From its origins in the late nineteenth century, when adventure stories reigned, through almost six decades of slinking sleuths, galloping ghouls, nitty-gritty gals, and invincible warriors, the pulp magazine transported readers to new frontiers of the mind. The proving ground for scores of writers and illustrators who went on to achieve great fame, these publications helped popularize authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Ray Bradbury, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Taken collectively, they now provide a panorama of some sixty years of illustration and social commentary. Hailed as "lush" by the New York Times, this is the most comprehensive compilation ever published on the subject. Winner of the "Pop Culture Book of the Year" by the Independent Publisher's Association, it is a must for graphic artists, fiction lovers, and anyone who appreciates the art of pulp fiction's golden age.Penzler Pick, November 2001: Pulp magazines reigned for about a quarter of a century as the most popular entertainment medium in America. They were cheaply produced and, during the Great Depression, were blessedly cheap to buy, generally a dime.
And they were plentiful. After a low-key beginning, when a few magazines displayed their tasteful covers to an appreciative readership, their success spawned countless competitors. The covers became more and more garish, and promised ever greater excitement. Western covers went from an illustration of an Indian gently paddling his canoe to furious cattle stampedes, a huge gang of obviously ferocious savages attacking a defenseless family, and depictions of shootouts in every conceivable locale. Mystery covers went from showing a cop on the beat to villainous thugs tearing the clothes off a helpless young woman (most frequently a generously endowed young blonde) or any other sort of action that promised the reader endless excitement.
And they delivered. Pulp writers knew how to write thrilling stories and books. Many of the best went on to extremely successful careers in book form. Dashiell Hammett wrote most of his stories and novels for the pulps, and he is now recognized as one of the most influential fiction writers of the 20th century. Raymond Chandler, too, wrote stories for the pulps and is frequently conceded to be the great mystery writer of the 20th century.
Pulps became more and more specialized as their numbers increased, soon appealing to fans of jungle stories, science fiction, fantasy, railroad stories, romances, Westerns, Western romances, aviation, the Foreign Legion, engineering, the outdoors, courtrooms, Wall Street, newspapers, firefighters, and so on. Now there is a new book that recalls that Golden Age of the pulp magazines (roughly 1920-1945) with a knowledgeable and nicely written text that covers all the highlights of the major magazines and the major writers, who are sometimes remembered today and, alas, sometimes not.
And there are those fabulous covers! Magnificently produced in Hong Kong, Pulp Culture is a genuine bargain. Here are the Shadow, Max Brand, Talbot Mundy, Erle Stanley Gardner, Black Mask, Sax Rohmer and Fu Manchu, C.S. Forester, and Captain Horatio Hornblower, Doc Savage, the Phantom Detective, and on and on.
For the old codgers among us, this gorgeous book will produce a happy trip down memory lane. Younger readers, eat your heart out. It will show you what you missed in a time of great storytelling that today's television shows can't ever match. --Otto Penzler
The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
ISBN13: 9781591843016
Condition: New
Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Understanding the rise of state capitalism and its threat to global free markets
The End of the Free Market details the growing phenomenon of state capitalism, a system in which governments drive local economies through ownership of market-dominant companies and large pools of excess capital, using them for political gain. This trend threatens America's competitive edge and the conduct of free markets everywhere.
An expert on the intersection of economics and politics, Ian Bremmer has followed the rise of state-owned firms in China, Russia, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Iran, Venezuela, and elsewhere. He demonstrates the growing challenge that state capitalism will pose for the entire global economy.
Among the questions addressed: Are we on the brink of a new kind of Cold War, one that pits competing economic systems in a battle for dominance? Can free market countries compete with state capitalist powerhouses over relations with countries that have elements of both systems-like India, Brazil, and Mexico? Does state capitalism have staying power?
This guide to the next big global economic trend includes useful insights for investors, business leaders, policymakers, and anyone who wants to understand important emerging changes in international politics and the global economy.
Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer: Author One-to-One In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together authors Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer and asked them to interview each other.
Nouriel Roubini is a professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business. He has extensive senior policy experience in the federal government, having served from 1998 to 2000 in the White House and the U.S. Treasury. He is the founder and chairman of RGE Monitor (rgemonitor.com), an economic and financial consulting firm, regularly attends and presents his views at the World Economic Forum at Davos and other international forums, and is an adviser to cental bankers around the world. He is the author of Crisis Economics and Bailouts or Bail-Ins. Read on to see Nouriel Roubini's questions for Ian Bremmer, or turn the tables to see what Bremmer asked Roubini.
Roubini: Your book [
The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
] suggests that an old trend, what you call state capitalism, has become much more important. What happened to change things?
Bremmer: Over the past 18 months, the Western financial crisis and the global recession have accelerated the inevitable transition from a G7 to a G20 world. That’s not just a matter of more states at the bargaining table. It’s not just about having to herd more cats to get things done on the international stage. It’s about herding cats together with other animals that don’t really like cats. And that’s not really herding.
The G7 world was one where everyone that mattered for growth in the global economy accepted the assumption that prosperity depended on rule of law, independent courts, transparency and a free mediaâ€"and in the value of free market capitalism. In that world, multinational corporations are the principle economic heavyweights. This consensus has provided the engine driving globalization for the past 40 years.
The sun has set on that world. The country that has emerged strongest and fastest from the global slowdown is one that does not accept the idea that a regulated free market economy is crucial for sustainable economic growth. China’s success has persuaded authoritarians around the world that they really can have explosive growth without undermining their monopoly hold on domestic political power. China has enjoyed double-digit growth for thirty years without freedom of speech, without well-established economic rules of the road, without judges that can ignore political pressure, without credible property rightsâ€"without democracy. And the events of the past 18 months have made China more important that ever for the future of global economic growth. This is a big change with enormous implications that we had better start thinking through.
Roubini: The term state capitalism means different things to different people. How do you explain it today?
Bremmer: I’m writing about a system in which the state uses the power of markets primarily for political gain. A country’s political leaders know that command economies will eventually fail, but they’re afraid that if they allow space for markets that are truly free, they’ll lose control of how wealth is generated. They could end up empowering others who will use markets to generate revenue that can then be used to challenge the government’s authority to dominate the country’s political life. So they use national oil companies, other state-owned enterprises, privately owned but politically loyal national champion companies, and sovereign wealth funds to exercise as much control as possible over the creation of wealth within the country’s borders. And they send these companies and investment fund abroad to secure deals that increase the state’s political and geopolitical leverage in a variety of ways.
This system is fundamentally incompatible with a free market system.
Roubini: Creating friction between the state capitalists and other governments. To say nothing of privately owned companies.
Bremmer: Exactly, yes. In a free market system, multinational corporations are looking to maximize profits. In markets that are not intelligently regulated, and we’ve seen this in the United States, they're looking to maximize short-term gains at the expense of sustainable, long-term growth for their shareholders or for their own compensation. The past two years have reminded us of the sometime excesses of free market capitalism.
In a state capitalist system-- the principle economic actors are looking first to achieve political goals. Profits are subordinate to that goal. In other words, if profits serve the state’s interests, they’ll pursue profits. But if the state needs a state-owned oil company to pay through the nose to lock up long-term supplies to the oil, gas, metals and minerals needed to secure the long-term growth that keeps workers in their jobs, off the streets, and the political leaders in power, profits and efficiency can become political liabilities and these companies will pay whatever it takes to get what their political patrons want.
But the state-owned companies are competing with multinationals that won’t overpay, that can’t overpay. Here, the injection of politics into market activity distorts the outcomeâ€"in this case by raising the price that we all pay for energy and other commodities.
Roubini: When you mention the state capitalist countries, which ones do you specifically have in mind?
Bremmer: We find state capitalist powers among the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf-- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the most important. You see this trend, of course, in Putin’s Russia. There are other examples of countries that mix free market with state capitalist policies. But we wouldn’t be talking about state capitalism as game-changer for international politics and the global economy if it weren’t for China, now the world’s second largest economy and its fastest growing major marketplace.
Roubini: The End of the Free Market is a provocative title. Are you trying to out-Doom me?
Bremmer: You know I wouldn’t do that. But you have to admit, it’s not an exaggeration. It’s not that I think the United States is going to throw away its free market principles. It's not about President Obama being some kind of socialist. Washington will tighten the regulation of financial markets in coming months, and some people won’t like that. Americans will not lose their faith in the power of free market capitalism to generate prosperity. But that can’t be said for the rest of the world.
The global economic system is no longer driven by consensus around these values. There are now competing forms of capitalism. You used the word friction. That’s exactly the right word. Friction, competition, even conflict. There will be winners and losers, and the world’s political and business leaders better begin to try to sort out who those winners and losers will be.
Roubini: Do you mean that state capitalists will be winners and those who bank on free markets will lose?
Bremmer: Not necessarily. We’re going to see governments around the world that no longer feel bound to follow the Western rulebook of decades past. We’ll see multinational corporations struggling to adapt, because foreign investment will become much less predictable and much more complicated. And the backing they get from their home governments won’t carry as much weight.
Yet, some of them will be more successful than others at learning to compete on a playing field that isn’t level. There are very good reasons to doubt that the state capitalists will have staying power. But for now, they have lots of new clout and plenty of advantages. Over the next five, ten, twenty years, state capitalist governments and the companies and institutions they empower will be a seriousâ€"and global--force to be reckoned with.
The threat for Americans is that all this is happening at a moment when people are struggling, and their elected leaders have every incentive to respond to that fear and anger with promises to throw up walls meant to protect them from all these changes. Americans have always prided themselves on tearing down walls, not building them. State capitalism and American populism will put that faith to the test.
Roubini: Were you tempted to call your book The End of Globalization?
Bremmer: No, this isn’t the end of globalization. It is the end of globalization’s singular, overriding power to shape our lives and the future of the global economy. Globalization depends on access to global consumer markets, capital markets, and labor markets. State capitalism compromises all three. Globalization still matters, and it will continue to matter for the foreseeable future. But it is no longer the fundamental driver of growth in a global economy that looks increasingly toward China for the next expansion.
Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism
Is now the time for an American parish priest to be declared a Catholic saint?
Born and raised in a Connecticut factory town, the son of Irish immigrants, Father Michael McGivney's (1852-1890) legacy of hope is still celebrated around the world. At a time when discrimination against American Catholics, homelessness, and starvation were widespread, Father McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, an organization that has helped save countless families from the indignity of destitution.
In this moving and inspirational work, Douglas Brinkley, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Deluge and The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, and award-winning author Julie M. Fenster re-create the all-too-brief life of perhaps the most beloved parish priest in U.S. history and chronicle the process of canonization that may well make this fiercely dynamic yet tenderhearted man the first American-born priest to be declared a saint by the Vatican.
Cengage Advantage Books: Choices in Relationships: An Introduction to Marriage and the Family
This "choices" theme based marriage and family book supports the goals of most professors by applying research and theory to readers' lives, and by encouraging lively classroom discussion. How? Through its interactive pedagogy (e.g. self assessments), currency of data, engaging writing style, and focus on social policy issues within the context of each chapter. The authors show users how positive outcomes in personal relationships depend on making intelligent choices. They accomplish this by encouraging readers to explore the tradeoffs that choices involve, how to view situations in a positive light, and how not making a choice is really a choice. Thus, readers learn to approach every intimate relationship with the new freedom and new responsibility that choices involve.
Entertaining, Over, Recipes, Easy, Cookbook, house, open, Rachael, Ray's Rachael Ray's Open House Cookbook: Over 200 Recipes for Easy Entertaining
ISBN13: 9781891105319
Condition: New
Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Rachael Ray's new Open House Cookbook provides a fabulous collection of tempting, easy recipes to entertain a crowd.
Roubini: Your book [
Bremmer: We find state capitalist powers among the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf-- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the most important. You see this trend, of course, in Putin’s Russia. There are other examples of countries that mix free market with state capitalist policies. But we wouldn’t be talking about state capitalism as game-changer for international politics and the global economy if it weren’t for China, now the world’s second largest economy and its fastest growing major marketplace. 
