Switzerland Books

The color photos in this travel guide are nice, but it lacks the feature of suggested itineraries or must-sees. Recommended more if you have an idea of where you want to go and what you want to see, and recommended less if you prefer more direction/suggestions.

I've always liked the Eyewitness Travel Guides for their great photos, maps, narrative and tidbits. This one lives up to the series' standard. And these books make a great keepsake after your trip.

We had one week in Geneva and this guide pretty much explained everything there was to see. Well written, easy to use, very well organized, it was possible to get a handle on any large Swiss city in about 30 minutes.

I had purchased a similar book for my son about France to help him with his French language courses in high school. I ended up spending more time with it than he did, and when I saw the other country titles, I decided to purchase a few more. The Switzerland book is excellent in that it condenses a lot of information into a very portable volume. The photos and illustrations are fabulous and the background historical and cultural information is superb. The listing of accomodations and restaurants also appears to be very well researched and provides a starting point for further Internet research. My favorite part of Switzerland is the Bernese Oberland, and this book provides a genuine sense of what it is really like. I can definitely benefit from this book on future travel to Switzerland. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about the country, as well as for experienced travellers. Well done to the authors, editors, and publisher!

Pros: this guidebook has lots of pictures and gives lots of information region by region, detailed cut-outs of major historical buildings. I also found the pictures in the survival guide section useful, where they describe the various Swiss dishes and food/drink products.

Cons: no information on how to get to different places by train (e.g. from Interlaken to Schilthorn or Jungfraujoch). I understand the guide cannot list train numbers and times, but at least it could have described how to, for example, get from Luzern to Mt. Titlis by train. Train travel is a big part of the Switzerland experience so this seems like a big omission. There's also not much information on hiking, even though this is a very popular country with hikers. An overview map of hiking trails would have been useful. However, there are other guides that cover hiking so this is a minor omission by comparison.

This book describes inns that you do not find on line or in the usual search engines. We stayed at two of them in Sept 2008 and felt very happy to have "discovered" both.

As of June 2006, this was the only book I could find with the information I needed to plan a trip through the Bernese Oberland section of the Swiss Alps. Even the internet proved less helpful than this cohesive, complete guide to hikes and accommodations in a fairly remote area. The book helped me plan a wonderful, memorable trip. My only wish is that the maps were drawn to scale.

Ms. Lieberman is an expert on Euro hiking, and her books are always extremely helpful in trip planning and execution. This title is no exception. She has identified some of the best inns, and I used her recommendations with great results on a recent trip.

I'm a compulsive trip planner, and our recent trip to the Alps sent me into trip-planning overdrive. This book was my favorite resource for finding out-of-the-way lodging in the mountains of Switzerland. From the descriptions of the Hotels themselves, to the guides to Switzerland's various regions, to the suggested hiking trails, we found Marcia Lieberman's advice to be impeccable.

Our favorite was the Hotel Waldrand Pochtenalp, a place so far from the beaten path that we never would have found it without the help of this excellent guide!

This book introduced us to a new way of experiencing Switzerland, the Alps, and the great outdoors. Staying at a Berghotel is truly civilized hiking! Spectacular views, challenging hikes, and an evening ended with a cold beer overlooking the terrain you have just climbed. The hikes, hotels, accomodations are all clearly described. The food, at the hotel we stayed was excellent, family style. We're returning this year for a longer hike to a series of huts/hotels. Highly recommend this book for planning a trip to the Swiss Alps.

Ropke was a major influence in the economic reconstruction of post-World War II Germany. This work is an excellent reintroduction to Ropke for a generation that needs to hear his message. If you are seeking to learn about sound economic alternatives to the irresponsible economic policies promulgated by both major U.S. political parties this is a good book to start with. Zmirak sets forth Ropke's economic and social philosophy in the context of the turbulent times through which he lived and worked. Highly recommended for the general reader.

A window on the most turbulent decades of the twentieth century, seen through the eyes of Wilhelm Röpke, outstanding economist and social thinker. A tale skillfully retold by a scholar of our times in this very readable account of Röpke's life and work. A pleasure for anyone interested in the economic history of the twentieth century. Röpke's insights into the Great Depression, the errors of National Socialism and, after World War II, attempts at reconstruction and reform have the ring of truth and are of relevance to our times.

Wilhelm Röpke is a brilliant German-born economic, social and political theorist, and perhaps my favorite amongst the "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 empirical reasoning. The crux of Röpke's economic thought is that the individual counts. This brilliant German economist of the "Austrian school" stood up to the centralizing and dehumanizing policies of the Nazis. Collectivist ideologies lay waste to civil society-destroying the intermediary institutions between individual and state-supplanting them with institutions to empower and enhance the state. Röpke recognized that allocating resources by the fair play of supply and demand is the most humane system and he was champion of the market economy. He was influential over economist Ludwig Erhard, who architected FRG's postwar economic plan, which emphasized free enterprise.

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 characterizing socialism as a "planned economy" since in his view a market economy is just an economy "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. Capitalism frequently connotes a materialistic consumerist ideology or images of big business rather than a social framework based on the market economy. 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 recognizes the limitations of the market economy. Röpke possesses 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 humane 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 mantra on its nose.) Röpke recognizes something that libertarians miss with their penchant for crude utilitarian calculations and their moral 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 (e.g. Wal-Mart.) In their efforts to defend any and everything related to "the private sector," they forget that the apparently sporadic interventions of the state often come at the behest of big business. Many big business 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 possess a comparative advantage in that they can absorb the regulatory costs easier than their smaller competitors and perhaps influence the regulations. Röpke, however, scorns 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.

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 recognized that a market economy flourishes when tradition and community guard against the centralizing depredations of the state and big business. Röpke further emphasized the principle of subsidiarity, which in Europe today seems to survive only in that beautiful alpine island of parochialism-Switzerland-which itself is straddled by the colossal and cosmopolitan EU super-state as if it is ready to be consumed.

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 like Agar and Tate. You might check out their works as well, if Röpke interests you.

Wilhelm Röpke was really a great personality and an important figure in the history of liberal thinking. It was certainly worthwhile to publish a book on him and Zmirak has done a great job. He shows, that Röpke was not only an economist, but also a profound social philosopher. This reconciliation of technocratic economies and human values would be even more needed nowadays than at the time of Röpke. Zmirak shows better than other books on Röpke, that the Swiss social and political system was very important for Röpke's thinking, that many ideas were new only to Germans or Americans, but draw on Swiss history and Swiss experience.
-, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

The author has done an excellent job in pinpointing to what extent Wilhelm Röpke, in his most mature work, was fired by his first-hand knowledge and experience of the small-scale, directly democratic, and partially corporatistic and communitarian institutions of his Swiss environment. Röpke's twin emphasis, on the one hand on private property rights, individual liberty and self-reliance, and on the other on a social setup characterized by face-to-face networks can be regarded as an antidote against the incipient facelessness of both an atomized capitalistic mass society and a bureaucratic welfare state. -Robert Nef,

Great work! It is wonderful to see such a large amount of good work in one book.

Good, very good. Another volume of the late 90's design influence library. Filled to the eyeballs with colourful layouts and impressive design...Those euro-ravers will love this one. De5igners====advance.

This book shows incedible design, photography and illustration skills. What really stands out with this compilation of work is that you get to see their creative process and inspiration, as well as the finished works. Cutting edge and hip!

This is a strange book - at first glance, many of the designs are quite ugly (mostly because of the colors chosen.) But they are captivating, and the more you stare at the pages, the more sense they make. I suppose you'd have to spend some time thumbing through this book to agree, but if anything can be said about these guys for certain, it's that they are awesome typographers.

Buro Destruct takes a fresh approach to very trendy vector designs, giving things a twisted sometimes darker and more mature edge.

If you're looking for a collection of work akin to the Designers Republic's peak of the early Nineties you will be sorely disappointed. This book is certainly not a manual on how to imitate tDR designs as some might hope.

Using sources from japanese packaging to teapots in a bazaar, this design firm offers a broad range of styles. Their strongest work for me includes the hand drawn studies, and retro-futuristic fonts (reminiscent of arcade games). The 3D work and cut-up photos are not my taste, though cleverly done.

Anything, no matter how "mundane" or "ugly" can be part of a great design. This is the idea that holds this book together, an idea that escapes most designers and the reason i keep pulling it down from my shelves.

The author, a historian, discusses the role of Switzerland during World War II as a safe haven for Allied bombers which were hit during air raids in Germany. Instead of trying to make it back to England or Italy, the pilots attempted to fly to Switzerland where they were treated much better than if they had fallen into enemy hands. The vast majority of the Swiss were in favor of the allies. Switzerland was the only predominantly German speaking country which did not want to be annexed by Hitler. The author describes the various defenses that the Swiss put up which would have made it very difficult to conquer for the Nazis to just come in and take over the country. Switzerland's fierce independence, and the natural defense of the Alps provided a strong deterrent to the Nazi regine.
166 United States bombers landed in Switzerland after getting hit by German AA or fighter planes. The United States bomber squadrons in Europe suffered the highest rate of casualties during World War II.

The author traces the history of Switzerland's role during World War II and the fate of these crews who landed in Swiss territory. Not a well known story to most Americans.
Highly recommended for those with an interest in the European theatre of World War II.

Tom Kirsch

With a world war blazing around all your borders, it is not so easy to maintain your neutrality. Switzerland, a tiny republic encircled by fascist tyrannies, managed just that difficult feat during World War 2. Three circumstances worked in its favor in achieving this policy. Switzerland had:

(1) an armed and trained populace (2) an almost impenetrable terrain in its Alpine fortress (which covers most of the country) and (3) a strong and tested tradition of honest, and heavily armed, neutrality stretching back to the Middle Ages.

Switzerland's good fortune was also good luck for others, including 1700 American airmen, who, during the course of the war, found safe haven in Switzerland when their ships were crippled in combat and some 100,000 internees and escaped POWs from many armies, as well as about 200,000 civilian refugees.

Well-armed and neutral, Switzerland still had to defend its sovereignty and people not just from the Nazis, but on occasion, from stray American bombers, as well, as Stephen Tanner documents in "Refuge from the Reich," his exciting account of this chapter of the air war over Europe and American airmen's seeking sanctuary in tiny Switzerland.

Ground armies and air armadas swirled along the Swiss borders from June 1940 to May 1945. From time to time, soldiers crossed Switzerland's borders, by land and by air, to find themselves interned "for the duration." In all, over 100,000 soldiers and airmen were interned in Switzerland during the war, including approximately 1700 American aviators, mostly the crews of heavily damaged B-17 and B-24 bombers that could not make it back to their bases in England or Italy.

The first American airmen began arriving in Switzerland in August 1943, as 8th and 15th Air Force began their heavy daylight bombing campaigns over southern Germany. In 1944, as many as ten crippled aircraft might land there in a given day. Stephen Tanner tells the story of the fortunate airmen who made it safely down to Swiss soil -- and also tells the sadder tale of their crewmates who died in crashes or who fell short and ended up in German stalags.

Mr. Tanner has written a compelling narrative history, briefly tracking the evolution of the democratic Swiss Confederation from its origins in the heart of medieval, monarchist Europe, and also describing the development of strategic air power and its application in Europe during World War 2. He gives a running account that weaves the stories of the American aviators and the little democracy's tenacious defense of its independence and scrupulous adherence to the Geneva Conventions. Tanner combines a "top down" strategic overview with "bottom up" personal narratives of the surviving aviators very successfully.

"Refuge from the Reich" is also a very moving book . You will find the stories of the US airmen buried in the cemetery in the Swiss town of Munsingen. You will find accounts of airmen wanting back in the fight and mounting hundreds of successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) escapes, often with the help of US embassy personnel and ordinary Swiss citizens. You will find, too, tales of the infamous little camp at Wauwilermoos, under the command of the corrupt Nazi sympathizer, Captain Beguin, where discipline cases and unsuccessful escapees alike were sometimes sent for punishment. You will find accounts of the U.S. Army Air Force's bombing of Swiss towns and cities in error -- of the bombing of Schaffhausen with 50 dead, and even of Zurich and Basel with less tragic results. Mostly you will find the humanity of the Swiss people and the young American airmen on display, as they encounter each other in the midst of world war.

"Refuge from the Reich" does a very nice job of combining strategy and diplomacy with dangerous missions, hazardous landings, escapes and captures, a little espionage and intrigue, and a most illuminating portrait of a neutral people surviving in the shadow of world war.

Stephen Tanner's Refuge From The Reich is a compelling and informative account of the treatment of civilian and military refugees, escapees, and evadees at the hands of the Swiss under the military authority of General Henri Guisan during the Second World War. Interned at ski resorts for the duration of the war, the U.S. officers and men were afforded the same sparse allowances, poorly heated accommodations, spartan living conditions, and subsistence diets of 1,500 calories per day that characterized the lives of Swiss burghers, who were then as dependent on Germany for foodstuffs and coal as their current descendants are for tourism, and whose antipathy to Germans remains a part of the Swiss national character today. The airmen's boredom and eagerness to return to the fray are convincingly depicted, as are their often successful attempts to escape and the deplorable, substandard conditions at the prisons (principally at Wauwilermoos, the swamp of Wauwil) to which they were sent if caught - generally by the Swiss army, since the civilian population usually abetted such efforts, helping the fliers reach the French underground at Annecy. The work limns in great detail the singularity of a determinedly independent, heavily armed, and, in the interior mountainous regions, largely impregnable democratic state existing in the midst of Nazi-occupied Europe and providing the only proximate refuge for thousands of airmen trapped in damaged and otherwise doomed planes, which often were guided to safe landings at the Dubendorf airport and elsewhere by the Swiss air force. The planes bore such nicknames as Dinah Mite, Touchy Tess, Twat's It To You, and Est Nulla Via Invia Virtuti, the last - an allusion to the Sybil's encouragement to Aeneas in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and rendered in English as "No path is impassable to courage" - christened by an educated pilot named Martin Andrews, who later became a courier for U.S. spymaster Allen Dulles. Quite well written, the book can be criticized mainly for its tendency to whitewash the pilots' motives in escaping to Switzerland by asserting and attempting to document that there was not a single instance of a physically uninjured airman diverting an undamaged, well fueled bomber or fighter craft to Switzerland in order to escape the stresses of combat. Similarly, the work characterizes Allied bombings of Basel, Schaffhausen, and Zurich as invariably accidental strafings by disoriented pilots lost in cloud cover. For the view that such attacks were at least sometimes motivated by a clear intention to destroy industrial plants whose output contributed to the Wehrmacht's war effort, the reader is directed to Paul Erdman's factual if often maligned novel, The Swiss Account.

Although Mr Tanner's previous books about military history were not so impressive in terms of accuracy or comprehensiveness, this one is a real gem and is the best account of Switzerland as a refuge for US fliers during World War II. The first chapters cover a short history of Switzerland as well as the origins of the aerial war in Europe and then follows the main story with a wealth of first hand accounts. Bravery, luck and terror are interwooved in these stories of the old warriors and there are also many facts about the general picture of the internment in Switzerland. Probably the most enjoyable part of the book was that about the conditions of life that the US fliers experienced at Adelboden, Wengen and Davos and the many attempts they made to escape from there in order to rejoin their units. Very well researched and written book!

Refuge From The Reich: American Airmen And Switzerland During World War II tells the riveting story of how U.S. airman, shot out the skies by the Germans, parachuted, crash-landed, or otherwise escaped to Switzerland. There they encountered a country where food and heat were rationed, where every man was an armed solider subject to instant mobilization to counter the German threat. It was a small, mountainous country swarming with internees, refugees, and expatriates seeking protection from the certain death that awaited them from the Axis powers. By the end of the war there was a firm and pervasive sense of respect between the U.S. airmen and the Swiss who had given them secure protection from the Germans. Refuge From The Reich is a valued and informative contribution to the annals of World War II's European theater.

I decided to purchase this book after watching the Helvetica DVD and was so inspired by Swiss design, I had to check out this book. I was not disappointed, pages of full colour images, and detailed explanations about the artwork and the designers intended communication. Fantastic resource for graphic design students!

This book goes into immense detail, with countless full colour reproductions of some of the seminal works in the development of Swiss graphic design. It is well laid out, and with large margins which hold thousands of tidbits of related background information; the information on many of the important designers in this movement is invaluable, and many of the reproductions are of rare works which aren't normally found in other books.

The text clearly and concisely sets out exactly how and why graphic design in Switzerland developed as it did. It is useful not only as a reference book with great insight into the period, but also as a book which is endlessly fascinating to just pick up and browse through. Highly recommended

Una magnífica edición. Muchas imágenes, alguna un poco pequeña - para el tipo de imagen, se echa en falta quizá alguna imagen de detalle o incluso un encarte -, pero en líneas generales muy buena selección, y cantidad de imágenes.

Los contenidos interesantes, por tratarse de una generación histórica en el diseño gráfico universal. Es un libro muy recomendable.

This is a nice, well made book. It's a great reference for designers or art directors that need to put a Swiss spin on things.

Hollis's book, while extensive in its documentation and admirable in its visual organization of the Swiss developments, comes to several conclusions which should be questioned. The first is the disproportionate and misguided prominence afforded Theo Ballmer as a prime influence stemming from his experience at the Bauhaus. Whatever Ballmer's influence as a poster designer in the 20s was, he had gotten his essential training in the Basel school, which underwent its own ongoing and largely independent modernist development, prior to Ballmer's very brief time at the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus influence is deemed minor by the emerging Basel school, and Ballmer's later influence in teaching photography and lettering has to be considered a lesser one.

Significant also is the confusion in reporting influences in development of the cutting edge Geigy Pharmaceuticals graphics program where the influences of Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder as educators of the leading Geigy designers are missing. While this is inferred on page 162 in the statement that "the Geigy style originated in the teaching at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule," the key influences in Basel--Hofmann and Ruder--are not mentioned.

Similarly, Hollis attributes Müller-Brockman's "conversion" to the influences of Lohse and Vivarelli, the evidence being the concert hall posters of 1951 and 52. While this is definitely a move in that direction from an earlier illustrative style, the most convincing change, and the style by which Müller-Brockman is widely known, emerged on the hiring of graduates of the Basel school under Armin Hofmann in 1955. This means that Hofmann and Ruder pre-date Müller-Brockman's mature style instead of being placed as p. 214 as a separate and later development--and not as a precursor feeding the larger Swiss development from a more humanistic perspective than the more constructivist direction of the Zürich school. One can argue about which contributed most to the international prominence of Swiss design, but Hollis's own statement p. 215 regarding the world-wide significance of Hofmann's Graphic Design Manual, Principles and Practice, on education is telling. Müller-Brockman's more objective approach was probably more influential in the world of corporate graphics.

Hollis betrays a bias, perhaps, in his strange analysis of Hofmann's Tell poster and omits such key poster achievements as the "Switzerland in the Roman Era" (1957). It is unfortunate that Hollis did not interview Armin and Dorothea Hofmann. They are few of the remaining key figures from the era of Hollis's investigation.

Love the book and the message behind it. Want to send to friends. Is there a French and also a German tranlation? will buy both.

urgent reply requested

... as to what a great accomplishment it was to do this balloon trip. A good read that lets you share the experience .... no macho image, a honest written book about a extraordinary accomplishment.

This book was THE BEST I have ever read! I finished it in just two days and it was GREAT

Aviators Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones toggle linear narratives of their around the world journey. There's lots of emphasis on what would appear like almost every altitude, groundspeed and directional change. Still, this is perhaps the most important element to success (the weather and catching the right winds aloft) and these frequent alternations between voice of Jones and Piccard keeps the reader consumed. Yes, it can be argued (as Piccard and Jones have to agree) that the two weather wizards at Breitling base in Geneva are just as much the heroes. Some pilot introspection, humor and color images make for the ideal armchair adventure. We are made to understand that great grandson of Jules Verne supported this endeavor (greatest integrity tie to simple love of flight) more than the other attempts (financiers and simply record seekers). As such, and from this pool, it's probably with the most pure love of flight from Jones and Piccard that we are priviledged to share in this fantastic journey.

I'm writing this review having only read the first 112 pages of this fantastic real-life, just-yesterday-adventure ( I kinda know how it ends...), but the good feelings that I get from hearing the first hand account of Bertrand and Brian's epic balloon has sent me out finding copies to give to friends for the Holidays. Their down to earth ( no pun intended ) narrative, while maintaining a soaring spirit of adventure reminds me of stories from favorite teachers and mentors from my past. Open this book while in your favorite chair before a warm fire, and soon you'll feel as if they are sitting across from you telling the story themselves.

This book provides a complete listing of movement caliber & historical information in a very straightforward fashion. It also includes close up photos of some 200 individual watches and also includes a helpful, though outdated, pricing guide. It is an indispensible reference book bound in top-quality heavy duty binding. I found it to be worth every penny I paid.

Everthing previously written about the book is correct. What is not: the book does not have a price guide, like one reader said. After all, it's a watch movement's book! How can it have a price guide? The book have very good pictures, but 70% of them are in black and white. I didn't rate this book 5 stars, in fact, because it does not have german to english translations in the schemes of watch movements and pictures that have something written in german. Finally, the book is a little bit disorganized, since it does not have an index or different type fonts to "tell" you that you are in another chapter.

Added:

After reading the book, i found the price lists. It's one book's page...

This is a great book for you Rolex and Omega lovers (as well as other fine Swiss watches). It covers only Swiss wristwatches but it does a nice job of it. Lots of black and white (as well as some color) close ups of faces and movements. There is a table to tell the approximate range of years when specific caliber movements were produced. I'm certainly not an expert but I would recommend this book for those who are getting into the hobby of collecting fine Swiss automatic movement (self-winding) watches.

P.S. Look elsewhere for information on modern quartz or early manual winding watches. If you like bumper and/or full rotor automatic winding wristwatches then this book is for you.

Well researched, technical details to a useful degree for collectors, list of calibers, good photos.
One of my favourites, be it for research on specific models or to just flick through from time to time.

A great book, with almost all the automatic movement ever made. With detailed technical info and great pictures, this book is certainly worth it.

I found this book in the "english" section of a bookstore in Grindlewald and it was my introduction to the facinating world of mountaineering through literature. I have read many similir books since and nothing compares to this series of harrowing tales that progresses from the earliest climbs, through the first successful climb in the 30's and on to the stories of the worlds finest climbers and their attempts on this infamous wall. I was afraid to sleep after reading the Kurtz chapter it was so utterly depressing.

Originally bought this book when on a ski trip to Grindelwald, Switzerland. With the narrative, superb pictures, and the ability to look up at the mountain in question, it left an indelible impression of the people who attempted it. Even standing at the foot of the Eiger's north face ('nord wand' in German . . even they have a play on words - 'mord wand' - death face), it's hard to imagine attempting the climb in winter. It's an eerie story-telling.

Arthur Roth does an excellent job detailing the history of climbing the Eiger North Face. Having lived in Switzerland, I visited the Eiger on several occasions and would marvel at that massive Wall before me. The book is an excellent narrative regarding the various climbs over the years and is in part a tribute to the many climbers who have lost their lives in those attempts. A "must read" for anyone hiking or climbing in Europe.

This is a consistently interesting history of climbing on the Eiger's North Wall from the late 19th century to the late '70s. I'm not sure I've read a better narrative on mountain climbing, and I can't imagine a better book about the Eiger (though I've never read Harrer's THE WHITE SPIDER). Roth's account is well written, fair minded, vivid, sometimes harrowing, and always informative. Though I'll probably never have the money to see the Eiger firsthand (and I have neither the nerve nor experience to even think about climbing it), Roth provides us poor armchair alpinists with the best picture of the famous mountain that we can hope for. It's a shame that the book isn't more readily available. And why is it only in large print? This makes no sense to me. The photos are good, especially the ones that indicate the various routes, landmarks, and places where the unfortunates died. I had a hard time putting this book down. This is an absolute must for anyone interested in mountains and/or mountaineering, and I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if I could.

I read this book several years ago. Never have i read a more compelling story about Man's life and death struggle with a Killer Mountain. Great Photographs and a great explanation of the science of Climbing, even for a novice. i highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure.

this is a beautiful book. It is also interesting. But it lacks some intimacy with the artist and his emotions.

Like all the books in this series, this publication is great for its color reproductions and extremely concise summary of a specific aspect of Klee's oeuvre. Düchting's writing is approachable and straightforward. Though occasionally dry and not exactly dynamic in style, I recommend Marcel Franciscono's monograph for more in-depth information on the life and historical context of the artist.

This book is a very good introduction to the artistic work of Paul Klee. The author explains in easy and helpful manner how the music influenced the painting production of Klee. A carefully attention is given how Klee tried to reproduce musical concepts as poliphony and rhythm in his painting. The book is rich in good quality photos. The only lacks are the absence of a bibliography and Duechting doesn't tell any anectodes about Klee, because anectodes are very usefull to remember the works and the life of artists. I advice to read this book all people they are interesting in modern painting.

This beautifully illustrated and wonderfully informative monograph is devoted to the reasonable (and wholly accepted) thesis that Paul Klee's dedication to, and love for, musical forms informed his prolific life in art, specifically drawing and painting. Duchting has chosen illustrations that consistently reinforce his assertions. The commentary is smart, informed, and lively. Even if you dozed in Art History, this book is excellent. Duchting has done his homework, consulting Klee's own (published) diaries, notebooks, and sketchbooks, and the extensive writings of Klee friend and biographer Will Grohmann, and additional early biographers. In addition Duchting has spent a lot of time looking at the paintings themselves. Some of Klee's incredible lecture notes (which you must see to believe) from his years of teaching art are included, as are several quick drawings and works of artists who were associated with Klee.

This book has terrific production values. The paper is good,and the approximately 100 color reproductions are exquisite. Photographs of Klee, his wife Lily, and his studio. Page layout is a visual treat. It's really a gem of a book, right down to the lemon-yellow endpapers. There is a a short biography, pages of good endnotes, and a 'Selected Bibliography' (page 111).

If you have an interest in Klee and in particular his knowledge/love of music and how he tried to portray it through art, then this book is for you. Or even if you are looking for ways to portray music in your own artwork. For the money this book provides a wealth of information. The text is well written, avoids the "flowery" writing style that seems to abound in the world of art and its narratives. Originally written in German, the translator has done an excellent job. The quality of the book itself is excellent. It is liberally populated with colour and black & white images (the b/w images mainly reserved for pen and ink pieces). I think you would be very hard pushed to find a book on Klee offering better value for money than this one.