DFL Education Foundation

Book Review: The Warmth of Other Suns

By Kent Harbison

I highly recommend the book The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. It is a very well-written and compelling historical account of the Great Migration of blacks from the South to the North and West during America’s Jim Crow era from WW I to the early 1970s. Ms.Wilkerson took 15 years of comprehensive interviews and research to compile and write this story, largely through the lives of three families from Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.

It is somewhat of a painful and embarrassing reminder of the laws, customs and living conditions affecting African Americans during this period. Indeed, some of these customs and conditions may be new revelations to some readers. This history also shows that the treatment of these “immigrants” was only mildly more favorable in the cities to which they migrated. Among the perspectives to be gleaned from this story is a reflection of the attitudes and actions by government officials and average citizens toward immigrants from foreign countries in recent years. Incidentally, Ms. Wilkerson’s writing credentials have been acknowledged by her being given a Pulitizer Prize for her reporting on the major flooding of the Upper Midwest in the 1990s when she was bureau chief in the Chicago office of the NY Times.

A Review of Friedman's This Used to Be Us

By Vici Oshiro

Many who read this have probably heard Tom Friedman with or without his co-author, Michael Mandelbaum, discuss their new book, That Used To Be Us.   So I'll focus on my own reactions rather than try to summarize the book.  Their list of 4 challenges - globalization, technology, debt and global warming is right on.  But I perceive a dilemma that they did not mention. Economists worry that lower birthrates signal less growth in economies; ecologists wonder if planet can support 9 billion people.  We need to get away from focus on consumerism and place greater value on public goods, community and experiences instead of more goods.

 

To get the economy humming, increase emphasis on exports.  Another author, Umair Haque, in The New Capitalist Manifesto, claims that one significant opportunity is manufacturing goods for the rising middle class in emerging economies - the kinds of goods that people buy as they finally get a bit of disposable income.

 

Although I don't agree with everything Friedman and Mandelbaum propose, their "5 pillars of prosperity" - education, infrastructure, immigration, R&D, and careful regulation - make sense.  They emphasize education and especially teaching.  Not because teachers are the problem, but because teachers are the solution.  Some recommendations remind me of a Citizens League committee I served with many years ago.  Good ideas keep coming back.

 

And with all the talking heads bemoaning the consequences of the retiring baby boomers.  What happens in 20 - 30 years when many of them will be dead and a much smaller ago cohort will be retiring?

NEW: check out this clip from the audiobook, courtesy of the publisher!

ThatUsedToBeUs_webclip

 

Book Review: The New Capitalist Manifesto

By Vici Oshiro

Has the Great Recession combined with the growth of emerging economies and threats to the planet convinced you that we need some new ideas?  If so you'll find some in The New Capitalist Manifesto - building a disruptively better business by Umair Haque. 2011.  Harvard Business Review Press.  221 pages.

Haque reviews the cornerstones of industrial capitalism and suggests new cornerstones for constructive capitalism.  This one sentence from the last chapter will, I hope, be a sufficient teaser.  "Instead of shifting costs to or borrowing benefits from people, communities, society, the natural world, and future generations, constructive capitalists minimize economic harm and replace it with a loss advantage, turbo-charged responsiveness, resilience, economic creativity, or most powerfully, a lasting difference to well-being."  In addition to ideas and analysis, he includes examples.