Book Description

The critically praised biography of "the man who discovered poverty" and inspired a generation-now in paperback for scholars and anyone else interested in American politics, the politics of poverty, and the history of the New Left.

Most Americans first heard of Michael Harrington with the publication of The Other America, his seminal book on American poverty. Isserman expertly tracks Harrington's beginnings in the Catholic Worker movement, his abandonment of his once deeply held Catholicism, his life in 1950s Greenwich Village, and is evolution as a thinker. Along the way he dispels numerous myths, including several Harrington himself encouraged. And he explains why Harrington, who more than any other single individual seemed perfectly positioned to play the role of adult mentor to the New Left in the 1960s, instead fell into disfavor with young campus activists, and lost the opportunity of a lifetime to make his Democratic Socialist perspective a relevant force in American politics.

The Other American received rave reviews in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and more. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
This is a well-honed biography of a man and his persistence in an idea, and the trials of that venture through thick and thin, against all odds. Harrington is a unique witness to the tribulations of real social change, and the living question, what is the fate of the capitalist circumstance? A persistent critic of the Bolshevik episode, his question endures. He is suddenly revealed here both in his quiet heroism, and as slighly skewed or 'out of phase' with respect to the sudden upsurge of the sixties left, yet his endurance and vision remain at the end as a permanent challenge to a system of overwhelming force, against which easy change is forever substracted. It is this factor in the account that stands out, the studied contrast of the political background, as a prism revealing the reality of liberal politics as it is.

Thoughtful Look At Socialist Activist Michael Harrington
Anyone familiar with the tortured history of American socialism can appreciate this fine and pensive biography of one of its leading 20th century luminaries, fabled socialist and humanist author Michael Harrington. Noted historian Maurice Isserman ("America Divided"-see my review) delivers a wonderful account that passionately and comprehensively covers the long and eventful arc of Harrington's amazingly productive and prolific writing and academic careers as well as his exhaustive involvements in socialist politics and social activism. A stream of notables ranging from folksingers Peter, Paul and Mary, SDS's Tom Hayden, intellectuals like Irving Howe, and political figures like George Meany rub shoulders with Harrington, and we come to see his personal intellectual and political journey toward a better and fairer America as one with which we can each take common cause.

Educated in Massachusetts at Holy Cross, Harrington adopted the Jesuit perspective of enlightened social engagement early, and soon found himself rejecting his own comfortable middle class background to work among the urban poor. According to Isserman, it was inevitable for Harrington to act on his own antipathy to the gross materialism that surrounded him, and to extend this distaste for those living in luxury amid the squalor that surrounded them to his own philosophy and politics. Indeed, his own intellectual and philosophical journey provides the reader with a splendid portrait of the nature of American socialism in the middle of this century, and we find ourselves delving into remote nooks and crannies of the movement as Harrington makes his philosophical odyssey toward his own mature view of an open and democratically based contemporary socialism.

Along the way we learn a lot of important details about socialism as well as about how politics works in America. One at times becomes a bit winded at Harrington's sheer level of energy and capacity for work, for he sometimes seems to be everywhere doing everything at once. And it is this frenetic pace and sheer level of productive energy that one comes to admire in Harrington. In this day of self-satisfied torpor and delirium tremors from over-consumption, it is interesting to read about a man whose life was centered so energetically and so passionately around moral imperatives and ideas. Whether discussing his failure to successfully meld his old-style moral socialism with the new-left politics of young mavericks like Tom Hayden or his failure to actively engage the American Socialist Party in the debate over the war in Vietnam, Isserman brings Harrington and his times to vibrant life in these pages.

Of course, it was the publication of his overwhelmingly successful and influential book, "The Other America" that made Harrington a permanent fixture on the American scene, and everyone from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton have made reference to the importance of the book in forming their own perspectives regarding poverty in America. My recommendation is to first read "The Other America", because it is such a historical book both in terms of its content as well as in its effect on social policy for the last half of the 20th century. Then read this wonderful biography to understand the complex and troubling life of its author, one of the 20th century's most misunderstood and yet ultimately influential intellectuals. Enjoy!

An American Socialist
The Other American is required reading for any activist on the left with an interest in how the recent past affects movements of today. Maurice Isserman, one of the leading chroniclers of the recent American left, has given us not only a highly engaging portrait of the outstanding American socialist of the last half of the 20th century, but also a narrative of the left politics of the 1950s through 1960s that makes the often complicated political twists and turns of that period both comprehendible and interesting.

Isserman's thorough and well-researched portrait of Harrington's early years illustrate how his Jesuit training in high school and at college at Holy Cross informed his ideas and actions long after he rejected the Church itself. Not only did these institutions instill a "moral gravity" and lessons in commitment. "Catholic social teachings were from the beginning antipathetic to the assumptions of a capitalist world," Isserman writes. "Disciples of Thomas Aquinas knew from their master's teaching that 'it is impossible for happiness, which is the last end of man, to consist in wealth.'"

Given this background, it is not difficult to understand how this young man from a comfortable, middle-class background sought to put his ideals to practical experience by ministering to those less-fortunate souls who sought out the Catholic Worker. Among those drawn to the Worker, it was, Harrington would say, a "perfectly rational and legitimate thing to say that one's ambition in life was to become a saint" - even as he eagerly experienced the bohemian nightlife of 1950s Manhattan during his free time.

Less understandable - apparently to Isserman as well - was that when Harrington left the pious cocoon of the Catholic Worker, he jumped directly into the sectarian squabbles of socialist politics. Isserman does show that during his two years at the Worker, Harrington was becoming increasingly convinced that the human ills he saw in the Bowery could not be fully addressed though acts of charity, but required political solutions. Nevertheless, "it all seemed very unlike Michael," writes Isserman, to step directly into the faction fights of the Socialist Party, becoming co-founder of the Young Socialist League, a sectarian group with a Trotskyist twist. Isserman offers a variety of factors: the unfortunate influence of Socialist factionalist extraordinaire Max Schactman; the influence of Jesuit doctrines of discipline and commitment; his friendship with experienced faction-fighter - and later DSA co-founder - Bogdan Denitch. Whichever the case, none of the explanations is fully convincing.

It took some two decades of socialist activism to complete Harrington's evolution from sectarian infighter to proponent of an open, inclusive, non-sectarian democratic socialism. His disastrous collision with Tom Hayden and Students for a Democratic Society at Port Huron may have torpedoed hopes for an alliance between the old and new lefts in the 1960s that could have given the social energies of that decade a stronger ideological grounding. Harrington spent years apologizing for his intemperate criticisms of the Port Huron Statement and its authors and, as Isserman demonstrates, he learned painful lessons from this mistake. Harrington them mostly spun his organizational wheels for the remainder of the decade, as the Socialist Party's infighting and its failure to oppose the war in Vietnam made it largely irrelevant to most activists. In 1972 he finally broke with his old mentor Schactman - who was leading the SP hard to the right in an effort to curry favor with cold-warrior George Meany and his AFL-CIO - to lead the formation of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC).

Nevertheless, during the 1960s Harrington built his own public presence, largely of the strength of his first and most popular book, The Other America: Poverty in the United States, published in 1962. It was a case of writing the right book at the right time: Many journalists and policymakers were only then coming to realize that the postwar prosperity had not benefited everyone. Harrington, despite his experience at the Catholic Worker, had never considered himself an expert on poverty. Nevertheless, the book made Harrington "the man who discovered poverty" and brought him a measure of public fame and affluence that clashed with his self-image as a socialist warrior.

While Isserman thoroughly covers Harrington's life and politics up to the early 1970s, he gives his last two decades - including the entire history of DSOC and its successor, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), during Harrington's time - relatively short shrift. He devotes a 45-page chapter largely to the writing and influence of The Other America, while he devotes only some 60 pages to the last two decades of Harrington's life - a time in which his political ideas flowered into maturity. Even as Harrington urged the left "to put aside the quarrels of the 1960s and to unite all who could be brought together into the democratic socialist movement," Isserman seems to regard this period of Harrington's life as largely a failure. While his effort to make democratic socialism the left wing of the Democratic Party collapsed with Reagan's victory in 1980, Harrington kept DSA together and - through his own hard work, his credibility and his notoriety as "America's Socialist" - visible and active in a difficult political environment. Isserman also scarcely touches on Harrington's other books, which may be his most valuable legacy. In particular, Socialism and Socialism: Past and Future, while hardly bestsellers, are likely to inspire future generations of left thinkers and activists.

Nevertheless, The Other American rewards the reader with its insights into the man and the movement. And it ends on a note of melancholy - not only on Harrington's premature death from cancer, but also on what his demise meant to the socialist movement. Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas and Michael Harrington represented the face of socialism to many Americans. "No claimant has emerged to pick of the mantle of Debs and Thomas and Harrington," Isserman writes. Will it take another Harrington-like leader to revive American socialism?

Michael Harrington Still Matters
Mr. Isserman's biography is neither sentimental (but it is written with plenty of sentiment) nor uncritical in its appraisal of the late Michael Harrington. This book is not intended to answer the question, 'What is socialism?'; however, because of the amazing amount of details concerning the socialists (obviously, especially Harrington), their ideas, party dissolutions and rebirths, one will be quite prepared for further study of Harrington and socialism. Isserman has an uncanny ability to use narative to reflect the pace of events -- especially when desciribing how quickly the 'war on poverty' was started and lost by the duplicity of Democrats and Republicans -- he picks up the pace of his words he needs to and uses more reflective words when he needs to. If one is not interested in learning about Micahel Harrington, Isserman is a good story teller who's book can be read for the narrative alone.

A First-rate Biography
Maurice Isserman has written several books focused on the American left, principally the Communist Party. In this book, he focuses on the late Michael Harrington, "America's foremost democratic socialist." The book is highly successful in giving us a look at Harrington the man, although anyone interested in a history of the democratic socialist movement may be somewhat disappointed. Isserman fills many gaps in Harringon's two semi-autobiographical books. While not completely impartial (Isserman was a member of Harrington's Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, and clearly likes his subject), the author neither fawns nor engages in iconography. Taken together with Robert Gorman's book, and Harrington's own work, Isserman's biography is as comprehensive a picture of Harrington as I suspect we're likely to get anytime soon. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

Iain Levison can find work but not fulfillment. The frustration of dead-end, deadhead labor induces a kind of pink-slip payback syndrome as the realization sets in that his college degree will gain him little by way of psychic wages on the job. He is adrift in a workaday world where one human is as good as the next and all are expendable. Meaningless promises abound, "like when they were telling us [at commencement that] we were the future of the world, the bright shining blah blah blah."

In ten years, Iain Levison has lived in six states and worked at forty-two jobs, from fish cutter in Alaska to furniture mover in North Carolina, film-set gopher, oil deliveryman, truck driver, crab fisherman . . . He quit thirty of them, got fired from nine, and has difficulty remembering the other three. Whatever could go wrong often did, hilariously.

A Working Stiff's Manifesto makes Nickel and Dimed look like chump change. It is a funny book about the not-so-funny American workplace. The real thing, written not by a high-priced journalist disguised as a counter clerk, or a tenured professor passing as a vagrant, but by a genuine wage-dependent, red-blooded working stiff too "rich" for welfare and too broke to fit a consumer demographic. He works to keep his car running to get back and forth from work. He works to get by and get back to square one for the next day's labors.
... Read more

Reviews (15)

He hits the nail on the head
I too wondered (as another reviewer did) why Mr. Levison, during the years he was doing these make-do jobs, didn't continue to pursue work using the writing skills he obviously has. Maybe he did, and just worked "in the meantime". I also don't recall details of his financial obligations--family, housing, education loans, etc.--which is to say, his bottom-line needs. Granted--working full time does not leave a whole lot of hours free for job hunting, and the economy and employment situations in the US has been a roller coaster ride for many years.

But there is truth within his observations, and he writes it like it is. He offers a perspective on what is the working reality for many decent, hard-working people. Work at this level has become a game (on both sides). I think it helps to consciously be aware of that. He presents these sad realities with great humor and irony! An easy, quick, entertaining and informative little book.

Entertaining, but I Have Questions.
It was a funny, quick read. I enjoyed reading it. I do have questions.
My wife, who is trained as an LPN was curious that after he couldn't get a job with his degree he just didn't continue being an EMT. He was already doing it and it's a reasonable salary. Mr Levison could have covered, what made him become an English major. Why didn't he continue to look for ways to persue that, even through his menial jobs. I wonder how much of his problems on jobs stem from his wiseguy sense of humor? (I've been there, and before I gained some wisdom, I know it didn't help). As someone who looked in the present economy for a job, I can't help but think the truth is somewhere in the middle. He didn't help himself. I did learn, that it is easier to get menial jobs. I know. I can walk into my local gas station right now if need be. I hear about their problems keeping people all the time.
Was this Mr. Levison's attempt to then write the great American Novel? Interesting read, but glad I could borrow it from the library.

Slimey yet satifying?
Though I found this book a fun and fast read, it left me a bit unsatisfied. I greatly sympathized and could relate to his stories, however, I felt that he didn't leave any great insights on how his past experiences will shape what he will do in the future. A lot of the book is common sense but it helps to read about it from another's point of view.

You Can Only Sympathize If You've Been There
Please read the book for yourself (borrow it from the library if you must) rather than going with other's opinions of it. Levinson points out the aburdities of the general workplace with great wit - it may not be Nietzsche, and he may exaggerate his experiences, but the writing would be pretty dry otherwise. Those who decry him for his attitude - well, it's hard to have a good attitude when your bosses treat you like s--t, when you're nothing more than a cog in the machine; it's a nice guilty pleasure to read about his vindictive actions against his a--hole employers. The fact that he has this book published as well as a forthcoming novel just proves that he has managed to rise above his past situations of brain-dead employment.

Entertaining, but strains credulity
I really enjoyed "A Working Stiff's Manifesto". I would have enjoyed it even more if I didn't have a constant, nagging feeling that Levison was taking liberties with the truth. I have no evidence that he was exaggerating or fabricating, but that was my gut feeling.

Also, I wondered why he didn't reveal more details about his life outside of his jobs -- his family (if any), his age, which college he attended, etc.

All in all, this book was an easy, entertaining read -- but it left me unsatisfied. ... Read more

Book Description

This is Prorok's tale of his archeological expedition into Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia) in 1933-34. Hardly the patient scientist, Prorok tells about raiding tombs, flirting with native women, outrunning murderous warlords, spying on magical cults, and getting hip-deep in political intrigue in one of the wildest places on Earth. This fellow is the real Indiana Jones. ... Read more

Book Description

This biography describes theintellectual and political environments that helped shape Noam Chomsky, a pivotal figurein contemporary linguistics, politics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy. In describingthese formative individuals and milieus, the book also presents an engaging politicalhistory of the last several decades, including such events as the Spanish Civil War, thedropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the march on the Pentagon.The book highlights Chomsky's views on the uses and misuses of the university as aninstitution, his assessment of useful political engagement, and his doubts aboutpostmodernism. Because Chomsky is given ample space to articulate his views on manyof the major issues relating to his work, both linguistic and political, this book can also beseen as the autobiography that Chomsky says he will never write.

Barsky's account reveals the remarkable consistency in Chomsky'sinterests andprinciples over the course of his life. The book containswell-placed excerpts fromChomsky's published writings and unpublishedcorrespondence, including the author'sown long correspondence withChomsky. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Don't be mislead by Olier Kamm (the reviewer)
...

As for this biography, I suggest taking a copy out of a library and check it out before purchasing. It does cover some ground, and is an enjoyable read, if you're a fan.

A Great Bio of the World's Greatest Living Intellectual
For those who only know Chomsky for his revolutionary work in the field of linguistics and are not aware that he is also an untiring critic of media propaganda and government malfeasance this book is for you. In this enlightening biography of one of America's leading dissidents, Barsky beautifully illustrates Chomsky's dedication in his tireless fight against the forces of injustice and hate--at great personal risk to both his career and life. The ideal that Chomsky follows is not new, however, but based in the long tradition of social activism that finds its birth in the philosophy of Socrates, put to use by countless individuals from Thoreau, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, through their adherence to the fundamental idea of intellectual independence and a healthy skepticism of the dictates of power and authority.
In a society so full of apologists for militarism, who substitute mindless justification for military operations in place of a critical, reasoned view of world events, Chomsky stands out for his courageous opposition to totalitarianism, wherever it is found. Apparently, this hiding place is alittle to close for some. Regardless of his critics, Chomsky is destined to go down in history as one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century--an exemplary example of what an intellectual should be.

A superficial and pointless hagiography
It is difficult to see the point of this volume, which is far too short and shallow to characterise as intellectual biography and does nothing to illuminate its subject's record of enthusiasm for dubious political causes that have dismayed even his admirers. The book deals superficially with Chomsky's work on linguistics, while often evidencing a perplexing lack of awareness of important political and economic issues (and a bizarre attention to entirely trivial historical figures such as obscure groups of Bundist socialists). Though Barsky is a professor of literature (and indeed perhaps that explains his inadequate treatment of politics), his book bears the hallmarks of a breathless undergraduate sending out admiring letters to his hero; not coincidentally, the information gleaned from such letters makes up substantial parts of the book.

The book is very short on sustained, still less critical, analysis of Chomsky's political polemics. At no point does Barsky examine Chomsky's hostility (in Profit Over People, among other places) to the cause of trade liberalisation, let alone note the flagrant self-contradiction inherent in this position relative to Chomsky's complaint that US foreign policy pays inadequate attention to international institutions. (What, after all, is the difference between the International Court at the Hague and the World Trade Organisation, for both are supra-national institutions that require the support of sovereign member-states if they are to be effective?) The ultimate vacuity of this book is displayed, however, in its offensively facile apologetics for the incidents that, more than anything else, have destroyed Chomsky's reputation for fair-minded and disinterested political commentary. The causal reader might have expected there to be some hard-headed critical thinking about why even the New York Review of Books will not run Chomsky's writings (whereas it regularly ran the articles of the late I.F.Stone, whose hostility to the United States and Israel was no less virulent than Chomsky's). Barsky fails to provide any. He does not explicate Chomsky's repeated polemics in the 1970s whitewashing the genocide practised by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and he comprehensively obfuscates Chomsky's notorious description of the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson's as 'a sort of relatively apolitical liberal'. On the latter question, Barsky usefully sums up the intellectual depth of his own work by claiming Chomsky's kinship with - so help me - Voltaire. According to Barsky, Chomsky's sympathetic characterisation of an apologist for Nazi Germany was in fact merely a defence of free speech. Persisting with this ludicrous claim and risible comparison, Barsky asserts, "Voltaire himself was admonished for what could be considered a consistent application of classical liberal principles in public affairs, summed up by his famous dictum 'I disagree with everything you say, but I shall fight to the death for your right to say it'."

Voltaire, of course, said nothing of the kind: Barsky's 'quotation' is spurious. And that just about sums up the usefulness of this book. if you are a Chomsky admirer, you would in any case be well-advised to skip Chomsky - whose recent work was described by his friend Christopher Hitchens as being 'soft on fascism' - and devote time instead to reading some genuine scholars of politics and economics (Isaiah Berlin, Michael Oakeshott, Daniel Bell, James Tobin, Franco Modigliani, George Stigler).

A boring, uninformative study
A very boring book. The author focused almost exclusively on Chomsky's history as a linguist and paid inadequate attention to his political activism. Almost nothing was said about his views on Israel and his media criticism, which, whether you love it or hate it, is certainly worth reading about.

Too brief to cover the kind of life Chomsky has had
Barsky's achievement is respectable for at least one reason: he got some personal information out of Chomsky. I've been reading Chomsky for a while now and have always been impressed by his guarding of his personal life. David Barsamian, who has interviewed him probably more than anyone has - for sure more than anyone I know has - comes close once in a while. Usually it touches on how he feels about something; never anything to do with the stuff to keep biographers buzzing. As for the rest of Barsky's book I have to say that I was hardly moved by it. I appreciated the organization, and Barsky's quite obvious understanding of the issues that have arisen during Chomsky's "Life of Dissent". But I must refer to my disappointment at the immediate realization that this could hardly reflect the kind of life Chomsky has had. Hence, a 200 plus page book is not a biography. Maybe Barsky promised it was not a biography; I can't remember. To me, however, it doesn't matter. I'm always looking for good stuff by and about Chomsky. Sometimes I find really stimulating material; sometimes I find variations of views that I've seen already; sometimes I find worthless psychobabble. Barsky's book provided some new material (the strain the Faurisson affair on Chomsky was coming close to revelatory, as biographies do) but mostly it covered as much as it could about 40 plus years of intense public activity in the US (of all places) and public scrutiny in the same amount of space allotted for a court judge's decision on where domestic pets can and cannot defecate, and why. Barsky's book is excellent commentary on some significant events in Chomsky's life - in precis form - but comes up short of adequately depicting a life of dissent, especially Noam Chomsky's. ... Read more

Book Description

Jung in Africa is the firstfull-scale historical study of Jung's 1925 expedition to Africa. In the autumn of that year Jung set sail with two companions for British East Africa on an expedition commissioned by the British government to conduct ethnographic interviews with the Bugishu people. This trip proved to be a watershed event in Jung's life and thought. In Africa he discovered in his own words: 'the stillness of the eternal beginning, the world as it had always been, in the state of non-being . . .There the cosmic meaning of consciousness became overwhelmingly clear to me.' Burleson's study contributes greatly not only to our understanding of Jung's personal and professional life but also to the history of psychology, of colonialism in Africa and the development of Western thought. ... Read more

Book Description

Thelma Blumberg has seen it all: children with elective mutism, children physically abused, children on drugs, children who create fear in others and children who live their lives in fear. The Baltimore City School system is a good place to find a cross-section of such children. The Jewish Day Schools also present experiences which keep a school psychologist on her toes. Working in Israel, in Kiryat Arba, among other places, Thelma sees what happens when shock and trauma become everyday occurrences. While in Israel, Thelma finds herself counseling children sent by their parents to "find themselves" – to kick their drug habits and/or their non-responsiveness to Judaism, and come back home "cured". Through it all, Thelma has to care for her emotionally troubled son, making sure he has what he needs to confront his obstacles. How does she do it? That’s the secret of Thelma Blumberg ... Read more

Book Description

To some Frantz Fanon was a great psychiatrist, to some he was a brilliant social philosopher, and to many he was a bold revolutionary who fought colonialism in Africa and helped to spur a worldwide struggle for equal rights among all races and classes. Though Fanon's major books have been widely studied -- most notably his scathing critique of colonialism in, The Wretched of the Earth-- his life has remained shrouded in mystery for the forty years following his death. This latest member to our Lives & Legacies series of spiritual biographies offers a Frantz Fanon of exceptional depth and dimension, revealing the man behind the myth of Frantz Fanon.

Written in a fresh and engaging narrative style, Ehlen resurrects the tremendous personality of Fanon and presents his remarkable life with the skill of a fine novelist. The book opens on the small French Caribbean colony of Martinique at the turn of the century, and recounts the trials of an ordinary family in extraordinary times, subtly fusing the social, economic, and psychological elements that fed young Frantz Fanon's intellect and passion. While scant details of Fanon's childhood have never been published, extensive research and interviews with family members help to provide this book with a rich and unprecedented account of the development of Fanon's powerful personality. This presentation of Fanon's early years illuminates the uncommon life that follows, revealing how a single man matures into a decorated hero in war, a revolutionary pioneer in psychiatry, a radical theorist in philosophy, and a passionate revolutionary in one of the bloodiest anti-colonial struggles of modern times, the Algerian war of independence.

The reader is escorted through Fanon's education in France, and through the demon of racism Fanon must face that spawns his first book, Black Skin, White Masks. As Fanon makes his way in the world, his contempt for injustice draws him farther from his middle-class aspirations and deeper into a dark abyss of war, madness and disease. Supported and understood by few save his family, some life-long friends, and Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Fanon aims for the impossible and achieves the improbable. It is little surprising that his work would so profoundly influence those who continued his cry after his death, including Eldridge Cleaver, LeRoi Jones, and Stokely Carmichael, to name only a few. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Better than "Scoring"
This book is only as good as AND NO BETTER THAN first base. Trust me folks, I've been there. True, only once and yes it was about 18 years ago but I'm no dummy. The title is a clear cut case of the ol' Bait and Switch. Most of the book ends up being about one time when the author's basement flooded and how it ruined all his old "Prince Valiant" comics.

Smart and passionate writing from a man who understands.
This book was written with a depth of understanding of the human psyche that only a poet/psychologist could produce. When one reads an average biography one normaly can only gleen snippets of the reasoning in the subject's actions-Pat Ehlen has let me in on the reasoning of a man who's influence can be felt in all of modern black history. A terrific read.

Excellent; thought provoking
Though I was unfamiliar with Fanon before reading this book; I found this biography to be fascinating. Well written and very interesting.

Fascinating
A wonderful read all the way through. I knew little of Fanon's work outside the seminal "Wretched of The Earth" and even less of Ehlen with the exception of the compelling short prose of "Aunties". But after a friend reccomended this provocative, exceptionally well written biography I plan to investigate both Ehlen and Fanon thoroughly. An excellent piece of writing--I reccomend it to all. ... Read more

Book Description

Comrades and Partners explores the complex and multiple contexts that produced Hutchins and Rochester as political subjects and focuses on the tensions and contradictions of their public and private lives. ... Read more

Book Description

Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism and suffered severe learning disabilities as a child. Bright lights and strong smells bothered her, and background noises other people couldn’t even hear boomed inside her head. She first encountered cows on a trip to a cattle ranch when she was a teenager and realized that they experience the world in many of the same ways that she did—and were bothered by the same kinds of sights and sounds she was. She determined to find a way to ease their stress. Combining her remarkable ability to create building designs inside her head and her cow’s eye view of the world, Temple became the foremost designer of humane animal facilities in the U.S. She persuaded fast food chains like McDonald’s to adopt her standards for the humane treatment of animals and spurred a revolution in the American meat industry. Temple Grandin’s life was documented in a PBS documentary entitled "Stairway to Heaven" and by Oliver Sacks in his essay "An Anthropologist on Mars." In Rescued by a Cow and a Squeeze, Medical Reporter Mary Carpenter brings Temple’s remarkable achievements to children and young adults for the first time ... Read more

Reviews (1)

thumbs up from Katonah
Mary Carpenter's fascinating account of Temple Grandin's early life may be intended for children with learning disabilities. But it will make absorbing reading for all children. Every child will have experienced some of the discomfort of Temple's childhood, a childhood which Carpenter brings to life with vivid details. And what child could fail to be moved by the story of how Temple's personal antidote to autism, the squeeze machine, has improved the lives of the nation's millions of cows. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first English translation of the seminal work Le sommeil provoqué et les états analogues, by Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault, the 19th Century founder of the famous School of Nancy. Among the great minds who came to Liébeault's modest clinic to learn his techniques and explore his concept of suggestion were Sigmund Freud, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Albert Willem van Renterghem, Auguste Henri Forel, Oscar Vogt, Otto Wetterstrand and Milne Bramwell. In specialized circles this book has long been a coveted item, and its publication in English fills a gap in the historical march of scientific publishing. This annotated translation makes Liébeault's ideas accessible to modern English-speaking readers by providing an epistemological, historical and political context. It also includes a biographical introduction on the humble country physician who was Professor Bernheim's mentor, painting a picture of an original mind and spirit while correcting common misconceptions. ... Read more

Book Description

The first two volumes of Robert Skidelsky's definitive andconsummate biography of John Maynard Keynes were hailed as publishing events onboth sides of the Atlantic. Already published to acclaim in Britain, this thirdand final volume covers Keynes's later years from 1937 to his death in 1946.During this period, Keynes's outstanding contribution to the financing ofBritain's war effort, to the building of the postwar economic order, and hisrole in Britain's struggle to preserve its independence within the Atlanticalliance solidified the economist's lasting importance in twentieth-centuryhistory. Skidelsky lucidly explains Keynes's economic theories and masterfullyevokes the complexities of his personality. The book abounds in lively anecdotesand memorable portraits, notably that of his devoted wife, Lydia Lopokova, whoseeccentric but utterly logical post-Keynesian existence is charted in adelightful epilogue. Insightful and intelligent, this is a work that tells thestory of a passionate and determined visionary and provides an invaluableoverview of issues that remain at the center of international political andeconomic debate. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

In the short run we are still alive
The last part of Robert Skidelsky's magnificent biography of J.M. Keynes is a tale about the fall of the British Empire with Keynes as one of its most clairvoyant and active go-betweens trying to avoid the disaster. Great-Britain had won the war but it was bankrupt crushed by its debt contracted to buy US weapons.
This book shows clearly through its analysis of the Bretton-Woods negotiations and the discussions about the conversion of the British debt, that the ultimate goal of the US Administration was to get Britain on its knees and to take its place as world leader.
The US prefered an alliance with the Soviet Union against Britain. Their most important negotiator H.D. White was a convinced Soviet spy.
Keynes defended exhaustingly Britain's role in world matters by begging time for a reconversion of the British industry from a war to a civilian economy and for safeguarding its Commomwealth with its preferential tariff and pound sterling payment system.
The humiliating conditions for its debt conversion imposed by the US would cripple the British economy for years.
The suicidal internecine European wars created a new world hegemon: the US.

Before the war, Keynes defended his 'Treatise' policies, but saw them applied in Germany by a very clever economist, Hjalmar Schacht, who also saved the German economy internationally by creating a bilateral trade system.
Prof. Skidelsky shows us also pregnantly the deterioration of Keynes's physical condition, aggravated by his exhausting travels, difficult (empty handed) negotiations and even hard opposition at home when he was in the US.

One could perhaps slightly criticize the exhaustive excerpts of letters or the extremely detailed evolution of the negotiations in Bretton-Woods or about British debt relief. But, all in all, this is a fascinating read.

Out of your expectation
It's unexpectedly well decscibed how's Keynes in his childhood. He's in fact a well-spoken, witty gentleman with its charms inside which is mysterious. How could he become such a great economist, how he invent the theories, how he generated such a beautiful mind. It talked about Keynes' life in Eton College( a fundamental place for him to grow up and how his schoolmates affect him), and more is in King's College,Cambridge( which definitely a crucial turning point in Keynes' life) which included keynes' letter which he sent expressed his point of views, his love to Duncan. His writings were precise but in-depth. Moreover, it also includes a lot of cultural background informations which is like Cambridge traditions.It's a must-read book if you like Keynes.

A Major Force with Enduring Influence
In this, the third and concluding volume of his biography of Keynes, Skidelsky offers a brilliant analysis of one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. Skidelsky offers a remarkable discussion of the man (as opposed to the icon) whose influence seems to have fluctuated according to conventional (received?) wisdom with regard to fundamental economic principles. Economists have either agreed or disagreed about the value of Keynes's ideas (often with more heat than light) since the publication of his major work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936). As a non-economist, I have only casually observed how his principles have gone in and out of favor as the national economy itselfimproves, flattens out, weakens, improves, etc. I enjoyed this book because it connected a human being with the principles to which so many others have referred in books and articles. Also because, as international trade accelerates in terms of both scope and depth (largely because of the Internet and the WWW), the role of government in each country will inevitably change...especially governments in those countries which were formerly members of the U.S.S.R. as well as in other countries in Asia, notably China. Thanks to Skidelsky's book, I am now much better prepared to recognize and understand such changes. I wish I had read the second volume in the trilogy (subtitled "The Economist as Savior") before reading this one. Those who read this review are urged to do so. However, judged wholly on its own merits, this final volume (subtitled "Fighting for Freedom") is a first-rate achievement. ... Read more

Book Description

Carl Jung was one of the world's most influential psychoanalysts. With the exception of Freud, who chose him as the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association, no psychologist has achieved more. Previous biographers have either made Jung an idol or condemned him for his failings. Ronald Hayman neither ignores Jung's faults nor exaggerates them in investigating the most crucial paradoxes surrounding this enigmatic figure. Hailed by Anthony Storr as "the best biography of Jung," Hayman's work is "all the more effective for its detached tone that perfectly puts in proportion Jung's cruel, brilliant and crazy schemes" (The Times [London]). Impeccably researched and written with notable objectivity, A Life of Jung offers a rare insight into how Jung's revolutionary ideas grew out of his own extraordinary experiences. 16 pages of illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Freudian Reading Of Jung
Other reviews have pointed out some serious problems with this book: the scattered telling of the story, the sometimes unclear writing, the fact that one does not come away with a very clear picture of Jung's thought even after 450 pages of summarizing his theories. But there is another reason I was disappointed in this book: namely, that Hayman is a Freudian who criticizes Jung through Freud's eyes (Read Louis Breger's "Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision" for an example of how bad an idea that is). While Hayman assumes as common sense that we accept the theories of the typically modern, sex-crazed, materialistic Freud, he criticizes Jung precisely for presuming to break with Freud, thereby assuring (in Hayman's mind) that Jung and Jungians will remain in the arena of madness, rather than mental health. Hayman quotes a psychoanylist, with marked approval, who says: "If [Jung's] main life's work was in the end to be founded on a personal and scientific incompatibility with Freud, there are those who believe, like myself, that this was a disaster, and in part an illusion, from which we suffer and will continue to do so until we have repaired the damage." (p. 213) In short, the only way to be an acceptable Jungian is to be a Freudian. As many of us have found the modern ethos of sex and materialism to be a dead end, and trying to re-think spirituality in an age of the dessicated fanaticism of fundamentalist religions hard enough in itself, a dependence on Freud is surely no help. If one need not acept Jung as if he were a god -- always the problem of Freudians in relation to their master -- at least Jung has pointed the way for many people to a view of life that is compatible with a regenerative spirituality, not just Freudian myths about repressed childhood trauma and the primacy of sexuality in self-understanding. Hayman's biography has the very desirable effect of presenting Jung as a man whose life was troubled by psychosis and full of the turn-of-the-century Spiritualism that tends no longer to be accepted as factual among thinking people. Worshippers of Jung doubtless don't like this aspect of the book. For myself, I found the manner of Jung's break with Freud -- his experiences of internal dialogue and vivid fantasy, his belief that sexuality is only one factor among many in human life, his refusal to submit to the enervating Freudian materialism as a final arbiter in all judgements, his wide-ranging interest in creation myths as opposed to Freud's reductive readings of Oepipus et al, his belief that we should explore the fantasies and delusions we encounter in life in relation to the world of archetypes rather than trying to extirpate them by analysis and replace them with Freud's own truncated little fantasies -- to be more creative and productive than if he had remained a Freudian true believer. But let's not worship Jung, either: reading Hayman may not make Jung quite clear, or an acceptable object of worship, but the former (along with the implicit Freudianism) is the real problem I had with his book, not the latter.

Dropping in on the neighborhood madman.
Sometimes I feel guilty for not starting at the beginning of a book like this and reading right through. Hayman removes such guilt by the curious expediant of neglecting to put his anecdotes into any coherent form. It hardly seems to matter where you start -- the author seemed to have trouble even putting individual chapters into order. One interesting theme he mentions was how Jung served as a link between pre-modern and post-modern spirituality. Neither this nor other themes were developed. But ultimately I forgave Hayman, mostly, because much of what I found was interesting, despite the mayhem. It is like dropping in on an eccentric friend at irregular and unscheduled intervals: you do get a feel for who the man is, perhaps as much because of as in spite of the disorder.

There were times when I found myself wondering, "Why did this guy write a book about a person for whom he seems to have so little respect?" (Being, apparently, rather skeptical of the occult side of Jung.) But in other scenes, Jung comes across as sane and sensible, and his insights perhaps of value.The author doesn't explain those insights in way that makes it very clear to me, but of course Jung can speak for himself on that.At one point, what appeared psychobabble -- or at least esoteria -- to an outsider like myself, flew thick and fast between Jung, Freud, wives, and girlfriends. The author tells us what the persons involved "really" had in mind. "What happened was they had unconsciously 'swallowed' part of one another's soul." Hmmmn. At times like that, the author comes across like the friend who was supposed to stay sober at the party, but took a few sips anyway.

Overall, I found much fault with this book, but interesting tidbits, and kept picking it up, till I read it through. There's some interesting stuff on Freud and other early psychological persons, as well.I am still not quite sure what to make of Jung's theories -- and have some theories of my own by which to consider them -- but Hayman has, at least, helped me to put those ideas in rough, if not entirely coherent, context.And I enjoyed the book....

hodgepodge
Hayman's biography, though well researched, is a grave disappointment.First, the author fails to offer a balanced picture of the varied and complex person of Jung.Instead, Hayman engages in a reductive enterprise and reduces Jung to little more than a caricature.Second, Hayman continues his reductionist approach when arguing that Jung's work amounted to little more than scouting out archetypes in the dreams of his patients and in world mythology.In this, Hayman misses the deeper aspects of Jung's work and ignores the epistemological significance of the manner in which Jung presaged post-modern and post-structuralist thought. Third, the biography is badly focused and organized because it leaps from scene to scene and person to person without logical reasons for doing so.Fourth, the style of the biography is troublesome; not only is the prose in need of vigor, but the grammatical structures are often troubling:i.e., the books is rife with sentences that contain pronouns that have no clear antecedents.Fifth, the biography fails to discuss a key aspect of Jung's life:his relationship with his children. Sixth, many of Hayman's assertions and conclusions about Jung are unfounded, unsupported, and misguided.

A disappointing work.
Although I have greatly admired Ronald Hayman's earlier biographies, I found this one disappointing.It spends a lot of time summarizing Jung's essays and books, and the summaries tend to get tedious.Worse, the chapters are not well organized.The most fascinating aspect of Jung's life is not that he developed a powerful theory of archetypes but that for many years he maintained a triangular relationship with his wife Emma and his mistress Toni Wolff.All three of them were psychotherapists.But Hayman never explains how this "menage a trois" could survive year after year or how it affected Jung's five children; in fact, the children are rarely mentioned; and the family life so central to Jung's emotional well-being seems just a shadow in this biography.Recommended only for those interested in Jung's professional life.

A life of Jung?
I have read many biographies. This particular one was among the worst. The author proved to be pedantic with regard to his vocabulary, the book focused primarily on his 'work' and not his 'life', and the ending was poor.
The constant use of 7 syllable words by the author proved to challenge my intellect rather than inform myself about the subject.
The book was misstitled. To suggest that this particular biography was about his life is misleading. The book was about his work and gave very little attention to his family, his marriage, or his children.
Finally, the ending was terrible. His death was saved for the last paragraph of the book, with no summation, opinion and or conclusion by the author. But the worst part, the author never states when he died! I had to flip back to the chronology in the beginning of the book and note that his death was June 6, 1961.
I know that the man had a great many admirers, friends, colleagues, and contemporaries. Many of which were noted and talked about in this book but not in as much depth as I would have expected for such a well-published life. I was disappointed. ... Read more

Book Description

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891--1956) rose from a community of "untouchables," to become a major figure in modern Indian history. Christophe Jaffrelot's biography reconsiders Dr. Ambedkar's life and thought and his unique combination of pragmatism and idealism. Establishing himself as a scholar, activist, journalist, and educator, Ambedkar ultimately found himself immersed in Indian politics and helped to draft the nation's constitution as law minister in Nehru's first cabinet. Ambedkar's ideas remain an inspiration to India's Dalit community.

Book Description

Following an Introduction to al-Ghazzali's psychology of the greater struggle, the author gives a commentary upon Part One of al-Ghazzali's Introduction to his famous Alchemy of Happiness called Knowing One's Self. The Alchemy of Happiness is al-Ghazzali's summary of his Ihya Ulum al-Din or Revival of the Religious Sciences. This work provides a unique explanation of Islamic psychology. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Absolutely essential work on Sufism
Dr. Bakhtiar has done a great service through this book. She provides the text and a commentary on Topic One of Al-Ghazzali's Prolegomena: Know Yourself. As a whole, the book is perhaps the best introduction to "Traditional Psychology" I have ever read, very interesting and full of insights.

While Al-Ghazzali followed the Sufi path, this book can easily be appreciated by anyone interested in spirituality and self-growth, since the principles are universal to all Traditional religions. A must have! ... Read more

Book Description

Drawing links between genetic and cultural development, Cavalli-Sforza developed groundbreaking techniques to trace the evolution of Homo sapiens and the origins of human differentiation, in addition to his earlier work in bacterial genetics. He is also the founder of the Human Genome Diversity Project and continues to work as the principal investigator at Stanford University's Human Population Genetics Laboratory. Based on extensive research and interviews with Cavalli-Sforza and his colleagues, this biography examines the scientist's life and his immense and occasionally controversial contributions to genetics, anthropology, and linguistics.