Amazon.com
By any standards, Howard Zinn has led a remarkable life as teacher, writer, and social activist, a life in which those three categories are viewed not as compartmentalized tasks but as part of a unified identity. You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, a title taken from his advice to students about his take on American history and current events, is a powerful testament to that life.
It begins with his 1956 acceptance of a teaching post at Atlanta's Spelman College, a school for black women that would soon be caught up in the civil rights movement. Zinn, who had already been radicalized on the streets of Brooklyn as a teenager, got caught up along with his students (who included the future head of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, and author Alice Walker), and was kicked out in 1963 for "insubordination." He moved to Boston University, where he became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and would prove a constant thorn in the side of university president John Silber throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Zinn writes in plain language that brooks no nonsense when it speaks of moral urgency, but he isn't above a sense of humor. Noting that the FBI was watching him constantly during the war era, he wryly observes that, "I have grown to depend on them for accurate reports on my speeches." Individual scenes leap out at the reader: Zinn's horror when he realized, years after WWII, that he had dropped napalm bombs on German troops; a meeting in a college classroom with the sister and parents of one of the victims of the Kent State massacre; Selma, Alabama, police beating blacks attempting to register to vote while federal agents stand by and do nothing. Through it all, Zinn writes, "I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience." --Ron Hogan
Book Description
Beacon Press is proud to publish a new edition of the classic memoir by one of our most lively, influential, and engaged teachers and activists. Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, tells his personal stories about more than thirty years of fighting for social change, from teaching at Spelman College to recent protests against war. A former bombardier in WWII, Zinn emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. Although he's a fierce critic, he gives us reason to hope that by learning from history and engaging politically, we can make a difference in the world.
Customer Reviews:
A Different Kind of Zinn, But a Must Read!.......2006-08-26
If you're thinking about reading this book, you've probably read Zinn before, probably A People's History of the United States. If you haven't read Zinn before, hold off on this book and go read A People's History. This book isn't as much history as it is personal experience mixed in with history. Zinn combines his personal experience in the civil rights and (to some degree) black power movements with life lessons he learned from those experiences. After reading this book, I fell in love with Zinn's writing all over again. I feel like I better understand the man behind the books, and now I will go back and read A People's History and Declarations of Independence again. If you like Zinn, you can't miss the book.
Full of experiences we all need to be aware of.......2006-07-10
This man leads a storied life and we are all better off that he documented it in his book. It is astonishing what we aren't reminded of from the past, even the recent past. Zinn definitely makes the most of his time on this planet and his life is an example to live by.
It is still shocking that within the last 50 years, our country was a much different place, specifically the deep south where Zinn began his teaching career. I wish I would have had to read this book in school.
School Paper Gone Right.......2005-12-20
When I started reading this book, I wasn't all that excited because it was for a class.
But, by the time I finished, I wanted to hold a protest of my own. Or at least do something to make this country better.
A true hero in my eyes, anyone who believes in equal rights and doing what you have to to make things happen should read this book!!!
I highly recommend it to everyone!!!
Great Book.......2005-03-24
This book was excellent. Zinn has shown a side of history that you wouldn't get from a basic educational history class. Teachers and professors always mention a strike here, a demonstration there, and x amount of people died as a cause of this event. In his autobiography, Zinn stops and explains the history that is skipped over and dodged in the classroom. I live in Ohio (which is dominantly a conservative, republican state) and have had too much exposure to the conservative opinion. He does an excellent job of showing a liberal, more sensitive side to things.
I had always wondered why liberal thinkers do what they do and Howard Zinn has taught me the reasoning behind their actions. He passes his beliefs of peace and love for all people in this book.
Amazing book!.......2004-01-30
What lessons, if any, do past social movements teach American citizens? Is change feasible in today's society? Howard Zinn attempts to answer these two questions, along with a number of others, in his book entitled 'You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times.' A beautifully written and inspirational book, 'You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train' is quintessential Zinn-direct, yet optimistic. Zinn's central argument is that we are all capable of participating in change, however, for change to occur, we must all experience a social and political reawakening. Zinn's book offers the reader a more hopeful version of politics and society. Yet, such a version is only feasible if we, as Americans, actively participate in the political process. This involvement will fill ones soul with a sense of meaning, and in the end will create a better world for all to live in. For those interested in the history of American society, politics, and social justice issues, 'You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train' is a marvelous book filled with inspiration.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the H-bomb decision (and mistakes made).......2005-08-05
Dr. York's fascinating history of the H-bomb decision stands the test of time well. It is a telling lesson of mistakes made in a U.S. decision pushed by overly conservative decisionmaking, much of it tied up with the decision to strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance. The best part of the book--which is especially useful for teaching--is his careful counterfactual history of what might have happened had we not deployed the H-bomb and instead tried to control it. He shows convincingly that boosted fission weapons would have been more than adequate to meet any possible Soviet threat--should arms control efforts have failed. Instead, they weren't even tried, and the arms race continued out of control until the late 1980s. York's book is worth reading by anyone interested in politics of the nuclear age.
Book Description
It was supposed to be quick and easy. The Bush Administration even promised that it wouldn't cost American taxpayers a thing -- Iraqi oil revenues would pay for it all. But billions and billions of dollars, and thousands of lives, later, the Iraqi reconstruction is an undeniable failure. Iraq pumps out less oil now than it did under Saddam. At best, Iraqi's average all of twelve hours a day of electricity. American soldiers lack body armor and adequate protection for their motor vehicles. Increasingly worse off, Iraqi's turn against us. Increasingly worse off, our troops are killed by a strengthening insurgency. As T. Christian Miller reveals in this searing and timely book, the Bush Administration has fatally undermined the war effort and our soldiers by handing out mountains of cash not to the best companies for the reconstruction effort, but to buddies, cronies, relatives and political hacks -- some of whom have simply taken the money and run with it. Blistering, brilliant and shocking, this will be the breakout title when it comes to Iraq books, and the catalyst for national debate.
Customer Reviews:
Corruption at its best.......2007-08-27
While the matters in this book have long been alluded to in congressional hearing and the media. this is the first book to gather it up in one volume. It shows an inept government unable to do what was done almost 60 years earlier. Admittedly, the culture and the circumstances were different but the resources were greater. The rampant graft and lack of aggressive action by those in charge, including contractors, is chilling. Have we as a nation state sunk so low?
It presents a thoughtful picture of the risk encountered daily by many employees of contractors. This is the first writing that describes the risk imposed on the professional truckers serving in Iraq. No other writer spells it out so vividly.
This book raises more questions than it supplies answers. Of course, that was the purpose of the book.
No blood money.......2007-05-10
This book is a devastating indictment of the US intervention in Iraq. For the author, the clearest signal of the failure of the reconstruction program is the unabated violence.
The second Iraq war created a paradise for cynical war profiteers, while the Iraqi population was left in the cold. The aid packages were in fact remarkable programs of US domestic handouts and corporate welfare, profiting nearly only to retired Republican operatives, US businessmen and dubious Iraqi exiles with a double agenda.
The profiteers organized an orgy of greed on profit guaranteed contracts. Control was inexistent, e.g., $ 9 billion out of the $ 20 billion of the Iraq Development Fund disappeared without a trace (mind-boggling!). Insurance companies sold mouth watering policies for labor protection. Foreign private security firms played a leading role in the daily violence in Iraq. The contractors hired slave laborers in order to maximize their profits.
The newly installed Iraqi government was not a shade better, e.g., its Defense Ministry misspent or `lost' $ 1.3 billion in its first year in office.
The author illustrates poignantly his terribly shocking exposé with concrete examples of personal tragedies, like the suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing, or the murder by his kidnappers of a 19 year old Nepalese, who paid a broker's fee of $ 3000 for a $ 200 per month job in Iraq.
Miller's book shows also the disastrous effect the UN sanctions had on the Iraqis under Saddam (one schoolbook for every six children).
Its final conclusion is that the Iraqi people didn't receive `blood money' - the payment of compensation by an attacker to the family members of dead or injured loved ones. Instead, they inherited a living standard below the `Saddam' level (no power, no water, no sewage treatment).
This book with its formidable title is a must read for all those interested in world current affairs.
How the US snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.......2007-04-23
This books deserves a Pulitzer Prize for plugging the huge gap in our knowledge of why the spectacular military triumph was succeeded by the even more spectacular reconstruction fiasco that quickly alienated average Iraqis. The press has focused mostly on the daily casualty counts and on the political maneuvering among Iraqi religious and secular leaders. Left unreported has been the story of why the mainstream Iraqi population that was so hopeful after the US toppled Saddam has turned against us in despair. Miller's investigation and reporting skills are remarkable in detailing so much of what went wrong with virtually every aspect of the occupation. Much of the blame is attributable to the unprecedented reliance on profit-driven private sector firms to carry out public policy of rebuilding Iraq -- which was doomed to failure because normal marke forces don't exist to control behavior of corporations left to run amok. Absolute must reading for anyone trying to understand how any American military success can be rapidly and overwhelmingly squandered by failure to plan for all that must follow.
Conservatives should be the most furious.......2007-03-07
Much about the Iraq "war" has been covered. The mythology, the manifest destiny, the lies, the propoganda. But one dimension that's been touched on by Robert Greenwald in "Iraq for Sale" and this fine, fine volume is the profiteering that's going on in Iraq.
Some others critics have commented that the book doesn't list criminals. On the contrary, many are implicated! Indeed, aside from the corporations and their directors who are making out quite literally like bandits, the text also covers the dubious qualifications of those assigned to high positions in Iraq, e.g., persons who were chosen because of their position on Roe v. Wade.
Those who purport to be conservative should be the most angry at what is going on. When they talk about big government, yet refuse to complain when megacorporations are charging the taxpayers--yes, that's you and me--hundreds--THOUSANDS of times what a service is worth there is something wrong. And this book specifies who's getting away with those acts so far. (In a review, I regret I can't get more specific or my review will be eliminated.)
Get this book for yourself and for ALL who still defend what's going on, especially those, again, who claim to be conservatives. This truly is the most important book I've read on the "war" and I'm well-read on the subject. I talked with an attorney referred to in the text who argues that a main motive for the war is to establish a new ruling class. You'll be able to figure out how such a ruling class may be established by reading and pondering this fine volume.
Crime Without Crimnals.......2007-02-05
This book lists crimes but pulls back from from pointing to the criminals.
The crimes themselves are well known to readers of the Internet. There is nothing new here. If you don't pay attention to the Internet the list of crimes and profiteering in Iraq is sobering.
Probably out of a justified fear of retribution the author fails to draw the obvious conclusions of who did what.
Three stars for generalities and one star for specifics= two stars overall.
Book Description
The production of 'human waste ' - or more precisely, wasted lives, the 'superfluous ' populations of migrants, refugees and other outcasts - is an inevitable outcome of modernization. It is an unavoidable side-effect of economic progress and the quest for order which is characteristic of modernity.As long as large parts of the world remained wholly or partly unaffected by modernization, they were treated by modernizing societies as lands that were able to absorb the excess of population in the 'developed countries '. Global solutions were sought, and temporarily found, to locally produced overpopulation problems. But as modernization has reached the furthest lands of the planet, 'redundant population ' is produced everywhere and all localities have to bear the consequences of modernity 's global triumph. They are now confronted with the need to seek - in vain, it seems - local solutions to globally produced problems. The global spread of the modernity has given rise to growing quantities of human beings who are deprived of adequate means of survival, but the planet is fast running out of places to put them. Hence the new anxieties about 'immigrants ' and 'asylum seekers ' and the growing role played by diffuse 'security fears ' on the contemporary political agenda.With characteristic brilliance, this new book by Zygmunt Bauman unravels the impact of this transformation on our contemporary culture and politics and shows that the problem of coping with 'human waste ' provides a key for understanding some otherwise baffling features of our shared life, from the strategies of global domination to the most intimate aspects of human relationships.
Customer Reviews:
A great sociologist as a great artist.......2005-03-16
I haven't had time to catch up with all of the amazing number of books that Bauman has been writing in his 70s, but the others aren't likely to be any better than this one. Here is a great scholar, a passionate critic, and a deeply committed humanist--someone with lots of now-possibly-outmoded virtues--writing with the freedom of an old man and the fire of a youth, tackling the character of life in the last stages of its transformation by the universal market. It is a dark picture of fragmentation and the collapse of meaning, and of the hubris of a drive towards order that suffocates on the disorder it manufactures. Bauman's argument passes seamlessly from the plunder of globalized capitalism through international refugees, urban ghettos and banlieus, and closes with some surprising connections with the world of speed dating and "Survivor." Some of the keenest bits of insight and social criticism are tossed in as parentheticals, and along the way there are extended excurses addressing even larger considerations.
It is a visionary text rather than a piece of social science; Bauman's citations are more commonly to Cavino or Borges than they are to Durkheim or Parsons. (His picture of a contemporary world aestheticized by commodities is quite close to my own account in chapter 7 of "The fiction of a thinkable world," a book nobody would call sociology.) It's all the better for that. One comes away from this book with a book of one's own taking shape in thought.
Average customer rating:
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Disasters: Wasted Lives, Valuable Lessons
Randall Bell , and
Donald T. Phillips
Manufacturer: Tapestry Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Disaster Relief
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Natural Disasters
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1930819439 |
Book Description
Economics expert Randall Bell has teamed up with New York Times Best Selling author, Donald T. Phillips, to produce this fascinating page-turner. It is a quick read that educates and enlightens every student of history. History has taught us that, rather than hiding from disasters, we should face them, learn from them, and do all in our power to prevent them from happening again. Disasters provides the means to do just that. In each chapter, the anatomy of a great disaster is analyzed and discussed. Vivid pictures and compelling prose are used to bring the event alive. Randy Bell examines the present day disaster site and relates the economic impact of the event and ends each chapter with his unique personal insight and the succinct, important lessons learned.
Customer Reviews:
Disasters.......2006-06-09
This is a very interesting book. I love the approach that's taken to show how we can all learn from history and also from our mistakes in history. The book focuses on 10 of the most well known disasters in the world and how we can prevent them in the future. I definitely recommend this book.
Average customer rating:
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Smokey mountain: Ravaged earth and wasted lives
Benigno P Beltran
Manufacturer: Divine Word Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Agricultural
| Commercial Policy
| Comparative
| Consolidation & Merger
| Cooperatives
| Debt & Deficits
| Development & Growth
| Econometrics
| Economic Conditions
| Economic History
| Economic Policy & Development
| Exports & Imports
| Free Enterprise
| Inflation
| International
| Labor & Industrial Relations
| Macroeconomics
| Microeconomics
| Money & Monetary Policy
| Natural Resources
| Privatization
| Public Finance
| Statistics
| Sustainable Development
| Theory
| Unemployment
| Urban & Regional
ASIN: 9715100791 |
Average customer rating:
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Wasted Lives: A Study of Children in Mental Hospitals and Their Families
Lillan Cohen Kovar
Manufacturer: Gardner Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Alcoholism
| Recovery
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Drug Dependency
| Recovery
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Pediatrics
| Specialties
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0470265647 |
Average customer rating:
- Malaysia's most famous environmental legal battle!
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Wasted lives: Radioactive poisoning in Bukit Merah
Manufacturer: Consumers' Association of Penang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Agricultural
| Commercial Policy
| Comparative
| Consolidation & Merger
| Cooperatives
| Debt & Deficits
| Development & Growth
| Econometrics
| Economic Conditions
| Economic History
| Economic Policy & Development
| Exports & Imports
| Free Enterprise
| Inflation
| International
| Labor & Industrial Relations
| Macroeconomics
| Microeconomics
| Money & Monetary Policy
| Natural Resources
| Privatization
| Public Finance
| Statistics
| Sustainable Development
| Theory
| Unemployment
| Urban & Regional
ASIN: 9679950808 |
Customer Reviews:
Malaysia's most famous environmental legal battle!.......2000-11-21
'Wasted lives : radioactive poisoning in Bukit Merah' published by the Consumers' Association of Penang chronicles the events of the persistent and courageous residents living in Bukit Merah, a village in Perak, Malaysia. This fascinating little book highlights the residents' decade long legal struggle with a Japanese MNC (Mitsubishi Corporation) and also a corrupt and indifferent Malaysian government. In his zealous effort to attract FDIs, Malaysia's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has allowed a Japanese multinational corporation to endanger the lives of an entire rural community. Asian Rare Earth (ARE), partly owned by Mitsubishi of Japan was permitted to dispose of radioactive waste and other toxins in a manner which not only ruined the environment, but it also caused great pain and sorrow to the thousands of villagers who were exposed to radiation. This was the same Mahathir Mohamad who branded George Soros, the maverick marketeer, as an "unscrupulous profiteer" and who also blamed 'the evil decadent West' for conspiring to ruin the economies of South East Asia during the financial crisis of 1997 and 1998!
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Military Review, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 951 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq.(Book review)
Author: James E. Varner
Publication:
Military Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 86
Issue: 6
Page: 104(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canada and the World Backgrounder, published by Taylor Publishing Consultants Ltd. on September 1, 1995. The length of the article is 1716 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Wasted lives and wounded people. (Native Americans in Canada)(Native People - Social Conditions)
Author: Rupert J. Taylor
Publication:
Canada and the World Backgrounder (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 1995
Publisher: Taylor Publishing Consultants Ltd.
Volume: v61
Issue: n1
Page: p8(4)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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Bird Day How to Prepare for It
Charles A. Babcock
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Birdwatching
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1417918209 |
Book Description
1901. Babcock, Superintendent of Schools in Oil City, Pennsylvania offers a slim text to assist children in the accurate study of a few birds. Contents: History of the Movement for Bird Day; The Value of Birds; The Destruction of Birds; Plan of Study; Further Suggestions; Directions for Written Work; Programs for Bird Day; The Poets and the Birds; Objects and Results of Bird Day; and Some Representative Birds.
Books:
- A Field Guide to Getting Lost
- A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
- A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11
- American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964
- American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood
- American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation
- An Unfinished Marriage
- Arbella: England's Lost Queen
- Ava's Man
- Between You and Me : A Memoir
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People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)
The Twentieth Century: A People's History
The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace
The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
