Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

More on Japan from the Dean of gaijin writers
This book attacks a fairly narrow question, "Why does a society with such a reputation for conformity chase such outlandish fads?"Donald Richie, a long timer writer on Japanese culture, tackles this in a series of essays on pachinko, the culture of cute, sex culture and even Japanese who try to look foreign.

In the essays, he proposes explanations for these contradictions in behavior.Perhaps dressing in the outlandish fad of the month is part of a uniform for being in a group that dresses that way - membership created as such.The mobile phone craze (replacing Manga, another fad) is interpreted as an exercize in proving one's group belonging.In doing so, he also suggests that perhaps some of these beliefs about conformity are not to distinct to Japanese.Perhaps their uniqueness is in fessing up to a more universal tribalism.

Very interesting reading for both those interested in contemporary Japan, as well as people interested in the nature of belonging.

This makes a fun subject boring, tedius and scholarly
This book makes a fun subject boring, tedius and scholarly. I would only buy this book if you have to write a paper on the subject. I bought it for fun reading because I love cosplay, manga, anime, Japanese pop culture and Japanese fashion. However, this book is filled with complicated, esoteric language meant to alienate the average reader. I don't know who the author thought he was writing for, but it was definitely not for young people who would be intersted in this stuff. It sounds like he was writing it for college literature professors. He really makes it boring! If you want to read a fascinating book about the seedier side of Japanese culture, like about the sex trade, geisha and hostess bars, read Butterflies of Night ISBN: 059532603X. If you want to just see hilariously outrageous photographs of Japanese fashion, buy Fruits by Shoichi Aoki ISBN: 0714840831.

An up to date book of a changing landscape
This is an up-to-date book. In a country where fads and fashions change rapidly this book serves as a postcard of the now. The author's writing is articulate and indicates a wide array of research and reading going into the material presented here. He has a good knowledge of the Japanese words used, and their lexigraphic meaning. He has been to the places he talks about and spoken to the people involved.

He covers fads and fashions such as kawaii (cute), manga (comics), pachinko (vertical pinball as gambling) and kosupure (costume play). He also doesn't shirk away from the sex industry and porn, an major cultural asset in Japan. The use of mobile phones and faux theme parks. From fashion shops in Shinjuku and Harajuku to the seedy parts of Tokyo.

Maybe the only thing missing I feel is a discussion on the different aspects of Japanese drinking. Alcohol is an important part of Japanese culture, as are hostess bars. But that is mostly an avenue of the salaryman, where as this book deals more with the younger generations.

Think of this beek as a modern version of Alex Kerr's Lost Japan.

The book also contains 48 colour photos which help to highlight and detail the topic material. ... Read more

Book Description
Fads by nature and by definition are hard to capture, yet Hoffmann and Bailey have captured over one hundred of the passing fashion fancies and merchandising miracles during America?s short history in their latest collection of fads, Fashion & Merchandising Fads.

Life devoid of fads is impossible to imagine, and the fads that do enter our lives become vehicles for amusement upon retrospection. How long any fad stays in vogue is anybody?s guess, but Hoffmann and Bailey have again found those fads that somehow took root and flourished, if only for a short period of time, in America. Concise entries describe each fad from its beginning to its demise and its devout followers. Readers are sure to recognize many of the trends and fads collected in Fashion & Merchandising Fads.

A browse through the contents will have readers smiling as they remember

• Alex, Stroh?s Beer-Drinking Dog and “Baby On Board” Stickers
• Barbie Dolls and Celebrity Perfumes
• Convertibles, Digital Watches, and Drive-In Banking
• Garfield, G. I. Joe, and Handbags for Men
• Knickers and Matchbox Cars
• The Model T and the Mustang
• Paper Dolls and Rubik?s Cube
• Silly Putty, the Slinky, and Synthetics in Clothes
• Top Hats, the Trilby, and Twiggy
• VCRs, Yuppies, and Zubaz
  
  Each fad featured in Fashion & Merchandising Fads is examined thoroughly and concisely by the authors. They look at the historical setting, how the trend became popular, and the people most fascinated and involved with the trend. References follow each entry to make further reading on each fad a relatively easy task for those intrigued by fads. As fads enter and encompass society for a period of time, this collection of fads, arranged alphabetically, is sure to captivate readers from beginning to end, or, in a world of fads, from the A-2 Flight Jacket to the Zipper.

Customer Reviews (1)

Concise descriptions of a variety of American fads
Hoffman and Bailey have compiled a couple hundred brief descriptions of fads from the United States.The focus is on fads from the last 50 years.There isn't any analysis of what fads really are, or what makes themhappen, but it's interesting reading.It's enjoyable for anyone interestedin fads, but I particularly recommend it for younger readers. ... Read more

Book Description
ALSO AVAILABLEINSTRUCTOR SUPPLEMENTS CALL CUSTOMER SUPPORT TO ORDER Instructor's Guide, 0-8273-5059-7 Testbank, 0-8273-5399-5 ... Read more

Product Description
Articles include 1938 Halloween Martians scare, party invitation from 1911, rare truck discovered in a barn, writer for The Shadow - 40's radio program, Ernie Pyle - WWII correspondent, fashion fads (Hopalong Cassidy), 1938 hurricane, plus much more. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, published by Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) on December 22, 2004. The length of the article is 8823 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: Fad, fashion, and the weak role of theory and research in information technology in education.
Author: Cleborne Maddux
Publication: Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2004
Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
Volume: 12Issue: 4Page: 511(23)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Banking and Finance, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Forward rates of European currencies against the private and official ECU exhibit a bias similar to the one found in other data: the Cumby-Obstfeld-Fama (COF) regression coefficients are systematically below unity, and two thirds of them are negative. We use the discount of the private ECU relative to the official ECU as a measure of market scepticism or mistrust. In one view, this sentiment is based on peso risk: fears of realignments, and possibly also the risk of a meltdown of the private ECU relative to the official one. Alternatively, the discount just reflects fads and fashions. Dichotomizing the data on the basis of the size of the discount in the private ECU, we find that the COF beta strongly depends on the degree of mistrust and that the negative COF coefficients are generated by typically less than 20% of the data. But the pattern fits the fads and fashion view better than the peso theory. If the sentiment factor contains a conventional risk premium at all, then this risk premium is definitely not the one predicted by Bansal [Bansal, R., 1997. An exploration of the forward premium puzzle in currency markets. Review of Financial Studies 10, 369-403]. Nor is the sentiment factor proxying for Huisman et al.'s [Huisman, R., Koedijk, K., Kool, C., Nissen, F., 1998. Extreme support for uncovered interest parity. Journal of International Money and Finance 17, 211-228] transaction-cost effects. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on May 1, 1998. The length of the article is 473 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: There has been a sharp increase in the number of Americans who exercise regularly from 1987 to 1996. The growth has been fueled by the older generation's interest in maintaining their physical well-being and vigor. Women also made up a huge chunk of the physical fitness enthusiasts.

Citation Details
Title: Tracking fitness: from fashion fad to health trend.
Author: Dan Johnson
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 1998
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v32Issue: n4Page: p8(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A welcome and thorough addition to culinary and cultural history shelves.
Agriculture historian Joan Thirsk presents Food in Early Modern England: Phases, Fads, Fashions 1500-1760, a close scrutiny at the dietary and culinary practices of ordinary people of England five hundred years ago, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. Chapters explore how people of the era talked about the food, what caused changes in eating habits, past food fads and fashions, and how attitudes toward food mirrored cultural changes. Delving deep into printed primary sources for information, Food in Early Modern England discusses how war heightened the importance of the renewed search for food in times of war, how patterns of commerce as well as regional and social patterns affected diets, the role of different specific staples such as bread, meat from farm animals and rabbits, dairy foods, vegetables and herbs, and much more. "Mustard is said to have been used before pepper was imported, and since it thrives to this day, it can be said to have one of the longest recorded histories of any flavouring in England." A welcome and thorough addition to culinary and cultural history shelves. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Great Resource - A must for any parent or professional
Finally, a book that takes an objective view on the current "quick fix" and "miracle" treatments that are seen in developmental disabilities, specifically in autism.

A Must Read for All Behavior Analysts
Controversial Therapies exposes the ugly, inconvenient truth about sensory integration, auditory integration training, facilitated communication, positive behavior support, and a host of other fads and bogus treatments. Jacobson, Foxx, and Mulick have complied a set of chapters, and written many themselves, that provides all the ammunition that anyone needs to shoot down these wasteful and chronic malignancies that pervade the field of developmental disabilities and especially autism.

I use this text in my ethics course along with Ethics for Behavior Analysts (Bailey & Burch) and find that the combination makes for a great foundation for logical and responsible thinking about important treatment issues in our field.

Jon Bailey
co-author "How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst"

Editor's remarks
Some notes about the book:

Each of the Editors wrote one or more of the chapters, some were the result of collaboration among the three of us.

Many chapters are both informative and humerous.

One chapter updates the critique of of facilitated communication.

One chapter provides a critique of Positive Behavior Support.

There are several critiques of education and special education.

Many chapters refer to the same fad or pseudo-treatments to illustrate different points, so different perspectives are the result.

I'm using the book in a graduate seminar at Ohio State University, and it seems to be interesting to the students as they work on identifying and studying new fad and unverfied treatments for various developmental disabilities that continue to emerge to tap into the love and frustration of parents of children with disabilities.

Essential Reading
Autism and other disorders on the Autistic Spectrum are among the most serious of behavioral diagnoses.As such, the ASD's should be the focus of our most intensive, science-based efforts to find ways to address the difficulties we associate with the diagnoses (see www.asatonline.org).Instead, treatment has been a history of fad, with charlatans or the uninformed pushing useless and potentially dangerous "treatments."This book will inform you of the history, as well as current trends.Most importantly, it will show you how to avoid the common non-science based traps.The field's friend, Dr. John Jacobson, recently died.This book is a fitting final contribution. ... Read more

Book Description
This book takes an in-depth look at management fads and fashions to show that many do not stand up to scrutiny. It is believed, for example, that coaching is successful. What is the evidence for this? It is also believed that selection procedures at interviews result in the right candidate being selected. Again, what is the evidence? The author shows that although many fads and fashions in management are short-lived and based upon flimsy evidence, they still enjoy a period of support and popularity. His book will be an important tool for managers who want to understand the substance and rigor, or lack thereof, associated with modern management ideas and concepts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Unfortunately, a missed opportunity
Ever since reading "Hard Facts,.." by Pfeffer and Sutton, I've become a believer of 'evidence based management' (EBM) and always looking for more information/books on this topic. This book by Adrian Furnham was recommended by Pfeffer and Sutton, and so I bought it in eager anticipation.

The introduction offers excellent information on the fads and fallacies of management, including the need for evidence based management (EBM).

The rest of the book, unfortunately, just doesn't cut it from an EBM perspective. Many significant management topics are discussed, Furnham gives his opinion but doesn't give the reader any evidence to back-up his opinion on the subject(i.e. proper references to relevant research). Where's the verifiable evidence?

So, the book discusses the right topics, but the evidence is lacking.
In my mind, a missed opportunity. It could have been so much better.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fascinating font of factoids
Seven years ago, my wife and I thought we were going to be clever and original if we named our daughter "Hannah".We didn't know any Hannahs in our generation.But now it seems every other family had a "Hannah" in the 1990s.After reading Lieberson's book, I understand that we got swept up in one of the many waves of name-fashions that he so ably chronicles.

This is an entertaining book, remarkably so considering the author's intention which was to write a serious work of academic deep-think.So there's a great deal of sociologist talk, which is decidedly not entertaining.But, just as the cartoons redeem even the worst issues of the _New Yorker_ , this book is worth getting just for the many statistical charts. You can follow the spectacular career of "Jennifer", the ups and downs of Biblical names, learn about names and social class, and so on.

Finally, I recommend this book to economists who are interested in fads and herd behavior.

What's in a name?Lieberson knows!
Lieberson has written a scholarly, witty, and extremely informative book about the factors influencing parents' choices of first names for their children.Using data from 7 countries plus the states of Illinois and California, he shows that "fashion" affects children's names just as much as it does choices in clothing or music.Names became objects of fashion several centuries ago in the West, when, among other influences, state regulations and religious customs loosened their hold over what names parents could choose.With the changes concomitant upon nations entering the modern era, name choices subsequently became more matters of individual preference rather than custom and tradition.However, parents made their choices within the context of changing tastes driven by forces "internal" to the naming process itself, rather than being "determined" by external technological or mass media forces.

The sounds of names themselves display explicable trends, such as the preference for names ending in "a" or "n."Groups of names with similar endings rise and fall together, in fairly orderly, long-term movements.

Lieberson does a brilliant job in presenting evidence, using simple graphs and tables, rather than elaborate quantitative statistical analysis.His chapter on trends in name choices among ethnic and racial groups is particularly compelling, as he shows the joint affects of internal mechanisms (e.g. how names "sound") and external influences (e.g. a group's desire to assimilate quickly).

Want to know why your parents named you "Judy" rather than "Judith"?This book has the answer!

A Taste of names
A MATTER OF TASTE is a powerful contribution to our understanding of thefactors underlying the popularity of first names.Lieberson has broughttogether a wealth of ideas, concepts, and principles to the analysis ofsocial change.He has used empirical data from the research on names to dothis.The data come from several locales including various parts of theUnited States, England and Wales, Scotland, Denmark and France.Extensiveattention paid to the media influence (or lack of) on the popularity ofnames.For anyone interested in first names this is a valuable backgroundsource to understanding their importance. ... Read more

Book Description

Why do millions of people end up wearing the same style of clothing?

Customer Reviews (4)

The REAL tipping point
I was always frustrated with Malcolm Gladwell's book about tipping points because it does not really explain how a tipping point takes place. I find Henrik Vejlgaard's book much more credible, and there are lots of insight that marketing professionals can use. It quite simply delivers the story of the REAL tipping point. It may also be the first book that offers a method that can be used to predict future needs. Good job!

Amazing book about trends and trendsetters
This book is not only important for anyone interested in trends it is also a good mix of entertaining anecdotes and analysis. I can recommend it to all who want to know more about trends and trendsetters.

This books is an eye opener
This book is an eye opener. It explains what a trend is and how it evolves and how it affects us all. The best part is about the trendsetters and where to find them. For years I have been looking for a book that explains what a trend is and now that I found it I feel that all my questions have been answered. I can recommend the book to all with an interest in trends and trendspotting.

Better than THE TIPPING POINT
This concise book is superior to Malcolm Gladwell's best-seller, The Tipping Point.Gladwell's popular book was based on an appealingly superficial premise: that a trend spreads like a disease, multiplying geometrically until it reaches a population "tipping point," whereafter it increases to epidemic proportions.While that handy metaphor describes how a trend spreads, it doesn't really explain why, nor does it explain why one phenomenon becomes an enduring trend while another becomes just a mere short-lived fad.Unlike Gladwell, who is a journalist, Vejlgaard is a trained social scientist.Like an epidemiologist, he examines modern trends under a microscope, discovering the source of their unique power.He detects, moreover, a traceable and predictable pattern that all true trends tend to follow.An especially valuable book for professionals in advertising, marketing, and product development, and for all the rest of us who want to better understand the material forces that shape our lives.
Stephen Bertman, author, Hyperculture: The Human Cost of Speed ... Read more

Book Description
From poodle skirts, hot pants, and Lava lamps to Pogs, Pokemon, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bad Fads takes a fresh and funny look at the games, gags, dances, and styles of yesterday. This entertaining and nostalgic book unearths many short-lived popular trends from the past 100 years, covering fashion (go-go boots and Farrah Fawcett hairdos), collectibles (Rubik's Cube and pet rocks), activities (3D movies and drive-in theaters), and events (telephone booth stuffing and goldfish swallowing). No age group is spared these embarrassing reminders of the intriguing, bizarre, and just plain silly fads of past decades. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Bad Fads review
A great book!It covers generations of fads.Reading it reminded me of good times and bad clothing. I truly enjoyed the book and recommend it highly!

WE SHOULD KNOW!
I grew up with Mark Long, so I know this much first hand. He and I know a bad fad when we see one, or should I say, lived one. This book is a personal trip down memory lane, and memory lane has alot of potholes and speed bumps, in other words, it's a rough and painful ride. I found myself laughing out loud most of the time while reading through BAD FADS simply because of the images of myself and my friends living those fads, Mark included. I promise, reading this book can only make you smile. It's worth every penny. Thanks, Mark, for the memories.

A page-turner
Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. A real walk down memory lane and a must read for nostalgia lovers. Great illustrations accompany the fads of the past century. Interestingly enough, many of these long-forgotten "Bad Fads" have reared their ugly heads in recent years, making what's old seem new again. This is one "bad" book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is about the decade of the sixties. It is a magical, mystical tour through days of rage and nights of free love. Music, movies, fashions, and fads. ... Read more