Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison?
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • (RAW Rating: 4.5) - What is happening to black men?
  • Why Are So Many Black Men In Prison? A Comprehensive Account Of How And Why The Prison Industry Has Become A Predatory Entity In
  • A Must Read
  • Why are so many Black Men in Prison?
  • Why are so many blacks in prison?
Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison?
Demico Boothe
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

PenologyPenology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
War on DrugsWar on Drugs | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
  1. Kill Them Before They Grow: The Misdiagnosis of African American Boys in America's Classrooms Kill Them Before They Grow: The Misdiagnosis of African American Boys in America's Classrooms
  2. The State of Black America 2007: Portrait of the Black Male The State of Black America 2007: Portrait of the Black Male
  3. Visions for Black Men Visions for Black Men
  4. Motivating and Preparing Black Youth for Success Motivating and Preparing Black Youth for Success
  5. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture

ASIN: 1425713971

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars (RAW Rating: 4.5) - What is happening to black men?.......2007-08-04

Demico Boothe has explored the reasons so many black men are indeed in prison in, WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK MEN IN PRISON? He begins with his own story of a shaky upbringing and his subsequent dabbling in drug dealing. He was caught with a few grams of crack cocaine but because it was the dreaded crack, he was given 10 years in prison. When he left prison after serving his time, he was actually railroaded back into prison by a crooked justice system. He delves deeply into our justice system and the motives behind all the new prisons that are being built. He gives succinct and reasonable views of exactly what is happening now in the United States and how the past has played a role in the present. He uses persuasive statistics regarding the number of black men in prison as compared to the number of white men who are incarcerated.

Demico Boothe has done an excellent job of researching his subject and it is a plus, if unfortunate for him, that he has actually experienced first hand what he's talking about. I knew I was hearing the real story rather than just statistics from an intellectual who had no real idea of what the prison system is really like. I would have liked for Boothe to search a little deeper into the Haiti, Aristide and USA question, maybe even reading Randall Robinson's take on the situation, and then he might see it a bit differently. Otherwise, it is a good book and one every one in America should read. We indeed, have a crisis going on.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

5 out of 5 stars Why Are So Many Black Men In Prison? A Comprehensive Account Of How And Why The Prison Industry Has Become A Predatory Entity In.......2007-06-09

The book was very interesting. I learned soooo much about the government and the prison industry. I did some searching independantly to check on the things reported in the book and they are very true. Great Read!! Buy the book.

4 out of 5 stars A Must Read.......2007-05-25

Mr. Demico's book is a must-read for anyone concerned about young African American men. Although I did not agree with every conclusion he reached, Demico's main premises are convincing. As a white woman who teaches mainly students of color, I am always impressed, and often in awe, of those young men who reach college with so much going against them. Demico's books lays bare not only the horrible inequalities of our society, but also the racist attitudes of our political system - - Democrats, Republicans, and most everyone in between.

5 out of 5 stars Why are so many Black Men in Prison?.......2007-05-13

I is a well put together book. He really goes into a lot of detail of how our society is really set up.

3 out of 5 stars Why are so many blacks in prison?.......2007-05-12

I found this book very interesting. As a white devil myself, I had no idea that I was responsible for forcing blacks into committing crimes and then subsequently clogging up the whole "Prison Industrial Complex"(tm). I will try to stop causing this, as I am sure it is creating a LOT of trouble for everyone! Sorry!

It is probably also my fault that young black men dressed in XXXXL clothes overtly threaten me and my family members routinely. Can anyone tell me what I should do to make this not happen?

I imagine it's also my fault that black on white violent crime is WAY higher than white on black violent crime, even though blacks constitute about 12.5% of the population, and whites are about 70%. But since it is impossible for a black to commit a hate crime according to our criminal justice system (since blacks are not under any circumstances racist), statistically, there are more white on black hate crimes. Boothe notes a statistic regarding hate crimes, but he skips the one about interracial violence in general.

In sum, Boothe notes that just about everything blacks do is actually MY fault, because my skin is white. Boothe, I've got a word for you.

Introspection.
Music, Power, and Politics
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Music, Power, and Politics
    Annie Randall
    Manufacturer: Routledge
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    GeneralGeneral | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    History & CriticismHistory & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    PopularPopular | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Music | Pop Culture | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    Look Inside Entertainment BooksLook Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
    All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    ASIN: 0415943647

    Book Description

    Music, Power, and Politics presents thirteen different cultural perspectives on a single theme: the concept of music as a site of socio-political struggle. Essays by scholars from seven countries (England, People's Republic of China, Germany, South Africa, USA, the former Yugoslavia, and Iran) explore the means by which music's long-acknowledged potential to persuade, seduce, indoctrinate, rouse, incite, or even silence listeners has been used to advance agendas of power and protest. The cultural and historical scope of the collection is intentionally broad and includes essays that examine: music used to convey political ideology in Nazi Germany, apartheid-era South Africa, Mao's China, and modern day North Korea; propagandistic popular song in civil war-era USA; hegemonic processes in the folklorization of indigenous dance in Mexico; postcolonial musical efforts to reclaim ethnic heritage in Serbia, Bolivia, and Barbados; punk music as a means of establishing new cultural identities for women in the UK; the subversion of racial stereotypes through Trinidadian music in the USA; music as a tool of popular resistance in modern day Iran; governmental control of music recording and broadcast in pre-unification East Germany; and strategies of surveillance and power relations within audio technologies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Scholars and students of music, politics, and cultural history will enjoy this groundbreaking collection.

    Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Not quite a work of genius, but a good discussion!
    Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics
    Michael J. Perry
    Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    GeneralGeneral | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    RockRock | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    Ethics & MoralityEthics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    History & TheoryHistory & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    DemocracyDemocracy | Political Doctrines | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    LiberalismLiberalism | Political Doctrines | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
    Church & StateChurch & State | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
    Look Inside Entertainment BooksLook Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
    Similar Items:
    1. Sick To Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore!: Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life (California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public, 10) Sick To Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore!: Reforming Health Care for the Last Years of Life (California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public, 10)
    2. What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress
    3. After Harm: Medical Error and the Ethics of Forgiveness After Harm: Medical Error and the Ethics of Forgiveness
    4. Life's Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom Life's Dominion: An Argument About Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom
    5. Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (FRANK COVEY LOYOLA L) Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (FRANK COVEY LOYOLA L)

    ASIN: 0195083555

    Book Description

    In this sequel to his Morality, Politics, and Law, Michael Perry addresses the proper relation of moral convictions to the politics of a morally pluralistic society. While his analysis focuses on religious morality, Perry's argument applies to morality generally. Contending that no justification of a contested political choice can be neutral among competing conceptions of human good, the author develops an ideal of "ecumenical politics" in which moral convictions about human good can be brought to bear in a productive way in political argument.

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars Not quite a work of genius, but a good discussion!.......2003-08-08

    I read this book and am writing this review after the famous/infamous supreme court ruling of Lawrence v. Texas, the one that repeals the Texas gay sodomy law. Needless to say, there is much discussion for and against this decision. Many objectors are using religious arguents. Should they or should they not be allowed? Even as an atheist, I'm becoming dissatisfied with the manner that religious arguments are being excluded from the 'table of ideas' just for mentioning the 'g-word'.

    Perry is a law professor at Emory (he was at Northwestern when this book came out). "Love and Power" is a sequel to his book "Morality, Politics, and Law" [see my review] and extends its arguments about the impossibility of a truly neutral politics. Liberalism (that is, in a Lockean sense)is fond of discussing 'neutrality' which has given them a rationale to oust 'g-word' arguments from the table. Perry's first job is to show that neutrality theorists like Bruce Ackerman and John Rawls are advocating a pipe dream. Quick example: On abortion, neturality theorists think that non-legislation, since its non-legislation - is a neutral stance. They also feel that arguments for regulation, when based on religous arguments, are not neutral. Therefore, only secular (supposedly neutral) arguments can be heard. One easily sees why this view is anything but neutral.

    After Perry gets done there, he outlays his urging of 'ecunemical' politics that strives - not to remain impossibly neutral - but to devise arguments that are as acceptable to as many people as possible. These arguments, of course, may well be religious in nature and, yes, some people (hard atheists) might get hosed. Perry's point, though, is in order for anyone to take a stance on anything, it is necessary that she argues a point and that point will not be agreed upon by all (after all, why would there be a discussion if everyone agreed?). Perry argues, though, that 'secular' intellectualism has tended to over-exagerate any excluding effect that religious moral argument has. After all, most religions (and secular philosophies) share many of the same tenets, like resepct for life. Can the exlusion factor really be that high?

    Overall Perry has written another great (but brief, at 137 pages less endnotes) book. The reader should read "Morality, Politics, and Law" first as many of the ideas in this book are first explored (and more thoroughly) in that book - that one being more of an 'all around' book instead of having a more religious focus. The only problem is that I didn't come away thinking that Perry dealt with criticisms as much as he could. His view, after all, - that we should engage in pluralistic and sympathetic debate - can approach a 'head in the clouds' feel. For my money, I find Perry's uncompromising pluralism to be a welcome change in law. Still, more rigor would've been nice.
    Rara!: Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Facinating book
    • Great writing, really terrific research
    Rara!: Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora
    Elizabeth McAlister
    Manufacturer: University of California Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    EthnomusicologyEthnomusicology | Ethnic & International | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    Folk & TraditionalFolk & Traditional | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    HaitiHaiti | Caribbean & West Indies | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    CulturalCultural | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
    Look Inside Entertainment BooksLook Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
    All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    EntertainmentEntertainment | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    NonfictionNonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    Religion & SpiritualityReligion & Spirituality | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    Similar Items:
    1. The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing of Rural Barbados The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing of Rural Barbados
    2. A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny
    3. Black Skins, French Voices: Caribbean Ethnicity and Activism in Urban France (Westview Case Studies in Anthropology) Black Skins, French Voices: Caribbean Ethnicity and Activism in Urban France (Westview Case Studies in Anthropology)
    4. Creole Economics: Caribbean Cunning under the French Flag Creole Economics: Caribbean Cunning under the French Flag
    5. The Convict and the Colonel: A Story of Colonialism and Resistance in the Caribbean The Convict and the Colonel: A Story of Colonialism and Resistance in the Caribbean

    ASIN: 0520228227

    Book Description

    Rara is a vibrant annual street festival in Haiti, when followers of the Afro-Creole religion called Vodou march loudly into public space to take an active role in politics. Working deftly with highly original ethnographic material, Elizabeth McAlister shows how Rara bands harness the power of Vodou spirits and the recently dead to broadcast coded points of view with historical, gendered, and transnational dimensions.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Facinating book.......2007-04-09

    This book was written by someone who obviously lives within the Haitian culture. There are so many gems of information, and so much understanding and love of the people and culture of this mysterious land. By the time I had finished reading it, barriers had been removed. I felt as though I had spent time there, had experienced the Rara bands and danced elbow to elbow with them.
    The subject matter is enticing, and the writing is enjoyable. I read this several years ago, and intend to reread it often, to increase my understanding of Haitian culture. Heck, I just want to dance with them again!

    5 out of 5 stars Great writing, really terrific research.......2003-03-05

    I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone interested in world music, Afro-Caribbean religion and Haitian culture. Very few academically researched books convey this level of top quality, engaging writing. I couldn't put it down! Rara is a unique, fascinating musical form indigenous to the Caribbean and affiliated with the Haitian peasantry and vodou. It's hard to explain -- a multi-layered, polyphonic music akin to the minimalism of Steve Reich, but much cooler. If you're lucky enough to live in New York or Miami, you can see rara every weekend during the summer in your own city! This book explains the history, culture and significance of the music. And it also includes a CD so you can hear the music for yourself. Highly recommended!
    Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Well written but biased
    • Master
    • Italy is very close to home
    • The Tale is Told of You
    Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony
    Paul Ginsborg
    Manufacturer: Verso
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback
    Similar Items:
    1. The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi
    2. Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State
    3. A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988 A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988
    4. House at the Bridge House at the Bridge
    5. Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic

    ASIN: 1844675416

    Book Description

    Silvio Berlusconi, a self-made man with a taste for luxurious living, owner of a huge television empire and the politician who likened a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp guard—small wonder that much of democratic Europe and America has responded with considerable dismay and disdain to his governance of Italy.

    Paul Ginsborg, contemporary Italy's foremost historian, combines historical narrative—Berlusconi's childhood in the dynamic and paternalist Milanese bourgeoisie, his strict religious schooling, a working life which has encompassed crooning, large construction projects and the creation of a commercial television empire—with careful analysis of Berlusconi's political development.

    While highlighting the particular italianità of Berlusconi's trajectory, Ginsborg also finds international tendencies, such as the distorted relationship between the media system and politics. Throughout, Ginsborg suggests that Berlusconi has gotten as far as he has thanks to the wide-open space left by the strategic weaknesses of modern left-wing politics.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Well written but biased.......2007-05-01

    This book is well written and really tells the story of berlusconis rise, but it is biased against Berlusconi who what ever the critics say is a Great Man who has accomlished alot and not some idiot bureaucrat that usually runs countries these days.

    5 out of 5 stars Master.......2006-03-09

    Ginsborg is truly a master of italian history, society, and politics. I am not at all surprised with the overwhelming expertise displayed is this book, seeing as all Ginsborg's works display the extent of his knowledge and literary skill. A great "riassunto" of Berlusconi from youth to today, and fairly non-partisan.

    5 out of 5 stars Italy is very close to home.......2005-11-19

    The author of this book knows how to dramatizize politics. "...something important is happening in Italy, potentially quite sinister, and the seeming normality of life serves to mask it very well." If only it were just a fiction. "Silvio Berlsconi" is a great book on the current state of democracy in Italy, the kind of "modern democracy" heralded by Berlusconi's media empire. If the dictators of the early 20th century have been characterizes as "charismatic leaders" pied pipering away their cults of personality, then today's dictator can be thought of as the sort of highly tailored, well edited "iconic leader," the guy who just LOOKS RIGHT for the job. (Paul Ginsbourg includes a hilarious anecdote in the post-script about Berlusconi who, at a recent press conference, showed up with a face lift he had gotten over Christmas and then proceeds to make the most unfortunate analogy: "The communists...tried to have a face lift in order to hide their real identity, but theirs failed.")
    As relentlessly critical as Ginsbourg is to Berlusconi, it is hard to ignore the facts of his presidency, both rise to and the policies to follow. It is also hard to ignore the remarkable similarity between the current state of Italian politics and those of the U.S. As Ginsbourg writes, "All this will have a familiar ring in Anglo-Saxon ears."
    Democracy is becoming increasingly about television and leadership about being televised. What happens to "freedom" in a community connected only by cable? Ginsbourg makes a couple claims of his own, but the exciting aspect of the book is the fact that it raises such questions at all.

    4 out of 5 stars The Tale is Told of You.......2004-09-14

    Italian politics since 1945 has often seemed too unstable and esoteric for most Americans. Paul Ginsborg's short polemic about Silvio Berlusconi shows why people should pay attention. The Berlusconi phenomenon is an amazing, and quite appalling, one. From 1992 to 1994, it was revealed that the conservative Christian Democratic party, which had held uninterrupted power since the war, was deeply, deeply corrupt. So corrupt in fact, that the revelation caused its disintergration. But instead of the Right losing the next elections, a wealthy businessman came along and simply bought a new political party. Silvio Berlusconi's "Forza Italia" was not a party devoted to political debate and discussion. It was staffed by his cronies and devoted to his political cult. With it he won the elections of 1994, even though he was himself deeply compromised by the old regime. Serious allegations of corruption soon led to his loss of power and his electoral defeated in 1996. But he returned to power in 2001. Now in point of fact, the charges against him are more than just "allegations", as that infamous left-wing rag, The Economist, has pointed out. Berlusconi has perjured himself about his membership in a conspiratorial, anti-democratic, quasi-fascist masonic lodge. (He benefited from an amnesty). In the seventies his keeper of one his (one-horse) stables was a notorious mafioso. His personal lawyer, Cesare Preveti, has been convicted of 11 year and 5 year sentences for corrupting judges, though he remains free on appeal. Berlusconi delays his trials to run up against the limitations laws. He amends the limitations laws to render himself immune. He changes the rules of evidence so that trials will be further delayed. And when all that fails, he passes laws giving himself immunity, while seeking to undermine the independence of the magistrates.

    This is bad. And it gets worse. For as Ginsborg notes Berlusconi is still backed by more than 40% of Italians. His defeat in 2006 is by no means a sure thing. Indeed he plans to become a powerful President of the Republic. This despite his judical troubles, an anaemic economy, and support for a massively unpopular war. This despite his failure to simplify administrative procedures, or start promised infrastructure projects, though he has reduced the penalties for accounting fraud. Ginsborg himself is one of the leading historians of modern Italy, and he points out Berlusconi's origins in the Milan building trade. He points out how Berlusconi benefited from the intervention of the infamously corrupt Bettino Craxi, who in 1984 ignored the courts and constitutional mandates for a proper broadcasting law to pass a decree without which Berlusconi could not maintain his broadcasting monopoly. (He also points out how Craxi was the godfather of Berlusconi's child out of wedlock, and how Berlusconi comically elides his adultery in discussing the end of his first marriage.) Although Ginsborg tries to be fair, there is not much to be said about about Berlusconi's media: the absence of proper news coverage and documentaries, rampant bias in Berlusconi's favor, more advertisements than the rest of Europe combined, two-hour documentaries about stigmatic priests, a sexism that sometimes seems to have come out of Lolita.

    Berlusconi is not a fascist, but he is a threat to democracy. To be exact, he wishes to make democracy safe for the Right and for wealthy people like himself. One should be wary of a man who claims "Better fascism than the bureaucratic tyranny of the judiciary." The party euphemizes the fascist past, with public places and spaces named after "acceptable" fascists and with Berlusconi claiming that Mussolini didn't murder anyone. Whether it is the Bank of Italy, the civil service, public broadcasting, magistrates or the public health system, all have their independence and integrity threatened by Berlusconi. Meanwhile he deals with Murdoch and his own media empire as if conflict of interest laws don't exist, which in Italy they don't. His model polity is a world in which mass apathy is punctuated by his biased media and his political image, where people consent, but do not choose. Ginsborg points out how this project is encouraged by the weaknesses of a centre-left which, purged of its Marxist past, cannot seek to mobilize support, which seeks to compromise and which cannot inspire with its technocratic biases, and which, for one reason or another, cannot attack Berlusconi's venality. Ginsborg's book is not perfect (a law undermining magisterial independence is not made clear, while Ginsborg overestimates the influence of the late Canadian media lord Izzy Aspser). But in an era with declining voter turnout and declining independent media, where media monopoly advances with partisan and unscrupulous conservative politics, and where the left, the centre, and the right-centre are too nervous and exhausted to resist, there are good reasons to fear that Berlusconi's Italy could soon be our world.
    Development Arrested: Race, Power and the Blues in the Mississippi Delta
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • Unique, powerful story of Mississippi
    • "Blues Epistemology" is worth the book alone
    Development Arrested: Race, Power and the Blues in the Mississippi Delta
    Clyde Woods
    Manufacturer: Verso
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    Economic HistoryEconomic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
    BluesBlues | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    Folk & TraditionalFolk & Traditional | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    JazzJazz | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    RockRock | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    MississippiMississippi | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    SouthSouth | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    HistoryHistory | African Americans | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    AmericaAmerica | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    Discrimination & RacismDiscrimination & Racism | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    African-American StudiesAfrican-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    History & TheoryHistory & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    Human RightsHuman Rights | Constitutional Law | Law | Subjects | Books
    Similar Items:
    1. Between Law and Culture: Relocating Legal Studies Between Law and Culture: Relocating Legal Studies
    2. Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
    3. Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins Mysteries) Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
    4. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (American Crossroads) Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (American Crossroads)

    ASIN: 1859848117

    Book Description

    "Development Arrested" is a major reinterpretation of the two-centuries-old conflict between the African Americans and planters in the Mississippi Delta. In a definitive study of the history and social structures of the plantation system, Clyde Woods examines both planter domination of politics and economy in the region and the continuing resistance of the African American working class to the system's depredations. "Development Arrested" traces the decline and resurrection of plantation ideology in national public policy discourse from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Clinton. Woods documents the unceasing attacks on the gains of the Civil Rights Movement and how, despite having suffered countless defeats at the hands of the planet regime, African Americans in the Delta have continued to push forward their agenda for social, economic, and cultural justice. He examines the role of the Blues in sustaining their efforts, surveying a musical tradition-including Jazz, Rock and Roll, Soul and Rap-that has embraced a radical vision of social change. This is an important contribution to the current political debates involving Mississippi politics, the presidency and Congress, and to our understanding of Black, US, and Southern history.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Unique, powerful story of Mississippi.......2006-03-05

    When I moved to the Mississippi Delta, where I lived for two years, I had no understanding of the rich history that confronted me from the start. The Delta is a magical place and because of Clyde Woods, I have perspective on the beauty and horror of this region. I lived near the small town of Drew (actually I lived on the grounds of Parchman) where evidence of early bluesmen and the modern civil rights movement still abound. The infamous Dockery Plantation (once home to some of the greatest blues musicians) is nearby and people who were part of the Movement are still alive and willing to talk about their experiences. Woods obviously spent much time in the Delta to craft his timely book. It is truly the best book I've read about Mississipi Delta history and it certainly gave me a much stronger understanding of where I had come to live.

    4 out of 5 stars "Blues Epistemology" is worth the book alone.......2004-10-12

    Music is a slippery thing to define. Many associate it with a sound object of some kind, but as many have pointed out, the perceptual filters and hermeneutic webs wound into the reception of sound objects have brought many, especially in the cultural studies tradition, to conclude that no separation between the two is possible, necessary, or even desirable. The most straightforward example of this conception of music among these authors can be found within "Development Arrested." While the word "blues" is often used to describe a genre of music historically originating in African-American communities, or a label applied to the collective identity of African-Americans ("Blues People") Woods instead contends that Blues is best understood as a way of understand the collective and accumulated historical consciousness and responses to continuing economic and political exploitation. Incorporating the optimistic aesthetic arguments of Albert Murray (Stomping the Blues), Woods finds a dialectic of both critique and affirmation in the blues. In doing so, Woods wishes to bridge the gap separating the blues as an aesthetic form and the blues as a theory of socio-economic development. Primarily Woods seeks this bridge in drawing new types of boundaries around blues discourse.


    This `Blues Epistemology' (B.E.) is a lens of viewing and understanding the world that can take the form of a deliberately constructed sound object, or a book on the legacy of plantation power in the Delta. This epistemology has, according to Woods, several major distinguishing features. It is oppositional, concerned with social relations, socially realistic in its analysis, and demystifying. In addition, cultural productions of this epistemology are affirmative, and confessional, class-based, and enact/maintain an imagined community among African-Americans. In Woods' specific case, he uses B.E. to write a history of power relations in the Delta from the Plantation Revolution from inception to present-day.

    `Sound objects' are powerful product and exemplars of this epistemology, but only one of its many modes of expression. For as ephemeral and marginalized groups come into and out of daily life, their ideas, once embedded in their lives, are now embedded in their cultural production, live on. For example, Woods specifically links the Delta Blues to a working-class consciousness that seeks genuine participatory democracy. This African-American working class then becomes a major factor in the creation of African-American studies, which should be seen as reproducing this structure of understanding. Overall, what is central to understanding Woods' conception of the "Blues" is that it seeks to uncover (or recover) the organic connection between the lived experience of African-Americans and their intellectual production. At the same time, it challenges and defies a Euro-American understanding of `history' and `hermeneutic' as separate entities, and argues forcefully for `re-membering' each as part of the other.


    This then becomes the basis for re-reading the history of slavery and underdevelopment. Using Marx's critique of chattel slavery and Eric Williams "Capitalism and Slavery," Woods finds that the blues (understood widely) develop their staunch oppositionality out of the need to resist the totalizing structures of white plantation owners after slave trade ended in the early 1800's. As local economic structures during reconstruction first failed to develop along different social patterns (the gang system was still used on some sharecropping areas) than before, this contributed to the ongoing concern with social realism. African-Americans took the situation into their own hands, with strikes, rights demanded, and attempts to reintroduce the Black Codes failed. For Woods, the Delta was the post-war center of African-American political thought, it became necessary for white institutions to, ove the next 100 years, portray its Black residents as "passive, criminal, and ignorant." When of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

    Still, massive violence and its symbolic equvalents, such as the Lost Cause, were deployed to disenfranchise black Americans, such as in the election of 1875, and during the subsequent years of Mississippi as a one-party Democratic state. At the same time, the blues (the name of which Woods traces to the Southern fear of black men in Union military garb--"The Black and Blues") gains its ascension. Even through planter-dominated Roosevelt's Agricultural Adjustment Act of the 1930's and the Enclosure movement, Big Bill Broonzy, Federal eugenics and sterilization, and Gunnar Myrdal's liberal racism of the 1940's. Woods includes excellent pictures and captions linking Blues epistemology with Black survival and resistance in the South. In addition, his analysis includes the role of the Blues music and Blues ideology in the 1950's and 1960's civil rights movement, with emphasis on Junior Wells and Muddy Waters, but noting the growth of such artists as Junior Kimbrough, and R.L. Burnside. Woods finishes by focusing on other moments of resistance and autonomy in the Delta, including the Tunica incident in 1985 and the Delta Pride strike of 1990, with a scathing point by point condemnation of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission, and the work done under its then-chairman Bill Clinton.

    Woods' book is an ambitious work of regional history in American Studies--told through the interpretive framework of Blues epistemology. It is a detailed blow by blow account of the local history in terms of race and economic underdevelopment, valorizing indigenous wisdom from a left populist perspective, and making the case that racism is a *structure*--not a failure to dispel lower-class fear (as the liberals would have it) or a failure to adhere to indivdualist ethics (as conservatives would have it. Instead racism is exposed as the deep structure of a slavery that existed originally to make class (as in Eric William's "Capitalism and Slavery"), but ended up making race in the process (Berlin's "Many Thousands Gone"), and continues to this day through the systematic and planned reproduction of oppression and inequality, secured in part, "by ethnic warfare."
    Power Play
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Power Play
      Stephen Fay
      Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

      GeneralGeneral | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
      StagecraftStagecraft | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
      Arts & LiteratureArts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books | Actors & Actresses | Artists, Architects & Photographers | Authors | Composers & Musicians | Dancers | Entertainers | Movie Directors | New Age | Television Performers | Theatre
      GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
      ContemporaryContemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      ASIN: 0340666331
      Sounds of Power:Music Politics and Ideology in the Middle East North Africa and Central Asia (SOAS Musicology Series)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Sounds of Power:Music Politics and Ideology in the Middle East North Africa and Central Asia (SOAS Musicology Series)
        Laundan Nooshin
        Manufacturer: Ashgate
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover
        ASIN: 0754634574
        Spiritual Traveler: Journeys Beyond Fear
        Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
        • A Feast of Insight into Human Relatedness & Separation
        • This guy is a treasure!
        Spiritual Traveler: Journeys Beyond Fear
        Cameron Powers
        Manufacturer: GL Design
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

        PoliticalPolitical | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
        Church & StateChurch & State | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Middle East | Travel | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Travel | Subjects | Books
        ASIN: 0974588210
        Release Date: 2007-01-05

        Book Description

        Cameron and Kristina, pursuing their own brand of diplomacy as "Musical Ambassadors", were on the streets of Baghdad singing popular Iraqi music with Iraqi citizens during the spring of 2003. They have now made four trips to other Arab-world nations as well between 2002 and 2005 carrying their "Musical Missions of Peace" through Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Cameron and Kristina were invited to perform for an audience of 60,000 Egyptians in the Cairo stadium in October of 2003 to help raise money for an Egyptian Children's Cancer Hospital. Subsequently traveling through Syria, they sang on the streets and in the homes of Palestinian refugees in a large camp near Damascus. The photo on the front cover shows some of these Palestinian children who spontaneously joined in the singing. Back in America during parts of 2003, 2004 and 2005 they drove more than 40,000 miles to bring their uplifting musical and multi-media presentation, "Singing in Baghdad," to thousands of American citizens in more than half of the states in the union. Recently returned from more musical adventures in the Arab world, Cameron has written this "People's Guide to Basic Decency" to help others who desire to go through the personal process of spiritual soul growth which accompanies experiencing oneself as a truly global citizen. Promoting a natural state of compassion which can easily exist between people in the absence of fear, author and musician Cameron Powers presents a glimpse into a very modern world with extensive internet connections but which simultaneously drinks from the ancient wisdom of the Dervish-populated realms of the Middle East.

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars A Feast of Insight into Human Relatedness & Separation.......2007-06-07

        Cameron Power's "Spiritual Traveler" book is fresh, insightful, heartfelt writing at its best. It is a feast of wisdom and humanity such that one seldom comes across in literature; a true invitation to imagine, not only that our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters are "human beings too," but that perhaps we can benefit profoundly by availing ourselves of the wisdom and love that men and women in the Middle East so readily offer those who allow that they too have something amazing to share from the depths of their experience.

        "Spiritual Traveler" is a powerful antidote to the corporate media and government misportrayal of the inhabitants of ancient and profoundly relevant Middle Eastern civilizations and invites us into recognizing that other people's human experience may be as rich, as loving, as human and as generous as ours - and that we can courageously and lovingly enrich our lives with others. "Spiritual Traveler" is full of enlightening insights into how the language which we use to describe others might also be limiting our experience of our earthly sojourn.

        I recommend "Spiritual Traveler" without reservation. Read it and you too will want to open your heart to others in news ways, with new appreciation of the wonder that we are as human beings, as cultural participants, as lovers, as singers, as friends.

        4 out of 5 stars This guy is a treasure!.......2007-03-22

        This book is not a polished piece of writing, but it is a heartfelt, sympathetic, and eye-opening look into the world of Islam, from the standpoint of a traveler and entertainer. He has discovered the way into the hearts of foreignors through music, and thereby shares with us a look at Islamic culture from the inside. He points out that any of us could do what he does, simply by learning a few bars of a popular song, and then singing or playing it - it's an automatic door-opener.

        Is the Politics of Rage Played Out?(music and politics): An article from: New York Times Upfront
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Is the Politics of Rage Played Out?(music and politics): An article from: New York Times Upfront
          Ann Powers
          Manufacturer: Scholastic, Inc.
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Digital

          EntertainmentEntertainment | Subjects | Books | Humor | Movies | Music | Performing Arts | Pop Culture | Puzzles & Games | Radio | Sheet Music & Scores | Television
          EntertainmentEntertainment | HTML | Formats | e-Docs | Formats | Books
          ASIN: B0008HVYR8
          Release Date: 2005-07-28

          Book Description

          This digital document is an article from New York Times Upfront, published by Scholastic, Inc. on April 16, 2001. The length of the article is 894 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

          Citation Details
          Title: Is the Politics of Rage Played Out?(music and politics)
          Author: Ann Powers
          Publication: New York Times Upfront (Magazine/Journal)
          Date: April 16, 2001
          Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
          Volume: 133 Issue: 16 Page: 20

          Distributed by Thomson Gale

          Books:

          1. WICKED: THE GRIMMERIE, A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE HIT BROADWAY MUSICAL
          2. Yellow Eyes (Posleen War Series #8)
          3. A Modern Method for Guitar - Volume 1: Book/DVD-ROM Pack (Method (Berklee Press))
          4. A New Approach to Sight Singing, Fourth Edition
          5. Adventures in Singing
          6. All-American Car-i-oke
          7. Apple Pro Training Series: Advanced Logic Pro 7 (Apple Pro Training)
          8. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (Cambridge Language Teaching Library)
          9. Aspects of Wagner (Oxford Paperbacks)
          10. Beethoven`s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion

          Books Index

          Books Home

          Recommended Books

          1. Design for Six Sigma : A Roadmap for Product Development
          2. 1000 Glass Beads: Innovation & Imagination in Contemporary Glass Beadmaking
          3. The ICSA Meetings and Minutes Handbook
          4. The Urban Whale: North Atlantic Right Whales at the Crossroads
          5. Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grow
          6. A Boy's Own Story
          7. Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio Nine
          8. Box Lunch: The Layperson's Guide to Cunnilingus
          9. The Mathematics of Finance: Modeling and Hedging
          10. Elements of Business Communication: How To Get Along Until You Hire Specialists