God's Capitalist: Asa Candler of Coca-Cola.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History

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God's Capitalist: Asa Candler of Coca-Cola.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History
Thomas V. O'Brien
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008GA7I6
Release Date: 2005-07-31

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on November 1, 2003. The length of the article is 528 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: God's Capitalist: Asa Candler of Coca-Cola.(Book Review)
Author: Thomas V. O'Brien
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2003
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 69 Issue: 4 Page: 950(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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We already knew Joe McGinniss could chill our blood (Fatal Vision) and arouse both our pity and distaste for the Kennedys (The Last Brother), but who knew he could be so funny? (Well, maybe readers who remember The Selling of the President back in 1968.) Even those who have no interest in soccer--the majority of Americans, he ruefully admits--will relish the author's vivid account of a team from Castel di Sangro, a tiny town in Italy's poorest region, that against all expectations made it to the national competition. Whether he's chronicling his ordeal at possibly the least-inviting hotel in Italy (the heat doesn't come on until October, no matter the temperature; he is assigned to a room up four flights of stairs though there are no other guests), or sketching a colorful cast of characters that includes the team's sinister owner and an utterly unflappable translator, McGinniss prompts roars of laughter as he reveals an Italy tourists never see. He also saddens readers with a shocking final scene in which he confronts the nation's casual corruption, which taints men he's come to respect and even love. Although not a conventional memoir, this stirring book reveals as much about the author's passionate character as about the nation and the players who win his heart, then break it. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Castel Di Sangro is a tiny town in the Abruzzo region of Italy, whose soccer team became an international sensation by winning promotion to the highest levels of national competition. For the team from this tiny village to be playing against the teams of Genoa and Venice was more than a dream come true, it was inconceivable. But the truth can be stranger than dreams, as Joe McGinniss discovered when he arrived in Castel Di Sangro. A recent convert to soccer, he wanted to experience life in a town turned upside down by the game. What he found was a cavalcade of euphoria, betrayal, grief, and euphoria again, an entire town living in an emotional frenzy unlike anything since the local battles of World War II. McGinniss lost himself totally to the team, a boisterous collection of characters whom readers will grow to love, and found a story whose depth and power enthralled him. Like Field of Dreams, Hoosiers, and The Secret of Santa Vittoria, this is a masterpiece of storytelling that transcends sports to embrace universal emotions.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2007-10-05

Even though it is written for the football novice and can be facile at times - A WONDERFUL BOOK!

An All-Time Great Sports Book.......2007-05-31

It's fitting that even after hearing about this book because of soccer, I ended up stumbing across it in the travel section. Soccer may be the glue of the book, but it's a travelogue at heart. McGinness starts with his newfound madness for soccer bringing him to Italy, yet quickly lets the game recede into the muddle of everyday life. The writing quickly becomes part Simon Kuper and part Bruce Chatwin. The book thankfully takes in as much lush description and hilarious anecdotes as it does tactical decisions and game descriptions. Instead of just an Italian version of a John Feinstein book, we get a truly unique story that evokes real and lasting emotion rather than the passing interest of locker room voyuerism.

Much of criticism here seems to miss the point. It's true that McGinniss makes himself the main character, but it's not a weakness (some arrogance, maybe, but not mere narcissism). The book, after all, is mainly about the shock of the outsider looking in: on soccer, on the village, on Italian society as a whole, and especially the repulsive compromises between love of the game and its seedier elements. If McGinniss doesn't quite succeed at making some grand assessment of Italy or a master's analysis of soccer, who cares? The story he tells is fascinating, emotive, and tragic nontheless. It reaches far beyond the world of the game and its fans, and should be a must-read for anyone.

The Sopranos and even better in Castel di Sangro.......2007-05-20

During the sixties Joe Mc Ginniss wrote about presidential campaigns and the selling of the president. He made a marvellous and unexpected comeback in 1999 with his The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. You will never regret buying this wonderful book about soccer in an isolated moutain region in Italy. Joe Mc Ginniss spends the season with this astonishing soccer team. In fact he depicts soccer as one of the pillars of communal life in this very peculiar village- like setting. But it is not an innocent setting. Innocence is definitely lost in this part of the continent and Mc Ginniss produces remarkable characters. The owner, Signor Rezza, straight out of the Sopranos, the coach Osvaldo Jaconi, "to argue with him is like throwing pebbles at a bulldozer" and the name of the team's principal sponsor, Soviet Jeans. Multiple plotlines develop in the story. The most exciting one is in the end when Castel di Sangro Calcio ultimately secures its position in the B series. The last needless game there is a smell of corruption when Castel di Sangro Calcio is defeated by 3 to 1 by Bari that thereby gains promotion. This stinking smell of corruption delivers an unhappy ending for Joe Mc Ginniss but the story is wonderful.

Nice story.......2006-08-10

This book was especillay enjoyable to read this summer after Italy's win in the World Cup. Regardless, I found the book a delight to read. If you enjoy Soccer or Italy, you would likely enjoy this book.

Is this worthy of a book?.......2006-07-28

By the time "Grande Joe" steps off the plane in Italy and his book begins, the Miracle of Castel Di Sangro has already taken place. What we are left with is the much less exciting and much more common story of a team playing to avoid relegation. Is it just me or did McGinniss arrive a season too late? There simply isn't any story left. The football commentary and insight are of the armchair variety and even if it wasn't, the football just isn't that good (by the author's own admission).
The strongest material comes from the author's interactions with an Italian culture he doesn't even attempt to assimilate with. So much for "do as the romans do". In many ways Joe is the ugliest of ugly americans even as he insists he isn't. Giving McGinniss the benefit of the doubt, I would say he is encouraging us to laugh at him. Although I was so embarrassed for him when reading about his "polemics" that it was more uncomfortable than funny. It was also sad to see the author burn all his bridges so clumsily at the end.
All the usual travel schtick is on display here, complete with language blunders and crappy hotels. Anyone who has travelled has a million stories like this. Most of the author's aren't particularly exciting, and when they are they smack of embellishment.
Really slick prose, some funny moments, a goofy American in Italy, that's the book. It seems to me that Joe went to Italy looking for drama and didn't find any. After giving up a million dollars to write a book about O.J. Simson (as he is constantly reminding us) I guess he had to justify the 9 months he spent in Italy.

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The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro
Joe McGinniss
Manufacturer: Little Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy

ASIN: B000HB469S

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy

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The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy
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The Soccer Divide.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Policy Review

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The Soccer Divide.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Policy Review
Andea Di Robilant
Manufacturer: Hoover Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Policy Review, published by Hoover Institution Press on October 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1862 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: The Soccer Divide.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Andea Di Robilant
Publication: Policy Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1999
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
Page: NA

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Miracle of Castel Di Sangro
Joe McGinniss
Manufacturer: TIME WARNER PAPERBAC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GM0C0A

Book Description

Fifty years ago, a series by scriptwriter Nigel Kneale aired on BBC TV. Titled Quatermass, it was a vast success, and the big-screen adaptation that followed helped place Hammer Films on the international map.

Quatermass was but the tip of the iceberg. Kneale's work stands amongst the most original in the history of the medium. Blending elements of horror and science fiction with intelligent, powerful drama, it continues to influence generations of admirers, including John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon, Steven Spielberg, and many others.

This book is the first to examine the work of Kneale, a key figure in popular culture, yet a vastly underrated one. It assesses Kneale's pioneering nature, drawing on interviews with major collaborators and high-profile fans-as well as Kneale himself.

Customer Reviews:

A Long Awaited Biography Completed Just in Time........2007-01-15

There is very little I can add to the other review on this site. I grew up seeing the original transmission of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT and was fortunate to see THE ROAD before the BBC destroyed the tape. Nigel Kneale was one of Britain's greatest television writers who deserved more acclaim than he received. When reading of the way he was treated by the BBC, I immediately felt revulsion for that institution and hope that it will eventually lose its license in the cable era in the UK.

Ironically, the author got this indispensable work published by an independent company, not BFI Publishing or any mainstream or academic press. This says much about the state of publishing today, not of the author. He managed to interview Kneale when he was still with us and I sincerely hope that Andy Murray was able to send his book to Kneale when he was still alive. Kneale's observations are valuable as are the comments of contemporary critics such as C.P. Lee, Julian Petley, Ramsey Campbell and others who grew up watching Kneale's teleplays during a time when television was worth watching.

This is an important book, the first of its type, and it should stimulate other writers to explore the heritage of Kneale and continue his legacy into the twenty-first century.

The godfather of popular television finally revealed........2006-08-23

In these days where television drama feels it is supposed to reflect the contemporary life as it is lived, supposedly, by as many people as possible, it does us well to remember when there were days when tv executives were willing to consider dramatic works which were about people living extraordinary, often imagined lives, and that the amount of trust given over to the audience to be captivated by the characters and ideas in their television dramas would boggle the minds of the commissioning control freaks who can barely contemplate anything that doesn't hark back to the 1960s wave of social realism, isn't as `as authentic as possible', historically-derived, or stretches antiquated and impossible acts-of-faith such as Suspension of Disbelief.

You could blame the advancement of special effects, the rise of Reality television, the blurring of `high' and `low' cultures, the cynicism which has grown since the days when the written work of Nigel Kneale laid the ground for what everyone in television still wants but so few have any idea how to do, that elusive thing known as `event television.' I don't really believe in the so-called Golden Age of Television anymore. I've seen too much of what passes for the classics of the small-screen to know that it was as much about timing as it was the content of the programmes, which more than not were just as poor as the worst television offerings now or since. But after rereading Into The Unknown - The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale, it is obvious to me that there were times when British television took greater creative risks. Everyone took greater risks. The war was still in the experienced memory of most British adults. The space race was just beginning. Modernity and futurism were sweeping away the old orders. Television was overtaking radio as the most popular choice of entertainment, and its guardians were interested, not in reinterpreting or reworking, but in looking forward, to do things that had never been done before. Nigel Kneale wrote many of television's early forays into fantasy and science fiction, although he did not see himself as a science-fiction writer. His signature work is easily recognised but not easily definable, often with emphasis on the response of people to extraordinary and incomprehensible forces such as aliens or ghosts. The worlds he draws are often domestic or dystopian places where instincts run riot triggered by primal fears. There is paranoia and distrust of authority. Above all, the best of the original Nigel Kneale work, is experimental. For those that saw it, he will always be best known for his creation of Professor Bernard Quatermass, a rocket scientist of the British Experimental Rocket Group, who faced several forms of aliens from 1955 to his last incarnation in the late 1970s. Until Doctor Who appeared, Quatermass epitomised the fictional television scientist, attracting massive audience shares when his plays, The Quatermass Experiment and Quatermass and the Pit were broadcast, influencing a generation of artists, including Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, Russell T. Davis and Alien-creator Dan O'Bannon. (Kneale refused to write Doctor Who, objecting to its violence and the way it frightened children but the producers of Who saw no problem in stealing Kneale's Quatermass template and going on without him. His standards were very high, causing him to refuse work on several occasions.) Plays that foreshadowed the surveillance society, sexual freedoms, and the 1970s fascination with the supernatural followed, as well as a pile of unproduced work that Andy Murray has dug out of the bottom of the Kneale wardrobe, having gained the direct cooperation of the eighty-year old writer and his family in order to produce this book.

For anyone thinking of writing for television, or having written or presently doing it, I can think of no reason to not read this book. As well as gaining fascinating knowledge of some of the neglected treasures in British television history, the book does not shy away from the frustrations of working in television as a writer. Even for a man as respected as Nigel Kneale there were great upsets, plays that would get lost in the changeover from one executive to another or because his work was deemed to difficult or expensive, wasting hundreds of hours of work. Then there are the works forever lost due to the chilling practice known as `wiping.' By now it is very well known that in the early days of videotape storage the perceived high cost of the medium caused the destruction of hundreds of programmes by ignorant corporate barbarians in charge of saving a few quid. Comedy was a prime target for this practice within the BBC, as was drama. Works by Nigel Kneale to fall under the eraser head include The Year of the Sex Olympics which predicted Big Brother-like television, and although a film of it survives in black and white the original production which made colour a significant part of the design scheme was lost, as were other Kneale plays, works involving the toil of many actors, designers, directors, editors, costumiers and other creative people. While not on the scale of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, or the library of the Incas by the Spanish, it has that special brand of anonymous bureaucratic maliciousness associated with feudal empires.

Fortunately, the work he created for ITV companies was not destroyed. Beasts, for example, one of Kneale's proudest works, is now released on DVD. The Quatermass Conclusion is one of my strongest memories from television childhood, a frightening (and expensive) look at New Age-cultism, megalithic circles, and super-galactic intelligences.

Through all the disappointments Kneale kept writing exciting, forward-thinking plays and films as well as adaptation of works by Susan Hill in The Woman in Black, and Stanley and the Women, originally by Kinglsey Amis. He wrote the first draft of Halloween III directed by John Carpenter, who reworked Kneale's original idea, keeping only the folksy Irish villainy behind the evil plan to unleash hell through a wicked combination of Halloween masks and computer technology. Throughout the book Kneale gives his opinion on how the screen serviced his works, and the straight-from-the-horses-mouth approach puts you right inside the gestation process of almost everything he wrote. Gives him the last laugh too. It makes for a fascinating journey, and while I would appeal for future editions to contain an index or a quick-glance list of NK works, this book by Andy Murray does its subject great and deserved justice.

Book Description

This is a rich collection of essays highlighting the complex relationship between cultural production and consumption using examples from music, television, magazines, sports, and advertising. Classic, contemporary, and newly commissioned articles examine the key themes and debates on popular culture by key scholars. Using a multitude of perspectives the book explores how culture is commodified and turned into profit, including a study of contemporary celebrity and fandom. In addition, issues of social and cultural diversity are addressed in readings that are accessible and provocative for both students and academics.

Containing America: Cultural Production And Consumption in 50s America

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Containing America: Cultural Production And Consumption in 50s America

Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1902459067

Book Description

The postwar period in America witnessed a tremendous consumer boom that introduced thousands of new items into the mass market. The contributors to Containing America challenge our conceptions of Cold War culture by examining a range of such products - clothes, food, television, magazines, radio, and other forms of entertainment - in order to shed light on how Cold War discourses actually influenced the practices of ordinary behaviour. Their essays address very different sectors of American society - in terms of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality and gender - thus emphasising the multiplicity, diversity, and differing nature of the voices that emerged in cultural production and consumption during the 1950s. Containing America points out directions for further research and provides a fresh approach for scholars, students, and others interested in the culture of the Cold War of the 1950s.

From the Margins to the Centre: Cultural Production and Consumption in the Post-Industrial City (Popular Cultural Studies)

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From the Margins to the Centre: Cultural Production and Consumption in the Post-Industrial City (Popular Cultural Studies)

Manufacturer: Arena
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1857423321

Work and Play: The Production and Consumption of Toys in Germany, 1870-1914 (Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany)

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Work and Play: The Production and Consumption of Toys in Germany, 1870-1914 (Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany)
David Hamlin
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 047211588X

Book Description

The development of toys in late nineteenth century Germany represents a perhaps surprising, but nonetheless extremely valuable tool for understanding the influence of consumerism on Wilhelmine society at a time of extreme social transformation. The rapid development of commerce in toys brought to the industry a significant increase in national wealth and power, but toys also became a site for contesting social and cultural problems. Would consumer capitalism lead to greater wealth or more exploitation? Should toys train young children in desirable adult traits or unlock the doors of fantasy? What were the implications for modern individualism and society inherent in these alternatives? Through the lenses of producers, distributors, retailers, consumers, pedagogues as well as cultural and social reformers, Hamlin explores how this new industry helped to lead the way toward German modernity.

"Exciting in the scope of its analytic purview, Work and Play explores not only the traditional business history of the toy industry in the Second Empire but also the cultural history of toys as well as the intellectual debates about the place of play in the cultivation of bourgeois individuals. In each arena, Hamlin makes extremely valuable contributions."
---Andrew Stuart Bergerson, Associate Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of Ordinary Germans in Extraordinary Times: The Nazi Revolution in Hildesheim

David Hamlin is Assistant Professor of History at Fordham University.

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Start of the Demiplane

Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (AD&D Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft Setting, #1053)
TSR Staff
Manufacturer: TSR Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books | Changeling | Dungeons & Dragons | General | Mage | Military Strategy Games | Strategy | Vampire | Werewolf
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ASIN: 0880388536

Customer Reviews:

Start of the Demiplane.......2000-04-04

The original ad&d module Ravenloft sold really well, back in 85, so the powers-that-be in TSR decided to give the project of expanding the concepts and overall gothic flavour to two of its top writers, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The product of that idea turned into TSR's best selling line, and this is the start of that line. The damned lords of the plane, like Azalin the Lich, and Harkon Lukas are first introduced here, along with the first guidelines for the driving concepts of the series, the mists and the dark powers. Even now, with the Domains of Dread book out, the Realms of Terror is an invaluable addition to any serious Ravenloft fan.

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Realm of Terror Ravenloft
Tsr
Manufacturer: TSR HOBBIES INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TXF8NC

The Forgotten Terror (AD&D Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft/Forgotten Realms)

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The Forgotten Terror (AD&D Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft/Forgotten Realms)
William W. Connors
Manufacturer: TSR Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons/Game Trs 1053)

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Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons/Game Trs 1053)
Not Applicable (Na )
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UTJN6I

Product Description

EXCHANGE SVR 2003 RESOURCE KIT

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource for Exchange 2003.......2006-02-24

I like this book because it is easy to read and it is clear. Of course, you will enjoy better this book with prior exchange experience or training. Microsoft has done a great job on their Exchange 2003 class. Combine the two and you will get a good start on Exchange installation, maintenance, and architecture.

Best exchange book I ever bought. Possibly best computer book. I can't say enough........2005-08-03

This book basically has every answer to every question you've had about exchange. It also has tons of scripts with detailed explanations on the cd, as well as .vsd templates for troubleshooting, upgrade senario docs, and tons of other useful material. I've been consulting for 5+ years, mcsex2, etc. As far as windows, or exchange books from ANY publisher, its the best i've ever read, or even heard about.

The Only MS Exchange 2003 Book you need.......2005-08-03

This book is packed with everything you need to know about Exchange 2003 to attain a very advanced understanding of the product. It includes information on designing the environment, managing, opimizing and troubleshooting (including disaster recovery planning and methods). It has all of the material you need to know to pass exams 070-284 and 285 for MCSA/E: Messaging credential, so you don't need to buy any other books! The CD ROM has the ebook format plus tools and resources that you can use on the job. I have around 60 MS Press books in my library, and this is easilly one of the very best written as well as more useful.

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