Washington Books

In the rebuilding of Japanese society in the years after its defeat in World War, there was a "creative print movement [that] brought modern European artistic attitudes such as self-expression and formalist innovation to the Japanese woodblock print, a medium that had been rooted in the mass-production of popular images for several hundred years." The latest stages of this movement are becoming more widely known in the United States with the popularity of the Japanese manga and anime. The predecessors of this recent Japanese art are seen in the colors, designs, collages, subjects, and treatments of the post-war prints in this volume. One or two prints of 59 artists are shown in the main section of about 70 pages. These range from dark, tangled visions from having witnessed the devastation from the atom bombs to abstract designs to brightly-colored, comically erotic figures. Biographical sketches of the 59 artists follow the main section.

With its slightly tongue-in-cheek title, "Made in Japan" is a nice, beautifully printed art book focusing on the heyday of the creative art print (sosaku hanga) from the immediate postwar years until the late 1960's. Originally intended as an exhibit catalog for a 2005 exhibition by the same name at the Milwaukee Art Museum, it stands on its own just fine as well (except for a little blurb frustratingly listing the exhibited pieces not shown herein). It also works well as a bit of art history, including as it does two interesting articles by Alicia Volk and Helen Nagata. The latter takes a careful look at the complex, ambiguous relationship between creative print artists and Ukiyo-e, a premodern tradition of mass production from which they stridently distinguished themselves even as it subtly influenced and informed some of their work. The former focuses on the role of this art form in Japanese-American relations in fascinating detail, discussing among other things the initial enthusiasm for prints on the part of American Occupation officials in the late 1940's, the efforts of people like James Michener and Oliver Statler to draw attention to these prints as a form of fine art both in America and Japan itself, and Japanese artists' intentions and motivations for using their works as a medium of cultural diplomacy between the two recently belligerent nations within the context of the Cold War. Volk does a wonderful job too of attending to the historical context and to the sociopolitical realities involved without being reductive or cynical.

And that's just the beginning. What about the actual art itself? The majority of the book is indeed dedicated to presenting a selection of 78 prints (actually more, for in a few cases there's a set of several prints under an overarching series title) by 59 artists, all in full color. Most artists are represented by one or two works as is appropriate to such an overview, though a few major figures in the field get more of a spotlight, especially the ever favorite Munakata Shiko. The prints are also organized in roughly chronological order and according to themes (nature, process and materials, abstraction, things Japanese, and pop and conceptualism), which aids one in appreciating and distinguishing the different artists and their styles as well as the gradual development of this art form during the decades in question. If the book has one imperfection, it's that some of the illustrations are a bit small. The format of the book makes this a necessary evil perhaps, though the decision-making process behind which prints get a single full page and which get crowded together with two or three others seems a tad arbitrary. So be it, though. One minor nitpick aside, this thin little volume is an immensely interesting and visually stunning look at one surprisingly significant aspect of modern art in Japan.

P.S. For a fine book on this subject published during the actual time period when Japanese creative prints were at their peak of popularity, check out CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE PRINTS.

"Works of art give joy because they are so well made." This is a paraphrase of a quote from Bill Reid, the gifted Haida sculptor who led the way for today's carvers.

This book is incredible. Every carving, every piece of art is incredibly well made (as is the book itself). If you're interestd in either New Zealand (i.e. Maori) or Northwest Coast art (i.e. totem poles), you should buy this book. The pictures alone are worth it.

If it's a contemporary selection of works from native peoples of New Zealand and the Northwest coast which is needed, MANAWA: PACIFIC HEARTBEAT fits the bill perfectly: it presents modern Maori and Northwest Coast art, covering the history of major exposure of modern young artists to the world and including an excellent representative sampling of their achievements in striking color photos. 31 Maori and 15 Northwest Coast artists are presented to represent over three decades of works and events around the theme. The gorgeous color photos of over sixty selected pieces created especially for MANAWA make for an exceptional presentation.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Photographs by Edward Curtis of faces of Native Americans of both sexes and all ages are used to enter into and round out a consideration of the nature and course of the Indian culture in different respects. Curtis's photographs are so accomplished, impressive mostly in a iconographic way, and often evocative that they usually call for little related text. The majority of photographs in this volume could be appreciated standing alone; and many will find them unfamiliar as they are close-ups of faces rather than Curtis's more familiar tableaus of scenes or small posed groups. But in this work, the more intimate photographs of the faces appropriately tie in with many vignettes on individual Native Americans illustrating the traditional way of life and how the respective individuals were affected by changes from American westward exploration and settlement. Other sections of text go over Curtis's photographic project and the worldwide impact of European settlement and colonization on indigenous peoples as a context for the stories of the individual Native Americans. The approach adds greater depth to Curtis's photographic opus while making the point that the photographs also provide to some degree an anthropological record of a dying way of life, a value Curtis was not much aware of when taking the numerous pictures mostly in the latter 1800s and which is generally little-recognized even today.

Upham and Zappia have paired a haunting group of Native American photographic portraits by Curtis with a selection of Native stories that Curtis collected. The authors' introductory chapters reveal the broad range of their research, which they present concisely, to provide a thoughtful historical context for the primary materials. The Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa, in association with the Washington State University Press, has produced a book that is not only intelligent; but the symphony of brown tones in the prints throughout make it coffee-table beautiful.

I used this map recently on a week-long trip to Washington, and I found it to be incredibly helpful. Being able to see nearby restaurants and shops right on the map without having to pull out a guidebook was so convenient. Short of a handheld, interactive GPS with Internet access, this is the most helpful pocket-sized resource for sightseeing and navigating around I have ever used. And it's made of a rip-resistant thick paper, so it'll stand up to multiple trips. Highly recommended!

MapEasy Guides are wonderful whether you are traveling to Washington, D.C. or living there. From the best known attractions to delightfully obscure places this map guide gives all users the best there is to offer of the area. Even as a many-year resident of the area MapEasy has guided me, my family and friends to new and interesting places!

For those of us born in the latter half of the 20th Century, large demonstrations in our nation's capital are common-place. The first item that leapt out from Ms. Lucy Barber's Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition was the fact that this right was not available until the last few years of the 19th Century!

It began with the so-called Coxey's Army march in 1894. No more than 500 demonstrators sought to access The Capital grounds to voice their demands for government-sponsored work projects. As doing so was against the law at the time, the leaders were arrested and the followers dispersed. The book then goes on to describe similar, ever larger events: The 1913 Women Suffrage Parade and Pageant; the 1932 Bonus Army March; the cancelled 1941 Negro March on Washington; the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the 1971 Spring Offensive.

All the actions are covered using an absolutely perfect format that entails describing the purpose, the people, the plan, the program and the aftermath of each event. But, the true value in Barber's work lies not in her detailed descriptions of the events, but rather its understanding and narration of the human condition that lead - in more cases than not - one individual to conceive, organize and execute the plan of action. It is in this aspect that the book reaches a transcendent level of explanation.

We learn of Walter Waters and his quest to aid those suffering from the Depression by obtaining the - for the time - grandiose sum of $1000 for veterans of World War One. After the request was rejected by the US Senate, his followers, known as the Bonus Army, were driven out of their encampment by armed troops using tear gas. Waters was a vet who fervently believed the government needed to deliver the fund early as a result of the stock market crash. What began as a delegation from Portland, Oregon grew to a nation-wide movement of which he was proclaimed leader.

A more revolutionary zeal gripped Alice Paul, the force between the 1913 Suffrage March. With a long history of agitation in England and the US, Paul felt the women's movement needed to rise from sedate tea-room discussion to action. Relying on the English suffrage cry of "Deeds Not Words," Paul cobbled together an alliance of women's groups to stage the event the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

In A. Philip Randolph, we find a man conflicted by his passion to make the country he so loved more equitable. After some twenty years of an action-oriented aprroach to race equality, Randolph put togther a coalition of purely groups with the intent of staging a massive "all negro" march. But, the establishment - figuratively and literally in the form of President Franklin D. Roosevelt - cajoled and beguiled him into accepting the weak pablum of Executive Order 8802 in retrunr for cancelling the demonstration. This document called for the end of discrimination in vocational training, required defense contracts contain a clause requiring contractors not to restricty hiring by race, color creed or national original and that a board be estbalished to reveiw complaints brought about violations of the Order. In retrospect, we see clearly that Randolph achieved little or no real advancement in civil rights for his compromise

In addition to the other marches, this latest edition of Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition includes a epilogue that briefly covers more current episodes such as the Million Man March and then delivers a set of conclusions about the value and benefits derived from the actions of a few visionaries.

This book is fantastic. Barber tells great stories. The book focuses on five different marches from the last century, and each of them is fascinating and surprising. What she shows is how these dramatic events helped make marching an American political tradition. Her analysis of how everyone became obsessed with numbers is truly revealing. At a time like the present, everyone should read this book to understand both the power--and the limits of marching--as a political strategy.

I was familiar with the book, after all it is a classic in its field. The book arrived in good condition and I am as happy as a clam (no pun intended).

Kozloff and Price's set of keys is an excellent tool for collectors and scientists who need to know what they are looking at, and to be sure that they have the right name with the animal in their hand/bucket.

This 8.5" x 11' format book covers marine invertebrate phyla down to the species level for animals found from southern Oregon to the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada. As such, it makes a great companion set of keys to "Light's Manual: Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central California Coast" by Smith and Carlton, and "Marine Algae of California" by Abbott and Hollenberg. That set of 3 books is a treasure for people who need good taxonomic information on nearshore marine life to support what they do along the pacific coast of North America.

Back to Kozloff's book...the book has the keys themselves, as well as supporting BW photographs and great line drawings to help the reader interpret particularly sticky parts of the keys. There are also brief occasional notes about known ranges of some animals covered, but this is not a reference book to the ecology of these animals, it is an excellent set of taxonomic keys.

The book is a reprint of a 1987 publication. As such some names of taxonomic groups have changed in the intervening 13 years. Nevertheless, this book remains the best set of keys for this region that we have.

I certainly qualify as a layperson when it comes to this subject, but Yates has created a book which is wonderfully informative and easy to use. The descriptions and drawings of each of the species included in this book help in identification, but what I found most interesting was all the wonderful information about the animals themselves. I liked it so well I bought one for my mom, too!

After taking a community college course on Life in the Intertidal Zone, and acquiring in the process a copy of Kozloff's book on the subject, I felt marginally equipped to take my elementary students to local beaches to identify invertebrates. A partner acquainted me with this book by Yates, and I've found it to be an excellent source of line drawings for students to use as they classify or sort invertebrates either on site, or in the classroom. It is especially valuable for its notes on each animal, since they are succinct, clear, and comprehensive for their brevity. I heartily recommnend this book for anyone who loves to prowl the tidelands of the sound to observe the variety of wildlife found here. Teachers, take note, this one is worth purchasing and sharing with your students!

I am a second grade teacher. I use this book every year. I use it around his birthday, during Black History Month, and during our Language Arts unit on Courage. I love the part, and photograph, about the man that rollerskated from Chicago to see Dr. King. I think it protrays how important Dr. King was to people around the nation. This year I did somthing special. I work in Juvenile Hall with 15-16 year old males. Before I showed them the video of the speech, I had reveiwed some books about him, but I read this one aloud to them. It is a simple book that has a powerful message. The combination of drawings and photographs bring together this message.

I recently stumbled onto this book at a public library and I have to say I'm very impressed. Martin Luther King and the March on Washington is an excellent work that moves at a good pace for readers of any age. Going to the March on Washington to see King speak must have been a life-changing event that would positively impact anyone who attended. However, for those of us who were not there, or are too young to have been able to go, we are fortunate enough to feel like we are able to experience the magnitude of the event through the books pacing and sense of history. The author places us right in the moment and you can't help but feel like you are on the steps of the mall in Washington, surrounded by scores of people watching a critical moment in American history.

This book is the premiere comprehensive analysis of how the battlefield death of the Shiite's third Imam Hoseyn/Hussain at Karbala, Iraq, led to the development of Shiite religious rituals that were used by the Shiite imams in influencing their successful dethronment of Iran's Mohammed Reza Shah in late 1978. This book is really about the historical development of Shiite symbols and rituals commemorating the martyrdom of Hoseyn, rather than an expansive history of the 1970s-era of student demonstrations against the shah of Iran. The battle resulting in Hoseyn's martyrdom occurred on 10 October 680 C.E. (Ahsura Moharram 352 A.H.). The author presented two reasons as to why Hoseyn started his ride towards his martyrdom. The author clearly opined that Hoseyn rode towards Damascus to at least upbraid the new Muslim caliph Yazid for being cruel and despotic to his Muslim minions. [Yazid's father, Muawiyah had moved the Muslim government from Mecca to Damascus in 661-662.] This makes Hoseyn's adventure look really unselfish, and even highly moralistic. However, what is obliquely mentioned in the book (on pages 7 and 93), but not as clearly portrayed, is the contention that Hoseyn really rode forth in an armed coup attempt to unseat Yazid. Briefly, when the Muslim prophet Mohammad died, his successors were: (#1) caliph Bakr (Sunni), (#2) caliph Umar/Omar (Sunni), (#3) caliph Uthman/Othman (Sunni), and (#4) caliph Ali (while all Sunni respect Ali has the fourth caliph, as the Shiites regard Ali as the first proper successor to his uncle Mohammad, Ali is the first Shiite imam). As Ali attempted to consolidate his rule, he was opposed by the military-governor of Damascus: General Muawiyah/Moaviyeh (who had been appointed governor of Syria by #2 Sunni caliph Umar in 640). Following the Battle of Saffin, Ali defaulted rule to Moaviyeh, but with the alleged understanding/treaty/deal/agreement that upon Moaviyeh's death, the Islamic caliphcy would return to Ali's clan. Ali's oldest son Hassan/Hasan (the second Shiite imam) was championed by Ali's clan in becoming his successor. However, after realizing that the three previous caliphs had been assassinated while serving as caliph, Hassan apparently wasn't as divinely inspired as his predecessors had been, and decided that he really didn't want to be caliph. Thus, Hassan figuratively resigned and passed the Shiite-caliph baton to his younger brother: Hoseyn/Hussain/Husayn. Recognizing the weakness in Ali, power-hungry Muawiyah of Damascus agreed to become the ruling caliph. Muawiyah, most likely, had the hidden design of eventually turning the caliphcy over to his son Yazid, instead of returning it to the Ali lineage to Ali's grandson Hoseyn. Anyway, upon Muawiyah's death, his son Yazid seized the title of the caliphcy over all Muslims -- and ignored the 'agreement' to return power to Hoseyn. For power is what we are really talking about here; power to control the tax-treasury of the Muslim community. Muslims are required to pay 10% of their annual wealth by an annual tax to the Muslim treasury. Literally watching the coinage of the Muslim treasury slip through their fingers to Yazid, Hoseyn's clan took umbrage with Yazid's seizure of power and urged Hoseyn to travel to Damascus and remind Yazid of his father's 'deal' that Hoseyn was to be recognized as the next rightful caliph. However, as Yazid had no desire of turning the tax-treasury over to Hoseyn, Yazid sent a large army under the command of general Omar ibn Saad to repulse Hoseyn's upcoming 'invasion' of Damascus. When Hoseyn tried to parley with Omar at Karbala, he and most of his small retinue of 80 soldiers were surrounded and killed. While Hoseyn's youngest son Ali Asghar was killed, his older son Zayn al-Abedin (who was ill and incapacitated during the battle), Hoseyn's wife, and a number of other newly minted widows and orphaned children where captured and taken to Yazid. As radio personality Paul Harvey would say: "Now you know the rest of the story" -- and a very important part of it. Part of Hoseyn's motive in talking to Yazid to resign as caliph was most likely due his being repulsed by Yazid's highhandedness, but the clear motive was to restore and secure power for Hoseyn-Ali's lineage in controlling the caliphcy to control the Muslim treasury. This is my one little snit here that I believe the author "short changed" the coup explanation for Hoseyn's journey. Otherwise, Prof. Aghaie superlatively analyzed how the Karbala battle was ritualized into annual public performances (rowzeh khanis) and parades (dasteh) that were later used as rallying demonstrations for the Shiite imams to reassert their political power that the Pahlvai shahs had tried to curtail through their liberal Westoxification of Iran. Also, see the author's related book: "The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi'i Islam."

The Shi'i branch of Islam makes up only about 15 percent of the religion. But counting for nearly the entire population of Iran and 60 percent of Iraq's, the Shi'i have a crucial influence on Middle East and world affairs from their numbers in these strategically important countries. A professor of Islamic and Iranian history at the U. of Texas-Austin, Aghaie gives a view of Shi'i culture in Iran that is eye-opening and germane for Western readers. Basically, one sees that for the Shi'i there is no clear, or even worthwhile, distinction between religion and other aspects of society, including most significantly government. Whereas such a distinction is a part of the foundation of the U. S. and other democracies, Shi'i culture was founded with the defeat of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hoseyn and the massacre of his family by the caliph Yazidin in the 680AD battle of Karbala. Shi'i religious ceremonies, motives for behavior, social purposes, and community goals grew out of this defeat. A special intensity and commitment, as well as sacrifice, was called for so Islam as expressed by Mohammad and his descendants would not be lost. This branch of Islam faith is distinguished from that reflected in the institutional rule of the caliphs came about throughout most of the Middle East. Aghaie's subject is the relationship between Iranian leaders from the Qajars of the 19th and early 20th century through the Shah of Iran to today's Islamic Republic and the symbols and rituals of Shiism. The Shah of Iran was overturned in a revolution because in an effort to modernize Iran, he sought to minimize the symbols and rituals. The work brings an insight into the Shi'i culture that is timely and germane considering current events in Iran and Iraq and U. S. ambitions to institute democracy in this area.

Like only the finest of art photography -- photography which truly transcends its function as document or record -- Randlett's images make you want to look, and look, and keep looking, in the same way as a fine drawing or painting. There are some pictures here which are all but abstracts, and bear comparison with the finest abstract work in other mediums. However, usually you know what the object is at which she pointed her camera, but you are never its prisoner, never find yourself asking "just where is that island?" Instead you find yourself dwelling on the new thing, the new world, she has made of that object -- whether a tree, or a bird, or light on the sea, or a cloud-blurred mountain -- the world to be explored right there on the paper, within the spaces and shapes there delineated or suggested. You don't say "what a beautiful place, let's go there"; instead you say, "what a beautiful world I am in, just sitting here poring over these shapes and shadows".

At times Randlett's work reminds me of certain Japanese or especially Chinese ink drawings of landscapes, of the kind that employs blurring and suggestion more than precise outlines; it has some of that same mysterious suggestiveness. But not all her images are of that kind; she can capture sharp lines and silhouettes as well. But even then she is creating a new place, not pointing to one somewhere else, on your travel map; and she's inviting you in -- here, right here, on this paper: come in and dwell.

Some of these images were included in her recent show at the Tacoma Art Museum. If that show is still open, I strongly recommend a visit. In any case, I recommend this book and the worlds in it. It opens the way to endless exploration and pleasure.

My husband and I stumbled upon Mary Randlett's photography exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum. We were immediately awed by the beauty and power of her photography. Then I was stunned to see poems by Denise Levertov scattered among the photographs. I'd discovered and loved Denise's poetry a few years earlier. The powerful combination of these two women's visions brought me to tears in the middle of the exhibition. Mary's unique way of seeing and capturing light as it plays across the landscape is moving, beautiful, haunting. You will never regret purchasing this book.