The Nanny Kit: Everything You Need to Hire the Right Nanny

Average customer rating:

Great! Grab this and go.

Good for those hiring a NANNY...

A useful guide, but only for the wealthy.

Find a nanny with confidence, not anxiety.

An excellent guidebook for hiring a nanny.

The Nanny Kit: Everything You Need to Hire the Right Nanny
Kimberly Porrazzo
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

For working parents, there is no more important decision than choosing a nanny. As a human-resources specialist, Kimberly Porrazzo was horrified by the lack of professional standards in most nanny agencies. So she started the Southern California Nanny Center, an organization that helps parents find nannies themselves. The Nanny Kit is her wonderfully precise and practical guide to finding, interviewing, hiring, and managing the right nanny.

With eleven easy-to-use forms that neatly organize the nanny search, The Nanny Kit saves you hundreds of dollars in agency fees and covers all the bases:

* what to look for in a nanny, and how to find candidates
* what qualifications and references to ask for, and how to verify them
* how to conduct a professional and informative interview
* drafting a nanny work agreement
* managing your nanny, and meeting your tax and insurance obligations

Using The Nanny Kit, you'll be sure that the nanny you hire is safe, qualified, and nurturing -the right nanny for your child's needs.

Porrazzo has appeared on NBC's Today, the CBS Evening News, and other television shows; she has also been featured in articles about professional child care in Business Week, Working Mother, Parenting, and Smart Money

Customer Reviews:

Great! Grab this and go........2007-03-06

What a wonderful resource. Pick it up and get going. Not to large and long to get through. Take what you need and move on. The forms are great.

Good for those hiring a NANNY..........2000-06-23

While a slim volume at less than 100 pages, this book does give a good overview of the issues involved in selecting a nanny. As the previous reviewer notes, it is aimed as those who will be hiring a Nanny, as opposed to an Au pair, or other type of child care worker. Nannies are generally better educated and more costly to hire and employ, but do provide more intensive and usually education based childcare. Keep that in mind when purchasing, though it does give some good basic information that will apply to all childcare workers.

A useful guide, but only for the wealthy........1999-04-29

Porrazzo's guidebook provides good information about the options for finding a nanny through an agency, newspaper, public postings, or social networks. It also quite effectively lays out the "rules" for the employer, in terms of legal obligations both to the government and to the employee. I found these aspects quite useful.

However, there were two serious points of frustration for me. First, it seems to assume its reader has unlimited resources, and never discusses any of the compromises that are part of most parents' struggle to find adequate child care, especially in-home care. Second, it seems to assume that all of the job applicants are trained, literate, educated, and fluent in English -- and dismisses those who are not as "illegal aliens." This is not the reality of the market. Many of those who are legally qualified to work in the U.S. are not fluent in English; some cannot read in any language. Additionally, many of them do not have the resources to maintain reliable transportation. Any comprehensive guidebook on hiring child care workers must address these more complex problems.

Find a nanny with confidence, not anxiety........1999-03-02

The Nanny Kit is a great resource that turns finding and hiring a nanny into a simple, logical process. The emotional stress is taken out of the picture because Kim Porrazzo explains everything you need to know step by step, from hiring to training to tax reporting. The Nanny Kit is filled with practical tips, worksheets, logs and sample questions which organize your search. Finding a nanny was easy after reading The Nanny Kit. It gave me the confidence I needed to make an informed choice that was right for me. I recommend The Nanny Kit to anyone starting a search for childcare.

An excellent guidebook for hiring a nanny........1999-02-11

The Nanny Kit must be used before you hire your nanny. It is a step-by-step process that must be completed before the most important person steps into your home. Without using The Nanny Kit, too many things are missed. It has helped me everytime I have hired a nanny!

Book Description

Compelled by the known fallacies in the Pulitzer Prizewinning Associated Press story of the alleged slaughter of South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri, Major Bateman, an academic historian and professional soldier, presents an alternate explanation of the events through the perspective of the soldiers and their commanders, the 1948-50 South Korean civil war, and the broader state of U.S. military policy and force readiness. In a solid historical analysis of the incident he debunks the AP allusion to a widespread massacre of civilians by U.S. forces at No Gun Ri and shows how veterans who allegedly witnessed this event and influenced others were not even present. Told concisely with extensive documentation from previously overlooked sources.

Customer Reviews:

The Associated Press was hoaxed.......2006-11-20

There was always something fishy about the story the Associated Press published in September 1999 about a massacre at No Gun Ri, South Korea, in July 1950.
Anyone who has studied military history knows you cannot understand a small unit infantry action without a detailed terrain map, and there was no map.
Maj. Robert Bateman, who taught history at West Point, saw additional problems that wouldn't have been obvious to civilians. The AP account "did not jibe . . . with the things I knew as an infantry officer."
Before becoming a teacher, Bateman had been a company commander in the same unit -- 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment -- whose earlier incarnation was accused of slaughtering perhaps 400 refugees over (accounts varied) a few minutes to four days.
He knew and considered a friend the man the AP relied on most for confirming the claims of alleged Korean survivors, Ed Daily.
While other journalists began investigating Daily's bona fides, Bateman approached the mystery from a military historian's perspective: Could he reconstruct the events of the last days of July 1950, when American and South Korean armies and masses of civilians were retreating, sometimes in panic, from a North Korean attack?
It turned out to be easier to determine what could not have happened than what really did happen, but in "No Gun Ri: A Military History" Bateman presents a well-documented, coherent story.
Simultaneously, the South Korean and American governments opened their own investigations.
Eventually all these investigators proved several things. The one that got the most public attention was that Daily and all the other veterans who endorsed the South Korean allegations were frauds.
But there were other discoveries that put the AP story in even worse light. Not all the AP's inaccurate statements were just mistakes.
Bateman proves that what the AP called a "division order" to kill refugees was not a division order, could not possibly have been known to the 7th Cavalry and wouldn't have been a legal order if it had been. As Bateman says, majors don't give orders to colonels.
It was already obvious, but the AP reporters were incompetent and Bateman demonstrates this in a dozen ways.
It was not only that the AP reporters and editors did not understand how to read military reports. They made mistakes that no city editor in the sorriest tank town weekly in the country would have accepted, notably by alleging 400 murders without supplying, even tentatively, a name or a home village for even one victim.
But when it comes to atrocity stories, the usual rules often are not applied. The Pulitzer Prize committee, which has often been hoaxed, awarded the AP its prize.
Later, the committee said its duty did not include verifying the authenticity of the report, but that does not explain why it ignored holes in the AP report that wouldn't have been overlooked in a story about a one-alarm fire.
In the second half of his book, Bateman explores "the story of the story," and then things turn out to be much worse than they appeared, which was bad enough.
Quoting the AP reporters, he shows contradictions in how they claimed to have done their work. Worse, he proves that "AP used these accounts (by fake witnesses) despite its knowledge of the problems with witness credibility."
What is still very much in question is how many, if any, civilians were killed at No Gun Ri.
There is no grave to show there was even one death. Aerial photographs taken a few days after the supposed massacre show no evidence of any deaths.
Bateman thinks that perhaps six to 35 Koreans were killed by Americans, first in a mistaken mortar attack, then by rifle and machinegun fire from the 2nd Battalion after two South Korean Communist guerrillas who were among the refugees opened fire on the Americans.
Obviously, these figures are just a guess. Americans who really were at No Gun Ri that day claim to have killed two North Korean regulars (which Bateman says were South Korean irregulars) and recovered their weapons, which were duly registered later by the regimental supply officer.
Almost certainly some helpless villagers were killed, too. But between Bateman the historian and the honest reporters who followed up the AP, there can be no doubt now that the story of a massacre was a hoax.

Extremely One-Sided, Poorly Researched.......2004-08-08

A U.S. military perspective of the proceedings at No Gun Ri during the Korean War is a welcome one, and offers an interesting contrast to the human rights tone of "The Bridge at No Gun Ri." However, Bateman is extremely one-sided in his research, fitting facts around his argument rather than the other way around. His objective is to not to supply an accurate historic acount of what happened at No Gun Ri; instead, it is to argue blindly for his version of the story. As a Korean American, I was offended that Bateman took so little care in his research that he identified Chung Eun Yong's (Eunyong Chung) last name as Yong; I question whether someone with a legitimate background in East Asian Studies would make such an egregious error. Overall, the premise of the book is a good one, but Bateman's narrow vision turns this book into a radical diatribe rather than an objective academic work.

One Sided Story.......2004-06-21

I think Mr. Bateman only tells his side of the story; he almost totally ignores the other side. Mr. Bateman presents himself as a historian, but I think it's unacceptable for a historian to present such highly prejudiced material to the public. I have several reasons for saying this and I'll just make a few points here:

1. If he had paid a slightest attention, he wouldn't have been confused with the Korean names. He thought, for example, Chung Eun Yong's family name was Yong, despite the fact that Chung Eun Yong spelled his name as Eunyong Chung in his 1997 letter to President Clinton, and there were many Chung's in the list of No Gun Ri victims. Had he asked just one Korean American nearby, he would have been corrected. It appears that Mr. Bateman didn't give much thought on victims. In my view, he was only interested in presenting his prejudiced views for whatever reasons.

2. He says, without speaking to any Koreans or visiting the actual location, that the South Koreans' memories refer to other incidents and were conflated with the No Gun Ri incident when a South Korean author gathered them together into a 1994 novel. It's amazing that he could positively say this while he had very little understanding of Koreans. In my opinion, each person would have told his or her own story thousands of times from 1950 to 1994; it would have been pretty obvious to everyone if one suddenly changes his story in 1994.

3. He says without doubt that there were guerillas among the refuges. But I know the fact that by the start of the Korean War the guerillas were largely controlled. I think there still were some remnants, but generally deep in the Chiri Mountains, much farther south. No Gun Ri is on the nation's most important artery of rail lines (which was the only practical means of public transportation that time), where the South Korean government would have made sure to be free of guerillas. I lived near a secondary rail line (with only a single track) and much more mountainous and much closer to the Chiri Mountains, but there were no guerillas there that time. In fact many of village people (including my father) had been absent from home for a few years after the October 1946 riots nationwide, but they had all come home sometime before the war. Even if there were a few guerillas, it was highly unlikely that they possessed Soviet-made machine guns and foolish enough to shoot from the tunnel to GIs scattered throughout in the fox-holes. It doesn't make any sense.
4. I reviewed the arial photos of August 6, 1950 many times, and have widely different view of what might have happened there than what was described (very midly) in this book.

I have lived in America for more than 30 years and I understand that it's best to protect our government position and understand why Mr. Bateman, as a soldier and army historian, wants to protect the U.S. government position. However, publishing a historical book with incomplete research doesn't seem appropriate.

No Gun Ri was a tragic incident for the victims and their families, but under the circumstances, I understand why American GIs acted that way and even if the higher authorities had ordered to shoot innocent civilians, I can sort of understand why. Koreans themselves did worse things to their own people. And the Korean War was tragic for all Koreans as well as for all American GIs who fought in the war, their families, and the American people who had to foot the bill. I appreciate President Truman for sending the troops. But the indiscriminate bombings were very wrong. Perhaps the Korean War was inevitable, but it was the super-powers' fault to divide the innocent Korea into two (instead of dividing Japan like they did Germany).

In light of the Iraq War, we must think all the consequences, not just our own solders' lives, before ever going to a war. No matter how you cut it, a war is a messy business for all involved, especially for the innocent and helpless civilians.

Refutation of Hanley's text: Should be read 2nd.......2002-12-20

This is an excellent piece of military history in general and Korean War history in particular. Only Appleman's East of Chosin dissects the anatomy of a tragedy in Korea with as much sense of impending, inevitable doom and finality as Bateman's book does. Bateman achieves something few authors and historians do: weave diverse social, political, and military events so that they can hep us understand a major event.

Other authors would be content enough to 'merely' point out that Daily, Flint, and Hesselman weren't even near No Gun Ri at the time the alleged atrocities occurred. Thats the 'what did he know, and when did he know it' school of journalism. But Bateman has a much more powerful message. It begins as follows:

--American soldiers were never made aware that this area of Korea was rife with guerrilla battles between South Korean communist sympathizers and Rhee's army and militias. They never knew many civilians were armed and aligned with the NKPA.

--The American army had no recent experience conducting combat operations in their rear areas. They often left a task to the ROKs, who were notoriously brutal for slaying prisoners. The US army complained they did this so swiftly there wasn't even time to obtain intelligence from the guerrillas!

--While infiltration was probably not a tactic used all that often by the NKPA, nonetheless American outrage against its use was not based on racist views. It was based on the moral conviction that it was not a 'legitimate military ruse.' His contrast of German infiltration at the Battle of the Bulge, with that of the Koreans in the Naktong battles, is powerful and moving. It is part of a larger subsection Fear and Military Reality which is an excellent discourse on the moral conflicts presented by the combatants and noncombatants in a military theater.

--The famous order 'no refugees to cross front line. Fire everyone trying to cross front line' was never widely disseminated. It was a phone call that never reached the men at No Gun Ri.

There is much more. Lack of training at the Battalion level or higher meant the forces were easily dispersed and communications disrupted. The stripping of the units NCOs and Officers (for the 24th infantry division) meant there were not experienced men on site to keep the units coherent and issue their own orders. Commissioned officers would be able to distinguish between legal and illegal orders such as the one above.

All this makes his speculation about what happened at No Gun Ri more credible than Hanleys'. Bateman doubts an 'execution style massacre' occurred. Certainly mortar fire was a mistake, but 'two way fire was exchanged' between the Korean refugees and US Soldiers. Calling in an air fighters to strife the refugees? Impossible, says Batemen: US soldiers FM radios could not talk to fighter AM radio sets. Even if an unintentional strafing occurred, says Bateman, casualties would be nowhere near the hundreds Koreans claimed. Nor could a bombing run have 'bent the railway like still chopsticks.' Aerial photographs after US forces left the area revealed it compeletely intact. And by the way, where are the bodies?

The rest of the book returns to the larger story behind this No Gun Ri incident. It is almost amusing to watch Bateman peel apart Daily's military record. Flint and Hesselman weren't present at No Gun Ri either, though their stories are less colorful. Bateman's chapters on the media, its evolving concept of 'free press' and relationships with the military are helpful in making clear to the reader just how a story like Hanley's can take on a life of its own. Bateman's liner notes state he 'expressly rejects the notion of media bias.' The reader might ask, why? Isn't it clear between the lines the glee Hanley felt in having 'nailed America' with committing an atrocity? Isn't it similarly clear that Haneley is steeped heavily in contemporary journalism's contempt for the west? How else do you explain reporters culling six witnesses from a pool of 130 simply because the former 'supported the thesis put forward' by the Korean claimants? Why didn't the Associated Press scour the same Service records Bateman used to reveal Daily was an imposter?

All of the material presented in Bateman's book is designed to do two thing First, explain why an event like No Gun Ri would be inevitable in the course of a war such as that fought in Korea. Second, explain why it was unlikely that such an event, if it occurred, would be an intentional act by US soldiers. Compare that with Hanley's forays into US foreign policy, US 'arrogance' and meddling in Korean 'internal' affairs, fond wishes by Korean farmers that the NKPA would arrive any second to liberate them from Rhee henchmen, ad nauseum. What has that got to do with the agony suffered in the vicinity of that trestle? In the books 'Afterward' the statistical and survey methods necessary to obtain unbiased reportage on an issue of this magnitude are made clear. The reader begins to see the sophistication and patience, the thoroughness and contemplation necessary to assemble an interpretation of 'facts' fifty years after an event occurs. Pay particular attention to Bateman's focus on the comments of Colonel Nist, and the dignified process by which he interviewed veterans of this War. The former shows how sharp he is as a detective; the latter shows how trained he is as a researcher. I think you will be tempted to reach the same conclusion Bateman and the US government did:

"neither documentary evidence nor US citizens statements reviewed by the US Review Team support a hypothesis of deliberate killing of Korean civilians."

Masterpiece.......2002-12-05

Truly fantastic! WHAT A PIECE OF work this book is. Mr. Bateman has written a superb book that chronicles what combat soldiers, like himself, have endured throughout the centuries. Not only must they dodge bullets on the battlefield, but they must also dodge critiques from those who have never been under fire as well. Mr. Bateman has taken a small step up a large hill to correct this injustice. What really impressed me about this book was his use of language. Mr. Bateman yields his words like a machete to cut down all those who have surrounded him in an attempt to take the moral high ground. The members of the 7th Calvary owe Mr. Bateman a debt of honor that I hope they will pay him in full. This book reminded me of James R. McDonough's book, "Platoon Leader". I still have a first edition copy of that masterpiece and I will place Mr. Bateman's book right beside it.

No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident. (Net Assessment).(Book Review): An article from: Air & Space Power Journal

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No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident. (Net Assessment).(Book Review): An article from: Air & Space Power Journal
James H. Clifford
Manufacturer: U.S. Air Force
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Air & Space Power Journal, published by U.S. Air Force on September 22, 2002. The length of the article is 471 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident. (Net Assessment).(Book Review)
Author: James H. Clifford
Publication: Air & Space Power Journal (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2002
Publisher: U.S. Air Force
Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Page: 113(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

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Good, if only about art
A very civilized survey of Western art and architecture
A treasure of a book
Made me wish it were a longer book
Lord Clark of Civilisation

Civilisation a Personal View
Kenneth Clark
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060108010

Customer Reviews:

Good, if only about art.......2005-01-15

This is one of those books which you would expect to be about something, but when you open it you find it's really about something else. You would expect a book titled "Civilisation" to be about, well...civilisation. Instead, it's about art in its various forms, and how they reflect the civilisation that they accompany. Further, it has nothing to do with art outside Western Europe: Poland, the Balkans, Scandinavia, and Russia are all ignored, to say nothing of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, or Latin America. The author excuses it by saying that while he admires art from there, he knows little about it, and this book is about what he knows: art, primarily painting, from ancient Greece and Rome, Italy, France, and Britain, with a bit from the U.S.A. and Spain, up to the mid-18th Century.

The book is really the transcript of a televised series of the same title, narrated by the author. This gives it a conversational style that's readable and interesting, and which pulls the book along quite nicely. It's accompanied by almost 300 illustrations, in my edition, many in color. It's a beautiful book, and very interesting, but rather limited by the subject and the medium of the published book made from TV. These (I've read one other, by J.F.C. Fuller, on leaders in World War II) have strange limitations, because they tend to be very personal, from the point of view of the narrator. So I enjoyed this book, but with rather large limitations: the author's opinions are really what the book is about, and if you aren't interested in those, you're wasting your time.

A very civilized survey of Western art and architecture .......2004-11-10

This is a very civilized survey of the highlights of Western art and architecture. Lord Clark an art- historian by profession writes with skill, taste and humor. In the opening of the book he quotes Ruskin as saying that " great nations write their autobigraphies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood without reading the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last" This is the line that Lord Clark adopts as he focuses primarily on the art works and the architecture. But his survey is at all points learned insightful cultured and a pleasure to read.

A treasure of a book.......2004-03-29

If I had to chose 5 books for eternity, this would be one. I first read it as a recent college grad when it was published in the early '70's. It helped estabish my view of western civilization and art. I have scoured used book stores for copies to give to others and I am pleased it is again available. I treasure this volume and would be lost without it.

Made me wish it were a longer book.......2001-10-11

Starting with chapter 1, "The Skin of Our Teeth" (covering ground more recently trod by Thomas Cahill's HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION), and culminating with chapter 13's "Heroic Materialism", Clark produces a joyful, sometimes wary look at the painting, architecture, sculpture, philosophy, music, science, and even engineering that have contributed to the evolution of Western Civilization.

Clark's writing most definitely does not fall into the dry, verbally bloated academic style (which never fails to give me the heebie-jeebies), but instead, his words issue a warmth, an inviting, conversational tone, and his thoughts are timeless, which is fortunate, as CIVILISATION is just over 30 years old.

Worthwhile? Yep.

Lord Clark of Civilisation.......2001-08-16

(Not to be confused with his late, equally erudite son, Alan Clark of Barbarism. No joke.) On one level this is a companion piece for the classic 1960s documentary series of the same name; on another a stand-alone introduction to Western art and civilization. Civilization is defined as a culture's ability to celebrate and reflect upon its very existence. Clark believed that a successful culture required more than just patronage of the arts; above all, it required the embrace of internationalism, the free-flow of ideas across borders. This book has transcended its 1960s context, where the perceived "enemy" was the hand-wringing, self-loathing basher of Western society. Today, the real foe is the isolationist "when-I-hear-the-word- Culture-I-reach-for-my-gun" type. Clark would have no time for their ilk, and his spirited defense works against them too.

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Western civilization: A personal view
Paul J Enea
Manufacturer: Desktop Publishing Solutions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006R2QPE

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Match the tops and tails of a collection of sea creatures in five deceptively difficult puzzles!

Only and Ocean Between: Three Volumes in One

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Only and Ocean Between: Three Volumes in One
Lella Secor Florence
Manufacturer: Adprint Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JRBCTW

Oregon, or, A short history of a long journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the region of the Pacific by land: Drawn up from the notes and oral information ... the only one who has returned to New England

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Oregon, or, A short history of a long journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the region of the Pacific by land: Drawn up from the notes and oral information ... the only one who has returned to New England
John B Wyeth
Manufacturer: Printed for J.B. Wyeth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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