Book Description
In Democracy in California: Government and Politics in the Golden State, Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi clearly explain the politics and character of California's governmental institutions and the dynamics affecting the lives of its citizens. The Post-Recall Edition is updated throughout and includes a special discussion of the effects of the unprecedented recall election.
Customer Reviews:
A Rare Textbook Find: California Politics With a Purpose.......2002-09-23
For those who teach American politics and government, there are distressingly few good textbook choices available for national or state courses. A rare exception to the dismayingly dreary or tiresomely trendy tomes that abound is "Democracy in California: Politics and Government in the Golden State." Authors Brian P. Janiskee and Ken Masugi have combined the standard features (formal and informal institutions, demographics, historical vignettes, recent developments, political terminology, etc.) with a thoughtful historical and philosophical approach that places California within the broad scope of American experience and Western political thought.
As its title suggests, this distinctive text draws both high inspiration and practical wisdom specifically from Alexis de Tocqueville's classic study, "Democracy in America" (1835). But the book is more than high-minded or useful: it is dead-on timely too. Tocqueville observed America during the Age of Jackson, early in the pre-Civil War crisis (1830-60) which both preceded and shaped California government. Thus, California was founded at a time (1849-50) when, as Tocqueville knew, republican government was under severe attack from Southern slavemasters and European autocrats. To the extent that the influence of the American founding was not attenuated by these attacks, the new State of California was both representative and free. But having weathered those challenges, California (and the nation) have had to endure the various phases and consequences of the Prussian administrative state which was the questionable contribution of the Progressive movement in the decades since the State's admission to the Union by the Compromise of 1850.
California has been shaped for good or for ill by these competing forces and is necessarily presented in this work as a sort of hodge podge in which multiple offices, frequent elections and political cronyism (the Jacksonian contribution) overlap with direct democracy, anti-partyism and professional expertise (the Progressive contribution). The battle over slavery shaped the State's original identity as a free state in the midst of a bitter sectional dispute but also long tainted its politics with racism. California defied the odds against republican government but the rise of the administrative state and its seemingly boundless taxing and spending--and bureaucratic meddling--puts the future of that regime in serious question. Not everything could be included in this relatively short (160 pages) work but no salient fact is overlooked as it bears upon the future of democracy in the Golden State.
The authors are discerning students of political philsophy, best exemplified today by Harry V. Jaffa, who single-handedly rescued Abraham Lincoln and principled anti-slavery politics from the near-oblivion of the professional historians. Janiskee and Masugi in turn seek to rescue California politics (but not many of its leading politicians)from the academic dead end to which years of pseudo-scientific approaches have relegated it. "Democracy in California" makes the study of California government and politics a much more serious and rewarding enterprise than it has been for many years and will be, if this book is widely adopted, for many more. Extensive footnotes and excellent bibliography. Highest recommendation.
Average customer rating:
- What's next?
- A Well-Documented Book, A must read for everybody who eats
- If only more could read this book
- Why Do You Eat What You Eat?
- An Important Read in a Lackluster Format
|
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture, 3)
Marion Nestle
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0520240677 |
Amazon.com
In the U.S., we're bombarded with nutritional advice--the work, we assume, of reliable authorities with our best interests at heart. Far from it, says Marion Nestle, whose Food Politics absorbingly details how the food industry--through lobbying, advertising, and the co-opting of experts--influences our dietary choices to our detriment. Central to her argument is the American "paradox of plenty," the recognition that our food abundance (we've enough calories to meet every citizen's needs twice over) leads profit-fixated food producers to do everything possible to broaden their market portion, thus swaying us to eat more when we should do the opposite. The result is compromised health: epidemic obesity to start, and increased vulnerability to heart and lung disease, cancer, and stroke--reversible if the constantly suppressed "eat less, move more" message that most nutritionists shout could be heard.
Nestle, nutrition chair at New York University and editor of the 1988 Surgeon General Report, has served her time in the dietary trenches and is ideally suited to revealing how government nutritional advice is watered down when a message might threaten industry sales. (Her report on byzantine nutritional food-pyramid rewordings to avoid "eat less" recommendations is both predictable and astonishing.) She has other "war stories," too, that involve marketing to children in school (in the form of soft-drink "pouring rights" agreements, hallway advertising, and fast-food coupon giveaways), and diet-supplement dramas in which manufacturers and the government enter regulation frays, with the industry championing "free choice" even as that position counters consumer protection. Is there hope? "If we want to encourage people to eat better diets," says Nestle, "we need to target societal means to counter food industry lobbying and marketing practices as well as the education of individuals." It's a telling conclusion in an engrossing and masterfully panoramic exposé. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing exposé, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being.
Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view.
Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health.
No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this pathbreaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.
Customer Reviews:
What's next?.......2006-06-19
When I came back to USA in 1990 from Japan after 10 years, I was a little shocked. It's there are so many obese. I stop seeing proportionate people as I admired once before (since I'm from Japan; we were small and rather plain looking.) What happened! I thought it's that soda-pop as I always watch the countless gallon bottles my next customers are buying at the every grocery shopping. As I was wondering, this nation sued tobacco companies. So I kept wondering, why don't they blame major soda-pop companies for obese. Soda-pop companies are not the sole culprit, but I was surprised to find that tabacco companies and sweet companies are somehow related. Anyhow, whatever the policy that the government had or have, if any, failed. I really hope to do something to improve American diet. Sooner is better. (I go to large Oriental Grocery Store at least once a month. You will be amazed how much size of green section they carry. It's almost 10 times of what Giants or Safeway carries, for example.)
A Well-Documented Book, A must read for everybody who eats.......2005-11-30
I found this book to be very informative about the political workings of the food industry. I agree with several other reviewers that it is a little dull and in an factual style (kind of reminds me of a history book. However I like that kind of reading, so it doesn't bother me.)
This book's basic premise is that the food industry's purpose is to sell as much food as possible. The food industry doesn't care about its consumers and encourages them to eat more than they need, produces lots of useless, cheap, junk food, and will do whatever it can within the political system (mostly legal, but sometimes illegal. The author documents one such example of price collusion) to set up an environment that is the most favorable to its interests.
The book documents how the FDA, Congress, and government agencies are influenced by the food industry. It provides details about the food industry's lobbying, studies and research grants funded by various segments of the food industry, the food industry's attempts to gain brand loyalty though school contracts, conflicts with the school lunch program, and attempts to maximize sales through bonuses for the schools. It chronicles the rise of the supplement industry and their involvement with the FDA.
The author does seem to have a somewhat leftist agenda in the last chapter in giving recommendations; but with that exception, I thought the overall tone of the book was neutral and strictly documentary. It's good solid book which people who are interested in their health or the American food industry should read.
If only more could read this book.......2005-08-07
This book touches upon issues that everyone is aware of but chooses to ignore. The author makes this obvious but in an non-condescending way which is much appreciated. He ties the biases of the food industry in with other industries such as the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. Drawing the connections between these three and the governmental regulatory agencies that work with/against them respectively (USDA, FDA, ATF), the author illustrates just how much of a problem this is. Not only was I fascinated by the issue, but I found the writing very accessible. Well done and it's too bad more haven't read it.
Why Do You Eat What You Eat?.......2005-08-06
Nestle presents a well researched, balanced description of how our market system in the US can hurt its citizens if proper checks and balances aren't applied. Our system only works if consumers are informed and can act on that information. Instead, it is abundantly evident that food producers (who are after all in the business of making money, not protecting our health)are experts at manipulating our food choices by advertising to children, lobbying for food labels that mislead the public, and generally doing everything they can to relax regulations meant to protect us that may stand in the way of increased revenue. Nestle's research in many ways is analogous to the saga of big tobacco, but food as she points out is much more nuanced -- you can't tell people just stop eating food like you can cigarettes. So who is at fault? Its not just industry, its our political system, our regulating agencies, school boards, and advocates. Nestle's writing is fine, just too detailed for some audiences at some points. Her research seems exhaustive (and is exhaustively referenced) and she speaks from first hand experience. Nestle is courageous for writing this and it will surely become a classic in public health literature.
An Important Read in a Lackluster Format.......2005-06-15
Here's the thing.
As one reviewer mentioned I think the bulk of negative reviewers have not actually read this book.
The author is a nuritionist, who says that despite the really basic nutritional advice of most nutritionists which has not significantly changed over the course of a half century, the public still views nutritional advice as difficult to understand.
Why?
Because the food industry makes more money when it sells more products. It has a vested interest in getting people to at least buy (if not eat) more food. Most importantly, the least healthy foods (i.e. highly processed foods) have the highest profit margins. To ensure profits, they pressure the government to avoid informing the public in an easily understandable format that they should eat less and avoid processed foods.
Is she saying this is the ONLY reason why americans are fat? No. But the fact that many, many, many americans have problems figuring out what the heck to eat is heavily due to the food lobbyists, a fact which she goes into in nauseating detail.
And therein lies the problem.
Nestle is an Academic and she writes like one. Anyone familiar with non-fiction in the style of Nickle and Dimed, Fast Food Nation, or even Island of the Colorblind will find Food Politics irritating. Not because the book is poorly written, per se, but because it's dull.
She obscures critical points between reams of facts, her narrative style plods along instead of floating or skipping, and I frequently felt like hurling the book across the room screaming get to the point already.
But I did finish the book.
Because the message is far more important then the limited medium. This book is critically important in that it hi-lights the sad reality that billions of dollars being spent vying for a place on the tip of your fork. Sadly very little of this money bears your health in mind.
Book Description
In 1949, lawyer, historian, and journalist Carey McWilliams stepped back to assess the state of California at the end of its first one hundred years--its history, population, politics, agriculture, and social concerns. As he examined the reasons for the prodigious growth and productivity that have characterized California since the Gold Rush, he praised the vitality of the new citizens who had come from all over the world to populate the state in a very short time. But he also made clear how brutally the new Californians dealt with "the Indian problem," the water problem, and the need for migrant labor to facilitate California's massive and highly profitable agricultural industry. As we look back now on 150 years of statehood, it is particularly useful to place the events of the past fifty years in the context of McWilliams's assessment in California: The Great Exception. Lewis Lapham has written a new foreword for this edition.
Customer Reviews:
an emergence from "the myth of Golconda".......2002-12-24
That is how California's emergence is described by the exemplary Carey McWilliams, journalist, social critic, and keen observer of all things Californian.
The book is dated: it was written in '49 and lightly updated in '74 and centers primarily on San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is a measure of McWilliams' penetrating and witty grasp of the state and its foibles, follies, and fandangos that most of what he wrote is still so relevant and even indispensable.
McWilliams' central premise is that the discovery of gold catapulted California through what took other regions of the planet centuries to go through--hence our individualism, do-it-yourself lifestyles, and general motion and mayhem. We've been doing reenactments of the Gold Rush ever since. As he puts it: "Essentially California developed 'outside' the framework, the continuum, of the American frontier. The difference is that between a child raised in the home of his parents, with relatives and familiar surroundings, and the child taken from his home at an early age and brought up in a remote and different environment." Quite so. In a nation of wandering pioneers we are largely, even now, somehow a state of orphans.
California as "the great exception," then, not in terms of snobbery or entitlement, but of being the place where so many Americans--and men from other countries--rushed in to pan for gold, and stayed, and established a tradition of messy but vital cultural infusions. Tip the continent sideways, someone once said, and what falls down lands in California, land of wonder and many griffins.
You might also want to check out McWilliams' SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: AN ISLAND ON THE LAND.
Book Description
Approaching Democracy addresses the evolving nature of the American experiment in democratic government. It teaches students the theory and the basics of American political science, the political history of this nation, and provides the critical thinking skills needed to analyze these evolving relationships. This new Teaching and Learning Classroom (TLC) California edition introduces features that incorporates more âstudent empowermentâ tools to reinforce how American Government is relevant to students’ lives today. Larry Berman and Bruce Allen Murphy, long-time teachers of the introductory American Political science course in both large and small public and private universities, set out to write a book that offers a clear theme – one that is even more relevant now than it was when it was first presented – in a highly readable, easy-to-understand format. Both authors enjoy teaching and are actively engaged in new methods of engaging students and empowering them to participate in political discourse
Book Description
One of the most succinctly written state government texts available, California Government provides a balanced focus on the institutional and behavioral aspects of the state's political foundations. Not only does the text fulfill the requirements of the state university system, but its comparative perspective and attention to ethnic issues make it compatible with any American government text.
- Chapter 5 includes the author's own research on partisan realignment in California, including in-depth coverage of the impact of the Latino vote.
- Links to Internet resources at the end of every chapter encourage students to be proactive and seek information on important political topics.
- Expanded coverage includes the impact of the "new economy" in Chapter 1, and material on public opinion and ethnicity in Chapter 3.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, Factual, and Detailed.......2002-03-23
This is a well-presented, comprehensive account of California government. I use the latest edition of the book in my American Politics class. This book has a wealth of details that are relevant in our politics and society, as well as easy to find and understand. Have you ever wanted to know exactly how many state-wide officials are elected in California and who they are? You will find the answer in this book. What is the structure of the judiciary and how has it been reformed since 1998, when the voters passed the initiative that streamlined the system? The answer is here. I like this book and recommend it to undergraduate students who study California politics and professors who teach the subject on the undegraduate level. By the way, I mean "students" in the most general sense. Even if you are not in college but want to really know more about California politics rather than read a bombastic, sensationalist account of current events, pick up this book.
Book Description
California has recently experienced a âpolitical earthquakeâ and the emergence of the âEra of Arnold.â The eighth edition of Power and Politics in California examines why these events occurred, and where they are leading California in the context of longer-term institutional and procedural dilemmas surrounding California politics.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best in field.......2006-10-04
I've used this text for many years through several editions. I find it to be one of the best written on California politics. I highly recommend it.
The worst textbook I have ever owned........2006-02-05
This book is awful. I'm required to read it for my American Politics class. I don't know if the content is good because I have nothing to compare it to, but it is poorly written. It is often confusing because of how poorly it is written.
If the authors were to pass me on the street, I would kick them in their groins as hard as I could.
Book Description
This book is part history, part political analysis and part memoir. It is an intensely personal book about what has changed in California over the last quarter century.
Customer Reviews:
A Professor of security studies.......2007-07-05
Finally a balanced, sensitive, yet very pragmatic book on the whole immigration and culture debate. Hanson lays out the strong case that refutes the pro-immigration lobby and all the ethnic pride industry that has been built up around the cult of multiculturalism in the United States. The real question that comes out of the book is what has the Government of Mexico really done to take care of its citizens in the past 100 years? Not much, and it has effectively outsourced its problems to its neighbor to the north.
Pity Me.......2007-06-29
I read Mexifornia soon after it was initially released. My feelings for the author and the book varied from pity to anger. "Good Mexicans" are those who attend his classes in the Classics. "Bad Mexicans" are usually "Indians from the small towns" and others who cling to their heritage and bring it with them. Hanson's historical amnesia excludes the fact that California was stolen from Mexico in a war of aggression so blatant that US Grant quit the army in disgust. Dr. Hanson happily earns a living on this stolen land and resents "bad" Mexicans from invading his private Anglodom. No mention of California Indians who no longer apparently exist. History is only for nice Anglophones in his home town, although "some best friends" are Mexican. No solutions here, just resentment for Mexican existence. Forget the book.
"Mexifornia", The Truth Finally Told.......2007-01-11
"Mexifornia" is a must read for those concerned with preserving our forefathers culture in the United States. Davis sees it as it really is and pulls no punches in laying the blame squarely on those who are at fault in this dilemma.
Please take the time to read this; it ought to scare the pants off you!.......2006-09-15
We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of America's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how immigration - both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.
Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy! America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"
"Here is how they do it," Lamm said: "First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and
tragedy." Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."
Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and
discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.
Third, "We could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we! are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together." Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have
various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."
"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."
"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all
minority failure on the majority population."
"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum" -- From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."
"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the! doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."
In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said,. "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book "Mexifornia." His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America. deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."
There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today.
Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America - take note of California and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."
Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.
Mexifornia.......2006-08-03
Great service, delivered per agreement. Book tends to be a bit heavy and not sure of what the direction. I feel that the whole book could be condensed into a single chapter. Has a lot of 'fill' which adds nothing to the content. It does have some good facts that would be a lot more meaningful if organized and put into the single chapter.
Book Description
Bohemian Los Angeles brings to life a vibrant and all-but forgotten milieu of artists, leftists, and gay men and women whose story played out over the first half of the twentieth century and continues to shape the entire American landscape. It is the story of a hidden corner of Los Angeles, where the personal first became the political, where the nation's first enduring gay rights movement emerged, and where the broad spectrum of what we now think of as identity politics was born. Portraying life over a period of more than forty years in the hilly enclave of Edendale, near downtown Los Angeles, Daniel Hurewitz considers the work of painters and printmakers, looks inside the Communist Party's intimate cultural scene, and examines the social world of gay men. In this vividly written narrative, he discovers why and how these communities, inspiring both one another and the city as a whole, transformed American notions of political identity with their ideas about self-expression, political engagement, and race relations. Bohemian Los Angeles, incorporating fascinating oral histories, personal letters, police records, and rare photographs, shifts our focus from gay and bohemian New York to the west coast with significant implications for twentieth-century U.S. history and politics.
Customer Reviews:
A terrific read and an excellent history.......2007-03-12
Daniel Hurwitz has written a fascinating history of an unusual slice of life in Los Angeles. His book should be of interest to anyone who likes to read about gay history and urban history. Hurewitz is a graceful writer and a careful historian. He clearly spent a great deal of time digging through little-known archives and interviewing people who were key figures in his story. This is a terrific read!
Hooray for Edendale.......2007-03-08
The Bohemian history of Los Angeles is every bit as interesting and important to the culture and fabric of Los Angeles as its Hollywood history. Daniel Hurewitz has revealed a depth and intelligence to Los Angeles that the city is all too often accused of not having.
Bravo Daniel. This book is a must-read for Los Angeles history enthusiasts and Edendale residents like myself.
Move over Stonewall! Silverlake is where gay politics really began! .......2007-01-10
From drag queens to communists, Bohemian Los Angeles is full of characters and stories from L.A.'s surprising secret past. As a resident of Silverlake--the hillside neighborhood that provides the focus of this book and which was the epicenter of so much early social activism--I was particularly fascinated to learn about the history under my feet. But I think anyone would be charmed by this nostalgic portrait of a world that has been lost--and yet is the foundation of our own. Congratulations to Daniel Hurewitz for this important and engrossing book!
Dubious thesis.......2006-12-29
The author originally presented his findings in a UCLA dissertation. In the several years intervening he has enlarged his data and refined his ideas. What we have then is a carefully crafted presentation of his case. Hurewitz focuses on the early and middle years of 20th century. Supplementing previous accounts, there is a good deal of information about ordinary gay men that is new.
In my review of Gay L.A. by Faderman and Timmons, a generally excellent book, I faulted the writers for not offering a sufficient explanation for the seemingly improbable fact that America's only enduring gay emancipation movement arose in Los Angeles. Commendably, Hurewitz attempts to resolve this conundrum. Unfortunately, his explanation doesn't work.
He portrays three interdependent spheres of innovation in the Southern California city--the arts community; the political radicals (especially the Communists); and gay men and lesbians.
Ostensibly linked by their sharing the neighborhood of Edendale between Hollywood and downtown LA, Hurewitz' three worlds are not in fact closely connected. While many artists and leftists lived in Edendale in the first half of the twentieth century it did not enjoy the status of a "gay village" until recent decades, when it became known as Silver Lake and Echo Park.
A number of the founders of the Mattachine Society had also been Communists, but this fact, while true, is not enough to justify the triple project. The reason Mattachine survived and prospered was because after its reorganization in 1953 (a change much lamented by today's nostalgic leftists) it was led by individuals who were centrists.
Over this book there is a haze of the Romance of American Communism, to cite the title of a gushing book by Vivian Gornick. These people were working to establish a Soviet system in America. Had they succeeded in doing so, "degenerates" would have been sent to Gulags.
Those who sugarcoat this leftist history instruct us to forget about international politics. Instead, just look at the rewarding personal lives these Communists lived! Regrettably this picture wasn't rosy either. When one joined the Party one was urged to devote all one's free time as much as possible to working for the Revolution. There were no "free weekends." Just as with a religious sect, members were encouraged to marry within the Party. This meant severing one's previous ties. After this pattern was set, members were discouraged from leaving because they knew that if they did no they would be ostracized. They would end up with no friends at all.
As noted, the linkage of the three phenomena is elusive. If there was an L.A. Bohemia, this wasn't it.
Hurewitz makes much of the matter of identity. Yet this was not an issue during the period he mainly covers. Gay identity (and other purported identities) became important only in the seventies. The legacy of this concept has been scarcely benign. The perception of Balkanization, appealing to separate interest groups rather than the national interest, continues to haunt the Democratic Party. Hurewitz further believes that Los Angeles was the crucible in which the identity principle advanced to be part of the national agenda. This claim, which ignores the crucial effect of the civil rights movement in the South, is specious.
In short this book is good in parts. Yet in my view its overall claim fails.
Book Description
Of all the horrors human beings perpetrate, genocide stands near the top of the list. Its toll is staggering: well over 100 million dead worldwide. Why Did They Kill? is one of the first anthropological attempts to analyze the origins of genocide. In it, Alexander Hinton focuses on the devastation that took place in Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979 under the Khmer Rouge in order to explore why mass murder happens and what motivates perpetrators to kill. Basing his analysis on years of investigative work in Cambodia, Hinton finds parallels between the Khmer Rouge and the Nazi regimes. Policies in Cambodia resulted in the deaths of over 1.7 million of that country's 8 million inhabitants--almost a quarter of the population--who perished from starvation, overwork, illness, malnutrition, and execution. Hinton considers this violence in light of a number of dynamics, including the ways in which difference is manufactured, how identity and meaning are constructed, and how emotionally resonant forms of cultural knowledge are incorporated into genocidal ideologies.
Customer Reviews:
An absolute must-read for scholars and lay people alike .......2005-05-07
Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia In The Shadow Of Genocide by Alexander Laban Hinton (Associate professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University, Newark) explores the cultural and political underpinnings of one the most heinous holocausts of the twentieth century, perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979. Approximately twenty percent of Cambodia's population died due to starvation, malnutrition, disease, and outright execution due to the drastic policies the Khmer Rouge implemented trying to transform the nation into a purely agrarian state. The Khmer Rouge regime was unusual among genocidal states in that, though it did target muslim, Chinese, and Vietnamese citizens, much of the killing was ethnic Khmer exterminating ethnic Khmer, a perplexing feature that sets it apart from many ethnicity or religion-based genocide situations. Indeed, the Khmer purged so many of its own cadres that its destructive ways weakened itself and contributed to its downfall when Vietnam invaded. Why Did They Kill? strives to answer its title question drawing upon the author's extensive anthropological study and expertise, and includes numerous interviews and testimonies, as well as insights into human psychology and sociology. Why Did They Kill? postulates that societies can be "primed" for genocide when saturated by certain features such as severe class distinctions, the absence of an international response, moral restructuring, socioeconomic uphevals and more, and then "activated" into mass killing by various triggers, especially idealogues who spread a climate of fear to induce violence. Chilling yet meticulous in its search for answers, "Why Did They Kill?" is an absolute must-read for scholars and lay people alike striving to understand genocide in Cambodia as well as the horrific underpinnings and workings of so-called "idealogical genocide" in general.
Obedience -- last refuge of killer, observer, victim.......2005-01-05
Alexander Hinton obviously put heart and soul into this work. Our intellectual side never ceases trying to understand the beast that lies deep within every human.
The chapter entitled "Manufacturing Difference" touched me most. Today we invent sterile legalistic terms like "person under control" [PUC] and "enemy combatant" [EC] to replace "prisoner" to avert our consciences from the denials of due process. Labels are just as important to us as they are to "evil doers," it appears. The self-imposed and external pressures that influenced the behavior of Khmer Rouge interrogators are described in some depth, and help explain our own recent failures and abuses.
The chapter "Power, Patronage, and Suspicion" is rich with fascinating examples from post Khmer Rouge Cambodia. Upon reflection, we see the same instinct to curry the patronage of powerful political figures is alive and well in today's America. Once again, we start off studying what we assume is a more primitive society only to end up shining a light upon our own human failings. Somehow our own faults are held deeply submerged, probably because of the same instinctive self-defense tools which the "perpetrators" employ when asked, "Why did you kill?"
The leaders of genocide always appear to me to be simple power seekers who have an instinctive sense of the tools of human control. Strange how the "godless" Khmer Rouge and the Taliban "student seekers of God" were so alike. I cannot stare into the vacant eyes of one without thinking of the other. The common perpetrator hides within each of us under the label "cowardice." As David Chandler explained so well in his own masterful work on S-21, when men attach themselves to a bureaucracy they place themselves in a "state of agency" which allows them to do evil for self-interest and self-preservation while evading their own conscience in the process. One who finds himself obedient and "moveable" in terms of his principles is a prime candidate to find in himself the perpetrator of shameful acts.
Along the path of this penetrating study, Alexander Hinton has done a wonderful job annotating the twisted Khmer Rouge terminology which still never fails to send a chill down my spine.
I read "Why did they kill?" trying to use it as a mirror to see if I could recognize my own face. As I feared, some shadows were all too familiar.
Essential reading.......2004-11-08
Deep and deeply disturbing study of genocide and of Cambodia. This book is essential reading - easily the most insightful work on the motivations of people which give rise to genocide and a mine of information on the origins, history and consequences of the period. A superbly researched and well-written study. Anybody interested in what happened in these years in Cambodia, as well as anybody interested in what motivates societies and the individuals that constitute those societies to act as they do should read this book - but be aware that the book may also be a mirror.
Book Description
No two cities are more symbolic of the modern American metropolis than New York and Los Angeles. But while New York boasts a recently revitalized urban center, Los Angeles is the classic example of sprawl and decentralization, with multiple clusters of economic and social activity dispersed throughout its surrounding area.
This volume presents advanced studies that consider this fundamental difference between New York and Los Angeles while comparing and contrasting politics and culture in each region. An esteemed group of contributors from a wide variety of disciplines considers issues that include immigration, the effects of race and class on residence, the efficacy of public schools, the value of welfare reform, the meaning of mayoral politics, the function of charter reform, and the respective roles of the cinema and art scenes in each city.
Capturing much of what is new and vibrant in urban studies today, New York and Los Angeles will prove to be must reading for scholars in that field, as well as in sociology, political science, and government.
Contributors:
Andrew Beveridge, Mehdi Bozorgmehr, Geoffrey DeVerteuil, Susan S. Fainstein, Robert Gedeon, Saverio Giovacchini, David L. Gladstone, David Halle, Jack Katz, Karen M. Kaufmann, Rebecca Kim, Mark Levitan, Kevin Rafter, Georges Sabagh, David O. Sears, Heidi Sommer, Raphael J. Sonenshein, András Szántó, Lois Takahashi, Susan Weber, Jennifer Wolch, Julia Wrigley, Min Zhou
Customer Reviews:
Doug Terry.......2005-05-15
Winston Churchill famously said that America and England constitute "two peoples divided by a common language". In the case of New York and Los Angeles, it is two great cities divided by three thousand miles and, in reality, hundreds of years of history. New York is the potted plant brought over from Europe, with many fresh seeds thrown into the mix. Los Angeles is the end of the road, the place where American dreams are realized and smashed, sometimes in the same instant. LA is the place where American rootlessness runs out of room, where our experiment of rampant capitalism and democratic ideals slams headon into the future. New York is the new birthed from the past, a European city in different clothes. LA is the new from the new, a place unlike any before it. New York looks eastward, LA looks westward and inward. This book by David Halle is a wonderful artistic tour of these two great cities that shows us how different, and how linked, they are both in fact and dream. While some readers might have difficulty with the academic proclivities of the professor inside the writer, all will be rewarded by slogging through the sometimes dense prose. Halle "lives" in New York and commutes to teaching at UCLA, a wonderful, if strained, life style that truly enables his study and gives it a grity authentcity. (Just think of the frequent flyer miles!) I recommend this book highly to any literate resident of either city and all of those inbetween who want to understand more of our two greatest cities. They say what happens in Vegas stays there. Good. What happens in New York and Los Angeles travels around the world, both a symbol for America and emblematic of fragments of a common future for all.
Pass this one by.......2004-03-22
Well, this certainly was a waste of time and money. With dull prose, unoriginal ideas, and a complete lack of revelatory finds, this book seems created to take up space on a shelf without actually adding to anything (except perhaps the author's resume). Don't even both with it.
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