Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood

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A great read AND a wonderful gift

The Best Of Its Kind

Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood
Clara E. RodrÃguez
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1588341119

Book Description

A book for everyone interested in Hollywood and especially the history of Latinos in American film.

Heroes, Lovers, and Others tells the fascinating history of Latinos in film, from the birth of the movies to the present, through a series of stories about Hollywood's most famous and enduring stars. The book features such Latino legends as Dolores del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Ramon Navarro, Desi Arnaz, Anthony Quinn, Raquel Welch, Selma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas. But this is much more than a just collection of celebrity stories. Clara E. Rodríguez shows how the careers of these stars were shaped by the temper of the times in which they lived and how they managed their own sense of personal and screen identities. The sparkling parade of Latino film stars presented against the backdrop of American social and cultural history changes the way we think of race and ethnicity in Hollywood and challenges us to reexamine conventional ways of viewing our past. Not least of all, Heroes, Lovers, and Others will inspire readers to watch old and new movies with a sharpened sense of the personal, artistic, and social dynamics underlying their history and, by telling the stories of several long-forgotten stars, make readers wish these stories themselves would be made into movies. 57 b/w photographs.

Customer Reviews:

A great read AND a wonderful gift.......2006-01-25

It was that gorgeous sepia cover of Rita Hayworth that first drew me to this book. I'm not a movie buff, but that classic pose captivated me, and when I saw the numerous dramatic stills of famous screen icons from across the entire history of film, I immediately purchased four copies-for my mother, my two aunts and my niece.
Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino, I quickly learned, and she had begun her career as a a Latin dancer and actor. Her's is only one of a flood of stories of Latinos stars throughout Hollywood's first century. The book is an easy and quick read, but I ended up learning a lot about how the history of Hollywood and America are intertwined. I felt that the historical context deepened and enriched the stories and provided them with a greater meaning.
One of my favorite stories is about an Austrian actor named Jacob Krantz, whose acting career was going nowhere until he changed his name to Ricardo Cortez and immediately became a big star. His brother Stanley followed him to Hollywood, also changed his name to Cortez, and won several awards as a cinematographer. And did you know that Anthony Quinn came to the US illegally, and picked crops, preached on street corners and boxed before becoming a major star?
The author writes with an accessible style and great insight. The pictures are wonderful. I'm neither Latino nor a big movie-goer, but I still loved "Heroes, Lovers and Others" because it is such a lively collage of wonderful stories about America and the rich variety of people who populate it.

The Best Of Its Kind.......2004-11-30

Rodriguez gets us thinking about the place of Latinos in US feature film from the very beginning to the present and in a sense, it's a book with a happy ending, because after decades of near-invisibility, Latinos and Latinas are becoming highly visible and indeed stars with huge followings. I mean, like it or not, Jennifer Lopez has millions of fans, as does Christina Aguillera. Intriguing are her portraits of Hollywood's Latin stars of days gone by, from the dashing Gilbert Roland to the gay superstar Ramon Novarro, and the answers to trivia questions like Olga San Juan. But she has some facts wrong, and it makes me wonder if even I, a non-Latino, can pick up some mistakes she has made, who knows maybe there are even more I don't know about! In her article on raquel Welch, first of all she deplores the fact that Jo Raquel Tejada was forced to change her name to Welch. She says that "Welch was another name in her family." Every fan of Raquel's in fact knows that "Welch" is the name of Raquel's first husband, and she didn't "steal" it or anything from some other member of her own family. Rodriguez also claims that Raquel made her screen debut in the call-girl melodrama A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME, when most historians credit her in appearing in the Elvis programmer ROUSTABOUT way before AHINAH. But, all in all you can't go wrong with Rodriguez (except when she goes wrong), and I love her description of Anthony Quinn as having the greatest gift of a screen actor, the ability to make audiences think they have known the character he is playing in any particular picture, that they have known him for a long time. It's a quirky observation, but a valid one, and a valuable one to boot.

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Hollywood Hispano (Spanish Format)
George Hadley-Garcia
Manufacturer: Carol Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Actors & Actresses | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Censorship and Hollywood's Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1936-1955 (Bibliographies and Indexes in the Performing Arts)

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Censorship and Hollywood's Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1936-1955 (Bibliographies and Indexes in the Performing Arts)
Alfred Charles Richard
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313288429

Book Description

Between 1936 and 1955, Hollywood significantly changed its portrayal of Hispanics in motion pictures. This change resulted from the demands of the Production Code Administration, which required film makers to eliminate the more offensive stereotypical Hispanic images. This filmography chronicles all of the Hispanic-related films released during this period. The volume includes entries for nearly four thousand films. The entries are arranged in chapters, with each chapter devoted to a single year. Within the chapters, the entries are listed alphabetically by film title. Each entry includes production information, an annotation detailing the film's Hispanic significance, and references to additional materials. The volume concludes with an alphabetical index of film titles, an index of actors and actresses, an index of place names, a general subject index, and an index of songs. Film historians and scholars of Hispanic culture will find this work to be an indispensable reference tool.

Contemporary Hollywood's Negative Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1956-1993 (Bibliographies and Indexes in the Performing Arts)

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Contemporary Hollywood's Negative Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1956-1993 (Bibliographies and Indexes in the Performing Arts)
Alfred Charles Richard
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Communication | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0313288410

Book Description

An annotated filmography of more than 3,000 entries each focusing on the film's Hispanic content, connection, or characters. Four separate indexes, more than 6,000 cross references, and as many film reviews make this work an invaluable reference tool for students, scholars, and individuals interested in studying silver screen stereotyping. This work completes Richard's three-volume documentation of how the domestic and international film industry contributed to stereotyping America's Hispanic community by detailing the contemporary return of the despicable Hispanic character. Employing the broadest conceptual framework to include any individual of Spanish ancestry, this volume outlines how the film industry has homogenized the Latin, the Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and anyone from Mexico, Central/South America or the Caribbean nations into a despicable Spic (an ethnic enemy) whose negative traits/character have been conditioned by his national origins. The return of the negative image is due to a variety of reasons, and one thing is for certain--it has been profitable for filmmakers. There is no other such reference work presently in print that represents the definitive collection of films with Hispanic themes and connections in any language.

Hispanic Hollywood The Latins in Motion Pictures

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Hispanic Hollywood The Latins in Motion Pictures
George Hadley-Garcia
Manufacturer: Citadel Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PRP49A

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Very good, but not what it looks like
Homosexuality, AIDS, and Japan
lying on the fence of pleasure and distrust
Personal Insights into Japanese Life
Orientalism

Latinos in Hollywood
Antonio Jos'e R'ios-Bustamante
Manufacturer: Floricanto Press ;
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006DIPSK

Book Description

In 1986, John Whittier Treat went to Tokyo on sabbatical to write a book about the literature of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But once there, he found himself immersed in the emergence of new kind of Holocaust, AIDS, and the sweeping denial, hysteria, and projection with which Japan--a place where "there are no homosexuals"--tried to insulate itself from the epidemic. Great Mirrors Shattered is a compelling memoir of a gay man thoroughly familiar with the Japanese homosexual underground, a man anxious for his own health and unsure of the relationship he has left behind in the US. It is also a highly self-aware analysis of Orientalism, which the author defines as "the Western study of everywhere else," and an exploration of how sexual identity conditions knowledge across cultures. Jump-cutting between such texts as Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysantheme, Saikaku's The Great Mirror of Male Love, the writings of Roland Barthes, newspaper headlines, and his own experiences during a previous stay in Japan, Treat creates an intricately textured account of the problems inherent in how we "know" another culture. The questions of self and other, difference and sameness, time past and time present, America and Japan, are explored here with rare intelligence and unabashedly personal disclosure. Great Mirrors Shattered gives us a brilliantly fractured reflection of a year in one man's life, and the first study of the sexual politics behind what the West has come to know not just about Japan, but any place Europeans and Americans have gone to escape the confining rules of their home cultures.

Customer Reviews:

Very good, but not what it looks like.......2006-05-18

...which is probably what's tripping most people up. The title is misleading; when I found this book I was expecting a scholarly analysis of homosexuality as it is viewed and practiced in Japan. Instead, it turned out to be about a year the author spent in Japan after fleeing America to escape the spread of AIDS, only to watch the epidemic unfold in Japan as well--a year in the life of an introspective, promiscuous, slightly amoral intellectual.

He draws from many different sources, sometimes juxtaposed in a manner that's difficult to follow, and touches on a variety of different topics that some way or another intersect with his conception of Japan, AIDS, and being gay. This is not an academic work, this is a personal essay stretched large, a chronicle set in the 1980s gay scene. He doesn't shy away from describing the uncomfortable aspects of that life any more than he flinches from discussing the equally uncomfortable racist, neocolonialist attitudes held by various generations of white conquerors, including his own. He deconstructs these views, analyzes the causes and logic behind them, but it is clear that he does not endorse them, no more than he would endorse the quotes that are hostile or offensive to homosexuals.

Racism and colonialism are inherited, and even if we as individuals choose to reject them, they are still inherent and pervasive in our culture. Where did these ideas originate, and why? Treat ponders such questions at length, and unfortunately that sets him up for attack from people who would rather disregard uncomfortable topics than discuss them.

This is not an anthropological book, or even an ethnography. It feels almost like fiction, which makes it an engaging as well as insightful read, but it is one man's experiences and not to be confused with any sort of authoritative treatise on homosexuality in Japan.

Homosexuality, AIDS, and Japan.......2003-08-18

I've been a big fan of Treat's essays since I read Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, so I picked up this book with some understanding of his writing already. Anyway, I expected this book to be about gay life in Japan and Japanese literature, but it turned out not to be about that at all... or at least, not much. A lot of the book is a memoir/travel-diary that Treat apparently wrote on the side as he was living in Japan on fellowship money, working on Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb. Treat reflects on various lovers that he had in Japan, things they did together and places they went, what gay life is like in Tokyo and a few other places in Japan. And all that is interwoven into news stories about the growth of AIDS in Japan, stories from Japanese literature, and Treat's own experience being HIV positive and having to hide it during his stay. It's not, by any means, a comprehensive autobiography (Treat isn't so famous as to attempt that), but it's interesting in the way that stories about living in another country often are. On the whole, the book isn't so much about homosexuality and Japan as it is about AIDS and Japan. There are some very interesting sexual anecdotes in the book, all told with a kind of hyper-awareness of the historical relationship between the Occident and the Orient, and the roles the author himself, as a white man, plays in his sexual relationships. Despite being surprised about the main themes, I found it to be an interesting book, and all the personal anecdotes keep the theory from becoming too dry. The book is very honest and candid, and I came away from it with a greater understanding of John Treat as a person, which I liked. And I think a big part of Treat's intent with the book was to show how the "self" and "other" really have more in common than they think, and on that level he succeeded.

lying on the fence of pleasure and distrust.......2001-12-23

Reading everyone's comments of this book, I realize how controversial this piece must be and is in reality. That NO ONE rates this book anything but a 1 or a 5 speaks to its strong nature. You either love it, find meaning in it; or are repulsed by it. Speaking as a white American lesbian who has been studying queer culture in Japan and has also visited Japan, I am completed horrified by the certainity with which Treat dabbles in topics of enormous proportion. Why write a memoir if you are supposedly addressing so many key issues of social concern unless you are actually going to address them?! Besides that fact, he never once seems to apologize or doubt his masculinist and racist grip on his material. He is always a spectator, always the man behind the controls. It is sickening really. I have only read half of this book, but as I read, I read to see how much more I can become baffled at his arrogance of subject matter. His treatment of each subject, at best, leaves me cold and wondering why he even bothers to make it seem like he cares. It seems like a completely narcissistic attempt to get through some clearly lingering white suburban American guilt. I don't think the fact that queers in America have become involved with Asian Studies because is it an Orientalist gaze get's to be made into a "duh" statement or be left unquestioned. It is NOT ok, and DOES need to be discussed, not just left for stereotyping or pigeon-holing. The only part of this book that I can remotely enjoy is references to a country that I miss and experiences that may seem similar, but do not somehow excuse themselves as "boys will be boys" or some crap like that. Very disapppointing perspective, yet almost predictable from a white gay male with so much arrogance.

Personal Insights into Japanese Life.......2001-08-23

For the reviewer from Mars: This book is a subjective account of life in Japan during the time of AIDS. This is not meant as a depiction of gay and lesbian Japanese life, no could it be. The Japanese misperception of American life is echoed in this review.

I found this book soul-baring and intense. Well done!

Orientalism.......2001-08-20

As an Asian, this book makes me uneased while reading it. Yeah, the author cites Edward Said's "Orientalism" couple times. But the tone of mighty American looking down the funny Japanese is running through lots of the pages.

I really like to hear Japanese gays and lesbians's opinions on this book.

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The Capablanca opening
David Thomas Chantler
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0312118651

Average customer rating:

advice from a strong chess player

A classic

Concise and well written

A Great Book: But don't confuse it with a reference

Good but not best

Chess fundamentals
JoseÌÂ RauÌÂl Capablanca
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace & World
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Chess | Board Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Lasker's Manual of Chess

The Game of Chess (Algebraic Edition)

A Primer of Chess

My System (Chess Classics)

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess

ASIN: B0007DPQ3Q

Customer Reviews:

advice from a strong chess player.......2007-01-06

There is plenty of good chess in the book. Capablanca is not as inspiring as Lasker or Nimzowitch, but the book is very instructive and gives a good taste of the thoughts of one of the strongest chess players in the history of the game.

A classic.......2006-02-26

Only few words we know about Capablanca himself of his conception of the game. This book is an absolute classic. Like the books of Lasker and others of their time, they are best to get their view of the game than to learn how to play.

I have been investigating the thinking methods of the old champions and this little book introduce the concept of the calculation by visualizing future positions. Capa doesn't expose details about it, but his writing help us to get the concept: visualize the goal position in mind and then try to construct it at the board. That method was repeated in Lasker's Manual writing about positional and combinatory players. In our days this conception is regained by Silman and Beim as new concepts and without proper credits to the old guys.

As any classic, get this book!

Concise and well written.......2005-02-07

I found the whole book helpful, especially the complete games and their annotations, which don't go into a long and boring analysis like some other chess books, which makes this book perfect for beginners.

A Great Book: But don't confuse it with a reference.......2004-12-04

Chess Fundamentals is a book anyone can find space on their shelf for. However, before going further, I'd like to remind people this is a self-teaching book, not a reference. Many have complained that this book is sparse on explanations and that Capablanca left the student to find most variations. They seem to have lost the point that this book is meant to teach through hands-on experience, the best method, rather than by just telling everything.

Treatise aside, this book is superb. It has a great focus on endgames and explains the opening well. The only fault I could find was that the middlegame section focused too much on combinations and not enough on positional play--however, positional play could take 100 books to fully explain, so it doesn't really matter. After reading this book, my rating on playchess.com rose by over 300 points! I highly recomend it.

Good but not best.......2004-10-05

This is a good book. There is an overemphasis on the endgame. One cannot reach the endgame with the type of positions that this book would expect you to know if you cannot survive the opening. My two favorits still are highly recommended over this one, CHESS FOR JUNIORS & WINNING CHESS TOURNAMENTS FOR JUNIORS.

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The Chess Machine.
A very good book on a GREAT player!
So enjoyable like your favourite meal!!!
Capablanca "The Chess Machine"
The Best Work on Capablanca

The immortal games of Capablanca,
Jose Raul Capablanca
Manufacturer: Collier Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0020296908

Book Description

Superbly annotated treasury includes 113 of the Cuban master's greatest games against Marshall, Lasker, Euwe, and many other formidable opponents. It also contains not only many games previously unavailable in book form, but a biography of Capablanca, his tournament and match record, and an Index of Openings.

Customer Reviews:

The Chess Machine........2002-07-25

For people not familiar with Jose Capablanca, he is generally considered to have been more talented than Bobby Fischer, but didn't posses Bobby's CRAZY work ethic.
Many people do not realize to what extremes bobby pushed himself to be the best.. he had NO contact with the opposite sex, no social life really, all he did was study the game.. Capablanca is referred by fischer himself as the glamour boy of the game.. He Socialized with kings and Queens. He had a small part in one of the first ever black and white films. And generally loved and respected around the world. Which for a chess player is incredible! Capablanca never studied, so his games usually have simple, or safe openings. But like Fischer says. "Capablanca played brilliantly in the middlegame".

The sophistication of his games are not quite appreciated by the beginner. When Capablanca saw, or got an advantage he would just sqeeze it to the very end. Some players do not realize that when you complicate things you can accidentaly give your opponent a way back into the game. As an example just think of GMs going against computers. There is no way they will complicate things because they know they will loose!

Each of his games are a GREAT lesson to anyone who wants to get better. Even his games as a 12 year old phenom going against the Cuban champion are VERY good so donot pass them up!

About the book. Reinfeld doesn't seem to be too fond of Capa. I know he idalized the less perfect play of Alekhine (he was more exciting, and more beatable)

The reason being that he seems to make up excuses for many his opponents. Some being incredibly ridiculous.. My favorite being an excuse he gives alekhine "He got a bad case of capa fright!" ooohhh scarry... O.K Alekhine was going against the "Babe Ruth" of chess. But what kind of man makes up excuses like that in this game? You need Ice in your veins to be succesful (Which I am sure Alekhine being one of the greats had!)

Another thing. He over criticisez his opponents mistakes. I think Lasker once said. "without mistakes we have drawn games". Reinfeld was a solid player in his day, and he should know better! He says little ridiculous stuff like that, and really its not all that bad. Its just stuff thats not necessary! He highlights that dum stuff in some games, and when he reaches some of the greatest games of all time... He doesnt do them any justice whatsoever!!! NONE.

That is why its only 3 stars.

That and the book is not in algebraic, like Irving Chernevs Capa book.
And the other more expensive one that I cannot seem to remember its name.

This book is still worth checking out.

A very good book on a GREAT player!.......2002-01-12

Simply put, you CANNOT go wrong buying this book! Many of my students find Capa's game to be the BEST for instruction! (Capa is in practically everybody's list of the "Ten Best Players Who Ever Lived!" His games are timeless!)

Positional players will profit from the clarity of the models and the way chess is played in this book. Tactical players will profit from a look at a completely different way of playing chess. (Capa was also an EXCELLENT tactician!) I have recommended this book to dozens of people ... NOT ONE PERSON WHO PLAYED THROUGH MOST OF THE GAMES ... had ANYTHING negative to say about this book! Practically every kind of middle-game position is seen; MANY DIFFERENT openings are played. The notes are VERY clear and insightful. The average player will not feel over-burdened by tons of really unnecessary variations. (The only knock on this book is that it is in descriptive notation.)

So enjoyable like your favourite meal!!!.......2001-09-17

Lets get to the point. This book its tremendously good! looking at Capablanca's games are like eating a Kings meal, just delicious!!!!!! So if you want to learn, improve, have fun and enjoy life like a King of chess then buy this book and read it. If you dont like it then switch to another game, i promise you will love it, keep it and reccomend it to your friends. Enjoy.

Capablanca "The Chess Machine".......2000-07-20

I, personally, hate long reviews of books, so I'm going to make this short and sweet! Capablanca was one of the greatest players of all time. Mr. Reinfeld (the author) adds stunning history behind the games and tells the reader what to expect of certain games in the intro of each chapter. The only bad mark that I can give this book is that the annotations seem a little brief at times; however, this book will teach you so much about the game of chess that one bad mark should never prevent a serious player from getting this classic!

The Best Work on Capablanca.......2000-02-02

No other collection of Capablanca's best games even begins to rival this one. I believe the annotation to be a little lighter at times than it could be, but the work is---nonetheless---excellent. If you have not yet become familiar with the Cuban's best games, buy and read this book!

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Last lectures
JoseÌÂ RauÌÂl Capablanca
Manufacturer: Cornerstone Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

Good Capablanca literature

Unknown Capablanca
David Hooper , and Dale Brandreth
Manufacturer: B.T. Batsford Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 071342964X

Book Description

Over 200 games by the great Cuban champion drawn from lesser matches and exhibition events. Included are games against Corzo, which earned Capablanca the Cuban Championship at the age of 12, as well as match and exhibition games, consultation games, simultaneous games with clocks, more. Bibliography. 151 diagrams.

Customer Reviews:

Good Capablanca literature.......2002-09-05

Capablanca is out of fashion nowadays, so this book may remain out of print. Modern chess is highly analytical and its work ethic at odds with the style of a Capablanca who reportedly did not even keep a chess set at home.
The book's main focus is on the man's supposedly less competitive games: chess tours and exhibitions, consultation games, and simultaneous play for example. Therefore, you the depth of analysis present in some prominent game collections today is inappropriate. Some less interesting games are presenting very compactly, whereas the more interesting have verbally-oriented annotations. The book is pleasing to read because it always mentions the circumstances in which the games were played, and it turns out that Capablanca was a proud man who had a need to play strongly to encourage a meeting for the world championship, which was not governed by a regulatory body at that time.
In 1919 he played a simultaneous match against members of England's parliament in Westminster. He won 36 games, drew 2 and lost none.
"During the display one member tried to put in an extra move, as is the way with politicians; but the Cuban, who had spent six years in his country's diplomatic service, was not outwitted. No international incident followed his tactful correction.
[...] For the rest he displays his infallible technique notwithstanding the need to watch thirty-seven politicians at the same time."
The printing and feel of the book is pleasing and doubtless the book is worthwhile to those interested in Capablanca.

Average customer rating:

The Unknown Capablanca Life and Games

Manufacturer: Rhm Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0890580081

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Hundred best games of chess,
JoseÌÂ RauÌÂl Capablanca
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007E39V6

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Ahora juega usted senor Capablanca
Mario Zaldivar
Manufacturer: Editorial Costa Rica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

A brief review of the chess record of JoseÌÂ RauÌÂl Capablanca, and the official announcement of this fourth American tour, 1911-1912

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A brief review of the chess record of JoseÌÂ RauÌÂl Capablanca, and the official announcement of this fourth American tour, 1911-1912
Dana Welles
Manufacturer: Capablanca & Rosebault
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008C7CQA

Capablanca's hundred best games of chess

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Capablanca's hundred best games of chess
JoseÌÂ RauÌÂl Capablanca
Manufacturer: David McKay Company, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Sun Tzu's Ihe Art of WarR, written in 500 B.C., has achieved international recognition as the foundation of Eastern military strategy.

Customer Reviews:

Managers Cookbook.......2007-10-01

This is a helpful book for helping me deal with staff. I have learned good skills that has helped me with being with a supervisor. It is easy to read and understand.

Comprehensive translation and interpretation!!! .......2007-02-20

For a first time reader, this book provides a good introduction to the concepts in the Art of War by Sun Tzu.

This book briefly mentions the differences between western and eastern strategy. The book "On War" by Carl von Clausewitz is believed to be the foundation of much of the Western strategy. Clausewitzian theory concentrates on the big battle as the way to win. His work expresses so many ideas that it can be used to justify any positions and in addition, it is filled with convoluted sentences and difficult to read. On the other hand, the eastern strategist Sun Tzu's the Art of War is a masterpiece of simplicity.

The fundamental principles of strategy are the same for all managers at all times and situations. Only the tactics are likely to change. Strategy is best defined as "doing the right thing" while tactics is "doing things right". The dividing line between tactics and strategy is indicated by the point of contact. Therefore, strategy stops at the border in war and at the HQ door in business, whereas tactics begins with contact with the enemies in war and customers in business.

The book is divided into 2 parts.
Part 1 is divided into 13 chapters like the original work, sharing the same title as the original translation. Each chapter provides the correlation of the teachings to the present business world, ending with examples on actual business scenarios.
Part 2 provides a useful guide to practical applications. The practical applications are cited by real persons working in various industries, giving examples of key Sun Tzu concepts in which they have applied in their line of work.
Finally the book ends with an outline of Sun Tzu's key concepts to aid in applications and which also serves to provide a good summary of the entire book Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Even More Relevant and Valuable Today.......2006-02-07

The review which follows is of a book which I read when it was first published in 1999. I recently re-read it. Here are my reactions to it seven years later.

Many of those who read my reviews are owners/CEOs of small businesses. Whenever I receive an e-mail from one of them asking me to recommend books which will be of greatest practical value, I always include a choice of R.L. Wing's or Samuel B. Griffith's translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War on the list. Occasionally, someone who has read The Art of War asks for a recommendation of related sources. There are several to select from, notably The Art of Business: In the Footsteps of Giants written by Raymond T. Yeh and Stephanie H. Yeh; two books by Mark R. McNeilly, Sun Tzu and the Art of Business and Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare; and this one, which I read when it was first published and only now am I reviewing. Here are a few of the reasons for my rating of Michaelson's book.

First, Michaelson has selected and then discusses 50 "strategic rules" suggested by Sun Tzu's classic. To facilitate and support periodic review, the key concepts are summarized on pages 169-190 and range from" Thoroughly Assess Conditions" to "Practice Counterintelligence." Don't expect any head-snappers. The greatest value of The Art of War is that it helps, indeed insists that its reader think strategically. (Please keep in mind that it was written 2,500 years ago.) Michaelson fully understands that. His purpose is to apply ancient concepts to major perils and opportunities in the contemporary.

I also appreciate Michaelson's provision of several reader-friendly sections such as those in which he quotes a passage from The Art of War and then offers a "translation" of its relevance, followed by a "Manager's Commentary" in which he recommends appropriate application of Sun Tzu's insight. Throughout his rigorous and eloquent narrative, Michaelson also includes checklists such as the one found on page 114 when he identifies "key ingredients" which are common to all growing organizations: customer focus by creating systems that deliver perceived value; selection (i.e. hiring) of decent as well as competent people; and then training them with highly-interactive learning sessions which are both formal and on-the-job.

Finally, I hold this book in high regard because Michaelson also includes 13 brief but insightful commentaries by senior-level executives who share their own real-world experiences. Fort example, Domminick Attanosio (senior advisor, Young and Partners, LLC) explains how a public pharmaceutical company developed a new delivery system to adjustable dosing of oral medications by following each of several of Sun Tzu's basic principles:

"Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight 100 battles with no danger of defeat."

"Travel where there is no enemy."

"Pursue one's strategic designs to overawe the enemy."

"An army can be raised only when there is money at hand."

"The general whose only interest is to protect his people and promote the best interests of his sovereign is the precious jewel of the state."

"The enlightened rulers must deliberate upon the plans to go to battle, and good generals generally execute them,."

"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence."

Obviously, it would be a fool's errand to manage by slogans but even more foolish to ignore what can be learned from sources such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War. The knowledge these sources provide can -- and should -- guide and inform the careful selection and then effective execution of appropriate strategies and tactics. Credit Michaelson with a thorough understanding and brilliant interpretation of what can be learned from arguably the world's first management consultant.

Bravo!

Sun Tzu for today.......2005-07-29

If you liked the Art of War you will like this. I really liked the summary of all the rules at the end of the book.

Very relevant modern adaptation.......2005-05-13

I will try to to keep this short. All the other 5 stars point out the merits for this book. In short it gives modern insights to a very important book on strategy. Shows that true wisdom rings true for thousands of years.

The criticisms that I have read on this book are true but are not really fair. This book is not designed to be a play by play guide for managers that have no insights of their own. If this book doesn't generate ideas for you without spoon-feeding examples and how to's then you will never lead a winning organization. You are a sheep not a shepherd.

If one understands Sun Tzu, if not a master as no one really is, they would realize that any example given automatically is rendered useless. A widely publicized tactic lacks the element of surprise, rule #19.

My criticism of it is that he doesn't understand history that well, at least the Revolutionary War. He cites things that are common misperceptions about that war to support his arguments. The rebels always employed unconventional tactics not just towards the end. Also almost all of the battles were fought conventionally and on open fields. This is contrary to what the author writes. Stick to business examples.

Also citing Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski does little to advance his point. Who could have known and I'm sure any future editions will strike this reference.

This book isn't perfect but if you are a shepherd and can generate ideas on your own then this book is for you. It will help give fire to the sparks you already have. Quit wasting time and order it. Assume your competitor has already read it and is using its insights against you.

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