Conceived in the Gilded Age, the Ferry Building opened in 1898 as San Francisco’s portal to the world—the terminus of the transcontinental railway and a showcase of civic ambition. In silent films and World’s Fair postcards, nothing said “San Francisco” more than its soaring clocktower. But as acclaimed architectural critic John King recounts, the rise of cars and double-deck roads severed the city from its beloved structure. King’s narrative spans the rise and fall and rebirth of the Ferry Building, introducing colourful figures who fought to preserve its character (and the city’s soul)—from architect Arthur Page Brown and legendary columnist Herb Caen to poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Senator Dianne Feinstein. A microcosm of the changing American waterfront, the saga of the Ferry Building explores the tensions of tourism and development—and the threat that sea level rise poses to a landmark that in the twenty-first century remains as vital as ever.

'The most approachable and exhilarating Latin American writer of our times.' Robert McCrum, Observer In the past, culture was a kind of vital consciousness that constantly rejuvenated and revivified everyday reality. Now it is largely a mechanism of distraction and entertainment. From one of the world's great literary intelligences, Notes on the Death of Culture is an examination and indictment of this transformation - an impassioned and essential critique of our time, with essays on the disappearance of eroticism, on culture politics and power, and the frivolity and banality of entertainment in Western culture.

Clay Shooting For Beginners and Enthusiasts A full colour very high quality hardback which has been a consistent top seller since its publication September 2009. It has always ranked in the Google top 3 clay shooting books and regularly ranks No.1.It has received 5 star reviews only; at Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Waterstones on line and WH Smith

“Tribal Leadership gives amazingly insightful perspective on how people interact and succeed. I learned about myself and learned lessons I will carry with me and reflect on for the rest of my life.” —John W. Fanning, Founding Chairman and CEO napster Inc.

“An unusually nuanced view of high-performance cultures.” —Inc.

Within each corporation are anywhere from a few to hundreds of separate tribes. In Tribal Leadership, Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright demonstrate how these tribes develop—and show you how to assess them and lead them to maximize productivity and growth. A business management book like no other, Tribal Leadership is an essential tool to help managers and business leaders take better control of their organizations by utilizing the unique characteristics of the tribes that exist within.

B-movie ghost story starring Hazel Court and Dermot Walsh as a young couple who decide to buy a luxury steamboat for a romantic getaway. They think that they've found the perfect boat, and scoff at warnings that it's haunted. However, despite their initial incredulity they are gradually convinced that there is something strange going on in their new love-nest, and they decide to bring in a paranormal expert, Professor Mansel Martineau (John Robinson) to investigate. A horrifying secret about the boat's previous owners is eventually revealed...

One of the major novelists in world literature over the last five decades, Mario Vargas Llosa (b. 1936) is also one of Latin America's most engaging public intellectuals, a critic of art and culture, and a playwright of distinction. This Companion's chapters chart the development of Vargas Llosa's writings from his rise to prominence in the early 1960s to the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. The volume traces the development of his literary trajectory and the ways in which he has re-invented himself as a writer. His vast output of narrative fiction is the main focus, but the connections between his concerns as a creative writer and his rich career as a cultural and political figure are also teased out in this engaging, informative book.

Reflecting the variety of modern Spanish literature, these stories range from the sharp insights of Gabriel García Marquez's "María dos Prazeres" to Isabel Allende's powerful evocation of the oral traditions of the Amerindian "Walimai," the deceptive simplicity of Javier Marías's "On the Honeymoon," and the philosophical speculation of Laura Freixas's "Absurd Ending."

America s top China watcher, the renowned "pandit" of modern Chinese history, here provides an unrivaled overview of revolutionary China and Chinese American relations. His reviews and critical commentary scrutinize our always fascinated, often puzzled attitude toward this newly emergent superpower.

John Fairbank distinguishes two major motifs in recent Chinese American connections: the American expectation of highly profitable trade and investment, which so far have not materialized, and the deep rooted missionary impulse to give the Chinese the best of our culture, which includes our efforts to promote human rights. The possibility of grafting our ideas of individual endeavor and God given prerogatives onto two thousand years of Confucianism with its emphasis on duty and collective harmony seems remote. In contrast, the outlook for mutually enriching economic dealings is much brighter. Yet Fairbank cautions that we are dealing with a huge and disoriented nation struggling to enter the modern world with its own cultural identity intact, and (at least in the current period) with its Communist Party in power. Confucian tenets still prevail: theory and practice are a unity policies are a form of conduct manifesting one s character, and attacks on policy equal attacks on the ruling party.

These writings concern China in the mind s eye of America as it is interpreted though the works of American merchants, diplomats, missionaries, and reporters observing China s travail of revolution. For generalist, scholar, and sage alike, "China Watch" offers many insights.

From their ability to use energy from sunlight to make their own food, to combating attacks from diseases and predators, plants have evolved an amazing range of life-sustaining strategies. Written with the non-specialist in mind, John King's lively natural history explains how plants function, from how they gain energy and nutrition to how they grow, develop and ultimately die. New to this edition is a section devoted to plants and the environment, exploring how problems created by human activities, such as global warming, pollution of land, water and air, and increasing ocean acidity, are impacting on the lives of plants. King's narrative provides a simple, highly readable introduction, with boxes in each chapter offering additional or more advanced material for readers seeking more detail. He concludes that despite the challenges posed by growing environmental perils, plants will continue to dominate our planet.

This book tells the story of Sur, Argentina's foremost literary and cultural journal of the twentieth century. Victoria Ocampo (its founder and lifelong editor) and Jorge Luis Borges (a regular and influential contributor) feature prominently in the story, while the contributions of other major writers (including Eduardo Mallea, William Faulkner, Andre Breton, Virginia Woolf, Alfonso Reyes, Octavio Paz, Waldo Frank, Aldous Huxley and Graham Greene) are discussed. Politically speaking, Sur represented a certain brand of liberalism, a resistance to populism and mass culture, and an attachment to elitist values which offended against the more dominant phases of Argentine thought, from Peronism to the varied forms of nationalism, socialism and Marxism. Dr King examines the journal's roots, its development and its demise, relating it to other journals circulating at the time, and highlighting vital issues debated in its pages, such as Argentine attitudes towards fascism during the Second World War.

Fourteenth Century England has quickly established for itself a deserved reputation for its scope and scholarship and for admirably filling a gap in the publication of medieval studies. HISTORY Drawing on a diverse range of documentary, literary and material evidence, the contributors to this volume examine several inter-related topics on political, social and cultural matters in late medieval England. Aspects of both arms production and armigerous society are explored, from the emergence of royal armourers in the early fourteenth century to the social implications of later armour and armorial bearings. Another major focus is the church and religion more broadly. The nature and significance of the ceremonial entry, the adventus, of bishops is explored, as well as the legal impact of provisions in shaping church-state relations in mid-century. Religious constructsof women are considered in a comparative analysis of orthodox and Lollard texts. Finally, a group of papers looks at aspects of politics at the centre, with an examination of the queenship of Isabella of France and the issue of the Mortimer inheritance in the early years of Richard II. J.S. Hamilton is Professor and Chair, Department of History, Baylor University. Contributors: Beth Allison Barr, Philip Caudrey, Katherine Harvey, Mark King, Malcolm Mercer, Shelagh Mitchell, Lisa Benz St John, Charlotte Whatley

Specially-commissioned essays analyze Latin American history, politics, art and literature from the nineteenth century to the present and reveal the common heritage of pre-Columbian and colonial Latin America. Although the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking states created in the early 1820s differed greatly geographically and demographically (in ethnic composition and economic resources), they also shared distinct historical and cultural traits. A chronology and guide to further reading make this volume an invaluable introduction to the rich and varied culture of modern Latin America.

For more than a century missionaries were the main contact points between the Chinese and American peoples. Often frustrated in saving Chinese souls, they nevertheless founded hospitals and colleges, and meanwhile on the American scene they helped form the image of China.

This volume offers views of missionary roles in the United States and in China. Early American Protestant missions moved on from the Near East to the Far East. The second great surge of American missionary expansion in the 1880s was signaled by the formation of more business-like mission boards, by the Student Volunteer Movement to recruit liberal arts college graduates for evangelism abroad, and by the Layman's Movement to back them up. During the same period in China, missionary journalism was reaching a new Chinese-Christian community, and missionary educational and medical work was building modern institutions of social value for Chinese communities. A few "Christian reformers" emerged in China's treaty ports, and by the end of the century there was a missionary contribution to the reform movement in general.

By the 1920s missionary and Chinese Christian educators were collaborating in Christian colleges like Yenching University, only to meet eventual disaster as the Nationalist revolution and Japan's invasion precipitated the great Chinese Communist-led revolution of the 1940s and after. American missions contributed fundamentally both to the revolutionary changes in China and to the American public response to them, although their impact on American policy s less clear.

Fourteen contributors studying both sides of the missionary effort, in China and in America, present case studies that suggest conclusions and themes for research.

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John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. It remains a masterwork without parallel. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date, covering reforms in the post-Mao period through the early years of the twenty-first century, including the leadership of Hu Jintao. She also provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come.

This book examines the social, political, and cultural factors that have and continue to influence the evolution of the urban waterfront as seen through production created from art and design practices. Reaching beyond the disciplines of architecture and urban design, Occupation:Boundary distills the dual roles art and culture have played in relation to the urban waterfront, as mediums that have recorded and instigated change at the threshold between the city and the sea. At the moment in time that demands innovative approaches to the transformation of urban waterfronts, and strategies to foster resilient boundaries, architect Cathy Simon recounts her career building at and around the water's edge and in service of the public realm. In so doing, the work of contemporary architects is presented, while the origins and principles of a guiding design philosophy are located in meditations on art and observations on coastal cities around the world. The port cities of New York and San Francisco emerge as case studies that structure the reflections and mediate a narrative that is at once a professional and personal memoir, richly illustrated with images and drawings. Comprising three parts, the first two corresponding parts of Occupation:Boundary draw connections between the past and present by tracing the rise and fall of urban, industrial ports and providing context-in the forms of textual and visual media-for their recent transformations. Such reinterpretations, achieved via design, often serve the public through environmentally conscious strategies realized through inventive approaches to cultural and recreational programs. The work of visual artists, both historical and contemporary, appears alongside architecture, poetry, and literary references that illustrate and draw connections between each of these sections. The third section features select architectural work by the author, framed by critic John King and the architect and urbanist Justine Shapiro-Kline. Introduced with a foreword by the prominent landscape architect Laurie Olin, Occupation:Boundary draws on artistic and cultural intuitions and the experience of an architect whose practice negotiates the boundary between urban contexts and the bodies of water that sustain them. Together, the instincts, reflections, and architectural production collected here evidence the role of art and design in the creation of an equitable and inviting public realm.