I bought this book in preparation for a trip I was taking to Peru. I wanted to understand a bit about where I was traveling. Davies' style is reasonably conversational, considering the academic nature of the subject. Thus I was pleased to be able to read the book without wishing I was doing something else.

A well written very informative book which gives a good overview of precolumbian Peru. The starting point for everybody interested in this subject.

A fascinating book about a fascinating time in history.

I had to read this book for an Anthropology class. Didn't think it was going to be very interesting, but I really like the book. It's a book about the lives of Gregorio and Asunta, and it basically tells of their hardships as Runas, in Peru. I don't think its the kind of book that people would actually pick out to read for entertainment, but if you have to read it for a class, don't be so bummed out about it cause I'm sure you'll really like it.

This is definately the best introduction there is for those who are interested in the Andes or those who are planning on traveling to Peru or other Andean countries. It is great to get the inside story from the indigenous peoples themselves, and gregorio and asunta are great storytellers!

As would be expected from a publication by National Geographic, this book has beautiful pictures covering all regions of the Andes Mountains. Buyers should take note, however, that this book focuses more heavily on portraits of the people in these South American countries than on panoramic vistas of the Andes Mountains themselves (review the cover of this book to see the main focus). Also, too many blank pages for my tastes. Otherwise, an exquisite book.

This is a series of breathtaking photos of the Andes range from the Caribbean to Patagonia. There are stunning photos of the mountains and heart-wrenching photos of earthquake survivors as well as many photos of everyday life. Mario Vargas Llosa, the famous Peruvian author, contributes "inventions" imagining subjects thoughts, feelings, attitudes and stories. This National Geographic book, photographed by Pablo Corral Vega, makes a wonderful tour of the majestic mountains and haunting coutryside of the Andes.

I'm actually puzzled why no one else has reviewed this book - it has been so helpful to me as I've struggled to understand the mysteries of Amazon art. For me the keyword has to be accessibility - I felt as I was there under the canopy as I turned the pages. Highly recommended.

With the ever encroaching Western civilization and corresponding shrinking Indian population of the Amazon the result has been a diminishing indigenous culture. Along with the collection itself this book helps to preserve those artifacts from the Amazon. This beautiful book shows off the collection of Adam Mekler who has probably the best collection of it's kind in the United States. Since much of the art of the Amazon is consumed by the environment and made from items suseptible to decay, such as wood, animal feathers, cloth and fibers it is important to preserve these windows into the souls of their makers. This book is primarily a picture book, filled with magnificnet colorful photographs, many of which are full pages. The book relies heavily on the feather work created from the birds of the Amazon such as parrots, mackaws and hummingbirds. The items shown in the book are headdresses, dance costumes, necklaces, various ornaments and other artifacts associated with ceremonies. Many of the pieces are those used in shamanistic rituals. The text is brief but the explanations for the various pieces illustrate the use of the items quite well. The explanation of the South Amerindian beliefs in a perfect hidden reality behind the perceptible and imperfect world that is accesssed through altered states of awareness is pretty good. The transformation comes about by doning the costumes of the spirits and animals and thus joing them. Although from a laymens perspective these practices seem novel , the doning of costumes is much more as the adornments are an armor revealing status through the power accrutements. The text is extremely interesting and worth reading rather than just glossing over because of the abundance of beautiful photographs. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the indigenous arts of America, specifically the Amazon, it's people and their culture. More than a picture book, this is a glimpse into the known unknown of the many surviving tribes of their dissappearing and distinctive cultural and linguistic traditions.

Daniel Rodgers' thesis in Atlantic Crossings is simple and direct: "the reconstruction of American social politics was of a part with movements of politics and ideas throughout the North Atlantic world that trade and capitalism had tied together." (3) He concludes that from the 1870s through World War II, America was not an internalist or an imperialist nation, but instead these years saw an "opening" for social reformers in the U.S. to import foreign models and ideals from other North Atlantic countries. Furthermore, these imported policies and reforms (mostly from Britain and Germany) were not adopted in America (if at all) unchanged upon reaching the Atlantic's western shores, but instead were adapted to the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of American society and political structure. Finally, Rodgers argues, the seeds of the New Deal can be found in the activities and positions of the social reform activists of the last two decades of the 19th century and the first thirty years of the 20th century.
Rodgers convincingly supports his thesis by describing "a largely forgotten world of transnational borrowings and imitation, adaptation and transformation" (7) from the 1870s through the 1940s, a time during which Americans had an abundance of solutions to the myriad social problems of their day. This "borrowing" was a process that changed significantly over time. Initially, Americans were primarily recipients of reform ideas from abroad. Later, during the prosperity of the 1920s, a more even exchange of social solutions took place among North Atlantic countries, which eventually led to "a great gathering...of proposals and ideas" in the New Deal. Finally, by the end of World War II, the differing experiences of the nations of the North Atlantic world and the varying effects suffered by each from the conflict largely ended the former transnational exchange, and saw the Cold War rise of American exceptionalism.
Rodgers provides numerous convincing examples of the cross-national exchange process of ideas and reforms to illustrate his arguments. Workmen's compensation insurance in America, for example, was based upon a pre-World War I British model, a "ready made solution with a history of success behind it" (248) that made similar acts in the U.S. possible. Additionally, housing, health and streetcars were a major concern of American social reformers in large cities, who often borrowed ideas about municipally-guided urban and industrial projects from experiments and visions in Berlin and London. As Rodgers notes regarding the new "self-owned" city, "municipalization was the first important Atlantic-wide progressive project...[that] borrowed experience and transnational example." (159) European precedents gave American progressives "a set of working, practical examples." (144) "He describes, however, in chapters 5 and 6, the impossibility of wholesale American import of strong European municipality due to the unique and equally strong traditions in the U.S. in favor of property rights, a tradition buttressed and maintained by legal tradition and the courts. One need only look at excess condemnation, widely practiced in Paris and London, to see an example of reforms disallowed by the courts, which held that public interests of taste and beauty did not surmount the rights of property owners. Housing in America "was a private matter," (196) unlike the European examples progressives saw.
Although some reviewers have taken exception with Rodgers' claim that within the progressive movement's ideology one can see the footers of the New Deal, his argument is convincing. What New Dealers "did best," he asserts, "was to throw in to the breach, with verve and imagination, schemes set in motion years or decades before." (415) A large number of New Deal projects came out of the old Atlantic progressive connection, and in "gathering in so much of the progressive agenda, the New Deal gathered in large chunks of European experience as well." (416)
Perhaps the weakness in Atlantic Crossings is that which is left out, not in the arguments Rodgers articulately presents. First, it is surprising that Rodgers presents no detailed discussion regarding education reform, particularly when this issue was so important to the Germans at the time. Second, one would never know that there was an American South during this time period, a region where progressives were active even despite a lack of urban areas there. Nevertheless, Rodgers has done a masterful job of comparative history by emphasizing trans-national borrowing and cooperation.

This is the policy-side answer to Kloppenberg's UNCERTAIN VICTORY. While that book focussed on intellectual links between European (esp. German or French) thought and early American pragmatism, Rodgers seeks more practical applications, well into the 20th century. He is so well versed in the literature that scant references are made to secondary sources. It is rich in the literature of the time, particularly journals, magazines, and newspapers from several different countries. Interestingly, unlike Kloppenberg this book examines England and Scotland which provide springboards for American reforms. Rodgers' thesis is that the Europeans tried numerous policies which Americans learned about and then implemented, almost always later than their counterparts across the Atlantic--and sometimes with very limited success. The book is also noteworthy for some of the most practical applications of MODERNISM yet seen in contemporary scholarship. This is a hot topic, largely seen in discussions of art or literature. Here Rodgers takes all that knowledge, absorbs it, and then demonstrates it in action across the POLITICAL spectrum. Despite the enormous research behind it, Rodgers has written an enjoyable, readable work that is of considerable importance. After all, this is the author of the famous article, "An Obituary for the Progressive Movement," (1970) which claimed that there NEVER WAS such a movement. Here Rodgers answers his own claim, saying that the American reform impulse built upon a European foundation and produced policies which survive to the present. My only complaint is that this book is slanted TOWARDS Europe, with maybe 60% of the discussion dwelling across the Atlantic ... the format gets a little tedious, with most chapters beginning in Europe, then the Americans pick up on the policy (welfare, municipal gas/water etc) and then they try it themselves. This is nitpicking, though, for such a substantive, well-researched, lucid work that defines this generation's scholarship on the Progressive Era.

This really is a must for everyone who's seriously interested in South-American birds. The colour plates are up to Tudor's high standards. I even managed to identify some birds I saw 2 years ago. This surely was not due to the (poor) quality of my notes, but to the excellent quality of the plates.
The text is as clear as can be with good discription of the species, accompanied by clear distribution maps.
There are only two drawbacks:
- they did manage to illustrate "only" about 60% of the species (this cost them a star),
- we have to wait very long for the two remaining volumes.

Even if you`re not a bird lover, you should find this book a very interesting one. The high quality of the descriptions and, of course, the plates, makes this book an essential tool for every one who wants to now more about these lovely animals. These two volumes may be the best bird guide ever made(at least for South American Passerines), and all I can say is that I can`t wait to see the next two volumes(Nonpasserines Land Birds and Aquatic Birds). The book describes even the Subspecies, and each description includes the bird`s behaviour. Don`t miss this one

I wonder who this book is for? The writing styles of the essays are strictly academic -- except for Caetano's which is more of a reminiscence and similar in tone to his New York Times stuff -- and the price certainly reflects academic rather than mainstream press standards. On the other hand, the flashy jacket, numerous photos, and subject matter seem to indicate an appeal to non-academic Brazilian music fans. Like me.

In any case, the 2 dozen or so essays span the time period between the Tropicalistas of the 60s, like Caetano, and recent phenoms like Chico Science and the "funk balls" of Rio and Salvador. I may not be qualified to judge it as an academic collection, but I noticed that almost all the scholarship is sociological in nature rather than musicological. For instance, there is only one page with any musical notation whatsoever, but there are very long essays on such themes as the pan-africanism, cultural "canibalism", and the themes of carnaval groups.

The highlights of the book are small nuggets that fall out along the way. For instance, evocations of the cultural richness amid fetid swamps and massive poverty, the ironies of heavy metal in Belo Horizonte, or the offhanded anecdote of Caetano decrying the evil of a corrupt career politician at a show.

The main lowlight is surely the tedious academic style of some of the writers and the endless repetition of certain themes. Some editing of this and a little less fawning over some of the performers would have made it an easier read. And inevitably with a collection of essays there is a feeling of randomness about the subject matter selections. (Compare it to the sassy and completely nonacademic "Bossa Nova" by Ruy Castro -- great fun.)

Bottom line: there are very few books about Brazilian music in English and most of those are for complete novices. This is therefore essential reading for anyone interested in Tropicalia and more recent developments in the most musical place on earth.

A must-read for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the cultural forces shaping Brazilian music. Various contributors tackle the complexities of selling hybridized "world" music in a voracious, globalized world economy, and examine the ongoing stylistic, philosophical and generational tensions between different groups in Brazilian popular music. Particular emphasis is given to the "tropicalia" scene, including several chapters on Os Mutantes and an excellent essay by Caetano Veloso regarding the mixed meaning of Carmen Miranda's legacy to the '60s generation. Working upwards from a standard-issue Marscusian, colonial/postcolonial cultural critique, this book takes its cues from the Brazilian philosopher Osvaldo de Andrade, whose theories on "cultural cannibalism" were a key influence on the tropicalistas, and explains how the inclusive guerilla surrealism of the tropicalistas bypassed the stormy ideological divide between the left-wing cultural nationalism of the early MPB crowd and the vacant, prefab commercialism of the "jovem guarda" rock scene. Not content to lionize the tropicalistas, the book also shows how the '60s radicals later entered the status quo, and how their lofty superstardom has been rejected (or resented) by younger Brazilians, who came to see them as a fusty cultural aristocracy. A bit dense and mildly over-academic at times, but deeply fascinating and insightful, this is an invaluable resource for understanding the history of Brazilian pop, and for examining the metamorphoses of "local" music in a global market. Highly recommended!!

Motavalli has produced a stimulating, always readable account of the traffic woes that beset us, taking as his starting point the gridlock that faces commuters in southwestern Connecticut every morning. He considers new approaches such as ferries, "clean" buses, bicycles, light rail--his message is that just about anything that gets us out of our cars is good.

This book is best read as a companion to Motavalli's earlier book on the new non-polluting cars with hydrogen-fuel-cell technology that are just around the corner--although he recognizes the irony that clean cars are no less a cause of gridlock than their dirty brethren.

In the face of increasingly long and difficult commutes and rocketing gas prices comes a title which explores not one but a range of viable options for transportation. Introductory chapters examine the state of the U.S. transportation system and introduces the technology and choices which can help re-create systems for the future. Examinations of the nation's most congested suburbs and cities provide critiques and suggested models for future transportation alternatives. An important guide.

Over 200 beautiful color photographs.. stunning. Cloth Emerald green cover is beautiful, too.

A look at the pacific NW from unusual angles.

Purchasing a first class photographer's books, when well printed, is a unique opportunity to own fine art at bargain prices and makes an outstanding gift. Morton Beebe's Cascadia is an opportunity to acquire world class photography and an outstanding visual essay on one of the most dynamic areas in North America at an incredibly reasonable price. The first class Japanese printing contracted by Harry Abrams illustrates some of Mr. Beebe's fine pieces with an exceptionally high quality. Among the photographs which are highlights of the book include a stunning skyline of view of Seattle at sunset, an exceptional graphic image of the Washington Mutual Tower, unique photographs of Orca whales, an beautiful view of Echo Bay in British Columbia, portraits of the logs floating outside of a Washington mill in winter waiting to be cut up with seagulls overhead and on the logs and numerous other exceptional photographs. If you have a friend or member of your family who's interested in the Pacific Northwest, Cascadia is an excellent candidate gift.