In 1877 the great robber barons of steel and rail-Vanderbilt, Fisk, Gould, and others-appeared to have consolidated their rule over land and labor in the post-Civil War period. In their quest for infinitely expanding wealth, they subjected the workers under their command to ever-increasing demands for more work and reduced their wages time and again to below starvation levels. As thousands were laid off in the economic downturn of the 1870s, protests developed among the workers, and police were mobilized to quell the disturbances.
It was not the greed and brutality of the capitalist overlords that provoked a mass rebellion. It was that they made life virtually impossible for the working people. The great strike was centered in rail and began in the summer of 1877 in response to yet another wage cut.
A group of bold rail workers in West Virginia walked off the job. With no union, no organization, and nothing but a desperate urge to reclaim their humanity, their initiative spread like wildfire to thousands of other rail workers from Baltimore to St. Louis in a rolling surge of strikes, mass mobilizations and confrontations with the armed minions of capital. Ultimately general strikes of all workers were precipitated in St. Louis, San Francisco and other cities.
The rail barons sought to put down the uprising with military force, mobilizing state militias, police and national guard troops, firing into the crowds, killing dozens. For them it was only a question of forcing the masses to do their bidding. They believed that they were the rulers, the workers were there to serve them.
This great labor battle awakened the true spirit of liberty and solidarity among the laboring masses. In their struggle against the tyranny of capital they became the one true embodiment of democracy and the only hope of progress for toiling humanity. They laid the foundation stone for the worker's movement in the U.S. It gave a huge impetus to the organization of labor unions as well as the beginnings of labor political action: the formation of a workers party.
Reading this book brings home the reality of the class struggle in the U.S. and helps us to understand how and why it developed as it did. It also helps us understand why this class struggle won't go away as long as capitalism exists. It helps us to appreciate the organized struggle of the workers as the only way forward for humanity in its quest for a truly livable planet.

1877: the naked face of capitalism in America. In the midst of a deep-going economic depression, bosses imposed massive layoffs and deep pay cuts, and workers responded. From Chicago to St. Louis to New York to Philadelphia, rail workers, iron workers, carpenters, meatpackers and others launched a wave of massive strikes and street protests. The bosses and their government mobilized all their forces against the workers: courts, the press, police, the national guard and federal troops. While the workers were eventually beaten in these battles, the lessons learned helped forge political class consciousness and lay the basis for further struggles.

Foner's book is an exciting history of these days. He quotes extensively from labor and capitalist press of the day, from speeches and declarations by workers' leaders, and from government reports and documents to give a real feel of the roots of the uprising and the conflicting interests that lay behind it. I particularly found useful the description of what different workers leaders did at the time-- from conservative trade union presidents to militant socialists. Also the challenge and experiences of native-born and immigrant workers fighting together against their common exploiters. There is a lot to learn from this book today!

While this book gives a rich detail of the day-to-day struggles in 1877, two others will help get a broader perspective on the key issues political posed: American Labor Struggles 1877-1934, by Samuel Yellen, and Revolutionary Continuity, Marxist Leadership in the U.S. 1948-1917, by Farrell Dobbs.

The great labor uprising of 1877 started when a strike by rail workers swept across the country and was joined by many thousand, including the unemployed. What this book clearly shows is how interconnected U.S. workers were-how mutually affected by economic disaster-and how willing to embark on massive and militant resistance. Are workers that different today? Are today's bosses-as they push for wage concessions and bailouts--that much different from the rail bosses of 1877? This book makes you think more seriously about the great events that could quickly develop out of today's economic downturn.

This is the first volume of Philip Foner's massive history of the Labor movement in the United States. In my opinion it is the best and most complete work of its kind in existence. Fonor did an extrordinary job of researching the original documents from the earliest era of American Labor and succedes in providing an emense amount of factual information while still telling a good story. If you want a detailed study of American Labor this is the only place to go. If you have a more casual interest I would recommend Labor's Untold Story by Richard Boyer, Herbert Morais.

What can I say? Paul Robeson put his money where his mouth is. He gave up millions for what he believed in and stood his ground. He fought for Black freedom and also took up the cause for poor whites and workers. Whether you agree with him or not, this man is one of America's greatest heroes! It is amazing how his life and contributions are overlooked. Buy this book and read about a great American hero.

As an oppressed minority of this country, many people from other backgrounds, mainly white peoples and those influenced by their media and such, believe that the black thought is a collective one; that all blacks have the same wants, feelings, desires, arguments, and dreams. This book illustrates the struggles of many peoples, expressly black ones, through the people themselves, through the language of their day. Our phlight in this country has been a constant struggle, and there have been, are, and will continue to be motifs present in all of our expressions, wheter literary, musical, artistic---WHATEVER. The language of these speeches is so beautiful and real, and when I am reading them I "feel" the words in my heart. Not only do these renderings grab you spiritually, but they teach a lesson by educating on our position as transplanted peoples here in the Americas; our position, I might add, as viewed by many diffenet people from various parts of the United States and the world abroad. These speeches have been so personally enriching to me, not only in proviving first-hand historical knowledge, but also in the lending to a greater understanding of our social, economic and political status and postion, and the facilitation of a critical thinking process which is necessary to rectify the problems that we face. It also seems that the overall progress to attain equality and such has come to a halt after the Civil Rights movement, and we have become coplacent with oue current position. In support of this observation, we have not written any great speeches or have had any major movements to the extent that we have had and done in the past. The dates of the speeches this book confirms my accertations. We have become complacent as a people, and complacency is what the mainstream wants of us. Please read this book and let it re-revolutionize your thinking, or at the very least, get your mind out of the sphere of complacency charaterizing us as a people. We cannot transcend our condition unless our mind first transcends it. Action has to have a plan backing it. I love this book.

I am a senior engineer for network security operations. I read the Windows 2000 Security Handbook (W2KSH) to learn how to advise clients on improving the survivability of their Windows 2000 platforms. Like its predecessor, Tom Sheldon's excellent "Windows NT Security Handbook," W2KSH delivers practical content in a digestable format. I recommend Windows 2000 system administrators read and heed this book.

Good operating system security books are thorough, educational, and honest; W2KSH is all three. The authors are not mindless Microsoft prophets -- consider this sample from page 501: "It seems that Microsoft just does not get it when it comes to the need for robust auditing/logging of services... the logging configurations are totally inadequate." To deal with these and other deficiencies, W2KSH provides installation, configuration, and deployment recommendations. This advice, on topics like Active Directory, user and group management, and file systems, equips system administrators to survive hostile network environments.

As an intrusion detector, I was most happy to read how the Microsoft security model operates, and what components present the greatest vulnerabilities. I appreciated explanations of system and discretionary access control lists, and how to effectively employ them. I learned Microsoft includes Web, FTP, SMTP, and NNTP features in Internet Information Service (IIS). I also became aware of best practices for secure deployment of a Microsoft infrastructure.

W2KSH has a few problems. Like Microsoft products, its "backwards compatibility" revealed weaknesses. For example, some text was lifted directly from Shelton's earlier book, but necessary background material was omitted (see pages 86, 88-90, 148). This issue was awkward but minor. I also did not leave the book with a strong understanding of the different types of groups in Windows 2000. Such complexity is not the authors' fault. They show that the OS' dozens of options leaves plenty of room for misconfiguration, leading to compromise.

If you're familiar with general security practices, skip Part I (TCP/IP, threats, countermeasures, and policies). I recommend the authors mention these topics briefly in the introduction and move the bulk to appendices. Start with Part II, and keep your highlighter handy. W2KSH gives balanced insight into the workings of Windows 2000, and helps system administrators and security personnel better understand the opportunities and liabilities of running this operating system.

Can you imagine a book on Operating System Security actually being a good read? This one is just that!
As a SQL Database guy finishing up my MCSE 2000 with the "Win2K Security Design - 70-220" exam, I sought, and found, a resource to solidify and integrate all of the Win2K security concepts covered in earlier exams. I sought a book that was very readable, and I was willing to allow that, by itself, it need not be completely exhaustive as a MCSE exam #70-220 study guide.
Bottom Line: This book was a home run for me. My comfort level with concepts of IPSec, PKI, EFS, threat types, auditing and firewalls has risen remarkably. On the down side, the book is relatively basic and the fairly lengthy coverage of Active Directory, group policies, etc., may be overly ambitious for this book, and is probably better learned elsewhere in a dedicated AD book. In a larger sense, however, this book really delivered the goods, as specified above.

Now I need to identify another resource with which to complete my Security Design studies.
As a sidebar, I have found the first 75 pages of Coriolis' "Exam Cram: Win2K Security Design" to be so full of wordy fluff-speak as to abandon it.

I've read many books on Windows NT and Windows 2000 security. Most did not live up to my expectations. They were difficult to read and you needed a Computer Science/Engineering degree to understand them. In my opinion, this book is THE best book on Windows 2000 Security. Mr Cox and Mr Sheldon wrote a very easy to read, easy to understand, and most importantly, an easy to follow recipe for securing your Win2K systems. This book should be in every adminstrator's library. If you don't have this book, you deserve to be hacked! I teach system security, and this book is a valuable tool and resource, not just for me, but for my students. This is money well spent!...

Knowing absolutely nothing about the Black Panthers I picked up this collection one day and read nearly straight through it. I came away with what I think is a fairly good idea of the goals of the Black Panther Party, not the same one I had generally heard or been taught growing up. Instead of them being the black racists many tend to think they are, what would be the equal opposite of the KKK (who, versus the Panthers' few years of existence, have been operating for more than 100 years), I learned that they could be more adequately labeled as classists, in the Marxist-Lenin tradition. As Eldridge Cleaver, one-time minister of information for the Black Panther Party, "You speak of an 'undying love' for black people. An undying love for black people that denies the humanity of other people is doomed. It was an undying love of white people for each other which led them to deny the humanity of colored people and which has stripped white people of humanity itself." I don't see a lot of "hating whitey" there, as Horowitz and other conservatives would have you believe, but more of a gelling together of the dregs of humanity in an attempt to alter its condition, the stance that Malcolm X eventually evolved to, and, later, the Panthers.

Perhaps we as humanity have come a ways, maybe thanks to them, since the Panthers first took up arms, defying the police to beat, shoot or incarcerate them. I say this because eight years ago a similar movement began in the southern highlands of Mexico, another marginalized group taking up arms in order to say,"Take notice, we're not taking it anymore." Instead of being branded thugs and criminals, the Zapatistas captured the hearts and minds of the world and continue their quest for equal rights and protection under the law.

According to their own writings (the real beauty of this book), these guys are not the black KKK or black neo-nazis, contrary to some opinion.

I found the writings of Eldridge Cleaver, a one-time candidate for president, to be some of my favorite.

I'll close with a citation from Julian Bond, which I think sums up what the Black Panther Party was really about: "What the Panthers do more than anything else is they set a standard that young black people particularly want to measure up to...It's a standard of aggressiveness, of militance, of just plain forcefulness, the sort of standard we haven't had in the past. Our idols have been Dr. King who, for all his beauty as a man, was not an aggressive man." Even Dr. King began to take a more aggressive approach before he was gunned down. It's not hate or intimidation, but standing up for oneself as a man.

I recommend complementary readings of the Autobiography of Malcolm X and the Wretched of the Earth.

this Book should Bring People Together.The Black Panthers wanted a Better Today.still to this day we are facing the same Problems of which they spoke on 30 years back.no misguided words here their own words.a must Read for all to Better understanding Voices of Hope&a Better Tommorow for all future Generations.

The Black Panthers Speak is the BEST book out for Americans who want to know what the Panthers stood for. Nobody's interpretation of what the Panthers were about, but only the speeches, letters, and court transcripts of Black Panther members. This book should be read by Americans of ALL ethnicities. Use it to understand that the Black Panthers were a party for ALL people in the struggle for freedom.

In "The Age of Reason", an angry, well-researched, and surprisingly witty book, Thomas Paine makes the case for deism. The book is divided into three parts: the first part attacks organized religion in general, the second, written much later, demolishes the Bible piece by piece, and the third sums it all up. Included in this edition is a very thorough biographical introduction to Paine, written by Philip S. Foner in 1948.

The problem is that Paine's work depends largely on two basic assumptions, neither of which applies today. First, most of his criticisms of Judeo-Christianity are aimed at Biblical literalism. For instance: Matthew and Luke disagee about Jesus' ancestors; therefore the Bible is not divinely inspired. But many Christians today acknowledge some Biblical imperfections, and say that the underlying message is what's important. So errors of chronology and inconsistencies would not disprove the Christian religion. In fact, many more liberal Biblical scholars have devoted themselves to finding and explaining Biblical imperfections.

I say this not because I disagree with Paine that Judaism and Christianity are false, but only because his critique is insufficient to deal with religion as it is practiced today. This book is sure to baffle any fundamentalist, though.

The second problem is Paine's assumption that deism is the "true" religion. He bases this on the order of the world and universe, and because conditions on Earth are so amenable to man that a higher power seems likely. Paine was writing before Darwin's theory of evolution, however, which would have provided an alternate explanation for this. And explorations into black holes and the like have shown us that the universe is much more chaotic than we once thought. I can't help thinking that Paine would be an atheist, or at least an agnostic, were he alive today.

Nevertheless, Paine's defense of science and his intellectual courage are outstanding. His book is well thought out and a lot of fun to read. We can't judge him by our scientific standards today; the criticisms are just something to bear in mind as you read the book, which you certainly should.

Thomas Paine was one of the intellectual leaders of the American Revolution. Unfortunately, he is neglected in U.S. education today because of his enlightened views. His books "The Age Of Reason" and "The Rights Of Man" should be required reading for all students. For me personally, this is one of the ten most influential books I have read.
This book is a superbly written, logical, clear analysis of revealed religion in general and the Judeo-Christian mindset in particular. As Paine points out, revealed religion is really second-hand religion for everyone but the original so-called prophets or inspired writers who received the message. For everyone else, their faith is really in the veracity and sanity of the people who claim to have had certain revelations. Paine points to the historical and scientific mistakes and the self-contradictory passages in the bible. He also points to the moral flaw in the whole concept of the so-called "chosen people", as well as to many other moral deficiencies in the biblical law. Chief among them is the idea that the creator of the universe would command a nomadic tribe to wipe out the original inhabitants of Canaan so they could worship him there.
Paine points out that the best way to understand the creator is to study the universe he has created. His morality is based on common sense ideas which are accepted today in every advanced society. There is a creator, an immortal soul, and punishment and reward in the afterlife. It is based on philosophical arguments.
Paine was not just a writer. He was a revolutionary soldier and a very courageous champion of liberty and moderation both in America and France. In other words, he put his life on the line for his beliefs, as much as any religious person.
If you want to read the views of a true hero of enlightenment and human progress, buy this book! Give it to your children to read, because they certainly won't get it in school. It will not only teach them the truth about so-called revealed religion, it will teach them how to think and write clearly on a controversial topic.
For those who are still struggling with religious belief, read this book! It may help you think more clearly about the whole subject.

If the title above seems like hyperbole, I am prepared to defend it: Thomas Paine was one of the most important figures of the American revolution, his pamphlet "Common Sense" did more to bring the colonies to revolt than any other document. After the revolution he went to France believing the French revolution to be the next step in the development of the freedom of mankind. While there he was condemned to death by Robespierre and detained pending execution. Believing that his death was imminent, Paine wrote Part One of Age of Reason, which is a compelling critique of the Bible and the faults of Christianity. His analysis is thorough, detailed and compelling, which is particularly impressive since he did it entirely without access to a Bible! This topic will offend many (which explains Paine's current demise from the pantheon of revolutionary heroes) but it should be read both for its analysis of the Bible and for appreciation of one of America's founding fathers.

"British Labor and the American Civil War" is an excellent review of the evidence suggesting how British cotton mill workers perceived the U.S. Civil War. Dr. Foner's research confirms that the typical British laborer saw the U.S. Civil War as their own: the industrial managers would support the South, but they would support the North. The mill workers believed that slavery was a threat to free labor and stood by the North. The United States, in comparison to Britain, was a land where the working class had political influence. Despite hardships caused by the lack of Southern cotton, they maintained their support for the Union until victory.

Dr. Foner demonstrates excellent research skills and provides thorough footnotes. Thankfully, he provides a few images of original source material, which is very useful in understanding historical context. My only complaint was the lack of photographs, illustations and maps. I would have enjoyed understanding the geography better through maps, and I would have appreciated either photographs of illustrations from the period to gain a better appreciation of the events.

This book is highly recommended for individuals interested in the U.S. Civil War, British History, and Labor History.

William H. Mott IV takes us into the world of Satellite communications with an effective, business-like approach; so don't expect to be taken away by beautiful language, however, Mr. Mott IV gets the job done in any case.

The reader is given a slam-dunk course in Satellites 101 going through the types of satellite, stakeholders, national powers in the space, applications, economics, challenges, developments, and provides some foresight. But do not expect to find out what satellite service you should be investing in; that is not the purpose of this book.

If you have in interest in learning more about satellite technology and want to learn about how it might solve some of communication's problems, you will find it in this book.

This book is important for the historian who wishes to get a glimpse into the workings of the mind of an important figure in American Revolutionary history, but it doesn't stand on its own. It is written almost entirely as a response to Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France", so I would not recommend reading this one until and unless one has read that one. Otherwise, it is impossible to judge the fairness of the rebuttals of Burke's points, as one only sees them through Paine's perspective, and Paine is far from a fair and impartial debater; he misses no opportunity to belittle his opponent's arguments, and even his opponent himself. I would not be at all surprised to discover that he gives an inaccurate picture of what Burke had to say, particularly given that history speaks rather better of Burke's misgivings than of Paine's panegyrics. Both books were written before the Reign of Terror that resulted from the revolution in 1793; the second part of this book came out in early 1792. Also, history shows us just how silly some of Paine's claims for a Republican, representative government are: 200+ years of representative government in the US have hardly banished wars, or the high taxes associated with them, even though the world as a whole is far more democratic than it was at his time. He makes some good points, and certainly it is hard to stand up against him in favor of hereditary monarchy, but it is apparent that he failed to see that not ALL "democratic" movements were necessarily benificent, even if it would be hard to have much sympathy for the autocratic regime that they overthrow.

This book, above all others, reveals the breakdown of classical (libertarian) liberalism into the statist liberalism of today. Although the first part of the work, being a refutation of Edmund Burke's silly nonsense, is stellar, and is well worth reading. Regardless, the second part, the chapter on "Ways and Means" in particular, is composed of the most despicable, anti-liberty doctrines that one can find. What Paine basically proposed was a late 18th century form of the welfare state, replete with progressive taxation, subsidies for child birth, and other fine statist amenities. Thus, as all of these things are, in his words, to be claimed as rights, the title of this book comes to mean nothing whatsoever. It is indeed sad that Thomas Paine has gained such an enduring legacy as a friend to liberty. In truth, he is actually one of its worst enemies, as he combines a just zeal for resistance to oppression, revolution, and reason, he sabotages his entire political philosophy.

Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" is truly a classic defense of self government and reprsentative republicanism. Paine copmletely demolishes Edmund Burke's defense of aristocracy and monarchy as outmoded and absurd institiutions. Paine shows the immorality of monarchy and the plunder that it commits on it's own people through high taxes,unjust property laws,and priveleges for the nobility. Paine shows the virtues a representative system has over the monarchial form. He denounces aristocracy and monarchy as "frauds" and based upon tyranny. The first review by Will Murphy critsizing Paine as a sort of statist is way off the mark. Paine did recommend many ideals of the welfare state. It must be remembered he was speaking to an age where a large wealthy aristocracy ruled alongside the monarch, living in luxury off the high taxes drained from the middle, lower and working classes. Paine was one of the formost defenders of freethought in religion,speech, and ideas.To imply Paine was a sort of 18th century fascist is utterly absurd and ahistorical. Paine was not an enemy of property, just an enemy of aristocracy,who in his day did not obtain property by hard work. Usually property rights in monarchial nations were written to favor the wealthy and powerful, and grant them priveleges at the expense of the populace. Paine completely destroys the ideal that a chosen few were meant or ordained by God to rule. If you love freedom, you can't go wrong with the "Rights of Man".