Egypt and the Ancient Near East Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Home Series

Book Description

Cloth accesses an astonishingly broad range of human experiences. The raw material from which things are made, it has multiple associations: sensual, somatic, decorative, functional, and ritual. Yet although textiles are part of our everyday lives, their very familiarity and accessibility belie a complex set of histories and meanings.This is the first journal to look at the cultural meanings of textiles, with articles drawn from a wide range of disciplines. Heavily illustrated in full color, and featuring book and exhibition reviews, it brings together research in an innovative and distinctive forum, and will be essential reading for all those interested in textiles, material culture, and design.

Textile Volume 4 Issue 2: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (Textile)

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Textile Volume 4 Issue 2: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (Textile)
Catherine Harper
Manufacturer: Berg Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Textile & Costume | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This exciting journal brings together research in an innovative and distinctive academic forum, and will be of interest to all those who share a multifaceted view of textiles within an expanded field. Representing a dynamic and wide-ranging set of critical practices, it provides a platform for points of departure between art and craft; gender and identity; cloth, body and architecture; labor and technology; techno-design and practice--all situated within the broader contexts of material and visual culture.

Textile Volume 5 Issue 2: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (Textile)

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Textile Volume 5 Issue 2: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (Textile)
Claire Pajaczkowska
Manufacturer: Berg Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1845206185
Release Date: 2007-09-04

Book Description

This exciting journal brings together research in textiles in an innovative and distinctive academic forum, and will be of interest to all those who share a multifaceted view of textiles within an expanded field. Representing a dynamic and wide-ranging set of critical practices, it provides a platform for points of departure between art and craft; gender and identity; cloth, body and architecture; labour and technology; techno-design and practice -- all situated within the broader contexts of material and visual culture.

Textile, Volume 1, Issue 2: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (Textile)

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Textile, Volume 1, Issue 2: The Journal of Cloth and Culture (Textile)
Pennina Barnett , Janis Jefferies , and Doran Ross
Manufacturer: Berg Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Textile & Costume | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This is the first journal to look at the cultural meanings of textiles, with articles drawn from a wide range of disciplines. It brings together research in an innovative and distinctive forum, and will be essential reading for all those interested in textiles, material culture and design.

Heavily illustrated and featuring book and exhibition reviews, these issues will include the following articles*:

Freud, Fabric, Fetish
Anne Hamlyn, writer and lecturer

Maculate Conceptions: Spots, Dots and Motley
Steven Connor, Birkbeck College, University of London

Way Beyond Craft: Thinking through the Work of Mildred Constantine
Jenni Sorkin, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

India Inside Out: Critical Perspectives on the Work of Mrinalini Mukherjee
Victoria Lynn, Australian Centre for the Moving Image

Domesticating the Exotic: Floral Culture and the East India Calico Trade with England, c. 1600-1800
Beverly Lemire, University of New Brunswick

Book Description

Cloth accesses an astonishingly broad range of human experiences. The raw material from which things are made, it has multiple associations: sensual, somatic, decorative, functional, and ritual. Yet although textiles are part of our everyday lives, their very familiarity and accessibility belie a complex set of histories and meanings. This is the first journal to look at the cultural meanings of textiles, with articles drawn from a wide range of disciplines. Heavily illustrated in full color, and featuring book and exhibition reviews, it brings together research in an innovative and distinctive forum, and will be essential reading for all those interested in textiles, material culture, and design.

Book Description

Liberty Meadows is an animal sanctuary where the animals run the show! There's Leslie, the hypochondriac bullfrog, Ralph the midget circus bear, Dean the male chauvinist pig (who really is a pig), and the beautiful animal psychologist, Brandy, among others. Liberty Meadows is a bit Bloom County mixed with pop culture satire and sometimes (but never salacious) humor. It's life and love as usual in Liberty Meadows animal sanctuary, where anything and everything can happen. See how it all began in a new widescreen landscape format with completely remastered and uncensored comic strips.

Customer Reviews:

Funny As Heck.......2006-07-31

This reviewer first was introduced to Liberty Meadows when she was spending one of her many hours at a Barnes and Nobles.

The plotline, she had to admit, was a little strange, but seemed to work: a dorky vet by the name of Frank working at an animal shelter for some of the most eccentric animal characters known to man.

There's Leslie, the hypochondriac bullfrog. Dean, the obnoxious pig who smokes, drinks, and fancies himself a ladies man (ladies pig?). Truman, the duck who cannot fly. Ralph the midget bear inventor. And so on.

The comedy is often of a slapstick nature. Dean the pig's attempts to woo the ladies usually end up with Dean getting hurt (in one memorable instance, Frank has to remove a high-heeled shoe from where the sun don't shine after one of Dean's many attempts).

Ralph and Leslie are constantly either pulling pranks on each other or the other inhabitants and trying out one of Ralph's cockamamie inventions. Not to mention owner Julius' obession with outsmatring Khan the catfish, Frank's clumsy pursuit of Brandy, the animal psychologist, lots of sight gags involving other comic strips, and the occasional appearance of cartoonist Frank Cho, in the form of a chimp. You have been warned.

All and all, this writer doesn't know what drugs Frank Cho was on upon creation, but she wants it.

-Ariadne

Viva Liberty (Meadows).......2005-09-11

Before its voluntary departure from the Washington Post, "Liberty Meadows" had gained a loyal following that brought it back from possible cancellation more than once. In a sea of snippy animals and dysfunctional families, Frank Cho's strip brought us something fresh and original: Complete madness.

But in case readers weren't lucky enough to catch Cho's strip initially, it has been immortalized in "Liberty Meadows 1: Eden." Expect nothing but madness, mayhem and a bit of wistful romance, and this kooky comic will not disappoint.

Welcome to Liberty Meadows, an animal preserve overseen by vet Frank and animal shrink Brandy. Nerdy Frank is instantly smitten with busty, kind-natured Brandy, but lacks the self-confidence to ask her out. As he struggles to admit his feelings, he must get to know the residents.

Unfortunately, those residents include a crazed cow, hypochondriac frog Leslie, chain-smoking chauvinist pig Dean, Truman the aquaphobic duck, and Ralph the tiny bear. This loony crew tries to deal with dates (where Brandy's crazed ex tries to kill Frank), the evil catfish Khan, camping trips with psychedelic mushrooms, falls into mine shafts, severed noses, truck-sized ticks, the insane stalker Cow kidnapping a celebrity and -- worst of all -- Dean's trip through the land of Cold Turkey.

It's hard to find a comic strip that is as relentlessly weird as "Liberty Meadows," and it's amazing that Frank Cho managed to keep these off-the-wall jokes going for so long. Or, for that matter, that he managed to make them up at all. Mad Cow kidnapping William Shatner? That one was priceless, I have to admit.

Cho straddles the line between realistic and cartoonish artwork -- on one hand, Brandy and Frank are very realistic looking. Especially Brandy's, um, "details." Their actions are all-too-human, and our hearts bleed whenever Frank's nerve fails him. On the other hand, the animals and some of the supporting humans are goofy-looking, and act accordingly.

"Liberty Meadows" was a refreshing, too-brief reprieve on the comic page, and fortunately the stories of Brandy, Frank and the loony animals can be easily revisited in the first collection.

Customer Reviews:

BEN IS DEAD rules, okay?.......2005-10-28

My old punk rock pal Mary Mayhem pawned off a box of old fanzines on me the other day, and there was a big stack of BEN IS DEAD magazines amongst them. I had forgotten how good that magazine was. Its a bona fide work of art (without chewing on it, okay?). The publisher, Darby Romeo, was sort of the archetypal Southern California Jewish cultcha' chick for the '80s. Besides being a brilliant writer, she had a yearning quality and a very original slant. She always seemed to be looking for the real and the authentic, even as she was wading through the shallow and phony junk that is Pop Culture. With her "Retro Hell" issues, its almost as if she's looking for God in the details (and I'm sure He's there somewhere, even amidst the Fonzie lunchboxes and Charlie's Angels posters). Face it, we were all raised amidst the blizzard of Pop Culture artifacts. We tried to create a life (or a so-called lifestyle) out of the crap pouring out of our TV sets, radios, and rock magazines. Darby Romeo graduated from high school in 1985, started publishing BEN IS DEAD in 1988 at around age 21, and I think she kept publishing it until around 1999 or so. Every issue got better, slicker, more original, and even more successful (she even copped a book publishing contract out of the deal). And then, she apparently disappeared from public view. Rumor has it she joined a weird cult. WHich I suspect is just the kind of weird rumor that Romeo would appreciate (everytime I disappear from view people just assume I'm dead, sheesh). She had a highly defined sense of irony on top of irony on top of searching for something real on top of further irony. She was the kind of Hollywood chick who hated and smirked at everything "hip." Even as she seemed obsessed with all things hip. As a little girl in the '80s she had Duran Duran posters all over her bedroom walls (well, she would've if her father had let her). Then in the '90s she launched herself into the gears of the Media Machine and got to interview Duran Duran. She even got grab-assed by Simon LeBon, or one of those hair-boys. So you see, dreams come true. Its odd and odd experience re-reading those "Retro Hell" issues of BEN IS DEAD ten years later. Its a perfectly-preserved time-capsule of the long-gone '90s fanzine scene. So I guess now its Retro Retro.

A delightful nostalgia trip.......2003-05-02

If you were born during the tail end of the Baby Boom or are part of Gen-X, think of "Retro Hell" as a travel guide to Memory Lane. This book covers almost every aspect of life in the 1970's and '80's, from the most profound to the most trivial. What makes this book a joy is its ability to remind you of the little things you've forgotten -- toys, fads, fashions, one-hit-wonder bands, TV shows, commercials -- and bring back a flood of memories.

Though much of the writing is strongly tongue-in-cheek, it's not all cynical... which is quite refreshing. Not everything about the '70's and '80's was horrible; indeed, in an age of terrorism and war, roller disco doesn't seem so bad.

This book was originally published in 1997. If a newer edition is planned, adding some context would be especially helpful, now that the entire decade of the '90's has passed. For it's the seemingly frivolous things that ultimately shape our lives in unexpected ways.

Bitchin'.......2000-09-04

Concentrating on the period 1970-1988, this textbook of cultural anthropology covers a variety of trivial obsessions which, at the time, must have seemed extremely important. For somebody from the UK, it's like a glimse into a bizarre alternative world of Pet Rocks, Farrah Fawcett's hair and the not-at-all drugs-related H. R. Pufnstuff. Did people once vote for Jimmy Carter? Apparently so. It's written in an engagingly everyday tone by the staff and freinds of a sadly-defunct magazine called 'Ben is Dead', and the only bad thing is that it isn't ten times the size - it's great to read on the train, and my copy is now creased and tatty.

An Anthropologist's Guide to the 1970's.......2000-08-26

Perfectly suited to its target audience both in subject matter and in presentation, this little encyclopedia is guaranteed to be incomprehensible to anyone who was not a small child during the Ford and Carter administrations. It is an exhaustive laundry list of toys, television shows, and other products marketed to children mostly in the 1970's and early 1980's. Said children grew up, went to college, and spent many a late-night dorm room session processing their mixed amusement and time-gilded fondness for these products. Generation X's strangely premature nostalgia was in the mid-'90's documented and catalogued by the staffers of a 'zine called Ben Is Dead, and subsequently released as a book, published with a silver cover, adorned with a flaming disco ball and digito-futuro typeface, called "Retro Hell".

As with any encyclopedia, this book is not to be read cover to cover. Unlike with an encyclopedia, the entries will not strain the most fragile of attention spans, as they are brief and anecdotal. Some merely invoke the commercial slogan attached to the toy in order to clarify the meaning of the item. Chances are good that if you, a friend or a sibling had a particular game, toy, or favorite TV actor in 1976, it will merit an entry in this book, presumably to your surprise and affectionate delight.

OK, let's face it. We GenX'ers (my DOB: 12/20/69) had discussions about these silly things with our friends as far back as 1986, and it all began with our laughter at the memory of the Brady Bunch, with its plaid polyester and relentless good cheer. (Surprisingly no one has ever called attention in print to the sublime musical score of the Brady Bunch.) By the mid-1990's, most of us were a bit burnt out on that sort of discussion. And yet, the sheer inclusiveness of this book guarantees that the late-night discussions will continue for at least as long as it takes to comb through it, as the diligent editors of BID have dredged up for us memories of long-forgotten things like Wacky Packages, checkered Vans, and Operation!. One can imagine that this catalogue was generated with competitive passion, as the youthful 'zinesters engaged in that most cherished of all verbal sports, "Obscurity One-Upmanship", or "Who can recall the most marginal bit of shameless pop culture detritus from the furthest corners of their memory?

Their effort is worthwhile, despite its novelty. It is as ironic as the generation it was written for, as it is in fact useful trash. It is the narrowest history of minutiae you can possibly find, and therefore the most telling. As might once have been said on a nighttime infomercial somewhere around 1980, "It makes a great gift ! "

Hilarious and somewhat scary trip down memory lane........2000-07-31

If you were born between 1965 to 1979, this book is aimed at you. You may end up disagreeing with many of the entries, but not because they're wrong- just because it can be so embarrassing to see your past held up in a modern light.

This is an encyclopaedic recounting of pop-culture memories of many authors, and was originally published in 3 consecutive issues of Darby's magazine "Ben is Dead". One of the unfortunate side-effects of the translation from magazine to book has been the loss of a bit of material. Most/all of the supplementary articles and sidebars have been lost; a lot of pictures have been dropped (possibly from copyright or trademark infringement?); individual entries have been changed, either to remove possibly inflammatory material, or for some judicious editing. Some entries are gone all-together.

But, after 5+ years, my copies of BiD are brown and curling from acidic decay, water damage, constant re-reading. This book is a more durable, more easily transportable, more easily read and shared compendium of what is undoubtedly the best part of the original 3 issues.

For most entries, there are comments from multiple authors- if you don't like what someone wrote about your favorite subject, there's someone else right after them that wrote exactly what you wish you could say. You'll have old dusty memories jarred- both pleasant and unpleasant. You'll cringe in agony when you realize just how stupid we looked drawing a "Z" in the dirt to run faster when wearing Zips shoes. You'll recall that night you saw Pink Lady & Jeff on TV and realized adults didn't know what they were doing, either. You'll also get a lot of info on regional fads (typically southern California) that may not mean much in the rest of the country, but makes for interesting reading.

The best part about the book is the editorial decision to not just concentrate on the happy/good parts of our collective past. A lot of dirt is listed, too, which will make some people uncomfortable, but it makes the book probably the most honest of the pop-culture books that reference the 70s. Instead of sanitizing and making palatable what was, in all honesty, an incredibly vapid and tasteless era, Retro Hell is more of a catharsis for everyone who grew up in that time. The book's not just a fun read, but it'll probably make you a better person, too.

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Retro Hell : Life in the '70s & '80s from Afros to Zotz
Ben Is Dead Magazine Editors Staff
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (P)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTQG3W

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Retro Hell: Life in the `70s and `80S, from Afros to Zotz
Editor
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3MQ04

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Retro Hell: Life in the `70s and `80S, from Afros to Zotz
Editor
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3JGSO

Customer Reviews:

Film Finance & Distribution.......2005-09-26

I received the book quickly and I got it for a really cheap price, but the book itself was pretty beat up, it had a coffee cup ring on the front cover. But, after I cleaned it off everything was great!!!

What it is these people in the credits really do.......2000-07-10

This book really breaks it all down in terms of what the job responsibilites for film crew members are. You've seen all those titles in the head and tail credits and even if you're a seasoned professional, sometimes it's not clear what these people are actually doing. I love the way this book lays it all out there in great detail and how short and to the point it is. The introduction is a bit short and there's not much else in this book other than job descriptions. It's short on case studies ... but as for a dictionary of terms I think this book has it all, says it all, and should be a bible on every producer's shelf. I bought a copy for my producer - mainly because this is one book she needed and I wasn't prepared to part with.

Film Finance and Distribution : A Dictionary of Terms

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Film Finance and Distribution : A Dictionary of Terms
John W. Cones
Manufacturer: Silman-James Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KWL6YM

Book Description

Popular music culture serves as an arena for debates on English and British national identity in this lively discussion of English popular music of the 1980s and 1990s. Against the background of his own upbringing as a Pakistani Brit, Nabeel Zuberi deftly combines a detailed account of the development of this music with a sophisticated assessment of its relation to the politics of cultural identity in Britain. Zuberi looks at how the sounds, images, and lyrics of English popular music generate and critique ideas of national belonging, recasting the social and even the physical landscapes of cities like Manchester and London. The Smiths and Morrissey play on romanticized notions of the (white) English working class, while the Pet Shop Boys map a "queer urban Britain" in the AIDS era. The techno-culture of raves and dance clubs incorporates both an anti-institutional do-it-yourself politics and emergent leisure practices, while the potent mix of technology and creativity in British black music includes local conditions as well as a sense of global diaspora. British Asian musicians, drawing on Afrodiasporic and South Asian traditions, seek a sense of place in Britain as commercial interests try to pin down an image of them to market.

Sounds English shows how popular music complicates cherished notions of Englishness as it activates cultural outsiders and taps into a sense of not belonging. Alert and readable, Zuberi's wide-ranging discussion includes the performers Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Massive Attack, Goldie, A Guy Called Gerald, Roni Size, Bally Sagoo, Fun^da^mental, Echobelly, Cornershop, Talvin Singh, and others.

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Sounds English : Transnational Popular Music (Transnational Cultural Studies: )
Nabeel Zuberi
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBMSRU

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Sounds English: Transnational Popular Music (Transnational Cultural Studies)
Nabeel Zuberi
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQ2GXE

Customer Reviews:

Great for those annoying God wannabes.......2000-04-07

This book is excellent, it can help extremely to improve the real role-playing of a high-level campaign. Not only does it help the DM make very interesting adventures, but it includes some very cool high-level abilities for characters that manage to get to high levels. It also includes a section devoted to characters who achieve 30th level, and how a mortal can attain godhood. Highly recommended.

I can see this being used........2000-01-04

Although I doubt that a DM without the Munchkin syndrome can lead several PC to such apexes of power without getting a few clues on how to run the campaign, the high level campaigns has several very good guiding lights for those DMs that have strayed into the darkness and can't get out ( overpowerful items, characters, and other forms of blight). This should have included some type of section dealing with STRIPPING overly mighty characters of their powers within the bounds of rational role-playing. Overall, I find that some sections of this book should have actually been included in the basic rules several years ago, rather than be used as a leaky life-boat for a dying game. Useful, but less than spectacular.

!! Every DM Should Start With This Book !!.......1999-08-15

Chapter 1 is about how to avoid irrealistic powerful characters! (very useful with high level characters)

Chapter 2 is about how to plan and organize an adventure. It shows clearly on what a DM has to take a look. (very helpful for every DM)

Chapter 3-5 is about the dangers with magic. It explains how to integrate magic in the right way in an adventure. (very very good!! it's so simple to destroy the game with to much magic)

chapter 7 : learn managing high level characters

This is a very good and usefull book, and I have the impression that good books are becomming rare; to much comerce!!

Needed for any DM.......1999-07-17

After reading this book, I felt that if I had read this along with the Dungeon Master Guide before I started my campaigns my world would have been improved greatly. It's perfect for those characters that have reached insanely high levels, but it also tells the DM how to avoid creating God-like characters that can ruin any campaign.

The Wrong Approach, but a Gem in the Rough.......1999-03-12

High Level Options, as can be expected, is designed to appeal to the player who has a god-complex. Oddly, however, the book is split evenly between a very useful discourse on good DMing and some bells and whistles for characters of 15th level and higher.

The first half of the book should have been part of the reprinted Dungeon Master's guide. While TSR has a tendancy to publish fairly uncreative and "hack-and-slash" style adventures, the suggestions and guidelines here are wonderful, a good review for an experienced DM and a great primer for an amateur DM.

The second half of the book leaves a bit to be desired. I'm not a fan of "high level" campaigns, but the information presented here has some rather obvious flaws. In many ways, the 10th level spells are disappointing in effect. They aren't more ingenious than 9th level spells, nor are they particularly effective. Likewise, the material presented for additional class abilities is too little, too late, in my opinion. These abilities do little to make a more formidable character.

All in all, the book is best thought of as a supplement for the DMG.

Book Description

Continuing his groundbreaking analysis of economic structures, Douglass North develops an analytical framework for explaining the ways in which institutions and institutional change affect the performance of economies, both at a given time and over time. Institutions exist, he argues, due to the uncertainties involved in human interaction; they are the constraints devised to structure that interaction. Yet, institutions vary widely in their consequences for economic performance; some economies develop institutions that produce growth and development, while others develop institutions that produce stagnation. North first explores the nature of institutions and explains the role of transaction and production costs in their development. The second part of the book deals with institutional change. Institutions create the incentive structure in an economy, and organizations will be created to take advantage of the opportunities provided within a given institutional framework. North argues that the kinds of skills and knowledge fostered by the structure of an economy will shape the direction of change and gradually alter the institutional framework. He then explains how institutional development may lead to a path-dependent pattern of development. In the final part of the book, North explains the implications of this analysis for economic theory and economic history. He indicates how institutional analysis must be incorporated into neo-classical theory and explores the potential for the construction of a dynamic theory of long-term economic change. Douglass C. North is Director of the Center of Political Economy and Professor of Economics and History at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a past president of the Economic History Association and Western Economics Association and a Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written over sixty articles for a variety of journals and is the author of The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History (CUP, 1973, with R.P. Thomas) and Structure and Change in Economic History (Norton, 1981). Professor North is included in Great Economists Since Keynes edited by M. Blaug (CUP, 1988 paperback ed.)

Customer Reviews:

Not enough economics for someone interested in economics; not captivating enough for anyone.......2007-09-28

As a fan of the economic focus on institutions, I was excited to read one of Douglass North's books. North is the founder of this school, it would seem, and won a Nobel for it.

Unfortunately, North's book hasn't enough mathematics to satisfy those with a quantitative bent, nor enough elegance to captivate anyone. I had to put it down after 80 pages (of 140 or so). I haven't felt like precious moments of my life were being lost so viciously since I last hurled Cryptonomicon across the room. I'm told that I should read North's papers rather than his books; this seems wise.

If you want to read books that refocus economics on institutions, I'd strongly suggest starting with Bowles's "Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution." It's the best synthesis of the subject that I've seen, bringing in threads from evolutionary game theory and probably every major economist from the last 75 years.

The Limits of Hard-Rational Choice.......2006-08-02

North's work attempts to show how hard-rational choice theory and neoclassical economic theory are weak in that they argue that cooperation and coordination are not fundamental to transactions. North writes that in the "zero transaction-cost world, bargaining has no place, however, in the real world, institutions, bargaining and cooperation are necessary" (16).

The author argues that the rigidity of the human behavior described by hard-rational choice theorists is not practical in a real-world sense. For example, actors do not have perfect "computational power" and as such they don't have a perfect description of the world. Rather, the situations faced by actors are complex and uncertain. As such, transaction outcomes are unpredictable. North writes, "Uncertainties arise from incomplete information with respect to the behavior of other individuals in the process of human interaction" (25).

In order to protect oneself or maximize his or her individual utility, an individual must collect information regarding a transaction. The costs of transaction "consist of the costs of measuring the valuable attributes of what is being exchanged and the costs of protecting rights and policing and enforcing agreement" (27). Institutions are created to generate regular patterns in human interaction. Doing so decreases the costs of transaction, or "playing the game."

However, the game is never stable and as such institutions are malleable; they are capable of change. Yet the changes occur slowly, by increments. In the later chapters of the book, North takes a historical look at economic development, stability and change. Had all things been equal, transaction costs being zero, North argues that little diversity between economic systems would exist. North writes, "In a world in which there are no increasing returns to institutions and markets are competitive, institutions do not matter. If the actors initially have incorrect models and act upon them, they either will be eliminated or efficient information feedback will induce them to modify their models" (95). However, in real-world situations, institutions do matter and they are in continuous need of minor, or marginal, adjustments. In many ways, it is the behavior of the actors that make adjustments to the institution. North writes, "Incremental change comes from the perceptions of the entrepreneurs in political and economic organizations that they could do better by altering the exiting institutional framework at some margin" (8).

In conclusion, new institutionalism has emerged in response to the concentration on behavioral/rational choice theories in the discipline. The new institutionalism attempts to "bring the institutions" back in to political science. However, institutional scholars have evolved from the days of strictly studying the political systems of polities. The new institutionalism attempts to blend aspects of behavioral/rational choice theories with the importance of institutional structure and establish a new paradigm with which to study political phenomena.

Incentiv-creating institutions.......2004-05-19

The puzzle of the modern world is not that so many people are poor, but that so many are wealthy. How do democracies, with well-defined property rights and education for all com into place? In this Nobel prize winning work, North investigates some issues overlooked by most economists: the role of a society's institutions, defined as formal and informal constraints, varying from written laws to vague values (but important nevertheless) in a society. Economic theory is not able to explain the great differences in wealth between nations, argues North, and that is certainly a shame, because that would be the most interesting explanation it could possibly make. The solution is to include institutions into economic analysis.

Institutions determine transaction costs. In neoclassical economic theory, transaction costs are usually assumed to be zero (for reasons of comfort). North assumes transaction costs to make up half of the economy in a modern well-organized Western society with efficient institutions. A major reason for developing countries to be poor is that transaction costs are prohibitive, obstructing the benefits of trade.

North asks some extremely important questions in this book, but I was a bit disappointed that he didn't offer more answers. English not being my natural tongue, I found the book a bit hard to read. However, being very interested in the subject, I found it well worth the effort. Without a major (interest) in economics, you should probably enjoy some of the reviews instead. North's main answer to the main question, by the way, is that countries will prosper if the incentives created by their institutions motivate production, and not redistribution.

Most comprehensive book ever.......2004-02-05

Douglass North is an amazing writer. If you are purchasing this book, you probably already know what this book is about and its impact. This book, I would argue is largely responsible for his receiving the Nobel Prize in 1993.

His new-institutionalist view links together history, economics, political science, sociology, and every other social science. This book truly inspired me to specialize in institutional economics. Every social issue can be approached from the institutional perspective, namely that institutions determine actions and the market determines institutions. Though my professors are all old institutionalists, they agree this is the best book by far on the subject and most research papers in the subject thus reference this book.

For more information on New Institutional Social Science, visit the website at http://cniss.wustl.edu/people.html

OBVIOUS IN RETROSPECT, WHICH MAKES IT EVEN MORE OUTSTANDING.......2003-04-27

In this book, North outlines the precise features of the neo institutional economics school, which includes Coase, Williamson, Olson, Fogel, among others. This book is mainly about the theory itself and its origins and features, not about applications in particular, though the author does address that issue at the end of the book in the section about eocnomic performance.

I believe this book is great reading for the literate economist. It is difficult to follow for the non-economist, which I believe North focuses on in his other book, "Structure and Change in Economic History". That work is earlier and I believe not as complete, but it is much more readable. Either way, North's work is among the most important advances in economics in the 20th century (for which he got the Nobel Prize), so knowledge of it should benefit one and all.

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Social Innovations, Institutional Change and Economic Performance: Making Sense of Structrual Adjustment Processes in Industrial Sectors, Regions and Societies (Sitra's Publication)

Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1847202535

Book Description

`A much needed examination of a neglected issue - how societies, regions and institutions adjust to our rapidly changing economic world.'
- W. Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico

`This is a marvellously rich work of synthesis, bringing together a very wide range of theoretical perspectives to make sense of contemporary patterns of economic and social change. Its range of reference is remarkable - and it is further proof that much of the most interesting theoretical and empirical work today is being done on the boundaries of disciplines.'
- Geoff Mulgan, Director, The Young Foundation, Founder, Demos and formerly Head of Policy, Prime Minister's Office, UK

`A very relevant and insightful perspective on institutional change and economic renewal in regions, countries and corporations.'
- Yves L. Doz, INSEAD, France

This book examines the nature of social innovation processes which determine the economic and social performance of nations, regions, industrial sectors and organizations.

The current transformation of the world economy underlines the importance of systemic adjustment capacity for the long-term success of industrial economies. The expert contributors outline a theory of social innovation which differentiates between incremental and radical change processes, and suggests areas where policy makers can facilitate proactive changes. Case studies highlight the various rigidities of structural adjustment processes, the economic importance of systemic adjustment capacity, and the challenges of social innovation and structural change in different societies, regions and sectors.

An important contribution to the emerging research on social innovations, this book offers invaluable insights for all decision makers struggling with structural adjustment challenges. As such, it will prove essential reading for scholars and students focusing on social and economic innovation and change processes, national and regional development, and economic competitiveness and growth. National, regional, sectoral and organizational policymakers and strategists will also find much to interest them within this book.

Transaction Costs, Institutions, and Economic Performance (Occasional Papers (International Center for Economic Growth))

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Transaction Costs, Institutions, and Economic Performance (Occasional Papers (International Center for Economic Growth))
Douglass Cecil North
Manufacturer: Ics Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1558152113

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