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THE SHAKER EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA

Name: THE SHAKER EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA
Author: Stephen J. Stein
ISBN: 0-300-05139-5

A HISTORY OF THE UNITED SOCIETY OF BELIEVERS

by Stephen J. Stein ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 17, 1992

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An unusually comprehensive and eminently readable chronicle of more than two centuries of Shaker life, from its rough beginning in the late 18th century to its diminished yet still significant presence today. In his thoroughness, Stein (Religious Studies/Indiana Univ.) turns first to England, where Ann Lee, founder of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, was born and felt the call that would bring her and others to the US in 1774, hoping to find fertile ground where their religion could take root. Establishing a small settlement near Albany as home base, persistent missionary efforts in New England by ``Mother'' Lee and her followers drew considerable notice, much of it unfavorable. Undaunted by the abuse, the Shakers intensified the task of broadcasting the Shaker message after Lee's death in 1784, with communities arising from southern Maine to Indiana during a period of vigorous growth and accomplishment lasting well into the 1820's. Although the Society continued to prosper, retrenchment and losses to apostasy increased in the second half of the century as many found fault with the severe work ethic and celibacy requirement or were lured away for other reasons. Never entirely self-sufficient, Believers put their hands-to-work philosophy to use by making and selling various products—everything from seeds to furniture—but dwindling numbers resulted in ever fewer hands. One by one, groups were consolidated and properties sold, until by 1925 only six sites remained. But with a resurgence of interest in the Society's spiritualism and its products, both an active community and a ``world of Shaker'' remain today—so, Stein says, a future may still exist for them both. Clear and well-researched: an invaluable history for those interested in one of the more fascinating forms of the American religious experience. (Fifty-seven illustrations—not seen.)

Pub Date: June 17, 1992

ISBN: 0-300-05139-5

Page Count: 576

Publisher: Yale Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1992

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

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THE 48 LAWS OF POWER

by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.

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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.

Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.

If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-670-88146-5

Page Count: 430

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE
by Robert Greene

- BOOK REVIEW
MASTERY
by Robert Greene

- BOOK TO SCREEN
Drake Producing 48 Laws of Power Show

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.