Cultural Books

~A Humane Economy~ is an astute treatise and insightful look at the social and political framework of the market economy. Wilhelm Röpke is a brilliant German-born economic, social and political thinker, and perhaps my favorite amongst the so called "Austrian school." He stands apart from his colleagues in that he thinks on a more humane level rejecting crude utilitarian calculations in favor of sound and prudent empirical reasoning. This brilliant German economist of the "Austrian school" stood up to the centralising and dehumanising policies of the Nazis. Röpke recognised that collectivist ideologies lay waste to civil society-destroying the intermediary institutions between individual and state. When the State acts to supplant the natural civil associations with state institutions to empower and enhance the state, it destroys the moral fabric of communities, saps the nation's economic vitality and usually leads to twin perils of centralisation and atomisation. Röpke recognized that allocating resources by the free play of supply and demand is the most humane system and as such he was champion of the market economy. He was influential over German economist Ludwig Erhard, who architected the Federal Republic of Germany's postwar economic plan, which emphasized free enterprise while effectively curtailing state controls (i.e. price fixing, rationing, and state enterprises.)

Röpke would attest that mammon is not the measure of all things. In Röpke's eyes, the intangibles-that is to say faith, family and tradition-are the things that animate life and give it meaning. Röpke recognised the limitations of the market economy. Röpke possessed a remarkable sense of prudence and conservative sobriety in his thinking as it relates to the political economy. He rejected the idea of making economists into social engineers whether in the interests of "efficiency" or "social justice." And amongst his "Austrian" colleagues like F.A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, he brought economics to a more humane level, rejecting crude utilitarian logic in favor of more sound empirical reasoning to defend the market economy. Furthermore, he refrains from the market idolatry that is so common to libertarian apologists for the free-market these days. Libertarians frequently espouse an ideology that can be summed up as "everything in the market, nothing outside the market." (This, of course, turns Mussolini's statist mantra on its nose.) Röpke recognised something that libertarians miss with their penchant for crude utilitarian calculations and their amoral neutrality that often makes being an avowed "libertarian" indistinguishable from being a "libertine." Many libertarians content themselves writing diatribes defending the "robber barrons" of the yesteryears while praising the colossal (i.e. Wal-Mart and oil cartels.) In their efforts to defend any and everything related to "the private sector," these reductionists forget that the apparently sporadic interventions of the state often come at the behest of big business. Many capitalists" content themselves with cozy public-private partnerships that translate to steady, predictable profits and a regulated environment that drowns small business competition. Big business typically possesses a considerable advantage over their smaller competitors, because they can absorb the regulatory costs much easier and they can influence the regulators and regulations. Röpke, however, scorns the "cult of the colossal" not in demagogic rhetoric, but in the rhetoric of an economist. He likewise sees "big business" as a concomitant pillar of "big government" and its regulatory state. Röpke possessed some peculiarities in his lexicon that set in him apart from his colleagues, but his motive for such peculiarities was principled. Röpke rejected characterising socialism as a "planned economy" and he recognised that the market economy facilitated economic activity "planned" by entrepreneurs as opposed to state planners. He preferred the delineation of "market economy" to "capitalism" since what often passed for capitalism in the early twentieth century was a large interventionist welfare state in a cozy lockstep relationship with big business monopolists. This was state corporatism not capitalism. Moreover, "capitalism" was, of course, coined by its chief critic Karl Marx and while the term captures the importance of capital to the market economy, it remains rather sterile and ideological. What is more, "capitalism" typically delineates a materialistic consumerist ideology or images of big business rather than a social framework based on the market economy.

Unlike libertarians and some classical economists who too often dwell in the realm of abstract theory, Röpke possessed a gritty realism: first, he recognised that there is interplay between between political and economic processes; and he recognised the value of state intervention in prosecuting acts of force and fraud, enforcing contracts and upholding private property rights. As an economist, he could offer prescriptive wisdom on the proper and limited role of the state in the economy while elaborating upon the causes and consequences imprudent state interventions (i.e. price-fixing, inflation, production quotas, monopolies, cartels, overtaxation and overregulation.) Röpke essentially favored economic laissez-faire overseen by a night-watchmen state that exercised profound restraint in its interventionism least it hinder or even cripple a nation's potential for prosperity. Underlying Röpke's humane economy is the idea that a market economy needs a prudent civil framework, widespread distribution of property, a strong entrepreneurial middle class and emphasis on parochial traditionalism. Anyway, Röpke itinerates the need for sound monetary and fiscal policy on the part of the state. He holds that the gold standard is the only real safeguard against the vicious boom-and-bust cycles of modern capitalist society. Röpke recognised that a market economy flourishes when tradition and community guard against the centralising depredations of both the state and big business. Röpke further emphasised the principle of subsidiarity, which in Europe today seems to survive only in that beautiful alpine island of parochialism, namely Switzerland. Though, Switzerland may be losing its vitality as it is straddled by the colossal and cosmopolitan EU super-state as if it is ready to be cansumed.

In the Humane Economy, Röpke surmised that: "The market economy, and with social and political freedom, can thrive only as part and under the protection of a bourgeois system. This implies the existence of a society in which certain fundamentals are respected and color the whole network of social relationships: individual effort and responsibility, absolute norms and values, independence based on ownership, prudence and daring, calculating and saving, responsibility for planning one's own life, proper coherence with the community, family feeling, a sense of tradition and the succession of generations combined with an open-minded view of the present and the future, proper tension between individual and community, firm moral discipline, respect for the value of money, the courage to grapple on one's own with life and its uncertainties, a sense of the natural order of things, and a firm scale of values." To answer those who might sneer at this, Röpke nimbly replies, "Whoever turns his nose up at these things... suspects them of being 'reactionary'... may in all seriousness be asked what ideals he intends to defend against Communism without having to borrow from it."

John Zmirak does a wonderful job profiling the life and work of a very brilliant man. Bravo! Röpke's ideas are remarkably original, but even so are analogous to that of conservative sociologist Robert Nisbet, Anglo-Catholic distributists like Chesterton and Belloc, and the Southern agrarians. You might check out their works as well if Wilhelm Röpke interests you.

One of the great errors prevalent in economics is the assumption that an economy is a kind of endogenous entity which can be understood entirely on its own terms, without reference to social, political, and psychological factors. This error is especially prevalent among those ideologues who believe that, while politics affects economics, economics never affects politics. But this is clearly not how things stand in social reality. Politics and economics exist within a complex web of causal interdependence. No attempt to impose through politics a specific brand of economics can ever hope to be successful, since waves of causation from the economic realm will ricochet back into the political realm, thus altering the original economic program.

The political right, especially in its libertarian and pro-market incarnations, has never properly understood this insight into social reality. In their polemic economic tracts, they implicitly assume that "society" or the "government" could choose at any time to adopt any economic principle it liked, regardless of the likely social or political consequences of that principle. Libertarians tend to support any economy policy which they believe will bring about greater freedom and efficiency, ignoring all the while the disastrous consequences the policy might have in the political and social realms. The great merit of Wilhelm Roepke's "Humane Economy" is that he sedulously avoids this error. Roepke is one of the few pro-market who understands that the free market does not exist in vacuo and that the market cannot be defended as a good-in-itself. In the "Humane Economy," Roepke points out that free enterprise depends on sociological, moral, and cultural factors for its maintenance and survival. The "sphere of the market, of competition, of the system where supply and demand move prices and thereby govern production, may be regarded and defended only as part of a wider general order encompassing ethics, law, the natural conditions of life and happiness, the state, politics, and power," writes Roepke. "Individuals who compete on the market and there pursue their own advantage stand all the more in need of the social and moral bonds of community, without which competition degenerates most grievously." Roepke's defense of the market rests firmly on time-tested conservative principles. He dissects the corrosive effects of mass society and social rationalism and warns against those two "slowly spreading cancers of our Western economy," "the irresistible advance of the welfare state and the erosion of the value of money, which is called creeping inflation." There are few books which detail the crisis of modern civilization in the West better than this one; and none which offer a more convincing vision of a genuinely "humane" economy.

Russell Kirk tended to take the view of Edmund Burke that the age of Sophists, Economists, and Calculators was upon us and that the unbought graces of life were gone. Kirk found the priests of the dismal science to be a blinkered breed who worshipped the god Efficiency, but from that judgment he excluded Wilhelm Ropke, whose work was aimed at returning economics to the human scale.

Ropke opposed the rise of the National Socialists in his native Germany. When Hitler came to power, Ropke was forced to leave, having lectured against the centralizing economics of that regime. But after the Second World War he returned to play a large role in Germany's postwar recovery, which was based on market solutions. From experience he had no confidence in systems of centralized authority -- socialism, communism, or collectivized decision-making of any kind. Against these he believed in local institutions, such as the small town of his birth, family, church, local community, neighborhood, and what Burke called the little platoons in which we travel.

Further, he had no faith in an abstract capitalism that excluded moral considerations. The essence of A Humane Economy is that the most important facets of life transcend the economic sphere. Ropke builds his argument by looking at the moral foundations and ethical conditions necessary for a market economy to function, and by locating the market economy within necessary limits and spheres of activity. He also examines the destructive effects of mass society: crowded cities, bureaucratic hospitals, ubiquitous industry, egalitarian democracy, the absurd pace and busy-ness of modern life, and the myth of the sovereign people over the individual person. The remaining chapters look at the welfare state, chronic inflation, and the importance of ownership and private property.

The line that Ropke draws is between centrism and decentrism. With centrism comes the gradual erosion of the human element. Just as Ortega y Gassett showed how modernity had excluded man from art, so Ropke is arguing that economics has gradually excluded man from economics. While art had become preoccupied with abstract ideas, economics was being treated as a science, surrounded by theory, charts, and graphs. What economists should have been doing, argues Ropke, is adapting economic policy to man, not trying to adapt man to economics.

Readers should have no trouble recognizing this dehumanization at work in today's world. Contra Ropke, the centralizing impulse is on the rise in both government and the workplace. Books about economics have earned their reputation for dullness, but Ropke transcends the genre. His book is readable and re-readable, with a wider view than the blinkered breed usually gives us. Perhaps in time A Humane Economy will receive a proper hearing.

Guillermo Röpke, que nace casi con el siglo XX, es uno de los representantes más acreditados del verdadero pensamiento económico, reconciliado con la reflexión ética y política. Lejos de él la tajante separación entre la economía y la política instituida por los representantes del neoliberalismo economicista. Röpke, amigo de Alexander Rüstow, cuya obra también conocía en profundidad, constituye en ejemplo superior de la manera de pensar en órdenes concretos ("Ordnungsdenken"). Ello explica, justamente, la importancia del libro cuya traducción al inglés registra el título "A Humane Economy", y cuya traducción al español, mucho más fiel al título alemán, se rotuló "Más allá de la oferta y la demanda". En efecto, ese título resume perfectamente la intención del autor, pues Röpke consideraba que la economía de mercado no lo es todo. En su opinión, esta necesita ser sostenida por un recio entramado de creencias y valores. En este sentido, resulta insólito descubrir la preocupación social de Röpke en una profesión, la de economista, demasiado preocupada por las grandes categorías científicas.

If you want a bracing look at how society should run, pick up this book. Ropke, a German who resisted Hitler during WWII and was an architect of Germany's post-war economic resurgance, writes beautifully about the value of the market economy, and about the need to undergird this economy with strong social and political institutions.

A chief value of the book is that it was first written back in 1960, and is therefore outside of the current, rather small, debate. Although some of his topics seem a little dated (communism chief among them), the underlying battle is timeless and this book is well-worth the read.

This book is written at a very readable level for third and fourth grade, easy enough for the student who struggles and interesting enough for more competent readers. I have used it in my classes for years. Students and parents have loved it.

As a school librarian, I often get specific requests for books from teachers. This book was one such request. This is a Scholastic book that has been sold through Scholastic for years as a paperback, but I wanted a hard back copy of it. It's a terrific book for our 3rd graders who are studying Martin Luther King, Jr. and for Black History month in February. I was thrilled to find a hard back copy from Amazon.

This is a Good book and I really enjoy reading it. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a hero of all time. He has save all the Black, and he gave their freedom.

The Scholastic company along with Margaret Davidson has put together a very informative book for youngsters. The book doesn't delve too deeply into the social consciousness so it will keep a youngster's interest. It is an excellent book to show how, against all odds, a man no more slated for greatness than any other American, had a dream to change the way African Americans were treated. It is also an excellent book that demonstrates how conflict-resolution can be achieved through peaceful means. This book makes for a wonderful read aloud to herald in the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's Day.

As a third grade teacher I use this book on a yearly basis during the month of January. Davidson does a wonderful job of allowing the children to connect to young Martin. From the early chapters she eloquently weaves Martin's words along with those of his friends and colleagues. Children are certainly saddened when Martin is eventually killed. Well worth reading!

Like most people my age, I've seen old movies depicting the Gold Rush, but they were nothing compared to this delightful account of the author's experiences in Dawson and Whitehorse, in the Yukon. From page one to the end, I FELT the cold of the North, learned about the vegetation and moreso, shared in the life of the pioneers AFTER the Gold Rush. Such hearty men and women gave of themselves in the search for gold, few, very feew becoming rich. Yet, they all seem to have enrichened my life thanks to their determination and stamina despite all odds. To read of the social differences that the citizens upheld in Dawson gives one a thoughtful look at the upper classes, who brought their prejudices with them to Dawson. Yet, with time, as the gold became more and more rare, the population dwindled and with it the many differences, which had segretated the classes. Abandoned homes, run-down shacks, empty stores finally gave way to social values, which brought the remaining residents together. As the author mentions, one could not walk down the street of Dawson without saying "hello" to everyone since the life of one touched the life of the others. With only 800 persons left in town, all knew one another and social standing gave way to familial attitudes. It was no longer necessary to give the telephone operator a number, only the name of the person to whom one wanted to speak need be mentioned and the phone rang at the other end. Tragedy and hardships took hold of the life of everyone, but friendship and helpfulness prevailed as their numbers dwindled. A beautiful read, which has opened my mind and heart to these pioneers, who are our ancestors.

I read this book during a travel threw canada in 1985 especially Atlin in the yukon. I like all biographics books which are the witnness of the story of the world.

Ms. Berton's account of life in Dawson from 1907 to the 1920's is too late to tell the story of the Klondike gold rush. Instead it tells of life in a small northern community that has seen its hey-day come and go, describing it's traditions and lifestyle in such detail you soon feel as though you've lived there too.

The descriptive passages are excellent and the book contains several colorful tales of individual struggles, her own and others'. I was a bit put off by the enormous number of names of people she met in the Yukon but didn't find I needed to remember them all to enjoy the book. If you have read the history of Dawson during the gold rush in other books, this is a great afterword that describes many notable figures' lives following the rush, answering several 'whatever happened to so-and-so' questions.

I remember our elementary school library encouraging children to read it, but given its richness of detail and adult perspective it's anything but a kid's book. Despite her matter-of-fact writing style, Ms. Berton's story is emotionally engaging and a great portrait of life in northern Canada.

This is the true story of a woman who moved to the Yukon in the days of the Gold Rush - she went to be a schoolteacher for a couple of years, married a prospector, and wound up raising a family in one of the most spectacular - and harshest - places and times in North America. Laura Berton writes with humor and insight, and has produced a most entertaining book which is interesting as biography, as history, and as just a fun read! Laura also produced one of the most prolific authors in Canada today - Pierre Berton, author of FLAMES ACROSS THE BORDER and THE DIONNE YEARS. This is a book that deserves to be more widely read!

If you ever plan to come up to Dawson City, Yukon you will want to read this book. Mrs. Berton gives an insight to the Goldrush town of Dawson City. I can say that you will still find the house she lived in and some of the houses that she describes in her book. As a resident of Dawson City it is nice to have read a book that is truly about what life was and is in Dawson City.

This is a book full of interesting information-- no question there. However, it's not super reader-friendly and I just couldn't get into it. I wanted a random-information book I could read straight through-- this isn't it. However, it is a pretty cool book-- maybe a nice coffee table book addition.

If you are one of those people who likes browsing in drug stores at 3:00 for that hit of domesticated weirdness---such as meat-free Shnookums and Meat pasta or 666 Cold Medicine---then you will savor this book like a fine can of 7 Up Gold.

Also worth looking for are issues of "Beer Frame," Lukas's delightful zine, and "Object Lessons: Songs about Products," a Lukas-inspired EP featuring the highly hummable (seriously) song "Golden Boy Peanuts."

As Sigue Sigue Sputnik so weirdly proved back in the '80s, _anything_ can be a product (even a rock band). This well-written, researched and hilarious book takes us from Thirst and Musk LifeSavers (a favorite in the former penal colony known as Australia) to microwave pork rinds and the smoker's robot (read to believe). The perfect read-to-your-friend-in-the-car-while-roadtripping book

Paul has a talent for looking twice at products we usually take for granted. It's the "how did we ever miss this?" attitude he takes that makes his book and writing so fun -- he's got a great wit and eye for the absurd in everyday life. After reading his book (and his zine, Beer Frame), I've never been able to go to the supermarket in the same way again

I always wondered if I was the only person in the world who was blown away by products like "Armour Pork Brains in Milk Gravy". Paul Lukas has proven that a) I'm not alone and b) if I was more talented I could have made money writing a book about bizarre products. My only complaint about this book was that it ended. I was ready for hundreds of more examples, particularly the weird foods.

I just finished reading Inmate 46857 after having met and heard Eddie Spencer in person at a reading conference this week. I cannot imagine someone even younger than me living a life like he described in his book. It was truly through the grace of God that he did not commit murder and his testimony is one that could and should shake up folks who might be headed down the wrong path. I highly recommend having him speak to troubled youth and using his book as a witness to God's power to change people.

i just finished reading this book and am deeply moved by the conditions in which this man had to grow up in and felt it an honor to have been allowed into his personal pain. it puts me to shame for my own careless affluence, always a good reminder. reading this book allows me an encouraging faith as i pray for prisoners. besides all this, it's a really good read.

I read this book because Eddie Charles is coming to visit my school. My eyes were opened up on how a person can turn to such a sinful life. I am hoping that the message he carries will influence some of my students. Hopefully, his story will keep some of them from making some of the mistakes he made. I also took to heart what he said "Only God can change a person for the good".

This is an incredible testimony of God's grace and faithfulness. It is very well-written and is hard to put down once you start it. Written in the first-person narrative, it makes you feel as if Eddie is personally talking to you and telling you his story. It is exciting to think of how God will use this book to impact many for His glory!

I started the book thinking that it would be just another biography of a bad life turned good. By the end I was gripped by the reality of a miracle and reminded that God can indeed change anyone. I recommend the book to any person who thinks that anyone or any situation is hopeless. It is also a great tool for those that work with at risk youth.

I found this book incredibly helpful as we are beginning our journey of adoptiong a child from China. It clearly walks you through the entire process, but also discusses those issues adopted children will face after the adoption, issues like attachment, grieving, developing a healthy identity. Perhaps what I appreciated most was the more researched based approach to this whole process. They conducted their own study and then drew conclusions based on the few other studies which exist on this topic. I appreciated hearing that the majority of children adopted from China appear to settle well statistically, as opposed to just testimonials (although they also included testimonials which were interesting and helpful). I have read many books which are wonderful emotional tesitmonials, but it was so helpful to have those balanced by a more objective, factual book like this. This was an excellent resource for me.

This book is very enlightening and discusses many issues involved in international adoption as well as outcomes for children adopted internationally. Would be helpful to mental health workers, pediatricians and prospective adoptive parents as well as those who already have adoptive children!

The Amazon book description gives a good overview of the topics covered, but it fails to convey the careful manner in which information is delivered in the book. The authors rely not only on their own research (the methodology and limits of which they describe), but also rely on other published studies. The authors note that the studies on adoption of Chinese children were done recently, and are few in number. The authors, however, refer to studies involving other adopted children (particularly Korean children) in an effort to predict some answers regarding older children. While the book relies heavily on research publications, it also uses adoptive parent comments to help illustrate points.

As important for me as the authors' conclusions, were the explainations of why those conclusions might not be correct. The authors readily note where the research is inconclusive, a sample is too small, where there are conflicting theories, or where a study might not be applicable to the adoption of Chinese children today. I also appreciate the authors citing their sources (typically right in the text). Thus, if you want to know more about an issue, you know exactly which study the authors relied upon. All of the cited publications, as well as a number of resources for adopting parents, are cited in the appendix.

Too much information on this subject is either missing, or is given in a chatty style that is not comprehensive. As a parent just starting the adoption process, I wish I had read this book a year ago.

I've read many books on this topic, but this one is the most thorough and fact based ones I have found to date. Very informative and a definite must have for any one thinking of adopting from China. I can't wait for their next publication!

This is a well-researched, easy-to-read academic work on the issues surrounding adopting children from China. The authors write both from first-hand knowledge as well as from results of a survey that they conducted via the Web over the past few years. It fills a gap in the literature on this topic.

The book covers topics such as how and whether to impart knowledge of Chinese culture to adoptees, the legal issues involved in intercountry adoption and statistics about how well adoptees do after they've been in the U.S. with their new families for several years.

It is a useful guidebook for those wishing to adopt a child from oversees, especially from China, and it is also useful for those studying adoption in general.

This book is the essential book about Bali. I read it 26 years ago when I first went to Bali and it still ranks as thee book about Bali. If you wish to learn about the Balinese people, their culture and religion and beliefs I highly recommend this book. jim

If you only read one book on Bali, read this one. Believe me, I'm Balinese.

Miguel Covarrubias, and his wife Rose,who were Mexican, went to Bali twice, once in 1930 for several months and again in 1933 again for several months. The first time they stayed in Denpasar, the capital, and the second time in Ubud, where I live.

They stayed with Walter Spies in Ubud,who was an extraordinary German, who had been living there for years, and who totally absorbed Balinese culture. My mother worked for him. He taught the Covarrubias's a lot.

They then wrote their book. It is regarded as the bible and all subsequent books owe a lot to it. Some things have changed, of course, but only on the surface. We are very traditional, especially in the Ubud area. The book is an excellent introduction to our rich culture.

The book discusses family and village life, rice farming, our Bali-Hindu religion, ceremonies, history, drama, art and dance.

It's very readable and the photographs and line drawings are great.

I must confess this book is thick but hey!!! It's well worth reading about for those who want to understand a little about Balinese culture as well as it's lovely people. I found it very interesting since it covered almost everything about Bali, however the book was written before World War II and well I still think it's great to have a book that is still resourceful. Even though so much has changed with Bali over the decades this book will never die surely. This is a must and is essential for those who want to have a better understanding of Bali back before World War II and they can still relate it to the present. Nothing much has changed but a few things have altered. It was like stepping back in time when I read this book... I hope everyone will enjoy the book as much as I do too... great book to have...

This is by far the best book available if you want to know about the people of Bali - their unique lifestyle, religion, customs and beliefs. Written in the 1930's, it still holds true today. The classic black and white photos are worth the price alone. The Balinese people still live a magical life that is difficult for a westerner to comprehend, unless you read a book like this.

Mexican painter Miguel Covarrubias set sail for Bali in 1931 on an optimistic personal quest to discover, absorb, and chronicle Bali's traditional living culture. Buy into the romance and seduction of Covarrubias-driven by a feverish imagination-- inexorably pulled towards and teased by the lure of Bali, half a world away. Travel back sixty-four years in time to Bali's unspoiled natural vistas-a happy, peaceful. pristine retreat standing apart from a West mired in crippling economic depression and poised on the precipice of World War II. As a fellow artist on an island with three million artists-in-residence (creativity is considered both a religious and a natural activity on Bali), Covarrubias penetrated deeply into the spirit of the dance, theatre, music, decorative arts, and pastimes of Bali.
Embellished by 114 half-tone photos and 90 drawings by the author and other Balinese artists, this essential, still-relevant classic consists of twelve chapters on the Balinese people and their civilization in the 1930s. Accompanied by painter Walter Spies, Bali's most famous expatriate resident, they roamed the countryside together with eyes, ears, and canvasses wide open, observing the local life. Covarrubias's most notable writing describes the organization of the traditional Balinese village: the markets, social order, etiquette, language, caste system, the banjar, law and justice, the courts, the subak, rice culture, and the distribution of labor. This intimate, insider's foray into every nook and cranny of his own paradise produced key chapters on everyday family life in Bali: the house, cooking, costume and adornment, childbirth, childhood, adolescence, sexual customs, and marriage.
Covarrubias explored the place of the artist in Balinese life and the development and evolution of Balinese art, crafts, sculpture, and architecture. Drama and dance are important components of Balinese life: they come alive through the village orchestras, musical instruments, classical Legong, and the ancient shadow plays. Island of Bali unveils material on priests and religion, temples and feasts, offerings and exorcisms, the Balinese calendar, and the original Bali Aga people. Written from a day when primary forests reigned supreme and witch doctors wielded terrifying power, Covarrubias delves into the cult of the Barong and Rangda, black and white magic, folk medicine, the sacrifice of widows, and death and cremation. The Balinese still lead a magical, mystical, harmonious life that is difficult for Westerners to understand unless they read a profound work like Covarrubias's Island of Bali. With an artist's sensibility and a Bali-lover's eye, Covarrubias paints a complex nirvana with words and easel in this great literary achievement.

"Re/Search 8/9: J G Ballard", which dates from 1984, is the single best book that's been published on Ballard. This latest offering from Re/Search brings us right up to date, containing a variety of interviews and discussions with the author taken over the period 1983 to 2004. There's lots here on Ballard's usual themes - psychopathology, death of affect, and so on. But the guts of the book lies in the three lengthy interviews in 2003 and 2004, in the course of which Ballard also visits such contemporary issues as 9-11, neo-cons, globalization, the end of the 'Age of Reason', and terrorism. As a counterpoint, there's a series of more informal, and often amusing, discussions that the Re/Search people have had with Ballard over the years they've been associated with him.

Whilst the interviews don't quite reach the heights of those in "Re/Search 8/9: J. G. Ballard", it's a worthy addition to Re/Search's portfolio of books by or about J.G.B., and a great companion to "J. G. Ballard: Quotes".

like a chisel blow to marble, each interview within the pages of "jg ballards: conversations" reveals the fascinating form that is the mind of one of contemporary fictions most innovative writers. 'conversations' is a collection of, funnily enough, conversations with the science fiction author, along with contributions from friends, colleagues and assorted associates, rounding the man and provocative thinker into one of the most astute in literature.
especially illuminating is an interview with david pringle, the editor of the magazine 'ambit' who has worked with ballard for more than 30 years.
if you are already aware of ballard's sensibility and vision then this compendium is a MUST. if you aren't already aware of ballard, then this compendium is DEFINITELY a must.

This excellent volume from the seminal underground SF publisher RE/Search is a definite must for anybody who is a fan of JG Ballard or of intelligent, thought-provoking discourse in general. Transcripts of conversations with various people with Ballard from over a couple of decades veer, often presciently, over subjects as diverse as internet sex, 9/11, the psychology of George W Bush and Tony Blair, the Stockholm syndrome/masochistic victim mentality methodology necessary to keep Western society running, psychopathology, violence, literature, and a thousand other subjects Ballard always has an original opinion on.

I found myself stopping frequently when reading this book to digest the information (overload) I had just ingested, and it certainly gave me food for thought and many interesting topics of conversation with my wife. Subsequent readings after the first reveal different layers of thought and theory after the initial culture shock of reading about things like religions regulating against a sane, peaceful society wears off. Buy this book. You won't regret it. Seriously. It certainly opened my eyes in a brilliant, innovative way to many latent strands and strains of faulty or faultline thought in modern life, and I'm definitely grateful for that.

Check out www.laurahird.com/newreview/jgballardinterview.html for more information on this and J.G. Ballard Quotes.

J.G. Ballard has spent most of his adult life quietly in a UK suburb. This collection of conversations is like being able to spend a surreal tea time with Ballard himself. Spanning discussions held in the early 1980s up through interviews held in the past few years, CONVERSATIONS is a compendium of Ballardian thought in the raw, composed freestyle like jazz music only between two people speaking.

The 20 year time span allows a good perspective on how political and social patterns predicted by Ballard in his writing during the 60s and 80s have come to pass as cultural reality. A Cronenberg Brundlefly will be quite at home on the wall overhearing these conversations.

The work that has earned J.G. Ballard his reputation as a prophet of the present runs the full gamut from the perverse to the catastrophic, from the utterly Surreal to the deeply personal. In J.G. Ballard Conversations, a new collection of interviews from RE/Search, Ballard exercises his trenchant observations live and uncensored. Running jags on the politics of paranoia are illumed with scientific/poetic clarity and a critical sense of the absurd on every page. But to say that Ballard is ahead of his time or a proponent of "science fictions" is misleading. The opposition that at one time may have existed between realistic fiction and "fantasy" or "science fiction" has been dismantled. Society's skewed relationship to realist fiction is explained by Ballard as the failing imaginations of contemporary men and women of letters to ascertain a world quickly leaving their ilk in the perfumed car exhaust.

"I think realist fiction has shot its bolt--it just doesn't describe the world we live in anymore. We're not living in a world where you can make a clear separation (as you could, say during the heyday of the 19th-century realist novel) between the external world of work, commerce, industry and a fixed set of values, and the internal world of hopes, dreams and ambitions. It's the other way around--the external world is a fantasy nowadays. It's a media landscape generated by advertising, and politics conducted as a branch of advertising.
There's an envelope of fantasy that is just pouring out of the air all the time, shaping all of our most ordinary perceptions... Fiction surrounds us--it's more than fiction, it's fantasy of a very peculiar kind that creates our environment. And to describe you've got to get away from realism. Yet the bourgeois novel survives and of course it's immensely popular--which is a bit of a problem."

Ballard's ability to lay open our present like a surgeon with a scalpel never fails, although his often satirical wit more closely resembles a butcher hacking us to pieces on his block. The real gravity in reading Ballard's musings lie in mapping his recurring obsessions, which even in the candor of casual conversation articulate the core themes of his novels. Ballard literally seems pathologically transfixed with the collective pathologies of modern society, how these pathologies manifest themselves and grow through individuals and in culture at large. His often fatalistic perspective on how individuals may or may not be able to cope with this transforming psychological landscape is a major concern throughout much of Ballard's thinking spanning years of acute insight:

On page 60, interviewed in 2003,
'I don't want to make an apocalyptic prophecy--I hardly ever do anything but make apocalyptic prophecies [!]--but I see elective psychopathy as the coming thing."

Or on page 136 discussing the politics of unconscious media manipulation embodied in figures like Ronald Reagan, in an interview from the 1980s,
"He clearly has the possibility within himself for people to impose their fantasies on him. That's the key thing... It's almost as if what one needs is a sort of reverse charisma now. Not a light that shines outwards, but the ability, like a black hole, to draw light inwards."

Or on page 100, from an interview in 2003 speaking of more direct modes of herding the masses:
"Psychopathic behavior seems to appears to immensely increase the possibilities of life--that's how whole nations can embrace, quite voluntarily, psychopathic acts. One could argue that both Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia were elective psychopathies on a nationwide scale... There may be profound masochistic strains running through modern industrial man, that every now and then summon forth these demons like Hitler and Stalin who then do what is expected of them. It's a frightening prospect, but I think the Age of Reason is over."

And on page 166, in a 1991 interview with Lynne Fox, on the larger implications of the Surrealist legacy and whether creative insight into these cultural phenomena can serve as a satirical antidote or if it is never more than a harbinger of the end:
"It would be very difficult to make the Dali/Bunuel films made at the end of the 1920s today because the sight of people dragging dead donkeys through a drawing room would [seem to be] some sort of advertising stunt--a beer commercial. The external world is so strange, so full of fantasy, that you can't use the classic Surrealist approach."

The affinity Ballard feels with the Surrealists comes from the need to map a new mythology, one which recognizes the deeper strata of human consciousness skewered out on the pig poles of the everyday. "I'm trying to suggest that there is a new psychological order awaiting us, I'm as convinced of this as an ordinary individual as I am as an imaginative writer..." (167).

Whether discussing the co-optation of Surrealism by product advertisers, the ever-evolving romance of technology and human sexuality, or how the fictions of our day-to-day existence are now more fantastic than the bravest works of literary endeavor, Ballard's ability as a conversationalist and thinker never leaves a moment dull.
RE/Search has done a marvelous job in assembling and maintaining a recorded archive of an extraordinary and sadly-overlooked point of view. The photographs illustrating this collection create a pervasive feeling of some bizarre and quintessentially Ballardian mental landscape. Airbrushed models pouting their desirous and desiring faces juxtaposed upon dirty and transpiring buildings, sparkling bathers in near-futuristic water-slide playground utopias somehow magically growing out of vast deserts, and campy-looking old laboratory portrait photographs where without much suggestion the scientists could easily be mistaken for costumed sadists committing acts of sexual barbarism upon comely supine machines and more-than-willing control consuls. The publishing brilliance of RE/Search shines through in this perceptive coupling of words and images. This is the same sensibility that expertly paired the illustrations of Phoebe Gloeckner with the text of the Atrocity Exhibition to create the definitive and now infamously classic RE/Search edition of that twisted masterpiece. J.G. Ballard Conversations, with little doubt, will garner a similar following amongst those who know and appreciate Ballard's genius.

Kenneth E. Bailey does it again! The insights in this book are as precious and worthwhile as his insights in Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes. No matter how much I were to study the Biblical text, there are certain aspects that I can't figure out on my own because I don't have a Middle Eastern cultural worldview. Bailey presents this worldview and offers astounding insights into the biblical texts.

Gold...absolute gold.

This is a must-read for anyone who is serious about Biblical study. Dr. Bailey's videos and CDs should also be purchased. He does not do his work simply in service of scholarship. His work is done in service to the real Jesus Christ. I have had the privilege of hearing Dr. Bailey in person. He is a true witness; and anyone who calls him/herself a Christian needs to hear and read what he has to say.

Kenneth Bailey's "Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes" gives the reader a rich feast of information about Jesus' times and teachings. Drawing on his own background of life in the Middle East, as well as expert knowledge of the literary structures and conventions of Biblical times, Bailey brings new excitement to passages that had perhaps become dulled through over-familiarity.
I highly recommend this book to students who are interested in the culturally relevant shades of meaning that actually reside in the parables and stories of Jesus.

It is fitting that David Bailey, Ken's son, gives the first review since the book is dedicated to him. I am a former God hating PK. Ken has helped me see Jesus in a different light. And like David said Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is not just for scholars. Anyone interested in discovering more about Jesus will be blown away by this book. And if you like this book, you may also like Finding the Lost Cultural Keys to Luke 15.

David Bailey himself is a talented musician (guitar, singer). A cancer survivor and dude with a great sense of humor. I recently bought his albums: One More Day and Silent Conversations. eProdigal.com

my name is david bailey. My dad dedicated this book to me and I'm humbled and honored - not just because he's the coolest dad in the world, but because this is his biggest and, i think, best book yet. Informative, insightful, inspiring, and extraordinarily readable - both for serious scholars and for us normal people :-)

The reason to read this book isn't that it gives you the closest thing to a day-by-day accounting of Hendrix life (which it does). The best reason to read this book is the diversity of perspectives that it gives you on Hendrix. You hear from people who loved him, who just randomly bumped into him, and even a couple who could have done without him. There's no author's bias that you have to tease out on your own. There are an assortment of takes on Hendrix. You can judge for yourself what is valid and what isn't, based on whether it is corroborated by other accounts of the same event. A truly fascinating way to look at the life of a legend.

This book on legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix takes an unusual turn, gathering eyewitness recollections of his life through the words of his admirers, friends and close observers. From his childhood experiences through adulthood, this uses quotes from documentaries, books, newspapers, TV and Internet sites as well as new interviews to provide a well-rounded view of the man and his career.

Jimi Hendrix was undoubtedly one of the most distinguished and most talented guitarists ever to walk the planet. His life started out in the gutter: no mother, a father overseas, and nothing to rely on but himself. Soon however, he found his true calling, the guitar. One of his father's friends had an old Stratocaster and one night while he was drunk, he sold it to Jimi for hardly anything. From this point on, his life changed drastically; he took his guitar with him everywhere he went, even going as far as sleeping with it. His guitar took him all over the country, to England and back, and then back to London. On his last visit to London, he passed away. Jimi Hendrix was and will always be one of the best guitarists ever.

This book opens the wounds of Jimi's death anew. The author pieces together, as best he can, with recollections from family, band mates, and contemporaries the crushing price fame held for Jimi Hendrix. One can feel the pain, and I actually felt rage against all who seemed out to destroy him. True, he had his own demons, but there seemed noone who was really there to care about the "person" Jimi, only what they could get out of him. Of all books out, this one seemed most objective, if that is possible.

This unique day-by-day account of Jimi Hendrix's life succeeds in driving home the relentless pressures of being a rock star. Drawn from a variety of sources, the book manages a feat rarer than a Hendrix guitar without teethmarks...a coherent recollection of the sixties music scene! An excellent read.