THE KNOWLEDGE
New in… BOOKS
golden agE
War and disorder
Methods of the madmen: how the advertising men and women of Britain’s most awarded agency did their most awarded ads by Mike Everett (The Choir Press, £14.95, paperback) Collett Dickenson Pearce was a legend in the advertising world, in 2012 named the “most awarded advertising agency of the last 50 years”. It spawned all those Hamlet cigar ads; Ridley Scott’s Hovis commercials of the boy pushing the bike up the hill; and the long-running “Heineken reaches the parts that other beers fail to reach” campaign. It attracted a gallery of talents: David Puttnam, Charles Saatchi, Frank Lowe, Alan Parker and John Hegarty, to name a few. This book takes a look back at London’s Golden Age of advertising, when ads were witty and entertaining, and before so much of that creativity was killed by the internet.
How civil wars start – and how to stop them by Barbara F Walter, (Viking, £18.99, hardback) An extremely timely read at a time when commentators across the Atlantic are considering the seemingly absurd but apparently real possibility of a civil war in the United States. The recent hearings about the storming of the Capitol in Washington two years ago have shown how close that came to a genuine attempt to seize power illegally. Walter, who’s advised on political violence around the world, considers the evidence, drawing on examples such as Yugoslavia, Syria, Libya and Myanmar to explain how civil wars begin. Disturbingly, she finds that America ticks many of the boxes: ethnic resentment, stunted democracy, extensive gun ownership and a population gripped by paranoia.
High achievers
Religious meltdown
HBR at 100: the most influential and innovative articles from Harvard Business Review’s first century by Michael Porter et al (Harvard Business Review Press, £18.95, paperback) Some of the greatest moments from this outstanding journal of management: Porter on competitive strategy; Peter F Drucker on managing yourself; Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad on strategic intent; Amy C Edmondson and Mark Mortensen on psychological safety; and Linda A Hill on being a firsttime manager. Drucker’s 1999 article began: “History’s great achievers – a Napoléon, a da Vinci, a Mozart – have always managed themselves. That, in large measure, is what makes them great achievers. But they are rare exceptions, so unusual in their talents and accomplishments as to be considered outside the boundaries of ordinary human existence. Now, most of us, even those of us with modest endowments, will have to learn to manage ourselves… and stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.”
The vanishing: the twilight of Christianity in the Middle East by Janine di Giovanni (Bloomsbury, £20, hardcover) This tells the poignant story of how Christian communities are in danger of extinction across much of the region where the Bible was written. Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine have all nurtured those communities for more than 2,000 years, but forces have conspired in recent years – not least the impact of Islamic State – to put them under threat as never before. Di Giovanni, a highly rated war correspondent, has travelled extensively in these countries and spent significant time among the communities. Her mission, she writes, was “to try to record for history people whose villages, cultures and ethos would perhaps not be standing in 100 years’ time”. Their future is threatened not just by extremism and intolerance, but by economic uncertainty.
58 City Edition 2022
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