Kirjahaku

Examines broad shifts in American work values from their Calvinist origins to present controversies involving work, welfare, and affirmative action.American Work Values: Their Origin and Development examines the broad shifts in American work values from their European origins to the present. It analyzes shifts from work as salvation to work as opportunity and alienation, and concludes with a more recent focus on self-fulfilling employment in a context of industrial downsizing.Beginning with the Lutheran-Calvinist support of work for the glory of God, the book's focus shifts to the change in work values that occurred from early industrialization in America to the end of the Great Depression, a period characterized by both opportunity and alienation. The modern trends that followed led to the empowerment of employees even as that empowerment tested the values of such participation in a climate of rampant downsizing. The book also deals with the debates related to work and welfare that simmered during these transformations. Whether it involved policy-makers in sixteenth-century Europe or wonks in the Washington of 1996, controversy over public assistance to the deserving and undeserving poor remained a raging controversy that spilled over into the debate on affirmative action.

Letters to Eleanor: Voices of the Great Depression examines how the flood of letters from ordinary Americans to the First Lady established a bond of hope and trust. Through this paper trail, Eleanor Roosevelt was able to help many petitioners find jobs, food, housing, and clothes. To others she offered the encouragement and support many need in the bleak Thirties. Through it all Eleanor Roosevelt exhibited a tradionalist social outlook by her support of homemakers and opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. But as the New Deal matured, she became an ardent reformer who fought for an anti-lynching law and job opportunity for women in the federal service. Buy beneath her incessant activity to help others there was an inner Eleanor who constantly sought emotional support from female colleagues or her distant correspondents, a support she did not receive form FDR or her family.

Letters to Eleanor: Voices of the Great Depression examines how the flood of letters from ordinary Americans to the First Lady established a bond of hope and trust. Through this paper trail, Eleanor Roosevelt was able to help many petitioners find jobs, food, housing, and clothes. To others she offered the encouragement and support many need in the bleak Thirties. Through it all Eleanor Roosevelt exhibited a tradionalist social outlook by her support of homemakers and opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. But as the New Deal matured, she became an ardent reformer who fought for an anti-lynching law and job opportunity for women in the federal service. Buy beneath her incessant activity to help others there was an inner Eleanor who constantly sought emotional support from female colleagues or her distant correspondents, a support she did not receive form FDR or her family.

In his debut poetry collection, Paul Bernstein takes stock of a life, experiencing the richness and despairs of this material world and anticipating his soul's inevitable transmigration to the next. Like the owls in the title poem, Bernstein voices wisdom that others may fear, as he and the night birds "lurk in gloom / for ghosts to rise up / from their graves." These are poems from a man who has seen life stretch both before and behind him, both a youthful traveler "romp ing] in the cowboy west" and an older, more disillusioned presence "stuck with you, / a dead lump of stone / I can't move," a Sisyphus of the heart who awaits eventual relief. Come join Bernstein in his astute poems, which snatch moments of sly joy, meaning, and possible redemption like seeds scattered throughout the rocky ground of a fully-lived life.-John F. Buckley, Author, Sky SandwichesPaul Bernstein's impressive collection offers a strong sense of self, (Prodigal, After Hours), a sometimes caustic view of relationships (Bed Spread, The Years Fall Away With the Rain, ) and a realistic appreciation of our inevitable encounters with mortality (Grandmother Teaches the Child About Death, The Eye of the Storm, Shadowfall). His work invites contemplation; each piece is worthy of thought. Serious students of poetry will appreciate the diversity of themes and styles displayed here; the inclusion of cinquains is particularly intriguing. At the same time, the author's delight in birds (What the Owls Know, Sparrows), kids (Chasing Shadows), myth (A Prayer for the Departed), and dreams (Night Mares), provokes refreshing and splendid shows of imagination.-Glen Phillips, Publisher, Front Porch ReviewWhat the Owls Know, it turns out, is what we all know but we try to avoid looking at directly: none of us are getting out of this alive. Rather than bludgeon us with that stark fact, however, Paul Bernstein takes us by the hand as he sifts through quietly honest snapshots accumulated over miles and years, and reassures us that lifetimes are contained in the smallest of moments. The titular feathered harbingers may "stretch, strop / their beaks, and wait" for us to reach the end, but by the time we do, these poems have reminded us that to be human is to make mistakes and that even regrets can contain an element of solace.-Karrie Waarala, Poetry Editor, The museum of americana