Product Description
Neighborhood planning programs involve citizens in developing plans and self-help projects for their neighborhoods through local organizations.They also assist residents in reviewing projects developed by city agencies.Based on a survey of fifty@-one ... Read more

Product Description
This book brings to life the important but neglected story of African American postal workers and the critical role they played in the U.S. labor and black freedom movements. Philip Rubio, a former postal worker, integrates civil rights, labor, and left movement histories that too often are written as if they happened separately. Centered on New York City and Washington, D.C., the book chronicles a struggle of national significance through its examination of the post office, a workplace with facilities and unions serving every city and town in the United States.

Having fought their way into postal positions and unions, black postal workers--often college-educated military veterans--became a critical force for social change. They combined black labor protest and civic traditions to construct a civil rights unionism at the post office. They were a major factor in the 1970 nationwide wildcat strike, which resulted in full collective bargaining rights for the major postal unions under the newly established U.S. Postal Service in 1971. In making the fight for equality primary, African American postal workers were influential in shaping today's post office and postal unions.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Jobs, Justice, Equality
This is a very well researched and written book that I truly enjoyed reading. We got to know where we come from so that we don't repeat the mistakes we've made on the course toward progress.

In 1961 President Kennedy said "Let the public service be a proud and lively career."

This book is a powerful historical must read for all African American postal workers. I highly recommend it for all postal leaders bargaining, and non-bargaining. Keep this reference in your professional development library! The author does a superb job presenting an important history lesson for all of us. Find out about the 9 postal unions; NALC, UFPC, NPMHU, NAPOGSME, NFPOMVED, NASDM, NPU, NA, NRLCA. You'll have to dive into this book to get the real lowdown.

Learn about the first known black female postal worker, first black female postmaster, auxiliaries and their role in the struggle and postal workers that are celebrities today.

This is where you can read and learn about Jim Crowism, McCarthyism (1950-1954), and segregation through unions, and separate water fountains in the swing rooms.

You won't believe that way back in the day speeches sympathetic to postal workers were made on the senate floor using vivid language to highlight the post office's "Oppressive and outdated management style. Wow! The more things change the more they remain the same in the 21st century.

You'll find an excellent collection of black and white photos

Recall the 1970 strike with the euphemism for the strike weapon being "imposition of economic sanctions. Learn about the wildcat powder keg, collective begging, and review the contributions of Moe Biller and still-onboard APWU Bill Burrus.

Unionism with congressional lobbying will always maintain the pressure on the issues that affect us. For all of us in unions we can't become complacent in defending all the struggles and negotiations that unions at the post office have won for all of us. The bottom line is if we don't fight for change it won't happen.

Thank you Mr. Rubio for your many years of postal service and this manuscript contribution. I would have loved to read about your experiences on the workroom floor from 1980-2000.
The struggle for jobs, justice and equality continues. ... Read more

Product Description
In this remarkable book, Graham Hodges presents a comprehensive history of African Americans in New York City and its rural environs from the arrival of the first African—a sailor marooned on Manhattan Island in 1613—to the bloody Draft Riots of 1863. Throughout, he explores the intertwined themes of freedom and servitude, city and countryside, and work, religion, and resistance that shaped black life in the region through two and a half centuries.

Hodges chronicles the lives of the first free black settlers in the Dutch-ruled city, the gradual slide into enslavement after the British takeover, the fierce era of slavery, and the painfully slow process of emancipation. He pays particular attention to the black religious experience in all its complexity and to the vibrant slave culture that was shaped on the streets and in the taverns. Together, Hodges shows, these two potent forces helped fuel the long and arduous pilgrimage to liberty. ... Read more

Product Description
In this bold interpretation of U.S. history, Lisa Levenstein reframes highly charged debates over the origins of chronic African American poverty and the social policies and political struggles that led to the postwar urban crisis.

A Movement Without Marches follows poor black women as they traveled from some of Philadelphia's most impoverished neighborhoods into its welfare offices, courtrooms, public housing, schools, and hospitals, laying claim to an unprecedented array of government benefits and services. Levenstein uncovers the constraints that led women to public institutions, emphasizing the importance not only of deindustrialization and racial discrimination but also of women's experiences with sex discrimination, inadequate public education, child rearing, domestic violence, and chronic illness.

Women's claims on public institutions brought a range of new resources into poor African American communities. With these resources came new constraints, as public officials frequently responded to women's efforts by limiting benefits and attempting to control their personal lives. Scathing public narratives about women's "dependency" and their children's "illegitimacy" placed African American women and public institutions at the center of the growing opposition to black migration and civil rights in northern U.S. cities. Countering stereotypes that have long plagued public debate, A Movement Without Marches offers a new paradigm for understanding postwar U.S. history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a movement without marches
This book, although scholarly, is a wonderful read. It mixes thorough scholarship with compassion and the result is a book which gives the reader enormous information about urban development after World War II. It deals with poverty, discrimination and, above all, the hope of those who are trying to resist it. ... Read more

Product Description
Leonard Levy's classic work examines the circumstances that led to the writing of the establishment clause of the First Amendment: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . . .' He argues that, contrary to popular belief, the framers of the Constitution intended to prohibit government aid to religion even on an impartial basis. He thus refutes the view of 'nonpreferentialists,' who interpret the clause as allowing such aid provided that the assistance is not restricted to a preferred church.

For this new edition, Levy has added to his original arguments and incorporated much new material, including an analysis of Jefferson's ideas on the relationship between church and state and a discussion of the establishment clause cases brought before the Supreme Court since the book was originally published in 1986. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Church versus State
The confrontation between religious and secular values is one of the hottest issues that will confront the Supreme Court in the twenty-first century. Surprisingly, few Americans are schooled in the origins of the First Amendment and the thinking of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other founding founders in including this clause as part of the Bill of Rights. A good portion of the volume discusses this extremely relevant topic. We learn that Madison was instrumental in the passage of the Establishment Clause. He saw it as a limitation on the power of Congress to coerce individuals to worship God in any manner inconsistent with their conscience, indeed to enact any law that involved religious topics.

The book continues its discussion of efforts to promote prayer and religious doctrine through government backing by examining leading 19th and 20th century Supreme Court cases. I learned that the celebrated liberal Justice William O. Douglas wrote opinions that weakened the wall of separation; he authored conservative decisions that called for the encouragement of religion by the state...(I expected the opposite).Every informed citizen probably should read this book to discover why the establishment clause is an essential pillar of American liberty.

Argued Strongly and Successfully
This is a relatively short book by the noted legal historian and constitutional scholar Leonard Levy.Somewhat polemical in nature, this book is concerned primarily with rebutting the 'original intention' approach to the establishment clause of the First Amendment.Written originally in response to Reagan era claims that the establishment clause permitted non-preferential aid to religion, this book maintains its relevance as this claims continue to be made by a variety of conservative politicians and legal theorists.The non-preferentialist approach states that the establishment clause authorizes federal aid to religion so long as it is not preferential and specifically avoids a single church.The opposite, separationist approach, advocates the so-called "wall" between church and state with the federal government prohibited from aiding religion.Levy systemically examines the nature of religous establishments at the time of the formulation of the constitution, the attitudes of the Framers towards separation, the rationale for seperation, and the basic logic of the Bill of Rights (a subject on which Levy is an established authority).The result is a devastating critique of non-preferentialism based on original intent.Levy shows well that religous establishments in several colonies/states were plural in nature, so establishment can't refer just to favoring one religion.In line with a great deal of other scholarship, he shows that the framers were definitely separationist in orientation.With other scholars, Levy stresses that separationism was advocated by a coaltion of relatively secular intellectuals like Madison and Jefferson and a group of devout churchmen like the Baptists Isaac Backus and John Leland, all of whom felt that separation was necessary to safeguard religion.Finally, he scornfully but correctly exposes the basic weakness of arguing that the establishment clause authorizes non-preferential aid by pointing out that the basic thrust of the Bill of Rights is to constrain Federal power, not to enumerate its powers.Levy's arguments are presented well and are convincing. While non-preferentialism may one day be a viable policy, its advocates will have to search elsewhere for a constitutional justification.
The last couple of chapters of the book are devoted to related topics.Levy has an effective chapter on the inconsistencies of Supreme Court rulings on the establishment clause.He characterizes well the confusion engendered by these often unclear rulings and makes a very good point that the contradictory rulings and often poorly argued decisions are contributing factors to social discord on this issue.Part of this chapter, however, is a bit confusing because Levy wanders into a general discussion of originalist interpretation.This prefigures one of his later books but is not strictly germane to the topic of this book.
Levy also has some interesting comments on his attitude towards separation.While the logic of his arguments leads to strict separationism, he reveals himself to be a modest accomodationist with considerable respect for religion and its important place in American life.

Leaks in the Church/State Wall Are OK?
With attempts by our current President to allow federal funds to go to religious charities, a better understanding of the history and meaning of the First Amendment is desparately needed. One could hardly be better qualified to give us such an education than Leonard W. Levy in his book on the Establishment Clause.

In his book, Levy refutes the nonpreferentialists' claim that the First Amendment clause, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," merely prohibits Congress from providing preferential aid to one church. If "an establishment of religion" meant only single-church establishments, Congress would only be prohibited from exclusively benefiting one church but not prohibited from aiding religion impartially. But, as Levy points out, history does not support the nonpreferentialists' interpretation.

Although the five southern colonies did have exclusive Anglical establishments, the colonies of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire came to have multiple religious establishments, and, indeed, the colonies of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey never had establishments of any kind. After the Revolution, opposition to establishments increased, resulting in states having to replace their exclusive or dual establishments or even ending their establishments altogether. Thus, the historical fact of multiple establishments of religion contradicts the nonpreferentialists' interpretation that "an establishment of religion" referred only to single-church establishments, and, therefore, does not support their claim that the establishment clause only prohibits Congress from making laws preferring one church. Nor is their interpretation supported by the debates between the Federalists and Anti-federalists.

Anti-federalists feared loss of liberty and pressured Federalists to accept recommendations for amendments to the new Constitution, which included protection of religious liberty. But Federalists countered that such amendments were superfluous because, as Levy succinctly restates the argument, "[T]he unamended Constitution vests no power over religion." Moreover, Madison stated in an October 17, 1788 letter to Jefferson that these amendments ought to be "so framed as not to imply powers not meant to be included in the enumeration." Thus, Levy concludes, "To argue, as the nonpreferentialists do, that the establishment clause should be construed to permit nondiscriminatory aid to religion leads to the impossible conclusion that the First Amendment added to the powers of Congress even though it was framed to restrict Congress. It is not only an impossible conclusion; it is ridiculous."

From his demolition of the nonpreferentialists' interpretation of the establishment clause and his statement in the Preface that his "sympathies are clearly with the separationists," one might conclude that Levy is a strict advocate of an impregnable wall of separation between church and state. However, he is not. Of zealous separationists who interpret every crack in the wall as disaster, Levy says, "[They are] like Chicken Little, screaming, 'The wall is falling, the wall is falling.' It really is not and will not, so long as it leaks just a little at the seams. If it did not leak a little, pressure on the wall might generate enough force to break it."

Examples of leaks which Levy feels need not be repaired are the Supreme Court beginning its sessions with "God save this honorable Court," the money motto "In God We Trust," the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, tax-supported chaplains for military and legislative bodies, etc. Although Levy is aware of the concern of separationists that "big oaks grow from small acorns," he invokes for "trivial" leaks an aphorism which was also advocated by Madison: "De minimis non curat lex" ("The law does not bother with trifles"). A more controversial leak, however, is Levy's advocacy of tax aid for parochial schools.

Although he agrees that the "claim of 'double taxation' is a misnomer," he asserts that the Supreme Court "ought to relieve the burden of so called double taxation on those who pay to send their children to private school." He also says, "If proper restraints exist on the funds for parochial schools so that tax monies are not spent for religious purposes, and the aid rendered is comparable to the value of the secular education provided by the schools, fairness seems to be on the accomodationist side." To say the least, Levy's leaky wall is problematic. It is impossible that parochial school aid would not set free additional dollars for sectarian indoctrination, and the idea that, with "proper restraints," taxpayers' dollars could be secure from misuse is too good to be true.

In the course of discussing establishment-clause cases, Levy amuses his reader with some pot shots at the High Court. He says, for example, that "the Court has managed to unite those who stand at polar opposites on the results that the Court reaches: a strict separationist and zealous accommodationist are likely to agree that the Supreme Court would not recognize an establishment of religion if it took life and bit the Justices."

Levy obviously writes with passion, and his scholarship is as good as his views are controversial. Notwithstanding my disagreement with him over parochial school aid, I found his book both provoking and educational. ... Read more

Product Description
From nineteenth-century public baths to today's private backyard havens, swimming pools have long been a provocative symbol of American life. In this social and cultural history of swimming pools in the United States, Jeff Wiltse relates how, over the years, pools have served as asylums for the urban poor, leisure resorts for the masses, and private clubs for middle-class suburbanites. As sites of race riots, shrinking swimsuits, and conspicuous leisure, swimming pools reflect many of the tensions and transformations that have given rise to modern America.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good to the last drop
I'm not sure how this book ended up on my reading list, but I'm so glad it did.As a child, I remember wondering why I never saw a black swimmer.Now I better understand the history that led to the de facto segregation of my suburban pool. Wiltse's narrative is compelling and readable and the archival photos are a nice touch.I only wish there was a little more information on how pools came to be gender desegregated and how religious exclusion played into the swim club landscape.

Awesome book!
I needed this book for school and I wanted it for personal reasons. I am glad that I finally found it. It is very informative and well written.

Great
It was sent on time and arrived in good condition - as described.When the post office seemed to have lost my book (no fault of the seller), the seller was prompt in forwarding shipping confirmation info.

Bringing History Alive
This is a must read for every teen or adult that believes history is simply about boring dead white people and inconsequential dates.Can you write a "real" history book that has valid arguments about.....SWIMMING POOLS?Dr. Wiltse has caught the attention of the young people of this nation who believed that history, real history, has to be about a President, King, or a General, and has taught us all that seemingly mundane events in the lives of common people, often overlooked, are history too!

Repetitive
So far I am a quarter of the way through this book and it has repeated the same information several times.As soon as the author progresses into the 1900s he quickly shifts back to the 1890s and then up to the 1900s and then back again.The information could have been a little more carefully strung together and not so repetitive.I look forward to finishing this book to see if this gets any better.Despite the irritating repetition the information presented is interesting. ... Read more