While McWilliams offers convincing arguments for animal rights, they are undermined by the extensive quotes, which become...
McWilliams (History/Texas State Univ.; The Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut, 2013, etc.) takes issue with the locavore movement, which preaches compassionate care of farm animals on nonindustrial farms but slaughters those animals in the end.
As a vocal animal rights advocate, the author responds to recent books by Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman and Jonathan Safran Foer, introducing readers to the “omnivore’s contradiction”—caring enough about animals raised for meat to offer them a more natural environment in which to live but, of course, ultimately killing them for food. He argues that the food reform movement is based “on an intellectually dishonest foundation” and notes how “[t]houghtful observation strongly suggests that animals exhibit powerful and recognizable emotional responses to a range of experiences.” In several chapters, McWilliams transcribes comments and stories from online forums, blogs and posts to further his arguments, quoting others on slaughter and backyard butchery, as well as on raising chicken, beef and pork on small, nonindustrial farms. By all indications, McWilliams did not interview these farmers, and in many cases, he only identifies them by their online names. While small-scale agriculture aspires to give animals a better life, the author points out the occurrence of higher rates of disease than on nonindustrial farms. He critiques many of the claims of small-scale agriculture—e.g., that its animals are healthier, their impact is low, and they are offered a more natural environment and humane treatment. However, the author does not fully condemn small-scale agriculture; rather, he sees it as a necessary steppingstone for many people to eventually cease the eating of animals and adopt a plant-based diet.
While McWilliams offers convincing arguments for animal rights, they are undermined by the extensive quotes, which become tiresome and offer little useful context.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1250031198
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin’s Griffin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However charily one should apply the word, a beautiful book, an unconditionally involving memoir for our time or any time.
Maya Angelou is a natural writer with an inordinate sense of life and she has written an exceptional autobiographical narrative which retrieves her first sixteen years from "the general darkness just beyond the great blinkers of childhood."
Her story is told in scenes, ineluctably moving scenes, from the time when she and her brother were sent by her fancy living parents to Stamps, Arkansas, and a grandmother who had the local Store. Displaced they were and "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat." But alternating with all the pain and terror (her rape at the age of eight when in St. Louis With her mother) and humiliation (a brief spell in the kitchen of a white woman who refused to remember her name) and fear (of a lynching—and the time they buried afflicted Uncle Willie under a blanket of vegetables) as well as all the unanswered and unanswerable questions, there are affirmative memories and moments: her charming brother Bailey; her own "unshakable God"; a revival meeting in a tent; her 8th grade graduation; and at the end, when she's sixteen, the birth of a baby. Times When as she says "It seemed that the peace of a day's ending was an assurance that the covenant God made with children, Negroes and the crippled was still in effect."
However charily one should apply the word, a beautiful book, an unconditionally involving memoir for our time or any time.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1969
ISBN: 0375507892
Page Count: 235
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1969
SEEN & HEARD
IN THE NEWS
SEEN & HEARD
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.
A history of the right to vote in America.
Since the nation’s founding, many Americans have been uneasy about democracy. Law and policy expert Waldman (The Second Amendment: A Biography, 2014, etc.), president of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, offers a compelling—and disheartening—history of voting in America, from provisions of the Constitution to current debates about voting rights and campaign financing. In the Colonies, only white male property holders could vote and did so in public, by voice. With bribery and intimidation rampant, few made the effort. After the Revolution, many states eliminated property requirements so that men over 21 who had served in the militia could vote. But leaving voting rules to the states disturbed some lawmakers, inciting a clash between those who wanted to restrict voting and those “who sought greater democracy.” That clash fueled future debates about allowing freed slaves, immigrants, and, eventually, women to vote. In 1878, one leading intellectual railed against universal suffrage, fearing rule by “an ignorant proletariat and a half-taught plutocracy.” Voting corruption persisted in the 19th century, when adoption of the secret ballot “made it easier to stuff the ballot box” by adding “as many new votes as proved necessary.” Southern states enacted disenfranchising measures, undermining the 15th Amendment. Waldman traces the campaign for women’s suffrage; the Supreme Court’s dismal record on voting issues (including Citizens United); and the contentious fight to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which “became a touchstone of consensus between Democrats and Republicans” and was reauthorized four times before the Supreme Court “eviscerated it in 2013.” Despite increased access to voting, over the years, turnout has fallen precipitously, and “entrenched groups, fearing change, have…tried to reduce the opportunity for political participation and power.” Waldman urges citizens to find a way to celebrate democracy and reinvigorate political engagement for all.
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1648-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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