A compelling argument that will hopefully prove useful to policymakers, activists, and concerned citizens.
A professor of law and sociology renews her well-founded criticism of the child welfare system in the U.S.
Picking up threads from—and updating the analysis of—her work in Killing the Black Body (1998) and Shattered Bonds (2001), Roberts writes that, “this time…I argue for completely replacing [the system], not with another reformed state system, but with a radically reimagined way of caring for families and keeping children safe.” Rather than providing “protective” services, the author argues that the current system delivers “policing” services similar to law enforcement, and “family policing is most intense in communities that exist at the intersection of structural racism and poverty.” Of course, this means that “Black families are disproportionately subjected to state intrusion.” In many underserved communities, writes the author, “all it takes is a phone call from an anonymous tipster to a hotline operator about a vague suspicion to launch a life-altering government investigation.” Despite the fact that most accusations are frivolous, investigations proceed as if the parents are guilty. As a result, parents and other caregivers must support their families while also meeting numerous government-imposed requirements, including parenting classes, psychological evaluations, counseling, and supervised visits. Roberts also discusses the lifelong consequences for families that are separated, including the link between foster care and future incarceration, and she recounts the history of the nation’s “destructive approach to child welfare.” The author, director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society, demonstrates how the current system serves as a continuation of the widespread earlier policies that perpetuated Black enslavement and Indigenous displacement. A compassionate guide, Roberts clearly explains the relevant research and includes heartbreaking testimonies from accused parents. Not content to merely criticize, she lays out the elements that must be addressed in any new system: income support, housing, nutrition, education, child care, and health care.
A compelling argument that will hopefully prove useful to policymakers, activists, and concerned citizens.Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5416-7544-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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