Amazon.com
Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics--see his responses below. --Daphne Durham
20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack Obama
Q: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?
A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.
Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?
A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.
Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?
A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.
Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?
A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.
Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?
A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren't amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don't think we need more moderation per se--I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won't be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That's not easy to do.
Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?
A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.
Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?
A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child's life.
Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now?
A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I've started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I've got a soft spot for John le Carre.
Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?
A: I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.
Book Description
“A government that truly represents these Americans–that truly serves these Americans–will require a different kind of politics. That politics will need to reflect our lives as they are actually lived. It won’t be pre-packaged, ready to pull off the shelf. It will have to be constructed from the best of our traditions and will have to account for the darker aspects of our past. We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds. And we’ll need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break.”
–from
The Audacity of Hope
In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called “the audacity of hope.”
Now, in
The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics–a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces–from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media–that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.
At the heart of this book is Senator Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats–from terrorism to pandemic–that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy–where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.
A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes–“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”
Customer Reviews:
A must read!.......2007-10-10
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I read this book a while back, and I re-read it just last week now that Obama is a major Presidential contender. This book is very well written in terms of style and syntax, plus it takes us on a journey of man grappling serioulsy with issues of hope, worth, justice, patriotism and social obligation. It seems that whatever the outcome of the election, Obama believes in decency and hope and has pledged to do his part to make this a better society. It reads well, makes you think and makes you actually glimpse an American living closer to its ideal. This is a must read!
awesome.......2007-10-10
This was am amazing book by an amazing man. Really unique viewpoint and an interesting perspective with which to view American politics. Obama is obviously brilliant and is an American political historian...love that aspect, especially. His passion for this country and making the lives of the American people better shines through on every page. His humility, honesty and humanity are refreshing. He's idealistic, but no doormat. The man has drive and ambition...wonderful qualities for someone looking to make the lives of others better. He's smart, genuine and sees the big picture...what's best for America as a whole. He gives the reader not just his opinions or snippets of American history, but also a candid look at his own personal journey. He's obviously a Democrat, but shows appreciation and admiration for some individual Repbulicans, too. Wonderfully refreshing change from the usual hatemongering between parties that has become the ugly norm in America in recent years.
Obama Stakes Out Centrist Ground.......2007-10-09
I routinely give history books five stars, but I am compelled to limit this one to four. The political manifesto is limited as a genre, and I was not quite ready after Obama's last book to be brought back down to earth. The stories in this book, while by turns sad and funny, are no longer told for their own sakes like the ones in "Dreams from my Father," but to illustrate a point. Still, Obama manages to be polemical without being strident. When they deserve it in his view, he bestows credit and even praise on individual Republicans, and quotes the sage advice that President Bush once gave him -- that he was rising so spectacularly that people on his own side might come to see him as a threat. He also has a lot of praise for his staff members, listing the more senior ones by name and telling stories of things he and they discovered at the same time.
The leading characteristic of this book is that Obama strives to be Informed about every issue he comments on. Accordingly, he attacks those on the extreme poles of the debate on all these issues for encouraging their constituents not to be informed. He will frequently say, in so many words, that while Republicans need to acknowledge X, Democrats equally need to acknowledge Y. The eighth chapter, "The World Beyond Our Borders," indicates even if his more recent rhetoric did not that if you are looking for a candidate who will get our troops out of Iraq quickly, Barack Obama is probably not your man. He reminds me of no one, in fact, so much as Bill Clinton in his knowledgeable approach to the issues, bolstered frequently by statistics.
My favorite chapters were the third chapter -- in which Obama sets forth his view of the Constitution, and talks of his respectful meeting with onetime Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd -- and the sixth chapter, where he talks about religion and his race against Alan Keyes (having discussed most of his other political opponents in the previous four chapters). While he beat Keyes handily, Keyes made him more uncomfortable than the others for his implicit charge that Obama's faith is insincere or "adulterated," the word Obama uses. From this chapter, however, I gleaned that Obama's faith is hard-won. He had higher expectations of religion perhaps than most, a higher threshhold that he insisted it meet before he would embrace it; but he is sincere. Keyes has now entered the Presidential race (his third try for his party's nomination); I suspect that more than anything he wants another crack at Obama. In the last chapter before the epilogue, we see Obama as a family man, a side of him which didn't make it into his first book.
Obama writes far more readable and entertaining books than the Clintons do -- which doesn't necessarily mean he would make a better President than either of them. But I am glad he exists. He is one of those singular people who seek to prove we as a nation are who we say we are. If I was teaching American history in an inner-city school, and was not compelled to use the same books as everyone else in the state, Obama would be one of five or so authors I would assign. (Did I mention his insights on the need to completely restructure public education, shared in the fifth chapter, "Opportunity"? He's a bit short on details of his solution here, however.) As mentioned above, I give this book four stars.
Hope and Compromise.......2007-10-04
I am particularly struck by the contrast of Obama and George W. Bush. Obama stays in touch with the masses by talking in air terminals and wherever he finds them in public. Jim Wallis (author of "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It") comments from his meeting the President:
"And he (George W. Bush) really did listen, more than presidents often do. He also asked questions. One sounded lofty, yet it resonated with those of us seated around the room: 'How do I speak to the soul of America?' My answer to that was simple: Focus on the children. Their plight is our shame, I told him, and their promise is our future. Reach them and you reach our soul. Bush nodded in agreement. The conversation was rich and deep for more than an hour and a half.
When the discussion officially ended, Bush moved around the room, talking with us individually or in small groups for another hour. I could see that his staff was anxious to whisk him away (cabinet appointments were being made that week and there were key departments yet to fill). Yet he lingered and continued to ask questions. At one point, he turned to me and said, with what I could only read as complete sincerity, 'Jim, I don't understand poor people. I've never lived with poor people or been around poor people much. I don't understand what they think and feel about a lot of things. I'm just a white Republican guy who doesn't get it. How do I get it?'"
Here, in Obama's book, Obama is an ordinary American who has entered a lofty position in Washington, but he has not forgotten the people, not only the people of America, but of Indonesia and Kenya as well.
Obama's style is assertive, with a stunning line or two for each chapter.
Still, I believe Obama isn't spot on. When he speaks of hope, for example, the word opportunity would be more exacting and prospective. While Obama speaks of compromise, it would be appropriate to examine areas of agreement, but work towards independent solutions rather than compromise.
A New Kind of Politics.......2007-09-30
"They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles.....They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them".
That statement sets the tone for Senator Obama's refreshingly honest look at policy and politics. In this book, you'll find Obama as open to pointing out flaws in conventional liberal thinking as he is to criticizing his opponents on the right. Likewise, he praises certain aspects of Reagan's policy as openly as he criticizes other parts of it, or as openly as he applauds Bill Clinton's policies. Obama's ability to empathize with a differing point of view, yet maintaining a firm belief in his own position is very endearing.
The most interesting aspect of the book, perhaps, is its ability to see today's issues in a historical context. When examining U.S. foreign policy, Obama first walks the reader through the positions taken by Washington, Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Nixon, Reagan and others in trying to preserve America's national interests through interventions abroad. Likewise, when looking at the role of faith in American politics, Obama starts by giving the readers a glimpse of the how America's founding fathers thought about these issues, and how the cultural and social changes in the sixties eventually led the religious right to start playing a more active role in politics.
Obama also talks openly about his family, and his experiences while growing up, that have shaped him as a person. While talking about racial issues, he is comfortable talking about personal experiences that offer him hope. He's equally comfortable talking about his initiation into faith, having been brought up by a mother who wasn't religious.
If you're looking to understand the details of policy that Obama would champion if elected President, this book doesn't offer you a lot. However, what it gives you is the framework of beliefs which shape how Obama thinks about politics and policy. It lives true to its title, and offers hope for a new kind of politics, one that would help us all get closer to the American Dream. All in all, a very enjoyable read, and highly recommended.
Book Description
Does America, as George W. Bush has proclaimed, have a special mission, derived from God, to bring liberty and democracy to the world? How much influence does the Christian right have over U.S. foreign policy? And how should America deal with violent Islamist extremists?
Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state and bestselling author of Madam Secretary, offers a thoughtful and often surprising look at the role of religion in shaping America's approach to the world. Drawing upon her experiences while in office and her own deepest beliefs about morality, the United States, and the present state of world affairs, a woman noted for plain speaking offers her thoughts about the most controversial topics of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Ultimate Answer.......2007-10-06
I must confess I have been following her public life since she became Secretary of State. I am her most avid reader having read her memoir six times. I ended my last reading on that book almost two weeks ago, and I finished reading the mighty and the almighty in five days last friday. To the point, I expected her second volume not to be a research work, it seems as though if I had to talk about the Middle East in school, this book would definitely be my guidance on that matter.
Now in all seriousness, I expected this book to be more about her accomplishments in government, and her sharp insights regarding recent events. This book could've just as easily be called 'The Mighty, The Almighty and Middle East Conflicts'. Do NOT get me wrong, I am all for that, I do believe the Middle East is, will and has shaped the world in every single way. Religion must be taken seriously into account as a player in world events, definitely. I am not against the content nor the topics of this book. I just wanted it to be more 'Madeleiney', if you will.
Mrs. Albright, if you are, or someone who knows you, reading this, I want you to know I expect your third book to be the ultimate answer to today's US Government Administration failures.
An Admirable Lady!.......2007-09-16
I think very highly of Madeline Albright and respect her accomplishments very much. I feel that the book is a little difficult to read though and I had a hard time sticking with it. It is however filled with lots of facts and events that make it worth the dedication.
Return to High American Ideals.......2007-08-26
This book may be directed to the "choir," as other reviewers have noted, but even the choir needs some encouragement from time to time. We've been through a rough 8 years.
I'm with her in her final comment: "I will never accept, however, that the United States is not better than we have been these past few years; nor will I stop believing (or praying) that we will recover our balance and begin again -- and soon -- to command the world's respect, and our own."
Human beings are religious animals, and we do perceive things differently. It is important to be tolerant of the beliefs of others; many of us are seeking God the best way we know how.
Politics and religion are both valid aspects of human life, but they are not the same thing.
Intelligent work about the subtleties of foreign policy wrt religion.......2007-07-17
Ms. Albright starts the book by providing background on how Americans have best handled religion in general. She gives several quotes from the founding fathers:
"George Washington disclaimed any interest in whether people were 'Mohametans, Jews or Christians of any sect, or Atheists.' His sole concern was that they should have the right to exercise freedom of worship, expression, and thought."--Page 18.
She then almost ventures into political heresy by giving a meaningful historical-political context to the Jewish-Palestinian conflict: (I had not been aware of the extent to which power elites in the world had gotten on board the Zionist mission.)
The remainder of the book is full of background about Judaism, Christianity, but especially Islam, that few are aware of--certainly not the current gang at the helm. Well worth the read, though Ms. Albright does not appreciate, or acknowledge anyway, the role of the CIA in creating the "world of terror."
...
For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]
Brian Wright
Copyright 2007
Terrific.......2007-07-08
A great book written by a knowledgeable person. I treasured it and have shared it with friends.
Average customer rating:
- The Hobo Philosopher
- Must have for any wannabe idealist
- Political Classic...read for historical insight
- A Must Read
- A Misleading Edition
|
The Communist Manifesto (Signet Classics)
Karl Marx ,
Friedrich Engels , and
Martin Malia
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
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Amazon.com
"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles.
Book Description
Critically and textually up-to-date, this new edition of the classic translation (Samuel Moore, 1888) features an introduction and notes by the eminent Marx scholar David McLellan, prefaces written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels subsequent to the original 1848 publication, and corrections
of errors made in earlier versions. Regarded as one of the most influential political tracts ever written, The Communist Manifesto serves as the foundation document of the Marxist movement. This summary of the Marxist vision is an incisive account of the world-view Marx and Engels had evolved during
their hectic intellectual and political collaboration of the previous few years.
Download Description
Still relevant today both as a historical document and as a stirring call for social democracy, this New Albion edition includes Engel's extensive footnotes from the various editions, plus the changing Prefaces written first by Marx and Engels, and later by Engels alone, plus notes on the Manifesto and the various translations of it.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-14
Well, if you are a student of Philosophy or economics you must make this a part of your reading whether you want to or not. It is not long. It is not difficult. It is quite explicit. And after you read it you should have a better understanding of where you personally stand politically. I am not going to comment on what it says or advocates. Read it and find out for yourself. You won't need an interpreter.
Must have for any wannabe idealist.......2007-09-10
Well, obviously I havent read this fascinating piece of litrerature, but thats because a read book just looks so scruffy on my beautiful capitalist shelves.
This book makes me look a lot more sympathetic to all those wannabe commies, so why not dish out on a copy too?
Nah just joking, just read it and decide for yourself.
Political Classic...read for historical insight.......2007-06-27
My son required a copy of "The Communist Manifesto" for a philosophy class. After he was done with it, I decided to read it since this was one of the founding documents for Communism.
I found it difficult to decide how to rate this book. The presentation of Manifesto by Penguin in this book is excellent. The central ideas of the Manifesto itself are disturbing.
Should you read the Communist Manifesto? Yes. Is this a good presentation? Yes. Was Communism envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels a good idea? No. So I have compromised between the excellent presentation and the ideas espoused by the Manifesto in selecting an average rating.
Some reviewers feel that the Manifesto's critique of capitalism is right on; I have grave doubts. Marx and Engels were critiquing capitalism from an ivory tower. Their remedies for capitalism show that they had no real experience or contact with the workers in the trenches.
Some reviewers have mentioned the changing of labor laws due to the Manifesto, such as child labor laws (a generally agreed good thing). I believe those laws would have changed if the Manifesto had never been written. I believe those reviewers are seeing cause and effect relationships where there is none. I believe labor leaders in non-Communist states, pushing for change in labor laws, did not need belief in Communism behind them to push for change. Even without Communism, they would have done what they did anyways because the labor leaders came up from the laboring trenches. They knew first hand the abuses going on. The writers of the Manifesto did not; their ideas were theoretical. I know my ideas, in this area, are conjectures of what would have happened without the Manifesto, without Communism; there is no way they can be proven, history cannot be rewritten.
The remedy proposed by Marx and Engels is frightening. It foreshadows exactly how Communism gave birth to totalitarian states, to Communist dictatorships. Their remedy for capitalism requires a select group of leaders (Communist elitists) to force Communism onto the populace for the good of the people. We should all be suspicious of anyone who professes an idea that is for the good of the people because it invariably is not good for the people. To paraphase Lord Acton, "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," and the states envisioned by the writers of the Manifesto set up perfect conditions of absolute power (for the good of the people) which in practice led to absolutely corrupt power. History has shown there has been extreme abuse by Communist leaders, who became power meglomanics, of the masses of workers in their states.
Indeed, history has repeatedly shown that the concentration of power in the hands of a select few led to abuse of power. The smaller the select, the greater the abuse. This has been true regardless of the political theories espoused by the leaders. Let this be a cautionary tale to all of us.
A Must Read.......2007-06-23
It amazes me that the effects of cold war propaganda drivel still permeates the minds of most Americans. This is easily one of the most influential works since it's publication in the 19th century. To say something along the lines that the pages should be torn out and used as paper airplanes is like saying the literary masterpieces Dickens should be used as toilet paper. Disagree with it all you want but at least acknowledge it's influence and respect it, as several reviewers have. Don't simply pigeonhole a great work due to the ignorance or American cold war dogma. If you are going to rant about this work at least get your facts straight. Hitler is not a communist..never was. As a matter of fact he hated communism just as much as most Americans do. Second, recognize communism is an ideal, just a capitalism is may I add, and there never has been a purely communistic state. If you are going to give this work a bad rating at least pretend you have read it. Most of the bad reviews are complete drivel and it is obvious the work has not been read. Give a reason why you do not like the book. Simply saying it sucks is not very insightful. Finally, do not give this a bad review simply because you cannot understand what is being said. If the merit of literary works were based upon how something is being said rather than what is being said Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton would not be considered literary geniuses.
A Misleading Edition.......2007-06-14
The following is the composure of the book:
pg. 1-170 Introduction by Translator
pg. 170-240 Various Prefaces of Other Editions by the Authors
pg. 240-280 The Manifesto
For those not familiar with Marx, who want to read the introduction and gain new insights--this is a brilliant setup.
For those who would rather just pay $2 for the Manifesto itself--this is disappointing.
Recommended for the student of philosophy, not the professor.
Book Description
This is Jurgen Habermas's most concrete historical-sociological book and one of the key contributions to political thought in the postwar period. It will be a revelation to those who have known Habermas only through his theoretical writing to find his later interests in problems of legitimation and communication foreshadowed in this lucid study of the origins, nature, and evolution of public opinion in democratic societies.
Customer Reviews:
Indispensable for Understanding Contemporary Culture.......2007-08-10
Okay, perhaps I've got the social-theory-geek gene, but when I first read this book some fourteen years ago (during grad school), I was able finally to put together a lot of things that had been swimming around in my brain. I'd already read a good bit of Adorno before a professor (with whom I was doing an independent study on Adorno) recommended that I read this. Habermas's historical analysis was so compelling that I simply couldn't put the book down. Moreover (all this may seem hard to believe), the lucidity of his presentation also helped me put a lot of what was going on in Adorno's writings in a clearer light.
While I don't agree with the directions in which Habermas later went--I strongly resist the notion of recuperating the modern project--this book provides a compelling analysis of how Western society and culture got to where it is now.
Habermas: The Public in History.......2005-09-17
In this monograph, Habermas tracks the origination, the evolution, and the dispersal of an informed "public sphere" among democratic Western nations. He defines public sphere as "private people com[ing] together as a public" (27). Once these individuals, gathered as reading groups or as aficionados of theatre, the arts, and politics, the individuals melded into a public capable of debating the government. Habermas locates these fledgling "publics" primarily in eighteenth-century France, England and to a lesser extent in the areas of Europe designated as German. Tellingly, Habermas strongly links the formation of the public sphere with the rise of capitalism and a continuing bourgeois revolution. Comprised of literate individuals governed by the principals of the Enlightenment, these "publics" eventually challenged the validity and legitimacy of governments, most notably in France during the French Revolution and England during the English Civil War.
Habermas builds a compelling argument based upon his interpretation of Rousseau, Kant, Locke, Hegel, and Marx. He links the works of these philosophers and sociologists in a credible chain stretching back to the eighteenth century. However, he only deals thoroughly with the educated, propertied elite of society. Habermas views the "unpropertied" and illiterate as a separate from and incapable of participating in a true public sphere. To do this he must dismiss a plethora of lower class uprisings found throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Even when the various governments quickly quashed these rebellions, the Ludites in England and the various rebellions of 1848 come to mind, it is difficult to dispute the effect these rebels and rebellions had upon the public discourse. As an early work on the subject, it is almost certain that Habermas had to amend his arguments following E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, published in 1963 a scant year after this work. His exclusion of the great press of society from a functioning public sphere seems arrogant at best and naïve at worst.
One of the most influential studies on the subject.......2004-11-01
Habermas' work, though written more than four decades ago, still retains most of its original relevance for the study of the public sphere. If you are interested in this subject, and if you are into critical thinking, then this book is certainly worth reading. Why? Well, if you take in consideration the fact that no other book has been written so far on the subject that has been able to surpass Habermas' account both in depth and originality, then you begin to get my point. As to a critical reading of the argument put forth by Habermas, one should read "Habermas and the Public Sphere", edited by Craig Calhoun. This book includes an appendix by Habermas where he revises some of his original positions.
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.......2002-04-04
When you talk about the public sphere in front of intellectuals, Jürgen Habermas's name is bound to come up. Habermas's 1962 study, "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere," examines the creation, brief flourishing, and demise of a public sphere based in rational-critical debate and discussion. The feasibility of a true public sphere, which is inclusive of anyone who would participate, is for Habermas of utmost importance. Habermas follows a methodology similar to the one Michel Foucault takes in "Discipline and Punish," which analyzes the abolition of public displays of power, and the process by which the structures of power are inculcated in the individual from the 17th through the 20th centuries. Habermas analyzes historical, economic, and political conditions from classical antiquity through his own historical moment, tracing the circumstances in which the public sphere arises, how it functions, and ceases to function over time.
Habermas begins with a delineation of the terms 'public' and 'private,' orienting them philologically from their roots and meanings in classical antiquity. From here, he traces the adoption of the words and their synonyms into the European Middle Ages and the era of feudalism. Habermas says that in this period, the feudal lord and the monarch, for whom `representative publicness' functioned as a display of power before their subjects, dominated the public. Authority figures embodied virtues and powers in a public fashion. Public representation of political and economic power continued, unabated until the Reformation, at which time, the privatization of religious faith signaled a separation between society and the state. Economically, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the spread of trade necessitated the spread of news from various locales. As news outside of the home became relevant to home economy, the private individual begins to take an interest in public events. Consolidation of 'national' financial administration and state-controlled taxation, along with the rise of print culture, facilitated the dissemination of news, initially in the form of governmental decrees, market conditions, and happenings at court. Through this, the actions of the authorities came under the scrutiny of a reading public.
The 18th century is the key moment for Habermas. In this period, the government, along with private individuals, made use of the press, for the first time, in persuasive appeal to a public made up of private people. The press now presented the public with information, with which they were to use reason and discussion to determine what was in the public's interest. Habermas emphasizes the theoretical parity that this brings about - the rise of the coffee houses and salons, in which merchants met with gentility and engaged in rational-critical debate over issues of public import. Stretching this into the realm of the franchise, Habermas is careful to point out the problematics of a situation in which actual decision-making was restricted to those with money and land, but stresses that the opportunity for anyone to acquire these prerequisites was, again, theoretically, open to all.
For a brief time during the 18th century, Habermas sees the flourishing of a public sphere, born out of a reading public, that began to interact with the processes of public policy, legally, and morally. The purpose of this public sphere, according to Habermas, is to eliminate the domination of authoritative power, and establishing a government that is actually representative of the public will and contingent upon public opinion. Unfortunately, in the 19th century, with the stratification of party politics, the proliferating press encouraged less rational-critical discussion. Increasingly, debate moved into parliamentary circles, and the public was asked only to approve of party measures, not participate in the formation of the rules that governed them. In the 20th century, along with the creation of the welfare-state, consolidation of moneyed interests, and the expansion of universal suffrage (ironically), the public sphere disintegrated even further. New media - radio, television, etc. - turned its addresses to the public into mere advertising. Even the illusion of a private people engaged, as a public, in matters of their own governance, was gone, and the public became vessels for mass media.
To recuperate a true participatory public sphere, Habermas takes a guarded approach. He indicates that some kind of elite could be formed. These private individuals would undertake the responsibility of rational-critical debate, determining the public interest. The general public, then, would give their approval or disapproval to the measures decided on by this elite. This is kind of a bleak outlook, and one I don't much care for myself. Of course, this is a horribly limited review of Habermas's "Structural Transformation". I haven't even noted the break he takes to outline the historical-philosophical evaluation and critique of the public sphere by Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mill, and Tocqueville. Nor did I note the extensive use Habermas makes of political and economic changes in his key nations - England, France, and Germany - and the contributions these make to the disintegration of the public sphere. At any rate, "Structural Transformation" is an exhaustive (and exhausting) study, as relevant now to the study of literature, economics, government, history, etc., especially of the last three centuries, as it ever was. Even though it is a pain to read, you'll be glad you finally read it. Think of it as theoretical medicine - it may not taste good, but in the long run, it's good for you.
Habermas puts me to sleep.......2000-07-23
... This is Habermas' dissertation, but his writing is so poor, in English or in German, that it really doesn' matter. The book is a response, in my opinion, to Carl Schmitt, and specifically to Schmitt's argument that the core of liberal democracy is debate in parliament, that liberal democracy is rule by discussion (or, as its called now, "political discourse"), but that that discussion is now more real than painted flames on a radiator. Liberal democracy is in fact the triumph of aliberal, private, hidden powers, who rule from the shadows and through the true organs of power, the media, and through the hidden power of the private vote cast in the illicit privacy of the voting booth, where the bourgeois individual is free to exercise his worst prejudices and basest motives. So argues Schmitt. Habermas gives an interesting historical account of the rise of "Offentlichkeit" (which translates into the all-too-easy abstraction "public sphere," whatever that is), from the letters passed in the mail relating the news from town to town, to French salons, to newspapers, to television and radio. Habermas, like Schmitt, seeks to unmask the illiberal powers lurking behind the good liberal prejudices, but he, like Schmitt, mistakes liberalism for a debating society when in fact it is much more sophisticated than that. Habermas needs to read the Federalist Papers and the debates (!) at the constitutional convention to understand how little the founders of one liberal democracy thought of the power of discussion.
Book Description
This extensively indexed book succinctly summarizes the findings of a dozen or so of the most important works of the 20th century - from both sides of the conflict - which expose how and why a cabal of international plutocrats is planning to destroy America and any other country preventing the ultimate hegemony of their New World Order.
Customer Reviews:
I should have read the chapter titled "Let's Fix America" first.......2007-07-17
Most of us know there's something wrong with the way the "world" works. And we figure that folks with money and power will use their positions to do whatever it takes to accumulate more money and power at the expense of anyone or anything that get's in their way. Unfortunately, this book doesn't help clarify or give us tools to win the class war. If you're looking for clarity, start with Noam Chomsky's 2 CD audio "Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind." Chomsky offers a much more insightful and easier to grasp view of how the world really works.
For someone who hasn't cracked open this book yet, I would suggest that you read Chapter 12 first--"Let's Fix America". Jones has a few good ideas there, but for the most part his "tough love" ideology meshes perfectly with that of the "elites" he supposedly opposes. So it's difficult for me to assess if his work is designed to assist the working class, confuse it, or destroy it. Because destroying it is exactly what his taxation and social program ideas would do. If you examine these notions closely you can't help but notice that they sound like ideas that would be sponsored by far right-wing Think Tanks--typically funded by corporations and elite old-money families.
There is certainly a lot of info in the book. And some of it is likely correct--(Professor McCoy "Politics of Heroin" is considered a first class researcher)--with this kind of shotgun approach, it couldn't help but hit something. Unfortunately for Jones, "Report from Iron Mountain" was outed by the author, Leonard Lewin, as fictional satire--dead on satire, but fiction none the less. This leaves me with questions about the author's ability or desire to separate fact from fiction.
HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS.......2007-05-10
This book is a must read for those who operate "in the spirit of trust." Before reading this book, I wrote a book published in late 2001 called "Blacks In The Spider's Web" which substantially views the world as the subject book, but from a black American perspective. Although I have not read all of the books reviewed in "How The World Really Works" (I'm sure most are out of print now), my analysis of the world situation corresponds materially with Alan B. Jones' book. Much of what we see of the world is a false facade that must be pierced in order to come to the reality of the truth. "How The World Really Works" helps to pierce the veil of secrecy covering the "military industrial complex," the "Kennedy assassinations" and the "dumbing down of America," among other "unsolved mysteries."
Fixing America Means Understanding the Problems.......2007-03-18
My own review would closely mirror Robert D Steele's excellent and comprehensive analysis below. I also agree with the excellence of the additional works he recommends. I've read them all and have nothing but praise.
I might add to Robert's list a couple more titles:
1. "When Corporations Rule the World" by David C Korten ... also visit his website (Google it).
2. "The Road to Serfdom" by FA Hayak.
3. "The Money Masters" website, book and DVD... (Google it).
There are no more important subjects on earth than these. Nearly all wars, poverty, media manipulations, societal and educational problems such as drug dealing, smuggling, flesh peddling, high taxation, and... well, you name it... are rooted in the problems revealed in these works.
I strongly disagree with those who think such works are either fear-based or impractical. Nothing can be more practical than the knowledge of the secret and occult powers that are now the motivating forces shaping our modern world.
We can only remain asleep (in denial) at our grave peril, and more importantly, the peril of our children and grandchildren.
No problem can be fixed without a thorough understanding of it's root causes. Sooner or later these international money and banking problems must be fixed, and to do it properly we must fix... or rebuild... these institutions in the right ways.
The issuance of money must be taken out of the hands of private bankers and returned to the government's of "We the People" where it belongs. Only then can we stop paying exorbitant interest rates on the money that is put into circulation. Only then can we begin to use our taxes for purposes other than paying needless interest to private bankers.
Unchecked, unbalanced and unlimited power always leads to tyranny and despotism, some form of totalitarianism. Today that power is quickly becoming the materialistic "Golden Rule" - "He who has the gold, rules."
Will we let it happen here? Is it already too late to stop it?
Gaps, A Little Loose, but First-Rate Never-the-Less.......2007-01-30
I am going to put my reputation on the line, and the 850+ non-fiction books I have read that make me the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction (and to my great surprise, today #49 over all fiction, movies, music, and software as well as non-fiction) for the simple reason that too many people discuss books such as this by labeling it "conspiracy theory."
It's not a conspiracy theory if it is true. I will try to be brief as well as illuminative.
First off, the author has culled a handful of books that support his case against a global financial elite, and these tend, with the exception of the Quigley book, to be left of left of center. I am however happy to add a number of books that support his essential theses that a handful of banking families control the central banks which are NOT government banks, and through loans, control governments, impoverish the middle class, and harvest profit without conscience from the "working poor."
Try these on for size:
1) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. 85% rock solid, 15% flakey, but in my view, a perfectly reasonable slam on the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund as instruments for impoverishing lesser developed countries, not empowering them.
2) The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, another slam on the WTO/IMF, which he relegates to third rate out-dated economist ranks, not at all focused or able to achieve what he calls "developmental economics."
3) The Global Class War by Jeff Faux, a fine discussion of how our elites bribe the elites in other countries, and the both screw the public by looting the commonwealths of gold, oil, etcetera, without returns to the people whose families have lived on top of these resources for centuries.
4) Running on Empty, by Paul Peterson of the Council of Foreign Relations (which the author hates, in my view it has two types of members--one manipulative like Henry Kissinger, another honest, like Paul Peterson), in which both the Republican and the Democratic parties are lambasted for being the ignorant slaves of the ultra-rich elites, and hopeless out of touch with reality and unable to represent We the People.
5) War is a Racket by General Smedley Butler, the highest decorated Marine of his time, who complained about being an enforcer for banks and businesses that lent money to the Third World then sent the Marines to get it back for them.
There are many other books that support this author's book reviews in great detail and from many varied perspectives. I refer you to my various lists, including the list on "Screwing the 90% that do the work."
The author has some pretensions and some slop, his arguments are not always consistent, but then neither are mine. On balance I regard this book as a first rate personal effort that should be read by every middle class person wondering, as Lou Dobbs on CNN has wondered, why we are exporting middle class jobs and importing poverty in the form of illegal aliens.
The author wraps up his varied reviews with a focus on the relationship between organized crime and the super-elite as well as their political elite (e.g. the Bush family, the best of the servant class), and on the relationship between drugs, covert operations, and Wall Street. Here again the author draws on a very tiny sub-set of books while not listing many others that support his thesis so I will mention a few here.
Having been through both Viet-Nam as a youth and the Central American Wars as an adult, I am quite certain that there are at least four different slices of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where I served for ten years as a clandestine case officer:
A small slice does what the White House wants, including black bag jobs.
A small but more important slice does what Wall Street wants, and helps Wall Street with access to financially relevant information that the public which pays for the CIA does not get. Buzzy Krongard, until recently Executive Director of the CIA, comes to mind as the most recent leader of this section.
A larger slice, that does covert action off the books with funding from Saudi Arabia and others, sometimes called the Safari Club, sometimes having off-shoots like Ted Shackley's Southern Air Transport, and so on. This slice can provide the intersection between criminal activities, white collar crime profits, illegal White House activities, and plain profiteering.
Finally, 90% of the CIA, folks like me that did not realize they were simply going through the motions and giving the local counterintelligence service a full-time rabbit to follow while the commercial clandestine boys and girls looted the bank in bright daylight.
I have two intelligence lists that can be helpful here, but I have not focused on creating crime lists. I'll just say that between the books on the "working poor" and on being "nickeled and dimed" and books on immoral predatory capitalism and unilateral militarism of the Dick Cheney variety (I have compiled a list of 25 specific impeachable actions by Dick Cheney based on three books: One Percent Doctrine, VICE, and Crossing the Rubicon). There is a very clear-cut and direct relationship between dictators, transnational organized crime and terrorism, and Wall Street as well as the Republican and Democratic National Committees.
That reminds me: there is an entire literature on petroleum, peak oil, petrodollars, and so on. Americans have been betrayed by their government since at least 1975, and more likely, back to the 1950's when naiveté about international affairs was replaced by active complicity.
Good news. 1) Internet leveled playing field. 2) Not enough guns to kill us all. 3) A few of the really rich have realized they need to help us create infinite wealth for ourselves, or lose all they have to locusts. Read, be vocal, be active, we're going to get a grip on our commonwealth soon.
Tip of the Hat to Jere for the following added links:
When Corporations Rule the World
The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. a. Hayek)
Money Masters of Our Time
See also my longer reviews of:
Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Cliff Notes for the NWO.......2006-11-18
A must read for everyone who wants to cut the strings of the puppet meisters. Stands on its own, and is a valuable reference. This book is a great launching pad for anyone becoming interested in why things are the way they are right now.
Book Description
This primers tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.
Customer Reviews:
Farting as social protest..........2007-06-23
They don't make 'em like Saul Alinsky anymore. (The only left-wing public intellectuals alive today that could even be mentioned in the same breath are Zinn and Chomsky...and they ain't gonna be around much longer.) Saul was one of those hyper-literate, socially-conscious Hebrews, coming straight out of the Jewish liberal tradition that made a unique impact on the political/class struggle of the 20th century. (Now the Jews have joined the establishment, and the historical accident of an intellectually capable oppressed minority will, in a generation or two, no longer exist.)
His treatise on pragmatic social change is a delight to read (even for a reactionary right-winger like myself), though it is somewhat dated, and the predictions oftentimes wrong. Despite his errors, and predictive ineptitude, this book is the work of a keen intellect, a man committed to what he thought was right, and an invaluable insight into the mind of a thinking leftist.
Alinsky has read his Marx, and the Hegelian/Marxist dialectic is a continuing theme in the book, as is the middle class's supposed alienation, but he is no commie. He criticizes Soviet Russia, and extols democracy as the only means by which revolution is to be achieved. He believes in probability, not causality, and is fiercely opposed to individualism. ("We are our brother's keeper," "Individuality is primitive stupidity.") I find the latter quote ironic, since, recalling Anthropology 101, the more primitive tribes display the most communitarian spirit...but Alinsky never says he is infallible.
His rules on means and ends are brilliant, as is his dissection of how protest is to be effective. He is particularly scornful of protest tactics (still used today by the anti-war movement...ineffectually) that achieve no concrete results, and only alienate the middle-class power base.
He considers that right actions are always done for wrong reasons, and adduces Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, disobeying a directive from the Supreme Court, and illegal use of military commissions to try civilians (sound familiar?), in order to win the Civil War.
He analyzes Gandhi as a pragmatist, not as some living moral saint, and provides a revisionist account of his tactics of non-violence. (He neglects to mention that Gandhi was a klismaphiliac.)
Alinsky stresses change, and dynamism, the stagnation of consistency, and how your friends today can be your enemies tomorrow. (The Left has forgotten this lesson, to their rhetorical disadvantage.)
The one place where Alinsky seriously goes off the rails is the chapter on using stock proxies to combat corporate practices. I've been to shareholders' meetings, and seen the "progressive" proposals by church groups, PETA, the Sierra Club, etc., voted on...and routinely defeated by margins of 99.7%. Alinsky lets his idealism trump his pragmatic common sense when he claims that people--middle-class people--will sacrifice dividends for "social justice."
Notwithstanding that, however, this book is still very worthwhile for all to study...partly as an historical artifact, partly for the Man to understand how to effectively stymie the lumpen-proletariat, and partly for the Left to understand why not to replicate the mistakes that Alinsky identified and warned against. (Although the Left would be advised to devise completely new tactics altogether...marching, picketing, and chanting are, as Alinsky would say, "trite.")
Rules For Radicals.......2007-03-12
I liked the book and wanted to compare some of the ideas to those that I have used to fight for Motorcycle Rights.
I have not finished it yet but would suggest those interested in rights movements do Read It.
ROGUE
Motorcycle Hall Of Fame Member
A useful tool for change.......2006-11-03
Although reading this book was a class assignment, I am certain that I will use it throughout my life as a professional and as a community member, desiring to make change in my own community. It is a very useful tool or guide that can be applied to a variety of situations -- from national political policies to PTA organizing. Don't let the title of the book scare you away, you do not need to consider yourself a radical to make change.
There are things I don't like, but some things I liked very much!.......2005-09-13
"RULES FOR RADICALS" by Saul Alinsky.
As some readers observe, it was Alinsky's "rules" as adopted by political conservatives which turned tables on the political left. I review "Rules" from a philosophical standpoint and a rational approach to truth criteria.
One of the more telling passages comes early, in the PROLOGUE:
*In a world where everything is so interrelated that one feels helpless to know where or how to grab hold and act, defeat sets in; for years there have been people who've found society too overwhelming and have withdrawn, concentrated on 'doing-their-own-thing'. Generally we have put them into mental hopitals and diagnosed them as schizophrenics.* -Saul Alinsky, PROLOGUE, p. xix
I am much in agreement with Alinsky's description of the schizoid split that takes place in the minds and hearts of many. Alinsky does not make the complete and logical connection between political activism and sanity and mental health. Alinsky can only imply it. Political activists, as we may observe them day to day, seldom display such an evolved commitment to principle or reason, nor do they demonstrate PEACE, but likely as not, rage and discontentment. At their worst, they exhibit the flawed chararacter who prefers to change the world, never him or herself.
The very problem that Alinsky identifies is the off-spring of a very popular epidemic of moral relativism, rooted in a psychological SCRIPT based upon pain-avoidance and selfish attitudes and a turning away from all-things-uncomfortable-in-life, and all responsibility for wrongs in the world. i.e. the schizoid split, which simply says, "I'm accountable only for credit for saving the world; I'm not accountable if its only a big, dirty clean-up job! It is directly related to the same SITUATIONAL ETHICS embodied in humanist and liberal views of society, an attitude of spiting authority and refusing to be held to any identifiable moral standard, whatsoever.
Alinsky does acquaint us with some fundamental moral dilemmas, especially regarding the definition of POWER. He leaves the reader with a sense of clarity. I do not believe activists generally reflect the rationalist tendency with which Alinsky confronts elements of our political life.
Moreover, the striking issue which Alinsky seems to avoid is the realm in which individuals become personally responsible for their lives; that precise point in which the individual acknowledges that life itself is larger than a part, and that all problems are not the government's making, nor is government action necessarily the solution.
I keep in mind that Alinsky was an agnostic. (He has passed on). Unfortunately, when someone adopts moral and ethical positions, far removed from notions of a higher power, he is simply 'playing God'; and that is where the MORAL RELATIVISM issue enters the scene. Philosophically, when any of us identifies RIGHT & WRONG, there ought to be both ACCOUNTABILITY & CONSISTENCY; social activists frequently fail to identify on a permanent basis, what constitutes everyday standards of RIGHT & WRONG, and Alinsky essentially advocates endless and on-going situational ethics and moral relativism; but his ideas, as TOOLS, are free for everyone to employ. There's the rub!
Alinsky does raise some fundamental philosophical issues, but certainly not all. His greatest fault in my opinion, is that he leaves these issues incomplete. It was fair for him to hold his materialistic view of property, society, activism etc. even if those are a limited view; but was it fair for him to avoid fundamental philosophical conflicts between science & religion & philosophy? Alinsky is TUNNEL-VISIONED in this regard, because solutions to human problems are not inherently, POLITICAL solutions. That's where the RULES ends in an incomplete viewing of human problems. Many human problems have spiritual solutions; but RULES is good as a starting outline of human ethical problems between opposing forces, so far as Alinsky is willing to examine public life. I give Alinsky his due.
Was Alinsky willing to define MAN, except as a physical animal, devoid of soul, destined to be in eternal conflict with public institutions of power? Alinsky fails, and leaves us a model of life as individuals in perpetual battle with the Nation, the Corporation, or the City Fathers (or Mothers!). He cannot prove that simply because we are fighting a fight, that our discontentment shall turn to contentment.
Who will benefit from reading Alinsky's Rules for HOW-TO-FIGHT-THE-GOOD-FIGHT? There are groups from all parts of the social spectrum that fight foolishly. I see them sabotage their own efforts all the time. Here's an example:
#1 The RIGHT-TO-LIFE organization opposes abortion; but instead of simply fighting that specific fight, they squander their energies in fighting Right-To-Assisted Suicide. Their focus is too broad to be effective. R.T.L fights in all directions at once, with the result they become depressed and confused. In fact, if they narrowed their focus and pursued the single battle they could win, ABORTION, the rest of the issues they oppose just might topple to their satisfaction.
#2 RIGHT-TO-LIFE Operates arrogantly, and by this I mean that they use an absolutist slogan, "ABORTION IS ALWAYS WRONG!"
I'm sorry, but it is perennially true that exceptions make the rule. Were RTL less absolutist, less inclined to 'play GOD' and more inclined to serve GOD, their cause would appeal to a wider base of reasonable and common sensical people...everyday people. We often say, NEVER SAY NEVER, and we might also say, ALWAYS AVOID SAYING ALWAYS. It makes one appear arrogant, imperious, and unreasonable.
#3 RTL presents the issue, "personally". They present it to the general public at their rallies as a "personal" issue. Their speakers sob and grieve, and so does their audience, to the point that to be motivated on the issue of ABORTION, it would appear that one must first feel misery and spread misery to everyone else. They have failed to present their issue in a POSITIVE manner, as a common human problem that requires thoughtful consideration. Hey! Nobody wants to feel miserable. Who needs it?
#4 RTL employs the "CULTURE-OF-DEATH" slogan to describe the FIFTY-MILLION-PLUS babies murdered by abortion in the U.S. alone since 1967. "Culture-of-Death" is backing the opposition into a corner and insisting on beating him to death where he stands. That's odd, because most religious people would agree that rather than "condemning" the culture, religion would most likely teach men to help "show" their brother the way out of darkness, rather than merely naming the ditch that he dwells in for the sake of "shaming" him. RTL might replace that negative slogan with CULTURE-OF-LIFE celebrations to endorse family and single parents who commit to nurture and protect life.
I believe Alinsky is a wonderful focal point for philosopical questions, but he does not address all the issues in full. He is not afraid of conflict, and was willing to lead where and when he was invited as an organizer; but was Alinsky willing to address fundamental issues which go to the very core of human conflict? Not really, as much as I admire the man, I find he is limited by an incomplete view of MAN, the citizen. Man was not a SOUL by Alinsky's estimation. Therefore, Alinsky sees men accountable to their fellow man, but does not see Man accountable to GOD or spiritual principle. Perhaps Alinsky's shortsightedness was that it limits our very life to an eternal conflict on the basis of HAVES & HAVE NOTS.
The flawed assumption in Alinsky's writing in this philosophical sense, is that his moral, ethical, and philosophical views of individual activism, are based upon an undeclared religious assumption of UNITY amongst people. Alinsky worked toward unification, but without identifying the WHAT it is, that truly unifies all mankind. The same exception is made throughout liberal movements today. There is an inherent affirmation of UNITY throughout liberal philosophy, but denial as to what constitutes UNITY. This gross error becomes equally pronounced in a philosopical scrutiny of Alinsky.
Credit Alinsky with an honest viewing of Mahatma Ghandi, whose ideas are largely misreprented and misunderstood in popular culture. Gandi was hardly a saint, and he certainly was not free of considerations of violence to achieve Indian independence. He was a pragmatist in every sense. Alinsky focuses on this aspect of Ghandi's personality.
'Rules for Radicals' is valuable for its truths, and for its flaws. Alinsky was a brilliant and courageous man, though not a hero by any stretch. Alinsky was a man keenly aware that he was a power broker, and who casually avoided the deeper implications of his ideological foundations. The fire which drove him to an evangelical fervor as a political organizer is worthy of study. There is something in his book for everyone, but I will not fail to point out that some activists (and I have used RIGHT-TO-LIFE as an example here) draw their ideological motivations from such a narrow and restrictive set of paramaters [scripture and religious sentiments in this case] that they are sometimes counterproductive, halting, and doomed to an ineffectiveness. For this, I, for one, am terribly sorry, and very saddened.
If you have never observed "peace" or "justice" activsts engage in spiteful back-stabbing, and gossip in the struggle for a paid, $5.00/per hour activist job, you might blindly believe that such people are often SAINTLY, or PEACEFUL, and above others. I assure you, they are as self-serving as the rest of us. Alinsky is very human, and not the epitome of human virtue; and the difficulty with activism is that activists will cloak themselves in self-righteous virtue, absent the logical and rational justifications that support such a sense of righteousness. Alinsky would have us believe that CHANGE is what we must force upon the world outside of ourselves. Sadly, it is a truth that we cannot have any kind of peace, until we begin to force change inside ourselves first.
I found "Rules for Radicals" to be an excellent jumping-off-point in the process of clarifying what I believe. It is better as an outline of issues to be discussed; but I was deeply moved by the book.
Who really knew Sol Alinsky?.......2005-08-09
Soon I will celebrate my 84th birthday; I'm originally from NYC and lived in the West Bronx where I saw and heard Sol Alinsky speak at building cooperatives and other organizational events on various occasions. Sol Alinsky was NOT a Marxist and those who attribute this to him never saw or heard him when he was a young and very alive human being. He was an honest, sincere American patriot.
He lived in a shameful period of our history when Capitalism was at its worst; not too many years after the tragic, horrific Triangle fire which burned a large number of seamstresses to death in a dress factory. Since the truism that "history repeats itself" is occurring at this very moment, if I believed in reincarnation, I would search for Alinsky's return. Capitalism has returned to the days of old and there are very few companies which are good to their workers.
Alinsky was the workers' knight in shining armor with a tongue that was greater and stronger than that of Sir Lancelot. If Hillary or any one else from that period learned anything from him, they were very fortunate for he was that unique voice of decency which appears all to infrequently.
For all those honest, good Americans who are appallled with the lies and deceptions of our present day leaders, this is a book which should be read to help, guide and invigorate you in the never-ending battle against religious fanaticism and ultra right-wing reactionary views. When a group argues for the teachings of the BIBLE as to Creation, we are in very deep trouble and the cultural switch has slipped into reverse.
No one wants to acknowledge that the so-called Bible was NOT written by God but by men and it does NOT represent the WORD OF GOD. I strongly urge one and all to read Saul Alinsky.
Book Description
A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer -- the first and most famous of his books -- was made into a bestseller when President Eisenhower cited it during one of the earliest television press conferences.Completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today, The True Believer is a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one.
Customer Reviews:
Understanding followings1.......2007-10-09
This is a very good book for anyone wanting to know why people follow mass movements or if they want to try and start a mass movement!
To Believe.......2007-09-19
Read this book in 1992...changed the way that I looked at the world and organized religion. Really helps in understanding anything that deals with politics, religion, and any other mainstream ideology.
The Optimistic Jew.......2007-08-31
This is a companion piece to Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom". It is an analysis of fanatics - human beings that are compelled to join causes no matter what the cause. By extension it is an investigation of mass movements from early Christianity up to Fascism and Communism. This book is a cautionary against dangerous trends in the Zionist Enterprise (notice I use the term Enterprise and not Movement). Fanatic selfless idealism - whether of right wing settlers or of leftwing social reformers is dangerous. The arrogant self-righteousness of both can justify corruption, breaking the law and horrendous crimes.
As Hoffer puts it: "It is only when the movement has passed its active stage and solidified into a pattern of stable institutions that individual liberty has a chance to emerge". In the Jewish context we are not post-Zionist we are post Zionist Movement and well into the Zionist Enterprise. I celebrate the maturing of Zionism from a Movement into an Enterprise. The so called solidarity of the past stifled individual self-actualization. Today the Zionist Enterprise offers many opportunities to individuals to actualize themselves as human beings and as Jews. I believe this is admirable and not to be regretted. My book "The Optimistic Jew: a Positive Vision for the Jewish People in the 21st Century" reflects this view.
An Essential Book for Educated People.......2007-05-24
Hoffer's 150-page book is a classic that applies perfectly to our times. Hoffer hits the mark again and again with "Machiavellian detachment" as one reviewer said. Of fanatics, Hoffer wrote:
"The effectiveness of a doctrine should not be judged by its profundity, sublimity or the validity of the truths it embodies, but by how thoroughly it insulates the individual from his self and the world as it is."
"The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude."
"It is obvious, therefore, that in order to be effective a doctrine must not be understood, but has to be believed in. We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength." (quotations from page 76)
Very powerful and convincing reasoning!
Hoffer at The Eye of the Storm.......2007-04-07
Here is the first thing anyone needs to know about reading "The True Believer": Eric Hoffer is not on your team, whatever your team may be, whether right, left, moderate, secular or non-secular, or whatever. If anyone ever attempts to sell you on an ideology with a quote from "The True Believer", please know that Hoffer is tumbling in his grave.
If you are looking to pump your fist in the air at the moment that Hoffer skewers the ideology you oppose, yes, you will have that moment, but please know that you're going to turn the page and find Hoffer is skewering your ideology on the next. There's no escape from "The True Believer" because Hoffer seems to demand that we be something more than de -politicized know-nothings, but makes the additional demand that we not become ideological sheep in the process.
This may, in part, be why "The True Believer" may be the most popular book of its kind that no one has ever heard of. (Oxymoron intended.) No writer is objective, but Hoffer gets as close to it as anyone and then pulls off something quite amazing; he throws bombs everywhere, reducing any kind of ideological proponent to what they really are; an individual caught up in a phenomena larger than themselves. There are great metaphysical implications in this, but Hoffer doesn't entertain them. He's reporting from a rowboat at the peaceful eye of an ideological hurricane of mass movements, and he's not happy about what he sees and he let's it be known.
"The True Believer" is not wordy in the least, and it's quite short, about 120 pages, but it's a bit hard to get through if you're unprepared because Hoffer writes in a manner that makes one feel they should be scribbling each line down as a quotation to keep in mind. It's a very assertive book and Hoffer doesn't say things, he proclaims them, in almost every sentence. You're just recovering from the impact of one sentence, and then you find you've had a head on collision with the next. You quickly realize that you understood every word, very much so, but you're boxing with a tough s.o.b. This also makes the book very quotable for someone looking to sell an ideology, a practice which indicates that they've read the book, but not understood it.
It's important to keep in mind that Hoffer isn't looking for a good guy or bad guy. Hoffer's subject is "Mass Movements". If you read the book with the "eye of the storm" perspective in mind, you'll find it fascinating and compulsively readable. If you read it seeking an affirmation of your own worldview, you're likely to find yourself shipwrecked at page 30 or so.
Amazon.com
When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book The Prince is. Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli's assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. "It must be understood," Machiavelli avers, "that a prince ... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state." With just a little imagination, readers can discern parallels between a 16th-century principality and a 20th-century presidency. --Tim Hogan
Book Description
Rufus Goodwin has made a new translation into modern English of Machiavelli's masterpiece, The Prince. Machiavelli, father of Social Sciences, continues to have relevance in our modern world, and his observations on the nature of human being and the political systems are as new today as they were during the Renaissance. In the Introduction, the adjective "Machiavellian" is analyzed.
Download Description
Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince... a king... a president.
When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. In The Prince he envisioned what would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion. Today, this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics.
Customer Reviews:
How one can rule them all with power........2007-10-14
Published in 1532, dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, The Prince by Machiavelli is an advanced political science treatise in defence of civilization against barbarianism by way of a single specially disciplined sovereign ruler, a prince.
The Prince by Machiavelli is a brief but complex political management system designed to be run by a prince administered using a series of protocols for any given situation based on Machiavelli's interpretation of the history of the rise and fall of world governments with an emphasis on the Roman Empire and current trends in 16th century monarchy rule.
Machiavelli's analysis of the historical record paved the way for princes to develop awareness of the problem of emergent barbarianism both internal and external. Machiavelli highlighted the need for a prince to always remain liked but indicated that being wanted did not necessarily mean being kind and showed how a cruel prince could also be beneficial to the state which would function, sometimes better, under ruthlessness depending on certain conditions.
Machiavelli was able to successfully understand the different types of principalities and how princes come to power and how they could retain that power tactically. He often cited historical sources to prove his points. The Prince teaches how to acquire cities and how they should be ruled especially after being annexed. In this respect it is also a war treatise although it deals with gain by means other than war. However this is not unusual for a warfare discourse. There are methods of determining strength and calculating a response and so The Prince is a strategic book that has its bases in game theory. The different types of soldiers and how they behave is given a considerable amount of coverage and how a prince should treat them.
The character of a prince becomes a central theme especially concerning how a prince is to be perceived by others. Religion is dealt with and for its time The Prince surprisingly declared Popes potential enemies that could, and would, undermine a monarchy if it was to their advantage. Machiavelli was able to show how a fortress is important for defence but that attack can, and does, come from within. He also had a system to increase a prince's popularity and noted areas in which a prince could socially falter. The book rounds up with a directive to implement these ideas when fortune should arise and to be always on guard against barbarianism which can come from within.
The Prince remains a classic essential in the development of game theory. There are many parallels between this work and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. In fact Machiavelli wrote another book using that very same title. Machiavelli sees power brought into the grasp of one hand by adapting military tactics internally within government operations as opposed to outwardly using them to defeat the enemy. This work is all about controlling what has been gained.
The Prince and its author Machiavelli are often condemned for not only tolerating mistreating people but for advising it in a lot of circumstances especially to prove authority and to take any possible threatening might away from the people. Proponents argue that without a rule of law with stiff penalties people would become barbaric and the system would deteriorate into even more unbearable situations. It is completely open about dealing out harsh measures to guarantee the survival of the state by any means necessary. However The Prince does contain methodologies that incorporate and use control based on kindness but these methods are few and far between.
Overall this book's influence on politics and business cannot be underestimated. Ultimately it is a must read being a very powerful book about being very powerful.
Good information.......2007-10-10
Many of Macchavelli's principal relate to both the Political world and the business world. It should be in every library.
This could be quite hard for those who lack the concentration, it can a valuable book for those who want to obtain a leadership position.
Accomadation.......2007-10-02
The first item was lost in the mail. I contacted Amazon and they sent me another one right away.
A Truely Overrated Book.......2007-09-19
"The Prince" is essentially a "how-to" guide for royalty durring the 1400's in Italy. I'm not going to make this review very long... a short review for a short book. It gets one star. Why? It's a very out dated classic. The advice and philosophical ramblings handed out in this book is quite specific to its time and place, and unlike, say The Communist Manefesto, for example, are no long relevant to us. In fact, it would probably be downright criminal today to run your country in the way Machiavelli suggests you do. This book would be a good read if you are interested in the history of Italian principalities durring this time period. Other than that, there is really no reason to read it. The morality of the book is actually very objectionable, and on top of that... its REALLLLLY borring.
It's probably considered to be a classic work of literature because it is just old. That's all. If I wrote some crap right now about the mythical underpants gnomes, and it survived for 600 years, people in 2600 BC would probably be saying "FIVE STARS for the Underpants Gnome Chronicals. This a great relic from the year 2007! Such insight into their ideology and beliefs...."
Awesome book.......2007-09-06
This book is for serious philosophical readers.
Machiavelli broke down a raw and ruthless political idea. I read the Art of War before this book, and they are similar. However, Machiavelli is much more aggressive. If you're reading this book for entertainment, it can be dry at times. Nonetheless, the information in this book is timeless, and should be an enjoyment for interested readers only.
Customer Reviews:
Some good information.......2007-09-24
A good book for refrence material for the HAZMAT courses I teach. If you are buying this with the intent to use the information be really careful because some of the information is flat out wrong and will get you hurt and it will also get you put on a few watch lists.
Awesome Book.......2006-07-28
The material covered is fascinating if you enjoy the idea of making "cool" things from household products. The material is dated but an awesome book nonetheless.
Seriously..........2006-07-25
This book is accurate as a blind folded archer spun 3 times in a game of pinata. There is no real useful info in this book, you'd get more tactics out of a Steven Seagal film. This book should be taken out of print before some dummy hurts themselves. If you're interested in learning the tricks of the trade buy a surplus field manual (FM), Watch Discovery Channel, or Join the Military or some Government agency. Billy Powell was a very misinformed hippie. The part that gave it all away was the part about the M-1 Garand. "Used in both World Wars and Korea" WW2 and Korea yes, WW1 no. I think its luck of some higher power that this dummy didn't hurt himself in the process.
Lighten up, folks!.......2006-07-21
The author has provided the context in which he wrote this book. As an adolescent boy in the 1970s, I found it an interesting read. Since I had the good sense to not attempt any of the hare-brained schemes in the book, I am still healthy and have all of my limbs. If people are interested in improvised munitions and the like, there are at least six (6) US Army FMs and TMs on the subject that I am aware of. Bear in mind that the making of explosive devices is a serious felony, and should not be attempted without the proper Federal and State licenses and permits. BATFE does not take kindly to the making of unregistered and untaxed explosives.
Outdated propoganda.......2006-07-14
The guy who wrote this claims a lot of things. No proof to back it up though.
He wrote it because he thought that the Vietnam conflict was going to escalate to WWIII but it didn't.
Book Description
The Machiavellian Moment is a classic study of the consequences for modern historical and social consciousness of the ideal of the classical republic revived by Machiavelli and other thinkers of Renaissance Italy. J.G.A. Pocock suggests that Machiavelli's prime emphasis was on the moment in which the republic confronts the problem of its own instability in time, and which he calls the "Machiavellian moment."
After examining this problem in the thought of Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Giannotti, Pocock turns to the revival of republican thought in Puritan England and in Revolutionary and Federalist America. He argues that the American Revolution can be considered the last great act of civic humanism of the Renaissance. He relates the origins of modern historicism to the clash between civic, Christian, and commercial values in the thought of the eighteenth century.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant.......2006-08-16
This is a remarkable, though not easy to digest, book. Pocock traces the development of modern republican political theory from its birth in Renaissance Florence to the end of the 18th century. This book incorporates both broad structural analysis of the the unfolding of this tradition and a detailed readings of the major and quite a few minor contributors to this tradition. Pocock starts out by demonstrating that the Christian-Medieval tradition of western Europe was not equipped with the conceptual apparatus to develop a theory of republican governance. Intellectuals in Renaissance Florence then had to look back to the Classical writings of Aristotle, the historian Polybius, and other classical writers, to develop a system of thought that could justify and guide the life of city-states in Italy. An underlying theme that Pocock stresses throughout the book is the struggle of intellectuals trying to develop systems of government that would produce fulfillment and stability but constantly confronted with the insecurity and unstable nature of the real world. Another recurrent theme is the pressure to articulate republican theory constantly being confronted with new circumstances. The development of republican theory, particularly by the brilliant Machiavelli and Guicciardini, being prompted by the specific historical circumstances faced by the Florentine state. Machiavelli is really the pivotal figure, developing political theory unmoored from the divine. After tracing the development of Florentine theory, Pocock moves onto the development of republican theory in the very different circumstances of 17th century Britain. Here, theory had to accomodate not the problems of a city-state but an entire nation and changed significantly under the stimulus of the English Civil War. Pocock presents James Harrington as the key modifier and transmitter of the Machiavellian tradition and who in particular emphasized the role of property as the basis for republican stability. Pocock then moves on to the challenges of the 18th century with the confrontation of republican theory with an emerging commercial and imperial society. The final chapter deals with what happened when the American revolutionaries attempted to construct to a new society based on classical republican ideas. The failure of these ideas prompted the development of a new version of republican theory. Pocock's close analysis of individual thinkers is sometimes tough reading but ultimately rewarding. The analyses of individual thinkers are punctuated by general analyses that are invariably insightful and sometimes brilliant. Among other things, this is a basic book for understanding the intellectual background of the American Revolution and many important topics in modern history.
Birth and growth of the modern republic-- in a nutshell.......2005-02-21
This is the best book that I have found to date that traces the development of the theory of the modern "res public" from Machiavelli and the Florentine city-state, to the Glorious revolution in 17th century England, to the foundation of the American republic.
The Machiavellian moment comes when the founders of a state realize that "virtue" can be dependent upon "contingency" at some point in the life of every government, and that the res public is the best method known to humans to manage both to the benefit of the citizens/body politic; "virtue" refers to the energy that the humanist writers of the period demanded of any honest citizen, in the vita activa; contingency is the weakness that enters into any human-created activity, given the incomplete nature of our knowledge.
This book is clearly written, and not difficult to digest if you come to it with some preliminary understanding, say, from quentin skinner's foundations of modern political thought.
I am finishing richard tuck's philosophy and government 1572-1651 which purports to analyze the development of the period's political thought up to Hobbes' publication of Leviathan in 1651, but it just isn't as rich or satisfying a work as this.
If you want to know why Machiavelli is so important, and understand his influence on the two greatest exemplars of republican thought since his time, this is without a doubt the book to read.
Machiavelli?.......2002-09-22
This book is a masterful testament to man's ability to become immersed in the importance of the force of history. After reading Pocock, there is no way to deny that this same historical force eclipses everyone in its path. It will be years before speaking or writing about Machiavelli apart from his historical moment will be possible. Any student of Machiavelli should avoid Mr. Pocock's book for this very reason.
Brilliant but Nebulous.......2000-12-29
This book has become a classic of historiography of political thought. However, getting through this enormous work and following the argument from 15th century Italy to 18th century America makes for very difficult reading. It is also quite hard to sum up exactly what is the characteristic of republican thought that he is studying (much of this criticism was made by historian Jack Hexter in a review).
Well worth the time invested in reading!.......2000-01-18
Pocock has written a profoundly exhaustive study of Florentine republican theory in the time of Machiavelli, the Republic, and the Medici restoration. He painstakingly makes his argument that the roots of Machiavelli's thought are to be found more in the metaphysical world view of Thomism than in the teleological taxonomy of Aristotle. He goes on to argue that the aim of Machiavelli, and contemporaries such as Guicciardini, is the attainment of stability in secular time through the proper extension of civic rights. He then goes on to claim that this aim is followed by the architects of Eighteenth Century Anglo-American republicanism. This strong intepretation of Anglo-American republicanism may understate the impact of, for example, the Miltonian view of individual capacity for moral and political reasoning. However, it certainly is expounded well enough here to hold its own in any debate. In passing, Pocock makes liberal use of untranslated Italian text. While this is useful to the Renaissance specialist, it would be helpful had he included translations for those of us who bring no Italian to the table.
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