capture nearly the full benefit of positive externalities, like corporate training programs, because even if trained employees subsequently leave the firm where training occurred, they are likely to find new employment with another universally owned firm. Since the size and breadth of universal owner portfolios expose them to economy-wide risks and rewards, their programs must increasingly be concerned with the long-term growth and economic efficiency of national and world economies.

Universal owners who want to maximize shareholder value will need to develop "public policy" positions to ensure a well-trained labor force, effective infrastructure, legal and regulatory environment, as well as monetary and fiscal policy. They want to ensure the corporate environment encourages efficiency and doesn't externalize costs.

The authors provide several examples of such public policy activities, most of which appear to be drawn from CalPERS. These include:

policy guidelines on issues such as the environment;
surveys of firms on particular policies, such as high-performance workplace issues;
monitoring the lobbying efforts to ensure one firm doesn't put others at a competitive disadvantage;
grading portfolios on particular issues, such as adherence to corporate governance guidelines;
targeting firms on specific issues, such as the controversy surrounding logging ancient forests or producing defective products.

They envision that institutional investors will develop areas of expertise and "coat tail" off each other to create a more efficient division of labor.

Of course any volume on the cutting edge is bound to raise as many questions as it resolves and The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism is no exception. Their troubling conclusion discusses the problem of who will watch the watchers. While a growing professionalism at corporate boards and institutional investors may prevent the most egregious abuses, the authors believe that trustees holding tremendous power and wealth may soon face a tremendous backlash from the public if such power is perceived as being abused.

They end with a series of unanswered questions concerning the growing concentration of wealth in the hands of a relative few professional owners. Who will monitor the monitors? Government? The market? How do we protect beneficiaries from institutional abuse? Is fiduciary duty enough to assure appropriate behavior?

These are important issues that we are likely to grapple with for the foreseeable future. While government certainly has a role in monitoring the monitors, it is too often a captive of the very interests it is monitoring. As for the market, it doesn't respect ecological and other needs ignored by current pricing structures.

While some, like myself, believe the impetus to act as universal owners will probably come from the ultimate beneficiaries, Hawley and Williams have their doubts. They see beneficiaries rising up and demanding more input as unlikely, since beneficiaries are "even more diffuse, disinterested, and disenfranchised" than the traditional Berle-Means shareholder. "Thus it is unlikely that beneficiaries as a group will ever be able to effectively `watch' the fiduciary institutions." Our "best hope for effective monitoring is transparency coupled with competition between the institutions."

Visionaries, such as Robert Monks and Mark Latham, have proposed a heightened role for proxy monitoring firms to monitor and provide guidance to the management of portfolio firms. Maybe the rise of such institutions will provide the competitive core that Hawley and Williams see as the best hope for effective monitoring.

My own assessment is that such new institutions will play an important role but that we also need to rebuild our fiduciary institutions so they are more democratic.

CalPERS provides an excellent model of an institution that legitimates the enormous power of its fiduciaries by holding them accountable to members and stakeholders. Six of its 13 board members are nominated and elected directly by its members and beneficiaries. Four others serve as ex officio members based on their position as State Treasurer, Controller, Director of the Department of Personnel Administration and a designee of the State Personnel Board (SPB). Two members are appointed by the Governor, an elected official of a contracting public agency and an official of a life insurer. One is appointed jointly by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Rules Committee.

CalPERS is far from perfect in providing mechanisms to let its members hold the board accountable - incumbents have several advantages over challengers, such as use of CalPERS funds for traveling to meet constituents while campaigning, and members have no initiative or referendum process. However, it is far more democratic and participatory than most institutional investors...and more successful. While many large institutional investors have become universal owners, CalPERS is one of the few to begin to look at the larger policy issues that Hawley and Williams argue will make corporations more democratic.

The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism provides the best synopsis to date of how fiduciary capitalism developed but less of a guide concerning the difficult subject of "how institutional investors can make corporate America more democratic" than its title might imply. Still, the book is important as one of the first to recognize that fiduciaries, acting on behalf of universal owners, have a duty of care that extends to influencing public policies in order to generate both wealth and a healthy environment. Wide circulation of The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism could accelerate that recognition and the ultimate shift towards more democratic corporations.

An interesting book.......2003-07-15

This is an interesting book for anyone interested in modern, market and investor driven corporate governance solutions. The strength of the book is the analysis of the classical finance model of corporate governance (Bearle & Means) from an institutional - fiduciary - owners' perspective. For the most part it is an easily accessible book that is useful for anyone in the investment field.

Book Description

Globalization and labour market deregulation have had an impact on employment and workers, and brought pressure to bear on trade unions. This study looks at the challenges of globalization and deregulation, and possible responses to them in a variety of ways. It covers economies with a range of diverse socio-political backgrounds, systems and structures. It casts light on patterns and differentiations, makes international comparisons, explores gains and losses and gives an overall picture.

Globalization and Labour in the Asia Pacific Region. (Book Reviews).: An article from: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations

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Globalization and Labour in the Asia Pacific Region. (Book Reviews).: An article from: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations
Basu Sharma
Manufacturer: Relations Industrielles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, published by Relations Industrielles on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 1456 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: Globalization and Labour in the Asia Pacific Region. (Book Reviews).
Author: Basu Sharma
Publication: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: Relations Industrielles
Volume: 56 Issue: 4 Page: 824(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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Work and Employment in a Globalized Era: An Asia Pacific Focus (Studies in Asia Pacific Business)

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Work and Employment in a Globalized Era: An Asia Pacific Focus (Studies in Asia Pacific Business)
Yaw A. Debrah
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Labor Policy | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Unemployment | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

As the process of globalization intensifies and as we become increasingly conscious of the global dimensions of human existence, the case for developing norms that are global in reach and application also becomes stronger. Yet the human race still exhibits a marked diversity of culture, belief and value.
This collection of essays explores the problems involved in combining norms that apply to all humanity with sensitivity to, and respect for, people's cultural differences. Among the many issues that the authors address are the following: can we and should we treat the human race as belonging to a single global community analogous in character to the political communities that we call states?
must the doctrine of human rights ride roughshod over cultural differences or can it accommodate those differences?
does the idea of human rights itself have a genuinely universal status or is it no more than a local prejudice with global pretensions?
and should we treat individuals or groups and communities as the relevant claimants when we devise global norms?

Book Description

This digital document is an article from SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) on April 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1536 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: Indonesia Beyond Suharto: Polity, Economy, Society, Transition.
Author: Anthony SMITH
Publication: SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia (Refereed)
Date: April 1, 2001
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)
Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Page: 171

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