Don't Fence Me In: Images of the West Review

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(More customer reviews)Being raised in the lifestyle of dusty cowcamps located in Owyhee County, Idaho. I can truly appreciate and so will you, the realism and pride that David Stocklein has taken in compling this magnificient book. Photography and short stories of cowboy tradition, so real, you too, will wish you were a part of this unique and exciting land. Ira Walker, Chuck Hall, Herb Mink, Tom Hall and many more cowboys, will tell of family stories, first jobs, unique talents, special dogs, horses, mules and the people, who have made their lives interesting and memorable. This corner of the west has produced many fine men, you will get to know a few of them on a first hand basis. Gather round the fireplace, pull up a cozy chair and a light, as you will be reading through the dark hours. Once you pick up, "Don't Fence Me", you'll not put it down until your finished. At the end of the book, Stocklein includes closing pictures of assorted ranch families and cowboy groups. A final tribute to those who have rode their way through history atop a horse, all the while viewing Gods Country.

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This collection evokes the feeling of the west throughimages and stories of this incredibly beautiful and rugged landscape,it's flora, horses, cattle and people.Through a decade of photographyspanning ten Western states, Stoecklein depicts the modern-day cowboy atwork and at play, at sunrise, and sunset, in all kinds of weather.

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Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide (Beginners Guide (Oneworld)) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're looking for a cut-and-dry approach to fair trade, this is not the book for you. I was looking for something that really got into the functional side of fair trade business relationships, and was disappointed to see the author took the typical, tired, aid-focused approach. I firmly believe that artisans and agriculturalists in developing countries have a lot to offer in trade, and if we approach relationships with a win-win mentality, progress and development will follow. The author seems to believe the developed world needs to engage in these relationships as a form of assistance - I disagree 100%. Until we start to recognize the TRUE VALUE of products and services from developing countries, we will be trapped in a cycle of aid and handouts.

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Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a collection of the most exciting work being done in sociocultural anthropology and the social sciences more broadly. The innovation of this ethnographic research is that the authors examine their topics through very technical analyses, finding the ethical dimensions, often through expert interlocutors. A key premise of Global Assemblages is that epistemology (how to know) and ethics (how to act) are inextricably linked, a stance most academic disciplines currently reject.
We find that what are often portrayed as merely academic or philosophical debates (debates on objectivity versus social constructivism or the value of anecdotal evidence versus quantitative evidence, for example) are actually problems that people outside academia such as accountants, bandits, Alan Greenspan (or any other head of the Federal Reserve is), and securities traders face and find solutions to, sometimes on a daily basis.
The essays that stand out to me as the most interesting and groundbreaking are the ones by Bill Maurer on accounting, Janet Roitman on banditry, and Caitlin Zaloom on futures trading.
If you are a student in sociocultural anthropology this book is a must. It is also valuable for people from other disciplines who want to be part of the most exciting shift in the social sciences. Perhaps the best introduction to contemporary anthropology and ethnography is Anthropology as Cultural Critique by George Marcus and Michael M. J. Fischer, which is more accessible to most audiences because it was written with undergraduates in mind. Global Assemblages on the other hand may require more careful reading. Other important recent texts have been written by Paul Rabinow, Anna Tsing, George Marcus, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, among others.

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Provides an exciting approach to some of the most contentious issues in discussions around globalization—bioscientific research, neoliberalism, governance—from the perspective of the "anthropological" problems they pose; in other words, in terms of their implications for how individual and collective life is subject to technological, political, and ethical reflection and intervention.
Offers a ground-breaking approach to central debates about globalization with chapters written by leading scholars from across the social sciences.
Examines a range of phenomena that articulate broad structural transformations: technoscience, circuits of exchange, systems of governance, and regimes of ethics or values.
Investigates these phenomena from the perspective of the "anthropological" problems they pose.
Covers a broad range of geographical areas: Africa, the Middle East, East and South Asia, North America, South America, and Europe.
Grapples with a number of empirical problems of popular and academic interest — from the organ trade, to accountancy, to pharmaceutical research, to neoliberal reform.

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Enron: The Rise and Fall Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a former Enron employee from the mid-1990s. I do not hold any bitter or bad feelings from my exeperience there and firmly believe that I have benefitted from the experience. I have also previously read and reviewed the Cruver book stating that there would be other books giving a better perspective of the issues. Loren Fox's Enron: The Rise and Fall is one of those books.
Like a good non-fiction business writer, Fox takes a global approach in helping the reader understand what happened at Enron. He immediately lays out the working thesis that the collapse of Enron was symptomatic of the corporate culture at Enron but also reflective of the business environment at-large throughout the eighties and nineties. Even with this viewpoint in mind, he too acknowledges that he lacks all the answers because many of the outcomes from Enron's collapse are still in flux (e.g. Will Fastow go to jail? Will Lay and Skilling get indicted) and the ultimate impacts on corporate America are unclear (e.g. Where is Sbarnes-Oxley taking us?).
To support his thesis, Fox presents a well-researched book presenting the key players in the evolution of the energy giant. He provides the background information on the deregulation of the natural gas industry that led to the formation of Enron. He anlayzed the dueling business strategies of ECT and EI run by Skilling and Mark. With Skilling winning the political infighting, the off-balance sheet shennanigans became more important to obtaining the capital needed to support his grandiose visions. That is where Fastow and Kopper come in. Relative to other journalists including Pulitzer Prize winner Rebecca Smith, Fox better understands and explains the nature of the off-balance sheet transactions (e.g. often a form of Islamic financing but also more complex structures) created by these two but always adding color to story with his inside look at the key personalities (e.g. Kaminski saying, "This is so terminally stupid only Fastow could come up with it.").
It is obvious that Fox has had access and discussions with some very senior managers at Enron in completing this project. Despite that, it still feels as if he has only gotten part of the story. Still I must commend him for the best effort to date.

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