Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era

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Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era

Manufacturer: Roundhouse Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Cartooning | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1857100131

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Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era (Rutgers Series in Communications, Media, and Culture)
Eric Loren Smoodin
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Amateur Production | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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A Reader in Animation Studies

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age

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ASIN: 0813519497

Book Description

Long considered "children's entertainment" by audiences and popular media, Hollywood's animation has received little serious attention. Eric Smoodin's Animating Culture is the first book to thoroughly analyze the animated short film. Smoodin argues that cartoons appealed to a wide audience--not just children--and did indeed contribute to public debate about political matters. He examines issues often ignored in discussions of animated film--issues such as social control in the U.S. army's "Private Snafu" cartoons, and sexuality and race in the "sites" of Betty Boop's body and the cartoon harem. His analysis of the multiple discourses embedded in a variety of cartoons reveals the complex and sometimes contradictory ways that animation dealt with class relations, labor, imperialism, and censorship. His discussion of Disney and the Disney Studio's close ties with the U.S. government forces us to rethink the place of the cartoon in political and cultural life. Smoodin reveals the complex relationship between cartoons and the Hollywood studio system, and between cartoons and their audiences.

Amazon.com

"In my everyday life over the last fifty years, it has been my curious lot to move among the rich and famous and powerful, always as an outsider, always listening, watching, remembering."

Writing about the crimes of the rich and famous for Vanity Fair with this insider's status, Dominick Dunne has borne witness to the often bizarre personalities who surround high-profile cases and their telling intimacies. Andrea Reynolds, for instance, dressed only in a negligee and jewelry, insists that her jewels are finer than those of the comatose woman in whose apartment she resides and whom her lover, Claus von Bulow, is charged with attempting to murder. The essays in Justice offer a fascinating, disturbing, and wry look at the cast of a half dozen high-profile trials, including Lyle and Erik Menendez, who murdered their affluent parents; Marvin Pancoast, who beat the $18,000-a-month mistress of Alfred Bloomingdale to death with a baseball bat; the multibillionaire banker Edmund Safra, who suffocated in his own bunker-like bathroom in Monaco; and the gossiping members of Los Angeles society during "All O.J., All the Time."

The most moving story by far is the title piece, about the murder of Dunne's daughter, the actress Dominique Dunne, by her ex-boyfriend, who walked away with a pitifully light sentence thanks to the extremes taken by his defense lawyer and the vanity of the judge. While the succeeding stories don't have the same poignancy, Dunne still makes them personal--after all, he knows many of those involved, and justice truly is personal for him. In fact, it is this moral authority that enables him to enter the strange universe of high-society crime and write about it with no pretense of objectivity, but rather with rage toward the short shrift justice is so often given in celebrity cases. The counterpoint to his anger is a delicious irony in the form of fascinating subplots, jet-set gossip, and terrific quotes straight from some of the horses' mouths. Dunne has both a sharp sense of the absurd and a trenchant eye for injustice in any form. --Lesley Reed

Book Description

For more than two decades, Vanity Fair has published Dominick Dunne’s brilliant, revelatory chronicles of the most famous crimes, trials, and punishments of our time. Here, in one volume, are Dominick Dunne’s mesmerizing tales of justice denied and justice affirmed. Whether writing of Claus von Bülow’s romp through two trials; the Los Angeles media frenzy surrounding O.J. Simpson; the death by fire of multibillionaire banker Edmond Safra; or the Greenwich, Connecticut, murder of Martha Moxley and the indictment—decades later—of Michael Skakel, Dominick Dunne tells it honestly and tells it from his unique perspective. His search for the truth is relentless.

With new essay, “Mourning In New York,” about September 11, 2001.

Customer Reviews:

Names galore.......2007-09-14

The man cannot string two words together without name dropping. It is disgusting and so is he.

The reality behind justice.......2007-07-10

A fascinating book into how high priced lawyers can convince any jury your Mother is worse than a serial killer. Essentially that is the conclusion I got from the book.

Some of the stories are too long and complicated with lots of names, so that is why I am giving it 4 instead of 5 stars. It also was not clear to me what exactly happened in some of the murders, particularly the last one on Safre.

Well written, but repetitive.......2007-03-23

Most of these pieces appeared in Vanity Fair, and the overlap in some of them about the O.J. Simpson trial is left in. About 10 minutes worth of editing could have solved that problem. Otherwise, this is a passionate account of Dunne's view of several of the high profile cases he's made a career of covering since exiting the movie business. The most interesting is the case of his own daughter's murderer, but the Menendez stories and the Michael Skakel case make fascinating prose. Definitely worth reading, even now, long after these trials ended.

Human comedy: celebrity trials expose the comedy of human existence .......2007-01-11

Dominick Dunne received a lifeline from a Washington Post reporter seeking to report the story of David Begelman's forgery. Dunne felt he was a Hollywood failure, and so, he admits, the desire for revenge drove him to help the reporter get his story. In 1982 Dunne's daughter, Dominique, was murdered. He felt the trial of her killer was a travesty. The author's first magazine piece for VANITY FAIR concerned that trial. Dunne covered the retrial of Claus von Bulow. Trials can be boring, but people involved in them are not. He had gone to Hollywood to work on PLAYHOUSE 90 with Martin Manulis.

In writing about the trial focusing on Dominique's death, Dunne repeats the adage that the murder victim is always placed on trial. In trials, journalists jockey for position. Trial-going in Hollywood highlights dysfunctions in the criminal justice system. Where the fact-finder fails to be impartial, and/or where the lawyer-teams opposing each other are disproportionate in terms of resources, results are skewed. A trial, of course, is theater. The glare of publicity never seems to serve the ends of justice; but, of course, injustices may also take place in relative obscurity.

What Dominick Dunne brings to trial reportage is his experience as the parent of a murder victim and his knowledge of the customs of the entertainment industry. Dunne reports that in the trial of O.J. Simpson the public sent bouquets of flowers to the participants. Juries don't like female prosecutors but do like female defense attorneys. The author believes an effective defense attorney must possess a mean streak. Most of the book's chapters are devoted to the Simpson case. Monte Carlo has been described as a sunny place for shady people. Edmond Safer, a financier, died there in a fire. A Dunne fiction work, A SEASON IN PURGATORY, was based on the Martha Moxley murder case. When he wrote his novel, that case had not been solved, even after some twenty odd years.

My most unusual review.......2006-11-02

I have never written a review like this before, and feel compelled to share my thoughts, honest and forward, to anyone considering reading this book.

I picked it up and could not put it down.
I wish I had never read it.

It is a book that is so terribly sad, especially with the story of the author's daughter's murder, and it is written with a skill that is not often seen: a combination of honesty, pithy expressions, pain, joy, and a constellation of emotions that all masterfully come together.

Why do I wish I had never read it?

If you have any connection to the court system, you already know that lying is so common place that it is frightening. People swear an oath and lie with impunity, but reading of the injustice, for instance, that this man suffered in his daughter's murder, or all the spin that OJ's "dream team" used, in short clips to reporters, feeding the public red herrings; deliberate lies, knowing that public influence will reach even a sequested jury, is just horrible to read. The glam of hollywood is sickening and reading about how terribly hated white people were by blacks supporting OJ...knowing that this woman, who was brutally murdered along with an innocent bystander, only to hear that a male black juror could say, "she got what she deserved" is sickening. It brought back all those terrible emotions as race relations in 1994 revealed a black on white hatred that I was, quite frankly, ignorant of its depth.

Reading of wealthy scoundrels like Johnnie Cochrin and others is very difficult. You wonder whether or not these talented men possessed a conscience. The only comforting thought it that in the afterlife, Providence will decree justice. The man with the long record of violence against women, of which record the judge (wink, wink to the defense attorney he was buddies with) would not allow to be admitted, served 2 1/2 years for the murder of a bright and wonderful young woman is almost more than the reader can bear. Dunne brings you into this pain; perhaps as close as a stranger can come to feeling the maddening frustration that he and his family felt during this trial. How Dunne was able to do this, is beyond me, but he did it. Don't read the book if you cannot bear to be that close to pain.

It reminds me of the story of Bob Dylan, giving an interview in 1974, after many years of not talking to the press. The woman interviewing him starts off with, "I just want to say that I really enjoy your new album, Blood on the Tracks". Dylan says, "I can't understand anyone enjoying that much pain" and gets up and walks out.

I wanted to stop reading, quite often, but continued.

Reader: proceed with caution. It is not about race, as people of decency, no matter what race, will be terribly upset by what they read.

The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice

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If You Care About Justice, You Will Read This Book
Essential Reading!
Very logical and thought out!
Bill Kurtis has done it again
Analyzing the System

The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice
Bill Kurtis
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Legal System | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 158648446X

Book Description

Bill Kurtis, anchor of the popular true-crime TV series Cold Case Files and American Justice, used to support the death penalty. But after observing the machinations of the justice system for thirty years, he came to a stunning realization that there can be no real justice in America until it is abolished.

In Death Penalty on Trial, Kurtis revisits two harrowing murder scenes, studies the evidence, and explores the tactical decisions made before and during trial, which sent two innocent men to death row. Through these cases, we encounter the eight main reasons why the wrong people are condemned to death, and we see why new forensic science techniques could touch off a revolution of reform. Ultimately we come to a remarkable conclusion: The possibility for error in our justice system is simply too great to allow the death penalty to stand.

Customer Reviews:

If You Care About Justice, You Will Read This Book.......2007-04-29

I remember Bill Kurtis from when I was a teenager living in Chicago and watching him report the local news every night. I didn't know then that he had a law degree or a sharp-as-a-tack mind. Now I know both, and I'm thankful that he has put both to use in researching and writing this book.

The two case histories he profiles make for an engrossing read. They sound the alarm that something is definitely wrong in this country when it comes to our justice system.

This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the American justice system or the death penalty. The compelling case that Kurtis makes for abolishing the death penalty cannot be ignored.

Essential Reading!.......2005-12-27

Kurtis, an attorney and crime reporter, formerly supported the death penalty. However, Kurtis reports reversing his position upon learning of Illinois'Governor Ryan's decision to commute all the State's death sentences to life in prison after learning that 13 death row inmates had been subsequently found innocent. The book also summarized a nationwide study of 23 years of capital cases and found reversible errors in about 70%. (Similar findings from other studies were also briefly mentioned.)

Kurtis then provides details of how two death row inmates had been wrongly convicted. The first involved a fellow Phoenix-area resident - Ray Krone, found guilty in 1992 of murder on the basis of bite marks on the victim that supposedly matched Krone's teeth. Krone was sentenced to death. (There were no supporting fingerprints, and Krone had an alibi via a friend.)

Fortunately for Krone, a cousin who worked with dentists took interest in the case, and showed the bite-mark evidence to a forensic expert who immediately concluded that there was no match. Starting with an affidavit to that effect, the cousin then began efforts for a new trial, which was granted on the basis that the first trial's "bite-mark expert video" had been introduced too late for adequate defense review. In the subsequent retrial it was also brought out that the original prosecution bite-mark "expert" was actually a novice, and that his mentor had also concluded that Krone's teeth did not match. (This information had been kept from Krone's defense.) Nonetheless, Krone was again convicted, though this time the judge had doubts and sentenced him to life in prison.

Finally, after additional defense efforts, new DNA testing techniques were brought to bear on a previously untested piece of the victim's clothing. This time the results completely exonerated Krone, and identified the real killer (already in prison).

The "good news" is that Ray became the 100th person freed from death row since 1973; the "bad news" that he had spent about ten years in prison, and it required the strong efforts of relatives and about $120,000 from them for legal research.

Other common major problems cited in the book include inexperienced defense lawyers, prosecutors who lied or suppressed evidence, unreliable eyewitnesses, jailhouse informants trading "information" for leniency, and coerced confessions obtained by disreputable interrogation means.

The "bottom-line" for Kurtis is that our legal system is too unreliable for imposing the death penalty.

Very logical and thought out!.......2005-11-04

Whether or not you agree with the death penalty, this is a good book to check out. Kurtis gives eight solid reasons why one should be against the death penalty, and then uses two cases to back those reasons (he gives different examples on the video he has on the same subject for those who believe that only two examples are cursory).

Once a death penalty advocate himself, Kurtis changes his mind after Gov. George Ryan commutes the sentence of 164 men after DNA evidence exonerated 13 men (not 2 like the previous reader who couldn't stand it when people falsify info in book reviews said, haha). After hearing about these events, Kurtis looked deep into the judicial system to discover why so many men on death row were found innocent. The flaws he found are listed in the book.

A good read for someone who likes to strengthen their own ideas or find out what the opposition is saying. The language is easy to understand and interesting as opposed to technical. If this book doesn't make you at least think a little, you don't think! :)

Bill Kurtis has done it again.......2005-10-21

It's Bill Kurtis.....what else do I need to say?

Analyzing the System.......2005-07-28

I regularly tune into "American Justice" on A & E, so I was interested in reading this book by producer Bill Kurtis on the death penalty. Make no bones about it, Kurtis is adamantly against capital punishment. In this examination of two examples of wrongfully imprisoned men on death row, he shows why he feels so strongly about his conviction, rather than simply preaching his opinion.

The only annoying part of reading this was the narration. I'd be willing to gamble a week's wages that he dictated all of the content. It reads in the exact cadence that Kurtis speaks in: choppy sentences, and lots of colons. I could "hear" his distinct speech patterns, which is wonderful as a televised voice over, but a strange way to write in print.

That said, Kurtis' argument is solid and convincing. He carefully explains his own change of attitude regarding capital punishment; that the death penalty does nothing to deter killers, and that one person wrongly executed is one too many. Having America on the roster of countries who do implement this harsh form of punishment is not on par with the enlighted philosophy of liberty. Life in prison with no possibility of parole, especially a life in solitary confinement, is the most appropriate sentence for convicted murderers. Even if I didn't agree with the author, this examination of the American justice system is food for thought. The message comes through loud and clear, and I applaud Kurtis for tackling it.

Triple Jeopardy: A Story of Law at Its Best-And Worst

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Absolutely Brilliant ! Should Be Required Reading !

Triple Jeopardy: A Story of Law at Its Best-And Worst
Roger Parloff
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Legal System | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0316692611

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Brilliant ! Should Be Required Reading !.......1999-04-19

Roger Parloff's "Triple Jeopardy" should be required reading for any American interested in our system of justice. It should be included in the curriculum of all law schools. And any trial attorney who isn't familiar with this case is at a great disadvantage. By far, one of the best books on modern American criminal justice. And anyone who is still convinced, after reading the Knapp case, that the death penalty is justified, should just read this book once more ! Beautifully written. Brilliantly analyzed . A real treasure. Take a chance and read it. You will not regret it.

The Jury System (Crime, Justice, and Punishment)

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The Jury System (Crime, Justice, and Punishment)
Robert V. Wolf
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Law & Crime | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Civil Procedure | Procedures & Litigation | Law | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0791045994

The Bosnian People Charge Genocide: Proceedings at the International Court of Justice Concerning Bosnia V. Serbia on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

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Extract from ýBooks on Bosniaý, London 1999

The Bosnian People Charge Genocide: Proceedings at the International Court of Justice Concerning Bosnia V. Serbia on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Francis Anthony Boyle
Manufacturer: Creation Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

International Law | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

War | Specialties | Law | Subjects | Books

General | International Law | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1880831082

Customer Reviews:

Extract from ýBooks on Bosniaý, London 1999.......2000-02-25

An important documentary source-book, with full transcripts of the 1993 hearings which led to the International Court making a provisional court order demanding that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia `take all measures... to prevent commission of the crime of genocide' by forces it supported in Bosnia. Also containing important evidence of the negotiations over the Owen-Stoltenberg plan, which would have divided Bosnia into three quasi-states

A Capital Case in America: How Today's Justice System Handles Death Penalty Cases, From Crime Scene to Ultimate Execution of Sentence

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An uncritical look at capital penalty litigation

A Capital Case in America: How Today's Justice System Handles Death Penalty Cases, From Crime Scene to Ultimate Execution of Sentence
David Crump , and George Jacobs
Manufacturer: Carolina Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Criminal Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Case

ASIN: 0890897298

Book Description

Six capital murder indictments. Six defendants charged with horrifying crimes. Which ones, if any, should receive the death penalty? A Capital Case in America examines how Americans handle their most serious murder cases by telling the stories of six actual death penalty crimes and trials. It re-creates the six murders themselves, as well as the investigations, prosecutions, defenses, and aftermaths. A Capital Case in America will be fascinating reading for anyone interested in true crimes, and it also will be valuable to criminal justice professionals and students. It studies such investigative devices as searches, confessions, and lineups, as well as the adversary roles of the lawyers on both sides. The book considers the arguments for and against the death penalty against the background of the six cases. A final series of chapters tells what happened to each of the defendants, with parole eligibility dates for those who received life sentences and execution protocols for those who did not.

Customer Reviews:

An uncritical look at capital penalty litigation.......2001-03-13

I really am not sure of the audience at which this book is aimed. The style is rather that of an offering in the "true crime" genre but the price would suggest that it is not for the casual lay reader.

The authors cover from start to finish, in a very readable way, the nitty-gritty of six capital cases in Texas . Readers who are unfamiliar with these steps will find this a very easy to follow factual account that has plenty to sustain interest. The authors are well placed to do this as both are former assistant D.A.s and were involved in the six cases. David Crump is now Professor of Law at the University of Houston and George Jacobs has swapped roles and is now a criminal defense attorney.

However, this leads me to my main criticism of the book - its generally self-serving tone that the capital penalty system is operated by well trained and properly resourced legal professionals. The authors would have readers believe that in the struggle between competing teams of equals somehow truth is forged in the white heat of the furnace of justice. Would that it were!

If all a reader knew about the administration of capital cases was what they had read in this book, they would be sorely misled. I pass no comment on the quality of the opposition that the authors faced when they served on the prosecution teams in these cases. The defense lawyers concerned have nothing to complain about - they may have lost their cases but they get a good write up from the authors as opponents worthy of their mettle. However, the reality of capital penalty justice in Texas, especially once you get away from Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, is that many defendants will get a lawyer who is little better than useless and a shame to the name of the legal profession.

A review of Texas appellate decisions and a recent report by Houston's Texas Defenders Service reveals a pitiful catalog of bad representation by defense attorneys and "robust" interpretation of due process by the Texas courts. In their careers as assistant D.A.s the authors don't seem to have come across any of the wet-behind-the-ears lawyers, the drunken lawyers, the drug-addicted lawyers, the grossly incompetent lawyers, the Alzheimers-afflicted lawyers or the sleeping lawyers that are routinely corraled into representing the poor of Texas.

Again, the authors have nothing to say about judges who see no injustice in a case where the defense attorney routinely snoozed during a capital trial - or where a judge can sneer that the constitution guarantees you a lawyer but "not that he will be awake." Nothing is said about the lack of a public defender system in most of Texas and the opposition of the judges to attempts to remove their powers of patronage to appoint defense counsel - a power that all to often is exercised so as to deny defendants effective representation.

Customer Reviews:

loads of stuff to do!.......2000-01-04

This book contains so many activities to do, you will never run out of things to do with children as well as adults.

Book Description

Iceberg Risk exposes this crucial limitation through an engaging mixture of story charts, and math. Statistical concepts are developed intuitively first, and all algebra is cordoned off into neatly organized and digestible nuggets. The results will appeal to students of risk analysis and seasoned practitioners alike; indeed to anyone willing to question orthodox portfolio theory.

Customer Reviews:

Trouble Getting Through.......2006-03-10

I'm having some trouble getting through some of the proofs. I studied Chemical Engineering and Finance. If you can accept things this book is good. If you are the kind of person that needs to prove everything it will take a long time to read.

Good read, not priced well ;-).......2004-07-10

I really enjoyed this book. I don't believe that my review can add much value on top of the other reviews, but maybe I can entice a few of you to buy it.

I have read the book twice now, which I think is required (at minimum) to really absorb everything. I see that Aaron's review got 2 out of 5, and I am a bit perplexed, because his is succinct and accurate. Oh well, you can't win 'um all. One pro is that the book is written in an entertaining way. Half the chapters are a story with a lesson, and the other half is math. Together they read like some popular books that are out now, like Havil's "Gamma", or "Euler" by Dunham: it reads like a book, but with equations everywhere. It is the half way point between a publication and a novel. If you are a masters in finance or an MBA, with no real math background, this might be distracting and halting, but to a quant it should cut like butter.

My only complaint, and this might not be a complaint but, rather, an aversion to suspense, is that there are certain thoughts that aren't completed. As interesting as the read is, I feel like it is almost a cliffhanger; baiting for books to come? I don't think this was deliberate. Some thoughts, while they began with fireworks, just petered out.

Also, it is a bit expensive but, hey, most of us aren't paying for this and, at a minimum, writing it off ;-) (Sorry to any students out there, I owe you a drink)

A Fresh & Imaginative Approach to Risk Management.......2003-05-01

"Ignorance is Blight"... Devlin Advogado's scrawled message across his desk left me with an unsettled feeling, similar to the one I had a long time ago while reading Robert Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. Perhaps academic research will someday quote from Kent Osband's 'Iceberg Risk' (New York: Texere, 2002), much as Richard Roll, in his famous 1977 Critique of tests of the CAPM, quoted from Pirsig. Osband endeavors to help us avoid blight in this enlightening and entertaining story as we follow supersharp risk analyst Devlin and his pragmatic manager, Conway Wisdon, on a wild ride through the world of investment banking risk management.

But Iceberg Risk is more than a novel; indeed, it is really two books in one: each chapter covers the intuition of its subtopic first, through the clever device of Devlin and Conway's saga within Megabucks Investment Bank; and then delves more directly into the mathematics. Of the math, the reader is encouraged to explore "about as much or as little as you want", a feature I especially appreciated given my low-calorie mathematical diet. And, just as the novel part is an entertaining read, the quantitative part is a useful summary of the mechanics of portfolio management theory.

Part I of Iceberg Risk covers the statistics of probability, covariance and correlation, Pascal's triangles and Bernoulli variables, IID versus non-IID estimates of tail risk, Tchebyshev's inequality, the Kuhn-Tucker conditions for the solution to a Lagrangean optimization, mixtures of discrete and continuous probability measures, De Finetti's theorem, the problems with VaR and the ubiquitous (in finance) normality assumption, and even computer sex (read the book!). Osband gives us a quick introduction to matrix math (though it is even more sparse than the helpful section in Markowitz' 1959 book) before concluding the first half of the book with conditional multivariate normality.

Part II of Iceberg Risk offers a unique and thoughtful approach to overcoming the deficiencies of standard risk assumptions for portfolio management. In this part of the book Osband covers convex and nonconvex utility, regret aversion, choice theory, the appraisal ratio of Treynor-Black and even delves into the Bayesian approach to statistics. Partition functions are introduced as a method of combining conditional return distributions with multi-regime risk aversion. Without resorting to Monte Carlo simulation techniques, Osband proposes a numerical approach to generating risk estimates, since there is no closed-form equation available to solve the issue. He even shows how to account for options and other nonlinear payoff assets.

Osband's approach to risk management is fresh and appealing. It would be worthwhile reading for risk managers and portfolio managers. One aspect I liked very much about his writing style is that the characters represent very distinct human traits, much like those of another of my favorite authors, Ayn Rand. For example, we are introduced to the concept of regret aversion when Conway meets Regretta:

"He spun around to see a raven-haired woman dressed in black. She was beautiful, but with the saddest eyes Conway had ever seen. `Pardon me for eavesdropping,' she said, `But if Dr. Know-nothing can't help you, maybe I can.' `Go away, Misery Girl,' snapped Devlin. `We don't need you.' `Oh, I think you do,' she said... `Now here's what I think you need to do. First measure every outcome in terms of its gross percentage return... Second, square that return and take the negative inverse. Third, form the probability-weighted average of the various negative inverses. Fourth, pick the portfolio that generates the highest probability-weighted average. Am I being clear?' Devlin and Conway were blown away. `She does math,' mumbled Devlin to himself."

Osband makes the observation that "The mainstream seems less interested in managing risk than the appearance of risk." Readers of Osband's Iceberg Risk might just become a bit less mainstream for the reading.

A book for all seasons.......2002-11-04

Iceberg risk describes in clear terms the financial risk that is missed by standard techniques. It is essential reading for anyone in financial risk management, as well as anyone interested in the quantitative reason for extreme financial events. It is an entertaining novel that gives a realistic picture of how risk management works in real institutions, a rigorous and original work of mathematics and a solid textbook that builds results step-by-step from basic algebra. This triple nature makes the book suitable for everyone from mathphobes to serious quants.

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