An incisive and imperative academic study.
A blunt, trenchant exposé on the history and impact of sexual violence on indigenous tribal nations.
For more than two decades, MacArthur Fellow Deer (Law/William Mitchell Coll. of Law; co-editor: Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence, 2007) has been an activist for sexual and domestic violence survivors in Native American communities. The vast knowledge and shrewd assessment skills she brings to this book give the issue the acknowledgment it desperately deserves. Though averse to calling the rape of American Indian women an “epidemic,” a moniker she feels depoliticizes it, the author views the harrowing matter as a direct result of colonialism. Though only one issue of many daunting tribal governments today, she writes, the sexual assault of native women is an atrocity historically plaguing Indian tribes, and it should rightly be deemed a “crime against humanity.” As a member of the Muscogee nation, Deer imparts passion and resolve into chapters condemning rampant criminal impunity via federal laws that disregard the framework of tribal sovereignty, discussing the conundrum of sex trafficking, and how and why contemporary feminist theory fails to wholly address the situation at large. She then looks beyond the statistical data delivered in early chapters to propose diverse reform efforts that address victims’ needs and legal rights. A particularly humbling section focusing on the journey of an imprisoned rape survivor puts a human face on the crisis and personalizes it beyond hard facts and disquieting details. While Deer maintains that these dire acts of violence form complex legal and humanitarian complications with no elementary resolutions, she offers a variety of viable, proactive, and creative solutions and reformative proposals in an effort to rectify what she believes has become a “seemingly hopeless reality.”
An incisive and imperative academic study.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8166-9633-8
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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
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