Most Popular Books by John Kane

Intimate portraits by photojournalist Richard F. Bellak of the musical festival’s counterculture attendees celebrating peace, love, and rock and roll. In the summer of 1969, 400,000 people from across the country came together and redefined the music scene forever. Though the legacy and lore of Woodstock lives on in the memory of its attendees, a new generation can experience the real and unedited festival through Richard Bellak’s never-before-seen photographs and John Kane’s incredible new interviews. Pilgrims of Woodstock offers a vivid and intimate portrait of the overlooked stars of the festival: the everyday people who made Woodstock unforgettable. The photographs and interviews capture attendees’ profound personal moments across hundreds of acres of farmland, as they meditated, played music, cooked food at night, and congregated around campfires. For three days, they helped and relied on each other in peace and harmony. For most, it was a life-changing event. Now, after the 50th anniversary of the famed festival, relive their experiences firsthand in Pilgrims of Woodstock.

In this survey of U.S. history, John Kane looks at the tensions between American virtue and power and how those tensions have influenced foreign policy. Americans have long been suspicious of power as a threat to individual liberty, Kane argues, and yet the growth of national power has been perceived as a natural byproduct of American virtue. This contradiction has posed a persistent crisis that has influenced the trajectory of American diplomacy and foreign relations for more than two hundred years. Kane examines the various challenges, including emerging Nationalism, isolationism, and burgeoning American power, which have at times challenged not only foreign policy but American national identity. The events of September 11, 2001, rekindled Americans' sense of righteousness, the author observes, but the subsequent use of power in Iraq has raised questions about the nation’s virtue and, as in earlier days, cast a deep shadow over its purpose and direction.

Known as the "Father of Festival Sound," Bill Hanley (b. 1937) made his indelible mark as a sound engineer at the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. Hanley is credited with creating the sound of Woodstock, which literally made the massive festival possible. Stories of his on-the-fly solutions resonate as legend among festivalgoers, music lovers, and sound engineers. Since the 1950s his passion for audio has changed the way audiences listen to and technicians approach quality live concert sound. John Kane examines Hanley’s echoing impact on the entire field of sound engineering, that crucial but often-overlooked carrier wave of contemporary music. Hanley’s innovations founded the sound reinforcement industry and launched a new area of technology, rich with clarity and intelligibility. By the early seventies the post-Woodstock festival mass gathering movement collapsed. The music industry shifted, and new sound companies surfaced. After huge financial losses and facing stiff competition, Hanley lost his hold on a business he helped create. By studying both his history during the festivals and his independent business ventures, Kane seeks to present an honest portrayal of Hanley and his acumen and contributions. Since 2011, Kane conducted extensive research, including over one hundred interviews with music legends from the production and performance side of the industry. These carefully selected respondents witnessed Hanley’s expertise at various events and venues like Lyndon B. Johnson’s second inauguration, the Newport Folk/Jazz Festivals, the Beatles' final tour of 1966, the Fillmore East, Madison Square Garden, and more. The Last Seat in the House will intrigue and inform anyone who cares about the modern music industry.

'There's something very important that I need you to remember. When I say Ooh, you say Aah. Let's try it.' Ooh the donkey has lost his pants. Readers must help him find them! In this picture book, young readers help to sell the story by responding to simple verbal or visual cues. This hilarious book is perfect for reading aloud and is fun for the whole family.

A guide full of practical hints to help build the confidence of graphics and typography students. Its aim is to bring the reader to the point where they understand the basic principles of typography and to strengthen the designer's 'eye' through informed, direct observation.

The Holy Eucharist has nourished the Faith of Catholics for centuries — but it's all too easy to let routine dull your sense of the transforming power of this sacrament. This book will stir the embers of your love for the Eucharist into a bright glowing flame. In it, Fr. John A. Kane explores the selfless humility shown by Christ in His presence in the Eucharist, opening the way for you to receive greater spiritual fruit from worthier receptions of Communion and from adoration of Christ in the Eucharist. You'll learn how the Eucharist is truly a sacrament of love — a sacrament that not only demonstrates Christ's love for you, but gives you the grace you need to love God and your neighbor with a fervor unquenched by passing changes in fortune or feelings. As Fr. Kane opens your eyes to how much God longs to be with you in the Eucharist — and how much He delights in you — you'll come to experience the Eucharist as that inexhaustible source of grace, peace, and comfort that He intends it to be for you. Discover from Fr. John Kane: Christ's silent and secret work in your soul: how you can aid Him in His work through the Eucharist Receiving Communion: how to make your communions dynamic encounters with Jesus Christ's Presence in the Eucharist: how it can nourish your soul even though it's beyond earthly understanding Two obstacles to gaining spiritual fruit from Communion: how to recognize and overcome them Why it's so important for you to spend time in thanksgiving after Communion And much more that will help you know Christ in the Eucharist and love Him more than ever!

"How to Make a Good Confession" gives readers practical methods to start consistently winning their battles against sin. Fr. John Kane not only explains ways believers can determine how free from sin they really are, but he also helps them understand the devastating effects of sin and the urgent need for repentance. This down-to-earth, practical guide shows readers how to transform confession into a profound experience of God's love.

Prayers of the Heart is a book that speaks to each and every person who struggles with the right words or phrases to connect to our God. This book attempts to engage the reader in new and dynamic ways of praying. Using contemporary language, images, and emotions that allow for a deeper conversion experience, the author guides you on a spiritual path in ways you never before felt possible.

The Democratic Leader argues that leaders occupy a unique place in democracies. The foundational principle of democracy -- popular sovereignty -- implies that the people must rule. Yet the people can rule only by granting a trust of authority to individual leaders. This produces a tension that results in a unique type of leadership, specifically, democratic leadership. Democratic leaders, once they have the confidence and authority of the people, are very powerful because they rule through consent and not through fear. Yet in many respects they are the weakest of leaders, because democrats distrust leaders and impose on them a range of far-reaching constraints--legal, moral and political. The democratic leader must perpetually navigate the powerful and contending forces of public cynicism, founded in the suspicion that all leaders are self-interested power-seekers, and of public idealism, founded in a perennial hope that good leaders will act nobly by sacrificing themselves for the people. The Democratic Leader suggests that the inherent difficulty of this form of leadership cannot be resolved, and indeed is necessary for securing the strength and stability of democracy.

It is often said that politics is an amoral realm of power and interest in which moral judgment is irrelevant. In this book, by contrast, John Kane argues that people's positive moral judgments of political actors and institutions provide leaders with an important resource, which he christens 'moral capital'. Negative judgements cause a loss of moral capital which jeopardizes legitimacy and political survival. Studies of several historical and contemporary leaders - Lincoln, de Gaulle, Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi - illustrate the significance of moral capital for political legitimation, mobilizing support, and the creation of strategic opportunities. In the book's final section, Kane applies his arguments to the American presidency from Kennedy to Clinton. He argues that a moral crisis has afflicted the nation at its mythical heart and has been refracted through and enacted within its central institutions, eroding the moral capital of government and people and undermining the nation's morale.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1845.

A catalogue of the exhibition held at the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, from October 21-December 4, 1966; and at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., from January 6-February 19, 1967.

"There's something I need you to help me with. When I say BOO, you say HOO. Are you ready?" Boo is little ghost who lives in a haunted house - and he is afraid of the dark. In I Say Boo, You Say Hoo, readers must help tell the story with a series of hilarious verbal and visual cues. This is a wonderful book for sharing with a single child or in a group ... and it's a little bit stinky. Be prepared for riotous laughter at story time!

An intergalactic adventure with pants from the author of I Say ooh, You Say Aah.

John Kane-Berman is uniquely qualified to look back over the enormous political and social changes that have taken place in his lifetime in this fractious country. In his career as student leader, Rhodes Scholar, newspaperman, independent columnist, commentator, and Chief Executive, for thirty years, of the South Africa Institute of Race Relations, Kane-Berman has been at the coal face of political change in South Africa. The breadth and depth of ideas and events covered in Between Two Fires are striking: the disintegration of apartheid, the chaos of the 'people's war' and its contribution to the broader societal breakdown we see today, the liberal slideaway, the rise of an authoritarian ANC with its racial ideology and revolutionary goals, to mention only a few. It is a book of fizzing ideas. Kane-Berman's willingness to confront received wisdom is thoroughly refreshing, and he is forthright about the threats to freedom, democracy, and growth in contemporary South Africa, many of which he identified even before the ANC came to power. He is equally forthright in putting forward liberal ideas to halt the country's downward slide. Writing, debate, and reasoned argument are Kane-Berman's stock in trade, and his clarity of vision and personal insight have created a memoir of rare candour and absorbing interest.