Illinois Books

This book is the most honest book I have ever read about the modern black woman's experience. My mother read it because it was given to her by a friend in her Master's program, some years ago

Then when I was a sophmore in college she gave it to me and I read it.

I would encourage women who have sons especially to read it, I have a daughter, a toddler, and she will read it too,probably in high school.

If we are to end the cycle of abuse and torment and empower black women in America we must start with all the issues she addresses.

This is an account of Michele Wallace's experiences with the civil rights movement and growing up in the late 60's. Judith Wilson, who reviewed this for Ebony Magazine, has since said, "it was a pioneer work. Angela Davis's book 'Women, Race and Class' wasn't published until 2 years later. Ntozake Shange's play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide' had moved to Broadway but it's approach was poetic rather than analytical"

Wallace mentions of the ladies in her family, "It was understood, you were either going to be a bright success or a desperate failure, and it was your job to proclaim which you were going to be at as early an age as possible."

She recalls how she was taken out of private Catholic school when her mom found posters of Richard Nixon in the bedroom she shared with her sister, "can you believe it? we were that brainwashed." Things would be entirely different at the NY school where she transferred. . .

This book, about Black women being shortchanged, is probably most relevant for women who came of age during the period of time from the 1960s to the 1990s, tho it has some relevance today, as it probably would have before the 1960s as well. Written in 1976, it was way ahead of it's time, well, ahead of the 'PC', politically correct, beliefs of it's time.

Black Macho is an odd read and yet a modernly familiar one, in that at times, one is struck with a feeling Wallace is trying to say something completely opposite from what is literally on the page. This is both a sensationalist book and a subtle book at the same time. For the most part Wallace implies black women are oppressed and almost never tells us they are. It wasn't until later, reading about this book and reading other Wallace, that I understood more what it was about. This work could be subtitled, 'Why I became a feminist'.

Wallace is either a master propagandist or she knows her audience and wants to keep them reading: she begins each chapter repeating a true-ism, for instance, this genuine one, "white men were always the ones making pronouncements about everything" and ends up at the end of the chapter quoting a figure proclaiming, "Kill Whitey." This is almost an expose' of the civil rights movement.

Some of the assertions Wallace does make are that black men and women have a sometime dislike for each other stemming in part from black men/white women relationships, and she asserts a lack of confidence he'd, "come home."

For Wallace, the civil rights movement meant, literally, "A white woman in every bed and a black woman under every heel".

Wallace was presenting ideas that no one else was at the time. She must have felt pressure to go along with the ideas people did believe in at the time (or perhaps felt a desire to be understood), and I think what is going on here with this work, is that it is an example of the 'Wilson Rule' (If you have one un-PC idea {here the idea being that black women are the ones being taken advantage of}, you have to smother this offence in 6 politically correct ideas). Countless books have been written in this manner (tho only a minority of those at the library), each examining one un-PC idea the author believes in, and, so the author can sound reasonable, accepting every other popular convention of the day. The problem with this, is that at the end of the day, best case scenario, a young reader's learned 6 lies and 1 thing that's true.

Michele Wallace was criticized for what she does say here (and perhaps for what she implies), and one has to wonder: is this criticism (of a work claiming black women are treated unfairly) simply proof of her thesis?

Wallace doesn't ignore the media in her book. She asks, was there a conscious effort to keep young minds focused on sports, guns and violence, and off business, education and the stock market?

She begins her treaties on 'Black Macho' (the 2nd half of the book) with, "imagine for a moment that there was a part of your body, an organ, that by the very nature of the society in which you lived, existed under immense pressure. Imagine that this organ, placed in a conspicuously vulnerable position on your body, was to expand, rise, and remain erect at will. Imagine that your status in society depended upon your ability to control this organ. Imagine that if you couldn't get the dam thing to work, the very importance of your existence would be in question."

This is a sensationalist, titillating book filled with the 'F' word, 'Redneck', the 'N' word, and lots of people saying, kill the bigots. I imagine Wallace secretly enjoyed writing this even as she's mentioned, she, secretly enjoyed listening to Norman Mailers rants about the civil rights movement (Wallace was a journalist for the Village Voice a paper Mailer founded). I don't think she enjoyed writing this as much as I enjoyed reading.

Wallace was criticized for Black Macho perhaps because she strays just too far from blaming all problems on white men. In a sense, in saying, black men, too, are oppressing black women, she made black men, too equal. 20 years later she says, "In some ways I'm still being punished today." Feminist Tammy Bruce in California was fired for coming out against OJ Simpson, who in her mind was an abuser at the very least. To be honest, 'Sexism', was, a huge issue. Well, if you were the wrong person it was. It's been said, President Bill Clinton being accused of sexism did a lot to reduce some of the perception of it.

Wallace was in one of my college textbooks, quoted for her reaction to gangster rap. For her, the solution for women everywhere will be found, when, "...women rap back." Not long after I noticed Queen Latifah with a big video out. Eminem followed.

To be fair and give my own views, my background is in reading old -old- school conservatism. In fact, I'm somewhat of an 'anti-feminist'. Perhaps I'm just a chauvinist. I'm not wedded to any particular ideology tho - I do find them all interesting. Guess I'm a sympathizer too.

Michele Wallace is paid to be a feminist. After Black Macho, Wallace would edit a work titled, "All the women are white. All the blacks are men, but some of us are brave." She teaches a great number of courses at CUNY, and a seminar in film studies, 'Performance and Race in Cinema 1890-1930's' where she says, "Despite the many objectionable features, this is a body of work which is collectively unforgettable and irreplaceable."

I would trade all these films for 'Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman'. I couldn't help but like the voice of woman who wrote this book. I was in awe of Wallace. No. I was in love with the woman who wrote these words.

I read this book when it was originaaly published in 1976. Although Michele Wallace was a relatively young black woman (still in her twenties as I remember)I was most impressed by the maturity of her insights regarding both black men and black women. Her intent seemed to be to point out areas that both genders needed to look at if the race as a whole was to make any progress.

In both sections of her book, Wallace focused our attention on "male privilege" and how it translated into black "macho-ness", with the resultant effect that black men are as guilty of taking for themselves unearned advantages over black women as white people are guilty of taking for themselves unearned advantages over black people. She pointed out that black women continued to nurture the race physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and that the convenience of the self-sacrificing "superwoman image" (which black women willingly accept) allowed the predominatly male leaders of the civil rights movement to discount the interests and issues of black women, much like white slaveholders did; the typical black superwoman served only as an ancillary utility for black men. Wallace revealed to the world that black women, more often than not, were still "sleeping with the enemy."

Wallace was virulently attacked by almost every black "leader" who could get herself (yes, even women) and himself heard. However, if you re-read the book today, you cannot deny the fact that she was prescient in her observations and conclusions. The problems which she identified then still exist today.

I would recommend this book as a basic text for every black women's college. It should be discussed whereever concerned black people convene.

This book speaks to more audiences than any other I've recently read.

It is, as advertised, a story about what "welfare reform" means in one state (Illinois.) But its a lot more. It is the story of one man's late mid-life crisis and how he tries to make the world a better place. (Would that Steve Forbes read this book and decided to do something with a better chance of paying off than run for president.) Its a "true story of people in inner city" Chicago in the tradition of Alex Kotlowitz and Nick Lehmann. But its also the story of the people who make up the rules faced by those real people: the street level bureaucrats who make the rules into "yes" and "no" answers, the senior bureaucrats who are between the street level bureaucrats and the legislators who make the decisions.

I especially liked having a state-level perspective on "how our laws are made." I haven't seen a book from a personal perspective as good as this since Eric Redman's "The Dance of Legislation." And its the first time I've seen one from a state-level perspective. (It will remind you all over again of why there is the adage: "Two things you don't want to see being made -- sausage and legislation.")

One of the happy lessons of the national welfare reform experiment is that the interests of the poor and the business community need not be at odds. Both business leaders and business practices have much to offer the reform effort. Gary MacDougal is a business leader who traveled far and worked doggedly to make his own powerfully constructive offer - and to make it concrete. In doing so, MacDougal belied the myth perpetuated by those who fret that business leaders poking around social welfare programs will focus only on cutting costs and will leave the poor stranded at the doors of shuttered programs. But that was not MacDougal's vision - far from it.

In the midst of a successful business career, MacDougal went to Nepal and came down from the mountain with a desire to make a difference. After selling his business, he was free of all of the usual agendas -- whether of the left, right, party politics, turf, personal business interests, or a bureaucracy to defend, and he decided to make his contribution by offering a governor his help in leading a human services reform effort. The Governor said thanks, and MacDougal went on to challenge seven entrenched bureaucracies, the legislature, providers, and the unions. His good listening ear allowed him to hear fully from the clients of the system, as well as all the other players as they described (and often defended) the jumbled mess that called itself human services delivery. His heart told him there had to be a better way to serve families. And his business experience and acumen told him that the other way would have to be a customer first model that coordinated and redesigned the system based on the perspectives and needs of the communities to be served.

His plan was adopted by Illinois, where he focused his efforts. It puts families first. It insists on seamless service delivery of services in a now-consolidated human services agency that he helped create shape. And his plan is grounded in a from-the-ground-up local systems design intended to respond to the unique needs of each community where services are delivered. Now that most welfare families with the fewest personal and social problems are working, other states would do well to look at MacDougal's model of coordinated service delivery to address the far more complex needs of those families who remain on welfare.

-- This by an attorney who has represented the poor for twenty years.

Too often, discussions of our welfare system are in an ideological context - the left or the right. In this splendid and highly readable book, Gary MacDougal shows that perhaps the too-long neglected pragmatic perspective is the most important.

As a citizen-volunteer, Mr. MacDougal led the Governor's task force charged with fundamentally restructuring the Illinois welfare system, which administers a highly fragmented hodge-podge of state- and federally-funded programs. To this assignment he brought unique qualifications: He is an experienced and successful business executive. However, unlike many businessmen, he had enough political exposure to understand how things get done in the public sector. He is also a leader in the human services philanthropic sector. Finally, he took the time to go where few policy makers go, to meet the welfare "customers," and to learn first hand what happens at every level of the welfare system.

Make no mistake about it, what Mr. MacDougal and his Illinois task force accomplished is truly historic. Over many decades, in the face of widely recognized flaws and inefficiencies in our welfare system, no other state has been able to implement such a far-reaching, systemic reform. They say that legislation (and government organization studies) are like sausage - watching either one of them being made is not a pretty sight. However, this compelling book is an engaging, even at times heart-warming saga that brings to life the complexities of government in the real world. Hopefully some readers will want to step up to be part of similar initiatives in their own states.

In the end, one can't help but conclude that Mr. MacDougal's triumph was basically a tenacious exercise in common sense (albeit at the highest professional level!). Which raises the question, why doesn't the American electorate demand this level of common sense in other areas of public policy, rather than fifteen-second sound bites?

I had to read this book for a college history class I took 2 years ago and I felt that it was extremely detailed and informative. I was quite surprised by my reaction because I felt it was a great read whether or not you enjoy historical books.

Excellent review of how the Chicago Housing Authority, despite good intentions, ended up not only itself segregated, but reinforced existing housing segregation in the private market.

Hirsch actually takes a much broader view of his subject than public housing. Rather, he exp;ores the various ways public policy was manipulated (generally by commercial interests) to serve their own ends, and how those profit driven manipulations resulted in Chicago being one of America's most segregated cities. Ironically, the dramatic expansion of the Black Ghetto chronicalled by Hirsch occurred at the same time that the country was under seige by the forces of McCarthism...yet in Chicago, the commercial interests (lead by Marshall Field) had no compunction about seizing private property to serve their own ends.

Anyone who believes that neighborhoods are segregated because of private choices must read this book and learn the truth.

After reading The Hidden War,(which made extensive reference to Hirsch's book)I wanted a more detailed history about the creation of public housing as we know it to be in Chicago. This book gives detail of how the political,educational, civic organizations wanted to contain the burgeoning African American community which was growing during post world war II and the great migration years. The powerful in Chicago used government policies to maintain housing segregation...the powerless resorted to violence to keep African Americans out of neighborhoods...the results were the massive and bleak housing structures which are called public housing. This book not only talks about the historical wheelings and dealings of the white power structure, but it also gives insight into how the same tactics are being used today, to maintain certain class and racial segregation. This is a good companion must read along with The Hidden WARS.

A must-have for anyone who has visited this fantastic art museum. The visit can easily be relived through this book.

This is a great coffee table book that includes many important paintings of Art Institute of Chicago. All the images are in color, and the story of each painting and the artist is given. Each painting is described on a single page, and therefore the pictures are sufficiently large and detailed. The book starts with 15th century religious paintings, and progresses to include well known impressionist paintings such as Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte and Renoir's Two sisters. It also has a section on 20th century paintings. Not a substitute to seeing the actual works, but it is close...

The Art Institute of Chicago houses a world-renown collection of artwork that spans the complete and diverse spectrum of six centuries of painting. Now in a revised and expanded second edition, Master Paintings In The Art Institute Of Chicago organizes and showcases 149 major paintings (like the Insitute itself) into European, American, and Twentieth-Century categories. This outstanding introduction to the history of art in general, and the Art Insitute of Chicago's impressive collection in particular, would grace any personal, academic, or community library artbook collection.

A mucho good book; filled with a sharp, sensitive, wisdom that is constantly searching for the light on the surface, through the depths of the forgotten and ignored....rare like all great things.

The great Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset left many followers, some of them also important thinkers, like Julian Marias. But most are common people who became much more educated and civilized persons by reading his wonderful books. Ortega was one of the rare species of philosophers who expresse his ideas in a very clear prose. Others in this line are Plato and Augustine, or Bertrand Russell, an Ortega contemporary. Meditations on Quixote is a small book where the master strives to give a synthesis of his thought. A synthesis of this synthesis could be given by two of his phrases: "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia" (I am myself and my circumstance) and " I only offer a way of considering things" (modus res considerandi). A great philosopher and a great writer. His was my main intellectual influence.

Meditations on Quixote is the first major work Jose Ortega y Gasset published in Spain; as such, the reader will stumble across several infant notions that were later subjected to major philosophical treatments by Ortega. Naturally, therefore, this book is often passed over and dismissed. However, I believe it holds within its pages a very mature, coherent argument. It should be noted that Don Quixote is not actually the central focus of these meditations. Rather, Ortega only delves into Cervantes's great novel during the second half of the book (the "first" meditation), using that knight of rueful countenance to clarify his analysis. I will not attempt to explain the philosophy presented in this book, as I feel there is a reason it takes hundreds of pages to express these concepts. It is such with all philosophy; think of it as a food - I can compress all the contents of a five-star dinner into a dense pill and give that to you, but it would not serve justice to the original pieces. Having said that, I can certainly relay (as another reviewer has) the famous expression "I am myself and my circumstance." Ortega puts significance into what this "circumstance" is composed of, mentally dividing the material things in life and their deeper meaning, explaining that this deeper meaning is just as real as the material surface. He then leads into the concept of man as a hero via his own will ("the will to be oneself is heroism"), focusing on Don Quixote, and modern literature in general (as opposed the ideal epics of old), as examples. Julián Marías makes interesting notes throughout. Recommended!

So many gardening guides try and address the entire country in a one size fits all attempt to sell more books. These are typically limited in truely helpful information on your specific region. This book is great for Illinois gardeners and home owners in general. I love the month by month format so I can keep track of what I should be doing each month in my lawn and garden. The only thing I'd change is combining all the sections so everything for one month was together, the book has sections like garden, trees, lawn, etc and each section has it's own monthly pages.

This book presents month-by-month plans for growing your garden in Illinois. It gives tips on such activities as planting, pruning, fertilizing, and so much more. The plans are organized into categories, including annuals, bulbs, herbs, vegetables, houseplants, lawns, perennials, roses, shrubs and trees. I love this book, and recommend it wholeheartedly!

This is a book for both novices and experts. It is the most useful of the many gardening books that I own, and the one I go back to over and again.

How does a religious movement transform itself from a regional subculture nestled in the Rocky Mountains to an international Christian denomination? The answer is contained in this book. When this work was first published, the history of post-Manifesto Mormonism was terra incognita. Now, almost 20 years after its initial release, this is still the best historical overview of Mormonism in the early 20th century, and a Mormon history classic. If you want to know how the religion of polygamy and the Mountain Meadows massacre became the conservative, all-American LDS church of today, start right here. The chapters on politics and the bureaucratization and standardization of church polity and practice are particularly indispensable. What can I say? This is a masterpiece!

My daughter bought this book for a church history class at BYU. When she was done with it, I began to browse, and got hooked. It provides an "institutional memory" for the interworkings of politics, social events, and the church at the turn of the century. That institutional memory applies amazingly well to the present time of rapid growth and change in the church.

Thomas G. Alexander is a Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor of American History at Brigham Young University, and Stephen J. Stein is a Chancellors' Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University.

Anyone even slightly familiar with the beliefs, practices and culture of the LDS church in the time of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and with LDS beliefs, practices and culture today will note a number of differences.

It turns out that the period from 1900 to 1930, which is the subject of this book, was a watershed of cultural change for the Church. Before 1900, polygamy was a pillar of the social organization of the Church. Women were widely believed to acquire the priesthood authority of their husband through endowment and marriage. The Word of Wisdom was counsel, not systematically enforced -- and more than one early prophet thought that the most important element of the Word of Wisdom was the injunction not to eat meat! And so on. By 1930, in all these (and other) respects, the Church looked like the Church of today.

Whatever you think of the changes (personally, and polygamy aside, I find the Church of the nineteenth century pretty seductive), the history is interesting. The book is well written, the authors' viewpoint objective (i.e., not hostile to or critical of the Church, and also not fawning salvation history). Add it to your Church History library today.

This is a very good book,with lots of photos that are revealing.The Principal of the school cradling that young child in the hard cover edition?Priceless..MAnly for sure,that's what a real man is.Hard to believe that some of the most ritzy communities were the scene for this.I know thE teacher who was not there, as it were, during the shootings.She had her son's confirmation to go to during one of her only days off that year and thAt day off ended in Laurie Dann shoOting some of her studentS.Very manly book with lots of Chicago Jewish histOry..

There is a movie, as the same title

excellent everything

there is people, like me, who feel REFLEX on this story (personality)

I have been reading true crime since I was about 11 years old and I must say this one will stay in my collection. I find that many true crime books are written without much attention to background or in-depth analysis. I began reading this after having just finished Jim Schutze's "Bully" and I had been dissapointed with the lack of depth in that book and how it seemed rushed. Cannot say that about "Murder of Innocence" at all! This account, and I have yet to read Eggington's book on this case so I cannot compare, goes into great detail to descibe Laurie Dann as the person she was from childhood to age 30 and describes her descent into madness in such a way that I kept wondering "What is she going to do next?" There are alot of characters to keep straightened out - as to who is a relative, in-law, roommate or just someone who slighted her somehow; indeed this book is for the serious reader and not one looking for a quick superficial account of a case. The manner in which Laurie hops from one college to another is amazing; clearly her parents never sat her down and seriously told her "You have a failed marriage and you have enrolled in college several times but dropped out. You seem to be lacking direction in your life and we want to know what the problem is and what we can do to help." More often, her mother was aloof regarding Laurie's problems, and her father, although he did seem to love her, could not, or did not want to, see how serious her problems were. Her parents were ostriches with their heads in the sand - probably hoping Laurie would skate through life and hopefully find her way without too much of a burden on them. I cannot help feeling also that her medical care could have been more aggressive, but it appears that her psychiatrist tried numerous times to keep in contact with her but Laurie treated doctors and dormitories like revolving doors. I highly recommend this book for anyone studying forensic science or psychology, and it should be recommended to those in law enforcement as well. Excellent job!

It was excellent! I would definately recommend the book. The author wrote it like he was talking directly to me.

As a Chicagoan, I really loved this book. It characterizes the city's ethnicity and cultures, but this story will be of interest to anyone who has a friend or relative struggling with a serious illness.

This book is actually a "Love Story" about people I know and think highly of. It tells the story of 2 people who met in grade school and fell more in love as times went on - both good and bad. It also tells about the "support group" of friends surrounding them and the big difference it made in their lives.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone.

Someone once said of Extraordinary Comebacks that when you're feeling down, 'read a few of these stories to see what's possible.' My Maggie is the nonpareil story in that regard, and if we're fortunate enough to create a volume two, this is a story that must be included.

No one, and we mean no one we've encountered in these researches of comeback stories, did more with less than the extraordinarily courageous, indomitable Maggie King. As a counselor, Maggie had the power to change lives, and now that Rich has captured her essence in this biography, she will keep on doing that for many years to come.

As Rich King would say simply, she would like that.

You see members of your TV news teams every day. They come into your home, like family or friends. You think you know them (you don't), and that their lives are pretty charmed (sometimes), and breezy and effortless and glib as the jokes at the end of the late night itself (not for sportscaster Rich King or his Maggie).

Behind the video image, Rich King was bearing the weight of the world for many years, and we, his viewers, never knew it. His wife Maggie was engaged for years in a titanic struggle against blindness, and hearing loss, and all that entailed, as as a result, so, too, was he. When breast cancer, then ovarian cancer joined the battle, it was nothing less than a life and death struggle.

This book will knock you flat on your back. It will make you appreciate every moment that you have your sight, your hearing....and your life.

In the 20 page written intro to Bob Thall's book of photographs, the author discusses the introduction of the new suburban areas surrounding large cities, specifically the ones surrounding Chicago, and even more specifically Schaumburg, Illinois. His description is admittedly subjective, but that doesn't make it negative. He addresses the pros and cons of both city life and suburban life, and details the way that his photographs will illutrate his points.

The photographs themselves are stunning simply because they are of such typical subruban non-descript businesses, streets, homes, and parks. What is interesting is how new everything looks, and yet 8 years later, I wonder what it looks like. Thall considers what these neighborhoods will look like 20 years from their construction dates, considering they are built with such cheap material, and almost a decade later, we're close to finding out. It would be interesting to see a follow-up book about the same area, just to see how much can change in such a short amount of time in a rapidly growing suburban area.

For anyone interested in the suburbs and the small cities full of strip-malls and housing developments that arise around major cities, this book is an excellent reference point.

Schaumburg, Illinois (incorporated 1956) is now on the map thanks to Bob Thall's excellent photos taken during the growth of the town in the Nineties. Divided into four chapters dealing with the landscape: corporate, commercial, domestic and natural, the photos carry on the deadpan format of Adams, Baltz, Gohlke and others associated with the New Topographics style.

Despite appearing rather anonymous because there are no people in the photos Schaumburg does look a very reasonable place to live and Thall mentions in his short opening essay that many of the houses and corporate offices overlook small lakes and ponds, created by the developers to control flooding, this water obviously encourages wildlife. As is usual with suburbs/edge cities/New Villages, critics will assume that the inhabitants can't possibly be happy living in such an environment but I bet they are. Probably the best folks-at-home-in-the-suburbs book is Bill Owens stunning 'Suburbia' (ISBN 1881270408) photographed in Livermore, San Francisco.

The sixty-five photos in 'The New American Village' are well presented (in 265dpi) in the standard art-photo landscape format though there is the usual photobook annoyance of having to turn to a page in the back to read each photo's caption. Unfortunately the captions say no more than place and date yet the images frequently, it seems to me, deserve more of an explanation than just resting on the page.

Incidentally, it is worth looking down at Schaumburg on Google Earth, you will see a place that has matured over the years since Thall took his photos and especially look at the space between houses, the curved streets, the position of corporate and retail units in relation to domestic housing. A pretty good place to live!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Thall is a photographer and his photographs are marvelous: lucid, lovely, tonally rich, beautifully constructed. What's astonishing, though, is the way he has applied his sensibility to the least-liked spaces that increasingly dominate America and the globe: the "edge cities" of prefab warehouses for outsourced products, of instant townhouse communities (really trailer courts stacked upright) of malls and corporate "campuses." Most writing about this new American landscape excoriates it or, more rarely, argues that it's the landscape we want (ignoring that "we" aren't the architects, the patrons, or the developers). Thall seeks simply to look, to see what's remarkable, and then to communicate it, in pictures that embody the complex history of our newly decentralized human habitations. On the cover is a picture of two shocking office towers shot from a parking garage. Only one car is there: a beat-up Toyota station wagon perched impudently at off-angle to the resolute order of the rest of the space. That must be Thall's car; certainly it's the embodiment of the position he takes when he makes these pictures.