5 comments about Were You Always An Italian?: Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America.

1. Male or Female, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation this book is a must read. I think I might be a little older than the author having grown up in the late 40's and in the 50's. I also come from New Jersey (Trenton) and initially raised by my grandmother gravitated between the burbs my parents had moved to and the Italian section known as the burg. I basically grew up in both worlds, the old and the new. I never really thought much about who I was, but an experience I encountered in the 1990's with a section of the Navy rattled that foundation resulting in a search for my Italian heritage. Having read "Were you always an Italian?" has helped in making me understand myself. It has shown me that the choice's made and the direction traveled is not unique. A must read for every Italian-American.



2. I read this book and it spoke to me because I too am a child of immigrants that grew up very close to where the author grew up in NJ. It was like she was living my life. Yes, there are many problems that children of immigrants face while trying to navigate between their birth culture and the American way of life. After I was finished, I put the book on the shelf and forgot about it.
   
   Then I went to the town where my mother grew up in Italy. On the drive there, I noticed that this town is the neighbor to the town of the author's family. Having spent time in both towns, I must say that what the author has written about the area is truly insulting. Her characterizations of the area as desolate and sad do a disservice not only to her ancestors, but to mine. The people were kind and warm. Yes, it is not the richest of areas, but why do you think the people left this area to make a better life to begin with? They didn't have a lot of opportunities, but they worked hard to make better lives for themselves. Jsut becasue they needed to leave doesn't mean they didn't love the area to begin with. That is why so many return year after year. I'm not sure what she was expecting, but I'm sorry she was so disappointed. These towns were filled with good people living their everyday lives. I suppose the author feels they should spend their time discussing Italian literature and art in the town square by candlelight.
   
   I am embarassed to think that I once read her words with reverence. I understand that this is a "personal journey," but come on, would it hurt her to be the least bit truthful with the reader?



3. You needn't be Italian American or born in New Jersey from Italian parents to appreciate this book.
   
   It's not the nasty mythical underbelly, but about real Italian Americans kvetching over their roots. Many wishing they were born a WASP or a Monarch butterfly.
   
   An extension of John Fante and other first or second generation Italian Americans questioning their ethnicity. Intentionally masking their identities, many reborn as highly educated but ethnically stable members not at all like Tony Soprano.



4. Were You Always an Italian is a very well written book, which should be no surprise, considering Maria Laurino's background. I enjoyed the personal musings a great deal and was reminded of another book about Italians that I recently thoroughly enjoyed, Eleven Days in August by Amatore Mille.



5. If you had a situation where you were allowed to choose one of two things,going to the dentist, or reading this book, I would implore you to go to the dentist.
   This is at most a twenty page book, the rest is mind killing filler.The book has a leftward slant. That explains the good reviews from the media.the contents, poor Italians come to america,they dont speak the language.Duh.They can only get minial jobs.duh. they are mostly happy doing labor jobs.very few pull out of that attitude.That is about it.part crybaby part slock,my father was born in southern italy. he had twelve bothers and sisters. none of them ever complained about being stuck in some corner as an inferior. They were to busy making the american dream come true. my grandfather worked three jobs, two of which he owned, the other was being a street lamp lighter.all of the children got a good education. most of them became very wealthy.No darkness for them, america was the place to make it If you kept your eye on the ball. this dark shabby book,is a lobotomy. dont waste your time.

No comments about Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America.

5 comments about Soul On Ice.

1. This is still one of the most important books of its era. It is very enlightening on such topics as racism suffered by Blacks in America, particulary Black males. If you want to know about the injustices that Black people have suffered around the 1960s, then you must read this book. But Cleaver's attempt to justify rape as a "revolutionary" act causes him to lose credibilty and also causes his cause to lose credibilty. This book would have been more powerful if Cleaver would have accepted responsibility for his crime, realizing rape cannot and never will be justifified.



2. After reading this book I believe trying to articulate in writing "what my opinion" is would be doing it an injustice. The man is brilliant and has influenced me to search for more knowledge and wisdom. Thanks Mr. Cleaver!



3. Mr. Cleaver wrote a semiautobiography about how society sets itself up along racial and gender lines. Raping women is reprehensible and evil and it doesn't help solve the racial/gender problem. It excabates it. Challenging the racist/sexist society by making alliances with people whom he considered to be his enemies will solve most of the problem. He should have shown love for his fellow man/woman. Didn't Jesus tell people to love your enemies, not hating and violating them? Later on in life, his views have changed for the better.



4. The themes exhibited in "Soul On Ice" are race, racism, individuality vs. societal standards and traditions, injustice, humanity, religion/faith, inhumanity and activism. Cleaver spends a great deal of time writing on the injustices Black people face in America, and how even though he is what society wants him to be, it is his fault that he allow society to be right. He pledges to take steps towards change and to become a benefit to society.
   I know that a lot of people think that they know about the civil rights movement and the effects it had on the Black race, but they don't. This story of a man who, at the time, had been locked up for more than half of his life, is the story of all real Black people. I think that sometimes Black people do things and think that it is their nature, which is how stereotypes brew. Cleaver shows us that it is history and hatred that have made us a collective in an usual individual world. We do think for ourselves, yet a racist society continues to force us to travel down a road that we have not set for ourselves, and that he has fell into racist America's trap. He has become the stereotype: (supposedly) uneducated, a prisoner, and a victim of "The Ogre" (the white woman).



5. people consider this to be 'in the world of literature' and serious?
   cleaver's a misogynistic pig, a racist, and a multiple rapist. that's all you need to know.

No comments about Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois.

2 comments about The Angela Y. Davis Reader (Blackwell Readers).

1. Without a doubt the most influentialblack woman of this decade.The writings in this book expose peopleto the knowledge and beauty of thispowerful woman. She held fast toher principles despite the fact thatit cost her her job at UCLA.I admireher strength and courage. When itcomes to Richard Nixon and RonaldReagan who would you believe. I willstick with Angela.her



2. Angela Davis is without question an American national treasure. From her involvement with Black Power in the 1960s to her humanitarian pursuit of prison reform, Davis has always been remarkable for what she does. This reader introduces a new generation of readers to what she says about what she does. Those who have never read her before will be sure to grab other collections (and, of course, the autobiography). The selection of essays and excerpts is quite pleasing, but only to whet the appetite for those new to Davis.

No comments about Ghosts in Our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England, and the Caribbean.

5 comments about A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..

1. My parents and I have listened to all the CDs with the greatest enthusiasm over and over again. The quality is pretty good and the speeches are not extracts, but played in full. Barring few, I have found most of the introductions to be very informative and well presented. I am glad this collection includes both of Dr King's most famous "I have a Dream" and "I've been to the Mountaintop" speeches - I had noticed that most audio tapes include only one or the other, or both in extract form. I would certainly recommend this to anyone interested in great speeches. Also, one may access American Rhetoric website for the transcripts of these speeches to follow with the powerful voice of Dr King.



2. this is by far the greatest speeches made by dr.martin luther king jr, that change america by far every true american should have a copy of it. i enjoy listening to it over and over again,



3. I really enjoyed listening to the authentic voices of Dr. King and others on this CD. It has been an essential resource for my students, faculty and staff as well as very important to my community. I have been able to relearn and share the CD with many different settings during Black History month as well as with in the context of the King Holiday in January. This material and the authentic way it its delivered has made the "Black Experience" that much more real to every one I have shared the CD with.
   
   I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed this version of Dr. King's speeches.



4. Receipt and quality of our recent purchases were prompt, and the condition of the items orders were actually better than described.



5. I listen to these over and over, can't stop listening to Dr. King. Very moving and the things he said and did were all so real. Our generation of now needs to hear his speeches. You really want this collection!!! I'm buying a couple more as gifts.

5 comments about Harriet Jacobs: A Life.

1. I've always enjoyed reading Jean Fagan Yellin's work. She is a very clear writer without any of the foolish over complication of the academic writer, even in academic journals. She's firm in her beliefs. She's not neutral or oblivious to racism and injustice to oppression and exploition either in the historical worlds she has excavated or in her discussion of the present.
   
   While Yellin is accurate and in total possession of her subject, she is precise about what we and she do not know about Harriet Jacob's life.
   
   This is more than what many might have expected which is a fleshed out version of her explication of the true biological facts of Harriet Jacobs autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. This a biography of Harriet Jacobs as a Black woman facing the crises of her time, both in public political life and in personal and economic life.
   
   As such, as is her practice, Jacobs takes a broad view, so what we read about Jacobs is continually inserted into the changing events of the nation, of Black people, of women. What is most compelling is Jacob's struggle to involve herself in the antislavery movement by writing her book, and then the story of Jacob's struggles to fight for support to the freed slaves and war refugees. Finally, there is a very good explanation of the split between Afrian Americans and the white section of the women's movement as figures in this womens movement turned in such a racist direction, that women like Jacobs and her daughter Maltida could no longer function within it.
   
   Jacob's remarkable life after the civil war led her into contact with a number of the most notable white and African American literary and political figures including people you might never suspect like Henry James and William Monroe Trotter, so that anyone interested in womens, literary, and African American history from the 1850s until the 1890s would profit by reading this book. Yet, despite this prominence, it was assumed by most scholars as a Black woman she had not really written her book, until Yellin and other scholars proved this in the 1970s!
   
   Jacob's wrote so opens the struggle of my life. Yellin presents that life of struggle not for the seven years that Jacobs hid in her closet, but throughout the seven decades of her life.
   
   Again, Jean Fagan Yellin is a good readible, accurate writer who makes this a page turner without losing any of the dignity, scientific precision, and historic importance of this task.



2. The story of Harriet Jacobs is compelling. She was a fugitive in the North and in the South. Her autobiography, INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL, was published prior to Emancipation.
   
   Her home town was Edenton, North Carolina. The text of INCIDENTS was authenticated through documents by the author and other researchers. In her lifetime Jacobs achieved some celebrity as the writer of INCIDENTS.
   
   Until she was six Harriet did not know she was a slave. She was born in Chowan County, North Carolina, in 1813. Prosperity in Edenton ended after the Revolution. In 1795 a hurricane closed Roanoke Inlet. A canal through the Great Dismal Swamp impoverished Edenton.
   
   Harriet's father was a carpenter. She learned to read and to write and to sew. A twelve Hatty was moved to another establishment. She had been willed to a three year old mistress. Next she learned that her father had died. He was buried In Providence, (rediscovered, cleared, and reconsecrated in February 2001). Hatty and her brother John were preoccupied with freedom. They knew of four people who took passage on a ship to Liberia from Elizabeth City. Hatty's grandmother became emancipated. The war of Hatty's life began as she opposed a Dr. Norcom. She formed an alliance with a person of greater reputation in the community with whom she had two children. It was a teenager's solution to vulnerability.
   
   At age 21 in 1835 she ran from Edenton but ended up spending seven years hiding out in the vicinity in very restricted quarters. In her cramped hiding place Harriet Jacobs experienced sensory deprivation. In 1842 she was taken by boat to Philadelphia. Workers in the anti-slavery movement were impressed with Hatty's beauty and with her efforts to overcome her isolation.
   
   Jacobs went to New York, and to Boston, and to England. She stayed in England for ten months. Later her freedom was purchased. Her venture into becoming a published writer began with a letter to a newspaper. Her autobiography was anonymous. L. Maria Child edited the manuscript and supplied an introduction.
   
   During the Civil War Harriet Jacobs worked in Washington, D.C. as a relief worker among the so-called contrabands, former slaves. After the war she and her daughter traveled to Savannah and later to England to raise money for some of the destitute former slaves. They settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then went on to Washington, D.C., probably to enable the daughter to obtain a teaching position.



3. Jean Yellin?s Harriet Jacobs: A Life is readable, interesting and energetic narrative. It is a model biography that presents Jacobs in the context of her time. When Jacobs died in 1907, she was nearly forgotten, but Yellin?s biography restores an important woman to public scrutiny and well-deserved approbation. For most a century, Jacobs was unknown as the author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, but in 1985, Yellin?s edition of Incidents established Jacobs as its author. If there was any lingering doubt of authenticity, Yellin?s fine detailing of Jacobs? life conclusively settles the issue. We are immersed in Jacobs?s drama, provided with a compelling narrative of her life and given glimpses into her family, her children, and social life of the South and North before and after the Civil War. What Yellin does so well is to document the dignity and intrepid character that raises Jacobs above the wretchedness of slavery and racial prejudice wherever it surfaces. This is a fitting life of a woman whose soul burned for freedom and whose heart was steeled to suffer even death in the pursuit of liberty and equality for African Americans and women.



4. If you have ever read Harriet Jacobs's narrative, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", you will be gasping to know more about the lives of this extraordinary woman, her two children and the other players in the plot of her young life.

   Given the information available, Jean Fagan Yellin serves it up for us brilliantly thanks to her many and well presented, often extremely detailed accounts of Jacobs's movements after escape from North Carolina.

   It is clear from summation of events in Jacobs's life that not only was she an intensely loving, protective and self-sacrificing mother, and seemingly held in good regard by all she came into contact with, she was also an extremely dedicated and active ambassador to the poor, the weak, and the defenseless, travelling all over the country and abroad for this singular cause, remaining to her death a champion of her people.

   One of the great things about this book is that in detailing Jacobs's life, we get a better glimpse into the lives of the people important in her own life - her grandmother Molly Horniblow, her brother John S., her son Joseph and daughter Louisa, her half brother Elijah, the Norcoms and, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent, Sam Sawyer. By documenting aspects of the lives of those in Jacobs's immediate affairs, we are able to form a clearer understanding of her character, values, motives and relationships with others.

   Yellin's biography is a fascinating historical tome in its own right, capturing the political atmosphere and mood of Civil and post Civil War America. Yellin does a grand job documenting key events, attitudes and individuals to shape the pre war Abolishionist movement, post war reconstruction and emerging institutions, and the Suffragist movement for women and freed African Americans.




5. Above all else, there is a single conclusion to be drawn from this truly remarkable book.

   Anyone who has a sincere interest in the history of the United States should feel slighted that Harriet Jacobs? story isn?t already entrenched in the American consciousness alongside Harriet Tubman?s or Sojourner Truth?s. In HARRIET JACOBS A LIFE, Jean Fagan Yellin unequivocally reinvigorates a truly unique and vital American perspective all but lost to us.

   Here is the story of a woman born into slavery, fighting that condition with a resolve almost unprecedented in its selflessness. To save her children from the sexual torment she experienced as a girl, Jacobs hides in the crawl space over a store room for nearly six years, before finally escaping to the North.

   And though the boldness of her resistance is indeed characterized by such large singular acts of heroism, it is also made palpable by her persistent and unrelenting immersion in the mechanics of 19th century social activism, a mechanism not altogether ready for the sort of sexual realism she would air. She speaks plainly of that which the 19th century woman traditionally did not, and in doing so galvanizes a population by the raw horror of her experience as a chattel slave.

   Yellin?s biography not only places Jacobs? life in its proper historical, cultural, and political context, it does so with rich descriptions of the world she inhabited; the smell of the Edenton docks, the lecture halls and drawing rooms of Boston?s abolitionist movement, the grim specter of war torn Savannah, and the wizened frames of Freedmen refugees in the nation?s capital.

   This is what makes the book so compelling, the utter pervasiveness of Yellin?s research, fleshed out in masterful prose. And she is not content merely to paint the broad technicolor picture, but also to reduce the story of Jacobs? daily life to its very nuts and bolts, the struggle to keep food on the table, to keep herself and her family at the imparting end of charity. Here is a woman who in one hour effects the core of the anti-slavery movement while in the very next toils as a nursemaid, cook, or seamstress.
   
   The expression of that seeming dichotomy is the miracle of this book. And gives the modern reader precious little room to make any excuse for not standing up. Yellin?s book is an unforgettable biography of a remarkable woman, as well as an invaluable point of inspiration in troubling times.

1 comments about William Grant Still (American Composers).

1. Thank goodness at last a new source for info on Wm. Grant Still.This material will surprise the reader with its insightful revelations. A pleasure to discover.I recommend it to all those interested and those who have not as yet discovered Wm Grant Still.

5 comments about And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress.

1. I "knew" Rep. Rangel from his work in Congress. His life? Remarkable. Wish I could vote for him. Better than Obama for presidential nomination. And I am not black.



2. Congressman Rangel's autobiography is exceptionally candid. For anyone interested in politics this is a must read. He tells it as it was and is. I can't think of any political autobiography that is so candidly self critical. While Mr. Rangel does trumpet his many accomplishments he does not shrink from expressing doubts about himself. It is no wonder that his constituents have maintained him in office for 37 years and that he garners over 90% of the vote in each congressional re-election.
   
   He a "little guy's champion." It would be difficult not to like him even if you do not agree with his legislative positions.



3. I was flipping channels when I came across an interview with Charles Rangel on the Charlie Rose show. I was not familiar with him or his politics but he had a level of energy and charisma that led me to look him up online.
   
   I enjoy political biographies and memoirs and was interested in his perspective based on his 30+ years in Congress. He has led a fascinating life from his boyhood days to serving the country in Korea to working the political machine in DC and NY.
   
   "You can not imagine and dream what you have not been informed of." This statement in an early chapter foreshadows how Mr. Rangel built a career and a life with no precedent in his immediate surroundings. The human story of his adventures keeps the book interesting. He is a great example of a person who learns from his experiences and is continuously applying it while striving to make a difference with his politics.
   
   The complicated mix of friendships, loyalties, opponents and foes are as expected with a political leader. Extraordinary stories describe his alliances and longstanding loyalties to his district. The fact that he has lived within the same area of Harlem since his childhood shows his dedication and commitment, as well as a marathon level of perseverance.
   
   I may not agree 100% with his politics but he has a way of stating his position that is impressive. One example is his stance on the war and the draft. Having served in the military during wartime, he is uniquely qualified to represent the interests of our soldiers. His position that those who support a war should support a draft is thought-provoking. Meaning if you support the war, you should support potentially having those closest to you as active participants.
   
   I'm surprised that I was not familiar with Charlie Rangel before, but I'm glad that I caught up with this biography. I appreciated learning about him, his career and most importantly his political stance that has and will continue to shape legislation.



4. Rangel has chosen to forget at least one bad day while he was in Congress. As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rangel permitted the Caucus to use the franking privilege of members to mail the Caucus' propaganda. The franking privilege permits members of Congresss to mail material without paying any postage. John Cervase, a courageous lawyer from Newark, recognized that this practice was illegal and filed suit against Rangel in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The Court rendered a judgment that prohibited Rangel from continuing this practice.
   This was not the first time that Cervase had the courage to stand up to the Black Establishment. In the early 1970s, Kenneth Gibson, the Black mayor of Newark, appointed a 17 year old black to the Newark School Board. The teenage member persuaded the Board to adopt a resolution that permitted Newark schools to fly the "Black Liberation Flag". Cervase, a member of the Board, objected, filed suit, and won an injunction against the Board.
   Later in the decade, Black "poet" Imamu Amiri Baraka tried to build a high-rise in the Italian North Ward named Kawaida Towers. The Italian residents objected because it was a racist Trojan Horse in their neighborhood. Cervase and Anthony Imperiale lead demonstrations against the Towers. The New Yorker published a good article about the controversey. Eventually Baraka, now the "poet laureate of New Jersey", abandoned his plans.
   Hopefully others who stood up to Rangel will tell their stories about other bad days in his life.



5. Charlie Rangel surprised me with his wit and respect for the institutions he has served in. He is a far more humble man than I would have guessed, but he knows what factors directed his life. Anyone who wants to see how his race has moved up, survived urban conditions, and then served and contributed has to read this book. It also shows how much prejudice and ethnic ties affect politics more this yuppie-fied world we now live in will admit. It has always been this way, and Charlie Rangel accepts it realisticaly and displays the years since the Korean war where he has served his country in its government. I like watching Congressional moves and am personally surprised more do not hang with C-SPAN observing both houses in these critical times. I found myself agreeing with the Congressman from NY City more than I thought I might; he is a brilliant man and I am glad he accomplished becoming chair of the Ways and Means Committee. The years immediately ahead are going to be tough, and we need him there. I am an Independent, but will always vote Democratic after what this current administration has done to this country. My book on flying helicopters in Vietnam stresses the USA's mistakes there, but the Bush Administration has unbelievably exceeded those mistakes of the past.