Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts is a collection of previously published material on related issues, different genres and varied circumstances written over many years. If a good book is one that can evoke interest and response in the reader while at the same time relaying some sort of message, this book ranks in that category

Hinton, Samuel

English

VCU Scholars Compass

Michael Thelwell. Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts: Essays in Struggle. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,  1 987) 266 pp. , $27.50; 10.95 paper. Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts is a collection of previously published material on related issues, different genres and varied circumstances written over many years. If a good book is one that can evoke interest and response in the reader while at the same time relaying some sort of message, this book ranks in that category. It arouses curiosity and interest in the reader because the passages contain a prevalent immediacy. As a textbook for a course in the civil rights struggle, it presents history as it was made when it was made, and from the point of view of participants. The message is that the struggle takes many forms but that it is ongoing. The book contains passages on Southern Movement fiction, politics, literature, and a contemporary perspective on Jesse Jackson's 1 984 presidential campaign. The introduction written by the late James Baldwin is in itself a book review par excellence. Baldwin's reproduction of the poem "The Dogwood Tree, "  and his message that black freedom in the United States should not be the last item on the agenda for social j ustice is very instructive. Baldwin expounds upon the theme ofthe poem by wondering aloud whether blacks are free in the national context of an American foreign policy that targets the non-white peoples of this hemisphere as the "enemy" -references to Latin America. "The Organizer, Bright and Mownin Star," depicts the mood of political and socio-economic oppression borne by the black South. Even for those who migrated to the North, it soon became apparent that many of them were doomed to a life of alienation, humiliation and powerless­ness. Many of their social and interpersonal relationships were dotted with episodes of alcoholism, gambling, harshness and discourtesy to each other. The chapter on politics contains material analyzing the August 28, 1 964 March on Washington poetically described as a "mighty river of humanity."  The passage highlights some of the goals of the March­attaining "social dislocation without violence" and demanding full employment for all, integration of public schools, and the passage of the Kennedy Administration legislative package without compromise or filibuster, among others. The Literature section does not appear to fit the purpose of the book. Commentaries on James Baldwin's A no ther Country and Tutuola's Palm Wine Drinkard assume that readers are familiar with these works. The professor's vitriolic responses to Naipaul and his broadsides with Irving Howe seem out of place in a textbook of this nature. It is better to publish extracts from the works in question and let readers decide and make up their own minds. Other than this one negative streak, I find the book timely, in-Explora tions in Sights and Sounds No. 9 (Summer 1989) 87  formative, and very well put together. As a book for the teaching of a civil rights course, it fills a void. This book makes for enjoyable reading for those who were participants or observers during the civil rights struggle ofthe 1 960s, as well as to those who were not even born at that time. This book is long overdue. -Samuel Hinton Kent State University Russell Thornton. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. (Norman: University of Okla­homa Press,  1987) xx, 292, $29.95. A sociologist, Thornton has written a thorough and balanced demo­graphic account of Native American societies in what became the United States from before the arrival of Europeans to the present. There is still no agreement on pre-European population size north of Mexico, but everyone now agrees that Mooney's estimate of about one million is too low. Thornton rejects the highest estimates but chooses seven million as the most reasonable. Since there is agreement that Indians in the Untied States were reduced to about 250,000 by the end of the nineteenth century, the loss was of staggering proportions. There is an excellent general discussion of the causes for this terrible loss,  under the headings of: increased mortality due to disease (the most important factor) ; warfare and genocide; removal and relocation; the destruction of ways of life;  decreased fertility; migration; and physical and genetic change among American Indians.  There is also a discussion of the loss by various time periods, in which specific events (e .g. ,  the Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres) are noted. Later chapters deal with the recent increase in the Indian population in the United States, genetic mixture with non-Indians, the effects of the increasing urbanization of Indians, and also the official definition of an Indian (and who makes such a definition) and of a tribe. There are a few good photographs ,  many good maps, and numerous graphs,  charts and tables to provide basic data simply or to illustrate important relationships graphically. There is also an excellent biblio­graphy. Some specialists will no doubt continue to differ with Thornton on some details ,  but the reader is given ample guidance to follow up if more information is desired. Use of the term "holocaust" in the title and the preface may be questioned. The loss of life among Native Americans from 1 492 to the end 88 Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 9 (Summer 1989) 

[Review of] Michael Thelwell. Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts: Essays in Struggle

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[Review of] Michael Thelwell. Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts: Essays in Struggle

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