Book Description
Together in one volume for the first time, these are the classic texts that helped launch the modern Tarot renaissance. Often described as the Bible of Tarot readers, they bring awareness of myth and modern psychology to the Tarot's ancient symbolism.
Customer Reviews:
It's a powerful tarot reference no serious new age library should miss........2007-10-06
Tarot users will find SEVENTY-EIGHT DEGREES OF WISDOM: A BOOK OF TAROT a fine compilation of two previous volumes under one cover, joining THE MAJOR ARCANA and THE MINOR ARCANA in one revised, updated volume with a new introduction by the author. As such it's a powerful tarot reference no serious new age library should miss.
Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom.......2007-09-21
These days most anybody can do a tarot reading. There are literally hundreds of different decks all complete with canned readings for each card. In a way, it's rather like reading your daily horoscope as the results are rather generalized to match virtually anyone.
Definitely, not every tarot reader is equal in quality. The best readers go beyond simplistic generalizations. They not only tailor their layouts and reading results to match the individual but also look to the deeper meanings of the cards. These unique abilities are both invaluable skills and amazing talents.
Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom is a must have resource for anyone wanting to do real tarot readings. The author has an inherent ability to see depth within the cards that many need to be taught to notice. Within this book, she shares her valuable insights and urges the reader to follow suit. Originally this book was two books separating out the major and minor arcane. This new format brings these important references into one easier to access resource.
Rachel Pollack Fan.......2007-07-31
I have this in Part I - Major Arcana & Part II Minor Arcana
I absolutely love Rachel Pollack's work & this is no exception
in fact it is my all time favorite book of hers.... I find
it's down to earth, to the point at the same time I know exactly
what she means about a card.......
Worth the money if you want help interpreting cards & like me
favor her work.
A Must for all Tarot Book Collections.......2007-07-30
I was once asked: "If you could only own one tarot book, which one would it be?" The clear answer is Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack. I have also found that this classic book works very well for my beginning tarot classes at the local University. Despite the author's indepth treatment of the cards (see other excellent reviews), tarot beginners enjoy the comprehensive, classic and clear insights into the tarot and how to work with it.
I would also like to say that my beginning and intermediate students enjoy Rachel Pollack's spreads also because of their depth of meaning.
So I sincerely recommend this for all tarot book collections and for students of tarot.
A Classic! .......2007-04-14
This is one book that I can't recommend strongly enough, and one that I feel belongs on the shelf of every Tarot enthusiast. Using the popular Rider-Waite deck for illustration, this book contains essays on each card, covering all aspects of the symbology, as well as origins, history, mythology, and sociological, psychological, esoteric and religious implications. It's rare to say that a book on Tarot is a can't put down page-turner, but this one is it! I learned so very much from it, and use it as a reference to this day. Be warned, however, that this isn't a book that you would want to use to look up cards during a reading. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom is very well written and easy to understand, no matter what your level of expertise. Ms. Pollack has obviously done massive amounts of research and manages to convey a true love for the art of Tarot on each and every page, speaking to the reader as a patient, knowledgeable and wise teacher with years of experience. She also includes tutorials in the back of the book, covering such subjects as layouts, the Tree of Life, making a Mandala, and Meditations. On the whole, this is a wonderful, wonderful book and in my opinion, a classic.
Book Description
“Sweet smoking Jesus, what was the matter with these people?”
Who knows? But we do need to accept the fact that otherwise sensible American housewives who would never grind a quaalude into their morning coffee or sleep with their tennis instructor nevertheless went daft during the 1970s and performed heinous acts of design on unsuspecting homes.
What James Lileks did for dinner with the critically acclaimed classic The Gallery of Regrettable Food, he now does to the wonderful world of 1970s home interiors. Blazing plaid wallpaper. Vertigo-inducing matching patterns on walls, rugs, chairs, pillows, and blinds. Bathrooms straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The whole ’70s shebang. If you think the ’80s were dumber than the ’70s, either you weren’t there or you weren’t paying attention.
James Lileks came of age in the 1970s, and for him there was no crueler thing you could inflict upon a person. The music: either sluggish metal, cracker-boogie, or wimpy ballads. Television: camp without the pleasure of knowing it’s camp. Politics: the sweaty perfidy of Nixon, the damp uselessness of Ford, the sanctimonious impotence of Carter. The world: nasty. Hair: unspeakable. Architecture: metal-shingled mansard roofs on franchise chicken shops. No oil. No fun. Syphilis and Fonzie.
Interior Desecrations is the author’s revenge on the decade. Using an ungodly collection of the worst of 1970s interior design magazines, books, and pamphlets, he proves without a shadow of a doubt that the ’70s were a breathtakingly ugly period. And nowhere was that ugliness and lack of style felt more than in our very homes, virtual breeding grounds for bad taste, manifested in brown, orange, and plaid wallpaper patterns. This is what happens when Dad drinks, Mom floats in a Valium haze, the kids slump down in the den with the bong, and the decorator is left to run amok. It seemed so normal at the time. But this book should cure whatever lingering nostalgia we have.
Exploring all the rooms in the house, Lileks marries the worst of design with the funniest of commentary. His sharp-witted humor, keen eye for detail, and ability to pull the most obscure 1970s references out of his hat make Interior Desecrations the perfect gift for those of us who languished away the decade watching Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, and Chico and the Man down in our rec rooms, sprawled out on the shag carpeting, waiting for it all to mercifully end. For those people born later and who may think it was all made up—it wasn’t. Would that it was! The photos in this book are not the product of some cruel designer gone crazy with Photoshop. They’re all too real. So adjust your sense of style, color, and taste. . . and beware! You’ve been warned.
Customer Reviews:
Argh yes the 70's........2007-10-13
A certain picture of a rotating spit in the middle of a kitchen had me in stitches, i mean i ask you! only truly demented people would want to barbecue several chickens in the middle of their kitchen, must play havoc with the smoke alarm! Good fun though, buy the book ,feast your eyes on the hideous decor and laugh your socks off.
lileks has better stuff elsewhere.......2007-10-10
overall, i'm a big fan of lileks, but this is not his greatest book. it got really boring after a while and it felt like he wasn't even trying. the gallery of regrettable food and mommy knows worst are hysterical. definitely check out his website too.
Page after page of interior nightmares!.......2007-06-24
"Sweet smokin' Jesus" just about sums up the only reaction you can have to this stuff. I absolutely hated the seventies and this book illustrates some of the reasons why. What disco music was to the ear these interiors are to the eye.
I love James Lileks books!
A funny book about the furniture and accessories from the 1970's.......2007-05-28
This is a very unique book because it compiles examples of the MOD ERA furnishing styles, and the very "fashionable" furniture & accessories from the early to late 1970's! LOL! ....Most photos will make you laugh out loud!
As you flip through the pages, you'll be dumbfounded as to how people actually lived in those decorated 1970's homes! Example: the colors were so jarring,...just like some of the clothes were.... (Eg: flourescent orange and hot flourescent pinks throughout some our wardrobes and walls!! Ugh! ).
Anyhow, you will find at least one example of a home that you may have lived in, or visited ,---- sometime in the 1970's.
Also, the "cheapness" of some of the accessories truly comes through in this book's photos. You almost have to see the photos to believe them!
Though some younger kids may be enjoying the "RETRO look" right now,however, in seeing the actual accessories (and WALLPAPERS) in this book, the younger generation may possibly understand why the 1970's style lasted such a short time & was forgotten for almost 20 years!!
Lets' face it, the 1970s' were not known to be ultra-inspiring times in either the Fashion World nor the Decorating World. (Maybe the previous 1960's Fashions were indeed actually inspiring to many, --- but once Mary Quant and Biba closed it's doors in London, the quality went slowly down hill!... The Economic times, being a contributor to that downward spiral [Fashion] problem).
So when you look at this book, you'll be reminded as to why we were so eager to FORGET those Autumn Golds,Hot Pinks, and Avocado Green colors of yesterday!
RECAP: They way I look at this book, though, is that this book is indeed part of America's history!...It tells part of the story. Therefore, I'm glad I own it.
Laugh out Loud!.......2007-03-14
I've read this book several times and I laugh so hard I cry - every time! I'm a mid-century modern aficionado, but this stuff is all wrong. James' writing is all right!
Book Description
Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days out. "Utterly absorbing" (Newsweek), Adrift is a must-have for any adventure library.
Customer Reviews:
Compared to these 76 days, life for most of us is a cakewalk.......2007-09-12
The open ocean asked Steven how badly he wanted to live, and he answered by enduring over two months of loneliness, near starvation, constant thirst, and countless open sores from his unending saltwater bath. Through it all, he never knew if all his suffering would lead to redemption or death. This is indeed a story of courage and strength in the face of the natural adversity of thousands of square miles of open ocean. Compared to these 76 days, life for most of us is a cakewalk. Steven's story is compelling, memorable and inspiring.
sea-savvy sailor boredom.......2007-06-22
Amazing? Hardly! As hard as it was for Steven Callahan to survive 76 days asea in a rubber dingy, it doesn't make for a very interesting book. How much can happen in a setting of a dingy and an ocean of saltwater? Well, three things: fish, water and blisters. If you find any of those three things excitingly interesting, them jump on in to this book. If you're a sea-savvy sailor, unlike me, maybe you'll understand more of the seamen terminology, techology and boredom. How was this story worthy of 344 pages is beyond me. I'm not just uncompasionate, just uninterested. If you want to read a "lost at sea book" and don't care about fiction/non-fiction, then read Life of Pi.
Great story .......2007-05-27
A really great well written story. I read the book within a day it was so captivating. Buy it, you'll enjoy it and learn a lot !!
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING BOOK.......2007-05-25
this book was simply incredible- it is BY FAR the most exciting, interesting and amazing story i have ever read in my life- my favourite book i have ever read i may even say and i am a huge reader- (and i'm approaching 40)- i feel it changed my life if you can believe it- his descriptions of the events that took place and his feelings that went along with them were so well told that i really felt i was along in this survival adventure with him- you feel such compassion and hope when you read this book, it really touched my soul i must say- i am not a sailor and know little about sailing, so you don't need to appreciate sailing to love this book- i still felt like i was on the atlantic with him and this may sound crazy but this book was so rivetting that i sometimes feel i really have been on the atlantic adrift in a dinghy- sounds crazy i am sure but i think this is a testament to how well he relates it to us the reader- i can only imagine what it would be like to read this book if you are an avid sailor... this is a must read book for everyone in my opinion-
A revealing odyssey.......2007-05-14
This is the fascinating story of a resourceful sailor who drifted in a life raft across the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike other adventurers who have chronicled solo transoceanic journeys (Joshua Slocum, Thor Heyerdahl, Alain Bombard, William Willis, etc.), his journey was unplanned. After the sudden sinking of his sailboat, he had to hurriedly abandon ship into an inflatable life raft with whatever supplies he could snatch. His seventy-six day ordeal takes place in this constantly leaking raft too small to accommodate his full body length. He knows from the outset that his food and water supplies are inadequate. His story of survival thus becomes not one of simple endurance, but a confrontation of many external and internal challenges ranging from securing food and water to dealing with isolation and despair. He meets these with remarkable ingenuity and determination. Forced into introspection that borders on the mystical at times, his reflections on how his mindset and personal characteristics responded to these challenges make for as fascinating an inner journey as the one his body endured. This is what separates this from most adventure stories, and why I think it will endure as a classic of the genre.
Book Description
As a teenager taking pictures of fellow surfers in 1960s La Jolla, Jeff Divine got to know the original alternative sport before the X-Games were even a gleam in a producer's eye. Through this rare collection of photographs from the momentous decade that followed, he conveys the feeling of being on the beach in its most creative era, being present at the inception of a subculture too large and photogenic to stay down long. The style, the athleticism and the escapism in these images will be familiar to those with even a lazy eye on pop culture: surfing is on the rise again. Of its first time around, Divine says, "Yes, I had long hair. And Pendletons, Mexican wedding shirts, bell bottoms, Wallabies, Zig Zags and tuna, wheat bread, and sprouts in the fridge. Santana, The Dead, Jesse Colin Young, Steppenwolf, Moby Grape, The Stones, Beatles and Clifton Chenier on the stereo. Hippie seamstresses made us custom shirts with embroidered necks and coconut buttons. I had a beaded curtain through which you entered my den. No, I didn't have any black light posters, but I did have the Juan O. Gorman poster "Flores Imaginarias" and Ortner at 3M's on the wall. Reading material? The Life Photography Series, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, M.C. Escher art books, Zap comics, or the Carlos Castaneda series. But our prize possessions were our garage-made surfboards all lined up in the side yard. They mattered the most."
Customer Reviews:
if you love surfing...& even if you do not..........2006-08-07
this is an amazing book- some of the best surf pictures (in my opinion) during one of the most visually inspiring era's of surfing. the pages are arranged in such a way so as to not distract you from their content, the printing is awesome and there's not a single shot not worthy of a poster size above your bed. this book will not harsh your mellow- it will make you want to move to lucadia, ride only a single fin & get a job wrapping surf wax for .25 cents per bar....
Book Description
The beloved bestselling author of Forever Fifty and Suddenly Sixty now tackles the ins and outs of becoming a septuagenarian with her usual wry good humor.
Fans of Judith Viorst's funny, touching, and wise poems about turning thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty will love this new volume for the woman who deeply believes she is too young to be seventy, "too young in my heart and my soul, if not in my thighs."
Viorst explores, among the many other issues of this stage of life, the state of our sex lives and teeth, how we can stay married though thermostatically incompatible, and the joys of grandparenthood and shopping. Readers will nod with rueful recognition when she asks, "Am I required to think of myself as a basically shallow woman because I feel better when my hair looks good?," when she presses a few helpful suggestions on her kids because "they may be middle aged, but they're still my children," and when she graciously -- but not too graciously -- selects her husband's next mate in a poem deliciously subtitled "If I Should Die Before I Wake, Here's the Wife You Next Should Take." Though Viorst acknowledges she is definitely not a good sport about the fact that she is mortal, her poems are full of the pleasures of life right now, helping us come to terms with the passage of time, encouraging us to keep trying to fix the world, and inviting us to consider "drinking wine, making love, laughing hard, caring hard, and learning a new trick or two as part of our job description at seventy."
I'm Too Young to Be Seventy is a joy to read and makes a heartwarming gift for anyone who has reached or is soon to reach that -- it's not so bad after all -- seventh decade.
Customer Reviews:
Yes Witty, But Far Far More.......2007-06-26
I bought this book for an older friend turning 70, and -- laughing out loud -- read it before wrapping. It's not only witty (and thoughtful) for those turning 70, but for those of us who will someday reach 70, and have friends of 70.
Sometimes I feel I have grown up with Judith Viorst. She is enough older that her age milestone books are out and available before I turn 30, 40 50, and on.
I first became familiar with her when "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" became a favorite of my first son. That must have been in the 1970s, and because the book was not only funny but so very wise about life and all its perplexities, I eventually sought out everything she wrote. I especially recommend "Necessary Losses" from her more serious books.
If you haven't read Viorst, get this for a take on turning 70 with grace and humor. Then read the rest of her books too! Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day The Tenth Good Thing About Barney Suddenly Sixty And Other Shocks Of Later Life
I'm Too Young To Be Seventy: And Other Delusions.......2007-05-26
I purchased this book as a gift for my cousin's 70th birthday and of course perused it myself. The birthday lady, as well as everyone present for her celebration enjoyed the poems and quips, and we laughed out loud as we all read them.
She's nailed it again!.......2007-05-14
Judith Viorst has been describing the decades as she matures - with humor, understanding, and appreciation of the things lost and gained. My only complaint - the book's too short!
I'm Too Young To Be Seventy: And Other Delusions.......2006-11-10
I have all of Judith Viorst's books in this series and have loved them all. The first one was It's Hard To Be Hip Over Thirty And Other Tragedies Of Married Life. Each decade from that first one through this one has been a real companion. They make the perfect birthday gift for your women friends. Every woman relates to Judith Viorst's take on growing up and growing older.
Comical.......2006-08-02
I purchased this book to give to a friend who was retiring at 70. I am glad that I "went through" it before wrapping it. It is a comical book, but does not work for a lady who is not married, has never been married, and has no grandchildren, otherwise a cute gift. Now, I have it in my "gift giving" pile and will wait to find the right person to give it to. In the meantime, I need to find another "funny"for the retiring lady.
Amazon.com
Problems resulting from tax law blunders aren't new. Tax attorney Michael Savage contends, however, that small businesses that run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service and face big fines are often not guilty of malfeasance; rather, he says, they simply lack the wherewithal to handle complicated regulations as competently as their larger counterparts. In Don't Let the IRS Destroy Your Small Business: 76 Mistakes to Avoid, Savage lays out major potential stumbling blocks and in easy-to-understand language outlines ways to avoid them.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Text.......2006-07-06
Simply an excellent little book, concise and written in a very clear format. Indeed, not making just one of the many mistakes the author comments upon could save your business thousands in taxes, fines and penalties.
Too much exaggeration.......2001-09-04
The contents in this book are not really new. The author tends to exaggerate things quite a bit. Examples in the book may be true, but grossly sensationalized and hardly applicable to any real world case.
Great book - concise and helpful.......2000-08-26
This book outlines 76 ways that small businesses often get in trouble with the IRS. A lot of these mistakes are very tempting to make -- in fact, one can argue that it's the tax law that's the problem in many cases, not the business practice. Nonetheless, the author makes clear the IRS position on these mistakes, and shows how damaging the mistakes can be when the IRS wins in tax court over the business owners.
Every small business owner should read this book. It's remarkably easy to scan and absorb, though the topics are often quite complex at their root. This book cuts through the complexity and makes clear what the dangers are. As the author writes in the introduction, "If things go wrong, it gets expensive. For this reason, you should know *where* things go wrong. Because usually they go wrong in the same place. To see your taxes doubled because you made the same mistake that thousands of other people made before you does not make good business sense."
Insightful Info about All Areas of the Tax Code.......1999-11-02
All around great advise that covers practically every area of the tax code for a small business. My accountant can always answer a specific question but he has never put all my posible tax issues into one big picture. This book does that!
It covers all the major areas of the tax code such as paying employees vs. contractors, entertainment and meal expenses, retirement plans, loans, and S-Corporations. In all these areas are descriptions of the tax law, how the IRS enforces it, and what can go wrong.
Ignore the low ratings from the tax anarchist. This book is 5 stars!
New information worth buying.......1999-04-23
I thought I had read it all when it comes to preparing yourself for the IRS, but I was wrong, there is new and useful information in here. It saved me money right away and I can see all the mistakes I have made in the past year in this book. If you have been in business you have made these mistakes. Good Book, could be longer.
Book Description
Most of us think of the 1970s as an "in-between" decade, the uninspiring years that happened to fall between the excitement of the 1960s and the Reagan Revolution. A kitschy period summed up as the "Me Decade," it was the time of Watergate and the end of Vietnam, of malaise and gas lines, but of nothing revolutionary, nothing with long-lasting significance.
In the first full history of the period, Bruce Schulman, a rising young cultural and political historian, sweeps away misconception after misconception about the 1970s. In a fast-paced, wide-ranging, and brilliant reexamination of the decade's politics, culture, and social and religious upheaval, he argues that the Seventies were one of the most important of the postwar twentieth-century decades. The Seventies witnessed a profound shift in the balance of power in American politics, economics, and culture, all driven by the vast growth of the Sunbelt. Country music, a southern silent majority, a boom in "enthusiastic" religion, and southern California New Age movements were just a few of the products of the new demographics. Others were even more profound: among them, public life as we knew it died a swift death.
The Seventies offers a masterly reconstruction of high and low culture, of public events and private lives, of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Evel Knievel, est, Nixon, Carter, and Reagan. From The Godfather and Network to the Ramones and Jimmy Buffett; from Billie jean King and Bobby Riggs to Phyllis Schlafly and NOW; from Proposition 13 to the Energy Crisis; here are all the names, faces, and movements that once filled our airwaves, and now live again. The Seventies is powerfully argued, compulsively readable, and deeply provocative.
Download Description
During the past two decades, the 1970s have been trivialized, misunderstood, or dismissed as having kitsch value only. But as we move into a new millennium, the seventies are passing from pop culture into history. Bruce Schulman, the first historian to grapple with the seventies, here provides the only comprehensive history of America between 1968 and 1984. He argues persuasively that the "long decade" -- from Nixon's election to Reagan's reelection -- involved a crucial cultural and political shift. Beginning with Richard Nixon's "southern" strategy in 1968, to the rise of the Sunbelt cities and the explosion of country music, the 1970s saw the decline of the North's cultural dominance. By the end of the decade, the South had shed its rural, agricultural heritage and erased its reputation as hopelessly backward and impoverished. A transformed, commercialized southern white culture flourished and spread across the country. In an engaging blend of anecdote and analysis, Changes in Latitude provides the first real assessment of these crucial years, and the ways in which they changed America forever.
Customer Reviews:
Great view of the 1970's.......2007-07-27
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. Bruce Schulman analyzes the social, cultural, and political trends of the decade of the Seventies, broadening it to begin at 1968 and end at 1984. Schulman crafts a relatively brief (334 pages inclusive of footnotes), but detailed, history of a period that he proves to be more eventful than previously credited. American society in the Seventies was, in fact, experiencing profound changes. Three main themes emerged in the reading:
From Rustbelt to Sunbelt
Schulman astutely explains the great economic and political shift that took place from the Rustbelt, Northeastern and Midwestern states to the Sunbelt, Southern and Southwestern states. Schulman noted that jobs migrating from Rustbelt states to the Sunbelt states were a driving force in this transformation. During the late sixties and seventies, "Alabama, the slowest growing Sunbelt state, had expanded its job roles at twice the rate of New England and four times as fast as New York and Pennsylvania" (106). With these new jobs came people to fill them, which also meant there was a shift in political power as voters left the Rustbelt for the Sunbelt. "Between 1970 and 1990, the South's population exploded by 40 percent, twice the national rate" (109). The Sunbelt states' warm climates were attractive to business leaders and retirees. The Sunbelt also provided lower labor costs to business owners, due to the extremely low levels of union membership which was a result of the right-to-work laws enacted by most Sunbelt states in the 1950's. State governments made a concerted effort to lure jobs and industries to their region by providing public funds for generous relocation subsidies, long-term tax incentives, free land, and worker training programs. As Sunbelt communities transformed from agricultural backwaters to urban and suburban communities, laborers in the Rustbelt states were eager to leave their
dilapidated urban communities.
Schulman superbly noted the correlation between the economic gains of the Sunbelt states and their new-found political gains. For decades, American conservatism was perceived to be under the influence of elitist country club Northeasterners. Schulman describes the Sunbelt's shift to the Republican Party and how its population changed. "As the geographic locus of conservative politics had moved south and west, its nature changed; it became more populist, more middle class, more antiestablishment" (114). Though William F. Buckley, Jr. and his magazine National Review had become the primary forum for conservatives since the 1950's, it took new leaders on the right, such as Richard Vigurie to establish a new organizational structure to communicate to members of disparate groups. Vigurie brought groups like the National Rifle Association, pro-life organizations and the Christian evangelical organizations under an umbrella network so, "these groups could map out a broad-based conservative agenda and organize the pressure groups into an effective movement, teaching the techniques of lobbying, fundraising, and grass-roots organizing" (196). Vigurie had 15 million names in a computer database and used direct mail to communicate to conservatives for fund raising. In turn, these mailings caused thousands of conservatives to contact their representatives to voice their concerns.
By the late 1970's the New Right became a force to be reckoned with in American politics. With a rehabilitated south rising like a phoenix out of the ashes of the civil rights era in the seventies, the newly refashioned Republican Party burst forth from the Sunbelt states and culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980.
Shift in Activism
Schulman expertly illustrates the shift in activism during this period. He bases his argument largely on the influence of two growing trends: pride in diversity and 'contempt for authority'. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968 transformed the general feeling of societal optimism into disillusionment with New Deal liberalism and frustration at the establishment. The qualities of civility and restraint revered by the Cold War generation of the i950s, which were still visible in the New Left activists' appearance and demeanor, were replaced by personal liberation expressed by the Counterculture and the defiance of the Radicals.
With the arrival of Vietnamese and Cuban refugees, rising immigration from the Third World, minority set-asides, and reverse-discrimination case that encouraged student diversity (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke) later in the decade, Americans' perceptions of race, ethnicity and identity became altered. The American 'melting pot' of integration and assimilation was transformed into "... discrete people and cultures sharing the same places - a tapestry, a salad bowl, or rainbow" (71). Ethnic groups embraced cultural nationalism through self-identification as "African-American", "Italian-American", or "Japanese-American." This move toward diversity, combined with contempt for authority, gave rise to diverse social movements like radical feminism, gay liberation, New Age, environmentalism and the "back to the land" movement, Christian fundamentalism, Red Power, and the Gray Panthers. While these movements may seem disparate, they illustrate a growing desire to search for individual growth and reshape society for the better.
Crisis of Confidence
Shulman paints a grim portrait of the "crisis of confidence" that caused America to turn to the private sector, big business, entrepreneurship, evangelical revival, new age revival and even disco. Shulman posits the idea that Americans had no where else to turn, so they turned to themselves. Their government, saturated with the liberal bureaucracy from the sixties, was a tangle of wasteful dollars, it was "soft" on communism because of its detente policy, and it was rocked by scandals and ineptitude. Americans wondered whether they would even be able to heat their homes. In this climate, the conservative Ronald Reagan won the presidency.
Shulman illustrates how Reagan and "Reaganism" changed America on the surface. However, Shulman argues that if examined more closely, Regan's presidency was not so much a change, but rather the culmination of the 1970s and its inward turn. Regan's disdain for big, bureaucratic, government, public assistance, detente and high taxes resonated with many Americans, especially after the liberal policies of LBJ, Nixon and Carter. Shulman contends that after the scandalous Nixon and inept Carter, Americans simply lost faith in their government and public administrators. Americans began to "plug in," and chase their own dreams of individual salvation, whether it was by reading the Aquarian Conspiracy or being half a redneck. Regan, a product of their new emergent "sunbelt," embodied this new, individualistic America, which Shulman believes was a byproduct of the seventies.
Conclusion
The 1960s are deemed as the decade of change. Shulman does not challenge this notion as much as he extends it to cover the 1970s as well. The 1960s began the change, but it was the 1970s which inherited all of these cataclysmic ruptures and had to live with them. Shulman's work examines this "inheritance." It is a study of lasting effects-and reactions-to the 1960s liberal changes and external events. This book is crucial for understanding the United States in the 2151 century. The 2151 century did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, persistent ideas and reactions to those ideas have shaped society into what it is today. Shulman examines the shift from public to private sector began in the 1970s and the reasons for that shift. Today, many Americans have "turned inward." The scars from Nixon and Carter have not healed and many Americans simply do not trust, or more bluntly, do not care about their government, so long as it leaves them alone. Socio-economically, and politically, the seventies have left an indelible mark on America to this day.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.
A marvelous look at the 70s, truly an interdisciplinary review.......2007-06-03
The Seventies - The Great Shift in American Culture, Society and Politics by Bruce J. Schulman is accurately described by the Boston Globe as "A fine antidote to less sophisticated efforts to make sense of so seemingly empty a decade . . . a powerful story about our nation's recent past." Schulman very effectives uses the technique that, away from academia is becoming, happily, more and more in use - namely, "what was it like to live in this particular period" rather than strictly reciting a change in the political landscape with Southern Democrats switching over to the Republican Party for social reasons. Schulman certainly doesn't miss that but quite literally overlays lyrics from Neil Young's Southern Man and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama on his theme to effectively drive home, in this case, the changes in the South. He does this time and again with race relations, expectations and landmark legal cases, gender issues, Vietnam, politics, hippies- literally across the cultural and political landscape. One has to be a very competent writer to discuss the issues of the Equal Rights Amendment within pages of the meaning of the Clash's epic (and politically important and powerful message) of Working for the Clampdown.
Schulman, quite correctly in my mind, views the 70s as beginning in 1968 and ending in 1984 and cites great and cogent reasons for this. His writings on free love hippies versus the radical New Left is spot on and he rarely misses a point. All of this and he, quite seamlessly writes, on a different note, "Frampton Comes Alive, like most other Seventies corporate rock, offered music with no soul, no message, no recognizable quality to distinguish it from what came before. Yet it became the biggest-selling album of all time-the first multiplatinum record."
This book is for both historians of recent times and for readers of cultures of a specific era. Professor Schulman is to be commended for the wide reach of his work and his ability to write it in such a highly entertaining fashion. Readers who enjoy this and are looking for "more" might try Restless Giant - The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore by James T. Patterson (part of the Oxford History of the United States that, interesting, Schulman is due to add to with his upcoming book, Reawakened Nation, The United States from 1896-1929). One wonders if he writes this well on the 70s and is now adding a volume of U.S. history on the turn of the last century, when he gets time to listen to the Clash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Sly and the Family Stone et al!!
The shift right, south and west..........2007-03-02
Professor Shulman's popular history of the decade most Americans are quick to dismiss as eminently forgettable is an entertaining and informative read. Not exactly an academic work of history -- and consequently not as dry -- the book encompasses all aspects of culture, economics, politics, and sociology and makes the case that the seventies were not only NOT forgettable but in fact exerted enormous influence on the following decades. Shulman broadly defines "the seventies" as beginning with Nixon's presidency and ending with the end of Reagan's first term. In doing so he documents the sea change that transformed the fractured and idealistic zenith of the sixties zeitgeist into the Southern-fried and ultra-capitalist mood of Reaganite America.
In fact, to simplify the books thesis to one idea it would be that the 1970's saw the death of forty years of liberal consensus and public policy and the ascendance through the Nixon, Ford and Carter years of the neoconservative pro-business culture of the south and west. Whereas previous generations struggled to remake the public apparatus to protect against the ravages of untrammeled market forces, the right-tilt in America largely dismantled all such protections. Along with the evangelical Christian revival historians refer to as the Third Great Awakening, America saw fundamentalist religion go to market and the market become religion. Lip-service to "tax-and-spend" bureaucracy (obviously aimed at educated Northeastern liberal democrats), even when it wasn't actually heeded as in Reagan's massive deficit spending, worked wonders on gaining the loyalty of middle class whites who were afraid of the integrationist program of the sixties and feared the militancy of ethnic nationalism but weren't explicitly Goldwater Republicans. The real consequence of such a national mood, especially after Watergate convinced many Americans of the corruption of all government activity, was to gut public service (thus harming the most vulnerable members of society) and to rabidly endorse entrepreneurship. The arrival of the Yuppie culture of the eighties only confirmed this transformation; young people no longer wanted to make the great equitable society, they wanted to make money.
Shulman's analysis isn't quite as disapproving as I've made it sound here but this is what one comes away with. He clearly has great affection for many of the cultural contributions of the decade and reserves judgment on its more dubious political blunders. Some episodes have been documented so extensively in other literature that they receive scant mention here (Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis, etc.) but the effects of such events on the national consciousness are explored. Likewise, the absurdity of pet rocks, disco, bogus religiosity and for-profit New Ageism are eschewed in favor of highlighting the positive steps forward for feminism and the men's movement, the birth of punk and New Wave music, and the golden era of director cinema (Scorsese, Cassavetes, Coppola, Altman).
Shulman's book is outstanding and highly entertaining even for those who did not live through the "decade of malaise". It will hopefully inspire further scholarship on its model, reconsidering the historical impact of this easily forgotten time. Indeed, in their influence on the political, economic and cultural agenda of subsequent years, it is obvious the seventies are still very much with us. Or as Shulman himself says "The long, gaudy, depressing Seventies reinvented America. We live in their shadows."
Entertaining Read!.......2006-05-27
The problem with books recording the history of pop culture America is that there are too many of them, all with similar themes and layout. This makes a reader choice a bit complicated.
This Schulman work is by and large a god work. It captures the spirit of the seventies and puts whatever was big deal event at the time in words. Schulman also skillfully put such events in their sociological, anthropological and economic context. Needless to say, the 1970s era actually started in 1968 and ended in 1980. During that time, America lived turbulent time from the consequences of the Vietnam War, to Watergate and the ensuing trust in government, to the failure of Ford and success of Carter whose popularity plummeted to record low as president.
Schulman, however, did not restrict his book to political events as he included almost all facets of life deemed important at the time from the rise of the Sweet Home Alabama to Jesus music, the rise of communities as opposed to civil rights, the hippies, Jimmy Hendrix and Saturday Night Live.
The book is so attractive and entertaining that you would want to finish it in an overnight read even though toward the end, Schulman might have over extended his decade to cover the consequences of the 1970s over the 1980s.
The Seventies: Out of the Shadows.......2006-04-24
"The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics" is a notable accomplishment. In his book, Schulman takes his readers on a rollercoaster ride through the seventies, a decade that even today is misunderstood and its importance misinterpreted by many, even by those people who lived through those uncertain times. Schulman writes of the seventies as a time of extraordinary and controversial changes and he does so with authority and fluidity that makes for enjoyable reading.
In a mere 257 pages, Schulman brings together the events that defined the seventies, while at the same time taking this decade out of the shadow of the sixties and giving it the attention it rightfully deserves. Tom Wolfe referred to the seventies as the "Me Decade" or a decade of self-fulfillment and a time for fun and leisure while others refer to that era as the "Disco Decade". Whatever the case may be, Schulman's book clearly illustrates that politically, socially, and culturally, the seventies was an important decade in American history. Schulman makes the case that the seventies was a direct result of the sixties, and the eighties was a consequence of the seventies.
Schulman describes the seventies as times of exhilaration, excesses, change, and social upheaval; he depicts the seventies as a time when presidents like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter fell from grace, and the American people turned to "Reaganomics" as a false savior of the economy. According to Schulman, these events led to lost confidence and trust in government, politicians, and authority. Schulman writes about the Chicano, American Indian, feminists, gay, and environmental social and cultural movements that demanded social and political change. He continues to write of the violence of the Black Panthers and the political activism of the Gray Panthers and how the end of the Viet Nam War left America in a state of uncertainty about its place in a global economy and in its military dominance.
The seventies, Schulman writes, was a time of rebellion; rebellion against the status quo in just about every part of American society, especially in politics, music, cinema, and television. He covers musicians from Bob Dylan to Peter Frampton, music styles from the new country music to punk rock, to the love-hate relationship with disco music. He talks about the rise of "independent movies" like "Taxi" and "Saturday Night Fever", the coming of age in television networks that introduced TV programs like "All in the Family", "The Jeffersons", "Sanford and Son", "Chico and the Man". . . . He writes about Reagan's "Star Wars" program, the "battle of the sexes", "the year of the Yuppie", the Air Traffic Controllers strike, liberalism versus conservatism and much, much more.
Whether readers accept or reject Schulman's interpretation of the seventies, they'll be absorbed by it. Even those who lived through the seventies will gain new insights into those times of change and uncertainty. It is like traveling through a time machine. I wholeheartedly recommend "The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics".
Book Description
For almost two thousand years Nagarjuna's teachings have occupied a central position in Mahayana Buddhism.
Customer Reviews:
70 stanzas.......2006-11-17
I have taken a couple of courses dealing with Buddhist philosophy so I have some background in the area but I am far from an expert.
That being said, this is about as clear an explanation of this core Buddhist concept as you are likely to find
The Illusion of life made clear.......2001-04-15
I am not an academic or one who professes any profound intellectual knowledge of Buddhism. I am a practising yogi with only experience of the teachings to convey. In seeking enlightenment I must say this commentary was most profound in both my experience and understanding of life.
I received a large taste of emptiness and the self by reading and rereading the "seventy Stanza's". It cleared up the confusion about relative and absolute truths and paved the way for me to see life in a clearer view. This book also opens the way for further studies of the nature of mind in a most detailed way.
This is not an easy reading and if one believes it is, then one doesn't understand. It is easy to fool oneself and believe they understand but once that happens, life becomes a series of challenges that dare you to understand what you think you "know".
Taking the mind to it's limit of understanding and opening another realm of knowledge also encompasses the heart and this is where one can become befuddled. Living and knowing emptiness on a moment to moment basis is empowering in alleviating all suffering. for oneself and others.It isn't an intellectual exercise that one masters today, it ust be kept in one's conscious, so periodic rereading is required. Each reintroduction is more revealing and if my words annoy or bother your intellectual abilities, then you haven't understood.
Book Description
A pioneer in women's studies and long-term activist for women's issues, and a past president of the Organization of American Historians, Gerda Lerner is one of the founders and foremost scholars of Women's History. The Creation of Patriarchy, the first book in her two-volume magnum opus Women and History (1986) received wide review attention and much acclaim, winning the prestigious Joan Kelly Prize of the American Historical Association for the best work on Women's History that year. Ms hailed the book for providing "a grand historical framework that was impossible even to imagine before the enlightenment about women's place in the world provided by her earlier work and that of other feminist scholars." New Directions for Women said it "may well be the most important work in feminist theory to appear in our generation." Patriarchy traced the development of the ideas, symbols, and metaphors by which men institutionalized their domination of women. Now, in The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, the eagerly awaited concluding volume of Women and History, Lerner documents the twelve-hundred-year struggle of women to free their minds from patriarchal thought, to create Women's History, and to achieve a feminist consciousness. In a richly documented narrative filled with inspiring portraits of women, Lerner ranges from the Middle Ages to the late 19th century, tracing several important ways by which women strove for autonomy and equality. One of the most remarkable sections examines over twelve hundred years of feminist Bible criticism. Since objections to women's thinking, teaching, and speaking in public were based on biblical authority--most notably, passages from Genesis and the writings of St. Paul--women returned again and again to these texts, in an attempt to subvert patriarchal dominance and establish their equality with men. This survey of biblical criticism allows Lerner to illustrate her most important insight--the discontinuity of women's history. She describes how women's history was not passed on from generation to generation, forcing women in effect to reinvent the wheel over and over again. In a series of fascinating portraits of individual women who resisted patriarchal indoctrination, Lerner discusses women mystics such as Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich and later Protestant mystics, and brings to life the many women of great literary talent, from Christine de Pisan to Louise Labe to Emily Dickinson, who simply bypassed patriarchal thought and created alternate worlds for themselves. Documenting the 1,200 year struggle of women to free their minds from patriarchal thought, create a women's history, and achieve a feminist consciousness, this brilliant work charts new ground for feminist theory, the history of ideas, and the development of women's place in our intellectual tradition.
Books:
- Starting from Scratch: One Classroom Builds Its Own Curriculum
- Statistics
- Stone Butterfly (Charlie Moon Mysteries)
- Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic
- Taking Sides: American History, Volume I (Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History)
- Tasha Tudor's Garden
- The Alibi Man
- The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 15671659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries' Wars (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History)
- The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: Renaissance to Revolution, 14921792 (Cambridge Illustrated Atlases)
- The Challenge of Crime: Rethinking Our Response
Books Index
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Forest Of Souls: A Walk Through the Tarot
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