A Patterned Past Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of A Patterned Past book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
In this comprehensive study of the rhetoric, narrative patterns, and intellectual content of the Zuozhuan and Guoyu, David Schaberg reads these two collections of historical anecdotes as traces of a historiographical practice that flourished around the fourth century BCE among the followers of Confucius. He contends that the coherent view of early China found in these texts is an effect of their origins and the habits of reading they impose. Rather than being totally accurate accounts, they represent the efforts of a group of officials and ministers to argue for a moralizing interpretation of the events of early Chinese history and for their own value as skilled interpreters of events and advisers to the rulers of the day.
A satisfactory comprehensive history of the social and economic development of pre-modern China, the largest country in the world in terms of population, and with a documentary record covering three millennia, is still far from possible. The present work is only an attempt to disengage the major themes that seem to be of relevance to our understanding of China today. In particular, this volume studies three questions. Why did the Chinese Empire stay together when the Roman Empire, and every other empire of antiquity of the middle ages, ultimately collapsed? What were the causes of the medieval revolution which made the Chinese economy after about 1100 the most advanced in the world? And why did China after about 1350 fail to maintain her earlier pace of technological advance while still, in many respects, advancing economically? The three sections of the book deal with these problems in turn but the division of a subject matter is to some extent only one of convenience. These topics are so interrelated that, in the last analysis, none of them can be considered in isolation from the others.
A groundbreaking argument about the link between autism and ingenuity. Why can humans alone invent? In The Pattern Seekers, Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen makes a case that autism is as crucial to our creative and cultural history as the mastery of fire. Indeed, Baron-Cohen argues that autistic people have played a key role in human progress for seventy thousand years, from the first tools to the digital revolution. How? Because the same genes that cause autism enable the pattern seeking that is essential to our species's inventiveness. However, these abilities exact a great cost on autistic people, including social and often medical challenges, so Baron-Cohen calls on us to support and celebrate autistic people in both their disabilities and their triumphs. Ultimately, The Pattern Seekers isn't just a new theory of human civilization, but a call to consider anew how society treats those who think differently.
The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs by George W. Ball Pdf
During his long career as a diplomat, international lawyer, statesman and investment banker, George Ball interrogated Albert Speer at the end of World War II, worked with Jean Monnet to build Europe, supervised the rescue of hostages in the Congo, advised President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis and, as Undersecretary of State in the Johnson and Kennedy administrations, was an early and consistent opponent of America’s involvement in Vietnam. “Clarity, serenity and precision are the marks of this major contribution to an understanding of American foreign policy during the past 40 years. The book deserves to be compared with Dean Acheson’s Present at the Creation (but less self-satisfied) and George Kennan’s Memoirs (but less introverted). Although the author is best known to the general public for his opposition to American military involvement in Vietnam, the historian will find his discussion of European issues the most interesting part of the book.” — Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs “[A] first-rate memoir of American politics and foreign policy over half a century. It is literate, lively and amusing, and in places it clarifies basic questions about the foreign policy of the United States... The Past Has Another Pattern is a colorful and thought provoking tour of the recent and not-so-recent past, conducted by a skillful guide.” — Daniel Yergin, The New York Times “[O]ne of the great, examined public lives of our time.” — Kirkus “A distinguished lawyer and public servant with experience of Presidents stretching from Roosevelt to Reagan, [George Ball] has written an impressive book of memoirs.” — Douglas Johnson, London Review of Books “A few years ago I read some 70 volumes of biography and autobiography as a Pulitzer Prize juror. George Ball’s memoirs are everything that most of the art is not. While he does not neglect his achievement, he is candid on the things that went wrong. His public life has provided him with a very great deal of very great importance to tell. He writes admirably well. And much of his story is amusing. This year there will, I promise, be no other biography that will be as good.” — John Kenneth Galbraith “George Ball is that rarity — a distinguished public servant who can write; and his memoir is not only indispensable for the historian but absorbing for the general reader.” — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
A Pattern Book of New Orleans Architecture by Roulhac B. Toledano Pdf
A study of historic architectural styles of New Orleans homes. This presentation of nineteenth-century gouache and watercolor archival paintings from the New Orleans Notarial Archives offers a glimpse at what old, renovated, restored, and new buildings in New Orleans neighborhoods not only might look like, but how they should look. Including examples of each New Orleans house type, ranging from the French colonial plantation home to the Creole cottage, this volume offers historic plans for each house along with contemporary adaptive-use alternatives to suit modern needs. An architectural pattern book, educational tool, city planner’s handbook, and stunning visual presentation, this gorgeous resource is intended for all interested in historic preservation and architectural history as well as those wishing to build a modern home in an authentic New Orleans style. Praise for A Pattern Book of New Orleans Architecture “An enchanting waltz through the heart of the Crescent City choreographed by the doyenne of New Orleans’ preservationists. [Toledano] presents two centuries of colored renderings from the New Orleans Notarial Archives in a stunning visual portrait of the city’s built heritage, while architect Gate Pratt’s pattern book of new homes designed in authentic styles provides an indispensable resource for rebuilding efforts. This work is destined to become the quintessential bible for historians, preservationists, architects, and all those interested in the true story of the architectural traditions that have shaped the ‘real’ New Orleans.” —Russell Versaci, AIA, traditional architect and author of Creating a New Old House and Roots of Home “For architects, builders, and developers working in the Crescent City, Roulhac B. Toledano’s A Pattern Book of New Orleans Architecture reveals an extraordinary new design resource. Toledano describes in detail the evolution of the city and the building types that have given the city a character unique in the world. Modern floor plans designed by local architects for historic house types demonstrate that the traditional architectural patterns of New Orleans are as accommodating today as in the past. For local practitioners and visitors wishing to build in New Orleans, Toledano’s pattern book is essential for sensitive and thoughtful design in this most exotic and precious city.” —Paul Ostergaard, AIA, Urban Design Associates, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
'Part-detective story, part-cultural snapshot . . . all bound by Gibson's pin-sharp prose' Arena -------------- THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE BLUE ANT TRILIOGY - READ ZERO HISTORY AND SPOOK COUNTRY FOR MORE Cayce Pollard has a new job. She's been offered a special project: track down the makers of an addictive online film that's lighting up the internet. Hunting the source will take her to Tokyo and Moscow and put her in the sights of Japanese hackers and Russian Mafia. She's up against those who want to control the film, to own it - who figure breaking the law is just another business strategy. The kind of people who relish turning the hunter into the hunted . . . A gripping spy thriller by William Gibson, bestselling author of Neuromancer. Part prophesy, part satire, Pattern Recognition skewers the absurdity of modern life with the lightest and most engaging of touches. Readers of Neal Stephenson, Ray Bradbury and Iain M. Banks won't be able to put this book down. -------------- 'Fast, witty and cleverly politicized' Guardian 'A big novel, full of bold ideas . . . races along like an expert thriller' GQ 'Dangerously hip. Its dialogue and characterization will amaze you. A wonderfully detailed, reckless journey of espionage and lies' USA Today 'A compelling, humane story with a sympathetic heroine searching for meaning and consolation in a post-everything world' Daily Telegraph 'Electric, profound. Gibson's descriptions of Tokyo, Russia and London are surreally spot-on' Financial Times
You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.
The world of Orla Kiely is one where pattern reigns. Immediately recognisable, her unique design language and sure sense of graphic control has seen her label become a hugely successful global brand in the decade since its launch. From her early signature bags, the collection has grown to include a complete womenswear line, accessories, travel and homeware, sold in shops and outlets worldwide.Giving a personal account of what informs her work and inspires her designs, Orla looks at pattern in all its manifestations - the impact of scale and proportion, rhythm and texture and the all-important dimension of colour. With her prints applied to a wide range of products, from bags and clothing to decorative objects and soft furnishings, she is in a unique position to comment on all the ways in which pattern can enrich our lives. Illustrated with many examples of Orla's work, along with inspirational images that have shaped her style, the result is both a visual treasury and a thoughtful guide to using pattern with flair and confidence.
