Book Description
The inspiring account of one man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti- American reaches of Asia
In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time—Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.
Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin has collaborated on this spellbinding account of Mortenson's incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are often feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself. At last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world—one school at a time.
Customer Reviews:
Couldn't put it down.......2007-10-18
This amazing story will capture your heart and keep you glued to your chair turing page after page. Hats off to Dr. Greg and all who help allieviate the worlds problems one person at a time.
Great Book.......2007-10-18
This is a great novel, I also recommend "Detained Differences" by J. Robert Rowe. That is also a great Afghanistan novel as well.
Three Cups of Tea.......2007-10-17
It was a book required to read in an English class. The book has a good message.
Admire the Commitment and Accomplishments, but..........2007-10-15
What Mortensen accomplished with commitment and perseverance is undoubtly a great humanitarin effort. However, the book is irritating to read. Mortensen's name is used so many times over and over it is distracting. "Mortensen this" and "Mortensen that"! It reads like Mortiensen is a demi-god and it really presents like this when you realize he is a coauthor. Why not write this inspiring story in "first person"?
The humanitarian effort is inspiring if you can get through the book!
A book every American should read.......2007-10-15
An excellent story and very well written. It is particularly timely today given what is going on in that part of the world. It certainly gives much to think about. I would recommend this to everyone I know.
Book Description
Despite its enormous wealth, the United States leads the industrialized world in poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged unravels this disturbing paradox by offering a unique and radically different understanding of American poverty. It debunks many of our most common myths about the poor, while at the same time provides a powerful new framework for addressing this enormous social and economic problem. Mark Robert Rank vividly shows that the fundamental causes of poverty are to be found in our economic structure and political policy failures, rather than individual shortcomings or attitudes. He establishes for the first time that a significant percentage of Americans will experience poverty during their adult lifetimes, and firmly demonstrates that poverty is an issue of vital national concern. Ultimately, Rank provides us with a new paradigm for understanding poverty, and outlines an innovative set of strategies that will reduce American poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged represents a profound starting point for rekindling a national focus upon America's most vexing social and economic problem.
Customer Reviews:
Informative and easy-reading.......2007-05-13
This book provides information, both statistical and anecdotal, on the structural perspective of poverty. Inspirational and eye-opening, Rank reminds us that our social, economic, and political systems are to blame for the existence of poverty in America.
Intelligent, well-researched but nothing new here.......2007-05-12
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I think it is one of the most intelligent liberal books on the subject of poverty in America written recently. Rank knows the scholarly literature. This is a well-researched and a well-written book. From this perspective, it is a good, solid, if not especially brillant book.
On the other hand, this book annoys me. Rank says he has a "new paradigm" of understanding poverty. This radical new innovation, that none of us have ever heard before, is that poverty is not caused by the failings of the poor, it is caused by society. Excuse me? This has been the orthodox liberal line for, lets see, at least 40 years. I find it annoying to have the same old stuff served up as if it were new.
Rank also puts alot of energy into explaining why we ought to care about poverty. His assumption is that the American people just don't give a damm. He thinks that, if he can show us why we ought to care, then we will vote for his slight modification of the same old liberal programs.
This is arrogant and pompous. Excuse me, I think the American people care very much about human suffering. If you guys had a plausible explanation for how you were going to solve poverty, I think people would vote for it. They don't vote for the liberal view, not because they are uncaring monsters, who do not give a damm about the poor, but because we tried all of this stuff, back in the 1960s, and it did not work.
Professor Rank, I have a radical suggestion for you. Read Charles Murray. You really need to catch up on the latest cuting edge stuff from the 1980s.
Strong Argument.......2006-08-17
What I really enjoyed about this book was its organization and the strength of its arguments. It begins by laying out the extent and reasons for poverty in America. Then it shifts to developing several lines of reasoning as to why poverty is such an important issue that affects us all. And finally, the last third of the book talks about what can be done to effectively address poverty. I particularly enjoyed the last chapter that talks about what an individual can do in their daily life to create a positive change with respect to reducing poverty. I definitely plan to use the arguments in this book in the future.
I also appreciated the blending of solid research evidence with the sense of social justice and values that the author brings to bear. Overall, very well done, and very important!
5 stars? Really?.......2006-08-14
Mark Rank proposes many interesting ideas that attempt redefine how we think about poverty in America. Most of his ideas are solid, but my deepest concern is with the readers who gave this book 5 stars and used the word "interesting" to describe it. Did they actually read it?
This book is an unending parade of boring and repeated ideas presented in different, yet equally boring ways. I honestly beleive that this book has destroyed the thrill of musical chairs for me forever. This book could have been written in about 150 pages instead of the 250 it actually took if he simply used his original, not to mention solid, ideas. The nature of the book greatly weakened his overall argument.
Not only was the book dry, but it also seemed to fail to acknowledge the global system the US is a part of, and in particular, the role that immigration plays on poverty in the US. He talks about the US and the people in it as if they were static, but we live in a very fluid world, growing more fluid everyday, and I feel that his failure to ackowledge this fact truly hurts his overall argument.
A timely analysis .......2006-07-11
On Nation, Underprivileged is a timely discussion of an issue that impacts us all. In his book, Professor Rank carefully crafts a compassionate, analytical and innovative approach for addressing poverty in our country. This is a must read for all (especially policy makers).
Average customer rating:
- the first and best about indian gaming
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One Nation Under the Gun
Rick Hornung
Manufacturer: Pantheon
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ASIN: 0679412654
Release Date: 1992-04-14 |
Customer Reviews:
the first and best about indian gaming.......2000-06-16
This is bound to be a classic, one of those books scholars will use as a reference in trying to understand the transformation of Indian nations in the late 20th century. Several years before Indian casinos changed the economic landscape of the southern New England and other sections of North America, Rick Hornung was one of the first reporters on the case. In 1989-1990, he traveled to Mohawk lands, artfully documenting the Mohawks' violent civil war over the effort to build, run and maintain lucrative casinos. While most nations negotiated settlements and compacts with state and federal governments, the Mohawks refused to give up their sovereignty over reserved lands. This decision to resist and begin a new, dynamic economy is at the core of Hornung's gripping, exciting and incisive chronicle of what happens to an Indian community when it must decide between gambling or other forms of economic and political development. Adding to the complexity and excitement is Hornung's shrewd awareness of how troubles in New York spilled across the St. Lawrence River and caused an armed revolt on the streets of Montreal. Determined to let the various present their views, Hornung creates a vivid and unfrogettable protrait of a Mohawk community faced with the conflicting demands of preserving the past and securing a future. From one confrontation to the next, Hornung weaves a tight narrative of suspense and political intrigue that often erupts into violence. In his book, the Mohawks are astute and intelligent participants in the struggle to redefine their own identity in a world of loss, longing and betrayal.
Intelligent and Relevant.......2000-06-06
This account of the Mohawk Civil War, near the end of the 20th century, proves even more relevant at the beginning of the 21st, as gambling laws and Indians make new news. Rick Hornung invites the men and women whose story this is, to speak from their own places of division and betrayal. With honesty and intelligence, Hornung's report brings these people to the understanding of his readers. One Nation Under The Gun is one of the most important books for anyone brave enough to look deep inside conflict and struggle. It is a must read for the serious student of history, politics, and government.
Book Description
Americans have traditionally placed great value on self-reliance and fortitude. In recent decades, however, we have seen the rise of a therapeutic ethic that views Americans as emotionally underdeveloped, psychically frail, and requiring the ministrations of mental health professionals to cope with life's vicissitudes. Being "in touch with one's feelings" and freely expressing them have become paramount personal virtues. Today-with a book for every ailment, a counselor for every crisis, a lawsuit for every grievance, and a TV show for every conceivable problem-we are at risk of degrading our native ability to cope with life's challenges.Drawing on established science and common sense, Christina Hoff Sommers and Dr. Sally Satel reveal how "therapism" and the burgeoning trauma industry have come to pervade our lives. Help is offered everywhere under the presumption that we need it: in children's classrooms, the workplace, churches, courtrooms, the media, the military. But with all the "help" comes a host of troubling consequences, including:* The myth of stressed-out, homework-burdened, hypercompetitive, and depressed or suicidal schoolchildren in need of therapy and medication* The loss of moral bearings in our approach to lying, crime, addiction, and other foibles and vices* The unasked-for "grief counselors" who descend on bereaved families, schools, and communities following a tragedy, offering dubious advice while billing plenty of money* The expansion of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from an affliction of war veterans to nearly everyone who has experienced a setback Intelligent, provocative, and wryly amusing, One Nation Under Therapy demonstrates that "talking about" problems is no substitute for confronting them.
Customer Reviews:
Critical thinking thrives on controversy.......2006-08-31
I had the pleasure of reviewing this book earlier this year,along with an edited work of a similar theme by Cummings and Wright, for Cognitive & Behavioral Practice (13,98-101). While noting therein that "there is much with which to agree and more than a bit to dispute," I went on to argue that a principles read of both these texts can only improve our hope for a more reasoned and evidence based approach to assistance.
The success of any provocateur may best be assessed through the polarization of responses to his or her points. Given that metric, Sommers and Satel have certainly succeeded in sampling of reviews placed here. Those sympathetic to their arguments rave while those opposed rant. This is fine, but let not the heat prevent force us back too far to benefit from the light.
The real issue here is more about what psychology has become and will become in the future. Once a fledgling science of behavior crafted by august and critical thinkers, its scientific base has been diluted to homepathic proportions by ever increasing legions of well meaning but often undereducated quasi-professional providers for whom the notion of "intervention" is increasingly untethered to either specified mechanism or empirical outcome. This represents more than medocrity of application--it risks becoming a pernicious threat to our own understanding of ourselves and our essential human nature. That is the essential thesis Sommers and Satel ask us to consider carefully--no matter what one's personal disposition may be, it is a worthy and important matter to consider.
Know when to keep it in balance.......2006-08-29
A healer is a clear guide when you are on the journey to fulfilling your soul's destiny but the road is hard to see sometimes because of fog and other natural happenings. They give you the directions since they are removed and objective from a higher place of seeing ... to support you with the needed data to stay on course during these moments of cloudy vision. YOU (soul) are ultimately still driving the car (your life in action)... you have to choose what to do with the directions given, and still alter the route if an unexpected rainstorm happens.
... The problem with too much therapy ... is that the people forget they are still responsible for their life... and in a money-making mode.... many life coaches and healers are too happy to take money and run, leaving you broke and possibly still hurting...
Right Wing Political Entertainment.......2006-08-01
Confuses Calvinistic moral posturing with honesty. Extremely poorly researched or evidence that didn't match cherished beliefs of the target market was omitted in order to increase sales to that niche.
Maslow and Rogers, RIP.......2006-07-26
I took my degree in psychology in the heyday of Maslow and Rogers, and found the overemphasis on "finding yourself" narcissistic and off point. This book is worth it alone for the chapter on Esteem Thyself which traces how this crept into the field of psychology and opened the door to one nation under therapy.
The positive potential of the self-esteem and self-actualization movement got spun into the overwrought "therapism" that has come to pervade our lives and assume every situation has something that needs "help." This point is even demonstrated (unintentionally it appears) by another reviewer who presumes that people who like the book are just another group who needs help because they are looking for something to blame for their frustrations with modern life. That's just plain silly. Most don't need help and aren't necessarily frustrated with modern life (I am not). What's worse, it demeans the difficulties of those who truly do need help.
Well worth reading with much more, including the mythology of the fragile child as yet another object to be saved by the misguided helping culture.
Critique of Nation Addicted to Therapy Transcends Politics.......2006-07-01
Sommers and Satel's thesis, which I find indisputable no matter what your politics, is that the therapy industry, driven by the human potential movement and making big bucks, has contributed largely to our nation's weakening psyche: We have become a bunch of over-sensitive cry-babies full of entitlement, divorced from common sense and self-reliance. What's really frightening is the manner in which the authors have put our therapy-numbed brains in the context of a post 9/11 world, a time in which we need to be tougher and more street-smart than ever. Woefully though, too many of us are still seduced by the fraud of the "fragile inner child," the cult of self-esteem, the obsession with removing morality and character in the name of "syndromes."
The most salient point is the hiring of grief counselors to help people cope with the aftermath of 9/11. The rest of the world must be laughing at us for seeing the war against us as a matter of grief counseling. How dangerously weak we've become. One Nation Under Therapy is a bracing wake-up call.
Book Description
Every industrial nation in the world guarantees its citizens access to essential health care services--every country, that is, except the United States. In fact, one in eight Americans--a shocking 43 million people--do not have any health care insurance at all. One Nation, Uninsured offers a vividly written history of America's failed efforts to address the health care needs of its citizens. Covering the entire twentieth century, Jill Quadagno shows how each attempt to enact national health insurance was met with fierce attacks by powerful stakeholders, who mobilized their considerable resources to keep the financing of health care out of the government's hands. Quadagno describes how at first physicians led the anti-reform coalition, fearful that government entry would mean government control of the lucrative private health care market. Doctors lobbied legislators, influenced elections by giving large campaign contributions to sympathetic candidates, and organized "grassroots" protests, conspiring with other like-minded groups to defeat reform efforts. As the success of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-century led physicians and the AMA to start scaling back their attacks, the insurance industry began assuming a leading role against reform that continues to this day. One Nation, Uninsured offers a sweeping history of the battles over health care. It is an invaluable read for anyone who has a stake in the future of America's health care system.
Customer Reviews:
Surprisingly interesting and readable primer on such a complex issue.......2007-10-09
One Nation Uninsured is brought to life in a fresh way by various first-hand recollections that are peppered throughout detailed, academic sketches of the major historical episodes that failed to produce national health insurance. Instead of reading like another dry textbook, this book provides an informative, intimate, and plausible narrative of why many of the major players did what they did in light of their different circumstances, motivations, and temperaments. Particular attention is also paid to other important non-health care events, such as the Red Scare, Brown v. Board of Education, Watergate, and Iran-Contra, as they indirectly affected the political will to mobilize for and against national health insurance, making this account all the more believable and nicely nuanced.
My only complaint is that since the book was published in 2005, 2006 Part D legislation which expanded Medicare coverage, could not be discussed, but hopefully an updated edition will be written in a few years. Overall, a surprisingly interesting and readable primer on such a complex issue.
Special Interests Prevail.......2007-05-12
Very enlightening historical perspective on national health insurance. It seems special interests dominant in our democratic society. Quite surprising that both republican & democratic presidents tried to pass national health insurance. Special interests contribute to both parties and when the going gets close focus on those candidates who are vulnerable in order to entice their vote.
In our current lack of bi-partisian political climate, it seems very doubtful that national health insurance has a chance of being passed.
book was cheap and new.......2007-02-10
the book came on time, looks new and was incredibly cheap
Praise for One Nation, Uninsured.......2006-03-13
"An important book. Jill Quadagno provides an impressive array of historical evidence to advance original arguments for why the United States lacks a comprehensive health care system and why health insurance should be viewed as a social right. This book is must reading for those concerned about health care reform in the United States." -- William Julius Wilson, author of When Work Disappears
"A chilling historical account of how powerful groups with self-serving financial interests have successfully blocked attempts to enact national health insurance for seven decades, leaving tens of millions of our citizens without adequate health care coverage and often without even minimal care. Anyone eager to seek reform of our badly fragmented health care system must study its lessons and its blueprint for action; a task that will require nearly unprecedented political skills and monumental organizational prowess." -- Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D., author of On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity With Big Business Can Endanger Your Health
"Jill Quadagno has produced the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of the power and effectiveness of interest groups in defeating a century of national health insurance reform campaigns. An impressive combination of theory and historical research, One Nation, Uninsured sets the parameters for the next round of debate over why the U.S. remains the only country without universal health insurance and how it might still expand access while reigning in costs." -- Lawrence R. Jacobs, McKnight Land Grant Professor, University of Minnesota
"A fresh, savvy, powerful, ambitious, lyrical explanation of how America became so heartless about health care. Highly recommended for both citizens and scholars." -- James A. Morone, author of Hellfire Nation and Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair
"Quadagno, a distinguished sociologist with a long-standing interest in policy, explores a century of government attempts to create universal health care and the powerful forces that have defeated those attempts.... Her sociological insights illuminate a path to reform." -- The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Readable and engaging.... Some of the most interesting portions come from Quadagno's own archival searches and her interviews with people who lived the history that she describes.... Quadagno's sustained focus on interest-group politics seems right on target." -- New England Journal of Medicine
"A strongly argued account that provides useful ammunition for anyone seeking to effect change in a medical system that willfully excludes so many who need it." -- Kirkus Reviews
More bogus literature.......2005-07-04
See my review of "Uninsured in America: Life & Death in the Land of Opportunity" for reasons why this argument is bogus and filled with lies.
Customer Reviews:
Concise and To The Point.......2005-06-14
This book covers every aspect,of the Native American Church, necessary to provide the reader with a good solid understanding of the significance and importance,of it, not only in the Native American population, but the religious freedoms of the United States as well. Highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in this church, Native American Studies or in religious freedom. Well written and well organized,(Co-Authored by significant member of the church). Includes history and the Religious Freedom Act (1994)
Highly Recommended
Entheogens: Professional Listing.......1999-05-01
"One Nation Under God" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy" http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy
Amazon.com
Acclaimed historian Gertrude Himmelfarb builds on a cultural insight made by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: every civilized society has a pair of yin- and yang-like subcultures, one that values hard work and thrift, and a bohemian foil that treats vice more indulgently. "Much of the social history of modern times can be written in terms of the rise and fall, the permutations and combinations, of these two systems," she writes. The problem, according to One Nation, Two Cultures, is that what used to be called the counterculture, with its full embrace of moral relativism and disdain for religious devotion, now dominates American life. It controls the media and the universities, and has started to reach down into the public at large. The "dissident" minority culture is no longer made up of tuned-out Woodstock radicals, but otherwise ordinary Americans who cling to traditional bourgeois values. What sets One Nation, Two Cultures apart from the increasingly tired "culture wars" debate is the historical backdrop it provides. Himmelfarb draws on her immense knowledge of Victorian England and her deep reading of old sources to make her case. With both concision and precision, she explains the problem, gives it vital context, and outlines a few reasons for optimism. Social conservatives who enjoyed Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Robert Bork's bestseller, will definitely want to read One Nation, Two Cultures.
Book Description
In
One Nation, Two Cultures, one of today's most respected and articulate cultural critics gives us a penetrating examination of the gulf between the two sides of American society -- a divide that cuts across class, racial, ethnic, political, and sexual lines. While one side originated in the traditional idea of republican virtue, the other emerged from the counterculture of the late 1960s and has become the dominant culture of today.
In clear and vigorous prose, Himmelfarb argues that while the dominant culture pervades journalism, academia, television, and film, a "dissident culture" continues to promote the values of family, a civil society, sexual morality, privacy, and patriotism. The clash between these two cultures affects all areas of American society.
Despite her forceful critique, Himmelfarb sees encouraging signs for the future of American culture. She explores the place of religion, family, and the law in American life and proposes democratic remedies for the nation's moral and cultural diseases. Though there are many legitimate grievances against government, she contends, our citizenry cannot afford to delegitimize it. And she concludes that it is a tribute to Americans that, without serious social strife, we remain one nation even as we are divided into two cultures.
One Nation, Two Cultures is a stimulating work, one sure to provoke lively discussion and controversy.
Customer Reviews:
The Loss & Hope of Recovery of Civil Society.......2001-05-09
Himmelfarb writes an interesting jaunt into the cultural revolution and the aftermath that we now live within.
She focuses on the role of civil society, that undergirding structure of morals and values which transcends the laws and judicial process and makes them workable. We are told that this civil society is the "seedbed of virute." It mediates between extreme individualism and the all-powerful state.
The downgrading of heros and history and good works causing the moral dilemma we are in, but there are glimpses of working together to shape a new cultural ethic, a new civil society.
The dissident culture overtook the majority culture in the '60s and has prevailed against a somewhat diverse and apathetic, content, passive majority turned minority culture, now the dissident culture.
Wisely, Himmelfarb concludes that government intervention with the legislative/judicial solutions to cultural problems will not succeed.
Her prediction? Revival and expansion will occur for the dissident culture, however they will not regain the majority, nor will religion play the large role of influence they once enjoyed but rather moral grounds will replace them. Counterrevolutions are more difficult to achieve and maintain.
Well worth the read.
Gertrude Himmelfarb, Master of Culture.......2000-09-23
I recently read Mrs. Himmelfarb's book and was thoroughly impressed by its cogent and well supported arguments. The book provides valuable information for both cultural conservatives and cultural liberals. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in an intelligent examination of modern American culture.
A Neo-Conservative perspective on the culture.......2000-08-18
Irving Kristol - Gertrude Himmelfarb's husband - once made the point that in the USA an 18 year old girl could dance nude in a bar, so long as she was paid the minimum wage. This book explores the existence of two cultures in the USA. Whilst pollsters and demographers can break down these cultures into many different groups, there is a broad line which can be drawn between the cultures. Cultures are largely defined by attitude in the modern world, as opposed to ethnic or Quaker garb, for instance, and Himmelfarb seeks to chart the salient differences in attitude. In that she is largely successful. It is a thought provoking book. Her use of Adam Smith's insights does her credit - there always was a looser culture based on the security of aristocratic position, which meant loose behaviour would not be economically disastrous for its practitioner. At day's end, the underlying viewpoint that it is unfortunate that there are two cultures, can be rejected or accepted as one chooses. Indeed, if the argument is accepted that there are two delineated cultures, then it clearly shows that government has no business interfering in the educating of children to try to homogenize the culture. The existence of two cultures removes the foundation for the confidence that demonstrating how to use a condom in school classes without parental permission is in any way appropriate or has ever been appropriate. Himmelfarb cannot be faulted for not dealing with subjects beyond her book's compass, but it should be appreciated that this book does not deal with, in any detail, the etiology of the counter-culture or its long march to cultural hegemony, nor does it suggest any concrete proposals for the protection of the traditional Puritan culture from governmental intrusion. For anyone who can remember both 1963 and 1971, it is likely to at least provide a conversation piece. Himmelfarb has done a sound job.
Never let facts get in the way of a good story.......2000-06-12
Don't get me wrong. Himmelfarb had me nodding my head in solid agreement with most of her more general points. Then I hit the section where she discusses the Boston gun project and gives total credit for the impressive reduction in juvenile gun homicides to one dinky little church-based program. Whoa, momma! I happen to know a lot about the Boston project and Himmelfarb is way off base on how it worked and who else was involved, namely the entire local, state and federal law enforcement and social service community. It made me very skeptical of the reliability of the rest of her "facts." I revised my judgment of the book from solid analysis to entertaining but subjective polemic. Too bad, because I agree with her bottom line.
A Delight for Liberals.......2000-05-17
As conservative Judge Richard Posner pointed out in the New York Times Book Review (Dec 19, 1999), Ms. Himmelfarb unwittingly makes quite the opposite case from the one she intended to make, criticizing an American society that could easily impress an observer as being on its "moral uppers". This book should be read alongside Alan Wolfe's "One Nation After All" published a year earlier. Wolfe's book, based on hundreds of interviews conducted for the Middle Class Morality Project of the centrist Russell Sage Foundation, found that most Americans, both liberal and conservative, have developed a complex moral and theological style that holds fast to traditional values while embracing religious and cultural diversity. A better informed population is now more likely to substitute individual conscience and personal responsibility for blind acceptance of authority. The book concluded that the "culture war" theory of America was largely a fiction cooked up by right wing intellectuals and the news media --- which habitually portray the country in terms of stereotyped divisions over moral, racial, and social issues.
Book Description
Why aren't Hispanics succeeding like Asians, Jews, and other immigrant groups in America? Herman Badillo's answer is as politically incorrect as the question: Hispanics simply don't put the same emphasis on education as other immigrant groups.
As the nation's first Puerto Rican-born U.S. congressman, the trailblazing Badillo once supported bilingual education and other government programs he thought would help the Hispanic community. But he came to see that the real path to prosperity, political unity, and the American mainstream is self-reliance, not big government. Now Badillo is a champion of one standard of achievement for all races and ethnicities.
In this surprising and controversial manifesto, you will learn:
* Why Hispanic culture's trouble with education, democracy, and economics stems from Mother Spain and the “five-hundred year siesta” she induced in Latin America.
* Why the Congressman who drafted the first Spanish-English bilingual education legislation now believes that bilingual education hurts students more than it helps.
* Why “social promotion” — putting minority students' self-esteem ahead of their academic performance and then admitting them to college unprepared — continues to this day, despite the system's documented failures and injustices.
* How self-identifying as “Hispanic” or “white” or “black” undermines achievement, and what lessons we can learn from Latin American countries, where one's race is irrelevant.
With Central and Latin America exporting a large portion of their poor, Hispanics are on the way to becoming a majority in the United States... but one with all the problems of a minority culture.
Badillo's solution to this problem relies on traditional values: hard work, education, and achievement. His lessons are important not only for Hispanics but for every American.
Customer Reviews:
Conflicting look at Hispanic Educational Success.......2007-02-12
I was exposed to this book during an interview with Mr. Badillo on CNN which encouraged me to purchase it. While I think he makes some valid points, HIspanic Culture is far too diverse with too many different socio-economic class groups and national identities to tag them all with the label of failure. As a Chicano, a Fronterizo and coming from a family of educators, I agree with some of the points made in this provocative book and I feel it will create some interesting discussions. Still, while I have witnessed first hand the apathy and outright neglect towards education in too many familes, I have also seen the humblest parents make extreme sacrifices to educate their offspring and guide them into becoming productive citizens. For these familys, Mr. Badillos' assertions will be not only hurtful but outright insulting. Nevertheless, there are far too many children who are raised with no structure, little guidance and they easily become slaves to the popular culture or the culture of the streets. It is a historical tragedy that has played out in other ethnic groups who arrived to this nation of opportunity. The difference is that Hispanics are far too diverse and have arrived in such large numbers that generalizing is too convenient and plays into the contemporary politics of the far right and their agenda of perpetuating the Hegemonic Culture of WASP America. I still recommend that all of us need to read his book because we cannot deny what is far to prevelent among our children and threatens to label all of us as a failed culture. It's time we define ourselves or risk letting other define who we are!
Sergio S. Guerrero Jr.
El Paso, Tejas
Badillo's myopic, neo-conservative view of a multi-ethnic/racial problem.......2007-02-09
A very simplistic view of a social problem that exists across the board for just as many non-Hispanic Americans. Thus, the premises are flawed and the proposed solutions, illogical. This book is full of hasty generalizations and founded on traditional American prejudices. I give the book an F for its faulty analysis and the author one star for his purported objectiveness and optimism.
REALITY HURTS IF YOU REMAIN UNEDUCATED BY CHOICE.......2007-02-06
This book is an eye opening manifesto that reminds us all that we have not, and will not make it, as a people, without the will to win; the detmination to get there; and the hard work and creativity to stay on a path that will furnish us with opportunities to succeed. America is about "opportunities", and not necessarily "equality." If you expect to be equal, Russia is still around -- go there; in America, you have to kick the door down with hard work and cajones to get ahead.
Our Hispanic community is smart; great; and, capable of winning any battle. The socialism of Venezuela; Cuba; and other Spanish speaking countries is just a "momentary illusion" that hides the true poverty and lack of imagination of these countries, and ignores the hard work that Hispanic Americans must thrive on to excel in this country. So, don't just whine and curse the USA for its "tough love"; embrace it and help each other, including your children, to succeed by avoiding laziness; learning the American language and customs; avoiding drugs and alcohol; stopping having children just "because"; GETTING AN EDCUCATION any way you can; nOt being a whiner; and praying to GDO for his GRACE and guidance. La revolucion continua, el Pueblo Hispano apenas tiene que saber quien es el enemigo verdadero -- "la ignorancia que sigue la falta de educacion y la pereza!!"
La malicia indigena siempre ayuda a los hijos de Dios que destinan el suceso del pueblo Andino por su trabajo fuerte y educacion!!
Great Book. Identifies The Core Problem With Hispanics In The USA........2007-01-22
As a former school teacher, this book was refreshing to read. From first hand experience, my worst students were always the hispanic kids. I felt more like a baby sitter with them. They were constantly absent and had no interest in learning (for the most part). Naturally, many dropped out. The hispanic kids in my classes were usually disruptive and interfered with the white and Asian students who generally were eager to learn. Another thing is that the hispanic kids would always mark their desks & books with graffiti, showing they have no respect for anything. My advice would be to separate the hispanic kids from the others because the hispanics severely interfere with standard coursework and thus hold the entire class back.
Failures always find excuses, and this is book of excuses.......2007-01-13
This is yet another impassioned conservative rant about everything that's wrong with America, liberals and life in general; in brief, America is racist, rotten and repulsive, and would be vastly improved if it was more like Ruerto Rico.
Personally, I worked for the only Mexican-American to be elected governor of Arizona; he faced many tougher situations than anything described by Badillo, but he always had the attitude "if one door is closed in your face, there's another one open somewhere."
Gov. Raul Castro has a true and abiding love for America, Arizona and Mexico. I have never heard him speak disparagingly about Arizona, America or the opportunities he found in this country. Like state Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez, University of Arizona Vice President Frank Felix, Ted Valdez (Valdez Transfer), Sen. Tony Gabaldon and many others, they succeeded because they believed in themselves.
The vast difference between them and Badillo is they never became nattering nabobs of negativism (to use a Republican term for those who do not obey the conservative line) who blame the government or anything else for setbacks they encounter. They all achieved greater success than I, a Gringo; probably because they are smarter, and they worked harder.
Badillo is a good match for Linda Chavez, a Spanish-American with prolific contempt for Mexican-Americans, who he quotes generously. (It's an insult to call a Spanish-American a Mexican-American; they are Spanish, and justly proud of it. They consider themselves a world above Mexicans, just as Mexicans consider themselves a world above "los Indios".) Racism? I've seen it again and again, first hand and blatant, in Mexico and in New Mexico. Badillo thinks it's a Gringo-only habit.
Worst of all, Badillo fails to understand and appreciate positive attributes of Hispanic culture which do not necessarily fit into North American attitudes. However, one must first understand their own culture before adopting or criticizing a new lifestyle. He offers no evidence of such understanding.
Badillo complains about Hispanics remaining outside of North American culture. He needs to consider the Irish after 1848, who were far poorer than any Mexicans, were more Catholic and spoke a foreign language. Yet they integrated seamlessly into North American society, and are still proudly "Irish". Badillo needs to ask, "Why them and not us?"
When it comes to not integrating into American society, it's the Canadians who remain the most stubborn and un-converted outsiders of all immigrant groups. Once again, "Why them more than us?"
The fault for failure, as William Shakespeare once wrote, "lies within ourselves."
Yet, he blames so-called "liberal" policies for Hispanic failures. If he's right, and government is truly that powerful, then all solutions are found in government. If he's wrong, our successes or failures lie within ourselves, not with a "patrone" or the government. Every successful Hispanic I've met knows that simple fact. Only the failures blame government, or "los Gringos", or being forsaken by God, or whatever other excuse is handy and popular.
Failures always find excuses, and someone else to blame. Success always realizes that every time a door is closed, another is opened somewhere else.
Book Description
Persistant poverty has long been one of Americas most pressing and intractable problems. According to some estimates, by 2003: almost 25% of the America's counties had per-capita incomes below one half the national average, high unemployment, low labor force participation rates, and a high dependency on government transfer payments -all measures of economic distress. An Atlas of Poverty in America shows how and where our nation's regional development patterns have become more uneven and graphically illustrates the increasing number of communities falling behind the national economic average. Readers will be able to use this atlas to see how major events and trends have impacted the scope and extent of American poverty in the past half-century-economic globalization, the rise of the sunbelt, decline of the welfare state, and the civil rights movement. Also includes 195 color maps.
Customer Reviews:
about the world being flat...........2006-08-25
Despite all the stuff about the world growing closer economically, you can see here that in a real sense this nation is splitting further apart. The data in this book is essential to understanding not only the nation's economy, but also its culture and politics. In a few years, regional inequality will be as important in policy debates as individual income inequality. Learn about this phenomenon first with this book.
Bill Bishop
Austin, TX
A Must Read For Understanding Poverty in America.......2006-08-24
This atlas is an eye-opener not only for those who know nothing about poverty, but also for those who believe that they know the topic well. Dr. Glasmeier's descriptive, illustrative, and detailed information about the characteristics and spatial manifestation of poverty is profound and useful to any educator or policymaker. The organization of the atlas, divided into sections on the lived experiences of the poor, the history of poverty, distressed regions, and the history of poverty policy makes the existence and persistence of poverty in the United States easy to comprehend. If you want to know who the poor are in America, where they live, why they are poor, and why policy has failed to eradicate the problem--this atlas is a must read!
An essential atlas which should be a part of any college-level collection strong in sociology or American history.......2006-08-20
POVERTY IN AMERICA: ONE NATION, PULLING APART 1960-2003 is an essential atlas which should be a part of any college-level collection strong in sociology or American history: it charts poverty in the U.S. from the Great Society ideas to modern times, offering dozens of color maps compiling the demographic dimensions of poverty across the country. The cd in back allows readers to take advantage of computerized mapping tools, while the atlas comes from a professor of geography at Penn State University.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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