Average customer rating:
- Return Journey
- Fat People
- Fantastic storytelling
- A Pleasure To Read
- Formulaic, But An Escape Read
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The Return Journey
Maeve Binchy
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Binchy, Maeve
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| Bronte, Charlotte
| Bronte, Emily
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Light a Penny Candle
ASIN: 0440224594
Release Date: 1999-06-08 |
Amazon.com
The Return Journey is a collection of 14 short stories of life, love, and learning that enables the most harried reader to enjoy a well-told tale in its entirety before checking on the kids or folding the clothes. In the tradition of Binchy's classic tales Circle of Friends and Tara Road, this consummate summer beach book introduces readers not to models of literary and romantic indefectibility, but to folks just like us, who have bad hair days, runs in their hose, and freckles both physical and metaphorical. The title story paints a portrait of the embattled relationship between a mother who left her home in Dunglass, Ireland, and her daughter, who has traveled to Ireland to find her history and finds love, as well. Through weekly correspondence, mother and daughter repair the damage to their relationship, laying to rest ghosts of an earlier mother-daughter relationship gone irrevocably wrong. And Binchy's "Victor and St. Valentine" renews faith that truly romantic men do exist and are often overlooked, their motives suspect in an increasingly self-reliant world. No one can accuse Binchy of overtelling a tale; she has perfected the art of leading her readers to the verge and then allowing them to loose their imaginations as they see fit. A wonderful and thoroughly engaging read. --Alison Trinkle
Book Description
The Return Journey--a spellbinding trip into the human heart...
In these powerful, poignant tales, the New York Times bestselling author of
Evening Class and
Tara Road once again reveals her unrivaled understanding of matters of the heart. Here are sons and lovers, daughters and strangers, husbands and wives in their infinite variety--powerfully compelling stories of love and loss, revelation and reconciliation.
A secretary's silent passion for her boss meets the acid test on a business trip--.An insecure wife clings to the illusion of order, only to discover chaos at the hands of a house sitter who opens the wrong doors--. A pair of star-crossed travelers take each other's bags, and then learn that when you unlock a stranger's suitcase, you enter a stranger's life.-- In their company are many more journeys of hope and discovery--unforgettable slices of life from the incomparable Maeve Binchy.
Customer Reviews:
Return Journey.......2007-03-12
Maive Binchy is a great author - this is an excellent story. Received in great conditon.
Fat People.......2006-07-10
I enjoyed Binchy's "Tara Road"; but "The Return Journey" is a mostly faceless collection of short stories that fade from memory as quickly as they are read. I finished this book less than a week ago and cannot recall "The Apprentice" at all. "Holiday Weather" about a botched affair is like watching a firecracker whose fuse fizzles before it pops. "Victor & St. Valentine" & "Crosslines" are forgettable. I did like "Miss Vogel's Vacation" about an unassuming woman who finds a little romance after being alive for 50 years. "The Home Sitter" was well told, but was frustrating since Allie who comes to their home and has a sparkling personality and gypsy-like appeal almost steals Mara's husband and leaves Mara feeling even more inadequate than when the story began. There is no lesson learned. My favorite story here is "The Women in Hats." It has a progression with the narrator, Helen, meeting a trio (Charlotte, Bonnie & Charlie) on a cruise liner and assuming that the man was with the thinner woman rather than the heavy-set Bonnie. Binchy makes a comparison about how people's judgments about gay people parallel their prejudice about fat people. "Excitement" was not. Unfortunately, Binchy has not mastered the short story form in this collection. She simply doesn't have many stories to tell. This is like reading writing exercises more than short stories. Taxi!
Fantastic storytelling.......2006-07-09
Maeve Binchy's diversity of characters and unprecidented storytelling abilities make all her books a treasure. This collection is at the top of the list.
A Pleasure To Read.......2006-02-05
Just enough about some lovely people as only Maeve Binchey can tell in short storys.
Formulaic, But An Escape Read.......2005-02-16
Give Binchy credit, she knows what the public wants, and apparently, it is a lucrative business. But after reading three of her books, the rest become fairly predictable. This collection of shorts is very much thus.
Average customer rating:
- Worth Reading
- A Haunting Look Back
- The banality of tyranny/evil; the process of self redemption
- A disappointing and pretentious memoir
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The Return
Petru Popescu
Manufacturer: Grove Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0802116132 |
Customer Reviews:
Worth Reading.......1999-10-07
I would like to thank Petru Popescu for writing this book and for so openly sharing his experiences of, and feelings about, life in Romania. Having several Romanian friends and acquaintances, Popescu's book filled in a lot of blanks for me, and answered questions that have sometimes proven much too painful for my friends to answer. I have researched Romania's communist and recent history fairly extensively in the course of my work, and have not come across anything that has been as informative on a personal level as The Return. Other reviewers here have noted that Popescu comes across as a bit full of himself. I agree. On page 220 he notes that his wife, whom he obviously loves very much, has been "imprinted by motherhood, but (is) still thin." (If my husband paid me a compliment like that, I would throw all of his clothes out on the lawn. Who "imprinted" her, exactly? ) He also informs the reader that he is talented, published, filmed, televised, well-known, flies first class, owns a Mercedes, resides in the 90210 zip code, and has enjoyed many a sexual escapade to boot. While Popescu may lack modesty and his womanizing may strike some readers as a bit disturbing, this book is worth reading. Popescu has spared nothing in displaying the details of his humanity both within and apart from communism. It is a story that should be heard.
A Haunting Look Back.......1998-08-24
The images are vivid and many lives are captured in Popescu's book. We find in his 'return' the return we must all make.
The banality of tyranny/evil; the process of self redemption.......1998-03-22
There were two components of this book that decreased its emotional impact and its potential i.e. : (1) its easy going American Apple Pie style and (2) the time spent on wallpapering personal insecurity with self accomplishment. Here is a man who is trying to put his Self together after living through the mental aberrations as well as the physical and spiritual confinement of Communism. Moreover, first he has inherited, into his very `genetic' makeup, the ghost of Romania past ( its senseless barbarism, its deviant Fascism, its glorious struggle, its bickering and Balkan feuding, its honor and genteel socialization) transferred through stories from his relatives & their personal family history, second he has had to attain his manhood in a dysfunctional family and third, after defection to & wanderings in the garden of the American dream, he marries the post war daughter of Shoah survivors. All these elements are set with a backdrop of Romanians who, as a people/culture, cannot look truths in the eye and seek redemption. A setting for a tale of character development and self discovery par excellence! So much for potential! If one mentally subtracts the `style' and the `wallpaper' impediments out of this book then one is left with a picture of Romania the country/the people, the day to day impact of Communism, the scary banality of tyranny & evil and the subsequent process of deifying the tyrant. Food for thought! Food for thought! I only wish I could also have had the tale of personal redemption too!
A disappointing and pretentious memoir.......1997-11-19
Petru Popescu was apparently viewed as a writer in Romania much as Jackie Susann, whom he dismisses as "trash," is viewed in the US. Romanians who lived through the Ceaucescu and Iliescu years will not be taken in by Mr. Popescu's posturing, self-aggrandizement, and embellishments. The writing style is stilted and harsh, reflecting the author's former career as a tool for a corrupt and out-of-control government. The text contains many language and spelling errors that should have been corrected by an editor. This book was a very difficult read. Its value is in some of the descriptions of day to day life in Communist Romania, which most people cannot imagine. A far superior book -- both in style and accuracy -- is "The Hole in the Flag" by Andrei Codrescu, another Romanian ex-patriate who presents a compelling history and memoir without the personal puffery.
Average customer rating:
- Compelling Journey Through Faith
- Spiritual Searching
- Seeing Light
- awed
- Freud Lives (Again)
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Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate : A Spiritual Journey
Emily Benedek
Manufacturer: Schocken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Religious
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ASIN: 0805241388
Release Date: 2001-04-03 |
Book Description
Emily Benedek, the author of two highly regarded books on the traditions and conflicts of Native Americans of the Southwest, suddenly found herself in the mid-1990s grappling with certain traditions and conflicts of her own. Stricken with a case of temporary blindness, she had an experience— unprecedented in her life—which she was able to understand only as an apprehension of the divine.
Stirred and confused, Benedek took herself to a humble storefront synagogue in Dallas, where she was then living. Among the welcoming congregants she began a spiritual journey that gradually led her back to Jewish practice and belief.
As we accompany Benedek on her journey, we come to know the wise and imaginative psychoanalyst who served as one of her guides... an Orthodox family in Rockland County whose lives are devoted entirely to Torah yet who are open to Benedek's questioning and probing, particularly on the subject of the differing roles of men and women in Orthodoxy... Texans, Israelis, and Brooklynites, teachers and students, and the vibrant Conservative Congregation B'nai Jeshurun on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where Benedek eventually finds her most comfortable spiritual home.
And ultimately, of course, we come to know Emily Benedek, an independent and principled modern woman who has found a path through T. S. Eliot's "unknown, remembered gate" in the Jewish life and identity that connect her to her rich and powerful heritage. Curious, sensitive, perceptive, and questing, she gives us in this compelling memoir a beautiful story, beautifully told.
Customer Reviews:
Compelling Journey Through Faith.......2001-07-11
Benedek's journey more deeply into Judaism is well-written and interesting. Especially fascinating were her observations and participation in the Orthodox community as part of a journey that ultimately leads her to a Conservative Jewish congregation. There were times that the book dragged and became redundant. For example, Benedek goes on and on and on about her therapy sessions. This part could have been condensed so that the reader understood that therapy was important to her journey without having to read every detail of every therapy session she ever attended. She also wasn't completely clear about the kinds of Orthodox communities she was hanging out with -- she does not fully embrace ultra-orthodox lifestyles, but had she ever considered modern Orthodoxy? This was never addressed, she just went from ultra-Orthodox to Conservative, but modern-Orthodox is a category between the two. Even with these criticisms, however, the book is a compelling read and Benedek portrays an honest, thoroughly questioning journey into faith.
Spiritual Searching.......2001-05-29
The best thing about this deeply felt memoir is the way the author combines several searches that normally don't go together. Her highly successful psychoanalysis dovetails with a quest for spiritual awakening and rebirth, and we can understand why Freud and Judaism go together. The book also has a lot to say about the conflict felt by a highly educated, secular, intellectual woman between her need to be in the world and her desire to participate in Orthodox Jewish practices that still relegate women to a separate sphere. Benedek's negotiation of this strait is fascinating.
Seeing Light.......2001-04-29
When she lived in and wrote of the intensely spiritual Navajo world, Benedek felt herself turn introspective. A horrific brush with loss of vision precipitated what became a search for her place in relationship to the divine. The beginning of this book thrusts the reader with lightspeed into the center of her search, through psychoanalysis and religious education, for the life of devotion and spirituality she ultimately crafts. Benedek's slick, smart writing, her longing to reorient herself after a bad relationship and a life she deemed soulless and her lucky, lucky life ever since are fascinating. (She found her husband through a writing assignment on hackers). Benedek is enviable and inspirational. And she can write!
awed.......2001-04-27
One can't help feeling awe at ms. Benedek's struggle to create a life that is truly modern and truly religious. Her book compelled me from cover to cover. She is an entertaining, gifted writer who uses her intelligence compassionately.
Freud Lives (Again).......2001-04-19
Psychoanalysis has been under withering fire for the past decade. But anyone who reads of Emily Benedek's analysis in this book will have to fight the urge to run out and look up the telephone number of her analyst. You are brought into the rarified air of a very deep and meaningful friendship and are reminded of the supreme gift of good listening.
Book Description
Island of the Sun recounts the American psychologist Alberto Villoldo's return to Peru in search of the Quechua Indian shaman Don Jicaram. The authors' earlier book,
Dance of the Four Winds, described Villoldo's first initiation, under Don Jicaram, into the secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel and the spiritual journey of the Four Winds. Villoldo had begun that journey in the South, "where one goes to confront and shed the past." With use of the powerful mind-altering plant
ayahuasca, he had continued to the West, a direction also inhabited by fear and death. Now in
Island of the Sun he prepares himself for the journey to the North, where lies the wisdom of the ancient Inca shamans. Traveling from Machu Picchu to the "Island of the Sun," a sacred site in Bolivia, Villoldo uncovers a profound secret about the journey to the East--the journey home.
Customer Reviews:
The Proof Is In The Pudding.......2005-10-14
I must say how true it is when they say not to judge a book by its cover! Or, in this case by opinion only with no firsthand experience. I am currently studying with Alberto Villoldo through The Four Winds Society. Alberto will be the first to tell you that you must experience this to really understand and I will attest to that in full measure. The experiences and healing and wisdom of this system are profound. Having been a student and practitioner of alternative modalities since I was 15, I can attest to the fact that this system is like no other - and it works, as quickly as one is able to assimilate the process. Nothing else I tried, including traditional therapy - it only made things worse - has been able to fully release the deep seated issues of the extremely hostile enviroment I was born into and lived surrounded by for the first 30+ years of my life. If you are truly ready to be fully alive and free of the past - this will take you there in a graceful manner. And, it is fun as well as extremely effective. He also does not exclude useful modern medicine, there is a time and place for both.
Reality or fiction?.......2005-05-04
For those seeking more info about Dr. Villoldo's lack of detail and other concerns regarding truthfulness in contemporary shamanism, please see "The Selling of the Shaman and the Problem of Informant Legitimacy" which appears in the Summer 1990 issue of 'Anthropological Research', Volume 46, Number 2. Dr. Villoldo is prominently featured.
ISLAND OF THE SUN by Alberto Villoldo, Erik Jendresen.......2002-12-30
In ISLAND OF THE SUN, co-authored with Erik Jendresen, Alberto Villoldo relates his Peruvian odyssey in search of his teacher, Don Antonio. ISLAND OF THE SUN is a dramatic, poetic adventure -- a profound exercise in suspending ones disbelief, in expecting the unexpected, in stretching the imagination, and in shattering the boundaries of consciousness. In short, it gives a glimpse into the mind of a shaman. It has been said that to know and understand a shaman, one must become a shaman. Villoldo has become a shaman. His story is a captivating articulation of his journey into the unknown; its imagery, vivid and enchanting - "the Sun glistened in playful white sparkles of light on the green waters. I listened to the cicada hiss, the high-pitched cacophony of the birds and the insects, the whir and hiss and chatter and hum that bounced off its surface and filled the clearing with music."
Villoldo sees his mission as that of translating the ancient psychology and truths contained in the Medicine Wheel of the Incas into a Western framework - into a psychology of the sacred. He sees the Medicine Wheel as providing a neurological map for the evolution and transformation of our species by accessing the state of consciousness that informs life. He sees the Medicine Wheel as offering a path through which we can override the oftentimes violent survival mechanisms of our primitive limbic brain.
Villoldo presents the symbolic imagery of the archetypal energies contained in the Medicine Wheel. In the South (serpent), we confront and shed the past like a serpent sheds its skin. In the West (jaguar), we overcome fear and death. By experiencing ourselves as conscious energy, death loses its sting and becomes but a doorway to one of infinite phases in eternity. In the North (hummingbird), we experience the knowledge and wisdom of the ancients. We access a sea of consciousness as vast as time itself. In the East (eagle), we experience a transcendent, comprehensive, vision of what we have learned. We share our story with the world as caretakers of the earth. That, he says, is our return home.
The psychology of the ancients is based on direct shamanic experience in different domains of consciousness. Its approach -- of experience and exploration -- is from the inside out; its goal -- to know, understand, and be in harmony with the forces of Nature. In Villoldo's experience, that approach requires a new state of mind - one that allows but is not distracted by subjective experiences. The skills required come naturally in the process of "serving experiences." He explains that when one's intent is in harmony with the experience, it is served. Otherwise, it is just an experience.
In shamanic awareness, Villoldo experienced innumerable altered states of reality by shifting his perspective to unaccustomed dimensions. The most profound, for me, was his experiencing the integrity of a multisensory dream body awareness in which everything was reflected within him. He described it as like being a champagne bubble with all images of life reflected upon its inner surface. As his teacher later pointed out, in that, everything was reflected but the seer himself, for the seer is invisible.
Purity of intention is the key to shamanic exploration. Abandoning preconceptions is necessary and essential. To master the stillness required in the dream body, Villoldo says that one learns how to be conscious without being self-conscious. Through purity of intention, it is said to be possible to enter a realm beyond dreaming -- a wondrous, rich dimension of magnificent power and splendor. Maintaining purity of intention is the challenge.
Shamans of Peru practiced an alchemy of the soul. They were said to be able to influence the past as well as the future because they understood the relationship between time and light. It is said that in becoming light (an Inca, a Child of the Sun), time was dissolved. Shamans knew that time doesn't fly only in straight lines like an arrow - it also turns like a wheel. When those two kinds of time intersect, says Villoldo, that is sacred, ritual time -- one can influence the past and summon destiny from the future. The challenge is not to let knowledge of the future influence present actions or intent. Therefore, the shaman must be able to keep a secret from himself.
Villoldo's teacher, Don Antonio, points out that in all the great cultures developed north of the equator, God is a descending god -- the Divine comes from the heavens and descends to the Earth. For the Incas, the only great culture to develop south of the equator, the god-force is ascending -- it "rises from Earth to the heavens like the golden corn." Antonio envisions the new caretakers of the Earth as coming from the northern hemisphere. ( A prophecy of hope and perhaps even a vote of confidence, I think, for those of us in the northern hemisphere.)
Villoldo points out the paradox of psychology -- that when we study the human mind, it is the mind studying itself. He adds that modern science has failed to identify the psyche or subject of this study. The mind continues to evade us. From his extensive laboratory research as a psychologist and his inquiries as a medical anthropologist, Villoldo testifies that mind cannot be derived from the neurology of the human brain. He believes that psychology is like physics in that the act of studying the psyche alters it . Villoldo strongly believes that now is the time for humankind to turn consciousness on itself and step into a grander consciousness in the evolution of mankind. He sees the path of the shaman as giving us clues for this process of exploration, discovery, realization, and transformation. He sees the path of the shaman as offering hope for a better world and a new humanity.
Strong, but not as convincing as FOUR WINDS.......1998-12-13
This is a great tale, and fairly accurate and instructive. The Western world is sorely lacking in instruction about the non rational, can't put your tongue on it realities of which the author speaks. While what I know of Peruvian shamanism is very small compared to the author's knowledge and direct experience, I suggest that this effort to capture End Journeys is both admirable and riveting. I have used FOUR WINDS as a guide to non ordinary reality since my discovery of it as a legitimate map; my work in the Celtic otherworld supports what the author here describes in terms of the Peruvian landscapes of non ordinary reality. But personally, from a shamanic perspective, I want more of Antonio's accurate and real mentoring, and less of the neophyte journeyer's somewhat predictable story line. As a tale, the book is not as finely crafted as FOUR WINDS either. Nonetheless, a great read, but just not as instructive or as easy to read as I found FOUR WINDS. /D.L. Smith 12/12/98
Book Description
As a graduate student in 1968 at the University of Michigan, Roy G. Phillips heeded the advice of renowned genealogist and author Alex Haley, who encouraged the eager researcher to record the history and wisdom of his family elders while they were still alive. Phillips followed this advice and has produced a masterful and compelling account of family and society during the arduous racial maturation of America. Through the experiences of his family, Phillips traces the evolution of his family's departure from the slave castles of West Africa to America. Exodus from the Door of No Return mirrors the lives of what arguably could be the story of most African Americans. Slavery fractured the family trees of most African Americans. This practice had an impact on black parenting. The author's father, John (Bill) Phillips, was born at a time when the black community still cared deeply for its children. Children abandoned by their parents were seldom abandoned by the community. Sometimes a grandparent, an aunt, uncle or cousin, or a member of the community at large would step in when the need arose. Proff and Lula Phillips, a childless couple, provided a home for the author's father, an illegitimate child who was abandoned by his parents. The author and his wife Vira would have four children, but after raising them successfully, they would emulate the caring legacy of Proff and Lula Phillips by adopting four abused and neglected siblings. Beyond genealogy, the book describes the story of the author's family as it journeyed through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation; the great migration out of the south, the World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and the tumultuous period of the sixties and seventies through the dawning of the 21st century. It is the story of how the author and his family rose and evolved from the storms of racism through dedication, discipline, determination, study, and hard work. .......................................................
Book Description
Join Bill Cass as he returns to Philmont as an expedition advisor and father, over two decades after having left the Ranch as a summer staffer.
· Find the adventure brought to young campers and their adult advisors in Philmont's high country.
· Travel the length of the 137,000-acre Ranch with the author and other rangers as they prepare campers for their rugged backpacking experience.
· See Philmont from the perspective of a young man charged with the successful management of a key staffed camp.
· Climb to the heights with a typical expedition, and experience the thrill of reaching the tops of Philmont's "magic mountains."
In Return to the Summit of Scouting, young campers discover themselves through trial by terrain and weather, accomplish goals through teamwork, and apply the basic skills of Scouting as they have never been applied before.
Customer Reviews:
Philmont revisited.......2007-06-08
I enjoyed reaquainting myself with places and adventures I had experienced when I was much younger. The unique camps that were described came flooding back into my memory like I had just been there! I recommend this book to anyone who has been to Philmont, on any level. I just wish there had been a nice map attached. Azure skies forever!
A great read for all who love or want to know more about Phlimont!.......2006-10-25
William Cass has written a GREAT book that describes Philmont and its experiences as well as anyone could do on paper. The reader should keep in mind and as Mr. Cass points out in the introduction the book to a large extent is his journal and the thoughts and events that happened in his life while for the most part at Philmont on staff, on the way to or from Philmont and then back as an adult advisor to a crew with his son. It's a great story, makes interesting reading for all of us who love Philmont or who just want to try and understand what its all about! I want to go back to Philmont (IWTGBTP)!
Return to the summit of Scouting.......1999-11-29
I throughly enjoyed author Bill Cass' stories about his Philmont experiences. His tales are well crafted and help the reader relive the fun and adventure of the Philmont Scout Ranch.
I do not know why the next review features such spite for Mr. Cass (jealousy?). The reviewer has violated the 4th point of the Scout Law.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has been to, or is planning a return trip to Philmont. It is excellent reading.
Wally Meyer - Philmont Ranger (1978 & 1979)
An arrogant, pompus show off.......1999-08-30
I read this book and was extremely disappointed. This book is about Mr. Cass first, then Philmont. If you like reading about a mid life crisis, this is your novel.
Thanks For The Memories.......1999-03-25
I came across this title, purchased it from Amazon and relived my 1972 trip to Philmont. This is a must read for anyone who's ever been to Philmont.
Average customer rating:
- Considered a classic but . . .
|
Southern Journey: A Return to the Civil Rights Movement
Tom Dent
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0820322911 |
Amazon.com
In January 1991, Tom Dent began a journey that would take him through the South United States, visiting cities and towns that had been significant during the Civil Rights Movement. He began in Greensboro, North Carolina, where sit-ins at a Woolworth's lunch counter in the 1960 helped spark black protest against segregation, and ended in November in Mayersville, Mississippi, a town of just 475. Dent's fascinating journey takes place mostly on the back roads and state highways and, for the most part, he talks to ordinary folks who played vital roles in the Civil Rights Movement, but whose names will probably be lost to history. One of those was Unita Blackwell, who in the 1960s tried to register to vote in Mississippi and was told she would never work again. When Dent visited her, she was mayor of Mayersville, and she assessed the changes she'd seen this way: "I suppose what we really gained is the knowledge that we struggled to make this a decent society, because it wasn't. And maybe it still isn't now, but at least we tried."
Book Description
More than twenty years after the civil rights movement, one question still lingers: What significant changes, if any, have resulted from its efforts? In search of the answer, author Tom Dent takes us on a unique journey through the contemporary South, revisiting the places where protesters and their supporters took a stand for equality.
Dent interviews blacks, whites, civil rights workers, and just plain folks about the sit-ins, student demonstrations, and protests that shaped the Movement. In their own words, the participants discuss the impressions these events left on their communities.
Dent's journey becomes a personal one as well, as he examines the role the Movement has played in his own life. Raised "a black youth in New Orleans one generation before the legal obstructions that delineated racial segregation in the South were dismantled piece by piece," he was encouraged by his family to seek his fortune outside the South but soon returned home. With
Southern Journey, Dent takes readers on a trip through the South and into the past, visiting:
-- The F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, where sit-down strikes in 1960 ignited a new phase of black protest against racial injustice
-- The campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, where, in 1968, one of the most blatantly violent reactions to student demonstrations occurred
-- The Medical College Hospital of South Carolina in (Charleston, where a hospital workers' strike in 1969 addressed the fundamental economic inequalities at the core of the struggle
-- St. Augustine, Florida, where the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led peaceful protests against segregation in 1964
-- Albany, Georgia, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led one of the first mass-movement civil rights efforts in 1962
-- Selma, Alabama, the starting point for Dr. King's 1965 Selma to Montgomery
March, which dramatized the denial of the right to vote Using these smaller towns -- "more interesting, more resistant to change, more reflective of the South as a region" than their larger counterparts -- Dent demonstrates how the civil rights movement continues to make a positive impact on people's lives today, but also learns that the goal of equality hasn't been fully achieved.
Tom Dent invites readers into his beautifully written and accessible discussion by portraying genuine and engaging southern personalities.
Southern Journey takes us on a special trip of discovery and hope, letting us see and feel how the historic fight for civil rights still shapes our world today.
Customer Reviews:
Considered a classic but . . . .......2007-08-27
This is considered a classic civil rights book. Dent quite literally gets into a car and starts driving, hitting many of the more famous signposts that mark the highway of American civil rights. He tracks down original players, walks the walk, talks the talk. For novices and younger people (who did not live during those times), this is a good introduction. I found his style to be a bit dry, so much so that it made it hard to keep up with the book. Some of the interviews just aren't that interesting and read more as reflections than first-person histories. A shame, really. I prefer -- and recommend -- "Eyes on the Prize," other works.
Customer Reviews:
Moving Farewell.......2005-03-13
The author's third and final memoir volume is very moving, but falls just short of its outstanding predecessors (THE START & NIGHTMARE YEARS) due to lighter sprinkling of contemporary history. William L. Shirer (1904-1993) lived a remarkably full life, and at age 85 retained the immense talents that ranked him among our top journalist/historians. Here he recounts returning to a defeated Berlin in 1945, his firing by CBS News (told quite differently elsewhere), and his struggle to write RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH while semi-blacklisted and half-broke in the late 1950's. Shirer also takes a limited look at the events of the 1970's and 1980's, describes his prolific seniority, and pays tribute to friends lost to advancing years. The author's bittersweet account of his final visit to Paris 60 years after having first lived there in the 1920's speaks volumes. This journalist-turned-author was a perceptive realist, somewhat headstrong and pessimistic, and well seasoned by wine, women and song. Writing that wonderfully readable prose of old newspapermen, Shirer certainly left his mark - as had been predicted in his college days by a long-forgotten editor back in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (see THE START).
This final memoir is perhaps best once you've gotten a sense of the man from his earlier memoirs and other stellar books. Not knowing that he'd live to finish another book (on Tolstoy), Shirer's final passages are a moving farewell. As he states, "...it was an interesting fate to be an American in the Twentieth Century...I am glad it was mine."
Excellent, but not up to the first two in the series........1998-06-27
Shirer's historical narrative suffers somewhat when he turns the spotlight on himself. The first two books in the series, where his focus is growing up in early 20th century America and his years as a foriegn correspondent, are outstanding. In this voulme, his focus is on his blacklisting, struggling as an author, and his vindication in writing the definitive history of Nazi Germany. Instead of the candor he displayed in the earlier works, at a few points he leaves me feeling he is holding back. His description of his firing by CBS leaves me wanting more, some feeling of why there was such pressure to remove him. Instead, he just gives us his criticism of how he was wronged. I felt this same reluctance to be totally honest with the reader when he described his visit to the Soviet Union in 1982. He seems to have a stong admiration for Russia, but he just won't lay his cards on the table.
In summary, William Shirer seems a man I would disagree with on most subjects, but one whom I could admire and respect. He is mostly candid and honest about his liberalism, but I wish he would have not left some blanks in the record.
Shirer's memoirs of McCarthyism and beyond.......1998-05-28
I rate this a 9 because it isn't quite The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, or The Collapse of the Third Republic. For any other author, this final volume of memoirs would be a 10. Academic historians hate the man, because he has outdone them at every turn and has made modern history readable. This final volume of memoirs is fascinating, because it recounts Shirer's view of his departure from CBS -- a view far different than that expressed by Ann Sperber in her biography of Edward R. Murrow. It is fascinating because it sets the reader down, and explains what it was like to be a world class author and intellectual unable to ply his craft due to the inclusion of his name in the notorious "Red Channels". In the final analysis, it is fascinating because it is William L. Shirer writing about William L. Shirer surviving ouster from CBS, McCarthyism, and going on to write two of the most important works of contemporary history the western world has ever been privilaged to read. This work cannot be commended too highly to the intellectually aware. Conservatives and other knotheads ought best to look elsewhere, for these are fools that Shirer does not suffer gladly, indeed at all.
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