An exploration into the "precariat," and how most Americans find themselves in economic distress.
The author speaks of her own experience and many peopAn exploration into the "precariat," and how most Americans find themselves in economic distress.
The author speaks of her own experience and many people whom she has interviewed about their economic condition and standing. She compares and contrasts the predicament of the modern American worker with those of a generation or two ago. She vividly illustrates through her interviews how almost everyone is in distress: the condition of the poor; the problems of child care and the need for 24/7 childcare services; the cost of higher education but no guarantee of financial security; academics working for peanuts and in economic distress; the near impossibility of homeownership and the difficulties in affording a family; the challenges of American business policy toward parents and their needs; the promise, and failure, of post-graduate education to lead to greater financial security.
A must read for anyone who is convinced the problem with people today is they don't work hard enough or are entitled. A demonstration of how the Boomers inherited a great set of workplace standards and have eroded and denigrated them for their descendants.
Merged review:
An exploration into the "precariat," and how most Americans find themselves in economic distress.
The author speaks of her own experience and many people whom she has interviewed about their economic condition and standing. She compares and contrasts the predicament of the modern American worker with those of a generation or two ago. She vividly illustrates through her interviews how almost everyone is in distress: the condition of the poor; the problems of child care and the need for 24/7 childcare services; the cost of higher education but no guarantee of financial security; academics working for peanuts and in economic distress; the near impossibility of homeownership and the difficulties in affording a family; the challenges of American business policy toward parents and their needs; the promise, and failure, of post-graduate education to lead to greater financial security.
A must read for anyone who is convinced the problem with people today is they don't work hard enough or are entitled. A demonstration of how the Boomers inherited a great set of workplace standards and have eroded and denigrated them for their descendants....more
No matter your views about what America is or should be, what makes up American culture, and immigration into America, one thing proves impossible to No matter your views about what America is or should be, what makes up American culture, and immigration into America, one thing proves impossible to deny: the United States of America is becoming ever more Latin.
Perhaps part of our challenge has been our denial and ignorance regarding the presence of Latino/a Americans for generations. Marie Arana seeks to present the history and present of Latino/as in America in LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority (galley received as part of early review program).
The author is of Peruvian descent and has found great success in America and has worked at the highest echelons of the American publishing industry. Her writing is thorough and compelling. She interviewed a great number of people and their experiences provide a lot of color and depth in her narrative.
Throughout the author recognizes the challenge of speaking about “LatinoLand” as a coherent unity: as indicated at the end, perhaps there is greater unity today in terms of the experience of Latino/as in America than before, yet the various groups of Spanish speaking people from previously Spanish dominated nations remain quite different and often at least somewhat mutually antagonistic. Some might feel more affinity with white Americans or Black Americans than some other groups of Latino/as; woe to anyone who would act as if all Latino/as are essentially the same.
The author began with the basic historical outline: Columbus, the Spaniards, colonization and Catholicization, exploitation, and oppression. Then came the white Americans and the conquest of Texas and much of the rest of what was northern Mexico and which is now the American Southwest.
She ultimately will profile almost every national community: some aspects of their unique history and what conditions on the ground would motivate them to want to immigrate to the United States. She of course discusses the fraught nature of immigrating to the United States, whether by some kind of student or work visa or by crossing the border by means of coyotes, and presents examples.
She discusses the constant depredations and degradations which came at the hands of the white Americans: invitations to work in substandard conditions, willingness to expel not only undocumented but also documented Latino/a immigrants when it proved convenient to do so, with even some American citizens getting deported in the process. She does not shy away from demonstrating how many times the dire conditions which compel Latino/as to risk so much to come to the United States and live as undocumented stem from our misbegotten intrusions into their political systems and as the fruit of our seemingly bottomless demand for illegal drugs.
But the author is also not sparing about challenges within Latino/a cultures: the celebration of whiteness and the desire to “whiten the race”; prejudice between communities; the very divergent political trajectories of different groups of Latino/as, and the historical and modern reasons why plenty of people whose ancestors might have come from Spanish colonized areas do not identify as Latino/a but as white.
In this book I learned that not only did FDR et al detain Japanese-Americans and detain them in concentration camps, but our government also put pressure on our Latin American allies to round up their citizens of Japanese descent and to send them to the United States so we could detain them in those camps as well. Apparently the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, thus spent time in an American concentration camp. Tragic.
The author also addressed how Latino/as both attempt to belong and the challenges of trying to belong in American society. She well explored religion among Latino/a populations: the historical legacy of Catholicism; the surge of interest in Pentecostalism; how the “evangelication” of the Latino/a population has proven significant over the past forty years and what changes have attended on account of it.
She explores various ways of thinking in Latino/a cultures, but also emphasized how diligently Latino/as labor, and how well known they are for their work and work habits. She also highlights the many contributions made in almost every discipline, from academia to the sciences, music, television, movies, publishing, government, etc., by Latino/as. She laments how these Latino/as are poorly known and their contributions left unacknowledged as well as how poorly Latino/as are represented in corporate governance, governance in general, the highest levels of academia, etc., relative to their population in the United States.
The book might be long but is well written and easy to read. If you want to understand the great growth of Latin American cultures in the United States, and want to better understand and appreciate Latino/a presence and contribution to these United States, I highly recommend this book.
Merged review:
No matter your views about what America is or should be, what makes up American culture, and immigration into America, one thing proves impossible to deny: the United States of America is becoming ever more Latin.
Perhaps part of our challenge has been our denial and ignorance regarding the presence of Latino/a Americans for generations. Marie Arana seeks to present the history and present of Latino/as in America in LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority (galley received as part of early review program).
The author is of Peruvian descent and has found great success in America and has worked at the highest echelons of the American publishing industry. Her writing is thorough and compelling. She interviewed a great number of people and their experiences provide a lot of color and depth in her narrative.
Throughout the author recognizes the challenge of speaking about “LatinoLand” as a coherent unity: as indicated at the end, perhaps there is greater unity today in terms of the experience of Latino/as in America than before, yet the various groups of Spanish speaking people from previously Spanish dominated nations remain quite different and often at least somewhat mutually antagonistic. Some might feel more affinity with white Americans or Black Americans than some other groups of Latino/as; woe to anyone who would act as if all Latino/as are essentially the same.
The author began with the basic historical outline: Columbus, the Spaniards, colonization and Catholicization, exploitation, and oppression. Then came the white Americans and the conquest of Texas and much of the rest of what was northern Mexico and which is now the American Southwest.
She ultimately will profile almost every national community: some aspects of their unique history and what conditions on the ground would motivate them to want to immigrate to the United States. She of course discusses the fraught nature of immigrating to the United States, whether by some kind of student or work visa or by crossing the border by means of coyotes, and presents examples.
She discusses the constant depredations and degradations which came at the hands of the white Americans: invitations to work in substandard conditions, willingness to expel not only undocumented but also documented Latino/a immigrants when it proved convenient to do so, with even some American citizens getting deported in the process. She does not shy away from demonstrating how many times the dire conditions which compel Latino/as to risk so much to come to the United States and live as undocumented stem from our misbegotten intrusions into their political systems and as the fruit of our seemingly bottomless demand for illegal drugs.
But the author is also not sparing about challenges within Latino/a cultures: the celebration of whiteness and the desire to “whiten the race”; prejudice between communities; the very divergent political trajectories of different groups of Latino/as, and the historical and modern reasons why plenty of people whose ancestors might have come from Spanish colonized areas do not identify as Latino/a but as white.
In this book I learned that not only did FDR et al detain Japanese-Americans and detain them in concentration camps, but our government also put pressure on our Latin American allies to round up their citizens of Japanese descent and to send them to the United States so we could detain them in those camps as well. Apparently the former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, thus spent time in an American concentration camp. Tragic.
The author also addressed how Latino/as both attempt to belong and the challenges of trying to belong in American society. She well explored religion among Latino/a populations: the historical legacy of Catholicism; the surge of interest in Pentecostalism; how the “evangelication” of the Latino/a population has proven significant over the past forty years and what changes have attended on account of it.
She explores various ways of thinking in Latino/a cultures, but also emphasized how diligently Latino/as labor, and how well known they are for their work and work habits. She also highlights the many contributions made in almost every discipline, from academia to the sciences, music, television, movies, publishing, government, etc., by Latino/as. She laments how these Latino/as are poorly known and their contributions left unacknowledged as well as how poorly Latino/as are represented in corporate governance, governance in general, the highest levels of academia, etc., relative to their population in the United States.
The book might be long but is well written and easy to read. If you want to understand the great growth of Latin American cultures in the United States, and want to better understand and appreciate Latino/a presence and contribution to these United States, I highly recommend this book....more
The Bronze Age Collapse and the development of the Early Iron Age has proven fundamental - and haunting - for Western civilization. It has proven no lThe Bronze Age Collapse and the development of the Early Iron Age has proven fundamental - and haunting - for Western civilization. It has proven no less interesting ever since we have explored these matters archaeologically.
Eric Cline well narrated the story of the Bronze Age Collapse in 1177 B.C. His highly anticipated sequel, After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations, certainly delivers.
The author surveys our current understanding of the history of the Early Iron Age, from 1200 BCE until something like 700ish BCE, by considering archaeological discoveries and what later textual evidence can be brought to bear on this time period throughout the ancient Near East. The author wisely approaches the subject by general geographic area and not according to time.
There’s no doubt major changes took place in the couple of centuries following 1200 BCE throughout the region. No area remains unaffected.
But the level and duration of impact would vary significantly throughout the region. The southern Levant, including the area of Israel, seemed to have increased in population and saw the development of many small independent kingdoms; if anything, this area flourished during the Early Iron Age. Phoenicia and Cyprus took full advantage of the situation and developed their maritime exploits. Assyria and Babylon went through a period of relative instability, but by the 10th century BCE the king lists and records exist again, displaying a significant amount of continuity in Assyria, and despite a different population in Babylon, the societal traditions continued as they had in the Bronze Age.
Others did not fare as well. Egypt perhaps maintained the most cultural continuity, but the political and economic strength of the Late Bronze Age would never be replicated. They managed but never adapted, and thus were eliminated as a going concern in 525 BCE. The Hittite Empire completely disintegrated, but Neo-Hittite rulers persevered in Carchemish, and many of the Luwian speaking people continued to uphold Hittite culture and traditions for centuries; the Luwians and Aramaeans developed all sorts of little kingdoms throughout the northern Levant and eastern Asia Minor, all of which would eventually be overrun by Assyria.
Yet perhaps no group fell as spectacularly as the Mycenaean Greeks. Their palace civilization, or at least the highest echelons of it, were gone by the middle of the twelfth century BCE. Within two hundred years, many of the most prominent Mycenaean cities were depopulated. The author, as well as many others, remain dismissive of the “Dorian invasion” later Greeks spoke of at this time, but without a doubt there was significant population movement, and the population of central and southern Greece was cut in half. Archaic and Classical Greeks would still serve the same gods, or at least gods with the same names; they championed the Iliad and the Odyssey as their origin stories; they spoke a later version of Greek; but otherwise they maintained almost no continuity with the Mycenaeans, using a different alphabet and maintaining completely different political and economic structures, all of which developed during this Early Iron Age.
Previous generations spoke of this period as the Dark Age, and they meant it primarily in terms of the Greeks. Israel would never consider this period a Dark Age; if anything, it was their Golden Age, the halcyon days of David and Solomon to which they would ever aspire afterward. The author represents the current consensus view, however, that “Dark Age” was a bit too much as a description. Over the past few years there have been significant archaeological finds dating from this period of 1177-776 BCE, and these finds attest to a changed situation in Greece, but not entirely dismal. There is still trade with the Mediterranean world; there are still quality grave goods.
And so we do best to speak of it as the Early Iron Age without prejudice. As is often pointed out, the crisis of the collapse of the Bronze Age led to developments which allowed for the Classical world, and thus the world as we know it, to develop and flourish, and such would have been far less likely if the Bronze Age hegemons did not experience a time of collapse or retreat. It allowed for state creation in the Levant; it led to the development of the constellation of the Greek poleis and their constant competition.
The book concludes with the author’s assessments of the evidence as well as consideration according to the 2012 IPCC adaptation and resilience frameworks. This speaks to the modern obsession with the collapse of the Late Bronze Age: we are haunted by the prospect of our own collapse and fear it greatly. We would do well to become more adaptive and resilient, but it will likely have to be imposed on us by circumstances, and those circumstances will test and prove us as it did those in the days of the Late Bronze Age and afterward. ...more
However you might feel about the COVID-19 quarantine experience, one thing remains difficult to dispute: a lot of things have changed for local churchHowever you might feel about the COVID-19 quarantine experience, one thing remains difficult to dispute: a lot of things have changed for local churches as a result.
The COVID-19 pandemic hastened certain trends and itself catalyzed many others. Thom Rainer and his group at Church Answers try their hand at providing encouragement and direction in the wake of this experience in The Post-Quarantine Church: Six Urgent Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation.
The title is not a little overblown: no matter what, the Lord’s church will persevere and continue. Yet that we are in the midst of a major phase of change within local churches cannot be denied, and these changes transcend all sorts of confessional and dogmatic boundaries.
The six challenges and opportunities involve how churches gather; how they relate to the digital world and community; reconnecting with the local community; dedication to prayer; creative reconsideration of facilities; and how to effectively lead meaningful change.
One’s mileage will vary when it comes to the conclusions in this book. For congregations who do not maintain much when it comes to property, there’s not much to creatively reconsider, for instance.
But it is right and good to give serious consideration to how we pray and for what. We should consider how well “placed” a congregation is in its local community, and how its members can best reflect Jesus to their communities. While there has been a lot of skepticism and negativity about online engagement, the fact of the matter remains: most people who might check out a congregation are going to first consider its online presence. Asking or expecting people for an in-person visit to a congregation is a step too far for many people; many might be willing to listen to a podcast, check out a video, or something of that sort and try to become more familiar before being willing to venture out.
And then there’s the whole matter of providing a means of access for those who are unable to get out on account of medical difficulties.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a revelation for a lot of reasons: many hearts and minds were exposed. It catalyzed a lot of conversations, changes, and transitions. Not everything we experienced was good or healthy; but if we cannot find anything good to come out of the experience, and doggedly insist on doing everything the way we have always done it, such says more about us than the experience, and not for the better.
Not everything should change all the time. But we should seek to step back at times and get a sense of how we might be able to more effectively jointly participate in Christ, better reflect Jesus to the community around us, and in so doing glorify God. ...more
A thoroughly research based exposition on the seven principles of Leave No Trace by one of the prominent scholars and practitioners of outdoor ethics.A thoroughly research based exposition on the seven principles of Leave No Trace by one of the prominent scholars and practitioners of outdoor ethics.
The author sets forth and explains the importance of outdoor ethics and the Leave No Trace principles: Plan and Prepare Ahead, Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces, Dispose of Waste Properly, Leave What You Find, Minimize Campfire Impacts, Respect Wildlife, and Be Considerate of Other Visitors. Each principle is fully explained with many examples of good and bad behaviors are given.
A highly recommended resource for anyone who wants to well enjoy nature. ...more
Sometimes a piece of reporting proves incredibly compelling, and all because a person is in the right place at the right time to chronicle it all. SucSometimes a piece of reporting proves incredibly compelling, and all because a person is in the right place at the right time to chronicle it all. Such is the case with Eliza Griswold’s Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church (galley received as part of early review program).
The author had made the decision to profile a Philadelphia and greater environs area multisite but singular entity church associated with the Anabaptist tradition called Circle of Hope. It had been the brainchild of Rod and Gwen White who both inculcated the Evangelical Jesus People vibes along with the Church Growth Movement. They prided themselves on being a church that wasn’t your “normal” church, and considered itself quite progressive (for Evangelicalism in the late 20th century).
It was beyond time for the Whites to hand over leadership to the next generation, and the author had been invited in to be present in the meetings of the four new lead pastors and she would also interview them continually…beginning in 2019.
And then 2020 happened. The pandemic. George Floyd and greater sensitivity about the heritage of white supremacy in church spaces. Beyond these things also involved LGBTQIA+ matters of affirmation and inclusion.
What the author ends up chronicling is a lot of unwinding regarding all of these matters. Trying to extricate the church from the cult of personality around its founder, and the founders’ inability to truly step aside and to not respond poorly, led to all sorts of difficulties. They seemed entirely blind to their privilege and how their church’s culture tended to welcome and keep certain people but likewise proved alienating to others. The pastoral leadership is entirely on board with considering how well their church had addressed matters of race, but few were willing to really grapple with the truth of the matter. And yet there also seemed to be an exasperation which can be noted among many of those agitating for the work of antiracism in ways which ultimately proved counterproductive. It also doesn’t help when some of the new pastors want to make it all about them, whether they realize that’s what they are doing or not.
The matter of LGBTQIA+ affirmation caused a significant rift with the church’s denominational partner, which ultimately led to the church losing most of its property but holding onto a couple of its lucrative thrift store type businesses.
But it all seemed to prove too much for the pastors and the unity of Circle of Hope. By the end of the book, they are leading other groups or have moved onto other forms of employment. There are still people who had been part of Circle of Hope and who still meet together and share their faith in the four original areas, but Circle of Hope as a church and organization is no more.
In this book you will find whatever grist you want for your culture war mill. If you want to talk about how antiracism and LGBTQIA+ affirmation can tear a church apart, there’s material for that in this book. If you want to talk about resistance to concerns about antiracism and affirmation prove problematic, there’s material for that in this book. This book is not going to persuade anyone to change their minds about these matters.
But what the book does exceptionally well is attest to how you keep people according to what you are selling, and it’s very hard to steer a ship like that toward a different course. It expresses the ultimate limitations of the “church growth movement”: that which will work to make a church grow will not necessarily work well to allow for its development and maturity, and when you’re “marketing” a “product” to a given “audience,” and you get an “audience” and the numbers, and think yourself important, you’re often setting yourself up for a fall. Likewise regarding the cult of personality: when the attraction in a church is the preacher/pastor/founder/visionary/whomever, it’s going to be hard to move away from that person and keep people. It’s also a warning about aspirations to be “hip”: Circle of Hope might have been the “progressive” or “hip” type of community in the late twentieth century, but by the same standard seemed pretty backward by the end of the 2010s. For better or worse, we are all strongly tempted to hold to our “line” based on what we felt was right or comfortable at a given point in our lives. The past few years have been revealing about what that particular “line” has been for different people as various aspects of our culture have changed.
The author, and the pastors, should be commended for their openness and ability to express what happened in such a real and raw way. There’s a lot we can gain from it. But above all we should come to understand why Paul again and again emphasized the importance of bearing with one another, proving patient and long-suffering, and forgiving one another: when you do not, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace cannot be sustained. Situations will expose and reveal you for who you are and what you are really about. And any kind of major change, let alone a whole suite of them, must be managed with the utmost care and especially patience. When people get exasperated, it all blows up. ...more
I’m a big believer in attempting to get insight from others regarding one’s blind spots. And one of my blind spots would be the ability to truly underI’m a big believer in attempting to get insight from others regarding one’s blind spots. And one of my blind spots would be the ability to truly understand the minority experience.
Sure, there have been contexts in which I have been the minority in demographic terms, but in America, I’m never really a minority; the systems as constructed are designed to provide me with benefits and access it does not provide to everyone.
Adrian Pei’s The Minority Experience: Navigating Emotional and Organizational Realities (galley received as part of early review program) does well at providing some insights regarding the challenges which attend to living and working as a member of the minority community in a majority context.
The author relied on his experience working for Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) as an Asian American. He addressed what was, from his experience, the source of a lot of difficulties: pain, power, and the past.
He well addressed these higher burdens of difficulty which many members of minority groups experience in a majority context regarding which most in the majority world prove oblivious. Those in the majority do not understand how their phrasing or conceptions of the world add to these burdens. They are often defensive about their power and the past heritage which has facilitated said power.
This book is well addressed to those in minority groups to give them a voice and to let them know what they experience is not unique to themselves. But the book also has helpful guidance for those in majority culture to be able to see and hear the experiences of those in minority groups and how we can better leverage our situations to provide a more welcoming environment for those from various backgrounds.
But, as always, that will require some grappling with the past, recognition of how one has, however intentionally or unintentionally, walked in the ways of one’s fathers, and how to well confess and lament where we have gone wrong and work toward repentance to do better. It can be done if we are willing to be humbled and truly hear from others....more
A big part of our problem in America is not about what we know and with what we are familiar; it’s how disconnected we are from the lived experience aA big part of our problem in America is not about what we know and with what we are familiar; it’s how disconnected we are from the lived experience and reality of others. The only way to counteract this is to be willing to listen and truly hear from the experiences of others.
Sarah Smarsh has exposed and expressed herself and her family, the experience of living as poor, working-class men, women, and children in Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.
The author writes as to an unborn daughter she often considered and thought about regarding what she would have experienced if born in a predicament similar to the author’s. The author is born in Kansas toward the end of the time of the “family farm” to people who worked the land for generations but whose children were now turning to find work in cities. Her life is constantly in and out of the Wichita urban and rural areas. She chronicled three generations of her family’s life: often the story of men who work hard but often do not have enough, and generally are abusive; the women who endure it for a time, can often find freedom from the abuse, but still constrained by poverty and thus who often find themselves back with abusive men or with family. Constant movement and a lack of settlement; constantly changing schools. The author threw herself into her academic studies and was able to overcome generational cycles by graduating high school without having a child; she went on to college and well beyond and “made it” into the American middle class.
But she does not spend her time judging her origins; she describes them all, and especially their pathologies, as the result of being poor. Their poverty was a choice - not theirs personally, but the choice of everyone else who prospered thanks to their efforts. As the author well attested, it was not as if she or her family members did not “work hard”: quite the contrary. But they were part of that “forgotten” world in the heartland, flyover country, the areas many in more comfortable surroundings look down upon with derision. It was always easier to blame her folk somehow as opposed to seeing the tragedy of how people in her family could work as hard as they did in the “land of opportunity,” the richest country on earth, but only to barely eke out a living.
I cannot personally relate to the author’s experience because I am at least one generation removed from it. Nevertheless, I have known the kind of people who populate the author’s life and story, and the story truly did resonate.
Sure, people in poverty often make less than wise decisions. But everyone does; the difference is how many of us who have the benefits and privilege which attend to some level of generational wealth find ourselves with resources and support systems which cushion those blows, and many who are in poverty do not share in that same privilege. But by the grace of God there would go most of us.
What we find awkward and uncomfortable remains what stares at us in the face in works like these: there are a lot of people who are working very hard in America - far harder than most of us - and the system has been designed to work to their continual disadvantage so they will never really get ahead. And the rest of us, directly or indirectly, benefit and profit from it.
We can, and should, do far better regarding the working poor. It need not be patronizing. But a stronger support system could mean the world for the incipient Sarah Smarshes of our country. And our nation would be a better place for it....more
A personal reflection of the author and her experiences with Christianity, strongly critiquing American White Evangelical Christianity, and making a cA personal reflection of the author and her experiences with Christianity, strongly critiquing American White Evangelical Christianity, and making a contrast with what the author takes to be a more authentic faith in Jesus.
The author has done significant non-profit work in the Middle East and this informs much of her critique and perspective.
In theory, this would be the kind of book one might imagine I would like, based on the critique and point of comparison. Beyond the incredibly informal presentation, the reaction to which I will own for myself and my own intellectual taste (ok, fine, snobbery), my main challenge is how woodenly strawmanned "White Jesus Christianity" is made out to be in this work. There's love, grace, patience, and kindness for everyone else.
I won't argue about the harm and difficulties presented by American White Evangelicalism these days. But this book isn't going to convince any but the convinced. Jesus did love the Pharisees, too. Jesus did want the older brother to relent of his pride. Showing nothing of the Christ to those whom you are critiquing as not well reflecting the Christ is not glorifying Christ.
**--galley received as part of early review program, but full book read...more
The author explores the Second Temple Jewish and Hellenistic background to the use of wine, and then considers the Old and New Testaments in understanding how wine was used in those contexts. He then considers the eastern and western fathers as well as the rules and canons regarding the consumption of alcohol.
He well concluded how Jesus and the early Christians considered wine as a gift from God and part of the good creation and did not absolutely condemn it. They valued true temperance, always remaining in control and not going to excess, and this was the consistent posture and advice throughout this whole period. The challenges of the abuse of alcohol were evident and exhortations against it were consistent, with expulsion for those who fell into drunkenness.
The author argues forcefully for the evidence as it is and against those who want to make more or less of it for their later ideological crusades. A very helpful resource....more
A compelling collection of letters written by a father to his sons regarding life.
The author had grown up in the Detroit area and was in jail for manyA compelling collection of letters written by a father to his sons regarding life.
The author had grown up in the Detroit area and was in jail for many years. He was able to become very successful in life afterwards and continues to live and work as an advocate for people in similar circumstances. He had one son just before his prison experience and had another afterwards.
These letters are often raw and quite engaging, in which the author explains himself and his predicaments, how he persevered, the challenges he experienced throughout as a Black man, but also the hope and strength which sustained him, and which he wanted to see developed in his sons.
Very powerful and compelling and worthy of consideration.
**--galley received as part of early review program...more
No matter how you might personally feel about the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, none of us can doubt its profound and significant influence on No matter how you might personally feel about the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, none of us can doubt its profound and significant influence on the world of today, over four years later. Economies took deep hits; families experienced significant disruption. Educational and mental health outcomes were often challenging and compromised. Confidence in public health departments has likewise been compromised.
But in the grand scheme of things, SARS-CoV-2 and its COVID-19 infection barely register as pandemics. Such is not an attempt to diminish the difficulties and grief which attended to COVID-19; it is a warning about what the potential rise of another pathogen far more pervasive and far more deadly. We know it could happen because it has happened so many times in history.
In Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World, Colin Elliott thus explored the Antonine Plague of the 160s CE and its ramifications for the Roman Empire.
The author took stock of the Roman Empire in the final days of what has been deemed the Pax Romana, the period of relative stability from around 0-150 CE, and made plain how the Roman Empire was never as peaceful or as firmly established as might be imagined. Plenty of diseases and other conditions were endemic, and Romans were shorter and less healthy than those who came before and after them. Urban areas were significant vectors for disease spread. Nutrition for most people wasn’t the greatest. Conditions were ripe for pandemic illness.
The author set forth what we know about the Antonine Plague, and it is not much. One might commend the author for his creativity in trying to make much out of little, but also might fairly wonder if he is making a bit too much out of a little. From what we know it would seem the Antonine Plague would have been in what we deem the “smallpox” category: not smallpox as we would later understand it, but a similar virus. The author presented the Antonine Plague as the first experience of pandemic disease: if the characterization is accurate, it is more about how it was the first time the world had sufficiently developed civilization in various places as to be able to experience such a thing, for no doubt all sorts of diseases had spread around the world, but perhaps never before as efficiently and widely as in the Antonine Plague.
The author did well attest to how it would have been easy for a virus to spread widely in the world on account of trade and military exploits. Legend associated the plague with the defeats inflicted on the Parthians to the east, and the author demonstrated how it would have been quite easy for the soldiers to get exposed to such an infection in Mesopotamia and then quickly bring it back to the barracks of the east and northern parts of the Empire, with further dispersal ongoing.
The author throughout is bedeviled by a lack of first person accounts; such is why we are still not entirely sure what the disease was, and we cannot know how widely it spread, or how many died with any level of confidence. But the author does do well at demonstrating from what evidence we do have about the significant downturn in many aspects of the Roman Empire and its life after the 160s: fewer military diplomas; significant population declines in many cities; permanent reduction in mining and lead emissions; debasement of money; and the like.
The author thus well argued how the Antonine Plague, combined with many other factors, brought an end to the pax romana and ushered in a new, less stable, less populated, less robust era of the Roman Empire. The author did well to remind everyone how it is quite extraordinary for the Empire to have endured the barbarian incursions, imperial instability, famine, the plague, and to continue to persevere. But it helps to show how the scenes we deem unimaginably apocalyptic in the Book of Revelation reasonably fit the experience of those in the Roman Empire beginning in the second half of the second century.
Public health developments over the past two hundred years have been some of the most significant means of saving and preserving life ever experienced in human history. As a society we would be very stupid to conclude from our COVID-19 experience that we should put less energy and funding into public health and the quest for vaccines and medicines for common bacterial and viral infections. We may not know exactly how many died in the Antonine Plague, but it was almost certainly far more than the 1% death rate we experienced with COVID-19. And there will be pandemic-level pathogens which are or will develop in the future, and there will be the prospect of future pandemics. And next time we might experience something more like what the Romans did, and how well would our culture and society endure?...more
Beth Macy continued her advocacy, research, and investigative journalism after Dopesick in Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’sBeth Macy continued her advocacy, research, and investigative journalism after Dopesick in Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Opioid Crisis.
Throughout the book, we watch the Sackler family bankruptcy case play itself out through the court system: their attempt to pay a pittance to shield themselves from future and further liability, implicitly recognizing while officially denying their significant role in today’s opioid crisis.
By today, of course, very few are still on OxyContin. But many are still feeling the effects of the OxyContin pill mills of the past, and now are addicted to opioids. Throughout the book the author profiles the various people, particularly in parts of Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, who serve on the ground to try to do whatever they can in order to get people the help they need. Most of them have some kind of personal background with opioids or something similar. The story is one full of relapses, even, and sadly perhaps even especially, among these helpers.
There is hope and promise: there are ways forward for people. Bupe (Buprenorphine) can help those addicted to opioids to better manage their condition. Some people are able to find a way out through addiction recovery programs without such medication. Slowly but surely, many are coming around, moving away from the previous posture of incarceration and castigation and understanding how opioid addiction is not like many of the drugs of old, cannot be managed the way former forms of drug addiction were managed, and with appropriate medicine and care, those addicted to opioids can find a way forward.
But it is incredibly time-intensive and expensive, and it always seems easier to judge and condemn those addicted for perceived moral fault. The Sacklers relied on this kind of discrimination and prejudice to make their case. Plenty of citizens and their elected representatives manifest little patience with those addicted in their midst; and probably not a few find the whole thing quite embarrassing. Often the areas in which the situation is the worst are those areas in which there is the greatest resistance to change and management.
This book is a hard and emotional read. It’s gutting to read how most of the women on the streets of Charleston, West Virginia, had previously been faithfully married with children before whatever circumstances led to their addiction; one was even a pastor’s wife. Those of us who are not among the addicted want to find some justification or reason to consider those who are addicted as culpable, as the “other,” so that we might not imagine that we would ever suffer this “contagion.” Yet it is only by the grace of God that perhaps we did not suffer some injury, or go through some similar experience, for it is haunting and horrifying to imagine we could become as them very easily and ourselves be dopesick and on the streets.
If we, as a society, are best judged in how we treat the least of those among us, then our judgment will not go well for us, and those who have suffered greatly in the opioid crisis rightly condemn us. We can, and should, do much better....more
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