Author: Gabriel Thompson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520280830
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294
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Book Description
"A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire."ÑFred Ross Raised by conservative parents who hoped he would Òstay with his own kind,Ó Fred Ross instead became one of the most influential community organizers in American history. His activism began alongside Dust Bowl migrants, where he managed the same labor camp that inspired John SteinbeckÕs The Grapes of Wrath. During World War II, Ross worked for the release of interned Japanese Americans, and after the war, he dedicated his life to building the political power of Latinos across California. Labor organizing in this country was forever changed when Ross knocked on the door of a young Cesar Chavez and encouraged him to become an organizer. Until now there has been no biography of Fred Ross, a man who believed a good organizer was supposed to fade into the crowd as others stepped forward. In AmericaÕs Social Arsonist, Gabriel Thompson provides a full picture of this complicated and driven man, recovering a forgotten chapter of American history and providing vital lessons for organizers today.
Author: Gabriel Thompson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520964179
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 295
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Book Description
"A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire."—Fred Ross Raised by conservative parents who hoped he would “stay with his own kind,” Fred Ross instead became one of the most influential community organizers in American history. His activism began alongside Dust Bowl migrants, where he managed the same labor camp that inspired John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. During World War II, Ross worked for the release of interned Japanese Americans, and after the war, he dedicated his life to building the political power of Latinos across California. Labor organizing in this country was forever changed when Ross knocked on the door of a young Cesar Chavez and encouraged him to become an organizer. Until now there has been no biography of Fred Ross, a man who believed a good organizer was supposed to fade into the crowd as others stepped forward. In America’s Social Arsonist, Gabriel Thompson provides a full picture of this complicated and driven man, recovering a forgotten chapter of American history and providing vital lessons for organizers today.
Author: Monica Hesse
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631490524
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year One of Amazon’s 20 Best Books of the Year Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed, Bustle, NPR, NYLON, and Thrillist Finalist for the Goodreads Book Award (Nonfiction) Finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime) A Book of the Month Club Selection A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection “A brisk, captivating and expertly crafted reconstruction of a community living through a time of fear.... Masterful.” —Washington Post The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate—there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning. “One of the year’s best and most unusual true-crime books” (Christian Science Monitor), American Fire brings to vivid life the reeling county of Accomack. “Ace reporter” (Entertainment Weekly) Monica Hesse spent years investigating the story, emerging with breathtaking portraits of the arsonists—troubled addict Charlie Smith and his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Tracing the shift in their relationship from true love to crime spree, Hesse also conjures the once-thriving coastal community, decimated by a punishing economy and increasingly suspicious of their neighbors as the culprits remained at large. Weaving the story into the history of arson in the United States, the critically acclaimed American Fire re-creates the anguished nights this quiet county lit up in flames, evoking a microcosm of rural America—a land half-gutted before the fires began.
Author: Fred Ross, Sr.
Publisher: Fred Ross, Sr.
ISBN: 1311454446
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100
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Book Description
Fred Ross Sr.’s AXIOMS FOR ORGANIZERS is a gem–a concise and inspired treasure trove of tips for people committed to building organizations and movements for social justice. It provides a stirring portrait of Ross, Sr., one of the most influential grassroots organizers of the 20th century, and spells out his philosophy and guiding principles for organizers. The bilingual (English-Spanish) AXIOMS FOR ORGANIZERS captures a lifetime of Ross Sr.’s work with disenfranchised and oppressed people and their struggle to win respect and dignity. As former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich writes in his glowing introduction to AXIOMS, "From the migrant farm worker camps of California’s Central Valley to the streets of Los Angeles, from union halls to the halls of state legislatures, Ross taught people of all backgrounds the art and science of standing up for their rights in the face of racism, bigotry and greed. He stirred the imagination and helped communities break down barriers and achieve the seemingly impossible. In the 1950s, Ross worked to build chapters of the Community Service Organization (CSO) throughout California, and it was during this time that he identified and mentored a young farm worker in San Jose named Cesar Chavez." Cesar Chavez once said of his mentor: "Fred did such a good job of explaining how poor people could build power, I could taste it." As Dolores Huerta recalled, "Fred Ross, Sr. changed my life. He inspired and taught me how to organize. He had so much faith in the power of ordinary people to make history." In AXIOMS FOR ORGANIZERS, Ross Sr. culls the lessons drawn from five decades of organizing experience under thematic headings followed by short nuggets of organizing gold. Chapters range from “Characteristics of a Good Organizer,” to “Fundamentals,” “Pitfalls,” “Hope, Motivation and Action,” and “Organizing in the Internet Age,” (the last chapter, a contribution by his son, legendary organizer Fred Ross, Jr.) In Fred Ross Sr. style, axioms are succinct and compelling. The duty of the organizer is to provide people with the opportunity to work for what they believe in. If you think you can do it for people, you’ve stopped understanding what it means to be an organizer. To inspire hope, you must have hope. To win the hearts and minds of people, forget the dry facts and statistics; tell them the stories that won you to the cause. When you are tempted to make a statement, ask a question. The first of its kind ebook, each chapter is laced together with archival photos and artwork portraying the array of social justice fights Ross Sr. helped lead. Black and white stills of Ross at work are combined with Roger Leyonmark’s lithograph, “American Nightmare,” memorializing the internment of Japanese Americans with whom Ross worked to secure housing and jobs and Rafael Lopez’s U.S. postal stamp design commemorating the 1947, precedent setting Mendez v. Westminster court decision, the forerunner to Brown v. the Board of Education. House Minority Leader and former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi declared, “Fred Ross, Sr. left a legacy of good works that has given many the courage of their convictions, the powers of their ideals, and the strength to do heroic deeds on behalf of the common person.” United Farm Worker Organizer Jessica Govea Thorbourne summarized Ross Sr.’s impact this way: "Fred taught us how to turn our grief into action and hope. We learned to ‘tell our story,’ create a plan of action and to track our progress.” CA Governor Jerry Brown recently announced his selection of Fred Ross, Sr. into the California Hall of Fame in the Fall of 2014. This collection of Fred Ross Sr.’s axioms offers invaluable insight to his thinking and method. It is a roadmap for students of history and organizers seeking to continue the good fight and a must read for students, teachers and community, labor, immigrant and human rights organizers committed to social justice.
Author: Gabriel Thompson
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1786632209
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
Lives from an invisible community—the migrant farmworkers of the United States The Grapes of Wrath brought national attention to the condition of California’s migrant farmworkers in the 1930s. Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers’ grape and lettuce boycotts captured the imagination of the United States in the 1960s and ’70s. Yet today, the stories of the more than 800,000 men, women, and children working in California’s fields—one third of the nation’s agricultural work force—are rarely heard, despite the persistence of wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and uncertain futures. This book of oral histories makes the reality of farm work visible in accounts of hardship, bravery, solidarity, and creativity in California’s fields, as real people struggle to win new opportunities for future generations. Among the narrators: Maricruz, a single mother fired from a packing plant after filing a sexual assault complaint against her supervisor. Roberto, a vineyard laborer in the scorching Coachella Valley who became an advocate for more humane working conditions after his teenage son almost died of heatstroke. Oscar, an elementary school teacher in Salinas who wants to free his students from a life in the fields, the fate that once awaited him as a child.
Author: Chloe Hooper
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1644210010
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 201
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Book Description
The true story of one of the most devastating wildfires in Australian history and the search for the man who started it. On the scorching February day in 2009, a man lit two fires in the Australian state of Victoria, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. What came to be known as the Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people and injured hundreds more, making them among the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in Australian history. As communities reeling from unspeakable loss demanded answers, detectives scrambled to piece together what really happened. They soon began to suspect the fires had been deliverately set by an arsonist. The Arsonist takes readers on the hunt for this man, and inside the puzzle of his mind. But this book is also the story of fire in the Anthropocene. The command of fire has defined and sustained us as a species, and now, as climate change normalizes devastating wildfires worldwide, we must contend with the forces of inequality, and desperate yearning for power, that can lead to such destruction. Written with Chloe Hooper’s trademark lyric detail and nuance, The Arsonist is a reminder that in the age of fire, all of us are gatekeepers.
Author: Hala Alyan
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 035812655X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 467
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Book Description
From the award-winning author of Salt Houses, a rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East, and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home.
Author: Joe Allen
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 1608461262
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
The long-buried story of a Chicagoan's struggle for justice after four of hischildren perished in a tragic fire.
Author: Joseph Wambaugh
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504041518
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
The hunt forthe most prolific American arsonist of the twentieth century—in this Edgar Award–winning true crime story that’s “stranger than fiction” (The New York Times). From Joseph Wambaugh, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of such classics as The Onion Field and The Choirboys, comes the extraordinary story of the chase for the “Pillow Pyro,” led by one ambitious firefighter. Growing up in Los Angeles, John Orr idolized law enforcement. However, after being rejected by both the LAPD and LAFD, he settled for a position with the Glendale Fire Department. There, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a fire captain and one of Southern California’s best-known and most respected arson investigators. But Orr led another, unseen life, one that included womanizing and an insatiable thirst for recognition. While Orr busted a slew of petty arsonists, there was one serial criminal he could not track down. Nothing was safe from the so-called Pillow Pyro’s obsession. Homes, retail stores, and fields of dry brush all went up in flames. His handiwork led to millions of dollars worth of property damage and the deaths of four innocent bystanders. But after years of evading the police, he made a mistake—one that would turn Orr’s life upside down. The Washington Post raves, “When [Joseph Wambaugh] talks about the culture of cops versus the culture of firemen, we get no speculation, only hard-earned details.” Based on meticulous research, interviews, case records, and thousands of pages of court transcripts, Fire Lover is Wambaugh at his best.
Author: Fred Ross
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
Fred Ross, a living legend among those who work to empower the underdog and effect social change by means of grass-roots activism, tells the story of Cesar Chavez's first organizing effort. Fred Ross, a living legend among those who work to empower the underdog and effect social change by means of grass-roots activism, tells the story of Cesar Chavez's first organizing effort. This is a fast-moving chronicle of a little-known battle pitting Chavez and a handful of farm workers against two hundred growers and powerful govrenment agencies in 1958, which led, four years later, to the launching of the United Farm Workers of America. Conquering Goliath illustrates Chavez's skill in calling attention to the plight of farm workers and in drawing people together in order to end discrimination and economic exploitation. In an against-all-odds triumph, he worked within the system, cultivating honest governement officials, documenting abuses, conducting citizenship classes, registering voters, and ultimately, restoring human dignity by defeating a grossly unjust practice.
