use of the race card to divide poor people of all races as well as to demonize and permanently marginalize peoples of African descent in this country.

This book trace the origins of welfare racism, beginning with FDR's New Deal policies which help poor whites of all ethnicities while shunning blacks and other peoples of color such as American Indians(Indigenous Peoples) and Latino/as. Politicians use the image of a welfare mother, usually African American female as a way to garner white resentment as well as to preserve racial/gender ideologies. The more recent examples are the 1994 Proposition 187, which cuts illegal immigrants' right to use public assistance and the Personal Responsibiilty Act, which restricts poor people access to public funds such as welfare as well as to keep them off from them.

This book is the best expose on elites' use of race to keep people poor as well as to maintain the racial/gender status quo.

A touching look at the lives of three small children who are evacuated from London during WWII. The sibling are moved into a grand old country home and must struggle with a different way of life, even as they miss their parents desperatly. Streatfield -- who lived in London for the duration of the war -- vividly conveys wartime England, in all its stress and drama and her protagonists are touchingly human, with all their worries and confusion over gas masks and nazis. A must read for any child with an interest in history.

"Winter Reckoning" is a solid piece of work from an author who is better known for her poetry. A tale of finding one's self on a new and brutal world, "Reckoning" combines a knowledge of sociology and anthropology with a deeply creative imagination, resulting in a tale both rich and compelling. ~ Anne W. Brennan (SorchaM@aol.com), Providence, RI, USA

As a consultant for a National Archives project working with primary documents and American history, I found this book to be very useful and enlightening. Witnessing America is divided into several categories detailing different facets of American life. Taken from a wide variety of sources, times, and authors, readers will be able to better understand how Americans evolved as a people in time with their history unfolding around them. I use several of the excerpts conatined in the book for my Advanced Placement level U.S. History class, and they find the choice of selections easy to use and entertaining. Overall, the breadth and depth of this work are best complimented by noting that a followup effort on the rest of the years of U.S. History would be most welcome. As a source to best hear from our ancestors about their lives and what they confronted, I have not seen much like this compliation in several years of looking. For information on the way people lived, and not the usual history books often used in a class, this one will teach you well.

This work provides a unique resource for those who plan worship services as well as those who simply want to participate more fully in them. Its focus is a question basic to liturgical reflection, what it means to present scripture as the word of God. Power asks that we consider the complex relationship of texts to one another in their liturgical use, not only in the tradition but in the complexity of contemporary experience. The work engages interpretive issues usually dealt with through theoretical reflection. This accessible work is less abstract. It distills the author's specialized knowledge, taking as its starting point specific texts and concrete situations.
The work is clearly organized into two sections with helpful introductions and summaries. The first dwells on the way in which texts are heard in liturgical services and the second analyzes scriptures, prayers and root metaphors. These reflections are rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition but reflect considerable knowledge of the Protestant faith, so that Lutherans and Episcopalians should find much to consider here. Power argues convincingly that the meaning of the scriptures is not fixed for all time. He insists that contemporary readers need to study the way in which texts have been used in the past and suggests criteria for validating interpretations. Yet he also provides rich examples of the questions hearers bring to the text today, born of diverse influences such as awareness of the brokenness of our world, the impact of gender, race, geography and economics. Mindful of the importance of the reader's experience he nonetheless argues for an understanding that the Word must yet still surprise and challenge the hearer.
While clearly written and organized, The Word of the Lord is a demanding book that asks the reader to interact with the author and reflect on texts, their interaction with one another, their social settings past and present, here and in remote environments. Just as Bible groups have studied texts in the past, study groups might find it helpful to discuss some of texts Power proposes in their liturgical inter relatedness, their history and contemporary meaning.

Designed to be used throughout the English-speaking world especially by people of mixed European ancestry.
Tracing one's ancestors is made a great deal more difficult if they originated in another country. Many people in Britain, and in America too, find themselves in such a position, and WORLDWIDE FAMILY HISTORY will make their task easier. It is an essential reference and guide for the professional genealogist and the interested amateur alike. Concentrating on non-British genealogical problems, it sets out as succinctly as possible the way in which people of English speech but of foreign descent can begin tracing their ancestors.

Kathy does not want to spend the holiday with her dad, stepmom,and the new baby. She goes to Erin's house with out her families'permission. This book was really great and I cannot not wait for Ilene Cooper's next holiday five book!

Wow -- great book. The author goes to a very eminent psychiatrist for emotional and marital problems. At first it seems the doctor is just "controlling," demeaning, and manipulating her life. He also starts giving her the barbituate Sodium Amytal during office visits, which he claims will help her remember past hurts.
After 18 years and $100,000 of treatment, she comes out of an Amytal session earlier than expected with the doctor raping her. How will this life-long intimidated woman respond, especially when a number of those she turns to are sure she must have imagined or "dreamed" the rape, and an equal number are afraid to cross the famous psychiatrist?
A compelling story of a woman whose early life history set her up for continuing domination and abuse by the psychiatrist she turned to for help.

Enjoyed this book! Actually read it twice which I haven't done since Lord of the Rings. The book is a well written suspense/mystery with the plot flowing well and leading to a satisfying ending.

My choice for Greatest American Novel of the 20th Century is this Robert Penn Warren classic. Unfortunately for Warren (and us), this novel got off to a rotten start. The New York Times hailed it as 'The definitive novel about American politics,' and doomed it to be shelved with other drab tomes in that otherwise unimpressive genre. The Times, sad to say, widely missed the point on All the King's Men.

Jack Burden is the point. Jack Burden, the politician's hack, makes this book. His is an evolution from disaffection to purpose, from carelessness to thoughtfulness. Willie Stark-the politician-is merely the means to Warren's greater goals. Warren originally set out to show, through Stark, the Dionysian allure of power and the grand effect it has on those who attain it. And he did; Stark himself is a great literary character.

But Warren fooled himself: he created a character much greater than Stark, even though he planned Burden only to be a sort of an omniscient narrator of little value to the novel except as the storyteller of Stark's rise.

In the end, Burden says (paraphrase), "This has been the story of Willie Stark. But it has been my story too." And thankfully, it was. The novel is brilliant, Warren is brilliant, and political books are still boring-but this is not one of them!

Within the confines of a bookstore one is often overwhelmed with the numerous topics and choices available to them. A solution to this problem, if a reader is interested in an engaging, magnificently written piece of literature, then take a few steps and find All The Kings Men by Robert Warren Penn.
The theme is one of uncanny importance and relevancy to this stage in American lives despite the fact it was written in 1946. The story is told in the first person, the narrator is Jack Burden; a right hand man to the leading political figure in the story, the "Boss." Interestingly, the "Boss" is based on the real life story of Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana.
The story encompasses Jack Burdens revival from a involuntary life, as well as the metamorphosis of Willie Stark's, the "Boss", idealistic political views to the lust for power and fame. Robert Warren Penn won a Pulitzer Prize for this book, and within the last few months I can not recall a book that would equal it in quality and purpose. Penn utilizes his characters to develop and provide insight on the issues of forgiveness, power, and corruption, and the consequences of leadership.
Within a bookstore there are many choices, and many possibilities to choose from, but in the busy lives of the average person today why waste the time just pick up a copy of All the Kings Men by Robert Warren Penn today.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren proves he knows more about writing than just the simple mechanics. Strongly defined characters and a setting so real you can taste the air provide the foundation for this literary masterpiece, yet the real genius of the book is in Warren's understanding of the reader and his use of style to convey a personal tone in the reading.

The main characters in All the King's Men are Jack Burden and Willie Stark. Jack, the narrator, was a reporter before joining Stark's bid for political power. Stark began as a small country lawyer who saw something wrong and tried to change it, but he eventually becomes a politician in the truest sense, so much so that the narrator can only think of Stark as "the Boss," an ominous title indeed. Accompanying these two men is an array of equally fascinating minor characters such as Sadie, a saucy married woman influential in developing Stark's position as a politician, and Sugar Boy, an Irishman so named for his affinity for sugar. Every character has depth and realism and can stand alone as a fully-developed individual.

While the characters are clearly an enjoyable part of the story, the setting is even more compelling. Warren's word choice is superb; he chooses to include and omit just the right combination of words to paint a realistic picture in the reader's mind without becoming too cumbersome. It is a balance few authors are able to achieve with such proficiency and yet another way in which Warren demonstrates his almost supernatural understanding of the reader. The best part is, it only gets better.

If characters and setting can be described as masterfully crafted, then Warren's grasp of tone is inexplicable. Simply put, the story truly speaks to the reader and could never have been as effective were it written any other way. Sentence structure, word selection, and dialect coalesce into a tangible atmosphere that projects a strong sense of familiarity onto the reader. The book is hard to put down because of this sense of familiarity.

Overall, All the King's Men is a book enjoyable in many more ways than one, with intriguing characters, realistic setting, and a true understanding of the needs of the reader. Even after fifty years, this book remains a classic appealing to all generations.