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THE UNSEEN REVOLUTION

Name: THE UNSEEN REVOLUTION
Author: Peter F. Drucker
ISBN: 043490399X

HOW PENSION FUND SOCIALISM CAME TO AMERICA

by Peter F. Drucker ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 1976

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According to Peter Drucker, the last quarter century has witnessed an unrecorded economic gyration toward nothing short of a unique and salutary American brand of socialism—the ultimate ownership of the nation's business by the nation's workers, as beneficiaries of pension trusts. The over-65 savant of management-cum-economic theory takes on a subject for which he is distinctly suited, and for the first time a cogent analysis of the probable impact of the American pension system is constructed for the generalist. The Dickensian clerk, the assembly-line worker, you, I, and the rest of the proletariat have become men and women, not of property, but of expectations. The employees of the country are becoming the new owners (if not the managers) of our major productive resources and the consequences, as well as the fact, ought to be examined. Horrible examples of pension fund mismangement and misinformation abound. New York City's unfunded pension debt, approaching $10 billion, stalks the Big Apple like the ghost of King Kong. The newly promoted employee stock ownership plan, the Kelso plan—whereby a struggling firm may sell its own stock to the pension trust established for the benefit of its workers—is treated with scorn. (On the other hand the Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association, serving the author's academic community, is presented as the most ingenious and intelligent of pension funds.) Drucker dismisses the often cited excessive concentration of power in massive pension trusts as a "pure red herring." He's after bigger philosophical fish. Among them is the significance of an ever increasing cadre of pensioners, members of a welfare society not (as citizens) of a welfare state. Discussion of the subject is timely and though the book is filled with polemic, it may be the spark that ignites debate.

Pub Date: June 16, 1976

ISBN: 043490399X

Page Count: 214

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: May 16, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1976

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
by Peter F. Drucker

- BOOK REVIEW
MANAGING IN A TIME OF GREAT CHANGE
by Peter F. Drucker

- BOOK REVIEW
POST-CAPITALIST SOCIETY
by Peter F. Drucker

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.