Illinois Books

Carroll pens a thorough and illuminating account of an early African-American icon that Americans of all colors gradually forgot, Fritz Pollard. Fritz Pollard was arguably the first modern age African American athletic star that used his athletic prowess to further his opportunities in other fields such as movies, booking, investments, and even tax consulting. He successfully, although not without difficulty, negotiated the hazards, pitfalls, challenges, and bias of a racially charged America to become as Carroll maintains, "a pioneer in interracial relations." (4) Carroll promotes and attributes this pioneer theme to Pollard throughout the biography. The author also accredits Pollard's successes and pioneering nature to Pollard's family background and childhood. Although not overly sympathetic, Carroll clearly contains high praise for Pollard and his accomplishments contending that Pollard "established more `firsts' for his race than perhaps any other African American in this century." (239) The author is careful to temper this praise with accounts of Pollard's bitterness towards perceived injustices and mistreatment due to racism and lack of attention Pollard thought he deserved. The result is a commendable biography of Fritz Pollard as an early race relations pioneer, athletic star, and sometimes-successful businessman deserving of far more attention and memories than Pollard currently garners.
Efforts such as Carroll's help keep the memories of Pollard alive for those who have never heard of or fully grasped the achievements of Pollard. Carroll's assertion that Pollard was a pioneer in race relations, however, appears to fall flat in some respects. As Carroll points out, Pollard had to negotiate a subtle balance between asserting his race and accepting the tide of racism. Yet, it appears that Pollard endured more racism and contempt on the playing field rather than in business endeavors. Perhaps this was because most of Pollard's business activities were aimed at African Americans themselves, but it seems plausible that Pollard would face far more discrimination and racial injustices in the business arena than the sporting one. One must also question what Pollard really thought of his role in pioneering racial equality.
Towards the end of the book, Carroll notes that Pollard displays bitterness in regards to the racial animosities delivered his way. Pollard's daughter, Leslie asserts that Pollard deeply cared about his race and the cause of civil rights. (239) Acknowledging that some of Pollard's efforts were behind closed doors and diminished because of a natural assumption that the black middle class emulated white society too much, Carroll's contention that Pollard was truly a pioneer in race relations seems weak. Perhaps it is only a case of the author failing to connect accurately his argument to his examples. Whether his deeds pioneered race relations or not, Pollard deserves remembering for all of the firsts and successes he indeed accomplished.

If you don't know Fritz Pollard you must read this book. It provides insight into him and the people closest to him. It raises your spirits and makes you want to accomplish great tasks. This is an A+++++++ book for any football fan.

This book steps inside the modest bungalows of ethnic blue-collar workers in greater Chicago at the turn of the century. It examines the bungalow as a housing form that evolved from multiple influences, and considers the meanings that consumers constructed around their homes. A must read for folks who want to understand how ordinary people lived, and how Home, Sweet Home became part of every immigrant family's version of the American Dream.

I started genealogy research for our family this summer. Our ancestors hail from the Hammond and West Hammond areas featured in the book. The author does far more than merely focusing on the housing designs. He provides an interesting look back at the social, political, and economical climate the immigrants / early settlers lived in. The Notes section is packed with references and has proved to be invaluable as I continue my family history and local history research. I can only hope the author chooses to pick up where this book left off.

The book From Mission to Madness proves that mental illness can afflict even the posterity of the Prophets. David H. Smith, son of the famed Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, never lived to know his father; he missed the fatherly embrace by five months. Much to Brigham Young's dismay, David became affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and was one of its most effective and revered missionaries. Mental illness overcame him, and he spent the last three decades of his life in a mental hospital. Avery performed wonderfully well in framing his life story, using personal and official RLDS church correspondence. I felt the heartache and pain that David's family experienced as they struggled, hoped and despaired. This book was so engaging that I actually read the entire book in less than two weeks (which, for me, is noteworthy when considering any non-fiction work over 100 pages). David Smith's life was replete with pathos and unfulfilled expectations (he was destined to take his father's place as Prophet). The book also adequately describes the perpetual tension that existed, and at times does currently exist, between the Utah and the RLDS Mormon churches. Even though Avery placed an inordinant emphasis on Smith's poetical works, I would recommend this book to all.

I hold a master's degree in history and am particularly interested in Mormon and Western history. This is perhaps one of the best books I have ever read. This has been a research topic for the author for nearly twenty years, beginning as her doctoral dissertation entitled "Insanity and the Sweet Singer." Avery took great pains in researching this book, and delayed its publication until full disclosure of all works became available upon the death of David's final grandson. David was like a young prince, forced to live in the shadow of a famous father and older brother, both leaders of respective churches. Avery shows the slow descent into madness experienced by David Hyrum Smith as he tries to find his place. A disasterous mission to Salt Lake City to convert Mormons will be of interest to Mormons, Reorganized LDS members and readers in general. The look at the Elgin asylum is an fascinating topic for interested parties as well. You cannot go wrong with this book.

I have been haunting used book stores for some time because someone borrowed my copy and never returned it. .... I discovered that I could keep on hand a supply of books, videos, etc., the use of which would almost always "trigger" grief reactions such as the kind of gut-wrenching sobs, quiet tears, or whatever it might take to remind me that I, too, had been given that beautiful treasure of simple, human vulnerability. And, once again, I could begin to operate in the midst of my humanness with Joy. Among the best of these resources (along with the movie, "Places in the Heart,")was Nina's little book, "Go Out in Joy." Why hadn't I thought to simply check with Amazon.Com? Well, now I have, and am submitting my order for this treasure-store of open human-to-human encounters ... and looking forward to that tiny lady-bug who could always be counted on to come along and melt me down again to who I was "meant" to be.

J. Kent Borgaard
...

As a child growing up with a disability, it was hard to find books that I could relate to. Go Out In Joy was the first book I read that showed the HUMAN side of disability; the first book to address MY disability and say "Yes, sometimes it sucks!" It helped me feel not so alone.

Good Hearts: Catholic Sisters In Chicago's Past by Suellen Hoy (Guest Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame) is an introduction to the history of influential women in the Chicago's Catholic community. Ably compiling a concise biographically anthology as the basis for an in-depth study of meticulous scholarship, Good Hearts offers readers the wisdom of the nuns spanning a time period from the mid-1800's through the twentieth century, and with a particularly focus on the era surrounding the social and cultural issues of the 1960's and the activism contributed by Catholic women. Also available in a hardcover edition (0252030575, $50.00) Good Hearts is informative and recommended reading for non-specialist general readers with an interest in Chicago history, Women's Studies, the American Catholic church, and the historical influence of Catholic women in American social reforms.

In the book "Good Hearts: Catholic Sisters in Chicago's Past," Suellen Hoy takes a look at the kinds of work that nuns have been involved with over the years. She focuses on sisters/nuns in Chicago, but much of what she says could be said about so many other sisters and nuns across the United States. These women are presented as dynamic and powerful forces of change in society. They emphasized the importance of education, and showed how it could be used to move upwards in society, and could also help move equality forward. Very interesting, and very "readable" book.

: Sunday Chicago Tribune Book Section--Editor's Choice!

"Celebration abounds but never gives way to sentimentalism in this sixth volume of poetry by veteran author Ira Sadoff. Often spare in his descriptions, Sadoff allows objects and observations to suggest their stories rather than overstate them. In many of the poems, a whimsical but wise voice presides, especially in 'An Improbable Delirium,' where a speaker slyly ruminates: 'Something tells me it's the job of poetry/ to bring some wretched character out on stage,/ to gesture wildly, giving a soliloquy....'"--Carolyn Alessio, deputy editor

Ira Sadoff, Grazing (University of Illinois Press, 1998)

I find it very hard to write reviews of Ira Sadoff's books; there's nothing I can say about Sadoff's work that will be objective in the least. I am a slavish fan to the pen of Ira Sadoff, and find each of his books to be pure delight. So when I say that Grazing may well be Sadoff's best book (arguably, the brilliant Emotional Traffic stacks up), it's saying something.

Grazing is, above all, an angry book, and the poems where it's not angry seem almost as if they're lulls during the storm. And despite the fact that Sadoff is one of those "academic" poets who are so often sneered at in the small press for being dry, dusty, and antiquated, it's impossible to read Grazing and not feel anger radiating off the pages. After all this anger, the book's final piece, "The Inner Life," resounds with a desolation it might not otherwise have. It's impossible to instill a sense of the way this poem works with the rest of the book by excerpting it here, but it still deserves quotation:

..."Going off like a buzzer
in a factory, where we charge out of the doors denouncing
the one who sticks his head in a stack of papers
then comes out shrugging, giving us the thumb."...

This is powerful stuff, folks, and well worth the time it takes to hunt down. Get to know the work of Ira Sadoff. The man is amazing. *****

If this book were fiction, it would rank up there with The War of The Worlds for exciting reading-BUT IT ISN'T. This insane incident occured and the [people] involved got a very short prison sentence for almost kdnaping the president's body to get a counterfeiter out of jail! I won't reveal anything, but get this book-it's [a good price] and reads like a great mystery, but it all happened in 1879 and its all true and all unbelievable!!

This revised edition of the Great Abraham Lincoln Hijack, story of the 1876 attempt to steal President Lincoln's body, first published in 1990, is footnoted with foreword by Thomas F. Schwartz, Illinois State Historian. Bonnie Speer has made a notable contribution to Lincoln literature and this study deserves a place on the shelves of Lincolniana. It is most readable and factual. Wayne C. Temple, Illinois State Archives

Recently, there has been an increasing stream of revisionist studies of the Supreme Court, focusing on the New Deal period, designed to convince us that the Court really was not as reactionary and partisan as generally believed. Cushman's book on the New Deal Court and McKenna's volume on the Court Packing plan are two examples. The author of this volume goes back to the Gilden Age Court to develop a complimentary thesis. It is hard to be too critical of the book, given that the scholarship is impeccable and exhaustively examines an area not too well studied in the Court literature. Bailey's main thesis is that the Justices comprising the Court between 1860 and 1910 overwhelmingly based their decisions upon a shared heritage of morality and ethics, which gave them a "moral compass." The author reviews in depth the speeches and off-the-court writings of Justices Brewer, Field, Strong, Harlan, Bradley, Brown, McKenna and others to examine their private views of morality, ethics, and the role of law. He demonstrates that several Justices, especially Brewer and Harlan, held strongly Christian orientations. The bibliography of original sources covers nearly ten pages and is a very valuable resource in tracing these viewpoints. But in final analysis, one asks "so what?" The fact that "moral" and Christian justices unleashed the Income Tax decision, developed the concept of freedom of contract, and came close to suppressing the labor and reform movements is not made any more palatable because those Justices sincerely believed in what they were doing. So the main contribution of the book, which is a substantial one, is that it gives us new insight into what made these Justices tick. Nonetheless, their oath was to preserve and protect the Constitution, not to translate their religious and ethical beliefs into constitutional law. Some Justices of the period appeared to have forgotten that fact.

This is a necessary book in both jurisprudence and American history generally. Another reviewer believes that the justices of the period read their politics (or more accurately, what that reviewer believes to have been their politics) into the Constitution. This completely misses the point of the book: the justices believed not only in the unity of the common law, but in the Unity of the Law - that the Science of the Law is the golden chain that links the farthest reaches of theology to everyday human experience. Legislation in such a view is mere fallible distraction from Truth; the suggestion that the justices consciously introduced their political ideas into the law would have greatly insulted them. To speculate that these preferences unconsciously dictated their rulings not only falls into the murky depths of Legal Realism, but is directly contradicted by the evidence of the book, showing that all the justices, regardless of party affiliation or regional origin, shared this view. This is the norm against which Oliver Wendell Holmes' radicalism can now properly be viewed; it is ironic that the reviewer upset by the supposed activism of this Court holds their same conservative view that there can be only one correct interpretation of the law.

Highly recommend this book, great pricing structure. Could possibly use an easier way of looking up items but generally a great book.

We have been collecting Haeger for years. This book gives us a much better understanding of our collection.

First of all, since the political campaigns have been raging in the media, we have heard a lot about hate crimes. The category of hate crime however, is restricted to personal violence, as it is commonly understood to mean. This book broadens the concept by globalizing the notion of hate. In lieu of today's developments and some other notable global crimes, such as genocides (i.e., Rwanda, Bosnia) this type of macro approach to the etiology of crime seems highly relevant and necessary. What I found particularly noteworthy is the multiple-point stances and perspectives of the various authors. Such a diverse representation of opinions, I thought, added to the overall purpose and strength of the book.

The chapter on Colin Ferguson approached explanation by using Franz Fanon's theory of violence. The author does successfully incorporate the major tenets of his theory in his explanation, there were some questions I thought would be relevant to the discussion. For example, Sartre, in writing the preface to Fanon's book, concurred with Fanon in stating that the native, repressed in his hatred toward his colonizers, is apt to act more violently against his native man. I was not sure if such was the case with Ferguson. Perhaps, if there had been instances in which he did act out against "his people" it would strengthen the argument more.

Rage, anger, madness as manifestation of creativity and freeing force in the subject's double bind is a topic worthy of further exploration. I am looking forward to the author developing this idea in his further works.

I enjoyed the differing perspective on the nature of hate. By charting the macro origins of conflict, I think the book sheds insight as to the micro dimensions of hate crime as it presently finds form today.

The recent brutal beating and murder of a gay Wyoming student points out but one aspect of the type of hate crimes whuch in most countries of the world. In Hate Crimes: The Global Politics of Polarization professor Jess Maghan and Robert J. Kelly have brought together an excellent collection of essays which hit the problem head-on. The editors contributions add to the book, especially the article on the Ku Klux Klan by Kelly and Maghan's well researched annotated bibliography on the subject. The book includes essays on black rage and victimization; neo-nazis and skinheads; homeless Palestinians and the Arab world; hate crime in India; and the victimization of street children in Colombia. Of particular interest are several pieces on the historical aspects of hate crime, and the development of legislative efforts to cope with what is percived as a growing area of concern in criminal justice. Maghan, who is an associate professor of criminal justice at the university of illinois at chicago, and Kelly, who is a Broeklundian professor of social science at Brooklyn College and a professor of criminal justice at the Graduate School of the City University of New York are well respected authors in the area of hate crime, and in this book they have made a significant contribution to understanding the international dimensions and manifistations of hatred and brutality.