This, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day--in an extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organization or business, deliver stunning customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results.
Written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature--not just another program of the month.
America is in the midst of a service crisis that has left a wake of disillusioned customers from coast to coast. Raving Fans includes startling new tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace--and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.
Some of the strongest passages in 1776 are the revealing and well-rounded portraits of the Georges on both sides of the Atlantic. King George III, so often portrayed as a bumbling, arrogant fool, is given a more thoughtful treatment by McCullough, who shows that the king considered the colonists to be petulant subjects without legitimate grievances--an attitude that led him to underestimate the will and capabilities of the Americans. At times he seems shocked that war was even necessary. The great Washington lives up to his considerable reputation in these pages, and McCullough relies on private correspondence to balance the man and the myth, revealing how deeply concerned Washington was about the Americans' chances for victory, despite his public optimism. Perhaps more than any other man, he realized how fortunate they were to merely survive the year, and he willingly lays the responsibility for their good fortune in the hands of God rather than his own. Enthralling and superbly written, 1776 is the work of a master historian. --Shawn Carkonen
With his riveting, enlightening accounts of subjects from Johnstown Flood to John Adams, David McCullough has become the historian that Americans look to most to tell us our own story. In his Amazon.com interview, McCullough explains why he turned in his new book from the political battles of the Revolution to the battles on the ground, and he marvels at some of his favorite young citizen soldiers who fought alongside the remarkable General Washington.
The Essential David McCullough
John Adams |
Truman |
Mornings on Horseback |
The Path Between the Seas |
The Great Bridge |
The Johnstown Flood |
More Reading on the Revolution
The Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff |
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer |
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis |
Washington's General by Terry Golway |
Iron Tears by Stanley Weintraub |
Victory at Yorktown by Richard M. Ketchum |
Book Description
In this stirring book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.
Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King's men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.
Here also is the Revolution as experienced by American Loyalists, Hessian mercenaries, politicians, preachers, traitors, spies, men and women of all kinds caught in the paths of war.
At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books -- Nathanael Greene, a Quaker who was made a general at thirty-three, and Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the dead of winter.
But it is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost -- Washington, who had never before led an army in battle.
The book begins in London on October 26, 1775, when His Majesty King George III went before Parliament to declare America in rebellion and to affirm his resolve to crush it. From there the story moves to the Siege of Boston and its astonishing outcome, then to New York, where British ships and British troops appear in numbers never imagined and the newly proclaimed Continental Army confronts the enemy for the first time. David McCullough's vivid rendering of the Battle of Brooklyn and the daring American escape that followed is a part of the book few readers will ever forget.
As the crucial weeks pass, defeat follows defeat, and in the long retreat across New Jersey, all hope seems gone, until Washington launches the "brilliant stroke" that will change history.
The darkest hours of that tumultuous year were as dark as any Americans have known. Especially in our own tumultuous time, 1776 is powerful testimony to how much is owed to a rare few in that brave founding epoch, and what a miracle it was that things turned out as they did.
Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.
Download Description
"In this stirring book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history. "
Customer Reviews:
Excellent analysis.......2007-10-15
This is a terrific book that brings some of the most dramatic moments in the war of independence to life. If you're interested in how this country started, this is a good book to read.
"If We can Keep It" - quote of the Forefathers.......2007-10-13
It's people like David McCullough that manage to bring American History alive once more.
I remember sitting in American History class, bored to tears by the dryness of the whole thing, knowing it was vastly important, yet no stimulus was forthcoming from the instructors, further compounded by being too young to care. Perhaps, most of us just need to get older to appreciate what we have, what was given us by our predecessors, but whatever the reason, David McCullough opened the door of my jaded imagination to a vibrantly alive century long past, full of real people, feet of clay, possessing all the human frailties, yet coming together across racial, social, and intellectual lines, doing an impossible job against all odds, under the worst possible conditions, and triumphing in the end simply because they refused to recognize defeat, even as it surrounded them from every direction.
Two facts that starkly stand out in the whole mix: The patriots Knox and Greene, neither of them gentlemen by birth in the accepted way, possessing no great wealth, nor education, became two of the major components behind Washington that granted him the victory. Perhaps in other times, they, endowed of such natural talent would have been entirely overlooked. American ingenuity, one of our greatest strengths, was born out of them to us - on the spur of the moment, out of pressing necessity - with nothing more asked - or to be gained, other than death - than the passion (no other word will do) to support a new idea - Freedom.
We all know what the outcome was, so I won't bore any of you with more of that in my own heartfelt review of the book. What I really wished to convey to any reader, especially a younger one, who may not have opened the pages as yet - is that it will bring a new generation to experience anew the sense of pride that most of us as American's feel, and do it in a way that is truly "readable".
What a book - written by someone who leaves "dry" at home and digs down deep into the "human experience" to tell us the vibrant story about the courage that slumbers until needed - among a people who possess the desire to live free.
We weren't "Born Free" - it was won "for us" by others long gone - let's never forget.
Success was not guaranteed.......2007-10-01
Looking back on the American revolution of 1776 we sometimes
make the mistake to think success was guaranteed.
In David McCulloughs splendid book 1776 we clearly see
that it was not.
Its the gripping tale of american patriots like Nathanael Green,
age thirty three, who knew nothing of war except what he had read in books, and twenty five year old bookseller Henry Knox - who joined the
cause with George Washington to fight the biggest army in the world.
A weird assembly - the cause of liberty being led by a slavemaster
(Washington had more than 100 slaves). Still, in the end he is the one
who overcomes all bad odds and makes independence real.
In december 1776 leading a down and out army of some 3.000 to surprise attack Christmas night on hessian forces in Trenton and later Princeton. Turning the tide.
Having narrowly escaped the british and certain defeat in Brooklyn,
where the american army eventually only escaped over the East river,
because of the curtain of night concealed them and later a heavy fog.
Had they been spotted by the british - defeat would have been certain.
At Kips Bay Washington finds his troops in panic. Turned cowards
in front of the enemy. When no one obeys and only runs in panic,
Washington throws his hat to the ground, exclaiming in disgust:
"Are these the men with which I am to defend America".
As he and his defeated men are chased through New Jersey
by the british, thousands of the good people in New Jersey
flock to the british camps to declare their loyalty.
Washingtons followers reduced to a pitiable collection of ragged,
dispirited mortals that ever pretended to the name of an army.
As the sick and elderly were being abused, raped and murdered by british and Hessian forces in the New Jersey countryside - Washington forces quit in large numbers and return home.
And still, Christmas night, Washingtons men attack Trenton and conquers
1.500 Hessians - and turned the tide.
In McCulloughs word- Washington was not a brilliant tactician,
not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments
he had shown indecisiveness and mistakes in judgment. But he
never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.
What a story 1776 is. It makes sense that one book can't follow
event all the way to Yorktown or from the beginning with the Boston teaparty.
Simply 1776 has so much drama - that it is more than enough
for one book. But I will look forward to sequels. 1775, 1777 etc.
The John Adams book was more complete in the sense that we got both the begining and the end to the story, so that got five stars. Here I missed something on what happened after 1776 - but then again, I am sure the author is busy working on sequels !
-Simon
It Can't Be Said Enough, Excellent, Superb, One of the Best.......2007-10-01
There has probably been enough written about this book to fill more pages than the book itself. Of all the military books I have read, this book more than any other brought the information alive. The way writing was beyond excellent and the information presented in an engaging manner. Obviously this book represents General Washington and the American cause in a positive manner. That's not to say that it glosses over any of Washington's mistakes. On the contrary the author is quick to point out the general's mistakes and weaknesses. But as history would prove, Washington did enough right to survive 1776 and all the events of that dramatic year to keep an army in the field. Keeping the Continental Army in the field was most likely the single most important achievement of George Washington's tenure as Commander and Chief, during the war years. The book gives you insight into the lives of both officers and enlisted while maintaining it's focus on the overall impact of the decisions made during each chapter. It's difficult to write a review for a book that has already won the Pulitzer Prize. All this reviewer can really say is that all the accolades this book has received were very much deserved
1776: A ROLLER-COASTER RIDE!.......2007-09-21
David McCullough's book "1776" chronicles the first major year of fighting in during America's war for independence. The strength of this book is how McCullough gives the reader a humanistic portrayal of all the key players of the American Revolution. His accounts of key battles and events are exciting and dramatic, rivaling the best of historic fiction. This book will keep you glued until the very end. I highly recommend it!
Grade: A
Book Description
'This program has transformed me from a skinny college baseball player with little power into one of the best-conditioned players in Major League Baseball.'-Nomar Garciaparra, shortstop, Chicago Cubs 'This is the best decision I have ever made with regard to improving and educating myself as an athlete. I just wish I had made it sooner.'-Mia Hamm, Olympic and world-champion soccer player Core Performance, the breakthrough fitness program that has already shipped more than 50,000 copies in hardcover, is the first program that delivers strength and muscle mass, endurance and a lean body, balance and flexibility, athletic quickness and power-all in less than an hour a day. How? By giving you a personal coach who has worked with some of the most famous and successful athletes in the world today.
Customer Reviews:
Great book if you have the time.......2007-10-03
Mark has done a great job of simplifying some very challenging material. His program can improve your performance and help reduce your risk for injury if you have the time to complete it. It is very thorough but time consuming.
Fantastic book.......2007-09-15
Core Performance is a great book for all levels of athletes looking to get in shape. Some of the movements will be challenging for beginners, but overall if you stick with the program you will see great results.
Side note: I bought this book many years ago when they only had a hardcover available - do yourself a favor and get the soft cover since you will be constantly referencing the book on how to perform certain exercises.
Core Performance .......2007-08-01
Awesome book - great workouts , program and diet
A must for anyone serious about making a step change in their training
Great workout.......2007-06-27
This book was recommended by my doctor at my last physical and he was right, it is a great book.
Down to the Core!.......2007-05-04
I've trained off and on for 20 years or so and I wasn't impressed with the core training method...at first! But with practice and patience everything started to fall into place and when that happened, my fitness level improved in ways I hadn't anticipated. I like to combine the Core Prep and a personal version of the Core Strength routine with my morning run for spiritual reasons, I also mix different core exercises into my bodybuilding routine. The Core program helps you experience a more thorough form of fitness; consequently, a more thorough form of contentment; however, I issue this recommendation with a caveat. The Core Program is complicated, especially for beginners, and I think the whole signing-the-commitment page was a bit gimmicky and self-helpish; thus my conservative rating, nevertheless, the core training method is a revolutionary winner.
Customer Reviews:
Redundant Rambling Fiction.......2007-06-02
It is common knowledge that this book is really a pile of lies. It isn't much of an autobiography and leaves the reader wondering which, if any, parts of it to really consider seriously.
It is truly painful to read due to the unending redundant rambling nature of Menchu's storytelling.
I cannot believe that this garbage is still being assigned as required reading. Worthless.
I,Roberta Menchú.......2007-01-24
We give I, Rigoberta Menchú four stars because it was a good book but at the same time it was complicated to understand. For instead, it was a good book because she explains her life very well with details. Rigoberta also never gave up she kept going no matter as hard situation she'll face in her life. This book is complicated because Rigoberta just keeps repeating her self, is like we want to know more, something different. What we learn from this book, if we really truly want something we should never give up and when you feel like falling down for a moment, pick your self up and accomplish your dream.
Amazing book of survival.......2006-12-30
I read this book years ago and re-read it again recently. It is still one of my favorite books. Rigoberta Menchu suffered unbelievable atrocities and incredible losses and still lived to tell her courageous story through an interpreter. I think the book is phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone with a heart. It helps explain a lot about the Guatamalen people and their strife. It also is a timely book since the illegal immigration debate rages on in this country on a daily basis. It paints a vivid picture of the suffering of indigenous peoples and helps us to relate to their need to escape their countries in search of a better life. I dont know what David Stoll had to gain by writing a book that contradicted Menchu's powerful account. She states at the beginning of her book that her perspective is hers alone and that her memories may have been clouded by the trauma. It makes me crazy when people pick apart one tiny aspect of a book and then, throw the entire thing out as a sham. The same thing happened with the James Frey book, A million little pieces. People tended to ignore the overall strengths of the book and his basic message of surviving drug addiction over a few little insignificant details. This book is the same situation. The overall message and story of rigoberta menchu is so powerful and moving, it must be read, even if there is a fact or two that someone wants to contradict.
Memorable.......2006-06-16
I read this book shortly before visiting Guatemala, and I have to say it made my travel experience alot richer. I felt more sensitized to the currents of racism and political struggle still present in the country, as well as to the pain of a people recovering from a horror in the not so distant past. Nearly every Guatemalan that I met had some powerful story of the genocide, and this book gave me a good background on the facts and politics behind the peasant struggle.
Though it has been criticized as being imbellished and realistically inaccurate, I think that it can still be used as a tool to learn about the native Quiche culture in past and present times. Their spiritual and political beliefs and their connections to the natural world are interwoven throughout the memoir. And most importantly, the horror of a major Latin American genocide that still scars the memories of peasants in the region today. Rigoberta was very matter of fact in sharing information about the torture and killing of her people in gruesome detail... so detailed that it was difficult to read at times, but nevertheless, essential in understanding the extent of the what happened to her people.
Whether you read this book as fact or historical fiction, I think it is a good read for anyone interested in Latin American history, politcal science, peasant cultures, or human rights. It is a story that will stick in your mind... and your heart.
Just 2 or so hours South of Miami! .......2006-01-11
It is incredible that such human suffering went on, and in many ways is still going on, just a couple of hours (by pane) away from where I live. Rigoberta Menchu's book, written as dictated by her, is sad and tells of horrible situations.
Guatemala is a beautiful country, the indigenous sill dress in their local garb, each unique to a particular village. Guatemala has been referred to as the most exotic country in the Western hemisphere.
A good friend of mine, a Guatemala Indian, told me about the efforts of the Indians to get help from the United States. They sought out various Native American tribes in the U.S., that to them was seeking help from America. From what he told, it never occured to the elders of the Guatemalan groups to approach anyone other than Native Americans. And they did not receive help, because help was not available. But had they approached the U.S. government, they most likely wouldn't have been helped either.
I have been in Guatemala so many times, I started to call it my second home. There is still a lot of oppression, and the indigenous still feel fearful of the police and the military. I have not been there in a couple of years and am yearning to return.
The last time, the police/military made great efforts to change their image. Instead of stopping trucks and harrassing the passengers, they handed out white carnations!
Menchu does not deal with the greatest problem that is keeping the indigenous in danger, that of language barrier. The Guatemala Indians speak over 20 local languages. The languages are so totally different, that communication is impossible. Though some books are written in the local languages, they cannot be read by the indigenous because they are illiterate. Division is a "great" tool to keep populations from binding together to fight a common evil. Spanish is the country's political language, but over 80% of the indigenous do not speak Spanish.
I have traveled into the villages, into the hills and mountains where customs as ancient as the peoples themselves still reign. All of them have experienced evil. Their story did not end with Menchu's book. It continues, and who knows how much longer it will continue.
Average customer rating:
- grim, dark, gripping
- Leave It to Beaver on Acid!
- Remarkable and somewhat overlooked masterpiece
- A classic!
- It cuts deep and it cuts true
|
Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates
Manufacturer: Vintage
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The Collected Stories of Richard Yates
ASIN: 0375708448
Release Date: 2000-04-25 |
Amazon.com
The rediscovery and rejuvenation of Richard Yates's 1961 novel Revolutionary Road is due in large part to its continuing emotional and moral resonance for an early 21st-century readership. April and Frank Wheeler are a young, ostensibly thriving couple living with their two children in a prosperous Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. However, like the characters in John Updike's similarly themed Couples, the self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy.
Yates's incisive, moving, and often very funny prose weaves a tale that is at once a fascinating period piece and a prescient anticipation of the way we live now. Many of the cultural motifs seem quaintly dated--the early-evening cocktails, Frank's illicit lunch breaks with his secretary, the way Frank isn't averse to knocking April around when she speaks out of turn--and yet the quiet desperation at thwarted dreams reverberates as much now as it did years ago. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, this novel conveys, with brilliant erudition, the exacting cost of chasing the American dream. --Jane Morris, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
With a new introduction by Richard Ford
"A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." --William Styron
From the moment of its publication in 1961,
Revolutionary Road was hailed as a masterpiece of realistic fiction and as the most evocative portrayal of the opulent desolation of the American suburbs. It's the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple who have lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.
In his introduction to this edition, novelist Richard Ford pays homage to the lasting influence and enduring power of
Revolutionary Road.
Customer Reviews:
grim, dark, gripping.......2007-09-04
Richard Yates' did not believe in the resiliency of the human spirit, and Revolutionary Road bears this out; Yates has some sympathy for his characters, but this does not prevent him from piling petty horror after petty horror upon them. Yates seems to say at the outset: these are the terms for life, and there is nothing you can do to surmount them; nothing in American works anymore and there is no way to gain a sense of authenticity or regenerate the self. Yates' world is Calvinistic without the religion. So, this novel is a grim catalog of redundant failure. The prose is precise and oddly dispassionate, so there is the impulse to keep turning the page, perhaps to see what horror will occur next. Revolutionary Road is a curious novel with a dark vision which most readers would never wish to possess.
Leave It to Beaver on Acid!.......2007-08-31
Richard Yates now gets his due. John Updike had ripped him off. Read Couples after Revolutionary Road and see what I mean, but let's face it: Yates is head and shoulders above the latest Post-Modern's whoever. No, Yates was a storywriter in the Realism School. He reminds me a bit of a contemporary, Walker Percy (The Moviegoer) Where Percy's character's find or at least try to find God in 1950's New Orleans's, Yates', April and Frank never actually get a foot into church. Their New York City Suburb is a purgatory of lawn mowers and suburban strivers. The 1950's dream, the migration into country homes, a cookie cutter cul-de-sac, it becomes The Hell. A bit romantic or over fevered this distrust of The American Dream? Yes, but it seemed so real in the dark crevices of the Eisenhower years. The intellectuals had read The Great Gatsby and Fitzgerald seemed to be a sage though his characters were definitely not the middle class. By the 50's there was the new weekend-leisure class, a poor cousin of Fitzgerald's protagonists. The wishful world envisioned by April (not unlike Gatsby's muse), a girl that just can't seem to get to that next level where art and life come together in exquisite excellence; the disillusioned mother won't bring a baby into the holocaust of husband, home, and Leave It to Beaver. Ten years later, everyone dropped acid and dropped out.
Remarkable and somewhat overlooked masterpiece.......2007-08-23
This is a work of stunning excellence. A remarkable portrait of American middle class life which, although set in the 1950's, has perhaps even greater relevance for our own time. This dark and disturbing novel reveals the spiritual poverty of life in our middle-class, consumer society and provides many, many opportunities for self examination. This is a work that invites re-reading again and again.
A classic!.......2007-08-23
I bought this book after hearing a review of it on NPR. I found the writing very insightful and feel that, in spite of it being set in 1955, it resonates with suburban life today. It is very powerful and is highly recommended.
It cuts deep and it cuts true.......2007-08-23
On the surface Revolutionary Road might appear dated - the pre-dinner cocktails, everyone smoking, Frank works for a company that is about to embark on making...computers! - but dig a little deeper, and you will find that this novel is timeless. Yates unflinchingly peels apart what it is like to be in your thirties, unsure of who you are and what you're supposed to be doing, convinced that you're not living the life you were intended to lead. The novel is also a brilliant character study of two people trapped in a marriage and in a life that neither wants, and how their self-deception leads to self-destruction. The writing here is fantastic - it's urbane and cuts deep, yet is completely accessible and is full of sharp, caustic wit. The novel's plot and themes are largely bleak and dark, but it's impossible to read Revolutionary Road and not find some light creeping in. Recommended for anyone in their late twenties or thirties.
Book Description
From Elaine Pagels’s Beyond Belief to Jim Wallis’s God's Politics, investigations into the relationship between the historical foundations of Christianity and the role of religion in today’s world have risen to the top of bestseller lists. Obery Hendricks, Jr., who was Pagels’s first graduate student at Princeton University, adds an important new voice to the ongoing discussion in THE POLITICS OF JESUS. Filled with riveting, original insights, it confirms Cornel West’s declaration that “Obery Hendricks is not just on the cutting edge, he’s the knife.”
Focusing on a powerful but little-examined aspect of the Gospels, Hendricks portrays Jesus as a political revolutionary whose teachings are meant to lead the way to freedom from the tyranny of principalities and unjust rulers in high—and low—places. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus employs various tactics to address the social, economic, and political conditions of his day and exposes the terrible effects of oppression and poverty on the mind, body, and soul.
In an in-depth examination of Christianity’s history, from its foundation through the time of Paul to the reign of Constantine to the present day, Hendricks traces how the church became a hierarchical structure, protective of the powerful and intent on maintaining the status quo. THE POLITICS OF JESUS recaptures the revolutionary implications of Christianity, and calls on Christians to embrace anew the core values of Jesus’ message and restore his fight to alleviate the suffering of underprivileged and abused peoples.
Customer Reviews:
Republicans make Jesus cry :o(.......2007-10-12
2 Stars, I like the way this book reminds Christians to open there faith up to the entirety of human existence, including the political realm. The Lord is glorified in the administration of justice. And to be loving and merciful is a call for whole people groups not just individuals.
That being said the author takes this idea and runs headlong into the camp of the leftist, bordering on extreme socialism or anarchy. The author disregards teachings from the Bible such as capital punishment, with out attempting to explain why. He does this to make his point on feel good Social Gospel. The author makes no attempt to hide a bias against Republicans, and praise for Democrats. Book is biased don't waste you time.
Powerful - A Must Read.......2007-07-24
Reading Obrey Hendricks, Jr's book, the Politics of Jesus, is like sitting at the feet of a contemporary griott, and having the story of a hero told in a fashion that makes that hero larger than life. Given that the hero, Jesus Christ, is already larger than life, the story becomes all the more enriching because of the many historical interpretations of today. Hendricks' portrayal of Jesus actions, emotions and intentions are no less than radical as his political agenda is analyzed. The meek, mild Jesus of our childhood is exchanged for a radical portrayal of a man who fought for justice, defied authority, and challenged the status quo with fiery temerity.
Hendricks describes the political climate in which Jesus was born and lived in vivid detail, providing historical support for his contention that today's King James' Version of the bible was interpreted in favor of the whims of a Roman political leader by the name of Constantine. Hendricks speaks out against ministers who embrace Constantine's transformation of their roles as they accept privileged treatment and exalted status. Hendricks maintains that the story of an exorcism described in Mark 5:1-10 can actually be interpreted as an allegorical tale, in which the demon-possessed man represents the country of Israel, and the legion which possesses it represents the Roman army. Hendricks states " So though on one level Mark 5:1-13 is an account of an exorcism, on another level it is a radical political parable in the guise of a healing story, a parable that tell the people of Jesus that it is not God's displeasure that has bedeviled them, but the misdeeds of those who lord it over them (147). Additionally, The "Politics of Jesus" is a clarion call to leaders everywhere to "treat the needs of the people as holy". It reminds us that "There must only be servant leaders, just as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve" (332).
Alicia Latimer
Sisters Sippin' Tea Literary Group - Tulsa Chapter
A True Revolutionary.......2007-06-02
This book will blow your mind. You will see and understand Jesus in away that you have never done before. This book is a quick read, so don't let the thickness scare you. This book is also awesome for bible study and discussion.
Speaking Truth to Power.......2007-05-11
The politics of Jesus is must read for anyone who is on a journey of liberation. This book came into my hands as a gift from Santita Jackson the daughter of Jesse Jackson. When I got the book I could not put it down. It began to wake up some of the Liberation Theology that I was exposed to in some of Dr. James Cone lectures. Obery M. Hendricks Jr. brings us to a place where we see Jesus as the political revolutionary. He points out that Jesus message is not only called to change the individual heart but also to demand sweeping and comprehensive change in the political, social, and economic structures in our lives today as it was in the days of Jesus walk here on earth.
This book will also cause you to see the work of Jesus and make you take a deep look within yourself to see where we as the church have failed in the mission here on planet earth. Hendricks, points out that Christians understand that his message has a political dimension but they reject the notion that Jesus was a political revolutionary. He did not only address issues in people heart but he advocated revolutionary changes in a political order that militated against the happiness and wholeness of the people he came to serve. Jesus actively opposed the oppressive system of his day.
Hendricks shows us that Jesus makes a reference to the year of Jubilee in Leviticus where at the end of a fifty year cycle everything was restored that was taken away unjustly. This is the release of the captives which was unjustly imprisoned. Exodus is a liberation moment that is very political. Where God hears the cries of the oppress He raises up a liberator to bring them out of bondage. The author brings us to a term in the book called Hebrews which means literally he crossed over. The sense of outsider class status comes with this understanding of the term Hebrew. Now the author tells us that the Exodus liberation experience is also the root event of Jesus faith and his message. This is revealed by Jesus evoking the memory of the Exodus often in the Gospel by repeatedly invoking Moses' name.
The author makes a bold statement to those that are called to the prophetic. He tells us "Their unwillingness to speak truth to power or to empower others to do so represents a refusal to prophesy for justice and a betrayal of their sacred calling. Moreover, ministers who are cozy with those in power run the abiding risk of becoming servants of Baal, the god of the privileged few. That is why a conservative prophet, a prophet aligned with the ruling class, in reality is no prophet at all." Wow this is much to consume because now we see that the work of the prophet is to comfort the afflicted and now they have a calling to afflict the comfortable. In this work we come to this point that we have a responsibility to give a voice to the voiceless. This is a powerful strategy for political change. This book tells us that we come to a place of speaking truth to power.
Hendricks lay out a strategy and one of the strategies is to call the demon by name. In Mark chapter 5 we see the exorcism of a man gone wild with self-destruction. The author tells us to call the demons out by and name and the names are some of the forces that are oppressing the downtrodden of our day. A great work and a must read for those that are ready to understand the politics of Jesus.
Social Gospel.......2007-04-27
The author freely reinterprets scripture to suit his agenda, without any convincing logic to support his assumptions. I was unable to endure much of this book in spite of my desire to really understand an apposing view. In my opinion, it's just another attempt to invent a social gospel rather than to accept the gospel of salvation.
Book Description
Borg returns to the ground where he made his dramatic debut with Jesus: A New Vision in 1987. Here Borg updates his work introducing us to a Jesus we have never met before. In many ways Borg's Jesus is more revolutionary and possesses a more exciting moral vision than the church's traditional view. Here we meet Jesus as sage and prophet courageously and surprisingly confronting the social crises of his day. After a lifetime of work and study, Borg also discovers a Jesus that can continue to inspire, inform and guide those who have moved beyond archaic doctrines. Borg argues that there is a movement in the church today that is catching up with where scholarship has brought us in understanding Christian origins. Here readers will find an historically accurate Jesus, but one who is still worth following.
Customer Reviews:
While the top tier biblical scholars labor in obscurity... .......2007-10-17
...The Crossans, Borgs, Funks and Macks of the world sell tons of books to spiritual seekers who desperately want to believe that "Christianity lite" is the true Christianity. The shoddy scholarship won't bother people who, just like fundamentalists, would rather believe something false than have to deal with a truth that might shake up their worldview. I consider myself a liberal politically, and I most definitely am not an inerrantist but the Jesus that Borg proposes is not the Jesus of history.
The best Jesus Book? James D.G. Dunn's Jesus Remembered. It's only for the brave, but once you've reached Dunn's summit you'll have seen the most critical, unbiased and scholarly view of Jesus ever put onto paper.
Challenging, thought-provoking, recommended - but is it right?.......2007-09-28
Let me hit what I consider to be the high points of this book first. It will challenge you to think deeply about your faith. When you're done reading it, you may feel as if you've scaled Everest and found enlightenment. Borg makes a terrific case that a Christian focus on salvation and heaven ignores the heart of Christ's ministry. And that the heart of that ministry was about The Father's will being done on earth. He challenges us (page 194) not to live the easy (broad) way, living by conventional wisdom even if that conventional wisdom comes from church. Just as Jesus challenged his followers to examine their conventional wisdom about faith in their times. He's got a really good message in chapter 9 (Resistance) that "The Bible is political." And that God's will for us is different from the "normalcy of civilization." And he challenges us to see that just as Jesus spoke in parables, there's often a metaphoric meaning that's even more valuable than a literal reading.
I'll admit I didn't know who Marcus Borg was at the time I started reading this. Part of the way in, I read his bio finally and saw the connection to the "historical Jesus" movement and The Jesus Seminar. That instantly turned me skeptical as I read, not having had a good impression of what little I knew of The Jesus Seminar. But as I read, I really opened to what he had to say. While I'm still skeptical of the "historical Jesus" movement, I no longer see this as a cover for tearing down Christianity I once foolishly thought it was. It's clear that Mr. Borg is a man of deep faith who loves Christ's teaching.
So with all of the positives, why only a 3 star review? I'm sorry, even having read this I just can't buy in to the approach of examining Christ's life or the Gospel as a matter or "history." Mr. Borg's "historical" approach to the New Testament begins in effect by counting only Mark as a definitive gospel because it was first. Anything in the other gospels that can't be corroborated elsewhere is essentially thrown out. While that might be a "historical" approach, it doesn't strike me as the right approach for a faith that is alive.
Practically, I'm also stumped by the "historical" insistence that if the "earliest" writing didn't mention fact A, later writings that mention it must be fabrications or metaphors. While he holds true to that methodology for any statement he wants to dismiss, he acknowledges at one point that yes Paul in his earliest writings left out descriptions of the crucifixion why? Because Paul could assume is contemporary readers knew those details. So, it seems just as likely to be that from a "historical" standpoint, the point of the earliest written documents probably wasn't to record the known details the writer could assume and that yes, as The Word spread further in time and throughout the region that details left out of early writings but known by all were captured from verbal traditions and written down.
He's also prone to making statements like "it is unlikely that these passages go back to Jesus" (p 180). It seems to me that the more correct statement in this case would be "it's impossible to say from a historical standpoint whether or not these passages go back to Jesus." There's no proof that they don't. Again, this is faith not history.
And in chapter 10, while he presents a case that there's a beautiful additional metaphor in Easter, in what it means for God to have raised Jesus, he makes statements about Easter being more metaphorical than a real raising of Jesus from the dead than I can buy. Yes, there's more meaning to what God did on Easter. But reducing Christ the Living Son of God's post-Easter existence to the followers of Jesus "continued to experience him after his death" and that "God had vindicated Jesus" (p 276) is to ignore that if you are going to believe in God, you are believing by definition in something all powerful, capable of this miracle.
He also makes what I feel to be an obvious error in his Jesus is not Superman line of reasoning around page 75. His argument if that if Jesus was fully human, then he did not have Superman powers. Therefore, he didn't feed thousands with a few fish and loaves. And if he had these powers, there would have been more stories of them. To me, this misses the obvious: Yes, Jesus was fully human but he was able to call on God to work through him. And again, God is God, he is all powerful. God working through Jesus can feed the multitudes, heal, and everything else. Why aren't there more stories of this? I'll turn the question around: if there were more stories, would the applicants of the Historical Jesus movement just dismiss them anyway? The stories there are are sufficient for faith.
My bottom line for this is that there's some brilliant theology in this book. Mr Borg does cleanly expose the heart of Christ's earthly teaching to his fellow Jewish peasants. He taught compassion, non-violent resistance, meaningful sharing of resources so that all would have enough, and much more. But it's a shame that this beautiful message has to come wrapped with so much skepticism about whether or not we can believe any of the Gospel as "fact."
Built on supposition.......2007-09-01
The opening is a masterful survey of text criticism and the discipline of seeking the historical Jesus. Then Borg describes a category - first century Jewish mystic - and contends that Jesus lives within that category. It is an educated guess.
Good, thoughful Stuff.......2007-07-25
Borg is insightful. He has some views of Christ that I certainly disagree with, but on the other hand, he has some insights that I certainly agree with. His historical-metaphorical reading is amazing. I will never read the book of Mark again through the same eyes, or the rest of the Gospel accounts. If you want a challenging read about your Savior, this is the book. I looking forward to preaching on some of the truths that Borg draws out of the text. Instead of being happy with a "it happened" reading, we should ask the question "why did it happen that way?"
Wishful thinking.......2007-05-11
'Conspiracy' is at the heart of this book, that somehow history has moved away from the real Jesus. But through his own eyewitnesses, we find that Jesus wasn't only a religious revolutionary, He was God.
-ISP
Amazon.com
What do the Honda Supercub, Intel's 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common? They are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator's Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.
At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The Innovator's Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager's bookshelf. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
In this revolutionary bestseller, Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen says outstanding companies can do everything right and still lose their market leadership -- or worse, disappear completely. And he not only proves what he says, he tells others how to avoid a similar fate.
Focusing on "disruptive technology" -- the Honda Super Cub, Intel's 8088 processor, or the hydraulic excavator, for example -- Christensen shows why most companies miss "the next great wave." Whether in electronics or retailing, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know when to abandon traditional business practices. Using the lessons of successes and failures from leading companies, The Innovator's Dilemma presents a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.
Find out:
- When it is right not to listen to customers.
- When to invest in developing lower-performance products that promise lower margins.
- When to pursue small markets at the expense of seemingly
- larger and more lucrative ones.
Sharp, cogent, and provocative, The Innovator's Dilemma is one of the most talked-about books of our time -- and one no savvy manager or entrepreneur should be without.
Download Description
Revised, updated, and with a new chapter, this book continues to take the radical position that great companies can fail precisely because they do everything right. It demonstrates why outstanding companies lose their market leadership when confronted with disruptive technology--and it explains how to avoid a similar fate. Drawing on insights from a number of industries--such as the computer and disk drive industries, discount retailing, minimills, pharmaceuticals, and the automobile industry--Christensen shows why good management often turns out to be all wrong--and what to do about it.
Customer Reviews:
No Dilemma Here.......2007-08-18
It is the typical manager's nightmare. A startup with a powerful idea wipes out all the dominance your large ogranisation had. It can happen overnite and without warning.
How do you stop this nightmare from happening? Well, the answer could lie in The Innovator's Dilemma.
Kishore Dharmarajan
Author of Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers
A disruptive view on innovation.......2007-08-09
Professor Clayton Christensen introduced the term "disruptive innovation" as a management buzzword, the whole book spins around this concept and offers very perturbing views on why being a star performer is a major threat to pass the next opportunity.
First, a definition: disruptive innovations are those that offer "less" in the critical performance parameters of current customers. As a consequence disruptive innovators have to look for different customers than the ones that established companies already have.
To make the point a deep analysis of the hard disk drive industry is made. More than 100 innovations are analysed and only 5 are claimed as being disruptive: the progressive reduction of size from 14", to 8", to 5 1/4", etc. All follow the same pattern: the innovation had lower performance on capacity which was the critical parameter for existing customers and innovators had to find new customers, eg for the 8" drive the mini-computer manufacturers instead of mainframe manufacturers. In fact innovations were so disruptive that almost none of the established companies was able to be successful in the new market. Although current players where by and large able to bring forward the other 100 sustaining inovations without major troubles.
The second part of the book recommends how to make disruptive innovations work, with supporting evidence from examples. This are:
-Create a new organization to deal with the innovation
-Match organization and opportunity size
-Allow the organization to fail rapidly and inexpensively and move on
-Leverage some of the existing resources but not the values and processes of the main organization
-Spend time looking for the right customers rather than the right technology.
The surprising learning is that what impedes that good companies cannot profit from disruptive innovations are that they are good at what they do in their main business not that htey are bad. The hot topic is still when a disruptive innovation is comming how can we spot and capitalise on it, and put ourselves in the dilemma of chosing the best option.
A well laid out, thought provoking and seminal work on innovation.
Repetitive.......2007-06-23
It was a hassle getting through this book, but overall it was worth it. A lot of good lessons learned, but he says the same things over and over again. Read the first and last chapters and you'll be fine.
Business calssic.......2007-06-17
The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen is a must read book for any person interested in keeping their business moving forward or for any person starting a business. Christensen clearly exposes the traps that cause successful companies to stop innovating and succumb to innovative new firms. The material is presented as a series of fascinating case studies with commentary.
just great book.......2007-05-12
Just great book for those considering start their own business.
Would be helpful for bean counters in large corporations too.
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