Draft

The Japanese American draft resisters responded to Pearl Harbor not with an ultra-nationalism for the America that had treated them and their families so unjustly, but with a principled insistence on America's higher ideals. By vindicating that choice, Professor Muller's work helps to preserve for all of us the same choice of responses in the wake of 9/11. For many Americans, especially Asian Americans and Arab Americans, waving the flag today combines and conflates a message of patriotism with a historically well-founded fear that we will be counted as less than fully American when America, the one and only nation we love and call home, faces a time of crisis. In the face of these conflated meanings, it is only with a free conscience that an American can ever hope to invest a choice to dedicate his life to his country with the meaning he intends. The resisters remind us that in a time of national crisis, the freedom of conscience is the most precious freedom of all.

We know about the 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage who were imprisoned and interned in ten concentration camps in the USA during WWII "By Order of President" Roosevelt and the Army, in places like Tule Lake, Heart Mountain, and Minidoka. We know about the young men, the Nisei, who served their country with distinction in the 100th Battalion and 442nd regimental combat team in Italy and Europe, while their families were stripped of their civil rights and property. But what about those young men who resisted their draft order since they had no civil rights? What of those who were imprisoned and never pardoned after the war? In hindsight, weren't they just as courageous? What about the courage of Federal Judge Louis Goodman? The author of this book, himself the son of a refugee, the grandson of a man who was sent briefly to Buchenwald from Frankfurt, and was tagged an enemy alien in the USA, has written this excellent, well researched book that will be an excellent resource to students of U.S. history and the fight for civil liberties.

This is a group our history books will never cover: Interned Japanese-American citizens who resisted the draft. This book also covers details like their interactions with Black folks and Conscientious Objectors (mostly Quakers) once they were imprisoned.

The chapter on continuing tension within the Japanese community relating to how to treat the resisters is also valuable. It's no exaggeration to say this book contains information the average person will find nowhere else.

A very informative volume packed with hard to find information and photos. Detailed histories of the horses, their breeders and their exhibitors is included. As a member of a family once deeply involved with these fine work horses this book provided me with information and photos that I was unable to find anywhere else. With the principal people involved with the establishment of this breed in America diminishing with time, it should become an ever more valuable resource.

I have been involved with belgain horses all my life. Studying pedigrees was limited, until I got this book. Nearly every horse I wish to find out more about is in here including their pictures. It's a resource I would not want to be without. I hope Maurice B. Tellen writes a sequel. This is probably the best book you will ever find on the American history of the belgian horse. He is also the founder of the Draft Horse Journal, a magazine published quarterly (anyone involved in the draft horse business should have it).

It is amazing that Mr. Telleen could put so much information in a well illustrated book like that. For someone who is interested in "Belgian horses" it is a must. For someone interested in "horses" it is a sign to get cheap information. Hope that I can find more books on Belgians in America. I do not mean only horses but also Belgian people overthere. I was in contact with someone who's father brought Belgian horses to Canada and The USA before WWI. Is there anyone by the way who know horseseller Vandenbroucke and Delannoy?

Rick Barry wrote eight books covering eight NBA seasons, basically for general managers and coaches. They provide scouting reports by one of the games 50 greatest players. Written in B-Ball jargon Barry provides readers with a keen insight into athletic talent and its application or mis-application whichever the case.

After perusing all eight books, I looked up the first five players drafted in every year back into the late seventies. Lo, I found that unless your team had one of the first three players taken in the entire draft your team did not win the NBA title. Furthermore I concluded that, after 13 years of holding season tickets for the Bullets, the teams that won most often have 8-9 good players vs those that lose who have only 3-4 good players. But, the pivotal player who carries the team must be present for ultimate success to be realized.

To draw a comparison, I learned years ago that there were one million high school football players. These reduced to 70,000 college players and then condensed further to 1200 NFL players. These remaining players averaged 3-4 years in the league, but the top 100-125 played for 10-15 years. The team who had the most of these head-and-shoulders better players won the championship. I believe this model holds true in all sports at all levels. It fits with a basis tenet of chaos theory and also with Mike Hart's book "the 100: A Ranking of the 100 most influential people in history." Thus I maintain that it's a model for how free markets and their unfettered, spontaneous ordering arrange civilizations. This leads into why western civilization has succeeded in raising living standards more for the common man in contrast to command and control economies.

Too bad Rick B. and Jordan Cohn stopped after the '97 season. It was great stuff for contemplative fans.

Quite simply all you need to know about every player. Rick tells it as it is. Bad players get ripped, under-rated players get recognised

Rick Barry's player ratings are essential reading for any serious fan. A MUST READ. Put next year's guide on your shopping list

Rick Barry wrote eight books covering eight NBA seasons, basically for general managers and coaches. They provide scouting reports by one of the games 50 greatest players. Written in B-Ball jargon Barry provides readers with a keen insight into athletic talent and its application or mis-application whichever the case.

After perusing all eight books, I looked up the first five players drafted in every year back into the late seventies. Lo, I found that unless your team had one of the first three players taken in the entire draft your team did not win the NBA title. Furthermore I concluded that, after 13 years of holding season tickets for the Bullets, the teams that won most often have 8-9 good players vs those that lose who have only 3-4 good players. But, the pivotal player who carries the team must be present for ultimate success to be realized.

To draw a comparison, I learned years ago that there were one million high school football players. These reduced to 70,000 college players and then condensed further to 1200 NFL players. These remaining players averaged 3-4 years in the league, but the top 100-125 played for 10-15 years. The team who had the most of these head-and-shoulders better players won the championship. I believe this model holds true in all sports at all levels. It fits with a basis tenet of chaos theory and also with Mike Hart's book "the 100: A Ranking of the 100 most influential people in history." Thus I maintain that it's a model for how free markets and their unfettered, spontaneous ordering arrange civilizations. This leads into why western civilization has succeeded in raising living standards more for the common man in contrast to command and control economies.

Too bad Rick B. and Jordan Cohn stopped after the '97 season. It was great stuff for contemplative fans.

Thorough, witty, lots of insight, etc.

Offers the depth about the players in the NBA no other book does. Every year completely updated ratings on almost every NBA players' game. If you are interested in the NBA this is an annual must-buy.

One, of not the only book, I have ever read about Conscientious Objectors in the military. Each of the stories told in the book bring to life the Viet Nam war itself, but the war in the minds of the men themselves. It is a different kind of bravery that is revealed here.

I was in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the 1980's doing some painful rehabilitation work. My psyche was only a shadow of what it once was or what it became later with a renewal of my faith, insight, and energy. I was browsing through the library and saw an ad in the back of "Mother Jones" anout this book in the making. I contacted the author and was interviewed via telephone for a couple of hours. It was at a pay phone and I literally screamed my way through the interview. It was a return to the roots of my dissent. And a healing.

The author has captured a fragment of the in-service dissent during the Vietnam War. When I started my dissent action, I was alone, and endured lonliness. This book has cemented us together in a deepest solidarity. Now I am available for support to others in this dilemma, should the need arise. Heaven forbid. What a nightmare. What a journey. What hope!

"To hope til hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates."

Shelley (peace sisters and brothers)

This book is very real, it emits an aura of what it's really like to fight in a war. Great for all people interseted in the military.

Octavio Paz, A Draft of Shadows (New Directions, 1979)

I am kicking myself for having had this book in my collection for long enough that I don't remember buying it and not getting around to it until now. Paz is the most exciting poet I've run across since discovering the work of Ira Sadoff five years ago. His work, more than capably translated here by Eliot Weinberger (with a few translations from others thrown in for good measure), is a perfect blend of the art and craft of poetry. It is also the finest overtly political work I have read since Aime Cesaire last put pen to paper. Paz understands that if the poetry is good enough, the message of the poetry will come out on its own, something nine hundred ninety-nine out of every thousand political poets never grasp. Those who would dispute it need only read the title poem here and hold it up against the best works by inferior political poets. The difference is stunning, and obvious.

When Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990, the committee stated that his writing was characterized by 'sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.' Indeed. This is poetry the way it's meant to be. **** 1/2

Excelent translation. Like "Eagle or Sun", "A Draft or Shadows" is the best Paz's poetry. Without doubt, some of the best poems I have ever read. East and West, Water and Stone, White and Black... encounter each other... on the other side.

Very interesting book. A must read for anyone interested in the subject. It is not written as "How to avoid military service" manual, but close to it.

Yup. Another review of a book no one read (but should have). If I remember right, Sherry's bad luck was having this book published simultaneously with the onset of the Gulf (not)War. This book was poised for moderate success when WHAMMO! America's jingoistic instincts rose up with the Gulf (not)War and no one wanted to hear about how to NOT be sent off to kill our pigment enriched brethren. Anyway, this book contains an excellent cross section of attitudes about not getting drafted, including a very direct and cogent essay by Muhammad Ali. Generally, this is a mix of interesting and amusing anecdotes involving everything from peanut butter to letting animal scratches fester before you take your physical. The author spent a lot of time and effort on this book and it is a crime that it didn't sell better.

This is truly a fascinating book for anyone familiar with the decade-long 'sturm und drang' associated with the anti-war movement of the 1960s, when tens of thousands of young American men fled across the Canadian border in an effort to avoid the military draft and service in Vietnam. In many respects this emigration became a lightening rod for the conflict between the pro-war forces within this country and the wider anti-war movement composed at first of hundreds of thousands and then even millions of Americans willing to aid and abet such young men in their efforts to avoid becoming part of what was referred to as the "war machine". What is most interesting in this scholarly account of the phenomenon, however, is its examination of what happened to the welter of young men so intent on living life on their own terms that they were willing to become expatriates to do so.

The author, Professor John Hagen, is a sociologist interested in examining the pilgrim's progress of individual draft-dodgers/emigrants who poured over the border for close to a decade, often with a surprising set of expectations and unresolved internal conflicts associated with the personal experiences that had led them so far from home. His ability to recount the many levels on which the war continued to determine the options and the world view of the individuals so affected is fascinating stuff, and the author does a yeoman's job of breathing life and substance into a work that might otherwise be dry and difficult reading indeed. While his account is earnest and quite well documented, it is also quite revealing and entertaining to read. Hagan often poses questions for the respondents that result in illuminating glimpses into the lingering ways in which the fateful decision to move north continue to affect them in most fateful ways, both for better and for worse. What is most amazing is the degree to which the majority of the individuals rose above the difficulties associated with this move and made successes of their lives.

In this sense, the work is a penetrating effort to unmask and explore the consequences of the war in Vietnam for all of us. In this sense it is a resounding affirmation of how each of us was transformed and changed by our participation in the culture of the sixties, whether for better or for worse. The best in sociology is its ability to locate the individual meaningfully in his times and embedded within the context of his or her cultural meanings. Such a book is this, an effort to locate and recognize the ways in which our times help to determine how we live and under what specific set of existential circumstances we strive to realize our most important goals and most personal dreams. This is a great book, and one I wish many more people would read. Enjoy!

This is a sociological study of the Americans who emigrated to Canada during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I believe that there is an attempt to draw an analogy with the Americans who chose Peace Corps service during this period of time with those who went to Canada. This is an invalid comparison. American Peace Corps volunteers served in places like Atar, Mauritania; Qandahar, Afghanistan; Bilma, Niger; Kikwit, Zaire; Sarh, Tchad; and Zabol, Iran. Most of the Americans that went to Canada chose to live in southern Onatrio, viz. Toronto. How many went to Lac St. Jean, Quebec or Churchill, Manitoba? Few. These sites would have been partially commensurate with the difficulty of the Peace Corps sites.

This is a terrific book, both in style and content. It should be required reading for every Baby Boomer on the planet. This author is a gifted writer who can get to the real heart of the matter without drowning the reader in wordage.

AFTER THE FALL OF VIETNAM: NEW ADVENTURE NOVEL ABOUT A DRAFT DODGER'S JOURNEY THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Few of us ever get to go back to the road not taken, but middle-aged draft dodger Frank Walsh does in the new novel Through the Picture Tube, by Patrick Grady. Twenty years after the end of the Viet Nam war, the man who still lives in Canada finds himself depressed and haunted - haunted by the loss of his wife, haunted by the death of his high school friend in a faraway jungle, and haunted by his own regrets. Seeking to find out what happened to his black friend, the only American killed in a village massacre, he begins an odyssey that forces him to come to grips with the moral dilemmas of war. At the same time, he finds new love with a beautiful Vietnamese woman as he unravels the mystery of really happened on that fateful day in a long-forgotten village called Bien Lai. Through the Picture Tube is a revealing study of the war we watched on television and an examination of how our lives are forever changed by the choices we make. Patrick Grady is an American draft dodger who still lives in Canada. His own experiences were chronicled in James Dickerson's book, North To Canada: Men and Women Against the Viet Nam War.

I own the Ben Fowkes translation of this book (generally reputed to be Marx's most complete theoretical statement, and none too early); but trying to find it on Amazon makes me wonder if I should. The Penguin edition of this book is widely available, the Vintage formerly so, the German Dietz-Verlag version on Amazon.de, and the International Publishers version (directly from "critical" edition MEGA) not at all. How much does the "approved" translation cost? $50.00 for two hardback volumes. Is this something people might want to buy in lieu of an inexpensively produced paperback? Yeah. Is this the most important book ever written? Marx certainly wouldn't have you think that. But is this particular version worth owning? Sure -- don't expect to find this at your local library.

A collection of seven notebooks on capital and money, drafted during the winter of 1857-8, exploring the themes and theses that dominate his later writings, including Marx's own version of Hegel's dialectics, and thoughts on alientation. While not as sophisticatedp--or lengthy--as Das Kapital, it remains a "must read" for anyone interested developing a sophisticated understanding of Marxist philosophy.

Unlike many other works, the Grundrisse exposes in more obvious ways Marx's dialectical thought. The Introduction should really be read as a great antidote to the 1859 Preface to a Critique of Political Economy, which gave us the base-superstructure analogy. The weakest link in Marx's though may very well be found there. The Grundrisse Introduction starts from the point of view of class struggle, whereas there is no place for the class struggle as the driving force in the base-superstructure schema.

Also, Grundrisse starts in a different place from Capital. There is a reason for this, and a good discussion of this can be found in the writing of Raya Dunayevskaya and a counter discussion can be found in Roman Rosdolsky. The choice to eventually shelve the organization of the Grundrisse for the organization of Capital flows in part from the changes in the intervening years, most notably the U.S. Civil War.

Real life constantly shaped Marx's thinking, hardly fitting the representation we commonly get of him from ideologues and capital's priests (economists). As a result, Grundrisse also has serious limitations in its understanding of the logic of capital. Basing the entire understanding of Marxism and capital on Grundrisse leads to the kind of mistakes made by Italian Autononmist Marxism, esp. Antonio Negri, who find themselves engaged in a very subjectivist understanding of capitalism. A useful, but sympathetic, antidote can be found in Werner Bonefeld and John Holloway's writings.