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Books

• Alchemy of Race and Rights -- "Patricia Williams is a lawyer and a professor of commercial law, the great-great-granddaughter of a slave and a white southern lawyer. The Alchemy of Race and Rights is an eloquent autobiographical essay in which the author reflects on the intersection of race, gender, and class. Using the tools of critical literary and legal theory, she sets out her views of contemporary popular culture and current events, from Howard Beach to homelessness, from Tawana Brawley to the law-school classrom, from civil rights to Oprah Winfrey, from Bernhard Goetz to Marth Beth Whitehead. She also traces the workings of ordinary racism--everyday occurences, casual, unintended, banal perhaps, but mortifying. Taking up the metaphor of alchemy, Williams casts the law as a mythological text in which the powers of commerce and the Constitution, wealth and poverty, sanity and insanity, wage war across complex and overlapping boundaries of discourse. In deliberately transgressing such boundaries, she persues a path toward racial justice that is, ultimately, transformative."
• And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (Stonewall Inn Editions), by Randy Shilts -- "How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? In answering these questions, Shilts weaves weaves the disparate threads into a coherent story, pinning down every evasion and contradiction at the highest levels of the medical, political, and media establishments. Shilts shows that the epidemic spread wildly because the federal government put budget ahead of the nation's welfare; health authorities placed political expediency before the public health; and scientists were often more concerned with international prestige than saving lives."
• I and Thou, by Martin Buber -- ¨Ich und Du, usually translated as I and Thou, is a book by Martin Buber, considered by many academics to be one of the seminal works of twentieth century philosophy. Buber's main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways: that of the 'I' towards an 'IT', towards an object that is separate in itself and from us, which we either use or experience; and that of the 'I' towards 'THOU', in which we move into existence within relationship, without bounds. One of the major themes of the book is that human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships. All of our relationships, Buber contends, bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is the Eternal Thou. This book exerted an indirect influence upon Sartre.¨ (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 11/22/05.)
• I Have a Dream - 40th Anniversary Edition: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World, by Martin Luther King -- "In addition to the famed keynote address of the 1963 march on Washington, the renowned civil rights leader's most influential words included here are the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," the essay "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence," and his last sermon, "I See the Promised Land," preached the day before he was assassinated. Editor James M. Washington arranged the selections chronologically, providing headnotes for each selection that give a running history of the civil rights movement and related events. In his introduction, Washington assesses King's times and significance."
• Is Bill Crosby Right?, by Michael Eric Dyson -- "The acclaimed "hip-hop intellectual" exposes the raw nerve of class and generational warfare in black America with this provocative defense of impoverished African Americans. Nothing exposed the class and generational divide in black America more starkly than Bill Cosby's now-infamous assault on the black poor when he received an NAACP award in the spring of 2004. The comedian-cum-social critic lamented the lack of parenting, poor academic performance, sexual promiscuity, and criminal behavior among what he called the "knuckleheads" of the African-American community. Even more surprising than his comments, however, was the fact that his audience laughed and applauded. Best-selling writer, preacher, and scholar Michael Eric Dyson uses the Cosby brouhaha as a window on a growing cultural divide within the African-American community."
• John Carver on Board Leadership, by John Carver -- "This one-stop board leadership resource, written by one of the world's leading governance consultants and author of the bestselling Boards That Make a Difference, offers you a broad range of material including the best articles from the Board Leadership newsletter, articles from various publications, and previously unpublished short works. Each chapter has been carefully selected and arranged to provide you with a distillation of John Carver's revolutionary Policy Governance model."
• Race Matters, by Cornel West -- "a range of issues, from the crisis in black leadership and the myths surrounding black sexuality to affirmative action, the new black conservatism, and the strained relations between Jews and African Americans. He never hesitates to confront the prejudices of all his readers or wavers in his insistence that they share a common destiny."
• Sexual Politics, Kate Millett, 1970. "A rare achievement. Its measure of detachment is earned by learning, reason, and love, its measure of involvement is frankly set out. It is a piece of passionate thinking on a life-and-death aspect of our public and private lives." New York Times Book Review, 09/06/1970, Barbara Hardy.
• The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, 1963. "Galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice."
• Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success, Edited by Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, and Melissa Osborne Groves
• Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, by Jean Shinoda Bolen -- "Jean Shinoda Bolen's Urgent Message from Mother is a book whose time has come. Our earth home and all forms of life in it are at grave risk. We men have had our turn and made a proper mess of things. We need women to save us. I pray that many will read Bolen's work and be inspired then to act appropriately. Time is running out."
  --Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chairman of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

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