Book Description
Like the canaries that alerted miners to a poisonous atmosphere, issues of race point to underlying problems in society that ultimately affect everyone, not just minorities. Addressing these issues is essential. Ignoring racial differences--race blindness--has failed. Focusing on individual achievement has diverted us from tackling pervasive inequalities. Now, in a powerful and challenging book, Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres propose a radical new way to confront race in the twenty-first century.
Given the complex relationship between race and power in America, engaging race means engaging standard winner-take-all hierarchies of power as well. Terming their concept "political race," Guinier and Torres call for the building of grass-roots, cross-racial coalitions to remake those structures of power by fostering public participation in politics and reforming the process of democracy. Their illuminating and moving stories of political race in action include the coalition of Hispanic and black leaders who devised the Texas Ten Percent Plan to establish equitable state college admissions criteria, and the struggle of black workers in North Carolina for fair working conditions that drew on the strength and won the support of the entire local community.
The aim of political race is not merely to remedy racial injustices, but to create truly participatory democracy, where people of all races feel empowered to effect changes that will improve conditions for everyone. In a book that is ultimately not only aspirational but inspirational, Guinier and Torres envision a social justice movement that could transform the nature of democracy in America.
Customer Reviews:
Reframing a volatile issue.......2005-04-08
Racism has been an impediment in living up to our ideals as a democracy. It will continue to be a sensitive and volatile issue here in America unless we make an effort to eliminate it. The authors have done a formidable job in reframing the problem in a way to help us trancend it, come together and work toward a solution to what W.E.B. DuBois called the problem of the 20th century. It's a difficult book but well worth the effort!
You are kidding me?.......2004-05-19
I know that professors from Harvard and UT are smart, but do they really feel the need to express this in their writing? The entire first chapter of this book is nothing but fluff, using nearly incomprehensible $5 words. The authors do not get their point across in a clear and concise manner and the rest of the book suffers because of this. Do not buy this book.
Timely and bold.......2004-04-08
A bold call for bringing people together and transforming society. If you are class conscious and anti-racist read this book, it will be worth the challenge.
THIS BOOK RECALLS ELLISON'S INVISIBLE MAN.......2003-07-05
Because it's the best book about race relations in America since Ellison's masterpiece of fifty years ago. By "race relations" I mean blacks and whites, as Ellison would have meant the words. But The Miner's Canary is about much more, it's about all-minority-cultures and whites in America. And in direct opposition to the color-blind solution the Supreme Court has decided the Constitution requires, the book's authors esteem and celebrate and find strength, including political strength, in our separate cultural identities -- including the separate (non-oppressive) cultural identities of whites.
When I put The Miner's Canary down, I wished I had read the Acknowledgments first, then the chapter "by" Torres. This is a difficult book, it has many authors, and the voice I identify as Ms. Guinier's seems sometimes to address junior high school students and other times to address law professors. So the book has many levels of analysis, and it treats its central topic -- political race -- from many angles. These are not shortcomings, but they add up to a very demanding book.
The book's real-life examples, however, are all wonderful and all one -- compelling and utterly elucidating. And the long illustration of how Greek democracy in action would look if it followed American districting and apportionment rules is simply surpassing wonderful.
Then there's the book's immediacy. The Nobel Prize winning econometrician Robert Fogel has emphasized the roles of technology and religious activism in America's movements for social justice, relegating progressivism to the status of an adjunct to the latter. The Miner's Canary, on the other hand, puts the struggle for social justice squarely within the politics of progressivism. This is not necessarily inconsistent with Fogel (whatever one thinks of the validity of his argument), assuming Fogel's subject is movements in the past before about 1980 when the Big Sleep set in -- which it is -- and assuming The Miner's Canary is describing developments since about 1980, which it is. The book says something new has been happening, and it started being more than unrelated occurrences about twenty five years ago. This new thing Guinier and Torres call political race.
The ambition, originality and insights of this book far outweigh its difficulties due to multiple voices and an "un-ironed out" presentation. I give it five stars.
Why this book fails.......2003-02-07
Guiner and Torres write pedantically with little organization or cohesion. Although the anecdotes were interesting, the authors' arguments reek of indolent emotionalism rather than theory and sound policy.
I realize this is a critical review. I try to be fair to all viewpoints, but this vacuous work warrants these harsh words. Gerald Torres was a visiting professor at Harvard, where his indifferent attitude to his own class and examination live on in infamy. He is not proficient at conveying information.
In short, while Torres and Guiner intended to write a mentally stimulating book, this work is instead mind numbing. Spend your money on another book. For alternate reading on race theory, try "Unequal Treatment: A Study in the Neoclassical Theory of Discrimination" by Lundahl and Wadensjo.
Book Description
In 1958, an African-American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of an embarrassed John Foster Dulles. Soon after the United States' segregated military defeated a racist regime in World War II, American racism was a major concern of U.S. allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Each lynching harmed foreign relations, and "the Negro problem" became a central issue in every administration from Truman to Johnson.
In what may be the best analysis of how international relations affected any domestic issue, Mary Dudziak interprets postwar civil rights as a Cold War feature. She argues that the Cold War helped facilitate key social reforms, including desegregation. Civil rights activists gained tremendous advantage as the government sought to polish its international image. But improving the nation's reputation did not always require real change. This focus on image rather than substance--combined with constraints on McCarthy-era political activism and the triumph of law-and-order rhetoric--limited the nature and extent of progress.
Archival information, much of it newly available, supports Dudziak's argument that civil rights was Cold War policy. But the story is also one of people: an African-American veteran of World War II lynched in Georgia; an attorney general flooded by civil rights petitions from abroad; the teenagers who desegregated Little Rock's Central High; African diplomats denied restaurant service; black artists living in Europe and supporting the civil rights movement from overseas; conservative politicians viewing desegregation as a communist plot; and civil rights leaders who saw their struggle eclipsed by Vietnam.
Never before has any scholar so directly connected civil rights and the Cold War. Contributing mightily to our understanding of both, Dudziak advances--in clear and lively prose--a new wave of scholarship that corrects isolationist tendencies in American history by applying an international perspective to domestic affairs.
Customer Reviews:
An enlightening book on public diplomacy .......2007-01-11
If you think Las Vegas tourist ads and "listening tours" are components of public diplomacy and international relations, you need to read this book. If you think media coverage is intense now, you need to read this book. Dudziak gets into the reality and impact of media coverage forty years ago and its impact on the global information war of the time that is remarkably similar to today: "Following World War II, anything that undermined the image of American democracy was seen as threatening world peace and aiding Soviet aspiration to dominate the world... Nations were divided between a way of life 'distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression' and a way of life that "relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms."
Dudziak looks at the impact of race and the civil rights movement in the United States on American public diplomacy and foreign policy. The impact of America's "color bar" on foreign relations is astonishing and Dudziak helps contextualize the movement and government responses within contemporary pressures.
Indiscriminate actions against foreign and American dignitaries reinforced the accessibility of race-based norms to all and played into Soviet propaganda and provided a painful counternarrative that impacted US foreign relations. The US Ambassador, Chester Bowles, to India, speaking in 1952 at Yale University said, "A year, a month, or even a week in Asia is enough to convince any perceptive American that the colored peoples of Asia and Africa, who total two-thirds of the world's population, seldom think about the United States without considering the limitations under which our 13 million Negroes are living."
As we attempted to project democracy and its emphasis on equality and freedom, in opposition to Soviet tyranny, discrimination in the US was well known beyond our borders. Dudziak presents "With Us or Against Us" examples with Louis Armstrong and Josephine Baker as examples, among others. In the case of Baker, State Department officers justified censorship and hardship imposed on Baker by discounting her personal beliefs. Her "derogatory" remarks "concerning racial discrimination in the United States" were deemed to be "presenting a distorted and malicious picture of actual conditions." If we do not practice democracy, how well will our promotion of it be received? This was a real question of the time that other history books ignore and was the very question Ambassador Bowles asked.
As Dudziak wrote, "Domestic difficulties were managed by US presidents with an eye toward how their actions would play overseas." Disingenuous or factually misleading statements to justify domestic policies and opinions are not the mainstay of any single generation. While not intending to be destructive to the nation, these policies have a severely detrimental affect on domestic cohesion and leadership within the foreign relations. Dudziak implies the race issue in the international press was the seed of negative views of the US. The golden temple of American democracy was seen as something falling short, even hypocritical. Locksley Edmunson, writing in 1973, could be speaking of today with our Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and alleged secret CIA prisons when he wrote, "Those states best technically equipped to maintain world order are not necessarily the ones whose credentials recommend them as the most appropriate guardians of a global conscience."
You can read different things out of Mary Dudziak's book. As a student of public diplomacy, my take-away centered on the impact on foreign policy, which the author does a good job investigating. The take-away? Practice what you preach, or at least be effective in making them think you're trying to.
Causes and Effects.......2001-06-05
Upon first consideration one would think that the reciprocal influences of the Cold War and American civil rights activity would be self-evident. Perhaps, but Dudziak's book is full of surprises and details how galling the "American Dilemma" was to U.S. foreign policy-makers and various presidents and how each responded to the concerns of African, Asian, American, and European countries regarding the United States civil rights struggle over several decades. Why was civil rights legislation important to American foreign policy? How was Eisenhower's response to school desegregation in Little Rock influenced by foreign perceptions? How did the international attention to civil rights activity affect John Kennedy's domestic policies? Why was the State Department so concerned about Asian and African criticisms of the United States' record on civil rights? How was the Civil Rights Act of 1965 viewed by the international community? How did the views of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X affect United States foreign policy efforts? Was the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to an American activist also an international signal that worried a president and the State Department? These questions and many more are answered by Dudziak.
Dudziak deserves recognition and commendations for clearly demonstrating that the United States civil rights movement had a global as well as a national impact on America's foreign policy efforts and placed the United States squarely between the demands of a persecuted domestic minority and the scrutiny of the nations to which it declared itself the leader of human rights, liberty, and freedom in contrast to the totalitarian regimes of communist countries.
This book is well worth reading and an important addition to the growing number of books on the history of race relations that was not, and is not,taught in school. Kudos to Dudziak for an important job well done.
Eye Opening and Important -- A Great Read!.......2001-01-11
Mary Dudziak revisits a familiar chapter in American history--the civil rights movement--but provides readers with a completely new perspective on it.
We know about the work that was being done in the streets. But now Dudziak helps us see the movement through the eyes of America's cold war policymakers. For them, civil rights was a foreign policy problem, and Dudziak helps us see how this explains many of the movements successes and (maybe more important) many of its defeats.
Essential reading for everyone interested in American history, civil rights, constitutional law (yes, even Brown v. Board of Education must be seen in light of this analysis), and foreign policy.
Excellent!.......2001-01-08
This book is fabulous. Clear and articulate, it reads like a story and explores an aspect of the civil rights movement most authors and historians have neglected. It is meticulously researched and filled with information from sources ranging from presidential telephone conversations to news wires to official publications. The civil rights movement cannot be fully understood without reflecting upon the information contained in this book.
Average customer rating:
|
Democracy, Minorities and International Law (Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law)
Steven Wheatley
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Constitutional Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| International Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
International Law
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
United Nations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0521848989 |
Book Description
This work explores the contribution that international law may make to the resolution of culture conflicts--political disputes between the members of different ethno-cultural groups--in democratic States. International law recognizes that persons belonging to minorities have the right to enjoy their own culture and peoples have the right to self-determination without detailing how these principles are to be put into effect. The emergence of democracy as a legal obligation of States permits the international community to concern itself with both the procedure and substance of 'democratic' decisions concerning ethno-cultural groups.
Book Description
"What a breath of fresh air! Anyone who thinks a constitutional court must be conceived solely in terms of restraining popular impulse and containing the passions of the masses will have to think again after reading Parker's provocative books which makes a very eloquent plea for assigning to courts and constitutions the very difficult mission of unleashing political energy and stimulating public participation in civic life."
-Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard University Law School
"Even those of us who disagree with some of Parker's arguments should welcome his central point: that it is neither desirable nor possible in a democracy to find permanent bypasses around public opinion on the most important issues."
-U.S. Representative Barney Frank
"Though I didn't concur with all of it, this is the most provocative book on law and politics in a long time."
-U.S. Representative Mel Reynolds
"Much of this book is downright fun to read-a rarity in legal scholarship. Parker's main theme-that we need to rediscover constitutional law's populist/majoritarian nature and possibilities-is both provocative and supremely important."
-Akhil Amar, Yale Law School
"This book deserves to be read, reread, and reread again. Its logic and fundamental understanding of the purpose of constitutional law will persuade, challenge, or infuriate readers. But Parker's words will linger and his book will sow an intellectual revolution grounded in the experience and sensibilities of citizens. Oligarchs, plutocrats, sophists, and practitioners of noblesse oblige beware: your controlling processes stand exposed by a profoundly illuminating mind."
-Ralph Nader
Average customer rating:
|
Minority Identities and the Nation-State
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Democracy
| Government
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Ethnic Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Systems Of Government
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| General
| Islamic Government
| Monarchy
| Representative Government
Rights
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Human Rights
| Constitutional Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0195645413 |
Book Description
The essays in this volume examine minority rights within the context of the nation state and democratic politics. The authors explore the stresses of minority consciousness and reflect upon the tensions between the democratic-political-rights and cultural claims of minorities as they emerged
within the framework of the nation State.
Average customer rating:
|
Multinational Democracies
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Economic Conditions
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Democracy
| Government
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Nationalism
| Movements
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Democracy
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Human Rights
| Constitutional Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0521800293 |
Book Description
Multinational Democracies is the first collaborative, multi-perspective critical survey of a new and distinctive type of political association that is coming into prominence in the twenty-first century. These are democratic societies that are not only multicultural but also multinational: that is, they comprise two or more nations. Nineteen leading comparative political scientists and political theorists from Europe and North America clarify the complex character and tensions of multinational democracies by reflecting on four exemplars--the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and Canada. The work offers a new approach to the study, understanding and governing of multinational societies and, in so doing, of culturally diverse societies more generally. This volume will be of interest to those concerned with diverse societies, nationalism, struggles for recognition, federalism and democratic constitutionalism in conditions of pluralism.
Average customer rating:
|
The Voting Rights Act: Securing The Ballot (Landmark Events in U.S. History)
Manufacturer: CQ Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Civil Rights
| Constitutional Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Legal History
| Perspectives on Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Relations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Democracy
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Civil Rights
| Constitutional Law
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Legal History
| Perspectives on Law
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1568029896 |
Book Description
Found throughout the universe, variable stars are fascinating objects to observe. Their brightness changes over time and they can easily be seen with even the most basic equipment. David Levy explains how to begin electronic (or CCD) observing, as well as how to observe variable stars through a small telescope or binoculars. Featuring a section on Southern hemisphere stars, this book covers various types of objects that can be observed by amateur astronomers, including more exotic phenomena like gamma ray bursts, blazars, and polars. It will motivate anyone with even a basic interest in astronomy to begin observing variable stars.
David H. Levy is one of the most successful comet hunters in history. He has discovered twenty-one, eight of them using a telescope in his own backyard. With Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California, Levy discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994, and is currently involved with the Jarnac Comet Survey, based at the Jarnac Observatory in Vail, Arizona.
In addition to being the author or editor of 31 books and other products, David Levy is the Science Editor for Parade magazine and contributing editor for Sky and Telescope magazine and the Canadian periodical, SkyNews. Frequently interviewed in the media, he has given almost a thousand lectures and appeared on many television programs. His most recent CUP book is David Levy's Guide to Observing and Discovering Comets (Cambridge, 2003). First Edition Pb (1989) 0-521-62755-9
Customer Reviews:
Previously published as .......2007-05-16
Execpt for mention of the isbn, there is little indication that this is the second editon of the previously published book under a different title. Observing Variable Stars: A Guide for the Beginner See the reviews for more on this book.
What has changed with this edition is an updating of the earlier with a new chapter on CCD photometry. Also added is a section on Clyde Tombaugh and TV Corvi (a cataclysmic variable star). Missing from this new edition is an anectdote about a bet Levy made over SS Cygni (another cataclysmic variable). Otherwise, execept for a slight change in layout and smaller text size this is essentially the same book as the aforementioned "Observing Variable Stars".
Those like myself who would (in my case did) purchase this believing it to be more or less different in content than Levy's earlier book might want to take note.
But make no mistake, whichever edition you get, this is an excellent and inspiring guide to the newbie variable star observer.
One last piece of advice. Whatever book on variable star observing you get, you should go to the official AAVSO website to obtain the latest, most accurate comparison star charts to use. [...].
Some, such a the charts for the star R Leonis (which I was trying out from his book) have had the magnitudes of the comparison stars revised since the publication of even this updated edition of the book.
Book Description
Variable star astronomy is one field that still allows amateur astronomers to make significant contributions to the advancement of science. Everyone can play a part in variable star observations, using a small telescope, binoculars, or even the naked eye. Written by an award-winning astronomer, Observing Variable Stars provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of variable star observation for the amateur. The book begins with advice on binoculars and telescopes, and on how and when to observe stars effectively. Levy then explains the ways in which to interpret variation in light output in terms of the life of a star, from birth to sometimes violent death. All the major variables are described and classified, as well as other variable objects such as active galaxies, asteroids, comets, and the sun. The book also illustrates how astrophysicists interpret variations in light output in terms of the evolution of stars. Observing Variable Stars contains a seasonal guide to the night sky usable in all latitudes. Throughout, practical observations serve to complement the text, making this an enjoyable, readable introduction to an exciting area of astronomy.
Customer Reviews:
A very good, clear, step-by-step guide.......2000-08-05
David is an enthusiastic and inspiring writer. This book can effectively take you through the very beginnings of variable star observation and set you on your way to becoming a productive observer able to submit valid data to organizations like the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Get it.
A Must read for Amateur Astronomers.......2000-06-25
A great book for the amateur astronomer that is looking for new stars to observe or wishes to contribute observations of variable stars to professional organizations. David Levy is an excellent writer and does a fine job of explaining the tricks and tips of observing these peculiar objects.
Books:
- The Persecution and Trial of Gaston Naessens: The True Story of the Efforts to Suppress an Alternative Treatment for Cancer, AIDS, And Other Immunol
- The Rammed Earth House (Real Goods Independent Living Book)
- The RIA's Compliance Solution Book: Answers for the Critical Questions
- The Veteran's Millennium Health Care Act of 1999: A Case Study of Role Orientations of Legislators, the President, and Interest Groups
- The Victorian Home in America: With Over 250 Illustrations
- The World Trade Organization: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
- Theories of evidence: Bentham and Wigmore (Jurists--profiles in legal theory)
- Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata
- Trial notebook: A practical primer on trial advocacy
- 'West's California Codes: Penal Code 2000
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame
- Applying Landscape Ecology in Biological Conservation
- Chemistry of the Elements, Second Edition
- Design of Wood Structures-ASD/LRFD
- History: Fiction or Science
- Down in the Zero
- Hector Guimard: Architect, Designer
- Building Security: Handbook for Architectural Planning and Design
- Animal Rights Weekend Warrior
Tyranny of the Majority : Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy
Leading in a Culture of Change
Waging Reconciliation: God's Mission in a Time of Globalization and Crisis
A House of Prayer for All Peoples: Congregations Building Multiracial Community
Disrupting White Supremacy From Within: White People On What We Need To Do
