To twentieth-century eyes, Chinese pottery may appear merely decorative, yet to the Chinese, the form of each object and its adornment had meaning and significance.
At the same time, Dickens, who had a reporter's eye for transcribing the life around him especially anything comic or odd, submitted short sketches to obscure magazines.
But if the book has one major shortcoming, it's that the authors don't spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these sweeping changes.
Mr Angelides was a perennial thorn in the side of business, using California's state pension plan to browbeat bosses of firms he disapproved of, and he retains a dim view of Wall Street.
It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on you memory alone, scarcely even in ACTS of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgement into the thousand-eyed present.
As firms grapple with a brutal economic downturn, they are taking a long, hard look at the resources they devote to everything from supporting charities to making their activities carbon-neutral.