Book Description
A series of essays about the social, political, and intellectual dimensions of the Revolutionary War
Customer Reviews:
A good read for the dedicated military historian.......2001-03-02
This book is not meant for the casual reader. However, if you are a serious history buff and don't mind engaging a book intellectually this is a good book to spend some time with. I had the pleasure of having John Shy as a professor at the University of Michigan. I have nothing but positive feedback on his scholarly work. The somewhat narrow scope of the book's topic and the assumed background knowledge might deter a casual reader. History buff who wants to dig deeper into Revolutionary War issues? Then this book is a good one to pick up!
Interesting Read...must have for any Military History buffs.......2000-11-13
This was a nice collection of intelligent and well written essays on the American Revolution. I chose this book based on a recommendation from my history teacher. It was a requirement to write a book review on it.
This book contains a great amount of information on the American Revolution. The author seems to have done much pain-staking research to bring details to life. Unlike a traditional history book, this book focuses on specific aspects of the Revolution. It brings to light much of went on militaristically and socially on both sides of the ocean during that time. If you have ever wanted to know more about the American Revolution then what you learn in College or High School US History, this book is a must have. It is written on an academic level and requires a high degree of English comprehension.
Overall an enjoyable experience.
Book Description
In Cuba something curious has happened over the past fifteen years. The government has allowed vocal criticism of its policies to be expressed within the arts. Filmmakers, rappers, and visual and performance artists have addressed sensitive issues including bureaucracy, racial and gender discrimination, emigration, and alienation. How can this vibrant body of work be reconciled with the standard representations of a repressive, authoritarian cultural apparatus? In Cuba Represent! Sujatha Fernandesâa scholar and musician who has performed in Cubaâanswers that question.
Combining textual analyses of films, rap songs, and visual artworks; ethnographic material collected in Cuba; and insights into the nation’s history and political economy, Fernandes details the new forms of engagement with official institutions that have opened up as a result of changing relationships between state and society in the post-Soviet period. She demonstrates that in a moment of extreme hardship and uncertainty, the Cuban state has moved to a more permeable model of power. Artists and other members of the public are collaborating with government actors to partially incorporate critical cultural expressions into official discourse. The Cuban leadership has come to recognize the benefits of supporting artists: rappers offer a link to increasingly frustrated black youth in Cuba; visual artists are an important source of international prestige and hard currency; and films help unify Cubans through community discourse about the nation. Cuba Represent! reveals that part of the socialist government’s resilience stems from its ability to absorb oppositional ideas and values.
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- A feminist position on history's treatment of womenartist
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Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Laughter (Re Visions : Critical Studies in the History and Theory of Art)
Jo Anna Isaak
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Power of Feminist Art
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Women, Art, and Society (World of Art)
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Art and Feminism (Themes & Movements)
ASIN: 0415080150 |
Book Description
Feminism and Contemporary Art discusses the work of individual women artists within the context of the wider social, physical and political world. Jo Anna Isaak looks at the work of a diverse range of artists from the United States, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and Canada. She discusses the work of such women as Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Spero, Elaine Reichek, Jeanne Silverthorne, Mary Kelly, Lorna Simpson and the Guerrilla Girls, and examines a range of work by twentieth-century Soviet women artists. Isaak argues that contemporary art under the influence of feminism provides the momentum for a comic critique of key assumptions about art, art history, and the role of the artist.
Download Description
Looks at the work of a diverse range of artists and explores the effect of feminist theory on art practice. The book provides a provocative and valuable account of the diversity and revolutionary potential of women's art practice.
Customer Reviews:
A feminist position on history's treatment of womenartist.......1998-12-29
This book is an interesting collection of power- ful essay's on the Postmodernist condition and how that has shaped the role of women artists to- day. Whether these strategies are being employed fashionably or in thoughtful disregard to presumed male prejudice is well argued and perceptive.
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The Fourth of July Encyclopedia
James R. Heintze
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
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The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2007 (World Almanac and Book of Facts)
ASIN: 0786427779
Release Date: 2007-01-09 |
Product Description
This is the first comprehensive reference work on America's Independence Day. Bringing attention to persons, places, and events of historical significance, the book focuses on the Fourth of July as it has been commemorated over the span of more than two centuries, starting with the first celebrations: public readings of the Declaration of Independence that occurred within days of its signing. Biographical sketches feature presidents (and how each celebrated the Fourth) and other politicians, famous soldiers, educators, engineers, scientists, athletes, musicians, and literary figures. Other topics include parks, monuments and statues dedicated on the Fourth; famous speeches and the personalities behind their stories; and general subjects of interest including education, abolition, temperance, African Americans, Native Americans, wars, transportation and holiday catastrophes.
Book Description
An iconic photo of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara was taken in 1960 that is now thought to be the most reproduced image in the history of photography. What comes to mind when you see this picture? Most likely words like “revolution” and “hero”; or ideas like anti-establishment and freedom. But would you think about vodka?
Che Guevara is a revealing look at the incredibly varied ways the photo and Che himself have been appropriated. From Che Gay T-shirts to psychedelic posters, tattoos to Warholesque fine art, ads for booze to photographs by Annie Liebowitz, this ever-present image has taken Che from heroic guerilla through Pop celebrity to a symbol of radical chic. The image has become an ideal of abstraction, and Che Guevara vividly demonstrates that the diverse ways in which it has been used can tell us quite a lot about our culture and ourselves.
Book Description
Richard Moore has distilled decades of participatory thought and dialog into a delightfully readable volume by exploring a compelling metaphor: The Matrix is our present manufactured reality, carefully managed for the benefit of elite interests and rarely questioned by those who live within its structures. Escaping the Matrix catalogs the persistent historical patterns of 'civilized' hierarchy that keep wealthy elites in control of governments and economies. But Moore does not simply tally historical injustices or enumerate the many discrepancies between Matrix and real-world realities. Instead, he challenges us all to action by courageously linking the apparently bleak situation of a dominated world directly to a hopeful vision for achieving new sustainable societies. He urges us to bridge artificially divisive ideological boundaries through a process of community-centered dialog known as harmonization. Escaping the Matrix contains worldview-altering insights and profoundly optimistic conclusions that will leave readers of every political persuasion with real hope that there are practical ways for ordinary individuals to escape The Matrix by taking personal responsibility for changing the world through local action.
Customer Reviews:
Perhaps the Most Revolutionary and Liberating Book Going Into 2008.......2007-05-13
This book has jumped to the top of the transpartisan list. Together with All Rise and several of the other books on that list, it is an actionable practical formula for restoring the Republic and then spreading participatory democracy and moral capitalism--communal localized capitalism--to the rest of the world in a non-violent information-driven manner.
The "matrix" is the virtual unreality that governments and their corporately-owned media have manufactured to distract, imprison, enslave, and manipulate the majority of the public into dropping out of politics and failing to exercise their right to think, debate, vote, and oversee their representatives. I completely agree with Ron Paul when he says we need to dismantle this insolvent corrupt mess of a government, and reconfigure ourselves back to a Republic of, by, and for We the People.
Key themes in this world interconnectedness instead of separation; community sovereignty instead of federal sovereignty, distributed economics (no absentee landlords) instead of concentrated wealth, transformation and harmonization instead of adversarial, common sense judgments instead of special interest judgments, and finally, the reconstruction of social will to completely overpower, in a non-violent manner, the class war and globalized predatory looting of the commons that the central bankers have wrought on the planet.
This non-violent social transformation, according to the author, includes local empowerment, human liberation, participatory democracy, sensible economics, and cooperation on a global scale for mutual benefit of all.
The elite is fighting back, repressing dissent, even fully-funded logical dissent. ABC is deleting Ron Paul, who is winning his debates, and this is all I need to believe that we are winning. The revolution will not be televised, as Joe Trippi's book explains to well.
This is a transpartisan author who is quite correct when he says that history shows that we have a false manufactured reality being screened everyday, which is completely different from the real world. He also understands (see my list on Natural Capitalism) that predatory imperialism has deliberately kept the Third World poor and genocidal, with the explicit intent of looting their natural resources and getting as many of them as possible to die off--eugenics.
This author provides one of the finest summaries of how predatory capitalism has disenfranchised population, suborned governments, and "exploded the client" as Michael Lewis tells us in more detail in "Liar's Poker" and more recently, John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."
He reviews the transition for competitive imperialism to collective imperialism, and has some very elegant detail on how the central banks have managed a succession of global "bait and switch," successively destroying, at great profit, the gold standard, the petrodollar standard, and now the United States of America. The banks, he tells us, are "the house" and profit regardless of the misfortunes of others, indeed, because of the manufactured misfortunes, wars, stolen aid, botched humanitarian assistance, and so on.
He has two revelations in this book that for me, at least, are explosive. First, that FDR approved eight covert actions against the Japanese with the intent of forcing them to commit the first overt act of war against the US. Second, that Viet-Nam was a known "no-win" war with a known ten-year trajectory and a known 50,000 projected dead. It was used to militarize the US on a grander scale, while enriching a handful of banks and corporations, all as the expense of the individual tax-payer.
He offers fascinating perspectives of how WWI and WWII were deliberately started (I have read other books in this vein, I believe the author's analysis to be on target), and he accuses Henry Kissinger, a known war criminal, of being the cause of the Middle East problems in his constant mis-representation and manipulation of the views of different parties for whom he was supposed to be an honest broker.
Banking, Oil, Covert Action, and Overt Intervention are the four pillars of what Derek Leebaert called "The Fifty Year Wound" and Chalmers Johnson, "Sorrows of Empire."
He tells us that in the 1970's the US elites concluded that managing consensus democracy was annoyingly complex, so they began moving toward police state capabilities with the use of big lies, among which I include 9-11, never investigated honorably. I believe that Dick Cheney, Rudy Giuliani and Larry Silverstein should be indicted, arrested, investigated, and interrogated with the same techniques they approved for use on others. Drugs and especially marijuana have been used to create a prison complex while the US Government has deliberately, as a covert action, imported drugs into the US for profit, using the drug czar to control the criminal competition. I am told that Ollie North personally supervised the loading of cocaine on to U.S. Navy vessels in Colombia, and this one of many leads I would like to see brought before a Grand Jury.
He tells us that the core elements of the elite plan are five: US-UK control of oil; neoliberal economics; WTO/IMF as economic assassins; police state powers; and the Pentagon as a big stick; on which see General Smedley Butler, "War is a Racket."
Key point by the author: culture (and social will) are the missing ingredient for activating the bottom-up Epoch B collective leadership and will of We the People.
He says that reform must be all or nothing. I agree. He says that representative democracy is an adversarial system that must be replaced by a fully participatory bottom-up collaborative system. Adversaries take their differences as a given, collaborators take them as a starting point for dialog.
He is at one with the author of "All Rise" and with Reuniting America's transpartisanship vision of dignity for all, and inclusion of all. An opinion can be debated but a person is always valid and not to be denied or excluded.
We can do this. He concludes with the best annotated bibliography I have seen, as relevant to our challenge in 2008.
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents)
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street
Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything
War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
Solutions.......2007-03-23
Everywhere we hear the gripes of society and the human condition. Many can outline the ill's of today - that's easy. It takes much more fore thought and shear bravery to actually explore and propose solutions.
Great Vision/Great Solutions.......2007-01-04
Richard Moore's succinct analysis of history lifts the veil from our eyes to clear a path for social change. Similar to David Korten's perspective expressed in "The Great Turning", but spiced up with droll, pointed humorous remarks, he challenges the reader to "escape" from a worldview designed to enslave the average person into compliance with a facade of freedom and democracy that ultimately serves only a tiny, elite "ruling class".
He then walks the reader through his solution, empowered self-goverance beginning with direct relationships, with good descriptions of proven and effective dialogue and decison processes that build social capacity at the local grassroots level, which he refers to as "harmonization".
Excellent resource information is provided for those interested in assuming personal responsibilty for creating community that truly is of the people, for the people, and by the people.
Sweet dreams..........2006-10-14
A nice light review of human history followed by the cure for modernity: love-ins followed by dispossesion of the rich and landed- which they will not mind because they will finally see the countless sufferers as "people" thanks to said love-ins... this is all nice for a society in collapse...like the workers actions in bankrupt argentina to keep business running... but here(US) we have affluence, and peoples common worry is, can I get a bigger TV, house, or [...]... so yes, when the anihilation of our way of life comes maybe there will be room for some change (;-)) But I bet on science to change our context at this point- it seems the one force that has no trouble flipping our cultures on end. I found this book really depressing in its glossing over of inevitable violence and flakiness... you think people will respond later who don't now? why? -addendum- i note people do not find these comments "useful"- i like rkm- but this book only has one great line- so sorry if you think it is the answer, but i think "Our word is our weapon" or some of m. bookshin's books like "remaking society" are more clear and well reasoned. I welcome and forment revolution daily but this book is just limp hippified red fascism that would lead to a class war to finnish us all. The truth is, as obvious as class is, it is an illusion. There is no class, just people, no people, just life. This book comes from a hopeful heart, and i agree with sixty percent of it, but it is a road to deathcamps for one side or the "other". Sorry if y'all still resent my comments, I read this book with great eagerness, but I will not deny my dissapointment just for "solidarity"....i mean, if you tried to take my land or assets i would kill... the change is not to make everyone commie poor, the goal is to make everyone rich gods with no environmental impact. like it or not you can not stop this train, you must lay new track ahead and guide the train onto it. For me this involves meditation, philosophy, and (Lord save us) nanotechnology. I hope we can all move to a higher level together, as collaborators. rkm-really work on the rewrite for the next edittion.
Finding how the pieces fit.......2006-02-18
I have a small basket of the most valuable tools and books that I refer back to and share with others who are looking to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Escaping The Matrix is my newest addition, for which I am most grateful to the author Richard Moore.
Once I read the first page and sensed the pace wasn't slowing, I drank it down in big gulps. I was delighted by the clarity and rapid fire presentation of information, and his linking of the pieces to make the point - that we live in a world quite different from the one suggested to us by the corporate dominated media machine.
I can't praise highly enough, the synthesis of knowledge about the development of our human history and what we can now reasonably assume (based on present wisdom, research, and widely accepted facts) is the real world. That our society is being manipulated and managed by a few elite rulers is a hard pill to swallow when we are deeply embedded in the Matrix view, but we are stepped through the facts until it's obviousness is undeniable. The bibliography and list of resources at the back of the book, offers a plethora of excellent material to help you if you doubt this proposition. And understanding it is a helpful pre-requisite to the second half of the book which deals with some possible responses and discusses how we might become part of the solution - now that the problem is overwhelmingly clear.
If not as thrilling and liberating as peeling away the layers of illusion about the situation we are presently in, the second part has prompted me to go and search out more information, and some of what I have found excites me. In these latter chapters, Richard describes processes and tools, and proceeds to offer ideas about how these might be engaged to transform our society, from the grass roots on up. He paints a picture of a time when large numbers of people might come to that most valued, harmonious and hopeful disposition of "we the people."
While offering a few examples to whet our appetite, perhaps the examples we so desperately need are the ones that will be demonstrated by us.
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The Revolutionary War Era (American Popular Culture Through History)
Randall Huff
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
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ASIN: 0313322627 |
Book Description
This volume in Greenwood's American Popular Culture through History series recreates the many ways in which a new American culture took root during the Revolutionary period. Tavern culture and pamphlet literature played integral parts in debates surrounding the Revolution. Newspapers spread information while printing the first advertisements. Courtship and marriage rituals varied greatly among the rich and poor, and among city and country folk. Public performance art was a hotly debated component of the increased schism between secular and religious concerns, though many Americans enjoyed recreations of recent military battles. Foodways were distinctly regional, yet food rationing was a universal hardship among army personnel. Randall Huff's narrative essays, as well as many extra front- and back-matter resources, help describe citizen's lives in the newly formed United States of America as the nation fought to win its independence. American Popular Culture through Historyis the only reference series that presents a detailed, narrative discussion of United States popular culture. This volume is one of 17 in the series, each of which presents essays on Everyday America, The World of Youth, Advertising, Architecture, Fashion, Food, Leisure Activities, Literature, Music, Performing Arts, Travel, and Visual Arts.
Book Description
This richly illustrated book provides an innovative reinterpretation of the Cultural Revolution through the medium of the poster-a major component of popular print culture in China. Using an array of full color and black-and-white reproductions, an eminent group of scholars explores the discursive power of visual artforms in Chinese public life.
Book Description
In Walking Ghosts, Steven Dudley, a journalist who lived in Columbia for five years, expertly chronicles the life and death of the Patriotic Union (UP), the party established by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest guerrilla group. Through stories of the politicians, drug kingpins, revolutionaries, and mercenaries who play key roles in Colombia's civil strife, Dudley maps out the complicated and murderous absurdity that is present-day Colombia, where daily life has devastating consequences: 30,000 murders per year, 75 political assassinations per week, 10 kidnappings a day. As the conflict gets bloodier, international pressure and influence mounts: Worried about the FARC's strength and its role in the drug trade, the United States has sent close to three billion dollars in aid to help the Colombian government fight the FARC.
Steven Dudley seeks to make sense of this complicated conflict by focusing on the stories of key actors in the struggle, from the earliest days to the present. He has seen the civil war up close: dead bodies; paramilitaries; guerrillas; victims; and survivors. He has witnessed political parties grappling for power by any means necessary, and he's spoken to all sides and asked the difficult questions. Fast-paced and informative, with a new afterword by the author, Walking Ghosts presents a window into a conflict likely to shape the politics of this hemisphere for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Informative, detail oriented accounts.......2004-06-23
I am on my second reading of the book, and unless you read each page three times, you will need a second reading of the book. There are a tremendous number of characters to keep track of. To his credit, Dudley does reintroduce characters in later chapters as if you've never read about them.
It's obvious this book is a rewrite of a masters thesis, but I'm not sure what Dudley was rewriting it into. It feels as if it was supposed to be (and to some extent is) a story of the authors experiences in Colombia and what he was able to reveal about the Colombian political culture. However the chapters seem to be chunks of a thesis with a new title put on and rearranged text to better fit the title. For example, the "Black Vladimir" chapter contains a great deal of information on the character, however so does the rest of the book.
Having said that, it is a great overview of the tumultuous 80's in Colombia through detailed accounts. This info is essential to understand current politics in Colombia. Also included is a cursory overview of the pre-1980 colombian political situation as well as the 90's. There is an attempt to cover politics outside of the UP, but it struck me as shallow. The 90's, for example, are glossed over for the most part. I also wish there was more information about the more current situation.
A Good Account, But . . ........2004-06-01
Overall, author Dudley has done right in laying open the running sores of the Colombian civil war to public view, a generally engrossing - and gross - account of chicanery, cynicism, and atrocity.
That said, I could not give it more than three stars because of its flawed insistence - in my opinion - of blaming the left for its own destruction in Colombia. At one point he writes of the "startling number of dead" the UP "put in the morgue." Yet the Union Patriotica did not torture, kill, or "disappear" these people, nor force the death squads to do so, and therein lays the book's flawed premise.
By his own admission, Colombia has engaged in political violence against dissidents for decades, and its 1980s death squads were willing to kill virtually anyone they disliked. The UP, then, did not have to be cynically betrayed or manipulated by the FARC to earn this lethal attention - it would have come anyway, regardless of any guerrilla politics behind the scenes. The paramilitaries were out to destroy the left, and the center; the guerrilla politics upon which Dudley lavishes so much scrutiny were a secondary factor at best, and in no way confirm the Colombian military's "analysis" or strategy.
A must read for anyone with interest in Latin America.......2004-05-08
This book is excellent, and that's coming from a jaded college student at the end of the semester. It is extremely readable, especially given that it is historical non-fiction, and very informative. It tells the story of the Unión Patriótica, a political party founded by the FARC, a Colombian guerrilla front, by telling specific people's stories to get that aspect of the controversy. For the most part the story is told chronologically, but by changing the point of view about every chapter, Dudley keeps the reader interested. His prose is light enough to be readable without losing information, and by tying in interviews, research, and stories, he justifies his leftist tone and fills many gaps in official dialogues.
Violencia y fatalismo en Colombia.......2004-03-03
Excellent! This is hardearned and very readable reportage and history. Mr.Dudley is to be commended for physically braving the treacherous terrain of Colombian politics and the guerrilla conflict there. If life is as expendable in Colombia as it appears to be, the author must have had more than a few frightening experiences. The Colombian propensity for violence is exceeded only by the fatalism necessary to endure it and, perhaps, he made use of its dubious benefits.'Walking Ghosts' is very informative: it gives an objective history of the 'elimination' of the 'Union Patriotica' reform party by government supported paramilitary death squads as well as providing a knowledgeable background and perspective on the corrupt enterprises that are the present FARC, AUC, and Colombian government and military. Mr. Dudley weaves personal histories into larger themes, in particular following some doomed and shortlived careers of UP members while not neglecting some of the tough customers of their deadly opposition. The UP was unfortunately caught in the maw of Colombia's ongoing 'violencia' as the cocaine trade expanded and forced its dynamic on Colombian politics. The FARC is portrayed as less than honorable and only marginally less married to 'violencia' in the scheme of things. One is left with few illusions and, sadly, little hope for the future of Colombia; reconciliation and forgiveness would seem hard to come by after such viciousness. Perhaps the 'fatalismo' of the Colombians could serve them in eventually effecting a peace. Again, a very well written and engaging history of a misunderstood conflict that could well involve the US military (you! your son or daughter!) in the years ahead.
A stunning journalistic account of political genocide.......2004-01-16
"Walking Ghosts: Murder and Guerrilla Politics in Colombia," by Steven Dudley is a stunning journalistic account of political genocide. To this end, the author has very likely crossed a dangerous line in Colombia's Civil War and has exposed himself to enormous danger. Because by bravely documenting the links between Colombia's ruthless narco-paramilitary death squads, the Colombian armed forces, the Colombian National Police, powerful landowners and corrupt members of the two-party political establishment...he has made many bitter enemies.
This book is about the tragic rise and fall of a Colombian political party called the Patriotic Union(UP). Dudley painstakingly interviews the key political actors in the Colombian Communist Party and senior members of the FARC guerrilla organization who were responsible for the establishment of the UP. At the beginning there was much hope that the UP party could break the rigid chains of Colombia's two party system and foster a reform minded peace. However, Dudley's impeccable research demonstrates how powerful members of Colombian society were not prepared to accept a political party (that was officially sanctioned by the government) because it was sponsored by the Communist Party and a revolutionary guerrilla army (FARC).
Consequently, a sinister dirty war was conducted. The government intentionally fell silent while the Army and well-financed paramilitary death squads exterminated the UP. The body count was horrific. A total of 111 members of the UP were murdered in 1987; 276 were assasinated in 1988; and 138 were butchered in 1989. Within ten years thousands were slaughtered. The dead included UP presidential candidates, Senators, Mayors and members of Congress. Half-way through this book one will certainly question the wisdom of the Colombian government. Because by allowing the murderers to go free (97% of crimes in Colombia go unpunished)...many segments of Colombian society lost faith in the State.
This book is well written. It is hard to put down. But please be warned...the violence is brutal. Dudley objectively portrays the terrifying bloodshed inside the borders of Colombia and it is very ugly. He also diligently documents how paramilitaries brag of military and political support. Moreover, the author honestly hints how the United States $1.3 billion Plan Colombia funds may be helping paramilitary death squads led by Carlos Castano.
This is a groundbreaking book. Dudley is a former human rights worker and polished journalist who takes the moral high road to expose Colombia's dark secrets. The author sadly admits that there is not enough room in one book for all of Colombia's victims of paramilitary violence. Overall, the reader will conclude that Dudley is a dedicated journalist. He openly dares to question how the current Colombian government is audaciously trying to forgive the murderous paramilitaries (grant amnesty) and allow them to keep their drug trafficking fortunes. Without a doubt, Colombia needs a human rights truth commission like that of Peru and Guatemala to end its culture of denial and sanitize its armed forces. However, after finishing this book one will conclude that the political elites in Colombia will never allow this to happen. Highly...highly recommended.
Bert Ruiz
Book Description
The power is in the mic, and the power has been unleashed in clubs, arenas, stadiums, stages, and parks all over the planet. MC's are able to connect with its audience in a way that the music alone cannot. Hip Hop, via the MC, has undoubtedly become the voice of a new generation. Much attention has been paid to the staggering impact hip hop music and culture has had on the greater American and world cultures; its influence on fashion, television, advertising, and the attitudes of the world's youth. However, not nearly as much attention has been paid to the social and political impact that the art form and its artists have had. Lyrics of a Rap Revolutionary is designed to transcend rap and venture into the realm of offering commentary and analysis into some of the deeper aspects of life itself. As one of rap's preeminent political and social groups of all time, front man Chuck D offers direct explanations and interpretations of what his lyrics are about as a tool to help set minds free in this "hustle and flow and get rich or die tryin' times'." Chuck delves into the inspiration and writing of such rap classics as "Fight the Power," "Don't Believe The Hype," "Can't Truss It," and "Welcome to the Terrordome." As Chuck D explains, "We must remain mindful that there's a road to freedom, and resist the embarrassingly popular trend that ignorance and a ghetto mentality, which is cast upon us, is our only food for thought or food for non-thought. As MC's we must become more responsible and revolutionary in our approach, because we have young people around the globe listening to our every word and watching our every step."
Admirers proclaimed him the Bob Dylan or Bob Marley of rap. -- Los Angeles Times
One of the most politically and socially conscious artists of any generation? -- Spike Lee
Chuck D is the greatest voice in Hip Hop history as far as social commentary and rhymes for the upliftment of Black people. Chuck D is in a league of his own. -- Kool Moe Dee
Customer Reviews:
The Rebel.......2007-05-24
Chuck D is the man. His words rain down on us wetting us with knowledge & information and at the same time making us a proud people. A must for the true PUBLIC ENEMY fan.
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Books Index
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