Take A Closer Look: Learn to See Through Manipulations, Distortions, and Fabrications
(This book contains 50 lessons that take a closer look at ...)
This book contains 50 lessons that take a closer look at significant issues for decision-makers, users of information, and everyone who knows there is more to the story than we generally get to hear.
Topics include the building blocks of gathering and using information of value, important concepts of human behavior, and mini-case studies in business decision-making.
These readings served as launching pads for seminars David taught in Graduate Business School. In classroom discussions, students were required to read the 3-minute articles, identify the salient issues, and connect the dots.
At the end of the semester, attentive and self-motivated students had a firm grasp on how to assess and use information in their professional and personal lives. You can do it less time than that.
David Van Nostrand was born on December 5, 1811, in New York City. He was the fifth child of Jacob and Harriet (Rhodes) Van Nostrand. The founder of his family in America was Jacob Jansen, who emigrated from the Netherlands to settle on Long Island in 1638.
To avoid confusion with other Jansens, Jacob's children added "van Noorstrandt" to the name, referring to the district of their father's origin, and as generations passed, this became transmuted into Van Nostrand. David's father, a successful merchant in New York City, died leaving eight children when David was only ten years old; but their mother was able to care for them and give them the beginnings of an education.
Education
David studied at Union Hall, Jamaica, Long Island, until he was fifteen when he entered the employ of John P. Haven, a New York publisher, and bookseller. Four years later, having saved a little money, he contemplated taking up his studies again; but he had become so valuable to Haven that the latter persuaded him to remain by promising him a partnership upon his coming of age.
Career
Van Nostrand continued with Haven until 1834, when he formed a partnership in a similar enterprise with William Dwight. The panic of 1837 drove the young men out of business, and Van Nostrand accepted the offer of a position from a friend, Lieut. John G. Barnard, an army engineer, stationed at New Orleans in charge of the construction of fortifications in Louisiana and Texas. While he was serving as clerk of accounts and disbursements in Barnard's office, Van Nostrand eagerly studied military engineering and kindred sciences and improved his acquaintance with engineers, scientists, and military men. Returning to New York about 1848, he opened a bookstore at Broadway and John Street.
His acquaintance with military and technical men and writings now stood him in good stead; he was solicited by army and navy officers to import foreign books on military and naval science, and soon had built up an excellent trade. The United States Military Academy and other institutions were among his customers. He also ventured into publishing, issuing trade editions, usually enlarged and augmented, of various works, some of which had first been published for the government.
In 1864, he took over from George Palmer Putnam the publication of The Rebellion Record, edited by Frank Moore; Van Nostrand issued volumes VII-XI (1864 - 68). In 1869, he installed his own printing plant, moving to more spacious quarters at 23 Murray Street, and established Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Magazine.
Achievements
Devoting himself to the publishing of scientific, technical, and military works, he made his concern the largest specialized publishing house in America; and built up an extensive business abroad. He is credited with giving a distinct impulse to scientific investigation in the United States by his importation of foreign treatises, and with encouraging American technical men to write by publishing their work.
He continued until his death to publish Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine, the shorter title was adopted in 1878; six months after he died it was merged with the American Railroad Journal in the Railroad and Engineering Journal. Van Nostrand was a member of the Union League Club and the St. Nicholas Society. He was one of the founders of the Holland Society of New York.
(This book contains 50 lessons that take a closer look at ...)
Membership
a member of the Century and Union League clubs of New York City
Connections
Van Nostrand was twice married: his first wife, a daughter of Rev. Isaac Lewis of New York, died within eighteen months of their marriage; his second, Sarah A. Nichols of New York, survived him. He left no children.
