Organizations Books

This is a hot book! I coached a team of manufacturing managers who worked in a large traditional factory. Our job was to study manufacturing operations in companies that had adopted Toyota's productivity methods and policies. While the men and women on the team had read about lean production, they were disquieted and perhaps even disturbed by obviously highly performing plants that were organized and operated according to principles foreign to their beliefs. At each plant we visited their discomfort deepened. Then, somewhere between the second and fourth visit, each manager had an epiphany. There was some kind of logical reorganization of the manufacturing furniture in their minds and they "got it", as they described the event. Others said, "the light came on." They saw the fundamental logic and sense underlying each lean factory even though each facility assembled pieces of Toyota's productivity methods and policies into its own unique manufacturing system. Interestingly, each member of the visit team became a passionate believer of lean manufacturing. The greatest skeptics became the most outspoken advocates. They called it "getting religion."

People who successfully implement lean manufacturing must be strong believers and must have a personal mental model of lean that functions at the level of a craft - a creative skill for assembling productivity methods and policies into powerfully efficient manufacturing machines. As the great Japanese coaches from Toyota teach Westerners, there is no cookbook, lean is a way of thinking.

The literature on lean production is disappointing. Lean manufacturing books tend to be long dreary laundry lists of productivity methods and technical techniques for quality. There is little available that gives insight into how the great master craftsmen and craftswomen put together marvelous lean machines of production - until now.

This book by Richard McCormack finally brings us face to face with the creative processes of great designers of production systems. Imagine yourself as a novice artist sitting down for a conversation with Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec or Michelangelo. That is what McCormack brings us in this book - chats with the virtuosos of lean production. Forget those paint-by-numbers books. Either go see the real thing or read "Lean Machines".

A lot has been written about lean, but nothing yet compares to what this book has done.... It's the first time anyone has provided straight answers about the true nature of lean. The author asks the right questions and gets surprising responses. Having spent 20 years in the automotive business, I found this book extremely useful.

This is a hot book! I coached a team of manufacturing managers who worked in a large traditional factory. Our job was to study manufacturing operations in companies that had adopted Toyota's productivity methods and policies. While the men and women on the team had read about lean production, they were disquieted and perhaps even disturbed by obviously highly performing plants that were organized and operated according to principles foreign to their beliefs. At each plant we visited their discomfort deepened. Then, somewhere between the second and fourth visit, each manager had an epiphany. There was some kind of logical reorganization of the manufacturing furniture in their minds and they "got it", as they described the event. Others said, "the light came on." They saw the fundamental logic and sense underlying each lean factory even though each facility assembled pieces of Toyota's productivity methods and policies into its own unique manufacturing system. Interestingly, each member of the visit team became a passionate believer of lean manufacturing. The greatest skeptics became the most outspoken advocates. They called it "getting religion."

People who successfully implement lean manufacturing must be strong believers and must have a personal mental model of lean that functions at the level of a craft - a creative skill for assembling productivity methods and policies into powerfully efficient manufacturing machines. As the great Japanese coaches from Toyota teach Westerners, there is no cookbook, lean is a way of thinking.

The literature on lean production is disappointing. Lean manufacturing books tend to be long dreary laundry lists of productivity methods and technical techniques for quality. There is little available that gives insight into how the great master craftsmen and craftswomen put together marvelous lean machines of production - until now.

This book by Richard McCormack finally brings us face to face with the creative processes of great designers of production systems. Imagine yourself as a novice artist sitting down for a conversation with Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec or Michelangelo. That is what McCormack brings us in this book - chats with the virtuosos of lean production. Forget those paint-by-numbers books. Either go see the real thing or read "Lean Machines".

This is an excellent book for students, parents and especially teachers.
It is a great story written by an amazing woman who REALLY cared about the education of her children. It also provides an extensive reference list for reading material for teachers.
This is proof that one person CAN make a difference. Rock on Ms. Meehan !

You know how people say, "I don't have kids so I'm not really qualified to offer an opinion," Learning Like A Girl makes you feel qualified to start a school, join your condo association or coach your kids' soccer team. That's the big story here. I loved it.

The reason that private girls' schools are important is that girls are important. Yes, "children are our future," but if past is prologue, girls represent a much better future than boys.

Traditionally, boys are taught to win (and, often, win at any cost). You have only to raise your eyes from this screen to see a world powered by such dog-eat-dog ethics, disguised as a concern for "shareholder value". Another generation or two of boys being raised to emulate their fathers, and the greatest Empire of the modern world may crumble in our lifetime.

Girls, in contrast, tend to be collaborators. They look less for the win than the win-win. And when they achieve, they look to share and mentor.

Or so says Diana Meehan, co-founder of the Archer School in Los Angeles, where girls go to class only with girls and are the better for it. You have heard the reasons why elsewhere: As boys and girls hit adolescence, the boys become classroom gods and the girls fall silent. The boys achieve; the girls support. And when it comes to science and math, guess who gets called on first?

Meehan and two friends decided to start a school --- "where the best teachers could do their best teaching and the girls would have the tools, the risks, the chances to fail and to succeed" --- without having any experience launching a business or serving on a school board. Just as well. "New schools are models of chaos theory," Meehan writes.

The story of how Meehan and her view actualized their "dream in a hurry" will be inspiring to anyone who's ever started any enterprise. You'll become an Archer booster early on, and the school's growing pains will make you wince. Granted, Meehan cherry-picked her anecdotes, but the girls you'll meet along the way are inspiring --- they're everything you'd want your own kids to be. And it all works out; although Archer girls don't grind and compete, they do amazingly well on tests and get into any college they want.

How do you know if your town could use a new school? If the private schools turn away two-thirds of their applicants, there's a need. And an opportunity. But even if you read this book without a new school in mind, it's a great resource. There's a terrific appendix of summer programs for girls that, alone, is worth the cost of the book.

There are aspects of this book that make me grimace. The introduction is by Tom Hanks, obviously an Archer parent and, by every account, a terrific human being --- but not likely to be coming to your town to help a struggling girls' school make a fortune at the Spring Benefit. And that's just the start of the specialness. The Archer board is a Who's Who of female Los Angeles. And then there is language that resides primarily on LA's West Side --- like Meehan saying she wrote the book, in part, to "share the journey." Only in LA can anyone say that with a straight face, and even then, it's better coming out of the mouth of a none-too-clever actress on Oscar night.

But in the end, you come back to the girls. "We'd go into a burning building for one another," one says. My eyes misted. I went to great schools, but I didn't have that. I doubt you did. And as I get on in life, I'm starting to think that kind of bonding is the most important lesson a school has to teach.

If you have a daughter with potential --- or know the parents of a girl who could be somebody --- "Learning Like a Girl" just might be more valuable than braces.

Some of the highlights of the book I enjoyed:

-- "Followership means we rely on each other, set aside personal agendas, and collaborate for the good of the organization." Before we can be good leaders, we have to be good followers first.

-- Leadership moments do not require much time.

-- Nkosi Johnson's challenge (very effective).

-- Leadership legacy. Important part of this book as we often times don't realize the impact we have on an organization when we leave.

A random walk through the aisles of any major bookstore will reveal literally hundreds of both old and new books on Leadership. "A Legacy of 21st Century Leadership" is a well considered presentation and certainly among the better books on the subject to have recently come out. When combined with "Stewardship - Choosing Service Over Self-Interest" by Peter Block the reader is provided an rock solid foundation to avoid the current fetish of self-honoring that is at the core of the Cult of Legacy, a cult whose members mask grotesque meglomania and passive-aggressive hostility under the guise of meaningful sound leadership principles, practices, and performance.

If the climate of your organization is such that your upper and mid-level leaders and employees wouldn't follow you through the gates of Hell (for all those good and honorable reasons to exhibit this degree of loyalty and determination), then your legacy as a leader may indeed require self-promotion and a blurring of the lines accuracy wise.

Fine book - good touchstone when melded to Peter Block's most excellent work as noted. A sound compass bearing for the credible leader at any level or in any environment.

Greg Walker, co-author
"The Verbal Judo Way of Leadership - Empowering the Thin Blue Line from the Inside Up!" - LooseLeaf Law Publishing

I read this book last year and knew I was going to blend this into my teaching this year. I teach for Concordia University in their MBA program and Les Wallace and Jim Trinka have given us a gift. I used this text in a Seminar in January on "The Power of Personal Leadership" and the students were as one at the end of the seminar in saying this book was a text they would keep for life. It is now being used in the next core course of "Ethical Leadership and Organizational Behavior".

This book blends in many of the best writers on the topic of leadership and then takes the topic to one higher level. I remain amazed these authors were able to pack so much pertinent information into this text. It is a must read for anyone interested in leading any organization in the 21st Century.

Having served 32 years in the law-enforcement profession both as a Police Chief and an elected Sheriff for two terms, I can assure you this is a book that should be at the top of the list for all law-enforecment agency heads and those who aspire to serve in that capacity.

Good job Les and Jim. When is the next one?

Les Stiles
Legacy Leadership,LLC
Bend, OR

This is a great book. A Legacy of 21st Century Leadership synthesizes much of the most compelling research on how leaders learn to lead and provides many useful insights about the importance of leaving a leadership legacy. Jim Trinka and Les Wallace argue that leaders need to make a conscious decision to lead, learn constantly, model effective leadership for the next generation, and focus on developing others. They also advocate developing leaders at all levels across the organization (rather than focusing on a "favored few") and using varied and challenging assignments as a key leadership development tool.

Trinka and Wallace also suggest 10 high-impact leadership legacies to help readers decide on their personal legacy focus. These include Integrity, Adaptability, Developing Leaders at All Levels, Leveraging Diversity, Commitment to Learning, Thinking Differently, Innovation, Transparency, Balance, and Giving Back.

In training courses, I see many managers nod their heads and say "Yes, yes, I understand this leadership stuff is important." What they often lack, however, is a clear commitment to doing the hard work of becoming a more effective leader. Trinka and Wallace actually included a whole chapter on "Choosing to Lead," and make the point that: "Not one single leadership principle requires permission from anyone other than you. No excuses, you're not a victim. What are you waiting for?"

"Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The realities of Online teaching" is a great book for someone who is interested in the possibilities of online education and teaching. Palloff and Pratt offer a lot of great tips and ideas that are very concise and easy to understand. They provide commonsense guidelines in conducting online teaching in a way that is simple to digest, entertaining, and useful to teachers, administrators, or whoever else is interested in the realm of online teaching and education.

I personally liked the way the authors really tried the simplify their views on how to make a successful online teaching experience. Their "Keys to Success" seemed to be very helpful and realistic for many institutions to implement with careful planning.

Another especially helpful idea throughout the book was their tips at the end of some sections. By providing these simple tips it helps readers summarize the section and allows readers to easily review the material after they have read though the book once or twice.

I feel that this book is a "must-have" for people who have some interest in this relatively new and every changing field of online teaching.

Growing numbers of K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and businesses have begun offering online instruction, taking advantage of computer and Internet technologies to deliver instruction once confined to the realm of physical classrooms. Indeed, the Internet, so-to-speak, has become a virtual classroom and community where all kinds of instruction can take place - anytime day or night, anywhere around the world.

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom offers readers a broad treatment of the issues involved in planning, creating, and carrying out distance education via the Internet. In a concise manner the book introduces the issues, raises many serious questions, and provides many solutions to help meet the educational goals of instructors, their learning institutions, and their students.

The real beauty of the book lies in its effort to motivate instructors and learning institutions to think through the issues for themselves - to evaluate the unique circumstances they face and to encourage them to seek more effective ways of accomplishing their goals. Because each virtual learning experience will be unique, a number of important considerations should be weighed to determine course structure, content, and delivery, such as:

What technologies should be used?
Who will create the course?
Who will own the course material(s)?
How will the course be delivered?
How will assignments, projects, and exams be administered?
How will instructors and students be prepared?
How will student participation be controlled?
How will student behavior be controlled?

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom does a superb job of fostering community among educators and their students. The authors express the importance of creating learning communities were serious dialogue takes place - dialogue that enhances the learning process and leads to achieving specific educational goals. This book is must reading for online educational course development.

If "the devil is in the details" of online learning, Paloff and Pratt have done an excellent job exploring the promise and pitfalls of distance learning programs. Anyone in the process of designing online courses or programs in higher education should read both this book and their earlier book before they launch a new course or program. Personally, this book helped me avoid several mistakes I otherwise would have made in my first distance learning adventure.

The book looks at both teacher and administrator perpsectives, and understands that both insitutional support and instructor skill are key elements for success. While the authors are genuine advocates for the medium, they understand that interactivity does not equal mouse clicks, and that building learning communities takes skill, practice, and structures. The book is full of very helpful examples, learning constructs, and realistic assessments of distance learning successes and failures.

A first-rate book on the subject of organizational design.

Chapters focus on:
- tensions of organization design;
- aligning span of attention;
- unit structure;
- diagnostic control systems;
- interactive networks;
- shared responsibilities;
- examples of adjusting the levers; and
- designing organizations for performance.

Central to this book are four key factors that guide effective design decisions: customer definition, critical performance variables, creative tension, and commitment to others.

The book offers great insights and guidance to design an organization that influences how people perform, focus their attention, and how their efforts can be aligned with strategy. Rich in content and value! Very highly recommended.

Finally, an OD book with a solid combination of theory and practice. The theory in this book is the most comprehensive model for OD I've ever seen. Simons' model incorporates all functional areas of business. He does an excellent job of looking at the whole organizational picture. This is where many authors have fallen short with theories that only cover one or two functional areas of business leaving you to guess at how to incorporate the rest. This cross-functional approach to OD is not just refreshing; it's quite necessary in today's business environment.
Simons' theory is based on levers and sliders. Easy to understand and easy to visualize. Part of the value of the book is that the theory is backed up with practical implementation examples. Like any good learning resource (a.k.a. text book) each chapter provides us with a summary and action steps. I give this book an A+ and consider it a "must read" for anyone in the OD field. It is also recommended for management teams looking to assess their organization design. Using this book will provide the understanding you need to get started.

Unlike subtitles of so many other recently published business books, the one for Levers of Organization Design correctly identifies its author's primary objective: to explain "how managers use accountability systems" to achieve "greater performance and commitment." Simons thoroughly and brilliantly responds to questions such as these:

What are the nature and extent of tensions of organization design or redesign?
How to get "span of attention" in proper alignment?
What is an appropriate "unit structure"? Why?
Which diagnostic control systems can be most effective? How?
Why are interactive networks essential?
How to establish and then strengthen them?
How should shared responsibilities be determined and then managed?
Then, how to sustain productive collaboration?
Which "levers" of organizational design are most effective? Why?
Which examples best illustrate how to make appropriate adjustment of them?
What are the most effective strategies and tactics when designing organizations for performance?

According to research which Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton provide in The Strategy-Focused Organization, only 5% of the workforce understand their company's strategy, only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy, 60% of organizations don't link budgets to strategy, and 85% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. If true, these are chilling statistics which suggest that few decision-makers in any organization (regardless of its size or nature) would be able to answer, clearly and realistically, each of the questions listed previously. Hence the urgency of their reading Simons' book. I also urge them to check out the several works co-authored by Kaplan and Norton.

This book is defenitly something i would recommend to mothers who are feeling overwhelmed, need advice on how to cope with staying home with young ones & just a great book for those who need a pick me up. It helped me cope when i felt like i wasn't doing everything right..trying to hard to be perfect and trying to manage a blended family with 4 kids!

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)

"Life Lessons for Busy Moms," is divided into 7 chapters. Each chapter is filled with wisdom, humor, advice, quotes, tips and stories.

"Make Time To Nurture Yourself."
The emphasis of this chapter is taking care of you, creating boundaries, cultivating your relationship with your husband and creating balance in your life. As a mother you wear many hats and you need to recognize how important your roles are.

"Take Charge of Your Parenting Style/Philosophy."
"Implement Creative Solutions (with an Organized Approach)"
"Feed Your Soul."
As a mother what do you need? What are your goals? What do you see as your future?

"Keep an Organized Home."
This is my favorite chapter. Organization! Our lives are less stressful is we have detailed schedules, systems and a good calendar.

"Solicit Help."
We all need assistance at sometime or other but many of us refuse to ask for it. No matter how hard you try you can't be Supermom!

"Make Time to Slow Down"
When we slow down we come to appreciate "the small things in life" those little moments that later we wish we hadn't rushed through. We come to cherish what's happening right now instead of worrying about what might happen, "the what if's."

I wish I'd had this book years ago when my three children were little. Looking back on those precious years I wish I'd been more organized, more stress free. I wish I'd taken more time to enjoy those special moments as they happened rather than stressing out over unimportant things.

This is a delightful book with sound, sensible advice and suggestions written in a humorous style. The stories are sure to bring a smile to the faces of mothers and grandmothers. This book would make a fantastic gift for a new or expectant mother. I highly recommend "Life Lessons for Busy Moms" to all mothers and grandmothers. My daughter and daughters-in-law will each be receiving a copy.

This book is full of good tips for new moms, humor, inspiring quotes, and warm stories from real moms-including myself. It is easy to read and has some thoughtful simple solutions for everyday challenges.

Chapter 7 alone is worth the price of the book. It outlines a free-market model for a small group ministry. It is a permission-giving model, meaning that it invites church members to start their own groups based on their gifts and callings. The Small Group Ministry runs on a 3-semester basis so that people have the option of switching groups and not getting burned out.

We've been using this model in our congregation for a year now and it's been exciting and fun!

My husband and I belong to a non-denominational church.Our Pastors received the vision for becoming a cell church & went to a cell church conference.The book and information we received were so confusing! THIS BOOK fits our church that really focuses on fellowship and community outreach! Ted Haggards book gave my husband and I an exciting vision of how the cell church could work in our church! Chapter 11 was and still is the foundation from which we built upon after our senior Pastor asked us to head the cell ministry!

Ted Haggard has put together one of the most insightful and challenging books Christian ministry has seen in many years. This book is a very practical manual for ANYONE of any denomination who is starting a church or is looking to improve on an existing church structure. His methods are proven, easy to understand, and will undoubtedly bring a fresh vision for what church life should be like to any reader.

This is a wonderful collection of the kind of single panel cartoons one finds in the best of periodicals.The humor is precise and each cartoon conveys a statement of truth through humor. If you are a school principal, get this book and stop and smell the humor. Laughing and smiling is good for you. It's a stress buster, a sort of Western style yoga. These cartoons make great ice breakers for staff meetings. If you know a school administrator, this is a great gift to give. Take a peek at the funny side of running a school.

If you run a school or a school district you can do it better if you have a sense of humor. The cartoons in this book provide that.
As one who has a leadership role in education, I can see myself reflected in many of the cartoons in this book. If you have a role in educational leadership the cartoons in this book will prompt knowing snickers and laughs along with the proverbial 'grain of salt' that must be taken with many leadership experiences.

This is a delightful collection of well drawn cartoons, each of which shows a behind-the-scene knowledge of the Principal's role in our educational system. These cartoons are funny and truthful at the same time and would be so useful in adding a much needed light touch to educational meetings. This book belongs on every principal's bookshelf.

A good source of information on the Organizatin, Ships, men and equipment of the American navy of the civil war.

A must have for anyone interested in the naval aspects of the american civil war.

This is not a review but a call for help. A market that needs to be met is a fact based but fictional history of the Union blockade of the Confederacy along the lines of C. S. Forrester's Hornblower novels.

The growth of the American Navy as a permanent force on the seas began in the Civil War and the building of the blockading force should provide a rich background to any solid writer of fiction that choses to devote the time to it.

As a wargamer, i bought this book to have detailed information and pictures about ironclads but i got much more. The author not only gives plenty of details for each class of vessels but you also get insider information on how to build an ironclad, the life at sea at the time and a description of every shipyard then in use, some still as it were. For the navy buff and/or wargamer. Lots of pictures.

This book is the most honest book I have ever read about the modern black woman's experience. My mother read it because it was given to her by a friend in her Master's program, some years ago

Then when I was a sophmore in college she gave it to me and I read it.

I would encourage women who have sons especially to read it, I have a daughter, a toddler, and she will read it too,probably in high school.

If we are to end the cycle of abuse and torment and empower black women in America we must start with all the issues she addresses.

This is an account of Michele Wallace's experiences with the civil rights movement and growing up in the late 60's. Judith Wilson, who reviewed this for Ebony Magazine, has since said, "it was a pioneer work. Angela Davis's book 'Women, Race and Class' wasn't published until 2 years later. Ntozake Shange's play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide' had moved to Broadway but it's approach was poetic rather than analytical"

Wallace mentions of the ladies in her family, "It was understood, you were either going to be a bright success or a desperate failure, and it was your job to proclaim which you were going to be at as early an age as possible."

She recalls how she was taken out of private Catholic school when her mom found posters of Richard Nixon in the bedroom she shared with her sister, "can you believe it? we were that brainwashed." Things would be entirely different at the NY school where she transferred. . .

This book, about Black women being shortchanged, is probably most relevant for women who came of age during the period of time from the 1960s to the 1990s, tho it has some relevance today, as it probably would have before the 1960s as well. Written in 1976, it was way ahead of it's time, well, ahead of the 'PC', politically correct, beliefs of it's time.

Black Macho is an odd read and yet a modernly familiar one, in that at times, one is struck with a feeling Wallace is trying to say something completely opposite from what is literally on the page. This is both a sensationalist book and a subtle book at the same time. For the most part Wallace implies black women are oppressed and almost never tells us they are. It wasn't until later, reading about this book and reading other Wallace, that I understood more what it was about. This work could be subtitled, 'Why I became a feminist'.

Wallace is either a master propagandist or she knows her audience and wants to keep them reading: she begins each chapter repeating a true-ism, for instance, this genuine one, "white men were always the ones making pronouncements about everything" and ends up at the end of the chapter quoting a figure proclaiming, "Kill Whitey." This is almost an expose' of the civil rights movement.

Some of the assertions Wallace does make are that black men and women have a sometime dislike for each other stemming in part from black men/white women relationships, and she asserts a lack of confidence he'd, "come home."

For Wallace, the civil rights movement meant, literally, "A white woman in every bed and a black woman under every heel".

Wallace was presenting ideas that no one else was at the time. She must have felt pressure to go along with the ideas people did believe in at the time (or perhaps felt a desire to be understood), and I think what is going on here with this work, is that it is an example of the 'Wilson Rule' (If you have one un-PC idea {here the idea being that black women are the ones being taken advantage of}, you have to smother this offence in 6 politically correct ideas). Countless books have been written in this manner (tho only a minority of those at the library), each examining one un-PC idea the author believes in, and, so the author can sound reasonable, accepting every other popular convention of the day. The problem with this, is that at the end of the day, best case scenario, a young reader's learned 6 lies and 1 thing that's true.

Michele Wallace was criticized for what she does say here (and perhaps for what she implies), and one has to wonder: is this criticism (of a work claiming black women are treated unfairly) simply proof of her thesis?

Wallace doesn't ignore the media in her book. She asks, was there a conscious effort to keep young minds focused on sports, guns and violence, and off business, education and the stock market?

She begins her treaties on 'Black Macho' (the 2nd half of the book) with, "imagine for a moment that there was a part of your body, an organ, that by the very nature of the society in which you lived, existed under immense pressure. Imagine that this organ, placed in a conspicuously vulnerable position on your body, was to expand, rise, and remain erect at will. Imagine that your status in society depended upon your ability to control this organ. Imagine that if you couldn't get the dam thing to work, the very importance of your existence would be in question."

This is a sensationalist, titillating book filled with the 'F' word, 'Redneck', the 'N' word, and lots of people saying, kill the bigots. I imagine Wallace secretly enjoyed writing this even as she's mentioned, she, secretly enjoyed listening to Norman Mailers rants about the civil rights movement (Wallace was a journalist for the Village Voice a paper Mailer founded). I don't think she enjoyed writing this as much as I enjoyed reading.

Wallace was criticized for Black Macho perhaps because she strays just too far from blaming all problems on white men. In a sense, in saying, black men, too, are oppressing black women, she made black men, too equal. 20 years later she says, "In some ways I'm still being punished today." Feminist Tammy Bruce in California was fired for coming out against OJ Simpson, who in her mind was an abuser at the very least. To be honest, 'Sexism', was, a huge issue. Well, if you were the wrong person it was. It's been said, President Bill Clinton being accused of sexism did a lot to reduce some of the perception of it.

Wallace was in one of my college textbooks, quoted for her reaction to gangster rap. For her, the solution for women everywhere will be found, when, "...women rap back." Not long after I noticed Queen Latifah with a big video out. Eminem followed.

To be fair and give my own views, my background is in reading old -old- school conservatism. In fact, I'm somewhat of an 'anti-feminist'. Perhaps I'm just a chauvinist. I'm not wedded to any particular ideology tho - I do find them all interesting. Guess I'm a sympathizer too.

Michele Wallace is paid to be a feminist. After Black Macho, Wallace would edit a work titled, "All the women are white. All the blacks are men, but some of us are brave." She teaches a great number of courses at CUNY, and a seminar in film studies, 'Performance and Race in Cinema 1890-1930's' where she says, "Despite the many objectionable features, this is a body of work which is collectively unforgettable and irreplaceable."

I would trade all these films for 'Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman'. I couldn't help but like the voice of woman who wrote this book. I was in awe of Wallace. No. I was in love with the woman who wrote these words.

I read this book when it was originaaly published in 1976. Although Michele Wallace was a relatively young black woman (still in her twenties as I remember)I was most impressed by the maturity of her insights regarding both black men and black women. Her intent seemed to be to point out areas that both genders needed to look at if the race as a whole was to make any progress.

In both sections of her book, Wallace focused our attention on "male privilege" and how it translated into black "macho-ness", with the resultant effect that black men are as guilty of taking for themselves unearned advantages over black women as white people are guilty of taking for themselves unearned advantages over black people. She pointed out that black women continued to nurture the race physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and that the convenience of the self-sacrificing "superwoman image" (which black women willingly accept) allowed the predominatly male leaders of the civil rights movement to discount the interests and issues of black women, much like white slaveholders did; the typical black superwoman served only as an ancillary utility for black men. Wallace revealed to the world that black women, more often than not, were still "sleeping with the enemy."

Wallace was virulently attacked by almost every black "leader" who could get herself (yes, even women) and himself heard. However, if you re-read the book today, you cannot deny the fact that she was prescient in her observations and conclusions. The problems which she identified then still exist today.

I would recommend this book as a basic text for every black women's college. It should be discussed whereever concerned black people convene.