Books

The Library Book

by Susan Orlean On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realised this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerising and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and present—from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old […]

Zucked:Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

By Roger McNamee This is the dramatic story of how a noted tech venture capitalist, an early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg and investor in his company, woke up to the serious damage Facebook was doing to our society and set out to try to stop it.If you had told Roger McNamee three years ago that he would soon be devoting himself to stopping Facebook from destroying democracy, he would have howled with laughter. He had mentored many tech leaders in his illustrious career as an investor, but few things had made him prouder, or been better for his fund’s bottom line, than his early service to Mark Zuckerberg. Still a large shareholder in Facebook, he had every good reason to stay on the bright side. Until he simply couldn’t. Zucked is McNamee’s intimate reckoning with the catastrophic failure of the head of one of the world’s most powerful companies to face up to the damage he is doing. It’s a story that begins with a series of rude awakenings. First there is the author’s dawning realisation that the platform is being manipulated by some very bad actors. Then there is the even more unsettling realisation that Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are unable or unwilling to share his concerns, polite as they may be to his face. And then comes Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, and the emergence of one horrific piece of news after another about the malign ends to which the Facebook platform has been put. To McNamee’s shock, Facebook’s leaders still duck and dissemble, viewing the matter as a public relations problem. Now thoroughly alienated, McNamee digs into the issue, and fortuitously meets up with some fellow travellers who share his concerns, and help him sharpen its focus. Soon he and a dream team of Silicon Valley […]

The Innovators Dilemma

– by Clayton M. Christensen What do the Honda Supercub, Intel’s 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common? In The Innovator’s Dilemma they are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator’s Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies. At the heart of The Innovator’s Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written. The Innovator’s Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager’s bookshelf.

Basket Agriculture Asia Adult Bicycle Beautiful

The Hillary Doctrine: Sex & American Foreign Policy

by Valerie M. Hudson and Patricia Leidl Given that much of the political science literature on women, gender, and U.S. foreign policy has primarily examined the legislative branch and public opinion, The Hillary Doctrine’s focus on the executive branch is an important and welcome contribution to the international relations field. Hudson and Leidl focus on Hillary Clinton’s prioritisation of women’s empowerment in all facets of U.S. foreign policy and national security during her tenure as secretary of state in the Obama administration, noting that “she was (and is) the world’s most influential and eloquent exponent of the proposition that the situation of women and the destiny of nations are integrally linked” (pp. xiii). The authors make clear, however, that the book is not about Hillary Clinton herself but about the Doctrine as an idea translated into policy, and hence their “foundational question” is as follows: “Do the situation, security, and status of women within a nation affect that nation’s security, stability, and prosperity? If so, then the premise of the Hillary Doctrine is sound, and warrants a prominent place in U.S. foreign policy” (p. 68). Building on Hudson’s previous work and the work of others demonstrating the strong link between women’s security and national security, and drawing on theory and extensive empirical research (interviews, field work, quantitative analysis, and detailed case studies), the authors examine the origins and implementation of the Hillary Doctrine. In her address to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March 2010, Clinton first articulated what eventually became known as the Hillary Doctrine, stating that “the subjugation of women is a threat to the national security of the United States.” The Doctrine was officially included in the State Department’s first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review of U.S. foreign policy, published in December 2010 (p. […]

Book Review:The Ethical Economy

The Ethical Economy: Rebuilding Value After the Crisis, by Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen, Columbia University Press, 2013 The Ethical Economy introduces two major intellectuals mapping the transition from early industrial manufacturing and its economics based on objects (things you can drop on your foot) to today’s information economies where intellectual property, intangibles, brands and reputation are the new source of value. Authors Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen join Don Tapscott, Yoichi Benkler, Michel Bauwens and others in mapping this new economic terrain where information offers non-rival “win-win” opportunities for abundance through sharing and cooperation (if you give me information, you still retain it as well). Following Yoichi Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams’ Wikinomics, Chris Anderson’s Makers and Michel Bauwens’ peer-to-peer sharing models (P2P Foundation), Arvidsson and Peitersen, both seasoned professionals in business and finance, delve deeper into the implications of this tectonic shift beyond the cover story in The Economist and recent books including Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers’ Collaborative Consumption and Lorna Gold’s The Sharing Economy to examine the role of technology, the internet, social media, the maker revolution, prosumers, crowdsourcing and “productive publics” and the socialisation of value creation. This is deeply researched, heady stuff enfolding insights from behavioral science, brand management, ethical investing and the growing importance of reputational risks and benefits. Mainstream economics and financial models are left behind in their material focus on competitive rival goods and assumptions of scarcity. The rise of this global informational, internet-based economy of social media, open-source, crowdsourcing by over 3 billion ever-more connected, interacting humans is a new economy of the commons – based largely on “publics” and their opinions, infrastructure resources and shared knowledge. This fuels the skepticism toward corporations, banks, governments and erodes trust in older norm-creating institutions, academia and religious […]

Book Review: Heartfulness -Beyond Mindfulness-Finding Your Real Life

Dr Stephen McKenzie Released by Exile publishing comes a truly inspiring book which we all ought to read to help find a little more peace in our lives. Dont we all need that and to make the world a better place to be in? Dr Stephen McKenzie looks at the lived examples of such luminnaires as Nelson Mandela to show how he lived with heartfulness in his truly difficult life. Heartfulness can help us move away from being so self-possessed and singularly focussed in these times of high social technology interaction – without seeing the smile of the other person on the computer or mobile phone! The mindfulness trend has seen mindfulness become valued more as an item in a personal toolkit as opposed to a full way of living. Dr Stephen McKenzie is a leading mindfulness author and teacher and he brings us back to its roots –—connecting the heart with mindfulness to become heartfulness. The paths to full living are clearly shown and demonstrated. Being heartful simply means being fully connected — with ourselves and with other people — and therefore fully alive, happy, without stress and at peace. There are exercises for the reader and chapters include adversity, humour, knowledge, kindness, love and hope, among others. With anecdotes, things to do and think about and lots to gently read and enjoy, this is a gentle warm book that seeks to bring the reader home to a happy state. As a researcher, lecturer and writer with years of clinical and teaching experience in many areas of psychology, Dr Stephen McKenzie has written several books including Exisle’s Mindfulness at Work and with Craig Hassed, Mindfulness for Life. Dr McKenzie lectures in psychology at Melbourne’s Monash University.

E. Freya Williams on the Business Case for Sustainability

What’s the business case for sustainability? Over the past eight years that I’ve spent compiling evidence that brands can both maximize profit and be a force for social good, that’s the question I’ve been asked most often. And it’s one that tends to be on the minds of business leaders each year around Earth Day. This year that question has a new answer: a billion dollars. For a generation, influenced by the thinking of economist Milton Friedman, business wisdom has held that purpose and profit are fundamentally opposing forces. But there are now at least nine companies globally that generate a billion dollars or more in annual revenue from products, services, or lines of business with sustainability or social good at their core. They are the Green Giants. Far from the hemp-wrapped products of yore, they include some of the most sexy and dynamic brands out there today, from relatively new start-ups to business lines incubated within major blue chip corporations. They are Tesla, Chipotle, Nike Flyknit, Whole Foods, Unilever, GE Ecomagination, Toyota Prius, Natura and IKEA’s line of Products for a More Sustainable Life at Home. These companies cut across the global economy. They make products as diverse as burritos and beauty cream, sports shoes and sports cars, organic kale and airplane engines. They cover a spectrum of price points and spend types, from low-cost and discretionary to big-ticket, corporate purchases. They span B2B and B2C companies. Yet they share six factors in common. These factors enable them to generate over $100 billion in combined annual revenues from their sustainable business strategies. They are:  An Iconoclastic Leader. In each case, the sustainability journey can be traced back to one individual who started it all. He or she is a resident of the C-Suite, and exhibits the 4 Cs […]

Green Giants, how smart companies turn sustainability into billion dollar businesses

E. Freya Williams Sustainability has come a long way in a decade. Once seen as a negative thing, sustainability is increasingly being recognised as a source of advantage for business. A number of companies stand out as exemplars in this field and their stories provide the backbone of this book by sustainability consultant Freya Williams. Williams is as much an insider as an observer, and the blurb here says she was the brains behind campaigns such as Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle, Hellmann’s switch to free range eggs and the award-winning Copenhagen campaign in support of the United Nationsat the COP15 climate change conference. Her skill, it seems, is in making sustainability relevant to the mainstream. Williams has drawn firm conclusions from the case studies she has examined to produce a very readable work on a subject that often receives a dull treatment. The green giants are businesses with a turnover of $1 billion or more that can be directly attributed to a product, service or line of business with sustainability at its core. They include restaurant chain Chipotle, which raises the meat in all its products in natural and sustainable ways, Unilever which is committed to halving its environmental footprint by 2020 and Tesla which makes the first commercially successful all-electric vehicle. Some businesses, meanwhile, have specific product lines that are sustainable, such as Toyota Prius or Ikea’s Sustainable Life at Home range. Old attitudes persist, however. Williams quotes conservative economist Milton Friedman dismissing businesses with a social conscience as “unadulterated socialism” in the 1970s. That view has hardened in some quarters, driven by the cynicism and short-term thinking of Wall Street. Scepticism about environmental concerns is rife in some boardrooms. In a briefing to journalists in 2008, Bob Lutz, then vice-chairman of GM, famously called global warming “a crock of shit”. […]

Book Review:The Shape of the New

Scott L Montgomery, Daniel Chirot Princeton University Press A broad survey of the ideas that have driven modern history since the 19th century—and on account of which millions of lives have been changed for good or ill. According to Montgomery (Does Science Need a Global Language?: English and the Future of Research, 2013, etc.) and Chirot (Contentious Identities: Ethnic, Religious and National Conflicts in Today’s World, 2011, etc.), both professors at the University of Washington, these ideas are fourfold, resting in the single persons of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Charles Darwin, and then in the struggle between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton over the nature of the new republic that would grow from certain parallel and antecedent ideas. The first two are economic in nature, the third biological, and the fourth political. But all are political, of course, and the authors nicely move to depersonified history by examining deeper values: the idea embodied by Smith, for instance, that “individuals should have the freedom to make all essential decisions affecting their material and moral lives.” The authors’ argument is fluent and mainly unobjectionable; as intellectual historians, it is their bread and butter to maintain that ideas matter, and the ideas they enumerate have inarguably “structured the modern world.” Their later elaborations sometimes seem a stretch, if by modern world one means modern ideas, which would discount some of their cases. The book is academic in outlook and attitude and sometimes in execution. The prose is accessible, though, and the narrative is well-written, made more interesting by the authors’ willingness to tangle with tough constituencies and mount tough arguments—against, say, the narrowness of religious fundamentalists or the aridity of “postmodern pedagogy and scholarship,” with their lamentable habit of reducing the love of and insistence on reason as a species of evil. […]

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