JESSE JACKSON: I Am Somebody

Jesse Jackson is a sounder subject than many in this dubious series, but like Westman's biography of Walter Cronkite this is blandly written in short simple sentences devoid of style or ideas. The examples Westman chooses in explaining Civil Rights--freedom of religion, speech, and press--don't seem to have much to do with the racial issues Jackson is involved in; and the disagreement over Jackson's student self-help project EXCEL rates more sensitive treatment than Westman's summary of Jackson's message (students ""bring many problems on themselves"") and that of his critics. (""Some principals and teachers. . . wanted to blame government, society, or someone else."") Marginal.