Richard Ford Books

What makes this book interesting is that it is significantly different than 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'. Another great book by one of the most promising young photographers.

Saw the exhibition that accompanied this book . Poignant and funny by turns, it was one of the best recent photography exhibitions i have seen .The inclusion of found love letters and the swans made of towels, stopped the collection from just being a collection of expected shots of odd looking couples. While the majestic shots of the falls themselves somehow became a comment on the frailty of human romance....

i think soth has produced a better book than his highly acclaimed 'sleeping by the mississippi' here. it seems less derivative, less self-conscious, and more mature. my main criticism would be the pictures of the falls itself, which don't seem to fit and end up being a distraction from the true heart of this work - the odd people, buildings, and objects that give definition and vision to the area.

The acclaim and good reviews for this book are mistaken - it is average work by an above average artist who his a sophomore slump with this, his second book. Sleeping by the Mississippi, as derivative as it may be, was deeper and more soulful than this work which offers not much new in contemporary photography.

This innovative book explains the dynamics of growth and success in an organization. Shifting Gears has new, critical information that gives leaders, managers and team members an edge on succeeding in today's competitive global marketplace. Valuable information! A must-read!

Susan and Richard succeed in teaching us how to drive our careers in the fast lanes of the 21st century workplace using the Three Gears of Leadership and Success. Easy to read and entertaining, each story provides a lesson on when to and when not to shift gears to realize desired outcomes. Using the skills associated with these gears on a daily basis has allowed me to partner with my manager, and to raise my performance to the next level. Highly recommended reference.

SHIFTING GEARS

Israel and Collins should be congratulated. Shifting Gears gave me insight into the minds of effective leaders. There is no doubt that we are in a society of more, better, faster, cheaper as outlined in the book. The authors show what behaviors a manager needs to shift the workforce into a learning and innovative mind set. I fully recommend this book and it has been extremely worthwhile in my business. Lois Karlin Feinberg

This book is a load of crock. The authors should start writing fiction, not business books. Sure managers has to be leaders, but this book suggests that as leaders, managers has to hold their follower's hands like children each step of the way. Whatever happened to something called "accountability"?

I bought this book specifically for the engineering drawings, they are for the 351W only and the bell housing to block dimensions have plenty of sizes missing, nothing relates back to the crank CL and the dowel positions are missing. Don't waste your cash if you are after drawings for the 302.

Mark

Journalist Richard Reeves provides revealing portraits of major figures cerca mid-1970's such as Hubert Humprhey, Gerald Ford, Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson, Ronald Reagan, etc. Reeves claims that Ted Kennedy has the brains to be President, and credits colorless Governor Hugh Carey for rescuing a then-bankrupt New York City. Reeves also does something smart that journalists rarely do - he asks Senators who among them should be President (their top choice was Henry ¨Scoop¨ Jackson). Ironically, his portrait of mediocre NY Mayor Abe Beame (1906-2001) is most inspiring. This poor immigrant pulled himself from poverty and succeeded at every level (except mayor) through persistence and determination.

This book was timed for the 1976 Presidential contest, yet still makes interesting reading for political junkies and others. Also, if I recall correctly, a certain Governor from Plains, Georgia who got the job didn't make the cut.

Richard Ford is a law professor at Stanford, and his book "Racial Culture : A Critique" is a reaction to a particularly robust form of multiculturalism, which he terms "difference discourse." He takes the reader through a story where activists began to combat perceived white dominance by emphasizing the differences between Black and white culture. They didn't do a great job of seeing if the differences they were talking about (1) even existed or (2) were worth celebrating. And then the "difference discourse" took on a life of its own, holding Black people up to a racial authenticity test that would previously have been unheard of, and convincing white people that, yes, Blacks really were different than them. Worst of all, dishonest brokers, forced by the Supreme Court to show that "diversity" is so profound that it is a compelling state interest, now largely peddle this "difference discourse." A noble intention has become mired in its own logic.

The book is somewhat polemical, but it's well-informed and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. It's quite personal and not written like a stale academic text. Despite the targets of his argument, the book is *not* a right-wing screed; on the contrary, it is steeped in classical liberalism. The emphasis on legal examples may not serve some readers more interested in broader social trends, but I found them interesting. It's definitely a good read for students of and citizens in modern multicultural societies.

Frank Bascombe takes his son on a road trip to visit sport's halls of fame. Frank's son has emotional issues, and of late has been getting in more than just a little bit of trouble. It would be wise, although not manditory, to read The Sportswriter first. That book will give one a passport into Frank. Frank is a thinker, he is divorced, has two children, is not hurting for money, is a realtor, and is willing to try new things. If one gives Mr. Ford a chance, his character, Frank, will make one either want to cry or cheer for humanity.

The first sentence in this book, which I have read many times, is enough to make some people quit reading. I have read several articles about the way to begin a piece of fiction, and I don't think any of them recommended an approach such as this one. Also, I wouldn't recommend reading this when there are distractions or if one has a headache. This book takes some concentration, but reading it is like earning an award that is many, many times more valuable than the effort invested. Beach reading it may not be, and there are other great books for those times.

We have been waiting a long time for this kind of writing. For me, not since Updike's Rabbit have I read such an engrossing, attractive, masculine character. What makes Frank Bascombe so attractive is his ordinariness, not at all an easy thing to accomplish. Intellectuals are easy for intellectuals to construct, but to find a guy who likes hot dogs, real estate and women is rare, and the reader knows it. This is, in some ways, Hemingway territory, but Bascombe is happy, unlike Mr. Hemingways's anxiety-driven specimens. New Jersey makes for a wonderful setting. Together with Philip Roth, Ford has made certain that Jersey has replaced Mississippi as the center of the American landscape. It's glorious country.

I had high hopes for this book but was sadly disappointed. Read this book if you want to study long long sentence construction. Each sentence was a test of my concentration. The story however did warrant this much effort. Perhaps Pulitzer is a reward for the most number of words with the fewest periods? I gave up.

Many people in America are reluctant to confront authority.
When they say this is a good novel and they are the "authority" , what is then
my natural reaction? This novel reminds me very much of the novel Babbitt
that I was forced to read for English literature and the author seems to be
without the connection to his extreme in materialism. ( He seems to
think he is a liberal.) I got to really dislike the protagonist in the first 100 pages
and even to dread reading more of his overationalizing morbidity.
I was left longing for the sincere freshness of Sinclair Lewis!
Making a point in some worthwhile theme would be good.
Woody Allen makes his points more clearly and maybe
with less name dropping . There is no convincing change ...
the hero doesn't get the point when he allows harm to come to his son.
It doesn't really seem to get through: mowing his lawn isn't a radical
change in behavior. He says a lot without ever saying anything:
he writes well without ever making a point.
He describes much without seeming to be able to find any meaning in what he sees.
I had a very negative reaction to this form of intellectualism.
I suppose that there must be some method here , but for me it is lost in excessive verbiage.
I prefer Tortilla Flats or Sweet Thursday where the point is in the results...
I keep asking the author to actually understand something in his own
reality. Obfuscation with window dressing of intellectualism...
If the protagonist were actually in touch with himself,
he'd put rocks in his pocket and walk into a river ( or someone
else would do it for him?). Calling this novel a literary master piece seems
to me to be a a form of intellectual sadomasochism: a lie.

In "Independence Day", Richard Ford's depiction of post-marital devolution (divorce) parallels the lack of marital (or life) bliss shown in other classics: John Updike's "rabbit run" or John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samarra."

This book's protagonist, Frank Bascombe, is not another Harry Angstrom or Julian English - the respective protagonists of Updike's and O'Hara's novels. Instead of leading a life of self destruction after receiving a perceived dealt "straight flush", Bascombe seeks to improve and repair his life.

In love, he twists and turns about whether he should reignite the flame with his ex-spouse - Ann - or turn on the heat with his weekend f$&# buddy - Sally. After hundreds of pages of his interpersonal thoughts about this ever-present conflict, we do not receive an actual conclusion. At least none is definitively delivered such that he and the "chosen one" lead off to the sunset on a white stallion. But, maybe he has made strides closer to such a conclusion, and that is enough to ask from someone so perplexed and perplexing.

In family matters, his son Paul delivers he and the ex-spouse, Ann, a handful. An adolescent whose faults are not uncommon, Paul has delusions of suicide, derived mainly from lack of self esteem and typical teenage angst. Paul's two-day jaunt with only dear old dad to Springfield, Mass. and Cooperstown, NY - the respective homes of basketball's and baseball's halls of fame - is the subject of another large portion of this book. Frank concludes, "Children, who sometimes may be angels of self-discovery, are other times the worst people of the world."

The writing style of Ford is extremely well done, and includes numerous uses of appositions - where the second element parenthetically modifies the first without changing its scope. These commonly placed parentheticals deliver a "herky jerky" motion to the reader's pace and can make the reader stumble or slow down. If not, the complexities of the writing could well be overlooked and missed. Many of the appositions represent Frank's thoughts which contradict or disagree with the written dialogue.

Ford's rich prose and deeply depressing topic of this book make a not-so-uncommon couple of modern American literature. At first, as someone who does not desire to read about others' nagging problems in love or life, I felt I would trudge slowly and belligerently to finish (if I would even do that) this novel. But, not atypically, I was wrong. I enjoyed this book, and read it in a matter of days.

I am only giving this book two stars instead of one because the author does have some talent. However, that said, this book was so dull that I only got a little over half way through it before giving up, though I really tried to give it a chance. The story lagged and was painfully dull and none of the characters except for the children were interesing or likeable. Something about the whole book just felt old, from hokey Viki with "sausage curls" going to bed early each night to the use of the word "colored". At times the language also felt a bit pretentious. I believe people and places like those found in this book exist, I just don't find them interesting.

Richard Ford takes on the archetypal educated American middle class man in "The Sportswriter" through the lens of Frank Bascombe, a man plagued by family fissure and a failed career as a novelist. Through the constantly probing yet compassionate middle-aged Bascombe, Ford finds a way to express the all-too-common heart wrenching story of the evils of an idle and listless middle class.

In the short span of Easter week, Bascombe details his ordinary existence in suburban America as a sportswriter. These days bring much introspection--sometimes too much--and time to question his life. How did Bascombe, a once ambitious and precocious novelist, end up with a broken family, a vacuous girlfriend, and an all too easy career writing about sports?

Bascombe's troubling lifestyle is representative of a very ubiquitous middle class dilemma: Why does a simple and generally carefree life in suburbia inevitably have insurmountable crises and obstacles? Bascombe's questioning helps answer this question that affects many.

"The Sportswriter" is worth reading for Ford's intelligent sentences and a comprehensive study into a deeply complex character. A similar but much better novel, however, is Richard Yates's "Revolutionary Road."

After hearing about the book from a friend and reading the jacket, chock full of respected literary critics singing its praises (typical that the NYTimes swooned over it - I often run out and buy any book that Michiko Kakatuni zaps in one of her obnoxious and preening reviews), I was compelled to buy it. The book was awful. I won't knock Ford for a well-placed turn of phrase - his southern blood hasn't fully evaporated - and is dialogue is well-delivered. But he turns the mechanics of good storytelling on their head by presenting us with a protagonist who has suffered loss (his marriage, his son)and failure (a career) but seems stoic and imperturbed in the face of it. In fact, he is "dreamy" as a result of it, a state-of-mind he describes ad nauseum. I had to fight my way through the urge to put the book down every time that word is written. But I suppose I could make my way through this thicket of exhaustive (and often times contradictory) introspection if something actually happened in the story! Something that would put the protagonist in conflict with someone or something. Instead, he seems to approach the world in a childish way, never losing his temper or otherwise responding to the events in the world.
Finally, this book was written in 1986- perhaps I dat

Last night I finished reading Richard Ford's The Sportswriter. I read it a couple years after reading Independence Day. Although I didn't love Independence Day, I was curious to get back to the main character of both books, Frank Bascombe, and see what he had done earlier in his life.

I think reviewers who don't like Frank Bascombe might have missed the point of the book. In my opinion, Ford does a tremendous job of detailing one (fictional) person's thoughts and feelings as he travels with him for a weekend and 375 pages. I found some of Frank's musings and take on life to be humorous, some profound, others confused or way off base even. In the end, though, Ford has created a consistent, engaging character whose adventures and interactions provide for many thought-provoking moments.

The Sportswriter is neither about sports nor writing. It is about one excruciatingly boring week in the mundane life of a mundane divorced man. There is no real story. There is no beginning, no end, and no real climax. We just follow the life of the guy as he moves through his life for a week.

The journey is genuine, and Richard Ford very accurately relates the dialog, feelings and experiences that such a man would have during such a week. The problem is that his life is just really, really boring.

The main character, Frank Bascombe, is reflective and introspective during this week and while his thoughts seem genuine, they are neither inciteful or interesting.

I enjoyed the writing style and it was done so well it might have been a real life journal. Just a very boring one.

I can only recommend this book to voracious readers who don't mind spending hours reading without expecting much entertainment value.

The Lay of the Land


No need to rehash the storyline or gist of this excellent novel. Just a strong recommendation for the audiobook version, which is brilliantly rendered by Joe Barrett. Mr Barrett brings to life the entire persona of protagonist Frank Bascomb with a sympathy and sensitivity that is rarely found with such profundity in audiobooks. Indeed, the audiobook version may be in some ways preferable to the written page, particularly in working through Ford's denser prose common to some of Frank's introspective ruminations. Some readers may 'lose the string' while reading these passages--this is a book that takes some work, but is well worth it.

Lay of the Land
I am amused, enlightened and bored, reading on through times of brief satisfaction and lingering hope. Having read Sportswiter and Independence Day, and listened to Ford during a revealing Q&A, I have come to enjoy both his wit and his commentary, but I have to agree that this book is slow with little infusing an interest in continuing.

Except for the surprising ease into a bar fight while awaiting his friend-employee Mahoney, and the fantasies evoked by every mammary encounter, Frank Bascombe, in this book, acts older than his age--55 going on 114. Most of his clever and insightful observations sound like an epitaph. There is the travelogue. If one is interested in which road intersects with which highway or a view of old and new in Everycity, traditional vs modern, elite vs common; it is well presented here with such color and energy we might believe that only in New Jersey will we find it.

I've also read Updike's Rabbit series, where mixed in with colorful characterization and Updike's reflections on the middleclass life, there is a compelling plot that carries you on quickly. Even in death, Harry Angstrom brought excitement. That isn't the case with Frank Bascombe in Lay of the Land. In spite of a sprinkling of brilliance from Ford (found frequently) and his rich character deployments, this is an old man in a rocker, dozing and dreaming with a well-worn copy of Field and Stream in his lap.

"Lay of the Land" is the first book I read on my Kindle, and in some sense it's the ideal book to read electronically. You might not think so because it's a complex, interior character study, but the collaged impressions of a stream of consciousness emerge from reading the pages in short typographical bursts on the Kindle screen. This is a book that explores what Frank Bascombe, the central character, calls "the Permanent Period" of life--that post midlife period when the sheer finality of death comes clear and closer, and whispers shrilly in the ear of a man recovering from prostate cancer virtually every hour of every waking day. Bascombe, a sportswriter turned realtor we have met in Ford's earlier novels is a man with a troubled life (isn't everyone's?)--one son killed in childhood, another son and daughter who behave bizarrely and problematically, a second marriage shattered when his wife abandons him for her former husband, and several startling events that interrupt an ordinary realtor's life with the urgency of an ambulance siren. It is a longer than it needs to be--you feel that Ford feels compelled to explore every corner of an experience--but, as a prostate cancer survivor myself, I found it thoroughly engaging. I hope there's another Bascombe book to come.

Frank Bascomb, Richard Ford's New Jersey real estate agent, is an old soul, part Greek Ulysses, part Leopold Bloom, part Underground Man, but he is also a totally contemporary guy. For three days before Thanksgiving we're on the road with this very unique mind, interacting with the rest of humanity and in particular, the American cultural scene. Hilarious and depressing, Frank is ultimately one of the most memorable and sympathetic characters in literature. This one's in the top 10; okay, top 20.

This is, to my way of thinking, the best of the 3 Frank Bascombe novels. Frank is now all "growed up" and facing the inevitabilities of late middle age (he's 55): prostrate cancer, ungrateful or at least emotionally angular children, possible failure of a second marriage and re-connection of a first, perhaps early retirement. Frank remains one of the great creations of modern fiction, precisely for what he is not -- heroic, existentially confused, depressed, or captured by a mid-life hormone surge. He's a real human, better than most, but not without flaws; the kind of person I'd like for a friend. He's nothing to excess: intelligent but casually so, kind but capable of the occasional cruelty, wealthy but not showy, and despite all of the above not the least bit boring. After all, you gotta love a guy who can feel entirely comfortable and happy getting drunk in a lesbian bar and be able to express guiltless anger at a sorry-for-himself, vaguely dysfunctional son who blames his father for his unhappiness. I stress the character because the plot isn't much -- to be sure things happen, ordinary things really (Frank's days are filled with more bits and pieces of pastel drama than mine, but still not earth-shaking). His philosophical musings on his life's conditions are interesting, sophisticated, and often wryly funny, and it is his interior life that is the subject of the novel. Wordy? Yes and perhaps 50 pages too long. I tend to be a fast reader and sometimes (to my regret) skip over material that doesn't move a plot along. This book requires considerable attention for maximum benefit, and I found myself rereading some passages, in part to be sure I hadn't missed anything important and in part because the writing really is quite lovely, even poetic (if a low-key way). For those of us who enjoyed the first two novels, this is a must-read. It is certainly possible to read this without having done the first two, but some of the richness of Frank's life would be lost. One of the best books I have read in the past 5 years or so, and I'm hoping we'll be a 4th Bascombe novel. Highly recommended but not for those who are impatient or favor plot over character.

Most of the stories in "A Multitude of Sins," particularly "Puppy" and "Abyss," ring true and authentic and resonate with feeling. I cared about the characters and they seemed real to me.
But the rest of the stories seemed to be an authorial exercise exploring a theme, and it seemed almost like seeing a play where, just at the moment you've suspended your disbelief, right when you're starting to get into the characters and the dialogue, right when you're magically transported into their world, a stage hand rustles a curtain backstage and the moment is ruined.
I like Ford's style, though. If he errs on the side of wordiness in over-examining his characters, his descriptions of them are often beautiful and lushly detailed. This was my first Ford book. I plan to read "The Sportswriter" next or maybe "Rock Springs." Reader reviews suggest these are better examples of Ford's writing than "...Sins."

The writing here is a great example of modern fiction that is American to it's core. After reading this I had to get more Richard Ford and just finished Independence Day which is like a modern day cross between Moby Dick and Ulysses.

The pieces in this book all have the same titillating topic but each treats it from a different angle (and locale) and unravels the consequences in a unique way. The story about the Grand Canyon is jaw-dropping, especially if you've been there. I went back and immediately re-read 'Puppy' too.

Insistent and exquisite, Ford gives us a meditation on a theme. Using adultery as a filter, he examines the range of everyday sins that accompany lives unrealized and disconnected. Adultery is the frozen tip, making the movement under the water visible.

This is not the book to look to for big events. The drama largely happens off stage. The moments of violence are dulled-- killing time more than killing each other. It makes for the kind of sinning that you may not expect, but is probably more real to the real lives of people than the more Hollywood variety.

I can understand the criticism of the book, both here and elsewhere. Ford is so interested in the problem that he explores it from every angle and there is a sameness to many of these stories as they seem to conceptually pick up where the others left off. I was fascinated, bored, impatient and finally fascinated again by the project.

I can think of very few writers who are more skilled than Ford. I would recommend this book to virtually anyone who enjoys good prose. Honestly, the novels (Independence Day is my favorite) are probably easier to read, and may serve as a good introduction to the way that the author handles his subject matter.

Richard Ford is a serious writer. The times I have talked to him I have felt an almost priestly demeanor and a respectful attitude as he talks about his writing. He writes to find out about things, depict things, get things out of his system, to know what he knows, and share it with the world. It took him most of a good collection of short stories, a novella, and then another long story to get the whole coming of age thing in Montana amidst life crisis out of his system. Some would argue that Independence Day was just an attempt to rest those ghosts!

Here Ford deals with infidelities among the upper middle class. Much as I would prefer he return to what he saw when he was teach out in Montana, much as I feel the usual prejudice to dismiss these people, Ford gets close to the struggle inside all of us to feel we are here, we are touched or touching, and to have a little joy. Ford also gets at the relative emptiness of the whole landscape they people populate. Every approach makes the whole thing more precise.

Unfortunately, this isn't another Rock Springs, but it is good enough to read and reread and to know it helps us remember what life is like.

If an author sets out to write a collection of short stories about adultery, you'd think they'd have a lo say about it, right? Well, Ford certainly expends plenty of words, but the net impact of them is next to nothing by the end of this incredibly feeble navel-gazing group of stories. Mind-numbingly similar in tone and temperament, the ten stories center of upper and upper-middle class white, middle-aged, married professionals who seem to have drifted into infidelity. Story after story plods cautiously along, poking at the consequences of adultery in a very mild way, with leaden dialogue and a lot of empty moodiness. Adultery is treated almost as a kind of bland rite-of-passage for a disconnected male. Marital infidelity can happen in so many ways for so many reasons, and yet Ford seems interested in only a very limited field of it. I have no idea what his personal background or situation is, but it's a collection you read and leave wishing the author had worked out their issues in therapy or something. If he wasn't such a literary bigshot, there's no way this would have been published-it strikes the same note over and over and over, and isn't provocative, insightful, or even interesting. PS. If you were planning on the audio version, don't. Ford is a terrible reader, sounding like someone reading the telephone book aloud as punishment.

This book does a good job going beyond the cliches that get thrown back and forth in the race "dialogue" and offers challenges to both sides. Worth reading.

Although I don't agree with everything the author writes, he leaves one with a lot to think about. The book covers various forms of using race such as "racism without racists" (Hurricane Katrina's aftermath) or "racism by analogy" (overweight people or smokers compare themselves to black slaves or Holocaust survivors). He demonstrates how using the race card
often obscures real, more important issues.
When it comes to legal issues, he is savvy enough to present three different cases of alleged discrimination sequentially but the presentations were dense and hard to understand for a non-legal reader. Also, I was not clear on what the final decisions were although I think he is more interested in the thinking that goes on in the judicial mind.
The author is very complete and when it comes to issues such as affirmative action, he examines them from many points of view, pro, con and in between, showing that public policy regarding racial issues can help in one area but hurt in others.
I had to laugh because the day after I finished the book, Ralph Nader announced his candidacy and was quoted as comparing his situation of being left out of the presidential race as similar to blacks--he played the race card!

Ford largely rehashes the analysis from his first book, Racial Culture: A Critique. Racial Critique is better and more inspired. I would encourage people to read that one first. Part of the problem here is that his attack on multiculturalism and critical race theory is arranged too much like a straw-man argument. At least in Racial Culture, Ford examines issues in ways that suggests that there is a meaningful legal debate about race in America today.

Another book that covers similar territory with more passion and insight is John Jackson's Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness.

This quote from page 339 of "The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse" seems to neatly sum up the major point that author Richard Thompson Ford is trying to convey in his important new book. While Thompson freely acknowledges that significant gains have been made by Blacks and other minorities since the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 "Brown vs. Board of Education" decision he worries that those who perpetually invoke terms like "racism", "sexism" or "homophobia" each time someone dares to disagree with them do their causes a serious disservice. "The Race Card" examines the history of race relations in America in a fair and objective manner. Certainly the findings and recomendations offered in this book will challenge the long held beliefs of both liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats.
During the 1950's and 1960's the goals of the civil rights movement seemed to be quite clear. Leaders were demanding an end to racial discrimination in areas such as employment and housing and firmly believed that racial integration was the ultimate solution to the racial divide in this nation. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the historic "I Have A Dream" speech on August 28, 1963 he expressed the firm hope that "my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character". It was a goal that people of good will of all races and religions seemed to agree on. And it is quite apparent that tangible progress was made over the ensuing 20 years. Unfortunately, the march toward an integrated society would prove to be a somewhat short-lived phenomenon.
In the late 1980's and early 1990's the concept of "black separatism" began to be advanced by a new generation of black activists. Likewise, the gospel of "multiculturalism" was spreading like wildfire at universities and institutions across the nation. It was a stunning turn of events! This obvious dichotomy in the goals and objectives of Black America was by far the most interesting subject matter presented in "The Race Card". All of a sudden minority students were demanding special curriculums and some were even calling for separate housing on campus. Advocates of "multiculturalism" were calling for radical changes to the curriculums of schools from kindergarden thru college. Multiculturists sought to de-emphasize the Judeo-Christian and Western European traditions thar had been prevalant in this nations schools for nearly two centuries. Not surprisingly, many of these views were rejected out of hand by a vast majority of the American people. As a result of these developments Richard Thompson Ford believes that the cause of racial integration suffered a serious setback during this period. Ford offers an objective analysis of these divergent points of view and offers some thoughts on how some of these thorny issues might be resolved. And as the full title of this book would suggest he denounces those who routinely and cavalierly play "The Race Card". While many of us are all too familiar with the usual suspects like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who constantly turn up in the media it is important to understand that the race card is also played by ordinary people every day of the week. Ford argues vehemently that these individuals have succeeded in dealing a serious blow to the cause of racial harmony and social justice in our nation.
When all is said and done I found "The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse" to be a book that is well worth your time and attention. Although a bit long winded at times, I found Ford's fresh perspective and frank analysis of these nagging issues to be both insightful and refreshing. Recommended reading.