Thomas Frank Books

The author is a typical leftist; that is, he was a rich kid brought up in a Lilly-white suburb whose politics swung to the left when he didn't automatically inherit the social-standing he assumed was his birthright. This mindset deludes him into thinking that he has some sort of common-cause with the working-class he spent his early years avoiding like the plague. Franks' thesis is that populist demagoguery is only acceptable when serving the purposes of socialism,rather then corporate-conservatism...the possibility that populism itself isn't such a hot idea ain't even on the table.
Obama basically said the same thing with his "guns and religion" gaffe, but at least he didn't repeat himself until he had enough pages for a book. One of the log-rolling blurbs on the cover calls Frank "the second-coming of H.L. Mencken, but with better politics". Wrong on both counts. If you need a laugh at the fumbling of Marxists trying to convert Bubbas to their cause without having to actually interact with them, this is the fish-wrap for you!

This book is a must read for anyone wanting to understand today's politics and the great backlash occurring among good people who have been "tricked" into believing that voting "conservative" will somehow help and protect them. How far from the truth! I urge you to read this book. I highly recommend it.

Author Thomas Frank takes a funny, insightful 2005 look at politics in Kansas (and the USA). Frank shows how cultural wedge issues (abortion, gun control, etc.) have more pull with Kansans than economic ones. Most Kansas farmers and workers have fallen behind in wages, benefits, etc., yet see millionaire George W. Bush as their pal, even as he cuts their subsidies, busts their unions, and lowers taxes for their rich bosses. These Kansans often blame liberals for their problems - even with Republicans controlling government. Frank also shows how Kansas conservatives foolishly vent anger at wealthy moderate Republicans from suburban Kansas City by cutting their taxes! Of course, this is Kansas, which hasn't voted Democratic for U.S. Senate since 1932, nor for President (except in 1964) since 1936.

This book is fun reading, but the author jumps around too much, and wrongly faults free trade and Bill Clinton's middle-class strategy. He also can't see why blabbering idiots like Rush Limbaugh influence many, or why McGovern-liberalism (busing, racial quota's, etc.) still hurts Democrats at the polls. Despite these flaws, this readable look at U.S. politics is mostly on-target.

It is hard to know just how to process "What's the Matter with Kansas." The writer, Kansas emigre Thomas Frank, clearly feels that both major parties are now beyond the pale, or to be more specific, that at some point in the future Democrats will be moderate Republicans (if they aren't already). Invert this statement, and it probably explains Barack Obama's victory in the Kansas Democratic primary as well as Mike Huckabee's victory in the state's Republican primary: former Republicans, appalled by how far to the right their party has moved, surged for Obama while conceding their former party to the forces of reaction. Frank refers (unfortunately just once) to conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan, now an enthusiastic Obama backer for the same reason. A debate between Sullivan and Frank would, I am sure, shed more light than this book does on the future of American politics.

While Chapter Five ("Con Men versus Mod Squad") illustrates that the heat of battle within the Republican party of Kansas now exceeds that between it and Kansas Democrats, Frank insists that while prosperous Kansans may be losing the battle for elective office, they are winning the much more important battle for economic policy. The economic elite of the state, as in the United States as a whole, is garnering an ever-larger share of the pie while the middle class stagnates and the working class goes into freefall. What seems hard to understand at first blush is the determination of the working class to continue the policies (pushed by Republicans, but increasingly embraced by Democrats as well) which have brought about this situation.

Frank's analysis of how conservatives have managed to create what he calls the "backlash" worldview (a term he borrows from Susan Faludi) against not only feminism, but such other contemporary realities as sex on television and such myths as an attack on the right to self-defense, is largely on target. This elevates those issues above economic ones despite the fact that things like the rate of taxation can be changed by simple legislation while things like legal abortion would require a Constitutional amendment and are therefore probably permanently out of reach. Frank makes a convincing case that economics have in fact driven at least the changes in the culture industry (the same sex and violence that makes American movies fodder for the right wing makes them the best selling in the global marketplace) and refers not unsympathetically to the coarseness of our popular culture.

Nostalgia for the New Deal, the last time Kansas was represented in the U. S. Senate by a Democrat, largely drives this book. The next to last page begins with a discussion of how the features of Kansas City recommended to visitors in the 1939 WPA guide to the city largely no longer exist. More to the point Frank refers in places to the New Deal coalition as if it could somehow be resurrected (presumably by blowing up the headquarters of Fox News, whose octupus-like media and pseudo-intellectual arms Frank rails against constantly).

My own position is that the New Deal is the past. It inaugurated the Fifth Party System, which was replaced by the Sixth Party System starting in 1968 with Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy and culminating in the 2001 inauguration of President Bush, when Republicans were in control of all three branches for the first time since 1954. In the 2008 election we have a chance to create a Seventh Party System in which Democrats will have the initiative for another 36 to 40 years; but it will not be based on the same coalitions as the Fifth. This is what Bill Clinton was trying to do (not quite as consciously as Karl Rove's mirror image project) with his presidency in the 1990s.

Frank invites the reader to conclude that Clinton's entire economic agenda was almost equally disastrous (especially for rural America) as that of Ronald Reagan. I am not convinced. According to the 2008 World Almanac (which being a strict reference work draws no conclusions about why this happened), by 1990, things had gotten so bad for four states -- Iowa, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming -- plus the District of Columbia, that they experienced absolute population declines during the 1980's. In the 1990's this trend was reversed except in the District of Columbia, and there, it can largely be explained by a combination of the shrinking Federal government and white flight, for which I suppose President Clinton did bear some responsibility. Of course, in 2004 all four of those states voted Republican, as did three of them in 2000. My suspicion is that the 2010 census will reveal the same phenomenon (possibly in a larger number of heartland states) this decade as in the 1980's, but North Dakota and Wyoming will still fail to vote Democratic, at least this year.

I just want to say that this book is completely on target and right about the political mindset of Kansas citizens in addition to almost every other right-winged American. I should know -- I used to live in Kansas. Luckily, I spent most of my life growing up in NY because after realizing many of the same conclusions of Thomas Frank, my mom knew we had to leave. The book was very well written and kept me smiling throughout because his descriptions ring true to my personal experience living there - they brought back so many memories of the extreme conservative mindset of all of my family and friends in KS. Anyone who lives in the midwest, has an open mind and understands politics can learn a great deal from this book; and anyone who disagrees is clearly ignorant of the truth.

This is my favorite Peretti book. I absolutely could not put this book down. It's a little out there, but a very good read.

If you have ever been drawn to supernatural sightings, Jesus, Mary, UFOs, or Elvis then this is a must read. It is frightening that people can be caught up as they are in this novel. However this reflects true life more than we imagine. Learn to test the spirits.

The books were is good spape but the order was a mistake, so I sent it back.

Deena McCarthy

I'm an avid reader, however, THE VISITATION is my first book by author Frank Peretti. I found the book to be intriguing and thought provoking. Travis Jordan's character was very well developed. Definitely worth the read. I'm already moving on to other Frank Peretti books....

This book was a 500 page sleeping pill!!! the book was hardly exciting at all and it spent way to much time emphasizing flashbacks (which went on for several chapters at a time). The ending was pretty good, although not as climatic as Frank built it up to be. I read House before this and i wasn't all that big a fan of that book, but i would strongly suggest House over The Visitation. In all, the book spends way to much time dealing with the main characters past, which has little to nothing to do with the actual story, where as it should of exemplified the main plot instead. ANYWAYS!!! DONT BUY THIS BOOK!!!! it is a waste of time.

Before Hannibal Lecter became his franchise character, author Thomas Harris delivered a 1975 thriller, which could plausibly be pulled out of media reports today; an angry and bitter American citizen works with a terrorist cell to commit murder and mayhem on the international stage, the Super Bowl.

In a race against the clock, an Israeli security agent and the FBI attempt to put the pieces of the puzzle together before it's too late. Harris weaves the plot between the two scenarios, which gives added meaning to the two-minute-warning, with no more timeouts.

Harris aptly shows what happens when the raw emotions of hatred and jealousy grips the mind and how it ultimately eats away at the soul.

Excellent book by an excellent writer. Having read several other books by Thomas Harris I think this one does please. Suspense, action, drama, and well crafted characters make for a great read.

BLACK SUNDAY is Thomas Harris' first novel, and is the only one that doesn't feature the character of Hannibal Lecter. This novel instead deals with a terrorist plot to blow up the Superbowl. Unfortunately, this book is not as exciting as the plot would suggest.

This is definitely not the best novel by Thomas Harris. I thought the character development was rather weak, largely due to Harris' decision not to have a central protagonist. He instead presents a large cast of characters in BLACK SUNDAY, and none are sufficiently developed enough for the reader to emphasize with any of them.

This book is also pretty tedious in spots. Harris obviously did a lot of research for this book, but he includes way too much irrelevant detail that doesn't move the story forward. BLACK SUNDAY therefore ends up being a rather slow paced read, a serious problem for any thriller.

There are moments of stylistic brilliance in BLACK SUNDAY, because Harris is a very fine writer. But it doesn't really add up to a very exciting story. If you've never read Harris before, my advice is to read the book he wrote after this one, RED DRAGON. That novel, in my opinion, is one of the finest thrillers ever written.

Thomas Harris' first novel "Black Sunday", is, as all of his works are, very well written and told in an enticing and convincing way. The characters are three dimensional and realistic. You'll never question whether or not the thoughts or actions of the characters are plausible, and you'll not think that this or that is out of line. It has a sense of realism to it, that really makes it scary almost.

Highly recommendable

It is hard to believe this book was written thirty years ago. This story of an American madman hooking up with Palestinian terrorists to blow up the Superbowl is very relevant to today. I just saw the movie Munich and so the terrorist organization Black September was fresh in my mind. Just like Munich, the Mossad is operating in this novel to hunt down Black September. Clues bring them to the US, and without the help of the Israelis, the incompetent American intelligence services would never have known that Palestinian terrorists were planning mass murder inside the US.

I found a few unbelievable elements to the story. Namely, how the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September allowed a beautiful female into its upper ranks. And furthermore, how she then fell for the Vietnam vet plotting to blow up the Superbowl. It is obvious that she was using him for murderous ends, but Harris leaves hints that she was beginning to fall for him.

The plot proceeds at a quick pace and is very tightly and well written. It does not take long to finish this book. Best part: the bad guy gives his ex-wife tickets to the Superbowl he was plotting to blow up.

An absolute revelation!10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You: (But Can't, Because He Needs the Job) For millions of life long/thinking Christians who feel swept out of the church by the Evangelical (fundamentalist) flood of the last two decades, this book is the ultimate reassurance. In just a few pages, and with a clarity that most liberal theologians never approach, Rev/Counselor Thomas finally explains that knot in the collective stomach of main line parishioners, now marginalized by the new church of God Lite. Finally, a thoughtful believer unafraid to challenge the Jesus-on-a-tee-shirt crowd.... with the very biblical text they habitually misapply! In just over a hundred pages, the God box of contemporary, consumer driven American Christianity is torn open and the Creator is restored to the mysterious, awesome nature that rightfully and historically are God's realm. A very important and very enjoyable read.

. . . that is, the book itself, or my review, doesn't matter!

As a former evangelical with Theology degree from a well-known Bible College (back in the early 70s), I always felt something was not quite right with my evangelical world-view, but didn't have the courage to examine or question it. (After all, I would probably go to Hell if I jettisoned those years of training and indoctrination.)

This book PERFECTLY expresses why a lot of those fundamentalist, evangelical doctrines no longer hold any water for me. Completely logical and well-researched arguments, expressed in plain english. This is not a book for scholars, but for the everyday Christian or searcher who senses there is more (or LESS!) to this faith than the Four Spiriual Laws!)

The author clearly has a strong faith in God, without all the evangelical baggage that so many of us grew up with. Only read this book if you think you might not have all the answers. Those who have life and faith wrapped up in a nice little package, will not like this book, and will probably label him apostate and doing the devil's work!!

The Rev. Buzz Thomas is one of those rare birds we don't get to see very often -- a Southern Baptist preacher who embraces a modern understanding of Christianity. If militant fundamentalism -- of any stripe -- makes you shiver, this little book is just what the doctor ordered.

Rev. Thomas begins his narrative with a quote from one of his mentors, a fellow minister who said: "Religion is what you live. The rest is little more than pious platitudes." From this simple beginning, we embark on a fun, factual and fascinating trip through the hottest religious issues of the day, including:

-- Evolution vs. creationism
-- Science and faith
-- God's purpose for our lives
-- Biblical "inerrancy"
-- Miracles and their historical context
-- The role of women in the church
-- Homosexuality
-- Death and heaven
-- The end of times

Each major point is backed up with citations not only from the Bible but also from Christian history, archaeology, linguistics and the author's extensive knowledge of how they all fit together. Thomas demonstrates in the clearest terms possible that one can be a fully functioning, fully engaged Christian without descending into fundamentalist hypocrisy or intellectual prevarication.

Thomas main message is simple: God is love, so let's live our lives accordingly. To be a good Christian, you don't have to hate gays or Charles Darwin. You don't have to read the Bible like a science textbook or some ethereal document transcribed by angels. You don't have to treat women like second-class citizens. And you certainly don't have to be a "purist" (modern day Pharisee) who selectively adheres to some parts of the Bible when its convenient to advance a particular political agenda.

Many years ago Thomas' favorite poet -- Carl Sandburg -- was asked to name the dirtiest word in the English language. Sandburg said: the word "EXCLUSIVE."

That's the clever segue into Thomas' bottom line: When we seek to exclude our fellow human beings from the love of God by building walls of hatred and doctrinal exclusion, we fail as Christians. When we claim to speak for God, we end up speaking only for ourselves. Kyrie eleison.

Every fire-breathing, self-righteous, Bible-thumping evangelical on the planet should buy, read and commit this book to memory. (Normal, well-grounded folks would do well to read it, too) Thoroughly enjoyed this thoughtful, informative book. Highly recommend it.

I think the book provides some excellent food for thought and would have rated it five stars, even though I disagree with about 60 percent of what the author says; however, since the title is a blatant lie, I cannot rate it that high. I traveled the United States with my father as a teenager. He was an evangelist and we visited at least 250 churches. All 250 of these church pastors would have disagreed with about the same percentage of the book that I did. In fact, if these pastors preached (and they do) the 40 percent that I agreed with, there jobs would in no way be jeopardized. The title is simply false for the majority of Baptist, Independent, Charismatic and Pentecostal churches.

As for the arguments in the book, they are weak at best. The author clearly did not intend to prove his case (at least I hope he didn't), but rather to preach a message to those who would already agree with him and possibly pull a few non-thinkers over to his side. Now, let me be clear: I'm not saying people who agree with Buzz are non-thinkers all; however, anyone who is persuaded to agree with Buzz based on the contents of this book is certainly a non-thinker.

The author not only fails to mention very strong counter arguments to his position and rebuttals to those arguments, but he also fails to give any real evidence for his positions with just a few exceptions (such as end-time prophecy where he does provide a bit of proof). For example, he blanketly states that the "best evidence" of science proves that homosexuals and lesbians are born that way. This is debatable at best and still in the state of philosophy as opposed to science at worst. I don't pick this as an example for any reason other than the clear example it presents of the extreme type statements the author makes that cannot be supported with arguments nearly as strong as those that can support counter arguments to his points.

In the end, I know that my pastor does not want to tell me these 10 things. I have, in fact, had telephone conversations with 7 different pastors in the last 24 hours to discover their thoughts on these issues and they certainly don't want to tell their people these things. Among the denominations represented by these pastors are Methodists, Baptists, Assembly of God, Vineyard, Nazarene, and Church of God. In fact, 3 of the pastors informed me that they had preached apologetic style messages related to point 1-How it all began, point 3-What is the Bible and point 9-Death and Beyond. They had argued against exactly what Buzz proposes and did so because their research led them to a different conclusion. Interestingly, they had not heard of this book.

Apparently, this author was conned into using a cotroversial title for a book that is false when compared to its title (in that very few pastors want to tell their people these things or even agree with them). Too bad.

The book was not what I had expected, and Amazon made it very easy to return the book and quickly refunded my full purchase price. All dealings with Amazon was very easy.

French in Action: A Beginning Course in language and Culture, Second Edition: Workbook, Part 1 (Yale Language Series)

I wanted to learn French and selected the Capretz Method - French in Action as a beginning course in language and culture. The workbook is essential, but it must be stressed that to learn effectively, you also need the audio tapes and the videos. They are often available on the air or in the library, however, you need to study them more than one time through to pick up language nuances.

Each lesson consists of a 10 minute story (American boy meets French girl - cute story, adds interest), then an explanation by Professor Capretz. The workbook is divided into chapters and each chapter has a section on aural comprehension, oral production where you play the part of a character, and a question and answer segment on the above. Several additional study topics are covered, including a written practice where you write a short exchange between the two characters.

This is an immersion course and as such, is one of the best, but as I mentioned, the workbook is only one part of the course. I also urge you to pick up the Study Guide which guides you through the course. The course is not inexpensive, but very effective with all the tools.

Highly recommended.

Used in combination with the audio materials, this course promises so much more than the usual (colors, numbers, basic greetings, etc.), and places a strong emphasis on pronunciation and idioms. You finish with a useful knowlege of French--the kind people actually speak. Comprehension is difficult at first because the speakers talk at a normal pace without overemphasizing the words, but it is this technique that leaves one able to know what people are saying without having them slow down.

As for the method of delivery--it's fun! The textbook follows a narrative structure, specifically a story about Robert, an American student in France, and Mireille, a young and witty student at the famed Sorbonne in Paris. There is love, mystery, and lots of important cultural information on the way, as well as an underlying humor that made our class laugh quite often. I recommend it highly for use in a class, and if you are willing to dish out the cash, for independent study as well. It has everything you need to gain a firm grounding in French language, culture, and idioms.

I went through the 52 PBS programs first, then went through them again making notes, then I bought the book.

This immersion method I believe is like a child learning their own language for the first time - you watch and over time figure out what people are saying - you do not begin taking courses for 5 years.

If I had, had to take a typical language course to learn my native English - I believe I would never have learned.

The book is the immersion method in writting [and also in French]. You can go back and forth between the book and the 52 programs and everything is in French. You pick a word here and a phrase there and then start putting a few togeather. You learn the situations also.

For a person like me who fails every language course - this has been fun. It makes me want to go through the chapters and tapes over and over again.

So if you think of this method as a way to pick up French as a child would - a word here and a phrase there and a spark to continue to learn - it can be a lot of fun.

So far I recommend the 52 PBS programs and this Book.

An adult needs all the help his mature abilities can bring, including the language he knows to mirror and bridge the language he is learning. The "French only" method seems to me almost idiotic. It didn't work for me and I know I am not alone. I love French and have kept my eyes on all the self-study French courses available in the States.

Besides, French may not change much but the video is around 20 year old.

I'm not sure if The Baffler is still being published regularly and, if not, too bad because it was a small magazine that regularly published thoughtful and provocative essays of the old school (and I mean this in the best possible sense): they focused on the people and conditions of cultural production rather than consumption. Anyone who went to college in the 1990s knows the story of innovative consumers of pop music/soap operas/action thrillers and how they "negotiated" and "reappropriated" these products, but Fank and Co. turn there lenses elsewhere, to the producers mostly, and that what makes the Baffler so refreshing.

This collection of essays provides a gutsy, incisive, and energetic critique of American consumer culture that surpasses and even ridicules the limp, flaccid, self-referential verbiage that academics try to pass off as a "radical", and "critical" examination of culture and power. "Commodify Your Dissent" is a series of critical essays, or "salvos" as the authors prefer to call them, that were printed in The Baffler during the 90's largely in response to the hypocrisy, and gluttony of the America's expanding techno-consumer culture. Using lucid, forthright language, direct examples, and actual critical thinking (not the mental self-gratification generated by tenured radicals) the authors demonstrate how corporate America has commercialized the concept of revolution and employed it along marketing and production guidelines that are-guess what-conformist and conservative. In the 90's culture, as these essays so aptly demonstrate, "free thinking, revolution" and "breaking the rules" really amounted to a double-speak ideology centered around buying more gadgets and helping companies to make more money, a process that was reinforced in words and letters by such "radical" cultural critics as Camille Paglia.

This book is bound to anger a lot of readers because, it's gutsy, direct, and ruthless in its battering of the misused tropes and recycled clichés that enable legions of consumers, workers, and managers to feel like they're breaking the rules when in fact they are merely conforming to and reinforcing them. I know it's a hard fact to face, but buying a recycled pair of bell-bottoms is not an act of rebellion.

A collection of some of the best writing from the magazine known for its scathing critiques of modern business and media practices. A good read, although at times I felt like they just hated everything. Still, some interesting looks into how rebellion and "alternative", among other things, have been co-opted by the mainstream and thus stripped of meaning.

Here we go again. The media giants are evil. They have consolidated to the point where a handful now own all the major information venues. They hijack culture in order to sell more schlock. They have turned rebellion into a marketable commodity.
A&R men are sleazy and just out to make a buck.
Corporate America is sick and sucking the life out of us. Publishers do this or that just to sell more books. Etc.
It goes on and on. The essays are really all over the place. A few are interesting and informative, but most are just more of the same negativity we are now accustumed to. Perhaps the essays werent so trite in the mid 90s when they were written, but Ive personally had enough. Not sure if there was one positive, remotely uplifting thing in any of the essays. Understandably, that isnt what the book is about, but I just found it often slanted and overkill. For ex, one full essay is devoted to how Wired magazine is dedicated only to selling its sponsors goods and fueling desire for constant consumption. The author seems to have overlooked that the magazine also discusses exciting scientific breakthroughs and offers articles from some of todays most well respected thinkers.

I actually agree with most of the analysis of culture, media, and business that Frank and his frat boys turn out but it doesn't change a thing as long as they are replicating the power structures they rail against by creating an in-club of overwhelmingly male hepcats.

My faith in God, belief in Jesus Christ, THIS BOOK, and a good Christian therapist gave me the healing I needed. If you are a Christian and want sound, biblical guidance towards healing I highly recommend this book. I found my healing working through the steps Jan lines out about 10 years ago. I gave my copy of the book to someone I met who was struggling as I had. Everyone's timetable is different, some may only need a short time, others longer. It is my sincere belief that working these particular steps are key to being successfull in dealing with childhood abuse. I worked around one step a week. My therapist helped guide me through the processes. I had to keep working on some areas that I especially had trouble with, in all about 6 months worth. I became a BRAND NEW Person with all the attributes I always wanted but couldn't attain. I am re-buying the book to review so that I can help others find the person they were created to be. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Of all the Christian recovery books, this is the most helpful on this particular subject matter. Not only does it contain everything the other books have, it covers additional pertinent topics other books leave out. One will find the author speaks only as someone could speak who has personally suffered such abuse. Jan Frank offers a handle to grab as her words become a healing balm to the soul in its journey to recovery. This book restores one's heart, mind, and emotions to a proper perspective on life and boundaries in relationships.

If you're looking for a quick fix to such a complex form of abuse, this is not the book to read. However this book does bring forth some insight into incestuous molestation and there are exercises given to help you through the steps. The book is all Christian based which is fine, however I do not believe all can be improved in the life of a victim by reading scriptures, I feel it takes a lot more. The writer does recommend personal therapy along with the Bible. I am aware there is no quick form of healing, but I do not believe it has to take as long as the writer says. I also realize everyone is different and time does vary for each individual. I think my biggest disappointment of this book is the fact it does evolve around her and each scenario brings us back to the writer. Understandable but it does get boring. But that is not a negative for the writer. I would guess this book and writing it was a big part of her healing and for that I am glad it worked for her. As another critic wrote I too believe there are far better books that will assist one in this form of abuse.

This is a great book. I am a family support work and have started working through this book with sexually abused girls and i have seem a change within their lives and how they to can see their image in God. I recommend this book.

This book is a great tool for looking deeper into the effects your past has had on your life and relationships and what you can do to move forward. Highly recomended!

America does have a lot of culture though whatever culture you may find, it in all probability isn't *counter* to the culture of business. And take a second glance if your being told otherwise. We are a business run society -- You can't emphasis that enough. If you want to be hip with what's going on, study the business world and advertising. The cool crowd claiming disinterest in consumption or even opposition to capitalism and all it represents just leads the rest on the way to the mall with their credit cards in hand, regardless of how unintentional they may be. Cultural politics has gotten us nowhere really.

Anyway, I heartedly agree with those that say Thomas Frank is one of the greatest writers around and this book is essential reading for...well, I'd say YOU probably. Are you interested in our history as Americans? Do you enjoy reading fascinating books that challenge stale, conventional narratives of our shared social history? Are you interested in that era forever known as the 60s? You want to learn about culture and consumerism?

An excellent examination of consumer culture and the way that corporate America has tried to deal with, understand, and co-opt youth culture (or did youth culture co-opt advertising?) Frank gets to the bottom of it all in an always entertaining look at advertising from the Madison Avenue years through the sixties. His examinations of various ad campaigns - such as Volvo who insisted in their ads that their cars were ugly and at least not as filled with defects as the cars they used to make - are insightful and well researched. In fact, this book is a necessary primer for anyone doing research on youth culture. It helped to change the way that I think about these issues and has become a text that I refer to often.

This was Tom Frank (founding editor of the Baffler, for those in the know) University of Chicago dissertation on advertising, and is absolutely fascinating. Frank's main focus is a Frankfurt School/classical Marxist critique of how the early 60s anti-advertising of people like Bill Bernbach (the guy responsible for the classic early VW beetle ads) worked to help create our ideas of 60s counterculture. As such, it's of interest to anybody fascinated by cultural theory, 20th c. American history, or corporate cultures and advertising. However, it's also useful to anybody involved in marketing, planning or advertising (even if your political views aren't of the college Marxist with capitalist parents school), simply because it's just a great history of advertising in the 20th century, and shifting attitudes towards advertising as a profession, from the idea that advertising was a hard science (propounded by David Ogilvy and others) to the idea that advertising was "an art." Most importantly, it's a fantastic read-Tom Frank is a great writer with a fantastic turn-of-phrase, and is better thinker than 90% of academics in the humanities today.

For those who occasionally wonder 'what are they thinking?' when confronted with the effulvia of advertising, Thomas Frank provides a cogent and often hilarious explanation that is spot on from beginning to end. It is hard to imagine a better reference for those hoping to understand the 'mind' of the businessman, whose thankless task is to penetrate the cacaphnous clutter of the affluent society (even as its affluence groans under the incubus of credit card debt and shrinks in the vise of job loss). Of course the ingenius solution is to associate the supernumerary product with the alienation of the customer, and thus is born the 'we're hip and we're on your side' approach that has been bombarding viewers every four minutes for the last thirty-five years, and whose prototypical consequence is a herd of middle class vagabond children gaily emblazoned with Coca Cola logos.

For those with a lingering romantic idea of human potential, the concept of rebellion through consumption may seem every bit as transparent as a USP, but the truth about advertising seems to be identical with the truth about television and is embodied in the Seinfeld Principle: if you run it long enough people will buy into it.

Meanwhile, those of us who are alienated (or baffled) by the inanities of our age have Thomas Frank for solice. Apparently still in his thirties, Frank has written three of the most entertaining and insightful books of the last twenty years, and while the other two (One Market Under God and What's The Matter With Kansas) have made him personna non grata among toadying intellectuals, even they have been unable to find fault with this one, which a person can safely read in public without coming in for special scrutiny as a potential security risk.

Being familiar with Thomas Frank's cultural criticism of the 1990s (see his brilliant _One Market Under God_, along with the two _Baffler_ anthologies), when I saw the title of this volume I immediately assumed it was yet another expose of how the culture industry co-opts the trends and fashions of genuinely cool youth. I was completely wrong -- what Frank has done is far more fascinating.

In this volume, Frank goes back to the "template" of all modern stories of revolution, the 1960s, and takes a look at things from the point of view of the corporate executives. What he finds is shocking: executives weren't trying to co-opt the counterculture language of revolution, they were actually there first! They genuinely believed in shaking things up and continued to promote these ideas even when the public wasn't into them.

Growing out of his dissertation, the book is a little more dry than some of Frank's other work, but his brilliant prose shines through the academic form. Through meticulous historical research, excerpts from period documents and books, and interview with the players involved, Frank reconstructs the story of the generation, telling the tales of ad executives who quit The Organization to pursue their creative whims and the fashion planners desperate to kill the gray flannel suit. The result is a book that changes the way you think about the generation.

In his famous book What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Thomas Frank made the argument many liberals were reluctant to make. He argued that citizens of red states were being duped by the right into voting against their economic interests. Frank received not only the usual charges from the right of being an elitist, but also criticism from the left such as Larry Bartels in Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Russell Sage Foundation Co-Pub). Bartels showed that rich rather than the poor were more likely to vote on cultural issues and that the poor voted not only Democratic but more on economic issues.

In this new book, Frank takes his battle with conservatives to the Beltway. He examines what government becomes when it is run by those who think government is the problem. The fact that there have been so many corruption cases - Delay, Abramoff, etc. - during the Republican years was no accident, rather it is a direct result of the conservative attitude towards public service. Conservatives, in Frank's view, see the liberal state as obstructive and public service as a joke. It was their goal to downsize and outsource public agencies to the point were they became ineffective and incompetent, thereby validating the conservative philosophy of government. FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina under the leadership of Bush's political crony, "Brownie," was a classic example.

The generation of conservative idealists that came to Washington during the Reagan administration, Frank concedes, came with goods intention. They came to reform a system that was by the late 1970's dysfunctional. But after they achieved power they proceeded, not to reform, but to neuter government agencies. They did this by opening the door to the so-called market forces. Government was now for sale to the highest bidder, and corporations and their ubiquitous lobbyists became the key movers and shakers. Robert Reich in Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Vintage) estimated that there are now around 37,000 registered lobbyists in Washington engaged in an "arms race of spending". This lavish spending by corporations to influence policy has transformed not only the politics but also the economy of the Beltway. It is no surprise that Loudoun County, a suburb of DC, is now the richest county in America. The second richest is Fairfax, right next to Loudoun. The third, sixth, and seventh richest are also in the greater DC area. The wages of lobbying have been good and show no sign of decline. It is the preferred career path of retired politicians.

The shortcomings of this book should be obvious: it is a liberal diatribe in which the liberals can do no wrong and the conservatives no right. But as far as these kinds of diatribes go, Thomas Frank's is of the highest caliber.

Frank shows that the last 30 years of economic and banking public policy in the USA has resulted in a disasterous wave of privatization and deregulation that has resulted in the USA reverting to the type of boom-bust speculator economy dominant in the 1880's-early 1890's and 1920's. President Carter started the dismantling of the regulatory apparatus set up in the mid 1930's to contain and prevent the speculator type of economy that had resulted from the deregulation and privatization carried out during the Harding-Coolidge administration during the 1920's.The result was the creation in the mid 1920's of housing and stock market bubbles financed by new balloon payment loans(read subprime and Alt-A loans) and margin account financing.The result was the perfectly predictable and inevitable banker financed bubble- mania-panic-crash-recession or depression pattern that has been repeating for about 450 years throughout the world

However,Frank has incorrectly identified the political affiliation of the individuals who view government as the problem .It is not conservatives who seek to do away or eliminate or have a g-string sized government.It is the libertarians ,masquarding as conservatives,who are responsible for the current near collapse of the financial and banking system in the USA.These libertarians identify themselves,not as libertatians,but as " supply side " or " public choice " or " University of Chicago " economists.None of these anti-government groups are conservative in the sense of Adam Smith,Edmund Burke, George Washington,Alexander Hamilton,Franklin,Madison,Jay,the Adams brothers,Monroe,Lincoln,Theodore Roosevelt,Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford.These anti -government groups hark back to the empty rhetoric of Paine ,Henry ,Mason,Randolph,Shay's Rebellion of 1786-87,the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-1794,and the Confederacy of 1861-65.

Practically all of the founding fathers were Federalists.They believed in a strong central government,a strong and independent(from both government and the private banking industry)central bank,as well as the use of large revenue tariffs and retaliatory tariffs ,as advised by A Smith in 1776 in his the Wealth of Nations on pp.434-439(Modern Library(Cannan)edition.

I have deducted one and a half stars due to Frank's failure to devote some part of his book to discussing what the historical connotation of the word " conservative " means.Conservatives are not anti government;libertarians are.Jack Abramoff is most likely a libertarian.He is certainly not a conservative

"The Wrecking Crew" starts out slowly and then builds to a steady revelation of conservative secrets and travesties. It is a "Must Read" for all those interested in good government.

Conservatives see government as meddling in the market - a force of godlike omniscience; their aim is to ensure government impotence. Liberals, on the other hand, see markets as unstable and needing control by organized intelligence.

Conservatism's recent triumphs began with the discovery of the enormous profits possible from business support for conservative activism, especially direct mail. Unfortunately, accuracy was not an issue. A second major benefit came from Howard Phillips "defund the left" doctrine, augmented by "fund the right" - faith-based organizations, private contractors with the right politics and the clients of favored lobbyists.

The tendency of government workers to join unions makes them even more detestable to conservatives. Now far more people work under contracts than are directly employed by the federal government. A favorite conservative tactic has been to shut down offices that supervise outsourced operations, or even outsourcing the activity.

Running on a platform that government is "part of the problem" does not attract good people, thus generating a self-fulfilling prophesy. This is reinforced by holding down salaries. Alternatively, private government contractors return the favor by political donations, while no-bid contracts negate the principal of competition leading to improved performance.

The "revolving door" from government worker to industry is another major problem. Republicans in 1995 discontinued record-keeping on the topic. However, one study found that 43% of Congresspeople leaving office since 1998 have become lobbyists, up from 9% in the 1970s.

Putting those opposed to a unit's mission in charge of it helps negate the intended value, without creating the clamor that abolishment would; it also makes it more more difficult for supporters to reassign its role. Ensuing actions include stripping agency worker supporters of authority, spying on them to find reason for firing, alleging "fat" in the unit, delegating enforcement to those being regulated, and reducing enforcement staff.

Lobbying, think-tank subsidies, slanted pundits and journalists have been enriched by the conservative wave. In 2004 a group of the nation's largest corporations paid a K Street firm $1.6 million for tiny modification of the tax code. The result was they saved $100 billion - about a 6 million percent ROI.

Corruption is a subject conservatives think they understand well - they simply locate it somewhere in the liberal state, in areas such as mass transit, FTC and FDA supervision, etc.

Grover Norquist, a conservative leader, asserts that wasteful earmarks are useful because they help destroy faith in government, and consequently its support. Thus, government failures (eg. Katrina) fuel conservatives, even when caused by conservative bungling. Norquist also supports undermining trial lawyers (traditional Democrat supporters) via tort reform, crushing unions with a paycheck protection measure, expanding NAFTA to force Teamsters to compete with Mexican drivers, vouchers to weaken the NEA, and privatizing Social Security.

Privatizing Social Security would also help defund government operations, propel the federal deficit into the stratosphere, and create massive Wall St. profits. In addition, this would provide strength to undermine minimum wage laws, safer food, etc. as these expenses would be seen as undermining the health of retirees' portfolios.

Increasing the federal deficit furthers spending cuts and greater privatization; this outcome is sold through the false promises of supply-side economics, and further increases cynicism vs. government.

Finally, we also learn that growing income inequality undermines democracy and the ability to reform these Republican actions.

What I like about this book and its author is that he can state a case for liberalism and government that creates a framework for intelligent discussion as to the clash between the free markets and central government. In the extreme, this is the division between Capitalism and Communism.

The book makes the case that Conservatives have conspired to destroy the government and the confidence the public has in it by beating it over the head with a set of specious and unsupported claims about market functions.

I am the kind of economist that the author would be afraid of. I admit that I do not believe that Conservatives "use" the market. I believe, on the contrary, that it is the markets that actually use conservative politicians.

I would go even further to say that what the author fails to recognize is that the markets are far more democratized than he believes. He has the very weak opinion that the markets are nothing but a "shield for the oligarchy of the rich." However, what he does not see is that the same middle class he bemoans are the same people with retirement funds and 401ks that spread the ownership of capital around to a degree that Marx and Lenin never imagined when they were opposing the czars and the kings of Europe.

The thesis of this book is greatly diminished when one sees clearly how the American consumer takes political action by complex consumption decisions. The same is true when one sees clearly that, despite a few easy to observe examples, it is not the situation in the world today that there is a "wealthy oligarchy."

Sure there are very rich people. But their wealth depends on the economic performance of the businesses they once created and in which they now own significant shares in, but no controlling interest. Those organizations are in fact "owned and managed" predominately by a wide array of small share owners who make up giant ownership positions that breathe life into and control the policy of those same companies. These companies are managed by professional managers, apart from the owners. The large block owners benefit from the combined efforts of management and the free flow of capital which oversees or "controls" the efficient allocation of the organization's resources by market-based investment decisions.

What is missing in the view of this book is a complete understanding of how wealth is created by capital markets in the modern world and how the consumer makes democratic economic/political decisions on a daily and continuous basis by simple choices such as whether (for example) to buy Dove soap or Ivory soap, etc.

What is most wrong with the left today is that they, (in the immortal words of their latest icon Barack Obama), "cling" to the historically discredited, and now just plain "stupid," Marxist/Communist idea that Capitalism cannot find a way to democracy.

A very silly and transparent attempt to smear Republicans in a completely non-intellectual way. He actually says things like, "the free market is not wonderful ,...in my opinion". As a liberal it does not even occur to him to explain why Communist China and the USSR have switched to the free market or why most recent Nobel Prize winners prefer the free market. He delights in the Bush scandals and explains them in great detail but merely assumes they are the result of Republican philosophy.
When asked about the scandals of Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, John Edwards and William Jefferson he is absolutely silent. When asked about all the big city Democratic machines the have long been plagued by corruption, he acknowledges that it occurs but insists, for no reason whatsoever, that it is different from the Bush Scandals. When asked about the best period of Democratic dominance he sites the 1930's seemingly not aware of FDR's 10 year long Great Depression, which featured 20% unemployment rates and led to WW 2. When asked what he is for, if not Republican freedom , he says, "democracy". Then he explains that some people now earn so much money while others are struggling. You assume he wants to take the money from the rich and give it to the less rich and poor, but he does even suggest how to do socialism without getting the socialist results that the USSR and Communist China are trying so hard and so successfully to avoid. Of course there is the obligatory sadness about the undemocratic decline of organized labor but he does not suggest how Ford and GM could avoid bankruptcy and compete on the world stage while paying higher union wages. He insists that Bush's outsourcing and privatizing is a dastardly deed and perhaps the symbol of Republicanism, but does not even allude to why a bureaucratic government monopoly, of all things on earth, would be more efficient or less corrupt. In the end, there is not one word in this book that would make a Republican think. If someone wanted to learn to think about political philosophy he would be very familiar with "Free to Choose," "Freedom and Capitalism", and "Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal." Democrats must try to grasp and respond to the arguments in these books, not completely ignore them out of an amazing and perhaps justified fear, if they want to make a contribution to our democracy.

The real value of this book is the detailed locational information, GPS coordinates, and information on how one can see the structures without tresspassing. If you are looking for historical info or pretty pictures, this isn't the book. But if you want to see as many of Wright's buildings as possible when traveling this book is the one to have so you don't waste your time travelling to places where the structures are completely off limits. Fantastic.

I bought this for my dad who's building a prarie-style home and is the biggest FLW fan I've ever met. He loved it and said that he'd never seen anything like it. He's planning a future business trip around seeing some of the houses listed in this guide. I was surprised at what a hit it was.

A friend recently used this book as guide to search out homes in the mid-west and found it to be accurate and very helpful. A must have for all Wright enthusiasts.

I have used my guidebooks for years as a reference resource. Now having them all together in one place makes it much easier to work with and compare photos and notes. The tidbits of information are just enough to get an idea of the house, anymore would make it too difficult to work with as a 'field guide'. I definitely recommend keeping this book on your shelf.

This is not your typical Wright book filled with beautiful pictures for your coffee table. This is a Field Guide for the Wright aficionado who wants to see the buildings "in the flesh." It is meant to be kept in the glove compartment of your car or as a permanent part of your luggage. Maybe you should get one for both places. The star ratings indicate not only the quality of the design but also how well you can see the house from the street without treading on private property. In other words... it helps you decide if the trip to this site is worth your time and effort. The photos are generally of what you can see from the street, so that you will know you are in the Wright place! The descriptions that accompany each site are not just about the building, but usually more about the owners and their occupations and connections to other Wright clients or interesting people. You will not be able to find this historical information elsewhere. Other sites that will be of interest to the purchasers of this book are ones associated with Wright, like the Auditorium by Adler & Sullivan in downtown Chicago and some buildings that were built after Mr. Wright's death based on archived drawings. When the second edition comes out it should have a spiral binding.