Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks
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Book Reviews of Where We Stand: Class Matters
Book Review: or 4.95 . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
bell hooks is ahead of the curve again. Class studies seems sure to supersede race and gender studies as the next big thing in academia (and thus, eventually, more widely--at least I hope so). Hooks writes wonderfully here and elsewhere about issues that most academics write about in prose that is certainly more difficult than necessary. As before, at least for me, she's at her best here when she writes about the details of her own life, her own growing class awareness. In doing so, she manages to show just how much American consciousness has changed regarding the poor and the rich, and especially, how individuals decide where they "stand" in relation to the two. Getting rich has become the highest goal in America, even more so than it ever was, and the poor are more disregarded and even despised than ever. hooks reminds us (and, hopefully, the newly triumphant Christian right) that the Bible, and much traditional Christian teaching, holds the poor up, rather than the rich, as examples of how we all should live. A shift in perspective has gradually crept upon us--while Americans used to cite many features that constituted a "good life," loads of money has come to the fore as the defining tool toward living "well," and for many it seems to be the only thing that would make life better. hooks writes "movingly" (a cliche, but it's true) of how all these changes FEEL; she clarifies for me, for instance, the way the widening availability of gambling is making more and more of us dissatisfied with our current lives because they seem to pale so in comparison to the lives we "could" lead if we could just buy that right lottery ticket.
I could write much more encouraging you to read this book, but I'll end by applauding how fully hooks shows that class AND race AND gender continue to be factors that must be considered together if we are to make any progress toward narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. Assuming we see such a gap, and even want to narrow it. With the increasingly meaner winds blowing, issues of class will probably get brushed aside even more roughly by the American fantasy of class mobility for ANYone willing and able to work for it--thank you, bell hooks, for standing up and talking back to that wind.
Book Review: Book encourages reflection on recent events
Summary: 5 Stars
I started reading this book shortly before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and news clips began pouring in from New Orleans. More clearly than ever, I understood the need for books like Where We Stand to encourage us to think about issues of class in America and then take action in our own lives.
I read bell hooks because she challenges the notions I have from my white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist upbringing. Where We Stand continues in this tradition. While reflecting upon the events of her own life and her own actions, hooks is able to examine our culture while inviting us increase awareness of how issues of class impact our own lives. For example, while critically examining the influence of materialism in our society, hooks offers her own personal experience with owning a BMW and how her attitude toward the vehicle subtly affected her relationships with other people.
Anyone willing to examine how class, race, gender, and consumerism all collide will want to read this book.
Book Review: Left Me Speechless: But More Aware
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was very interesting. Page after page I saw my own prejudice thoughts appear in here book which was very disturbing to me. i couldn't believe how shallow and self righteous I was. It was actually embarrasing. I did too believe that success was only obtain if you were given recoginiton by the white man. Not realizing that everyone is the same that recoginition should be honored more with your own people than anyone else. i also saw how we seem to need for others to be poor so we can feel like we have success, it should not be like that, we should want to help other that is what our ancestors would have wanted. This was an awesome book and i will recommend it to others!Book Review: Incredible work that says what really needs to be said!
Summary: 5 Stars
I began reading this book because it struck me in the book store. I still strikes me, strikes deep in my heart as an upper-middle class white woman. I have a 'socialism of the heart' as Billy Bragg would say, and thus reading this book at 16 (it was published in 2000) has served as a powerful reinforcement of my already honest outlook. For anyone who needs a wake up call, or simply a look into reality (a refreshing look it would be to see reality, yet the mass media has done their money's worth of covering reality up with fluff, scruff, and "buy, spend, watch, obey, buy, spend, watch, obey")...this book is something that will not so easily be forgotten.Book Review: So desperately needed
Summary: 5 Stars
Thankfully, bell hooks is always brave enough to tell it like it is. She is also compassionate enough to devote time to addressing the most important issues of our time. The class crisis in this country is coming to a head as the middle class dwindles even more rapidly in this economy. Perhaps with many millions more joining the ranks of the poor, we as a nation will finally confront and resolve our class related conflicts. Read and begin to think critically and behave compassionately.Her observations are wise. Her grasp of history is absolute. Her ideas stimulate intelligent and loving thought, conversation, and action. Read this book.