The Art Firm: Aesthetic Management and Metaphysical Marketing

Book Description

The Art Firm explores the seemingly unorthodox alliance of the arts, management, and marketing. Art firms—as avant-garde enterprises and arts corporations—have existed for at least two hundred years, using texts, images, and other types of art to create corporate wealth. This book investigates how to apply the methods artists use in creating value to the methods more traditional managers use in running their businesses.

Guillet de Monthoux offers a crash course in aesthetics from Kant to Gadamer, showing how aesthetic management and metaphysical marketing can create value. Using case studies of successful art managers from Richard Wagner to Robert Wilson, the author illustrates the creative role—so central to value-making in contemporary economies—performed by aesthetic play in art firms. Along the way, Guillet de Monthoux points out how responsible aesthetic management and marketing can eradicate the problems of banality and totality, the two capital sins of an art-based economy.

Customer Reviews:

On Building an Art Firm..........2005-05-23

When Pierre Guillet de Monthoux wrote The Art Firm, he provided us with a Rosetta stone. Some people understood the language of business. Other people understood the language of art. But no one understands this language of Aesthetics.

Until now.

Mr. Guillet de Monthoux shows us clearly, through the history of Aesthetics, and of avant-garde art, how this business of being relates to the art of management and to the management of art. When you finish, everything will be illuminated.

This book is (or should be) the blueprint for every successful Art Firm. Any business that requires imagination will fit this model. Anyone wanting to create great business and great art should buy this book, read it, understand it, and use it as a cornerstone.

It is an exhilarating book, and a significant one. When you finish the last chapter, everything clicks, and it you will leave ebullient. If you understand how this model works, you can harness the power of Aesthetics, and that energy will pull your firm forward.

It isn't often that a book makes your heart sing. And even rarer for a business book to do so. By the end, you will say: "I don't want to make art. I want to make art work."

Experience and History.......2004-12-20

This book is for those who would like to investigate the impact of Art not only on society but on management issues as well. This lovely serendipity walk guides us through the history and allows amazing insights. As Pierre says, "art firms might conceivably serve as models for helping firms generate aesthetic energy by stimulating technicians, artists, critics, and audience to maintain Schwung in aesthetic play".

Guillet de Monthoux describes a new emerging manager, who feels the need to go beyond sponsorship and who really embeds art into business. He carries on to write, "Success is no longer measured by being as artistically creative with given hardware as theaters have been using texts and images, signs and colors to make art work." --- Here we are, facing a transformation of managerial theory to aesthetic management. It's really exciting to read and impressive regarding the deep knowledge he shows.

Great Book !.......2004-03-16

The Art Firm investigates how to apply the methods artists use to create value in their work to the methods managers use to run their businesses. Cases of aesthetic management are cited to illustrate the range of possibilities inherent in this type of application and to understand the potential of this type of operation in the art-based economies of tomorrow.
Absolutely great book, I recommend it to everyone who
works with art management in any form.

Brilliant Book - ART = CAPITAL !.......2004-03-16

I highly recommend this incredibly stimulating odyssey to the land of art and aesthetics ! Noone seriously practicing a creative job should neglect it for here you will pick up the new weltanschauung on management based on philosophy you have long looked for. Guillet de Monthoux's take on how art and culture have blended with business is absolutely brilliant and
clearifying . Go get it now !

Book Description

A comprehensive, encyclopedia guide to more than 400 designs that are interwoven with Scottish history.

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully illustrated; some good historical background included.......2007-01-29

Photos and illustrations have great color. Sorry they didn't include some of the alternative tartans for each clan (such as ancient & hunting). Also, it's not as easy to find the clan tartan you're looking for in this one. Several clans are included on each page, tartan photos are about 1.5 inches square, and you have to hunt for the name you want. Tartan photo might not be next to clan name. Lots of good early history of Scotland in the first part of the book and some wonderful photos of the countryside and old castles. I just wish the photos of the tartans had been larger and there had been additional tartans included with each clan.

Book Description

Asset price bubbles have been and continue to be an area of major public policy concern in many countries. But while we know that the bursting of such bubbles is exceedingly painful and destructive to the economy, little is known of their causes. Indeed, there is little agreement even on the definition of a bubble and whether, whatever it is, is economically rational or irrational and reflect temporary excessive exuberance. Can bubbles be identified ex-ante before they burst? Often, one person's perceived bubble is another's perceived equilibrium price path. How and when is a bubble recognized? Should asset prices be a concern for monetary or fiscal policy makers and, if so how and when should policy-makers act? Should monetary policy attempt to target and stabilize asset prices the same as product prices? Should monetary policy act quickly at the beginning of the bubble or wait until the perceived bubble has been underway for some time? For how long? Will bubble restraining policies burst a bubble? Would it have burst on it's own? How can the damage done after bubbles be minimized? Does the experience of the U.S. in the 1920s and of Japan in the 1990s provide any lessons and guidelines for these and other countries in the 2000s?

The papers in this volume examine these and other aspects of asset price bubbles from the perspective of different times and different countries. The authors are experts who represent different countries, different economic philosophies, and different backgrounds - academic, government, bank regulatory agency and private. As a result, the papers add greatly to our storehouse of knowledge about asset price bubbles and hopefully will continue to more successful public and private policies for restraining both the bubbles and their consequences and improving economic welfare.

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Asset Prices and the Real Economy (Studies in Banking and International Finance)

Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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General | Economics | Business & Finance | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
Investing | Finance | Business & Finance | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0312129831

Book Description

The recession which many countries experienced in the early 1990s had certain unusual aspects. Most notably, and common to all countries, was the behaviour of asset prices relative to the general price level. In consequence, reasons were sought to explain the special characteristics of the recession and as a result of the behaviour of asset prices attention turned to 'Debt-Deflation Theories' associated in different forms with Keynes and Irving Fisher. The contributors to this volume discuss the significance of debt deflation. Their striking common feature is that, on the evidence presented here, the behaviour of asset prices should not be of great concern to policy makers, or to those attempting to understand economic behaviour. However, residual doubts remain over the Japanese case.

3: Equity premium.(Financial Markets and the Real Economy): An article from: Foundations and Trends in Finance

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3: Equity premium.(Financial Markets and the Real Economy): An article from: Foundations and Trends in Finance
John H. Cochrane
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000NOK4JU
Release Date: 2007-02-16

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Foundations and Trends in Finance, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 2638 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: 3: Equity premium.(Financial Markets and the Real Economy)
Author: John H. Cochrane
Publication: Foundations and Trends in Finance (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Page: 24

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Asset Prices and the Real Economy (Studies in Banking and International Finance)

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Asset Prices and the Real Economy (Studies in Banking and International Finance)
Palgrave Macmillan
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTFZFW

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Asset Prices and the Real Economy (Studies in Banking and International Finance)
Forrest; Wood, Geoffrey Edward Capie
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OULLTA

Book Description

"Detours and Lost Highways begins with the Orson Welles film, Touch of Evil (1958), which featured Welles both behind and in front of the camera. That movie 'is often cited as the end of the line, noir's rococo tombstone...the film after which noir could no longer be made, or at least could not longer be made in the same way'...'It is my belief,' Hirsch writes, 'that neo-noir does exist and that noir is entitled to full generic status. Over the past forty year, since noir's often-claimed expiration, it has flourished under various labels.' Among the movies he discusses as evidence: Chinatown (1974), Body Heat (1981), John Woo's Hong Kong blood-ballets (e.g., The Killer, 1989) and the pulpy oeuvre of Quentin Tarantino." -Washington Post Book World

Customer Reviews:

Tour of Neo-Noir Film, from 1960s Rarity to Contemporary Hollywood Mainstay........2006-09-12

Foster Hirsch wrote one of the first American books about classic film noir, "The Dark Side of the Screen", in 1981. In "Detours and Lost Highways" (1999), he takes us on a tour of neo-noir from its sporadic appearances in the 1960s and 1970s to its emergence as a "mainstay of commercial narrative filmmaking" in the 1980s and 1990s. Hirsh asserts that film noir has "a claim to genre status" at this point, in particular because of the style's persistence, and we tour of 4 decades of neo-noir, with an eye out for themes and style in common with the classic period as well as those characteristics that distinguish neo-noir films from their classic predecessors. Hirsh sometimes labels films with distinctly contemporary approaches as "nouveau noir", in contrast to the parody, pastiche, and retro themes so common to neo-noir, which I found interesting and accurate.

By way of introduction, Foster Hirsch explains where he's coming from and where he intends to take us before embarking on the tour of neo-noir. Chapters 2-4 explore neo remakes of classic noir films, the French influence on early noir and noir's influence on French auteurs, and neo films based on the hardboiled crime novelists of the 1930s and 1940s, with particular attention to Jim Thompson's books. Chapters 5-9 organize the discussion of neo-noir films by motif: detective films, femmes fatales, dramas of misfortune, hard-core criminals, and Black noir, from blaxploitation to the "cautionary fables" more common today. Chapter 10 comments on hybrid noirs: horror-noir, science fiction-noir, and comedy-noir. There is a bibliography, filmography, and index in the back of the book. Note that the filmography includes all films to which Hirsch alluded, not just noir films.

"Detours and Lost Highways" is one of few studies dedicated to neo-noir, so I'm happy to report that the book is very worthwhile. Foster Hirsch is an often keen observer who has a lot of interesting things to say about movies. I was disappointed that "To Live and Die in L.A.", one of the few neo-noirs that I think approaches the depth and cynicism of the classic cycle, was not included. So be warned that your favorite films may not all be covered. (And remember that this book stops at 1999.) Like any analysis of culture, "Detours and Lost Highways" is not without controversy. The chapter on femmes fatales, in particular, exemplifies the marked differences in how academics interpret films and how audiences do. And, as far as I can tell, Hirsch accepts all of academia's currently fashionable ideas about film noir's origins and themes, flimsy as they may be. But noir buffs will recognize the tired suppositions and appreciate the tour of neo-noir's old habits and new approaches to the dangerous, chaotic, noir world.

Great examination of Modern Noir.......2003-02-07

With roots reaching deep into film history, the stylistic conventions of film noir have been present throughout the history of cinema. Moreover, the hardboiled tales that lent themselves to noir's stylistics that reached their heyday in the 1940s have never fully disappeared from the silver screen. In Detours and Lost Highways, Foster Hirsch examines classic noir films and their influence on later films. Primarily focusing on original works and their later remakes, Hirsch places the films into cultural and historical perspective, noting the necessity for change in the films according to their era and how they work (or, more often, don't).

Hirsch's book is right up my alley. I'm a big fan of noir and am always curious about how films change going from their original concepts to the screen and to their subsequent remakes and/or influences. Detours and Lost Highways is an exhaustive work whose only fault may lie in its curious omission of key noirs and neo-noirs such as WHITE SANDS, PALMETTO, and DETOUR (and its remake). Likewise, while Hirsch provides a terrific history of noir in pre- and post-war France, he unfortunately misses out on discussing the great noirs of Japan. These points notwithstanding, Detours and Lost Highways is necessary reading for noir fans and students of film history. (ISBN: 0879102888)

Interesting Detours.......2002-12-08

I liked this book, although it seemed that half the time I disagreed with Hirsch on the film he was discussing. For example, he found a lot more to like the the Lumet-Fonda "The Morning After" than I did. Curiously enough, even when Hirsch criticized a film I liked, I didn't find him annoying.

The book begins very well, with a discussion of "Odds Against Tomorrow," a film noir that came out after "Touch of Evil," the last "official" noir. This leads Hirsch, after a discussion of noir in French cinema, into looking at neo-noir. Hirsch organizes his material by subgenre or archetype, such as private eye films.

My serious problem with the book was that it covers so much, from 1959 to the late 90s. That is much longer than the original noir era (1941-59). Thus it seems odd to have films like "Shock Corridor" and "The Long Goodbye" discussed with "Reservoir Dogs" and "Basic Instinct," as if they were part of the same era. I think Spicer in his new book on film noir treats neo-noir better by splitting it in two (Sixties and Seventies vs. Eighties and Nineties).

However, Hirsch discusses a large number of films in detail and it is always interesting to see what he has to say, even when you disagree.

Customer Reviews:

The Life of La Signoret.......2006-10-12

In an article entitled "In Praise of Older Women," "Time" magazine once remarked that Simone Signoret was "everywoman's Bogart, in a trenchcoat, dangling a cigarette, in "Room At The Top." Should you find yourself saying some modern equivalent of "Right on, sister,"at this, you might want to find this autobiography.

Signoret (born, Wiesbaden, Germany, March 25,1921; died, High Jura, France, September 30,1985 ) might seem typically French middle-class at first glance. In fact,she was raised in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris, in an intellectual atmosphere. She studied English in school, took a teachers degree, and tutored in English and Latin. She spoke English, German, and French. But her father, an officer in the French army and a linguist who later worked at the United Nations, was descended from Polish Jews. He barely made it out of France ahead of the German Occupation of World War II: he fled to England, where he served with French General Charles de Gaulle. This left Signoret, as a young woman, to shoulder the burden of supporting her mother and two younger brothers. She first went to work at a collaborationist newspaper, "Le Nouveau Temps," so collaborationist that her boss Jean Luchaire, faced a firing squad at war's end.

However, she herself discovered the Cafe Flore, home of France's intelligentsia these many years, and decided she wanted to act. Through the Occupation of France, she continued, by working constantly in the film industry, always as an extra or perhaps with just one line,to support mother and brothers. She lacked proper papers, owing to her father; used her mother's maiden name, Signoret, rather than her father's name, Kaminker; and had to keep a low low profile.

But all wars eventually end, even World War II, and her career began to build. Along the way to "Casque d'or, " her first major French picture, she loved, lived with, had a girl Catherine by, and eventually married French film director Yves Allegret. Then in a dramatic, wrenching emotional upheaval, she met French cabaret star Yves Montand. They eventually married, and she even managed to talk him into making a few movies, such as "Wages of Fear," "Z", and "State of Siege."

The couple were outspoken left-wingers, and though Hollywood began to flirt in the 1950's, they couldn't get visas to enter this country. Mind you, they had minds of their own. Previous commitments required them to tour the Soviet Union shortly after its brutal repression of the Polish Uprising of 1956. One evening the Politburo came to late supper, and the pair told then-leader Nikita Khrushchev just what they thought of his methods.

At any rate, in 1959, at age 38, Signoret became an international star with the English-made "Room at the Top." She and her husband were finally able to get visas into the States: she was able to be in Los Angeles in 1960 to collect her Best Leading Actress Oscar for "Room." She was the first woman to win the Best Actress award in a non-American made film. The couple decided to stay on while Montand made "Let's Make Love" with Marilyn Monroe.

Signoret discusses the period when she and Montand lived above Marilyn Monroe and her then-husband Arthur Miller, in Bungalows 20 and 21 of the Beverly Hills Hotel, as "Let's Make Love" was made. There was nearly worldwide gossip about a Monroe-Montand affair, and later Monroe did tell her dresser Lena Pepitone, that after Signoret and Miller left town for other commitments, they did. Signoret, however, never believed it. She wrote of Monroe, "She's gone, without ever knowing that I never stopped wearing the champagne colored silk scarf she'd lent me one day....It's a bit frayed now, but if I fold it carefully, the fray doesn't show."

The author is biting in her treatment of Lillian Hellman, who confided in her book "Pentimento" that she hated Signoret's "Regina" in the French stage production of Hellman's play "The Little Foxes." She's moving in her discussion of a handsome young Greek, holding a carnation in a famous picture. He was a left-winger, and was clandestinely murdered, in the beams of a Dodge truck, by the neo-fascist right in 1953. He and his carnation were reborn in Montand's "Z."

And the woman's wonderful on her decision to age, " like everybody else, and quietly accept the idea that 45 puts you on the road to 46 rather than to 44.... It's very easy to go on functioning at the same rhythm as your contemporaries, to mature with them, and to age with them. And it's miraculous when life brings you parts that seem to grow better each year, stronger, laden with the memories and personal experiences that have put those lines on your face. They are the scars of the laughter, the tears, the questions, the astonishments and the certainties that are also those of your contemporaries. I chose not to go /to the plastic surgeons/. I didn't go because I've never been a star." Now there, Mme Montand, you fibbed a bit.

The actress was also well-known for her films "Les Diaboliques," and "Ship of Fools," in which she co-starred with Vivien Leigh. She is buried in Paris's famed Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery. A French postage stamp was issued in her honor on October 3, 1998. The late great American jazz singer Nina Simone always told interviewers she'd taken her name from Signoret's. Signoret, you see, had a lot going for her, in addition to that dangling cigarette.

Simone's Nostalgia.......2000-03-16

It rarely happens that a great movie actress also manages to be a great writer. Signoret tells her life story in a lively, literary prose. She makes no excuses for the mistakes she made. She is a master in evoking the atmosphere of a meeting, a conversation or a movie set. Her description of the people she meets on her travels are rivetting.

MADA; Look What's Been cookin' Nostalgia Cookbook

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MADA; Look What's Been cookin' Nostalgia Cookbook
Michigan Automobile Dealers Association MADA
Manufacturer: Comerica Acceptance Corporation and Michigan Automobile Dealers Assoc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VUU5JA

My Best Advice Is: Don't Go Home (Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be)

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My Best Advice Is: Don't Go Home (Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be)

Manufacturer: Steve Lang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EGH0Y4

Product Description

Dubious recollections and reflections of going home after an extended period away.

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Nostalgia Is What It Was
Bob Cusack
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Book Description

A nostalgic look at the decades; its music and the memories; as seen by veteran broadcaster Bob Cusack, who lived and worked through it all! A delightful trip down memory lane; remembering the music and entertainment of the century and how it affected our everyday lives.

From the 1930s to the present, a glance at the world of entertainment and how it became a part of the way we lived.

Download Description

From the 1930s to the present, a glance at the world of entertainment and how it became a part of the way we lived.

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Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be
Simone Signoret
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H2D3FK

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Nostalgia isn/t What it Used to be
Simone Signoret
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LHJ8FK

Nostalgia isnÂ’t what it used to be / Simone Signoret

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Nostalgia isnÂ’t what it used to be / Simone Signoret
Simone (1921-1985) Signoret
Manufacturer: New York : Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VZ9E74

What Makes A Family? : An article from: The Exceptional Parent

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What Makes A Family? : An article from: The Exceptional Parent
Tammy McKelvie
Manufacturer: Psy-Ed Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000BG9HOI
Release Date: 2005-09-15

What My Father Didn't Know I Learned From Him

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What My Father Didn't Know I Learned From Him
Harry Youtt
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1553695631
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Book Description

What My Father Didn't Know I Learned from Him, by Harry Youtt, is a collection of poems that are a reminiscence of his father, one that carries within it the seeds of the universal that have meaning for all of us. A photo-album of a man's soul. The first selection: Skyline, sets the tone for the entire work:

When my father died, it was like the towers coming down.

Our skyline was changed beyond recognition.
Now, parts of my father I never recovered are still down there
buried in the rubble.

The collection has been labeled as almost a new art form, as fresh a departure from the conventional poetry of our current culture as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was in its time. Easily accessible to everyone, it is the story of a "simple-complicated man," presented not as an epic or saga with a forced, over-arching theme, but as a series of starbursts, one episode at a time. The result is that, like a box of popcorn, one can reach in and grab a handful at a time from any place in the box, leaving the rest for later.
Most contemporary poetry strives to be poetry. It tries to twist language into a message the poet wants to get across. It seeks phrases that call attention to themselves as poetry. By contrast, in these poems, as Harry Youtt says, "I just write them down and let them reach back for me."
This is a different approach. It is what Walt Whitman recognized when he characterized the poet as not an "arguer"but as pure "judgment"itself. "He judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling round a helpless thing."
The collection is a long-delayed search for the discovery of the poet's father a search that reveals to all of us a part of the universal quest to find the significance of our immediate roots. As Harry says: "We are all mystified by our parents. And many of us spend a long time trying to make sense of things for ourselves, so that we can move on into our own individuality. In demystifying my own father, I hope that others will gain insight in their own separate singular struggles and will be encouraged or inspired to light out in their own directions. The book will honor me best if it stimulates others to seek to create their own poetic starbursts as they go."

"Where Did You Go?" "Out." "What Did You Do?" "Nothing."

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"Where Did You Go?" "Out." "What Did You Do?" "Nothing."

Manufacturer: Manor Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EN0AZS

Product Description

A delightful backward look at childhood by a kid who was puzzled by grownups and then grew up into a grownup puzzled by kids. If you remember when marbles were called "immies", if you played stoop ball or kick the can, if you ever built parachutes out of a handkerchief and string weighted with a stone, prepare to fall victim to the charm of Robert Paul Smith's great bestseller--which has already tickled the funny bone of over a million readers. (from back cover)

Book Description

Buttons are easy to find, fun to collect, and they provide the family with lots of games to play. The author takes a light-hearted look at a 101 games, from very easy ones to the more challenging. They include simple guessing games, games using boards or table-tops, and games of imagination, wit, and creativity.

A most improbable book about games to play with buttons.

Book Description

All of the essays in this new collection by Thomas Schelling convey his unique perspective on individuals and society. This perspective has several characteristics: it is strategic in that it assumes that an important part of people's behavior is motivated by the thought of influencing other people's expectations; it views the mind as being separable into two or more parts (rational/irrational; present-minded/future-minded); it is motivated by policy concerns--smoking and other addictions, global warming, segregation, nuclear war; and while it accepts many of the basic assumptions of economics--that people are forward-looking, rational decision makers, that resources are scarce, and that incentives are important--it is open to modifying them when appropriate, and open to the findings and insights of other social science disciplines.

Schelling--a 2005 Nobel Prize winner-- has been one of the four or five most important social scientists of the past fifty years, and this collection shows why.

Customer Reviews:

Rethread of Old Writings.......2007-01-30

This is an anthology of essays written over the last 60 years and, as with all "greatest hits" products, there are good parts and some stinkers. Overall, Schelling does an excellent job of writing his thoughts in straight forward terms that do not require a doctorate in economics to understand. In fact, he makes several points that everyone could benefit from should know.

The first section on "Climate and Society" was an excellent explanation on why the Kyoto treaty is bad for the USA and several ideas on how to use market forces to steer polluting members of industry to greener alternatives. However, the point of using market forces is to get away from the bureaucracy of government regulation of pollution, yet someone will still need to set limits (i.e. total tonnage, number of permits, etc.) in Schelling's proposals.

The next hundred pages are full of so much repetition that it's best to just skip before you get so bored that you put the book down and miss the best part. I'll summarize the skipped section: Schelling asks, but doesn't answer the question, whether a person is of right mind under the duress of a strong desire (i.e. Smoking, heroin, etc.) Furthermore, should that person be able to make decisions while not under duress that have effect when under duress (i.e. No matter how much I beg, don't give me morphine when I'm in pain.) As human beings we change our minds all the time, who's to say that under duress is or isn't one of those times.

His discussion of the cold war is an interesting perspective that incorporates signaling and game theory. Schelling makes the excellent observation that a buildup of conventional forces in Europe during the cold war was a signal by both sides that they do not intend on using nuclear weapons. Otherwise, nuclear weapons would be deterrent enough of conventional warfare. He also interprets historic events in a nuclear game theory context that may or may not be accurate. Some seem a little to simplistic (or cerebral) to expect politicians to operate in that way.

Lastly, the section on "Social Dynamics" is absolutely amazing. I'll summarize, but you should read it for yourself. He created a model that demonstrates even a small amount of preference within two groups will result in a congregation of those like themselves and away from the other another. Thus a reason for how two race/age/sex/experience groups can result in a segregated mapping.

My favorite part of the book is when he makes the point that politicians argue, sway and divide the public with value issues and not facts. Very few of us would disagree with an argument that was based on fact.

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