Illinois Books

I had the fortune of taking Professor Johannsen's Civil War history class at the University of Illinois. "Democracy on Trial" was the main text used in that course and I could hardly put it down. Dr. Johannsen draws together speeches, articles, personal correspondences, and contemporary works of poetry and fiction that really provide the reader a look back at the years leading to and including the Civil War. Each selection is insightfully introduced by the author and gives added value and enjoyment to the reader. An important work that provides grassroots history together with American culture, politics, and war.

Occasionally a slim volume appears that shatters old expectancies, recasts an entire way of thinking. Modernly, Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" comes to mind; or Machiavelli's "The Prince," if one traces back in time. "Democracy's Constitution" is such a book. Without apology, John Denvir argues his case for where and when constitutional jurisprudence abandoned the path set by the ideal vision of a "pursuit of happiness" and the nation of equal opportunity demanded in the Civil War Amendments (i.e., the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth). More pointedly, he also guides the reader through a scrupulously reasoned constitutional means for solving the most vexing policy tangles the U.S. faces in the Twenty-first Century. Specifically, the privileges or immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment grants affirmative rights of national citizenship, which it is time the courts recognize fulsomely. They include rights: of an opportunity to earn a living; to a first-rate education; to have a voice that's heard; and to cast a vote that counts. Denvir's writing has clarity to please any layperson, and precision to satisfy any lawyer. The goal of reforming campaign contributions, for instance, is confronted in Chapter 4, "A Voice That's Heard." Current constitutional doctrine creates a condition where without effective spending limitations political equality among citizens is obscenely farcical. Put simply, that enormous wealth should constitutionally overwhelm the political voice of those with modest means is antithetical to democracy. Is the book utopian? Professor Denvir concedes its opposition to current Supreme Court decisions. But that is also the reason for writing it. His prescriptions are not, he insists, "wildly impracticable," beyond either "the fiscal or administrative reach of the United States." Finding the political will is all that's needed.

When reading of the locations Dennis goes to you feel you were in the back seat with him. He gives very vivid detail of exact places.
One place he reviewed was Manistee Michigan the Victorian Port City. the Milwaukee House was owned by Great Grandfather and Grandfather Diefenbach and we know the information was factual and interestingly portrayed.
There are many such articles that make you want to go to these byways he deplicts.

The book is dated ofcourse, but was very well done with tons of effort on the author's behalf. He deserves tons of respect.

As a decendent myself, I have a copy of this book. It is not for sale. If your want to make contact, look me up!

Best wishes
lmwold@aol.com

Writing from what is clearly a Freudian perspective, he nevertheless acknowledges two forms of commodity fetishism: the first he describes as the passive Marxist view--commodities appear to have value all their own which operates as a blind to the real social labor process by which that value is created; and, second, the active Freudian view: rendered powerless by the watchful eyes of others, but especially the state, first female, then male, consumers invest commodities with a phallic significance, hoping to become powerful through the act of their consumption (surely the Romans did something similar.) While Stratton artfully describes the way consumerism has become sadomasochistically fetishized, culminating in, for example, a celebration of man-made women, such as those found in Pygmalion to Fritz Lang's Metropolis (should we count Madonna among their number?); and there are certainly analogies which can be made between the worker-capitalist relations and the sadomasochistic scene; and doubtless purchases are made on advertizers' promises of sexual prowess; nevertheless casting feelings of psychosexual powerlessness as the engine of consumerism, not only fails to consider who has the means to consume, but utterly fails to answer whether wealthy men do in fact consider themselves powerless?

Richard McKenzie does an excellent job of taking all of the dry economic theories that college professors "think" they understand and applies them to real world examples.

Economics is never more "Alive" than it is in this book. This is one of those rare books that brings a lot of loose ends of economic theories together, in easily understandable language. It puts them in real life situations where they make sense.

You don't know as much about Economics as the readers of this book do. Jeff B.

Of scholars in the field who have published extended studies of Beckett's early prose (Dream of Fair to middling Women, More Pricks Than Kicks, Murphy, and Watt) three stand above the others and are required reading on the subject for scholars. Anthony Farrow's Art and Allusion ... is one. It is hampered by the lack of an index and extraordinarily poor proofreading. Lawrence Harvey's Samuel Beckett: Poet and Critic is another. Published in 1970, it is out of print, a big shame. Harvey's is the only serious study of Beckett's poetry. The style of both Farrow and Harvey is discursive. Rubin Rabinovitz's The Development of Samuel Beckett's Fiction is the third, written in a more concise scholarly style that makes it the most entertaining of the three for the non-specialist. Rabinovitz is likely to be the most useful to the specialist as well, though of course this depends on what you're after. I have equally high praise for all that Rabinovitz has written on Beckett; there is a particular lack of competition on the subject of the early prose. I have not read John Pilling's new book Beckett Before Godot, and there are, as one would expect, numerous article-length studies of the early prose that are required reading for the specialist.

Cumming's book on Charles Dunham -- known to many by his most prominent alias, Sanford Conover -- fills a gap in Civil War research in the most delightful manner. Dunham's various ploys, scams, and intrigues, under a dozen different alias', are fascinating and dizzying, and Cumming's clever tracking of this ellusive fellow is very satisfying. Better by far than fiction, the outlandish story of Dunham -- including his employment by the gov't to perjure at the trial of the "conspirators" to murder Lincoln -- is quite a ride.

Certainly a must-read for those who've read the Trial, and want to understand Conover's frustratingly confusing testimony.

Devotion Splendor: Medieval Art At The Art Institute Of Chicago catalogues over fifty medieval objects from the Art Institute of Chicago, including works from the early Christian era to the later Middle Ages. Black-and-white and some color photographs of priceless historical artworks draw the reader into a rich collection of vivid and beautiful works. An introduction offers and overview of medieval art for each century, and each photograph of an art object has an accompanying text segment describing its history, original use, artistic themes, and other significant features. Showcased items include a Siculo-Arabic Casket that once served as a reliquary, a double-sided manuscript leaf of sixth-century pope Saint Gregory, an embroidered retable and altar frontal, and much more. A captivating collection of artistic treasures.

This is one of the few books capable of providing readers with an authentic insight into Memphis music of the 1950s. Cantor's writing style is lucid and flowing. Perhaps the definitive book on one of America's most signficant music personalities.

Dewey And Elvis: The Life And Times Of A Rock 'n' Roll Deejay is a biography drawn from personal interviews, documentary sources, and oral history collections to give a personal, no-holds-barred view of celebrated disc jockey Dewey Phillips. Indiana University professor emeritus of history Louis Cantor suggests that Phillips zeal for and promotion of rhythm and blues music set the stage for a 1950's transformation in rock-'n'-roll, not to mention Elvis' legendary success. A fascinating, smoothly flowing examination of one man's life and contributions to popular music in the mid-twentieth century.