Central America Books

Although admittedly pricey, this is an excellent source of recent information on Early Formative cultures of Mesoamerica and southern Central America. Contributors are: Michael Blake, Marilyn Beaudry, John Clark, Arthur Demarest, Bill Fowler, John Hoopes, Gloria Lara Pinto, Mike Love, Skip Messenger, Mary Pye, Ed Schortman, Pat Urban, David Whitley, and Tony Wonderley.

Four Trips to Antiquity: Adventures of an Artist in Maya Ruined Cities narrates an artist's search through Central America for the form which inheres in ancient Maya sculpture. Initially commisioned by the Limited Editions Club of New York to illustrate the Popol Vuh, an ancient Quiche Maya manuscript, renowned artist and illustrator Everett Gee Jackson traveled to Chichicastenango, in the Guatamalan highlands in 1952. He then went to Copan, Honduras, to draw the magnificent, partially restored ruins there. This experience turned into a quest for the spirit in which Jackson became increaseingly absorbed in the different, more meditative rhythms of an older civilization. Approaching the stone carvings with the eye of an artist, Jackson communicates what it means to "see" through to the inner structure of the highly accomplished ancient art which had come to fascinate him. The artist then returned to Copan in 1954, this time with San Diego State University anthropologist and Trustee of the Museum of Man, Dr. Spencer L. Rogers. With no comission to illustrate, Jackson now was able to focus exclusively on the object of his fascination, immmersing himself primarily in the enduring stone stelae in the Great North Court. Jackson's third trip took place in 1962. It brought him via Costa Rica to the ruins of Tikal in Guatemala, then once again to Copan. His final trip to Copan was in 1978, at which time he noticed considerable civic development and other changes which had come about over time. Told in humrous and incisive fashion, the tale of these four trips to antiquity challenges the reader to consider the subject of sculpture not as "art" but as a doorway to the heart.
--- from book's dustjacket

Tragic accident...Prof. Zelnik killed on campus,run-over. It was death of Savio at age 56..several years ago..that led him to co-edit this work-which has become definitive...

This is simply one of my favorite books, all around, even including works of fiction. It's well written, well researched, insightful and relevant for activists in the trenches. The well written and relevant parts are, sadly, often not true of academic work on social movements. As for the well researched part, Polletta did an astounding amount of archival research and interviews with activists to write this book. What emerges is a fascinating history of how twentieth-century US progressive social movements have tried to implement participatory democracy in their own organizations. It is a chronicle of failed experiments, gradually historical learning and increasing success.

By reading this book, we get to see what has worked and what has failed. I'm a little puzzled by the previous reviewer's comments--Polletta certainly incorporates Freeman's ideas (explicitly acknowledging Freeman as a source and discussing Freeman's own experience in the feminist movements), but she covers much more ground than Freeman. Polletta makes two main contributions in this book. First, she rebutts those who argue that participatory democracy is a nice ideal, but impractical--that top-down leadership is a more efficient form of organization. On the contrary, says Polletta, participatory democracy promotes 1) solidarity in groups, because everyone feels included in the decision-making process and thus more committed to any plan of action; 2) innovation, as more people take part in the back and forth as new ideas are developed; and 3) personal development, as active participation in decision-making lets more people develop new skills, including leadership skills.

The other major point Polletta makes is that it has been difficult for movement organizations to successfully implement participatory democracy because we have so few models of such interaction in mainstream society. Therefore, we often fall back on patterns of interaction we are familiar with--religious fellowship, friendship and the teacher-student relationship. In certain circumstances, these can work for a while, but historically they have always lead to trouble. We need to develop new models for relating to each other to make participatory democracy work. On the practical level, Polletta says that the contemporary community organizing and global justice movements have both developed good practices that seem to have solved many past historical problems--though in very different ways. (This is also not to say that they have solved all problems--new challenges certainly lie ahead.) On a more abstract level, Polletta points to the Latin-American ideal of the compañero/a, a relationship that is close, but based on the common bonds of political struggle, not modeled on friendship or kinship or some other familiar form.

All in all, this is an excellent, though-provoking, inspiring book.

Kevin, as always, is a master story teller. This book blends that mastery with a sound knowledge of the subject matter evidencing lots of research. Brings a few tears, but well worth reading.....

Political liberals in the West have for years used a distorted anaysis of freedom and justice in an attempt to expand the power of the state. This book examines those distortions and argues for a concept of limited government as the best means to defend both freedom and justice.

As I say, this is a job well done. The story of the discovery and excavation of La Belle is presented in a way that keeps you interested. I have visited 5 of the 7 locations where artifacts from La Belle are housed. The story of the expedition itself is a great read, and the discovery and excavation is even more so. Also there is the great photography. All around a very fine book.

From Emancipation to Catastrophe. The Rise and Holocaust Of Hungarian Jewry.

T. D. Kramer

From Emancipation to Catastrophe is a fine piece of historical research on the Holocaust in Hungary. Written in an admirably clear and readable style, Tom Kramer follows the chronology and places the processes of social integration and acculturation, antisemitism and persecution into their historical context, describing and analysing the various stages, events and key players. Of particular significance is the portrayal of Dr Gyorgy Gergely, a Jewish leader who played a vital yet largely unresearched role during the Holocaust.

The highlight of this comprehensive study is undoubtedly the final section in which the international "rescue matrix" is explored. Drawing on his own archival research and prior historiography, Dr Kramer formulates and brings together controversial explanations of both the Nazi strategies and Allied policies towards the rescue of Jews in 1944-45. His conclusions are convincing and they will set the tone for public debate and future research: "...Jews in Axis countries were caught in a classic lose-lose situation. We are left with the tragic paradox that, for the West, the prospect of successful negotiations negated the very possibility of negotiations. Quite simply, Europe's Jewish remnant remained bound between the relentless German hammer and the impassive Allied anvil."

Professor Konrad Kwiet

Emeritus Professor of German Studies Macquarie University

Deputy Director, Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies Macquarie University

If this is the same book...I read it when I was very young and it made a lasting impression on me. I have never forgotten the illustrations and the drawings of the inside of the ships that brought the African to America. I would be anxious to know the original copyright of this book.
Does anyone know?

This book was first published in 1961. It describes the religious situation of the United States as Littell saw it then. He was very much troubled about 'Protestant nativism' a kind of view that a certain kind of Protestanism was the original and pure form of American religion, and that it belonged to the society as a whole. Littell denies this claim and points to a colonial America far less formally religious than it is today. He too is concerned that a more genuine kind of religious connection apply rather than the 'cultural religiousness' of nativism.
Littrell champions an America in which Protestants, Catholics, and Jews each in their own way develop their own religious institutions and promote authentic religious faith.
Reading this work today forty - five years later I could not help being struck by how the whole tone of discourse, and in fact 'religious street' has changed in this time. Littell writes with civility and understanding of others.
An Evangelical himself I wonder what he would make of the increasing influence of Evangelicals on American politics. I also wonder what he would make of the entrance of other religions into the American mix in a more prominent way, primarily Islam.