Robert W. Fuller (1) (1936–)

I like the general message of this book, and can't argue with it: "rankism" is the superset, or common factor maybe is better, to pretty much all other -ism's. And fighting rankism can't involve more rankism e.g. moral superiority.

But I feel the book really gives short shrift to the question innateness (how innate is it?) or of how to deal with that (beyond, "we'll have to culturally suppress it.")

It uses women's lib and the civil rights movement as examples, but opinion carries quite a bit on whether this movements have been as successful as is commonly thought, or as complete as commonly thought. He does take about backlash, and the proper/useful role of conservatism.... But it all seemed very high level and left me, somewhat, as if I'd read a rallying speech from a campaign stop...

Which, to be fair, is perhaps the intention.

Certainly have me the beginnings of a framework to think about a whole range of social issues/movements/etc. in a more or less unified way.… (más)

A compelling family drama that takes place over twenty years with many hardships.

What I didn't like about the book was the long drawn out stretches of academia politics and I skipped several pages to get to the story.

It is evident that the author has inside knowledge about college life, how it works and the problems they face. But for me not interested in the politics side was more intrigued about the life of this family. This made the story a very slow read and I believe only people interested in college politics will appreciate it even more.

It is very well written, with believable characters to make it a great storyline.

What has drawn me to the book was the book cover and name. Throughout the story, it became clear why the author had chosen the name, which was a sweet reminder of how closely connected everything is.

Adam's memoir served at the end as a synopsis of the book. Giving you the shorten version I found intriguing. Taking place between America, Paris, Russia and Africa, this is an extremely intensive book with clear insight about the political views of each character and how this changed their lives. It influenced their decisions and changed their course in ways they didn't foresee.… (más)