Book Description
Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons. Thus an idea was born.
With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.
Yet within the small haven of the beauty school, the line between teacher and student quickly blurred as these vibrant women shared with Rodriguez their stories and their hearts: the newlywed who faked her virginity on her wedding night, the twelve-year-old bride sold into marriage to pay her family’s debts, the Taliban member’s wife who pursued her training despite her husband’s constant beatings. Through these and other stories, Rodriguez found the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again, Afghan style.
With warmth and humor, Rodriguez details the lushness of a seemingly desolate region and reveals the magnificence behind the burqa. Kabul Beauty School is a remarkable tale of an extraordinary community of women who come together and learn the arts of perms, friendship, and freedom.
Customer Reviews:
Very good book!.......2007-10-01
I had heard the author on a radio station and bought the book afterwards. I really enjoyed her fresh and candid style of describing her experiences in Afghanistan. Her uncomlicated style of writing made the book a pleasure to read.
BIG HEART.......2007-09-29
I think that Deborah Rodriguez teachs us a beautiful lesson of kindness and love when she decided to leave her own family to go to Afghanistan to help women to build a life for them, and even when people said that she did wrong going there beacuse of the consecuences of this book for the afghan women, i strongly recognize that not all of us have the courage to leave the comfort of our lives here in the U.S to go to third world countries to help people and forget ourselves helping them.
Has Life for Afghani Women Improved Because of Rodriguez?.......2007-09-27
I have mixed feelings about this book. It's easy to read and certainly provides an interesting and informative portrayal of what life is like for the women of Afghanistan. I'm not sorry I read it, but it did seem to drag on in the end and I started counting pages wondering when it would be over. There is one heartbreaking and shocking story after the next, and too many "characters" to wrap one's mind around. This mélange of stories primarily boils down to this: Terrorizing Men and Terrorized Women. I don't believe life for Afghani women has improved because of the Kabul Beauty School, and from what I understand, because of their portrayal in this book, some of the women are in more danger now that the book is out and Rodriguez has fled.
In the end, reading Kabul Beauty School did not elicit the feelings I thought it might, which was to have met an extraordinary, selfless woman who achieved a major accomplishment. Throughout the reading, I didn't understand or appreciate the author's motivation. It's excellent memoir or journal material, but that's where the excellence ends. Does it entertain? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, there's a certain lack of credibility from the merely average writing skills of the author. (Perhaps hairdressers should stick to creating hairstyles rather than trying to create prose.) Deborah Rodriguez often comes across as victim of circumstance. She makes a series of foolish choices particularly when it comes to marriage, acts rashly, and often irreverently, probably drinks too much and smokes. (This may be harsh, but these traits, to me, have nothing to do with "beauty.") For example, it doesn't make her the least bit likeable when we learn she verbally assaults a man at an outdoor market when he follows her around and grabs her backside. Embarrassing and endangering her closest friend (and translator) in the process, the friend tells her outright that she will "never go to the market with her again." Rodriguez brings her strong, independent and liberated American woman traits with her, wears them on her sleeve, and it does not earn her respect from the people around her, or from this reader. It makes her nickname "Crazy Debbie" perfectly understandable. Also, she lets her friends arrange a marriage for her, (and granted the presence of an Afghani husband, "Sam," does help her cause in one dangerous and surprising circumstance after another), but this man already has a wife, and we soon learn, a baby on the way. It's all very bizarre.
It feels as though Rodriguez returned to Afghanistan (after her first genuine venture there to provide aid after the ousting of the Taliban) in search of an extraordinary life rather than because she wanted to be the savior of Afghani women. I'm not saying this is true (I don't know this woman), but if the purpose of this book was to tell the world who she is and why she went to Afghanistan at great personal expense to become the director of a beauty school with the hope of making life better for the women there, she has been successful. The book, published by a major house, and the movie deal also deem her "successful." As for the school and the cause? A failure. She is not, like the book jacket indicates, living in Afghanistan and still running the school. According to an article on NPR, "the subjects of her book say Rodriguez and her newfound fame have put their lives in danger. They say they've seen none of the money or help to get them out of Afghanistan that Rodriguez promised them in exchange for having their stories appear in the book." Rodriguez counters by saying the women misunderstood what she promised them.
In spite of this rather negative review, I do think Kabul Beauty School is an excellent choice for book clubs as it will no doubt, provoke a very interesting and thoughtful discussion about the lives of women living in Afghanistan, and whether or not the outside world should or shouldn't have something to say or do about this culture and the emancipation of women there.
From the author of "A Line Between Friends," McKenna Publishing Group.
Eye Opening But Sad.......2007-09-26
Clearly a memoir instead of a polished expose, this book showed both the best parts of the human spirit and the downfalls of being human and learning as we go.
The author's energy, enthusiasm and heart for her students clearly shows in her writing. Her honest good will and perseverence are a tribute to the best of human nature.
Unfortunately, like the rest of us, she learns through her mistakes. Some she recognizes, others she breezes over and leaves us to wonder at. For example, being married to a man who already has a wife. Though acceptable in that culture, it seems to go against all her other intentions to improve the lives of women in her new home.
I recommend this book if only for the insight the author's experiences have made available into the lives of Afghani women. The things they live and perservere through will make you daily grateful for the life we lead here in America and give a little more clarity and heart to the battle our brave men are fighting over there.
Good.......2007-09-23
Came at a good time, was in a new condition. Couldn't ask for anything better.
Average customer rating:
- Interesting Observation About Southern Culture Current and Past
- Good southern humor, no fluff here!
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The South Is Round: Contemplations of a 21st Century Redneck
David Magee
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Moonpie: Biography of an Out-of-this-world Snack
ASIN: 0977808629 |
Book Description
A satirical play on the bestselling book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, this book takes a humorous approach to social issues facing the conflicted, contemporary south. Tackling everything from crystal meth abuse and obesity to sexual misconduct, it blends sarcasm with outspoken insight that will make readers laugh in spite of it all. This unrestrained, humorous take on life in the 21st-century south will delight both native southerners and those who simply love the land below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Observation About Southern Culture Current and Past.......2007-07-06
Having married a southern woman, I was indoctrinated into the southern culture many years ago. It was a totally different culture than that of the New England of my birth, and it had a charm that I was no accustomed to. However, in the past 20 years, with the rise of Atlanta as a major power center, the South has slowly changed.
While I didn't find this book funny, I did find it humorous. The author wrote a series of chapters that could very well be stand alone essays on the old South versus the New South and how things are changing. Less of a humorist and more of an observer, Magee has captured the feeling of the way things are now and how the older generations feel about it.
A very good read for those who are familiar with the South, and a great read for those who want to know how the South has changed.
Good southern humor, no fluff here!.......2007-06-23
David Magee has done an excellent job of compiling a book of what I would deem contemporary Southern humor. This book is a great read, I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I tend to be somewhat critical of most Southern humor offerings as being somewhat less than genuine. In this case, it's genuine, real, and highly, highly entertaining - I recommend this book heartily!
Amazon.com
She tried to warn us: With the publication of Shrub in early 2000, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins detailed George W. Bush's privileged rise and disastrous reign as governor of Texas in the mid- to late `90s. In Bushwhacked, she looks at his first term as president. The picture she paints is unremittingly bleak—unless, of course, you're a big campaign donor well served by Bush's prescription for all economic ills (deregulation, tax cuts for those who need them least, and lax enforcement of worker and environmental safety standards). As the only president in U.S. history to slash taxes and go to war simultaneously, Bush wins consistently low marks from Ivins for pursuing "crony capitalism" to its inevitably depressing extremes. While many of the topics covered here have been covered extensively (Enron, the war in Iraq), Ivins does a good job of building on what's already been written (proving Bush's close ties to former Enron chief Ken Lay, and laying out the fundamentalist, apocalyptic view of Iraq and the Middle East that drives Bush's foreign policy). Ivins is particularly good in taking arcane federal regulations and showing how the Bush administration's lax oversight has hurt ordinary Americans, making their jobs, homes, water, and food less safe. Ivins is no distanced observer. She's clearly incensed by Bush's policies, but her reporting is so detailed and writing so witty that even those who come to the book undecided about Bush will likely be outraged by the time they finish it. ----Keith Moerer
Book Description
A simultaneously rollicking and sobering indictment of the policies of President George W. Bush, Bushwhacked chronicles the destructive impact of the Bush administration on the very people who put him in the White House in the first place. Here are the ties that connected Bush to Enron, yes, but here, too, is the story of the woman who walks six miles to the unemployment office daily, wondering what happened to the economic security Bush promised. Here are reports on failed nation-building missions in Kabul and Baghdad. Here, too, the story of a rancher who has fallen prey to a Bush-Cheney interior department that is perhaps a wee bit too cozy with the oil industry. Bushwhacked is highly original and entirely thought-provoking—essential reading for anyone living in George W. Bush's America.
Customer Reviews:
Dear Molly.......2007-03-08
Yours was the first book that turned me into an politicalaholic. The story you wrote of people who could make a change, lived simply but made a difference, had a real affect on me.
I was also unaware, until you came along, how this administration has relaxed food inspection standards to the point the production lines may not be stopped unless an inspector sees contaminants. It's stupefying that people are dying daily because food inspectors are not supposed to stand in the way of big business. This was just one chapter in a myriad of things you brought to light.
Thanks to Bush, Houston now has a higher level of air pollution than Los Angeles. There is not a clean river in the entire state. And there is an alarming rise in respiratory illnesses. The man also claimed, that as governor Texas had the most comprehensive health coverage in the country. The bill was only passed over his second veto, and was left unsigned on his desk. You let us know all these things.
Your writing style made each page an effortless wonder of new information served up in an impressive and humorous way.
It's good that there were people like you who walked the earth. We are the better for it, and that is why we will miss you.
I don't have a stetson, only my Yankee cap to tip, but my hat's off to you!
Happy Trails, gracious lady!
Ed
Do not waste your money.......2007-02-05
This book is a feeble attempt to slam a politician. There's nothing constructive here, just liberal whinning.
A loss.....and an inspiration.......2007-02-01
America just lost a great journalist in Molly Ivins. That she found a way to add humor to her writing was value additive. It made the trip through her thoughtful work something you could cope with. Somehow the horrors she told us at least found some balance this way. I always thought of Mark Twain. In this way I thought she was wonderfully considerate of audience both for telling us the truth, and sparing a knife blade in our gut with the kindness of humor. It takes such writing work to write with humor.People do not realize. This was my favorite book as she wrote of Bush in office. I'd rather choke on dirt or learn to bungee jump off a hot air balloon than tell his "evolving" and she credited him with thinking ability, amazing. I am a school teacher and what she said about how education devolved/developed in Texas under the Shrub was very helpful. And on NCLB also so insightful. But I'm reviewing to say basically to all women, she was a model for having a voice, making a mark on the field, operation with integrity and grit. We should all have a week off to read her and recall what a mind. I think of her as an American writer who chose to report.I'd recommend any of her works but I preferred this one.
A must read for every American regardless of political affiliation........2006-12-17
Molly Ivins at her absolute best. She and Lou Dubose have put together an indictment of the Bush administration that every American - regardless of political affiliation - should read. This book had the power to infuriate me, delight me and upon occasion bring me to tears. Ivins and Dubose interviewed people (many of them life-long Republicans) who have been negatively impacted by the Bush administration through scorched earth land use legislation favoring large corporations instead of landowners, health care legislation favoring large health care conglomerates instead of patients, education legislation written to favor textbook manufacturers and test suppliers instead of students, food processing legislation favoring large scale operations at the expense of their workers. Many of those interviewed live lives shattered beyond repair by Bush and his cronies. They present very real and personalized accounts of the damage the Bush administration has done to this country and its people, much of which will likely take decades to undo - some which will never be undone. With her "no BS" attitude, Ivins, along with Dubose, has skewered the makers of this disaster deftly, accurately, and completely. Thank God for Molly Ivins.
Right On, Molly.......2006-11-10
Ivins has a way with words and situations that is just priceless. She kept me laughing driving down the freeway.
Book Description
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), a new paradigm for product manufacturing, enables a company to manage its products all the way across their lifecycles in the most effective way. It helps companies get products to market faster, provide better support for their use, and manage end-of-life better. In today’s highly competitive global markets, companies must meet the increasing demands of customers to rapidly and continually improve their products and services. PLM meets these needs, extending and bringing together previously separate fields such as Computer Aided Design, Product Data Management, Sustainable Development, Enterprise Resource Planning, Life Cycle Analysis and Recycling. Product Lifecycle Management: 21st century Paradigm for Product Realisation explains the importance of PLM, from both the business and technical viewpoints, supported by examples showing how world-class engineering and manufacturing companies are implementing PLM successfully. The book: - introduces PLM, a unique holistic view of product development, support, use and disposal for industry worldwide, based on experience with internationally renowned companies; - shows you how to take full advantage of PLM, how to prepare people to work in the PLM environment, how to choose the best solution for your situation; - provides deep understanding, nurturing the skills you will need to successfully implement PLM and achieve world-class product development and support performance; and - gives access to a companion www site containing further material.
Customer Reviews:
up to date overview of plm.......2007-01-22
I highly recommend this Book. A clear and complete Overview about PLM from Definition to Implementation. Strategy, Barriers, 'Reality Check' and a View into the Project Management of PLM.
Recommended for PLM Project team.......2006-04-15
We got 4 books on PLM for our project. This cost most but was best value. Lots of details about reasons and benefits for PLM, how PLMs evolving, helpful hints about how to run the PLM project, how to make the business case. Good case study examples, a maturity model to help positioning, explanation of difference between PDM and PLM, stuff about how and why people may resist. Lots of good material, lots of details, useful different views of PLM. This book is well structured and is a useful starting point for manufacturing organizations looking to implement PLM. It provided us with good direction and ideas and challenging questions to answer. Recommended reading and source of discussion and decision for a PLM Project team.
Outstanding resource for Product Lifecycle Management.......2005-06-10
Great source of PLM Knowhow. I like the overarching way PLM is treated with all 5 phases of the product lifecycle included. Product idea, product definition, product realization, product support, and product end-of-life. This is cradle to grave plm, not only product development. The focus on the product is timely as manufacturers rediscover that product is king. The text is crystal clear, concise and complete. It has everything from PLM vision and PLM strategy to nuts and bolts of PLM implementation. Its holistic approach includes processes, applications, information and people. It is the most comprehensive PLM book I have seen. This book is a PLM reference before, while and after PLM is implemented. Great reading for a PLM Director, Director of Product Lifecycle Management, PLM Manager, PLM Project manager, PLM/PDM manager, PDM Manager and anyone else into PLM whether its with Agile Software, MatrixOne Matrix, UGS TeamCenter, SmarTeam, Softech ProductCenter. Useful links to web site www.johnstark.com and 2PLM ezine, a weekly zine about product lifecycle management.
read this for a successfull PLM implementation !!!!.......2005-04-14
Its about time a book like this came along. Sure it has strengths and weaknesses, like any other book. Read it for its strengths. But beware of its weaknesses. A weakness, it takes over 400 pages to describe all PLM. A strength, its the only book so far that covers 'real PLM' and not just a slice of PLM. Another weakness, its definition of PLM, 'PLM is the activity of managing a company's products all the way across their lifecycles in the most effective way' is more strategic than many others, this isnt weak-kneed departmental PLM for file management. Next strength though, this robust definition holds good over 400 pages and all the product lifecycle. A weakness of the book is it doesn't have the usual diagrams of PLM seen in many glossy marketing brochures. A strength, it has a set of slides you can build on to make your own presentations. A weakness, Stark the author doesn't offer a quick fix or a quick plug-in technology solutuion or a quick read. A strength, Stark's approach to PLM is innovative, far reaching, complete, business-oriented. A strength, Stark shows great understanding of what all manufacturing companies have in common, and uses it wisely. I see two main uses for this book. Long-term, on the PLM managers desk as a PLM reference. Short-term, great introductory reading for all members of a PLM implementation initiative. This will get them tuned up for a strategic PLM project.
A goldmine.......2005-01-23
This is a goldmine of high-value material with rich veins of knowledge and experience. It will be highly valued by readers in the Manufacturing sector handling the complexity of developing, supporting and managing products in the global economy.
Nuggets like the PLM paradigm lie on the surface. More highgrade material lies under the surface with even a 30 slide appendix to save you days of work.
Space shuttles, tires, SUV's, drug products, elevators, with collaboratively-developed, globally-used products the need for Product Lifecycle Management is omnipresent. Unless PLM is implemented expect even more problem products. But implementation will take more than management presentations of cool and colorful Powerpoint slides. PLM is a new way of thinking, flying in the face of century-old thinking, and isn't so easy to take aboard.
This is a profound book building the foundations of a new paradigm for product development, realization, use, management. Reading it is an enrichening experience.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
In As the Future Catches You, Juan Enriquez of the Harvard Business School attempts to capture the trajectory of technological progress and understand the forces shaping our social and economic futures. Enriquez argues that February 2, 2001--the date that anyone with Internet access could contemplate the entire human genome--is akin to 1492 and Columbus's discovery of America. Instead of a new continent however, Enriquez sees the alphabet of DNA (A, adenine; T, thymine; C, cytosine; and G, guanine) and predicts that it will be the "dominant language and economic driver of this century." While none of the ideas presented here are entirely new, As the Future Catches You stands out because of Enriquez's ability to view and connect trends--genomics in particular--in a way that just about anyone can understand. Eye-popping typography and graphics coupled with a compact and almost poetic writing style make this thought-provoking book one to savor. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
If you think the world has changed dramatically in the last five years, you haven’t seen anything yet.
You will never look at the world in the same way after reading As the Future Catches You. Juan Enriquez puts you face to face with unprecedented political, ethical, economic, and financial issues, dramatically demonstrating the cascading impact of the genetic, digital, and knowledge revolutions on all our lives.
Genetics will be the dominant language of this century. Those who can “speak it” will acquire direct and deliberate control over all forms of life. But most countries and individuals remain illiterate in what is rapidly becoming the greatest single driver of the global economy. The choice is simple: Either learn to surf new and powerful waves of change—or get crushed trying to stop them. The future is catching us all. Let it catch you with your eyes wide open.
Customer Reviews:
Plainly bad..........2007-09-18
I am actually amazed to realize that this book has received so many positive reviews. It is pitiable from start to end. You could perhaps excuse Henriquez' poor writting style if only the content of the book had been something to cheer for. However this is not the case. Unfortunately Henriquez' argument for how genomics will shape the future of all things, is substantiated by oversimplifications and misconceptions generated by an evident lack of scientific knowledge on the author's behalf, or alternatively, a deliberate attempt to impress the unaware reader with overambitious and melodramatic factoids.
... but let us just analyse some of the statements in say, for instance, the
"MOSQUITOES" section, right among the starting pages:
"Mosquitoes
are flying hypodermic needles.
They can infect you with malaria, dengue, and other
awful things" Well... up to here everything is sort of correct - except for the fact that mosquitoes are nothing like hypodermic needles, but that mosquito's feeding apparatus, for instance, is an extremely complicated structure, quite unlike a single syringe, but hey... what do I know? - ... still, let us excuse the imprecision and awful writing style and read a bit more:
"They do so by transferring a little bit of genetic code
through their saliva..." Really? How does that happen then? Because, during the twelve years I have been studying the genetics of tropical diseases, I never heard of a publication where this has been shown... I had the idea that it was the entire microorganism (virus, parasite, bacteria, etc...) that was inoculated and then caused an infection, but apparently it is just a portion of its genetic code... or he is referring to the mosquito's genes? Help me, I'm confused...
"Into your bloodstream..."
"Which then reprograms part of the way your cells operate... "
"By changing your genetic code ever so slightly..." Oooohhhh, I'm scared...
"In ways that can make you very sick." Now, that's what I call an engaging writing style...
Unfortunately, it goes on and on for over two hundred pages...
The Optimistic Jew.......2007-08-31
Ostensibly a pronouncement about the extraordinary impact that genetics is about to make on human civilization I found his comments and supporting data on knowledge societies versus commodity societies most enlightening. You live in a country without natural resources? LUCKY YOU! You have a much better chance to live in a democratic country with constitutional protections of individual rights. Countries devoid of natural wealth must invest in their human capital. In the knowledge economy this is more likely to create wealth. Small countries with few natural resources have the highest per capita median incomes in the world. If you live in a resource rich country you are more likely to be ruled by thugs or clowns who enrich themselves by enabling large companies with know-how and technology to extract the resource. They have no need to invest in their human capital. Poverty is the result. Enriquez marshals impressive data to support this claim. My optimism about the future possibilities of the Jewish people and Israel (in my own book "The Optimistic Jew") stems to great degree from Enriquez's book. His observation that now lone individuals and single zip codes can create greater wealth than entire countries enabled me to envisage Israel becoming the richest country in the world in per capita, median income by 2030.
Extraordinarily provocative!.......2007-03-08
This book will make you think...a "must read" to understand what is going on in our increasingly science-driven world.
Information a bit dated........2007-02-11
The information in this book is a bit dated.
The author mostly ignores the stocking market tech-bubble crash, simply referring to it as the "Nasdaq Adjustment". A great deal of companies and employees were "adjusted" out of existance.
Back to the Future.......2006-10-01
This book is a blend of intresting observations and speculation on various hot technologies (gnemoics in particular) and it's likely impact on people and countries. It is an intresting book and can be easily followed by anybody (even without any intrest or knowledge of the subject). The page layout (with large typeface and fonts) may seem condescending to some of the serious readers, but i think it works in this case, since the book isn't verbose and the author packs thought and info in small sentences, which provokes one to pause and reflect. For eg: sample this: "there used to be one way of getting pregnant.. Now there are more than Seventeen" OR " A seed is an instruument designed to execute a genetic program that transforms soil, water and sun into Wood, Flower.. Fruit"
You need not know anything about Gneomics, Computers, Biology sciences or the various other technologies which this books quotes, to enjoy this book. It's pretty sweeping in scope and you need not necessarily agree with all that the author says about his versiion of the future (i did not). But, one can certainly give full marks to the author for making serious sciences entertaining, by sharing his thoughts on how it is/may impacting our lives.
The challenge and pitfalls in speculating about the future is ironically seen here - This book was written in 2001 and as such the author makes a glowing reference to the AOL-Timewarner merger (which later turned out into a disaster!); India and China are lumped as "having few resources, capital and respect for entrepreneurs", whereas the outsourcing boom in the last five years has clearly proved this wrong.
Not everyone will agree with the author's touting of Gene food (btw, this is not a default food in Europe) or the 'small population' advantage. Patents is relatively a western phenomenon, so comparing the number of patents of US to China or India seems out of place. Couple of chapters venture into politics of why many countries broke apart in the last fifty years and the treatment of it may seen one-dimensional. Afterall, the things that defines a nation is something more complex than what the author seems to define.
There is lot of great Links/references in the Appendix of the book for anybody intrested in exploring further on this topics.
Irrespective of what one's throughts are on the opinions and coverage in this book, i think this is a book which gives value for the time and money spend. It is thought provoking.
I would recommend it to all.
Book Description
Expert witnesses have traditionally faced enormous challenges in the courtroom. The Daubert decision and the more recent Kumho ruling have further intensified the scrutiny on professionals in all disciplines expressing their expert opinions. Effective Expert Witnessing, Fourth Edition broadens the scope of previous editions by featuring case studies and examples from a wide range of disciplines including psychology, medicine, forensics, toxicology, engineering, and environmental science. It presents legal survival strategies needed by expert witnesses in all fields by addressing the impact of the recent rulings regarding expert testimony. The fundamentals of the litigation process are thoroughly presented, with chapters on the pre-trial process, trial preparation, and the courtroom drama.
Book Description
Extending the visionary early work of the late Marshall McLuhan, The Global Village, one of his last collaborative efforts, applies that vision to today's worldwide, integrated electronic network. When McLuhan's groundbreaking Understanding Media was published in 1964, the media as we know it today did not exist. But McLuhan's argument, that the technological extensions of human consciousness were racing ahead of our ability to understand their consequences, has never been more compelling. And if the medium is the message, as McLuhan maintained, then the message is becoming almost impossible to decipher. In The Global Village, McLuhan and co-author Bruce R. Powers propose a detailed conceptual framework in terms of which the technological advances of the past two decades may be understood. At the heart of their theory is the argument that today's users of technology are caught between two very different ways of perceiving the world. On the one hand there is what they refer to as Visual Space--the linear, quantitative mode of perception that is characteristic of the Western world; on the other hand there is Acoustic Space--the holistic, qualitative reasoning of the East. The medium of print, the authors argue, fosters and preserves the perception of Visual Space; but, like television, the technologies of the data base, the communications satellite, and the global media network are pushing their users towards the more dynamic, "many-centered" orientation of Acoustic Space. The authors warn, however, that this movement towards Acoustic Space may not go smoothly. Indeed, McLuhan and Powers argue that with the advent of the global village--the result of worldwide communications--these two worldviews "are slamming into each other at the speed of light," asserting that "the key to peace is to understand both these systems simultaneously." Employing McLuhan's concept of the Tetrad--a device for predicting the changes wrought by new technologies--the authors analyze this collision of viewpoints. Taking no sides, they seek to do today what McLuhan did so successfully twenty-five years ago--to look around the corner of the coming world, and to help us all be prepared for what we will find there.
Customer Reviews:
A Laudable Extension of McLuhan: Cool, Seminal & Involving!.......2000-12-09
Powers says that this book is not about "final answers." By God he's right! And he proceeds to effloresce a wondrous garden wrought of the print medium brimming over with fresh probes, "osmic space," brains "astonied," the secret lives of "sense ratios," and other electrific, outsized insights and invitations into the futurepresent. One could readily argue and effectively so that "The Global Village..." is indeed a worthy extension of the medium of Professor McLuhan himself, ringing true and resonating orchestrally with the spirit and vivacity of that bright, iridescent, warm and radiant bulb which, tragically, went out suddenly and left us in darkness on New Year's Eve, 1980.
Feed forward 9 years. Powers'/McLuhan's "tetrad" is a mesmerizingly rich metaphor lending clarity and intensity to McLuhan's seminal 1964 probicon, "Understanding Media--The Extensions of Man." This "new" 1989 book is a MUST-read, a reverent continuance of McLuhan's oeuvre, a virtual channeling of his spirit, and in various ways easier to grasp perhaps, more accessible even, than the monumentally revolutionary/visionary UMTEOM.
The beauty of McLuhan and by protraction Dr. Bruce Powers here is that these men are not pedants but facilitators. Their goal, much like that of Carl Rogers or George B. Leonard or Joseph Campbell, is not to pound stuff into brainpans, but to gently yet insistently open up minds to possibilities, perils, challenges, potentialities and joys imperative in the present reality/"reelity?" or whatever one wishes to term the agardish within which each of us swims, breathes, eats, creates, dances, defecates, procreates and seethes.
If McLuhan is the sorcerer, Bruce Powers is his worthy apprentice, now successor. In fact he veritably invites all of us to be successors (McLuhanatics?), to become involved (the essential definition of "cool"). This book is exciting, invigorating, pulsating, intensely involving and above all, highly rewarding. We need more extensions of McLuhan like this one. This is a superb nonbook, a hybrid medium, and a seamless read. TGV will get your probing juices flowing. It's as revitalizing as pure MDMA (as far as "the mdma is the message" goes). Buy this deceptively modest paperback, and step into it like a hot bath.
a shameful posthumous misrepresentation of McL.'s thought........2000-06-09
I'm surprised this travesty is still in print. "Not in McLuhan's style" is a kind understatement; Powers demonstrates flagrant misunderstanding and confusion of basic McLuhanesque ideas. Try 'Laws of Media' or 'Understanding Electric Language' instead.
FIGURING OUT THE GROUND.......1998-09-14
This book is for the McLuhan enthusiast who would like to figure out the ground on which McLuhan stands. It is chock full of McLuhan's ideas, but not presented in McLuhan's typical style. Published 9 years after McLuhan's death, it seems likely that co-author Bruce Powers assembled the material for publication.
If you are not already very familiar with McLuhan's thoughts and earlier writings, this book is not for you. If you are already very familiar with McLuhan's words, you won't find anything new, but you will find some of McLuhan's basic ideas amplified and extrapolated.
Essentially an essential book for the McLuhanite.
Amazon.com
When did big-picture optimism become cool again? While not blind to potential problems and glitches, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang to the 21st Century confidently asserts that our networked culture is not only inevitable but essential for our species' survival and eventual migration into space. Author Howard Bloom, believed by many to be R. Buckminster Fuller's intellectual heir, takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the universe, from its original subatomic particle network to the unimaginable data-processing power of intergalactic communication. His writing is smart and snappy, moving with equal poise through depictions of frenzied bacteria passing along information packets in the form of DNA and nomadic African tribespeople putting their heads together to find water for the next year.
The reader is swept up in Bloom's vision of the power of mass minds and, before long, can't help seeing the similarities between ecosystems, street gangs, and the Internet. Were Bloom not so learned and well-respected--more than a third of his book is devoted to notes and references, and luminaries from Lynn Margulis to Richard Metzger have lined up behind him--it would be tempting to dismiss him as a crank. His enthusiasm, the grand scale of his thinking, and his transcendence of traditional academic disciplines can be daunting, but the new outlook yielded to the persistent is simultaneously exciting and humbling. Bloom takes the old-school, sci-fi dystopian vision of group thinking and turns it around--Global Brain predicts that our future's going to be less like the Borg and more like a great party. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
"As someone who has spent forty years in psychology with a long-standing interest in evolution, I'll just assimilate Howard Bloom's accomplishment and my amazement."-DAVID SMILLIE, Visiting Professor of Zoology, Duke University In this extraordinary follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom-one of today's preeminent thinkers-offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. He shows how plants and animals (including humans) have evolved together as components of a worldwide learning machine. He describes the network of life on Earth as one that is, in fact, a "complex adaptive system," a global brain in which each of us plays a sometimes conscious, sometimes unknowing role. and he reveals that the World Wide Web is just the latest step in the development of this brain. These are theories as important as they are radical. Informed by twenty years of interdisciplinary research, Bloom takes us on a spellbinding journey back to the big bang to let us see how its fires forged primordial sociality. As he brings us back via surprising routes, we see how our earliest bacterial ancestors built multitrillion-member research and development teams a full 3.5 billion years ago. We watch him unravel the previously unrecognized strands of interconnectedness woven by crowds of trilobites, hunting packs of dinosaurs, feathered flying lizards gathered in flocks, troops of baboons making communal decisions, and adventurous tribes of protohumans spreading across continents but still linked by primitive forms of information networking. We soon find ourselves reconsidering our place in the world. Along the way, Bloom offers us exhilarating insights into the strange tricks of body and mind that have organized a variety of life forms: spiny lobsters, which, during the Paleozoic age, participated in communal marching rituals; and bees, which, during the age of dinosaurs, conducted collective brainwork. This fascinating tour continues on to the sometimes brutal subculture wars that have spurred the growth of human civilization since the Stone Age. Bloom shows us how culture shapes our infant brains, immersing us in a matrix of truth and mass delusion that we think of as reality.
Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution. It is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.
Customer Reviews:
Not worth the money, or the time to read it........2007-01-28
I bought and read this book to keep a commitment to a friend. That's the only reason I didn't trash it after the first couple of chapters.
The author appears to have encountered a great many ideas without ever understanding any one of them. A careful reading will reveal that the author's objective is to massage the egos of the rich and famous in order to keep his (bragged about) access to their company. It will also weary your brain with passionately argued self-serving nonsense.
I suggest you don't bother.
Seeing reality despite Howard's hallucination.......2006-12-18
I am a medical professional who thinks of hallucinations as breaks from reality. I am skimming Howard's book and so far it looks like New Age mysticism. My memory recalls a line from Frank Zappa, " Who('re) you jiving with that cosmic debris".
I felt compelled to give this 1 star because there was no zero. Apparently I have'nt been let into Howard's "reality as a shared hallucination". You see, with a scientific background, I notice a great deal of confabulation in Howard's work.
I am an objectivist (physical reality is what it is whether I believe it or not). I do believe we coevolve within our environment. Interaction is part of the nature of reality and that complexity and emergence are just beginning to be understood.
On the other hand, scientists (we are all to varying degrees keen observers and inductionists) (Klein refers to our thinking as Recognition Primed Decision Making referential to stored memories) theorize about (physical) reality through the scientific use of observation and verification/falsification by experimentation, leading to further hypothesizing and model building and testing by further mathematical calculation (sometimes) and further experimentation. Not to mention the occasional seridipitous discovery. Consider that conceptualization the next time you believe (in defiance of the Laws of physics) that you can sqeeze between those "atoms" that make up a brick wall. I am decidedly not a Husserlian phenomenologist, nor am I a Logical Positivist subjectivist.
So far, I am continuing to read the Global Brain while making margin notes. I see a muddling of definitions ie. the difference between objective reality and subjective perception. Or the confused definition of reality and memory when Howard should be speaking of the remembered present as defined by Edelman in describing consciousness. The map is not the territory as Bateson would say.
There may be valuable information in this book but so far it seems a contrivance of conflated metaphors.
But I suppose Howard Bloom might say I have missed "his" point. To which I might reply "Get real, Howard". Or is it that you will be my guru guide through this reality you call a hallucination.
Prepare for provoking thought.......2006-03-23
I love the way that Howard Bloom thinks, it is always illuminating and never elitist. Reading his books always reminds me of reading something written by Carl Sagan. They both have a playful, quick, and insightful way of looking at the world and they both ask questions that make you think for yourself. Do not take this book as scientific proof of group selection (as nothing is EVER proven) but instead prepare to gain new insights into everything related to how our world works.
Howard's original book The Lucifer principle still stands on my list of things that everyone could read to better themselves.
The Art of War
Lucifer Principle
The Naked Capitalist
This book will most likely be added to this list once I give it another read. One thing I will say, however, is that Mr. Bloom's writing has improved in both it's impact and delivery.
Roger Bishop Jones.......2006-03-14
This book changed the way I think about the world and the people in it. Its one of my "decade books" (the best book I read in a decade) which I first read online at telepolis about ten years ago.
I don't buy the headline thesis (his conception of "global brain") but the wealth of information which he supplies in support of that thesis transformed my perception of life on our planet.
Particularly in relation to the pervasiveness and significance of social behaviour not only in humans and higher mammal's but at all levels of life right down to viruses, and the way this interacts with the evolution of life on earth.
I only have questions .......2006-01-18
I am not sure I get this book very well. Perhaps that is because the very notion of a 'collective mind'or 'global brain' is something I find difficult to understand. I have always believed that individuals have minds(if that is the proper way to say it) and they alone think and plan and coordinate action. It is difficult for me to understand the notion of a 'collective mind' without understanding where its center is- center for self- consciousness and reflection.
With that reservation I begin by citing 'Cyberplay's description of this book.
"Global Brain presents evidence that the shared intelligence of humankind is part of a larger planetary mind, one that combines the learning of microbes, waterfowl, predatory cats, idealists, militants, religionists, and scientists. The book predicts that the great world war of the 21st century will take place between the collective intelligence of humanity and that of a world wide web 96 trillion generations old and billions of years wise-the global internet between microbial societies. Finally, Global Brain anticipates some of the creative paths this planet's team of battlers and borrowers may take during the next one-hundred and fifty years."
Again I am not sure I understand this. Bloom has categories for different kinds of operatives within the global -brain. He places special value on those capable of thinking and acting in ways outside the consensus. But so far as I can understand it he differentiates between the collective brain of the human, and other forms of collective brain, such as that of those he considers our great rivals, bacteria. Does this mean that one part of the overall global brain( Let us say the 'human part') is striving to coopt the whole of reality?
I also wonder if Bloom is talking about some vast cosmic evolutionary process from the Big Bang on, what the ultimate goal of this is? Is it one vast system under one vast self -reflexive consciousness?
I wonder too what connection these vast networks have to do with our own individual lives, and whether in terms of valuation they can ever be equal to them. We love and care for individuals more than we can ever love and care (At least most of us) for the whole system of Brain or Mind or Collective Consciousness.
I too wonder what all this has to do with traditional Western religious conceptions of a Creator God, Who is also Providence leading and ruling all to its ideal end.
This book has the great value of stimulating us to ask ultimate questions, perhaps even provides new formulations in which ultimate questions are asked in ways not asked before.
Book Description
A moral manifesto that forces us to reconsider a world divided between the West and the Rest, Us and Them.
We have grown accustomed in this anxious, post-9/11 era to constructing a world fissured by warring creeds and cultures. Much of humanity now seems separated by chasms of incomprehension. Kwame Anthony Appiah's landmark new work challenges the separatist doctrines espoused in books such as Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations. Reviving the ancient philosophy of "Cosmopolitanism," a school of thought that dates to the Cynics of the fourth century bce, Appiah traces its influence on the ethical legacies of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Kant's dream of a "league of nations," and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In doing so, Appiah shows how Western intellectuals and leaders, on both the left and the right, have wildly exaggerated the power of difference—and neglected the power of one. One world. One species. Challenging years of received wisdom, Cosmopolitanism is a resounding work of philosophy and global culture.
About the series: Issues of Our Time: "Aware of the competition for the attention of readers, W. W. Norton & Company and I have created the "Issues of Our Time" as a lucid series of highly readable books through which some of today's most thoughtful intellectuals seek to challenge the general reader to reexamine received truths and grapple with powerful trends that are shaping the world in which we live. The series launches with Anthony Appiah, Alan Dershowitz, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as the first of an illustrious group who will tackle some of the most plangent and central issues defining our society today through books that deal with such issues as sexual and racial identities, the economics of the developing world, and the concept of citizenship in a truly globalized twenty-first-century world culture. Above all else, these books are designed to be read and enjoyed."—Henry Louis Gates Jr., W. E. B. DuBois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
Customer Reviews:
Essays by Appiah.......2007-06-27
This book is a collection of essays around a common theme; each is extremely well written, reflective and accessible to the non-specialist.
Anthony Appiah is surely one of our most important thinkers about ethical issues that arise in common life. He brings unusual color and verve to
his subjects, reflecting a childhood in Ghana and an adult life spent as a true citizen of the world in one of the world's great universities.
An importance exploration of what it means to be a responsible part of today's world.......2007-02-10
There are few individuals more qualified to write a book on the idea of cosmopolitanism than Kwame Anthony Appiah. Biracial, raised in both Ghana and England, multicultural, multilingual, educated at Cambridge but teaching at Princeton, Appiah has an inside familiarity with larger world that few can rival. It is tremendously encouraging to me, a WASP who has been unable to engage in any real travel, that we both seem to share precisely the same ideals. My experience of the world counts for little; his a great deal. Yet it shows that people with extremely different backgrounds can embrace the same ideals.
Appiah is a philosopher, but though he has clearly been raised in the Anglo-American linguistic philosophical tradition, he has not found himself restricted by it. From the various philosophers he quotes, I'm sure that he and had had similar philosophical training. I envy the way that he can make what I learned as logical positivism (Appiah lops off the "logical") and make it relevant in a discussion of wider cultural issues. Though he obviously was trained in the tradition honed by Russell, Carnap, Frege, Ryle, Austin, Anscombe, Dummett, and the large contingent of American and British logicians and philosophers of language, none of them have informed his literary style. In fact, the two writers Appiah reminds me of most are Herodotus and Montaigne. Like them, he feels a license to bring into his discussion almost anything. If he is cosmopolitan on a moral and social level, he is also as a multidisciplinarian. Nor does he hesitate at mixing cultures. Many of the most compelling passages in the book detail incidents from his experience in Ghana.
The point of the book is to discuss many of the problems that arise if one attempts to embrace--as Appiah clearly feels we all should--cosmopolitan ideals. He deals interestingly with a host of issues, from the idea of who owns the products of a culture to the incommensurability of values from one culture to another (or their possible commensurability) to whether it is problematic when there are conflicts on fundamental issues. As a person he seems to have been deeply molded by all of the cultural influences in which he grew up, but as a philosopher he is exceptionally British. Over the decades there have been a number of British thinkers who have been able to cut through a thick wad of nonsense and discuss issues in a balanced, commonsensical manner. Gilbert Ryle had this capacity, as did (sometimes) G. E. Moore, and so also Mary Midgley. While his views are unquestionably progressive, Appiah always seems to avoid extremes to arrive at conclusions that are, above all else, balanced and reasonable. He is a master at making sense. So when philosopher Peter Unger argues that we all have a moral obligation to give every penny that we do not need for our own sustenance to organizations like UNICEF and OXFAM so that food and medicine can be purchased for the desperately poor in the Third World. Appiah, on the other hand, believes that a world in which no one bought a ticket to the opera would be flat and uninteresting. Besides, what really matters is reforming local governments in order to provide long-term transformation of the socioeconomic structures in the areas most afflicted by poverty, something that giving exclusively to UNICEF and OXFAM will not accomplish (though for the record, Appiah thinks both organizations are very important and he does not discourage contributing to them). Though he does not state it as a principle, he constantly employs something akin to Aristotle's golden mean.
I especially enjoyed his chapter on The Counter-Cosmopolitans. He places many of today's Islamic extremists in this category, though he also very correctly places many Christian fundamentalists here as well. I have long fantasized about writing a book about contemporary proponents of Counter-Enlightenment ideas (a book I will never write because I haven't mastered the range of disciplines such a project would require). Isaiah Berlin wrote frequently about various Counter-Enlightenment thinkers such as Hamaan, but I believe it can be extended into the present for such mass movements as various religious fundamentalisms (Christian, Islamic, as well as Jewish), the New Age movement, contemporary astrology, right wing political movements, and free market capitalism. Obviously I can't make my claim here, but I found Appiah's discussion of the counter-cosmopolitans to overlap entirely with counter-enlightenment ideals.
I value this book not only for its ideals and the intelligent discussion of a host of thorny issues, but for Appiah's warm humanity and wonderful literary style. It is not merely an intelligent book but a well-written one as well.
Becoming Cosmopolitan.......2007-02-05
One of the most pernicious ideas has spung from the myth that we are necessarily separated and segregated into groups that are defined by criteria like gender, language, race, religion or some other kind of boundary. And it is easy to see that these boundaries are a major cause of conflict.
The author of this enthralling book - Kwame Anthony Appiah - challenges this kind of separative thinking by resurrecting the ancient philosophy of "cosmopolitanism." This school of thought that dates back almost 2500 years to the Cynics of Ancient Greece. They first articulated the cosmopolitan ideal that all human beings were citizens of the world. Later on, these ideas were elaborated by another group of philosophers: the Stoics.
According to Appiah, the influence of cosmopolitanism has stretched down the ages and through to the Enlightenment. He takes Immanuel Kant's notion of a League of Nations and the Declaration of the Rights of Man to be two manifestations of this ancient idea.
Appiah sees cosmopolitanism as a dynamic concept based on two fundamental ideas. First is the idea that we have responsibilities to others that are beyond those based on kinship or citizenship. Second is something often forgotten: just because other people have different customs and beliefs from ours, they will likely still have meaning and value. We may not agree with someone else, but mutual understanding should be a first goal.
The book is full of personal experiences. I doubt that anyone else could have written it: His mother was an English author and daughter of the statesman Sir Stafford Cripps, and his father a Ghanaian barrister and politician, who reminded his children to remember that they were "citizens of the world."
Appiah was educated in Ghana and England and has taught in both countries. He now holds a chair of Philosophy at Princeton. He is no starry eyed idealist, and he knows that differences between groups and nations cannot be wished away or ignored. But he contends, rightly, I think, that differences can be accepted without being allowed to become barriers.
As he says, "Cosmopolitans suppose that all cultures have enough overlap in their vocabulary of values to begin a conversation. But they don't suppose, like some Universalists, that we could all come to agreement if only we had the same vocabulary." The reason is simply this: most of us arrive at our values not on the basis of careful reasoning, but by lifelong conditioning and subjective beliefs and attitudes.
In parts of Europe, there have recently been misgivings about the growing diversity and multiculturalism of countries like the United Kingdom, with people asking whether it is doing no more than fracturing society. Appiah tackles this question head on. He has this to say, "If we want to preserve a wide range of human conditions because it allows free people the best chance to make their own lives, there is no place for the enforcement of diversity by trapping people within a kind of difference that they long to escape. There simply is no decent way to sustain those communities of difference that will not survive without the free allegiance of their members."
Cosmopolitanism, balances our "obligations to others" with the "value not just of human life but of particular human lives," what Appiah calls "universality plus difference." He remains skeptical about simple maxims for ethical behavior such as the Golden Rule. He swiftly demonstrates its failings as a moral precept. He argues that cosmopolitanism is the name not "of the solution but of the challenge."
This is an important book that will inevitably be controversial. In a world that is becoming more interconnected and shrinking by the day, and where the "clash of cultures" threatens our existence, Appiah has many new perspectives as he articulates a precise yet flexible ethical manifesto. He does not claim to have all the answers, but this book should be of interest to all of us as we try to make sense of the turmoil, challenges and opportunities of our globalizing world.
Current and relevant.......2007-01-05
Very insightful. Draws on past scholarship to apply to our world today.
Brilliant.......2006-08-31
Excellent, Brilliant and full of wisdom. This is from a philosopher who has the ability to see things from more perspectives than black and white. His book is concise and not too academic. He makes philosophy trendy. He is a new generation of thinkers that will reshape our thoughts. He tackles sensitive issues with respect for all parties. One cannot tell his sentiments due to his fairness and objectivity. The first book I will read a second time.
Book Description
On a crowded bus, a solitary black man seethes while boarding passengers take every seat except the one next to his; in a cafeteria, whites wonder why blacks congregate at the same table every day; in front of a store, a white woman clutches her purse when a black man passes nearby. Each scenario suggests that how we act toward and react to each other on a day-to-day basis stems from racial assumptions, misunderstandings, and biases. Some we acknowledge, others we are blind to. Talking about race relations in America is never easy. Bruce A. Jacobs has written a book that shows us how we can beginnot with lofty abstractions or policy arguments, but with practicality and directness. Over the past six years, Jacobs, an indefatigable promoter, has traveled the country, learning and listening as people react to his book and add their own comments. The result is a completely revised work, bringing this increasingly important subject up to date, and to a much larger audience.
Customer Reviews:
Race Manners.......2007-07-30
RACE MANNERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY is a valuable book that seeks to open up dialogue about race in America. Since the author, Bruce Jacobs, is African-American and shares many of his personal experiences, the book deals primarily with issues about blacks and whites in this country. However, in this new, revised version, there is also some attention paid to other "race manners," particularly the post-9/11 treatment of Muslims and people of Arab descent. The book is well organized and each chapter includes "Survival Suggestions" at the end of the discussion of the various themes. RACE MANNERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY touches on such subjects as Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, black music, ethnic jokes, and interracial relationships. I particularly enjoyed the discussion on what the author calls "rage radio," which highlighted the impact of the wave of ultra-conservative talk show hosts have on limiting dialogue about important topics. I also found the chapter on commonly held bigoted views useful.
RACE MANNERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY should be read by anyone living in this country. While there is a slant towards issues of black and white, the author does an excellent job sharing his perspective and experience as a black man living in America. Some readers may disagree with his views on various subjects, but the purpose of the book is not to agree with Jacobs, but rather to discuss the subjects openly and honestly. To that end, the book is filled with suggestions on how to put topics of race on the table and discuss them intelligently. Avoiding talks about race doesn't make those issues go away and RACE MANNERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY provides a toolkit to help navigate these conversations.
Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Brilliant, honest, and oftentimes funny. .......2005-07-08
This one of the best books on American society that I have ever read! This book is what people who try hard to understand the source of racial tension in this country have been waiting for. There is really something in here for everyone and must be read from cover to cover. No matter who you are, examples extracted from life in this book will disturb you in its honesty and you actually see yourself. This is not an overly intellectual essay but an accessible and poignant work that is completely plucked from real life and experience. It just required a brilliant author to put it all together.
Hmm..........2004-08-13
Put simply, this quick read of a book is one of many to be experienced by anyone who truly wants to gain some operational insight on race -- one of the final frontiers of human understanding. Until we come up with a workable (or definitive) solution to the strange phenomenon that is "race," (other than complete avoidance of the topic, that is,) 'Race Manners' does a good job of being one of many tools for one's sociological 'toolkit.' It doesn't have all the answers...but then again, who does?
OK, but Could be Better.......2002-08-16
There are several points made in the book that get the reader to think about how they view races. However, it is definitely slanted towards black views. I think the book could be very powerful if re-written with a white co-author. I was hoping to find a 50/50 view. It was more of a 70/30.
Excellent.......2001-04-08
This book is an excellent examination for Race in America. Mr. Jacobs offers insight and solutions. He is honest and compassionate. I have even tried some of the recommendations in this book with excellent results. Don't just read it, buy one for a friend.
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