U Books

I had to buy this book when my friend Nikki Shearer-Tilford told me that the story she wrote, I am My Sister's Keeper, had been published in this book. I read her story first, which I knew would be insightful and really touch my heart so deeply that I wanted to read more of her stories. I started reading the other stories and I felt good that we as African Americans can share our experiences so that the other cultures will have a better understanding of who we are as a people. We as a people have suppressed our emotions and feelings for so many centuries for fear of retribution by the dominant culture that the stories gave me a sense of joy and love to be able to finally write about our experiences on how we continue to overcome every day. Now we must share these stories with our children to strengthen them and show them the path that God has ordained for all of his children who step out on faith no matter where the road leads. I'm purchasing another book for a young lady I know who is feeling the pain and of others who are suffering and she doesn't know how to help them. I think the stories will encourage her and renew her faith in God.

I am still reading the my book, but so far have enjoyed it immensely. The book is the best I've read from the Chicken soup for the Soul writers. I've enjoyed all the materials they written. I've shared them with lots of my friends. But this one is Special. I've told my friends that they need to purchase this book. Most excellent educational reading stories.

I've just purchased Chicken Soup for the Soul Bible. It is excellent.

I had shunned the chicken soup series a few years ago. As inspirational as they were they were not representative of the diversity in the western world and too eurocentric. When I heard about this book I thought I'd give it a try and it's nice to read something different yet very inspirational at the same time. It helped me understand a culture different from mine yet similar at the same time. I hope a chicken soup for the south asian's soul will be next, profiling stories of those who trace their origins to the indian subcontinent and relating to their religions, cultural values and so forth in the north american context.

This collection of stories embraces African-American culture by nurturing the soul and encouraging one to excel in all things. The stories deal with our history, family, the power of praise and worship, lessons learned over time, triumph over controversies, accepting who you are and making a difference in the world. The stories will leave you feeling loved and filled with confidence about being African-American.

Everyone needs to read a warm, loving and inspiring story every now and then. All of the stories are uplifting, but there were a few that especially tugged at my heartstrings. "I Owe You an Apology" pays tribute to our African-American men by honoring their greatness instead of constantly complaining about their shortcomings. "Where's Your Notebook?" describes one father's weekly lessons to his sons, each family should be so involved. "The Lady at the Bus Stop" acknowledges the privilege of education while recognizing that someone else paved the way before her.

I plan on purchasing this book for all of my friends and family, as it is one to be shared. This is one to keep in your personal library, next to the bed or on your bookshelf at work and to hand down for generations. No matter what your problem, Chicken Soup for the African-American Soul can see you through.

Reviewed by Monique Bruner for Loose Leaves Book Review

I have read many in the chicken Soup for the Soul series and like me many of you might only buy the ones that seem to call to you like if your a mother you get the mother one and if your a sister you get that one etc... But I tell you this sometimes you learn your best lessons or gain more from books that are not in your normal realm of reading or that has a cultural background that is not the same as yours. I mention this because I am Caucasian/American Indian and I learned more and received more from this book in the series than any other one I have read. The stories made me laugh, cry and rejoice! Here are some of my favorites in the order in which I was moved by their stories... Confessions of an Ex-Con By Dennis Mitchell, Something Unbelievable (Mary Spio) , Ripples in the pond (Tyrone Dawkins) The Opening of a New World (Malcom X) Black Children DO read (Wade Hudson) Remembering Eric (Tracy-Clausell- Alexander) In Sickness and in Health ( Dorothy C. Randle) It Runs in the Family (Jarralynne Agee), Life After Death ( Ivonne Pointer).

As an avid reader and member of Oprah's book club I read a lot of books. "Confessions of an Ex-Con" by Dennis Mitchell was one of the most powerful stories I have ever read. WOW, talking about someone who has overcome obstacles and uses those experiences in his seminars to help others transform their lives! This book is a MUST read. My life has been forever changed for the better. Dennis Keep using the talents God has given you to make a difference.

Although Guy Saperstein probably wrote A CIVIL WARRIOR for a broad based audience, it is very worthwhile reading for attorneys, especially civil litigators. The book begins with a description of Guy Saperstein's childhood days in Southern California, continues with stories of his law school days and the beginnings of his public interest law career. Eventually, we learn of the historic employment discrimination cases he handled. The book is inspirational. Obviously, we are richer for the results Saperstein and and his colleagues obtained through the massive class action employment discrimination cases he launched. However, A CIVIL WARRIOR also gives encouragement and inspiration to the practicing attorney to go "the extra mile" for clients. Many practioners, I believe, would likely have settled much earlier in the various litigations in which Saperstein was involved. Saperstein's description of how his cases were screened, prepared and either tried or settled are completely engrossing.

It's a rare treat to read a book that challenges you to become a leader in your chosen craft while imparting specific useful information on its subject matter. If you enjoyed reading the Buffalo Creek Disaster, you'll love this book. Saperstein weaves a personal story within a narrative that you've already heard about in the news. This is the story that you haven't heard. Next time you hear people speak against class action attorneys, pull out your copy of this book and remember the great good that this one attorney has wrought through his craft.

It's an interesting window into the life of a slacker-turned-lawyer who got drafted into class action work at a time when it was a no-money business for legal aid organizations. Love or hate plaintiffs' lawyers, it's interesting to see how he latched onto State Farm and didn't let go until they made huge changes and paid him and the people he represented a whole lot of money.
The dates and case cites are spotty in here, so don't go into it looking to do historical or legal research. For that reason, it's easy to lose track of the cases' place in time, and alarming when you realize he's writing about companies were getting away with blatant discrimination in the '80s and even into the '90s.
For a lawyer, his writing's pretty clear and concise. And the stories about him growing up and skating through school and law school in the 1960s are kind of charming.
One really good point about it is that he waited a decade to write up his story, so there's a maturity and perspective in there that would've been missing had he decided to cash in by writing a book during his rock-star days.
It's not the most exciting or revealing memoir you'll ever read, but it is a nice little story of how one of this country's most famous trial lawyers made his way in the profession.

A must read for anyone facing a fork in the road of life...to travel the safe, well paved road society has laid for us or to venture out onto a path all you own? Guy Saperstein's "The Civil Warrior" tells the story of one attorney who blazed his own trail in social causes and made the journey for women and minorites a little easier.

Saperstein says lawyers work hard. I just finished this book and I am exhausted! It is amazing, and a credit to Saperstein, what one person can do when trained, unleashed and licensed to practice law. What we see is a young, intelligent, and questioning person, confronted with injustice, accept as seemingly his fate, personal responsibility to overcome it. And-- I recall an article about him some years ago in The California Lawyer, entitled "Rich Guy" Saperstein-- he is unapologetic that his work in the public interest has brought him wealth.

It gave me chills to read again of those days of the 60s and law students and lawyers like Guy. Some might suggest one of my characters in my novel. "The Lawyers: Class of '69" was based upon Guy Saperstein. No. I could not even begin to create in fiction the very real life Guy Saperstein has led, as a member of that class of 1969 at Boalt Hall, and one of the most influential lawyers in America. An excellent read.

Great book for kids of many ages. My two year old grandson LOVES it....but so do my first graders. It's a great book to read when the class needs to get up and move around...it has become a class favorite! I had never seen it until a colleague who joined our staff this year shared it with me. It will be a book I'll be giving to LOTS of people in the future!

I originally bought this for my 9 month old, but my 2 year old gets more out of it right now. It's a fun, active, educational book. Because my girls are so young I just wish there was a cd so that we could play it since it's hard to use my hands to hold the book and act out the activities at the same time.

I have read this book to various ages (preschool 3 yrs old through 1st grade). As my children have grown,I have always read this book to their class. A 1st grade teacher asked where I got it and I am getting her a copy as her end of school gift. It holds the kids attention with the simple words, fun actions and sing-song type way that it is written. You cannot go wrong adding this to your personal library - it comes in paperback too!

Our son (age 2 now, about 18 months when he first started really being able to play along) enjoyed this book so much at a friend's house that we had to buy one of our own, and we've given it as a gift to others, too. The pictures are fun and imaginative, and the simple rhyme is cute, but the real magic is in watching kids follow the book's instructions - turn around, find something red, growl like a lion, etc. They get to practice following directions, hone their motor skills, burn off some energy, and have a sense of accomplishment about doing all the actions - and, of course, the kids just think they're having fun! We love this book!

This is a really fun book! We bought this for my daughter when she was about 1 1/2 yrs. old and it became her absolute favorite! She actually got one as a gift and the pages became ripped and warped so I ordered her the little 'travel size' as I call it, with the hard pages and we took it everywhere. It's just a neat book with lots of actions your little one can do. Highly recommend.

In light of the previously posted shining reviews on this text, I suppose there is not much more to be said, but I felt compelled to bolster what has already been written. This book is, along with Norman Friedman's US Submarines since 1945, without question, among the definetive works on submarines of this period. Outstandingly researched and presented. Do not hesitate to buy this book. Top notch.

I was somewhat skeptical of this book when I saw nothing but 5 star reviews from purchasers of the title. However, having read it, this is THE Cold War submarine reference. It contains insights not only into the technologies deployed, but the rational (or in some cases the Irrational) that led to the development of the mysterious technological marvels we could only speculate on during the cold war. The authors clearly show both American and Soviet perspectives on the cold war submarine development. I found the information regarding the CONFORM design on 1967 to be of particular interest. Rickover's insistence on developing the 688 class killed CONFORM. Yet CONFORM was 40 years ahead of anything available at that time. It is interesting that the 688's were far more fragile than one might imagine. Yet Rickover insisted on having his way. Where would we be had the CONFORM design gone through?? This book is absolutely the best material that I have read to date on cold war submarines.

Not as many actual pix of subs as most books but it is very well written and also dabbles into the politics and design that went on with each new design of submarine. Nice charts and missile specs and things like that. Goes into greater detail of the US boats more than Soviet.

I sought a book with a serious overview of the topic of Cold War submarines, and not a book about one or another aspect of the topic. I ended up with a book that contains both an excellent overview as well as serious discussion of specific submarines, strategies, technologies and the men behind the scenes.
The story is well placed within the historical context of the political, military and economical events and processes of the Cold War. The text is well written and well structured.
Especially fascinating is the look behind the scenes of Soviet submarine design, construction and operations - those were among the best-kept secrets of the Soviet Union.
Besides dealing with "main stream" submarines, there are several interesting chapters about different experimental projects; rescue submarines and several fantasy projects, like freight vessels and aircraft carrying submarines.
Although the story is focused on the Cold War period, there is a detailed discussion of WWII technology that highly influenced Cold War designs, as well as descriptions of post Cold War vessels and fleets.
The book is well illustrated with photographs and line drawings.

I knew about a Polmar from reading references in some papers, so I finally decided to give a try. I wasn't disappointed. There were lots of technical details giving an overview. Better yet, it is a balanced account - by no means are Americans portrayed as all powerful.

If there were two things it can be improved on - well, one would be the placement of the endnotes. It is a matter of taste, but considering how many there were and how interesting they were, it might have been more convenient to have put them at the bottom of the main text as footnotes for each page.

The second is that I would have killed for a chapter or two on "other than the equipment". Subs are not just their designers, their admirals and the technicals - it is also the men, their organization and their training. Polmar briefly goes over the differences, but it could have been given a full chapter or at least an Appendix if extra efficiency measures were applied to the pre-Cold War history stuff.

Now, I'm going to buy another Polmar book that would hopefully fill up the gap. Wish me luck.

I enjoyed Margaret Creighton's book. From far off Yarmouth, Maine, she has thrown her nets far and wide and hauled in a lot of historical flotsam and jetsam that might have escaped other scholars, in service of putting together another of her finely tuned historical studies of the underserved in American history. Here we find out more about the immigrant populations who comprised the Union Army, as well as the actual lives of the women of Gettysburg and the black citizens of the surrounding area. These are the shadow puppets of history, the folks who you might never have learned about by visiting the national park nor studying your social studies book.

You probably heard more about Mamie Eisenhower's residence at Gettysburg than you did about the women who were drafted into battle, whether they were forced to nurse, to cook, to slave, or to fight. Why is this? Partially, as Professor Creighton explains, these women were told, and they believed it, that their sacrifices did not matter. And that, perhaps, there was even something a little bit shameful about what they did, particularly if they were required to assist the invading Confederate army. Of the ravishment and rape that undoubtedly occurred, we know little but can surmise much, thanks to Creighton's research and the guarded testimony of forty Gettysburg women, mostly farmwives. Creighton looks at the nuance behind every statement, searching out human reality wherever it crops it head. "A middle-aged woman on a farm opened her door to a soldier on July second. By the way he was dressed, she was sure that he was a Louisiana Tiger. He told her that `General Lee had said that they should ask for food and if they would not give it they should demand it and that was what he was going to do.' She fed him ham. He ate some of it and then insulted her. The bread, he complained, was not fit to eat, `Madam,' he said, `I can go into any cabin in Virginia, poor and desolate as it is, from Winchester to Richmond, with not a fence standing, and get a better dinner than this.'" Creighton returns to this anecdote to eke out perceptions on the nature of resistance, and the implacability of the bad ham (Gettysburg women had to be fine actresses, for otherwise the Tiger in question might have guessed that the farmwife had fine chickens hidden with their beaks taped.)

As Creighton acknowledges, the presence of women on the Gettysburg battlefield is currently a contested site for scholars, particular feminist scholars, and she acknowledges that a host of others are trawling the same fields. The material remains of interest, and does indeed widen our picture of what happened that summer long ago, but I wondered, after finishing the book, if perhaps she might have written three separate books, for there's a sense in which the struggles of the immigrant soldiers, the Gettysburg women, and the freed, escaped or citizen slaves are experiences of very different registers and don't mesh together especially well except under cloudy language of the deracinated and ignored, and although Creighton tries her best, she can only link them this vaguely for the first two hundred times, then after that her rhetoric grows tiresome.

A lesson that comes through in Margaret Creighton's excellent The Colors of Courage is one, you'd think, we wouldn't need to learn: that the courage displayed by soldiers on the battlefield doesn't exhaust the meaning of the word. Curiously, though, it's a point that our culture seems to resist. Although we use the word "courage" in a number of different contexts, the template for our thinking about what it means to be courageous almost always is the battlefield with all its conventional associations.

But as Creighton points out, using the battle of Gettysburg as her focus point, courage comes in many "colors," and when it comes to the Civil War, we're only now beginning to discover what some of them are. Certainly, men facing one another on the battlefield display courage (although, as Gerald Linderman pointed out in his Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War, what counted as courage changed as the war progressed). But other kinds of courage as documented in Creighton's book include

--the courage of the civilian women at Gburg who protected their families (many of the town's men being absent) during the battle, negotiated with Confederates to avoid trouble, and tended the thousands of wounded before and after the three days;

--the courage of the African American residents in Gburg and southern Pennsylvania who had to contend with slave catchers that accompanied Lee's invading army, federal authorities who refused to let them bear arms against the invaders, and the gradual romanticization of the Civil War as a conflict in which "both sides fought for what they thought was right" that minimized the horror of slavery;

--the courage of German-Americans (derogatorily referred to as "Dutch"), who were seen by native-born Americans who viewed them as cowardly soldiers, lazy civilians, and buffoons everywhere. The heavily German-American 11th Corps, which (largely through no fault of its own) had been routed at Chancellorsville by Stonewall Jackson's surprise flank slam, were derided for their entirely honorable actions at Gburg simply because they were "Dutch";

--and the courage of generals such as Oliver Otis Howard and Carl Schurz, who both refused to subordinate moral to physical courage, and recognized that the stakes involved in putting an end to slavery were much more important than those offered by "the vogue of rugged, tough, and secular masculinity" (p. 234) too often then and now identified as courage.

A masterful book that opens new vistas on both the battle of Gettysburg and the meaning of the Civil War.

Despite its colorless title, The Colors of Courage is an interesting and revealing book that's well worth the reading. One learns much about native (Yankee) prejudice against German immigrants (allegedly stupid, clownish and cowardly), what happened in the town of Gettysburg during the three days of battle, and the experience of northern blacks, especially those near the Mason-Dixon line (only 7 miles away). Much fascinating material has been uncovered by fruitful research. The style of cool appraisal of historical fact though often gives way to one in which the author's paternalistic bigheartedness is apparent. Refreshingly, the author rejects the usual attempts at evoking sympathy or a misguided evenhandedness for the Confederacy and its soldiers, and presents the rebel army in all the horrific racism that was its soul and raison d'etre.

It is distressing though that much of the book is given over to a cloying gender self-promotion. Claims are made for the courageous self-sacrifice of Gettysburg womanhood, but little real courage is really described. The only incident that stands out in my mind is the fact that some Gettysburg women prepared meals for the Confederate soldiers who occupied the town during the battle, soldiers who, given the opportunity, would have killed their husbands, sons, brothers and fathers. These meals were prepared under some duress, of course, but when one woman courageously refuses she goes unpunished. But what could one expect from a gender that, in a 19th century rural backwater, suffered all the quasi-slavery and humiliations imposed by unchallenged male superiority -- not a fertile nursery for courage. The author notes many episodes of women's lives in Gettysburg, episodes that made me cringe with shame for these poor put-upon women. But amazingly these episodes are not presented as shameful at all, as if that would diminish these women as proud bearers of the title of womanhood. While chattel slavery is forthrightly despised, in this book gender slavery gets off scot-free! There is hardly a word that points the finger critically at the male superiority that so diminished the lives of these women. It's the elephant in the parlor -- overwhelmingly present, but unmentioned.

Despite this bizarre frame of reference, The Colors of Courage presents aspects of the war and the society that lived in its midst that are well worth discovering and whose uncovering justifies the obvious effort devoted to bringing these sidelights of the war to view.

Though Mrs. Creighton's text is well researched and factual, I believe it to be a bit extreme. I find that most claims made in the text are nothing more than generalizations. Yes, Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, however very few Union soldiers were fighting for this cause. Most Federal troops were fighting to preserve the Union, and quite a few were appaled over the idea of losing their lives to free the slaves. Additionaly, the majority of the Confederates namely Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson were not slave owners, and were simply fighting for state's rights. In fact, Lee asked Confederate President Jefferson Davis to incorporate black units into the Confederate Army. This was rejected, but by early 1865 the Confederate Army consisted of a few black units.
Secondly, although the citizens of Gettysburg suffered for a few weeks I tend to feel very little remorse. What Creighton believed to be major infractions against the Confederate Army was but mere childsplay to what Union General William T. Sherman dubbed "total war". In his infamous march to the sea(Atlanta to Savannah), his men robbed, killed, and humiliated southern citizens in an attempt to make the South lose it's fighting spirit. So please forgive me if I do not share in the citizen's of Pennsylvania's remorse for their two weeks of terror. Please do not get me wrong, I have nothing but the highest respect for those effected by the Civil War(fighting men and citizens alike). Yet, I believe it to be somewhat offensive to not even mention towns like Charleston, South Carolina and Vicksburg,Mississippi that were shelled and in the case of Vicksburg, starved into submission.
In summation, I believed Mrs. Creighton's book to be both informative and a good read. Please forgive me if I have offended anyone, and I will be more than happy to discuss this as well.

This book tells us, not about the battle, but what went on in the town of Gettysburg itself. Having lived there for 5 years, I was steeped in the folklore that the soldiers ran back and forth throught the streets of the town for three days, and with the exception of Jennie Wade (story: warned to go to the basement, courageously continued making bread) the townspeople were unscathed and John Burns (story: an irascible old coot), no townspeople participated. I had never heard of the Brian Family!

I was not without resources. I was the director of the public library. I met Michael Shaara, Bill Frassinito, Col. Sheads, Charlie Glatfelter, and a host of lesser and unknown historians, Park Service tested guides, civil war buffs and re-enacters. Perhaps I never asked Shaara (the one time I met him) and the others whom I saw more often, tacitly understanding that this battle was a white male thing, about these things. Maybe I accepted the script because the Gettysburg as I knew it was a quiet town, didn't get involved, and maybe didn't in 1863.

How could all that fighting occur in the town, without an effect, as defined by the local folklore surrounding the battle? Could the soldiers really be so courtly that they put aside their survival needs as not to disrupt to the town's civilians?

There are people who know this battle in great detail. They can recite (and argue about) the numbers of blue and gray who died in the wheat field, the peach orchard the round tops, etc. I never heard them talk about how the soldiers got fed (did they think they had were 3 squares at a mess hall?)

Creighton gives us not only the narrartive but also the answers as to how this history got burried.

Excellent work! Bravo Margaret Creighton!

This book is a work of scope and insight that is still quoted and referred to often. Although written in the 1800s it still speaks to us about what we were with a clarity and accuracy that makes it an essential if you care about the early development of this country. It has past the test of time and may be more important now then it ever was. READ IT.

George Lawrence's translation, which migrated from Harper & Row to Doubleday back to HarperCollins, is far and away the best translation of this classic study of democracy and American life. Lawrence is more accurate than the old Henry Reeve translation (even as revised by Phillips Bradley) kept in print by Vintage, and livelier than the stodgy translation inflicted on us by Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. for the University of Chicago Press.

De Tocqueville was an amazing man who posessed amazing insight into the workings (and not-workings) of American society. One only laments the fact that he was not a middle caste American politician arguing amongst great minds during the Constitutional conventions. Then again, we are equally lucky of the fact that he was a curious Frenchman of the leisure class who happened to be passing through. This is what gives de Tocqueville the ability to refrain from emotionalism and give us an outsiders view of what makes America good, bad and just plain different.

See, de tocqueville recognizes, as did our founders, that liberty and democracy are key ingredients to a healthy society. On the other hand, he points out that too much freedom or democracy lead to lazy, public-opinion driven conformity, over-emphasis on materialism and restlessness. Another contradiction de tocqueville points out is that although self-government is generally a good idea, there are times when an all powerful aristocracy is just more efficient. He can see all sides.
The best part then is that de Tocqueville doesn't come to any final conclusion. He just observes and reports on America's inner workings as seen by an aristocratic Frenchman.

A few reccomendations to the de tocqueville virgins. First, as this is the unabridged, it may be advised to read the first book, pause to read something else, then read the second book. I read it straight through and found that not only would I have benefited from reflection, but much of the second book is a rehash the first. Second, keep in mind during the second book that the word 'democracy' is also de tocqueville's word for 'capitalism'. The word 'capitalism' would be introduced only years later by one Karl Marx. So when de tocqueville says that democracy increases industriousness, what the reader should hear is that capitalism increases industriousness. This in itself is a brilliant observation by de tocqueville. Democracy and capitalism really are the same thing, different scale. The producer, like the political candidate, cater to the consumer or the voter. Both systems allow the individual to choose the goods and services he wants and reject those he doesn't. This is why one may also want to read 'Wealth of Nations' with this book.

The only other thing I can tell the reader before he or she embarks on a fascinating reading adventure is to keep in mind why de tocqueville wrote the book. He intended it to be read by the french who were not familiar with or had misconceptions about America. Of course, it provides contemporary America with an amazing historical survey. Like the introductory exclamation to MTV's 'Diary' show says, "You think you know, but you have no idea".

The Transformation and Guarantees of
American Democracy
-An analysis of Tocqueville's worries for American democracy and an illustration of American democracy's current state

The beguiling title of Tocqueville's Democracy in America seems to suggest that the book might go well in a state department propaganda packet. As a proud citizen of America flips through the pages, however, he soon discovers Tocqueville's admiration at American democracy stems not from an intrinsic love for it, but from the amazement that something so dangerous has somehow avoided falling off of the cliff. In fact, Tocqueville spends most of his chapters listing his endless concerns about democracy.

In all, to Tocqueville, democracy in general presents three intrinsic dangers for its citizens: it does not guarantee them a secure life, it does not guarantee them a prosperous life, and it does not guarantee them an enlightened life of freedom. Against these general tendencies, Tocqueville lists three essential factors which secure democracy in America-the lack of which would mean the end to American liberty. They are: America's geography, political system, and religion.

Looking at America today, Tocqueville's three securing factors for American democracy are long gone, however, the loss of its guardian angels has not resulted in the materialization of the three dangers and America today is as democratic and free as it has ever being. Tocqueville has been proven wrong because he misunderstood and discounted democracy's ultimate force-the drive for equality. Tocqueville thought the search for equality would ultimately draw people away from freedom, but to the contrary, the demand of equality is the ultimate guarantee of freedom in democracy.

The Three Dangers of Democracy

The foremost duty of any civil society is to provide security, and to Tocqueville, the democratic state can not guarantee this. The democratic people have been loosened from the old ties of society, and living independently, they no longer see the need to help another in danger until they themselves are attacked. When they do see danger, however, the whimsical nature of democratic deliberation and the lack of central control especially in the American confederation prevent a timely and sustained defense against the enemy. Tocqueville writes, "...I refuse to believe that, with equal force on either side, a confederated nation can long fight against a nation with centralized government power." (p170) Indeed, if a great army could indeed be assembled, this necessarily entails greater centralization, which only brings more dangers to democracy.

Beyond security, the people will also desire prosperity, and prosperity requires the building of an economic infrastructure that only the society as a whole is capable of. The nation must make laws that encourage innovation, construct roads, regulate industries, fund schools, etc. Many of these activities require sustained efforts which, again, a short sighted and frequently changing government by the people can not commit to since "habitual inattention must be reckoned the great vice of the democratic spirit." (p611) Additionally, even when the people do commit to an act, their officials who are not the "fittest man" (p199) can not accomplish much because they spend their whole time worried about reelection.

Democracy promises to set each free through voting, but sadly, to Tocqueville, the lack of security and prosperity must engender Democracy's fall toward centralization which will create a benumbing voice of the majority that will silence opinions and suffocates freedom. The minority will surely suffer, but even the majority, believing that they are in charge of the government, will lose their sight on the exact operations of the government which they have relegated away and will lose freedom. Tocqueville writes,

"The Americans believe that in each state supreme power should emanate directly from the people, but once this power has been constituted, they can hardly conceive any limits to it. They freely recognized that it has the right to do everything." (p669)

The worry here is not that the government will exploit the people's inattention, but that the citizens will no longer be enlightened by their daily political "exercises" and that the activity of the entire nation will lose its vitality, turning the society into a stony machine of bureaucrats and the people into dusts on a chessboard.

The Three Guarantee of American Democracy

Countering the three above impacts, Tocqueville thought that American Geography, politics and religion preserve freedom, prosperity, and security.

Stretching between two oceans and with only two weak neighbors, the geography of the United States gives America the leisure to have a confederated government. The Continent also offers open space for the young and the ambitious. Although the nation is weak in achieving collective projects, with boundless opportunities and population growth, the collective result of individual expansion is sufficient for prosperity. Indeed, as people move on, "it is the seed of life and of prosperity that he bears." (p281)

The governmental structure of the U.S. also allows it to prosper and helps to preserve freedom. The Union has enough power to fight against small enemies such as the Indians, yet it avoids centralization by empowering the locals. Certainly, localized and centralized democracy both suffer from short-sightedness and suppression of the mind, however, local policies are easier to observe, and taking part in politics, the people are enlightened and freer. Tocqueville writes, "The New Englander is attached to this township because it is strong and independent...in the restricted sphere within his scope, he learns to rule society" (p70) As one learns to rule, he will also be empowered and emboldened to start prosperous private enterprises.

More than politics and geography, to Tocqueville, Religion has the greatest impact on freedom and also improves prosperity. Religion always marches along with the adventurers and secures in the Western frontiers not only the equality based American political system but also American commerce by helping to establish law and order in new territories. Tocqueville writes, "...the spirit of man rushes forward to explore it in every direction; but when that spirit reaches the limits of the world of politics, it stops of its own accord..." (p47) It stops because of the taming power of religion, and without this restraining stability, a people can not have security, prosperity, nor freedom.

At the same time, by connecting people together through churches and providing them the warmth of family life, religion also moderates the Americans' excessive "habit of thinking of themselves in isolation and imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands." (p508) This habit would have induced men to delegate political concerns to central authority, and as they only see small things at hand, they would have lost the enlightenment which the independent political life provides.

Today, the Three Guarantees No Longer Exist

Today, America is certainly no longer the America which Tocqueville saw, the three conditions that maintained the democratic institution are severely weakened.

Today, the deserts of the West have been converted into hundreds of miles of suburbia, and America spends billions of dollars guarding its southern border. People still dream, but unlike in the old days when anyone with any background can gain a piece of land through hard work, people today must compete against others for the limited pie. Additionally, America certainly still has no fear of the Canadian or Mexican army, but it has enemies throughout the world who are capable of attack.

Just as Tocqueville predicted, after each war, the central power in America became stronger. Today, local politics no longer excites the passion of the crowds, and states are more provincial. The national government controls a tremendous percentage of the national wealth, directs economic policies, sets regulation for every industry, and leads the greatest military in the world. Alarmingly, political apathy has also increased. Surely, the average American says he loves his democracy, but in the democracy he talks about the percentage of people who vote is far from 100% and even for those who do vote, the thousands of pages of Washington laws and decrees are out of their control.

The religious landscape has also changed. The morality of Christianity certainly still holds sway over many, however, the average American today certainly does not have the religious zeal of people 200 years ago. There are also large parts of the population that are atheists or believe in non-western religions. Strangely, some vocal Christians seem to promote an ever increasing share of religion in politics, or rather, politicians are becoming ever more agile at using religion for politics-two things which Tocqueville believed must be separated for either to be truly powerful.

Without the Guarantees the People Are Still Free

Despite losing the old guarantee of security, America today still has security, prosperity and freedom.

Despite Sep. 11, America is certainly secure in the sense that the average American does not wake up worried that he will die simply because he lives in a democracy. Some groups might attempt small attacks, but no groups or dictatorial regimes can dream of winning a war against this super military power and internal security is also largely guaranteed by a large police force.

Despite the loss of the Wild West, local energy and uniform religion, America today certainly enjoys great prosperity. American companies dominate all lists of top companies in the world, and American innovations have improved the living conditions of mankind beyond imagination. There is certainly disparity between the richest and the poorest, however, the majority of the people enjoy prosperous middle-class life, and even the poorest are supported by a generous welfare system.

One might say that America has achieved the above security and prosperity exactly because power became centralized and the cost of these was the loss of freedom. This is a misconception. Indeed, political participation is limited to fewer people today and sometimes one wonders if the blind search for wealth should be tempered by some uniform religion again, but perhaps Americans have constructed an economic and political system that does not need much more innovation, and the works politicians today even if localized no longer heighten one's mind, but merely bore a person with their regularity.

Today, the citizen's rights as consumers instead of voters define American freedom-when one goes into a store and chooses from a thousand different products, he knows that he is free. No longer must men be suppressed by the opinion of the majority, but each can freely buy the niche models personalized just for him. Shopping is the daily act of wallet voting-the modern equivalent of 19th century town hall meetings; the same restless agitation, excitement, and heightened sense of self-worth and joy pervade the modern marketplace. Of course, each person's mind is not only enlarged in her role as a consumer but also in his role as a marketer or producer who must dig out creative juices to satisfy customer demands.

The effects of the vibrant consumer culture extend into the sanctified realm of intellectual endeavors. Institutional and individual consumers/investors/sponsors support in the U.S. the best researches in the world for practical and basic researches and vote with his wallet at who gets the tuitions or research grants. Perhaps the nation is a little too agitated, but if they wish, those who want to enjoy the serenity of life can certainly go to the country side or some forest and sustain a more peaceful existence.

The Truth about Equality

From the above analysis, we could see that although Tocqueville argues convincingly for the three dangers of democracy and three cures of democracy, in fact, the dangers were not so dangerous and the cures were not the only cures. It might surprise Tocqueville that despite of the loss of the West, centralization and the weakening of religion, Americans today are as free, prosperous and secure as they have ever been.

The key of Tocqueville's miscalculation lies with his analysis of equality and freedom. Tocqueville believes that the democratic search for equality engenders jealousy which undermines freedom by dragging everyone down and letting some anonymous force rule over all. He writes,

"There is indeed a manly and legitimate passion for equality which rouses in all men a desire to be strong and respected .This passion tends to elevate the little man to the rank of the great/ But the human heart also nourishes a debased taste for equality, which leads the weak to want to drag the strong down to their level and which induces men to prefer equality in servitude to inequality in freedom." (p669)

To him, the geography, political structure and religious mores in America were the restraining factors that limited the downward tendency of equality which induces people to simply follow without thinking. The loss of free thinking would not only prevent men from reaching a more enlightened and dignified state, but also ultimately undermine the security and prosperity of the nation through its benumbing effects on the nation's overall social, political and economic situations.

In reality, equality is the greatest guarantee of freedom. America's worship of equality does not incite jealousy like Tocqueville asserts, instead, Americans happily admire at those who through their efforts build up great wealth, and imitate them as they march on in their own dreams. Democratic people are only jealous of others if they win without a more or less fair competition. It is true that nothing can ever be perfectly fair, but the American society is generally merit based. One only has to look at Governor Schwarzenegger to realize that anyone in this Country has got a chance. Even for people with connections, they still need to work hard to prove themselves-Bush Senior certainly helped Bush Junior, but Bush Junior still had to win the hearts of Americans to become the President.

When a democratic man does not achieve as much worldly success as someone else, he is not troubled. Unlike the surf in an aristocratic age who feels intrinsically inferior to those with more honor than him, the average man in a democratic society might have achieved nothing great but yet feel perfectly certain that he has achieved for himself a happier life than all others. He is certainly right, after all, freedom and elevation of the mind does not rest on the material well-being of an individual, rather, it is the confidence that he has in his existence and the love he puts into his work that elevates him to the greatest glory of existence.

It is precisely the general equality of opportunities and everyman's belief in himself that has allowed America to grow into the most powerful nation in the world with the greatest prosperity and security ever experienced by mankind. Tocqueville was certainly right in pointing out that the western territories, localized controls and a common religion helped America democracy; even today, America has less population density than many nations, the states are more powerful compared to the provinces in most other countries, and all Americans share the most basic principles of Christian morality even if they are not Christians. Degrees of these three forces certainly contribute and contributed to making America a equal society, however, it is equality itself that is the soul of American liberty, prosperity and security, and the loss or weakening of its supporting factors do not change the soul itself.

Time changes and Tocqueville's worries about democracy have luckily turned out to be false. Today, not only are the new Americans as free as ever, democracy is proving resilient in every kind of culture. On the one hand, the fact that Japanese, Indians, Russians, French, Chileans, Indonesians and Nigerians have all adopted democracy shows that Tocqueville's prediction that Democracy was unstoppable has proven true, and on the other side, his worry that democracy might need some channeling has also proven true considering that all these nations experienced decades of fake democracy before democracy was fully established. Tocqueville certainly deserves much credit for contributing to the spread of democracy with this masterpiece Democracy in America, but the small blemish is that, a little down in his perhaps prejudiced aristocratic mind, the great man thought Democracy to be less versatile than it has proven to be.

In all, the ultimate wonder of democracy is that it allows each one of its members the equality to craft out a world for himself within which he quietly finds comfort.

Anyone wishing to better understand how it is that America achieved it's current position in the world must read this book. De Tocqueville's seminal work rings true today and gives a great perspective on our past, present and future. Everything that has ever happened in America's relatively short history, up to and including our most recent presidential election and the attacks of September 11th are better understood after reading this timeless classic.

There are some excellent reviews of this book, so I will summarize the key points briefly and then point to the top ten books on my Transpartisan Democracy list.

This is a delightful, thoughtful read that is totally transpartisan in spirit, and joins other books like Escaping the Matrix and Society's Breakthrough in setting the stage for a non-violent restoration of We the People as the working owners of the Republic.

The author distinguishes between thin and living democracy, points out that democracy is a process, and you must live it or lose it. The two appendices are superb, one on competing frames (one page) and one on restoring the meaning of language for democracy (3 pages). I recommend taking a look at them before reading the book itself.

I have a note in my margin, "Lappe for President." Seriously. Lappe, not Hillary Clinton, and certainly not Condi Rice, is precisely the kind of Epoch B leader we need right now, someone who can energize Wisdom Councils at every level, and convene Global Intelligence Councils and Global Policy Councils on the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight players other than the EU and the US (see my comment for a URL).

I absolutely agree with her that poverty is caused by a lack of democracy. Dictators and Wall Street have created a class war in which the few are looting the natural resources of the many, and it is time we put a stop to that, to include disbanding the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade Organization.

She says that voice is the heart of democracy, and that a culture of connection is now being woven (see Blessed Unrest, Tao of Democracy, and Society's Breakthrough).

She says that the split is not between left and right, but rather between those who believe in democracy and We the People, and those that do not (see George Orwell's Animal Farm--we are all being harvested for profit by a handful).

In the author's view, the crisis is our feeling of helplessness, and the solution is to widen the circle of problem solvers. Well, Joe Trippi is going to bring us the "Big Bat" to channel $500M a year into the Transpartisan Peoples' Trust, and Reuniting America will join with the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) to connect all of the people all of the time.

There is such a wealth of gifted insight in this book that I do not want to list all the points that made it to my fly-leaf. BUT THIS BOOK. Discuss it with friends. Send this review to everyone you wish to engage in this national conversation.

There is a breathtaking graphic on page 33 in which she lists the seven main areas affecting our public life, and then lists specific individual roles of the citizen in each of these, which I depict by the number in parenthesis:

Economic Life (9 roles)
Media (3 roles, but she neglected to mention citizen journalist)
Education (6 roles)
Cultural (9 roles)
Civic life (7 roles)
Human and Health Care Services (6 roles)
Religious Life (3 roles)

True power, good power, is our multiple relationships to one another. We can get rid of money TOMORROW and shift to localized currencies and Internet barter points. Governments should not be going into debt to banks, they should nationalize them!

She destroys the four prevailing myths:
1) that we only need two parties
2) that we cannot limit private money in politics
3) that we must not tamper with the "free" market
4) that corporations are only responsible for short-term bottom line

See my varied lists, especially on Natural Capitalism and on Democracy, for more recommended readings that strongly support her concise views.

She lists eight corporate crimes:
1) Enrichment through manipulated public giveaways
2) Tax avoidance
3) Global Warming (we have to pay)
4) Hazardous Waste (we have to pay)
5) Profits retained by the managers, worker's salaries do not increase
6) Concentration killing our health industry (and agriculture and energy)
7) Low corporate wages force us to pay benefits--Wal-Mart costs us $2.5 billion a year because their employees are so badly paid they qualify for public benefits! This is NUTS!
8) Campaign to eradicate unions leaves workers without voice or protection

I am quite pleased to learn from this author that townships are passing laws abolishing corporate citizenship. This needs to be a nation-wide finding.

Pension fund managers are one key to victory over corporations.

SA8000 sets global standards for fair labor conditions. We need to enforce it with our purchases.

Expectations and fairness matter. COSTCO pays its employees more, and gives them good benefits, yet applies only 7% of its budget to labor. Wal-Mart treats them like slaves, and applies 12% because of turn-over.

Part III has chapters on attention, action, choice, and voice, and focuses on the need to create localized economies with local currencies, community banking, and 100% worker ownership. That, in my view, is precisely where we are headed.

She lists 11 sources of citizen power, credited to the Industrial Areas Foundation:
1) Relational
2) Self-Interest
3) Listening
4) Tapping passion
5) Storytelling
6) Disciplined preparation
7) Actions and intentional tension (helps reframing)
8) Negotiation
9) Accountability
10) Mentoring
11) Reflection and evaluation

She lists five ways we are robbed of choice by corporations, and ten losses we suffer from corporations. She reminds us that Thomas Jefferson was very concerned in the 1790's about commercial monopolies, and concludes, correctly, that corporations have more power and as much secrecy as the Communist Party in China and Russia.

She presents loss of voice facts on pages 222-224, addresses the need for democratic software and low-cost Internet access for all (good-bye, Microsoft, unless everyone can get mobile Windows for a dollar a month.

She concludes with chapters on learning, security, and reframing.

This book is magical in its common sense and imminent applicability.

Top Ten Transpartisan Books Other Than This One:
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents)
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
A House Divided
The Nine Nations of North America
Who Will Tell The People? : The Betrayal Of American Democracy
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy

Though "Democracy's Edge" is a polemical work (there seem to be two kinds of Americans in the book: what Moore-Lappé calls the Far Right -- exemplified by the Bush Administration and its corporate cronies -- and everyone else), it is also intended to be a book of hope. There are stories of dozens if not hundreds of citizen groups that are making a real difference in politics, education, and workers' rights in accord with her definition of democracy.

"Living Democracy" involves "negotiating interests by relying on fair play, honest dialogue and mutual respect." It's "not just righting a particular injustice that limits people's freedom. It's changing how decisions are made." Humanity's task, says the author, "is to envision and create institutions, from our schools to our media to our businesses, that foster our democratic selves -- people able to feel and express empathy and to see through the walls of race, culture and religion that divide us, people who know how to exert power while maintaining relationship."

By contrast, what she calls "thin" democracy -- in which politicians proclaim "power to the people" but arrogate power to themselves instead -- perpetuates "four constricting measures" that limit the expansion of Living Democracy. These "misfits" include the assumption that two political parties are enough; that any real limits on campaign spending violate free speech; that "the free market brings us all prosperity"; and that "to keep generating wealth, corporations must consider only the financial bottom line." (While Moore-Lappé welcomes globalization "understood as ... communication and sharing across national borders," she rejects what she calls "global corporatism.")

"Democracy's Edge" is designed to counter each of those ingrained notions with success stories of people united by a common purpose changing how democracy is done. She spotlights the work of such organizations as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Industrial Areas Foundation (founded by "Saul Alinsky, the godfather of community organizing"). Hers is a leftist agenda, though she does not use that term, preferring instead to frame her proposals as "walking with bold humility" in reclaiming the kind of human relationships that Living Democracy ought to be about.

A chart at the end of the book invites readers to "consciously generate language that communicates what is emerging and what we want to bring into being." Her preferred term is "engaged citizen" rather than "activist." The seemingly neutral term "conventional farming" becomes "chemically dependent farming." "Liberal" becomes "progressive, democratic." She calls "pro-choice" the "pro-child movement including the right of every child to be wanted with opportunities for a full life." Finally, "taxes" are "membership dues for a strong, healthy society."

Moore-Lappé paints a provocative picture, worth the spirited public discussion it generates.

Copyright 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.

Frances Moore Lappe has written a book that is easy to read, its pages filled with brief and concise facts and comparisons, and above all correct in its analysis of the state of American democracy. She doesn't leave the reader to guess about whether a new people's democracy is possible; she shows it coming into being in highly diverse settings. And if anyone has thought otherwise, she disabuses us of any idea that in the U.S. of A. we currently have democracy. It would be difficult to read this book all the way through and not find oneself eager to get involved.

Richard W. Gillett, author of The New Globalization: Reclaiming the Lost Ground of our Christian Social Tradition (Pilgrim Press, 2005).

Lappe plots the needs of the future. She points out what is needed for this country to become a real democracy. There are lots of resources for those determined to act.

Democracy's Edge is a collection of stories of ordinary people actively practicing what the author really correctly dubs Living Democracy. When I read this, the book reminded me straight on how fragile freedoms and protections are, how easily they can be dissolved or subverted by corporate, personal, and political greed...ambitions which truly stop for no man (or woman)in the quest for taking more, more, more. So if you're worried about the pollution, land grabbing, political manipulations of law, etc and want inspiration and some guidance on whether and how you can make a difference with just one voice, read this book. It's SO EASY to read, and lacks the fractious tone that many champions of our freedoms (read liberal or left-leaning)can take, and sometimes push people away with.

There is no question about it: "The Devil, Me and Jerry Lee" is entertaining and fast reading. The author is the younger sister of Jerry Lee Lewis. It is for those of us that already appreciate the Killer. Folks who don't know who "The Killer" is should stop reading this review now. The faithful will be treated to a tale of life on the road and a little on the wild side of Jerry Lee. There are few surprises for those familiar with Lewis' past. His up and down career is covered form the mid -1950s at Sun Records in Memphis until the "present day". It's a bit foggy, perhaps intentionally so, as to what the Killer is doing right now. To quote the trailer in the movie "Great Balls of Fire" `he is probably playing his heart out-somewhere'. DMJL also tells the tale of the author's own strange career both on and off stage. The details of the latter are frank, earthy and mostly believable. (As to the former, it's a mystery: What "career" did Linda Gail have?Billboard credits her with 2 chart hits.) They are delivered in a take me or leave me fashion, just the way her big brother would want. The author has a definite manipulative charm to her, a trait she no doubt shares with her sibling. I am certain her 8 husbands could attest to that! The bottom line is that DMJL is recommended for Lewis fans only. The story won't win any new ones. Any serious country fan should possess at least one Killer CD. Amazon has several available! Jerry Lee is an entertainer one has to listen to, not merely read about. As for his little sister, she wore me down: 5 stars.

I found this book to be a very interesting look at the upbringing and early influences on Jerry Lee's life which was not detailed in earlier books on his life. It was sometimes shocking, but always interesting.

Reading this book is like having a conversation with Linda Gail Lewis over a cup of coffee. If you like knowing the inside scoop, this book is a must read. Sit down to and have a heart-to-heart talk!

Sister to Jerry Lee Lewis, Linda Gail has written a blunt, fascinating warts-and-all showbiz book about her life and that of the rock and country legend. Linda Gail, who hit the Top 10 with her duet with Jerry Lee "DON'T LET ME CROSS OVER", toured with Jerry Lee for 15 years as a background singer , and her love and concern for her brother shines through this fast-paced 166 page book co-written with Les Pendleton. The family grew up in a shack in Ferriday, La. with no insulation, no bathroom and no lack of hardship. A drunk driver killed their 9-year-old brother, their father spent time in prison for bootlegging, and Jerry Lee, when 22, married his 13 year old cousin, Myra. Writes Linda Gail, "Myra looked like she was 20, and she was more than a little bit on the wild side herself. In Ferriday, I could have married a cousin and not even known it. It was no big deal." Despite his career ups and downs, Linda Gail notes, "Momma would remain in new Cadillacs and housekeepers until she died." If there were book ratings, this one would be PG. And, if there were ratings on the most interesting books - on a scale from 1 to 10, this would be an 11. Linda Gail, now happily married and living in Big Sandy, Tenn., has written a compelling, no-holds-barred, true-life story with a very appropriate title. Gerry Wood, Country Weekly - January 12, 1999

What a great story and well written. Coming from a religious family, I enjoyed reading all the interesting circumstances that Linda and her big family went through. I've never read a much more shocking story and laughed so hard!! Double Thumbs Up!!!!!

Professor Wood admits that, in contemporary America, only the most intrepid minds dare question diversity's exalted stature as a cultural ideal. So it should say something Wood's disregard for his own reputation that he has written this book, which assails the ideal of diversity on page by page pace. I will admit that I bought this book hoping to see just this kind of thing-to see a credible author and skilled mind slay diversity in a "public setting." Of course, it's only a public setting if more people read the book.

My own antipathy toward diversity took root during my undergraduate experience at the University of Nebraska, where diversity pervaded official policy, speeches, campus news articles, and student government. Not despising diversity, I merely became irritated with its omnipresence, the way one might tire of a food group if forced to eat it at every sitting. In short, I was unaware of diversity's true malevolence before reading this book. But Wood documents diversity's self-contradictions, its empty thinking, its threat to individualism, its corrosive impact on higher education, and more. In higher education, for instance, Wood attacks race preferences for admission (carried out in the name of diversity) and notes that, at the U. of Michigan, a white applicant to law school scoring between 163-165 on the LSAT and holding a 3.25 GPA has about a 23% chance of being admitted. A minority student with the exact same academic credentials has a 99% chance. I mention this in this review so that the potential reader can get a feel for the content of this book.

Of higher education, Professor Wood also points out how diversity is cleverly used as a two-faced recruitment tool. Diversity is marketed to white American teenagers, Wood says, as a way to escape the social narrowness of their high school experience-as a "romantic mingling" experience with "the other". But diversity is then marketed to minority students as an assurance that they will feel welcome at State U., where increased recruitment of students of color will offer minorities a safe haven from the crush of the predominantly white student body. Fantastic observation, because it's true, and it reveals diversity's opportunistic nature.

Despite diversity's grotesque track record, Wood also realizes why diversity has maintained a near universal following in this country-it seems to command us all to be fair, helpful, open-minded, and above all, to avoid judgment of other people, other beliefs, and other ideas (is that such a good idea?). As Wood argues, despite diversity's more noble exhortations, we as neighbors, citizens, and co-workers can better achieve good will and social betterment if we set aside silly race-based distinctions and look instead at individual merit.

As an example of how holistic Wood's view of diversity is, take one of the early chapters. In it, Wood draws on his experience in anthropology to relate how Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s were avid readers of books and compendiums that provided rich, unabashed descriptions of the world's geographic and cultural diversity. True diversity. He contrasts this bygone interest in the world's people and places with the new diversity, which Wood argues accentuates slight differences between people (black Americans, white Americans, Hispanics, etc.) and asserts, against the evidence, that the differences between us are gigantic. Furthermore, he chastises contemporary Americans for believing themselves to be educated about and sensitive to cultural differences, whereas, these same Americans believe, past generations were parochial, ignorant, and unappreciative of these differences. "It is a sad delusion," he writes.

Although it wasn't the most enjoyable segment in the book, the best work Wood does (from an author's and researcher's point of view) is when he traces the growth of diversity from an LBJ speech through the Supreme Court's Bakke decision through the 1980s and then today. Wood's treatment of the Bakke case is remarkable in its detail, and is sure to startle the reader when one realizes how a marginalized, fringe idea (that there is real, measurable educational value in having a diverse student body), set forth by Justice Lewis Powell, spawned the monster we wrestle with today.

Overall, Wood takes a topic that had great potential to be tedious and academic and turns it into a delightful read that manages to deal with diversity comprehensively and delicately without compromising the reader's interest. Flat-out, this is a great book.

Professor Wood offers a holistic look at this strange new ideology of diversity, particularly in how it has surged from an obscure portion of the Bakke case to an all-encompassing religion for its adherents that continues to encroach on virtually every aspect of public life. His best argument is that diversity, when brought alongside traditional American values of liberty and equality, always seems to trump the latter pair, and we end up forsaking both liberty and our belief in equality to preserve demographiclly correct proportions of essentially manufactured ethnicities.

Wood comes to some strong conclusions, but never commits the near universal sin of hyperbole that currently envelopes both political left and right. That alone should earn him four-and-a-half stars. Anyone interested in a thoughtful, well-researched critque of this concept of diversity need look no further than professor Wood. Please, delete Hannity and O'Reilly from your shopping cart and buy this book first!!!

Diversity is the greatewst lie in america today. What does diveristy claim. It claims, as we learn in this fine read, that diversity is essential to success and understanding and tolerance. THis is actually completely false. Diverse workforces and diverse college campuses dont actually make anything better, in fact they make people less tolerant. Diversity is the ideal of the communist left that says everyone(remmember "workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your chains!") is the same and that by mixing us all together in some grand social experiment that we will all be happy. That sad part is that 'diversity' and 'tokenism' really mirrors far more what queen victoria did at her diamond jubille when all the 'oddities of empire' the diverse masses from all over were paraded in front of the aristocracy. This is the truth behind diversity. In fact the liberal would love it if every diverse 'oddity' of humanity could come to college dressed in 'traditional garb' so that we can admire and see them as if they are in some museum. But this doesnt help the 'exotic' people we bring in to diversify ourselves, it actually mkaes them feel more like outcasts. Hiring one Sikh and one Hindu and one Pathan and one Gurka and one Jew for your coproation wont help them, in fact they would all be more productive if they worked with eachother against eachother. The idea that they will become more tolerant is also false. In most racially mixed societies(Brazil, south africa, Israel, Australia, America) the many races hate eachother much more then they did prior to the mixing.

Lets take for example the situation in malaysia when they were building the Petronas Twin Towers. They had Japanese workers building one tower and koreans building the other. The teams hated eachother and competed. If they had been mixed they would have worked slower and they still would have gone to lunch speratly and not 'tolerated' on another. Here is an example where diversity would not have helped in the workforce. Diversity is simply the aristocracies latest social experiment to divide us so that they can keep us all down rather then letting us become tolerant on our own. A great book.

Peter Wood's book is written in an easy-to-read, logical, and well-reasoned fashion. Before earning my master's degree last year, I attended meetings at the university's "Diversity Task Force". I must admit to using some of Peter Wood's same arguments regarding the superficiality and shallowness of the "Task Force" criteria for measuring the diversity of the student body -- It felt like I was banging my head against the wall! I sensed that my white male status was seen as subtracting from the diversity of the student body, regardless of my diverse life experiences. Maybe if I were raised by a pack of wolves? How come this makes so much sense and many other people don't see it? Thank you Peter Wood for this timely book. I wonder if the logic and science will be enough to deprogram any diversiphiles. In my experience, they are close-minded to any argument, regardless of reason, that may disrupt their delusion. I would also like to add that most of the diversiphiles I met are good people who have good intentions; however, we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This book should be required reading for all people who want to improve "diversity".

The thesis of Wood's book can be stated in this way: With relative cultural unity having been achieved in America with the removal of legal barriers to opportunity for minorities, a more recent movement has arisen that seeks to undermine this unity by introducing a new type of "diversity". The former term refers to true diversity between cultures that involves deep and fundamental differences in worldviews that are more often an obstacle to overcome than something to be celebrated. (One example used by Wood is Herman Melville's extended experience with Typee people in the Marquesan Islands.) On the other hand, the new diversity (used in italics by the author) turns superficial distinctions into epochal differences (such as having a college roommate with fake Polynesian tattoos) that, according to the diversophiles, must be retained in the culture at all costs.

This is more than just a silly exercise in treating cultural fads as meaningful differences. Wood describes a two-phase process in which this concept of diversity is a means to a specific end. The first phase (diversity I) stresses hard that people must be defined by a race, even if the minority does not wish to do so, in order to create identifiable "groups" in society. The second phase (diversity II) uses the fiction that diversity of race, gender, sexual preference, etc. is equivalent to diversity of worldview. With this foundation, questions of diversity take on an ominous meaning - when this kind of diversity is emphasized as a policy in the workplace, on campus, or elsewhere, a conflict arises between the interest in selecting the best qualified individual(s) and preserving an overall profile of a workforce or campus population. And when these superficial race, sex, etc. characteristics of a person are given a preference over actual qualifications to do the job, it brings up the same issues of racism that America had been trying to move away from for so long.

An especially helpful passage in Wood's book is his breakdown of the Bakke decision, which upheld the race-preference factor in school admissions process. Justice Powell's opinion for the court made the "diversity" principle a major issue, which was unusual considering that no other justice on either side joined him in this portion of the opinion and that little attention was given to this issue during the case itself.

The bulk of Wood's book then explains how this principle has been applied in most areas of society - the workplace, campus, the arts, etc. The book was published in 2003, but came out before the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding in part the University of Michigan's use of race-based preferences. However, the book is a valuable resource in describing the problem beyond the immediate political debate.

(SPOILER ALERT)

On their 5th adventure to find the seven gems of Deltora Lief, Barda and Jasmine must journey to the frightening Dread Mountain. When they find Kin on their way their (story-book characters long thought to be extinct) they meet a Kin called Prin, the only child born since the Kin moved from Dread Mountain. When Prin follows them to the mountain, they must defend her, as well as themselves from the Dread Gnomes and their leader the giant toad: Gellik.

In my opinion this is the best book of the series, it is very interesting and exciting. We learn what poison the Grey Guards 'blisters' are from and a mysterious grave and a message written in blood add to the mystery of the book.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. You really should read it,infact I bet you would enjoy it to! If you do read this book it will probabably take some time to read but, if you read the whole entire book you will be dying to read it again. Also, you need to tell all your freinds how good it is and I bet they would like to read it to!

Books Books Books. You are always forced to read stupid books for Summer reading. I begged not to have to read them and so the choice was given if I could find a book in the next week to read I didn't have to do summer reading. After searching without success I found a book to replace Summer reading that was the newest of The Deltora Quests at the time. Like the four books before this book cast it's spell and I could not put it down out of interest. It is not exceptional, not the most action packed, not the most romantic and certainly not having the best monsters but I will always consider it my jewel. I'd take Gellick over the Hoboken Chicken any day! That poisin spitting frog on the front, he will set you free.

Our three heroes are on the track of the fifth gem which lies in the dangerous Dread Mountain, but before that Lief has a terrifying vision of his parents home, barren and destroyed.Lief, Barda and Jasmine, continue on their journey, managing the long walk by flying in the pouches of a peaceful species called the Kin.When they enter the domains of dread mountain, they must face poisoin gnomes, grey guards and messages written by the writer's blood.And worst of all they are stuck in the terrifying mazes of the evil mountain!But this only seems small compared to the darkness they feel when they face the fifth guardian, the evil Gellick, who is invincible to destroy.Will our heroes survive the dreads of Dread Mountain.........................................................

As they travel to Dread Mountain, Lief, Barda, and Jasmine find a clear spring. But an ominous sign makes them unsure. They are thirsty, and out of water. They drink, and later discover the entire truth of Dreaming Spring. They also meet the Kin, a fabled creature thought to be extinct. The Kin take them to the mountain, but their only young follows. Can they care for her, and themselves, too? She proves to be helpful, and as they learn about what happened on the mountain, they are imprisoned by the Dread Gnomes, Gnomes that live on the Mountain, under the rule of a toad-like creature, Gellick. The fifth gem, the emerald, is inbedded in his brow.