SirReadaLot.org
We Review the Best of the Latest Books
ISSN 1934-6557
March 2005, Issue #71
Guide to this issue's Contents
Page Contents: Biographies:
Self-Searching: a Father, a Daughter, Growing Up in the
Nation of Islam, Slave Narrative, Arts:
Introduction to the Humanities, April
Gornik, Introduction to the Visual Arts,
The Art of Agnes Martin, Maria Martinez, and Florence Pierce,
Garafola on Dance, Political Art of
Bob Dylan,
African-American / Biographies & Memoirs / Religion & Spirituality
Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam by Sonsyrea
Tate (The
Since the 1930s, the Nation of Islam has been one of the foremost
all-black organizations in the
As a young girl, author Sonsyrea Tate, now an award-winning journalist, was one of tens of thousands of ‘Little X's,’ the children raised within the Nation of Islam as future foot soldiers of black unity. Her book, Little X, gives readers a different picture – she has fashioned a female coming-of-age autobiography that unveils life in the Black Muslim sect. Tate shows us how rank-and-file members of the Nation lived, how their dress, organizations, and dietary restrictions set them apart even within Islam. She begins with a brief survey of her grandparents' involvement with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam and discusses her struggle against many of the strict regulations.
With the 1975 death of their leader, Elijah Muhammad, Tate's family and other followers were set adrift, trying to find a place in orthodox Islam, seeking ways to juxtapose being Muslim and being African-American. Tate began attending public school, wearing street clothes and enjoying new freedoms, though always with more restrictions than her classmates (and her male relatives). As she details her adolescence, moving from the rigors of the Black Muslim school to the laissez-faire world of public education, we see a young woman standing with one foot in a misunderstood, restrictive parochial world, and one foot about to set down in the alluringly wide-open, but dangerous, secular world. She chronicles her struggle within a non-Muslim world (especially regarding the treatment of women), and, finally, her break from the Muslim faith.
Her grandparents joined the Nation of Islam in 1952, which makes Sonsyrea Tate a third-generation member of the Nation. In this fascinating glimpse at life behind the scenes in an NOI family, Tate tells of going to a Muslim school, of the changes in the Nation after the death of its leader, Elijah Muhammad, and of the tensions within her family after her mother converted to Orthodox Islam. For all that, it is a profoundly interesting account of growing up in a different culture, in the end Tate's is a quintessentially American story of a child coming of age and finding her own path. – Amazon.com
Instead of writing a bitter condemnation of the Nation of Islam,
Tate has adroitly described its purpose as well as its shortcomings.
– USA Today
A temperate and sympathetic treatment of an African-American
family's religious evolution. – Publishers Weekly
Tate's loving but clear-eyed memoir is a young woman's answer to
The Autobiography of Malcolm X. She tells her truth, tells it
straight, and lays it all out for us. – Mohja Kahf, University of
Arkansas at Fayetteville
A compelling story. It provides an honest, inside view of one of
America's most controversial religious movements and perceptively
points to social tensions of race, gender and religious identity. –
Kirkus Reviews
Extremely valuable. Recent literature ... is interested almost
exclusively in male leaders. Tate's book provides a new perspective.
I have used the book in a number of teaching contexts to very good
results. – Judith Weisenfeld, Vassar College
For the Muslim who has a child that went through these same
experiences, this may be an excellent opportunity to draw their
child into discussion as to what still bothers them most about their
past upbringing.... This book may be the opportunity they've been
waiting for to at least reach out to them. – Muslim Journal
Little X is a new classic, selected by the American Library
Association as a Best Books for Young Adults, and the New York
Library's Best Books for the Teen. USA Today recommended it as
literature that helps diversify primary education. College and
university professors have found
Little X a favorite text for their students in African American
Religious Studies, Women in Religion, African American Women Studies
and Islam in
In Little X, Tate shows us the Nation of Islam from the inside: it is the compelling account of one woman's cultural identity, family unity and spiritual fulfillment in a predominantly white and Christian America. Tate offers useful insights into life inside a movement that most readers – including many African American readers – don't understand.
African Americans / Biographies & Memoirs
The Blind African Slave: Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch,
Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace by Jeffrey Brace, edited
with an introduction by Kari J. Winter (Wisconsin Studies in
Autobiography Series:
Above all, it is my anxious wish that this simple narrative may
be the means of opening the hearts of those who hold slaves and move
them to consent to give them the freedom which they themselves
enjoy, and which all mankind have an equal right to possess. –
Jeffrey Brace
The Blind African Slave recounts the life of Jeffrey Brace
(Boyrereau Brinch), who was born in
Sixteen years later in
In this first new edition since 1810, Kari J. Winter, associate
professor of American Studies at the State University of New York at
Unusual among slave narratives...[covers a] sweeping time period
& geography, including a rare look at slavery in
A unique narrative.... Winter should be congratulated for
reconstructing Brace's life, the circumstances of the publication of
The Blind African Slave, and the strange career of Benjamin F.
Prentiss. – Ira Berlin, author of Generations of Captivity: A
History of African-American Slaves
Kari Winter's research rescues Brace from historical anonymity
and places
The Blind African Slave into the canon of early African American
autobiography. – William L. Andrews, General Editor
[The Blind African Slave] will certainly be important to specialists in the field of transatlantic Black studies. – Vincent Carretta, editor of The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings by Olaudah Equiano
Fascinating and unique, The Blind African Slave, impressive in the understanding of purpose, drive and action taken by the slave, makes real and concrete the complexities of life as a slave and brings this particular individual’s story back to life for a new generation of readers.
Arts & Photography / HumanitiesPerceiving the Arts: An Introduction to the Humanities (8th Edition) by Dennis J. Sporre (Pearson Prentice Hall) is a concise introduction to understanding and appreciating art and literature, focusing on terminology and general concepts in the visual arts, music, writing, theater, dance, and architecture.
If we citizens do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams. – Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Perceiving the Arts has a specific and limited purpose: to
provide an introductory, technical, and respondent-related reference
to the arts and literature. Its audience comprises individuals who
have little or no knowledge of the arts; it seeks to give those
readers touchstones concerning what to look and listen for in works
of art and literature.
Perceiving the Arts shows students how to build on
cognitive/perceptual skills they already have to develop
discriminating artistic perception for approaching, analyzing, and
evaluating works of art – and to think critically about how their
relationship with the arts might enrich their quality of life. Those
with more background can read it rapidly, pausing to fill in the
holes in their understanding. Those who have no or little experience
with the arts can spend the necessary time memorizing. Thus,
classroom time can utilize expanded illustration, discussion,
analysis, and experience of actual works.
Attempting to cover so much in such a short text presents
challenges because of the complexity of most artistic terminology
and concepts. Many characteristics of the arts change as historical
periods and styles change. Further, most artists do not paint,
sculpt, compose, or write to neat, fixed formulas. Nonetheless,
understanding begins with generalities, and the treatment of
definitions and concepts in this text remains at that basic level.
One of the ways we can approach the arts is with the questions of
what we can see and hear and read.
Perceiving the Arts takes that approach and relates the arts to
the perceptual process. To do that, we can ask four questions about
an artwork or a work of literature: (1) What is it? (a formal
response); (2) How is it put together? (a technical response); (3)
How does it appeal to the senses? (an experiential response); and
(4) What does it mean? (a contextual and personal response). These
questions constitute a comfortable springboard for approaching the
arts at a basic level.
Vocabulary isolates characteristics of what to see and what to
hear in individual works of art and helps focus perceptions and
responses. Knowing the difference between polyphony and homophony,
between a suite and a concerto, between prints and paintings, and
between fiction and poetry is as important as knowing the difference
between baroque and romantic, iconoclasm and cubism.
This eighth edition contains obvious as well as subtle changes.
To assist readers in approaching unfamiliar works of art, a feature
called "A Question to Ask" appears several times in each chapter.
Like the kinds of questions we ask new acquaintances in casual
social settings, these questions provide a means of approaching a
work of art in order to begin to know it more fully. A second
feature, "A Question of' Style," replaces the feature "A Matter of
Style" from the previous edition. The change replaces a full-page
exposition on one style with several short pieces covering several
styles and related to illustrations in the text. This allows a wider
introduction to artistic styles than previously possible and does so
with less interruption to the flow of the text.
In addition, Chapter 11 moves to the Introduction, where it
appeared in previous editions. Chapter 2 expands by additional text
and illustrations in printmaking and photography. Chapter 4, Music,
has several changes to the text and organization that should make
the material more accessible. Chapter 7, Dance, has new text and
illustrations as well. Chapter 10 comprises a major revision and
reorganization that should enhance appeal, readability, and
understanding. The Glossary has been expanded significantly and
takes a unique step by providing pronunciation for every term.
Perceiving the Arts illustrates the depth of approachability
provided by our current perceptual skills. It offers readers a
foundation for understanding the humanities, including the visual
arts, architecture, the performing arts, and literature, giving
basic information about each of the arts disciplines – drawing,
painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture, music,
theatre, dance, cinema, landscape architecture, and literature.
Perceiving the Arts helps readers discover what to look and
listen for in the arts.
As part of the Portfolio series of concise textbooks, this one
offers the flexibility to use additional materials to enhance
courses – as instructors use
Perceiving the Arts, they can set up their portfolio by
selecting free resources to accompany it. This well illustrated,
basic handbook provides a unique introduction to aesthetic
perception. Through this study, readers develop the understanding
and confidence to make it more likely they will study and involve
themselves with the arts over a lifetime. The book should not
affect readers' or instructors' personal philosophies about the arts
and literature.
April Gornik: Paintings and Drawings by Neuberger Museum of Art and April Gornik, with an essay by Donald Kuspit (Hudson Hills Press) is the first comprehensive overview of April Gornik’s paintings and drawings.
Gornik assembles compositions surreal in their presence, yet
moving in their exceptional spirituality. Using painting to reach
what she finds spiritually and psychologically compelling, Gornik
works to create an art not only of visual appeal, but one which, as
she recounts in the volume's interview with curator Dede Young,
engages the mind.
In addition to the sheer beauty of her landscapes, there are both
a distinct physicality and a psychological presence in her paintings
and drawings that set them apart from most work created in this
genre today. They intrigue, beguile, and bring the viewer into a
dialogue with nature, one that is often unexpected. Her landscape
paintings and drawings are luminous, mysterious, and profoundly
expressive. Some images come from her dreams; some are inspired by
literary sources; others, although drawn from direct experience of a
specific place, are reworked and reinterpreted, and may no longer
resemble a particular location – they have become environments
generated by the artist's imagination.
In
April Gornik, working closely with the artist in the selection
process for the exhibition, curator Young brings together the major
paintings and drawings created between 1980 and the present,
paintings that show the broad spectrum of Gornik's approach to the
natural world, from grand vistas and sweeping horizons to the
intimate architecture of backlit trees.
Donald Kuspit, one of America's most distinguished art critics,
in his essay, Fictional Freedom: April Gornik's Landscapes, places
her work into an art-historical context – not simply observing
the affinity with such early landscape artists as the American
Luminists, but also examining attributes of her paintings that
relate to European artists from Caravaggio to J. M. W. Turner.
... We offer our heartfelt thanks and congratulate [Gornik] on a
monumental body of work that has made her one of the most recognized
and significant artists of our time. – Lucinda H. Gedeon, Director,
Neuberger Museum of Art
This comprehensive volume is richly illustrated, bringing
together and elucidating Gornik’s work in a way that has not been
done before, thanks largely to Kuspit’s essay, which is insightful
and poetic.
April Gornik is published in conjunction with the exhibition at
the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase,
Prebles' Artforms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts (8th Edition) by Patrick Frank (Pearson Prentice Hall)
Beyond fostering appreciation of major works of art,
Prebles' Artforms’s primary concern is to open students' eyes
and minds to the richness of the visual arts as unique forms of
human communication and to convey the idea that the arts enrich life
best when we experience, understand, and enjoy them as integral
parts of the process of living.
Highlights include:
- A new Chapter 24, Modern Art Beyond the West, enhances the
book in its coverage of global visual expression.
- Coverage of diverse artists in
Prebles' Artforms expands with 25 new illustrations from
women and members of ethnic minorities.
- Thirty five additional contemporary artists have been added
in the eighth edition.
- New sections on industrial Design and Green Architecture
address relevant topics that link art to everyday life.
Resources available with
Prebles' Artforms, eighth edition include:
- OneKey – an online resource that delivers instructor and
student online resources – in one place – organized to accompany
the text.
- From environmental design to performance art, TIME Special
Edition: Art offers the coverage and photography for which TIME
is known.
- The interactive CD-ROM offers students a dynamic exploration
of art through video demonstrations, an electronic image gallery
and flashcard program, and interactive exercises included with
the text.
- The Companion Website.
Organization
- Part One: Art Is ... (Chapters 1 and 2) introduces the
nature of art, aesthetics, and creativity, and discusses the
purposes of art and visual communication. Strongly believing
that we are all artists at heart,
Prebles' Artforms includes an essay on children and their
Early Encounters with the Artist Within, and a section on the
works of untrained artists.
- Part Two: The Language of Visual Experience (Chapters 3-5)
presents the language of vision, visual elements, and principles
of design. Experience with the language of visual form
introduced in those chapters provides a foundation for
developing critical thinking and for considering evaluation and
art criticism, discussed in Chapter 5.
- The visual and verbal vocabulary covered in Part Two
prepares readers to sample the broad range of art disciplines,
media, and processes presented in Part Three: The Media of Art
(Chapters 6-13). In this part
Prebles' Artforms considers the classical media used in
drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture and the latest
developments in photography, video, film, digital imaging, and
industrial design.
- Part Four: Art as Cultural Heritage (Chapters 14-19) and
Part Five: The Modern World (Chapters 20-24) introduce historic
world styles and related cultural values. Three chapters cover
artistic traditions outside the Western world, showing how each
new technique in the history of art relies heavily on its
predecessors.
- Part Six: The Postmodern World and its Chapter 25 discuss
art of the last two decades and the multifaceted and changing
roles of artists today. It includes a section on the Global
Present, emphasizing the international aspects of the
contemporary art world.
In addition to a revised Glossary, Pronunciation Guide, and
Selected Readings, the back matter of
Prebles' Artforms includes a listing of Web sites related to
art: Images, artists, museums, art organizations, magazines, and
other sources. The three-page Timeline is illustrated and includes
additional information on both Western and non-Western art.
Special Features
Throughout
Prebles' Artforms, three types of essays enrich the
presentation. Biography essays profile important artists from across
time. Art in the World essays address how art affects our society
once it leaves the artist's studio and how we encounter these issues
in our everyday lives. Artists at Work essays highlight interviews
with six contemporary artists, showing that artists' creativity is a
rational process of making choices in order to arrive at a statement
that expresses their vision.
Prebles' Artforms is renowned for its high quality images, clear
organizational structure, and straightforward writing. These
strengths remain in the eighth edition, along with a number of
changes that make
Prebles' Artforms the most current and relevant text available
for the art appreciation course. In keeping with the philosophy of
the text, the Eighth Edition is a careful blending of the strengths
of its earlier editions – clear organizational structure,
straightforward writing, and high quality images – with a number of
important changes. This new edition enhances its leadership in
covering global visual expression. Frank added a new chapter called
Modern Art Beyond the West, the only such chapter in any book of its
type. And finally,
Prebles' Artforms has been a leader in including art by women
and members of ethnic minorities, and that coverage has been
expanded to include twenty-five new illustrations of art by women, a
section on AfricanAmerican modernism, thirty-five new contemporary
artists, and a new section on the latest approaches to drawing.
In Pursuit of Perfection: The Art of Agnes Martin, Maria Martinez, and Florence Pierce by Timothy Robert Rodgers (Museum of New Mexico Press) is the catalog of an exposition of three artists – Agnes Martin, Maria Martinez and Florence Pierce – at the Museum of Fine Arts, New Mexico with essays discussing the work of each artist.
In the exhibition and catalog
In Pursuit of Perfection, Chief Curator Tim Rodgers brings
together three of New Mexico's most acclaimed artists. Each renowned
in her own right, these artists have never had their work presented
together in an exhibition. When viewed, this stunning show causes
all to question why this has been so. How do artists, especially
those who at one time lived only miles apart, come to exist in art
worlds light years apart? How much has been gained and lost by the
categories that both define and delimit this art?
Marsha C. Bol, director of the Museum of Fine Arts and a scholar
of Native American art, remembers curator Rodgers returning from a
visit to Florence Pierce's studio and proposing an exhibition of art
by Martinez, Martin and Pierce. He had seen in Pierce's home how she
displayed Native American pottery, mainly gifts from artists she
knew and admired, side by side with her luminous poured-resin
paintings. Although unexpected, the relationship between the pottery
and the paintings was visually exciting. He added Martin to the mix
and began to think about how these artists related to one another.
A week later, In Pursuit of Perfection came into being. Centering
the show on a powerful concept like the pursuit of perfection
allowed him to ask questions that, when answered, began to weave
together these artists and their creations.
The most powerful words are those most difficult to define:
happiness, friendship, perfection. Agnes Martin's contention that we
all know what perfection is in our minds might be true, but, if
surveyed, few would define perfection exactly the same. Despite
their amorphous nature, these terms are vested with enormous power
by cultures that weave into their meaning, concepts and behaviors
deemed worthy of continual discussion, examination and negotiation.
In this catalogue and exhibition, Marsha Bol, Lucy Lippard and
Rodgers examine three different artists – Agnes Martin, Maria
Martinez and Florence Pierce – and attempt to reveal how in the
course of making their art these women use the concept of perfection
to establish their aesthetic standards, pursue their artistic goals
and explain their spiritual and cultural concerns. The conclusion of
each essay is nearly the same: none of the artists achieved
perfection and none claimed that they had. But in the pursuit of
this elusive concept, the artists called upon their deepest beliefs
to create their art.
What are those deep-seated beliefs that motivated these artists
to establish extraordinarily high standards that they pursued at
great personal cost? For each artist, the answer is different.
Florence Pierce might point to the importance of light for her life
and her art as a force that compelled her to repeat, refine and
refine again her poured-resin paintings. In a recent series of
paintings titled Clouds, she has created her most luminous work that
literally seems to transcend the bounds of earth and exist somewhere
between the light and the ground.
Maria Martinez would answer these questions differently, in part
because of the cultural position she held as a minority in a society
dominated by non-Natives. For Martinez, spiritual and cultural
concerns fused with Eurocentric expectations, compelling her to
refine, continually, her shapes and their finish. The exactitude of
her art fostered a buying public that allowed the artist to give
back to her people. The ability to help others in need became the
ultimate motive in her pursuit of perfection. Agnes Martin, who of
the three has written and spoken most about perfection, has woven
together her desire for happiness, love and serenity with her quest
to achieve the impossible. Perfection, according to Martin, exists
in those moments of great joy and peace, those moments that inspire
her to create. The process of trying to recapture on canvas and
paper fleeting positive emotions has become for Martin a means of
staving off the less-than-perfect times of sorrow, fear and
loneliness.
In bringing these artists and their work together in relation to a shared idea, Rodgers in In Pursuit of Perfection moves outside of some of the ways in which their art is typically presented. Martin has strenuously objected to having her work associated with the Minimalists. Martinez's art has been bound by her time and ethnicity. Pierce's work has failed to be integrated into typical art categories and exists only on the margins of mainstream art history. This book/exposition is one of New Mexico's gifts to the world of art: a multicultural art, a hybrid that offers surprising linkages and intersections across time and cultures.
Arts & Photography / Dance
Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance by Lynn
Garafola (Wesleyan University Press) is a selection of
Garafola's carefully crafted essays, articles, and reviews that
document the extraordinary transformation of dance since the early
20th century.
Garafola, dance historian and critic, teacher at Barnard College
in New York City, shows how economics, revolution, racism, and rank
affect the world of dance. She puts human faces on the major and
minor figures of dance's last 100 years, and locates dance, dancers,
and the people who drive and support the dance world at the center
of human culture.
Lynn Garafola's breadth of dance knowledge is astonishing and,
in
Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance, it is fully matched by her
insightful exploration of provocative issues in the field. – Nancy
Reynolds, Director of Research, The George Balanchine Foundation
The author's sense of discovery permeates the book and is one of
its chief pleasures. Lynn Garafola is unusual among dance scholars
in showing how economics, revolution, racism and rank push and pull
at the sometimes insular theatrical world. – Monica Moseley,
Associate Curator, Dance Division, The New York Public Library
This book is full of revelations about dance history which should be part of the mainstream narrative. And it's riveting to read because of that rare combination of visionary scholarship and compelling narration. – Elizabeth Kendall, author of Where She Danced
Unlike many dance scholars of her time, Garafola uses a lucid,
animated writing style. During the past 20 years, her writings have
illuminated a broad spectrum of personalities, moments, and
historical circumstances in dance. Operating from a unique vantage
point, in
Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance, Garafola successfully
analyzes the role of dance in culture and the impact of the larger
world on esthetic issues.
Do You Remember Me?: A Father, a Daughter, and a Search for the Self [LARGE PRINT] by Judith Levine (Thorndike Press Large Print Senior Lifestyles Series: Thorndike Press)
The book is both the memoir of a daughter coming to terms with a difficult father who is sinking into dementia and an exploration of the ways we think about disability, aging, and the self as it resides in the body and the world. Freelance writer Levine unpeels the layers of his complicated personality and uncovers information that surprises even her mother, to whom her father has been married for more than sixty years.
As her father deteriorates, the family consensus about who he was and is and how best to care for him constantly threatens to collapse. Levine recounts the painful discussions, mad outbursts, and gingerly negotiations, and dissects the shifting alliances among family, friends, and a changing guard of hired caretakers. Spending more and more time with her father, she confronts a relationship that has long felt bereft of love. By caring for his needs, she learns to care about and, slowly, to love him.
While Levine chronicles these developments, she looks outside her family for the sources of their perceptions and expectations, weaving politics, science, history, and philosophy into their personal story. A memoir opens up to become a critique of our culture's attitudes toward the old and demented. What creates a self and keeps it whole? Do You Remember Me? insists that only the collaboration of others can safeguard her father's self against the riddling of his brain. Embracing interdependence and vulnerability, not autonomy and productivity, as the seminal elements of our humanity, Levine challenges herself and her readers to find new meaning, even hope, in one man's mortality and our own.
Unsentimental and unsparing, this work studies in unnerving
detail what happens when the mind begins to separate from the body
and how our society has no model for coping with such fragmentation.
… Levine, a natural storyteller and author of the controversial
Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex,
presents more than a tale about one man's disease and its impact on
his family; she also examines how society separates itself from
those who can no longer think clearly. …This is a daughter's
poignant homage to a father she came to know best after he lost his
mind, but it's also a searing indictment of how America treats its
disabled and a cautionary tale for aging baby boomers. – Publishers
Weekly
In this memoir, Levine chronicles her family's struggles to care for
her father after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Through
telling this story, she explores the cultural, historical, and
political meanings of dementia and aging in a hyper-cognitive
society that values self-reliance. The medicalization of the normal
aging process is also addressed. – Book News
A claustrophobic account of Alzheimer's is transformed into a
complex lesson about love, duty, and commitment in
Do You Remember Me?, the insightful memoir of a daughter coming
to terms with a difficult father sinking into dementia. In prose
that is unsentimental yet moving, serious yet darkly funny, complex
in emotion and ideas yet spare in diction, Levine reassembles her
father's personal and professional history even as he loses track of
it, confronting a relationship that has long felt bereft of love.
Chronicling the negotiations of his care, Levine looks outside her
family for the sources of their perceptions and expectations, deftly
weaving politics, science, history and philosophy into their
personal story.
Corporate Scandals: The Many Faces of Greed by Kenneth R. Gray, Larry A. Frieder, & George W. Clark, Jr., with an introduction by Sybil C. Mobley (Paragon House Publishers)
Dramatic corporate malfeasance marked the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium. Industrial and financial sector scandals filled newspaper headlines. Nowhere could anyone find proponents of the status quo in business and finance, yet few emerged to constructively address what can only be characterized as a crisis or breakdown of major proportions.
In
Corporate Scandals, Professors Kenneth R. Gray, Larry A.
Frieder, and George W. Clark, Jr. dissect one of our country's most
devastating economic periods. The three authors are uniquely
qualified to execute their work by their extensive experience at the
School of Business & Industry (SBI) at Florida A & M University, in
the Professional Development Program. Gray as SBI's Eminent Scholar
Chair of Global Business, specializes in business strategy, policy,
and international management. Frieder, Eminent Scholar Chair
Professor of Financial Services is deeply rooted in the study of
commercial banking consolidation and 'best practices.' Clark holds
Florida A & M's distinguished 3M Professorship as a leader in the
field of business ethics.
Much has been reported in the popular press about the financial
scandals of the previous decade and their specific resolutions.
Corporate Scandals does more than recount events however.
Rather, it provides the background needed to allow the readers to
better appreciate how such problems came into being and how one can
constructively address resultant challenges.
Corporate Scandals speaks to the deep failure of public auditors
and the accounting profession, the need to address breakdowns in
corporate governance, and the potential opportunities that exist in
business education.
After an introductory chapter,
Corporate Scandals begins chapter two with a brief survey
of corporate scandals throughout history. Great waves of exploration
and innovation have propelled often worthless speculative ventures
that grew until they burst, hence the name ‘bubble.’ Financial
scandals followed. A look at some of history's more infamous
financial bubbles provide numerous insights relevant today. Many
bubbles grew from the enthusiasm generated by world exploration,
and from the subsequent colonial land grabs. The discovery of new
territories initiated speculative bursts of capital expansion that
produced both the South Seas and the Mississippi Company bubbles.
Two centuries later, the steam engine and the railroad boom created
an investment bubble that was similar to the technology bubble of
the 1990s.
Chapters three to six discuss the systematic evolution of
corporate malfeasance and corruption both on and off Wall Street,
noting the laxity of the SEC and of various self-regulated
professions and stock exchanges. Chapter three explores recent high
profile corporate breakdowns. Enron was the first prominent firm to
exhibit the direct results of stock market pressures, corporate
malfeasance, questionable oversight by the board of directors, as
well as dubious conduct by its public auditors, law firms, and
investment bankers. Evidence of a general breakdown of the corporate
culture arose when the public discovered similar problems at
numerous other prominent companies.
Chapter four presents the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The chapter discusses
the case of HealthSouth as an example of how effective SOA may be as
a tool for corporate policing.
Chapter five focuses on Wall Street. Beginning with a discussion
of the SEC and its embattled Chairman, Harvey Pitt,
Corporate Scandals details SOA's development and Pitt's
resignation. The chapter examines New York State Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer's efforts to address the unfolding Wall Street scandal
and it discusses the $1.6 billion settlement that he reached with
ten major investment banks. The chapter also reviews the plight of
several high profile investment analysts and analyzes the breakdown
of the venerable New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Chapter six explores the scandals and corruption afflicting the
$7 trillion mutual fund industry. Chapter seven focuses on a subplot
the authors call ‘the great heist’: the perversion of corporate
financial management practices that facilitated excessive and
ruinous executive compensation. Dramatically rising executive
salaries, benefits, and awards triggered a major shift in the
historical role of corporate dividend policy. Share repurchase
strategies applied in the 1990s not only destroyed stock value at
the various firms, but also left the door open to a $1.679 trillion
‘heist’ by corporate management that
Corporate Scandals uncovers. Massive share buybacks masked an
explosive issuance of executive stock options by which management
acquired vast wealth without actual conspiracy or illegality.
Chapters eight and nine identify how our society can address
fundamental economic and corporate problems. Chapter eight examines
social institutions and the incentives that guide social welfare.
The market system is a social institution. Non-market institutions –
such as family, educational and cultural organizations, and
professional associations – seek to constrain socially undesirable
traits, promote attractive values, and balance individual behavior.
The spillover of marketplace values to other non-market institutions
is one of the great challenges of our time. Social institutions and
cultural norms set parameters for executive compensation. Chapter
nine looks at business ethics from the point of view of virtue
across history in Western and Eastern philosophy and offers an
alternative pedagogy.
The final chapter of this book is reflective. In considering the broad, systemic breakdowns in accounting, regulation, and Wall Street practices, several problems and issues emerge, and the authors bring these to light.
Corporate Scandals is the encyclopedia of corporate scandals and
an essential text for Business Ethics. – Dr. Gary Quinlivan, Dean of
the
Its insightful presentation of a $1.6 trillion financial ‘heist’
is must reading for observers of
The definitive guide to understanding the topic of corporate
scandals and their impact on the U.S. economy .... puts the reader
in the middle of the action. encouraging reflection on how to
behave....offers provocative insights on the institutional changes
necessary to restore confidence and trust in business accounting.
This book should be required reading in every MBA program, and for
undergraduate business majors. – Harvey Rosenblum, Former Senior
Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and University
Professor of Finance, Southern Methodist University
A critique and road-map combined in one wide-ranging discussion of stock-market capitalism and how to improve it. – Steve Young, Global Executive Director, The Caux Round Table
Corporate Scandals is accurate and well-grounded both in
business theory and in ethical perception of just how much a good
society needs a moral foundation. The Gray, Frieder, and Clark
author team does a terrific job integrating the diverse elements
that resulted in unparalleled scandal – readers benefit from the
remarkable perspectives all three authors share with their readers.
Their writing brings important insights, as well as a sense of
candor about our free enterprise system that is often missing from
public and academic discourse. And their work is detailed,
objective, definitive, includes the latest developments – it has
much to teach those engaged in business, education, and government
regulation.
Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial
Freedom at Any Age [ABRIDGED] by David Bach,
5 CDs (Random House Audio)
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who’ve saved too
little and borrowed too much will never catch up financially. Why?
Because they don’t know how.
Whether in their thirties, forties, fifties, or even older, David
Bach shows readers that they really can start late and still live to
finish rich – and they can get a plan in place fast.
Start Late, Finish Rich contains the plan. It’s easy to follow,
and based on proven financial principles.
Bach advises readers to find their ‘Latte Factor’ – something
they are currently wasting money on that they can give up – and
turbo charge it to save money they didn’t know they had. For
example, they can get rich in real estate – by starting small.
Another example, readers can start a business on the side – while
they keep the old job and continue earning a paycheck. Readers can
spend less, save more and make more – and it doesn’t have to hurt.
Bach, author of the runaway bestseller The Automatic Millionaire,
which spent fourteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list,
gives readers step-by-step instructions. The book also contains
worksheets, phone numbers and website addresses to help readers put
their ‘Start Late’ plan into place fast. He also shares the stories
of ordinary Americans who have turned their lives around, at thirty,
forty, fifty, even sixty years of age, and are now financially free.
Bach says: ‘They did it, and now it’s your turn.’
Straight-shooting, action-oriented tips for getting a handle on [your] spending and saving habits . . . presented in a straightforward, non-intimidating manner perfect for the personal finance newbie. – ABCNews.com
… Anyone can finish rich, says Bach (Automatic Millionaire,
etc.), if they are willing to ‘spend less, save more, and make
more.’ The bulk of the book describes a variety of tactics and
strategies (many covered in his previous books) for accomplishing
these three tasks. Readers of financial help books will have heard
many of Bach's ideas before, but he does deliver a lion's share of
solid advice in an entertaining format, and, for good measure, he
throws in an occasional counterintuitive gem, such as why paying off
credit card debt can be "a huge mistake."… – Publishers Weekly
David Bach is the one expert to listen to when you’re intimidated by
your finances. His easy-to-understand program will show you how to
afford your dreams. – Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant
Within
With Bach at one’s side, it’s never too late to change one’s
financial destiny. In
Start Late, Finish Rich, a motivating, swift read or listen,
readers learn how to ramp up the road to financial security with the
principles of spend less, save more, make more – and also, according
to Bach, live more. And he gives readers a plan to do it.
Business & Investing / Public Policy
It's Legal But It Ain't Right: Harmful Social Consequences of Legal Industries edited by Nikos Passas & Neva R. Goodwin (Evolving Values for a Capitalist World Series: The University of Michigan Press)
It's Legal But It Ain't Right tackles these issues, plus the
ethical ambiguities of legalized gambling, the firearms trade, the
fast food industry, the pesticide industry, private security
companies, and more.
In
It's Legal But It Ain't Right a wide range of scholars,
journalists, and policy analysts present essays examining the
‘lawful but awful’ practices that populate the gray area between
legality and morality. Significant challenges remain to better
define the problems, to further document and analyze some of the
most significant externalities, to launch a debar, toward the
redefinition of legitimacy in business practices, and to propose
concrete and practical courses of action. Recognizing that their
mission requires a change in social attitudes, the first task is to
create wide awareness that many practices that are now legal
(actually or potentially) can cause us all grave harm.
Most generally, the authors in
It's Legal But It Ain't Right see the need for transparency,
accountability, and regulation. But this effort will not really
succeed without a reshaping of cultural norms and the acceptance of
responsibility by those whose decisions shape corporate behavior.
According to editors Nikos Passas, Professor in the College of
Criminal Justice at Northeastern University and Neva Goodwin,
Co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at
Tufts University, corporate executives are not always aware of the
ultimate consequences of their actions or failures to act, whether
because of compartmentalization, specialization, or neglect. These
leaders need to be challenged and asked, When do you become
responsible? When should you know that your corporate practice is
wrong? Individual responsibility is about saying, "I won't do it
because it's wrong." This can be supported by accountability
(creating legal and other institutions that allow those affected by
externalities to challenge the individual and institutional actors)
and transparency (making it easy for others to see the
externalities). Responsibility goes beyond but is strongly supported
by accountability and transparency, giving conscience a hearing even
when there is little likelihood of getting caught.
Changes in the norms that guide behavior in corporations will
require wide public support. A key goal of
It's Legal But It Ain't Right, therefore, is to change social
attitudes so that people both inside and outside the industries in
question no longer think that whatever is not illegal is okay. In
some cases it is desirable to change laws; more often, the need is
to redefine legitimacy. The two may have to be pursued in parallel.
Changing laws sometimes changes legitimacy (gambling unfortunately
became legitimate when it became legal). Changing legitimacy
sometimes changes laws (as illustrated in issues relating to the
environment or with tobacco).
It's Legal But It Ain't Right chronicles the abuse of power and
privilege by businesses that defy the strictures of law and limits
of regulation. Contributors stretch the conceptual boundaries of
corporate deviance across a wide range of industries at a time when
standards of corporate social responsibility and good corporate
citizenship are in flux. – William S. Laufer, The Wharton School of
Business
This delightful and serious book involves a matter I have long
felt of first importance. That is our tendency to make social truth
and acceptance conform to personal or larger corporate interests. On
this I have written, but gladly yield to this persuasive parallel.
No one concerned with literate, informed, and relevant – as distinct
from self-serving – truth should miss
It's Legal But It Ain't Right. – John Kenneth Galbraith
This absorbing and well-written book of essays on the harmful
consequences of legal industries skillfully illuminates the ways in
which some corporate harms fail to be transformed into criminal
law-making and enforcement, and offers cogent suggestions for better
regulation in the public interest. – Dr. Michael Levi, Professor of
Criminology, Cardiff University
An accessible exploration of corporate legitimacy and crime,
It's Legal But It Ain't Right will be important reading for
advocates, journalists, students, and anyone interested in the
dichotomy between law and legitimacy. Aiming to identify industries
and goods that undermine our societal values and to hold them
accountable for their actions, this wide-ranging collection makes a
valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion of ethics in our
time.
Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on
Consumer Culture by Robert Spector (
In Category Killers, veteran business journalist Robert Spector explores the rise of retail's reigning disruptor: retailers who seek to dominate a distinct classification of merchandise and wipe out the competition. Based on decades of research and investigative reporting, Spector vividly recounts how ‘category killers’ from Toys R Us and Home Depot to Wal-Mart and Costco have rewritten the retail playbook and, in the process, profoundly altered cultural and economic factors.
Spector explores the brilliant strategies that have enabled category killers to overpower department stores, regional chains, and mom-and-pop stores and to reshape the concept of shopping malls.
According to Spector, we are observing the last gasps of both the so-called ‘traditional’ department store, and, in turn, the classic shopping mall. At the same time, we are witnessing a metamorphosis of the urban/suburban experience as Main Street and the mall are meeting to form something entirely new. Expansion – both domestically and abroad – is the economic imperative of every one of the category killers; if they do not grow; they die. However in their search for growth, their aggressive expansion strategies have led to the inevitable backlash, as many local governments, under pressure from local and national anti-sprawl activists, land-use experts, and competing independent retailers, take a closer look at the toll of these stores on land-use legislation, farmland, taxation, migration patterns, traffic patterns, infrastructure, wages, and jobs – the ones they add and the ones they take away (by eliminating other retailers). Spector outlines the specific ways category killers feed and are fed by consumer demand, and warns that they might fall victim to the changing consumer landscape unless they get in touch with the desires of the communities that have grown up around them.
…Anyone interested in the future of shopping, from both a business and cultural perspective, will find this book to be a useful primer. – Publishers Weekly
Robert Spector has once again provided a historically accurate
and insightful portrait of American retailing in terms of where it
is and where it's going. This is a compelling read for anyone who
professes to know a thing or two about the retail industry,
especially with regard to what the future might hold. – Bob
DiNicola, Chairman, Zale Corp.
Category Killers is thorough, fact-filled, and engaging. It is
the best history I have read of the development and ramifications of
large-scale retailing. – Joseph H. Ellis, former partner and head of
the Retail Research Group, Goldman Sachs
Robert Spector is America's preeminent retail historian. In the tradition of Stephen Ambrose, Spector's books are aimed at a popular audience looking for an enjoyable and informative read. – Paco Unerhill, Founder and Managing Director, Envirosell, Inc.
Based on research and reporting, absorbing and insightful,
Category Killers is at once a vivid journey down the aisles of
retailing history and an incisive analysis of modern retail's most
influential players.
Category Killers offers an unbiased, and engaging analysis of
the history of category killers and their impact and strategies –
good and bad – on the retail industry. Spector reveals the secrets
behind ‘big-box’ retailers – and also the ‘weak spots’ that leave
room for new entrants to become tomorrow's category killers.
Computers & Internet / Business & Investing
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003: A Problem-Solving Approach by Debra Gross, Frank Akaiwa & Karleen Nordquist (Course Technology)
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003, part of
the new Succeeding in Business Series, prepares readers to solve
real-life business problems using the popular spreadsheet software
Microsoft Office Excel 2003. Written by Debra Gross, Ohio State
University; Frank Akaiwa, Indiana University; and Karleen Nordquist,
College of St. Benedict and
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 focuses
on learning how to solve problems using Excel, widely used in
business as a tool for solving problems and supporting decision
making, although the concepts and tasks presented could apply to a
variety of computer applications and programming languages. There
are two perceptions of Excel to consider: one is that Excel is the
obvious extension of the desktop calculator into the personal
computer; the other is that Excel is a powerful tool for the
manipulation and analysis of data. Data is usually analyzed to
provide support for whether or not to take some course of action a
decision. Not all decisions require a spreadsheet for analysis, but
many of the complexities faced in business are made simpler and
easier to understand when a tool like Excel is employed properly.
One of the main goals of
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 is that
readers will ‘learn how to learn,’ becoming confident in their own
ability to explore new Excel features and tools to solve problems
and support their decisions.
For example, the spreadsheet could be used to evaluate ‘what’
would happen ‘if’:
-
The organization cut sale prices by 5%.
-
The sales volume increased by 10%.
-
The organization improved its inventory turnover by 8%.
-
The organization issued $1,000,000 in bonds.
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 focuses
on how to use Excel as a decision support tool and shows readers
that a spreadsheet is far more than a sophisticated calculator; it
is used extensively at the highest level of decision making.
Throughout
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003, readers
are presented with various problems to solve or analyses to complete
using different Excel tools and features. Each chapter in the book
presents three levels of problem solving. Level 1 deals with basic
problems or analyses that require the application of one or more
spreadsheet tools, focusing on the implementation of those tools.
However, problem solving not only requires readers to know how to
use a tool, but, more importantly, why or when to use which tool.
So, with Level 2 the problems and analyses presented increase in
complexity. By the time readers reach Level 3, the complexity
increases further, providing them with opportunities for more
advanced critical thinking and problem solving. Each level ends with
a section called ‘Steps To Success,’ which provides hands-on
practice of the skills and concepts presented in that level.
In the Case Problems at the end of each chapter, not only does
the degree of complexity increase, matching how the material is
presented in each level, but the structure of the problem to be
solved decreases as well. The goal is to move readers toward an
environment that is more like the real business world they will
encounter during internships and upon graduation from college.
The reader is drawn into the challenges and joys of problem
solving rather than simply being given, rather mechanically, ‘how
to’ instructions and then rather mundane situations in which to
apply the mechanics. What's more, the problem sets at the back of
the chapter provide interesting and appropriate contexts for
application of the material. – Thomas J. Schriber, University of
Michigan
Succeeding in Business with Microsoft Office Excel 2003 starts
students where they are and teaches them, through practical
application, the skills of problem solving with Excel. The CD gives
readers a chance to practice the ‘mechanics,’ such as navigating and
organizing a worksheet, entering text and values, writing simple
formulas, and applying basic formatting, before they start applying
the skills to solve problems.
The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Light Meals Book by Donald
Gazzaniga & Maureen A. Gazzaniga, with a
foreword by Dr. Michael B. Fowler (Thomas Dunne Books)
Don Gazzaniga was sixty-three years old when he was diagnosed
with congestive heart failure and was about to be placed on a heart
transplant list. His doctor advised him to limit his sodium intake
to 1,500 mg a day, but Gazzaniga decided to do more. He headed for
the kitchen and found ways to drastically remove sodium from
everyday dishes and still leave them delicious and easy to prepare.
Gazzaniga has been sharing his life-giving recipes on his website
and has received thousands of appreciative responses from readers of
The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook. That first cookbook was a
surprise to medical professionals and their patients alike, because
doctors had always believed that no one could get below 1500
milligrams of sodium in a daily diet. "Keep it at that level,"
Gazzaniga's doctor told the sixty-three-year-old Gazzaniga in 1997.
After three years of following his own recipes, Gazzaniga was no
longer considered a candidate for a heart transplant.
In this new volume,
The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Light Meals Book, he provides tips on
where to purchase low sodium products, and, as he has done
previously, he lists the amounts of sodium each ingredient adds, the
amount per serving, and the total amount per recipe, showing readers
not only how to live and eat healthy, but also that they can do so
without sacrificing taste and enjoyment. For readers want to
celebrate their grandson's third birthday, or their doctor's latest
green light, with a party and need delicious tidbits for the guests,
they will be pleased by this new book. Readers who feel like a light
lunch – a salad, a sandwich, a bowl of soup – will find it in
Maureen Gazzaniga’s specialties. And there are sections explaining
where to buy special flavorings and the like, how to substitute
low-sodium or sodium-free ingredients, and a foreword by Dr. Michael
Fowler, director of the Stanford Heart Transplant Program and
medical director of the Stanford Cardiomyopathy Center.
For the millions of people diagnosed with congestive heart
failure and/or high blood pressure,
The No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Light Meals Book offers valuable
recipe alternatives and new hope for a healthier life.
African Americans in the U.S. Economy edited by Cecilia A. Conrad, John Whitehead, Patrick Mason, & James Stewart (Rowman & Littlefield, Publishers)
The chapters in
African Americans in the U.S. Economy represent the work of some
of the nation's most distinguished scholars on the various topics
presented. The individual chapters cover several well-defined areas,
including black employment and unemployment, labor market
discrimination, black entrepreneurship, racial economic inequality,
urban revitalization, and black economic development. A study guide,
designed to promote student comprehension of the ideas and
terminology in the individual chapters with the goal of enhancing
critical thinking skills, is also available.
Despite over three hundred years of participation in the U.S.
economy, African Americans continue to be excluded from the full
realization of the American dream. African Americans represented
12.3 percent of the U.S. population in 2000 but received only 9
percent of the income and owned only 3 percent of the assets. Yet,
economics textbooks, particularly those for introductory students,
are either silent about the economic influence of race or provide
only a cursory overview of Gary Becker's theory of discrimination.
Because Becker's theory predicts that race does not matter, scholars
of racial inequality have focused on developing explanations other
than race for persistent racial differences in economic status.
African Americans in the U.S. Economy takes a different
approach. The chapters in this book begin with the premise that race
matters – and then proceed with an analysis of the implications of
race and racism for the economic status of African Americans and for
the operation of the American economy. This approach challenges the
adequacy of neoclassical, mainstream economic analysis as a useful
paradigm in explaining the persistence of racial inequality; hence,
it also challenges the validity of the neoclassical paradigm for
explaining the general distribution of income and wealth, the
operation of labor and capital markets, and the competitive process.
The chapters in
African Americans in the U.S. Economy span the ideological
spectrum of economics, from neoclassical theory to Marxian analysis
of class. While most focus on the economic impact of racism on
African Americans, not all of the authors are economists, nor are
they exclusively African American. Although the authors begin with
the shared premise that race matters, they do not always agree about
its implications for the economic status of African Americans, nor
do they agree about the appropriate public policies to ameliorate
its effects.
Despite the diversity of perspectives represented in
African Americans in the U.S. Economy, several broad themes do
emerge. The first is that neoclassical economic theory cannot
adequately explain racial differences in economic status.
Competitive markets not only fail to erase the effects of racial
discrimination, but they tend to reproduce the inequality that
racial bias creates. A second broad theme in
African Americans in the U.S. Economy is that history matters.
Because competitive markets tend to reproduce inequality,
restrictions on economic opportunities in the past affect the
present. This history of racial oppression and exclusion created the
conditions under which African Americans participate in the
contemporary U.S. economy. This history has also left African
Americans especially vulnerable to structural changes in the U.S.
and the global economy, the third broad theme in
African Americans in the U.S. Economy. Most conservative
economists believe that competitive markets are self-correcting and
that the effects of racial discrimination will disappear over time
and without government action. Once again,
African Americans in the U.S. Economy offers a different
perspective, of which the fourth theme is that a laissez-faire
approach will not reduce racial inequality. The authors advocate
traditional forms of intervention, such as enforcing
antidiscrimination laws and endorsing new strategies.
A final broad theme that emerges from the chapters of
African Americans in the U.S. Economy is that social capital
matters. Paraphrasing Shondra Nash and Cedric Herring in this
volume, social capital "consists of cohesive community networks that
indicate trust and cooperation based on a common culture and goals,
group loyalty, a sense of identity and belonging, and coordinated
actions." Social capital is a critical ingredient to community
economic development strategies, and institutions such as churches,
community-based businesses, and cooperative organizations help to
build and sustain social capital.
The forty-three chapters in
African Americans in the U.S. Economy are organized into nine
subsections: part I, Slavery and the Early Formation of Black Labor;
part II, Organized Labor and African Americans; part III, Theories
of Racial Discrimination, Inequality, and Economic Progress; part
IV, Current Economic Status of African Americans; part V,
Globalization and Its Impact on the Economic Well-Being of Americans
and Latinos; part VI, Black Capitalism; part VII, Education,
Employment, Training, and Social Welfare; part VIII, Understanding
Black Reparations; and part IX, African American Economic
Development and Urban Revitalization Strategies.
Part I examines the historical role played by blacks in the building
of the U.S. economy and in the emergence of the black working class.
It documents the development of a capitalist world system dependent
on slavery and the importance of black slaves to American economic
development. Philip Foner describes the origins of the international
slave trade and its role in financing the British industrial
revolution. William Darity, Jr. links the wealth created by the
slave trade to the contemporary prosperity of the United States and
Europe and to the economic stagnation of many African countries.
James Stewart focuses attention on how black labor was mobilized
on plantations to generate profits that fueled economic growth in
the Southern and the Northern states.
The last two chapters in part I provide accounts of the economic
circumstances of African Americans following the Civil War. Daniel
Fusfeld and Timothy Bates describe the operation of the Southern
sharecropping system, which led to the super-exploitation of black
sharecroppers and their condition of chronic debt. Philip Foner
examines how World War I created new employment opportunities for
blacks in the urban North, spurring the largescale emigration of
blacks from the South.
Part II continues the examination of black labor in the
post-Civil War period. It chronicles the early attempts to recruit
black workers into organized labor and the racist union practices
that excluded blacks from most trade unions in the period
immediately following the Civil War. William Harris describes the
history of blacks and trade unions. Philip Foner recounts how the
exclusion of blacks from white unions led to the formation of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. In the final chapter of part
II, James Stewart provides a detailed case study of attempts to
overcome racism within the United Steel Workers of America during
the pivotal years 1948-1970.
Part III builds on this historical foundation to analyze the
economic status of African Americans. Part III presents and
critiques the major theories of discrimination and racial economic
inequality. John Whitehead's chapter compares conservative and
liberal theories of discrimination, highlighting the strengths and
weaknesses of each theory. Whitehead concludes that neither
conservatives nor liberals have developed an adequate theoretical
model of how capitalism can exploit a racial distribution of
resources. Peter Bohmer's chapter continues Whitehead's discussion
of the capitalism-racism nexus by looking at its treatment within
the Marxist theory of racism and racial inequality. Timothy Bates
and Daniel Fusfeld present a radical version of the crowding model.
They argue that the crowding of black workers into the secondary,
low-wage job sector worsens black-white income differentials and
contributes to other racial differences in economic outcomes. Mary
King's chapter presents a unique twist to the analysis of racial
economic disparities by looking at racial violence as a tool for
economic repression and for the enforcement of unequal property
rights in ‘whiteness.’ James Stewart and Major Coleman conclude this
section with a chapter that introduces the black political economy
model that highlights the economic value of racial identity and
examines the linkages between racial identity production and
economic disparities.
Parts IV, V, and VI examine economic outcomes for African
Americans today. In the first chapter of part IV, Susan Williams
McElroy discusses the relationship between education and labor
market outcomes. Her research demonstrates that, while educational
attainment plays a crucial role in labor market outcomes, it does
not fully account for disparities in earnings for race-gender
groups. In the chapter "Persistent Racial Discrimination in the
Labor Market," Patrick Mason challenges Becker's prediction that
competitive markets will destroy racial discrimination within the
labor market, through an examination of the relationship between the
racial wage gap and changes in the quality and the quantity of
schooling. In a second paper, coauthored with Gary Dymski, Mason
shifts attention from labor markets to financial markets, examining
racial differences in access to credit. The next two chapters focus
on the economic status of African American women: Cecilia Conrad
describes the movement of black women into clerical and sales jobs
after 1960, a change she attributes to the enforcement of equal
employment laws and the narrowing wage gap between black and white
women, which she attributes to legislation and to improvements in
educational attainment. Cecilia Conrad and Mary King then focus on
the status of one group of African American women – single mothers
who maintain families – and they examine the economic and social
factors contributing to the high proportion of black families headed
by single women. The differences in income, access to credit, and
family structure described in these five chapters have long-term
consequences for the accumulation of wealth. Hence, it is
appropriate that part IV concludes with Thomas Shapiro and Jessica
Kenty-Drane's chapter on racial differences in the accumulation of
wealth.
The chapters in part V examine the impact of globalization on the
socioeconomic well-being of people of color in the United States
with particular attention to African Americans. Peter Dorman gives
an in-depth analysis of the impact of increased capital mobility on
employment in black and Latino communities. Jessica Gordon Nembhard,
Steven Pitts, and Patrick Mason describe the consequences of
corporate-driven globalization for economic inequality within the
black community. The remaining three chapters focus on specific
aspects of globalization: the shrinkage of the public sector (Mary
King), immigration (Steven Shulman and Robert Smith), and the
expansion of the penal system (Andrew Barlow).
Part VI examines the characteristics of black-owned businesses,
from barbershops to hip-hop entrepreneurs, and debates the merits of
black capitalism as a strategy for black economic advancement.
Manning Marable describes the early history of black-owned
businesses. The next two chapters examine the current status of
black-owned businesses (Cecilia Conrad) and banks (Gary Dymski and
Robert Weems Jr.). Part VI continues with two provocative chapters,
written by Robert Weems Jr. and by Dipannita Basu, on hip-hop
culture and its implications for black business development. In the
final chapter of part VI, Earl Ofari Hutchinson worries that black
capitalism will exacerbate class divisions among African Americans.
He cautions that black capitalism by itself will not have a major
impact on black economic well-being because of the small size of the
black-owned business sector.
The remaining sections of
African Americans in the U.S. Economy suggest alternative
strategies for improving the economic position of African Americans.
Part VII examines public policies to improve the educational
attainment and incomes of individual blacks. Howard Fuller and Louis
Schubert each debate the merits of school voucher programs, and
Michael Stoll and Bernard Anderson each identify effective policies
to increase black youth employment prospects. Linda Burnham
discusses the consequences of welfare reform for black families.
Part VIII explores critical aspects of the growing and
controversial reparations movement. Robert Allen presents an
overview of past and present black efforts to obtain reparations.
Richard America uses a general theory of restitution to make the
case that reparations are due to African Americans, and he discusses
policy options for payment. William Darity, Jr. and Dania Frank
discuss precedents for reparations payments to blacks emerging from
the experiences of Americans Indians, Japanese Americans, and Jews.
Part IX presents various economic development and revitalization
strategies to address some of the challenges that face African
Americans in the dawn of the new millennium. John Whitehead and
David Landes emphasize the importance of attracting debt and equity
capital to support the development of minority businesses that are
linked to high-growth sectors of the economy. Rose shows how
equitable development strategies can be used to lessen the adverse
effects of gentrification that often accompanies community
revitalization efforts. The next chapters discuss the job and wealth
creation potential of the black church (Shondrah Nash and Cedric
Herring) and of black-owned businesses (Thomas Boston). In the final
chapter of this section, John Whitehead and James Stewart examine
the potential role of black athletes as a funding source for
broad-based inner-city investment initiatives.
Taken as a whole,
African Americans in the U.S. Economy provides a comprehensive
overview of the historical, contemporary, and prospective economic
challenges that have confronted and currently confront African
Americans in an ever-evolving global capitalist regime. The range
and detail of the information presented in the various chapters
provide a solid foundation for developing new approaches that can
move society toward providing true equal economic opportunity for
all.
African Americans in the U.S. Economy builds upon, and
significantly extends, the principles, terminology, and methods of
standard economics and black political economy. The book is written
in a style free of the technical jargon that characterizes most
economics textbooks. While methodologically sophisticated, the book
is accessible to a wide range of students and the general public and
will appeal to academicians and practitioners alike.
Getting Ahead: Fundamentals of College Reading by JoAnn Yaworski (Pearson Longman)
The college reading class poses a tremendous challenge to
literacy educators – lack of reading skills is the greatest barrier
to success in all disciplines.
Getting Ahead covers the foundations of basic reading
comprehension, including improvement and practice of study,
vocabulary, sentence building, and critical thinking skills. The
goal of the text is to build the reader's motivation – about
themselves, their life situation, and their academic situation – in
order to excel or ‘get ahead’ in both their academic and
professional careers. Written by JoAnn Yaworski, developmental
reading teacher in the Department of Literacy at
The main difference between college and high school is reading.
High school teachers spend approximately 25 hours per week providing
students with academic information via lectures and class activities
while students are not required to read much – if at all. In
college, students spend only 12-15 hours in classes with the
professor covering three times the amount of information. In other
words, the college classroom time is reduced by half while the
amount of information the student is expected to learn triples.
Getting Ahead provides instruction in basic reading, vocabulary,
grammar, critical reading, and study skills. Approximately 200
cross-disciplinary readings from college textbooks reflect the types
of reading students are required to comprehend for their college
courses and for national or statewide reading exams – biology,
sociology, psychology, chemistry, communications, history, physical
science, economics, geography, geology, and English. Each chapter
focuses on a fundamental reading skill and leads students through a
progression that become increasingly more difficult. This structure
allows students to focus quickly and experience success immediately
while learning new skills and strategies for reading college-level
materials. The gradual increase in the length and difficulty of the
excerpts makes it easier for students to maintain a level of success
throughout the chapter without feeling overly challenged. This
scaffolding strategy builds students’ confidence that they are
capable of not only basic comprehension but advanced thinking as
well.
Chapter coverage:
- Chapter 1 focuses on motivation because so much can be
accomplished when students are highly motivated to learn.
- Chapter 2 addresses time management skills and the PQ4R
method for reading textbook chapters. These skills are addressed
early on in the text to enable students to begin applying this
knowledge to their college studies.
- Chapter 3 shows students various ways to learn vocabulary,
including context clues, structural analysis (prefixes,
suffixes, and roots), and dictionary use.
- Chapters 4 and 5 cover main idea and provide scaffolding
through the use of practice exercises that segment longer
readings.
- Chapter 6 presents four simple text structures: (1) term,
definition, and example, (2) topic with a list, (3) process, and
(4) chronological order.
- Chapters 7, 8, and 9 respectively cover inference, purpose
and tone, and critical thinking. Four different types of
inference are highlighted in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8, purpose is
looked at from three perspectives: (1) to inform, (2) to
entertain, and (3) to persuade. In Chapter 9, reason and
consequence are used to show the logical steps in drawing a
conclusion.
- Note-taking – from both lectures and textbooks – and exam
preparation are highlighted in Chapters 10 and 11.
- Speed-reading exercises consistent with current research are
provided in Chapter 12. Comprehension of thought is emphasized.
Students are shown how to think more quickly instead of sole
reliance on moving the eyes faster.
- Finally, the Appendix offers a brief English handbook that
focuses on grammar with respect to parts of speech (e.g., nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions) and basic
sentence structures.
Each chapter includes a demonstration of a reading skill along with practice exercises. The practice exercises include readings that become progressively longer and more difficult.
I ... like the format of [the readings] much better than in
previous textbooks I have used. I particularly like the short blurbs
at the beginning to trigger background knowledge on the subject. The
author's style of writing is so engaging that all the exercises,
practices, boxes, and texts are woven together as a seamless whole.
It is far superior to anything I have used in the past. – Pamela L.
Gray, Austin Community College
Chapter 7 offers an excellent review of implied main idea, a
skill students have difficulty grasping. The Visual Literacy and
Getting Ahead Boxes ... are a challenging and ‘fun’ way to bridge
the familiar with the unfamiliar. [They] build confidence because
they hone in on one skill at a time, which allows students to be
successful.... Overall, this is a quality textbook that will give
instructors flexibility. – Tammy Frankland, Casper College
I love the letters and essays from former reading students.... This book is different from content-area textbooks. Students need to understand that there are learning skills, strategies, and concepts that they must learn and apply to their reading tasks. Overall, the purpose and organization of the text are well explained. – Jean Gorgie, Santa Monica College
Getting Ahead targets those interested in improving basic reading skills; it provides the college reading instructor with the tools to help students cope with the academic transition to college. It assists and motivates students in developing the basic and critical reading skills that will enable them to pass, and excel in, college-level, cross-disciplinary courses. Scaffolding, progressions, and vocabulary terms are provided to ease students from easy to more difficult readings. In this way, it is possible to challenge students without upsetting or discouraging them or making them feel incapable and unprepared. High-interest topics are provided to help students develop confidence in reading expository text information. Attention is given is also given study strategies.
EducationMultiple Intelligences Reconsidered edited by Joe L. Kincheloe (Counterpoints Series, V. 278: Peter Lang)
Twenty years after the publication of Howard Gardner's Frames of
Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Joe L. Kincheloe,
Professor of Education at the CUNY Graduate Center Urban Education
Program and at
When editor Kincheloe and the authors first read Howard Gardner's
theory of multiple intelligences (MI) in 1983, they were profoundly
impressed by the challenge he issued to traditional psychology,
particularly psychometrics. They believed that Gardner stood with
them in their efforts to develop psychological and educational
approaches that facilitated the inclusion of students from
marginalized groups whose talents and capabilities had been
mismeasured by traditional psychological instruments. Gardner's
theory appeared to assume a wider spectrum of human abilities that
were, for some reason or another, excluded from the domain of
educational psychology and the definition of intelligence. They
taught multiple intelligences theory to their students in hopes of
exposing and overcoming some of the ways particular students were
hurt by these exclusionary disciplinary practices. As Gardner has
continued to develop his theory over the last twenty years, those
associated with this book grew increasingly uncomfortable with many
of his assertions and many of the dimensions he excluded from his
work. A few wars ago they decided it was time to undertake a
comprehensive questioning of the theory and Gardner's work
surrounding it.
Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered is the result of that
project.
Our point here is not to issue some reductionistic validation or
repudiation of Gardner's work. They are more interested in raising
questions about the nature of mind, self-production, intelligence,
justice, power, teaching, and learning arising from a careful
confrontation with his scholarship. They respect Gardner, the work
he has produced, and the constructive passions he has elicited from
a variety of individuals and they do not mean for such unsparing
criticism to be taken as a personal attack.
Frames of Mind was received enthusiastically because it struck
all the right chords:
- Learning is culturally situated.
- Different communities value different forms of intelligence.
- Cognitive development is complex, not simply a linear,
cause-effect process.
- Creativity is an important dimension of intelligence.
- Psychometrics does not measure all aspects of human ability.
- Teaching grounded on psychometrically inspired standardized
testing is often deemed irrelevant and trivial by students.
Throughout
Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered, various authors explore
different dimensions of this sociopolitical theme. Most of the
critiques of MI emerged from more conservative analysts, arguing
that theory shifted educational priorities away from development of
logic, in the process producing a trivialized, touchy-feely mode of
education. In
Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered, the authors provide a
progressive critique, maintaining that despite all its democratic
promise Gardner's theory has not met the expectations of its
devotees. The reasons for this failure are multidimensional and
complex, as the authors of this volume delineate. One aspect of the
failure comes from Gardner's inability to grasp the social,
cultural, and political forces that helped shape the initial
reception of MI. Even when he addresses what he describes as a
‘dis-ease’ in American society, Gardner fails to historicize the
concept in a way that provides him a larger perspective on the
fascinating relationship between American socio-cultural, political,
and epistemological dynamics of the last two decades and MI theory.
The authors in
Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered are especially concerned
with the democratic and justice-related dimensions portended in
Gardner's early articulation of MI. Taking their cue from the
concerns of many people of color, the poor, colonized individuals,
and proponents of feminist theory, they raise questions about the
tacit assumptions of MI and its implications for both education and
the social domain. They raise questions about knowledge
production and power in the psychological domain in general and MI
in particular. Gardner seems either unable or unwilling to trace the
relationship of MI to these issues. Danny Wen's chapter in
Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered carefully delineates the
social alienation, the absence of situatedness that Gardner so
summarily dismisses from his work.
As post-formalists they deploy their power literacy to reveal
MI's ideological inscriptions. In this context they examine the
multiple and complex ways power operates to shape psychological
descriptions of human abilities and behaviors. For example, what is
labeled intelligence can never be separated from what dominant power
groups designate it to be. Thus, what Gardner attributes solely to
the authority of a Cartesian science always reveals the fingerprints
of power. What psychologists such as Gardner designate as
intelligence and aptitude always holds political and moral
significance. Kathleen Nolan illustrates this ideological dynamic
clearly in her chapter on linguistic intelligence. While Gardner's
notion of linguistic intelligence at first glance appears to value a
more equitable, suitable classroom it tacitly privileges the
language of the dominant culture as superior and the language of
marginalized groups as inferior.
Indeed, what post-formalists and any other cognitive theorists
designate as intelligence and aptitude produces specific
consequences. The important difference between post-formalism and
Gardner's psychology involves post-formalists' admission of such
ramifications and their subsequent efforts to shape them as
democratically, inclusive; and self-consciously as possible.
Gardner, concurrently, dismisses the existence of such political and
moral consequences and clings to the claim of scientific neutrality.
Despite these concerns the editor and authors of
Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered still believe there is value
in Gardner's work. In many of the chapters authors seek the kinetic
potential of Gardner's ideas in the socio-psychological and
educational domain. In this context they seek to retain the original
democratic optimism of Gardner's theories, confront him and his many
sympathizers with powerful paradigmatic insights refined over the
past twenty years, and move the conversation about MI forward with a
vision of a complex, rigorous, and transformative pedagogy.
By not exploring the ways power shapes educational purpose and
the knowledges validated by dominant culture, Gardner omits a huge
piece of the psycho-educational puzzle and leaves students
vulnerable to the sociopolitical and cultural forces that produce
disinformation in the contemporary informational landscape. This is
certainly not the intent of Gardner's education or a factor in
shaping MI theory. Gardner's vision is truncated; his sense of the
socio-historical is naive. Without substantial rethinking and
reconstitution, MI theory and the schooling it informs have reached
a conceptual dead end.
Chapters and authors include:
PART I: Introduction
- Joe L. Kincheloe – Twenty-first-Century Questions about
Multiple Intelligences
PART II: The Eight Intelligences
- Kathleen Nolan – The Power of Language: A Critique of the Assumptio