A solid history of the Singer company from the invention of the sewing machine to the days of leveraged buyouts.
A corporate history of one of the world’s leading sewing machine manufacturers.
In this debut business book, Buckman traces more than 150 years of Singer’s history, from the first commercially successful sewing machine produced in the mid-19th century to the hazards of leveraged buyouts and takeovers in the 1980s and its more recent revival after several ownership changes. The “notoriously public private life” of Isaac Singer (father of more than two dozen acknowledged children by a variety of wives and mistresses) and his partner Edward Clark’s more patrician lifestyle serve as the backdrop for the company’s early history, and Buckman makes it clear that the philanthropic and professional pursuits of the Singer and Clark families—the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Dakota, the famous Manhattan building; the Baseball Hall of Fame—have been nearly as significant forces as the sewing machine itself. As the company moved away from family ownership, however, its management displayed a mixed track record, pursuing unwise acquisitions and moving into the aerospace field until it drew the attention of corporate raiders who came close to finishing it off. Buckman analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each period in the company’s development, pointing out the confluence of factors that led to early market dominance (an unlikely union of complementary personalities and control of necessary patents) and placing it in the context of the global business trends of the 20th century. Buckman demonstrates a solid understanding of Singer’s business and evolution, though the book stumbles somewhat over imprecise history (“Prior to the nineteenth century, mobility was relatively rare”; “The notion of ‘free time’ for their wives was an oxymoron”) and awkward phrasing (“he named it after the American Indian word for ‘home,’ the ‘Wigwam’ ”). But the book’s thorough grounding in primary sources and its adept blending of human drama with balance sheets outweigh the shortcomings, making it a valuable contribution to the field of industrial history in the United States.
A solid history of the Singer company from the invention of the sewing machine to the days of leveraged buyouts.Pub Date: May 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4575-4661-7
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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