Events Books

What a candid book. I read it in one night. I volunteer in Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall. I read this aloud to the wards, 15-16 year old boys. That was last year, some are asking me when am I going to read it again. Some books about incaceration glorify the situation, but Mr. Abbott's account of an innocent childhood to a downhill spiral of abuse and survival really strikes a cord with the reader.

this is a great read. though much of it is tought to read through, the material is important and needs to be circulated!

The author of this book states that he wrote it while in solitary confinement. It's a trip into his childhood, where he came of age in California's Juvenile system. It takes place throughout his childhood years, beginning with an early stay at age 6 (along with a rape by a counselor). The rest is his teenage years spent trying to survive the brutal system of rape, violence, and sadistic counselors (also known as prison guards).

It's very chilling. I couldn't peel myself away from this book, even though it has graphic descriptions of rapes and brutal fights between gangs of boys not even old enough to shave. The fact that the author even survived that system, which incidentally took place in the 1960s, impresses me. When I was a teenager, a few friends of mine ended up in a juvenile drug rehab center at Horsham, PA, and afterwards they were extremely shaken up. It turned out later they had been raped. Not much has changed in the last 40 years.

Abbott and his companion quickly rise to the top of the ruling prison gang, which he uses to attempt several escapes. Each time, he nearly makes it. It's amazing that he goes for his parents, who are totally excluded from being able to help their boy. He forms a love relationship with his companion which he must hide in order to survive. The counselors maintain the order by daily beatdowns and shake-ups, and when it comes down to it, the boys are treated exactly like adults. The prison system makes people have to fight for their survival almost daily, or be pushed to a fate of worse than death.

It makes the reader wonder why anyone thinks that prisons can reform any person. Trapping someone in a room and punishing them for years with the most sadistic people doesn't seem like a good way to reform anyone. In the end, prison, for adults or kids, really just sweeps the problem of emotional disturbance underneath the carpet. Nowadays, a few million reside in United States prisons, the largest such population in the world (even more than China, which has 5 times the population). We're at a time when the ruling classes think it's better to completely separate millions into boxes than to even give a carrot to oppressed communities.

Dwight Abbott remains in jail today, and he says he wouldn't be there unless the Juvenile Youth Authority had twisted him as a human being to the point where the only place he could exist was in a prison. They destroyed him as a teenager at a critical point in any human being's development. Why? If you want a window into how a person can be destroyed, read this book. At the same time, if you want to see how a person can keep some amount of love and hope for a better day (away from the prison), read this book as well.

This plain autobiography is written with such directness that it is difficult to doubt the veracity of even the smallest incident. More important, it is difficult to doubt that these incidents (or similar ones) are fairly common place, not just the events of some freakish horror story.

The story is told with great specific purpose, to expose institutions so completely rotten, but one is aware that much is not being told. The author concentrates on what must be said to bear witness to what is wrong institutionally, and does not allow himself long divergences into his own feelings and ideas. The title is a bit ironic; it's about tears shed long ago, and mere personal understanding can no longer change much.

The book speaks clearly to the need for, at very least, massive alterations in the juvenile (and adult) justice system in this country, above and beyond any very small reforms made since this story occurred. Ultimately, one must question our reliance on "professionals" to do our thinking and social organizing for us. Every terrible action detailed in this book, each so obviously misguided and clearly bound to have exactly the opposite effect of it's supposed intention, is a reminder of how we as a people have turned our freedom and control over to institutions that serve only the dictates of cynical and uncaring power, and which operate directly against the interests of individuals and society in general.

Whatever tiny changes have been made in California's juvenile system must be looked at against the fact that America has few (or perhaps no) growing industries other than it's prison system, which cannibalizes the society it purports to serve, and is already a bloated hulk, claiming more far people per capita than that of any other country, two, four, or 10 times as many as any other major nation today.

I cried, You Didn't Listen was absolutely breath taking. The whole time I wanted to stop reading the horrors, but didnt stop looking at the text the entire way through the book. It placed a new perspective on a lot of things for me and I thank Abbott for such. This is a must read for anybody looking for some perspective on juvenile punishment within the Califonia Youth Authority. It is a tough one though if you have a passion for living beings, especially children.

no matter the side you take in the persistent vegetative state, this book exposes you to the intricate details of life and death matters. William Colby is not only an outstanding lawyer but a great author. the book is detailed with facts and carries you into a world that we dont normally think about or decide to ignore: the world of legal matters concerning death and what happens if this is a personal matter. you'll learn a lot from this book aside from it being an interesting and engaging read!!!!!!!!!

I really am enjoying this book. Although I am reading it as an assignment, I believe I would have read it regardless.

Long Goodbye: The Deaths Of Nancy Cruzan by William H. Colby is the in-depth and true story of a judicial trial concerning Nancy Cruzan, a woman who was thrown from her vehicle and suffered horrific injuries. Since that tragic accident, Nancy has remained in a coma for five years, until her family abandoned hope for her revival and requested the removal of Nancy's feeding tube so her life could end peacefully. But the state intervened and denied the family's wishes. Thus began a extended legal battle began over who had the authority and the right to authorize the end of medical intervention with respect to a patient like Nancy. Long Goodbye is a profoundly emotional story of striving to do what one hopes is the right thing, in accordance with the wishes of those who cannot speak for themselves -- and the role of government to intrude into family and medical issues. This is a profoundly important issue that plays out in our hospitals and nursing homes every day. At the crux of the matter is the right to life, the right to die, and who has the final authority over a loved one caught up in a plight similar to Nancy Cruzan and her family.

Despite this book being written by the lawyer who represented the parents of Nancy Cruzan who wanted feeding apparatus to be withdrawn and thus to have Nancy die, this book presents the issues and the struggle fairly and even-handedly. This is shown in a way since after reading it I conclude the U.S Supreme Court's decision was right--in the circumstances shown the family could without monetary loss have permitted their child to not be starved to death. The account of the trial and of the appellate history of the case is absorbing and shows the author is an able lawyer, admirable in representing his clients. I have no hesitancy in saying if it had been my child I would not have gone to the efforts which Nancy's father went to in order to have his child die. But psychologically Nancy's parents wanted the living death to end and their lawyer was right to seek the relief his clients desired. An extraordinary book.

During my training as a chaplain at Baylor University Medical Center, it was considered part of the "dues" of training that one would take lots of being on-call at the hospital for handling of emergencies. To that end, there was a "call room" where a chaplain could catch a little sleep, while waiting. On one of those sleepless nights in the call room, I viewed a Frontline special on the story of Nancy Beth Cruzan. She was a young woman, fully alive, who, as a result of a terrible accident, would become a test case for end-of-life matters for years to come. After seeing that special, I was deeply touched by the need to convey what our wishes were for the ends of our lives.

The Nancy Beth Cruzan case took the better part of ten years before resolution. The lawyer who fought for her right to be disconnected from the feeding tube was William Colby, the author of this outstanding book. Those of us on the front lines of trying to help families prepare for the issues they will face at the end of life will find insight into the ramifications of that case, as well as grist for the mill of the work that we are doing.

Colby is a highly readable author (at times, I felt like I was reading a Grisham novel), the Cruzan's case is deeply compelling, the story is truly tragic, and readers will come away with an appreciation of the law and concepts that are involved in pursuing these matters. There are several important story lines running throughout this volume: There are the lawyers, one who pulls an unexpected punch; the politicians, aiming for re-election; the Cruzans, especially Nancy's father, Joe, a salt-of-the-earth laborer, broken to the core over the loss of his little girl; a common sense probate judge, just trying to do the right thing; and the right-to-life movement (with whom we generally have sympathy, but not in this case). Indeed, under the skillful telling of Mr. Colby, law itself becomes a character, fickle at times, inflexible at others, and, at the last, compassionate.

ElderHope heartily recommends this excellent book.

Noticia de un secuestro is one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez most dry books in terms of the literary style used. It could be because the theme does not allow for much variety but just an honest recount of the truth. The book gives the reader a realistic view of daily Colombian life, a country that has struggled with guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking for the past forty years and more. The protagonists of the book are the victims of the kidnappers and throughout the book we learn about the cruel reality of these people who have changed the life of many Colombians by use of violence and cruel killings without mercy. I think the book was well written with revealing details of how the victims feel (mentally and physically) and how their families suffer when they are forced to negotiate with the drug dealers etc. for the safe return of their family members. Also, we clearly see the role that the government plays in the rescue process. The style used by the author is very journalistic, thus making the book and story very dry in comparison to his other literary works. However, perhaps this style was chosen simply because this is the reality of Colombias daily crisis. The book is excellent, has much eye-opening information and is a wonderful read if you wish to learn more about the socio-economic problems of this great South American country. Arriba Colombia.

This book is really interesting, because tell us the political and social problems of one of the most important countries in latinamerica: Colombia.

One of the best books I've ever read about Colombia and its problems.

Noticia de un secuestro

Para: Gloria Leticia Fernández, en Cali.

Noticia de un secuestro de Gabriel garcía Márquez es un libro que se deja leer y que presenta y representa la narrativa en su forma más pura. Con un estilo periodístico claro y directo el Gabo nos hace penetrar en lo más hondo de las vidas de los secuestrados y nos hace sentir sus horrores de la manera más sutil, pues en ningún momento se centra su atención en los crímenes o torturas sino en la vida en común de captores y capturados, y los esfuerzos del gobierno y de sus familias para liberarlos. Una cosa parece cierta y es que la realidad supera siempre a la ficción y este relato de la vida real lo demuestra por lo novelesco que a veces nos parece y lo increíble de las cosas que pasan en Colombia sacudido como esta por el trafico de drogas, las guerrillas y las constantes luchas internas. Aun así sus habitantes aun viven y trabajan, tratan de forjarse un futuro y muchos luchan por el bienestar de su pueblo. El libro esta narrado de forma magistral como un gran reportaje en que el autor se abstiene de intervenir y es simplemente un narrador de hechos contados por otras personas. Nunca nos deja ver el Gabo sus sentimientos ni estropea la obra con rebuscados sentimentalismos que hubieran hecho de este libro un dramón insoportable. Nota: en Colombia se produjeron mas de tres mil secuestros el año pasado y la practica llamada pesca milagrosa ( asaltar gente en las carreteras sin saber bien quienes son para luego de depurarlos pedir rescate toma fuerza). Los cuerpos elite no dan abasto y el país tiene un índice de peligrosidad muy alto. Espero que mi amiga gloria que se encuentra en Cali este bien y si estas leyendo este articulo, sepa que tiene un amigo en uepa.com y que me puede escribir. Espero que este todo bien en su amada Cali y que la paz llegue pronto a Colombia, que los latinos podamos unirnos en un interés común y hacia objetivos nuevos, que todo el mundo deje de halar para donde más le conviene y que al final podamos progresar en paz.

Mis saludos al pueblo Colombiano.

Crazzyteacher.

La verdad es que le hice el quite a este libro durante tiempo, pensando que era una especie de producto de los talleres que hace G.M. pero hace poco lo leí de una sentada y me sorprendió. No está a la altura de ninguno de sus libros de ficción y tampoco es gran periodismo, pero todo el trozo que cubre la reclusión de las mujeres y la forma que buscan para sobrevivir al encierro es notable. Lo que más molesta del libro es que no toma ningún riesgo. Es plano, ultracorregido y sobreeditado. Y además, esa tendencia a describir a todos los parientes de las secuestradas poco menos que como personajes de teleserie es desagradable: son unidimensionales, incorruptibles, incansables. No hay drama ni interés ahí, sino que en el encierro. Lástima que el libro no comenzara y terminara dentro de esas cuatro paredes. Para leer una pura vez.

This book grew on me, and I continue to have a sense of well-being after finishing it. I'm not sure how to characterize this book except to say that each time it seems to be fairly predictable it steps aside from the path, just enough to satisfy without being hokey.

It's set on Crete in current times and follows several characters who, of course, eventually intertwine and affect each other. Oh, by the way, drop your expectation of archaeology, it's tangential. The pace is good and the tale isn't maudlin or sappy. Mostly it's about values, the choices we make, and the consequences (no it doesn't preach at all) set in a pretty good story. Probably a good book group book.

The Pale Surface of Things reads like a tapestry of textures weaving emotional, spiritual, cultural, and familial threads into an engrossing glimpse of life in a traditional Cretan village. Bennett's tale encompasses the dichotomies of life: human frailty and resilience, belonging and alienation, forgiveness and redemption, shame and courage. A fast paced novel that will transport you into the lives of unforgettable characters and a cherished ancient landscape.

Nicholas Zaferatos, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Urban Planning.
Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University.

What a fun read! Having visited Crete twice, it was fun to imagine the this story unfolding as it did. The author created terrific characters with interesting backgrounds and many subplots with lots of twists and turns.

This is an unusual novel by an interesting lady. The Pale Surface of Things is set in a place most Americans know little about: the island of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean. The author weaves together a variety of plots and characters, too long to recount briefly here, in an interesting story that touches on elements of family, loyalty, nationality, honesty, and the dangers of false expectations.

The story begins with two main characters, both Americans. One is a Greek Orthodox priest who's returned to his ancestral home to be the village priest, the other an archaeological student who's working on a dig of Minoan artifacts, and at the same time is supposed to marry what amounts to the boss's daughter, and take his place as the head of a clothing empire back in America. When the prospective bridegroom is late for his wedding, she throws a tantrum, he flees, and the fun begins. He winds up in the priest's village, and various other characters mix into the story.

The author has an interesting writing style in terms of the way the narrative is constructed. The book is separated into chapters, and each one follows a different main or subsidiary character for 5 or 10 pages. This gives it the feel of one of those disaster novels from thirty years ago, something Arthur Haley would have written, or perhaps Irving Wallace. There's nothing disastrous about the events here, of course, other than the bridegroom's disappointment, but the feel of the book is similar. If it's a bit old-fashioned, it works.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it.

This was a special book - one I will read again. Since I have been to Athens and other islands in Greece, it brought back a lot of memories, and hopes to visit Crete some day. The story kept your interest in many ways. The characters were very interesting and because there were several sub plots, that came together in the end, made the book hard to put down. I wish it had been longer! I highly recommend it.
Evi Rick. San Diego

The funds for cultural revolution rest in the coffers of a bankrupt society. That's not to say that change is meaningless. Raoul Vaneigem believes - along with the rest of the troupe from THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL - that if change comes from within the very culture being critiqued, then the only way to effect change is to change the way culture affects.

UNDERNEATH THE PAVING STONES - THE BEACH!

Urban renewel and changing the economic goal posts cannot prevent the inevitable exploding of the plastic society. Sometime. When the world becomes its own refuse the voices of refusal will echo down time until it pins the world against its own refusal.

If madness is the only remedy against the insanity of our contracting world, then THE REVOLUTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE might be a good guide. Its truth will speak to anyone whose heart is passionate, whose soul is strong, and whose mind is as yet still taciturn; it will help them express the homily:

I TAKE MY DESIRES FOR REALITY BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN THE REALITY OF MY DESIRES.

I concur wholeheartedly that this is momentous writing:
one that is even now more critical and urgent than 40 years ago, when it was first published.

Each page offers words-thoughts that ricochet long after their initial bang! Here's a sample:

+ to work for delight and authenticity is barely distinguishable from preparing for a general insurrection.

+ the surest chances of liberation lie in what is most familiar. Was it ever otherwise?...
the living reality of non-adaptation to the world is always crouched ready to spring...
it confronts you at each self-evasion, it grasps your shoulder, catches your eye, and the dialogue begins...

+ docility is no longer ensured by priestly magic, it results from a mass of minor hypnoses...
ideological hypnosis is replacing the bayonet.

+ people who talk about revolution without referring explicitly to everyday life,
without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constrains,
--such have a corpse in their mouth.

+ if the word 'innovation' means anything it means transcendence, not camouflage.

+ consume, consume: we take ashes for fire.

+ the young are already old and everything we are building is already a ruin.

+ the obligation to produce alienates the passion for creation.

+ affluent survival entails the pauperisation of life.

+ the dictatorship of quantified exchange (market value) colonized everyday life... the bourgeoisie traded in BEING for HAVING.

+ the fight is unfair. words serve power better than they do men...
at this moment language swoops down on living experience, ties it hand and foot, robs it of its substance, ABSTRACTS it.

+ the system of commercial exchange has come to govern all of people's everyday relations with themselves and with their fellows.
every aspect of public and private life is dominated by the quantitative.

+ ideology still has one trick up its sleeve--that of posing false questions,
raising false dilemmas and leaving the conditioned individual with the worry of sorting out which is the truer of the two.

+ even when it is co-opted and turned against its original purposes, poetry always gets what it wants in the end...
no poetic sign is ever completely turned by ideology.

+ the long revolution means that we have to build a parallel society
which can counter the dominant system until such time as it is strong enough to replace it.

+ the fight for language is the fight for the freedom to love, for the reversal of perspective.
the battle is between metaphysical facts and the reality of facts:
i mean between facts conceived statically as part of a system of interpretation of the world
and the facts understood in their development by the praxis which transform them.

And on and on the explosive phrases go, injecting heavy doses of adrenaline into our resolve.

Even though I take exception to Vaneigem's advocacy of violent resistance,
his book comes the closest to diagnosing the cause of our present narcosis and, even better,
grounds the revolutionary turning on the rich dirt of everyday life.

How could we ever think it would be otherwise?

This book, along with Debord's "Society of the Spectacle", forms the core of the theoretical output of the Situationist Movement which emphasized the necessity of spontaneous, joyous creative activity to overcome the alienation and oppression of mass consumer culture, giving inspiration to the youthful insurrectionists of Paris '68.

The book is peppered with witty, canny, and memorable aphorisms on revolutionary struggle, and its emphasis on spontaneous activity motivated by felt needs for freedom and self-expression was at the time an important corrective to the Stalinist model of the revolutionary as selfless, altruistic drone. Vaneigem and the situationists go overboard at times in emphasizing the revolutionary value of selfishness, pleasure and spontaneity-- the shortcomings of 1968 are the proof. These shortcomings have been stretched to the point of parody in Hakim Bey's "Temporary Autonomous Zone" and the writings of the Crimethinc collective, but there are important elements of truth in them.

The presentation of the ideas is hobbled by Vaneigem's writing style-- you have to slog through 5 pages of bloated abstractions before coming across one of the keen one-liners that make the book worthwhile-- I think the ideas come across much more powerfully as street graffiti than in a 200 page manifesto. For a more palatable presentation of situationist ideas, check out American situationist Ken Knabb's wonderful piece "The Joy Of Revolution", available online or in his book Public Secrets: Collected Skirmishes of Ken Knabb.

No Amazon review can really do this masterpiece justice. This is simply one of those classics that will sweep you away, leaving you stunned that someone was able to so precisely articulate the mechanical alienation from self and palpable inner decay that you feel daily as you sit in your cubicle (wash, rinse, repeat) and mimic the farcical motions assigned to humans in modern industrial civilization--a hierarchical vaccum in which "survival" is contingent upon our economic value, obedience to Power and our ability to force others to either consume or produce. The dominance of the lie of economic value has poisoned every area of our lives and left us defunct as human beings, most notably stealing from us the innate urge to spontaneously create and give.

Vaneigem attacks the dead, vacuous nature of modern life with all of the venomous intensity conceivable. He does not misuse or mince words. Each sentence is filled to the brim with harsh truth, the sheer brute force of which will take your breath away.

[...].
I recommend at least printing it out to fully revel and enjoy the intensity, though!

This is one of the most viscerally exciting political / philosophical books in history. You can't help but be swept up by the force of Vaneigem's appeals... and though one may not assent to all of his positions or specific interpretations, all in all you will have to say that he had managed to tap into something very true.

read it, ponder it... and get out and live. you have nothing to lose but your boredom.

I must admit that before this book was brought to my attention I had no idea what a Sentinel Event was, and had not heard of the author... but, being a fan of mysteries and thrillers, and for some reason trusting the person that recommended it, I gave it a go. I was pleasantly surprised-this book is a real page turner- I finished it in a single evening and started looking for the next book by the writer. My only complaint- I need more Jake Stein books! Jules Seletz is a very talented writer, and his love of the process shows in his books.

I finished this book the same day I started it! Wonderful plot - a mix of suspense, action, and mystery, all set in a colourful, interesting location. The main character was great! Can't wait to read the next one....

I started this book with some trepidation, since (in the spirit of full disclosure) I have known the author in his other careers as a surgeon and Joint Comission surveyor. I couldn't imagine the premise holding my attention--but I was certainly wrong. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the whodunit; and I especially enjoyed Seletz' craft of describing the politics of the modern hospital and his gift for dialogue. I found this a thoroughly enjoyable read--and I look forward to his next book.

Couldn't put it down, from beginning to end. Couldn't wait for the next chapter. The main character was so believable I thought I must have really known him in person. Can't wait for the next in the series. I love Jake Stein.

I read "Sentinel Event" at the gym while on the treadmill. I got so absorbed in the book that I forgot everything else. It was the shortest three hour workout I ever had.

This murder mystery had all the suspense, action and twists to keep me turning the pages. I definitly rate "Sentinel Event" right up there with all the classic whodunits.

Can't wait for the next Jake Stein novel!

In a world in which "parable" has been reduced to trite and trivial, Blumberg has achieved the remarkable-- a powerful story that teaches a great lesson on what happens when work overwhelms life. Blumberg is a talented writer who also keeps the pace moving and characters believable. I have recommended this book to many! It also mirrors my belief in the power of choice as seen in two of my books: Work for a Living & Still Be Free to Live and Gifts from the Mountain:Simple Truths for Life's COmplexitites.

Bottom line: read it!

This book is a quick read with very simple message. While we are all busy working hard at our jobs, or trying to find one -- often we forget to reflect on our lives and people around us. In our search of money, comfort and race for a success, we forget about our families, genuine friends and life issues that are truly important. The book will be a gentle reminder to all readers to stop, reflect and re-assess life priorities. We will be reminded that we all have to realize that life is about serving others around us, just stopping for a minute and enjoying the simple moments in life, dedicating our energy to people and causes that make our life more rich and fulfilling. In another word, money and success is not everything. There are higher responsibilities in life and we have to take charge of making sure they happen, because no one else will.

I can only put this book down long enough to write this review. I left corporate 2 years ago to follow my purpose. It's the best thing I've ever done. I know that the overall outcome of the work I do is benefiting the planet. However, even I still forget to look around and take in what's important. I picked this book up in the airport... I had 3 other books in my bag, I didn't need another one. But this one leapt out at me and I'm sure a little angel had something to do with it.

I on the other hand, couldn't put this down and had to finish it in one reading. I'm glad I took time out of my busy life to do that! A great reminder that life is way too short, and a super script on creating the tools to get to the heart of your life. You'll know how to go about finding your passion, which can be easier said than done in our information overloaded world. A must read for the smarter, harder, fast trackers.

While an easy read, it is not a book to be read in one night. This thought provoking and life altering experience through the eyes of a high strung, bottom line driven personality will resonate with all individuals seeking a better way.

Choose which is most important to you. If is is God and your faith first, family second, job third, you may well be on your way to a truly successful lifestyle. Consider the alternative of an empty, greedy, bottom line way of life. How many true friends do you find there? How many "friends" will be there in your greatest time of need?

These and many other moral and ethical questions can be answered if you take the time to search yourself. Read slowly and deliberately.

You may just find the person you lost so many years ago.

Hello avid readers of true stories. I appreciated The State Boy's Rebellion, as I too was a victim of the mental health system when I was 8 years old. I remained institutionalized for 10 years; even though authorities were informed I was not retarded. Like the kids in The State Boys Rebellion, I was deprived of my civil liberties, denied an education, and horribly abused. If you want to read a remarkable story of the human spirit to survive horrific odds, read my true story. You'll be glad you did.
Charles A. Carroll, Author, Victim/Victim's Advocate
HARD CANDY: Nobody Ever Flies Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A must read for anybody. I am currently employed at one of the said institutions in MA and heard of this book through a co-worker. I have worked here for over 20 years, long after they stopped admitting people. The residents that currently reside there get the best of care available and the staffing ratios way outnumber the amount of clients residing here. I am in no way condoning what happened to Freddie and all the other state children, I just wonder how some of the residents would have turned out if not institutionalized. My supervisor and I have roamed through the old dormitories and found a wealth of info and pictures. Some of the pics show young children about Freddies admission age that looked scared to death, it brought tears to my eyes to think of what these poor kids went through and reading Freddie's story helped me better understand just exactly why these children were admitted. When I started working here, over 1,000 residents lived here, now we have under 300 and the remaining people really do benefit from the care they receive. I just could not comprehend why some of the residents were there 20 years ago, now I know. My family has welcomed in a former resident in the shared living program and it has been benificial to both him and my family. After reading the "State Boys Rebellion", my only regret is that I never got to meet Freddie Boyce. In my eyes, he and all the other state children are true heroes for surviving the great injustice done to them. In closing, I have to truly say that I have been humbled.

Michael D'Antonio has provided us with a very interesting book that he has subtitled "The Inspiring True Story of American Eugenics and the Men Who Overcame It". There is no doubt that he cares tremendously for his subject, but this is not a comprehensive history of the Eugenics movement or even of the the State Boys Rebellion at the Fernald School for the Feebleminded.

From a journalistic perspective, this is a tremendous piece of writing & investigation. Evaluating the events primarily through the eyes of Fred Boyce, the author skillfully weaves in the stories of fellow inmates at the Fernald school and the events leading up to the rebellion. Unfortunately, the key point that I see as the "rebellion" only gets about 4 pages of treatment, with regular references to the people involved in the riot throughout the rest of the book. Boyce's life is traced up through the time when the book was written, and is a compelling story.

From a historical standpoint, although there is no clear thesis, the book obviously was written to educate the reader about the Fernald school and a few key residents that were able to make great strides in their lives and lead a relatively "normal" life after being released from the institution. The most interesting argument the author presents is that some of the medical experiments conducted within the confines of the Fernald school were reflective of Cold War America, where government aims included furthering science in an effort to find a way to defeat the Communists.

Overall, this is a very interesting book and an easy read. The story is enthralling, and keeps the reader entertained throughout. If the reader is looking for a comprehensive story of the American Eugenic movement, this is not the book; I believe there are probably better scholarly works out there that address eugenics in America. I would recommend this as a book to start one's understanding of eugenics and how this one school in the Boston area plays into the bigger picture.

I never gave the imposing Fernald School campus much thought, even though the house I shared with my friends was literally across the street from the large brick buildings. It was not until I researched the effects of radiation on soldiers during the Cold War that I learned Fernald's dirty secrets. I immediately bought this book, and it filled me with rage and despair. D'Antonio's style is not preachy, nor does he editorialize. He allows the recollections of those who were there to speak for him. Wherever he can, he uses several sources to shade each event, from conversations with the boys, to the memories of the staff members, to the cold, un-enlightening medical records from the school. As others have said, the story ends not in misery but in triumph. It is a cautionary tale about society's complacency and willingness to let the horrors of our past remain behind the locked doors of our crumbling institutions.

The State Boys Rebellion tells the story of the Fernald State School in Massachusetts. Michael D'Antonio does a great job of telling the story through the eyes of Freddie Boyce, a child that grew up in Fernald. The story is quite chilling, specially to those of us who did not live through that time period. It is disgraceful that we, the United States actually started Eugenics, although I was taught in school that Nazi Germany was the creator. This book should remind us that as a society, we sometimes leave out the bad stuff our forefathers did, even if they meant no harm. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone, but it will touch the heart of anyone with a child who is considered "special".

Mr. Horovitz has written an excellent account of both the personal side to living in a time of constant terrorist attacks as well as a factual account of the detail that have been overlooked or misreported by most of the world's press outlets. Included in this book are some brief analyses of the political climate in Israel before, during and after some of the more violent bombings as well as Israel's responses. At times the author disagrees with the government's decisions, and is not ashamed to say it. In general, an excellent read and a good look into the facts of the situations as seen by a reporter who has to raise his family while enduring these terrible bombings.

When peace talks at Camp David collapsed in 2000, a conflict began which was stronger than any previously: Jerusalem Report editor and author David Horovitz considers the effects of this latest conflict and its terrorism in Still Life With Bombers, a survey of life in Israel since 2000. Israeli experience is the focus in a survey of daily lives, violence, and politics, with chapters juxtaposed between interviews with government officials on both sides of the conflict to experiences of relatives, refugees, and his own friends and family, creating an intimate social and political portrait of a country at war within its own boundaries.

This book is absolutely incredible! Thank you so much David Horovitz! I want to read your day-to-day accounts of life in Israel beyond the end of this book.

I have been a religious right-wing supporter of Eretz Israel, anxiously awaiting the time that I am in a financial position to make aliyah. I have strongly supported the anti-disengagement fighters.

Your book has made me think. It has opened my eyes to the Arab side of the story, as well as details of politics on both sides that I was not previously aware of.

This book has filled me with hope of someday living in the holy land and at the same time has made me cry, and evoked terror. Reading the chapter on Yussuf makes me wonder if there is ever any hope for peace - on the political side there is, but on the religious side it seems hopeless, as religious Jews can never voluntarily relinquish the Temple Mount or any of Jerusalem.

There have been times that I have had to put it down and walk away for a while to digest what I have just read (and cry) - and I'm only on page 166!

For a long time I have thought the solution to this problem was for millions of North American religious Jews to make aliyah and change the government in Israel, now I'm not so sure... More to come...

Reading through a volume of literature having to do with the Arab-Israeli Conflict, one is sooner or later impressed (or depressed)in realizing how little new ground is ever, really covered by the defenders of Israel, and by those of the Arabs. The same ground is laboriously traversed, over and over and over; the same charges thrown at the opponent, the same anger and outrage, the same impossible hopes floated. To paraphrase an unnamed British military man from Mandate days, "and Jew will kill Arab, and Arab will in turn kill Jew, now unto the end of time."
Horovitz's book, written by an Englishman who emigrated to Israel in the early 1980's, belongs to the Arab-bashing, or in his particular case, Arafat-bashing variety of books in this genre. He soon dispenses with his worm's eye view of fellow Israelis in the midst of the horror of the al Aqsa Intifada, perhaps the strongest and most interesting part of the book, and gets to his main argument.
To wit: all the violence that has afflicted Israel since the collapse of the Camp David Summit in 2000 can be left at the door of Yasir Arafat, who opted, at Camp David as after, to ignore substantive negotiations, even with a negotiation-mad Israeli leadership, and to proceed with the bombing.
Well, yes, this argument is possible, but Horovitz dins it into the reader's memory, again and again and yet again. There is nothing, he argues, that might explain Arafat's evident loathing for dealing responsibly with Israel save his long-harbored malificent desire to wipe out the Jewish state, by short range suicide bombings, or long-term Palestinian overbreeding. I resent propaganda, especially from a side I would otherwise support, and Horovitz's so-evident desire to "put the account straight" makes for a tedious, maddening reading, where objectivity is thrown out the window when it might uncomfortably intrude into his little truth.
How might he improve his work? Well, here is one way: tell the reader why so many Palestinians are willing to strap explosives under their belts and assure their own extinction, along with those of so many complete strangers. What, in other words, has Israel done to the Palestinians to make them so desirous of death?
I do not expect Mr. Horovitz to pick up the cue on this one. Whether or not he admits it, his political sentiments are that of the political right. He might have been a wet-behind-the-ears liberal naif back in the later 1980's or early 1990's, when he was still finding his feet on the treacherous Israeli soil, but he now, in this book, shows himself to be a Likudnik back to front. He never, ever, finds fault with the Israeli policy of saturating the Territories with Jewish setlements, depriving Palestinians of their land, their water, and their hopes of national sovereignity. He doesn't note the right wing religious-nationalist Jewish psychotics (Baruch Goldstein, Meir Kahane and his "Kach" neo-fascist thugs) whose own merry band of terrorists have further poisoned the atmosphere between Palestinian and Israeli. He doesn't talk much, most importantly, about the atmosphere of everyday Israeli inhumanity that makes Palestinian life so tedious and hard. But he does blame, vociferously,monotonously and uncritically, the string of Palestinian terror bombings, that he, again,views as Arafat's mark of Cain.
He forgets that Israel herself bears the mark of Cain, in bloodying the Palestinians, in taking their land, in treating them as second or third-class citizens of "Greater Israel".
In short, Horovitz's book is propaganda, not a study of history or current events; comforting for die-hard supporters of Israel, but in the end answering no new questions, breaking no new ground.

After the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000, Arabs launched a wave of terrorist attacks on Israel. And while some people in faraway nations may have failed to see just who the aggressors were, those who lived in Israel could not avoid noticing.

Horovitz does a superb job of describing living with the threat of terrorist attacks. We see how both Jews and Arabs react to all the fighting. And he also explains the extent to which the conflict is misdescribed by many in the media. I was shocked to discover that several star reporters were under the misimpression that the West Bank and Gaza had been some sort of independent sovereign territory prior to 1967. Other disturbing signs were the reluctance of reporters to believe Israelis who disagreed with Arab lies, the eagerness of reporters to believe that Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was some sort of wicked war criminal, and the "conventional wisdom" that Israel was to blame for the conflict since it was holding territory that it did not stake a sovereign claim to. In addition, I was puzzled by the fact that a reporter insisted that Israel had to be held to a "higher standard."

The author explains how the Big Lie technique was used to accuse Israel of war crimes at, of all places, Jenin (where Israel went in with ground troops, dramatically sacrificing the lives of many soldiers to reduce Arab civilian casualties). And he quotes Kofi Annan, who maliciously asked "Can the whole world be wrong (in condemning Israel)?" Horovitz has a one-word answer. Yes. Any reasonable person would, if shown the facts that European Union officials were demanding to punish Israel for trying to thwart terrorist bombings and simultaneously shown that the EU was supporting the bombers financially, letting them buy explosives with its money, would see that the EU is wrong. His point is that a misinformed world will indeed be wrong.

For me, the mangling of truth by the media stood out in this book as the most serious aspect of the fighting. It is sad that Arabs are attacking Israeli civilians. It is good that the media are positioned to report on this. I think even vaguely honest reporting would bring enough political pressure to bear so that the attacks would stop. That is why it is such a pity that we are seeing nothing of the sort.

There are many other regions in the world where there is plenty of violence. They don't have anything like the media coverage we see in the Levant. If the media are failing so utterly in covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, one has to doubt their ability to get anything right.

I highly recommend this book.

A greatly informing, entertaining view of the American people....... Their habits, culture, and government as seen through the eyes of a young Frenchman who spent nine months in America in 1831, including a visit to Memphis....Don't be put off by the early date of publication. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the man's spot on observations of certain traits unique to the American character.....Very insightful thoughts into where we as a nation and people have been, and where we are headed as well as warnings of the pitfalls ahead....This guy had an amazing handle on who we are way back in the 1830s.....The "Library of America" production value is second to none. A fine binding...

Surprisingly clear writing of acute observations. An essential book for anyone with an interest in American History.

It's basically impossible for Americans to investigate American-style democracy without a biased perspective, yet a critical examination of the history of our democratic institutions and processes is so helpful in understanding our rights and obligations to our country. Tocqueville's analysis might be old, and the relative influence of various parts of our government might have changed, but it is still useful in bringing an outsider's perspective on why (mid-nineteenth century) American democracy was the hope and envy of the world.

During this year I have been making my way through the wonderful Democracy in America By Alexis de Tocqueville.

He published the book in 2 volumes ( 1835, 1840 ).

The 1st Volume is the more scholarly of the 2 what with its discussion of history, politics, and more, being butressed with statistics, and quotes galore.

The 2nd volume is the the more philosophical of the 2 as the author delves into all sorts of issues, and subjects related to the society, culture, religion, politics, and more, of America, and is far from shy about expressing not only his philosophy, but his thoughts on the philosophies of the people of the United States.

That brings me to just one aspect of this book that is relevant today:

In the last 25 years religious belief has played a significant role in the shaping of American politics, and the so-called Culture Wars.

I'm not the most religious person around, despite the variety of beliefs practiced by various relatives I've lived around all my life, but that does not mean that I don't find the subject interesting , and learn much from reading books, articles, and Blogs of a religious nature.

In light of recent debates in the media, from the battle over religion on school, and college, campuses, Creationism vs. Evolution in our schools, to the ACLU's war against All Things Christmas, I found a chapter in Volume 2 of particular interest, along with a startling paragraph comparing Islam & Christianity that is very relevant to the America of today, and the last 25 years.

Powerful, thought provoking, writing of a sort rarely surpassed since, and reason enough for thoughtful people, interested in the future of our nation to consider reading this still relevant book.

While I was delighted with Tocqueville's masterpiece per se, it's necessary to emphasize that this particular edition is superb. First, the translation is in good, fluid style; second, it is unabridged, which is essential; and third, because it included the notes and map. I have read abridged editions and found them uninteresting because the analytical digressions were cut off. Please don't be daunted by the great length of this edition; I found it a surprisingly fast read.

It's not terribly original to rave about the excellence of Tocqueville's work; even those who disagree with his worldview find his way of expressing it both stimulating and very useful for solidifying their own opinions. Tocqueville, moreover, is very good at using classical methods of dialectical philosophy to explain why one would expect certain conditions to prevail in the United States, given other circumstances that obtain.

Having just read much of the political philosophy of Plato, plus Bertrand Russell's criticism of it, I would say that a commonly-overlooked merit of Tocqueville's work--particularly Book I--is that it serves as a dialectic alternative to the Platonic tradition of political philosophy. Plato used an ingenious approach of leading questions and deductive responses to argue that society required a firm structure with permanent, ergo ultraconservative, institutions. The object was to preserve high-mindedness and public spiritedness, which for Plato and the great majority of Western political philosophers since him, meant a caste society with equality within each class. Both features, plus the absolute devotion to warfare and martial glory (on the part of the guardians) naturally militated against liberty.

Writers since Plato, such as Filmer, applied variants of this political philosophy to more recent societies, usually relaxing Plato's corollary hostility to new technologies: modern technology tended to facilitate state coercion, and experience with egalitarianism amongst classes--as, for example, in revolutionary battlefields--suggested that it was not essential, or even helpful, for suppressing class struggle. Tocqueville's insight was to apply a dialectic of liberty to the experience of democracies in general and the United States in particular (he distinguishes firmly between the two; France after the July [1830] revolution was, for example, more democratic than before, and the like was true for the UK after the 1832 Reform Act). Oddly, he regards the USA as distinguished mainly by the high degree of EQUALITY he saw there, rather than democracy; he regards the latter as having the far more decisive impact on the formation of social mores, and hence, of living conditions.

I said Tocqueville offers a dialectic alternative to Plato's caste-oligarchy. He is dialectic in the sense that he organizes the book in many short chapters, each proposing a question about the peculiar Usonian national character (e.g., why is American patriotism so captious? Why are American attitudes so conformist?). The succession of questions is not truly dialectic, insofar as they are not, strictly speaking, interrelated, as a Platonic dialogue would be; however, Tocqueville does rely on deductive reasoning to explain what he has observed, and, much the way Socrates was supposed to have deduced the immortality of the soul and its survival into the next life, so Tocqueville makes some startlingly accurate predictions about the future of the United States.

Tocqueville's general view of the USA is startlingly favorable, particularly for a European observer; but it includes much criticism, some of it harsh. In particular, he finds conformity of opinions and the tyranny of the majority almost unendurable; slavery he attacks lightly (France still had slavery in 1835, and the UK began phasing out slavery in 1834; abolition was still a sore point amongst the colonial powers), but his prognosis of race relations is extremely bleak. He never includes the words, "America is great, because it is good" (that appears to have originated with either Gerald Ford in March '76 or with Eisenhower, to whom Ford attributed the remark); it's pretty clear that Tocqueville was not prone to such fatuous simplification. He does, however, regard the problems of democracy in the United States as generally easier to mitigate and live with, than the residual problems of autocracy in Europe. He also regards the emergence of democracy as inevitable.