The Politics of Market Reform in Fragile Democracies: Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela

Book Description

This book takes a powerful new approach to a question central to comparative politics and economics: Why do some leaders of fragile democracies attain political success--culminating in reelection victories--when pursuing drastic, painful economic reforms while others see their political careers implode? Kurt Weyland examines, in particular, the surprising willingness of presidents in four Latin American countries to enact daring reforms and the unexpected resultant popular support. He argues that only with the robust cognitive-psychological insights of prospect theory can one fully account for the twists and turns of politics and economic policy in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela during the 1980s and 1990s.

Assessing conventional approaches such as rational choice, Weyland concludes that prospect theory is vital to any systematic attempt to understand the politics of market reform. Under this theory, if actors perceive themselves to be in a losing situation they are inclined toward risks; if they see a winning situation around them, they prefer caution.

In Latin America, Weyland finds, where the public faced an open crisis it backed draconian reforms. And where such reforms yielded an apparent economic recovery, many citizens and their leaders perceived prospects of gains. Successful leaders thus won reelection and the new market model achieved political sustainability. Weyland concludes this accessible book by considering when his novel approach can be used to study crises generally and how it might be applied to a wider range of cases from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Customer Reviews:

Market Reforms: Prospect and Retrospect.......2007-02-16

The market reform process in Latin America over the past two decades has inspired any number of political and economic explanations concerning the motivations of politicians and policymakers for their change in attitude. Amidst an already crowded field, Kurt Weyland offers an intriguing account based not upon the underlying assumptions of political science, but instead upon experimental economics. His cognitive psychology-based prospect theory rests upon the willingness of actors to take risks depending upon the conditions of the status quo.

Weyland starts by carefully defining all competing explanatory approaches---rational choice, economic structuralism, and political institutionalism---as a prelude to their dismissal. Rational choice models, for example, come closest to challenging prospect theory; yet, while based on similar psychological micro-foundations, Weyland contends that these differ from prospect theory in that the former method posits that decisions are made according to that option which carries the highest expected value.
Prospect theory, in contrast, acknowledges that decision-makers do not always choose on these grounds alone.

As background, Weyland references the 1984 work of experimental economists Kahneman and Tversky, who constructed an S-shaped value curve that weighted expected value according to whether a respondent is experiencing gains or losses from the status quo. Their conclusion: decision-makers facing dire circumstances are more likely to take risks and make decisions that have lower expected values. For instance, if today is worse than yesterday, then respondents are more likely to take risks that could facilitate a return to "normalcy." Conversely, if today is better than yesterday, respondents are less prone to accept change. Thus, Weyland argues that rational choice assertions based upon expected utility fall short of a full explanation.

In conjunction with prospect theory, Weyland discusses the somewhat fuzzier notion of prior option bias. This holds that once an actor has made a decision, s/he is more likely to stay the course even if conditions have worsened as a result of it. New actors, on the other hand, are more predisposed to taking risks.

After establishing prospect theory's virtues, Weyland applies it to four Latin American cases---Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela---and argues that this regional focus helps to reduce the range of explanatory variables. First, all of these countries have deep cultural and historical similarities, which simplifies their comparison. Second, each was plagued by debt and hyperinflation to different degrees in the 1980's, but the threat of further economic deterioration was visible in each case.

Using hyperinflation as a gauge of gains or losses, Weyland shows that in the countries where politicians and the electorate perceived hardship, all were willing to take risks. Citizens took risks by withdrawing their support from established parties and throwing it behind little-known candidates. Politicians took risks by implementing sweeping market reforms. Politicians in all four countries used neopopulist rhetoric to convince their citizens of the need of such drastic reforms for "the good of the common man," as well as to distance themselves from entrenched political forces.

In Argentina and Peru, reforms brought enough people into the domain of gains that the presidents who enacted the plans were re-elected. However, once politicians and voters returned to a comfortable state, both were less willing to gamble on further reforms - even if economic policymakers declared deeper measures to be a necessary condition for future growth. In Brazil, the results of the reform package were not sufficient to bring large numbers of voters into the domain of gains, and President Collor was unable to garner support for additional reforms. Venezuela was unique in that the public's perception of economic strength was high to begin with. Thus, when President Andres Perez adopted the same draconian measures as his contemporaries, his plan was very unpopular. In each case, support was lacking for a continuation of reforms. Corruption, inefficiency, and trade barriers remained in place and hindered further economic development, but according to Weyland prospect theory can account for this by taking stock of the economic winners and losers.

In search of further validation of prospect theory, Weyland uses it to explain such historical phenomena as the rise of Nazism and Roosevelt's implementation of the New Deal. Although prospect theory seems relevant to the cases analyzed in the book, the difficulty of measuring a populace's perception of crisis limits its ability to forecast change. Nevertheless, Weyland does a masterful job of merging this well-established economic approach with comparative political economy and backing up his argument with a host of rich empirical evidence and historical examples.

A novel and powerful cognitive-psychological theory.......2004-03-17

A pessimistic view about the vulnerability of Latin American democracies confronting the need to adopt harsh economic reforms predicted that any attempt at adjustment would be blocked by the population in order to avoid its high costs or, in the worst scenario, a painful reform could generate massive protests that would undermine the regime. However, the cases of Argentina and Peru refuted those predictions of incompatibility between democracy and market reforms. This book explains under what circumstances it is possible to implement successful economic reforms without destabilizing fragile democratic institutions.
Weyland applies a novel and powerful cognitive-psychological theory to explain the behavior of both policy makers and the public regarding the macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment programs implemented in four Latin American countries during the late 1980s and 1990s. He uses prospect theory to frame this unconventional analysis of "adjustment politics". The most fundamental findings of this theory of decision-making are that individuals behave as risk-seekers when they face losses and, on the contrary, individuals avoid risk when they are situated in the domain of gains. By using an empirically supported theory of the "new behavioral economics", Weyland challenge rational choice scholars that explain decisions according to the less plausible assumptions of expected utility theory. The latter theory would predict very different outcomes in the countries under analysis, supporting the pessimistic view of incompatibility between democracy and market-oriented reforms.
The central argument of this book stresses the role of severe economic problems in triggering intrepid market reforms. The author's theoretical framework suggests that both political leaders and common citizens are more likely to accept risky measures when they share the perception that the national and household economies are trapped by a grave crisis (e.g. hyperinflation). As an implication, this micro-foundation for the "crisis argument" should also explain why in fragile democracies it is possible to put into practice tough economic reforms without regime damage. In fact, the author claims, it is the other way around: "by empowering the populace, the institution of democracy - in the context of severe crises - paved the way for market reform" (p. 283).
The book contains a case-oriented study that takes into account context factors. It is a synthetic effort based on extensive field research. The first three chapters are an introduction to the research question, a discussion about the rival theories, and a summary of the theoretical framework used for the description of the cases. These chapters are especially enjoyable for those who are interested in solving theoretical puzzles. Chapters four through eight are the core of the book. The author analyzes the political economy of the mid-1980s (i.e. "heterodox experiments"), and the reforms of the 1990s (i.e. "neoliberal adjustment") implemented by the new leaders - if not political outsiders - of the four countries. He also describes the peculiar combination of populist politics and free-market oriented reforms, and explains the causes of differential outcomes: the political failure of reforms in Brazil and Venezuela, and the political sustainability of liberalization in Peru and Argentina. In the final chapter the author summarizes the central findings: "chief executives succeeded in enacting a large part of the market reform program where both aspects of the crisis - conjunctural and structural problems - were acute and grave. By contrast, where conjunctural or structural problems were less severe, as in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively, neoliberalism ran into serious political difficulties" (p. 252).
Definitively, the main notions of prospect theory are very important to understand individual choice. The key idea about how individuals respond to crises is, as Weyland suggests at the end of the book, a powerful one that most be applied in depth in the fertile soil of comparative politics. The seminal work of Kahneman and Tversky (1979) showing how people manage risk and uncertainty was the beginning of an impressive research agenda in several economics domains (e.g. stock market, labor economics, saving and consumption, and insurance). Yet in political science, only the international relations subfield scholars have been exploring the applicability of prospect theory. Thus, Weyland's book is one of the first attempts to apply the recent cognitive-psychological findings in the field of comparative politics.
Paradoxically, a shortcoming of this book is its ineffective use of prospect theory. There is a lack of formal modeling to explain with parsimony and deductive rigor the payoffs and probabilities that the actors have faced during the decision-making process. Weyland affirms that precise information about payoffs and probabilities attached to different decision options is unavailable and he recognizes that this limitation makes difficult to prove the hypotheses. Additionally, there is not a systematic procedure to demonstrate whether a political leader was in the domain of losses when he decided to take a risky measure. There are descriptions that assume a specific position of the subjects along the value function, but these assumptions are based on the subjects' choices in a later moment. There are many arguments about the level of risk that different policy options had, but it still unclear which was the riskiest. Without numbers or algebra, the fundamental distinction between "more or less risk" is difficult to grasp. Certainly, it is harder to measure the political behavior of the President and the common citizen in order to show risk aversion than the economic behavior of a customer to prove the "asymmetric price elasticities of consumer goods" (Camerer 1998). However, some degree of formalization is desirable for the advancement of this approach in comparative politics. Precisely because "prospect-theory explanations rest on well-established empirical findings, not on unrealistic ideal-typical postulates," (p. 7) it is necessary to organize the historical facts and context factors according to previous experiments. At least, it is crucial to know whether the conditions that can be controlled during an experiment are present in the real world.
This provocative book will be useful for graduate students who have interest in political economy, especially as a complement to the abundant literature on economic reforms in Latin America.

Book Description

The book first discusses in depth various aspects of the well-known inconsistency that arises when explanatory variables in a linear regression model are measured with error. Despite this inconsistency, the region where the true regression coeffecients lies can sometimes be characterized in a useful way, especially when bounds are known on the measurement error variance but also when such information is absent. Wage discrimination with imperfect productivity measurement is discussed as an important special case.

Next, it is shown that the inconsistency is not accidental but fundamental. Due to an identification problem, no consistent estimators may exist at all. Additional information is desirable. This information can be of various types. One type is exact prior knowledge about functions of the parameters. This leads to the CALS estimator. Another major type is in the form of instrumental variables. Many aspects of this are discussed, including heteroskedasticity, combination of data from different sources, construction of instruments from the available data, and the LIML estimator, which is especially relevant when the instruments are weak.

The scope is then widened to an embedding of the regression equation with measurement error in a multiple equations setting, leading to the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) model. This marks the step from measurement error to latent variables. Estimation of the EFA model leads to an eigenvalue problem. A variety of models is reviewed that involve eignevalue problems as their common characteristic.

EFA is extended to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by including restrictions on the parameters of the factor analysis model, and next by relating the factors to background variables.
These models are all structural equation models (SEMs), a very general and important class of models, with the LISREL model as its best-known representation, encompassing almost all linear equation systems with latent variables.

Estimation of SEMs can be viewed as an application of the generalized method of moments (GMM). GMM in general and for SEM in particular is discussed at great length, including the generality of GMM, optimal weighting, conditional moments, continuous updating, simulation estimation, the link with the method of maximum likelihood, and in particular testing and model evaluation for GMM.

The discussion concludes with nonlinear models. The emphasis is on polynomial models and models that are nonlinear due to a filter on the dependent variables, like discrete choice models or models with ordered categorical variables.

Book Description

Deviating from the typical commentary on how the Federal Reserve functions, this new study analyzes the entire philosophy behind regulation, discusses its appropriateness in today's economic world, and argues that the system is in need of an overhaul. The Federal Reserve System takes a hard look at the bank regulatory system in the U.S. which differs dramatically from all other developed countries in its diversity: Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and fifty state bank superintendents. Saint Phalle shows how and why this diverse system has developed, discusses the role of the Federal Reserve in the banking system, evaluates the Federal Reserve's mission both domestically and abroad, and examines the Reserve's role in controlling inflation and credit. The author also addresses the recent changes in the nature of banking, money, and credit, and suggests how bank regulations should adapt to these changes, particularly when insurance companies, investment bankers, and industrial firms now propose to offer financial services, formerly rendered by commercial banks.

Book Description

"Every dog has his day," or so the saying goes. In this delightful photographic gift book from John Lund, every dog-and a few cats and other creatures-has his say about how we humans should live our lives. Through his camera, John Lund captures downright human expressions and emotions from our furry friends. On every page, these animals speak their minds to us.

What does the four-pawed set have to say to us? Well, for starters, we should be a little bit more positive. "Never underestimate the power of a cheerful attitude," advises a smiling bulldog, adding, "A little coffee helps too." Animal Talk reveals the most human qualities of its animal subjects, and will make you laugh when you recognize yourself in the eyes of a defiant Chihuahua or the wrinkled face of a plaintive bloodhound. Animal Talk is just the book to remind us to laugh at ourselves, take a cue from our animal friends, and live a little!

Book Description

"A beautiful job….In exploring the nuances of Guthrie's work, Cray's exacting style is pitch-perfect."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

A patriot and a political radical, Woody Guthrie captured the spirit of his times in his enduring songs. He was marked by the FBI as a subversive. He lived in fear of the fatal fires that stalked his family and of the mental illness that snared his mother. At forty-two, Woody Guthrie was cruelly silenced by Huntington's disease.

The first biographer to be granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archive, Ed Cray has created a haunting portrait of an American who profoundly influenced Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American popular music itself. 8 pages of illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

An in-depth biography of patriot, political radical, and musician Woody Guthrie.......2006-04-05

With a forward by Studs Terkel, Ramblin' Man: The Life And Times Of Woody Guthrie is an in-depth biography of patriot, political radical, and musician Woody Guthrie, as told by Ed Cray, the first biographer granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archive. An independent-minded and influential figure, marked as a subversive by the FBI and haunted by the mental illness that affected his mother, Guthrie continued his influential work in both politics and music until Huntington's disease ended his efforts at the all too young age of forty-two. A handful of black-and-white photographs illustrate this extensively researched and highly immersive life story.

Review of the Book ... not Woody or his life.......2005-08-26

Two stars is generous ... I only wanted to give it one and a half. This book is TEDIOUS!! It is just plain difficult to read and the details are way, way too much. I never at any point felt like I wanted to turn the page or that I couldn't put the book down. Rather, I wanted to (and did) skim read the pages and throw the book down. Woody's music was great and his life facinating but unfortunately neither was conveyed in an interesting way via this book. My recommendation is to read Woody's biography ... Bound for Glory.

My son hated Stienbeck's "Travels with Charlie" ... so I'm keeping this book in case he misbehaves ... I'll make him read it.

A USEFUL, WELL WRITTEN BIOGRAPHY - Good Read.......2004-10-10

Mr. Cray does a nice job on this one indeed! Not only do we get a very well researched biography of a very interesting life, but we get a very good picture of the times he lived. We are now being flooded with works addressing this era of American History, rightfully so, and this work gives us another "slant," one we may find missing in other works. I must admit to being one of those who knew only one side of the Guthrie story, the musical, and was certainly ignorant of what made, what caused that wonderful music to exist. It is good to be able to put the music and the man into proper prespective. I do think we have to take care and not be overly judgemental of the Gutheries of this world and their chosen life styles and politics. Most sucessful men and women in our history have certainly had their dark side. We have to be able to take the good with the bad and I feel this biography has done a woderful job in pointing this out. I found the text to be easy on the eye, facts well presented and foot notes to be wonderful (almost as helpful and interesting as the bulk of the book itself). I highy recommend this one.

A dissent ...(This Land is Your Land?).......2004-08-19

I have to admit that I am in the minority in concluding that this biography was just OK, and for my purposes, not deserving of the 5-star reviews which have been bestowed upon it. Perhaps, if I was an avid Guthrie fan and knew quite a bit about him and his life before starting this book, I might have had a different reaction, because then the book might have been useful in filling in gaps in my knowledge. However, my knowledge of Guthrie before reading the book (and I suspect that of others as well) was only that he was a man who was hugely influential over the development and growth and 20th-century American folk music, and, not insignificantly, the man who wrote "This Land is Your Land." Indeed, as more or less conceded in the Introduction, that song is his most enduring accomplishment, and virtually the first sentence about him in most of his obituaries mentions that he composed it. I have always loved that song and was very curious about its creation and how it came to be virtually one of our alternate national anthems.

With that hope in mind when I bought the book, I was shocked at the unbelievably terse and cursory treatment given that song, and that is one of the primary reasons for my disappointment in the book. Whie the Introduction does talk about the song and its importance a bit, that proved to be just a tease. The entire rest of the book consists of less than 1 page in total in discussing the song. On page 165, he is writing out some lyrics to the song. Then, with virtually nothing in between, we are advised in the footnotes that "it is the song most likely to be remembered and sung by later generations" (p. 442) and that it is "one of the most influential songs in rock history." (p. 455). Well I for one was curious as to how the song traveled the long journey from point A (its creation) to point B (one of the most influential songs in rock history), but Cray is of no help whatsoever on this point. In fact, he hardly discusses it at all after the Introduction.

A few of the many questions I had about that song before reading the book (all of which were unanswered by Cray) were: 1. Was Guthrie ever interviewed about any aspect of the song (e.g. its creation, influence, etc.) and if so, what did he say? 2. Did Guthrie ever write anything about the song? 3. We are always told (as we were here) that the song was an "angry response" to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". If so, why is it that there is no hint of that in the verses of the song which are most commonly sung and why did he delete one of the verses that clearly was a response to Berlin (which is quoted in the Introduction)? Also, do we know that it was an "angry response" solely from the one obscure verse of the song that is never sung, or did Guthrie ever comment about his motivations? 4. How did the song seep into the national consciousness. Was there some DJ somewhere who started playing it over and over? Was there some "tipping point"? These questions are entirely unaddressed by Cray, who, after telling us that the song was written, essentially says nothing more about it, other than to advise us at the end that it is one of the most influential songs ever. This is just a huge void of information. 5. Even Cray's brief discussion of the song was confusing. We are told that "he borrowed the tune from the Carter Family's 'Little Darling, Pal of Mine'". By "borrowed" does that mean that the music is not his and that he is responsible for the lyrics only--i.e. that he "sampled" the Carter family's song (to use current rap terminology)? I had always thought that both the words and music were by Woody alone. So what does Cray mean that he "borrowed the tune"? 6. What were the financial implications of the song for Guthrie. It seemed that he lived on the verge of poverty virtually his entire life and yet he must have received some substantial royalties from this song. Given that Cray was fairly diligent at many points when discussing Guthrie's financial situation and income and royalties, I was surprised that there was no discussion of what this huge song meant to Guthrie financially (of course, given the almost complete absence of mention of every other aspect of this song, perhaps I shouldnt have been surprised).

Two other criticisms. First, much of the book is of a "just the facts ma'am" variety with Cray painstakingly advising us of Guthrie's peripatetic movements at all times (like a travelogue) with not a whole lot of analysis in between. Second, I got the distinct impression that Cray does not have much of a musical background, and thus, while there is alot of discussion of Guthrie's song lyrics, there is hardly any about the musicianship itself.

The guy behind the folk hero.......2004-08-18

Ed Cray's new biography goes a long way toward clearing up some of the hagiographic fog that's collected around Guthrie since his long illness and death. The romantic picture of Guthrie is that he was an artistically restless drifter who threw in his lot with the farmers and laborers of the Depression era. There's some truth to that picture. Guthrie undoubtedly was a good poet and wrote some good songs and prose (although his skills as a performer were uneven), was extremely restless, and seems to have had a genuine concern for the poor. But these bare facts only scratch the surface of his complexity. He was also a self-indulgent tomcat who took little responsibility for his many children; a prima dona performer who frequently insisted doing things his way or no way; a person whose idiosyncracies and freeloading perpetually tried the patience of his friends and acquaintances (see, for example, Cray's account of Woody's refusal to carry his weight when he lived in the Almanac Singers cooperative); and a chronic mythmaker, in both his memoir and his tales, when it came to his relations with the working class. In the eyes of many (although certainly not all), there apparently was a charm to him that overrode his blemishes. But the blemishes are still there.

In a curious way, the people who come across as the real heroes of this biography are the less celebrated types such as Pete Seeger and Will Geer, both victims of the McCarthy witchhunt, and Marjorie Greenblatt Mazia, Arlo's mom and Guthrie's second wife, who nursed Woody during the final years, long after they were divorced. Compared to them, Woody both lived a pretty comfortable life and was less committed to the farmers and laborers he sang about. Touchingly, it was these same people whose loyalty to Guthrie helped make him into one of America's folk heroes after his death.

Bound for glory--indeed!(Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie)(Book review) : An article from: Monthly Review

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Bound for glory--indeed!(Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie)(Book review) : An article from: Monthly Review
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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This digital document is an article from Monthly Review, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 3165 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: Bound for glory--indeed!(Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie)(Book review)
Author: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Publication: Monthly Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 56 Issue: 10 Page: 48(8)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

A desperate little man.(Excerpt): An article from: World Literature Today

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A desperate little man.(Excerpt): An article from: World Literature Today
Ed Cray
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2005. The length of the article is 544 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: A desperate little man.(Excerpt)
Author: Ed Cray
Publication: World Literature Today (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 79 Issue: 3-4 Page: 13(1)

Article Type: Excerpt

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Ramblin' Man The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie

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Ramblin' Man The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
Cray Ed
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UIIQMG

Customer Reviews:

Helen Mirren: Prime Suspect: A Celebration.......2007-02-11

I received it promptly and in perfect condition. I'm very happy with the service!

A must for the Helen Mirren or Prime Suspect fan!!!.......2004-01-04

This great fact filled book will please both Helen Mirren and Prime Suspect(The TV Series) fans!!! Two thumbs up!!! A+

Book Description

The decision was an easy one: With a feature set that equals or exceeds its competitors and an increasingly tight integration with the other Adobe tools that are key to your workflow, InDesign cs was a no-brainer when it came time to update your page layout capabilities. Problem is, you've still got to learn the thing, and learn it well: Your job, after all, depends on it. No one understands that better than the authors of this book, who draw on their own real-world professional knowledge to deliver all the industrial-strength production techniques and timesaving tips you need to start laying out, proofing, and printing pages with InDesign cs in record time. You'll find everything you need here to successfully master InDesign's advanced page-layout tools; manage color; create, link, and unlink text frames; and run your own custom InDesign scripts. You'll also find complete coverage of all of InDesign cs' new features: an updated Story Editor, nested styles, separation previews, the Package for GoLive command, and more.

Customer Reviews:

Intelligent people who can explain a complex program well.......2004-07-18

RW InDesign CS is a wonderful book. I own the previous (RW InDesign 2) version as well. Both Blatner and Kvern know InDesign well. Kvern has a slightly twisted spin on the world that makes it possible for him to make it interesting and exciting to uncover the details of InDesign. Both are always interested in helping other users in online forums. The book is meticulously designed with abundant screenshots with real world explanations.
The book covers more than the basics, with sections that simply change your perspective about the possibilities in InDesign. It is just part of my upgrade plan to always upgrade to the next version of Real World InDesign CS. I've done it twice and look forward to the next one.

Incredible Reference Book-ýBelongs on every designer's desk.......2004-07-18

This book belongs in the hands of anyone wanting to utilize InDesign to its fullest potential. There are tips and tricks throughout the book that you will not find documented anywhere else.

I had Real World InDesign 2 in my library already, but purchased Real World InDesign CS to ensure I had all of the latest tricks that Kvern and Blatner added in this edition available at my finger tips.

While this is not the type of book that most people will sit and read cover-to-cover, it easy enough to look up the precise topic you want to read more about. (If you are like me, and do read it cover-to-cover, you'll find it very entertaining as well as informative.)

In depth knowledge you get nowhere else.......2004-07-16

If you want to really get to learn InDesign from the bottom up also with its more advanced functions, this is the book you should get. Granted, it is not for beginners in the first hand, but for those of us who work with the application all the time and need to dig deeper to understand what it can do, be it nested styles, tables, master pages or whatever.

The authors have deep knowledge and insight of the application and there are no others that could share their knowledge better. It might not teach you how to do design, but it teaches you how to use and understand the application. And it give you a level of depth that no other book about InDesign does.

I have had the Real World InDesign book as a reference for when I want to have things explained so I understand them since the very first version of this book, when Ole was the only author of it. With the addition av David Blatner as a co-author also came the understanding of what QuarkXPress users might want and need to know to get started with InDesign, now that more and more of them are converting to Indesign.

That Ole works for Adobe does not mean that he is a non-critical advocate for the application. He runs his own race here and not Adobes.

The Real World InDesign CS book is the best reference book you can buy if you want real deep knowledge of the application, and not only one more manual (which the Classroom in a Book is in my opinion).

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