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Book Description

Technology in Its Place is a practical resource that features diverse approaches for improving teaching and learning through the use of technology. The contributors are a blue-ribbon panel of experts in the field who cover a broad range of topics including information on administration, strategic planning, leadership, curricular integration, and professional development.

Customer Reviews:

Good Overview of Technology in Schools Issues.......2002-04-28

The editors have brought together a series of articles and studies on the deployment and integration of technology in our schools. The book approaches its subject from several perspectives: curriculum development, professional development, and policy and administration. It provides a good, high level survey of these issues, and its thorough and careful documentation provides anyone wishing to dive more deeply in any given area excellent direction for further investigation. It was a quick, interesting, and entertaining read.

This book should not be the first choice for those looking for specific and tactical hints on technology integration into curriculum. But it provides an excellent overview of the wide range of issues technology raises for education, and as such would be valuable for administrators and policy makers seeking to broaden their perspective in this area.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from MedSurg Nursing, published by Jannetti Publications, Inc. on February 1, 1997. The length of the article is 1387 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.

From the supplier: Nurses will increasingly work with older persons, since the population over 85 is the fastest growing segment of society. Aging people need to maintain a reasonable level of physical activity, eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet, learn to deal with sleep disturbances, and have regular access to routine preventive screening. Providing older adults with the information to control their health is an essential task for nurses.

Citation Details
Title: Wellness promotion and the elderly.
Author: Susan E. Appling
Publication: MedSurg Nursing (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 1997
Publisher: Jannetti Publications, Inc.
Volume: v6 Issue: n1 Page: p45(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Wellness and Health Promotion for the Elderly

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Wellness and Health Promotion for the Elderly
Ken Dychtwald
Manufacturer: Gage Educational Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HN02NA

Wellness programs for at-risk older adults: Quality of life and cost benefits (AARP Andrus Foundation final report)

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Wellness programs for at-risk older adults: Quality of life and cost benefits (AARP Andrus Foundation final report)
Bruce Rybarczyk
Manufacturer: Rush University, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Liuke's Medical Center
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006QUPQC

Book Description

In this, the first history of artifical satellites and their uses, Helen Gavaghan shows how the idea of putting an object in orbit around the earth changed from science fiction to indespensible technology in the twinkling of an eye. Thanks to satellites, we can now send data and images anywhere in the world in an instant. The satellite-based navigational system can pinpoint your exact location anywhere in the world; it is so precise that, from outer space, it can detect the sag on an airplane's wing. Focusing on three major areas of development - navigational satellites, communications, and weather observation and forecasting - Gavaghan tells the remarkable inside story of how obscure men and women, often laboring under strict secrecy, made the extraordinary scientific and technological discoveries needed to make these miracles happen. Written by a science journalist with support from the Sloane Foundation, the book describes the birth of the modern scientific era in the twentieth century, with creation of satellite technology. The narrative is part history - beginning with the Russian-U.S. contest with the launch of Sputnik; part politics, as scientists and visionary engineers compete for scarce funding that will bring their dreams to reality; partly the story of the singular and fascinating individuals who were present at the creation of our modern technological era.

Customer Reviews:

A good look at an oft-forgotten topic.......2002-05-31

Applications satellites (weather, communications, etc.)are so common that few people think of where they came from. As a space history writer myself, I applaud Gavaghan for finding the resources and doing the legwork to assemble a popular history of the origins of applications satellites. I have two reservations that prevent me giving a higher rating. The sections on what led up to Sputnik are not as well-founded as the rest of the book - she accepts as given, for instance, the belief that Project Vanguard was destined to be chosen as "less militaristic" than its Army rival, when this is far from established fact. More problematic is the complete lack of footnotes. Gavaghan has assembled a lot of information, some of it fresh, but without knowing where she got it (the chapter endnotes are not very specific), it's hard to consider the book authoritative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable contribution. Every space enthusiast will want to read it.

A unique history - I only wish there was more!.......1998-08-26

I really enjoyed this book's combination of technical (but not too technical) and personal detail. Not only did the book cover the birth and infancy of satellite technology it gave us a good luck at the personalities behind it. My criticism is that the book doesn't go far enough - it doesn't bring the story up to the present day. I realize that this is a daunting task but it would be useful to provide a context - to examine how far we've come. For example, a comparison of modern satellites and their predecessors would be very telling. The book examines just the initial years - more information on satellite development in the 60's and early '70s would put things in a better perspective. On a minor note, I would have preferred a standard bibliograpy and footnotes rather than the detailed bibliography that we're confronted with. There have been many books written about the early manned space program but not enough written on early unmanned efforts. And among those books, most focus on the interplanetary probes, making this book a welcome addition to the study of man's early forays into space.

Book Description

Radioanalytical methods have become among the most important means for elemental analysis and the determination of chemical species Their extreme sensitivity has made them indispensable in a wide range of applications, including mineral analysis, medical and biophysical work, criminology, history, archaeology, and space research. This handbook combines theoretical and practical radioanalytical work covering the entire field of radioanalytical chemistry. Topics discussed include analysis by activation and nuclearreactions, isotope dilution analysis, radioreagent methods, analysis by absorption and the scattering of radiation. The handbook is extremely useful to scientists conducting applied and basic research in subjects related to analytical measurements, engineers designing control facilities and equipment, and professors and students working with analyticalchemistry, radiochemistry, radioanalytical chemistry, enviromental chemistry, biology, and physics.

Book Description

The theory for frames and bases has developed rapidly in recent years because of its role as a mathematical tool in signal and image processing. In this self-contained work, frames and Riesz bases are presented from a functional analytic point of view, emphasizing their mathematical properties. This is the first comprehensive book to focus on the general properties and interplay of frames and Riesz bases, and thus fills a gap in the literature.

Key features:

* Basic results presented in an accessible way for both pure and applied mathematicians

* Extensive exercises make the work suitable as a textbook for use in graduate courses

* Full proofs included in introductory chapters; only basic knowledge of functional analysis required

* Explicit constructions of frames with applications and connections to time-frequency analysis, wavelets, and nonharmonic Fourier series

* Selected research topics presented with recommendations for more advanced topics and further reading

* Open problems to stimulate further research

An Introduction to Frames and Riesz Bases will be of interest to graduate students and researchers working in pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and engineering. Professionals working in digital signal processing who wish to understand the theory behind many modern signal processing tools may also find this book a useful self-study reference.

Customer Reviews:

A new tool!.......2003-02-12

The subject of the book is a new tool in math, with a host of exciting applications. Of course, the subject has roots in classical ideas from harmonic analysis. But the book covers an explosive and exciting variety of developments since roughly 1990, and it is presented in the form of a graduate text. The basic idea begins with linear algebra, and progresses to expansions in function spaces, and multiresolutions. It will be useful to anyone who wants to learn from scratch about the underlying principles, the new results, and the applications. It is well written. A student of mine picked it up accidentally from my desk, and couldn't put it down. After awhile, he had completely forgotten what he came to see me about. It could have been some of the applications, such as antenna theory, wavelets, time-frequency analysis, uses in Radar, speech processing...

Book Description

Admirers of The Color Purple will find in these stories more evidence
of Walker’s power to depict black women—women who vary
greatly in background yet are bound together by what they share in
common.Taken as a whole, their stories form an enlightening,
disturbing view of life in the South.

Customer Reviews:

book that talks to the soul.......2006-01-17

My son asked me to read a short story by Alice Walker. He was analyzing different writing styles for a writing class. I was pleasantly taken back by the way she uses certain details to communicated to those of us who are not literature major's. I bought several of her books. In reading them I found that she had retained a sense of her Africa culture. Her outlook is hoslitic and circular while most white writers write linear.
The purpose of writing is to communicate and Alice Walker does that. Her writing is not pretentious but humble like the people she writes about. Her writing metaphorically legitimizes being black!

Something I'll read over and over again...loved it.......1999-02-06

A collection of short stories that I first read for a Black Literature class when I was in college in the '70....and here recently, shared it with my book club as our book of the month. Ms. Walker's writing style makes you feel you are right there with the character. While each story presents different experiences of African-American women, women of all nationalities will be able to relate to the stories and the emotions. It's a fast paced book that is heart-warming, amusing, sad,....every emotion is touched.

Walker learned at the knee of Hurston...........1998-04-08

Clearly no ground-breaking storyteller in the mold of Joyce, Ellison, or Hemingway, Walker IS, however, a very entertaining and resourceful author who is able to make up with charm what she lacks in originality and clarity of aesthetic vision. These stories, however, lean too hard against the trunk of Hurston's Eatonville folksy charm to make an indelible impression, and the sordidness which is featured in the narrative remains ill-conceived and dangerously ill-informed. For Walker's simple best, pick up a copy of her "The Color Purple", which remains landmark in its singularity of ambition and revisionistic approach to an otherwise- tired narrative form.

In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women

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In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women
Alice Walker
Manufacturer: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women

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In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women
Alice Walker
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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IN LOVE AND TROUBLE; STORIES OF BLACK WOMEN.
Alice. Walker
Manufacturer: Women's Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Family farmer bankruptcy extension : report together with additional views (to accompany H.R. 808) (including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office) (SuDoc Y 1.1/8:106-45)
U.S. Congressional Budget Office
Manufacturer: U.S. G.P.O.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Bankruptcy | Business | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00010Z9IW

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Not just for conservatives

Manning, the Canadian Reformer

Brilliant recontre of Manning's life

The theocracy that might have been

Think Big: My Life in Politics
Preston Manning
Manufacturer: McClelland & Stewart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0771056753
Release Date: 2002-10-15

Book Description

He built a party from nothing to become Leader of the Opposition in just 14 years Preston Manning grew up in a political household but his first career choice was as a business consultant. It was only years later, when he sensed a rising discontent among fellow Westerners, that he decided the time was right to establish a reform movement. In the fall of 1986, he wrote a memo in Calgary. In the spring of 1987 he addressed a meeting in Vancouver. In the fall the Reform Party’s founding assembly was held in Winnipeg. And from then on the movement’s progress was unstoppable.

This is a candid account by Reform’s founder, and the father of the Canadian Alliance, of the most extraordinary story in contemporary Canadian politics. Manning describes Reform’s first battles: the election of “Senator-in-Waiting” Stan Waters, the grassroots campaign against the Charlottetown accord, and the hard-fought 1993 federal election. He frankly acknowledges some of his party’s early missteps in Ottawa. But he also recounts with vigour the cynicism – and worse – that was evident in the behaviour of the governing Liberal party. Manning denounces Mr. Chrétien’s mishandling of the Quebec referendum. And he recapitulates in devastating detail the full story of Shawinigate.

Manning describes the birth of the Canadian Alliance. He follows the agonizing growing pains it experienced under Stockwell Day’s inept leadership and he considers what might have been. He is candid in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the party’s current leadership. Of his own career – post-politics – he is cheerfully forward-looking: there is challenging terrain ahead and Preston Manning proposes to serve as an advance scout.

This is a thoughtful, informed, sometimes surprisingly funny memoir by a man who has attained, by dint of his own extraordinary achievements, stature as a contemporary statesman.

Customer Reviews:

Not just for conservatives.......2004-01-29

An interesting perspective on Canadian politics in the latter part of the twentieth century. Preston Manning's bitingly honest take on Canadian politics, the Reform Party, his own leadership and the lack thereof in the Liberal Party provide food for thought. And I'm still chewing. It will make you think, make you reexamine what you thought you knew. It is not what I expected - a rant against the Liberals - but rather is an insightful and thought provoking treatsie on Canadian politics, our responsibilities to democracy and his own experiences. It's fresh and disarming. I highly recommend it to even the staunchest Liberal.

Manning, the Canadian Reformer.......2003-09-22

Preston Manning was one of Canada's most important politicians is the late twentieth century. The movement he started emphasizing admirable ideals such as direct democracy and greatly improved ethics legislation was necessary for Canada at a time when cronyism, political patronage and constant conflicts of interest were the order of the day. Also, he pushed for more fiscal accountability after the Mulroney\Trudeau era of careless government spending. Moreover, Manning represented the interests of Western Canada, which was feeling increasingly alienated under the contemptible watch of Pierre Trudeau and later on Brian Mulroney.
All of his admirable initiatives are chronicled in his intriguing autobiography. He discusses what his initiatives were and what brought them about. He also tries to justify his controversial votes in the House of Commons, like when he voted against hate-crime legislation. I really enjoyed reading a book that discussed the life of a man who so greatly changed the Canadian political landscape.
I hope you read this book and enjoy it!
All of his admirable initiatives are chronicled in his intruiging autobigraphy.

Brilliant recontre of Manning's life.......2002-12-15

Preston Manning writes an open, honest, and mostly unguarded retrospective and prospective look at his political life and Canada's political landscape. I read "The New Canada" many years ago, and it was an obvious vehicle for the Reform Party's advancement, whose purpose seemed to be dispelling rumours and giving people a more honest look at Prairie Populism and gives a brief autobiography. This tome, however, is written by a man without ambitions for votes, or realizing that what he writes could hold himself responsible for the political futures of hundreds of candidates, staff, etc.

I think when he got his haircut in '97, he trimmed the geekiness too, although he maintains that he was never a geek. (He actually says, "geek". Priceless.) He refers to Ron Jeremy as a burned out NHL hockey star who agreed with every point he made on "Off the Record". (I watched that OTR performance. You could just see Manning's uneasiness sitting beside him, although he was very gracious. Even shook his hand. Yekh.) He had a suggested conference for Liberal ethics, in which lunchtime entertainment would be "Jean Chretien sing[ing] an ethical rendition of "I Did it My Way" with Bill Clinton accompaning on saxophone." (Earlier in the conference, Bill Clinton was a guest ethical lecturer with a special seminar for parliamentary interns.)

I appreciate his unguardedness, as he is even quite blunt in describing Stephen Harper. He tears what's left of Stockwell Day apart, blasting him for using his Christianity as a weapon against non-evangelicals. I thought he also developed a good theology of Christian political action in this book. In the past, he would used extended Arminian analogies about Jesus not forcing his will upon anyone, and the cleansing of the Temple narratives as examples of Christian intermingling with politics, etc. In this book he is more detailed and builds more of a solid case of proper Christian political activism, based on Christians influencing politics as salt and light on an individual basis as opposed to organized corporate bases. He challenges Christians to act out their faith seriously, but not to allow the churches to be dragged down to the level of political action groups, or political parties become tools of churches. I would actually like to have him write a strictly theological work developing a theology of holiness, that is, how we are to be not of this world, but separate from it for the purpose of calling the world to reconciliation to God through Christ. I think he could do much damage to the idea that we are Christians in church on Sunday, but our Christianity should get left at the door when we leave. He could also do much damage to bumper-sticker Christianity, and call for a deeper and more genuine life. (He's CM&A, I'm sure he's read Tozer.)

Anyhow, I read this book in one sitting. It's more honest, and thus engaging work than the New Canada. I would recommend it as a book to friend or foe of Preston Manning or the Canadian Alliance.

The theocracy that might have been.......2002-11-07

Even in this self-indulgent political autobiography, Preston Manning does not apologize for creating his religion posing as a political party for the avowed purpose of depriving women of sovereignty over their own bodies, denying homosexuals and other nonconformists to his sectarian taboos basic human rights, and turning Canada into a mirror image of the theocracy that Alberta had been under "Bible Bill" Aberhart and Manning senior. Instead he continues to justify it. Manning believes to this day that his interpretation of divine law is more valid than that of the majority who disagree with him, and should be imposed on believers and nonbelievers alike. Similar thinking gave the world the late unlamented Moral Majority and the Taliban. But unlike his successor, Stockwell Day, Manning refrained from portraying himself as "the religious candidate" and targeting "the Christian vote," in recognition that such a tactic would "do more harm than good." And he was right. It was precisely because Canadians of moderate religious beliefs recognized that the Manning party had "a hidden agenda" that it won very little support outside of the Bible Belt.
Manning's observations concerning current Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper are neither flattering nor derogatory. Perhaps he still hopes that Harper can institute a theocracy where he and Day failed. He clearly has no ability to see that objective as neither achievable not desirable. He even reports that one third of interviewees told an Ipsos-Reid poll that their religious faith was not "very important" in their day-to-day lives. If a third of the population were willing to go on record with such a politically incorrect position, the true figure must be considerably higher. And in commenting on the 2000 election in which the Liberal Party increased its majority, Manning's evaluation is, "The Canadian people had been prepared to reject Chretien and vote for a principled alternative; they just did not perceive that alternative in Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance."
After spelling out the disaster brought on his party by Stockwell Day's ineptitude, Manning asks, "Is there anything that can be learned from the root causes and events of the downward spiral that might assist in the recovery of the Alliance?" My answer to that is: I certainly hope not.
The most dangerous dogmatist is a sincere dogmatist. Manning's memoir confirms that the hostile takeover of Canada's official Opposition by the Manningites is as much a threat to the freedom of every Canadian as if Manning or Day was still in charge.

Book Description

In May 1991 the Richard Reuss Memorial Folk Music Conference, the first of its kind, was held at Indiana University in Bloomington. For two days a stellar gathering of folk music performers, scholars, journalists, and activists discussed their memories of the folk music revival in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. These presentations, now substantially revised and published for the first time, give an exciting overview of the revival from a variety of important and stimulating perspectives. Various key performers and folklorists give personal accounts of the time, while Irwin Sibler (editor of " Sing Out!") and Jon Pankake and Barry Hansen (editors of "The Little Sandy Review") discuss the development and role of the leading folk music magazines. These essays retain the idiosyncrasies of the original presentations, while giving multiple insights and understandings of the folk music revival, a crucial cultural and musical moment in recent U.S. history, as well as racial, gender, and political differences within the revival, popular versus traditional folk music styles, and much more. Scholars and students of folk music and popular music of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as those interested in American popular culture in general, will benefit from these wide-ranging and stimulating essays.

Customer Reviews:

Importance doesn't guarantee an interesting read.......2003-01-28

Let's be honest. The people represented in these essays were there when the whole revival movement was getting underway. They grunted and sweated and, without them, the music might not be where it is today. I'm sure these guys would be great to share a pitcher with in some dark pub, hearing firsthand some of their stories. It was probably even an interesting series of lectures back in 1991, when the words carried the personality of the people talking. But this book ... frankly, it's perilously close to boring. While it may be an invaluable scholarly resource for someone researching particulars of the folk movement, it can make for dull recreational reading.

Wasn't That a Time!: Firsthand Accounts of the Folk Music Revival (American Folk Music and Musicians Series Number 1)

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Wasn't That a Time!: Firsthand Accounts of the Folk Music Revival (American Folk Music and Musicians Series Number 1)
Ronald D. Cohen
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Book Description

New in paper! Proceedings of the May 1991 Richard Reuss Memorial Folk Music Conference, held at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Wasn't That a Time? Growing Up Radical and Red in America

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One of the best memoirs of working America you'll read
The fullness of a life on the Left

Wasn't That a Time? Growing Up Radical and Red in America
Robert Schrank
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Business | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Amazon.com

A labor activist who later became a management consultant, Schrank offers a unique perspective on "growing up radical and red in America" (the subtitle of his evocative memoir). Schrank's account of his union organizing during the 1930s, '40s, and '50s paints a vivid picture of the battle to gain better wages and conditions for America's workers. But he also chronicles his increasing disenchantment with the Communist Party, which he found to be out of touch with what those it claimed to represent actually wanted. "There were no simple answers," he discovers, "just limitless opportunities to explore the time-honored questions." His pungently detailed narrative brings to life a pivotal period in American labor history. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

"I was born two weeks before the Bolshevik Revolution into an immigrant family that was part of New York's large German socialist community." So begins Robert Schrank's compelling autobiography. In a down-to-earth, anecdotal style, he recounts a life rare in the breadth of its experience and the depth of its transformations. From Young Communist League member and union activist to management consultant for global corporations, Schrank has lived a life based on empathy and principles, and has been an activist in some of the major political and social upheavals of this century.

Schrank writes from the point of view of the rank and file, even when describing his role in the leadership of the New York State Machinists Union. A rebel in his own land, he was expelled three times from union office; and in a landmark First Amendment case (Schrank vs. Brown) the State Supreme Court twice returned him to membership. Convinced by the early 1950s of the failure of socialism in the Soviet Union, he broke with the Party. Yet he remained faithful to the ideals of his radical upbringing, even as he joined the corporate world of his former enemies.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best memoirs of working America you'll read.......2005-07-24

If you're young and your family has a working class history this is a book you should read. We live in an economy so far removed from the blue collar battles of yesterday that it's hard for young people to imagine what it was like. Robert Schrank's marvelous memoir, Wasn't That A Time, explains much about a nearly forgotten past. I mean, who talks about coal strikes and mine strikes and union organizers today? The workingman's history fades into the past faster than you can say "Your retirement fund is bankrupt."

Mr. Schrank's recall about the many people and events in his life is aided by his FBI file which he requested via the FOIA. I must admit, I found it hilarious that he used the file to fact check his own memory. When life gives you lemons . . .

This is an excellent book on an aspect of American history that is usually presented in dull, lifeless prose. Mr. Schrank's book, however, is so stimulating that I took it to the beach!

If you read one book on the struggles of blue collar Americans and the union movement, this is it. It made me pround to be an ex-steelworker and son of labor.

The fullness of a life on the Left.......2000-02-21

Robert Schrank is one of those protean men who seems to have done, or been, most of what was worth doing or being (and a lot that wasn't) in the 20th Century. Now in his 80s, he can look back on a life that included (among other things)being several kinds of blue collar worker, a member of the Communist Party, a nationally known union leader noted both for effectiveness and honesty, a plant manager, head of an innovative urban youth program, a new York City Commissioner for job training, a late-in-life Ph.D. in sociology, a foundation program officer, a consultant (including to the World Bank), a magnate for special and handsome women, a singer of songs, and a great storyteller.

In this book, Schrank does the latter about much, though not all, of the former. There may be another book in Schrank, but this one is the story of one of those people born early in the century who committed themselves fully to the challenge of making social and economic life better for working people and the poor. It was a time when the varieties of the Left--unions, socialism, communism, and all the rest--were a vibrant reaction to the excessess and harshness of late 19th and early 20th century capitalism in America and elsewhere. Now, at a time when the Left is exhausted and a nostalgic memory, it may be hard to envision when people not only cared deeply about such issues and movements, but lived lives enmeshed in them. If you were young to middle-aged at the opening and into the middle of the last century and cared about such things, the Left was the place to be.

And that's what Schrank writes, or rather, tells stories about. It is a personal memoire about being the son of a Wobbly, a street leader of protests, a young unionist, and a communist. The adventures are sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant as Schrank rose to leadership in many of the things he experienced. Along the way, be became disillusioned with the curruption of unions, which he fought fiercely, and with the duplicity and failures of socialism and communism. This led to depression and psychiatry and an epiphany of sorts--and to a switching of gears, and sides. Schrank got a set of mid-life college degrees, served a stint as a successful manufacturing plant manager, and emersed himself in the governmental and foundation social programs of the Sixties and later.

It is a fascinating story, warmly told, without self-pity or bitterness, with great humor, and with the kind of understanding and tolerance that only one who has seen much more than most people of what life can offer can bring to bear. It's a great read, the kind of book you give to friends.

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A journey in surreal times. (Sept11 The Convention that wasn't).: An article from: The Masthead
Bill McGoun
Manufacturer: National Conference of Editorial Writers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008IJEJM
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Masthead, published by National Conference of Editorial Writers on December 22, 2001. The length of the article is 1229 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: A journey in surreal times. (Sept11 The Convention that wasn't).
Author: Bill McGoun
Publication: The Masthead (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2001
Publisher: National Conference of Editorial Writers
Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Page: 24(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

A candid, humerous and often moving account of one man's secret life of homosexuality in a era when to be 'gay' risked not only being a social outcast but imprisonment if caught. The author's exploits and search for sexual happiness and expression start as a child on the Indian sub-continent, move on to his family's return to an austere post-war Britain, an unhappy and perhaps unjust dismissal from a promising army career in the Far East, through to the realisation that normal family life was never going to be an attainable goal in his global search for romantic bliss. From the shores of West Africa, where he finds true love, to Australia and the flesh pots of the Middle East, this a true human interest story of our time told with passion, humour and pathos. A real insight into a way of life that had to be secreted from the world for most of the author's life.

Customer Reviews:

FETISH!: The Chocolate-loving GWM speaks!.......2005-07-05

In Robert Aldrich's amazing book "Colonialism and Homosexuality," he discusses how a HUGE number of white men did not express their gay desires until they were out of the eyes of other whites and around men of color outside of the First World. There are not enough works out there about gay men who lived gay lives before the Stonewall Riots or the Wolfenden Report. Outside of that valid fact, this book was some fetishy mess.

Johnson O'Toole is a white man (he would say "British expat") who was born in India, spent a bit of time in London and lots of time in West Africa. He is a gay man who has lots of hot sex everywhere he goes, most often on a one-time basis. To his credit, there are many people, of various sexualities, that LOVE being abroad. They would take a ticket to anywhere and learn any foreign language you dare them to comprehend. Also, John D'Emilio has critiqued gay biographies that emphasize gay life over the other phenomena that probably made the man famous in the first place. So O'Toole likes to travel; he talks about his jobs and his pets as much as all the hot sex with men of color. Still, his pursuit of any male not of European ancestry is, again, just some fetishy mess.

Somehow O'Toole knows of current terms like "political correctness," which he condemns, but this book is dangerously and annoyingly apolitical. He has all kinds of sex with males of color who probably wouldn't identify as gay. He never questions whether his whiteness provides him with access to all these sex partners. He knows the term "PC" but not "white privilege." When his straight male peers pay female prostitutes of color, he participates as well. He complains of how he dislikes heterosexual sex, but never once notes that he exploits female bodies of color in order not to out himself. Again, he has heard of "PC," but has never heard of Adrienne Rich's term "compulsory heterosexuality." He never once condemns colonizers for telling non-whites to embrace Christianity while they hire prostitutes at the drop of a dime. Though the author is not that much older than his sexual partners, he almost always refers to them as "boys." He even once calls Nigerians "black b*st*rds." Ol' racist! Even if he is gay.

So he is forced to have heterosexual sex. He is kicked out of the army for making a pass at a man, but he never once uses the term "homophobia." He does not try to make friends with other (white) men suspected of being gay. He is just infatuated with darker-complected "trade." He never once, even in hindsight, tries to look at his forced choices under the political vacuum in which they exist.

One cultural critic said Schwarzennegger's name says black twice. Another cultural critic said filmmaker John Waters' name says "Number One" twice. Well, the name Johnson O'Toole is obviously a false name, but definitely doubly phallic. He never once explains why a person born in the early 20th century would have a yuppie first name. He states that his is of English descent, not Irish, so why is his last name O'Toole? How are you going to write under a pen name and then have photographs from your life in between the pages?

This book is only meant for men with ethnic fetishes. It is superficial and written in a painfully small script. It is just a stroke book posing as a serious autobiography.

I love independent presses. They have served a crucial lifeline to gay male and lesbians writers. Still, the drawing in crayola color pencils on the front cover and the spelling errors on the back cover and throughout the book does not help the author's cause.

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