Events Books

This book is probably one of the most comprehensive books that I have seen thoroughly equipped event planners use for their events at Alliance Redwoods in Occidental, California. Planning a retreat is no small feat that is easy for first-timers to underestimate. This book eliminates many potential surprises and stresses of planning a retreat for a large group. I highly recommend a book like this for any first time retreat planner as I have experienced some very wonderful retreats that were planned using this book. If you have ever been stressed out or frustrated planning a large retreat, then you will be pleased to know there is a book that shows a detailed, easy to follow, step by step methodology for planning a surprise-free hassle-free Christian Conference.

This book is remarkably well written, easy to read, along with refreshing humor! Helpful to organize any size type of event and maximize the purpose of the event. An absolute must have for every church!

This book is a absolute must for anyone planning a conference or retreat. Applicable for men and women no matter what the size of the event. If you have always wanted to organize an event at your church and never knew how to get started get this book

This helpful book was a great read, and is sure to be a much-referenced item in my library... organized, specific, well-written, and all the details are already thought-out and listed in clear reference sheets for me! I found that the examples, quotes, and details were not limiting but helped me to come up with my own ideas. Although I probably won't be planning a conference for 5,000 anytime soon, this book will help me even with small weekend retreats. Can't wait to get the workbook!

From a personal background experience, Betsy Leondar-Wright very effectively candidly and honestly communicates "the politics of class and what gets in the way of cross-class alliances." She provides convincing evidence from very interesting and inspiring individual experiences from people from various classes to support what she says about inequality and the struggle for social justice in America. Harold L. Carter, Retired History Teacher, Dayton, Ohio

I found this book very helpful in understanding how movements for social change could be strengthened if participants could more naturally acknowledge and bridge class differences. The writing is clear and engaging, and the photos, cartoons and sidebars make it "user friendly." I highly recommend it to anyone involved in work for social change, regardless of economic persuasion.

Class Matters is such a great crystallization of things I've heard about class in little bits and pieces; Leander-Wright's models brings all the parts together. The format is really wonderful. I found myself picking it up, reading a story, putting it down to think for a while, and then flipping to another section for new inspiration. I so appreciated that the stories highlighted showed both the challenges and the successes of working across class lines.

This is the best book I've read on class--after looking at dozens of them. It's full of stories, photos, cartoons, and full of tips of obvious use to activists who want to work well with people of different class backgrounds and to educators who care about one of the most important and least comfortable issues in our society. I've already brought it to a social change gathering with other literature and it was the most sought-after book.

This is a pretty easy book to read, and professor Kelly does a very good job of pointing out how economic conservatives, along with big business have waged class warfare against working people, while running their own propaganda machine, and buying off the political system in the process.

I noted this book was flawed, and there are two primary reasons. While any classic "liberal" may rejoice at many of Kelly's thoughts, those who may be open minded conservatives, or on the fence, may be turned off by several tactics he uses. One is that he continually hammers home article after article, note after note, on why his point is right. But after a while it becomes a bit numbing, like you are being faced with a one-man counter-propaganda machine. While this may not be true, because he is so incessant it comes off that way. Second, the current major politician whose ideas are closest to Kelly's is John McCain, a moderately conservative Republican (I do not consider Ralph Nader a politician, and Bill Bradley is retired). Supporters of McCain's philosophy (whether they use him as their icon or not), who are looking for enlightenment may find that this book pushes so hard, it pushes them away.

Again, those flaws are not going to keep me from telling you to not read the book. If you think, even wonder, that Kelly may be right in that the Enron's and WorldCom's of the world are colluding with many politicians to stick it to the working man, Kelly will show you just how right you are. And his argument is quite compelling.

Superb & succinct account of the rise & rise of the plutocracy, using mostly quotations from the BIG FIVE US financial news organs. The most appalling thing is that the book was published in 2000, BEFORE the installation of the most rapacious Administration since the 19th century, perhaps ever.

For all our sakes, Bush & his pack of gold-plated curs must GO! The PEOPLE MUST VOTE at all levels and for all branches of government. It is the first responsibility of citizenship, not just a right that can be forfeited with impunity.

Even as a life-long Republican, I find it hard to disagree with many of the arguments in this obviously Liberal writing. I highly recommend the book.

If the book fails anywhere, it is in providing direct examples of the transfer of wealth that takes place -- from the taxpayers to campaign contributors -- as a result of our public electoral system being financed by private money.

Economic conservatives speak in this title, which uses quotes from the Wall Street Journal and other publications to show the intention of the conservative establishment to benefit corporations and investors at the expense of the lower classes. After outlining problems, Kelly offers some solutions for combating conservative agendas.

We live in an age where words like "invasion" and "pre-emptive war" are being bandied about in a frighteningly common-sensical manner. At a time when the US government seems to be set on embarking on a war that has faced consistent opposition, it has becomingly increasingly urgent for all of us to start questioning the nature of this common-sense: why has it become acceptable for policy-makers and media persons to talk about "attacks" and "regime-change" openly as a strategy to create a new world order; how "new" is this form of creating a world order; and what is the nature of the order that is being constructed? John Collins and Ross Glover's edited volume goes a long way in helping address these extremely important questions.
To say that the volume is timely is to state the obvious. What makes it invaluable is that the collection of essays attempts to historicize and bring to light the manner in which political contexts cannot be separated from what pass for rhetorical common-sense. Terms like "terrorism," "vital interests," and "fundamentalism" do not emerge in a vacuum. Understanding their meaning involves a closer look at the political context and the struggles within which they emerge. Collins and Glover have done a remarkable job of putting together a collection that does precisely that. Bypassing academic jargon, the authors have succeeded in making complex arguments accessible to a wide array of people. Collins' essay on "Terrorism" for instance, carefully takes the reader through the historical evolution of the term and the various meanings that have been associated with it during the three decades that it has been critical to US foreign policy. The essays on the concepts of Laura J. Riediehs) and "Civilization versus Barbarianism" (Marina A. Llorente) carefully delineate the manner in which concepts that are supposed to be universal and abstract, with meanings that supposedly make sense to one and all, are constructed in the context of political struggles. I could carefully go through each essay in the collection, but that might involved getting repetitive about what makes this collection so important. To put it in a nutshell, each essay in the volume is an excellent example of what political committed scholarship ought to look like. We live in a world where it is has become urgent for us to understand the dynamic and politically charged nature of the terms that are being used to construct a new world order. Collateral Language is a critical tool that needs to be used in this endeavor. The editing of the volume and its general tenor also make it a great text-book for any undergraduate course or high-school course- be it in Political Science, History or Cultural Studies. This book is a great and necessary read for anyone interested in contemporary politics.

I actually had one of the editors of this (Glover) as a teacher for a sociology course I took, and he brought this book to our attention for the latter third of the semester. While I don't think of him as the greatest of teachers I had, I can hardly fault his and Collins' ability to pick out good articles, and even write some themselves. The selection of articles helped bring some ideas forward in my mind and cleared my head on some matters. Others in the class would mutter afterwards about him being "too liberal," but it was refreshing and the ideas in here felt like fresh air after the stench of far-Right ideology (read: warmongering and abusiveness) I had the (dis)pleasure of dealing with frequently.

WW II led to a couple of interesting works on propaganda: not
how to make your own, but how to recognise it, and how to avoid being taken in by it. In wartime we are perhaps as much in danger of propaganda and manipulation of information from our own governments, as from any other government. George Orwell wrote on how language is manipulated, in 1984 and Animal Farm. Less well known is Thouless "Clear thinking in wartime", with sections on such old favourites as propaganda speeches, and atrocity stories. Thouless' aim was to de-bunk the persuasive-sounding words, and get the reader asking how much hard fact lay behind them. Often, not much.
This new book, edited by Collins and Glover, should make interesting reading. As the generation who remember WWII are dying out, we are losing our knowledge on how to defend ourselves against propaganda. This leaves each citizen at the mercy of an enemy, and also at the mercy of their own govenment. All the war-mongers need to do is roll out a few old tricks, and people will fall for them, just like they did 60 years ago. We badly need books like this one, to help us think clearly in the coming months.
Some will doubtless say books like these are "un-patriotic", or "damage the war effort" or "put our troops in danger" . All that will show is that the propagandists have already started - such words make reading books like these more essential, not less.

"war on terror," "pre-emptive war," "Anthrax," "Blowback," are some of the frequently used words by the trigger happy mullahs in washington. This book aims to illustarte the meaning behind these words. We saw how masterfully the words "Weopons of Mass destruction" were used to justify the occupation of Iraq by the Anglo-American forces. Now it is plain that all these false claims were used to woo the US public. Words such as these are being used by the bush admisnitration and the pentagon as simply and most centainly effectively as "Weopons of mass deception". This book tries to create an informed public by dissecting the rhetoric of the war mongers to create an informed public receptive to reason rather than fear.

This is a delightful way to gain wisdom and be entertained at the same time. This is a "must-read" for all baby boomers.

This book took me on a fascinating journey back through the events of fifteen years in our very recent history as I read Schoor's essays on NPR from 1991 through March of 2007. It was particularly interesting to read the book as I was also watching the excellent 4 1/2 hour Frontline presentation "Bush's War". The reader is able to look backward and meet Schoor's wisdom and confusion and critical analysis as he looks forward and struggles through our difficult struggle to maintain some sense of balance and be the light of democracy we hope to be.

9/11 looms ahead throughout the first two thirds of the book, but when it happens Daniel Schorr contributes his thoughts in a calm, thoughtful, unhysterical manner that is the tone of all his essays. At the end of every year, Schorr writes an essay on "The State of Peace on Earth" in that year. Most of the years the state of the peace was not very good.

In 2001 he wrote: "....There are organizations that annually tally the number of armed conflicts as a way of judging how peaceful the year has been. a year ago the National Defense Council Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, counted sixty-eight cross-border and internal conflicts, an increase of three over the previous year. In the age of the war against terrorism, counting conflicts no longer works. There is one great transcendent conflict, a twenty-first-century version of struggling with the barbarians at the gates.

When Saint Luke spoke of peace on Earth, it was not a prediction but a prayer. With it went another prayer, 'Goodwill toward men.' It was to say you can't have one without the other. This year, sad to say in much of the world we had neither."

Few figures in today's media equal the authority, knowledge and insight of Daniel Schorr. Schorr speaks with an authenticity borne not only of longevity, but of wisdom.

Newsmen and commentators of his caliber are all too rare, and becoming more rare in today's media. Dan, thank you for sharing your thoughts and observations.

Daniel Schorr is like Stephen Hawking of journalism. A true legend, who has shown no signs of slowing down even at the age of 91. His courage and determination to move with ease from newspapers to cable news to commercial television to public radio makes him one of the versatile journalists of 20th and, yes part of 21st century.

Surprisingly though, Schorr hasn't written many books in his career ( SIX in total if I recall correctly), compared to many other current journalists and "correspondents" who churn out books after books every year as if they are in a production schedule. Schorr's last book came out in 2005 (The Senate Watergate Report), and his previous works were published in 1970,1978,1999 and 2002 respectively.

So it's natural for all those who regularly follow this man to eagerly await for a new book.

"Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium" is a beautiful collection of Schorr's commentaries, musings and opinions on topics ranging from war in Iraq, health care, U.N. report on climate change, the rise of the Taliban, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the shock of 9/11, the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, death of Diana , North Korea, Iran and many more events that crammed us since 1990 . The book is a perfectly blended cocktail of Shorr's personal reflection and historical analysis. And he does this with élan to keep you engaged till the end.

A perfect Holiday gift for anyone who admire this legend and tune in to hear him every week.

N.Sivakumar
Author of:
America Misunderstood: What a Second Bush Victory Meant to the Rest of the World

I just read this in one day while juggling housework and my 4 children. Couldn't put it down. The book added so many details to the knowledge I already had. I have such a love and respect for fellow Christians in China. Now if only Mr.s Lawrence and Wang had written a sequel in the last year or two...... I highly recommend this book for a glimpse at the work of God in China since the Cultural Revolution until the mid-nineties.

This is one of my favorite Christian books, and Carl Lawrence is a favorite author. The book repeats some of his earlier book, now out of print, "The Church in China." Even so, this does not detract. Lawrence details the movement of the Holy Spirit in China, while giving examples. Also, the book gives a history of Chinese missions, at least partly explaining this movement of Christianity in a hostile country. A great book!

This book renewed me more than anything I've read in ten years. God is moving in China!

Reading this book encouraged me greatly. The work of the Holy Spirit among Christians in China is phenomonal. The lesson of how God turns what to man seems evil into good is prominent throughout this book. I recommend this as reading for all Christians who believe that what we are about is to follow Jesus' command to go forth, make disciples, teaching what Jesus has taught us. I sincerely pray that this book will be printed again.

How do you take state power and hold onto it? This book, which was originally an issue of New International, was written at a time when revolutions had recently taken power in Nicaragua, Grenada and Iran and this question was posed in a very direct way. In the first two cases, they were led by parties who were oriented to mobilizing the power of workers and farmers to move forward to socialism. And all of this happened in the shadow of the 1959 revolution in Cuba. The articles in this issue are by revolutionaries in Cuba, Nicaragua and the US, all taking stock of what had happened. The lead article by Mary Alice Waters does an especially good job of taking the long view and seeing how previous generations of revolutionaries, starting with Marx and Engels during the Paris Commune of 1871 and through the Bolsheviks in Russia, looked at this question and built the only type of government which could move forward at the head of such a revolution-a workers and farmers government. The article places Cuba and Nicaragua in this longterm perspective and shows what revolutionaries have learned both from their mistakes and their successes.

The lead article in this issue of New International # 3, summarizes the key lessons of revolutionary working class action covering over 150 years. From the 1848 failed capitalist revolution in Germany, the Paris Commune of 1871, to and beyond the 1917 socialist revolution in Russia, the Cuban socialist revolution in 1959, along with the 1979 Grenadians and Nicaraguan revolutions which brought to power a workers' and farmer government.The key lessons? : The necessity of the victorious oppressed classes to impose their will over the defeated oppressor classes. And in today's world, the form of the new government that arises from a victorious anti-capitalist revolution of the majority is a workers' and farmers' government which will either advance toward socialism or retreat and be overthrown back into capitalist disorder, misery and oppression of the majority.
The author, Mary Alice Waters, does a magnificent job basing herself on the lessons of Marx and Engels and Lenin and applying those principles to the class struggle since their times.

We live at a time when capitalism more and more shows its retrograde features. Surely there must be a better system to enable human beings to live together on this planet. But this brings up the question of political power. How can the world be remade without changing the form of political power?
This book, part of the New International series, explains the history of how working people have fought for political power and what the results of these struggles mean for us today. The prospect of fighting to change the world is nothing new. Why not review the historical record of how these fights have been waged in the past, and what the results have been? In this way we can base today's fight on the lessons of the past.
Mary-Alice Waters reviews the history of the battles for workers' and farmers' governments, from the revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune and the Russian revolution, up through the Cuban, Grenadan and Nicaraguan revolutions. In spite of many setbacks, these revolutionary struggles show that workers and farmers can fight and win.
The perspective here is Marxist, the embattled workers are the ones we identify with, and their ultimate success is the goal. The whys and wherefores of these battles cannot be understood without a scientific knowledge of the workings of the capitalist system, a system which, by its very nature, produces its own gravediggers.
This volume also contains articles from Cuban Communist leader Manual Piniero and Nicaraguan Sandinista leader Tomas Borge, dealing with the fight for power with special focus on Latin America.

What kind of government is needed to put workers in power and build socialism in the world? This book answers that question.

Mary Alice Waters' article, "Communism the fight for a popular revolutionary government" discusses the Marx and Engels observations of the revolutions of 1848 and the Paris Commune. She also discusses the of the Bolshevik revolution and the discussions of the Comintern under Lenin. She links these experiences with the discussions revolutionists had after the post WWII revolutions in Europe and Asia and after the Cuban Revolution. Most importantly, she discusses how to build a workers and farmers government in the context of the revolutionary governments in Nicaragua and Grenada that were still standing when this _New International_ was published.

This book also includes two contributions from practioners of revolution: "'A Nose for Power': Preparing the Nicaraguan Revolution," by Tomas Borge, a central leader of Nicaragua's Sandinesta Revolution and "National Liberation and socialism in the Americas" by Manuel Paneiro, a leader of the Cuban Communist Party.

If you are interested in the history of the American Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the socialist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes of the writings of James P. Cannon that were published by the organization he founded, the Socialist Workers Party, in the 1970's and 1980's. Cannon died in 1974. Look in this space for other related reviews of this series of documents on and by an important American Communist.

In their introduction the editors motivate the purpose for the publication of the book by stating the Cannon was the finest Communist leader that America had ever produced. This an intriguing question. The editors trace their political lineage back to Cannon's leadership of the early Communist Party and later after his expulsion to the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party so their perspective is obvious. What does the documentation provided here show? This certainly is the period of Cannon's political maturation, and the beginning of a long political collaboration working with Trotsky. The period under discussion- from the late 1920's when he was expelled as leader of the American Communist Party to the early 1930's and the start of the great labor upsurge which would bring wide spread unionization to the working class. Cannon won his spurs in this struggle to orient this organization toward a revolutionary path. One thing is sure- in his prime, which includes this period- Cannon had the instincts to want to lead a revolution and had the evident capacity to do so. That he never had an opportunity to lead a revolution is his personal tragedy and ours as well.

As an expelled faction of the American Communist Party, which continued to stand on the program of the defense of the Russian Revolution, the Cannon faction needed an orientation. That they considered themselves as an expelled but loyal faction of the Communist Party was the correct orientation for a small propaganda group. The party was where the vast bulk of the advanced political workers were. Immediately going to the "masses", as has occurred with other expelled groupings then and now, would have proved disastrous. Cannon's group needed to cohere a programmatic basis and recruit a cadre to win over workers and intellectuals from the party. Its Platform of the Communist Opposition, a generally good programmatic statement, was its key analysis and tool to win cadre.

That said, there are three related points of interest in this book for today' militants; the necessity of a small propaganda group to struggle in order to cohere an authoritative leadership in the face of severe internal disputes and other difficulties; the necessity for it to break out of its isolation and intersect mass struggles when they develop; and, the necessity of following a policy of regroupment, splits and fusions to create at least a modest vanguard formation, when possible. The history of the American left political landscape is filled with long forgotten groupings that could not surmount these problems. Within limits Cannon dragged the Communist League of America into a modest vanguard formation.

In the post-October Revolution period every serious revolutionary has had to confront the question of the organizational form of the vanguard workers party. The ideas put forth by Marxism have since the time of Marx and Engel held a certain fascination for young alienated intellectuals and others interested in changing the world. And this accrues to the benefit of the working class movement, as the movement needs intellectuals, sometimes desperately, to help formulate theoretical problems and write propaganda. The problem, particularly acute under the conditions of the small propaganda group under discussion, is to find the right mix of revolutionary intellectuals and advanced workers in order to push the work forward. That means, in Trotsky's famous phrase, that the revolutionary intellectuals have to, as he did, harness themselves to the work. Failing that intrigues, squabbles and merely literary propaganda prevail. The beginning section of this volume is filled with such doings. This is the axis that the Cannon-Shachtman struggle ran on here. And it would cause later problems when all hell broke loose over the question of defense of the Soviet Union became operative at the beginning of World War II. Whether this tension can be solved short of the transition to socialism is an open question. In the final analysis the problem was not resolved by this group. Read on.

As an addition to the historical records of this period this book is a very good companion to Cannon's own THE LEFT OPPOSITION IN THE U.S., 1928-31, Monad Press, New York, 1981 and DOG DAYS: JAMES P. CANNON vs. MAX SHACHTMAN IN THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF AMERICA, 1931-1933, PROMETHEUS RESEARCH LIBRARY, Spartacist Publishing Co., New York, 2002.

This volume of Socialist Workers Party leader James P. Cannon?s writings is dated to a tumultuous time. The Stalinized Communist International, and the German Communist Party, refused to wage an effective struggle against the rise of Hitler to power, causing a defeat felt by workers and farmers around the globe. This defeat was as unnecessary as it was massive. This caused not a whimper of protest within that movement. Communists who defended the traditions of the Communist International of Lenin?s time, led by Leon Trotsky, became convinced that the official Communist movement had now become an obstacle, not an opportunity, for world revolution. They moved to gather their forces into a new revolutionary movement. In doing so, they also searched for, and found, groups of revolutionary-minded workers from other backgrounds, who themselves had been deeply affected by the political and economic turmoil of the 1930s.

Amazon lists this book as out of print, but Pathfinder has reprinted this book in an attractive new edition with more pictures, better type, notes etc. Most revolutionists today fight in small groups awaiting for and seeking out mass struggles by the working class. This is the story of the Communist League of America, the small group of American supporters of Leon Trotsky who went from the peak of the depression with its inactivity and defeats f to the big struggles in 1934 including the Minneapolis Teamster Strikes led by the SWP.
This is the record of Cannon with the support to Trotsky fighting for a clear principled way to turn the movement to the potential of workers resistance, to struggles by Blacks around the Scottsboro frame-up among other things, and at the same time building internationalist principles.
This is also the story of how the CLA and the world movement led by Trotsky realized that the Stalinist capitulation to Hitler in 1933 meant the Comintern was dead, and a new revolutionary international was required.
Everything Cannon writes has a certain wit and wisdom about it, where the value goes beyond the political to the personal and beyond. Even though these were tough times, there is even a glint of humor to be discovered where you might least expect it

This collection of writings and speeches, steeped in the workers struggles of the 1930s and the leadership challenges of forging a communist workers party, really impressed me with how relevant and useful they are today. James P. Cannon was a young organizer for the IWW and early Socialist Party, a founding member and leader of the Communist Party in the United States in the 1920s, and central leader of the cadre who fought to maintain the Bolshevik's revolutionary course against the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union and Communist International from the late 1920s on.

Here you will find week-by-week, sometimes day-by-day, news, analysis, and proposals for action. Cannon writes as a participant and leader of a workers party involved in organizing coal miners, textile strikes, the big 1933 New York hotel strike, the historic Minneapolis Teamsters strikes of 1934. He takes up key international questions: the evolution of the Stalinist leadership in the Soviet Union, the rise of fascism in Germany, and the difficult, persistent efforts led by Leon Trotsky to rebuild a new revolutionary international movement. Many of his writings detail questions of party leadership, lessons of faction and tendency struggles, or answer key practical questions: "what to do next?"

I'd strongly suggest reading this along with Cannon's "History of American Trotskyism" that covers the same historic period, "Teamster Rebellion" by Farrell Dobbs, and current writings that pick up the struggle today, including "Their Trotsky and Ours" and "Capitalism's World Disorder" by Jack Barnes.

Ideal for people who live outside North Korea and wish to learn about North Korea, people who live in North Korea and are confused or for Geoge W. Bush.

Very factual. A good complement to the general news on the subject.

I started reading this book a few days before the July 4th misstle launches. I was glad to get more information on North Korea which was a total mystery to me. Now I understand much more. The book reviews Korean history and how Confucianism has just as much influence in North Korea as communism does. Absolute devotion to the Great Leader is rewarded and the slightest deviation from that is punished by execution. How North Korea will play the nuclear card out is yet to be seen, but I don't think I want them to have nuclear weapons. They will use it for terrorism.

This is a concise and well written modern chronicle of North Korea. There are very few resources available on this "mysterious" country. I found the book to be engrossing, concise and most informative.

I love cher's concert book becouse i love her and i love her concerts.cher is a GREAT person to be a singer,a acter,and to make her own books. Cher was so luck do be married to Sonny.

The author dispenses a complete and concise guide that can be used by any organization in planning the benefit concert. The arrangement of chapters allows the committee to walk through the process knowing full well what is involved. Hollan's sense of humor is evident throughout the book and it is apparent that he has an uncanny ability to attend to detail without losing sight of the goal. Much of the book can be used by individuals or organizations in planning events other than concerts; his tips for dealing with sponsors and the media are very helpful. A great resource for any event planner!

I'm an aspiring promoter and I found this book simply outstanding. This book gave me a vivid picture on how to put on a fund raising event. It was very easy to read and gives valuable information for organizations to build a fund raising concert. I really don't like to read and I found Mr Hollan's personal experiences very interesting. I was further intrigue by the planning and professionalism outline in each chapter. For anyone wishing to put on a fundraising concert, I highly recommend this book. Thanks Mr. Hollan for writing such a great book!

The concert book is a must read for fund raisers. The author's practical experience and easy to read style will jump start your fund raising campaign to new heights.

The book is well written and presents an organized project plan useful for both the novice and seasoned fund raiser.