Product Description

Most treatments of slavery, politics, and expansion in the early American republic focus narrowly on congressional debates and the inaction of elite "founding fathers" such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. InSlavery, Freedom, and Expansion in the Early American West, John Craig Hammond looks beyond elite leadership and examines how the demands of western settlers, the potential of western disunion, and local, popular politics determined the fate of slavery and freedom in the West between 1790 and 1820.

By shifting focus away from high politics in Philadelphia and Washington, Hammond demonstrates that local political contests and geopolitical realities were more responsible for determining slavery's fate in the West than were the clashing proslavery and antislavery proclivities of Founding Fathers and politicians in the East. When efforts to prohibit slavery revived in 1819 with the Missouri Controversy it was not because of a sudden awakening to the problem on the part of northern Republicans, but because the threat of western secession no longer seemed credible.

Including detailed studies of popular political contests in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri that shed light on the western and popular character of conflicts over slavery, Hammond also provides a thorough analysis of the Missouri Controversy, revealing how the problem of slavery expansion shifted from a local and western problem to a sectional and national dilemma that would ultimately lead to disunion and civil war.

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Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent
This book is very impressive, in the way the artist explains how he paints and how he uses the Acrylic paint is very easy to read.The paintings in this book really show the artist expressive mood at the time of the painting them and the colours he uses in the paintings are exceptional. The book has inspired me, who uses oils in my paintings, to have a go with Acrylics.

inspiring but not helpful
John Hammond's skills are very evident in this new book.The paintings included are more complex and more interesting that those in his first book, or his DVD.Unfortunately, there are no illustrations of the step by step process used to create the beautiful final results.This is more a peak into the artist's motivations and general rules for creating paintings than a detailed look at the actual process of applying paint and developing the images presented.I loved looking at the final results, but was disappointed that I didn't get to see more of the details as the paintings were being developed. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Great "coffe table" book
As many of the other reviewers have stated, the book is beautiful, the author's art can even be inspiring, but if you're looking for helpful instruction, please look elsewhere.

The book is loaded with Mr. Hammond's lovely works.However, as I read (and wanted to study) the book, I was severely disappointed by the lack of "meat."There are opportunities with each of his works for Mr. Hammond to share his "nuts and bolts" working knowledge of how he accomplished what he accomplished in each painting.Instead, he gives vague text, that if one has read many books on painting instruction, this same text can be found in the "Introduction" of most painting books.

I truly looked forward to receiving this book and wanted to learn more about the workings and techniques for producing light in my painting.The one thing I did learn however, is that in the future I will be wary of books produced by this publisher as "instructive."

I love this book!
I am developing as an acrylic painter and loved this book!It has lots of pictures and was very useful.I liked the different elements that were shown to capture light in like water, etc.
This artist isn't one for high detail, but does capture mood with light in the paintings that were shown.
I found it very helpful in showing how mood is depicted with light and how to incorporate it into my paintings and artwork.

Seeing the Light
John Hammond's book is an excellent first book for the beginning acrylic painter, but also a fine refresher course for the experienced painter.His emphasis on light - developing tonal values is key to bringing paintings alive.It is a book that is more about how to think, how to see than a to techniques and tricks.
- J.S.

luz y color
the book is good, and the illustrations and explanations also. it has many landscapes to support the advice and lessons

Bring Your Paintings to Life
I just received this book and already I can see how the techniques described and displayed will greatly improve the "look" I'm going after. An artist friend saw the book and barely wanted to give it back after thumbing through just a few pages. This book is BEAUTIFULLY illustrated with the talented Mr. Hammond's artwork, but his narrative is so clear and concise that you know his good influences will show up in your own work and improve your own style. This is not a book for beginners, but intermediates will gain so much more and even old pro's can incorporate techniques that will help bring paintings to life through light! ... Read more

Product Description
Where should I live?
Is it time to switch careers?
What is the best course of action for me?

Decisions shape our experiences, from choosing which job offer to accept, to buying the right car, to selecting a good accountant.How do we know which choice is the smart one?How can we be consistent and confident in our decisions?In this book from the three leading authorities on decision-making, readers learn how to approach all types of decisions with a simple set of skills developed by professors from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Southern California.

Combining solid research with common sense and practical experience, this user-friendly guide shows readers how to assess deep-seated objectives, create a comprehensive set of alternatives, determine likely consequences, make tradeoffs, and grapple with uncertainty.Not only will readers learn how to make decisions, they will learn how to make the smartest decisions.For anyone caught at a confusing crossroad–whether you’re choosing between mutual funds or deciding where to retire–the Smart Choices program will improve your decision-making abilities immediately, and make your life more rewarding and fulfilling.Amazon.com Review
Have you ever hired someone only to regret your decision twomonths later? Or looked at your financial portfolio and wondered whyyou bought the stocks you did? In Smart Choices, authors JohnS. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa take the guesswork outof the decision-making process and offer a systematic approach tomaking the right choice. Most of us have problems making decisions,because we've never learned how. The authors write:

Despite the importance of decision making to our lives,few of us ever receive any training in it. So we are left to learnfrom experience. But experience is a costly, inefficient teacher thatteaches us bad habits along with good ones. Because decisionsituations vary so markedly, the experience of making one importantdecision often seems of little use when facing the next.

Customer Reviews (56)

interesting but complicated
This book might be helpful for someone people but a waste of time for others. I thought it was interesting but most of things written in it are common sense. It tells you how to make a smart decision by providing steps and tips to little by little make the right choice but i just don't agree with some of the material because sometimes choices are made by just following your gut and not thinking every little consequence through. That's just my opinion. But if you're someone who has a hard time making choices, this book is right for you.

Outstanding process discussion for making good decisions
There are a lot of books about decision making and problem solving, and the vast majority of them are mediocre.There are a number of decent, readable accounts that give some simple tips and teach you about psychological principles, but these typically have very little in the way of solid tools.We all know it gets boring when the math starts or when we have start doing drills to learn basic skills.And the more specific they get with their methods, the less useful it becomes for our own problems.Books that cater to our creative side can help us learn how to break out of ruts, but they are weaker on helping us make good decisions more consistently.

Then there are systematic formal approaches by academics based on mathematical techniques, and these tend to be the equivalent of textbooks.Decision theory, mathematical modelling, strategy, optimization, probability, statistics, etc..Great stuff.You can get a lot out of them if you put in the study, as far as useful tools and skills for hypothetical problems, but actually applying their lessons when you face a real problem is another matter.And as with most academic learning, practical transfer is left as an exercise for the reader. Also applying formal methods in situations where we already have good instincts, that often rubs us the wrong way.Using a spreadsheet to choose a mate? If you actually were to study systematic decision making and acquire the skills and habits for using those tools, you would surely make more decisions more consistently.But would you be wiser at knowing when to use these methods?

Smart Choices is closer to the first type of book, a practical guide to principles, but it has the soul of a textbook.No footnotes, bibligraphy, or exercises.But it does treat the subject matter very seriously.Maybe that's also part of why many of the reviewers on Amazon found the book boring.The authors' discipline in focusing on what really works while building on solid theory is clear throughout the book.As a result of this unique approach, this book has two great strengths in my opinion.

First, it is a surprisingly concise and admirably simple presentation of decision theory, with virtually no mathematics required.That's a signficant accomplishment in itself.The authors are deep experts in the technical aspects formal decision making, but have chosen a small set of simple tools to illustrate very general principles.When dealing with uncertainty, you create a risk profile for each alternative, listing the likelihood and consequences of each outcome for that alternative.Ok, not exactly rocket science, but who among us ever thinks of actually doing that to help them think through uncertainty?If you can't decide from the risk profile, you create a decision tree by identifying the things you can control and the things that remain uncertain, and their consequences. Very basic tools and advice and very powerful, with some practical advice for dealing with the messy details. It isn't so much the tools themselves that are the point here, it is the straightforward advice the authors offer on how and when to use them.There is a lot of experience condensed into a small book here.

The second strength of this book is that the authors make an unusually successful effort to bridge the different kinds of decision making genres, offering not only the outline of a formal process to guide you and specific tools to use within the process, but very clear practical explanations of why the steps are done as they are.The book begins with the usual mantra of systematic decision methods:having a process is better than not having a process.Sort of like having a map is better than not having a map.Ok.But before they jump into the how-to part that makes this a small practical guide, they also make their process criteria explicit.The process must help you to:

1.Focus on what's important
2.be logical and consistent
3.acknowledge objective and subjective factors, and blend analytical with intuitive thinking
4.require only as much information and analysis as neccessary to resolve the dilemma
5.encourage and guide the gathering of relevant information and informed opinion
6.be straightforward, reliable, easy to use, and flexible

This sounds great, but how can a formal decision process accomplish these things?And do the authors really provide one that manages this feat? It is their systematic and serious attempt to actually meet these 6 criteria, and their relative success at achieving it that makes for the greatest strength of this book.

The way they attempt this is to define each of their process step in very flexible terms, focusing on the critical relationships between the factors.Some trigger leads you to a loose problem definition with its associated concerns.The problem definition helps you identify means objectives (how you intend to meet your concerns).Means objectives help you figure out your more fundamental objectives.The objectives help you generate alternatives that meet those objectives.Analyzing consequences in various ways helps you evaluate the alternatives and even go back to generate new ones.Alternatives often have consequences that meet different objectives in different ways, so we have ways of helping to make tradeoffs.There is a lot of theory and experience buried into these seemingly simple ideas, and it would be very easy to miss the value of this if the reader hasn't seen decision theory done less expertly in many other books.It is very easy to make the process too simple, too complicated, too rigid, or not provide enough guidance.I think the authors get it pretty much just right.

The reason it works in this book, in my opinion, is that by explaining the process in clear terms and not just providing the tools, the flexibility of the process becomes much clearer.It becomes obvious from the examples why you want to keep looking for better alternatives even in the later stages of the process, even as you eliminate alternatives that just won't work or just aren't as good as others.It becomes clear where and how to consider uncertainty.It becomes more evident where various thinking traps make their way into the process by causing us to persevere at the wrong problem, by not considering important objectives, but not looking closely enough at the consequences of each alternative, by not considering tradeoffs, by missing relationships between decisions, or by failing to account for your own personal risk tolerance.The guidelines for the process help you avoid each of these problems by helping you focus on the right things at the right point in the process, but without making it so rigid that you fall into a completely different trap.

There is no magic problem solving or decision making method that will solve your problems for you, but following the advice in this book will at the very least help you focus on the right things, ask the right questions at the right time during the process, and help explain your decisions better to others as well as to yourself.There are books that provide more details on specific tools, but this book stands out for its clear and practical presentation of the overall process of making decisions.

NOT FOR THE ORDANIRARY READER
Lots of technical jargon. No humour in writting style.Extreamly dry. Dont explore the emotional aspect of decision making.Good for business people.Not us.

Excellent book on Decision Making
I highly recommend this book if you want to make better decisions. Easy to follow and to the point. Practical guide on the decision making process with lots of examples.

A book that can change your life
Smart Choices is one of the most influential books I have read in years (and I read countless nonfiction books every year!). Although it took a lot of concentration and a few readings to truly grasp the system of decision making that the authors create, I can honestly say it is one of the most valuable methods of decision-making I have read. Other books make decision making simpler -- rely on intuition more say many; come up with a simple system say others. This one doesn't make the decision simple though it does make it more simple and it doesn't make it easy, though it does make a difficult decision a wee bit easier. What it does is make the decision smart, wise, reliable, clear, and as good as decision making can get. I have used it to make some of the most difficult decisions I could make for myself and I have used to help friends and others make difficult decisions for themselves. I have used it to write a complicated chapter in my own book on making a particular decision. So all in all, I highly recommend this book -- for use not just in business but for any complicated, serious or perplexing decision in life. After reading the book -- and learning the system, I know you will want to buy several copies (as I did) for others -- it was, well, a smart gift to buy a smart book about making smart choices! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

The Producer, John Hammond
THE PRODUCER delivers a gripping story about Paul Hammond's memorable role in shaping 20th Century music. Born into fortune, his gift to hear music is obvious when at four or five years old he asks, "Mother, how can you take me to a church where the first soprano was singing off-key?" Always a champion for the underdog, Hammond's drive for civil rights is as important as his talent discoveries. Told with vivid finesse, the book is both informative and entertaining. With a wonderful blend of anecdote, history and quotes from protégés, Dunstan Prial's lucid portrayal is a pleasure to read.

Wonderful history of music and civil rights
This is such a great biography. Hammond might not have been the easiest guy to know or get along with, but as readers we don't have that problem. His passion for music and his dogged pursuit of racial justice are the drivers in his life and in this well-told story. I just wish there was a set of CDs that came with the book so you could sample all of the music being discussed.
Hammond was important to the careers of so many 20th century artists that it seems hard to believe: Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and dozens of others.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and, as a Springsteen fan, I think the climax comes with his "discovery" of Bruce.
Get it!!

Excellent portrait of a giant
This is a well written and informative book about a giant in the music business who is probably little known outside of that industry, but if you were to mention the names of the artists he has either discovered or nurtured to superstardom, you would understand why he rates such a well researched and detailed biography. Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn are just a few of the well known artists who owe much of their fame to John Hammond. The story of how Springsteen came to the attention of John Hammond is fascinating, made all the more entertaining by the fact the the author managed to obtain an interview with the artist himself. In fact, he managed to interview nearly everyone connected to the Hammond legacy (if still living) except for the elusive Bob Dylan. I knew all about Hammond's career at Columbia Records, but there was much that I didn't know, for instance I never knew about his wealthy and privileged background, which makes his story that more interesting seeing that he did all of this for love of the music and not for money. I also never realized his commitment to civil rights and how he broke new ground in the music world with his dream of integrating popular music, which up until his efforts had remained a segregated affair. By uniting Benny Goodman with Teddy Wilson, and later Lionel Hampton and Charlie Christian, he broke the color barrier which not only prevented blacks from gaining an equal footing with whites in the entertainment field, but also punished white musicians who dared to record with black musicians, let alone perform live. Even though he was a top staff producer at Columbia (and other labels), his expertise was not really as a producer so much as a facilitator, and as such he was often at odds with his bosses at Columbia and often taken off of projects and replaced with other producers, which is the case with Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, both of whose early sessions were produced by Hammond before being replaced. His greatest talent, of course, was his ability to spot raw talent when others could not. Both Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan were ridiculed by the label execs long before they realized the iconic nature of those artists - but John Hammond knew instinctively that they were once in a lifetime talents unlike any others. He saw the same qualities in Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughn, not to mention Aretha Franklin and George Benson. In the case of the latter two, their careers at Columbia can be considered failures, but they gained superstardom when they moved on to other labels, so Hammond's faith in them was certainly not misplaced.

Highly recommended.

Breezy bio or breathless homage?
Breezy bio of Hammond crosses into breathless homage too often to merit any better rating.Hammond is interesting because, as outlined here, he came from privilege into the music industry as an avocation, and is credited with discovering Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, as well as earlier jazz artists Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin, and others.

interesting and well written
My only negative comment is perhaps some repetitiveness in some of the comments in the book. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like biographies in general. This is a must read for people interested in the music business. Mr. Hammond was an interesting character and a man who stood up for what he believed in. He loved jazz, and fought for racial equality. It is amazing how many different artists he was instrumental in promoting over the years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Hammond's story was fascinating
John Hammond led an incredibly interesting life, and he had the gift of finding natural, raw talent.The autobiography was a great read!He may have spent his life discovering new talent rather than trying to win the "father of the year" award, but for folks interested in music and the life of artists, the book was a memorable, delightful read.I still recall Hammond's description of a young trumpet player who Hammond felt was greatly underrated--Joe Smith.Comparing him to Louis Armstrong, Hammond said, "Joe Smith was greatly underrated.Louis could rouse, excite and audience, but Joe--he could make 'em cry."Hammond's words were memorable,unpretentious and heartfelt.The reader knew how much he loved music and the musicians. This book was one of my all-time favorite reads.

Interesting but biased...
One can't deny John Hammond's contribution to Jazz. The man "discovered" Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie and produced tons of records. On the other hand, he had a "bon savage" view of the Jazz musician that was far from reality. When Ellington began composing his "mood pieces", Hammond, until that time a Duke champion, became an enemy. His attitudes were both paternalist and naive. And this book reflects this behavior. ... Read more

Product Description
The son of a Vanderbilt heiress, John Hammond listened to jazz records with his parents' servants, went to Harlem as a teenager, and became a regular in clubs where very few white faces ever appeared. Taking a little family money, Hammond went across racial lines in pre-World War II America and came back with recordings of some of the greatest jazz musicians in history. By age twenty-two, he had convinced Benny Goodman to integrate his band and made his first big discovery: Billie Holiday. Later, as jazz gave way to pop and rock, Hammond championed Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughan in his life's extraordinary second act.

In Dunstan Prial's hands, Hammond's biography is the story of American popular music since the 1930s, a tale of a man at the center of things, with his ears wide open. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The Producer, John Hammond
THE PRODUCER delivers a gripping story about Paul Hammond's memorable role in shaping 20th Century music. Born into fortune, his gift to hear music is obvious when at four or five years old he asks, "Mother, how can you take me to a church where the first soprano was singing off-key?" Always a champion for the underdog, Hammond's drive for civil rights is as important as his talent discoveries. Told with vivid finesse, the book is both informative and entertaining. With a wonderful blend of anecdote, history and quotes from protégés, Dunstan Prial's lucid portrayal is a pleasure to read.

Wonderful history of music and civil rights
This is such a great biography. Hammond might not have been the easiest guy to know or get along with, but as readers we don't have that problem. His passion for music and his dogged pursuit of racial justice are the drivers in his life and in this well-told story. I just wish there was a set of CDs that came with the book so you could sample all of the music being discussed.
Hammond was important to the careers of so many 20th century artists that it seems hard to believe: Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and dozens of others.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and, as a Springsteen fan, I think the climax comes with his "discovery" of Bruce.
Get it!!

Excellent portrait of a giant
This is a well written and informative book about a giant in the music business who is probably little known outside of that industry, but if you were to mention the names of the artists he has either discovered or nurtured to superstardom, you would understand why he rates such a well researched and detailed biography. Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn are just a few of the well known artists who owe much of their fame to John Hammond. The story of how Springsteen came to the attention of John Hammond is fascinating, made all the more entertaining by the fact the the author managed to obtain an interview with the artist himself. In fact, he managed to interview nearly everyone connected to the Hammond legacy (if still living) except for the elusive Bob Dylan. I knew all about Hammond's career at Columbia Records, but there was much that I didn't know, for instance I never knew about his wealthy and privileged background, which makes his story that more interesting seeing that he did all of this for love of the music and not for money. I also never realized his commitment to civil rights and how he broke new ground in the music world with his dream of integrating popular music, which up until his efforts had remained a segregated affair. By uniting Benny Goodman with Teddy Wilson, and later Lionel Hampton and Charlie Christian, he broke the color barrier which not only prevented blacks from gaining an equal footing with whites in the entertainment field, but also punished white musicians who dared to record with black musicians, let alone perform live. Even though he was a top staff producer at Columbia (and other labels), his expertise was not really as a producer so much as a facilitator, and as such he was often at odds with his bosses at Columbia and often taken off of projects and replaced with other producers, which is the case with Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, both of whose early sessions were produced by Hammond before being replaced. His greatest talent, of course, was his ability to spot raw talent when others could not. Both Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan were ridiculed by the label execs long before they realized the iconic nature of those artists - but John Hammond knew instinctively that they were once in a lifetime talents unlike any others. He saw the same qualities in Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughn, not to mention Aretha Franklin and George Benson. In the case of the latter two, their careers at Columbia can be considered failures, but they gained superstardom when they moved on to other labels, so Hammond's faith in them was certainly not misplaced.

Highly recommended.

Breezy bio or breathless homage?
Breezy bio of Hammond crosses into breathless homage too often to merit any better rating.Hammond is interesting because, as outlined here, he came from privilege into the music industry as an avocation, and is credited with discovering Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, as well as earlier jazz artists Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin, and others.

interesting and well written
My only negative comment is perhaps some repetitiveness in some of the comments in the book. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like biographies in general. This is a must read for people interested in the music business. Mr. Hammond was an interesting character and a man who stood up for what he believed in. He loved jazz, and fought for racial equality. It is amazing how many different artists he was instrumental in promoting over the years. ... Read more

Product Description
The son of a Vanderbilt heiress, John Hammond listened to jazz records with his parents' servants, went to Harlem as a teenager, and became a regular in clubs where very few white faces ever appeared. Taking a little family money, Hammond went across racial lines in pre-World War II America and came back with recordings of some of the greatest jazz musicians in history. By age twenty-two, he had convinced Benny Goodman to integrate his band and made his first big discovery: Billie Holiday. Later, as jazz gave way to pop and rock, Hammond championed Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughan in his life's extraordinary second act.

In Dunstan Prial's hands, Hammond's biography is the story of American popular music since the 1930s, a tale of a man at the center of things, with his ears wide open. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The Producer, John Hammond
THE PRODUCER delivers a gripping story about Paul Hammond's memorable role in shaping 20th Century music. Born into fortune, his gift to hear music is obvious when at four or five years old he asks, "Mother, how can you take me to a church where the first soprano was singing off-key?" Always a champion for the underdog, Hammond's drive for civil rights is as important as his talent discoveries. Told with vivid finesse, the book is both informative and entertaining. With a wonderful blend of anecdote, history and quotes from protégés, Dunstan Prial's lucid portrayal is a pleasure to read.

Wonderful history of music and civil rights
This is such a great biography. Hammond might not have been the easiest guy to know or get along with, but as readers we don't have that problem. His passion for music and his dogged pursuit of racial justice are the drivers in his life and in this well-told story. I just wish there was a set of CDs that came with the book so you could sample all of the music being discussed.
Hammond was important to the careers of so many 20th century artists that it seems hard to believe: Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and dozens of others.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and, as a Springsteen fan, I think the climax comes with his "discovery" of Bruce.
Get it!!

Excellent portrait of a giant
This is a well written and informative book about a giant in the music business who is probably little known outside of that industry, but if you were to mention the names of the artists he has either discovered or nurtured to superstardom, you would understand why he rates such a well researched and detailed biography. Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn are just a few of the well known artists who owe much of their fame to John Hammond. The story of how Springsteen came to the attention of John Hammond is fascinating, made all the more entertaining by the fact the the author managed to obtain an interview with the artist himself. In fact, he managed to interview nearly everyone connected to the Hammond legacy (if still living) except for the elusive Bob Dylan. I knew all about Hammond's career at Columbia Records, but there was much that I didn't know, for instance I never knew about his wealthy and privileged background, which makes his story that more interesting seeing that he did all of this for love of the music and not for money. I also never realized his commitment to civil rights and how he broke new ground in the music world with his dream of integrating popular music, which up until his efforts had remained a segregated affair. By uniting Benny Goodman with Teddy Wilson, and later Lionel Hampton and Charlie Christian, he broke the color barrier which not only prevented blacks from gaining an equal footing with whites in the entertainment field, but also punished white musicians who dared to record with black musicians, let alone perform live. Even though he was a top staff producer at Columbia (and other labels), his expertise was not really as a producer so much as a facilitator, and as such he was often at odds with his bosses at Columbia and often taken off of projects and replaced with other producers, which is the case with Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, both of whose early sessions were produced by Hammond before being replaced. His greatest talent, of course, was his ability to spot raw talent when others could not. Both Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan were ridiculed by the label execs long before they realized the iconic nature of those artists - but John Hammond knew instinctively that they were once in a lifetime talents unlike any others. He saw the same qualities in Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughn, not to mention Aretha Franklin and George Benson. In the case of the latter two, their careers at Columbia can be considered failures, but they gained superstardom when they moved on to other labels, so Hammond's faith in them was certainly not misplaced.

Highly recommended.

Breezy bio or breathless homage?
Breezy bio of Hammond crosses into breathless homage too often to merit any better rating.Hammond is interesting because, as outlined here, he came from privilege into the music industry as an avocation, and is credited with discovering Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, as well as earlier jazz artists Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin, and others.

interesting and well written
My only negative comment is perhaps some repetitiveness in some of the comments in the book. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like biographies in general. This is a must read for people interested in the music business. Mr. Hammond was an interesting character and a man who stood up for what he believed in. He loved jazz, and fought for racial equality. It is amazing how many different artists he was instrumental in promoting over the years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

as advertised
Wonderful story by an amazing person.Now I need to find the second volume. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
John Skelton (1464?-1529) is the first great modern English poet. Immensely proud of his poetic calling, he celebrates in his poems the language itself, in all its richness. He wrote in a vigorous vernacular, taking literary English out of the medieval world and enriching it with new forms and tones. Gerald Hammond's notes and glossary illuminate Skelton's works for the modern reader - but Hammond warns readers to keep their wits about them. Skelton is a poet of verbal ambushes, who still has the power to surprise and shock with his formal inventiveness and his indictments of church, scholars and state His tone can be tender, insinuating, savage and erotic; satire, parody, lyricism and allegory abound. ... Read more

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This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 98505, originally published in September/October 1998. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. The human mind is prone to distortions and biases that can undermine even the most well-thought-out decision-making process. Decision researchers John S. Hammond, a management consultant, Ralph L. Keeney, a professor at the University of Southern California, and Howard Raiffa, a professor emeritus at the Harvard Business School, examine eight psychological traps that are particularly likely to affect the way we make business decisions: The anchoring trap leads us to give disproportionate weight to the first information we receive. The status-quo trap biases us toward maintaining the current situation--even when better alternatives exist. The sunk-cost trap inclines us to perpetuate the mistakes of the past. The confirming-evidence trap leads us to seek out information supporting an existing predilection and to discount opposing information. The framing trap occurs when we misstate a problem, undermining the entire decision-making process. The overconfidence trap makes us overestimate the accuracy of our forecasts. The prudence trap leads us to be overcautious when we make estimates about uncertain events. And the recallability trap leads us to give undue weight to recent, dramatic events. The best way to avoid all the traps is awareness--forewarned is forearmed. But executives can also take other simple steps to protect themselves and their organizations from the various kinds of mental lapses. The authors show how to take action to ensure that important business decisions are sound and reliable. ... Read more

Product Description
The fascinating illustrated history of the original camera, an optical viewing device once widely used but now almost forgotten. This chronicle of its long history is told through the writings of those who made or used the camera obscura for scientific or artistic purposes, and those authors who recorded its varied uses. It recalls how this versatile instrument was used for astronomical observations, as a sketching aid by travellers and amateur artists, and on a grander scale as an entertainment or tourist attraction. ... Read more

Product Description
On December 23, 1944, twenty-five German prisoners of war broke out of an Arizona prison camp not far from the Mexican border by crawling along a 178-foot tunnel. By Christmas day, they were looking for ways to reach Mexico and Axis sympathizers who would help them.

Drawing on extensive interviews with the escapees and formerly classified documents, John Hammond Moore tells their incredible story—one of the few untold dramas of the war.

Many of the men imprisoned at the Papago Park camp were among the Nazis’ toughest and smartest U-boat commanders and their crews. Expecting trouble, their American guards marveled at how well the men adjusted to camp life. Spirits were high and the compound neatly raked several times each day. But the guards failed to realize the men were digging a tunnel right under their eyes. They hid their activity by building a volleyball (faustball) field. Twenty-five escapees used makeshift tools and coal shovels issued them by the camp to hack through the rocky soil. Once free, they disguised themselves as merchant seamen, consular officials, and workers armed with false identification papers. The men lasted six weeks on the outside before being recaptured. Their breakout, told here is breathtaking detail, remains the most sensational mass escape ever to take place from a POW camp on American soil. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

It was a pretty good escape, maybe . . .
Interesting, although the "great escape" of the title was a fizzle.If it ever hits you that German POWs must have been kept somewhere and you're casually wondering where and how, this is a good place to start reading -- it's the story of one camp and some of the men (on both sides) who served there, not an academic-style "history" full of facts and figures and analysis.

German Great Escape
"The Faustball Tunnel". By John Hammond Moore.Subtitled: "German POWs In America And Their Great Escape". Random House, New York, 1978.

When I pulled this book from the library shelf, my rudimentary German told me that the title was "The Fistball Tunnel".When I looked in my German/English dictionary, I found that "Faustball" was a form of volleyball, and this, naturally, was explained in the beginning text of the book.I should have started to read the book in the library.

It seems that German Prisoners of War (POWs) had the same ideas as their British counterparts on the other side of the world.The German POWs were mainly maritime individuals: either Kriegsmarine or German Merchant Marine.In their prison in Arizona, these German sailors hit upon the idea of building a volleyball court so as to hide the dirt that was coming up from the tunnel they were building."Hide in plain sight".This was quite similar to what some British were doing in their prison camp in Germany (see "The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill). However, the German escape into the Arizona desert was NOT made into a major motion picture.

In the Arizona camp, the American Army guards were lackadaisical, to say the least.Some Germans escaped. The German escapees were surprised by the distances involved, and Arizona is not as big as Texas!Further, they were surprised to find people who did not speak English, but spoke Spanish.In this regard, I wonder why the Germans wanted to escape to Mexico, a country that was also at war with Nazi Germany; the German POWs were at greater risk inside Mexico than they were in the U.S. Interestingly, after their recapture, the German sailors learnt that the buzzing noise in the desert was the sound of rattlesnakes shaking their warning tails and that rattlesnakes are dangerous.All in all, the German escapees were as deficient in their knowledge of North America as the contemporary American/British escapees were about Europe.
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Customer Reviews (2)

An old-fashioned ghost story
THE GHOSTS OF HAMMOND CASTLE by John Dandola is folk literature in the truest sense. Dandola has taken the oral ghost tales told by local people who have lived in Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and retold them in written form. The result is a charming collection of stories that give the reader a personal glimpse into the lives of John Hays Hammond, Jr. and his wife, Irene Fenton Hammond, who lived in the castle that was built with parts and decorated with unusual and sometimes creepy collections from past owners around the world. Dandola is first and foremost the biographer of Hammond, LIVING IN PAST, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. From this research, he has also accumulated stories about Hammond and his wife's belief in the paranormal, seances that were held at the castle and Hammond's own psychic experiments. Readers who are familiar with the Hammond biography should view THE GHOSTS OF HAMMOND CASTLEas a companion piece that provides old-fashioned personal accounts about the Hammonds' belief in spirits. It is not a book in the modern-day sense of horror ghost stories. Rather, it is the type of ghost story handed down by a grandmother, or in this case, by the caretaker or cook at Hammond Castle who were so influenced by the spirits they believed were there, and the continuing belief by some that are still haunting the castle.

Interesting
This book is interesting, although a bit poorly written.Dandola has taken a number of local legends and strung them together.The result is a book of anecdotal experiences that leave the reader wanting more.Despite his exhaustively researched biography of John Hays Hammond, Jr. and the copious written materials available in and out of the Castle, the author has put no real research into the circumstances surrounding these particular stories. A fun book, but not one that will really enhance a paranormal researcher's library. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more