Any understanding of the history of social reform in America begins with Woolman, and understanding Woolman begins here.
A masterful biography of the Quaker prophet and path-breaking social reformer.
Woolman (1720–72) remains the earliest and most complete American embodiment of the notion of a “social conscience.” In Mount Holly, N.J., he shed a succession of jobs (most notably as a shopkeeper, tailor, schoolteacher and legal functionary) to devote more time to ministering for the Society of Friends, carrying his message throughout the colonies and, by the end of his life, even to England. He was a pacifist and a tax resister, and he preached a doctrine of peace with the Indians, care for the impoverished, kindness to animals and devotion to simplicity. Remembered today primarily for his pioneering anti-slavery stance, Woolman sought in the gentlest possible fashion to convert others to the truth he believed came directly from God. Closely tracking Woolman’s spiritual autobiography, The Journal of John Woolman—remarkably still in print since its 1774 publication—and relying on Woolman’s essays and pamphlets, Slaughter (History/Univ. of Notre Dame; Exploring Lewis and Clark: Reflections on Men and Wilderness, 2003, etc.) beautifully explicates the spiritual growth of this secular saint. The author also applies a thorough knowledge of the period’s philosophical, theological and historical currents to explain a man whose deep religiosity and exquisite sensitivities prevented him from riding a horse (an unnecessary burden to the animal), wearing dyed clothing (a product, even at some remove, of slave labor) or drafting a will that conveyed a slave. So much saintliness might be hard to endure if not for Slaughter’s keen awareness of his subject’s eccentricities and shortcomings: For example, Woolman regularly abandoned his wife and child for his wide-ranging and frequently dangerous itinerant ministry; he deemed harmless sleight of hand and juggling to be “frivolous toying with the universe”; he opposed inoculations against small pox. Nevertheless, by the end of this detailed, well-written consideration of Woolman and his enduring significance, the reader can’t help but share Slaughter’s admiration for his hero’s sincerity, courage, persistence and humility.
Any understanding of the history of social reform in America begins with Woolman, and understanding Woolman begins here.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8090-9514-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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