A great many facts, statistics and historical snippets in search of a credible argument.
An analysis of international crime that purports to demonstrate that it’s the people who run American corporations who are the real criminals.
This might have been an excellent book. Perhaps even an important one. It contains a great deal of information about the ways American government and American businesses have contributed to global criminality. Alas, Woodiwiss, an American history lecturer at the University of the West of England, has another target in his sights, his main argument being that American corporations don’t simply abet criminality—they are themselves criminal organizations. He offers that the American government’s war on organized crime is just a diversion, distracting people from the real criminals, and that the major difference between the laissez-faire, robber-baron capitalism of the late-19th century and today’s capitalism is that America has spread the latter variety around the globe. It’s odd, indeed, that Woodiwiss can have so obviously read so many books about American history, as well as so many government reports and articles in the popular press, without finding a single redeeming feature of present-day free-market capitalism. But the real mystery here is why he finds it necessary to brand the American government’s war on organized crime a conspiracy, and conflate the CEOs of American corporations with Mafia dons. Attempting to redefine bad political judgments and policy errors as cloak-and-dagger malefactions, Woodiwiss is preaching to those already convinced that the triumph of free market capitalism was one of history’s great tragedies.
A great many facts, statistics and historical snippets in search of a credible argument.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7867-1671-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.
Straight talk to blacks and whites about the realities of racism.
In her feisty debut book, Oluo, essayist, blogger, and editor at large at the Establishment magazine, writes from the perspective of a black, queer, middle-class, college-educated woman living in a “white supremacist country.” The daughter of a white single mother, brought up in largely white Seattle, she sees race as “one of the most defining forces” in her life. Throughout the book, Oluo responds to questions that she has often been asked, and others that she wishes were asked, about racism “in our workplace, our government, our homes, and ourselves.” “Is it really about race?” she is asked by whites who insist that class is a greater source of oppression. “Is police brutality really about race?” “What is cultural appropriation?” and “What is the model minority myth?” Her sharp, no-nonsense answers include talking points for both blacks and whites. She explains, for example, “when somebody asks you to ‘check your privilege’ they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing.” She unpacks the complicated term “intersectionality”: the idea that social justice must consider “a myriad of identities—our gender, class, race, sexuality, and so much more—that inform our experiences in life.” She asks whites to realize that when people of color talk about systemic racism, “they are opening up all of that pain and fear and anger to you” and are asking that they be heard. After devoting most of the book to talking, Oluo finishes with a chapter on action and its urgency. Action includes pressing for reform in schools, unions, and local governments; boycotting businesses that exploit people of color; contributing money to social justice organizations; and, most of all, voting for candidates who make “diversity, inclusion and racial justice a priority.”
A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58005-677-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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