Hindy balances reverence with realism, resulting in a vigorous, if sometimes overly meticulous genealogy of the burgeoning...
Former journalist and Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Hindy (co-author: Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery, 2005) considers craft beers and the innovators who brought them to the wider American and global markets from the 1960s to the present.
Beginning with an account of Fritz Maytag, the force behind San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company, the author draws from choice interviews, magazines such as All About Beer, anecdotes and related ephemera to explore a variety of topics. These include the legalization of home brewing in 1979; seminal writers in the early days of the practice, such as Charlie Papazian (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing) and Michael Jackson (The World Guide to Beer); the frequent path from homebrewing to microbrewery and brewpub startups; forerunners, including Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company; and numerous profiles of second- and third-generation brewers. With extensive passages devoted to the intricacies of formulating standards, initial challenges in establishing camaraderie among brewers, relationships with distributors, the sometimes-negative view of contract brewers and responses to media-fueled “wars” with larger corporations such as Anheuser-Busch, this is a book for intense aficionados. Thorough surveys of the field—from descriptions of actions by the Association of Brewers and other organizations to play-by-plays of particular company sales—reveal an insider's dedication to the business. For the generalist, chapters that emphasize the can-do spirit embodied by men and women who gambled on their dreams, and that reveal a frequent interest in giving back to the communities that supported them, offer more interesting, personal stories. Despite tensions between craft brewers, what emerges is a revolution marked by "a band of Davids" bent on confronting the "Goliaths."
Hindy balances reverence with realism, resulting in a vigorous, if sometimes overly meticulous genealogy of the burgeoning world of craft beer.Pub Date: April 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-137-27876-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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