Wang Books

In any truly socialist understanding of history the role of the class struggle plays a central role. Any thoughtful socialist wants to, in fact need to, know how the various classes in society were formed, and transformed, over time. A lot of useful work in this area has been done by socialist scholars. One thinks of E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, for example. One however need not be a socialist to do such research that can provide us with plenty of ammunition in our fight for a better world. Shopkeeper's Millennium by Paul E. Johnson is such a work.

One can disagree with Professor Johnson's conclusions, and perhaps aspects of his methodology that relies very heavily on the interpretation of governmental and church records He has nevertheless written a very interesting case study of Rochester, New York as a prime example of how America in the 1820's and 1830's, that is at the infancy of American capitalism, turned from a wilderness into an important young center of capitalist development as the Eire Canal became a cog in the transnational transportation system. Johnson has also provided some useful insights into the role that religion, especially the `born again' evangelical religion that we are familiar with today, helped form the prevailing capitalist ethos that drove the expansion forward.

Professor Johnson uses the well-known sources (city directories, tax assessments, censuses. Church registries) to flesh out his argument. One can take exception to some of his conclusions based on rather scanty data (and on the reliability of such data in a very mobile and transient environment). However the overall thrust of his work makes the important point that this period turned this part of America away from a sleepy agrarian/mercantile society to a rather dynamic capitalist one within a relatively short time. And, moreover, the social preconditions that fostered such growth were not merely accidental but represented the expansion of an already stable elite ready to take advantage of the new mode of production. In short, as we have seen at other nodal points of history (and today, as well) the rich and able have a leg up when the new riches are distributed.

Religious indoctrination, strict social mores, intense social pressure and flat out coercion are detailed here as ways in which the budding capitalist class dominated the society. Religious revivals, anti-Masonic struggles and various social reform campaigns, particularly the fight against demon whiskey, play their part. As does plain old-fashioned politics that we are very familiar with. Perhaps not as familiar is how political sides were chosen in various local fights, like the closing of dram shops, despite common religious affiliation.

The key struggle in forming the capitalist mode of production is to discipline a reluctant workforce to the tasks at hand. That was achieved in Rochester by many of the old tricks like coercion, ostracism and shunning that we have seen elsewhere, particularly in England. In an interesting sidelight Professor Johnson details the change over, in a fairly short time, of workers who had previously lived at the work site with their employers to their own separate working class quarters. This is a big step in forming class-consciousness. Such details are the stuff that makes this an interesting study. Is this what today's working class looks like in a `post-industrial' American society? No. However many of the same techniques of domination still hold sway. Read this book about the days when American capitalism was a progressive force in the world. And begin to understand why it needs to be fought now.

One thing I enjoy about AsiaPac's books--they're not quite like anything else on the market. 16 of Zhuge Liang's greatest strategies / philosophies are boiled down into an easy-to-access, unique presentation. Rather than throw a thick text bogged down by philosophical passages, the Wang Xuan Ming presents the concepts with cute, quirky illustrations in comic book format. Some of the illustrations are amusing and some are silly, but it gets the more high-brow points across quickly and easily. If you're looking for a deep, rich book on Zhuge Liang, this isn't the best title, however. It presents bare bones concepts with illustrations--but doesn't delve into his deeper works, or his actual phrases (the texts are paraphrased). If you need solid text and meat, try the Shambala Dragons edition of "Mastering the Art of War" which includes a translation of some of Zhuge's scrolls. As for the 16 Strategies of Zhuge Liang, I own it, enjoy its offbeat humor and quirkiness, and would recommend it to collectors of Romance of the Three Kingdoms related books. It may be the only comic book Philosophy 101 course you'll ever find.

This book brings together in one volume a fine collection of readably scholarly articles by professors in Taiwan, Japan, and America on the subject of, well, just as it says, Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule--a potentially contentious subject indeed, and yet deeply fascinating and seriously significant, as this book itself amply demonstrates. The overall tone gets it just right too, striving neither to rantingly condemn Japan's colonial aggression nor blithely whitewash it, but rather to understand it in all of its complexity--especially the complicated and convoluted cultural interactions occasioned by this historical situation and their reverberating effects on people's sense of identity (both colonized and colonizers). The articles are too many and multifarious to properly summarize here, but many deal with literature and art while some in a more straight-up history manner attempt to theoretically grapple with Taiwan's particular case as a colony or else crunch numbers to arrive at some unexpected conclusions about certain events in the island's colonial history. All of the articles are well-written, interesting, nuanced, and informative in their own way, and as a whole they contribute quite a bit to our understanding.

This book's one minus is one inexplicably found in many academic publications nowadays: sloppy and lazy editing. Many proper nouns throughout the book are infected with typos, and the kanji given especially for several of the Japanese names and terms are incorrect or incomplete. This can really be annoying if not maddening for the readers, not to mention misleading for those less familiar with the subject or the languages involved. Other than that one gripe, though, I highly recommend this fine book, most especially of course if your interests are in Taiwanese History, Japanese History, or Colonial Studies. If the study of literature is your chief concern as it is mine, I imagine you'll find much of interest here as well. Check it out!

The following articles are included in this book:
Intro: "Taiwan Under Japanese Colonial Rule, 1895-1945: History, Culture, Memory" by Liao Ping-hui
1. "A Perspective on Studies of Taiwanese Political History: Reconsidering the Postwar Japanese Historiography of Japanese Colonial Rule in Taiwan" by Wakabayashi Masahiro
2. "The Japanese Colonial State and Its Form of Knowledge in Taiwan" by Yao Jen-to
3. "The Formation of Taiwanese Identity and the Cultural Policy of Various Outside Regimes" by Fujii Shozo
4. "Print Culture and the Emergent Public Sphere in Colonial Taiwan, 1895-1945" by Liao Ping-hui
5. "Shaping Administration in Colonial Taiwan, 1895-1945" by Ts'ai Hui-yu Caroline
6. "The State of Taiwanese Culture and Taiwanese New Literature in 1937: Issues on Banning Chinese Newspaper Sections and Abolishing Chinese Writings" by Kawahara Isao
7. "Colonial Modernity for an Elite Taiwanese, Lim Bo-seng: The Labyrinth of Cosmopolitanism" by Komagome Takeshi
8. "Hegemony and Identity in the Colonial Experience of Taiwan, 1895-1945" by Fong Shiaw-chian
9. "Confrontation and Collaboration: Traditional Taiwanese Writers' Canonical Reflection and Cultural Thinking on the New-Old Literatures Debate During the Japanese Colonial Period" by Huang Mei-er
10. "Colonialism and the Predicament of Identity: Liu Na'ou and Yang Kui as Men of the World" by Peng Hsiao-yen
11. "Colonial Taiwan and the Construction of Landscape Painting" by Yen Chuan-ying
12. "An Author Listening to Voices from the Netherworld: Lu Heruo and the Kuso Realism Debate" by Tarumi Chie
13. "Reverse Exportation from Japan of the Tale of 'The Bell of Sayon': The Central Drama Group's Taiwanese Performance and Wu Man-sha's 'The Bell of Sayon'" by Shimomura Sakujiro
14. "Gender, Ethnography, and Colonial Cultural Production: Nishikawa Mitsuru's Discourse on Taiwan" by Faye Yuan Kleeman
15. "Were Taiwanese Being 'Enslaved'? The Entanglement of Sinicization, Japanization, and Westernization" by Huang Ying-che
16. "Reading the Numbers: Ethnicity, Violence, and Wartime Mobilization in Colonial Taiwan" by Douglas L. Fix
17. "The Nature of 'Minzoku Taiwan' and the Context in Which It Was Published" by Wu Micha

This book is great, its readable, its affordable and it doesn't take a genius to understand it.

Nonetheless, every CIO should read it, before their CEOs get hold of a copy, this is dynamite and it comes in a handy book sized container, small enough to smuggle past the most keenest of corporate gate-keepers.

Charles Wang has written an excellent lessons learned document - the ultimate in structured intellectual capital - which, will no doubt fall on deaf ears, and be designed to oblivion along with 1,000,001 other great ideas, technology and software. On the other hand, maybe fate will be kind, and maybe corporate America will come to its senses and read this sound piece of advice.

Regards,

Martyn R Jones

A very good childres book, still quite good even in todays times so that children can grasp the story and understand it.

Untrahigh pressure metamorphism has affected rocks that have been buried deep within the Earth (>60km). Such rocks were unknown about 15 years ago, but more and more examples are being found. This book summarizes what was known about these rocks in 1994 and is an excellent introduction to the topic. Research is continuing at a rapid pace, so the book is slightly out of date (the only reason for not giving it 5 stars). There are chapters on the mineralogy, the metamorphic textures and the tectonics of these remarkable rocks. The general public should be aware that this is a book for geoscience graduate students and professionals.

I was required to purchase and read parts of this book for a graduate course. Overall, the book is a great resource for learning more about the impact health literacy has on public health, at the individual level and at the population level. The editors and section editors are at the forefront of research in the field and the information they present is relevant and up to date.

The problem with this book is that each chapter reads more like a journal article than part of a larger book (perhaps due to the fact that the AMA published it). Each chapter begins with the same statistics and terms - how many Americans are considered literate, the definintion of health literacy is, health literacy is important because, etc.

This may be a great book for teachers and professors who only want to have students read parts of the book, but if you're looking to read the whole thing through, it could be too repetitive. Overall, a good book worth reading (in whole or in part) to understand more about health literacy and the impact on health.

This book is about villages in Alaska and people giving their opinion of ANCSA.Me living in one of the villages he talks about, it's very interesting to learn about what people from 1000 miles away from me think about it.It's not the most exciting thing ever but it's pretty good.

I read this book and it really helped me learn how to program in visual basic. If you don't believe me then go to your local library and check it out. That's what I did, and because I liked it so much I went out and bought. Although I have told you that I like it why should you believe me? This is why, I dislike reading books but when I read this I couldn't put it down. After every fasinating page was another. As a result I am now a visual basic programmer.

Kromer's sparse prose evokes the twin horrors of poverty and hunger. The text is sharp and clear and reads at a very fast clip.

Throughout, Kromer feels a sense of burning injustice. He is deeply upset by class inequality--at wealth in the face of poverty, at gluttony in the face of starvation. His character is tormented by unfairness to the point that he would consider robbing a bank. Through his prism of hunger, the world is divided into haves and have-nots, and the haves are divided into those who are decent enough to help and those who are cold and mean.

Description is Kromer's main bag here and he does it well. Cold winds, ratty clothes, women prostituting themselves for a meal--it feels immediate and real. These are the words of someone who has been there.

I would recommend the book strongly, particularly to young and remedial readers. The prose is so honest and basic that this book could be easily mastered by kids in junior high school. Struggling readers in community college, prison, and 4 year universities would also enjoy this gripping portrayal of poverty in America. For more mature readers, the book is still rewarding, although lacking some sort of direction or greater authorship.