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Writer James Baldwin earnestly championed the civil rights movement in both his fiction and nonfiction, a fact which, coupled with his extraordinary writing talent, assured not only his historical importance, but also his place as one of the finest African American writers of his generation. Collected Essays is a comprehensive collection of his most memorable prose, including "Stranger in the Village," "The Harlem Ghetto," and "Many Thousands Gone." Clear in voice and vision, the essays communicate the emotions of an entire historical movement. Combining politics, prophecy, and passion, Baldwin's essays are truly as thought-provoking today as they were some 30 years ago.
Customer Reviews:
A must for the Serious Scholar's library.......2006-07-22
This collection of Baldwin's writings is priceless because not only is it a showcase of an agile and fertile mind, it also brings together in a single volume some of his most popular and more famous as well as some of his less formal writings and speeches.
Always well ahead of his times, Baldwin's essays remain fresh and as relevant in today's more quiescent racial times as they were during the more troubled times of his life. They remain fresh because they tell in Baldwin's own inimical and elegant way, the deeper truths about our troubled racial past and present. Most of all they reflect how Baldwin used his quick and restless mind to critique the social and artistic scenes of our troubled era: His strategy, reflected in this collection, was always to mine the substance from the subtext upwards. Those of us who try to mimic his techniques can learn a lot from this and the companion volume of his collected works.
At the same time, Baldwin's psychological analysis remains unerring and at least as sharp as, if not sharper than those of some of his French contemporaries, including his friends and compatriots in the struggle, Franz Fanon and Jean Paul Sartre, who also were both not only revolutionaries and revolutionary thinkers like Baldwin, but also a Psychiatrist and a Philosopher, respectively.
No library on the history of race in America or France is complete without this well designed and well-organized volume. Five stars.
Like Nothing Else You've Read.......2005-06-03
A lot of reviewers have talked about owning this book if you are distinctly interested in collecting works by black authors or in black studies. I think that this book is an essential element to anyone's library, in particular people interested in the craft of writing. Toni Morrison calls Baldwin the greatest essayist of the 20th century and I couldn't agree more.
In this collection of essays, it becomes clear that Baldwin has truly perfected the craft of the essay. Not only is Baldwin's content, his concepts of honesty and truth, of light and dark, right and wrong, of white and black, and much more straight up revolutionary, but he manages to have his content reflected in the craft and style of each essay, which should really be the goal of all writers.
More than anything, Baldwin has an exquisite ability to reveal a complex truth in a simple concise way. All of these essays, indeed all of Baldwin's works, have one common thread. And that is that TRUTH is found within contradiction, because contradiction is honest. I think anyone who browses this page should immediately try and at least check this out of their libary (though it's definitely worth owning, every time I reread it I discover new things) because it really will effect you in meaningful ways.
A great book -- A worthy part of a great series.......2004-02-23
I love James Baldwin--I think he's a tremendous writer, so Toni Morrison could hardly go wrong in selecting essays for this volume. All of the selections are excellent. Notes of a Native Son contains a touching eulogy for Richard Wright ("Alas, Poor Richard"), explaining the lonliness and problems Mr. Wright had at the end of his life. Baldwin displays his tremendous range as both a political commentator and a literary critic. The Devil Finds Work, in particular, is very insightful--and several parts humourous.
What I don't understand--and why I struck a star off this collection--is why Ms. Morrison did not include "Evidence of Things Unseen," Baldwin's analysis of the Atlanta child murders from the early eighties. Perhaps Library of America is planning later volumes of Baldwin's works--The companion volume to these essays is his "Early Novels," most notably "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "Giovani's Room." I can't imagine that Library of America would not produce a volume including Mr. Baldwin's later works--especially "Just Above my Head."
This particular edition is well worth having--despite the price. First, this is a good collection of Baldwin's essays, many of which are difficult to find. Second, the Library of America really does a commendable job in paper quality and binding. This is not a leather bound edition on 50 pound paper, so stiff you can't open it and printed so the back binding looks impressive on your bookshelf--this is tightly bound, cardboard cover that lies flat, and is easy to read. The paper is not heavy--but acid free, and tear resistant. The Library of America series are good collections that are meant to be read many times, by many people--these books hold up very well.
I am afraid that Mr. Baldwin's works and opinions may fall by the wayside as time passes. The fact that Ms. Morrison--one of our best and most respected authors--put these collections together will certainly help keep Mr. Baldwin's works alive. But if you have any interest in what it means to be African American--in the twenties, to contemporary america--through even tomorrow--You need to read and appreciate Mr. Baldwin's insights. And you will also enjoy his clear, careful, and pointed writing.
review.......2002-05-10
This book was very interesting and i enjoyed the courage of a young black man to stand up for his rights.
A painful, powerful experience.......2001-10-11
In Egypt, I met an extraordinary American.
"I was born in New York, but have only lived in pockets of it. In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city - on the Right Bank and on the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les miserables, and knew all kinds of people from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Nueilly. This may sound unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen," he said.
"The perpetual dealing with people very different from myself caused a shattering in me of preconceptions I scarcely knew I held. This reassessment, which can be very painful, is also very valuable."
His name is Mr. Baldwin, and I cherish this new acquaintance because his ideas have had such profound impact on my views of Egypt. I wanted to know the people, but as I reach out for them, sometimes, I'm shocked by what I see. I see people sleeping on the concrete patios along the Nile - many of them have migrated from the farmlands because they can make more money for their families if they work in Cairo. But desert nights can be bitter cold in January, and it cuts my heart. Yet, Mr. Baldwin's message is well heeded. The same problems of inner city growth that come with development in Egypt also came with development in Britain one hundred years ago. American inner city schools and slums still reflect this challenge.
Would I have walked into the slums of Chicago if I were there? Would I have strolled through the southwest side of Kansas City or east St. Louis? Would I have walked into the anti-developing city blocks of L.A. if I were in America? Of course not. So why is it that traveling abroad opens my eyes to poverty in America? Why couldn't I see it when I was there? I don't know why this happens, but James Baldwin was right - absolutely right when he said that this reassessment, which can be very painful is also very valuable.
I have been told that the housing shortage in Egypt provided the impetus for many people to move into the spacious mausoleums in the old city graveyard. The international visitors call it, "The City of the Dead," and tourists go there and gawk at poverty creating a makeshift freak show out of human suffering. Then I learned that the housing shortage in Los Angeles provided the impetus for many people to move into mausoleums, but no one goes to gawk at them. In fact, there seems to be a kind of American denial that such things could ever happen in the land of milk and honey.
As I hear of people talking about human rights violations in Egypt, I think of the title of James Baldwin's book: Nobody Knows My Name. I think of James Byrd who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck. I think of the threats of millennium violence that frightened black American families so much that they bought guns and stayed home for the New Year. I think of the tiny city in Texas who voted Spanish as their city's official language and then received death threats from all over the nation. Of course, if you asked any American about human rights violations, they would tell you that this is something that happens in China or Africa. It's a painful realization that it might happen in MY country. Growing up in the American school system, I came to idolize Abraham Lincoln's courage and George Washington's integrity. The universal ideas of human value and dignity that we believe to be inalienable are not, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely told us, being applied universally in our country. These facts go against the ideals and values of our nation - they don't support the concepts of the free and the brave.
"It is a complex fate to be an American," Henry James observed. James Baldwin awakened me to that complexity in a way so subtle, so gentle and yet, so powerfully painful.
He awakened me to the hard realities of the American people, most of whom will never read or digest his work. They would dismiss him. But his vision is not to be dismissed. His writing illustrates that the responsibility of this future lies in the hands of blind people. People who refuse to see American neighborhoods and American people for what they really are. We can't improve until we accept the starting point. This lofty ideal of what we should be and blind obstinacy to what we are is killing us.
"Europe has what we do not have yet," Baldwin said. "A sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need: a new sense of life's possibilities."
Egypt has what we do not yet have - a clear and present sense of unity - an admiration for sacrifice for the whole of the group - the nuclear family, the extended family, the community. And we have absolutely nothing that Egypt needs, except, if you ask the younger generation: Nike shoes. In fact, this is precisely what Egyptians do not need. They do not need the destructive, greed-inspiring and greed-glorifying economic development of the West.
"In this endeavor to wed the vision of the Old World with that of the New, it is the writer, not the statesman, who is our strongest arm. Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have tangible effect on the world." - James Baldwin
Book Description
James Baldwin At The Movies... Provocative, timeless, brilliant.
Bette Davis's eyes, Joan Crawford's bitchy elegance, Stepin Fetchit's stereotype, Sidney Poitier's superhuman black man... These are the movie stars and the qualities that influenced James Baldwin... and now become part of his incisive look at racism in American movies.
Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist, offering us a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions. Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness. And here, too, is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.
From The Birth of a Nation to The Exorcist--one of America's most important writers turns his critical eye to American film.
Customer Reviews:
What "the devil's work" says about America.......2005-02-02
In this short work, Baldwin tries his hand at film criticism--and his unique and perceptive observations will change the way any filmgoer will watch movies. While Baldwin's focus is on racial representation (and misrepresentation) in the cinema, he expands his comments to various national obsessions that are reflected on the screen. As with most of Baldwin's work, there is power and precision in every sentence--and he nearly always quotable.
The essay is divided into three chapters. In the first, Baldwin discusses his adolescent love of movies and how it conflicted with his brief career as an adolescent minister in a church where the cinema (and the theater) were both regarded as "the devil's work" (thus, one of the implications of the title). The movies he dissects range from "A Tale of Two Cities" to Fritz Lang's "You Only Live Once," and he contrast the experience of film-watching with that of live theater, recalling Orson Welles's production of "Macbeth," which featured an all-black cast.
In the second chapter, Baldwin hits his stride, tearing into the patronizing portrayal of non-white roles in such films as "In the Heat of the Night," "In This, Our Life," "The Defiant Ones," and "Lawrence of Arabia." Baldwin observes about a type that reappears in many movies of the first seventy years of cinema: "It so happens that I saw 'The Birth of the Nation' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' on the same day . . . [Yet] in two films divided from each other by something like half a century, [there was] the same loyal [black] maid, playing the same role, and speaking the same lines." Noting how this stereotypical woman never seems to have her own family and how her only concerns are those of her white masters or employers, Baldwin exclaims: "How many times have we seen her! She is Dilsey, she is Mammy, in 'Gone with the Wind,' and in 'Imitation of Life,' and 'The Member of the Wedding.'"
Baldwin's final chapter finds him perplexed by the popular films of the 1970s. He is disappointed by the watering down of Billie Holiday's autobiography in "Lady Sings the Blues," although he admits that Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, and Richard Pryor "are, clearly, ready, willing, and able to stretch out and go a distance not permitted by the film." And he is disturbed by "The Exorcist" and what it seems to suggest about American dogma: "The mindless and hysterical banality of evil presented in 'Exorcist' is the most terrifying thing about the film."
Or, as Baldwin responds elsewhere to such otherworldly screen depictions of virtue and immorality: "I have seen the devil, by day and by night, and have seen him in you and in me.... He does not levitate beds, or fool around with little girls, we do."
Average customer rating:
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The Devil Finds Work
Roger J. Green
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Essays
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary Criticism & Collections
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0192715569 |
Average customer rating:
- Vey bad does not clarify much
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Devil Finds Work
Michael Delving
Manufacturer: Dorchester Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Suspense
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0843904879 |
Customer Reviews:
Vey bad does not clarify much.......1999-04-27
This book was bad to say the least i found my slef asleep after reading this book! this is a bad but for anyone! reading the book was a waste of my life!
Average customer rating:
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The Devil Finds Work
Manufacturer: Leisure
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000CZ35K0 |
Average customer rating:
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The Devil Finds Work
James BALDWIN
Manufacturer: M Joseph
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| African American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0718115538 |
Average customer rating:
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The Devil Finds Work
John Ruttley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0954336623 |
Average customer rating:
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Devil Finds Work
James Baldwin
Manufacturer: DIAL PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| African American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B000OKBUIW |
Average customer rating:
- Very Good
- Informative and Very Interesting
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Pioneers of Rock and Roll: 100 Artists Who Changed the Face of Rock (Billboard Hitmakers)
Harry Sumrall
Manufacturer: Billboard Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Rock
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Theory, Composition & Performance
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
| Appreciation
| Composition
| Conducting
| Exercises
| Instruction & Study
| MIDI, Mixers, etc.
| Sheet Music & Scores
| Songbooks
| Songwriting
| Techniques
| Theory
| Vocal
Music
| Bibliographies & Indexes
| Publishing & Books
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0823076288 |
Customer Reviews:
Very Good.......2000-01-20
Informative and insightful (and entertaining). The book concentrates on earlier artists, going about as far as 80s artists like R.E.M. and U2 (as such, major '90s artists like Nirvana aren't included) and probably giving too much credit to the likes of marginal talents like Alexis Korner and Bill Haley. Also, does Eric Clapton really merit 4 entries (Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, solo work)? However, this book is a great way to discover relatively neglected greats like the New York Dolls, Big Star, Flying Burrito Brothers. Personally, I think room should've also been made for Black Sabbath, the Stooges (and MC5), KISS (albeit not entirely for musical reasons), P-Funk, The Replacements, Husker Du, and Nick Drake, for starters. Nevertheless, highly recommended!
Informative and Very Interesting.......1997-10-13
I love resarching the history of rock and roll, so this book has been a god-send. It really does cover all the important artists since the beginning of rock and roll. It doesn't just stick to the most talented or the most sucessful monetarily, but the most influential, like the title says.
Book Description
Archangel Studios' The Red Star took the comic world by storm in 2000, with its innovative storyline and gorgeous computer-generated art. Now Green Ronin brings this award-winning world to the d20 System with The Red Star Campaign Setting. The epic mythology of the Soviet Union comes to life in a bold setting that combines science fiction and sorcery. While the workers and peasants of the U.R.R.S. suffer under the rule of Imbohl, a murderous sorcerer of incredible power, the Heroes of the Red Star struggle to rekindle the true spirit of the Revolution and to save the very souls of their people. will you join the cause of Marcus, Maya, and Makita, pitting your will against the Skyfurnaces and Military Industrial Sorcery of Imbohl's regime? The Red Star Campaign Setting provides everything you need to have exciting d20 adventures, including: New classes like the Red Trooper, Hailer, Nogorkan Resistance Fighter, Sorceress, Zek, and Nistaani Shaman. A complete Red Star arsenal, including hooks, hawk talons, and more. Stats and details on a fleet of vehicles, from the Hammer Class Krawl to the dreaded Skyfurnace. New magic systems for Military Industrial Sorcery, Nistaani Shamanism, and more. Secrets of the Spirit Realm revealed. A history of the lands of the Red Star, from the Revolution and the Great Patriotic War to the current day. Details on other nations, like the Isle of Lions, the Volksreich, and the Western Transnational alliance. Game stats for all your favorite Red Star characters. Comic fans will thrill to the world and character details revealed, and the lavish use of Christian Gossett's inspiring art. Whether you are a d20 System gamer looking for a unique and original new setting or a comic enthusiast looking for the ultimate Red Star sourcebook, The Red Star Campaign Setting delivers.
Book Description
"Customer Service" is not a lost art -- but it surely needs to be rediscovered. With all the books that have been written on the subject, it is surprising how little solid insight has been really offered. That is why Unleashing Excellence stands out from the crowd. Without fluff and puffery, customer service experts Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch give a no-nonsense, highly readable, easy-to-understand guide that will encourage readers to take a serious look at their own efforts and make the important changes necessary to create the ultimate customer service for their businesses. By examining some of the world's best customer service organizations, readers will be provided with the keys to implementing programs and changing behaviors that can spell success. As Aritotle said, "We are what we do repeatedly, therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit." Unleashing Excellence will help determined readers to make excellent service a habit.
Customer Reviews:
This is a standout book!.......2006-09-14
As the title Unleashing Excellence suggests, this book is directed at senior executives. It starts with the premise that customer service is a corporate strategy (just as technical competence is) and needs to be cultivated from the top.
Companies that build customer service as a vital part of their business model also build customer loyalty and strengthen their bottom lines. Those that don't, end up limiting their potential in the marketplace. The first chapter develops a framework to understand the essential ingredients of customer service, and the second chapter outlines the rest of the book. The remaining chapters focus on making customer service part of the "corporate DNA."
These remaining chapters go through the steps of institutionalizing customer service as part of corporate strategy. Topics range from setting up a service improvement team, and also setting service philosophy and standards, communication, training, measuring program effectiveness, recognition, and accountability.
The clean layout without footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography is clearly aimed not at the academician but at the practitioner. The fluid writing style makes the book easy to read.
The numerous anecdotes from a wide variety of settings peppered throughout the text help bring the concepts to life. The ideas and thought-provoking discussions in the chapters are supplemented with shaded call-out boxes, Action Steps, and Pitfalls to Avoid. The book's concluding chapter presents nine leadership actions to help readers strengthen customer service delivery.
While reading this book is the first step, the authors' intent is for readers to implement their ideas and suggestions. To evaluate "success" by this criterion, I need to ask if I would now implement the ideas and suggestions presented. In all honesty, I would not implement all the suggestion presented. However, I will consider all the overarching ideas presented and strive to make improvements where needed, within the context of my organizational culture. In this sense, I have bought into the authors' intent of writing this book.
This customer service book stands out as it sharply focuses on the nuts and bolts of implementing customer service company wide and truly making it part of corporate strategy.
Armchair Interviews says: Customer service--what a unique concept!
Effective Guide for Executives and Managers.......2003-11-01
Customer service is similar to Motherhood and Apple Pie. Organizations that deliver outstanding customer service as an integral part of their business operation build customer loyalty and bottom line strength. Those that don't...well, we all know that bad customer service can destroy a company, or at least severely limit its potential.
This knowledge is legendary. Techniques for delivering good customer service are well-known. This is not brain surgery. Why another book on the ubiquitous topic?
First, note the title. The book title doesn't talk about Excellent Customer Service or You Will Be Fired if You Aren't Nice to Our Customers. The Unleashing Excellence title-and theme of the book-is directed toward senior executives. Customer service is a corporate strategy that needs to be led from the top. This book needs to be read by senior executives that allege that they don't have time to read it. The downside of mediocre customer service can be career-limiting to executives who don't pay attention to this critical component of their company's business.
The authors, both formerly part of the Walt Disney leadership development programs, are now in private practice. They are active consultants-to a wide range of employers-on customer service issues. In their work, they apply what they learned at Disney and other employment experiences to deliver an executive-targeted message. Toward this end, the book is easy to read, includes shaded call-out boxes, Action Steps and Pitfalls to Avoid at the end of each chapter. The book's concluding chapter presents nine leadership actions to guide readers in strengthening their customer service delivery. A comprehensive index makes the book even more reader-friendly.
Readers will benefit from a continual flow of best practice stories from many employment settings. Many of the examples of good work come from the authors' clients. These illustrations serve to enhance and illuminate the content to bring the traditional concepts to life in ways that leaders can read the book and initiate appropriate actions for individual and organizational improvement. Several sections of the book stand out in my mind, but all chapters are filled with ideas, thought-provoking discussions, and anecdotes to bring the concepts to life.
Yes (sigh), this is ANOTHER customer service book. Do we need more books on this topic? Some of us are beginning to feel overstuffed with this topic---like the bloated feeling we get after a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully, this book serves a specific purpose of providing how-to advice and insights for executives and managers to consider and implement. Use it as a tool to stimulate customer service conversations in your organization as you inspire increasingly high attention to incredible customer service as a part of your corporate DNA.
Required Reading for Customer Service Providers/Professional.......2003-09-30
What a great book! A practical and quick read that should be mandatory for everyone that works in the customer service arena. The sections are divided in such a way that you can immediately put in place the ideas presented. A perfect book for anyone working with Customers, CEO's, a gift for your boss or the Customer Service Consultant. It's a "must read and pass-on" book.
Books:
- Jane Campion's The Piano (Cambridge Film Handbooks)
- Japanese Screen: Edo Period Screen With Trees And Flowering Plants, 18th Century (New Journals)
- Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography
- Kill Bill: An Unofficial Casebook
- King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson
- King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis
- Kinski Uncut: The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski
- Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies
- Macromedia Studio MX 2004 Bible
- Melodrama and Modernity
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James Baldwin: Early Novels and Stories: Go Tell It on a Mountain / Giovanni's Room / Another Country / Going to Meet the Man (Library of America)
Zora Neale Hurston : Novels and Stories : Jonah's Gourd Vine / Their Eyes Were Watching God / Moses, Man of the Mountain / Seraph on the Suwanee / Selected Stories (Library of America)
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Du Bois: Writings (Library of America College Editions)
Just Above My Head
