Races Books

This text was very well written. To this reader who was also reared on Lamming and Naipaul and the rest, there is nothing more gratifying than a beautiful sentence, and Neptune gives us lots of those. Lovely. The spicy tale of the Yanks in the Windies is, as Neptune insists, sometimes glossed over as a Williams-inspired legacy floats on in our various discussions. But indeed, none of what happened during or after the Americans populated Chaguaramas en masse is as cut-and-dry as your average old-time calypso would have you believe. Neptune pieces together a refreshing new narrative that thrusts agency back into women's fingers, exposes the clandestine operations of white hegemony's champions and re-weaves the threads of Trinidadian nationalism. All the while, he delights us with clever, modern usage of the contemporary language rapport during the occupational shenanigans subtly and tastefully. It is a lovely read for anyone, and West Indians in particular will probably be quite tickled throughout. The "Coda" was quite a teaser, particularly the last couple of paragraphs. Neptune opens a world of conversational possibilities for his future books, which you'll be eagerly anticipating after putting this one down.

Peace!

I confess I've never been one to pick up an 'academic' history book in hopes of getting a pleasurable read, however this book breaks the scholarly mold. Though I find Neptune to be heady and thoroughly introspective, his writing lacks, and thankfully so, the jargon and esotericism that can keep me from connecting with a book. 'Caliban and the Yankees' brings up some great and interesting points about revolution and forced me to revisit my image of the revolutionist--here, the disenfranchised people finally get recognition for an often overlooked branch of intelligence that can not be studied in the universities or acquired through a privileged upbringing.
The US occupation in Trinidad, as told by Neptune, becomes a salacious tale of race and class relations, the construction of a national identity and the people who took it upon themselves to reshape and define the culture of its land for the history of its future.
Not only a solid read, but a good one.

This book succesfuly explains how our society has grown to accept a school system that often fails minority children. The reasons and some wonderful solutions are explained in a clear and knowledgable manner.
It highlights the important role of white teachers and how as the majority of the educators (especially in elementary school) they can change our schools for the better, for all children.
This book is a must for parents-who can gain valuable information about our school system to use to their advantage and therefore their community.
I feel blessed for reading this and empowered.

this book is very detailed about Race in America and also the effects within the school structure. it examines why there is a strong feeling of Resegregation in schools and Beyond that is legal without as so much as a Why or how come and why has it come back to this?? this Book asks those Questions and gives Answers at how Education can truly knock those walls away if given the full push it needs. Beverly Daniel Tatum, PHD does a Fantastic Job in this Book in detailing and offering solutions for a Better Tommorrow and Future. but Her words need to be heeded today. Education is the Key. a must have and read book.

I picked up Carry Me Back based just on the subject and I expected a kind of standard treatment of slave trading as a business: so many people were sold to such and such states etc. This book does contain some of that but it has much more. Carry Me Back has an important argument about the nature of American slavery and sectionalism within the South. The book puts the slave trade at the center of American slavery showing how the money generated by the trade both reinforced slavery and led to doubts about its future. Deyle also shows how the increasing commodification of slaves altered the very way in which slavery was perceived by slaveowners and non-slaveowners. This is a must have for anyone who wants to understand American slavery.

I read Steven Deyle's book, Carry Me Back, on the recommendation of a review by Benjamin Schwarz in the June 2005 edition of the Atlantic Monthly. Schwarz praised Carry Me Back as "a fine book - by far the best work to date on the subject." Schwarz also pointed out that Deyle "takes a broad view" of the domestic slave trade and "he approaches the subject with nuance." I found the book persuasively argued and a pleasure to read. Although my doctorate is in political science, I am a history teacher and I strongly recommend Carry Me Back to any student of US history.

This book is written very nicely. The tone is very personnal and to an extent intimate. The difficult subject is treated very well. The painting reproductions are of great quality. The research is very complete.

I had been waiting for years for someone to put together a comprehensive book on the casta painting genre. The book contains many, many beautiful reproductions and there are even ones that I had not seen before. And Katzew's thesis on the subject puts together every other piece of information I have ever been able to find in one place and weaves in her own views. In todays society we can learn a lot about how we work in regards to race politics from casta painting and this book in particular.

Proves that some kinds of advice are timeless. If you are reading a historical review of the man's life, you should read his own words too.

This is a collection of BTW's Sunday sermons to his Tuskegee students. Originally published in 1902, the lessons on thrift, clean living, sharing what you learn with others, the need to read, and the value of education of the heart as well as the head are still valuable a century later. Does not date too badly and with so many young people growing up today without this kind of advice in the home, it's needed just as much today.

Many uninformed people dismiss BTW as an "Uncle Tom," but the publication of more of his writings like this will show that in spite of any faults, he was a very useful person in the upliftment of people. Read it and see.

I read this book several years ago and found it quite enjoyable. I like to read about baseball pennant races and this one was an unforgettable one. Very thorough and readable!

During the summer of 1962 I was 11 years old, and baseball was the most important thing in my life. That summer I listened to every Dodger game and lived and died with every pitch. I knew all the players in both major leagues, but the Dodgers were my life. I can still remember the Koufax no-hitter against the Mets, the sweep of the Giants in L.A., and getting swept by them in S.F., and the September swoon by the Dodgers was epic (leading by 4.5 games with 7 to play!).
The 9th inning of the 3rd playoff game was a trauma that took weeks to recover from (no, I'm not a hopeless case like Red Sox fans!), but something that I still vividly recall today. David Plaut's book brings 1962 back in narrative, chronological form, and while I knew most of the things noted from the Dodgers' perspectives, I gained new insight into what the Giants clubhouse went through, and what their great players thought of the Dodgers, and the pennant race.
This was a classic pennant dogfight with two evenly matched teams going down to the final pitch of the year. Sandy Koufax's ailment can't be used as an excuse - the Giants played better when it counted, as no one remembers who finished second, except for broken-hearted Dodger fans, and David Plaut, who has put together a wonderful reminiscence of that magical summer of 1962.
I highly recommend this book to baseball fans of any age.

I liked this book because it is a good story of a girl who visits her neighbor who is old and lonely. This lady (Miss Maggie) tells a story to the little girl who visits her (Ellie) about a doll that she had when she was a girl. For her Eighth Birthday she got a doll with big blue eyes. She laid her doll on the hallway table. Then when they heard a crash. It was the doll. Her Birthday was coming up and they bought a present for her. What happened to the doll? To find out what happens next read this book.

Call me sentimental, but there's something to this story that tugs at your heart strings every time you read it. And I've read this at least a dozen times.

The story tells of the relationship between Ellie and her sitter Miss Maggie and of the very special birthday gift that Ellie gets for Maggie out of "pure love."

The illustrations are quite beautiful and complement the story very well. A tender story creates a tender heart. This is the best book in the Chicken Soup for Little Souls' series.

I am a Melungeon descendant who formerly wrote a column on the topic in a history journal. I wrote an extensive review with some context for my remarks for Amazon, but it was refused. I rewrote it and it was still refused. From the point-of-view of those who have already read a great deal on the subject, and from the point-of-view of those involved in discussions about Melungeons (for whom this may be their first book on the topic), a contextual review would be helpful. This book does away with much of the conjecture and folklore, and helps to eliminate many of the more bizarre origin stories that some would rather believe than the truth about how the Melungeons came to be. Melungeons are a uniquely American people, created out of the raw materials of people who were already here before colonization, colonists, those the colonists brought with them as servants, and those the colonists bartered-for or purchased as laborers ... before the days of chattel slavery. Hashaw's book lays the foundation for a rational discussion of the topic ... and is the first book to do so. It is, therefore, a breakthrough in a rational discussion of Melungeon origins.

Children Of Perdition: Melungeons And The Struggle Of Mixed America by award winning investigative journalist Tim Hashaw is the history of mixed-race communities in America during the 300 years in which marriage between whites and nonwhites was outlawed. Melungeons, often called "children of perdition" by both whites and blacks, ranked socially below communities of freed slaves even though they had lighter skin. Persecution of melungeons included imprisonment, whipping, slavery, lunching, gun battles, forced sterilization, and exile, yet they persevered and preserved folk tales. Even in the twentieth century, there were various American schemes to forcibly exile US citizens with as little as "one drop" of black blood to Africa. In addition to tracing history, Children Of Perdition delves into psychology and the development of racism both historical and modern, as well as the practices of scapegoating, racial politics, and the impact of World War II and the Nazis. Highly recommended as both history and ancient and modern social commentary.

Mr. Jackson did excellent research for this book. I have numerous ancestors mentioned in the book and even had a picture of one that I had never seen before. Anyone interested in the history of the Western Mt, Idaho and Eastern WA area, will need to read this book. I hope that the Author publishes more material from his research.

From the book, I found out that the Metis of the Pacific Northwest formed many communities in that area. My great-grandparents were born in Walla Walla, WA. and we were told that they were French- Canadian and "Black Irish". I read that in Walla Walla, is where they founded communities and that they hid there ancestry and called themselves French-Canadian. So, on reading this, I found out that the missing part to my full heritage was actually a mixture of French and Native American Indian. I owe a great gratitude to Mr. Jackson. Thank-you!!! Sean

This is not an easy book to read. Like the incredibly popular Da Vinci Code, this book weaves fact, fiction and speculation. And at first this, along with the mixing of different fonts, it is a little jarring. But what really makes the book not so easy to read is the demand it places on you to not take for granted that power is being exercised by our culture, by our country and by other entities and forces who would want to make choices for us. Once you get over the inclination to stop and search out each movement of the story in order to validate and explore it, you let the story unfold and simply let it inspire you to take your place in this world with a little more seriousness, sobriety and resolve. A tall order, but Ishmael delivers.

The premis of "Chosen World" is that we all live in a world that is chosen, either by ourselves or by someone else.
Which world do I choose to live in and how can I live in it when others are choosing a world other than what I'm choosing?
The importance of recognising the other "choosers" and their right to make their choices AND my right to make my choices and to live by them is paramount. RESPECT of each other and Non interferance with others even when they choose to live differently from us are key factors in getting along in this world.
I found the book challenging and insightful. It's not bed time reading for me but I highly recommend it to those who want to be enlightened about what's going on in our world and who's making the choices that impact your life.

Jake Schmidt, Therapist / Counsellor, Keystone Counselling Associates