Gibson Books

This is one of those books that turns things inside out and outside in so that you can better understand the world we find ourselves in. I know of no better way to compliment the contributors to this fine book then to quote from a master himself (Eduardo Galeano)......."The looking-glass school teaches us to suffer reality, not change it; to forget the past, not learn from it; to accept the future, not invent it. In its halls of criminal learning, impotence, amnesia, and resignation are required courses. Yet perhaps- who can say- there can be no disgrace without grace, no sign without a countersign, and no school that does not beget its counterschool."........

A book any critical thinking person should own. It is incisive, scintillating, timely, revolutionary, illuminating, compelling, well researched and documented, a compilation of the most important educational authors in the USA.

Sue Strauffacher's NOTHING BUT TROUBLE: THE STORY OF ALTHEA GIBSON (9780375834080, $16.99) tells of a girl who is 'nothing but trouble' - but Althea doesn't care what they say; she knows she's destined for fame - and so does recreation leader Buddy, who watches her athletic skills improve and who introduces her to the game of tennis. Althea doesn't like rules - but she doesn't like to lose either. Her determination will lead her to become the first Afro-American to compete for and win the Wimbleton Cup in this fine biographical story of a winner.

I'm not ashamed to say it. Say the name "Althea Gibson" to me a month ago and you'd have met a blank stare. Say it to me now, however, and you may suffer the indignity of finding me thrusting Sue Stauffacher's newest picture book, "Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson," into your arms while screaming into your ears its high points. This might be so bad either if the book only had a high-point here or there, but the fact of the matter is that "Althea Gibson" is ALL high points. It's a rip-roaring, snorting, fast and frenzied, well-researched, reiterated, illustrated, formulated bit of picture book biography magnificence. With the author of the "Donuthead" books on the one hand and soon-to-be-recognized-for-his-magnificence artist Greg Couch filling in the necessary art, "Althea Gibson" has everything you could possibly want going for it. It's fun. It's funny. It's smart and interesting, and has a flawed heroine you can't help but want to know more about. If your young child is looking for a biography of a woman and you don't know where to turn, I can't think of a better book available to you. There's something about Althea.

Ask anyone. Ask her mama her daddy her teacher or the cop down the street that busted her for petty theft. They'll all tell you the same: That Althea Gibson is nothing but trouble. More comfortable tearing up the playground in the 1930s than sitting at a desk in school, Althea has a reputation for recklessness. None of that is enough to scare off play leader Buddy Walker, however. When he sees Althea play sports, he can only see raw talent and untapped potential. With his guidance and the help of the Sugar Hill's ritzy tennis court "The Cosmopolitan", Althea is given the chance to improve her style. Problem is, she has a hard time with being polite, following the rules, and not punching out her fellow players' lights. It takes time and patience and self-control to make Althea the best she can possibly be, but by 1957 she becomes the first African-American to win at Wimbledon. And though she could hog all the credit for herself, Ms. Gibson gives full credit to that amazing Buddy Walker who had the smarts to become her mentor.

It's always more interesting to read about a flawed hero. Perfect people do not a fascinating story make. Maybe that's why the trend in children's biographies lately has been to tell the tale of those men and women who weren't made of solid gold from birth onwards. Between Kathleen Krull's, "Isaac Newton", Laura Amy Schlitz's, The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug For Troy and now Stauffacher's, "Nothing but Trouble," biographies for kids are getting better and better with every coming year. The nice thing about Althea is that for all her pouts and ill-manners, she's shown here to be someone who could conquer the world if she just applied a little self-control. As Buddy tells her at one point, "You've got to decide, Althea. Are you going to play your game, or are you going to let the game play you? When I go to the jazz club, I play like a tiger, but I wear a tuxedo." Stauffacher draws much of her dialogue out of Althea's biographies I Always Wanted to Be Somebody and So Much to Live For. Even without such lines, however, the author knows how to put a good story together. This plot is carefully crafted. From the timeline in the back (written on tennis balls, no less) to the great opening line, ("Althea Gibson was the tallest, wildest tomboy in the history of Harlem") to the thin slices of her life, Stauffacher does a stand up job. As Althea's biographer she prefers to concentrate on the role of Buddy Walker, even mentioning in her Author's Note that "Though this is Althea's story it is also Buddy Walker's story." The result is that this tale comes off as a tribute to mentors everywhere. To those people that see potential in certain kids and do what they can to bring such potential to light. And that is the nature of an entirely different kind of hero.

Flying just below the radar is illustrator Greg Couch. Ms. Stauffacher may have the wherewithal, wit, and smarts to think to bring Althea's life to the page, but it is Mr. Couch's illustrations that truly deserve attention here. Couch has taken a story that could have been accompanied by staid, simple drawings and instead imbued them with a kind of electricity. Althea doesn't just leap off the page here. She crackles and snaps with an energy you don't usually encounter on your average picture book bio. Couch has chosen to clothe Althea in a hyperactive rainbow that zigs and zags with the girl's every movement and leap. Parents and teachers presenting this book to kids can ask them what they think this rainbow really means. And hopefully they'll notice that when Buddy plays the saxophone (as he did in his own jazz band) the same rainbow colors come out of the instrument. Plus the fact that these rainbows are the sole spot of color against a sepia-tinged background of old photos and scenes from the 30s, 40s and 50s is a nice touch as well. And when, at last, you see Althea win her Wimbledon, she is surrounded at her acceptance speech by a rainbow that has aged and changed from pure primary colors to subtler hues. I also appreciate that there is nothing anachronistic going on in this book. Every picture feels like it has stepped out of history.

A co-worker of mine felt somewhat disappointed that the book ends as suddenly as it does. One minute Althea is learning the benefits of playing by the rules (while maintaining her fire) and the next she's won Wimbledon and the story's over. I think this is less a flaw of this specific book than of the picture book biography format in general. You can't linger on a year here or there, however much you might want to. And honestly, this is a book worth discovering. Stauffacher and Couch have found something to say about Althea that hasn't yet been said in the realm of children's literature and their passion in bringing Althea's passion to life is worth taking note of. So stand back now. I'm going to say something and I'm going to say it loud. This book not only pairs well with Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull, it may have supplanted it in my brain as my new favorite picture book sports biography. A must read pick.

This book is just wonderful and I'm sorry to see it out of print. My father handed his copy down to me when I went away to college, and it has certainly seen plenty of use, now with duct tape on the binding and personal family recipes in the margins. For someone like me, who is intimidated by fancy recipe titles and esoteric "gourmet" ingredients that seem all too common in cookbooks these days, this book is a lifesaver. It contains simple, classic recipes like sloppy joes, french toast, meatloaf, and deviled eggs, as well as guides for meal planning and how to stock your kitchen - both in regards to tools for cooking and basic staple foods. The language is easy to understand, both within the recipes and in the appendices, which include helpful tips from how to serve wine to emergency substitutions to sample menus for a variety of occasions.

This is a GREAT book for the timid novice and a handy reference for those in need of a quick easy and yummy fix of identifiable comfort foods, from appetizers and drinks to desserts (the two tuna casserole recipes are oh-so-good). Each recipe is simple and uses ingredients every college person has readily on hand - even utensil use is minimized!

My sister-in-law bought this book for my mom to fill out and I found myself buying one as well for my mom to fill out for me. It has such beautiful pictures and is a great keepsake for your most cherished family memories!

My sister-in-law bought this for my mom to fill out and I found myself ordering it as well for my mom to fill out for me. It has such beautiful illustrations and is a great keepsake for your most cherished family memories. If your mom is like mine, she can't remember too far back so this is a good purchase for that reason.

Passionate Dialogues is a book well worth reading even though Mel Gibson's film came out some time ago. The articles in this book highlight many reasons why we, Christians and Jews, should not let the flurry of conversations and opinions and feeling that the movie sparked die out. The editors did a great job of pulling together a rich array of perspectives that dig deeply into everything from film making to the war on terror and Biblical scholarship.

These are my comments, section by section:

Historical perspecitives:
Denova's article is a trove of clear and concise information culled from extra-Biblical sources. She uses this scholarship to help inform us of Gibson' manipulation of the Passion Narrative. She shows us that his primary focus on who was responsible for Christ's death overshadows the very real tragedy of Jesus' betrayal by all. She makes a compelling argument that Gibson's film is unfortunate because its portrayal of Jesus' death as atoning sacrifice continues what J. D. Crossan calls the "largest lie" in Christianity.

Richard Miller's article continues on with the atonement. His quite original work compares Gibson's traditional portrayal as Jesus as victim - an atoning, universal sacrifice for sin, with an older tradition culled from 2 and 4 Maccabees and other Hellenistic sources. His argument that Jesus, following a strong theological and historical precedent for martyrdom in his own time, determined to attain martrydom to foment a radical change, is meticulous and compelling.

Anne Brannen's article points to a place that I identified with strongly as I watched the movie - there was no point of contact for me to implicate myself into Christ's passion as a perpetrator. She describes a medieval resource that Gibson overlooked in his medieval treatment of the story: The York play "Crucifixtion." Using the perspective present in this play, people would have been drawn into the realization of their own sin and redemption, much like a modern day David Mamet play can do for an audience today.

In "From Stage to Screen," Ziva Piltch discusses quite well the translation of the somewhat parallel tradition of medieval Passion Plays to the genre of film Her analysis is very thought provoking. I found myself fascinated by her revelations about how film direction, editing and photography moves us in ways that are more limiting than the techniques of the medieval playwrights. Her insights into anti-semitism in Gibson's film are key and exacting.

Dorothy Chansky's easily accessible article is a great look at the more homespun modern passion plays in North America. I appreciate her bias completely. Especially good are her observations that when these plays are "preaching to the choir" their underlying purpose of conversion, like Gibson's film, marginalizes anyone from outside the community. She makes the point that theater can be used to critique and reinvent stereotypes such as the evil Jews or a Caucasian Jesus. Gibson wasted this opportunity.

Literary perspectives:
Ray Keck's literary analysis is inventive and powerful. He sees a certain awful beauty in the violent portrayal of the sacrifice of Christ in Gibson's movie. Mentioning several Spanish authors and works - Lorca and Miro - he identifies the Passion of Christ as a modern day metonymy for the state of our world today. Much as "the bottle" has become a metonym for the disease of alcholism - Christ's passion has become a metonym for our reality.

In a dialogue with the writings of Flannery O'Connor, Williams does a beautiful job of upholding Gibson's portrayal of Satan and the ongoing battle between him and Jesus. Using the vehicle of transubstantiation, he makes a case for placing Gibson's vision on par with great literature. This disturbs me because he fails to see, I think, Gibson's failed attempt to "present violence s a vehicle to understanding the world." (p. 120) I wonder if Gibson's personified Satan does anything except place our own hands on the mallet and nails (as Gibson claims.)

In the article "What Gibson Really Meant", Wilhelm Wurzer seems to echo things that preachers, probably even including Jesus, have long known: "the real spirit of Gibson's film is not limited to ... the various incidents... on screen." (p. 137). I think what "Wurzer really meant", but never says, is that the Holy Spirit can be relied upon to allow a picture of Jesus that is alive and in the world, inspite of Gibson's alternative purposes. This unlimited quality, along with the masterful cinematography and score lead Wurzer to dub the movie a "work of art."

Sarah Haeglin examines Gibson's cinematic decisons and declares that his intense scrutiny and portrayal of the scourging of Jesus is an ethical failure. She argues convincingly that his flashback technique - cutting violence with loving moments with the women - subverts the message of Christ and the mystery of salvation by shifting the historic theology of the cross to the theology of the whip.

Psychoanalytic perspectives:
Don Carveth take on Gibson's film claiming that its violent picture of Jesus' death supports a less evolved understanding of the atonement - limiting it to the substitutionary model. He recognizes a more "advanced" understanding of the atonement (that I like except for the hiearchy he attributes to it.) This is one that allows good and evil to be experienced and held in tension with one another. He, therefore, judges Gibson's film to be narrow and primitive by supporting a view of Christianity that denies many of its central truths and paradoxes.

Philip Gundersn sees Gibson's film as another voice in the "language of sacrifice" (p. 180) that has taken over in neo-conservative rhetoric since 9/11. He argues rather brilliantly that the old Freudian model of psycho-sexual development, wherein we sacrifice pleasure for delayed gratification at some stage in our lives, is played out in extreme in this film. This same CHOICE for sacrifice is being called for in the war on terror by the power that be today.

Britton Johnston's argument that Gibson portrays Jesus as the ultimate Lethal Weapon is compelling. Using the anthropological/literary work of Rene Girard, Johnston shows that Gibson's work totally reverses and undoes the hopeful message of the whole Bible - that humanity can say NO to its ancient and mythic patterns of scape-goating as opposed to grace and mercy.

Interfaith Perspective:
David Shtulman write a very well balanced article on how Gibson's film provides a teachable moment for Jewish/Christian relationships. He highlights the progress of this reconciliation starting with Vatican II. And, while not ignoring the anti-Semitic aspects of the film, he cautions Jews not to over react or expect to tell Christians how to tell their own story.

Daniel Burston finishes the collection with an article that takes us back to the beginning articles. He cautions Christians to deepen their understanding of why Jews don't necessarily appreciate the universalism of humanity's culpability for the death of Jesus. He feels that Gibson's movie is an anachronism that has reversed the ideal of a vibrant and humane religious pluralism" (p. 239) He also outlines, with brave honesty, what he sees as a "Faustian bargain" that exists between Evangelicals and Israeli Jews and also between more mainline factions of both faiths as we band together against the Muslims. His discussion of original sin was eye-opening.

This is an amazing book that deserves wide circulation. It is not simply a book about Mel Gibson's movie - it's a frank and scholarly discussion of the role of religion in American life. The editors - Daniel Burston and Rebecca Denova - have done an excellent job of assembling a wide-array of opinions on Gibson's movie. Indeed, Burston and Denova deserve our gratitude for insisting on essays that are both challenging and contrary to the editors' own view. This book does not bash Gibson's movie. That would be too easy and not particularly edifying. Rather, the editors have done what Gibson himself is constitutionally incapable of doing - they have treated religion as something problematic, as something that needs to be thought out, and as something not to be used as a bludgeon to force people into line.

The book has 14 chapters, organized by 5 themes. The first section is Historical Perspectives, which looks at Gibson's movie from a number of different perspectives. The lead essay by Denova gives a very good overview of the meaning (to both Christians and Jews) of passion plays, the crucifix, the arrest and trial of Jesus. Overall, Denova writes a very measured essay, criticizing Gibson for emphasizing conflict over love. This, of course, could be criticized, for Gibson is hardly deserving of one's moderation; but Denova has written a fine historical essay that is very thoughtful and sensitive.

The other essays in the section are less rigorous, but no less interesting. Richard Miller thinks that Gibson is courageous to tell the story as he does, but he doesn't back that claim up; Anne Brannen dislikes the use of "medieval" as a synonym for reactionary, and tries to revive an alternative understanding of that concept. She finds that Gibson's medievalism may not be the most salutary understanding of that term.

Piltch and Chansky both discuss the meaning of the Passion play in western culture. It seems clear that Gibson knows that Passion plays incite anti-semitism and hatred; it is hard to divorce the meaning of these plays from innocent religious theatrics.

The next section discusses Gibson's movie from literary perspectives. The two essays are short but incisive commentaries on the role of violence in Gibson's movie.

The next section is on Film Studies. These two essays are perhaps the best of the book. The first essay by Wurzer is a strange one. He not only tries to revive Nietzsche as a rightwing philosopher, but he brings along Mel Gibson and Jesus too. Wurzer is clearly having fun using rightwing postmodernism to his favor. His essay suffers, however, from his desire for play at the expense of locating Gibson's excesses, his stupid anti-semitic remarks, his paranoia, his historical inaccuracies, and his bloodlust within the tradition he is trying to revive. Sarah Hagelin's essay rectifies some of Wurzer's omissions. She discusses the film from the standpoint of film studies. She finds problems with the movie as well as with its theology (which Wurzer doesn't address). She rightly places the movie in context with other movies on Jesus' life (Scorcese), as well as within a literary tradition, emphasizing the movie's violence as part of the larger American culture and Mel Gibson's filmography. It's an essay well worth reading.

Daniel Burston is a professor of psychology (see his other books on Amazon), and no doubt encouraged some authors to discuss essays from a psychoanalytic perspective. This was a brilliant idea. In this section, there is one short essay, a medium essay discussing Rene Girard, and a longer one that discusses the movie through a Lacanian and Deluezian perspective. This essay too is one of the finest in the book, and a good corrective to Wurzer's.

Finally, there are essays on inter-faith dialogue. It's clear that Gibson's movie has irritated the issue, with conservative religious people defending the movie without acknowledging its major defects, its distortions, its use of violence, its antisemtic imagery. Dan Burston clearly feels the pain of Gibson's efforts. He writes a sensitive essay on the damage done by Gibson to interfaith dialogue. But Burston, one feels, is an optimist, and the book reflects his overall efforts to bring diverse people together. Bravo!

This is a fine book on a difficult topic. Burston and Denova are sensitive and fine scholars of their respective fields. Although the movie came out some time ago, this book is not untimely. The issues it addresses are contemporary issues. It is fair, open, moderate, and dedicated to the finest spirit of liberalism - all things, unfortunately, Mel Gibson seeks to rid us of.

I try to slow down and relax and always look for books with this attitude. Maybe others need this book more than I. However, I found the book filled with some good suggestions and resources to check out. If you are looking at ways to incorporate a better quality of life then this may be one book to add among others to your shelf. Some people may not like that it doesn't take a total back to basics move towards simplicity. She suggests adding some small indulgences in your routine such as a cup of coffee or treats. Those who can't afford this approach may not see the value. However, other suggestions are inexpensive.

Even if you don't incorporate many suggestions from the book, it is a thought starter to living a more balanced life.

If you're like me and almost everyone I know, when asked what you would most like, the answer is an extra 12 hours a day. We're all overbooked and overcommitted,and forget to follow simple psychological and spiritual common sense: slow down, replinish the soul, repair ourselves and our souls.

Filled with inspirational, common sense and psychologically sound advice, Pause inspires the reader to stop reading and do one of the multitude of good suggestions to get back to ourselves. Its a great book to read a small chapter at a time and let yourself follow your heart at the end of the chapter and do something that is kind to yourself and to the world. You will feel better fast.

I like the book , it like the permanent wood foundation book i got at woodfoundation.com ther both are great books call to get one 810-232-5099 thanks roscoe clark

The book was very thorough. We had no problem building our basement after using this. It was a God-send to find it! I highly recommend :)

If you haven't read any of the 'Alice in Bibleland' stories before then you are in for a treat! My 2 youngest sisters had them when they were growing up & loved them. I have used them in my children's group at church & they were very popular there - I had a large number of boys in my class & even they, when I pulled out the book at story time would say "Yes! It's Alice again!" - I enjoyed reading them too! It is cleverly written in rhyme, keeping the story simple.
Alice is an everyday little girl who likes to read her Bible. While she is reading an airmail bird flies in and drops a letter in her lap that tells her reading is the magic key to take her where she wants to be. Her Bible becomes big enough for her to walk through & she enters the scene she has been reading about. In this book Alice sees the story of Moses in the bulrushes unfold.
I think these are so popular with children because they get transported to Bibleland with Alice and the story becomes alive for them.
Highly recommended!!!

I LOVE all of these Alice In Bibleland Books. They are wonderful for teaching children about God's word! Each book rhymes and has a lesson to teach. The pictures are really nice for young children too. My daghter has all of these books and will have them for many years to come.

I'm serious, my mom really did write this book. She's the best mommy in the whole world. These projects have aided in the development of incredibly successful kids. Our family has a lawyer, a doctor, a pilot, and a nurse (in training, I'm still in college).

Yay mommy! You should definitely buy this book. The craft ideas are fun for kids and parents too! Plus, you get to see a picture of my mom from the 1980's or something...it is truly wonderful.

This activity guide brought back memories of my fun preschool years. There are a variety of craft ideas listed, with directions and items (ones easily found in your home) for each project. Especially helpful are the recipes for playdough, paste and fingerpaint! There are lots of ideas for the holidays and different party themes and even lists games, songs and places to visit. Included is a section on fun, basic science. I recommend this book for those who need ideas on how to have fun with their preschooler and for those who are racking their brains trying to remember craft recipes!

Anyone interested in Frantz Fanon and post colonial studies would do well to start here. This well rounded critical volume discusses Fanon's thought and its contexts as well as current debates. The collection includes essays by Said, Gates, Bhabha, McClintock and Fuss as well as important essays by less well known authors including Bulhan, Sharpley-Whiting, Gibson (who also writes a provocative introduction) and Turner. It has a good number of essays on the debates around Fanon and Feminism. 460 pages at this price, it's a deal.

Forged in the colonialism of Martinique, confirmed by the racism of Paris and vividly enlivened by the Algerian revolution, Frantz Fanon's all too brief life (1925-1961) and thought were inextricably linked to the transformation of reality. Fanon's historical importance as a Black theorist with a total critique of imperialism has made him a crucial figure in the Black struggles in the U.S., the fight against apartheid in South Africa and postcolonial theory.

RETHINKING FANON: THE CONTINUING DIALOGUE is a new collection of essays, edited by Nigel Gibson, which highlights Fanon's significance by airing controversies over his legacy. The issues which generate the most controversy concern the meaning of Fanon's humanism and his assessment of the role of women in the Algerian revolution. The two issues are intimately linked.

Fanon's famous critique of "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" outlines the ways in which a revolution can stop short or turn into its opposite if a narrow vision of the past is imposed as a substitute for the ongoing development of a new culture. In one of the most moving pieces in the collection, Algerian feminist Marie-Aimée Helie-Lucas relates the hideous damage done by delaying women's liberation until after the revolution. The building of a "national culture" falls disproportionately on women, who become symbolic carriers of traditions which are "seen as ahistorical and immutable" (275). "Defending women's rights 'now'-this now being any historical moment-is always a betrayal of the people, the nation, the revolution, religion, national identity, cultural roots" (280).

Helie-Lucas holds Fanon partly responsible for this bind in which women were placed after the revolution, claiming that he created a myth of Algerian women's "revolutionary virtue of the veil" (275). T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting considers this argument, but rejects it, saying that Fanon was not trying to make a stagnant principle out of the veil. Instead, he was dialectically recording a fluid revolutionary situation, relating "Algerian women's resistance in a way that can be remembered, recalled, and corrected by women in their present quests for self-actualization" (350).

The debate on women's liberation is the most exciting section of the book, framed as it is by the voices of Algerian women liberationists. Zouligha, described as an activist, writes movingly of the silences that pervade an Algeria terrorized by armed Islamist groups, but she warns that it is not enough to simply oppose religious fundamentalism. Those "women's associations who limited themselves to the struggle against the Islamists ended up allying themselves with the state power" (366).

A NEW HUMANISM

The issues Zouligha raises are key to understanding the dialectic of revolution for which Fanon was reaching. As Nigel Gibson writes, "in contrast to an 'Islamic' nation, Fanon posited not simply secularism but a 'new humanism'" (29). This concept is taken up by Lou Turner and John Alan in an excerpt from the News and Letters pamphlet, FRANTZ FANON, SOWETO AND AMERICAN BLACK THOUGHT. They stress that the culture that mattered to Fanon was not an invented Black past or idyllic utopia, but the new ideas and new human relations forged in revolution: "To Fanon, culture without revolution lacks substance" (117).

Postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha takes a dimmer view of Fanon's humanism, which he dismisses as being "as banal as it is beatific," reductively equating this humanism to psychological categories like "overcompensation" (191). Edward Said traces the logic in Fanon's humanism, though he fears it has been "too strenuous for the new postcolonial states to actualize" (213).

Nigel Gibson understands Fanon's humanism as the dialectic pulse of "the social and democratic processes of becoming historical protagonists" (435). He contends that Fanon saw decolonization as the process of how a "culture becomes reinvigorated as a FIGHTING culture...(which) rather than valorize 'tradition' seeks to forge totally new relations between people" (420).

Such an engaged battle of ideas marks the entire book and Fanon's legacy. For instance, the relationship of violence and revolution that Fanon developed theoretically is often taken as a blanket justification for violence. But Fanon was a dialectician and a revolutionary: all actions take place in the context of concrete historic particularities. Thus, he writes that the uprisings against colonialism are "not a treatise on the universal, but the untidy affirmation of an original idea propounded as an absolute" (quoted 209). As Tony Martin writes, "the most eloquent testimony to the depravity of French colonialism is provided by the fact that it could have driven a man as desirous of justice and a true humanism as Fanon was to the inescapable conclusion that violence was the only answer" (85).

'ABSENCE OF IDEOLOGY'

This untidy affirmation of struggle evidences itself in the social organization of movements for freedom. Lou Turner brings all the issues together in his article on "Dialectics of Organization and the Algerian Revolution," tracing the organizational struggles of the FLN, showing how the focus shifted from "the new Algerian society to come" to "diplomatic and military concerns" (373).

Turner shows Fanon's revolutionary practice: how he fought this betrayal by going directly to those fighting in the countryside and how THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH was written to warn of the dangers ahead. Turner concludes that the "crisis in FLN-governed Algeria today is haunted by the specter of this retreat from defining the ideological ground of the revolution," which left an "ideological void...filled by Arab nationalism and Islamicist tendencies" (379).

It was Fanon who warned that "the great danger that threatens Africa is the absence of ideology" (379). The voices of the women's liberationists in this book make clear the cost of settling for anything other than totally new human relations and a new society. The battle of ideas matters; lives are at stake.