Alabama Books

Sikora's biography of Federal Judge Frank Johnson, who's court rulings helped desegregate Alabama, is by far the best told story of the judge. Sikora is an impeccable researcher and a poignant storyteller. Through extensive interviews with Johnson, Sikora was able to include lengthy quotes by the Judge, which make up at least 1/4 of the book. Sikora has captured Frank Johnson as both a judge and a man. This is a must-read for anyone interested in civil rights history.

Gertrude Dubrovsky is the leading scholar of what is a very neglected field, the history of Jewish Farming. "The Land Was Theirs" is a comprehensive history of what was the Cradle of the Jewish farming movement, New Jersey.

Between 1880 and the Second World War, tens of thousands of Jews set up farms in southern and central New Jersey. The adventurous Jews, most of whom were recent immigrants, set up private farms but also established cooperatives and unions to help one another. They lived in tight-knit communities based on ethnic identity and often ideology. "The Land Was Theirs" focuses on Farmingdale , NJ, where Dubrovsky grew up but is also a rigourously researched history of farming in the entire state. The introduction includes what is one of the best essays on Jewish farming in the entire country. A must for anyone interested in this overlooked part of American Jewish history.

"Early visitors to the moon did not expect to encounter entities such as a government, a budget, a paycheck, or a supervisor. Such public administration entities are not natural kinds; they are not givens" (p. 11), starts Farmer's book and captures interest of the reader immediately. This book presents an interesting comparative analysis of modern public administration with post-modern public administration that extends our horizons and makes us believe that something, we socially constructed, can be changed.

Farmer uses reflexive interpretation as his method. Reflexive interpretation is concerned with why we see (understand) what we are seeing (understanding) and with the possibilities for seeing (understanding) something differently by changing the lens (p. 13). That is, the leading concern is why we are seeing what we are seeing and whether we could see it differently; it is reflexive interpretation. Farmer pulls us to the enjoyable point at which we can relentlessly question our basic assumptions regarding reality of public administration so that we can be aware and change our socially constructed realities.

The book is grouped into mainly two parts, modernity and post-modernity. In modernity part, Farmer examines modern public administration's limits: limits of "Particularism", "Scientism", "Technologism", "Enterprise" and "Hermeneutics". In post-modernity part, as solutions to the limits of modern public administration, Farmer examines post-modernist concepts "Imagination", "Deconstruction", "Deterritorialization" and "Alterity".

Particularism, according to Farmer, creates blind spots that prevent us from seeing alternative ways of doing things. Based on "American" "Public" "Administration" he debunks particularism's paralyzing impact. "American" emphasis impedes looking at different societies to transfer some innovations; "Public" emphasis prevents public and business sectors from learning from each other and neglects the interrelationships between two sectors; "Administration" emphasis (based on functional and programmatic POSDCORB) creates competing paradigms that emphasize functions and programs more than their content and action. "Scientism" (think about fact-value dichotomy) gives no space for ethics in public administration (because ethical values are not open to hard positive measurement), and so "administrative ethics suffers from the difficulty of identifying a moral grip for core values" (p. 85). Viewing public administration as "technology" (applied vs. episteme) suggests recognizing that practitioners should assume more ownership for public administration theory (p. 91). However, as Farmer points out, such a viewing makes it impossible to integrate systems and management and ethical considerations. Seeing public administration from an "enterprise" (entrepreneurial) window, without the system of capitalist rationalization (missing in public service), according to Farmer, is doomed to failure.

"Imagination", a softly "oxymnoron" at best in modern public administration because of imagination's problem with rationalization, will provide many opportunities, according to Farmer, that are missing in modern "rational" rule-oriented bureaucracy. "Deconstruction" of texts (the post-modernist text connotes not only papers to be read, but also anything that can be interpreted such as events and living figures) is expected to enlarge our perspective. "Deterritorialization" connotes a radical change in the structure of our thinking. "Alterity" or "otherness" implies a new emphasis on oppressed, suppressed and excluded groups (i.e., see G. Frederickson).

Though Farmer, as an affirmative post-modern public administrationist, is very clear in handling such a complex subject, sometimes he forgets he is writing about bureaucracy and immersing himself in postmodern epistemology and neglects the main subject he tries to clarify. Second, I would not recommend you to think through the lenses of bureaucracy and would recommend to think more radically.

I highly recommend this book to readers who are interested in post-modern public administration (you cannot find hundreds of books written about post-modern public administration). I also recommend "Post Modern Public Administration" by Fox and Miller (1996) and "Post-modernism and the Social Sciences" by Rosenau (1992).

Vicki Covington has written a very good novel about the civil rights struggle in Alabama, that is not nearly as good as two of her previous novels, Gathering Home and Night Ride Home.The family characters,as well as a freedom rider,and especailly, the character of the journalist are all compelling. The problem is that Bull Conner, a well researched historical figure reads more like a well researched historical figure than like a believable character. Still, this is a quibble, because Vicki Covington is our greatest living Southern novelist,so we come to expect more from her than from others. I recommend that you buy this book, but also buy the two previously mentioned superior novels, especially Night Ride Home, which is as good as a contemporary novel gets

I came across this book quite by accident, and because I still remembered how much I appreciated and was engrossed by Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South, by Dan T. Carter, when I read it in December of 1969, I at once decided to read this book. This is a very different kind of book, and tells the story of the Scottsboro Boys from an entirely different angle, but it is just as compelling a book as is Carter's masterpiece. Clarenc Norris was one of the nine Scottsboro boys and since he only went to the second grade, his contribution to this autobiography was via tape recorder. Wisely, the collaborator with Norris did not fancy him up, and we get to know Norris as he was: burdened by the ways of the South toward the Negro in the 1920s and early 1930s, with no high regard for some traditional moral behavior, never hestitating to lie or steal or indulge his weaknesses, but nevertheless tremendously wronged by an almost unbelievably racist environment. There can be no doubt that the Scottsboro boys were innocent of rape, that they were accused because they got in a fight with some white boys and threw them off the train all were hitching a ride on. One stands in amazement at the mentality that would let them be condemned to death because they angered some white persons by failing to conform to the desired pattern of subservience. One mourns to learn that the white Southern judge who was conscientious enough to set aside a guilty verdict was at the next election rewarded by being voted out of office. The book does not rely on only Norris' account of what happened, but includes excerpts from the trial transcripts almost unbelievable to one used to fair courtroom procedure. And the life of Norris and his vicissitudes (many attributable to his own behavior) after he got out of prison is a fascinating window into a life most of us are unacquainted with, which I found just as attention-holding as the account of the horrendous prison situations which faced him. And the ending of the book, with a meeting with Governor George Wallace, is one to relish after so much that went before which makes one cringe. This is a compelling book which you will never regret taking the time to read. It was in our libray and is probably in yours, I hope.

McDowell has written a talking book. The dialog brings the people to life and gave this reader the feeling of accompanying the author on visits to her community. Matriarchial society, authoritarian upbringing of children, love and caring, laughter and sadness as well as the events of the 50's and 60's are memorably brought into focus. I urge you not to ignore this little-known gem of a book

AMAZON couldn't find this for me, so I got it from Powell's, a new edition. It is a classic for the ages and I wanted it for my library so my grandkids could read it. It defines WHAT a church actually is: "A church is known by its spirit of sacrifice." (BTW, in ancient Athens, the Ekklesia was the lower house of representative citizens.)

This book contrary to the note attached to the title notation that it is "womens" diarys and letters. It deals with one indiviual Andrew Sheffield daughter of (yes daughter) James L Sheffield Confererate Colonel,Senator and politican from Marshall County Alabama. Andrew was committed to Bryce Hospital the State Asylum at Tuscaloosa by her father and stepbrother who was the probate judge in Marshall Co at the time. It is doubtful that she was insane, however she had disgraced the family by having an affair and committing an attemped act of arson at the request of her lover Dr William May. James Sheffield shot Dr May for dishonoring his family, he was arrested but no billed. When it became apparent that Andrew was to be tried for attemped arson. She was commited to Bryce. This book is almost entirely composed of letters written by Andrew from the time of her commitment until her death in 1920. She wrote to her father and brother as long as her father lived begging to be released and allowed to stand trial for her "criminal act". She over the years wrote long intelligent and lucid letters to all the Govenors who served during her confinment. Several considered releasing her,however her family was well connected enough to keep her there. It is very painful and depressing reading these letters, however it very clearly reflects the total lack of control women had over their lives in this period. It is interesting to note that her father this pillar of the community had a second family only a few miles away by his long time mistress. A very interesting example of the double standards of the period.

Selina Huntington Bakewell Campbell (1802-1897) had it right, when she advised a young convert, "Let many of your evening hours be set apart for reading works that will strengthen your faith, and enlarge and ennoble your mind."

Little did she know that her advice would one day apply to a wonderful book about herself, The Life of Selina Campbell: A Fellow Soldier in the Cause of Restoration. Selina, the second wife of Alexander Campbell, was a great Christian leader in her own right.

The book is well researched and cites many primary sources. It teaches much about the lives of nineteenth-century American frontier women and Selina Campbell. One is also led to appreciate the the influence Selina had on her husband and what has become known as the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement (the religious bodies of the Disciples of Christ, Christian Church/Church of Christ, and Churches of Christ).

The book includes an extensive bibliography and an index.

For Black History fans, this is a great book in that it reveals a lot of unknown great speeches from forgotten heroes and heroines in the African-American struggle. Here, you'll meeet the likes of William Crogman, Henry McNeil Turner, Joseph C. Price, and Maria W. Stewart who boldly spoke up for African-Americans during the days of slavery and its aftermath. Also, this book contains some lesser-known speeches from the better-known Black heroes of the day like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Richard Allen (the latter's eulogy on George Washington will surprise the PC crowd). But in either case, Black History fans will have a field day with this book and I would strongly recommend this for teachers to use with their students.