Book Description
In this inspiring and often humorous memoir, the outspoken Democratic congressman from Harlem—now the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee—tells about his early years on Lenox Avenue, being awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in a horrific Korean War battle (the last bad day of his life, he says), and his many years in Congress.
A charming, natural storyteller, Rangel recalls growing up in Harlem, where from the age of nine he always had at least one job, including selling the legendary Adam Clayton Powell’s newspaper; his group of streetwise sophisticates who called themselves Les Garçons; and his time in law school—a decision made as much to win his grandfather’s approval as to establish a career. He recounts as well his life in New York politics during the 1960s and the grueling civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
With New York street smarts, Rangel is a tough liberal and an independent thinker, but also a collegial legislator respected by Democrats and Republicans alike who knows and honors the House’s traditions. First elected to Congress in 1970, Rangel served on the House Judiciary Committee during the hearings on the articles of impeachment of President Nixon, helped found the Congressional Black Caucus, and led the fight in Congress to pressure U.S. corporations to divest from apartheid South Africa.
Best of all, this is a political memoir with heart, the story of a life filled with friends, humor, and accomplishments. Charles Rangel is one of a kind, and this is the story of how he became the celebrated person and politician he is today.
He opens his memoir with a preface about the 2006 elections and an outline of his goals as chairman of Ways and Means. From day one he wants to put the public first so that more Americans can say they haven’t had a bad day since.
Customer Reviews:
Politics - Art of the Possible.......2007-10-21
I was flipping channels when I came across an interview with Charles Rangel on the Charlie Rose show. I was not familiar with him or his politics but he had a level of energy and charisma that led me to look him up online.
I enjoy political biographies and memoirs and was interested in his perspective based on his 30+ years in Congress. He has led a fascinating life from his boyhood days to serving the country in Korea to working the political machine in DC and NY.
"You can not imagine and dream what you have not been informed of." This statement in an early chapter foreshadows how Mr. Rangel built a career and a life with no precedent in his immediate surroundings. The human story of his adventures keeps the book interesting. He is a great example of a person who learns from his experiences and is continuously applying it while striving to make a difference with his politics.
The complicated mix of friendships, loyalties, opponents and foes are as expected with a political leader. Extraordinary stories describe his alliances and longstanding loyalties to his district. The fact that he has lived within the same area of Harlem since his childhood shows his dedication and commitment, as well as a marathon level of perseverance.
I may not agree 100% with his politics but he has a way of stating his position that is impressive. One example is his stance on the war and the draft. Having served in the military during wartime, he is uniquely qualified to represent the interests of our soldiers. His position that those who support a war should support a draft is thought-provoking. Meaning if you support the war, you should support potentially having those closest to you as active participants.
I'm surprised that I was not familiar with Charlie Rangel before, but I'm glad that I caught up with this biography. I appreciated learning about him, his career and most importantly his political stance that has and will continue to shape legislation.
A Selective Memory.......2007-10-20
Rangel has chosen to forget at least one bad day while he was in Congress. As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rangel permitted the Caucus to use the franking privilege of members to mail the Caucus' propaganda. The franking privilege permits members of Congresss to mail material without paying any postage. John Cervase, a courageous lawyer from Newark, recognized that this practice was illegal and filed suit against Rangel in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The Court rendered a judgment that prohibited Rangel from continuing this practice.
This was not the first time that Cervase had the courage to stand up to the Black Establishment. In the early 1970s, Kenneth Gibson, the Black mayor of Newark, appointed a 17 year old black to the Newark School Board. The teenage member persuaded the Board to adopt a resolution that permitted Newark schools to fly the "Black Liberation Flag". Cervase, a member of the Board, objected, filed suit, and won an injunction against the Board.
Later in the decade, Black "poet" Imamu Amiri Baraka tried to build a high-rise in the Italian North Ward named Kawaida Towers. The Italian residents objected because it was a racist Trojan Horse in their neighborhood. Cervase and Anthony Imperiale lead demonstrations against the Towers. The New Yorker published a good article about the controversey. Eventually Baraka, now the "poet laureate of New Jersey", abandoned his plans.
Hopefully others who stood up to Rangel will tell their stories about other bad days in his life.
And I haven't had a bad day yet........2007-09-16
Charlie Rangel surprised me with his wit and respect for the institutions he has served in. He is a far more humble man than I would have guessed, but he knows what factors directed his life. Anyone who wants to see how his race has moved up, survived urban conditions, and then served and contributed has to read this book. It also shows how much prejudice and ethnic ties affect politics more this yuppie-fied world we now live in will admit. It has always been this way, and Charlie Rangel accepts it realisticaly and displays the years since the Korean war where he has served his country in its government. I like watching Congressional moves and am personally surprised more do not hang with C-SPAN observing both houses in these critical times. I found myself agreeing with the Congressman from NY City more than I thought I might; he is a brilliant man and I am glad he accomplished becoming chair of the Ways and Means Committee. The years immediately ahead are going to be tough, and we need him there. I am an Independent, but will always vote Democratic after what this current administration has done to this country. My book on flying helicopters in Vietnam stresses the USA's mistakes there, but the Bush Administration has unbelievably exceeded those mistakes of the past.
A Very Impressive Man.......2007-09-07
Congressman Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has come a long way - thanks to lots of hard work and overcoming blatant racism for many, many years. The books tells his life story from the early days to the Korean War (almost totally surrounded by the Chinese at night, Rangel was wounded but still led 43 others to safety across a frozen river - it was after that experience that he declared he hadn't had a bad day since), to his discharge from the Army, to the present day.
Rangel's post discharge experiences were far from rewarding - one menial job after another, in stark comparison to the high non-commissioned officer status he could have had staying in. Rangel eventually found his way to the VA, battled past the old-time bureaucrats, and eventually settled on a goal of becoming an attorney - despite having two years of high-school remaining. Nonetheless, Rangel accomplished this with the help of the G.I. Bill and a scholarship.
The book is primarily about Rangel (no nasty revelations about fellow Democrats, and only a few down remarks about Republicans). Regardless, without question he is a very inspirational and impressive person!
Charlie Rangel's Book.......2007-05-15
This book is excellent reading for all of America.
If you want to understand politics, racism and urban communities ,then this is the must read book for 2007.
Book Description
If Olaya Street Could Talk is a portrait of Saudi Arabia and its people, encompassing a 25-year period during the era of its dynamic transformation from being one of the poorer countries in the world to becoming a state with a modern physical and economic infrastructure. It is also a story about the western expatriates who worked and lived in the country--from the "free and easy 70's"--to the period when they became specific targets for execution by certain religious fundamentalists. The book addresses western perceptions of the country and how those perceptions were formed, from TE Lawrence and Wilfred Thesiger to NY Times columnists Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd and David Brooks. The book's fundamental purpose is to examine the issue which dominates today's headlines: the "Islamic-Western cultural divide" and places this concept within the context of American issues, such as the experience with the black-white cultural divide as well as America's last significant conflict, the Vietnam War. It is in parts a travelogue, a sociological examination, a historical documentary, a love story, health care development and political commentary. The author is one of few Americans to have lived in the country during this period of time who had access to Saudis at all levels of society and freely traveled throughout a large portion of the country. No other book, in English or Arabic, covers this period of Saudi Arabia's transformation to a modern nation, the period from 1978 to 2003. The motivation for writing the book was to render a realistic image of the people of Saudi Arabia, as well as to examine some of the basis for the American misperceptions of this country and region, in the hope that it will inspire others to take steps towards ending the current policy of war without end.
Customer Reviews:
Saudi Arabia.......2007-10-21
I found this book fascinating, especially since almost everything I know about Saudi Arabia comes from newspapers and television news. John Paul's experiences over the 25 years in the Kingdom were very enlightening. The book was written in a really interesting manner, with both knowledge and humor. I recommend it highly.
The Ex Pat Ladies who Lived on Olaya Street.......2007-10-15
I am an American lady who lived on Olaya Street for over a decade and befriended many ex-pat ladies who shared their time with me and others on a street that needs to be recognized internationally. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the most critical nations on the face of the Earth yet it lacks the maturity and degree of acceptance it must achieve to take its place in a political climate of survival of the spin masters and military giants. The cultural norms of Saudi Arabia are often picked over by cultural vultures that misjudge more than judge Saudi life style. I determined a long time ago not to become a defender of Saudi's cultural norms rather I seek when asked to clarify why certain cultural norms still exist and how they are viewed across the Saudi society and when able project what the future may hold. As western women our status never really changed -it was never particularly high in some quarters of Saudi Arabia due to the great misgivings some westerners and some Saudis had about the other - but the level of tolerance toward all women in Saudi dropped in the decades spanning 1980 to 2000.This was due of course to our mutual misgivings and the cultural bomb in the form of the first Gulf War. I am hoping that this topic will be addressed in the book which I have just ordered and cannot wait to read. I am hoping and sense I will not be disappointed that the book will let me revisit my time with friends and places and incidents in Riyadh. My husband was an engineer with The Royal Commission and I taught at the American International School of Riyadh. Olaya and the American School were bridges to places into the peoples' hearts and minds for me. The author's experience was similar. I am so grateful to the author for writing his story. He has elevated even validated the ex-pat experience in The Kingdom.
Refreshing Addition.......2007-10-08
This book is a refreshing addition to the spate of publications that thump readers over the head with political ideology or religious exhortation.
I, too, lived in the Kingdom for twelve years overlapping the author's stay, but I never met him. I have read many of the books that have popped up during the last decade, written by people who have lived there. Many authors have an exaggerated agenda and/or lack of real knowledge and participation in the culture of Saudi Arabia. Westerners seldom participate fully, if ever, but John Paul Jones does not pretend to offer explanations, excuses or condemnations of an ancient culture that matured on the other side of the world, independent of Western technology or philosophy until recently (historically speaking).
He offers something more interesting--an account of how individuals from these cultures relate to one another on a personal basis, how they find ways to accommodate differences that cannot be truly reconciled, and how they sometimes cannot find ways. He also underscores the obvious---that East and West have actually come together for the development of both, and have done so admirably in major ways. This message has gotten lost, especially since the atrocities of 9/11.
Any Westerner who has lived in Saudi Arabia will recognize the honesty of this book. It reads like a letter to a good friend, and does not aim to be a literary or scholarly treatise. It brings in aspects of the author's family life and his experiences in Vietnam. It bridges the cultural gap with elements of popular Western culture, as is evidenced in the title, derived from Baldwin's classic, "If Beale Street Could Talk."
Mr. Jones is well grounded in Western culture, yet manages to live and write with an attitude of objectivity that has served him well, and has facilitated his invaluable contributions to the well-being of both the Saudis and his fellow expats. This book is an addition to that legacy.
An American expat's musings on life with other American expats.......2007-08-26
The author has spent a good chunk of his life in Saudi Arabia, but there is nothing here to suggest he has any particular insights (good or bad) to impart, and it's not even clear from the book whether he established a serious friendship with a single Saudi, or had a single meaningful conversation with a Saudi. There is in fact more about the author's personal demons in the Vietnam war, which he fails to weave into the story to make awkward and unoriginal points about America and the Middle East. There are also weird digressions about country music and non-sequitur quotations of dated American pop songs that fail to resonate and do not advance the story being told. The one interesting part of the book is in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, when the author is duped into playing an American role in what sounds like an anti-American Saudi televsion mini-series about the misfortunes that the 11 September attacks heaped upon the Saudi people.
Mostly, this is just a random collection of tales from a disconnected expat living in the expat bubble and observing Saudi customs from afar: look at how the women dress! look at the religious police harassing people! Nor does the book succeed in its stated task of conveying a sense of the rapid social changes that the Kingdom saw over recent decades. For a brilliant, if fictionalized, account of this, see the "Cities of Salt" trilogy, especially the first volume, by Abdelrahman Munif.
I used to take offense at the fact that comedian Dave Barry could visit a foreign country for a half week, and immediately turn around write a bestseller that would easily outsell any books written by scholars or journalists who had painstakingly built up a lifetime full of expertise on that country. It is far worse, however, that this man could live in Saudi Arabia for some 20 years and write such a horrible book, that offers less insight than Dave Barry might offer after a four day visit to the Kingdom. I've read perhaps two hundred books on the Arab world and this just may be the least worth reading of the lot.
A nostalgic, insightful read........2007-08-13
As another expat who spent many years, built a family & life, and had a wealth of unique experiences in the Kingdom - I read John's book with varying emotional reactions.
His book starts as a light-hearted narrative of a simpler, more naïve (from our perspectives) time in the KSA. Most of us who lived there in the 70s or 80s felt the same combination of adventure, freedom, and security on this peninsula of such antiquity and new-found modern vibrancy. The living, the work, and the travels were wonderful.
After the "Desert 1" war, we (as many) observed the accelerating cultural/social shifts described faithfully by John - not only in Saudi Arabia, but in the Middle East as a whole. As we decided to repatriate in 2000, I read the accounts of the Jones' last years with a two notable reactions: the curing of any latent desire to return, and sadness for all of the rather unbelievable gaffes on both sides that have led us to this dark place in history.
Most of us long-termers have many stories from those heady days, but John's taken the time and energy to publish his, and for that I thank him. If you want excellent insight into this Kingdom that is so enigmatic and crucial, read John's book. If you prefer not knowing: see the movie and watch corporate media.
Book Description
The Transformation of Wall Street offers an in-depth look at the history of the SEC's origins, accomplishments, and failings since its creation in 1934. Each chapter in the book takes historical look at the tenure of the various SEC chairmen. The first edition, published in 1977, covered the SEC through the Nixon-Ford presidential administration. A revised edition was published in 1995, updating the book through 1992. Now, the third edition continues the history until 2001, the end of Arthur Levitt's Chairmanship, with a treatment of auditing issues through the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (July 2002). In this revised edition, author Joel Seligman draws on unpublished SEC files and extensive personal interviews to provide a comprehensive examination of the origins, accomplishments, and failings of the SEC and its leaders, from the creation of the SEC in 1934 to the present The new material, among other things, will address: • The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which has had a significant impact on private securities litigation after its passage in 1995; • The structure of the securities markets (which are in an important transition because of Electronic Communications Networks; decimalization; international competition; and the continuing evolution to greater institutionalization of our markets as well as the growth of several new products, most recently security futures products); • Municipal securities markets (which were largely ignored before the recently resigned Arthur Levitt); • Several issues with respect to the accounting profession (most notably auditor independence and the independence of accounting standard-setting boards). In addition, the work will focus on Chairman Levitt, whom the author believes was one of the most accomplished of the post World War II chairs, and had the challenge of being a Chair appointed by a Democratic party president during a period when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress as well as a period of extraordinary ferment in the securities market.
This book offers a rare perspective into the work of corporate finance and capital markets through the eyes of one of the most respected and prominent members. His unique involvement with Louis Loss and the history, theories and legislation and regulations of this complex area offers the reader great insight.
Book Description
The Art of Rebellion 2 features an up to the minute international survey of street art, spotlighting dozens of new and unknown protagonists alongside many well known and respected artists who have been at it for years. Since the publication of the first volume, there has been a surge in street art activity and a growing awareness of the art form in the public eye; this volume takes the reader on a lush visual journey through that artistic explosion and features tons of new work with original styles, techniques and intent. The book also presents a selection of the best exhibitions & collaborations between artists and apparel and fashion brands. Featured Artists include: Miss Van, Kid Acne, Faile, Blek le Rat, El Pussycat, Jon Burgerman, Heavyweight, L'Atlas, Zevs, DOMA, Erosie, Thundercut, Skewville, Derrick Hodgson, Koralie, Inkunstruction, Adam Neate, Darius & Downey, Dan Witz, Asbestos, Dave the Chimp and many others all brought to life through photos, interviews and quotes.
Customer Reviews:
Great guerrilla.......2007-01-24
it is a great book to check what is going on in the street
Book Description
UNDERSTANDING STREET GANGS offers a unique and pioneering approach to the street and prison gang dilemma and provides both local and national perspective. This popular book is used by colleges, universities, and academies, and also for advanced officer training throughout the country. The authors are leading authorities on gang activities. No other book offers such insight or understanding into this escalating threat. It covers causative factors, family structure and profiles, socioeconomic pressures, and drugs. It also defines gangs, membership, structure and organization, communication, and measurements of gang violence, offers perspective on gang activity, and suggests possible solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Informative, slightly out of date.......2006-02-13
This book was great for research purposes. Understanding gangs and their signs was pretty much on point. The only complaint would be that it's from the 80's. Lot of the gang MO is still true but there is a section about "Stoner" Gangs, which are 80's metal heads. Basically if you wear a band shirt, jeans and sneakers you fit the dress of a Stoner gang. Their graffiti is band names like Rush and Twisted Sister (this should tell you the age of the book) and "Satanic" things. Also that car clubs are gangs but they don't have a certain style of dress or have graffiti. If you want a good laugh you can read it but for research or academic purposes skip over those sections.
The information on all the other gangs is good. The book talks about their dress, their graffiti, their gang signs, etc. Even on the booking and how they keep gang profiles on each member, showing the documents that they use as well. Good for research or a quick good laugh in some areas.
Good practical knowledge for training cops.......2003-12-01
I bought this book probably in '87 at Long Beach Uniform. It had good information at the time of publication concering the gangs in the greater LA area at the time. Gang associations, graffiti, turf, activity, and turfs are covered. Crimes known to be done by certain gangs are covered, heredity of the latino gangs, tattos, etc. are both covered and photos shown.
Seems like a good informational book with little narrative about what society should do about them. I was surprised I am the first reviewer of the book. I had thought a policeman or trainee would have long ago reviewed this book.
Book Description
From Los Angeles and New York to Chicago and Miami, street gangs are regarded as one of the most intractable crime problems facing our cities, and a vast array of resources is being deployed to combat them. This book chronicles the astounding self-transformation of one of the most feared gangs in the United States into a social movement acting on behalf of the dispossessed, renouncing violence and the underground economy, and requiring school attendance for membership.
What caused the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation of New York City to make this remarkable transformation? And why has it not happened to other gangs elsewhere? David C. Brotherton and Luis Barrios were given unprecedented access to new and never-before-published material by and about the Latin Kings and Queens, including the group's handbook, letters written by members, poems, rap songs, and prayers. In addition, they interviewed more than one hundred gang members, including such leaders as King Tone and King Hector. Featuring numerous photographs by award-winning photojournalist Steve Hart, the book explains the symbolic significance for the gang of hand gestures, attire, rituals, and rites of passage. Based on their inside information, the authors craft a unique portrait of the lives of the gang members and a ground-breaking study of their evolution.
Customer Reviews:
Important addition to the literature on street organizations.......2004-04-03
Few books are currently available on street organizations (commonly referred to by sociologists, anthropologists and criminologists as "gangs") that present both an insider perspective and outsider analysis, and place these social formations into the context of both the contemporary and historical variables that cause their formation, and direct their transformation into radical political organizations.
Without romanticizing the negative elements of the gang phenomena, this study offers a counter-perspective to the criminological canon, and challenges the theoretical assumptions proffered in all but a few standard texts on gang-behavior.
A must read for those interested in the underclass debates, Latino/a youth culture, and grass roots social movements.
Book Description
Detroit in the 1960s was a city with a pulse: people were marching in step with Martin Luther King, Jr., dancing in the street with Martha and the Vandellas, and facing off with city police. Through it all, Motown provided the beat. This book tells the story of Motown--as both musical style and entrepreneurial phenomenon--and of its intrinsic relationship to the politics and culture of Motor Town, USA.
As Suzanne Smith traces the evolution of Motown from a small record company firmly rooted in Detroit's black community to an international music industry giant, she gives us a clear look at cultural politics at the grassroots level. Here we see Motown's music not as the mere soundtrack for its historical moment but as an active agent in the politics of the time. In this story, Motown Records had a distinct role to play in the city's black community as that community articulated and promoted its own social, cultural, and political agendas. Smith shows how these local agendas, which reflected the unique concerns of African Americans living in the urban North, both responded to and reconfigured the national civil rights campaign.
Against a background of events on the national scene--featuring Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Nat King Cole, and Malcolm X--Dancing in the Street presents a vivid picture of the civil rights movement in Detroit, with Motown at its heart. This is a lively and vital history. It's peopled with a host of major and minor figures in black politics, culture, and the arts, and full of the passions of a momentous era. It offers a critical new perspective on the role of popular culture in the process of political change.
Customer Reviews:
Powerful episodes in a work that dispels Motown myths.......2007-03-10
Motown is inescapable these days. I was talking with a friend on the phone today and she was mentioning how Michael Jackson was on TV in Tokyo. Motown directly and indirectly has influenced black culture so much and this Dreamgirls moment is a mighty opportunity to peer beyond the veil and see some of the less talked about sides of Motown.
Many focus on the content of Motown music but Motown as a case study in Black Capitalism is a more prickly topic. Suzanne Smith chooses to highlight several episodes in Motown's history against the history of Detroit that was taking place behind it. In this book you're getting exposed to some lesser known events in Motown's history along with community history of Detroit. This book will be of greatest interest to scholars in the music business and urban history. I don't feel that this is the best place for those to turn who just like the sound of Motown's music and want to learn more.
Suzanne Smith's perspective is that Motown had to be a Black Business due to the nature of its times and the affect that its music had on its surrounding community. In a little bit over 250 pages of text [thorough academic references take up the rest], it's hard to make a rock solid case for that point. Conventional wisdom is that Berry Gordy was a *family* capitalist more than a black capitalist and Motown was more about making money for the Gordy family than the Detroit community. Motown struggled to scale up when the Supremes hit big at the same time that the nation lost its faith in coalition politics. Rather than go Black Power, Gordy became focused on Hollywood and abandoned the grassroots foundation of Motown. I feel that's more the interpretation in other books that I've read on the topic and this book wasn't thorough enough to overturn that perspective.
On the other hand, this book certainly spices that conventional wisdom up a bit. I recently purchased and read Perniel Joseph's "Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of the Black Power Movement". This book offers an effective cultural complement to that work. Joseph talks about Rev. Albert Cleage, father of popular novelist Pearl Cleage. In Dancing in the Street you learn more about the cultural battles that Detroit leaders like Rev. Cleage and Rev. C.L. Franklin, father of Aretha Franklin, were fighting to raise the status of black people in a city that was losing industrial jobs.
There are some stories in this book that add complexity to my understanding of Motown. I did not realize that Langston Hughes had recorded for Motown. I did not know that the Supremes had recorded a public service movie for a campaign to raise money for a local charity and that Florence Ballard was included in the movie despite Cindy Birdsong's replacing her to maintain ties to the hometown fans! Like Barack Obama in 2007, Motown had a delicate balance to maintain with national and international ambitions as a goal even as they had to continually convince local talent to be part of the Motown family at submarket wages. I think that this book was written well before the documentary Standing In the Shadows of Motown, and that makes it seem a little hollow at times. On the exploitation of artists, this book focuses more on the Holland, Dozier, Holland suit as an example of exploitation and chooses not to engage in the biographies of the artists as much.
I feel that this book would have needed to be more detailed and have more primary interviews with living Motown artists and some new interviews with Berry Gordy by the author to be a highest priority read for Motown heads. As it stands, this is still a good book for those interested in urban history and some of the less frequently told tales of the Motown empire.
3.5 stars.
--SD
Szatmary, Amazon's reviewer, is a bit "naive" himself........2004-09-11
Professor Suzanne E. Smith' project *Dancing in the Streets: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit* is a well-written and fascinating work of revisionist, myth-busting history. For perhaps no other musical institution has been given such a large free pass for (mis)representing its founder's ideology as the company's actual history.
The story of Motown is usually told as the early story of Berry Gordy, a member of an Black entrepreneurial family who borrows $800 from his other family members and ends up the king of a musical empire, thus proving the Horatio Alger myth that anyone (even an African-American) with a little grit and determination can succeed in America. But such a story fails to account for much of the instituional, and ideological factors that made a specific type of entrepreneurial cultural production possible in Detroit, Michigan. Along with churches, temples, businesses, newspapers and activists, we are treated to a history of Motown that is deeply inscribed in an underclass familial net of relationships and social networks, given a boost by black media and a history of both jazz production and humanistic training for songwriters and musicians in the Detroit educational system. Not in the least, there was the automotive industry, which was both a source of Black humilation, frustation, and yet inspiration for adapting technologies and industrial processes of streamling and assembly-line production. Motown literally manufactured its artists using the same separate teams for songwriting, backup production, etiquette and image cultivation for all its artists. As the business grows the model remains, although soon Motown is a multi-million dollar international industry, and no longer a small paternalistically run family operation.
Throughout it all, Motown is given a both a special place in the Black community and a difficult role in attempting to market its product to a larger white (and mostly teenage) audience. Indebted to the civil rights ideologies of Booker T. Washington and Carter G. Woodson, Motown maintains an ambivalent relationship with the fracturing civil rights movement and its divergent leaders and interests. As the tumultuousness of 1967 and 1968 come forth, the fissures at Motown erupt, as many artists demand a greater profit-sharing, and more creative control over their music and roles at the company. We see and follow the careers and songs of the Supremes, Little Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, and well as The Miracles and Marvin Gaye. Smith builds a woven patchwork of cultural history and its emergent politics around several different themes, such as the rise and ultimate failure of Black capitalism to remain tied to its original community, the uses or Motown for the greater Detroit black community, and the role of other Motown among other institutions in ameliorating economic and political hardship for the Black community, both locally and nationally. We get to set not only the production side of Motown, but also the myriad ways that the music was inextricably interwoven and read into the lives of those who held it dear to Detroit' heart.
Methodologically, Smith does all this by using the theoretical perspective of Raymond Williams, who coined the concept "cultural formation." In Williams' view, it is impossible to understand "an intellectual or artistic project without also understanding its formation." Cultural formations are "simultaenously artistic forms and social locations." The relationship dynamic between the two structures the formation that emerges as a result of the synergistic effects of the individual projects, agents, and institutions involved. Each functions as a distinct agent with its own agendas and motivations, constituting a complex mosiac of reactions, relationships, and tensions. This is particularly well suited to an analysis of Motown Records, precisely because of the culturally mythological status it has acheived---an American everyman's music. But even the deep seated agendas and motivations that gave birth to this acheivement of seemingly apolitical universalism are themselves deeply political and reflect political consequences of judgments. These judgments to aggresively pursue a project of Black capitalism modeled on the industrial production of the automotive industrial ("assembly line production" of hit songs) are the efforts of Detroit's most famous "cultural producer," regardless of how the company may have attempted to steer clear of explicit poltical messages in its products as much as possible.
All in all, the book is a significant addition to recent scholarship. In depth for the cultural historian and Motown fan, but very easy and user-friendly for the casual reader. The book has been criticized for its approach to Black capitalism, but Smith's perspective is in no way "naive." Rather, it is solidly based in historical political economy of African-Amercan underdevelopment as discussed by Manning Marable, among others. Her criticism of Gordy is tempered, and is presently more as the inevitable consequence of becoming a large impersonal corporation that still uses paternalistic rhetoric towards its cultural workers and larger community while acting solely in its own self-interest. If Smith draws largely on black newspaper accounts, autobiography and insider media, it is not because she wishes to avoid "primary" sources, but is instead interested in drawing a picture of the relationships and interactions that emerge at the time among institutions as well as people--something not easily obtainable from interviews and other types of so-called "primary sources" years later. Of course, the political and hermeneutic assumptions inherent in classifying some sources as primary and others as secondary are themselves sometimes suspect. But that is a discussion for another time and place.
Great Book; Great City; A Time Not To Be Forgotten.......2000-05-16
Suzanne Smith deserves tremendous credit for transforming her love of Detroit, her home; her love of Motown, the soul music of her generation; and her love of historical analysis, the career she has chosen, into a remarkably readable and indeed breathtaking review of a city, a time, and a musical genre that is too often neglected. Sure, the most celebrated heirs of the Motown legend, the Jackson family, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, achieved fame and fortune. But Barry Gordy's Motown -- the Motown of European-Americans like Suzanne Smith, and the Motown of all of Detoit's people of color, needs to be remembered often and with affection. That Suzanne Smith can tell the story of Detroit in the turbulent 1960s with such style and grace, is a testament to her skill as an analyst of culture and her skill as one of the next generation of honored historians. Presently at George Mason University in Virginia, look for Professor Smith to soon teach from a tenured chair in Ann Arbor, Michigan; New Haven, Connecticut; or Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Come And Get These Memories!.......2000-04-13
This is Motor City history from the inside outward, and if you know the REAl city, from the Graystone Ballroom to the Chit Chat Club to WJLB and the City Wide Dry Cleaners, then you KNOW what I'm gettin into. A beautiful job of history that moves like the music of Hitsville, U.S.A. did. You go, girl!
Incisive Social History.......2000-03-25
An incisive combination of music journalism and pathbreaking social history about the city, people and circumstances that gave rise to, participated in, supported,and finally watched the physical exit from the Motor City in the early '70s of Motown Records. A vivid and unforgettable study of the roots of an important facet of American cultural history. Excellent.
Book Description
Imagine the civil rights movement without freedom songs and the politics of women's movements without poetry. Or, more difficult yet, imagine an America unaffected by the cultural expressions and forms of the twentieth-century social movements that have shaped our nation. The first broad overview of social movements and the distinctive cultural forms that express and helped shape them, The Art of Protest shows the vital importance of these movements to American culture. In comparative accounts of movements beginning with the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and running through the Internet-driven movement for global justice ("Will the revolution be cybercast?") of the twenty-first century, T. V. Reed enriches our understanding of protest and its cultural expression. Reed explores the street drama of the Black Panthers, the revolutionary murals of the Chicano movement, the American Indian Movement's use of film and video, rock music and the struggles against famine and apartheid, ACT UP's use of visual art in the campaign against AIDS, and the literature of environmental justice. Throughout, Reed employs the concept of culture in three interrelated ways: by examining social movements as sub- or countercultures; by looking at poetry, painting, music, murals, film, and fiction in and around social movements; and by considering the ways in which the cultural texts generated by resistance movements have reshaped the contours of the wider American culture. The United States is a nation that began with a protest. Through the kaleidoscopic lens of artistic and cultural expression, Reed reveals how activism continues to remake our world.
Customer Reviews:
public happiness.......2006-10-03
I ordered this book to use in my women's studies class. I know TV Reed and I knew it would be good. But I didn't realize how extraordinary this book was. I am reading it now along side my students, haven't even finished it yet, but I am so excited by it I just have to talk about it!
At one point Reed describes the pleasure that politics must have in various forms -- the book is full of the power and meaning of a range of arts, especially in community and popular culture. He refers to Hannah Arendt and the idea of public happiness, that sense of exhilaration that suffuses one's being in moments of political engagement and collective action. Reading this book is some kind of public/private happiness too. One feels taken up through his appraisals of arts into his histories of various movements. Murals, poetry, drama, music, graphic arts, movies -- they shape our creative politics and the possibilities of our attachments and engagements with each other and through and about political culture. All these connections are inspirational in their detail and for emulation.
Thus it is also a handbook for activists, full of wise counsel for how to do cultural work and how to participate in and care about mobilization, organizing and direct action.
I also love its great heart and intellectual breadth: activist honor, dignity and integrity. Reed's generous spirit combined with sharp analysis clarifies strengths and limitations within particular movement histories, things we have to know to do good political work and to be active beings creating social justice.
This is a history of social movements, a set of tools for cultural workers, an intervention into the way we critique each other's political practices, and a sharing of spirit among activisms and arts.
And I haven't even finished it yet! Now I want all my students to read it or to have read it! I want to give it to everyone I know!
Author's description.......2005-10-15
Imagine the civil rights movement without freedom songs or the politics of women's movements without poetry. More difficult yet, imagine an America unaffected by the cultural expressions of the twentieth-century social movements that have shaped our nation. The first broad overview of social movements and the distinctive cultural forms that helped shape them, The Art of Protest shows the vital importance of these movements to American culture.
In comparative accounts of movements beginning with the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and running through the Internet-driven movement for global justice of the twenty-first century ("Will the revolution be cybercast?"), T. V. Reed enriches our understanding of protest and its cultural expression. Reed explores the street drama of the Black Panthers, the revolutionary murals of the Chicano movement, the American Indian Movement's use of film and video, rock music and the struggles against famine and apartheid, ACT UP's use of visual art in the campaign against AIDS, and the literature of environmental justice. Throughout, Reed employs the concept of culture in three interrelated ways: by examining social movements as sub- or countercultures; by looking at poetry, painting, music, murals, film, and fiction in and around social movements; and by considering the ways in which the cultural texts generated by resistance movements have reshaped the contours of the wider American culture.
The United States is a nation that began with a protest. Through the kaleidoscopic lens of artistic and cultural expression, Reed reveals how activism continues to remake our world.
Book Description
When environmental health problems arise in a community, policymakers must be able to reconcile the first-hand experience of local residents with recommendations by scientists. In this highly original look at environmental health policymaking, Jason Corburn shows the ways that local knowledge can be combined with professional techniques to achieve better solutions for environmental health problems. He traces the efforts of a low-income community in Brooklyn to deal with health problems in its midst and offers a framework for understanding "street science" -- decision making that draws on community knowledge and contributes to environmental justice.
Like many other low-income urban communities, the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn suffers more than its share of environmental problems, with a concentration of polluting facilities and elevated levels of localized air pollutants. Corburn looks at four instances of street science in Greenpoint/Williamsburg, where community members and professionals combined forces to address the risks from subsistence fishing from the polluted East River, the asthma epidemic in the Latino community, childhood lead poisoning, and local sources of air pollution. These episodes highlight both the successes and the limits of street science and demonstrate ways residents can establish their own credibility when working with scientists. Street science, Corburn argues, does not devalue science; it revalues other kinds of information and democratizes the inquiry and decision-making processes.
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Books Index
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