Product Description
The imperial residence of Chengde was built by twopowerful and ambitious Manchu emperors between 1703 and 1780 in themountains of Jehol.The site, which is on UNESCOs World HeritageList, combines the largest classical gardens in China with a uniqueseries of grand monasteries in the Sino-Tibetan style.MappingChengde, the first scholarly publication in English on the Manchusummer capital, reveals how this unlikely architectural and landscapeenterprise came to help forge a dynastys multicultural identityand concretize its claims of political legitimacy.Using both visualand textual materials, the author explores the hidden dimensions oflandscape, showing how geographical imagination shaped the aestheticsof Qing court culture while proposing a new interpretation of themental universe that conceived one of the worlds most remarkableexamples of imperial architecture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intriguing book, but more maps would have been helpful
This is a groundbreaking book that looks in detail at the Chinese treatment of landscape in its ability to effect an acculturation of a place. The author makes a compelling argument, but I feel that the book is seriously handicapped by its paucity of illustrations. After all, with a title like "Mapping Chengde" I would have expected, well, maps. There aren't any except for a very simple sketch at the beginning and an outline drawing of Chengde prefecture.

I wish that Foret had included plans of the various temples and landscape enterprises, along with topographic maps or drawings showing the relationships between the various built elements and the natural setting. The reader is left to do this in his imagination. I can only hope that a future edition will correct these defects, as "Mapping Chengde" remains the only lengthy study on Chengde in the English language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A majestic portrait!
I can't express how exquisitely these 4 volumes are packaged.Take a look at the price!!!There is a large case that contains four slender volumes bound in what appears to be handmade paper.Each volume focuses on one of four palaces.Each one contains watercolours with a description paragraph to the left.The watercolours are breathtakingly reproduced -- bright colors, intricate details.Treat yourself to these four, perhaps the most beautiful book ever produce on the subject of Imperial Russia.Go ahead and splurge!

Wonderful art and architecture books
These four volumes are a wonfderful collectionof watercolours and grisailles from the times of Imperial Russia. They would be suitable for anyone with an interestin art, architecture, Russia and St Petersburg. They show the four palaces (sadly there is no volume for other palaces such as Ropsha, Strelna or Oranienbaum) as they were before they were destroyed by the Germans in WWII. The palaces (both interiors and exteriors) as well as their gardens are brought to life by this wonderful collection. They are shown as they exisited throughout the 19th century and are interesting not only for their artistic and architectual merits but also for their intrinsic historic and cultural value. Very strongle recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
This richly illustrated volume completes Robert G. Bailey's celebrated study of ecoregions, begun in the landmark Ecosystem Geography (1996) and further articulated in Ecoregions (1998). In this third installment, the author expands his system for defining large-scale ecological zones to encompass principles of land management, regional planning, and design. In an engaging, nontechnical discussion, he shows how larger patterns and processes that characterize a region--its climate, topography, soils, vegetation, fauna, and human culture--provide essential keys to the sustainability of ecosystems. Ecoregion-Based Design for Sustainability will be welcomed by land and resource managers, landscape architects and urban planners, ecologists, students, and anyone interested in ecology-based design.

"Bob Bailey [is] the man behind the ecosystem mapping of the world." -Lingua FrancaReviews of Ecoregions:"The book provides easy access to the geographic distribution, characteristics, and processes operating behind every major ecosystem in the world." -Geoscience Canada"Ecoregions offers an invaluable source of description, interpretation and analysis of global patterns of ecosystem distribution and successfully provides the reader with a means of making sense of these patterns." -Geography

Robert G. Bailey is a geographer with the United States Forest Service in Fort Collins, Colorado. Formerly the leader of the agency's Ecosystem Management Analysis Center, he is currently in charge of ecoregion studies at the Inventory and Monitoring Institute. ... Read more

Product Description
Under the enlightened rule of the Buyid dynasty (945-1055 A.D.) the Islamicworld witnessed an unequalled cultural renaissance. This book is aninvestigation into the nature of the environment in which the culturaltransformation took place and into the cultural elite who were its bearers.After an extensive introductory section setting the stage, the book deals withthe main schools and circles and with the outstanding individualrepresentatives of this renaissance.The main expression of this renaissance was a philosophical humanism thatembraced the scientific and philosophical heritage of Classical Antiquity as acultural and educational ideal. Along with this philosophical humanism, aliterary humanism was cultivated by litterateurs, poets, and governmentsecretaries. This renaissance was marked by a powerful assertion ofindividualism in the domains of literary creativity and political action. Itthrived in a remarkably cosmopolitan atmosphere -- Baghdad, the center ofthe bAbbasid empire and of Buyid rule. ... Read more

Product Description
More of a photographic diary than a photgraphy book, “Dutch Touch”, is a journey of a foreign student in the Netherlands to touch moments of nostalgia. Coffee corners of Amsterdam, the charming Rotterdam, miniatured Madurodam, the farmer of Schoonrewoerd, Gouda cheese, café at Maastricht, flatlands, façades, faces, cry out to tell a tale. Tales told, untold. “Dutch Touch” tries to touch those tales – the evergreen ephmeral spirit – the zeitgeist of the Netherlands, through the lens of a Dutch lady and the eyes of a foreigner. A tiny element is however left out: Reader’s imaginative participation. This omission is with a hope that a new melange of memories and moments will emerge with each Reader and touch “Dutch Touch” and make this journey sublime. Bon voyage! ... Read more

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"In examining land, buildings, and personal histories of everyday individuals in one Massachusetts county from the Revolution to the Civil War, Garrison . . .adds significantly to our understanding of how past values affected the choices real people made to survive-and sometimes prosper-in an increasingly commercial society." -Richard M. Candee, Boston University ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent
Great book for the beginner to serious sketcher.Loved the techniques.Very helpful.

GREAT SKETCHES.
Wanted some information pertaining to the countryside and it's older structures.
This book was very well done and would recommend. ... Read more

Product Description
G.K. Chesteron was born in 1874, and educated at St Paul’s School, where, despite his efforts to achieve honourable oblivion at the bottom of his class, he was singled out as a boy with distinct literary promise. He decided to follow art as a career, and studied at the Slade School, where, while ‘attending or not attending to his studies’, he met Ernest Hodder-Williams, who encouraged Chesterton in his writing. At his request he reviewed a number of books for the Bookman and found himself launched on a profession he was to follow all his life.

Probably his most famous stories are those of ‘Father Brown’, but he wrote much about every conceivable subject under or beyond the sun. The best accounts of his life are to be found in his own Autobiography, published soon after his death in 1936, and in Miss Maisie Ward’s Life of him. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Less Philosphy, more Facts!
This book really wasn't what I was hoping it would be. If you're looking for historical facts and events, this isn't the place to find it. If you want some vague philosophical babble, you'll love this. It is well-written and easy to read, but not what I was looking for.

Sharp and Insightful
If you love Chesterton, this work is full of the kind of cutting humor and cultural insight that is his best.The title is a bit misleading in the sense that this is more a "collection of essays on aspects of English History."It should also be seen as a critique of other popular histories of his day.However, he remains the best Christian apologist in the modern era and of the modern era.

Wit and Wisdom of the Apostle of Common Sense
Gilbert Keith Chesterton is certainly one of the most entertaining, and important, authors in the English language.This particular volume covers quickly, yet completely, the history of England from early Roman times to the time of the Great War, World War I.Chesterton is a man, I suspect, who would have been very hard to dislike.Though brilliant, he always approached his many opponents with a keen sense of fun and empathy.But he is certainly a writer who, though sometimes challenging, is always enjoyable.

This wonderful, short, and thoroughly readable book can really be seen as a layman's philosophical representation of the great arc of English history.To grasp Chesterton's wit and wisdom entirely, it is probably important to have at least a nodding familiarity with English history before reading the book.But, so armed, the reader will be delighted with G.K.'s retelling of the great events of England, together with his insightful commentary relative to their import.

Particularly poignant is Chesterton's rendering of the martydom of Saint Joan of Arc.He avers that, at one time or another, perhaps all British soldiers would have traded places with the common British infantryman who broke his spear to make a cross for the dying Saint.This section alone is worth the price of the entire book. ... Read more