Economics | Travel Europe Books

Tag Archive

Liverpool A-Z: Kelly Mark, Tenantspin

Editorial Reviews

Designed to visually echo the iconic London street guide of a similar name, Liverpool A–Z is an innovative attempt to create a human map of the city. Twenty-six Liverpudlians, with names spanning the alphabet from Adam to Zena, share personal stories, insights, and opinions that together make up an emotional guide to the city—one that subverts the strict order of an official street map. An essay by Alan Dunn of tenantspin puts the project in context, and photos of the participants—including a Nigerian prince, a policeman, a BBC presenter, a traditional Chinese dancer, and a philosopher—combine with their candid interviews to form a revealing picture of this complex and dynamic city.

About the Author
Kelly Mark is an artist based in Toronto. Tenantspin is one of the United Kingdom’s leading community-driven Internet television channels.

Order Liverpool A-Z: Kelly Mark, Tenantspin form Amazon.

Low-Wage Work in United Kingdom (Jobeu): Caroline Lloyd, Geoff Mason, Ken Mayhew

Editorial Reviews

The United Kingdom’s labor market policies place it in a kind of institutional middle ground between the United States and continental Europe. The election of Tony Blair’s Labour Party in 1997 set Britain on a reformist course that sought to move people off of government support and into work. Low-Wage Work in the United Kingdom reports that the current level of low-wage remains one of the highest in Europe. Nonetheless, the authors find that Blair’s reforms–including the introduction of a national minimum wage relatively higher than that in the U.S.–have been instrumental in lowering the overall poverty rate. Many of the Blair era reforms resemble American policies, but are more effective and extensive in Britain. For example, the British version of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) reaches many more workers than the U.S. EITC, which only provides subsidies to families with children. Low-Wage Work in the United Kingdom skillfully illuminates some of the key economic and political mechanisms involved in both highly effective social welfare reforms and the persistent problem of low-wage work.

CAROLINE LLOYD is a senior research fellow at the Economic and Social Research Council Centre on Skills, Knowledge, and Organizational Performance. GEOFF MASON is senior research fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London. KEN MAYHEW is fellow in economics at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Order Low-Wage Work in United Kingdom (Jobeu): Caroline Lloyd, Geoff Mason, Ken Mayhew form Amazon.

Collins Nicholson Waterways Map of the Norfolk Broads (Waterways Guides): Martin Knowlden

Editorial Reviews

For anyone and everyone with an interest in the Norfolk Broads waterways, this mapfeatures locks, bridges, winding holes, and towpaths; water points, sanitary stations, pump out facilities, and refuse disposal; boatyards, marinas, pubs, restaurants, and shops; mile markers and milestones (distance in miles and number of locks to strategic points); history, local services, and places of interest; opportunities for walking and cycling; comprehensive navigational notes including maximum dimensions, advice, and potential hazards; and navigational authorities, contact details, and internet links. The map covers all sections of the rivers Yare, Bure, and Waveney.

Order Collins Nicholson Waterways Map of the Norfolk Broads (Waterways Guides): Martin Knowlden form Amazon.

Berlin: Giles MacDonogh

Editorial Reviews

Giles MacDonogh intends to a fill a void in the historical documentation of the former capital city of the German empire and the eventual capital of unified Germany. Instead of presenting yet another scholarly account of the city’s past, he instead explores the spirit of the city, delving into themes that convey “something of the colour of the great city and the variety of life that has been lived there in the past seven and a half centuries.” His defiance of traditional historical narrative may be well intended, but it runs the risk of creating a book that does not contribute to any historical dialogue whatsoever.

The seven broadly titled chapters of Berlin (”Ich bin ein Berliner,” “Berlin Itineraries,” “Berlin Life,” etc.) present a thematically arranged, telegraphic litany of people, places, and events in Berlin’s history, interspersed frequently with personal anecdotes, that never quite develops any particular issue at length or leads to any compelling observations about Berlin’s historical past or its future. “It is hard to think of a city which has suffered so much,” he concludes. “Harder still to think of another which has proved so clearly that it is inextinguishable.” Yet, of the city’s many characteristics, suffering and survivalism are not among those which predominate MacDonogh’s analysis. For such an account, one best await the English translation of Wolgang Ribbe’s Berlin–Geschichte, mentioned by MacDonogh himself in his preface as a logical starting point for a more comprehensive study of the former and future German capital. –Bertina Loeffler

From Publishers Weekly
Journalist and historian MacDonogh has written most extensively about food and drink, particularly in the German-speaking lands. So while there’s plenty of history here, MacDonogh is the sort of writer who’s fully aware that it’s not just fine words that keep one alive. MacDonogh’s history is woven into a broadly thematic arrangement that can make it spotty, redundant and hard to piece together. For example, in a section about various revolutions in Berlin in which he notes that “[b]y 1918 the middle classes had achieved their political aims,” he sheds little light on the Second Reich’s unfair electoral system. Said section belongs in a chapter titled “Belial,” which also deals with the battle of Berlin and the 1953 uprising. Other chapters are equally amorphous agglomerations: “City of Order,” for example, deals with all facets of regulation whether it be the U-Bahn or the Deutsche Christen movement of the 1930s. But if the various chapters lack an overreaching coherence (”Berlin Itineraries,” in particular, almost requires the presence of the city itself to realize any narrative logic), there is still a great deal of fascinating information, mostly about aspects of popular or daily life ignored by more traditional histories. MacDonogh is particularly good on certain recurring themes and people: the history of beer; the satirist Adolf Glassbrenner (aka Brennglas); painter Heinrich Zille, whose subject was the Berlin worker; and police commissioner Wilhelm Stieber. There are also extensive references to Adam von Trott zu Solz (a reflection of his biography of the anti-Nazi conspirator, A Good German) and to E.T.A. Hoffmann that might hopefully indicate a forthcoming biography of that great writer.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Order Berlin: Giles MacDonogh form Amazon.

Antike Geographische Namen Nordlich der Alpen: Mit einem Beitrag von Hermann Reichert : "Germanien in der Sicht des Ptolemaios" (Ergaenzungsbaende Zum … der Germanischen Altertums) (German Edition): Gerhard Rasch

Editorial Reviews

Old geographic names often shed light on the linguistic and cultural conditions of the “Dark Ages” and are of high value to the field of archaeology. This study from the year 1950, published here for the first time, offers a meticulous collection of all names (especially, landmarks and rivers) reported by Greek and Latin writers. In the appendix, Hermann Reichert illustrates the merits of the Alexandrine geographer Klaudios Ptolemaios (2nd century).

Order Antike Geographische Namen Nordlich der Alpen: Mit einem Beitrag von Hermann Reichert : "Germanien in der Sicht des Ptolemaios" (Ergaenzungsbaende Zum … der Germanischen Altertums) (German Edition): Gerhard Rasch form Amazon.