Columbia Books

This,the second edition, is one of the best practice books in social work to come out in a long time. Using a multifocal vision, this book spells out the principles of empowerment as a method. This is the kind of book that makes you want to know the author personally because of the human touch that is provided; this book is very readable too.The subtitle--Building the Beloved--speaks for itself. I appreciated the up-to-date references and statistics.An excellent reference book for instructors and social workers interested in the empowerment approach.

This encyclopedia is a wonderful resource - informative, entertaining, and detailed. It invites the reader to spend hours exploring places or people that even the most attentive British Columbian might be unaware of. Gorgeously designed and full of wonderful photographs!

It is very disappointing to see so little information provided by the publisher on this book, not even a table of contents. The time has come for Amazon to demand a higher standard of due diligence by publishers.

For those who wish to immerse themselves on the pros and cons of the debate over poverty, this is an essential intellectual foundation to the current work by Jeffrey Sachs who is both the advisor to the Secretary General of the UN on the Millennium project, and the head of the Columbia Earth Institute.

Thomas Jefferson said that "A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry." He probably would have agreed to amend that to say an educated, healthy citizenry able to work. A historical appreciation of the phrase "pursuit of happiness" suggests that Jefferson actually meant, in lieu of selfish pleasure, the pursuit of self- actualization.

This book completes a circle with C. K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks) which suggests that there is a four trillion a year marketplace among the five billion poorest, and that unleashing their entrepreneurial initiative could save the world, and the definitive work by Jeffrey Sachs, on how can end poverty for $70 per year per person.

Before deregulation, many blamed the railroads' problems on poor management that failed to keep up with a changing society. Martin shows that the real problem was that the railroads were so overregulated that they could not respond to change. His later book, "Railroads Triumphant," is the perfect mate to this one.

Obscure Medieval Greek poetry is not my cup of tea but I
somehow was hooked while reading this allegoric fable.
The extensive commentary of the two co-editors adds hugely
to the attraction of the book -since it is a labor of
love, it never becomes pedantic or boring and it offers
many an unexpected and fascinating forays into Greek life
and language, past and modern. A gem!

After taking an intense and exceptionally stimulating course in Current Continental Philosophy at Texas A&M University (under Professor Steve Daniel, who has a published book that goes along with this pioneering undergraduate course), I bought this book to delve more into the highly intriguing thought of the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas -- one of the most important thinkers of the day and of all time for that matter, who is usually associated with the twentieth century enterprise of Deconstruction, as of that of Jacques Derrida who is vocal in his indebtedness to the "masterful" thought of Levinas. I would very much recommend this book, but only if you have an appropriate background in philosophical context, as to accommodate to the text's highly difficult and complex prose and content.

As the back cover of the book indicates, I did find this book to actually be an unexpectedly helpful and engaging guide (in spite of its difficulty) to serve as a proficient introduction to the prolific thought of this outstanding author. The essays contained in the book span over a spectrum of about forty years; so the reader is able to glimpse the progression and difference from Levinas's earlier work to his later essays, of which the book is for the better mainly comprised.

For me, these essays are paradigmatic of very technical and complex philosophy mixed with soaring religious insights into the inter-human (and ultimately highly ethical) condition. In Entre-Nous, the reader meets in a face-to-face way why Levinas's work is so vital -- in which ontology is unravelled into ethics, as philosophy is ultimately undone into what is truly religious.

Lubitsch is one of the ten greatest filmmakers. Ernst Lubitsch's American Comedy is the best analysis yet written about his films. It's a shame that it's out of print, but anybody interested in Lubitsch should try to hunt it down.

Metzger appears to be well versed not only in Chinese intellectual discourse but also in the Western tradition with references not only to Max Weber, which he uses Weber's ideas from 'The Religion of China' as a starting point to redirect the timely argument over the fate of the Confucian tradition, but also political and social philosophers such as Rousseau, Kant, Marx and Betrand Russell, which are mentioned throughout the work. The goal of this massive undertaking is to show that Confucianism has not been regulated to the museum of historical significance as earlier writers such as Weber in 'The Religion of China' and Joseph R. Levenson in 'Confucian China and its Modern Fate' strived to show. Instead, Metzger argues that the impact of the West simply revived "the traditional zeal for total reform" (p.190), and that certain Neo-confucian features have contributed to, instead of subtracting from or preventing, the success of modern China.

The train of thought throughout the work is at times hard to follow and may require several re-readings of certain passages and some historical understandings of events leading up to the problems late-Qing scholar-officials faced or what Metzger refers to as their "predicament". The first chapter along with the final two are broad discussions of the subject at hand, this being the porous attributes of Confucianism, while the middle chapters, chapters two and three, concentrate in detail on the thought of T'ang Chun-I, Chu Hsi (Zhu Xi), and Wang Yangming. The latter two being the most influential Neo-Confucians in the Song and Ming dynasties, repectively. Chapter one deals mainly with the psychological patterns such as the anxieties and fears which led to the interdependence shared by the literati and heightened by their practice of Neo-Confucianism. At times the chapter is much like other literature of behaviorist such as Lucian Pye's "Spirit of Chinese Politics" and "The Mandarin and the Cadre".

Chapter two deals with the thoughts of Tang Chun-I, who at the time of Metzger's writing was a Professor of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tang held the view that "the Chinese need not humiliate themselves by adopting a 'self-deprecating admiring attitude toward the West"(pp.30-1). Instead, he put forth an "intellectual commitment to the universal validity of Confucian values"(p.30). Metzger goes on to explain Tang's comparisons between a traditional East-West philosophical understanding of the world around them. Whereas the West strove to overcome nature and then attempt to control it, the Chinese on the other hand, attempted to understand the nature of reality and was not fixed on one reponse, but more like the Daoist imagery of flowing water, constantly taking on the shape of its surroundings. It is again important to note here that this view differs greatly from earlier writings mentioned above which attempted to show that Chinese culture valued harmony above all else and was paralyzed by the chaos (luan) that occurred in the late 1800's. Although it may not seem evident while reading the second chapter, Tang's ruminations and comparisons of East and West help to lay a solid foundation for the remaining chapters.

Chapter three, which takes up a majority of the book, sets about explaining in detail how the "predicament", referred to above, came to be so pronounced by the late Qing dyansty. "The Neo-Confucian goal can be variously described as 'self-cultivation', the achievement of 'sagehood', or realization of 'the oneness of heaven and man'"(p.60). In other words it is what the Analects (lunyu) referred to as a gentleman (junzi), one that can see an issue from all sides without bias. Although this was the goal embraced by the whole of the Confucian tradition, pressure to achieve it became increasingly consequential in the Ming dynasty caused by the 100 years of Mongol rule. This ultimately carried over into the Qing era. This goal, as understood by the scholar-official of the late Qing, would never be reached as it was believed to be by the ancient sages of the early Zhou period, but nevertheless this realization did not negate the effort extended in trying to achieve this Confucian nirvana. This "predicament" was pronounced and would remain as long as Neo-Confucianism remained at the forefront of intellectual discourse, for this was the case from the Song dyansty up until it was seriously questioned by the coming of the West in the late Qing dynasty. The remainder of the chapter deals with Zhu Xi's and Wang Yangming's concept of the linkage between heaven-conferred nature (xing) and principle (li) and man's relation to them, which was the main formula that made up the Neo-Confucian tradition.

Chapter four deals with the bureaucratic practices that perpetuated the interdependence and the sense of predicament that is discussed in detail throughout chapter three. For instance, corruption within the bureaucracy was legitimated in terms of the cultural patterns listed above(p.170).

The final chapter, chapter five, "The Ethos of Interdependence in an Age of Rising Optimism and Westernization", attempts to show that Confucian values did not completely fade with the ending of the traditional imperial order but instead were an integral part of the Chinese political psyche and therefore could not be simply thrown off in order to don a new political ideology(p194). Therefore, although Mao Zedong and the other communist leaders tried desperately to shed Confucian ideas and bring a completely new form of ideology to China, they were nonetheless hopelessly mired in the long tradition of Confucian influence on the Chinese political stage. Such is the persistence of culture.

Metzger's attempt to take an old argument and view it from a new angle is refreshing to say the least. Although certain areas of the work may be too detailed for the average reader and in other areas it may be too brief for experienced readers of Confucianism and modern Chinese history, it nonetheless captures the continuities and the persistence of culture that cannot be overlooked when studying a civilization, especially one as old as China.

As someone who has built and manage an ALF and plan on expanding, this book is invaluable. It breaks down the art of architecture as it relates to senior housing and makes suggestions for certain elements that a non architect can easily achieve. A great "how to" book for someone who wants to build a facility. Also, after reading, I'm sure my knowledge base on the subject is better than the vast majority of architects.

Great book. Was a big help when I went to British Columbia. The seller sent it promptly.