Best of
Read-For-School

1969

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness


Simon Wiesenthal - 1969
    Haunted by the crimes in which he'd participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--& obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion & justice, silence & truth, Wiesenthal said nothing. But even years after the war had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?In this important book, 53 distinguished men & women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors & victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China & Tibet. Their responses, as varied as their experiences of the world, remind us that Wiesenthal's questions are not limited to events of the past. Often surprising, always thought provoking, The Sunflower will challenge you to define your beliefs about justice, compassion & responsibility.

12 Million Black Voices


Richard Wright - 1969
    The photographs include works by such giants as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Arthur Rothstein. From crowded, rundown farm shacks to Harlem storefront churches, the photos depict the lives of black people in 1930s America—their misery and weariness under rural poverty, their spiritual strength, and their lives in northern ghettos. Wright's accompanying text eloquently narrates the story of these 90 pictures and delivers a powerful commentary on the origins and history of black oppression in this country. Also included are new prefaces by Douglas Brinkley, Noel Ignatiev, and Michael Eric Dyson. "Among all the works of Wright, 12 Million Black Voices stands out as a work of poetry, ... passion, ... and of love."—David Bradley "A more eloquent statement of its kind could hardly have been devised."—The New York Times Book Review

Here's to You, Jesusa!


Elena Poniatowska - 1969
    Having joined a cavalry unit during the Mexican Revolution, she finds herself at the Revolution's end in Mexico City, far from her native Oaxaca, abandoned by her husband and working menial jobs. So begins Jesusa's long history of encounters with the police and struggles against authority. Mystical yet practical, undaunted by hardship, Jesusa faces the obstacles in her path with gritty determination.Here in its first English translation, Elena Poniatowska's rich, sensitive, and compelling blend of documentary and fiction provides a unique perspective on history and the place of women in twentieth-century Mexico.

The Complete Poems


Elizabeth Bishop - 1969
    

We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World


Melvyn Dubofsky - 1969
    Originally published in 1969, Melvyn Dubofsky's We Shall Be All has remained the definitive archive-based history of the IWW. While much has been written on aspects of the IWW's history in the past three decades, nothing has duplicated or surpassed this authoritative work. The present volume, an abridged version of this labor history classic, makes the compelling story of the IWW accessible to a new generation of readers. In its heyday, between 1905 and 1919, the IWW nourished a dream of a better America where poverty-–material and spiritual–-would be erased and where all people, regardless of nationality or color, would walk free and equal. More than half a century ago the Wobblies tried in their own ways to grapple with issues that still plague the nation in a more sophisticated and properous era. Their example has inspired radicals in America and abroad over the greater part of a century

As Américas E a Civilização


Darcy Ribeiro - 1969
    But none has approached the question from Darcy Ribeiro's unique vantage point, for he has been both a theoretician (cultural anthropologist) and practicing politician (Minister of Education in Brazil under President João Goulart). Combining his practical political experiences with a vast knowledge of historical, cultural, and economic factors, The Americas and Civilization is unequaled as a comprehensive study of all the countries of the Western Hemisphere and their interrelationships.Professor Ribeiro divides the countries into three groups, determined by the makeup of their populations: the Witness Peoples, decendants of native Indians interbred with Europeans (e.g. Mexico); the Transplanted Peoples, all European immigrants (e.g. Argentina); and the New Peoples, descendants of native Indians interbred with Negroes and Iberians (e.g. Brazil). In Ribeiro's view, European colonization of the Americas totally destroyed the native cultures. The new cultures that arose were a response to both the distinctive traits of the colonizing country and its exploitative relationship to its colonies.In his probing of the reasons for cultural debasement and economic underdevelopment in Latin America, Professor Ribeiro makes a pioneer attempt to apply cultural evolutionary theory to modern problems. His provocative insights will be the subject of argument on both the right and the left for years to come.

Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the Present


Alan Ebenstein - 1969
    This text contains portions of great works in their original form to whet the appetite and to encourage discussion within the classroom. By providing historical context and current scholarship, Alan Ebenstein builds upon the framework of influences that have shaped current political thoughts and theories.

The Controvery Over Capitalism: Studies in the Social Philosophy of the Russian Populists


Andrzej Walicki - 1969
    Walicki studies the confrontation of Populism and Marxism: changing attitudes toward Marxism in the Populist milieu and the controversy between Populists and Marxists over the future of Russia. The Controversy over Capitalism, available here in paper for the first time, reinterprets the ideology of Russian Populism. Andrzej Walicki argues that Populism is a reaction to the development of capitalism in Russia and a response to the capitalist economy and socialist ideologies of the West.