Events Books

Simply put, there is no book like this about rap in Los Angeles. From KDAY to the Watts Prophets to Death Row, this book covers EVERYTHING you know about Hip Hop in LA, a story that is distinctly different from Hip Hop in New York. It features interviews with LA's biggest - Dre, Eazy, Cube, Ice-T, Cypress Hill, etc. - and leaves nothing out. This is a story that's rarely told, which is strange when one considers that LA rap was the force that mainstreamed Hip Hop. Hard to find, but a must have for any mainstream rap historian.

I have to give it up to Brian for the very honest and understanding picture that he paints of the early to middle development of the westcoast hip hop scene. Through his interviews and writings, hip-hop fans get a real sense of how rap music developed on the west coast and they hear the stories directly from the artists themselves. This book is priceless and a definite must have for all music fans. In fact, somebody stole my only copy so I need to buy another one. Cli-N-Tel

My bedroom in the Picture section LINK'S Room with the SP1200 from back in the days

West Coast Style LINK

Freestyle Fellowship's Mikah 9 is the preeminent freestyle rapper of all time. He is the John Coltrane of the modern era.

I heard about this book through a friend of mine and bought it. The Slashdot review appeared as I was half-way through the book and it didn't connect. May be it's me, but what I was reading in this book was quite interesting. First of all, this book takes quite an interesting approach to describe the problems in high tech community. It is very readable. The author covers *a lot* of stuff in 230 pages. I do agree with Slashdot reviewer that the author has only described his personal experiences. I've been in the field of IT for over 20 years and I think this is the first time a book talks so much about the people and their mindsets, without trying to offer a new buzzword. Refreshing. Of late I've been dealing with a lot of Indian offshore executives and I highly recommend that high tech companies (may be all companies) in India read this book so that they know how a mature professional ought to think. Part Three of the book is a classic introduction to the real product marketing, just the way it ought to be done in high tech companies. The context framework the author uses repeatedly is quite intriguing, although it just might come across as a little too-rigorous for a professional book like this.

Among many other things, I think this is a perfect book to bridge the marketing gap for engineers (and the engineering aspects for product managers). Product specifications invariably evolve as the product is being whetted - and new features may require re-engineering which could delay the product. This stuff happens every day in engineering organizations. Companies have to trade-off between product features and market timing and an inherent tension develops between development and marketing groups.

As with any problem the solution lies in acquiring knowledge - in this case knowledge of the workings of the various groups responsible for the finished product. The book does an excellent job of guiding the user through this process. Like all good solutions maybe the answer is conceptually simple!

I heard about this book through a friend of mine and bought it. The Slashdot review appeared as I was half-way through the book and it didn't connect. May be it's me, but what I was reading in this book was quite interesting. First of all, this book takes quite an interesting approach to describe the problems in high tech community. It is very readable. The author covers *a lot* of stuff in 230 pages. I do agree with Slashdot reviewer that the author has only described his personal experiences. I've been in the field of IT for over 20 years and I think this is the first time a book talks so much about the people and their mindsets, without trying to offer a new buzzword. Refreshing. Of late I've been dealing with a lot of Indian offshore executives and I highly recommend that high tech companies (may be all companies) in India read this book so that they know how a mature professional ought to think. Part Three of the book is a classic introduction to the real product marketing, just the way it ought to be done in high tech companies. The context framework the author uses repeatedly is quite intriguing, although it just might come across as a little too-rigorous for a professional book like this.

In the Preface, Karamchedu offers a core premise that senior-level executives in high-technology companies must have a specific mindset which enables them to remain connected, not only with their employer organizations and colleagues but also with their family members and friends. "This book is an attempt to record the [in italics] makings [end italics] of such a mindset. More important, we attempt to establish [in italics] why [end italics] the thinking must be in such a way." Karamchedu also examines the reasons for the failure for so many new product designs which are launched in the high technology sector. "Either the product is not what the customer wanted, or the product did not arrive in time, or [it] did not have a compelling advantage over that of its competitor's. Karamchedu identifies three reasons, any one of which could ensure failure. I was also interested in what Karamchedu had to say about an especially formidable challenge: To coordinate, indeed integrate harmonious collaboration between engineering groups and marketing teams.

Karamchedu carefully organizes 20 chapters within four Parts: The Thinking (e.g. "The Problem"), The Forward Movement Latent in Execution (e.g. "The Context of Execution"), High Tech Contexts: A Semiconductor Company View (e.g. "The Semiconductor Value Chain"), and The Craft and the Mindset (e.g. "Manage Expectations"). If I understand Karamchedu correctly (and I may not), he asserts that more often than not, failure in the high-tech marketplace is not the result of faulty technology and/or a defective strategy; rather, because of a lack of cooperation and collaboration between/among engineers and marketers. This lack of interaction almost always results in ineffective execution. Market windows come and go unrecognized until it is too late. Karamchedu responds to one of the most important questions posed in this book: How is it that, in spite of making remarkable strides in high technology product design, development and deployment of these products in markets, we are still struggling to create a harmony between marketing and engineering professionals?"

For me, Chapter 10 ("The Context of Execution") is one of the most interesting and most valuable because it is in this chapter that Karamchedu focuses on a framework of contexts: the technological, the customer, and the economic. All three must be engaged in driving whatever individual employees create, build, and deploy in the market. Thus viewed, "a high technology company is simply a confluence of the three contexts." Karamchedu views all this as a powerful new paradigm to connect the three contexts with the circle of execution. How? Please see page 92.

Lest these brief remarks incorrectly suggest that this is an especially theoretical, hypothetical book, I hasten to observe that Karamchedu seems well aware of that peril and for that reason includes dozens of concrete examples which effectively illustrate his key points. If I have a concern, it is that the material may seem too technical to marketing executives and not technical enough to engineers. I agree with Karamchedu that "the strength of any high technology product is differentiation and a focused approach to selected markets." Hence the importance of having a vision which provides a clear, unquestionable, solid identity as to [in italics] what we are as a company." Karamchedu views his approach in this book as an "experiment" and it probably is. Be that as it may, executives in high technology companies are indeed provided with "something useful to think about" as they continue to explore and refine the craft of thinking on which the success of their organizations so heavily depends.

Well-done, Raj Karamchedu!

Although the book uses a specific JMS engine for the examples the details and the concepts were all right on and covered everything I needed for JMS. It literally saved my bacon, especially the peer to peer stuff over topics. Whew!

Super job.

Sam

Eric Bruno's JAVA MESSAGING explores different ways of messaging using Java software, from JavaBean events and JMS to SOAP. Web programmers receive all the basics to using these features, tips on how and why to use each feature and when to choose something else, how to combine features, and more. The basics of Java communication processes are revealed in chapters which form 'classes' to link related information in a logical progression. An excellent, basic foundation for Java users.

As we look at how much we use the web, it is sometimes hard to remember just how new this concept of worldwide packet switching really is. Java was started as a new language before a lot of the new concepts like XML and SOAP were conceived. But as a new language it has been able to move into using these new concepts faster than nearly any other language.

What I especially liked about this book was the first chapter. So often computer books start with programming. This one starts with a description of what we're trying to do here. He gives several examples of the types of communications that he is going to cover in the book. I had a particular application in mind when I got the book, but in reading the first chapter I began to see several other ways that messaging would help our system.

After the first chapter, I've go to say that it's a pretty regular computer software book. It tells you how to do the things that you want to do. It is quite clear on all the different software protocols, packages, and philosophies. Basically it is all that a Java programmer needs to implement messaging in Java.

The CD included with the book gives you all the sample code from the book, as well as the complete messaging toolkit and several open source tools.

Excellent introduction to messaging, including healthy portions on JMS and web services.

The writing style is clear, consistent, and to the point. Probably what I liked most was this no-nonsense writing style. If it's on a page, it's important to understand. The author doesn't waste your time with irrelevant discussions or out of scope topics.

Editing and code presentation are top notch, making it easy to follow, and build upon from one example to the next. The author also shares some gotchas and considerations that I wouldn't have expected to see in an introductory discussion which were particularly valuable.

Another great feature is one of the drawbacks of the book. The framework presented in the book is elegant, but in many of the examples, there is too much cognitive overhead involved in grokking the level of abstraction in the framework, and this takes away from actually learning the concepts. I would have liked to see more non-framework code for the introduction, which is then tied together with the framework.

No one interested in American politics could fail to find this an interesting and informative volume. The essays are perceptive, tho some are repetitous. The listing of all the Jewish Senators, Representatives, Federal judges, and governors is valuable. I found it amazing that apparently there was no Jew appointed a Federal judge till Wilson appointed Brandeis to the Supreme Court in 1916 and then thereafter there was no Jew appointed to the Federal judiciary till Hoover appointed Cardozo to the Supreme Court in 1931, and not till FDR was any Jew appointed a lesser Federal judge! An excellent reference book.

" Jews in American Politics" should be in the the library of every person interested in the Jewish American experience. It contains not only a group of impressive essays but also an amazing assemblage of facts and statistics on things such as The Jewish vote and other political matters. The essays make for great reading and the statistical section make the book a very useful reference work.There really is nothing like the book available to people thinking and writing and teaching about Jews in America.

This book does something extraordinary. It presents a vast array of information while at the same time including a number general essays on Jews in American politics. No person seriously interested in ethnic politics and Jews particularly should be without this book.Clearly edited and turned by the press. There is no political slant--all positions represented.

Senator Joseph Lieberman. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Host of Nightline Ted Koppel. Senator Carl Levin. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin.

What do these distinguished people have in common?

All have left an indelible mark on American Politics and all are Jewish. These are just some of the many names that grace the pages of "Jews in American Politics." Editors L. Sandy Maisel and Ira N. Forman have done a masterful job collecting accounts from leading experts on the past, present, and future role of Jews in American politics. Topics range from Jews' role in presidential administrations and Congress to their influence in the media and elections.

This book does an excellent job pulling together a great deal of information into a fluid narrative that inspires the reader to learn of Jews' valuable role in American politics.

One might think that our governors come from an elitist, "born with a silver spoon in their mouth" pedigree, but that presumption is nothing further from the truth. Based on one-on-one interviews with the governors, the authors explore the backgrounds, values and beliefs of 50 governors. Oddly, despite coming from all walks of life and political philosophies running the left-right gamut, most of the men and women have similar virtues.

Hard-learned lessons early in life and their hands-on practicality in dealing with problems helps to explain why most Presidents come from the governor ranks rather than the Senate or House (where pedigree counts for a lot).

Teens should enjoy the personal stories, some quite wrenching, and hopefully learn that their futures are more in their control than they realize.

One might think that our governors come from an elitist, "born with a silver spoon in their mouth" pedigree, but that presumption is nothing further from the truth. Based on one-on-one interviews with the governors, the authors explore the backgrounds, values and beliefs of 50 governors. Oddly, despite coming from all walks of life and political philosophies running the left-right gamut, most of the men and women have similar virtues.

Hard-learned lessons early in life and their hands-on practicality in dealing with problems helps to explain why most Presidents come from the governor ranks rather than the Senate or House (where pedigree counts for a lot).

Teens should enjoy the personal stories, some quite wrenching, and hopefully learn that their futures are more in their control than they realize.

What a lot of work went into this volume, not only the individual interviews, but also compiling the data for meaningful generalizations about these people. And the individual stories are truly fascinating. Anyone who wants to know what it takes to be a successful person should read about these 50 governors.

How did they do it? Have you ever tried to get a one on one with a governor? What determination and excellent interviewing techniques! Fun "government" reading.

I usually don't write reviews, but I read tons of them. However, after starting "jQuery in Action" I just have to write about this book. After reading the first two chapters I could tell that this book is a "keeper". The interactive "lab" exercises (starting in Chapter 2) help explain jQuery's capabilities and features quickly and conveniently, using your computer browser. This method of teaching is terrific; very intelligent, yet simple.
I started out by reading the Appendix: "Javascript that you need to know but might not!". This helped to fill in my understanding of Javascript and was a good way to ease into the book. I am not a Javascript expert but I am a seasoned programmer and I have read dozens upon dozens of technical books over the years, and I know a well developed technical guide when I see it.
Kudos to the authors and the publisher for a fine book about jQuery.

jQuery is a Javascript framework that aims to let you think structurally and conceptually, rather than worrying about syntax and other details. In that largely succeeds, and so does this remarkable book.

Every technical book should be like this one; having written a few myself, I know that's a tall order. "jQuery in Action" is concise but clear, humorous but not silly, and answers all the questions it raises, quickly. The reader is never left wondering "But what about..." for more than a sentence or two. The authors clearly gave a lot of thought to pedagogy, because things are explained in a clear way which progresses naturally from chapter to chapter. Factor in the extremely readable style and the handsome diagrams, and it's easy to see why reading this book is a sheer joy.

For each major feature of jQuery, this book provides a "Laboratory page", a kind of interactive HTML playground where you can try the feature out using different options. The remarkable flexibility of these pages is a testament to both the power of jQuery and to the imagination and creativity of the authors.

Perhaps the most commendable feature of "jQuery in Action" is, however, its unflinching honesty. All too often authors are interested in selling you on an approach or a product, and they tend to gloss over the rough spots to win you over. These authors refuse to do that. They present their topic just as it is, describe its merits, and let the reader decide. You should, of course, decide to buy this book!

jQuery in Action is a practical book that explains how to use, and what's behind the magical framework known as jQuery. It's teaches by example, so you're never reading 20 pages of theory. The writing is clear and it really shows you how to get through some of the "gotchas" of javascript, like timing, animations, and our good friend Ajax. Good for beginners to Javascript, jQuery, and experts.

I purchased this book as soon as it was available. I knew very little about JavaScript then and jQuery in Action does not assume that you know anything about it. The examples are very clear and the book is very carefully written without unnecessary words. But you get more. The authors lead you to show how to think, they designed the samples to advance from trivial to professional knowledge. Often, scanning through the example code, I found myself asking "why is it this way?" and immediately in the next paragraph, there was the answer. I am impressed with the quality of writing, I think every serious professional should read this book whether or not he/she plans to use jQuery.

While Jesus was dying on the cross at Golgotha, Judas was drinking himself into a stupor in a tavern that overlooked the crucifixion. Judas has many regrets for what he has done but he is glad that he converted to Judaism. The thirty pieces of silver in his pocket mean nothing to him and he leaves them behind when he departs the inn. He is captured by the bandit leader Ganto who lost everything he owned to the Romans.

Gantoro is the one who had Judas infiltrate Jesus' band of followers in hopes that the charismatic leader would join forces with him in trying to initiate civil disobedience. Judas lost sight of his objective as he fell under the spell of his rabbi and when Gant ordered him to kill Jesus so he wouldn't become a martyr; he was unable to do it. Alone, friendless and totally unable to live with his betrayal, Judas sees only one way out.

D.S. Lliteras has given readers much to think about in JUDAS THE GENTILE. His portrayal of Judas feels right for a man who betrayed the most important person in his life. Readers will not love Judas but pity him for his lack of honor and inability to break free from those who want to use him. This tortured creature, who wanted too much, in the end wound up with nothing.

Harriet Klausner

Lliteras is a fasinating writer for our times and it shows with his effort "Judas the Gentile." A book based on Judas, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ, and how he spent the evening of our Messiah's crucifixion. Told with wonderful imagery yet easy to read sentences, Lliteras gets to the heart of Judas's thoughts and the torment of his mind. His style is discriptive and very easy to read. Lliteras is also loyal to the Bible in every respect, not "recreating" but rather conveying a picture for the 21st century reader. A must for anyone who appreciates the Christian mind.

I spent yesterday rereading Judas the Gentile. I liked it even better than I did when I first read it. Lliteras evoked much sympathy in me for the finely drawn character of Judas. Judas is seriously conflicted about his role in Jesus' death for reasons that Lliteras makes clear. Lliteras writes about homeless men and about tortured souls from the inside out. No writer alive does a better job of showing the reader the pain of his characters in desperate circumstances, not even Larry Brown. A reader would have to go back to Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath to find a book which can compete with Lliteras'Judas the Gentile. This lyrical and powerful book forced me to completely rethink my postion on Judas and his role in the crucifixion of Christ. I'm eager for Lliteras' next book in this great series.

This is an interesting and important work that tries to "humanize" central figures in the New Testament story of the crucifixion of Christ. The author does of fine job of removing the dust from a familiar story and making it dramatic and relevant. Even those not familiar to the story of Jesus can learn from this re-examination of history. Lliteras is a real master of dialogue, there are long passages of interesting conversations among the characters regarding the nature of rebellion, religion, and truth.

This well - witten well researched book tells the story of a psychopathic priest who was a pedophile, forger, thief and murderer. Although he tried to hide behind an insanity defense at trial, he was a textbook anti-social personality. The perversion of the murder of his girlfriend, with fetishistic and necrophilic elements, reminds one of Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer.
Readers will find very familiar the story of how the church ordained him when they knew he was disturbed, passed him from one parish to another instead of defrocking him.
This book deserves a paperback edition to reach a wider audience. It's very good. I hope the author writes more books.

I just finished reading this book and still can't believe that a catholic priest did these terrible things and then was executed in the electric chair. I truly enjoyed the way the author wrote the story. Not only did he write about Father Schmidt and his crimes, but he also wrote vivid descriptions of New York City in the early 1900's. I hope Mark Gado's name becomes synonymous with James Patterson and keeps on writing. I can see Ed Norton or Johnny Depp playing Father Schmidt. A potentially chilling movie!

I was very interested in reading this book when I heard of it. I was born and raised a Catholic and enjoy reading books of all topics about my faith and I especially love true crimes.....my husband is a police officer! So when I saw both areas of interest twisted together in one book I was fascinated!! I really enjoyed this book and this authors writing style! He masterfully captured this priest and his crimes with such imagery.....as I read the book I could envison what was taking place and I kept thinking this book would make a great movie!
I hope to see more books by this author!

Killer Priest by Mark Gado is an electrifying story expertly told. Hans Schmidt, the only priest ever to be executed for murder in the U.S., had character flaws that surfaced during his childhood in Germany. He had no use for his brothers or friends, but became transfixed with religion and killing. When adolescent sexual fantasies become intertwined with images of death and slaughter, problems are almost certain to arise. As an introverted teenager, the intelligent and scholarly Schmidt drifted into ecclesiastical studies. However, the character flaws and sexual conflict deepened and he ran afoul of the law. He became a thief and a forger who was ostracized by the clerics that knew him.

Gado's meticulous research traces Father Schmidt's twisted childhood in Germany, through his years at the seminary in Mainz, his flight from Europe and eventually his first clergy assignment in Louisville, Kentucky. A missing nine-year-old girl case raised questions at his parish and Father Schmidt suddenly leaves Louisville and heads for New York City. There, he secretly married a beautiful young woman in a ceremony he performed himself. When her dismembered body parts turned up in the Hudson River, a city became mesmerized by the spectacle of a Catholic priest arrested for a murder...and the possibility he was a serial killer!

As a seasoned detective, Gado carefully lays out the investigation and the manner in which the detectives built the case against Schmidt. Once it got to court, Schmidt, ever the manipulator, attempted to hide behind the insanity defense - creating the disturbing risk that the killer could have been turned over to the custody of the Catholic Church.

Gado's experiences in homicide and death investigation, his first-hand understanding of the criminal mind and his ability to dramatize a story so effectively combine to make Killer Priest an excellent read.

For all those who think that the demands of "creation-sciencists" merely for an equal hearing with evolutionary theorists in science class are fair and reasonable, for all those who believe that people who say offensive and hurtful things in universities and elsewhere deserve to be silenced for the common good, or for all those who are convinced that potentially destructive and divisive ideas (such as homophobia, sexism or Holocaust-denial) should be surpressed to make our society more civil and inclusive, this book is for you. For it will show you, lucidly and elegantly, why you are wrong. Our way forward is through what Rauch calls the "liberal scientific" enterprise, the greatest gift of the Enlightenment, not through demands for the excision or surpression of what many consider dangerous or offensive ideas. That, Rauch, shows is the shortcut from modern democracy to a sort of middle-age regulated despotism. The ideas are stimulating in the extreme, the writing exemplary in its clarity, passion and lucidity, and the message about as important as you can get. A must-read, especially for anyone living or working in a university environment.

An excellent book on the value of open inquiry and the threats it faces. I would also recommend Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" for a related perspective on scientific vs. unscientific reasoning.

This book is superb. A well-written, exhaustively researched treatise on the philosophy of "liberal science" and a look at the attacks made on that philosophy by (mostly) well-meaning advocates of inclusion, equality, and civil discourse.

I'm somewhat at a loss to try and describe how important I think this book is. I rarely comment on books I've ordered, but I feel that EVERY educated person should read this book and understand the reasons why an open, critical, unfettered exchange of ideas is of central importance to civilization and to the progress of human knowledge.

Read this book. You'll be glad you did.

This book is superb. A well-written, exhaustively researched treatise on the philosophy of "liberal science" and a look at the attacks made on that philosophy by (mostly) well-meaning advocates of inclusion, equality, and civil discourse.

I'm somewhat at a loss to try and describe how important I think this book is. I rarely comment on books I've ordered, but I feel that EVERY educated person should read this book and understand the reasons why an open, critical, unfettered exchange of ideas is of central importance to civilization and to the progress of human knowledge.

Read this book. You'll be glad you did.

Grinker's book is one of the deepest and well-researched contributions to the broad issue of Korean Unification. From an anthropological perspective he transcends the purely International Relations dimension of analysis and goes deeper into questions of the adaptation of North Korean refugees and their problems that they confront in the South. He illuminates how the division of the peninsula is not only a purely political division but also, by its long "durée" and severe institutions like the National Security Law (NLS), is severly implanted in the Korean citizens' mind. It impacts the Korean identity (Koreanness - What does it mean to be Korean?)) and penetrates the way how Korean people understand themselves and the respective 'other' in case there is such an otherness.
I think everybody who a genuine interest in the Korean unification beyond the political and economic sphere of figures and datas, i.e. in the social and cultural realm of the individual level, should read this monograph.

In this exceptional book, Roy Richard Grinker argues that South Korean discourses on division and unification actually work against reconciliation between the two Koreas and stand as a barrier to future unification. He claims that South Korean discourses on division and unification presume that the nation's division in 1945 unnaturally split a historically homogeneous people (minjung) and that unification would mean the recovery of this temporarily lost Korean homogeneity. Where Grinker finds fault with these assumptions is that South Korean discourses on division and unification do not consider the "constructed" nature of modern notions of Korean homogeneity and that there is also no consideration of how North Koreans may have become significantly different culturally, socially and linguistically since division. Grinker's aim is not to prove the fact that North and South Koreans are different, but that the avoidance of even considering heterogeneity in Korea could lead to great disappointment and social upheaval when unification finally occurs.

Based on these main ideas, Grinker explores the construction and presentation of south Korean discourses on division and unification by focusing on such topic areas as the state/people dichotomy, South Korean thoughts on north Koreans, han and the "inability to mourn" division and loss of homogeneity, depiction of north Korea in school textbooks, the "ritual" of student demonstrations, the stories of south Korean idealists who illegally traveled to north Korea, and the problems of north Korean defectors in adjusting to life in South Korea. By exploring these various aspects of the division/unification discourse in south Korea, Grinker paints a portrait of a South Korean state that has defined its national identity solely in contrast and opposition to North Korea - and could thus lose this national identity if unification actually happened. Additionally, viewed from this perspective, Korean division was and remains the responsibility of Kim Il Sung and external powers - not of South Korea or the Korean minjok - and unification means nothing less than the absorption and assimilation of the North Korean people into the South Korean state. Grinker criticizes this perspective as being the main factor aborting any notion of a practical and realistic unification policy that recognizes and respects the actual heterogeneity of the North and South Korean people.

Grinker's approach to the issue of national division and unification discourses in South Korea is a refreshing break from the volumes of studies on the political and economic discourses on this issue available in the field of Korean Studies. As a solution to the issue he highlights, Grinker advocates a mourning process for the Korean nation and people whereby the heterogeneity of the Korean people is accepted as an immutable reality. With this idea in mind, then, one could deduce from Grinker's argument that a mutually-respectful, but permanently divided Korean peninsula could just as well be a result of the mourning process as a unified, but socially diverse, Korea. Although Grinker does not state this, it would appear that even a permanently divided (but non-hostile) peninsula would be preferable to a Korea unified by the South under the principle of assumed and uniform ethnic homogeneity.

While I feel that Grinker makes a strong case for his argument, his study is not without question or fault. For instance, if Grinker is so strongly striving for readers to view the Korean peninsula as a "heterogenous" grouping of people, then why did he chose to use the narrative convention of naming the two Koreas "south Korea" and "north Korea" in his book using small letters? This only seems to underscore that there is really only "one" Korea that is, in fact, one homogenous nation.

Another weakness, that Grinker himself admits, is his use of psychanalytical concepts such as "the inability to mourn" and han (resentment) to describe South Korean societal issues. The problem is whether concepts more useful for describing an individual's personal mental problems are really appropriate to describe to issues of a collective society. Granted, these concepts can be enlightening as analogies - but risk being to essentialistic or simplistic when applied as descriptions for an entire society of people.

All in all, though, this book is a worthy addition to the field of Korean Studies and deserves the careful reading of anyone with a serious interest in Korea. Even though I wonder how differently Grinker would have presented his argument if this book were written after the July 2000 summit meeting between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-Il, Grinker does illuminate a topic of discussion generally ignored by the political and economic writers on Korean division and unification issues. With that said, I believe that Grinker succeeds in convincingly showing how South Korean discourses on national division and unification have actually served to block serious contemplation on how to effectively achieve national unification. I highly recommend Korea and Its Futures and can only hope that South Korean policy makers give Grinker's argument serious consideration when formulating their unification policy.

You don't necessarily need to have an anthropology degree to read this "psychocultural analysis" of Korea--the author is an excellent writer and I found his approach, style and analysis to be very intriguing, provocative and powerful. At any rate, a work like this is precisely (desparately) what is needed. There is such a dearth of material that examines how north and south Korea think about each other as similar/different in terms of unification. Most people just assume it is a given without looking at it more closely. I found it fascinating and informative to catch a glimpse of how post-war south Korea problematically depicted the north through school books, student demonstrations, and museum exhibits. And yes, I agree with the other reviewer: The chapter on the thoughts of north Korean defectors was something I was hungry to learn about it and it didn't let me down.

It is so hard to think about the two Koreas--they are placed in such a reductionist, bi-polar context that any nuanced or multifacted view or outlook is hard to discuss. The author demonstrates how complicated, contradictory and ultimately unprepared Koreans are for this "sacred goal" of unification. I was struck by how limited and "stuck" Koreans have been in their assumptions about national identity, defining themselves in opposition to each other all the while pushing for unification. A great virtue of this book is that it avoids the typical approach of other scholars, pundits and news commentators who take a dry, "political science" approach to north Korea, limiting their analysis to geopolitics, regional power dynamics, diplomatic strategies, nuclear prolliferation issues, blah blah blah. The author uses museums displays, children's textbooks and TV shows, as well as real life interviews with defectors. Quite a good book with excellent analysis that will leave you feeling that you learned to realize something oh-so-human and fascinating about a deadlocked political situation in an illuminating way.

I'm not aware that there is an comparable book on Korea. Some may find it too "academic" (I don't) but the prose is still lucid and it is a unique book. Anyone interested in north-south Korea relations should read this. The material on defectors is especially good.