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FRUIT FIELDS IN MY BLOOD

OKIE MIGRANTS IN THE WEST

Absorbing memoir/history of migrant work and workers by anthropologist Sonneman, herself a former migrant worker. Though a drop-out from mainstream society who worked in orchards and citrus groves for 15 years, Sonneman puts her social- science education to good use in this humane, unsentimental, and thorough study of near-poverty in America's agricultural community. Weaving together personal experience, anecdotes, and research gathered since 1973, Sonneman and her husband, Rick Steigmeyer (who took many of the book's 173 b&w photographs), create a tapestry of words, pictures, feelings, and historical facts, evoking with an almost tribal grasp of its values the way of life of migrant pickers. Presented here, along with the beauty of early mornings and a real sense of freedom, are suspicious townspeople, rural police, and filthy toilets. And good history: the text offers a bridge to the Great Depression and abounds with Okie observations, wit, and values—a submerged tradition in danger of disappearing with the advent of illegal immigrants who will work for even less. Through it all run the themes of exploitation, industrialization, labor-union failure, and the driving away from the earth of people close to it. Speaking of the old-timers, migrant-worker Walter Williams observes that ``pride was the thing that kept them going in the face of the shame they may have felt.'' That shame is the shame of the poor in a commercial culture; Sonneman's migrants are people for whom money, retirement plans, and insurance have less magic than work, community, and the land. For an anthropologist to identify so with a group under study raises ethical considerations, but Sonneman's very committed text passes the test. Where it differs from 30's writing is in its lack of drive, fire, and eloquence: The social scientist in Sonneman makes her an accurate, detached observer—good enough to win a citation of merit from the Western States Book Awards—but doesn't produce memorable writing.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-89301-151-7

Page Count: 224

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

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

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

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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