Events Books

This book contains four basic elements that despite the name of the book do not all deal directly with the Chinese Communist Party in power. The first element of the book deals with the political history of P'eng Shu'tse and his wife. The second deals with the theoretical differences between Stalin and Trotsky, P'eng Shu'tse and Mao Tse-tung. A third element deals with the Chinese Communist Party's rise to power. The third element then finally deals with P'eng Shu'tse's analysis of the Chinese Communist Party in power. All of these elements are important to the message of the book so I will try to cover them all briefly here.

Background, The Political History of P'eng Shu'tse

In 1911 the feudal Qing dynasty fell. It had been destroyed by years of humiliating imperialist subjugation as well as having been destroyed by its own feudal backwardness and a yearning of the people for a better society. Included in this subjugation were unfair trade policies and the British militarily enforced selling of opium to the population.

The new capitalist government, however, failed to stand up to imperialism in any meaningful way and left the feudal relations of the countryside intact. As a result, the new government also collapsed and authority disintegrated into the hands of regional warlords under the sway of competing imperialist interests.

It was during this time of chaos, in 1920, that P'eng Shu'tse joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He joined the party at a time when the total failure of capitalism in China was self-evident as was the need to end imperialist subjugation. Communism held a strong appeal in its advocacy for anti-imperialist revolution as well as for worker's power, the smashing of feudal land relations, and for the end of the subjugation of women and youth to the old patriarchal system.

In 1921 P'eng Shu'tse moved to Moscow where he attended the Communist University of the Toilers of the East until 1924. There he was elected and served as secretary of the Moscow branch of the CCP for the time he was there.

At the time of P'eng Shu'tse's attendance at the university the revolutionary government of the Soviet Union was young and had only been born four years earlier of the October 1917 revolution. The revolutionary leadership in power was the Communist Party under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. Joseph Stalin was part of that communist party as well, and he held some power, but he had not yet risen to the position of absolute power that he would later enjoy.

Upon P'eng Shu'tse's return to China in 1924 he published two articles in the CCP's theoretical magazine, New Youth, and the CCP's official organ, New Guide, both of which he became editor of. One was a defense of the Boxer movement of 1900 as an anti-imperialist and not an anti-foreigner movement. Another was on the nature of the coming revolution in China, where he argued that the wealthy classes of China were timid and weak and utterly incapable of leading the bourgeois anti-imperialist revolution. He pointed out that the only hope for revolution would be one led by the working class that was socialist in nature.

A year earlier Mao Tse-tung had published an article in New Guide advocating the opposite position of P'eng Shu'tse on the nature of the coming revolution. In it Mao advocated a bourgeois capitalist government and called on the unity of the merchants to help bring it about.




The Theory Of Permanent Revolution, The Koumintang, And The Interference Of Moscow

The debate between Mao Tse-tung and P'eng Shu'tse was not a new one for the socialist movement. The same debate had taken place in Russia before the 1917 revolutions. The ideas of P'eng Shu'tse dealing with the conditions of China coincided heavily with Leon Trotsky's analysis of Russian conditions written in what later became called the Theory of Permanent Revolution.

Trotsky wrote the Theory of Permanent Revolution in a Czarist jail after his experiences in the failed 1905 revolution. He saw through his experiences in the revolution that not only was the working class the only class interested and capable of carrying out the revolution; he also saw that the Russian revolution would have to be socialist to succeed.

The reasons given by Trotsky were several, but the most important being that the capitalist class would sabotage production if the workers took power. He correctly saw that the only way to have a working economy was to nationalize industry and to implement a socialist economy.

Lenin later adopted these fundamental tenants of the theory of Permanent Revolution in his famous April thesis of 1917. As a result Lenin and Trotsky's parties merged at that time to lead the socialist revolution against the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries who since taking power in February were restarting the war with Germany on behalf of the bourgeoisie and refusing land reform and a socialist revolution.

Trotsky also explained that not only was there no need for Russia to go through a bourgeois capitalist revolution, but that the bourgeoisie was utterly incapable of leading such a revolution in Russia. He explained that the working class had developed to a point that the bourgeoisie feared revolution more than anything else because they saw that a revolution, no matter how small in its original leadership's goals, would potentially unleash the power of the working class to carry out a full socialist revolution. Thus the bourgeoisie sided with the old feudal system instead of trying to bring about their own power.

Trotsky explained this phenomenon as compared to the developments in the west, such as the the bourgeois revolution in the United States, through his theory for Russia of Combined and Uneven Development. Simply put, the technological advances of the capitalist west had become part of Russian society and had created a working class capable of overstepping the bounds of the bourgeois revolution against Czarism, making the bourgeoisie uninterested in any kind of revolution.

In Russia the Menshevik's ridiculous attempts at establishing a bourgeois government confirmed this with the bourgeois representatives they appointed trying to impose military dictatorship and hand power back to the old feudal system. Later Stalin repeated this same sort of mistake carried out by the Mensheviks in his support for the corrupt and murderous bourgeois Kuomintang in China. In fact, in Russia, Stalin had been negotiating the unity of the Menshevik and Bolshevik Parties before Lenin's arrival from exile in April.

As Stalin took the reigns of power in the Soviet Union he also exerted his influence within the Chinese Communist Party to remove P'eng Shu'tse and other like minded leaders that opposed Moscow's position of dissolving much of the CCP's work into the corrupt and brutal Kuomintang. Despite the Koumintang carrying out numerous massacres of the CCP and their worker peasant supporters, the CCP maintained this position of subjegation to the leadership of the Kuomintang from for much of the time from the late 1920's up until not long before the 1949 revolution when Chaing Kai-sheck's attacks finally forced Mao onto the road of leading the struggle for power.

Due to P'eng Shu'tse's opposition to any kind of support for the Koumintang and his defense of Trotsky and Permanent Revolution he was first stripped of his leadership position in the CCP and later completely purged with other fellow travelers. They set up their own political organization and publications. These positions in light of Chaing Kai-sheck's massacres, including his butchering of the workers of Shanghai in 1927, and Chaing Kai-sheck's failure to fight the Japanese, attracted recruits to their Trotskyist organization, but also attracted the oppression of the Kuomintang themselves.

Many of P'eng Shu'tse's comrades were jailed or executed by Chaing Kai-sheck. P'eng Shu'tse spent a number of years in prison under Chaing Kai-sheck himself and was only released after a Japanese bomber destroyed the prison he was in.

Yet while Mao and the CCP had the luxery of Soviet aid to bolster their movement by paying their full time party cadre and writers for much of the time from the 1920s to the 1949 revolution, the Trotskyist movement always stayed a lesser party despite their superior program, because they never had foreign aid. Mao was even able to make gains during the Japanese occupation while he was capitulating to the hated leadership of Chaing Kai-sheck, while at the same time the Trotskyist movement that had been mostly jailed before the Japanese invasion was paralyzed by their small size and Japanese oppression during the occupation.

After the defeat of Japan the Chinese Trotskyist group once again grew in size and was about 350 people at the time that Mao was on the verge of seizing power. Knowing they were not large enough to do much in the coming revolution, and knowing what kind of oppression other Stalinist regimes had carried out against Trotskyists in eastern Europe, the party's last meeting before the 1949 revolution made a decision that all prominent Trotskyists should leave the country and that those that the CCP members did not know should join the CCP.

P'eng Shu'tse and Ch'en Pi-lan moved to Hong Kong where the Trotskyist movement was also being hunted and persecuted by the British. The oppression they faced there forced them to then immigrate to Vietnam. In Vietnam comrades of theirs were under attack from the Vietnamese communists so P'eng Shu'tse and Ch'en Pi-lan were then forced to immigrate to Europe where they continued to be active around the issues of China in the Trotskyist Fourth International.

Some members who stayed behind in China were rounded up in the night by the PRC government with their entire families. Many were never seen again. Others were released from prison in 1976.

The Chinese Communist Party in Power

From exile P'eng Shu'tse continued to speak and organize on the issue of China. He held the position that an undemocratic Stalinist government had taken power in China with the 1949 revolution, and while he saw many improvements for the Chinese people come from that regime, he was highly critical of the leadership of Mao Tse-tung.

In the early years, among other things, P'eng Shu'tse criticized Mao for not holding real elections, for suppressing the freedom unleashed by his earlier slogan of "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom", for the horrible and predictable failure of the "Great Leap Forward" and its attempts modernize China by producing useless steel in backyard furnaces, for the forced collectivizations that he saw as copying the methods of Stalin's same project with both causing unecessary hardship amongst the peasants as well as having a horrible impact on food production.

In his analysis of these events P'eng Shu'tse saw an opposition open up within the CCP to Mao's ultra-left adventurist failures that forced Mao's resignation in 1958. The leadership Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Peng Zhen, Bo Yibo were then forced to deal with correcting Mao's mistakes. They ended the production of backyard steel, restored private plots of land in the countryside, personal ownership of livestock, and the free market in the countryside. Even where collective farming can be more efficient, it will never be unless it done on terms that the peasants enjoy. The peasants greeted these reforms with enthusiasm and production increased. By 1963 food production had risen to levels that ended the famine caused by Mao's policies.

In the international arena P'eng Shu'tse also felt that Mao was also discredited in 1965 with a U.S. backed coup d'etat in Indonesia that left half a million Communists dead. The Communists were close allies of Mao and P'eng Shu'tse saw this as a repeat on a larger scale of Mao's policy of subordinating the national, worker, and peasants struggle to the bourgeoisie just as Mao had done with the Koumintang. Some party members also blamed this defeat on the CCP's influence, with P'eng Chen stating, "Everyone is equal before the truth, and if Chairman Mao has made some mistakes he should be criticized."

After this further setback for the prestige of Mao, Mao proceeded to organize the so-called "Cultural Revolution" to regain power. Mao used sections of the military as well as highschool aged youth organized as "Red Guards" to launch a civil war against intellectuals that had criticized Mao as well as large sections of the leadership of the CCP that were fed-up with the leadership of Mao. This was a coup d'etat carried out by Mao against the collective leadership of the CCP that was supposed to be the proper channel of discussion. Mao did not feel he could get his way through the CCP.

In response to Mao's coup, many local leaders organized their own youth groups to fight back against the Red Guards, as well as turning to military units loyal to them, and even mobilizing workers on their behalf. Ultimately, however, Mao was successful in his power grab through violence that ushered in the reign of terror of the gang of four. In 1976 Mao died and the Gang of Four went on trial. Like his mentor Stalin, Mao had managed to silence his opposition and get rid of all of the leaders that had fought beside him to make the 1949 Revolution.

The 1949 revolution, among other things, made major advances in women's rights, healthcare, and education for the people of China. Yet the legacy of the gains made by the Chinese people through the 1949 revolution must always be tempered by a knowledge of the crimes of Mao.

I think that P'eng Shu'tse would have given up a long time ago if he didn't have a strong love for the truth and for the people combined with an overwhelming optimism. As a revolutionary socialist he did not feel that the Stalinist system was an inevitable product of socialist revolution, but that the money and popular influence of Stalinism at a certain point in history caused China and Eastern Europe to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union. There is no reason for future revolutions to repeat those same mistakes.

Today P'eng Shu'tse would also oppose the headlong jump of China into capitalism under the continued brutal rule of the CCP and instead advocate the road to democratic socialism in China and around the world.

Liberation News
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

This remarkable collection of essays and reports comes from the pen of Chen Shu-tse, the central leader of the revolutionary Marxists in China from the 1920s through the 1960s. As a young rebel Chen worked together with Mao Tse-tung to develop a revolutionary party of the working people beginning in 1919. This comradely relationship lasted until the Stalinist degeneration that overtook the Russian soviet leadership in the 1925-29 period overwhelmed the Chinese Communist Party. Chen and his followers were expelled from the party in 1929 and subsequently became known as Trotskyists. As such they continued the battle to build a revolutionary workers party in China.

In the 1925-27 revolutionary upheaval, the Communist Party achieved a decisive leadership position among the masses of urban workers in China. But the party, under Mao's leadership, and working along the lines of Comintern policy, attempted to build an alliance with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang. The Kuomintang was a nationalist party increasingly coming under the control of China's tyrannical landlords. This mistaken policy resulted in a massacre of the Communist-led workers in Shanghai carried out by Chiang's troops. Chen and his followers opposed this disastrous course.

A large portion of this 580-page book deals with the explanation of how the Stalinized Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949. In the post-WWII chaos the peasant masses surged forward repeatedly demanding control of the land and its resources and an end to landlord parasitism. The weakened Kuomintang was like a rotting wooden raft in this stormy revolutionary sea which served as the only hope of salvation for the wealthy and privileged elements in China, and they found themselves desparately clinging to it.

The Communist Party, having retreated to Yenan in 1934 after a series of defeats, found itself bolstered by the massive influx of worker and peasant fighters who saw this party as the starting point of opposition to the decaying Kuomintang regime. In the years leading to the insurrection of 1949, Chen explains, the CCP (a non-revolutionary, Stalinist party) repeatedly sought to dampen the rising struggles of the oppressed masses, to limit their gains, and to come to terms with Chiang in the formation of a coalition government. The Kuomintang was too weak, however, and the outcome of the struggle was determined by its own inner logic, not the aims of the CCP.

Forced to flee to Hong Kong in 1948 Chen continued to guide the Chinese Trotskyist movement as well as to participate in discussion and debates among revolutionary Marxist leaders worldwide. He supported the 1949 victory of the Chinese revolution, which was a giant gain for the masses of workers and peasants in spite of the Stalinist leadership. A workers state was formed. But he stressed that the accession to power of Mao's party did not change its essentially counterrevolutionary character. In order for the masses of Chinese people to achieve their liberation from all forms of exploitation they would need to effect a political revolution to bring to power a genuine Marxist party. This party would then serve as the vehicle for bringing the weight of the Chinese masses to bear in the worldwide struggle for socialism.

The Chinese revolution that triumphed in 1949 was a mighty event, which shook the world. The Chinese workers and farmers, in spite of their misleadership, tore one-fourth of the world's population out of the hands of U.S. British, German, French, and Japanese capitalists (all had investments and huge holdings in China at one time or another), out of the hands of what Malcolm X called the "Western or American system of imperialism." Read this book and "The Third Chinese Revolution And Its Development" and " Maoism Vs. Bolshevism", and learn what Malcolm found so admirable about the Chinese Revolution. Also here you will find the history of betrayals by the wish-they-were-capitalists-themselves Maoist-Stalinist bureaucrats who still rule today.All this in the testimony of two veteran communist fighters, Peng Shu-tse and Chen Pi-lan, who opposed imperialism and its puppets in action, as well as the monstrosities of Maoism. The resistance of the Chinese working class to the pro-capitalist "reforms" and to the attempted selling of the nation, its wealth, and its people by the bureaucracy to the same imperialists kicked out in 1949 has barely begun (3,000 illegal strikes in one year alone in the midnineties). That resistance will shake the whole world again.For the story of China today you need "Capitalism's World Disorder" by Jack Barnes.

I had the honor of knowing and working with ST Peng a little in the 1960s and 1970s. This was a man who had worked with Lenin and Trotsky in the Comintern who had stood up the Chiang Kai Shek, and to Maoism. This was a serious revolutionary Marxist who became a focus for former Red Guards escaping Mao who went all the way to Paris to learn from him. These articles and documents explain the nature of the Chinese revolution, its strength and its betrayal by Stalinism, as well as the capacities of Chinese workers and peasants to change the world. In his writing, Peng had the gift to be both theoretically clear as a revolutionist, and to be concrete as a writer showing how what he was talking about affected the real lives of the Chinese people. Of great interest is his depiction of how the "higher officials" actually lived their lives of privilege and luxury in the supposed days of "Maoist austerity.: As new battles are simmering in China-- strikes, demonstrations, protests--the new generation of fighters must find this wonderful book by one of China's first generation of real communists.

I was fascinated reading this unique and important collection of writings -- a detailed analysis of the Chinese revolution and the Maoist leadership. The articles cover the 1949-53 revolution and the overthrow of capitalism in China as well as major turns in Maoist domestic and foreign policy and political struggles within the ruling bureaucracy. Very useful discussion of the People's Communes and forced collectivization in the 1950s, the so-called Great Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and the Tien An Men protests in 1976.

P'eng Shu-tse's was an early member and central leader of the Chinese Communist Party-- one of the many young rebels won to revolutionary struggle inspired and educated by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the leadership led Lenin and Trotsky. Although imprisoned by the U.S.-backed Chiang Kai-shek dictatorship and later forced into exile by the Maoist regime, P'eng remained true to the course of working class struggle, leading small revolutionary forces in China, Vietnam and later in exile in Europe. H writes to explain and to encourage others to join the struggle.

I also found very useful the lively article and interview by Ch'en Pi-lan, P'eng's companion and fellow revolutionary, on the course of the workers movement in China and on the "Cultural Revolution."

Just finished reading the book by Bill Mandelaris ("Greg") entitled 'A CLASH OF VALUES' and have to admire his sense of values and his wide knowledge of the media and its negative affect on the average person. The chapters on the electronic media, trash talk, and a broken moral compass were much to the point. I thought that the chapter captioned 'empowered to fight back' was especially inshghtful. Also, I was very pleased to see the dedication page showing the picture of Jerry, who was like an older brother to me in my youth. As a former teacher of junior high school kids in the inner City (1992-1997), I can related to what Bill says about the media and other outside influences undermining our family principles.

I have a two-and-a-half year old son, and this book really hit home on the importance of taking control of teaching our families the values we want and not defaulting the responsibility to the media. It should be used as a text book for families on things we need to do in order to take control back from the media in raising our families and teaching them correct principles. It is written by someone who has worked within the media circle who clearly understands the negative influence that must be proactively overcome and the author gives a clear way of doing so. I think every parent needs to be aware of the constant battle that is being waged every day for our families moral values. "A Clash OF Values" has not only made me aware that there is a war being waged but has given me the knowledge and insight to win the every day battles and long-term fight for my families moral well being. I also appreciated the authors candid and honest belief in God. He is a true Christian and is not afraid to admit that this is the true way to our families happiness.

Completed Bill Mandelaris' book "A Clash of Values" and have to admire his sense of values and wide knowledge of the media and it's negative effect on the average person. The Chapters on "The Elctronic Media", "Trash Talk", and "A Broken Moral Compass" were much to the point. I also thought that the Chapter captioned "Empowered to Fight Back" was especially insightful. As a former teacher of junior high school kids in the inner City of Detroit for five years, I can relate to what Bill says about the media and other outside influences undermining our family principles.

We are living in a day where absolute moral values have been reduced to "relative guidelines" cleverly manipulated by the media. In A Clash Of Values, William Mandelaris succinctly outlines what every parent needs to know to minimize the risk of children being exposed to an unbridled culture of smut, gratuitous violence and ungodly conduct operating under the guise of entertainment. This book is right on target. It is honest, evocative and passionate. Chapter 5 regarding the incremental breakdown of the family and Chapter 11 revealing how we are empowered to fight back were particularly profound. Read this book and you will become convinced as I was, that only a purposeful approach to parenting will do. William Mandelaris cares deeply about what kind of world our children will inherit. I highly recommend this book to everyone with the same heart for our kids and their moral destiny.

Bill Mandelaris is a man you can count on to speak from the heart, with long experience in the college of hard knocks, 25 years of puplic speaking, working as a radio commentator of over 25 years in the media dominated world, he knows the heart and gutts of what makes the media do some of the unfamily things they do. My perception as a reader of his book is it's simple to understand why the media has become the Cyclops it has become...Greed, and NOT family values. He also gives us a guide as to how to fight to bring some sanity for ones family and ones country when viewing the daily media hype which many families have given up and given into when viewing TV, movies, ect. Most American have given their children to the media without firing one shot against those who care not one wit for Americas past values. It's a book from Bills sizable loving heart, which you can sense on each and every page. I have read the book over several times because I have a grandaughter I love and cherish. You should have one on your coffee table before turning on your TV set.

I have had the pleasure of actually working with Bob Gilbreath at a very difficult client, and let me be direct: He is the real deal. Bob can dissect, diffuse, and elevate in the most difficult situations. This book conveys perfectly Bob's proven strategies for moving people from where they are to where they need to be. The only way his next book will be better is if it shows us how to figure out what he has discovered before he actually discovers it.

I am typically disappointed by business books that present a theory and some related anecdotes about the theory in 'action'. But, Bob Gilbreath's book provides real world application advice about how to 'compel' others to follow your lead. This book is geared toward people who are faced with the daily challenge of getting people to move in a desired direction, and if you are at all tasked to lead people (large groups or small) - this book is for you.

--Tim Galpin

I think there's something wrong with the Cover Jacket Design, and probably with the Title! This book deserve more that the few review and (probably) sales! The writer is a very successful speaker, but most probably the not a good marketers? i m not sure, but i think this is a GREAT BOOK with GOOD CONTENT.

I came across when opening several books and i was still unsure about this one, but there are no other books i can pick, so i bough this one, and it turn out to be a great book that i like very much.

There are only 201 pages with large fonts and not cramfull of printed letters but the insight and ideas are great. The book is about how to get others to act differently to affect a much better outcomes.

I like the MESSAGE, about how we should use the message in a communication to make other do the way we want them to.

Some biased in how people like to be persuaded, like: Simple over complex, powerful over weak, direct over subtle, predictable over possible, necessary over optimal, scare over abundant, want over need etc will make you a better communicator.

There are 4 chapters: MESSAGE, REACTION, GROUPTHINK and WITNESSING. I found golds scatter around that i can use, even that the whole book is not really that well narrated into one flow. But all in all this is a great book that will help you compel others.

With a title like 'Compel' and a man leading a donkey on the cover I guess I thought I was in for a manual on how to bludgeon my staff into submission or possibly how to hoodwink others into doing my will.

What I got was a rather eccletic but readable and insightful set of how to steps on leading, inspiring, and guiding others to change themselves. How many business books these days can cite the Talmud, Kahil Gibran, Thoreau, Picasso, Camus, Quintus Aurelium Symmanchus, and Dante -- all without seeming pretentious, strained, or misplaced?

Bob's recommendations on how to move others in your direction is both folksy and far-sighted; he interweaves many vignettes from professional experience and historical happenstance to elucidate his points.

I particularly like the analogy of the long distance runner and the effect of personal timepieces - that is one of those interesting factoids that, once learned, seems almost common sense but helps those of us searching for effective means of continuous feedback to search for better metrics.

If you are looking for a primer on how to motivate and lead others in a new direction, this is a must read prior to launching the effort.

One note of quibbling - I am not sure I agree with Bob's discussion of the 'Dark side of simplification' as I think he reduces the argument ad absurdum.

Compel attempts to teach you how to overcome opposition, in the author's own words, through "clarity over complexity, the direct over the subtle." This is an admirable goal and, I must say, this book is among the best that I've read that attempts to teach influence, persuasion or the answer to opposition in a simple way.

The book focuses in on four mechanisms of change:

-Message
-Reaction
-GroupThink
-Witnessing

Each chapter begins by defining the term on which the chapter is focused.

For example the first mechanism chapter, Chapter 1: Message, begins with this definition, "A usually short communication transmitted by words, signals or other means from one person, station or group to another." Certainly a simple definition, but the author's point is to teach you to shape your message so that it becomes a machanism for change. He provides a five step plan for doing this that is easy to remember and implement.


In order to influence reactions, the author suggests shaping the environment and setting or expressing expectations. This appears to be based on the well-known psychological principle that people tend to do what you expect them to do if the enviroment allows for it. This is sound management advice and is well-suited to the author's intentions.

I felt the GroupThink chapter was the least structured and beneficial in the book. I left the chapter feeling like I still wouldn't know how to implement the concepts, if it weren't for other books I had read such as Wikinomics and the The Starfish and the Spider. But then again, my reference to these two books may indicate that I did not fully understand the author's intent. He can certainly correct me, if I'm wrong.

Finally, the chapter on Witnessing - though short - was a nice wrap-up to the book. You leave the chapter feeling that you can indeed start to make a difference in the situations you're involved in and you also come away with some ideas of how to both create your own "witnesses" and apply other ideas in the book.

Overall, it is a good book on shaping people's thoughts and actions and will likely benefit any manager or leader.

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention.

This book serves well as both the intimate story of a family whose lives have been profoundly altered by AIDS, and an expose of the events that allowed this deadly disease to invade them.

While the average American probably believes, as I did until recently, that the infection of thousands of hemophiliacs with the AIDS virus was an unavoidable tragedy, DePrince uncovers the awful truth that for many, if not most, hemophiliacs, infection with AIDS and the deadly hepatitis C virus was not only avoidable, but that the government and hemophilia profiteers (like Bayer "The Aspirin People") chose not to act to produce a safer product in favor of bigger profits.

DePrince also reminds us that the tragedy experienced by the hemophilia community isn't an isolated incident. Many millions of Americans are exposed to blood products each year, sometimes unknowingly, which means anyone at anytime could find themselves facing infection with HIV, HCV, or perhaps some unknown virus making its way into the blood supply today. Blood safety is an important issue to everyone - not just those who rely on blood products regularly. DePrince also advocates for the passage of the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act which provides compassionate payments to victims of this disaster along with important improvements to blood safety.

Read this book as if your life depended on it.

This is the right attitude toward the deaf people in Martha's Vineyard back in the 17th and 18th centuries. I only wish it was true in USA and elsewhere today but it isn't.

This book also talk of people that aren't deaf, were using sign language to talk to each other - for example, from one boat to another or from the cliff down to the beach or because the high wind was drowning out their voices. I can think of many examples that people can use sign language today. Scuba diving sign language is so limited so why not use ASL? A person can tell a minister of an emergency problem quickly from the back of the church without having to go up to whisper in his ear. One could 'talk' to another person in the next building without opening windows. (Windows can't be opened in some office buildings) I could go on and on.

Today, parents are using sign language with their babies (not deaf). Some researchers are saying that it enhances language, cognitive, and social-emotional development. However, I am sure that at the same time, there are some parents of deaf babies, are being told not to use sign language. There are few schools that are pro-oral. Those deaf babies need sign language even more. Where are their language and social-emotional development?? This is irony and sharp contrast to this book. This book prove that all deaf babies need to be exposed to sign language everyday by comparing the Vineyard Deaf people to the Mainland Deaf people.

I am keeping this book to show others because it does support my view of point on the education for the deaf.

I read this book a couple of years ago after reading Oliver Sack's book "Seeing Voices". I read many books each year and I must agree with the other readers here in stating that this is one of the books that has stuck with me. The sense of community and integration encountered by the deaf people on Martha's Vineyard are truley lessons to us all on acceptance and normal treatment of disabilities. I only wish it had a follow up edition.

There are about 10 books I've read in my life that are vivid years later. This is one of those. We're given the chance to see what it might be like to live in a place without prejudices about people being different because of something like deafness. I learned a tremendous amount about deafness, sign language, and life on a New England fishing island community in bygone years. Don't miss this wonderful book.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Originally written as an ethnographic study, it is also completely readable for a non-professional popular audience. Basically, it is the story of the islanders of Martha's Vineyard, a large island off the coast of Massachusetts. The islanders originally came from the same 2 or 3 boatloads of colonists from England, by way of Boston and Scituate, from a region in Kent which already seems to have had a high incidence of hereditary deafness. Due to the geographic isolation of the island, recessive genes for deafness, which were already prominent in the original Kentish colonists, came increasingly to the fore. As the proportions of islanders who happened to be deaf gradually increased, what was the islanders' answer? Not shunning the deaf. Far from it. Rather, a tradition arose that EVERYONE on the island, deaf or hearing, simply learned sign language as children!

This book is full of fascinating little anecdotes, about how island society worked to include its deaf members. For example, we learn about families and friends, some deaf and some hearing, who would regularly sit next to each other in church. The hearing members would sign the sermons to their deaf friends. Or, sometimes groups of people who could hear perfectly well might be together, for whatever reason, and they might happen to converse by signing just as much as in spoken English. Everyone spoke both languages.

Some of my favorite parts of the book focus on the benefits of signing. For example, perhaps two neighbors wanted to converse, while being separated by 200 yards of noisy space, made vocally impenetrable by sounds of surf and sea. Whether they were deaf or hearing, they could get out their spyglasses (this was a 19th century whaling community, where spyglasses were in every household) and sign to each other across the distance while viewing each other through the magnification afforded by the spyglasses. One entertaining anecdote tells of two young men, who could hear perfectly well, who would use their signing ability to pick up girls off-island. They would pique the girls' interest in them by signing amongst themselves, and would claim that one of them was deaf. After they had secured the girls' interest, they would put on a lengthy, well-practiced charade of deafness to keep the gils curious about them. Do they ever let on that they can really hear? You'll have to read the book to find out! Bwa ha ha haaaa ( that's the sound of an evil laugh).

Those are a few minor anecdotes. The whole book is packed with stories like that, and it's endlessly amazing. The last couple of chapters make excellent, general points about the human issues raised in the book, and about how we as a society think about the "handicapped" -- perhaps, as Dr. Groce points out, we should not use the term in the first place.

Anyway, I'm really pleased to call attention to this book. I wish it were more widely known. If you're reading this because you linked to my reviewer's page from my review of "Jeepers Creepers," or something at a similar level, then, well, I'm just happy you're reading about this valuable story as well as "Jeepers Creepers." Two thumbs up.

"Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language" is a look at the effect of a large deaf population on Martha's Vineyard. Though a dry read at times, this book gives an interesting look at how for once in the history of deaf culture the *hearing* adapted for the deaf instead of vice versa. While most people might assume that the large deaf population would force a hefty amount of deaf people to adapt to hearing life, the opposite was actually true; the brilliance of Martha's Vineyard was that nearly all hearing people knew sign language to some degree.

The book analyses cultural impact of the large deaf population within the Vineyard's communities, which was biologically caused by the genetic predisposition for deafness. The book, largely written like an anthropological study, focuses on both physical and cultural aspect of the deafness in the communities. However, the most interesting implications within the book are those discussing deaf and hearing interrelations.

The perfect antidote to a mindset of vengeance. In this incredibly sexy take on the human condition, writer Scott A. Hunt takes readers down the noble and seemingly enigmatic road to peace. Insightful anecdotes paired with brilliant insights make for a fascinating read. Equally as spiritual as it is documentary; a must read for every contemporary thinking man's library.

Scott successfully took on a monumental task of understanding the view points of peace makers and people who are caught in today's wars. The book is a journey into the most challenging edges of 21st century human psyche. In this journey, there are seemingly real people who are actors compelled to living out scripts that they don't even know they are living them. But there are some people who are aware. These people come across clear and sound as Scott vividly presents his interactions in most captivating manners - simple but graceful. Scott's intentions come across pure. The information he gathered are eye-opening. The stories he tells are startling.

Scott outstandingly weaves the history of humanists' thoughts. His account of nations' events makes social and science fictions pale in novelty. Facts indeed beget fiction. Can super powers not be aware of their own action? Are peace makers and Nobel Peace laureates simply instruments of time - when the human spirit can no longer endure the incredible injustice?

If you have often asked yourself why people, businesses, and government today have drag the world into the lowest of any moral standards and darkest moments of the human race, this book will be useful to you. It doesn't offers academic answers. It shows you the conditions around the world in a continuity of thought I have not seen. The conversation with the Dalai Lama on non-violence is both amazingly clear and inspiring. It is an account of risk management and decision analysis with enormous grace and solemnity. Expect a team consisting of a journalist, a philosopher, a historian, and a humanist to accomplish anything close to this book. As I put the book down in the stillness of the nights, I am moved beyond the power of my imaginations. - Tom Tuduc

Scott Hunt has written a very moving and almost lyrical book in the way in which he blends some of the the worst horrors committed by humans against fellow beings with the compassion and kindliness of the peacemakers. It gives you a deep sense of hope and conviction that the spirit of humanity will tirumph eventually and inspires you to try hard as it may be to embrace the vices of those who still believe in commiting these violent acts.
Marvelouslly,it is also a political eye-opener into the true motivation of the actions taken in the name of peace by the political leaders...

This book is excellent in so many ways. Scott Hunt has given us an inspiring book. I learned so much in historical background and in the work of heroic people of our time.
I would urge anyone who wants an understanding of the problems in the world today to buy this book. Once you open it, you will be compelled to read it from cover to cover.
If you believe that the answer to all the issues of the world are simple, and that all the world except the US is bad, than I ask you to open your mind and take a look at the world described in these pages. If you believe that killing only creates more killing and there must be a better way, than allow these stories to provoke your mind.
The most compelling part of this book to me was the discussion of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. I ask you to please try and understand how it can be that such a monstrous people can be created, and how such horrible things can be done to human beings. This chapter will leave you wondering how you can ever again accept on the surface the "information" we are given. You will realize the consequences of violence. You will search your mind for answers that are not on the news.

This book is not perfect. I was left wondering more about the history of Costa Rica than I was given, for example. And there are times when Scott explains things more than I would like. I think he could leave his conclusions to the people he interviews. Others may find that that part of the book helps tie things together.
Still, overall the book was outstanding and deserves every bit of 5 stars.

The "Future of Peace" is perhaps the most compelling book I have ever read. I was very deeply moved by it. Scott A. Hunt is an outstanding writer and interviewer. He asks insightful questions of prominent peacemakers and receives soul searching, thought provoking answers, with overall themes of hope, forgiveness and perseverance. The interviews are more like informal discussions and I almost felt I was right there. He also gives excellent background information on the various areas of conflict where the peacemakers reside, with facts one doesn't learn in school or read/see often in mainstream news. I kept trying to put it down, so as to absorb each chapter, but had to continue to the end, almost nonstop. It is definately a book to read again and again. If all students, political leaders and citizens of the world read it and took the messages to heart, perhaps we could obtain a more peaceful world. In these troubled and treacherous times, Mr. Hunt and the peacemakers give a message that should be spread throughout the world, both heartbreaking and soul inspiring at the same time. If you are wondering whether to buy "The Future of Peace", just do it! You will be so glad you did!

For those who don't know the name, Rossmo is the detective / mathematician whose pioneering work on criminal profiling in Canada has helped re-shape the way investigators worldwide track down serial offenders. By mathematically studying the location and distribution of crimes, Rossmo developed a way of pinpointing the most likely location of the offender's home base. This book explains his work.

Written as a textbook, "Geographic Profiling" is clearly organized, packed with well-documented research, and is both theoretical enough to satisfy university researchers and practical enough to inform the rest of us. The book can at times be dense and a little tough to wade through, but it's worth it.

Even though you might gulp when you see the inexplicably high price tag on this book, if you're interested in understanding geographic profiling and the different ways that temporal and spatial crime distribution can assist in investigation, pick up a copy. You'll be glad you did.

This book is a real innovation in the field of crime research. The area of criminal profiling is populated by no shortage of Walter Mittys with no empirical grounding, so is it refreshing to find a text that cements the theories of this complex and fascinating area with empirical analysis of real cases. The text is well written and opens up a new area of criminal behaviour analysis to students and police officers alike. This book will undoubtedly become a key text in the field of criminal profiling and a welcome replacement to the long list of dull criminal psychology books that do not tell you anything useful, because the ivory tower authors have no practical experience.

This book is packed with information and offers a complete summary of pertinent research on serial arson, serial homicide, rape, and crime paths. It is the bible of geographic profiling. You won't find a more informative, well-researched, or complete book anywhere.

I use this book in my Geographic Profiling course and the students read it and keep it(they don't sell it after the final exam). The bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. Rossmo presents an excellent piece of cutting-edge research that is written to effectively communicate with a broad audience.

Dr. D. Kim Rossmo has done an excellent job of presenting the theories and practice of criminal profiling in general, and geographic profiling in specific. His book is thoroughly researched and based on empirical studies which demonstrate he is a true pioneer in criminology. It should be noted that geographic profiling can only be tested on solved cases, since it is essential to know where the criminal lives to prove of the validity of any geographic profiling methodology. Dr. Rossmo has proven that geographic profiling is a useful tool to support investigations of serial crimes. Well-written, comprehensive, and innovative--this work could be used as a textbook in any criminology class covering the field of criminal profiling.

Andre Auw is a gifted writer and counselor. I found the thematic chapters a mosaic of simple but profound practical wisdom with gentle nudges towards personal healing. The book is easy to read with a great aftertaste. As a counselor of many years, I found the book not only inspiring but delightful - a great gift.

Andre Auw has the rare understanding of what makes excellent therapy. As clinicians we too often rely on the tricks of cognitive behaviior approaches, too scared to really engage with our clients.

Bravo Andre, please write more!

Andre Auw speaks directly to the soul's struggle and it's capacity to triumph. He invites us to turn difficult life situations into challenge: seeking and finding greater resouce within ourselves. And through his stories, he offers us models, those who have found ways to turn suffering into compassion and service to others. The pages of Andre Auw's book are alive with his elder wisdom and presence bringing us home again into our heart.

Andre Auw was my professor in graduate school (Psychology of Human Relations). I have never forgotten his gentle wisdom. he has left a life long impression on me. Now his latest work, Gift of Wounding, reafirms the notion that Peak experiences need not always be positive. He is a gifted writer, an empathetic and intuitive practitioner. I will certainly require my Humanistic Psychology Classes to read this work.

Buy this book! Why? Because it contains wisdom that touches your life, told in a gentle penetrating way that moves you to action. I have known Andre Auw for 7 years as a client and now as a friend. He has shared his wisdom and energy to bring me through several crisis as: the death of my spouse of 37 years, the death of my mother, the ensuing lawsuits brought about by a powerful political step-brother, two difficult significant other relationships, and others. All through this, his patient and loving presence showed me the way to call forth our inherent resources to face these situations. What surprises me is that he is able to put all of this into a book through well chosen stories and pithy concluding remarks to each. Highly recommended.

I read Global Squeeze when it first came out. It's much more realistic than any others I've read since. (Future Perfect, Maestro, Independently Wealthy) I can see no hope for our middle class due to the job exports in all occupational categories. For the latest real world view read Business Week, Feb. 3, 2003, "The Global Job Shift."

We are in real trouble.

The book would better be titled "The First world squeeze", because if we go by the parameters of this book, what we find is a purely First world crisis.This crisis infact looks like a boon for the labour-cheap thirdworld or developing countries. But, combined with the on going hi-tech revolution, it could mean a elite class in the third world also. This is the sort of reality we find, as we observe the yawninig gap in the developing countries also, between its rich and poor. So, it looks like that the world's poor are being pitted agianst the rich and privileged few of the world more and more as the Globalization advances. Going by the present trend in polarisation of the classess world wide it looks-the day is not far off when the working class of the world would rise in unison, to deliver a death blow to the global capitalist system- as predicted by Karl Marx 150 years back.

As an Economics major in college, I found the book captivating. It shows the ways the emerging global market affects the first world nation's prosperity, stability, and confidence. The book also raises social responsibility and personal justice issues that will directly affect everyone within the next 30 years.

This is a very effective piece of economic reporting and must be one of the most acute pictures of 'capital in the raw' that I have read, a desmerizing tonic to the endless litany of neoliberal triumphalism. Neither Marxist, nor doctrinaire, it unwittingly scores a bullseye of indirect marxist analysis of the one-and-the-same process that is the invariant of the capitalist system. This isn't even a radical statement. Slogans one way or the other are stopped in their tracks by facts here, and facts that induce momentary helpless shock, quite short of firebrand indignation. We don't live in a global democratic system. Therefore we don't live in a democratic system. Capital has beaten the pants off sentimentalism here. Democracy so-called is a good front, but otherwise an inconvenience to the predators described herein. The author produces one horrendous
statistic about forty thousand people controlling 81 trillion in assets. Capital.
Not much more needs to be said.
Your move, unless you are powerless, a democratic nobody. Checkmate?

A scary must read for those concerned about the country's future. If you feel the uneasy economic chill in the air, this book will explain why! If your city's industrial base is gone this book will explain why! If you are stuck in a minimum wage "temp" society this book will explain why! This book exposes the neo-con globalist fantasy for what it is...Free trade is not free! and Cheap labor is not cheap! Unfortunately this book does not explain why no one seems to care!!!!

An excellent handbook for the endless challenges encountered in the affordable housing field. Clear,concise and easy to read.
The author has obviously handled these situations in the past and has thankfully provided a tool for housing managers everywhere to use now and for years to come. A must for any property manager's library!

Glenn French, the author demonstrates his extensive knowledge of the Property Management process.The multidiciplined functions of property management are clearly defined in a very usable and sequential manner. The content and writing tempo in each chapter are professionally written in such a manner that provides the student/beginning Property Manager with a useful learning tool. The book is also interesting reading for persons who are interested in a better understanding of Professional Property Management.

All residential managers would profit by reading this book. Mr.French obviously has extensive experience that he conveys very effectively.

This is a careful, well written text book outlining the necessary skills, tools and education needed to manage government assisted housing. There are not many books on managing subsidized housing. This one is good because it is clear that Glenn French has had a myriad of hands-on experiences in this field. Glenn French's book is very good for anyone interested in taking on the management of government assisted real estate as a career, or to expand your business opportunities.

I began my career in public housing and ran into many problems. Mr. French's book has provided me with the information I need to grow and solve the complex problems of working in Public Housing.