Brings deserved attention to the accomplishments of a dedicated, savvy man.
A solid biography of the man who headed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for nearly a quarter of a century.
What began as a doctoral dissertation for Ryan, managing editor of the Economist’s annual World In publication, is now a full-blown portrait not just of Roy Wilkins (1901–1981), a man “more comfortable walking the corridors of power than demonstrating on sidewalks,” but also of the NAACP under his leadership. A founder and driving force behind the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a powerful coalition of civil rights, labor and religious groups that coordinated lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., Wilkins worked behind the scenes to get major civil rights bills through Congress in the 1950s and ’60s. Ryan details the conflict between activist groups and the conservative Wilkins, who was convinced that the integration of blacks into American society was best achieved not through violence and demonstrations but through legislation and the courts. In his view, the militancy of the Black Power movement and the havoc of ghetto riots drove away white support, and when Martin Luther King Jr. advocated merging the civil rights movement with the peace movement, Wilkins argued against it. His problems with other civil rights leaders were mirrored by struggles within the NAACP, where tensions and feuds led to a bruising battle over his retirement and a bitter last year in office for the reluctant-to-go Wilkins. His story is full of conflict with those who differed with him, but Ryan notes that a kind of synergy was operating as well: Favorable legislation and legal rulings were necessary but no guarantee of compliance, while the moral force of protestors created an environment for legal changes. Further, the author points to the survival of the NAACP as the greatest legacy of Wilkins: While once-prominent civil rights groups have shrunk or vanished completely, the mainstream NAACP is still going strong.
Brings deserved attention to the accomplishments of a dedicated, savvy man.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8131-4379-8
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Univ. Press of Kentucky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
