Activism Books

All who lived during those momentous years of Southern turmoil of 1960's were greatly impacted by the laws of desegregation of the white churches and schools. As one renews his/her commitment to religious and social justice, it brings into focus our recent tragedies of Ruwanda, Iraq, Thailand, and Indonesia! Upon my own return to Professor Bass's BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, I easily conjure up my perennial pictures of his accounts of eight white Ministers, their churches and families being turned inside/out or upside/down by Southern racial injustice.

In Bass's easy reading, documented, and dramatically illustrated account of eight white ministers' appeal for law, order, common sense, before and after the reception of MLK Jr's, "Letter From Birmingham Jail," I was transported back to 1963; Into mid-1965 when Earl Stallings became both my Pastor and my Good Friend! In spite of persistent segregationist pressure, not once did Earl consider turning black vsitors away from First Baptist Church of Birmingham. "If the people came to worship," Stallings wrote days after the incident "we had no Christian justification for closing our doors...if they came to provoke an incident, we were determined to have no part in this action."

Since 1954 the FBC maintained an open-door policy for any black visitors. From an early distinguished Pastor J T Ford, followed by Guy Sloan and Grady Cothen and Earl Stallings they reaffirmed that policy! Yet on the morning after they welcomed the first black visitors, newspapers all over the country printed large photographs of a cheerful Earl Stallings shaking hands with the black visitors. They included both the NEW YORK TIMES and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution!

From my perspective or from Prof. Jonathan Bass's perpspective, it appears that he gave a deeper account of the introspective thoughts or words of Earl Stallings, than from the other white ministers! Since MLK's Letter referred to outstanding persons' writing: Ralph McGill, Harry Golden, James McBride Dobbs, Ann Braden, Lillian Smith, and Sarah Patten Boyle, it seems that the author added deserving comments beside the eight pictures of those Ministers. Next to Earl Stallings picture he quoted his recent sermon: "We hear the call of truth, of righteousness, of justice, but we are not men enough to heed its challenge!"

From 1965 thru 1975 in his next pastorate, I often needed Earl's commitment to equality and social justice, as when I chose music of Fred Waring's "Easter Story of Black Spirituals" over Church dissent: "It's getting much too close for those Black threats of violence in our streets of Marietta on Good Friday, April 8th of 1968!" That same evening for the Good Friday Worship we had a full house with a few black families present! Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

It was just a letter written by a man in jail, on behalf of his race, attempting to address the social injustice of the time-right? Wrong! Martin Luther King's Letter From the Birmingham Jail is much more compelling, and the circumstances surrounding its final composition more complex than the average person knows. Ostensibly written to the eight white clergymen of the embittered and embattled steel city, it was intended for a much wider audience-namely the media and the American public. Blessed Are the Peacemakers provides the reader with individual profiles of the eight and their struggles of conscience as they saw an old social order collapse. What has been taken as the almost spur-of-the-moment reflections of Martin Luther King, in jail for civil disobedience, turns out to be a document much longer in the making and more calculated in its delivery. This disclosure in no way detracts from its rightful place in American folklore or its power in fueling Civil Rights Movement. Rather, it helps us understand the care with which the deep conviction of racial rights was presented. The book is not an apology for the eight clergy, some of whom were more progressive than others, but it does provide much needed insight for the serious student of history into the complex struggles, powerful emotions, and vitrolic attacks perpetrated on even the most moderate voices of the white clergy. What it does not do, of course, is speak of the many white clergy of lesser rank who paid a much higher price for their fight for justice for their black brothers and sisters. Still, to read about these eight leaders, (Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Jewish) and their struggles is instructive. As an Alabama-born, white clergy expatriate from that period, marginally involved in the Civil Rights Movement, I hung on every word. These are reflections that should help black and white readers alike better understand this turbulent period. Statements from the eight white clergy as well as King's Letter are included in the appendix.

In my humble opinion, Rick Bass is one of the finest writers working today - period. At his best his work shines with insight and speaks so clearly that it's almost painful to hear the truth articulated so accurately. That said, I confess to being a bit disappointed by this book. There are moments of beauty as always. The story of the mountain lion encountered while out hunting with Colter, for example, is classic Bass. Not only does he capture the intensity and danger of the moment, and manage to bring the personality of the lion alive, but he is able to make us laugh at his own thoughts as he struggles to overcome his fear. Really remarkable.

However, Bass is obsessed by the loss of his dog and what that loss has meant to him. He has already written a lovely book on the subject, but apparently it wasn't enough to ease his pain. In trying to tie the animal's death to his work as a writer and activist in this book, you can tell he's stretching it. It's almost as if the offer to write a book about activism was seen as another opportunity to voice his sorrow. Somehow it just doesn't work.

This is not to say that you shouldn't read this book. If nothing else it offers insight into the inner workings of one of our most gifted writers, but expect to struggle with Bass a bit. For once you get the feeling he hasn't gotten it all worked out, that the words he's chosen aren't quite what he meant to say in some places. To me, this is as valuable, and in some ways more meaningful, than reading the fine tuned stuff. It just isn't as satisfying.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about reading this book for me was the reaction I had when I finished. Ordinarily I have a strong feeling of satisfaction when I come to the end of a Bass book. I put it down and mentally tip my hat to a fellow writer. "Well done!" I say. This time however, I had a completely different response. At the end of Brown Dog of the Yak, I felt unsettled and slightly down. Even more unusual was the urge I had to look Bass up, take him by the hand, look him in the eye, and say, "It'll be all right, you'll see."

There is nowadays shortage of true love stories. This is a book about a love. Love of nature and wilderness and a fine dog. As in good love story, there is ecstasy in living with nature and in descriptions of beauty of his country, but there is also suffering and struggle and rage. In the unique blend of keen observations of naturalist and hunter, of ruminations on literary pursuits, and of environmental activism, Bass paints most intricate tapestry on narrative. One of best nature writings. One of the best appeal for preservation of our vanishing wilderness. Let us all hope that somewhere in our government there is a reader who will be touched by grace of this book and be compelled to act.

The Christian Voice political action group wrote this short, elegant guide to issue and electoral activism. Lots of examples and plain writing in the style of Readers Digest make it accessible.

The advice is nuts and bolts. How to write a letter that gets published, setting up a phone tree, putting your church to work, and the like.

The first chapter is motivational, about "The Duties of Christian Citizenship." If you're training grassroots volunteers, it provides a way to think about translating your faith into civic action.

It is not sophisticated. It is not thorough. It is not even up-to-date. It is biased, jingoistic, and overtly evangelical.

And that's what makes it work. It is just what political newbies living inside communities of faith need to start being effective in the political world. Not too little. Not too much. It's just right.

I bought five more copies so I can organize a group in my church.

Designed to raise awareness about Jews of color, this fascinating book presents numerous anecdotes about the experiences of nonwhite Jews, followed by stimulating discussions on the implications of this research. The book is marred for me by its anti-Zionist standpoint, which culminates in a final chapter that has very little to do with the rest of the book. The back cover sports endorsements by Tony Kushner, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Adrienne Rich, all left-wing thinkers squarely in Kantrowitz's ideological camp. I get the sense that Kantrowitz underestimates her audience, thinking that her discussions about racial diversity in the Jewish community either will appeal only to those with her positions or will inevitably move readers toward those positions. Instead, her dogmatic advocacy of ideas that most Jews find offensive will likely turn away many readers who would otherwise find much value in the information she presents.

What types of nonwhite Jews are there? The question is not as easy to answer as one might expect, because it depends on how one defines "white" and "Jewish," both highly contested categories. Most Americans today assume that the prototypical Jew (which usually means Ashkenazic Jew) is white, but that was not always the common perception in this country. The very act of designating Jews as white or nonwhite can be a political statement, because it is taken to suggest something about their status and position in society. (I have known Jews who mark themselves as "other" in forms asking for their race.)

With these precautions in mind, Kantrowitz considers several types of people: (1) African American and Asian American converts to Judaism (2) nonwhite children adopted by Jewish families (3) children of mixed marriages (4) Ethiopian Jews and other black African communities that have practiced Judaism for centuries or more (5) the most ambiguous category, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, some of them quite dark-skinned, others scarcely distinguishable from their Ashkenazic brethren.

One reason this information has value is that Jews, despite a long history of crucial involvement in the civil rights movement, also have a history of racism that persists today in some religious communities. The historical tension between Ashkenazim and Sephardim can take on racial overtones. More pertinently, many Jews have trouble accepting the very concept of a black Jew--it seems an impossibility, a contradiction in terms.

One anecdote really struck home for me, reflecting the type of compartmentalized behavior I've witnessed as a Jew. The daughter of black converts attended a Hasidic elementary school, and on one occasion when she complained to classmates who were denigrating non-Jewish blacks, they assured her they weren't talking about her. The inconsistent thinking required to sustain this kind of attitude demonstrates why Jews of color may help stem the tides of bigotry coming from both Jews and non-Jews.

Kantrowitz wishes to uproot the perception that "black" and "Jewish" are mutually exclusive categories, and to reveal the Jewish people as a racially diverse group. She feels that recognizing this reality will ease the tension between Jews and blacks. Her point is that if the two categories can overlap, people will be less inclined to view the two groups as enemies of each other.

She weakens her argument, however, by trying to downplay the well-documented fact that a disproportionate level of anti-Semitism exists among African Americans. She fails to discuss any of the official studies, such as Harris Polls taken over the last several decades. As Charles Silberman noted in his book "A Certain People," black anti-Semitism is not a mirror image of Jewish racism. The latter is far more marginalized in the Jewish community than the former is in the African American community. The problem is not that most blacks agree with Louis Farrakhan's anti-Semitic pronouncements, but that leaders like him exhibit far greater influence than any comparably racist figure in the Jewish community.

She also wishes to blur the line between "Jew" and "Arab" by emphasizing the strong Arab element of Jews who are the product of Arabic land, culture, and language as surely as American Jews are Americans. She eagerly embraces the term "Arab Jew" to highlight this dual identity.

She correctly observes that Islamic countries in the Middle Ages generally treated Jews far better than Christian countries from the same era did. The height of this relatively peaceful coexistence occurred in the Golden Age of Spain from the eighth to twelfth centuries. But the picture is more complicated than she would like to believe. This period, when Jews enjoyed more rights and privileges than any time until the modern age, ended not because of the fifteenth-century Christian rulers who instigated the Inquisition, but because of violent Muslim invaders from two centuries earlier.

In addressing this fact, Kantrowitz performs a remarkable sleight of hand. She quotes Victor Perera saying, "[u]ntil the arrival of bloody-minded Almohade Berbers in 1146, bent on implanting Islam in all of Europe, Spain's Jews generally lived at peace with Muslim rulers and their Christian subjects; and they thrived culturally and commercially as never before or since" (p. 81). She immediately comments, "This peace persisted until the Christian conquest of Iberia and the Inquisition," which is not only false, but directly contradicts what she just quoted!

The final chapter of the book is little more than an essay on forging a Jewish identity apart from Zionism. Too bad. There is considerable merit to her thesis that recognizing racial diversity among Jews will help improve relations with other people. She doesn't seem to accept, or even consider, that Jews can support Israel and still be fully committed to peaceful relations with non-Jews. I hope that intelligent readers will be able to overlook the book's flaws, because beneath the rhetoric lies some valuable material about forgotten portions of world Jewry.

Like Kylopod, I found Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz's discussion of Jewish multiculturalism extremely thought provoking; however, unlike Kylopod, I also value her discussion of diasporism and Zionism. There are many Jews who do not find her critique of Zionism "offensive," including myself and other Jews committed to tikkun olam --the Jewish concept of healing the world-- for everybody, including Palestinians.

I also do not agree with Kylopod that "a disproportionate level of anti-Semitism exists among African Americans." Kaye/Kantrowitz addresses this as a myth fostered by the media. She also challenges the narrative the posits Jews and African Americans as two separate categories of people perpetually in conflict since the supposedly golden age of the Civil Rights movement. When Jews and African Americans are opposed as two combating groups, African American Jews are made invisible and impossible, when in fact, 200,000 people in the U.S. are both black and Jewish. Kaye/Kantrowitz presents a nuanced history of interactions among Jews, African Americans, and African American Jews.

Kaye/Kantrowitz not only highlights the voices of Jewish cultural minorities to address the intersections of racism and anti-Semitism, she also challenges many traditional beliefs about Jews. In order to counteract the dominant conception of "Jewish" as light-skinned, European, and Yiddish-speaking, Kaye/Kantrowitz emphasizes the diasporic nature of the Jewish people. Shifting the center away from Europe, she introduces the histories of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews. Mizrahim are Jews who lived or live in Arab countries and Turkey in predominately Muslim, rather than Christian cultures. Mizrahi means "Eastern," and is often used in Israel interchangeably with Sephardi. This confusion results at least partially because many Sephardim, who trace their ancestry through Spain and Portugal, returned to the Middle East after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. They also migrated to Europe, Greece, North Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. The Jewish diaspora has created an incredibly diverse Jewish world; there are Chinese Jews, Indian Jews, and African Jews from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, and Zimbabwe. However, we rarely hear about these cultures in the U.S. where Ashkenazi Jews are in the majority.

Ashkenazi Jews trace their ancestry through Germany. The Ashkenazi communities of Europe were nearly exterminated by the Holocaust, which makes it ironic that Ashkenazi Jews get collapsed into the category of "European." Nonetheless, many Ashkenazi Jews in the U.S. have internalized Eurocentrism and racism on their journey to assimilation. Jews of color are often looked on with suspicion, not seen as "really Jewish," and made to feel unwelcome in Jewish spaces. Ashkenazi culture is presented as THE Jewish culture, and Ashkenazi-centrism is reinforced every time a cultural event, book, or reading reflects only Ashkenazi experiences. Reframing Jewish identity, Kaye/Kantrowitz insists that we open up Jewish culture to reflect its global diasporic reality.

This reframing allows Kaye/Kantrowitz to also challenge the dominant narrative about Israel/Palestine that posits Arabs and Jews as two separate categories of people who have been enemies throughout time. As both Arabs and Jews, Mizrahim contradict the very notion that this conflict is somehow inevitable. Many Jews were relatively integrated into Arab countries at various points in history, where they were generally treated much better than they were in Europe. Understanding this history is imperative for those of us working against the occupation of the Palestinian territories because we discover a Jewish critique of Zionism embedded in the history of the region. Many Jews who were living in Palestine when European Jews started arriving resisted the European Zionist project of creating a Jewish nation-state. These Palestinian Jews had neighborly relations with other Palestinians, and viewed Palestine as a shared homeland for Jews, Muslims, and Christians. They favored the notion of creating a Jewish cultural support center in Palestine, but not a state exclusively for Jews.

Kaye/Kantrowitz argues that the problem for Jews is not the diaspora itself, but the few options we have in the U.S. for expressing our Jewish identities beyond celebrating Zionism, challenging anti-Semitism or canonizing the Holocaust. These options are limited and alienating for Jews who are critical of Israeli policy, don't (or cannot afford to) belong to a synagogue or don't relate to the Holocaust.

The alternative she provides is for us to embrace the diaspora and start creating homes and fighting for racial and economic justice wherever we are. Instead of imagining that we can find home/safety solely in the nation-state, we can nurture Jewish identities rooted in our traditions of social justice. We can work on ending racism within and outside of Jewish communities by challenging Ashkenazi-centrism and developing resources about Jews of color defined by scholars and activists who know those cultures. Resisting both nationalism and assimilation, Jews can begin working toward liberation for all people.

Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice illuminates many current vectors in online activism, never losing sight of the big picture. Martha McCaughy and Michael D. Ayers have assembled a stellar collection of scholarly essays. Sitting at the intersection of virtual and corporeal, theory and praxis, Cyberactivism observes the brief history, the current actions, and the future implications of online activism.

Dorothy Kidd uncovers the rise of Indymedia.org as a new communications commons. Sandor Vegh attempts to classify forms of online activism, and in doing so, provides a great overview of recent cyber actions worldwide. Lee Salter evokes Jürgen Habermas to analyze democracy and new social movements in light of the internet. Michael D. Ayers compares online and offline collective identities in feminist activists, while Joshua Gamson does the same for gay media. This far-reaching collection takes a serious look at the internet's overall impact on activism, its ramifications for specific groups, and its potential for the future of all concerned.

As Cyberactivism proves over and over in earnest, online activism isn't just about defacing corporate websites. It's about community, collaboration, and the free exchange of ideas -- three core ideals we could all do well to hold on to.

If you like books such as Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs but found it to be a little too thin on examples of actual application, this book would provide excellent follow-up reading. CyberActivisim: Online Activism in Theory and Practice is a comprehensive collection of eleven research articles that includes such diverse topics as captology (use of computers in persuasion), online communities, Cyberprotesting, "Social" network analysis of activist organizations reachable via the Internet, and the influence of online interaction on identity and collective identity.

If none of the subject areas just mentioned sound familiar to you, then this book isn't for you. I'd recommend a combination of the Rheingold book mentioned above along with the Duncan J. Watts book, Six Degrees.

The various research articles are authored by independent authors and vary considerably in quality of information and quality of presentation. Overall, the collective quality of the information in this book is excellent and there are only two or three articles that don't quite measure up to the standards of the rest of the articles. I was quite impressed with the breadth of subject matter covered in this book. The chapter on use of public domain pollution statistics for persuading online visitors to take action against environmental pollution was a particularly intriguing study illustrating the still obscure field of captology in encouraging activism.

This book is a must read for every sub-academic devotee to the fields of social networks, online communities, and online activism.

Especially well written was the thoroughly researched essay by the artist and Lambda Award winning author Tee A. Corinne `How Lesbian Artists Support Their Art".

As a bonus each of the essays are accompanied by photos of those profiled and the essayists.

Other outstanding essays -
Alison Bechdel interviewed by Marny Hall
Joan E. Biren 'JEB' Lesbian Photographer, Video producer, Activist
Elana Dykewomon `Changing the World'
The Jewelle Gomez Stories as Told to Amanda Kovattana
Barbara Grier: A Burning Love for Lesbian Literature
Daughters of Bilitis and The Ladder that Teetered Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon

From the publisher's website - Everyday Mutinies is an essential resource on the history and practice of lesbian activism. It also contains valuable ideas for any political lesbian who has wondered how she can possibly pay her bills and make the rent while remaining a full-time activist.

Who are the women who struggled to form lesbian communities--and how did they fund their activism? In Everyday Mutinies: Funding Lesbian Activism, two dozen lesbians--including well-known activists such as Martina Navratilova, Alison Bechdel, Dee Mosbacher, and Jewelle Gomez--tell the stories of their activism, with an emphasis on how they support themselves and fund their political activities. Their examples can help you deal with raising and allocating money. Less than 0.3 of all philanthropic dollars are awarded to lesbian and gay projects each year. Yet Everyday Mutinies shares amazing success stories of women surviving, thriving, and making an impact by using the resources they have with intelligence and skill. You will be moved and inspired by the stories behind Naiad Press, The Ladder, Straight from the Heart, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Everyday Mutinies presents the voices of scientists, political strategists, artists, writers, fundraisers, and community organizers. These courageous women discuss their strategies for getting and using money to pursue their visions, including:
* funding scientific studies in creative ways
* liberating corporate resources
* encouraging responsible stewardship of inherited wealth
* getting paid for working on lesbian causes
* choosing a job to support activism
* financing lesbian media from magazines to documentaries
* giving time versus giving money

This anthology proposes discussing how lesbians fund lesbian-specific activism. Activism is broadly defined here, ranging from the arts, sciences, law, non-profit groups, publications, etc. The writing styles here are diverse, ranging from personal narrative, question and answer, journalistic style, etc. Unlike other books, the variety in styles works well here.

This book will introduce readers to key leaders in the lesbian community (Kate Kendell, Jewelle Gomez, P. Lyons & D. Martin, etc.) It will also cover prominent lesbian organizations such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights and 100 Lesbians and Their Friends.

The chapters are short. Each interviewee and interviewer has a page-length photo. I am sure this was done for egalitarian purposes. Haworth Press tends to have summaries and keywords for each chapter in their books. This eats up page space. Each chapter here had lesbianism, lesbian activism, and fundraising as keywords. They could have been more concise by just mentioning these terms in the introduction.

Unfortunately, the reader has to glean fundraising ideas from this book. You won't find a "Top 10 List for Raising Money for Lesbian Causes" here. Each chapter talks more about the individual lesbian's personal journey into activism. You get ideas but you have to read for them carefully. The book is a little bit preachy. Almost every chapter urges lesbians to not fear asking straights for money and to not look as money as an evil patriarchal tool. At a time when non-profits are hiring development directors more than any other positions, this is a let-down. People not interested in activism won't like this book, but people who are, regardless of gender or sexuality, will.

This book also provides almost nothing for middle-class lesbians or those lesbians who want to stay in the middle class. The book mentions two types of activists: donors that inherit huge fortunes who can then use that money for lesbian empowerment or lesbians who forgo sturdy wages and either go on welfare or earn poverty-level wages in order to have the time to do activism. For those who are not incredibly rich or don't want to be poor, there is little here for advice.

Many lesbian activists and theorists have asked themselves, "What are we first: women or gay people?" This book solidly chooses the former. Many of the contributors started off in feminist activism and then moved to the lesbian counterpart. Work or alliance with gay men is hardly brought up at all. Many women are now running national gay and lesbian organizations right now (Urvashi Vaid, Cheryl Jacques, Joo-Hyun Kim), yet these lesbians and their work isn't brought up at all. Similarly, straight women will find this book much more useful than gay men.

This book was a novel idea. It wasn't perfect, but it's still nice. I do think lesbians interested in activism should peep it.

Gerda Lerner, one of our most important historians, has written a magnificently honest and perceptive autobiography. She takes us through her youth in Vienna, her imprisonment by the Nazis, her escape to the United States where she married, raised children and built a new life, her years in Hollywood and New York, and her experiences as a radical during the McCarthy period. It is an engrossing, very human story that will touch and enlighten all who read it. We can only hope that Lerner will follow it with a volume that relates the story of her years as a historian who helped to create modern women's history.

An honest, courageous and illuminating account of a radical life. Also a reminder that our current troubles are not unique. Lerner's account of the persecution of members of the Communist Party USA during the 1950's, the abrogation of their civil rights and the threat to their livelihood should be a warning to us today.

To help amazon customers determine whether or not this book is for them, I have posted a copy of the back cover blurb and table of contents below:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...1

Chapter 1. From Fellow-Traveling to Revisionism: The Fate of the Revolutionary Project, 1944-1974...27

Chapter 2. The Gulag as a Metaphor: The Politics of Reactions to Solzhenitsyn and The Gulag Archipelago...89

Chapter 3. Intellectuals and the Politics of the Union of the Left: The Birth of Antitotalitarianism...113

Chapter 4. Dissidence Celebrated: Intellectuals and Repression in Eastern Europe...156

Chapter 5. Antitotalitarianism Triumphant: The New Philosophers and Their Interlocutors...184

Chapter 6. Antitotalitarianism Against the Revolutionary Tradition: François Furet's Revisionist History of the French Revolution...229

Epilogue and Conclusion...267

BACK COVER BLURB

In the latter half of the 1970s, the French intellectual Left denounced communism, Marxism, and revolutionary politics through a critique of left-wing totalitarianism that paved the way for today's postmodern, liberal, and moderate republican political options. Contrary to the dominant understanding of the critique of totalitarianism as an abrupt rupture induced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, Christofferson argues that French antitotalitarianism was the culmination of direct-democratic critiques of communism and revisions of the revolutionary project after 1956. The author's focus on the direct-democratic politics of French intellectuals offers an important alternative to recent histories that seek to explain the course of French intellectual politics by France's apparent lack of a liberal tradition.

Once upon a time there was a country, France, plagued by pro-Communist intellectuals. Not only did these intellectuals hate freedom and have unchallenged intellectual hegemony but they also infected the United States, Britain and the rest of the free world. But then in the 1970s a new group of intellectuals arose and against overwhelming odds managed to slay the demons and dragons of totalitarianism and utopianism. No longer would Marxists undermine the true and only liberal heaven. Such anyway is the story as told by Commentary and The New Republic, by Henri Astier in the Times Literary Supplement and Paul Berman in The New Yorker. That this narrative is so popular in the United States cannot make it completely plausible. After all the French Communist Party (PCF) was only in a junior position of power from 1944 to 1947 and 1981 to 1984. Much of French politics was devoted to keeping them from power. France was a major player in the world's leading anticommunist alliance and had a sizeable nuclear deterrent posed to annihilate the Warsaw Pact. Michael Scott Christofferson's book is of immense value in showing how inadequate this self-serving narrative is. Far from bursting forth in the 1970s like Pallas Athena, antitotalitarianism built on criticisms of political parties, support for direct democracy and coolness towards the Soviet Union that had been gestating for decades.

Christofferson starts off with a valuable discussion of the weaknesses of the very idea of totalitarianism, such as the reservations of its own theorists like Arendt and Brzezinski, its inability to predict change in totalitarian systems, its overemphasis on all-encompassing and top down terror, and its lack of concern with the differences between industrial Germany and peasant Russia. The next chapter sets the stage for the political struggles of the seventies. The PCF belittled intellectuals, was less than courageous on Algeria and was often disingenuously and stupidly pro-Soviet. The invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 undermined intellectuals' attachment to Communism. The shock of 1968 seemed to offer a new hope for revolution for intellectuals not associated with political parties, one that countered the de facto parliamentariansm of the PCF. So when the PCF and the new Socialist Party agreed on a Common Program in the early seventies, many radical intellectuals viewed this as a betrayal for moderation. Such radicals would be open to a root and branch polemic against the PCF, Leninism and the whole revolutionary project.

Christofferson is particularly useful in showing the oversimplifications of other scholars such as Tony Judt and Sunil Khilnani. French support for East European dissidents did not begin in 1977 with support for Charter 77. There had been growing support for Eastern European dissidents since 1956, and particularly since 1968 with the Comite du 5 janvier, and the Comite international des mathematiciens. (Sartre himself thought Solzhenitsyn was too soft on the Soviet Union). Third-worldism was never as influential as often thought. Sartre though that the Cuban revolution had no validity in Europe, while Andre Gorz and Cornelius Castoriadis thought socialism was impossible in the third world. Christofferson shows that "The Gulag Archipelago" was not the dramatic revelation often thought to be. As the Socialists passed the PCF in popularity, one could no longer argue that Communists electorally dominated the Common Program. One had to emphasize the PCF's ideological influence instead. Arguing that French intellectuals were blind to the Gulag before 1974 was not accurate, but it made it easier to the attack the Common Program. Far from struggling against monolithic fellow travelers support, the antitotalitarian movement, whether in 1974 in fighting the PCF over Solzhenitsyn, in 1975 over the Portuguese Revolution or in 1976-77 in the rise of the "new philosophers", were rushing against an open door.

As Christofferson points out, the results were not intellectually, politically or ethically encouraging. We read about Andre Glucksmann in 1974 breathlessly trying to convert the conservative Orthodox Solzhenitsyn into his own quasi-populist anarchism. We see an unpleasant opportunism in the journal Tel Quel as it moves from fashionable Maoism to praise of the United States in the space of a year. We see Glucksmann and Bernard Henri-Levy posturing as dissidents, as if it was somehow Stalinist for socialists to criticize them. Christofferson provides a fine critique of Francois Furet's Penser la Revolution francaise. This is a book based less on empirical research than on fears of totalitarianism, dressing up a questionable ideological determinism in the latest French fashions. Christofferson is particularly good on Furet's bait and switch tactics about Augustin Cochin, allowing Furet to argue that Cochin's paranoid ideas of intellectual manipulation were true because they had not been refuted. Overall, the antitotalitarian movement offered little in empirical descriptions of the "totalitarian" societies they were attacking. Neither Nazism nor Vichy made much of an appearance in their condemnations. Not only did the new philosophers' books read like a jazzed up version of the Open Society and its Enemies (Poppercorn, one might call it), but the idea that the PCF was a serious threat to French democracy in the seventies and eighties turned out to be wildly incorrect. Despite having started in movements supporting direct democracy and workers control, most antitotalitarians ended up with a strictly negative critique indistinguishable from neo-conservatism. "Given the murderous brutality of Latin American military dictatorships of the period, the moral balance sheet of antitotalitarianism is at the very least ambiguous." Notwithstanding the comparisons with Orwell, this movement was ultimately a dead end.

This is an excellent book, at least for those with a serious interst in the early history of an independent Ireland. It argues successfully for the recognition of O'Higgins as absolutely vital in the establishment of government within an Ireland still torn by civil war and threats both internal and external. I have often wondered at the "downplaying" of O'Higgins in various studies of Ireland in the early 20th Century; I think this book presents an explanation. O'Higgins had a remarkable adherence to principle as opposed to person in his approach to government, admirable if indeed all of his principles were well founded; some might argue with a few espoused by O'Higgins. However, he had the problem that sometimes accompanies that trait; he had the regular habit of making enemies of his friends. He is a man, at least as represented by John McCarthy, that commands respect -- but a respect that I would prefer to render at a considerable distance. McCarthy's treatment of his subject is quite detailed and thorough and, for this reader, provided genuine insights into early independent Ireland. One is left with a sense of wonder that Ireland survived and an appreciation for the contributions of O'Higgins to that survival. Congratulations to a fellow Fordhamite!

The name Kevin O'higgins has been practically air brushed from Irish history by those who came after him.
More than any single person he steered the fledgling state of Ireland to from becoming a military state to become a democratic and tolerant society. His firmness as Minister For Justice and Home affairs in Ireland's first government, succeeded in restoring the rule of law and rescued Ireland from becoming a country where militias rule by terror.
John MccArthy's s book, "Kevin O'Higgins" sets the record straight and documents the heroism and dedication of Ireland's greatest statesman Kevin O'higgins. O'Higgins was no right wing semi-fascist as his detractors have tried to portray him. The book shows that he despised all abusive exercise of power and steered Ireland away from the threat of militia chaos on the one hand and government militarism on the other.
The book would have been even better if the author included a little more on the personality and humor of the man, but it does much to redress the unbalanced treatment of this 20th century O'Connell to his rightful place in Irish history.

Michael Taussig offers a glimpse of the possibilities in his book Law in a Lawless Land: Diary of a Limpieza in Colombia--limpieza being the term the paramilitaries use to refer to "cleansing" a region of its undesirable elements. Taussig, an anthropologist at the other Columbia (the one on the Upper West Side of New York City) has been doing fieldwork since 1969 in a small city in the Cauca River Valley, a few miles from Cali. Some time around the year 2000, a tax-free, free-trade industrial zone was established just outside town. In February of the following year, a group of paramilitaries move in, hired--Taussig's informants tell him--by the "town's business elite." In the 1990s, in other regions of Colombia, the style of the paramilitaries would have been to move into a town such as Taussig's, identify the supposed guerrilla sympathizers and massacre them all at once, thereby creating headlines and embarrassing human rights inquiries. But in the new millennium the paramilitaries operate in a more discreet fashion, and their enemies are no longer so much political as they are economic.

In Taussig's town, they move into El Cupido, a love hotel downtown, with computer lists helpfully provided by military intelligence and go about the work of cleansing the town of its delincuentes--"undesirables," a few at a time. Their victims include not so much leftists or even political activists but street people: kids who've had "problems with the law," beggars, a madwoman, prostitutes not affiliated with El Cupido and a young man who, drunk in the middle of town one evening, makes the mistake of yelling at the paras: Que salgan hijeputas--"get out of here, you sons of whores!" He's killed for his outburst and his body lies on the street all night because people are afraid to move it. In neighboring towns other paramilitaries ban long hair or earrings on men, miniskirts on women, baseball hats worn backward and a gay beauty contest. Life under the paramilitaries doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

Taussig's book is based on a diary he kept during two weeks he spent in the town in May of 2001 during the fourth month of its paramilitary reign. His most interesting discovery is the support the paramilitaries have in town. One of his informants tells him that eight of ten of the townspeople are for them. There's a reason for this. Until the 1950s Taussig's part of the Cauca River Valley was dominated by small peasant farms. In their river-valley plots, the peasants (descendants of former African slaves) grew cacao trees, plantain trees, banana trees, coffee trees, orange trees, lemon trees, avocado trees, papaya trees, guava trees and many other trees besides. The peasants thereby created a mixed harvest that mimicked the tropical rain forest, required no store-bought fertilizers, no pesticides, little labor, little capital and, perhaps most important, created a continuous, year-round income.

But, sometime in the 1950s, the sugar industry arrived. The peasant farms were plowed under and everyone went to work on the new plantations (for the ultimate benefit, as Taussig points out, of a few white-skinned families in Cali). At first there was plenty of need for labor, but then, as Taussig puts it, "chemicals and machines made the workers idle." By the time the paramilitaries arrived, a shantytown of the unemployed had grown at one end of town, a slum that became so unruly that the police were afraid to enter. With no prospects for education or work, the kids formed gangs and turned to crime. Gradually, the town fell victim to a youth-gang-based crime wave that it would apparently do anything to solve. Taussig happens upon a gang funeral and witnesses the anarchic violence, the fights, the boombox hip-hop, the weird (for provincial Colombia) fashion, and the weird (for provincial Colombia) hair-dos. He notes one of the kids wearing an English-language T-shirt that says: Death Is Nature's Way of Saying Slow Down.

In Taussig's town, he notes that the paramilitaries have also been recruited out of the ranks of the unemployed. Former soldiers unable to find other jobs dominate their ranks. The murder of the street kids--the children of other unemployed Colombians--is bad enough, but beneath this obvious terror, Taussig perceives a deeper kind of terror. What he sees is an economic "culture of terror" that afflicts everybody in the neoliberal world of his town. The principal arm of this culture of terror is unemployment. Neoliberalism is supposed to generate jobs and solve unemployment, but that's an act of faith, really, and not enough attention has been given to the possibility that it might just be the problem cruelly masquerading as the solution. Although each town in Colombia has its own logic, Taussig makes a convincing case that in this new Colombia, "like the plants that went under, like the forest that disappeared, human nature as much as nature is facing a brave new world for which there is no history or pre-history."

Michael Taussig is acclaimed in the New York Times as "one of the brightest and most original thinkers in anthropology." I would like to add that Taussig is also a profound student of philosophical anthropology, "the study of the nature and essence of humankind." To this end, "Law in a Lawless Land," is an enormous opening into the minds of Colombia's forgotten poor.

This book is like no other written on Colombia. Taussig does not borrow from the research of legendary historical graybeards like Vernon Lee Fluharty, Richard E. Sharpless, Orlando Fals Borda or German Archiniegas. He does not use academic journals, newspapers or magazines to prove a point. Instead he presents a lyrical diary of his extensive fieldwork. In doing so, the author provides a raw and unnerving documentation of Colombia's long tradition of violence.

Taussig's work is easy reading for students of Colombian - American affairs and Latin American specialists. However, this book will be a tough road for those unfamiliar with Colombia's culture of denial. For instance, Taussig condemns the government. His work is a glaring spotlight on the government's paramilitary utilization of "limpieza" or "social cleansing" of the bottom dwellers of Colombian society (desechables or throwaways). The author does not rely on Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or even the U.S. State Department's repeated annual reports on the government's feeble human rights record. Taussig lives with the relatives and friends of victims and dumps eyewitness accounts on the reader instead.

The author laments how a handful of wealthy families underhandedly bought and then destroyed an enormously fertile valley for thousands of families...in order to establish the
Cali sugar industry and institutionalize poverty for the same families as cane workers. He also reports how Colombia's Army & Police intelligence officials create "lists" of people that are handed to paramilitary leaders for execution. Union leaders, teachers, priests and other defenders of the poor often make the lists. Taussig does not defend the guerrillas...he knows they are not angels. This book is more about how the poor are caught in a violent sandwich with no hope in sight.

This book discloses a simple fact of life in Colombia. That the ruthless paramilitary death squads are a part of the State strategy...particularly today. The leaders of the paramilitary death squads employ terror and this book is an honest chronicle of regular public assassinations in broad daylight. Yes, it is indeed tragic, that in Colombia the Army will stand aside and allow poor unarmed civilians to get cut to pieces because powerful members of society think this is how you protect democracy. Highly recommended.

Bert Ruiz