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Penzler Pick, July 2001: The first four pages of this casino-themed debut are smashing--literally. Then James Swain, himself a gambling expert and professional magician, gets to the real story, and at that point, the plot starts churning out more twists than a corkscrew factory on overtime. Soon the characters are so enmeshed in their own self-serving lies, scams, and schemes that the only thing for a reader to do is just take a deep breath and let the steady barrage of surprises wash over him.
There's no point in saying "take a deep breath and enjoy the scenery," because in Swain's Las Vegas, what one gazes upon is most likely to be a casino's gambling floor as viewed from security monitors. "Watching surveillance videos," he explains, "is a unique experience. The cameras filtered twice as much light as the human eye, and as a result hairpieces looked like rugs, cheap suits took on zebra stripes, and women wearing red dresses became naked. It was like entering the Twilight Zone."
All too familiar with this eerie, totally paranoid, 24/7 universe is one-time Atlantic City cop Tony Valentine, who now runs a one-man consulting business he calls Grift Sense. To say of someone that he has that particular form of larcenous intuition, the author tells us, is "the highest compliment" one hustler can pay another. Grift sense means "that you not only knew how to do the moves, you also knew when to do them."
And even if Valentine is 62 and settled in Florida, away from the action, he's never lost his ability to "feel when a hustle's going down, even if (he doesn't) know exactly what it is." That's why the Acropolis Resort & Casino is determined to lure him West to check out what looks like funny business going on between blond blackjack dealer Nola Briggs and a player named Frank Fontaine, who happens to be winning a little too steadily. Swain's easy expertise with the world of gaming and gamblers makes Grift Sense into a fascinating guidebook, as well as a vivid debut in a series that so far has a flavor all its own. --Otto Penzler
Book Description
Amidst the neon and the big special ugly of Las Vegas, mild-mannered Frank Fontaine is beating the brains out of the Acropolis Casino. The house cops think the dealer, a blonde named Nola, is part of the con, but no one can prove a thing. For Tony Valentine, it’s the first new scam he’s seen in decades—and maybe the best. Three things Tony knows: The blonde is guilty, the grifter has lived a former life, and the biggest scam is the one that hasn’t happened yet.
In a dream world of fake Greek statues, statuesque hostesses, and a casino owner whose sex life might just burn down his own house, Tony Valentine is plying his special trade. While some people have a sixth sense, Tony has a grift sense—and he needs it now to separate a grifter from a scam that’s worse than anyone’s wildest dreams. . . .
Customer Reviews:
Great Series Kick-Off.......2007-05-08
Retired cop turned crime consultant Tony Valentine lives quietly in Florida while doing freelance work for casinos, helping them catch cheats. To avoid his estranged son Gerry, he accepts a job at the aging Acropolis on the Vegas Strip, where casino owner Nick Nicocropolis is sure he's being ripped off by a hustler and possibly one of his dealers. The hustler walks, but the casino has blackjack dealer Nola Briggs arrested, sure she's involved, though they need Valentine to help prove it.
The first thing Valentine has to do is identify the hustler now going by the name Frank Fontaine. After checking his database and reviewing other clues, he thinks it can be no other than the legendary Sonny Fontana, his personal nemesis, who supposedly had his head crushed in a car door several years earlier. The waters get muddied further when the lawyer Nola hires has a grudge against Fontana/Fontaine and hires a thug to take him out. Meanwhile, interesting details about Nola's past relationship with both Sonny Fontana and Nick Nicocropolis come to light. Just as things in Vegas heat up worse than the desert at midday, Valentine's son goes missing, most likely the victim of Fontana's thugs. Torn between a need to run to his son's aid and his need to take down Sonny Fontana for good before he can bankrupt the Acropolis, Tony finds himself in the thick of things as he figures out Sonny Fontana's complex plan to rip off the casino. And all along, one question hangs in the air: is Nola guilty?
When I first started the book, I found it enjoyable, but was ready to relegate it to just one more mystery series with a twist. However, Swain's characters won me over. There is more going on here than just a series mystery that happens to be set in Las Vegas with a gambling backdrop. Instead, it's more like a romp through Sin City with its quirky locals while Valentine unravels a convoluted set of clues, at the same time he ponders his rocky relationship with his son, his friendship with his next-door neighbor Mabel, and wonders if he's ready to move on to a new relationship with a woman after the death of his wife, since lovely Roxanne at the front desk of the Acropolis starts making some overt moves.
When it's all said and done, Valentine wraps up the mystery and makes some headway with his personal issues. Valentine himself is quite a likeable character with not only street smarts, but what he calls "grift sense," an ability to sense a con even when he's not even quite sure what it is. The other characters are a mishmash of witty old ladies, cops, security experts, scumbags, and just ordinary people going about living their lives. For a mystery series slightly different than the norm, Tony Valentine is your man.
1st in the Tony Valentine series beats the house.......2006-05-22
Crime
By MARILYN STASIO
Published: July 8, 2001
Have you heard the one about the canny granny who won a pot of money by card-counting on her rosary beads? How about the mother-and-son team whose method of palming cards at the blackjack table was ''pure poetry''? And what about the sweet techniques of guys like Jake the Snake and Larry the Lightbulb? James Swain, who came to his expertise on gambling hustles by way of his skills as a sleight-of-hand magician, uses the crooked play of these inspired cheats
to pull us into GRIFT SENSE (Pocket Books, [...]), a flashy, funny novel about a cool [...] to break the bank at a Las Vegas casino.
When Nick Nicocropolis gets wind that someone is out to bring down his establishment, the grandly named but barely solvent Acropolis, he does the smart thing by calling in Tony Valentine, an ex-cop with a nose for a good grift. ''I can feel when a hustle's going down, even if I don't know exactly what it is,'' says Tony, who tests his instinct against his database of some 5,000 known hustlers and comes up with the profile of a dead man. (So much for science.) Although it's slightly maddening to watch Tony conducting off-the-premises research when he could be walking us through some of the other swindles going down on the casino floor, Swain knows how to misdirect the eye during the deal.
Strong and confident.......2005-11-29
...describes the writing in this first of a series. Very well done with insider knowledge.
Tony Valentine's great little retirement gig.......2005-10-30
Grift Sense is the first of what has now become a series of five Tony Valentine novels by author James Swain (currently working on book six). I read Swain's latest, Mr. Lucky, first, and it was good enough to cause me to go back and start at the beginning. And Grift Sense was not a disappointment either. Swain is a talented and very imaginative writer who has carved out a nice little niche of a storyline that is timely and fits in well with the current popularity of casino and televised poker tournaments.
Swain's main character in all his books is Tony Valentine, a retired Atlantic City cop, living in Palm Harbor, Florida. In Grift Sense Swain explains how Tony got his start as a consultant to the casinos and how he established his reputation as THE authoritative source for ferreting out those headline grabbing gambling scams that can ruin a casino.
In Grift Sense, Tony receives an overnight package containing video security tapes from the Acropolis, an older Vegas casino. Seems a stranger had taken the same blackjack dealer for more than $50,000 over a period of a couple days, and the only plausible explanation is cheating. No one on the security staff was able to spot how the player had cheated and so they turned to Tony. Recognizing the potential this scam has for ruining the Acropolis, Tony agrees to help and hops the next first class flight to Vegas. As the story plays out, Tony discovers he is on the trail of one of the most hated and feared scam artists of all time, and someone that everyone had thought was dead.
Swain leads the reader into a house of mirrors with twists and turns as unexpected as they ingenious. Grift Sense is as entertaining as it is enlighteningly educational. Sure to be enjoyed by everyone who likes a good mystery. My lone complaint about this book and the other Swain book I read is that it is hard not to pull for the scam artist who is sticking it to the casinos, after all, whoever heard of the casinos being lumped in with the good guys?
The First Tony Valentine Novel.......2005-10-24
I don't personally read a lot of mysteries, usually only those where I'm drawn to the subject matter or setting. Such was the case with Grift Sense: a setting of Las Vegas, casinos, and gambling grabbed my interest and this book found its way onto my shelf. When I eventually got around to starting this book, I was hooked almost instantly.
Grift Sense is the first foray into the mystery genre by gambling expert James Swain. Swain is able to use this expertise to set-up some seemingly ingenious scams and to show us the inner workings of casino security. Swain's protagonist is one Tony Valentine, a retired Atlantic City cop with a wealth of experience dealing with casino scammers. He is now putting this experience to use working as a security consultant for various casinos across the country. This case he gets sucked into draws him out of his complacent Florida retirement into the heart of the action in Las Vegas. From there it's nonstop twists and turns until the final showdown with the bad guys. Swain does an excellent job of keeping the plot moving and keeping you guessing right up to the end.
As far as characters go, Swain does a good job of assembling a fun cast of interesting characters. Tony comes across well as the experienced investigator who is always a couple of steps ahead of everyone else. Mabel Struck is Tony's slightly eccentric neighbor who evidently gets her kicks running prank ads in the classifieds. I could see some kind of relationship eventually developing between her and Tony. Once Tony gets to Vegas, we meet several other interesting characters including the seedy, womanizing casino owner and his slightly incompetent head of security, a potential love interest who works the hotels front desk, and of course the bad guy.
Overall this is a fun, fast mystery and a great start to a new series. Recommended to any mystery buff or to anyone into Las Vegas and casino gambling. Also, look for the other Tony Valentine mysteries: Funny Money, Sucker Bet, Loaded Dice, and Mr. Lucky.
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
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Grift Sense
James Swain
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVX5HK |
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Grift Sense
Swain James
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UELQVI |
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Grift Sense
James Swain
Manufacturer: POCKET BOOKS @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SIA428 |
Book Description
The teenage Luned left her farm with the dream of becoming a scholar-nun on Tintagel. Her hard-won success is now thrown into danger by the arrival of a bitter nine-year-old. Accused of trying to kill her baby brother Arthur, Morgan is imprisoned on this island nunnery. Luned is appointed her guardian. The Abbess Bryvyth battles for Morgan's soul. But Tintagel is visited secretly by Morgan's nurse Gwennol, a wise woman of the Old Religion. Luned herself is endangered as she is caught up in the struggle between them. She is coming ever more surely under Morgan's power. As she grows towards womanhood, Morgan must decide how to use that power.
Customer Reviews:
Continued Excellence.......2006-06-08
I enjoyed this installment in the Daughter of Tintagel series almost as much as the first. I think the difference was that I had a bit less sympathy for the narrator, Luned than I had for Gwennol. While not an evil or scheming person, Luned is not so easy to like. She is a loner with ambitious dreams that make her disdainful of her family's life on a farm. She converts to Christianity in order to gain an education that will lead to power and importance. Her plans, however, are thwarted by the arrival of Morgan.
Assigned to be Morgan's keeper, Luned is completely unprepared for the job, but too proud to admit so to the head of Tintagel. That failure leads to losses no one involved could have ever predicted as Morgan is not prevented from embracing her dark future.
Like its predecessor this installment is extremely well-written, the characters totally believable. I highly recommend it.
Book Description
Delicious everyday meals you can eat to your heart's content!
Flavor-rich, family-friendly and heart-healthy—sound too good to be true? Not when you have Betty Crocker Healthy Heart Cookbook in your kitchen.
Betty Crocker has teamed up with the Director of The Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease and a nutritionist from the Bell Institute of Health & Nutrition to help you and your family eat well and feel your best. Here's to your heart!
- Over 140 delectable recipes that are heart-healthy and easy to make, including Grilled Barbecued Beef and Bean Burgers, Gorgonzola Linguine with Toasted Walnuts, Oatmeal-Cranberry Muffins and Crème Caramel
- Real-life advice from people who have—or are working to prevent—heart disease and who share great ideas on heart-smart food shopping, prepping and serving
- Up-to-date information on heart disease, including risk factors, testing, prevention and treatment
- Seven-day menu plan with a week's worth of healthy meals and snacks
- Nutrition information with every recipe, plus Carbohydrate Exchanges and Carbohydrate Choices for stress-free meal planning
- Heart health resource guide and a glossary of heart-healthy terms
"An essential guide for making it fun and easy to stay heart-healthy—this book is a must-have."
—Rita F. Redberg, M.D.
Director, Women's Cardiovascular Services
University of California at San Francisco
Customer Reviews:
B C Healthy Heart Cook Book.......2007-07-28
This is a very good book on foods that are good for a healthy heart. I have added the book to my cooking library.
My favorite cookbook!.......2007-05-11
I got this book about a year and a half ago, and although it's not always the one I'm cooking from, a lot of my favorite and healthy recipies have come from it. Some of the ingredients can be a little tough to find, and there are a few recipes that need a little extra spicing up, but overall I've been extremely happy with everything I've made from it! The healthy eating and tips in the front of the book are also very helpful when trying to know what to feed your family to keep them eating right. It's like a mini class in nutrition :)
Betty Crocker Healthy Heart Cookbood.......2007-03-18
Easy to understand, beautiful pictures, nutritional values for each recipe.
User Friendly and Informative.......2006-06-18
Easy to follow recipes with a reasonable number of ingredients. Comes with complete menus and lots of information and tips about eating for heart health. A well designed cookbook and a useful tool for healthy living.
good ideas for cooking.......2005-08-16
i like this cookbook. it has good ideas for dishes. there are tons of pictures and good information on eating heart healthy and the things you need to watch out for. eating heart healthy really makes sense for everyone. i recommend this cookbook.
Book Description
Presenting the best, the easiest to use and the most attractive guide to garnishing available, with techniques for more than 200 decorations.
"Surpassing any garnishing book we've seen, this shows how to craft fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, dried mushrooms, [and] dairy products into eye-catching table decorations, all using ordinary implements...of interest to caterers or aspiring party givers."--World of Cookbooks
Tomato flowers, filled pepper bowls, apple boats, herb bundles--these are just a few of the 200 garnishing ideas displayed on these colorful pages. Each one is a work of art that makes a meal beautiful to behold, as well as delicious to eat. And, surprisingly, they're all simple to make. Fresh basil leaves encircle a bowl of tomato soup, like petals framing a flower. With just a normal paring knife, an ordinary red onion blossoms into a chrysanthemum. Butter looks better molded into ornaments, including a rose or a shell. From drinks decorated with peel spirals to pretty chocolate boxes, every garnish in this collection is a tasty visual masterpiece.
Book Description
This well-done book provides the reader with a complete step-by-step process in the care and training of a beagle that is easy to follow. It is a system based on nearly two decades of experience intrainingand hunting these little hounds. Written with the focus on the new owner/trainer, it will, however, also appeal to all lovers of the breed. This is a hunter's book.
Customer Reviews:
Too Basic for a Serious Rabbit Hunter.......2005-03-17
This book pales in comparison to every book I have read on the subject of beagles and rabbit hunting. Purchase any Dave Fisher book. Get a copy of Breeding Better Beagles buy John Parks, Beagles and Field Trials by Wayne Price, or Breeding a Strain of Better Beagles by Tom and Velta Dorin. For great beagle story type books, I recommend the Everylasting Stream by Walt Harrison and Wilderness Patchwork by Willet Randall.
Just Go Ahead and Try!.......2002-09-30
As a beagle's gramma, I can tell you things about a beagle that would curl your hair. Thankfully, I do not have to for Bill Bennett has done just that.
As for training a beagle: ha! It's useless, futile, hopeless. Need I say more? Didn't think so.
HOWEVER, a beagle makes a lovey-dovey pet. Just don't try and train 'em.
P.S. They'll work for food. Might I suggest cheese tidbits?
Necessary for the reference library if you hunt with beagles.......2002-02-02
If you are new to this aspect of hunting and dog handling, or want to "step up" your relationship with beagles to bring out their truly awesome hunting characteristics, then this book is for you. If you are an experience field trialer or show dog event person, then skip this book - it is for hunters who like to get out in the wilds with good friends and great hounds. Bill Bennett is like a favorite uncle, always there with a helpful suggestion, but not preachy regarding his methods. Respect the land and wild creatures, and train your beagles with consistency and kindness are predominant messages.
too basic.......2001-01-26
this book might be a useful read for someone who has never seen a dog but other than that, don't expect much. the first 1/2 of the book is about choosing a dog and setting up a kennel. the second half is so-called training advice which is "put the dog down and let him figure it out." dont buy this book looking for training or hunting how-tos.
A Good Training Manual.......2000-11-29
This book does a good job of covering techniques owners of beagles might want to use in order to train their hounds for hunting or house pets. As the owner of a beagle, I found many of the tips useful and helpful. Although my beagle is not used to hunt game, the tips in this book worked well with my hound. I found this book to be a good teaching tool.
Average customer rating:
- A must-read for any artist/craftsperson in the 21st Century!
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Ideal Home 1900-1920 (The History of Twentieth-Century American Craft)
Janet Kardon
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Art That Is Life: The Art & Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920 (Art That is Life)
ASIN: 0810934671 |
Customer Reviews:
A must-read for any artist/craftsperson in the 21st Century!.......2007-01-16
Kardon's 3-volume set is a magnificent addition to any library--but this book in particular helps us understand the evolution of craft. I am particularly interested in the Arts and Crafts movement and the effect the Industrial Revolution had on craftspeople. This book is a must-read to understand why our homes look the way they do, and what goes into the work of craft vs the work of machine to make life livable.
Customer Reviews:
Be your own Horticulturist!.......2007-08-23
I enjoy this very good informative read, I love the glossy bold pictures, I love the way the author made you feel like she was talking to you in person, I have over twenty five different plants and after reading this book I could go into the floral business,just kidding, this is one really great detail informative book, She tells you about the plant in three areas: Detail about plant, Caring for the plants and making new plants, what more could you want,just buy the book!
Very Informative.......2007-05-12
Great pictures of plants and good specific information on each one in regard to care and rooting plant.
Over three hundred color photos to compliment plant lists and tips.......2006-07-27
If you are seeking a single volume guide to houseplants, take a look at Valerie Bradley's The Complete Guide to Houseplants: it packs in details on all kinds of plants, including over three hundred color photos to compliment plant lists and tips. Care instructions include details on humidity, soil, watering and sun while ideas for propagation and descriptions of attributes help homeowners chose the right houseplant.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
Extensive encyclopedia features 275 houseplants, including new plant introductions.Step-by-step information on houseplant culture, care, and propagation.Inspiration and design ideas for decorating tastefully with plants.A special section addresses seasonal plants for patio and deck containers.Gives readers thorough, top quality advice they can use immediately.
Customer Reviews:
great for novice plant lovers.......2007-05-15
I bought the book in hopes of learning how to properly maintain my houseplants. There was a wealth of information and simple easy to understand language!
Great beginner's book.......2005-06-20
As a very novice gardener, I needed a book that covered the basic of houseplant care. Well, this is it. I especially like the fact that it is full of color photos.
The first third of this book is dedicated to plant care: light, water, temperature, air, humidiry, potting, propagation, etc.
The last two third is the Galery of Houseplants, which lists lots of plants, how to care for them. I was able to find all the plants I already had in my house, and even found ones that I had no idea what they were.
Great overview book!.......2005-01-10
As a novice gardener I've perused a lot of books and usually they're either really wordy, use terms that a college professor might, or just don't quite have what I need. This book is a really nice overview of everything related to indoor gardening, with lots of photos to explain what they're talking about or doing. I especially love a photographic section on plant problems, diseases and bugs - a lot of the books out there 'explain' what to look for while this one actually shows an afflicted plant. I recommend this book for anyone who's looking to get further into the indoor plants (without actually looking for a degree...).
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Collins Complete Book of Houseplants: A Practical Guide to Over 300 Classic Indoor Plants
Helina Heitz , and
William Davidson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 000412619X |
Product Description
The Complete Book of House Plants is a treasury of information on house plants of all types. Packed with over 400 specially commissioned color photographs, this book combines practical hints as well as essential information in a readable and readily understandable form that will appeal to the keen enthusiast as well as the out-and-out novice.
Product Description
How to choose, care for, grow and propagate hundreds of popular and exotic indoor plants.
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Complete Guide to Houseplants
Miracle-Gro
Manufacturer: Miracle-Gro
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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House Plants
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ASIN: 0696236354
Release Date: 2008-02-05 |
Book Description
From the first name in gardening comes the ultimate manual on growing and caring for more than 300 houseplants. Miracle-Gro
(r) Complete Guide to Houseplants takes the mystery out of choosing and growing houseplants, assuring you success with minimal fuss. The book features the most beautiful and easiest-to-grow houseplants, and includes smart tips and trouble-shooting techniques for keeping them healthy and attractive year after year.
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Der Briefwechsel Zwischen Augustinus and Hieronumus and Ihr Streit Um Den Kanon Des Alten Testaments and Die Auslegung Von Gal., 11-14 (Vigiliae Chri)
Ralph Hennings
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 9004098402 |
Book Description
This volume deals with the correspondence between Augustine and Jerome, discussing the way the letters were handed down to posterity, as well as their contents. In the first part it is shown that Jerome and Augustine both published a collection of the correspondence. In addition a list of manuscripts is given. The second part deals with the conflict between Augustine and Jerome. Not only their discussion whether the Hebrew Bible or the Septuagint should be considered canonically authoritative for the Church, but also their argument on the right exegesis of the quarrel between Peter and Paul in Antioch, whether Christians should observe the Jewish Ceremonial Laws (Gal. 2,11-14). The book is of particular interest for scholars in Patristic and Jewish Studies, giving a fresh approach to this important correspondence.
Amazon.com
Banks, a professor of African-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has written a scholarly history of black American intellectuals covering some 250 years of progress. The slave generations of African-Americans had precious little opportunity for intellectual pursuits. Initially the community's intellectuals were mostly Christian pastors struggling to reconcile Christianity with the barbarous oppression of their people. Later freed negroes agitating for abolition became more prominent, and the founding in 1827 of Freedom's Journal provided a literary outlet for their work. After reconstruction, a network of black colleges and the proliferation of black newspapers and magazines secured a solid base for an intellectual life that today is thriving more than ever before.
Book Description
In the volumes of literature on black history and thought, few have focused on the black thinkers who have shaped the course of American culture. This landmark work charts the contours of black intellectual life across American history and chronicles its fluctuating fortunes. Black Intellectuals offers a centuries-deep analysis of black life, beginning with the arrival of Africans as slaves, when medicine men and conjurers held ancient, powerful wisdom. Author William Banks goes on to discuss prominent figures ranging from black pioneers like Alexander Crummell, Frederick Douglass, and Anna Cooper to intellectuals of the modern age such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, E. Franklin Frazier, Toni Morrison, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. These and hundreds of other black scholars and artists--many of them interviewed for this volume--people an enlightened and imaginative landscape, fascinating for both its range and its diversity.
Customer Reviews:
Not precisely as the title would indicate.......2001-05-22
An excellent reference book that should become a primary source for anyone interested in the evolution of the Black Intelligentsia. Professor Bank's seminal work obligated re-evaluation of my concept of intellectualism; while I cannot wholeheartedly agree with his conclusions regarding some noted individuals, the exercise was beneficial. He has offered an arguably relaxed interpretation of intellectualism therefore, a number of the individuals he highlights may have been fortunate beneficiaries of caucasian largesse rather than bonafide critical thinkers, obviously dependent on one's subjective view. It is a somewhat free-flowing area of inquiry, in many respects analogous to the mis-appellation of *literate* to many of today's writers based on fortuitous publication and but meager substance.
Banks' text revealed itself to be moderately distinct from what I anticipated. He deals less with specific ideologies than with the chronology of people and their promulgated ideas. One particularly interesting sidelight related to the constraints on the Black Intellectual, until very recently, who elected to think "outside the box." In fact, vestigial reluctance by peers to acknowledge the contributions of individuals who give contemplation to subject matter outside the limits of Afrocentric or ethnic concerns still exists.
In sum, BLACK INTELLECTUALS is an indispensible overview, but definitely only a starting point for this area of investigation. The book is a commendable effort to consolidate referent material in convenient volume. It documents many of the pertinent parties but is admittedly not an attempt to be all-inclusive. What it does accomplish is immutable validation of the vast contributions of Blacks and specifically, Black Americans to every facet of art, literature, science and philosophy, in spite of the obstacles placed before them throughout the history of this country.
Black Intellectual Journey.......1999-12-26
Black Intellectuals by William Banks is a landmark text in describing the history, development, paradoxes and challenges of being a Black intellectual in the United States. Banks has illuminated the historical and cultural factors which gave rise to such men and women in an environment which denied them their humanity. I enjoyed learning about African-Americans (known and unknown) whose intellectual output critiqued and challenged both white and black cultures. It was very helpful to see how these men and women stood their ground in telling it like it is regardless of whom may disagree. Even though I enjoyed the work, I found several weaknesses. First, there was a paucity of information regarding Black women and their contributions in the intellectual realm. Some are mentioned by name and pictures are shown of them but there appears to be no serious consideration given to their thoughts. Second, Banks' text was weak in dealing with the co-opting of Black intellectual thought in white institutions. Third, Banks puts too much emphasis on those in academia as being the "intellectuals". He fails to examine those who are independent intellectuals in their own right who have impacted on the community. Despite these short comings Banks has given us a book to serve as food for thought as Black Intellectuals explore their role in the community as we head for the 21st Century
Valuable but seriously flawed.......1998-05-22
In terms of prestige and public awareness, the American intellectual is at a low point -- except for a handful of ever more prominent African-Americans. William Julius Wilson, bell hooks, Henry Louis Gates, et al may seem a bit too eager to endorse beyond-the-fringe characters and causes, but there's no question that they're the ones forging links between public action and the proverbial ivory tower, grappling with America's stickiest questions: those of race. Lest anyone think that the black intellectual is a recent innovation, Berkeley professor William M. Banks has developed a history of black American thought over the last two centuries. His stated purpose is "to chart the contours of black intellectual life across American history and to chronicle its fluctuating fortunes."
"Black Intellectuals" is a mixed bag: Banks doesn't so much "chart the contours" of African-American thought as merely hit many of its high spots; the book is too much a history of black intellectuals and not enough of black intellectualism. And even nonscholars will notice curious omissions and oversights. Despite its flaws, though, "Black Intellectuals" is valuable -- it tells the rarely heard story of black thinkers overcoming almost insurmountable barriers: first slavery, then no education, then inferior, segregated education, then discrimination in supposedly open education, and finally -- in only the last couple of decades -- actual equal access to top schools. Though Banks doesn't overdramatize and refuses to clutter his analysis with unnecessary rhetoric, the book leaves you wondering how any African-American prior to the civil rights movement managed to procure an education and an academic job. Discrimination against intellectuals funneled learned blacks into teaching and the ministry, Banks writes; at the turn of the century, more than half of black college graduates were working as teachers. But even the education establishment narrowly restricted blacks' prospects: "The white academic world was as inhospitable ! to blacks as were all other sectors of American life." Black colleges were substandard, expecting little from students and faculty and delivering less.
Shut out from white intellectual circles, 19th-century black thinkers held conventions, painstakingly crafting statements and resolutions that they realized would be ignored by state and federal authorities. Even in the glory days of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, black writers and artists found themselves hampered by the particular agendas and interests of the well-meaning white patrons whose financial support was crucial. Banks describes how writers like Zora Neale Hurston were compelled by patrons to turn their work in uncomfortable directions.
Sometimes, though, black thinkers made questionable moves all by themselves, and Banks creditably humanizes his subjects by noting contemporaneous criticism of them and pointing out their suspect opinions and actions: Frederick Douglass disparaging black women writers; Booker T. Washington using political clout to "squelch black papers that crossed him"; Langston Hughes disavowing his leftist poetry before the House Un-American Affairs Committee. And Banks describes how, when the media trained attention on black militants in the late 1960s, many self-appointed authorities fell short: "By virtue of their race, not their training or interests, all black intellectuals were considered experts on race and the meaning of the black movement. . . . Quite a few dubious intellectual pronouncements flowed as black sociologists analyzed literary texts and black psychologists explained economic history."
By exploring the full range of African-American ideas (including, strikingly, dissenters like the 19th-century blacks who "resisted the principle of separate institutions and insisted that the public schools be integrated"), Banks places thoughts and thinkers in the context of history's vagaries. It's frustrating, then, that "Black Intellectuals" doesn't follow through on this well-rounded promise. In profiling and! highlighting a plethora of thinkers, Banks tends toward shallowness: He fails to draw black intellectual history in broad strokes, making connections between thinkers and thoughts; since he summarizes thinkers' views in a couple of sentences -- and doesn't tend to set those views in a continuum -- it's difficult to recall who thought what, and what difference it made.
He notes scholars' positions on political topics without actually exploring the topics and weighing the various positions taken. And he's scrupulously nonpartisan with regard to those topics; he gives dissenters equal space, muddying his goal of explaining how currents of thought developed. And there are numerous small omissions and overlookings that leave misleading impressions. There's a photo of author Alex Haley and a passing reference to his "Autobiography of Malcolm X" but no note of his groundbreaking "Roots" (and, therefore, no mention of his plagiarism). Bizarrely, the word "Afrocentrism," the wishful-thinking belief system that has proved unfortunately popular among black intellectuals as well as solace-seeking masses, doesn't appear until the book's appendix. And the appendix itself is odd: 54 pages of "selected biographies," solo paragraphs on each of dozens of writers, activists and other figures, from Benjamin Banneker to Spike Lee to Richard Wright. They are generally too selective and sketchy to be of much use, giving more space to college graduation dates than to ideas and achievements. And many choices are strange: James Baldwin's bio dubs the novelist/essayist "a sensitive boy" but fails to note his homosexuality.
While sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois is the book's key figure, Banks devotes but a handful of sentences to his 1903 book "Souls of Black Folk," still the single most important work of African-American thought. More significantly, Banks dramatically underplays the classic protest-vs.-accomodation philosophical struggle between Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, which today's writers on race -- from Cor! nel West to the odious Dinesh D'Souza -- use to explain the intellectual paths that civil-rights activists have chosen and the arguments they have wielded. The Du Bois-Washington debate, still salient and alive today, provides a useful lens through which to view 20th-century race thinking; without it, Banks leaves the reader viewing black intellectuals somewhat, well, myopically.
Books:
- Haunted Ground: A Novel
- Her Last Call To Louis MacNeice (Five Star Paperback)
- High Rhymes and Misdemeanors: A Poetic Death Mystery (Poetic Death Mysteries)
- Highlights To Heaven: A Bad Hair Day Mystery (Cohen, Nancy J., Bad Hair Day Mystery.)
- Jane and the Genius of the Place : Being the Fourth Jane Austen Mystery (Jane Austen Mystery)
- Jemez Spring (Sonny Baca Mysteries)
- Just Plain Pickled to Death (Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes)
- Killing Orders (V.I. Warshawski Novels)
- Liar: An Irene Kelly Mystery
- Maggie Without A Clue (Zebra Regency Romance)
Books Index
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