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When we speak of race, we tend to categorize nonwhite people into rigid classifications--but how is whiteness itself determined? Yale American Studies professor Matthew Frye Jacobson looks at the American construction of whiteness out of its polyglot European immigrant population. In 1790, United States naturalization law granted citizenship to "free white persons"--which meant, mostly, those of Anglo-Saxon descent. Thus, Celtic-descended Irish immigrants were discriminated against. As the U.S. population became more culturally mixed beginning in the 1820s, with an increase in immigration from non-Anglo Europe, the nation experienced "a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races."
In other words, people who came from Poland, Germany, Italy, and Greece, as well as Jews from many nations, all became, by virtue of the "melting pot" ethic, "Caucasian" whites. But, as the graphically racist cartoons reproduced in the book show, the creation of whiteness was--and is--by no means an easy, continuous process. Jacobson details the political assault on white racism that culminated in the civil rights movement and cites the contemporary "revival and denial of white privilege" in the United States. Although he expresses doubt that a dismissal of white privilege will happen anytime soon, he does hope that in "recognizing the historical fabrication, the changeability, and the contingencies of whiteness, we might begin to look in a new way upon race, the power relations it generates, and the social havoc it wreaks." --Eugene Holley Jr.
Book Description
America's racial odyssey is the subject of this remarkable work of historical imagination. Matthew Frye Jacobson argues that race resides not in nature but in the contingencies of politics and culture. In ever-changing racial categories we glimpse the competing theories of history and collective destiny by which power has been organized and contested in the United States. Capturing the excitement of the new field of "whiteness studies" and linking it to traditional historical inquiry, Jacobson shows that in this nation of immigrants "race" has been at the core of civic assimilation: ethnic minorities in becoming American were reracialized to become Caucasian. He provides a counterhistory of how nationality groups such as the Irish or Greeks became Americans as racial groups like Celts or Mediterraneans became Caucasian.
Jacobson tracks race as a conception and perception, emphasizing the importance of knowing not only how we label one another but also how we see one another, and how that racialized vision has largely been transformed in this century. The stages of racial formation--race as formed in conquest, enslavement, imperialism, segregation, and labor migration--are all part of the complex, and now counterintuitive, history of race. Whiteness of a Different Color traces the fluidity of racial categories from an immense body of research in literature, popular culture, politics, society, ethnology, anthropology, cartoons, and legal history, including sensational trials like the Leo Frank case and the Draft Riots of 1863.
Customer Reviews:
great racial history.......2005-01-04
Jacobson provides a great deal of the formation of whiteness and how it has changed through time. It shows how the construction of a white race came about in America from Anglo Saxons to all Euroepans. It shows how legislation and attitudes about white ethnic groups and Jews have changed through time. It also takes a good look at how whiteness has been transformed by contacts with other races through non-European immigratin, civil rights and America's colonies such as the Phillipeans.
Are "white" Americans "passing" as white?.......2003-11-25
Matthew Frye Jacobson 's Whiteness of a Different Color tells us all how we got into this mess. The book is subtitled European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. "Alchemy" is correct. It means that the "base metal" of Nordic, Alpine, Mediterranean and even Western Asian "races" were turned into the "gold" of unadulterated white status. Jacobson explains how "whiteness" was created by colonial elites for the purpose of defending the state from Indian invasions and slave insurrections, and continued by the American republic in order to create a sense of unity in its polyglot European immigrant population. In 1790, United States naturalization law granted citizenship to "free white persons" -- which meant, mostly, those of Anglo-Saxon descent. As the U.S. population became more culturally mixed beginning in the 1840s, with an increase in immigration from non-Anglo Europe, the nation experienced "a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races."
In other words, people who came from Ireland, Poland, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Jews from Russia and other Slavic nations all became, by virtue of the "melting pot" ethic, "Caucasian" whites. But, the creation of whiteness was - and still is - by no means an easy, continuous process. The Celtic, Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean "races" were abolished in favor of the myth of one homogenous "white" race (with the adoption of the "scientific" term "Caucasian" providing a new legitimacy to the honorific "racial" term "white."
Jacobson contends that traditional historians have deliberately dismissed the "racial" distinctions of the 19th century and before as "misuses" of the word "race." Of course they didn't mean that Irish, Germans, Bohemians, Nordics, etc. were separate races; they just didn't know what they were saying. This is a courtesy not given to mulattoes. Jacobson, however, shows that there was no "misuse." "Patterns in literary, legal, political and graphic evidence" show that the perception of race was very different from the standard rhetoric promoted in today's U.S. I have a sense of deja vu here. As stated in Lawrence R. Tenzer's The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War, mainstream historians' inability to acknowledge the fact that 19th century Northern "whites" saw predominately European slaves as "white," makes them deliberately blind to the role "white slavery" played as a cause of the Civil War. Few historians wish to deal with the fact that, while "white" privilege in various forms has been a constant in American political culture since colonial times, whiteness itself has been subject to all kinds of contests and has gone through a series of historical vicissitudes.
Jacobson divides the history of whiteness in the United States into three great epochs:
The nation's first naturalization law in 1790 (limited naturalized citizenship to "free white persons") demonstrates the republican convergence of race and "fitness for self-government"; the law's wording denotes an unconflicted view of the presumed character and unambiguous boundaries of whiteness.
Fifty years later, however, beginning with the massive influx of highly undesirable but nonetheless "white" persons from Ireland, whiteness was subject to new interpretations. The period of mass European immigration, from the 1840s to the restrictive legislation of 1924, witnessed a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races. Vigorous debate ensued over which of these was truly "fit for self-government" in the old Anglo- Saxon sense.
Finally, in the 1920s and after, partly because the crisis of over-inclusive whiteness had been solved by restrictive legislation and partly in response to a new racial alchemy generated by African-American migrations to the North and West, whiteness was reconsolidated: the late nineteenth century's probationary white groups were now remade and granted the scientific stamp of authenticity as the unitary Caucasian race - an earlier era's Celts, Slavs, Hebrews, Iberics, and Saracens, among others, had become Caucasians so familiar to our own visual economy and racial lexicon.
Excellent content analysis of a social construct...........2002-05-01
WHITE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR by Matthew Frye Jacobson is an excellent historical summary and deconstruction of the social construct called "the white race." Anthropologists, sociologists, demographers, and historians like Jacobson who study race and ethnicity have suggested over and over that even if race differences exist they are not fixed (the definition of white has changed over time and no consensus has been formed concerning it's constiuent parts). The biological sciences provide no evidence that race exists. Humans with different hair color, skin color, eye color, eye shape, and/or other "race" characteristics straddle all the "race" groups.
Jacobson uses a variety of written sources to make his case --that "non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants and their children were perhaps the first beneficiaries of the modern civil rights movement." He has compiled evidence from many historical legal cases involving various individuals who attempted to establish evidence of "whiteness" in order to obtain U.S. citizenship or some other perq reserved for the "native white race." He points out that the legal evidence is conflicted. Are Armenians white or aren't they? How can Japanese with a white skin be nonwhite and Italians with a dark skin be white in one set of court proceedings and the reverse found in different courts on different days?
Jacobson includes information from literature, news journals, and other written sources to illustrate that authors as diverse as Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad and Mr. Hearst of newspaper fame all offered an opinion about race at one time or another, and that while everyone started out assuming they knew what it meant to be white, most soon discovered the operational definition was another matter. There is not now nor ever has been a consensus on what it means to be white.
I enjoyed Jacobson's book very much and I think it is an excellent qualitative analysis. However, I have a few concerns: 1) Race is a contentious topic, but mixed race is even more troublesome. In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau identified more than 60 race groups in the U.S.; While Jacobson alludes to this issue, he might have discussed it a bit more as it supports his idea that race is a nebulous notion; 2) In discussing the acquisition of civil rights, Jacobson makes the mistake many men make--Black men had the vote and basic rights many years before women of any color; 3) Jacobson begins his history with 1790 and assumes (as did many) that the so-called Anglo-Saxons were a monolithic group--they were not. The early settlers were a diverse lot from many nations and included landed gentry, endentured servents, and prisoners who worked side by side with slaves in Georgia and other colonial penal colonies until the Revolution. I have read that Jews funded the Revolotion, Poles and French trained the military (a highway in VA is named for general Pulaski); and that the first person to die in the Revolution was a free Black man named Crispus Attucks. 4) Jacobson starts the civil rights movement with the acceptance of "non-white" immigrants to "white" privilege, but evidence suggests that the U.S. Revolution was about the rights of the property owners or Aristocracy. Not until Andrew Jackson did the "common" man get the vote. Black men got the vote 30 years later and women got the vote in the 1920s although many rights were not accorded them until recently. The history of the U.S. is the history of the Civil Rights Movement for all human beings and as Americans we should be grateful for our rights.
Contemporary scholarship at its finest........2000-05-02
"Whiteness of a Different Color" is a marvelous work of modern scholarship. In this excellent work of historiography/history, Jacobson explores the American conception of racial "whiteness" and how it has changed over time. This book won virtually every major scholarly award in 1999, most notably the American Studies Association's Award for the best book dealing with American istory and culture.
In the 19th century, "whitness" was reserved for Anglo-Saxons, and descendants of immigrants from the British Isles. Slowly, the concept of whiteness evolved to include Northern Europeans and Scandanavians, then other white gentiles, then Jews. Jacobson traces two major influences for this change -- assimilation into the American mainstream and the need to rectuit other "whites" to help polarize the nation between white and black. The previous was common in northern industrial centers and large cities, while the latter was especially prevalent in the Jim Crowe south.
This is a modern study because it takes unconventional themes such as the arbitrary construction of "whiteness" and explores it, as opposed to the more traditional form of research, which would include choosing an historical event and studying the facts. "Whiteness of a Different Color" is about people's conceptions, and misconceptions, rather than specific facts. Reflecting on that subject, I wonder if that isn't what's most important.
An excellent piece of scholarly work.......1999-08-20
In *Whiteness of a Different Color,* Matthew Jacobson draws upon congressional legislation and discourse, historical documents and memoirs, and popular culture in an attempt to explain racism's affect on immigration, American domestic and foreign policy, and the self-perceptions of various racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Jacobson mentions in the preface that it is his hope to move into the foremost rank of immigration experts with this book, and I think that he accomplished what he set out to do. Eloquently written and thoroughly researched, Jacobson, who is obviously very liberal, argues his points in such a way that any person with common sense would agree with him, given the evidence and excerpts included in the book. Everyone involved in American Studies or American History would be well advised to pick up a copy of this book.
Book Description
We all know that the rules by which business is conducted have changed. But by how much? The dot.commers who threw out the playbook and tried to reinvent everything crashed and burned. "Back-to-basics" and "execution" are refrains reverberating down corporate hallways. And yet there is still a sense of unease. "Playing it safe" could just be another phrase for "heading toward business oblivion." Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom, the outspoken authors of the international besteller, Funky Business, are at it again, with a provocative analysis of the social and cultural forces that are defining the business landscape--in particular, the fundamental relationships between employers and employees and between companies and customers. Covering a huge terrain--from the impact of high tech to the ever-widening gaps between the haves and the have-nots, and with references from Adam Smith to Janis Joplin--the authors bring into focus the challenges of business leadership in a world increasingly defined by individualism. "Karaoke" capitalism refers to the philosophy of imitiation, engrained into the corporate mindset by such popular concepts as benchmarking and best practice. For Ridderstrale and Nordstrom, the only way to survive is to chuck convention, to embrace your company's individual personality and promote it through everything you do, constantly honing what works and abandoning what doesn't. Ultimately, the authors argue that armed with imagination it is possible to sustain profitable businesses while contributing to the well-being of customers, communities, and the society at large. Visit the authors' Web sites at www.karaokecapitalism.com and www.funkybusiness.com.
Book Description
A breakthrough in sexual literature, this work is a complete, comprehensive user-friendly guide to and tour through the world of alternative sexual lifestyles. While the topics are exotic and erotic, the authors handle each one in a sensitive, thorough, analytical, and fascinating way and manage to explain a secret world to those who might wish to visit.
Customer Reviews:
A Fem Dom's Opinion.......2007-02-16
This book really delves into the psychology of BDSM, and touches subjects that many other books don't. While leaning more towards the "why" of BDSM, it still gives alot of "how to" as well. This book is great for experienced Domme's who want to delve into the mindset of the lifestyle. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
The book I've been waiting for!.......2007-01-26
I really, really love this book! There are a ton of books out there on technique, and books on what to do in the metaphorical bedroom, but this isn't one of them. It isn't a titillating erotic read. It's a book about the psychology, sociology, and philosophy of BDSM. Multiple viewpoints about multiple parts of the lifestyle are presented. The authors draw from interviews with all different kinds of BDSMers. It explains a lot about WHY and not a lot about HOW this lifestyle occurs. I literally can't put this book down, and I already have three friends in line to read it!
D&S: From A-Z or Top to Bottom.......2006-08-04
I didn't give this 5 stars because it will sit alongside War and Peace on my bookshelf...not that I think Tolstoy would mind. It does deserve praise, however, for helping out an open-minded person who is just beginning to explore the world of D&S. The purpose of the book seems to be to explain the broad world of dominance and submission in a serious-minded way; This isn't erotica. Interesting interviews with practitioners of this lifestyle are included. If any potential readers out there are like me, they were looking for a book that would show that D&S fantasies are no stranger or "unhealthier" than sex limited to the missionary position. I wanted to catch the broadest view of the spectrum of the D&S lifestyle as possible, and I think that the authors succeeded in delivering that. The book includes information about fetishism, transgenderism, as well as other areas that might be considered on the "fringe" of sexual tastes, but they are nonetheless illuminating for anyone who'd like to expand their knowledge of these practices.
Intelligently Written Book on an Interesting Sexually Topic.......2006-05-17
As a switch, I was looking for a couple of good books on BDSM. I purchased Different Loving and Female Domination. Different Loving is without doubt the superior written book. Not only is this book written in an intelligent, engaging style that conveys the truly multifariate components of this lifestyle, but presents the vibrant people involved in these practices as genuinely real and with respect. In contrast, Female Domination casts people into two sharp worlds of the dominant and submissive. All men are submissives and all women are dominant according to Suttons ridiculously erroneous worldview. People are presented as paper cut outs, stamped out and forced into Sutton's preconceived notions of gender and sex. It is genuinely laughable how Sutton attempts to explain the blairing anomalies of her thinking or conviently ignores what is commond practice and desire among men and women.
In startling contrast, Different Loving presents to the reader real human beings first and foremost and treats the reader as an intelligent audience member. It addresses the full gamut of this lifestyle and also brings an awareness of abuse issues, which is courageous I think and does not shy away from these topics. In short, it puts BDSM in its rightful context as being part of a person and not the defining thing in their life.
From being technically written well and engagingly so, full of informative information, and also presenting the context in an entertaining fasshion and cover just about ever sexual permutation--straight or gay, dominant, submissive, or swtich. It recongizes that life is much larger than any one thing or any one author's personal expectations or delusions of what the world at large should be.
I highly recommend this book.
Excellent Introduction to the Lifestyle.......2006-01-31
This book is a wonderful resource for those who are thinking of exploring or have just begun to explore the realm of BDSM. The authors have provided a frank, intelligent overview into a very broad and often difficult subject. I enjoyed the tone of this book...informative, but not condescending. It's an easy read, and each section stands sufficiently on its own, so if you have a specific need for information you can read only what applies at the time.
The only reason this is getting 4 stars from me instead of 5 is the brevity with which sadomasochism is covered. In a sense, it is woven through as an undercurrent in many sections. However, as someone starting to explore this particular facet much more deeply, I would have expected this book to cover SM to the same degree as power plays and fetishism.
Overall, I highly recommend this.
Customer Reviews:
A Book Every American Should Read.......2007-05-02
This was my textbook for my Asian-American History class in college and this was one I did not sell back. This is a very interesting read about the various groups of Asian immigrants to America and their struggles. This is history you never hear about and thus makes it even more captivating. Takaki's style of writing is easy to follow and never dull. I recommend this for anyone who is seriously interested in race studies or American history.
Asian American History Up Close.......2007-01-22
Ronald Takaki opens the gate to Asian American history. When one reads STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE: A HISTORY OF ASIAN AMERICANS, there is no doubt that this area of study still needs further examination beyond what has already been written. While reading this book, two critical areas come to mind when studying the intricacies and complexities of American history and all its participants -- Asian American history about social intolerance and injustice that was imposed on many Asian immigrants during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? This as well as other interpretations of the presence of Asians within American history is the main premise of Takaki's study, which centers on the "stranger" or the "other," and how their story was no different from their European counterparts - seeking the romanticized and majestic "American dream," but happened to encounter social indifferences along the way.
Takaki roughly covers the broad spectrum of Asian immigration from the 1830s to the late 1980s. He specifically examines the Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, and briefly the latter, Korean, Asian-Indians, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian immigrants. The book contains immense information pertaining to Chinese and Japanese immigration, and Takaki concentrates on the Pacific Rim -- Hawaii, California, and the Pacific Northwest where Asian presence has had a significant social, political, and economical effect on the particular region. Although Takaki provides a vast amount of detail, one thing lacking in his study is the mention of the arrival of Filipinos in New Orleans during the late eighteenth century. It may have been helpful if he also spoke a little bit more about the East coast of the United States.
Nonetheless, STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE magnifies Asian American history and shows the misconceptions, stereotypes, myths, and the never-ending reference to "other". Indeed, Asian American history shows the undesirable side to history, and hopefully, more scholarship will be written where Takaki has left off in order to provide a balanced representation that shows the good and bad in a way that other events in American history have already done. This is a great introduction for anyone who wants to have a better understanding of Asian American history as well as Asian American culture.
Great book.......2005-10-22
This book, Strangers From a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki, is a great book to read. Ron Takaki tells stories about how Asian Americans travel to America, to find a better job. They leave behind their families not knowing if they are going to come back. This book covers many Asian races like the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Indians, Vietnamese and other Asian races that journeyed to America in search of prosperity. As an Asian American myself, this book has taught me more about my ancestors than our history books. If you are interested in Asian Americans, I suggest reading this book because it will make things more clear about Asian American history as well as their hardships of landing into a unknown world where Caucasians are jealous, angry and ready to kill because of so many people taking their jobs. Ronald Takaki describes in detail how Asian Americans had to overcome all their hardships. Like getting false papers, traveling by boat to America, imprisonment on Angel Island, how they searched for gold, etc. Ronald Takaki writes an ideal "textbook" about Asian Americans, but this "textbook" does not seem to feel like one. It is fun to read, enjoyable, and informative. This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time.
Take Two - The Asian American Experience Revisited.......2003-10-02
What was useful to me as a new scholar in the area of migration studies is that in Strangers from a Different Shore, Takaki's makes extensive use of numbers - mixed in with a plethora of anecdote. Once again, we are beset with the notion that there are statistics and such. What was really missing, at least for me, was the framing of the Asian American experience (of which Takaki is somewhat self-reflective but contradictory here - since there really is no homogenous `Asian American' experience per se) within the framework of world migration. As much as the anecdotes and references to numbers are concerned they do have explanatory powers but then both are not really examined against hard core migration theory - so in some places the book fails as history. Nonetheless, Takaki's narrative of first generation immigrants is compelling and very accessible and prompts us to ask some fairly fundamental questions.
Takaki does move us to ask the very fundamental questions about what it is to be American. He uses a variety of sources - much of which, as indicated above - are problematically anecdotal. Nonetheless, Takaki paints a picture that is in many places lucid. Takaki also provide an explanation for the landscape of modern day demographics and gives the reader a broad base to work with to understand the modern day ethnic dynamic in America. Takaki is far-reaching use of the immigrants own voice. However, the question we are faced with is this `really' reflective of the Asian American voice or does Takaki's examination have an agenda - not that that is bad or wrong per se, it just has to be recognized.
I was somewhat disenchanted that Takaki did not provide more detail on the Thai and Hmong Americans. Takaki's examination of the Thai examination was noted only relation to that of the Vietnamese experience and it was certainly not very flattering either way. Also, if Takaki is completely accurate about the Asian Indian experience does this mean that most Asian Indian immigrants to the US are from the Punjab - or at least at the time that Takaki is focusing on? On the other hand, examining anything from a regional studies perspective is always tricky as there are criteria for inclusion and exclusion. What is it really to be Asian American? Where does Asia `really' start and end? Is Takaki `really' focusing on East Asia when he writes extensively about the American Chinese and American Japanese experience? How is the rest of Asia `really' treated? Who defines `Southeast Asia'? Where Takaki sometimes falls short, at least for me, is how he defines what. It is not entirely crucial, per se - just that it would be more helpful to see where and how he came up with some of his categories. Although Takaki does provide extensive detail in relation to particular `Asian American' groups, in a way I still have mixed feelings about how he divided the book into sections then focused on those particular `Asian American' groupings. You would not think by reading this but I do recommend the book highly if only for its extensive scope.
Miguel Llora
From a Different Shore.......2002-07-11
We're all pretty familiar with the immigration patterns that came to our east cost through time in such places as Ellis Island. However, pacific immigration and immigration to Hawaii have received less attention. He deals with Angel Island, the Ellis Island of the west coast and the life off immigrant emplyed in Hawaii agriculture. Takaki looks at this pattern of immigration from the arrival of the first Chinese in California in the 1840s. He covers a lot of asain ethnic groups like the Chinese, Japanese, Asian Indians, and Korean. He looks at immigration through the present and different legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act, immigration act of 1924 that basically cut of Asian immmigration and the immigration act of 1965 that reopened Asian immigration. Takaki looks at the hearships and racism that affected these immigrant. In addition, Takaki focuses on the adjustments, how they lived and how their children born in this country were treated. Present Asian-Americans concerns are presented like anti-Asian violence like the murder of Vincent Chin and the Dotbusters.
Book Description
Mark is brought to another planet in order to save it. Is he their only hope - or the source of the worst disaster to ever befall them?
Customer Reviews:
Contains one of the best superhero battles I've seen in a long time.......2007-06-21
This is a magnificent trade paperback collecting issues 25 - 30 of Robert Kirkman's Invincible, with a few extras included, such as pencil sketches of selected panels and splash pages, along with commentary by the author and artist. In these collected issues we see Mark Grayson flying off into space to save a race of insect-like aliens from extermination. This leads to Mark being reunited with a certain someone who was last seen flying off into space after beating Mark into a bloody pulp. Eventually the Viltrumites arrive, and what follows is the bloodiest (and best) super-brawl I 've seen in ages. Sure, the action's there, but what makes Incincible so appealing to a wide variety of readers is also the non-stop drama that Kirkman specializes in (see Walking Dead if you don't believe me). While Mark is off saving a planet, his family and friends deal with his absence and a few menaces plaguing the earth to boot. Character development is strong and Mark's girlfriend Amber is being fleshed out by Kirkman as more scenes are being devoted to her and how she deals with her life as the girlfriend of a superhero. Kirkman also introduces an interesting new element into the story in the form of a little 'surprise' from Mark's dad, but I don't want to ruin anything for you. Read the book and find out. It's a humdinger!
Incredible is Amazing.......2006-12-28
These books will uplift you and make you believe in comics again.
its like a fine wine....it just gets better with age.......2006-08-27
If you are reading this review then you must be familiar with Invincible and already know that this truly is the best super hero comic on the market. This story arc contains plenty of twists to keep the reader intrigue and introduces plot developments that will be critical to future story lines. If you havent read Invincible yet pick up the two Ultimate Collection hard covers and see what you are missing by not reading this great title.
Invincible is full of action and adventure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2006-07-15
This is the only comic book I collect when it is published as trade paperbacks. They are worth the wait. Image and the team of Kirkman/Ottley are great. Lots of twists and turns in this title. The art is crisp and the writing stellar. Kudos to all involved!!
Average customer rating:
- an important book on the study of gender and the Holocaust
- EXCELLENT RESOURCE
- crucial for feminist studies, the holocaust, minority lit.
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Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust
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Customer Reviews:
an important book on the study of gender and the Holocaust.......2004-11-26
This book is an excellent contribution to the study of women and the Holocaust. Many books concentrate primarily on men and the Holocaust. This book provides various perspectives and is a valuable book for scholars and students of the Holocaust.
EXCELLENT RESOURCE.......2003-02-21
I used this book when I was writing the memoir RENA'S PROMISE: A STORY OF SISTERS IN AUSCHWITZ, which is the story of a woman on the first transport of women into Auschwitz. Aside from the Auschwitz Chronicles, this was the only text I could find that spoke of this transport, which was also the very first transport into Auschwitz.
This book helped me further my research and provided me with invaluable information that allowed the survivor I was writing about to validate many facts that she remembered--thereby validating her story, her memories and the truth that women were targeted far more rigorously than men. It is amazing any of them survived.
crucial for feminist studies, the holocaust, minority lit........1999-01-18
This anthology is fascinating, moving, sad, horrifying and inspiring. It revises our notion of what Holocaust literature is, and shows us how very differently women experienced and wrote about it. The book's second section contains excellent essays about women and the Holocaust. In short, a must for feminist readers and anyone interested in Holocaust studies, genocide studies, and the literature of witness.
Book Description
The precipitous rise in anti-Americanism is startling. To understand why the world has turned against the United States, the Pew Research Center, under the leadership of Andrew Kohut, has undertaken an unprecedented survey of world opinionmore than 91,000 respondents in fifty nations. In America Against the World,Kohut and Bruce Stokes unveil the sobering and surprising findings. Americas image is at a low ebb: where once it was considered the champion of democracy, America is now seen as a self-absorbed, militant hyperpower. More than 70 percent of non-Americans say that the world would be improved if America faced a rival military power, and about half the citizens of Lebanon, Jordan, and Morocco think that suicide attacks on Americans in Iraq are justified. Where does this anti-Americanism come from? Kohut and Stokes find that what pushed the world away is American exceptionalismour individualism and our go-it-alone attitude. And it doesnt help that Americans pervasive religiosity and deep patriotism are often exaggerated by Americas critics. Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright argues in her foreword that we cannot stop the spread of anti-Americanism without truly understanding who we are. America Against the World provides the insight to take that step.
Customer Reviews:
How do they not love us? Let us count the ways.......2007-08-23
The title of this work is somewhat misleading. While it does point towards a strong trend of disaffection of other nations towards the U.S. it is not as if they on the whole wish to go to war against American life and its institutions. They don't like the Bush Administration and they don't seem to like U.S. military intervention (Except perhaps when it comes to save them, something many, including the French and the British have long forgotten about). The European nations are less religious than Americans (Fifty percent plus over ninety- five are religious believers) less believing in the power of the individual to transform his own reality for the good, more dependent on the idea of state interference for the good of the citizen.
But while Americans and the peoples of the world have real differences in the emphases they place on certain values, they are according to the authors closer in fundamental attitudes now than they were a century ago. And the difference which is a real difference between them does not seem unbridgeable.
Morever while the authors are distressed by the a certain kind of anti- Americanism it seems to me it does not make too much sense to be distressed if people hate you because you are fostering democratic values, and individual freedoms. If there are totalitarian societies, and even religions which hate America for fostering democratic values, then the fault is not at all with America.
However there are worrisome points made by the authors. One is that the American tendency to go it alone means it has difficulty creating the kinds of alliances it needs to create to promote international action. This is a problem as the Bush Administration struggles on in Iraq, receiving less than minimal support from many nations which should be its allies.
There is another major point I do not know if the author's mention enough, the point made by Robert Kagan in his researches. i.e. that pacificistic Europe is powerless Europe and so looks with envy on an interventionist U.S. which can use its power for good in the world.
The different 'power- situations' between the Europeans the U.S. dictate differences in world- views.
The way out of this?
Let the U.S. win the war on Terror, decisively clobber Islamic fundamentalism, solve the global energy problem and lead to a greater prosperity for all of mankind, reduce the use of fossil fuels in such a way as to minimize global- warming- go a long way towards creating a new era of peace and prosperity- and the U.S. will once again be loved as it was when it was believed in the aftermath of the Second World War- that it had helped save the world.
Easy to read, easy to understand, easy to throw away.......2007-06-20
I love books like this written by liberals like this because the thesis is so easy to understand "I [the author's name] and the rest of the world hates America because of Republican Evangelical Christians." Go into any bookstore like the one I work in, and you will see tones of these kinds of books along with the usual foolishness from Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens. An easy thesis to spill into several hundred pages worth of meaningless politically correct wordings. Basically it is this: If you are a Republican Evangelical Christian (opposed to the liberalized Dan Brown, Elaine Pagels, John Sponge, kind of "Christian", which really isn't a Christian by the Book), then you are causing America to be hated by France, the Middle East, Asia, et cetera. Just because we want there to be a moral compass for the United States, and be unafraid to express this moral compass to the world, we are bad guys. Just because we want to make a stand and not cower before rogue states that want to kill us, we are the bad guys. Just because we want this country to be a republic, and not some socialist regime like the liberal party and most of the world "enjoys," again, we are the bad guys. Very easy to write a book when you have nothing really engaging to say except "America is bad, so there..." kind of attitude. The problem with disagreeing with this book is that it is so easy to disagree with it. Do you really care to have the UN subjegate and control our country? And how this can happen? If you do, then I guess you'll give this a five star review. I would highly suggest you read this book, then, if you agree with it, find a Sam Harris or an Elaine Pagels book to finish your lobotomy (and hopefully move to those countries that you DO love, like France, they need more snail eaters there I imagine). If you don't agree with this book, then good for you, you have had a epiphany of a realization.
Am I the only one who liked this book?.......2006-11-19
I found this book to be politically neutral. And I found the numerous tables, charts, and graphs fascinating. Sure, there may be some errors in the way the polls were taken (as well as in the choices of questions to ask). But Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes at least made an attempt to find out what people think of us. We see discussions of attitudes about religion in America, attitudes about terror, attitudes about the United Nations, nationalism, exceptionalism, and meddling in the affairs of others. And we see how those in other nations claim to feel about some of the same issues.
The authors say that anti-Americanism has grown in the past few years, especially in France. That may well be true. In addition, when they discuss American nationalism, they make an interesting point: our nationalism is not much like the whining "let's-get-even" style that some folks use to respond to "humiliation." In that sense, I think it is reasonable and fair to see it as relatively benign. I also think there is a good discussion of American values and American love of freedom and independence.
I recommend this book.
Look at the charts and graphs.......2006-09-20
I could not finish reading this book, because I got too involved in studying all the charts and graphs. They tell us (assuming the data is accurate) that we are a little bit diffrent but so is every other nation -- but America is the only super power and that will not make you super popular.
Learn why the United States and the American people are viewed in such a negative light in most corners of the world........2006-06-27
If you have ever wondered why millions of people around the planet seem to dislike the United States so intensely then "America Against the World" is certainly a pretty good place to start your research. Co-authors Andrew Kohut, Director of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press and Bruce Stokes, international economist for the National Journal, have cobbled together a fairly interesting book based on a series of global surveys undertaken by Pew. Much of what these surveys uncovered about world opinion of the United States as a nation really came as no surprise to me. But what was rather unsettling was the revelation that world opinion of the American people has seemingly taken a nosedive over the past few years. While a majority of people overseas concede that Americans are generally industrious and highly creative they also view us as greedy, somewhat dishonest in our business dealings and overly religious. For a variety of reasons Americans view the world very differently from people in the rest of the world, most especially the Europeans and of course Muslims. And frankly, it is really not difficult to understand why these people feel the way they do. People all over the world believe that American culture and values are being shoved down their throats. Americans seem to think this is a good thing but many around the world disagree vehemently. People all over the world also object to our current interventionist foreign policy and many have a particular distaste for President George W. Bush whom they view as some sort of "cowboy". "America Against The World" will help you to understand these important issues more clearly. I have read this kind of book before and I find that they usually become somewhat repetitive and I begin to lose interest. That was the case with this book as well. Nevertheless, if the United States is ever going to repair relations with the rest of the world then it is important that the American people discover what the rest of the world is objecting to and demand that our leaders make the necessary changes in our policies and priorities. It is high time that America rejoined the world community. While it is certainly not the most scintillating book I have read "America Against the World" is nonetheless a useful book to read and digest.
Book Description
Winner of the Columbia University Lionel Trilling Award. Robert Murphy was in the prime of his career as an anthropologist when he felt the first symptom of a malady that would ultimately take him on an odyssey stranger than any field trip to the Amazon: a tumor of the spinal cord that progressed slowly and irreversibly into quadriplegia. In this gripping account, Murphy explores society's fears, myths, and misunderstandings about disability, and the damage they inflict. He reports how paralysis—like all disabilities—assaults people's identity, social standing, and ties with others, while at the same time making the love of life burn even more fiercely.
Customer Reviews:
"The Body Silent" by Robert Murphy.......2007-09-26
Valuable insights into the world of the disabled from many angles by a respected professor with progressive spinal cord disease. Highly recommended to persons with disabilities and to the general public who often encounter them.
An incredible book by an incredible person..........2006-12-31
This is one of my books that I bought and put aside to read later. I don't remember how long ago I bought it but I am certainly glad that I gave it a second chance to read it before discarding it. I am now not planning to sell this book, as it is too important a volume on disability in society, and it certainly applies to the bioethical and eduethical work I do on the side of my 'regular' job of teaching and writing.
Murphy is unlike me in that he came upon his disability later in life, while I was born basically deaf and remained that way for the first 13 years of my life before getting a hearing aid at the age of 13. Murphy had to deal with a slow-growing tumor that entwined itself into his spinal cord. Unlike many tumors that can be excised with surgery, his was such that the possibility of removing it also came with the possibility of losing everything else, including his life or the ability to continue to do his important work. Like many of us who have chosen not to take the risk of surgery and who don't believe that to be disabled is worse than to be dead, Murphy worked with and around his progressive disabling and was able to give the world another 15 years of his wisdom in cultural anthropology.
This book is a must-read for any person with a disability, no matter when they became disabled. Murphy had the background of an academic anthropologist, with many years of successful teaching and writing for major journals in anthropology and culture. He had also written major books, one of which continues to be used in most universities on women and gender in primitive societies. So in coming into the genre of disability studies, he brought to the field a first-rate mind and ability to write so others can understand difficult concepts.
Murphy's book is not the usual autobiography that one usually expects, but rather explores disability (specifically his, but he introduces others and also the culture) without a single shard of either self-pity or 'hey, look at me' attitude that is so often written about in media (where the media puts someone with a disability on a pedestal that is unrealistic of the very real problems that those of us with disabilities face daily). He writes presenting his disablement as a fait-accompli, dealing with the problems as they arose...and in some cases, he ignored his health situation to the point of putting him at risk for infection from bedsores because he was too busy teaching. Like Murphy states, that wasn't courage as often as it was just not wanting to take the time to have his physical body get in the way of what he was trying to do. In treating his disablement with this attitude, he did become the courageous person that he presented to the public...and I wish so badly I had had the opportunity to meet him and hear him speak. Like so many others such as Michael Fox and Christopher REeve, Murphy was a non-disabled person whose close encounters with his own disablement led him to become a voice in a minority that has long been voiceless. He died much too soon, but in giving his last fifteen years of work to physical disabilities in society, he has provided us with an ongoing voice. I certainly intend to use his words and his writing in my work in hopes that it will inspire others as it has inspired me.
Karen Sadler
Hearing the Body.......2001-10-13
Bob became paraplegiac at a late age, after having enjoyed a long, brilliant career as a professor at Columbia and an anthropologist who, with his anthropologist wife Yolanda, lived among Amazonian Indians and Saharan camel nomads. He was too clever to be overwhelmed with self-pity. This book was written from the perspective that he loved most: what you'd think is true is probably just the opposite. We expect paralyzed people to get better, like other "sick" patients, but the problem is, they don't: they're damaged selves. Hey--just like everybody else. We all have to come to terms with life's damages and our isolation and loneliness as we attempt to cope with it. Who would ever have thought it possible--we can all learn something compelling about our normal selves, viewing life from the wheelchair! Ironically (and this is the kind of twist that styles Murphy's ideas) the disabled are a mirror for the rest of us: "The paralytic is, quite literally, a prisoner of the flesh, but most humans are convicts of sorts. We live within walls of our own making, staring out at life through bars thrown up by culture and annealed by our fears. . . .[that] induces a mental paralysis, a stilling of thought." Murphy has never sold his soul to an illusion: he speaks candidly as a participant observer of his own encounter with symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and transformation. Always the fox, he transcends the smoke screen that our cultural prejudices force upon us, and hears his own body and its message with astounding clarity and patience. This is a book that students read eagerly, in both anthropology and sociology classes, because its message is provocative, and its ethnography is true. It teaches us all to listen to the sound of our own struggles with personal identity and mortality, and to smile with the knowledge that we are not alone.
Disibility means reliance on others.......2000-07-29
Ten years ago since the American Disabilities Act went into effect, the disabled still feel that they are isolated from the real world. Former professor of anthropology at Columbia University Robert F. Murphy examines from his personal perspective the life of a disabled person in a world where he was independent and zealous of life. The reader will discover what it is like for a disabled person to battle besides the inability to carry out everyday function we take for granted. The Body Silent is unlike other books written by the disable. The Body Silent is an excellent book full of prose and not journal entries of how fortunate the non-disabled really are. This book (recommended to me by anthropologist Dr. James Trostle) will change your perspective and outlook on how it is like to grow up again and learning how to walk, one step at a time.
a celebration of life worth living.......1999-10-28
As a graduate student in anthropology, I came to know and respect Bob Murphy more than any other scholar. Of the texts he wrote, The Body Silent, stands apart in that it says much about the man, anthropology, disability in American society, and life itself. It will deeply touch a wide variety of readers, and for those that knew him, will bring tears to their eyes. As to its impact on what is now known as disability studies, it put the discipline on the academic agenda. As such, it is a seminal text and is a must for anyone thinking of entering the field.
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Our War Was Different: Marine Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam
Albert Hemingway
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- How to Be Yourself in a World That's Different: An Asperger's Syndrome Study Guide for Adolescents
- The books that change your life are not the ones that tell you how to live it.
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How to Be Yourself in a World That's Different: An Asperger's Syndrome Study Guide for Adolescents
Yuko Yoshida
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Customer Reviews:
How to Be Yourself in a World That's Different: An Asperger's Syndrome Study Guide for Adolescents.......2007-07-14
I was actually quite disappointed in this book. I have really liked other books by this author in the past, but this one is more like an etiquette book than anything else, just a list of rules, and that is not what Asperger's kids need. Certainly there are some good points in the book, and Asperger's kids do need more reminders, but the presentation style is not especially effective. The idea of using cards perhaps has some merit, but on the whole I think the similar book by Dr. Jed Baker (The Picture Book of Social Stories, or something like that) does a better job of helping Asperger's kids make sense of social situations.
The books that change your life are not the ones that tell you how to live it........2007-02-03
If you are the sort of person who responds well to a rigourous, structured, self disciplined approach to things then you'll probably like this. Personally, I'm not that sort of person and I got tired just reading it.
The author says "THIS BOOK CAN HELP YOU CHANGE THE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE". What follows is a series of short tips and advice about everyday things and getting practice relating to others. It probably won't change your life.
It's a nice little book though with much that is positive and helpful to say and a very nice section on the science behind defining Aspergers which I found very interesting.
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