A timely, courageous contribution to the debate regarding racial justice in America.
A memoir of a life devoted to defending civil rights and a scathing critique of that movement’s unfortunate decline.
Trebach (Fatal Distraction, 2006, etc.) has previously written about the criminal justice system’s abuse of minorities. He was a committed activist in the 1950s and ’60sand an official at the Civil Rights Commission, and he’s been a lifelong Democratic liberal and supporter of Barack Obama. However, he argues that the civil rights movement, and liberalism in general, has betrayed the original spirit of its cause and corroded race relations in America with craven political opportunism, incendiary race-baiting and a climate of censorship. “The race card is why our racial atmosphere is so poisonous, when we should be enjoying color-blind relations everywhere,” he writes. “That evil card is played so frequently these days that many of us sometimes don’t realize just how often it is used.” Trebach looks at the Trayvon Martin shooting case; he says that some people willfully appropriated the tragedy for the sake of declaiming racial prejudice, and he skillfully presents little-covered but pertinent details of that incident. He also considers what he feels are the abandoned promises of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to usher the United States into a proudly post-racial era. The most unsettling target of Trebach’s analysis, though, is African-American crime, which continues to balloon at an alarming pace. He argues that intolerance of open discussion and the reflex to denounce as racist any attempt to fully investigate such crime’s causes have impeded good-faith attempts to alleviate the problem. In general, the author contends, programs that are designed by self-appointed representatives of African-Americans tend to deliver more harm than good. Written in plain prose that brims with disillusionment, this book makes an impassioned call for a politics truly free of racial discrimination, in keeping with the tenets of one of the author’s heroes, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Overall, Trebach brings a wealth of academic expertise and personal experience to these thoughtful reflections.
A timely, courageous contribution to the debate regarding racial justice in America.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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