The Missing
Class, Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen, September 2007,
Cloth, $24.95, 978-0-8070-4139-0
Bill Moyer’s Journal/PBS, taping with Newman on Wednesday, October
10th, air date to come
New York Times, book mentioned by Bob Herbert in his column on Saturday,
October 6th:
“. . . there are many millions of Americans who are not doing well, and
the nation is not addressing their plight. Thirty-seven million Americans,
many of them children, are officially classified as poor. What is not widely
known is that another 57 million are struggling just one notch above the poverty
line. This is spelled out in a new book, “The Missing Class: Portraits
of the Near Poor in America,” by Katherine Newman and Victor Tan Chen
. . .”
Publishers Weekly, review in the October 8th issue:
“articulate and comprehensive…a calm, well-reasoned and soft-spoken
call to arms”
Kirkus Reviews, review in the October 15th issue:
“Worthy fare.”
60 on Up,
Lillian B. Rubin, cloth, September 2007, $23.95, 978-0-8070-2928-2
Prime Time Radio/AARP; Wednesday, October 10th; 9:00 - 9:30am PST; taped
in studio at KQED Radio; air date to come
Drifting
Toward Love, Kai Wright, January 2008, cloth, $24.95, 978-0-8070-7968-3
Kirkus Reviews, review in the October 15th issue:
“Prostitution, homelessness, drugs and violence against gay men of color
are all discussed in unflinching, at times wrenchingly intimate detail, alongside
touching reminiscences of first love and the initial realization of a “different”
sexuality . . . An important book about an often-marginalized group.”
September 21 — Yellow Springs, OH — Antioch School parent forum,
7:00 pm.
September 22 — “ — Antioch College Grad. seminar, noon–4:00
pm.
September 23 — Bloomington, IN — Harmony School parent forum, 7:00
pm.
September 27 —Boulder, CO— Naropa Institute Early Childhood Ed.
seminar, 6:30 pm.
September 28 — “ — Left Hand Books talk/signing
October 1 — Olympia, WA — Olympia Free School book talk/signing
October 2 — ” — Evergreen St. College, 2:30 pm.
October 3 — Vancouver, BC — U. of British Columbia School of Ed.,
Noon-2:00 pm.
October 4 — “ — Windsor House parent forum, 7:00 pm.
October 5 — “ — U. of British Columbia School of Ed., 11:00
am.
October 6 — Bellingham, WA — Village Books, 4 pm. Talk/signing
October 11 — Bay Area — Peninsula School parent forum, 7:00 pm.
October 12— San Luis Obispo — Central Coast Village, 7:00 pm.
October 14 — Los Angeles — Play Mountain Place parent forum, 2:00
pm.
October 15 — Prescott, AZ — Prescott College
October 19 — Austin, TX — Austin Montessori School book talk/signing
October 20 — Houston, TX — the Real School parent forum
October 22 — Radford, VA — Radford U. School of Education, 6:30
pm.
October 24 — Charlottesville, VA — Quest Books, 7:00 pm. Talk/signing
October 25 — Harrisonburg, VA — parent forum
October 27 — Washington, DC — Politics and Prose author appearance,
1 pm.
November 1 — Glenmoore, PA — Upattinas School parent forum, 7:00
pm.
November 3 — “ — Book Court (Brooklyn) Talk/signing,
November 4 — “ — Bluestockings Books book talk/signing, 7:00
pm.
November 5 — “ — Bank St. College Bookstore talk/signing,
7:00 pm.
November 6 — “ — Brooklyn Free School parent forum
Saviors or
Sellouts, Christopher Alan Bracey, cloth, February 2007, $26.95,
978-0-8070-8375-8
“In seeking to chart the topography of black conservatism, Bracey undertakes
a task not only necessary to the new millenium’s politics of blackness
but also brave. Neither black liberals nor conservatives have a monopoly on
the truth, nor does either group have an innate right to the hearts and minds
of the community; it is only by respecting each other enough to engage in
a respectful debate that blacks can heal themselves and fight for their preferences
in the body politic. This work will aid immeasurably in achieving that goal.
It is long overdue.”
—Debra J. Dickerson, author of The End of Blackness: Returning the
Souls of Black Folk to their Rightful Owners
“Saviors or Sellouts is a must read—not only to identify
black conservatives but, indeed, to understand them.”
—Mary Frances Berry, author of My Face is Black is True: Callie House
and the Struggle for Ex-slave Reparations and Professor of History, University
of Pennsylvania
“This important and fascinating engagement with the growing black conservative
movement illuminates one of the most vexing political trends of our time.
Written by a leading African American liberal, it powerfully traces the intellectual
character and practical appeal of this growing movement, and offers a realistic
and empathetic, yet sharply critical, appraisal.”
—Ira Katznelson, author of When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold
History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America and Ruggles
Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University
“Bold and provocative, Saviors or Sellouts challenges us to
rethink longstanding political labels as part of larger quest for social justice
and black community empowerment in the 21st century.”
—Peniel E. Joseph, author of Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative
History of Black Power in America
“This book really matters. It is brilliant and thoughtful, not simply
about a set of laws, but as a manifesto to transform the way we understand,
recognize and respect the reality of our diverse and complex family compositions.
Polikoff grounds her arguments in the 35 year history of social change activism
in this country to construct a passionate and nuanced argument for expanding
our same sex marriage activism to include all of the ways people love, form
families and build community.”
— Amber Hollibaugh, Senior Strategist, National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force, and author of My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming her Way
Home
“Passionate but completely grounded in reality, Polikoff challenges
LGBT rights advocates to see beyond gay equality arguments and question the
fundamental fairness of limiting family recognition based on marriage, gay
or straight. It is a powerful call for social justice.”
— Nan D. Hunter, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian
Gay Bisexual Transgender Project and Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
"Polikoff mobilizes an impressive array of legal history and contemporary
court cases to show how marriage, whether same-sex or heterosexual, has ceased
to be the only place where people incur long-term obligations. She argues
vigorously that our society needs to find new ways of determining when legally-enforceable
responsibilities and entitlements have accrued in interpersonal relationships."
— Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered
Marriage
"A provocative and perspicuous intervention in one of the most devilish
recent debates in U.S. law and politics…In a principled yet pragmatic
analysis, Polikoff mounts a compelling case against the continued grip of
‘conjugalism’ on our family law and policy. Beyond (Straight
and Gay) Marriage challenges us to imagine and build a political consensus
that respects the realities of contemporary American kinship and family life,
in all its complexity.”
— Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law, Columbia University
What Book Clubs are Reading:
Dark Tide, Stephen Puleo, paperback, $15.00, 978-0-8070-5021-7
The Franklin Public Library (MA) has chosen Dark Tide as the title
for their town-wide reading program
New Acquisitions:
Independent journalist and editor of Colombia Journal, Garry Leech,
has spent the last seven years working in the most remote and dangerous regions
of Colombia. Unlike other Western journalists who never leave Bogotá
and adhere to the government’s line about what’s happening in the
country, Leech seeks the unofficial story about what life is like for the
Colombian people. His compelling memoir, Behind the Lines: Diary of a Drug
War Journalist, is framed around the 12 hours he was held captive by the
FARC, Colombia’s largest leftist guerrilla insurgency, in August of 2006.
His memoir, which has the feel of a documentary, weaves in accounts that come
directly from the source—from a farmer whose coca fields and crops have
been sprayed with toxic aerial fumigations, a female FARC soldier who muses
about life as a guerrilla, a union organizer for coal mines whose life is
threatened, and many others. Fall 08.
Beacon Press is a department of the