Books about Envisioning from Amazon.com

A remarkable range of examples for the idea of visual thinking, with beautifully printed pages. A real treat for all who reason and learn by means of images. -- Rudolf Arnheim.
Price: $28.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Written by three top consultants and trainers, Applied Strategic Planning shows managers and CEOs a clear, totally effective way to identify and implement strategic objectives.

Applied Strategic Planning surpasses other strategic planning models in many key areas, including:

• Emphasis on organizational culture
• Integration of business and functional plans
• Performance audits
• Gap analysis
• Values clarification

Goodstein, Nolan, and Pfeiffer take managers through all phases of the strategic planning process, including:

• How to determine if an organization is ready for strategic planing
• Effectively communicate a corporate vision
• Recognize the role of culture in changing strategic direction
• Understand the various roles of a consultant
• Write effective mission statements
• Create contingency plans

Containing charts, diagrams, and checklists along with illuminating examples from the authors, extensive consulting experience, and even cartoons that convey important points, Applied Strategic Planning lets managers at the helm navigate expertly through today's unpredictable business climate.

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Price: $12.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The 5,125-yearlong Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012, which many claim portends a massive global transformation Some dread its arrival, believing it will be the beginning of the end. Others await it with delicious anticipation, expecting it to be the catalyst for a quantum leap of consciousness, the dawning of a true New Age.

Others wonder if anything at all will occur--remember Y2K?

2013: The End of Days or a New Beginning? examines all of the popular myths, prophecies, and predictions circulating about 2012, including the Mayan teachings of time acceleration and global awakening on a consciousness level. Furthermore it takes an in-depth look at lesser-known predictions and prophecies, and at the more scientific and reality-based challenges we will face.

Some of the questions this book explores include:

* Will cosmic and earthly chaos disrupt our lives with destructive sunspot cycles, volcanic super-eruptions, monster storms, mass extinctions, and asteroid threats?

* Will huge leaps in technology create bionic humans, computers that think, and an end to all disease--possibly even death itself?

* Will economic and geopolitical powers shift out of the West and into the "the New Eurasia," with new wars being fought over dwindling resources as global warming takes its toll?

* Will this be the evolution revolution of human consciousness--or the final countdown that leads to Armageddon itself?

* Will it be the apocalypse so many have feared--or the rebirth of the world and the transformation of humanity?

There is much, much more to the 2012 enigma than just an ancient calendar, and 2013: The End of Days or a New Beginning? will prove it..
Price: $9.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

After thirty years of anticolonial struggle against Spain and four years of military occupation by the United States, Cuba formally became an independent republic in 1902. The nationalist coalition that fought for Cuba's freedom, a movement in which blacks and mulattoes were well represented, had envisioned an egalitarian and inclusive country--a nation for all, as Jos© Mart­ described it. But did the Cuban republic, and later the Cuban revolution, live up to these expectations?

Tracing the formation and reformulation of nationalist ideologies, government policies, and different forms of social and political mobilization in republican and postrevolutionary Cuba, Alejandro de la Fuente explores the opportunities and limitations that Afro-Cubans experienced in such areas as job access, education, and political representation. Challenging assumptions of both underlying racism and racial democracy, he contends that racism and antiracism coexisted within Cuban nationalism and, in turn, Cuban society. This coexistence has persisted to this day, despite significant efforts by the revolutionary government to improve the lot of the poor and build a nation that was truly for all..
Price: $22.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From detailed plans made for entirely practical purposes to impressionistic sketches that reveal experimentation and the elaboration of ideas, architects' drawings are the unseen metaphoric blueprints of the buildings they precede. Envisioning Architecture, the first in a series of three titles showcasing selected works from The Museum of Modern Art's superlative architecture and design collection, features a wide variety of drawings by great architects of the modern period, from early masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to contemporary practitioners including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, and others. Revealing the range of aesthetic viewpoints in architecture since the late 19th century, these drawings also cumulatively trace the development of the field, almost incidentally making the crucial point that in this increasingly technological age, the age-old discipline of drawing is as vital and inventive as ever. The book opens with an exploration of the relatively brief history of collecting architectural drawings, whose practice dates back little farther than the 16th century..
Price: $42.46 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Examples of world-renowned masters of architecture are used in this enlightening book that explores the "why" of architectural drawing, rather than the "how." By emphasizing the value of drawing over technique, the authors demonstrate how the drawing itself influences the designer's processes of thought, and exerts its own pull on the evolution of the concept..
Price: $47.22 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Part of McGraw-Hill's Explorations in World History series, this brief and accessible volume presents a comparative survey of the early history of women from a global perspective. Each chapter, which can be read independently of the others, examines the experiences of women in one of seven civilizations typically covered in an introductory world history text: pre-agricultural societies, the Ancient Mediterranean, Gupta India/Southeast Asia, Tang/Song China, Maya and Aztec cultures, early Islam through the Abbasid caliphate, and Europe in the Late Middle Ages. Within these cultures, the authors explore a variety of issues impacting the lives of females in pre-modern history, including the ideal woman, female life cycles, women's roles in work and economy, female sexuality and spirituality, and women and politics. The book's brevity makes it an excellent companion text for students in world history, women's history, introductory sociology and anthropology courses, and women’s studies courses..
Price: $20.76 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In 1812 a series of revolts known collectively as the Aponte Rebellion erupted across the island of Cuba, comprising one of the largest and most important slave insurrections in Caribbean history. Matt Childs provides the first in-depth analysis of the rebellion, situating it in local, colonial, imperial, and Atlantic World contexts.

Childs explains how slaves and free people of color responded to the nineteenth-century "sugar boom" in the Spanish colony by planning a rebellion against racial slavery and plantation agriculture. Striking alliances among free people of color and slaves, blacks and mulattoes, Africans and Creoles, and rural and urban populations, rebels were prompted to act by a widespread belief in rumors promising that emancipation was near. Taking further inspiration from the 1791 Haitian Revolution, rebels sought to destroy slavery in Cuba and perhaps even end Spanish rule. By comparing his findings to studies of slave insurrections in Brazil, Haiti, the British Caribbean, and the United States, Childs places the rebellion within the wider story of Atlantic World revolution and political change. The book also features a biographical table, constructed by Childs, of the more than 350 people investigated for their involvement in the rebellion, 34 of whom were executed..
Price: $20.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For most of the twentieth century, Brazil was widely regarded as a "racial democracy"—a country untainted by the scourge of racism and prejudice. In recent decades, however, this image has been severely critiqued, with a growing number of studies highlighting persistent and deep-seated patterns of racial discrimination and inequality. Yet, recent work on race and racism has rarely considered gender as part of its analysis.

In Negras in Brazil, Kia Lilly Caldwell examines the life experiences of Afro-Brazilian women whose stories have until now been largely untold. This pathbreaking study analyzes the links between race and gender and broader processes of social, economic, and political exclusion. Drawing on ethnographic research with social movement organizations and thirty-five life history interviews, Caldwell explores the everyday struggles Afro-Brazilian women face in their efforts to achieve equal rights and full citizenship. She also shows how the black women's movement, which has emerged in recent decades, has sought to challenge racial and gender discrimination in Brazil. While proposing a broader view of citizenship that includes domains such as popular culture and the body, Negras in Brazil highlights the continuing relevance of identity politics for members of racially marginalized communities.

Providing new insights into black women's social activism and a gendered perspective on Brazilian racial dynamics, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Latin American Studies, African diaspora studies, women's studies, politics, and cultural anthropology..
Price: $22.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]