Say It Loud, By: Catherine Ellis and Stephen Drury Smith - Book Review

AppId is over the quota

The presentation is interesting whether or not you agree with the authors. The book discusses Malcolm X and his famous "By any means necessary" reference to dislodging racism. In my own experience, a more inclusive teaching of global history and culture would accomplish this aim. The current texts tend to be Eurocentric; however, this is changing ever so slowly with the inclusion of Latin America, Asia and select countries like South Africa.

Malcolm's famous pilgrimage to Mecca is cited. In addition, Malcolm X believed that the local residents should own, operate and control the economic entities within their neighborhood and sphere of influence. I agree. Residents should own and control the economic factors of production within their community.

There is an excellent discussion of Lorraine Hansberry. Her best known work, A Raisin in the Sun, was inspired by the family's legal battle against racially segregated housing laws in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago. The chapter on Dr. Martin Luther King was excellent. In particular, he stated that "the Negro lives in the basement of the Great Society". There has been improvement in my lifetime. Specifically, African Americans have more representation at the very top of the United States Government. i.e. Presidency, Cabinet, Supreme Court, The Congress, Governorships etc.

On his death, nearly 100 cities exploded in random violence. Dr. King's Citizen Education Program emphasized literacy, consumer education and Planned Parenthood. Operation Breadbasket in Chicago resulted in 2200 new jobs and nearly $18MM in incremental yearly income. Dr. King sought to achieve "A Higher Synthesis" which will have integrated the best of theoretic Socialist systems and the Free Market.

Obviously, Socialism had negations in the form of too much government control, Gosplan under the old Soviet Union, unrealistic quotas and sporadic expropriations. The Free Markets have negations in the form of too much corporate greed, over-consumption of scarce resources, labor exploitation and insufficient coordination of government oversight. The latter part of the book discusses President Obama and his call to provide health care to the sick, jobs to the jobless and education to a broader segment of society and its children. I believe that the book succeeds in presenting a fair recitation of African American History through the prism of the famous people quoted and discussed at length.

Reviewed by: Dr. Joseph S. Maresca

http://www.pacificbookreview.com/

The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

The White City is the name given to the world's Columbia Exposition that took place in Chicago. It was the 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus's of the discovery of the new world.

Coming after the Paris Exposition that produced the Eiffel Tower, Chicago and the American people desired to have something that would at least rival or do one better than the French. It was a tall order. They chose to build a city on the lake. Some of the best architects of New York, Boston and Chicago were called upon to help. There were buildings set up for many of the states and several foreign nations. The main structure was called the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts building. Its floor was thirty two acres in size. It was so massive that 140,000 could stand inside it at the dedication ceremony.

As for the challenge to the Eiffel Tower, At a steel engineer came up with a plan. They would build a giant wheel at Bethlehem Steel that would be the largest one piece casting ever. The axle and its fittings weighed 142,000 pounds. This was to be George Ferris's of the giant wheel. Daniel h. Burnham, the architect in charge of the fair was excited about the idea. Many people didn't believe Chicago could put on a show like Paris had. This Wheel that could hold 2000 people at a time might just do the trick.

Landscape architect Fred Olmstead, who had designed New York's Central Park and Greenway, was The chief designer in the Boston's for the fair and they called for the scenery, that would not be gaudy in any way but be pleasing to the eye. They didn't want a garden effect but overall the scenery, and they desired to have it ready by opening day is May 1, 1893.

Meanwhile there was a serial killer operating in and around the city of Chicago. The author goes back and forth between the exposition the progress and the work of The Devil in the White City. Chicago was a busy place and people went missing all the time.

The fair was plagued with such problems as labor disputes, wind damage, deaths and illnesses of those associated with its completion. Olmstead had to have others finish his work at the crucial time due to his sickness.

Politics was in style in the windy city during the high nineties. Union bosses were gaining importance but detectives weren't too numerous and crime was on the rise.

In honor of opening day, Francis Bellamy composed a pledge that the Bureau of Education decided to send to every school in the nation. This was the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag that we all remember and was used in classrooms everywhere. In that huge manufacturers ' Bldg., there was a band of 500 and a choir of 5,000. Still, the microphone was not yet invented. It was hard for everyone to hear the speakers on the podium.

The Ferris Wheel was a great hit and many new products were introduced at the fair. Western Electric's Alternating Current to Direct Current for use had outbid Edison's at the fair. It soon became the preferred electricity around the nation. Shredded Wheat was introduced there as Aunt Jemima was the firth in the products and Cracker Jacks. The first moving pictures were shown there is Edison's Kinetoscope.

The clever Chicago serial killer was eventually caught after they made a few fatal mistakes. Herman H Holmes had tortured and murdered about fifty unlucky souls. The deed was done in a house, known locally as the castle.

This is a story of Good and Evil living side by side. They were separate events that show the high nineties life and the actions of a madman "creating chaos at the turn of the century. Chicago was a busy place at that time and an interesting part of American history.

John Sprague is an American currently working in the Mideast. He enjoys writing and working on his websites in his free time. He has a new site at http://www.marketingkindreds.com/His website has photos of the Mideast and marketing articles that you may be interested in viewing. There are also website analysis tools and articles is a genealogy and DNA.