Fight Choreography: The Art of Non-Verbal Dialog

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"Fight Choreography: The Art of Non-Verbal Dialogue" presents a brief history of the different styles of art in fight choreography, helping you understand its evolution and process. It also dissects the differences between the Western and Asian approach to a fight scene. The book is instructional, informative, and entertaining, and offers coverage of film history, fight choreography, story, filming, editing, sound effects, and cgi. It focuses on every important element involved in fight choreography from basic philosophies, initial concept, and planning, to filming, editing, and sound mixing the final product. "Fight Choreography" also includes insightful interviews with Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung (Dir. & FC: Eastern Condors), Yuen Woo Ping (FC for Kill Bill 1 & 2, plus the Matrix trilogy), Yuen Cheung Yan (FC: Charlie's Angels), Vic Armstrong (SC numerous James Bond films, Mission Impossible III), Jeff Imada (FC: Bourne Supremacy), Terry Leonard (SC Die Hard III, Romancing the Stone), Rena Owen (Actress: Once Were Warriors) and Cheng Pei Pei (Actress: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

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As immediate and relevant as today's headlines, this book sets forth a bold argument with direct implications for political life in America and around the world. Combining incisive cultural analysis and keen religious insight, Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence maintain that American crusading — so powerfully embodied in popular entertainments — has striking parallels with Islamic jihad and Israeli militancy.

According to Jewett and Lawrence, American civil religion has both a humane, constitutional tradition and a violent strand that is now coming to the fore. The crusade to rid the world of evil and "evildoers" derives from the same biblical tradition of zealous warfare and nationalism that spawns Islamic and Israeli radicalism. In America, where this tradition has been popularized by superheroic entertainments, the idea of zealous war is infused with a distinctive sense of mission that draws on secular and religious images. These crusading ideals are visible in such events as the settling of the western frontier, the World Wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and America's present war on terrorism.

In exploring the tradition of "zealous nationalism," which seeks to redeem the world by destroying enemies, the authors provide a fascinating access to the inner workings of the American psyche. They analyze the phenomenon of "zeal" — the term itself is the biblical and cultural counterpart of the Islamic concept of "jihad" — and address such consequential topics as the conspiracy theory of evil, the problem of stereotyping enemies, the mystique of violence, the obsession with victory, and the worship of national symbols such as flags.

This critical book, however, is also immensely constructive. As Jewett and Lawrence point out, the same biblical tradition that allows for crusading mentalities also contains a critique of zealous warfare and a profound vision of impartial justice. This tradition of "prophetic realism" derives from the humane side of the biblical heritage, and the authors trace its manifestations within the American experience, including its supreme embodiment in Abraham Lincoln. Isaiah's "swords into plowshares" image is carved on the walls of the United Nations building, thus standing at the center of a globally focused civil religion. Grasping this vision honored by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike includes recognizing the dangers of zealous violence, the illusions of current crusading, and the promise of peaceful coexistence under international law.

Instructive, relevant, and urgent, "Captain America and the Crusade against Evil" is sure to provoke much soul-searching and wide debate.

Customer Reviews:

An unwanted common ground?.......2007-04-07

This is a book with many important points to make. Other reviewers have done a fine job, so I'll point out just a few.

OK, here's the disclaimer first. I am not saying we should not fight terrorism, nor am I denying that "jihad" is a term usually used in reference with making the "world of war" submit to the "world of Islam". That said, I still find the central points of this book very much worth considering, since it seems our nation's foreign policy is in some ways mirroring the jihadist's foreign policy.

The book's cases in point? OBL and Bush both have these commonalities in terms of foreign policy. One, both see God as blessing their worldviews. Two, both have enemies in grip of the devil (Great Satan is us for OBL, Iran etc and the Axis of Evil is OBL, NK, Iran, Iraq and everyone who doesn't help us). Three, victory is measured by killing or converting the Other. Thus four: violence is a means to do this, and God blesses it as in some way redemptive.

With much of the Republican Party being a wing of the conservative, pro-Israeli Christian movement (no longer interested in "Reaganesque" small government), Captain America is revived from the dusty pages of the comics to fly again, this time for the cause of God- are we not the city on the hill?

These and other points raised in the book should cause us to pause for a moment, and question both our real motives for our policies and to really think about their affect upon the rest of the world. This doesn't excuse terrorism's evil reality, but it may help us be more thoughtful in our response to the underlying causes of "why they hate us" so much, instead of a muscular, steroidal reaction which is actually playing right into the hands of the Islamist revolutionaries' playbook with a "see, I told you so" response leading to 1000 more OBLs.

Book review.......2006-07-04

Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism; Book Review

Extrapolation

September 22, 2004

No. 3, Vol. 45; Pg. 320; ISSN: 0014-5483

Kapell, Matthew

As I sit writing this, American troops remain in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of those troops have recently been implicated in the possible torture of Iraqi citizens and the President is quite sure that the decision to invade these two countries was the correct one.

I believe that the President should read Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil very carefully. (Assuming he reads, that is.)

Jewett and Lawrence have brought together some of their most powerful arguments from the previous book, The Myth of the American Superhero (see my review in Extrapolation, 44, 2: 247-249), and an excellent knowledge regarding American foreign policy to produce a book that, though written before the current conflict, seems almost prescient. The authors undertake this project by examining American popular culture as part of an American civil religion that has as its central theme that only America can redeem the world.

Jewett and Lawrence see American civil religion in comic books, television shows, films video games, political discourse and a host of other mediums. Their thesis is, as they put it, "to explain why America, in the wake of September 11, seems so proudly resolute about repeating the errors of the Cold War" (5). To do this they trace the American conception of itself though the repeated use of biblical language and rhetoric, holy war, crusades (against Native Americans, Communists, terrorists, Iraqis, you name it) through all of American culture. Obviously, this is a large-scale task and one that can only be accomplished through a strong central thesis and theme holding the entire project together. They use as their central metaphor for this American cultural belief the character of Captain America. For the authors, Captain America represents the American hero who comes in as a lone fighter for the American way, destroying the "evil doers" because it is so obvious who they are: the non-Americans. Repeated references to films such as the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises as well as other sf films make this a useful book for Extrapolation readers. Jewett and Lawrence have presented a thesis useful not only for understanding how Americans think, but how the classic representation of the hero (especially obvious in sf) is problematic in that it is antithetical to small-d democratic ideals. Jewett and Lawrence find the stories in popular media that Americans enjoy are too often centered around "a cool and reluctant killer willing to forsake love and law to rescue a decent life for the community" whose democratic institutions are incapable of working well enough to save itself (31). And, of course, this model is present in a host of sf works, and it is worthwhile to reflexively think about that.

But to accomplish this feat they must go back to the early days of the English colonies, noting the specific sense of mission that those early settlers had, and how those beliefs shaped the way we think about ourselves as a nation today. From Cotton Mather to Timothy McVeigh, from the nineteenth century frontier ideology that effectively destroyed so many Native American cultures, to the current so-called "war on terror" for Jewett and Lawrence all find themselves with a similar cultural, rhetorical and narrative structure. This structure is specifically Biblical in nature, and was transplanted to these shores by the Puritans. For the Puritans violence would be "redemptive, it would convert the world" (250). This violent tendency with American culture weaves its way through the developing cultures on the continent from that time until today, providing an ideal cultural justification for the destruction of other cultures, other nations, other ways of life.

I happen to collect old history textbooks. One that I have from the middle of the 1920s has as its final chapter title, "America Enters the Great War to Make the World Safe for Democracy." That title might do more to explain what Jewett and Lawrence are attempting to understand and explain than would anything I could put into this review. Captain America is a wide-ranging book, as you would expect from the authors. They have been working with this topic in one form or another since the 1970s, and it shows: they have a clear, clean style, and obvious mastery of their topic, and the willingness to explain their thesis in a variety of ways. Thus, the conquering of the American West is as an important topic of the Cold War, the first Gulf War, and September 11th. Their backgrounds are complimentary for this work as well. Jewett is a religious scholar teaching in the American Studies program at the University of Heidelberg, Lawrence an Emeritus professor of Philosophy from Morningside College. Thus Jewett brings a wonderful knowledge of Biblical texts and their interpretation by Colonists and, after the revolution, by Americans. His interpretation of the eschatological beliefs of the Puritans brings much to the text. Lawrence wonderfully traces the effects of such beliefs through the culture--especially popular culture--and its effects of the American philosophy of itself over time.

But in the final analysis what Jewett and Lawrence are trying to do is not disable the paradigm of American heroism, but only to modify it. It is, they write, "not an alien vision, though it is vastly different from the one America has recently been following" (314). In the end Jewett and Lawrence do see a shining city on a hill, there is no question of that. But it is a shining city that demands no war to build. It is a city of peace, where all are welcome, where individuals and groups can work through problems without resorting to the removal of democratic conditions. It is a city in which I would very much enjoy living.

Interesting.......2005-10-15

These two author's earlier work "The Myth of the American Superhero" explored the presentation of Justice as needing a redeemer figure replete with an arsenal of `righteous' weaponary and how this image has affected the US idea of politics. This earlier book represents the `secular' aspects. In "Captain America and the Crusade against Evil" Jewett and Lawrence show how this mindset coupled with the US's puritan backdrop has made this monomyth into a national obsession bearing all the hallmarks of Civil Religion (Civil that is unless you disagree with it)!

When I first heard the thesis of this book in a presentation by one of the authors my thoughts were dismissive. While the hegemony of the US is something I abhor for the thesis to work the US must be full (en masse) of some incredibly stupid and gullible people. After reading the first installment this impression remained. However, in this book, particularly in their discussion of the various forms of zeal, a more nuanced and convincing portrayal is offered. Even where people clearly don't believe the hype US foreign policy is locked into a mindset that cannot accept any inference of inferiority without the collapse of the American Ideal.

As such I found this book generally convincing and therefore extremely depressive. If the world social forum is correct in its hope that `another world is possible' this book makes clear that this is only with a radical re-assessment of the US self-understanding.

Interesting thesis.......2004-01-07

The idea of this book is that comic book superheros are an ideal character in how America solves its foreign policy crisis. The authors want to show that America feels that it has a do it alone mentality to save the world much like comic books.
The authors do not say that comic books make policy, but that they reflect American thoughts regarding its place in the world.
Overall, the authors present their thesis and give adequate material to back up their ideas. However, it seems at times that the superhero motif gets stretched thin. This book is interesting if one wishes to see how popular culture reflects that ideas of government and religious ideologies.

Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism.(Book Review): An article from: Extrapolation

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Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism.(Book Review): An article from: Extrapolation
Matthew Kapell
Manufacturer: Extrapolation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Extrapolation, published by Extrapolation on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 1051 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: Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism.(Book Review)
Author: Matthew Kapell
Publication: Extrapolation (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Extrapolation
Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Page: 320(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Myths America Lives By.(Book Review): An article from: The Other Side

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Myths America Lives By.(Book Review): An article from: The Other Side
William O'Brien
Manufacturer: The Other Side
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This digital document is an article from The Other Side, published by The Other Side on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 475 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: Myths America Lives By.(Book Review)
Author: William O'Brien
Publication: The Other Side (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: The Other Side
Volume: 40 Issue: 1 Page: 39(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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Star-spangled salvation.(Book Review): An article from: Sojourners

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Star-spangled salvation.(Book Review): An article from: Sojourners
J.R. Burkholder
Manufacturer: Sojourners
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Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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This digital document is an article from Sojourners, published by Sojourners on February 1, 2004. The length of the article is 723 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: Star-spangled salvation.(Book Review)
Author: J.R. Burkholder
Publication: Sojourners (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2004
Publisher: Sojourners
Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Page: 44(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Heritage Recovered.......2001-12-01

I was expecting a pamphlet and I received a treasure. Particularly, I enjoyed the background on the dances, the clarity of expression in describing the steps, and the author herself. A surprising plus, all the Polish words and captions are given a pronunciation key, a terrific help for those of us who have lost our heritage language. I am honored to have a signed copy. Also available are two cassettes with the music for the dances, recorded by the author in her travels in Poland. This book is a treasure for dance teachers and everyone who believes that heritage should be preserved.

Comprehensive Reference of Polish Folk Dance & Music.......2000-03-22

A very comprehensive and thoroughly researched reference for Polish regional and national dances. Published in english it explores the origins and sources of dances through numerous musically notated examples which have original dialect lyrics plus translations. Dances are explored in their regional, historic and cultural context. A Tailored reference for choreographers, dance groups and musicians it can also be read to obtain an understanding of regional influences, movement and progression of traditional folk dance types within Poland. The text provides detailed instructions for dance formations and choreography with diagrams showing body stance and presentation for performance. The authors have produced a thorough reference with over a hundred examples that preserves a representative portion of this special heritage.

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A book that belongs in the hands of all emergency planners

well-built

Great Book...deserves an A+

After Almost 15 Years, Still Relevant and Invaluable

Fink's Crisis Management text is still the best available.

Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable
Steven Fink
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Binding: Paperback

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Public Crisis Management: How and Why Organizations Work Together to Solve Society's Most Threatening Problems

Crisis in Organizations II

ASIN: 0595090796

Book Description

Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable, the first book ever written on this topic, has helped thousands of companies around the world avoid the pitfalls of a crisis, or manage their way out of one. Its practical, hands-on advice and revealing behind-the-scenes case studies make it the leading book for Foutune 500 companies, small-to-medium businesses, colleges and universities, and even governments.

Customer Reviews:

A book that belongs in the hands of all emergency planners.......2007-01-03

This is a book that every professional working in crisis management or emergency planning should read and keep in their personal library. This recently re-released book is truly a crisis management standard.

well-built.......2003-05-12

Fink's "yellow book" is still one of the most comprehensive and well-built guide for crisis related subjects. Its systematic approach and case-analyze supported explanations provides readers to understand the issue well

Great Book...deserves an A+.......2003-02-08

This book covers the subject of Crisis Management with factual review and analysis. It gives practical examples of do's and don'ts while keeping the reader's attention. Anyone dealing with crises, even in their personal life, would do well to read this book. This one goes on my library shelf to keep!

After Almost 15 Years, Still Relevant and Invaluable.......2002-01-24

I read this book when it was first published more than 15 years ago and decided to re-read it recently as various corporate crises occur or continue. (Who knows what the latest Enron and Arthur Andersen developments will be by the time this review appears?) What sets this book apart from almost all others which discuss the same general subject is the fact that Fink's observations, insights, and recommendations are (if anything) more relevant in 2001 than ever before. How can this be true? My answer is that he correctly emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive and cohesive process which consists of four separate but related components: anticipation and preparation, rapid response, follow-through, and post-event evaluation. For obvious reasons, each is critically important but post-event evaluation has even greater importance (and value) if it guides and informs subsequent anticipation and preparation. In an ideal world, seamless anticipation and preparation will eliminate all crises. In reality, "the best laid plans" can almost instantaneously become irrelevant, if not counter-productive. Presumably, major airlines such as American and United as well as the City of New York (not to mention federal agencies) involved some exceptionally talented people to formulate a number of "What if?" scenaria. And then the events of September 11th occurred. The efforts to formulate such scenaria were not invalidated by those events; nonetheless, as in Hawaii almost 60 years ago, the challenge was for various corporate and governmental entities to respond immediately and effectively, as indeed they did. In time, as with the events which occurred on December 7th, the events which occurred last September will be evaluated even as preventive measures are taken and new scenaria are formulated, as indeed they should be.

Fink organizes his excellent material within 18 chapters which are arranged in a sequence appropriate to the aforementioned components. With meticulous care, he defines various terms (thus providing a nomenclature for crisis management which most readers probably did not have before) while establishing a context within which to illustrate and apply those terms. Of greater value, I think, is the matrix of different perspectives which Fink provides. This strategy reminds me of the way Henry James develops his major characters in various novels. That is, look at a given situation from every possible angle. This Fink does brilliantly as he explains how to measure the nature and extent of a given crisis, decide who must do what immediately, how to manage information (he devotes Chapters 13 and 14 to crisis communications), and how to make the most effective decisions under what are inevitably severe pressures ranging from shock and fear to grief and anger within compressed timeframes. He also includes what he calls "A Catastrophic Quartet" in Chapter 17: case studies of crises involving Ohio Savings and Loan, Union Carbide, Procter & Gamble (Rely Tampon), and Johnson & Johnson (Tylenol). Having reached this point in the book, Fink's reader is already well-prepared to recognize various dos and don'ts within the four case studies.

Who will derive the greatest value from this book? My response is decision-makers in organizations (regardless of size or nature) who realize or at least suspect the importance of having a crisis management program already in place, especially now. Noteworthy is the fact that the same observations, insights, and recommendations which Fink shares in this book are as relevant to "catastrophes" involving loss of intellectual property as they are to situations in which there is loss of human life and/or destruction of physical property. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Ian Mitroff's Managing Crises Before They Occur and The Essential Guide to Managing Corporate Crises (in that order) as well as Peter Schwartz's The Art of the Long View. The subtitle of this book stresses the importance of "planning for the inevitable." I could not agree more.

Fink's Crisis Management text is still the best available........2000-09-15

When I "suffered" my own Management Crisis back in 1994, I turned to my library collection to see if there was anything there to help me. I found Stephen Fink's "Crisis Management" and started to impliment his suggestions. What transpired, not only helped me deal with the immediate issue, but started a course of action that I still employ today.

Based on my own experience, and finding that others in my profession have felt lost in their crises, I started to give presentations, using Fink's text as my guide.

I encourage anyone who's in busisness, management, or in some decision making role in an organization, to get a copy for themselves, and pass it on to your colleageues. I also encourage libraries to add this to their collections.

As the subtitle suggests, Crises are inevitable, so why not "be prepared?"

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"Perhaps the string that is easiest to pull first...."

Nowhere does Schwartz say that the US is a rogue superpower

good ideas about the future

The future in parallel permutations

Packed with Knowledge!

Inevitable Surprises: Thinking Ahead in a Time of Turbulence
Peter Schwartz
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The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World

Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation

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Scenario Planning: The Link Between Future and Strategy

ASIN: 1592400272
Release Date: 2003-06-19

Book Description

One of America's foremost prognosticators and author of the bestseller and management classic The Art of the Long View discusses the big surprises ahead, the resulting scenarios that are creating the future of our world, and what they will mean for you and your business.

The world we live in today is more volatile than ever. At times it seems that the only constant we can rely on is change itself-and what the future will bring appears to be anybody's guess. But Peter Schwartz, one of the most visionary scenario planners of our time, believes the future is taking shape around us now, and that by taking a closer look at the changes in action today, we can predict what the world of tomorrow will be like.

With Inevitable Surprises, Schwartz offers a provocative look at the forces that are dramatically reshaping our world-and shows what we can do to plan ahead for our society, our businesses, and ourselves. Each chapter takes a predetermined new reality that we will soon face-including regenerative medicine, global climate change, an aging population in the West, and the rise of terrorism-and offers critical foresight for the coming decades. Ultimately, Schwartz brings his analyses of these developments together to offer three overarching scenarios that are possible directions for world history in the coming years, and outlines the implications for each.

Timely, thought-provoking, and endlessly fascinating, Peter Schwartz's Inevitable Surprises is a book no one in business-or anyone with an interest in the future-can afford to miss.

Customer Reviews:

"Perhaps the string that is easiest to pull first....".......2006-02-19

Previously, Schwartz wrote The Art of the Long View as well as The Long Boom (which he co-authored with Peter Leyden and Joel Hyatt) and When Good Companies Do Bad Things (which he co-authored with Blair Gibb). In this volume, he addresses many of the same issues as in his previous works. However, in my opinion, he examines them in much greater depth while addressing other issues suggested by questions such as these:

1. In an increasingly more turbulent environment, how to recognize and understand "the inevitable surprises that lie ahead of us, particularly in the next twenty-five years"? For example, how to know what is needed to be known and then obtain that knowledge?

2. Given those "inevitable surprises," which steps must be taken that would allow a company or organization to thrive? For example, how to overcome "two different types of natural [but fundamentally irresponsible] reaction": denial and defensiveness?

3. What to do when new complications reveal themselves? For example, how can an "early-warning system" identify them so that appropriate and effective responses can be made in a timely manner?

Schwartz's response to only one of these questions is worth far more than the cost of his book. As he explains in Chapter 1, "Underneath the specifics, between the lines on every page in this book, you will find a basic message about the future in general: The challenges facing civilization right now are immense -- arguably more difficult than they have been during the lifetime of any living person. At the same time, because of advances in knowledge and technology, the human race has never been so capable. And since most of our challenges are caused, at least partly, by our own activity, this expanded capability is a double-edged sword." In ways and to an extent which Schwartz carefully explains, these are (in Dickens' words) the best of times and the worst of times.

The material is carefully organized within nine chapters whose titles range from "Inevitable Surprises" to "Inevitable Strategies." Of special interest to me is what Schwartz has to say in Chapter 5, "The Thoroughly New World Order." Here is a representative portion of Schwartz's rigorous narrative: "In the words of Robert Kagan, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus. And then there is a third set of nations, increasingly chaotic and disorderly, in danger of being written off as marginal by the rest of the world. Their power, when they have it, is the power of terrorism. And if that is the only power available to them, they will use it more and more frequently." How prescient.

It is important to keep in mind when reading this book that Schwartz is not relying on a real or imagined crystal ball. He would be the first to insist that, at best, useful speculation identifies degrees of probability. This is especially true of efforts to reduce the number of what would otherwise be "inevitable surprises."

Here's a hypothetical example. (Mine, not Schwartz's.) Let's say that you learn that your next competitive environment will probably involve competition by teams. You cannot (as yet) identify the specific sport but you already know that, whatever it proves to be, members of the team must be in superb physical condition and possess certain qualities such as speed, agility, sufficient intelligence, hand-eye coordination, commitment to teamwork, etc. You should also know where to obtain, on short notice, the equipment needed. Also the correct sizes for various uniforms. Terms and conditions of appropriate behavior can be formulated. Nutrition can be controlled. You can also be alert for "signals" generated by your early-warning system. For example, at some point, you learn that the competition will be indoors. You then learn that height is irrelevant. That rules out basketball. You get the idea.

In all of three of his books that I have read, Schwartz helps his reader to (a) identify relevant probabilities, (b) ask the most important questions bount each, (c) know how and where to obtain the information needed, (d) complete contingency preparations, and (e) modify plans as new information becomes available.

Over the past 50 years, there have been so many examples of this in the business world. They include the pressurized cabin which was essential to airline travel and the rapid adoption of facsimile machines which substantially reduced the volume of overnight delivery of 1-5 page documentsas well as the Internet and WWW which enabled those online to communicate with others online (anywhere and any time), obtain information and complete commercial transactions almost instantaneously. As Schwartz explains so well, once relevant probabilities and heir implications have been identified, better decisions can be made and more effective actions can be taken.

Schwartz is generally optimistic that those who share the "thoroughly new world order" can overcome the chaos and turbulence to come if (a huge "if") they build and then maintain sensory and intelligence systems; cultivate a sense of timing; put in place mechanisms to engender what Joseph Stumper once characterized as "creative destruction"; avoid denial of the chaos and turbulence; "think like a commodity company" (see page 232); remain aware of the competence of judgment and the level of judgment that new situations require, then move deliberately and humbly into new situations that stretch that judgment; place a very, very high premium on learning, on environmental and ecological sustainability, and on financial infrastructure; and finally, cultivate "deep, candid" connections.

Schwartz does not assert that these values and strategies will guarantee the total elimination of all of the problems we have now nor the prevention of others in years to come. However, he has convinced me that these values and strategies can -- and will -- improve the prospects for human survival. I agree with him that "There is no recipe or playbook for doing this. There is only the ongoing knot of life to unravel. Perhaps the string that is easiest to pull first is the string in inevitable surprises."

Nowhere does Schwartz say that the US is a rogue superpower.......2005-06-02

David Taylor got it all wrong. Being European, I actually felt a little pro-American bias about the book...but not much. Nowhere did Schwartz say that the US is a rogue superpower. What he says is that there is a "growing distaste" of the US as a "rogue superpower", and this is a fact and not a biased opinion. It is not even an opinion at all.

good ideas about the future.......2005-03-31

If you think the future is predictable, read this book. The author seems rather pessimistic about the future, especially considering his earlier book, The Long Boom.

The future in parallel permutations.......2004-12-24

I got this book, Inevitable Surprises, written by Peter Schwartz, because the one that I was looking for (the Art of the Long View) was not available at that time. The author's works have been recommended to me by a close friend of mine, so I made little hesitation before picking this one up.

He wrote about different aspects of the global society, and predicting trends (trends, not events. He's not psychic) for the following 30 years from 2003. Many of these trends have already happened, or happened long before, despite many obvious major events that happened shortly before the time of its publication.

Although a good portion of his "scenarios" are not so upbeat, (e.g., the rest of the world pulling the plug on Africa, and new radical groups, new diseases) they are already taking place. I personally will not deem his book pessimatic, but realistic. They are simply results of human nature, and its interactions between one another, nothing more.

Even though he had a technical background (aeronautic engineering), his discussion on technogical advances a little too optimistic. Being (or was until recently) an engineer by trade, I still think that, as promising are new technologies may be, such as quantum computing and space travel, it would take more than 30 years before such technologies become prominent.

There is still a pretty subtle indication, that Schwartz may not fare well with the Arab nations. Some of his comments, albeit still very neutral and professional, tilts slightly to the negative whenever he touches this particular subject. The reasons are likely his own, and I will not speculate any further.

This is a good book to pick up, if you are looking for the driving forces of the present and near future, and would like to know how they interact, which is the basis of scenario planning, a subject of his "claim-to-fame" book, the Art of the Long View. After reading both books, I tend to think "Long View" as the book on concepts (in scenario planning) and Inevitasble surprises as the one of its machinery. Both works should be read simultaneously.

P.S. - Regarding the "technical error" made by a certain reviewer, METHANE IS A FUEL, and it is often referred to as NATURAL GAS, which is about 94% methane by mass. I can go for miles, but it will be quite off topic.

Packed with Knowledge!.......2004-08-04

Change is no news. The great changes that will alter the commercial, political and demographic workings of the world are already underway and some of their consequences are quite predictable, says author Peter Schwartz. He outlines a variety of the more important changes, particularly in places such as China and India, and limns scenarios that represent possible futures. Perhaps this sort of book is inevitable at the turning of a century, of a millennium. The author, in fact, compares his work to predecessors at the end of the nineteenth century. Although some of his predictions fall far short of shocking - for example, global warming and aging populations are hardly undiscovered issues - the exercise of thinking about scenarios and preparing strategies is a good one. The book is also entertaining, because Schwartz writes with a light hand and a casual style. We believe this book would be a good airplane read. It would certainly be appropriate for a long flight, since air travel contributes to some of the more important changes the author discusses. And, if you read it, the time will fly.

Crisis Management : Planning for the Inevitable

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Crisis Management : Planning for the Inevitable
Steven Fink
Manufacturer: amacom
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HN9VDM

A blueprint for crisis management: understanding what it takes to weather the inevitable storm.(Board Primer): An article from: Association Management

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A blueprint for crisis management: understanding what it takes to weather the inevitable storm.(Board Primer): An article from: Association Management
Thomas A. Gorski
Manufacturer: American Society of Association Executives
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Association Management, published by American Society of Association Executives on January 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1073 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.

From the supplier: Every association will eventually be faced with a crisis and a well-prepared crisis management plan may often make the difference between success and failure. Chief elected officers should know how to prepare a crisis management plan regardless of the emergency. Some tips on developing a plan for crisis management are presented. These pointers focus on three components: identifying possible crises, establishing a spokesperson and crisis team, and developing the action plan.

Citation Details
Title: A blueprint for crisis management: understanding what it takes to weather the inevitable storm.(Board Primer)
Author: Thomas A. Gorski
Publication: Association Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1998
Publisher: American Society of Association Executives
Volume: v50 Issue: n1 Page: p78(2)

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