Book Description
Traditionally, government bureaucracies have been the source of public policy initiatives and recommendations, but today the growing challenges to governance-more complex issues, the demands of civil society, and the changing nature of representative government, in particular-have made alternative or nongovernmental sources increasingly important if not essential.

In this volume, experts from Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States offer a comparative assessment of the state of policy advice from such alternative sources as independent "scholarly" think tanks, interest and advocacy centers, party think tanks, blue ribbon commissions, and legislative support organizations. Authors survey the availability and adequacy of these alternative sources of advice and offer specific recommendations for how to improve the quality of the advice. ... Read more

Book Description
This comprehensive survey of microwaves, components, and devices for the junior/senior course on microwaves focuses on microwave circuits and solid-state devices.Coverage of thermionics is included. Flexibility allows professors to assign chapters in any order. End-of-chapter application questions demand that students use mathematical and technical skills, as well as creativity and ingenuity. ... Read more

Book Description
A comprehensive survey of the development of an independent modernism in Japanese art from the first abstract works at the beginning of the century to artistic approaches in the post-war period.

Featuring more than 100 works by 26 Japanese artists, this volume is the first extensive documentation of the development of Japanese painting into a uniquely Japanese form of modernisma modernism which Japan developed in the course of its coming to terms with outside influences, and which is both contemporary and self-sufficient. The works are discussed and complemented by highly informative essays by well-known art scholars.

120 color plates and 90 in black-and-white ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Five and a half stars
One of two or three favorite art-books of mine; indispensible resource on Japanese moderns, nearly all of them "abstract" (mostly painters). Perhaps it is mixing pears with apples, but Japanese abstract Moderns to my taste surpass almost entirely the famed NYC abstract expressionist grouping (and its derivative inheritors such as "second generation" etc.); with the possible exception of Franz Kline. (Maybe also Mark Rothko to a certain extent).
So, next time if someone asks you 'You dig Hisao Domoto?' 'Why certainly, Hisao is one of my favorite painters'. Watch them look up to the humble pedestal of your ultra esoteric coolness...

"Must" reading for students of modern Japanese art.
Irmtraud Schaarschmidt-Richter's Japanese Modern Art covers Japanese painting from 1910-1970, featuring over a hundred works by almost thirty Japanese artists and providing the first extensive documentation of thedevelopment of Japanese painting into a unique form of modernism. Works arepresented with essays by art historians and cover the basics of how art hasreflected changes in Japanese traditions. ... Read more

Book Description
Three countries-China, Japan, and the United States-and relations among them are likely to have a disproportionate impact on prospects for peace and prosperity in Asia Pacific in the twenty-firstcentury.

This volume contains essays by six experienced American analysts on different aspects of the trilateral relationship. The issues addressed include Chinese and American views of national security, the influence of Korea and Taiwan in China-Japan-U.S. relations, the U.S.-Japan security agreement and theater missile defense, the implications if China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and the relative risks of intra- and interstate conflict in Asia. An introduction by David M. Lampton situates these issues in the broader context of the trilateral relationship and highlights the importance of sustained dialogue among the three major actors.

Contributors: Amy Celico, United States Department of State; Evan Feigenbaum, Harvard University; Michael Green, Council on Foreign Relations; Gregory May, The Nixon Center; Daniel Rosen, China Online L.L.C.; Scott Snyder, The Asia Foundation. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Except for the rare international superstar like Araki Nobuyoshi, known for his gamy shots of nude young women, Japanese photography is a closed book to Westerners. Yet it has a distinguished and vital tradition that has enriched every genre, from portraits to landscapes, with a unique blend of lyricism and candor. In The History of Japanese Photography, a wealth of captivating images and essays by seven scholars trace 140 years of stylistic and cultural evolution. In 1857 a local ruler had his portrait taken with a daguerreotype set brought to Nagasaki by a foreign ship. Eleven years later, official photographs of the emperor--never glimpsed in person by his subjects—became widely available. Photographers were increasingly called upon to document new Japanese territories, natural disasters, and wars. Visitors hankered after studio shots of geishas and other exotica. Beginning in the 1890s, upper-class amateur photographers contributed a new emphasis on aesthetics. In the 1930s exquisite Pictorialist images of natural beauty gave way to modernist influences from Berlin and Moscow, and then—in wartime—to a conservative emphasis on traditional rural life. Individual expression dominated postwar photography, as seen in such images as Tomatsu Shomei's haunting "Beer bottle after the atomic bomb explosion." Recent work reflects the dislocations of urban consumer society. Beautifully produced, with 356 color illustrations, this groundbreaking volume accompanies an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 2-April 27, 2003) that travels to the Cleveland Museum of Art (May 18-July 27, 2003).—Cathy CurtisBook Description
: Over the past 150 years, Japanese photographers have created an impressive body of work that ranges from dignified imperial photographs to sweeping urban panoramas, from early ethereal landscapes to modern urban mysteries. Despite the richness, significance, and variety of this work, however, it has largely been neglected in Western histories of photography. This gorgeous and groundbreaking book—the first comprehensive account of Japanese photography from its inception in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day—reveals to English-speaking audiences the importance and beauty of this art form. Written by a team of distinguished Japanese and Western scholars, this book establishes that photography began to play a vital role in Japanese culture soon after its introduction to Japan in the 1850s. Illustrated essays discuss the medium's evolution and aesthetic shifts in relation to the nation's historical and cultural developments; the interaction of Japanese photographers with Western photographers; the link between photography and other Japanese art forms; and photography as a record and catalyst of change. Handsomely designed and generously illustrated with beautiful duotone and color images, the book emphasizes not only the unique features of Japanese photography but also the ways it has influenced and been influenced by the country's culture and society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Beautiful and interesting book
I must say that this book is beautiful and I hightly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Japanese photography.I have started reading it and the writing is refreshingly lucid and informative while the photographic reproductions are impressive.At times, the authors do presuppose a knowledge of Western photographic history that may be daunting for some readers. If you are not familiar with that history you may not find the arguments or explanations as productive or interesting as they are. However, even if you are a unfamiliar with the history and you are just curious about the topic, this book has a lot to offer if you just skim the essays.The more academic-minded readers will find the essays to be critically and historically illuminating, intriguing, and thought-provoking. Plus the book is so beautiful.

Simply stunning
This is one of the finest photography books I've seen recently. Filled with page after page of gorgeous photographs spanning a range of over one hundred years, from rare vintage images to fascinating contemporary work, this volume tells the story of a vastly understudied area of artistic work. Everything about this volume--its design, its production, its content--does beautiful justice to the subject matter. Finally--a worthy book on Japanese photography!!! ... Read more