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- On "When Madness is Wisdom"
- Rambling Wisdom
- A Tragedy Worthy of Shakespeare
- A Satisfying Biography
- Disappointing Ramble
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Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage
Kendall Taylor
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald
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Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda
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ASIN: 0345447158
Release Date: 2001-08-28 |
Book Description
Irresistibly charming, recklessly brilliant, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald epitomized everything that was beautiful and damned about the Jazz Age. But behind the legend, there was a highly complex and competitive marriage–a union not of opposites but almost of twins who both inspired and tormented each other, and who were ultimately destroyed by their shared fantasies. Now in this frank, stylish, superbly written new book, Kendall Taylor tells the story of the Fitzgerald marriage as it has never been told before.
Following the success of Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, Scott and Zelda took New York by storm. Scott was recognized as the greatest American author of the twenties and everyone was fascinated with Zelda, his ravishing young wife, known as the model for all his flapper heroines. Ultimately it all fell apart, and Kendall Taylor tells us why. Drawing on previously suppressed material, including crucial medical records, Taylor sheds fresh light on Zelda’s depths and mysteries–her rich but largely unrealized artistic talents, her own ambitions that were unfulfilled because she was Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, her passionate love affairs. Zelda’s contribution to Scott’s fiction, which was based on her diaries, her letters, and her life, was her only great achievement–and for that she may have paid the terrible price of her own sanity.
In Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom, Kendall Taylor has created the definitive Fitzgerald biography. Written with sympathy, original insight, and dazzling style–and featuring memorable appearances from Edmund Wilson, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway, among others–this is a stunning portrait of a marriage, an age, and a fabulous but tragic woman.
Customer Reviews:
On "When Madness is Wisdom".......2005-09-08
"When Madness is Wisdom" is an excellent account of the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. While other biographical accounts tend to characterize Zelda as a crazed, selfish woman who kept her husband from writing and encouraged his drinking, the author does not indict Zelda. Rather, she shows how the behavior of each Fitzgerald resulted in a marriage that could have had no other outcome than what it did.
Zelda was broken largely because she had nothing of her own as far as a career and the knowledge that she willingly allowed Scott to use her diaries and ideas for his work. Scott began drinking heavily at Princeton, prior to meeting Zelda and was depicted as a largely insecure person who would have stayed in his cups anyway. For those who are seeking a biographical account of the Fitzgerald's marriage that is fair to both of them, "Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom" is a great read and encourages further study.
Rambling Wisdom.......2004-06-24
I am impressed with Kendall Taylor's supreme effort in writing this book. She has invested a great deal of her life, some thirty years, in researching all the material. It is a very interesting biography, but it seems she tries to do too much. There are so many details of the Fitzgeralds' friends and contemporaries that one gets bogged down in details. There are many repetitions of facts, and areas where one sees poor editing and sentence structure errors. It would appear that the author spent too much time on the book, and therefore its presentation is somewhat disjointed and disorganized. I would have preferred to see more emphasis on Zelda herself, instead of anecdotes regarding her frivolous lifestyle.
A Tragedy Worthy of Shakespeare.......2003-07-24
As an English major in college, I was required to reach much of F. Scott Fitzgerald, most particularly "The Great Gatsby" and "Tender Is the Night." And like many others of my ilk, I fell madly in love with the legend that was the Fitzgeralds. I went on to read everything I could get my hands on, from Scott's collected short stories to "The Beautiful and the Damned" to "This Side of Paradise" to the tragically unfinished "The Last Tycoon."
Through all of my Fitzgerald worship, I viewed Zelda as an "also-ran"--the madcap flapper, the passionate spouse and lover, the quintessential "roaring 20s girl," the great beauty who was her husband's muse-until she went crazy. I never took her seriously as an artist in her own right, and why should I have done so? Certainly until recent years, no biography of Fitzgerald painted her that way, and I found the few biographies of Zelda opinionated and suspect.
Now, with a fascinating work that took author Kendall Taylor 30 years (!!) to write, the tragedy that was Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald finally comes to light as never before. And for the first time, I realize that the incredibly brilliant prose that made up Scott's novels was often lifted VERBATIM from Zelda's most intimate and personal diaries, which Scott viewed as his own property, to be purloined at will. I find that some of his most cunning and original turn of phrase was taken VERBATIM from Zelda's unique, brilliant, colorful, and wholly her own way of speaking (probably, in fact, a precurser of the schizophrenia that was to overtake her). I find that Scott was so possessive of Zelda as his SOURCE that he actively forbade her to write on her own, although she showed great talent. He went so far as to write long letters to her various doctors forbidding them to allow her to write, and they agreed to do so! A highly creative, completely unique human being, Zelda was thwarted at every turn, whether her painting (which Scott ridiculed) her sad attempts to become a prima ballerina (equally ridiculed and the final step to her first breakdown) to anything else she attempted to do.
Scott, a difficult, vain, selfish and jealous human being, viewed Zelda as more than his lover and wife, as more than his helpmate and muse. He felt he owned the very words that fell from her mouth, and strongly resisted any attempt on her part to express herself apart from him, feeling that their mutual story belonged to him and him alone, as the novelist and breadwinner.
We all know the end of the story. Scott died much too young of heart disease and TB brought on by acute alcoholism. Zelda, in and out of mental hospitals from her late twenties on, died in a horrible fire at the institution where she was housed. These two bright flames, these two icons of The Jazz Age, these two physically gorgeous people, the flapper and her swain, were doomed from the start. But until the recent death of their only daughter, Scottie Lanahan, many of their papers, letters, diaries, and so forth, remained unavailable to the public. Taylor was given unprecedented access to these, and tells her tale in as objective a way as she can, given her subject matter. One must commend Ms. Taylor for her Herculean efforts and her fascinating story. Unfortunately, like many authors of today, she has fallen victim to the same bad editing that plagues most paperbacks in today's marketplace. Therefore, the paperback version of this book (which is the version I read) is plagued by silly grammatical mistakes and typos that Scott OR Zelda would have noticed. It isn't fair to Taylor, but so be it. Suffice to say that, upon reading the very last sentence of the very last page, I broke into sobs. I now wish to go on and read Zelda's collected works (available from Amazon!), view all her artwork (ditto) and reread Scott's works-from the viewpoint of all I know now. I commend Ms. Taylor on a simply brilliant job.
A Satisfying Biography.......2003-02-07
Although quite academic and not an 'easy read', I enjoyed reading 'Sometimes Madness is Wisdom'. It has generated in me an interest to discover more about Zelda Fitzgerald which appeals to me personally, however, I do understand that some readers would find this biography frustrating in the way it leaves some questions unanswered. I think perhaps the author has set herself one goal and gotten caught up in another - ie. her introduction promises to reveal more of Zelda herself than her husband. What results is more an analysis of the marriage, as the subtitle indicates, but as a result neither Zelda nor the marriage are completely exposed. I certainly would not discourage anyone from reading 'Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom' because of this dichotomy. I would make two recommendations: 1)That this title will appeal to readers with an interest in history and/or literature as an academic pursuit more than readers of pop-bios 2) Wait for the paperback!
Disappointing Ramble.......2003-01-04
Although the author, Kendall Taylor, begins her biography with a disdainful look at how all biographies of Zelda are about F. Scott Fitzgerald, she proceeds to do the same thing, badly.
Not only does she discuss the friendship between the Fitzgerald's and the Hemingways. she also discuss all of their friends, enemies and the possible lovers of these same friends and enemies.
There is nothing new. The biography is not well written, which I generally expect from a English professor (too self-involved.} Beside the mediocre writing, the proofing is terrible, as is the editing--if there was any--leaving mistakes and errors galore.
If the reader is interested in Zelda and her descent into madness and what happened after Scott died, chose another book. I'm sorry I wasted the time and money on this one.
Book Description
"Black men look like they rule sport in America today. It was nothing like that in the 1930s. America was white and that was that. It didn't do you no good to dream of making it to the big time. It was impossible. And then, y'know, along came Jesse and along came Joe."
-- Ruth Owens, Jesse's late wife
n the summer of 1935, within weeks of each other, Joe Louis and Jesse Owens emerged as the first black superstars of world sport, and their subsequent political and social impact on America was nothing short of sensational. To fans (and even critics) the world over, they seemed larger than life, and yet in their endeavors they were unfailingly human: as vulnerable as they were courageous; as troubled as they were brilliant; as unsettled in themselves as they are now fixed in history.
Scrupulously researched and written in spare, eloquent prose, Heroes Without a Country vividly re-creates some of the most dramatic sporting events of the past century. In August 1936, in front of Hitler and an imposing phalanx of Nazi commanders, Jesse Owens, "the fastest man on earth," won an unprecedented four medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin. Two years later, in "the fight of the century," his great friend Joe Louis crushed Germany's Max Schmeling to signal the end of white supremacy in boxing. Like Jesse, Joe had been born to black sharecropping parents in a country demeaned by racism; together their victories became a rallying point for the disenfranchised black population of America. Idolized across the world, they were two young men at the pinnacle of their careers who overcame prejudice and fear to achieve their goals. Yet for both of them, success brought its own perils. In 1938, two years after winning his gold medals in Berlin, Owens was hounded out of amateur sports by the infamously tyrannical Olympic boss "Slavery Avery" Brundage and, facing financial ruin, he was reduced to running for money against dogs, horses, and even his friend Joe Louis. Later the two would be subjected to FBI investigations, harassed by the IRS, and beleaguered by debt and despair. Jesse watched Joe slip into drug addiction and mental illness.
In Heroes Without a Country, award-winning writer Donald McRae captures the uncanny coincidences and intertwined events that bound these men together -- through both triumph and tragedy -- and provides an intimate and thought-provoking dual portrait of two of the most important athletes of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
The Debt Owed To Joe Louis and Jesse Owens.......2007-02-09
Don McCrae,a white South African who once taught English in Soweto, turned his curiosity about a news story regarding a race between Jesse Owens and Joe Louis into a beatifully written,detailed story of two men from Jim Crow Alabama,who are both symbols of achievement-and of unique targets.In Owens case,just after the '36 Olympics-and obviously well before the current "rules" regarding "amateurs",Owens was forced to race horses,Joe Louis,etc. to make a living and investigated by J. Edgar Hoover;Joe Louis was hounded-below the belt-by the IRS.Obviously,there have never been bigger lb. for lb. black-or American sports heroes-and McCrae seems to make this argument contrasting the era of Louis and Owens with the era of Ali and the Smith-Carlos protest at the 1968 Olympics.This should be required reading,particularly for todays professional-and "amateur" athletes.
Great Book&A Must at all Schools.......2005-03-07
we are talking less than a Hundred Years ago which wasn't that long ago at all.we are only talking about almost 70 years back.it's scary to think that two of the Greatest Athletes Ever were treated so badly stateside. Joe Louis was a Great Champion& he did everything to distance himself from another Great Black Champion Jack Johnson because of the Politics&Hatered that went down.and the sad part Joe Louis still never was accepted. same thing with Jesse Owens.this brother won Medals&Faced Hitler face to face&didn't back down.but Being the Best still only meant 2nd Class Citizenship in America.it's truly sad&they aren't ever given enough due now as we speak about the Greatest Atheletes Ever. personally what Jesse Owens accomplished in the face of Hate with Hitler was right there with Jackie Robinson&Larry Dolby breaking the Color Line in Baseball IMO. Joe Louis the Brown Bomber was one of a kind as well. just remember this wasn't that long ago.
Heroes amid Horrors.......2004-02-13
Although the previous professional editorial reviews provide a fair description of this book, it's necessary to emphasize what an important piece of work this is. Heroes Without a Country is at times inspiring and uplifting, and at other times infuriating and saddening. The hatred and hypocrisy that Joe Louis and Jesse Owens had to endure throughout their lives and careers are staggering. Not only does this book discuss the achievements and struggles of these two great athletes, but it also provides a clear, unflinching portrait of what it was like in the apartheid of the South during the '30s and '40s--a reality that many would shy away from. Both Louis and Owens deserve to be considered on the same level of talent as other greats such as Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali. This book shows these men's strengths, their problems, and their triumphs, all of which played out in the midst of the racism of a country that could not accept them for who they were.
Book Description
Applies the recent `return to history' in film studies to the genre of classical Hollywood comedy as well as broadening the definition of those works considered central in this field.
Average customer rating:
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Music Is Your Forte (Shaw Greetings)
Mary Horner Collins
Manufacturer: Shaw
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Gifts
| Spirituality
| Religion & Spirituality
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| Books
Inspirational
| Spirituality
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0877885680
Release Date: 2000-03-07 |
Book Description
SO WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WITH YOUR LIFE?
“You should be a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant, a consultant, blah, blah, blah. Everywhere you turn people try to tell you who to be and what to do with your life. We call that the noise. Block it. Shed it. Leave it for the conformists. As a generation, we need to get back to focusing on individuality. Self-construction rather than mass production. Define your own road in life instead of traveling down someone else’s. Listen to yourself. Your road is the open road. Find it.”
—Mike and Nathan
*****
After college Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard had no idea what to do with their lives. All they’d been exposed to were standard career paths like doctor and consultant—roads that didn’t fit them at all.
To see what else was out there they took a roadtrip across the nation in a huge forty-foot RV to meet with people who had successfully defined their own paths in life—including the chairman of Starbucks; a lobsterman from Maine; the director of Saturday Night Live; the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic; the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States; head stylist for Madonna; and the CEO of National Geographic Ventures. All told, one hundred and forty people candidly shared their stories about how they got from college to the present. Now in Roadtrip Nation, Mike and Nathan share the most compelling tales with you.
Along the way, they explain how you, too, can get out there and meet people on your own. From making cold calls to asking stimulating interview questions, Roadtrip Nation will give you the tools to create a life that you’ll look back on and say: “I was true to myself every step of the way.”
Customer Reviews:
Trying to figure out what to do with your life.... this is the book for you!.......2007-01-06
I picked up this book when I graduated from college and had absolutely no idea where I was headed. This book is a quick, easy and enjoyable read. It includes interviews of people from a wide variety of professions. If you have ever looked at something that was successful and wondered how they got to where they are today... this book is for you too!
Get Out There and change your life........2006-07-02
This is an entirely different kind of career book by two guys who decided that all the standard career paths just weren't for them. So what did they do about? They didn't just buckle down and give up - no, they set out on a roadtrip to find out what else was really out there. The good news? You don't have to do the same thing...you can just benefit from their research.
Included in the book are interviews with a diverse group of business people - you've got everything from the lawyer that gave Erin Brochovich her start to the manager of the Michael Jordan brand (yeah, there's a guy who's job it is to do just that - who knew?). Each section includes the road map of the interview, which shows just how many options/choices each of us have. Some went to college; some didn't. Some did the expected; some didn't.
Also included are tips on how to get in and talk to people you thought you'd never have a chance at interviewing. Mike & Nathan give the scoop on how they did what they did...after all, you didn't think just anybody could pick up the phone to talk to the Chairman of Starbucks, did you?
Perhaps the best advice in the book comes from Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computers. He says "Don't be afraid to fail because that's usually when you learn." But, you'll find many other tidbits of information that can help you on your way. I know I learned a few things, though I guess I'm lucky enough to actually know what I want to do when I grow up. ;-)
Recommended for readers aged 14 and up or anyone questioning their current career path. Yep, that's right - anyone can find the right road if they're willing to just get out there and do a bit of traveling.
Kimberly Pauley, The Young Adult Books Goddess @ YABooksCentral.com
Inspirational entrepreneurial stories.......2005-01-22
While promoted as a guide for college graduates, this book is truly an entrepreneurial bible for every age. Rather than delivering stale status reports from founders of companies like Barnes & Noble, Starbucks and Dell, you'll learn what drove these visionaries to buck the system, overcome objections, and follow their passions. For anyone who has ever woken up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and thought "what the heck am I doing with my life?" keep this book by your bedside and your dreams at the forefront.
Insights from the fortunate few........2004-09-24
Its hard to argue with the notion that life is more fulfilling if you do something you like. So, if you are just starting out in life and have wealthy, supportive parents or you don't mind starving, by all means, go for it.
But the bottom line is that these people are exceptions to the rule. And they were lucky. If all it took was hard work and a dream there wouldn't be a dentist or a tax preparer in America.
Honestly, I don't know what the answer is. But I have noticed that many people who end up with dream jobs are folks who came from the wrong side of the tracks and thus had nothing to lose. If this describes you, well, you have nothing to lose.
So 3 stars for the entertainment but as a wise man once said "If you think you can't, you can't. If you think you can, you might."
This book will inspire you........2004-07-27
What do you want to be when you grow up?
It doesn't matter whether you're four, fourteen, or twenty-four years old --- the question never goes away. People say that you should be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a stockbroker, but they don't always consider that the goals and aspirations they've laid out for you may not quite match your own.
Authors Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard graduated from Pepperdine University in California, and realized that they were unhappy with their chosen fields of study. The problem was that they weren't sure what other career paths existed. But then they had an idea. They decided to go on a nationwide road trip and interview everyone who had a job that sounded interesting, from the CEO of Starbucks to Manny the Lobsterman. Thousands of phone calls, miles and dollars later, they put all of the interviews and their experiences together in a fascinating and often hilarious account of their talks with people from all walks of life.
Many of the successful people they interviewed were discouraged from pursuing their interests as children. They were told, "You'll never make any money dressing up your friends" (said to the woman who later became Madonna's stylist) or "If you don't go to college, you'll never get a good job" (said to the man who is now a senior vice-president at the Cartoon Network). All the people who were interviewed believe that being happy and doing what you want is more important than making a ton of money. If you're not sure what you want to do with your life, or even if you are, this book will inspire you to pursue the career of your dreams.
--- Reviewed by Carlie Kraft
Book Description
When a skeleton is all that's left to tell the story of a crime, Mary H. Manhein, otherwise known as "the bone lady," is called in. For almost two decades, Manhein has used her expertise in forensic pathology to help law enforcement agents--locally, nationally, and internationally--solve their most perplexing mysteries. She shares the extraordinary details of the often high-profile cases on which she works, and the science underlying her analyses. Here are Civil War skeletons, cases of alleged voodoo and witchcraft, crimes of political intrigue, and the before-and-after of facial reconstruction.
Written with the compassion and humor of a born storyteller, The Bone Lady is an unforgettable glimpse into the lab where one scientist works to reveal the human stories behind the remains.
"Whether reporting the stench, suffocating heat, or brutal sorties by biting insects in steamy bayous . . . Manheim is at once straightforward and appropriately droll. . . . She teaches us a great deal, often puncturing popular misconceptions." --Book Page
"A subtly creepy collection of stories . . . A rare, effective blend of entertainment and education." --Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews:
The Bone Lady.......2007-08-10
Everyone who opens this book will not put it down until it's finished! I have spoken with Dr. Manheim regarding her forensic work. She is,undoubtedly,one of the most entertaining, knowledgable and caring teachers I have ever encountered. I look forward to her next book.
Interesting--Needs More.......2007-01-12
After hearing Mary Manhein speak I was very interested in her book. In the book she did record many cases, and gave a pretty good overview of the field. The best part of the book was her retelling what brought her to become a forensic anthropologist. I was disappointed at the lack of real detail and depth in talking about the cases and the politics of the field.
The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist.......2006-03-06
This is a wonderful book. It is fun to read about Mary Manheim's childhood and her career and the cases she has worked on. The short chapters focus on particular cases she has helped solve. It is sprinkled through out with stories of life in Louisiana.
Skip it, its just fluff.......2006-02-14
Don't waste your time or money on this one as there are far better forensic books out there. This book was just a collection of short narratives reading more like a personal diary than any kind of scientific narrative laying out the facts of cases. I guess it lives up to its subtitle of "Life as a Forensic Anthropologist" in that she usually presents only HER part in each case with little presentation of the entire case. The forensic cases are not really the star of this book, the author is. I was frustrated with the lack of depth. Instead, read "The Body Farm" by Bill Bass. Excellent storytelling there! He gives you personal stories, but also provides all the fascinating forensic info to provide a complete picture for the cases he has investigated.
No there there.......2005-08-20
I found this book quite tedious, since the author makes the fundamental mistake of thinking the subject of the book should be herself instead of her work. There is almost no information on forensic anthropology; her descriptions of cases are very short and center mainly on how she felt about them, rather than what the actual details were. From the cover and the blurbs I expected actual case histories; the book doesn't deliver. The book as written would really only be interesting to people who know the author personally.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Human Biology, published by Wayne State University Press on June 1, 2001. The length of the article is 667 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist.(Review) (book review)
Author: Tosha L. Dupras
Publication:
Human Biology (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2001
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Volume: 73
Issue: 3
Page: 484
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
“There never was such a campaign, not even by Napoleon" wrote Confederate General Pender of the Second Manassas campaign in which the gray-bearded Virginian, Robert E Lee, came as close as he ever would to exterminating his Northern enemies. In so doing, Lee established himself as the South's pre-eminent military commander and the Army of Northern Virginia as it's most powerful weapon. The fighting in northern Virginia left Union General John Pope's career in tatters and proved the South was a power to be reckoned with. This book's powerful account demonstrates that during that fateful summer of 1862 Lee's soldiers were fighting for anything but a lost cause.
Customer Reviews:
A Solid Campaign Overview.......2002-03-12
Second Manassas might have been Robert E. Lee's Greatest Victory as author John Langellier asserts, but it is often neglected in Civil War history as "the other" battle fought at Bull Run rather than as a seminal event. This addition to the Osprey Campaign series is a solid overview of the campaign of Lee versus Pope in the summer of 1862 in north-central Virginia. In accordance with the standard Osprey format, the book begins with a short section on the origins of the campaign and a campaign chronology.
In a welcome departure from the short-shrift methods of other recent Osprey campaign titles, Dr. Langellier actually puts some meat on the bone concerning opposing commanders. A full 9 excellent pages are spent discussing Generals Pope, Halleck, Banks, McDowell, Sigel, Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson. The section on opposing plans is a bit short at two pages, but adequate. Likewise, the section on opposing armies is somewhat brief at three pages, but covers aspects specific to the campaign, like Duryee's Zouaves and the Iron Brigade. The campaign narrative begins with two short chapters on the preliminary actions at Cedar Mountain and Brawner's Farm. The actual Battle of Second Manassas is covered in 25 pages, followed by a short postscript and notes on the battlefield today. An excellent order of battle is provided for both armies in the final appendix. There are five 2-D maps (Virginia in July 1862, the Battle of Cedar Mountain, the road to Second Manassas, the Battle of Groveton, and Lee's flanking movement to Chantilly) and three 3-D "Bird's Eye View" maps of the Battle of Second Manassas. Three battle scenes depict the truce at Cedar Mountain, the Iron Brigade at Brawner's Farm and the stand of Starke's Louisiana brigade at the Railroad cut. The photographs are decent - particularly if one likes portraits of civil war generals and scenes of torn-up railroads - but rather bland, given the level of civil war illustrations and artwork available.
Dr. Langellier's campaign narrative is solid and hits all the main points. Certainly, the inept performance of Union General John Pope was clearly the proximate cause of the Federal defeat at Second Manassas. There is no attempt at analysis in this account, although certainly not necessary from the command angle. In terms of the principles of war, the Confederates enjoyed the virtues of the offensive, maneuver, security and surprise, while the Union leaders seemed content to ignore the threat until too late. However, a bit more analysis on the role of supporting units, particularly artillery, would have been helpful. Overall, Second Manassas provides a decent overview of this often-neglected campaign.
Book Description
Here, Katherine Tate examines the significance of race in the U.S. system of representative democracy for African Americans. Presenting important new findings, she offers the first empirical study to take up the question of representation from both sides of the constituent-representative relationship.
The first half of the book examines whether black members of the U.S. House legislate and represent their constituents differently than white members do. Representation is broadly conceptualized to include not only legislators' roll call voting behavior and bill sponsorship, but also the symbolic acts in which they engage. The second half looks at the issue of representation from the perspective of ordinary African Americans based on a landmark national survey.
Tate's findings are mixed. But, in the main, legislators' race does shape how they represent their constituents and how constituents evaluate them. African Americans view black representatives more positively than they do white representatives, even those who belong to their own political party. Black legislators, however, are just as likely as white representatives to sponsor and gain passage of bills in the House. Tate also concludes that black House members are more liberal as a group than are their black constituents, but that there is considerable divergence in the quality and type of representation they provide.
The findings reported here will generate controversy in the fields of politics, law, and race, particularly as debate commences over renewing the Voting Rights Act, which is set to expire in 2007.
Customer Reviews:
Not feeling it.......2003-06-01
I read this book for a class assignment and I must say that I find her argument unconvincing and chaotic. The structure of the book and her argument is mercurial and the amount of errors in the book are alarming...
Read if interested in the subject matter although I think there are probably better books on the subject that reach similar conclusions she does.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of African American History, published by Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc. on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 667 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Black Faces in the Mirror: African Americans and Their Representatives in the U.S. Congress.(Book Review)
Author: Lewis A. Randolph
Publication:
The Journal of African American History (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc.
Volume: 89
Issue: 4
Page: 378(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
In his best-selling Art and Fear, David Bayles (with Ted Orland) closely examined personal and autobiographical episodes in search of general truths about artmaking. Bayles now turns that same attention to his native West.
When European Americans "discovered" the American West, they fell in love with the resplendent landscape. The love affair and its congenital flaws persists to this day.
Bayles writes: ". . . the question is why my people bungled our occupation of the West so badly when no one really wanted to, when there was every chance to get it right, when voices of caution were constantly raised, when what needed to be done was frequently obvious, and when, occasionally, we did get it right (think: National Parks)."
Notes on a Shared Landscape engages the issues that make the West the West-widely ranging over the autobiographical and the cultural, the ecological and the epistemological, the cow and the potato. This is an intensely personal book, and though the Western library is huge, there is not another book like it. Much of the text unfolds in Yellowstone, where Bayles writes:
In the Lamar valley of the Yellowstone, beaver gnaw the trunks of cottonwoods, elk browse their leaves. The shadows are long, even in summer. Even so, it is just another place. In it, just as elsewhere, we see the marks of our own hands faintly because we don't have to know very much about the land we live in, because we are equally a part of and apart from nature, and because there is hardly any moment when humans are more delusional than when self recognition is required.
Customer Reviews:
Very good as far as it goes, but would have loved something with more depth.......2006-02-04
This is a book of short personal essays on the American West by David Bayles.
Many of them start in the form of a Socratic question, such as "what is the West," "where would you find the heart of the West," and so forth.
In these particular essays, Bayles continues the Socratic theme by demolishing, overturning or in some way reframing the motive idea that lay behind the original question.
In other essays, he slaughters sacred cows, or points out to the reader that many people in the West have not yet become that discerning about the West.
Again, as noted, the essays are very good as far as they go. But they don't always wrestle with their issues deeply enough. It also seems that the essays, as nebulous as they are, could still be organized and grouped in some way, with "meta-essays" for each section.
Check This Out!.......2005-07-14
Notes on a Shared Landscape is a singular and important book, unlike anything I have experienced before. It's a seamless blend of personal and global, with an almost conversational, yet sophisticated writing style. It's about the Western United States only in the sense that the West was recently settled by Euro-Americans, and because the Author grew up there. But it's really about the interaction of humans and land everywhere, and is pertinent to everyone.
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