Time for Retirement: Comparative Studies of Early Exit from the Labor Force

Book Description

In all Western countries, people are retiring earlier than ever before, and people are living longer, thus prolonging the length of retirement. What are the effects of this phenomenon on society in general and on the labor force, and what are the psychological effects on retirees? Time for Retirement addresses the "aging of society" and the restructuring of the life course in terms of the changing relationship between work and retirement. Practically, it assesses the range of possible political answers to this process, with a comparative analysis of different national regimes.

Book Description

New England native, Union soldier, Freedmen's Bureau agent, and Louisiana planter, Marshall H. Twitchell became the radical political boss of Red River Parish in the 1870s. He forged an economic alliance with entrepreneurial Jewish merchants and rose to power during the first upswing of the southern economy after the war. The Panic of 1873, however, undermined his regime and virtually overnight he went from financial benefactor to scapegoat for northwest Louisiana's failed dreams of prosperity. His life-and-death struggle with the notorious White League has more gut-wrenching suspense than most novels. The first full-length study of Twitchell, Edge of the Sword is edifying, entertaining, and cutting-edge scholarship.

Customer Reviews:

Alive & Well In the South.......2006-07-16

His life-and-death struggle with the notorious White League was started by a group of Pulaski lawyers and judges. It was not a part of the Confederacy at all, formed to protect Southerners from the Northern Carpetbaggers during reconstruction. We still need their protection, as a director of the Carpetbagger Theater hoodwinked $100,000 out of the City Council on false pretenses. She used her trained actress voice and acting abilities to pull one over on the cooperative group, with undercover help from those of her acquaintance who had the ability to hide the truth that she indeed was the owner of the condemned property in a bad neighborhood.

His ordeal was nothing like today when the carpetbaggers have returned to the South 220 years later to rook the dumb Southerners. I was told by a Pulaski native about how the carpetbaggers had to be stopped and they were not only taking from the defeated but from the underlings as well. They were a group of vultures.

Review from the Journal of American History.......2004-04-19

In recent decades, many historians of Reconstruction have been drawn to the story of Marshall H. Twitchell, an idealistic carpetbagger who braved ferocious reactionary violence in postbellum Louisiana. Honest, courageous, and committed, Twitchell was not the stereotypical northern opportunist of southern lore, and he has, as a result, surfaced in studies by Eric Foner, Lawrence Powell, George Rable and other historians who have revised the old Dunning-school interpretation of the carpetbaggers. Twitchell has, nevertheless, remained largely unknown to non-specialists because, until now, no one had written a full-length account of his life. With the publication of Ted Tunnell's superb biography, Edge of the Sword, Twitchell's extraordinary story should reach a wider audience.
In recounting Twitchell's life, Tunnell tells "one of the great stories of Reconstruction."(p.4) Born in Vermont, Twitchell joined the Union Army at the start of the Civil War and fought in most of the major battles in the Virginia theater. Severely wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness when a minie ball entered his skull through his eye, he was left for dead by army surgeons. But after a miraculous recovery, Twitchell went on to be an officer for a black regiment comprised mainly of ex-slaves. Following Appomattox, he became an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. While serving in this capacity, Twitchell met and married a southern woman, Adele Coleman, whom he hoped to someday bring home with him to Vermont. But when Adele refused to move North, Twitchell made the best of his situation, purchasing a modest cotton plantation, moving some of his relatives down from the Green Mountain state, and establishing a small "Yankee colony" in the town of Coushatta.
In 1868 Twitchell entered local politics and, with the support of African-American voters, was elected as a Republican to the state senate where he successfully fought for funding to build black public schools. He also displayed remarkable courage in the face of repeated threats from the Knights of the White Camellia, Louisiana's version of the Ku Klux Klan. In one instance, Twitchell, having fallen asleep in his saddle, avoided assassination when his mule took the wrong road, thus circumnavigating the bushwhackers waiting in the woods ahead. Twitchell's brother Homer was not so lucky, however. In August 1874, while Marshall was away in New Orleans, conspirators killed his brother and six other Republicans in what became known as the "Coushatta Massacre." Undaunted, Twitchell returned to the town despite threats that he would be next. Refusing to be intimidated, he continued to defend the political and economic rights of blacks and poor whites. Finally, in May 1876, a disguised gunman rode into town and shot Twitchell six times with a rifle. Although Twitchell survived the attack, both of his arms had to be amputated. Only then did he leave the South for good.
Throughout EDGE OF THE SWORD, Tunnell places Twitchell's life within the complex context of local and national politics and current historiographical debates. But he does so as part of an evocative narrative that skillfully recreates the dramatic events that make Twitchell's story so compelling. Thus, this work will be of interest to both historians and lay readers. Tunnell is to be commended for writing an important biography of a courageous man who truly believed he was fighting a righteous battle.

Edge of the Sword: the Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell in the Civil War and Reconstruction.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History

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Edge of the Sword: the Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell in the Civil War and Reconstruction.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History
Ruth Douglas Currie
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008G86F2
Release Date: 2005-07-30

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on February 1, 2003. The length of the article is 700 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Edge of the Sword: the Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell in the Civil War and Reconstruction.(Book Review)
Author: Ruth Douglas Currie
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2003
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 69 Issue: 1 Page: 198(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Customer Reviews:

Pee-U!.......2005-03-05

The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 is because it had some amusing quotes. It is very telling that the authors keep recommending books by Robert Irwin.

They should have entitled it "Where to Consider Buying Your Vacation Home With a Tiny Bit of Other Info Thrown in So That Suckers Glancing at the Table of Contents Will be Fooled into Buying it."

Glad I didn't!

Simplistic.......2001-07-24

A broad view of vacation homes. Chapters on Colorado, Florida, etc. Not really enough "nuts and bolts." Would be good if you are in early stages of deciding to get a vacation home. A good websurf would probably provide more info.

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American comedian Andy Kaufman (1949-1984) was a performer like no other--a rule-breaking iconoclast who blurred the line between performance art and comedy, at times between life and art itself. Misunderstood by the public at large during his lifetime, and embraced by a cult of fans that has consistently grown since his premature death from cancer, Kaufman is the perfect counter-cultural martyr, ripe for a Gap khakis ad. Like Lenny Bruce before him, Kaufman chafed at the reigns of comedy; he didn't always want to make people laugh, in fact he wished to make them uncomfortable. One might consider those notorious French bad-boy playwrights Alfred Jarry and Antonin Artaud (who pushed the envelope of good taste and thoroughly enjoyed confusing their audiences) to be Kaufman's spiritual predecessors, though this might be taking things too seriously. His most well-known routines--the inept stand-up comedian "foreign man," the basis for the character Latka Gravas on the hit sitcom "Taxi"; the grizzled, professional lounge lizard Tony Clifton; and the reigning world champion of inter-gender wrestling--all hinged on making the crowd squirm. Life was a show for Kaufman, who began staging elaborate shows for friends and family at the age of 7; everything was a put-on and yet totally, dead-on serious.

Judging by Bob Zmuda's book (released in anticipation of a biographical movie starring Jim Carrey), Kaufman wasn't the easiest guy to be a best friend to. But, as Zmuda tells things, he rose to the challenge--letting Kaufman confide that he had a daughter he'd never seen, keeping his mouth shut at the appropriate times, and otherwise fulfilling best-friend duties with aplomb. Andy Kaufman got the friend he deserved in his lifetime, but this is not the biography he deserves; it is written in a well-meaning though hackneyed and hard-to-digest style. Simple points are made again and again, as if the two(!) authors were attempting to fuse a poorly-written college essay with a USA Today article. And Mr. Zmuda makes the mistake of assuming that his own history will be of much interest to the reader, who is ostensibly reading a tell-all about Kaufman, not his best friend. There are tremendous anecdotes here; about half the book is filled with glorious tales of artful mischief, hijinks, pranks, and funny stuff that Zmuda and Kaufman pulled on friends, crowds, and strangers. Fans will undoubtedly want to pick this one up, while those with a more casual interest are cautioned to perhaps look elsewhere for a less clumsily written tome. --Mike McGonigal

Book Description

Best known for his sweet-natured character Latka on Taxi, Andy Kaufman was the most influential comic of the generation that produced David Letterman, John Belushi, and Robin Williams. A regular on the early days of Saturday Night Live (where he regularly disrupted planned skits), Kaufman quickly became known for his idiosyncratic roles and for performances that crossed the boundaries of comedy, challenging expectations and shocking audiences. Kaufmans death from lung cancer at age 35 (hed never smoked) stunned his fans and the comic community that had come to look to him as its lightning rod and standard bearer. Bob Zmuda, Kaufmans closest friend, producer, writer, and straight man, breaks his twenty-year silence about Kaufman and unmasks the man he knew better than anyone. He chronicles Kaufmans meteoric rise, the development of his extraordinary personas, the private man behind the driven actor and comedian, and answers the question most often asked: Did Andy Kaufman fake his own death? A movie about Kaufman starring Jim Carrey, directed by Milos Forman, and co-executive produced by author Bob Zmuda and Danny DeVitos Jersey Films, is scheduled for national release in fall 1999.

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Kaufman's closest friend breaks his 20-year silence about the star and unmasks the man whom he knew better than anyone, chronicling Kaufman's meteoric rise, the development of his extraordinary personas, and the private man behind the driven comedian.

Customer Reviews:

I agree: Mr. X himself is worth your time.......2005-09-30

If "Man on the Moon," which depicted the trite TV reruns of Kaufman's wrestling shows bored you, you should read this book. Milos Foreman probably believed that Zmuda's insights were unappealing to mass movie audiences... which is why his film failed.

...and I must write that I have read biographies about Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, Friedrich Nietzsche, etc... but no one fascinates me quite as much as "Mr. X." When I read Zmuda's descriptions about him, I laughed so hard that I almost literally could not breathe. Zmuda did not diagnose him, but allow me: a paranoid schizophrenic who has a seemingly bottomless war chest. He is "carpe diem" gone absolutely insane.... and a part of me hopes he is alive.

A Must-Read!.......2005-09-02

Andy Kaufman was a fascinating man who proved to be more complex than any of his maddening performances. Now, Andy's best friend and confidant ever, has given us a first-hand account of what Andy was really like and how he pulled off his greatest skits. Zmuda traces out Andy's career, from when he first started playing local comedy clubs, up to the appearance of Tony Clifton a year after Andy's death, and provides plenty of laughs as he describes how fearlessly Andy toyed with his audiences.
If you are searching for information on Andy's home and family life, you won't find it here (and if that is what you want, I suggest Bill Zehme's "Lost In The Funhouse"). Zmuda focuses primarily on the experiences that the two shared. But the stories he shares are pure gold and you learn much about how they wound up in the entertainment world and how they turned it completely upside down. Andy didn't just put on a show, he yanked his viewers into his own reality where he was both puppet master and behavioral scientist. This book really captures that spirit.

Unsung Hero.......2003-11-04

I first learned of Andy Kaufman after seeing Man on the Moon, featuring Jim Carrey starring as the late "song and dance man." I use the term song and dance man, because Kaufman never thought of himself as a comedian, he was only a song and dance man - an entertainer. This book provides an in-depth look into the mind of Andy Kaufman through his best friend and producer, Bob Zmuda. I never thought I would be so inspired by this book. The way that Andy saw the world was so different that he influenced many comics that perform today. He thought of audience entertaining him, and himself being their audience. It is really hard to explain how amazing this book is without actually reading it. If you saw Man on the Moon and liked it, you will no doubt love this book, because it takes the movie to a whole new level. I only wish Andy were around today to keep influencing others and changing comedy as we know it.

Then again, maybe he is still alive. I guess we'll never know...

Revisionist History.......2003-10-01

While this book is certainly a must read for diehard Kaufman fans (myself included), as it offers a few tidbits on Andy not found elsewhere, it serves mostly as a vehicle for Zmuda to attempt to overcome his feeling slighted at not receiving enough credit for Kaufman's work. Apparently, Zmuda was the brainchild behind most of Kaufman's schemes. I don't doubt that Zmuda was an important person in Andy's life and collaborated with Andy, yet Zmuda makes it known that Andy wouldn't be anything without him--an idea I find ludicrous.

A better book is Bill Zehme's biography of Kaufman, Lost in the Funhouse, which seems more even handed in its treatment of Zmuda's and Kaufman's collaboration.

So, read Zmuda if you must, but know that Zmuda's book is of firstmost importance to Zmuda himself.

A rebuttal to the review by Mike McGonigal.......2003-09-30

I read this book twice so far, and it is one of the most inspiring and informative pieces of work on Andy Kaufman. He is an idol of mine for reasons beyond his "comedic" ways. But instead of me raving about Kaufman, I would like to comment on some things written by Mike McGonigal in his review. He states that Bob Zmuda made a bad decision to inform readers of his friendship with Kaufman; and also personal happenings and whatnot. Basically, he's saying Zmuda shouldn't have included stories of his own history. Mike McGonignal also states that the reader "is ostensibly reading a tell-all about Kaufman, not his best friend". Perhaps true for some, but I don't appreciate being told why I read a book. And perhaps I'm overreacting, but my point is, I prefer to hear Zmuda's history and any other personal bits of information he decides to tell about. This is also a good writing tactic because it's a way of showing credentials for their history and friendship. McGonignal also stated that "Simple points are made again and again, as if the two(!) authors were attempting to fuse a poorly-written college essay with a USA Today article". I may not be a so-called professional writer as of yet, but I've been writing for a while and study closely to styles of writing and comedic ways. With that, Zmuda's biography about his best friend was meant to be more of an informative and personal piece of literature; opposed to a masterfully written piece that McGonignal was maybe making an excursion for. The way it was written, I felt like Zmuda and I were just chilling out in a room and he was telling me stories of what went on, and how they planned and organized certain "bits", if at all. Zmuda took a personal journey into his past, his mind, and into his best friends unexpected short life. He uncovered secrets that were kept for many years by Kaufman and Zmuda's most trusted family and friends; only to be told when the time was right. Unfortunately the right time followed Kaufman's death. If readers only wanted facts and stories about Kaufman and his many antics, or only had a "casual interest", then they could simply tune in to the television and catch an Andy Kaufman special which document those such things and tend to dwell on the Foreign Man character or his dead-on Elvis "empression". Readers that want to find out the roots of these characters, hijinks, pranks, bordello-outings, inter-gender wrestling, and so on should read this book; and will appreciate it.

Andy Kaufman Revealed - Best Friend Tells All

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Andy Kaufman Revealed - Best Friend Tells All
Bob (et al) Zmuda
Manufacturer: Little, Brown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O63BHY

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Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All
Matthew Scott Hanson, Matthew Scott Hansen Bob Zmuda
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OU83JQ

Book Description

Originally published in 1891, Wynema is the first novel known to have been written by a woman of American Indian descent. Set against the sweeping and often tragic cultural changes that affected southeastern native peoples during the late nineteenth century, it tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two women from vastly different backgrounds—Wynema Harjo, a Muscogee Indian, and Genevieve Weir, a Methodist teacher from a genteel Southern family. Both are firm believers in women’s rights and Indian reform; both struggle to overcome prejudice and correct injustices between sexes and races. Callahan uses the conventional traditions of a sentimental domestic romance to deliver an elegant plea for tolerance, equality, and reform.

The Indian problem as a woman's question: S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest.(Critical essay): An article from: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)

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The Indian problem as a woman's question: S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest.(Critical essay): An article from: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
Melissa Ryan
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly), published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 10300 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Indian problem as a woman's question: S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest.(Critical essay)
Author: Melissa Ryan
Publication: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Page: 23(23)

Article Type: Critical essay

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On the Meeting Grounds of Sentiment: S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest.: An article from: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)

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On the Meeting Grounds of Sentiment: S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest.: An article from: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
Susan Bernardin
Manufacturer: University of Rhode Island
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly), published by University of Rhode Island on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 6835 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: On the Meeting Grounds of Sentiment: S. Alice Callahan's Wynema: A Child of the Forest.
Author: Susan Bernardin
Publication: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: University of Rhode Island
Volume: 15 Issue: 3 Page: 209

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